The late, great Gahan Wilson.
We never hear of Capital Day, not because Capital has no day, but because every day is Capital Day. The struggle in which we are now engaged will end only when every day is Labor Day. — Eugene V. Debs, Labor Day 1903
It’s still Capital Day. For now, anyway.
At The Guardian, Douglas Rushkoff recounts his chat with a secretive group of super-wealthy dudes “preparing for a digital future that had less to do with making the world a better place than it did with transcending the human condition altogether.”
In short, they’ve grown tired of our sniveling about their shitting in our shared sandbox and wonder whether they might be able to dispense with us altogether.
Writes Rushkoff, a self-described humanist and Marxist media theorist who writes about the impact of digital technology on our lives:
Their extreme wealth and privilege served only to make them obsessed with insulating themselves from the very real and present danger of climate change, rising sea levels, mass migrations, global pandemics, nativist panic and resource depletion. For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us.
One of the capitalists’ main concerns centered on how to control their security people after The Event — “their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.”
Yep, that could be risky. A SEAL might grow weary of barking for fish from the plump, well-manicured pinkies of a plutocrat. How to get away from it all when you need to take a few of “them” with you?
What happens when Labor Day finally comes around for real?
Tags: Labor Day
Mad Blog Media 
September 5, 2022 at 9:16 am |
I hope it will be a measured and peaceful transition to a real labor day that begins with this year’s midterm elections.
September 5, 2022 at 3:35 pm |
Fingers crossed, Hoss. Today’s legal mumbo-jumbo about a “special master” does not inspire confidence.
If a Sandia Lab librarian took home anything when s/he left the job, from a stapler to a secret file, s/he would be lifting weights at Leavenworth in short order. But Cheeto Benito needs a “special master” to rummage through his little hope chest.
September 5, 2022 at 3:45 pm |
Exactly what I was thinking. If I walked out of the SCIF with anything that was supposed to remain there, I’d have three hots and a cot for the next five to fifteen.
September 5, 2022 at 3:47 pm |
“If I *had* walked out…”
Retirement is so much nicer than the stress of classification office responsibilities.
September 5, 2022 at 7:09 pm |
I think, like Beau of the Fifth Column, that this is a delay tactic and nothing more. The special master is to see if there is a document(s) that would violate attorney client privilege. The damage assessment for the compromised classified documents will continue by the government under the judge’s order. The master won’t have access to them, period. So, just a delay, which is what rich folks do. Had we done the same thing with TS documents, Herself, Khal, and I would already be eating stale cheese and white bread sandwiches in a prison dining hall while awaiting arraignment. Prediction? Nothing will be done to the traitor unless they can prove he personally sold or gave a classified document to a foreign government or agent of one. I really don’t care. I just don’t want him in any elected office anywhere. Why can’t this sociopath just do us a solid and die of natural causes. His water is forever muddy.
September 5, 2022 at 9:40 pm |
Perhaps sudden death by an errant golf drive. “Fore ! Oh shit! I just hit orange head with my Big Mutha Fucka driver! Quick, get in the cart! We need to get our asses out of hear before the SS cracks down!”
September 6, 2022 at 5:53 am |
What irks me is that they shopped this mess to a Federalist Society fool appointed by Orange Hitler and confirmed nine days after he lost to Sleepy Joe, and any appeal will be heard by a court where six of the 11 judges are likewise OH appointees.
It also builds on the unitary executive theory beloved of various Cheneys and continues the slow elevation of presidents — and ex-presidents — to royal status. “L’état, c’est moi!”
In short, it makes a strong argument for turning our attention away from the White House and focusing on the lesser positions — Senate, House, statehouses, county commissions, city councils, school boards, and yes, judgeships — where a smarter fascist with better brownshirts can really do the beez-a-neez. The GOP has been on this for years and the rest of us need to catch up.
Checks and balances me bollocks. Too many checks written and not enough balances struck.
In other news from the blind lady with the scales, Fat Leonard is on the lam. If this dude had lifted a 40 and a pack of Marlboros from 7-Eleven he would be on the yard right now, walking in small circles and waiting for the shiv. But he stole big and is free as a bird.
September 6, 2022 at 7:54 am |
You are 100% correct! Consistently meager, 30% or less of registered voters, turn outs for the mid-terms. That’s how these maga asshats get in and stay in our local and congressional elected offices and wait to help cheeta benita when it ascends back in power never to leave!
September 6, 2022 at 8:20 am |
How do they get away with it time after time? The master of observation explains it to us.
September 6, 2022 at 10:39 am
For a more boring version of George Carlin’s monologue, go read George Orwell’s short story, “Politics and the English Language”
September 6, 2022 at 10:42 am
A line from a past popular TV show that Carlin may have had a hand (brain thought) in developing:
“Our people have this question under scrutiny at the moment. Now, if this scrutinization should yield negative, then I feel that we must maximize our efforts. Next.”
The line was uttered from a true politician during a press conference, a military general.
September 5, 2022 at 9:34 am |
Time to leave.
September 5, 2022 at 1:29 pm |
That Guardian article is fascinating. So is the AHFarms site.
The idea of bunkering down in a hole in the ground reminded me of two things. One was Mordecai Roshwald’s Level 7, that I read sometime in high school. I was such an optimist. The other thing was the Mineshaft Gap. Both those stories ended badly.
The idea of sustainable farms seems best if the SHTF, with or without the Navy SEALs. One has to be more resilient, not less.
September 5, 2022 at 3:24 pm |
Yeh, good read, hey? The assumption that there will always be someone eager to do one’s bidding is mindboggling. Once the gratitude wears off — “Hey, thanks for the job and the cool subterranean bunkhouse!” — some of the grunts might be giving The Boss a bit of side-eye, thinking, “You’re not really good for much, are you?”
I read a bunch of apocalyptic tales in my misspent youth and quickly came to the conclusion that when The Deal Went Down I would not be very useful, unless the king needed a foole. I’d have to take my page from The Book of Richard Pryor — “Just Us,” from “Is It Something I Said?” — and make the folks with the guns laugh all day long.
September 5, 2022 at 4:20 pm |
Pryor had a way with words. Whatta guy.
September 5, 2022 at 4:38 pm |
That whole album is a howler. I brought it along when Charles Pelkey and I drove the VeloNews Subaru to Sin City for Interbike one year and we were both laughing our asses off.
September 5, 2022 at 8:44 pm |
You hear from CP any more? I hope he is doing fine.
September 6, 2022 at 10:54 am |
Regarding the George Carlin clip and my reference to Orwell. Matthew Yglesias wrote a great piece today about the need to teach critical basic skills to people in the K-12 system. When you can barely figure out the label on a soup can and are helpless to calculate how much you will owe on a loan, its tough to argue that people will understand Critical Race Theory, whether Victor Davis Hanson is increasingly full of shit, or how in fact to be a functional citizen.
Here ’tis.
https://www.slowboring.com/p/schools-should-try-to-teach-kids
In case the direct link doesn’t work, here is how I get it.
https://www.slowboring.com/p/schools-should-try-to-teach-kids?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
September 6, 2022 at 2:51 pm |
Well, George opined about that as well. But, we see what repug legislatures are doing to education.
September 6, 2022 at 3:16 pm |
He does have a point, eh? Hey, we don’t even lower the standards in NM. Social promotion works better. No child left behind, even if the child doesn’t know which end of the pencil writes and which erases.
September 11, 2022 at 1:02 pm |
I see that there is an upcoming event at a location of well known labor in the past.
https://www.highergroundfair.org
An event to break out the Fall gear and appreciate a part of Wyoming that doesn’t necessarily care about orange head guidance. Maybe if you show up they’ll let you bust some rocks. You were a stoner weren’t you? Sorry, it just spewed out.
Perhaps CP will be around rubbing hands and illuminating those with more conservative views.