thoughts on change and structure

a.    I find that my personal time-construal and memory-retrieval schema are not as reliable these days, and I still tend to look at matters in a different light. It’s been a while since I read the source material, and my approach was not particularly scholarly, but I remember Max Weber wrote with particular clarity and insight.

b.    The first thing I recall was Weber’s assertion that the purpose of the state is to insulate the ruling class from the rest of the population. This it accomplishes by means of a political class (intelligentsia/nomenklatura/public servants) that governs in their interests. The other thing I remember is Weber’s extending Marx & Engels’ writing on alienation. His development of Durkheim’s “ennui” became a major thread in Reich’s work, especially in The Mass-Psychology of Fascism.

c.    From Weber’s perspective, one recognizes The Constitution as a social construction designed to protect the propertied class from laborers and slaves. This position was expressed by no less an authority than Princeton Law Professor (later President) Woodrow Wilson:

“The federal government was not by intention a democratic government. In plan and structure it had been meant to check the sweep and power of popular majorities…. The government had, in fact, been originated and organized upon the initiative and primarily in the interest of the mercantile and wealthy classes. Originally conceived in an effort to accommodate commercial disputes between the States, it had been urged to adoption by a minority, under the concerted and aggressive leadership of able men representing a ruling class….”  (That quote is from B. Ollman & J. Birnbaum, eds., The United States Constitution.)

d.    A very persuasive argument is laid out by Jerry Fresia in his book, Toward an American Revolution. (Now, if you haven’t given up… I apologize for being pedantic.)

e.    The half-century from the Crash, through the Depression, WWII, McCarthy, Korea, Civil Rights & Vietnam, ends with the Revolution in Iran. Several significant factors were driving down the 1% wealth share during this period, and “reforms” like progressive taxation, union protection, Social Security and FDIC were a response to those forces. 

f.    When the Stock Exchange crashed everyone who owned property lost some of their wealth, including the folks at the top. This was a period of rising militancy among working people, made worse by the Depression. Anti-capitalist screeds were widely available. Socialist and Progressive candidates were popular and serious contenders. Eugene Debs ran for President several times, once from jail. Upton Sinclair, the EPIC candidate for Governor of California, almost won. Norman Thomas and Paul Robeson were well-known orators. The demands of labor were fueled by the misery of poverty and exploitation. They were met with a ruthlessness that is shocking and shameful. It was popular outrage that forced Congress to legislate union protection in the Taft-Hartley Act. The Act also protects employers’ rights, but in such a way as to eviscerate labor’s major weapon: the strike. Most labor historians regard Taft-Hartley as a catastrophe for unions and a shield for the bosses. Consider, too, that while unions won the struggle for employer-paid pensions & healthcare, at the cost of their hourly wage, even those benefits have been reduced or disappeared. Taft-Hartley was of little help to workers, but the employers kept their golden parachutes. And Congress was complicit, all the way.

g.    Another major factor driving down the 1% wealth share was the diversion of resources for waging war. Over time, the 1% wealth share benefits from conflict since they hold most of the war bonds and all the military contracts which provide a reliable future revenue stream. The reallocation of capital, material and people caused real disruptions in the infrastructure and social structure of America. The state itself required a greater share of the national product, so everyone’s portion was bound to shrink. Once the military-industrial-academic complex was in place, tax dollars began to flow and the 1% wealth share rose.

h.    Although it might appear that the 1% wealth share was in decline, its minions certainly were not. From the Palmer raids to the HUAC hearings, the most virulent right-wing ideologists held sway in Washington and many state capitols. The ruthless extermination of the left was carried out by the Justice Department, the Post Office and the Treasury while organized crime became more entrenched. The resurgent new left of the sixties was likewise attacked by FBI, COINTELPRO and police assaults.

i.    During this period of turmoil, there was serious struggle for leadership in each of the two major parties. Democrats were divided on Vietnam and Johnson’s domestic programs. Republicans were recovering from Goldwater’s defeat and congratulating themselves on Reagan’s win in California, but without a clear vision of how to reform the party and take power. Narratives of this process have been emerging in recent years, illuminating the total indifference of the actors to the welfare of the citizenry or the consequences to the nation. The guiding principle is ever the same for all factions: maintain and maximize our status at the top.

j.    For most Americans, if we think about such matters, the market is a “given,” something that’s there that you have to deal with. Whatever you need,  as long as you have money to exchange, the market is the place to get it. The market place has rules, and the rule book currently in use is called “capitalism.” Clearly, this was not always so. Other, older rule books have been used and new ones are being written in this time of transformation. The times they are a’changing.

k.    For much of our time here we have been an exceptionally literate nation, and despite the domination of two major parties since the early days of the republic, third parties have emerged offering critiques, programs and candidates to challenge mainstream thinking. Their influence and impact has, at times, been significant, but capitalist ideology has survived and become the “neo-liberal” structure some call the “new world order.”

time for a change

l.    There are some who can survey the panorama that appears before us and select the salient features that characterize the moment, providing cogent and incisive analysis for those of us whose vision tends toward the myopic, and who process information more slowly. There are no easy answers, no fool-proof methods, no infallible rubrics we can rely on nowadays, that I know of—not that there ever were such. I tend to use the lenses of history and psychology, much as Norman O. Brown did, to make sense of what I behold and experience. He was a Professor of Classics at UC Santa Cruz for many years. His synthesis of Freud & Marx (psychoanalysis and dialectical materialism) is the most powerful analytical methodology I have learned to use. (Life Against Death) I am not an adept, only a slow student attempting to apply what I have come to understand.

m.    The writer/observer sitting here, in Eagle Rock, California, early autumn of 2018, should be able to situate himself more precisely, for the reader, to account for inherent bias and distortion. So, this is the literary voice of a retired, college-educated man who spent two decades working in food service and three decades teaching in public and private schools. My partner is a brilliant, beautiful artist and teacher, who has graciously put up with me for more than thirty years. My grandparents were all born in central Europe and came to America as children just over a hundred years ago. My father was a clothing manufacturer, and his father was a tailor. My mother sold high fashion clothing, her father was a shopkeeper and mechanic. I am the second generation to be born and raised here.

n.    First, let me say how grateful I am to be alive, to have been born and to have lived this life. That alone is a miracle. Dayenu! To have this time to reflect and share my thoughts is a blessing and gift beyond measure. Dayenu! To have found a teacher and guide for a lifetime is grace beyond comprehension. Dayenu! Thank you, Prem Rawat.

o.    Human occupation of our homeworld has actually been quite brief. If you’re familiar with a particular representation of Earth as a 24-hour clock, humans have been here for about a minute, and human civilization is a small fraction of that. Nonetheless, the fifty thousand years of our rise has utterly transformed the planet to its current perilous condition. Without a doubt, the climate is changing as a consequence of human consumption and combustion of fossil fuels. There is nearly unanimous agreement that we have passed the “point of no return” for saving our civilization. Let us take a quick look at the thresholds we’ve crossed.

p.    Greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, methane and oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, have increased significantly with harmful effects due to reduced protection from the “ozone layer” and lower oxygen content in the air. These compounds become acidic in the atmosphere as rainfall, weakening and decimating forests. Absorbed into the oceans, the waters become acidic and lethal to many forms of sea life. This is particularly crucial with regard to coral reefs and krill.

q.    As global atmospheric temperatures rise we have watched the polar regions shrink precipitously. Glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, promising devastating, extensive droughts and severe crop failures leading to famines of unprecedented proportions, particularly in Asia. Changing weather patterns are now evident as hurricane season comes earlier, lasts longer and spawns more violent storms. The gulf stream is changing, affecting the behavior of fish as well as the migration patterns of birds and insects. As expected, the range of disease vectors such as mosquitoes, has grown, increasing the incidence of tropical and sub-tropical illnesses.

r.    These global phenomena have local manifestations as well. The decline in fish populations is an obvious example. Epidemics among livestock and fowl are more frequent. Wildfires and floods have become annual disasters on every continent, each year worse than the year before. And, of course, there are the oil spills, mine disasters, gas leaks and nuclear meltdowns human error tends to produce every year. Of late there is growing concern over plastic micro-beads infiltrating the waters and soils we depend on, adding to the incalculable volume of plastic waste accumulating in landfills and oceanic gyres.

s.    We who tend to live in urban and suburban communities know all this at a level of abstraction and detachment that is far removed from the immediacy of the crisis experienced by most of the planet’s human and non-human residents. For most of “us”, the fortunate 10%-20%, we note the rising cost of living, higher prices for food, fuel, water, services, housing, health care, etc. The “other 80%-90%” struggle to find food and water, enough to survive. They suffer from higher rates of infant mortality, shorter lifespan, housing insecurity, lack of health care, few schools…

t.    It seems obvious to me that this situation is unsustainable. The continued dependence on fossil fuels to power this civilization is suicidal. There is a need to radically and immediately change how human society behaves, if we are to avert global disaster and the collapse of human culture. Unfortunately, the “powers that be,” the 1% who rule the world, are not going to agree to the necessary changes. They will resist and use every means at their disposal, including state sanctioned violence (police & military), to maintain control of power. Clearly, power and control must be taken out of their hands. This can only be done by means of a global transformation of power relations between the people and the state: total world revolution.

u.    To my mind, one of the greatest achievements of human consciousness is the resolution of contradiction and paradox. For example, natural science, as physics was formerly known, could not resolve the apparently distinct features of light. Is light a particle or a wave? Similar conundrums regarding the nature of matter could not be resolved until Niels Bohr developed a model (or metaphor) that described the atom. Einstein and Planck were able to integrate the apparent contradictions and synthesize a “higher order of harmony” to explain and predict what could be observed experimentally. Quantum Theory was the result of that synthesis.

v.    It should be obvious to anyone who enjoys the luxury of space and time to reflect on the human condition and the state of the world that we have reached a critical juncture in the evolution of life on earth. The contradictions that we now confront are most dire, and should we fail to resolve these antagonistic forces, our species and perhaps nearly all terrestrial life forms now present will perish. It is clear to me that we must seek a “higher order of harmony” if we are to survive.

w.    If we can step away from our geocentric point of view, and look beyond a heliocentric horizon we might see ourselves as the temporary residents of a small, spinning water-covered rock on the edge of an extended spur between two arms of an unremarkable spiral galaxy, one of many millions that are scattered through the universe. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to be 100,000 light-years across, contains over 200 billion stars, including our homestar, the sun, which is 4.5 billion years old, a comparatively young star. As we ride our world, spinning at 1000 miles an hour, orbiting our star at 67,000 miles an hour, the solar system is rotating at more than 500,000 miles an hour around the hub of the galaxy. On average, we travel more than four billion miles through space every year. That is reality, and we are virtually unaware of it.

x.     Although I doubt this thought is original, it occurs to me that homo sapiens may be Nature’s way of liberating carbon that’s been sequestered underground for millions of years. The rapid release of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere and oceans is having profound effects on all planetary ecosystems. The oceans are becoming more acidic as carbon dioxide is absorbed, and acid rain is another well-known result of fossil fuel combustion. A number of scientific fields of inquiry -- archaeology, paleontology, geology, biology, botany, anthropology -- see this as the prelude to the sixth global extinction of species. All in all, I realize this is a misanthropic perspective on evolution, but the evidence clearly points toward humans as the agents of terrestrial ecocide in the anthropocene period.

y.    Coming now to the end of this rhetorical exercise, I want to thank you, dear reader, for indulging me with your thoughtful consideration. I hope you have found a measure of satisfaction in the process of reading these paragraphs. I hope it has been illuminating, as well as challenging, perhaps confirming your own ideas, raising questions and proposing paradoxical solutions, with a few splashes of irony. If you would like to respond to any of this, by all means, feel at liberty to do so. Please refrain from vulgar or offensive language. Let us be respectful of one another.

z.    Yes. I've been thinking about this stuff for a while. Having grown up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, I’ve been fortunate to live abroad for a year, as well as in the city, the mountains and the desert. I’ve lived in a couple communes, a collective, an ashram and several houses with lots of people with children and pets. And always there have been problems. Not the least of them was setting boundaries and respecting one another's space, physical and emotional. Over time, at least among the humans I've come to know, there seem to be a few common denominators-- things we generally do not/will not share (toothbrush, trombone, secrets, etc.) and those we do share. So for now, I'll work with the stuff we do share here on earth, and perhaps a rubric will appear that simplifies the problem. Enough for now. (Apologies for excessive verbiage.)

Manifesto 6.0 (Practice Draft)

     The spectre haunting Europe in Marx & Engels' day now overshadows the world. The collapse of empires, the blight of war, the mindless exploitation of Nature, the persistent devaluation of life --all life, not just human life-- these are the signs and symptoms of a pathological culture on its way to ecocide and extinction. Redemption, if it is possible, can only be achieved by global revolution overthrowing the present world order. The spectral forces of alienated labor, resistance to illegitimate authority, recognition of universal human rights, the struggle for social justice, these assume material form in solidarity and community.

     By now, the early years of the XXI century, it is clear that there is an elite class of humans --less than 1% of all humans-- whose decisions determine the use and distribution of human and natural resources necessary to sustain life on Earth. It is equally clear that their decisions have resulted in the present conditions of conflict, poverty, disease and environmental degradation. They continue to pursue social and economic policies that preserve and protect their positions of privilege, power and authority. 

     It is no secret that the immiseration of the majority of humans will increase, even as our numbers decline in the wake of endless wars and plagues that become more frequent and lethal. It is no secret that the oceans are dying, warming as they become more acidic, killing coral reefs, melting the polar ice caps. Drought and wildfire, followed by storms and flood, are reducing crop yields, devastating forests, turning grasslands into deserts. There is no relief or rescue on the horizon. There is perhaps, the possibility of transformation through revolutionary action, but the spectral forces of imagination, invention, organization and cooperation must coalesce and unite even as classes, castes, divisions and heirarchies dissolve and merge, giving rise to a new order, a global awareness, a planetary consciousness that holds fast to the truth that Earth, our homeworld, is alive, sacred and finite.

Note: On De-colonising the American Mind (Part 1)

    The earliest appearance in English, of the word colony, according to the OED, was 1548, in the context of distant territories under the political control of a parent state. The word has roots in Latin that appear to generate branches that twine together. One sense of coloni is a farmer, one who tills the land. Cultivate, culture are related. The word colonel is perhaps related: The one leading the column of soldiers; the one in charge of the invaders who will seize the land; the one who will be in charge of the plantation. There is also a somewhat mystical connection suggested by archaeology and the architecture of ancient Roman colonies. The center of the colony was laid out in a grid, with a column at its center. The pillar represented the colonists; the capital (head) was the symbol of the power of the remote ruler. The allegiance and subordination of the colonists to the homeland was a necessary condition, not always offered willingly, for the economic growth of the parent state.

          Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of the colonized people are made and implemented by the colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that are often defined in a distant metropolis. Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and their ordained mandate to rule.^[6]  -- Jürgen Osterhammel's Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview

     The British, French and Russian settlements on the American continent during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries certainly fit the description for colonies. After the revolution and separation from England, the American government extended the practice of colonial occupation with regard to the indigenous people and the lands they inhabited. Despite increasing tension over slavery, the economies of the southern states continued to depend on the plantation system established under colonialism. Although slavery was later abolished by law and treaties were signed ending hostilities with the native peoples, the social and economic conditions for these populations did not improve and often became worse. The arbitrary cruelty of a hierarchy defined by skin color, gender and ancestry was and is the legacy of our Jewish and Christian forbears.

*                        *                        *

   
       “Feminism means that we renounce our obedience to the fathers and recognize that the world they have described is not the whole world.”     -- Adrienne Rich

    This attitude of superiority and entitlement that men express in contemporary social settings is grounded in a patriarchal construction of the world. This is elegantly deconstructed by Susan Griffin (Woman & Nature: the Roaring Inside Her), diagnosed as pathology by Mary Daly (Gyn/Ecology), and further developed in work by Adrienne Rich, bell hooks, Clarissa Pinkola Estés and others. Male privilege and white supremacy are the twin pillars supporting colonial oppression. As we are witnessing in America, and elsewhere in Europe, anti-establishment, xenophobic, nationalist sentiments are fuelling a resurgence of white male assertiveness that empowers and validates the authoritarian regime.

    In addition to a thorough feminist analysis, and certainly as important, is a comprehensive anti-racist, anti-colonialist analysis.  Beginning with Frantz Fanon (The Wretched of the Earth), Walter Rodney (How Europe Under-Developed Africa), Frederick Douglass, and W.E.B. DuBois, one begins to appreciate how deep are the roots of white supremacy. It is widely recognized that these hierarchies of status are learned in childhood and become lifelong factors in our behavior, so we know when to step up and when to defer. This internalized set of rules is the psychic glue that holds families, communities, nations, civilizations together. Since we tend not to recognize these inner processes, we don't connect the consequences that result from our unconscious participation and compliance with the social order.
    

Welcome to the Apocalypse I

    We are all going to die.
    That is a fact, not an opinion. You, me, our loved ones, family and friends, our pets, all of us will go under the hill or up in smoke. Yet most of us don't seem to understand or appreciate this obvious fact. If we did, I think we would be a whole lot kinder and forgiving to one another, ourselves and our homeworld. I think if we truly realized the fragility, brevity, and exquisite beauty of our existence-- being alive, being human --we'd behave better. People who have survived a near-death experience or feared for their life, often become kinder, more compassionate and generous. Their sense of being is transformed in remarkable ways, according to their own accounts. Although the genre is anecdotal, there is agreement that life itself, breath by breath, is a treasure beyond value.
    Considering that we share the same fate and have nowhere else to live but this tiny spinning rock --for the foreseeable future, another fact-- doesn't it make sense for us to cooperate to co-create and nurture environments and networks that sustain our homeworld and us, too?
    Considering we share the same fate and the same homeworld, how does it make sense to allow one species to destroy the environments and networks that sustain us all? I'm making an effort to be temperate, but the urgency of the moment tends to inflame my rhetoric. A growing number of us are convinced that human activity has tipped the balance of the biosphere in lethal ways. Those dangerous and destructive practices must stop and we must begin to remedy and restore what survives. Unfortunately, many of the "decision-makers" and "world leaders" remain firmly committed to the status quo, despite their treaties and agreements to mitigate greenhouse-gas damage.
    People around the world are organizing in opposition to the continuing pillage and pollution of global capitalism. In response, the state tends to protect the property and interests of the business class, at the expense of the people and the environment. The ascendancy of private property over the commonwealth has been underway for several centuries, culminating in various forms of state capitalism and capitalist control of the state. The corporatist state is one of the hallmarks of a proto-fascist regime.

     Fascism is a form of radical nationalism that first appeared in Europe in the aftermath of WW I. Each of its manifestations exhibited unique characteristics, but all shared certain features in common. Guided by historians and sociologists, one can easily tick off fascism's dominant traits:

    a strong leader, a father figure, a dictator, a savior, patriarchy
    a police state, a security state, a surveillance state, law & order
    scapegoating minorities for social problems, xenophobia
    criminalize opposition, eliminate unions, control mass media
    promise a return to better times, take back our country
    restoration of values, moral purity, protect the homeland
    oligarchic control of the economy, corporatist state apparatus

    The fascist regimes of Mussolini in Italy, Franco in Spain, and Hitler in Germany, have spawned imitators in other parts of Europe and Latin America, as well as Asia and Africa. It's probably important to distinguish those regimes that come to power by military coup (e.g. Pinochet in Chile, the Shah of Iran) or by installation (e.g. Trujillo, Duvalier) from those that are elected democratically. Call them exo-fascism, "Fascism Imposed", and endo-fascism, "Fascism Invited," respectively.

    When I was an undergrad, at UCI in the late sixties, a rash of critical texts appeared almost overnight, like mushrooms. New names joined the contributors to venerable Marxist journals; older, almost forgotten authors were revived. While Charles Reich's The Greening of America was a best-seller, Wilhelm Reich's The Mass-Psychology of Fascism was reprinted. It sold poorly and was mostly ignored, but I found the book enlightening. W. Reich's clinical work with working-class men and women revealed a constellation of neuroses in which he recognized a pattern, as identified by the title of the text. His patients complained about their work, their private lives, their dissatisfaction with life in general. He observed their anger, their insecurity, their fear and their persistent use of force and violence. Reich described the alienated personality prepared to embrace fascist leadership. The people who felt most betrayed and disappointed in their aspirations were the most eager to blame others.

    Over the years myriad volumes have been published on every angle and aspect of the social psychology, social economy and social dynamics of our civilization. How are we to understand something as narrow and complex as "late XX Century fascism" within such a huge context? And, if our understanding is correct, can we learn anything useful to forestall, diffuse or defeat fascism when it appears? Although the tone of this essay may seem academic, the matter at hand is immediate and serious. A growing number of citizens fear for the fate of the republic as a democracy, but even more, we fear for the survival of our grandchildren in the decades to come. The rapid shifts occurring at every level of government in the United States indicate movement toward a surveillance state, corporate control of government services, limits on civil liberties & the press, restricted immigration, reduced access to health care, employment, housing, education and justice. It's clear to me where this is headed and I don't think we want to go there.


    

What is to be done? Autumn Equinox 2017

    There's not much time. There's a lot to do. That much should be obvious to anyone with a pulse and a little compassion.  Everything I'm talking about has to be understood within and emerging from a realization that humans are committing ecocide.  This self-destructive pattern has opposing forces, communities and networks devoted to extinguishing those disastrous ideologies that have brought us to this precipice.  In the long run of history, it is my hope to see an end to capitalism, imperialism and male supremacy, the breeders of war and misery.

    In the short run, this could be a moment of rare opportunity.
    After eight months in office, there are more public calls for the impeachment of the President.  This will not happen as long as the GOP holds majorities in both houses of Congress.  With the mid-term elections next year, there is a serious possibility that the Republicans could lose that control.
    The other party, the Democrats, is in perpetual confusion.  Without dissecting the factions, let's allow that Sanders' campaign disproved the "conventional wisdom" governing the DNC & DLC campaign strategies.  Fortunately, the Sanders team has continued to work inside and outside the official party, pushing the conversation to the left, supporting local action committees, identifying and promoting progressive candidates to challenge the Wall Street Democrats.  For example, Every Voice http://www.everyvoice.org/  is a spin-off that's getting good results.
    This is a chance to challenge the old guard.  We need to find a lot of good, qualified people to get into races up and down the ticket, from school boards to Senators.  School boards?  We need to defend our schools from privatization as "charter" schools, don't we?  City council?  We want decent housing, fair wages, safe streets and clean water, don't we?  We know this if we studied "Civics."  These are abiding concerns for many of us on the local level.
    The unusual circumstances right now will require an enormous, coordinated effort to succeed.  I believe it would be possible to impeach the president and vice-president and choose a new Speaker of the House, who would ascend to the White House.  To do this, we would have to challenge and defeat many Democrats and Republicans currently sitting in the House.  With a progressive-tilted House, a new Speaker could be installed as the 46th President.  Think about that.

    Where do candidates come from? 
    Honestly, I don't know, but I have some ideas that suggest an historical trajectory we should take advantage of. 

   (At this point in composition I stopped to see what was causing Lambert's distress... )

    It's difficult to say how many authentic grassroots political action groups are functioning today. All the well-known and established non-profits have their spin-offs and astro-turf fronts competing for attention and dollars as well. (Check your Inbox if you doubt me. ) There are reports now, in the wake of the Democrats' purge of progressives, that the field of challengers the GOP will face comes from the Democrats' loyal donor class & "bundlers."
    If you participate in a group that has taken a stand to resist the GOP and Trump/Pence regime, look around and think about who might be a serious candidate for a local or district campaign. Who are the "spark plugs" and who are the stalwarts? What is the passion that drives them?
    Every day my email box is full of appeals for money, reports and alerts, projections and analysis, frequently above or below a name that's become familiar from repetition. Do any of these people aspire to public service, representing the folks they live with and advocate for? They are well up on current events and their public record should be readily available.
    Maybe you are the person to step up? Or a family member? A friend among your circle? It seems so remote, I know, and yet this is the essence of civic life and citizen democracy. As a democracy, we must insist upon respecting both "majority rule" and "minority rights" lest we perpetuate the present plutocratic hierarchy of power into the future.
    Last, here is a short list of groups from my inbox. You might recognize some of them. Just to repeat myself, "Who are these activists and could they be successful candidates who win elections?"

Rachel Warino   CA Labor Fed

Sabrina Joy Stevens   National Women's Law Center

Lucia, Candace, & Dutch   freepress.net

Emily Heffling  Western States Outreach Coordinator, Union of Concerned Scientists—       
    Oakland Office

Shaun O’Brien  AFL-CIO

Good Jobs Nation

Our Revolution

Sum Of Us

Avaaz

Ben Wikler  MoveOn

Brandy Doyle  CREDO Action 

Lena Moffitt  Sierra Club

Jay Henderson   Democracy for America

Reuben Hayslett   Demand Progress

     There are a handful of special elections coming up. It will be interesting to see what happens. In Alabama for example.

Observations in mid-summer, 2017

     The recently installed, but illegitimate, forty-fifth resident of the nation's capital has continued his demolition of 'life as we know it' for millions of people. The axe of presidential authority falls primarily on the necks of people who are poor, speak English as a second or third language, or belong to a 'Middle-Eastern faith community.'
     My friends have an old eucalyptus on the hillside above the street that needs to come down before it falls down. They called the crew that's been trimming their trees forever. The crew is down to the boss, one guy and a trainee. The rest of his guys had to leave, or stay home while their wives went to work. My friends tried another tree trimmer, but he said the tree was too big for his crew.
     Almost every day now people are in the streets for immigrants' rights, protesting the round-ups and deportations, the travel bans. Civil rights groups are raising funds to challenge the executive orders in the courts. The government is confident it will prevail. With the confirmation of the White House's choice for the Supreme Court, this seems likely in the end. Meanwhile, on the streets, ICE, the new Migra, is working overtime to fill those buses.
     The new crew in the White House, a collection of billionaires and vulture capitalists like 45, has cleaned house, giving pink slips to everyone left, scrubbed department websites, and ruthlessly rolled back as much of the previous administration's regulatory protections as it can reach, with help from the Republican controlled Congress. Privacy and net neutrality are about gone. Environmental protections: gone. School lunches and women's health: gone. Voting rights: going. Police reviews: on hold. Pipelines: green light. Arctic drilling: green light. And these "executive actions" have yet to be complemented by the Congress' legislative agenda, including repeal of ACA, tax reform, energy policy, immigration reform, trade agreements and another shot at privatizing Social Security.
     And there's the war business, the engine that drives the the imperial juggernaut across borders, the endless struggle for domination of markets and resources. By some experts' figuring, more than half of all Federal tax revenue goes to "defense" (which also includes veterans' benefits, pensions, etc.), a fact that validates the assertion that the US spends more on its military than the next seven nations combined. If we spent less on defense, we could divert our tax dollars to do all kinds of things that need doing! That's not going to happen with the current regime in control.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson Discuss the Recent Turn of Events

(With the assistance of Reel Covert Surveillance, LLC & ImagiNation, IBU)

     "So, Sherlock, I see you've got your violin in your lap," Watson observed. "Were you playing before I arrived, perhaps?"
     The consulting detective nodded, stroking the body of the fine instrument. "Playing, Watson? No, not really. I was composing a dirge, actually."
     "Really, Holmes? A dirge?" Watson asked with some surprise. "Whose demise has roused you to attempt such an effort? Particularly after your own recent... er... challenges."
     Holmes smirked a little as he spoke, "There you are again, John, with a euphemism. But, your question is to the point." Putting flame to his pipe, producing a cloud of blue smoke, his voice seemed for a moment to be disembodied, in the vapor. "Whose demise has moved my cold heart to admit the feverish delusion of grief? What loss, you may well ask, is great enough to penetrate the armor of self-sufficiency and independence Sherlock Holmes has fashioned?"
     "Indeed, Holmes, I'd not meant... "
     "No, John, don't protest," Holmes said gently. "Perhaps it was nearly being removed from the game, as you mentioned, made me aware how marginal, how expendable each of us is. How perilously fragile our existence is, despite our best defenses."
     "You surprise me, Sherlock!" the doctor said. "Surely, with everything we've seen these many years, you must have understood! We all suffer, we all die."
     "But, Watson, I believed we were exempt, immortal, eternal."
     "Now, you don't?"
     "Not anymore."
     "What's changed, Sherlock? We've both been revived more than once."
     Holmes almost smiled at the remark. "Indeed, Watson, we have come back from the dead a time or two." He mused a moment before going on. "I believed 'the game' would go on forever, and as long as the game was afoot, I'd always be a part of it," Holmes explained, "with you, of course, there too."
     "And now... ?"
     "The game is over, Watson," said Holmes. "It is for the demise of the game that I grieve," he added, and fell silent.
     Dr. Watson sat in his own cloud of silence, for a moment, but his was a bewildered silence, unlike Holmes' gloom. "Sherlock, please, what are you saying?"
     Holmes' eyes appeared to sparkle a moment, perhaps with tears-- smoke or sadness? --as he met his friend's gaze."Barring the appearance of Maitreya or a World Teacher or some wise and benevolent extra-terrestrial beings capable of facilitating the universal transformation of human beings into conscious, peaceful creatures overnight... in short without a miracle, I have reached the inescapable conclusion that our species is committing ecocide. We are ending the possibiity for human existence on our home world. Thus, the game is over." 
     "Surely, you must acknowledge signs of hope, Sherlock, signs of resistance? You can't truly think it's finished."
     "Of course, there is resistance, but it's much too little, John, and much too late," Holmes said sadly. "Before the apparent election results in the US were known, it was already beyond doubt. Rising sea levels, more extreme weather events (so-called), increasing levels of greenhouse gases. The petroleum-dependent global economy has catastrophic consequences. Now, even mitigation is out of the question. This generation will be helpless to stop the collapse happening around them."
     "Holmes! Stop! You're looking through the darkest lens," Watson objected. "Yes, it's bleak, but we don't quit, no matter how difficult."
     Holmes smiled, a little. "Your optimism has always been an annoying comfort in difficult moments, but here it is entirely misplaced. I should say the election results in America have sealed our fate and hastened the end considerably."