You know what to do.

 

Now that things are headed for what many of us expected and feared and warned about, lots of people have opinions about how we're dealing with the end of our lives as we had known them. After having built careers and homes and families on the trust that the country we learned about in school or the movies or on Schoolhouse Rock was a country of progress and laws and due process and human rights, we are finding out that it was all so fragile that a few very rich people united with a bunch of very craven people and a huge bunch of not very nice people can take what we built and turn it into dust. And we're mad.

So a lot of people are scared now, not of the rich-craven-not very nice people who are blowing everything we built to smithereens--no--they're scared of us being too mad about it. They've got all kinds of ideas about how loud we should be and what kind of flags we should be waving. It's what I call the "Don't make Daddy mad" strategy promoted to soothe the "I've got really nice stuff please don't break anything" anxiety rampant among some very comfortable nervous talkers. 

Once again, Dems and some Progressives either don't really believe in a pluralistic, multiracial democratic republic and are looking for a workaround, or they are kidding themselves into thinking there is something we can do that is nice enough or reasonable enough to keep the bad guys from doing what they want to do. That if we only Good Guys! hard enough, the country will wake up one morning and think, "I've been on the wrong side all along." Best of all, it won't cost or break anything.

Ironically, that's exactly what a lot of frustrated Democrats rejected in 2024 when they stayed home. They knew, as anyone should, that this level of infection does not cure itself; it requires aggressive intervention, and if you're not part of that solution, you're part of the problem.

It is astounding that Democrats still exist who think there is anything we/they can not do that will make Republicans not do something. These squishy Dems and pseudos are not simply timid or ambitious or greedy. They are out of time, living and working in a world that doesn't exist anymore. This is a fighting moment, and it's going to get messy. 

If we're actually going to have the conversation about how to behave at a demonstration of solidarity and resistance, I offer my personal perspective: 

First: Resist. Obstruct. Protest. Lots of folks say "Protest! but peacefully!" and I agree, but it's not only up to us. I say, let the cops supply the violence--they're experts--but be prepared. There are trainings that can help. If you are given a choice, respond in a way that keeps you safe. We have a lot of protests ahead of us, and we're going to need everybody.

Also, in my opinion, if you are dressed in black from head to toe, masked and throwing bottles at the cops or burning cars, you're not helping. You're just another problem for me.

Second: If at any point you can't tell the difference between your protest and a middle school lunchroom on a particularly bad day, check yourself. We're fighting over the future of the world not who talked shit about whose boyfriend. 

Third: Opinions differ, but I say wave whatever the fuck flag you want. Just for reference:

Excited onlookers wave to members of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing Band during the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade March 17 (2009).

March for Justice and Community Graham, North Carolina (2020 July)

Anthony Crider, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Chicago Pride Parade 2011

nathanmac87, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

A flag is not going to tip the scales of history or cost you or "the movement" the support of anyone who wasn't already looking for an excuse. If it makes you proud, be proud.

Do the training. Be loud. Be visible. Have some fun if you can. Beyond that, it's not-very-complicated golden rule stuff: Don't be an asshole. 

However, and this is important, don't automatically assume that following these or any other rules will protect you from asshole behavior from them. We may very well get gassed for standing still, or for not standing still. We may be pushed, hit with batons and "less-lethal" rounds for not doing exactly what we're told or in spite of doing what we're told. It's what fascists do. Prepare.

We didn't make the world; we're just trying to make it into something we can live in. And Democratic leaders who are afraid to get their hands dirty should just shut the fuck up and take a vacation. 

And, if they are thinking they can just lay low, or put out press releases trying to hoodwink us into thinking they're actually doing something, and then pop back up once this is "over"-- either to take charge again after we've saved the country or to lead the post-apocalypse resistance after the catastrophe they helped create--they are delusional and fuck them. 

That's it.

Be careful. Take a moment to appreciate the importance of what we are trying to do.

See you out there.

LAUSD

I've written before about Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and the courageous administrators and staff who turned away ICE body snatchers in April. 

That seems like forever ago now as the Trump administration has turned the intimidation up to 11 and, in addition to countless other outrages, has stationed "federal vans" within blocks of schools in an apparent effort to terrorize students and their families into self-disappearing before ICE does it for them.

Against this backdrop of military troops in the streets and new threats seemingly every day coming from the regime, it takes courage to stand up to bullies wielding state power. 

I may disagree with Supt. Carvalho over other aspects of public education, but on this most important element, we agree entirely.

Everybody has the chance to do the right thing. Not everybody will. This is the right thing.

Why is everything so fucked up? revisited

Don't-give-a-fuck Republicans are preparing to cut Medicare, Medicaid, nutrition assistance, education, research, national parks, clean energy, and agencies such as the EPA and BLM and NASA, and programs like USAID (and what else? even Congress hasn't read the damn bill), all in exchange for mass deportations, a bigger defense budget, and humongous tax cuts largely for billionaires (which is cool because the bill also cuts IRS enforcement focused on billionaires!), I thought it would be a good time to re-up this simple Q & A for how everything got so fucked up. Here goes.

                     The answer to all your questions is: Money.

According to teevee host and former sportswriter Tony Kornheiser, television producer and network big shot Don Ohlmeyer once told him, "The answer to all your questions is: Money."

When we try and figure out how we got into this mess, I'm sure many of us can point to our own favorite incident, policy, condition, cause, or villain, as the reason things are so fucked up. When it comes up among friends, individual lists grow and merge into a gigantic trail of crimes and outrages and, of course, they and we are all correct. I don't even have to open my mouth anymore. When it's my turn everyone just shouts "Reagan!" before I can open my mouth. 

Turns out I may have a case, of sorts. 

A working paper from RAND released in February examines income inequality among U.S. workers. It builds upon an earlier study, and RAND describes it this way: "This short analysis extends the results from a prior study about the gap between what the majority of workers earned from 1975 to 2018 and what they would have earned with more evenly distributed income growth (Price and Edwards, 2020)." It's a short, clear, easy read and I encourage you to take a look at it here, but the money shot is as follows (emphasis mine):

These values are intended to provide an indication of the scale of rising inequality and its durability over the last nearly five decades. Looking at the net effects of these trends, if we had the income distribution from 1975, the majority of workers (the bottom 90 percent by income) would have made an additional $3.9 trillion dollars in 2023. Cumulatively, the gap between what workers from 1975 to 2023 earned and what they would have earned with the counterfactual income distribution amounts to $79 trillion (in 2023 dollars). Compared to the $47 trillion from the 2020 study, the additional $32 trillion dollars comes from extending the time-period by five years, inflating from 2018 to 2023, and additional growth in inequality.

Seventy-nine trillion dollars is a lot of money. A lot of child care and college educations and homes that could have been passed down to help create generational wealth. Instead, "the bottom 90 percent" did not fully participate in the growth of the American economy they helped produce. You know who did? You know who reaped their own benefits and a giant share of everybody else's? Sure you do. 

And not for nothing, there's this from the RAND paper:

For three decades following the Second World War, incomes for workers across the income distribution grew at the same pace as the broader economy. This changed in the late 1970s, when earnings growth began disproportionately flowing to those with the highest incomes leading to four decades of rising inequality.

Here it is graphically, from the Economic Policy Institute:

The late 1970's. Arthur Laffer. Jack Kemp. William Roth. Voodoo supply-side trickle down "economics." And do you know who endorsed this nonsense, who ran on it and was elected in 1980? Sure you do. 

That is a huge part of how we went from thirteen U.S. billionaires in 1980 to over 900 today (+ around 7000 percent). Since geographical distinctions are not what they used to be, it's also instructive to note that Forbes reports its own count as rising from 140 billionaires worldwide in 1987 to 3,028 today. Up 2162% give or take. It's been a good run if you're a billionaire and/or heir to one. For the rest of us, not so great. 

And that is a big reason why everything is so fucked up.

Thanks for reading. Speak to you soon. 

Addicted to rage

People used to ask of Trump supporters, "How can they vote for this piece of shit?" or something similar. I used to answer, "Because he hates the people they hate." 

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst just blew off questions about Medicaid cuts with "We all are going to die" and everyone thinks her voters might turn on her. Maybe, if--and only if--they see the cuts hurting them more than they can stand and not hurting the people they hate enough. 

But even then it's not likely. As Steve M @stevemnomoremister.bsky.social‬ puts it, "They live in a permanent state of rage against Democrats and every group identified with Democrats, and the rage is their joy. All she has to do is persuade them she's offending us and she's home free."

True, but I think it's even more than that. I think these people are addicted to their hatred, and to the simultaneous feelings of victimhood and superiority that fuel their anger. Now for the standard caveat: It's not all of them. Which is beside the point and which is BS anyway and gives them too much credit for being humans and not enough blame for being rationalizing self-justifying snakes. 

You can't listen to all the racist shit and braggadocious dimwittery that comes out of Trump's mouth and then say, "Yeah, I wouldn't have said it that way" and "I'm not always comfortable with his style," and then come back with "But he's tough!" and "Businessman!" unless a big part of you is okay with all of it.

And you can't listen to him lying about everything and then believe him about anything, not even the things you really really want to be true, unless your whole self is okay with all of that, too.

These people are addicted to rage, so when Joni Ernst says "We're all going to die" or Mike Johnson lies to them about Medicaid cuts or Stephen Miller threatens due process, they don't think he means their due process. And then they imagine and fantasize about the people they think will be hurt, and they get that rush, and the only thing the rage pushers could ever do to lose them would be to not give them the drug.

So if, after Trump's COVID debacle and Jan. 6 and stolen boxes of secrets, and after snatching people off the streets and deporting American citizens and playing tariff roulette with the economy, and after turning the presidency into his own personal ATM and after inviting a drug addict in to take all the data and fire all the people, you're wondering why he's still cool with FORTY-FIVE PERCENT "of those polled," don't wonder.

Whether they are mainlining Trump's lunacy or think of themselves as weekend recreational users, they are addicts obsessed with their next fix. There is nothing Trump & Co can do to lose them. 

Ask yourself, "What would a crack dealer have to do that would be so bad that a crackhead would turn down a free hit?"