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Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman: Trump "Grossly Minimized The Pandemic And Its Dangers"

May 6, 2020, 12:56 pm
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Watch Mike Pompeo Snap At A Reporter Who Asked A Good, Reasonable Question About COVID

May 6, 2020, 1:08 pm
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Does It Get Any Better Than Harry Potter Narrating Harry Potter? (You Can Hear Harry Online)

May 6, 2020, 7:49 pm
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Is Harry Potter a True Story? We've Investigated for You ...

Does it get any better than Harry Potter narrating Harry Potter? 

Actor Daniel Radcliffe, his Harry Potter co-stars and other celebrities are taking turns reading chapters of the famous book series, as part of J.K. Rowling's new online reading hub. So dig out the old Gryffindor House scarf, gather up the kiddies and off you go. 
Chapter 1: "The Boy Who Lived"

"Trump says 'just words, folks.' It's his accusation and his defence. Words don't matter. Facts don't matter. If they don't, we're all lost." J.K. Rowling | made w/ Imgflip meme maker
Tyranny's Best-Kept Secret: It's All About Epistemology

J.K. Rowling: "Rock Bottom Became The Foundation On Which I Built My Life"

(Embedded in this post is video of Rowling's Harvard Commencement Address. 
It is well worth seeing.)




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del In A Time Of "Cholera": A Letter To My Father Gabriel García Márquez

May 6, 2020, 9:43 pm
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Sapere aude: Gabriel García Márquez
Frases de Gabo: https://frasesbreves.com/gabriel-garcia-marquez/
“La creación intelectual es el más misterioso y solitario de los oficios humanos”.



A Letter To My Father Gabriel García Márquez
Not a day goes by that I don’t come across a reference to your novel “Love in the Time of Cholera.” It’s impossible not to speculate about what you would have made of all this.
By Rodrigo García
Mr. García is a filmmaker.
Gabo,
April 17 was the sixth anniversary of your death, and the world has gone on largely as it always has, with human beings behaving with stunning and creative cruelty, sublime generosity and sacrifice, and everything in between.



One thing is new: a pandemic. It originated, as far as we know, in a food market where a virus made its leap from an animal to a human. One small step for one virus, but a great leap for its kind. It’s a creature that evolved over an incalculable time through natural selection into the voracious little monster that it now is. But it’s so unfair to refer to it in such terms, and I regret if my words have offended it. It actually bears no particular ill will toward us. It takes and takes, because it can. Surely, we can relate. It’s nothing personal.



Not a day goes by that I don’t come across a reference to your novel “Love in the Time of Cholera,” or a riff on its title or to the insomnia pandemic in “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” It’s impossible not to speculate about what you would have made of all this. You were always fascinated with epidemics, real or of the literary imagination, as well as with things and people that return.



You weren’t born yet when the Spanish flu pandemic scourged the planet, but you grew up in a house where storytelling reigned and where a plague, like ghosts and regrets, must have made for good literary material. You said that people would speak of long-past events as things that happened in the days of the comet, most likely referring to the passing of Halley’s comet early in the 20th century. I remember how eager you were to see it with your own eyes when it returned toward the end of the millennium. It mesmerized you, a mysterious clock striking the silent hour once every 76 years, a cycle approximating the time allotted to humans. A coincidence? Probably just another red herring. You were an atheist, but you also pondered that it was inconceivable that there was no master plan, remember? No teller of the tale. In this regard you now have more insight than I do, perhaps.

A pandemic is back. Despite the great advances of science and the much-celebrated ingenuity of our species, our best defense so far is to simply stay indoors, to hide in caves from the predator. It’s a humbling moment for those with at least a little inclination toward humility. For others, it’s another bothersome thing to crush.




Two countries dear to you, Spain and Italy, are among the hardest hit. Some of your oldest friends are making the best of it in the same flats in Barcelona, Madrid and Milan where you and Mercedes visited innumerable times over decades. I’ve heard several people of that generation say that they are determined to persist, if for no other reason than to avoid being killed by a flu after decades of surviving cancers, tyrants, jobs, responsibility and marriage.
It’s not just death that frightens us, but the circumstances. A final exit without goodbyes, attended by strangers dressed as extraterrestrials, machines beeping heartlessly, surrounded by others in similar situations, but far from our people. Your very own worst fear, loneliness.



You often spoke of Daniel Defoe’s “A Journal of the Plague Year “as one of your greatest influences, but until yesterday I had forgotten that even your favorite of favorites, “Oedipus Rex,” hinges on a king’s efforts to end a plague. It was always the tragic irony of the king’s fate that was at the forefront of my recollection, but it was the plague that unleashed the forces that precipitated the outcome. You said once that what haunts us about epidemics is that they remind us of personal fate. Despite precautions, medical care, age or wealth, anyone can draw the unlucky number. Fate and death, many a writer’s favorite subjects.


I think that if you were here now, you would, as always, be enthralled by man. The term “man” is not much in use that way anymore, but I’ll make an exception not as a nod to the patriarchy, which you detested, but because it will echo in the ears of the young man and aspiring writer you once were, with more sensibility and ideas in your head than you knew what to do with, and with a strong sense that destinies are written, even for a creature in God’s image and cursed with free will. You would pity our frailty; you would marvel at our interconnectedness, be saddened by the suffering, enraged by the callousness of some of the leaders and moved by the heroism of people on the front lines. And you would be eager to hear how lovers were braving every obstacle, including the risk of death, to be together. Most of all, you would be as endeared to humans as you ever were.

Restrictions on movement are starting to relax in some places, and little by little the world will attempt to venture out toward normality. Even daydreaming of imminent freedom has many starting to forget the promises they recently made to the gods. The drive to process the impact of the pandemic on our deepest selves, and on the entire tribe, is waning. Even many among us who long to understand what has happened will be tempted to interpret it to our liking. Already shopping threatens to make a grand return as our favorite narcotic.



I’m still in a fog. It seems for now that I’ll have to wait for the masters, present and future, to metabolize the shared experience. I look forward to that day. A song, a poem, a movie or a novel will finally point me in the general direction of where my thoughts and feelings about this whole thing are buried. When I get there, I’m sure I’ll still have to do some of the digging myself.



In the meantime, the planet keeps turning and life is still mysterious, powerful and astonishing. Or as you used to say with fewer adjectives and more poetry, nobody teaches life anything.



Rodrigo


A few weeks ago, during our first few days sequestered at home, my head was straining to explain to myself what it could all mean, or at least what could come out of it. I failed. The fog was too heavy. Now that things have become more quotidian, as things do eventually even in the most frightening wars, I am still unable to frame it all in any satisfying way.





















Many are sure that life will never be the same. It is likely that some of us will make big changes, more of us will make a few changes, but I suspect most will return to the dance. Won’t there be a good argument to be made that the pandemic is proof that life vanishes in the most unexpected ways and so we must live big and live now? One of your own grandchildren has expressed that opinion.






















I’m still in a fog. It seems for now that I’ll have to wait for the masters, present and future, to metabolize the shared experience. I look forward to that day. A song, a poem, a movie or a novel will finally point me in the general direction of where my thoughts and feelings about this whole thing are buried. When I get there, I’m sure I’ll still have to do some of the digging myself

Rodrigo














In the meantime, the planet keeps turning and life is still mysterious, powerful and astonishing. Or as you used to say with fewer adjectives and more poetry, nobody teaches life anything.




The author with his father, Gabriel García Márquez.

Rodrigo García (@rodgarcia59) is the director of the coming film “Four Good Days,” with Glenn Close and Mila Kunis.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.


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In A Time Of "Cholera": A Letter To My Father Gabriel García Márquez

May 6, 2020, 9:57 pm
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The author with his father, Gabriel García Márquez.

“La creación intelectual es el más misterioso y solitario de los oficios humanos."
Sapere aude: Gabriel García Márquez

A Letter To My Father Gabriel García Márquez
Not a day goes by that I don’t come across a reference to your novel “Love in the Time of Cholera.” It’s impossible not to speculate about what you would have made of all this.
By Rodrigo García
May 6, 2020Leer en español

Gabo,
April 17 was the sixth anniversary of your death, and the world has gone on largely as it always has, with human beings behaving with stunning and creative cruelty, sublime generosity and sacrifice, and everything in between.




One thing is new: a pandemic. It originated, as far as we know, in a food market where a virus made its leap from an animal to a human. One small step for one virus, but a great leap for its kind. It’s a creature that evolved over an incalculable time through natural selection into the voracious little monster that it now is. But it’s so unfair to refer to it in such terms, and I regret if my words have offended it. It actually bears no particular ill will toward us. It takes and takes, because it can. Surely, we can relate. It’s nothing personal.




Not a day goes by that I don’t come across a reference to your novel “Love in the Time of Cholera,” or a riff on its title or to the insomnia pandemic in “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” It’s impossible not to speculate about what you would have made of all this. You were always fascinated with epidemics, real or of the literary imagination, as well as with things and people that return.




You weren’t born yet when the Spanish flu pandemic scourged the planet, but you grew up in a house where storytelling reigned and where a plague, like ghosts and regrets, must have made for good literary material. You said that people would speak of long-past events as things that happened in the days of the comet, most likely referring to the passing of Halley’s comet early in the 20th century. I remember how eager you were to see it with your own eyes when it returned toward the end of the millennium. It mesmerized you, a mysterious clock striking the silent hour once every 76 years, a cycle approximating the time allotted to humans. A coincidence? Probably just another red herring. You were an atheist, but you also pondered that it was inconceivable that there was no master plan, remember? No teller of the tale. In this regard you now have more insight than I do, perhaps.

A pandemic is back. Despite the great advances of science and the much-celebrated ingenuity of our species, our best defense so far is to simply stay indoors, to hide in caves from the predator. It’s a humbling moment for those with at least a little inclination toward humility. For others, it’s another bothersome thing to crush.





Two countries dear to you, Spain and Italy, are among the hardest hit. Some of your oldest friends are making the best of it in the same flats in Barcelona, Madrid and Milan where you and Mercedes visited innumerable times over decades. I’ve heard several people of that generation say that they are determined to persist, if for no other reason than to avoid being killed by a flu after decades of surviving cancers, tyrants, jobs, responsibility and marriage.
It’s not just death that frightens us, but the circumstances. A final exit without goodbyes, attended by strangers dressed as extraterrestrials, machines beeping heartlessly, surrounded by others in similar situations, but far from our people. Your very own worst fear, loneliness.




You often spoke of Daniel Defoe’s “A Journal of the Plague Year “as one of your greatest influences, but until yesterday I had forgotten that even your favorite of favorites, “Oedipus Rex,” hinges on a king’s efforts to end a plague. It was always the tragic irony of the king’s fate that was at the forefront of my recollection, but it was the plague that unleashed the forces that precipitated the outcome. You said once that what haunts us about epidemics is that they remind us of personal fate. Despite precautions, medical care, age or wealth, anyone can draw the unlucky number. Fate and death, many a writer’s favorite subjects.

I think that if you were here now, you would, as always, be enthralled by man. The term “man” is not much in use that way anymore, but I’ll make an exception not as a nod to the patriarchy, which you detested, but because it will echo in the ears of the young man and aspiring writer you once were, with more sensibility and ideas in your head than you knew what to do with, and with a strong sense that destinies are written, even for a creature in God’s image and cursed with free will. You would pity our frailty; you would marvel at our interconnectedness, be saddened by the suffering, enraged by the callousness of some of the leaders and moved by the heroism of people on the front lines. And you would be eager to hear how lovers were braving every obstacle, including the risk of death, to be together. Most of all, you would be as endeared to humans as you ever were.

Restrictions on movement are starting to relax in some places, and little by little the world will attempt to venture out toward normality. Even daydreaming of imminent freedom has many starting to forget the promises they recently made to the gods. The drive to process the impact of the pandemic on our deepest selves, and on the entire tribe, is waning. Even many among us who long to understand what has happened will be tempted to interpret it to our liking. Already shopping threatens to make a grand return as our favorite narcotic.




I’m still in a fog. It seems for now that I’ll have to wait for the masters, present and future, to metabolize the shared experience. I look forward to that day. A song, a poem, a movie or a novel will finally point me in the general direction of where my thoughts and feelings about this whole thing are buried. When I get there, I’m sure I’ll still have to do some of the digging myself.




In the meantime, the planet keeps turning and life is still mysterious, powerful and astonishing. Or as you used to say with fewer adjectives and more poetry, nobody teaches life anything.




Rodrigo


A few weeks ago, during our first few days sequestered at home, my head was straining to explain to myself what it could all mean, or at least what could come out of it. I failed. The fog was too heavy. Now that things have become more quotidian, as things do eventually even in the most frightening wars, I am still unable to frame it all in any satisfying way.







\















Many are sure that life will never be the same. It is likely that some of us will make big changes, more of us will make a few changes, but I suspect most will return to the dance. Won’t there be a good argument to be made that the pandemic is proof that life vanishes in the most unexpected ways and so we must live big and live now? One of your own grandchildren has expressed that opinion.





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Nicholas Kristof: "The Virus Is Winning" - Trump's Bungled, Benighted, Malevolent (?) Response

May 6, 2020, 10:19 pm
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President Trump insisting last month that coronavirus testing was states’ job. Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times
Author Headshot
Opinion Columnist
Back on March 6, President Trump announced: “Anybody that wants a test can get a test.” It wasn’t true then and it’s still not true two months later. To me that’s a reflection of how badly the Trump administration has flubbed the coronavirus response.
About half of states are now easing restrictions and reopening, and I understand that impulse: People are impatient, and many families are desperate to earn an income. A new study finds that young children in one in six households do not have enough to eat. Imagine that you’re a day laborer with hungry kids, and the government checks haven’t arrived: What are you going to do? Depending on the part of the country, it may make sense to ease some restrictions, particularly in areas of the country with few cases and particularly involving the outdoors. Epidemiologists tell me that the risks of allowing people outside to parks and beaches are small and probably worth it. But the problem is that to ease up safely, we need testing and contact tracing — and we still don’t have it.
My column today argues that we continue to bungle the coronavirus response — we’ve just spent five weeks floundering, with new cases hovering between 25,000 and 30,000 a day, although partly that’s a function of increased testing — and I’m afraid that May will be a lost month as well. One new study cited in my column foresees a rebound in deaths late this month in response to the easing of restrictions.
In two months, we’ve already lost more Americans to the coronavirus than died in the Vietnam, Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and this is just the beginning. Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, told me that we’re in the second inning, and we could have a second wave in the fall that swamps anything so far. Osterholm, by the way, heard the other day that the White House was “ramping up” the Covid-19 task force, and he was elated. Finally, we were going to tackle the issue more seriously. Then he realized that he had misheard, and the task force was “wrapping up,” not “ramping up.” “I was shocked,” he told me. President Trump today said that he wasn’t closing down the task force after all, but the episode underscored the disarray of America’s coronavirus response. I’m afraid that for now the virus is winning. Here’s my column.



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What, Exactly, Is Trump So Afraid Of That He Wants Yet Another Non-Disclosure Agreement?

May 7, 2020, 11:34 am
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Pax on both houses: “I Had No Problem Being Politically Different ...
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to temporarily block Congress from seeing Mueller’s secret grand jury evidence
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in March cleared the way for Congress to access certain secret evidence from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in one of a set of separation-of-powers lawsuits between House Democrats and the Trump administration.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the Supreme Court on Thursday that if it does not put the order on hold, the government will have to disclose those materials Monday, "which would irrevocably lift their secrecy and possibly frustrate the government’s ability to seek further review.”
Read more »
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Great Two-Tiered Photo Of Gabriel Garcia Marquez And His Son Rodrigo

May 7, 2020, 12:17 pm
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Jimmy Kimmel Spots A Typo In One Of Trump's Rage Tweets

May 7, 2020, 12:19 pm
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Trump Is A Full Of Shit Liar

May 7, 2020, 12:29 pm
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San Quentin Inmates' Podcast "Ear Hustle" Nominated For Pulitzer Prize

May 7, 2020, 12:40 pm
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Earlonne Woods, a co-host, of the hit podcast "Ear Hustle" talks to PBS about his time at California’s San Quentin State Prison.
Earlonne Woods, a co-host of the hit podcast "Ear Hustle," talks to PBS about the show at California’s San Quentin State Prison.

San Quentin Inmates' Podcast "Ear Hustle" Nominated For Pulitzer Prize

If You Had To Pay $25 Million Like Malfeasant Trump Just Did, You'd Be In Prison For Decades

The GOP Lathers Itself To Disenfranchise Voters. Such Activity Must Be Outlawed As A "Mandatory Prison Sentence" Felony

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2018/01/can-we-talk-republican-party-is.html



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‘Disaster For The Ages’: Steve Schmidt Hammers Trump For Bringing ‘Mourning’ To America

May 7, 2020, 1:17 pm
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Trump & Pence Are Tested Daily With A 15 Minute Swab, Just What The Nation Needs To Reopen

May 7, 2020, 2:57 pm
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The Coronavirus Infection Now Inside The White House Has Revealed That Trump And Pence Get Tested Daily With A 15 Minute Swab. The Only Plausible Reason Why This Test Is Not Being Used Nationally Is Because Trump Does Not Want Americans To Know The Extent To Which His Ineptitude And Negligence Have Worsened The Pandemic | made w/ Imgflip meme maker

"Compendium Of Best Pax Posts About The Pandemic And Trump's Grotesque Mismanagement"

History Repeats Itself: Coronavirus And The Spanish Flu Of 1918

"What's Next On The Coronavirus Timeline And What Happens If Trump Opens America Too Soon?"

"Chris Cuomo Interviews His Brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo"

"Compendium Of Pax Posts About Coronavirus: Trump's Denial, Ineptitude And Mismanagement"

Borowitz Report: "Trump Practicing Distancing From All His Prior Statements About Coronavirus"

"With Millions Of American Lives On The Line, Trump Finally Agrees With The Experts"

"Trump's Astonishing Coronavirus Quackery Culminating In A Rare Encounter With Truth"

"Coronavirus Capitalism: Same As It Ever Was"

"N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo Just Gave THE BEST POSSIBLE Coronavirus Press Conference"

"Bill Gates Predicted The Coronavirus In His 2015 TED Talk"

"I Don't Take Responsibility At All!" Verbatim Trump "Coronavirus Quote"

"According To Current Data, The Coronavirus Death Rate Is 60% Higher Than The Death Rate For The Spanish Flu Of 1918"

"Trump Sees The Coronavirus Crisis As Clearly As If His Eyes Were Open"

Trump's "Coronavirus Website" Is Non-Existent. He Just "Made It Up" For A Press Conference

"The Borowitz Report: Fox To Address Coronavirus Crisis With Three-Part Series On Hunter Biden"

"Trump's Lies Are More Contagious Than..."

  Coronavirus Pandemic: Trump Does Not Intend To Save The U.S. Economy. He Intends To Save...

Coronavirus, Trump Cultists, And The "Intellectual Elites"

A List Of Trump's Dimwittedly Destructive Medical And Public Health Policies Since Taking Office

If You Had Bought Stocks At The Bottom Of Bush-Cheney's Great Recession, You Would Have Done Better Under Obama Than Trump.
And That's BEFORE The Coronavirus Collapse!

If People Had Taken Obama's Advice In 2009, We'd All Be Rich

Trump Could Use Coronavirus As Cover For War With Iran (White House Coup In The Works?)

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How Warren Buffett’s Son Spent The $90,000 Of Berkshire Stock He Got At 19

May 7, 2020, 6:59 pm
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Canada Succeeded On COVID-19 Where America Failed. Why? Canada's Political System Works

May 7, 2020, 9:32 pm
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The United States Of Education And Compassion Jesusland | made w/ Imgflip meme maker
Canada Succeeded On Coronavirus Where America Failed. Why? Canada's Political System Works

"The United States Of Education And Compassion" Secedes From "Jesusland"

"As Trump Moves Decidedly Closer To A Coup, It's Time For Blue States To Plan Secession"

"Dumbfuckistan"




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"The Supreme Court Is Set To Decide If Donald Trump Is Above The Law"

May 8, 2020, 6:06 am
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Pax on both houses: David Gergen Says Trump's Assault On American ...
"The Supreme Court Is Set To Decide If Donald Trump Is Above The Law"

Pax on both houses: Nah! Couldn't Happen Here! We're Good Germans ...

The Pharisee Party And The Devolution Of GOP Leaders Into Oligarchs Who Despise Democracy

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-pharisee-party-and-devolution-of.html

Who Said "Republicans Have Never Approved Democracy?" (And Why Don't We Admit It?)

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/07/who-said-republicans-have-never.html 

The End Of US Democracy: Trump Is "Just" A Symptom Of Staggering -- And Staggeringly Misguided -- Cultural, Economic And Political Forces

"Aldous Huxley On The Disappearance Of Democracy Behind The Trappings Of Patriotism"

Republican Autocrats Block "One-Person-One-Vote" Democratic Governance

What I Found While Exploring The Topic "American Democracy"

"When Uneducated Populists Marginalize Educated Elites, Democracy Itself Wanes"

"If You Don't Know The General Definition Of Liberal Democracy As A Historical Phenomenon, You're Too Ill-Informed To Be A Responsible Citizen"

Paul Krugman: "American Democracy May Be Dying," Authoritarian Rule Just Around The Corner?

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"If They Get You Asking The Wrong Questions, They Don't Have To Worry About The Answers"

May 8, 2020, 7:34 am
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A Critical Mass Of American "Conservatives" Are Stupid, Ignorant, Hateful And Cruel

May 8, 2020, 10:46 am
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Pax on both houses: Conservatism And Liberalism
"Who Gets The Political Support Of 892 Certifiable U.S. Hate Groups?"

Compendium Of Best Pax Posts: American Political Violence Is "Exclusively" Right-Wing

Alan: The recent killing of an unarmed black man taking his daily jog in Georgia, spotlights what we all know but seldom say: An overwhelming number of U.S. hate crimes (a very large percentage of them racially motivated) are perpetrated by political conservatives.

It's just a fact. Plain as potatoes.

Not that factuality has much cachet with American "conservatives."

Consider...

I have a conservative friend, who -- despite repeated correction -- insists that the Democratic Party is America's "Racist Party." 

She doesn't bother to argue from anything like a representative database but instead asserts whatever is ideologically convenient: because the south dominated by racists belonging that history of the Democratic Party, she claimed this was absolute, ironclad proof that Democrats are America's racist villains, and that Republicans have been the real champions of black people (and black causes) ever since Lincoln.

Not only are a hugely disproportioante number of conservatives stupid, ignorant, hateful, and/or cruel, they never took time, nor made the effort, to learn how to think and furthermore have no interest in learning any "elistist trickery" like "intellectual rigor," the "scientific method" or how to minimize "confirmation bias."

Confirmation Bias | made w/ Imgflip meme maker
"Confirmation Bias And The Power Of Disconfirming Evidence"  

Although "it's another story," it must be mentioned in passing that this sprawling assortment of dimwits, denialists and addlepates adhere to a kind of Christianity that routinely cites St. Paul's assertion that "the wisdom of the world is folly before God" and therefore -- to remain faithful to their Lord and Savior -- they feel a moral obligation to hunker down in their black holes. 

It does not even occur to this assemblage that Donald Trump is The Epitomization of worldly wisdom.

"The Love Of Money Is The Root Of All Evil" - An Open Invitation To Christian Conservatives

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-love-of-money-is-root-of-all-evil.html

Immediately below, I have published a bibliography -- by topic -- that documents "conservative" stupidity, ignorance, hatefulness and cruelty.

Pax on both houses: Family Separation And The Deportation Of ...
Cruelty

Best Pax Posts About Trump's Cruelty, Mendacity And Seduction Of "Conservative""Christians"


"A Comprehensive Review Of Trump's Racism"

"Compendium Of Best Pax Posts About Racism, White Supremacy And Voter Suppression"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/10/compendium-of-best-pax-posts-about.html

Pax on both houses: "Cruelty Is The Point," An Update On Trump's ...
 Proof Positive: "We Live In The United States Of Barbaria"

"Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On Trump, Toxic Christianity And Cruelty As A Moral Obligation"

"The United States Of Barbaria": It Comes Down To Cruelty...

The Perfect Paradigm For "The United States Of Barbaria"

Christian Conservatives, The Republican Party, And Deliberate Cruelty As A Source Of Laughter

Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On Trump, Toxic Christianity And Cruelty As A Moral Obligation

"The Cruelty Is the Point": Trump And Many Of His Followers Delight In The Suffering Of Enemies

In The End, We Choose Between Cruelty And Kindness

Trump's America Is A Deliberately Cruel Place And "Christian""Conservatives" Are The Cruelest

Tennessee Williams' Critique Of Cruelty Should Be Included In The World's Sacred Scripture

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/09/tennessee-williams-critique-of-cruelty.html

Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman Explains Why Republicans Are Qualitatively Worse Than Scrooge

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/12/nobel-laureate-paul-krugman-explains_25.html

Best Pax Posts About Trump's Cruelty, Mendacity And Seduction Of "Conservative""Christians"

"Cruelty Is The Point," An Update On Trump's Policies And His White Christian Base

For Trump And Trumpistas Cruelty (AKA Hellish Torment) Is The Point

"Trump Administration Argues That Caged Migrant Kids Don't Deserve Toothpaste And Soap"

Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This: "Cruelty Is The Point"

Family Separation And The Deportation Of Parents Constitute Kidnapping And Human Trafficking

New England Journal Of Medicine Determines The Lethality Of Trump's Family Separation Policy

Trump's Cruelty Is Not A Marginal Aberration. Trump's Cruelty Is The Point

Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On Systematic American Cruelty

"When Hate Came To El Paso," Introduced By A Central American Civil Rights Worker

Illegal Immigrants Commit Crime At A Considerably Lower Rate Than Trump's Inner Sanctum

PolitiFact Probes Biden's Debate Claim That Obama Administration Did Not Cage Immigrants
My Own Contact With Family Separation, And The Young Girl Who Died
(The Story Of UNC-CH Public Health Professor John Hatch)

Pax on both houses: Trump's America Is A Deliberately Cruel Place ...

"Brilliant GIF: Melania And Malignant Messiah Visit The Lincoln Monument"

Pax on both houses: A Confession: I'm Starting To "Write Off ...
Stupidity And Ignorance

Video: "If You Don't Think Trump And Trumpistas Are Hypocritical, Dishonest And Stupid, You Will!"

"The Exquisite Stupidity Of Trump Supporters"

It Has Come To This: How Do Intelligent Citizens Deal With The Irredeemably Stupid, Ignorant And Self-Pithed People Who Have Taken Over? The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers Is Now Reality

"A Video Collage Of Trump's Arrogance: If You Are Even Vestigially Normal, You Will Sicken"

"Jaw-Dropping Stupidity: 3 Short Videos That Will Change Your View Of American Politics Forever"

"The Daily Show" Lets Trump Cultists Reveal Their Own Stupidity And Obsequious Boot-Licking

"A Confession: I'm Starting To Write Off Stupid People As Incorrigible"
"The Demonstrable Stupidity Of Trump-Cultists"

We Know That Stupid People Exist. We Also Know Who They Are...

"Thinking Is A Learned Skill. Most Trumpistas Don't Understand This. In Fact, They Can't."
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/11/thinking-is-learned-skill-most.html

"Mark Twain, Adolf Hitler And The Dunning-Kruger Effect"

Barack Obama: "It’s Like These Guys Take Pride In Being Ignorant."

"Trump Is An Idiot's Idea Of A Genius": Find Out Why
Are We At That Point Where "The Sapiens" Are Again Separating From "The Neanderthals?"

"P.J. O'Rourke On Trump, Trumpistas And The Futility Of Drug Tests: Test For Stupidity, Ignorance, Greed And The Love Of Power"

"The Exquisite Stupidity Of Trump Supporters"


Pax on both houses: The Donald Trump Sign In Front Of Cop Killer's ...

Hatefulness

"A Simple Test For Trump Supporters: Are You Hateful, Racist Or A White Nationalist/Supremacist?"

"Who Gets The Political Support Of 892 Certifiable U.S. Hate Groups?"

Compendium Of Best Pax Posts: American Political Violence Is "Exclusively" Right-Wing

Corrupted By Grifters And Charlatans, Evangelicalism Has Devolved Into A Hate Group



Pax on both houses: "Revenge Of The Underperforming Middle Schoolers"

Bonus Round 1

Mendacity

Compendium Of Pax Posts: The Unfathomable Mendacity Of Donald Trump And His Lickspittle Liars

Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On Trump And His Cultists' Passion For Lying And Falsehood


Truth Infuriates People Whose Lives Are Lies

American Conservatives Want To Be Lied To, But First Want To Redefine Falsehood As Truth

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/08/george-f.html

Pax on both houses: Trump Tells The Truth: "I Lie"

"Trump Is A Traitor By Virtue Of Normalizing Falsehood And Teaching Americans To Do The Same"

It's Not That The Assholes Are Uninterested In Truth. 
They Are Hostile To Truth.
"The Hardest Truth: People Want To Be Lied To"

"Trumpistas Don't Just Lie. 
They Are Hostile To Truth"

Compendium Of Pax Posts Concerning Trump's Habitual Lying

If Mueller Had Been Given Sodium Pentathol, Here's What He Would've Told Us

VIDEO: Trump Tells More Lies Than Any U.S. Politician. Why Do Patriots And Xtians Believe A Liar?

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/01/video-trump-tells-more-lies-than-any-us.html

Reprise: How Trump "Takes Credit" That's Not His... And The Dimwits Buy It

People Want To Be Lied To: The Convergent Horror Of Faithful Falsehood And Aggressive Ignorance

Trump Could Begin Every Speech With The Words "Everything I'm About To Tell You Is A Lie" And...

Republicans Generally - And Trump Specifically - Are Eager To Lie And Cheat If It Expands Their Power

False Witness

Comparing American Politicians' Lie Rates (From Mormon Press)

How Conservatives Use Decontextualized Shards Of Truth To Tell HUGE Lies
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/08/scott-pruitt-how-conservatives-use.html


Pax on both houses: Roy Moore Supporters Don't Want The ...

Chris Wallace: "Trump Is Engaged In The Most Direct, Sustained Assault On Freedom..."

Fox News' Chris Wallace: Republicans Angry Because They're "Having Trouble With The Facts"

Snopes Probes Rep. Omar's Foul Mouth: How Fox News Takes Tiny Truths And Twists Them Into Gargantuan Lies

Reprise: How Trump "Takes Credit" That's Not His... And The Dimwits Buy It

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/08/reprise-how-trump-takes-credit-thats.html

Trump, Obama, Intellectual Rigor And Teasing Out Truth: What Golf Tells Us

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/07/trump-obama-intellectual-rigor-and.html

How Conservatives Use Decontextualized Shards Of Truth To Tell HUGE Lies
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/08/scott-pruitt-how-conservatives-use.html


Pax on both houses: George Carlin Cuts To The Heart Of America's ...

Snopes Probes Rep. Omar's Foul Mouth: How Fox News Takes Tiny Truths And Twists Them Into Gargantuan Lies

Compendium Of Pax Posts Concerning Trump's Habitual Lying



It's Not That The Assholes Are Uninterested In Truth. 
They Are Hostile To Truth.

VIDEO: Trump Tells More Lies Than Any U.S. Politician. Why Do Patriots And Xtians Believe A Liar?

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/01/video-trump-tells-more-lies-than-any-us.html

Reprise: How Trump "Takes Credit" That's Not His... And The Dimwits Buy It

People Want To Be Lied To: The Convergent Horror Of Faithful Falsehood And Aggressive Ignorance

Verbatim Trump Quote: "Any Negative Polls Are Fake News."

Image result for "pax on both houses" the truth will set you free

Bonus Round 2

Conservatism's Benighted Politics

"There Is Neither Nobility, Nor Kindness Nor Uplift In Trump's America"

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/their-is-neither-nobility-nor-kindness.html

Video: "If You Don't Think Trump And Trumpistas Are Hypocritical And Dishonest, You Will Now!"

Video: "Heroes Of The Pandumbic" (Watch This To The Very End!)


"The Divinity Of Donald Trump"
The Daily Show
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-divinity-of-donald-trump-daily-show.html
"A Video Collage Of Trump's Arrogance: If You Are Even Vestigially Normal, You Will Sicken"

Why Doesn't This Trump Quote Reveal His Satanic Mendacity To Anyone With A Single Synapse?

If I Could Send Donald's Dunces To "Time Out" Until They Completed An Assignment, Here It Is

"How We Ended Up In 2 Totally Divided Camps, Both Convinced They're Absolutely Right"




Christian Ministers Have A Moral Obligation To Call Bullshit On Trump Cultists Spreading Lies
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/christian-ministers-have-moral.html
If Trump Cult Liars Do Not Repent, Their Descendants Will Be Ashamed Of Them Forever
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/if-trump-cult-liars-do-not-repent-their.html

Politics And Religion: Read These Posts And You Will Emerge "Blue," Or Need To Lie To Yourself

If The Current Economic Collapse Had Happened On Obama's Watch...

Video: "If You Don't Think Trump And Trumpistas Are Hypocritical And Dishonest, You Will Now!"

"There Is Neither Nobility, Nor Kindness Nor Uplift In Trump's America"

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/their-is-neither-nobility-nor-kindness.html

Umair Haque: "Lessons From American Collapse" (Remember How Fast The Soviet Union Fell?)

Republicans Generally - And Trump Specifically - Are Eager To Lie And Cheat If It Expands Their Power

Compendium Of Pax Posts: The Unfathomable Mendacity Of Donald Trump And His Lickspittle Liars


"The Exquisite Stupidity Of Trump Supporters"

"You Are Not Entitled To Your Own Facts," Daniel Patrick Moynihan


Pax on both houses: Facebook Correspondent Defends Non-Racist ...
  
Christian Ministers Have A Moral Obligation To Call Bullshit On Trump Cultists Spreading Lies

"A Warning From The Surgeon General"



Pax on both houses: Trump's America Is A Deliberately Cruel Place ...

Bonus Round 3

Religion

"The Moral Confusion Of Trump Christians," John Pavlovitz

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-moral-confusion-of-trump-christians.html
Christian Ministers Have A Moral Obligation To Call Bullshit On Trump Cultists Spreading Lies
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/christian-ministers-have-moral.html
If Trump Cult Liars Do Not Repent, Their Descendants Will Be Ashamed Of Them Forever
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/if-trump-cult-liars-do-not-repent-their.html

Pax on both houses: Trump's Role In Christians Losing Their Soul

"Conservative""Christians" Refuse To Distinguish Between Punishment And Compassion

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/conservative-christians-dont-understand.html

Fr. Thomas Merton Explains -- In 16 Words -- Why "Christian""Conservatives" Are Always Wrong

Armageddon Cheerleaders: "Christian""Conservatives" Pining For Nuclear Conflagration

Compendium Of Best Pax Posts: What I Think About Christianity

Evangelical Academic Decries Coronavirus Theories: "Gullibility Is Not A Christian Virtue"

(St. Paul Put To Evil Use By "Christian""Conservatives")

"Jimmy Carter On The Separation Of Church And State And The Danger Of Religious Superiority"

Aquinas Discovers That "Divine Truth" Cannot Contradict Nature And "The Natural Light"

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2020/04/aquinas-discovers-that-divine-truth.html


American Conservatives Are The Apotheosis Of Pharisaism. (Conservatives, Please Weigh In)

Bibliolatry... And How To Live Happily Ever After

Why Doesn't This Trump Quote Reveal His Satanic Mendacity To Anyone With A Single Synapse?

"Hey, Christian! How Many Of Jesus' Moral Stands Do You Approve? Take The Test!"

"A Simple Test For Trump Supporters: Are You Hateful, Racist Or A White Nationalist/Supremacist?"

"My Attempt To Supply A Rigid Christian Friend With A Theological Alternative To Self-Strangulation"



↧

I Just Found This November, 201 Dialogue With Frog Hospital's Fred Owens In My Outbox

May 8, 2020, 12:46 pm
$
0
0
 The Student Debt Problem Is a Family Crisis | The Nation

Dear Fred,

Thanks for your email.

There's part of me that agrees. 

Have you been to Occupy camps?

Although there is truth in what you say -- and although Oakland is The Wild West in perpetuity -- there are lots of thoughtful people in the movement.

True, all of them should clean up after themselves. 

In the encampments I know personally -- Chapel Hill and Asheville -- they do.

But beyond sensationalistic and unrepresentative press coverage, the kids are in this movement to stay.

You probably heard that American graduates are now saddled with more student loan debt than the cumulative credit card debt of the entire nation.

The Student Loan Debt Epidemic - Arkansas NEXT

And...

They have no job prospects.

I have been reluctant to circulate the following prospect since I don't think it should be promoted. 

But I see a time coming when people will fling bags of shit at ostentatiously expensive cars.

A kind of pedestrian "drive-by."

There's even an argument The Ungodly Rich deserve it.

These people -- and their supporters -- publicly applaud the death of people without health insurance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OLqy__eAH4

The same well-groomed folk who pom-pommed the death of 3 million Vietnamese, a hundred thousand Nicaraguans and Savadorans and a million Afghan-Iraqis.

Here's the balance:

Lack of sanitation equals categorical condemnation.

Perpetration of mini-holocausts? Why that's just the Military-Industrial Complex at work.

With the emphasis on work. Work as the justification of anything and everything.

If people are gonna choose false gods Fred, how about a little pizazz?

Moloch maybe? Or, Beelzebub? Even Baal.

But work?!? 

Addlepated perseverance at mostly meaningless tasks? 

With more than half the nation's investment in the service of neo-necrophilia? 

Current Military
$965 billion:
• Military Personnel $129 billion
• Operation & Maint. $241 billion
• Procurement $143 billion
• Research & Dev. $79 billion
• Construction $15 billion
• Family Housing $3 billion
• DoD misc. $4 billion
• Retired Pay $70 billion
• DoE nuclear weapons $17 billion
• NASA (50%) $9 billion
• International Security $9 billion
• Homeland Secur. (military) $35 billion
• State Dept. (partial) $6 billion
• other military (non-DoD) $5 billion
• “Global War on Terror” $200 billion [We added $162 billion to the last item to supplement the Budget’s grossly underestimated $38 billion in “allowances” to be spent in 2009 for the “War on Terror,” which includes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan]
Past Military,
$484 billion:
• Veterans’ Benefits $94 billion
• Interest on national debt (80%) created by military spending, $390 billion
Human Resources
$789 billion: 
• Health/Human Services
• Soc. Sec. Administration
• Education Dept.
• Food/Nutrition programs
• Housing & Urban Dev.
• Labor Dept.
• other human resources.
General Government
$304 billion:
• Interest on debt (20%)
• Treasury
• Government personnel
• Justice Dept.
• State Dept.
• Homeland Security (15%)
• International Affairs
• NASA (50%)
• Judicial
• Legislative
• other general govt.
Physical Resources
$117 billion:
• Agriculture
• Interior
• Transportation
• Homeland Security (15%)
• HUD
• Commerce
• Energy (non-military)
• Environmental Protection
• Nat. Science Fdtn.
• Army Corps Engineers
• Fed. Comm. Commission
• other physical resources
Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes FY 2009
Total Outlays (Federal Funds): $2,650 billion 
MILITARY: 54% and $1,449 billion
NON-MILITARY: 46% and $1,210 billion
FY2009 federal piechart
HOW THESE FIGURES WERE DETERMINED
Current military” includes Dept. of Defense ($653 billion), the military portion from other departments ($150 billion), and an additional $162 billion to supplement the Budget’s misleading and vast underestimate of only $38 billion for the “war on terror.” “Past military” represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt.*
The Government Deception
The pie chart below is the government view of the budget. This is a distortion of how our income tax dollars are spent because it includes Trust Funds (e.g., Social Security), and the expenses of past military spending are not distinguished from nonmilitary spending. For a more accurate representation of how your Federal income tax dollar is really spent, see the large chart (top).
the government's deceptive pie chart
Source: Congressional Budget Office for FY2008
These figures are from an analysis of detailed tables in the “Analytical Perspectives” book of the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2009. The figures are federal funds, which do not include trust funds — such as Social Security — that are raised and spent separately from income taxes. What you pay (or don’t pay) by April 15, 2008, goes to the federal funds portion of the budget. The government practice of combining trust and federal funds began during the Vietnam War, thus making the human needs portion of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller.
*Analysts differ on how much of the debt stems from the military; other groups estimate 50% to 60%. We use 80% because we believe if there had been no military spending most (if not all) of the national debt would have been eliminated. For further explanation, please see box at bottom of page.



Hey, what's a little shit?

           ***

The Wall looms.

We are going to hit it.

Then, everything will be different.

Quien sabe de que manera....

Pax on both houses

Alan

PS By the way... The hospital that Ron Paul refers to is a Catholic hospital.

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 8:47 AM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:


this is mundane -- but the occupants could not solve their sanitation problem. It is very important that they demonstrate an ability to govern themselves -- but if they can't clean up their own shit, they will not earn my attention. ..... I have been to a hundred hippie camps and seen the ruin caused by forgetting about cleaning up after yourself.

Once they clean up, then they can have ideas  -- real ideas that can become plans. otherwise, it's bullshit, kids crying with crap in their pants.


On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 8:37 AM, Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Fred,

Thanks for your email. I like your "brunch" vignette.

But like it or not, we all have a dog in this fight.

The fox has stolen the hen-house. 

According to Reagan budget director, David Stockman, the top 5% of Americans have sequestered more wealth since 1985 than all Humankind produced until 1985. 

I realize this sounds impossible. 

I have, however, crunched some numbers and find Stockman's claim quite likely true. 

Also notable is my inability to find any webpage that attempts to deconstruct Stockman's analysis even though he made his "claim" on "60 Minutes" with tens of millions of people watching.

Unless we experience categorical change -- probably prompted by "hitting the wall" -- we will, perforce, become a pseudo-theocratic, mostly-plutocratic, has-been country. 

Rather like Mexico, but with the accoutrements of ancient Rome. 

I've already reserved a place in the vomitorium, which, by the way, is an interesting misnomer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomitorium 

However, with bulimia and all other psychological disorders on the rise, I see the next real estate bubble in homes that actually have one.

Be the first on your block!

Did you read the article I sent this morning? 

In it, Paul Farrell reviews Thatcherite historian/economist Niall Ferguson's new book, “Civilization: The West and the Rest.” (I'm pasting that email as a postscript to this one.)

I agree with you.

There are no "hot ideas" in Occupy Wall Street. 

However, "re-distribution of wealth" is an idea whose time has come. 

Yes, "wealth redistribution" sounds horrible - replete with sickening images of communist "central command and control."

Still, an inconvenient truth remains: Without more money in the pockets of der volk, America's ongoing re-definition as a neo-Banana-Republic may not even stop at the Mexico's "model," but hurtle right on through to Sudan. 

In any event, the cats are out of the bag - caterwalling to "beat the band" (of Wall Street sociopaths). 

And they will not be herded back in.

I will take this opportunity to re-send my "essential" reading list: 

1.)Ronald Reagan’s Budget Director David Stockman on America's inconceivable wealth inequality -http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7009217n
2.)Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, "Of the 1%, by the 1%, and for the 1%" -http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105
3.)"Our Banana Republic" by Nicholas Kristof - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opinion/07kristof.html
4.)"A Hedge Fund Republic" by Nicholas Kristof - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/opinion/18kristof.html
5.)"How to End The Great Recession" by Robert Reich -http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/opinion/03reich.html


Pax on both houses,

Alan 

Dear Arthur,

I enjoy Paul Farrell's column.

Although I have criticisms of Niall Ferguson's new book -- “Civilization: The West and the Rest” -- he is a very smart fellow with a number of good points.

Ferguson is also increasingly clear that American "conservatism" is radically misguided and fully capable of "wrecking" it all. 

See Ferguson's "A Dogma To Wreck The Country" at http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/07/24/gop-antitax-dogma-endangers-the-country.html

Pax

Alan

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-vs-usa-bout-6-rounds-of-pummeling-2011-11-15

Paul B. Farrell
Nov. 15, 2011
China vs. USA bout: 6 rounds to oblivion

Commentary: China’s not winning, America is throwing the fight

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — “Let’s rrrummmmble!” China vs America. Imagine Caesars Palace. Fight night. New announcer. Harvard financial historian Niall Ferguson subs for Michael Buffer, iconic Vegas fight announcer, famous for his signature “Let’s get ready to rumble.” Trump signed him exclusively. Sugar Ray Leonard said, “When Buffer introduces a fighter, it makes him want to fight.”
OK, fight fans, Ferguson’s the new Buffer in this “Fight of the Century.” His must-read book, “Civilization: The West and the Rest,” hit the stands earlier this month. The promos are already rrummmbling: China vs. USA for the heavyweight crown America’s “owned” for centuries.

Who's winning supercomputer race?

The latest edition of the semiannual Top 500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers is out - and you might be surprised by the results.
Let’s rrummmble! Vegas odds: China wins. Why? You decide: Ferguson’s Newsweek excerpt: “The lesson of history is clear. Voters and politicians alike dare not postpone the big reboot.” Yes, he sees a war of killer apps. Says America needs rebooting.
But also hints at a knockout: “Decline is not so gradual that our biggest problems can simply be left to the next administration, or the one after that. If what we are risking is not decline but downright collapse, then the time frame may be even tighter than one election cycle.”
Get it? Start planning. Now. Later’s too late. Warning: this fight is no video war game with apps that need rebooting. This is the World Heavyweight Championship: China vs America. Huge stakes: Super-Power status. Bragging rights in a global economy that’s $65 trillion racing to $140 trillion by 2050.
No video game. More like an “Ultimate Extreme Fighting” grudge match. Winner take all. East beats West. China conquers America. Let’s rrummble!

No, China is not winning, America’s taking a dive in 6 rounds

Yes, the plot thickens: As an academic, Ferguson plays softball with words as well as metaphors. Imagine his message in colorful jargon by ESPN announcers at a mixed-martial arts fighting brawl. They’d make it painfully obvious: China’s already winning this fight.
Why? Because America’s not “in it to win it.” We’re already throwing this fight, folks.
Yes, I’m mad as hell: Marine vet, don’t like what’s happening in my America today. Yet, Ferguson has a calming perspective. He sees our great nation on an inevitable historical trajectory, a path of destiny that will play out no matter who gets elected in 2012, 2016, or even 2040.
In his grand sweep of historical cycles, even the corruption of ideals and values by self-destructive politicians and greedy capitalists is predictable. And we are setting ourselves up to lose. China’s not winning, folks, we’re taking a dive.

Warning: History proves nations collapse suddenly, rapidly, terminal

Ferguson’s brutal: “Civilizations don’t rise, fall, and then gently decline, as inevitably and predictably as the four seasons … History isn’t one smooth, parabolic curve after another. Its shape is more like an exponentially steepening slope that quite suddenly drops off like a cliff,” an argument he made last year in Foreign Affairs.
History’s loaded with examples: “Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas. In 1530 the Incas were the masters of all ... Within less than a decade … their empire” was smashed “to smithereens.” Ming dynasty in a decade. Rome within decades. Recently the Soviet Union:
“And if you still doubt that collapse comes suddenly, just think of how the postcolonial dictatorships of North Africa and the Middle East imploded this year. Twelve months ago, Messrs. Ben Ali, Mubarak, and Gaddafi seemed secure in their gaudy palaces. Here yesterday, gone today.”
And the plot’s so predictable: “What all these collapsed powers have in common is that the complex social systems that underpinned them suddenly ceased to function. One minute rulers had legitimacy in the eyes of their people; the next they didn’t.”
Next? The European Union is at the edge. “In the realm of power … you’re fine until you’re not fine—and when you’re not fine, you’re suddenly in a terrifying death spiral.” Suddenly. Rapidly. Terminal.

Seriously, China is not winning, we’re taking a dive in 6 rounds

Ferguson uses the popularity of killer apps as a literary device to explain the West’s six-part lock on global power for the past five centuries. No, killer apps is softball lingo. Heavyweight championship boxing is a more accurate metaphor.
Why too soft? “In 1500 the average Chinese was richer than the average North American.” More historical facts: “By the late 1970s the average American was more than 20 times richer than the Chinese.” Back in “the early 20th century, just a dozen Western empires — including the United States — controlled 58% of the world’s land surface and population, and a staggering 74% of the global economy.”
No more. In a few short years China’s economy will be bigger than America’s.
Ferguson warns: There’s one main “insidious cause” of the decline of the West: “The tendency of Western societies to delete their own killer apps.” That’s another way of saying that we’re now sabotaging what made America great, committing suicide in six ways. America is really not “in it to win it.”
In fact, we have been throwing this fight for a generation. Here’s Ferguson announcing this historical rumble:

Round #1. The Scientific Revolution … hard right jab to the jaw

Ferguson says “all the major 17th-century breakthroughs in mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology happened in Western Europe.” But today, we’re falling behind. “Mathematical literacy” surveys reveal huge gap: China’s youth are way ahead.

Round #2: Revolution in Medicine … solid left hit to the ribs

“Nearly all the major 19th- and 20th-century breakthroughs in health care were made” in “germ theory, antibiotics and anesthesia.” Today America “spends twice what Japan spends on health care and more than three times what China spends.” And yet both beat us with huge increases in life expectancy the last generation.

Round #3: Democracy and Rule of Law … one-two punches to head

Ferguson says “an optimal system of social and political order emerged in the English-speaking world.” But today in World Economic Forum (WEF) measures of “issues relating to property rights and governance,” America’s performance is “shockingly bad.” We’re “50th for public trust in the ethics of politicians, 42nd for various forms of bribery and 40th for standards of auditing and financial reporting.”

Round #4: Domestic, Global Competition … bleeding, cut over eye

“Europe was politically fragmented into multiple monarchies and republics,” says Ferguson, “internally divided into competing corporate entities.” Today our advantage is gone: The WEF shows us in “one of the steepest declines among developed economies,” while China “has leapt up” big-time. At home “extraordinary social polarization,” inequality and a new “super-rich elite” that’s “dangerously divorced from the rest of society” is killing our edge.

Round #5: America’s Consumer Society … pounding, on the ropes

The Industrial Revolution “took place where there was both a supply of productivity-enhancing technologies and a demand for more, better and cheaper goods,” says Ferguson.” Today, “26 of the 30 biggest shopping malls in the world are now in emerging markets” Just three here, as Americans struggle to pay down consumer debts.

Round #6: Our Work Ethic … down, short count, up, staggering

The West was first “to combine more extensive and intensive labor with higher savings rates, permitting sustained capital accumulation.” But “who’s got the work ethic now?” asks Ferguson. “The average South Korean works about 39% more hours per week than the average American.” Their school year is 40 days longer.” And in U.S. universities, we “know which students really drive themselves: the Asians and Asian-Americans.” (Alan here... Most of employed Americans I know work "24/7." The problem is that the United States has become a nation divided between "the overworked" and "the underemployed." Robotization, automation and software-based productivity enhancement propel the structural unemployment that is growing in the United States and Europe which are the two places where "automatic production" has taken deepest root. This is a particularly knotty problem - one which both sides of the political aisle are loathe to acknowledge: "The Left" is in denial because increased enhancement of "automated production" makes it impossible to "demand" industrial jobs in an information economy that has displaced "brawn" with "brain." Meanwhile, "The Right" is in denial because automatic production concentrates wealth at the top with consequent catastrophe for a consumer-driven economy. To the extent that conservatives argue that "the wealthy have every right to hold onto their increasingly disproportionate wealth," they insure the collapse of the United States in any recognizable form. My blog post, "Lost Jobs Are Not Coming Back" probes these issues in greater depth - http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html)

Round #7: Can’t come out of corner … referee calls the fight

OK, let’s combine the two metaphors: A championship boxing match-up between two robotic heavyweights guided by killer apps, like in Hugh Jackman’s recent movie, “Real Steel.” But now the rrummmmbling’s over: After many centuries, China has won the World Heavyweight Championship title, taken it back from America, “The West and The Rest.”
Finally, Ferguson wraps up the dueling metaphors: “Most Americans remain instinctively loyal to the killer applications of Western ascendancy, from competition all the way through to the work ethic. They know the country has the right software. They just can’t understand why it’s running so damn slowly.” His solution resonates in America’s Apple generation:
“Delete the viruses that have crept into our system.” Yes, Ferguson says delete “viruses.” America’s suicidal viruses: “The anticompetitive quasi monopolies that blight everything from banking to public education; the politically correct pseudosciences and soft subjects that deflect good students away from hard science; the lobbyists who subvert the rule of law for the sake of the special interests they represent — to say nothing of our crazily dysfunctional system of health care, our overleveraged personal finances and our newfound unemployment ethic.”
Delete viruses? Never happen: Koch brothers? Norquist? McConnell? They’re all rigid, dogmatic ideologues. Fuggetaboutit. Ferguson knows it. But he’s too polite to admit it like a real fight announcer.
You know it too. We’re in denial, kidding ourselves. Secretly we know that few ever learn the lessons of history in time to change, to prevent a collapse. So nothing changes. Nothing. Only a deadly historic catastrophe will jar America’s obsessed, myopic Super Rich and their clueless, ineffectual political puppets and lobbyists.
Get it? A crash is dead ahead. But when it hits, it’ll be too late, the revolution will be raging, and we’ll all suffer, big-time. Wait, listen, a cannon’s roaring. No, it’s the “99%ers” rrummmbling!

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 7:46 AM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
posted on Facebook ---
I went to Oakland to visit my daughter. We went to brunch on Sunday morning, the brunch spot was on Fox Square. A pure coincidence, it was the site of the occupation -- only the occupants were all gone, nothing but cops there on a quiet Sunday morning, police tape and barricades everywhere.

Eva and I and my girlfriend Laurie walked up to one of the cops and I said, "We're brunch people." He smiled back at us -- "the cafe is just around the corner," he said.

Brunch people? Yes, I don't have a dog in this fight.

During our breakfast, we discussed the occupation and could not discover a hot opinion among the three of us. We did have a warm sympathy for humankind, and I left the waitress a very good tip.

Coming out of the cafe, a reporter with a microphone wanted to ask us a question. I said, "we brunch people," and he said nothing.
Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214

My blog is Fred Owens

send mail to:

Fred Owens
7922 Santa Ana Rd
Ventura CA 93001

send mail to:

Fred Owens
7922 Santa Ana Rd
Ventura CA 93001
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Harvard Medical School: "Walk Your Way To Better Health In Less Than 30 Minutes A Day!"

May 8, 2020, 2:11 pm
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The Origin of Nike's "Just Do It" Slogan | Reader's Digest


Harvard Health Publishing

Walk your way to better health in
less than 30 minutes a day!

Walking for Health
This Special Health Report includes:
✓5 walking workouts
✓Warm-up exercises
✓Post-walk stretches
✓Strength-training moves for walkers
✓Tips for staying motivated
✓Special Section: "Walking for weight loss"
✓And more!

Read More
Dear Reader,
Walking may be one of the most powerful “medicines” available.
It can help lower your risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and even keep your memory sharp.
The simple activity of walking has so many powerful health benefits, the experts at Harvard Medical School created Walking for Health. This special report takes you step-by-step from why walking may be the most perfect exercise, to how to get started on a walking program, to specific walking workouts.
Send for this report now and discover:
  • Why a short post-meal walk is a great way to lower blood glucose levels
  • How to walk downhill without hurting your knees
  • The walking mistake that can strain your upper back and neck
  • 5 simple ways to turn your walk into a heart-pumping workout
  • Why all-cotton socks may give you blisters (choose the type on page 18 instead)
  • The 2-in-1 walking workout that strengthens your upper body while you walk
  • And so much more!
Plus, you’ll get 5 great walking workouts and a special section on walking for weight loss that show you:
6 exercises that help you strengthen key walking muscles, post-walk stretches that help increase your flexibility and range of motion, how to burn 25% more calories when you walk, and so much more.
Read More
Sincerely,
Howard E. LeWine, M.D.
Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing
PS: Click here now to get your own copy of Walking for Health and save 30% off the cover price.
Harvard Medical School offers special reports on over 60 health topics.
Visit our website at http://www.health.harvard.edu to find reports of interest to you and your family.

PHONE ORDERS - please call our toll-free number: 1-877-649-9457.
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