![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 25 of 41. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by sigismund on July 17, 2019, at 16:01:17
are welcome to leave if they want. They can even come back! They hate our values. And my goodness, they are women and coloured ones!
How big and deep does this cup need to be? Very?
Maybe he's right about 'our values', except who are we?
Posted by sigismund on July 17, 2019, at 16:05:46
In reply to Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 17, 2019, at 16:01:17
'You see all these people walking down (around?). We just hit the highest stockmarket in history.' President Trump
Now we are talking values.
Posted by sigismund on July 18, 2019, at 4:42:33
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 17, 2019, at 16:05:46
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/18/the-devolution-will-be-televised-our-body-cam-president/
The disgrace intensifies as we get used to it. SCOTUS, POTUS, how much respect are they due? Brett Kavanagh? Girls basket ball coach? So a certain amount of humiliation may prompt reflection if not shame. Or the shame may be enjoyable, stranger things have happened. I worry about the ruin around the corner. (And their lives.) They seem more mature and balanced than their opponents. They do have the measure of the situation, of these times?
Some distance away from Nancy Pelosi seems wise given Trump's tactics, refined by Murdoch under Howard. ('We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances under which they come.') But that was child's play compared to this.
No chance for Iran or Venezuela though. Champagne socialists and ayatollahs while people eat rats?? Hell, I remember Vietnam and LBJ. That may have looked like tragedy. This??
Posted by alexandra_k on July 18, 2019, at 17:19:02
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 18, 2019, at 4:42:33
I was thinking about racial segregation yesterday. Whether voluntary or imposed. It is easiest / easier to feel comfortable around people who are `like you' in some way. And food is important.
I was reading this (old now) book about becoming a Medical Doctor in the US for international medical graduates. The book was old and I haven't seen a new version... But I found it curious how it was going on and on and on about food. About finding your community which is to say a community of other immigrants from your home country. It was saying that they basically will be your patient base. Marrying one of them is your citizenship... It was very odd...
America is funny (strange) I think about race. I do understand that it is easier for people to feel comfortable around people who are 'like them' in some sense. It lightens the cognitive load and is easier to relax. It is hard to be confronted by people who make differnet life choices / who choose to live differently. Both within a culture and outside. Maybe I don't mind the diversity so much because I have never felt at home / comfortable in my own.
Where I am now... I am very much a minority. I feel that. I don't see many NZ born white people. I'm in the city, I guess. The city is mostly filled with immigrant students and young professionals is what I see. Hong Kong, China, India, Korea... Then Maaori New Zealanders... I guess the white New Zealanders are more likely to be living in suburban houses to be fair. Students still with parents or tucked into a few particular of the residential halls (the ones with tutoring support).
The immigration is good for New Zealand. Really crucial, I think. Especially the Hong Kong immigration. People bring... Maths. Engineering. Technology. That's probably racist... But I hear it is actually truly true. Asians do better (as a group) on maths tests and the like. I think it probably is something to do with the culture. Order. Or something. Sequential operations. One thing then the next thing then the next thing. One simple part at a time. A calmness.
It seems only on American TV that you get culturally diverse communities. I don't know. Beyond the 'token representitive', I mean. More to proportional representation of race.
So the land becomes mosaic, I mean. I don't know what you call it... Instead of pockets here and there.
I want the new book now to see what it says now.
Othewise... I guess I feature alimony into the cost of things?? Why should one have to marry and American for citizenship? I do understand this idea of.. Something along the lines of investing in the country. But why in the form of children? I understand that if you have children you want the people to have their children part of the country (otherwise it seems allegiance is not there, or something). But I don't understand this hangover from the idea that people must procreate.
We have exceeded carrying capacity. There are too many people. We need to get better at looking after the people we've got.
Anyway...
I am faintly obsessed with this short story by Phillip K Dick that is called something along the lines of 'Clancy'. Clancy is a construct. Written / scripted by people who... Well... They are a bit like the ministry of truth people in 1984... Clancy was a figure head. To bring out certain things in the people. There was this thing in it about whether you could try and genuinely use such a... Construct. To help rather than to exploit.
They thought not. Because things would be too complex. You could get people wanting to do simple things because Clancy liked them. For example, playing a simple sport with a expensive piece of sporting goods but you probably couldn't get 3d chess to take off in quite the same way... You could maybe get people drinking scotch because that's what Clancy liked... But maybe not drinking spirulina...
I wonder if Trump is supposed to be a mirror, in some way. So many americans do respond to aspects of Trump with... Disgust. Or with disagreement or whatever. The National... Self image... Has become one in which travelling academics begin by saying something self-depreciatory about the state of America.
It is a lot easier for non-Americans to bear than alternative attitudes of... Well... Something that feels an awful lot to the non-Americans like smug self satisfaction or something... Something... Not palatable at all. Trump allows for... Trauma bonding? I don't know. Something something along those lines.
Posted by alexandra_k on July 18, 2019, at 17:24:36
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by alexandra_k on July 18, 2019, at 17:19:02
I guess it makes sense that you could have cultural diversity in a more mosaic pattern in a city where there are lots of people. So, I mean, you can have genuine ethnic food outlets and so on all there in a proximity. If you have lower population as in a residential suburb then local shops can't get so much of a customer base. So you end up with neighbourhoods... Otherwise the distinctness of the cultural influence becomes lost. I mean... I guess what I am seeing now (with different cultural things in proximity) will homogenise over time as people get exposure to the different things and... I don't know... Don't see Starbucks as for white people and Bubble Tea as for asians anymore. Or whatever. You get the idea...
Posted by sigismund on July 18, 2019, at 18:10:49
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by alexandra_k on July 18, 2019, at 17:19:02
>It is easiest / easier to feel comfortable around people who are `like you' in some way.
You reckon?
There was as a sign on the wall: 'El Tiempo no existe', (as opposed to the usual 'At the end of the day you have to move on', beloved of nation builders who shoulder the burden of the necessary massacres (Downer) as Himmler explained twice in Posen..... now that we can disobey Godwin.
I like what Chris Hedges says....the 500 year old rampage of the white race over the face of the earth is coming to an end. (And they don't like that one bit. This land will forever be the homeland of etc etc)
>Why should one have to marry and American for citizenship? I do understand this idea of.. Something along the lines of investing in the country. But why in the form of children? I understand that if you have children you want the people to have their children part of the country (otherwise it seems allegiance is not there, or something). But I don't understand this hangover from the idea that people must procreate.
In NZ you just need the money (Thiel). Like Trump said 'I don't know what the meaning of it all is. Make as much as you can and leave it to your kids I guess?'
Centuries of lies have placed the anglo sphere in this position. (Waitangi is unusual) Not a good time to have kids. I wouldn't.
Trump is the mirror in a strange way. And mirrors sometimes tell the truth (which we don't always like).
Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?
A lot of racism comes from envy IMO.
You read Columbus's report to the kindg and queen of Spain?
"At daybreak great multitudes of men came to the shore, all young and of fine shapes, very handsome. . . . They came loaded with balls of cotton, parrots, javelins, and other things too numerous to mention; these they exchanged for whatever we chose to give them. I was very attentive to them, and strove to learn if they had any gold. Seeing some of them with little bits of this metal hanging at their noses, I gathered from them by signs that by going southward or steering round the island in that direction, there would be found a king who possessed large vessels of gold, and in great quantities. I endeavored to procure them to lead the way thither, but found they were unacquainted with the route. I determined to stay here till the evening of the next day, and then sail for the southwest; for according to what I could learn from them, there was land at the south as well as at the southwest and northwest and those from the northwest came many times and fought with them and proceeded on to the southwest in search of gold and precious stones. . . .
Sunday, 14 October. . . . I do not, however, see the necessity of fortifying the place, as the people here are simple in war-like matters, as your Highnesses will see by those seven which I have ordered to be taken and carried to Spain in order to learn our language and return, unless your Highnesses should choose to have them all transported to Castile, or held captive in the island. I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as I pleased. . . .
Tony Abbott has been banging on about the superiority of Western Civilisation. This brought to mind Ezra Pound who may have known more about it.....
There died a myriad,
And of the best, among them,
For an old bitch gone in the teeth,
For a botched civilization,
Posted by sigismund on July 18, 2019, at 18:38:34
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by alexandra_k on July 18, 2019, at 17:24:36
Bubble tea? Better than Starbucks? (Was Starbuck a character in Moby Dick? Tried to read it and couldn't.)
NZ has a different mix and is better for me, just less painful.
Covered well enough here.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5_F9X04Bq8
Posted by alexandra_k on July 19, 2019, at 7:26:43
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 18, 2019, at 18:10:49
I hadn't heard the Columbus report. I find it sad. The approach to people. The approach to trade.
On Bubble Tea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-dRmVG7VPA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXTeu4mD5H0
I haven't tried it. I'm sure it's good. I am used to thinking of tea as a poor choice because of the opportunity cost of forgoing coffee. But at $8 the way to think of it as less as a coffee substitute and more of a meal substitute instead of bowl of cereal, or something.
A mirror... Yeah...
You don't think that you feel more comfortable around people who are like you, in some way? I don't mean the same skin color as you, necessarily...
Posted by sigismund on July 19, 2019, at 19:31:51
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by alexandra_k on July 19, 2019, at 7:26:43
>You don't think that you feel more comfortable around people who are like you, in some way? I don't mean the same skin color as you, necessarily...
In some ways, of course. I have never understood racism EXCEPT with respect to the aborigines. Which is the projection of our refusal to acknowledge wrong doing by us, so it is easier to hate / fear them.
Posted by sigismund on July 19, 2019, at 19:39:07
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 19, 2019, at 19:31:51
You know how there is this current trend to say 'We won, you lost, get over it.'
Now to whom can we say that, and to whom can we not?
Even that question is provocative.
I think one of them will be assassinated. But they know about this world and they do not care.
Posted by alexandra_k on July 21, 2019, at 4:26:13
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 19, 2019, at 19:39:07
yeah...
i have been thinking...
psychoanalysis (in america) arose primarily (i believe though could be wrong) by Jewish people largely for Jewish people. Part of a culture of trauma where that trauma was legitimated (somehow) by the Nuerenbueg trails...
When I was in Otago there was an academic there, in the Centre for Bioethics who was working on atrocities commiteed by the Japanese against the Chinese in WWII. He had this really nice message about 'our common humanity'. I don't think he got much ''screen time'' because his English did not ever sound particularly good. Thick accent etc.
But I would go to the gym and see BBC headlines on 'Hong Kong protesting expediation policy' and I got curious about what it meant...
And the Falun Gong protests...
And...
Well...
Where are the organs coming from in China. Such that a person can schedule their surgery (for whatever dollar amount)?
And (don't get me wrong) I imagine much of the data to the effect that 'sure, we have performed millions of surgery's like those' is hyperbole. But I also imagine that it is hard for the Chinese Government to come to terms with the world valuing the lives of the Chinese people when the World did not hold the Japanese to account for many of the atrocities that were committed against the Chinese in WWII.
Of course bombing the f*ck out of the Japanese sucks pretty bad for the Japanese...
And American was concerned to repair for that...
But perhaps America (despite good intent) got in the way of Japan being called into account by China and whoever else was victim to their expansionism.
SO presently we have a situation where China is saying 'well, f*ck, the world didn't seem to mind before when we suffered and so now it is our turn'...
With respect to Tibet and Hong Kong and Taiwan...
And whoever else they can get away with...
I don't know.
It is hard. This idea of individuals vs people. Groups vs people. But it does make sense to me.
Where did the organs come from? Mostly false reports about what was done (a 'Hauser' -- I like to call it). But also... Yeah...
I think Australia is wrong to institute a 'racist' response of 'we will not train Chinese Transplant Surgeons'. They should be saying 'we will not train ANY surgeons who refuse to / are incompetent to obey rule of law where rule of law is about just distribution of costs and benefits (best we can genuinely figure) for society as a whole).
Posted by alexandra_k on July 21, 2019, at 4:37:35
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by alexandra_k on July 21, 2019, at 4:26:13
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Hauser
Because google will not be your friend in parsing that.
You want to send your kids to Harvard becaues Harvard has rule of law, more than other places.
Good kids are more likely to flourish at Harvard.
I have been watching DragonRoPa...
There is fear in much of the world that one needs to commit atrocities to be accepted (in some way) by those in command.
There is genuine fear.
There is little to no rule of law.
That is what Hong Kong stands for, for the Chinese.
Salvation...
Posted by alexandra_k on July 21, 2019, at 5:12:13
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by alexandra_k on July 21, 2019, at 4:37:35
the 'fear of invisible tretchary' undermines collaboration / co-operativity.
_________
grow carrots.
you can choose: pay people labor wages to hand-weed your carrots.
or, pay people to mask up to poison spray.the first option results in higher-quality carrots (organic) and associated higher labor costs involved in hand-weeding.
The second option you could try and f*ck people for labor costs... or you could give them nasty work (poison spraying) where the latter results in inferior product (poison sprayed produce)...
only government legislation will make viable the 'high road' by allowing people to choose to spend their money supporting viable and nice ways of life for others in their community.
i think about the 'free range' chickens kept 1,500 or 2,500 to a flock in i don't even know what cubit meter of space.
oh for my very own cage box please.
governments are nasty nasty nasty nasty nasty criminaal -- if they think they can get away with it.
Posted by sigismund on July 24, 2019, at 0:34:30
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by alexandra_k on July 21, 2019, at 4:26:13
>But I also imagine that it is hard for the Chinese Government to come to terms with the world valuing the lives of the Chinese people when the World did not hold the Japanese to account for many of the atrocities that were committed against the Chinese in WWII.
Let's say for the sake of argument that 60% of everyone has to die before the end of the century to get the population down. Who whom? (Did Lenin say that?) None of us matter or not very many. Our cynical leaders militarise the borders while denying the problem. There will be all these sick addicted broken poor people stumbling around in the ruins left by the plunder of capital. I hope to God they go to the moon.
The casualties in the east were of the same scale as those of the west. I guess that is around 60M in total. Lessons were learned (but not in Japan so much), and now are almost forgotten. This is Dwight Eisenhower in 1953.....
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.[1][5]What are we supposed to make of that when we look around us now? And the corporate Democrats are no better than Trump. Missiles are fired illegally, people die, and he becomes president for everyone. The beauty of our weapons. Bit of a death wish going on? I feel it myself: just get it over with.
Posted by sigismund on July 24, 2019, at 14:03:54
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 24, 2019, at 0:34:30
Well, I'm not alone. From today's comments in the Guardian.....
"Is this the Boris bounce everybody promised ?"
Well, it's certainly the Crosby Textor® dead cat bounce, install Boris Piccaninny Watermelon Letterbox Cake Bumboys Vampires Haircut Inconclusive-Cocaine-Event Wall-Spaffer Spunk-Burster F*ck-Business F*ck-The-Families Get-Off-My-F*ck*ng-Laptop Turds Johnson (thank you Stewart Lee) as PM and whilst we are all horrified, not notice that we are all being done comprehensively up the Khyber, lube-free with a razor wire wrapped Besser brick ...
iainharry NucMed 11h ago
Could also add narcissism and something about domesticity into that excellent description
Posted by alexandra_k on July 24, 2019, at 23:25:57
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 24, 2019, at 0:34:30
> Let's say for the sake of argument that 60% of everyone has to die before the end of the century to get the population down...
Yeah. I thought it was common knowledge / commonly accepted that the global population has exceeded carrying capacity. More recently I learn that people are rather obsessed with representation to the point of focusing on proportionality. So, for instance, I think part of the focus on our having Maaori and Pacific Islanders be encouraged to breed as quickly and prolifically as possible is our desire to have them retained at around 20 per cent (or whatever) of the population of NZ in the face of immigration.
So... The statistic in the newspaper yesterday was that 1 in 10 children don't have their own bed to sleep in.
It's 'in the name of culture' but it's been what's prevented the culture and the people from developing. It isn't part of Maaori culture. It is killing Maaori culture. Nobody wants to live, like that.
> This is Dwight Eisenhower in 1953.....
> Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
> This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.[1][5]It is very sad.
It is very very sad, indeed.I wish they would let the people go.
But go where? Where will the people go. There are too many bullies in the world making their way take take take take taking other peoples stuff. Doing what they can to prevent others... People don't want poor people having schools. In these parts... We are keen on the whole aspergilloma... Aspergillus growing in your TB holes... We are keen on the whole surfactant for premature babies... We are very very very keen on the longitudinal effects of oxygen deprivation for peoples conceived in alcohol...
Our governments likes to rule the people thus and so...
Posted by alexandra_k on July 24, 2019, at 23:39:45
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by alexandra_k on July 24, 2019, at 23:25:57
https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/26441/barriers-on-grafton-bridge
So this is a bridge by a hospital. They need to put up suicide barriers on bridges close to hospitals to help prevent the psychiatric people from jumping off the nearest bridge when 'no speak English' psychiatrists discharge them into... Unpalatable... Situations.
Anyway, my point is that there are various perspex or glass ceiling barrier wall types of structures about the city. They are all covered with this... Black mould. I think that is what it is. Sometimes it makes... Florets? Splotches or mould growth. Othertimes it is just a layer... I suppose it is possible the black dusty stuff is pollution from traffic... But it seems to me to be worse at certain times of the year. Like now. When humidity is high and the temperature is cold. Cold damp. It is a nasty cold damp that gets into your bones. Aspergilloma... Can get into your bones, apparently. So I'm not just imagining it...
I think that is what it is.
It is a.. Damp vegetation rotting kind of a thing... The native bush.. If you walk through the domain. The park. Similar thing with rotting logs. A black damp layer of mold on everything.
It is the only thing that seems to grow, here.
Posted by sigismund on July 25, 2019, at 14:44:42
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by alexandra_k on July 24, 2019, at 23:39:45
They could have said if they respected us with the truth......
'Yeah, sure, the world population needs to be cut by 80%. The poor and the coloured need to die, we need to dig this sh*t up before it becomes a stranded asset. Later we will do the obvious, including fortifying the borders. You will be safe enough.'
The lies are so offensive. Now I see that the sh*t hole countries are sending all the goods to be recycled back. And recycling is almost nothing. Clean public drinking water and good public transport (Japan) would actually do something, rather than shipping it to China and back again.
Nihilism + cynicism + Christian fascist racism.
Posted by beckett2 on July 25, 2019, at 20:29:33
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 25, 2019, at 14:44:42
> They could have said if they respected us with the truth......
>
> 'Yeah, sure, the world population needs to be cut by 80%. The poor and the coloured need to die, we need to dig this sh*t up before it becomes a stranded asset. Later we will do the obvious, including fortifying the borders. You will be safe enough.'
>
> The lies are so offensive. Now I see that the sh*t hole countries are sending all the goods to be recycled back. And recycling is almost nothing. Clean public drinking water and good public transport (Japan) would actually do something, rather than shipping it to China and back again.
>
> Nihilism + cynicism + Christian fascist racism.
This makes trump a truthful president. If hes re elected, I will need to accept that well wear it.Today the federal government restarted the death penalty. I wonder if Jeffery Epstein would be eligible. That is the only humor I can find in this dismal decision.
Posted by sigismund on July 26, 2019, at 13:04:55
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by beckett2 on July 25, 2019, at 20:29:33
> I will need to accept that well wear it.
That is what I think about Scottie. After the third Liberal government and the economic downturn blaming Labor for the economy will wear a bit thin.
But there is some joy for Liberal voters. Income management for people on benefits with debit cards usable only at Coles and Woolworths gives satisfaction to the employed poor, petit bourgeois, who, in deference to 'wealth creation' begrudge social security and see no need for taxes on the wealthy.
The social inclusion of Peruvian Independence Day could be an example for our countries, if social inclusion is what is wanted.
Posted by sigismund on July 26, 2019, at 13:26:21
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 26, 2019, at 13:04:55
The work-for-the-dole scheme is designed to develop the skills of the unemployed, so it is asserted.
One participant made a full scale guillotine.
Posted by beckett2 on July 27, 2019, at 2:26:46
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 26, 2019, at 13:26:21
> The work-for-the-dole scheme is designed to develop the skills of the unemployed, so it is asserted.
>
> One participant made a full scale guillotine.Id love to see the guillotine. Is there a picture.
Posted by beckett2 on July 27, 2019, at 2:30:08
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 26, 2019, at 13:04:55
This is America.
Posted by sigismund on July 27, 2019, at 7:26:58
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by beckett2 on July 27, 2019, at 2:30:08
Tried and tested in Australia first, thanks to Rupert with 'turn back the boats'.
The Liberals claimed humanitarian motivation by preventing deaths at sea. This was not a complete lie, but cruelty was nevertheless the point. (I have not read the article in the Atlantic). There were complementary options for easing the problem recommended by a government enquiry, not implemented.
From Guatemala? Coup there. 1953? Honduras? (thanks Hilary and Barack). Nicaragua? (Thanks Ronnie) El Salvador? (Who did that?) My geography is gets rusty further down, history is bunk. Some feeling of culpability rejected for not fitting the desired set-image. This is like Snow White. Nothing can make the mirror tell us that we are sufficiently fair, and we cannot hide this evil from ourselves. Those whom we have attacked must shoulder the blame as well. The curious attractiveness of those from sh*t hole countries, like Joseph, Mary and Jesus.
Posted by sigismund on July 27, 2019, at 7:42:28
In reply to Re: Those 4, posted by sigismund on July 27, 2019, at 7:26:58
Who wants to look like Saturn devouring his children? It is becoming apt.
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