Liar, Liar, Earth on Fire

“The Republican Party stands alone, in terms of rich countries, in its blatant denial of climate change. This is why Noam Chomsky correctly calls them the most dangerous organization in human history. The Democratic Party, their hapless and willing enablers, are a close second.” Nick Pemberton, writing in Counterpunch.

Fires in Northern California. Fires in Southern California. Fires in Greece. Fires in the Arctic Circle.

The grass in Hyde Park in London is brown.

Floods in Japan. Floods in the Northeast of the U.S.

“Extreme weather” say the talking heads on Corporate TV. Rarely do their masters allow them to utter the forbidden words, “climate change.”

If Mother Earth could bring a legal case against the Trump Administration and the GOP-controlled Congress, every last one of them would be found guilty of criminal stupidity and gross negligence. At a time when the earth is sending us a clear and unequivocal message, giving us a taste of what is to come, our government ignores and denies the obvious evidence and in fact makes everything worse. Much worse. The weather around the world isn’t just extreme, it’s deadly.

It’s too late. The oceans will rise, fires will burn, millions will flee. We haven’t seen anything yet. We will pay, dearly, for our hubris, our greed, our venality.

The Democrats would rather talk about Russia. Day and night, through fire and flood, Russia, Russia, Russia; evil Russia, diabolical Russia, cyber-attacking Russia. Russia at dusk, Russia at dawn, Putin this and Putin that. The Russian threat to our glorious democracy, which is hardly a democracy at all. It’s as if Russian troops were massed near the US-Canada border, a daily provocation, rather than the truth: NATO forces have squeezed up to Russia’s borders for years, another broken promise. Who threatens whom?

We need our bogeymen to keep the war profiteers content. Russia. Iran. North Korea. And if we can’t find an enemy, we’ll just create one. Watch out for Venezuela, they have it in for us.

Sane voices are drowned out in the daily cacophony of idiocy and spectacle. We’re going down, days numbered, nights finite. We had our chances to amend our ways, but ignored and shunned the prophets and silenced the scientists. Nobody but ourselves to blame.

Fire and flood. Run to higher ground and all you will find is a mountain of ash.

F---Off Senate Majority PAC

I kept receiving these smarmy solicitations in my mailbox, so I decided to do something about it; they paid the postage. What the hell.

June 21, 2018

Senate Majority Pac

700 13th St NW Suite 600

Washington, DC 20015

Dear Senate Majority PAC:

I received your direct mail solicitation today, and the first thing I wondered is how you obtained my name and address. My second thought was why anyone of sound mind would use Chuck Schumer as their poster boy. Schumer, like the Clintons and Barack Obama, represents the gangrene at the heart of the Democratic Party, and the primary reason it loses elections and cannot create a coherent message after nearly a year and a half of the Trump Junta. I still have no idea what Democrats stand for, except, of course, tax cuts for the wealthy, endless wars and obscene Pentagon spending, corruption, ineptitude and impotence. More than 40 years ago the Democratic Party turned away from its core constituents and never looked back because the money was too good in corporate boardrooms.

What you’re saying is essentially this: Vote for Democrats because they are less bad than Trump. What an inspiring policy platform! You people are really stupid. The country is primed and ready for a progressive vision, and what does the Democratic Party do?  It discourages progressive candidates, throws its weight against them. Don’t count on a blue wave in November because Democrats will find a way to fuck up, and even if they don’t, what is their plan, a return to the policies of the Obama era? And what were those policies? Let’s see, coddling Wall Street banks, extrajudicial killings abroad, drone strikes against civilians, income inequality, corporate medical insurance, and endless wars. Great, sign me up. NO!

The problem with Schumer and Obama and the detestable Clintons is their arrogance and ignorance of the day-to-day struggles of average Americans. When a party is so corrupt that it runs a ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, one might as well throw in the towel.

I am an average American, working-class, with only one difference: I vote and I read. Shitheads like Charles “I-serve-Wall Street” Schumer don’t speak for me and certainly don’t impress me. From me you get neither a dollar or a dime. Fuck you. Remove my name from your mailing list until the day Democrats offer more than lip service to the poor and working class.

Sincerely

Brian Tanguay

What Does the Server Say?

“But none are saved, all are lost.” George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo

Just when you think the Trump Reign of Error can’t get any more absurd, the man goes to Europe and opens his foolish mouth, and something resembling language spills out. Trump sounds idiotic even when he’s reading from a prepared script, but when he veers off script, as he is prone to do, to the horror of his handlers, nearly everything out of his mouth sounds like gibberish. What he says today, on the record, on video tape, he denies tomorrow. The man has never in his wasted, pathetic life accepted personal responsibility. Trump bludgeons the truth every single day. The entire world -- with the exception of the parrots on Fox News and most members of the Republican Party -- knows Trump is a liar, a bigot, a fool, and an imbecile.

The Trump junta is a nightmare from which there is no awakening, no relief, no escape. Should the United States engage in dialogue with Russia? Yes, of course. With North Korea? Yes. With India and Pakistan? Yes. Israel? Sure, even if it’s done with a wink and a nod to Bibi. Nuclear powers need to talk to one another, explore mutual interests, and ease tensions whenever possible. I do, and yet don’t, understand the hysteria about Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Is it really a Pearl Harbor, 9/11-style event, a grave threat to our democracy? I’m not willing to go there. It  seems a certainty that Russia attempted to influence the election in Trump’s favor, but how effective their efforts were is more difficult to pinpoint, at least from where I stand. What we shouldn’t forget is that the US has been interfering in the elections, governments, and economies of sovereign nations for decades. Please, can we at least step back, pause, and recognize our own hypocrisy? It’s not worse, Democrats, because it happened to us, and I’m not willing to crown the FBI, CIA and NSA as glorious protectors of democracy, because these agencies have long, dark histories of subverting the democratic aspirations of other nations, not to mention spying on Americans. And the intelligence apparatus lies, all the time.

It also seems obvious that the Russians have something on Trump that Trump is desperate to keep locked away, hidden from sight. The Orange Menace is a degenerate of the highest order so there could be a tape of him cavorting with underage prostitutes, but far more likely is money laundering. I think we will see before too much longer that money Russian oligarchs stole from the Russian people was funneled through the Trump Organization and came out scrubbed clean. For the right price, Trump would sell Melania and his children into bondage and never bat an eye or lose a moment’s sleep.

It has to be the money.

We must understand two things about Trump’s grotesque presidency: First, it’s not normal. Trump doesn’t represent America. Second, Trump is out for himself and no one else. He cares not a whit for the poor sod in Michigan or Ohio or Pennsylvania who lost his union job in a ball bearing factory ten years ago and has been scratching out a living on Walmart wages ever since. Trump is a con man -- always was, always will be. If you’re a working class person who thinks Trump cares about you, well, I’m sorry. Both American political parties sold you out long ago. Some of your grievances are justified. You have a right to be worried for your future and your children’s future, but you backed the wrong savior; you’re a casualty of a system that is bigger and far more enduring than Donald J. Trump. Your enemy isn’t African-Americans or Mexican immigrants or women or gay people -- your enemy is neoliberal capitalism, the “free” market, unchecked corporate influence; these are the forces that have upended your world and ruined your shot at a middle-class life. And you’re not alone. Millions of us are huddled in this leaky boat.

My body involuntarily convulses, I feel a cramp in my leg, I sit up in bed and shake my head to rid my mind of the vision of Donald J. Trump’s leering visage; I’m dreaming and wide awake, certain my country is in its death throes, tottering on the edge of the abyss. My bed is on fire and just a few feet from me, Trump is rubbing a computer server and demanding that it reveal its secrets.

The World Cup: A Conspiracy of Fortune

“And when good soccer happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.” Eduardo Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow

So, France has won the World Cup, beating a spirited Croatia side by a 4-2 margin. For long stretches of the Final, Croatia was ascendent, the better side, but as they did throughout this tournament, France did what they needed to do in order to win. The football wasn’t always free-flowing or lovely or technically brilliant or pretty, but it was effective. France won ugly when it needed to, usually a characteristic of a champion. Half the possession, many fewer corners than Croatia, no problem. France has players who can flick the switch and turn in a moment of quality.

Croatia deserves all the credit it has garnered from the media and public. If you want to see a side with spirit and resiliency, one that will never quit no matter what, look no further. Luka Modric was the best player in this tournament, followed, perhaps, by a duo of my favorites, Eden Hazard and N’golo Kante. A true football fan has to admire what Croatia achieved, a small nation not expected to go deep into the tournament, that defied the experts and the odds and proved they belonged in the Final. Modric, Rakitic, Perisic and Mandzukic proved that they deserved to play in the Final, that Croatia wasn’t a fluke.

Winning the World Cup takes a conspiracy of fortune -- an advantageous sorting in the group stage, fortunate pairings in the knockout rounds, being on the better side of the draw, having a healthy side that peaks at the right time, a measure of pure luck. To lift the trophy a lot has to go right. Football is a game of fine margins, inches, feet, seconds. Having what seems to be an unbeatable squad of talented players isn’t enough -- just ask Germany, Argentina, Brazil or Spain. In this tournament, giants were toppled, and some of the finest players in the world took an early vacation. Talent is one thing, a necessary thing, but so are intangibles like resilience, heart, and belief. Croatia believed. After storming to victory against Japan in one of the greatest comebacks in World Cup history, Belgium believed.

France should have won the 2016 European championship. They were on home soil, after all, and before thirty minutes of the final were over, Portugal’s star player, Cristiano Ronaldo, was subbed off with an injury. The door was wide open, big enough for a locomotive to plow through, but France lost. They avenged that loss in Russia. Kante and Griezmann and Giroud and Pogba and Mbappe, the latter all of nineteen, with the ability to change the game when the opposition got stretched and space opened before him.

The 2018 World Cup was one long feast, a banquet table groaning under the weight of a hundred delicacies; Russia gave us drama and heroics and passion and heart-stopping anxiety; Mexico beating Germany, Croatia stunning Argentina, Sweden going as far as it did, Russia ousting Spain.

When the tournament began I hoped Belgium would lift the cup, and after Belgium, France, and my third choice was Argentina, a pity vote for Messi. If Croatia had won, I would have been happy because they showed incredible mettle and teamwork. For the last month my life has revolved around who was playing who and at what stage. After the winnowing of the group stages there are few easy matches. The deeper into the tournament a team ventures, the tougher the going. Didier Deschamps and his team deserved to lift the trophy in the pelting Moscow rain.

This is America

"For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake." Frederick Douglass

The 4th came and went and I didn’t feel much patriotism for my country. It has been a long time since I saw the glowing myth behind the gray reality. Too many doses of truth. My generation has made a muddle of things, capitulating to the forces of capitalism. We bought the fable of market rationalism, believed, even when it became clear that it was a total failure, sat by idly while the few raked in all but the loose chips. The Market replaced God, seeped into our schools, public spaces, civil discourse, and institutions. The Market knows best. The Market is fair and just. The Market plays no favorites. The Market is always right, the only way of looking at the world, the only solution to any problem.

Brand everything, including yourself, package and sell it.

The hole we’re in is deep, caving fast. Our president, a shameless moron who would rather be King, shovels dirt on our heads. The light from above fades. A collapse is coming, and must come, because the foundation is cracked and can’t bear the weight of the fraud and mendacity at the top. The elites, the credentialed experts, the blow-dried talking heads on cable news, the PR flacks, the market cheerleaders -- heartless and cruel, perpetuating each other up and down the line. “In another country they would have been criminals, but this was America.” Colson Whitehead wrote the line about a different set of criminals, but the thought applies just as well. It’s not that we are headed for plutocracy and kleptocracy, we’ve already arrived, cruised the limo around the circular drive, past the gilded fountain and the liveried staff. Democracy is a sham, we all know it, the game rigged, the fix in. Except for a few decades here and there, it has always been so, and right from the beginning. Those Founding Fathers feared the people, distrusted them, thought them too ignorant and unruly for self-rule. No, we didn’t want a king, but neither a mob. Now under-populated red states lord over heavily populated blue states, South Dakota represented by the same number of senators as California and New York. Tyranny of the minority.

Uruguay and France. Brazil and Belgium. There might be fireworks, for sure there will be drama. I will be glued to my big screen. Eight teams left in Russia.

Here’s a statistic from Jeffrey St. Clair’s latest column for Counterpunch:

+ Countries where school shooters in 2018 were born …

Libya- 0

Syria- 0

Somalia- 0

Yemen- 0

Iran- 0

United States- 22

The median price of a home in SB was recently pegged at a million bucks. In San Francisco, a six-figure income can qualify you as low income. The Market, again, turning a basic human need into a commodity. How can real estate prices rise so steadily when incomes are flat? There was a home for sale around the corner from us for a few weeks; yesterday a big truck was parked in the driveway and the porch was cluttered with furniture, packing cartons. Another lucky winner of the SB-Real Estate-Lottery. We got our piece of Paradise!

Apparently, Scott Pruitt, the disgraced former head of the EPA, believes God’s hand is guiding Donald Trump as he rolls back every regulation he possibly can, flogs coal, and thumbs his nose at climate science. Don’t count on Pruitt ever paying a price for the trail of blatant corruption he blazed. Remember, this is America.