RE DK CURRENT POST

"But Trump could still win, and the United States will still face huge problems even if he loses, because of the almost complete disconnect between our leading economic and intellectual classes on the one hand, and the mass of the American people on the other.  The divide can't help but remind me of France in 1789 or Russia in 1917, and it is up to our leaders to start to close it."

We don't have any real classes here, economic or otherwise, and certainly no intellectual classes to speak of, and frankly never have. They, Trump etc., and certain intellectuals, can kid themselves......  

Sadly, all that was left behind by the rebellion against Britain in 1776.

WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY NEW GUESTS

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Who knows.

RE YELLIN INTEREST RATES

Why raise rates, when you are in a permanent globalization trap?

Terms search: inflation deflation, red herrings, convergence.

RE WHY THE ECONOMIC PAYOFF FROM TECHNOLOGY IS SO ELUSIVE THINK PEACE DIVIDEND

Because it never existed.

Just the latest fad that was designed to enrich only some people,  IT execs, etc., and poor manufacturers and assemblers, many of them elsewhere.

Reminds me of what used to be called a peace dividend. 
What a dream world.

As chimerical as a ' war dividend ' for most US wars, really....
The Romans had apparently asked, first, "what is there there worth having?"

ENLIGHTENMENT VERSUS RELIGION

At the dawn of the Enlightenment, popular religion, both Western Europe and Orthodoxy, were still very much based on omens, miracles, and witchcraft, even in Protestant areas of the book.

However, enlightened persons began to call all religion superstition. 

Yet, on the other hand, they also wanted popular religious observance to continue to serve the interests of the state in keeping order and obedience in society, and of those in rewarding clerical positions in church hierarchies. 

THE BOURGEOISIE enlightenment fallacies

It turns out that this so called class (an anachronism in itself) had more to do with the disastrous Reformation than with the, later, problematic Enlightenment. Wuthnow p 566, 567.

Amen

RE ENLIGHTENMENT FALLACIES BOURGEOIS INITIATIVE

...the first people who tried to translate the enlightenment ideas into practice were members of the government, all of whom, apart from Necker, were nobles.

http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2013/06/re-wuthnows-discussion-of-cultural.html

THE ENLIGHTENMENT BEGAN IT SEEMS

in anti clericalism. 

Even this statement is not very revealing, by itself.

RE ENLIGHTENMENT

It is hundreds of years past time to get a little clarity on this most slippery of intellectual, historical, and political ideas.

Professor Kaiser has discussed the term, as set out in his posts below.

It is a very difficult term to begin to get clear about.

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/search?q=enlightenment

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2014/02/new-worlds-emerging.html

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2011/06/kindred-spirit.html

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-is-happening-to-israel.html

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-emerging-new-world.html

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2013/05/peace-at-last.html

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-chancellor-said.html

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2012/05/bad-news-good-news.html

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-new-world-disorder.html

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2016/02/institutional-failure.html

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-hegelian-president.html

RANDALL COLLINS' CURRENT POST WELL WORTH IT

What Has Micro - Sociology Accomplished?

NPR RE GORILLA VERSUS CHILD ANIMAL RIGHTS DREW PEARSON LIBERAL FALLACY

Say no more.

LET'S PUT IT THIS WAY

If your criterion, for razing cities by area bombardment, then deindustrializing, and agrarianizing a whole population of a nation state, were the presence there of rampant, state sponsored, violent anti Semitism, as it seems to have been for FDR and Morgenthau, and Lindemann in Britain, then certainly France, and Paris especially, amply had already met that criterion, both before, during, and after the Dreyfus Affair. 

Most cities, and countries, in Europe also qualified at various times.

Czarist Russia, and its capitol Moscow, also amply met that criterion, at all times in modern history.

Likewise Austria Hungary, and Vienna.

Certainly Rome, and Italy.

Spain had removed its Jews in 1492, and mostly kept them out, so did not face these challenges others later faced. For having removed them in 1492, it later deserved razing on these criteria.

RE WHY THE US DROPPED ATOMIC BOMBS IN 1945 MORGENTHAU PLAN CONNECTION ETC

Following up on several related themes: DK's last paragraph in the current Time post, unconditional surrender, Bomber Harris, Frederick Lindemann, whether it was an American or a British idea, the Anglo German antagonism going back to the 19th Century, FDR who had long hated Germans (see Beschloss, The Conquerors), continuing fallout from the Boer War, Cecil Rhodes and company, there is some scholarly analysis of the problems raised by area bombing.  It is not always done by historians it seems. This may be a good thing.

I found a reference to a book by A C Grayling, and his article on it, see link below.

I had read a short book by him on Wittgenstein, about 30 years ago.

Terms search this blog: Morgenthau

http://www.newstatesman.com/node/163806

RE AREA BOMBING WWII

The man behind this scientific initiative was apparently Frederick Lindemann, a Jewish Oxfordian physicist.

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER FDR

"The use of the term was revived during World War II at the Casablanca conference in January 1943 when American President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) sprang it on the other Allies and the press as the objective of the war against the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan.^[5] And, when President Roosevelt suddenly announced this surrender condition at Casablanca, he did so referencing U.S. Grant and the fact that the famous general's initials, since the Civil War, had also come to stand for "Unconditional Surrender"." Wikipedia

See Wikipedia for more on it.

RE DK CURRENT POST IN TIME MAGAZINE

His last paragraph is, for me, especially important, because it discusses a topic seldom addressed openly here in a public forum, at least to my limited knowledge. "...No historian, to my knowledge...." DK

This was, after all, one age old criticism of the excesses of democracies, especially those at war.

Another aspect is one commented upon many times by others, the demand for unconditional surrender; but that, by itself, does not really explain a rationale for bombing entire cities, really.

RE DK POST PAX MONGOLICA POWER AND PLENTY

"Taking an even broader view, the era of the two world wars in Europe has been described as the second Thirty Years War, lasting from 1914 through 1945.  A similarly broad view of the conflict in the Middle East would go back at least to the fall of the Shah in 1979, as Andrew Bacevich's new book does--and 30 years from 1979 would have brought us to 2009.  I think it would very optimistic to suggest that the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia will be at peace by 2029." DK

I say this tongue in cheek, but they could be in so called peace by 2029, but it would be something like what some globalist trade economic historians honestly, and fondly, call a ' Pax Mongolica '. See Power And Plenty

Terms search this blog: Pax Mongolica, Mongolia

audience today snapshot

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RE NYT TODAY KOSOVO CF AMERICAN INTERVENTION AGAINST SERBIA

What an utterly retarded intervention that was, in retrospect.

As this article says, they want to create a Caliphate once again, but up to the gates of Vienna, as it stood until the 18th Century, 

rather than just in the middle east, as Professor Kaiser's current article, in Time, now asserts.

SEE NYT A REVOLVING DOOR TO MUSCLE OUT FANNIE FREDDIE

The article today hides the ball, described better back in 2015.

Terms search this blog: Michael Lewis, The Big Short

RE NYT DECAPITATED CHURCHES CHINA

To me, this is a triumph.

The whole Christian mission to places like China was misguided from the beginning.

RE TRUMP LIBERALISM NEW YORKER

Quoted from Randy Fertel's site:

"One can argue about whether to call him a fascist or an authoritarian populist or a grotesque joke made in a nightmare shared between Philip K. Dick and Tom Wolfe, but under any label Trump is a declared enemy of the liberal constitutional order of the United States—the order that has made it, in fact, the great and plural country that it already is."

Unfortunately, regardless about Trump this or that, the liberal constitutional order, transformed into the liberal international economic order, has shown itself now to have been a failure, and more than that, a disaster, for Western civilization as it had been know up to 1750, both economically and, more importantly, culturally.

audience posts so far today

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RE DK POST CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION AND CLASSIC... May 20, 2016	5
RE DK current post May 8, 2016	1
audience snapshot today May 18, 2016 Entry Pageviews United States 13 China 1 Russia 1

RE DK POST CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION AND CLASSICAL MUSIC THEN AND NOW

He mentions among other more important things, re totalitarianism, that Mao had banned Western classical music.

He says that these events have an even greater world historical significance, words to that effect....

He does not utter their real significance, in my view, at that point, the civilizational character of the situation. He sounds very much like a Francis Fukuyama Hegelian there......world historical, etc., etc.

In view of the virtual take over, now, of Western classical music, and much of Western entertainment companies in general, by Asians, I cannot say that that, Mao's ban, was that bad a thing for him to have done, and wish that the spirit of insular musical nationalism had remained strong in China, and the rest of Asia, really. 

The recent influence of the Asian market on the American film industry, for instance, has been culturally and spiritually catastrophic for what little is now left of the West.

Ditto Japan, somewhat earlier, from the late 1940s really. The disastrous and ubiquitous influence of Suzuki Music here is the classic example of that, in the classical string music context.

audience snapshot today

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RE PIKETTY CAPITALISM

"...Above all, they have shut their eyes to the basic fact of capitalism, as elucidated two years ago by Thomas Piketty: that the natural processes of capitalism make capital grow faster than the economy as a whole...." DK

'The economy', unfortunately, begs the question of the meaning of 'growth'.

With modern globalization, the concept of a national economy itself became obsolete. 

Everyone here, since WWI, Wilson, wanted to render the nation state obsolete. They succeeded.

This is the key problem with Piketty, he avoids the 800 pound economic gorilla of globalization, and especially of economic income convergence, in the room.

I have made this point already on this blog. Terms search: Piketty

THE ENLIGHTENMENT TARZAN

The misanthropy of Burroughs had long been prefigured in Rousseau.

Burroughs' hero, Tarzan, is actually, in early life and upbringing, a pre human ape, a fitting beginning for a truly Rousseau esque figure.

Of course, this Enlightenment worm turned, too:

Robespierre

THIS IS FOR YOU HONEY

Google search:  mocking gentile culture Woody Allen

There are some obtuse articles....

The important thing, though, is not W A 'scholarship', 

or a gentile Jewish racial theme or themes, 

but rather that he has never been very funny. Ever.

He has terrible directorial instincts.

His forays into so called philosophy are pathetic.

His private life has been an abomination. 

Did I leave anything crucial out?

He has bad taste in women. 

Sorry but not sorry.

THE COMMON MAN A DEMOCRATIC CHIMERA

"Since at least 1828, every major party has claimed to stand for the interests of the common man and woman, and parties have lost favor when their promises seemed to be completely empty." DK 

RE DK CURRENT POST

"...Above all, they have shut their eyes to the basic fact of capitalism, as elucidated two years ago by Thomas Piketty: that the natural processes of capitalism make capital grow faster than the economy as a whole.  That is the biggest single reason why inequality has been increasing in the United States, and it will continue to increase, as Bernie Sanders alone among the major candidates understands, unless the government intervenes drastically in the economy, most notably by increasing marginal tax rates...." DK

The terrible thing, and the even bigger reason, about our capitalism, known for 6 or 7 decades now by a few, is that it eliminates the nation state itself, and the integrity of a so called nation state economy, altogether.

NYC JUNE 4

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154167078774402&set=pcb.10154167081969402&type=3

THE NEXT LIBERAL SHOE TO DROP

Fundamental trisexual rights. Quadrad marriage.

RE IT FALLOUT FROM THE WWW AND MARKET CANNIBALISM WHISTLE BLOWING SNOWDEN ETC

How about this:
I know nothing about this subject, but certain thing jump out at you.
If you are a private IT contractor now, for military contracts, and you require a security clearance for that contract, even a low level one, you are basically, really, if not technically legally, a paramilitary mercenary, preferably subject to martial law, not a private citizen agent/employee subject to civil (common, US) law.

CHINESE POLICE NOW PATROL ROME FLORENCE THE THIN WEDGE HOW ABOUT WHITEHALL

Every foreign country which cannot speak Italian should have its police patrolling Italy.

Americans, EU, India, Russia, Africa, Israel, Japan, etc, all should be able to control policing in weak iffy places like Italy.

Get ready.

Why not have Putin invite Chinese police to patrol Moscow for them?

How well do you think that would work.

How about having Muslims patrolling Jerusalem, to protect them?

Maybe the Queen could ask the Chinese to patrol Whitehall and the rest of London to protect Chinese tourists.

RE PENTAGON TURNS TO SILICON VALLEY

Please.

Smell the coffee. 
Game over, decades ago.

IN THE OLD DAYS

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.

THE MENU APPARENTLY PLENTY OF AMERICANS

now, secretly, obtain and drink human blood, supposedly therapeutically.

That is cannibalism. 

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?

MANGER FAIRE

THE ROOSKIES ARE STAYING!

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POST ENLIGHTENMENT FREE MARKET CANNIBALISM

This will be a new theme to flesh out.

Ho Ho Ho!

The Enlightenment worm always turns on itself....

THE ROOSKIES ARE BACK

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