Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Abandon Hope, Get Out and Vote

That giant sucking sound you may or may not be hearing is the death of any second stimulus package for pandemic relief. If you're not hearing it, it's because the corporate media have chosen not to write the obituary. Besides, they're way too busy covering the tech moguls and congress critters convening remotely to argue yet again about all that horrible misinformation and disinformation and discord-sowing on the Internet. 

They're too busy to cover their own cover-up of the hard truth that our politicians have deliberately refused to help their constituents.

So, to distract you from the reality that there will be no more $1200 stimulus checks and no more enhanced unemployment benefits to help stave off hunger and eviction, the New York Times is running on its front page two side-by-by side photos of extremely well-stocked refrigerators. You are asked to guess which one is a Trump voter's and which one is a Biden voter's. There are apparently no other types of Americans who eat. There are no third party voters, no write-in voters and no abstaining voters. There are also apparently no Americans with bare refrigerators, despite the fact that at least eight million have slipped into poverty just in the few months since the pandemic aid dried up.

In case that fun fridge quiz didn't distract or satiate you, the Times is also running "The Anxious Person's Guide to the 2020 Election." Some people apparently are so jittery that they don't even know when Election Day is. Or at least the Times thinks so, because it is the very first topic on their list of existential anxieties. To further distract the anxious from their empty refrigerators and bank accounts, the Times also soothes the fears of people who can't sleep at night because they don't know what a naked ballot is. 

Nowhere on the Times front page is there any announcement that, due to the lack of agreement on a new economic package, we're all screwed until at least next month, next year, or possibly forever. 

Meanwhile, we are drowning in the third wave of the Covid pandemic. Or, according to some experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, we are still riding the first wave that is cresting again. 

It's really a tsunami of destruction for all but the extremely rich, for whom the pandemic has been a windfall. Jeff Bezos has made so many more billions from Covid that he is reportedly now trying to add CNN to his global empire, further controlling the establishment "narrative" which aims to limit and suppress all sources of independent journalism and independent thought. Increasingly, one of the main functions of establishment media, as the above two examples in Wednesday's New York Times show, is to infantilize and gaslight the news-consuming public.

We're not only flailing around in a monster wave of disease, we're caught in the undertow of reactionary political malpractice. We are crashing ashore and getting sucked back out to sea at the same time, just like in a real tsunami. No wonder we're anxious.  

A Google search of "Stimulus Bill Dead" brings up a Times article titled "Dead, Alive, or On Life Support: Confusion Reigns on Stimulus" - dating all the way back to October 8.

Only two articles from the front page of my Wednesday search -  one from Forbes and one from New York Magazine - make the straightforward announcement that the stimulus deal is completely and ignominiously dead. To make this blunt admission is as much to announce that America is a failed state only six days before the election. No wonder the voter-shaming, click-baiting Times and other outlets aren't touching this harsh reality with a ten foot pole. Headlines of "probably dead," "could be dead," "could it really be dead this time?," "not really dead," or "alive again" do nothing but paint a rosy picture and keep the audience captive as they anxiously expect their elected reps to buckle down and help them.

Meanwhile, these outlets marvel that their audience members are waiting in such record long lines to vote, without really questioning why these unconscionably long lines exist in the first place. (hint: no new federal stimulus aid to the counties, states, towns and cities responsible for keeping the polling places open and adequately staffed.)

Ed Kilgore of New York Magazine is one of the few journalists who isn't ignoring or soft-pedaling the truth and promoting false hope. He writes that "there is no reason to think a stimulus deal will be imminent even after the election, when the incentive to make voters happy will have disappeared."

Actually, they have no incentive to make us happy now, right before an election, the only time they traditionally are forced to make an effort to make us happy. They aren't even pretending to care, not even in one of those rare intervals when we are allowed to hold them accountable. Even if they lose, they win. Elected office is increasingly viewed as the stepping-stone to vast wealth and new career opportunities - on cable TV, the vast networks of corporate-funded think tanks, private equity firms, hedge funds, and good old-fashioned direct lobbying, which is now known as "consultancy" to sidestep laws barring our public officials from cashing in too quickly.

Heck, they cash in while they're still in office. Look at all the stock-dumping and insider trading that members of  Congress did when they got their secret briefings early this year about the coming pandemic. 

Maybe sometime between now and the inauguration of the next president, people will finally start recovering from their presidential horse race psychoses and begin adding the words "strike" and "new parties" to their vocabularies. 

And beating their addiction to the Times, MSNBC, CNN, Fox and the rest of the Groupthink Conglomerate by spending more time reading books and alternative media. We have to learn to evict Trump from the squatting position he's taken up in our brains, with the aid and encouragement of the establishment media. This is regardless of whether he wins or loses.

And if he does lose, we have to be vigilant lest Joe Biden puts us all to sleep with his neoliberal reasonableness and those dreaded common-sense solutions and rhetoric about rich and poor being all in this together.

10 comments:

The Joker said...

No stimulus package for a couple of very specific, Machiavelian reasons.

1) the Repugnicans know that they are likely to lose the presidency, and probably the Senate. Their goal, therefore, is to tank the economy so badly that the Dims can't fix it in two years, which increases the likelihood of Repugnican House and Senate gains two years from now.

2) Disaster capitalism. The more the economy tanks, the greater the opportunity for politicians' -- certainly Repugnicans, but also plenty of neoliberal Dimocratic politicians too -- rich patrons to pick up assets at fire-sale prices, making them even richer in the long term.

Jay–Ottawa said...


Only 5 days to go. Vote and wait; the suspense will be unbearable.

As Yogi Berra counselled us, whether ballplayers or dutiful fans, "It ain't over, till it's over." What is true in baseball is true in politics.

Concerning this messed up election: It ain't gonna be over on November 3––or even by 2:00 AM on November 4. No, it won't be over until the count has been counted and recounted, challenged and litigated and appealed (assuming the High Court will allow the counting of all the ballots in this election).

Precedent (Bush v. Gore, 537 U.S. 98, Dec 2000) says ballots need not be counted if the right people are agreed as to who should win. The open-ended fuss about counting (or not counting) will probably last till, or even beyond, Thanksgiving. Christmas, maybe. Feast of the Magi? St Valentine's Day!!!

If you're the type who tuned out the debates, all two of them, you'll probably know enough to skip the cable networks' anchors hyperventilating through the evening of November 3. It will not be over until an undetermined number of weeks or months go by.

May the best ballot counters/suppressors win.

Anonymous said...

Biden? Trump?

Who really cares?

Six of one, half a dozen of the other, in this day and age.

Rich elitests both, non? Hardly representative of any of us proles, or do you dare to think otherwise?

This nation is truly doomed, no matter whom we imagine we've elected. Time for the guillotine, perhaps?

Annie said...


'Unions discussing general strike if Trump refuses to accept Biden victory - Union federations in Rochester, Seattle and Massachusetts approved resolutions should Trump seek to subvert outcome'


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/30/us-unions-general-strike-election-trump-biden-victory

Jay–Ottawa said...


Annie, it's a boost to find your name on the board.

Unions, people whose work is work, not gambling, organized into numbers by the millions, a sector that once bonded cannot be ignored, one that has achieved so much through history for the average person and done so in face of the unrelenting opposition of insatiable capitalists and overlords––the union, now THAT is a force.

Another favorite of mine is the boycott, which is the consumer version of a strike. The boycott is the crippling, even deadly, abstention. Don't buy the product, don't use the service; simply do without. The boycott amounts to a resounding "NO" by consumers that can break the back of any corporation in short order.

Jay–Ottawa said...


@Bobanonymous

In recent times it has been so: you could put an equal sign between Republicans and Democrats.

Trump changed all that. He's nuts as well as corrupt. This time around, to get rid of a crazy man, one who is who is only capable of destruction, I must take my chances with the corrupt and dimming Biden. Yes, the people propping him up are evil, but they are not hallucinating 24/7/365 and whipping up hatred at every turn.

To borrow (and update) a line from Leonard Cohen:
"First we take D.J.Trump, then we take Joe Bye."

paintedjaguar said...

"[the Dems] are not hallucinating 24/7/365 and whipping up hatred at every turn."

Are you kidding me? They've done nothing for the last four years BUT gaslight and incite public hysteria. As for hallucinating, they either promote or manage to actually believe transparent nonsense like Russiagate and seem eager to gin up yet another shooting war, whether it's in Iran, Venezuela, Syria, take your pick. Yes, Trump is a delusional clown. And so are Sleepy Joe, Nancy, and the rest of that pack of curs. Except Kamala, who may be a straight up sociopath. Have you seen her with those dead eyes, laughing at the very idea of being held accountable for what she says? Do what you want but let's not paint over the unpleasant facts of our situation.

Carol said...

As one working in the environmental field, I fear fearfully that Biden will lose, so If anyone wants to see the US retain its national parks and protect wildlife and wildlife habitat or try to tackle climate change and what is not already damaged here, I think Biden is the way to go. I don’t believe he is out to attack those interests any time soon.

Not to say that I voted for him or his sociopathic running mate. Write-in option is always there for non-swing state citizens.

Jay–Ottawa said...


@ painted jaguar

Did I paint over the unpleasant facts about the Dems? Sorry. Not sure that’s a fair reading of my comments about Democrats in this particular election or, for that matter, over the past ten years.

I still maintain that in 2020 it’s bad math to put an equal sign between the Democrats and the Republicans. Or to shrug one’s shoulders and vote for Howie or Mickey, safe state or battleground state. To be safe in the short term, we must run up the score against Trump in both the electoral count and the overall popular vote.

Over the past four years the Trump Gang has made the American populace more economically vulnerable. The land and the people are sicker than ever, thanks to Trump management skills. Behind the scenes Trump’s gang has opened new doors to hell. They’ve proudly accomplished a great deal more destruction than the Democrats ever did, and yearn to go much further if they win or cheat their way into another four years in power.

What is especially worrisome is that Trump is mentally and emotionally unhinged. Why risk another four years with great powers in his hands?

What I have been saying for the past several weeks, is (1) first get rid of the crazy guy and (2) then turn with the same energy to either reforming the Democratic leadership or working to replace the whole damn party itself with a new one. For all the reasons you mentioned.

Here’s how Paul Jay (no relation) defends the above 1-2 agenda:

The corporate Democrats think they can contain progressive forces; the Trump Republicans believe they should be crushed. 

This election isn’t just about choosing the lesser evil; it’s about choosing a more advantageous field upon which to wage battle. Without creating illusions about who Biden represents, the Left should vote for him for President and support progressives in down-ballot races.
 
Trump needs to lose, and he needs to lose big.

https://theanalysis.news/commentary/without-illusions-the-left-should-vote-for-biden-paul-jay/

Mark Thomason said...

By now, the election risk is more likely that the ballots will be so contested that when the Electoral College meets 41 days after the election, Dec 14, there will not be a clear 270-vote winner. Then it goes to the newly elected House to elect a President one vote per state. Right now, that is 26 votes Republican, 22 Democrats, and 2 tied. One tie is Michigan, which is likely to swing Republican when Justin Amash is replaced by the winner of the Republican primary from his district.

What will happen to stimulus needs as the nation is consumed in that vortex of hate and smoke and lies?

Maybe it will be ignored as all the oxygen is consumed in other issues.

However, maybe it will be a bargaining chip for one or both sides.

I'm inclined to expect real needs to be ignored in favor of pursuit of partisan power. However, it is not really entirely predictable. Use as a bargaining chip is still possible.

The potential for violence on both sides increases the value of a bargaining chip, to calm at least some passions. No, it can't calm all passions, or even get their notice, but calming some of them in some places might be enough to get it attention.

Anyway, use as a bargaining chip is the likely future, if there is to be a future for this idea.