Judaism, Zionism, Israel

Margarite Susman on the Zionist nation-state: "But with this warlike defense, as with the state which requires it, the people has absorbed a piece of the chaos alien to it, and thus endangered its internal existence more seriously than its external. By pursuing this way of life, it is participating in the bloody confusions and distortions of the world of nations so deeply anathema to it; it is participating in the curse of nationalism, in the growing petrification of life, in the apocalyptic cooling of hearts that is cooling the life of humanity. Can the messianic legacy still be managed in such a reality? Is it still possible—and this is the same question—to bring the simply human to fruition?" Susman wrote this many years ago, at the birth of Zionism, but what the nation-state of Israel is now engaged in, while plenty "bloody", can not be called "defense". Yet we know many Israelis, in their collective psychosis, would insist it is exactly that. As they abandon that "messianic legacy" for property acquisition through genocide, they destroy themselves as A People. The "mad bull" on a rampage is now attacking Syria, taking advantage of their new government and the geopolitics of the U.S. turning a blind eye, or wink and nod. The Zionists are attacking Lebanon, striking the heart of Beirut and of course re-occupying Gaza and soon the West Bank in an all-out campaign of ethnic cleansing and settlement by rabid reactionaries. From socialist exiles to militant expansionists in a matter of a few capitalist decades. Here in the U.S. the power of Zionist ideology can be seen in the attacks on critics and activists, on universities and lawyers willing to defend free speech rights. In true Orwellian form, to support the right of Palestinians to self-determination and a state is to support Hamas, terrorism and anti-semitism. The Israelis believe they can build an "iron dome" that will protect them from reality, from history, from justice and truth. This AIPAC fantasy is what comes with wealth and power and the corrupt relations they breed. But as much blame falls on moderate Jews who thought they could just put their head in the sand and ignore the injustice taking place for decades. But of course for Zionism to ally with MAGA Americanism is insanely short-sighted and will only lead to more tragedy and "common ruin". An ethno-nationalist project that depends on, thrives on, celebrates violent oppression can only lead to "the apocalyptic cooling of hearts" which is anathema to all that progressive Judaism stands for. As stated in rabbinical ethical teachings: “Be cautious with governments, for they bring a person close to them only for their own needs. They appear as friends when it benefits them, but they do not stand by a person in his time of difficulty.” Fundamentalists ( going back to my last post) lack the ability to hold two incongruent thoughts in their tiny minds, no matter which type of monotheist they happen to be ( including Islamists). The Christian Zionist fundamentalists can't wait for the Messiah to return, a wonderful Armageddon, forcing all the Jews to choose Christ or roast for eternity. Personally, I prefer the Easter bunny but the Jews need to be careful about which "friends" they choose. Or maybe it's too late for that.

Back to Fundamentals

In a world-historical sense, a dominant trend we are seeing globally can be described as fundamentalism. Whether in religious terms, such as the rise of Islamist, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian nationalist chauvinism or strictly cultural reaction, such as historical revisionism or support for "traditional" values, it is a turn away from complexity and pluralism towards simplicity and dogma. The rise of religious fundamentalism is truly terrifying if you are not a straight cis-gendered male. From Israel to Pakistan to Afghanistan to Bangladesh to America to India to Myanmar to North Africa doctrinal authority and the religious leaders who interpret various scriptures is on the rise. They are done with nuanced, secular, liberal rights that require balancing different interests or creating a social compact. They prefer tribes with strict, easy to follow rules. This is an obvious reaction to feminism in particular, where male power is challenged and threatened. Take the anti-LGBTQ backlash. In some places, like Russia or parts of Africa, it can mean death. “People were looking for explanations, and InfoWars offered simple, if outlandish, answers to complex problems.” According to the new tech-masters of the universe: "democracy is outdated “legacy code” that can’t keep up with modern complexity. The future, he and others argue, will belong to those who design and implement a superior system—one that runs more like a corporation." Simple hierarchies for simple minds.

Go East Young Man

One obstacle to making America great again is the general ignorance of the work force. A piece in the NY Times highlights all the companies moving to India so they can hire educated workers: "American companies are assembling their work forces in India mainly because it has become difficult to find the right kind of workers in the United States. Studies find that a third of all new engineering jobs go unfilled, while nearly 1.2 million Indians graduate with engineering degrees every year." MAGAs are upset with offshoring and wish they had their shit jobs back, assembling widgets on an assembly line. But they also want 35 dollars an hour plus benefits for doing mindless tasks. The trouble is, any of that soul-crushing labor that isn't done by robots is being done by people living on ten dollars a day. And those companies looking for skilled workers are going to places other than the U.S. " We’ve got an inexorable trend right now, where enterprises understand that you can globalize the work,” Ms. Kops said. She has tried setting up global centers within the United States but says that “we just don’t have the education engine” to staff them." American kids want to be influencers or play professional sports. In the meantime they are happy posting in their parent's basement. American employers are asking: “Can you get 5,000 folks who know how to do this kind of work? You can’t,” she said. “But you can do it in India, and you can do it in other places in the world.” Fortunately for American dummies there is always the military. This is what a teacher wrote today: "I teach college students, and many are unable to focus for a sustained period, read a 20-page article or write coherently." Boys are sucked into the Jordan Peterson Manosphere. It turns out artificial intelligence won't actually have to be all that intelligent in order to replace American workers. Of course those students who go to Christian schools will know a lot about Jericho and Cannan and Egypt. I'm not mourning the dismantling of the Education Department because they really weren't helping. Not sure who will be going to U.S. schools to learn about American exceptionalism except patriots.

More Ted Pilled

Interesting piece in the Times today about the resilient popularity of Ted Kaczynski's manifesto of 1995 (The Strange Post Partisan Popularity of the Unabomber by Charles Homans) Ted's own take on Jacques Ellul's theory that "civilization had aquired a mind of its own" resonates today in so many ways it's scary. I'm thinking here of Nate Hagan's notion of the "superorganism" or in a Marxist sense, of the "greedy and self-enjoying,a-subjective system of which no one is realy or fully in control", that is the self-reproducing force called Capital. The Deep Green Resistance folks point to "industrial civilization", which falls in line with Ted's thinking as well. Or in the historical sense we could just say modernity, with its tight bond to technology. The Unabomber's cabin was moved from Lincoln Mt to FBI headquarters in Washington DC. The only remaining reason to visit Lincoln is the Sculpture Park located east of town. Then there is Artificial General Intelligence, the possibility of which which Ted hinted at as well. Definitely a "mind of its own" in a reductive yet still terrifying sense. Remember, Ted is prophesizing all this pre-internet, a time fewer and fewer of us even remember. People like him and Marshal Mc Luhan, Joseph Conrad, Allen Ginsberg and Hunter S Thompson - they had an often tortured gift for seeing where trends might lead. Few could have imagined a time when these new Tech Masters of the Universe would decide it is their perogative to control the state! And the direction Progress is willed to take our species. The pushback exists, but it is still on the fringes; the website Tech Won't save Us, Richard King's book Here Be Monsters are a couple of examples. Mostly we see acquiescence, the resigned acceptance of that which the technocrats tell us will be good for us. We are told it will lead to trillions in new wealth, to a better life for all. There are reasons to be skeptical. At least with medical research such as gene therapy and cloning and such there are people considering bioethics. With AI there is too much profit at stake. Like the sorcerer's apprentice, we are doomed to learn the hard way.

Unscientific Random Sample

Overheard at the gym locker room: "Did you see what those sick fucks are doing to those Teslas? Dude, I'm tempted to go buy a Tesla and sit in the bushes waiting with my rifle. I would so love to have them come try to mess with it." Pause. "So what truck did you bring today, the Chevy or the Ford?" "Chevy." Young working class dudes itching for some action, lot of tough talk about antifa, etc..but who knows? They might pull the trigger.The irony is Andreas Malm's call for sabotage against SUV's ( not "eco-friendly EVs") but these are the times we live in, the "morbid sysmptoms" as Gramsci called them. It can't properly be called a backlash to Trumps "greenlash" ie.. dismantling EPA, drill baby drill, etc...Just more post-post-modern incoherence and ideological rubble. I agree with Danny Bessner, co-host of American Prestige (along with Derek Davison) and Hingepoints (with Matt Christman), that we are looking at what Marx called "the common ruin of the competing classes". No one is getting out of this unscathed. I would be curious to know how many underground militias are operating here in the American Readout (Montana and Idaho). I watch these young guys working out in front of the big mirrors, admiring their musculature, their beefiness. Dreams of protecting virgin maidens swirling through their tiny brains. Like in the good old Clint Eastwood Bruce Willis days of angry manhood. I mentioned the anxious foreign policy establishment in the last post but some of the fossil Fuel Majors are nervous as well. They had a whole public relations campaign going on about how they were responsible partners in conservation and research and innovation yada yada while they raked in record profits. Now they have to kiss the MAGA ring, go back to Chinese hoax, not a good look. They loved the Obama/Biden "all of the above" strategy with its hydrogen hubs and battery plants and Direct Air Capture subsidies. All investments de-risked by the U.S. taxpayer and lots of profit on the back end. Now all of that is too "woke".

Doomloop

To take your mind off your shrinking 401K and worthless Trump meme coin you could go on a Trump Tour! Climb Mount Mc Kinley, go sailing in the Gulf of America. A way for American farmers to spend their government-provided cash payments (otherwise known as welfare) for the crops they won't be planting thanks to the tariffs. Enbridge Pipeline Company is now sponsoring Native Network One, the radio station that broadcasts news for Indian country. These Hamas supporting students at Columbia should be thankful they are only being deported. Usually the U.S. drone-strikes terrorists when they are walking down the street. Remember, we are on a war footing. Ocasio-Cortez is learning a hard lesson in electoralism. The "left-wing progressive" who defended Joe Biden till the last second is now the leader of the Democrat Reistance, claiming a thirty day extension would have given them time to "negotiate" with Repubs. Except they don't have any "cards", as Trump explained to Zelinsky. Like Gazans have no "cards". Or Haitians or Syrians or Sudanese or billions of others. Threatening to shut down the government is so exhausted I expect Newt Gingrich to return for an encore. On the economy front, Doomberg believes the Trump strategy is to initiate massive "creative destruction". Get it over with now with a sharp recession that clears out all the dead wood ie.. losers, unproductive capital, those not maximizing utility, etc. There's still plenty of room out by the freeway for people to pitch their tents. Three billion humans on our planet use less electricity per capita than one American refrigerator. This is what Marxists call "combined and uneven development". This backlash against DEI can be traced back to the 1619 Project, a multi-media research project by Nicole Hannah-Jones that placed slavery and its consequences at the heart of the American experience. That and the genocide of the Native inhabitants runs right up against the myth making of the Right so now that they are in power they will just re-write history, get rid of inconvenient facts and bully academia into submission. Make examples of a few folks, ban some books, shouldn't be long before they start showing John Wayne movies in schools. Not that schools taught real history to start with. I guess it's a good thing we have courts but it seems like a pathetic substitute for actual politics.

Jitters

I find it interesting that there are four separate articles on the Foreign Affairs website that deal with climate change. They only give you one free one to read so I chose The Troubled Enery Transition, where they explain in great deal how and why capitalism has failed to curb emissions before insisting capitalism must do so. Somehow. Despite all the contradictions. Basically they fall back on "clean" natural gas and nuclear. They then go on to say today's "trouble" "makes clear that the process will unfold over a long period." One problem I see. We don't actually have "a long period" in which to make radical changes. You don't want to wait till you are in the middle of a mass extinction event, at or near cascading "tipping points" tp begin some gradual process. Perhaps had this "transition" begun say forty years ago, when it first became obvious, we could have had a more "pragmatic", less disruptive and slower "unfolding". But that didn't happen. Oops. A few other gems. They say we should cooperate with Asia and help finance adaptation and mitigation in the global South. Yeah sure. When pigs fly. The point is- the adults in the room have the jitters. Their carefully crafted consensus around liberal "democratic" capitalism has been hijacked by a bunch of anarchist hyper-capitalists led by a charismatic grifter. You can easily imagine these policy elites hoping for another Obama to pop up to save them from chaos, at least temporarily. EPA head Lee Zeldin will not let America fall for the "Green New Scam", or, as he calls it, "the climate change religion". Woke pagan hippies will not get in the way of economic growth, if he has anything to say. He proposed "the greatest rollback of environmental regulations in history", because putting a little Trumpian flourish on pronouncements is now de rigueur. All that government overeach cuts into profits and most folks have forgotten the image of rivers on fire. It's not the content of the policy change so much as the notion that in 2025 it is popular with a large segment of the population. Another scary tipping point. Sorry environmentalists, conservationists, etc.. try to be good "green capitalists" and this is what you get for all your years of advocacy and voting and donating to green NGOs. Time to sic the lawyers on em.

The Resistance

A worker at the Vermont ski resort J.D. Vance took his family to was critical online. She expressed her opinion, consequences be damned. The Resistance is alive and well. “If a 25-year-old can risk her job to — quite politely — speak truth to power, the rest of us can figure out some things to do as well,” Mr. Bill McKibben said. By "truth to power" he means posting. Like I'm doing! But in all his years as a "climate leader" McKibben has not figured out "things to do". Other than vote harder and beg your elected representative to do the right thing. The reasonable thing. "I went down to the demonstration, to get my fair share of abuse..." Jagger /Richards Driving through town I saw some people carrying signs so I followed them to the intersection fo Hwy 93 and Main street where folks were gathering to promte "science". (Exile on Main Street?) With each honk the energized liberals cheered and waved their signs harder. Who can be against against Science, they laughed? look at all that science hath brought! Reason and rationality, empirical evidence and facts. We are speaking truth to power! Resist! As a cynical old radical I found this all terribly sad. If science and knowledge can't sway them, what about morality and justice and responsibility? “By turning its back on international climate financing, the U.S. is failing its moral obligation as a historic polluter, abandoning the global community and shirking its share of our collective responsibility,” said Namrata Chowdhary, the chief of public engagement for 350.org, a climate advocacy group. I hate to keep picking on 350, but at some point you need to understand that profit cares nothing about morality and the authority of science has been radically diminished. It was science which shut down the economy during the pandemic. It is science that is telling us not to utilize the liquid gold lying beneath our feet. Of course science also killed God and promised humans mastery over Nature and that hasn;t worked out so great either. The point here is that we need to trust our own eyes. When we see two actors playing President in the Oval office, that is precisely what it is. When they say "this is going to be great television" that is what they mean. And it also means we have to accept the reality that we are all actors playing Citizen in the same absurd drama. Yes I know perfectly well ( it is theatre) but nonetheless I will keep voting for change. Yes I know perfectly well that liberal capitalist "democracy" produces a constant assault on my dignity and constant anxiety but nonetheless...

Rare Earths

First, you have to love the U.S offering "protection" at the right price, which just happens to be valuable minerals. That's some straight-up mafia-style transactional-break the kneecap shit. When we use the term "naked" aggression it means it is not veiled, not supplied with an acceptable covering of diplomatic civility. Notice the liberal aversion to naked nationalism, the AmericaFirst agenda that dispenses with any pretense of leveling or aid or charity. How dare they abandon our precious narrative! We were helping the world "develop" so that the wealth gap wouldn't be so uneven. Sorry. Time to embrace the cruelty: Let Them Eat Mud Cookies! Now it is straight-up, out in the open smash and grab. All of it fueled by fossil fuels because that's where the profit is. No more "transition" bullshit. This "drill baby drill" mantra gets lost in the noise but I think it is exactly where you want to focus. It explains much of the rest because the new technologies which they are betting will save capitalism requires ungodly amounts of energy (and water). A changing climate will not be allowed to limit this expansion. Except that it will. This is not a Real that anyone wants to face. So we disavow. Otherwise we would have to face the far more traumatic reality of a greedy and self-enjoying a-subjective system of which no one is really or fully in control, namely Capital. Soy bean farmers in Iowa nervous about "export policy". "A thousand telephones that will not ring." The dessicated corpses of migrants who got lost in the Arizona desert. Laughing hyenas and clapping seals as the Naked King delivers punch lines and hands out treats to the audience. Israel’s foreign ministry saying on X on Tuesday night that Mr. Trump’s idea was “an opportunity for the Gazans to have free choice based on their free will. This should be encouraged!” What he didn't say was: And Enjoyed!

Big Other: Society and State

You have to love the names for some of these Think Tanks: “The role of pro-Russian politicians is to introduce divisive topics into society,” said Oleh Saakyan, a political analyst at the National Platform for Resilience and Social Cohesion, an independent think tank. Those in power see planetary social/political/economic relations as a card game. It is all about what cards you hold, who you can bluff, what you are willing to risk. A terrifying way to organize the globe. Everyone is now talking about Trump as the transactional president, as if this is wholly unprecedented, as if it hasn't always about what you could get. Think East India Company, United Fruit Company, C&H Sugar, Dole, Standard Oil, etc. etc.. Capitalism is a system of transactions for labor and commodities and finance. The cards you hold are power you have at your disposal. “It doesn’t mean anything about a two-state or a one-state or any other state,” he (Trump) said at a White House news conference. Nothing throws off the liberal intelligencia like post-rational performance art: Frank Bruni of NYTimes: My belief is that his shamelessness has mattered more than his personality. He has a truly unusual willingness to be as dishonest, disloyal and vulgar as necessary to get what he wants. brushing off a question about whether he still considers the Ukrainian leader a dictator. “Did I say that?” Mr. Trump asked. “I can’t believe I said that. Next question.” Mr. Trump expressed a mix of optimism and fatalism about his chances of making peace. “I think it’s going to happen, hopefully quickly,” he said. “If it doesn’t happen quickly, it may not happen at all. Trump on Kier Starmer: “He earned whatever the hell they pay him over there.” And by kissing the ring and presnting Trump with a gold embossed invitation to dinner with the King, Starmer avoided a lecture, unlike Zelenski, who insisted on arguing with The Donald on The Donald's own TV show. Ooops! We are told not to normalize Trump, like we are not supposed to normalize perversion or obscenity or pornography. We are supposed to hide and repress these things, keep them taboo or hand them off to a fetish.That way we can pretend to have Resilience and Social Cohesion! Trump actively establishes the terms of a new Big Other. He promises enjoyment while undermining the authority of knowledge. Disavowal married to conspiricy theory (denial of the real).

Reset or The God That Failed

The True Believers in Green Capitalism assured us that the wisdom of the Market would save us. As the cost/price of renewables came down, the Invisible Hand would take care of the rest. A typical headline from 2022: "A rapid transition to emissions-free ‘green’ energy could save many trillions of dollars in energy costs - and help combat climate change" We'll be rich AND green! Hell yes! Or this: “The new numbers turn the economic logic we’re used to upside down,” writes the climate activist and journalist Bill McKibben. To him, the import of this moment is clear: For the first time, McKibben argues, humanity has at our fingertips the tools needed to end humanity’s millenniums-long dependence on burning things for energy — and to save our climate in the process." These progressive cheerleaders pohpoohed the Left's doom and gloom. "Look at the IRA,the great climate legislation. Look at the rapid transition thanks to the entreprenuerial spirit!" From today's NY Times: "BP, the energy giant, said on Wednesday that it would increase spending on oil and gas while sharply paring back investments on various forms of clean energy. The move, described as a “reset,” appears to be a response to a combination of investor pressure for higher returns and a realization that the so-called energy transition to cleaner fuels is not moving as fast as once expected." Actually, what has been realized is that the increasing demand for energy, take AI and crypto data centers for example, is far outstripping the supply of renewables. And then take the fact that the profit margin for renewables steadily decreases the more you supply. Oops! Now add the drill baby drill regulatory regime and increased subsidies and tax breaks and big oops! The oil majors are just doing what they are legally obligated to do, what they are designed to do, what makes the most "common sense". The more obvious it becomes that capitalism can't fix this, the fiercer liberals cling to their faith in miracles. "I know full well but nonetheless..."

Tragedy AND Farce

Both at the same time! Does the new face of disavowal mean the end of ideology or just add to the rubble? In a brilliant intervention, Alenka Zupancic dives deep into the symptoms now manifesting as the Age of Anxiety rapidly metastisizes. Her book Disavowal argues that the psychoanalytic concept of disavowal best renders the structure underlying our contemporary social response to traumatic and disturbing events, from climate change to unsettling tectonic shifts in our social tissue. This subconscious defensive mechanism is meant to protect through the repression of knowledge. Its most famous formulation goes like this: I know fully well (the traumatic lack) but nonetheless continue to act all the same. And one important, contemporary aspect of the fetish is that I insist that you know that I know. It is both a coping mechanism for keeping the repressed at bay and the source of perverse enjoyment. It is also the only way we can function in a system as obscene as "democratic" capitalism. Take the new administrations vow to "drill baby drill" which we all understand as "burn baby burn". “You can purge a website of the words climate change, but that doesn’t mean climate change goes away,” Mr. Lehner said. But in the pathological sense it does "go away"from our disavowed reality. In other words, I know (rational knowledge) that it doesn't go away, but nonetheless... the prevailing structure of disavowal today, the mere act of declaring that we know becomes itself an object-fetish by which we intercept the reality of that very knowledge. This perverse deployment of knowledge deprives it of any reality. In this sense, Trump is the perfect avatar for our age, because he actively establishes the terms of a new Big Other. This newly emergent Big Other doesn't understand what we are whinging about! He promises us that we will have fun and could care less about transgression. The Emperor flaunts his nakedness, all with a wink and a grin. He understands instinctually that people need to "believe" conspiracy theories in order to exist in the maelstrom. "I am being decieved, therefore I am." It protects them from the knowledge of their invisibility, their lack of agency, their total inconsequencialness. The more the doomloop grows, the more anxiety there is, the harder it is to disavow the castration, the more people need the phallic Trump to promise an orgy of fun. He promises that no matter what else it is, it will "Not be boring!"

What Is To Be Done (take 6)

Time for a little re-calibration perhaps? "All that is solid melts into air" has a new resonance and yet the point is not just to interprate the world but to change it, right? I have longed for disruption so now I have to figure out how to make lemonaid out of lemons.So let's see... In his book Against the Crisis, Stale Holgersen makes a compelling case that "crises are not opportunities- they are the enemy" because of the tendency for Capital to exploit and benefit. Even that Capital requires crisis (creative destruction) to survive. As I've argued here, ecological crisis could be categorically different, but let's just substitute the word crises- even polycrises- with rupture and see what happens. A somewhat different beast, a tear, a rent, a violent opening that occurs suddenly. This is what Mao was hoping for when he (perhaps) said "Everything under Heaven is in utter chaos- the situation is excellent." That chaos/crisis opens up a space so wide, creates a vacuum so deep, that the condition of possibilities is wide open. That space was on the horizon in 1914, in 1968, and, it could be argued, in 2008. How pregnant is the current conjecture? Not just for the Left, but for any radical formation? What nudge might be needed to blow that space up so that the current ruling order is so de-legitimized that something new can fill the void? I would argue that the effects of global heating and ecological breakdown, if exploited with skill and discipline, could do the trick. And thanks to physics, is more likely than any other force. This brings up the much-maligned concept of "heightening the contradictions". It is in this sense that I hope and pray for a series of Cat.5 hurricanes to strike the Gulf Coast at the same time the stock market crashes after some bubble bursts and just to top things off the National Guard massacres a bunch of Black protestors. That ought to do it! Of course along with this alignment of luck, there would have to be some conscious agency,ie.. good organizing, a charismatic leader perhaps, a plan for how to fill the vacuum. Ideas, yes, but ideas alone won't do it. Sad to say, at this point, you need the help of fate. I know. How cruel of me, what about the innocent victims? What about the Working Class? What about MAGA Trumpism? To which I answer: how brutal is business as usual? Victims? My God. And at the point of rupture I can see much of the working class forming the ecological class because choices will be constrained. The folks that really have to make a choice are the liberals clinging to "green capitalism". As for Trump, there is a sense in which he is doing much of the preliminary work for us. The point here is that the sooner this rupture happens the better, in terms od species loss, in terms of what is left to possibly salvage. The longer we sink into this slow attrition, watching the things we value slowly dissolve, the harder it will be to re-build.

Perhaps a Bit Jealous?

Liberals/ leftists are terrified the established order is being dismantled before their eyes, but might there also lurk a bit of jealousy? Progressives plod along decade after decade, incrementally passing their precious policies through the regular channels. They slog through the sacred institutions only to see it all undone in an instant backlash. Along comes this wacky MAGA revolution where all the deliberate processes of legislation and consultation and bi-partiship get tossed overboard like so much compost. Think of how awesome the MAGAs must feel seeing shit get done instantly, the very shit that was promised! That never happens! Your guys march around the globe throwing their weight around as the mainstream media goes beserk. What could be more fun. Your leader sits at his desk issueing order after order with child-like glee, re-ordering the world like you always dreamed of doing yourself. What could be cooler. Meanwhile the liberals turn to think tanks and drinking. Leftists turn to theorizing. Or re-theorizing; is this neofascism? Neofeudalism? Perhaps Techno-feudalism? One clear goal is profit: Gaza real estate, Ukranian and Greenland minerals, What Trump and the MAGGATs understand and the liberal never will is that the Game is called capitalist "democracy, emphasis on the C word. The D word is for chumps. This works great when your constituency is homo economicus, those looking for cheap eggs. Those who want to see shit git done and don't care if you have to break a few of those eggs to make an omelet. Liberals instantly become conservatives, insisting (as the world burns) on preserving the status quo and proceeding cautiously, incrementally, tiny reform after tiny reform. Maybe an Infrastructure or Inflation Reduction bill. Wow, huge deal, so impressive. Until you see Trump turn the global order upside down in two weeks.

Dumb or Not Dumb?

So are The People stupid or not? When they support MAGA are they hoodwinked simpletons or simply reacting rationally to objective conditions? Liberals and leftists struggle with this question, much as they do with the question of "deplorables". It's a little hard to quantify empirically but there are lots of opinions on the subject. Masha Gessen from the NY Times has an opinion: "and has had such a dumbing-down effect on public conversation...But a lot of people, as it turns out, are a lot like Donald Trump. They think they’re much smarter than they are." Democrat Ruben Gallego has an opinion: "Every Latino man wants a big-ass truck, which, nothing wrong with that. “And you’re gonna go start your own job, and you’re gonna become rich, right?” These are the conversations that we should be having. Because people that are working class, poor, don’t necessarily look at the ultrarich as their competitors. They want to be rich someday. And so they don’t necessarily fault the rich for being rich." Now we are back to class analysis: everybody hates rich people but they all want to be one. As for gaining their vote, it's easy. Give people treats. Votes for treats. Simple enough, right? Liberals are kvetching that Trump is "transactional" but c'mon; the capitalist world goes around on contracts. At issue is what I call the Chomsky contradiction: is there a "democracy deficit", in which the popular will is ignored by the "ruling class", or do they "manufacture consent"? If there is a deficit, people are smart and understand their interests but are dismissed by the powers that be. If their consent can be manufactured by media, popular culture, etc..if they are easily manipulated, then they are not so intelligent. If you crave a "big-ass truck" and don't recognize your own exploitation, sorry, you're dumb. I can buy your vote but the next guy who comes along and offers more will turn you. Welcome to "non-ideological capitalist "democracy".

Live by the Vote - Die by the Vote

I haven't seen liberals this freaked out since the last time Trump won. Now they are searching for a new "Resistance" and honing their messaging and raising money for the next election cycle. Next time they will vote harder and try to re-establish the Old Order. The one of common sense and upholding of norms, even ( having learned their lesson) gender norms. In the meantime they will whine and moan about oligarchs suddenly running things. Yeah. The interests of the wealthy were never considered by the Democrats, but of course the real concern is the fact that it is now so blatant. Our culture has for decades drilled home the idea that rich successful businessmen make the best leaders ( the innovators) so it should hardly come as a surprise when people elect them. Are they fascists or ubermensh? I'd say they are CEO's doing what CEO's do. The question here is how much of the liberal capitalist state do you want to preserve? What part of the government was going to prevent overshoot? Sure, it's a wacky dumpster fire with ideological rubble piled higher than Gaza, but no government has any plan for managing collapse. Can't afford eggs or home insurance? Just put it on your credit card. Too much stress? Go shopping. Buy some memecoins. Fuck if I know. It appears my Ukrain prediction was correct. A million Ukranian dead (according to the NY Times), at least that many Russian "working class" men. Not sure what class the Israeli soldiers come from. Or Hamas. Or Modi's Hindus. I guess we'll see U.S. mining conglomerates in joint ventures with the Russians. This new virtual economy needs a lot of metals.

Moderate Israelis

As the legacy media tells it, all the pressure for annexation of Palestinian territories comes from the Israeli "hard right". They make it sound like it was the "extreme right-wing" members of Netanyahu's governing coalition that pressed him to commit the genocidal destruction and terror in Gaza. This is a very convenient narrative for the so-called "moderate" Israelis who can wring their hands and whine about the terrible situation and the dangerous neighborhood and blah blah. Poor us. After all we've been through. These so-called "moderates" were fine with the situation pre-Oct.7 when Gazans were living in an open-air prison and settlers were attacking residents of the West Bank and the Israeli military was murdering civilians with impunity. Those moderates believed their "one state solution" of apartheid would last forever. In a comment to an article on Trumps plan for forced removal, an Israeli moderate spells it out quite clearly: "The Palestinians, on October 7, made sure they'll never realize their dream of statehood. It's all on them. Your sympathy for them is wasted." Because in their collective mind the occupation began on Oct.7, the planned ethnic cleansing "is all on them". They were on a path to statehood but got impatient. All the oppresion before that date is washed clean. The genocide and demolition and murder of journalists and doctors and children they just watched is all washed clean. The moderates just want to turn the page and move on. In this sense, Trump's insane proposal articulates the fantasy most Zionists have harboured for decades: maybe the Palestinians will just disappear! Maybe we can tap our heels three times and when we open our eyes The Territories will be a fantastic beach-front resort! And all this horror will have just been a bad dream. And I won't have to feel any guilt and my children won't have to live with this legacy of genocide. This is not unlike climate denialism. At its core a fantasy that it will just go away if we wish it hard enough. Who wants to stare into the abyss? No one.

Art of the Deal

Trump has layed out his opening gambit, and as all the great real estate developers do, he starts by knocking people back on their heels. Of course he knows from experience that he is going to have to sweeten the pot and I have a suggestion. This is a man who knows the power of burgers. What he could do is promise a years supply of Big Macs for any Palestinian willing to accept his buy-out plan. A condo in Jordan with nice trees and a year of burgers - who would say no? You avoid all that ugly "expulsion, ethnic cleansing" talk. You don't need the military. You have "magnificent" housing in "six or maybe seven different places" and voila- another deal done! From the shit-eating grin on Netenyahu's face it is easy to imagine this re-development plan has been in place since Oct.8 and that Bibi has shares in the company. He does the extermination and de-construction. Jared Kushner builds the resorts and golf courses. Gaz-a-Lago. What The Donald understands is that everything is transactional and everyone can be bought. The trick is finding a price everyone can agree on. And who better to build a new "Riviera" in Gaza than Trump Associates? You could do mixed development: lower end ranch-style homes for the Israeli settlers, Neo-Kibutzian, and snazzier sea-side digs for the global elite. Unlike the U.S., Trump says "anyone from around the world" can move there. Palestinians could work as maids and gardeners, clean the pools, bartend etc..

Could Be Worse?

For argument's sake; had all the mainstream climate/ environmental groups declared themselves anti-capitalist 15 years ago, how much worse could the outcome have been? Compared to what they now face? Had they called bullshit on Obama's "de-coupling" and worried less about access to Biden. Speaking of, why wait till the last days of your administration to take Cuba off the list of states supporting terrorism? Knowing full well Trump would put them back on? Truly an asshole move, thanks for nothing, Genocide Joe. Speaking of Trump, he could kill two birds with one stone by deporting all the homeless people in America along with the immigrants. There's lots of extra housing in China, they might take em. Or El Salvador. I see where the Donald sent the military into California to free some of that extra water they had sitting there. Take that, latte libs! Totally un-woke and fuck a bunch of little fish or whatever. Guacamole might be a little expensive for your superbowl party but you might consider pistachios. I watched Ross Douthout interview Steve Bannon, and I learned a lot about populist economic nationalism. Except for some small differences around immigration, he could run on the same ticket as Bernie. Cut the defense budget, stop the tax cut for Wall Street elites, build working class power- it's all there and more. A kinder, gentler capitalism with some masculine traits, a little Mother Mary, Bud Light and pick-up trucks. A lot fewer immigrants. Lastly, State Farm is asking the California regulators for a 22% rate increase on top of the 20% they asked for in March. We'll see what the Market will bear.

We Will Run the Experiment

Doomberg, my new source for capitalist thinking around energy, wants us to accept reality. He asserts that there will be no stopping the juggernaut and so the only relevant question is one of adaptation. Like Nordhaus, he hopes the wealth created by fossil energy will help us adapt to future impacts. This is magical thinking, but since the current (and mostly future) impacts fall on poor black and brown people, who gives a shit, right? According to research out of Cornell University, 1.6 billion people may become refugees due to global warming by 2060. By 2100, one billion deaths may be attributable to the climate crisis. These are the subjects of the "experiment" Doomberg accepts as inevitable. Laboratory rats. And capitalism is the laboratory. Do we count the dead in the latest LA fires? The 219 killed by Helene? It is unclear when the count begins and what metric is used to determine the success or failure of the experiment. I suppose you could come up with a formula: deaths per point of GDP growth? Again, we are only talking about humans, as if theirs are the only lives which count. Doomberg's investment strategy is astute. As the experiment is run, lots of money will be made by those making the smart bets. The gambling part is on the temporal plane: how long can you go before the experiment's failure- climate chaos - puts the kabosh to the accumulation and profit. Bet long, bet short. Winners and losers. The world runs on contracts. But physics eventually has its way.

Sleepy Time Time

Now that decarbonization is woke we can sleep our way into the catastrophe. A flood here, a fire there, wake me when it's over. A conversation between Times Opinion deputy editor Patrick Healy and columnist David Wallace-Wells, where they try to parse the new climate "political" landscape, is instructive as to the liberal panic around this dreamscape. Although they avoided the word capitalism they did use the term spectacle. Although not in the Debordian sense. More like "it's a show you know". Wallace-Wells begins by claiming the U.S. is "neck deep in de-carbonization" then immediately contradicts himself by admitting how paltry the investment and progress actually is. And of course he gages "progress"by the number of EV's out there on the road. Healy posits the theory that Trump senses that "climate voters are on the ropes" ( there was virtually no mention of it during the capmpaigns) and he is using the moment to finish them off. Sorry 350, but it's for the best. Wallace-Wells tries to salvage some bit of hope by claiming conservatives may, following the LA fires, want to see "more done on the adap[tation and resilience side by government investment". More fire hydrants perhaps? That should save us. That and "fuel thinning", that is, white workers chopping down millions of acres of tinder-dry brush ( brown ones are all to be deported). Yes. Brilliant idea. Another source of "hope" for these liberals is that Trump recognizes a resource crisis and then wants to expedite the sourcing of critical minerals. And get rid of those pesky "permitting problems". So we can have unlimited electricty forever. Awesome. The fact is these liberals are also asleep to the fact that, as Naomi Klein observed, the Right is right; capitalism cannot solve the crisis that it created. Because the Right understands this inconvenient truth, it suggests sleep. A widely accepted alternative to all the anxiety (and thoughts of limits and relinquishment) that consciousness brings.

A New Working Class / Oligarch Coalition of Collapse

MAGA has achieved the liberal dream of frictionless capitalism. It turns out the best way to discipline labor is to incorporate it, or, as the Situationists described it, recuperate it. The technique starts with atomizing, alienating and individualizing the worker, stressing the competition between Her and Her Fellow Workers. Dog eat dog, as Joni Mitchel sang it. Then you add some stimulus/ reward - just enough treats so the worker won't take any risks -like a long line of credit,( personal debt is at a record high) a house in the suburbs, a nice vehicle or two. For their part, the oligarchs need to do some serious grooming. They polish up the image, projecting htemnselves as humanist disrupters, radicals, revolutionaries. In Gramsci’s words, this trade-off comes from “collusion in the success of a strategy of passive revolution, which responds to pressures from below by incorporating popular demands. Such a strategy can succeed in improving the lives of enough of the population to legitimate hegemonic claims as long as economic conditions permit”. In other words, as I have long argued, elites/"ruling classes/ the "capitalist class" will grudgingly incorporate social democratic reforms into their agenda when it serves their purpose of legitimization. It can be as simple as the price of gas, or eggs. This supports the "metanarrative" that markets and the profit system are the only way to organize society. They give a little then take a lot. Which is all well and good until the oligarchs start believing their own hype and they too are subsumed in the Spectacle. As Joao Camargo puts it: "The elites themselves, instead of just using these vast set of ideas to dominate the other classes, actually came to be dominated by them. They came to believe the mystical hype about their role in the world and in society, about capitalism as the only way to organize human societies, about historical miracles and about the end of history. They are still doing so despite their tiny historical existence and despite the fact that some of their own institutions recognize that they are jeopardizing the subsistence of global civilization." The rulers themselves are mired in "a compulsory need derived from their very own metanarrative in which they are stuck. They can’t help themselves, it is their core social and cultural programming. They will never be able to solve the crisis, but only to deepen it. We need to overthrow them or their death pulse will lead us all into collapse."

Got A Feeling About The Future

And it ain't too good. I know I'm supposed to feel profound sympathy for the people losing their homes to fire in LA, but instead I feel much more sympathy for the people who live in tents or cars on the streets of America. Or the people who live in shacks throughout the so-called "developing world". People who don't get "homes" , but basic shelter. Speaking of homes: "The numbers show how climate change is eroding the underpinnings of American life by making home insurance costlier and harder to hang on to, even as wildfires, hurricanes and other calamities increasingly threaten what is, for many people, their most valuable asset." Gee, who could have predicted that insurance would be the Achilles heel? In his book Against the Crisis;Economy and Ecology in a Burning World, author Stale Holgersen argues that rather than crisis undermining capitalism, it actually serves to strenthen the system. Basically taking shock doctrine to the next level. What seems to be undefined, however, is the difference between, or dialectic of, crisis and rupture. I get that "creative destruction" is a feature of capitalism but what we will soon be looking at is uncreative destruction. The shattering of the last, tenuous social bonds. Klein also wrote This Changes Everything, with an understanding that unlike other "metabolic rifts", climate change will not be a linear progression of events. it accelerates exponentially till you've plunged off the cliff. Capitalism will not thrive under this regime. As for today's inauguration of Trump, the American People just want cheaper groceries and if it takes burning fossil fuel, whatever. It is a simple, transactional formula. Votes for treats. Of course physics doesn't argue and more houses will burn or be flooded or blown away, the sooner the better IMO. One of Trumps executive orders does away with "the social cost of carbon", one of the linchpins of green capitalism. The formula, first proposed by Nobel winning economist Nordhaus, was supposed to make markets more rational and efficient but it ignored Capitalism's ideological component.

Stampede to the Exit

According to influential financial analysts, the era of ESG (concern for environmental, social and governance issues) is over. The model is already in retreat, but when Trump takes the helm we will see a "stampede to the exit". After all, any corporation will be at a "competitive disadvantage if you don't end all that stuff." No matter how much gloss you want to put on it, COP 29 was a disaster in the sense that time is running out and there is still zero sense of urgency. Stalling and posturing and dissembling followed by lofty pronouncements. Sound familiar? As the analyist succinctly puts it: "It doesn't matter if it's ( meaning ecological breakdown) is real or not, because the occupants of this planet are not going to do anything about it. Brace yourself for impact, we are going to run the experiment." What he means by "brace" is position yourself to make as much money as possible in the time remaining. A rather insane, fatalistic cynicism, grasping for justification as the rational means to promote development forA the needy poor people of the planet. He continues: "If it is as calamitous as they (science, physics) claim it is going to be we will have to deal with such impacts as they arise.Because that is what is going to happen." The "we" he is talking about has already shown how it plans to deal with impacts. Push costs ( human sufering and monetary) off onto the periphery (those least responsible). Live it up while the band plays on then grab a lifeboat and shove off. The Doomberg Postulate: Every molecule of fossil fuel will be burned by somebody somewhere. Climate change is a "narrative" you can choose to adopt or reject. All those "green" capitalists will burn through their subsidies and find themselves building more solar-powered sweatshops in order to compete. And the end game, you ask? Sorry. There isn't one.