Last week marked the birthday and one year anniversary of the death of the legendary Etta James. Last year, around this time I got an email from good friend and producer Agent of Change asking if I wanted to do a proper … Continue reading →

No unwanted addons, please.

A close look at how Oracle installs deceptive software with Java updates

Cloning technology has advanced to the point that we can reliably clone large mammals, like Dolly the sheep. Today you can have your pet cloned. So far no one has cloned a human as we are still sorting out the complex ethical issues. In some countries, like the UK, human reproductive cloning is illegal.

There are many wrinkles to this new technology – one is using it to bring back extinct species. There are efforts underway, for example, to clone the wooly mammoth. Recently extinct species, like the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), dodo, and passenger pigeon, also might be resurrected by cloning technology. Although, don’t expect Jurassic Park anytime soon as current evidence strongly suggests that DNA cannot survive for millions of years.

But it can survive for thousands, and even tens of thousands in the right conditions. We have mostly reconstructed, for example, the DNA of our closest evolutionary cousins, Homo neanderthalensis. Now a Harvard scientist, George Church, is proposing that it may be possible to clone a Neanderthal.

From a technological point of view his claim is not controversial. We have a fairly complete reconstruction of Neanderthal DNA. Insert that DNA into a denucleated human embryo and you have a Neanderthal embryo. There are still technical hurdles, however, and we are probably still 5-10 years away from pulling something like this off.

It was originally reported that Church was looking for a female volunteer who wants to be a surrogate mother to a Neanderthal baby. However, more recent reports indicate that this was the result of a significant misinterpretation. Church was just talking about the theoretically possibility – this is not even the area of his own research.

In any case, the ethical considerations are interesting to contemplate. The resulting Neanderthal would be a person, deserving of every right and freedom we grant to Homo sapiens. Potential concerns include the kind of life that we will be bringing that person into. I actually think this is the least ethical concern. The same concerns were brought up about the first “test tube” baby, that they would be living their life under a microscope. Such concerns turned out to be overhyped.

This would be very different, of course. There would be great scientific interest in studying a living Neanderthal. This can easily be dealt with, however by simple informed consent. Scientists will have to make do with whatever studies the resulting Neanderthal consents to. Perhaps they should even be assigned a special advocate to help them manage such request and to personally ensure they are not being abused. In other words – the concern that the resulting Neanderthal will be a scientific curiosity can be managed, in my opinion.

I also don’t think that any questions about whether such a life would be worth living are worth asking at this point.  People find happiness on their own terms and it’s extremely difficult to say the least to objectively determine such things.

Another ethical question concerns the societal effects of creating another hominid species. Perhaps this is inevitable, even if we don’t resurrect extinct hominids (through genetic manipulation, for example). In any case, there are problems with racism even given the fact that humans are all one species and the concept of race is fuzzy at best. Imagine if there were an actual distinct hominid species. Ultimately I don’t think it’s legitimate to argue that we should not do this because people are racist, but it is something to consider.

This also raises the question – would Church clone one Neanderthal? Two? A breeding population? Either way it seems likely that Neanderthal DNA would ultimately become mixed with human DNA. I don’t think there is any ethical problem with this, but it is one of the consequences that need to be considered – is this an indirect way of genetically engineering humans?

Church thinks there may be benefits to such a cloning, He argues:

‘Neanderthals might think differently than we do. They could even be more intelligent than us.

‘When the time comes to deal with an epidemic or getting off the planet, it’s conceivable that their way of thinking could be beneficial.’

This is a bit speculative, but I think he has a point. What would be most interesting, in my opinion, are the cognitive differences between sapiens and neanderthalensis. This is something that does not fossilize. I think we can learn a great deal about what it means to be human by studying sentient beings who are not human. Eventually we are likely to encounter such beings from other worlds, but until then resurrecting the Neanderthal is probably our best bet. They are closely related to us, but even still we might learn a great deal from this.

Conclusion

In the end I think there is more to gain than to risk from cloning a Neanderthal. Perhaps this can be a maturing event for humanity – even just having to confront all of the ethical questions that are raised. Anything that forces us to think about what it means to be human, and the social and cultural forces that drive our ethical questions about such a cloning, is likely to be productive.

There are certain to be difficult and unpleasant aspects of the project as well, but I think in the end such concerns will have been overblown (much like with other biological advances in the last half century). There will be controversy, no doubt. Controversy can be productive too, however.

The world’s 100 richest people earned enough money last year to end world extreme poverty four times over, according to a new report released by international rights group and charity Oxfam.

Using data-crunching skills polished at Google, Merrill says ZestFinance analyzes 70,000 variables to create a finely tuned risk profile of every borrower that goes far beyond the bounds of traditional credit scoring. The more accurately a lender can assess a borrower’s risk of default, the more accurately a lender can price a loan. Just going by a person’s income minus expenses, the calculus most often used to determine credit-worthiness, is hardly enough to predict whether a person will pay back a loan, he says.

“Our finding, much like in Google search quality, is that there’s actually hundreds of small signals, if you know where to find them,” Merrill says.

For instance, he says, many subprime borrowers also use prepaid cellphones. If they let the account lapse, they lose their phone number. Would-be borrowers who don’t make keeping a consistent phone number a priority send a “huge negative signal.” It’s not about ability to pay, he says. It’s about willingness to pay. By examining factors that don’t play into standard credit scoring — and are therefore ignored by traditional banks — Merrill says ZestFinance can help bring the “underbanked” back into the financial mainstream.

Currently ZestFinance licenses its technology to SpotLoan, an online lender that offers loans of $300 to $800 at rates it advertises as about 50 percent less than those of standard payday loans. On a recent visit to the site, the standard annual percentage rate (APR) for a loan issued to a California resident was 330 percent — $471 for a $300 loan paid back over three months, the smallest, shortest-term loan the site offered.

By comparison, standard payday loans available online offered APRs of about 460 percent, though the term was just 14 days. The rates on 30-day loans ran a little less than half that. Either way, a $200 loan ends up costing about $235 in financing if paid back on time via the old-school payday lenders.

Merrill acknowledges that ZestFinance-powered loans still aren’t cheap.

“We are an expensive loan compared to credit cards or what you can get from your family,” he says. “The problem is not everyone can get credit cards, or can borrow money from their family.”

via www.wired.com

via http://blog.yimmyayo.com/

via http://supersonicelectronic.com/post/3326545228/new-work-by-joao-ruas

From The Trouble Is the Banks

by The Editors

This morning, the New York Times reported that Bank of America agreed to pay "more than $10 billion to Fannie Mae to settle claims over troubled mortgages that soured during the financial crash." Most of these "troubled mortgages" were loans issued by Countrywide Financial, a subsidiary of B of A that the bank acquired for $4.5 billion during the financial crisis. 

To many of us, this isn't news. By 2012 Bank of America had already spent hundreds of millions of dollars settling charges against Countrywide for wrongful and illegal practices. The accusations, which mounted piecemeal through charges brought by the Department of Justice, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the SEC, and the States Attorneys General, are almost too outrageous to list: selling mortgages to borrowers it knew were unqualified for the loans; defrauding the government by underwriting tens of thousands of government-issued mortgages based on inflated appraisals; steering 200,000 qualified African-American and Latino borrowers into expensive and burdensome subprime loans while similarly qualified white borrowers were sold less expensive loans; initiating foreclosure proceedings against active duty servicemen without doing necessary military status checks; lying to investors about the toxic quality of subprime loans in the firm's portfolio; overcharging homeowners facing foreclosure with hidden fees. Not to mention the everyday, run-of-the-mill deception we've come to expect from big banks over the past decade: lying in response to consumer complaints, failing to file paperwork and payments on time, charging improper fees—things that have cost people their homes, and more. 

With facts like these in plain sight, $10 billion from Bank of America doesn't quite feel like hush money. The sum alone says a lot. Still, no dollar figure can come close to adequately representing the human cost of all the lies, cut corners, and broken promises. Nor can it, more modestly, show what it felt like to experience these things from the other side.

For this reason, we've excerpted the following letters from The Trouble Is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street, the latest small book from n+1. Written by people who were directly affected by Bank of America and Countrywide's reckless decisions and addressed to Bank of America executives and directors, these letters offer human testament to an inhuman sum.

—DT

+ + +

Didn’t Get Loan Mod Due to Incorrect Phone Number on Application
To: Charles H. Noski, Bank of America

Hi Charles,

My name is Matt. You don’t know me but I’m a Bank of America customer. A few years ago my Countrywide Mortgage was bought by Bank of America, and we’ve been together ever since. Currently, my home is underwater by about $150,000 and I’ve also been hit by hard times. I’m working two jobs to keep my home, but over the last two years I’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to do a loan modification. Three times I’ve tried to do that.

I won’t go into all the details, but the last time I tried to get a loan mod I was turned down because I had put down my home phone number instead of my cell phone number. Since I’m never home, due to working sixty-five hours a week, I didn’t get the messages that were left on my home phone answering machine. That’s the reason I was denied a loan mod by Bank of America.

But every time I call and talk to someone I get a different story. I can talk to Rep. A for a few minutes, call back in thirty minutes and talk to Rep. B about the same issue and get a different answer. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. In the meantime, I’m slowly drowning in debt.

Then I found out that in 2009, Bank of America paid $0 in Federal Income Tax. It was pretty much the same for 2010 too, as I understand it. But you got almost $1 billion from taxpayers in the bailout. What did I get? Nothing. If I went out and tried to make money and didn’t, why should the government pay me for my losses?

Does that make any sense to you, Charles? I don’t understand how a company that doesn’t carry its fair share by using legal loopholes created by your lapdogs (Worst Congress Ever!) to dodge paying its taxes is able to get a bailout. Yet I try to get a loan mod (because I love my home and want to stay in my home) like many other hardworking, honest, good American citizens, by earning money and paying taxes. The bailout helped you, it paid you and others at Bank of America bonuses and your salary — but I’m denied a break because I put down the wrong phone number on the application.

Perhaps someone there can explain this to me, because I just don’t get it. I’d really appreciate it if someone would take a couple of minutes to explain this to me.

Sincerely,
Matt Seufert
Spring Valley, CA 91978

+ + +

Bad Faith Foreclosures

Bank Of America assured a friend that they were working to modify his loan while they were actually moving to foreclose; he was saved only by the intervention of a US senator. Our banks act like a corporate mafia worthy of a RICO indictment.

Ray Kenny

+ + +

Greetings from Detroit!
To: Christine P. Katziff, Bank of America

Dear Christine:

I would like to personally invite you to Detroit! Have you ever been here? It’s a lovely town — of course, we have a B of A on every corner! Why, many of my friends have done business with your good friends over at Countrywide Insurance! I know, it’s a small world! So, you’d be more than welcome to take a tour of our beautiful town and its lovely neighborhoods.

Oh, what’s that you say? You’ve heard Detroit is actually not a very nice place? You’ve heard that many of the homes in Detroit are foreclosed on at higher rates than in other American cities? Well, I guess you’re right about that. After all, most people who live in Detroit are African American, and Bank of America surely knows that African Americans are losing their homes faster than white people (though there are plenty of white people losing their homes, too — so obviously you don’t discriminate too much!).[1] Anyway, Detroit used to be a really nice place to live. And lots of people would like to buy homes in Detroit and fix them up and make them pretty again, but Bank of America and Countrywide probably wouldn’t stand to make too much money if houses sold cheaply and mortgages were fair and banks were more flexible when the unemployment rate in America is around 9% (here in Detroit, it’s more like 14%—that’s really high, in case you didn’t know).

So, Christine! Come visit us here in Mo-Town! Why, we’d be happy to show you what it’s like to lose your home even in one of the most sparsely populated cities with tremendous issues around blight, abandoned homes, and deteriorating housing stock. I mean, really! You might get a kick out of it! Or you might decide to make a conscious, ethical decision to advocate for the 99%—the ones that make your world go ’round.

Love and Hugs from Motor City!

Fritz
Detroit, MI 48238

+ + +

Mortgage Fraud

When I refinanced my mortgage in 2006 with Countrywide, I did so to get my payment down. The guy I spoke with sold me on taking out some of the equity on my house to get my kitchen floors redone and do some repairs on the subflooring that I otherwise couldn’t afford. What I didn’t know was that he was going to inflate the property assessment of my home, lie and say that my father also lived at my house so the loan would be approved, and put me in a Pay Option ARM that caused over $10,000 in negative amortization. I was told to pay the minimum payment because that was the interest-only payment, but it wasn’t. Now my house is upside down and I am struggling each month to keep afloat. I can’t join any of the modification programs that Bank of America (who now services my loan) offers because I haven’t fallen behind on my payments, and I refuse to fall behind on my payments because I am trying to maintain a good credit score. If this refinance had not been approved and I had not been misled about the mortgage I was being put into, I would not be in the mess I am in now.

This isn’t the last you will hear from me. I am meeting with the state’s attorney this week about this.

Jennifer Mercer
Great Mills, MD 20636

+ + +

Greetings from a Soon-to-Be Ex-B of A Customer
To: Ron D. Sturzenegger, Bank of America

Ron:

My name is Elizabeth Lang. I am a B of A customer in Westlake Village, CA. I have been a customer for a very long time, and not only are my personal bank accounts and my mortgage with Bank of America, my small business banking and credit line are with B of A, too.

Several months ago, I noted that Bank of America had started withdrawing approximately $90 per month from my bank account. I had never approved any such automatic withdrawal, so I called your customer service line and learned from a fairly unfriendly customer service representative that it was for “homeowners insurance.”

The rep claimed that I had failed to prove I had homeowners insurance, so B of A had started taking the money from my account — without telling me.

Here’s the rub. I have had the same homeowners insurance policy since I purchased my home. The last time I checked, randomly taking money from my account constitutes theft. So my next step was to head to my branch of B of A to speak to someone in person.

Upon arriving at my bank branch and requesting to speak to a manager, I was told, “you are not allowed to speak to a manager.” Flabbergasting. My own bank is stealing my money and I’m “not allowed” to speak to a bank manager in person? While I did (after hours of talking with rude, unhelpful customer service reps) manage to get my money refunded, I am still disgusted.

Cut to three weeks ago when I went to my bank to deposit some checks. The line for the ATM was too long — so I opted to go inside to the completely empty bank where tellers stood around doing nothing. Upon completing my transaction, the teller said, “You have a large balance, you should consider opening a money market account that would earn interest for you.” My response? Wondering how my opening a money market account would benefit B of A — because you certainly aren’t trying to do me any favors or earn me interest.

That’s when I realized . . . I don’t trust you. You stole from me in the past. You push us all on the ATMs then charge us to use them. Your customer service consists of surly, churlish and unhelpful people.

In short, I’m leaving and taking my “large balance” and my good credit rating and I’m going to a local credit union where I suspect I won’t be treated like chattel.

I’m sending this email to you and a number of your colleagues. I challenge just one B of A executive to respond to me personally and tell me why I should stay at your institution.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Lang
Westlake Village, CA 91362

+ + +

Insurance Fraud

Dear Bank of America and affiliates,

Since my mortgage was bought by good old B of A I am required to carry flood insurance for over twice what my property is worth. If I can’t get my own, B of A will purchase it for me, for about twice what I have to pay my current insurance company. Last year it took me three months to get the money together and B of A charged me $600 for retroactive coverage plus interest. I am 68 years old and retired. My property is now appraised at less than what I owe on it. I am barely hanging on and B of A is apparently eager to see me go down.

By the way, they would not refinance my property because it is not a “conventional structure” but they want me to carry flood insurance of over $200,000. Who is getting rich off of this and how do they get away with it? There has not even been a claim for flood damage since the home was built in the ’70s. If I go under I plan to move to the B of A parking lot in town with my four dogs and three cats.

Jimmie Oneal
Meadow Valley, CA 95956

1. The Federal Government in 2011 charged Bank of America’s subsidiary Countrywide with systematic racial discrimination in mortgage lending, leading to a $335 million settlement for the 200,000 minority borrowers identified as victims. The lender put African-American and Latino borrowers into riskier subprime loans than their white peers with identical credit, and charged the minority borrowers higher interest and fees.

Purchase print issue »

 

















































An excellent article on Soehnee where much of the above artwork was found can be read at Giornale Nuovo.

From Matt Taibbi and Rolling Stone Magazine:

The federal rescue of Wall Street didn’t fix the economy – it created a permanent bailout state based on a Ponzi-like confidence scheme. And the worst may be yet to come

Finding info about struggles in far away lands can be challenging if you don’t speak the language of the local resistance. I’ve been hearing about the La Zad struggle in France for some time, and thankfully someone wrote a very useful account of what is “Europe’s largest Postcapitalist land occupation” with the goal of stopping the construction of an airport. One of my viewers who’s over there right now, sent me some links to videos with short explanations. I’ve corrected their English, but the email is pretty much intact.

-Vainquons Vin$$i à Notre Dame des Landes (video at the top of the page)
It shows the first two week of eviction and the beginning of larger mobilization. Operation Cesar started on October 15th. Their purpose was to destroy all the houses a soon as possible to prevent any reoccupation. In a week they evicted and destroyed 8 squats.

#ZAD #NDDL : Quand les arbres s’agitent (When the trees shake)
Documentary about the forest occupation on la ZAD of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes and the violent evistion on the October 30-31th This one is mostly in English.

Following Operation Cesar the opponents called for a large mobilization for reoccupying La ZAD. On November 17th, 30,000 people gathered in the countryside with 300 tractors, bringing an enormous amount of building materials to rebuild collective space that got destroyed in the last raid.

On the morning of November 23rd,  the police raided one the last squatted cabin on La ZAD.This was followed by two days of intense fighting.

There has been a trial in which the sate claims the cabins had been build illegally, so they can be destroy and evict the people. But since the 23-24th attack a round of tractors surronded one of the cabins, and several barricades have been built. The state has had to mobilize a large amount of police from around the country to try to put down this rebellion. While the goverment refuses to change their position regarding the airport, support for La ZAD is growing all over France and people are joining the fight and helping to organize.

A retrospective of the La Zad Struggle:

http://en.squat.net/tag/notre-dame-des-landes/

Below is a list of links to articles in English from the capitalist media.

Tuesday 30 October 2012
French police teargas anti-airport protest
http://www.english.rfi.fr/node/139683

Saturday 17 November 2012
Thousands gather for anti-airport protest that highlights splits in French government
http://www.english.rfi.fr/economy/20121117-thousands-gather-anti-airport-protest-highlights-splits-french-government

Friday 23 November 2012
French police teargas airport site squatters ahead of new demo
http://www.english.rfi.fr/environment/20121123-french-police-teargas-airport-site-squatters

Battle lines drawn over new airport for Nantes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20502702

Tuesday 04 December 2012
Protest grows against new French airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes near Nantes
Part 1 http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20121204-airport-squatters-notre-dame-des-landes
Part 2  http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20121205-protest-grows-against-new-french-airport-notre-dame-des-landes-near-nantes-part-2

Wednesday 05 December 2012
French farmers join environmental activists in protest against Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport
http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20121205-french-farmers-join-environmental-activists-protest-against-dame-landes-airport

Wednesday 12 December 2012
French court orders eviction of anti-Nantes airport protesters
http://www.english.rfi.fr/economy/20121212-french-court-orders-eviction-anti-nantes-airport-protesters

Monday 10 December 2012
French airport protesters seek safety in the trees
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/10/french-airport-protesters-squat?INTCMP=SRCH

Sunday 16 December 2012
Clashes with police as airport protesters plan next move
http://www.english.rfi.fr/economy/20121216-clashes-police-airport-protesters-plan-next-move

 

"Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes." — William Gibson.

The Problem of Suicide: You Are Not Alone

As the survivor of an arduous suicide attempt I've subsequently come to contemplate this subject a bit more than most.  Throughout the years I've seen friends, family, and loved-ones take their own lives.  Each time I hear of another suicide I am reminded not only of my own attempt, but also the attempts by those I've known.  To be perfectly honest... my response is probably indicative of some PTSD.  But I'm more than a decade removed from my major depressive episode and I feel that the subject of depression and suicide ought now be addressed.

It should be pointed out that suicide is now a leading cause of death in the United States.  Amongst the young adults it ranks as the second or third leading cause of death (depending upon the specific age range examined).  In other segments of populations around the world  it is also a primary cause of death.  Economic factors seem overtly connected with suicide in many nations.  Certain professions have a higher rate of suicide than others.  And, for U.S. soldiers, suicide has proven to be more deadly to them than combat.  This problem of suicide could accurately be described as a public heath crisis or an epidemic.    

While a variety of factors contribute to individual instances of suicide and the overall suicide rate, I believe that progressive radicals, anarchists, and social justice activists have somewhat unique psychological factors that can also come into play.  Although they are probably just as likely to suffer from problems like social isolation or drug dependency,  I believe that those who are informed about the myriad of crises that humanity currently faces are given an extra punctuation in terms of reasons to be dismayed.  So, in addition to any personal problems they may have, they are also aware that the world seems to be going to hell in a proverbial handbasket.  And while I personally believe that's a fairly accurate assessment of things, I don't advocate suicide as a response to this reality. 

Life Under Siege

Particularly for younger radicals, as well as for younger people in general, I think the idea that things can suddenly and dramatically change is forsaken.  Since they haven't experienced as much of life, it may not be as clear to younger people that situations can, and do, often change.  The world is not static and, as terrible as things may be overall, or as bad any particular personal situation may be, it's bound to change -- even if we're just talking about gaining a different personal perspective on things.  We are all bound for new experiences, new insights, and new ways of looking at things.  And, in your darkest hour, it should be remembered that the next hour may serendipitously be your brightest.  Life undoubtedly can be, and often is, a struggle.  However, as a radical, as a person who has a conscience and is informed, it behooves us all if you keep up the struggle.

In a seeming paradox, life in nations under siege actually see suicide rates drop (WWII Britain, for example).  And, if it might help you, perhaps you should consider that the entirety of the world today is somewhat under siege.  I won't go into detail here again about the numerous problems that humanity collectively faces -- suffice it to say that there are serious problems in this world and each of us has our own thoughts about what needs to be changed and how that can happen.  Life and truth and beauty are constantly under attack, and these are things worth fighting for -- things worth living for.

When a progressive radical commits suicide it's equivalent to a fascist putting another notch in his rifle.  It is equivalent to the war machine rolling its tank treads over another freedom fighter.  This, I hope, is reason enough for many to avoid death at their own hands.       

Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down

As radicals, people are often subjected to mockery and derision.  Expressing concerns about the state of the world can often lead to plain ridicule.  This mockery and scorn can come from any number of sources -- friends, strangers, family, or the media.  And this derision can be, without a doubt, depressing.  But while some individuals should perhaps to be held accountable for their ignorant insensitivity, I'd suggest that this phenomena of callous ignorance is just a subtle part of the system's overall psychological warfare -- which it wages every day on every front.

The underlying nature of the system is to reduce empathy within the general population so that it can produce more mindless workers and consumers.  It's subtle, but this is what allows modern society to continue down the unsustainable path that it is on.  This is what allows bona fide psychopaths to attain the highest positions within the highest offices of the land -- be those governmental or business.  The value-free attitude of a twisted post-modernism scoffs at sincere concerns about the world and it perpetuates more business as usual.

And make no mistake... whatever the cumulative cause, psychological testing does show that empathy levels in the United States have dropped dramatically.  Young people today, in general, are actually less empathetic than they were a generation ago.  One can only imagine the social and psychological difficulties that a truly concerned bright young person must have today when dealing with a growing number of sociopathic peers!  But these decent young people need to be aware that the problem is not with them.  The problem is really not even the fault of their cold-hearted peers -- the problem is with the system that creates and rewards sociopaths.  This is what needs to be recognized and this is why good-hearted people should not give up.  Merely the continued existence of thoughtful and intelligent people is a strike against the system -- and that is why they should persist in an effort to undermine that system.

For radicals though, the problem of persecution on a psychological level goes beyond just merely the day to day interactions with any numb or cold peers.  Martin Luther King himself was famously sent a letter urging him to commit suicide.  And although I don't specifically know how common this particular sort of tactic is... from personal experience I can tell you that such things still happen.  When I was an outspoken young radical (with an overt tail) I had leaflets left on my doorstep promoting suicide "for the sake of the environment."  And while I can't say for certain that this played a direct role in my own suicide attempt after the fact... it's possible that I may have missed similar psychological attacks directed towards me.

This also relates to government infiltration and surveillance.  It is clear that infiltration of activist circles continues today (perhaps more commonly than ever).  But what subtle psychological effects does this infiltration have upon people?  Consider that you are likely to pick up on some level of insincerity amongst your peers.  If you begin to tolerate insincerity, or dismiss it, you may come to consider it a relative norm.  Or, on the other hand, you may avoid common social situations where you'll have to deal with insincere individuals.  Either way... this is likely to have an negative effect on you.  And consider that it's not just you who is being subjected to this but, also, other sincere individuals will be subjected to the same situation and may respond by altering their normally good-natured manner of associating with people.

In the 1960's some radical organizations had some of their meetings populated primarily by undercover agents.  Now, 50 years later, I see little reason to doubt that this may still often be the case.  In fact, the problem may be much more acute.  Infiltration and surveillance works as a psychological attack upon progressive radicals.  It's psychological warfare.  Psy-ops. 

I preceded this article with a quote from Willam Gibson, the dystopian science fiction writer, and I believe his quote has particular relevance to anarchists and other social justice advocates.  If you fall into those categories, and if you are feeling depressed or having suicidal thoughts, consider that this may be exactly what was intended for you... by design.  And, so, then, you should rethink your position.  If this sort of thing makes you feel paranoid, well, that may be for the best if it keeps you alive.  Besides, being paranoid in this world may often be the sanest frame of mind to have.  But is it really paranoia if they want you dead?  And do you really think that the government and corporate interests never want any activists dead or that they don't work toward those very ends?              

You Are Empowered To Live And Control Your Own Life

If your life has gone to shit and doesn't seem worth living... think again.  You can actually be part of something bigger and better.  You can change your personal life (habits, diet, "friends") and you can work toward being healthier and having a healthier world overall.  Even simple changes in your life can alter your perspective and give you reason to live.  Your depression may persist... but don't let it dominate you and control your life.  I don't mean this all to sound like some hackneyed self-help cliche, but if that's what it takes to keep a few radicals alive... I don't care if that's how it sounds.  There are simple truisms that remain true even if they are repeated a million times.   

I don't want any more sincere and good-hearted people to kill themselves.  And, at the rate which we are losing them, and at the rate which they are being outnumbered, the world can't afford to lose any more.  If you are contemplating suicide... use your intellect to contemplate something else.  You are in control of your own life, your own mind, and your own activities -- you can make a positive difference in this world by staying alive.  Even if you've never met them... there are people in this world who want you to be happy and want you to live.    

 

Dear Readers,

I’m pleased to announce the release of our latest issue. It features some of our finest essays yet and clocks in at over 70 pages. Particular standouts include Peter Frase’s rumination on the decline of the Baffler magazine, a publication more fit for the snark-filled 90s than the promise of our own era, and Seth Ackerman’s long exegesis on the economics of a feasible socialism. If you’ve ever stayed up late wondering how the role of profit would change under socialism, this one’s for you.

Also, perhaps you need a hug.

But in lieu of a hug, there’s plenty more from the issue online. As usual, we’ve shunned professional advice and put very little behind our paywall. Still, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind everyone that we’re in the middle of our first real fundraiser and subscription drive.

(Please note that our new issues are still in-transit from our printer. They’ll be shipped out on Friday, January 4th to subscribers. If you’re a current print subscriber feel free to shoot us an email and we’ll send over a digital edition to tide you over. If you’re not a subscriber, please become one if you can afford it.)

In a recent interview for Boston Review, I outlined the logic behind Jacobin‘s engagement with liberalism. But among our major initiatives for 2013 will be using the attention around the magazine to help stimulate broader currents of radical thought. Jacobin​ — a motley collection of young leftists, always greater than the sum of its parts — hardly has all the answers. We only hope that we’re asking the right questions. It’s the discussions these questions spark that really have promise.

In this spirit, a number of Jacobin readers have independently expressed interest in starting series of reading groups around the country to discuss not only the themes covered in the magazine, but broader democratic socialist theory, political strategy, and the prospects for refoundation on the American left. Objective conditions are far from ideal, but it’s a push that finds corollaries in the early days of the New Left Review and publications of the type. I’d be pleased to hear your thoughts on the idea.

In the coming weeks we’ll have updates, a draft syllabus, and we’ll facilitate an online discussion to this effect. Also don’t forget to take a look at our slate for 2013 — we’ll be producing a tremendous amount of content in the form of book and magazine releases, podcasts, videos, and more.

Since it’s the holidays, I’ll give in to temptation and end on a soft and sickly sentimental note. We’re deeply grateful for the support Jacobin‘s friends have given us over the past year. We’ve grown from a few hundred subscribers to over 2,000. By the scale of the publishing world, this is still pretty small. I imagine there are magazines devoted to finer points of craft knitting that have many times that mark. But for a radical intellectual journal in 2012, no matter how glossy the paper or pretty the pictures, this is a rather astounding number. With your donations this month, I also have hope that there’s enough interest and enthusiasm to build a base of young supporters large enough to allow us to expand in the long-term.

We appreciate your patience as we’ve gone through our growing pains and look forward to delivering a more polished, but equally uncompromisingly magazine in the future. As Peter Frase, summoning Gramsci, ends his piece this issue, “Today, the old may still be dying, but the new is already being born. Our task is to help it grow.”

 

Happy Holidays,

Bhaskar Sunkara
Editor & Publisher

via http://descepter.tumblr.com/page/5

'Don't forget who runs your economy now.'

For the 1 percent who rule society, democracy seems more than ever a hindrance to ensuring that the most calamitous economic crisis since the 1930s is paid for by the 99 percent below them. The most obvious expression of this is the installation of unelected technocrats as prime minister in Greece and Italy, in order to keep the countries’ governments firmly on the path of ever-deeper austerity programs designed to keep those ubiquitous “markets” happy.
It is here that we can see Lenin’s statement that “politics is a concentrated expression of economics” playing itself out concretely as a crisis of production and debt has mutated into a crisis of the political class, the state, and national sovereignty.

Democracy: Going, going, gone?

Behind all the platitudes being mouthed about the potential for economic mandarins to seriously address these interlocked emergencies, there remains the stubborn fact that in each country the problem was a political elite unable to maintain a social consensus for the brutality being inflicted to keep the Eurozone together. In neither country was there an election and nor in each case did the leader even lose a vote of confidence on the floor of Parliament. Indeed, in Greece George Papandreou won such a vote only to immediately step down in favour of a “government of national unity” headed by a little-known neoliberal bureaucrat.
The only legitimacy accessed by Papademos and Monti has been a negative one, based in the deep unpopularity and lack of authority of all sections of the political class across Europe. It is a situation where the factions of the Greek far Left together hold better poll results than either of the two main parties, and where Berlusconi was so deeply discredited that his premiership may have collapsed even without the pressure coming from Berlin, Paris and bond holders.
Left Flank has argued before that 2011 has been a year of global resistance from below on a scale not seen since 1968, but one key feature of any such conjuncture will be manoeuvres by ruling elites to head off and break rebellion through a mixture of coercion and consent.
The imposition of technocratic rule is just one of the mechanisms available in a period of sharp crisis, and it is neither new nor a sign that the ruling class can necessarily impose its will. As Marx argued in 1853in relation to a period of “technical” rule in Britain, “The best thing perhaps that can be said in favour of the Coalition [technical] Ministry is that it represents impotency in [political] power at a moment of transition.” However, the experience of Weimar Germany suggests that such subversion of liberal democracy can also lead to the imposition of ever more authoritarian forms of government, ever further from the niceties of popular consent. We are not there yet, and it would be wrong to overplay rumours that the Greek generals are thinking of staging a military coup, for which there is little evidence at present. It’s not that such moves may not be attempted if things get worse, but to raise excessive fears about their prospect can easily feed an argument that the Left should accede to a very real technocratic coup so as to try to dodge authoritarianism down the track.
These events have occurred concurrently with new attacks on the Occupy movement across the United States, where it has emerged that Mayors involved in the coordinated crackdown colluded not just with each other but the US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.
Conservative forces have also played their hand in relation to the Arab Spring. Western Powers gained new legitimacy thanks to the NATO intervention in Libya, with sections of the Syrian democracy movement looking to a similar deal with the devil. Yet while direct Western intervention looks less likely, the key players in the region — brought together in the Gulf Cooperation Council, throwing its weight around via influence within the Arab League — are seeking to divert movements from below and to drive a wedge against a key opponent, Iran. Nobody should shed a tear if Bashar al-Assad falls, but to see foreign meddling in his downfall as innocent of such dynamics would be naïve.
Imperialism is not just something that happens in the developing world. You can see it in the imposition of ECB/IMF rule on Greece and Italy and in other machinations at the top of the Eurozone hierarchy. Angela Merkel told her CDU party’s conference that the monetary union needed new rules to impose even tougher fiscal discipline on member states, under the banner of “closer integration”. And Finland’s Europe Minister has called for the six Triple-A rated economies in the Eurozone to be given extra powers to dictate what happens in the 11 non-core economies and new entrants, over the heads of locally elected governments.

{Source: FT.com}

The far Right on a new terrain

The current crisis is so serious that such manoeuvres may well come to nothing. There is a real prospect of Greece (and/or some other country) defaulting on its debt and exiting the Euro. If the existing elite structures cannot provide a clear path out of the crisis, there are darker forces hoping to win support for more authoritarian solutions. For example, Dutch hard Right populist Geert Wilders has started to publicly talk about taking his country out of the Euro, and French presidential candidate Marine LePen — of the fascist National Front — has been gaining mainstream traction through her party’s objection to the single currency. In Greece the far Right LAOS party has joined the government of national unity.
Meanwhile, Germany has been partly distracted from the Eurozone crisis by revelationsthat a Nazi terrorist group operated for a decade under the nose of state security agencies, while carrying out a series of brutal anti-immigrant murders. And Norwegian fascist Anders Breivik has appeared in open court and been granted media access while he awaits his trial. Despite at times ludicrous media attempts to situate his act of mass murder in crude psychological terms, he continues to state he is a “resistance fighter” against Islam’s destruction of Europe via the encouragement of multiculturalism by the “cultural Marxists” of the centre-Left.
It was issues like these that Guy Rundle and I discussed with Phillip Adams on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live the other night (the interview can be podcasted here), in line with the argument developed in our e-book, On Utøya: Anders Breivik, Right Terror, Racism and Europe(available here). One key point I raised was the fact that in extreme socioeconomic crises, when large sections of the middle class are — in Trotsky’s term — driven to despair by the destruction of their aspirations and livelihoods, fascist ideas can gain a mass hearing and apparently isolated individuals like Breivik can act as a beacon to growing networks of extremists as they prosecute the argument that only an extreme nationalist solution will resolve the crisis.
The point is not to see the accession of the far Right to power as imminent (it is not) but to understand that it is not inevitable that liberal democracy can reassert control in a situation where the social basis for it has been so dramatically undermined. There is no guarantee that existing political classes and state elites can restore stability in such a precarious situation, and certainly not without resort to extreme measures that open the way for more sinister actors to play a role.

Resistance and politics

The coming period raises decisive questions not just about the ability of ordinary people to resist the effects of the crisis but about what sort of politics are needed to give them the best chance of pointing a way out. Any such approach must start from a position of refusal to surrender to “the dictatorship of the markets”, to stand with every social struggle against the austerity measures being demanded and to argue that the 99 percent have the right to reject any practical culpability for the crisis.
Already there have been mass anti-government protests in Greece, on the anniversary of the 1973 student uprising against military rule, as well as in Italy, against a “bankers’ government”. Occupy London has to date defied an eviction notice and even expanded the protest into a nearby empty building owned by financial giant UBS. Any thought that the SCAF had strangled the key movement of the Arab Spring was also upset as one of the biggest protests since February filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square and other Egyptian cities. This doesn’t come out of nowhere, as workers’ strikes have spread and grown dramatically in recent months, underlining the growing social dynamic to the revolution.
But beyond this there is no formula for how this plays out politically. Lenin also famously said that Marxists should engage in “concrete analysis of the concrete situation”, and that “politics must take precedence over economics”. The Left is very weak internationally despite the re-energising influence of the last 12 months. For example, notwithstanding the brilliant Indignados movement in Spain, the Left remains relatively marginal when it comes to the forthcoming elections, in which the conservative pro-austerity PP is expected to win a massive majority. In part this reflects the way that electoral politics tend to lag social movement activity, but it is also a legacy of the fragmentation of opposition to austerity, with the trade unions having surrendered to PSOE’s attacks and the 15M movement (understandably but mistakenly) reacting to this with an outright rejection of political parties and unions, thereby partly abandoning the field to existing political actors.
Yet Greece shows that something different is possible. Not only has the radical Left grown in influence, the argument of a section of that Left for debt default, exit from the single currency and a radical program of nationalisation, capital controls and other progressive measures has been widely discussed. In this way, there has been a serious Left response to the most unavoidable concrete fact of the crisis: The fragile position of the key European neoliberal project of the last two decades — monetary union. It is around this axis that all other questions pivot as ruling classes around the Eurozone scramble to save the project, at the cost of social devastation.
As Costas Lapavitsas and his team at SOAS have cogently argued in their latest report on the Eurozone crisis (and as Lapavitsas argued in a major debate at the Historical Materialism conference in London last week), such an action program would not be a solution in and of itself, but could act as a bridge to rebuilding a confident and politically-focused struggle for socialism based inside the working class. The idea remains controversial, particularly because for some on the Left it is mistakenly seen as caving in to nationalism, but it targets the glaring weak point of European capitalism and its austerity-focused politicians and technocrats.
This is exactly the kind of revitalised, concrete, strategic Left politics that needs to be fused with mass resistance already emerging in response to the current crisis. Otherwise we risk being dragged ever closer to the social hell our rulers seem to have no clear alternative to demanding of us. This is the challenge we face.

Helvete is a new open access electronic and print journal of black metal theory.

Editors Zachary Price Aspasia Stephanou Benjamin Woodard
Editorial Advisory Board Dominic Fox Nicola Masciandaro Dan Mellamphy Michael O’Rourke Karin Sellberg Steven Shakespeare

CALL FOR PAPERS
Incipit: Open Issue Helvete: A Journal of Black Metal Theory (Winter 2012) Edited by Zachary Price, Aspasia Stephanou, and Benjamin Woodard
The editors of Helvete, a new journal of black metal theory, invite submissions for the journal’s inaugural issue. This issue is open topic in two senses. Firstly, it is an open issue in that all submissions appropriate to the journal’s general theme will be considered. Secondly, however, the editors encourage contributors to consider the topic itself open just as the first issue of a periodical publication is its opening. Thus, submissions that interrogate the problematics of beginning and genesis—or of openings, apertures, holes, etc.—at the conjunction of black metal and theory will be given priority. Black metal theory is the practice of the mutual blackening of theory and metal, and thus pushes the limits of contemporary academic genres by definition. In recognition of this, the editors welcome not only proposals for articles, but also for non, para, and protoacademic works, including commentaries, fragments, and visuals. We wish to encourage engagement in black metal theory by whatever means necessary.
Schedule 1 June 2011: Proposals due
1 September 2011: Drafts due
November 2011: Drafts returned with comments
1 February 2012: Final drafts due
March 2012: Publication
Proposals may be sent to the editors at helvetejournal@gmail.com For detailed guidelines, see the Submission Checklist on our website.
HTTP://HELVETEJOURNAL.ORG

Black & white sketches by Kilian Eng Title: Greg Egan, Learning to be me Previous features on this artist Related: BDiF Moebius collection Folkert

Q | Dec 20, 2012 | 3:51
Jian's essay on Idle No More
Jian weighs in on Idle No More -- the slogan, the hashtag, and the movement.

A Call Out of Extreme Importance & Significance from our Dear Friend EMIL BELL

Christmas has always been one of the saddest day of my life, my "Mother" made the journey to the spirit world on Christmas day in 1951. I was nine years when this happened and the most excruciating pain you could experience, with time the pain is bearable, but I still experience a deep sadness. The principal of the Beauval Indian Residential School wouldn't allow me to go to the funeral of my "Mother". We are in the process of the Truth and Reconciliation and I still don't get what that was all about, do we forgive our oppressers? Few of the oppressers fall into the catagory of psychopaths and sociopaths and have no feelings for what they do. The majority have feelings and they have this man made ritual of confessing. They go through the act of confessing for their horrendous crimes against humanity, and they are told, say three hail mary's and one, our father and your sins are forgiven. But they keep coming back again and again and again and confessing for the same crimes, the confessional is a revolving door. These crimes or sins fall under the catagory of the assimilation policy, white paper policy, the buffalo jump etc. They are all an attack on the identity, language, culture, family, belief system etc. The pope, steve harper made a public confession and people rejoiced, harper apologized to the Aboriginal People for past sin committed by past governments and other people, intending on getting, all the land and resources from Aboriginal People. It was not an apology, it was, damage control, a public relation scheme. Greed, short sighted vision (to the closest Bank), and no value on human life are very powerful forces that drive people like steven harper and his croonies and the multi national corporations. I thank the "Creator" and the GrandMothers/Fathers for the gifted, four poweful Young Women of the "Idle No More" movement and the many other Powerful Women/Men who have come into my life. These Young Women have conducted themselves in a manner that is very admirable. These are the true leaders, in the struggle for "Mother Earth", the other life forms that have sustained us from the begining of time and for our Children, GrandChildren and the ones, not yet born. At this time allow me, the opportunity to thank my "Mother" GrandMother(s), GreatGrandMother(s), Aunts, my biological Daughter, and my two adopted Daughters, Grand Children and Nosismak, for helping me for what I am. And, I thank you for not taking my right to be sad for the loss of my "Mother", on this day.

Four (4) Founding Woman of Idle No More (L-R) Sheelah McLean, Nina Wilson,  Sylvia McAdam,  & Jessica Gordon

The four Young Women came at a very opportune time, and they are a gift from the "Creator", as are all the other Women who have supported the movement in the struggle against the distruction of "Mother Earth" and the elimination of future generations.