A recent interaction I had with a Left Wing Big Shot led me to re-read my chapter on Machiavelli in my book Genio: The Story of Italian Genius. One thing that emerges from Machiavelli studies (literally an industry: between 2009 and 2017 there were no less than eight biographies of the man in the English language alone) is that there are several ways of interpreting his life and work. The most common, i.e., popular view is that he was amoral, a manipulator, whose most famous work,
This is an excerpt from a novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, "The Committed":
"The American Way of Life! Eat too much, work too much, buy too much, read too little, think even less, and die in poverty and insecurity. No, thank you. Don't you see that's how the Americans take over the world? Not just through their army and their CIA and their World Bank, but through this infectious disease called the American Dream?"
Trump essentially told Z that he was holding no cards, and that he was little more than a douche bag and a buffoon. Which is, of course, correct. And then, European leaders, and American Democrats, rushed to defend Zel-Bag. But since he is a buffoon, this makes them buffoons. This fits well w/my theory abt hi-IQ morons. These morons are up in arms that Trumpi is putting an end to the post-WW2 order. They don't understand that this is his historical role (witting or not). They don't understand that a man can be an asshole and at the same time, an agent of History. They haven't a clue about the West to East tectonic shift, or the Modern to Something Else tectonic shift. Hi-IQ morons, and ignorant jackasses. So the Z-Bag man returns to Kiev, w/nothing to show for his visit. Historically speaking, we are getting somewhere. Of course he didn't cause the Russian invasion; that's nonsense. But we did, or rather Schmiden (a war criminal) did. Russia was trying to protect its borders from us, and from NATO, wh/he had every rt to do, and it looks like he has succeeded. Meanwhile, a lot of pro-Zelbag fools need a vigorous slapping. The Wafer Slapping Team (WST) has its work cut out for it.
I discuss some of this in my bk "Healing," the section that deals w/the work of Alfred Adler. Adler coined the phrase "inferiority complex," and he said it was the flip side of a superiority complex, wh/is probably a human syndrome, not just a Western one, altho the context of endless competition and one-upsmanship that prevails in the West makes it outstanding in this regard, I'm guessing. Why are Big Shots Big Shots? Adler wd say that hidden w/in them is a secret, namely that they believe themselves to be inferior (which, ironically enuf, they probably are!). To compensate, they swagger, become self-important, and humiliate others (or, in many cases, kill them) so that they can feel superior to them. Let's face it: humility, and basic decency, are rare commodities in our society--a situation that will probably get increasingly worse over time. Our president, a Napoleonic bulvan, is a role model for much, if not most, of the country. But I'm quite sure that if any of the Left Wing Big Shots I've encountered were president in his stead, they wd be just as bad; or nearly. Sad folks, all out to prove something.
I'd like to stop for a moment and take stock. The last couple of weeks have seen a flood of new subscribers to the blog. I'm still not charging anything for membership/participation, although I may decide to do so in a year or two; or five. But right now, I'm so grateful to you all, so appreciative of your energy and support. This groundswell suggests to me that more and more people are interested in Reality, rather than in the buffoonage offered by the MSM. Perhaps, over time, more and more Americans (and anyone else out there) will start looking at the country and saying, "Jesus, what a pile of crap!" as they search for authenticity in their lives, in alternative political possibilities, and in the sort of "reporting" that we try to do here. Thank you, and arriba!
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ps: The following quote may be appropriate: it's the last line of Frantz Fanon's bk, "Black Skin, White Masks": "O my body, make of me always a man who questions!" That's what we're doing here.
ps: Along those lines...something I began to realize only slowly. Mexicans in groups behave very differently from Americans in groups. Here's what I mean. One block down the street from my apt. bldg. in Mexico City there is a panaderia with outside seating. Most days, a group of us meet there for coffee and croissants at 9:30 a.m.; anywhere between 4 and 15 people show up. Not 2 mins. go by w/o someone cracking a joke. I've noticed this in other cafes as well. Mexicans are constantly laughing. My experience of people in American cafes is that they tend to be sullen. It's rare that they laugh. Now why wd this be the case? It's not rocket science. Mexicans tend to be happy. Americans tend to be unhappy. Why that wd be the case is a subject for another post, but let's just observe, for the moment, that the US is a buffoon culture, and Mexico is not.
Fartcoin does have a certain cache, but a few yrs ago I suggested that digital currency shd be called Bitrump. I think this is a bit (haha) more accurate, because in the end (haha) it bites you in the ass. Go, Bitrump!
Ukraine ‘gambling with world war three’, Trump tells Zelenskyy in fiery meeting | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Not clear why Trumpi didn't slap him, and pee on his shoes. Zelensky is a total buffoon, not to mention a horse's ass. The Wafer Urine Team (WUT) needs to fly to Kiev, and drench his shoes.
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ps: Idea! Why doesn't Zelenskbag marry Tulsi von Schmulsi? 2 douche bags in perfect harmony. (Except that she is a Putinite. But they are both such morons. Imagine a phalanx of Wafers at the ceremony, bringing bags of urine as wedding gifts.)
I cd give you an earful on Hedges, and I did on my old blog. There is soft and hard plagiarism; in the case of the former, you steal ideas or expressions, and he's been doing that w/my stuff for yrs. I once called him on it; he denied it, then just said, "I'll throw you a footnote"--! I showed it to a mutual friend of ours, who commented, "How petty!" But he also engages in the hard variety, in wh/you steal the work verbatim. Chris Ketcham caught him red-handed:
Hedges' reply to this charge was pretty lame, pretty transparent. He hard-plagiarized the work of Ketcham's wife, in addition to other similar violations. I have never read his substack, because I don't trust him; but I wdn't be surprised if he were trolling my blog for ideas and expressions. At one pt, yrs ago, he put out a series of articles on how moral he was (!). In a word, I don't respect him. He's a gd example of what I referred to in this post as a Left Wing Big Shot. Jesus, spare me. If the guy had any power, we'd all be in deep shit. But he's managed to fool a lot of people, that's for sure.
The other thing to mention is that despite his recent criticism of woke politics, he's actually woke as woke can be. He has no problem with woke ideology itself; he only wishes it hadn't been coopted by corporate power. He would therefore quickly wreck the country if he were in charge. I could easily see him taking away due process for men, making all white people wear ankle bracelets, making homophobia a thought crime, etc. And regardless of how much damage he did, he'd continue to rake in the dough.
I've said this b4: once you realize that the American gov't, and the American people, consist of douche bags, the political scene is not v. hard to decode. Meanwhile, let me say that I adore Claudia Sheinbaum. Check out her speech of yesterday at the Zocalo. She's an intelligent person, she does the rt thing, and the Mexican people have given her an 85% approval rating. Claudia I love you! Come up here, replace this stupid gov't, por favor. (Replacing the stupid people will probably be more difficult. Lastima!)
You may not have been around for it. Bush Sr.'s response to people who cdn't afford health ins. was "Don't get sick." These politicians are utter buffoons.
Wafers-
This is an excerpt from a novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, "The Committed":
"The American Way of Life! Eat too much, work too much, buy too much, read too little, think even less, and die in poverty and insecurity. No, thank you. Don't you see that's how the Americans take over the world? Not just through their army and their CIA and their World Bank, but through this infectious disease called the American Dream?"
More on Trumpi's attack on Zelenskbag:
Trump essentially told Z that he was holding no cards, and that he was little more than a douche bag and a buffoon. Which is, of course, correct. And then, European leaders, and American Democrats, rushed to defend Zel-Bag. But since he is a buffoon, this makes them buffoons. This fits well w/my theory abt hi-IQ morons. These morons are up in arms that Trumpi is putting an end to the post-WW2 order. They don't understand that this is his historical role (witting or not). They don't understand that a man can be an asshole and at the same time, an agent of History. They haven't a clue about the West to East tectonic shift, or the Modern to Something Else tectonic shift. Hi-IQ morons, and ignorant jackasses. So the Z-Bag man returns to Kiev, w/nothing to show for his visit. Historically speaking, we are getting somewhere. Of course he didn't cause the Russian invasion; that's nonsense. But we did, or rather Schmiden (a war criminal) did. Russia was trying to protect its borders from us, and from NATO, wh/he had every rt to do, and it looks like he has succeeded. Meanwhile, a lot of pro-Zelbag fools need a vigorous slapping. The Wafer Slapping Team (WST) has its work cut out for it.
-mb
Mo, Ron-
I discuss some of this in my bk "Healing," the section that deals w/the work of Alfred Adler. Adler coined the phrase "inferiority complex," and he said it was the flip side of a superiority complex, wh/is probably a human syndrome, not just a Western one, altho the context of endless competition and one-upsmanship that prevails in the West makes it outstanding in this regard, I'm guessing. Why are Big Shots Big Shots? Adler wd say that hidden w/in them is a secret, namely that they believe themselves to be inferior (which, ironically enuf, they probably are!). To compensate, they swagger, become self-important, and humiliate others (or, in many cases, kill them) so that they can feel superior to them. Let's face it: humility, and basic decency, are rare commodities in our society--a situation that will probably get increasingly worse over time. Our president, a Napoleonic bulvan, is a role model for much, if not most, of the country. But I'm quite sure that if any of the Left Wing Big Shots I've encountered were president in his stead, they wd be just as bad; or nearly. Sad folks, all out to prove something.
-mb
Wafers-
I'd like to stop for a moment and take stock. The last couple of weeks have seen a flood of new subscribers to the blog. I'm still not charging anything for membership/participation, although I may decide to do so in a year or two; or five. But right now, I'm so grateful to you all, so appreciative of your energy and support. This groundswell suggests to me that more and more people are interested in Reality, rather than in the buffoonage offered by the MSM. Perhaps, over time, more and more Americans (and anyone else out there) will start looking at the country and saying, "Jesus, what a pile of crap!" as they search for authenticity in their lives, in alternative political possibilities, and in the sort of "reporting" that we try to do here. Thank you, and arriba!
-mb
ps: The following quote may be appropriate: it's the last line of Frantz Fanon's bk, "Black Skin, White Masks": "O my body, make of me always a man who questions!" That's what we're doing here.
ps: Along those lines...something I began to realize only slowly. Mexicans in groups behave very differently from Americans in groups. Here's what I mean. One block down the street from my apt. bldg. in Mexico City there is a panaderia with outside seating. Most days, a group of us meet there for coffee and croissants at 9:30 a.m.; anywhere between 4 and 15 people show up. Not 2 mins. go by w/o someone cracking a joke. I've noticed this in other cafes as well. Mexicans are constantly laughing. My experience of people in American cafes is that they tend to be sullen. It's rare that they laugh. Now why wd this be the case? It's not rocket science. Mexicans tend to be happy. Americans tend to be unhappy. Why that wd be the case is a subject for another post, but let's just observe, for the moment, that the US is a buffoon culture, and Mexico is not.
Check it out:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/20/world/video/eric-schmitt-trump-zelensky-digvid
To the avg American (= bozo), if the US says anything, it's true, whereas if Russia says it, it's propaganda. What if the reverse were true?
Zelensky = turkey; he is currently sitting around and beating off w/a vigor that's frightening.
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ps: Kash Patel is now FBI director. I'm very excited, given the damage he is going to do.
There was also some headline abt Trumpi attacking NATO. Gd. It shd never have been drawn up in the first place. Big mistake, said George Kennan.
Black-
Fartcoin does have a certain cache, but a few yrs ago I suggested that digital currency shd be called Bitrump. I think this is a bit (haha) more accurate, because in the end (haha) it bites you in the ass. Go, Bitrump!
-mb
Highly recommended, by Viet Thanh Nguyen: "The Sympathizer," and "The Committed." Blew me away.
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Ukraine ‘gambling with world war three’, Trump tells Zelenskyy in fiery meeting | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Not clear why Trumpi didn't slap him, and pee on his shoes. Zelensky is a total buffoon, not to mention a horse's ass. The Wafer Urine Team (WUT) needs to fly to Kiev, and drench his shoes.
-mb
ps: Idea! Why doesn't Zelenskbag marry Tulsi von Schmulsi? 2 douche bags in perfect harmony. (Except that she is a Putinite. But they are both such morons. Imagine a phalanx of Wafers at the ceremony, bringing bags of urine as wedding gifts.)
Woolly-
I cd give you an earful on Hedges, and I did on my old blog. There is soft and hard plagiarism; in the case of the former, you steal ideas or expressions, and he's been doing that w/my stuff for yrs. I once called him on it; he denied it, then just said, "I'll throw you a footnote"--! I showed it to a mutual friend of ours, who commented, "How petty!" But he also engages in the hard variety, in wh/you steal the work verbatim. Chris Ketcham caught him red-handed:
https://quillandquire.com/book-culture/2014/06/16/new-republics-christopher-ketcham-accuses-pulitzer-prize-winner-chris-hedges-of-plagiarism/
Hedges' reply to this charge was pretty lame, pretty transparent. He hard-plagiarized the work of Ketcham's wife, in addition to other similar violations. I have never read his substack, because I don't trust him; but I wdn't be surprised if he were trolling my blog for ideas and expressions. At one pt, yrs ago, he put out a series of articles on how moral he was (!). In a word, I don't respect him. He's a gd example of what I referred to in this post as a Left Wing Big Shot. Jesus, spare me. If the guy had any power, we'd all be in deep shit. But he's managed to fool a lot of people, that's for sure.
-mb
The other thing to mention is that despite his recent criticism of woke politics, he's actually woke as woke can be. He has no problem with woke ideology itself; he only wishes it hadn't been coopted by corporate power. He would therefore quickly wreck the country if he were in charge. I could easily see him taking away due process for men, making all white people wear ankle bracelets, making homophobia a thought crime, etc. And regardless of how much damage he did, he'd continue to rake in the dough.
American studios won't show this film. Gee, what a shock!
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/movies/no-other-land-oscars.html
Jarid-
1st of all: Lorne.
2nd: why wd any sane person want to accumulate a billion dollars? I guess we need to dust off the Small Penis Theory.
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Jack, Black-
I've said this b4: once you realize that the American gov't, and the American people, consist of douche bags, the political scene is not v. hard to decode. Meanwhile, let me say that I adore Claudia Sheinbaum. Check out her speech of yesterday at the Zocalo. She's an intelligent person, she does the rt thing, and the Mexican people have given her an 85% approval rating. Claudia I love you! Come up here, replace this stupid gov't, por favor. (Replacing the stupid people will probably be more difficult. Lastima!)
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David-
Not sure how reliable that is. I checked all of the major papers; none of them had that story.
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David-
It's all too amazing, isn't it? Step by step, the West is self-destructing.
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David-
You may not have been around for it. Bush Sr.'s response to people who cdn't afford health ins. was "Don't get sick." These politicians are utter buffoons.
-mb