In the most famous scene from the legendary film, Network (1976), populist news anchor, Howard Beale, creates a viral sensation before the internet became a thing: he tells his viewers, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore!” And thousands of people across the country yell from their windows and rooftops repeating the mantra, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore!” More than 40 years on, in our neoliberal wasteland, we have every right to be mad as hell as we huddle in our unpaid Covid-abodes with no more Bernie Bucks or stimulus, while microbes attack us relentlessly. With the Siberian forests on fire, the Great Barrier Reef deforming into black bones & ash and the oceans gasping for oxygen while record temperatures make Death Valley feel like Venus, we must become mad – with a rage that runs on love for what’s been lost and for what we might still win. This week, Jesse & Matt celebrate the multi-authored manifesto, A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal, published in 2019 by Verso Books. Our co-hosts will talk about the vitality and importance of this book and how the beating heart of any radical Green New Deal must include The Golden Square: the decommodification and universal provision of Food, Shelter, Healthcare and Education for All. We live in the worst version of a Cyberpunk world that doesn’t even offer up androids or flying cars, while we gloat over our miniature technology & its secret surveillance as politicians offer up empty platitudes and technocratic masturbations. As the Social Ecologist, Murray Bookchin, once told us, the enemy isn’t us; the enemy is the fossil fuel industry; the enemy lives inside McMansions and billionaire castles made by myths of perpetual market growth, peddled by the celebrity worshiping pyramid scheme of an influencer class clawing onto the old carcass of illegitimate hierarchies. We are in revolutionary times and collective actions require collective designs; so we must continue to draw the contours of what lies just beyond the horizon. We have a planet to win.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Brian K. Sullivan in Time Magazine: “With Rolling Blackouts, California Power Grids Strained Amid Worst Heat Wave in 70 Years”
Cheri Mossburg in CNN: “More Than 3 million California Homes May Lose Power in Record Heat Wave Due to Rolling Blackouts”
A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos; Foreword by Naomi Klein - Verso Books – Part of the Jacobin Series - 2019
Peter Frase in Jacobin: “Four Futures” (The Original Essay Later Adapted into a Book.)
Peter Frase’s Four Futures: Life After Capitalism. Published in 2016 by Verso Books as Part of the Jacobin Series.
The Future Is A Mixtape: A discussion of Peter Frase’s Four Futures in Episode 005: Captain Picard - “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.”
Naomi Klein in The Guardian: “How Power Profits from Disaster”
Naomi Klein’s Essay “Change Everything or Face a Global Katrina”
Naomi Klien’s Magnum Opus: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate. Published in 2014 by Simon & Schuster.
This Changes Everything Is Part of What Matt Calls Her “Trilogy on Neoliberalism,” Which Also Includes:
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Published in 2008 by MacMillan.
No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. First published by Knopf Canada and Picador in 1999.
AOC Narrates a Short Film for The Intercept: "A Message From The Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez"
“The Anthropocene” – the so-called geological epoch of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including climate change.
For a Quick Wikipedia Definition: Go Here.
To Learn Even More, Check out this Educational Web Portal: Welcome to the Anthropocene.
“The Capitalocene” – Matt Simon in Wired: “Capitalism Made This Mess, and This Mess Will Ruin Capitalism”
Jason W. Moore’s Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. Published in 2016 by PM/Kairos Press.
From A Planet to Win:
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us that we need to roughly halve global carbon emissions by 2030 to have a decent chance at keeping warming below 1.5° Celsius—the limit that scientists and activists agree we should aim for to prevent catastrophe.”
Michael Grothaus in Fast Company: “Greta Thunberg: We have eight years to save the Earth”
The Los Angeles Times: “Coronavirus Crisis Leads to 17% Drop in Global Carbon Emissions, Study Says”
Patricia Levi in Mic: “Climate Change Kills 5 Million People a Year”
THE YEAR 2020 = A Total Clusterfuck of Crises Constantly Reminding Us of Impending Doom:
In Addition to a Global Pandemic of a Zoonotic Disease…
IN JANUARY — Almost the Entire Continent of Australia Was On Fire: Record-Breaking Temperatures and Months of Severe Drought Have Fuelled a Series of Massive Bushfires Across Australia.
IN JUNE — Siberian Heatwave 'Clear Evidence' of Warming
IN JULY — Baghdad Soars to 125 Blistering Degrees [F], Its Highest Temperature on Record
IN AUGUST — Last Fully Intact Ice Shelf in Canadian Arctic Collapses
Louise Boyle in The Independent – 2020 Is Our Last Chance to Avert Climate Catastrophe, Says Energy Chief
From A Planet to Win:
“Ultimately, capitalism is incompatible with environmental sustainability.”
“Just ninety greenhouse-gas-producing companies—almost all privately held or state-owned fossil fuel producers—have been responsible for two-thirds of planet-warming emissions since the dawn of the industrial age”
“We have met the enemy and he is a few hundred fabulously wealthy executives.”
“Fossil fuel executives’ behavior constitutes a Crime Against Humanity in the classical sense: “a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack,” including murder and extermination.”
Margaret Sullivan in The Washington Post: “No, Billionaires Won’t Save Us. That’s a Myth that Links Zuckerberg and Trump.”
Ralph Nader Semi-Utopian Novel About Billionaire Saviors: "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" Published in 2011 by Seven Stories Press.
Rob Long’s Review of Nader’s Novel in The Wall Street Journal: “One Man’s Utopia”
This Day in Our “Fuck Elon Musk!” Series:
Ryan Mac in BuzzFeed News: “What The Fuck?” Elon Musk Calls Coronavirus Shelter-In-Place Orders “Fascist.”
Catherine Clifford in CNBC: “Why Elon Musk Says a Stimulus Package ‘Is Not in the Best Interests of the People’”
OH Groth in LeftVoice: “We Will Coup Whoever We Want”: Elon Musk Loves Imperialism”
From A Planet to Win:
“Remember: Capitalists invest in projects to make money and consolidate their power, not to make the world a better place.”
“Starting in the 1970s, the US business class has crushed labor unions—one of our greatest vehicles for equality. The percentage of workers represented by unions has been halved; in that same time, workers’ real wages stagnated, even as their productivity increased. The share of income going to the top 10 percent of earners nearly doubled, and the 1 percent did even better. This wasn’t only an economic change—it was also a political one. The super-rich seized even greater control of political parties, rewriting laws at every level of government for their own benefit.”
“We now live on an earth scorched by [Milton] Friedman’s so-called freedoms”
Extinction Rebellion – Our Demands
-{ Correction: Matt Meant Marvin Gaye’s Song, “Mercy, Mercy Me (the Ecology)” — Not the Title Track from the Album What’s Going On }-Beto Macedo in Medium: “Climate Change Then and Now Through the Lens of 70’s Soul Singer Marvin Gaye”
The Environmental Movement – A Wikipedia Chronicle of the Long Fight to Protect Planet Earth
The War on Terror (aka: “Fuck the Planet, Let’s Sell More Guns!”) – $3 Trillion (Well Spent? Mostly Shit-Spent.)
Ryan Grim and Briahna Gray in The Intercept – "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Joins Environmental Activists In Protest At Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Office" – November 13, 2018
Introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on 02/07/2019: House Resolution 109 – ‘Recognizing the Duty of the Federal Government to Create a Green New Deal.’
Introduced by Senator Ed Markey on 02/07/2019: Senate Resolution 59 - ‘A resolution recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal.’
Matthew Rosza in Salon: "’Green Dream or Whatever’": Nancy Pelosi Dismisses Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's "New Deal" Climate Plan”
The Guardian News’ YouTube Channel: “Dianne Feinstein Rebuffs Young Climate Activists’ Calls for Green New Deal”
A Green New Deal was the Central Issue of Jill Stein's 2012 & 2016 Green Party Presidential Campaigns.
From Associated Press in The Guardian: “'I Approve This Message': Jill Stein Faces Charges for North Dakota Protest Graffiti”
The Origins of the Green New Deal
The Green Party’s 2020 Presidential Candidate: Howie Hawkins
Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker – Greens For President and Vice President 2020
Michelle Murphy in SFGate: “Feinstein, Pelosi Among Richest in Congress”
Alexei Kosseff in The Sacramento Bee: “‘Politics Runs on Money’: Jerry Brown Dismisses Criticism of Oil Industry Donations”
Overview of The Radical Green New Deal From A Planet to Win:
End The Fossil Fuel Industry
Public Ownership and Democratic Control of Utility Companies
Job Guarantee - Low Carbon Jobs for All
Decarbonize and Build Out The National Energy Grid
High-Quality, Low-Carbon Homes for All
Public Transit, Electric Buses, and Electric Minivan Ride-sharing
Public Luxuries For Leisure Time
“The politics of climate change and the transformation of the built environment are the same damn thing.”
“An effective Green New Deal is an internationalist one.”
“Lithium Imperialism” as Explored by Eoin Higgins in Common Dreams: “Bolivian Coup Comes Less Than a Week After Morales Stopped Multinational Firm's Lithium Deal”
SRSLY WRONG’S PODCAST TRILOGY ON “LIBRARY SOCIALISM”
Episode #189: “Library Socialism & Usufruct”
Episode #196: “Library Socialism & the Irreducible Minimum”
Episode #200: “Library Socialism & Complementarity”
Naomi Klein on Why Sanders’ Climate Plan Is Better on the Global Aspects of Green New Deal Than Elizabeth Warren: As Explored in Nathan J. Robinson and Lyta Gold’s Current Affairs Interview with the Author: “Naomi Klein on the Green New Deal, and Determination”
J.W. Mason Explores MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) in American Prospect: “Can We Create All the Money We Need”
Freedom of speech
Freedom of worship
Freedom from want
Freedom from fear
The “Abolition Democracy” of W.E.B. Du Bois's “Black Reconstruction in America”
The Freedom Budget for All Americans – developed during the Black freedom struggle in the 1960s and a cornerstone of MLK's Poor People's Campaign
Peter Kundhurts’ Gripping Documentary on the Last Year of Martin Luther King’s Life – King in The Wilderness (2018)
“A vision of five freedoms that can guide us into an uncertain future" From A Planet to Win:
Freedom from Fear
“We need freedom from food scarcity and water shortages; freedom from racist, colonial, and sexual violence; and freedom from militarized borders."
Freedom from Toil
“Work doesn’t need to rule our lives.”
Freedom from Domination
“We must continue to pursue freedom not only from toil, but from the despotism of the boss [...] freedom from a viciously enforced racial order and the intimate power of patriarchy.”
Freedom to Move
“We live on a beautiful planet that belongs to everyone—we should all be free to move around it.”
Freedom to Live
“The freedom to live well includes freedom from want: plentiful access to the basics, like food, drink, shelter, health care, dental, education, music, art, and green spaces.”
The Ethos of The Golden Square:
FOOD = The Means to Sustain
SHELTER = The Means to Protect
HEALTHCARE = The Means to Heal
EDUCATION = The Means to Grow
Virginia Woolf’s Inheritance as a UBI: A Wikipedia Biography
Hisham Matar in The New Yorker: “The Unsaid: The Silence of Virginia Woolf”
Paul J. Baicich in Jacobin: “A Green New Deal Needs a 21st-Century Civilian Conservation Corps”
From Climate Nexus: Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change
Ernesto Londono in The New York Times: “Amazon Deforestation Soars as Pandemic Hobbles Enforcement”
Does Jacobin Magazine Suffer from DMO (Dogmatic Maxist Orthodoxy)? A case in point: Neil Meyers’ Review of Nathan Robinson’s “Why You Should Be a Socialist” (Macmillan, 2019) — “Why You Should be a Socialist — and a Marxist”
Bernie 2020 – The Green New Deal
Kali Akuno - “Unite and Fight, Build the General Strike!” in Roar Magazine: “The Floyd Rebellion: Pathway to a Revolution?”
BBC: “USPS: Pelosi to Recall the House to 'Save' the Post Office”