Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web. Want more? Click here to subscribe to NIDC today. 

Nina-Bytes: Impact Statement

Last week on Instagram, I briefly discussed the theatrical process of passing ineffectual climate crisis reduction policies that ultimately preserve capitalism in the Pig Empire. While our leaders spit double-talk about carbon reduction strategies they know will not save us, our society continues to facilitate fossil fuel-based capitalism that will murder us all. Ultimately, we're talking about an act of knowing, genocidal deception here; a lie so big, and so brazen, that people can't quite accept it's happening, even though the evidence is all around them. Furthermore, this lie is being told by so many powerful people in the Pig Empire, that it would be impossible to keep it a secret; which is more or less why they don't.

Take for example the crass hypocrisy of the just concluded UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) at the dubiously proclaimed "first green city" of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. As I wrote last year about COP 26, here you have an international gathering of some of the most influential politicians on earth, loudly proclaiming that they care about climate crisis, before sitting around a table and shooting down every possible globalized effort to end fossil fuel capitalism; a prerequisite for addressing climate catastrophe and saving all life on Earth.

While last year's conference ended with open promises to commit genocide, this year's shindig included a truly mind boggling number of oil industry lobbyists. That would be the same industry that actively covered up the connection between fossil fuels and global warming for decades, and is currently paying even more lobbyists to *checks notes* criminalize dissent against fossil fuel companies and declare climate science denial a form of protected speech. You know who wasn't there however? Climate activist Greta Thunberg, who called the conference a forum for "greenwashing." Given that this is the 27th COP summit, and the data says we're still steaming towards the apocalypse at full speed, she's absolutely right.

Of course, while all of this is obviously odious and counterproductive, it doesn't become a genocidal "conspiracy" until you can prove that our leaders understand that they're dooming millions, if not billions, to die for capital. To demonstrate this is in fact the case, I'd like to examine this November 8th, 2022 article written by Brad Plumer and Raymond Zhong over at the New York Times:

Draft Report Offers Starkest View Yet of U.S. Climate Threats

As this article notes, every four years the U.S. federal government is required by law to drafted and release the National Climate Assessment; a document composed by multiple federal agencies, and hundreds of independent scientists, that provides a real assessment of what we today call "climate crisis" in progress.  While ideologically this is a capitalist document at its root, these reports aren't about public relations and often speak uncomfortable truths about America's future; the last report for example predicted that unchecked warming would absolutely crater the U.S. economy. This year's report isn't completed yet, but a lengthy draft has been released for public comment.

So what do the actual scientists have to say about the climate path we're on? Nothing good my friends:

"The effects of climate change are already “far-reaching and worsening” throughout all regions in the United States, posing profound risks to virtually every aspect of society, whether it’s drinking water supplies in the Midwest or small businesses in the Southeast, according to a draft scientific report being circulated by the federal government.

"The things Americans value most are at risk,” says the draft report, which could still undergo changes as it goes through the review process. “More intense extreme events and long-term climate changes make it harder to maintain safe homes and healthy families, reliable public services, a sustainable economy, thriving ecosystems and strong communities.”

As greenhouse gas emissions rise and the planet heats up, the authors write, the United States could face major disruptions to farms and fisheries that drive up food prices, while millions of Americans could be displaced by disasters such as severe wildfires in California, sea-level rise in Florida or frequent flooding in Texas.

“By bringing together the latest findings from climate science, the report underscores that Americans in every region of the country and every sector of the economy face real and sobering climate impacts,” said John Podesta, a senior adviser to President Biden on clean energy, adding that the draft report was still undergoing scientific peer review and public comment."

To put it bluntly; this is a US government-funded body of experts telling you that your leaders have already failed you and we're almost certainly headed for climate-induced Thunderdome here in America. Furthermore, while I cut out a paragraph of fluff, I quoted such a long section of this article to point out one of the many small ways mainstream capitalist media continues to downplay the problem. In three consecutive paragraphs, our authors go out of their way to tell you twice that the report isn't final; as if sometime in the next couple of months all these eggheads are going to say "whoops, forgot to carry the two; actually everything is fine."

The truth however is that you don't need me to tell you that everything isn't fine; nobody does. While it may be refreshing to hear the U.S. government admit we're already in the middle of a global warming hockey stick graph, folks living on a boiling planet could have told you that just by stepping outside the past few years. What's important here is what this document, and the thousands of other official studies just like it proves; that Joe Biden, and other Pig Empire political leaders also know climate catastrophe, caused by fossil fuel consumption, is already here. Furthermore, so do all the other politicians, lobbyists, and even media muppets trying to sell you on planting trees, carbon capture, and bullsh*t "net zero" policies that won't stop the coming apocalypse, and ultimately only serve to sustain the very capitalist order causing it.

Of course, maybe you didn't need me to tell you that either. Perhaps hearing it from the Department of Defense, or major international banks was enough. Maybe it should just be pretty obvious that when an American President says we need to increase fossil fuel production now, to be able to decrease it at some undefined point in the future,  we are all being taken for a morbidly insulting ride. Maybe that's why capital is spending billions trying to disempower the people and lull us all back to sleep; it's not like they can keep it a secret anymore. If that's the case however, the folks around me sure are acting funny for people who know their leaders intend to murder their families for capitalism.

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. 

Podcast at “Kropotkin’s Barbershop” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

 

 

 

Nina Bytes: Fascism is on the Docket

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

Hello friends; long time no see. My life has been pretty terrible for the past several months, but it's better now, and I'd rather not waste a lot of time going over the gory details. Please bear with me while I work myself back into shape; writing is way harder than emo trash-posting on Twitter.

In today's post I'd like to provide some evidentiary examples for a thesis I published over on Instagram called "Fascism is a Legalist Doctrine." As I mentioned, two major reactionary arguments designed to dismantle what passes for American democracy are making their way before a pro-fascist Supreme Court in America. Let's take a closer look at both of those cases:

 

The Supreme Court Is On The Verge Of Killing The Voting Rights Act

First of all I'd like to note that I chose this rather bloodless October 3rd, 2022 article by Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux over at Five-Thirty-Eight on purpose because I need the "very serious" liberals in my life to understand that the fascist judicial assault on American democracy is very real, not even remotely abstract, and definitely not some far left political theory. The article revolves around the pivotal Alabama map-rigging case currently before a 6-3 fascist high SCOTUS in America; Merrill v. Milligan.

Now on the surface, this might look like just another crooked gerrymandering case in a very long line of crooked gerrymandering cases in the United States. Once one delves a little deeper into the fascist argument being presented, and likely to be accepted by the court however, the horrifying implications become more clear:

 

"Up until now, the court has taken the perspective that, in order to comply with the act, states are in some situations required to take race into consideration as the primary factor in the redistricting process. Alabama Republicans are now arguing that it’s discriminatory to prioritize race over other traditional redistricting techniques, such as having compact districts, contiguous boundaries or avoiding crossing county or town boundaries. Several experts, including Pildes, told FiveThirtyEight that a ruling that sides with Alabama would be a radical departure from previous interpretations of the law and would likely free states to draw congressional or state legislative maps where minority voters have less political power relative to their numbers.

In that sense, the outcome of this case could be very similar to a 2013 ruling in which the Roberts court gutted another section of the Voting Rights Act, freeing a group of states with histories of discrimination against minority voters to change their election laws without federal approval. In the years afterward, those states shuttered thousands of polling places, intensified their voter purges and changed voting laws in other ways that disproportionately affect minority voters."

 

Yes folks, you read that correctly; fascist lawyers and the Alabama GOP are arguing (more or less) that being forced to draw voting districts in such a way as to accurately reflect minority voting populations and protect their constitutional rights, are actually discriminatory against white Republicans. In short, Tucker Carlson's reverse racism propaganda from Fox News is about to become a fundamental plank of election law; to the advantage of fascists and the disadvantage of anyone who doesn't like being ruled by fascists. 

Astoundingly enough however, Merrill v. Milligan isn't even the most serious threat to American democracy about to appear before an objectively far right and reactionary Supreme Court:

 

How the Supreme Court could make it legal to steal the next presidential election

Whelp, that's pretty bleak my friends. In this July 11th opinion piece over on MSNBC, law professor Jessica Levinson lays out the terrifying implications in another upcoming case, Moore v. Harper.

Although understanding this case does involved wading into the weeds a bit, the fascist argument here broadly stipulates that state lawmakers more or less have the right to conduct elections any way they want (including rigging them,) without oversight from anyone except federal courts, and even then only narrowly. This is literally a green light for Republican controlled states to not only rig their own elections, but award their state delegates to whichever presidential candidate they want; and if that sounds familiar to you, it probably should:

 

"Even more significantly, this doctrine, taken to its catastrophic and logical conclusion, could allow state lawmakers to legally steal presidential elections. Let’s imagine that in 2024, Florida residents vote to re-elect President Joe Biden. This has always meant Florida’s 30 Electoral College votes would go to Biden. But maybe the lawmakers there would want the Republican challenger to win. The lawmakers could decide not to certify the election results and instead submit their own slate of electors to the Electoral College who would vote for that Republican. By pure luck and coincidence, this is pretty damn close to the plan espoused by former President Donald Trump and his supporters in their attempt pilfer the 2020 election."

 

Naturally of course, we can't know how the Supreme Court will ultimately rule in Moore v. Harper. but given the court's current composition, and the fact that four reactionary judges on the court have already indicated they support the “independent state legislature doctrine,” it's probably not that hard to guess.

All of which of course leads me back to the point I was trying to make on Instagram; it does no good for liberals to rail away against fascist street gangs and open neo-nazis, while patently refusing to resist the judicial branch of fascism that is actively working to end what passes for American democracy, once and for all. Biden can walk out on stage and warn us all about the "semi-fascists" until he's blue in the face, but until Democrat lawmakers are prepared to abolish the filibuster and secure voting rights for all, the fascists are going to keep winning these fights in the halls of power, and telling folks to "vote harder" is a sick joke.

That doesn't mean society has to accept fascist rule, but if the Democratic Party isn't even prepared to fight fascism to preserve its own existence at the ballot box, what good are they to anyone who isn't a fascist, at all?

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. 

Podcast at “Kropotkin’s Barbershop” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Nina-Bytes: They Are Who We Thought They Were

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

 

Corporations Donated $164,000 to Anti-Voting Rights Senators Despite Pledges

Earlier today I published a couple of micro-blog posts that touched on why the capitalist liberal establishment simply cannot be our allies in the fight against fascism. Unfortunately, because ruling class propaganda in America has a stunning power to transform the very meaning of words in our society, I'm concerned that folks may not even understand what I mean when I say "the liberal establishment." Sure, I'm talking about the Democratic Party, but only because they are the most visible (and feckless) face of that establishment in America. The Pig Empire liberal establishment however, comprises virtually the entire capitalist class, and many of their overseers in the petite bourgeoisie.

Today then, I'd like to use this November 8th, 2021 post by Sharon Zhang on Truthout, to both expose that larger liberal establishment and demonstrate how they instinctively support fascism, regardless of the presumed lean of their social politics. With a big assist from a report produced by watchdog group Accountable.US, Zhang reveals that at least eight major U.S. corporations that signed a pledge to support the John Lewis voting rights act, have given thousands of dollars this year to GOP Senators actively blocking it. And we're not talking about the My Pillow guy here either. These are major players in corporate America, all of whom at least front a socially progressive position to consumers; companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft.

Obviously, the focus here for liberals is going to be on the hypocrisy involved; after all, this story pretty much comes down to a bunch of billion dollar corporations trying to craft a socially progressive image that will entice customers, while openly supporting politicians who threaten the franchise. This matters, but it's also important not to miss the forest for the trees in this story. The message corporate America is delivering here could not be more obvious; they're completely fine with fascism because it doesn't interfere with the capitalist order and their bottom lines. Hell, electing Trump actually got them the mother of all tax cuts last time!

I hate to say it kids, but when I tell you fascism is an inherently capitalist reaction, I'm not speaking in metaphors here. The private sector isn't going to help us fight fascism, and neither are their in-pocket politicians or muppet stenographers in the media. If this is going to end in anything other than mass graves, it's going to be on the people to stop reactionary ruling class elites from driving the car off the cliff. Clearly, if it's a choice between working with nazis, or paying his taxes, you can pretty much bet guys like Jeff Bezos are going to find a way to get comfortable with fascism.

That's what I really mean when I say the liberal establishment would prefer fascism, to sharing.

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. 

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

 

Nina-Bytes: Keep It in the Ground

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

 

Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground. Everything Else Is Just Talk.

Over the past few weeks on Nina-Bytes, we've spent some time examining the staggering contradictions between climate promises by Pig Empire leadership, and the actions they're taking (or not taking) in government. In particular, I've focused on examining what I call the levels and flavors of self-deception in the fight to prevent climate catastrophe. The plain truth is that we know how to save the world from climate apocalypse, and capitalists are actively preventing us from collectively taking the steps necessary to do so. 

This in turn has lead to the ghastly spectacle of Pig Empire politicians, and neoliberal "thought leaders" trying to square that circle by making climate crisis mitigation promises that we already know won't save us from the climate apocalypse. Do you want to know what grim looks like? It looks like Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of the island nation of Barbados, explaining that even if Western leaders actually keep their current promises (fat chance,) it will still mean the death of millions on a boiling earth. Let me repeat that; our leaders are currently promising climate change policies they know will kill millions of poor people, particularly in the global South. 

Ultimately then, we're talking about a mass murder plot, barely hidden behind bloodless technocratic jargon and empty platitudes about how we're all in this together. Furthermore, you'd have to be an idiot at this point to believe these muppets aren't just as happy to sacrifice Pig Empire paupers on the altar of capital; just look at how the coronavirus pandemic shook out. It is not enough to merely say "net zero carbon is not enough," these folks are choosing to openly sacrifice millions of poor people on behalf of capital; and that's if their harebrained schemes work! This is what systemic genocide looks like in practice; this is fascism, imperialism, and the death cult of capitalism at its darkest.

So what does the opposite of that actually look like? How can you cut through the neoliberal platitudes and focus on a concise, easy to explain solution to climate catastrophe we can all get behind demanding from our leaders? I'm glad you asked, because as this November 7th, 2021 article by George Monbiot on Common Dreams makes clear, the answer is alarmingly simple. We need to leave fossil fuels in the ground. Period. Full-stop. Everything else is just empty talk from folks who mean to kill you for profit. From the article:

 

"And yes, it really is this simple. We have the technology required to replace fossil fuels. There's plenty of money, which is currently being squandered on the destruction of life on Earth. The transition could take place in months, if governments willed it. The only thing that stands in the way is the power of legacy industries and the people who profit from them. This is what needs to be overthrown. The handwaving, the complexity, the grandiloquent distraction in Glasgow are designed above all for one purpose: not to accelerate this transition, but to thwart it."

 

Look, I don't know how to put this any more bluntly. There is simply no such thing as a technocratic plan to stop climate catastrophe. Do you want a future? Would you like to survive to see it? Do you want to save life on Earth? Then stop tolerating politicians who're enslaved to a capitalist death cult that clearly means to kill us all if that's what it takes to make a quick buck. We must stop burning and extracting fossil fuels; to quote piss queen Maggy Thatcher, there literally "is no alternative."

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. 

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

In the Aggregate: Critical Overload on NIDC

 

Editor’s Note: In the Aggregate is a regular round-up feature over on NIDC, that showcases and expands on my social media analysis from around the web.

 

It's All in the Wrists

Well my friends; the world doesn't stop just because you've had a difficult week and you'd rather play with kittens. This weekend I'm back with a new edition of In the Aggregate; collecting the very best of my social media analysis from all across the internet. I hope you've got a comfy chair because this is a long one. Touching on topics like climate crisis, supervillain billionaires, and the growing menace of American fascism, this edition of our bi-weekly roundup is a swirling vortex of bullsh*t repellent. Join me this week on NIDC for "In the Aggregate: Critical Overload."

 

"At this point, whether it’s a question of complicity, fecklessness, or cowardice is largely irrelevant; the center-right Democratic Party establishment and those who insist we place our faith in them are leading us all on a death march towards fascist totalitarianism on a boiling planet. You can kindly shove Godwin’s Law up your backside; the parallels between the elite “centrist” response to Americanized fascism and what went down in Weimar Germany are now becoming far too alarming to ignore. We are literally already in the fascist moment; and liberals are still waiting around for the magical politics referee to punish the right."

 

To read more over on ninaillingworth.com, click on the quotation block above or the header below:

 

In the Aggregate: Critical Overload

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Nina-Bytes: Ahead of the Curve

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

 

Personally, I have never quite mastered the important internet art of relentless self promotion. In fact, that might be why this blog generally tops out of a few hundred readers. If there is one thing I've learned in my time publishing analysis online however, it's that sometimes you have to toot your own horn a little; if only because nobody is going to do it for ya. So today we're going to try something a little different; I'm counting coup with some help from bigger voices in the progressive media sphere online. 

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article arguing that most mainstream media coverage of the reconciliation bill fight in the US Senate amounted to complicit codswallop and "corporate-sponsored fan fiction for lanyards." In that article I noted that anarcho-capitalist billionaires and corporate America had poured millions into stopping the Build Back Better Act at all costs. This including buying off Democrat Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema; whose support is necessary to pass the bill. Finally I observed that corporate media was engaging in active propaganda on behalf of their rich owners by pretending this was any sort of good faith political dispute. The whole mystery was a stalling tactic, and as of now it appears to be working.

Well, it turns out that I'm not the only person who noticed:

 

TV Reports on Manchin and Sinema Leave Out Their Financial Conflicts 

In this October 22nd report by Spencer Snyder over at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, we find documented evidence that the willful blindness I observed in print media carries over to cable news coverage. In a review of twenty-one news programs covering the reconciliation bill fight (including programs from major players in corporate cable news), the author identified a total of forty-five seconds spent discussing conflict of interest issues; also know as corruption. Indeed, ABC's "Good Morning America" actually had former Senator Heidi Heitkamp on to admonish folks for questioning Manchin and Sinema's motives in stopping the bill. 

The article also goes on to detail Manchema's flagrant conflicts of interest; including donor money, Machin's one-step-removed coal empire, and Sinema's obviously corrupt relationship with a lobbying group in cahoots with Big Pharma. Finally, Snyder hammers away at cable media for spinning a narrative that ultimately sides with corporate power and the two corrupt Senators, while blaming the left for refusing to surrender. This is all great stuff, but given that I already wrote all of these same things, you probably could have guessed I'd feel that way.

 

Joe Biden Is Poised to Gut His Own Political Agenda; and the Democrats’ Electoral Prospects

In this October 21st article by Luke Savage in Jacobin, the author looks at the same corruption and coverage I did, and comes to the same conclusion; the fix is in and the media is in on it. In fairness to Savage, he then uses this discussion to point out that the Democratic Party (and Joe Biden; who was tepidly supporting the progressive position when I published) is also complicit in letting corporate lobbyists and two Senators hijack the negotiations. From the article:

"In exposing the deep dysfunction of America’s political institutions, the reconciliation battle has also, yet again, laid bare the structuring contradiction of the Democratic Party as a vehicle for real reform. Having begun the process by proposing trillions in big programs and new spending, the party’s subsequent negotiation with itself looks set to yield something both ideologically feeble and electorally counterproductive.

Among other things, that’s because the Democratic coalition is less a coherent ideological formation than it is a Frankenstein hodgepodge of progressives, public interest groups, liberally minded voters and corporate lobbies — with the latter, by virtue of its influence in DC, bottomless reserve of campaign cash, and de facto purchase of many elected representatives almost invariably carrying the day."

 

Now, I want to be clear; I'm absolutely not accusing either of this guys of plagiarism. What I'm suggesting you to do is look at the dates all three of these pieces were published, and then ask yourself one simple question. Why wouldn't someone who wanted to be informed on the cutting edge of left wing political analysis, subscribe to ninaillingworth.com, this blog, and all the social media services listed in my signature at the bottom of this post? 

Exactly, such a decision would be inexplicable; which is why you should sign up if you haven't already my friends.

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Nina-Bytes: A Question of Priorities

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

Senate Quietly Adds $10 Billion to Pentagon Budget While Blocking Climate Action

Look, I don't want to say that the mainstream media always lies, because most of the time they don't really have to. As I've explained before, it's pretty easy to abuse context, or lack thereof, to distort how the news is perceived, while still technically reporting "the truth." Recently for example, I've watched this technique being deployed while reporting on various aspects of federal spending by the Biden administration. Consider for a moment the wildly different ways our record $778 billion defense budge for 2022, and the social spending in the budget reconciliation bill are being reporting.

Not only is the focus on reporting the highest possible spending number (over 10 years) when reporting the reconciliation bill, but the media also credulously accepts the complaints of so called budget hawk Senators demanding huge funding cuts for social and environmental programs. As Sharon Zhang notes over on Truthout however, nobody even bats an eyelash when those same "budget hawks" fall all over themselves to give the Pentagon more money than it asked for! Sorry kids; we're pawning your future so Lockheed Martin can bill the government for more Javelin missiles we absolutely don't need. This situation is not only absurd, but it's an active threat to what passes for American democracy. Oh, and also all life on earth.

As I've written recently; figuring out why Democrats can't pass the Build Back Better Act isn't a convoluted mystery. The answer is bald-faced corruption; anarcho-capitalist billionaires and corporations have bribed two Senators to sink it at all costs. Maybe you can argue that the political media in America can't report that because bribery is effectively legal. I don't agree with that argument, but it exists. A truly adversarial free press however, would at least report the fact that these guys are shoveling cash at a carbon-spewing war machine, at the same time as they're crying that the country's coffers are too short to pay for climate crisis reduction programs. 

The problem here of course is that we don't have a free and adversarial press. We have a corporate propaganda machine actively partnered with the war machine, to make bucket loads of money keeping America perpetually prepared for, or engaging in, another war. Social spending costs rich people money, while weapons contracts make rich people money; this isn't that complex. Obviously in an economy built on blood and oil, the survival of the species just doesn't rate. 

Maybe poor kids and polar bears should hire themselves some lobbyists.

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Nina-Bytes: Fish Gotta Swim

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

Manchin Has Received $1.5 Million From Corporate Interests Attacking Biden Agenda: Report

This article from Jake Johnson at Common Dreams has forced me to ask an important question; is it even possible to make an "I told you so" post about such crass and obvious corruption? In an era of legalized bribery, and zero accountability for the rich and powerful, does bald-faced self-enrichment at the highest levels of government even shock us anymore? Probably not; especially in a neofeudalist oligarchy. Clearly in this stage of capitalism, asking a U.S. Senator to forgo bribes from corporate lobbyists is like asking a fish to stop swimming.

Joe Manchin, everyone's favorite coal baron Senate obstructionist, is back in the news cycle again and it's not because he's such a style icon. In a revelation that won't surprise anyone who read my last essay (Six Things I Think: Reconciliation and the Dirty Pair) even more evidence has emerged that Manchin is on the take from forces that want to kill the Build Back Better Act. It turns out that in addition to the oil lobby money, and the polluter utilities money, Manchin has also scarfed up at least $1.5 million in donations from corporations and business lobby groups; including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Given that all of these groups represent corporations who oppose even moderate tax increases, as do Manchin's new friends inside the Kochtopus, it's not all that hard to figure out what the money is for. Correspondingly, the "other Joe" is still working to whittle trillions in funding off the reconciliation bill while protecting his corporate donors from even Biden's moderate tax increases. Of course one might be tempted to ask why companies keep bribing Manchin to kill a bill he's already committed to destroying, but there's no need to ask why the Senator from West Virginia would keep going back to the well. After all, everyone already knows he's greasier than a pork rind dipped in lard; and nobody has done a goddamn thing about it yet.

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

 

Six Things I Think: Reconciliation and the Dirty Pair on NIDC

 

Editor’s note: Six Things I Think is an ongoing political media deconstruction and analysis series, featured on NIDC.

Fan Fiction for Lanyards in a Model Modern Oligarchy

Well folks, I finally did it; I wrote a full length essay for the first time since I was forced to stop working and manage my long covid symptoms. In today's edition of Six Things I Think, I'm conducting an in-depth investigation into a riddle nobody outside of the Beltway was struggling to solve: "why can't Democrats pass the reconciliation bill?!" 

The answer is of course, because rich people don't want them to; but don't tell that to the Manchinologists and Sinema-Whisperers in Beltway media! We've got budget reconciliation, greasy dark money, the Kochtopus, and two Democrat Senators who owe their souls to the company store, today on NIDC.

"At this point, I’m convinced Sinema is actually some type of human thought experiment designed to measure how long corporate cash donations alone can animate a terminal political career. Loathed by nearly every human who’s ever met her, the Arizona Senator has recently taken to cowering in the bathroom to avoid having to face her constituents."  

To check it out over on ninaillingworth.com, click on the quotation block above, or the header below:

Six Things I Think: Reconciliation and the Dirty Pair 

 

 nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

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“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”