May 05, 2021

426

Well, Wafers, that last thread was quite a ride. We seem to have worked through Senor Maher pretty thoroughly, both pro and con; I do believe that wittingly or no, he has been documenting the collapse of the nation. This especially in terms of the sheer stupidity of Americans. We seem to have finally caught up to that iconic film, "Idiocracy," portraying nation of morons 500 years hence, but what in reality was only a few years away. But I do have a few disappointments.

1. Like almost all media pundits, Bill fails to state that the country is finished, despite the fact that this is the obvious reality. 2. As a result, he is not able to connect the dots: that a major factor in our collapse is our collective stupidity. 3. He also is confined to a very limited vocabulary: Americans are dumb. But they are also spineless douchebags, pathetic turkeys, and clueless buffoons. We need an upgrade in nomenclature, in short. 4. I keep waiting for him to say, "Morris Berman has recommended that all Americans be vigorously slapped, as a partial solution to our problems. Let me state here and now that I am in full agreement with this sentiment, and if such a movement will be launched, I intend to be on the front lines."

And so, Wafers, we move on into the future: dark, bleak, violent, and without a lick o' sense. When the president can declare that America will not be overtaken by China, you know we're up to our eyeballs in horse dung. Disneyland lives!

-mb

179 comments:

  1. Greetings MB and Wafers,

    MB-

    A number of yrs ago, I wrote Bill Maher to see if he would schedule an interview w/you for his TV show. Like the old Beatles tune, I received "No Reply." I even went as far as hanging out one day at the Farmers Market in LA to see if Bill might swing in and pick up some lunch. If so, I'd hit him up. Unfortunately, he was a no-show. I was also on the lookout for Tina Fey that day, to set you guys up on a date. And, no, I was not stoned (Ha Ha)!:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-yhEa1jXx0

    Miles

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeff-

    Wow, thanks for trying. But no, in spite of it all, Bill believes in the US. He's not going to interview someone who doesn't, I don't think. As for Tina: grazie mille, for trying to spice up my sex life.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wafers-

    Check this out:

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ruckus-skies-happens-airline-passengers-221021405.html

    Penalties for not wearing a mask on board can run as high as 35K, and yet the # of refuseniks continues to rise. Wafers are encouraged to suggest penalties that might actually be effective. My own suggestion is that flight attendants carry guns, and that if a Karen or a bubba refuses to wear a mask, the attendant would take out the gun and shoot them. Then the body would be tossed out of a bombay door. I suspect this wd give us the desired result. What do you guys and gals think?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pastrami and Coleslaw10:15 PM

    Some interesting news, and I apologize to the Guardian haters, I understand but it is hard to find international news here in Amerikkka:

    Bibi can't quite do it: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/05/israeli-opposition-leader-yair-lapid-tasked-with-forming-a-government

    I'm predicting a swift and painful backlash to any mayors/governors/etc. that supported shutdowns and the like. Only the first to come: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/05/madrid-president-revels-election-victory-left-routed-isabel-diaz-ayuso

    Also on that, see this (and I've met some of these types worthy of a shoe urination): https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/05/liberals-covid-19-science-denial-lockdown/618780/


    Oh, and like Miles I tried to set up our esteemed Dr. B with Michelle Bachmann, but no deal, alas. There are too many gays to convert.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Purdue-

    Sorry, I tend not to care for antisemitic horseshit. But there are so many blogs that do. Go there, maybe?

    Pastrami-

    I never really had a thing for Michelle, and my days of lusting for Sarah Palin are over. (Who wants to fuck on an ice floe anyway?) Tina Fey, different story...

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nadine Bupkis12:00 AM

    MB,

    I think it's safe to say this sort of behavior is where negative identities eventually wind up. When you have a negative identity for a very long time, you'll end up breaking even the most beneficial rules and regulations unless the penalties for doing so are extremely severe.

    Speaking of penalties for violating the mask mandate, I suggest feeding violators to lions, tigers and other endangered species. Either that, or dropping them off naked in the middle of a remote jungle where they are sure to die. In the latter case, they would be given Bibles and Christian crosses to take with them; this would serve to mock their religious fundamentalist arrogance as they perish. What do you think of these ideas?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Every time I hear someone invoking freedom as an excuse to not change anything after something horrible goes down in america it reminds me of a quote by Cornelius Castoriadis (the translation is mine)

    A truly free society, an autonomous society, must know how to limit itself, know that there are things that one cannot do or that one should not even try to do or that one should not desire.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nadine-

    Actually, the format here is less on airing personal opinion and more on making specific arguments regarding the collapse of the American empire, including evidence to back these arguments up. Best if we cd stick to that, thanks.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mb,

    https://apnews.com/article/south-carolina-executions-a6bbef9c9a85b248f5bc7c0c57ad0cbe?utm_medium=AP&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter

    Why not just throw people to the lions and get it over with? I guess a barbaric culture produces barbaric people.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Xair-

    Firing squad is gd, but I'm thinking it might be better to bake people in casserole dishes. This wd give executions a certain Continental flair (sorely lacking in America).

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  11. James Allen1:57 PM

    It’s Best If You Train Black Youth (to Fear Authorities) While They’re Young Department:

    Last Monday, 11-year-old Ja’Mari Oliver was walking to school in the Castro district in San Francisco in the company of his mother. The pair had a custom of stopping at a local Safeway store to buy him his school lunch. On this occasion, Ja’Mari asked to go into the store and buy his lunch himself; his mother agreed. As he was leaving the store, he was stopped by two security guards—third-party hires—who asked Ja’Mari whether he had stolen the sandwich, an accusation he easily disproved using the receipt his mother had trained him to keep after making purchases. Not until the store manager got involved was the boy permitted to leave. The two guards were later dismissed—though whether the temp company they work for has fired them was not clear. Well, at least they didn’t break his arm or otherwise hurt him.

    Chris Rock, in one of his standup specials, told his audience—which included, as ever, many whites—that not one single white person in the audience would trade places with him and “I’m a motherfuckin’ millionaire.”

    https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/black-boy-falsely-accused-of-stealing-sandwich-at-sf-safeway/

    ReplyDelete
  12. Jas-

    I love Chris Rock, but he's rt. Check this out:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8

    Meanwhile, as far as the kid was concerned: a receipt is nice, but why not tote an AK-47? The truth is, he's lucky he didn't get killed; and I'm not kidding!

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  13. MB - Only problem is, airliners don't have bomb bay doors. Now sure how chucking 'em out the emergency exit door would work, maybe pilot takes the plane down to non-pressurized altitude then that would work.

    Nadine - I like your style! With a Bible and cross in hand, no doubt Jesus Himself will come riding up on a dinosaur and rescue 'em.

    Orca - See "We, the Tikopia"

    James Allen - It took me a while, here on the mainland, and we're talking decades, to rid myself of making sure my receipt was showing like a flag when I left a grocery store. And in all fairness, back in Hawaii, "Haoles" are big shoplifters so ... I chalk it up to teaching me humility.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Fellow Wafers- http://www.independant.co.uk "CIA mocked from all sides over new 'woke' recruitment video". May 4,2021. (And as the great Schnozzola Jimmy Durante used to say: 'Everybody wants to get into the act!')

    ReplyDelete
  15. flan-

    Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.

    alex-

    It may hafta come down to casserole dishes, then.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  16. Greetings Dr. Berman & Wafers,
    Another daily shooting here in the dysfunctional States of America. This latest one occurred in our great family values state of Idaho, otherwise known as “The Gem State”. And this latest shooting certainly is a gem. That’s because it was committed by a sixth-grader.

    https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/injured-idaho-middle-school-shooting-suspect-captured-77534058

    I guess the below song is apropos for our gun culture.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyU0P6iqyw4

    ReplyDelete
  17. We often have a hankering for the "good old days". For a unique perspective from someone who had lived overseas (Paris) in the 1930's and then returned to the US, read Henry Miller's "The air conditioned nightmare" written in 1940 about his impressions of his mother country. While not Miller's best work and a little tedious, his observations on the rundown cities, bad food stand out but particularly his overhearing a pair of salesmen hustling inside a rickety DC-3. Sound familiar?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Peters8:02 PM

    The miracle of the commons
    Far from being profoundly destructive, we humans have deep capacities for sharing resources with generosity and foresight https://aeon.co/amp/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth

    This is a thing I yell about a lot, and loved this piece: The tragedy of the commons is false.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Cel-Ray Tonic8:37 PM

    More fun in Amerikkka:

    Didn't know there were 4: https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/06/us/south-carolina-firing-squad-death-penalty/index.html

    Now it isn't just the crazy white guys shootin' stuff up: https://apnews.com/article/idaho-rigby-middle-school-shooting-0f01cf5dc5aa04c3b2574a4c8379be9a

    only 2 for now...

    ReplyDelete
  20. Cosmo Como8:47 PM

    Do your pages have room for this guy?
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/donald-trumps-latest-attempt-return-153037466.html

    ReplyDelete
  21. Namaste12:07 AM

    I nominate this mother/daughter duo for 2024 President/VP ... true americans !!

    https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-teen-accused-rigging-homecoming-queen-vote-mom/story?id=77503943

    These stories never disappoint to produce such gems
    “ "These are good people. They're not crazy as some people are trying to depict them. They're basically decent people," said Etheridge

    ReplyDelete
  22. Nadine Bupkis12:37 AM

    https://dogpatch.press/tag/levi-simmons/

    This is nice: a ring of sadistic animal abusers who like torturing, raping and murdering helpless animals. Most members of this ring are, of course, American, and several were recently arrested. Levi Simmons, the ringleader, enjoyed drilling holes in puppies and raping them to death before decapitating them and using the severed heads to pleasure himself. Kero the Wolf, a Youtuber who was once extremely popular, was also discovered to be a part of this crime ring.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Namaste-

    Or perhaps Lori Loughlin (may her name be blotted out, and may she be consigned to utter darkness).

    Cosmo-

    Really, ya gotta love 'im.

    Cel-Ray, Joe-

    I've said it b4, many times: everybody needs to shoot everybody. Time to get it over with already.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  24. Alvin5:24 AM

    EXCLUSIVE: Melinda Gates warned Bill Gates about Jeffrey Epstein.

    After a secret meeting between the couple and the wealthy sex offender, she said wanted nothing to do with Epstein. Bill had a ... different attitude.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/melinda-gates-warned-bill-gates-about-jeffrey-epstein/

    ReplyDelete
  25. More people died in the past year from health consequences of anthropogenic aerosol emissions than from the novel coronavirus.

    https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2021/02/deaths-fossil-fuel-emissions-higher-previously-thought

    ReplyDelete
  26. Ov-

    Impt data, eh? Kinda makes ya stop and think.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  27. How is this news? (I shd give a shit):

    https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/07/entertainment/ellen-degeneres-courteney-cox-house/index.html

    ReplyDelete
  28. Rockwell N. Role7:04 PM

    If we were allowed our rights given to us by the sacred Second
    Amendment, we could carry guns into both airports and airplanes
    to avoid such disturbances.
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/another-brawl-breaks-miami-international-190204283.html

    ReplyDelete
  29. Rock-

    I'm all for guns everywhere. If these folks had been armed, they cd have all blown each other outta the water, thus solving the problem.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  30. It's the American Way...

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-man-accused-using-ppp-loan-buy-lamborghini-ferrari-bentley-n1266725

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  31. Dr. Shithouse11:24 PM

    Very sad new Wafers....

    https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/prepare-to-pay-more-for-your-favorite-chicken-sandwich-103027176.html

    ReplyDelete
  32. Dr. Shit-

    But what abt us *old* Wafers?

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  33. Wafers,

    How Americans travel. What lovely people.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/another-brawl-breaks-miami-international-190204283.html

    ReplyDelete
  34. In 1920 Bertrand Russell visited the new Soviet Union, after which he wrote: “I began to feel that all politics are inspired by a grinning devil, teaching the energetic and quick-witted to torture submissive populations for the profit of pocket or power or theory.”

    ReplyDelete
  35. Palmieri11:55 AM

    Bitcoin derivatives. Party like it’s 2007? Goldman Sachs executes its first bitcoin derivatives trades

    https://amp.ft.com/content/5ec1d0aa-7992-4fb8-8011-9d7f7b44faac

    ReplyDelete
  36. Nadine Bupkis3:35 PM

    https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dbbyd/the-cias-woke-ad-is-an-absurd-psyop-thats-melting-peoples-brains

    More woke douchebaggery. Watch the advertisement - I fucking dare you. Your head will explode. The CIA is doing its best to attract a cadre of *diverse*, *feminist* sociopaths to do its dirty work. If this isn't proof the woke movement has no interest in justice or equality, what is? I mean, what's next? A woke Guantanamo Bay, with posters celebrating the accomplishments of black people in every torture chamber? A woke nuclear war, with Gloria Steinem's face painted on every nuclear missile? Woke ideology is a brand that can be applied to literally anything at all, no matter how immoral. In this case, it's a smokescreen for torture, genocide and despotism, mostly directed at people of color. Social justice my ass.

    However, none of this surprises me. After all, a number of major American corporations have gone woke, which tells us everything we need to know about the woke movement. For example, look at what Disney's been up to recently:

    https://disneystarwarsisdumb.wordpress.com/2020/12/23/lucasfilms-woke-depravity-continues-unabated/

    ReplyDelete
  37. Nadine-

    I'm not sure this is the fault of 'woke', whoever or whatever that is. Marcuse once commented that capitalism could turn anything into itself, including anti-capitalism, and something like that is going on here. If the CIA smells that woke is trendy, they'll just co-opt it for their own purposes, whether woke folks agree or not. If the Pentagon decides to paint Gloria's face on their missiles, it's hardly Gloria's fault, and I doubt a strong letter on her part to the NYT wd change things very much. As for your disney link: it wd be nice to sit down w/those 4 girls w/their trendy T-shirts, and explain (for example) abt Reagan and the SDI (taken from Star Wars), and that they might wanna consider that they are dupes and turkeys; but I doubt we will be able to make much headway with them.

    The bottom line is that America is full of shit, and that it will stay that way.

    Note to senders of hate mail: Normally, you guys come in waves, but as of late it's just been a random trickle. And I understand that you won't pay any attn to the following, but let me repeat it just for fun: I'm not reading your posts. 3 words into them, I know it's hate mail, and I just hit Delete. So yr really wasting yr time. However, I suspect that the purpose of these posts is just catharsis for yrselves; you don't really care whether or not I read them. So, knock yrselves out, what the heck. Frankly, if I had nothing better to do than send hate mail to anyone, I'd be kinda depressed that there wasn't much going on in my life. The truth is, yr just beating off. You think yr better than me? Here's some news for you: yr not. And what, after all, r.u. guys contributing to society? You contain nothing but dreck, so that's all you have to offer. Jesus Christ, *think* abt this, shmuck-heads. You don't *have* to remain impotent little pissants for the rest of yr lives.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  38. Cosmo Como8:20 PM

    Man murders Nature. Nature retaliates and murders Man.
    https://www.wimp.com/reporter-wants-answers-about-decades-old-gigantic-toxic-waste-dump/

    ReplyDelete
  39. I haven't had much to add lately but I found this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABNStB5QXzY

    Yeah it's Hedges but I was unclear on what "cancel culture" was, did it mean boycotting things? I was not sure. This interview clarified things for me.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Dr. Berman,
    There still is time. You can change the Wafer summit venue to Times Square. We could witness in broad daylight the action of one of the daily mass shootings here in our Dysfunctional States of America.
    https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/times-square-shooting-victim-speaks-suspect-remains-at-large/3045168/

    But on the funny side, let’s enjoy this typical Karen. After the Karen leaves the video may seem boring for a minute or two. But what the gentleman and the store manager at about the 6:20 mark say so accurately describes your typical American Karen.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XixPlhDv-18

    ReplyDelete
  41. Joe-

    If these people wd only let me know abt the forthcoming massacre in advance, I cd notify all Wafers to attend. We cd set up chairs or bleachers, so we'd have front row seats. As for Karens: I'm getting a bit tired of all their yelling and complaining. Why can't *they* get guns, fer chrissakes? On a more depressing note, can you imagine having sex w/a Karen? Vey iz mir...

    Reminder abt this month's events:
    1. Wafer Summit in DC on May 22, 1 pm, at Secret Location.
    2. Blog will shut down May 20-26.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  42. PERRY3:31 PM

    "For every dollar of aid the South receives, they lose $14 in drain through unequal exchange, not counting illicit financial outflows. Poor countries are developing rich countries, not the other way around." https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/opinions/2021/5/6/rich-countries-drained-152tn-from-the-global-south-since-1960

    ReplyDelete
  43. Perry-

    Impt essay. This is what the Northern rage for cell fones does to the global South. Robin Wright has led the fight against the purchase and use of these devices. Kids in the Congo are ruthlessly exploited to mine rare minerals needed for them--and the kids wind up dying in their 20s (vapors from exotic metals are toxic). All so we can yammer on them, and annoy the people around us.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  44. Corson5:11 PM

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/nomadland-oscars-1960s-consumerism/618822/

    "The Anti Consumption Weirdos of Nomadland"

    I liked this positive review of the movie more than I did the movie.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Namaste5:39 PM

    Hello Mr. Berman,

    Wow, what do you think of this apart from the fact that “Elite are trash”.. Didnt expect this from Bill Gates. Also why does such news about the rich and powerful mostly come out after the end of their careers/old age.

    “According to the documents reviewed by the Journal, Ms. Gates and her advisers held a number of calls in October 2019 when the New York Times reported that Mr. Gates had met with Mr. Epstein on numerous occasions. Mr. Gates once stayed late into the night at Mr. Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, the Times reported.“

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/melinda-gates-was-meeting-with-divorce-lawyers-since-2019-to-end-marriage-with-bill-gates-11620579924

    ReplyDelete
  46. Schroeder5:59 PM

    Namaste,

    More and more I get the sense that Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" is based on Epstein.

    Great Waferian film, btw.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Namaste-

    Personally, I think the computer has made our lives worse, and we have Bill to thank for that. The pc came in around 1986, was it? Think of how much worse our lives are now, 35 yrs later. One bio of him is called "Hard Drive"--perfect expression of the American Way of Life. Yuck. "Nomadland" (see below) is one answer to this shell game; another is the Zapatistas (see below). These groups are not making some half-assed Hedgean revolution. Rather, they are checking out.

    Corson-

    A great review, thanks. More rejection of the American Way. And meanwhile, the following just floated across my screen:

    "Indigenous people in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas have been constructing a remarkable community under the banner of 20th century revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata. The Zapatists have exited from the state to constitute autonomous self-governing communities. To a large extent they have also left the capitalist market economy of the larger society. This is what anthropologist Andrej Grubacic and sociologist Denis O’Hearn call exilic communities, that is, communities in exile. They have voluntarily left the bad government of the state (mal gobierno)to build a democratic good government. And they have left the competitive, individualistic economy to build a cooperative community based on solidarity and mutual aid. This has required a turning inward like the shell of a snail. That’s why their liberated spaces are called caracoles.

    "The Zapatistas’ defiance of both state and capitalism has won the admiration of progressives worldwide. Anarchists and Marxists alike have seen this withdrawal from the “modern” world as a realization of their highest aspirations. Similarly the political elite and ruling classes of Mexico have seen it as a threat to their dominance."

    Living at the Edges of Capitalism: Adventures in Exile and Mutual Aid: Grubacic, Andrej, and O'Hearn, Denis: 9780520287303: Amazon.com: Books

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  48. Glans Butterworth, III6:26 PM

    (Non) Happy Birthday in the most amazing, greatest place on God's green Earth.

    https://www.denverpost.com/2021/05/09/suspect-and-multiple-victims-found-dead-in-mobile-home-community-in-colorado-springs/

    https://www.yahoo.com/gma/6-people-killed-colorado-birthday-202900085.html

    ReplyDelete
  49. Namaste, I agree with you that these people aren’t held up to the scrutiny they deserve until much later in life. For more on Gates, plus Sandberg, CEO of Whole Food and Oprah, I can’t recommend The New Prophets of Capital enough. Dr B has recommended it on this blog several times. Brief book that is also incredibly insightful. The fact it only has 19 reviews says a lot about why we Americans are so uninformed. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N6PCK4U/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

    I continue to be fascinated/horrified by higher education in the US. I’m not sure I agree with Markovits’s conclusions but this is often he case for us Wafers. Someone makes an excellent argument for why things are messed up and then they give us whiplash by reversing course in the last chapter. There is something so horrible about making education a status symbol for bragging rights. Alexis de Tocqueville worried Americans would only see education for its utilitarianism instead of a ends in itself. Cicero said education should free the mind from the tyranny of the present. Now “education” is simply for status, entrance into the upper echelons and parental bragging. We are screwed. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/marriage-college-status-meritocracy/618795/

    ReplyDelete
  50. Moudhy7:29 PM

    John McWhorter on Race and Anti-Racism | Real Time With Bill Maher

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD-CdFd_tOY

    ReplyDelete
  51. Jamie-

    Also on Oprah:

    https://www.amazon.com/Age-Oprah-Cultural-Neoliberal-Media/dp/1594514682/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=janice+peck&qid=1620606618&s=books&sr=1-5

    Some yrs ago I talked w/a flight attendant who told me Oprah had recently been on the plane, bought up all the seats in 1st class so she wdn't hafta talk to anybody, and treated the staff like shit. Big prima donna. As w/recent revelations abt Ellen, there's a real dark side here, and I'm guessing that's true of most of our cultural elites: at bottom, trashy people.

    Glans-

    The US: another day, another slaughter. Bitter, angry buffoons w/guns.

    Regarding the info abt Chiapas above, I forgot to mention a graffito I saw down there, some years ago: "Nuestros suenos no caben en tus urnas"--Our dreams don't fit into your ballot boxes. What a farce our system is. The Zapatistas, at least, know this.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  52. @Glans

    Yeah, we celebrate birthdays by blowing out brains instead of candles. It's an Ol' American Tradition. Celebration, Conflagration, it's all the same. We who have everything, want, I mean crave, Nothing!

    ReplyDelete
  53. down we go7:47 AM

    Dumb, dumber and dumbest -

    https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=78d613d966&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-f:1699318337877881478&th=179531066184b286&view=att&disp=safe

    ReplyDelete
  54. Colly9:02 AM

    Colorado’s ‘rebel’ farmers – ‘I’d like to see industrial farming go extinct’

    Jake Takiff is part of a trend towards ‘regenerative’ farming, a more environmentally and economically sustainable model of managing the land

    https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/08/colorado-regenerative-farming-cedar-springs

    “Jake uses a perennial system and rotational grazing. “I feel like every livestock farmer has an addiction to grain and we’re weaning ourselves off it. Once you become a soil farmer, you realise that without that soil we can’t do anything.”

    Dual Process Ag Dept

    ReplyDelete
  55. down-

    Link didn't work.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  56. Nadine Bupkis12:26 PM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pk0wLN5uuU

    Turns out Dr Fauci is probably a villain rather than a hero. He's been making money off the virology research going on in Wuhan, China, which is why he's always said the virus didn't come from the Wuhan virology lab, even though that's probably where the virus originated. Also...

    https://www.patreon.com/bretweinstein

    https://www.patreon.com/heatherheying

    Bret Weinstein and his wife Heather Heying have been raking in tens of thousands of dollars per month via Patreon donations. I guarantee that most of these donations come from right-wing assholes, because these two former liberals ceaselessly pander to this demographic on Youtube. They also have a very popular Youtube series called Dark Horse Podcast, which airs every few days and allows them to make something like 1,000 dollars per episode, mostly from donations. Call me crazy, but I think money is a huge reason why these two have sown their own brand of right-wing politics. They're definitely making far more money doing this than they ever did teaching at Evergreen.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Wafers-

    If you scroll back a bit, you'll see my message to the antisemitic trollfoons. God, these people are so stupid! They take the bait; they don't even know they're being baited. Of course, as soon as I wrote that, I was inundated with antisemitic hate mail. Good! It was getting too quiet around here, so I figured I'd poke the hedgehog, get some action going. Honestly, I love these turkeys. They are so fucked in the head.

    Bring it on, turkeys!

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  58. Clara1:20 PM

    Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots

    https://www.amazon.com/Work-Deep-History-Stone-Robots/dp/0525561757/

    "Here is one of those few books that will turn your customary ways of thinking upside down. An incisive and original new history that invites us to rethink our relationship with work—and to reimagine what it means to be human in an ever-more automated future.”  —Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking 


    Looks good!

    ReplyDelete
  59. Mike R.2:27 PM

    Dr. Berman--They're US-ians, hence, they cannot help themselves.

    These are the "people" that will someday, somedaze "rise-up" and fight their overlords....as they proudly wave their flags, do the jingoistic/imperialistic us empire blather, and obsess over MSM, sports, porno, and wastebook.

    The ONLY 'movement' will be the bowel movement.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Mike-

    Well, the only movement that succeeds, in any case.

    Clara-
    2 problems:
    1. The late Marshall Sahlins (one of my heroes) said much the same thing in 1974 (Stone Age Economics).
    2. The prediction that tech/automation will be a work saver has been around for probably a century, and has been consistently wrong. Turns out, it creates *more* work.

    Nadine-

    Depressing. Apparently, given the chance, every American is a hustler.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  61. Kevin4:57 PM

    This forthcoming book, Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, sounds interesting. I've never heard of Rene Girard but the insights sound interesting.

    Good interview by Douglas Rushkoff with the author:
    https://www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/luke-burgis

    ReplyDelete
  62. Kev-

    I never bought Girard's analysis of prehistory, and his whole sacrifice thesis, but I have a colleague at UNAM who has given lecs in Europe and elsewhere comparing Girard's analysis w/mine. (I guess he likes both of them.) Pretty gd bk title, in any case; altho as far as desire goes, I suspect the Buddha was more on top of it than Burgis. :-)

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  63. This is nice:

    https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-05-10/colorado-springs-mass-shooting-gun-violence-nra-2nd-amendment

    ReplyDelete
  64. Our high tech lifestyle is unsustainable.

    "We need the critical raw materials to make products that sustain our high tech lifestyle. Printed circuit boards in the EU's e-waste could contain as much as 41 tonnes of silver and 10 tonnes of gold in 2025." https://uk.news.yahoo.com/news/e-waste-recycling-matter-national-164642870.html

    ReplyDelete
  65. Dark Side8:03 AM

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-05-07/jeff-bezos-s-new-superyacht-heralds-roaring-market-for-big-boats

    Just FYI, Jeff Bezos is building a $500 million BOAT

    Gotta be nice not paying corporate taxes

    ReplyDelete
  66. Jules9:12 AM

    https://unherd.com/thepost/wellness-is-no-replacement-for-religion/

    "The wellness industrial complex" is well put!

    ReplyDelete
  67. Jules-

    Gd ref, thanks. I discuss things like "corporate Zen" in "Neurotic Beauty." Woody Allen also satirizes "experimenting" w/personalities and religions in "Zelig," definitely a movie for our times. Capitalist consumer hustling can turn anything into shit (i.e., itself).

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  68. Seneca's Cliff11:54 AM

    I have been listening to Van Morrison's latest album, "the latest record project". It has been panned by the music media as the work of a cranky old guy filled with Qanon conspiracies and anti-semitism ( because of a song titled "they own the media"). I think it is just a work of social commentary from an old guy ( like Roger Waters) who is rich and has nothing left to lose in criticizing sacred cows. I like the music as well. But before I recommend it to my friends I would like any Wafers who have access and can listen to it to let me know what you think. Maybe I have a tin ear with regards to such things.


    https://www.amazon.com/Latest-Record-Project-Van-Morrison/dp/B08XGSTKRP/ref=asc_df_B08XGSTKRP/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475752234630&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16180468220316801068&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9061079&hvtargid=pla-1187287475662&psc=1

    ReplyDelete
  69. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-090820-025827

    Hell is other people: Negative social ties are less common than positive ones, but have more serious consequences for health and well-being.

    Just think what living in the USA is doing to us!

    ReplyDelete
  70. Nadine Bupkis3:45 PM

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

    A Houston man let a tiger loose in the suburbs. The tiger ended up killing at least one person, prompting the authorities to charge the man with murder. I'm pretty sure only Americans would do something this senseless.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKZpTjvctc0

    On the bright side, much to my surprise, Glenn Greenwald isn't completely insane. In this recent clip, he condemns what Israel did, and continues to do, to the Palestinians, and condemns the American government for supporting this atrocity. However, when it comes to American domestic policies, he's pretty strongly aligned with the far-right. I have no idea why.

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

    Here's another Karen clip for your enjoyment.

    ReplyDelete
  71. Butler4:36 PM

    Of patents and power: "Doses are charity. Knowledge is justice"
    A conversation with advocates for global vaccine access about drug patents, activism, Big Pharma, and more

    "You may be vaxxed. Much of the world isn’t and isn’t on track to be. One reason is patents. We in the West need to educate ourselves on the history of our governments using clout to force poor nations to choose foreign patents over their own people."

    https://the.ink/p/doses-are-charity-knowledge-is-justice

    ReplyDelete
  72. Lemoine5:27 PM

    https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/what-we-know-about-the-colonial-pipeline-shutdown-updates.html

    Psh...

    You know what doesn't need pipelines?

    Solar. Electricity. Nuclear. Wind.

    Also see the link Ov submitted above re: fossil fuel deaths.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Dr. Shithouse5:27 PM


    A bartender needs extensive facial surgery after being assaulted by a woman complaining the drink wasn't strong enough.

    https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article251321703.html

    First it was US-ians going bat shit abt anemic bacon on cheeseburgers, 911 calls due to lack of duck sauce from Chinese food, shortages of chx sandwiches causing car accidents...now sub-robust drinks causing beat downs.

    Immigrants please take note, this *was* emblematic of the US empire.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Dr. Shit-

    Not clear to me why the woman didn't pull out a .357 Magnum and blow the bartender away. A Real Woman wd have done that.

    Seneca-

    I dunno abt Van, but I hafta tell u that my 2nd trollfoon baiting worked again! It boggles the mind, how blind and stupid these people are. They just can't figure out that they are being drawn, and it matters not a whit to them that I'm not rdg their messages. We need a data base on the # of antisemitic trollfoons that inhabit the blogosphere. To quote Gore Vidal, "Stupidity excites me."

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  75. Sounds like the words of a Wafer

    https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2021/05/we-need-to-talk-about-destroying-america.html

    ReplyDelete
  76. Krak-

    Who is this 'we' he keeps referring to? Hedgean revolutionaries? 331 million douche bags? I'm just curious.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  77. Noura9:54 PM

    ‘Stop the vaccines!’ Marjorie Taylor Greene launches anti-vaxx rant on Steve Bannon show
    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/stop-vaccines-marjorie-taylor-greene-180355927.html

    Families of Black Americans killed by police push for UN to intervene
    The families have been pushing the international community to take action since last summer’s protests
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/un-police-brutality-george-floyd-b1845772.html

    ReplyDelete
  78. ErinManhuden1:36 AM

    Windmills are really hard on birds - nothing replaces oil or particularly diesel engines as far as the variety of uses.

    Lemoine - techno-narcissism eg. E. Musk et al is simply that. There are numerous books on "green illusions".

    ReplyDelete
  79. Matt S7:24 AM

    Dear dr berman and wafers,

    I recently rewatched a film called "Dark City." Dark City oddly resembles America, or perhaps the other way around. There are no happy news (or facts), just fake memories. The people are somehow transported here to play some roles, meaningless and silly roles that have no underpining justifications of any kind. The people are told to believe in those roles and they think the roles give them "individualism." The people are so obsessed and preoccupied in the fake roles they are playing that they don't question anything. There are something that is always missing, like sun light, but no one cares to notice it.

    Matt

    ReplyDelete
  80. Matt-

    Sounds gd. Next time, pls provide a link. Thank you.

    Erin-

    Check out ch. 3 of WAF, on technology. Pls provide link for Lemoine. Meanwhile, there's this:

    https://www.amazon.com/Green-Illusions-Secrets-Environmentalism-Sustainable/dp/0803237758/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3SQFQMIWZ3P00&dchild=1&keywords=green+illusions+by+ozzie+zehner&qid=1620822768&s=books&sprefix=ozzie+green%2Caps%2C388&sr=1-1

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  81. James Allen9:57 AM

    An article from nakedcapitalism.com, explaining why the Green New Deal—and presumably other climate change mitigation efforts—are so much a masturbatory exercise.

    “Goodbye Climate Deniers, Hello Climate Bullshitters.”

    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/05/goodbye-climate-deniers-hello-climate-bullshitters.html

    ReplyDelete
  82. Jas-

    I think it unrealistic to believe that anything substantive will be done by the US regarding climate change. The whole country is beating off, so there's no reason to believe that this one area of (non)activity will be any different. We'll have changes--cosmetic ones, of course.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  83. Dear Dr Berman, Wafers,

    I got cancelled by the Naked Capitalism blog for repeatedly stating that the US had no future because its populace was basically too stupid. I am glad, as it was just a waste of energy and time. They have some intelligent commentators over there, but they still suffer the delusion that there is still a rabbit that can be pulled out of some magician's hat. I regret that I have no links to my posts (which I think were funny) because they deleted them.

    Americans get crazy mad when their (non)identity is threatened. One guy told me he was going to drink a lot of beer and play with his guns to own me. This is the picture I critiqued:
    https://twitter.com/justintbrown/status/1392222634692259843

    I said they were typical Americans, stupid, fat, greedy, cowardly slugs afraid of having to walk. Bad me.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Rook-

    Of course, you touched the 3rd rail, wh/is a no-no, even on Naked Capitalism. So they are just part of the stupidity you are talking about. When I say there is no hope, I mean there is no hope. America much prefers Disneyland to reality. We're in the mess we're in because the population consists of buffoons.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  85. Glans Butterworth, III12:41 PM

    Respond to dog complaint, you get killed in a shoot out.

    https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/2-texas-deputies-killed-in-west-texas-shootout-after-car-chase/

    usa, usa!

    ReplyDelete
  86. Glans-

    Just look at this guy's face...usa indeed.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  87. Mike R.1:40 PM

    https://sandrarose.com/2021/05/15-year-old-girl-who-killed-uber-eats-driver-in-d-c-carjacking-takes-plea-deal/

    Comes to the US empire for a "better life"...as a 'Goober' food driver, and gets killed in a carjacking.

    ReplyDelete
  88. Mike-

    It's neat that one of the killers was concerned that her cell fone was in the car of the guy she murdered. This young woman knows her priorities; a true American!

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  89. Greetings MB and Wafers,

    Well, what department should this be filed under? I'm thinking the Andre Agassi look-alike dept.:

    https://nbc-2.com/news/crime/2021/05/12/florida-man-arrested-after-brawl-over-tom-brady/amp/

    Miles

    ps:

    "If you were to split open an American's cranium, u would find it completely filled w/fruit compote."
    ~Morris Berman

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/panicked-drivers-southeast-us-swarm-pumps-ignore-pleas-stop-hoarding-2021-05-12/

    Ever thought of producing a mini-coffee table book about American decline, MB? It could have it all: photos, facts, cultural snapshots, and wicked jokes. I'm thinking a gd title might be "Fat, Dumb, and Ugly: The Decline of American Society." I also like "Dumbed-Downed Dolts: New Directions for American History."

    ReplyDelete
  90. Nadine Bupkis5:37 PM

    MB,

    Well, as depressing as my posts have been, a few Americans, some of which are deceased, have proven themselves immune to the hustling virus: Marshall Sahlins, H. L. Mencken, Gore Vidal, Native Americans, Wafers, etc. But you're right: hustling is so deeply ingrained in the American psyche that it can suddenly seize control of almost any American, no matter his political leanings. It depresses me as well, but hey, at least we have this blog and a whole host of excellent authors to read, a few of which I mentioned in this post. We also have Jewish Space Laser merchandise and a nearly endless supply of Karen videos to entertain us.

    ReplyDelete
  91. Nadine-

    I own a Jewish Space Laser T-shirt!

    Jeff-

    In cases w/no compote, small pieces of goat shit were discovered. Word of honor. As for bk title: perhaps "Bozos out of Control."

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  92. You are right, there is no way there will be any overthrow of our masters with the current makeup of US citizens. I do wish more people wanted to destroy the country though. It's a pity this thing is going to drag out and bring down lots of people and possibly the planet before it's all said and done.

    ReplyDelete
  93. A very happy birthday to one of our great modern sages, George Carlin. He pulled no punches in his truth telling, and had no delusions about the USA.
    That's why they call it the American Dream. Because you have to be asleep to believe it."

    ReplyDelete
  94. Rollo Dice3:55 AM

    Hidden Waferism in US conservatism?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOWZrjPqW8E&t=53s

    ReplyDelete
  95. @Nadine

    Actually, the tiger, a nine-month old male named "India," did not kill anyone, so far. The tiger has yet to be found. A man named Victor Hugo Cuevas, Victor Hugo!, was on parole for a murder he committed in 2017. He intervened by taking hold of the tiger while shouting at the off-duty deputy not to shoot it, and then took it away in his SUV. Cuevas has been arrested for evading arrest. His lawyer says that he is not the owner of the tiger but that he (Cuevas) knows who the owner is but won't identify him. This is a disturbing story for the potential of tragic consequences to humans and the animal, an endangered species, itself. Tiger, Tiger burning bright, who doth frame thy fearful symmetry? There's also that story by Julio Cortazar about the family who had to negotiate their home space with resident tigers. Jorge Luis Borges was fond of tigers. I'm now convinced that reports of sightings of a bobcat in the rocky park that I sometimes trail run are in fact those of a tiger. It quickens my pace in an exhilarating way. If it comes to it, I'll complete the cycle of life in a tiger's entrails, although I don't court the prospect.

    https://abc13.com/india-the-tiger-loose-in-houston-neighborhood-spotted-remains-missing-on/10615955/

    ReplyDelete
  96. Megan8:27 AM

    I thought this was a particularly good and insightful talk on Spengler:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFQxSESQo3I&t=3139s

    One of the unfortunate results of postmodernism, was the death of the grand sweeping accounts of history, such as Spengler's "Decline of the West", as well as the death of the "generalist". Everything now is about specialization, and I think that's unfortunate. I sometimes regret not doing my PHD, but I'm one of those people who want to know everything about everything, so I figured that five years of just studying one laser-focused topic would have driven me to distraction. At any rate, I wish I had come upon Spengler twenty five years ago. He is such a marvel of erudition, that it never ceases to amaze me how he acquired such learning by the age of 50 (He died at 57). For anyone interested in Dr. Berman, I think Spengler (as well as Toynbee) are almost essential reading. Even if Spengler is out of fashion at the moment, he really is worth your time. "Decline of the West" is one of the profoundest books I've have ever read. John David Ebert has a 65 part Youtube video series to walk you through it, chapter by chapter. I think the excellent lecture I have posted will at least whet the appetites of a few who are unfamiliar with the delights of Spengler. Ebert is himself one of the most erudite people that I know of.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Meghan-

    Also check out Jos Tainter, "The Collapse of Complex Societies."

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  98. Dr. Shithouse1:44 PM

    A true american; US-ians love 'COVID cash'...

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/miami-man-bought-lamborghini-covid-211403418.html

    Mr. Hedges and Dr. Chomsky, these are fine, 'propagandized', wool over their eyes US-ians who would have likely purchased a library, built an animal shelter, supported a symphony orchestra, published poetry, etc. if they were not so duped by their govt/corporate overlords to get a luxury car....
    '

    ReplyDelete
  99. Noura4:17 PM

    Joseph Tainter on The Dynamics of the Collapse of Human Civilization
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsT9V3WQiNA&t=1299s
    21:26 time mark about tolerating the destruction of the environment “The problem with the future is that there’s no free lunch. We have decisions to make about what kind of future we want and there are pluses and minuses to any path we take.”

    “Joseph Tainter is an American anthropologist and historian. His best-known work, The Collapse of Complex Societies. This discussion was conducted in 2005 for The 11th Hour by Leila Conners. The discussion covers Tainter's understanding of how societies work and don't work. We also discuss energy issues and how, if we can, avoid collapse today.”

    ReplyDelete
  100. Sybok4:28 PM

    2-year-old shoots parents inside Maine home. It's a real life Stewie Griffin! It's too bad the tot didn't clip his pop in balls so he wouldn't be able to endanger more children by leaving his loaded firearm just lying around.

    Omar Ameen, Sacramento refugee fighting to stay in US, appears at immigration hearing. Ameen has been held in prison for 2 years, away from his family, on no more evidence than that of a single eyewitness & now that his lawyer has proven that he wasn't even in the same country when the alleged murder took place, the US wants to extradite him to Iraq to be tried for the same crime he has just been exonerated for here. Are these brilliant legal minds familiar with the term 'Double Jeopardy'? No, and I'm not talking about the bonus round of the famous game show.

    ReplyDelete
  101. Mike R.5:37 PM

    Americans beating the shit outta each other over sports cards.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/target-to-stop-selling-pokemon-and-sports-trading-cards-in-stores-out-of-an-abundance-of-caution-11620


    Forget FATCA, citizen-based double taxation, no universal health care, student loans, no real retirement, employment at will/whim doctrines, etc..etc..sports cards is what works USA-ers up in addition to chicken sandwiches, chinese food, hot wings, bacon cheeseburgers, and goat/van fucking.

    ReplyDelete
  102. Nadine Bupkis6:31 PM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keroIqj8Q1w&lc=UgwBMfmYpB3Uc-zGhud4AaABAg.9NI1Haiq5KC9NI1cx-2vy7

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

    Some progs think Andrew Yang is the solution to America's woes. Turns out he thinks Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is totally justified. He's showing his true colors: those of an imperialist. Fortunately, many progs are lashing out at Yang for his support of Israel's ongoing genocide. However, they still think they can save America by voting for the right person, as if he could change the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of stupid, vicious Americans.

    ReplyDelete
  103. Mike-

    Link didn't work. We have yet to see a scholarly study of the impact of goat/van fucking on the decline of the American empire. I'm positive the connection is real. (Chicken sandwiches are a close 2nd.)

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  104. Ziggy Zag7:45 PM

    American formula for instant political success?
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/rules-of-demagogue-meidastouch-092325868.html

    ReplyDelete
  105. Mike R.7:47 PM

    Dear Dr. Berman and Wafers,
    Apologies for the link not working and breaking the 24h rule.

    Please find operable links to fights over sports cards:

    https://news.yahoo.com/target-stores-pause-stocking-pok-161459909.htm

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/target-will-stop-selling-pok-c3-a9mon-cards-in-stores-citing-employee-safety/ar-BB1gFMwu

    ReplyDelete
  106. Mike-

    I cdn't find anything in that 1st link about sports cards.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  107. Peg Leg9:47 PM

    Suez moment, guys? A beam in the *only* 47-year old Hernando de Soto bridge b/t TN and AR has cracked and now the Mississippi (carrying 1/2 the grain shipment of the entire country) is closed. A bottlenecking of frail modernity. https://wreg.com/news/tdot-to-hold-news-conference-on-i-40-bridge-inspection-closure-wednesday/amp/

    ReplyDelete
  108. Interceptional12:59 AM

    If European Americans were sent to reservations we'd make them fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
  109. Joseph Tainter is a friend and colleague, and I had the pleasure of introducing him at a talk at Brigham Young University (see https://youtu.be/RSXKjH_WjWo.) Of interest to this group is something that Joe and I have discussed at great length, but which does not appear in his book, The Collapse of Complex Societies. What, I asked him, would be an example of a complex society that managed its own decline, with deliberation and forethought. He said, "Byzantium." An interesting example. The Eastern Roman Empire was in decline for more than 500 years, but as it contracted, it voluntarily simplified its administrative structure and economy, surviving -- in considerably reduced form -- all the way to the mid-fifteenth century. Not a bad run. Could the United States manage itself similarly, I asked? Tainter said simply: "I doubt it."
    Charles "The Wafer Anthropologist" Nuckolls.

    ReplyDelete
  110. Sybok - One can only hope that when Mr. Ameen is returned to Iraq, after the Iraqis making all kinds of noises about "punishing him good" to the barbaric Americans, they instead give him a nice pension, encourage him to write a book about the real nature of the US, etc.

    Nadine - And now Yang's taking it back... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/nyregion/andrew-yang-israel-palestine-attack.html I think Israel is really pissing their own bed here.

    I can't believe I've waited around for so long to watch this. Maybe it wasn't on YouTube until now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zli2VHO4p1I

    ReplyDelete
  111. Charles-

    Thanks for the info; a great example. The problem is that a move like that requires grace and intelligence, wh/might be why Joe was skeptical abt American possibilities. Some time ago I wrote that the US might be the 1st 'civilization' in history to collapse because of jokes, and for being a kind of joke. We've got people running around talking abt "Jewish Space Lasers" causing fires in California, fer chrissakes. This is the stuff of bad novels.

    Inter-

    Maybe; the problem is that simply broadcasting opinions is not how this blog works, for the most part. In future, pls state an argument abt the decline of the American empire, and then provide evidence for it--links, refs to reliable bks and articles, etc. Thank you.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  112. Mille6:40 AM

    “Bigness is pervasive in America as nowhere else in the world.”
    — Human Scale Revisited, by Kirkpatrick Sale

    ReplyDelete
  113. ps: Charles: senility strikes again: Did you say you were planning to come to the Wafer Summit in DC on May 22? If so, did I send you the venue? For this info, pls write me at mauricio@morrisberman.com, and I'll fill you in. Sorry for my decaying brain. :-(

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  114. Mille-

    I think I posted a short essay some time ago called "Of Size and Scale," but I can't be sure. You might wanna search for it. Sale, BTW, did a review of WAF.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  115. Giving Up on Economic Growth Could Make Us Cooler and Happier

    "Limitless GDP growth, even in rich countries, is baked into climate modeling. It shouldn’t be."
    https://newrepublic.com/article/162377/giving-up-economic-growth-green-climate

    ReplyDelete
  116. Greetings MB and Wafers,

    Say, here's a guy w/a working noodle:

    https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/05/13/liz-cheney-and-thus-revolution-devours-its-children

    I've no sympathy for Liz...

    Miles

    ReplyDelete
  117. Wafers,

    To say that Americans are children is not enough. Has there ever been a more degraded group of people in history?

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fox5ny.com/news/shake-shack-offering-free-burgers-if-you-get-vaccinated.amp

    ReplyDelete
  118. Meat Log3:54 PM

    A Cleveland woman is facing an assault charge after police say she hit another woman in the face with a 10-pound log of prepackaged meat during a fight at a Walmart. https://www.cleveland.com/crime/2021/05/woman-attacks-victim-with-10-pound-log-of-meat-at-south-euclid-walmart-police-say.html

    ReplyDelete
  119. Meat-

    Check this out:

    “It is unknown as to what initially led to the beef between the two women,” police said in a post on Facebook.

    Was this a deliberate pun? In any case, I think it's neat that American women are clobbering each other with meat.

    Xair-

    No. But also note that they are (in addition) debased, wh/is worse.

    Jeff-

    Karma, I guess.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  120. Nadine Bupkis8:16 PM

    MB,

    Heads up: your site is being listed as dangerous by my app due to "phishing" allegedly being detected. It's utter horseshit; I think Google is censoring you.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Nadine-

    Joe wrote me something similar abt his Firefox access to the blog, but then I guess it cleared up. Of course, I love the idea of being dangerous--at last, I get the attn I deserve--but do wonder WTF is going on. However, the blog does seem to be working...

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  122. Pastrami and Coleslaw10:39 PM

    MB, though it's like asking the fox to check the hen-house, google sez you're OK:

    https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=morrisberman.blogspot.com

    There's been something going on the past week, had trouble with Chrome and Firefox. Though searches of proper WAFer subjects seem to work fine:

    https://www.tasteatlas.com/pastrami-on-rye/wheretoeat

    https://www.insider.com/most-famous-deli-in-every-state-2019-7

    ReplyDelete
  123. Glans Butterworth, III12:24 AM

    Wafer Nadine et al.,re: potential censoring, cancelling, etc... got a similar warning message from another "search engine" MSN, stating that Dr. Berman's blog site is 'dangerous and beware of content'...

    Maybe we should just stick w/ chicken sandwich fiascos given that reality was the 3rd rail in the US empire.


    ReplyDelete
  124. Well, in the interest of accuracy, I misquoted William Blake's poem about the tiger. The framing of the Tyger's symmetry is stated in the last two lines of the first stanza, and the last two lines of the last stanza, thus:

    1st stanza: What immortal hand or eye,
    Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

    Final stanza: What immortal hand or eye,
    Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

    And there we have it. The framing of the Tyger's symmetry frames the poem (a Tyger?). Is Victor Hugo Cuevas' lawyer claiming that his client, a disturbed individual, is being framed? Who would ask a Tyger to pose so as to be framed? I mean, who could or would even dare? Mr. Cuevas straddles the animal, thus framing it between his legs.

    So much for literary Tygers. May the real one, a tiger, be sent to sanctuary without incident to humans or itself. I haven't been following the story. I apologize for this irrelevant post.

    ReplyDelete
  125. Glans-

    Well, I confess I'm flattered, but I'm also puzzled as to who is instigating all this. Of course, it cd work in our favor: put a bk on the Vatican Index of Prohibited Works, and it'll be a best-seller. So maybe all of this warning stuff will be to our advantage. It's also interesting how, in America, real = dangerous; wh/is true enuf, I suppose. (Reality is indeed the 3rd rail.) Of course, I have a lot of enemies, and they tend to be not very bright. Hence, they wdn't realize that negative publicity is publicity. Still, why wd MSN or Firefox or whatever be afraid of a blog w/177 registered participants, run by a relative nonentity, fer chrissakes? I'm not even on the radar screen, in America. Not really much of a threat, in short. Maybe it's just another manifestation of a dying empire, like Americans being worried abt Jewish Space Lasers and such.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  126. ps: of course, it cd be my frequent references to chopped liver that's got these folks scared.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Melinda9:45 AM

    Capitalism and the Death Drive

    "Its destructive forces cause not only ecological & social catastrophes but also mental collapse... We optimize ourselves to death." https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509545018&subject_id=4

    ReplyDelete
  128. Taggart10:54 AM

    “For our pleasures are not material pleasures but symbols of pleasure—attractively packaged but inferior in content[...]The speed and efficiency of transportation by super-highway and air in many ways restricts freedom of travel. It is increasingly difficult to take a walk, except in such ‘reservations for wanderers’ as state parks.”
    — Alan Watts, On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, 1973

    ReplyDelete
  129. Melinda-

    Actually, optimization is gd; it's maximization that's the problem. See my essay in QOV called "The Parable of the Frogs."

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  130. “Aloha” all.
    Let’s not forget that our Dysfunctional States of America also includes the Pacific islands of Hawaii. If my history memory is correct, we conquered this and other Pacific areas around 1900 or so during the time of that wonderful Republican Manifest Destiny president, one William McKinley. So it goes without saying that shootings by our “shoot first, lie later” paramilitarized police force also occur there.

    https://www.khon2.com/local-news/honolulu-poised-to-pay-1m-settlement-for-2017-hpd-fatal-shooting/
    https://www.khon2.com/always-investigating/always-investigating-recent-police-shootings-in-hawaii-prompt-calls-for-change-to-investigations/

    ReplyDelete
  131. Noura4:42 PM

    This video is hilarious. The collapse of the US seems like a national comedy, it’s almost unbelievable at times.
    The Rules of the Demagogue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUtfCIK__mI&t=1s

    I found the video in this article:
    Donald Trump's Fascism On Full Display In Chilling New Ad
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/rules-of-demagogue-meidastouch-092325868.html

    A crucial missing element here is that the rise of Trump is a symptom, the American people are the problem. It amazes me that Bill Maher can make videos like the one below and still believe that America has a future. It’s almost as if America is a religion.

    New Rule: America's Mass Delusion | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhTbtqOJA08

    Disturbing video about the elites:
    Saagar Enjeti: EPSTEIN At Center Of Bill, Melinda Gates Divorce
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4lqt_JLrGU

    ReplyDelete
  132. Noura-

    There are a couple of essays in QOV that deal w/America as a religion in and of itself.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  133. MB - Seems Firefox had a problem with all Blogger sites. I could not even get into my own blog, which no one reads. I filed a complaint, saying I ought to be able to get into my own blog, which no one reads, and I was allowed to. After some hours, this one was open to be again. Pretty soon we'll be back to pamphlets printed out on antique printing presses in some basement somewhere...

    Bill - I side with HPD on this one. The rules are simple: Don't barge into others' houses esp. those inhabited by lone women, don't attack cops. I would expect to be held to the same rules in S. Africa.

    I'm on a Gore Vidal kick lately, this is good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL5Tb4eoTtA

    ReplyDelete
  134. alex-

    Still not clear why MSN et al. are calling me dangerous. Not, as I already explained, that I mind, but I'm a bit curious as to how this came abt.

    Who is Bill? What is the HPD?

    Gore did a review of DAA in 2006, but I was not able to locate it online. (I think the review was part of a larger article on American decline.) I did find this, however:

    http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/2006/01/gore-vidal-and-morris-berman-look-at.html

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  135. Ziggy Zag8:19 PM

    As long as the body count and income can be maintained by allowing
    anyone who wants to give money to be allowed in, why not? The
    quality of undergraduate mock education is a farce, to be sure.
    The American Dream is based on the guarantee that exposure to a
    university parking lot for four years will gain one entrance to
    consumerism.
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/university-california-schools-no-longer-234500941.html

    ReplyDelete
  136. Zig-

    Thanks for the ref. American university 'education' is pretty much a joke these days.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  137. MB - I got mixed up and called Joe McIlnen "bill" - I should copy and paste usernames I am replying to.

    HPD == the Honolulu Police Department. The acronym "hpd" shows up in one of the links Joe posted. I need to spell out all acronyms in the future.

    Lastly, there's a saying that goes something like, "never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by sheer stupidity". I theorize one of the Indian "prgrammers" smuggled in and stuffed in dorms, making the same salary as in India and only let out a 1/2-day on weekends, who do the bulk of the programming here in Silicon Valley, merely fucked up. (One in a while someone forgets to pay a bribe and these operations are busted. Once in a while.) Think Safari/Google/Apple/Etc. are too classy to hire illegal amateurs? Think again!

    ReplyDelete
  138. Gregaro7:46 AM

    https://nonzero.org/post/time-to-talk-one-state-solution

    ^^Interesting arguments for considering a one-state solution.

    ReplyDelete
  139. Ulrich9:52 AM

    Smartphones are now ‘the place where we live’, anthropologists say

    https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/10/smartphone-is-now-the-place-where-we-live-anthropologists-say

    Well that's not good!

    ReplyDelete
  140. Ulrich-

    It's essentially a device for turning people into buffoons. The success of this in the US has been astounding.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  141. Lorenzo11:02 AM

    “I am told that 50% of the reductions we have to make to get to net zero are going to come from technologies that we don’t yet have. That’s just a reality." This is denialism. https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/16/half-of-emissions-cuts-will-come-from-future-tech-says-john-kerry

    ReplyDelete
  142. Lorenzo-

    Has Kerry managed to calculate the depth to which we have plunged our heads up our asses? This wd seem to be more relevant data.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  143. And let’s finish off the week, as we usually do, with some funny Karens. It’s obvious from the first video that many Karens can’t drive and will stop their car to pee literally anywhere. LOL!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgsX7pyOLb8

    The second video shows mainly our pugnacious loud-mouthed male Karens, the Darrens. They only are to be found here in our nasty, pugnacious Dysfunctional States of America, the world’s biggest comedy show. Enjoy.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFboqV07kaI

    ReplyDelete
  144. I noticed earlier praise being offered in memory of late anthropologist Marshall Sahlins. May I join the paean? Marshall was my major advisor and mentor when I was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. Indeed, I would not be an anthropologist today without his direct influence. What does that mean? Sahlins was the greatest member in a group of anthropologists which emphasized (above all else) "culture" as a system of symbols that could not be reduced to anything else, such as political economy or psychology. The group included Victor Turner, David Schneider, and Clifford Geertz. What can this perspective offer to the understanding of decline? Mainly this: That the declinist script has already been written by American society itself, and appears, in its earliest form, in the statements of the founders themselves They knew -- as early as 1810 -- that things were not going well, and that democracy could not be sustained, except in cartoon form, with the advent of capitalist hucksterism. I think Sahlins would agree with me in recommending a recent book by Dennis Rasmussen, "Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders" (Princeton, 2021.) You will find in this book a cultural model of decline that is nearly coincident with the founding of the country. Happy Reading! Charles "The Wafer Anthropologist" Nuckolls (P.S. If you're interested in knowing about Sahlins' connection with The Second City comedy team in Chicago, and with Saturday Night Live, let me know.)

    ReplyDelete
  145. Charles-

    Lucky you! Great influences. Meanwhile, the Founders' disapptment w/the American expt has been documented extensively; I think I wrote abt it in DAA, altho I can't remember. John Adams et al. even began to contemplate a return to monarchy. Benjamin Rush, the Philadelphia physician, predicted the nation wd collapse in an "orgy of selfishness," wh/is what we've been witnessing for a # of decades now. (He left out stupidity as an additional factor, but maybe we were a tad smarter then. That discussion had to wait for H.L. Mencken, 100 yrs later.)

    mb

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  146. James Allen6:25 PM

    After reading the contribution from Charles Nuckolls regarding Dennis Rasmussen’s Fears of a Setting Sun, I googled that title. I discovered that Rasmussen conducted an interview on 3/321 with someone from the Commonwealth Club of California. It was recorded by C-SPAN. Here:

    https://www.c-span.org/video/?509644-1/fears-setting-sun

    ReplyDelete
  147. Noura7:49 PM

    Alex – Thanks for sharing the video on Gore Vidal. I haven’t read any of his books but based on this video, he was definitely someone who understood what America is truly about. He reminds me of George Carlin because he didn’t mince words and he had wicked sense of humor. So many American great minds are being replaced by childish and immature figures like Trump and Elon Musk. That too is part of the decline.

    Tesla's Ongoing China Crisis Is A Threat To Its Aggressive Growth Plans
    https://seekingalpha.com/article/4428983-teslas-china-crisis-has-become-a-fight-for-survival

    ReplyDelete
  148. Interesting interview with the author of a study of who exactly was involved in the January 6 attack in Washington. Main motivation of the dominantly educated, employed, white, male technocratic and managerial participants: The Great Replacement idea from the extreme right. That Blacks and Hispanics are gaining rights at the expense of whites.

    https://youtu.be/dskVval50AE

    ReplyDelete
  149. Cosmo Como8:23 PM

    When you return to the US do you think border guards will ask you
    if you were responsible for this misdeed?
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/donald-trumps-blog-crashed-posted-085137310.html

    ReplyDelete
  150. Cosmo-

    At this pt, 0 will surprise me. Altho truth be told, I didn't know the poor shmuck even *had* a blog.

    Dan D-

    Thanks for ref. This upends a lot of stereotypes.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  151. Wafers (and others) pls note: reminder: as I will be in DC next wk, celebrating the 7th Annual Wafer Summit Mtg w/local Wafers and Waferettes, this blog will be closed during May 20-26. Pls don't post during that time. Thank you.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  152. Hardy3:14 PM

    "Hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein for the ideas is the new reading Playboy for the articles."

    Bill Gates becomes a bigger douche bag w each passing week!


    https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-gave-bill-gates-advice-on-how-to-end-toxic-marriage-sources-say

    ReplyDelete
  153. Hardy-

    A hero to millions, to me he's been a naive, childish douchebag from the get-go, wh/has 0 to do with his sexual escapades. Frankly, I don't give a damn who(m) he pokes.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  154. Art Baker8:19 PM

    Can you see the potential FREE advertising for MB and Waferism?
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/reagan-foundation-demands-trump-train-201306590.html

    ReplyDelete
  155. Nadine Bupkis9:26 PM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YapmWpPO2AM

    Something really funny from Bill Maher; he makes fun of woke idiocy.

    ReplyDelete
  156. Art-

    Not a bad idea. If you cd contact them for me, and/or send them a photoshopped pic of me in a MAGA hat, that wd be swell. (Tell them I'm a Trump fan, but don't tell them why.)

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  157. You are right the elites in this country are trash.
    Black, white, conservative or liberal. They all disgust me.
    https://youtu.be/9EC01mzfdVg

    ReplyDelete
  158. Mo-

    Clearly, they need to be beaten severely and then thrown on a dung heap.

    Nadine-

    Ditto, what I said to Mo.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  159. Anonymous7:37 AM

    MB said, Gore did a review of DAA in 2006, but I was not able to locate it online. (I think the review was part of a larger article on American decline.)


    https://www.countercurrents.org/us-vidal270106.htm

    ReplyDelete
  160. Glower7:57 AM

    "Nearly 12,000 years ago, an unknown people built stone buildings and towering pillars at a site in Turkey called Göbekli Tepe.

    In my new article for @palladiummag, I argue why Göbekli Tepe shows us that civilization is much older than we thought"

    https://palladiummag.com/2021/05/17/why-civilization-is-older-than-we-thought/

    Absolutely fascinating article on Gobekli Tepe....

    ReplyDelete
  161. Radler8:39 AM

    The Greens go from "EVs are good for the planet" to ethnic cleansing in just a few easy steps!

    https://www.euronews.com/amp/2021/04/23/portuguese-village-suffers-the-high-cost-of-low-carbon-energy

    ReplyDelete
  162. Anon-

    Many thanks, but in the future check in w/a real handle, not 'Anon'.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  163. Galway, Ireland-based British exile and author Paul Kingsnorth has begun a series of essays—'The Abbey of Misrule'—exploring the breakdown of Western civilization and what might come next. Well worth the read for Wafers:

    https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/

    ReplyDelete
  164. NEW: New fossil fuel projects must be stopped immediately to meet climate goals, IEA says.

    You read that right. And this will not happen.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/new-fossil-fuel-projects-must-be-stopped-to-meet-climate-goals-iea-says

    ReplyDelete
  165. More proof our way of being in ‘merica is unfit (unworthy) for human habitation.

    JEFFERSON COUNTY 12-year-old bicyclist killed in collision with vehicle
    https://denverpost-co-app.newsmemory.com/?publink=352da1d3d_1345d7a

    “He left home to get a treat and never came back.”

    ReplyDelete
  166. Alessandro2:32 PM

    Narrative Napalm
    Malcolm Gladwell’s apologia for American butchery
    Noah Kulwin, May 17
    The Baffler
    https://thebaffler.com/latest/narrative-napalm-kulwin

    Solid review of what may be Malcom Gladwell's most glib and morally poisonous book yet.

    ReplyDelete
  167. Dr. Berman,
    Well, since the blog shall be shut down this weekend and we’ll be missing them, I figured I’d throw in a Karen encore.
    You really have to laugh at these pathetic losers. The Karens are ugly, disheveled, and vulgar. The male Karens are filled with testosterone and just itching for a fight. And, Doctor, as you once said at a televised book signing, “These are your neighbors. They borrow sugar from you.”
    Let’s enjoy! LOL!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alFyDxF81K0

    ReplyDelete
  168. Good discussion on current happenings in Israel: https://www.reddit.com/r/lostgeneration/comments/nfdgx4/democracy_is_when_you_bomb_hospitals_destroy/ BTW this is where I definitively get off. To think I was, at one time, planning to convert and move there as a way to get out of the USA. I eventually realized I'd have to profess to believe in far too many absurd things. And be A-OK with the current happenings.

    Radler - good article. In my area, "Silicon Valley", there's no shortage of huge SUVs with a slight electric assist, with little badges all over them about how "green" they are. If you wanna see green, suggest to the well-to-do captains of such land yachts that they ride a bike - they'll turn green around the gills.

    ReplyDelete
  169. Noura7:16 PM

    Hackers behind Colonial Pipeline attack received $90 million in bitcoin before shutting down
    https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/18/colonial-pipeline-hackers-darkside-received-90-million-in-bitcoin.html

    What Is Ransomware? - If You Don’t Know, Now You Know | The Daily Show
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt-62h7ZR8s
    “After a ransomware hack devastated the East Coast’s gasoline supply, Trevor takes a look at what ransomware is, how it works and why the only solution is to go on airplane mode.”

    Why societies collapse | Jared Diamond
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IESYMFtLIis
    16:50 Resolution of an unsustainable course of action will take either of two forms:
    1. Either we resolve these non-sustainable time fuses in pleasant ways of our own choice by taking remedial action
    2. Or else these conflicts are going to get settled in unpleasant ways not of our choice – namely by war, disease, or starvation.

    ReplyDelete
  170. Cosmo Como8:00 PM

    This is truly strange. Many die daily from drug overdoses, yet the
    authorities are still debating about humane methods for killing
    prisoners. If they were simply released into American slums, they
    would be dead in a few hours.
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/return-firing-squads-shows-death-180009780.html

    ReplyDelete
  171. Noura-

    This looks interesting:

    https://www.amazon.com/Headed-Into-Abyss-Story-Future/dp/0578594110/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TNSPVMMFJYW1&dchild=1&keywords=headed+into+the+abyss&qid=1621383062&s=books&sprefix=headed+into+the+abyss%2Cstripbooks%2C203&sr=1-1

    alex-

    Consider how lame Schmiden's response is to Israeli war crimes.

    Alessandro-

    Gladwell is one of the great charlatans of our time.

    Gunnar-

    Gross. Only in America.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  172. A voice from the trenches of a collapsing behemoth-

    https://twitter.com/StefWilliams25/status/1394155862441275394

    If only this could be done with the rotting carcass. I never tire of this video, so many layers of meaning in 2 minutes-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6CLumsir34&t=9s

    ReplyDelete
  173. @Alex,
    Yeah, the curious uptick in SUVs is something I started to notice after 2008— especially amongst the professional classes.
    To me, there is few a more potent symbol of professional liberal class hypocrisy and self indulgence, than the purchasing of a SUVs, expecially foreign made hybrid ones; In that, you got your NAFTA, your "tech will solve everything" religion and the good old american value of consumption to excess.

    ReplyDelete
  174. Pastrami and Coleslaw10:10 PM

    I'll be on copious doses of pastrami, possibly with coleslaw in order to survive the pause in the blog. I hope all WAFers in DC will have fun at Loeb's or where ever they wish to go. For some fun, see:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb1w_qoioOk

    Having Janet Flanner there is even better.

    Someone please show me a show like that on the TV these days...

    ReplyDelete
  175. Pastrami-

    These breaks can be hazardous. Last time, several people went completely bonkers. It does make a case for needle drugs.

    mb

    ReplyDelete
  176. Nadine Bupkis12:10 AM

    Brian,

    The term "sport utility vehicles" is an oxymoron. If you're driving a vehicle for sport, it has no utility. And in any case, people drive SUVs to show off; they're engaging in a huge dick measuring contest, but with cars instead of dicks. It's more narcissism, more beating off, and wholly American.

    Also...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2doNbD3-iEM

    This Karen has to be seen to be believed. Then again, I suspect half of Americans think exactly like she does.

    ReplyDelete
  177. Dr. Berman—and "Meat Log"—regarding the Cleveland woman facing an assault charge, I think we should not rule out one possibility behind what "initially led to the beef between the two women”: The beef itself.

    I say this because I once saw two Armenian ladies almost come to blows with each other over the last remaining rotisserie chicken at a Los Angeles Costco on Christmas eve.

    Wonder if there's a holiday coming up!

    ReplyDelete
  178. Joe, Nadine-

    Call me crazy, but I love those Karens!

    mb

    ReplyDelete