Weak Coup

It wasn't that long ago my inbox was filled with dire warnings of a Trump coup, perhaps an armed uprising and even civil war. I was advised to form a resistance committee prepared for street fighting. These romantic imaginings had the forces for Good standing firm against the Brownshirt hordes. Besides the obvious question of fight for what? Defend capitalist "democracy" and "the rule of law"? Defend the Democratic Party victor Joe Biden with my life? (Don't think so) we have to ask: doesn't this fear of a fascist takeover spring from the same irrational place as Q Anon? Is the divorce from reality now universal? Those wild speculations were built on imagining Trump forces as an exponentially magnified version of the guys with flak vests and "assualt-style" weapons that showed up to "protect" rallies in various towns around the country. Some were "mobilized" here in Montana, where they managed to get their pictures on the front page of newspapers and local tv blurbs. No doubt they were pumped up about the opportunity to display their toys and virility and to be part of a patriotic brotherhood of sorts. To have a mission, to find some meaning in a chaotic world. But as Trump threw his tantrum these guys went with the vote count. I imagine their militia networks were saying "stand by", waiting for exactly the kind of provocation certain Lefties were hoping to organize (but thankfully failed). So instead of potentially violent confrontation, we saw Trump lawyers jump into action and the whole "uprising" fizzle spectacularly. Of course. I suspect those who identify as Antifa are bummed, but it was so predictable that I am now wondering: are the folks who sent the emails evaluating and analyzing their action?

The Structure of Experience

Poet Anne Winters describes "a change in the structure of experience", a phrase which I believe helps us think about the rise in various populisms, now morphing into ever more radicalized political expressions. Liberals naturally bemoan the trend. And they are correct in pointing out the danger to their precious stability. But these new radicals are the direct result of liberalism's ill-considered embrace of accelerated techno-capitalism. There has been a qualitative shift, a jarring speed-up in the "structure of experience" and that blind, euphoric optimism that social affects could be managed through science and expertise has proven disastrous. It is an ancient story, the socerer's apprentice, Pandora's Box, Faustus, Fankenstein or Icarus. Drunk on confidence that the way forward is clear, just mix modern finance with technological wizardry and everyone will enjoy the fruits of our special genius. What could possibly go wrong? But the cry of our age is Slow The Fuck Down! All authentic politics, left or right stems from this one desperate plea. When the inner workings, the algorithims and physics and economic formulas are beyond our comprehension, multiplying at rates impossible, to absorb, rational response will slip over to the irrational, the illiberal, the fantastical and finally violent reaction. So when we hear these warnings from the status quo about the threats to law and order we can ony shake our heads in wonder. You are just now realizing the danger? Really? It's not just the whining of us old idiots. We joke that young people can help us program our devises, help us install the latest software, de-code the crazy jargon, but they are suffering their own special hell. Immersed in instant media and the frantic flux of cyber life, they are the guinea pigs for this profit driven experiment. The crisis of meaning has been delayed by expanded credit and mountains of things, stuff, fluff, noise and games. But as it unravels expect wierd. And pain.

Why Not Tents?

The picture in the Missoula Current of volunteers erecting a new camp for the houseless is both/at once terrifying and heartening. Such is the state of humanity in late capitalism. A combination of outrage and empathy pressures the system to find a "solution", however temporary, to The Problem ( public relations disaster, property values, public health, define it according to your ideology) Marshalling effort, technology and readily available materials, an instant, efficient camp is erected. This scene is enacted across the globe as humanitarian agencies erect massive refugee camps for the displaced and dispossessed. "We know it's not the answer" say the "celebrating housing advocates. "The camp wouldn't be necessary in a perfect world" writes the well-meaning liberal reporter. Migrants press at the edge of camps that become permanent. or catch on fire. Or get raided by fascists. Because a "perfect world", where everyone is housed, is so unreasonable, so utopian and idealistic. How could it possibly be? The Poor Will Always Be With Us is the Christian mantra. A world divided into winners and losers goes the neoliberal capitalist mantra. "The answer" is too far out of bounds to contemplate so we "celebrate" the tents and porta potties. Donate items. Pitch in to help. Because you can't have frozen people dying in the streets of the wealthiest nation in the history of the planet. That too would be unacceptable. People would start to question "the system", adding to that growing list of "systemic" problems (racism, inequality, hunger, etc) What the starry eyed call injustice. And so we call on charity, that tiny kernel of selflessness, altruism, sympathy or philanthropy (possible tax exemptions?), latent in the late-capitalist heart, to relieve misery in the present moment. Not to be confused with "mutual aid", the material exchange being one-sided. But truly heartfelt. And terrifying. Drop a coin in the Salvation Army bucket. Meet the eyes of the freezing bell ringer. It's not going to get better.

Now What?

We are told by the new New Left (DSA, Jacobin, etc) that power runs through the State. In her piece in The Baffler titled Seize and Resist, Thea Riofrancos writes: "the state has the capacities to reorient economic activity in the here and now. Public investment, democratized finance, stringent regulations, public and worker ownership, and trade and industrial policy all have a role to play in building a democratic, low-carbon future. In the hands of social movements, labor unions, and allied state actors, these tools can fashion a new world out of the dying old one." The age old question is to what degree is the State constrained by Capital? In the liberal view, it is contested territory, subject to the will of the people. You know, democracy. Government, courts, that sort of thing. It is to this end that leftists like Riofrancos are being mobilized to push for progressive policy and personel in the next administration. This "through the State" theory of change was ratified when this same Left went all in for Bernie running on the Democratic Party ticket. Now, even though their guy lost, they are married to it and must follow the logic to its end. Build a bloc, a popular front, mobilize "the masses" and the "working class", lobby your "representatives", shift the Party, awaken the populous. This all assumes a certain concept of the democratic citizen in a stable yet flexible civic order. Or of a capitalist class in panic mode, willing to temporarily concede a bit of power to salvage the system. And yes, in a rational world they would be plenty panicked. But we just had four years of Donald Trump. You don't get to jump back and forth Through the Looking Glass at will. Biden and his administration and the NY Times and Jacobin all want us to have faith in the illusion, in 1776, in the New Deal, in the Great Society. It is a huge leap of faith.

Deep Green

I spent an afteroon with Derek Jensen, Lierre Keith, Max Wilbert and some of the other DGR crew ( an internet fundraiser) and left with the same ambivalence I always experience hearing their philosophy. They spend a lot of time critiquing "bright greens", which seems to include anyone who believes technology can play a role in confronting the destruction of the biosphere. Like the filmaker Gibbs, they deride "renewables" as a false god because they use resources and energy in their production. They point to capitalism as a cause of the dstruction but then equate that with civilization. As for solutions, they gleefully and patiently wait for civilization to collapse, while in the meantime they attempt to protect wild places. They may be right. They are serious people who have been at this a long time. But I feel there is almost a millenialist fervor replacing rigor when it comes to their analysis, a premise that humans are a virus; for instance, they dismiss agriculture out of hand. All agriculture. Along with my comrade Sandy Krolick, they see the development of agriculture as the fork in the road which led to our current convergence of crises. Again, no doubt that was a historical fork, but what is the point of tracing one's doom back to point A or B? I had this nagging suspicion that none of the people who spoke so hopefully about civilizational collapse had children. I'm all about resistance but I don't see how a dark vs bright Green antagonism helps clarify the task or point a way forward.

The Cure

The dominant capitalist meme against Covid lockdowns is that "the cure" is worse than the disease. In this telling, the economic slowdown caused by lockdown is worse than having people die. This has always been and continues to be the dominant logic of capitalism, but it has rarely been expressed so succinctly. This exact same logic is applied to the climate emergency: yes, millions will die, but this is preferable to an economic slowdown. Where the comparison fails is with the fact that the pandemic is not an existential crisis, as is global heating. Still, we need an explanation for those who refuse the mask and the science behind both Covid and climate change. Tad Delay uses a left- Lacanian framework to approach the problem of obstinate reaction: "...we are subjects who desire, not subjects who desire to know … and only occasionally does that desire attach to a desire for knowledge’. Nor of course is it heroism or rigour that distinguishes a clearer from a less clear thinker about evidence: it is often a ‘crisis’ that ‘creates the certain mental conditions by which they [people] can transition into a different way of thinking about something’." A crisis. A rupture that upends the desire to fit in, to be pleased with oneself, to say the right thing, to follow the cult.

The Libidinal Economy of Trumpism

The left populists such as Thomas Frank have decided that trumpism's appeal is strictly materialistic, that he basically capitalized on the precariousness of the white male worker abandoned by Democratic policy. And I'm sure there is plenty of regional truth to this narrative. But it is hardly the whole story. Yes, certain US workers have been left behind by neoliberalism and the global economy. Wages have been stagnant forever and inequality has hit absurd levels. There is no doubt resentment with "coastal, liberal elites" and other economic forces are in play. But what I see missing from this narrative is the psychosexual aspect of Trump worship, that force operating at the sub or unconscious level of desire. To ignore the autoerotic and aesthetic elements at play in the conservative psyche is to miss a critical aspect of budding neofascism. Many others have noted how fascism operates in the symbolic register and I am suggesting Trump plays a twisted Father role for those fascinated by sexual domination and cruelty. Violence and its fantasy lurk an instant away in every gesture of the Dear Leader, in the mocking smile and sarcastic tone. As Horkheimer observed, what activates the masses is "not to eat but to obey". One sees in the tightly gathered rallies a breathless titillation, an orgiastic release of the repressed that every authoritarian demagogue has triggered in his rapt audience.

Another Great Awakening

Nothing cements "democratic" capitalism's hegemony like a contentious election. "You must vote" is the mantra distributed and recieved across the entire society, insinuating all into an elaborate and dangerous illusion of self-rule. Reporting on the expanded voter turn-out, liberal commentators breathlessly describe a "new democratic awakening". Rather than awakening, I suggest it is a mass hysteria and delusion, followed by euphoria or grief. And that it predictably undermines all the work radicals have been doing the last four years, teaching about capitalism's rationality and methods for reproduction. But here we are, yet again, wondering who will win. What change we will see. Yada yada. The only possible bright spot was Trump invoking the spectre of socialism and exploding open the liberal consensus that has dominated since the Cold War. Particularly pathetic is the universal chant that "BIPOC people must vote" as if, after all the discussion around systemic, structural racism, liberation is a matter of individual action.As if there is some candidate, up or down any ballot, who will describe the structure. As if there is someone who will represent the forces of justice. It is the ritual which reinforces and reproduces the very system which oppresses, and yet it is to the ritual we must submit. It is what unites us, "guides us". Forces identified as Left and Right, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, will all be out in force to protect the process in their own passionate and dedicated way. Count Every Vote. After all, each one cost an insane amount of money.

No Bullshit

The pro-Trump slogan "No More Bullshit" perfectly exemplifies the total and absolute incoherance of today's conservatism. It is the thing you call for when you are incapable of articulating actual grievances. Or are too cowardly to openly declare your xenophobic, nationalist racism. For those promoting this vacuous expression, Trump stands in opposition to all the things which...well...just aren't right...are in some way corrupt and un-American...veiled and obscure...but subverive. Academia, with all its jargon, science with all its studies, politicians (except Trump) with all their lies, the media with all its fakery, antifa with all their hoodies. Liberal elites (except for Trump) with all their pretensions and "isms": feminism, sexism, socialism, etc... All the data and facts that runs counter to "common sense" and tradition. These are all "bullshit". End of argument. You know who wasn't bullshitting? Ted Kaczyinsky. The una-bomber. Much of what he had to say in his manifesto was as incoherent as conservative ideology ( far better at math than psychology) but his critique of "technological- industrial society" was pretty spot on. Unchecked, this Promethian drive will leave nothing for the future. Capitalist Man is raging over the landscape in a catastrophic fury, and while sending letter bombs is not a strategy, something better happen. Soon. In a recent interview, Andreas Malm agreed with yours truly that the Breakfree action of 2016 was the most promising example of what needs to happen on a giant scale. Far from perfect in execution, but the right path. Ende Galende. Extinction Rebellion. Student Strike. All in one.

Never Work

Electoral politics is a contest to see who can promise the most jobs for Americans. In the presidential debates, one candidate will protect existing fossil fuel jobs while another will create "millions" of new renewable energy jobs. To sell their Green New Deals, campaigners must always include these same promises of jobs, jobs and more jobs. The DSA ecosocialists want to focus energies on a Federal Job Guarantee for a displaced workforce. Americans are traumatized by work. Pathetically, for many it is a thing which gives life meaning. The Situationist International was in fierce opposition to this valorization of work. Raoul Vaneigem noted how the "cult of work is honoured from Cuba to China...wherever submission is demanded, the stale fart of ideology makes its headway, from the Arbeit Macht Frei of the concentration camps to the homolies of Henry Ford and Mao Tse-Tung." My point is that there is an ecological problem with all this demented love of jobs and work as well. All those workers with those millions of new jobs are going to spend their paychecks on tons of useless, earth destroying crap. Most of which will end up in the atmosphere, the oceans or the landfill. Work is the promise and the threat, the carrot and the stick, that Capital uses to control the worker. No work = no money = misery. A form of tyranny libertarians never seem to notice, by the way. But what we will need to survive our current confluence of crises is fewer jobs and less work and less consumption. And more life. The late David Graeber pointed out how most of those jobs were "bullshit" in the first place, just as a giant part of the workforce in China is kept busy building ghost cities and superfluos infrastructure. Of course there are necessary tasks that need to be accomplished. And work can be creative and fulfilling. When profit is abolished, work will be rational and a job will be a small part of life

Productive Apocalypse

I have long argued that (unfortunately) things sometimes need to get worse before they get better. It is in this sense that Trump the disrupter has succeeded in shredding many of the fantasy illusions Americans have never truly had challenged before. This process is what Paul Butler, African American author of Chokehold, calls "productive apocalypse". Along those lines, the current brouha over a Trump coup is "productive" in the way it is forcing to the surface uncomfortable questions elites would prefer stay repressed and buried. There won't be any coup attempt. All the same, the very notion lays bare the ugly truth that we are just another bannana republic with lipstick. Armed camo knuckleheads roam the streets protecting our liberty. Their ass clown leader retweets nonsense about Bin Laden to those still hoping to find the weapons of mass destruction. No doubt people will get hurt in isolated, useless confrontations and the aftermath of a "peaceful transfer of power" is going to be a full display of uniquely American wierdness. But as Mao put it: "Everything under heaven is utter chaos. The situation is excellect." What the Left needs needs to figure out is how to describe capitalist "democracy"; that is, to what degree, if any, it is still useful for creating positive change. All too often, well-meaning leftists tell us we live in an oligarchy and then ask us to work for progressive legislation, all in the same sentence. They are pumped up about defending the mythologized "sacred" institutions and rule of law blah blah, instructing oppressed people that "the best thing you can do is vote", poking fun at the "patriots" while promoting their own nationalist fantasy. A stylized kubuki theatre of the absurd that is dissolving into discordant chaos as the band plays on.

Disobey

It was refreshing to come across a document-in-progress called the Glasgow Agreement, named for the city where the next UN COP will take place. Folks from the Global Ecosocialist Network have been discussing the types of opportunities this COP might present and the "agreement" presents a radical departure from past organizing and a new way forward. It also incorporates some new-old tactics which I have been promoting for some time. This is from the work of Erica Chenowith: "Second, contemporary movements tend to over-rely on mass dem-onstrations while neglecting other techniques—such as general strikes and mass civil disobedience—that can more forcefully disrupt a re-gime’s stability. Because demonstrations and protests are what most people associate with civil resistance, those who seek change are in-creasingly launching these kinds of actions before they have devel-oped real staying power or a strategy for transformation. Compared to other methods, street protests may be easier to organize or impro-vise on short notice. In the digital age, such actions can draw partici-pants in large numbers even without any structured organizing coali-tion to carry out advanced planning and coordinate communication.21But mass demonstrations are not always the most effective way of applying pressure to elites, particularly when they are not sustained over time. Other techniques of noncooperation, such as general strikes and stay-at-homes, can be much more disruptive to economic life and thus elicit more immediate concessions. It is often quiet, behind-the-scenes planning and organizing that enable movements to mobilize in force over the long term, and to coordinate and sequence tactics in a way that builds participation, leverage, and power.22 For the many contemporary movements organized around leaderless resistance, such capacities can be difficult to develop. Very possibly related to movements’ overemphasis on public dem-onstrations and marches is a third important factor: Recent movements have increasingly relied on digital organizing, via social media in par-ticular." They also call for a shift in focus; away from "institutional struggle" ( UN climate negotiators, governments,multi-national corps, etc) and towards direct action to disrupt fossil fuel infrastructure,"shift from symbolic disobedience in city centers" to the places of production. Andrea(s) Spreck lays out the case in an article from Waging Non-violence.

Deplorables

I truly hope "the best" have some conviction but it is increasingly obvious "the worst are filled with passionate intensity." As the social fabric is shredded, there will be a correspondening tendency for liberals to preach tolerance and understanding. But we should not tolerate intolerance. History is nothing if not a record of how quickly society can slide into barbarism and to assume civilty will somehow reign is both delusional and dangerous. Reactionaries don't want dialogue. They see it as weakness, the thing they despise above all else. Liberals owe Hillary Clinton an apology. She was endlessly castigated for the term "basket of deplorables" but as the images of armed militia thugs increase, as the racist, nationalist, nativist rhetoric grows louder, as the threats against the left grow more violent and extreme, we have to admit Hillary pegged it. This is Tea Party 2.0 replete with sophisticated weaponry, flags and fascist symbolism. It is irrational and passionate and way beyond resonable,civil debate- precisely because liberals have for too long prefered to ignore the signs and look away and wish away all conflict and confrontation. I heard the sentiment expressed at a vigil for RBG last night. It is New Age fantasy. Some will insist on trying to persuade and recruit the deplorables to the cause of human emancipation but given my experience here in the heart of Americanism, you would be wasting your breath. These people are damaged on so many levels and will do what the tribe asks. At a presentation this afternoon, Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson said they are asking people to mobilize en mass as the election results are released. He envisions chaos or worse. I have been insisting we need to heighten the contradictions and accelerate a rupture. For better or worse I may be granted my wish...

A Lasting Resentment

From my mailbox I extract the latest agitprop claiming that Steve Bullock accepted campaign contributions from "Hanoi Jane". Wow. You have to be of a certain age to even get the reference, but when Jane Fonda went to Hanoi in 1972 it opened a wound old cultural warriors can never, will never, heal. They will hate her till their dying breath while supporting a billionaire New York con man who got a deferment due to "bone spurs". Yeah right. The ultimate "Fortunate Son", totally clueless about the meaning of the lyrics. (shocker) Fonda never called our soldiers "losers and suckers" but she did correctly point out the US as an imperialist aggressor fighting revolutionaries trying to defend their own liberation. And getting their asses kicked, despite millions of tons of bombs and agent orange and napalm. I have no problem calling those soldiers who volunteered losers and suckers. Anyone with half a brain could see the injustice of supporting a corrupt regime and slaughtering peasants. Those who were drafted faced a horrific dilemma. Either way, so many came home damaged, physically, mentally, spiritually, and have yet to fully recover. Many ended their own lives, many glorify/ reify the experience and adopt it as a permanent marker of their identity. And live each day with a bitter hate for "Hanoi Jane".

Finger on the Pulse of America

Vindicated yet again, this time through an interview on NPR. David Green was talking to some ex-New Yorker now living in Sun City Arizona about her politics and she confirmed my suspicion (documented on this blog) that much of Trump's support comes from the fact that he is a great entertainer. The ex-New Yorker said she and her recently deceased husband ( two weeks ago "he just dropped dead") loved sitting around together and laughing hysterically at Trump's schtick, his comedy routine. They also loved that "he pisses people off"- according to this woman, a very New York thing. Which affirms my theory that it is the Donald's Rodney Dangerfield impersonation that most inspires loyalty. This is a woman who voted with the Democrats her whole life but she fell in love with the Trump Show. Green, trying hard not to condescend, kept asking if comedic brilliance was enough to qualify a person for the Presidency so she struggled to come up with another good reason: "He's a builder". Then she said there were "many, many people just like her" there in Sun City and I have no doubt this is true. When pressed, she said she was worried about "our cities"; the rioting and looting and anarchy ( code for shwartzers) that was consuming the places she used to enjoy shopping in, dining, the theater, etc.. Welcome to democratic capitalism. We miss Huntrt S Thompson and William Burroughs ( both great gun enthusiasts) and we miss Frank Zappa and Kurt Vonnegut and the list goes on. People who could capture the horror and obscenity, the grief and the terror, the fear and loathing of an underbelly that no longer cares to hide. Just go to UTube and dial up Rodney Dangerfield / Caddyshack and you will witness how Trump rose to power.

Great Awakening

The Group just listened to Michelle Alexander talk about mass incarceration and the new Jim Crow where at the end she hopes that American's can experience a "Great Awakening". I'm always a little skeptical at these vague, religious prescriptions for social change (there was an Enlightenment but that's a different story). Then I was reading a piece in the Atlantic on Q anon and the author was saying The Great Awakening is a big meme in that miliue as well. Then I started thinking: what if Michelle Alexander is Q ? Yes, there are events when great intellectural and cultural shifts occur, disruptions, ruptures, etc. often preceded by technological innovation. But given the ecological timeline and the new media landscape of memes and influencers, an Idea isn't going to sweep humnity to a new understanding- in time. And it certainly isn't going to convince the power elite to surrender their wealth and status and property.

Always Wrong

The thing that distiguishes the political majority here in my little community is that they are always wrong about everything. And the fact this does nothing to temper their trust in their opinions. If you just go back as far as the Sagebrush Rebellion days and Montana Militia, they were wrong about the cause of the demise of the local timber industry and about taxes and the Constitution. If you jump ahead to wolf and bear re-introduction, they were wrong about wolves coming into town to snatch children. During the invasion of Iraq they believed it was connected to 9/11 and that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. They were wrong about Sharia Law being imposed on our community by immigrants. They have been wrong about climate change and Obama's birth certificate and now they are wrong about the Covid virus. But always being wrong never deters them in the slightest from forming strong opinions and trusting them. Yesterday I did a little early grocery shopping and was glad to see the large notices on the window asking people to wear masks. But I was dismayed to watch the Proudly Ignorant climb out of their giant pick-up trucks, adjust their camo hats and then smirk as they saw the signs and those of us obeying the ask. Because these obese, slack jawed rubes know the pandemic is a hoax. As with all the issues I have listed, these local "patriots" have inside knowlege, a knowlege far superior to the kind you get from scientists or "experts". They have common sense. Common to their type, that is. In the other examples of "wrongness", these flag-waving morons are exasperating. But in the case of Covid and masks, they are threatening my life and the lives of my loved ones. If it is true that this is a type unable to ever learn anything, incapable of self-reflection and perfectly willing to risk my life to promote their ridiculous ideology, then we now have a REAL antagonism. And we can now easily identify the enemy.

Enough Rope

This post was going to be about the inevitibility of Trump hanging himself, given enough rope. And bringing the Grand Old Party down with him. But after hearing the report on NPR about the looting in Chicago, I think we can expand the syndrome beyond knucklehead "conservatives" and include the Black Lives protesters. According to the journalist, a group gathered after a police shooting of an armed black man ( a few of those in Chicago)inspired a night of looting. The Group, organized by Black Lives Matter Chicago, carried a banner which read: "Our Futures Have Been Looted From Us; Loot Back". The leader was interviewed and opined: "I don't care if somebody decides to loot...that's reparations." Now, maybe NPR got it all wrong. But if this is how it went down all I can do is shake my head and spit. Here, have some rope. I am not saying I have any moral objections to looting. But it is one shit tactic if you are trying to build a movement for social change. It's the lifestyle anarchist credo in all its absurd form. Hey, anybody can do what they want, like, diversity of tactics, man, like, whose streets? Our streets! Whose stuff on the store shelves? Our stuff! This slogan is really going to go over big out here in the Rocky Mountain west. Either these people lack the capacity to come up with a strategy AND ENFORCE IT or they just don't give a fuck. Looting is not the Revolution, it is not "reparations", it isn't "justice". It's idiotic. And sets the cause back who knows how far. Abolish The Police So We Can Grab Shit! Send IN the Social Workers when a black guy shoots a cop! They are as incoherent as the Trumpists, just not as dangerous. Let's see what poor Kamala Harris says.

Me

While bicycling yesterday, I saw a big sign in a yard that said "Only My Life Matters". On one level you have to admire the brutal honesty. Most people who have so completely assimilated and internalized capitalism's "Prime Directive" make some attempt to couch it in irony. Of course the person could be racist (like all of us, according to White Fragility) or he could just be a serious libertarian, we have both in our quiet community. The real question is, with gun sales going through the roof, which side will the person be on? This is when the "Friend/ Enemy" difference gets real.

Bring It

Another one of history's favorite themes: democracy vs totalitarianism. This one has lain dormant for a while; capitalism defeated communism and history ended, or so the story went. But with Bernie and others talking socialism, the new Cold Warriors have sprung into action, throwing down McCarthyite threats and invoking all the patriotic symbols at their disposal. What has been called the "culture wars" has now morphed into a deeper, hardened conflict best symbolized by the Virus Mask. If you read the subtext in Pompeo's latest speech or Trumps ratcheting rhetoric over China and de-regulation, if you understand the signalling the anti-maskers are doing over liberty and the "deep state", if you feel the tension around confederate monuments being torn down and "law and order" under fire and whiteness and all the rest, you understand very real battle lines are being drawn. Add to this tension a pandemic and economic crash and ecosystems coming apart at the seams...

I find it refreshing that Capital is displaying its profound unease after decades of triumphalist bravado. Because this multiple and ever-expanding crisis has finally forced the much needed confrontation between openly antagonistic forces and the battle is joined. Just as the Empire loves weak states but fears failed states, it also loves weak citizens but fears failed citizens; those unable to form coherent positions, unable to distinguish adversary from enemy, unable to articulate grievances or establish representation.

None of this appeared overnight. The liberal order has been eroding for some time, but at a pace that was made it more difficult to define or describe. Now everything is acclerated, mimicking the climte effects as they begin to cascade. "The worst are filled with passionate intensity..." but they have no plan. The Center cannot hold and "the situation is excellent".

Narrow Tactical Field

In Portland and other cities where BLM protests have continued and escalated, a debate has ensued over the age old, and frankly boring, "diversity of tactics". The "peaceful" protestors just want to demonstrate, ie.. march carrying signs, shouting tired slogans, giving tired speeches etc... The street fighting militants want to smash things, hurl things at police, be all badass in their black hoodies and gas masks. Each faction endlessly performs their role, assumes their identity, believes in their righteousness and correctness. And neither faction has accomplished much of anything.

Would anyone stop to evaluate their progress? Fuck that- grab a sign or grab a brick. These are the limits of the movement imagination, such as it is. "This is what democracy looks like", first as tragedy, then as farce.

The head of the NAACP whines that the radicals are trying to turn "his" protest around policing into an "anti-capitalist" agenda. Being a lover of Capital, he sees no connection. Antifa and Boogaloo Boys and Proud Boys and Black Bloc all dart through the streets smashing windows and setting fires because they hate all authority. Except their own.

The ideological rubble buries everyone involved and no one seems to consider disciplined mass civil disobedience, the one tactic that has actually accomplished a small degree of social change.

Brownshirts

History may not repeat itself but it definitely has some favorite themes it re-visits from time to time. A big favorite is a nation's cleansing of "the enemy within". At his patriotic 4th of July Spectacle, complete with displays of air power, Trump and Co. turned the dial way up on the culture war, but very specifically targeted "the Left". In his version, it is we who are totalitarian and we who wish to revise history. Of course, the whole "cancel culture" absurdity is true, is reactionary, and plays right into the hands of the neo-fascists Trump is dog whistling to. And yes, we would like to revise history curriculum as it is taught in schools so that it more closely reflected empirical research. Let's talk about Andrew Jackson!

But that was all bluster TV shit. The scary, barely veiled threat was actually to Bernie socialists and the movements that are talking about real structural change. History has plenty of examples of this bloody tactic enabling demagogues to hold onto power. And he probably could rouse a little militia of patriot brownshirts to start patrolling the campuses and progressive enclaves. No shortage of deplorables out there. Even the good white citizens of South Dakota who cheered at his race and red baiting had their deplorable on. It is not hard to imagine (read a little Hannah Arendt) these folks scratching their heads a few years from now and asking: How could such horrors have taken place? What the heck got into us?

The signalling Trump (and S.Dakota's perky little governor- keep your eye on that one) did round "desecrating monuments" was particularly pernicious- he is obviously getting desperate and his instinct has always been to go low. But I suspect he is digging a hole he won't get out of. The covid and police shooting took all the wind from his sails. History is also moving in some other directions and rousting the Klan or holding hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities is not really a plan.

A More Inclusive Capitalism

The combination of the pandemic along with the shooting of yet another unarmed black person ( especially in the time of Trump) has lifted the veil and exposed an ugly tumor. Much of capitalism's hegemonic appeal lies in the ability to appear flexible, malleable, reformable. Willing to respond to complaints and come up with kinder, gentler approaches to accumulating profit.

It is the Left's job to expose these efforts as superficial band-aids, as palliatives designed to treat symptoms while leaving the cancer intact. And in moments of crisis such as this, true colors are exposed. It is disappointing then to see the DSA fully embrace electoral politics as the means for reform, but not surprising. Having jumped on the Bernie bus there was no way out and now they are entangled in a marriage of convenience with the Democratic Party. Here is how Steve Tarzynski, founding member of DSA puts it:

"...the 2020 presidential campaign opens prospects for health-care system reform."

A full embrace of Andre Gorz "non-reformist reforms" and yet another long march down that humiliating and self-defeating road. Joe Biden. Then there is the Jacobin crowd, fully aligned with DSA in its theoretical underpinnings, telling us we must:

"..begin to pivot toward forms of electoral mobilization crucial to success in the fall."

Only now we will have more policies and processes in place to make sure our workplaces are more sensitive to POC and the police will have to cool down the "warrior" jets for a little while as we return to a more inclusive, enlightened normal. Maybe even a kinder heathcare system to handle the next wave of casualties. How to squander a crisis in one easy lesson.

Climate Justice and Policing

The call to "de-fund the police" has gained momentum as the protests grow into a second week. The demand includes taking the funds that most city and state budgets apply to policing and divert a portion of those funds to social provision- "community based programs" such as affordable housing,food, arts, you name it. This is the justice piece, the re-distributive piece, and commentators are calling on climate justice advocates to support these demands in solidarity.

What could possibly be problematic with this approach? Well...I believe it actually sends the dangerous message that fixing the climate crisis is simply a matter of budget priorities. That there is an equivalence between this "social justice" issue (racist cops) and the climate justice issue. This is how Alec Connon puts it in a piece for Commondreams:

"Climate activists could do well to remember that every dollar we spend on funding the police is a dollar not spent on mental health programs, social workers, rehabilitation programs, education, the arts, and funding local Green New Deal programs"

See the equivalence? In actuality, Bernie's GND proposal was 19 trillion dollars and we all know that is just the tip of the iceberg. Even he failed to articulate the radical change that will be required, which has nothing to do with moving a few dollars around in city budgets. Alec explains how city budgets are "moral documents" but this entire framework is the liberal vision of a kinder, gentler "democratic" capitalism with progressive taxation and moral budgets. This vision falls far short of what will be required and you might as well be straight-up honest (radical)about it. The climate clock keeps ticking as the protesters keep marching.

All the talk of "Just Transition" and "non-reformist reforms" simply dances around this question of honesty in messaging. Those better-budgeting types of demands make those of us calling for structural change look like bomb throwers, unrealistic and unhelpful. But we are just being honest.

Biden's Inconvenient Truth

Every once in a while even a gaffe-prone professional politician like Joe Biden can stumble on a truth, even if sub-consiously. Of course he has been forced to walk back his comment about Black Voters, but really, what meaning do we ascribe to a Black Trump supporter? Would she be on board with MAGA because of religious faith? Because she supports tax cuts for the rich? Because she is a climate denier or xenophobe? Maybe she is just down with the "free market shrink government" dogma, but whatever the case, she has little concern for the collective well-being of African Americans.

Of course, as Biden found out, if you are White, you can't say this in the fiercely guarded public sphere. The Identity/ Cultural Appropriation police will be all over your ass in a minute and you will find yourself embroiled in all manner of convoluted theoretical mendacity.

Trump could proudly claim that if you don't vote for him you ain't White and every one would just roll their eyes and sigh. He could ask Clarence Thomas to shine his shoes and still win re-election. But dare to suggest some Black MAGA stooge is alienated and estranged and watch out.

Coughing Crusaders

I already did a post on the stupids but now we have video clips of corona refusniks ( those who believe safety precautions interfere with their freedom)purposefully coughing on store employees,starting fights, being extra assholey in general. Of all the things they could be upset about- being exploited, having their planet decimated, living in a shithole, etc- they choose such "burdensome" regulations as having to wear a mask to freak out over. Because liberty. Because that's why their life sucks.

I was watching author Arundhati Roy express her surprise that the Right seems to have all the passion right now and wondering how we generate such passion on the Left. And I was reminded of the Yeats poem The Second Coming where he says "the best lack all conviction while the worst are filled with passionate intensity". I'm not sure you can match "the worst" in passion nor that this is a worthwhile goal. My advice would be to make sure they have plenty of rope to hang themselves with and plenty of matches to set themselves alight with.

My advice to employees who might have to deal with these damaged freaks is carry some pepper spray. I say damaged because I have lived and worked around and amongst these people for decades. Jingoistic nationalism/patriotism is their fall-back ideology,they are driven by resentment and fear of the Other, and they are the "working class" the Left keeps hoping they can organize- someday.Their fathers were damaged by Vietnam, they were damaged by Iraq and Afghanistan and all they can do is live out the lie. They have grey goatees and camo hats, they put private property signs everywhere, they love their country but fear their government and spend weekends sighting in their rifles. They are willing to die for capitalist "democracy" and The Constitution ( which they are doing in droves thanks to obesity, diabetes, oxycotin, suicide, etc) they love any kind of machine that tears up the landscape and emits pollution, and they love Montana. Bitter? Perhaps.

Authority

I was listening to an interview with the mother of Ahmaud Arbery where she describes her reaction to the news of her son's death. She was told he was shot in a burglary attempt and she said she believed the officers because "she was taught to believe authority". Mind you, these are white police in a police force known for corruption in the Deep South. And the black woman trusts in their "authority". This is a problem.

In every account of Joe Biden's "comeback" over Bernie Sanders, we are told the "Democratic Party establishment" rallied and consolidated. For some strange reason the fact that Jim Clyburn, the House Majority Whip, endorsed Biden, thereby turning the tide, is never mentioned. Clyburn, whose father was a fundamentalist minister, has a great deal of "authority" in the southern black community and black voters fell in behind him. The black Christian church is also an "authority" which exerts tremendous sway in that community. Unfortunately, these tend to be conservative "liberal" voices opposed to any talk around democratic socialism. Bill Clinton liberal.

My point is, the DSA and others advocating an electoral route to power need to face this conundrum head on, rather than ignoring and deflecting it. They go on and on about racial inequality but as with every "community", there are internal divisions, as well as deep-seated, ingrained pathologies that cannot be ignored. The "Establishment" comes in all shapes and colors.

The news coverage around Latin America is always problematic but there is a very disturbing trend when it comes to Venezuela. Media of every stripe concentrates on the country's inflation and political turmoil, treating it the same way it does Palestine or Haiti or other places plagued with stagnant economies. They are condemned to the category of "basket cases", inept banana republics mired in mismanagement and corruption. Just needing to embrace America's help and guidance. If they would only fall in line, they could receive assistance instead of sanctions. They could become part of the constructive global community. If only they were reasonable.

"Death Blow" ?

It is possible, as Slavoj Zizek predicted a while ago, that covid 19 could be a serious blow to capitalism. But it will not be the end of the reign of Capital. It is important to separate the two; the "ism" can morph radically while the force which is Capital continues on its merry way. That is, the religion and ideology and cultural production machine which is the "ism" is definitely facing some serious challenges. There are plenty of folks who are sick to death of the savage rollercoaster which (especially this neoliberal version of) capitalism has subjected them to. The obscene inequality that the pandemic has exposed, as well as the fuck you bail-out for mega investment banks and corporations definitely has people grumbling and griping. Young people loaded with debt facing a shit job market must be wondering what kind of idiocy their Econ 101 professors were pushing.

Capitalist "democracy" and its management, euphemistically referred to as "politics", are also under a great deal of strain. Under the best of times this carnivalesque spectacle is a difficult sale. With Nation States competing for most dysfunctional morgue and states within nations openly sacrificing their "citizens" for the economy, nobody trusts anybody. Fake news and fake humans.

But this is not the same as Capital imploding. Certainly having to issue trillions more in new debt, lots of it quite shaky, while halting production and accumulation is not the preferred method of extracting surplus and amassing wealth, but it's not a total blockage by any means. It is not the unsurpassable limit. At the level of investment and production they have their workarounds, they can consolidate and merge. Kill the weak. Buy out the foreclosed. In this sense it is an old, familiar playbook with a few post-modern twists.

One of the key foundations of liberal ideology, that the state is a neutral actor, separate from Capital, has crumbled in spectacular fashion. It was becoming more and more difficult to maintain the illusion but with a Businessman In Chief making deals and the Fed now buying corporate bonds it is increasingly clear we are all shareholders, homo economicus, basing government policy on rate of return. God bless America and the Free Market in the brave new (old) capitalist "democracy".

UBI

"The Happy Consciousness- the belief that the real is rational and that the system delivers the goods- reflects the new conformism which is a facet of technological rationality translated into social behavior."

Herbert Marcuse One Dimensional Man published in 1964

I was reminded of this Happy Consciousness the other day when some friends expressed optimism a Universal Basic Income could become a reality. The hollowed out democracy, the soap opera politics, the rape and pillage around the globe, could all be put aside. As long as the system "delivers the goods", a check in the bank account each month, we could put up with a lot. And since so much work is just redundant bullshit anyway, Capital may just decide it's easier to cut out the middle man and just have us consume our way to happiness. Or if not happiness exactly, at least complacency and oblivion. Who needs sticks when you have carrots?

Marcuse also foresaw "massification", the process by which individuals are absorbed into the crowd.The best fictional account is Mao II by Don DeLillo. It's not hard to see how UBI lends itself to this process as well. The checks will come with certain strings attached, whether they are visible or not. It might seem like a free lunch at first...but the conformism is the cost. Of course, conformism is the new religion anyway, so maybe it doesn't matter.

Our local politicians are all running on a unique, clever platform of slowing the creep of Big Government and lowering taxes. Despite the checks everyone is getting from Big Brother and the fact the Central Bank preserved their sacred profit system. And these conservatives will win in a landslide as they raffle off assault rifles and parade around with flags. Hard to say how long they will resist the UBI as the Depression unfolds. Hard to say if they would be upset to hear about all the food being destroyed as their children go hungry.

There was a recent poll that showed people's "religious faith" was growing stronger during this pandemic. Because there is no better proof of God than a plague?

Wipe That Smile

The head of the IEA is reporting that global emissions "may fall by 5%". But we are not supposed to celebrate:

“This decline is happening because of the economic meltdown in which thousands of people are losing their livelihoods, not as a result of the right government decisions in terms of climate policies,” he said.

Ah yes. "Right government decisions". People cling desperately to this irrational belief in liberal Capitalist Democracy, despite the many decades of evidence that "governments" are captive to an imperative of economic growth. Why else would it have been necessary to lose 18,000 lives to the pandemic before emissions could be brought down?

It is an uncomfortable truth that real change only happens through catastrophe. So called "politics" is an illusion, like "green capitalism". Are we really supposed to be upset that oil towns like Houston or Bakersfield are in deep shit? Fuck Houston. Big Oil and their loyal minions- all the way down to local politicians and loyal workers- were perfectly ready to let us all suffer so they could maintain their "way of life". I hope they all go bankrupt and end up begging for food on the streets. They all voted for these pathological grifters we call "politicians" who rape and murder to keep the oil flowing. So I hope they are ruined. Like they were willing to ruin us.

Because you can talk and explain and discuss and argue till you are blue in the face- nothing sinks in with these rubes- not till their entire world crumbles and they are reduced to digging through dumpsters. And even then they are more likely to join a fascist cult. Whatever.

Economic Freedom

Freedom isn't free, right? This is how Kay James, President of the Heritage Foundation sees it:

"The debate in the United States over whether to move away from free markets and toward socialism may change dramatically as the latest coronavirus spreads throughout the world. That’s because in the fight against the global pandemic, we’ll likely witness one of the most compelling arguments in our lifetimes emerge in favor of free-market systems—and lives will be saved in the process."

If she had her head any further up her ass, you couldn't see her arms. If she lived in the real universe she would "witness" all of her free market dogma repudiated and crushed. In real time.

The shock of oil prices dropping into negative territory had some normally staunch true believer free market ideologues reeling a bit. These are people who worship Ronald Reagan but have found their God suddenly turned on them:

"We are worried the current disorderly market has adversely damaged the industry..." head of trading at Trafigura Oil"...some form of government assistance is likely needed."

The CEO of Montalban Oil saw it like this: "There is something wrong with that market. It's ridiculous."

The sacred Invisible Hand has somehow been distorted, corrupted, interfered with in some way that these people find unexplainable and frightening. But I'm not suggesting that simply because their faith has been shaken they will abandon their failed ideology. That would be falling into the same "rational actor" trap economists fall into. Instead they will have their memories wiped clean in a few months and they will carry on much as before, placing unlimited faith in The Market, in Animal Spirits and The Invisible Hand.

It's a Show You Know- Earth Day 2020

"Not always entertaining but a show even so". The only thing more tragic than Earth Day 2020 is May Day 2020. So many people trying to put a positive spin on these Events, but the left should face the fact they have been thoroughly captured, neutered and co-opted. Like a Trump "briefing", the best thing you can do is ignore them, recognize them for the Spectacle they are. When you participate you only lend these obscene displays legitimacy.

I am being asked to participate in a River Clean-up, not a terrible idea in and of itself ( every day should be river clean up day.) But the idea that we have been locked into this repetitive, "groundhog day" re-enactment, year after year after year, with no systemic change on the horizon- or even suggested- is pathos revealed. Plant a tree. Attend a virtual rally with uplifting speeches.

In or around 1930 Antonio Gramsci wrote: "The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear." Two points: we should be aware of how long analysts have been saying "the old is dying". The fact is the old is always dying and in the case of capitalism (the cultural, economic, political, ideological system) is is dying and being re-born every minute. Certainly the Heritage Foundation will be freaking out right now as "all that was solid turns to air, all that was holy profaned" but Capital itself is mutating before our eyes.

And secondly, yes indeed, the "morbid symptoms" are piling up, like corpses in refrigerator trucks. Too numerous to list, really. Negative price for oil, frozen circulation, billions unemployed. Destroying food while people go hungry.

I'll end by suggesting folks hang on to their masks, even with the Covid threat diminished. This summer will be hot and there will be smoke. Lots of smoke.

Live Free And Die

Give them liberty and death, if that's what these Koch Bros. funded protestors want. I have no problem with deplorables infecting themselves, you only get to be so dumb and then it can be fatal. Where I have a problem is this: My daughter is a nurse. If she gets ill because she has to care for one of these "patriot" morons, then I don't care how bad-ass Rambo militia they want to believe they are. I will not be happy.

I totally understand that they may really be suffering. So demand relief.

Another Dem I had to vote for, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee for many years, Max Baucus had this to say about the economic fallout of the pandemic:

“In a certain sense, it’s like the current crisis,” Baucus said. “In 2008, when our financial system collapsed, basically it was caused by the mortgage lending system. The big banks got a little lazy looking at the mortgages. And it was all new to us. Suddenly somebody figured out that, ‘hey, it’s a house of cards, these securities that banks are selling aren’t collateralized because the mortgages are falling apart.'”

Not just stupid, which he obviously is, but criminally inept and corrupt. He helped privitize Obama care. Totally surprised and baffled that US finance was a "house of cards". Banks got "a little lazy". "All new to us". Stupid as the patriots out infecting people only he got rich and famous.

Corbyn, Bernie and Movements

Now that Bernie had to sort of vaguely endorse Biden ( "He's a decent man") The Jacobin/ DSA Left is left holding a bag of soggy, poorly theorized and imagined tuna fish sandwiches. The consolation prize is that "we won the war of ideas" and that the movement will continue. Naomi Klein and others keep talking about "the movements" as though they had some objective form and content, but I just see an amorphous cellophane wrapper under which you might see "the climate movement", or "the fight for fifteen" or "immigrant justice" or "medicare for all". An amalgam of non-profits and advocacy groups and aging hippies and whatnot. The "movement of movements" that is supposed to somehow distinguish between bullshit reform and radical reform. Whatever the fuck that means.

One narrative has it that Bernie was done in by older voters but we shouldn't forget that it was really southern black voters who turned the tide. When Biden was endorsed by Cliburn and lots of baptist preachers fell in line, everything changed. We'll see how that works out for them.Jacobin still wants us to believe it was the "Democratic Establishment" pulling back room strings. I think the crazier shit gets, the more people just want "normal" as they imagine it (always better than the real status quo).

Thinking again about predicting in a crisis,it really is what links investors, modelers and journalists. Investors are trying to read tea leaves so they can make money through speculation, buy low sell high. Modelers are now being blamed by the Right for over-stating the risk of the virus and hurting the economy ( unnecessarily keeping surplus from Capital). Watch for this to intensify. Journalists can only create copy by speculating on possible outcomes, likely scenarios, etc.. and ALL of it is based on assumptions. Guess right and come out a winner, guess wrong and you're a goat for a brief moment. Then it all disappears down the memory hole.

Don't Stand So Close To Me

What if humans in the western world were to go through this period of detox and learn they didn't have to go shopping every day? What if they learned there was more to life than work? What if they found they could exist without flying or going on cruises? Spending time with the kids. Listening to music that is not in the background. Taking the time to cook something really nice.

In one sense these are signs of privilege, of not having too much stress about finding the necessities to get from one day to the next. But they are also reminders there is more to life than the grind. The leap happens when people begin questioning the grind; why it exists, who is benefiting, how did it come to be?

In another sense, there has always been a general suspicion of modernity writ large, of "everything solid turned to air, of everything sacred profaned". It is important to remember that often there is a romantic, nostalgic disavowal often associated with this sentiment, a vague (usually provincial) remembrance of a time when life was slower, better, more meaningful, less modern.All too often this is combined with a love of private property, traditional social hierarchies and a yearning for a White past.

What if? Might happen, could happen, a possibility of, we don't know...This is the language of speculation. Taking limited data and extrapolating, modeling. My approach to assessing the radicalizing potential of this crisis is like my approach to a trout stream. Even though I have been fishing for sixty years (guiding others for 35) I still stand by the stream and watch and wait for five minutes before I attach a fly to the line. Many see fish feeding, rush out with any old fly and waste precious time flailing. But there is a phenomenon in flyfishing called a complex hatch, where multiple aquatic insects are hatching at once. We often see the largest or most prolific of these and assume that must be what the trout are feeding on. But it isn't necessarily so.

This isn't to say intuition or past experience play no role. Nor are my observations always 100% correct. I flail with the best.But fewer assumptions and a little bit of patient watching have served me well...when fishing.

Empire's Rage

From Forbes Magazine:

"Socialism introduced by Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro had the effect of a neutron bomb on their country. It is not unlikely that the once-prosperous Venezuela will turn into the epicenter of the virus in South America. This situation will force hard choices on Maduro, who is no doubt under immense pressure from the U.S to flee..."

Capitalist ideologues must punish the bad example, even as their own system crumbles. Such is the rage. The article in the Economist was worse, all "dictators" and "thugs". Now Maduro is claiming that military forces were discovered just across the border with Colombia, gathering weapons and planning a coup. Why would we doubt such a claim?

The US has also charged Maduro with drug charges and is seeking some kind of extradition. The Cold War mentality still holds in US conservatism and was given a boost by Bernie Sanders and the rise of democratic socialism. At least they are consistent. When I visited Venezuela in the early 2000s to learn about the Bolivarian revolution, the State Department treated us like Hanoi Jane because they knew all their ridiculous lies were being exposed as such. There was recently a huge kerfluffel when Bernie said some positive things happened in Cuba. It is boring and dangerous simultaneously.

WTF

The Salvage Collective:

"The anti-social refuseniks of disaster nationalism ( Boris Johnson, Trump, Bolsinaro et al...) reflect, rather, the accumulated political culture of a specific ruling class praxis and statecraft. For COVID-19 is a disease that is particularly lethal to the elderly and the immuno-compromised. And that the weak must die, and that anything else is a form of moral hazard, has been the implicit credo of the ‘free market’ social Darwinism on which reaction has feasted for decades."

But not all old people are a burden, some have plenty of consumption power left. It is those who cost more than they contribute who must go; those living on social security, those with medical costs they can't cover, those dependent on state insurance and other provision. They have to die for the economy to successfully reset.

Of course it is politically tricky, even for clowns, to openly advocate for Capital over human life. Trump had to walk back his "Business By Easter" claim to keep his approval rating soaring. Like all American Blunders (Vietnam, Iraq, Katrina, no ventilators etc.) this mishandling will be forgotten the second the web page gets changed. People are damaged, capitalist subjects, "interpellated as self-maximizers for so long they cannot be counted on to "do the right thing' ". Nor can the capitalist State be trusted to do the right thing. But as with the climate crisis, we are backed into choices between least worst options.

Reading the economic press is always an exercise in frustration, but it is amazing to hear the qualifying adjectives of extreme uncertainty. Depending on the analyst we are told trillions of debt hangover from the last crisis, now compounded, is either "grim" or "catastrophic" or "nothing to worry about". Thousands of over-leveraged "zombie" sectors- US fracking is the best example- might have a cascading effect...or might be absorbed???

Who is making caskets or body bags? Will we see the National Guard picking vegetables in California when the undocumented are too sick or deported? More questions than answers right now.

The Invaders

Beyond the merely clueless are those who find Trump and the US response to the crisis inspiring. Where I see terrible breakdowns and injustice and hypocrisy, these others see American exceptionalism. This divide is so incredibly wide it goes far beyond mere partisanship, it actually makes me wonder whether we inhabit the same universe, the same reality. And here I am talking about my immediate neighbors, my little community where I know I would find 80% approval for the way the government is responding and the same percentage just waiting for things to return to the exact same state as before the virus.

I am reminded of a tv show our family watched when I was growing up called The Invaders. The premise was that aliens from outer space had landed on earth but they looked and acted ALMOST exactly like earthlings. The only tell-tale was the way they held their fingers. Episode after episode the hero would try to fight the invaders but inevitably he would ally with someone, put his trust in them and inevitably glance down and notice their alien fingers.

I walk/drive around my community and look at people knowing most of them are totally alien. Our beliefs would be so opposed, our perceptions and realities so different, that it is impossible to say we share any identity. They come from a different planet, speak a different language, see a whole different world than I do. And their reality rules the world.I am the alien.

Meanwhile our local politicians run around with signs saying "Stop Big Government"- as government spending saves their bacon. Everything they learned about political economy they got from Sean Hannity or Glen Beck. Not sure if this is clueless or alien or both.

Corona Clueless

My neighbors apparently believe Bud Light is a vaccine for the virus because each weekend they have parties where everyone drinks shit tons of it. Sitting close together while whooping it up. Which is just another example- of the many out there- of folks who can't understand what is happening. The only clue to their politics is an "Infowars" sticker on their garbage can, from which I speculate all kinds of things. But the bottom line is they are alcoholics who have one focus and one focus only, come hell or high water (or pandemic).

Of course, they may be correct in their assumption, in which case the clueless will truly inherit the earth, if they haven't already. The other piece of news is that I have been "furloughed" from my job which means I can now spend endless hours on the internet, blogging and climbing down increasingly insane rabbit holes. Yeah! My boss would prefer I don't file for unemployment and I suspect it is because he believes it is a "moral hazard" to get money for not working. But either way I get money for not working, so?.. The Great Stimulus bill would pay me my miserable unemployment PLUS 600 dollars a week, more than I make working ( or not). The Republicans were worried about this moral hazard aspect of the bill. Poor bastards who live hand to mouth will be dis-incentivized to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. They will go out and buy caddilacs, or sit around drinking Bud Light.

As Frank Zappa wrote: "There's no way to delay that trouble comin everyday"

Suspended Accumulation

Writing this from my bunker after another meal of spam and macaroni...But seriously, it is a novel experience, sitting here in limbo, wondering if liberal "democratic" capitalism is nimble enough to survive this pandemic. If the hegemonic order is instilled deep enough, if the colonization is thorough enough that people will be content to bury the dead and return to old, familiar ways. As I just heard somebody say: it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of cruise ships. I am cynical enough to believe it.

The question is; after the burials, after all the post-mortem analysis and angry blog posts, can Capital just thaw itself out, just fire up the motors of accumulation and return from the deep freeze like some cryogenic corpse? What does all the accrued debt do to the system? Is the next generation of taxpayers obligated to pay back the trillions? According to WIKI on modern monetary theory: " an ongoing tax obligation, in concert with private confidence and acceptance of the currency, maintains its value."

So its a confidence game that works until people run out of toilet paper. For my part, I can make more by getting laid off and collecting unemployment than I can working. And the tax payments future workers have to make to keep the cruise ship industry alive will also be financing their own destruction in the form of climate chaos. So we can say the incentive structure is a bit off kilter.As for so called "politics", not even Debord could have imagined a Spectacle this obscene or surreal.The stock market has a record day as unemployment skyrockets along with infection. No one knows what to think, myself included. See what tomorrow brings.

Almost Great Again

After losing wars in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan, folks were looking for something to be proud of. They yearned for that old feeling of greatness that they had heard so much about from their parents. And with a record Bull market it looked like we had at least won the trade war with China. It looked like we could pick off Iranian generals without any repercussions. It looked like having a businessman at the helm was going to pay big dividends.

But greatness is elusive. One little virus, smaller than an ant's teeny weenie has laid us low. As Trump would say: So Sad. And despite being a great businessman, he doesn't seem to be much of a tyrant; after all, this would be the perfect time to throw a little shock doctrine around, consolidate power, declare martial law, round up dissidents, a la Q Anon (8chan conspiracy shit currently gaining adherents).

The real question is who is giving Trump a crash course in macro-economics?

Missed Opportunity

Had Bernie not been concerned with winning, he could have proposed this Green New Deal at the debate Sun. night:

Government (Leviathon) take over the commanding heights of the economy and direct all stimulus spending towards renewable energy infrastructure. End all contracts with Saudi Arabia and use shale energy to build said infrastructure, employing tens of thousands. Let airline industry, cruise ships, automobiles go (purchase and retrench) Let investment banks go. Reorganize prioritizing IPCC emission goals including food system, mass transport, efficient urban housing and design.

Sounds like Evil China (or Cuba) I know, but it turns out "democratic" capitalism doesn't work. Bernie couldn't say this ,of course, so he got stuck between "authoritarianism" and "evil corporations, billionaires, etc." You can tax the rich to feed the poor- but you have to decide whether you are trying to get rid of poverty or wealth. Unfortunately, Americans hate rich people but they all want to be one. Bernie understands our pathos.

The thing about being in "unchartered waters" is, most people will default to the familiar, will wish a return to "normalcy", however dysfunctional or irrational it was. My boss insisted on listening to music from the fifties yesterday so he could let an imaginary simplicity wash over him in waves of nostalgia. Expect more of this Jon Stewart/revival mentality. We could start a war, but against who?

Degraded

This is how the Wall Street Journal describes the recent "injection of liquidity" into flailing markets:

"The Federal Reserve said it would make vast sums of short-term loans available on Wall Street and purchase Treasury securities in a coronavirus-related response aimed at preventing ominous trading conditions from creating a sharper economic contraction.

The Fed’s promise to intervene substantially in short-term money markets, together with a resumption of bond-buying stimulus known as quantitative easing, followed two days of trading in which market functioning appeared to have degraded."

So, as market functioning starts to "degrade", Central Banks around the world loan vast sums they have lying around somewhere and they buy bonds from the US Treasury. The EU suddenly has billions of euros to inject. wow. Sounds like they have buttloads of cash, right? Or gold maybe? C'mon, nobody is handing anybody giant wads of cash. It's all just imaginary money that "investors" believe in, a simple con, veiled in mystical jargon, something we all know but ACT as if we don't.

Then there is the oil price war, a bunch of crown princes and oligarchs and shieks dukeing it out for market share. As they start construction on the Keystone pipeline through Montana to pump the world's most expensive crude at a loss.

Finally we have to mention climate change because this IS the climate and capital blog. As might be expected, emissions are down and you don't need a chart to explain why:

"In China, domestic carbon emissions plummeted as industrial activities faltered. In the United States, a major economic downturn would likely drive a further decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, as people simply consume less resources.

“The biggest potential impact of this virus is the effect on the economy,” Jones said. “So if it affects the entire economy, then that’s going to affect economic output, consumption and emissions.”

So if Markets were to wake up to the fact that saving the planet requires "the virus effect", no amount of liquidity would be enough, not even if it was injected straight into the heart of Capital. No airports, no shipping, no cruises etc.. would make the cancellation of sporting events look like a blip. That is the moment Coyote finally looks down.

Capitalocene

Over at Salvage magazine(bleak is the new red),Seymour, Mieville and others riff at length on the climate catastrophe. Perhaps a bit much on the length but still, packed with insights. I wish I could afford a subscription. They end with this bit of bleak optimism:

"Capitalism has, one hundred and fifty years after Marx predicted, finally produced enough diggers to complete a grave, but in doing so, it ensured that all that was left to inherit was a graveyard."

These diggers are the billions of new workers of China, India and the quickly "developing" world. This age, our age, they then call the Proletarocene. Oppose this realism to the view of a young student climate club leader who advises "when building a cathedral you have to start with a foundation brick by brick." I could go on at length myself about bricks in the wall, or about the centuries it took to build cathedrals, or about the dismal progress since the first Earth Day, etc..We are told to build relationships, and certainly there is truth in that, but we remember the trauma of getting to know damaged people and the futility of trying to help.It is an emergency. Rome must be built in a day. This is the tragedy.

"Between salvation and garbage is salvage." It is hard to face the facts. Physics are not subjective, algorithms don't feel our pain. Consciousness is determined by our social being, which all too often is simply dogmatic ritual, the abstract fetish of commodity exchange and all that implies; investment, consumption, speculating, selling (one's labor power).As Zizek puts it, we know but we act as if we don't. Those under the spell of green capitalism put their faith in kinder, gentler, more sustainable investment ( renewables over fossil fuels) but fail to see the inherent death-drive:
M-C-M’. A regime of creative-destructive accumulation that is as inexhaustible as biospheric resources are finite.

Unfortunately, there is no green escape. As Salvage describes it: "This is the tragedy of the worker. That, as avatar of a class in itself, she was put to work for the accumulation of capital, from capitalism’s youth, amid means of production not of her choosing, and with a telos of ecological catastrophe. That thus even should the proletariat become a class for itself, and even if it does so at a point of history where the full horror of the methods of fossil capitalism is becoming clear, it would – will – inherit productive forces inextricable from mass, trans-species death."

Socialist Realism

The theme of this year's meeting of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) was: Socialism or America? They said they didn't want to call it socialism or capitalism? because socialism is so much more than "just an economic system". You don't suppose that perhaps capitalism might be more than "just an economic system" as well? This would never occur to those steeped in liberal dogma. But as recent history has demonstrated so clearly we live in a capitalist regime with many facets: capitalist culture, ideology, governance, law and "politics",such as they actually exist. Because it is the ambient atmosphere in which we all swim, it is not surprising the CPAC folk don't sense it. As a cult, they are not overly burdened with perception. But an incredible number of new eyes have been opened to this reality and one can feel the panic rising in "establishment"/mainstream/ orthodox circles.

As these good old boys sip scotch and smirk and describe their vacation adventures over chicken tarragon, there is one subject which may never, ever be broached: global warming. Sure, when laughing about single payer healthcare or college tuition or daycare they can demand an answer to "Who Will Pay" for it all? But when it comes to climate catastrophe the whole price-cost argument falls flat. Moderate liberals who tried that argument compose a long list of also-ran. A few Republicans are trying to introduce "free-market" solutions. But the CPAC Boys stick to their tried and true approach- ignorance and total deafness.

As for their slogan, I would have preferred Socialism or American-ism. This more accurately describes the ideological component of nationalist/patriotic/jingoist narratives around "greatness". Every time Bernie points to some stat showing the US lagging (also a long list) you can see the Freedom Fighters wince.

Bottom line: whether or not a "national conversation" can exist in Spectacular Society, some space has opened up discursively and it is amazing to see the freakout. Trumpers and NYTimes pundits and local trolls and MSNBC all going nuts thanks to Troutsky. You're welcome.

Preview

If global markets crash with the spread of a virus, imagine what will transpire when they finally have to reckon with the "cost" of addressing global warming. As for the claim we can "de-couple" emissions from economic growth, Carbon Brief says the economic effects of coronavirus has temporarily reduced China's emissions by a quarter. Which is precisely what needs to happen long term. Therefore we can consider this little market correction a preview of what we can expect when we stop burning fossil fuels.

What we are seeing this past week is a minor disruption of global supply chains, a reduction in air travel and some drop in personal consumption. Cruise lines taking a hit. Now imagine a permanent, massive drop in air transport, shipping, all types of manufacturing, basically every sector of the economy which requires fossil fuel energy (90%?). Add to this the hit to finance and investment when all those assets are frozen solid, all the fuel "reserves" that were being counted as collateral on debt

Upending the Norms

Once again it seems our Dear Leader has upended established "norms", this time by interfering in the sentencing of his buddy Roger Stone. And pinning the Presidential medal of freedom on Rush Limbaugh.And firing disloyal aids. And extorting the Ukrainians. And grabbing pussy. Etc. etc.

"The Man" ( to use Rush's description) just doesn't give a shit about liberal "norms" of behavior. They go on and on about decorum and keeping up appearances but our Comedian in Chief relishes his role as "disrupter". We are supposed to be outraged because he calls the NY Times "fake news" but we all know the Times acts as the Empire's mouthpiece. Chomsky has been pointing out their capitalist, imperialist bias for decades but now I'm supposed to be upset because our precious "democratic" institutions are threatened by a psychotic ass clown? Sorry. That ship sailed long ago.

Trumpism ( and radical right-wing populism throughout the globe) exists because people are generally ignorant and don't give a shit. Weak, easily entertained citizens was always the primary goal of "democratic" capitalism and a Rodney Dangerfield impersonator as Pres. or a pompous, bigoted psuedo-intellectual with a radio show or blonde, big-breasted FOX bimbos all fill the void. I consume, therefore I am.

But this should not come as any surprise. Liberals who are SHOCKED, just shocked at the pornographic parade have conveniently forgotten their US history. Consider Reconstruction: slavery is abolished, Blacks begin to vote, and more importantly, own property and what does white society do? Go all terrorist and lynch the uppity niggers. Now let's recall Joseph Mc Carthy, Nixon and Trump's old pal Cohen. My point is- the "norms" and institutions and Constitution won't save you when the mob decides you are the source of their problems. Your "rights" and protections won't mean shit when they put the noose around your neck. The Law only protects the in-group at the time.

Here in Montana, "conservatives" are debating whether it is ok to shoot socialists on sight, some arguing it would look bad from a PR perspective, others undecided. Nothing motivates like resentment and the idea that people would get free stuff like medicine or education rankles the "ditto-heads",those who have grovelled their lives away making Trump and Bloomberg and Zuckerberg even richer.