[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, toots … you name it]
[Videos]
“Suisse ?” – Pourquoi la Suisse est pétée de thunes? – I am such a fan.
The Latest on Treating Long Covid | Viral Persistence & Long Vax – “In this extract from an interview from the upcoming free online summit ‘Cracking the Chronic Illness Code’, I talk to Dr Eric Gordon about the most important research happening at the moment that will lead to effective treatments for Long Covid, the evidence for viral persistence, the latest treatment trials designed to take it on – and where Long Covid symptoms triggered by the vaccine fit in.” Great brief explanation of the various phenotypes of Long COVID and why they matter.
Why States Fail Us – “Throughout history, governments around the world have consistently proven themselves enemies to both land and liberty. Before we can achieve liberation, we must understand how and why the State fails both society and nature.” Witty anarchism primer.
[Music]
[Podcasts]
Musik ist eine Waffe – Die Geschichte von Ton Steine Scherben [ard audiothek] – “Im August 1970 nehmen Ton Steine Scherben in einem düsteren Neuköllner Ballsaal ihre erste Single auf: rau, radikal und authentisch. Gleich ihr erster Festival-Auftritt auf Fehmarn endet in Krawall und Chaos und wird zum Gründungsmythos der Scherben. Diese Folge erzählt von der Gründung der Band, ihren Wurzeln, die im Theater liegen, sowie von der Entstehung ihrer ersten LP „Warum geht es mir so dreckig?“.” A podcast [in German] about one of my all time favorite bands.
Undercover [bbc sounds] – “Police Officer Mark Kennedy aka ‘Mark Stone’ is unmasked by the friends and lovers he was sent to spy on. Andy Whittaker investigates how he and other ‘spycops’ operated.” This is from January, how upsetting, these undercover officers created so much paranoia among the radical left, and i personally have suffered from that.
Dean Spade on Mutual Aid as Preparedness [live-like-the-world-is-dying]
“This week on Live Like the World is Dying, Margaret and Dean talk about the ways that mutual aid helps communities prepare for disaster.” Hate Margaret in this episode, asking leading questions, but i always love Dean.
Part Two: Ada Lovelace and Lord Byron: The First Computer Programmer, Child of the First Vampire [omny.fm] – “Margaret talks with Bridget Todd about the woman who invented software and her rather strange family.” Here Margaret is at her best though.
[Toot Threads]
[Pandemic Roundup]
Pandemic Roundup: April 25, 2024
Pandemic Roundup: April 18, 2024
Pandemic Roundup: April 11, 2024
Pandemic Roundup: April 4, 2024
All my <3 to Violet.
[The Must Read[s] This Month]
Édouard Louis: Your Identity Isn’t Private Property [jacobin] – “You are always legitimate to do whatever you want, no one else can tell you what you can or cannot do. People who think they are left-wing but put a line between who gets to talk and who should shut up are right-wing. Experience is not truth. It can be a source, it can help, but it’s never a guarantee. All my life, I saw homophobic gay people, I met some racist non-white people, some misogynistic women. Experience is not shielding anyone from ideologies. So, the question is never who is talking, but what are they saying. It’s about the content of your discourse.” This is from the response Edouard Louis gave to a straight theater director who asked him, if it was okay to use his work, and i think this is an absolutely amazing take on identity politics, that i think get way too often essentialized in these days. Which will stifle our struggle.
Constellations of Care [pluto press] – “What do we do when the state has abandoned us? From failing health systems to housing crises to cascading ecological collapse, it’s increasingly evident that state-centred politics do not protect us from the violence of colonialism and capitalism, fascism and patriarchy. In fact, they actively work to harm us. Anarchist feminism—or anarcha-feminism—shows us that the ways we tend to our social relations can build a new world inside the old one. We can take care of each other when nothing else will, supplying communal well-being and liberatory horizons.” If you, like myself, are interested in communal care and collective grieving, this anthology might be for you, edited by Cindy Milstein.
We need an exodus from Zionism | Naomi Klein [the guardian] – “We don’t need or want the false idol of Zionism. We want freedom from the project that commits genocide in our name. Freedom from an ideology that has no plan for peace other than deals with murderous theocratic petrostates next door, while selling the technologies of robo-assassinations to the world. We seek to liberate Judaism from an ethnostate that wants Jews to be perennially afraid, that wants our children to be afraid, that wants us to believe the world is against us so that we go running to its fortress and beneath its iron dome, or at least keep the weapons and donations flowing.” The speech Naomi Klein held at the Gaza student protest at Columbia.
‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza [+972] – “A new investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals that the Israeli army has developed an artificial intelligence-based program known as “Lavender,” unveiled here for the first time. According to six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination, Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine “as if it were a human decision.”” I think most people have seen this article by now, but in case you haven’t, please read up about the evil potential of AI.
[Articles English]
Worried About Bird Flu? Welcome to The Party, Pal. You’re Late. | Jessica Wildfire [okdoomer] – “I’ve noticed something about the way the news media covers these things. Whether it’s bird flu or another unfolding disaster, they do the same thing. They design these stories now to simultaneously trigger a fear response, only to dismiss that fear and assure everyone that everything’s okay “for now.” They conveniently omit or downplay any proactive measure that anyone could take. So they work everyone up into a frenzy, then tell us not to worry, and then don’t provide anyone with any useful framework for action, at all.” Ok doomer is back, the article as a whole didn’t speak to me that much, but this paragraph is on point.
The WHO’s claim that COVID wasn’t airborne cost millions of lives. Now, they’re changing the definition of airborne.| Julia Doubleday [substack] – “This document exists to handhold a small group of elite scientists who were incredibly, undeniably, dangerously wrong, and allow them to continue pushing their failed model of “infection control” which does not, in fact, control infections. It exists to assuage their damaged and bruised egos while assuring them they weren’t wrong to tell people to stand six feet apart and wipe down surfaces and cover their sneezes; this is, after all, the most practical and feasible form of infection control to implement even if it turns out the virus itself maybe, kind of, sort of, spreads in a completely different way.” Julia Doubleday sorting out the timeline of the disastrous misinformation by the WHO.
Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank – visualized [the guardian] – “The thousands of Palestinians who have been forced from their homes have little recourse to justice. In four out of every five cases, Israeli police failed in the investigation of Israelis who harmed Palestinians and their property. This finding comes from Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group that has investigated the way Israeli law enforcement treats these settler attacks. It found that between 2005 and 2021, just 3% of ideologically motivated cases resulted in a conviction.” Let us not forget what is happening in the West Bank.
The Stars Bear Witness [outside the circle] – ““We people have enough trouble from the state without establishing another one and becoming like the old bandits. You want to come up with a new Jewish state, but no, I think that the task of the Jews and their assignment in the world is to demolish and make a furnace of the nation-state.”” This is an Emma Goldman quote i had never heard before.
Dune 2: What the movie is doing with Frank Herbert’s books is grim indeed. [slate] – “Herbert believed that progress was an illusion because he was an ideologically motivated reactionary who hated the New Deal, the welfare state, the Civil Rights Movement, and any political leader who promised to help the oppressed. He was interested in eugenics, wrote speeches for a Republican senator, and liked Nixon because Nixon’s corruption taught us to distrust political leaders; he also liked Ronald Reagan because, he said, Reagan “wants to restore the individual to his preeminent position in this society.” At the risk of extrapolating too precisely from what generally happens to conservatives of his generation, I suspect he’d have voted for Trump in 2016; I suspect he’d have preferred the guy who would drain the swamp and attack the deep state to the big government liberal from a political dynasty.” This review (from march) retroactively explains to me why i hate the dystopian vision in Dune so much. Herbert, the author of the books, is a reactionary and a cynic.
These Women Came to Antarctica for Science. Then the Predators Emerged [wired] – “Jane Willenbring was the first to blow the whistle on sexual harassment and assault in Antarctica. Years later, women are still coming forward with tales of horror as a government investigation unfolds.” Grim.
We Need To Rewild The Internet [noema] – “Much of what we need is already here. Beyond regulators digging deep for courage, vision and bold new litigation strategies, we need vigorous, pro-competitive government policies around procurement, investments and physical infrastructure, that require interoperability at every level and the resources to make it happen. Universities must reject research funding from tech firms because it always comes with conditions, both spoken and unspoken.” Uhm, sure. For me i tend to think it never did get un-wild.
Life-threatening rat pee infections reach record levels in NYC [ars technica] – “A life-threatening bacterial infection typically spread through rat urine sickened a record number of people in New York City last year—and this year looks on track for another all-time high, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports.” Rats!
Yanis Varoufakis: Germany Is Banning Pro-Palestinians [jacobin] – “let’s be honest, what it’s really about is creating a climate of fear. That’s the political kernel of the matter: the German Staatsräson. It’s not about Germany’s dedication to protecting Jewish lives but rather Israel’s right to commit war crimes. There are people in Germany who tell me they will not speak out in support of Jewish Voice for a Just Peace or against my ban because they’re scared they will lose their job, or some kind of grant, and will be demonized.” An interview about his forbidden speech (see bellow). What is happening in Germany because of the Israel-Gaza war makes everything so much worse.
„Artificial Intelligence“: Automated Warfare and the Geneva Convention [netzpolitik] – “The critical question here, however, comes down to autonomy. With automated systems, humans increasingly lose the autonomy to make decisions over datasets over time. The more data is used to create and refine models, and the more times those models run to improve the algorithms, the less depth of knowledge a human can have over that process. Therefore, the extent to which a human can claim autonomy or control over the decisions presented by AI is questionable. The sheer volume of data sources that are combined and crunched makes it a fundamentally different beast from previous generations of digitally enabled warfare. The human-in-the-loop solution, therefore, does not genuinely solve the shift in how civilians may become viewed as active participants in war efforts.” An article reflecting further on the implications of the report by +972 magazine, linked to above.
Build Worlds Not Jails | Raechel Anne Jolie [substack] – “Transformative Justice is different than Restorative Justice in that it demands we transform the structural conditions that create harm, and it refuses any participation with the state. To be clear, some of the roots of restorative justice comes from indigenous communities in North America who have, long before colonization, had anti-state practices of addressing harm. Unfortunately, Restorative Justice practice is often co-opted by state institutions, and also requires interaction between the person who caused harm and the person who was harmed. In TJ, if the person who was harmed doesn’t want to interact with the person who hurt them, they don’t have to.” The crucial difference between RJ and TJ.
Comparing Far-Right Transphobia in So-Called Canada to Don Hamerquist’s Analysis On Third Position Fascism [igd] – “If you care about anti-fascism it needs to be recognized that this isn’t a “culture war” its the beginning phases of a genocide. Treat it accordingly. Stop playing into the neo-liberal culture wars, this includes performative language/actions, safer spaces policies, clout chasing and diversity quotas. Fine tuning the terms and language we use to talk about transphobia won’t stop fascism. This kind of rhetoric can be pretty common in anarchist spaces in Southern Ontario, what we need is more propaganda by the deed” Fully agree, what we witness happening in regards to transphobia is proto-fascism.
The Speech That Got Me Banned From Germany [jacobin] – “You accuse us of trivializing Hamas’s October 7 terror. We accuse you of trivializing the eighty years of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the erection of an ironclad apartheid system across Israel-Palestine. We accuse you of trivializing Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-term support of Hamas as a means of destroying the two-state solution that you claim to favor. We accuse you of trivializing the unprecedented terror unleashed by the Israeli army on the people of Gaza, the West Bank. and East Jerusalem.” This is the speech Yanis Varoufakis was not allowed to hold in Germany.
Most Watched Nest Cam Highlights From Bird Cams! [cornell labs] – “Since the project’s inception in 2012, the Cornell Lab’s Bird Cams have racked up hundreds of millions of views from fans in every corner of the world! Now that breeding season is upon us once again, we’re looking back at the most-watched moments from our nest cams, both past and present, in this video gallery. See if some of your favorite highlights made the list.” If you only watch one video make it the red-tailed hawk. It’s hilarious.
NA -“Our goal must therefore be to create the conditions that make a happy life possible for 10 billion persons, which means that the basic needs are satisfied and that there are enough resources for the realization of individual potentials and talents” PDF available in several languages. This sounds like p.m.
The Internet Feels Dead, Doesn’t It? | Antonio Melonio [substack] – “Reimagine what online life could be — a true commons, a space for genuine connection and collaboration, for creativity and community, and the free exchange of ideas without succumbing to the free-speech-also-means-hate-speech fallacy. Let us build an internet worthy of the utopian visions that birthed it, an internet that brings out the best in us rather than the worst. How? I don’t know, man.” Social media does feel dead. The internet just got started.
March 2024 Global Climate Report [ncei] – “March 2024 was the warmest March on record for the globe in NOAA’s 175-year record. The March global surface temperature was 1.35°C (2.43°F) above the 20th-century average of 12.7°C (54.9°F). This is 0.01°C ( °F) warmer than the previous March record set in 2016, and the tenth consecutive month of record-high global temperatures. March 2024 marked the 48th consecutive March with global temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th-century average.” This is NOT fine.
Visualizing the large scale destruction of Gaza’s hospitals, schools and places of worship [lemonde] – “Le Monde counted at least 527 school buildings, 361 places of worship and 92 hospital buildings that were destroyed. For our investigation, we compiled and cross-referenced data from the UN and OpenStreetMap, a collaborative open-source mapping platform.” Stop this war.
The End Of The World Began A Long Time Ago | Nate Bear [substack] –
“They hang the man and flog the woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
Yet let the greater villain loose
That steals the common from the goose”
Protest song from 1549, quoted in the article.
Pandemic solidarity [ps4lf] – “Guided by deep love for our ancestors, elders, youth, and all of us living in isolation, we come together as a Black-led multiracial group based in occupied North America representing a tapestry of genders, ages, lived experiences, and abilities. We write this statement to address the mass death, physical and social abandonment, and loss of access to public space during the past four years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The continuation of this pandemic directly ties to violence enacted around the globe in the form of climate collapse, genocide, mass incarceration, and more. We hope this blueprint for true pandemic solidarity will shape how we all address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemics that will inevitably follow.” A PDF with information on how to keep protecting the most endangered communities.
COVID zine | Hazel Newlevant – “What’s Up With COVID and How to Protect Yourself: 2024 Edition” © 2024 by Hazel Newlevant is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Download a printable PDF of this zine here! Print on 4 sheets of paper, double-sided, short-edge binding. Fold it in half, then staple in the middle. Regular PDF here.” A similar PDF like the last one.
Resisting the Fascist Creep in Our Circles [outside the circle] – “The more fascism takes firm hold, the more that the “unthinkable” becomes uncritically thinkable. Then the “thinkable,” which still felt “undoable,” becomes doable. And the more one does, inch by inch, the more what would have seemed “abnormal” and even “abhorrent” becomes “normal” and acceptable. Until everything is turned upside down, awash in bloodlust and then blood. This isn’t some far-off slippery-slope.” We gotta stop the fascist creep now.
How ‘Medical Gaslighting’ Ignores Black Women With Long COVID [word In black] – “A Facebook group of Black women dealing with long COVID describe different symptoms but the same story: clinicians telling them it’s all in their heads.” I have experienced this as well, but i am sure it is even worse for black and brown women.
Liberals joined conservatives to mainstream anti-vax beliefs about viruses and public health | Julia Doubleday [substack] – “This normalization process relies on a few tactics. One is burying data, like refusing to test for COVID and failing to report on excess deaths. Another is misinformation: promoting false, pseudo-scientific explanations for the clear results of uncontrolled transmission we see all around us. This is the juncture at which the goals of COVID normalizers intersect with the goals of anti-vaxxers; both want to manufacture broad consent to destroy collective belief in public health.” All things considered the normalizers did even more harm. It is always when the so-called center gets radicalized that things get scary.
Blackout – Surviving Leviathan | Peter Gelderloos [substack] – “No one really knows a thing about the world, but the ones who can predict an eclipse, that’s the church we’ll go to, no matter where we spend our Sundays. So Flat Earthers fly in airplanes without a whiff of incoherence. Everyone believes in physics when they’re looking for results and not a story.” This report on the eclipse brought made it accessible, with some great meta-reflections.
Berlin Was a Beacon of Artistic Freedom. Gaza Changed Everything. [nyt] – “There are many Jewish perspectives, and that is not being honored here in a country where the history cannot be excused,” said Peaches, who is also Jewish. “For any progressive Jewish person who is thinking about what is going on, and understanding the history of what is going on, to be called antisemitic — by Germans — is ridiculous. Never did I think in 2024 that I would be thinking about that.” Peaches!
Israel’s Propaganda Machine is Filling the Internet with Misinformation [current affairs] – “A sophisticated network of websites is spreading pro-Israel posts and suppressing content that “harms Israel’s image.” Would we accept this from supporters of any other country?” Just imagine if Cuba ran websites like these.
Judith Butler pulls out of Pompidou lectures after Israel-Hamas comments [theartnewspaper] – “It has become clear to me that my presence on the Centre Pompidou programme at the end of April will be a distraction from the important work that will be presented by artists and intellectuals at these events. As a result, I have decided not to participate formally in the events but have urged all the guests to take part as planned. This is my own choice based on my own judgment about what is best under these circumstances, and I
am confident that the programme will be truly excellent and encourage the public to attend.” What a sad time it is.
True Trans Soul Rebel – by Norman Brannon | anti-matter [substack] – “My understanding was that she was pretty much dying, and that she wanted to live out the rest of the little time she had left in the body of her choosing,” recalls Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz in Beastie Boys Book. “So [Adam] Yauch took care of it. He organized it so we gave her the money for the [gender-affirming] operation, but it was under the guise of reimbursement and unpaid back royalties for the Polly Wog Stew record from 1982. Donna got the operation, and then within a year passed away.” The history of the trans coming out of a pioneering New York punk activist.
Long COVID still has no cure — so these patients are turning to research [nature] – “With key long COVID trials yet to yield results, people with the condition are trying to change how clinical trials are done.” Everything we have to do ourselves.
“Bricks” placed in Vancouver to help pedestrians safely use a crosswalk [urbanized] – “A pedestrian holding a brick in their hand as they cross the road is sure to attract the attention of drivers. That is why a group of pedestrian safety advocates in Vancouver rolled out a new pilot project, the “Pedestrian Brick Crossing System.”” A brick will do the trick.
A Job is a Job – Funny short story about work-life-balance [warandpeas] – “We are so happy to announce that the short story A Job is a Job is coming out today, namely in our brand new book Once Upon a Workday!” Dr. Seuss-esque.
Anti-vaccine activists and the far right team up on parallel economy [npr] – “For people in the business of opposing vaccination or unwelcome election results, mistrust of big financial institutions and tech companies is common. Increasingly, they can find alternatives being built by a community with a head start in developing the tools of the so-called freedom economy: the far right.” Grr.
Activists Cover Up Paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi’s Rapist in Italy [huperallergic] – “Advocates drew attention to Italy’s domestic violence and femicide crisis and denounce the Palazzo Ducale’s controversial “rape room” exhibition.”
The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness? [nature] – “Two things can be independently true about social media. First, that there is no evidence that using these platforms is rewiring children’s brains or driving an epidemic of mental illness. Second, that considerable reforms to these platforms are required, given how much time young people spend on them. Many of Haidt’s solutions for parents, adolescents, educators and big technology firms are reasonable, including stricter content-moderation policies and requiring companies to take user age into account when designing platforms and algorithms. Others, such as age-based restrictions and bans on mobile devices, are unlikely to be effective in practice — or worse, could backfire given what we know about adolescent behaviour. A third truth is that we have a generation in crisis and in desperate need of the best of what science and evidence-based solutions can offer. Unfortunately, our time is being spent telling stories that are unsupported by research and that do little to support young people who need, and deserve, more.” Haidt’s latest book contains the familiar blind spots.
[Articles German/French]
Un journal anarchiste contre les JO 2024 (et le monde qui les abrite) [indymedia] – “Et de fait, on va parler un peu de tout ça dans ce journal, à travers les Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques qui se dérouleront au cœur de l’été en fRance. Parce que ces jeux sont une occasion parmi d’autres, pour les croque-morts qui nous gouvernent, d’accélérer le rythme de leur symphonie morbide, sur un air de « Marche ou crève ». De l’or pour les « champion.nes », des médailles et des honneurs pour les « gagnant.es », l’oubli et la défaite pour celleux qui finissent derrière : un bon résumé de la morale dégueulasse qui régit ce monde. Et en plus il faudrait s’en réjouir et être « fair-play ».” A critical look at the upcoming Olympic in France.
Nicolas Rimoldi und der Rechtsextremismus: Eine Chronologie [antifa] – “Rimoldi merkt, dass er mit seinem Pandemie-Fokus politisch und persönlich nicht weiter kommt. Er ist aber ein Karrieremensch und so wendet er Mass-Voll langsam anderen Inhalten zu. «Remigration» ist einer davon. Unterdessen pflegt Rimoldi mit seinem Verein Mass-Voll noch das Image des «Bürgerrechtlers», der für die Freiheit kämpft.” Remoldi radicalization contd.
Folgen von Long Covid: Verschärfte Armut [taz] – “Schon verrückt, dass Long-Covidbetroffene nicht nur um Forschung und Therapien kämpfen müssen, sondern auch darum, dass ihnen geglaubt wird. Im Freundes- und Familienkreis ist das menschlich enttäuschend. Im Kontakt mit Ärzt*innen und Gutachter*innen ein materielles Problem: Betroffene bekommen dann nicht die richtige Behandlung. Unter Umständen wird ihnen gar eine falsche verordnet, die ihren Zustand verschlechtert. Nötige finanzielle Hilfen und Hilfsmittel werden nicht bewilligt. Die Kraft für den Kampf mit Ämtern haben viele Betroffene nicht. Man könnte meinen, vor einem Virus seien alle gleich. Aber schon das Infektionsrisiko ist ungleich verteilt: Enge Wohnverhältnisse, Armut, Jobs mit viel Menschenkontakt erhöhen das Risiko. Jede Infektion birgt ein erneutes Long-Covidrisiko. Und auch die Wahrscheinlichkeit, an Long Covid zu erkranken, ist nicht gleich verteilt: Frauen sind in etwa doppelt so häufig betroffen wie Männer. Untersuchungen zeigen, dass Long Covid in armen und marginalisierten Gruppen häufiger ist.” A concise account on Long COVID and the gaslighting we suffer.
Silicon Valley: «Und plötzlich waren die Techmilliardäre die ‹Bad Guys›» [woz] – “Paris Marx produziert den Podcast «Tech won’t save us», der sich mit der US-Digitalindustrie auseinandersetzt. Marx zufolge ist die Radikalisierung des Tesla-Chefs Elon Musk bezeichnend für den Rechtsschwenk der Branche, und auch der Aufstieg Chinas spiele dabei eine Rolle.” Interview with podcaster Paris Marx.
Am rechten Rand: SVP radikal [woz] – “Es gehört zum Wesen des Rechtspopulismus, die Grenze des demokratisch Legitimen zu verschieben. Das Balancieren auf der Grenze zwischen legitim und noch nicht legitim und ein elastisches Verhältnis zum rechten Rand gehören zu dessen Grundausstattung. Doch selten wurde der Austausch mit der rechtsextremen Szene hierzulande so beherzt verfolgt wie derzeit von gewissen Teilen der JSVP um Regez und Parteipräsident Nils Fiechter. Die eifrigen Jungen verschärfen den Ton, eignen sich neues Vokabular an, suchen Kontakt zur neonazistischen Jungen Tat.” SVP are and half always been leaky towards far right.
Universität Köln: Nancy Fraser: »Es ist ein Angriff auf die akademische Freiheit« [nd-aktuell] – “das Traurige daran ist, dass Deutschland dabei behauptet, seine Verantwortung gegenüber jüdischen Menschen wahrzunehmen. Aber die Absagen richten sich – nicht nur, aber auch – gegen jüdische Intellektuelle und Künstler*innen. In Deutschland gibt es eine sehr eingeschränkte Vorstellung von den »guten Juden«, die man schützen soll, und den »schlechten Juden«, die unterdrückt werden können. Der deutschen Öffentlichkeit würde ich gern sagen: Wir sind alle Juden*Jüdinnen, und die Verantwortung Deutschlands uns gegenüber ist nicht zu verwechseln mit Unterstützung für alles, was der Staat Israel tut.” This has gone to far.
Staatsräson: Deutsche Israelpolitik: »Von Moral kann kaum die Rede sein« [nd-aktuell] – “Staatsräson ist ein Begriff aus der absolutistischen, vordemokratischen Zeit. Sie steht also über dem, was die Bevölkerung will. Die damalige Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel sagte in ihrer berühmten Rede vor der Knesset 2008, die Mehrheit der deutschen Bevölkerung trage die Staatsräson nicht mit. Das sei aber egal, da müsse man mit gutem Beispiel voran gehen. Und dann lässt es sich in zwei Teile aufteilen: Nach innen gibt es die Erinnerungspolitik und den Kampf gegen Antisemitismus. Und auf der anderen Seite gibt es die äußere Staatsräson, also die Unterstützung Israels.” Historical context of the current German politic on Israel.
Von Blut und Ehre zu Barfuss im Wald. Wer ist Kaliohm? [antifa] – “Anderthalb Jahre nach dem Anschlag beantragte der damals 21-jährige Neonazi Kim Sury (*21.4 1989) einen Waffenerwerbsschein bei der Kantonspolizei Bern. Als deshalb beim Nachrichtendienst des Bundes Informationen über Sury eingefordert wurden, war schnell klar, dass es sich beim Gesuchsteller um einen organisierten Neonazi handelt, welcher bereits Waffen besass. Folglich lehnte die KaPo das Gesuch ab und führte stattdessen im März 2010 eine Hausdurchsuchung bei Sury durch.” Where is the guy today, who a number of years ago tried and almost succeeded to set off a bomb at a leftist cultural center in Bern?
JIN JIYAN AZADÎ [antifaschistisches infoblatt] – “Eine Selbstverwaltung, die freies Denken fördert, Dezentralisierung anstrebt, die Gleichstellung der Geschlechter, ökologische Nachhaltigkeit und pluralistische Toleranz gegenüber religiöser, kultureller und politischer Vielfalt erreicht und die Freiheit der Frauen zu ihrem Grundsatz erklärt, und dass sich diese Werte in ihrem Gesellschaftsvertrag, ihrer gesellschaftlichen und institutionellen Organisation und ihrer Politik widerspiegeln, soll die Keimzelle für ein föderales, pluralistisches, dezentralisiertes Syrien sein.” Interview on the state of feminist practice in Rojava.
[Older articles, still great]
Q&A with Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa, author of Erotic Resistance [uc press] – “I want people to remember that San Francisco, which is now primarily associated with Big Tech and AI, was created by resilient communities that celebrated art and eroticism and fought for social justice. I share the stories of a diverse group of women who lived in San Francisco from the 1960s to the turn of the 21st century, and who significantly impacted the worlds of burlesque, strip clubs, performance, visual art, and US labor history.” The artistic and erotic San Francisco described here is the city i loved.
Summer SAD | Lachrista Greco [substack] – “The next time someone acts like you’re ridiculous because you aren’t basking in the 85-degree weather, remember: you’re not alone! Not everyone likes the feeling of their skin melting off.” Summers and heat is not for everyone.
Parachuting beavers. Video courtesy of Idaho Department of Fish and Game
No no no. Please do not parachute beavers.
The open argument must be fed: The peculiar case of Fox News and the pleasant smoke [hapgood] – “Part of what is happening is this — because open arguments must be advanced or maintained at all times, anything that happens must be read in terms of its use in advancing the pertinent open arguments. Everything is grist for the argument mill.” Self-perpetuating argument escalation cycle.
R.I.P.
Way way too many in Gaza and all the other wars. Too many of COVID still.
[If you care to receive more regular updates, please follow my diigo (feed: rss) for all of my saved links or mastodon for an edited choice of them]
Header Photo: The flowers were a bit pissed about the unexpected snow
Thanks for mentioning “Musik ist eine Waffe” a while ago on Mastodon. The Podcast was a very welcome hear on some recent long bus rides.
Yeah, i think 8/8 will be out tomorrow. Loved it as well.