December 24, 2017

Ho Ho Ho

Well, Waferinos, Merry Xmas! May this year be filled with pastrami, corned beef, matzo ball soup, cole slaw with Russian dressing, dill pickles, and Cel-Ray tonic.

Right now, 2018 is more or less a blank slate for me. I have to give a lecture in Merida in March, and will visit friends in Ireland and England in October. But of course, I am looking forward to what Trumpi will do, and can only hope it will be extremely damaging. Which is likely, as we all know. 2017 was a bumper year for him screwing the country, and 2018 could well be even more horrific. Maybe we will nuke Toronto and Paris after all, as I've been urging the Pentagon to do. Hey, a man can dream.

Kim Jong-un's haircut continues to look absurd, and for that alone, North Korea also needs to be nuked.

Anyway, Wafers are marching ahead, 173 strong, showing the remaining 325 million what a real life is like. To all of you, comrades in arms, the best to us in 2018.

L'Chaim!

-mb

193 Comments:

Blogger Ordinary Indian said...

MB,

Merry Christmas to you and all the Wafers. (I run the risk of being lynched for this). Whatever happens in 2018, downfall of America, and world capitalism spiraling into further crisis are assured. Waiting for the circus to unfold.

12:18 PM  
Blogger Bezdomni said...

I finally got around to re watching an excellent video entitled Pelevin, Pepsi, The Media and Plato. The most relevant part of the video occurs about forty minutes from the beginning. ( (the earlier part is about the fall of the Soviet Union) It tells the story of the arrival of American commercial interests in Russia and makes all the points of this blog. The reference to Plato is to the Myth of the Cave. the images reflected on the wall are ads.

2:34 PM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

Christmas Eve greetings from Cascadia, Wafers everywhere. In the holiday “desperate times call for desperate measures” dept.: A 32-year old man was arrested in Vancouver Washington after setting fire to several vending machines in Oregon, taking the coins inside, and exchanging them for $26 at a Walmart. Check out his photo:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/vancouver-wash-man-charged-with-setting-fire-to-3-oregon-vending-machines/

Closer to home, a Homeland Security detention officer recently pulled her sidearm on her boss at the agency’s Tukwila, Washington office over a job review. No word on the final rating in the job review.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/homeland-agent-in-tukwila-accused-of-pointing-gun-at-boss-over-performance-review/

And finally, a national story we couldn’t pass up: Treasury Secretary Steve “The Munchkin” Mnuchin just received a gift-wrapped package of horse manure “from the American people.” Personally, we think bullshit would have made a more fitting present:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/24/secret-service-investigates-wrapped-box-of-horse-manure-sent-to-steve-mnuchin

2:59 PM  
Anonymous dr vic bold said...

Dr Vic Bold is reading his Kotkin on Stalin, who returned in 1917 to St Petersburg once the
real action got started. He brought all he had, which was very little: some clothes, a few books and a typewriter. Yes, a typewriter! Maybe some day when you return to your beloved America you, too, will also bring your typewriter.
I hope this brief message gets through this electronic maze. Why does the screen keep
asking me if I am a robot with all those pictures to click? Do you get that many robots writing you?

3:18 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

dr bold-

u.r. one strange dude. r.u. sure this is the rt blog 4u? There are so many others that wd understand

1. why you talk abt yrself in the 3rd person, like George Costanza
2. that I am not returning to my 'beloved' America
3. that I don't own a typewriter
4. that the screen does things over which I have no control.

I urge you to consider a different blog, one more congruent w/yr amazing talents, and brilliant insights.

Jack-

I guess great times call for great events.

mb

3:27 PM  
Anonymous Master of Waferism said...

Veteran got his last wish to see Star Wars VIII. What a patriot American, truly showed our values to the very end :-)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5183809/Dying-mans-wish-new-Star-Wars-movie-coming-true.html

3:32 PM  
Anonymous Chip said...

Theresa May's cabal sides w. Poland in dispute w. EU over rule of law

What a witch

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-poland-britain/britains-madame-brexit-tells-poland-your-constitution-is-your-own-matter-idUSKBN1EF212?il=0

3:43 PM  
Anonymous Anjin-san said...

Someone has been reading your books and is stealing your thunder.

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-reached-last-stage-before-collapse-2017-12

I was just rereading Dark Ages America I noticed that the publisher listed you as a best-selling author.

I'm sure with the right amount of publicity you could become even more of a best seller as your ideas are filtering into the mainstream. And in the years ahead will cascade there.

Seasons greetings to all.

4:39 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Note to dr. bold-

Be bold! Search out other blogs! Best of luck, and godspeed. No need to post here any more.

Anjin-

What a joke. If I had to rely on royalties, I wd have been dead years ago. Yes, my ideas are filtering into the MSM--w/o attribution! The day I'm cited by the MSM, pigs will fly across the sky.

mb

5:38 PM  
Blogger wthcha said...

Hello Dr. Berman-

I will be heading to Barcelona for two weeks next month as part of my graduate studies. Emigration would be a godsend, but I'm not counting on it. It would be another lucky event to toma una cerveza with you while I'm there.

Anyway, feliz navidad!

*stuck in USinSanity*

6:11 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

MSM in crisis? Send in the big guns. Spielberg! Streep! Hanks! Tell the time when a dude took on a corrupt president and viola the day will be saved. Can't wait to see The Post I've heard it's a certain Oscar contender. I get all my history from the movies and news from Bill Maher. The movie went into production in May for release in Jan 2018.

Can't yet say Trump is my fav president, don't really have one, but I'm definitely warming to him, the can done benn kicked down the road long enough.

6:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In reply to Mike R's comment in previous post.

Great advice. I would add: indulge without limit in oysters, foie gras, christmas puddings and of course Sauternes to compensate for the pretending. Go for a run the next day to detox and clear your head ahead of the next dinner.

Kanye

7:00 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

And yet, no demos against the guy as a war criminal. How strange!:

http://beta.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-netanyahu-protests-20171223-story.html#nt=oft07a-16gp1

7:57 PM  
Anonymous Cheryl said...

Master; Milli; MB -- re: Carol Gilligan

MB, I went back and read that article provided by Kanye. Thanks! But must have overlooked the reference points linking it to Carol's work. I almost thought it could be counter example to her stuff, maybe that *is* the point.

Sorry to be confused and/or confusing.


8:42 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Gd article by Strobe Talbott on Gorbachev and the collapse of the USSR: NYRB, Dec. 21.

mb

10:44 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Merry Christmas to Morris and the rest of the WAFER Family!

12:57 AM  
Anonymous Portia said...

I gave my 18 year old the book AWTY for Christmas. I hope he enjoys reading it as much as I have and becomes a Wafer for life. Merry Christmas, MB and all Wafers!

5:12 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Portia-

Wonderful thing! We hafta catch them at an early age. Otherwise, they turn into American turkeys, and it's too late. All Wafers out there: as soon as yr kids know the ABC's, give them a Wafer book. Age 7 is not too early. You don't want yr own children turning into douche bags b4 yr very eyes! Also separate them from all electronic devices.

mb

ps: Portia: as a follow-up, perhaps a copy of TMWQ? Young people are very grim these days, and a shot of humor is always a gd idea.

Merry Xmas! May the Great Spirit bless us all.

7:05 PM  
Blogger Nesim Watani said...

Turkey of the month, Nikki Haley has announced they will "negotiate" a 285 mil cut to an organization that has no power against any state that can veto. This has excited half the idiot American population who prove how dumb the US is.

So, with 2018 looming, I cannot wait to see how low the US can go! Onething is for sure, America First is killing the US's influence as they time and again insist all states take America's barking orders.

11:50 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

Ayman al-Zawahiri saw what American turkey's missed.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/al-qaida-chief-brands-obama-a-house-negro-1026322.html
Note the date on the above article. Noam Chomsky and Pastor Manning had also warned us of the Long-Legged-Mac-Daddy.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/25/obama-post-presidential-life-trump
"a new $50 coffee table book, Obama: An Intimate Portrait, is selling so fast the publisher can’t keep up." I wanna meet one of the nimrods who buys this.

Body politics at its best. Saved by the black messiah!
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/17/92072/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/27/in-their-own-words-when-trump-and-obama-sounded-the-same/
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/obamas-economic-policies-destroyed-black-middle-class/

Trump is to whites imbeciles what Obama was to the blacks imbeciles. The end result is the same. Trump will also have his presidential library and his $50 coffee table book. And the imbeciles will remain with their head stuck firm into their rectums.

12:18 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Esca-

What we've got is a turkey-filled nation, in which the stuffing is in the turkeys' heads. Can you imagine a nation in which no one wanted a coffee table bk abt Obama--regarded such a thing as ridiculous--and instead copies of AWTY were flying off the shelves? I keep trying to visualize it, and failing.

Nesim-

From a declinist pt of view, having Nikki in a visible position of influence, as a representative of the US, is fabulous. Everyone in the rm except the Israelis know that she's a pathetic turkey, a lackey and agent of violence, and this reflects on the US as a whole. As we lose credibility on the world stage, the possibility of a foreign Suez Moment becomes increasingly likely. Hopefully, that will happen in 2018.

mb

12:54 AM  
Anonymous Henri said...

https://www.ft.com/content/733b59d8-e703-11e7-a685-5634466a6915

On how The Economist millennium edition included an obituary for God. And how things didn’t turn out that way

7:19 AM  
Anonymous Liv said...

Merry post Christmas to all of you, Wafers! I have just returned from NYC, visiting friends from Europe, who live in NYC for the past 15 years. And of course,I have shared the news with them about leaving US and moving to Costa Rica, early next year. To my surprise they were not happy or did not say 'Wow" but "WTF." Of course, they think we are making a big mistake of our lifetime to move from our "secure" jobs to the third world country with no long-term perspective(however, me and my hubby are nurses and we have a plan). Sure, they understood America is not the greatest and has its flaws but as many citizens of this country will tell you that "everywhere is even worse."
Even I expressed how fed up I am with the consumerism here, they answered, I will not escape it and it is everywhere. They even bet with us we will return back to the States within a year. After my observation I realized, I will never find someone who shares the same beliefs and if I continue living here, it will get even lonelier.
Thank you for this blog to keep my sanity.

9:04 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Liv-

The chances u.r. doing the rt thing are at least 95%. Keep in mind that yr friends probably have turkey meat in their heads. Costa Rica is lovely, and most of the people there are not stupid and aggressive. Get yr Spanish fluent, and you'll have a gd time. And stay in touch!

mb

9:33 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

I think we're in Suez light internationally. China is leading on climate change, Russia is the main power in the Syrian peace talks, the US has lost all credibility with the Palestinians, and Germany and France are leading NATO. Still, I think the big one will be the upcoming war between Israel and Hezbollah which many feel will be this spring. It should go on about 5-6 weeks which from what I've read Israel cannot endure (Israel is only good at killing defenseless populations). Israel will, no doubt, ask the US for assistance but Trump has so degraded the supply lines that aid will come sporadically if at all. Such hubris on Israel's part-thinking that dragging 7 year old Palestinians to prison makes them a military power.
God, Americans are dumb. As I may have said, I'm doing some stand-up comedy these days. So I wrote a bit called Things I Hate. I should it to a friend whose reaction was it was "very mean." Moron, the bit's called Things I Hate" so, of course, it's going to be mean. Oy.

9:40 AM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Krugman in today's NYT 'America is not yet lost'. https://nyti.ms/2ptrJiM
I admire Krugman and others like him Michael Moore, Hedges, Chomsky, etc. The reality is: it is lost. Americans keep electing and electing these folks. W., Ray-gun, Trump.
As the business insider article 'The USA is decadent and depraved' states the issue is not Trump. It is that most Americans want TO BE Donald Trump. Is also (correctly I think) points out that the American empire won't go down without a fight. It is going to get ugly.
I've been looking at cities to immigrate to. None of the cities in the top 20 are American. SF is the highest ranked at #29. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Germanan cities rank highly as do the Nordics. A quick read through the comments section reveals such gems as 'The richest European cities are poorer than the poorest US cities.', "If this is true, then why does everyone in the world want to immigrate here.' etc. These are your fellow Americans.
-BrotherMaynard

11:43 AM  
Blogger comrade simba said...

As a follow up to anjin's post l can't see how yo,mb, couldnt fail to be recognized in the future as the Great Seer you are. However, I think you should be able to enjoy something more than the idea of posthumous glory. I propose a go fund me campaign for a statue of you, crafted by some artist in Mexico you'd like to be commissioned.

Whadya think, Wafers? Can we get it done? At least a concrete mold maybe?

12:49 PM  
Blogger Grandma said...

Nothing says holiday turkey fest than Congress and the federal budget. They are unable to pass anything, and keep funding the government 2-3 weeks at a time. So many pork barrel requests, so many earmarks, so little time for Xmas shopping.

"“The fact of the matter is, it’s Christmas, and we don’t need to be shutting the government down. I mean, that’s a horrible optic,” said Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.), who said he was dismayed by the lack of long-term military funding but supported the stopgap."

Optic, previously known as a adjective, is now a noun. I guess it means "bad press" of the visual kind.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/after-passing-tax-overhaul-gop-returns-to-infighting-as-shutdown-deadline-looms/2017/12/21/dfad1890-e659-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html?utm_term=.42d169575e81

Want to suggest a new Wafer term: turporkear, which means "turkeys who need someone to piss on their shoes".

Lather, rinse, repeat in January, when they get back from their latest lengthy vacation.




2:11 PM  
Blogger Nesim Watani said...

MB-

Oh, I love this! I hope the US abandons the UN so it can lose its veto power on the Security council. Or better yet, just kill it. That would be the greatest gift to China the world would ever see. I would love to see a new organization that could subject the US to the sanctions they put on Iraq. Its not like these stupid people would be able to get around the sanctions. They are so dumb, they would starve to death while their elite used the Sanctions to plunder everything they could while telling these morons that they are "showing the world!".


On Facebook, hundreds of moronic turkeys are proud believing they are "SHOWING THE WORLD!". To be honest the Suez moment cannot come fast enough. I pray for that day. I just want to see American exceptionalism die and its people made into paupers.

2:25 PM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

This article is not technically WAF material because it is about China but I think it fits within the general spirit of the blog.

Despite massive increases in wealth Chinese people are probably less happy than they were in 1990.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-happiness-hasnt-increased-2017-12?IR=T

I am not looking forward to living in the Chinese century if China really is destined to be the next world hegemon. Modern China seems to share many of the negative aspects of American culture including an obsession with economic growth and technology, greed, materialism, consumerism, authoritarianism and national chauvinism.

2:48 PM  
Anonymous slakr said...

Sri Berman, GSWW

I just finished reading your book “Neurotic Beauty” and, as usual with your work, it is an original and fresh take on a subject that relates seamlessly to global themes.

There isn’t enough space in a short post to discuss all that I found illuminating in it, but I particularly liked the section on the Kyoto School. I first read Nishitani in 1986 and only started reading others of the KS in the last 5 years. I recently formed a grassroots Zen group in Texas (I know, Texas, right? wtf?) My main concern for a long time has been the lack of ethical engagement and the formation of social justice within Zen and other x-Buddhisms. -I read “Zen at War” after your suggestion.

Your book helps confirm some directions I was considering for using Zen in helping fellow Zen Buddhish types survive the long emergency. Such as the “luxury of austerity” and the craft tradition in Japan. I have personally practiced the austerity aesthetic since the early 1980’s. I have also been a material minimalist and bicycle commuter for decades.

My self-chosen part in dual process is in the creation of alternative culture. Hits both processes, right?

Thanks for Neurotic Beauty. It’s an enlightening resource.

2:52 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

Has political correctness reached its apex? Churchill Biopic Features Warning Against Second Hard Smoke.

American brainiacs on parade. What Did We Get Stuck In Our Rectums Last Year? All they had to do was open their eyes and take in the surroundings. My personal favorites:

“STUCK A TOY UP HIS RECTUM BECAUSE HE THOUGHT HE WAS CONSTIPATED”

“AT A PARTY HAVING FUN WITH HIS MALE FRIENDS WHEN ONE PUT A SHOT GLASS UP HIS RECTUM”

“ATTEMPTED TO DISLODGE A DILDO FROM HIS ANUS USING A LETTER OPENER”

“FEELING LONELY, USED A MASCARA CONTAINER IN PLASTIC BAG, PUT IN RECTUM”

“WAS DRINKING WITH FRIENDS AND ‘GOT TO EXPERIMENTING,’ AIR FRESHENER CONTAINER STUCK IN ANUS”

“WATER BOTTLE IN RECTUM, DOES THIS TO REDUCE ANXIETY”

“PATIENT SAID I HAVE A COIN IN MY ASS FROM A MONTH AGO”

3:36 PM  
Anonymous Anjin-san said...

As a child growing up one of our few family traditions of Christmas was to watch the Alastair Sims version of A Christmas Carol. I continued to watch it into adulthood.

But since I started down the road to Waferdom several years ago I have found it impossible to enjoy watching it. I could always watch the first hour where we learned about what made Scrooge Scrooge. But the second hour seemed ludicrous to me the older I got.

Just a few days ago I found a good article in the Guardian about this, and other Christmas movies, that clarified my thoughts.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/25/christmas-film-wizard-oz-die-hard?

MB I should have been clear in my last post that it was my New Year's wish that your books would become the best sellers that your publisher said that they were. What a great year 2018 would be if that wish became reality!

4:19 PM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

Here's a cheery story for the season. I moved away from this place 30 years ago to go to university, but it was here that I came up with my "snowbank theory" about Canadian behaviour, in that we help someone who is stuck in a snowbank because next time it could be us in trouble and we'll need someone's help. It's great to see that we made the news for being nice.

I suppose the drawback to any thought you might have about emigrating to this friendly part of the country is that the train broke down because the air was so cold ( I went to the store on my bike today, and had an unmentionable place become painfully cold by the time I got home). Furthermore, we have lousy passenger train service.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/via-rail-stranded-spy-hill-1.4464542

4:31 PM  
Anonymous Master of Waferism said...

Liv - There are some things you should be warned of before moving to Costa Rica. Latin Americans haven't figured out that humans are nothing more than computers so they don't think in terms of opportunity costs or economics, so their countries aren't designed to maximize human output. Also, Costa Ricans haven't figured out that identity politics is the way to go, there is no African- Costa Rican or LGBTQ political party. Also Costa Ricans didn't do a good job at cleaning up their environment, sometimes you'll see dirt or trees and worst of all, animals. Yes, there is even wild monkeys. The savage Costa Ricans didn't know how to destroy their environment and kill all the animals in order to more efficiently make money so I highly recommend you take your gun and shot any wild animal you see, also tare down any trees and put cement for cars instead, it will help Costa Ricans become more efficient and enable economic growth, which we all know it's all that matters in life. Also, you wouldn't be a good American if you don't teach Costa Ricans the value of a firearm, my recommendation, teach them, if anyone refuses or argues against you, shoot them.

4:34 PM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr B:

I wonder what Krugman is smoking-

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/25/opinion/america-is-not-yet-lost.html

5:15 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

This was a record year for Christmas Retail spending...Stocks are UP...Jobs are UP...Trump’s Tax Cut & Job Plan passed and Huge Benefits are on the way...America is Great Agian...and 2018 is going to be a Banner Year!....Pffft



https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-department-store-stocks-jump-holiday-spending-record-195126015--sector.html

9:30 PM  
Anonymous Marianne said...

Wafers

My daughter gave me this book for Christmas. Looks to be right up our alley. Fantasyland How America Went Haywire A 500-Year History by Kurt Andersen.

I checked out all the references hoping to see your name, Morris....to no avail.

Marianne

10:56 PM  
Anonymous COS said...

Le Chaim!

This can be a sort of Wafer touchstone. An oblique synthesis of MB's work. Quite good actually!

https://newint.org/columns/essays/2016/04/01/psycho-spiritual-crisis

Zie Gezunt Professor Berman!

11:05 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

I had the misfortune of overhearing a group of young people at a restaurant discussing Bitcoin. There were about 6-7 young libertarian tech types imagining how they might get rich speculating in crypto currency.

These were more intelligent people than your average Joe, but they nonetheless still approached life like children. Even smart Americans believe in the metaphysical reality of economic constructs. If you become a millionaire through Bitcoin, I guess you could lie to yourself and imagine you have some kind of secure economic future, or you could realize that the *very fact" that this kind of speculation is successful proves that you live in a hollowed-out, hyperfinancialized economy completely detached from material reality. You are 'profiting' on the distortion and dysfunction of the financial systems necessary to sustain your standard of living. This is the kind of behavior your would expect in the USSR of the early 90s.

Calling this out and fixing financial utilities is never in the cards for smarter Americans. Instead you are supposed to hack the system back just like it hacked you. Yet both the establishment and bitcoiner rogues will meet the same fate when the day comes where all prices are basically meaningless.

1:29 AM  
Blogger Polk said...

Check out Jim Hightower's latest edition of "The Lowdown" for an article on how America's largest corporations hustle cities, counties and states for tax credits and free land to build their newest sports stadiums, mega-stores, and warehouses. The article focuses on Amazon's attempt to convinve potential venues of its new mega-warehouse to give away the farm for the honor of hosting the monstrosity in what Hightower calls the old corporate-politco con game of "Milk the Taxpayer". The game by which corporations promise millions of jobs to lure cities
and states into competing to see which can award the biggest breaks on taxes that are used for public services (schools, fire districts, infrastructure). Politicos are only too happy to comply, as the "winning" of such private structures built partly with public funds makes them look like job-creators, at least, until the truth emerges.

7:50 AM  
Blogger Cj said...

Hi Professor,hope you have a great new year. Although I rarely comment here I still follow your blog and buy your books.

I'm considering relocating to Baja Calif in 2019. Want to visit the area first and allow the house I bought to appreciate a little more. Looking at San Felipe, the real estate prices are incredible.

Meanwhile found an article via a link at nakedcapitalism dot com-a blog I hardily recommnend-you may enjoy.

https://ghionjournal.com/libtards-and-rethugs/

Happy New Years everybody!

Chuck

9:25 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dio-

I'm thinking of starting my own virtual currency. It will be called BitRump.

Birn-

Paul Krugman is a douche bag, the NYT's version of avant-garde.

Anjin-

It will happen at the same time that pigs fly. :-)

Bill-

All of this is surprising, because inasmuch as Americans have their heads rammed up their asses, I don't understand how there cd be rm for anything else. But hey, we are a creative people!

slakr-

Many thanks; I'm glad you enjoyed the bk. In some ways, I think it may be my best.

Tom-

A few yrs ago I wrote a Preface to the Mandarin edn of WAF, which is archived on this blog. You might find it interesting.

Nesim-

Actually, a large % of them already are.

mb

2:59 PM  
Anonymous Crawford said...

https://amp.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/dec/27/worlds-richest-500-see-increased-their-wealth-by-1tn-this-year

How sweet

3:40 PM  
Anonymous Pastrami and Coleslaw said...

al'Q: A quick bike tip from Minnesota, use thin plastic bags (like shopping bags) to wrap your feet and unmentionables (inside your clothes) when it's this cold out! Snowboard helmets are insulated and work nice too.

An interesting piece, it has been a while since I read Nausea: https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/26/in-an-age-of-hollow-men-and-existential-angst-re-read-sartre/

3:41 PM  
Anonymous Don Midwest USA said...

Getting ready for protests with new levels of gear

A moving wall to push people back and behind the wall are water cannons on trucks that can add chemicals and launch tear gas grenades

And behind that a command center

Surprised that this was in the NYT. A video story.


"The Anti-Protest Gear That Despots Love"

https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asia/100000005573465/anti-protest-gear-china-venezuela.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur


3:49 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

Nesim--indeed, the wingnuts who bash the UN are too darn stoopid to realize that American dominance of that largely toothless organization is on a dollar-for-dollar basis one of the cheapest tools in our imperialist toolbox.

As a recent poll shows yet again, George Carlin was right in that American turkeys get exactly the "leaders" they so richly deserve: Obama & Hillary "Most Admired" Man & Woman For 10th Year In A Row. Others who made the list include other boils on humanity's ass such as Trump, McCain, Netanyaho, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Angela Merkel, Condoleeza Rice, Nikki Haley and Kate Middleton.

Meanwhile, the latest edition of Turkeys on Parade:

Los Angeles is opening a selfie museum. Admission at true bargain at only $25! A great quote from the story: “Now people don’t want to just be a silent consumer, they want to be a part of the art. There are many more selfies with the Mona Lisa than actual Mona Lisas.”

Face of America mugshot: Lindy Lou Layman facing felony charges for causing more than $300,000 in damages to artwork at the home of a prominent Houston attorney who hosted President Trump when he was a presidential candidate.

7:03 PM  
Blogger Grandma said...

Wafers,

Nesim: American exceptionalism does still exist, but it's people are already paupers, by any measure.

I have to argue with the link on Christmas films with its poorly written attack on The Wizard of Oz film. While I have geriatric friends who still have nightmares of flying monkeys, I always liked the film.

My major points are that (in the film) Dorothy rejects the glitz and glam of Emerald City to return to her family in a greyscale, depression era Kansas farm, a rejection of capitalism? She also rejects the smoke and mirrors of the Wizard, who is pretending to be something other than what he is, a 2-bit hustler.

Other positives about the film relate to the Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman, all of whom realize they already have what they have longed for. The Tin Woodman obviously cares deeply for everyone in the party (he wants a heart), the Scarecrow solves each problem they encounter (he thinks he needs a brain), and the Cowardly Lon is brave when it really matters (he wants courage). In other words, they wished for things they demonstrated that they already possessed.

All positives, including the indirect death of the Wicked Witch at the beginning of the film, freeing her enslaved people. How, I would ask the article's author, is this an argument for capitalism? The film was released at the height of the depression, and the golden years (and a world war) were about to commence, a period as close to a social democracy as we will ever see.

7:05 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

More american exceptionalism into the last days of 2017.


http://abc7chicago.com/baby-bent-in-half-by-father-to-silence-crying-dies/2830573/

Look at his face (very american); given this person's intellect, curious as to why such physical-time consuming means were used (biting, bending, breaking, etc...).

Why not do the american thing and whip out a gun to stop that baby from crying?





9:16 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

Though Wafers by now require no further proof of the diminished capacity of their fellow citizens—I’m speaking of Americans here—this Gallup poll may still offer some amusement. The poll allowed respondents to name anyone in the world as their most admired, male and female.

For the 16th consecutive year Hilary Clinton emerges as the most admired woman, even though only 9 percent of the respondents named her. Barack Obama was identified as the most admired man; Donald Trump came second. Of the 71 times the “most admired man” question has been asked since 1946, 58 times the response has been the incumbent president.

A quarter of Americans cannot name a man or a woman they admire most. Some named a friend or relative. Considering the list of the admired appearing here, male and female, perhaps the friend or relative choice might be much more defensible.

http://news.gallup.com/poll/224672/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-retain-admired-titles.aspx

10:07 AM  
Blogger Polk said...

Latino professor looses faith in American Dream and moves to Canada.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/why-i-left-donald-trumps-america?akid=16549.2690605.0n60t-&rd=1&src=newsletter1086946&t=32

11:19 AM  
Anonymous Dill Pickle said...

Well there is already a backlash agaist Star Wars VIII, for various reasons, not the least of which is that Disney-Lucasfilm keeps crapping on the Star Wars fan base by diminishing the lead characters from the original trilogy, making George Lucas' sextet of movies utterly pointless, loading its own movies up with left-liberal political correctness, and now ignoring all the questions begged about all the loose ends left in S.W. VII.

But according to one critic, the main theme about this movie is about knowing what's right and doing that even though everything else in the universe is stacked against you. Another point the critic makes is how the worst people in the universe aren't even the cartoon villains of the movie, but the rich profiteers who are happy to go along with whoever's in power so long as they keep raking in the dough. These are points which are utterly lost to the overwhelming mass of Americans; they go right over their heads.

And now to carry the critic's first point to a real war's aftermath: the Smithsonian's Jan-Feb 2018 issue has an article (not online) on how the survivors of the My Lai massacre are waiting for Lt. Calley to at least show up and apologise to them so they can publicly forgive him for the monstrous evil that he unleashed upon their fellow villagers (I was 8 years old at the time).

1:31 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them." -Mark Twain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V62Me5LLxwM

1:40 PM  
Anonymous Sloan said...

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/27/business/the-robots-are-coming-and-sweden-is-fine.html

The Nordic model strikes again

2:39 PM  
Anonymous M. Rozsa said...

Poetic NYT piece on Mr James,, the great thinker.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/books/william-james-varieties-of-religious-experience.html

2:40 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anon-

Sorry, I don't post Anons. You need a real handle. Try Cranston Butterworth III, DDS.

Dill-

There were many My Lais; it's just that that particular one became visible/notorious. Check this out:

https://www.amazon.com/Kill-Anything-That-Moves-American/dp/1250045061/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1514494903&sr=1-1&keywords=kill+anything+that+moves+by+nick+turse

mb

4:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

This is neat:

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/27/politics/israel-trump-train-station-rail-name-naming/index.html

I'm waiting for Israel to change the name of the entire country. WTF.

4:20 PM  
Anonymous Zarathustra said...

The U.S. Is Becoming the World’s New Tax Haven... Trumpo is clever when it really matters?

Grandma, I agree with you. I know (from reading Dr Berman among other things) that the US was founded as a hustler's paradise, but watching the movies made around that time (Film Noir, etc.) I get the impression that the US had at least half a soul then. Watching the super hero franchises of today I just feel like vomiting.

7:21 PM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B-

No wonder the US, with 5% of the world's population, has 25% of its prisoners-

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/28/private-prisons-investors-trump-tax-bill

"Prison firms that restructured as real estate investment trusts see substantial tax cut – more good news for those who benefit from increased incarceration"

8:50 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

Mike R--I couldn't help wondering from the location of that unspeakable atrocity and the perpetrator's last name that whether he was a 2nd or 3rd generation Mexican immigrant. If so, it would be pretty definitive proof that Americanism is a mental disorder that affects all those who pursue it no matter their original nationality or race.

MB--I know several American Jews--who consider themselves good liberals to a person--who will not tolerate any criticism of Israel whatsoever. After all, it was "Resistance" leader Chuck Schumer who back in October criticized Trump for not moving fast enough on moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, idiot American foodies on parade:

Raleigh man threw hot grits on woman. "According to an arrest warrant, Spears tossed the hot grits on the woman's face Tuesday as she was lying in bed."

Florida man upset over missing cookie attacks girlfriend. "Richard Anthony Hessic told police he was upset when he discovered someone ate the last chocolate chip cookie and that his girlfriend was not taking him seriously."

9:38 PM  
Anonymous Mo said...

Interesting how quite the # of chess players, women players in particular, have more guts and moral clarity than world leaders
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/world-chess-champions-anna-muzychuk-saudi-arabia-rapid-blitz-inequality-a8128751.html

9:55 PM  
Anonymous Master of Waferism said...

comrade - I agree with you, I believe Dr Berman could go viral but he'd have to make more youtube videos, American turkeys won't find him through reading. I was thinking of going through Jordan Peterson's youtube videos and subreddit and directing his followers to Dr Berman, since he discusses some similar topics, except in a non-turkey way. In a sane world Dr Berman would be famous not pseudo-intellectuals like Peterson. Too bad this isn't a sane world but oh well, a man can dream.

12:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just stumbled upon this great NMI story of a librarian in the Chilean desert. Much recommended!

http://pascalesury.com/journal/2017/11/1/la-librairie-du-dsert-une-oasis-culturelle-au-milieu-du-dsert-datacama-the-bookshop-in-the-desert-a-cultural-oasis-in-the-heart-of-the-atacama-desert

Kanye

4:56 AM  
Blogger Grandma said...

Hi Dr. B,

I'm halfway through AWTY, and loving it.

You mention Jimmy Carter a great deal, so far. Other than remembering his failed bid for reelection, and the disaster that followed, I remember little about him. Can you do an essay on why or how he was such an outlier?

I am very curious.

Prospero año y felicidad

10:45 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

al-

Cdn't post it (too long).

Gran-

Jimmy is discussed at greater length in both DAA and WAF. Meanwhile, am glad u.r. enjoying AWTY.

Mo-

Check out a great film called "Queen to Play" (Joueuse, original French title). Solid feminism, imo.

Bill-

Re: Raleigh: Exactly hominy grits were there?

mb

2:12 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

MB-

Re: Israeli Trump rail station name

Would Trumbenik Station work at all?

Tiny clams dept.:

Nelson Agosto, 51, arrested after calling 911 to complain about the size of clams he was eating:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nelson-agosto-tiny-clams-911_us_5a43ed5be4b025f99e195927

This American Life dept.:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/i-hope-i-can-quit-working-in-a-few-years-a-preview-of-the-us-without-pensions/2017/12/22/5cc9fdf6-cf09-11e7-81bc-c55a220c8cbe_story.html?utm_term=.2c89ec70791c

Toodles,

Miles

2:15 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Am very excited abt Nelson Agosto. Is he related to Lorenzo Riggins, by any chance? I keep wondering how many Americans have shit for brains.

mb

2:29 PM  
Blogger k_pgh said...

Progressive “Justice Democrat” Kyle Kulinski takes half of a half of a half of a half step towards the Wafer perspective; has mind blown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV-g_IX0xWE

So, clearly the “problem” with the Dr. Berman’s America trilogy is that it wasn’t presented as a series of tweets, and maybe didn’t come with an identity politics frame.

At least it’s nice to see one commenter arguing against Kyle’s meritocracy.

Now, if you’re seeking a better analysis than Kyle’s, I’d like second polecat’s recommendation of The Baffler. There are a number of good articles in the previous issue (No. 36, “A Crack in Everything”) as well. If you can’t get the magazine at your newsstand, the articles Utopia Parkway and The Art of the Heel are available online and are worth a read.

3:55 PM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

A Jerusalem city council member proposed changing the name of Salah ad-Din Street -- a largely Palestinian street that leads into the Old City's Muslim Quarter -- to Donald Trump Street.

Despite their efforts to erase history, the Israelis cannot undo the past, and history occasionally repeats itself. Hattin is real.

By the way, would someone be kind enough to post instructions on how to embed URLs again?

4:03 PM  
Blogger Himanshu said...

Sri Berman,

Good interview of Norwegian historian Johan Galtung:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8npPSB90ZU

He basically says that Trumpi is what history(or doctor) ordered for the US and that the US Empire will collapse by 2020.

Wafers will enjoy Galtung's comments.

Himanshu

4:41 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

WAFER Bill Hicks--agree with your statement re: americanism being a mental disorder regardless of nationality/country of origin. Per aquiantances in the area, he is 2nd generation Mexican.

This is my personal opinion-- believe that the vast majority of americans have a mental derangement/disorder.

Thkg an extreme case e.g., My Lai massacre 1968, etc..etc......you look into american's eyes and there's NOTHING there except robotic happy talk mantras, talking points us "news" drivel, and hyper-ventilating about the next fantasy movie coming out.

american's appear to own a certain hyper-aggressiveness, a vitriolic anger/rage from their immense sadness. This results in their acute inability to handle life circumstances which results in them unleashing a torrent of fury that signifies nothing b/c they're intellectually and ontologically dead.

8:53 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

"On the BBC’s Today program, John Humphrys bellowed: “Are you a sexual predator?” Assange replied that the suggestion was ridiculous, to which Humphrys demanded to know how many women he had slept with."

‘You mean including your mother?’
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-international-persecution-of-julian-assange/

“Can’t we just drone this guy?” proposed the Botox Queen as an expedient solution for Assange.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/dec/28/vanity-fair-under-fire-for-urging-hillary-clinton-to-quit-politics-and-knit-instead
She's like a stubborn chewing gum smeared on a sidewalk. The folks at Vanity should have suggested the same drone on her.

10:02 PM  
Blogger Alogon said...

The Dec. 25 issue of _Time_ featured an amusing little box on p.10 about four airline flights which had to land early. One "diverted hundreds of miles" to Billings, Mont. because the lavatories stopped working. The other three:

A flight to Switzerland landed in Germany because a woman passenger "became aggressive when she was denied champagne." Clearly she was in the right mood over the prospect of leaving the U.S., just a little overexcited.

A Quatar Airways flight to Bali stopped in India when a woman became belligerent after discovering evidence on her husband's cell phone that he was having an affair.

A flight from Los Angeles to New York landed in Kansas City when a female passenger refused to stop singing Dolly Parton's song "I will always love you."

Feminism progresses. Women can now do anything that used to be reserved to men.

1:37 AM  
Anonymous Aaron Thomas said...

MB, have you commented on how rude Americans are? I’m at the movies and a parent will knowingly let their kid talk and kick my seat during a movie. Roommates come home late and make a ton of noise while I’m sleeping. Coworkers will eat and make lots of distracting noises in a quiet office environment.

I just get this sense that people in public feel every space is like their private bedroom, where they don’t think about the sounds, smells, and noise that people around them may not want. I can’t be the only one that notices this. I’ve stopped trying to tell people how I feel, usually rude people will just get angry and extremely defensive, so the best thing is just to avoid the general public or tolerate rude behavior.

3:15 AM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Tyler...performing such an American act...


http://nbcnews.to/2BURDh5

5:27 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

At the intersection of on-line gaming, antisocial behavior, and police shootings, this:
A Wichita, Kansas man is dead after police shot him Thursday (28 December) when he came to his door. Apparently two gamers playing Call of Duty got into a virtual tiff, a bet was made, and one of them “SWATted” the address of one Andrew Finch. The call to police had reported that a father had been shot, and a family member was holding the remaining members hostage in a house in the 1000 block of McCormick in Wichita. The police are now investigating, a bit too late for Mr. Finch unfortunately.
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article192111974.html

And in a followup, this item from the abcnews website, reporting that a South Los Angeles man has been arrested in connection with the Finch SWATting/shooting in Wichita. This report adds the Wichita police statement that Finch had complied with instructions to raise his hands when he appeared in the doorway, but had then lowered them, obliging one police officer to open fire.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=swatting

Swatting is the act of deceiving an emergency service into sending a police and 9-1-1 emergency service response team to another person's address, based on the false reporting of a serious law enforcement emergency, such as a bomb threat, murder, hostage-taking or other alleged incident.

7:31 AM  
Blogger Sarasvati said...

Cj: I loved the article Libtards and Rethugs. Even though I’ve pointed this fact out to almost everyone I know they just don’t want to get it.

For quite some time now I’ve been struggling with how culpable people are for their ignorance: I was unaware of nescience (nescient about nescience?). I was just listening to an interesting lecture by Mark Passio on natural law where he was explaining the difference between nescience and ignorance, two contexts for not knowing something (Dictionaries make the two words synonymous – you actually have to look up nescience vs. ignorance to find out the difference.):

Nescience means to not understand something because the specific information is completely absent and unobtainable. Nescience is not someone’s fault because the information is not there. OTOH, ignorance means that you don’t know even though the necessary information is right there, but you have willfully ignored or disregarded it. Therefore ignorance carries blame and also has responsibility attached to it. Mark feels that the word ignorance should actually be pronounced “ignore – ance.” He asks if we have a nescient society or an ignorant society, and his answer is that as a society we are absolutely ensconced in ignore – ance.

8:47 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Aaron-

Many times. Americans are basically vulgar shitheads. Check out a film called "God Bless America."

Erich Fromm wrote in 1973:

1. What we see in modern society is "the stifling of [man's] focal interest in people, nature, and living structures, together with the increasing attraction of mechanical, nonalive artifacts."

2. "taking pictures has become a substitute for seeing."

3. On modern forms of necrophilia: "The phenomena abt which there is so much indignation--drug addiction, crime, the cultural and spiritual decay, contempt for genuine ethical values--are all related to the growing attraction to death...How can one expect that the young, the poor, and those without hope wd not be attracted to decay when it is promoted by those who direct the course of modern society? We must conclude that the lifeless world of total technicalization is only another form of the world of death and decay."

4. Fromm quotes Spinoza: "if the greedy person thinks only of money and possessions, the ambitious one only of fame, one does not think of them as being insane, but only as annoying; generally, one has contempt for them." Fromm comments: "The change from the 17th C to our time becomes apparent in the fact that an attitude which Spinoza says one 'generally has contempt for' is considered today not contemptuous but laudable."

mb

1:24 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

@Aaron

Everytime I have been in a foreign country, I immediately notice the greater sense of boundaries in the population. There is a time and a place for everything, and everybody understands this without it having to be made explicit.

Political discussions are a good example of this. When I taught in the US, I would get questions about who I was planning to vote for in the middle of a high school class. Zero sense of interiority and personal deliberation. By contrast, I have had extended personal relationships with Germans and Canadians, and they only discuss politics with great reticence and caution even among friends.

It seems to me that the American brand of free speech is inevitably tied with vulgarization. You can say anything you want anywhere you want, but it means as much as basketball scores. As a cultural ethos, free speech may sadly refer to the value of speech and not its liberty.

In any case, it seems like most interesting American intellectuals had close ties with the old European world.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Oncken_Lovejoy

Just got the Great Chain of Being. It seems to be an admirable attempt to uphold a Platonic metaphysics just as the new American philosophy of Pragmatism was emerging.

2:22 PM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

The opioid crisis is getting worse, particularly for black Americans.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/22/upshot/opioid-deaths-are-spreading-rapidly-into-black-america.html

7:36 PM  
Anonymous Zombies said...

My inexplicable micro-aggression experience today - crossing the street.

Traffic turning left had to wait for pedestrians as the walk sign signaled white.
I hold my hand up sometimes with arm down to signal please don't run me over or be
patient. Middle-aged Jewish accented woman took offense to that gesture apparently,
hung out of her passenger window to yell at me - "Do you know how arrogant that is!"

I crossed paths with this botox lipped beauty walking with her family later felt like telling her the worst a person can be in life is tasteless, but why bother, why get entangled with a piece of work. I've noticed Americans like yelling from their cars as they safely speed away, no harm no foul?

7:57 PM  
Anonymous Vince I said...

Aaron,

You are definitely not alone my friend. I'll give you some examples on how our "fellow" 'mericans unfortunately disturb the commons.

1. Barking dogs at any and all hours of the day and night.
2. Dogs in public places like restaurants, grocery stores, and coffee shops.
3. Horns that go off every time someone locks their doors on their car.
4. Talking on their blue-tooth phones in public.
5. Pouring their drinks outside of their cars into public walkways.
6. Obscenely bright headlights that blind oncoming drivers.
7. Leaf blowers that drone on for longer than it takes to rake.
8. People who show up in public wreaking of poor hygiene.
9. Car stereos that thump so loud that your car and house windows shake.

I could go on and on. These are just some of the reasons that I remain alone most of the time. It is a shame really. I just got back from Florida. Everyone that I encountered face to face responded with please, thank you, yes sir, no sir, you are welcome. Up here in Michigan I come back to blank stares, unanswered salutations, etc., with some exceptions.

Peace where you can find it.
Vince I

10:05 PM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Just back from a few days in NYC to see some Broadway shows.The Parisian Woman with Uma Thurman is definitely worth seeing, by the way as is the remake of Miss Saigon. Anyway, to call people Sheeple is an insult to sheep. Though it was bitterly cold I could not believe the lines forming outside to experience, for example, the wax museum, something to eat at Shake Shack, or a place famous for cheese cake with their little children no less (13 degrees mid-day).Of course, it goes without saying that NYC is the epicenter of techno-douchebaggery. One thing I do notice is how few men and women couples there are. It's either guy groups or women groups. I think the sexes are tired of each other. Perhaps women still have an interest but guys are either too broke to maintain a girlfriend and/or too turned off by women's addiction to tech during a date. Finally, I hadn't been in NYC since the Wafer summit and there are hardly any new shows on the Great White Way. What is coming are musicals based on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and,of course, Frozen. Nothing bold or innovative, in other words-pure crap for the ignorant and artistically deadened tourist. One bright spot was a comedy club I attended where comics are all about breaking taboos. I began to see why Philadelphia is forever second rate. Here comics have to be entertaining. At least in NYC they make you think.

9:23 AM  
Blogger jjarden said...

The father was unaware that she had wandered off.....out of the house and into the sub-zero streets...in a diaper!!

Americans at their BEST!


https://www.yahoo.com/news/workers-child-wearing-only-diaper-wandering-cold-172614834.html

1:03 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Regarding the rudeness of Americans: I've found that it's largely unconscious. Americans are rude as a matter of course, simply because everyone around them is. Hence, 'rude' loses its meaning. Mexicans (and Japanese, and most other cultures) don't live in this vulgar ethos, so when you see gringos in action down here, it's really offensive. And yet, not offensive to them (the gringos). It's like pass the salt. An entire society based on douchebaggery.

mb

1:11 PM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

Here are links to a few more articles tangentially related to the naming of a Jerusalem train station after Donzo Trump:

Why is the West praising Malala, but ignoring Ahed?
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/west-praising-malala-ignoring-ahed-171227194606359.html

A Palestinian activist who lost his legs in an air strike has been shot dead by Israeli troops as he protested against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/ibrahim-abu-thuraya-dead-shot-killed-israel-jerusalem-protest-disabled-no-legs-wheelchair-a8114766.html

No, Rachael Ray, hummus is not Israeli: How and why Palestinian culture gets erased
"... in appropriating Palestinian cultural products and icons, Israel is able to give its artificial history a veneer of historicity, and, in doing so, gives political cover to Israel’s attempts to justify its manufactured existence."
http://mondoweiss.net/2017/12/israeli-palestinian-culture/

2:11 PM  
Anonymous Quiet Desperation said...

Vince I,
I am the only guy on my street that doesn't own a leaf blower(and probably a cell phone). Overly bright LED porch and driveway lights, monster diesel pickups blowing out black stench and douchebag vapers emitting huge clouds of smoke are respectfully added to your list.I spend 99% of my time alone and like it that way. Interesting article on "Seeing Wetiko", it's all about us: http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/seeing-wetiko-on-capitalism-mind-viruses-and-antidotes-for-a-world-in-transition/

2:29 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Another 'thumbs up' for The Baffler...may I suggest No.14 (April 2001) 'The God that Sucked' as a good example of pre-Wafer thought. the god is materialistic capitalism....interestingly, Thomas Frank of 'What's the matter with Kansas' was one of the founders when he was getting his phd at Chicago. His phd thesis is interesting: 'the conquest of cool' documents how corporate America co-opted and commercialized the counterculture of the '60's: even the American 'counterculture' is all about hustlin'

As for 2018, my only meaningful resolution is what country to move to...the obvious choice is Canada but I worry it is too close to the USA- when the collapse comes (and it really is only a matter of time) we might take them down with us...

Anyway my fellow Wafrers: Happy New Year!

-BrotherMaynard

3:14 PM  
Anonymous Marianne said...

Wafers,

This discussion on rudeness in America is so right on to my experiences. Vince, the list you provided here is just a few examples out of so many more. And your sample of high school kids asking who you're voting for also brought me back to years and years ago where most people never thought of talking about politics let alone asking that noting questions.

After reading your post Morris where you say this behavior is largely unconscious it hit me in a visceral way. You're so right most people haven't a clue and perform this way as it comes out of the very air they breathe.

A jaunt through history as we enter another year.

Happy New Year Waters!

3:55 PM  
Anonymous David G. said...

It's been a while since I have posted, but I am still following the blog! A few observations from the field here in the Pacific Northwest:

- Spent a lovely extended weekend in Vancouver BC with my son (now a Canadian permanent resident!) and girlfriend just before Christmas. Walking around downtown, my casual observation is that there are far fewer cell phone zombies there than I see everyday here in downtown Portland.

- Went to a Thai restaurant for dinner last evening. Four twenty-somethings (3 girls, 1 guy) sat next to us. After about one minute, girl #1 pulls out smartphone and starts playing with it, ignoring the others. Next, girl #2 pulls out smartphone and uses it to show stupid photos to girl #3. Meanwhile, guy pulls out smartphone and starts playing with it, ignoring the others. Makes me wonder why they got together for dinner. Yes, these are the future leaders of America!

- Newspaper article summarizing results of a survey of Oregon schoolchildren: "More kids struggling with mental issues, coping". Main reason cited: smartphones and social media. Also mentioned were terrorism and poor economic outlook. A bright future indeed for Oregon. http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2017/12/oregon_teens_struggle_with_men.html

- More rude behavior (selection of most recent experiences):
Screaming child in public library
People ambling down sidewalk taking up whole width, oblivious to others trying to pass by
On bus, people using smartphone to play music through speakers rather than using headphones

Well, kids, that's the news from Portland. Pretty bleak, but I gotta carry on here ... at least until son can sponsor us to move to Canada ...
David G.

5:11 PM  
Blogger Grandma said...

Aaron, Diogenes, and All Wafers,

To my mind, a lack of boundaries is clear evidence of dysfunction (of mind, of nation, of people).

Dr. B, loved AWTY?, would have loved an index of some kind. That's just me. Finally (finally!) get dual process ... again, just me.

Spent these holidays more depressed than usual. I'm finishing on an upbeat note due to extra time for reading. Also read Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger, which paired nicely with AWTY. Tribe is a bit uneven, with abrupt breaks in thought that I struggled with (might be just me) but came away with appreciation for the message. I had no idea so many Euro Americans ran away to join American Indian tribes, but it makes perfect sense. There's much more, however, to the book. My son fought in the Iraq war, so there was much to learn and understand about that time period when he came home. We got through it together, but this book would have helped back then.

So that's the message I end with: embrace the suck, times they are a'changing, and the best we can do is to know ourselves as best we can. There is some hope in change if we do.

Happy New Year!

6:36 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

Happy New Year, Wafers! I spent the last few days with the in-laws, who are not Wafers but are not bad people overall. A couple of them are even starting to "get" how the wool is being pulled over their eyes by both parties and the media. At least it gave me a chance to engage in few conversations without constantly biting my tongue.

Anyway, here is an excellent year ending essay: The Year of the Smushed Dead Rat

"So you turn to the internet to create pretend friends, who tell you how smart, beautiful, fierce and wonderful you are. And you tell them the same in return. After all, how else can one maintain the farce if it’s not mutual. They rub your tummy. You rub theirs. It still doesn’t feel good, but it’s the best you’ve got, since no one else will tell you the words you need so desperately to hear."

(snip)

"You spent the last year gushing your outrage. Trump is still president. Cops still shoot too soon. The Last Jedi sucked, and no matter how many people on twitter think you’re awesome, you still sit alone in your room without anyone who gives a damn about you."

8:54 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Scored free tickets to Star Wars for Xmas so like any good American I went all in *IMAX 3D*. Bring ear plugs for the endless previews...damn we so dense they gotta light us up with 3D sound too? Had to see how they worked Luke back into the story, wasted as far as I can tell - brooding, defeated Luke bumming it all alone on Jedi Mountain. Not to go all identity but I dig Daisy Ridley - nice to see a heroine in such a prominent 'franchise' - and esp Adam Driver, Marine cum Julliard actor, I liked his movie Patterson, noticed it made like 2 mil in US..
The truth is like poetry, and everyone hates fucking poetry.

Farewell, Adieu, 2017...I was 12 when u turned 200 America, ya'll thought I was sleepin' in class didn't ya. If the 'Resistance' ever did call let it b said 'the 70's are in the house!' Say what? You want my opinion? Ok then, lets begin, that really dark evil empire, the First Order, the one you hate? That's YOU! If we can bridge this divide, maybe they'd be hope...
Welcome Nemesis 2018

11:17 PM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B-

Here's an article about "Middle Class Homelessness."

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-safe-parking-20171224-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter

"Living in a vehicle is obviously better than living in a tent or a box."

12:10 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Happy New Year everyone! Last night I was at Mar-a-Lago w/Trumpi, Mnuchin, Louise Linton, others.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/01/donald-trump-new-years-eve-party-mar-a-lago

Incidentally, after I slow danced w/Louise to a great Cole Porter tune, I approached Trumpi's table and asked the president if he would consider MB to head the Ministry of Total Destruction (MTD) in 2018. Trumpi said he would seriously consider it. As a parting gesture, I gave Trumpi a Nazi salute and indicated that MB is just the guy we need to give Kim Jong-un a decent haircut.

Miles

12:11 PM  
Blogger Rosegarden said...

I feel compelled to tell you about a rare occurrence yesterday. John came to fix my washing machine. After the new pump was installed, he was sitting at my kitchen table writing up the bill. It turns out he practices yoga and loves to do black and white photography because of the thrill and joy of seeing the image appear in the darkroom. He looks for beauty in a sunset. He thinks the way we raise children in the USA is bad for them. He is quite content with his son's recent C in chemistry class since he began with a failing grade and is doing his best.

While waiting for John to arrive, I was reading “The Gardener and the Carpenter” by Alison Gopnik, c 2016. Her research demonstrates that children should grow up with stories, singing and dancing and drawing, getting dirty in the garden, and making a million messy mistakes while asking, “Why, why, why?” John said in a few sentences what Gopnik said in 250 pages and with a Ph.D. from Oxford in psychology and philosophy. But in one day, they both supported my experiences about raising children.

I shook his hand three times. I hated to let him go.

5:23 PM  
Blogger Nesim Watani said...

Happy New Year!

So, lets begin with America's favorite past time, shooting one another!

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/01/teenager-murders-his-family-members-on-new-years-eve-officials-say.html


This poor family's death is greeted by comments such as this, "thanks to 8 years of barrie oblamer trying to turn America into a homosexual liberal bath house.". No sense of decency in these people. Just complete and total garbage from these brain dead vulgarians. Becoming Paupers is still too kind to these people. I really hope America has a civil war that makes Yemen look like a storm in a tea cup.

5:38 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

HUGE HEADLINE NEWS!!!

America Ferrera is PREGNANT!!!


https://usat.ly/2lE0gp5

5:48 PM  
Blogger Himanshu said...

Sri Berman,

I just finished reading the book "Voices in the Stones: Life Lessons from the Native Way" by Kent Nerburn. It is filled with many wonderful and poignant thoughts. I would like to share some of them over the next week or so in small installments. So here goes:

"From the beginning, we who came from other lands were ambivalent about the people we encountered when we set foot upon these shores.On one hand, we saw them as the innocents - the pure unsullied children of nature, untainted by the very wiles and snares of the civilization that we sought to escape when we left the confines of our European existence...On the other, they were the dark force, the shining eyes at night in the forest, the primitive and threatening unknown bound by no rules of civil behavior - almost more animal than human.In them we saw the best and the worst of the human character - the savage and the innocent - and they rested uncomfortably in our national psyche. They were the embodiment of our greatest dreams and our greatest fears. As we made our way through history,...we annihilated these people...but we could not erase their presence from our hearts. And so we hid them, buried them deep in our cultural psyche.... They became the shadow of our cultural guilt....and it remains today. We have merely changed the language we use and the way we understand them. The child of nature became the earth mother and wisdom-bearing elder. The uncivilized savage became the drunk and layabout."

Himanshu

7:22 PM  
Anonymous Master of Waferism said...

Happy New Years Wafers!

This is an interesting article for those who still don't believe that Breitbart is controlled by Israel, notice they don't criticize Israel although they are obviously wrong

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2018/01/01/pop-singer-lorde-slammed-bigot-full-page-washington-post-ad-canceling-shows-israel/

Something that helps me stay sane with all of the competing interests and mixed signals is to keep in mind that EVERYONE is a hustler. Ofc, like Dr Berman has said before, there is no secret conspiracy, everything is out in the open, I would say smth like game theory is a more accurate description of the political system and the media. Even Michael Hudson who I used to have respect for wrote a book about how "Jesus died for our debts not our sins," and I believe he copied Douglas Dowd, he's just trying to sell books, people who are genuinely good, are rare. I would say even sites like Zerohedge are controlled by someone, probably the CIA. Looking down at the comments of such sites, you always see the same type of people. If the male brain is rational, then it's not too hard to see the set of "axioms" that American men live by and manipulate them. Hence, why I believe that within 20 years we will all have profiles made up of our social media accounts and whatever other data corporations/governments can get from us and then they will use some type of math to predict the future.

8:30 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Morris I have been following your blog for over 3 years and watched all your videos posted 2 times. I guess I was that little young Mexican man dreaming of the USA as if it was like the movie American Pie-green yards, beautiful houses, hot women, cars, all the good stuff that made Mexico suck. Oh what a reality oh boy it's bad, I work as a nurse and see the worst. well see how 2018 goes but I'll start it with neurotic beauty. You know I am educated here (of course or coursed should I say with a massive student loan debt-At least I got a job ) and still cannot make it. thinking of going back to the simple life-I tried the blondes with blue eyes it's all vanity of vanities.

8:50 PM  
Anonymous Gordon said...

Apologies, but our times require truth.

The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.

Guess Who

http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/mkv1ch06.html

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

More evidence of the decline. Not far from my residence - this guy was a veteran and also passed a bar exam. He lured police to his place to kill them, managed to kill one and injured others.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/01/us/colorado-shooting-suspect-military-record/index.html

Also, this article procaims that living in America will literally drive you insane:

https://www.salon.com/2013/07/31/living_in_america_will_drive_you_insane_literally_partner/

-James

12:06 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Happy New Yr, and thanks for all the informative posts. Clearly, our decline is assured.

Regarding American rudeness etc., let me share some observations abt Americans vs. Mexicans in social situations. Like most of you, I have been to hundreds of dinner parties in the US, and given a few myself. How do Americans behave? Whether subtle or obvious, they strut around like turkeys: "I'm No. 1!" The idea is to display your imptc or superiority. Genuine dialogue is nonexistent.

And now Mexico, where I've been to a few dozen parties over the last 11 yrs. Let me recall for you my experience of 2 of them.

1. A few days ago, at a friend's apt in Mexico City, a few blocks from my own apt. Abt a dozen people. Very relaxed and low-key. Turkey strutting behavior is considered bad form in Mexico. Instead, people ask abt each other and are genuinely interested. I spent half an hr talking to a woman who is apparently a very famous writer down here, altho she has been translated into several languages. I had, however, not heard of her, so just asked her to tell me about the themes of her novels. She took me seriously--i.e. that I was interested in her work--and put on no airs. It was a lovely evening, and so dramatically different from the usual dinner party in the US.

2. New Yrs Eve, I threw a party at my own apt., again for abt 12 people. Again it was very friendly and low-key, with people wanting to know who everybody else was, what they did. Lots of laughter. After midnight, one of my guests located a mop and pail and swabbed down my entire living rm floor (parquet). Another washed the mountain of dishes that had accumulated. I never saw anything like this in all my yrs in the US.

Fact: Americans are a different species from the rest of the world.

mb

12:49 PM  
Anonymous Deadthoreau said...

Hello Wafers, well we're only two days into the New Year but I'd like to nominate a minor American Youtube celebrity for the 2018 douche bag of the year award! This has got to be some sort of record MB! Here I give you Logan Paul in all his empty, hustling glory! Apparently this wealthy Youtube star entered the Aokigahara forest (Suicide Forest) in Japan and filmed a dead body which he then promptly posted on Youtube because you know think of the monetized views! A true hustler. If you search you can find stills from the video and the look on his and his companions faces, to me at least, encapsulates the hustling tradition. These people are giddy when they find that person in the forest, they only see an object to exploit and mock, it never registers that this was a human being with a history, with a mother and father, that had lovers, that was a good friend to someone, that had hopes and dreams, who felt joy and belonging but in the end who felt such intense loneliness, pain and misery that he wanted to end his life. No he was just money to these hustlers.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/02/outcry-as-youtube-star-posts-video-of-dead-body-in-japan

2:19 PM  
Blogger Mohamed said...

Trump is draining the swamphttps://theintercept.com/2017/12/29/coastal-elites-republicans-trump-administration/

3:15 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

For Belman, Bayushki Bayu -from Prussia with love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlNu3biOozU&list=RDwlNu3biOozU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDMmj5WgB8c

For Miles, Nele, Ay! Ay! Ay!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F18Olf3AXPs

For all, Quizas, quizas, quizas -from Mexico with love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcxNFUPD3WE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdJ0KLJ3PmQ&list=RDzdJ0KLJ3PmQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOL6WRtOWPc&list=RDqOL6WRtOWPc

Que sera, sera,
Viva Wafers!!

4:52 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

The New Year is getting off to a rousing start for the Great American Freakshow. First up are two idiot state representatives from South Carolina who want to erect a monument to the state's black Civil War veterans--only to find out that no black South Carolinians fought for the Confederacy.

Next up, an Arkansas woman who opened a gun range and proclaimed it a "Muslim Free Zone" is now running for governor. Given how badly a certain ambitious former Arkansas governor and his wife fucked over black Americans while in the White House, she sounds like she' a good legacy candidate.

Meanwhile up in Minnesota, old Crazy Eyes may be making a political comeback: Michele Bachmann says she’s consulting with God on whether to run for Al Franken’s Senate seat. Can Grizzly Mama be far behind?

And lastly--Creepiest. Mugshot. Evah: “Piggyback Bandit” Arrested in New Jersey After Giving 14-Year-Old Boy A Back Massage At Airport. Some neglectful parent forgot to teach this kid about "stranger danger."

8:00 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

Sad people exploiting other sad people...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/01/brotopia-silicon-valley-secretive-orgiastic-inner-sanctum

Funny how that article traces the source of this behavior back to HS 'nerd' marginalization. I would suggest 90 percent of Americans are frozen in the psycho-social moment of high school. And I can't really blame them- opportunities for social growth basically disappear once your life is reduced to a 70 hour work week.

Also, somebody that studies history or literature is wasting their time, but somebody who makes an artificial 'friend' app needs millions of dollars. Utter barbarians who enjoy enslaving themselves to insecure engineer savants.

You criticize one segment of the population, and then that seems unfair, because it's all beyond rotten.

11:04 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

This is such a dangerous precedent, and Trump is doing HUGE damage to the Republic.


https://usat.ly/2CuavHc

11:22 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

From today's column in the NYT by Anna Sauerbrey on anti-Americanism in Germany: "It believes that America has overstayed its welcome on the world stage, that it still insists on dominating both culturally and politically. It believes that American culture is superficial and phony, that Americans are hypocritical and uneducated."
www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/opinion/germany-trans-atlantic-america.html

I couldn't agree more. From what I read of German culture and society (reserved, polite, educated, work life balance), it sounds like paradise compared to the states...

-BrotherMaynard

9:47 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bro-

It ain't paradise, but if you have half a brain, it's a whole lot better. I'm hoping the German press will start using the word turkey (Truthahn) when referring to Americans.

jj-

Empire, not Republic. We haven't been a real republic for a long time now. Anyway, I'm excited abt more damage coming from Trumpi. I'm tellin' ya, it's all gd:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/01/03/there-is-no-secret-master-plan-trump-is-the-wysiwyg-president/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-f%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.31f705355222

mb

2:10 PM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

A new book by Michael Wolff entitled Fire and Fury: Inside the the Trump White House should pull back the tent flap a bit more on the Trump troupe. Here, a quotation from today’s Guardian article on the book’s revelations:
“Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president’s son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.’” Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged collusion with the Kremlin will focus on money laundering and predicted: “They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/03/donald-trump-russia-steve-bannon-michael-wolff

And as a folllowup to the SWATting incident that led to the police shooting of Wichita resident Andrew Finch, this piece that reports that LA nudnik Tyler Raj Barriss—nom de ‘net “SWAutistic’—has in the past committed similar SWATs for pay. He was briefly incarcerated for a 2016 bomb threat against against the ABC affiliate in LA, but later released. Barriss—sorry, SWAutistic—has admitted to friends that he has made dozens of SWATtings and bomb threats.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=krebs%20on%20security

3:57 PM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...

BrotherMaynard,

The Times article is, like so much of what the TImes writes in the Trump era, hyperbolic at best. I've been in Germany for 10 years now. Most Germans I have encountered quite like most things American, and most of the folks I am referring to are in social work/teaching circles, which are some of the most liberal in Germany.

I also have met or know lots of people in the arts and in business due to my work in publishing and professional translation. It is very rare to encounter anti-Americanism here among the general pop. Usually, people are shocked when they find out I am not such a fan of the American lifestyle and that many of my values do not align with many traditional American values.

What I would also add, is that where politics are concerned, many Germans have an overly positive view of US Dems, particularly Obama. Despite Germany's reputation for being a society of intellectuals, many are very unaware of issues associated with globalism and neo-liberalism (and conservatism), and the incredible amount of propaganda in Western media.

4:13 PM  
Blogger Nesim Watani said...

After the UN showed such "defiance" in the vote against the US embassy move, the Israelis are beginning to crack down on anyone who can be seen a symbols of resistance in the occupied territories.

Since arresting Ahed Tamimi they now have killed her 17 year old cousin, Musab Firas Tamimi, via bullet to the neck.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/palestinian-teen-killed-israel-2018-180103154409357.html

Meanwhile, Facebook continues to scrub anti-Israel posts on FB at the request of the Israeli government, and this is further compounded by the US using their Sanction lists to tell FB who and what can be on facebook, as America enters into a new round of censorship phase, strengthened by the Freedom of Speech party (republicans) and accepted by the spineless loser party (democrats).

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/facebook-deleting-accounts-u-s-israeli-governments-intercept-reports/

All of this as we know cannot be made possible without the constant permission of the US state. Which leads us to Trumpi and how the theater of this "Russia gate" non-sense takes a new wrinkle as Stephen Bannon now attacks his former BFF.

Finally, the Monopolies are coming back. Acquisition and mergers are flying through the roof as the corporations are working hard to extract economic rents from America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5GgNsppdys

All while the Turkeys cluck louder and prouder, while their leaders fuck them harder than ever before.




4:36 PM  
Anonymous Tocqueville's Bagman said...

Professor Berman,

Long time listener, first time caller. To paraphrase Hemingway, I don't know how any thinking peeps can't be a WAFer.

I'm looking for some professional advice. I'm about to finish my MALS degree and want to get a PhD in Environmental History. I know the country is done (love the land/salmon/redwoods but not finding the same love for the people) and Germany is calling. I ran my own biz there for several years and enjoyed the efficiency, beer and people. I'm on the GI Bill so I'm covered for PhD training and wonder if I should finish my studies here before I pop smoke. The name of a these institutions still means something when it comes to job applications, does it not?

Just to add to the Trump-twitter hysteria about nukes and Korea, Botox face was no different HRC says Trump is weak on N. Korea

Servus
Alex

6:48 PM  
Anonymous Zarathustra said...

Wafers, please help! I think I'm losing my mind: a column by David Brooks that makes some sense?

He's quoting Pascal Bruckner, but still...

8:14 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

Here's an interesting bit of "lost" history just now being reclaimed that shows American "empathy" in all of its glory: Americans Played Football in the Nuked Remains of Nagasaki For the 'Atom Bowl' in 1946.

“We thought it would be totally appropriate and symbolic of a celebration,” Sanders told the New York Times. “It was certainly not to look like there was a joyful glee in what had happened there. It had an emotional effect on us. We were there, yet we had many buddies that didn’t make it through the war.”

Some curious Japanese civilians watched the game, “from behind the shells of scorched buildings,” as the New York Times put it. But most had other things to worry about, like the effects of radiation or finding a place to sleep.

In other news, Ian Welsh hits another home run:

"There is a widespread myth in our society that Progress is always Good. It is not. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it isn’t. Generally it is mixed, with bad dominating. Right now, in much of the world, the good of the telecom revolution seems poised to be swamped by the bad (and this is without even discussing the data coming in showing that the more time you spend on your phone/computer, the unhappier you are. This data is not mixed, it is virtually all bad.)"

8:39 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Cool, we now have a liturgical year for worshipping Goddess shopping:

What goods a religion without a liturgy!.


8:59 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

MB, Wafers-

A very good film/documentary on the 1953 death of Frank Olson, a civilian scientist who worked for the CIA. Olson had been unwittingly given LSD as part of a CIA experiment. The film is currently streaming on Netflix, and is directed by Errol Morris:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/movies/wormwood-review-errol-morris-peter-sarsgaard.html

https://www.vogue.com/article/wormwood-review-errol-morris-netflix-true-crime

Esca-

Many thanks for the music.

Dan-

Thanks again for the Berman toothbrush. I tried it out, and my teeth have never felt better.

Miles

1:05 AM  
Blogger jjarden said...

These people are truly delusional...Ivanka Trump believes she has what it takes to become the first female president. These family “dynasties” are vomit inducing.



http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/03/politics/ivanka-trump-presidency-book/index.html

1:53 AM  
Anonymous Master of Waferism said...

DioGenes - It is not surprising at all that the losers of Sillicon Valley try to fill their void with sex. It's always hilarious to me when they try to pretend they're trying to "make the world a better place," or when they tell me "they enjoy computer science." You have to be freaking autistic to enjoy sitting in front of a computer doing shit that probably makes society worst.


And I must add, the article you linked shows why I really hate feminists, always trying to portray females as victims. I'm reading "Women's Sexualities" by Carl Rinkleib Eliison which is pretty much just a survey of women's sexual experiences. In it there is a chapter on affairs and they asked the women why they did it and they gave all sorts of rationalizations like blaming their husbands, depression, alcoholism, a way out of unsatisfactory relationship, etc but they never blamed themselves. Never could they just say, "I was just a bad gf," in the same way maybe those feminists in silicon valley can blame themselves for the way people treat them but they won't, women are perfect angels being oppressed by pig men and they won't allow anyone to pop their bubble.

2:33 AM  
Anonymous Aaron Thomas said...

When I've brought up the issue of people being rude, I've been told that I am the problem and need to get over it. Whether it's someone dropping food on the bus, yelling in a quiet place, or drunkenly screaming at 4am for all the neighbors to hear. I'm told that people are allowed to act how they want, and I need to stop being so sensitive. I guess rudeness has lost all meaning. The funny thing is, people will get bent out of shape for things I consider trivial (e.g. not texting someone back fast enough), but they don't care that people around them have to deal with their smells, sounds, and trash. It all drives me insane.

One recent example. After the New Year holiday, people made a MOUNTAIN of garbage by the dumpsters at my apartment, knowing that somebody else will have to clean up their mess. People will just throw garbage 20 ft from the trash and let someone else clean it up. People will dump their furniture in the rain and have someone else pay to haul it off. Even for things like recycling, people don't think twice about throwing dirty diapers and garbage into the recycling -- the mentality is "let someone else deal with it." I get this constant sense that people have ZERO consideration for the public.

2:46 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

MB, Wafers,

You should all watch the latest Season of Black Mirror. Great dystopian take on technodouchebaggery.

Kanye

7:24 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Aaron-

Welcome to America!

mb

12:12 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

WAFER Brother Maynard--many Germans and folks from Nordic countries are in love with american "culture,"--- TV shows, entrepreneurial 'spirit,' lust for hamburgers chain stores, and buying lotsa drek online. Shopping malls, blinking lights, rotating signage with 20% promos, signage in English, etc...

Most are clueless as to what america really represents/represented.

Perhaps, the picture of the My Lai massacre of that women's face prior to being tortured is a good intro to american "values." (They're orientals--so, they probably don't matter.....)

12:43 PM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

Following Belman's advice, last night I watched "God Bless America." It's certainly a movie that would appeal to Wafers, although I have to wonder why the response to all that incivility is mass murder. I guess that's part of the joke - shooting one's way out of a problem is a gringo's ideal solution to any situation.

1:35 PM  
Blogger ccg said...

Aaron,

Your story is very familiar to me. Everything is so upside down that calling out rudeness is now taken to be rudeness incarnate. A while back the people living in the apartment above me had a loud party into the wee hours. So I guess I was just being rude when I suggested they were a tad loud and that I really wanted to sleep. I wish I could have taken a picture of the woman's face at the time. Her nasty expression would have fit right in with the mug shots that have appeared on this blog. These idiots haven't spoken to me since, but I hardly consider that a loss. They're just self-absorbed thirty somethings and as I'm in my sixties they probably think I'm a relic. But there's absolutely nothing new about any of this. American's just don't care about anybody but themselves. Nothing new at all.

1:57 PM  
Blogger Polk said...

Aaron, The ties that bind societies together are made of equal parts responsibility for one's actions and consideration for the rights of others. What destroyed the ties in American society is rampant and unregulated individuality, the, as you say, "freedom" of each person to do whatever he or she wants, regardless of how that might affect the lives of others and their right to be free of the actions of assholes. Trump is the example par excellence. He could care less how his actions or those of the US affect others. But he is only the best example - the nation in miniature. Millions of his fellow countrymen think and act that way as well. Who else could have been elected in a hyper-individualistic nation than a narcissistic personality disordered scumbag? Indeed, we get the leaders we deserve.

2:00 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

@Master, the problem is they want everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hpYQsckWno

Chris Rock said it better, more honest than Emily Chang's Brotopia "investigation." In her article she wandered off into the realms of me-too feminism, pontificating between the 'shit and the flies' -who's the perpetrator and who the victim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPesKyIhGZg

@Quiet, thanks for the Wetiko link. A good read for Wafers as to the ontogenesis of Turkeys. The social flaw, the Wetiko virus has eventually altered the very epigene of these beleaguered creatures; thus we are soooo fucked. Ipso facto.

2:23 PM  
Anonymous Zombies said...

Longtime software engineer retired - couldn't stand the people I worked with and for 90% of the time - lot of arrogant left brained sociopaths IMO. I got into IT because I didn't want to do other things like selling stuff.

Dilbert is quite industry accurate although Dilbert is portrayed as a hero for surviving so much dysfunction. Talking to L-3 engineers several years ago at a career fair, I asked them their opinion about drones. They all said the same thing, that they just liked the work, designing circuit boards etc. People compartmentalize their values and consciousness way too much for humanity to have a chance.

It's ironic with all the Indian outsourcing and giant Indian polit-bureaus, like TCS, Infosys, HCL, Wipro - all very similar and corrupt, that B. Gates, Bezos, silicon valley, corp lawyers, lobbyists, managers, etc., are allowed to traitor away jobs that demand very specific language skills to people who are usually nearly impossible to understand. Why - when the outsourcing often costs a company more money with the shoddy code and native speakers are often forced to solve the hardest problems in my experience? Intellectually cleansed business school technocrat societal managers make these types of decisions.

2:36 PM  
Blogger Grandma said...

Hi Wafers!

For the "for what it's worth" department: in dysfunctional families terrorized and headed by a narcissist, there is a clear line drawn between the acceptable family members (dysfunctional, heartless, narcissistic) and the targets (usually normal, highly anxious, highly depressed, troubled, and confused). What you all describe (cracking junior like an egg, the hubris of ivanka) all fit. Family photos easily reveal which are which.

When you consider they mirror the rest of the country, you get what Aaron describes. As above, so below, to mangle the quote.

in the midst of this blizzard (described by my son in the northeast US as a CAT 3 frozen hurricane), I can't help but marvel how acceptable weird weather has become. Climate change isn't mentioned here often, which is fine. It does and will put its own spin on the downward trajectory, however.

2:53 PM  
Anonymous Marjan said...

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/pilgrimage-thought-divine-comedy-dante-alighieri-003637?nopaging=1

A Pilgrimage of Thought: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

An interesting essay. Then there is this piece.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/123/Homelessness_and_the_Limits_of_Hospitality

Homelessness & the Limits of Hospitality~Anya Daly says we’ll solve homelessness only when we see it as our problem.

“No face can be approached with empty hands and closed home.”

“The need of the other is my spiritual need.”

Emmanuel Levinas


Live well Wafers

5:07 PM  
Anonymous Dill Pickle said...

Happy New year, MB and Wafers!

Well I'm three days late but the year is still fresh.

Today I went to the local post office to mail a letter and what did I find posted above the mail drops? Posters bearing the message, "NO UPS OR FEDEX PARCELS." Are people that retarded??? This is in New Orleans, usually two or three decades behind the rest of the country. Not any more!

Boobus Americanus, truly a different species than Homo sapiens.

7:27 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

I'm working my way through thee latest history of of the Donner party, entitled The Best Land Under Heaven. It strikes me that the Donners and others who flocked to the call of "Manifest Destiny" (or "white supremacy by another name" as the author puts it), were just typical American hustlers.

Consider:

-George Donner, head of the party, was 60-years-old and had no reason to leave Illinois--being a very successful farmer and businessman--other than he believed he could make an even greater fortune in California.

-James Reed, the other main leader, was a hugely successful merchant and confidant of Abraham Lincoln before he gambled away his fortune on an ill-advised railroad construction project and got out of Illinois just ahead of the debt collectors.

-Sutter's Mill, the party's intended destination, was run by John Sutter, who enslaved dozens of American Indians and fed them from horse troughs.

-The party considered the Indians to be barbarians for living off the land, all the while shooting buffalo for sport and defacing beautiful rock formations by inscribing their names everywhere.

-Anyone without family who got too sick or ill to travel was left behind on the trail to die. Several members of the party killed each other in disputes even before the notorious "starvation winter" set in.

-The party ultimately came to grief by listening to the advice of a man who was an even bigger hustler than they were.

Yet we've established numerous parks and monuments to these idiots.

8:29 PM  
Anonymous Master of Waferism said...

Zombies - Consider yourself lucky, there is also insourcing now. There is over 1 million foreign students in 2018 who are also better educated in high schools than local students. Look at the numbers, it's insane

http://graphics.wsj.com/international-students/

UCLA alone has more than 10k foreign students, I think the stats are close to 20%, UCB/UCSD/UCSB the same. And the survey doesn't take into account what it does to the local culture. Berkeley is a sad, sad, autistic place.

Here is what Steve Bannon said, which I sort of agree with

"And now you got all the engineering schools full of people from South Asia and East Asia. And it’s not that I have any problem with those folks learning, but they are coming here to take these jobs. You have turned over the entire American education system — we have cut out art, we have cut out history, we have cut out music. Why have we done it? STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math. We have told every minority kid in this country, you got to excel at that. What happens? They get into graduate schools, they can’t get engineering degrees, they can’t get into graduate schools because there are all these foreign students, when they come out, they can’t get a job."

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/2/14472404/steve-bannon-legal-immigration-problem

9:46 PM  
Blogger Christopher said...

I was on the verge of saying that all the complaining about the boorishness and buffoonery of Americans had gotten a bit excessive, then this video came through my youtube feed.

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

Please, carry on. Americans really do suck.

10:58 PM  
Anonymous Gordon said...

Portrait Art

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/08/11/18/432C38AA00000578-4782690-image-a-79_1502472244955.jpg

Gordon

12:16 AM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

@ Bill Hicks,

That was a great piece by Ian Welsh. I like how he mentioned the use of surveillance by private corporations. On a day-to-day basis most people suffer more oppression from their little dictator employers than they do from the state.

Also, from the article:

"China is putting together a central scoring system which will give every single citizen a number. Spend a lot of time playing computer games? Lower score. Have friends who say bad things about the government online? Worse score. Etc…"

More evidence that the Chinese Empire won't be any better than the American Empire and might even be worse. The future is not looking bright.

3:56 AM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...

Grandma,

I grew up in a family headed by a malignant narcissist, and it is nearly impossible to discern one from public behavior or by looking at a photo. The abuse takes place behind the scenes and is typically so well concealed that those on the outside would never believe it exists.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but the armchair psych. being encouraged by our ghoulish MSM is truly mind-numbing.

6:07 AM  
Anonymous Mike Kelly said...

Hi Wafers,

It's annual prediction time.

https://www.ecosophia.net/a-dangerous-year/

Kunstler's annual prediction:

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/forecast-2018-go-wrong/

Very entertaining. It's impossible to predict exactly what will happen in 2018, but the two blogs referenced above make a good effort.

Grandma, I found this great pictorial of ecological decline. A million words in pictures:

http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2017/12/50-doomiest-images-of-2017.html

9:24 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

The annals of medicine. The World Health Organization, in its edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) set to appear this year, classifies gaming addiction as a disorder. The 2013 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), psychiatry’s Bible, said that the condition deserved “further study.” A recent Oxford University study, while acknowledging that children spend a lot of time on their screens, reports that they generally manage to intertwine digital pursuits with daily life. The WAFer Manual of Social Dysfunction and Boorish Behavior has long recognized gaming as a subset of technodouchebaggery.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42541404

And from the police blotter, the daughter of the late owner of the Washington Redskins faces a possible 7-year sentence for a New Year’s Eve assault on a California attorney outside an Upper East side eatery. Jacqueline Kent Cooke struck the man with her designer clutch after he had confronted her over her having said “Hurry up, Jew” to his mother as they waited to retrieve their coats at coat-check. Matthew Haberkorn had been dining at Caravaggio with his mother, wife, and daughters. Haberkorn’s daughter captured the assault with her phone camera. YouTube? Of course.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5236521/Redskins-heiress-court-New-Years-Eve-assault.html

10:37 AM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

Apologise if breaking the 24h rule-however, more american greatness!

Michigan man murders neighbor b/c of blowing snow on his driveway.

A Michigan man is charged with murdering his neighbor confessed to killing the woman after seeing her blowing snow out of his driveway, court records show. Wendell Earl Popejoy, 63, of Ottawa County, confessed to shooting his neighbor, Sheila Bonge, 59.

Popejoy told Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office Detective Anne Koster that he needed to kill the woman after seeing Bonge outside on Dec. 26, blowing snow from the driveway in front of his home.

11:27 AM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

As far as I can make out, the DNC rigs the Democratic Party primary against Bernie so Hillary can win the nomination. Donna Brazile gives Hillary the questions to a crucial debate. The Obama admin requests surveillance on Trump, his family, and anyone associated w/him. The DNC pays Christopher Steele to come up w/a smear dossier against Trump. The media releases a taped convo about Trump grabbing genitals. After all of this, Trump *still* manages to win the election. Obama then orders an investigation of Putin and Russian meddling into the election. With zero proof or evidence, the Dems charge Trump colluded w/Russia to win the election. The MSM join in on this wild accusation, as Obama holdovers begin to unmask Trump's transition team and release classified material to the MSM. Hmm, by my lights, the Russia collusion story is an attempt to cover-up or disguise the fact that Obama, the intelligence community, the DNC, and the MSM used the nation's intelligence sources to spy on and take down Trump. Where am I wrong, Wafers?

Ab imo pectore,

Miloslogica

11:43 AM  
Blogger Baron Von Strangeknight said...

Dr. Berman, in one of your lectures I found on youtube you stated that many experts see the USA as peaking in the early 60's and then declining from thereon. What big factors do you think account for that decline from the 60's on? I see it as the disaster of Vietnam, the adoption of post-modern thinking, and abandonment of Bretton-Woods (perhaps?).

Thank you.

-James

12:36 PM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Kanye,
I'm a big fan of Black Mirror too-amazing series and I think we are only about 10-20 years away from these stories becoming part of daily life.
jjarden,
I'm reading that Michele Obama is seeing donors for a possible run in 2020 (Hmm, all the sexual harassment charges part of her getting the nomination?). Men here are already street litter. Her nomination would make it official.
Yes, rudeness is so interwoven into the fabric of American life it's becoming as ubiquitous as air. My favorites are driving at night on a road with no street lights and the person behind you is honking. "Yes, I should become a paraplegic so you can get home to your fucked up family." Another is parents allowing their kids to run around a restaurant after they finish eating. Yes, nothing like having a kid stare at your food as your trying to eat and maintain a conversation. Finally, the insane custom of people reclaiming their seat after they got up to go somewhere. You know, "Sorry, I was sitting there." I never experienced that in Asia. There you leave your seat you lose your seat. No problem. Here it can result in a fight to the finish.
Finally, I see Israel is going nearly insane after a 16 year old girl hit a soldier. They can't devise a punishment harsh enough. As I've previously stated, Israel reflects the frankenstein version of Judaism.

12:43 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Kashe-

Repeal of BW was in 1971. Defeat in VN was in 1975. Also decade of Watergate. But the 60s were the last chance for America to do something different, and of course it rejected that possibility.

Meanwhile, this is kinda nice:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/nationwide-police-shot-and-killed-nearly-1000-people-in-2017/2018/01/04/4eed5f34-e4e9-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_fatalforce-644am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.2e93a947d889

mb

12:46 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

James Kunstler’s Friday Blog Post...


http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/fire-and-fury/

12:57 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

@ James Allen - just wait 'til VR gets rolling, whatever mush gamers have left in their brains is about to be liquefied. Steven Spielberg is right in the mix to get the party started. I had marginal respect for him now I have none, I nominate him as douche 2018-A1:

In 2045 there is nowhere to go except Oasis.

Prob gonna b here long b4 2045

1:50 PM  
Blogger Mohamed said...

Is is anyone in here buying the Michael wolf book?

3:40 PM  
Anonymous Liv said...

Hello Wafers,
Thank you to MB for the encouragement and to MofW for the exhilarating comment. Lets not forget that I am still waking up from "the zombie US life" that I experienced for the past 16 years, and have just awaken from a very bad dream called " the American Dream."

I am almost done reading the AWTY and I have enjoyed every essay. Especially, the essay 22 about the uncertain life which many people need to relearn because anyone living in US for a longer period of time, will have a hard time with "uncertainty." I totally agree with you with the essay about "online education." I am almost done with my MBA and I learned big shit, forgive my French. I do not understand the logic within the higher education in the US to write many fluffy and non-sense papers and then rewrite them. About the military system in this country I will remain the NCO(non comment officer)for obvious reasons.
Thank you for the very well researched and deeply analyzed book. My next on the list will be the Neurotic Beauty and Destiny.

Peace Wafers.

5:25 PM  
Anonymous Zombies said...

Possible development on the H1-B front though I think it's false advertising let alone problematic because we already have a global multi-cultural society we need to make it more meritocratic or qualitative rather than quantitative e.g. less age discrimination because some study says IT workers over 35 are 30% less productive after 30 hours etc.:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article192336839.html

Why 80% of Microsoft looked Indian in 2012, in 2007 90% of my Motorola coworkers were Indian and getting the expensive SOA training that I was told I'd be on instead put on a career killing legacy project - hired largely because I'd just come off a successful patented project for a medical device that I honored an NDA about naturally.

Maybe it was Hedges who noted that Plutarch advised as far as class warfare to bring in a competing culture preferably of another language to drive up labor competition. In retrospect - seems consistently plutocratically industry orchestrated. Gates gets to proprietize decades of DOD research and tax funded investment - oligarchs co-opting technology for centralization historically.

Tamil and Punjabi have been notoriously tribal in hiring practices plus lying on resumes. Former Bangledeshi co-worker has noted consistent discrimination against Bangledeshis from Indian companies. I think money laundering and tax evasion also play a role. A global 3rd world of labor austerity and harvest. If the currency changes Gates was involved in with India have been beneficial regarding inequity in the caste based system there time will tell - mono crops certainly weren't. Gates is unlikable like Buffet and Ellison etc.

5:51 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Liv-

Glad to hear you liked AWTY. You might also check out TMWQ; short read, rather funny (I think). B4 u depart the US, we need to talk abt a final goodbye to Bethesda, which involves renting a helicopter and then sticking yr ass out the door, as you fly over the place. Urine is power!

mb

6:11 PM  
Anonymous Marielle said...

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/8084410

Hunting is for the most part. Literally the pastime of psychopaths @NRA

9:56 PM  
Anonymous Jones said...

The ecological catastrophe that turned a vast Bolivian lake into a salt desert | World news | The Guardian
https://theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/04/the-ecological-catastrophe-that-turned-a-vast-bolivian-lake-to-a-salt-desert

^Glimpse of the future


And i studies the new tax bill carefully, and missed this

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/01/05/republicans-allowed-a-tax-on-oil-companies-to-expire-and-almost-nobody-noticed/

10:03 PM  
Anonymous Savannah said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i-read-decades-of-woody-allens-private-notes-hes-obsessed-with-teenage-girls/2018/01/04/f2701482-f03b-11e7-b3bf-ab90a706e175_story.html

damn it Woody! Not surprised I suppose, but still one of my fav's

7:43 AM  
Blogger Polk said...

To Bill: The Donner Party, it seems to me, is also a symbol of what happens to groups in cultures based on winner-take-all hustling and exploitation of others and the environment. They end up eating one another in hopes of being the last man standing - the "winner" - who , in the case of the Donners, literally consumed all of his competitors. On the culturally level, the winner in such a world is the nation which eats its way through the earth and all other societies until there is nothing left but destruction and loneliness.

On Bannon and STEM curriculum - STEM is working the way it was designed, as a way to get the state to pay for employee training for multinational corporations. No one in authority cares any longer about the arts, civic responsibility, critical thinking or the plight of unemployed workers. The only question that matters is whether STEM benefits the 1%. If it does, its good; if not, its bad. Case closed.

8:05 AM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

It seems the Donald has been out-hustled by this Wolff weasel. And now I'm really getting worried that they might remove him from the White House. I don't think Mike Pence is up to the job of finishing off the US. All the idiots currently salivating at the prospect of the end of Trumpo don't know what they want. I think Pence will just prolong the excruciating agony for as long as possible, especially for the rest of the world.

11:53 AM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Wafers-
Thanks for the comments re: germany and the nordics. I really had no idea they liked america so much. I suppose it is the 'American Pie' syndrome; on tv and in the movies the USA looks good. Reality, of course, is far different.

re: Logan Paul japanese suicide video - as the good professor has noted much of american culture these days is rooted in cruelty if not outright sadism (taking enjoyment in others' suffering). Look at real housewives and the way they treat each other...aren't they supposed to be 'friends'? It is what passes for friendship in the usa.

I will not buy Michael Wolff's book as I already know we're fucked (and funds can be better spent on AWTY). It is just a matter of time before the whole place blows. I suspect that we're closer than we think. In January 1991, the Soviet Union was still a super-power. By December 1991, it was all over. No one predicted this. A strange chain of events just started happening one after another until it was too late. I think Trump has started this ball moving...

Hence, I'm planning my escape in 2018...this will only be fun if you are thousands of miles away. On a positive note, the ratings will be very good which is all the media cares about.

-BrotherMaynard

12:28 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anon-

A couple of blog rules 4u:

1. I don't post Anons. You need a real handle. E.g., Cranston Butterworth III, DDS.
2. Do not send messages to old posts; no one reads them.

Thank you.

Bro-

Collapse of USSR was decades in coming, but very few saw it. Same is true for US, of course. What we need in 2018 is a foreign Suez Moment. We already have a domestic one--the election of Trumpi. Now, something hasta happen abroad, similar to what happened to England in 1956. BTW, public disintegration of USSR began in 1989. It took abt 2 yrs to come apart.

Sav-

Why is this even news? More relevant is that he's a great filmmaker. Private life of Philip Larkin rather shabby. More relevant is that he's the greatest poet in the English language since Shakespeare. Etc.

mb

ps: This guy's got class:

http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/05/us/plane-alleged-sexual-assault-sleeping-passenger/index.html

mb

1:36 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps2: I mean, it's getting kinda boring, already (charismatic genius sleeps with his actresses--really?):

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/06/ingmar-bergman-beauty-beast-flawed-way-with-women-great-art

1:47 PM  
Anonymous Master of Waferism said...

polecat - They don't even want to do that anymore. All American university stem departments are filled with foreigners paying 60k+ a year. Universities love it so don't expect it to stop any time soon. This will come back to bite us in the ass 30 years from now though

2:34 PM  
Anonymous Blogger Vernon said...

Ahoy from the other side of the pond.

Pompey is as Trump (phallic vanity: my will=what happens). So Corbyn a Caesar (populist vanity: I-speak-for-the-people); Blair a Cicero (arrogant vanity: stupid-people-vote-for-stupid-people); Cable a Cato ("woe the true name of things!"); & May battered consul of defunct system?

https://www.rsc.org.uk/imperium

4:27 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

These latest Trump tweets alone should be enough to remove the man from the highest office of the land....

“I’m a very stable genius...I’m like, really smart.”

Paradoxically, these show that he isn’t.

4:27 PM  
Blogger Christopher said...

Marielle,

If you're going to make sweeping assertions about people (in this case, hunters) without a shred of argument to back up your claim, at least do so using proper grammar.

4:42 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

polecat--indeed, the cannibalism of the Donner Party is a perfect symbol of the all-against-all nature of America. Another aspect of the story I didn't mention in my previous post for length reasons was how a big factor in their getting stranded was that they overloaded their wagons with useless crap (against the advice of earlier emigrants) and refused to give it up even as it became evident that continuing to try and drag it across the mountains was putting their lives at risk. Even in the 1840s America was already a hopeless consumer culture, and it ended up consuming them.

Marielle--indeed, anyone who kills animals merely for sport (as opposed to for food or to help cull their numbers to a sustainable level) is a sick individual. Witness our former cretinous vice president, who shot another hunter while stalking game in a glorified petting zoo.

Brother Maynard--re: Germany. Indeed, I will believe that they (and other U.S. client states) are cutting the cord when I see them demanding that the U.S. military bases on their soil be shut down for good. The Germans have actually become quite adept at using economic exploitation, as oppose to military conquest, to maintain one of the highest quality of life levels in the world. If they had to pay the full price for their own defense, their domestic economy would take a huge hit.

5:34 PM  
Anonymous Yoal said...

“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet & wildness? Let them be left,
Oh let them be left, wildness & wet:
Long live the weeds & the wilderness yet.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins

7:09 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

I'm about midway into "Fire and Fury" and hafta say it's better than I anticipated. The book is largely a critique of the utterly bizarre and disorganized mess the executive branch has become (all of it, terrific news for Wafers). Trumpi comes off as quite possibly a lunatic. He's a sad and lonely person, completely unaware of anything except himself and his "image." Wolff also makes it quite clear that he's a tool, a vehicle for others to push their agenda and policies through. In any case, I don't want to give too much away, but it's pretty funny, gossipy, and well-written.

Time for some jazz: In honor of Trumpi, here's Donald Byrd's "Little Boy Blue":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3oV2dr2ZwM

8:27 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

I had some fun reading the Donner party wiki. Besides what everyone else has noted, I found some of the 19th century names of Americans to be pretty pompous and absurd. There was an Augustus in the party, and several Old Testament prophets. I think any European who read this account in those days, when America was still the "start-up" nation, would think we were trying way too hard to be noticed with these kind of outlandish self-depictions and grandiose initiatives. European history is of course not immune to these kinds of expressions, but a sense of taste and historical continuity goes a long way towards not seeming totally laughable. The Donner party seems like the bad sitcom of European colonization projects.

8:40 PM  
Anonymous Aaron Thomas said...

MB, here's a video compilation of a popular youtube channel where this guy goes to Japan.

https://twitter.com/wetheunicorns/status/949297972986163200/video/1

This guy has been in the news because he recently recorded a video mocking the corpse of someone who committed suicide.

https://pagesix.com/2018/01/04/japanese-police-want-to-question-logan-paul/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=P6Twitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

This is what Americans enjoy. I believe he has 20 million subscribers on youtube. He's only gained popularity after his video laughing at a corpse. This kind of behavior and American entertainment will only continue and gain popularity.

10:04 PM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

Curious article on Pokémon as a religion and “techno-animism.”

This type of animism is embedded in commodity consumerism, where emotive ties between people and things are used to push products.

It seems to me that many Japanese (and others) are falling for religion in the worst sense, as seen throughout history: some childish substitute for meaning, involving financial contributions to the "church" and acting as "opium of the people."

Where can we expect deliverance from capitalism then? Perhaps only from its total collapse caused by the limits of natural resources. Humankind may be just too stupid as a whole...

12:28 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Fingers crossed, he gets re-elected in 2020.

mb

12:59 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

In actuality, a USSR-style breakup is probably the best we can hope for as it would be bloodless. US states would start breaking away. Reading between the lines, you can see that California is pretty close. Trumpi punishing Cali for not voting for him via the tax bill was a good start. So is cutting off funds for sanctuary cities. Indeed, the entire west coast would go: California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. Then maybe Vermont. In truth, it is hard to believe american states are united. What does an urban latino in California have in common with a rural white in Mississippi? It ain't much...

Left to its own devices I'd guess the American south would probably turn into an apartheid-type South Africa, minority white rule.

If I had to guess on foreign policy, it is that China upstages the US in some foreign crisis such as north korea and is seen globally as the adult in the room.

Fun to speculate - will be even more so from thousands of miles away.

BrotherMaynard

2:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What do Wafers think of this?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/07/a-monks-guide-to-a-clean-house-and-mind-by-shoukei-matsumoto-digested-read?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Sounds more like OCD to me thank mindful living...

Kanye

3:53 PM  
Anonymous BH said...

I watched a PBS documentary about the Donner Party years ago where one of the surviviors went to San Francisco and opened a business. He told people he had to eat human flesh to survive and then allowed people to have their picture taken with him for a fee.

4:51 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Hola MB and Wafers,

MB-

Yeah, all systems are go for Trump in 2020. My prediction: Trumpo will schlong all comers in 2020.
Furthermore, if the Dems and Progs are hoping that Trump will resign or be thrown out of office they are fucking dreaming. For all of his ignorance and grotesque insensitivity, Trump still has solid support in all of the states that made him president in 2016.

More on "Fire and Fury":

I believe the real value of the book is in its tightly drawn framing narrative, and Wolff's ability to penetrate the psyche of *all* of his subjects. His dissection of the power plays between Bannon, Jared and Ivanka ("Jarvanka" as Wolff calls them), and Reince Preibus are absolutely riveting. Wolff has an uncanny ability to take in the mass of info that has materialized over the last year and pull it all together into a razor-sharp picture of this administration. I tell ya, this book cannot be ignored except by those who are as semiliterate as Trumpi.

American Dream dept.:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/americans-havent-been-this-poor-and-indebted-in-decades.html

Miles

5:38 PM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...


With much of the esteemed MSM forced to admit that Wolff is a BS artist of the highest caliber (aka, a true American), the line is now that the book on Trumpi is"notionally true" (from Maggie Haberman). This may be the funniest thing I have heard all week.

Wolff is impressive -- he may be one of the finest hustlers and we have ever produced.

5:54 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-van-buren/morris-berman-spinning-straw-into-gold_b_3822936.html
"So it is with Spinning Gold; the author is not selling seats at a seminar or a CD collection of his happy talk; there are no “steps” or Five Most Important Things to Do Now. Indeed, you walk away with the feeling that while the author has much to say, if you’re too stupid to listen he could probably care less." "If the author was however forced into making some sort of list, it would likely be short. Slow down. Think more, purchase less. Look for meaning more than Wikipedia-ized facts. Enjoy the dance. The journey’s all we have until we get there, then that’s that." -PETER VAN BUREN

Belman's Doppelgänger, Vijay Prasad. Independent thinker and a straight talker. Witty and humble.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTb2uVIWG5Q
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=767&Itemid=74&jumival=20321


@Christopher, your comments on Marielle was a little too harsh. We usually reserve such lumping for the trolls.


After Miles' Jazz, the Soul Blues by Gary B.B. Coleman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Gt46aX9Z4

6:25 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

jjarden--really? You want Trump impeached over a bunch of stupid tweets when his two predecessors droned, bombed and otherwise wantonly slaughtered well over a million civilians during their tenures? Sorry, but I don't follow the logic.

The very latest in technodouchebaggery: now already-distracted American drivers will be able to have advertisements pumped right into their cars while they are driving. What could possibly go wrong?

A new perfectly American fad catches on: joggers who deliberately take shits in people's driveways. Note the effect of the media at work here--one sick fuck does it, the internet goes all abuzz about it, and now there are copycat sick fucks doing it.

Another "Face of America" mugshot: Utah teen allegedly killed acquaintance who sold him kitchen spices instead of marijuana. Sounds like a delightful little American sociopath: "As Seth Carreras entered a 2nd District courtroom Friday to have bail set, he did so in shackles, grey pants and a white T-shirt. He walked with a bit of a strut and smirked as he glanced at the gallery..."

8:43 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

The SexBots are Coming! For both men and women!

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/672304/sex-dolls-lonely-hypnotherapy-zoe-clews-realbotix-synthea-amatus

10:38 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/11/not-defend-humanities/

"In our time, as in all times, the voices of Vanity Fair shout at us that if only we have enough wealth and power we can get everything we want and can force others to do our will. The voice of uncivilized humanity, in other words, teaches us to be sociopaths. The voice of the old humanities, which is the voice of the best in our civilization, teaches another lesson. It teaches that our life is more valuable when we care about the sort of person we are becoming, when we learn to love what deserves to be loved, when we are admired by people whose good opinion is worth having."

10:54 PM  
Anonymous Master of Waferism said...

Zara were you the one who mentioned that you think aliens were the ones who made us? I wanted to say, I think it's more likely that "god" or many gods exist. I was watching a video Chomsky and he mentioned that he believes there is a gene for language acquisition just the same way there is a gene in for birds to have wings. I find it very odd that humans are on a continuous search for god if he doesn't exist but that search is most definitely in our genetic code.

Also about the alien thing, I wanted to add, there is no transitional fossils. Humans seemed to have jumped from one species to the next. Darwinian evolution makes no sense because of this. I think it's more likely that there is some type of spirituality going on. I think even Nietzsche mentioned this, which is why he came up with the concept of the "super man," but I gotta read him more carefully. I think in the next couple of years we will hit a wall like we hit with Aristotelian science and we're gonna have to revisit the "spiritual." I've been studying some greek mathematics and we haven't advanced that much. They even had computers back then, and Dr Berman mentioned in CTOS that they had some type of poetry to hypnotize their population, we don't even have that today so in a way they were ahead of us. It also makes me wonder what the conquistadores found when they got to the Americas that they needed to burn all the books, probably knowledge that is obvious but we are blind to.

12:22 AM  
Anonymous JUS said...

Hi Dr. Berman,

I'm seeing a lot of #Oprah2020 out there with liberal social media posters after tonight's Golden Globe speech. Many of them in tears of course. Trumpi may have some competition! I feel like I've seen this show before though, back in the 1970's called "Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes." But then it was with Farrah Fawsett and Bill Cosby.

1:26 AM  
Blogger Polk said...

Bill et al - The Donner Party's relationship to its stuff does, indeed, sound that of the modern American's. Like them, we defiantly hold onto what we have accumulated and the comforts they afford it even if that puts us in danger of losing our lives to global warming. That tendency is also like that of an addict who can't bring himself to let go of his drug or drink of choice even when knowing that it will kill him in the end. Are we doomed to play out this macabre drama until the final act when the curtain comes down on all of us?

7:49 AM  
Blogger Patrick D. Fitzgerald said...

Every description and characterization i have read from the wolff book is 100% what i imagined, i am guessing it is almost completely true.

Thanks to mb, dio and Bill hicks for watching my movie, i am sure it will eventually reach an audience of several dozen!(Link in prev post)

Profe, plz dont die of joy, Oprah is considering a presidential run. I still am pulling for the Rock personally.

9:29 AM  
Anonymous Anjin-San said...

More good news for the New Year:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/01/08/world/politics-diplomacy-world/shift-obama-policy-trump-plans-flexible-use-nuclear-weapons-including-low-yield-arms/#.WlODOTWZPIU

Strange how I haven't seen any reporting in our North American media... I guess we still believe that if it happens over there it won't touch us here.

9:47 AM  
Blogger jml said...

Good news! Oprah is being urged to run for president in 2020:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/07/oprah-winfrey-speech-lifetime-achievement-golden-globes

Imagine Trump vs. Oprah presidential campaign?

What a ridiculous people we are.

9:55 AM  
Anonymous marianne said...

Latest news! Hold onto your hats all Wafers...Opray Winfrey has made it know that she would consider a run for the presidency if the people want her. Go Opray!

Marianne

12:12 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

jml-

Just by way of comparison, during the last days of Rome, the emperors were absurd. I'm just hoping that Oprah picks Lorenzo Riggins as her running mate.

Master-

Lotta confusion here. Search for god is not in our genes; check out WG. Chomsky also dubious: we usta call it "instinct" rather than genes, until several very smart scientists pointed out that it was a circular explanation. As for Darwin, the problem of the geological record has been debated by biologists for decades, with some success (e.g. Gould's "punctuated equilibrium"). Darwin holds up pretty well, in fact; keep in mind that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The computer in any real sense was invented by Chas Babbage in 19C; purpose of Greek poetry was not hypnosis.

Bill-

I love the jogger-shit business. I'm only hoping that non-joggers will also start shitting, and not just in driveways. Culturally speaking, the US is drowning in shit; time to make this more concrete.

mb

12:33 PM  
Blogger Christopher said...

@Esca Dreg,

Whereas her accusing hunters like me of being psychopathic, without a hint of evidence to substantiate that claim, was NOT too harsh? Please, spare me.

12:37 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Interesting Darwin shld come up as I just began reading the book "Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind," written by an Oxford educated Israeli history prof (Yuval Noah Harari). What has impressed me so far is how disconnected we are from our animal roots - he makes the claim that our DNA thinks we're foraging hunter gatherers who work in air conditioned high rises. The father of paleontology Georges Curvier lived 1769-1832 so we havnt been studying fossils for that long who knows what future discoveries might reveal? Now I aks ya, why is it whenever someone calls a person an animal it is always in regards to something violent and depraved? Anyway I recommend the book.

From Rolling Stone mag, made to order porn, for $500 "A model in a white tank top and panties sits in a baby pool as ranch dressing, mustard, nacho cheese sauce, tomato sauce, baked beans, corn and relish are dumped on her head turning her on." (WTF no sauerkraut?)$20,000 grand gets ya much, much more...

2:21 PM  
Anonymous bicameral-apologists said...

Never a Hoprah minion - though listening to her speech I was reminded of a Lucinda Williams' lyric Blessed: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/lucindawilliams/blessed.html

As Herr MB has mentioned - likely anyone on (in particular MSM TV) is illegitimate (philosophically). Kunstler's surprising essay about her? Maybe I misunderstood. Anyone who seems well meaning and popular these days or has a baseline command of English should be quickly forgiven even after pushing cheesy corp hopium tastelessly incessantly. Minions now filling the vacuum of a tasteless culture with sanctimonious talk about gender equality and justice.

Value signaling trends fill the tired polluted air and empty lives abandoned by decline without any meaningful systemic process or systemic progress. Although (gains noted with outing some criminal predators) there has been the matriarchal step backward side affect of more tolerance for the intolerant. Is Kunstler becoming like Hedges somehow conflicted, even though they're both magnitudes more substantive than Hoprah?

6:00 PM  
Blogger Athos said...

Dear Dr. Berman:

As I have consumed much of your work and written several reviews, I wanted to let you know that I am thoroughly enjoying Are We There Yet? I particularly enjoyed the reference to Lionel Shriver's The Mandibles at the beginning of chapter 3, "Super, Sad Love Story." I've actually been reading a slew of dystopian fiction to the extent I feel I need to get away from it.

I would also recommend Shriver's preceding novel, So Much for That which seems like a prequel to The Mandibles.

I always enjoyed interjecting your work into my college courses (I'm probably permanently retired now): literature and composition. Especially American literature, obviously from colonial through the 20th century. Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer as America's first (no, not the first) hustler. In the whitewashing (pun intended) of one America's "endearing" literary characters, Tom Sawyer, I instead saw him as America's first predatory capitalist: gets the neighborhood kids to pay him to paint his fence. Mark Twain knew a hustler when he saw one. The students may not have gotten it, but I at least enjoyed the insight. I think they were equally befuddled when I introduced the concepts of "The Parable of the Frogs" and "The Tragedy of the Commons." Well, I had a good time at any rate.

In one course I actually assigned The Twilight American Culture. Students (paraphrasing): "This is hard to read." I snarkily replied, "Yes the unfortunate truths revealed are 'hard' to read."

From "In Praise of Shadows:" "Wouldn't it be great to discover that one was more than one's career...?" (p.172) -- I was very conscious of this as far back as college graduation. I was a technical writer for 30 years. It was a job not a career and I never defined myself as such. I do technical writing, not I AM.... Real careers to me were teaching or writing. After that 30 years, I got into the classroom, albeit as an adjunct. I never lost the desire (passion?). Along the way I managed to write novels and stories at night and on the weekends. So, almost none of it got published. So, what? I did it for me and I would never look back on it and say I wasted my time, although many people close to me seemed to think I did.

Continued success with your work, but we know it mostly connects with people who already “know.” And you're right. It has nothing to do with IQ. It's all about the brainwashing.

21st century America has been one helluva dumpster fire.

Regards,

Joseph A. Domino

2:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home