Book commentary: The Insatiable Machine: How Capitalism Conquered the World

In his book, The Insatiable Machine, author Trevor Jackson points out that capitalism is both both a powerful engine of material improvement and an insatiable force unsustainably chewing through a finite planet. It took centuries of accidents, violence, and political evolution to build a system that could lift average living standards sixteen‑fold while binding workers in Europe to enslaved labor in the Americas and pushing the climate toward catastrophe. Under current conditions, it is hard to imagine the end of capitalism, but easier to imagine capitalism-linked catastrophe. Link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4

That may be because capitalism plugs straight into something far older than factories, stock exchanges or even money. The human appetite for wealth and power is inherent and ancient. Long before anyone spoke of GDP, elites amassed land, tribute, titles and protections for their wealth and power. Today, the elites have vast wealth, data centers, financial clout, and political access with attendant power. The forms of wealth and power change, but the drive to dominate and to insulate oneself from vulnerability persists under dictatorship, aristocracy, empire, and even modern capitalist markets.

Education is sometimes invoked as an antidote. It’s a way to break the spell of demagogues, expose propaganda, and inoculate people at least somewhat against authoritarian deceit, distract and divide tactics. There is good evidence that civic education, historical literacy, and media competence can strengthen democratic norms and make it harder for would‑be tyrants and kleptocrats to consolidate power quickly. Labor unions and social movements, often fueled by knowledge, have at times narrowed inequality and forced concessions from concentrated wealth. Those successes were hard fought and often short-lived. Link 5, link 6, link 7

Education cannot erase the underlying innate human lust for wealth and power. At best, knowledge can only blunt and redirect it to some extent. Authoritarians understand this. That is why they aggressively act to capture and neuter schools, rewrite curricula, discredit independent media and weaken democratic institutions whenever they gain sufficient political power. At best, an educated public can stretch the length and depth of the “exceptional” periods when democratic institutions, public goods, and shared restraints hold the worst impulses of authoritarianism and kleptocracy in check. In a world ruled by an insatiable capitalist machine, that is probably the most realistic, non-trivial victory that forces for reasonably distributed wealth and power can hope to win. Link 8, link 9, link 10, link 11

Given the human condition and backed by the evidence in the historical record, it seems that about the best the human species can hope for in the long run is reasonably regulated capitalism in a secular, rule of law-based democracy that is focused on service to the public interest before service to special interests. Left to itself and without restraints, capitalism alone will not be very nice to most people. Unrestrained capitalism is compatible with kleptocratic authoritarianism, arguably drawn to it by the human condition. Link 12, link 13, link 14, link 15

Climate change bits

Evidence of increasing global warming continues to contradict false narratives from climate science deniers and pollute-for-profit propagandists. A SciAm article, No U.S. states had a record cold winter. Nine had a record hot one, make's its point with the headline. Record winter cold is now truly rare. However, record winter heat is increasing in frequency.

Red = areas with record high temps

Orange = significantly above average

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In a meeting with farmers and ranchers about converting more food (corn) into fuel (ethanol), Trump slandered environmentalists, calling them terrorists. Trump said this to to pander to his crowd:

“It's a big problem what they've done to you and the country. The environmentalists are terrorists. I call them the environmental terrorists.”

 

Trump pandering to the crowd

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Trump is moving ahead with plans to decimate a major US climate science research lab, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colorado. Elite MAGA operative Russell Vought said the move is to reign in “climate alarmism” from the lab.

About Vought: For context, next to Trump himself, Vought is arguably the 2nd most powerful person in the US. He is quiet and keeps a low profile. He uses low key stealth to hide both his (1) intense hate of government and government employees, democracy, the rule of law, civil liberties and the public interest generally, and (2) the enormous power he has to inflict grievous damage on democratic norms, laws and institutions that protect and empower the targets he wants to obliterate. Vought can reasonably be called America's Shadow President.  

Peanut 1: Someone once said “I'm not saying Trump is a Russian asset trying to destroy America from the inside, I'm simply saying if he was it would look exactly like this.”

Peanut 2: A slim majority of the electorate voted to burn it all down.

Peanut 3: This fire season, the Republicans will once again blame California for not raking the leaves in the forest, or whatever it is they pretend to believe.

Peanut 4: After more than 1500 temperature records were broken in the American west in March, this seems like a good move. /s 

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Satellite images are showing an area of Alaskan permafrost approximately the size of Wisconsin is thawing. Climate science experts warn this could significantly alter the global carbon cycle and affect coastal ecosystems worldwide. The data indicates that the Alaskan thawing season has now been extended into late summer and early fall.

DOC (dissolved organic carbon) trapped in permafrost 

flows into the sea from areas of Alaska with permafrost melt

Ok, now this is what I call a good ole fashion ass-kickin'

  I gotta tell ya, I have seen some royal take downs of Trump, but Carville did a serious ass-kickin' of Trump on Good Friday.

The only thing that will be richer than Carville's take down is how Trumpers  out there are going to react. They are going to lose their minds.

Here it is folks:

In a short YouTube video posted on Friday, James Carville sent President Donald Trump a particularly heartfelt Good Friday message, starting the address, “Listen to me, you fat f*ck.”

“Listen to me, you fat f*ck,” said Carville to start the nearly six-minute clip. “By the way, get your finger outta your a** and quit licking it. You got no g-damn manners. How were you brought up?”

I told you that you’d be gone by April Fool’s of 2027. I’m getting a little worried. I gotta tell you, I watched that word-mash you had night before last, I guess it was. Man, I gotta tell you, don’t go f*cking numb on me before the election, because I want you very, very aware on election night when people tell you what the f*ck they think of you. They hate you. Everybody hates you. There’s an article a day I read about how low can his polling go. What’s your floor? Some people say it’s 33. Well, now it’s 35, so you might go through the floor. ‘Cause all you gonna have left is hardcore MAGA.

Oh, there is more:

https://www.mediaite.com/online/listen-to-me-you-fat-fck-james-carville-sends-trump-heartfelt-good-friday-message/

There is even a video within that link for anyone who wants to actually HEAR this take down.

I think Carville needs to run some classes for Democrats and other liberals to show them how to do a proper ass-kickin' of Trump. 

Solid evidence of Trump’s dictatorship intent

Trump used to be a little more cautious about signaling his intention to be a dictator-kleptocrat. But now he is either getting sloppy about stating his dictator intentions in public, or maybe he just doesn’t care. 

A Daily Beast article quotes Trump saying that he does not want his own MAGA judges to be independent from himself. He wants them to do what he wants, nothing else. That is true dictatorship intent.

“Republicans, judges, and justices. They always want to show that they’re independent. ‘I don’t care if Trump appointed me, I don’t care, if it doesn’t make any difference to me. I’m voting against him! Cause they want to show their independence, you know, stupid people. ..... I can’t get a ballroom approved. It’s pretty amazing, right? If I was a king, we’d be doing a lot more. I’m doing a lot, but I could be doing a lot more if I was a king.”