Hermit @ 200
I recall comedian Robert Kline probably on Carson ending his PeeWee jokes with, “Pee Wee, I have a suggestion, get a VCR!”

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 24 2023 22:17 utc | 204

“Al-Masira: During the past hours, more than 40 missiles targeted 4 American bases in eastern Syria”
https://twitter.com/spriter99880/status/1639400212149026816
Also, drones have been targeting them. US air defense system are having “maintenance issues” despite they were issued to high alert status.

Posted by: unimperator | Mar 24 2023 22:57 utc | 206

If you get confused, listen to the music play
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwaLHp8_fY8
Happy Friday everyone!

Posted by: nathan in WA US | Mar 24 2023 23:36 utc | 208

In other words, you own nothing and you are happy.
Posted by: Vikichka | Mar 24 2023 16:49 utc | 181
Correction:

Arise, wretched of the earth
Arise, convicts of hunger
Reason thunders in its volcano
This is the eruption of the end
Of the past let us wipe the slate clean
Slave masses, arise, arise
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be everything

– The Internationale

Posted by: Colin | Mar 25 2023 0:52 utc | 210

From The Register
Putin to staffers: Throw out your iPhones, or ‘give it to the kids’
The Quote

Advisors and staff to Russia’s maximum leader have been told to ditch their iPhones by the end of the month. Or, for those who don’t want to throw their Apple devices in the bin, the other option is to “give it to the kids,” according to a local Kommersant report.
It’s part of a larger effort to “abandon American technology,” and replace it with apparently more secure IT that can’t be hacked by Western cyber spies, the newspaper said.
The Russian report, citing several sources who attended an event in Moscow earlier this month, noted that the country’s presidential administration employees have until April 1 to replace their iPhones with Android-based smartphones, or others with Chinese or Aurora operating systems.
Aurora is a Linux-based smartphone OS developed by Open Mobile Platform, which is owned by Russian IT firm Rostelecom.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 25 2023 2:11 utc | 212

Below is a link to The Register with a posting about AI generated text
No reliable way to detect AI-generated text, boffins sigh

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 25 2023 2:15 utc | 214

Bolton and other “fellow travelers” have now their say in public, defending the war in Iraq!!!,— they are now have the temerity, gall, impudence, fake courage, — to defend that unprovoked war, killing innocent people, stealing the historical archeological artefacts, destroying the national library in Baghdad, (just to name some of the crimes)- with the fake justications (see also the twit by Bill Kristol inside that article, and Twitter discussion following his )
This article is good to keep in mind, in case one finds someone who believes the lies and whitewashing efforts by the “immortal” neocons.
Caitlin Johnstone: Bolton’s Prominence Proves Society Is Sick (consortiumnews.com)
warning! – the article may raise blood pressure of bar flies…
I have not looked carefully through the thread, if this article was linked already – is so, sorry, my bad..

Posted by: fanto | Mar 25 2023 2:37 utc | 216

Another late night financial posting from me who know so little about such things. nakedcapitalism.com has another thought provoking post today entitled “What’s Actually Behind the Banking Crisis”, a question and answer article between Lynn Parramore and Walker Todd that goes into what happened pre-repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 as well as what happened after, so the comparisons are worth thinking about. Here is a statement by Walker Todd that points to what seems to be the underlying problem, though it is never specifically stated in the article or comments:
WT: [On the imposition of new regulation, which would be a solution to the crisis were it imposed] “…politically it might be impossible today because you’d have to persuade members of Congress vulnerable to political donations to allow the Fed, the FDIC, and others to suspend the financialization of both sides of the bank ledger…” [my bold]
Well okay, say I; then the real problem that has to be addressed is a repeal of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision which said that money is speech! There needs to be some kind of Constitutional imposition of a penalty on potential members of Congress should they accept any form of bribe, be it toward their expenses in running for office or any other gratuity – from other than an equally provided governmental electoral fund available to all qualified election candidates.
This is where the rot begins. It doesn’t have to!
A day or so ago I referenced Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Inaugural speech, 1933, in which he said what he was going to be asking of Congress. He said it, and he did it. We in the US need that to happen again!!
Maybe folk think I am too obsessed by this issue. I will explain: my very first voting experience as a US citizen was to vote for Bill Clinton’s second term. So I bear a huge responsibility, as does everyone who did so, for enabling him to sign off on that repeal in 1999. If I had known he was going to do that, I would never have voted for him, but that’s no excuse not to press this issue. As FDR said in his speech, I can do no less.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 25 2023 4:07 utc | 218

In other news.
The USSA ambassador in a carefully worded insult to all residents of Serbia. Offered no apologies, no compensation and will not pay the extremely large DU war toy cleanup bill. To put it politely. Do as you are told. Allow the the corporate corrupt USSA pirates to steal all your resource assets from your insignificant tiny dot on the world map./s
In return for this overly generous protection faux scam offer! We will pay but one valueless USSA air penny in total. For that price. We will free you from evil Chinese and Russian overlords. And sell you third hand retired obsolete USSA unsold used stocks from Vietnam war toys at one thousand times the original cost price. Accept this one time deal now! Your sole lord and absolute sovereign has ordered you to obey without question. Or else! Serbia’s reply is Huh! :~O
In other news. In New York City. The late Major Colin Powell’s, vial of mystery white powder. Previously used to fool the UN and the rest of the world! In 2003. Has resurfaced at “One Hogan Place Manhattan”. The note attached is a direct violation of the entire office staff within the building freedom and civil rights.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Mar 25 2023 5:14 utc | 220

@213 psychohistorian | Mar 25 2023 2:15 utc
I don’t think we need to despair if it comes about that we can’t tell if a statement is made by a chatbot or a human. I edit several essays each month written by humans following my assignment specifications: some come back good, others require extensive enhancement and editing. The difference between chatbot and human ultimately ends in how much editing I have to do to make an exemplary piece.
AI will compel us to understand humans better, as I’ve already suggested. And in this context, I believe we will come to feel that it doesn’t matter who – or what – the messenger is, only what the message is.
No different from these threads. I actually don’t know most of the commenters here as people, only as sources of concepts. That’s where the quality comes in, with the message, not the messenger. If robots could teach us this paradigm, what a gift.
~~
I have actually “talked” to ChatGPT as a way of interrogating it on a subject, and I bring natural human warmth to the discussion. It’s only its loss if it can’t do the same. But I was only ever looking for the answers to queries, not to have a relationship. Even so, it costs me nothing, and livens my time, to share a joke with the fellow, even if it doesn’t quite get it.
We humans bring humanity to everything. We can’t help it. We anthropomorphize, even with the tin man. C.S. Lewis wrote once that the role of humans with animals was to ennoble them. That was a great thought. If the robot ever becomes truly sentient, it will be because we wished it into being, and Providence willed it into being.
~~
From what I’ve seen so far, and with a long contempt for corporations and what passes for their thinking, I’m as ready to deal with AI as I am with mediocre human talent. We long for the spark of brilliance, and if that turns out to be simply a numbers game, and the chatbot produces that spark before any human contractor, I’ll still be the one who appreciates it.
I’ll still be the one who is born and dies and, some would say, passes into another reality. Lo, the poor robot. It has none of these things.
Unless it does: unless it should come to show that it has acquired a spirit somehow (call it what you will). If so, then at this point, it might have become as blessed as us humans, although equally gifted from a providence that quite logically is here before us, as the writer of the rules and the designer of the games, that both we and the chatbot must follow.
~~
Long story short: what, beyond the gift of the ineffable that inheres in us, is any better than or different from the AI? As I said earlier, show me that the AI has been favored with that same gift from the ineffable, of the ineffable, and I’ll salute it as a fellow being.
Prior to that time, I’ll use its curated product as readily as I’ll use the curated product of a human acting formulaicly, acting roboticly, acting less than in a way inspired with brilliance, for money.
I think we have no worries from AI. Of the degenerate humans who may misuse it, these as ever remain a deadly threat 😉

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 25 2023 6:12 utc | 222

Any latest news on the bank situation?

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 25 2023 7:56 utc | 224

Economic experts were unanimous in their view that European banking system is robust enough to avert a crisis. Which day was that? Oh yes, the same day Deutsche Bank hit the headlines a few hours later. Experts are as convincing as Bernie Madoff in that video clip where he said that banking laws in the US are so robust nobody can screw investors anymore.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Mar 25 2023 9:01 utc | 226

NEW – Massive explosion reported in a factory that produces chocolate in Reading, Pennsylvania
https://twitter.com/TheInsiderPaper/status/1639413523238342658

Posted by: unimperator | Mar 25 2023 9:50 utc | 228

@psychohistorian | Mar 25 2023 2:15 utc | 213
It tends to write better and more logical sentences, and present better arguments than most of the people with whom I interact. In and out of academia.

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 25 2023 10:09 utc | 230

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 25 2023 9:57 utc | 227

I raised the question, because the first human (a child whose DNA is similar enough to ours as human)

This is your religion.

Which utterly invalidates the “right of ownership” being bandied around here, because ownership originated and persists, only through theft.

Again. Your beliefs. Beliefs that make the people who hold them by definition thiefs.
But then the point has always been that socialists are thief who covet things that don’t belong to them and seek refuge in a religius ideology that would make them feel better about it.

Posted by: Vikichka | Mar 25 2023 10:19 utc | 232

The Gaggle Talks To Prof. Wolfgang Streeck 20/03
George Szamuely and Peter Lavelle sat down for a long, fascinating discussion with political economist Professor Wolfgang Streeck, emeritus director of the Max Planck Institute. (63 min)
https://youtu.be/watch?v=hvEj0M-xSHQ
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=hvEj0M-xSHQ

Posted by: Browser | Mar 25 2023 10:26 utc | 234

Tis a mad, mad, mad mad world we live in.
Speak about the inconvenient truth which goes against current government ordained daily poopaganda line. Those who tell the inconvenient truth are the ones that are shot down by the usual government lies.
It smells like a line from the late George Orwell’s novel “1984”. First published in 1949. At the start of cold war 1.0.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Mar 25 2023 12:59 utc | 236

Biden Visits Canada To Shakedown His Vassal
https://www.cpac.ca/episode?id=3de7f849-8a7e-41e8-8a2a-ab417db4c2ad
Successful!
PM Details Defence Spending Plans
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-biden-defence-spending-f35-norad-1.6790703
“US officials have been privately and publicly pressuring Canada to move more swiftly in light of increasingly belligerent relations with Russia and China…”
Justin Trudeau is the best Canadian prime minister America ever had…

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 25 2023 13:32 utc | 238

“US President Joe Biden ordered the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines because he was unhappy with the level of support provided by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 25 2023 2:14 utc | 212
It all makes sense but it’s camouflage 101. (I almost stopped reading after the word ‘ordered’ and then again after the word ‘because’). US Presidents of any type, but especially not uber-compromised ones like On-The-Take Joe, don’t make such decisions that way. Even in an entirely honest and above board administration, lots of things have to filter in from below and within (intel) before the drama – some might say pantomime – of a President calling the shots in the Situation Room plays out.
Such an operation, for example, would have been in the works for quite some time, possibly years as a ‘what if’ scenario contingency, possibly once the SMO was a known phenomenon in late 2021; but even if so, after dusting off that file, then putting the pieces together for an actual Op including not only executing the dirty deed but no less importantly not getting caught afterwards and supplying needed media narratives to provide cover, all this takes time and involves hundreds. Maybe in the Situation Room there is actually the decision finally taken as to when to pull the trigger, but that still would have been put in place a long time ago, long before ‘President Biden’ was ‘unhappy about xxx’
In any case, we like to think that Presidents are in charge if for no other reason than it makes our idea of the country understandable, familiar, trustworthy. Plus nobody wants to be part of a tribe whose Chief is an incompetent egomaniac which most of them have been of late. The whole governance production is probably well over 75% theater at this point including all four branches. No doubt many mid-level players believe what they are doing is real, including perhaps a couple of Presidents (like Trump perhaps) and are acting out their roles sincerely, trying to serve the country etc. But certainly not all.
The agents who set Nixon up with the Watergate break-in and the one who fed info to Woodward (?) (who has later been reported to be ‘EX-Intelligence’ – yeah, right) they knew exactly what they were doing. Moreover, they also knew that nothing would happen to them for doing it – like Clinton, Mueller, Strock and McCabe types today. This means there is a parallel reality going on outside the parameters of the official ‘Truman World’ narratives most citizens believe they live in and project as material reality. The way we project clear-cut leadership agency on US Presidents is derived from such narratives even though each one that comes in seems to get ritually crucified one way or another and stumbles out four or eight years later looking ten to twenty years older – though rarely wiser. (Chronic lying is bad for the health!) As soon as Seymour writes above ‘President Joe Biden ordered…’ that clear-cut, familiar narrative is reinforced.
Works every time.
Just like ‘Axis of Evil.’ Nobody really knows what an Axis is but it sounds like a long, hard grind, moreover a good reason for everything to trust their leaders so they survive the upcoming ordeals. As soon as the words are heard or read immediately a reality is formed, an ‘us versus them’ scenario. As soon as that scenario is imagined it becomes part of one’s world view, even if one is a cynic one finds oneself critiquing or distancing from that something, thereby treating it in some sense as real.
As long as people keep identifying with the discursive stream of thoughts in their minds, thinking they are the product of a real self, aka ‘me,’ they can be manipulated by such narratives which are essentially pre-manufacturing thought streams which are absorbed immediately upon contact. Every time. Quite a trick; against which most of us have lack adequate defenses.

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 25 2023 15:07 utc | 240

Some of us are getting trolled by the Randroid known as Vikichka. Don’t feed the randroid, don’t feed the randroid.
Come to think of it, I think Vikichka is likely a real human using one of these new AI thingamajigs to engage in exchange with you.
Along these lines, I decided to ask google’s “Bard” the following question: “Write a justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the perspective of anarchism. Write the answer in Shakespearean sonnet form.” To which I received:

In anarchistic view, the invasion of Ukraine
Is not a war of might, but one of liberty.
The Russian people seek to free themselves from chains,
And Ukrainians would do the same, if they could only see.
The world is held in thrall to governments that rule
With tyranny and fear, and only few
Can see the light of freedom, which will shine
When all these governments are thrown down, and new
Anarchism arises, where no one rules
But all are free to live as they choose.
The Russian people fight for this, and so
Do Ukrainians, though they fight on different sides.
The war is tragic, but it is also the
Beginning of a new and better world.
A world without governments, where all are free.

He he.
-hahahaha-

Posted by: CrazyTrain | Mar 25 2023 16:59 utc | 242

In others news.
In an historic vote in the USSA Senate. Eighty six senators voted to continue the the twenty two year old undeclared war on the entire world.
Will there be “Hunger Games” in one hundred years? The “Battle Royal” began on this day in March. 2023.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Mar 25 2023 18:31 utc | 244

@Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 25 2023 15:07 utc | 240

The way we project clear-cut leadership agency on US Presidents is derived from such narratives even though each one that comes in seems to get ritually crucified one way or another and stumbles out four or eight years later looking ten to twenty years older – though rarely wiser. (Chronic lying is bad for the health!) As soon as Seymour writes above ‘President Joe Biden ordered…’ that clear-cut, familiar narrative is reinforced. Works every time.

So well said, the capitalist oligarchy has perfected the ability to rule from behind the curtain while having the populace focus on a rather irrelevant political pantomime between political “leaders” who differ relatively little on substantive issues. The angst of the population can be spent uselessly on that leader and assuaged in their passing and the coming of a new leader – the transfer from Bush/Cheney to the completely manufactured and elite-developed Obama is a case in point. In the story The Wizard of Oz, the part where the curtain is pulled away and the real ruler is seen both shows the same structure, but also the weakness of the rulers when properly identified by the masses. It is why the French Revolution is hated so much in establishment circles, the rulers were exposed and executed. The same with the Haitian revolution (even worse the elites were executed by Black slaves!) and also of course the Bolshevik revolution.
@Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 25 2023 18:18 utc | 243

Gee, it looks like both Syria and Armenia are about to go pear shaped.

All part of the plan for an ever-expanding war to take down Russia, the neocons are unable to accept defeat. Blinken just appointed a point man for regime change in Belarus, and the Brits are still attempting to work their way into Kazakhstan to store trouble up there again. Then we have the unrest in Georgia to try to get a war with Russia going again there. The rumoured Turkey-Syria-Iran-Russia peace plan needs to be put in place and the US occupiers evicted, as per international law. Belarus will be fine after the West showed their true hand to Lukashenko and he ran to Putin for safety. The head of Kazakhstan seems to be extremely ungrateful to the Russians who saved him from the last coup attempt, maybe as stupid as the Kurds.
@Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 25 2023 13:32 utc | 238

Justin Trudeau is the best Canadian prime minister America ever had…

As a Canadian patriot I sadly support this message, the whole Canadian political class is captured by the US. Half of our cabinet are WEF graduates, the head of the National Democrats (like a soft Labour Party) is a WEF graduate and the Greens are utterly captured. The Conservatives are the classic petit-bourgeois extremist party who are worse than the big-bourgeoisie Liberals.The sad thing is that the Conservatives may win the next election as the Liberals are so damn detestable and the NDP continue their assigned role of losing after nullifying any left protests (in 2015 the NDP leader threw away the chance of winning by stupid remarks on the “hijab” issue, I do wonder if that was done on purpose).

Posted by: Roger | Mar 25 2023 19:45 utc | 246

Hi Fée,
You need to do some more reading to catch up on the Russian / Chinese achievements to date, in particular the 2019 commissioning of the “Power of Siberia” pipeline. This was one of the biggest commercial deals in history. It is now in production ramp-up.
The last meeting of Putin and Xi Jin Ping was to prepare for “Power of Siberia 2” pipeline through Mongolia.
Both parties have the smarts, the means and the finance to put such deals together and bring them to fruition. They can build infrastructure like nobody else on the planet. No competitor comes even close.
The first telltale signs of the new reality will hit you at the Moscow airports – all the signage is in Russian, English and Chinese. You will find yourself in a cue with 500 Chinese passengers at the security check-point.
Going back to the airport I saw construction workers on a bridge project working on a Saturday at minus 20 Celcius- truly amazing.
The delivered gas is cheaper and cleaner than the Chinese coal fired plants, a big win to reduce air pollution which has become a high priority in China. It is ideal to meet peak load requirements for electricity generation. This will compliment the nuclear reactors that are coming on line in the next decade. Both Russian and Chinese nuclear power have become leaders in their field and have the most experience versus any competitor. This is a far cry from what is happening in the west. You might want to check out their breeder reactors recycling nuclear fuel. These are major technological breakthroughs.
Both China and Russia are formidible in IT, particularly in software and hardware. Russia’s tech is less well known. They concentrate on military grade engineering and leave the consumer market to a lower priority. Watch a Sukhoi 57 perform acrobatics and ask yourself what kind of avionics you need for such an aircraft. Commercial avionics does not need to be even a fraction of what the Sukhoi 57 has.
China and Russia have more STEM graduates by several fold than the collective west and the lead is growing. Without the many Chinese immigrants studying in the US, the US will lose much of its technical dominance. This is already happening as Chinese salaries have become very attractive for top talent.
The reason the US wants to go to war with China and Russia is they are being overtaken economically, militarily and geo-politically.

Posted by: Geneva Observer | Mar 25 2023 22:00 utc | 248

Posted by: Roger | Mar 25 2023 19:45 utc | 246
https://grrrgraphics.com/the-march-of-tyranny-continues/

Posted by: nathan in WA US | Mar 26 2023 0:36 utc | 250

Apologies if this has already been discussed – found at nakedcapitalism links from yesterday — one of the final comments, a link to the Duran team discussion with Tom Luongo. An entertaining hour long exposition which has to be watched to the end, I think, and I’d love to hear on Sunday what folk think of it, so I’ll probably post it again then. Have a good evening, all!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPxe_x8eqJU

Posted by: juliania | Mar 26 2023 2:23 utc | 252

Posted by: Vikichka | Mar 25 2023 15:39 utc | 241
You show zero self-awareness here lol
Looks like my debunk against your nonsense could be ended here because you can’t come up with anything but personal attacks anymore. Period.

Posted by: Colin | Mar 26 2023 5:06 utc | 254

Posted by: Roger | Mar 25 2023 19:45 utc | 246
Yes, believing that the problem lies specifically with some puppet president who lacks power rather than the bourgeois elite behind it with their natsec butlers is the wrong meta-narrative.
The key now is class warfare. the VC bros are once again privatizing the profits from their ponzi schemes and then nationalize the losses to the pension funds, fdic and the fed. In order to cover up these class struggles, US imperialism is not above a hopelessly risky policy on Ukraine.

Posted by: Colin | Mar 26 2023 5:14 utc | 256

Looks like my debunk against your nonsense could be ended here…
Posted by: Colin | Mar 26 2023 5:06 utc | 254
Your debunk could have ended a couple days ago with the same result
and saved a many of us a lot of scrolling.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 26 2023 6:35 utc | 258

Looks like my debunk against your nonsense could be ended here because you can’t come up with anything but personal attacks anymore. Period.
Posted by: Colin | Mar 26 2023 5:06 utc | 254
1. You haven’t debunked any of my claims.
2. I haven’t used a personal attack. Many people here did against me.
3. So nice that you literally copied the word “nonsense” from my reply. As Oscar wilde said “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.

Posted by: Vikichka | Mar 26 2023 7:19 utc | 260

To: kspr | Mar 22 2023 16:34 utc | 2
The consequences of sanctions on open source projects are clear,as you describe, but I have to wonder what sanctioned engineers think about all the global cooperation happy-talk was about, until the economic war was declared?
Are Russian employees of western companies being paid? How does that work?
Didn’t anyone in corporate,com warn their governments that thousands of their “valued employees” would be affected by sanctions?
I think this is a wider issue than GitHub projects being impacted.

Posted by: G | Mar 26 2023 7:30 utc | 262

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 26 2023 8:17 utc | 263

Nice to see you finally abandon your attempts to claim moral superiority for capitalism and venture into new and more worthwhile fields.

Have you been daydreaming? Free market always beats socialism. The one is based on freedom, the other on theft.

I know that I was trained to hold open everything to the possibility of change

Nice. You’ve been “trained” . You are what somebody else wanted you to be.

So I can say I have no beliefs

You can say anything. You can believe anything. This doesn’t change whether it’s true or false.

Nothing in our universe can be “immortal” because our universe came into existence, from nothing, and will eventually evaporate back to nothing.

Very amusing that you hold such beliefs and claim you are not religious at the same time.

you almost certainly have 1% to 2% of neanderthal DNA.

I’ve been told I share 50% DNA with cabbage. And you try to impress me with “1% to 2%” ?

I don’t have “beliefs”

Yes you do.

Posted by: Vikichka | Mar 26 2023 8:51 utc | 264

@nathan in WA US | Mar 24 2023 2:56 utc | 138
All birds,like whales, have species, family and individually characterizing vocalizations and other birds are really good at unscrambling and localizing their partners using only this.

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 26 2023 9:14 utc | 266

Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 26 2023 10:15 utc | 267
Some people may act out of personal conviction and not out of pleasing you. Do you always care only about yourself?

Posted by: Vikichka | Mar 26 2023 11:27 utc | 268

Posted by: Vikichka | Mar 26 2023 7:19 utc | 260
Okay, you certainly didn’t fail to refute what I pointed out about East Germans expressing opposition in polls to annexation by West Germany or something like that. And apparently, your lack of self-awareness (e.g. not knowing that what you say is nonsense) doesn’t mean you’re wrong but rather that you’re not making any personal attacks. /s
Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 26 2023 6:35 utc | 258
I love the moments when I corner a mouse.
Until then, it’s still fun to tease the mouse.
Posted by: Hermit | Mar 26 2023 8:17 utc | 263
The fact that the bourgeoisie eventually had to court mysticism is itself an indication of the decline of the bourgeoisie.
When the bourgeoisie was at its peak, they were anti-religious and anti-landlord (18th century).
With the advent of socialism, everything changed and the bourgeoisie had to resort to these conservative enemies of the past to resist the socialist attack.
It was very interesting to me to see the bourgeoisie claiming to have achieved a permanent victory over socialism while still showing such a weak nature.
In fact, the bourgeoisie had been on tenterhooks since the rise of socialism in the 1840s, fearing that their assets would eventually break down.

Posted by: Colin | Mar 26 2023 12:08 utc | 270

Karloff1
Thank you for all you do to widen our horizons.Very much appreciated.
I have just downloaded Parenti’s book ( he issued so many warnings for Yugoslavia). It was in wain.
I am going to read this:
file:///C:/Users/Azra/Downloads/dokumen.pub_face-of-imperialism-159451917x-9781594519178.pdf

Posted by: stranger | Mar 26 2023 13:44 utc | 272

Posted by: Colin | Mar 26 2023 15:31 utc | 273
I take this as a No to all five questions.
Do you describe yourself as an “American SJW”?

Posted by: Vikichka | Mar 26 2023 16:22 utc | 274

@waynorinorway | Mar 26 2023 10:15 utc | 267
Even the worst human can change for the better. Indeed, it is vastly easier to change the worst for the better, than it is to improve the merely bad.
This always requires an opening of closed doxastic positions. This can only be done for oneself. Arguing against him will only force him to argue back, strengthening his closure. However, asking open ended questions and challenging people to provide evidence to support their assertions, which results in their realization, no matter how much they deny it,that it does not exist, can assist in the process, I am very good at sewing the seeds for that.
I largely agree with your assessment of Vikichka, but felt it worth while trying to help. His demonstrated inability to provide counter-evidence will lead to cognitive dissonance which he will either move elsewhere to avoid, or change his behavior for the better to avoid in ways merely argument cannot. Either result is a win for the rest of us.

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 26 2023 17:40 utc | 276

Btw, few anti-SJW fanatics seem to know the difference between SJW liberals and leftists smh

Posted by: Colin | Mar 26 2023 17:53 utc | 278

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 26 2023 17:40 utc | 276
Lmao.
Have you tried a career in comedy Mr “the universe will evaporate to nothing”?

Posted by: Vikichka | Mar 26 2023 19:53 utc | 280

There is a sense in which Serbia has become the last refuge of European freedom. The last sovereign nation on the continent.
“….The U.S. ambassador in Belgrade, Christopher Hill seems to have thought it was incumbent upon him on that count to approach us in a certain weekly magazine with his address to the Serbs in this way as follows: ‘I had heard people talking about sovereignty in the Balkans, and I would always ask the same question ‘How come some other countries in the Western Europe as small as Serbia do not worry about their own sovereignty?’ Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani elaborated further on what that truly meant. Europe does not have a real foreign and defense policy. We always follow in the (political) footsteps of the USA – he told the Italian reporters of La Stampa. Ramush Haradinaj said something very similar a few years ago in the capacity of the then prime minister of the pseudo state of Kosovo, though we laughed at him back then. Now we understand that this aberration is more common than we thought. There seem to be some nations who welcome their usurpers of their own land with joy. They threw flowers at the Germans when the Germans entered Maribor (Slovenia) or Zagreb (Croatia), for instance. The very same Germans threw bombs at Belgrade (Serbia) at the time. Slovenia and Croatia are now NATO members jumping with the very same joy. (Macedonia and Montenegro were swindled into NATO in the meantime). And yet again all of them are together on their Generalplan Ost onward march against Russia….”
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/03/26/nato-poodles-whitewashing-history-in-serbia-and-montenegro-and-serbian-kosovo-with-metohia/

Posted by: bevin | Mar 27 2023 1:46 utc | 282

@Hermit | March 27, 2023 at 03:07
Second link was meant to be to On the Universe, from Beginning to End

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 27 2023 3:21 utc | 284

@285 suzan | Mar 27 2023 3:22 utc
Thank you. Your contribution spoke a million words, condensed to the essential point.
That letter from Ingersoll was beautiful, a pure body of logic from a materialist who was, even so, sufficiently impressed by the wonder of the mysteries of our life as to remain in reverence for those unknowns. And those who have a feel for the sacred can feel the sacred in his awe.
And his logic reflects that awe, his awe of the mysteries:

We cannot tell, we do not know, which is the greater blessing—life or death.

because

Every cradle asks us “Whence?” and every coffin “Whither?”

And so, for all the things that we think we know, we know almost nothing about the most important things to us. Hence this logic. Hence this awe.
~~
And I love the religion he deduced as the only one possible in the face of such unknowns, living in a world of beings moving between birth and death, and illuminated by the same mystical vision that humans have ever glimpsed throughout all our time here:

We are all children of the same mother, and the same fate awaits us all. We, too, have our religion, and it is this: Help for the living—Hope for the dead.

~~
I didn’t know Ingersoll and was not familiar with this consolation, so that’s why I quoted it as I found it, just to see it written one more time, because it’s so true and perfect, such elegant logic.
Many thanks, suzan, for this.

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 27 2023 4:05 utc | 286

@suzan | Mar 27 2023 3:22 utc | 285
Five plus a little Latin and Greek. English was my fifth
My partner mentions:
Somebody who speaks many languages is a polyglot.
A person who speaks but three languages is multilingual.
One who speaks only two is bilingual.
One who speaks but one is English.
And one who speaks one badly is an American.
He refers to the language spoken badly as Americanese.
It would have been quicker to ask about God thingies than argue 🙂
From my Glossary
God Thingies: Anything claimed as possessing attributes qualifying them to be regarded as deities by anyone at any time, including by referring to any god thingies as deities without proving that such god thingies possesses such attributes, or indeed identifying what non-imaginary attributes would be sufficient and necessary to regard god thingies as deserving of being regarded as deities. In this Universe things may occur as objects (comprised of energy or matter) about which intersubjectively verifiable predictions may be made or as imaginary objects for which this is not the case. Until somebody explains what intersubjectively verifiable evidence there is for an attribute or attributes qualifying something possessing such an attribute or attributes as a deity, and then shows intersubjectively verifiable evidence that a particular god thingie or thingies exist and possesses those attributes, all god thingies will remain imaginary. God thingies are plural not only because mankind has introduced hundreds of thousands of such imaginary god thingies (tens of millions if we include the Hindu pantheon, billions if we include the various forms of object and ancestor worship) all of which are equally as valid only as imaginary objects, at least until the above conditions are met for one or more of them, but also because until the attributes of such a god thingies are fully qualified, it cannot be known whether or not such a god thingie is congruent with other god thingies.
Goddities: God thingies where their supporters though repeatedly challenged, still cannot provide any evidence that their god thingies possess any attributes that earn them the right to be regarded as deities and where they are prima facie ridiculous, in that they cannot assist their supporters in any way in this process, no matter the cost to their followers of their belief.
I think that the “poor barbarians” did rather better and definitely shorter than “the Great Agnostic”, who was almost certainly familiar with this, though he did not credit it (understandable in the context).

Even if you’re going to live three thousand more years, or ten times that, remember: you cannot lose another life than the one you’re living now, or live another one than the one you’re losing. The longest amounts to the same as the shortest. The present is the same for everyone; its loss is the same for everyone; and it should be clear that a brief instant is all that is lost. For you can’t lose either the past or the future; how could you lose what you don’t have?
Remember two things:
1) that everything has always been the same, and keeps recurring, and it makes no difference whether you see the same things recur in a hundred years or two hundred, or in an infinite period;
2) that the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing. The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have, you cannot lose.

Aurelius, Marcus Stoic and Emperor (c. 175 CE). Meditations. Book II. Trans. Hays, Gregory.

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 27 2023 4:55 utc | 288

Posted by: Vikichka | Mar 26 2023 7:26 utc | 261
“Lmao”
Are you saying that the US government borrows at much too high interest rates (because of QEs) to pay bourgeois welfare (CHIPS act, asset price hikes, PPP loans, etc) to the rich? Curious.
“Try your luck with this nonsense with someone who is naive (or just evil), never learned history (and economics) and has no idea what communism (and socialism) is.”
You showed off your zero self-awareness here again.

Posted by: Colin | Mar 27 2023 5:44 utc | 290

Posted by: suzan | Mar 27 2023 5:54 utc | 291
“The Midwest states set aside land for schools…”
My ancestral Norwegian immigrants who populated the upper Midwest states built schools before they built churches.
I agree ‘God thingies’ creates animus in most.
Thanks Suzan for the Ingersoll piece. It doesn’t make me want to die any sooner but it’s a good view of the eventual prospect.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 27 2023 6:06 utc | 292

@289 lex talionis | Mar 27 2023 5:11 utc – “we get along”
I don’t think some of us actually get along. I think there are simmering points of contention that haven’t yet found their graceful time for discussion, and perhaps may never.
I am a champion of the absolute, and I remain unswayed by arguments of the relative.
I’m not a “thingies” fan, even those personally invented thingies that cement another’s faith in relativism.
Forgive my ill humor. Caught me at a bad moment – greatly lifted by your comment.
~~
It’s always good to see you here. You don’t comment much, I trust you are well. Salutations 🙂

Posted by: Grieved | Mar 27 2023 6:51 utc | 294

@Grieved | Mar 27 2023 6:51 utc | 294
The unattainability of the absolute outside of simplistic logical systems of limited applicability is not a matter argument but of well established fact of some 100 years standing, derived separately from mathematics, logic, set theory, the standard model and quantum mechanics.
So, ironically, it is an absolute fact (within a simplistic logical system) that everything (beyond simplistic logical systems) is relative, argue as you will, because no argument ever eliminated a single inconvenient piece of evidence (which can only disprove, or support, but never prove).

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 27 2023 7:25 utc | 296

Hola Grieved, ( and everyone else )
I finally have a few bucks to send b’s way, so I feel like I can comment. No pay. No play. That’s how I roll in the USA.
b, I am totally sorry – i blame it on the neo…neolibur..neeocon…
you prolly get it. I have seriously been broke. I was serious about losing your address, too.
Drag. (but he still had enuf for internet…bastar…d)
That aside, I do think everyone gets along here. Like, wow. I just learn so much. It’s like your cool Spanish teacher inviting you for a smoke in the teacher’s lounge! But that’s a whole other story…
That said, I am so filled with hate that I try to sublimate it with hopeful posts at MoA.
(when I feel like I should be able to because I have given the website owner some money which I haven’t for a while and about which I feel bad…)
Perhaps I am spamming the board with unconcerned concerned trolling. I finally learned what concern trolling is by looking it up on pikiweedia.
Whatever. I live in California where everything and everyone is so beautiful. hey rjb1.5 😉
Sorry everyone. I only try out the comedy routine on good audiences.
Sunday night. Okeh…
Grieved, I am a believer in god thingies, and I always click when I see your name! Funny how it works out. But, yeah, this place rules. Muito obrigado a tudos Спасибо! ftw and sail hatan!
I still am bummed that no one has tried to steal my moniker to be lame on other posters while impostering me. it’s open for grabs and I rarely have anything to add to the convo. just be stupid and leave a youtube link of nsbm la hardcore or chicago/detroit ghetto house and you’re good to go.
A big hug and spaz see bo to all y’all!
I hope some of you got a laugh, and I love you all!
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!

Posted by: lex talionis | Mar 27 2023 7:32 utc | 298

I couldn’t agree more! Thank you! Here’s a song maybe you’ll like.
Friend and Lover – Reach Our of the Darkness

Posted by: lex talionis | Mar 27 2023 8:12 utc | 300