deerhoof

Reclords

Ticklets

muslings

• 24 Jun, 2026 the industry of hopelessness is not working anymore

  THANK YOU NEW YORK VOTERS FOR SEEING THROUGH THE GASLIGHTING

  “VOTING YOUR CONSCIENCE IS UNREALISTIC” SAYS THE DEMOCRAT WHO JUST LOST

  “THE WORD SOCIALISM SCARES THE AMERICAN WORKING CLASS” SAYS THE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT POLITICIAN WHO'S ACTUALLY THE ONE WHO'S SCARED OF SOCIALISM

  “YOU AND I MIGHT LIKE SOCIALISM BUT JOE BLOW DOWN THE STREET WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND” SAYS THE ESTABLISHMENT DEMOCRAT OR BILLIONAIRE-OWNED MEDIA PERSONALITY WHO ONLY GOT RICH OR POWERFUL BY MANUFACTURING HOPELESSNESS IN OTHERS

  “THE GREATEST THREAT TO LIFE ON EARTH IS IRAN, LEBANON, AND PALESTINE” SAYS THE POLITICIAN WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS WHO FEELS THAT LAWS GOVERNING THE USE OF FORCE DON’T APPLY TO THEM

  “SOCIALISM WILL CRASH THE ECONOMY”SAYS THE POLITICIAN WHO INVESTS YOUR MONEY IN A TANKING FOREIGN GOVERNMENT THAT COMMITS LITERAL GENOCIDE INSTEAD OF INVESTING IT IN SOCIAL PROGRAMS THAT HELP PEOPLE

  THANK YOU NEW YORK FOR SHOWING THAT BILLIONAIRE-BACKED GENOCIDE CANDIDATES ARE NOT OUR ONLY OPTION

  THE INDUSTRY OF HOPELESSNESS IS NOT WORKING ANYMORE

• 21 Jun, 2026 the plight of the aipac democrat

  The vast majority of national-level Democrat politicians are what we call “AIPAC Democrats”. Not because they have Israeli citizenship, or are Jewish, or religious, or concerned with Israeli or Jewish safety, but because they are charisma-challenged, bad at their job, and unable to win their elections without the massive election interference, financial help, and smear campaigns that AIPAC provides. Of course none of this has helped win the AIPAC Dems much in the way of political power, but at least it prevented anti-genocide progressives and socialists from getting into office. Mission accomplished? Not exactly. Although the position of the AIPAC Dem has always been awkward, recent events have put them, along with Dem-leaning corporate news, and Israel defenders in general, into a more excruciating position than ever before. Together the following recent headlines should be all the proof anyone needs about just how comfortable the Democratic Party is with fascism. Consider:

  1. To the extent that Democrats assume the role of an opposition party, this consists increasingly of criticisms of Trump FROM THE RIGHT. Dem dead-enders who still continue to refuse to criticize Israel in any substantive or specific way are now pushing for a MORE belligerent attitude towards Iran than is contained in Trump’s deal. Thus they officially and publicly position themselves even further to the right than the blatant fascist in the White House.

  2. Although Israel’s constant ceasefire violations going back years have not typically made it into heavily censored American corporate news, the fact that Trump explicitly asked Netanyahu to stop them has forced them into the spotlight. Israel’s response has been to say “Where do you get off telling us which ethnicities we can and can’t wipe of the face of the Earth,” and proceed immediately to murder hundreds more Lebanese civilians and demolish entire Lebanese towns, to a chorus of deafening silence from the AIPAC Dems.

  3. AIPAC Dems have now been reduced to trotting out Hillary Clinton, once portrayed as some kind of arch enemy of Trump and the champion of the Trump-hating liberals, to write an essay shaming Democratic voters for failing to show enough support for Trump’s genocidal foreign policy in Gaza, for failing to blindly accept his ludicrous Board Of Peace, and for failing to understand that the only possible solution is the total annihilation of any resistance from Palestinians.

  4. One of the largest labor unions in the country, UAW, has voted to divest from Israel bonds. This puts the schools who physically attacked their own students and professors for criticizing investments in Israeli war crimes into a public fight with their own staffs, who are largely part of UAW. It demonstrates exactly what the left has been saying: that American academic institutions are not primarily about higher learning or intellectual independence, but are mere fronts for what are actually tax havens for corporate boards whose primary interest is investing in weapons.

  5. Because poll result after overwhelming poll result shows that Dem voters are now absolutely disgusted to see their taxes, tuitions and investments being misused for genocide and other extreme-right experiments in depravity, the government has been forced to hide these endless thefts and donations. With the new, unprecedented, and permanent structural fusion the IDF with the U.S. military, they will extract the same taxpayer money, to fund the same Israeli war crimes, but now without Congressional approval or public oversight. The pentagon never passes their audits, ensuring that the American taxpayer will no longer know how much money it gives to Israel, or how it is used.

  6. According to a recent leak, it turns out there is actually a secret cabal of elected lawmakers and Big Tech oligarchs, led by Palantir, who are literally plotting the fascist control of the world. The contradiction between supporting Israel, and opposing AI and expansion of data centers, has become too obvious to ignore. Israel’s entire economy would collapse without perpetual war, and the key element of the success (i.e. body count) of its war machine, is its use of AI. The weapons provided by American companies like Palantir and Amazon, and Israeli companies like Elbit Systems, have now helped Israel achieve the distinction of being the world’s confirmed leading killer of human beings.

  7. For all the blaring headlines about plummeting gas prices, they haven’t and will not be returning to pre-Hormuz levels, for no reason other than that an artificial emergency was created by our government, and fossil fuel companies were always planning to enjoy a permanent price-gouge profit windfall as a result. Disaster capitalism is thus once again allowed to flourish in our sad country.

  8. With Iran’s victory, the list of countries against whom Israel has been requesting U.S. military intervention since the mid-90s is now complete. Every one has been a military failure and a moral disaster. From Iran to Iraq to Syria to Yemen to Somalia to Sudan to Libya, these adventures made no one safer, made no population more democratically represented by their governments, and brought no benefit whatsoever to anyone other than a tiny handful of arms dealers, fossil fuel companies, disaster profiteers, and fascist politicians.

  9. Even at this late date, as Israel’s narrative and support are completely collapsing across the country, the dead-enders who still want to invest in, arm, fund, run legal cover for, or simply overlook Israel’s genocide still aren’t bothering to attempt to formulate a cogent explanation of their point of view. Instead, they simply resort to more vicious threats and punishments for those who dare express an opinion about foreign policy or about how their taxes, tuitions, or bank accounts should be spent.

  10. The betrayals and contradictions of AIPAC Dems can no longer be written off as simply failing to hear the wishes of their constituents clearly. It’s more like they are spitting in your face. They have nothing but contempt for the voters, endorsers, phone bankers, canvassers, rally attendees, money donors, social media posters, and Dem-leaning media consumers who made so many sacrifices of their time, labor, sweat, emotion, and reputations to get these Democrats into office in the first place, on the promise that they would oppose Trump’s policies and bring some kind of decency to American governance.

  Thus has every point made by the left and targeted by centrist smear campaigns for the past 3 years been vindicated in some way. The lesson of all of this is so obvious it’s painful at this point. To beat Trump and fascism, politicians, Dems or not, must embrace socialism. They must start listening to their voters, stop taking bribes, start taxing billionaires, and abolish ICE. They must honor the memory of the Holocaust and take an unequivocal stand against genocide. All of us must reject the narratives spewed out by billionaire-owned news media, and start taking the warnings of the left more seriously.

• 06 Jun, 2026 so...

  So…now that U.S. taxpayers have been forced to sacrifice billions of dollars to arm Israel’s genocide, does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So...now that AIPAC has spent hundreds of millions of dollars interfering in U.S. elections to sabotage popular progressive candidates, does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So...now that Americans are asked to entrust their future and safety to a merged U.S.-Israel military being run increasingly by A.I., does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So...now that nearly all major U.S. politicians and all major U.S. media have caved in on validating and normalizing apartheid and war crimes, does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So…now that hundreds of Palestinian journalists have been murdered with U.S. munitions, and U.S. corporate media has been even more thoroughly censored on the issue of Palestinian liberation than Israeli media, does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So...now that US college students have been physically beaten and expelled for not wanting their tuitions to fund a genocide, does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So...now that the lesson of the Holocaust has been changed from “never again commit genocide” to “never again resist or protest or mention genocide,” does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So...now that rape, torture and genocide are no longer crimes as long as you have a well-armed military, and Jews are expected to make common cause with Trump and the extreme right, in supporting the dismantling of international laws, institutions, and frameworks governing the use of force, does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So...now that Americans are asked to believe that the genocidal policy of a handful of rich lawmakers is the same thing as a 3000-year-old religion, and the definition of “anti-Semitism” has been downgraded from “hatred of Jews” to “democratic participation in U.S. policy in the Middle East,” does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So...now that the Anti Defamation League, and the entire U.S. mainstream discourse around anti-Semitism, has focused its attention away from the far-right racists who actually commit the overwhelming majority of anti-Semitic violence and defamation, and onto college students, Tik-Tok users, and other anti-genocide protestors, many of whom are Jews, does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So...now that the threats against U.S. voters by Zionist lawmakers are becoming increasingly vicious, desperate, and fascistic, does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  So...now that Israel is being encouraged by the U.S. to break every ceasefire, expand her illegal wars and settlements, and Israelis are asked to expose themselves to more violent retaliation, for the sake of U.S. corporate profits, U.S. hegemony, and Trump family real estate deals, does the world view the state of Israel in a more positive light? Do Jews around the world feel more secure? Were these really Biden's or Trump's or Netanyahu's goals?

  The U.S. does not control the state of Israel, nor vice versa. They are one state. Perhaps more accurately they are one multinational corporation, with Biden, Trump and Netanyahu as their policy wing. They are one consortium of weapons manufacturers, fossil fuel corporations, Big Tech, and individual corrupt lawmakers, trying to get as money as they can before the whole scheme falls apart in revolution, world war, or economic collapse.

  Biden, Trump, and Netanyahu’s goal is Jewish and Israeli insecurity, fear and hatred. This insecurity has been weaponized and monetized. The economic sectors profiting from this destruction and erasure of non-Jews have known all along that Jewish and Israeli insecurity, fear and hatred were essential to their profit margins.

  The money taxpayers “give to Israel” ends up in the pockets of U.S. arms dealers. The Biden-Trump-Netanyahu program we are all living through is not about a selfless country helping create a safe homeland for Jews. It’s about a collapsing empire extracting as much money as it can, while it still can. That’s what people who want to fund or invest in Israel stand for, whether they like it or not.

  Investing in Israel is not a safe bet. To suggest it is is an affront to common sense, no matter how many politicians are bribed to say that it is. Israel is the center of a global controversy. Its program of genocide and permanent war is no more sustainable than was slavery in the U.S. This is scorched earth and last-ditch profiteering.

  The billions of dollars U.S. taxpayers are told that they owe to Israel to slaughter non-Jews is of course only half of the total bill. The other half will be the reparations those taxpayers will have to pay once the genocide and invasions inevitably fail.

  That the U.S. and Israel’s war crimes will inevitably fail is not due to anti-Semitism. They will fail because while the human race knows that there are some among us who are greedy and barbaric enough to wage permanent war and commit genocide and other atrocities, most humans have a conscience and are predictably disgusted.

  Asking Israel to do the U.S.’s imperial dirty work is anti-Semitic. Equating thousands of years of Jewish religion, culture and history with a relatively new genocidal government in Israel is a renunciation and erasure of Jewish religion, culture and history. Trump, Biden, Harris, Netanyahu, Blinken, the Clintons, Raytheon, Palantir, and AIPAC are all anti-Semitic racists.

  Israel couldn’t keep up its genocide and invasions another week without the U.S. taxpayer’s money. Their bombs and bullets would simply run out. That’s when the long, slow healing process can be allowed to begin. Jews will become safer as result. Stop arming and funding and investing in the state of Israel and her program of genocide and permanent war. Stop defending and staying silent on this 78-year campaign of violence and lawlessness, being fraudulently committed in the name of a 3000-year-old religion.

• 03 Jun, 2026 omnicide for fun and profit

  I often say on here that genocide is the worst crime that human beings have ever invented. But that’s not really true. There’s one worse. Omnicide: the killing of everything.

  Unfortunately, omnicide is not a fantasy. The project is underway. The entities committing it and profiting from it are actually the same governments, militaries and corporations committing and profiting from genocide. That is, the U.S. government, the Israeli government, their militaries, their big tech corporations, and their fossil fuel corporations.

  The simplest and most profitable ways to commit omnicide are: nuclear weapons, ecological catastrophe from carbon emissions, permanent war, arms dealing, weapons manufacturing, war and disaster profiteering, designation of certain groups for eradication, mass starvation, removal of the means of survival, extreme wealth inequality, hoarding of resources by the rich, unaccountable policing and border control, and A.I.-assisted violence. In other words, the u.s. economy. Democrats and Republicans work together to make sure that these business models are so deeply entrenched in our economy that there can be no way to remove them or defund them. Doing so would mean crashing the economy. This is on purpose.

  The u.s. government, the Israeli government, their militaries, their Big Tech corporations, and their fossil fuel corporations are now committing omnicide. The largest polluter on the planet is the u.s. military. It profits by making the world unlivable. Global famine has already arrived for many in the global south, and is coming soon for billions of human beings across the globe. This is not some rock drummer’s deranged fantasy. This is scientific consensus. Famine means no food. You die of starvation.

  Not every country can commit omnicide. It takes a tremendous amount of money. Iran can’t commit omnicide. Venezuela can’t commit omnicide. Hamas can’t commit omnicide. Poor, undocumented immigrants can’t commit omnicide. To be able to kill almost everything, you have to have nuclear weapons. Or you have to have an economy so large and destructive that it can wipe out the livable environment. The U.S. has both.

  International law means nothing when some countries have nuclear weapons and some don’t. The laws against genocide or unprovoked invasions are only for countries without nuclear weapons. Countries with nuclear weapons are allowed break every rule created after the defeat of Hitler: We can commit genocides, we can invade sovereign countries, we can kill children, we can enslave, we can rape and torture, we can ignore voters, we can kill journalists, doctors, nurses, teachers, and aid workers. The message to the rest of the world is obvious: GET NUCLEAR WEAPONS ASAP.

  We entertain ourselves by thinking of omnicidal oligarchs as cartoon villains. It’s so easy to blame everything on Trump, or Netanyahu, or Biden, or Musk. It’s easier to think of them as crazy, illogical, deranged, or senile, than to admit they are actually the logical conclusion of our politico-economic systems. Their goal is profit (or investment), and that’s exactly what they get. If you are profitable, you can commit any atrocity and simply say, “It’s not political. I’m just fulfilling my fiduciary responsibility to my shareholders.” Enough people will believe you, no matter how ridiculous this statement is to most of us.

  It’s easy to see that Palestinians and Lebanese are collateral for Israel. It’s harder to see why. It’s hard to admit that the entire is human race is collateral for capital. We’ve crossed a historic line in the last 20 years. Mega-corporations, and the governments that keep them in power, no longer need most of the human race. In the past they worked hard for your money, your votes, your belief, your hearts and minds. Now they only need your anger, your desperation, your confusion, your hatred, Your sickness, your injuries, your wars, and your deaths. This is what now keeps them profitable.

  A key moment when I realized that the American public had become superfluous to the plans of its ruling class, and that we no longer lived in a democracy, was when Biden and Harris repeatedly funded genocide, against the will of their own voters, often without Congressional approval, with no effort to persuade the public, and no regard for how it would affect the upcoming election.

  Starving our own species to death sounds utterly crazy, but the u.s. and Israeli governments, and their allies and media, are busy taking the necessary steps. For example they are normalizing famine for certain ethnic groups, certain religions, certain classes of people. According to political consensus of Democrats and Republicans, it’s OK for Palestinians to starve. According to political consensus of Democrats and Republicans, it’s a crime to feed starving Palestinians. All that remains now is to add more ethnic groups and classes of people to the list of the undeserving. That’s already happening. Think about it. Prisoners. undocumented immigrants. documented immigrants. protestors. people who live where a corporation wants to build something. the homeless. the poor. the Lebanese. the Iranians. the Congolese, the Sudanese.

  The handful of souls driving the omnicidal business model are not in denial about omnicide. Believing they are is a luxury we can’t afford. They live off of death. They have plans for their own survival, even if the rest of us are expendable. An infrastructure of A.I.-protected enclaves, remote communities for the wealthy, bunkers, and hoarded resources like food and water, are already being established and normalized. These people know better than anyone that omnicide is real, regardless of how they might discuss it in public.

  Look at the accelerating scale of destruction now being caused by the U.S. and Israel. It’s no exaggeration to say: They have to be stopped. Humanity’s continued existence depends on it. And unfortunately this doesn’t mean voting a few more Democrats like AOC into Congress, or nicer-seeming Zionists like Newsom or Harris into the White House. Would it help us understand the problem if we replaced the term “lesser evil” with “lesser omnicider?“ Remember, they have still promised to destroy everything, though perhaps with better decorum and/or snobbery.

  There is no version of reality where genocide, apartheid, illegal military conquests, land theft, nuclear weapons, destruction of a livable habitat with carbon emissions, intentional mass starvation, permanent war profiteering, extreme wealth inequality, hoarding of resources by the rich, and A.I.-assisted violence are OK. And they don’t magically become OK when a Democrat engages in them, or funds them, or refuses to discuss them. They don’t suddenly become OK when Israel does them. They don’t become OK when an opponent “does them too.” They don’t become ok when the person doing them seems charming on TV.

  Omincide becomes easier when the possibility of getting accurate information is destroyed. Politicians become more comfortable with lying about, or staying silent on, omnicidal issues. The proliferation of media overwhelms the public into numbness. A.I. is deployed to create doubt about everything you see. Journalism is turned into a corporate money-making scheme. Journalists who disagree are assassinated, as has been normalized in gaza, thanks to the efforts of both u.s. parties.

  A.I. is key to the omnicidal program. Studies show it encourages stupidity and psychosis among the people whose survival is being targeted. And A.I. weapons make the omnicide go faster. This is why Deerhoof quit Spotify. Its leader Daniel Ek invests the money he steals from the past and present musicians of earth into A.I. weapons systems. Musicians’ “success” turns into a quicker end for humanity. Quicker, and more profitable, if your name happens to be Daniel Ek, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Palantir, or the Amer-Israel military industrial complex.

  Capitalists always say that capitalism is human nature. I can prove that this is a lie. If capitalism were natural, we would not need A.I. to perform its functions. Unlike human beings, A.I. has no regrets, no emotions, no love, no fatigue, no creativity. it can kill and kill and kill and never get tired, never feel sorry.

• 24 May, 2026 MEMORIAL DAY

  My childhood friends, family and teachers taught me that genocide is wrong. Anyone who commits it, funds it, or profits from it is a criminal. No exceptions. Now I'm told that I need to be wishy washy about genocide. I am asked to make exceptions for certain important political parties or important corporations or important religions. Now I'm told that opposing genocide means I'm being too much of a perfectionist.

  My childhood friends, family and teachers taught me about the trans Atlantic slave trade and the Holocaust. My Black and Jewish friends and teachers made the point especially strongly. The lesson was simple. Never be wishy washy about slavery or genocide. Now I am asked to believe that slavery and genocide are actually ok, when certain special people do them.

  My childhood friends, family and teachers taught me that democracy means you vote your conscience. When people vote against their conscience, and instead try to guess how everyone else will vote, that isn't democracy anymore. This creates an industry that convinces everyone about how everyone else is voting, to prevent people from voting for what they actually believe in. It creates political parties that focus on making money instead of helping people or saving the world.

  Now I'm told that the lessons and agreements and frameworks created after the horror of the Holocaust should be thrown in the garbage. These international laws don't apply to the Israeli or American governments. I am asked to believe that it is now my moral duty to support genocide, to fund apartheid, to invest in weapons, to vote for racists.

  I am now asked to be wishy washy about genocides, wars, slavery, racism, unaccountable politicians, unaccountable police, and environmental destruction. I am expected to believe these things are ok now, because they are done by certain political parties or certain corporations. Then I'm expected to act surprised when our political parties and corporations commit these crimes more often every year.

  Now I am asked to feel sorry for war criminals. I'm asked to consider the emotional discomfort of people who commit genocide. I'm asked to believe that deep down they are nice people. I am asked to believe their words, and ignore their actions. I am asked to pay better attention to pre-apocalypse formality and etiquette.

  When people feel abandoned by politics, when their needs are not met by government, they get desperate. They look for someone to blame. They look for saviors. They believe nonsense. They become nihilists. Many scream for systemic change. The far right promises systemic change, but is lying. The left promises systemic change, and is telling the truth.

  The way you get rid of the far right is to empower the left. This might be by voting for left candidates, and it might be empowering the left in ways other than voting. The way you strengthen the far right is to empower the center, who betray their voters, collaborate with the far right, adopt far right policies, and attack the left.

  My theory of why Democrats are losing so many elections on purpose is simple: they need people in power who won't prosecute their biggest superstars for war crimes, and in some cases pedophilia. That’s why they are comfortable with a fellow war criminal like Trump being president.

  There's a big difference between saving the world and helping destroy it, but our society lumps them together and calls them 'politics'. Politicians have the power to choose saving or destroying the world. When they are paid by corporations to destroy it, their job is easier if you believe that they never actually had the power to save the world.

  No country is perfect. But the reason the U.S. and CIA have always attacked and sanctioned countries with left governments is not because those countries were harming the average American. The reason is that Americans can't be allowed to see left governments succeeding, or taking care of their people. Especially in the global South.

  For me Memorial Day is a time to grieve for the mostly poor families who had to sacrifice their sons, daughters, fathers and mothers so that weapons dealers could make more money, so that oil companies could stay in business, so that politicians could temporarily look tough or improve their polling numbers or win midterm elections, and so that colonialism and imperialism could be allowed to continue to destroy the planet and everything that lives.

• 15 May, 2026 TRAVEL OBSERVATIONS

  Everywhere we travel on this tour, it’s the same, familiar political situation: the so-called liberal party has abandoned the left and the population is suffering more as a result, the so-called liberal party’s support has collapsed, and fascism is getting a field day. Anybody who still believes that so-called liberal politicians compromise with the far right “to win votes” is truly a fool. This fascist comeback we are all enduring is absolutely deliberate, and so-called liberals are helping it right along. The left are the only ones standing in the way.

  Why fascism specifically? Not because some new evidence has come to light proving the inherent superiority of caucasians (or Jews, as the case may be). Rather, every other excuse for continuing our politico-economic system has crumbled to dust. Now that so much “Western civilization” sweet-talking has been exposed as lies, many desperate whites cling to any idea, no matter how preposterous, that might maintain what remains of their privilege. Latter-day white supremacy is the last throes of the denial that our politico-economic system was a mistake.

  The function of camera-hog extremists like Trump, Netanyahu, and the IDF’s most visible sadists, is to repeatedly distract from the banal, everyday violence inherent to our political systems. They legitimize things like genocide by being extra-bad apples at it, so that so-called liberals can swoop in as the less offensive, more competent administrators of the very same genocide.

  Today's lesser-evil liberalism is no more than a facade, disguising a barbarism as genocidal and racist as the far right. The so-called liberal’s role is to make genocide, apartheid, and mass rape more palatable. They’re the polite face of atrocity. They’re here to keep abandoned, angry populations quiet, by self-righteously accusing anyone who dislikes war crimes of being a racist, or worse, a litmus tester. The far right staves off impending revolution a little longer with violence and fear, the so-called liberals stave off impending revolution a little longer with pacification and guilt-tripping.

  Ever notice how it’s always “Trump’s ICE,” “Trump’s Middle East wars,” “Trump’s racism,” “Trump’s outrageous Pentagon budget,” “Trump’s tax breaks for billionaires,” “Trump’s climate destruction,” “Trump’s attack on international law,” “Trump’s attack on democracy”…as if all these things weren’t the ordinary, everyday features of our politico-economic system, consistently supported and sustained by both parties?

  For example, when Republicans interfere with basic electoral processes by redistricting, that’s a clear attack on democracy. But when so many Dems take AIPAC money and the party refuses to stop this foreign interference in our elections, that’s also a clear attack on democracy. When the Democratic party illegally prevents candidates or parties to their left from getting on ballots or participating in debates, that’s an attack on democracy. When Dem politicians consistently enable policies that are the direct opposite of the good policies voters want and need, that’s an attack on democracy.

  On the plane I watched our friend Michael Shannon star in Nuremburg. The historical lesson was crystal clear. The Holocaust happened because people let it happen. Because they didn't stand up until it was too late. After the Holocaust, the tribunal was based on a few simple principles: All must be answerable to the law. Civilization can afford no compromise by dealing ambiguously or indecisively with genocides, military conquests, and war crimes. When governments commit crimes so calculated, so malignant and so devastating, civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because civilization cannot survive their being repeated. This is of course even truer now, with the looming threat of WWIII between nuclear-armed states than it was at the end of WWII.

  After the Holocaust, the world created laws to make sure genocide would never be allowed to happen again. That worthy achievement is exactly what Democrats, Republicans and Israel are systematically dismantling before our eyes. The frameworks, institutions and consequences created to ensure the peace of world are now being demolished with the help of so-called liberals, in order to make an exception for Israel, because Israel’s violence is profitable to certain sectors of the so-called liberal economy.

  If you care enough about the Holocaust to study its history, you know that Joe Biden and his team belong at the Hague. The Nuremberg laws were created to prevent genocide under any circumstances. No exceptions for revenge, no exceptions if you are traumatized, no exceptions if your economy is propped up on weapons sales. Israel, the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party are collaborating to throw those lessons and frameworks and international agreements from the aftermath of the Holocaust into the garbage. Together they defile the memory of the Holocaust and its victims.

  When we say Chuck Schumer, Hakim Jeffries, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, their cabinet and spokespeople are sell-outs, we don’t just mean they are corrupt or greedy. We mean that they are literal war criminals. They will go down in history as having assisted the attempted annihilation of an entire ethnicity. They are living symbols of racial hatred, terrorism, and profitable violence. Their crimes are so malignant, repulsive, and evil that people have been hanged for less.

  The lesson so-called liberals are now taking from the Holocaust isn’t that genocide is wrong, but that you have to look sad when you do it. Trump and Netanyahu offend so-called liberals because they smile as they kill. They violate the codes of etiquette that govern the liquidation of peoples. The fact that neither Israelis nor Americans are safer as a result of their governments’ ceaseless violence is not the issue. The breaking of international laws meant to prevent future holocausts is not the issue. In fact those laws apparently deserve to be broken, and using your money.

  Voting records are clear. Today’s so-called liberals stand for nothing less than profitable genocide, profitable slavery, profitable rape centers, profitable computerization of mass killing, profitable land theft and resulting real estate deals, profitable ICE raids, profitable apartheid, and profitable demolition of international laws put in place after the Holocaust. They stand for funding and investing in the murder of journalists, doctors, teachers and aid workers. So-called liberals are building a world in which even the vilest criminals face no consequences. And they will probably succeed, because they have a friend in the White House.

  When a so-called liberal says they intend to continue the good work that Biden or Obama did, they are saying they believe that there shouldn’t be any rules governing the use of force on Earth. This is your indication that they are comfortable with the world as it is. They are comfortable with its inhabitants being slaughtered, so that their billionaire donors don’t get annoyed. Society collapses while the war machine gets more and more of your income.

  Current so-called liberals are also comfortable losing elections to the far right. This way they can continue to raise money off of scaremongering. They can sustain the bipartisan policies of bombing Middle Eastern countries, enslaving incarcerated Americans and Congolese children, building up ICE and the police and the Pentagon and the border wall, while letting Trump or whoever currently leads the far right take the PR hit. No matter how far off the deep end the latest far right policy goes, you can count on so-called liberals to insist we must meet the fascists halfway.

  In fact current so-called liberals themselves fulfill the key definitions of fascism. They promote, sustain and defend genocide, illegal invasions, crimes against humanity, enslavement, torture, apartheid, and forced starvation. They pass policies that are the opposite of what their voters want. “But at least they’re not fascist.” Liberal “rights” are meaningless when they can be swiped away in a flash whenever there’s an “emergency,” and the people creating and declaring the emergencies are the same people doing the swiping. Liberal “hope” is meaningless when the world is this close to nuclear armageddon and environmental collapse.

  Today’s nation-states offer voters a choice between genocide deniers and genocide champions. You’re asked to argue which style of genocider is worse, and then pick the other one. Then feel self-righteous about having just enabled the worst crime humans have ever invented. Only the left offers any alternative. Their policies are popular, but the war criminals often succeed in tricking voters into believing that it is an unrealistic pipe dream to support policies, candidates, or parties that are remotely humane or sustainable.

  How is this situation possible? Opposing genocide is hardly a lefty fringe policy. It’s not “going too far.” Talking about genocide is not “being too strident.” What’s going too far is genocide. What’s strident is genocide. Genocide is an extreme-right fringe policy, regardless where the person in charge has a “D” next to their name. Most people on Earth are absolutely disgusted by it and rightly so.

  What makes this absurd situation possible, at least in the U.S., is simply that our political system runs on legalized bribery. Someone with lots of money offers to finance your campaign in return for an agreement that you will do as you are told. If you don’t, the superPAC or corporate lobbyist representing Big Oil, Big Tech, Israel, or the military industrial complex, will simply fund your opponent’s campaign.

  Obviously the only hope of a candidate representing voters’ interests is if their backbone is stronger than their desperation for campaign funds. If a politician has already proven themselves susceptible to corporate or military influence, they can never again be trusted. The pressure on a politician from war profiteers doesn’t magically decrease when they reach some higher point on the totem pole of power. Exactly the opposite.

  The field of so-called liberal politicians is littered with sell-outs. AOC has already folded. She epitomizes the politician who campaigns on values matching those of voters, only to have those values crushed once they attain power. AOC has pivoted from being a member of the left, to dismissing the left as people who are never satisfied. In this, she apparently is referring to the majority of her own voters, who hold the outrageous fringe belief is that genocide is bad. We can do better than that. A lot better.

• 30 Apr, 2026 REFLECTIONS ON I SWEAR

  I Swear was a great movie experience for me. Highly recommended. As someone who has Tourette’s Syndrome, it was a tremendously rare and emotional experience to see someone like me portrayed sympathetically in a movie. Basically never happens, certainly never this convincingly. I felt seen and understood and touched. It’s a tear-jerker. I also thought it might be worth trying compare the experience of the protagonist with my own, which is a little different.

  The fact that the main character in I Swear has such a severe case of Tourette’s Syndrome helps make the movie’s educational purpose crystal clear. At the same time, most people with Tourette's Syndrome have milder cases. In my case there are many differences with the experiences portrayed onscreen. The most obvious is that I've never been subjected to the kind of violence and level of humiliation that he has. It brought home how lucky I’ve been to have the family and friends I’ve had.

  Because his case was severe, its onset was clear, if misunderstood. He and his family knew something was strange right away. He understood very quickly that he was behaving in ways he couldn't help. In my case, years went by before I really understood and believed that my tics were beyond my control. This is partly because my milder case allowed me to suppress them for a time, leading me to wonder if my tics weren’t just “bad habits” that I just wasn't trying hard enough to control.

  Among the blessings and curses of his severe case was the fact that for him a diagnosis came sooner. For me, it was 10 years from the point where I started having tics until I was able to acknowledge to myself that I was different. Eventually my dad read something in a newspaper about Tourette's Syndrome and thought "This is Greg." I was already in college. Diagnosis was nothing more than describing my symptoms to a doctor and him saying "Yep, sounds like Tourette's."

  Another fascinating characteristic of the movie's protagonist, at least as portrayed in this fictionalized account, is the extreme contrast between his maximally offensive and violent tics, and his seemingly angelic personality. While it’s fun to identify with him and imagine that I too am perfect, most people with Tourette’s are just as capable of vices, meanness and mistakes as anyone else.

  The educational theme of the movie, stated explicitly at one point, is that those encountering someone with Tourette's Syndrome should ignore the tics, as they do not represent the feelings, wishes, beliefs, intentions, or attitude of the person with the condition. For someone with a milder case, this distinction has always felt much less cut and dried. I'm about to turn 57 and still can't really say where Tourette's ends and my personality begins.

  One thing I really appreciated about I Swear was a hospital scene in which the main character could not resist aggravating his own injuries. This really rang true. I also really appreciated how easy it was to see and empathize with how mentally and physically exhausted someone with Tourette's can be, not only from the tics, but the energy it takes to try and suppress them. Although the movie didn’t emphasize this, so many of us treasure our alone time where the mask can come off.

  For anyone who knows me it should go without saying that I didn’t identify whatsoever with the emotional hay the story made of his being awarded some gong from a criminal, entitled, superrich figurehead. Vindication and acceptance can come in many forms and most of us aren’t going to get it from a queen and wouldn’t even be interested.

  It is entirely understandable that the possibility of drugs or devices that reduce tics would be a welcome relief for this character and many, many like him. For many others like me, the losses can seem to outweigh the gains. I was prescribed some pills after my diagnosis, and was disappointed to discover that while my tics calmed down, so did my creative spark, my silliness, my explosive personality, and my tendency to concentrate intensely and almost endlessly on something I was doing. I stopped taking them after a maybe a month and never looked back.

  The movie showed how the tics can tend to calm down under certain circumstances, such as being around someone deeply trusted, or being fully engaged in an all-consuming activity. They go away entirely during sleep. At the same time everyone is unique and that is no less true when it comes to Tourette’s Syndrome. Some people have ADHD, OCD, or Asperger’s symptoms. Personally I think I’m very obsessive but have no ADHD. Like most people with Tourette’s, I don’t have coprolalia. I find that activities that take all of my concentration, like playing the drums, give me relief from tics, while nevertheless seeming to be influenced by the character of my tics. It is confusing.

  Unsurprisingly for this movie (or for any movie or TV show or instagram clip), the music overemphasized the lyrical and the melancholy in an effort to jerk tears. It’s not that I or anyone with Tourette’s Syndrome is incapable of the same lyrical or melancholy moods as everyone else. But if the goal was to elucidate those feelings and sensations and impulses that are unique to those with Tourette’s Syndrome, it might have been nice for the soundtrack to try and conjure something of the unsettled, uncomfortable, almost electric quality that is more or less present all the time for someone with this condition.

  • GREG, AMATEUR MOVIE CRITIC
• 10 Apr, 2026 THE RICH AND POWERFUL ARE DERANGED SURVIVALISTS

  If the actions and policies of U.S. and Israeli politicians confuse you, you may be misunderstanding their purpose.

  The rich and powerful are fully aware that human civilization is collapsing. They are the ones deliberately causing the collapse. What they are doing is hoarding wealth and amassing weapons for one purpose: to save their own skin.

  why anger and shaming alone are no longer winning strategies

  Anger and shaming are valid emotions but we should remember that our leaders are already perfectly comfortable with them. Trump loves controversy and has profited immensely from it. The system they uphold can withstand anger and shaming easily. It monetizes them, uses them as propaganda, and uses them as pretexts for more attacks.

  why warning lawmakers of an apocalypse is not a winning strategy

  Those causing the apocalypse are aware they are causing an apocalypse. They are simply betting on being the ones to survive it. That’s why they are hoarding resources and amassing weapons. It’s why so many of them are invested in arms and engaged in insider trading.

  why calling our leaders illogical or immoral may be valid, but is ineffective

  Nihilists don’t have values to bruise. They have adjusted their psyches to be comfortable with lying, cheating, stealing, killing, raping and torturing. They gave up trying to be logical or moral a long time ago. They see an epic conflagration coming and they want to be the winners.

  why calling our leaders corrupt or criminal may be true, but is ineffective

  They are the ones breaking the laws and taking the bribes. They know better than anyone that our political system and policies are illegal and corrupt. They are not planning to start following laws again once the current emergency is over. Their strategy is to buy control of the legal system that would prosecute them. Their strategy is to dismantle the legal frameworks that humans have built to allocate consequences.

  Weapons CEOs are not trying to defend America or defend democracy or defend civilization.

  They already know America’s collapse is well underway. They know that the U.S. is not a democracy, and neither is the corporate world they live in. They are profiteering from chaos, hoping to be in the winners’ circle when the dust settles. That doesn’t necessarily mean military victory. It means stoking permanent conflict while continually increasing investments in weapons. It means hiding in a bunker when the surface of the Earth becomes unlivable for everyone else.

  Tech billionaires know that AI will not save the U.S. economy or solve any of society’s problems.

  They know AI data centers are obliterating our water supply and destroying the habitable environment. They know that AI is infringing on rights and degrading its users’ intelligence. AI is a weapon. Investment in AI is an investment in violence. AI weapons' ultimate purpose is to protect these billionaires against everyone else. The goal is not a strong economy or better society. The goal is for them to survive the apocalypse they are actively causing.

  Fossil fuel billionaires know that more domestic drilling is not a permanent solution to endless conflicts over oil.

  Oil is a finite resource and it is running out. Oil companies’ purpose is not saving America. Their purpose is to prevent a transition to sustainable energy. Their purpose is hoarding, in preparation for collapse.

  Today’s rich and powerful are aware of famines.

  They know that scientific consensus has warned that global starvation is coming soon. They read the same headlines we all do. They are not trying to stop it. They are trying to make sure they will have food for themselves. They are hoarding resources and building protected enclaves on the bet that they will be the ones to survive.

  Trump is not trying to make America great again.

  And neither are Democrats. Every politician in DC knows that America will never be great again. What they are doing is trying to save their own skin in the revolution or world war they know is coming. Because this fact can no longer be hidden, someone must be willing to play the bad guy. Trump is currently the one performing that role.

  Netanyahu is not trying to save Judaism.

  Calling criticism of Israeli military policy “antisemitic” is a propaganda device to get everyone to fall in line with billionaire survivalists. What changed since October 2023 is that Israel realized they must give up on trying to appear moral. The violence that had previously been hidden from the American taxpayer who funds it could be hidden no longer. Netanyahu is currently the one willing to play the bad guy role for the sake of colonizing “Greater Israel.”

  Israel’s publicly stated goal is the annihilation of its neighbors.

  Investing in Israel means betting that Israel will succeed. Or at least betting that the wars will continue to be profitable. That’s not just war profiteering, but war crime profiteering. Using taxpayer or pension money for those illegal investments forces the average person into an awkward position. They now must also wish for the annihilation of Israel’s neighbors, whether they actually want that or not. Most Americans are repulsed by the idea.

  Having personal ties to Israel is not a legal defense for genocide.

  A war criminal is not your friend, even if they are a Democrat. It’s possible that some of them are nice people but simply clueless, due to living in a bubble of yes-men and sycophants and in an environment that has normalized war crimes. I suspect most commit their war crimes knowingly. They expect their gullible supporters to try and come up with some kind of clever defense for their actions, while the politicians themselves could not be reached for comment. They are not committing these war crimes on your behalf, nor on behalf of Jewish safety, nor American safety, nor democracy. They are committing them on behalf of themselves.

  why lesser-evil voting is no longer appropriate

  When both evils bet on the profitable collapse of civilization, lesser-evil voting means voting to collapse civilization. When both evils are comfortable with your death if it can mean their survival, lesser-evil voting means voting to sacrifice yourself for the sake of a politician. It means sacrificing yourself so that the world can stay at war and arms dealers can get richer. It means sacrificing yourself so that Israel can steal some more land for its apartheid state. Ask yourself is those are causes worth dying for.

  It’s not that Democratic politicians don’t realize that they could win elections by saying “Free Palestine.”

  They realize it. They don’t say it because they don’t want to free Palestine.

  Any Dem politician could score instant political points by championing any number of popular policies.

  “Stop funding Israel’s wars.” “Stop funding apartheid.” “Abolish ICE.” “Defund the police.” “No AI data centers.” “Forgive student loans.” “Medicare For All.” “Invest in clean energy.” “Tax the rich.” If you aren’t hearing your favorite politician say these things explicitly, it’s because they oppose them.

  Just because a Dem politician wants to keep you in denial about the contradictions of capitalism doesn’t mean they are in denial about the contradictions of capitalism.

  They know that an economic system that prioritizes greed and endless growth on a finite planet is unsustainable and self-destructive. They know that capitalism is now ending the possibility of civilized human life. They read the papers just like you do. What they are doing is preparing for that end by hoarding wealth and amassing weapons.

  Anyone invested in war, capitalism, AI, or oil is telling you straight up that they are betting on the end of civilization.

  But that doesn’t mean they are correct. A program of peace, justice, sanity, and international cooperation could also succeed. Such a program needs to be shown to be more popular. Such a program needs to be shown to be more sustainable and more fun.

  The rich and powerful need to be convinced that they cannot remain rich and powerful on their current course.

  They live in a bubble of no consequences, not even for war crimes. They need to see real legal and financial consequences, not just anger and shaming. They need to be defunded, boycotted, and striked against. They need to be defriended, sued, and prosecuted. They need to be unsubscribed from, switched off, and ignored. Their program of destruction needs to be delegitimized, disobeyed, and sabotaged. Their narratives need to be countered with the truth. Their destruction and hatred need to be countered with creation and love.

• 07 Apr, 2026 BUSTED

  The rules of nationalist hi-tech oil-centric militarist capitalism now demand that certain West Asian civilizations be wiped off the map. Billions of human beings may need to die in the eventual fallout. Trust me this is a good thing. It will help improve weapons profits and may bring down gas prices for Americans. Please don’t start talking about political parties that oppose nationalist high-tech oil-centric militarist capitalism because that would be impolite

  This summer we've planned two Europe tours and one Asia tour, for which all flights and expenses have been paid. It’s unclear exactly how we’ll be able to do them when airlines have no fuel and the host countries’ economies are crashed, because of Amerisrael's wars. It’s unclear how we’ll be able to do them after a nuclear explosion.

  Aren’t there some international rules, frameworks, agreements, or institutions that govern the use of force on our planet? Aren't there consequences for those who break them?

  There used to be. The entire world watched as they were publicly and methodically dismantled by the Joe Biden administration. The left tried to stop it, warning of the obvious consequences. Their voices were silenced by electioneering “Democrats” who pronounced such warnings to be unserious. Or antisemitic.

  The problem isn’t really Biden. It's not Netanyahu. It's not Trump.

  People love to personalize evil policies. “Trump is evil and that’s why the world is the way it is."

  Or people like to universalize evil. “Human nature is evil and that’s why the world is the way it is."

  Both are comforting lies. We are allowing our politico-economic system to choose evil, again and again, every day.

  The nationalist high-tech oil-centric militarist-capitalist system now destroying life on Earth needs people to make the laws to keep it alive. Fools like Biden, Netanyahu and Trump were simply the ones gullible enough to be impressed by the chance. They’re simply cowards enough to never admit a mistake. They live in a bubble of yes-men and ladder-climbers, buffered from reality. They’re kept in this bubble by sycophantic fans who would rather sacrifice human lives than allow their heroes to experience any legal or electoral consequences, or emotional discomfort.

  This is what happens when you have two nationalist, pro-war, pro-capitalist, pro-billionaire, pro-ICE, pro-AI, pro-prison, pro-apartheid parties.

  This is what happens when you have two parties that believe that ignoring the needs of their own voters is their divine right.

  This is what happens when the two parties’ devotees insist that its leaders be shielded from any consequences.

  Politicians who say they oppose Trump and don’t like Netanyahu, and then vote to fund or invest in Trump and Netanyahu’s initiatives for global destruction and apartheid, can be written off right now as ridiculous. Actions speak louder than stump speeches. Actions speak louder than campaign websites and fundraising emails. Actions speak louder than AI-enhanced PR images. Actions speak louder than marketing copy.

  Capitalists have reached a point where they cannot increase profits any further without mass murder, and crippling debt for everyone lucky enough to survive. This is the logical, inevitable endpoint of capitalism’s contradictions and perverse incentives. The economic collapse we are all now enduring was not caused by Donald Trump. The specific form of extreme neoliberal capitalism he now presides over has been in place for some 50 years, racing towards this disaster while the left has tried to turn it around. This self-destructive economic system was never going to last forever. We're trying to stay alive during its final stage.

  Even its leaders and beneficiaries know capitalism can’t last forever. They know it will be either be brought down in revolution or in world war. This is why they take your money and put it into the Pentagon, into ICE, into policing, into prisons, into border walls, into concentration camps, into mass surveillance, into nuclear arsenals. And into security detail and private jets and bunkers for themselves. They have planned for inevitable collapse while convincing you to focus on bathrooms and the name of the Kennedy Center.

  Oppose nationalism and embrace internationalism. Defund the pentagon, ICE and the police. Dismantle capitalism. Join boycotts of Big Tech. Support candidates, parties, and businesses who align with your values. Stop being frightened into supporting candidates, parties and businesses that are trying to kill you. Stop letting this stupid game destroy the next generation’s chances for survival.

• 02 Apr, 2026 A FEW BIG EARS FAVES

  MARC RIBOT QUARTET -- STILL PROVIDES A TYPE OF MUSICAL CRUELTY AND SELF SABOTAGE UNIQUE TO MARC RIBOT. I AM STILL THE WILLING SMILING LAUGHING MASOCHIST. DEERHOOF WOULD NEVER EXIST WITHOUT THE RIBOT PUNK JAZZ BIBLE.

  MATT MITCHELL ZEALOUS ANGLES — WHO'S DOING IT LIKE THIS? RELENTLESS REFUSAL TO PLAY IN A KEY OR A RATIONAL RHYTHM. REFUSAL TO PLAY ABOVE MEZZO PIANO. SO BEAUTIFUL PLUS THE FUNNIEST DRUMMER ON THE PLANET DAN WEISS

  JOHN ZORN MASADA ORIGINAL LINEUP -- HYPED UP ORNETTE QUARTET WHICH IS IRRESISTIBLE BECAUSE WHO CAN RESIST JOEY BARON THE FUNNIEST DRUMMER ON THE PLANET

  PENI CANDRA RINI — HER GROUP HAS DEVELOPED INTO A REAL BAND WITH ITS OWN SOUND. JUST BECAUSE SHE IS PERFECT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S AN ACT.

  JULIAN LAGE & NELS CLINE DUO -- UNANNOUNCED IMPROV IN TINY ROOM AT LOW VOLUME. HUSH OF CONCENTRATION COMES OVER THE AUDIENCE WHO HANG ON EVERY TWIST AND TURN. I'VE NEVER HEARD SUCH CHOPS AND SUCH TELEPATHY.

  JOHN ZORN COBRA -- USUALLY NOT A FAN OF CONDUCTED IMPROV BUT THIS WAS OUTRAGEOUSLY SATISFYING. WALL TO WALL A-LIST PARTICIPANTS RATHER INTIMIDATING TBH

  PATRICIA BRENNAN -- SOME TUNES BORDER ON ATONALITY BUT THE CATCHIEST AND MOST IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO SMILE AND DANCE ATONALITY IN MUSICAL HISTORY. ENTIRE BAND OPERATING AT IMPOSSIBLE LEVEL OF MUSICIANSHIP. FINALLY GOT TO SEE MARCUS GILMORE IN PERSON ON THE DRUMS

  THIS WEEKEND IN L.A. IS GOING TO BE INSANE. OPEN MELODY FESTIVAL 2026. FRIENDS AND LEGENDS:

  MIKE WATT
LUBOMYR MELNYK
OOIOO
TARA CLERKIN TRIO
RP BOO
VALENTINA MAGALETTI
THE CONTAINER
GROWING
KASSIE KRUT
TUSSLE PAUL DE JONG
SUPER_COLLIDER
WATER DAMAGE
FRANCE
ARTIFICIAL GO
HUMAN ERROR CLUB

  DEERHOOF PLAYS SUNDAY NIGHT

  -GREG