The Collapse

Humans just love a good doomsday story, don't we? Especially if there's a lot of death involved, right? Even when it's real? About all I can tell you is that the piece below was written by "Jessica." 

{Editors note: I believe it's important to stay connected to hope and solutions while facing the reality of collapse.} 

Every single day, someone pops the question.

When is the collapse going to start?

This question comes up all the time on Reddit, in private chats, on social media, in the comments section of articles about doom…

It sits on the tip of tongues. It lurks in the back of minds. Even those friends and relatives who don’t believe in that “doomer nonsense” still crave an answer, even if they don’t want to talk about it.

It’s an interesting question that generates a lot of different answers, depending on who’s talking. Some say 2030. Some say 2050.

And then there’s the related question: What form will it take?

Maybe the financial collapse will start before the ecosystem collapse, or vice versa. Maybe a heatwave like the one in The Ministry for The Future will kill millions of civilians. Maybe a flood will wash away an entire country, not just a third of a country like Pakistan. One person I know said they plan to start taking people in “when things start to get seriously bad, for real.” When someone asks me when the collapse is going to start, I think what they really mean is this: When’s it going to affect me?

Because the collapse has already started.

It’s been going on for a few years now, depending on which experts you’re interviewing. Scientists quietly admit we’ve already crashed through the 1.5C safeguard, set at the Paris Accords last decade. Carbon emissions haven’t peaked. Companies like Microsoft and Google are blowing off their pledges, because they want to create robot secretaries and interns. And sexbots.

Men in their 20s are spending thousands of dollars a month on AI girlfriends. Isn’t that a pretty good sign collapse has started?

We’re living through the hottest summers in human history. Wildfire smoke blankets North America every other summer. Cactuses are falling over dead from the heat. Urbanites are passing out on sidewalks and winding up in the ER with contact burns. They’re not safe walking down the street in their hometowns. One state responded by canceling mandatory water breaks.

Wouldn’t you say collapse has started?

There’s a certain kind of person I’ve met in my conversations about collapse. When you tell them collapse has already started, they correct you. They don’t mean the collapse in general. They mean “the real” collapse, in other words, the one that matters to them. They want to know about that one. Nobody knows.

My family lived through an F3 tornado. We lived through a hurricane. We drove through a wildfire. We’ve put quite a few notches on our collapse bedpost. When I pick up my phone, I can scroll my own doom.

And yet, it doesn’t feel like collapse. Not yet.

Millions of Americans, Canadians, and Europeans feel the same way. They still wake up and go to work. They still go out for dinner and drinks. They relax and watch Squid Game. If you start to get worked up and overshare, your condescending friend Ben can take you outside to touch grass.

For many of us, it’s easy to pretend collapse isn’t happening.

So, it’s more like: When does collapse become impossible to ignore?

When does collapse get so bad they can’t look away anymore? When does it get so bad they can’t distract themselves with scandals, with gossip, with retail therapy? When does it get so bad, it feels bad all the time?

That depends.

Some of us already can’t look away.

It doesn’t matter if we stop doomscrolling. It doesn’t matter if we turn our phones off. It doesn’t matter if we go outside and touch grass. The awareness breathes through us all the time, even when we ignore it long enough to enjoy a meal or spend an evening with our families, or just screwing around.

We’re living in a fascist regime, and we know it. We’re living through the end of public health, and we know it. According to Gallup polls, 41 percent of Americans still believe we’re living in a pandemic (they’re right), and even more (53 percent) admit their lives haven’t returned to normal.

We have a convicted felon for president, who may or may not have staged his own assassination attempt for votes.

We have an alcoholic Fox News host in charge of our military, and he doesn’t know how to use a phone. We have an anti-vaxxer in charge of Health and Human Services, and he publicly reminisces over the days when “everybody got measles.” We have a TV doctor in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, and he once had to testify before Congress about hawking dangerous supplements.

The political collapse has started, that’s for sure.

And our celebrities, oof. From actors to fantasy authors, so many of them turned out to be liars, grifters, bigots, and predators. Those Marvel movies don’t feel so great when you realize our version of Tony Stark not only backed a fascist felon for president, but topped it off with a Nazi salute. Pop stars who used to weep over school shootings fly around in space now, taking selfies. As the world burns, they cheerfully announce they bought their masters.

The cultural collapse has started. That’s for sure.

There’s at least one genocide going on right now, and most of the world still manages to look away. Countless innocent civilians are dead or “missing.” Don’t you think they’re dead? They were murdered.

For anyone who believes collapse hasn’t started yet, or “the real collapse” has yet to come, I’ve got a question for them.

What would be bad enough?

What has to happen for the collapse to officially begin? What event would qualify? Temperatures are soaring above the limits of human survivability across the world. Every year is now the hottest year in recorded history. How hot does it have to get before millions of us start dying? How many people have to crank up their AC before their city’s grid gives out?

When is collapse going to hit each of us, personally? It depends.

It depends on where you live. It depends on how much money you make. It depends on how old you are. It depends on whether you have health insurance. It depends on whether you have a chronic illness. It depends on your gender. It depends on your race. It depends on your nationality. It depends on your religion.

I know one thing: No celebrity or politician is ever going to declare the beginning of collapse. No network is going to announce it on the news. There’s never going to be a history book that says collapse started on a given date.

The Weather Channel probably isn’t going to say, “We have no idea what’s going on now because fascists gutted the programs we rely on to predict storms.” It’s just not going to be there one day, and strangely enough, by the time that happens, a lot of people aren’t going to care that much.

In complexity science, there’s this thing called shifting baseline syndrome. Things just gradually get worse, and everyone gets used to it. Collapse happens, but it’s so slow that hardly anyone really notices.

Maybe for someone, collapse starts when their hot water heater breaks, and they can’t afford to fix it. Maybe it’s when the cheapest coffee they can find costs twenty bucks a bag, and they start to ration it. Maybe it’s when their parents can’t afford a retirement home, so they have to move in with their kids.

Even as global disasters and water wars kill millions, plenty of yoga moms and golf dads will be sitting in the drive thru at Chick-Fil-A, without much concern for anyone else, bitching about egg prices, blaming immigrants and trans teachers for their problems, hiding in their air conditioned bubbles, and defending Elon Musk online to whoever hasn’t been locked up yet.

When you think about those Gallup polls, all those Americans who still feel as if life hasn’t gotten back to normal, maybe that’s not just a virus. Maybe that’s collapse. If you think life just feels different, if you’re just not looking forward to the future like you were, that’s collapse.

Honestly, the typical American could wake up covered in dust every morning and still think they’re going to be a billionaire someday.

So, when is the collapse going to start? Beats me.

Collective Evolution

Jason Mcphail

Jason is another non-rightwingnut that writes on the internet. It's good to see so many thoughtful people stepping up and speaking out. It's still very sad to see and hear conservatives spouting nonsense and hatred for liberals. What did liberals ever do to them? Probably nothing, except try to help others. 

So it's a good thing to find people like Jason on the internet. I truly believe that there are more of "us" than there are of "them," but we don't usually take to the airwaves to vent, unless things are really bad. And right now, things in the US are pretty bad. One of our two parties is living in fear of Trump and has lost its spine and mind. The other party - mine - has not totally figured out how to beat back this maniac, but we are getting there.

Jason Mcphail

First it was the democrats. Then it was the Muslims. Then it was the anti fascists. Then it was the immigrants. Then it was the leftists. Then it was the democratic socialists. Now it’s the communists. Everyone is a dire threat suddenly.

Christians, they are using you. They are playing on your fear. Listen to them talk. Look into their eyes. Listen to them justify atrocities at every turn. Listen to them never take accountability for anything.

They want you to believe that this country was founded by godly evangelical Christians. Guys, 41 of the 56 “founding fathers” owned and participated in human trafficking. You can be mad at me for saying it, but when they prayed, do you think God told them it was ok to participate in human trafficking? They literally bought, bred, beat, and sold other human beings.

This administration is using God as a prop. The pledge of allegiance didn’t even have “under god” in it until 1954. Do you know why it was added? Look it up. It’s happening again, right now. Israel did not even become a country until 1948. But somehow you are being brainwashed into believing those are Gods chosen people and that destruction will come to you if you speak up against them shooting pregnant women in the stomach. I’ve literally seen IDF soldiers online bragging about killing children. Saying they are future enemies.

It’s time to show who you really are. Be good to other people. Stop using the legal system to justify your hate for other humans because your life isn’t working out the way you had planned. It’s not their fault. If you truly believe that one day you will stand before an almighty creator and give account, if you truly believe that, how do your think he will look at you when he reads back things you wrote and believed in?

When you defended a man who redacted the names of people who raped children to death. When you defended an organization that pulls over a U.S. citizen on his way to work and murders him in cold blood. When you defended rapists and pedophiles and made victims feel like there was no hope of justice for them? When does the victim shaming stop?

I’m not saying become a democrat. What I am saying is that it’s time to lay down your political ideology and start loving and listening to people. A man cannot serve two masters. Be a real Christian if you are going to be one. Follow Jesus. Be a radical lover of humans. Because one day, you will look back at this era and realize how wrong you were.

“They should have come here legally.”

“Where’s the proof of pedos in office?” (It’s in the redactions.)

“The left are jealous and hate financial success.” (No, they just want things like education and health care.)

It’s time to let go of your hatred, look in the mirror, and decide, do you serve Trump, or Jesus. Because you can’t do both.

Bryan Andrews

A new "country" singer has arisen from Missouri, Bryan Andrews. He has a new "mix-tape" out called "Independence Day" with eight tunes on it, including an "Intro" and "Outro." If you are a lefty, you will appreciate all of these tunes. If you are a right-winger, what the fuck are you doing here? Get out and go listen to Lee Greenwood sing "Proud to be an American" again. Over and over. Where at least you know you're free? 

A link to YouTube and all eight tracks can be found here Worth your time. Bryan has a tour scheduled which you can find wherever tickets are sold.

Track listing:

Intro

Are We Great Yet?

Backwoods Backwards

The Older I Get

Not See

Yeehaw

Home of the Chained

Outro

Jim Hightower

Jim Hightower is a Texas treasure, loved by all except right-wing assholes.

What a show, huh? Big-name corporations went all out this July 4th with a patriotic ad blitz professing their devotion to America's democracy. 

But it amounted to a Firecracker of Hypocrisy, for many of these showboat patriots have been backroom funders of the President Donald Trump regime's repression of our people's democratic rights.

Also, there's an internal level of cynical dishonesty in their flashy show of support for egalitarian values. In the past few years, a clique of these Silicon Valley and Wall Street giants has been monkeywrenching the rules of their own corporate governance to crush the very idea of "shareholder democracy."

Yes, such a concept has existed, at least in theory. For decades, big business profiteers have been given special privileges over the rest of us by claiming to be "democratic enterprises," governed by masses of common shareholders who get one vote for each share of stock they own. (Actually, that makes a corporation more of a plutocracy, since the more stock you own, the more votes you get.)

Today, though, even plutocracy is too democratic for monarchical billionaire bosses like Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX. So, they've invented a super-class of shareholders — mostly themselves and their cronies. These elite owners get domineering voting power, exceeding all other investors combined. For example, Musk owns about 40% of the stock in SpaceX, but in his self-created system, he gets more than 80% of shareholder votes. Among other advantages, his skewed voting power makes Musk "unfireable" — unless he votes to fire himself. 

This is Jim Hightower saying ... Beware of billionaires professing any allegiance to America's democratic values. In fact, just beware of billionaires, period.

LET'S INCREASE SOCIAL SECURITY, NOT CUT IT!

Here they come again: Billionaires, wailing that Congress must — MUST! — act immediately to slash the monthly Social Security checks that middle-class and poor retirees count on.

Plutocratic elites and their anti-government ideologues periodically erupt in outrage that elderly Americans who've earned retirement benefits are depleting the Social Security Trust Fund. So, they exclaim, the government must cut the payments these old folks are getting.

But wait — it's not "the government's money." It belongs to the retirees themselves. They've paid monthly payroll taxes into the fund for years on the guarantee that they would later draw benefits out.

Maybe so, bark opponents, but the money well is going dry, so the only way to "save" the program is to chop payments owed to beneficiaries.

In three words: That's a lie.

What the superwealthy don't want us to notice is that the Social Security tax is spectacularly unfair. If your yearly income is less than $185,000 (which includes 95% of us) — every penny of your earnings is subject to retirement tax. But if you're paid a million a year, or a billion, or even more — everything over $185,000 is tax-free. Sweet! 

Wait, there's more. Instead of being paid wages, most uber-wealthy people draw their annual income from a Wall Street scheme called "unrealized capital gains." Big surprise — those gains are totally exempted from our nation's retirement tax.

This is Jim Hightower saying ... So, let's make Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos and other tax-dodging billionaires pay on all of their income as the rest of us do. That's only fair. Then America can increase benefits so everyone can have a dignified retirement. Now that's true fairness!

To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

open letter

Here's an open letter to MAGA from Robert Fawkes. This letter does not make me "feel" better, but it helps to remind us of how fucking stupid MAGA was and still is.

AN OPEN LETTER TO EVERY FORMER TRUMP SUPPORTER, “BOTH SIDES” INDEPENDENT, AND EVERY PERSON WHO COULDN’T BE BOTHERED TO VOTE.

First…

Welcome. We see you’ve finally arrived. Incidentally, the emergency exit was over there the whole fucking time.

Now, before we all lock arms and sing “Kumbaya” because you’ve recently discovered that fire is, in fact, hot…

There is something you need to understand. You don’t just owe America an apology.

You owe us one. Personally.

Because for the better part of a decade, every goddamn warning we gave was met with the same smug bullshit.

“You’re overreacting.”

“You’re hysterical.”

“Calm down.”

“Touch grass.”

“Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Remember that one? You people diagnosed half the country with an imaginary mental illness because we had the audacity to read the fucking news.

We told you he’d attack elections. You laughed.

We told you he’d treat the Constitution like it was printed on Charmin. You laughed.

We told you he admired dictators. You laughed.

We told you tariffs weren’t magical economic fairy dust. You laughed.

We told you that rights, institutions, alliances, and democratic norms were a lot easier to destroy than rebuild. You laughed.

We told you that chaos wasn’t an accident. It was the business model. You laughed.

Every. Single. Time.

Then reality showed up carrying a baseball bat. Now the prices are still climbing.

Now the promises didn’t magically come true. Now international crises didn’t vanish because somebody declared themselves a master negotiator. Now government institutions are being bent into pretzels.

Now you’re posting things like…“I didn’t think he’d actually do that.” No shit. WE DID.

That’s why we were screaming. The part that really chaps my ass isn’t that you were wrong.

People are wrong all the time. It’s that you made being wrong into a goddamn spectator sport. You ridiculed us. You sneered. You made memes.

You called us traitors, communists, snowflakes, groomers, enemies of America, and every other stupid label you could pull out of the MAGA Grab Bag of Bullshit.

You weren’t merely unconvinced. You were contemptuous. You mocked people who were trying to keep the country from driving off a cliff.

And now that you’ve looked over the guardrail and noticed the pavement rushing toward your face, you’re asking everyone to be understanding.

Sure. Eventually. But first? Own every fucking second of it.

Don’t tell us you were “misled.” You were warned. Repeatedly.

Loudly. In detail. With receipts.

You just decided the people warning you were the enemy. That’s on you.

So yes, if you’ve changed your mind, welcome back. Sincerely.

Democracy needs people who are willing to admit they were wrong. But don’t skip the part where you apologize to the people you spent years ridiculing for being right.

Because this wasn’t just about Trump. It was about treating anyone who disagreed with you like they were crazy, stupid, or evil, when many of us were simply paying attention.

You don’t owe us worship. You don’t owe us sainthood. You owe us the words you refused to say while you were busy laughing.

“I was wrong.”

“You were right.”

Then we can get on with the miserable business of fixing the damage. But before you come back into the building, wipe your fucking feet.

By Robert Fawkes

Trump did it!

I never did buy the "vandals!" bullshit that Trump was peddling to explain why the Lincoln Reflecting Pool looked like shit. What do you expect with a "no-bid" contract, especially to Trump's "friends?" That is not how the government should be conducting business. Do you think Trump will ever apologize and admit he/they fucked up? Ha! Never. It's not in Trump's DNA to EVER admit a mistake of any kind. Thank you Roy Cohn.

Found this story at "Occupy Democrats."

BREAKING: OMG LOL! IT WAS TRUMP WHO RUINED THE POOL ALL ALONG! New photographs from the drained Reflection Pool show no gashes but instead show TIRE TRACKS from when Trump took a vanity drive in 10-ton vehicles across it!

No wonder he’s so defensive about it…

For over a month, Trump and his minions have been pushing outrageous conspiracy theories about imaginary antifa vandals who have been cutting “350-foot gashes” in the Reflecting Pool, ruining the $14 million paint job that was rushed and done poorly.

Now that the pool has been drained once again, we can see that the only damage to the bottom of the pool is from when Trump had his motorcade drive over it, for some inexplicable reason.

It turns out there is a reason we use asphalt on roads and don’t just paint the ground blue.

“As a retired tile installer of 44 years, I was mortified to see President Donald Trump in his 15,000- to 20,000-pound armored SUV, along with a dozen other security vehicles, being driven across the just-resurfaced Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to ‘inspect it.’”

“It is never okay to drive a motor vehicle over a hydrostatic coating designed to hold water. The weight and pressure on the armored vehicles’ tires will absolutely shear and delaminate the newly recoated surface!” writes Brian Walkowiak in a letter to the Tampa Bay Times.

Literally anybody with half a brain could have figured that out…but it appears the President lacks even that, and all of his sycophantic yes-men are too terrified to tell him no.

He should be forced to pay back every cent of the cost to fix this pool from his own personal account…and then have the rest of it seized for being the proceeds of a criminal enterprise.

What a disgrace!

more on Lindsey

Lindsey Graham and Joe Biden used to be good friends, until Lindsey sold his soul to Donald Trump. I am reminded of a time not so long ago, prior to Trump's pestilential appearance in politics. A time when a conservative Republican from South Carolina could say: "If you can't admire Joe Biden as a person, you've got a problem. He's the nicest person I've ever met in politics. As good a man as God ever created." Trump certainly put an end to all that.

The Great Betrayal

There is an old saying that we’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead. I’ve never believed death is some sort of celestial pardon. It doesn’t erase a lifetime of decisions. It doesn’t absolve betrayal. If we celebrate people after they’re gone because they spent their lives lifting humanity, then we owe history the same honesty when someone spent their public life diminishing it. Death deserves dignity. Legacies deserve scrutiny.

Lindsey Graham died suddenly after suffering an apparent cardiac emergency at his Capitol Hill home. Emergency responders attempted to revive him before transporting him to George Washington University Hospital, where he later died. His office described it simply as a brief and sudden illness. That is where the medical story ends. The political story ended years ago.

For me, Lindsey Graham didn’t die on a Saturday night in Washington. The Lindsey Graham I once respected disappeared the day he surrendered his conscience to Donald Trump.

I remember the senator who stood beside John McCain and spoke of honor, alliances, constitutional responsibility, and moral leadership. We often disagreed politically, but I never questioned that he believed what he was saying. Somewhere along the way that man vanished. In his place emerged someone willing to explain away almost anything if it meant remaining close to power. I didn’t watch a politician evolve. I watched a man slowly negotiate away pieces of his character until there was almost nothing recognizable left.

That is the tragedy I see. Not simply that Lindsey Graham died, but that he had already abandoned the very qualities that once made him worthy of respect. He traded independence for obedience, integrity for influence, and conviction for proximity to a president he himself once warned Americans about. When I think about Lindsey Graham’s legacy, I don’t think of the man who served beside John McCain. I think of the man who chose to spend the final chapter of his career defending nearly every excess, every assault on democratic norms, every attack on truth, and every excuse offered on behalf of Donald Trump.

I have never believed democracy dies only because of men like Trump. Democracy dies because intelligent people who know better decide that preserving their own political future matters more than preserving the institutions they swore to defend. Trump didn’t create this movement alone. He required willing participants. Lindsey Graham became one of the most indispensable among them.

His transformation always struck me as one of the great political collapses of our time. This wasn’t someone who lacked the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It was someone who understood the difference perfectly and chose expediency anyway. That is why I find it difficult to summon much sympathy for his political legacy. I don’t celebrate his death. I mourn what he willingly became.

History, I believe, will remember Lindsey Graham less for the legislation he sponsored than for the example he set. Future generations will study these years and ask how so many elected officials could watch constitutional guardrails buckle without intervening. His name will almost certainly appear somewhere in that answer. Not because he was powerless, but because he possessed influence and repeatedly chose to spend it protecting power instead of principle.

The betrayal wasn’t of Democrats. It wasn’t even of Republicans. It was a betrayal of the American people. Every oath of office carries an implied promise that the Constitution comes before any individual. Lindsey Graham had countless opportunities to honor that promise. Again and again, he chose otherwise.

Some men leave behind monuments.

Some leave behind cautionary tales.

I believe Lindsey Graham leaves behind the latter.

Michael Jochum

Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Music, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition