Heat

"Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, both Republicans, signed legislation to prevent local governments from requiring heat protections for outdoor workers." The ones at risk are mostly brown people, so why should the Governors care if workers die? As the Chamber of Commerce is happy to remind you, these rules would be a big burden for businesses, cut into profits, slow economic growth. Just because each year sets new heat records this shouldn't affect capital accumulation or investment decisions. You can always find more workers, right? There is no reason we can't shift production to the north. Maybe the whole Sun Belt thing is over. Lots of folks are moving to Oregon, Michigan, places like that. America on the move!

Not Normal

With Israel's new status as pariah state, led by war criminals, there is an actual opening to change the decades long status quo. Now that more countries are recognizing the state of Palestine, Israel is withholding funding for the PA. Biden could withhold funding from Israel if he had any balls or brains but instead he will go down as the old guy who couldn't see the golden opportunity to end a gross injustice. Americans hate and fear Iran despite the fact they have refrained from building a nuclear weapon. But the "secret" that everyone knows is that Israel has the bomb. "I'm so tired of America". He has decided instead to support the ultra-right wing pariahs and their project of ethnic cleansing. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, who we hope to strike a "grand bargain" with, has other ideas. Ukrain begs for more weapons as it falls back. China laughs at Biden's tariffs. Trump need only point out what a loser the old guy is and stride back into his old chair in the white house. Liberals go nuts as all their dreams fade. In the European social democracies, the far right is on the march. Supply the working class with reforms to make their lives comfortable and they turn xenophobic, guarding their treats from the uncouth hordes of migrants. Instead of fighting for liberation from Market anarchy, they demand ever more discipline. Germany is the most rabid pro-Zionist enabler, banning speech and speakers, including Jews.

Return to Normal

The thing everyone clamored for during the Covid pandemic ( you remember that time when eeryone was dying, right?) was a Return to Normal. And by golly, here we are. The same wars and failed states and people getting obscenely rich off the exploitation of others, the good old hyper-nationalism and police violence and rise of fascism. We've returned to normal! As we wait for the next pandemic the insane storms are ravaging various regions around the globe. As we ratchet up tensions with Russia and China ai feel that normal terror of nuclear anhilation.

Insurance

In my novel Oblivion's Cross, the collapse of the insurance industry signals the beginning of the end. "First to go were the largest re-insurance firms..." Insurance is a key part of capitalism's structural foundation; it spreads risk so that the system of speculation and investment can happen. That is why the piece in the NYTimes today was more than a little interesting. They have done some reporting on the states where the insurance industry is losing money and that map is startling. Due to massive losses, rates are skyrocketing and terms are getting stingier, making homeowners unable to even find insurance or assume greater levels of risk in the form of high deductables. Some of these states, like Florida and California, are predictable. Others in the mid-west were a surprise.But because climate-change induced storms are becoming more destructive, wind and hail events, or flash-flooding like they are experiencing in Texas as I write this, insurance companies are throwing in the towell. They can see what policy makers and much of the population can't: this is going to get very bad, very soon. Tornadoes are getting crazier. Storm surges are taking out homes just being re-built after the last storm. With the Atlantic experiencing record heat, this could be the hurricane season which delivers the final blow. That or massive wild fires. About the same time the Colorado River dries up. I'm trying not to sound too hopeful.

The Sheldon Adelson Act

Who organized the thugs that attacked the UCLA protest camp as the cops stood by? "Under investigation". In other words, lost in the daily news stream. Who is pressing Republican Zionists to pass the Ant-semitism Awareness Act? Who painted the Jeremy Corbyn campaign with the anti-semite brush? Purely spontaneous? I doubt it. It is important to remember that these people don't sit idly by as you erect your tents and shout free Palestine. There is a whole pro-Zionism aparatus that influences media, lobbys government, helps set policy at universities, etc... They work especially hard at setting the norms for discourse, ie defining anti-semitism. For instance, every mainstream media outlet will repeat the claim Hamas rejects the legitimacy of Israel( true) but fail to mention they were willing to recognize 67 borders (also true). They all interpret the slogan "from the river to the sea" as meaning Israel must be destroyed. They all promote the fiction that the Oslo Accords were a perfect opportunity to have a Palestinin state which Arafat rejected. All consensus opinions of the U.S. public. All Israeli propaganda. The NY Times is very effective at playing good cop/ bad cop. They have every type of liberal in their commentariat; Ross Douthout can do the conservative tsk tsking about students and rail against "terrorism", they've got Brooks and Friedman to do the rational grown-up and ignore Isreali terrorism, others who can do the civil see-both-sides bit. Be prepared to learn nothing and see the dominant narratives reinforced daily.

Just Discovered the "Comments" !

I feel terrible. I just discovered that a few folks have been following the blog and commenting and I haven't replied. I never go to my blog so I don't see these rare but highly appreciated comments. So sorry. Ducky! Dude, I'm doing ok, all things considered. To anyone else reading this, Ducky followed my old blog, thoughtstreaming, back in the day. Back when this troll (I forget his name) thought it was important to hassle me. Before trolls were even a thing. Ducky and this troll were my readership as I ranted about what? The Iraq war? The war on drugs? Venezuela? Ah, the good old days. Anyway, I have a remarkably good life but I'm extremely worried about my kids, grandkids, and those less fortunate. Shit is ugly and we ain't seen nothin yet.

"All of the Above" Green Growth

This is how a worker on an off-shore oil platform justifies his labor: "There is a sense of pride among those aboard, though they recognize that many people think their industry is destroying the planet." We hve to "move this dialogue that seems to fixate on ‘Is it oil and gas, or is it solar and wind?’ It’s all, and we need them in abundance.” Biden has nominated James Clyburn, Dem Senator from S.Carolina, for the Presidential Honor Medal. Clyburn made sure Bernie didn't get the Black vote so here's your medal. Bernie proposed spending the necessary trillions to de-carbonize the economy. Biden gave capitalists "incentives" to find technological "solutions" while continuing to drill baby drill. The Trans-Canada pipeline carrying tar sands bitumen to the coast of B.C. is now in operation. The GasLink pipeline carrying gas through the Wet'su wetn territory has been full since 2022. U.S. export of liquified natural gas is at an all-time high and oil production is setting new records. So I guess that's what they mean by "all of the above". On the "green" side of the ledger we see solar and wind lagging behind the increase3d demand caused by data centers and bitcoin mining. There is a big push to "streamline" the regulatory process for siting new "green" infrastructure and real mining for the minerals needed for green growth. Local communities all want this development to happen somewhere else. Preferably overseas. The optimists tell us technology will come through in the nick of time, the price of everything will come down and our future looks bright. Call me sceptical.

Climate Justice Movement Take Note

So now I have my answer as to whether these students are serious. And boy have they hit a nerve! The mainstream press is flailing madly to establish credibility, but their bias is so obvious it is laughable. For decades they have managed to keep the word Zionism out of popular discourse. Now that horse is out of the barn. The Zionist lobby had always managed to get the press to equate anti-Israel with anti-semitism and now that game is up. They are trotting out their spin masters on CNN, where compliant "journalists" ask softball questions and let them rant about "outside agitators" and "hate speech" but the settler/colonial ethno state project which is Zionist Israel has been revealed, thanks to Netanyahu, and there's no stuffing that back in the bottle. The climate justice movement faces a different enemy and circumstances but they could still learn a thing or two about mobilization from these student actions. You have to ask people to take some level of risk. The students didn't ask people to sign fucking petitions or vote harder. They knew the authorities would over-react because they always do. They knew they could force every media in the country to cover it, one way or the other, and they have. Even when they focus on four Jewish students who "feel" threatened, or focus on one knucklehead who wants to "kill Zionists", it is still coverage which leads to intense scrutiny. People are looking up Zionism and going WTF? There is an interesting map in yesterday's Times showing the states where campus protests are taking place. Tellingly, Montana sits in a block of states where student apathy reigns. We are joined by neighboring Idaho Wyoming and the Dakotas, of course, also Utah, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, etc... You get the picture, illustrious company indeed. Now we see that the Zionist goons have been sent in with baseball bats and mace. The cops stand down and watch. This could get very interesting.