COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, May 07, 2016

George Carlin and “The American Dream”

43 comments:

  1. George Carlin did not invent the art of stand-up comedy. He was one of a handful of amazingly talented people whose efforts helped define what it is that we today, call stand-up comedy. Sure he was funny. Who isn’t? Just being funny is not enough to earn the title as one of the two or three greatest comics of all time.

    A restless inquisitive nature is what I believe separated George Carlin from his contemporaries, making his body of work far superior to his competitors. George Carlin had a lifelong love of learning and questioned everything. He studied the complexities of the English language and the perplexities of religious faith. Possibly the first observational comic, the underlying theme of Carlin’s work was inquisition.

    It was because George Carlin asked questions that we sought answers. He attacked the status quo and he pilloried the powers that be. He studied our use of language and the way that words are manipulated to manipulate the populace.

    Comedy at its best, as George Carlin practiced it, holds a mirror up to society in a harsh light. It highlights our flaws and foibles. Unlike other art form that strive to achieve the same result, comedy is more effective because it delivers its message in a much more palatable form. As the song from Mary Poppins explains, “A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

    The genius of George Carlin is that he was able to get a much needed message to an otherwise oftentimes, apathetic populace without them realizing that their opinions were being shaped and changed.


    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/21/why-george-carlin-deserves-his-own-street.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Black Humor

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoZjXDP7LHs

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :)

      Good ol' Pastor Manning.

      Hadn't thought of him in a while....always liked him....

      Delete
  3. Good mornin' !!

    George Carlin wasn't my pint of Irish ale.

    Derby Day today !!

    Yippee, wish I was back there.....

    Those racing horses, let me tell you, are top of the food chain back there in Kentucky....EVERYBODY works for the horses.....

    ReplyDelete
  4. New name for Hillary:

    Mrs. B.J. Clinton

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Islamic State seizes gas field near Palmyra

      By Robert Spencer on May 06, 2016 12:14 pm

      Islamic State seizes gas field near Palmyra

      Western analysts keep pronouncing the Islamic State dead; the Islamic State keeps on having different ideas. Meanwhile, no one seems curious as to why it continues to be popular among Muslims in the West. “ISIS Seizes Gas Field Near Palmyra: In Syria, Islamic State Making A Comeback After US, Russian Airstrikes?,” by Cristina Silva, International […]
      Read in browser »


      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/05/islamic-state-seizes-gas-field-near-palmyra

      Delete
  5. "Trump will find that fierce nationalism goes only so far

    Jeffrey Simpson
    The Globe and Mail
    Published Saturday, May 07, 2016 6:00AM EDT
    Russia, China and a chunk of the U.S. electorate share a sense of being hemmed in, misunderstood and surrounded by adversaries, the muscular response to which is aggressive nationalism. The portents for this way of viewing the world are not encouraging.

    President or otherwise, Donald Trump has both tapped into and expanded the perception that the United States has been weakened, even suckered, by other countries, foes and friends alike. Countries are stealing American jobs, he claims. They manipulate their currencies, take advantage of unfair trade deals, lure U.S. corporations overseas. They cheat, but the United States does not.

    Military allies are not pulling their weight. The United States has to do way too much (which is true, by the way), and erstwhile allies do too little, he argues. Chinese are eating Americans’ lunch. Mexicans sneak across the border to take American jobs. Europeans are shirkers. The Islamic State threatens the United States, but other countries do not take the threat seriously enough.



    Constructive international engagement, a lynchpin of U.S. foreign policy, is a hoax and a trap for Mr. Trump. Instead, the attitude of “America First” should define foreign policy – an attitude that rejects the normal pursuit of national self-interest through engagement in favour of in-your-face muscularity and “deals” that the United States will impose on others, with retaliation if they do not acquiesce.

    U.S. foreign policy has always been a mixture of the projection of values and self-interest. But in Mr. Trump’s view, values count for nothing, only the unilateral and abrasive pursuit of self-interest, which makes his approach very similar to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

    Political “experts” south of the border are almost unanimous that Mr. Trump cannot win the presidency because he is so intensely disliked by huge swaths of the electorate, starting with majorities of women, blacks, Hispanics and young people. These were the same “experts” who were almost unanimous nine months ago that the showman/businessman, with his shaky grasp of policy and multiple misstatements of fact, could never win the Republican Party nomination.

    Win or lose in November, Mr. Trump in the meantime will force Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to defend her party’s traditional constructive internationalism to an electorate of which a portion now fiercely rejects it.

    What should be a selling point – her considerable international experience – could become a liability after Mr. Trump labels her an “internationalist,” someone always ready to compromise and seek common ground, rather than putting America First.

    This Trumpian view of the world, and of how his country fits into it, is something we have seen before in many places and at many points in history: the blaming of others for misfortunes. Sometimes the enemies are within (Communists, racial and religious minorities); sometimes they lurk abroad.

    A strong and confident United States would never succumb to this appeal, and perhaps, in November, most of the country will have seen the appeal for what it is: a dangerous diversion. But so much uncertainty swirls in the United States and so many gods are alleged to have failed – free trade, alliances, engagement, liberal social policies – that many Americans feel restless with the present and apprehensive about the future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These anxieties relate in part to Americans’ own choices: an unwillingness to tax themselves sufficiently to pay for programs; income inequalities that have been allowed to grow; a political system that is dysfunctional, grossly distorted by money, gerrymandering and inflamed partisanship; a financial system so loosely regulated and consumed by greed that its collapse in 2008 is still being felt; misguided foreign military adventures. But these observations are too toxic for domestic consumption.

      So we have the plutocrat as the worker’s friend. The deal maker whose foreign policy will be a unilateral set of demands. The free-trade critic who has made lots of money outside the United States. The neophyte who almost revels in his ignorance, because knowledge breeds an understanding of complexity, and who proposes his daughter as an adviser in the White House.

      Mr. Trump has redefined acceptable domestic discourse and challenged what had been an accepted way of seeing the world. It says a great deal about his country, none of it good, that he has defied so many expectations and may yet defy more."

      http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/trump-will-find-that-fierce-nationalism-goes-only-so-far/article29920835/

      Delete
    2. Jeeeesus Christ, Ash:

      "an unwillingness to tax themselves sufficiently to pay for programs"

      I've read USA is the most highly taxed nation on earth.

      Whether that is exactly true or not I don't know but taxes are way too high.

      Taking Federal income, State income, property, sales and etc I'm at nearly 50% and I ain't rich.

      Fuck you and all the other whining hypocritical swinish beggars like you.

      Delete
    3. Like Rufus, for instance.

      Delete
  6. And, he has the most novel Economic Policy, ever.

    "Just run up the debt, and renege on it."

    :)

    So simple, why has no one else ever hit upon it. The man's a genii, I tells you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Where Do Trump’s Bad Ideas Come From?

      Paul Krugman:

      Where Do Trump’s Bad Ideas Come From?: So everyone is having fun with Donald Trump’s suggestion that he’ll negotiate forgiveness on U.S. debt

      — making America great by running it like a failing Atlantic City casino. ...

      A number of people have also pointed out that willingness to trifle with the full faith and credit of the U.S. government didn’t start with Trump — it started with Republicans in the House, who casually tried to extort concessions by refusing to raise the debt limit.

      But one thing I haven’t seen much discussion of is the question of why Trump imagines that we have a severe debt problem, requiring extraordinary measures. Here, after all, is what U.S. interest payments look like:

      Chart: Federal net interest payments as % of GDP

      Chart

      Delete
    2. See the crisis? Neither do I.

      But Trump, we can assume, doesn’t look at economic data, or for that matter employ anyone who can. Remember how unemployment is really 42 percent? What he does do is pick up stuff that everyone around him says.

      And here’s the thing: claims that America is facing a debt crisis have been all over the political landscape for years... So it’s not really surprising that Trump, who doesn’t know much about policy, would pick up on all this buzz, and not get the memo that it’s all really about finding excuses to slash social programs.

      And he knows, or thinks he knows, a lot about being overextended on credit; so let’s declare bankruptcy and make a deal!

      The point is that this isn’t coming solely from the would-be ignoramus-in-chief...

      Delete
    3. And, Fuck you and all the other whining hypocritical swinish beggars like you., too.

      :o)

      Delete
    4. .

      See the crisis?

      Of course, I do.

      I assume Krugman gets his charts from Krugman Charts: Home of charts and t-shirts..


      .

      Delete
    5. .

      But Trump, we can assume, doesn’t look at economic data, or for that matter employ anyone who can.


      We can assume the same about Krugman.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      Federal net interest payments as % of GDP don't mean shit.

      Krugman is not economist, he is a front man for the Dems. He's seems to have zero knowledge of compounding. The problem with the interest is that as long as we run budget deficits it never goes away. It only grows as we add more debt.

      We don't have to worry about percent of GDP. We have to worry about percent of the budget. Right now interest payments represent a little over 6% of the budget. In 5 years that is projected to grow to a little over 11% [assumes effective interest rate increase by from around 1.24% to 2.48% in that period]. In 10 years, we are projected to be spending more on interest than we spend on the military.

      Every dime we spend on interest reduces the same amount in our discretionary spending.

      Yea, I kind of see a crisis, at least, a crisis coming soon.

      .

      Delete
  7. SHIT !!

    Trump is in Spokane, and I didn't know he was coming, and I would have gone....SHIT!!

    SONBITCH

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump calls Lizzy Warren 'goofy'.

      And that is, exactly, how she comes over, is it not...

      Another one of these fakaroo Indians that are popping up all over....

      Everyone likes the American Indians, just not those that claim the heritage to get a free ride through college and beyond....



      Delete
    2. .

      And that is, exactly, how she comes over, is it not...

      No, it's not.

      Trump calling Warren 'goofy' s bizarre.

      When it comes to the 'goofiness scale', Trump is over the top.

      .

      Delete
  8. Coalition aircraft destroy ISIS fuel station south of Mosul, 17 ISIS members killed

    (IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – On Saturday, official journalists with the Ministry of Defense announced, that the international coalition aviation bombarded a fuel station belonging to the so-called ISIS and killed 17 ISIS members south of Mosul.

    The journalists said in a press statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The international coalition aviation carried out an air strike, destroying ISIS fuel station south of Mosul.”

    The statement added, “The air strike also resulted in the killing of 17 ISIS militants.”

    Airstrike

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Strikes in Syria

      Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted six strikes in Syria:

      -- Near Al Shadaddi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

      -- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

      -- Near Manbij, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

      -- Near Mar’a, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, an ISIL command and control node, and ISIL headquarters and destroyed an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL fighting position.

      Strikes in Iraq

      Ground-attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 11 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

      -- Near Al Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle and damaged an ISIL fighting position.

      -- Near Albu Hayat, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL boat, and an ISIL weapons cache.

      -- Near Ar Rutbah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

      -- Near Bashir, a strike destroyed an ISIL command and control node.

      -- Near Fallujah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

      -- Near Habbaniyah, a strike damaged an ISIL fighting position.

      -- Near Hit, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.

      -- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

      -- Near Mosul, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, an ISIL communications facility, destroyed three ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL heavy machine gun and suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

      Additionally, on May 5, a strike was erroneously reported. The correct assessment reads:

      -- Near Al Baghdadi, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL command and control node, three ISIL rocket rails, and an ISIL bunker.

      Delete
    2. Meanwhile:

      Islamic State seizes gas field near Palmyra

      By Robert Spencer on May 06, 2016 12:14 pm

      Islamic State seizes gas field near Palmyra

      Western analysts keep pronouncing the Islamic State dead; the Islamic State keeps on having different ideas. Meanwhile, no one seems curious as to why it continues to be popular among Muslims in the West. “ISIS Seizes Gas Field Near Palmyra: In Syria, Islamic State Making A Comeback After US, Russian Airstrikes?,” by Cristina Silva, International […]
      Read in browser »

      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/05/islamic-state-seizes-gas-field-near-palmyra

      Delete
    3. At least we won't have Assad around much longer.

      Secretary of State Kerry has told Assad in no uncertain words to make plans for leaving by August 1st of this year, or there will be:

      'repercussions'

      So, that chapter of "O'bozo's Mideast Follies" is over.

      Delete
    4. (It's all part of 'the most intelligent military operation of my lifetime')

      Delete
  9. Washington State Cougars Football Coach Leach endorses Trump !!

    Yuuuuge crowd in Spokane, Washington....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump is raking The Hag (aka Mrs. B.J. Clinton) over the hot coals for enabling BillyGoat and stalking, harassing, silencing, and threatening his many sexual victims.

      Delete
    2. What a hell of a wonderful American Family the Clintons are !!

      By God, Family Values are basis of Western Democracy, Dude !!

      Delete
    3. “Nobody in this country was was worse than Bill Clinton with women. He was a disaster,” Trump said at a rally in Eugene, Ore. “I mean there’s never been anybody like this and she was a total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives. I mean have you ever read what Hillary Clinton did to the women that Bill Clinton had affairs with? And they’re going after me with women. Give me a break, folks.” …

      “Bill Clinton was the worst in history and I have to listen to her talking about it?” Trump said. “And just remember this, she was unbelievably nasty, mean enabler and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful. So put that in her bonnet and let’s see what happens, OK?”


      http://hotair.com/archives/2016/05/07/trump-hillary-was-nasty-mean-enabler-of-bills-affairs/

      It's true, too.

      Delete
  10. The Stone Age Is Over. Kansas City Definitely Got The Memo.

    New technology offers a glimpse into what 21st-century urban life should look like.

    The arrival of a new streetcar in Kansas City, Missouri, heralds the beginning of a major technological shift for the Midwestern city.

    Lights along the 2-mile transit line, which opens Friday, sense when the sun sets and turn on when it gets dark. If there isn’t anyone waiting for the streetcar, the lights dim automatically. They will also send alerts to the city if something is blocking the rail path or if icy roads need to be salted.

    Kiosks installed at streetcar stops and throughout downtown allow travelers to check the arrival of the next trolley, and display curated content about the city’s restaurants, concerts and sports games.

    Residents will also benefit from a public wifi network covering nearly 3 square miles of downtown that, along with the lights and kiosks, are part of an infrastructure overhaul in Kansas City that will reduce energy costs, improve traffic safety and increase access to public services and events.

    “We see connectivity as a new utility,” Bob Bennett, the city’s chief innovation officer, told The Huffington Post. “You can’t get a job without getting on the Internet, and you can’t figure out where you need to go without connectivity. Cities have to evolve.”

    Even parking woes would be made easier by the new technology. The city plans to eventually use the sensors along the streetcar line to develop a mobile app that allows drivers to see when parking spaces become available. And the sensors could help streamline wastewater and stormwater runoff management.

    The interactive kiosks may soon turn into small social hubs for locals, and it’s not uncommon to hear people use the booths as a meeting point, Bennett said.

    “It’s gotten people’s noses out of their phones and looking at each other while using 7-foot-tall representations of what they have in their pocket,” Bennett added.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The kiosks can be synced to smartphones with a mobile app. That way, for example, users who see an ad for a lunch special at a local cafe can pull up that information on their own device when they get hungry later in the day. In a boost to local businesses, shop and restaurant owners can elect to push out ads on the kiosks based on what a user is searching. (Sessions are wiped to protect users’ data.)

      “Innovation is coming from everywhere,” said Tom Touchet, CEO of Smart City Media, which manages the kiosks. “It’s not just a big city game.”

      City-wide wifi networks have become increasingly common as local governments scramble to address issues of inequality and access to services. President Barack Obama has called high-speed Internet a “necessity” and said increased access is crucial to a competitive economy. In New York City, thousands of rusty pay phones will be converted into wifi hot spots and charging stations for mobile devices.

      As these smart cities proliferate, the private sector has rushed to partner with municipal governments. IBM, Philips and Cisco, which is helping Kansas City upgrade and manage its digital infrastructure, have worked with hundreds of cities internationally to pilot new technology.

      In Barcelona, parks have added irrigation systems that turn on sprinklers when plants need to be watered, and smart trash cans notify workers when they are full. Copenhagen installed bike path lights to warn cyclists approaching red traffic lights, and aims to become the first carbon-neutral capital by 2025.

      “Data is the asset now,” said Kim Majerus, a vice president at Cisco who oversaw the Kansas City project. “Now the question is, how do cities use it to do things more effectively and provide solutions to their citizens.”

      Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is eyeing smart cities of its own. It plans to partner with . . . . . . . . .

      Huffpost

      Delete
    2. Good luck with that.

      It will be needed.

      Delete
    3. Dad's '46 Pontiac had headlights that dimmed.
      ...I stepped on the button myself.

      Delete
    4. Kiosks in San Francisco allow people to pee in public.

      Delete
    5. Rufus already has his order in for Hillary's robotic flying car.

      Delete
    6. Every Millennial yearns to give this hunk a blow job:

      https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Chf3T2MWMAAvSbE.jpg

      Delete
    7. Bill and Sharpton should publish "The Liars Diet Book"

      Delete
    8. .

      Kiosks in San Francisco allow people to pee in public.


      Another innovation brought over from Europe.

      In the public squares in Manchester, I've seen the open air urinals set up in a circle with little shields between each individual one.

      They do drink a lot in Manchester. Probably a good idea. I wouldn't mind having them around during my drinking days. Although I didn't see any specifically designed for women and the urinal height looked like it would be rather uncomfortable not only to use but also the set up for.

      Frankly, the toilets in S.F. look like the thinks I saw in rural China.

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/open-air-urinal-san-francisco_us_56accc58e4b00b033aaf4be9

      Of course, it's better than India. 60% of all the people who usually defecate in public come from India.

      .

      Delete
    9. .

      They do drink a lot in Manchester. Probably a good idea. I wouldn't mind having them around during my drinking days. Although I didn't see any specifically designed for women and the urinal height looked like it would be rather uncomfortable not only to use but also the set up for.

      Having just re-read that, I want to dispel any impression that I would have been looking to use the women's facility.

      .

      Delete
    10. Find your Cat, collect Scat

      "Yes, you can volunteer to do your part for science — by wandering around Los Angeles, picking up poop.

      The National Park Service is asking members of the public to join a two-year effort to collect the excrement, called scat, left by urban coyotes across the city.

      Parks officials assure prospective volunteers: no experience is required.

      The scatological survey will cover the urban zone from Boyle Heights to Beverly Hills. The goal is to assess the coyotes' diets."


      http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-scat-urban-coyotes-20160503-story.html

      https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=scat%20survey%20in%20los%20angeles

      Delete
    11. Any volunteers for The India Project?

      Delete
    12. "Solar-powered toilets roll through city streets several afternoons a week.
      And city crews have inspected 10,000 light posts to make sure they won’t fall over from erosion.

      That comes after a three-story-tall light post corroded by a likely mix of human and dog urine, and weighed down by a large banner, toppled."

      Delete
  11. browse around this web-site this post investigate this site company website the original source read here

    ReplyDelete