Weekender Indoors: Rich Old White Dudes

The boy done it.

By which I mean, the neoliberal rich old white dude. The one who will be in his eighties when the next election occurs.

Now that's potentially ageist, which is problematic, no doubt, but it is true. It shouldn't be a problem. I don't really care about his age. In fact the more I hear from the strained right wing blowhards that proliferate social media the more sympathetic to said rich old white dude I become. 

But honestly I can't pretend it would be better for society to have someone younger and more vital. That won't happen though, this is about the establishment. You'll never see AOC in the White house, never mind the ballot for that position, even though she would be better. If she were it would be evidence of her being co opted and possibly corrupted. It doesn't really matter who's in control, because being in control is the problem. It's always and only rich old white dudes.

Even Trump, who was most certainly a rich old white dude (if gone orange). But, like his choice of tan fakery, he is an aberration. Except not: he won on a maverick ticket, promising to drain the swamp and empower the working class. In truth he did neither, and wrapped up his empty gift in a bow of racism and self delusion (just watch his speech after experimental drugs animated his covid addled corpse). A present of hatred that will take a generation to pack. He was, and always will be a rich old white dude. He wants all the things rich old white dudes want and represents all the interests rich old white dudes have, such as tax breaks and corporate bonanzas.

Still, it's hard to argue with the intellect behind...

I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020

 

Return To Lockdown 5: 24 Hours In

 I ought to be writing something profound. I have high standards to maintain after all. That's why you're reading this of course. Viewers of taste and distinction; savoir faire. Or something.

Except I'm stuck trying to download some music from Amazon's frighteningly shit music app. 

Anyway, who cares about that. Not those sartorially astutue souls I count among my readership. That's YOU, genius!

So where are we? The week ends as the crisis began. A belated lockdown, hobbled in efficacy by the Tories who refuse to accept any harm to their precious economy. Even though it's minder, it's babysitter, knows not how it works.

Dear @RishiSunak,

We're afraid you got some things wrong in your #AskRishi twitter Q&A last week.

Retweet to help Rishi learn the truth about government spending 👇 https://t.co/nkQGLpOcAq pic.twitter.com/93GHQDxE2n

— Positive Money (@PositiveMoneyUK) November 2, 2020

Ho ho ho. What a clown. But he's a hedge fundie bankster type! Just shows how deep capitalist propaganda goes doesn't it!

Anyway, time once again to check in with our American friends (ooh, careful) and see how things are going in the world's greatest democacy.

 

I easily WIN the Presidency of the United States with LEGAL VOTES CAST. The OBSERVERS were not allowed, in any way, shape, or form, to do their job and therefore, votes accepted during this period must be determined to be ILLEGAL VOTES. U.S. Supreme Court should decide!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2020

Hmmmn....better leave it a while, it's going to take a while for the stink to clear. Woooweee!

Twenty Four Hours in a brand new cage

The same old story on a poisoned page.

Led by donkeys but not by data

was on the curriculum of the alma mater

Now at the mercy of those fattened with ballot and vote

Who legislate away all reason and hope...

Where a poppy where it red

Make it big, like the size of your head

Make it shine like a mushroom cloud

Gratefully blinded by England proud

The people salute while their kids starve

Covid got in the way of tearing us in half

Brexit comes a Tory takeover

Selling England off the White Cliffs of Dover

Make it loud like the braying crowd

Behind the king with his thatch of wind

Mr Speaker! Forgive me for I have sinned!

Goodnight.

Return To Lockdown 4: Lockdown Returned

Let us break bread while we continue to tolerate the petulant tantrum masquerading as democracy in America. A storm with far more reach than it deserves. While President baby spits out his dummy; while a rich old white guy threatens him with accusation of 'malarkey', we have to sit and endure this nonsense.

Is there any point staying in the Labour party? In a zoom meeting the other night, discussing the Corbyn conundrum presented by Starmer, a couple of party members were adamant that the right thing to do was stay. Their dedication is admirable; they resolved to fight for their party. But this, unfortunately, is naive; it isn't their party. It never was. That, I'm afraid, is a reality that can only be experienced. Their denial cannot be pointed out to them, they will just have to go on the journey by themselves.  No one can persuade them they are banging their head against a brick wall; only the pain of doing so will be an adequate teacher. That isn't intended to be arrogant; it's just the nature of the situation. Sometimes people can't be shown what they need to learn, they have to experience it directly. Realisation that the Labour party isn't their party is experiential.

The recent suspension of Corbyn will not yield a positive result. Corbyn himself is died in the wool labour. He will not form a new party. More likely he'd stand independently, probably after being forced into that position. He's treading the same path as Ken 'Red Ken' Livingstone. Though while the latter has over time descended into absurdity and become a parody of the left, Corbyn has been largely placed in this situation. He will not change, and neither will Labour. 

The only way this can go is further sanction, perhaps an endless cycle until the party just gets sick of him and boots him out. A likely outcome for the simple reason that Starmer isn't out to win over socialists; he's out to impress capitalists. Therefore any talk of socialism, any association with such, particularly when perceived as manifesting as being antisemitic, will be met with aversion such that it must be expelled. He's white washing the party. 

We've seen how the Tories have now placed themselves into an impossible position through their non-response to Covid. By refusing to censure Cummings (never mind associating with such a creepy weirdo to begin with), and by doing all the things they've publicly criticised Labour for doing, they are left without a leg to stand on. Rightly, Starmer wants to capitalise on this. Unfortunately as he's also looking to win over big business, corporate media, and the ruling class, the Labour party is now super-averse to anything with a tinge or touch of socialism. There is no future for you if you pursue a socialist agenda in the Labour party. Your ideas will gain no traction and fall on fallow ground. At best, Labour will publicly distance from such ideas, and, inevitably, such people. It happened to Rebecca Long Bailey after all, and, by staying in the party, these people are agreeing to their own emasculation. Willingly neutering themselves ideologically. 

You can't have it both ways.

In other news, no new president as yet. The greatest democracy in the world, yeah right.

Lockdown 2 begins today. Though all the local shops seem to be open. The post office, which completely shut before. The local cafes are now serving takeout. That does seem a little cheeky, but I can't blame them. I don't think they are run by miscreants. But who knows. This is going to be a different kind of struggle. People are going to try and keep things open as much as possible, but is that a good idea?

Return to lockdown: It Is Never Over

Is it over?

Can we come out yet? Have the monsters gone?

Nope, best I can tell they still seem to be fighting. Two giant dinosaurs, dripping with blood and treasure. One is older, the other will use any political tool to maintain power, no matter how divisive. They roar and swipe, like Kaiju. We are their Tokyo.

I've no idea if anyone's even won, but I can point to several hundred million people that have lost. Even if Trump loses, he's not out until January. That gives him a good couple of months to set fire to the furniture and further fuck up the Covid response. If he wins, the Covid response is also fucked up because the mask averse will be shooting it up in town squares like it was 1779 (that's a Simpsons joke).

What if it's all been a dream? From 2016 onward to Covid today? What if, should Trump be electorally, evicted, we wake tomorrow morning with Bobby Ewing in the shower? Hi Pam!

Just a thought.

There's a clip doing the rounds from Parliament today. In it Theresa May tries to make a point to the PM who, in a heroic example of social distancing, just walks out. Can't be bothered. Spaffer J obviously would rather go and do anything else but field questions - and why should he, he's only the PM after all.

We have the worst leader at the worst possible time, and he's screwed this whole thing up so spectacularly that it blows my mind. I can't encompass the totality of where we are as a result. Not only that but there is no way out for him. Once he let Cummings off the hook for his goings, he was in trouble. But this second lockdown? After repeatedly rebuffing Labour, accusing them of wanting to savage the economy at every turn, Johnson has no credibility at all. There is no coming back from this. He has nothing left. He cannot possibly get away with criticising Labour anymore. At best he can rely on the 'lockdown sceptics' who will happily and thoughtlessly run interference for him, but politically? He's done.

So, too, hopefully, is the other idiot.

Return to Lockdown 2: Dear America, You Know What To Do...

Today is the big day.

If you're American and want to do a little something to help the world. Do us a solid; vote out an incoherent arrogant narcissist.

Only to vote in a neoliberal establishment politician. Oh well! The goal is harm reduction, therefore the only course of action, at this time, is to vote for Biden. Were I involved I wouldn't be happy about that, but that's the situation you're faced with in the US right now. Again, as with our election last year, that's the only praxis. Harm reduction. Yes, the system is shit. No, I don't want to support electoralism. I think you have to judge it all on a case by case basis, thus for the Americans, as with Tories vs Labour, there is a clear case to make for using your vote in this fashion. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate. At least that was the notion, now we've lived with that level of horrible for a year and we're facing a second lockdown under a leader so terrible that literally anything would have been preferable.

Yet the Tories will all exhort that 'Comrade Corbyn' would still have been worse. At this point I wonder if voting is just an exercise in tribal tub thumping. We are in a post truth world defined by ideology. You vote Tory, even if that produces a response to an existential crisis so terrible that thousands have died that didn't have to, while kids starve and the economy explodes over the White Cliffs of Dover.

This was demonstrated by IDS's bizarre tweet, in response to the new lockdown proposition, chastising the government for listening to the scientists! This is where fascism begins: the denial of expertise in favour of herd mentality (perhaps even herd immunity, coincidence?). Trump is the same: a wealthy landlord drenched in privilege to the point of narcissism who wants to convince voters he's not part of the elite. That he's against the elite because it's a corrupt swamp. In IDS's mind it's become a strained technocracy; elites with expertise. How dare they lecture you.

Ignoring the reality of course.

These are the beginnings of fascism: late stage capitalism. People look at claims such as fascism and think it must be a phalanx of brown-shirts jackbooting down the pavement, fronting up to people's houses with guns and pogroms. As with any major social changes, they never appear so brazenly and so obviously. Change comes upon us unexpectedly, slowly, and often in forms we don't recognise. By coming slowly it runs the risk of being easily normalised. This is dangerous: a comment here, a faux outrage there, a Nigel Farage tweet, or a starving child. Excuses are made, money can't be found, let the migrants suffer. We must take care of our own.

But our own is everyone in the working class. There's no difference between you and a Syrian on a boat being exploited for the media camera or judged by a millionaire stockbroker for the benefit of his latest scheme. No difference at all.

Unless you're name is Donald J. Trump. The J stands for vote the fucker out!

Return to Lockdown 1: It Feels Like Christmas Shopping!

We now wait until Wednesday. That's the day Parliament votes on the lockdown proposal. It's a joke. They can't even get on with a catastrophically delayed lockdown properly. There is no part of this that isn't an enormous shit show. What is the delay for? How many lives is that going to affect - on top of the number that will already be lost due to delaying a lockdown initially? 

At this point it's tantamount to murder. They must know what they are doing; they are being told by the scientists. They are just choosing to ignore it. Fuck!

I went into Bristol today. For the first time in seven months. Bought a load of CD's which I then stupidly washed in a bowl of hot water thinking the shrinkwarp would protect it. Going to Bristol was a big step, after all the city centre region has a considerably covid rate. Highest in the city, though I wonder if that's because of the presence of the hospital. 

Aside from the enormous queue outside Primark and the presence of masks (mostly, though, inexplicably, not totally), it was just the same as it always was. Tesco operating a limited entry system made it feel like walking into a nightclub. All it needed was a young student girl upselling perks and privileges. There were stalls inside the Galleries shopping centre as there usually are, as well as around Broadmead. I found that utterly incongruous, but business be business...

To be honest, it felt more like doing last minute Christmas shopping (though perhaps - thankfully - not quite as busy). Rush home before the shops close for the holiday. I thought I'd treat myself because if we're going into lockdown again, I sure as eggs don't want to be miserable (though I suspect that's wishful thinking). Not quite the holiday season though, more the looming lockdown which could well last thorughout winter. Especially with these clowns in charge.

What is frustrating is that the best shops are the ones in town which are likely going to be harder to reach during lockdown. Being limited to what's here, in this village, is problematic because, even factoring in bus fare, the choice is very limited and just as dear. The local Tesco express is needlessly overpriced and fairly unreliable, and quite limited. They don't for instance have the cheap ranges which make shopping in town more attractive.

In fact, now that I think, it might well be safer, during the lockdown, to travel to these shops, as they will be open. Presumably the buses will still be running, as before. If we are locking down then it stands to reason there will be less people around due to all non essential shops being closed. It might even be a good idea in general, get out into some fresh air, even if that's just a walk on the sea front or the habourside in Bristol. Upon reflection that might have been a good idea during the Spring/Summer for obvious reasons. 

We don't know how long this period is going to last. A most uncertain Christmas. Yet people in town seemed to be acting as normal. Shopping, chatting, bimbling around. There was a certain energy to it, whether that's a false sense of security I don't know. Covid is invisible, after all. But it seems clear that the differences between being locked down in a relatively isolated rural area versus the big smoke is a very different proposition. People will still be in town, I'm sure of it. Some places will be open, not just Tesco. I guess it depends what they consider essential.

I won't be washing my Cd's again though. What a turkey (they are ok, just my pride, and some soggy inserts).

Weekender: He Blinded Me Without Science

And so ten months of 2020 have passed; two and a half of which were sans virus. What do we have to show for it? Another lockdown. A terrible do-over.

What a day for a horribly delayed and poorly delivered announcement. The weather is total crap: wet, windy and dark. This is the immediate future we face, thrown at us like a bucket of shit. Not even our useless PM seems convinced, because of course he isn't. He'd rather be anywhere but here. Who wouldn't? Yet he has a choice - one he'll no doubt exercise on his Christmas break (because of course he'll take one) - we don't. We are permanent residents in the Eton's mess.

Everything is on the shoulders of this government; Atlas's shoulders aren't up to the job. They chose this course of action, by taking no action. They followed absolutely the wrong course of action from day one. They didn't lock down when they were told. Too much was opened and much too soon. They were told that, with pubs open and the new school year imminent, they had reached the limit, and they ignored it.

All of these choices are informed by attitudes bred into the ruling class. These decisions aren't made by objectively stupid people: they are well educated. Schools the kids currently locked up in the University of Covid, will never know. An education clearly squandered; money for nothing and cheques for free. All the product of the systems we have in our society. These must now be examined and will surely be found wanting.

We cannot go on like this. What happens after this lockdown, will it end? Do they have the capacity to understand their failings? Can the systems and positions within society they occupy allow this? I do not believe so. They cannot be anything other than what they are.

And what they are is venal and self serving. These people are objectionable and objectively surplus to requirements. I have no doubt the working class could handle this better. If freed from capital's infantilising yoke we would recognise our worth, our abilities, and each other. 

Do we really think adequate testing and tracing services are going to appear over the course of November? By what metric; they believe their approach is correct. If they would only see things differently - clearly.

I worry this will hit people's well being harder. It's certainly going to hit mine. Yet that isn't sufficient reason not to do it. That's the awfulness of it all. There is good reason to believe that many people will flout the rules. They are keeping schools open, for example. Yet kids can't associate with classmates outside of school?

These sorts of inconsistencies become leaks in the lifeboat. People will exploit them - and who can blame them? Who are the elite to deny us our lives? Unfortunately, while they have no credibility, that is where they have left us; blinded without science. Where do people turn: conspiracy and credulity.

They have no credibility only power. They have no answers only doubt. They are leading us to destruction. There are very real crises ahead of us, with Brexit peaking at the predicted zenith of the second wave. We cannot isolate and socially distance from that. Where will we hide? Who has a private jet, a country club, an apartment in uptown, or a hedge fund in Belize they can escape to?

Yet again capital destroys and the working class are left to pick up the pieces.

I say no more.