May Day, empty shelves etc.
May Day saw a tremendous showing of resistance to the Trump regime and its authoritarian ambitions across the globe. The protests here in Buffalo exemplified the emerging strategic consensus: focus resistance energies on the billionaire enablers of the regime, those who contribute to his political operation, buy his crypto coins and benefit from his cronyism. In Buffalo, this took the form of a large and boisterous demonstration organized by Our City at a downtown building that houses the headquarters of Delaware North, the concession empire owned by the billionaire Jacobs family (donors of more than $200,000 to Trump-controlled entities since 2016), AND a regional ICE office. There were similar protests in cities and towns across the country.
I’m keeping tabs on the radical decline in activity at American ports this week. Reuters reports an expected 35% drop off in shipping to the Port of Los Angeles due to a near cessation of Chinese imports by all major retailers. One question for a culture and corporate economy built on materialist over-consumption over the last century is what happens when/if we go from the 30 dolls Trump presumes us to have to 0 dolls. Consumers, both MAGA and non-MAGA, may adjust begrudgingly and de-growth advocates like myself may rejoice at the positive climate and broader environmental impacts, but the economic structures of finance, warehousing, transport, retailing and beyond will be rocked to their core. According to one expert, the empty shelves doomsday is May 10th. The level of incompetence and imbecility revealed by Trump throughout the tariff saga suggests that very little has been done to anticipate or mitigate the empty shelves phenomenon. What comes next will be a moment of discovery for all of us.
Speaking of over-consumption, the media product that’s stuck with me the most this week is The Group Chats That Changed America, by Ben Smith in Semafor. How did tech broligarch libertarians like Marc Andreessen find common group with far-right culture warriors like Chris Rufo? It turns out that a few hundred American elites from the tech world have been group chatting obsessively with MAGA leaders on signal for the past few years, building a new and terrifying worldview. It’s worth reading the piece to see learn more about their fixations and distorted outlooks.