Running In Place

Some totally new, unorthodox, out-of-the-box thinking: the treasury secretary says economic expansion can get the US out of debt! How original. Wow. Elite thinking at its best. The problem isn't that a drone like Bessent would spout such idiocy. It's that the Wall Street Journal would print it. It's that the WSJ readers would nod and say yeah, that could work. All we would have to do is burn more fossil fuels, extract more productivity out of workers and gut the social safety net. Joila! And right on point we have the EPA removing greenhouse gas regulations from power plants. Remember Obama telling us we could "de-couple" economic growth from emissions? Not so. We can have capitalism or we can have robust ecosystems but we can't have both. Elites understand this perfectly. Guys like Robinson Meyer, founding executive editor of Heatmap, doesn't get it. In a piece in today's Times he says Democrats must embrace fossil fuels if they expect to win elections. Because in a capitalist "democracy", voting will save us eventually. Yes, according to the latest UN report we are blowing past 1.5 degrees, yes, the tech oligarchs are fuelling all their AI compute with methane ( remember how "natural gas" was the "transition fuel" that would wean us from coal?) But Alaskans vote for whoever supports oil so Democrats should support oil. Duh. Robinson will never use the word capitalism because somehow Markets and price and innovation yada yada. The woman running for Senate in Alaska is indigenous, adding even more contradiction to the equation. Water Is Life, right? Seven generations, right? Capitalist realism colonizes everyone equally, regardless of race or religion. Naomi Kein and Astra Taylor are calling out what they term "End Times Fascism". This is a sect or cult which has fused Christian millenialism with tech-utopian/dystopian futurism into a hyper-capitalist nationalism. Basically a genocidal attack on the poor and Nature. These are the same Christians which support the Zionist project because of the prophesy that Jesus will return and bring about the End Times. Therefore the more dead Palestinians (and Jews) the better.

Drill Baby Addendum

Nobody else is willing to sacrifice so why should I? To wit, drilling in the North Sea: "Now applications for two new offshore drilling projects — a lifeline for the region — could be decided by the government in the coming days or weeks. Andy Burnham, Britain’s prime minister, faces a choice with complex economic and political ramifications, no matter what he does. He could approve the projects — known as Rosebank and Jackdaw — and face a potential revolt from powerful clean energy constituencies that strongly oppose more drilling." Canada and America keep drilling, (including in our new protectorate Venezuela) South America keeps drilling, Russia keeps drilling. We just blew past 1.5 and no one cares, So what the heck?

Drill Baby Drill

Oil boom in Argentina. More drilling being proposed for the North Sea. All the big tech corporations walking away from their emission goals. In my novel Oblivions Cross there is a scene where protesters drag a guillotine to the headquarters of the evil fossil fuel inve4stment corporation. Today I saw this headline in the WAPO: Guillotine parked next to the Supreme Court leads to arrest Good on em! There is lots of concern about social media induced "brain rot", especially among youth. An opinion piece in todays Times argues that kids understand perfectly well what is being done to their minds by idiotic content yet prefer it to more covertly manipulative content: "when simulation admits it is simulation, it becomes more trustworthy than content that pretends to be real." This post-post modern affect is what explains Trump's appeal. In a totally corrupt, transactional system, the clown who proudly announces he is a fraud gains trust. Yes it is all Spectacle, and I'm here to entertain. It's all you can expect at this stage of late capitalism. Something like this occurred in the inter-war period in Europe with the art/culture movemnent called Dada. Part nihilism, part burlesque. Interestingly, it was Thoreau who coined the term in his book Walden as he observed the pop culture of his time. The Times article insisted it wasn't that youth were getting stupider but in fact there are some metrics pointing in that direction: " the share of American teenagers who failed to reach even a basic level of proficiency in reading and math, considered the minimum needed to read a utility bill, for example, has risen over the last decade." Asian students, on the other hand, ace these tests. This would be worrying if there wasn't already so much to worry about. For instance, the level of water in Colorado River reservoirs? Super El Nino? Shipping through the Bering Sea? AI bots hacking my bank account?

Working Class Heroes

Gustavo, a leader of NY City DSA who I have worked with, is enmeshed in the old class contradiction. Born into wealth, his credentials as a champion for the working class are questioned. The spotlight brings scrutiny and the quest for "gotcha" moments: "Look, he lives a life of privilege! Look, he doesn't have calloused hands!" Socialistsare being attacked from the right for being too educated. The right doesn't have that problem with its working class supporters; very few of them could find Iran on a map. Those who do know the difference between the two countries are still waiting for the US to find the WMD's in Iraq. I'm not saying stupid people shouldn't be represented in government, I'm just not sure they should have all the positions of leadership. For instance, the US just re-threatened China with sanctions, the one country keeping the price of oil under 150 dollars a barrel. At some point they will tire of listening to these morons rant about regime change and will bring the hammer down. The working class electricians union (IBEW) supports the build-out of data centers, a position even right wingers are backing away from. They just want good jobs, who can blame them, stuck as they are in a capitalist system which forces them to murder their offspring. They will build the gas chambers for good union wages and generous benefits.

Demand = Death

As the world burns under deadly heat waves, fires and drought, Big Tech Capital and their government enablers have decided to add more fuel to the fire.From the Financial Times: "An FT analysis of 60 of the largest planned data centres being built in the US by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta found that they could together produce 101.5mn tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year once fully operational, based on the most recent snapshot of US power generation. That would be equivalent to about 7 per cent of US power-sector emissions in 2025 — the annual emissions of 27 coal plants or 24mn petrol-powered cars." Most of these emissions are new gas fired generators but there are also those aging coal plants that were slated to be de-comissioned but are now being extended. All this for a technology which will provide...certain benefits? some advantages? a better life? None of that is clear. We do know it is propping up the U.S. economy. Then there is insurance, where governments are becoming the insurer of last resort. "Climate impacts are no longer a marginal or far-future risk, but a structural macro-fiscal problem today. They will rapidly get more expensive in Europe because it is the world’s fastest-warming continent (EEA, 2024)." For some reason the movement against data centers prefers not to focus on climate impacts. They generally focus on water issues or noise or electricity bills going up. In fact conservative environmentalists urge capaigners not to use the word climate, that it triggers people who might otherwise support some policy. This is exactly why activists must use the climate argument continuously. Over and over and over. But the argument has to include capitalism as a failed system.

More Capitalist "Democracy"

So the DSA wants to try governing. With some electoral wins under their belt and other aligned progressive winning against establishment Dems, they now have their eye on the prize. But as Bernie or AOC have shown us, playing in the arena of capitalist "politics" has a real cost. At its most basic, you have to decide how anti-capitalist-pro-socialist you want to be. You can hedge by talking about Medicare for All but eventually someone is going to bring up Marx- you know, things like ownership and markets and Capital. Already we see the uncomfortable questions around policing and prisons and military budgets.You can give speeches about the working class but at some point the middle class is going to start pressing hard. They are used to a steady supply of treats and anything that smells like austerity will not get hteir vote. On the other hand, Having Trump blather on about communists may actually help to swell the membership, give young folks an option for a political home that isn't run by consultants and corporate donors.The bottom line is this: the struggle for socialism will require more than canvasing and voting. We have seen this movie before and even when there was a massive base of industrial workers, oligarchs found ways to contain and divert populist insurrection. They start wars. They cause recessions. Remember, capital can go on strike as well. One very positive thing this left-wing politicking has done is exposed Zionism to critique, something that was absolute taboo just a few short years ago. The word genocide is now commopn parlance among progressive politicians. Closely followed by the insinuation that Netanyahu talked The Donald into attacking Iran only heightens Israels pariah status. And now AIPAC lost an election it dumped 30 million dollars into, reinforcing the ant-semitic trope of the rich manipulative Jew working behind the scenes. It is hard to imagine a more spectacular fall from grace. What is totally insane is that the average Israeli is apparently stunned at the American reaction. But we are the victims, they cry! The perpetual ever-lasting victims, now matter how grotesque our brutality. This new cadre of left-wing Dem candidates may end up backing down on de-funding police but not on support for Israel while the genocidal Zionist project remains their nationalist ideology. And Netanyahu will remain an irritating thorn in the side of Trump and the Republicans as he throws sand in the gears of any kind of Iran deal. In the meantime DSA Co-chairs are out trying to explain democratic socialism on conservative media. They are having to explain the part of the DSA platform that calls for abolishing the Senate and city owned grocery stores.

More Bill

NBC wants to do a feature segment on the climate so who do they call? Good old Bill McKibben. This speaks to the total void when it comes to new, fresh, climate movement leadership.An article in the Guardian reports that climate activists are tired of being "hushed" and argue talking climate is not a distraction from the "affordability agenda". So what new, exciting strategy has Bill and the young campaigners come up with? " In other districts, organizers have circulated petitions calling on the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, to prioritize climate issues or plan to call on their representatives to connect the climate crisis to recent heatwaves." That ought to put a fire under their asses! You could almost imagine that the fossil fuel industry is funding the whole thing. The "hushing" is something the Searchlight Institue has proposed after polling showed:"While battleground voters overwhelmingly agree climate change is a problem, addressing it is not a priority for them." For these folks, it's a problem, just not one they are willing to risk anything to solve. In other words, it's their children's problem. And while the children should logically be the ones in open revolt, their brains have been donated to tech enchantments. So there you have it. Sclerotic leadership, lazy, boring strategy, and more petitions as the world burns. Bill thinks the super- elNino will kick things into gear. "Many more will have to suffer, many more will have die - don't ask me why". The entire Colorado River system is in crisis mode. Do you hear anything about it? No, but when Jeff Bzos and Leonardo Di Capria give a few million to save species faced with extinction it's on the front page. A few million. C'mon. And now as fires rage across a burning planet, everyone breathlessly awaits the end of the Iran war so we can get oil tankers moving again. Exactly as happened with the pandemic, any slow down in fossil fuel emissions is viewed as a threat to our way of life, something to be avoided at all costs. Upside dwon world!