I have long hated how Americans (probably most humans) need to reduce a foreign "enemy" to one person, and that person is "evil." Like the elder Bush demonizing Saddam in 1990-91. Geo Herbert Walker Bush was a terrible actor and could barely pull the War Hate act off satisfactorily, yet Americans ate it up with gusto. And greedily watched footage of "smart bombs," the only thing that was "smart" was the bombs made good Tee Vee. Then the War Hype backfired, because the Six-Pack Americans could not understand White House 1991 Real Politik reasoning that left Hussein in charge of an independent Iraq. (Sonny Geo W. Bush couldn't understand that either, and still doesn't.) Now the Evil One is Putin. Whatever.
You're right to criticize Apocalypse Now. That's a huge movie to my life, because of how old I was when I first saw it, and it's influence on me, probably it helped propel me into the military later. I had no one older and wiser who could explain it to me, and my teenage brain absorbed it's Death Culture. I think of how the film makers fused military hardware, action, and music, the cocaine-fueled excesses of the production company, American moneyed arrogance in a foreign land, combined with sophomoric rationale and writing, lack of any allegiance to historical truth. (Dang, another project for me to never finish.) It's definitely been used to encourage young Americans to join the military or go to war, even though Coppola declared it was antiwar. Coppola and his peers, I'm no film expert, but I think they were more concerned about how things looked on film then any coherent message. I think they were innovators in technique, and they were film fanatics, as in Lucas wanting to pay homage to action packed film serials like Flash Gordon, so he created Star Wars. I think they created beautiful films that lack any coherent message. I think that they created High Shallow art, and of course Lucas was the first to tap into the Aftermarket, the Merchandising, the Toys. Now we have Middling or Low Shallow Art, and we feel nostalgic for things like Indiana Jones or Back to the Future. Our sights are set too low.
Good point - you can tell when a commentator is issuing propaganda when they refer to Putin's invasion, as if he is accountable to no one. Then the collective west sanctions individuals who are not Putin as if that is going to be effective. For example, my country Canada has reached a new low by sanctioning Tretiak, member of the Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame for his goalie skills, who now is a federal politician in Russia. Clown world - the clown's job at the circus is to distract the audience as the next act is readied. What do you think will be the next act?
I forgot about the clowns’ role in the circus. I did get to attend Barnum & Bailey once as a child. All I remember is the elephants and the beautiful women in spangled tights. And peanuts in a bag. Next act? I can speculate but I have no special powers. Since the war in Eastern Europe is untenable, and US imperial power now lacks foundations economic and material, and very few want to fight for the NATO flag, and the other nations have realigned, I predict the war fizzles, NATO begins to collapse, and the territories now called Ukraine get split, among Poland, Hungary, Romania, Belarus and Russia. A rump state called Ukraine will exist and join NATO. Hungary, Poland and Romania will exit or reject NATO. China will act as intermediary, or guarantor. Perhaps India and Brazil will play the diplomatic roles as intermediaries. If anyone can be said to win, it’s China, but all this ignores the depopulation agenda/outcome of the Scamdemic.
Thanks for your comment. I'm understanding now that the more long range missile systems are promised/delivered to Ukraine, the further Russia will have to push westward when they eventually occupy the country. In that outcome, rump Ukraine will not be permitted to join NATO.
Matthew, that is certainly possible also. You can pick a city in the current Ukraine, and you can play a little game, to discover how many names the city has had, or alternate spellings, and how many countries or kingdoms that city has been administratively controlled by. I hope the Azov people get their own state, because those folks will be dang difficult to live with as refugees. If they get shunted to America, I vote for Chicago or Detroit.
Fun! Yes, I have been using that word a lot lately. Whenever I am out, usually working, I use it to describe the people all around me. They are having fun. I am not but then, I am not like them and I really feel I have no kinship with them. I work as Event Staff, many different venues and I hear that term all the time. "Wasn't that fun?" I don't see any fun in it, though I am entertained by the masses of morons spending ungodly amounts of money on this bullshit. Bird brains I call them, they all act in unison, no matter what, all without an ounce of intelligence. Very scary if you give it some deep thought.
The gushing "patriotism" is disturbing, knowing what is really going on. They will all stand and cheer for the anthem, rigid and proud and then go back to watching the spectacle of ball or noise they call song or whatever is going on. I rarely watch the events, like I said, I get my entertainment from watching the people. Mindless, ignorant and woefully stupid. I would find it sad but then, I have no kinship with them and so I retreat into my own zen meditations. Oh, so peaceful.
I learned a lot today! First, I'm barely caught up on fentanyl, and had not yet heard of zylazine. Second, I happened to read a brief news piece this morning about some arrests at a “sideshow” in the Tractor Supply parking lot in Fresno, and didn't know what a “sideshow” was supposed to be. So thanks for that, although you must admit that it’s pretty sorry that a guy writing a blog from Cambodia knows more about this stuff than someone (me) living in the US where it is actually happening. I need to get out more. :-)
Of the many English words that have been corrupted recently, I nominate “hate” as one that has truly been hijacked. Most of us know which of our feelings is best described by this word, and I charitably submit that most don’t feel it often. But to hear the way it is tossed around these days, hate is all-pervasive and constant. Someone, somewhere is always trying to "hate" the “good guys”. I myself think it has been relegated to a mere synonym of the word “disagreement”. For example, "The Center for Countering Digital Hate" (which you may have heard of) is really countering "disagreement". With what, you say? Why, with “the narrative” of course. (Oh, and BTW, it’s not really a “center” but just one guy and a keyboard.)
As I commonly find myself doing nowadays when I think of such stuff, I grew a bit nauseous toward the end of your piece, not from your writing, but from the sad truth of what you are describing. I can’t tell any more if most Americans feel the way you describe about the bullying, or realize that these guys seem unaware that the nation they're most accurately describing is their own.
I’m certainly no fan of Bill Clinton, but I remember something he said not too long after the collapse of the USSR. He was asked what he thought the US should do with the “peace dividend” we supposedly were going to get from the end of the Cold War, and he said that we should use it to try to build the kind of world we want to be living in when we are no longer top dog on the block. I feel that we in the US are getting very close to finding out how well that worked out.
This morning I just renewed. Thanks for what you do, and keep on keeping on!
America is a soulless, Godless country with complete and total lack of empathy for others. Very jewish in it's thinking as America is a jewish country. Thus american exceptionalism is jewish supremacism. Try forcing an american to look at themselves in a mirror and just see what happens. They will attack you in every imaginable way, even physically. You can't put lipstick on a pig and call it beautiful. This society is certifiably insane. I don't know what is worse, the legitimately clueless or the patriotards flying their dumbass american flags for a country that doesn't even exist.
Since I can only get a one-month visa to Vietnam, I'm not in a hurry to go back. As a Vietnamese-American, I can apply for a five-year visa exemption, but that takes a bit of work. To get Vietnamese citizenship takes even more work and money.
My Cambodia visa runs out at the end of March, so I will be here until then.
P.S. A Cambodian girl has just died from bird flu. The chance of human to human transmission is very slim, however, so the odds of borders being closed to those arriving from Cambodia is next to zero. If I had to be stuck inside any country, moreover, Cambodia would be very high on my list.
live by the bomba die by the bombasst & 'Only psychos enjoy explosions, killing fields, car crashes or asskicking chainsaw murder' are rewarding in this tale.
Dear Linh, You have reminded me of another Amerikan saying which I pretty well only heard there, perhaps echoed weakly in Canada: "Nice guys finish last'.
Good, if depressing essay. The problem of the US is that it wants to bing the whole world with them. As for war, killing and genocide, it seems to be a general aspect of human history.
I have long hated how Americans (probably most humans) need to reduce a foreign "enemy" to one person, and that person is "evil." Like the elder Bush demonizing Saddam in 1990-91. Geo Herbert Walker Bush was a terrible actor and could barely pull the War Hate act off satisfactorily, yet Americans ate it up with gusto. And greedily watched footage of "smart bombs," the only thing that was "smart" was the bombs made good Tee Vee. Then the War Hype backfired, because the Six-Pack Americans could not understand White House 1991 Real Politik reasoning that left Hussein in charge of an independent Iraq. (Sonny Geo W. Bush couldn't understand that either, and still doesn't.) Now the Evil One is Putin. Whatever.
You're right to criticize Apocalypse Now. That's a huge movie to my life, because of how old I was when I first saw it, and it's influence on me, probably it helped propel me into the military later. I had no one older and wiser who could explain it to me, and my teenage brain absorbed it's Death Culture. I think of how the film makers fused military hardware, action, and music, the cocaine-fueled excesses of the production company, American moneyed arrogance in a foreign land, combined with sophomoric rationale and writing, lack of any allegiance to historical truth. (Dang, another project for me to never finish.) It's definitely been used to encourage young Americans to join the military or go to war, even though Coppola declared it was antiwar. Coppola and his peers, I'm no film expert, but I think they were more concerned about how things looked on film then any coherent message. I think they were innovators in technique, and they were film fanatics, as in Lucas wanting to pay homage to action packed film serials like Flash Gordon, so he created Star Wars. I think they created beautiful films that lack any coherent message. I think that they created High Shallow art, and of course Lucas was the first to tap into the Aftermarket, the Merchandising, the Toys. Now we have Middling or Low Shallow Art, and we feel nostalgic for things like Indiana Jones or Back to the Future. Our sights are set too low.
Good point - you can tell when a commentator is issuing propaganda when they refer to Putin's invasion, as if he is accountable to no one. Then the collective west sanctions individuals who are not Putin as if that is going to be effective. For example, my country Canada has reached a new low by sanctioning Tretiak, member of the Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame for his goalie skills, who now is a federal politician in Russia. Clown world - the clown's job at the circus is to distract the audience as the next act is readied. What do you think will be the next act?
I forgot about the clowns’ role in the circus. I did get to attend Barnum & Bailey once as a child. All I remember is the elephants and the beautiful women in spangled tights. And peanuts in a bag. Next act? I can speculate but I have no special powers. Since the war in Eastern Europe is untenable, and US imperial power now lacks foundations economic and material, and very few want to fight for the NATO flag, and the other nations have realigned, I predict the war fizzles, NATO begins to collapse, and the territories now called Ukraine get split, among Poland, Hungary, Romania, Belarus and Russia. A rump state called Ukraine will exist and join NATO. Hungary, Poland and Romania will exit or reject NATO. China will act as intermediary, or guarantor. Perhaps India and Brazil will play the diplomatic roles as intermediaries. If anyone can be said to win, it’s China, but all this ignores the depopulation agenda/outcome of the Scamdemic.
Thanks for your comment. I'm understanding now that the more long range missile systems are promised/delivered to Ukraine, the further Russia will have to push westward when they eventually occupy the country. In that outcome, rump Ukraine will not be permitted to join NATO.
Matthew, that is certainly possible also. You can pick a city in the current Ukraine, and you can play a little game, to discover how many names the city has had, or alternate spellings, and how many countries or kingdoms that city has been administratively controlled by. I hope the Azov people get their own state, because those folks will be dang difficult to live with as refugees. If they get shunted to America, I vote for Chicago or Detroit.
Fun! Yes, I have been using that word a lot lately. Whenever I am out, usually working, I use it to describe the people all around me. They are having fun. I am not but then, I am not like them and I really feel I have no kinship with them. I work as Event Staff, many different venues and I hear that term all the time. "Wasn't that fun?" I don't see any fun in it, though I am entertained by the masses of morons spending ungodly amounts of money on this bullshit. Bird brains I call them, they all act in unison, no matter what, all without an ounce of intelligence. Very scary if you give it some deep thought.
The gushing "patriotism" is disturbing, knowing what is really going on. They will all stand and cheer for the anthem, rigid and proud and then go back to watching the spectacle of ball or noise they call song or whatever is going on. I rarely watch the events, like I said, I get my entertainment from watching the people. Mindless, ignorant and woefully stupid. I would find it sad but then, I have no kinship with them and so I retreat into my own zen meditations. Oh, so peaceful.
I learned a lot today! First, I'm barely caught up on fentanyl, and had not yet heard of zylazine. Second, I happened to read a brief news piece this morning about some arrests at a “sideshow” in the Tractor Supply parking lot in Fresno, and didn't know what a “sideshow” was supposed to be. So thanks for that, although you must admit that it’s pretty sorry that a guy writing a blog from Cambodia knows more about this stuff than someone (me) living in the US where it is actually happening. I need to get out more. :-)
Of the many English words that have been corrupted recently, I nominate “hate” as one that has truly been hijacked. Most of us know which of our feelings is best described by this word, and I charitably submit that most don’t feel it often. But to hear the way it is tossed around these days, hate is all-pervasive and constant. Someone, somewhere is always trying to "hate" the “good guys”. I myself think it has been relegated to a mere synonym of the word “disagreement”. For example, "The Center for Countering Digital Hate" (which you may have heard of) is really countering "disagreement". With what, you say? Why, with “the narrative” of course. (Oh, and BTW, it’s not really a “center” but just one guy and a keyboard.)
As I commonly find myself doing nowadays when I think of such stuff, I grew a bit nauseous toward the end of your piece, not from your writing, but from the sad truth of what you are describing. I can’t tell any more if most Americans feel the way you describe about the bullying, or realize that these guys seem unaware that the nation they're most accurately describing is their own.
I’m certainly no fan of Bill Clinton, but I remember something he said not too long after the collapse of the USSR. He was asked what he thought the US should do with the “peace dividend” we supposedly were going to get from the end of the Cold War, and he said that we should use it to try to build the kind of world we want to be living in when we are no longer top dog on the block. I feel that we in the US are getting very close to finding out how well that worked out.
This morning I just renewed. Thanks for what you do, and keep on keeping on!
America is a soulless, Godless country with complete and total lack of empathy for others. Very jewish in it's thinking as America is a jewish country. Thus american exceptionalism is jewish supremacism. Try forcing an american to look at themselves in a mirror and just see what happens. They will attack you in every imaginable way, even physically. You can't put lipstick on a pig and call it beautiful. This society is certifiably insane. I don't know what is worse, the legitimately clueless or the patriotards flying their dumbass american flags for a country that doesn't even exist.
SAD HAPPY SONG
Pigs snouting at the troughs
of lies. Lies are truths.
Truths are lies.
Algebra of newspeak.
Look at all Joe has done,
trills Jill.
Oh happiness!
Oh death!
We will survive,
we will,
sniffing the ordinary things
of blessedness:
Sitting on balcony
with dirty garden feet
black cat on perch
staring at beloved servant
late late summer sky
bluegums not yet murdered
(it’s the rage, killing them)
cello hymns streaming
from open study door
church bell tolls eight
naughty birds late for bed.
For small things thus,
we thank you, God.
Superb column, superb writing, what else can one say?
Good post. I am a bit confused about your movements now. Are you travelling around indefinitely again?
Do you think you will relocate somewhere more permanently?
Hi Zep,
Since I can only get a one-month visa to Vietnam, I'm not in a hurry to go back. As a Vietnamese-American, I can apply for a five-year visa exemption, but that takes a bit of work. To get Vietnamese citizenship takes even more work and money.
My Cambodia visa runs out at the end of March, so I will be here until then.
Linh
P.S. A Cambodian girl has just died from bird flu. The chance of human to human transmission is very slim, however, so the odds of borders being closed to those arriving from Cambodia is next to zero. If I had to be stuck inside any country, moreover, Cambodia would be very high on my list.
Biden's ventriloquist....LoL
live by the bomba die by the bombasst & 'Only psychos enjoy explosions, killing fields, car crashes or asskicking chainsaw murder' are rewarding in this tale.
Dear Linh, You have reminded me of another Amerikan saying which I pretty well only heard there, perhaps echoed weakly in Canada: "Nice guys finish last'.
Good, if depressing essay. The problem of the US is that it wants to bing the whole world with them. As for war, killing and genocide, it seems to be a general aspect of human history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Xianzhong
天生萬物以養人
人無一善以報天
殺殺殺殺殺殺殺
Heaven brings forth innumerable things to nurture man.
Man has nothing good with which to recompense Heaven.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.
11 million gallons.....