Tag: There should be no such thing as billionaires

An Annotated List of Some Sources of My American Malaise

These are symptoms of a corrupt society.

  • Democratic Neoliberals –
    • Jimmy Carter – Ineffectual leader, Famously criticized Americans for their lack of will while failing to address the hostage crisis in Iran, the double-whammy of unemployment and concurrent inflation, or much else, really.
    • Bill Clinton – tried to combat the Reagan wave in politics by becoming more Reagan-like.
    • Hillary Clinton – Not politically talented, managed to continue the Democratic tradition of snatching defeat from the jaws of vicotry.
    • Obama – Big talker on the campaign trail, didn’t do much of what he promised, continued the party’s practice of pointing at the Republicans while lying in a self-drawn chalk outline of themselves.
    • Zombie Joe – propped up by a party apparatus more motivated to hold on to power than to help people, as they had been since Bill Clinton. Failed to manage even that.
  • Fascists
    • Reagan – Laid the groundwork for every evil thing the Republican Party has done since. Didn’t introduce Milton Friedmann’s to the American economy (that would be Jimmy Carter) but he advanced the neoliberal cause into the inescapable plague it is to this day.
    • Bush – Bush 41 was the intellectual giant of the last 4 Republican presidents, but that didn’t help. Lasted 1 term. Remember Operation Desert Storm? Whoopee! Also, his opposition to “Voodoo Economics” disappeared the moment he got the job helping Reagan administer those very policies.
      • Bush 43 eroded the power of the constitution even farther, committed horrible atrocities across the globe, is nothing in comparison to the next Republican president in terms of destructive, greed-fueled idiocy.
    • Trump – Here is the air you’re breathing now. At this point the constitution is a meaningless piece of paper, human life is only as valuable as its bank account, and because of his actions on the international stage, everyone in the world rightfully hates us.
  • Imperialist Wars of Aggression
    • Genocide – An American tradition going back as far as 1619. Today our tax dollars are continuing that tradition in Gaza, the West Bank, and southern Lebanon.
    • Iraq War – An illegal, unprovoked war of agression that has led, by some counts, to the deaths of over 600,000 innocent Iraqis and destabilized the entire region.
    • Afghani War – An intentional failure and boondoggle that went on for 20 years too long. It’s trillions of dollars that were just thrown away, and that was the actual purpose of the adventure.
    • Iran War – continuing the American tradition of unprovoked and illegal wars of aggression against countries that didn’t attack us. We’re losing this one decisively.
    • Rat Bastardry™ in countries to our south – How different is Nicolás Meduro from Manuel Noriega, in the final analysis? Mainly the difference is in the even worse behavior of the American state. It must be remembered that the US has worked its evil on the countries south of us since we’ve had the ability and interest to do so. The Mexican-American War of 1848 is of a piece with the kidnapping of Meduro and the theft of Venezuela’s oil and gold.
    • Vietnam War – An obvious precedent for much that has happened since. No one remembers Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., but they should.
      • Gulf of Tonkin – the trumped up fake attack that set the precedent for many lies that followed.
  • Internal scandals
    • Watergate – A context in which an American President claimed, “If the President does it, then it’s legal.”
    • Corruption – This country has been set up to benefit the merchant class from the time said rich imperialist first set foot on these shores in the 17th century. At this point, all other impulses – Democracy, individual liberty, equality (hah) – have been subsumed into the weathiest among us’s greed.
    • Racism – Endemic and written into the script. Apart from simple prejudice, there’s endless history of legislation (Virginia’s Black Laws dating back to 1680 as an example,) suppression, and all manner inhumane treatment. The thing to remember about racism is that it’s a tool of the rich and powerful. It’s divide and conquer.
    • Sexism – Let’s just say “virulent patriarchy” and move on here.
    • Homophobia – A tool of patriarchal hegemony with the added pizzazz of being a fear of the self in many cases, and in virtually all of the most virulent cases.
      • Transphobia should probably get its own own bullet here, although in my perception, it’s got most if not all of the features of homophobia, with the addition of trans folk being seen as an even more direct affront to the sensibilities of the patriarchy.
    • White Supremacy – If we look at this as distinct from racism – which it isn’t, really – we have to point to the strange matter of how many white people think they’re being oppressed if they’re treated the same as everybody else. It’s truly weird, and that misreading of the map of the world in the social dimension is a huge source of the malaise we all endure.
  • The disappointing left
    • Bernie – Bernie gets huge credit from me for the things he’s accomplished. He’s the best spokesman for the anti-neoliberal movenent that’s burgeoning in this world that the US has, but he has also failed us all at a couple of crucial moments. He’s twice gotten to a crucial moment in his campaigns for president and just thrown in the towel without winning enough concessions from his opponents to make a difference.
    • The Squad – Four women in Congress, generally fighting the good fight, but they sometimes self-sabotage and therefore sabotage a country struggling to find some moral and ethical footing in this post-neoliberal era. The best of them is Ilhan Omar, in my opinion, although AOC is more charismatic. We shouldn’t expect them to change the world, but sometimes I wish they would fight harder, and sometimes it’s frustrating that they fold when they shouldn’t.
    • Current Liberal Leadership – When the supposed opposition acts like quislings and collaborators, and simultaneously shout down anyone who acts as true opposition. They pretend to be on our side while abjectly serving their Epstein-class masters.

Zeitgeist 7/14/26

I feel like I have an obligation to dig into this whole Graham Platner debacle, considering how enthusiastic I’ve been about him.

I had thought to write a bit about a Jethro Tull album for this week, but I’ve trashed that post. I might write about it again at some point, since I am interested in the evolution of that band over its many decades of existence. Every band is a story, and Jethro Tull has fascinated me for years. This observation idea of mine is a chance for a deeper dive and I will definitely take that opportunity.

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But what I feel like I have an obligation to dig into right now is the whole Graham Platner debacle. Regular readers of this blog (if such a beast exists outside of my imagination) will remember that I have posted about that dude with enthusiasm on more than one occasion.

And then this week we learned that he probably is the horrible person the oppo researchers have so wanted him to be this whole time. Yes, most likely he’s a rapist. I’ll tell you straight up. I’ve been made aware of the incident’s particulars and it really does seem like he’s done a terrible thing, dehumanized a woman, and lived in denial of that fact for years – denied it so hard he thought he could deny it right into a seat in the US Senate.

And until the facts of this case surfaced, I was absolutely on his side, even though there were a few other rumblings in the oppositional noise to suggest that he had this tendency. Because that’s the nature of elections in this country. Throw dirt at your opponent and hope some of it sticks. In this case, it really did, like a fork in a roast turkey. Goddammit.

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I’ve been listening to The Pretty Reckless a lot lately. They’re a fabulously arty punk/rock/pop band with a decidedly modern flair. Taylor Momsen is blowing my mind, tbh. At different times, they’ve tickled my particularly generation jones ear with a redolence of Gun Club, Zep, Kelly Clarkson (this is a compliment, goddammit,) X, mid-seventies Floyd, and Jobriath. In short, they’re brilliant. The cover art for this new album, Dear God pt. 1, is spectacular. I have the indie-variant vinyl, which is, I think, the proper format for this album.

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But the thing with this whole Platner situation is that… Platner constantly said to his audience, “This is not about me, it’s about YOU!” and the fact is, that is the way every US pol should think. One of the things that really made Platner click with people is that he understood that money being the biggest influence in our politics these days needs to end. I think he also campaigned on the terminality of the cult of personality. We should vote for the politicians who say and feel like they will follow through with policies that will help working people.

I think I need to reiterate, at this point, that Graham Platner is not an acceptable or viable candidate. He has **** of his own that he needs to deal with now. And seeking the approval of the public while he goes through this is… anathema.

But whoever replaces him on the ticket should reflect the values of the voters who supported Platner. The next candidate should:

  • work to abolish ice
  • address the corruption on the supreme court and in the federal government generally
  • fight for medicare for all
  • campaign for a living wage and affordable housing
  • strongly oppose the Israeli genocide against Palestinians and Lebanon
  • And the same for all forever wars.

In short, he campaigned as a representative of working Americans. That needs to not be lost, and the next person who takes up the mantle of Democratic nominee for that senate seat should have the same positions.

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We’re about to start our third heat wave in as many weeks here. That seems to be going on in a lot of places. The planet’s clearly out of whack, due to stupid human activity. I’ve been hearing that we’ve crossed the line, and that no matter what we do, we’re about to face climate disaster. And yet we’re in the middle east fighting for oil and against human decency. It all makes me wonder if humanity can survive its own greed and thickheadedness. I don’t have an answer for you about this. Time will tell, if there’s anyone to listen.

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The best things about Summer are home grown tomatoes and ice cream. I wish you plenty of both!

Some of Karen’s tomato haul from last year. Photo by me.

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More Controversial Beliefs: I am a Libertarian Socialist

If you’re going to categorize my politics, this is the stuff I believe society should be organized around.

I am a libertarian socialist. I believe that societies should be organized at as close to ground level as they can possibly be. Centralized power is anathema to human happiness.

In fact, Capitalism never considers the need for people to be whole, healthy, and happy a priority at all. One only has to look at the current state of the world to see that this is so.

Capitalism is a good servant but a poor master. Commerce and trade offer crucial support to a community, but they must be held in check, and carefully managed with the larger context of sustainability and human happiness in mind.

Large corporations should not be allowed, and capitalists should not be allowed to earn more than 50 times the basic income rate, which should be defined in relation to how much it takes to meet basic necessities such as enough good, nutritious food, adequate housing, all other basic expenses met, and enough extra money to save against emergencies and for education and amusement.

Billionaires in general should not exist. I agree with the idea that if you somehow manage to amass a billion dollars, everything over 900 million of those dollars should be taxed at a marginal rate of 100%.

Centralized power should be avoided at all costs. Large concerns should be organized by cooperating communities and/or worker’s coöps. Large concentrations of power cause suffering in the best circumstances. Power should be balanced and distributed into as many different hands as possible. People caught abusing their power should have it taken away.

Administrative tasks should be handled on the most local and small level possible, and larger projects should be organized across boundaries between communities if necessary. Once projects of a larger size are completed, the authorities that created them should be either disbanded or minimized in size to conduct reasonable maintenance of any particular ongoing project. Such authorities should be under the aegis of all impacted communities.

Communities themselves should be organized along two axes: geography and affinity. Society should be as free as it can be made to be, but people should be able to organize based on what they need, like, and want as well as where they exist on the map. Communities should have different sizes and shapes and should have porous borders in some ways and firm ones in others. The power of the collective will always outstrip the power of any individual. By the same token, the power of the collective should only be exercised out of necessity.

There is more to say on these topics, and at some point, I may come back to this.

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