We Don't Care About The Schemes That Let The Rich Get Richer

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Long long, ago, in 2019, I felt rage at seeing wealthy white parents use bribery fraud to get their children into Stanford and USC, two universities I don’t respect (especially the right-leaning Stanford). This was called the college admissions bribery scandal. But no one cared. And frankly, after nearly 3 years of reflection, neither should I. Life is too short to care about the rich getting richer, because they have been back at it since the Reagan administration. I was 8 years old when he and Congress started cutting their taxes. That’s almost all of my life. And many -if not most- in the top 5% pay no tax at all.

Still, with the help of this blog’s former contributor, Archetype, I’ve got some brief, leftover thoughts about a few of the mechanisms that have made the rich much more rich since the election of Donald J. Trump, and then even more rich during the pandemic. I have a lot of things to share on this topic. It’s late in a depressing year. I’m on train. So I’m gonna dump.

We knew about charitable donations and legacies with relation to who gets admitted to prestigious universities. But this scandal reveals all the other mechanism the rich have to block out the good kids who work hard and never get in.

Meanwhile, Trump and his pals joke that no one ever remembers seeing Barack Obama at Columbia and Harvard.

Now would be a great time to leak Trump's transcripts from Fordham. I wish someone at Fordham had to courage to leak those.

By the way., for a man who will pat himself on the back for any and all things he puts his name to, funny he doesn’t have these amazing transcripts bronzed and in the lobby of Trump Plaza. I mean they are the very best grades. No one had better grades.

But why go through all the trouble of fraud. Why not set up a fake university with fake diplomas and everything else. Just set up a fake university that will act like a rubber stamp on a resume that your kid is rich. Frankly, the rich cutting their kids into line de-values the diplomas from these prestigious private institutions. It has always been a slap in the face to the kids who have to work and borrow to go to university.

When I first drafted this blog post, I asked myself a question. if New York City taxi medallions have dropped in value because of new car services like Uber and Lyft, and if retail stores have lost their value because of Amazon, then when will the value of the prestigious universities drop because they are full of rich kids whose parents bribed their way in? 

Are hiring managers are really so stupid to think that a Yale degree in 2021 is exactly the same as a Yale degree in 1960 in terms of prestige and value? 

In each decade since the end of the twentieth century, we have learned of the advanced mechanisms ands schemes the top two percent use to maintain their wealth and privilege. In this pandemic, we have found quite a few. Let’s discover some more. These are teachable moments.

Also: meritocracy. I never believed it was real.

It's no accident that the rich pay little in taxes. After all, they've bought a major political party, which governs on their behalf, while feeding their constituents a steady diet of culture war fairy tales. Is this a great country, or what?

This should be shocking, but of course it's not. In the 1970's, the wealthiest people on earth declared war on the rest of us, and they quickly hired the politicians who would wage it on their behalf. Reagan in the states and Thatcher in the U.K. became the public faces of that extraordinarily successful war. By the start of this century, advanced economies world wide had essentially stopped taxing the rich, and the people at the top of the income and asset heap saw their share of the wealth grow exponentially decade after decade. In good times and bad, the rich got ever richer, and their hired gun politicians made sure the policies which had assured those results were maintained and strengthened. There's a groaning and growing shelf of books explaining this process, and detailing its ruinous consequences. I hope it's not too late to reverse this catastrophe, but I fear that it is. Our republic has never been much of a democracy, and it looks now like the republic itself is destined to become an authoritarian state, ruled by an arrogant, monied oligarchy. I might be mistaken. But I don’t think so.

Now The Democratic Party's Failure Is Complete

All I have done since 1992 is vote for Democrats, and yet the nation is becoming unstable and liberties are being taken away.

"Roe is under attack. The DNC needs your cash before midnight to meet its fundraising goal and protect our liberties!" That’s not an exact quote, but that's the shit I have seen in my USPS inbox and email inbox for the last 30 years.

My response has always been: “I voted for you. Now shut the fuck up and deliver while there’s time.”

The last best chance the Democrats had to delivering came in 2009. And we know how that went.

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For the last five years, one of the constant things i have heard from the Democrats is that they are the decent party. They are respectful. They are polite. They go high. They are grammatically correct. They are so intimidated and threatened by the violent right wing, that they stopped writing policy and protecting fundamental liberties.

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The Democrats have been successfully bullied by the GOP minority. And here we are.

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The Democrats have had the White House and Congress twice since Roe (also the year of my birth) and they failed to codify it into Federal law. Simply asking the Democrats to have a unified platform was just being unfair and demanding. Shame on those New York City Democrats who could see the overturn of Roe coming from 30 years away.

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Simply put, as is the theme of this blog, we are fucked. We have entered the late phase of the republic in which rights are being taken away. The right wing will be coming for our birth control, same sex marriage and freedom to travel out of state next. The 14th Amendment has been broken and the liberties made possibly by that amendment are now under attack.

Thanks Bill. Thanks Barack. Thanks Joe and Joe. Thank you. For nothing.

A Symptom Of Our Late Capitalism Dystopia

I have a few observations about this latest explosion of male consumer rage.

First, that’s his girlfriend following him in this video, holding her phone and his.

Second, his walk is shitty, because he’s a shit.

Third, I strongly believe he needs to be banned from commercial flights for life.

Fourth, now I understand why the American Airlines CEO spoke about this. The kid became furious, walked all the way to the rear galley, and punched the attendant. That’s particularly egregious.

And fifth, I suspect that his lawyer will use the “angry Asian male defense.” I am both aware of and very sympathetic to how male Asian Americans cannot cope with the pressures that a white supremacist society places on them, on top of the unreasonable expectations of their parents and sometimes their romantic partners. You might be saying ‘what the fuck?’ but this is a real thing that was covered over at Jezebel. Expect that defense. He’s under a lot of pressure, but because our white supremacist society treated him like shit, he had to break someone’s face.

The Chapo Trap House podcast has nailed it in recent weeks. Americans are pigs who are addicted to treats. And if they don’t get their treats, they are going to get violent.

'Bomb Cyclone' Is A Terrible Name. Change It.

It’s not a bomb, and it’s not really a cyclone. Change the branding. The branding sucks.

Alec Baldwin Is So Fucked

It pains me to write that. But it seems obvious. Alec Baldwin is totally, completely fucked. Everything bad that happens to him going forward is probably going to be traced to what happened to him last week.

This tragic case is extraordinary in every worst way:

1. I will start with the fact that Alec Baldwin is New York’s resident asshole celebrity. He’s been an asshole to just about everyone for the last 30 years or so. You might cry that this isn’t relevant to the tragedy, but of course it is. This is part of how it’s going to be remembered. It is far too soon to write it, but I wrote it.

2. No asshole deserves what happened to Mr. Baldwin. What astonishes me is the level of horrifying trauma he is going through. If you believe in karma, or if you think sometimes the universe comes to collect from bad people, you have to agree that Baldwin’s punishment is disproportionately large for what he has done as an adult. He must be going through the worst hell, unless, he is unfazed and sleeping peacefully at night, in which case, re-read #1. No one deserves such an overwhelming punishment for being an chronic asshole. Not even Donald Trump, who must be thrilled that this happened.

3. Baldwin is no longer an A-list actor. Personally, I will remember him for Beetlejuice, Miami Blues, Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice and The Royal Tannenbaum's (I forgot he’s the voice of the narrator!). He’s in the twilight of his career, unable to star in a theatrical release. So he took a role (and an executive producer credit) in a Blumhouse production that was marred by a labor dispute and a total breakdown of safety protocols. This led to him becoming a victim of one of the worst cases of negligence in the history of movie production. I want to repeat that. What happened last week was arguably worse than The Twilight Zone movie helicopter crash in 1982, or Brandon Lee’s death on the set of The Crow in 1993. That’s because it is currently believed that the gun used was a revolver, which is easier to empty. For a rehearsal, it should have been empty of any and all cartridges. It goes so far beyond ‘inexcusable.’ It should never have happened. And yet, a series of shocking errors and terrible chances led to a tragic death. Somehow a live round found its way into that gun, and that gun ended up in Baldwin's hand.

4. The inexcusable, violent death of Ms. Hutchins was the fault of many people. Primarily, the liability rests with assistant director Dave Halls and an inexperienced armorer. But in order for this to become the horrible manslaughter it was, there had to be a string of consecutive failures, including the final failure from Mr. Baldwin. He violated a critical rule: never point any gun, real or replica, at anyone. It would have been bad enough if a live round was fired during rehearsal, but hit no one. People would still be fired and banned from Hollywood. An investigation would still happen. The unions would send stern reminders to armorers and assistant directors. But this horrific tragedy is one in which a series of terrible things happened, including Baldwin pointing the gun at two principal crew members.

Are you a fan of Alec Baldwin? Did my words hurt you because I said something harsh about the star of of the insanely overrated and self-referencing 30 Rock? Well, don’t be upset at me. Just watch what happens next.

New York City now has two celebrities on death watch. Which one will go first, Alec Baldwin or Rudy Giuliani? Or will Robert De Niro crash the party with a surprise passing?

It might seem that I find some pleasure in this. I don’t, really. One person is dead and another is having his life completely ruined.

I do admit to being slightly evil and twisted. I have to be a little evil in this cruel nation.

Newcastle Are Finally Going To Be Relegated, For Real This Time

After years of close calls, season after season, Newcastle are finally on their way down.

There's actually no shame in going down, considering how much time we’ve had to prepare. This club has been warned repeatedly that this was going to happen. Newcastle has been skirting the relegation zone throughout Steve Bruce's tenure. Now it's unavoidable. Amazingly, this collapse has come just as the sale of the club was finalized. If the sale had to wait until January, would it still be on at this point?

In a way, this is fair to all parties. Previous owner Mike Ashley got his asking price. The new ownership still got a good deal. They thought they were buying into the EPL at a low price. They were mistaken. They were buying into the Championship at a low price. But they will still get richer. Worry not.

This club is going down. I have accepted this already. I suggest we all do. If Newcastle were to earn 35 points starting after the November international break, it would be a historic season save. A surge in points that would be remembered for years. But that's not happening.

What we should be passionate about is the rebuilding of the club and the plan to get it back into the EPL as a strong contender for cups. We won't just come back. We will dominate the lower half of the table and get back into the Europa League.

The next 20 months and beyond are going to be entertaining and very enjoyable compared to the Ashley era. Enjoy it, Lads. We will fall and rise together. Enjoy the ride. Alan Shearer will, despite his slightly intoxicated gaffe, below:.

Philadelphia Might Be Alright Now

Way back on July 3 of this year, members of the white nationalist group, Patriot Front marched through downtown Philadelphia. They were chased out. I am thrilled this happened. Finally. Everyone who considers themselves to be anti-racist needs to chase white nationalists out of town.

Having said that, we should acknowledge that Philadelphia has a terrible history of being an unjust town for its majority black population. You can’t get in line at Geno’s without seeing a message that black people are cop killing animals (and, I presume, that Italian-Americans are good, wholesome, superior people). Philadelphia and my New York both have the distinction of responding to the crime wave of the 70s and 80s by electing a white supremacist Italian American mayor, who was a disaster for the city and a menace to black residents.

Take These Monuments Down

Christopher Columbus was no Italian-American. In fact, he never set foot on the North American continent. But somehow he became an icon for Italian-Americans in the early 20th Century, as Italian immigrants fought for legitimacy and acceptance in the United States.

That was wrong and misguided. We must stop honoring him. He was a privateer, for the Spanish empire, no less. Enough.

And so, his monuments must come down. I chuckle at both New York mayor Bill de Blasio and former governor Andrew Cuomo who argued that it is possible to “honor” both Columbus and indigenous peoples. No it isn’t.

Soon, the monument at Columbus Circle will come down. It’s just a matter of time. The fact that the topic of taking it down is brought up each year is proof. It’s like same sex marriage or legal weed. When we all start talking about it, it’s inevitable.

Back in 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ first voyage to the Caribbean, kids like me at the University of Massachusetts were demanding that the name and the monuments be taken down. Back then, refusing to honor Columbus was seen as radical. Now, nearly two generations later, we’re finally going to make some progress. Take the monuments and the name down. Rename Columbus, Ohio. Reject his name and colonialist legacy.

I Expect You To Die, United States. Please Do.

Mr. Sterling is back from a long, hot summer break. I think I can get my stack of draft posts into production before Christmas. I’ll treat this like a semester at university, as I first did 30 years ago when our popular culture changed for the better.

So I start with this hot take: the Republic is indeed dying. And I have shifted from being sad about it, to being afraid, to now expecting and almost wanting it to happen. We did this to ourselves. And we cannot accidentally or improbably rescue ourselves every time we walk-up to this abyss. This time, we are committing suicide.

When I last posted on this blog, the US had the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the ropes. We were down to fewer than 300 deaths per day. Was it going to be that easy after nearly 18 months of suffering? Were we gong to end this pandemic?

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Of course not.

Nope.

Holy shit.

The US had one job. It had to get as many as the 258 Million adults vaccinated before Labor Day. It failed. Full stop. It failed. We didn’t get the vaccine into even 180 Million adult arms as of today. And so now, 1 out of 4 (25%) US adults are unvaccinated. And we are seeing scenes like this in every state, including this example from my own city. The loud minority is winning this war.

The reason the richest country in the world failed to vaccinate its adults before the fall wave of new cases is because lies are far more effective in spreading than truth. That’s been the case for centuries. This vaccination effort was not going to be a smashing success, even with the late mandates now coming into effect. But it absolutely needed a big, clear and coordinated campaign, with Nashville music artists and Ford pickup trucks leading the way. It needed to be the biggest public morale campaign since World War II. Instead, we got mixed messages, starts and stops, and finally the crushing lies all over the internet, reinforcing dumb people and their resistance to authority (well, Democratic authority).

This all makes sense. About 70 Million people, who would be perfectly fine with long-term authoritarian rule, are blowing their tops over hospitals, local governments, and the Federal government asking that they get vaccinated - for free!

We could have at least tried to prevent this with a massive, coordinated propaganda campaign. We didn’t. The lies won. The loudest voices in the room won and we let them. This happened before, just 6 years ago, with well-established vaccines, by the way. And it will happen with future vaccines.

And this translates into a higher death toll. For example:

Too late, loser. You had four months to get vaccinated. You’re dead now. There are over 100,000 Americans like him now. There will be another 100,000. And another.

And you, shithead. You didn’t have to be hospitalized. This was preventable. You should have died. Good thing there were hard-working medical care providers, a spare ICU bed and medications that were available at your local hospital.

I could share hundreds of videos in this post. I’ll stop. If you are still reading this, you get it.

Which brings me to my point. It’s evil, so brace yourself. It’s this: I now celebrate of all this preventable death. We have asked American adults to get vaccinated, and we have given them six months to get it done. But 25% of them have refused. I take that as confirmation that they want to die. They have made their choice. They have chosen death.

So they should die. They should die and stop wasting our time. Our time here is short. The pandemic will soon enter its third year. Let’s step up the death count. 2,000 per day isn’t good enough. Let’s get it back to 4,000. No one will care. And my patience is extinguished. You probably consider yourself too polite to say that. That’s commendable. I couldn’t keep it inside any longer. I had to write these words.

And here’s the kicker. This was the plan of us leftists all along to kill-off the right wingers. We knew -we knew- that by telling people to get vaccinated, the 70 Million hard-core MAGA caps would commit to not getting their shots. It was the most incredible reverse psychology tactic in history, as John Nolte of Breitbart explains:

Could it be…? Could it possibly be that the left has manipulated huge swathes of Trump voters into believing they are owning the left by not taking the life-saving Trump Vaccine?
….
Have you ever thought that maybe the left has us right where they want us?

Just stand back for a moment and think about this…

Right now, a countless number of Trump supporters believe they are owning the left by refusing to take a life-saving vaccine — a vaccine, by the way, everyone on the left has taken. Oh, and so has Trump.

Now think about this.

On this very day, about 1,000 people in the U.S. will die of the China Flu. How many of those lives could’ve been saved had they been vaccinated?…. Does it matter?

And if the left is all vaccinated and we’re not, who’s winning?
.…
I could be wrong.

Maybe the left isn’t that evil and sly.

But when I think of the unvaccinated lying there dying, being told by their doctor, “Sorry, there’s nothing more we can do to get enough oxygen to your lungs,” I don’t laugh. My heart breaks for that person. Imagine lying there dying thinking that all you had to do was get the Trump Vaccine.

Even if this isn’t the left’s plan, who’s owning who?

That’s right, genius. It is the bank shot to rule all bank shots from the same people who couldn’t pass a deficit-neutral Medicare enrollment option for the uninsured. Sigh.

The pandemic will burn for years. The Republicans have the courts. Gun rights are being expanded in 2022. Roe is being overturned in 2022. The Republicans are going to take back Congress in 2023. And then, in 2025, they will steal the White House and cement authoritarian rule for at least a generation. By the time that happens, the Republic will be dead.

What the GOP has done since 1980 is extraordinary. They have won the presidency twice while losing the popular vote. They have packed the courts with corporate-friendly judges, who have sharply tilted the Supreme Court to the right since the early 1990s (particularly since the arrival of Justice Alito in 2006). And they continue to win big locally, winning close to two thirds of State Houses and state legislators. There are tens of millions more registered Democrats then Republicans. But Republicans are in charge through minority rule. And we are seeing them shift from minority rule to autocratic rule.

Biden's agenda has been stopped. Congress can't anything done. The republic is clearly dying. And Republicans are more than okay with that. They think, unwisely, that the states will be okay if Washington’s power collapses. This is not true. No one is going to be okay when the wildfires and hurricanes hit. Only the millionaires and billionaires will be okay when capitalism reaches its final limits. And there will be no reason to defend this nation any longer when freedoms -particularly bodily autonomy and the right to vote- are taken away. We're all doomed, thanks to Republican ruthlessness and Democratic weakness.

The only question I have remaining is will the masses in cities rise up when the republic collapses, or will we follow the more common historic example and just take it with a whimper? Will New York City just become a symbolic center of resistance like Barcelona under Franco? We Americans are pigs who love our treats. If the treats are still available on Amazon, I think we will just take authoritarianism.

Pathetic.

I’m ready to watch it all go down. Raise your glass and watch it all burn. It’s what the Republicans want.

The Park Is Fine

Washington Square Park is fine. There is no out of control noise, drugs, violent crime, nudity or sex problem in the park. A minority of residents near the NYU campus, who are mostly white and wealthy, seem to have a problem with young people - particularly brown young people - having some fun in a public park.

Yes, there are lots of young people. Yes, there are artists. Yeah, there are people putting on dancing and music performances. There are tons of sunbathers. Some people play chess. Others smoke pot. A tiny minority of people shoot up. None of this is a reason to shut the park down at 22:00 with the iron fist of the NYPD.

The park is fine.

Know what isn’t fine? The wealthy people who claim to live near Washington Square Park and want it cleared out. Let’s take this resident as a prime example:

Alan Silverstein, a 59-year-old who lives near Union Square, told Gothamist that police were right to exclude dissenting voices from the “Build the Block” meeting.

He lives “near Union Square.” So at minimum, he lives four street blocks up University place, some 0.2 miles away, and out of earshot of Washing Square Park. And he thinks that the police were right to commandeer a community meeting on June 16, and keep defenders of public space out.

People who say that Washington Square Park is "unsafe" with a straight face are either arguing in very bad faith, or they weren't alive in the 1980s. They also equate 'dirty' with 'unsafe.' I moved to NYC 26 years ago, just after Kids was filmed in the park. While I, like anyone, was approached by a weed seller ("smoke, smoke"), I was never not safe. It is ridiculously safe today. I repeat: it is safe.

I am not surprised but still disgusted by the comments from most of the local, millionaire residents. They drop the word "skateboards," as a code for brown people. Also they speak of skateboards as if they are a new phenomenon- as if there hasn't been a skate culture since the late 1960s. No one has been killed in the park. The park is one of the safest places to be in the city. I prefer a city that has people outdoors into the night hours. Washington Square Park is world famous. It's up there with the best public outdoor spaces in Paris (the French love Washington Square Park, by the way). Leave our young people alone. They are keeping the neighborhood safe simply by being there. I've seen sunbathers, not "crack" (Crack!!! What a lie). And if you are so sensitive to the noise, please move to another ZIP code.

Some light Google searches shows that the battle against young people and their skateboards in the park made the news in 2019. This is not news, nor is it a big problem.

Now if the noise and drugs are a real problem, I'd have officers handing out noise citations, and make sure the 8th Street area has a safe injection site. The overall problem of noise in the park, which isn’t a big deal, will simmer down, as it does with each NYU semester cycle. The park is both public and is a part of the small NYU campus. In terms of wealth to campus acreage, NYU has to have one the highest ratios in the world.

Do none of the olds complaining about drug use remember Needle Park? Or even Washington Square Park in the 1980s? What's happening now is cheerful and positive in comparison. In the objectors’ alternative reality, attractive young sunbathers are described as naked hooligans having public sex. Pot smokers are crack addicts. Skateboards are tools of menace and intimidation. These NIMBYs are exaggerating, embellishing, and making stuff up.

New York Deserves Eric Adams

This blog is going to post a few redundant posts this year. This is because we’re acknowledging a common theme: Americans don’t give a shit. They don’t care. That's how this empire dies. No one cared to protect it and put smart people in charge.

New Yorkers, who see themselves as special and above all other Americans, also don’t care.

How else to explain the next mayor, Eric Adams?

We know he’s a lunatic. We don’t care. We know he has no real policy ideas. We know he’s not even a Democrat. We don’t care. We know he doesn’t even live here. We don’t care. We know he sides with landlords and real estate developers, and has the audacity to blame young arrivals from Iowa and Ohio for gentrification. And we will never care.

So of course, New York City, confused by two progressives in the race for mayor, tripped, fell and let Eric Adams walk on through by less than 20,000 votes, thanks to very low turnout and a big case of not really giving a shit.

Enjoy your victory lap, Mister Adams. No, you are not the face of the Democratic party. No, you are not a rallying cry that moderates will prevail. No, you are not evidence of some sleeping giant of black power. Not the black power I prefer anyway. What utter horseshit. Fuck Errol Lewis.

Know why it’s all horseshit? Just look at how right wingers are reacting to Adams. They are already trashing him as a ‘corrupt,’ big city politician (read: black). They are trashing him using the same terms they use to trash Joe Biden, another moderate Democrat. See, the Democrats will never learn. You can declare yourself a moderate all you want, you are still going to get trashed by the same Republicans, at the same intensity, over the same non-issues. Democrats who are sincerely moderate in this era are living their dreams to be a popular 1980s Republican. Enjoy it while it lasts. Because it won’t. This republic will soon collapse.

Adams cannot wait to take over from Bill de Blasio in January 2022. He’s going to let the NYPD trample on peoples’ rights, let the real estate developers continue their profit-making run, and keep his voters happy by trashing people like me who live in Manhattan.

Trash Manhattan at your peril, asshole. And Fuck Brooklyn.®

So liberal, progressive town this is not. Look at Buffalo. What a triumph for India Walton and the DSA! Meanwhile we're heading into a dark four years of scandals, insane tirades and incomprehensible speeches. Warren Wilhelm made promises he couldn't keep, was corrupt, made his wife a city employee with a bloated staff and budget, and generally made every press conference an exercise in excuses and squirming about "unfair questions." Adams is going to take incompetence and Trump-like zaniness to a new level. Anyone unfamiliar with the history of the office being a dead-end is going to see it in action. No contemporary NYC mayor ever goes on to be congressman, senator, governor or president.

High-End Housing Sits On Decaying Cities And We Have Questions

Specifically, Samuel Stein has questions, and his piece in The Baffler is a must read.

I have pointed this out before. In 2014, I wrote:

what we are seeing are overpriced luxury homes being built on top of decaying infrastructure

I don’t think anything will wake-up educated Americans to this fact and want to change anything. I don’t think even Chicago becoming uninhabitable could wake people up. So be it. We’re doomed. And millionaires can enjoy their towers for about 10 more years. Have fun.

The Fact She's Elected Is Proof We're Doomed

Majorie Taylor-Greene. Why are we writing about her? Because we’re doomed, that’s why. I hate this bitch so much I can’t post her photo on this post.

The fact that she's a congressman and not working at a big box retail chain or Amazon fulfillment center is all the proof we need that this society and republic are doomed. She writes no laws. She doesn't govern. All she does is play act, pose, troll and distract. And in DC, she is far from alone. You wonder how empires crumble? Review US history since 1980.

Newcastle Stay Afloat Again

Fuck this fucking club. Fuck Steve Bruce.

Name another FIFA-licensed manager in any professional league who has his squad play like this up two goals and with an extra man on the pitch? Name another manager who wouldn't start Joe Willock, one of the best players on the roster?

Enough. I have had enough. I want the murderous Saudis to buy this club now. Yes, I resisted. I don't care about human rights anymore. I want new ownership yesterday.

Do not step inside the stadium until there are new owners. This is not football. This is not a normal club. A normal club with this roster would be comfortably finishing 12th.

And I know what you Geordies say. I respect you. You know this sport better than any other city in the UK. You will say, 'piss off, we know, we've heard it all before.' But you need to hear it again. Your country invented professional sports. But here in the States, even the worst-run MLB, NBA and NFL teams have a faint level of normalcy in their front offices. Even the Washington Department of Football and the New York Knicks. Newcastle are not normal.

How many more times must a club this big, with a giant fan base, barely stay afloat in the English Premier League? Why does there have to be a relegation scare every December through April? Because the owner, that’s why. The owner and his transfer policy. The owner and his neglect of the youth academy. The owner and his neglect of the training facilities. And that all led to a once great club unable to attract a competent coach to mange it. Rafael Benitiez was a saint. He tried in vain to make Newcastle normal. But it can’t be normal until it is sold. It’s time to sell the club and give this city a normal sports franchise.

The Death Of Retail Is Also The Death Of The Middle Class

Jason Del Rey wrote a great article in Vox recently about the death of the department store and how that is directly linked to the demise of the American middle class. It remined me of Sears. The story of Sears illustrates his point. Fifty years ago, young married couples went to Sears to buy their appliances, furnish their new "starter houses," buy baby clothes and furniture, and, of course, buy lawn mowers, garden tools and even have the "family car" fixed. A credit card from Sears was a passport to lower middle class status. You were on the escalator to the middle class. But since the advent of the Reagan Revolution in 1980, that middle class has been shrinking steadily, as the economic escalator has gone into reverse. The anchor stores in the typical American mall were Sears, JCPenny, Lord & Taylor and Macy's. And where are those stores, and malls, and employees now? The same place the robust American middle class has gone: oblivion.

Generation X Thrown Into The Garbage Heap

Generation X never had a chance. We’re finished. Some of us got famous. A few of us became right wing politicians like Ted Cruz. Some of us became legendary athletes like Ichiro Suzuki or Scott Dixon. And a few of us become billionaires like Elon Musk and Larry Page. But overall, Generation X became what it feared it would become, an overlooked generation that followed the Baby Boomers. And the Baby Boomers stayed in the workforce for too long because (and I’m being sweepingly general here) they supported economic policies that forced a majority of Boomers to work past age 65. It’s a fucked-up, late capitalist situation.

And now the purge of Generation X from the workforce is well under way. And sadly, it is legal, thanks to the weakening of US labor laws over the decades. A quick note about that: This arbitration dodge has been abused for years. Congress should restrict this corporate abuse of the right of employees, and broaden their right to seek class action judicial remedy for such outrages. Silicon valley must no longer be the "Wild West" of capitalism. It's begging for regulation, and I hope the US House can pass a bill this year to at least signal that it is time to re-regulate.

Generation X was a little smaller than the generations before and after it. But as good American consumers, they sure punched above their class. They went all-in on borrowing for college and borrowing to buy houses. They kept the US economy humming by going into deep debt. And that debt has dampened their overall wealth. We were correct. We were the first generation from the 20th century to fail to match the living standard of the generation before.

And now, as my generation nears retirement age, we realize that we had moire missed opportunities and denied chances than most other contemporary generations. In 2021, Generation X is properly having a moment. It was 30 years ago that we had some of the defining events and cultural touchstones of the generation: Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls winning their first NBA title, the arrest of Jeffrey Dahmer, the fall of the Soviet Union, Mazda winning at Le Mans, seminal albums from Massive Attack and Nirvana, The Black Album, Achtung Baby, the Gulf War and even the original Star Trek’s swan song.

It will be interesting if the Generation X call-outs and retrospectives continue in 2021. So far, the collective responses from my generation have been eyerolls, cursing and awkward silence, which is what I cherish.

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Daria

There Will Be No 'Roaring Twenties'

American mainstream news thinks it is so smart. It knows history! It knows that after the flu pandemic of 1918-1919, the US economy boomed into what we call the Roaring Twenties. If we ignore suppression of freedom in the form of segregation and prohibition, the 1920s were a damn good time! And it had to be triggered by the end of the pandemic, right? And history is going to repeat perfectly, 100 years later, right?

If only it was that simple. Thankfully, plenty of people still understand that economics is adjacent to history as a field of study. Some might argue that they are inseparable. How could you describe the rise or decline of an empire or nation without addressing its economy?

The Roaring Twenties, like any economic boom, was brought about by a variety of factors. We had a continued immigration surge (immigration surges almost always lead to economic growth), widespread electrification, the rise of corporations, the dawn of the modern consumer culture, the rise of the US labor movement, and American culture began to define itself.

A note on the last part: popular culture came of age. The rise of the music recording industry and radio went hand in hand, and great American music genres like blues, bluegrass and jazz were the main beneficiaries. Also, it has to be said that American culture is black. We can give white men some credit for the original American spirits. applejack and bourbon (although black people have been involved with those from the start in one form or another). But blues, bluegrass, jazz, barbecue cuisine, and (later) rock n’ roll, R&B, soul, funk, hip hop and rap are distinctly American and all black. And in the 1920s, only a lucky few black men and women could get a taste -a tiny serving- of prosperity and freedom that came with being an accomplished music artist. Later, some black artists would find more freedom in Paris, especially after the Tulsa race massacre in 1921. Let’s be clear. American culture is driven by black American culture. But black people are not allowed to be prosperous or be free. Still.

On the economic side of things, there really was a sea change. Publicly-traded corporations became powerful in the 1920s. But so did a new labor movement, which led to the standard five-day work week. The 1920s gave us weekends, right before the stock market crash and depression. And incredibly, the depression didn’t take our weekends away. Consumers in the late 19th century would often have to buy goods at a general store, and occasionally order products from a catalog (like a proto-Internet). In the 1920s, consumers still used mail order, but more of what they wanted was immediately available in bigger grocery stores and brightly-lit department stores. The American consumer themes of bigger faster and more had come of age. Automobiles were beginning to be owned by every family. Travelling from coast to coast was now possible in 4-5 days by train. The United States was starting to flex its industrial and technological muscle.

We still have a few intelligent people who know that history won’t be repeated simply because a pandemic is ending. Assuming we are just a few months away from this pandemic bing downgraded to an endemic, there can’t be a long-term surge in prosperity after what we’ve just seen in 2020. There are a few reasons for this.

First, last year was a windfall for the billionaires. The wealth transfer in 2020 alone was shocking, even compared to the overall wealth transfer over the last 40 years. Some individuals just ran away with all the wealth. Kanye West (!) entered the billionaire club. And four of the wealthiest Americans alive saw their net worth grow by a combined $229 Billion. There is no catching up for the rest of humanity. This bigger wealth gap simply sets the stage for stagnant wealth creation for the global middle class, and the greater probability of political and social turmoil over wealth inequality. We can’t have a roaring 2020s if the only ones partying are 5,000 US families with a net worth over $100 Million. That’s a wealth gap on the scale of the Philippines, Russia or Brazil.

Second, there doesn’t appear to be a technological revolution to supercharge wealth creation. Autonomous driving isn’t it. Machine learning (marketed as AI) isn’t it. Billionaires buying tickets to low Earth orbit or the Moon isn’t it. Even the vaccines and biotech, as amazing as they are, aren’t it. Free broadband Internet access for all would be significant. But most municipalities aren’t on-board with that idea. Either that or they’re broke.

Third, did I mention we’re broke? We aren’t rebuilding infrastructure. We’re letting municipal water systems fail and die. We aren’t putting money into the hands of builders. We aren’t making public university free of charge. We aren’t forgiving college debt. We aren’t expanding Medicare for all. We aren’t even trying to house the homeless. And where is our shift to clean, renewable energy? What moon shot do we have in us to kick-start a decade of strong economic growth?

Fourth, American manufacturing will never disappear, but the days of a healthy manufacturing sector are long gone. Manufacturing jobs have been replaced by Amazon warehouse and gig delivery jobs that pay a fraction of what the manufacturing jobs paid. Millions of Americans are working just as hard for less, and half of all Americans are poor. We’re going into to 2020s with the poverty, wealth gap and despair of the Great Depression.

Fifth, after the partial recovery of the travel, live entertainment, hospitality and dining sectors, we will still have a black hole in commercial real estate, as many workers are not returning to office spaces full-time. Working from home is now the norm for many, especially in information technology and information security. Some companies are learning to trust their remote workers to maintain their productivity, and are ending their leases for office space. A lot of commercial office space is going to have to convert to residential apartment space. Oh, and while we’re on the topic of buildings, did anyone notice how many vacant retail spaces there were in cities like New York and San Francisco back when the economy was growing? Brick and mortar retail is dead. All the cash is flowing to Amazon.

In sum, I just don’t see years of strong economic growth ahead. A return to the slow growth seen under Obama and Trump would be welcome. But long term, we are still in late capitalism. And man, does it suck. It’s a dystopian capitalist nightmare, frankly.

Meghan Markle Is A Nobody

It’s the news media, specifically the American news media, that is keeping her in our headlines.

The American news media calls Megan Markle a “feminist” and a world leader. Google her name and “feminist” and a lot of results appear. But in reality, who is she? She’s the wife of the brother of the future king of England. She and her children are nowhere near the line of succession. She is a supporting character of a supporting character.

Now I know I must acknowledge a few facts before I continue my argument. Obviously I am self-aware of the implications of calling the half-black, American wife to a British royal a “nobody.” Of course she is not a nobody. She’s a real person. She’s entitled to privacy. And it is terrible for a white male blogger to call a black woman a generation younger than him a “nobody.” That’s bullying. I know better. I should Be Best.

Come to think of it, Melania Trump is also a nobody, but I covered a part of that in a separate post.

It also needs to be acknowledged that Meghan Markle was and is treated terribly by the sleazy London tabloids. She was smeared for both her skin color and the fact that she is an American-born woman with no royal family ties. No woman deserves to be trashed before she can make a first impression on her terms. The British tabloids never gave Markle a fair chance. At least I am weighing in years later, after a lot of evidence has become available in the public sphere.

I call Meghan Markle a nobody because, in the grand scheme of things, the media attention she has received far outweighs her contributions to society and her significance in world history. She’s a positive footnote in an otherwise long and terrible history of British royalty. That is, until she made herself even more of a footnote by effectively leaving the royal family and giving up her titles and official royal duties.

Know what she is? Yes, she’s a feminist, but so is Lady Sterling. No, Megan Markle is simply privileged. The Duchess of Sussex did no more for women before she married Harry Windsor than millions of other American women who call themselves feminists. She worked hard to crack into show business (her major credits are game show model and supporting character on Suits), but she never did the hard work of activism and resisting the patriarchy. But once she married the Duke of Sussex, she became a sought-after celebrity who could help promote philanthropists, non-profits, GMOs and other wealthy do-gooders who want to boost their exposure and reputations. This leapt her to the top of the celebrity feminist hierarchy. It must have helped to have the weight of the royals behind her to remind media outlets to keep calling her a feminist and humanitarian. She’s not alone. Just look at Jay-Z.

Which brings me to my next and final point. The American media loves her for many reasons. Sadly one of them is a ghost named Diana. As I wrote in my master’s thesis, the news media loves to give history lessons to its viewers if there’s an interesting story to tell, and the news organization also finds the story interesting. Call it a form of navel gazing. A story of a new British Royal bride being trashed by tabloids and then fleeing the family is a familiar tale. The tale is even more gripping when the woman marries one of the late Princes Diana’s sons. It’s even more gripping still when that son irrationally tells the media that he fears the media is going to kill his wife like they killed his mom. But these comparisons fall short. Markle is leaving the family on her terms, to make loads of cash. No affair or divorce forced her ouster. And, in a development that is worthy of a separate blog post or book, the golden age of paparazzi is over. From roughly the 1950s to the late 2000s, it was the paparazzi who got us candid photos of celebrities out in the wild. Today, the celebrities have taken back control of their images, and directly share photos and videos of themselves through social media platforms. The death of Diana should have popped the paparazzi bubble in 1997. But by 2013, Instagram did.

So no, the Duchess of Sussex is not in mortal danger. She’s free to be sit on the boards of non-profits and buy and sell stakes in companies for the rest of her life (again, look at Jay-Z). Leave her alone. But please also keep her out of the news. She is a nobody.

The Michael Flynn Problem Won't Easily Go Away

Mike Flynn, Trump's first national security advisor, was unquestionably an undisclosed agent of Turkey. Never in our history has a president had a person that close to the center of government who was advocating for a foreign power. If I were Biden, I'd be very worried that Trump would be selling US intelligence to foreign nations. I'd certainly be against Trump receiving any intelligence briefings at Mar-a-Lago.

And the Michael Fylnn saga is still not over. Following his pardon and Judge Sullivan being forced to close his court case, Flynn went on to commit more crimes on behalf of Trump in his failed attempt to reverse the election results. The Flynn saga is not over. We haven’t seen the last of him in a courtroom.

Get Off Our Televisions

Dr. Anthony Fauci has caused more harm than good. He needs to go.

In March 2020, millions of Americans were asking if they should wear face masks as a means to help prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2. I had attended my last, crowded, indoor party on Saturday March 7. On the next day, Sunday March 8, Dr. Fauci was interviewed by 60 Minutes. He was asked if Americans should start wearing masks. He replied, “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.” Of course, he changed his messaging a month later. But this mistake was enough for me. Fauci could not be trusted. He couldn’t tell the truth to the public. He balked.

For the next year, Fauci danced around Donald Trump, trying to prevent being fired. And why? Why was it so important for Fauci to remain on the job? And how many people had to die due to his mixed messaging as he tiptoed around Trump, trying not to set off the president’s rage?

And now Dr. Fauci is in the middle of a non-stop media campaign, telling Americans that vaccine supplies will be strong by April, and that children as young as six can get the vaccines by September. Both of these claims are not backed by the evidence, the research, or the reality on the ground.

I get it. Dr. Anthony Fauci is window dressing. He’s the cheerleader for defeating the pandemic. He’s public relations. But let’s be clear: he does not deserve to be idolized. He has made too many mistakes. And more important, he never called out Trump’s lies while people died. He’s not a profile in courage. He's a profile in career preservation. He just danced and dodged so he could outlast Trump and finish his career under a president who was competent. But he didn't have to. He could have resigned in protest. But he didn't.

Ship him to sea. Get off our televisions, Doctor.