WHO ROCKS IT BETTER?

OR?

Disaster Capitalism is the practice of exploiting crises—such as wars, natural disasters, or economic collapses—to push free-market policies that benefit corporations and elites at the public’s expense. In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein argues that during moments of chaos, people are too disoriented to resist privatization, deregulation, and austerity measures that would otherwise face opposition. Governments and businesses use these shocks to sell off public assets, cut social programs, and secure lucrative contracts, often worsening inequality. Real-world examples include post-Katrina New Orleans, the Iraq War, and COVID-19 bailouts, all demonstrating how disaster capitalism turns suffering into profit.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed reporters at the White House, where Trump outlined his plan for the U.S. to “take over” Gaza, relocate Palestinians to neighboring countries, and redevelop the war-torn enclave into what he described as the “Riviera of the Middle East.” “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said, unveiling what he called his “long-term ownership” and redevelopment plan for the enclave, much of which has been reduced to rubble after 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.

This proposal aligns with The Shock Doctrine’s thesis, leveraging a devastated society to enable large-scale privatization of reconstruction efforts. Elite capital investment, backed by governments, promises major profits while undertaking an ethnic cleansing of the Palestenian population . Disaster capitalism thrives on instability, using shock tactics to push through unpopular economic transformations that serve the wealthy at the expense of the vulnerable.

Two kleptocrats seen plotting at Chaos Central

In his new book Fluke, political scientist Brian Klaas asks whether every move we make could potentially produce a domino effect. With reference to the mathematical concept of chaos theory, Klaas draws attention to the fact that small, seemingly trivial events can have far-reaching consequences. The author speaks with Walter Isaacson about his belief that randomness shapes our world, from personal circumstances to geopolitical events.

A deep-dive into the phenomenon of random chance and the chaos it can sow, drawing on social science, chaos theory, history, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Klaas provides a fresh look at why things happen.

The Donald looking for the Win

DJT & JDV relaxing between schemes

Stephen Miller card carrying agent of chaos and cruelty was featured in a book,Hate Monger.

Court Painter makes major gift to President Donald J Trump’s Presidential Library.

In a remarkable act of generosity and and in the spirit of letting bygones be bygones, the renowned Great Dominion Court Painter has made a stunning contribution to the future Donald J. Trump Presidential Library.

Despite ongoing tensions, including the unjustifiable trade war initiated by President Trump, and the 77,303,568 US citizens who voted in support of The Donald’s presidency; Court Painter read the tea leaves and felt the time was right to lower tensions between the trading partners …proceeded with executing an interpretative assholes in space portrait of the 47th President,capturing the essence of his dynamic character,behaviour,skin tone etc.etc.

The painting, delivered with all tariffs included, has been sent to the Mar-a-Lago Estate, where it will be safeguarded until it takes its rightful place as a centerpiece in the forthcoming 47th Presidential Library.

It should be noted that of the estimated 41,465,500 Canadians surveyed, all but one adamantly opposed the idea of gifting anything to this narcissistic, psychopathic, impulsive sadist.

Many of them, seen here at NHL hockey games booing the American anthem.

The one glaring exception—without even seeing the finished portrait—was the self-interested “Mr. Wonderful,” Kevin O’Leary, who was full-throated in his support, anticipating standing next to the portrait with “The Donald” during his next pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago.

Court Painter seen with portrait of “The Modest Mr. Wonderful”

Court Painter & Sam Altman American entrepreneur and investor CEO of OpenAI

 This is really a key dynamic of the next few years: being told we should be very worried about what the authoritarian Chinese are doing by Silicon Valley authoritarians we should also be extremely worried about. For us little people, the choice seems to be between being data-jacked and screwed over by the undemocratic Chinese, or being data-jacked and screwed over by the post-democratic tech bros. Once again, it’s the old syphilis or Ebola menu choice.

Marina Hyde The Guardian January 31/24

If China has done to Sam Altman what his OpenAI has been accused of doing to creatives, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh

Court Painter with portrait of Sam Altman, CEO Open AI

Click link for article

Oh, I’m sorry, tech bros – did DeepSeek copy your work? I can hardly imagine your distress

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/31/tech-bros-deepseek-china-sam-altman-openai?CMP=share_btn_url

The true villains of modern history may be the social media overlords – Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, above all – who have stripped away any fetters on far-right lies and demagoguery.

Click link for Zeteo article

https://zeteo.com/p/the-internet-made-donald-trump?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Excerpted from article

Consider which ideas spread fastest online: not the ones that are most accurate, but the ones that receive the most attention.

This has turned large swaths of the internet into little more than a contest for liars. 

After all, online, who cares if claims are true or not, as long as people share them? The social and financial rewards of online attention are barely reduced when the underlying claim is false. Indeed, truth-tellers are at a massive disadvantage on the internet since they’re forced to compete with wild, hysterical, or completely manufactured material that has been engineered specifically to attract notice and be shared. Many people have persisted in publishing true facts anyway – but they often sink out of sight, occluded by the more viral claims of skilled fabulists.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

― John Kenneth Galbraith

‘The modern conservative is not even especially modern. He is engaged, on the contrary, in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. It is an exercise which always involves a certain number of internal contradictions and even a few absurdities. The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character-building value of privation for the poor. The man who has struck it rich in minerals, oil, or other bounties of nature is found explaining the debilitating effect of unearned income from the state. The corporate executive who is a superlative success as an organization man weighs in on the evils of bureaucracy. Federal aid to education is feared by those who live in suburbs that could easily forgo this danger, and by people whose children are in public schools. Socialized medicine is condemned by men emerging from Walter Reed Hospital. Social Security is viewed with alarm by those who have the comfortable cushion of an inherited income. Those who are immediately threatened by public efforts to meet their needs — whether widows, small farmers, hospitalized veterans, or the unemployed — are almost always oblivious to the danger.’

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Speech (1963-12-13), “Wealth and Poverty,” National Policy Committee on Pockets of P0verty

Court Painter with portrait of John Kenneth Galbraith

UPDATE from January 22/25 post

Court Painter turned his painterly fascination to the subject of Wrecking ball Grifters and these are some of the action scenes.