August 17, 2024

How C L R James foresaw the crisis of US democracy

The brilliant Trinidadian thinker is remembered as an admirer of the US but he also warned of its dark political future

https://aeon.co/essays/c-l-r-james-foresaw-the-crisis-of-us-liberal-democracy







In late 1949, the West Indian intellectual C L R James sat down in his residence in Compton, California and, in a burst of creative energy, composed what turned out to be a frightfully prophetic analysis of the historical fate of democracy in the United States. Titled ‘Notes on American Civilization’, the piece was a thick prospectus for a slim book (never started) in which James promised to show how the failed historical promise of its unbridled liberalism had prepared the contemporary republic for a variant of totalitarian rule. ‘I trace as carefully as I can the forces making for totalitarianism in modern American life,’ explained the then little-known radical. ‘I relate them very carefully to the degradation of human personality under Hitler and under Stalin.’



At the climactic centre of this ominous analysis was the contemporary entertainment industry, which, James argued, set the stage for a totalitarian turn through its projections of fictional heroic gangsters as well as its production of celebrities as real-life heroes. A manufactured Hollywood heroism, he warned, had the potential to cross over from popular culture to political rule. ‘By carefully observing the trends in modern popular art, and the responses of the people, we can see the tendencies which explode into the monstrous caricatures of human existence which appear under totalitarianism.’ Completed in early 1950, James’s proposal remained underground for decades until it found publication under the abbreviated title American Civilization in 1993. Four years earlier, the author had passed on into history as one of the finest minds of the 20th century.

Given the din of bookish discussion about the spectacular antidemocratic turn in US politics in recent years, one would expect mention of American Civilization somewhere alongside, say, the work of the Frankfurt School. James, after all, stands today as one of the most renowned, even revered, thinkers in the North Atlantic. A novelist, journalist, pamphleteer, philosopher, Marxist theoretician and, in the words of V S Naipaul, ‘impresario of revolution’, this West Indian has acquired a posthumous stature in the West that would stun most people in the region where he was born in 1901. James is to the world of critical intellect as Brian Charles Lara is to the world of cricket – to use an apt analogy. His obituary in the The Times of London employed the sobriquet ‘Black Plato’. And, within a year of his death, The C L R James Journal was established in his name. In the ensuing decades, there has been an outpouring of books, anthologies and articles about his life and work, the vast majority coming out of the United Kingdom and the US, where James spent most of his mature years. A veritable ‘Jamesian industry’ now thrives in the 21st-century North Atlantic. Yet, for all this First-Worldly industriousness, or maybe because of it, James’s analysis of totalitarianism in American Civilization remains ignored.



At the base of this ignorance is a 30-year-old tale of radical misreading. Beginning in the 1990s, commentaries on American Civilization have erased its concern with the dark cultural politics of totalitarianism, dismissing the manuscript as quixotic and optimistic, even embarrassingly romantic. James, according to reviewers, fell for the US with the naive zeal of what Trinidadians would call a never-see-come-see. This radical was so dazzled by the North American republic that his radicalism disappeared once he sat down to write about its history and culture. In American Civilization, James was ‘enthusing with the greatest passion about the democratic capacity of the civilization with which he had fallen in love,’ the UK-based historian Bill Schwarz wrote. In a review for The New Yorker, Paul Berman concurred, describing the work as proof that ‘James basically loved the United States’. Yet, far from love and happiness, the manuscript was inspired, we will see, by a concern with the despair and hopelessness of US citizens and by a worry about the political portent of these mass feelings.

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August 17, 2024

Jetta - I'd Love To Change The World (Matstubs Remix) [Official Video]

Label: Republic Records – none, Lava Music, LLC – none
Format: File, MP3, Single, Stereo
Country: UK
Released: 19 May 2014

August 17, 2024

The UK's Race Riots: A Trial Run for Another US Insurrection?

Peter Jukes draws out the connections between the violence on Britain’s streets and the Capitol Insurrection

https://bylinetimes.com/2024/08/15/the-uks-race-riots-a-trial-run-for-another-us-insurrection/





As the worst race riots in living memory, mainly targeting migrants and Muslims, the violence that spread across several towns and cities in the UK this summer was newsworthy in itself. But the volume of attention it received from key figures across the Atlantic seemed disproportionate. Social media played a key role in the disturbances. The owner of the X(-rated) site we used to call Twitter, Elon Musk, had already helped to lay the groundwork for the riots by reinstating the accounts of Andrew Tate and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’) – the loudest purveyors of false information about the tragic killing of three young girls in Southport on 29 July, with incendiary claims that the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker.

As the rioting spread, leaving more than 100 police officers injured and leading to more than a thousand arrests, Musk continued to comment with something akin to jubilation – claiming that “civil war is inevitable”. The owner of SpaceX and Tesla directly attempted to intervene in UK politics by echoing the far-right justification for the riots, claiming that they were the result of “two-tier Keir” policing. His trolling did not stop with the Prime Minister. He went on to describe the former First Scottish Minister Humza Yousaf as a “racist scumbag” and – among the thousands of other US-based accounts focused on British Muslim public figures – he was joined by Canadian psychologist and darling of the ‘alt-right’, Jordan Peterson, who described London Mayor Sadiq Khan as “the worst of the lot”.

Soon, British Conservative politicians, who had been eerily quiet during the riots themselves, joined the chorus defending Musk and his platforming of ‘hate speech’. Former Prime Minister Liz Truss praised X and its owner for “standing up against bullies” and “attacks on free speech”. Former minister and MP Andrea Jenkyns bizarrely called for Musk to be made Prime Minister because “he would sort our country out for the better!” Kemi Badenoch, considered a front-runner in the looming Tory leadership contest, joined in to oppose “the smears of the left-wing mob” and to praise the far-right commentator Douglas Murray, much criticised for suggesting “brutal” attacks on Muslims and migrants.

https://x.com/trussliz/status/1823324885268959337
https://x.com/andreajenkyns/status/1823069622499004861
https://x.com/KemiBadenoch/status/1823120884942643460
What is going on here?

Neither throwing bricks at mosques nor setting fire to asylum seekers’ hotels are worthy examples of ‘free expression’ – they are clear-cut cases of intimidation and repressing the free expression of others. And X is no crucible of ‘free speech’. It is the opposite – a paragon of ‘paid-for’ speech in which blue-tick premium buyers get prominence and preference over the rest of us. Meanwhile, Musk continues to play with the moderation system and algorithms to promote the right-wing views and voices he approves of. In one way, the elevation of Elon Musk – one of the richest people on the planet – can be seen as an extension of the long Conservative Party tradition of fawning over right-wing foreign media moguls, like Rupert Murdoch. But, after five years of analysing the role of Big Tech in fomenting division and faking mass movements, Byline Times is more suspicious.

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August 17, 2024

The Pretty Reckless - "Witches Burn" (Live In Spain) - Bat Performance

The Pretty Reckless is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 2009. The band consists of Taylor Momsen (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Ben Phillips (lead guitar, backing vocals), Mark Damon (bass), and Jamie Perkins (drums). In August 2010, the band released their debut studio album, Light Me Up. The album spawned three moderately successful singles, most notably "Make Me Wanna Die". The band released the Hit Me Like a Man EP in early 2012. In March 2014, the band released their second studio album, Going to Hell, which included the singles "Heaven Knows" and "Messed Up World", both of which topped the US and UK rock charts.

On October 21, 2016, Razor & Tie released the band's third studio album, Who You Selling For. The album spawned the single "Take Me Down", which earned the band their fourth number one on the US rock chart. On February 12, 2021, the band's fourth studio album, Death by Rock and Roll, was released. The Pretty Reckless became the first female-fronted band to have seven number-one singles when "Death by Rock and Roll" hit number one on the Mainstream Rock chart.

August 17, 2024

Garbage Perform Stupid Girl Live At TRNSMT - TRNSMT 2024 - BBC Scotland

August 17, 2024

Jordan Chiles says 'unjust' stripping of Olympic bronze has led to racist abuse

Romanian athlete was awarded bronze over Chiles

IOC has said American must return Olympic medal

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/15/jordan-chiles-bronze-medal-paris-olympics-gymnastics



Jordan Chiles says she has been left “heartbroken” by the decision to strip her of her Olympic bronze medal and says she has been exposed to racially motivated abuse on social media. The US gymnast was initially given bronze in the floor exercise at the Paris Olympics after an appeal over how the judges scored her routine was accepted and she moved from fifth to third place. However, the Romanian Olympic Committee said the appeal had been filed four seconds after the one-minute time limit. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) then voided Chiles’s appeal and the IOC ordered the American to return the medal. Romania’s Ana Barbosu was promoted to third while Chiles dropped back to fifth. The Romanians had asked for both gymnasts to be given bronze.

Chiles took herself off social media after the decision but returned on Thursday to explain the effect the situation has had on her. “I have no words. This decisions feels unjust and comes as a significant blow not just to me but to everyone who has championed my journey,” Chiles wrote. “To add to the heartbreak, the unprompted racially driven attacks on social media are wrong and extremely hurtful.” USA Gymnastics submitted evidence it said showed Chiles’s appeal had been within the time limit. But Cas dismissed the appeal and said its decision cannot be changed “even when conclusive new evidence is presented”.

Chiles said she would continue to fight for her bronze medal. She also won gold in the team event alongside her US teammates. “I will approach this challenge as I have others – and I will make every effort to ensure that justice is done,” Chiles wrote. “I believe that at the end of this journey, the people in control will do the right thing.” USA Gymnastics could take the case to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, which can hear appeals against Cas decisions, although the tribunal rarely overrules such decisions.

It has also emerged that the head of the Cas panel on Chiles’s case, Dr Hamid G Gharavi, has performed legal work for the Romanian government. Cas told the New York Times that Gharavi had disclosed his work with the Romanian government and none of the parties in the Chiles hearing had objected. Former Olympic champion Nadia Comaneci said that the saga had taken its toll on all the gymnasts involved. “I can’t believe we play with athletes mental health and emotions like this … Let’s protect them,” Comaneci posted on X last week.

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August 16, 2024

The great wealth wave

The tide has turned – evidence shows ordinary citizens in the Western world are now richer and more equal than ever before

https://aeon.co/essays/the-surprising-truth-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-the-west





Recent decades have seen private wealth multiply around the Western world, making us richer than ever before. A hasty glance at the soaring number of billionaires – some doubling as international celebrities – prompts the question: are we also living in a time of unparalleled wealth inequality? Influential scholars have argued that indeed we are. Their narrative of a new gilded age paints wealth as an instrument of power and inequality. The 19th-century era with low taxes and minimal market regulation allowed for unchecked capital accumulation and then, in the 20th century, the two world wars and progressive taxation policies diminished the fortunes of the wealthy and reduced wealth gaps. Since 1980, the orthodoxy continues, a wave of market-friendly policies reversed this equalising historical trend, boosting capital values and sending wealth inequality back towards historic highs.

The trouble with the powerful new orthodoxy that tries to explain the history of wealth is that it doesn’t fully square with reality. New research studies, and more careful inspection of the previous historical data, paint a picture where the main catalysts for wealth equalisation are neither the devastations of war nor progressive tax regimes. War and progressive taxation have had influence, but they cannot count as the main forces that led to wealth inequality falling dramatically over the past century. The real influences are instead the expansion from below of asset ownership among everyday citizens, constituted by the rise of homeownership and pension savings. This popular ownership movement was made possible by institutional changes, most important democracy, and followed suit by educational reforms and labour laws, and the technological advancements lifting everyone’s income. As a result, workers became more productive and better paid, which allowed them to get mortgages to purchase their own homes; homeownership rates soared in the West from the middle of the century. As standards of living improved, life spans increased so that people started saving for retirement, accumulating another important popular asset.

Today, the populations of Europe and the United States are substantially richer in terms of real purchasing-power wealth than ever before. We define wealth as the value of all assets, such as homes, bank deposits, stocks and pension funds, less all debts, mainly mortgages. When counting wealth among all adults, data show that its value has increased more than threefold since 1980, and nearly 10 times over the past century. Since much of this wealth growth has occurred in the types of assets that ordinary people hold – homes and pension savings – wealth has also become more equally distributed over time. Wealth inequality has decreased dramatically over the past century and, despite the recent years’ emergence of super-rich entrepreneurs, wealth concentration has remained at its historically low levels in Europe and has increased mainly in the US. Among scholars in economics and economic history, a new narrative is just beginning to emerge, one that accentuates this massive rise of middle-class ownership and its implications for society’s total capital stock and its distribution. Capitalism, it seems, did not result in boundless inequality, even after the liberalisations of the 1980s and corporate growth in the globalised era. The key to progress, measured as a combination of wealth growth and falling or sustained inequality, has been political and institutional change that enabled citizens to become educated, better paid, and to amass wealth through housing and pension savings.

In his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014), Thomas Piketty examined the long-run evolution of capital and wealth inequality since industrialisation in a few Western economies. The book quickly received wide acclaim among both academics and policymakers, and it even became a worldwide bestseller. Piketty’s narrative outlined wealth accumulation and concentration as following a U-shaped pattern over the past century. At the time of the outbreak of the First World War, wealth levels and inequality peaked as a result of an unregulated capitalism, low taxation or democratic influence. During the 20th century, wartime capital destruction and postwar progressive taxes slashed wealth among the rich and equalised ownership. Since 1980, however, goes Piketty’s narrative, neoliberal policies have boosted capital values and wealth inequality towards historic levels. Immediately after publication, Capital generated fierce debate among economists, focused primarily on the book’s theoretical underpinnings. For example, Piketty had sketched a couple of ‘fundamental laws’ of capitalism, defining the economic importance of aggregate wealth. The first law stated that the share of capital income in total income (the other share coming from labour) is a function of how much capital there is in the economy and its rate of return to capital owners.

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August 14, 2024

Israeli forces in Gaza use Palestinian civilians as human shields against possible booby-traps

Newspaper and campaign group allege Palestinians are sent ahead of troops into buildings or tunnels that need clearing

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/14/israeli-forces-in-gaza-use-civilians-as-human-shields-against-possible-booby-traps



Israeli soldiers are using Palestinian civilians as human shields in Gaza to enter and clear tunnels and buildings they suspect may have been booby-trapped, a leading Israeli NGO and newspaper have reported. The practice was so widespread across different units fighting in Gaza that it could in effect be considered a “protocol”, said Nadav Weiman, the executive director of Breaking the Silence, a group founded by Israeli combat veterans to document military abuses. The group has collected testimony describing the practice from veterans of the 10-month war in Gaza. The accounts they have heard match those reported in an investigation by the newspaper Haaretz, which claimed that the chief of staff’s office was aware of the practice. “The senior ranks know about it,” one source said to have taken part in finding civilians to serve as human shields told the paper. “Our lives are more important than their lives,” Haaretz quoted commanders telling their soldiers.

The practice is said to be so routine that Israeli soldiers have a name for the human shields, who are referred to as shawish – informal slang for a low-ranking soldier – and the process was described by several witnesses. Palestinian civilians, mostly young men, are picked up by Israeli soldiers, dressed in Israeli army uniforms, then sent into tunnels and damaged houses ahead of Israeli forces, soldiers told Haaretz and Breaking the Silence. Their hands are tied together and a camera is attached to their bodies as they go in. “Palestinians are told: ‘Do one mission of … a [tunnel] shaft and you’re free,’” Haaretz quoted one soldier saying. Afterwards, the men are reportedly released to join their families – underlining to the soldiers who spoke to Haaretz and Breaking the Silence that they were civilians who did not pose any military threat and had been detained only for the clearance operations. Footage of Palestinian civilians, including some in IDF uniform, being sent into devastated buildings was obtained by Al Jazeera and broadcast in July.

Breaking the Silence said it had heard reports of civilians being used as human shields from the early stages of the war in Gaza. Initially it said it thought it had been one commander acting illegally, but testimony started coming in from soldiers stationed across the territory. “We heard it from different units, fighting in different times and different places inside Gaza,” Weiman said. “Then we understood it’s something a lot more widespread – or even, I could say, a protocol – in the IDF.” One soldier had been told Palestinian civilians were being used to replace the dog units that search for explosives “because too many dogs had died”, he added. Many soldiers had raised concerns about a practice that is illegal under international and Israeli law, Weiman said. In Israel in 2005, the supreme court banned using Palestinians as human shields in response to a petition against the military’s “neighbour procedure” in the West Bank, in which soldiers forced civilians to go ahead of them when raiding houses there.

Haaretz also reported heated arguments, including shouting, between soldiers and commanders ordering the use of human shields. “Most of them realised there was a problematic incident here, and it was hard for them to process,” one source said. The IDF said that the use of human shields was banned, that orders had been “clarified” to troops on the ground, and that the allegations reported by Haaretz would be reviewed. “The orders and directives of the IDF prohibit the use of Gazan civilians captured in the field for military missions that endanger them,” a spokesperson said. The reports of the Israel Defense Forces using civilian human shields come after the Israeli military has repeatedly justified attacks on civilian targets, including schools and hospitals, by alleging Hamas uses them, and uses the people inside them as human shields. “How we can say that kind of thing after we’re doing this, after we’re taking Palestinians as human shields?” Weiman said.

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August 14, 2024

Felix Da Housecat Versus Sasha - Watching Cars Go By

Label: Emperor Norton – ENR 53-1
Format: Vinyl, 12"
Country: US
Released: Nov 2004
Genre: Electronic
Style: House

August 14, 2024

In your guts.....