Tom Morello threw a one-day “Power to the People” festival in Columbia, Maryland, on October 3, and the people, it turns out, still need a corporate merch table, a Dave Matthews set, and a voter-registration nonprofit to feel empowered. Chuck D yelled “Free Palestine, free Haiti” and took shots at Trump. Dave Grohl dedicated “My Hero” to Jack Smith in the crowd. Proceeds went to groups like VoteRiders. Morello, fresh off telling Rolling Stone he sat out a Kamala Harris vote over corporate politics and Gaza, curated the whole thing like a man who has spent thirty years selling the same pamphlet with better guitar tones. This is not revolution. This is Marxism with a lanyard and a limited-edition poster. Three ways the packaging fools the mindless: First, the ownership dodge. Rage Against the Machine made its money inside the exact machine it claims to hate—major labels, arena tours, streaming platforms owned by the same capital it denounces. The festival sells tickets, merch, and “activism” while the proceeds get funneled to registration outfits that mainly juice one party’s turnout. Classic move: denounce the bourgeoisie, then cash the check and call the cashier a comrade. Marx wanted the workers to seize the means of production; Morello wants them to seize a Dave Matthews encore and a QR code. Second, the selective outrage. “Free Palestine, free Haiti” gets the mic. The actual track record of the regimes and militias those slogans usually protect—authoritarian parties, one-party states, political prisons—gets the mute button. Morello has spent years praising or soft-pedaling socialist and communist experiments while the body counts and shortages stay off the set list. The crowd hears liberation. The fine print is “some people’s power counts more than others, and history class is optional.” Third, the hero swap. Grohl points at Jack Smith like he’s Che with a subpoena. The special counsel becomes the people’s champion because he went after the approved villain. That is not anti-authoritarianism; that is picking your preferred enforcer and selling the T-shirt. Marxism always needed a vanguard that decides which boots are revolutionary and which are fascist. Here the vanguard just has better lighting and a Foo Fighters catalog. Morello has not been subtle about this for decades. Rage Against the Machine’s politics were explicit anti-capitalist, pro-socialist messaging from the first record. He has repeatedly framed his work as class warfare, endorsed leftist candidates and causes, appeared with socialist organizers, and treated capitalism itself as the enemy rather than a flawed system that also produced the amps and the festivals. The “power to the people” branding is the same pitch he has used since the ’90s: the system is rigged, the rich are the problem, and the solution looks a lot like collective control directed by people who already agree with him. The festival just adds Chuck D, a Grohl dedication, and a nonprofit receipt. It’s a concert. The politics are the opening act that never leaves the stage. The mindless buy the shirt, chant the slogan, and go home convinced they seized something. The machine keeps the lights on. #PowerToTheMerchTable #MarxismWithASetlist #FreePalestineButKeepTheTicketRevenue #RageAgainstTheMachineExceptTheOneThatPays #JackSmithIsMyHeroNow #VoteRidersAndVibes

47 years ago today, “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang was released

There's obviously nothing funny about 9/11 but this clip of Joe Biden from September 13th is a little comical. Nobody knew what was happening but Biden still found his way on TV and pretended like he did. This could have been a SNL skit.