32. NASRUDDIN’S HOUSE CATCHES FIRE
Nasruddin’s house happened to catch on fire while Nasruddin was in the coffeehouse. One of his neighbors came bursting in to tell him the bad news.
“Nasruddin!” he shouted. “Come quickly! Your house is on fire!”
Nasruddin jumped up and ran to see what had happened. It was true: his house really was on fire. Flames were shooting up into the air and the whole structure was about to collapse.
Nasruddin, however, just stood there smiling.
“What can you be smiling about?” his neighbor asked.
Nasruddin replied, “Don’t you see? I’ve finally gotten rid of those damn bedbugs at last!”
This Tale is from “Tiny Tales of Nasruddin” by Laura Gibbs. The book is licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. © 2019-2022 Laura Gibbs.
I went back to the dentist again on Wednesday and got the stitches removed. They were not painful but were uncomfortable so glad that they are gone. I go back one more time next Tuesday and get the temporary bridge then maybe the permanent one in October. It has been an exciting month of April with VA appointments and multiple dentist appointments.
And today we have Bidenomics being hailed as the final slayer of the dragon of neoliberalism. Clinton’s Labor Secretary Robert Wright, for instance, thinks that Biden is about to alter the structure of the U.S. economy in ways that help the vast majority and that voters will give Biden another term and reward Democrats with both houses of Congress because it will have transformed the economy in favor of the 90 percent and of workers and unions.
And yet other columnists are praising the same actions of the Biden administration and the same legislative actions as the best business opportunity ever. So even after all these crises, neoliberalism seems to be, if not alive and kicking, at least leading a zombie existence and refuses to die. So today we want to talk about neoliberalism, what it is, where it came from, and why it seems not to die. And what will happen if it dies, and other such questions. So Michael, I’m sure you want to get in here and say something. Please go ahead. — Is It Over Yet by Michael Hudson
As an interesting side-note, Russia—the main target of all of this—has actually spent less on its entire defense budget during the last two years than the US and NATO has on Ukraine alone and Russia is still winning. The Russians—despite American Media propaganda—haven’t been on the verge of collapse through all of this: they still maintain an Expeditionary Force in Syria, conduct joint military drills with friendly nations and have even signed some new defense pacts with several countries. The purpose of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was to secure its borders and to protect Russian citizens—something our Congress didn’t bother to address for our country. — The Turning Point At 4/20 by The Night Wind
Around this time in 2020 we couldn’t find toilet paper.
Now we can’t afford it.