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In Coronavirus Time, it hardly seems worthwhile to continue writing about anything else.... but here goes.
Bloomberg
Though he would have been a far better President than Trump, as he is a better human being (that's a low bar), Bloomberg was nevertheless Exemplary of the phenomenon of billionaires attempting to buy office. We can only aspire to live in a polity again where a nonbillionaire can be President-- and does not mysteriously become a Billionaire while serving.
Elizabeth Warren's "super-funder"
Apropos of Billionairism: after Warren dropped out of the race, it became known that a single progressive billionaire had kept her in it, for the last few primaries. This is rather heartbreaking.
Facial Recognition
It is Iconic of Late Capitalism that the entire surveillance system we live with every day has been built by private enterprise. I have no criminal intent (at least until in Trump Universe the line shifts to where writing words like these becomes criminal--as happened in 1800, 1861, 1917, 1952, and 1969!), but long for a day when I could go to a meeting, or to the woods, without being tracked every step by cameras and devices.
A New Line
How do you know when democracy has failed? This is truly an Ontology problem (ha), but I propose the following: when people like me are being arrested for writing words like these.