Democrats vs. Republicans: Why even an empty difference in rhetoric can matter

Shows two images of a B-52 bomber dropping bombs. The top one is labeled "Republicans". The bottom one is labeled "Democrats. The only difference between the two is the "Democrats" bomber has Black Lives Matter, and Yes We Can stickers on its side, and a rainbow painted on the dorsal tail fin.

When discussing the two major parties in the United States, people on the far left tend to make the case that there’s little difference between the two. They’re both fairly right-wing parties whose primary disagreements are on how to maintain a global capitalist hegemony, and on how capitalism should be maintained and mitigated within the borders of the United States. This B-52 bomber meme sums up this perspective pretty well – when bombs are falling on you, it’s unlikely to matter how much the ruling party of the country dropping them pays lip service to human rights, equality, and so on. While the U.S. has not been the only regime in the last few decades that’s had a harmful influence, it’s unquestionably the biggest single actor against democracy and human wellbeing on a global scale.

The reason I wanted Bernie Sanders to be president is that while he’s far from perfect, he was the most likely, of the available Democratic candidates, to start working to reduce the activities of the American war machine, and move us further in the direction of a world that stands in solidarity to deal with the issues that affect all of us. It’s frustrating that as the planet continues to warm, and time to deal with that continues to run out, the U.S. is continuing its 20th century project of trying to micro-manage the world, and the global south in particular, for U.S. power and profit. I’m sure there’s a degree to which leaders of both parties believe that American intervention makes the world better, and that the U.S. is, as the saying goes, “doing well by doing good”, but I think that’s a delusion. Decades of intervention around the world have resulted in death, destruction, and chaos, and even assuming the very best of intentions – which I do not believe is warranted – there is zero question that on both environmental and political issues, the world has been getting worse.

At this point, I think it’s worth revisiting Noam Chomsky’s case that, if we were to apply the standards used at Nuremburg, every US president since WW2 would be indicted:

I’m laying all of this out as a preface to making the case that the superficial, absurd “difference” shown in the B-52 meme is actually a difference that matters, when it comes to trying to change this global pattern of U.S.-sponsored destruction in the long term. One of the big lessons of history is that propaganda works, and that it can be used for good or for evil. It’s a slow, system-level tool, and while it can be accelerated by linking it to pre-existing cultural concepts, it requires patience. Engaging in propaganda is the act of adding a concept or narrative into the public consciousness. For the purposes of this discussion, propaganda is the process of mainstreaming.

There are a number of examples of this in American politics (though it’s obviously not limited to that country). As it stands, there’s a default acceptance within most groups of people that racism is bad. This is why we see people – including racists – put so much effort into fighting against the claim that something they’ve said or done is, in fact, racist. That was not always the case, and the change did not happen by itself. It was the process of generations of hard work by non-white activists, with gradually increasing support from members of the majority. Another example is the normalization of the idea that greed is a good thing, and a society organized around individual greed is one that will naturally result in the best possible world for everyone.

Another example is the idea that all humans should have a certain minimum set of rights, that even the powerful are supposed to respect.

And that’s where we get back to the differences between the Democrats and the Republicans. Even if you only focus on the ways in which their policies are similar – or even identical – the language they use matters. Rhetoric is insufficient by itself, but if we lose the mainstream expectation of human rights and democracy, we have lost ground in a major way.  Those of us working to build a more just and peaceful world are playing a long game. We need to have people on board ideologically, and losing even a performative consensus that certain things are good means that we have to spend the time and effort to get that back. Even though the need for change is incredibly urgent, if we don’t take the time to build our new world properly from the beginning, the whole thing is likely to come crashing down around our ears, and at this point that could doom humanity. That does not mean I think we should take an incrementalist approach. Recent history has shown how slow and often ineffective that is. It does mean, however, that I think there’s benefit in paying attention to rhetoric and propaganda, and there are benefits to having even the feeble performance of decency we get from some of the Democrats.

Because even if the people spreading the messages of coexistence, sustainability, peace, and justice don’t actually believe in what they’re saying, many others do. Over time, as those concepts and expectations become normalized, it gets harder for the dishonest politicians to justify their inaction, or maintain their air of piety, in the face of what they’ve actually done with the power we give them.

What we’re seeing from the Republican party right now is this exact process. They’ve spent decades rallying support by vilifying the government, othering non-white people and non-Christians, and treating kindness and fairness as weak, or even evil. And while the degree to which the politicians and pundits actually believed their rhetoric may have waxed and waned over time, it seems clear that belief among those in the base has solidified. With the “Tea Party” movement in response to the election of Barack Obama, it seems that the true believers actually entered the halls of Republican power in a new way. It doesn’t really matter whether the Tea Party politicians themselves believed their message, what mattered is that they seemed willing to actually follow through on the things that conservatives had been saying for generations. The expectation became that America would be “fixed” by moving beyond rhetoric to drastic action.

The same is true of Trump. He promised to move from just implying, or even saying that the problem is “bad people”, and we should just get rid of them, to actually doing it. The base and conservative politicians had to go along with that, or expose themselves as not really believing what they had said. A Republican who tries to hit the brakes on the current momentum of the Republican party is is someone who will soon find themselves ousted from the party, and without any power. The propaganda has overtaken them, and it has moved from being a tool of the powerful, to being an imperative that they must follow. This shift didn’t happen by itself – it’s the result of decades of messaging work funded by those FDR once referred to as “economic royalists”.

The shift towards fascism includes the process of losing even the pretense that democracy, equality, and justice are what we want from society.

As it stands, we have not fully lost that battle. While some Democrats have increasingly embraced “tough” rhetoric in their efforts to appeal to right-wing voters, the party still officially holds good values. It’s unlikely that pushing current office-holders to live up to their stated ideals will be very effective. People have been trying that for longer than I’ve been alive with little success. What we can do is push the general population to replace the disingenuous politicians with representatives who actually care about changing how things are run. As long as we’re dealing with the system that currently exists, we can constantly primary politicians from the left, and work to build collective power to force the changes we need. For that to work, we need people to believe in the goals and standards that aren’t being met.

Because we don’t have the resources of the ultra-rich, we have to bring collective power to bear, and use that to push back against right-wing propaganda, take direct action, and use the electoral system to make what progress we can. The democrats do not live up to their own claimed ideals, and because they still want credit for having them, that discrepancy is a pressure point that we can use to motivate the general public.

Despite everything happening in the world right now, life goes on, and I’m still required to spend money in order to live. My work is supported by a group of wonderful people over at patreon.com/oceanoxia, and I would be immeasurably grateful if you would consider joining their ranks. How much you give, and for how long are entirely under your control, and every little bit helps a great deal, as my household is very short on money right now. Thank you for reading, and take care of yourselves.

A useful video on why Trump’s not going to be able to use the military to seize power

Since I posted recently about Trump’s reshuffling of personnel in his administration, I think I should also post this as a follow-up. Trump doesn’t have what he needs to use the military to keep power, and here’s why:

As the video says, and as I will keep saying, the best way to oppose something like that in the unlikely event that it were to happen is organizing and coordinating collective power. It’s past time to stop relying on electoral campaigns and voting to maintain our democracy – that’s not sufficient. We need to be taking direct action, both for the trend towards authoritarianism, and to deal with climate change.

Climate change is increasing the longevity of hurricanes

It turns out that not only can climate change increase the strength of hurricanes, but it is also allowing them to last longer after making landfall.

“The implications are very important, especially when considering policies that are put in place to cope with global warming,” said Professor Pinaki Chakraborty, senior author of the study and head of the Fluid Mechanics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). “We know that coastal areas need to ready themselves for more intense hurricanes, but inland communities, who may not have the know-how or infrastructure to cope with such intense winds or heavy rainfall, also need to be prepared.”

Many studies have shown that climate change can intensify hurricanes — known as cyclones or typhoons in other regions of the world — over the open ocean. But this is the first study to establish a clear link between a warming climate and the smaller subset of hurricanes that have made landfall.

The scientists analyzed North Atlantic hurricanes that made landfall over the past half a century. They found that during the course of the first day after landfall, hurricanes weakened almost twice as slowly now than they did 50 years ago.

“When we plotted the data, we could clearly see that the amount of time it took for a hurricane to weaken was increasing with the years. But it wasn’t a straight line — it was undulating — and we found that these ups and downs matched the same ups and downs seen in sea surface temperature,” said Lin Li, first author and PhD student in the OIST Fluid Mechanics Unit.

The scientists tested the link between warmer sea surface temperature and slower weakening past landfall by creating computer simulations of four different hurricanes and setting different temperatures for the surface of the sea.

Once each virtual hurricane reached category 4 strength, the scientists simulated landfall by cutting off the supply of moisture from beneath.

Li explained: “Hurricanes are heat engines, just like engines in cars. In car engines, fuel is combusted, and that heat energy is converted into mechanical work. For hurricanes, the moisture taken up from the surface of the ocean is the “fuel” that intensifies and sustains a hurricane’s destructive power, with heat energy from the moisture converted into powerful winds.

“Making landfall is equivalent to stopping the fuel supply to the engine of a car. Without fuel, the car will decelerate, and without its moisture source, the hurricane will decay.”

The researchers found that even though each simulated hurricane made landfall at the same intensity, the ones that developed over warmer waters took more time to weaken.

“These simulations proved what our analysis of past hurricanes had suggested: warmer oceans significantly impact the rate that hurricanes decay, even when their connection with the ocean’s surface is severed. The question is — why?” said Prof. Chakraborty.

Using additional simulations, the scientists found that “stored moisture” was the missing link.

The researchers explained that when hurricanes make landfall, even though they can no longer access the ocean’s supply of moisture, they still carry a stock of moisture that slowly depletes.

When the scientists created virtual hurricanes that lacked this stored moisture after hitting land, they found that the sea surface temperature no longer had any impact on the rate of decay.

“This shows that stored moisture is the key factor that gives each hurricane in the simulation its own unique identity,” said Li. “Hurricanes that develop over warmer oceans can take up and store more moisture, which sustains them for longer and prevents them from weakening as quickly.”

The increased level of stored moisture also makes hurricanes “wetter” — an outcome already being felt as recent hurricanes have unleashed devastatingly high volumes of rainfall on coastal and inland communities.

This research highlights the importance for climate models to carefully account for stored moisture when predicting the impact of warmer oceans on hurricanes.

The study also pinpoints issues with the simple theoretical models widely used to understand how hurricanes decay.

“Current models of hurricane decay don’t consider moisture — they just view hurricanes that have made landfall as a dry vortex that rubs against the land and is slowed down by friction. Our work shows these models are incomplete, which is why this clear signature of climate change wasn’t previously captured,” said Li.

A couple years back, I was working on a lesson plan that discussed the water cycle less as a way to move water around, and more as something that moved heat around, using water as a vehicle. That perspective can be useful in considering how ecosystems affect things like wind patterns, with the humidity shifts acting to also move energy around, causing air to expand and contract, generating wind.

While I knew that higher sea surface temperatures meant stronger hurricanes, for some reason it never occurred to me to think of the water in a hurricane as literal fuel for the storm, but that really does seem to be how it works. Evaporated water is basically stored heat, and as it condenses out of the storm, it releases that heat, pushing the winds along one molecule at a time. So we don’t just have to think about stronger or more frequent storms affecting coastal regions, we also have to assume that those storms will increasingly reach places that rarely if ever had to deal with them in the past.

What fun.

A worrying appointment by the Trump administration

The Trump administration just put a Q-anon fanatic in charge of Pentagon intelligence. This is a worrying development.

As with so much else right now, it’s hard to know what the future holds. This could turn out to be nothing, or it could turn out to be something big and dangerous. I think the following twitter thread says it well:

 

People keep asking whether Trump and the Republicans attempt to steal the election is legitimate, if it’s a coup, if it’s a fundraising scheme, if it’s posturing, if it’s actually all that dangerous.

The answer is yes. All of these things and so much more.

The first thing we have to establish is that Trump is erratic. He flails and rages. But that flailing and raging, paired with his shamelessness, exposes weaknesses in our system.

When Trump finds a weakness, he exploits it until he breaks through.

Right now Trump is defeated. He has no legitimate means of winning this election and so he’s throwing everything at it in hopes something will stick. At times, it’s laughable, but all he needs is ONE THING to work.

And yes, Trump is using this crisis as a means of fundraising. Sending out alarming emails and messages raises money from angry supporters desperate for hope, but it also continues to establish an escalating crisis.

It does multiple things at once.

Trump is a gambler playing multiple hands. He’s a terrible gambler, but his entire life he’s just trying so many angles at so many times that he waits until he finds something that even halfway works.

This? Right now? This is multiple hands of badly played poker.

So what are the possible outcomes?

Trump loses but saves face.

Trump loses but raises money.

Trump manages to break through, subvert democracy, and steals the election.

These are all “wins” for him even if it means radicalizing people and a coup.

This is how Trump sees the world. He’s not worried about inspiring violence, destroying democracy, hurting the nation or anyone in it.

He’s looking for his best possible outcome and doesn’t care what he does in the process.

It’s a COUP AND A SCAM. Both things at once.

Meanwhile, and this is important, the Republicans are playing their own games.

Some are true believers, nuts who believe the election was stolen. But most understand Trump lost and are playing their own game.

We have to understand why they’re doing it.

People like McConnell and Graham are giving voice to Trump for multiple reasons. They need to keep Trumpists active in the GOP, they need to win the special elections in GA, the controversy creates passion, and it leads to fundraising.

But…they’re also fine with a coup.

If Trump manages to break through and actually steals the election, the Republicans would be fine with it. That would mean power, and that’s their only concern.

This willingness to harness a fascist strongman is why they cannot be trusted with power.

As I mentioned in my article this morning, Fox News is now vying to keep its audience as Trumpists reject it for actually reporting Biden’s win.

They’ll cover these conspiracy theories to keep viewers loyal if at all possible.

The whole point is this: Trump and the GOP are playing a dangerous game. The coup might not work, but they see an advantage at flirting with a coup.

The coup might work and they see an advantage with grasping power for themselves.

It’s a win-win for them while we lose.

I don’t think Trump or the GOP truly believe they’re going to manage to overturn the election, but peddling these conspiracy theories help them regardless.

But the frightening thing? If it does work and they carry out a coup? They’re more than happy to accept that.

This has been theater from the very beginning. Trump played an authoritarian on TV until he BECAME ONE.

You play the role until you are the role. In this case, they’re posturing for power and profit until they gain power and profit, one way or another.

Again, this doesn’t mean the coup will work. It’s haphazard, lazy, and stupid.

But…it COULD work. That’s the danger here we have to take seriously.

Not to mention the fact that these people are more than willing to endanger lives and threaten democracy.

If the coup works, we’re in a whole world of trouble.

If it doesn’t, Trump and the GOP have turned the temperature up, radicalized numbers of supporters, and possibly inspired terroristic acts by their supporters.

It’s unconscionable and dangerous on a whole other level.

People are going to tell you there’s nothing to worry about. That’s absolutely wrong and irresponsible.

You can recognize there’s no legal ground here while understanding these people are bad faith actors who rage until they find weakness in the law and systems.

This thing isn’t a joke. Trump and the GOP are playing a game, but there’s nothing funny about it. We’re all in incredible danger right now and pretending like it isn’t dangerous, win or lose, only empowers and enables them to continue destroying democracy.

Mutual aid, 5th edition

Updated on the 7th of November, 2020

With the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, joblessness is increasing, and people are in need of help. This is particularly a problem in the US, but many others in other countries are also struggling, and it’s likely the number of people needing help will be increasing as the crisis continues. This isn’t going to be over any time soon, and the economic impacts are going to last even after vaccines have been widely distributed.

To that end, I’ve put together a list of different resources for people who are struggling to make ends meet. This is a mix of both ways to seek help, and ways to give help to those in need. I will update and re-post this at least once a week while the pandemic and associated economic fallout continue. This is currently mostly focused on the U.S., with some UK resources, but I want to expand it to cover anyone needing help anywhere if possible. There’s a lot here, and it’s currently not particularly organized, because I don’t currently have a system for doing so. I also haven’t included much about things like PPE crafting or distribution – this is mostly focused on aid relating to  food, housing, and other things that currently require money.

Because of the duration of the pandemic, and the lack of help from the US government, many of these may be running out of resources, so please help if you can! Supporting each other in times of need is how humanity has gotten this far, and for those who have more than they need, now’s the time to give back to the society that made that wealth possible. If you want to start a mutual aid network in your area, here’s a guide on how to do that.

If anyone has resources I’ve missed, please include them in the comments and I’ll add them in to the next round. 

  • From Bigdoorbrigade.com, who have done a great job pulling this stuff together. Look at this stuff, but check them out too, because they’ve got more on how to help, how to organize, and so on:

https://www.mutualaidhub.org/ – a map of mutual aid projects and requests around the United States. FYI, McAffee flagged this site as somehow worrisome. I’m not sure why.

https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/ – Mutual Aid Disaster Relief – solidarity, not charity. This is an opportunity to help, for now. If I find a way to ask them for aid, I’ll update.

It’s Going Down  is a digital community center for anarchist, anti-fascist, autonomous anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements. They have a list of mutual aid efforts focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic across the United States as well as some in Canada.

This is a US-based google doc with a huge amount of resources linked, from guides, to counter-propaganda, to existing aid efforts. Tactics and info are relevant across the board, most of the linked aid efforts are centered in the US.

Coronavirus resource list “This kit is a collectivized document that will be updated as more mutual aid projects and resources appear online. Recognizing that not everyone will have access to great internet to access some of these, I encourage you to apply these offline as well as online.”

COVID-19 Mutual Aid UK – Mutual aid resources in the United Kingdom

For those interested, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now did an interview with Dean Spade, who created Big Door Brigade.

The Human Network Initiative is a collaboration between Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. They have put together this collation of local and state resources

Likewise, the Massachusetts Jobs With Justice group has put together  of resources and mutual aid groups

The Asian American Resource Workshop has created a wider ranging sheet of resources and mutual aid groups. It includes a lot of information on how to combat prejudice and xenophobia in this unprecedented situation

A Facebook group titled “COVID-19 Greater Boston (mutual aid and resources)” has been set up

The folks behind the news site Boston.org have set up the Boston Helps network

A neighborhood group has been organized for Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, with similar groups in many Boston neighborhoods

The staff, faculty, and students of Tufts have created their own mutual aid group for their community, as have other schools

Just outside of the city, communities like Cambridge have also seen mutual aid groups being set up

Wildcats want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us so far! With your solidarity, we have raised just enough to take care of the basic needs of all 80 graduate student workers who were recently fired for grade withholding. Thanks to you, we have been able to rest assured that our rent, food, and other needs will be covered. Your donations also fed thousands of strikers and our allies on our month-long picket line and covered medical and legal expenses of those who were violently arrested by University of California police. This fund continues to be the foundation for our ongoing fight for a cost of living adjustment (COLA).

MAP staff are already doing all we can to support local medical services who are serving Palestinian communities living under occupation and as refugees. We have already provided emergency hygiene supplies to 1,200 vulnerable Palestinians living in Gaza. We anticipate further need for an emergency medical response in the weeks and months ahead. Please help us be there for Palestinians during this crisis with a donation today.

Your donation can help pay for:

  • Hygiene Kits
  • Antiseptics
  • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
  • Medicines and medical supplies

The chancellor’s announcement now helps millions of hospitality workers, but sadly still so many are not protected by this as they don’t have contracts, were paid off pay roll or dismissed by employers before the announcement. We decided to take action to help those that are still hurting. We have the technology, contacts & understanding to make a difference quickly.

We have created ‘The Hospitality Workers Emergency Fund’ to allow the kind hearted, altruistic & caring UK public to donate to an emergency fund to help the most vulnerable & in need in our sector during this time. Our mission was always to champion hourly paid tipped workers, we never imagined in this way…

Here are just a few other places to donate that I’ve seen floating around. There are likely more local efforts where you live.
Nationwide: Cinema Worker Solidarity Fund
Nationwide: UNITE HERE’s fund for impacted workers
Nationwide: Coronavirus Care Fund for domestic workers
NYC: Emergency COVID Relief for Sex Workers in New York

  • The resources below are from The Majority Report’s “Plugs and Notices” series toward the beginning of the pandemic:

And some of the resources from this and other videos:

Thai Farm Kitchen is providing free meals for those who need it in Brooklyn

The Valley Labor Report is putting together a left-wing show on a right-wing radio channel – needed info in a needed location! Help them if you can!

UPS workers organizing to protect themselves (since the corporation apparently doesn’t give a shit) Also check here.

Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless (NJ) Covid-19 relief fund

Renaissance Economic Relief Corporation: Emergency Small Business Relief Loan Fund (NYC only)

Chicago-based remote mental health services on a sliding scale with some pro-bono options. 

Inclusive Action for the City has a relief fund for street vendors in LA

Asian Americans for Housing and Environmental Justice has a mutual aid fund focused on LA

Ayuda Mutua: Support families in Milkwaulkee – Support for Latinx families in Milwaulkee

Mutual Aid NYC

Restaurant Workers Community Foundation has a fund to help restaurant workers

Co-op store was broken into and robbed, and needs help recovering

Tele-health services

Chester County COVID assistance network (Facebook)

musicalartists.org/membership/relieffund

actorsfund.org

NYC DSA mutual aid/relief fund

Mutual aid efforts in Australia

Michigan City mutual aid

Fund to help housekeepers and day laborers

Thinklab list of gofundme efforts

Career Onestop on finding government help in the U.S. 

AFL-CIO federal and state resources for workers (U.S.)

Info on applying for Medicaid and CHIP (U.S. healthcare assistance)

COVID-19 Collections PPE mutual aid effort

I’ll keep updating this as I find new stuff, and as always, let me know if you come across things I’ve missed, and please consider donating to my patreon, as I’m barely making ends meet myself!

Update and a video

I allowed myself a couple days to wallow in the chaos of the American election, but it’s time to get back to work. I’m currently updating my mutual aid and direct action posts, and working on a couple other piece that’ll be out soon, but in the meantime, here’s a useful video from Thought Slime about the state of democracy under capitalism:

A Dark Web: Part 5

Image shows a black, angular

This is part 5 of a collective story being put together by some folks on the Freethought Blogs crew as part of a fundraiser to help cover the legal bills incurred by Richard

Carrier’s SLAP lawsuit. Check out parts 1-5 at the links below, and then dive in!

Part 1 is at The Bolingbrook Babbler.
Part 2 is at Freethinking Ahead.
Part 3 is at Impossible Me.
Part 4 is at Death to Squirrels.

 

Kyle tested the door handle. It opened with barely a click, and the team filed quietly into the back hall, guns drawn. Connie knew immediately that something was off. The diner’s sound system was playing some kind of spooky trance music, but she couldn’t hear anything from the guests they knew had packed into the small venue. She shivered as all of her body hairs stood on end.

“Hold,” her voice was soft, but Mateo could hear the tension in it.

“What’s wrong, Herbert?”

“I’m not…” She shivered again. How to explain? “I don’t hear people moving.”

Mateo frowned. While this wasn’t the first time she’d “heard” something wrong, the music normally drowned out a lot of noises.
“I don’t hear much talking or anything, but.”

Connie shook her head.

“Proceed with caution. Either this is a trap, or we’re in big trouble.”

“Bigger trouble than a trap?” Katie’s whisper had a little bit of a whine to it, and she started looking around, as if she was going to see spiders coming out of every corner.

“Just… Just be careful. I think people might have already been dosed.”

Katie nodded, and gripped the straps of her pack.

They began moving down the hall.

Connie kept her face blank and her breathing quiet as she thought. How to explain? Hey Mateo, I know we’ve been working together for years and you think we know everything about each other, but did I ever mention those crazy experiments I was part of? The ones where I was made part spider with the help of some kind of messed up science nobody’s ever heard of? You say I never mentioned it? Well, now I can “see” my surroundings through vibrations as they hit my body hair.
Kyle and Mateo stopped at the kitchen door. Mateo gently pushed it open and Kyle gave a quick look in. He shook his head. Empty. Connie shivered again. That’s what she was feeling, not just from the kitchen, but also from the main room of the diner. All those people had come in here – they’d watched them come in – but there was no one here.

Not even the advance team.

Connie didn’t say anything. Even after all these years, it was hard to be sure of what her senses told her. Augmentations or no, the human brain didn’t evolve to process this kind of input. Maybe they were all just doing something in the main room, and she couldn’t hear them…
They moved on down the hall. The dining room was empty, but for a few dozen coats piled on the tables. The lights were dim, the music still played, but there was no other sign that anyone had been here for longer than it took to put down their coats.

“What the fuck?” Mateo kept his voice quiet and calm, but she could see the tension in this shoulders. “Where is everyone?”

Kyle peered out the window.

“All the cars are still there.”

“Does this place have a basement?”

Connie shrugged. “It’s been years since I was-” She stopped talking.

“Connie?”

“Mateo?”

“You’ve been here before?”

“Did I say that?

Mateo holstered his gun, stalked over to her, and grabbed her by the shoulder, looking into her pale eyes.

“Talk. You’ve been tense ever since we got here, and as far as I know, you’ve never been here before. You’re hiding something, and we can’t have that on a team like this. Talk.”

“I-” Connie looked around. All three of them were staring at her. “Fine. Look. A few years back, I decided to find out where my family came from, OK? My folks left for some reason, and they wouldn’t talk about it, and I was curious.”

“It was here?”

Connie nodded.

“Did you talk to anyone here? Does anyone know you?”

“Talked to a few people. One knew I was from the Herbert family.”

“You have relatives here?”

“Mateo, no. Not for decades. Mary knew some members of my family when she was a kid. Apparently most of the women had the same very pale eyes as me, and she had a few childhood memories. They left town, probably when I was still a kid. Maybe before I was born.”

“Mary?”

Connie nodded.

“Mary’s Meat Shop?”

She nodded again.

“And she recognized you from your eyes?”

“I-”

“You should’ve told us.”

Kyle and Katie kept quiet, watching for any signs of the missing partygoers. Connie rubbed her arm over her forehead and nodded.

“Sorry.”

Mateo let go of her shoulder and sighed.

“I overreacted. I’m just freaked out. Where is everyone?”

“I-” Connie hesitated. Did she want to draw attention right now? Had to be done. “I thought I felt a vibration in the floor. There might be a basement that wasn’t in the building plans.”

There was a moment of silence, then Kyle spoke up.

“Probably behind the bar. Easy to bring up new stock that way.”

Katie stepped up to the bar, peered over it, looked back at the others, and nodded. They all went over to look. The floor mat had been rolled up, revealing a long trapdoor set in the floor.

Kyle frowned. “Why would they be down there?”

“Some kind of party thing,”suggested Katie. “Maybe they went for a spooky basement theme?”

Connie shook her head. “That doesn’t explain where the advance team went.”

Mateo went to a corner and bent down, sniffing.

“They didn’t do their work, either. I should be able to smell some of the stuff they normally put down.”

“Basement it is, then,” said Connie.

“Still feels wrong,” growled Kyle.

“Agreed,” said Connie. “Katie, stay up here and keep an ear out. We’ll call you down if the way is clear.”

Katie nodded with a glum expression.

“Ok. Open it.”

Mateo grabbed the ring set in the door and heaved. It swung up with a soft creak, revealing a metal staircase. Kyle went down, carefully, and waved for the others to follow. Connie went after him, and Mateo after her. He looked around, and then went back up to get Katie.

It was a standard storage basement, but there was a smell that set Connie’s teeth on edge. She couldn’t place it, but it was familiar. At the far end of the room was an open doorway, with a web-covered figure slumped in it. Connie approached, gun drawn, heart beating fast. A couple steps away, and it moved. Head turned to face her, and a muffled voice said, “Connie?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Mateo and Kyle came up on either side of her.

“Damn,” Mateo cursed. “Katie, get some antivenin over here now!”

Katie hurried up, but Connie put a hand out to stop her. She bent over to peel some of the webbing off the figure’s face.

“Connie. I thought I could feel you moving around. What are you doing here?”

“Billy? What are you doing here? Why are you webbed up?”

“They dosed me. Knocked me out. This happens any time I stop moving too long.”

“What?” Kyle, Mateo, and Katie looked confused, and scared.

“Is he-” Kyle swallowed. “Are you saying that webbing comes out of you?” His voice cracked at the end of the question.

Billy nodded, and shifted a little. There was a click, and then a knife blade poked through the webbing in his lap. He wiggled it around, cutting away the web until he could get an arm free, and cut the rest of it away from himself. He stood and rubbed his head. The others backed away, but Connie just stood, staring at him.

“What? This didn’t happen to you?”

“Billy-”

“They must’ve given us different stuff or something. One sec, sorry about this, but if I don’t, I’ll end up getting really faint from hunger in a couple minutes.”

He gave them an apologetic shrug, bent to pick up a sheet of the webbing, and started stuffing it in his mouth. Kyle gagged.

“Connie.”

“Uh, yes, Mateo?”

“Was there anything else you forgot to tell us?”

Mateo was watching as Billy kept stuffing webbing into his mouth, chewing, and swallowing it.

“I-”

“Connie,” Katie put a hand on her shoulder. “I think you need to tell us.”

She sighed.

“Yeah. I guess I need to. You know how I’m one of the most senior officers working this job?”

They nodded. Kyle still looked pale, but he’d stopped gagging. Billy glanced at her over a mouthful of web and raised an eyebrow.

“It’s a bit more than that. Billy and I were at ground zero for all of this.”

“But this isn’t what happens when people get exposed!” Kate gestured at Billy. “We’ve seen death, some deformity, insanity, and in one case eggs,” she shuddered. “But never anything close to this!”

“We weren’t just exposed. We were…” she sighed. “We were test subjects.”

“What!?”

“They were experimenting on us at the same time as they were experimenting on the spiders.”

“Connie…” There was concern in Mateo’s voice.

“I’m fine, Mateo, really. I’m just… different.”

“But not like him?” Mateo jerked his head at Billy, who was about halfway through his strange meal.

“Not like him.” Connie shook her head vigorously. “Hell, he wasn’t like him last time I saw him. This might actually be an improvement.” Billy, mouth still stuffed with webbing, nodded emphatically.

“I got lucky, I guess. I can sense vibrations. That’s the main difference.”

“Sense vibrations?” Kyle looked confused

Connie held up a hand, and pointed to the hairs on the back of it. “My hair isn’t just hair anymore. Well, some of it is, but a lot of it is what’s called thrichobotria, they’re how spiders hear. In my case, it’s all over most of my body, and it can actually give me a pretty clear picture of what’s going on around me, even if I can’t see. Sort of like a more passive version of echolocation.”

“You’re…” Kyle took a step back. “You’re part spider?”

“Dehhh-” Billy started speaking then coughed. He still had a couple big handfuls of webbing to go. “Sorry. Throat’s dry. Didn’t tell them?”

“In this case it was need-to-know. They didn’t, until now, and the Company thought it would be better this way.”

“Well…” Mateo took a deep breath. “This explains more than it doesn’t.

“Are you kidding me?” Katie grabbed Connie’s hand, and whipped out a hand lens. “This explains nothing! This shouldn’t be possible! Hold still!”

Connie blinked, and Billy gave a muffled guffaw.

“They’re really fucking spider hairs! This shouldn’t be possible! There were rumors, but – DNA doesn’t just- You can’t-”

Connie gently pulled her hand away.

“Katie-”

“This is Scifi bullshit. What’s really going on?”

“I told you! I don’t know all the details of what they did to us. It was human and spider DNA, or sometimes spider venom, combined with, I dunno, some kind of serum to help it assimilate or whatever.”

“That sounds made up!”

“Katie, you’ve seen some of what that venom does!”

“Yeah, but that’s like, in the realm of teratomas and stuff.”

Connie lifted her hands and shrugged. “Not my area of expertise.”

“Uh – I can clarify”, said Billy. He had finished his meal.

Mateo looked at Connie, then at Billy. “Clarify, then.”

“Your teammate…”

“Katie”

“Katie’s right. It’s not possible, normally.”

Connie stared at him.

“Uh, y’all ever pay attention to news coming out of CERN?”

“The… No… No you’re kidding me.” Connie’s stomach churned. She’d just seen a news report that the people running the Large Hadron Collider were going to try contacting a parallel universe.

“Ground zero was in Texas.”

Connie nodded. “At a facility that was abandoned in 1993. They were going to build a particle accelerator like the one in CERN, but bigger.”

“It was never abandoned.”

“It… What?”

Billy gave her a wry smile. “I found out a few years ago. They always planned to declare it a boondoggle and ‘abandon’ it. They finished construction and it went online in 1997. Very covert. They made contact with an alternate universe, and managed to actually acquire some material from there. Maybe even go through? I’m honestly not sure. That’s how they developed the stuff they used on us, though.”

Connie stared at him. “I’m… I’m part alien or something?”

“Or something.”

“How did you know all this? What happened to you?”

“Weeeell, with my, uh, condition, they decided to keep me on behind the scenes. They never gave me much information, but I picked up bits and pieces.”

“Guys,” Katie clapped her hands once for attention. “What happened to the people who came here for a party? We were here to stop a drug deal and do a cover-up, remember?”

“Oh, that’s why you’re here. I guess they really meant it when they said autonomous operatives.”

“Wait just a minute,” said Mateo. “How could they keep a project that big secret?

“I dunno,” said Billy. “I guess they got good at it though, since you folks didn’t know this one was here.”

“This… What?” Connie’s hair was standing on end, and her senses were already telling her what was through that doorway and down the hall.

“This collider. They’ve been making a lot of them. I honestly don’t know why, and I don’t know what they wanted the party folks for. I was just supposed to guard the door, but they knocked me out as soon as I asked a question.”

Connie pushed past him and into the hallway. Right around the corner, it opened into a huge, echoing tunnel like the one at the Texas facility all those years ago. She looked up.

“Billy?”

“Yeah?”

“The facility in Texas didn’t have this many spiders on the ceiling.”

The 6th and final part is on Pharyngula, so go check it out for the thrilling conclusion!

In the meantime, please check out our fundraiser page, and consider whether you can help out!

Image shows a stylized bat with a jack'o'lantern for a head, and the words

A post-election roundup of media takes on the 2019 Bolivia coup

When the Bolivian regime of Evo Morales was subjected to a right-wing coup in 2019, a lot of people in American and British media celebrated it as a “victory for democracy”, despite ample evidence that the claims of election-rigging were entirely unfounded. These same people seemed unwilling to grapple with the brutality of the new interim president, or her open racism towards the indigenous people of Bolivia. In the last few years, I’ve heard a lot of people saying that things like colonial abuses, or anti-democratic coups against left-wing governments in South and Central America are things of the past – that that was stuff we did during the Cold War, not NOW.

This is very clearly false. The aggressive, destructive nature of neoliberal capitalism has continued unabated since the dissolution of the USSR, as capitalist countries work to ensure that no competing system – especially a more democratic one – is allowed to succeed. I’ve said before that we need to stand in solidarity as a species if we’re going to survive the warming of our planet, and that goes beyond simply speaking out against coups or abuses happening at smaller scales. We also need to be on guard against the efforts to provide moral justification for these assaults on democracy. We should know, by now, to be suspicious of claims of election meddling, particularly when leveled against left-wing governments. We should remember the long and bloody history of the United States overthrowing democratically elected leaders, or aiding in their overthrow, with inevitably disastrous results.

If we’re going to build a better world, we must not only do the work of building, but also call out those who try to tear down efforts to do so, regardless of what’s happening. The Michael Brooks Show has done a good job of calling out people who either fail at critical thinking, or who willingly participate in the spreading of propaganda, and I agree with them that, in the wake of the recent victory for democracy in Bolivia, it’s worth taking a victory lap, not just for the sake of celebrating, but also to keep in mind what was said and done to justify and support a military coup that put a right-wing extremist in power. Those who oppose democracy try to claim its legitimacy for themselves, and we cannot allow them to do so.

 

Despite everything happening in the world right now, life goes on, and I’m still required to spend money in order to live. My work is supported by a group of wonderful people over at patreon.com/oceanoxia, and I would be immeasurably grateful if you would consider joining their ranks. How much you give, and for how long are entirely under your control, and every little bit helps a great deal, as my household is very short on money right now. Thank you for reading, and take care of yourselves.

Video: Is capitalism devouring democracy? (Hint: Yes. Yes, it is)

Over the last few years, it has become increasingly clear to me that capitalism is not compatible with either a sustainable human existence on this planet, or with democracy. It’s an economic arrangement that, by design, concentrates power in a very UN-democratic way, and relies on the absurd fantasy of infinite growth on a finite planet. Studying the history of the 20th century highlights the incredible dishonesty involved in claiming that capitalism is required for democracy or freedom, when in reality it has been a force that has worked against both.

As Minister of Finance for Greece in 2015, Yanis Varoufakis got some first-hand experience with some of the ways in which the capitalist system works to keep poor countries poor, and to keep them from governing themselves. If you have to, play this in the background while you’re doing dishes or something, but this video posted in 2018 is worth your time.