![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 12 to 36 of 61. Go back in thread:
Posted by sigismund on February 14, 2019, at 21:01:56
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on February 14, 2019, at 16:43:41
>What will your government do?
You know....thoughts and prayers, this is not the time to be talking politics.
>I imagine there will be major support for the farmers-- but the overall GDP will be effected.
Yes, there will be some support. But Australia was settled in a way not suiting its ecology. And that is what we we will be dealing with.
This is how climate change (or whatever the euphemism is) will be....and we will see then.
Posted by beckett2 on February 18, 2019, at 20:46:41
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan » beckett2, posted by sigismund on February 14, 2019, at 21:01:56
Have you seen the book The Uninhabitable Earth? David Wallace Wells. Not that I'll read it. Reportedly, the book is the bleakest, which seems appropriate.
--really, I cannot imagine what will come.
Posted by sigismund on February 19, 2019, at 13:23:47
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on February 18, 2019, at 20:46:41
Fortunately we will both be dead.
Given how politics has gone with minimal population movements I don't think it will cope with what is to come.
We need not be detained by the rapists and drug dealers in the caravan on the border, or the pedophiles waiting to enter Australia from Manus..........what will it be like when there are real problems?
Unfortunately elections can be won like this, but I wonder if it is passing its use-by date for now.
We were watching a biopic about an outfit at a place called Buddhafield. What was interesting was how the belief fell away rather quickly once credibility was lost.
Posted by beckett2 on February 19, 2019, at 16:38:59
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan » beckett2, posted by sigismund on February 19, 2019, at 13:23:47
Yes, but our kids will be here.
Posted by sigismund on February 19, 2019, at 21:23:32
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on February 19, 2019, at 16:38:59
You see this?
Posted by sigismund on February 19, 2019, at 21:56:23
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on February 19, 2019, at 16:38:59
I gave up hoping that there was sufficient concern for future generations or the web of life. There seemed to be a cynical, hidden belief that, although it did not exist and wasn't happening, it was already too late, along with a perverse pleasure in seeing the poor and coloured suffer first and most.
We have the same thing. From the alternative media today........
There is now something more than anger attached to this government. Theres a sort of disgust around. Disgust with them, at the sheer volume of waste, shonk and grift, disgust with ourselves for having let it go for so long, for being the mugs who let it happen. It is once again of the paradox of Australian self-conception. Weve imagined ourselves to be relatively uncorrupt and competently governed for so long, that a keener sense that government had entirely collapsed into cronyism, clientelism and dirty tricks was lacking. The capacity for trust in Australia is being rotted from the top down. Its rational to think of a Coalition government the way Italians tend to think of their government, something that has absolutely nothing to do with representation at all: simply a self-contained predatory element, feeding off the body social.
This is part of the intent of right-wing parties of course, to increase cynicism and distrust of government altogether, and enrich themselves at the same time. All the same, they may well have overshot the mark in the last year or so. Am I alone in feeling sick to my stomach, literally nauseous, at reading the national news these days, wondering what the next story of corrupt, corrosive, destructive rorts is going to be? Is disgust now a live political factor? I think it might be. We now have a fundamental asymmetry in Australian politics. One major political party, Labor, capable of government; one minor, the Greens, with some internal strife, but no accusations of rorting. And on the other side something that is neither a Coalition, nor parties at all. Its simply a random, rhizomatic piss cloud of sleaze, grift, incompetence, reactionary obsessiveness, glued together by nothing other than hatred not merely of the left, but of good government itself, and an eye for the skim off the top.
The disgust is something more than political contestation or the belief that the political right, in our era, is a sham. Its a real pain that this has happened to our country. There was, as Ive noted before, until about a decade ago, some sort of implicit agreement about limits, some sense of being pointed forward, whatever political differences there might have been about what form progress would take. The effect of living in such a continental Rortopolis is to make you feel like a mug for doing anything other than making millions from transfers of state money for no product. Why bother? While youre putting your energy into art, science, honest commerce, the very fact that you thereby entrust other people with governance is taken by them as a chance to shonk it.
Posted by beckett2 on February 20, 2019, at 15:09:54
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan » beckett2, posted by sigismund on February 19, 2019, at 21:23:32
> You see this?
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLSjypKJQaQNo I didn't. Thank you. I'm relieved he emphasized climate-- geez, I don't think it's been mentioned yet. I've been keeping my head down as the election ballyhoo is tuning up.
There is some talk Biden might run. I hope not.
Right now I have a cold and feel miserable, so my normal enthusiasm is low.
Posted by beckett2 on February 20, 2019, at 15:25:35
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan » beckett2, posted by sigismund on February 19, 2019, at 21:56:23
Shonk? I needed to look that up. I love Australian English. I assume shonk is used in your country and NZ.
>I gave up hoping that there was sufficient concern for future generations or the web of life. There seemed to be a cynical, hidden belief that, although it did not exist and wasn't happening, it was already too late, along with a perverse pleasure in seeing the poor and coloured suffer first and most.
Yeah. Idk sigi. I don't really understand. Our security and military agencies report global warming as a security risk-- but I don't know what anyone in gov or business does with that information. Maybe there's an idea that there will be winners in this scenario?
Here's something nice:
Posted by sigismund on February 20, 2019, at 19:09:15
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan, posted by beckett2 on February 20, 2019, at 15:25:35
Goodness me! How beautiful!
There's some park in the US, somewhere dry where it snows, with wonderful rock formations. It's not called cathedral national park. Maybe it is in Utah or Arizona? I can't think of the name, but when the sun catches the snow it is magic.
I wish I could be this calm.......
Posted by sigismund on February 20, 2019, at 20:22:42
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan » beckett2, posted by sigismund on February 20, 2019, at 19:09:15
This is it......I have no sense the scale.
Posted by beckett2 on February 21, 2019, at 17:00:52
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan » beckett2, posted by sigismund on February 20, 2019, at 19:09:15
> Goodness me! How beautiful!
>
> There's some park in the US, somewhere dry where it snows, with wonderful rock formations. It's not called cathedral national park. Maybe it is in Utah or Arizona? I can't think of the name, but when the sun catches the snow it is magic.
>
> I wish I could be this calm.......
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_nFI2Zb7qEThank you! That was fantastic. Oddly, it was calming. His comments at Davos had the same effect. A little giddy, then calm, as though, "yes, it really is that simple, isn't it?"
Posted by sigismund on February 22, 2019, at 14:48:21
In reply to Re: Richard Flanagan, posted by beckett2 on February 21, 2019, at 17:00:52
I didn't know I could find this. One of my heroes, very smart and funny too. I'd never heard his voice. Oddly enough he was a military historian who, IIRC, estimated the current value (5 years ago) of a slave at $300,000.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/06/the-kingdom-of-survival-joe-bageant/
Posted by sigismund on February 23, 2019, at 15:25:45
In reply to Joe Bageant, posted by sigismund on February 22, 2019, at 14:48:21
Posted by beckett2 on February 24, 2019, at 18:38:15
In reply to Joe Bageant, posted by sigismund on February 22, 2019, at 14:48:21
I didn't know he was a military historian. Was he raised in a christian household? My father firmly believed we are our brother's keeper. How that gets tripped up with corporate US (which I'm afraid has globalized).
I understand going to Belize, just to be away from cultural suffocation.
We're in Venezuela again. Jeremy Scahill says the bridge that is blocked was never a functioning bridge-- and a google shows there are other bridges into Venezuela. I don't understand it-- but Bageant would be able to speak about it. Certainly, ordinary citizens pay for the political theater.
The thing he said about Obama, that at least the rhetoric is good. He didn't have a single investigation into his administration. We're drowning in scandal right now. And cruelty.
I'm reading a book by a conservative, and what I find refreshing is his interest in facts. Obama said recently that with facts, you can at least begin to have a discussion.
Posted by sigismund on February 25, 2019, at 4:14:33
In reply to Re: Joe Bageant » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on February 24, 2019, at 18:38:15
I think he died around 2011. The US is an older society than we are. He said, 'There WERE a time when the Democrats were getting their noses broken.....', it's an older English, isn't it? And the reference to Cain and Abel, rather than the New Testament, it feels as if from an older time.
Now most Democrats are lining up for freedom and Democracy. I wasn't paying attention when Obama named Venezuela a clear and present danger (or whatever) to the US. Anyway they will get their war by 2020 and unintended consequences. God knows, people may swallow it again, there will be chaos enough.
The fact that Trumps support is greater than GWB's at the end of his time makes me realise that I don't understand. 34%? That's huge, IMO.
Aryan Death Cult is not as extreme as it sounds. We are surrounded by cults and ponzi schemes. People have believed in and fought over all sorts of stuff.
Still, I can't see Trump being president after 2020.
Posted by beckett2 on March 3, 2019, at 19:27:53
In reply to Re: Joe Bageant, posted by sigismund on February 25, 2019, at 4:14:33
Perhaps my favorite comeback answer of the hearing. Mr. Cohen was certainly no pushover.
Posted by sigismund on March 4, 2019, at 11:55:04
In reply to Michael Cohen » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on March 3, 2019, at 19:27:53
No he wasn't. I watched a fair bit of it (Majority Report).
Australian Politics 101 #The Greens
Posted by beckett2 on March 4, 2019, at 12:55:39
In reply to Re: Michael Cohen, posted by sigismund on March 4, 2019, at 11:55:04
Haha, yes, I read this :) "I'm a cartoonist, I know what I'm doing!"
Here there is a similar bickering on the left (although your Greens are a third party). I call it the left eating it's young. Who is the most left is a destructive force. Hopefully we'll pull together rather than driving into a ditch while arguing.
A third party. I like to imagine how that would be here....
trump has thrown down the gauntlet over socialism. Gasp. So this is what 2020 will be about.
Michael Cohen said something about the peaceful transfer of power should trump lose. The other day trump remarked something about "we must take our country back!" From whom?
Posted by beckett2 on March 4, 2019, at 13:02:06
In reply to Re: Michael Cohen, posted by sigismund on March 4, 2019, at 11:55:04
Btw, did you see this? https://www.propublica.org/article/oxycontin-purdue-pharma-massachusetts-lawsuit-anti-addiction-market
Jesus.
Posted by sigismund on March 4, 2019, at 21:12:33
In reply to Re: Michael Cohen » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on March 4, 2019, at 12:55:39
>trump has thrown down the gauntlet over socialism.
Oh, when I hear about socialism from the US I wonder what happened to your education system.
You have such good universities, the very best, and yet..........
Posted by sigismund on March 4, 2019, at 21:16:10
In reply to Re: Michael Cohen » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on March 4, 2019, at 13:02:06
I wish they would come to my door and at the point of a gun demand I take the oxymorphone one, not that oxycodone nonsense Yep. Just like the opium wars, something traditional and conservative. As Jardine said, 'Jesus Christ is free trade and free trade is Jesus Christ'.
Posted by sigismund on March 4, 2019, at 23:11:39
In reply to Re: Michael Cohen » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on March 4, 2019, at 13:02:06
Stunning article. Thanks.
Posted by sigismund on March 5, 2019, at 15:37:13
In reply to Re: Michael Cohen » beckett2, posted by sigismund on March 4, 2019, at 23:11:39
That article was impossible to satirise.
As you know the 3rd man in the Catholic Church, Cardinal George Pell, is in jail in Australia on child abuse charges.
There were decades of events covered up or not dealt with. One, impossible to satirise, is when 2 priests enter a school yard, grab hold of an 11 year old boy and carry him off screaming to be raped elsewhere.
Yet we (still?) live with a sense of normalcy and progress.
Well, they have locked Pell up. I never thought I would live to see it.
Posted by sigismund on March 6, 2019, at 8:59:27
In reply to Re: Michael Cohen » beckett2, posted by sigismund on March 4, 2019, at 21:12:33
She's from your neck of the woods.......
Posted by beckett2 on March 6, 2019, at 14:22:00
In reply to Re: Michael Cohen, posted by sigismund on March 6, 2019, at 8:59:27
Here's a review of a book on the border wall and American frontier. Because of your interests, I thought of you. I admit to tearing up because despite my spoken and desired beliefs, as an American, there has always been a feeling of expansion--in my case a sort of limitless internal space. But as he says, the American dream as powerfully symbolized and literal has closed and the violence this was predicated upon turns inward and begins to devour itself.
You'll need to click through the tiny url page to reach the New Yorker review.
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.