thenation--2020-08-17--The Two Maria Schneiders

The Two Maria Schneiders

There have been two Maria Schneiders in the cultural arena—or three , counting the late French actor from Last Tango in Paris—until now .
The first is an internationally esteemed composer and conductor , the recipient of five Grammy Awards and 12 nominations for jazz and classical works lauded for their luxurious beauty , enveloping warmth , and connectedness to the natural world .
The second is a fiery political activist , an advocate of musicians ’ rights and a critic of tech companies , who has organized creative artists in resistance to the oppressive practices of Google and YouTube @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same body but at different times : one by night , onstage in concert halls and jazz clubs around the world , the other by day , at lecterns at universities and behind a microphone at congressional hearings .
The two Maria Schneiders have inched closer and closer in recent years , with the composer taking advantage of funding from the Library of Congress to experiment with music on the themes of the activist Schneider ’ s work .
I first heard the product of that commission , an 11-minute instrumental piece called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ club show by the Maria Schneider Orchestra , the 18-piece ensemble she has led since 1992 , at the Jazz Standard in New York City two years ago .
I was stunned—jolted and baffled and thrilled in a way I can compare only to the first night I walked into CBGB and saw Richard Hell and the Voidoids or the first time I experienced Cecil Taylor at the Village Vanguard .
With the exception of one song she arranged for another artist , nothing I had ever heard from Schneider prepared me for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Data Lords , ” and I had been paying close attention to the Maria Schneider Orchestra since the ’ 90s , when I went almost every Monday night to the group ’ s weekly residency at a little jazz club called Visiones in Greenwich Village .
As a composer and leader of her own ensemble for nearly 30 years , Schneider has recorded nine albums of music that certainly qualifies as jazz , with a few exceptions , and that has been performed , in most cases , by a band that is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be reductive and misleading to call her work big-band jazz .
The music of the Maria Schneider Orchestra is orchestral in aesthetic as well as name : intellectually ambitious , texturally varied and complex , sometimes grand but never grandiose , and singular—unmistakably the work of a highly individualistic creator .
Her work , in its harmonic density and ever-shifting structure , makes no effort to hide the influence of classical composers such as Frederick Delius and Aaron Copland and of jazz bandleaders and arrangers like Claude Thornhill and Gil Evans .
( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who was a protégé of Thornhill , and she assisted Evans in preparing the score for Martin Scorsese ’ s The Color of Money . )
At the same time , Schneider ’ s music has always been fiercely her own and most distinctive for its deep humanity and fearless beauty .
The one exception before the “ Data Lords ” piece I heard at the Jazz Standard was Schneider ’ s unexpected collaboration with David Bowie , the song “ Sue ( Or in a Season of Crime ) , ” which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Created at his initiative after he saw a concert of Schneider ’ s , the song is a genre-blurring work of grim ecstasy , a message to a lover whom the singer ( Bowie ) plans to murder .
The accompanying music , performed by her orchestra with Schneider conducting , swirls like a room spinning in the last moments of consciousness and won her a Grammy in 2016 for best arrangement , instruments , and vocals .
He invited her to help make his next album with him , but she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin , which Bowie did on what was his final release , Blackstar .
Schneider had a big project of her own to do , one that the aural mood of Bowie ’ s murderous ballad foreshadowed .
That big project was an album , also titled Data Lords , and with it , Schneider has fully united her musical and political selves , working with repurposed fearlessness to tackle the impact of the digital revolution on humankind .
Data Lords is a set of two albums : the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ industries and their purposes , overt and covert , called The Digital World , the second an ardent evocation of life before and apart from the wireless technologies , Our Natural World .
As a study of parallel worlds defined by their differences , the project clearly mirrors its creator ’ s two selves .
But it ’ s really not so binary .
Beyond the dualism in its format , Data Lords is a work of holistic creativity .
The music of outrage and critique in the first album has all the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of melancholy and reverence does in the second .
I can ’ t conceive of anyone else creating this music , unless Delius has been writing with Bowie on the other side .
The instrumental colors and rhythms in several selections on The Digital World ( Ben Monder on electric guitar on the opening track , “ A World Lost , ” Mike Rodriguez on electronically processed trumpet on the title track , and Greg Gisbert on processed trumpet on “ CQ CQ , Is Anybody There ” ) are programmatic in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 21st century but not literally .
They sound like the way life in the age of omnipresent screens and never-present people feels—intoxicating , enervating , self-gratifying , and self-negating .
The six tracks on Our Natural World , much the same , evokes timeless but fragile beauties and mysteries of the earth with the sonic density and technical exactness of the tracks on The Digital World .
That Schneider refers to the natural environment but not the digital sphere as “ our ” world reminds us of our arrogant presumption of sovereignty over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to it .
She writes with passion on both the preciousness of our natural heritage and the dangers in our reliance on digital devices in the 64-page booklet accompanying the music : One doesn ’ t have to agree with Schneider about the horrors of the digital culture or the glories of nature to be moved by this extraordinarily serious and emotive piece of work .
Yet the fact that it is so moving makes Data Lords persuasive .
Watching and listening to Schneider ’ s two selves over the years , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the composer ’ s art than the activist ’ s arguments .
Now that they ’ re united and I don ’ t have to choose , I ’ m with them both .

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There have been two Maria Schneiders in the cultural arena—or three, counting the late French actor from Last Tango in Paris—until now. The first is an internationally esteemed composer and conductor, the recipient of five Grammy Awards and 12 nominations for jazz and classical works lauded for their luxurious beauty, enveloping warmth, and connectedness to the natural world. The second is a fiery political activist, an advocate of musicians’ rights and a critic of tech companies, who has organized creative artists in resistance to the oppressive practices of Google and YouTube. Both Maria Schneiders have inhabited the same body but at different times: one by night, onstage in concert halls and jazz clubs around the world, the other by day, at lecterns at universities and behind a microphone at congressional hearings.
The two Maria Schneiders have inched closer and closer in recent years, with the composer taking advantage of funding from the Library of Congress to experiment with music on the themes of the activist Schneider’s work. I first heard the product of that commission, an 11-minute instrumental piece called “Data Lords,” in a club show by the Maria Schneider Orchestra, the 18-piece ensemble she has led since 1992, at the Jazz Standard in New York City two years ago. I was stunned—jolted and baffled and thrilled in a way I can compare only to the first night I walked into CBGB and saw Richard Hell and the Voidoids or the first time I experienced Cecil Taylor at the Village Vanguard. With the exception of one song she arranged for another artist, nothing I had ever heard from Schneider prepared me for the dark, cerebral fury of “Data Lords,” and I had been paying close attention to the Maria Schneider Orchestra since the ’90s, when I went almost every Monday night to the group’s weekly residency at a little jazz club called Visiones in Greenwich Village.
As a composer and leader of her own ensemble for nearly 30 years, Schneider has recorded nine albums of music that certainly qualifies as jazz, with a few exceptions, and that has been performed, in most cases, by a band that is certainly big. Still, it would be reductive and misleading to call her work big-band jazz. The music of the Maria Schneider Orchestra is orchestral in aesthetic as well as name: intellectually ambitious, texturally varied and complex, sometimes grand but never grandiose, and singular—unmistakably the work of a highly individualistic creator. Her work, in its harmonic density and ever-shifting structure, makes no effort to hide the influence of classical composers such as Frederick Delius and Aaron Copland and of jazz bandleaders and arrangers like Claude Thornhill and Gil Evans. (Schneider was a protégé of Evans, who was a protégé of Thornhill, and she assisted Evans in preparing the score for Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money.) At the same time, Schneider’s music has always been fiercely her own and most distinctive for its deep humanity and fearless beauty.
The one exception before the “Data Lords” piece I heard at the Jazz Standard was Schneider’s unexpected collaboration with David Bowie, the song “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime),” which he released as a single in 2014. Created at his initiative after he saw a concert of Schneider’s, the song is a genre-blurring work of grim ecstasy, a message to a lover whom the singer (Bowie) plans to murder. The accompanying music, performed by her orchestra with Schneider conducting, swirls like a room spinning in the last moments of consciousness and won her a Grammy in 2016 for best arrangement, instruments, and vocals. He invited her to help make his next album with him, but she declined, recommending that he work with her tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin, which Bowie did on what was his final release, Blackstar. Schneider had a big project of her own to do, one that the aural mood of Bowie’s murderous ballad foreshadowed. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
That big project was an album, also titled Data Lords, and with it, Schneider has fully united her musical and political selves, working with repurposed fearlessness to tackle the impact of the digital revolution on humankind. Data Lords is a set of two albums: the first a musical consideration of the tech industries and their purposes, overt and covert, called The Digital World, the second an ardent evocation of life before and apart from the wireless technologies, Our Natural World. As a study of parallel worlds defined by their differences, the project clearly mirrors its creator’s two selves. But it’s really not so binary.
Beyond the dualism in its format, Data Lords is a work of holistic creativity. The music of outrage and critique in the first album has all the emotion and conceptual integrity that the music of melancholy and reverence does in the second. I can’t conceive of anyone else creating this music, unless Delius has been writing with Bowie on the other side. The instrumental colors and rhythms in several selections on The Digital World (Ben Monder on electric guitar on the opening track, “A World Lost,” Mike Rodriguez on electronically processed trumpet on the title track, and Greg Gisbert on processed trumpet on “CQ CQ, Is Anybody There”) are programmatic in a way, suggesting the sound of the 21st century but not literally. They sound like the way life in the age of omnipresent screens and never-present people feels—intoxicating, enervating, self-gratifying, and self-negating. The six tracks on Our Natural World, much the same, evokes timeless but fragile beauties and mysteries of the earth with the sonic density and technical exactness of the tracks on The Digital World.
That Schneider refers to the natural environment but not the digital sphere as “our” world reminds us of our arrogant presumption of sovereignty over nature as well as our common responsibility to it. She writes with passion on both the preciousness of our natural heritage and the dangers in our reliance on digital devices in the 64-page booklet accompanying the music:
While big data companies have only recently come under real public scrutiny, we musicians have had our eyes on them for years. We were among the first to see our life works exploited and traded on the internet for data. Now, nearly everyone’s life is similarly exploited. There’s hardly a place where some company isn’t extracting and refining the minutiae of our lives to manipulate us to buy things, to influence us, or to fuel machine learning and artificial intelligence.
One doesn’t have to agree with Schneider about the horrors of the digital culture or the glories of nature to be moved by this extraordinarily serious and emotive piece of work. Yet the fact that it is so moving makes Data Lords persuasive. Watching and listening to Schneider’s two selves over the years, I’ve always been more taken by the composer’s art than the activist’s arguments. Now that they’re united and I don’t have to choose, I’m with them both.


thenation--2020-08-18--Trump’s Attacks on Science Will Hasten Climate Catastrophe

We are , in these dog days of summer , so consumed with the bleak coronavirus data and Trump administration efforts to bend the science to its political needs that we risk forgetting the myriad other ways in which science is being muzzled by the Trump gang .
Luckily , the Silencing Science Tracker , compiled by the Columbia Law School ’ s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund , has been steadily chronicling the extent to which science is being attacked .
Some examples : The EPA Advisory Committee on Agriculture hasn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s inauguration , though it may hold one token meeting at the tail end of this summer .
Earlier this year , the EPA ’ s inspector general reported that more than 200 EPA scientists had reported potential violations of the scientific integrity policy ; and nearly 400 others had similar concerns that they hadn ’ t formally documented .
In short , they were being pressured to cook the books—to withhold politically inconvenient data or , worse , to manipulate that data .
Also this year , EPA Administrator Andrew @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scientists ’ climate-change models , as part of a broader administration effort to downplay the dangers of a warming planet .
In this coronavirus moment , it ’ s easy to forget that we must pay attention to multiple Signals simultaneously .
On climate issues , the planet is fast approaching a point of no return , beyond which there will be environmental consequences so extreme and so rapid that they will have a far larger effect on planetary life and human civilization than the dislocations generated by Covid-19 .
Forget the Nasty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Election .
Trump Ramps Up His Assault on Democracy Take what ’ s happening in the American West this week : Temperature records are being set throughout the region .
It was 111 degrees in Sacramento , where I live , on Saturday , and is expected to hover in the 110-degree zone for at least five days .
In Phoenix , Las Vegas , and a slew of other cities , the temperature climbed above 115 degrees .
In Death Valley it approached 130 degrees .
Meanwhile , the intense heat has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of California , fires so large that they have generated their own weather patterns—with fire-tornadoes threatening firefighters , and 30,000-foot plumes of smoke creating their own lightning strikes .
Even for a region used to blistering heat and deadly fires , these phenomena are unusual .
And the extreme conditions aren ’ t dangerous only to those in the immediate vicinity .
The unrelenting heat ( it stays in the 90-degree range until late into the night ) is forcing millions of Californians to run their air-conditioning nonstop , which is overloading the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the first time since 2001—when Enron exploited a newly deregulated California energy market to deliberately create electricity shortages and drive up the price of their product—the state had to implement rolling power outages to counter electricity shortages .
Normally during heat waves , poor and vulnerable residents can seek relief in air-conditioned malls , cinemas , cafes , houses of worship , etc .
But this year , because of the pandemic , these options aren ’ t available .
Cooling centers have been opened by cities , but because of social-distancing requirements @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of people they can accept .
Unprecedented heat waves and fires in the West threaten to stress our already beleaguered safety net and public health systems .
Meanwhile , the South and East are bracing for what NOAA scientists predict will be a particularly active hurricane season .
Trump has failed to contain the coronavirus .
And his anti-science , pro-pollution policies are speeding up the slide to climate catastrophe , worsening poor communities ’ exposure to toxins , undermining food safety systems , and harming both workers and consumers .
Meanwhile @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you to think about birther conspiracy theories vis-à-vis Kamala Harris .
He wants you to follow him down the rabbit hole of Sinophobia and , more generally , xenophobia , with his repeated references to the “ China Virus ” and his claims that Biden is an open-borders extremist .
He wants you to blame “ Nancy and Chuck ” for the fact that , in the face of a surging pandemic , most large school districts have had to cancel in-person classes this fall .
Don ’ t fall for these tired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and malignancy , has broken this country and its key institutions ; debased its political language , reducing Washington to an endless soap opera ; and accelerated a slew of environmental and economic crises that will affect people not only in the United States but around the world for generations .
Now , in the run-up to the election , he wants you to think about everything but his dismal record .
He ’ s running the full gamut of authoritarian tricks to hold on to power , from manipulating scientific data to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Postal Service to make it harder for Americans to vote .
Stay laser-focused on these Signals .
Trump is betting the American house on being able to so damage the political process and so break the systems that keep this complex country functioning that millions of people tune out in disgust and simply cease to participate , shrugging their shoulders and accepting their disempowerment .
That ’ s his only path to reelection .
There is nothing more urgent in these perilous times than preventing him from realizing this goal .

We are, in these dog days of summer, so consumed with the bleak coronavirus data and Trump administration efforts to bend the science to its political needs that we risk forgetting the myriad other ways in which science is being muzzled by the Trump gang.
Luckily, the Silencing Science Tracker, compiled by the Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, has been steadily chronicling the extent to which science is being attacked.
Some examples: The EPA Advisory Committee on Agriculture hasn’t met a single time since Trump’s inauguration, though it may hold one token meeting at the tail end of this summer. Earlier this year, the EPA’s inspector general reported that more than 200 EPA scientists had reported potential violations of the scientific integrity policy; and nearly 400 others had similar concerns that they hadn’t formally documented. In short, they were being pressured to cook the books—to withhold politically inconvenient data or, worse, to manipulate that data. Also this year, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler deliberately cast doubt on his own scientists’ climate-change models, as part of a broader administration effort to downplay the dangers of a warming planet.
In this coronavirus moment, it’s easy to forget that we must pay attention to multiple Signals simultaneously. On climate issues, the planet is fast approaching a point of no return, beyond which there will be environmental consequences so extreme and so rapid that they will have a far larger effect on planetary life and human civilization than the dislocations generated by Covid-19. More Signal:Noise Forget the Nasty Insults. Trump Plans to Sabotage the Election. Sasha Abramsky Trump Ramps Up His Assault on Democracy Sasha Abramsky
Take what’s happening in the American West this week: Temperature records are being set throughout the region. It was 111 degrees in Sacramento, where I live, on Saturday, and is expected to hover in the 110-degree zone for at least five days. In Phoenix, Las Vegas, and a slew of other cities, the temperature climbed above 115 degrees. In Death Valley it approached 130 degrees.
Meanwhile, the intense heat has spawned huge fires in the far north of California, fires so large that they have generated their own weather patterns—with fire-tornadoes threatening firefighters, and 30,000-foot plumes of smoke creating their own lightning strikes. Even for a region used to blistering heat and deadly fires, these phenomena are unusual. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
And the extreme conditions aren’t dangerous only to those in the immediate vicinity. The unrelenting heat (it stays in the 90-degree range until late into the night) is forcing millions of Californians to run their air-conditioning nonstop, which is overloading the power grid. This weekend, for the first time since 2001—when Enron exploited a newly deregulated California energy market to deliberately create electricity shortages and drive up the price of their product—the state had to implement rolling power outages to counter electricity shortages. Current Issue View our current issue
Normally during heat waves, poor and vulnerable residents can seek relief in air-conditioned malls, cinemas, cafes, houses of worship, etc. But this year, because of the pandemic, these options aren’t available. Cooling centers have been opened by cities, but because of social-distancing requirements, they have strict limits on the number of people they can accept.
Unprecedented heat waves and fires in the West threaten to stress our already beleaguered safety net and public health systems. Meanwhile, the South and East are bracing for what NOAA scientists predict will be a particularly active hurricane season.
Trump has failed to contain the coronavirus. And his anti-science, pro-pollution policies are speeding up the slide to climate catastrophe, worsening poor communities’ exposure to toxins, undermining food safety systems, and harming both workers and consumers.
Meanwhile, the Noise intensifies. Trump wants you to think about birther conspiracy theories vis-à-vis Kamala Harris. He wants you to follow him down the rabbit hole of Sinophobia and, more generally, xenophobia, with his repeated references to the “China Virus” and his claims that Biden is an open-borders extremist. He wants you to blame “Nancy and Chuck” for the fact that, in the face of a surging pandemic, most large school districts have had to cancel in-person classes this fall.
Don’t fall for these tired tricks. Trump, in his selfishness and malignancy, has broken this country and its key institutions; debased its political language, reducing Washington to an endless soap opera; and accelerated a slew of environmental and economic crises that will affect people not only in the United States but around the world for generations. Now, in the run-up to the election, he wants you to think about everything but his dismal record. He’s running the full gamut of authoritarian tricks to hold on to power, from manipulating scientific data to suit his political needs to eviscerating the Postal Service to make it harder for Americans to vote.
Stay laser-focused on these Signals. Trump is betting the American house on being able to so damage the political process and so break the systems that keep this complex country functioning that millions of people tune out in disgust and simply cease to participate, shrugging their shoulders and accepting their disempowerment. That’s his only path to reelection. There is nothing more urgent in these perilous times than preventing him from realizing this goal.


thenation--2020-08-18--The Factory Joins the Square: Putin’s Nightmare Unfolds in Belarus

Vladimir Putin has long feared a “ color revolution ” might break out in Russia , as it did for his ally President Viktor Yanukovych next door in Ukraine , who was forced to flee the country , leaving his wealth and power behind .
That scenario might yet be repeated for President Alexander Lukashenko in neighboring Belarus .
The revolutions that have overturned political leaders in a number of post-Soviet societies have followed a typical scenario : After a clearly falsified election , crowds of people , often the young and well-educated , take to the streets and city @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The outcome usually hinges on whether the police and militia defend the ruling authorities , often with violence , or whether they refuse to harass and beat protesters and instead defect to the crowds .
Police forces in Belarus have been employing overwhelming violence so far .
But what is different this time is that workers in a number of Belarus ’ s largest factories have been engaging in strikes in support of the protests .
That is deeply troubling for Lukashenko , and for Putin , for several reasons .
One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ core part of Putin ’ s base of support .
When protests against falsified election results broke out in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2011–12 , with demonstrators calling for a “ Russia without Putin , ” Igor Kholmanskikh , a factory foreman at the Ural Tank Factory in Nizhniy Tagil , told the president on national television , “ If the militia…can ’ t handle it , then me and the guys [ muzhiki ] are ready to come out and defend stability.
” Putin ’ s administration played up this event @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , despite his lack of relative credentials , as the presidential representative for the Urals Federal Region .
In doing so , as some put it , he pitted “ rural and Rust Belt Russia against urban and modernizing Russia.
” Since then , however , Russia ’ s economy has stagnated , with real wages declining for a number of years .
Despite its reliance on oil and gas exports , Russia still has numerous large industrial enterprises left over from the Soviet era , including hundreds of often struggling “ monotowns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a single factory , many built during Stalinist industrialization .
A few years after workers pledged their support for Putin , the Urals Tank Factory was faced with bankruptcy .
Not every Russian ( or Belarussian ) is willing to go out in the streets in support of abstract political demands .
But they have clear concerns about social welfare , and when political demands are combined with concrete grievances about falling wages or cuts in social benefits , they can become explosive .
In Belarus , Lukashenko has remained in power since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ socialism with Russian subsidies ” in the form of below-market prices for oil and gas .
With those subsidies now gone , Lukashenko was forced to cut benefits and raise taxes .
Presaging the current uprising , in 2017 Belarusians took to the streets in large numbers to protest a new tax on “ parasitism ” —anyone who worked less than 183 days a year was supposed to pay the government about $ 250—and with demands for Lukashenko to resign .
The tax was scrapped .
Recently , Putin has also been forced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In 2018 his government unleashed a rollback of pension benefits , leading to widespread protests and a significant drop in his popularity .
That made the recent referendum on amending the constitution , which could allow him to remain in office until 2036 , all the more challenging .
The coronavirus pandemic has only made the situation worse .
Still , why might protests by workers pose a particular challenge ?
Beyond the economic damage well-placed strikes can impose , working-class symbolism continues to resonate in Russian society even 30 years after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Novocherkassk ” —a town in southern Russia where protesting workers were shot and killed by Soviet security forces back in 1962—remains synonymous with state repression against workers .
Putin certainly remembers the event , because in 2008 he publicly laid flowers at a monument to the workers killed .
A few months later , as the global economic crisis deepened , when residents of Pikalyovo protested the shuttering of their factories by blockading a major highway and creating a 400-kilometer traffic jam , Putin helicoptered in to dress down factory owner and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a scene that became known as “ the bending of an oligarch.
” In a prolonged downturn , however , a savior can come to be seen as a villain .
To preempt workers from joining the political opposition , the Putin regime has tried to maintain what some have called a “ discursive divide ” between legitimate social and economic protest and illegitimate ( and often harshly suppressed ) political protest .
Yet , as economic conditions worsen and the regime imposes austerity measures , that divide can crumble .
When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long-haul trucks in late 2015 , Russian truck drivers from the Caucasus to the Far East were instantly united in opposition , and while they initially pleaded , “ President , help us !
, ” after little more than a year they were demanding his removal from office .
When protests have become political , the rulers in Russia and in Belarus have sought to portray the demonstrators as feckless youth backed by foreign agents .
Putin called the 2011–12 Russian protesters “ chatterboxes ” in contrast to “ the real Russian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the man of labor , ” while Lukashenko recently complained that the current protests were being led by “ the unemployed.
” Such rhetoric will fall flat when the protesters are marching in work uniforms out of factory gates .
Moreover , while authoritarian rulers might rely on social divisions to encourage riot police to beat college-educated youth , overt repression against workers—the same class from which many police are drawn—could much more easily result in security force refusals and defections .
As with protests generally , strikes are difficult to carry out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russia and Belarus , the major unions—holdovers from the Communist era—remain in the pockets of the ruling elite .
Independent unions are much smaller and constantly harassed , though they can suddenly become a powerful voice , as they are now proving in Belarus .
Large industrial enterprises in both countries are heavily dependent on state support , a dependence that the state and then managers exploit in order to garner votes for the ruling parties come election time .
Yet , interestingly , that dependence is now being inverted in Belarus : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down production , workers are compelling their bosses to publicly denounce the police repression and fraudulent elections , essentially pulling down a crucial pillar of regime support .
Meanwhile , in Russia , protests have continued since early July in the far east region of Khabarovsk .
True , the primary grievance there is political—the removal of a popularly elected governor from an opposition party—but they combine with economic dissatisfaction , and the protesters there are learning from their counterparts in Belarus and calling for workplace strikes .
In the short run , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end .
The protests in Belarus and Khabarovsk may well fizzle out , as others have in the past .
But as Putin looks at the events in Belarus , he no doubt sees his nightmare scenario playing out , with workers leaving the factory gates to join protesters in the city square .
In the longer run , Russia ’ s leadership faces a dilemma : To overcome further economic stagnation that can provoke such protest , it will have to wrestle with a sizable Soviet legacy—its many large industrial enterprises , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ global capitalist marketplace .

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Vladimir Putin has long feared a “color revolution” might break out in Russia, as it did for his ally President Viktor Yanukovych next door in Ukraine, who was forced to flee the country, leaving his wealth and power behind. That scenario might yet be repeated for President Alexander Lukashenko in neighboring Belarus.
The revolutions that have overturned political leaders in a number of post-Soviet societies have followed a typical scenario: After a clearly falsified election, crowds of people, often the young and well-educated, take to the streets and city squares, demanding free and fair elections. The outcome usually hinges on whether the police and militia defend the ruling authorities, often with violence, or whether they refuse to harass and beat protesters and instead defect to the crowds. Police forces in Belarus have been employing overwhelming violence so far. But what is different this time is that workers in a number of Belarus’s largest factories have been engaging in strikes in support of the protests. That is deeply troubling for Lukashenko, and for Putin, for several reasons.
One might reasonably assume that workers are a core part of Putin’s base of support. When protests against falsified election results broke out in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2011–12, with demonstrators calling for a “Russia without Putin,” Igor Kholmanskikh, a factory foreman at the Ural Tank Factory in Nizhniy Tagil, told the president on national television, “If the militia…can’t handle it, then me and the guys [muzhiki] are ready to come out and defend stability.” Putin’s administration played up this event considerably, with Putin later appointing Kholmanskikh, despite his lack of relative credentials, as the presidential representative for the Urals Federal Region. He successfully deflected those earlier protests, as some put it, by pitting “rural and Rust Belt Russia against urban and modernizing Russia.”
Since then, however, Russia’s economy has stagnated, with real wages declining for a number of years. Despite its reliance on oil and gas exports, Russia still has numerous large industrial enterprises left over from the Soviet era, including hundreds of often struggling “monotowns”—one-industry cities and towns reliant on a single factory, many built during Stalinist industrialization. A few years after workers pledged their support for Putin, the Urals Tank Factory was faced with bankruptcy. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Not every Russian (or Belarussian) is willing to go out in the streets in support of abstract political demands. But they have clear concerns about social welfare, and when political demands are combined with concrete grievances about falling wages or cuts in social benefits, they can become explosive. In Belarus, Lukashenko has remained in power since 1994 through what some have called “socialism with Russian subsidies” in the form of below-market prices for oil and gas. With those subsidies now gone, Lukashenko was forced to cut benefits and raise taxes. Presaging the current uprising, in 2017 Belarusians took to the streets in large numbers to protest a new tax on “parasitism”—essentially a tax on underground employment—with demands for Lukashenko to resign. The tax was scrapped.
Recently, Putin has also been forced to cut back on popular social provisions. In 2018 his government unleashed a rollback of pension benefits, leading to widespread protests and a significant drop in his popularity. That made the recent referendum on amending the constitution, which could allow him to remain in office until 2036, all the more challenging. The coronavirus pandemic has only made the situation worse.
Still, why might protests by workers pose a particular challenge? Beyond the economic damage well-placed strikes can impose, working-class symbolism continues to resonate in Russian society even 30 years after the collapse of Communism. The name “Novocherkassk”—a town in southern Russia where protesting workers were shot and killed by Soviet security forces back in 1962—remains synonymous with state repression against workers. Putin certainly remembers the event, because in 2008 he publicly laid flowers at a monument to the workers killed. A few months later, as the global economic crisis deepened, when residents of Pikalyovo protested the shuttering of their factories by blockading a major highway and creating a 400-kilometer traffic jam, Putin helicoptered in to dress down factory owner and oligarch Oleg Deripaska on national television, in a scene that became known as “the bending of an oligarch.” In a prolonged downturn, however, a savior can come to be seen as a villain. Current Issue View our current issue
To preempt workers from joining the political opposition, the Putin regime has tried to maintain what some have called a “discursive divide” between legitimate social and economic protest and illegitimate (and often harshly suppressed) political protest. Yet, as economic conditions worsen and the regime imposes austerity measures, that divide can crumble. When the government introduced a road tax on long-haul trucks in late 2015, Russian truck drivers from the Caucasus to the Far East were instantly united in opposition, and while they initially pleaded, “President, help us!,” after little more than a year they were demanding his removal from office.
When protests have become political, the rulers in Russia and in Belarus have sought to portray the demonstrators as feckless youth backed by foreign agents. Putin called the 2011–12 Russian protesters “chatterboxes” in contrast to “the real Russian people, the Russian working man, the man of labor,” while Lukashenko recently complained that the current protests were being led by “the unemployed.” Such rhetoric will fall flat when the protesters are marching in work uniforms out of factory gates. Moreover, while authoritarian rulers might rely on social divisions to encourage riot police to beat college-educated youth, overt repression against workers—the same class from which many police are drawn—could much more easily result in security force refusals and defections.
As with protests generally, strikes are difficult to carry out in such repressive regimes. In both Russia and Belarus, the major unions—holdovers from the Communist era—remain in the pockets of the ruling elite. Independent unions are much smaller and constantly harassed, though they can suddenly become a powerful voice, as they are now proving in Belarus. Large industrial enterprises in both countries are heavily dependent on state support, a dependence that the state and then managers exploit in order to garner votes for the ruling parties come election time. Yet, interestingly, that dependence is now being inverted in Belarus: In some factories, rather than shutting down production, workers are compelling their bosses to publicly denounce the police repression and fraudulent elections, essentially pulling down a crucial pillar of regime support.
Meanwhile, in Russia, protests have continued since early July in the far east region of Khabarovsk. True, the primary grievance there is political—the removal of a popularly elected governor from an opposition party—but they combine with economic dissatisfaction, and the protesters there are learning from their counterparts in Belarus and calling for workplace strikes.
In the short run, it is unclear how all this will end. The protests in Belarus and Khabarovsk may well fizzle out, as others have in the past. But as Putin looks at the events in Belarus, he no doubt sees his nightmare scenario playing out, with workers leaving the factory gates to join protesters in the city square. In the longer run, Russia’s leadership faces a dilemma: To overcome further economic stagnation that can provoke such protest, it will have to wrestle with a sizable Soviet legacy—its many large industrial enterprises, often struggling to be profitable in a global capitalist marketplace.
Yet, should Lukashenko fall, what will happen to the workers of Belarus (and perhaps in the future, to those in Russia)? Could they end up like coal miners at the end of the Soviet Union, providing muscle to bring down a dictatorship, but ushering in neoliberal reforms that threaten their livelihoods? Having now discovered their social power, they may need to keep using it.


thenation--2020-08-18--Posadism: The Rise and Fall of Apocalypse Communism

During the middle of the 20th century , Homero Rómulo Cristalli Frasnelli , better known by his pen name , J. Posadas , was one of the most prominent Trotskyists in the Western Hemisphere .
He unionized workers across Latin America and supported Fidel Castro ’ s 26th of July Movement .
He led the Latin American bureau of the Fourth International , but eventually split from the revolutionary socialist organization in 1962 and created his own Posadist Fourth International .
Then , in 1968 , he published an essay arguing that extraterrestrials would play a crucial role in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Castro had already denounced him and Posadas was advocating a nuclear war to demolish capitalist states , leaving the working class to rise from the ashes .
Still , his cult-like following grew—despite his increasing interest in communicating with dolphins .
Today , Posadas is largely known by young socialists through online memes featuring aliens , mushroom clouds , and dolphins , but even as he ’ s ridiculed on Twitter , Posadas ’ s followers in Argentina continue to publish and spread his beliefs .
A.M Gittlitz , author of I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Apocalypse Communism , argues that he shouldn ’ t only be seen as a joke .
Leftists in these dark times may seek solidarity in his early writings about grounding the movement in the material interests of the working class .
And amid pandemic , economic failure , and climate disaster , readers can take comfort in his optimism about the working class ’ s ability to emerge victorious from an apocalypse .
J. Posadas originally was a collective pen name for several writers for Voz Proletaria , but Homero Cristalli is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Can you explain how he came to be the one publicly bearing that mantle ?
A.M. Gittlitz : Yes , there was a core group of this Trotskyist sect called the Grupo Cuarta Internacional , and they signed their writings as J. Posadas , with their leader Homero Cristalli using that pseudonym .
I argue in the book that eventually Homero Cristalli and J. Posadas became the same person , culminating in Cristalli kicking out all of the original intellectual members of the movement .
He was one of the few Trotskyist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He grew up in poverty in the aftermath of the Semana Tragica , which was a great working class uprising in Argentina .
One aspect of Posadas that ’ s hard to grasp from his lengthy essays is that he was an incredibly charismatic figure , and people who were around him really saw him as a leader , even from a young age .
Not only did he have a good intellectual grasp of the Trotskyist program , but he was willing to fight and was good at organizing people to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meetings , where he used humor and music to really bring people in , in a way that eventually became cult-like .
He filled a role in people ’ s lives , like L. Ron Hubbard or Jim Jones .
He was a father figure , who , through one-on-one sessions , convinced them their entire lives were for this class struggle that Posadas was uniquely able to analyze and push forward .
EB : In one of his first pamphlets , Posadas critiqued the Popular Front ’ s antifacist slogans as utopian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the working class .
How did the division between the intellectuals and the workers affect Posadas ’ s role in the movement ?
AG : When Posadas was recruited by the Trotskyists , it only had an intellectual side .
They did not have a lot of connections with the working class .
There were a few dozen of them , and most of their activity was chatting in coffee houses in central Buenos Aires about art , literature , and politics .
I think they saw Homero Cristalli as a way to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the major issues at the time was the question of anti-fascism .
So Posadas ’ s first texts were critiquing the idea that communists and socialists should align with liberals to preserve liberal democracy against fascism , instead of fighting liberal democracy and fascism at the same time , which was a position of Trotsky throughout the ’ 30s .
EB : Posadism had become relatively obscure in the US before it reappeared as a meme around 2016 .
Were you already familiar with Posadas at that point ?
What inspired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : I think I first heard of Posadism in the early 2010s .
I think Posadism was repopularized in the English speaking world by Fortean Times in an article calling it a UFO cult .
There ’ s always been a tendency of leftists to be fascinated with very marginal groups , but Posadism was only folkloric within this sort of nerdy , leftist subculture .
I first heard about it there in connection with something I was very interested in , another forgotten socialist sect , which was the bio-cosmic mortalists .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Party that believed that for us to truly have communism , people would need to travel freely throughout the universe to meet extraterrestrials and enter into political relationships with them .
Before there was a lot of information out there about it , Posadism was kind of connected with this movement .
So I kind of approached him in this sort of cartoonish folkloric manner , but as I investigated him more , I realized there ’ s a lot more to the story than just the fantastic fantasies about him .
EB @ @ @ @ @ @ @ within the time period , with people like Alexander Bogdanov and Carl Sagan , makes them sound more commonplace .
What is the left ’ s history with cosmism , and what is Posadas ’ s role in that ?
AG : It begins in the period between 1905 and 1917 in Russia .
Bogdanov had written about his lessons from the 1905 revolution in a book called Red Star , which is a work of science fiction about a socialist society on Mars .
There were other Russian socialists who were interested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who was a Russian cosmist , who proposed these ideas of traveling into space and abolishing death .
After the revolution , one of Fyodorov ’ s students popularized the idea amongst the Russian people , so there ’ s this sort of space craze in the Russian public in the mid-1920s that didn ’ t really match what the Russian government was really attempting to do .
They weren ’ t pursuing these sort of fantastical quasi-utopian visions of cosmism .
Nonetheless , a lot of the cosmists had kept this hope @ @ @ @ @ @ @ technology necessary to launch humans into orbit .
Among them was Sergei Korolev .
He helped reverse engineer intercontinental ballistic missiles from from Nazi technology , and along the way , he created the initiative for the Soviet space program and launched Sputnik .
So cosmism , the fantastical mystical idea , does end up staying alive through a number of different periods in Soviet history to end up in the reality of the space race .
And I think Posadas and the people around him were really inspired by the launch of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and saw the political aspect of it—the very radical freedom inherent in the idea of going to space—and always emphasized this in their newspapers leading up to their famous UFO essay in 1969 .
EB : Aside from the memes , you make a point in the book about how in our time , when climate disaster is practically a certainty , it ’ s fitting to see the resurgence of someone who , during the Cold War , believed utopia would immediately follow mutually assured destruction .
Can you talk more about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beliefs today ?
AG : The theory behind Posadas ’ s catastrophism was based in the prediction of Trotsky in the years before World War II , that since World War I had resulted in a Communist revolution that almost swept through Europe and World War II would be so much worse than World War I , that the revolution that followed World War II would be so much better .
Probably , it would be the international proletarian revolution that the communists were waiting for .
But a lot of Trotskyists after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the war had ended , or they believed that a new world war would begin at any moment .
They believed that capitalism was in a stage of terminal collapse after the war , and before it collapsed , it would launch a nuclear war against the Soviet Union and China and the other newly formed workers states .
So this idea of there being a final nuclear war between the imperialist states and the worker states was not Posadas ’ s .
At this point he was a leader of the Latin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cosigned this line , but then he held onto it for far longer than the rest of the Trotskyists , who largely abandoned it between ’ 55 and ’ 59 .
He and his emissaries from South America would visit young European leftists and say , “ Posadas is the one who isn ’ t afraid of doing what is necessary to create global communism , ” which is a nuclear war .
And a fair amount of young people were drawn to this extreme image of their home countries being nuked , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the world in the aftermath As the pandemic , economic crisis , and George Floyd uprising hit the United States , I ’ ve noticed a strange attitude disparity in which the older generations couldn ’ t believe what they were seeing , but those my age [ Gittlitz is 32 ] and younger seemed to have expected something like it .
After the fall of the Soviet Union , many hoped this was the long promised resolution of liberal democracy unifying the world in peace , but soon this society ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The economy hit crisis after crisis , and apocalyptic scenarios of climate catastrophe became scientific consensus , and began to play out day-to-day .
Worst of all , the most powerful states had no real interest in solving these problems besides transferring more power to those causing them .
There ’ s a perverse appeal to Posadas ’ s combination of catastrophism and utopianism .
EB : In the mid-1960s Posadas ends up exiled to Rome , right ?
How did the movement fare after that ?
AG : Yeah , as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ America , Posadas was a target of the Uruguayan police , because his International was based in Montevideo .
In 1968 there were student and worker uprisings throughout Latin America .
Some students had been killed in the riots , and there was a sudden ban on revolutionary political parties .
So a meeting of Posadists just outside of Montevideo was raided by the Uruguayan police in November of 1968 , and Posadas and his wife and secretary , along with a couple dozen other young militants were arrested .
Posadas worked out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where he was technically a citizen since his parents were Italian .
The movement really starts to disintegrate in the mid ’ 60s , and by 1969 , Posadas had really abandoned this kind of aggressive , almost Guevarist stance of pushing towards the final conflict with capitalism through guerrilla struggle , and basically changed the policy of the International to be kind of this think tank .
At this point , the movement is no longer about class struggle .
It ’ s about developing a worldwide team that can effectively @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Near the end of your book , you write that the Uruguayan Posadists have “ little interest in capitalizing on the memetic reappearance of their leader.
” While name recognition is certainly up , has the movement itself actually grown ?
AG : As far as I can tell , it ’ s the same people who were around when Posadas died that seem to continue calling themselves Posadists .
It seemed to me that they were content not expanding or rejuvenating the party in any way , although they do continue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Posadas .
In my opinion , the ironic reappearance of Posadism , although it ’ s not entirely faithful to the history of it , is going to be a larger influence on how Posadas is remembered than those who have continued on in the tradition of his of the Posadist Fourth International .
I note in the book that since the publication of the Fortean Times essay , the translation of the UFO essay by David Broder , and the appearance of Posadist memes in 2016 , Posadas has become one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So a young person who ’ s interested in learning about socialism will go into a socialist Facebook group or a meme page , and Posadas will be one of the first faces they see .
I think the appeal of those memes is going to make Posadas a uniquely revered historical figure in revolutionary socialism .
The question is : Will it only be as shallow as those memes , or will people look into what motivated Posadas to believe these extreme things and hundreds and thousands of his followers to fight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cause ?

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During the middle of the 20th century, Homero Rómulo Cristalli Frasnelli, better known by his pen name, J. Posadas, was one of the most prominent Trotskyists in the Western Hemisphere. He unionized workers across Latin America and supported Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement. He led the Latin American bureau of the Fourth International, but eventually split from the revolutionary socialist organization in 1962 and created his own Posadist Fourth International.
Then, in 1968, he published an essay arguing that extraterrestrials would play a crucial role in a global anticapitalist revolution. By that point, Castro had already denounced him and Posadas was advocating a nuclear war to demolish capitalist states, leaving the working class to rise from the ashes. Still, his cult-like following grew—despite his increasing interest in communicating with dolphins.
Today, Posadas is largely known by young socialists through online memes featuring aliens, mushroom clouds, and dolphins, but even as he’s ridiculed on Twitter, Posadas’s followers in Argentina continue to publish and spread his beliefs. A.M Gittlitz, author of I Want To Believe: Posadism, UFOs and Apocalypse Communism, argues that he shouldn’t only be seen as a joke. Leftists in these dark times may seek solidarity in his early writings about grounding the movement in the material interests of the working class. And amid pandemic, economic failure, and climate disaster, readers can take comfort in his optimism about the working class’s ability to emerge victorious from an apocalypse.
—Emily Berch
Emily Berch: J. Posadas originally was a collective pen name for several writers for Voz Proletaria, but Homero Cristalli is who we came to know as Posadas. Can you explain how he came to be the one publicly bearing that mantle?
A.M. Gittlitz: Yes, there was a core group of this Trotskyist sect called the Grupo Cuarta Internacional, and they signed their writings as J. Posadas, with their leader Homero Cristalli using that pseudonym. I argue in the book that eventually Homero Cristalli and J. Posadas became the same person, culminating in Cristalli kicking out all of the original intellectual members of the movement. He was one of the few Trotskyist leaders who had a firmly working-class background. He grew up in poverty in the aftermath of the Semana Tragica, which was a great working class uprising in Argentina. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
One aspect of Posadas that’s hard to grasp from his lengthy essays is that he was an incredibly charismatic figure, and people who were around him really saw him as a leader, even from a young age. Not only did he have a good intellectual grasp of the Trotskyist program, but he was willing to fight and was good at organizing people to fight. This was especially clear in meetings, where he used humor and music to really bring people in, in a way that eventually became cult-like. He filled a role in people’s lives, like L. Ron Hubbard or Jim Jones. He was a father figure, who, through one-on-one sessions, convinced them their entire lives were for this class struggle that Posadas was uniquely able to analyze and push forward. Current Issue View our current issue
EB: In one of his first pamphlets, Posadas critiqued the Popular Front’s antifacist slogans as utopian and not grounded in material benefits to the working class. How did the division between the intellectuals and the workers affect Posadas’s role in the movement?
AG: When Posadas was recruited by the Trotskyists, it only had an intellectual side. They did not have a lot of connections with the working class. There were a few dozen of them, and most of their activity was chatting in coffee houses in central Buenos Aires about art, literature, and politics. I think they saw Homero Cristalli as a way to connect to the working class. And one of the major issues at the time was the question of anti-fascism. So Posadas’s first texts were critiquing the idea that communists and socialists should align with liberals to preserve liberal democracy against fascism, instead of fighting liberal democracy and fascism at the same time, which was a position of Trotsky throughout the ’30s.
EB: Posadism had become relatively obscure in the US before it reappeared as a meme around 2016. Were you already familiar with Posadas at that point? What inspired you to write this book?
AG: I think I first heard of Posadism in the early 2010s. I think Posadism was repopularized in the English speaking world by Fortean Times in an article calling it a UFO cult. There’s always been a tendency of leftists to be fascinated with very marginal groups, but Posadism was only folkloric within this sort of nerdy, leftist subculture. I first heard about it there in connection with something I was very interested in, another forgotten socialist sect, which was the bio-cosmic mortalists. This was a faction of the Bolshevik Party that believed that for us to truly have communism, people would need to travel freely throughout the universe to meet extraterrestrials and enter into political relationships with them. Before there was a lot of information out there about it, Posadism was kind of connected with this movement. So I kind of approached him in this sort of cartoonish folkloric manner, but as I investigated him more, I realized there’s a lot more to the story than just the fantastic fantasies about him.
EB: The way you contextualize those beliefs within the time period, with people like Alexander Bogdanov and Carl Sagan, makes them sound more commonplace. What is the left’s history with cosmism, and what is Posadas’s role in that?
AG: It begins in the period between 1905 and 1917 in Russia. Bogdanov had written about his lessons from the 1905 revolution in a book called Red Star, which is a work of science fiction about a socialist society on Mars. There were other Russian socialists who were interested in the work of Nikolai Fyodorov, who was a Russian cosmist, who proposed these ideas of traveling into space and abolishing death. After the revolution, one of Fyodorov’s students popularized the idea amongst the Russian people, so there’s this sort of space craze in the Russian public in the mid-1920s that didn’t really match what the Russian government was really attempting to do. They weren’t pursuing these sort of fantastical quasi-utopian visions of cosmism. Nonetheless, a lot of the cosmists had kept this hope alive and continued to work on the technology necessary to launch humans into orbit.
Among them was Sergei Korolev. He helped reverse engineer intercontinental ballistic missiles from from Nazi technology, and along the way, he created the initiative for the Soviet space program and launched Sputnik. So cosmism, the fantastical mystical idea, does end up staying alive through a number of different periods in Soviet history to end up in the reality of the space race. And I think Posadas and the people around him were really inspired by the launch of Sputnik and the subsequent Soviet space program and saw the political aspect of it—the very radical freedom inherent in the idea of going to space—and always emphasized this in their newspapers leading up to their famous UFO essay in 1969.
EB: Aside from the memes, you make a point in the book about how in our time, when climate disaster is practically a certainty, it’s fitting to see the resurgence of someone who, during the Cold War, believed utopia would immediately follow mutually assured destruction. Can you talk more about that theory and the function of those beliefs today?
AG: The theory behind Posadas’s catastrophism was based in the prediction of Trotsky in the years before World War II, that since World War I had resulted in a Communist revolution that almost swept through Europe and World War II would be so much worse than World War I, that the revolution that followed World War II would be so much better. Probably, it would be the international proletarian revolution that the communists were waiting for. But a lot of Trotskyists after the war didn’t accept that the war had ended, or they believed that a new world war would begin at any moment. They believed that capitalism was in a stage of terminal collapse after the war, and before it collapsed, it would launch a nuclear war against the Soviet Union and China and the other newly formed workers states. So this idea of there being a final nuclear war between the imperialist states and the worker states was not Posadas’s. At this point he was a leader of the Latin American Fourth International, and he dutifully cosigned this line, but then he held onto it for far longer than the rest of the Trotskyists, who largely abandoned it between ’55 and ’59. He and his emissaries from South America would visit young European leftists and say, “Posadas is the one who isn’t afraid of doing what is necessary to create global communism,” which is a nuclear war. And a fair amount of young people were drawn to this extreme image of their home countries being nuked, them dying, but Communism spreading through the world in the aftermath
As the pandemic, economic crisis, and George Floyd uprising hit the United States, I’ve noticed a strange attitude disparity in which the older generations couldn’t believe what they were seeing, but those my age [Gittlitz is 32] and younger seemed to have expected something like it. After the fall of the Soviet Union, many hoped this was the long promised resolution of liberal democracy unifying the world in peace, but soon this society’s secular decline was on full display. The economy hit crisis after crisis, and apocalyptic scenarios of climate catastrophe became scientific consensus, and began to play out day-to-day. Worst of all, the most powerful states had no real interest in solving these problems besides transferring more power to those causing them. There’s a perverse appeal to Posadas’s combination of catastrophism and utopianism.
EB: In the mid-1960s Posadas ends up exiled to Rome, right? How did the movement fare after that?
AG: Yeah, as a result of supporting guerrilla struggles throughout Latin America, Posadas was a target of the Uruguayan police, because his International was based in Montevideo. In 1968 there were student and worker uprisings throughout Latin America. Some students had been killed in the riots, and there was a sudden ban on revolutionary political parties. So a meeting of Posadists just outside of Montevideo was raided by the Uruguayan police in November of 1968, and Posadas and his wife and secretary, along with a couple dozen other young militants were arrested. Posadas worked out an asylum deal to go to Italy, where he was technically a citizen since his parents were Italian.
The movement really starts to disintegrate in the mid ’60s, and by 1969, Posadas had really abandoned this kind of aggressive, almost Guevarist stance of pushing towards the final conflict with capitalism through guerrilla struggle, and basically changed the policy of the International to be kind of this think tank. At this point, the movement is no longer about class struggle. It’s about developing a worldwide team that can effectively disseminate the ideas of Posadas.
EB: Near the end of your book, you write that the Uruguayan Posadists have “little interest in capitalizing on the memetic reappearance of their leader.” While name recognition is certainly up, has the movement itself actually grown?
AG: As far as I can tell, it’s the same people who were around when Posadas died that seem to continue calling themselves Posadists. It seemed to me that they were content not expanding or rejuvenating the party in any way, although they do continue to publish and spread the word of Posadas. In my opinion, the ironic reappearance of Posadism, although it’s not entirely faithful to the history of it, is going to be a larger influence on how Posadas is remembered than those who have continued on in the tradition of his of the Posadist Fourth International. I note in the book that since the publication of the Fortean Times essay, the translation of the UFO essay by David Broder, and the appearance of Posadist memes in 2016, Posadas has become one of the most searched for Trotskyist figures. So a young person who’s interested in learning about socialism will go into a socialist Facebook group or a meme page, and Posadas will be one of the first faces they see. I think the appeal of those memes is going to make Posadas a uniquely revered historical figure in revolutionary socialism. The question is: Will it only be as shallow as those memes, or will people look into what motivated Posadas to believe these extreme things and hundreds and thousands of his followers to fight and many of them die for that cause?


thenation--2020-08-18--How Biden Should Spend His First Days as President

Assume Joe Biden wins the presidency .
Assume as well that he genuinely intends to repair the damage our country has sustained since we declared ourselves history ’ s “ indispensable nation , ” compounded by the traumatic events of 2020 that demolished whatever remnants of that claim survived .
Assume , that is , that this aging career politician and creature of the Washington establishment really intends to salvage something of value from all that has been lost .
If he seriously intends to be more than a relic of pre-Trump liberal centrism , how exactly should President Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , free of charge , Joe , is an action plan that will get you from Election Night through your first two weeks in office .
Follow this plan , and by your 100th day in the White House observers will be comparing you to at least one President Roosevelt , if not both .
On Election Night ( or whatever date you are declared the winner ) : Close down your Twitter account .
Part of your job , Joe , is to restore some semblance of dignity to the office of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media platforms are a principal source of the coarseness and malice that today permeate American politics .
Remove yourself from that ugliness .
Your predecessor transformed a presidency that had acquired imperial pretensions into an office best described as a cesspool of grotesque demagoguery .
One of your central tasks will be to model a genuine alternative : a presidency appropriate for a constitutional republic , where reason , candor , and a commitment to the common good really do prevail over partisan name-calling .
That ’ s a lot to ask for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conception of the bully pulpit would certainly be a place to start .
During the transition : Direct your press secretary to announce that on January 20th there will be no ritzy Inaugural balls .
Take your cues from Franklin Delano Roosevelt ’ s inauguration for his fourth term in office , a distinctly low-key event .
After all , in January 1945 , the nation was still at war ; victory had not yet arrived ; celebration could wait .
Our present-day multifaceted crisis bears at least some comparison to that World @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you plan your own inauguration , ditch the glitz .
A secondary benefit : You won ’ t have to hit up wealthy donors for the dough to pay for the party .
And with no party , you won ’ t have to worry about inaugural festivities triggering another spike in Covid-19 infections .
In addition to selecting a cabinet and ignoring your predecessor ’ s bleating , the main focus of your transition period has to be policy planning .
When you take office , the coronavirus pandemic will still be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ given .
Even if optimistic predictions of an effective vaccine becoming available by early 2021 were to pan out , we won ’ t be out of the woods .
Not faintly .
So your number-one priority during the transition must be to do what Trump never came close to doing : Devise a concrete national strategy for limiting the spread of the virus along with a blueprint for prompt and comprehensive vaccine distribution when one is ready .
That said , it would also be prudent to engage in quiet contingency planning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should your predecessor refuse to acknowledge his defeat ( “ rigged election !
” ) or leave the White House .
Noon , Eastern Standard Time : With the chief justice of the Supreme Court presiding , take the oath of office in the East Room of the White House in the presence of Vice President Kamala Harris and your immediate family .
No inaugural address , no parade , no festivities whatsoever .
Make like you ’ re George Washington : He wasn ’ t into making a fuss .
When the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down to work .
That afternoon : Issue an executive order directing the formation of a National Commission on Reconciliation and Reparations , or NCRR .
Recruit Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates or another scholar of comparable stature to head the effort .
While likely to be a lengthy and contentious endeavor , the NCRR will provide a point of departure for addressing the persistence of American racism by taking on this overarching question : What does justice require ?
That evening : Speak to the nation from the Oval Office .
Make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the tone for your administration .
The nation has its hands full with concurrent crises .
The moment calls for humility and hard work , not triumphalism .
Don ’ t overpromise .
Consider Abraham Lincoln ’ s second inaugural address as a model .
Curb your inclination to blather .
Abe needed only 701 words .
See if you can better that .
Day 2 : In a letter to House and Senate leaders , unveil the details of your coronavirus strategy , which must include : ( 1 ) a national @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and prevent future ones ; ( 2 ) a nationwide approach to vaccine distribution ; ( 3 ) a strategy for averting and , if needed , curbing the outbreak of comparable diseases ; and ( 4 ) adequate funding of key government pandemic relief and prevention facilities and activities .
In the process , identify near-term and longer-term funding requirements that will require congressional action .
Day 3 : Issue an executive order reversing the announced withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate accords .
Describe this as just an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trillion Green New Deal you promised Americans during the election campaign .
Joe , if you can make meaningful progress toward curbing climate change , future generations will put you on Mount Rushmore in place of one of those slaveholders .
Day 4 : Send a personal message to the German chancellor , the British prime minister , and the presidents of China , France , and Russia , declaring your intention to recommit the United States to the Iran nuclear deal that Donald Trump ditched in 2018 .
Quietly initiate the process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Iranian leadership .
( I ’ ve got colleagues who might be able to lend a hand in laying the groundwork .
Let me know if the Quincy Institute can be of help . )
That same day , on your first visit as president to the White House press room , casually mention that the United States will henceforth adhere to a policy of no-first-use regarding its nuclear weapons .
Simultaneously , tell the Pentagon to stop work on “ modernizing ” the US nuclear arsenal .
That ’ s $ 2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
No first use will flush “ fire and fury like the world has never seen ” down the toilet .
Generals , weapons contractors , and aging Cold Warriors will tell you that you ’ re taking a great risk .
Ignore them and you will substantially reduce the possibility of nuclear war .
Day 5 : Issue an executive order suspending any further work on your predecessor ’ s border “ wall.
” At the same time , announce your intention to form a nonpartisan task force to recommend policies related @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legal or otherwise .
Ask former secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro to chair that task force , with a report due prior to the 100th day of your presidency .
Day 6 : Accompanied by Secretary of State Elizabeth Warren , visit the State Department for an all-hands-on-deck meeting .
Let it be known that your administration will reserve all senior diplomatic appointments for seasoned Foreign Service officers .
No more selling of ambassadorships to campaign contributors or old friends hoping to acquire an honorific title .
Make clear your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the principal threats to our well-being are transnational and not susceptible to military solutions .
The Pentagon can ’ t do much to alleviate pandemics , environmental degradation , and climate change .
Those true national security crises will require collaborative action .
Also use this occasion to announce the formation of a nonpartisan task force that will recommend ways to reform and re-professionalize the Foreign Service .
Top-flight diplomacy requires top-drawer diplomats .
Ask former Ambassadors Chas Freeman and Thomas Pickering , both savvy global thinkers and seasoned diplomats , to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ report back by July 11 , the birthday of John Quincy Adams , our greatest secretary of state .
Day 7 : Begin your morning by inviting Gen. Mark Milley to the Oval Office for a one-on-one meeting .
Ask him to tender his immediate resignation as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff .
Milley ’ s participation in the infamous Lafayette Square stunt , even if unwitting , renders him unfit for further employment .
Later that same day , visit the remaining chiefs in the Pentagon .
Explain your intention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US military ’ s global posture—command structure , bases , budgets , priorities , and , above all , emerging threats .
Ask for their forthright assistance in this endeavor , making it clear that anyone obstructing the process will be gone .
Day 8 : Call on Ruth Bader Ginsberg in her chambers at the Supreme Court .
Invite her to retire now that the Senate is in Democratic hands .
Offer private assurances that her successor will be ( a ) liberal ; ( b ) a woman ; ( c @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( d ) a distinguished jurist .
Day 9 : Do what your predecessor vowed to do , but didn ’ t : End America ’ s endless wars .
At your first full-fledged cabinet meeting , charge your new defense secretary , James Webb , with providing a detailed schedule for a deliberate , but comprehensive withdrawal ( no ifs , ands , or buts ) of US forces from Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf , with a completion date by the end of your first year in office .
Day 10 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a trilateral discussion with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau .
At day ’ s end , sign the Declaration of Tenochtitlan affirming a common commitment to democracy , the rule of law , human rights , economic growth , and continental security .
Your predecessors have taken Mexico and Canada for granted .
You will correct that oversight .
In fact , no two countries on the planet are of greater importance to the well-being of the American people .
Day 11 : Invite China ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Camp David at a date of his choosing .
As you know , Joe , the United States and China are hurtling toward a new Cold War .
Reversing the momentum of events will prove difficult indeed .
This will require considerable personal diplomacy on your part .
Given the need for the planet ’ s two major economic powers to cooperate on lowering greenhouse gasses globally , nothing is more important than this .
Start now .
Day 12 : Announce plans to visit NATO headquarters in the near future .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the alliance to nudge them toward taking responsibility for their own security .
Let them know that before the year is out you intend to make public a 10-year timetable for withdrawing all US forces from Europe .
That will concentrate minds in London , Paris , Berlin , and elsewhere in the alliance .
Day 13 : Convene a meeting of the best minds in tech ( which , by the way , does not necessarily mean the wealthiest tech tycoons ) .
Pick their brains on the issue of privacy .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
You can at least highlight the problem .
Day 14 : You ’ re 78 , the oldest man ever to walk into the Oval Office as president .
Be smart .
Take a day totally off to recharge your batteries .
You have a long way to go .
Joe , you ’ re a bit long in the tooth for the duties you ’ re about to assume .
Keep in mind the adage that applies to all us old folks : Time is fleeting .
We never know how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the moment .
No offense , but your days ( like mine ) are numbered .
Good luck .
I ’ ll be pulling for you .

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.
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Assume Joe Biden wins the presidency. Assume as well that he genuinely intends to repair the damage our country has sustained since we declared ourselves history’s “indispensable nation,” compounded by the traumatic events of 2020 that demolished whatever remnants of that claim survived. Assume, that is, that this aging career politician and creature of the Washington establishment really intends to salvage something of value from all that has been lost.
If he seriously intends to be more than a relic of pre-Trump liberal centrism, how exactly should President Biden go about making his mark?
Here, free of charge, Joe, is an action plan that will get you from Election Night through your first two weeks in office. Follow this plan, and by your 100th day in the White House observers will be comparing you to at least one President Roosevelt, if not both.
On Election Night (or whatever date you are declared the winner): Close down your Twitter account. Part of your job, Joe, is to restore some semblance of dignity to the office of the presidency. Twitter and similar social media platforms are a principal source of the coarseness and malice that today permeate American politics. Remove yourself from that ugliness. Your predecessor transformed a presidency that had acquired imperial pretensions into an office best described as a cesspool of grotesque demagoguery. One of your central tasks will be to model a genuine alternative: a presidency appropriate for a constitutional republic, where reason, candor, and a commitment to the common good really do prevail over partisan name-calling. That’s a lot to ask for, but returning to a more traditional conception of the bully pulpit would certainly be a place to start.
During the transition: Direct your press secretary to announce that on January 20 there will be no ritzy Inaugural balls. Take your cues from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s inauguration for his fourth term in office, a distinctly low-key event. After all, in January 1945, the nation was still at war; victory had not yet arrived; celebration could wait. Our present-day multifaceted crisis bears at least some comparison to that World War II moment. So, as you plan your own inauguration, ditch the glitz. A secondary benefit: You won’t have to hit up wealthy donors for the dough to pay for the party. And with no party, you won’t have to worry about inaugural festivities triggering another spike in Covid-19 infections.
In addition to selecting a cabinet and ignoring your predecessor’s bleating, the main focus of your transition period has to be policy planning. When you take office, the coronavirus pandemic will still be with us: That’s a given. Even if optimistic predictions of an effective vaccine becoming available by early 2021 were to pan out, we won’t be out of the woods. Not faintly. So your number-one priority during the transition must be to do what Trump never came close to doing: Devise a concrete national strategy for limiting the spread of the virus along with a blueprint for prompt and comprehensive vaccine distribution when one is ready. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
That said, it would also be prudent to engage in quiet contingency planning to lay out possible courses of action should your predecessor refuse to acknowledge his defeat (“rigged election!”) or leave the White House. Current Issue View our current issue
On January 20, the big day arrives.
Noon, Eastern Standard Time: With the chief justice of the Supreme Court presiding, take the oath of office in the East Room of the White House in the presence of Vice President Kamala Harris and your immediate family. No inaugural address, no parade, no festivities whatsoever. Make like you’re George Washington: He wasn’t into making a fuss. When the ceremony ends, have lunch and get down to work.
That afternoon: Issue an executive order directing the formation of a National Commission on Reconciliation and Reparations, or NCRR. Recruit Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates or another scholar of comparable stature to head the effort. While likely to be a lengthy and contentious endeavor, the NCRR will provide a point of departure for addressing the persistence of American racism by taking on this overarching question: What does justice require?
That evening: Speak to the nation from the Oval Office. Make it brief. Your address will set the tone for your administration. The nation has its hands full with concurrent crises. The moment calls for humility and hard work, not triumphalism. Don’t overpromise. Consider Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address as a model. Curb your inclination to blather. Abe needed only 701 words. See if you can better that.
Day 2: In a letter to House and Senate leaders, unveil the details of your coronavirus strategy, which must include: (1) a national plan to curb the existing Covid-19 outbreak and prevent future ones; (2) a nationwide approach to vaccine distribution; (3) a strategy for averting and, if needed, curbing the outbreak of comparable diseases; and (4) adequate funding of key government pandemic relief and prevention facilities and activities. In the process, identify near-term and longer-term funding requirements that will require congressional action.
Day 3: Issue an executive order reversing the announced withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate accords. Describe this as just an initial down payment on the $2 trillion Green New Deal you promised Americans during the election campaign. Joe, if you can make meaningful progress toward curbing climate change, future generations will put you on Mount Rushmore in place of one of those slaveholders.
Day 4: Send a personal message to the German chancellor, the British prime minister, and the presidents of China, France, and Russia, declaring your intention to recommit the United States to the Iran nuclear deal that Donald Trump ditched in 2018. Quietly initiate the process of opening a back channel to the Iranian leadership. (I’ve got colleagues who might be able to lend a hand in laying the groundwork. Let me know if the Quincy Institute can be of help.) That same day, on your first visit as president to the White House press room, casually mention that the United States will henceforth adhere to a policy of no-first-use regarding its nuclear weapons. Simultaneously, tell the Pentagon to stop work on “modernizing” the US nuclear arsenal. That’s $2 trillion that can be better spent elsewhere. No first use will flush “fire and fury like the world has never seen” down the toilet. Generals, weapons contractors, and aging Cold Warriors will tell you that you’re taking a great risk. Ignore them and you will substantially reduce the possibility of nuclear war.
Day 5: Issue an executive order suspending any further work on your predecessor’s border “wall.” At the same time, announce your intention to form a nonpartisan task force to recommend policies related to border security and immigration, whether legal or otherwise. Ask former secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro to chair that task force, with a report due prior to the 100th day of your presidency.
Day 6: Accompanied by Secretary of State Elizabeth Warren, visit the State Department for an all-hands-on-deck meeting. Let it be known that your administration will reserve all senior diplomatic appointments for seasoned Foreign Service officers. No more selling of ambassadorships to campaign contributors or old friends hoping to acquire an honorific title. Make clear your intention to revitalize American diplomacy, recognizing that the principal threats to our well-being are transnational and not susceptible to military solutions. The Pentagon can’t do much to alleviate pandemics, environmental degradation, and climate change. Those true national security crises will require collaborative action. Also use this occasion to announce the formation of a nonpartisan task force that will recommend ways to reform and re-professionalize the Foreign Service. Top-flight diplomacy requires top-drawer diplomats. Ask former Ambassadors Chas Freeman and Thomas Pickering, both savvy global thinkers and seasoned diplomats, to cochair that effort, with instructions to report back by July 11, the birthday of John Quincy Adams, our greatest secretary of state.
Day 7: Begin your morning by inviting Gen. Mark Milley to the Oval Office for a one-on-one meeting. Ask him to tender his immediate resignation as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Milley’s participation in the infamous Lafayette Square stunt, even if unwitting, renders him unfit for further employment. Later that same day, visit the remaining chiefs in the Pentagon. Explain your intention to commence a wholesale reevaluation of the US military’s global posture—command structure, bases, budgets, priorities, and, above all, emerging threats. Ask for their forthright assistance in this endeavor, making it clear that anyone obstructing the process will be gone.
Day 8: Call on Ruth Bader Ginsberg in her chambers at the Supreme Court. Invite her to retire now that the Senate is in Democratic hands. Offer private assurances that her successor will be (a) liberal; (b) a woman; (c) a person of color; and (d) a distinguished jurist.
Day 9: Do what your predecessor vowed to do, but didn’t: End America’s endless wars. At your first full-fledged cabinet meeting, charge your new defense secretary, James Webb, with providing a detailed schedule for a deliberate, but comprehensive withdrawal (no ifs, ands, or buts) of US forces from Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, with a completion date by the end of your first year in office.
Day 10: Visit Mexico City. Engage in a trilateral discussion with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. At day’s end, sign the Declaration of Tenochtitlan affirming a common commitment to democracy, the rule of law, human rights, economic growth, and continental security. Your predecessors have taken Mexico and Canada for granted. You will correct that oversight. In fact, no two countries on the planet are of greater importance to the well-being of the American people.
Day 11: Invite China’s president Xi Jinping for an informal meeting at Camp David at a date of his choosing. As you know, Joe, the United States and China are hurtling toward a new Cold War. Reversing the momentum of events will prove difficult indeed. This will require considerable personal diplomacy on your part. Given the need for the planet’s two major economic powers to cooperate on lowering greenhouse gasses globally, nothing is more important than this. Start now.
Day 12: Announce plans to visit NATO headquarters in the near future. Begin quiet consultations with European members of the alliance to nudge them toward taking responsibility for their own security. Let them know that before the year is out you intend to make public a 10-year timetable for withdrawing all US forces from Europe. That will concentrate minds in London, Paris, Berlin, and elsewhere in the alliance.
Day 13: Convene a meeting of the best minds in tech (which, by the way, does not necessarily mean the wealthiest tech tycoons). Pick their brains on the issue of privacy. This challenge will extend beyond your presidency. You can at least highlight the problem.
Day 14: You’re 78, the oldest man ever to walk into the Oval Office as president. Be smart. Take a day totally off to recharge your batteries. You have a long way to go.
Joe, you’re a bit long in the tooth for the duties you’re about to assume. Keep in mind the adage that applies to all us old folks: Time is fleeting. We never know how much we have left, so seize the moment. No offense, but your days (like mine) are numbered.
Good luck. I’ll be pulling for you.