YOUR PEERS SKELETAL GROWN LITTLE RASCALS DRESSED FOR MEDIANATION
Alfalfa is the tall one. Spanky on the left, Buckwheat between them. Darla, standing at right. Porky, seated.
The new S & H Heroic generation.
BOOMERBUSTER
OLD CELLO
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
YOUR MEDIATION TEAM
YOUR PEERS SKELETAL GROWN LITTLE RASCALS DRESSED FOR MEDIANATION
Alfalfa is the tall one. Spanky on the left, Buckwheat between them. Darla, standing at right. Porky, seated.
The new S & H Heroic generation.
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
PREHUMAN HOMINID WHIG DIALOGUE THE MENU
Why do you let your meat rot?
Because we haven't learned how to make fire.
Because we haven't learned how to make fire.
DK CURRENT POST PURITAN INTELLECTUALS
"...Near the beginning of his book, Hofstadter distinguished between "intelligence," which Americans always praised, and "intellect," a quality that had come under attack from Republicans in the Eisenhower era--not, as his book aimed to show, for the first time. "Intellect," he wrote, ". . .is the critical, creative and contemplative side of mind. Whereas intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, adjust, intellect examines, ponders, theorizes, criticizes, imagines. Intelligence will seize the immediate meaning in a situation and evaluate it. Intellect evaluates evaluations, and looks for the meanings of situations as a whole." Intellectuals, one might conclude, see issues in broad perspective, and not least in broad historical perspective, as Hofstadter constantly did and as I continually try to do here and elsewhere...." DK
Why not just call them Puritans, rather than Calvinists, although related?
Can one characterize the Puritan fathers as intellectuals? I guess in a sense they may have been, but not in the sense DK uses the term in the 21st Century. See Starr, p 51, last paragraph.
See Staloff, The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts.
LEONHARDT DEFICITS DON'T MATTER EITHER SEE KRUGMAN GRANT
They don't think zero interest rates matter either.
Nothing can be allowed to get in the way of globalization.
More globalization please, to paraphrase Brooks on free trade.
Milestones on the road to The Globalization Trap.
What matters this or that reason to let interest rates fluctuate, resist deficit spending, or oppose free trade?
The imperialist and nationalist mercantilism which had made Europe, and especially England, great in the first place, had meant imperial preferences, monopolies, and later, dumping and technology hoarding, to forestall industrialization in less developed civilizations, or even competition from other European powers.
All were very good policies now gone by the board. The term 'trade', below, did not mean what we now usually mean:
"As General Monck put it with military directness in demanding a renewal of war against the Dutch in 1662: ‘What matters this or that reason? What we want is more of the trade the Dutch now have.’ Trade meant wealth, wealth enabled one to wage war, war made possible yet more trade: who could resist the lure of this logic?”
“The British Way In Warfare: A Reappraisal”, The Causes Of War, Howard, 1983.
What matters this or that reason to let interest rates fluctuate, resist deficit spending, or oppose free trade?
The imperialist and nationalist mercantilism which had made Europe, and especially England, great in the first place, had meant imperial preferences, monopolies, and later, dumping and technology hoarding, to forestall industrialization in less developed civilizations, or even competition from other European powers.
All were very good policies now gone by the board. The term 'trade', below, did not mean what we now usually mean:
"As General Monck put it with military directness in demanding a renewal of war against the Dutch in 1662: ‘What matters this or that reason? What we want is more of the trade the Dutch now have.’ Trade meant wealth, wealth enabled one to wage war, war made possible yet more trade: who could resist the lure of this logic?”
“The British Way In Warfare: A Reappraisal”, The Causes Of War, Howard, 1983.
Monday, April 16, 2018
RE KRUGMAN GRANT SIMON SAYS ECONOMICS THE CASE FOR OFFSHORING ECONOMISTS
RE: No Time For Credibility
Krugman has advocated infrastructure investment...
Krugman has advocated infrastructure investment...
That seems to make sense, until you look at the structure of blind globalization, which he has also, flatly wrongly, also long advocated......
Then, it, domestic infrastructure investment, makes no sense, anymore: then your best investment in infrastructure is where you get the most bang for the buck, but that's not here anymore.
Another little problem Krugman has had is that his zero interest rate advocacy has generated almost zero federally funded infrastructure, except a very small amount of the wrong kind.
On the other hand, it has, once again, generated all kinds of large scale, private sector, bubble like, investments, everywhere in the world.
Another little problem Krugman has had is that his zero interest rate advocacy has generated almost zero federally funded infrastructure, except a very small amount of the wrong kind.
On the other hand, it has, once again, generated all kinds of large scale, private sector, bubble like, investments, everywhere in the world.
Grant objected to zero interest rates, not to discourage good cheap domestic infrastructure investment per se, but rather for other very good reasons, like how can you tell whether a private (or public) sector investment (domestic and or foreign, infrastructure or not) is worthwhile or not, with zero interest rates.
Bottom line: Krugman has long known that his profession is bottomed on pure sophistry, and he cynically plays it that way, having also learned that the average government Joe has no idea whether what he is talking about is true, and has no way of finding out one way or the other for sure from anyone else.
I should acknowledge that I am not a special fan of Grant, either, except that I like his style of exposition and argument, but let us save that story for another post.
MY UNCLE ROBERT MACAIRE
Saturday, August 14, 2010
RE GAC AND THE GREAT GULF AMERICAN REAL ESTATE MARKET
Just a few words, of a journalistic sort, regarding my charming uncle, the late R J Thomas.
He had been a lieutenant colonel in WW II apparently, so he was not really a slouch, as individuals go.
After the war he hooked up with an outfit out of Allentown Pennsylvania, known as General Acceptance Corporation. Apparently he held several high executive posts with GAC, including Director of Personnel, and others which my mother, (the only knowledgeable family left) remembers. I recall getting a ride in their corporate jet back in the 60s; we actually flew over Washington I believe, en route to Florida. They lived in a split (4) level, in a fancy subdivision outside Allentown, surrounded by corn fields. He used to have a rather full glass of scotch with his rather large cigar.
He was so talented that he could swizzle the ice cubes, floating at the top of the glass with the index finger of the hand itself holding the glass, while of course gesturing with the cigar in the other hand, at the same time.
He used to go around the house in the early morning in full length pajamas and a fancy silk lapelled and cuffed smoking jacket, with cigar, looking very much like Winston Churchill, as well as Robert Macaire. They were all three rather plump.
GAC became a holding company, and had investments and subsidiaries of all kinds, all across the country. My uncle worked closely with the son of the founder, a young Yale graduate, after the war.
They were not, early on, into real estate, but had made some name for themselves as a diversified 'turn around' holding company.
They eventually acquired Gulf American Land Development Corporation, a very large, fraudulent, land sales organization, run by the Rosen brothers, out of Miami, who had come down from Baltimore, which in effect became a subsidiary, GAC Properties.
This entity continued the fraudulent practices of its predecessor while now a part of my uncle's holding company.
Needless to say, it did not turn out well for any of them.
Previous real estate posts contain references to articles on the land deals they conducted, in many states, until they went bankrupt in the 70s.
The story is really emblematic of both corporate America, and regulatory America, together.
He had been a lieutenant colonel in WW II apparently, so he was not really a slouch, as individuals go.
After the war he hooked up with an outfit out of Allentown Pennsylvania, known as General Acceptance Corporation. Apparently he held several high executive posts with GAC, including Director of Personnel, and others which my mother, (the only knowledgeable family left) remembers. I recall getting a ride in their corporate jet back in the 60s; we actually flew over Washington I believe, en route to Florida. They lived in a split (4) level, in a fancy subdivision outside Allentown, surrounded by corn fields. He used to have a rather full glass of scotch with his rather large cigar.
He was so talented that he could swizzle the ice cubes, floating at the top of the glass with the index finger of the hand itself holding the glass, while of course gesturing with the cigar in the other hand, at the same time.
He used to go around the house in the early morning in full length pajamas and a fancy silk lapelled and cuffed smoking jacket, with cigar, looking very much like Winston Churchill, as well as Robert Macaire. They were all three rather plump.
GAC became a holding company, and had investments and subsidiaries of all kinds, all across the country. My uncle worked closely with the son of the founder, a young Yale graduate, after the war.
They were not, early on, into real estate, but had made some name for themselves as a diversified 'turn around' holding company.
They eventually acquired Gulf American Land Development Corporation, a very large, fraudulent, land sales organization, run by the Rosen brothers, out of Miami, who had come down from Baltimore, which in effect became a subsidiary, GAC Properties.
This entity continued the fraudulent practices of its predecessor while now a part of my uncle's holding company.
Needless to say, it did not turn out well for any of them.
Previous real estate posts contain references to articles on the land deals they conducted, in many states, until they went bankrupt in the 70s.
The story is really emblematic of both corporate America, and regulatory America, together.
RE SOCIAL MEDIA PERSONAL INFO SCANDALS RADICAL SOLUTION TECHECTOMIES
Now, on top of economist offshoring, we need techectomies!
These also involve, guess what, IT and techie social media pundits and execs, Facebook, Google, Amazon, offshoring!
Terms search: techectomy, techectomies
I actually coined these terms...
Friday, November 11, 2016
TECHECTOMY CONFERENCE
This is really the kind of conference that is needed.
These could be coupled, for economy of conferencing,
with Economist Offshoring Colloquia.
These could be coupled, for economy of conferencing,
with Economist Offshoring Colloquia.
These Colloquia would have, as the main agenda item, how best to offshore economists to places where they can continue to live under humane conditions, but do less damage to existing societies. Rather like Napoleon imprisoned on the island of Elba.
Sunday, April 15, 2018
THE MENU PICKLED OR FLAVORED MEAT IMPROV PASTRAMI SALAMI ETC REVERSE RETARDED MARINADE
This is not for everyone.
I pickle, or rather, season, meat, again, sometimes, only after having already cooked it.
It seems a backward thing to even think of doing, but beileve it or not, there are reasons for it.
I don't really think of it, strictly, as a leftover, because I do something else with it, during refrigerated storage, that transforms it.
Say you have a portion of a beef, lamb, or pork roast. What do you do with it. You can simply refridgerate it as is. That is one option.
What I do, sometimes, is to place some of it, chunks of it, fitted tightly into a big jar, into which I pour some leftover pickle juice from pepperoncinis, capers, artichokes, pickles, or even active probiotic sauerkraut juice, some raw onion, garlic, spices, or something else, even also a little wine or sherry maybe, to cover, and just let that sit, at least overnight, in the fridge.
What do you then do with it?
You treat it like pastrami, salami, corned beef, sauerbraten, or chunked pate, or even, say, pork cassoulet without the beans (sacrilege!)
Why do I do such a cray thing? One reason is that the pickle or probiotic juice breaks down the meat and makes it more digestible. it also makes it more flavorful than if such liquids are cooked with the meat and thus lose their flavor and probiotic qualities.
Anyway, most people won't follow this, or ever see it anyway.
Why do I do such a cray thing? One reason is that the pickle or probiotic juice breaks down the meat and makes it more digestible. it also makes it more flavorful than if such liquids are cooked with the meat and thus lose their flavor and probiotic qualities.
Anyway, most people won't follow this, or ever see it anyway.
KITTY GENOVESE JOSHUA BELL NYT MARTIN GANSBERG WASHINGTON POST GENE WEINGARTEN
Similar cynical media manipulation of social themes, different day.
PEARLS BEFORE BREAKFAST
PEARLS BEFORE BREAKFAST
See: Wikipedia, Murder of Kitty Genovese, (Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media, eg p. 133 James Gordon Bennett's Helen Jewett Murder Story)
Terms search: Bobbitt, Genovese
One might also note that there are perhaps similar ethnic subtexts to each story (not the Jewett Story, which is about sensationalistic fictionalization, and other things, in Starr's account): that gentile multiculturalist culture is soulless, shallow, heartless, and artless, by contrast with Jewish community norms. Merely the title of the Bell piece itself suggests what I am suggesting.
Let's also put it this way: the Genovese piece was not criticizing the ethos of the liberal New York Jewish community, but rather that of the various non Jewish ethnic communities of greater New York.
Let's also put it this way: the Genovese piece was not criticizing the ethos of the liberal New York Jewish community, but rather that of the various non Jewish ethnic communities of greater New York.
PERHAPS THIS VIEW WAS PROMPTED BY CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES CAUSING THE TAIPING CIVIL WAR
'"(As for the United States) for a relatively long time it will be absolutely necessary that we quietly nurse our sense of vengeance....We must conceal our abilities and bide our time."--Lieutenant General Mi Zhenyu, Vice Commandant, Academy of Military Sciences, Beijing.'
Or perhaps prompted by identifying America with Britain. An innocent mistake.
After all, maybe only 100,000,000 Chinese died, and tens of millions more fled or were exiled, throughout Asia really.
Its effects rather like that of the Jews being expelled in enormous numbers from Czarist Russia into Europe.
After all, maybe only 100,000,000 Chinese died, and tens of millions more fled or were exiled, throughout Asia really.
Its effects rather like that of the Jews being expelled in enormous numbers from Czarist Russia into Europe.
What matters this or that reason?
After all, Germany sent Lenin into Czarist Russia.
We merely sent Baptists into China.
Very innocent, what.
The Baptists thought they were doing them a huge favor!
Saving their infidel barbarian souls!
How can you disagree with that!
After all, Germany sent Lenin into Czarist Russia.
We merely sent Baptists into China.
Very innocent, what.
The Baptists thought they were doing them a huge favor!
Saving their infidel barbarian souls!
How can you disagree with that!
RE DUSTY MAVERICK
Thursday, September 1, 2016
RE YALE MAVERICK IN LEADERSHIP AWARD
Many here think such a concept as a maverick executive is a sort of social science anachronism.
http://som.yale.edu/news/2016/06/chief-executive-leadership-institute-honor-zhang-ruimin-haier-group-with-legend-leadership-award-and-alan-patricof-greycroft-partners-with-maverick-leadership-award
I just make this up as I go along.............
http://som.yale.edu/news/2016/06/chief-executive-leadership-institute-honor-zhang-ruimin-haier-group-with-legend-leadership-award-and-alan-patricof-greycroft-partners-with-maverick-leadership-award
I just make this up as I go along.............
2017 CHINA JAPAN GLOBAL CITIZENS
Saturday, October 21, 2017
CHINA AS GLOBAL CITIZEN
It really is a sort of similar thing to what I was saying, back then, about Japan's intentions, which remain the same, 30 years ago now, all over again, but now in a much much more serious situation, going forward, than 1985.
http://williamacallahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10Callahan-TX-ISR-08.pdf
Take a look at p 750. This was cited in Pillsbury, Ch 1 fn 36
Here is an especially wholesome and charming passsage about global citizenship:
In current discussions of world order, it is popular to see traditional China as a benevolent and magnanimous empire that provided peace and stability for centuries before the arrival of Western imperialism in the nineteenth century. This narrative is now used in Chinese and Western IR texts to explain why China is not a threat to world order in the twenty-first century (Li 1999; Zhang 2001;Kang 2007). Yet this comparison of a war-mongering Westphalian Europe with a peace-loving imperial China employs a very narrow definition of ‘‘war’’ as an inter-state phenomena, and a very shallow understanding of China’s historical experience (Kang 2003:65–66; Hui 2008). Actually, the Chinese state was oftenengaged in violent interactions with states and semi-states along its frontiers. In its first century, the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) expanded massively in the west, including a struggle over the northwest frontier with Czarist Russia and the Mongolian Zunghar state that lasted into the 1770s. Rather than being a case of Western imperial incursion into China (as it is presented in China’s modernhistory textbooks), this episode is better understood as a violent struggle between three empires—the Manchu Qing, Czarist Russia, and the Mongolian Zunghar—which resulted in the annihilation of the Zunghar as a people...
MALI MILITANTS ATTACK DISGUISED AS UN PEACEKEEPERS
Attack many French and UN soldiers, etc.
Great stuff.
Timbuktu, one of my favorite holiday spots!
Killing field for UN postings.
Saturday, April 14, 2018
RE BROOKS A RENAISSANCE ON THE RIGHT LOCKE WHIG AMERICAN HISTORY
Regarding this very longstanding nonsense re Locke, etc., see especially Clark, English Society 1688-1832, Index, Locke. The Whig interpretation placed on Locke by American pundits like Brooks, and going all the way back to founding fathers' interpretations in the mid 18th Century, needs to be examined in light of British history during the 17th and 18th Centuries. See especially Clark's discussion at the bottom of p 57 and 58, and Locke's contradiction, p 62.
Re Rousseau, there are many possible references, always bearing in mind that Locke and Rousseau are both, nevertheless, so called Enlightenment figures.
One would think that there would be a corresponding renaissance (of ignorance) on the Left, and so I suspect there is.
Our right, and left, are each emanations of Enlightenment confusions.
Individualism and globalism feed off of each other, at least in the West, are two sides in some ways of the one coin seldom acknowledged.
Terms search: Rousseau
Individualism and globalism feed off of each other, at least in the West, are two sides in some ways of the one coin seldom acknowledged.
Terms search: Rousseau
KRUGMAN FROM FLIMFLAM TO FASCISM
Terms search: Ryan, Ryanomics, hung
Here's just one example of prior posts referring to Ryan:
Here's just one example of prior posts referring to Ryan:
Friday, August 6, 2010
RE THE FLIMFLAM MAN, AND SAY, RYAN CARTOON
My favorite line was "David Brooks is off today."
That is indeed cause for celebration, and 'news', and,
great that the times can find space for such as that line.
Krugman has some good points.
Why not show Ryan doing something even more idiotic, like reinstituting Hawley-Smoot, after the production horse has left the barn?
A propos the 'companion' story on Hung, (related themes), why not put the two together, nouveau cuisine?
Mise en Scene for a cartoon:
Show Hung, lolling in cutoffs in an open glade, dishevelled but good looking, disconsolately next to his pimp, and or one of his female colleagues, getting advice on how to act with his female economist client:
The Caption above reads: "Hung Ryanomics: Ryan-Smoot-Hawley"
The caption below reads:
"If you really want to get out of there, tell her you think they should reinstitute Hawley-Smoot. Never mind what it means, just say it."
In the near background is his burned out bungalow, and an enormous Mcmansion next door, with the words "Detroit/Chicago School" prominent somewhere.
PRE HUMAN CANNIBAL HUMILITY WHIG ENLIGHTENMENT PRAYER
(translated)
Thank you, God, for this morsel.
Maybe he was a better man than I.
I don't know, but you do.
This post dedicated to David Brooks and to his students at Yale.
Thank you, God, for this morsel.
Maybe he was a better man than I.
I don't know, but you do.
This post dedicated to David Brooks and to his students at Yale.
Friday, April 13, 2018
WHY I'VE LONG SAID WE'RE TOAST YOU CAN TAKE THESE TO THE BANK
We can't fight our way out.
We can't trade our way out.
We can't untrade our way out.
We can't negotiate our way out.
We can't alliance our way out.
We can't isolate ourselves out.
We can't domestic politics our way out.
We can't think tank or media pundit our way out.
We can't expert our way out.
We can't intellectual our way out.
We can't anti intellectual our way out.
We can't think our way out.
We can't US government our way out.
We can't state government our way out.
We can't revolution our way out.
We can't reform our way out.
We can't buy our way out.
We can't IT our way out.
We can't pray our way out.
We can't wait our way out.
Lotta reasons we can't do anything, really. Long story.
Can't go into all of it here, but trust me, it won't work, none of it.
Think about it, but just for the hell of it really.
Smell the coffee.
We can't trade our way out.
We can't untrade our way out.
We can't negotiate our way out.
We can't alliance our way out.
We can't isolate ourselves out.
We can't domestic politics our way out.
We can't think tank or media pundit our way out.
We can't expert our way out.
We can't intellectual our way out.
We can't anti intellectual our way out.
We can't think our way out.
We can't US government our way out.
We can't state government our way out.
We can't revolution our way out.
We can't reform our way out.
We can't buy our way out.
We can't IT our way out.
We can't pray our way out.
We can't wait our way out.
Lotta reasons we can't do anything, really. Long story.
Can't go into all of it here, but trust me, it won't work, none of it.
Think about it, but just for the hell of it really.
Smell the coffee.
THOMAS FRIEDMAN THE WORLD IS FLAT CROSS
Q: How flat is it?
A: Flat.
Q: How flat?
A: Flat flat.
Q: Isn't flat a relative term?
A: I don't know. Ask Paul Krugman. He uses the term "flatly wrong". He taught me everything I know.
RE BROOKS A BURST OF INTELLECTUAL CREATIVITY ON THE RIGHT SEE DK POST
I didn't read Brooks' article....I did read DK's...
Is this sudden saving burst a burst among politicians qua intellectuals?
Is it among right wing think tank types?
is it among NYT Republican pundits, eg Brooks, Kristol, etc.?
Is it among conservative academic political scientists?
Is it among average American citizens, as sudden intellectuals?
Do you think any of these folks, here in America, or some or all of them together, qualify as bona fide intellectuals?
Why am I asking you?
Following Hofstadter, do you think Brooks might be mistaking mere intelligence (albeit of a rather low order) with something actually intellectual?
Following Hofstadter, do you think Brooks might be mistaking mere intelligence (albeit of a rather low order) with something actually intellectual?
See DK's current post, re Hofstadter's books, especially Anti Intellectualism in American Life, but also the other one, and my comment. See also his conclusion. Surprisingly, his conclusion differs from Brooks'.
I can often count on Brooks to put his foot in intellectual dog poop at just the right moment somehow!
THE MENU CLASSIC TIP FRENCH FOOD
If you have the means, get a copy of Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking.
She wrote several other equally influential book on Mediterranean French and Italian cooking.
No one ever wrote any better on these subjects in English, as far as I can see, then or now.
WHIG WILSON 1917 Excerpt
"The autocracy that crowned the summit of her political structure, long as it had stood and terrible as was the reality of its power, was not in fact Russian in origin, character, or purpose;..."
Which autocracy was he talking about?
The Mongols.
Which autocracy was he talking about?
The Mongols.
RE TRUMP FOREIGN POLICY DUSTY MAVERICK
Terms search: Dusty
Clint Eastwood would have been America's ideal conservative candidate, back about 15 to 25 years ago.
Clint Eastwood would have been America's ideal conservative candidate, back about 15 to 25 years ago.
GERMANY SENT LENIN INTO RUSSIA RATHER LIKE LINCOLN FREEING THE SLAVES
This had become a common tactic, especially since the French Revolution, but it had always been an arrow in the quiver of governments...
Spanish Florida had threatened British Southern colonies by offering their slaves freedom....if they made it to Spanish Florida.
Spanish Florida had threatened British Southern colonies by offering their slaves freedom....if they made it to Spanish Florida.
The British had learned from that, and from the American Rebellion, that, even after the age of the democratic revolution, two or more could play this dangerous game. They threatened Austria, especially, regarding Italy, Germany, and the Balkans.
PRE HUMAN VEGETARIAN DIALOGUE THEME
We eat these (beans).
What are they?
Neanderthals eat them.
Oh. We eat Neanderthals.
Oh. We do too.
What are they?
Neanderthals eat them.
Oh. We eat Neanderthals.
Oh. We do too.
RE PIPPA MALMGREN AI THEY WILL KNOW WHEN YOU LIED ABOUT FARTING
Re her remark about the pacemaker arsonist...
Farting is relevant to whether you later commit perjury.
Farting is relevant to whether you later commit perjury.
PREHUMAN DIALOGUE THE MENU
We eat mostly other hominids, and rodents.
Why? We eat anything.
We eat anything too, but hominids, big, yummy,
and much easier to kill than mastodons, mammoths, gorillas, boars, bears, tigers!
Why? We eat anything.
We eat anything too, but hominids, big, yummy,
and much easier to kill than mastodons, mammoths, gorillas, boars, bears, tigers!
GREENPEACE GREENWAR
The armies of the near future will eat their own and enemy dead, for environmental reasons, and for survival.
PRE HUMAN KOSHER DIALOGUE
(translated)
Tribe A tribesman: Have some Neanderthal, Ben.
Tribe B tribesman: No thanks, Thor. We enslave, but don't eat, them.
Tribe A tribesman: Who will you eat?
Tribe B tribesman: Most anyone else.
Thursday, April 12, 2018
ZUCKERBERG'S PERSONAL DATA HARVESTED
You can rend your garments, roll in dirt, do whatever, but if you think yours is safe, you are in La La Land, baby.
THE WHIG INTERPRETATION OF SOVIET RUSSIA
Wilson 1917:
"Does not every American feel that assurance has been added to our hope for the future peace of the world by the wonderful and heartening things that have been happening within the last few weeks in Russia? Russia was known by those who knew it best to have been always in fact democratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, in all the imtimate relationships of her people that spoke their natural instinct, their habitual attitude towards life. The autocracy that crowned the summit of her political structure, long as it had stood and terrible as was the reality of its power, was not in fact Russian in origin, character, or purpose; and now it has been shaken off and the great, generous Russian people have been added in all their naive majesty and might to the forces that are fighting for freedom in the world, for justice, and for peace. Here is a fit partner for a league of honor."
This interpretation lasted right through FDR and WWII, although in gradually ever more diluted form as time went on.
This was so in spite of the fact that specialists like Kennan, and those advising Churchill and the British government, knew the true picture almost from the beginning, but efforts to intervene failed.
(ps See Ferguson's Chapter, Square and Tower, on Lenin and Stalin.....)
This interpretation lasted right through FDR and WWII, although in gradually ever more diluted form as time went on.
This was so in spite of the fact that specialists like Kennan, and those advising Churchill and the British government, knew the true picture almost from the beginning, but efforts to intervene failed.
(ps See Ferguson's Chapter, Square and Tower, on Lenin and Stalin.....)
THE WHIG INTERPRETATION OF CHINA
The Real China:
eg Taiping Rebellion and Civil War
(Our Civil War, by comparison, roughly at the same time, was like a microscopic, mildly unpleasant, foolish, picnic.)
eg Taiping Rebellion and Civil War
Devolving into total war—with any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets—the conflict was the largest in China since the Qing conquest in 1644, and it also ranks as one of the bloodiest wars in human history, the bloodiest civil war, and the largest conflict of the 19th century, with estimates of the war dead ranging from 20–70 million to as high as 100 million, with millions more displaced.
This struggle was nominally triggered by conversion to Taiping Ism (Christian millenarianism) of its leader by an American Baptist missionary, although there were all stripes of Christian and other missionaries working in China. European imperial activities were also a factor among the causes.
American conservative Christian millenarian stooges of orthodox Jews are even now trying to make come true their vision of Armageddon in the Middle East, moving the Capitol to Jerusalem, etc.
Just as happened in the Taiping conservative Chinese egalitarian populist Christian Millenarianist struggle in China, in the 19th Century, it won't turn out, in the Middle East or elsewhere, anything like what they here anticipate.
This radical Chinese Christian equalitarian democratic revolution message was similar to the radicalism of Lincoln and the Republican Party, which also required a civil war to force revolutionary equalitarian principles on the South: a house divided cannot stand.
American conservative Christian millenarian stooges of orthodox Jews are even now trying to make come true their vision of Armageddon in the Middle East, moving the Capitol to Jerusalem, etc.
Just as happened in the Taiping conservative Chinese egalitarian populist Christian Millenarianist struggle in China, in the 19th Century, it won't turn out, in the Middle East or elsewhere, anything like what they here anticipate.
This radical Chinese Christian equalitarian democratic revolution message was similar to the radicalism of Lincoln and the Republican Party, which also required a civil war to force revolutionary equalitarian principles on the South: a house divided cannot stand.
US Whig Interpretation of China (Kennan):
"Out of all these ingredients there was brewed the curious view of China that seems to have animated American statesmanship during the war; the picture of a helpless, deserving nation, for whose virtues we alone, among the great powers, had understanding, whose interests we had to sponsor in the face of Japanese enmity and British callousness, and whose grateful support in the postwar period we could take for granted as a mainstay of the world position we hoped to occupy. China was, in fact, and on this we insisted with a most extraordinary vehemence, to be one of the future great powers--- one of what F.D.R. called the 'four world policemen'"
"In this highly subjective picture of the Chinese, there was no room for a whole series of historical and psychological realities. There was no room for the physical ruthlessness that had characterized Chinese political life generally in recent decades; for the formidable psychological and political powers of the Chinese people themselves; for the strong streak of xenophobia in their nature; for the lessons of the Boxer Rebellion; for the extraordinary exploitative talent shown by Chinese factions, at all times, in turning outside aid to domestic political advantage."
"It was this idealized view of the Chinese, rather than any illusions about the relationship between the National Government and the Chinese Communists, which was most damaging to our Far Eastern policy. We did, to be sure, underrate the depth of the antagonism between these two elements. Our memories of what had transpired in 1927 were certainly shorter (if they existed at all) than were those of Mao and Chiang and Stalin. There also seems to me to have been a certain naivete, but nothing worse, in our efforts to bring about a political compromise between these two factions, and to induce Stalin to join us in this effort....". Russia and The West Under Lenin And Stalin, p 374.
Naivete is quite an understatement, when you consider that this was grand strategy...
Cf Michael Pillsbury: Apostate China Whig Pundit
Naivete is quite an understatement, when you consider that this was grand strategy...
Cf Michael Pillsbury: Apostate China Whig Pundit
WHY DID SOME EARLY HUMAN GROUPS SURVIVE?
Because they took land from, killed, and ate, or enslaved, other early humans and prehumans, when they needed to.
Early human dialogue, between mouthfuls of killed Neanderthals:
Ugga.
Uggabugga.
(Untranslatable.)
Whig Interpretation:
Here's the salt.
Very kind of you, old boy.
One of the last known Neanderthal sites, in Southern Spain overlooking the Mediterranean, their remains showed that they had been eaten, and not by animals.
Apparently there is plenty of evidence of interspecies conflict, with modern humans having weapons the Neanderthals did not. There were also physical differences, although they interbred to some extent....
How does that square with Enlightenment ideas? Not well.
Christianity or Judaism? Not good.
Early human dialogue, between mouthfuls of killed Neanderthals:
Ugga.
Uggabugga.
(Untranslatable.)
Whig Interpretation:
Here's the salt.
Very kind of you, old boy.
One of the last known Neanderthal sites, in Southern Spain overlooking the Mediterranean, their remains showed that they had been eaten, and not by animals.
Apparently there is plenty of evidence of interspecies conflict, with modern humans having weapons the Neanderthals did not. There were also physical differences, although they interbred to some extent....
How does that square with Enlightenment ideas? Not well.
Christianity or Judaism? Not good.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
BROOKS WESTERN CIV CONTINUED II
Brooks opines that a prevailing wind 'powering all ships' suddenly ceased to blow...
Was that wind laissez faire, LIEO?
The underlying question, which Brooks' account begs, is really whether Western civ is reducible to laissez faire, LIEO, as his account really implies? He doesn't want to get into all that.
Laissez faire has been going on since the 18th Century, (actually since the beginning of time in the forms of smuggling and piracy, under what was called mercantilism), gathered strength in the early 19th, and has dominated Western intellectual thinking and the international political and economic landscape ever since.
But no 'prevailing wind' ever powered all ships, certainly not a political military cultural civilizational or diplomatic wind.
The underlying question, which Brooks' account begs, is really whether Western civ is reducible to laissez faire, LIEO, as his account really implies? He doesn't want to get into all that.
Laissez faire has been going on since the 18th Century, (actually since the beginning of time in the forms of smuggling and piracy, under what was called mercantilism), gathered strength in the early 19th, and has dominated Western intellectual thinking and the international political and economic landscape ever since.
But no 'prevailing wind' ever powered all ships, certainly not a political military cultural civilizational or diplomatic wind.
That is only one huge problem with his account. If such a wind had long been made to blow, then why, now, should it ever have ceased? Has it really ceased?
KRUGMAN CROSS RE GRANT PORTER INTERVIEW MORTGAGE BACKED SECURITIES
Didn't you advocate low or zero interest rates, to recover from the tech bubble bursting, by stimulating housing, and other, investment?
But, weren't interest rates already rather low?
Haven't you advocated global markets to best guide investment behavior?
You can't pick winners, can you?
But, don't interest rates determine whether investments turn out good or bad?
With zero interest rates, how would you know a good investment, or a bad investment, if either bit you in the butt?
Put another way, if you can't pick winners, or losers, with a zero interest rate market, why have one?
(Answer: global markets have (faux) interest rates. Cf James Grant Porter discussion of Chinese RE market.)
Put another way, if you can't pick winners, or losers, with a zero interest rate market, why have one?
(Answer: global markets have (faux) interest rates. Cf James Grant Porter discussion of Chinese RE market.)
DAVID BROOKS CROSS EXAMINATION WESTERN CIVILIZATION 101
Mr Brooks:
Is a meritocracy good, or bad?
(Doesn't matter which one he says.)
Then, were you lying about there now being a new meritocratic academia,
or about a crisis being caused by a meritocratic academia?
Is a meritocracy good, or bad?
(Doesn't matter which one he says.)
Then, were you lying about there now being a new meritocratic academia,
or about a crisis being caused by a meritocratic academia?
THE WESTERN CIV CRISIS BROOKS REPOST
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
DAVID BROOKS THE CRISIS OF WESTERN CIV ARTICLE APRIL 21
Why not just go almost line by line?
His first few lines, Will and Ariel Durant...
I read parts of it when a kid. This is a classic of the Whig Interpretation of History, which I have discussed recently here, the theory of confident and progressive Western history which Brooks likes, and which he laments is dying in America and elsewhere in the West. More on that issue later.
I read parts of it when a kid. This is a classic of the Whig Interpretation of History, which I have discussed recently here, the theory of confident and progressive Western history which Brooks likes, and which he laments is dying in America and elsewhere in the West. More on that issue later.
Next, he says this story of civilization came with certain values, such as reasoned discourse...
Well, what does reasoned discourse really mean; presumably a multitude of diverse and inconsistent things and disciplines, notoriously difficult to get a handle on, bleeds over into ethics, logic, mathematics, history, politics, you name it.
Well, what else did reasoned discourse itself also come with, one might ask? I will tell you: it came with a gnawing sense of skepticism about the powers of reason and perception themselves to see or understand reality in itself.
In other words it reiterated an ancient tradition from the Greek Fifth Century Enlightenment about the elusiveness of knowledge asserted the relativity of all values, traditions, factual truths, and religions.
Well, what does reasoned discourse really mean; presumably a multitude of diverse and inconsistent things and disciplines, notoriously difficult to get a handle on, bleeds over into ethics, logic, mathematics, history, politics, you name it.
Well, what else did reasoned discourse itself also come with, one might ask? I will tell you: it came with a gnawing sense of skepticism about the powers of reason and perception themselves to see or understand reality in itself.
In other words it reiterated an ancient tradition from the Greek Fifth Century Enlightenment about the elusiveness of knowledge asserted the relativity of all values, traditions, factual truths, and religions.
He claims Western Civ set a standard for great statesmanship.
What can he mean? Moral statesmanship, whatever that means? Does he mean ancient Greek and Roman statesmen, Pericles, Alcibiades, Cicero, the Gracchi, Caesar, the ones he likes; good practitioners of raison d'etat; balance of power expertise; Machiavelli, perhaps Bismarck, Richelieu, Hitler? He doesn't say. Wouldn't it also however have correspondingly set a standard for terrible statesmanship? Otherwise, how would one know what great was? So, let's just say that maybe the West set both kinds of standards and all degrees in between.
What can he mean? Moral statesmanship, whatever that means? Does he mean ancient Greek and Roman statesmen, Pericles, Alcibiades, Cicero, the Gracchi, Caesar, the ones he likes; good practitioners of raison d'etat; balance of power expertise; Machiavelli, perhaps Bismarck, Richelieu, Hitler? He doesn't say. Wouldn't it also however have correspondingly set a standard for terrible statesmanship? Otherwise, how would one know what great was? So, let's just say that maybe the West set both kinds of standards and all degrees in between.
He next mentions a town square, and religion, in passing.
Under Brooks' whig interpretation, the Reformation and Counter Reformation were milestones in this Whig narrative of the confident march toward the progress of today. Butterfield described it very well.
Under Brooks' whig interpretation, the Reformation and Counter Reformation were milestones in this Whig narrative of the confident march toward the progress of today. Butterfield described it very well.
Next, he mentions giving diverse people a sense of shared mission, common vocabulary, common goals.
This started out as an aspiration only intended within and among diverse peoples of only the West itself. Even other countries within the West were viewed by each as in a sense barbarians, even into the 19th Century; how much more so, denizens of other civilizations. but this sense of shared mission, common vocabulary and goals, eventually became, by the force of Western ideology itself sua sponte, the dream of some Western liberals in the 18th and 19th centuries to include all people of the world.
This started out as an aspiration only intended within and among diverse peoples of only the West itself. Even other countries within the West were viewed by each as in a sense barbarians, even into the 19th Century; how much more so, denizens of other civilizations. but this sense of shared mission, common vocabulary and goals, eventually became, by the force of Western ideology itself sua sponte, the dream of some Western liberals in the 18th and 19th centuries to include all people of the world.
It had seldom been part of the Western civ concept before that time, except perhaps in terms of early Christianity being spread as a Jewish mission to the gentiles, presumably ultimately to all the gentiles in the world regardless of race religion or civilization. The idea of course had become popular among all religions which sought to convert infidels in conquered lands rather than to kill, enslave, or exile them.
Brooks then explains how this crisis of Western Civ began. It only began several decades ago he says.
I may come back to that point directly at some point below in discussing other points here.
He blames this relatively sudden civilizational crisis on academia, an institution conveniently other than journalism.
He can't very well blame journalism, too, can he?
Journalism's mission, apparently, after all, is presumably not to try to weigh in on such issues with scholarly authority in the first place anyway. Although, isn't that rather what Brooks does here himself in blaming academia, or am I missing something?
Remember that Brooks himself assured us a while back that we had finally, for several decades now (coincidentally, the ostensible length of the evolving civilizational crisis he decries), reached the stage of a meritocracy here in America.
Presumably, however, the emerging meritocracy here would also have some things to do, at some points, with academic excellence and standards, and be somehow connected with a concept of Western civ as itself a meritocratic concept, no?
So, how according to Brooks, are we both finally a meritocracy founded on mainly academic excellence and expertise, and also in a sudden crisis of Western civ brought on by academic waywardness and incompetence? How?
Maybe that is enough for one post, call it chapter one of my remarks on Brooks The Crisis of Western civ.
Brooks then explains how this crisis of Western Civ began. It only began several decades ago he says.
I may come back to that point directly at some point below in discussing other points here.
He blames this relatively sudden civilizational crisis on academia, an institution conveniently other than journalism.
He can't very well blame journalism, too, can he?
Journalism's mission, apparently, after all, is presumably not to try to weigh in on such issues with scholarly authority in the first place anyway. Although, isn't that rather what Brooks does here himself in blaming academia, or am I missing something?
Remember that Brooks himself assured us a while back that we had finally, for several decades now (coincidentally, the ostensible length of the evolving civilizational crisis he decries), reached the stage of a meritocracy here in America.
Presumably, however, the emerging meritocracy here would also have some things to do, at some points, with academic excellence and standards, and be somehow connected with a concept of Western civ as itself a meritocratic concept, no?
So, how according to Brooks, are we both finally a meritocracy founded on mainly academic excellence and expertise, and also in a sudden crisis of Western civ brought on by academic waywardness and incompetence? How?
Maybe that is enough for one post, call it chapter one of my remarks on Brooks The Crisis of Western civ.
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
RE GRANT INTERVIEW PORTER IN STANSBERRY
Grant, of course, points out the obvious with bitcoin.
The discussion of Zimbabwe hyperinflation, Gideon Gono, and Porter's video, was more entertaining.
Think monetary easing....dysentery
They were also rightly making fun of Krugman for putting the government up to promoting low or no interest rates, after the tech bubble had burst, to jump start the flagging flaccid American economy. This of course resulted in the mortgage bubble among many other bad things.
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
I REALLY DON'T THINK THE RUSSIANS NEED A WALL TO KEEP THE ASIANS OUT
Why not?
Because there are Russians in there!
They can just shoot or enslave em.
Putin's call?
Great issue for liberal US human rights hawks to sink their fangs into, baby!
Because there are Russians in there!
They can just shoot or enslave em.
Putin's call?
Great issue for liberal US human rights hawks to sink their fangs into, baby!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
RE MERCILESS GLOBAL MARKETS THOMAS FRIEDMAN PICKING WINNERS THE WAR WITH NO NAME BEHIND THE COLD WAR HAS NOW BEEN LOST
Some globalist pundits are now talking about what the future holds for their kids, backpedaling fiercely against the global economic and military tsunami they extolled the virtues of for decades, now barreling down on them, and their children, and their childrens' children, and us, and ours.
I am going to spell out a few things that they should have been thinking about for a long long time, since the mid 60s at least.
Has it been wise, if you were worried about the world for your kids, to put off your domestic labor issues, to put government against labor as a class in favor of management, to favor foreign over domestically produced goods, to allow your corporations to offshore jobs, and then factories, and then major investments;
has it been wise to think mainly only in relatively short term profitability, as a criterion, for anything, anything, if you were worried, really worried, about your kids, or their kids?
Let's talk briefly about the issue of labor and unions.
Offshoring capacity, and buying foreign goods and services, not only puts your own domestic work force out of work permanently, but also puts the labor force and capital investments of your new global economy at the political, ideological, economic, ethnic, civilizational, and military command of foreign governments,
which can change, sometimes quite drastically, sometimes to a political stance contrary to your wishes, sometimes almost overnight,
always however, it seems, transforming fairly quickly, say in 20 years nowadays, the lapse of one generation,
from a cheap source of labor or materials into a more expensive, and adversarial, competitor.
That has been the pattern over and over again now for at least 50 years.
How do you 'bust', or for that matter, defend, a foreign labor force, when a foreign regime supports other pressing agendas; like taking over world domination; or dominating its neighbors where you also may have large investments; or dominating your other markets; or dominating your domestic market; or controlling, or taking over your domestic political system, against your own narrow corporate interests, just for a few little examples?
That all kind of starts to sound a great deal worse than would have been simply dealing with domestic management and labor issues in the first place, and trying to keep as much production and consumption as possible domestic, and to build a stronger well integrated domestic economy.
Many other implications beside labor or unions flowed from foreign investment, trade concessions, and offshored production. The process really started before WW II, and accelerated with the Marshall Plan, and then especially with Cold War trade and market concessions.
Most people (I mean mainly intellectuals now; almost no one reads Fukuyama in reality) do not know it, they read things like The End Of History And The Last Man, and follow people like Fukuyama, and actually believe that the US, and its ideology 'won' what it calls the Cold War.
Pundits like Thomas Friedman actually buy this 'Whig Interpretation' (see Butterfield's sense of the term);
and Prestowitz follows Fukuyama and Friedman in Rogue Nation, buying Friedman's foolish pronouncements, and giving a credibility to Fukuyama's bizarre idealogical positions.
Contrary to their rather puerile views, my view is that The War With No Name that has quietly been waged 'by other means' as Clausewitz so aptly had put it ("War is not merely a political
act, but also a political instrument, a continuation of
political relations, a carrying out of the same by other
means") simultaneously with the Cold War, call it 'The War For Picking Winners In The World Of The Future', has now been lost.
More on these themes shortly.
Terms search Krugman Thomas Friedman David Brooks Milton Friedman Fukuyama Chalmers Johnson Prestowitz Eckes Fallows Van Wolferen Ohmae George Friedman Meredith LeBard Maverick Executive Mise en scene cartoon Macaire
I am going to spell out a few things that they should have been thinking about for a long long time, since the mid 60s at least.
Has it been wise, if you were worried about the world for your kids, to put off your domestic labor issues, to put government against labor as a class in favor of management, to favor foreign over domestically produced goods, to allow your corporations to offshore jobs, and then factories, and then major investments;
has it been wise to think mainly only in relatively short term profitability, as a criterion, for anything, anything, if you were worried, really worried, about your kids, or their kids?
Let's talk briefly about the issue of labor and unions.
Offshoring capacity, and buying foreign goods and services, not only puts your own domestic work force out of work permanently, but also puts the labor force and capital investments of your new global economy at the political, ideological, economic, ethnic, civilizational, and military command of foreign governments,
which can change, sometimes quite drastically, sometimes to a political stance contrary to your wishes, sometimes almost overnight,
always however, it seems, transforming fairly quickly, say in 20 years nowadays, the lapse of one generation,
from a cheap source of labor or materials into a more expensive, and adversarial, competitor.
That has been the pattern over and over again now for at least 50 years.
How do you 'bust', or for that matter, defend, a foreign labor force, when a foreign regime supports other pressing agendas; like taking over world domination; or dominating its neighbors where you also may have large investments; or dominating your other markets; or dominating your domestic market; or controlling, or taking over your domestic political system, against your own narrow corporate interests, just for a few little examples?
That all kind of starts to sound a great deal worse than would have been simply dealing with domestic management and labor issues in the first place, and trying to keep as much production and consumption as possible domestic, and to build a stronger well integrated domestic economy.
Many other implications beside labor or unions flowed from foreign investment, trade concessions, and offshored production. The process really started before WW II, and accelerated with the Marshall Plan, and then especially with Cold War trade and market concessions.
Most people (I mean mainly intellectuals now; almost no one reads Fukuyama in reality) do not know it, they read things like The End Of History And The Last Man, and follow people like Fukuyama, and actually believe that the US, and its ideology 'won' what it calls the Cold War.
Pundits like Thomas Friedman actually buy this 'Whig Interpretation' (see Butterfield's sense of the term);
and Prestowitz follows Fukuyama and Friedman in Rogue Nation, buying Friedman's foolish pronouncements, and giving a credibility to Fukuyama's bizarre idealogical positions.
Contrary to their rather puerile views, my view is that The War With No Name that has quietly been waged 'by other means' as Clausewitz so aptly had put it ("War is not merely a political
act, but also a political instrument, a continuation of
political relations, a carrying out of the same by other
means") simultaneously with the Cold War, call it 'The War For Picking Winners In The World Of The Future', has now been lost.
More on these themes shortly.
Terms search Krugman Thomas Friedman David Brooks Milton Friedman Fukuyama Chalmers Johnson Prestowitz Eckes Fallows Van Wolferen Ohmae George Friedman Meredith LeBard Maverick Executive Mise en scene cartoon Macaire
RE OFFSHORING PUNDITS MARIE COLVIN BBC
Why not just drone strikes, rather than offshoring, by the next populist dictator, left or right?
Home in, using Google and Facebook. So Google scientists object? So what? Terms search: so what.
Boom!
In a sense, the media itself here has richly deserved this for so long.
Truth or Consequences
Home in, using Google and Facebook. So Google scientists object? So what? Terms search: so what.
Boom!
In a sense, the media itself here has richly deserved this for so long.
Truth or Consequences
Monday, April 9, 2018
TERMS SEARCH PLAYING THREE SIDES
Here's a classic fun quote:
'"(As for the United States) for a relatively long time it will be absolutely necessary that we quietly nurse our sense of vengeance....We must conceal our abilities and bide our time."--Lieutenant General Mi Zhenyu, Vice Commandant, Academy of Military Sciences, Beijing.'
THE ROAD TO SERFDOM
Monday, November 29, 2010
RE THE SPANISH PRISONER THE EU AND US THE REAL ROAD TO SERFDOM
It's not just Spain.
We are all, rather, 'The West', on a locked train, heading toward global 'Wage Poverty Siberia'.
The EU has tied the hands of its European captives on this train, precisely as Krugman describes, has happened to Spain.
Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, today,
who else tomorrow?
The US has similar constraints, imposed on it by globalization, not just by a currency union;
lack of control over its separate currency, especially amid fiat currency wars;
no expansionist levers amid globalized environment except ever more globalization..... down 'the slippery slope';
government stimulus ineffectual for the same reasons;
tariff or embargoes, now useless for similar reasons.
I would call this the real
THE ROAD TO SERFDOM
FBI RAIDS TRUMP LAWYER OFFICE SEPARATION OF POWERS VIOLATION BABY
When Ragano discussed the Kennedy assassination, and other things, in Mob Lawyer, it seems to me, and quite probably to many other lawyers, that he violated Trafficante's privilege posthumously. In my view, the privilege survives the death of the client, if that is their wish. I believe I am on firm ground here.
It is pretty bad when a government agency breaks into a lawyer's office.
Dick move.
Dick move.
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