Our first book The Urban Homestead went to print just as the financial crisis of 2008 hit and its success I attribute, in part, to the well known fact that in times of economic stress people turn to subjects such as growing food, canning, mending, and preparedness. Enthusiasm for these subjects surged after the stock market crash of 1929 and the oil crisis of the 1970s. Catastrophic financial trauma usually results in a rightward turn: fascism in the 1930s, Reagan in the 1980s and the shape-shifting postmodern right of our time.

By now, myself included, we’re likely fatigued by a tsunami of premature hot takes on the U.S. election results this month. At the risk of adding yet another, I want to mention one aspect related to our book and the subject of this blog. Specifically, I’ve long thought that what caused many of us to turn to pastimes such as gardening and cooking has a lot to do with a metaphysical uneasiness with postmodern consumer culture that the 2008 crisis greatly exacerbated.

Figures on the right like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Viktor Orbán know how to exploit this uneasiness. These far right politicians accurately name our anxieties: a lack of meaning, skyrocketing grocery bills, and downward class mobility. In contrast, neoliberal, centrist politicians, such as the leadership of the Democratic party, tell us its our own fault, that it’s all in our imagination, that we’re uninformed, that we should download a mindfulness app and suck it up, and that, ultimately, you’re on your own to solve your unhappiness. While the centrists gaslight us, the far right misdirects—instead of grounding these legitimate concerns in the system itself they blame whatever minority group is easiest to kick down—immigrants, trans people, imaginary communists etc.

The results of the U.S. Election last week are a resounding referendum on that centrist gaslighting and scolding. It feels as though the shock of 2008 has finally delivered us, after many bumpy years, to the end of the ‘end of history,’ in the sense of Francis Fukuyama’s notion that liberal society has reached its peak, fulfilled all our needs and we can all just go to brunch. Fukuyama’s teleological fantasy hit a wall this month and brunch got permanently canceled.

Food and Drugs
One of the things I’m least looking forward to in the coming years, is hearing the raspy voice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tapping into that spiritual unease I’ve just mentioned while, possibly, wielding immense power over our food and drug system. Like his far right compatriots, RFK Jr. does the same two step rhetorical dance by first accurately calling out the rot at the core of our food and medical systems but then going on to misdirect our attention from the real cause of the problem: a system based on capital accumulation that only provides food and healthcare as an afterthought.

RFK Jr’s rhetoric isn’t worth the time it would take to refute but it would be a mistake to condescend to his followers who face the same chronic health concerns and the plague of sadness that effects us all. Condescension, a fatal trait of the professional classes that support the current Democratic party is one of the reasons Harris lost in my opinion. I knew there was a problem when, a few months ago, I spotted a sign in our neighborhood of $1.5 million+ homes reading, smugly, “Harris for President OBVIOUSLY.” Cults do this type of messaging which is more about reinforcing notions that you’re somehow part of the chosen few rather than, much more productively, winning people over to your side.

You also can’t “fact check” your way out of this crisis or RFK Jr.’s bullshit. The overly literal and materialist biases of the ruling class are part of the problem. We have somehow neglected the tool kits that religion, poetry, art, philosophy and the humanities offer to refute the impoverished belief systems of people like RFK Jr. We don’t need fact checkers, we need better belief systems backed up by the principle of love of neighbor.

No Plaster Saints

Lest I contribute to black pilling anyone who still reads this old blog, the two things keeping me going this week include the fact that the local campaign I helped out with succeeded in throwing out a corporate Democrat by appealing to people’s material needs, most specifically addressing the problem of high rent in a very unaffordable city.

I’m also holding in my mind this picture of the no-nonsense Dorothy Day looking like a character in a film noir. I can imagine her taking a drag on that smoke and saying, as she once did, “Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.” Then I can imagine her, as she also did, getting to work in a struggle harsh on systems but big on love of neighbor. As she said, “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”

Update: Shortly after posting this Trump nominated RFK Jr. for the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services which will Senate confirmation.

Given the outsized coverage of the U.S. presidential reality show in the past eight years it seems that the old cliche “all politics is local” no longer holds. Never mind that in our highly interconnected world all politics is actually international.

But you have to begin somewhere. I’ve focused on the local for the last 20 years, having worked as a low level volunteer on and off on a variety of issues and campaigns. “Local” in Los Angeles, given the size of the city (3.8 million) and the region (12.8 million), means that more people live here than all but 5 of 56 states and territories.

We have a chance tomorrow to replace one of our worst and most corrupt councilmembers, Kevin De Leon with a grass roots candidate Ysabel Jurado. While most of you reading this probably aren’t in Los Angeles let me explain why this race is important wherever you live.

How Big Real Estate Influences Politics
Real estate interests drive the overwhelming majority of local political corruption. In America’s big cities the combination of a housing shortage and outdated zoning codes create the opportunity for developers, construction firms, consultants, landlords and lobbyists to influence local officials who have broad powers to make or break developments. Thanks to the supreme court’s Citizen’s United ruling, these real estate interests, in addition to outright bribes, can pour money into what are called “independent expenditures” to support messaging in favor of their favored candidates or initiatives. Increasingly, real estate interests use police and fire unions to mask the true motive of these independent expenditures with a false “public safety” scare narrative. Combine all this with a gutted local press and public officials know that they can get away with all kinds of petty schemes since nobody is watching them.

As a solidly “blue” city, campaign funding in Los Angeles flows to Democrats but the money itself is agnostic. If this were a “red” city the contributions would fill the pockets and campaign coffers of Republicans. This type of real estate corruption happens everywhere, for example, with New York City mayor Eric Adams who seems to have taken foreign money to facilitate local construction projects.

A Local Example
Let’s take a look at six recently disgraced Los Angeles city councilmen to see how (mostly) real estate interests drive political corruption:

• Jose Huizar: Sentenced to 13 years for taking bribes and other perks including casino trips and escorts in return for favorable treatment of developers, notably Chinese billionaire Wei Huang. Huizar was assisted in this scheme by the former general manager of LA Building and Safety and deputy mayor Ray Chan and also by Huizar’s special assistant George Esparza and real estate development consultant George Chiang. Others involved in the crime: political fundraiser Justin Jangwoo Kim, lobbyist Morris Roland Goldman, Huizar’s brother Salvador Huizar, developer Dae Yong Lee, 940 Hill LLC, and Shen Zhen New World LLC.
• Mitchell Englander: councilman and reserve LAPD officer sentenced to 14 months in federal prison for accepting “cash payments, expensive meals, escort services and other gifts” in return for obstructing the Huizar investigation
• John Lee: Allegedly “staffer B” in the Huizar indictment. Staffer B accepted “multiple gifts from a businessperson and a developer, most of which exceeded the gift limit.”
• Mark Ridley-Thomas: In addition to real estate, some corruption comes from what you might call the “non-profit industrial complex,” non-profits that influence policy and/or receive funding from the city. Former councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas was convicted along with USC dean Marilyn Louise Flynn for taking bribes in return for directing funding to USC, a university with so many scandals that LA Times reporter Paul Pringle wrote a book Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels describing them along with this powerful university’s successful attempt to suppress Pringle’s reporting, for over a year, about an abusive, crack smoking USC medical school dean.
• Curren Price: According to the LA Times: “Price, first elected in 2013, is accused of voting on development projects in which he had a financial interest, and receiving tens of thousands of dollars in medical benefits for his now-wife while he was still married to another woman.” One of Price’s plural wives–yes you read that correctly–ran Del Richardson & Associates which, among other alleged activities, advised developers on how to evict tenants so that they could build luxury housing.
• Kevin De Leon: Someone leaked a 2021 recording of councilman Kevin De Leon and former councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Nury Martinez in conversation with Ron Herrera, former president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. In the recording they discussed redistricting the city to remove power from tenants rights groups. They also talked about the location of a football stadium and Olympic business. In between this naked corruption they went on vile racist rants insulting nearly every ethnic minority in the city. Despite being asked by everyone from Rick Caruso to Joe Biden to resign, Kevin De Leon stayed in office and is up for reelection next week. For the love of God, if you live in De Leon’s district, which encompasses downtown, Boyle Heights and Eagle Rock, please vote for Ysabel Jurado.

A Happy Ending
Involvement in politics can easily turn you into a black-pilled Joker, but one should sidestep that nihilism for the solid fact that ordinary citizens can have an impact on local politics much more so than national politics. Small donor campaigns replaced three Los Angeles council seats with councilmembers not in the pockets of big developers. We have a chance to gain a forth seat tomorrow. There is hope for a better future and a government that serves working people.

The last time I was on the Garden Fork Podcast, the host, “East Coast Eric” challenged me to build a Free Blockbuster Little Library and I finally made good on the promise. I managed to install this garishly painted DVD, VHS, CD and video game themed little free library in our parkway yesterday as the sun went down.

With the exception of the hinges and Lucite, I used repurposed materials and patterned the design after a lararium I saw online. I downloaded a digital stencil file from FreeBlockbuster.org and cut it out using the Cameo stencil cutter at the Los Angeles Central Library’s awesome Octavia Lab maker space. Many thanks to the librarian who helped me figure out the machine.

I’m hopeful this Little Free Blockbuster proves successful–physical media is a great alternative to the high cost of streaming services.

The problem with watching films by Andrey Tarkovsky is that they make every other film seem like a waste of time. Even Tarkovsky’s lesser films are still better than any other film ever made. And you’re left wondering how a mere mortal could be behind work of such transcendent detail and beauty, particularly someone who endured the miseries of the Soviet Union during World War II and the turbulence of artistic production during the Cold War.

Last night we attended a screening of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer, a documentary made by his son Andrei A. Tarkovsky. The documentary combines excerpts from his films, behind the scenes footage and extensive recorded interviews of Tarkovsky explaining his approach to art and the great questions of life. Tarkovsky’s films act as gateways to the ineffable, like the icons painted by Andrei Rublev in Tarkovsky’s film. The key to that gateway is unlocked, as Tarkovsky explains in the documentary, through art that acts both as poetry and prayer.

I’m always reluctant to watch a Tarkovsky film. They are long, demanding and emotionally overwhelming. Just thinking about the bell scene in Rublev makes me tear up and unable to speak. They force you into a confrontation with the meaning of life and death and it’s far easier lapse into the cynical embrace of some dumb Hollywood action movie and avoid those big questions.

Andrei Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer is worthy of multiple viewings as Tarkovsky’s thoughts are both profound and dense. Lately I’ve been getting back into physical media and I’d like to own a copy of it as well as a complete set of Tarkovsky’s films. You can find this documentary as an extra feature on the Criterion version of Mirror and on the Criterion channel.

You can watch Anrei Rublev on YouTube as well as Mirror, Solaris, Ivan’s Childhood and Stalker but I’m considering purchasing the higher quality restored versions on DVD. And, of course, you should jump at the chance to see them on film in a theater if possible.

The price we pay, here in Los Angeles, for not having hurricanes and tornadoes (for the most part) is the ever present threat of an earthquake. Yesterday, a minor quake interrupted our brat summer here in Silver Lake. I heard it described as “4.5 on the hipster scale.” The New York Times couldn’t resist piling on the stereotypes, “In Silver Lake, during a cycling class, the bikes swayed slightly, giving some riders a woozy feeling.”

Kelly and I were parking our car when it happened and, at the risk of piling on yet more stereotypes, on our way to a hipster lunch place when the MyShake app on my phone went off to alert us that we should “drop and cover.” We froze, waiting for shaking to start only to realize that we had missed the quake. Our neighborhood text thread lighted up with talk of loud noises and long shaking but no damage.

Journalist Alissa Walker has been following the MyShake apps for years and posted about how, during a minor quake last week, the app gave her time to respond. She said on social media,

I got a VERY good shake alert on my watch — about 15 seconds of warning, told the family, and then we all felt the earthquake roll in together

When I saw the estimated magnitude, I knew it wasn’t going to be huge but we all had enough time to get under the table if we needed to

If you haven’t downloaded @myshakeapp now would be a good time! Also the system is improving constantly so even if this one didn’t work I guarantee future you will appreciate the warning ⚠️ https://myshake.berkeley.edu

This was probably the best-case scenario for people in LA to get an early warning — big enough to trigger the system, far enough away to get advance notice.

The paradox with the early warning feature of this app is that, of course, the further away the quake is the more time you’ll have to react, but the closer, more dangerous quakes won’t come with a warning. Still, I’m glad I downloaded the app and, even if you don’t get advanced notice, it’s helpful to know the location and strength of the quake. In our case, we knew we didn’t need to rush home and could enjoy our expensive sandwich.

Thanks to Root Simple Tokyo correspondent Amy for letting me know about the shaky spin class and for telling me that in Japan this minor of a quake probably wouldn’t make the news.