or: Welcome aboard the USS Amerikan Inverted Totalitarianism Banana Republic
Counterpunchers and others had a bit of fun turning the tables on His Nibs, Orange Julius Cheeser:
Paul Street: (Citing an in-depth study by British health researchers Pickett and Wilkinson):
“The United States was the least equal and the least healthy nation among the world’s richest states under Bill Clinton, under Barack Obama, and under George W. Bush.
Trump can’t turn the United States into the biggest “shithole” among the world’s rich nations. It was already there.
In his conservative 2006 campaign book The Audacity of Hope, the neoliberal Wall Street Democrat Barack Obama lauded the virtues of American capitalism (source of what the future president called “a prosperity that’s unmatched in human history”) by holding up U.S. living standards positively against those in Third World nations like Kenya and Nigeria. It was a revealingly inappropriate comparison.”
He then writes a long section referencing Obama’ ‘alleged hero’ Martin Luther King, Jr.’s understandings of the ‘perverted national priorities’ including in Haiti, then:
“Donald Trump is a vicious and racist moron who should be removed from the White House and sent to a solar panel-manufacturing penal camp as soon as possible. But the U.S. capitalism-imperialism that has made the U.S. into a “shithole” for many of its own citizens (there are neighborhoods in Obama’s own “home town” of Chicago where more than half the children are growing up at less than half the federal government’s notoriously inadequate poverty level) while spreading blood and shit the world over is a longstanding and richly bipartisan affair. The Democrats, it should be noted, have signed on fully to Trump’s increase in U.S. military spending.”
“The United States of America is run by a cabal of racist, classist, sexist, militaristic, misogynistic, greedy, heartless thugs who are obviously satisfied that their latest CEO—Donald Trump—is doing such a great job of keeping the nation polarized and pole-axed by his reality show antics.
After all, why hire a statesman when you can hire a buffoon who will entertain, enrage and incite a nation to the brink of madness.
They—the powers-that-be, the Deep State, the controllers, the financiers, the war hawks—want us at the brink of madness. They want us in a state of civil unrest. They want the riots and the mob violence and the political discord and the state of panic. They want us to fight each other and be incapable of taking a united stand against tyranny.
They want us silent and subservient.”
Ah, the Sounds of Silence >>> unenlightened subservience: Andre Damon’s title tells one what’s inside: ‘Facebook and Google outline unprecedented mass censorship at US Senate hearing’, but okay, a smidgen of it:
“The hearing also featured the testimony of Clint Watts, a former FBI official, former US Army officer, fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and a leading promoter of social media censorship.
Watts presented the hearing with an unhinged justification for what these massive powers might be used for, in a hypothetical scenario he dubbed “Anwar Awlaki meets PizzaGate.”
“The greatest concern moving forward,” he said, “might likely be a foreign intelligence service, posing as Americans on social media, infiltrating one or both political extremes in the US and then recruiting unwitting Americans to undertake violence against a target of the foreign power’s choosing.”
Watts expressed extreme fear over the widespread growth of opposition to the policies of US imperialism. He arrogantly decried, “Lesser-educated populations around the world predominately arriving in cyberspace via mobile phones will be particularly vulnerable to social media manipulation.”
The content of Thursday’s testimony points the far-advanced preparations for the establishment of police state forms of rule.”
Next up we might call #Assholes against #Shitholes, as in the Blue Team Punditry and Political class. A Ship of Fools, or just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
“As the news broke on Thursday that Donald “Dingleberry” Trump called Haiti, African Nations, and El Salvador “shithole nations“, I couldn’t help but think “the liberals are coming, the liberals are coming, the liberals are coming”.
Sounding their trumpets for battle, their SWAT teams of political correctness (PC) would disseminate all over media and cultural landscapes of the United States. The battle they would be taking up would be about none other than themselves. Always remember this about bourgeois liberals. Saying what feels right is a completely different concept for them than doing the right thing. Actions always speak louder than words, and they, my friends, are full of words backed up with inaction.”
I started to feel their PC SWAT teams advance into the media when I read a commentary from none other then Russiagate pusher and liberal champion Dan Rather. For Dan Rather this is the moment in history where America will be remembered as not so exceptional.
Rather commented, “Make no mistake, America is diminished today in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of history.”
America has been diminished and continues to be diminished not because it’s leaders call countries “shit”, it’s because they turn countries into shit. Like when liberal President, Barack Obama, dropped 26,171 bombs in the Middle East in 2016. This equates to dropping a bomb every 15 minutes for 24 hours a day.
This is the perfect example of the liberal words are more important than actions context.
Dan Rather’s response was the probable cause statement the liberal PC swat team needed to execute their search and seizure of the media landscape.
If liberals took Trump’s comment as an opportunity to reflect on what is happening in America they would realize what a shithead, Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post is.
Bezos, also owner of Amazon, just got done firing a bunch of seasonal employees now that the holidays are over. These seasonal employees are American nomads traveling from place to place to find temporary work. Many of them are in their sixth or seventh decade of life. And one of the many reasons for their seasonal labor intensive work was so Americans can get their new Amazon Alexa with prime (two day) shipping. It’s sad that many of the people that purchased “Alexa” will have more mindless conversations with her than an actual human being.”
Quoting Counterpunch contributor Vince Emanuele:
“Speaking of shithole countries:
Among industrialized nations, the United States enjoys the highest poverty rate, both generally and for children; the greatest inequality of incomes; the lowest government spending as a percentage of GDP on social programs for the disadvantaged; lowest number of days of paid holiday, annual leaves, and maternity leaves; second lowest social mobility rate; highest infant mortality rate; highest prevalence of mental-health problems; highest obesity rate; and the highest consumption of anti-depressants per capita. The U.S. has the third-shortest life expectancy at birth; the largest international arms sales; largest military budget; third-lowest scores for student performance in math and science; second highest high school drop out rate; highest homicide rate; and the largest prison population in the world.”
Never mind militarized police, and that the po-po killed 1188 citizens in 2017, another 60 since Jan. 1 this year according to KilledbyPolice.net, crumbling infrastructure, an all but disappeared social safety net, legions of homeless, and tens of millions of USians living at or below the poverty level. Yeah, a banana republic?
Re: Haiti as a #Shithole: Café Babylon: ‘’F*cking the Haitian 99%: Another Clinton Family Project’
Ah, a bit of low comedy re: #Assholes on #Shitholes:
But seriously:
And holy Haitian hell, this just in: ‘UN-Backed Police Massacred Haitians With Impunity’, Jake Johnston, Blackagendareport.com, 17 Jan 2018
‘All of the Western nations have been caught in a lie: a lie of their pretended humanism. History has no moral justification and the west has no moral authority. For a very long time America prospered; this prosperity cost millions of people their lives. Now, not even those who are the most spectacular beneficiaries of this prosperity, are able to endure these benefits. They can neither enjoy, nor do without these benefits. Above all, imagine the price paid the victims or subjects for this way of life and so they cannot afford to know why the victims are revolting. This is the formula for a nation declined, for the nation does not work in the way it’s advocates think in fact it does. It does not, for example, reveal to the victim the strength of the adversary. On the contrary, it reveals the weakness, even the panic, of the adversary and this invests the victim with passion.’
~ James Baldwin
(the lyrics) :-)
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
N0T $0 inverted : https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0b/9c/2d/0b9c2df1f48b186edec39e0e6b2337a8.jpg
ha! well, if t’were ‘corporate economic power’ above in the two tiers, it would be purrrrfect, bruce. but what a modern two-seater it it!
it’s offishull, cuz orange julius will sign it:
‘Senate Passes FISA Reauthorization Act, With Help of Democrats, truthdig;
the author has the dems outlined in yellow boxes in the roll call yes votes.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/senate-passes-fisa-reauthorization-act-help-democrats/
well, snowden always said that he’d just wanted to start a conversation, and to the New York Times:
“So long as there’s broad support amongst a people, it can be argued there’s a level of legitimacy even to the most invasive and morally wrong program, as it was an informed and willing decision,” he said.” god’s blood, what shitty politics.
I wish that Baldwin quote were true, but I think the Yanks may have figured out a way to destroy even countries that endured and/or resisted invaders for millennia: drugs. In any case, we know that ISAF/NATO/US have done to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc., what the Hittites, the Assyrians, etc., etc., down to the Ottomans could never do: destroy their societies. oh yeah, they are doing the same in the US.
anyway, despite the nutritional value & ok taste of the corn stuffing MRE’s I had for breakfast, I could not suppress the nausea I felt at the bold, brave words on the simple cardboard packaging: NUTRITION IS A FORCE MULTIPLIER.
part of the problem in this shithole country is that every public utterance is a lie. Everything, w/o exception, is an attempt to manipulate behavior. and at this point in the degeneracy of US-dominated global capitalism, it is the policy of the US to sow chaos everywhere it can in order for the elites to maintain their class position. the flood of toxic babble spewing from various innumerable public orifices is just one more symptom of an exhausted, indifferent decadence that yearns for nothing so much as “to swallow the world with a yawn” (Baudelaire). I mean, why not nuke N Korea?
anyway, in all the BS psychologizing about Trump, it is telling that people don’t generally talk about his workaholism, that as the current incarnation of the national superego he perfectly embodies the inability of the ego to have a moment’s rest & thus he is the perfect capitalist worker. I know real estate scams are not actually work in any productive or positive sense of that word so perhaps a better word is busyness. but always plotting, always scheming, always wheeling & dealing, on message, etc. Couple that restlessness with evil goals that Trump & every member of class share, and here’s your legion of Gadarene swine, still running to the cliff to this day, cuz they can’t stop.
it goes w/o saying the #Metoo volk and the women’s march & even BLM to a large degree will never address the fact that Don Trump, our nation’s capo di tutti capi, pater of cosa nostra, is the golem animated by the ideals & customs of our society.
oh yeah, so the gov’t shutdown means the drones stop flying? troops start packing it in from the far-flung bases of empire? nah. what a crock.
you’re back! so good to see you, spirituality is also a force multiplier. gawds blood, and in great form to boot. ;-) yeah, we were just talking about the women’s marches on the next thread, and wsws reporters saw just what i’d seen in olympia and seattle, the hotbed of anarchism, yanno. a few bright spots and not-quite-coopted to dem visions of sugar plums dancing, but by and large: a total Dem Do.
‘‘Women’s March promotes Democratic Party, sabotages opposition to Trump’ wsws, 22 January 2018
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/01/22/wome-j22.html
boy, howdy, do i love this:
“anyway, in all the BS psychologizing about Trump, it is telling that people don’t generally talk about his workaholism, that as the current incarnation of the national superego he perfectly embodies the inability of the ego to have a moment’s rest & thus he is the perfect capitalist worker. I know real estate scams are not actually work in any productive or positive sense of that word so perhaps a better word is busyness. but always plotting, always scheming, always wheeling & dealing, on message, etc. Couple that restlessness with evil goals that Trump & every member of class share, and here’s your legion of Gadarene swine, still running to the cliff to this day, cuz they can’t stop.”
i’ve been reading mad dog’s first in a decade national ‘defense’ (war of the world) strategy, and it really does reflect the frantic scattershot posture of a dying empire trying to revive itself thru ‘ultimate command and control’. i think i’ll bring the transcript of his whole accursed speech. gob-smacking hubris and of course, epic lies.
and what the hell did you eat this morning?
what else does a cracker like me eat but the national corn pone?
somebody came by handing out MRE’s of corn stuffing. not bad. puts me in my mind that when the Zombocalypse starts, there’s lots of food on military bases.
I have a slight doubt that any previous empire tried to conquer the world with an army of diabetics. that imperialism is also warfare against the populace of the aspiring conqueror(s) is very easy to prove. even Thucydides knew that (thus all the slaves in Athens et al: the state is at war with itself.) now Rumsfeld types all have unwavering faith that tech gizmos will replace, to a large degree, the battlefield soldier. so having a nation of blind amputees no longer matters.
we all use “stupid” as a short hand for other things, partly reflecting our incredibly misguided fetish of being smart, our faith, grounded in no evidence, in intelligence & rationality. but is there anything stupider than the parasite making the host deathly ill? oh wait, that’s what parasites do. (on the other hand, part of the country, stereotypically the southern cracker part, takes equal pride in being dumb as a rock. being smart is surely not the be all & end all, but it takes a special kind of inveterate, incorrigible asininity to make being a blockhead a virtue.)
“the army of the future must be wonderful” from the CIA whitewash of MK Ultra & the like that is “The Men Who Stare at Goats.”
well, then: jubilation T. cornpone to you, my friend! i’d add that ‘smart’ doesn’t mean ‘wise’, and that the salt of the earth formally uneducated can be wise, sometimes wiser. but glorifying blockheads (love that term) i hadn’t known about.
but that was the title of one of michael hudson’s books, iirc, ‘when parasites eat the host’. gotta go, dinner’s boiling over a bit. love to you in olympia, darlin’.
of course. who you gonna take advice on love from: Richard Dawkins, or your plumber? and why? surely the notion that sitting in a library/lab for years qualifies one to belch up wisdom like a babe its mother’s milk is… stupid.
knowledge, in that lab/library sense, is of the dead anyway, as Faust knew. “sitting in graveyards…with unchristian Solomon.” “base authority from others’ books.” etc., etc. what do we learn from all our yesterdays? the way to dusty death. but anything about how to live? or how to die, which philosophy, love of wisdom, is supposed to be a preparation for? nah. again, Dawkins’ or whoever’s badges of authority…what do they mean?
I’ve been ragging on knowledge, as if knowing stuff is bad. no, but it is rather more neutral & ambiguous than we care to admit. some “learned” USaians love to spout things like, “imagination is more important than knowledge” and “that of which one cannot speak [like Wittgenstein or Einstein?] one should remain silent” to justify ignorance & lazy thinking. esp. when many a statement can be so easily interrogated with a few clicks & thoughtful questions. being smart, whatever that means b/c it is very cultural & contextual, is, perhaps, like being courageous: its value depends on what one does with it. to state something that should be blazingly obvious but is not.
isn’t that ‘history is ‘a’ idiot’ in the vein of ‘the law is a ass’?
i like the einstein imagination quote (don’t remember wittgenstein) but to me: intelligence = IQ, knowledge is processed, internalized information, and can be subdivided into i) ‘things people know are so, but aren’t, thus are just beliefs, even if concretized ones, and ii) things that are close to so, and can even sometimes be proven.
but yes, ‘smart’ gets more complicated, as per this: “being smart, whatever that means b/c it is very cultural & contextual, is, perhaps, like being courageous: its value depends on what one does with it. to state something that should be blazingly obvious but is not.” smart can be used for personal rapacious plundering (big banks, for instance, wall street and easy fed money, on and on), or it can be used for the common weal, coops, public banking, etc.