What Rose Above the Racket: February 2 — March 1, 2025
The world according to King Elon with Mobster Don playing the part of the fool
Another week and another edition of What Rose Above the Racket, a “scientifically sampled” random selection of what struck me this week. From police harassment in Providence to the existential threats of nuclear proliferation and climate change, from flagrant violations of privacy and the kleptocratic economy to war crimes, apartheid, and genocide, from racial injustice to the stunning persistence of US superstition. It’s quite a tour through unchecked power, systemic exploitation, and ideological control.
Rhode Island PBS
Olivia Ebertz: Unhoused people allege illegal search and seizure at Providence rally
Several dozen homeless people and advocates in Providence held a rally in front of the Providence Public Safety Complex on Wednesday in protest of what they allege are recent instances of harassment by officers.
The crowd outside the police headquarters came prepared with lists of recent incidents where they say homeless people were illegally searched or had their belongings seized by police, especially outside Mathewson Street United Methodist Church in downtown Providence.
The police were courteous, professional, and said all the right things, but — remembering the 2017 Community Safety Act — I was left with serious reservations. That act was designed to guarantee police accountability. Here's a ProJo headline from those days: Providence's Community Safety Act, under new name, has protections for police. That about says it all, doesn’t it?
Next up: nuclear proliferation — an existential threat.
Reuters
Leela de Kretser: Iran is “pressing the gas pedal” on uranium enrichment, IAEA chief says
According to an International Atomic Energy Agency yardstick, about 42 kg of uranium enriched to that level is enough in principle, if enriched further, for one nuclear bomb. Grossi said Iran currently had about 200 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60%.
With 200 kg of uranium enriched to 60%, one can produce about 130 kg of 90% enriched, bomb-grade uranium. Starting from natural abundance (0.7%), once uranium reaches 60% enrichment, 98% of the separative work has already been done. In other words, Iran may have enough material for three uranium bombs if it chooses to assemble them. Wouldn't it be wise to assume — counter-factual or not — that they did just that?
Of course, it would, as the following observations reinforce:
The uranium bomb that destroyed Hiroshima had never been tested, because the physics was a sure bet. Iran knows this too.
A treaty with the Mafia is more meaningful than one with the US — at least the Mafia keeps its word.
Onward: greenhouse gas emissions — yet another existential threat.
ProPublica
Mark Olalde: The American Oil Industry’s Playbook, Illustrated: How Drillers Offload Costly Cleanup Onto the Public
Oil executive Tom Ragsdale walked away from his old wells, making the pollution left behind the state of New Mexico’s problem. His tactics, however, are ubiquitous in the industry. This comes straight from the old privatize-profit, socialize-risk playbook.
In December 1990, officials in the federal agency tasked with regulating offshore oil and gas drilling received a memo with a dire warning: America faced a ticking time bomb of environmental liability from unplugged oil and gas wells, wrote the agency’s chief of staff. Those wells and their costly cleanup obligations were being concentrated in the hands of cash-strapped drillers just as production was shrinking. (The document, unearthed by public interest watchdog organization Documented, was shared with ProPublica and Capital & Main.)
More than three decades later, little action has been taken to heed that warning, and the time bomb is threatening to explode.
Leaking oil and gas wells are a prime example of how our system privatizes profit and socializes risk. But it's worse than that. The methane escaping from these wells is an extremely powerful greenhouse gas., molecule for molecule three to four times more potent than the carbon dioxide emitted directly into the atmosphere by burning coal. This fact has been known for over a decade.
Next up: DOGE. We were told we’re a nation of laws, not of (wo)men. Did that end when Musk was crowned, with Trump playing the part of the fool?
Jesse Coburn: DOGE Gains Access to Confidential Records on Housing Discrimination, Medical Details — Even Domestic Violence
While some agencies have resisted efforts by Elon Musk’s team to access confidential records, HUD has opened the door. The potential harm to privacy could be significant.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has gained access to a US Department of Housing and Urban Development system containing confidential personal information about hundreds of thousands of alleged victims of housing discrimination, including victims of domestic violence.
Not just the “radical left” — even the staid legacy press has figured things out.
The Wall Street Journal
Rachel Louise Ensign: The US Economy Depends More Than Ever on Rich People
Many Americans are pinching pennies, exhausted by high prices and stubborn inflation. The well-off are spending with abandon.
The top 10% of earners — households making about $250,000 a year or more — are splurging on everything from vacations to designer handbags, buoyed by big gains in stocks, real estate, and other assets.
Those consumers now account for 49.7% [three-digit accuracy, no less!] of all spending, a record in data going back to 1989, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. Three decades ago, they accounted for about 36%.
All this means that economic growth is unusually reliant on rich Americans continuing to shell out. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimated that spending by the top 10% alone accounted for almost one-third of gross domestic product.
Could anything go wrong with this economic model? As Edward Abbey put it, “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”
What better way to increase union density than the following?
Economic Policy Institute
Celine McNicholas and Patrick Oakford: A snapshot of the federal workforce that is now under attack from the Trump administration
In the first month of his new administration, President Trump has taken drastic steps to reduce the size of the federal workforce, from offering nearly all federal employees a “deferred resignation” buyout to illegally firing senior officials at several agencies. While many of these efforts are being challenged in court, the strategy behind them is clear: Villainize public servants, fire or push them out of their jobs, and then dismantle the federal services they were faithfully executing. By sowing public distrust in those who provide government services, the public’s faith in the goods provided by the government is at risk of eroding too, making it easier for the administration to eliminate core government functions that hundreds of millions of Americans rely on.
Of course, this is also a deliberate attempt to exploit the bipartisan bought-and-paid-for do-nothing Congress while implementing the Unitary Executive theory. After all, that is a long-standing project of the reactionary right, and its flunkies on the US Supreme Court. Under these circumstances, it is increasingly important to expose the US as a rogue nation endlessly led by war criminals.
zeteo
Prem Thakker: ICC Asked to Investigate Biden and Blinken Over War Crimes Allegations
A US-based organization has formally asked the International Criminal Court to investigate a former US president for complicity in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity — marking the first request of its kind.
The 172-page request, submitted by Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), alleges that several figures — including former President Biden, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — aided and abetted Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
…
DAWN’s filing also names other Biden administration officials, including former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, as individuals to investigate for possible culpability in Israel’s war crimes.
The following article provides further evidence of everlasting violations of international law and U.N. resolutions, beginning with Resolution 242 (1967).
+972 MAGAZINE
Hanno Hauenstein: "Worse than the Second Intifada:" West Bank refugees reel from Israeli offensive
Displaced from Jenin and Tulkarem, Palestinian residents say Israel is waging a deliberate campaign to make the northern refugee camps unlivable.
Sameera Abu Rmeleh steps over mountains of rubble and debris to reach what’s left of her home in Jenin refugee camp. It’s a cold, rainy day in the northern West Bank, and the camp is almost unrecognizable. Smashed concrete, burned-out cars, bullet casings, and the lifeless bodies of stray dogs line the streets as far as the eye can see. About 100 meters away, Israeli bulldozers and armored vehicles move around with purpose.
“What is happening now is much worse than the Second Intifada,” Abu Rmeleh says. “It’s just like Gaza — none of the houses in the camp are livable anymore. But we won’t go anywhere. We’re ready to live in tents if necessary. We’ve done it before.”
As long as Israel remains a theocracy, its only future is one of ethnic cleansing and genocide. It’s that simple, but apparently the world has learned nothing from a lesson often attributed to James Madison but never actually recorded in his writings: “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.”
Haaretz
Bar Peleg and Hagar Shezaf: Israel Says 40,000 Palestinians 'Evacuated' West Bank Refugee Camps, Vows to Stay for a Year
Israeli Defense Minister Katz said he ordered the army to remain in West Bank refugee camps for a year and prevent residents from returning, deploying tanks to the area for the first time in over 20 years.
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Sunday that 40,000 Palestinians had been “evacuated” from the Jenin, Tul Karm, and Nur al-Shams refugee camps in the West Bank, and that he had instructed the IDF to prepare to remain there for the coming year, preventing residents from returning.
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that a tank platoon will begin operating in Jenin as it expands operation Iron Wall in the West Bank.
In The Iron Wall, Jabotinsky laid down his doctrine on Zionism and military force. The following key points from that article speak for themselves:
Original in Russian, Razsviet, 4.11.1923
Colonization of Palestine
Agreement with Arabs Impossible at present
Zionism Must Go Forward
Not all key players have been as brutally honest about the game plan as Jabotinsky, but the colonization has played out exactly as planned. It continues with a vengeance today.
Onward to getting the national deficit “under control” by tax cuts for the rich. Remember, as former Vice President Dick Cheney once stated, “Reagan proved deficits don't matter.” Read: on the contrary, they help to shred the social contract.
ANTIWAR.com
Dave DeCamp: House Passes Budget Resolution That Will Increase Military Spending by $100 Billion
House Republicans on Tuesday passed a budget blueprint that would raise military spending by $100 billion, a plan backed by President Trump despite his suggestions that Pentagon spending could be cut.
The budget plan also extends $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, would add $3 trillion to the deficit, and raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. It passed along party lines in a vote of 217-215, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) being the only Republican to vote against it.
The $100 billion increase in military spending amounts to $10 billion per year, slightly more than one percent of the yearly federal discretionary war economy spending. It's also less than the Congressional Plus-Ups that lawmakers typically add to the proposed White House budget.
Whatever the $100 billion in the resolution may be, it's not the 50% cut that's been casually bandied about by our Resource Extraction Magnates in Chief, Vlad and Don. If the latter were serious about cutting military spending by 50%, he’d likely be miraculously dispatched to meet his Maker within minutes.
This isn’t just about budgetary numbers — to a large extent it’s about control over resources. There are vast natural gas reserves in the Western Mediterranean — coincidentally also off the coast of Gaza — in addition to "our oil," which happens to be under "their sand" in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere.
The real prize in Ukraine is its vast natural resources among which are lithium, titanium, and rare earth elements, crucial for both the war economy and renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines. Additionally, Ukraine holds significant copper deposits vital for the electrical grid.
The following statistics provide a bipartisan perspective on who fund the war economy. As Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich note, defense contractors made the following campaign contributions in the last presidential election:
Kamala Harris – $4.4M
Donald Trump – $1.8M
Most importantly, tax cuts for the rich will increase poverty and inequality.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
2025 Budget Stakes: Millions of People Across the US Could Lose Needed Assistance Under Republican Proposals
A series of high-stakes federal policy debates will take place this year as President Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress seek to implement their policy agenda.
Never forget the 1996 Democratic — thank you, Bill! — AFDC/TANF cliff (Aid to Families with Dependent Children / Temporary Assistance for Needy Families):
And when you hear some kleptocrat refer to Social Security as a Ponzi scheme, recall Proudhon's “Property is theft.” Though even he surely made exceptions for socks, underwear, and toothbrushes. Those French anarchists in old Europe! They understood it all and were masters of brevity, just as in: Ni dieux, ni maître. No gods, no bosses.
Even the ultra-respectable journal Nature is alarmed about the current state of affairs.
Nature
Annabel Sowemimo: The racial injustice laid bare by COVID must not be forgotten
A methodical analysis of pandemic policies in Chicago, Illinois, reveals why short-term interventions are unable to tackle systemic inequities that affect marginalized communities.
Emergency: COVID-19 and the Uneven Valuation of Life Claire Laurier Decoteau, Univ. Chicago Press (2025)
In May 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In response, US government and public-service officials promised marginalized communities that they would make real efforts to tackle racial injustice.
Yet, says sociologist Claire Laurier Decoteau, both the pandemic and those promises now seem long forgotten in her hometown of Chicago, Illinois.
In Emergency, Decoteau interviews 110 of the city’s residents and 65 officials to methodically dissect COVID-19’s impact on marginalized groups. Her analysis reveals how policies that intended to tackle racial injustice instead produced an endless cycle of inequality.
Jeff Tollefson: US Pulls Back from Gold-Standard Scientific Climate Panel
Trump officials bar NASA climate scientist from international meeting, and the agency shuts down a team supporting the next global climate assessment.
A major United Nations climate assessment is moving forward in China this week without the United States, after the administration of President Donald Trump blocked US officials’ participation and shut down a team providing technical support for the next international climate assessment.
This climate change denial problem dates back to George W. Bush’s reign of terror, but the approach aligns perfectly with the Dominionist D.C. power elite and its free-market capitalist, anti-regulation ideology. They view environmental concerns as secondary — or even contrary — to divine will, supposedly expressed in Genesis 1:26-28.
This is reminiscent of Turkey’s removal of evolution from school curricula, citing religious objections and using creationist high school textbooks with material from the US Institute for Creation “Research.” Is the US drifting toward Soviet-era Lysenkoism? Sometimes I wonder!
The blessings of political and religious fundamentalist totalitarianism!
Bertrand Russell captured this danger well in Human Society and Politics:
I do not believe that a decay of dogmatic belief can do anything but good. I admit at once that new systems of dogma, such as those of the Nazis and the Communists, are even worse than the old systems, but they could never have acquired a hold over [wo]men’s minds if orthodox dogmatic habits had not been instilled in youth. Stalin's language is full of reminiscences of the theological seminary in which he received his training. What the world needs is not dogma, but an attitude of scientific inquiry, combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer.
Regarding Russell's call for “an attitude of scientific inquiry,” the following makes it clear that a significant portion of the US population isn't quite there yet.
Pew Research Center
Gregory A. Smith et al.: Decline of Christianity in the US Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off
Findings from the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study
The political differences between Americans with different levels of religiousness are especially large among White respondents. For example, compared with the least religious White Americans, the most highly religious White Americans are:
64 percentage points more likely to say abortion should be against the law in most or all cases (72% vs. 8%).
53 points more likely to say homosexuality should be discouraged by society (61% vs. 8%).
49 points more likely to identify with or lean toward the Republican Party (77% vs. 28%).
35 points more likely to say environmental regulations cost too many jobs and hurt the economy (56% vs. 21%).
In other racial and ethnic groups, there is also a relationship between religiousness and political views, with more highly religious people generally expressing more conservative positions. However, these differences tend to be smaller and are not consistent across all issues.
…
Spiritual beliefs are widespread
While religious affiliation continues to decline, the survey finds that a spiritual or supernatural outlook remains dominant in the US.
86% believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body.
83% believe in God or a universal spirit.
79% believe there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if it can’t be seen.
70% believe in an afterlife (heaven, hell, or both).
Scientific American
Megha Satyanarayana: The Measles Outbreak in Texas Is Why Vaccines Matter
Opting against vaccines may uphold ideas of personal freedom, but it has doomed the county at the center of the Texas measles outbreak.
A country as superstitious as the US is a sitting duck for anti-vax hysteria sharpened by the untruths and distortions of Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The Sachs-Putin quote of the week is a continuation of last week's remark about the invisible hand in the background:
They [US presidents] come to office with ideas, but soon enough, the [wo]men in dark suits and blue ties show up and tell them the way the world really is.
Theology, ideology, and culture wars make for perfect propaganda — but the (wo)men in dark suits know it's really about natural resources, power, and exploitation of the working class.
PS: If you’ve made it this far, you’re obviously hard-core and might as well continue with this uplifting analysis: Chas Freeman EXPLAINS Why Trump and Zelensky Argued.