the Queen of England might not have even met with the Chinese Premier face to face in any event, regardless of her senility, and would not have had a conversation.
That would have been left to diplomats, ambassadors even, who were adroit at revealing, guarded, and or frank conversation, as required.
BOOMERBUSTER
OLD CELLO
Thursday, May 12, 2016
THE MENU APPARENTLY PLENTY OF AMERICANS
now, secretly, obtain and drink human blood, supposedly therapeutically.
That is cannibalism.
That is cannibalism.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
THE MENU
Mangy fare.
A literary and philosophical reference: Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series, a true Any Rand ian entrepreneurial Rousseau esq Enlightenment critical noble savage, who nevertheless turns up his savage nose at human food.
For the piece du resistance, The Leopard Men may be Burroughs' best work.
Question: Is the degraded religious cult of the Leopard men entitled to tax exempt status here? No?
What if their victims here were all volunteers, in states where voluntary suicide/euthanasia were, in the near future, ruled legal?
A literary and philosophical reference: Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series, a true Any Rand ian entrepreneurial Rousseau esq Enlightenment critical noble savage, who nevertheless turns up his savage nose at human food.
For the piece du resistance, The Leopard Men may be Burroughs' best work.
Question: Is the degraded religious cult of the Leopard men entitled to tax exempt status here? No?
What if their victims here were all volunteers, in states where voluntary suicide/euthanasia were, in the near future, ruled legal?
POST ENLIGHTENMENT FREE MARKET CANNIBALISM
This will be a new theme to flesh out.
Ho Ho Ho!
The Enlightenment worm always turns on itself....
Ho Ho Ho!
The Enlightenment worm always turns on itself....
Monday, May 9, 2016
WHAT CAUSED THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION? ENLIGHTENMENT
Although people like Professor Kaiser may disagree, I can actually summarize it, roughly, in one word:
Enlightenment
All the philosophes were also, coincidentally, Sinophiles.
(DK also said things like this, which indicate he may have also been skeptical of Enlightenment as well:
'What has finally struck me this week is that those values--spontaneity, the exaltation of individual feeling and experience, and the rejection of institutional authority--were, inevitably, politically disastrous. For one thing, the rich and powerful (and the would-be rich and powerful) seized upon them as justifications for greatereconomic freedom, lower taxes, and less regulation. But for another, these values worked against the values of discipline, organization, and leadership, which have been critical to effective political action since the beginning of time. And the emphasis on what divides us--on race, gender, sexual preference, religion, and values--has now almost completely destroyed any national sense of common purpose and belief, which was critical in the 1930s and 1940s to the extraordinary things our grandparents and parents accomplished and remain equally critical today. In the second post I ever made here, seven years ago, I showed how these same problems had affected the right--and specifically George W. Bush--just as much as the Left. It was natural for him to believe that he could transform a whole region of the world, the Middle East, by dropping bombs, and lower taxes at the same time: it all felt good, so he did it, confident that the world would bend to his feelings. His left-wing counterparts have been equally delusional, and much less effective. The attack on authority became an attack on intellectual authority as well, and both left-wing academics and religious zealots freely reject the rationalist values of western civilization.')
Enlightenment
All the philosophes were also, coincidentally, Sinophiles.
(DK also said things like this, which indicate he may have also been skeptical of Enlightenment as well:
'What has finally struck me this week is that those values--spontaneity, the exaltation of individual feeling and experience, and the rejection of institutional authority--were, inevitably, politically disastrous. For one thing, the rich and powerful (and the would-be rich and powerful) seized upon them as justifications for greatereconomic freedom, lower taxes, and less regulation. But for another, these values worked against the values of discipline, organization, and leadership, which have been critical to effective political action since the beginning of time. And the emphasis on what divides us--on race, gender, sexual preference, religion, and values--has now almost completely destroyed any national sense of common purpose and belief, which was critical in the 1930s and 1940s to the extraordinary things our grandparents and parents accomplished and remain equally critical today. In the second post I ever made here, seven years ago, I showed how these same problems had affected the right--and specifically George W. Bush--just as much as the Left. It was natural for him to believe that he could transform a whole region of the world, the Middle East, by dropping bombs, and lower taxes at the same time: it all felt good, so he did it, confident that the world would bend to his feelings. His left-wing counterparts have been equally delusional, and much less effective. The attack on authority became an attack on intellectual authority as well, and both left-wing academics and religious zealots freely reject the rationalist values of western civilization.')
RE BBC FACEBOOK WINS CHINA TRADEMARK CASE
Who any longer really cares about chicken shit cases like this, when, big picture, your industrial base, technological base, and financial base have been hollowed out, first by Japan, then by the Tigers, then by China for the past 65 years?
Westerners are in continual dreamland until the end.
Smell the coffee, game over.
Westerners are in continual dreamland until the end.
Smell the coffee, game over.
Sunday, May 8, 2016
RE DK current post
"...Yes, despite the great horrors of the world wars, they served a purpose. In the end, the United States, the USSR and the British Empire mobilized resources sufficient to completely defeat their enemies--the goal laid down by Franklin Roosevelt, as I showed inNo End Save Victory, in the first week of July 1941. That enabled them to establish peace in Europe...." DK
Unfortunately, a gross misinterpretation of the history and the outcomes of both wars here.
RE complete defeat, unconditional surrender itself was part of the problem, after all, as Kennan observed.
RE complete defeat, unconditional surrender itself was part of the problem, after all, as Kennan observed.
The end of WWII was neither a victory, nor a peace, worth having for the West.
Russia was a so called ally in Europe, and an enemy in Asia.
Field Marshall Montgomery said we won the war but lost the peace.
We did not even win the war, leaving Russia in absolute control of Eastern Europe. That was a military defeat, turn it any way you want.
WWII was a final defeat for the British Empire itself, for a variety of reasons, one big one of which was that the US insisted on dismantling it, a truly sad commentary for a so called ally, as Michael Howard pointed out.
Why candy coat it?
Russia was a so called ally in Europe, and an enemy in Asia.
Field Marshall Montgomery said we won the war but lost the peace.
We did not even win the war, leaving Russia in absolute control of Eastern Europe. That was a military defeat, turn it any way you want.
WWII was a final defeat for the British Empire itself, for a variety of reasons, one big one of which was that the US insisted on dismantling it, a truly sad commentary for a so called ally, as Michael Howard pointed out.
Why candy coat it?
Thursday, May 5, 2016
ONE OF THE BIG LESSONS OF HISTORY
is that if one hasn't much to gain by a war, little to lose on the sidelines, and can let others fight in it instead of you if they insist, why wouldn't you stay out of it?
This is advice the US has seldom heeded. Vietnam and Korea jump out.
The problem, re the First and Second World Wars, was that there was more at stake than was known here, and dumb isolationism was strong.
In most recent wars, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Afghanistan, Libya, Israel, Middle East in general, Africa, South and Central America, etc., there is less to gain, and more to lose.
This is advice the US has seldom heeded. Vietnam and Korea jump out.
The problem, re the First and Second World Wars, was that there was more at stake than was known here, and dumb isolationism was strong.
In most recent wars, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Afghanistan, Libya, Israel, Middle East in general, Africa, South and Central America, etc., there is less to gain, and more to lose.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Monday, May 2, 2016
RE PIKETTY THE FED AND GOLD
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2015/05/re-my-posts-re-inflation-deflation-both.html
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2015/05/re-piketty-and-fed.html
He worries about going off gold without strict governmental regulation.
That represents a proper expression of a pressing concern, which is a lot more, and a lot better, than one can say for most economists on that subject.
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2015/05/re-piketty-and-fed.html
He worries about going off gold without strict governmental regulation.
That represents a proper expression of a pressing concern, which is a lot more, and a lot better, than one can say for most economists on that subject.
PRIOR POST RE PIKETTY GAMES ECONOMISTS PLAY
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2015/05/re-my-posts-re-inflation-deflation-both.html
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
classic post and references said almost it all
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2011/08/re-earlier-post-mentioning-kindleberger.html
Sunday, August 28, 2011
RE EARLIER POST MENTIONING KINDLEBERGER AND VERNON HERE IS SNIPET FROM KOBRIN THE PARDONER'S TALE CHAUCER
Here is Kobrin:
'The dramatic expansion of the Multinational Enterprise (MNE) after 1960 produced a
‘first wave’ of literature in the popular and academic press. The opening lines of Raymond
Vernon’s best known book capture its tenor well: ‘Suddenly, it seems, the sovereign states are
feeling naked. Concepts such as sovereignty and national economic strength appear curiously
drained of meaning’ (Vernon 1971, p 3).
3'
'In a seminal series of lectures two years before the publication of Sovereignty at Bay,
Charles Kindleberger (1969, p 207) argued that the ‘nation-state is just about through as an
economic unit.’ '
They had hoped, back then, for a 'united states of the world', (ANALOGOUS TO STEINGART'S UNITED STATES OF THE WEST, which however now excludes of course the pesky non West)
based on expanding trade investment and political unification,
and thereby the taming of the murderous nation state concept itself, that would make war obsolete.
The nation state was the devil that needed to be exorcized.
(Problem: the US itself is a nation state needing to be exorcised by virtuous Cobdenist multinational enterprise.)
Rather like the Pardoner's Tale, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, really.
'The dramatic expansion of the Multinational Enterprise (MNE) after 1960 produced a
‘first wave’ of literature in the popular and academic press. The opening lines of Raymond
Vernon’s best known book capture its tenor well: ‘Suddenly, it seems, the sovereign states are
feeling naked. Concepts such as sovereignty and national economic strength appear curiously
drained of meaning’ (Vernon 1971, p 3).
3'
'In a seminal series of lectures two years before the publication of Sovereignty at Bay,
Charles Kindleberger (1969, p 207) argued that the ‘nation-state is just about through as an
economic unit.’ '
They had hoped, back then, for a 'united states of the world', (ANALOGOUS TO STEINGART'S UNITED STATES OF THE WEST, which however now excludes of course the pesky non West)
based on expanding trade investment and political unification,
and thereby the taming of the murderous nation state concept itself, that would make war obsolete.
The nation state was the devil that needed to be exorcized.
(Problem: the US itself is a nation state needing to be exorcised by virtuous Cobdenist multinational enterprise.)
Rather like the Pardoner's Tale, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, really.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
The Drew Pearson Fallacy goes farther back than this unfortunately
"Now sadly, what Ms. Roberts said in 2000--that to many Americans, the reference to Dingell-Norwood sounded like a "guy from Washington doing Washington-speak"--probably had an element of truth. But to me, then and now, that was something for journalists (and historians) to fight against, for the simple reason that a citizenry that no longer cares about the legislation Congress does or does not pass will yield the field to lobbyists and contributors who still do. Yet Cokie Roberts was not only accepting, but welcoming, the new world of the 21st century in which journalism--especially tv journalism--began pandering to an uninformed public. Indeed, the implication of what she said was that politicians would be foolish to try to do educate voters. And I was amazed that someone with her background could take such a position--but there it was." DK
"Indeed, the implication of what she said was that politicians would be foolish to try to do educate voters." DK
What about what I have dubbed the Drew Pearson Fallacy implication:
that journalists (not politicians, or academicians) would be foolish enough to try to educate voters?
But also, the political structural problems giving rise to this sad journalistic heritage has never been directly addressed politically here. It is written into the constitution....
(Lorch) Newspaper Editor's retort to assembled Scholars (read: Professor Kaiser):
"Don't you know what the newspaper business is all about, you bloody fool...For the past ten minutes you've been trying to make me out as some kind of hideous ogre devoid of any shred of social consciousness.
"You act as though you think the job of a newspaper is to be an educational institution for the masses.
"Education is your job, not mine.
"I run a business. That business is to make money. My stock in trade is something called 'news'. It isn't really news all the time-- it's entertainment in the guise of news quite often.... I am not going to print educational stuff that'll put me in the poor house." Terms search: Lorch
(Lorch) Newspaper Editor's retort to assembled Scholars (read: Professor Kaiser):
"Don't you know what the newspaper business is all about, you bloody fool...For the past ten minutes you've been trying to make me out as some kind of hideous ogre devoid of any shred of social consciousness.
"You act as though you think the job of a newspaper is to be an educational institution for the masses.
"Education is your job, not mine.
"I run a business. That business is to make money. My stock in trade is something called 'news'. It isn't really news all the time-- it's entertainment in the guise of news quite often.... I am not going to print educational stuff that'll put me in the poor house." Terms search: Lorch
The pamphleteering heritage of colonial rebellion, the contagion of liberty, so to speak, never dies unless properly extinguished by other institutions.
HAMILTON FIRST REPORT ON THE PUBLIC CREDIT
http://www.schillerinstitute.org/economy/2015/hamilton-first_report_on_the_public_credit.pdf
Thursday, April 21, 2016
CONFRONTING THESE SO CALLED AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES
are a highly fragmented motley array of the dregs of the so called Enlightenment.
What always passed for the Enlightenment over here.
What always passed for the Enlightenment over here.
I HESITATE TO PUT IT THIS WAY RE CRUZ SO CALLED CONSERVATISM
Americans do not know, really, what conservatism is.
Why?
Because they never ever had it here.
One explanation is that they never had anything much politically to conserve.
They had repudiated the possible sources of conservatism at the founding, except perhaps for a radical Whig lower gentry ideal. I do not consider this enough conservatism, really, to matter, in the larger scheme of things. It was more or less mainly ignorant anarchic rural superstition.
If you want to call that American conservatism, fine; that is more or less what it still is, and all it is, but with many right wing city dwellers now in a similar benighted state added to it.
Why?
Because they never ever had it here.
One explanation is that they never had anything much politically to conserve.
They had repudiated the possible sources of conservatism at the founding, except perhaps for a radical Whig lower gentry ideal. I do not consider this enough conservatism, really, to matter, in the larger scheme of things. It was more or less mainly ignorant anarchic rural superstition.
If you want to call that American conservatism, fine; that is more or less what it still is, and all it is, but with many right wing city dwellers now in a similar benighted state added to it.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
ONE IRONY RE REPUBLICAN SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENTS
For a far right administration, the Court itself, though still well stocked with conservatives, will be very inconvenient.
They would probably try to curtail or eliminate it.
They would probably try to curtail or eliminate it.
WHAT WAS THE LAND FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY EXODUS PASSOVER ETC
non coastal Palestine, or Egypt?
Take a guess....
Who Wrote The Bible, pb p 196, 82,
The Bible Unearthed, hb p 52.
As Rufus Fears recounted, an old observation I am sure, the Middle East (I would add: especially the wasteland of Palestine) is The Graveyard of Empires.
Why had Canaanites ended up in Egypt in the first place in great numbers? Necessity mingled with opportunity. The Bible Unearthed, hb p 52.
Take a guess....
Who Wrote The Bible, pb p 196, 82,
The Bible Unearthed, hb p 52.
As Rufus Fears recounted, an old observation I am sure, the Middle East (I would add: especially the wasteland of Palestine) is The Graveyard of Empires.
Why had Canaanites ended up in Egypt in the first place in great numbers? Necessity mingled with opportunity. The Bible Unearthed, hb p 52.
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY LIKE SO MANY OTHERS
has been more or less a zero, like several presidents on the run up to the Civil War.
Endemic political structural drift.
Endemic political structural drift.
1 percent of Australia being sold to China
It is bigger than Ireland.
China has already bought enormous minerals in Australia.
Smell the coffee. Game over.
China has already bought enormous minerals in Australia.
Smell the coffee. Game over.
RE FASCISM NOT OUR PROBLEM
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2016/04/re-fascism-is-not-our-problem.html
Following up on the above post, what if the turn toward fascism here turns out to be a walkover of the liberal bipartisan establishment, without even a full development of a violent radical left?
After all, the right has been slamming the liberal, so called vital, center, very effectively, for decades now.
Following up on the above post, what if the turn toward fascism here turns out to be a walkover of the liberal bipartisan establishment, without even a full development of a violent radical left?
After all, the right has been slamming the liberal, so called vital, center, very effectively, for decades now.
Monday, April 18, 2016
FOR BLITT PRIMATES PARK AVENUE STAND YOUR GROUND
We show a scene from the side at the climax:
A nearby street sign says " Park "
A sidewalk confrontation viewed from the street, side view.
A Queen Bee red bag lady has charged a nobody blue bag girl.
The Queen is standing threateningly over her whom she has just knocked down into the street from the sidewalk on her back.
The blue bag girl, on the ground, has pulled her piece, now holding with both hands, and is discharging it upward toward her assailant, point blank, while lying on her back in the street.
(Maybe she misses! See Randall Collins' current post, micro sociology. Excerpt:
This explains another, as yet little recognized pattern: when violence actually happens, it is usually incompetent. Most of the times people fire a gun at a human target, they miss; their shots go wide, they hit the wrong person, sometimes a bystander, sometimes friendly fire on their own side. This is a product of the situation, the confrontation. We know this because the accuracy of soldiers and police on firing ranges is much higher than when firing at a human target. We can pin this down further; inhibition in live firing declines with greater distance; artillery troops are more reliable than infantry with small arms, so are fighter and bomber crews and navy crews; it is not the statistical chances of being killed or injured by the enemy that makes close-range fighters incompetent. At the other end of the spectrum, very close face-to-face confrontation makes firing even more inaccurate; shootings at a distance of less than 2 meters are extremely inaccurate.)
Their dogs are peeing on each other nearby.
A nearby street sign says " Park "
A sidewalk confrontation viewed from the street, side view.
A Queen Bee red bag lady has charged a nobody blue bag girl.
The Queen is standing threateningly over her whom she has just knocked down into the street from the sidewalk on her back.
The blue bag girl, on the ground, has pulled her piece, now holding with both hands, and is discharging it upward toward her assailant, point blank, while lying on her back in the street.
(Maybe she misses! See Randall Collins' current post, micro sociology. Excerpt:
This explains another, as yet little recognized pattern: when violence actually happens, it is usually incompetent. Most of the times people fire a gun at a human target, they miss; their shots go wide, they hit the wrong person, sometimes a bystander, sometimes friendly fire on their own side. This is a product of the situation, the confrontation. We know this because the accuracy of soldiers and police on firing ranges is much higher than when firing at a human target. We can pin this down further; inhibition in live firing declines with greater distance; artillery troops are more reliable than infantry with small arms, so are fighter and bomber crews and navy crews; it is not the statistical chances of being killed or injured by the enemy that makes close-range fighters incompetent. At the other end of the spectrum, very close face-to-face confrontation makes firing even more inaccurate; shootings at a distance of less than 2 meters are extremely inaccurate.)
Their dogs are peeing on each other nearby.
RE WHAT HAS MICRO-SOCIOLOGY ACCOMPLISHED?
Re primates, bonobos, violence, etc.
See Collins' most recent post. Great stuff.
See Collins' most recent post. Great stuff.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
RE FASCISM IS NOT OUR PROBLEM
Some discussion re Weimar may be instructive...
Were a Republican elected, even with a Republican Congress, he would most likely face social disorder from extremists in and out of his own party on the Right, in the first instance, because they are much more violent, well armed, and organized in opposition to any federal government, whereas Democrats are less violent, not well armed, and not opposed to a federal government.
Similarly, the Social Democrats, the party in power in Weimar faced determined violent opposition in the first instance from German extremists on their left although they were a left leaning party. (If I say anything erroneous here, Professor Kaiser can perhaps set me straight with a post on his blog.)
As Kennan pointed out in 'The Rise Of Hitler', in Russia and The West Under Lenin And Stalin, this German extremist left group was supported heavily by the Soviet Communists after 1928, and stayed that way until WWII really began, even though the rise of fascism should have been something to cause Stalin, of all people, great alarm.
Were a Republican elected, even with a Republican Congress, he would most likely face social disorder from extremists in and out of his own party on the Right, in the first instance, because they are much more violent, well armed, and organized in opposition to any federal government, whereas Democrats are less violent, not well armed, and not opposed to a federal government.
Similarly, the Social Democrats, the party in power in Weimar faced determined violent opposition in the first instance from German extremists on their left although they were a left leaning party. (If I say anything erroneous here, Professor Kaiser can perhaps set me straight with a post on his blog.)
As Kennan pointed out in 'The Rise Of Hitler', in Russia and The West Under Lenin And Stalin, this German extremist left group was supported heavily by the Soviet Communists after 1928, and stayed that way until WWII really began, even though the rise of fascism should have been something to cause Stalin, of all people, great alarm.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
RE THE BIG SHORT Thurston POSTPOSTSCRIPT
"HUD is a federal agency led by Julián Castro that is supposed to “create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.” HUD’s “Distressed Asset Stabilization Program” (DASP) is supposed to help homeowners stay in their homes. Instead, under Julián Castro’s leadership, this program has been a huge giveaway to Wall Street.
"In 2015, 98% of the homes sold under this program went to Wall Street (15,309 out of 15,624). These homes were also sold to Wall Street at steep discounts, averaging 45% off for some of the biggest banks in Wall Street. What’s worse, a majority of the loans went to The Blackstone Group, a huge private equity company notorious for its foreclosures. Blackstone tenants have dealt with roach infestations, harassment, and even attempts at illegal evictions."
Friday, April 15, 2016
RE FASCISM IS NOT OUR PROBLEM
If as DK says the US suffers from some of the same problems as the Weimar Republic, even though he convincingly contrasts our situation with that one in terms of widespread street violence of right and left, why then is not Fascism, after all, also our problem, if not now, then real soon?
FOR BLITT HOW ABOUT CRUZ AND TRUMP IN A BOXING RING FINAL CAMPAIGN ROUNDS
Trump, as a fagged Macaire, in a smoker, is almost on his back in his corner, half facing viewer, Cruz is a Daumier midget and still a frisky bantam, in mid ring, half turned away.
RE SPENDING BILL PENSION CUTS OUTRAGE
Remember what Thurston had asked in Boca:
Who do you think they will bail out, you or me?
Who do you think they will bail out, you or me?
Thursday, April 14, 2016
RE US CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM DEFINITION
What really was it?
Small to medium size landowner or other property owner, antiestablishment, undemocratic, civil libertarian, localism.
Small to medium size landowner or other property owner, antiestablishment, undemocratic, civil libertarian, localism.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
RE ROBERT REICH UNSEATING SITTING REPUBLICAN SENATORS TURNSTILE DEMOCRACY
Whom does he want elected? Democrats, who, under similar circumstances, would do, and have in the past done, against Republicans, the same.
FDR'S court packing plan showed a little initiative, but would ultimately have merely resulted in more lifetime justices, gotten the same old way.
FDR'S court packing plan showed a little initiative, but would ultimately have merely resulted in more lifetime justices, gotten the same old way.
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