A random afternoon in Ybor City can yield unexpected moments of sublime beauty, if you're willing to look...

Go to this concert if you have a chance (CLICK LINK HERE)!

This article addresses a problem I've noticed for some time - namely the tendency for crises to lead to the concentration of democratic processes in fewer and fewer hands. Eventually, business interests will seek to do away with even the appearance or pretense of democratic accountability. I don't think this is a development we should accept passively. While this is ostensibly driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, It still has the effect of making it more difficult for the ordinary citizen to engage in the process and have a voice.

The despoiling of the natural environment continues apace. Fires burning unchecked in the Amazon (across multiple countries, so Bolsonaro isn't alone in the blame here), unswimmable beaches (fecal matter, blue/green algae, red tide, sewage/septic/agricultural runoff, and yet demands for more land development are intensifying. Why can't the public sector be used as the people's tool to prevent these threats to human health? Because private interests have commandeered the governmental and regulatory apparatuses that are "supposed" to control them. The problem? Too much, not too little, of the market.

Overdevelopment & overpaving lead to excessive amounts of vehicles on roads and demands for even more roads, leading to more of THIS

The runoff from Lake Okeechobee into the Indian River and the Caloosahatchee Rivers leads to more of THIS and THIS:

When will it end?

The best statement I've heard thus far about this issue is a quote in this weekend's Financial Times (31 August/1 September 2019; "Mother Earth defender pressed on Amazon fires" by Andres Schipani) from Jim Shultz, an environmental activist with the Bolivia-based Democracy Center,  "From the left and right, it is still about turning nature into money" - Jim Shultz, Democracy Center

Both on this page and on the Blindspot podcast, we have decried the faux liberalism masquerading as left or progressive politics and its prevalence within the center-right Democrat Party.  Many of the party's positions (and liberal thought generally) is laden with inherent biases. This discussion on Revolutionary Left's podcast does much to illuminate this idea. Have a listen: https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/deconstructing-liberal-intellectuals-peterson-harris-and-pinker

LUXURY MANE - Imaginary Mountain

Some Informative Posts about Marxism and Marxist Analysis

As a Marxist, I am always interested in intelligent commentary on the usefulness of Marxism as an effective tool for economic and sociological analysis. I found a series of related links on Crooked Timber's blog, and thought them worth posting.

http://crookedtimber.org/2011/06/19/marxism-without-revolution-class/

http://crookedtimber.org/2011/06/25/marxism-without-revolution-crisis/

http://crookedtimber.org/2011/07/01/marxism-without-revolution-capital/