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The Quadrennial Clusterfuck

August 24, 2020 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

I don’t see Republicans and Democrats… I see European civilization killing everything. ~Conrad Justice Kiczenski

Here we are again, in the post-Convention frenzy of a presidential election year in the USA. All sense, reason and proportion go out the window as both sides hurl their invective and sling their spin. Passions rise and all composure is sidelined. Each team makes dire predictions—but selectively, so as not to draw attention to the real issues, which neither one wants to acknowledge.

Partisanship is an affliction that threatens our survival. Both parties fully support ecocide and imperialism (regardless of what their respective supporters might hope). Vicious environmental destruction and brutal war-making will continue unabated in 2021 under either administration.

Of course there are differences in execution, but that’s like contrasting a firing squad and an electric chair. You end up dead either way.

How “Defund the Police” was Blocked in Minneapolis

August 19, 2020 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

In mid-July, Counterpunch published, “Minneapolis Ballot Measure to Dismantle the Police Will Test the Strength of Our Movement,” authored by Robin Wonsley & Ty Moore. Intrigued by this article, I contacted Robin, and less than a month later, I interviewed her for my podcast. But already the proposal—which had attracted so much national attention—was dead, killed by the city’s undemocratic and bureaucratic process. Robin and I talked in depth about how this happened, including how the activist community sabotaged itself by giving away its power to the City Council.

The movement against racist policing in Minneapolis is certainly not over, but a battle was lost, and Robin’s analysis will be helpful for that movement, not just in Minneapolis, but around the whole nation. What follows is a transcript of the first portion of our conversation, edited for clarity. The full interview can be heard here.

Robin is a labor organizer with Education Minnesota, a Black socialist, and plays a leading role in Twin Cities DSA. She was previously a staff organizer with 15 Now Minnesota and helped organize the fight to make Minneapolis the first midwest city to win a $15/hour minimum wage.

Kollibri: I noticed that there’s been some changes in what’s been happening there in Minneapolis. The article that you wrote in Counterpunch was talking about how the City Council had prepared something to go in front of the votes, but then I guess that something called the Minneapolis Charter Commission has now prevented that from happening?

Robin: Yep. So, basically, the proposal that City Council members agreed to pursue, basically dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department, was not able to move forward without having approval from the Charter Commission because it required changing the city’s constitutional amendment process. Based off our current charter, it requires a police department to exist, and to have a certain percentage of police officers there.

So, because of that constitutional bylaw, in order to move things forward, there’s this bureaucratic process to get these things changed; you have to go through the Charter Commission… All of these folks are appointed, they’re not elected and basically they get to decide whether or not amendments that should go to a public democratic vote can even make it to the public. In my experience in organizing in Minneapolis, they seem to be a city process designed to actually block transformative amendments or initiatives that are trying to get moved through the city process, especially from external groups, [such as] workers who are looking to address this city’s deep inequities. And time and time again, without fail, they constantly block those efforts be it through a charter amendment, or through a ballot petition.

So I was quite unsurprised that they basically “delayed” it. They didn’t vote down the proposal but delayed it so it wouldn’t be able to be voted on in this coming election. So that’s where we’re at right now. They delayed it for another 90 days to review. It’s likely that the city is going to move forward with their own diluted process, having a year-long study and having community conversations around what alternatives to policing or reforms to policing can look like, as a means of creating what they think is a democratic ordinance versus actually adhering to the more than 60% of Minneapolis residents who actually support a policy change. Or not even necessarily a policy change, but to vote on making policy changes around policing in our city. So they’re just bypassing the whole public vote and democratic process at this current moment.

“But What I Really Want…”

August 12, 2020 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Source: *The November Century Magazine LXXIII No. 1* (London, England: MacMillan and Co. LTD, 1906)

“Compromise” is nothing more than a means of preserving the status quo, which inevitably elevates greed over need. Agreeing to compromise is presented as mature, but it’s really just compliant. In this Orwellian perspective, rolling over is standing up.

When I look around at what amounts to “the left” in the US, I find it to be full of compromises, with nearly nothing be excited about.

Yes I’ll support a campaign for a $15 minimum wage. But what I really want is a world where the necessities of life are no longer monetized. Money creates artificial scarcity, and is a tool of control.

Yes, I’ll support non-discrimination in employment. But what I really want is an end to the employer-employee relationship, whether the employer is a mom-and-pop or a multinational corporation. That relationship is exploitative at its core.

Yes, I’ll support immigrants. But what I really want is a planet without borders. The nation-state is recent invention, and it’s no coincidence that its rise has tracked with industrialism and capitalism. As a means of organization, it is fundamentally inequitable.

Yes, I’ll support women going into politics and business. But what I really want is to smash patriarchy, and all the political and business institutions that go with it.

Yes, I’ll support tenant rights. But what I really want is to end to the landlord-tenant relationship, whether the owner is an individual or a bank, and whether the arrangement is a lease or a mortgage. Nobody should have to pay for a roof over their head.

Yes, I’ll support voting rights. But what I really want is a legitimate, participatory democracy, driven by people, not money or power, in which leadership is a role that is filled only as needed, not a club to bludgeon people with. Our current system excludes by default, when inclusivity is the only approach that will work for making a just society.

Yes, I’ll support Medicare-for-all. But what I really want is an approach to health that is holistic, based on plants not pharmies, and that draws on all the world’s effective traditions, not just Victorian-era European premises.

Yes, I’ll support “science.” But what I really want is a worldview that also embraces the value of the ineffable. The dismal reductionism of our day that masquerades as “reason” strips life of essential intrinsic qualities, and encourages us to act without sensitivity to that which we cannot measure or weigh.

Yes, I’ll support funding for education. But what I really want is for the restitution of lifeways where coercion is not a method for helping children learn how to live in the world. Schools are far more about obedience and than they are about education.

Yes, I’ll support cuts to “defense” spending (as if anybody even talks about that anymore). But what I really want is an absolute end to US imperialism, including the closing of all overseas military bases and the dismantling of the entire nuclear arsenal.

Yes, I’ll support a “Green New Deal.” But what I really want is to drastically curtail our consumption. No energy-producing technology is truly “renewable.” Solar, wind and water all harm the environment through their production and operation.

Yes, I’ll support socialism over capitalism. But what I really want is for the means of production to be dismantled, not merely seized by another set of hands. Industrialism rapes the environment no matter who owns it.

Yes, I’ll support fairer laws. But what I really want is the abolition of prisons and the so-called justice system. Furthermore, the punitive urge itself must be excised as a cultural fixture.

Yes, I’ll support marriage equality. But what I really want is to end the institution of marriage itself, it being a property-based relic of the Bronze Age.

Yes, I’ll support environmental regulations. But what I really want is a world in which we put the Earth First!

Yes, I’ll support setting aside public land for “preservation.” But what I really want is to return it to the Native Americans.

Yes, I’ll support organic farming. (In fact, I made my living as an organic farmer for a decade.) But what I really want is an end to the agricultural mindset, which is based on the domination of nature. We must return to a cooperative relationship with the planet and all life on it, through practices like wildtending.

Yes, I’ll support veganism because animal agriculture is so gross. But what I really want is to stop the division of living things into categories that are not okay to kill (animals) and the ones that are (everything else apparently). Only by recognizing the legitimacy of all forms of life can we eliminate cruelty.

Yes, I’ll support the arts. But what I really want is a culture where music doesn’t belong to musicians, singing to singers, dancing to dancers, painting to painters, sculpture to sculptors, and poetry to poets. By elevating the “artist” we have stolen creative expression from everyday people and everyday life, and have manufactured something individual and rarefied from what should be common and communal.

Yes, I’ll support individual freedom. But what I really want is to focus primarily on collective responsibility. How our choices affect others should be the first consideration of any decision-making process, with those “others” being not just other humans.

So yes, I’ll support all these things, in part because I respect that the people working for them are driven by compassion. But what I really want is much more, although in another way of considering it, much less: This project we call “civilization” is too much. Our task now must be to scale back, power down, and simplify. Each additional day of compromise is another assault on a liveable environment.

And this is the key point that is nearly always forgotten: All the non-humans creatures on this planet are subjected to our “compromises” but they are not parties to negotiating them. In that way, nothing at all—nothing!—that we civilized humans do is ever truly a compromise, but is always an imposition.

Centering the Earth

July 29, 2020 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Something remarkable is happening in the US in 2020 in terms of public awareness of race.

The George Floyd uprising, two months in duration so far, has brought formerly fringe ideas into the mainstream, shifting the entire frame of discourse to the left. The breakthroughs we are experiencing this summer might feel sudden, but they follow decades of activism, with all its labor, learning and dedication. People have been pushing for awhile. The murder of George Floyd was a “last straw” event.

One notable change is that the street actions in Minneapolis and other cities have been made up of diverse crowds that are led by people of color, with whites taking the backseat. This change in centering has been very welcome.

In the last couple weeks, a new element was added to the mix when Trump sent federal law enforcement officers to Portland, Oregon, to attack protesters. Nightly demonstrations in that city, which—though continuous since May—had dwindled to a hundred or so participants, then exploded into the thousands when these officers began nabbing people off the street and packing them into unmarked vehicles. This is the stuff the fascist regimes are made of, and people have been rightly alarmed.

This is What Collapse Looks Like

July 22, 2020 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

It’s time to normalize the word, “collapse,” to describe the ongoing conditions in the US.

Some would counter it’s well past time—and I won’t argue with that—but I’d say we can no longer credibly claim that it’s too early to make this call.

“Decline” has been happening for decades at this point, as manifested in trends such as increasing class inequality, decreasing wages (as relative to inflation), higher infant mortality, lower life expectancy, a disintegrating social safety net, explosive growth of the prison-industrial complex, deteriorating educational system, etc. More and more people have been feeling the squeeze in their efforts to get by, even if establishment voices make claims to the contrary about “recovery.”

But “collapse” is more than “decline.” It’s when the system has lost enough integrity that it’s gone beyond the point of no return. With the multiple levels of disruption that have accompanied the COVID pandemic, we have passed that point.

“How Trump Stole 2020″—Talking with Greg Palast about his new book

July 16, 2020 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

“Voter suppression is simply class war by other means.” —Greg Palast

What do timber interests, nuclear power, and off-shore drilling have in common with voter-suppression in Georgia? Greg Palast lays it out, following the money and naming the names, in his new book, “How Trump Stole 2020: The hunt for America’s Vanished Voters,” which was released this week, and is available at gregpalast.com.

Starting with W’s theft of the election in 2000, he paints a picture of graft, theft, and malice, in which Republicans steal national office from Democrats, and Democrats steal their own party from their own progressive wing. As with Palast’s writing in general, it achieves that all too rare combination of being both informative and entertaining. The tome is chock full of statistics and facts, all studiously researched and well-supported, and punctuated regularly with punchlines for comic relief.

It also includes a comic book pull-out by Ted Rall, which provides an invaluable Cliff Notes version of voter suppression tactics.

Greg Palast is an investigative journalist who has written for the Guardian, BBC Television, Democracy Now!, Rolling Stone, and more. In 2001, he exposed how Florida was stolen from Al Gore, and since then, one of his main focuses has been voter suppression in the US. On this topic, he has few peers and has unearthed numerous scandals that deserve greater attention.

I interviewed Palast on July 15^th, and we discussed the moneyed interests behind voter suppression, including the Koch brothers, Paul “the Vulture” Singer, Georgia Pacific (the logging company), Georgia Power (the utility). We also went into the gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013; how exit polls showed widespread voter suppression in 2016; and the problems with mail-in voting.

What follows is a partial transcript, edited for clarity. You can listen to the entire interview here.

Sonnenblume: I got a copy of your book from Seven Stories and I had a chance to read it ahead of time and a lot of it I already recognized, from previous writing of yours but it was amazing to have it all together in one place. The scope of the theft and the graft is just breathtaking, honestly.

Palast: That’s one of the things that makes it difficult, too. My fellow journalists don’t want to look at the actual numbers of the vote theft. They stop short of going after the real information of the numbers because it’s so shocking.

Sonnenblume: That’s kind of the $64,000 question, isn’t it? That not only the media but the Democratic establishment basically ignores this scandal.

Palast: Yes. You’re asking two questions. Where’s the media? Where’s the Democrats?

COVID-19 Denialism is Rooted in the Settler Colonial Mindset

July 8, 2020 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

COVID denialism in the US is problematic to say the least. The nation is facing a public health crisis that’s far worse than it needs to be, as shown by the examples of countless other nations around the world that have largely suppressed the first wave. In fact, the US is one of the most dangerous places to be for this pandemic.

We have failed to pursue common sense policies and collective action here due to the ignorant attitudes not only of our leadership but of a significant share of our population.

Three recent interviews I did for my podcast, “Voices for Nature & Peace,” highlighted the connection between this unfortunate state of affairs and our status as a settler-colonial state. These three guests were Margaret Kimberley, a columnist at the Black Agenda Report and member of the Black Alliance for Peace; Joanna Pocock, the Canadian-born, London-residing author of “Surrender,” a memoir about living in the western US; and Alley Valkyrie, a US American activist, writer and artist in France.

The Corruption of the Democratic Party: Talking to Ted Rall about his new book

June 30, 2020 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Ted Rall: "Political Suicide: : The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party"

Seven Stories Press just released Ted Rall’s new book, “Political Suicide: The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party.” Rall is a graphic novelist, a syndicated columnist and the author of many books of art and prose, including biographies of Edward Snowden, Bernie Sanders and Pope Francis. You’ve probably seen his political cartoons, which are often published in urban weeklies.

“Political Suicide” uses the graphic novel form to trace the history of the Democratic Party’s rightward movement over the last few decades, and how its leadership has worked to suppress the party’s progressive wing.

Ted & I talked on June 27^th for my podcast, “Voice for Nature & Peace.” You can listen to the full conversation here. What follows are two extended excerpts, edited for clarity.

Kollibri: There’s often been a discussion about the Democrats: “How come they don’t win as much as they should? How come people like Trump are able to win?” It often comes down to this argument of, “Is it incompetence or is it corruption?” And your book comes down pretty solidly on the side of corruption.

Ted: Yes. The question is: Is it a plan? Is it a conspiracy or is it a system? I think it’s more a system that ends up creating systemic corruption. That’s my conclusion. Obviously, it’s impossible to know without being a fly on the wall in the room where it happened. But, since we’re not, you kind of have to draw the conclusion that these are people who know what they’re doing, but they don’t know why.

I think they sort of have articles of religious faith within the DNC. For example, the whole centrist/triangulation thing. You know: “If you go too far to the left you just can’t win.” But there’s no real data to support that it. It may be true but [they need to] prove it. They haven’t been winning much with their current approach. This is not a party that sweeps a lot of elections.

There are more registered Democrats than registered Republicans. So by definition, if everybody votes in roughly equal numbers, Democrats should win most of the time. But they don’t, so obviously what’s happening is that Democrats are less motivated to vote than Republicans. So the question is, “Why is that?”

Interview with a Tree-sitter

June 17, 2020 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

View from the tree-sit (Photo courtesy Redwood Forest Defense)

On June 9th and 12th, I interviewed Lupine, a tree-sitter who is currently participating in a Redwood Forest Defense campaign to stop logging at a site in Humboldt County, California. We spoke on the phone, and though we were disconnected several times by a weak signal, we were able to have a great conversation. Tree-sitters have always been heroes to me, and I really appreciated the chance to connect with someone from the newest generation to be out there fighting the good fight.

What follows is a partial transcript, edited for clarity. You can listen to the entire interview here.

Kollibri: So where did I reach you? Are you up in the tree today?”

Lupine: Yes

Kollibri: What’s the view like from up there?

Lupine: The tree I‘m in is kind of in the middle of the grove of trees that are still standing. So, it’s nice. There’s Redwoods on one side and a grove of Red Alders on the other side. The clearcut is a little bit down the hill. It’s like 50 or 60 feet away and I can see it. And I can see the ocean from here. If I climb to the top of the tree, I can see pretty far south. I think I’m seeing Arcata Bay.

Kollibri: Wow, that’s a beautiful view. I mean, except for the clearcut.

Lupine: Totally. Yeah, the clearcut is a trip. It means we have really good sunsets here because there’s a really open view, but it also amplifies the freeway noise, and it itself is really horrible to witness.

Kollibri: So you’ve had the tree-sit up since about April 1, I believe?

Lupine: Yeah, that’s right. It’s not a joke. It’s been 70 days today.

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