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UNFTR Weekly Roundup

Max Notes

It’s amusing and frustrating to see the attention being given to Tom Suozzi, the victor in the race to replace George Santos. The idea of this guy offering any sort of blueprint for Democratic victories is beyond absurd if you know him. Nevertheless, the seat is his again and I’m sure he’s excited to get back to the Problem Solvers Caucus. Again, I would caution anyone looking to this district as a sign of things to come. Everything is going to be upside down for a while. That being said, I do think that there is a chance the Democrats take back the House, lose the presidency and lose ground in the Senate. 

 

If that’s the case we’re back to governing by decree. Not that a 2nd Trump term wouldn’t be almost entirely by executive order, followed by multiple lawsuits, followed by multiple hearings and maybe another impeachment or two. So, yeah. 

 

Anyway, as you’ll hear in the pod, the tail end of the Suozzi race was kind of horrific. It became all about who supported Israel the most and who could shit on migrants more. Wild. And it got me thinking about the nature of our indifference. Indifference to suffering isn’t an exclusively American trait. We didn’t invent colonization, suffering and abuse. We just happen to be really good at it right now. (We’re #1! We’re #1!) 

 

But I am concerned that the Biden administration is playing a waiting game and hoping we’ll lose interest in the murder toll in Gaza. And I’m horrified at the way we talk about the migrant population and I don’t see that improving. Moreover, I’m not sure how we break this cycle because alienation and indifference have been part of the human condition for all of recorded history. So I don’t want to be lazy in analyzing this. It’s not the phones. Social media. Video games. Rap music. The way Elvis wiggles his hips. Women smoking in public. There’s always a convenient social phenomenon prudes use to opine over our moral decline. 

 

Can we lift up without punching down but still delight in punching Nazis? 

Maybe I should have called this Uplift the Republic (but you can still punch Nazis.) I dunno.

 

Other things I’m obsessing over…

  • I’ve never felt more helpless: plastic recycling report.

  • My new favorite deep fake. Wow.. Official Billy Joel new video out.  

  • $83 million + $355 million… Phew. Hard to keep track of how much $ Trump owes. Get ready for some YUUUUGE fundraising emails. 

  • OMG. Vaush + Horse + Loli. Yikes. No link necessary. Google at your own peril.

-Max

 

Chart of the Week

Turns out the pivot away from China is real. Can’t be helping the struggling Chinese economy. 

Figure 1 shows that the share of US imports from China increased systematically over the past 30 years—from 4.8% in 1992 to a peak of 21.6% in 2017. The period following China's accession to the World Trade Organization featured particularly rapid growth.

Source: St. Louis Federal Reserve

 

Figure shows that the share of U.S. imports from China increased systematically over the past 30 years—from 4.8% in 1992 to a peak of 21.6% in 2017. The period following China's accession to the World Trade Organization featured particularly rapid growth.

Headlines

Europe Re-Arming? What could go wrong?

Let’s see… what mistakes from the past can we revisit all at once. Stoke tensions with Russia. Check. Bring back Donald Trump? Enticing. Ooh, I know. How about entertaining the idea of a militarized Europe with Germany running point again! That only went badly twice in the last century. Now that Henry Kissinger is finally worm food, Donald Trump has taken up the mantle of worst foreign policy theorist in the country by suggesting that Europe pay more into NATO to prevent a Russian attack that he then encouraged in the same speech. America. Seriously. Are you ready for round two with this fucking guy?

 

From the article:

“In response to Trump’s comments, European politicians have demanded that this go even further, openly broaching the militarization of the entire economy, the introduction of conscription and now also the possibility of a European nuclear weapon.


“This is a recipe for war against the working class, for state repression and for far-right reaction. It cannot be implemented democratically. It will provoke an intensification of the class struggle, which is linked to the mass resistance to imperialism already manifested in the protests against the genocide in Gaza.”

 

WSWS: European governments demand massive arms buildup after Trump’s threats to withdraw support for NATO members 

 

No Wonder Tucker Went So Easy on Putin

Though he appeared healthy in his last video court appearance, one of the top critics of Vladimir Putin was found dead in a remote Russian prison. Aleksei Navalny was a vibrant and outspoken critic of Putin’s regime and now he has paid the ultimate price, having been pronounced dead after a walk in the prison yard. More proof that Putin is the world’s most powerful living gangster. Next to Hillary Clinton, of course.

 

From the article:

“‘If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong. We need to utilize this power, to not give up, to remember we are an enormous power that is being oppressed by these bad people. We don’t realize how strong we actually are. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. So don’t be inactive,’ Navalny said at the end of the Oscar-winning documentary that carried his name.”

 

Radio Free Europe:  Aleksei Navalny, Putin's Staunchest Critic, Found Dead In Prison, Russia Says

 

As Only Chris Hedges Can

I began this week’s podcast with a quote from Hedges’ book War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, which prompted me to catch up on some articles. He just announced that he’s traveling to cover the final appeal in the extradition trial of Julian Assange. But he published this column just a few days before to provide a snapshot of the desperation now facing Gazans who are being driven to starvation.

 

From the article:

“More than half a million Palestinians – one in four – are starving in Gaza, according to the U.N. Starvation will soon be ubiquitous. Palestinians in Gaza, at least 1.9 million of whom have been internally displaced, lack not only sufficient food, but clean water, shelter and medicine. There are few fruits or vegetables. There is little flour to make bread. Pasta, along with meat, cheese and eggs, have disappeared. Black market prices for dry goods such as lentils and beans have increased 25 times from pre-war prices. A bag of flour on the black market has risen from $8.00 to $200 dollars. The healthcare system in Gaza, with only three of Gaza’s 36 hospitals left partially functioning, has largely collapsed. Some 1.3 million displaced Palestinians live on the streets of the southern city of Rafah, which Israel designated a “safe zone,” but has begun to bomb. Families shiver in the winter rains under flimsy tarps amid pools of raw sewage. An estimated 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes.”

 

Substack: Let Them Eat Dirt

    This Week on the Pod

    The Banality of Violence.

    A man putting his head in the sand

    Watching Sean Hannity casually ask Curtis Sliwa to turn the cameras toward Sliwa’s Guardian Angels crew “taking down” a person they perceived to be an undocumented migrant in the streets of New York stuck with me. This particular moment falls so far down on the list of horrifying takes from Hannity and Fox News but for some reason it hit a nerve. The detached indifference of the brief affair prompted me to revisit the writings of Hannah Arendt, one of the great 20th Century philosophers who tackled totalitarianism and morality. This sent me on a journey to examine the way in which the tragedy in Gaza is covered, how we speak about undocumented migrants in this country and our relationship with violence in general.

     

    Here’s a snippet from the pod:

    “The powerful in this country are riding roughshod over the objections of the people. And as righteous as many are in calling for an end to the atrocities, the leaders we elect to represent us are making us complicit by proxy through money and munitions. We are one step removed from the IDF soldier who partakes in the massacre of children with American weapons. The same soldier who is failing to ‘take distance from the requirements that law and policy imposed upon him,’ as Butler suggests. Arms length distance in the United States makes us less complicit than those who pull the trigger in blind obedience, but complicit nonetheless. This is a national disgrace.”

    Access Episode Resources
    Read The Essay

    Progressive Corner

    Progressive Spotlight: Alexandra Rojas.

     

    The Justice Democrats executive director and Sanders 2016 alumnus remains on the offensive. But she now finds herself also defending the progressive incumbents she helped propel from an onslaught of attacks.

     

    Progressive Organization of the Week: UltraViolet.

     

    “We fight attacks against women and work toward a proactive vision of what equality looks like for women. We demand accountability from individuals, the media, and institutions that perpetuate sexist narratives or seek to limit the rights, safety, and economic security of women. We leverage culture, politics, the news, and our rapid-response model to mobilize millions of people, quickly.”

     

    Check Out the New UNFTR Directory of Progressive Resources for More

    Resources

    Pod Love

    I won’t even call it a guilty pleasure. It’s my favorite podcast. Bill Simmons and crew hit the road for a “cold weather tour” to do famous rewatchable movies in the cities they were filmed in. They’ve even started posting the video version to YouTube.

     

    The Rewatchables: Live in Chicago! The Fugitive

     

    Book Love

    “A brilliant biography...this is the epic story of the famous South American general and statesman Simón Bolívar. [He] freed six countries from Spanish rule and is still the most revered figure in South America today. He traveled from Amazon jungles to the Andes mountains, engaged in endless battles and forged fragile coalitions of competing forces and races. He lived an epic life filled with heroism, tragedy (his only wife died young), and legend (he was saved from an assassination attempt by one of his mistresses). In Bolívar, Marie Arana has written a sweeping biography that is as bold and as passionate as its subject.”

     

    Bolívar: American Liberator by Marie Arana

     

    Unf*cker Comment of the Week

     

    Ray W.:

    “In the latest e-mail, you referred to the Guardian Angels’ hate crime as being committed by ‘red shirts’. It's an understandable temptation to cross the SA brown shirts with the (fallen) angels’ red berets, but the red shirt was the symbol of Garibaldi’s anti-imperial, republican army. Though not perfect (and he probably had some ideas that are reprehensible now), the Red Shirts should not be besmirched by assigning their symbol to these racist vigilantes.”

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