‘It’s in the Air, It’s in Your Bones’: Notes on an Aftermath - Salvage: These are the early days of an even worse nation.
At least for the most part the Left appears to have learnt that grief is necessary. Where once, after catastrophe, we might have expected many hack injunctions not to ‘wallow’, because despair is a luxury, they are few today. Instead, in the writings, words and silences of shell-shocked activists since Labour’s agenda-shifting, landslide defeat, has been righteously unashamed lamentation. A wretched and necessary solidarity. Stormzy, so recently so eloquent on enraged class hope, now limns dolour as mass political phenomenon. ‘As soon as it hit midnight … it was like a dark cloud, that’s what it felt like. … Even waking up today, you can feel it. It’s in the air, it’s in your bones.’
We must learn to continue while our bones hurt.
What happened?
Death to hot takes and to dogma. In the introspection of militant mourning, we stress yet again the necessity of humility. Of subjecting not only the world but our own nostrums to ruthless critique.
Granular details and breakdowns are emerging, but we need more, and more detailed, to approach a full analysis. What follow are starting points for analysis and discussion; obs
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Opinion | The History of White Power - The New York Times
Opinion | The History of White Power - The New York Times: Twenty-three years after the Oklahoma City bombing, why are we still surprised by the movement’s strength?
Observations on Steve Bannon and neofascism
Chief Strategist Bannon, a paranoiac known for plotting against others, whose past is plagued by alcohol and bad behaviour leading to a series of divorces, and a possible misdemeanour voter fraud. His involvement with a patently stupid space program, Biosphere 2, resulted in harassment and vandalism charges, while his time as CEO of Internet Gaming Entertainment was sullied by the fact that is principals were sued over allegations of sexual abuse of minors.
Bannon, a mean, dishonest, hustler who built up his charge at Breitbart on the back of online harassment of women, helped secure the menacing tone of the present regime: combative, misogynist, neofacist, and with a carnage-everywhere vision.
Observation on Trump and Right-Wing Populism
Big donors to the Trump campaign included right-wing billionaire Bob Mercer, New York Jets owner and Johnson & Jonhson heir Woody Johnson (Ivanka used to date Jamie Johnson), and PayPal cofounder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel. Thiel is perhaps best known for working with other like-minded ultra-rich right-wing neolibertarians on the 'seasteading' project, which aims to build large, floating, concrete platforms in international waters where billionaires can live off of tax-paying workers without paying taxes themselves.
Also providing monetary aid is real estate tycoon Tom Barrack, Trump's early choice for national chief of staff, who has bailed out both Trump and Kushner and owns the Neverland Ranch and enjoyed the sex pest's nightlife in the company of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein and a bevvy of very young women. With too much invested in the Middle East and on his fourth marriage while Epstein accusations were still coming through, Barrack declined, saying “I'm just too rich.”
Oh, and #tombarrack 's friend #robLowe is also a steaming pile of pig-dog turd.
Observation on Trump and the Alt-Right
As part of its new alignment with the Trump-Bannon White House, the Conservative Political Action Conference's personality headliner was slated to be the right-wing provocateur attached to Breitbart, Milo Yiannopoulos. When, two days before the conference, Yiannopoulos was revealed promoting pedophilia, Trump, who had paid for a fifteen minutes appearance, provided a spectacularly wackadoo ramble, before Richard Spencer arguably stole the show by clarifying Trump's credentials as a neoNazi.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Monday, April 27, 2020
Saturday, April 25, 2020
American billionaire wealth has grown since Trump became president - Business Insider
American billionaire wealth has grown since Trump became president - Business Insider: Household wealth has remained relatively flat over the past 30 years. In 2018, the gap between the rich and the poor widened to an all-time high.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Why Trump Evades the Courts
In its 1982 ruling in Nixon v. Fitzgerald, a wrongful termination lawsuit brought by a former Air Force management analyst, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the president enjoys absolute immunity in civil cases from damages arising from his official acts. Such immunity, the court held, applies even when the president abuses his discretion. The Supreme Court discouraged civil suits against the President for his official acts to be filed in state courts, observing that state lawsuits against the President would have difficult legal obstacles to overcome. Under longstanding Justice Department policy, sitting Presidents are immune from federal criminal prosecution.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Monday, April 6, 2020
‘Slide into martial law’: ACLU attorney warns anti-coronavirus measures are coming at the expense of civil liberties – Alternet.org
‘Slide into martial law’: ACLU attorney warns anti-coronavirus measures are coming at the expense of civil liberties – Alternet.org: As the coronavirus pandemic grew increasingly deadly, a long list of countries imposed strict social distancing measures. Major cities all around the world, from Madrid to Paris to San Francisco, are largely shut down. Yet exactly how governments have carried out social distancing requirements has v
Sunday, April 5, 2020
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Coronavirus: A Capitalist Crisis - LA Progressive
Coronavirus: A Capitalist Crisis - LA Progressive: Capitalist Crisis --he catastrophe demonstrates the results when public health is subordinate to private profit and to a governmental apparatus.
Capitalism Is The Disease: Mike Davis on the Coronavirus Crisis
Capitalism Is The Disease: Mike Davis on the Coronavirus Crisis
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