Eternal Sleep

That’s the entirety of the Biden administration foreign policy. Wake up, people. It’s been like this the entire time and you are only noticing right now.

I’m taken aback by the childish surprise over something that’s been obvious for years. The US political establishment is suffering from extreme senility that has nothing to do with Biden’s health issues. It’s like that Apple ad I posted yesterday. There are no new ideas, no vision. The goal is to preserve the status quo at any cost in order to pretend that nothing is happening and we can hobble on fussing about pronouns and other inane minutiae.

Local Rituals

I found myself at Walmart at 10 pm last Saturday. It was filled with pijama-clad teenagers. They were walking around, playing ball, eating, sitting on the floor. It was like a very large sleepover party. Is Walmart a regular hangout for teenagers or is this a local thing?

Cleaning up the Language

The following expressions are stupid and should not be used:

  • multipolar (in political contexts)
  • Global South
  • color revolutions
  • settler colonialism
  • -phobia (outside of a psychiatrist’s office)

It’s embarrassing to employ such language unironically.

Also, it’s time to retire the expression “teaching critical thinking” because it has come to mean “raising mindless drones who stupidly repeat slogans.”

And “work-life balance.” Somebody make that one go away already.

What other words and expressions should take a rest for a while or forever?

Destructive Creation

Did you see the new iPad ad? It’s as ugly as the minds of the techie overlords but very honest.

A Different Problem

This is a good article but it presupposes that the White House is under a sincere delusion that these strikes would have a negative impact on energy markets. That is not the case. Such level of almost childish ignorance does not exist in Washington. The effort to protect Russian oil refineries from Ukrainian strikes is not economic or energy-related.

We have a much, much deeper problem than “Biden doesn’t understand energy markets.”

Untranslatable Joke

For the 3 people on here who understand Russian, I want to share this wonderful joke:

Everything about it is priceless and absolutely untranslatable.

This is why I’ll never be successful on Twitter. I can’t come up with anything pithy and funny on the spot. N can. He’s amazing at this kind of thing but he doesn’t share his gift with the world.

I apologize to the people who don’t understand the language.

Rebranding into Nothingness

Hmm, I don’t know. I heard that “America” is a word that triggers many victims as badly as “boys.” And “scouting” is offensive to Native Americans. Or Mexicans, I’m not sure. Plus, the new name doesn’t reference either African Americans or Palestinians, and we all know that silence is violence.

So maybe its best to rebrand into not having a name at all because whatever it is should probably be cancelled anyway.

Travel Prep

N is beefing up in his self-defense skills for our trip to Spain because he’s afraid of his former compatriots who are numerous and unhinged in Western Europe. He wears a lot of Ukrainian symbolics (a lot more than I do) and isn’t willing to take it off for the trip. He is also looking into the Spanish legislation regarding self-defense with a weapon. Yes, I asked him not to but I have zero influence over the man.

I actually think I’m theoretically in greater danger because I also wear an Israeli flag on my wrist, and Spain can’t stop symbolically expelling its Jews, going on for yet another round at the present time. I’m not really scared because I’m aggressive, and people steer clear.

People keep asking me in hushed tones where I got my Israeli flag. What do they think, I got it from Mossad? Where do people get stuff in America?

Are You Ready?

Who’s ready…

… for Eurovision 2024?

Like the BLM

I love giving talks to the retiree crowd. Today, at the Ukrainian talk du jour where I wasn’t the speaker but more of a question answerer, an older woman came up to ask what Russia’s goals in Ukraine are.

“Do they want to take over and rule it themselves?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “They only want to destroy. It’s blind rage and destruction. Violence for its own sake.”

She struggled with it for a bit but then her face lit up.

“So, it’s like our BLM?” she said. “OK, now I get it.”