![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 101 to 125 of 135. Go back in thread:
Posted by beckett2 on August 13, 2018, at 17:41:15
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by sigismund on August 12, 2018, at 14:25:07
Useful idiot indeed.
I've been eyeing Canada. Yesterday, the Guardian discussed a constitutional congress being pushed by conservatives.
There isn't place that will be untouched, however, I despair being tethered on a ball and chain to a substantial group of citizens and businessmen. My folly thinking the US was different in this respect. I like countries that don't have as much power to fight over.
Relocating at my age with a dependent child seems impossible. And heartbreaking under the circumstances.
Posted by beckett2 on August 13, 2018, at 18:46:12
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by sigismund on August 12, 2018, at 14:25:07
An ex-republican operative referred to Newt Gingrich as the 'Typhoid Mary' of the current diseased party.
Posted by sigismund on August 13, 2018, at 22:04:17
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by beckett2 on August 13, 2018, at 17:41:15
> I like countries that don't have as much power to fight over.
NZ, AFAIK, does not have a coal industry, and therefore seems not to have the think tanks (more than familiar to you) such as the Institute of Public Affairs. They have lost the argument but........you know the words?
Their last retreat is moving slow
They burn their bridges as they go
Posted by sigismund on August 13, 2018, at 22:07:49
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by beckett2 on August 13, 2018, at 18:46:12
Was he the one who sacked his wife by email? One loses track of which wife was sacked for having cancer, being too old, being in the way, not dying quickly enough.
How come the right got to own family values? They are more shameless, isn't that it?
Posted by alexandra_k on August 14, 2018, at 6:48:51
In reply to Re: Paul Jay, posted by sigismund on August 11, 2018, at 1:59:35
> >i didn't ask to be born.
> Maybe that is what Eliot meant?
> 'Let us go then, you and I'.
Oh, my, I haven't heard that in a while. I used to know... Most of it.
With the ... evening(?) spread out against the sky
Like a patient anesthetised upon a table....
Let us go through certain half deserted streets
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights
In one night cheap hotels
With sawdust on the floors and oyster shells....
And something about mermaids underneath the sea...
(That always got me thinking of 'not waving but drowning' by Stevie Smith
...
And a disconnect of meaning.
What made you think of it, I wonder.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 14, 2018, at 7:02:19
In reply to born, never asked, posted by beckett2 on August 12, 2018, at 0:46:00
> A judge ordered a flight to be turned midair and return a woman and child who were being deported before their asylum hearing was finished. Their premature deportation was illegal. The judge threatened Jeff Sessions (the attorney general) with contempt if the pair were not returned immediately.
At least there was a judge who ordered it.
We were supposed to have judges to make wise rulings, too. I don't think our laws have developed in that way, though.
> Earlier, I know I said the AU was smart to be careful of it's borders. Please forgive me. I just can't imagine where everyone, including my family, will go. The Guardian showed men in Shanghai sleeping on the streets because it's too hot in their apartments. I think about this every day, how the most people can be made as comfortable as possible.
Yeah. It turns out people can adapt pretty well to working in the cold. But not so well to heat. Athletes adapt to cold. They don't adapt to heat, though, their body proteins just cook at the temperature they cook at, and nothing much can be done about that. Global warming... Sweat shops etc...
I went to a seminar where this group was trying to help get air conditioning installed into sweat shops in vietnam or... I don't remember where, honestly. The people running the sweat shops were all about 'we can't afford it'. But turns out there was a bunch of things they could do to improve conditions for their workers at little to no cost to themselves. For example, they could paint the roof white instead of black, and so on.
But they... WOuldn't. Didn't want to. Seemed to resent being told what to do, or whatever. Even when offered free air conditioning for one of the two buildings they turned it down. Apparently that 'wouldn't have been fair to the other workers'.
People... Like to oppress others. Some of them. Get a genuine kick out of it, or whatever.
And, what are you gonna do?
MOst people just running scared, I think. Just so much awful...
I don't know that having nothing to protect or defend or whatever brings out the best in people, at all.
NZ is a destination for people to retire to... Come here and they own the town with their American Dollars etc - right? How much do you think it costs to buy a NZ election?
That's what drives the prices up, I suppose.
Posted by sigismund on August 14, 2018, at 14:37:26
In reply to Re: Paul Jay » sigismund, posted by alexandra_k on August 14, 2018, at 6:48:51
Alex, I did have an inkling at the time, but it has gone now.
I always liked this.......
You tossed a blanket from the bed,
You lay upon your back, and waited;
You dozed, and watched the night revealing
The thousand sordid images
Of which your soul was constituted;
They flickered against the ceiling.
And when all the world came back
And the light crept up between the shutters
And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,
You had such a vision of the street
As the street hardly understands;
Sitting along the beds edge, where
You curled the papers from your hair,
Or clasped the yellow soles of feet
In the palms of both soiled hands.
Posted by sigismund on August 14, 2018, at 14:39:25
In reply to Re: born, never asked » beckett2, posted by alexandra_k on August 14, 2018, at 7:02:19
>People... Like to oppress others. Some of them. Get a genuine kick out of it, or whatever.
Oh sh*t yeah. 10/10.
Posted by sigismund on August 14, 2018, at 15:12:53
In reply to Re: born, never asked » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on August 14, 2018, at 14:39:25
Why, for example, do we and our brave allies in the war against terror need to cause cholera outbreaks here?
Envy?
Posted by alexandra_k on August 15, 2018, at 3:18:25
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by sigismund on August 14, 2018, at 15:12:53
cholera is usually about human or animal sh*t contaminating drinking water.
because you have an explosion in population (e.g., urbanisation) or because of disruption to the sewerage system, or something like that.
i read a paper fairly recently about some or other disease that was more exotic. one of the 'tropical diseases' that rich American med student tourists or whatever want to go do 'helping you' stuff to get to see... and turns out most of that exotic sh*t spreads much the same way all the other sh*t does... literally... sh*t contaminating the drinking water. because people in Fiji, etc don't have flush toilets / sewerage system. It goes to a drum, or whatever, and the drum corrodes, and the contents leak. The contents leak into the fields that are being farmed for lettuce, or whatever.
There is a lot we can do...
Those plastic f*ck*ng drums that will be here a million years from now they won't have biodegraded at all (or similar). Make pretty great drinking water containers in these tropical countries where rainfall really isn't a limiting problem...
Biodegradable / compostable toilets. Don't ask me... Ask an engineer. Sigh.
There's a lot that could be done.
But people prefer to keep their minions weak and sick... Yeah.
They mostly do.
Those who devote their lives to getting in there and taking what they can get and the pursuit of power.
I mean...
If you see power as desirable because you can take more things in virtue of it... YOu are likely to really get in there and fight for it.
If you see power as undesirable because you have a responsibility to take less things in virtue of it. You have duty of care to others, now. You are less likely to really get in there and fight for it.
It's just a process of realising the best of options... The best of a bad bunch, or whatever.
There aren't many good leaders. Good leaders are reluctant leaders. And there is no shortage of psychopaths fighting tooth and claw to be in charge.
Posted by sigismund on August 15, 2018, at 15:52:45
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by alexandra_k on August 15, 2018, at 3:18:25
>because of disruption to the sewerage system,
Saudi bombing.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 5:20:19
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by sigismund on August 15, 2018, at 15:52:45
that'd do it.
Posted by beckett2 on August 17, 2018, at 19:41:23
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by alexandra_k on August 16, 2018, at 5:20:19
I'm not following about cholera. Or typhus?
Posted by sigismund on August 17, 2018, at 22:17:37
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by beckett2 on August 17, 2018, at 19:41:23
I have heard of cholera. The second outbreak. Typhus I don't know about. Most of the victims are kids. Lots of malnutrition too.
Posted by beckett2 on August 18, 2018, at 23:20:43
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by sigismund on August 15, 2018, at 15:52:45
> >because of disruption to the sewerage system,
>
> Saudi bombing.I'm trying to understand what the deal is with the US and Saudi Arabia. And there were the verbal attacks on Canada of all places, by the US and Saudi Arabia expelling diplomats, etc. And their eerie twitter image of a plane.
Britain is an arms seller? We are, much to our shame, selling to Saudi Arabia for their bombing campaigns.
Posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 16:21:36
In reply to Re: born, never asked » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on August 18, 2018, at 23:20:43
>what the deal is with the US and Saudi Arabia
Yes.
Considering Saudi domestic policy and export of terrorism..........
I mean it is history, since FDR.
There was a report from a Saudi archeologist or historian. He wanted time to photograph and record the house in which one of the Prophet's wives had lived. (I forget.) It was remarkably difficult to get. Then they bulldozed it for development. That is what I was thinking about when I mentioned envy.
Posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 16:24:44
In reply to Re: born, never asked » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on August 18, 2018, at 23:20:43
Britain is an arms seller, I think, as is France.
Our government is going to set one up here, having declined to help various existing industries....(cars, canned fruit)....on economic grounds.
Posted by beckett2 on August 19, 2018, at 18:04:02
In reply to Re: born, never asked » beckett2, posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 16:21:36
> >what the deal is with the US and Saudi Arabia
>
> Yes.
>
> Considering Saudi domestic policy and export of terrorism..........
>
> I mean it is history, since FDR.
>
> There was a report from a Saudi archeologist or historian. He wanted time to photograph and record the house in which one of the Prophet's wives had lived. (I forget.) It was remarkably difficult to get. Then they bulldozed it for development. That is what I was thinking about when I mentioned envy.The resolute perversion is chilling. When you say envy, is it like destroying what you cannot have?
When I think of a cabin on a lake, it's the shushing down of twitter arguments people are reacting and reacting to reacting. I'd like the quiet.Mineral wealth. Places like NZ seem safe to me because in part people aren't polluted by an armament culture.
Posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 18:50:42
In reply to Re: born, never asked » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on August 19, 2018, at 18:04:02
>The resolute perversion is chilling.
Quite apart from any opinion I might have I struggle to understand US strategy. How is it in the interests of the US?
Perversity is a part of human nature of course.
Posted by beckett2 on August 20, 2018, at 20:25:31
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by sigismund on August 19, 2018, at 18:50:42
> >The resolute perversion is chilling.
>
> Quite apart from any opinion I might have I struggle to understand US strategy. How is it in the interests of the US?
>
> Perversity is a part of human nature of course.US strategy such as selling arms? Or with Saudi Arabia? Maybe you would say more. Certainly the citizens aren't 'happy' although they'll fight to the death (almost) if one says otherwise or questions uncontrolled capitalism.
Do you recall that student whose essay described the eagle rising above the heads of every other county? That was before 9/11.
Posted by sigismund on August 22, 2018, at 13:27:39
In reply to Re: born, never asked » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on August 20, 2018, at 20:25:31
>Do you recall that student whose essay described the eagle rising above the heads of every other county? That was before 9/11.
I don't think so. What did the citizens of those countries feel about it in the essay? I recall Howard Zinn saying of the bases in other countries 'It bothers them'. I found 'bother' amusing.
In 30 years Australia has not been able to find any consensus or possible actions on climate change. Our ex-PM, Abbott, said recently 'We have to stop this madness about reducing carbon emissions. Trying to solve problems of climate by reducing emissions is like sacrificing goats to appease the volcano gods'. I dunno what to make of that. Perhaps his true God favours him sufficiently? Perhaps he knows all the science? He did say 'Climate change is crap'. I see this as perverse. The Liberal Party of Australia is now like the Republicans. We don't even try to think for ourselves. Neoliberalism has turned into Trumpism.
Meanwhile Jacinda has foregone a pay rise saying politicians didn't need it.
Posted by beckett2 on August 22, 2018, at 18:30:07
In reply to Re: born, never asked » beckett2, posted by sigismund on August 22, 2018, at 13:27:39
> >Do you recall that student whose essay described the eagle rising above the heads of every other county? That was before 9/11.
>
> I don't think so. What did the citizens of those countries feel about it in the essay? I recall Howard Zinn saying of the bases in other countries 'It bothers them'. I found 'bother' amusing.
>
> In 30 years Australia has not been able to find any consensus or possible actions on climate change. Our ex-PM, Abbott, said recently 'We have to stop this madness about reducing carbon emissions. Trying to solve problems of climate by reducing emissions is like sacrificing goats to appease the volcano gods'. I dunno what to make of that. Perhaps his true God favours him sufficiently? Perhaps he knows all the science? He did say 'Climate change is crap'. I see this as perverse. The Liberal Party of Australia is now like the Republicans. We don't even try to think for ourselves. Neoliberalism has turned into Trumpism.The gods must favor him because he's successful. As with trump. He's succeeded despite people saying (most largely his father among them) he couldn't. Why would he change?
Checks and balances may not be completely dead. We'll see, but there is blood in the water.
The lack of consensus on climate change puzzles me because I think (which does not indicate any alignment with reality) of AU as so clean and eco friendly.
>
> Meanwhile Jacinda has foregone a pay rise saying politicians didn't need it.
Posted by beckett2 on August 22, 2018, at 18:40:52
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by beckett2 on August 17, 2018, at 19:41:23
In a recent address, Obama referenced the effect of social media on discourse or the truth economy, that previously, say 99% of scientists said climate change was happening, we could sit down and talk about how we were going to deal with it. I understand what he is referring to, but 30 years ago we couldn't reach consensus. (He said some other interesting things, but not among them a mention of the bank bailout.)
I can understand my kid's pessimism.
A student wrote in some or another essay that the American eagle will rise above the others (as in countries, I guess). I was taken aback, but I was new. In what context she wrote this, I forget, but it was before 9/11, which looking back, I find odd. So unprompted.
Posted by sigismund on August 22, 2018, at 22:36:35
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by beckett2 on August 22, 2018, at 18:30:07
>The gods must favor him because he's successful.
Hmmmm. I think it has something to do with his idea of Western Civilisation. (Not Dostoyevsky for sure, probably not Mozart, definitely Locke.) So white, male and Christian? Not like Trump. Abbott wanted to become a priest of the muscular Catholic sort. Dominionist, yes. God gave us this world to subdue? (I'm trying to be fair.) God would not let us perish? (But did he not destroy the world once, or was it thrice?)
Hierarchy? White Christians (men first) at the top, lesser breeds without the law further down?
You couldn't make this stuff up.
Posted by sigismund on August 22, 2018, at 22:37:29
In reply to Re: born, never asked, posted by sigismund on August 22, 2018, at 22:36:35
I forgot colonialism.
Go forward in thread:
Psycho-Babble Politics | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.