<sigh…>

Welp, it’s Sunday. The first Sunday of the Trump era, T-minus 67 days until Donald goddamn Trump takes over the White House and has access to all of the murderous toys the Bush and Obama administrations devised for their damn fool “war on terrorism,” gets to deport and imprison and persecute as many people as he wants, and offers legitimacy to fascism.

With that in mind and weighing heavily, I guess we gotta talk about what the Center for a Stateless Society has been doing this past week.

Luckily, what we’ve been up to includes a lot of prep work in anticipation of God Emperor Butthair.

So that’s nice.

The Week in Commentary

Grant Mincy has been wowing us all in the commentary category lately. His latest piece is a spiritual sequel to last week’s feature, “Song of Minerva,” titled “Owl of Athena.”

Clip:

The Owl of Athena awakes from her slumber to view a sea of ominous clouds stretching bleakly across the horizon. As dusk falls she contemplates the current era of human civilization. Her thoughts are tragic, questions abound.

Who are the masters of humankind?  Who owns the Earth and all her wildness, order, breath, and water? Who will defend her and uphold the rights of nature? Will the masters of humankind continue their dominance and lay waste to the commons?

Impending environmental calamity and the prospects of state violence should be clear today to any rationale person. Climate continues to shift as greenhouse gases are continually pumped into the atmosphere to secure the economic interests of power. Global air pollution is responsible for one in eight total deaths across the Earth. Water resources are on the decline as carcinogens leech into the public water supply and as plastics fill the ocean. The soil is worn, acidic and over utilized by powerful industries. Entire species are going extinct, on par with the extinction rate that terminated the Mesozoic. These are just a few examples of environmental calamity, yet all expose the fact that human life and ecological communities are viewed as disposable. But, pay no attention — these environmental issues are non issues, environmental calamity is simply hyperbole.

God damn.

This has been picked up by the Augusta Free Press.

As we’re still in our op-ed slump, let’s move on to the features and blog sections.

The Week Everywhere Else

Chris Shaw’s got an interesting piece about markets viewed through the lens of dialectics.

Clip:

Between markets and capitalism, there then exists an antagonistic tension, as the dynamics of markets play a materially peripheral role in the relations of capitalism. The ideational market and capitalist reality act together in a dialectic. In the same way that labour is subordinated to capital, the ideational qualities of markets are subordinated to a capitalist construct which favours particular power relations and interests, with markets ideational qualities structured around capitalism.

Here’s a clip from Grant’s “Song of Minerva” piece:

In the very cradle of human civilization an endless war rages. The United States and allied forces have long flexed military might over the Middle East. The 2003 invasion of Iraq is unique, though, as this military engagement is now active in six different countries with no end in sight. As a result of Western invasion the terrible ISIS regime is spreading calamity, uncertainty and fear across the war-torn region. Furthermore, most obvious in Syria, the Middle East is grounds for a strategic chess match between the West and powerful states in the East. Notably, tensions between the United States and Russia are at their highest since the Cold War. This demands pause; as tensions rise it is important to remember that the United States and Russia control 93% of the world’s nuclear arsenal. This chess match between powerful nation-states exacerbates instability in the region. As a result the frequency of regional skirmishes, between Pakistan and India (two nuclear states) for instance, are on the rise and this too enhances the nuclear threat.

This horizon of war is linked to the idea that life is disposable. Systems of power and domination organize violence and lay waste to “others” to secure their status in the world. If need be their own citizens will be sacrificed for the cause.

Finally, both William Gillis and I released our takes on the election.

Here’s a clip from Gillis:

In 71 days Trump will begin turning the ICE into a military operation capable of the industrial-scale ethnic cleansing he promised repeatedly. He will certainly shirk on some promises, but even if his effectiveness at getting all the millions he targets falls short, he will not miss the opportunity to demonstrate power, even if that means something as obscene as the national guard standing openly in sanctuary cities.

And mine:

Whatever we have to do, it’s going to be a lot of work. We can’t rest on our laurels or just wait for the end; we have friends to protect and lives to save. In 71 days we can teach each other better information security, begin building support structures that don’t rely on centralized hubs and can be run off the grid, and organize resistance to whatever war and/or power grab President Trump attempts in his first months.

Housekeeping

One major thing I forgot last week was the Essay Contest. I have officially extended it until the end of November, and people can include their takes on what a Trump state is going to look like. Email me at trevor@c4ss.org by November 27, 2016 to have your essay considered. Remember: 500 words or longer.

Other than that, we’ve really not had anything else going on. Right now, C4SS is in a transition period, and we’re not only working on some cool stuff but some necessary stuff given our collective circumstances.

We’ll keep you posted.

–@trevor_c4ss