@Cassiodorus Biden will even get support if he smashes the BLM movement much like Obama did with OWS. What worries me most is that as American society crumbles in 2021, Biden and democrats will divert from the disaster by starting up some war most likely with Russia to show Putin what-for. Given the incompetent leadership of both democrats and republicans, by 2024 not much of a country will remain. Dystopia will be the condition for most of the country.

Nearly everyone is going to cheer on Joe Biden as he crosses the finish line in November. Then nearly everyone is going to be spending the next four years cheering on Joe Biden regardless of what he (or his surrogates) says or does, because "the Republicans are worse." Then when Joe Biden gives the store away to the Republicans and we get a Republican for President in 2024, everyone will be "omigod we gotta get a Democrat back in the White House."

@fire with fire

well, and imagine a brighter future equally well. thank you.

The only significant topic for everyone -- not just erstwhile Democrats, liberals and progressives -- is how do we overthrow the insane social order within the USA and its imperial domains. Of course that means that upwards of 95% of us refuse to think about it and many of those who do are too naive to have anything of value to say on the question of how to prevent the extinction of our species.

The first order of business is clarity. We are not just trying to realign the distribution of "wealth" by seizing the means of "production." We have to re-define both words, wealth and production. I get a cynical chuckle out of a common sound bite this bizarre summer in the northern hemisphere: "The CARES Act included the biggest transfer of wealth in history." No, it was the biggest gift of dollars to people who already have plenty of them in the history of the world. Wealth distribution remains static -- the rich are still rich and the rest of us ain't. The amounts of "dollars" in bank accounts have nothing to do with how much material stuff you have.

In a recent thread here, I did not pick up on this point, but I think it is more relevant in the current discussion: In response to me saying that the post-apocalyptic economy must include all of us giving up on lots of really popular crap that we don't need, a Comment went off on a rant against Coca Cola. Exactly! Soda pop and a zillion other frivolous and supposedly harmless things will have no place in any conceivable sustainable future.

Here is the rub. The status quo argument against socialism and any revolutionary project from "the left" to the working class is simple and persuasive: "Capitalism gives you the choice of what you want to do with the fruits of your own labor. Capitalism is therefore democratic. The left wants to tell you what you can have because some supposedly smart guys know better than you what is good for you. The left is therefore the real authoritarian threat."

There are lots of logical flaws in that line of bullshit, but it has kept the American working class divided for decades. We need a better answer to it than, "You are a racist." Or, "You are selfish."

For the first 67 years of my life, I remained a cockeyed optimist. I realized as of 2016 that voting was not going to change anything, but I could see clearly the deterioration and coming collapse of the American Empire. Whereas most supposed lefties either have TDS or at least profess the undeniable truth that a sleazy jerkoff like The Donald should not be President, my ultra-tinfoil retort is that nobody is "President" in the way described in The Constitution. Since JFK took the pipe, the Presidency has become a ceremonial position like a European monarch. But POTUS (as it is now called) is without any question the King of the Culture, and this guy has transferred the battle ground from over the air television to social media -- which he dominates. Twitter, with its short form, is perfect for a dimwitted wrestling villain character like Donnie Shrimpfingers.

I saw him as a necessary pre-condition for revolution. As I watched what actually happened during his term -- as opposed to the non-stop series of bombshells and invective -- he was significantly less bad than I expected. Plenty bad, to be sure. Most importantly, however, for whatever the motivation, the Democrats' bizarre campaign against Trump treated the populace to the spectacle of both major parties accusing each other of fundamental illegitimacy. "Lock her up" vs. "Putin Puppet."

Regardless of whatever irrelevant "facts" might support either of those sound bites, what America and the world have heard non-stop for the last four years is that at least half of our national leadership is a criminal conspiracy.

The subliminal message that this cat-fight delivered is, "Yes, they are both right and our national leadership is a criminal conspiracy." You can see the result as protests continue to roil in our big cities two months after the incident in Minneapolis. And, of course, you can see it in the massive clusterfuck of the pandemic response.

The Plague blew up his act, overexposing his silly schtick while disappointing many of his supporters with his bumbling and his sophomoric ego in the face of life and death problems. So long as it was Trump Against Washington, his empty state coalition held together for the most part. But now, as the ass is falling out of everything, his mojo is gone.

Unfortunately, the ass IS falling out of everything. The collapse of the American Empire has suddenly become irrelevant as our only weapon of significance is the Federal Reserve Board creating "money" to offset the lost production of the last four months. Right now the carnival hustlers are making a show of debating how much to cut the $600 per week funny money. It does not really matter. At some point the funny money will run out and the reality of tens of millions of homeless folks will materialize.

There's your revolution, right there.

Our probably impossible to solve puzzle is how to mobilize those folks behind a coherent new paradigm that establishes and maintains civil order while recreating what it means to be a citizen and a human being. We will have to give up the "freedom" to buy crap like Seven Up while somehow attaining the collective wisdom to recognize crap when we see it. Uh, and doing that without creating our own totalitarianism.

Oh, and that climate thing. Yeah, we have to remake the global economy, producing a different set of consumer goods that aren't just crap. We have to remake the social order so that most of what you use is produced near your home -- shit canning the globalization that made so many billionaires.

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I am no longer optimistic as we have no time and no means to organize ourselves into a coherent revolutionary movement. Instead, we will see millions of people desperate for shelter and food. I don't relish the idea of explaining the melting ice caps to people who will be ready to take a fracking job just to keep their kids fed.

Creativity is what we need. All of mine just became irrelevant.

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Great essay! I had been very optimistic about the next ten years as the Trump phenomenon has exposed the idiocy of our Moneyball Politics, and the Democrats were showing their true colors as the Other Wing of the Republicans. Well, ten years will be contracted down to ten months.

We better hurry up and figure out what future we want. It is being formed right now.

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.

This is such a common and repetitive theme, over time and across cultures, that I'm left wondering if all the spendy private schools just stopped teaching history. Perhaps it's been replaced with graduate level coursework in hubris.

“13 Observations Made by Lemony Snicket while Watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance”

1. If you work hard, and become successful, it does not necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are tall with long hair it doesn’t mean you would be a midget if you were bald.

2. “Fortune” is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions.

3. Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.

4. People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices.

5. There may not be a reason to share your cake. It is, after all, yours. You probably baked it yourself, in an oven of your own construction with ingredients you harvested yourself. It may be possible to keep your entire cake while explaining to any nearby hungry people just how reasonable you are.

6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they’ve been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.

7. Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don’t tell them they aren’t. Sit with them and have a drink.

8. Don’t ask yourself if something is fair. Ask someone else—a stranger in the street, for example.

I'm particularly reminded of these four:

9. People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, as it is difficult to make oneself heard on the other side of an impressive edifice.

10. It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.

11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.

12. If you have a large crowd shouting outside your building, there might not be room for a safety net if you’re the one tumbling down when it collapses.

13. 99 percent is a very large percentage. For instance, easily 99 percent of people want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the occasional slice of cake for dessert. Surely an arrangement can be made with that niggling 1 percent who disagree.

CAN'T STOP THE SIGNAL'S ADDENDUM:

One would think such an arrangement could be made. But apparently such arrangements only get made at the point of something, like a knife, sword, or gun. Apparently they don't get made at the point of an argument.