A Grotesque Bulvan. However...
There is no question that Mr. Trump is one of the most repulsive human beings on the planet today. One cannot say enough awful things about him. But the one thing you can’t call him is “warmonger”; which is clearly what Mr. Biden is. On the domestic front, Biden is OK. He is kind of a mild version of FDR, and has instituted some important changes in the direction of giving Americans a better life. Oddly enough, these Americans fail to notice this, or fail to care. What they see is a senile fuddy-duddy, and they are not far wrong. The stats are that most Democrats would prefer a different candidate in 2024. However, as a senile fuddy-duddy, when it comes to foreign policy, the man has no imagination at all. It just consists of reviving the Cold War, which now means carrying on a proxy war with one nuclear superpower, and making threatening noises in the direction of the other one. It’s the height of stupidity, and it could have disastrous consequences.
posted by Morris Berman at 7:22 AM
189 Comments:
To repeat what the GSWH said: “You see common words on government signs misspelled. This blows your mind away.”
Doctor & Wafers, it gets even better than New York State misspelling the Jackie Robinson Parkway ( spelled “Jakie”) in Queens, New York. For example, check out this Congressional hearing on CSPAN at the 13 minute and 25 minute marks. You’ll see the word “sheriff” spelled “sherriff”. This is the United States Congress! LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAI7Ru9Vdb4
From the “Once a buffoon, always a buffoon” department: A recent Gallup poll found that two-thirds of Americans still want the U.S. to manage a rules-based global order, whatever that means in their poopy heads (Russia and China bad, U.S. good, thank you for your service GIs, etc). The report by Sputnik touted that this was the lowest level of support ever, but note that even Independents supported U-S-A! U-S-A! by a margin of 61 percent:
https://sputniknews.com/20230304/number-of-americans-who-want-us-to-manage-global-affairs-drops-to-lowest-its-ever-been-poll-shows-1107998930.html
Meanwhile, a short-legged vulgarian looms to give Trumpi some competition for oligarch money as the curtain lifts for the theater of U.S. Presidential primaries. The Baffler in its latest issue 67 just published a worthwhile recounting of the political ambitions of Ron DeSantis, he the JAG legal affairs officer at Gitmo who participated laughing at torture sessions, and now the Presidential contender. As author Jasper Craven says, “DeSantis’s contradictions are so apparent that it becomes difficult to separate spin from sincerity. It may be that he genuinely believes a strongman can run a free world.” A potential DeSantis versus Biden electoral “choice” pitting covert versus overt warmongers, with DeSantis offering the declinist bonus of domestic authoritarianism?
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-sunshine-imperium-craven
Dr. Berman,
The following article refers to an "outsider" military group bent on the decline of Western Civilization. Besides having typical right-wing beliefs, they're also pro-jihadist. One wonders how many of these groups exist in the United States and what kind of damage they might do. What we do know is that crimes against the State (i.e. USA) are met with the severest punishments.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/former-army-private-sentenced-to-45-years-in-neo-nazi-plot-to-kill-soldiers/ar-AA18cfOv?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=0f6422cc3d354ba8abcd19825ce92330&ei=12
Medieval monks took extreme measures to focus on God and vanquish distraction. Some monasteries allowed regular baths, but others restricted them to periods of illness or certain times in the liturgical year—or discouraged them entirely. Sleeping with anyone was always a no-no, but that prohibition was straightforward compared with the labyrinthine regulations on sleeping in general. Some monks in Mesopotamia had no beds at all, only reclining seats, wall straps, and ceiling ropes for suspending themselves by their armpits. Eating was contentious, too. Monasteries restricted the use of condiments, to make sure that all monks ate the same thing, or prohibited monks from looking at one another while eating, so that they couldn’t argue about portions. In spite of these regulations, monks still found paying attention devilishly difficult. Read more about a new book that explores the centuries-long war against distraction: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/what-monks-can-teach-us-about-paying-attention-wandering-mind-jamie-kreiner
New (old?) Monastic Option in the New Yorker! To live in these true Dark Ages, we need something like what MB regularly has referred to as the New Monastic Individual, w practices contemplation. Do not expect this to catch on w many of your friends, but it is the Way to a spiritual emigration from these bad lands...
Last August I told a few friends that if a Biden vs Trump election were going on then, it would be a tough call. But now? I'm just about ready to bite that bullet. I understand that a person can SAY anything but, in this case, he's the only one even SAYING it, as far as I know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNf-kl6xrYY&ab_channel=AlJazeeraEnglish
A lot can and will happen in the next two years but, unless and until I have a better option, I'm saying yeah, and may The Force be with him.
(That I should live so long...)
Heidi-
It's a crazy world when Tulsi, MT Greene, and Trumpi are the sane ones, and the Biden admin is off its rocker.
mb
Apple is slam-dunk No. 1 with teens: 87% own an iPhone, 72% own AirPods
This is a shocking statistic to me. Is there another single product that has such dominance in this age group? Teenagers don't have a fully developed prefrontal cortex, and they don't even realize the commercial pressures that are influencing them. Corporations have targeted youth for a long time, but this seems like something else entirely.
When a product is this dominant, are parents expected to buy their kids this stuff? If you try to resist, you're in an ever shrinking minority. With some teenagers, having a nice iphone is the most important thing in the world.
Our society is going to shit, and it will only get worse as these teenagers become adults.
Phones-
No argument with yr last line.
mb
“These are your neighbors. They borrow sugar from you.” -GSWH
Forget about one of our daily mass shootings for a moment, even if this one took place at a church. Check out these great mugshots. In this example they’re from that great family values red state of Louisiana. Ya just gotta love that 95 year old dirty old man—a former sheriff’s deputy—and the mugshot of the guy who attacked emergency room personnel.
https://710keel.com/four-shot-during-drive-by-shooting-at-shreveport-church/
https://truecrimedaily.com/2023/01/26/otis-leroy-allen-pleaded-guilty-sentenced-child-sex-crimes-bossier-county-sheriff-deputy-louisiana/
Here’s a bonus. Check out more of the many shootings down there. Go Louisiana!
https://k945.com/shreveport-21-year-old-arrives-at-hospital-with-shooting-injuries/
And while we’re at it, let’s take a scenic drive in what looks like an abandoned war zone in the so called “greatest country in the world”. LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztxRJfJMqac
What a country! What a society! What a people! U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
A Vietnam vet is just now getting his dues for being cannon fodder. Bonus PC pts for this guy also being Black. Who knew you could get medals for killing strangers in foreign lands? Though it's ironic cuz those jokers got their asses handed to them. On top of the medal he probably also has mental illnesses from seeing BBQ'd napalmed corpses & the deaths of his buddies. What a deal!
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/mar/03/decades-later-black-army-officer-receives-medal-of/
Fly-
Check out Nick Turse. Better this guy shd apologize to the Vietnamese.
mb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jezjhPQH1ms
I'm going to be brutally honest here.
As an avowed declinist and WAFer, I can't get enough of the Powerslap League. Americans giving each other permanent brain damage for only $2,000 (yes, that's what this 'league' pays) can only accelerate the downward spiral.
This isn't some weird niche thing you'll find on an esoteric channel. This is broadcast NATIONWIDE on TBS.
I know. Not enough urine, Dr. B. We'll get there, though. Have faith in Americans.
Wafers-
I'd like to make some predictions regarding the war in the Ukraine. Keep in mind that America is a very sick, and dying, society--really on its last legs--and that from the W.H. to the man in the street, it's not a very intelligent population. (I don't have exact figures, but apparently a large % believe we won the war in Vietnam.)
1. Russia will defeat the Ukraine.
2. The US gov't, and the MSM, will spin it as a victory for the Ukraine.
3. In keeping with our other military losses, such as Vietnam, the gov't will not learn anything from the defeat. This habit was pointed out yrs ago by Gore Vidal, that America never learns from its mistakes.
4. The whole affair will fade into oblivion on the part of the American people. Their attention will then be captured by the 'danger' posed to the US by China, over Taiwan and anything else the gov't can dredge up.
5. The MSM will continue to run propaganda on the front page as 'news'. Real journalists like Ritter, Mearsheimer, Pilger, Hersh, et al. will continue to give us the truth, but will be marginalized and ignored. Jimmy Dore will also be ignored.
6. If Trumpi wins in 2024, all of this warmongering will evaporate. On the domestic front, however, this will be a grim 4 years.
7. If Schmiden wins, he might die in office, bringing Kamala Schmamala into the presidency. Late night comics will have field day. Foreign leaders will hafta pretend they are dealing w/a serious person.
8. The fact that the US is irrelevant on the world stage, and is otherwise full of hot prunes, wh/even our allies know today, will be planet-wise public knowledge by 2030.
9. A few Chinese historians, digging thru the ruins of the NY Public Library yrs later, will wonder why the country paid no attention to the writings of Belman.
10. The epitaph on Belman's grave will read: I KEPT TELLING THEM, BUT DID THEY LISTEN? NO!
mb
Xen-
I am in favor of Americans slapping the shit out of each other. This is a gd declinist development. It's quite wonderful, that they can't think of anything better to do, really. Meanwhile, chew on this:
(1) INTERVIEW: UKRAINE has no chance of winning #ColDouglasMcGregor - YouTube
mb
After Calexit, we now have Texist.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/texas-republican-bill-secession-referendum-1234691622/
Many on twitter are laughing at this. But Such things always started on the margines before turning into an unstoppable tsunami.especially when the social context is favorable. Or as chaos theorists say, it is the flap of a butterfly's wing that triggers a tornado much, much later.
French-
I have predicted secession as a future possibility for a long time now. It wd be a gd way to terminate the American empire. Hopefully, Texas, but also Vermont, Alta California, and then other sections of the country. For an even earlier predictor, see Ernest Callenbach, "Ecotopia."
mb
Wafers-
I recently read some podcast or whatever by Michelle Obama, as to how the inauguration of Trumpi in 2017 broke her heart. Why? Because as she looked around, there were no people of color. Identity politics wd play no role in the new admin, and this, she said, was the very opposite of what she and Barack stood for. She didn't say anything abt what she and Trumpi had in common, namely that they were both keen supporters of capitalism, wh/had made both of them well off.
Shortly after the inauguration, she and Obama bought a house in the HQ of the elite in DC, the Kalorama Triangle, for $8 million. That millions of her soul sisters live in ghettos, eating cat food just to stay alive--why, this doesn't bother her at all. And the irony is that many, if not most, of those soul sisters *also* think the issue is skin color, not the relations of power or the (mal)distribution of wealth. But was it really necessary to spend $8 million on a house? Was it really necessary to live in Kalorama? This doesn't bother Michelle even slightly. The truth is that no amount of slapping, or urine, will wake her up. Or wake up her soul sisters, for that matter. Or the rest of the wokes, whatever color they are.
We live in such an intelligent country, eh?
mb
ps: a douche baguette speaks:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/08/michelle-obama-the-light-podcast-trump-inauguration
Dr. Berman—
Glad to see you point out the diversion of diversity politics vs. class politics. Here's Christian Parenti explaining the principle thoughts of his recent article, Diversity' Is a Ruling-Class Ideology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-x3cS0GtSE&t=1437s
Oops-
I guess we shd sign him up for the Wafer Slapping Team (WST). Honestly, I can't get over how blind Americans are, how easily sidetracked onto irrelevant pathways. Of course the ruling class is pro-diversity; no skin off their nose. Michelle Obama is turkey, but really only one turkey among millions of turkeys.
mb
Doctor, Speaking of slapping, check out this newest “sport” in this pathetic USAin society.
https://theconversation.com/power-slap-league-a-brutal-sport-that-may-leave-contestants-with-brain-damage-198290
Maybe come the next airplane fight USAins can practice it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YILwnX5PM6I
And perhaps the ladies here also can take part in it. LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62gRyusegtY
It’s great to sit back and enjoy the fun here in this debased violent shithole.
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
For millions of Americans, this is important news:
https://news.yahoo.com/justin-biebers-performance-rolling-loud-211245463.html
“Movin’ on up” Obama style
In 2021, they left their Kalorama home ($8 millions) for a new $11.75 million-dollar place on Martha’s Vineyard, where they had traditionally vacationed during Obama’s presidency:
https://www.homesandgardens.com/news/president-obama-new-house-marthas-vineyard
Jas-
This cool cat owns millions in real estate. Now where did that $ come from?
Radical social chg thru diversity; no doubt abt it!
mb
The American grip on the world is slipping away before our eyes.
First China comes out swinging, basically saying they have had enough and won't take anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4laXMaMhbPo&t=1290s
Then Amlo in Mexico states what has been obvious for so long... America is not a democracy and it is time for them stop meddling where in other countries in other countries internal affairs. If he survives his honesty it will prove even more how the Empire is weak. I hope he does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbx5iLjSGsI&t=177s
The channel that made these videos is one of the best documenting the crimes of the Empire and its decline as the world changes around it. I would especially recommend their series on American Exception... some 18 videos and counting. All are worth watching.
Anjin-
The thought that an entire country could be slapped, and have its shoes peed on, is an interesting one. This has already happened to England. Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are little more than jokes, as the country floats in nowhere land. But we, too, are floating in nowhere land. As our efforts fail in the Ukraine, the American public is getting bored w/that whole shtick. And is it anything more than theater at this pt? Consider this:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/09/oscars-volodymyr-zelenskiy-appearance-turned-down
I mean, WTF, man? Is there no upper limit to the buffoonage we are drowning in?
mb
Dumbass alert: a lady attempted to rob some folks in their car while preggo. She's below room temp now. Probably played too much Grand Theft Auto in her spare time
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-shooting-leaves-21-year-old-pregnant-woman-dead-in-belmont-cragin-neighborhood/ar-AA18idEu
Compare other USA presidential homes to the home of Jimmy Carter. I guess this is telling of the man and the values of the rest of the country.
How Jimmy Carter’s House Embodies The 39th President’s Humble Spirit
“Jimmy Carter’s house doesn’t look like much from the outside. Tucked down a wooded lane in Plains, Georgia, it’s valued at less than a Secret Service vehicle. But the humble home says a lot about the man who built it.”
Linh Dinh is a fascinating and talented writer. He's funny, observant, merciless, while also uniquely compassionate. And he often writes from the perspective of downtrodden people so degraded even Bukowski wouldn't go near them. That said, Professor Berman isn't the first to label him an antisemite (merely one label given Dinh, including racist and fascist among other things no one wants to be labelled).
So, talented and interesting though he may be, Dinh is generally considered beyond the pale. Then again, so is Morris Berman. It's just that Dinh's pale is a couple of pales further afield than Berman's and lands a reader in territories one is never supposed to venture into with one's questions about what is wrong with American culture.
In any case, here is Dinh's response to this kind of criticism of both his writing and his character. Worth reading, even if you walk away wanting to affix such labels to him more firmly than ever:
https://www.unz.com/ldinh/plastic-recycling-and-jousting-jews/
Pol-
What he has to say abt Jews in this clip and elsewhere is completely disgusting; shameful, really--the Protocols revisited. As for his being beyond my pale: cd be, but you offer not a shred of proof (unless yr talking abt 9/11, in wh/case I don't subscribe to any conspiracy theory).
Rose-
Check out my discussion of Jimmy in DAA and WAF. He offered Americans reality, a chance to repudiate the false track we were on. Reagan offered them Disneyland. The rest is history.
mb
Breaking News: The Pentagon is blocking the U.S. from sharing evidence on Russian atrocities in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court, officials said. Military leaders fear setting a precedent that might pave the way for it to prosecute Americans.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/us/politics/pentagon-war-crimes-hague.html
Good God, who can possibly take the US seriously anymore? What we see as evil in Russia we cannot confront w/in ourselves. Russia has evil in its own way, but what the hell is this?
In a recent interview with Seymour Hersh. He says the actors in the White House are "crazy" and "stupid" with regard to foreign policy. I appreciate these terms and I just wish he added that they are buffoons!
It takes some Hi-IQ buffoons to execute the bombing of the Nord Stream pipleine and then blame it on some Ukrainian fishing boat.
https://youtu.be/2s9aDEwfnsY
Hope you all are staying sane out there. Remember this if your still in the states-there will never be enough urine or slapping to fix the required amount of Americans for a populist rising.
Krak-
Amen. Fact is, America is a joke; truly, truly a joke.
Lou-
See my reply to Krak. The MSM is big on showcasing Russian atrocities; for some reason, it tends not to say anything abt the Ukrainian ones. This proxy war is completely phony, and US foreign policy is being guided by total morons.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Juxtaposing MB's work w/that of Linh Dinh is laughable. Dinh is a notorious and dishonest demagogue who traffics in anti-Jewish attitudes and tropes, as indicated by Politically Correct Russian Spy and a whole host of others. MB, on the other hand, is the greatest Jew since Spinoza! Where is my proof for this statement?: It was revealed to me in the Shema prayer.
In addition, the ADL documented in an October 2018 report that the Unz Review publishes, "racist and antisemitic content" and its founder Ron Unz, "has denied the Holocaust, endorsed the claim that Jews consume the blood of non-Jews, and has claimed that Jews control the media" among other tropes:
https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/california-entrepreneur-ron-unz-launches-series-rhetorical-attacks-jews
I would be very cautious about taking anything seriously that derives from Linh Dinh, or the gutter journalism of the Unz Review.
Jeff
Jeff-
Right on. Linh is a piece of dog excrement. As for me: I may be the greatest Jew since Maimonides (12thC)! I'm happy to say that the Sh'ma has been updated. Modern version:
"Hear O Israel, the Berm is our God, the Berm is one. And as for you, you shall love the Berm with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might."
The fact that millions of Jews and Gentiles get up every morning and recite this prayer, is a source of great comfort to me. If Spinoza were alive today, he'd tip his hat and be saying (in Dutch): "Berm, yr the hottest thing since canned tuna!"
mb
Wafers-
Pls appreciate the fact that it is given to only a few generations in history to watch an entire civilization beating off. If there is something appalling abt what America is doing these days, there is also something hilarious abt it as well. I'm going to attempt a bit of hip-hop; pls feel free to add verses of yr own.
"Walkin' down the street while the country beats its meat
Mah bitch mah hoe mah hoe mah bitch
US in a ditch no time to scratch an itch
Biden Schmiden on a donkey ridin'
To hell! It's swell!
Washin' his hair with Prell
It's all a soft sell
He sayin' Do tell!
Star Spangled Motherfucker
No time for Carson Tucker
Orange head nearly dead
Kanye West he da best
Anti-Semite fully dressed
Lost two billion but not distressed
Mah bitch mah hoe..."
mb
Note on my Linh Dinh comment yesterday about MB being also "beyond the pale". I should have qualified that with "from the perspective of mainstream American media." If the New York Times was forced to comment on why they wouldn't dream of publishing an editorial (or even a letter to the editor) from MB, they'd probably claim something like, "Morris Berman is a minor, discredited, anti-American gadfly." Of course, they've done their very best to make that appear the case, even though they know it isn't true.
Further, I do my own reading in trying to figure out what is true, and the ADL has published enough transparent horse-crap over the years that I wouldn't simply take their word for anything. Rob Unz does set off alarm bells because he will extrapolate wildly based on limited/dodgy sources (see https://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-bloody-passovers-of-dr-toaff/), as many a true antisemite is wont to do.
Dinh I refuse to make any excuses for either, though I do like his travelogues. In a lot of ways, he writes about America with the exact same biting contempt MB does, but he can't stop himself from crapping in the punchbowl with attacks on Judaism. He claims he gets nothing out of doing so but grief, and is only telling the truth. God forbid he is telling the truth, but as with Unz, I suspect he raced off into the weeds and got himself lost.
Dr. Berman—
If you are looking for a significant marker of the imperial shift of global capitalism away from the US and US decline as world hegemon, I present the agreement negotiated in Beijing to restore relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Please note that the NY Times headline originally said that the US had been "Sidelined".
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/11/us/politics/saudi-arabia-iran-china-biden.html
This signals a great danger worldwide, since the US is daily more unhinged and armed to the teeth. Saith the arm-waving robot: "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!!" But for most Americans it's, "what's for lunch?"
Pol-
Linh is indeed beyond the pale, and rt into the garbage pail. 2nd: the NYT probably does believe their own shit abt me. When they published a hatchet job review of DAA, it was obvious that Michiko Kakukaka hadn't really read the bk. Easy to smear a bk when you cherry-pick a few rhetorical lines here and there. I guess that made her an honest liar. Finally, I respect the ADL and the work that they do. If you are going to say that they publish horseshit--prove it! Where is your evidence?
mb
Pol-
Are you not aware of this blog's guidelines? 2 of them are: Post only once every 24 hrs, max; limit your posts to half a page, max. We appreciate your cooperation.
Thank you.
mb
Adolescents giving their fair share of the disintegration in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Look at what happens in a normal school day here in this shithole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7gzojBtQbU
https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/national/school-safety-concerns-aired-after-california-fatal-stabbing
The prejudiced Karens are doing their part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtCzwGf0bJo
And here’s a video, literally just one of many “scenic tours” you can take in the “greatest country in the world”—in the land of capitalist opportunity. For starters, let’s check out that great state of Arkansas. Many of the former business owners of these boarded up former businesses certainly now are living in Milton Bradley’s Game of Life “Millionaire Acres”.
A good quote is shortly after the 6 minute mark: “You wonder what life is like in a place like this.”
Doctor, You should come back up here and take one of these joy rides. LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mQKLZe3WVE
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Ma-Ma Mia, this is disgusting:
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/award-winning-national-city-teacher-arrested-on-suspicion-of-child-sex-abuse/3181429/
However, in terms of American decline, go Jacqueline Ma!
Jeff
MB's hip-hop verse cont.:
Her juicy caboosey sheeny as a glass of whisky
Generate premature twerking of my beef Zelensky...
MB,
So, it seems that Biden is about the to open the North Slope of Alaska to an $8 billion drilling project, and this news is something that even the New York Times isn't suppressing:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/climate/biden-willow-oil-alaska.html
I hope this isn't behind a paywall for you.
Gee, aren't we supposed to believe that Biden is the guy to deal with global warming? I'm pretty sure I saw Paul Krugman say something to that effect in writing recently. And wasn't the inflation reduction bill originally supposed be called the climate bill? What a farce all of this is.
ccg-
Yeah, what a horror. The GOP can be characterized as insane, and the Dems as farcical.
Jeff-
Continuing yours:
But he's a weenie! He's a weenie!
Keeps tellin' us Putin's a meanie!
mb
Oklahoma folks who've endured the recent tornado are now possible targets of repair scams, involving fake crews looking to clean up. But I'm sure it was still worth it, right? The ones who fell for this mythical Amerikkkan "dream" likely didn't do a cost benefit analysis b4 saddling themselves with debt.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/oklahoma-tornado-victims-are-targets-of-repair-scams/vi-AA18cij6
Then u have this lady whose house was listed 4 rent after someone looked @ it. The dimwittedness of Amerikkkans is kinda pitiful
https://www.news4jax.com/i-team/2023/03/01/i-was-flabbergasted-jacksonville-homeowner-says-she-learned-her-house-was-listed-for-rent-when-someone-came-to-look-at-it/
Duh Dept.:
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/13/americas/mexico-us-amlo-intl-latam/index.html
It's also, narcotraficantes aside, a *decent* country with generous, community-oriented people. This reality hits me in the face every day. It is not a buffoon country filled w/assholes.
mb
ps: See?
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/13/us/girl-shoots-sister-texas/index.html
Here comes a big one! Granted it took a year after the collapse of Lehman brothers in 2008 for things to get bad, though this one could be very much a recession of the rich.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/13/1163028280/2-bank-failures-have-the-federal-government-taking-extraordinary-action
My guess is between the give away to the banks in decreasing regulations under Trump and the hopelessness of the Biden administration will interact to ensure a new disaster for this ailing country.
Wafers-
I need to confess my ignorance and change my opinion regarding the ADL. Apparently, I naively bought into their public face/mythology. One Wafer just sent the following link to my email address: pretty ugly, muchachos. In any case, mea culpa; I was deluded.
https://mondoweiss.net/2022/07/dismantle-the-adl-the-anti-defamation-leagues-record-of-racist-counterinsurgency-and-espionage/
mb
Pronouns seems to be the great cause of american woke at the moment. We know he, she, they etc. Now we've git things like:
dem/demon/demons/demons/demonself
or
🖍️/🖍️/🖍️'s/🖍️'s/🖍️self (yes, people use emojis as their pronouns)
Here's a full list of such nonsense
https://pronouny.xyz/pronouns/list/public
These are the things children used to do, now grown ass people refer to themselves with emojis and consider this cause equal to such struggles as decolonisation or women rights or labour rights.
Another issue, therapists are not doing the minimum of psychological investigation when it comes to children who claim they are trans. These kids are given hormone treatments and are going under surgeries and many are regretting it, even going suicidal. I know very little about the trans issue and I don't really care as long as people are happy. But stories like this one, and many others on the same subreddit about kids whose lives were ruined, is really heartbreaking.
https://old.reddit.com/r/detrans/comments/yrr2c8/my_life_was_destroyed_and_i_suffer_every_single/
https://old.reddit.com/r/detrans
Americans are detroying everything at all levels in the name of good. From a declinist POV it's all good, but, at a personal level, it s sad.
French-
Clearly, pronouns are the battlefield on which the struggles for great social changes will be fought.
mb
Ah the kindness of USAins on the road.
https://www.wsmv.com/2023/03/13/elderly-woman-thrown-into-traffic-during-alleged-nashville-road-rage-incident/
https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/southeastern-pa/man-charged-with-homicide-in-road-rage-hit-and-run-in-mcdonalds-parking-lot/article_03efee08-c1b0-11ed-b1c7-3f97514df4bc.html
Speaking of the road, here’s another “scenic” stop on a tour of the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! Look at these ghost towns in the Texas Panhandle. Dilapidated and abandoned houses and buildings that look like a war zone. T.S. Eliot could have been inspired to write The Wasteland right here. You especially have to watch at about the 22 minute mark. You’ll get quite a laugh. It’s some junkyard in ( the fitting name) “Nazareth”, Texas. LOL! The junkyard’s highlights: a huge Christmas creche in some huge rotting old oil tank; Lady Liberty in another old oil storage tank; and a gigantic Ten Commandments! Praise the Lord! LOL! And a little further down are some of the usual misspellings and grammatical errors on some huge posted “free speech” signs.
I hope, Doctor, that videos like these in your opinion can be included in your blog’s theme here. One can say they show the effects of failed capitalism, the myth of the American Dream, and the dumbing down of America. This You Tuber is showing us in real time and in different geographical areas this piece of shit country falling apart before our very eyes. Forget the Oscars. He deserves some sort of award for his own large unique documentary. Maybe it should be called “Declinists’ Dreamscape 2030 Coming True”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJMug1Ss1WA&t=2074s
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Re: ADL
Well, it appears that nothing escapes corruption in the US, sad to say. Is this a case that given enough time, an agency such as ADL will eventually turn into its antithesis? Or is something more sinister at work here? While I believe it is true that antisemitism is definitely on the rise in the US and throughout the world, and that Ron Unz (who is Jewish, BTW) is a dangerously deluded individual, as reported by the ADL and other publications, I had no real idea of the conservative origins of the ADL. And the fact that Jewish defense agencies like the ADL essentially supported the execution of the Rosenbergs is heartbreaking. In any case, I also found this piece which supports many of the findings found in the Mondoweiss article:
https://jewishcurrents.org/the-anti-democratic-origins-of-the-jewish-establishment
Jeff
Jeff-
Killing the Rosenbergs was part of the Cold War frenzy. Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, perjured himself to save his marriage, and sent Ethel to the electric chair:
https://www.amazon.com/Brother-Untold-Greenglass-Rosenberg-Electric/dp/0375500138/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3DFFW6K9ECIRA&keywords=the+brother+david+greenglass&qid=1678815529&s=books&sprefix=the+brother+david+greenglass%2Cstripbooks%2C269&sr=1-1
She was, in fact, completely innocent. As for Julius: as I understand it, what he stole were not atomic secrets, but industrial ones--not worthy of the death penalty. In any case, Klaus Fuchs had already blown the lid on atomic secrets in 1945. A # of historians believe the Rosenbergs were the victims of antisemitism. Not the US gov't's finest hr, in any case. The Rosenbergs maintained their innocence to the very end; their sons, surname Meeropol, have written in defense of them.
mb
MB,
It might be worth recalling the case of historian Tony Judt running afoul of the ADL as is discussed on his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Judt
There's also this from the NY Review of Books:
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2006/11/16/the-case-of-tony-judt-an-open-letter-to-the-adl/
The ADL has quite successfully, or so it seems to me, gotten much of the public to buy into the notion that anyone supporting the BDS movement against Israel's treatment of Palestinians is, de facto, an antisemite. This comes up a lot in the City University of New York for which I work. I've seen lots of accusations like this being tossed around, no doubt to shut down any criticism of Israel. And it's largely been effective.
ccg-
The smokescreen that Judaism = Zionism has served Israeli propaganda very well. As with all woke shit, it's got everyone walking on eggshells. Not me. One is a great ethical system; the other, an oppressive ideology. I doubt Hillel would have admired Zionism.
mb
Wafers-
For yrs, the MSM railed on abt Brexit. My comment proved to be the correct description: Brexit, Schmexit.
Now, the MSM is reporting that Rachel Bilson didn't have an orgasm until she was 38. This, they regard as news. My comment: Bilson, Schmilson.
Meanwhile, Republicans are starting to trend toward not continuing to supply the Ukraine w/arms and $, Trumpi and DeSantis in particular. My comments regarding this: Ukraine, Schmukraine, and Zelensky, Schmelensky. When Trumpi says he will avoid WW3, if elected--he's rt. We need to get the warmongers outta the W.H. Biden, Schmiden.
Stay tuned to this station for the most accurate rdg of starlet orgasms and potential nuclear war. Talk abt a dumbass country.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers of the world,
For no particular reason, I would like to give a shout-out to all the multi-orgasmic women out there. God bless you, truly!
Jeff
A poem read by Roger Waters from Pink Floyd. I believe you Wafers will like it
https://youtu.be/8i-TMG7k_QM
I searched for the whole poem. It is an english translation from a palestinian poet
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40346498#:~:text=Come%2C%20let's%20split%20the%20light,go%20back%2C%20stranger%2C%20to%20your
(use scihub to gain access)
After the drone crash yesterday, Russia demanded that american drones stay away from its boarders. The US response was more warmongering as usual.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/15/politics/lloyd-austin-russian-aircraft-us-drone
GO TRUMP! GO GOP! at least we'll have a decline without a world war.
Jeff-
I guess I shd ask Rachel Bilson out, yeah? MSM headline:
"That Berm, he's the best!"
mb
Wafers-
I keep reading essays on how America is going to revitalize itself. The favorite word is 'turbocharge': we are going to turbocharge our streets, our cities, the entire country. But what if what is really going on is that we are turbocharging ourselves into the toilet? Wafers are asked to comment on this possibility.
mb
Baron-
Cdn't run it. You failed to provide a link or reference. (We're big on evidence here.)
mb
Note to bb-
Some guidelines for this blog. 1st, always send messages to most recent post; no one reads the older stuff. 2nd, we are a discussion forum, not a bulletin board. Along with a link, provide a para of yr own commentary. Thanks.
mb
Sorry Professor.
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/malcolm-harris-palo-alto-interview/
I found this interview relevant to the question of American revitalization, or” turbocharging”. America always over promises and underdelivers due to our DNA. The mythology of techno optimism is also discussed (Californian perspective). I agree that the thoughts that somehow America will revitalize itself amounts to no more that doing more dumb things faster, or to your point, a faster flush.
USAins have such miserable lives. So they escape them via various means: Drug Addiction. ( Mainly women) Smoking. Drinking. ( Mainly teenage males) Playing video games. Watching television. ( Mainly teenage girls) Fumbling with their smartphones all day long. ( Mainly men) Watching pornography. And of course the REAL national pasttime: Gambling! USAins now, via their smartphones, can gamble away their paychecks; or, they can put themselves into and add to the massive credit card debt that will be part and parcel of this shithole’s capitalist collapse when its economic Day of Reckoning comes.
https://apnews.com/article/sports-betting-march-madness-c8b6d663a992ca4e7c616d8c3af8d585
That being said, what better way to add to the mix than to entice our college students.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/rise-of-sports-betting-brings-concerns-some-colleges-are-too-involved-in-its-promotion
And don’t forget about the omnipresent anger here. Here’s a creative first. A flight was delayed because the flight attendants were fighting with each other! LOL!
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/flight-attendants-skywest-airplane-reportedly-fight-delay-passengers-hour
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Marianne Williamson, the self-help guru who has built a career preaching love and forgiveness, exhibits abusive and mercurial anger toward her staff. Gee, what a shock:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/16/marianne-williamson-former-staffers-abuse
Perhaps Marianne should join Rachel Bilson on her podcast to discuss ways to discover her orgasm. Oy vey, what an absurd country this is.
Jeff
Jeff-
She's another Oprah type, i.e. telling people that it's yr attitude that matters, and that w/the rt attitude, anything is possible. I've also heard stories abt Oprah being abusive, but it's 2nd-hand. Anyway, almost all of these gurus have feet of clay, and wd certainly benefit from a vigorous waterboarding.
Joe-
Have you calculated the # of Americans that need to be slapped?
bb-
All promises made re: an American renaissance ignore the fact that 99% of Americans are douche bags. This makes it hard to do anything at all, except go down the toilet. It's no accident that the entire country is stuck in Nowhere Mode.
mb
Dr. Berman,
How do you think the United States should be dealing with Russia and Ukraine? Obviously, you disagree with President Biden's policies dealing with it. I would like to see the war end and Russia and Ukraine live in peace. I don't like Putin and what he has done. Yet, I don't know that Biden is approaching it in a good way.
--James
P.S. Sorry if I come across a little incoherent. I did not sleep well last night.
Jas-
Well, we've discussed this issue many times here, so I dunno what to tell you. Read previous posts? Think abt US' resurrection of the Cold War? Read my essays in QOV regarding America's endless need for an enemy? Etc.
mb
Roboto-
I guess you don't understand how this blog works. It is not a bulletin board, where people post their opinions. Opinions are like assholes: everyone has got one. Why wd anyone care what you think, really? We are a discussion forum, and in the future, if you'd like to participate in it, I suggest using the following format:
1. State your argument regarding the collapse of the American empire, and be specific.
2. Defend that argument with evidence, in the form of links or reliable references.
All of us look forward to your careful observation of these guidelines. Thank you.
mb
The grotesque Bulvan has struck again... but this time making more sense than Democrats and Republicans.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-video-greatest-threat-ripped-ex-pence-adviser-horrifying-1788381?amp=1
If I was an American and I had to vote for either the great orange grifter or the ones who want war with both China and Russia, I would vote for the grifter every time. After all everyone in politics down there is on the make so he's no different and he wouldn't kill us all.
On another tangent I assume almost everyone on the blog knows Bob Dylan's classic Masters of War. It is so discouraging that it is so relevant 60 years on. I listened to it again today and so I thought I would share it.
https://youtu.be/K4uMQRQzVmc
Anjin-
America needs to be punished, and it will be punished. This is happening rt now. Except that Americans are too stupid to understand that they have done anything wrong. This cluelessness is also part of their punishment.
mb
ps:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/17/mexico-president-fentanyl-hugs-children-amlo
He's rt: Americans are cold, alienated douche bags. Karma is hitting them from all directions.
Check it out:
https://www.noemamag.com/the-emotional-state-of-nations/
Just another normal “peaceful” day on the roads here with your average USAins. LOL!
First off is today’s mugshot: What’s funny is that this doofus had three kids in her car and ended up driving into a ditch. Ha!Ha!Ha!
https://www.wcax.com/2023/03/17/pownal-woman-arrested-road-rage-incident/
This creep had a two-year old in his car as he fired away 11 bullets at another driver and shot an innocent bystander.
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/hall-county/hes-trying-kill-me-man-recalls-being-shot-twice-terrifying-road-rage-battle/URYQBBFBFFGN5IDDW76Z3DKCYI/
This so called “life saving/first responder” didn’t think twice at trying to kill somebody.
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2023/03/17/detroit-fire-department-medic-arrested-in-suspected-road-rage-shooting-in-redford-township/
And heaven forbid if you’re a pedestrian walking too slowly in a parking lot. You may get knocked unconscious and unable to “turn the other cheek” to receive a roundhouse right as our buddy Jesus advises us to do.
https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/disabled-senior-uber-eats-driver-describes-road-rage-attack-in-rancho-san-diego
Profile of a very stupid country:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/18/middle-east-ukraine-washington-iraq-kyiv
MD,
Today the New York Times outdid itself in the idiocy department. They have a front page article pushing the idea that the covid virus came from the Wuhan wet market via an animal called a raccoon dog, whatever that is. Gee, I "wonder" if this connected with fact that the lab leak theory is gaining traction. This is laughable. Here's a good take-down of this awful piece of propaganda, um, "journalism":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJm8D1QTNm4
The Times gets worse by the day.
ccg-
1. I never went to med schl.
2. The Times is a joke. But then, so is America. So is all of the MSM, and so is this phony war in the Ukraine. So is the Supreme Court, and so is the Vice President.
3. What are not jokes? China and Russia.
mb
How America Manufactures Poverty
The sociologist Matthew Desmond identifies specific practices and policies that consign tens of millions to destitution.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/20/matthew-desmond-poverty-by-america-book-review
I liked Desmond's first book "Evicted" a lot.. Great sociology.
It's incredible how industrialized our system is at keeping people impoverished. Apparently something like $135 billion allocated for the deprived every year never makes it to them. Then of what the rich evades in taxes, there's some $175 billion that could theoretically lift everyone out of poverty.. Only in this country!
Miles, MB-
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/women-rule/2023/01/13/katie-porters-bad-boss-problem-00077874
https://importantcontext.substack.com/p/jimmy-dore-anti-worker-contracts
^^There've been very similar headlines about Katie Porter and Jimmy Dore too. None of these people give a damn. Just some rich assholes telling us all what's wrong w America while they can't even walk the walk in their professional and personal lives.
Brick-
This is why, when I say that Americans need to be beaten to w/in an inch of their lives and then thrown on a dunghill, I mean *all* Americans, except for Wafers and Native Americans.
mb
Dr B, have you ever been to South Korea? Your blog makes for interesting reading, because I see some similarities between my home nation & the US, minus the gun violence. Both nations both populations are worked like dogs, both nations are obsessed w/ technology, have abysmal judicial systems, etc. I'd say Korea is probably as rotten as the States, since America had control over that part of the peninsula around the time of WW2. It's no wonder people are killing themselves in droves over there, when you consider the immense pressures. I emigrated in 2014 & never looked back. Some of your readers have done the same in their abandonment of the US. I live in Costa Rica now and couldn't be more content:)
Take care
Members of the Reagan 1980 team sabotaged Jimmy Carter’s effort to release American hostages in Iran, likely costing him re-election @ nytimes.com
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html
Well I'll be dammed. The Reagan Administration really was something else, huh? I think Trump's ilk's the only thing that comes close to it...
Eisley-
Not news, really. This has been known for some time.
Choi-
Thanks for writing in. "Why America Failed" exists in Korean translation, if you want to check it out.
mb
Col. Macgregor: Ukraine is CRUMBLING Under Putin's Military Offensive - YouTube
Cd it be that the US is finally prepared to stop beating off, now that it appears that its Ukrainian caper has blown up in its face? That the MSM might stop its absurd propaganda campaign? This cd be a major Suez Moment: Russia and China emerge as strong and clear, and a pathetic America sits there w/egg on face, while its banking system might heading toward a repeat of 2008?
The product of a nation of douche bags is a douchebag nation! Now, we see the results. What's next on the buffoon agenda? Taiwan? The stupidity of America is off the charts. Not only is it going down the drain; it is actually *rushing* to go down the drain.
I predicted the end of America in 2000, while everyone else was singing its praises. But never did I imagine that the end would be silly, and pathetic.
mb
ps: Karma w/a huge capital K. Don' tell me we're not getting what we deserve.
ps2: according to the NYT, the next Cold War target of the US is Chad. Yes, Chad. And when that goes bust, perhaps Antarctica, after which the Fiji Islands. And then...
When a nation is spiritually empty, it always needs an enemy to feel it has a purpose.
Chad, fer fuck's sake!
Wafers, today is the 20th anniversary of the war on Iraq. THis war was the beginning of the era of chaos in the middle east. The arabs knew, as it is stated in the article that "The Gulf Arab states thought the plan was crazy". Lots of nations opposed, some supported and others even participated. Those latter nations are the ones in which I've lost all hope. They've exchanged sanity for the american way.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-64980565
These days don't feel like good days too, and I have an ominous feeling. Some nations still haven't recovered from the 2008 crisis and it seems we may have a new one. Right wing populists and blatant fascists are on the rise everywhere. Ppeople are cheering and actively participating in limiting their own freedom, they are also becoming dumber. In France, and many other places, they want people to work to their graves. There is hope in some places, say in Brazil or mexico for example, but the general trend is worrisome. May you live in uninteresting times.
This little-noticed study found that certain neighborhoods in Chicago are more dangerous than being deployed to Iraq during the height of the war: https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/parts-of-chicago-more-dangerous-than-wartime-iraq-study/
A headline like this can just float by in the news stream bc it's just taken for granted here!
I just finished a good book that I would recommend here. https://www.amazon.com/Slouching-Towards-Utopia-Economic-Twentieth/dp/B0B2F3WWQL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1R45WLQ5ADQT7&keywords=slouching+towards+utopia&qid=1679378961&sprefix=slouching+to%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1
In the book, he makes a good case for the fact that research labs and corporations are responsible for many basic improvements ("essentials like washing machines, computers, etc) and quality of life. That part is hard to argue with. It is a though-provoking book, written with a leftist slant. But he is in favor of globalization. If one is against globalization, or favors limited globalization, it is a good book to test your ideas against. Still, I never see any economist making the link between hyper-corporatism, and cultural decadence. Perhaps because "decadence" is hard to quantify. But Facebook, Twitter, the Multi-billion dollar porn industry, cell phones, etc. are all things that, in my view, contribute heavily to our cultural and spiritual decadence. Certainly, the rise in conspiracy thinking and rabid tribalism could be quantified and traced to social media. I wonder if any model would be able to contain the contradictions between extreme corporate growth, and an utterly dumbed-down, sensation-seeking, spiritually dead society? I'm skeptical! But it is still a good book worth reading.
Just another mundane day in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! A mass shooting:
https://www.cbs58.com/news/15-year-old-killed-5-others-hurt-in-milwaukee-mass-shooting
A deadly road rage in that great gun-toting conservative state of Texas:
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/woman-30-dies-after-being-shot-crashing-in-suspected-road-rage-incident-in-east-dallas/3219384/
But we always get a good laugh at the ongoing daily comedy show. This latest stop shows a few Trumpers. Click on the various pictures for a few good laughs! LOL!
https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-republican-desantis-2024-ecba40f2ec9f56732ff0476f3842e23a
Wafers: A glimmer of hope:
By Michael J. Lee, Professor of Communication, College of Charleston. Originally published at The Conversation
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, wants a “national divorce.” In her view, another Civil War is inevitable unless red and blue states form separate countries.
She has plenty of company on the right, where a host of others – 52% of Trump voters, Donald Trump himself and prominent Texas Republicans – have endorsed various forms of secession in recent years. Roughly 40% of Biden voters have fantasized about a national divorce as well. Some on the left urge a domestic breakup so that a new egalitarian nation might be, as Lincoln said at Gettysburg, “brought forth on this continent.”
The American Civil War was a national trauma precipitated by the secession of 11 Southern states over slavery. It is, therefore, understandable that many pundits and commentators would weigh in about the legality, feasibility and wisdom of secessionwhen others clamor for divorce.
But all this secession talk misses a key point that every troubled couple knows. Just as there are ways to withdraw from a marriage before any formal divorce, there are also ways to exit a nation before officially seceding.
I have studied secession for 20 years, and I think that it is not just a “what if?” scenario anymore. In “We Are Not One People: Secession and Separatism in American Politics Since 1776,” my co-author and I go beyond narrow discussions of secession and the Civil War to frame secession as an extreme end point on a scale that includes various acts of exit that have already taken place across the U.S.
Scaled Secession
This scale begins with smaller, targeted exits, like a person getting out of jury duty, and progresses to include the larger ways that communities refuse to comply with state and federal authorities.
Such refusals could involve legal maneuvers like interposition, in which a community delays or constrains the enforcement of a law it opposes, or nullification, in which a community explicitly declares a law to be null and void within its borders. At the end of the scale, there’s secession.
From this wider perspective, it is clear that many acts of departure – call them secession lite, de facto secession or soft separatism – are occurring right now. Americans have responded to increasing polarization by exploring the gradations between soft separatism and hard secession.
These escalating exits make sense in a polarized nation whose citizens are sorting themselves into like-minded neighbhorhoods. When compromise is elusive and coexistence is unpleasant, citizens have three options to get their way: Defeat the other side, eliminate the other side or get away from the other side.
Imagine a national law; it could be a mandate that citizens brush their teeth twice a day or a statute criminalizing texting while driving. Then imagine that a special group of people did not have to obey that law.
This quasi-secession can be achieved in several ways. Maybe this special group moves “off the grid” into the boondocks where they could text and drive without fear of oversight. Maybe this special group wields political power and can buy, bribe or lawyer their way out of any legal jam. Maybe this special group has persuaded a powerful authority, say Congress or the Supreme Court, to grant them unique legal exemptions.
These are hypothetical scenarios, but not imaginary ones. When groups exit public life and its civic duties and burdens, when they live under their own sets of rules, when they do not have to live with fellow citizens they have not chosen or listen to authorities they do not like, they have already seceded. (continued below)
Schools to Taxes
Present-day America offers numerous hard examples of soft separatism.
Over the past two decades, scores of wealthy white communities have separated from more diverse school districts. Advocates cite local control to justify these acts of school secession. But the result is the creation of parallel school districts, both relatively homogeneous but vastly different in racial makeup and economic background.
Several prominent district exits have occurred in the South – places like St. George, Louisiana – but instances from northern Maine to Southern California show that school splintering is happening nationwide.
As one reporter wrote, “If you didn’t want to attend school with certain people in your district, you just needed to find a way to put a district line between you and them.”
Many other examples of legalized separatism revolve around taxes. Disney World, for example, was classified as a “special tax district” in Florida in 1967. These special districts are functionally separate local governments and can provide public services and build and maintain their own infrastructure.
The company has saved millions by avoiding typical zoning, permitting and inspection processes for decades, although Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has recently challenged Disney’s special designation. Disney was only one of 1,800 special tax districts in Florida; there are over 35,000 in the nation.
Jeff Bezos paid no federal income taxes in 2011. Elon Musk paid almost none in 2018. Tales of wealthy individuals avoiding taxesare as common as stories of rich Americans buying their way outof jail. “Wealthier Americans,” Robert Reich lamented as far back as the early 1990s, “have been withdrawing into their own neighborhoods and clubs for generations.” Reich worried that a “new secession” allowed the rich to “inhabit a different economy from other Americans.”
Some of the nation’s wealthiest citizens pay an effective tax rate close to zero. As one investigative reporter put it, the ultrawealthy “sidestep the system in an entirely legal way.”
One Nation, Divisible
Schools and taxes are just a start.
Eleven states dub themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries” and refuse to enforce federal gun restrictions. Movements aiming to carve off rural, more politically conservative portions of blue states are growing; 11 counties in Eastern Oregon support seceding and reclassifying themselves as “Greater Idaho,” a move that Idaho’s state government supports.
Hoping to become a separate state independent of Chicago’s political influence, over two dozen rural Illinois counties have passed pro-secession referendums. Some Texas Republicans back “Texit,” where the state becomes an independent nation.
Separatist ideas come from the Left, too.
“Cal-exit,” a plan for California to leave the union after 2016, was the most acute recent attempt at secession.
And separatist acts have reshaped life and law in many states. Since 2012, 21 states have legalized marijuana, which is federally illegal. Sanctuary cities and states have emerged since 2016 to combat aggressive federal immigration laws and policies. Some prosecutors and judges refuse to prosecute women and medical providers for newly illegal abortions in some states.
Estimates vary, but some Americans are increasingly opting out of hypermodern, hyperpolarized life entirely. “Intentional communities,” rural, sustainable, cooperative communes like East Wind in the Ozarks, are, as The New York Times reported in 2020, proliferating “across the country.”
In many ways, America is already broken apart. When secession is portrayed in its strictest sense, as a group of people declaring independence and taking a portion of a nation as they depart, the discussion is myopic, and current acts of exit hide in plain sight. When it comes to secession, the question is not just “What if?” but “What now?”
Wafers-
I was recently rdg an article online abt a deadly fungus threatening America. But what if America is, and has been, a deadly fungus threatening the world? What if its way of life, its value system, and the American 'Dream' have poisoned the planet socially, economically, culturally, politically, and certainly in terms of genocide? What if its imperial brutality is off the charts? Well, widespread secession might put the brakes on all of that. Let's hope!
mb
ps: 34% of Americans agree w/MT Greene's suggestion that the country be split in two.
ps: I'm v. tired, and need to go to sleep. But b4 I do, there's just one thing I hafta say:
KAMALA SCHMAMALA!
Thank you, and gd nite.
Unknown-
Sorry, I don't post Unknowns.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Well, this is a difficult time for the US. More than a million Americans died in the Covid-19 pandemic; Trumpi supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent coup attempt; Trumpi himself may soon face charges for trying to subvert the 2020 election; Kamala has done nothing except dance the Schmamala as multiple Chinese sky balloons traversed the nation; and doddering Joe Biden's gambit to resurrect the Cold War in Ukraine has completely flopped to the tune of 30 billion. The US is looking into Chad, as MB indicates, to fulfill its spiritual emptiness and Cold War fantasies.
What in the world should the nation do in this dark hour of precariousness? We should call upon one of America's leading intellectuals and political thinkers: Marjorie Taylor Greene. Indeed, MTG is a Paraclete for an American public who has long lost any ability to defend itself against stupidity. I tell ya, we should be doing everything we can to support, promote, and celebrate MTG. Personally, I have installed a Jewish Space Laser in my anus. She is the future, my friends, and as the great Leonard Cohen once remarked: "I've seen the future, brother; it is murder."
Jeff
Jeff-
"There's a shitstorm coming"--Kurt Vonnegut
mb
ps: Jeff:
1. I am in favor of nationwide installation of anal lasers.
2. She wants to split the country in 2. Me, I'd like it broken up into 853 separate parts.
3. She wants to stop pouring $ into the Ukraine. I'd like to see Schmiden sitting around w/egg on face.
Go, Marjorie!
Unknown-
Pls note, I don't post Unknowns.
mb
Sharp and realistic speculations by John Gray on if regime change was committed in Russia: "The chief beneficiary would be China" and "As in Iraq, the notion that a Russian majority is longing for Western-style democracy is baseless."
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2023/03/russian-regime-change-west-is-doomed-repeat-errors-iraq-war
Nether-
In future, provide more of yr own commentary (we are not a bulletin board).
Meanwhile, have you all noticed that the MSM is all agog over possible indictment of Trumpi for paying off a hooker, and nary a word regarding his causing the uprising of Jan. 6? For this criminal act, he'll get off scot free. I'm convinced that Gisele Bundchen is behind this.
mb
Dr. Berman,
2nd Mar, 2023 Chinese Foreign Ministry - The American Genocide of the Indians—Historical Facts and Real Evidence: https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/2649_665393/202203/t20220302_10647120.html
Highlights:
1. Evidence on U.S. government’s genocide against Indians
2. American Indians remain in serious survival and development crisis
3. Domestic criticism long ignored by the U.S. government over the “genocide” of American Indians
"To sum up, successive U.S. administrations have not only wiped out a large number of American Indians, but also, through systematic policy design and bullying acts of cultural suppression, thrown them into an irreversible, difficult situation. The indigenous culture was fundamentally crushed, and the inter-generational inheritance of indigenous lives and spirits was under severe threats. The slaughter, forced relocation, cultural assimilation and unjust treatment the United States committed against American Indians have constituted de facto genocides. These acts fully match the definition of genocide in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and have continued for hundreds of years to this day. It is imperative that the U.S. government drop its hypocrisy and double standards on human rights issues, and take seriously the severe racial problems and atrocities in its own country."
Himanshu
Himan-
No doubt abt it, altho the Chinese gov't needs to also reflect on its treatment of the Uighurs.
mb
MB: re: MSM covering Trump arrest,
Or focus on his pressuring GA's Sec of State to "find thousands of votes"...
What a gift this arrest is going to be for Trump's primary campaign. He's gonna move for federal removal. He's gonna get it. He will call it a huge win. Nonstop news coverage. No trial possible until well after 2024.
Prosecutors remain our most inept public servants! Locking up common ppl and fucking up prosecuting shitty fat cats!
Dearest GSWH,
You are not the only prescient visionary in the internet activist community. Behold your future from the past complete w/ “trash economy”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4jRoatZizQ0
Cheers
On our way to 2030! The kids shall lead the way!
https://www.wdrb.com/news/education/video-fight-breaks-out-between-driver-student-on-bullitt-county-school-bus/article_c005ed36-bc6a-11ed-9fdb-171eda9301c4.html
https://www.wsbtv.com/video/local-video/new-video-fight-school-bus-involving-elementary-school-students-dekalb-county/63ff50c7-55d4-4278-8e45-206746a848ff/
https://www.11alive.com/video/news/local/gwinnett-county-school-bus-fight-district-investigating/85-1fac5262-d23e-4f26-9dd3-a23c97b55cdc
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165575298/denver-east-high-school-shooting-suspect
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A
Yoo-
Straw man argument! I never made such a claim for myself.
Bri-
Quite amazing. They are prosecuting him for trivia, and ignoring his overt attempt to overthrow the gov't and subvert the democratic process. The DoJ is a pile of hot turds.
mb
ps: Yoo: Of course, my greatness is beyond dispute; ca va sans dire. ;-) However, I'll give a TED talk when hell freezes over.
Quercus-
As it turns out, we are a discussion forum, not a bulletin board. I ask u2 resend that link, adding a para of your own commentary. Thank you.
mb
Wafers-
Peggy Noonan has an article in the WSJ saying that this indictment of Trumpi for paying hush $ to Stormy Daniels is just beating off. She correctly pts out that the real crime is encouraging insurrection and attempting to overthrow or subvert democracy. You watch and see: Trumpi will walk away, scot free. Read my new bk, "Beat-Off Nation."
mb
Greetings Wafers everywhere, here are some notes from Cascadia.
Can a short-legged vulgarian be described as Jacksonian? So goes the new narrative about Ron DeSantis appearing in the March 23rd New York Times. DeSantis checks some important boxes: “Favors a robust military” sounds like no threat to the military-industrial. “China superhawk” with a Navy background sounds perfect to oversee sanctions and an attempted naval blockade in an upcoming confrontation with China. Unspoken in the Times narrative is the roles DeSantis played in his career as a naval legal beagle officer with torture at Guantanamo and in the ruthless U.S. retaking of Fallujah during the Iraq war, though the article does describe DeSantis as “facilitator, not an inhibitor.” Use this link to avoid the Times paywall:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/desantis-foreign-policy-hard-power-112826137.html
As for the DeSantis vision of domestic policy, it can be summarized as the U.S. should be Florida ruled large. His recent book, “The Courage to be Free”, is subtitled “Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.” Yes, for everyone a bit of that old time religion called “America,” delivered with authoritarian flair.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/desantis-argue-us-fla-ahead-2024-bid-97673888
The orange baboon was the only president to use the MOAB in the USA war arsenal; and the only president to threaten to "totally destroy North Korea into a parking lot with his "fire and fury." 45 continued the war in Afghanistan (he also endorsed the Russian war in Afghanistan.) He wants to use the USA military to send missile strikes into Mexico.
So, your "Trump is no warmonger" rhetoric may be disproven if he gets another four years. After all Trump called for the U.S. to attack Russia but make it look like it was actually China — by flying American planes with a Chinese flag on the side! "And then we say, 'China did it,' " Trump told Republican donors in New Orleans.
"Trump Drops the Mother of All Bombs on Afghanistan"
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-drops-the-mother-of-all-bombs-on-afghanistan
"Trump mused about fighting drug war with missile strikes in Mexico, ex-defense secretary claims"
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-mused-of-fighting-drug-war-with-missile-strikes-in-mexico-ex-defense-secretary-claims
Trump: US should put Chinese flags on F-22 jets and ‘bomb shit out of’ Russia
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/07/donald-trump-russia-ukraine-jets-chinese
futuro-
Thanks for the info; I didn't know any of that. I do have a sense, however, that Biden is more serious abt confrontation w/Russia and China than Trumpi is. E.g., the whole Ukraine caper, to my mind, is really abt war vs. Russia by proxy, and Schmiden has shipped billions of materiel to the Ukraine. But I cd be wrong.
mb
MB, I really can't understand why u think trump is good for the rest of the world, it's close to preferring Hitler to Herr Hindenburg. Imagine machine gun nests at the southern border.
https://theweek.com/donald-trump/1013308/trump-wanted-to-quietly-bomb-mexico-seriously-ex-defense-secretary-mark-esper
Anyway b4 you ban me, as u must, I challenge u to watch all of this one hour forty minute fascist rally in Waco - u may call this my opinion but it ain't, it's experience amigo.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?526860-1/president-trump-holds-rally-waco-texas&live
Gunnar-
You may be rt, but this involves further reply to futuro. I don't see Trumpi's activities as deliberate warmongering. He is an erratic individual, prone to act impulsively on the last thing that catches his attention. For better or worse, the guy has no vision beyond his own grandeur. Biden is of a different order of warmongering, part of the entire American foreign policy narrative: Manichaean, single-minded, and imbued w/missionary zeal. To my mind, far more dangerous than Trumpi. So I think the rest of the world might be relieved if Biden were out of office, and unable to play nuclear brinksmanship w/Russia and China. Again, I cd be wrong.
Meanwhile, stop w/the snide remarks. I delete people only when they violate blog protocol. Your last post didn't do that. But if you continue to be snide, you'll not only be deleted; you'll be expunged! So stop shooting yrself in the foot. Only douche bags do that.
mb
Hey sign me up TODAY to promote J-SLIMA (Jewish Space Laser in my anus) nationwide! Brilliant observation from Miles Deli. ‘Cause if you’re born in America, you’re bound to be “reared” here too. So why not by a J-SLIMA?
On a “less serious” check out this interview w/ psychiatrist Dr. Drew Pinsky of Celebrity Rehab fame. It’s been Pinsky’s contention, since his book The Mirror Effect appeared in 2009, that “the very wealthy and the very famous have a much closer affinity with the indigent street person than the rest of us.”[…] “A lot of childhood trauma, a lot of addiction, a lot of personality disorder in the narcissistic spectrum,” […]“something that just did not develop into a full adult.” Sounds like most Americans, really. Dr. Pinsky says it’s a shame they didn’t let him include in this book (“people thought I was nuts”) a chapter he wrote about “other periods of history when there’s been this much narcissism and childhood trauma. I wanted to write about pre-Revolutionary France and the probability of mob action and scapegoating and guillotines.”
https://youtu.be/Pha6MAEFsMM
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0061582336
Ro-
As soon as MTG came out w/the idea of the JSL, I had a removable one installed in my anus. I don't wear it at home, but I never leave home w/o it wedged firmly up my rectum.
mb
J-SLIMA is actually more pleasurable than it sounds.
I was reading this blog, https://kennorphan.com/2023/03/26/from-iraq-to-ukraine-the-destination-is-the-same/#respond
I couldn't help but think that even the act of protesting doesn't change anything, at least in the USA. Might be different elsewhere. It just seems like another form of beating off.
Go Florida! Their Karens drop their panties anywhere when nature calls. LOL!
https://cbs12.com/news/local/woman-uses-private-lawn-as-personal-bathroom-shows-shiny-rear-end-sheriff-says-lake-winterset-polk-county-sheriffs-office-march-24-2023#
If you’re a firefighter down there in that sweltering hot state, some guy may go naked to subliminally/psychologically/figuratively cool off on your fire truck.
https://cbs12.com/news/nation-world/driver-highway-crash-scene-270-young-man-dropped-clothes-naked-jump-fire-truck-traffic-maryland-montgomery-county-excited-delirium-pete-piringer-rescue-service#
Their teenagers think nothing of repeatedly stabbing classmates to death.
https://cbs12.com/news/local/aiden-fucci-tristyn-bailey-mothers-day-murder-stabbed-114-times-life-sentence-march-24-2023#
It now shall be easier to blow someone away. It's part of a “school safety bill”! LOL!
https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2023/03/24/florida-house-set-to-vote-on-permitless-carry-bill
And the top two Republican presidential hopefuls—Trump and DeSantis—reside in this uber far right state. The ultimate con artist and a dictatorial/bully authoritarian Roman Catholic fascist who was reincarnated from his previous life in the Inquisition. It doesn’t get any better!
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A
Joe-
I admire the woman who peed on private lawn. It shows creativity and initiative. In the case of the kid who stabbed the girl 114 times: I'm puzzled that he stopped at 114. Was he inhibited? Very strange. I mean, this is America!
mb
Sala-
I guess yr not familiar w/how this blog works. We are not big on the posting of opinions. Anyone can have an opinion; no big deal. What we are big on is evidence. In future, pls post as follows:
1. You have a specific argument regarding the collapse of the American empire, and you present it.
2. Then, using links or reliable references, you defend that argument.
Thank you for yr cooperation.
mb
Remember when Trump referred 2 certain countries as "shithole nations? Well, here's a piece where someone had the balls to call a spade a spade:
"It takes a level of pomposity inconceivable to most of us to describe another country as a "shithole." The U.S. is not exactly in a position to judge, much less denigrate, our global neighbors."
Still holds true, eh?
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/01/13/i-live-shithole-country-its-called-united-states
Satchmo-
Materially speaking, the author is rt: we are pretty much a shithole ourselves. But in the area of spirit: oy vey. Yrs ago, when Mother Teresa was here, she commented that she never saw a country so spiritually impoverished as the US. So we are a major spiritual shithole, possibly the greatest on the planet.
mb
As a rest of the world person I pretty much would like to see Trump in the oval office. He's the right man for the wrong reasons. Trump is no warmonger but a populist megalomaniac businessman who does politics. While he did threaten the DPRK initially he later on became the only US president to shake hands with a North Korean leader. Even the relations between North and South Korean was better under Trump.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-kim-jong-un-meet-dmz-n1025041
Under Biden the US is doing joint operations with South Korea despite the disagreement of the North:
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/3/3/s-korea-us-to-hold-joint-military-drills-despite-n-korea-warning
Trump was not the one behind MOAB
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/moab-strike-didn-t-need-trump-s-approval-officials-say-n746806
It was under Trump that the US started to withdraw from Afghanistan.
Finally, here's a good article in why Russia didn't invade Ukraine in Trump's time
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/02/putin-invade-ukraine-trump-00012897
Wafers-
Entertain yrselves w/some hi-level beating off. Check out what Schmiden hasta say abt the Nashville massacre. No end to this tedious, useless crap.
mb
The WSJ did a survey with University of Chicago and found that Americans value patriotism, religion, having children, and community less than earlier generations and making money more. The poll shows actually that money is above all the others. I'm surprised it took this long for this to happen. Were people just less honest back then or is the decay and coming collapse of the country just stripping away whatever is left of the facade? It does feel like being here that people are much weirder and more disturbed than I can remember many years ago. Everything is falling apart.
https://nypost.com/2023/03/27/values-like-patriotism-religion-falling-out-of-favor-among-americans-poll/
Bud-
Of course there are a # of reasons why America failed, but imo, Reason #1 is that the population consists of douche bags. Which mirrors the fact that the nation itself is one big douche bag. This is true everywhere you look. E.g., how did a certified dope become VP?
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
MB, Bud-
When historians and sociologists of the future discover MB's WAF, they will confront a basic truth: The US as both a stable nation-state and a symbol of freedom and goodness is a bald-faced lie, meant to soothe the American ego. Anyone who believes otherwise, or who fights for America as it currently stands, is a total and complete buffoon of the first order. The truth is, many Americans barely care about other Americans. This is what 400 yrs of narcissism have led to:
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/science/seeing-narcissists-everywhere.html
In short, America is/was a douche bag nation w/a total disregard for whole swaths of humanity, and totally incapable of breaking way from its narcissism. And now the place is headed for a 2nd civil war. A strong argument can be made that today the US is much closer to the conditions that led to its first Civil War in 1861 than most Americans would dare admit:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/06/how-close-is-the-us-to-civil-war-barbara-f-walter-stephen-march-christopher-parker
Jeff
https://tricycle.org/magazine/karen-armstrong-nature/
Politicians, Americans, postmodernists alike could learn from the insight that “myths are more true than reality.” They point to an objective world of values. We don’t get to invent the stories that matters--this Karen Armstrong piece was a nice touch on that (her work is always top notch) and the subject always brings me back to MB's old school consciousness trilogy! Pick up a copy of "Reenchantment of The World" and "Coming to Our Senses"!
Jeff-
The stats: w/exception of Wafers and Native Americans, no one in the US is aware that the country is basically a genocidal war machine run by a plutocracy and cheered on by clueless morons. These morons have only 1 concern: themselves, and believe whatever the gov't tells them. Concepts such as spiritual emptiness, or national suicide, are completely beyond them. While they deserve to be severely punished (wh/is what's going on rt now), it's wasted on them, because they hardly believe they are doing anything wrong. Check out Auden, "The Unknown Citizen."
NO AMOUNT OF SLAPPING
NO AMOUNT OF URINE
mb
Mr. Berman where is the proof/links for the first sentence about Wafers and Native Americans?
Proof-
New England Journal of Medicine, 14 August 2019, article by Hans Schmaltzkopf et al.: "US Is a Collection of Morons". US gov't was so threatened by it, that they collected all copies of that issue and burned them. Schmaltzkopf was subsequently killed in a road 'accident'.
Prov-
Also "Wandering God."
mb
Ya jus' gotta love America:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/us/nashville-gun-laws.html
We are so *fundamentally* intelligent!
Greetings MB and Wafers,
MB-
Re: "and believe whatever the gov't tells them."
It's probably too big of a topic to get into here, MB, but what are your thoughts about what now appears likely that the US government funded the very research that caused the global Covid-19 pandemic- and spent a year and a half trying to conceal it. This charge in particular applies to Dr. Fauci who seemed to go out of his way to obfuscate the truth since his own agency (NIH) had funded a health organization w/direct ties to and funding for coronavirus gain-of-function research that may have caused the global Covid-19 pandemic, killing millions. Fauci also seems to have pedaled an illusion of scientific consensus to corporate media that the lab leak was a crackpot conspiracy, when he was actually unsure of this himself. Talk about one of the biggest scandals in modern history:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/opinion/covid-lab-leak-theory-disinformation.html
In any case, it's very interesting that a clearer picture of all this is now hitting the MSM, and I don't think it's too off-base to conclude that US-taxpayer funded experiments in China assisted in plunging the world into total chaos, darkness, and death. Just how much damage to the world is the US capable of? It boggles the mind.
Jeff
Doctor,
In addition to the above Times article you mention, check this out. It’s the far right’s popular young trigger-happy shitass publicly testifying to enact a state bill. I’ve mentioned him previously here on this blog as being pivotal to the disintegration of this wasteland. He already has spoken at CPAC. He’s been on Tucker Carlson. Therefore he’s a rising star in conservative circles; and with that he’s one of the upcoming potential future leaders of the Republican party.
Take a look at his latest speaking engagement. He spoke here before a state chamber sponsoring this eponymous “self-defense” bill called “Kyle’s Law”. Who knows. In a few short years he may publicly campaign and get elected as a senator, congressman, or even president! You also have to laugh at this far right doofus putting on a pair of glasses to try to make himself look intelligent. LOL!
https://www.inforum.com/news/north-dakota/kyle-rittenhouse-testifies-on-north-dakota-self-defense-bill-during-senate-hearing
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Bud-
I wasn't able to run it because yr post was pure opinion. That's not how this blog operates. We're not terribly impressed by pure opinion. What impresses us is evidence. So let me suggest a format for your future posts:
1. Present your argument regarding the collapse of the American empire. It shd be as specific as possible.
2. Then present links or reliable references supporting your thesis.
In this way, you cd engender an intelligent dialogue regarding the disintegration of the US.
For example, see the link provided by Joe, of a sick, twisted buffoon child having the respect of millions of Americans, and testifying b4 the Senate. This is striking evidence of a nation having its head rammed firmly up its ass, and going to hell in a basket.
Jeff-
I never followed the whole pandemic phenomenon v. closely, but I do recall rdg something abt Fauci having corporate connections that enabled him to make a lotta $ from what he was promoting health-wise. A crucial aspect of our national collapse is that we've gotten to the point that anything cd be real; that empirical 'evidence' cd be made up. And that it is hard to fact-check stuff. Not to get into a whole discussion abt 9/11; I personally don't believe it was an inside job. But it's hard to know for sure, esp. since Dick Cheney is a pretty psychotic individual. Who cd put it past him? Of course, 95% of the country no longer cares abt it, one way or the other; but if, postmodern style, all texts are equivalent, then it was and was not an inside job, and the Holocaust did and did not happen. Etc.
America will wipe itself out during the next 50 years, and this postmodern bullshit will be a major factor in our disintegration. I'm just hoping that on the other end of this debacle, respect for truth, based on empirical proof, will emerge intact.
mb
Dr. B.,
Was happy to see your mention of the poem "The Unknown Citizen" since I just read the Auden section of your book _Eminent Post-Victorians_ a few nights ago. I liked most of the quotations from his poetry you had in that chapter.
-- Torreblanca
Torre-
He was, indeed, fab.
mb
"The film’s re-evaluation of niceness is well timed in an era in which ubiquitous rainbow-festooned Orwellian platitudes like Be Kind pass for meaningful discourse,"
https://areomagazine.com/2023/03/28/fragile-narcissism-banshees-and-our-victimhood-culture/
Great commentary on a terrific film, released in a dreary age of empty Hollywood filth! The Ernest Becker Foundation even published a nice review about it. And may I also recommend the Scottish film "Afterson" it is very subtle but also very sweet and tragic ...
Ruskin-
Sorry, cdn't run it. We aren't big on people broadcasting opinions. What does turn us on is evidence. In future, pls present yr posts as follows:
1. State the arg. you have regarding the collapse of the American empire; try to be specific.
2. Defend that arg. w/links or reliable references.
Thank you for yr understanding.
mb
Amlo is taking dead aim at the hypocrisy of America and the West.
https://youtu.be/RZU8e0NKZtk
At the five minute mark watch the faces of the other western leaders on the zoom call of Biden's so-called Democracy Summit. This is a clear cut example of the decline of America's grip on the hemisphere and the global south.
And as usual, America's solution is to think about war.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-mexico-military-cartels-war-on-drugs-1234705804/
https://newrepublic.com/post/171484/donald-trump-and-republican-party-wants-go-war-mexico
Ostensibly this is about the drug cartels but I think Amlo's remarks are doing nothing to dampen that particular fire.
Hitler was warned about fighting on two fronts and look what his hubris cost him and his country. America seems to be wanting to fight on at least three and who knows how many more in the future.
Anjin-
Great clip, thanks. AMLO is a brave man, and correctly called out the US as being full of shit.
mb
Following in my footsteps dept. (and do I get any credit?!):
Plug "bill maher on dumb americans" into Google and see whatcha get.
Dr. & Wafers,
Check this, as Don Trump would say “HHHHuuge” road rage! Or a “Bigger is Better” one, as that Madison Avenue adage goes. Two tractor trailers duke it out and wreak havoc on the highway. Now that’s a first here on our USAin roads. LOL!
https://www.ksla.com/2023/03/30/driver-arrested-after-18-wheeler-battle-i-49/
Speaking of the road, as the saying goes: “Only in New York.”
https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/local/bridge-too-far-drunken-joyride-ends-when-cops-pop-ambulance-tires-on-tappan-zee
Here’s an interesting statistic and a few creative comparisons of our gun ownership and the daily mass shootings here in the world’s most angry, violent “Land of Exceptionalism”.
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/01/1167541925/opinion-americas-shameful-obsession-with-guns
And speaking of anger and guns, anger occurs at an early age here. Some high school students take it out on their coaches and try to blow them away.
https://www.ksla.com/2023/03/30/student-southwood-arrested-reportedly-having-gun/
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
“She wants to split the country in 2. Me, I'd like it broken up into 853 separate parts.”
The impossible goal: “Every one of the other oppressions you talk about is eradicated by virtue of removal of the stage. So, you take all those vectors of activism, but you frame them in terms of a consciousness of an overall goal which goes way beyond battered women’s centers, policing the police, basic litigation to control the corporate dogs, all of those various vectors of activism you can see if they are coordinated in a way consciously designed to achieve the one reasonable goal which is not the US out of Iraq, which is not a US out of Afghanistan, which is not a US out of Central America, or the Caribbean, or southern Africa, or South East Asia, or you can tick ‘em all off, and we’ve had the US out of every one of those as a slogan during my experience as an activist, and I’ve supported every one, but we can actually get to the one that makes sense which is “US out of North America”, the US out of existence in other words, the US off the planet, and that is the impossible goal which is the only realistic option if we’re going to do what it is that ultimately we have to get done. Otherwise, we just end up replicating the same thing over and over.” — Derrick Jensen & Ward Churchill in Discussion, January 27, 2005.
“And now ladies and gentlemen, here is our very special guest star to sing To Dream the Impossible Dream. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. John Cleese!” — The Muppet Show, 1977, production #2x23 (production start date shared with production #2x11 guest starring Dom DeLuise), episode 37/38 of 120 by production start date, episode 36 of 120 by NYC air date, episode 28 of 120 by UK air date.
I just came across this Kim Iverson video featuring Scott Ritter where the discussion is about the war in Ukraine and why it might be ending soon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw1euDVn41Y
Contrary to the pap we're being fed by the New York Times and the rest of the MSM, Ukraine is not winning the war and things are now dire. I've always found Scott Ritter to be a breath of fresh air when it comes to this subject, which means, of course, he'd never get a hearing in the Times or on CNN. The narrative must go on! Facts be damned!
ccg-
I'd like to say that it's impt that the US get a large pie in the face in the Ukraine, and go down to stunning defeat. And certainly, the US deserves to be punished for this dishonest war. The problem is, as Gore Vidal once observed, America never learns anything from experience. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan...it just keeps replaying the same old program. Defeat teaches it nothing at all. It has no more intelligence than a hamster on a wheel, and the MSM keeps reinforcing its delusions. So yeah, it'll lose; and then shift its nonsensical "negative identity" program to Taiwan, and China. After it loses that, it will--actually, I shd use present tense--focus on Chad. Once that's a bust, perhaps Antarctica. All of this will contribute to its decline. It's a buffoon country filled w/buffoons. What else is there to say?
k-
Along the same lines, I'd like to see every American wearing a T-shirt that says: BUFFOONS HAVE NO FUTURE.
mb
Wafers-
Sen. Ted Cruz recently stated that China has been waging war against the US for 1000 yrs. Gov. Christy Noem said it's been going on for 2000. Let's be clear: American politicians are morons.
I'm wondering what % of Americans believe the US has been around for 1000 or 2000 years.
mb
ps: What further evidence do we need that the US is in a state of collapse?
Wafers, let's check in on U.S. academia. "A 'woke' University of Pittsburgh anthropology professor denied there's a difference in male and female bone structure during a discussion about gender... The [denial] sparked appalled laughter from students."
https://nypost.com/2023/03/31/woke-professor-denies-male-female-skeleton-differences/
The Post article at least makes an effort to provide so-called balance by quoting borderline-fallacy arguments re the anthropology. But apparently the prof made no comparable effort. His retort to the students was, "Have any of you been to anthropological sites? Have any of you studied biological anthropology? I'm just saying, I've got over 150 years of data, I'm just curious as to why I'm being laughed at.... I have a PhD!"
The students should not be let off the hook. They may laff, but they're insouciantly spending money (and time and energies) on a junk education. IOW everyone in the room is foolish. Buffoons and buffoonettes, one could say.
Zum-
Junk education is another major factor in the American collapse. It has spread like a cancer throughout academia, wh/is now little more than a machine for cranking out buffoons.
mb
It’s a brand new week. Let the newest shootings begin! By teens, no less! First off, Philly!
https://abc13.com/philadelphia-shooting-frazier-street-west-philly-surveillance-video/13027867/
Of course another hot spot is Houston! Impatience and hot heads prevail in that great family values/conservative Lone Star state where road rage is king.
https://abc13.com/taco-bell-shooting-man-followed-home-houston-road-rage-police-department/12972835/
https://abc13.com/road-rage-man-shot-leg-shooting-downtown-houston/13074527/
And here’s the newest hustling gimmick in the USAin version of Roman bread and circus. Both vicarious and actual gladiatorial violence now is traded on the stock exchange. Professional wrestling is teaming up with that pathetic garbage known as ultimate fighting. What better way for the dumbed down USAins to spend their leisure time watching this banality and investing in it at the same time. Ya gotta love it! LOL!
https://apnews.com/article/wwe-mcmahon-endeavor-ufc-f0323725f13c6bbdbd39d18321f26ecf?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_09
And hoping not to exceed the half-page rule, speaking of bread and circus, here’s a sampling of what we can expect to see tomorrow with Trumpie in town. Check out this MAGA doofus.
https://cdnph.upi.com/svc/sv/upi/9331680536116/2023/1/07ce3d2822a22959de24de0a65111b69/Trump-leaves-Florida-for-New-York-Tuesdays-indictment.jpg
Greetings MB and Wafers,
As I write this post, Trumpi is in the air toward NY for his historic arraignment that will change absolutely nothing:
https://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/trump-indictment-charges-new-york-city-xm6tcz29
What's an arrest for a botched cover-up w/Stormy and a possible election law violation after two impeachments and a failed coup? Bupkis. Stormy got her money, and Trumpi got his 90-second release. That's all there is to it. Even if Trumpi is prosecuted and jailed, big deal! He can run while being prosecuted. Hell, he can run from prison, like Wafer hero Eugene V. Debs. I assume Trumpi will win in 2024 against an obsolete Biden and a useless Kamamala Schmamala. The whole thing will begin again, as Trumpi will roll over the country like a tsunami.
Jeff
ps: Poem for Trumpi:
Stormy produced a Trumpi erection
And Trumpi will win another election
Dr. Berman—
For immediate popcorn amusement, here's a livestream of the Marjorie Taylor Greene rally against the Trump Indictment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGQS-Be25-I
Meanwhile, as homelessness soars in NYC, among a plethora of crises, a top priority of State Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg is the renaming of Donald Trump State Park.
https://nyassembly.gov/mem/Dana-Levenberg/story/105341
Mr. Oops-
Once you realize that America is a ridiculous nation filled w/ridiculous people, its politics, and its future, are not difficult to understand.
Let's not indict Trumpi for instigating an insurrection, and trying to destroy what's left of American democracy. No. The important thing is that he paid off a hooker.
mb
ps: But let me add that the crucial question facing the nation is whether Kamala is a bag of rancid douche fluid, or a rancid bag of douche fluid.
KAMALA SCHMAMALA!
Now here's a true American. Someone did a prank to him at the mall. He take kindly to said prank. So he shot him in the gut. I guess a true American would have finished him off with another couple rounds in the chest.
https://nypost.com/2023/04/04/youtube-prankster-tanner-cooks-stunt-fails-shot-by-target/
In round the world news, this one caught my eye. I'm guessing this will be seen as a strategic blunder for Finland years from now. If you want to get along with your neighbors, don't point your guns in their direction.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/finland-set-join-nato-historic-shift-while-sweden-waits-2023-04-04/
Was Trump just gifted the Republican nomination with this indictment? The people spearheading this must have thought about the backfire potential. I'd bet he wins the nomination in a landslide now. Could these people be any dumber?
Dr. B.,
We are turbocharging ourselves to nowhere and are unaware of it. Today I give you the U.S. Department of Transportation's Project Momentum: "a new initiative to help countries around the world learn from our best practices and expertise in planning and modernizing transportation infrastructure." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYLeeAEpFzg)
"That the US has the world’s worst urban rail construction costs is just the beginning. Climate change, so central to this plan, is another example of American failure; Wikipedia’s list has the US near the top in CO2 emissions per capita, and the US is lagging in not just decarbonizing transport, which the entire developed world is failing at, but also in installing renewable energy (or nuclear power). Transport safety is almost always better in rich countries than in poor ones, but in 2018 the US had the highest per capita car accident death rate in the developed world, and rates rose during corona (in Germany, they fell). (https://pedestrianobservations.com/2022/07/01/what-does-pete-buttigieg-think-the-us-has-to-teach-the-world/)
-- Torreblanca
Krak, Torre-
The motto of this blog is "Bad Is Good." From a declinist pt of view, your examples show that we are descending into a maelstrom of shit. Indictment of Trumpi probably means election of Trumpi. What will Kamala do, once unemployed? I have an idea. Let's have her sit opposite the W.H., in Lafayette Park, holding a cup, with a sign around her neck that says
SHIT FOR BRAINS
mb
Wafers-
Regarding the indictment of Trumpi, whether it's for paying a hooker or trying to subvert democracy: my prediction is that the whole thing will come to 0, and that he will get off scot free. What do y'all think?
mb
The prosecution is likely on the way to wankerdom.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/04/fake-mugshot-donald-trump-fundraising/11600725002/
The supporters are all riled up. Either way though it’s political wanking, left, right, and center in this depressing and downtrodden place.
I spent two weeks out of the country and was perfectly happy the entire time despite doing nothing exciting. Being back is almost surreal.
I've been reading articles by lawyers of all stripes who are very unimpressed by the indictment of Trump. They think the case is thin. The NY Times think otherwise:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/opinion/donald-trump-alvin-bragg-indictment-charges.html
If the article is behind a paywall, well, the tile of it is "We Finally Know the Case Against Trump, and It Is Strong", and that's probably all you need to know about the piece. Of course the Times would take that position.
On today's front page of the Times print edition theyhave story with headline that reads: "NATO Formally Adds Finland, Delivering a Poke in Putin's Eye." Could they be more childish than that? I expect they could be, especially if Trump walks and/or gets reelected in spite of the indictment, or more likely even because it. I sincerely hope it all backfires.
Jack-
A bit too long. Pls edit down 25% and re-send. Thanks.
Flab, ccg-
It's all one big beat-off circus, really. And by now extremely boring.
mb
Dr B. and Wafers,
After a long day of work I decided to re-watch the Project Momentum video for some amusement. I noticed two things I hadn't before:
1) all the comments on the video except one are people noting that U.S. infrastructure is terrible, including several asking if the video is a joke. One person said it's as if the video were made by The Onion.
2) the word "expertise" in the official U.S. government-produced subtitles is misspelled as "expertize."
-- Torreblanca
Good day, Wafers everywhere, here’s a glimpse of what we’ve been reading in Cascadia today:
Patrick Lawrence recently wrote a very good essay about attempts to measure happiness internationally, how Americans view the rest of the world by weaponizing so-called surveys to reflect the ideological determinism of American exceptionalism, and how other peoples want to live their own way:
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/04/04/patrick-lawrence-the-happiness-of-others
In The Postil, a counterpoint to Lawrence’s essay, in excerpt from a new book, “To the Last Ukrainian: An American War”, written by French journalist Regis Le Sommier, a vignette of Carl Larson, a U.S. military veteran interviewed by the Seattle Times who said he was in Ukraine as an instructor to “fight for the freedom of the people” by training international “volunteers” for the Ukrainian Legion; I’ve ordered a copy of the book:
https://www.thepostil.com/to-the-last-Ukrainian-an-american-war/
A credible US partner worthy of hundreds of billions of dollars in American security guarantees?
A year into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, for the first time, hosts a Russian warship that recently participated in a joint drill with China and Iran .. A new multi-polar world w withering US hegemony ..
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2281866/saudi-arabia
Sab-
Given US foreign policy, and the anti-human value system the US imparted to the rest of the world, there is no upper limit to the punishment that the country deserves.
mb
Check out this pretty good Salon article about “our redeemer”, or in Don Trump’s own words, “I am the chosen one.” Yes. This Christian nation is in good hands for 2030! LOL!
https://www.salon.com/2023/04/05/treating-like-jesus-indictment-proves-maga-is-a/?lh_aid=3529071&lh_cid=gxages3tlh&lh_em=psthlht%40comcast.net&di=d9e534ff8b8bbd25dc18cd5a7d5bd852&fbclid=IwAR0j0JO2M7ZOTKWdGMmmZaVG-_RlNuHqkOktja4tayRTcHBRgDRWvPRUOkY
Also, tempers seemed to flair where our “family values” conservative “pious” religious righties eat. Over what? Chicken sandwiches of course! LOL!
https://www.thedailybeast.com/georgia-chick-fil-a-drive-thru-shooting-probed-as-murder-suicide
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Wafers-
One of the ways Rome did itself in was by what historians call 'imperial overstretch'. It overextended itself militarily, got into wars that were none of its affair and wh/depleted its resources at home. In a word, its behavior was stupid and suicidal. It was already crumbling from within; this overstretch served to provide the coup de grace. Does this remind you of anything?
mb
ps: You wonder if we can do *anything* rt:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/06/military-parachute-deaths-or-military-parachute-lawsuit/?itid=hp-more-top-stories_p003_f005
TO HELP END THE YEMEN WAR, ALL CHINA HAD TO DO WAS BE REASONABLE
With Joe Biden nowhere to be found, China’s diplomacy set the stage for Saudi concessions and cease-fire talks.
"Decades of militarized American foreign policy in the Middle East have enabled China to play the role of peacemaker while Washington is stuck and unable to offer much more than arms deals and... unconvincing security assurances.”
https://theintercept.com/2023/04/07/yemen-war-ceasefire-china-saudi-arabia-iran/
What a gift to humanity it would be if the Yemen conflict was resolved. How long did the USA have the chance to be the decent actor at the negotiating table? Instead we're the joke.
How those in charge fool the ignorant:
https://heated.world/p/big-oils-favorite-way-to-lie-paltering
This I feel is the main way the game keeps going on. Not that there is much challenge in that. The vast numbers of people that buy into it mare east targets. But the crassness of both public officials and corporations still shocks me:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/07/clarence-thomas-defends-trips-gop-donor-00091027
And: https://angrybearblog.com/2023/04/private-equity-and-hospital-acquisitions
It’s so low it almost breaks my mind every day. I look forward to my next overseas trip.
Eve Ottenberg has written a poignant and clear moral analysis of the current American neocons:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/04/07/human-destiny-in-ukraine/
Her quote from John Ross's new book, Waging the New Cold War, says it all:
"This book cites two lessons from events leading to the Ukraine war: 'First…it is pointless to ask the United States for compassion. Second…the outcome of the war in Ukraine is crucial not only for Russia but for China and the entire world,' because 'there is no level of crime or atrocity to which the United States is not prepared to descend.' Or as Veneziale puts it, 'the depravity of some aspects of current U.S. policy.'"
Oops-
This is a v. gd, and accurate, article. The country is depraved, and its citizens are depraved. As America descends into madness, one can only hope it doesn't take a large chunk of the rest of the world w/it.
The whole Ukrainian caper is a pile of shit, a proxy war that we need like a hole in the head.
mb
Europe has solde its soul tobthe US.
https://youtu.be/JNy6vcWRiB8
This interview is biased towards china but the main argument is true, Europe is becoming a lackey of the US. Finland joining the NATO and deepening the antagonism with Russia is just another example. The adoption of American culture is the real problem as I see it, trading gold for shit.
french-
An old story, actually:
https://www.amazon.com/Irresistible-Empire-Americas-Advance-Twentieth-Century/dp/0674022343/ref=sr_1_2?crid=341J6LFK59XAN&keywords=victoria+de+grazia&qid=1681047586&s=books&sprefix=victoria+de+grazi%2Cstripbooks%2C320&sr=1-2
mb
Further evidence of the general decline? Sounds like evidence to me.
In a 1984 study, intelligence researcher James Flynn noticed that intelligence test scores had steadily increased since the early 1930s. That steady rise came to be called the Flynn Effect.
The May-June issue of the journal Intelligence reports that intelligence testing data covering the years 2006 to 2018 from Northwestern University shows that test scores in three out of four “cognitive domains” were going down. In view of these new findings, the decline has been dubbed the Reverse Flynn Effect.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a43469569/american-iq-scores-decline-reverse-flynn-effect/
Like Jackson in the movie Bloodsport: TEXAS!, TEXAS!, TEXAS!
Go Houston! Angry gun toters in the Lone Star State “celebrate life”! LOL!
https://abc13.com/multiple-people-shot-teenagers-four-in-east-harris-county-crime/13104259/
Also around Houston,
https://abc13.com/teens-found-dead-killed-liberty-county-death-investigation/13106070/
And what better example for this “Christian” nation to celebrate their “Love thy neighbor” mantra this Easter weekend than a Karen going beserk.
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/framingham-police-road-rage-video-keys-michelle-milburn-raissa-garcia-immigrant-brazil/
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Dr. B. and Wafers,
The hustling, uncaring mentality knows no bounds:
"DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Attorney General’s Office has paused its practice of paying for emergency contraception — and in rare cases, abortions — for victims of sexual assault, a move that drew criticism from some victim advocates.
"'As a part of her top-down, bottom-up audit of victim assistance, Attorney General Bird is carefully evaluating whether this is an appropriate use of public funds,' Bird Press Secretary Alyssa Brouillet said in a statement. 'Until that review is complete, payment of these pending claims will be delayed.'" (https://apnews.com/article/iowa-rape-victims-contraception-funding-41ad066f0831961eeec57a676b4a67d6)
As Dr. B. sometimes says, look at the faces. Here is the Iowa Attorney General mentioned: https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/cb39035185eb40f8a29a4fe693ff922e/1000.webp
-- Torreblanca
Torre-
Hard to hold back on the vomit. This is, indeed, the face of America today.
mb
Adding to Joe's documentation of Easter weekend aggressions, we should also note that on Palm Sunday, April 2nd, a market's fish counter in Michigan closed early in observance of Ramadan, raising the ire of customer Jobul Hussain, MD, who retaliated against a fishmonger by slapping him upside the head with a frozen 4-pound herring. U-S-A! U-S-A! Hussain contributed to Michigan's crime stats by being charged with assault, but posted bond and remains free until his court date on April 27:
https://www.fieldandstream.com/survival/michigan-man-charged-assaulting-clerk-with-frozen-fish
Wafers-
I met the Dalai many yrs ago in Austria. He didn't have anything to say, except that he was for peace. I thought he might be a douche bag. This recent event suggests I might have been rt:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/dalai-lama-apologises-kissing-boy-suck-his-tongue-video
mb
It takes a body to understand the world – why ChatGPT and other language AIs don't know what they're saying
https://theconversation.com/it-takes-a-body-to-understand-the-world-why-chatgpt-and-other-language-ais-dont-know-what-theyre-saying-201280
Intelligence/awareness is embodied! Those of us who've read MB's consciousness trilogy knew this all along. My take is the existentiak A.I. dread is techno buffoonery!
Cesna-
For more on American techno-buffoonery, check out ch. 3 of WAF. I also talk about it a bit in "Spinning Straw Into Gold," and more directly in the ch. on Alan Turing in "Eminent Post-Victorians." Finally, I have a new bk coming out in a couple of months on the subject of embodiment; title: "Healing: The Defining Root of Our Existence." I have a feeling that non-buffoons will enjoy it.
mb
Ha!Ha!Ha! There always is a funny moment here in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Check out today’s mugshot of this 78 year old grannie who tried to rob a bank. Her name: Bonnie Gooch. Maybe she’s the reincarnated Bonnie of Bonnie & Clyde fame. LOL!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65232308
Here’s another mugshot taken of someone who blew away a relative outside of a funeral parlor while at a family wake.
https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/funeral-shooting-arrest/285-20adc467-b4d3-4551-a63f-1e985ee3364c?ref=exit-recirc
And here again is one of our country’s newest mainstream conservative celebrity goofballs. (Dr. and Wafers, please tolerate my fascination with him; that’s because he’s a perfect example of USAin dumbed down stupidity. I can’t get enough of this effing douchebag far right idiot). He made yet another funny idiotic appearance on Tucker Carlson. Of course this functionally illiterate doofus again wore glasses in attempt to make himself look scholarly. LOL!
https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-and-kyle-rittenhouse-campaign-pardon-texas-man-convicted-murdering
What a hilarious comedy show this pathetic country really is! LOL!
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n08/ben-ehrenreich/short-cuts
"Mike Davis once described the US-Mexico border wall as a ‘political stage set’. The same could be said for the other walls that have proliferated around the world over the last thirty years. The show put on in Melilla last June was especially didactic."
The late Barbara Ehrenreich's son Ben Ehrenreich just wrote this in the LRB on last summer’s massacre of migrants in Melilla. “As Aimé Césaire once wrote, ‘Europe is indefensible.’”
I thought the metaphor of a politician stage act would be appreciated here.
Dr. Berman—
Ellen Brown usually writes about economics, but she grew up near Palestine, Ohio, and decided to do some investigative work on how the chemical rail disaster could have happened. The number of anomalies she finds is eye-popping. And she theorizes a possible connection to despoiling the Palestine landscape — collapsing property values and ushering in eminent domain — and a new cobalt gold rush for cobalt for the upcoming EV market. Could they have sunk that low? Does the pope, etc.?...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/04/14/the-cobalt-gold-rush-and-the-east-palestine-disaster/
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