#denying the existence of alien intervention is no longer an option

[sergioguymanproust]

It all begun in a road similar to this ,cold and full of dead leaves littering the road the wet asphalt lend an ominous feeling to the road in the afternoon hours .Coming back from a busy morning, feeling tired I decided to take the forest road home knowing how haunted and dangerous this few miles were, the many reported incidents and vanishing of several locals kept them away from driving and strolling these woods.Driving around the bend notice how suddenly a fog bank was coming in my direction,I figured to pullover and wait for the moving fog to pass.I was then sipping a cup of coffee from my thermos when I saw it as clear as day a brilliant golden orb floating three feet above the ground slowly flying and approaching my car .Suddenly it stopped and lifted my car off the ground and dragged me into a huge cigar shaped ufo.That’s all I could remember ,then finding myself in the car in a field near home.A day had gone by and I awoke in my bed to a familiar sound of running water from my fountain in my garden ,realizing I had been abducted and shown a meeting of several extraterrestrial in a room off planet.Well,I know now that millions of abductees form part of an agenda to relocate us humans in a planet bigger than earth .But first we must be conditioned to the new atmospheric conditions.Well,folks ,the advice is avoid roads that are forested if you can.The truth is that extraterrestrial are living among us ,I say this not to create panic but to state a fact that can no longer be denied by the powers above.Words by Sergio GuymanProust.

[antoine-roquentin]

It is​ a measure of Krugman’s increasing despair that by 2013 his jaundiced view of American class society converged with his worries about the intellectual framing of economics. As Republican and Democratic centrists struggled to fashion a bipartisan majority around a programme to slash the deficit, it dawned on Krugman that the entirety of what he had once confidently described as ‘responsible’ economic policy was shot through with class interest. Talk of fiscal sustainability wasn’t just bad economics; it was, Krugman now believed, class war by stealth. In End This Depression Now (2012), Krugman broke one of the taboos that separate mainstream New Keynesians from their left-wing heterodox counterparts. He invoked the Polish economist Michał Kalecki, whose work is commonly cited as having bridged Keynesianism and Marxism. In 1943, in wartime exile in Oxford, Kalecki had explained why delivering stabilisation policy in a sustained way, as Keynes envisioned, might not be possible in a class-divided society. At the depths of the crisis, Keynesians would be summoned by the powers that be to do the minimum that was necessary, but as soon as the worst had passed, well before the economy reached full employment, the same policies would be anathematised as undermining ‘confidence’. The balance of what was ‘sensible’ would be set by the interests of the wealthiest and most secure. Their principal concern wasn’t full employment, but profit, which dictated stimulus in a slump and restraint whenever profits were squeezed by increased wages in a tightening labour market. Five years before Samuelson, in his classic textbook of 1948, laid out his vision of the complementarity of macroeconomic management and market-based microeconomics, Kalecki had already shown why it would end in failure.

As Krugman remarked, when he first read Kalecki’s essay he ‘thought it was over the top. Kalecki was, after all, a declared Marxist ... But, if you haven’t been radicalised by recent events, you haven’t been paying attention; and policy discourse since 2008 has run exactly along the lines Kalecki predicted.’ After a short burst of emergency Keynesianism, by 2010 deficits not unemployment were the problem. And any effort to push for better conditions was immediately countered with the insistence that it would induce ‘economic policy uncertainty’ and hold the economy back. It wasn’t unemployed Americans, Krugman raged, but imaginary ‘confidence fairies’ that were dictating policy.

Krugman reassured himself by adding that Kalecki was far more of a Keynesian than he was a Marxist, but quibbles aside, Krugman’s own transformation could hardly be denied. The members of the American left he had savaged in the 1990s were now his friends. He was talking about power in the starkest terms. But the question was unavoidable: once you lost your faith in the state as a tool of reformist intervention, once you truly reckoned with the omnipresence of class power, what choices remained but fatalism or a demand for a revolutionary politics? Between those alternatives, respectively unappetising and unrealistic, there was perhaps a third option. America had, after all, been here before. FDR’s New Deal too had been hemmed in. It had delivered far less than promised, until the floodgates were finally opened by the Second World War. The Great Depression, Krugman wrote, ‘ended largely thanks to a guy named Adolf Hitler. He created a human catastrophe, which also led to a lot of government spending.’ ‘Economics,’ he wrote in another essay, ‘is not a morality play. It’s not a happy story in which virtue is rewarded and vice punished.’

‘If it were announced that we faced a threat from space aliens and needed to build up to defend ourselves,’ Krugman said in 2012, ‘we’d have full employment in a year and a half.’ If 21st-century America needed an enemy, China was one candidate. On foreign policy, Krugman is perhaps best described as a left patriot. Where he had once downplayed the impact of Chinese imports on the US economy, he now declared that China’s currency policy was America’s enemy: by manipulating its exchange rate Beijing was dumping exports on America. But to Krugman’s frustration Obama never turned the pivot towards Asia into a concerted economic strategy.

You might argue that in Covid we have found an enemy of precisely the kind Krugman was imagining. As far as Europe is concerned, an alien space invasion isn’t an implausible model for Covid. This novel threat broke down inhibitions in Berlin, and the Eurozone’s response was far more ambitious than it was after 2008. But America isn’t the Eurozone. For all Krugman’s gloom, it didn’t take a new world war to flip the economic policy switch. All it took was an election. Almost immediately after Trump’s victory in November 2016, the fiscal taps were opened. As under Reagan in the 1980s and Bush in the 2000s, all fear of deficits disappeared.

Compelling as Krugman may have found the Kaleckian vision, it does not describe the United States in the 21st century. The balance of class forces Kalecki had assumed in the 1940s no longer exists. In America in 2017 big business did not object to running the economy hot. There was no real threat of wage pressure: a flutter of strikes perhaps, but nothing serious. No chance of inflationary expectations becoming embedded in adjustments to the cost of living. No wage-price spiral. Everything to gain from tax cuts for corporations and the rich. The Kaleckian scenario, from today’s point of view, presumed too much countervailing force from the left and by the same token too many constraints on active economic policy.

Trump opened a new era of voluntarism in economic policy. You really could do what you liked. Neither external threats in the form of bond market vigilantes, nor domestic counterpressure in the form of contending social classes, were any longer effective constraints. American conservatives had never been as keen on the slogan There Is No Alternative as Margaret Thatcher or Angela Merkel. Under Trump there was simply no limit to the GOP’s opportunism. Typically, the centre and left did more intellectual work to come to terms with the new situation. The IMF’s former chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, had painstakingly demonstrated the sustainability of much higher levels of debt in a world of low interest rates. Meanwhile, Modern Monetary Theory had its moment in the sun. Blending state theories of money, radical Keynesianism of 1940s vintage and inside knowledge of the plumbing of the modern financial markets, MMT argued that debt wasn’t a problem at all. The only limit on an expansionary economic policy should be the inflation rate; otherwise the overriding priority should be full employment.

It’s telling that despite the apparent political affinity between Krugman and the proponents of MMT, its heresies revived his impulse to play policeman. After long and fruitless exchanges, Krugman declared that MMT was either silly or merely old-fashioned Keynesianism warmed over. In 2020 these doctrinal debates were overtaken by the reality of the Covid shock. In March 2020, as more than twenty million Americans lost their jobs in a matter of weeks, Congress united around a gigantic fiscal stimulus. At the Fed, the centrist Republican Jerome Powell embarked on a programme of intervention that dwarfed anything contemplated by Bernanke. And with a Democratic majority in Congress the impetus has carried through to 2021. The mantra on everyone’s lips is a blunt statement of Krugman’s position. Do not repeat the mistakes of the early Obama administration. Go large. If the Republicans have now decided to be fiscal conservatives, ignore them. There has been no opposition from big business. What the Chamber of Commerce did not like was the $15 minimum wage. Once that was dropped, it did not oppose the $1.9 trillion plan; it seems that business fears legislative intervention more than it does Kalecki-style pressure in the labour market.

The Krugmanification of the Democrats wasn’t won without a fight. There are fiscal hawks in Biden’s entourage. At one point he even counted Larry Summers as an adviser. That didn’t last: the empowered left wing of the Dems wouldn’t stand for it. But although he is no longer in the inner circle, Summers hasn’t surrendered. Opposing untargeted stimulus checks, calling for more focus on investment, he recently declared the Biden administration’s fiscal policy the most irresponsible in forty years – the result, he remarked bitterly, of the leverage handed to the left of the Democratic Party by the absolute refusal of the GOP to co-operate.

The first instinct of the wonks inside the Biden administration is to counter Summers’s arguments on his own terms. Their models show, they insist, that the risks of overheating and inflation are slight. What they don’t say is that being credibly committed to running the economy hot is precisely the point. This is what Krugman meant in 1998 when he called on the Bank of Japan to make a credible commitment to irresponsibility. To avoid the risk of a liquidity trap what you want to encourage is precisely a general belief that inflation is set to pick up. In the late 1990s Krugman, like a good New Keynesian, envisioned monetary and fiscal policy as substitutes for each other. In 2021 America is getting a massive dose of both. As the Fed announced in August last year, the plan is to get inflation above 2 per cent and to dry out the labour market. The bond markets may flinch, but if the sell-off gets too bad, the Fed can always buy more bonds.

[justlightlysedated]

call and i'll rush out

for @fraudulentzodiacs just because 😊💜

*

Alex has been gone for six weeks when Isobel stages the intervention.

With Max awake and fully mobile, and even getting back to work, she decides that it's time to drag Michael out of this hole he seems to have fallen in.

He'd been doing so good, had even managed to get Maria to agree to go out with him after all the lies and everything else, was drinking less, and he even made a few friends that didn't have criminal records (Alex being one of them, but that's an issue for another day). 

And then from one day to the other, Alex disappeared.

It was worrying at first, but in the time since then, there has been no evidence of foul play, and Kyle had even received an email from Alex explaining why he left so suddenly.

Michael, however, was convinced that something was wrong, and it all stemmed from a dream he had the night that Alex had left, flashes of images that were unclear and the overwhelming feeling of fear and panic.

Isobel didn't have the heart to tell him that it was impossible to get anything from Alex because Alex wasn't an alien, but it's not like he would've listened. 

He's been obsessed searching for clues that aren't there and following a trail that doesn't exist and nothing anyone says seems to be making a difference, so Isobel decides that maybe if they all approached him together at the same time, he wouldn't be able to sweep their concerns away.

Michael immediately knows what's going on the second that he enters Isobel's apartment and finds all of their friends waiting for them.

He stops right at the entrance, opening his mouth to protest, but Isobel pushes him towards the chair at the front of the semicircle they've formed.

Michael sits right on the edge of his seat and sweeps a nervous glare across the room, before he looks up at Isobel who settles herself on the arm of his chair, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

"Izzy," he says, knowing that this was all her idea. "I have things to do-"

"You're going to sit, and you're going to listen, okay?" She says, fingers tightening on his shoulder.

Michael just sighs, and nods his head, but he doesn't relax at all.

Isobel looks to Max and nods her head, letting him know that it's okay to start.

Max tells Michael that he's worried about him and that he knows how Michael feels about Alex, but it isn't healthy to obsessively search for someone who doesn't want to be found.

"You did fine without him for ten years," he finishes. "You're going to do just fine again without him for the next ten."

Liz goes next, starting the same as Max, that she's worried about him and the amount of sleep he's getting, and that if there were any clues that Alex was actually in danger, she would be the first one supporting him, but more likely than not Alex just needed to take a break.

"He hates this place," she finishes, with a soft smile on her face. "I'm surprised he stayed as long as he did."

Maria just gives him an exasperated look, and Isobel doesn't really blame her, seeing as the second that she was ready to be in a relationship with Michael, Michael completely let it fizzle out to instead stalk someone who didn't want to be found.

"I already told you that he came by the night before he left," Maria says. "He was on edge and seemed like he hadn't been getting enough sleep. Everything about him was screaming that he had to get away. I don't doubt that he went straight home and packed a bag and left right after leaving the bar."

Kyle goes next, unfolding a piece of paper and reading out the email that Alex had sent him.

Michael who had been getting more and more tense with each person that spoke, freezes completely as he listens to Kyle.

Kyle looks up at him once he's done.

"Look," he continues, holding a hand out towards Micheal. "I agree with you that Alex wouldn't leave without saying goodbye, but maybe he's still searching for a way to tell you goodbye."

Michael doesn't move.

Isobel squeezes his shoulder again.

"I know that you said you felt his fear and his panic that night, but that's impossible Michael. Alex isn't an alien like us, there's no way-"

One second Michael is as still as marble next to her the next he's crying out in pain, bending over in half as he presses a hand to his head.

Isobel startled, reacts immediately and pushes into his head, getting swept up along with him.

The pressure blooms in her head, pushing all thoughts away but the singular voice calling out for Michael, and the flashes of images too fast to actually make sense, but everything is grey and dreary and dark and she feels the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness and exhaustion.

She feels Michael reaching for the voice automatically, latching on to emotions and dragging himself along.

"Alex," he says both in his head and out loud, the sound ringing in Isobel's head.

Michael, she hears echo across the bond, the feelings of relief and dread filling her up in equal measures.

Where are you? Michael asks, voice desperate.

She feels the denial even before Alex says anything. I'm sorry, he says, voice getting fainter. I love you.

Isobel is pulled out of Michael's head and her eyes blink open rapidly as she looks up into Max's worried face.

He helps her sit up, as Michael whines low in his throat, from where he'd fallen on the floor.

"Alex," he whispers, voice distraught. "Don't let go. Just hold on as little longer."

"What happened?" Liz asks, pulling Isobel out of the daze she found herself in.

Isobel looks up at her and opens her mouth and then closes it, not sure how to tell her what exactly happened, but before she can find the words, Michael is sitting up with a gasp like he just woke up from a bad dream.

Isobel looks at him, and he's looking at her with wide eyes, bright and full of hope, "I know where he is."

Well fuck, Isobel thinks, not being able to deny his knowledge when she clearly felt Alex in Michael's head.

Michael gets to his feet, and looks around the room, dragging his gaze back to Isobel.

"I'm going for him, you guys can come if you want, but I'm not going to wait around and discuss whether or not he's in trouble anymore."

He turns and stumbles as he makes his way to the door.

Kyle follows after him telling him that he's in no condition to drive, with Liz on his heels asking if they're going to be needing a first aid kit since she has a fully stocked one in her car, and Max bringing up the rear at a more sedate pace, not entirely convinced that Alex is in trouble, but siding with Liz immediately.

Maria and Isobel turn to each other at the same time.

"Well, fuck," Maria says, getting to her feet and reaching to help Isobel.

Isobel just nods her head in agreement, and puts her hand in Maria's.

*

Michael feels jittery like he drank too much coffee, and like his skin is on too tight, and his fingers are clenched around the fabric of Alex's hoodie that Liz had put into his hands before bundling him up in the backseat as Max slid into the driver's seat.

He's pinned between Liz and Maria, Isobel on Maria's other side, staring at him hard enough that he can feel her worried gaze.

But he ignores her and everyone else, his eyes on the road in front of him, only knowing that they're heading in the right direction because the ache in the center of his chest that he now knows for sure is Alex, seems to be getting less and less painful the closer they get to wherever he's being kept.

"Make a left," he says, and is glad that Max keeps following his directions without asking him how he's sure.

He feels that they're real close now, and he's kicking himself because he's been searching everywhere, and Alex had been so close this whole time.

"Stop the car," he says, and Max does immediately, braking hard enough that everyone rocks forward with the motion.

"Here?" Kyle asks looking around the empty space, a solitary outhouse is the only thing in the distance.

"There," Michael says pointing towards the outhouse.

He can feel everyone's doubts and he would get mad about it, but he's gotten used to it after the last six weeks.

Michael turns to Liz and she just nods her head once, opening the door to get out of the car.

Michael follows after her, and walks forward towards the outhouse before anyone can stop him.

"Shouldn't we talk about what we're going to do?" Max asks as he gets out of the car to follow him. "If Alex is in there, he won't be alone."

"I'll take care of it," Michael says but doesn't slow down.

Isobel stops him, reaching out and making him freeze, which makes him grit his teeth in annoyance as she makes him turn around to face her.

"We need a plan," she says, ignoring the murdering look he sends her. "We have no idea what we're walking into."

"I don't care," Michael snaps. "He's been there for weeks. God knows what they've been doing to him. I don't care if I have to explode every single person with my brain, I'm getting him out of there, today."

Isobel opens her mouth to argue back, but Kyle interrupts them.

"I think it's safe to say that we're out of options," he says slowly.

Isobel looks behind Michael and lets him go, letting him turn back towards the outhouse, where half a dozen soldiers are making their way out of the outhouse.

Michael clenches his jaw, and Isobel comes to stand beside him, Maria on her other side while Max stands on his other side, Liz and Kyle beside him.

The soldiers lift their rifles and Michael grabs on to Isobel and Max's hands, closing his eyes and concentrating.

The sound of the rifles going off, startles him a little but he thinks, protect, and concentrates with his entire being on making the air solid in front of them. He can feel Max and Isobel's hands tight around his own as the three of them keep the shield up in front of them until the sounds of gunshots stops.

Michael opens his eyes and there are dozens upon dozens upon dozens of bullets suspended in the air in front of them.

He lets go and the bullets drop to the floor.

There is the sound of silence in the air, before Isobel reaches out as the soldiers go to reload their rifles.

Isobel makes a low pained sound, and blood starts to drip down from her nose, but then all six soldiers fall to the floor, passed out, and Isobel opens her eyes, staggering a little and getting caught by Maria.

Michael makes sure that she's alright with a look before he turns to Max, who nods his head and then they're off, running towards the door.

Max makes it first, and he's dealing with the two soldiers still inside, and Michael looks around almost desperately looking for Alex, or something that will lead him to Alex.

He feels a hand on his back, and looks to Kyle who pushes him towards the corner of the room, where there's an open trap door that Michael had missed.

Michael nods his head in thanks, and runs to the door, dropping down immediately, and holding on to the ladder so that he doesn't fall down inside of the dark room.

There is the sound of struggle, and Michael feels a pulse at the back of his head, anger and desperation coming from Alex.

He jumps down the rest of the way, and spots them in the corner. Alex and another soldier, who looks familiar, with his hands wrapped around Alex's throat as Alex fights back, struggling to pull the hands away from him neck.

Michael sees red immediately, and he reaches out without thinking, and drags the soldier away from Alex, slamming him back against the opposite wall.

He hits the ground hard and doesn't get back up, but Michael's attention is all on Alex.

Alex is trying to pick himself up from the floor as he tries to catch his breath. He's bleeding, and he looks like he wasn't allowed to shower for the six weeks and he looks like he might just pass out for six more weeks, but as he looks at Michael with eyes bright and full of relief, and he's the most beautiful thing that Michael has ever seen.

He makes his way to Alex, ignoring everyone else calling down to ask if he found Alex, and he catches him as Alex slides back down to the floor, and falls down with him, dropping hard to his knees and back against the wall, as Alex wraps his arms around Michael's shoulders and buries his face in his neck.

Michael wraps his arms around Alex and pulls him in closer, dragging him fully on top of his lap, and ignoring the sharp intake of breath that Alex gives to pull him in as close as possible.

Michael exhales and feels a sense of peace and calm sink into him for the first time since he realized that Alex was gone.

Alex just breathes against him, fingers tight in the fabric of his shirt, and Michael silently vows to not let him go ever again.

"I never stopped looking for you," Michael whispers, against the top of Alex's head.

"I know," Alex whispers back, voice hoarse and painful. "I could feel you."

Michael shuts his eyes tight and presses a kiss to the top of his head.