If “state capitalism” were proposed by Democrats or progressives, it would be considered socialism or communism. Done by a neofascist president — as chronicled by the The Wall Street Journal — it’s simply considered inefficient (as the Journal concludes).
Robert Reich
Trump’s “State Capitalism” (Robert Reich)
Digital Packratting is the antithesis of this trend. It requires intentional curation, because you’re limited by the amount of free space on your media server and devices—and the amount of space in your home you’re willing to devote to this crazy endeavor. Every collection becomes deeply personal, and that’s beautiful. It reminds me of when I was in college and everyone in my dorm was sharing their iTunes music libraries on the local network. I discovered so many new artists by opening up that ugly app and simply browsing through my neighbors’ collections. I even made some new friends. Mix CDs were exchanged, and browsing through unfamiliar microgenres felt like falling down a rabbit hole into a new world.
While streaming platforms flatten music-listening into a homogenous assortment of vibes, listening to an album you’ve downloaded on Bandcamp or receiving a mix from a friend feels more like forging a connection with artists and people. As a musician, I’d much rather have people listen to my music this way. Having people download your music for free on Soulseek is still considered a badge of honor in my producer/dj circles.
Janus Rose
The Digital Packrat Manifesto (404 Media)
Where possible I try to make sure I get DRM-free files that I can keep. For music, I buy mp3s, usually as albums. For movies and shows, I do mostly stream. For any movie or show that I want to actually keep, I buy discs rather than digital copies. On the rare occasions that I buy a digital copy of a movie, I make sure it is on Movies Anywhere so that there is less chance I lose access due to one tech company deciding to abandon their service. For books, I only ever buy ebooks from stores that sell without DRM, like DriveThruFiction. For other books I want to read, I’ll either buy a physical copy or borrow a copy from the library.
Now, more than a century later, America has entered a second Gilded Age.
Monopolies are once again taking over vast swaths of the economy. So we must strengthen antitrust enforcement to bust up powerful companies.
Now another generation of robber barons, exemplified by Elon Musk, is accumulating unprecedented money and power. So, once again, we must tax these exorbitant fortunes.
Wealthy individuals and big corporations are once again paying off lawmakers, sending them billions to conduct their political campaigns, even giving luxurious gifts to Supreme Court justices. So we must protect our democracy from Big Money, just as we did before.
As it was during the first Gilded Age, voter suppression is too often making it harder for people of color to participate in our democracy. So it’s once again critical to defend and expand voting rights.
Working people are once again being exploited and abused, child labor is returning, unions are being busted, the poor are again living in unhealthy conditions, homelessness is on the rise, and the gap between the ultra-rich and everyone else is nearly as large as in the first Gilded Age.
So once again we need to protect the rights of workers to organize, invest in social safety nets, and revive guardrails to protect against the abuses of great wealth and power.
Robert Reich
From the Robber Barons to Elon Musk: Will History Repeat Itself? (Robert Reich)
So I live in a nation, and so do you, maybe. Nations are made-up things, but they are wicked popular these days. They’re literally everywhere. Mine is called “The United States of America,” and growing up I was told that it was the greatest best country in the whole world and of all forever times, and I believed it, too. There was even a rumor going around that God loved us most, which even as a kid seemed fishy to me, but damn if a lot of people didn’t believe it.
…
This nation was founded in the traditional belief that creating wealth by consuming human beings—owning them and using them and murdering them—was not only good, but goodness; generative, nurturing, sustaining. This nation was founded in the belief that the proof that winners are noble is that they had won, and the proof the losers are savage is that they had lost, and so the winners should have not only wealth but all exoneration, while the losers should have not only poverty but all consequences.
A. R. Moxon
A System Built to Eat People Never Stops Eating (The Reframe)
We cannot separate what has happened to working people over the last five decades from the dangerous lure of Trumpism. To build a path forward, we must debunk these 10 destructive myths about our rigged economy.
Robert Reich
The 10 Biggest Myths About Our Economy (YouTube – Robert Reich)
Scott Boehmer 