Four years ago Donald Trump bragged about not paying taxes, saying it made him “smart.” Now we know how much he paid, when he did at all. By now you've seen the New York Times' major story on his taxes, and how he did not pay income tax for 10 of the last 15 years. As president he only paid $750 his first year in office. It's infuriating but not surprising. Trump took advantage of the same rules and loopholes and lack of accountability other rich and wealthy people use.
Yes, I hear you, Trump is a “fake billionaire.” Because that apparently is more important than the easy cheating that is inherent to the system for rich people. That built-in structure that allows the wealthy to avoid paying taxes is all the more galling in the face of what is happening to the rest of the country. In fact, the ease at which mechanisms for the rich to game the system exist is the perfect contrast to something I recently read about that is something I could not have imagined, but probably should have expected given the general state of things.
In one of the earliest entries in this newsletter, I said it was going to get worse. The lack of a second stimulus, the expiration of enhanced federal unemployment benefits and people losing jobs would snowball into a disaster that would crash into millions of Americans. Well, things are getting worse. In the latest example of late capitalism monetizing the rot, there's Civvl. It's a gig economy startup all about evicting people!
This is not a joke, and honestly it's truly depressing. Vice does an amazing deep dive into the business behind Civvl, including fake New York Times quotes, parent companies and other shady aspects. Just looking at Civvl's Craigslist posts though, it's bleak. “There is plenty of work due to the dismal economy,” it reads. It promises “reliable earnings” and a “flexible schedule,” so what's not to like? Just help clear people out of their homes.
This has all of the great elements of 2020 late capitalism: It touches on the massive unemployment. It's an app. It focuses on a symptom of a crisis that we should not have to be dealing with. There are flexible hours!
There is currently a nationwide moratorium on evictions, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (with certain steps to qualify, and that is being challenged in courts), but landlords and capital are working to oust people from their homes during a global pandemic. Evictions are some of the cruelest actions out there; video from some of the evictions at the start of this crisis have shown people left in tears with nowhere else to go, abandoning items they can't take with them, and pleading for another chance. Cities and states are scrambling to deal with growing homeless populations during the pandemic and putting more people out on the streets during this time is a public health risk, per the CDC which is why local governments scrambled to try and put people into temporary housing in hotels. But hey, people can make some money on a side hustle.
(Honestly, Sorry to Bother You was a documentary.)
(Trump signing the CARES Act/Wikimedia Commons/Fair Use)
All of this comes as there is still no progress on additional federal assistance for those hurt by the pandemic. It's now fall and rent is due on a few days and it's now been two seasons since the CARES Act was passed. Given the focus on the November election and the Supreme Court fight, it doesn't seem that likely that there will be more help, especially not before the first of the month. Meanwhile, food insecurity in the United States is on the rise, with And as the situation gets worse, don't be surprised if more companies and apps like Civvl emerge to cannibalize the 99 percent. Where's the bottom for this? I'm honestly not sure.
Surprise 2020 Guest Star Attila the Hun
Not really the kind of thing I intended this newsletter to be about, but honestly I had to mention this weirdness. Since I lived in metro Atlanta for 15 years (during the Clinton and Bush eras), I keep an eye out on Georgia politics just to see how things are there. One of the more interesting elements is the special election for a Senate seat. I realize this is a few days removed from this edition of Let's Do the Panic Again going online but I had to include it because, well, see for yourself:
I don't even know where to begin. The bizarre nature of having Attila the Hun at all. The grunting. The incredibly cheap historical costuming meets 1980s videotape aesthetic. The hard cut from the Attila scene to Senator Kelly Loeffler next to Trump. What was the pitch meeting for this like? Who even came up with this? Who seconded this idea? I can't get over this; I mean, people signed off on this! This was conceived, budgeted, filmed and released. Somehow.
Loeffler, who you probably remember as one of the members of Congress who profited from stock tradings informed by COVID-19 briefings, is in a tight race to keep her Senate seat, which she was appointed to after Johnny Isakson resigned. The race also includes, because sure why not, Joe Lieberman's son Matt. And apparently the solution to winning involves Attila, who despite what the ad says, never waged war on China. I am so baffled. I realize that if you're reading this newsletter you have some interest in my insight on current events, but this? Just honestly, truly at a loss.
I'll be back later this week with more film essays. Until then, stay safe out there. Apparently Attila the Hun might go after you.
Today's Panic Reading
I’ve mentioned in the past that I am on unemployment. Still am, and although I have some freelance work here and there, it’s been very tough at times. But I am still one of the luckier people. The Cut has an amazing, horrifying feature on the stories being told in the r/unemployment subreddit, where people are out of options and being crushed. It is urgent and a gut punch. I’m sending this newsletter just ahead of the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump and my anxiety is telling me that neither candidate will discuss how so many people are falling into poverty, homelessness, and without help as things get worse. More than anything, more than some of the reporting I do covering homelessness, this broke me.
In a sign that we truly are all doomed and that it's time to panic again, remember how Congress gave the Pentagon $1 billion to fight COVID-19? Putting aside the fact that we too often try to use military framework to solve issues, it turns out that the Department of Defense decided to instead use that money for planes and other military hardware and even uniforms.
Speaking of panic and doom, it turns out that the top 1 percent of the global population are responsible for double the carbon emmission of the bottom half. Class warfare is real, and the battlefield is the earth. Inequality is literally killing our planet.
Today's Panic Music
This week I've been listening a lot to the Dead Kennedys' debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. There's a lot of goodness here, the blistering rage of “Holiday in Cambodia,” the madcap glee in the “Viva Las Vegas” cover but the one I keep going back to, especially in light of the inequality and clean air story, is “Kill the Poor.”