The Reason for the Season: Festivus

The Story of Festivus | Seinfeld

(Seinfeld) Dec. 18, 2021: It's that time of year, so we're embracing our filthy New York roots and looking back at why we celebrate this Festivus, the holiday alternative for the rest of us! Oh, Frank Costanza, will you never learn? (What must Mr. Larry David Sr. really be like?) Family can be, um, problematic and embarrassing. Find local listings | seinfeld.com #Seinfeld #LarryDavid

Naomi Klein: How Israel weaponizes trauma

Presidential candidate Jill Stein, what's the solution? What are you saying, Naomi, it in a nutshell?

Naomi Klein: Israel has weaponized Oct. 7th trauma to justify its genocide on Gaza

U.S. traumatizes its population, too. It's part of MK-Ultra explains Robert Morningstar

.

(Democracy Now!) Oct. 22, 2024: More than a year since Israel launched its pre-planned genocidal war-of-erasure on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank using Oct. 7th as its pretext.

Do Jews exercise disproportionate influence?

DN! speaks with the award-winning author, professor, journalist, and activist Naomi Klein, who says a "trauma industry" has emerged to keep Israeli society permanently in crisis in order to justify the Israeli military's expansionist wars, apartheid, settler colonial project, war crimes, and human rights abuses.

"Though the Israeli government likes to frame everything that is happening now as a response to October 7, this is a preexisting agenda," says Klein, whose latest essay for The Guardian explores how Israel "has made trauma a weapon of war."

This is about extermination of the "Arabs," the Palestinians in the way

of Greater Israel's future empire in the Middle East. Iran is next.

• BOOK: Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (Naomi Klein)

Naomi Klein on election, Trump/Musk misinfo, and "real conspiracy" of money 'n power

(Democracy Now!) Oct. 22, 2024: This is a continuation of today's conversation with acclaimed Jewish author Prof. Naomi Klein.

She says candidate Kamala is "running an extremely high-risk, dangerous campaign" for the White House and "trying to win without the [Democratic] base."

Klein faults VP Harris for largely ignoring Progressives she needs to turn out on Nov. 5 as she courts Republicans, even as The Donald's authoritarian threats to go after the "enemies within" could put many people at risk if he is reelected.

"She's told us we're irrelevant, and Trump is telling us that he's going to round us up," says Klein. 

ABOUT: Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8:00-9:00 am ET. Subscribe to Daily Email Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe. Latest Shows. Support work: democracynow.org/donate.

• Insanity: Israel's once fringe movement to re-illegally-occupy Gaza gains momentum
• AI humanoid robot defends criticism that she can't be artistic
• CGI: SpaceX incredible views of starship re-entering earth's atmosphere at massive speed as paper debris drifts by slowly
• Phony space.com video: Meteor burns up over earth, amazing time lapse footage from low orbit space station
• RIP: Legendary Latino Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, 63, dies on eve of Dodgers' latest triumph with Shohei Ohtani
• Ex-Pres. G-Joe Biden says 'lock him up' politically in remarks about Trump

• Not in our name: ifnotnowmovement.org
• Jewish Voice for Peace
• Religious Jews Against Israel: nkusa.org
• Jewish IDF veterans full of remorse for genocide: breakingthesilence.org.il
• شرش | Shoresh | שר”ש (@shoresh_us) • Anti-Zionist Jews

Armenian 'genocide'? Precedence, denial

Wiki: The Armenian genocide was not a "genocide," according not only to Turkey but to the American government. The Armenian [atrocity] was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress, it was implemented primarily through the mass murder of about one million Armenians during death marches to the Syrian Desert and the forced Islamization of others, primarily women and children.

The Armenian Genocide, its precedence, and denial

(The Cynical Historian) April 24, 2024: The ethnic cleansing, possibly a genocide, of Armenians by Turks in the Ottoman Empire took place between 1915-1918, but it had a long history leading up to it.

After decades of ethnic warfare, Young Turks (ordered by the three pashas of the CUP party) systematically murdered between 2-3 million Christians of Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek descent during World War I. [Of course, numbers vary. Often it is said the number of Armenians killed numbered between 1 and 1.5 million.] Turkey then instituted an official denial of this event, which continues to this day. [They do not seem to be denying that people were killed but rather that it was a genocide.] Such ignorance will not be tolerated.

• Minute 0:45: Most Armenians were Oriental Orthodox Christians, not Eastern Orthodox. (Thanks, @victorhoang6633).

Bibliography

• Raymond Kevorkian, The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History (New York: IB Tauris, 2011)

See original review: • The Promise (2017) | Based on a True...

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• Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Joe Rogan: Is it a cult or religion? (video)

Joe Rogan: What's the difference between a cult and a religion?

(JRE Clips, 12/19/17) Biologist Bret Weinstein and Joe Rogan discuss the differences between cults and religions. This segment is taken from The Joe Rogan Experience #1055.

What Daria says about '90s (and today)

(The Take, June 21, 2022) MTV's Daria Morgendorffer made it cool to be a wry and cynical loner.

Mike Judge (Beavis & Butt-Head) created Daria

This teen girl who didn’t care about popularity or trends was the picture-perfect example of ‘90s alienation. She was a surprising character for a channel (MTV) that often sold brash, extroverted, or overtly sexualized versions of females during that same period. Years later, Daria still resonates with anyone who’s ever questioned whether the problem is you or the system you’re living in – and it can help us understand cultural changes that were happening back in the 1990s.

• 00:00 Daria IS the 90s
• 01:57 How Daria views the world
• 08:24 MUBI
• 09:03 Why Daria perfectly captures the 90s
• 16:20 Daria's influences both past & present
• 18:25 Why Daria is still beloved today

If you don't hate this video, subscribe to channel and support us: Shop our Weird Girl Trope Merch: the-take.creator-spring.com. Join Patreon: patreon.com/thetake. Snap: snapchat.com... Twitter: twitter.com/ThisIsTheTake. Website: the-take.com. The Take was formerly ScreenPrism.

The Problem with IRONY: postmodern (video)

Will Schoder on David Foster Wallace, 10/6/16; Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

David Foster Wallace: The Problem with Irony

Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

Will Schoder (patreon.com/willschoder) breaks it down. We're living in a postmodern world, watching South Park, Family Guy, Seinfeld, and newer "meta-modern" American sitcoms. And that's the problem with irony.

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No jest: National bestseller

FURTHER READING (help-the-channel links)
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

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MUSIC: "Thoughtful" by Lee Rosevere; "Waning Patience" Dexter Britain; "The Time to Run (Finale)" Dexter Britain; "A Closing Statement" Dexter Britain; "Having Run" Dexter Britain.

Optimistic Women Live Longer

In the US in 2005, life expectancy for women averaged about 80 years, whereas for men it was about 75 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This research strongly suggests that deep-seated masculinity beliefs are one core cause of men's poor health, inasmuch as they reduce compliance with recommended preventative health services," said study researcher Kristen Springer of Rutgers University in New Jersey.

So while acting the part of a "real man" can attract fertile gals and even help a person to heal faster from injury, keeping up the tough-guy part could mean dodging the doctor's office. Tough guys who buy into ideals of masculinity are much less likely to seek preventive health care services, such as a prostate exam, compared with other men. This new finding, based on survey data, reveals that such manly beliefs could help to explain the lower life expectancy of men compared with women.

Optimistic Women
Optimistic women live longer and healthier lives than their pessimistic peers, the study suggests. Specifically, researchers found that women who see the glass as half full are at a lower risk for developing heart disease (with a lower overall risk of dying from any cause) than those who see the same glass as half empty.

The new research, detailed in the journal Circulation, also found that women with a high degree of cynical hostility, defined as harboring hostile thoughts toward others or having a general mistrust of people, were at a higher risk of dying in general.

"As a physician, I'd like to see people try to reduce their negativity in general," said Dr. Hilary A. Tindle, lead author of the study and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. "The majority of evidence suggests that sustained, high degrees of negativity are hazardous to health." The study is the largest to date to examine the health effects of optimism and cynical hostility in postmenopausal women over time.

• (Source: Livescience.com, August 11, 2009)