Two pieces of bad news
1) Umair Haque of Medium is panicking again, this time over Brexit: apparently the British economy is collapsing because of Brexit, and the situation can't be helped by the British COVID-19 variant currently circulating there. Anyway, Haque's title is "What does it look like when a society commits suicide? Brexit," and so along with the gnashing of teeth we have accusations against the UK Left:
And shame on the British left, which backed “Lexit” ardently, for being so awfully clueless, so abjectly ignorant, that it didn’t even understand that “Brexit” was just a synonym for “perma-austerity,” not “communist utopia.” It’s so painfully stupid that words fail to describe this bizarre and shocking mistake of the British left.
'course, it's only because the Left is generally repressed, co-opted, and adrift that everyone thinks the "alternative" to "progressive" neoliberalism is "reactionary" neoliberalism. Get rid of all of those obstacles and you'll have post-capitalism in a few months, because everyone is (as Haque rightly notes) desperate.
2) HUD reports that homelessness was up before the pandemic, which made it worse. And here's a fun stat:
For the first time since the government began doing the annual count, the number of single adults living outside — 209,413 — exceeded the number of individuals living in shelters — 199,478.
Look, when you have a housing market that's a Ponzi scheme, and when owning participants have a stake in continuing the Ponzi scheme (the folks, especially, who have mortgages -- paying them off means accumulating equity and selling), housing and rental prices are going to go up, up, up (especially if property tax rates are based on property values), and people who can't afford are going to live outdoors. And the pandemic and economic downturn didn't interrupt the Ponzi scheme this time around.
I received a letter in the mail today from a realtor, who claimed that "housing rates have skyrocketed in the last year, with some areas of Jackson County having a median sales price up 48%." I'm sure it's because the online workers are en masse deserting the COVID-ridden big cities for backwaters like, say, southern Oregon where I live. We can't claim to be surprised at all of this.
At any rate, our beloved global elites decided back in the '70s that we were going to have neoliberalism in economics and "managed democracy" in politics. That's when the mass suicide decision was made. As for the Brits, they've simply decided to go early, unless they can wake up quickly and vote out the Conservatives and the sellout faction of Labour.
By the way, what about the mail? I'm expecting stuff that hasn't come for months. Isn't the Post Office still run by that guy DeJoy? He wants to kill the Post Office -- you know that, right?
Once again, get rid of the obstacles to the Left, and...
Comments
So why is it that the zillionaires
control the value of housing markets?
Seeing many of the high end properties
selling for 2x to 3x their assessed value.
Can understand why the rich folks want to
stuff their money in tangible assets, but the
rest of us need affordable housing.
If 185 families need a place to live
and four corps have raked the market
what is left? Space blankets and old vans.
Yep.
It's especially tough in the northern climes when it gets cold.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
See the book Capitalism's Crisis Deepens
by Richard R. Wolffe, or his later (more pricey) book, plus some of his current video appearances.
He's also been on Jimmy Dore.
Or look for Dmitry Orlov's Reinventing Collapse.
It's happening very quickly.
So after 5 years of Russia being blamed for Brexit
It’s now the lefts fault for it? It can’t be both. Oh wait, the left was helped by Russia. Got it.
DeJoy is still in and still doing destructive things to the PO. Last time he was before congress he was a jerk and got away with it so maybe he knows that he is protected? Biden is putting 3 names for the board soon and they can vote to push him out. But will they? Depends on who’s protecting DeJoy.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
IMO Biden, like Trump, wants to privatize the PO
Ignore the media that say Biden is some Left wing savior come to earth to rescue low wage workers.
Readers here should know better. What's the difference between Trump and Biden? Biden has been practicing political lies for 44 years instead of four.
He was quick to demand resignations from the US Attorney's investigating crooked state Democrats, but not DeJoy.
Ajit pai had the grace to resign from the FCC. As far I know, there is no replacement. Maybe they have trouble finding a Spanish speaking gay Eskimo woman to check all the boxes instead of, God forbid, a senior professional who knows something about telecommunications besides being a rubber stamp for AT&T's CEO.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Spanish speaking gay Eskimo woman
that's the ticket!
Oh, you guys!
The house mother is going to hear you talking after ideological “lights out” and we’re all going to get in trouble with the new, progressive headmaster for mocking Critical Theory wokery, or hearing someone else joke about it and not reporting them.
(goes back to reading her old-fashioned politically-incorrect YA adventure novel under the covers with the aid of a flashlight)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/beware-of-books
Agreed
Democrats can be trying to roll back the 75 year retirement rule and they squawked about doing during the election, but I’ve heard nothing since. But if DeJoy gets his way then kiss 1st class mail goodbye. He basically said that.
Speaking of pushing Biden left someone posted a picture of his last fall up the stairs and said that she pushed Biden left. It’s funny. I think the Trump golfing Biden tweet is hilarious, but you know how the Biden bros see it.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Everyone already knows what the problem with *that* is....
...there is ONLY ONE gay Eskimo!!!
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Darlin that goes without saying here I believe
Well said. But please I doubt anyone here buys the kabuki two step.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Brexit was
and remains a monumentally dreadful policy.
Yes, the PTB knew that. We all knew that. Let them point their golden fingers wherever they want.
It must be devastating the UK and as far as I can tell there is very little coverage of the damage being done.
The only saving grace and believe me I am not counting on it----would be a successful referendum for Scotland to leave the UK. And then Wales. And then Northern Ireland.
let the fucking British Empire sink deep into the sea. Britania no longer rules the waves.
NYCVG
I think NI will go first
It’s already halfway out. Plus there was this screamingly funny Guardian editorial last year containing the phrase “ the fatberg in the sewer of principle” that made argument with brutal clarity.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
I agree
The Protestant Scotch-Irish have their link to the UK, but economically, union with the Republic is much more lucrative than Union with a sinking British ship that thinks it is 1921 (or 1821) instead of 2021.
Follow the money.
EDIT:
More lucrative because the Republic is still in the EU and also has a good trade position with the USA. Not only the agricultural goods but also computer work and similar remote professional work.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Fine
and let me quote Macbeth to his guests who were lingering: "Stand not upon the order of your leaving...."
NI first. Fine
Just all leave.
NYCVG
Got a non-political freind in Scotland
He wants Scotland to leave and rejoin the EU and he's English not Scottish.
My guess the USA would not interfere if the Scottish parliament made clear that they would honor the naval/military treaties with the USA.
I had a boss born in London, mixed English/Jewish/Italian ancestry. said when he lived there (working for British aerospace) he always voted Scottish Indendence Party (or some name like that). Just thought they made more sense than the Tories or Labour.
We never talked much politics but I remember him genuinely mad at reading a sign in our local hospital (Central DuPage Hospital) that broke down to "We 9only are required to take a certain number of indigent patients a year. We have exceeded that number. If you can't prove that you can pay, go away!" He assured me that in the UK no one is EVER told to go away if they can't pay.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Yeah so much for the Hippocratic Oath.
To be honest, the EU is a trap. The Greeks discovered this when SYRIZA won control of their Parliament, and they discovered that the cost of remaining in the EU was the privatization of their economy to service debts incurred by previous governments.
What the UK needs right now is a government like the Soviet Union in its earliest days, collectivizing production for mutual survival. Unfortunately, they've got Boris Johnson the Conservatives, and neoliberal Labour instead.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
Your friend sounds wise to me.
Yes SNP is the Scottish Independence party, led by Nicola Sturgeon as the First minister (like prime Minister) in Scotland.
NYCVG
I confess that I know nothing about it
I just didn’t see the point of it except that Britain changed playing with the EU and getting in bed with us. Or go it alone but that would have been dumb too. But their health system has been stripped just like our safety net has.
Britain’s do not stand for much crap from their leaders as do the French and yet we yehaws love to say that we’re the home of the brave and the free and neither is true. Both countries are protesting their lockdowns and so is Germany too and what do we do here? The left protested Obama and the right protested the masks and shutdowns, but people from both sides should have been at OWS protesting their government abandoning them for the elite. But no. White peoples should be at the BLM protests just because cops are 1st killing Americans at over 1,000 a year and then because cops abuse people’s rights to protest their government. The police policies come from the top, and the Supremes gave them protection, so why aren’t all Americans upset about the system we have? Think any of those 3 countries would allow their cops to murder them? I don’t.
Oops. Sorry for the rant.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
The commenter group found below the cartoons
at Guardian conveys a pretty dark picture of the corrupt setup there. Even if the writers are well enough off to afford to subscribe to post, the best are longtime knowledgeable observers and know things are on a dark road down. One poster does mention the Good Law Project - but the country's next election is years away and the lights seem to have gone out at Labor since Thatcher. I get the sense that Scotland is leaning strongly toward joining the EU because stong efforts are now under way to stifle that possibility.
The tragedy is, the entrenched Labour establishment were more
dedicated to sabotaging Jeremy Corbyn with fake charges of anti-Semitism than they were interested in, you know, actually winning an election and governing. And the Guardian was part and parcel of that nefarious slander campaign.
As I said in the diary --
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
Indeed! You said it well. n/t
See the commenters under cartoons
at the Guardian as all this is digested. But Murdoch sits comfortably behind offstage, both in England and here via Wall Street Journal and other faucets he can turn.