Wuhan Corona virus

[drunkenshoe]

I used to think that America was 'exceptional'--but not for the last half of my life.  But I did think it was more than a decent country.

I've known this far longer than you'd guess. (But that was defined as 'anti-American' then when expressed, esp. by a foriegner.) That's actually how/why I got interested in the US culture in the first place. A little more than a decade ago?  I think I pissed off a lot of people around here too...years ago,lol.

A lot of generations around the world grew up with the idea of how good 'America' is. LOL That never meant anything to me. To me 'America' was a big balloon full of stale pudding then. Now, the flawed, backwards, struggling America means a LOT. It's alive! It's human. It's moving. It's probably the only piece of land that has space to move on the planet. That's not a compliment. 

I get how you feel about the Trump period. Hang in there. About any period, overestimating yours and underestimating others ends in disillusionment. Nothing more. It's about human culture, not about the west, east, south or north... of any rock.

[Mike Cl]

I've known this far longer than you'd guess. (But that was defined as 'anti-American' then when expressed, esp. by a foriegner.) That's actually how/why I got interested in the US culture in the first place. A little more than a decade ago?  I think I pissed off a lot of people around here too...years ago,lol.

A lot of generations around the world grew up with the idea of how good 'America' is. LOL That never meant anything to me. To me 'America' was a big balloon full of stale pudding then. Now, the flawed, backwards, struggling America means a LOT. It's alive! It's human. It's moving. It's probably the only piece of land that has space to move on the planet. That's not a compliment. 

I get how you feel about the Trump period. Hang in there. About any period, overestimating yours and underestimating others ends in disillusionment. Nothing more. It's about human culture, not about the west, east, south or north... of any rock.

I'm sure you have known of the clay feet of Merkia long before I did.  But as one who likes to read history, Zinn and Chomsky helped me see those clay feet as well.  From the beginning this peace-loving-nation has been a war monger.  From the beginning this nation that claimed 'all men are created equal' were ruled by landed white men.  And more, much more.  I am also aware that to build a nice new shiny building the old one has to come down.  Trump is the wrecking ball.  I just did not think I'd be around when this country went thru this. 

[SGOS]

I've known this far longer than you'd guess. (But that was defined as 'anti-American' then when expressed, esp. by a foriegner.) That's actually how/why I got interested in the US culture in the first place. A little more than a decade ago?  I think I pissed off a lot of people around here too...years ago,lol.

It wasn't just you.  That criticism seem to be flung at all Americans, whether they were actually guilty or not.  Long before you leveled your sights and let go the first blast along with a bunch of others, there was a realization taking hold among millions and millions of Americans.  Mostly it surfaced during a generation of hippies, but their parents started realizing too that the America we loved and sang songs about wasn't what we thought.  So it was kind of offensive to a lot of us who didn't deserve to be considered part of the stereotype.

Many people in this country want America to change, but are now realizing that we have little power to do that.  We thought we could during the 1960's but by the 70's we were realizing that things would get even worse, and today there is a definite shift back toward the self serving America that we still protest.  I believe more than half of us don't want this backwards shift. The US military unleashed on people in our own streets is a reaction of an unresponsive government to people begging for global change, as well as internal change, changes that need to happen.  And the outcome is unpredictable.

[drunkenshoe]

It wasn't just you.  That criticism seem to be flung at all Americans, whether they were actually guilty or not.  Long before you leveled your sights and let go the first blast along with a bunch of others, there was a realization taking hold among millions and millions of Americans.

I'm sure you have known of the clay feet of Merkia long before I did.

Of course yes to the first. Of course Not to the second. :) I meant as a foreinger who has never even been to the country then. Add that you guys have more than at least a decade on me about most things in life. I'll elaborate it later. I have to go right now.

[Baruch]

It wasn't just you.  That criticism seem to be flung at all Americans, whether they were actually guilty or not.  Long before you leveled your sights and let go the first blast along with a bunch of others, there was a realization taking hold among millions and millions of Americans.  Mostly it surfaced during a generation of hippies, but their parents started realizing too that the America we loved and sang songs about wasn't what we thought.  So it was kind of offensive to a lot of us who didn't deserve to be considered part of the stereotype.

Many people in this country want America to change, but are now realizing that we have little power to do that.  We thought we could during the 1960's but by the 70's we were realizing that things would get even worse, and today there is a definite shift back toward the self serving America that we still protest.  I believe more than half of us don't want this backwards shift. The US military unleashed on people in our own streets is a reaction of an unresponsive government to people begging for global change, as well as internal change, changes that need to happen.  And the outcome is unpredictable.

My mother asked me, after Saigon fell in 1975, what the Vietnam War had all been about.  I told her that it was about economics (guns vs butter) and testing out new military tactics and weapons against human targets.  She was of the WW II generation, who would have voted for FDR if she had been old enough.  She was horrified.  The Greatest Generation was the most brainwashed of all, because the victory of WW II had built an almost impregnable view of America.  Anyone examining history would know that the Soviet Union and China were the winners, not the British Empire or the Americans.

I remember reading a book in the 70s, The Greening Of America, and Future Shock.  Also read "Steal This Book" at the public library.  Don't know if the librarian stole it or not ;-)  Future Shock was the only correct one.  I remember the first Earth Day when I was 14, we celebrated at our Junior High.  That was a lost world that us older folks still remember.  The Greening of America didn't happen after all, though I had hoped to work in the solar industry.  The protesting students stopped when the "draft" was ended and 18 year olds could vote and drink 3.2 beer.  Many of them died from STD, drug overdose, AIDS.  The rest of us grew up.  The Establishment under Nixon and Ford had coopted them.  Boomerism became a thing.  Kissinger and Nixon had made China less scary, and with START negotiations, had also made the Soviet Union less scary.  For a long while, the US was less militant (until Grenada/Panama).  The volunteer military proved itself in the first Gulf War.  Then the Soviet Union collapsed and the Chinese became mercantile while the CCP maintained control after Tien Am Men.  It was the Boomers and the X-Gen who made today's world, like it or not.  The older Boomers and the kids just a bit older (aka SDS) were fighting a world that passed away just like their parents.  Change has been so fast, generations become obsolete before their time.  The current conflict is led by members of The Weathermen etc who are nearly in the nursing home.  Back in the 70s, there was an environment apocalypse movie, that had a scene with octogenarian hippies still playing rock band music.  I could hardly credit it back then.

[Unbeliever]

I'm sure you have known of the clay feet of Merkia long before I did.  But as one who likes to read history, Zinn and Chomsky helped me see those clay feet as well.  From the beginning this peace-loving-nation has been a war monger.  From the beginning this nation that claimed 'all men are created equal' were ruled by landed white men.  And more, much more.  I am also aware that to build a nice new shiny building the old one has to come down.  Trump is the wrecking ball.  I just did not think I'd be around when this country went thru this. 

Maybe we should tear down the White House - after all, it was built by slave labor.

[Baruch]

Maybe we should tear down the White House - after all, it was built by slave labor.

Maybe HAARP should be used to activate the San Andreas fault to remove San Francisco?

[Mike Cl]

Maybe we should tear down the White House - after all, it was built by slave labor.

As long as the orange monster is in it, I'm game!

[Baruch]

As long as the orange monster is in it, I'm game!

Will you visit the couturier for your super-suit? ;-)  Too much video gaming perhaps?

[Cassia]

Singer Annie Lennox expressed shock that Madonna spread the misinformation. “This is utter madness!!! I can’t believe that you are endorsing this dangerous quackery,” she wrote, per HuffPost UK. “Hopefully your site has been hacked and you’re just about to explain it.”

Madonna has courted coronavirus controversy before. She called COVID-19 “the great equalizer.” After testing positive for antibodies, she wrote that she would take a drive and “breathe in the COVID-19 air.”

[Hydra009]

Conman peddling fake cure busted by the Feds

Nope, not that one.  ...yet.

[Baruch]

Singer Annie Lennox expressed shock that Madonna spread the misinformation. “This is utter madness!!! I can’t believe that you are endorsing this dangerous quackery,” she wrote, per HuffPost UK. “Hopefully your site has been hacked and you’re just about to explain it.”

Madonna has courted coronavirus controversy before. She called COVID-19 “the great equalizer.” After testing positive for antibodies, she wrote that she would take a drive and “breathe in the COVID-19 air.”

Yes, I always rely on pop stars for my information.  But then unlike Michael Jackson, I haven't fondled children.

[Baruch]

Conman peddling fake cure busted by the Feds

Nope, not that one.  ...yet.

Been happening for over 100 years.  Most doctoring used to be quackery 100 years ago (at least in the US).  My own family was connected with this, check out John Romulus Brinkley regarding his quack cures for male infertility.  He was experimenting in transgenic transplantation, so in that narrow sense he was ahead of his time, but he didn't know what he was doing.  We are lucky that since 1950 much medicine has become professional (even if too commercial).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Brinkley

Not even a card reader, astrologer or psychic.  But not a Johns Hopkins graduate either.  Diploma mills are still a thing, but are mostly confined to the social sciences.

There are examples of even competent scientists, who are brilliant when young, but who become quacks under the influence of tenure.  Most of us are never brilliant, and quackery awaits anyone who lives long enough.

[Baruch]

"Masks Aren't Enough: Dr. Fauci Says People Should "Probably Use Eye Shields" To Protect Against COVID-19" ... you need the full virology space suit

"Wuhan's 'Bat Woman' Demands Trump Apology As New Whistleblower Describes Early CCP Cover-Up" ... if there is nuclear war, nuke the Chinese virology labs first.  This woman may the the original screw up.

[Blackleaf]