Are prisons for punishment?

Worlds within worlds

Democracy

What do we really need?

Louis Ferdinand Celine -- the true master of international survivalist/pacifist tactics

I've always been fascinated by Louis Ferdinand Celine since I read "Voyage au bout de la nuit" as a young man. What a cynical nihilistic genius! However, I'd never read his astonishing "bagatelle pour un massacre", a superficially virulently antisemitic work which is, quite obviously, a caricature of antisemitism itself! Suddenly, in 1937, as Hitler is becoming all powerful, with no prior indication, whatsoever, Celine has become the world's biggest antisemite! And, both Hitler and the Pope are Jewish, too! According to Celine, anyway. The Nazis were afraid of this guy for chrissakes! While they were occupying France! I wonder if anyone has really understood this guy? But..but..but..the collaborationists used Celine's writings to "normalize" the roundups of Jews in France, right? Sure they did! That's why 75% of French Jews survived years of occupation, by far the largest percentage in any country the Nazis occupied. I guess Celine didn't "normalize" things too well, did he now? Maybe that was his intention, hmmmmmmm? Celine knew exactly what he was doing, my friends. Louis Ferdinand Celine could see what was coming. He knew the French and British would never fight off the Nazis, they were too frightened of having another Western Front with millions of deaths. So, what was the poor man to do? Well, Celine knew exactly what to do. He was the true master of international survivalist/pacifist tactics. Celine wrote a satire so brilliant that French people could read it, and read the Nazi occupying forces using it, and it would inspire them to protect the Jews of France, ridicule the Nazis, and rise again as a free and independent people! Celine had to flee for his life from France for Denmark in 1944, and Denmark protected him from France for seven years, until finally, in the early 1950's, he was "tried", "convicted", and almost immediately "pardoned" by the French government. Can you imagine how hard Celine was laughing about all this in Denmark? Then, Celine calmly returned to France, and resumed writing and practicing as a country doctor. So, who was really responsible for the liberation of France? Was it Charles de Gaulle, or the Americans? Or, was it Louis Ferdinand Celine? The pen, is mightier than the sword. https://archive.org/details/bagatelle-pour-un-massacre-pdfdrive.com/mode/2up #satire #caricature #funny #frenchlanguage #french #frenchliterature #wwii #antisemitism #philosophyofhistory #worldhistory #revisionism #historicalrevisionism #frenchhistory #alternativehistory #revisionisthistory #worldliterature #propaganda #history #degaulle #charlesdegaulle #france #irony #holocaust #nazis

Social obstacles to scientific and technical progress

Time

Showmen

Caste Systems

Success

Criminality

Psychology

Cassandras

Solar Power

Dead Babies

Freedom of Speech

The GOP's taxation problem

If you look at any form of media whatsoever in the US these days -- TV, radio, internet, youtube, religious stations, football games -- you will be inundated by ads attacking Democrats as "tax and spend liberals". Indeed, the Democrats specified may not even be ones you can vote on in the upcoming elections in a couple of weeks, the Republicans have limitless money from Elon Musk, they can spend as much money as they want just to make sure Democrats themselves can't run any ads during this period. No doubt, the Republicans are hoping to "force" people to vote Republican, using this media blitz, by some sort of social pressure or behavioral manipulation. It remains to be seen how successful this campaign will be, but, if the polls are any indication, it seems to be backfiring. Now, why might this be the case? Well, for one thing these advertisements are irritating and monotonous. The attacks are obviously coming from the Republican Party, since they are always attacking Democrats, so, people will naturally resent being bombarded with this kind of nonsense day and night, and they will blame Republicans for them, not Democrats. Also, most Americans now want the rich and corporations to be taxed more, not less, and attacks of this type might well be taken as compliments. Yes, those Democrats are doing exactly what we want them to do! Finally, since Elon Musk is known to be paying for all this total garbage, and since no one believes a syllable Elon Musk ever says anymore, from hard experience, people simply tune out this nonsense attacking the Democrats, most of the time, anyway. The real issue is these midterms is probably taxation, more than anything else. Sure, Trump is in a disastrous losing war with Iran. Sure, Trump's violent mass deportations of immigrants have antagonized most Americans. But, behind all of this is the desire of Trump to keep taxes low for his rich friends. Trump is attacking the rest of the world in hopes of stealing enough wealth that he doesn't have to tax his rich friends to pay for the deficit, and for benefits. Unfortunately for Trump and his rich friends, Iran is fighting back most effectively, and Iran is winning. This is being desperately and frantically denied by economists, who insist that Iran is on the verge of "economic collapse". The problem with the whole concept of "economic collapse" of course, is that economists do not understand very much, at all. Just some limited principles, under certain circumstances. So, predictions of "economic collapse" are generally rather meaningless. Trump is deporting immigrants to stir mass hatred to distract supporters from their problems, so they fail to recognize economic collapse in the US itself. The real issue then remains, how to keep taxes low, no matter how much it hurts ordinary Americans to do so. Most Americans don't earn enough to pay much if any tax, they are just living day to day. Wealthy Americans are heavily invested in the stock markets, because corporate taxes and taxes on capital gains in the markets are very low now. Corporations like SpaceX earn nothing, they lose money, but, they are government subsidized, it doesn't matter, they can lose money forever, their products can be totally useless and destructive, nevertheless, stockholders will always make money, forever, these companies will never go out of business, they won't be allowed to. This is the Elon Musk paradigm, the ultimate government subsidized Ponzi Scheme. However, there is a point at which the chickens come home to roost. The point at which people will no longer be able to support their own poverty caused by the trillionaire oligarchs. And, the point at which the total lack of productivity of the system, makes the system unable to defend itself militarily against attacks, as we are seeing now with the US military in the Middle East. Useless multi-billion dollar nuclear aircraft carriers are sitting ducks to Iranian and Houthi drones costing perhaps a few thousand dollars. But, as long as they are subsidized and untaxed, the corrupt military contractors will continue, as before. Most Americans want the corporations and the billionaires and trillionaires to be taxed into submission now. The government cannot possibly be as counterproductive in its use of money as these serial criminals. The GOP would be advised to become aware of its problem with taxation. #foxnews #media #massmedia #advertising #elonmusk #uselections #democrats #republicans #politics #uspolitics #economics #politicalscience #donaldtrump #classwar #iran #usmilitary #ice #immigration #massdeportation #taxes #taxation #markets #stocks #ponzischeme #spacex #billionaires #houthis #gop #philosophyofhistory

"You are a fluke of the universe"

Satire of "You are a child of the universe." https://genius.com/National-lampoon-deteriorata-annotated You are a fluke of the universe You have no right to be here Deteriorata! Deteriorata! [Verse 1] Go placidly, amid the noise and waste And remember what comfort there may be In owning a piece thereof Avoid quiet and passive persons Unless you are in need of sleep Rotate your tires Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself And heed well their advice, even though they'd be turkeys Know what to kiss, and when [Verse 2] Consider the two wrongs never make a right But that three do Wherever possible, put people on hold Be comforted, that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment And despite the changing fortunes of time There is always a big future in computer maintenance [Chorus] You are a fluke of the universe You have no right to be here And whether you can hear it or not The universe is laughing behind your back [Verse 3] Remember the Pueblo Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate Know yourself If you need help call the FBI Exercise caution in your daily affairs Especially with those persons closest to you That lemon on your left, for instance Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls Would scarcely get your feet wet Fall not in love; therefore, it will stick to your face Gracefully surrender the things of youth The birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan And let not the sands of time get in your lunch [Verse 4] Hire people with hooks For a good time call 606-4311 Ask for Ken Take heart amid the deepening gloom That your dog is finally getting enough cheese And reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot It could only be worse in Milwaukee [Chorus] You are a fluke of the universe (You are a fluke of the universe) You have no right to be here (You have no right to be here) And whether you can hear it or not (And whether you can hear it or not) The universe is laughing behind your back (The universe is laughing behind your back) [Verse 4] Therefore, make peace with your god Whatever you conceive him to be Hairy thunderer, or cosmic muffin With all its hopes, dreams, promises and urban renewal The world continues to deteriorate Give up [Chorus] You are a fluke of the universe You have no right to be here And whether you can hear it or not The universe is laughing behind your back You are a fluke of the universe You have no right to be here And whether you can hear it or not The universe is laughing behind your back

Seaweed

Science as religion, science as entertainment

Mata Hari

Trump and Zelensky

MAGA no longer craves civil war

Just before Donald Trump was elected for the second time, and just after, there was much talk of civil war in the United States, between those who opposed his MAGA policies, and those who supported his MAGA policies. Both sides expressed confidence of their ability to win such a civil war, and enthusiasm for pursuing one. And, up to a point anyway, one could claim we have indeed had a small scale kind of simmering civil war in the US over the last couple of years or so. We've had Tesla dealerships burned, we've had rioting and casualties between ICE and demonstrators opposing them. In particular, we had an armed standoff between Minnesota National Guardsmen and ICE in Minneapolis, when Governor Timmy Walz activated the National Guard under his command, to "maintain order", specifically after ICE had murdered a couple of Minnessotans in cold blood. And, then, Donald Trump put national guards in some red states on standby, to actively intervene against the Minnesota National Guard, in case they did open fire on ICE agents, or vica-versa. And, then, the entire US military started laughing, and said to Mr. Trump "No way, Jose, buddy! You think we're conservatives, so we're going to shoot up our liberal buddies in the Minnesota NG just for you, Donny boy. Go to bloody hell!" You know, I was once talking to former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, and he said about Donald Trump, "Sometimes he shoots, before he aims." Another way of putting this, is that Donald Trump has a tendency to, shall we say, overplay his hand. He overplayed his hand with ICE, in Minnesota, allowing ICE to murder several innocent demonstrators, and that has had serious consequences for him. Then, of course, Trump decided it would be a really good idea to murder the Iranian Supreme Leader, just to prove that there was absolutely nothing the Iranians could do about it! And, this time, Trump overplaying his hand has had rather serious consequences for everyone. You see, the Iranians hold grudges, in case you hadn't noticed. Ask the Shah, or Saddam Hussein, or Jimmy Carter. Oh, oops, they're all dead! So, as oil prices continue to rise, as the economy stagnates, and as the entire Middle East becomes a free fire zone, and Iranian agents pursue attacks around the world, Trump's popularity has rather cratered a bit, along with the popularity of the entire Republican Party. Democrats are expected to take House and Senate, possibly by substantial margins. And, that's according to the polls, which have consistently underestimated democrat support. This could well be a 20 point wipeout for the Republicans, not just a 10 point hammering, as the polls are suggesting. So, now that only about 10% of Americans strongly support Trump, and about 60% of Americans strongly oppose Trump, you really can hardly hear a peep from MAGA diehards about wanting to stage a "civil war". Seems they don't like those six to one odds against, in terms of sheer numbers. Instead, we hear MAGA whining about "communists, islamo-communists, socialists" etc. Hey guys, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! #civilwar #ushistory #uscivilwar #civilunrest #politics #uspolitics #republicans #democrats #uscongress #uselections #philosophyofhistory #socialconflict #classwar #classwarfare #donaldtrump #maga #conservatives #liberals #conservatism #liberalism #ice #minnesota #minneapolis #geopolitics #philosophyofhistory #usmilitary #iran #economics

Technology is Evil

Mormonism and Polygamy

A truly Russian Sherlock Holmes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oHBS4Da6rI&pp=0gcJCTUMAYcqIYzv

MAGA doesn't relish a civil war anymore

The French Left is winning

Deng Xiao Ping

Anarchy