Re: Stormy weather?

[KMV]

> - the defeat of NATO could lead to a "decolonization" of Western
> Europe (not that this by itself leads to positive results. Repressive
> "liberal" fascism remains as likely an outcome as some sort of
> independence.)

I also wondered what you mean, given that Russia has its own awful colonial
history and has been open about intending to keep all current territory as
well as expanding into more.  The people of Moldova and Estonia aren't
happy at that prospect, not to mention those in Ukraine, who face
extermination if they insist on keeping their own culture and heritage.

Then there is also the problem of Russian homophobia, which is codified in
Russian law; it stands in sharp contrast to the more tolerant attitudes of
Ukraine, Estonia, etc.

A useful outline of Russian colonialism can be found here:
https://twitter.com/maksymeristavi/status/1495323069539405826?s=20&t=rbKDO_x5af0zzCRUyIo63g


I agree that to see resistance to Russia only as a proxy war with NATO
countries is to ignore the human rights of numerous other states, and
categories of people. I don't see how it is a defensible stance.

On Mon, Feb 13, 2023 at 11:40 AM Felix Stalder  wrote:

>
> On 12.02.23 20:50, Brian Holmes wrote:
> > -- There's a war on in Europe, which is a proxy war that pits NATO
> > against Russia, via the fighting force of Ukraine. Definitely check
> > out the list of equipment which the US alone has sent:
> > https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/sleepwalking-elites
> >  (list
> > begins in paragraph 3)
>
>
> I know this is not your point here, but to see this only as a proxy
> war really reductive and reeks of a "great powers" analysis in which
> some countries/people are just have to accept the fact that they are
> subordinate.
>
> The author of the NLR article comes right out with this world view:
>
> > Ten years ago, nobody could have imagined that Europe would risk
> > such a catastrophe for the sake of the Donbass – a region that few of
> > us would have been able to locate on a map.
>
> I'm sure most Ukrainians knew already 10 years ago where the Donbas was,
> but why bother with their view. Also, the war in the Donbas started
> 2008, so not to know where the Donbas was in 2012 is really an act
> of metropolitan ignorance. It happens, nothing to be proud of.
>
> So, this war is primarily one of Ukrainian survival. I'm sure that many
> in the US security apparatus see it also as a proxy-war, but I think
> also Biden's theme of democracy-vs-authoritarianism plays a role. I
> don't think it's a given that a republican administration under Trump
> would have done the same (even if some in the military would still have
> liked to fight a proxy war).
>
>
> On 13.02.23 08:45, Stefan Heidenreich wrote:
>
> > - the defeat of NATO could lead to a "decolonization" of Western
> > Europe (not that this by itself leads to positive results. Repressive
> > "liberal" fascism remains as likely an outcome as some sort of
> > independence.)
>
> Oh my, what this is supposed to mean, only chatGPT can explain.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> |  http://felix.openflows.com |
> | for secure communication, please use signal |
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Re: made for TV, made for social media

[KMV]

I think (and hope) you are right, Brian.

In response to this comment:
"The TV cameras, few as there were, were literally outside, observing,
clutching
their pearls, while a thousands social media cameras were inside, doing,
celebrating."

Worth noting that the rioters targeted the media during this event, and
destroyed equipment:
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1346944475478814720?s=20

Inside, they left messages of violence against the media as well.
https://twitter.com/AnthonyQuintano/status/1346963370205970432?s=20





On Thu, Jan 7, 2021 at 2:29 PM seb olma  wrote:

> Brian at his best, thank you so much for this!
>
> Best,
>
> Seb
>
> On 7 Jan 2021, at 19:25, Brian Holmes 
> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jan 7, 2021 at 2:32 AM Felix Stalder  wrote:
>
>> I followed, like many others I presume, yesterday's events in Washington
>> on TV (cnn) and on social media at the same time. And it seems pretty
>> clear that this event was made on, through and for social media
>
>  [...lots of other very cogent observations here...]
>
>> I'm far away, maybe miss-reading this entire thing.
>>
>
> It's too early to tell. However there is an opposite interpretation.
>
> In my view, far from being a harbinger of possibly worse threats to come,
> yesterday's events were the most positive thing that could have happened. I
> had hoped - dreamed - that we would see something exactly like this.
>
> The reason why is that through these events, we as a country left the
> world of "harbingers" and "possible threats" behind. Simultaneously, we
> left behind the pretense that populist Republicans are "merely" engaged in
> political theater. The day began with the usual push-the-limits posturing
> from Senator Ted Cruz and his allies: yet another page from the rhetorical
> playbook developed by Newt Gingrinch in the early 1990s. But then the
> play-acting devolved into an ugly insurrection carried out by crude, stupid
> and very obviously manipulated people. They were directly incited by the
> highest powers, via social media for sure, and television, and radio, and
> print journalism, and above all by the hottest channel of all: live
> rallies. The theater had consequences. The possible became real. And so a
> choice between conflicting realities could finally occur.
>
> Amazingly, no bomb exploded, no automatic weapons came out at dusk, there
> was no massacre. The pretense of "political theater" that fomented the
> uprising also took the place of, and disallowed, any serious planning for
> collective violence. Instead the entire country got a close look at an
> inchoate, yet very dangerous mob whose worldview is paranoid and
> delusional. Sure, we had seen these folks already, many times. Yet this
> time there was no equivocation as to who was leading. When Pence and
> McConnell took their last-minute stand in favor of the Constitution, Trump
> sent his thugs to oppose them. And with their actions, Trump's people - the
> real, unequivocal "deplorables" - finally lanced the boil of Trumpism.
>
> When the Western forests burned and smoke hung for weeks over Seattle and
> San Francisco, it became obvious to a majority of Americans that climate
> change was real. Similarly, when the windows were shattered at the Capitol,
> it became obvious that a politics based on staged and calculated
> insurrectionary rhetoric leads to real violence and institutional breakdown.
>
> Rather than subjecting it to a media-theoretic analysis, I think it would
> be realistic to see yesterday's electoral count event as a "total social
> fact." The phrase by Marcel Mauss refers to moments of collective ritual in
> which the pragmatic administration of functions coincides with the
> charismatic or magical expression of values. For Mauss this is a dynamic
> ritual with all the density, complexity and precarity of lived experience.
> It is a real force because it tests out the validity of social fictions. It
> is a total fact because it upholds, but to some extent also transforms, a
> society's core affective and cognitive assumptions about what the world is
> and how it works.
>
> The pragmatic function of yesterday's certification ritual was to confirm
> the peaceful transferral of state power. Yet what it became, dynamically,
> was a challenge to and subsequent re-affirmation of all the procedures,
> values and aspirations attached to the society-wide practice of democracy.
> This was not a monolithic, mythical, predetermined ceremony, even though
> that was what everyone was fearfully hoping it would be. Instead it was
> dynamic, open-ended, touch and go, extremely vulnerable. And look at what
> it actually did.
>
> It reconfirmed, in the evening, the about-face of political power that had
> occured in the morning, when the results from Georgia came through. In this
> way, it opened up the possibility for a Democratic administration to
> actually legislate: to move transformative laws through both the House and
> the Senate. Not just Trump, but three 

Re: Why I won't support the March for Science

[KMV]

Exactly what I was thinking, Peter.

I marched on Saturday as well because I'd prefer that not only my kids
have a planet to live on, but one that has not seen even worse crises
of displacement thanks to drought and famine. I'd like to not see more
and more immigrants rounded up an put into detention camps. That number
is growing alarmingly. I'd like to not see increasing militarized
groups of Nazi thugs attacking demonstrators. And I'd like to not get
into a nuclear conflict with North Korea.

So I, and most of my friends, are resisting the current US govt. as
hard as we can using every channel, as well as making plans around
stockpiling non-perishables and potable water, getting passports in
order, etc.

Maybe all of you are taking some action to combat these kinds of things
in your own locales. I'd love to hear about it because frankly, I'm
exhausted and it would cheer me up.

On Mon, Apr 24, 2017 at 12:18 PM, Lunenfeld, Peter B.  
wrote:

 Dear Eric, Florian et al. --
 I marched on Saturday, and I supported marching on Saturday. I see
 the complaints about the the M4S as driven by a quest for ideological
 purity. That's what I've been reading on , The Root and
 elsewhere about the march and its intentional separation from other
 forms of social and economic justice work, and its reliance on what
 one might call a technocratic political solutionism. We can argue about
 techno-social intersectionality and inadvertent Popperian neoliberalism
 until our fingers wear down our keyboards, but the reality is that in
 the US at least, whatever you want to call the left/liberal alternative
 to right-wing revanchism has lost almost all of its political power.
 <...>

   --
   Kim De Vries
   http://kdevries.net/blog/

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Re: will someone explain

[KMV]

   Ben is on target. Additionally, while it seems there are constitutional
   grounds to challenge quite a few things Trump is doing, it requires not
   only the political will from the other branches to mount the challenge,
   but the further will to force the matter if Trump and others alied with
   the Executive branch refuse to comply with the law. Bottom line, who
   will the army/national guard side with if it turns out that the
   Whitehouse ignores court orders.

   However, I think (hope) it won't come to that. Just in the last couple
   of hours talk of impeachment has been attributed to some Republican
   lawmakers. Ironically, even the Koch Bros. are disenchated now because
   Trump is such a loose cannon, the markets have become very volatile,
   which they don't like. We could end up with Pence, which would suck,
   but at least is less likely to precipitate a multiple front war.
   Probably. I'm still hoping that an impeachment investigation reveals
   far more widespread corruption and more of the Republican leadership is
   caught up.

   And, on the positive side, there is growing cooperation between new
   resistance groups and older ones like Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ
   groups, and some people who were too privileged to realize anyone else
   was suffering are waking up. So we may seem some long-term gains from
   that. I mention these coalitions because they are finally energizing
   some of the democrats enough to push back, and may have a big impact in
   the next elections.

   On Thu, Feb 2, 2017 at 10:34 AM, Ben Birkinbine  
wrote:

Hi David,
I'll offer a very brief explanation, but I think it should provide some
general context for your question.
 <...>

   --
   Kim De Vries
   http://kdevries.net/blog/


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Re: Resistance (was: 10 Preliminary Theses on Trump)

[KMV]

   And of course withdrawing leaves those who cannot withdraw to take the
   full brunt of the oppression. Lately I have found the most hope in
   standing in support with Black Lives Matter and other resistance
   groups, but I do share your pessimism.

   On Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 11:23 PM, Patrice Riemens  wrote:

 On 2017-01-26 16:38, Ian Alan Paul wrote:

 > "Is you 10th thesis calling for a revolution without using the word.
 >
 >   If so why not? Why avoid the word? Has it become tarnished by
 >   carrying too much historical baggage ? Or does te word simply
 >   not cover what it is you are trying to say?"
 (...)
 > One thing that remains perfectly clear to me is that we lack models
 > for what successfully resistance looks like in the present, and so now
 > is the time for what I would call speculative or experimental
 > resistance.  I think we should be striking out in different directions
 > both as a kind of cartographic activity (as a means of understanding
 > the current configurations/limits/concentrations/flows of power) and as
 > a means of perhaps finding ourselves finally able to, as I say in my
 > text, "make possible that which cannot be under capitalism."

 At the moment capitalism as we know it (do we? ;-) is in such
 turmoil/reconfiguration, principally but not only because of the return
 of (geo)politics, that I am not sure about 'cartographing' it. And with
 regard to 'resistance', I am even less sure, not to say frankly 
pessimistic.
 <...>

   --
   Kim De Vries
   http://kdevries.net/blog/


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Re: What is the meaning of Trump's victory?

[KMV]

Following up, an example of how racism is far more widespread than might be
visible from outside the states, this was just shared by a friend of mine
in San Francisco.  This is her account of her own direct experience (she is
a middle aged white woman, for context):

"On Saturday I witnessed white man towering over a woman of color wearing a
headscarf in the marketplace yelling at her that she had no right to take a
picture of his hand while he ate chocolate from her vending station. He was
yelling at her aggressively pointing his finger in her face. I could not
stand by and let it happen. I interrupted the scene and asked to calm down
and stop yelling and give her space. He turned his aggression on me
aggressively asking me if I were a cop and it's none of my business ? "No
I'm a person who cares that you are yelling at this woman and I need you to
stop" I said she has a right to film your hand while you are in public it
is her job. "No she doesn't I'm a lawyer and she fucking doesn't have a
right" he said while he said more aggressively pointing almost touching her
nose. "She does have a right and you need to stop yelling and back off" I
said. Fuck you bitch he said to me. Fuck you bitch. While my safety was
probably not truely threatened, my heart was racing. My friend watched from
a distance afraid that he might have a gun. I couldn't change his mind or
his anger. I told him in a calm voice but loud voice so those around could
hear "that it was not ok with me to see a white man yelling at a woman of
Color doing her job. He kept being aggressive and I eventually stepped back
myself. Other folks from her booth were stepping in. This shit is happening
in San Francisco. The racist are emboldened. We must stop them when we see
them happening unless our own safety will also be in jeopardy. I bet he
didn't think he was being racist. But Impact > intent

It looked like racist classist sexist shit to me.

Stand up-activists must be also be emboldened. White men of consciousness
we need your help in these times to deal with fucking white men."


On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 2:25 PM, KMV  wrote:

> I agree with Alice and Angela on this as well. Mainstream reporting over
> here has focused on economic dissatisfaction in the rust belt, and rural
> voters feeling left out, but it's worth noting that people of color in the
> rust belt still voted overwhelmingly against Trump, though their economic
> situations are likely even worse.


> --
>
> Kim De Vries
>
> http://kdevries.net/blog/
>



-- 

Kim De Vries

http://kdevries.net/blog/

--f403045c49227a9a3105414ba1fa
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Following up, an example of how racism is far more widespr=
ead than might be visible from outside the states, this was just shared by =
a friend of mine in San Francisco.=C2=A0 This is her account of her own dir=
ect experience (she is a middle aged white woman, for context):=C2=A0<=
br>"On Saturday I witnessed white man toweri=
ng over a woman of color wearing a headscarf in the marketplace yelling at =
her that she had no right to take a picture of his hand while he ate chocol=
ate from her vending station. He was yelling at her aggressively pointing h=
is finger in her face. I could not stand by and let it happen. I interrupte=
d the scene and asked to calm down and stop yelling and give her space. He =
turned his aggression on me aggressively asking me if I were a=C2=A0=
cop and it&=
#39;s none of my business ? "No I'm a person who cares that you ar=
e yelling at this woman and I need you to stop" I said she has a right=
 to film your hand while you are in public it is her job. "No she does=
n't I'm a lawyer and she fucking doesn't have a right" he =
said while he said more aggressively pointing almost touching her nose. &qu=
ot;She does have a right and you need to stop yelling and back off" I =
said. Fuck you bitch he said to me. Fuck you bitch. While my safety was pro=
bably not truely threatened, my heart was racing. My friend watched from a =
distance afraid that he might have a gun. I couldn't change is mind or =
his anger. I told him in a calm voice but loud voice so those around could =
hear "that it was not ok with me to see a white man yelling at a woman=
 of Color doing her job. He kept being aggressive and I eventually stepped =
back myself. Other folks from her booth were stepping in. This shit is happ=
ening in San Francisco. The racist are emboldened. We must stop them when w=
e see them happening unless our own safety will also be in jeopardy. I bet =
he didn't think he was being racist. But Impact > intent=C2=A0It l=
ooked like racist classist sexist shit to me.=C2=A0Stand up-activists m=
ust be also be emboldened. White men of consciousness we need your

Re: What is the meaning of Trump's victory?

[KMV]

I agree with Alice and Angela on this as well. Mainstream reporting
over here has focused on economic dissatisfaction in the rust belt,
and rural voters feeling left out, but it's worth noting that people
of color in the rust belt still voted overwhelmingly against Trump,
though their economic situations are likely even worse.

We also have no numbers on how the roll back of voting right
protections affected the election. This year, numerous states passed
laws that cut back on voting hours, reduced the number of polling
places, demanded particular kinds of ID, etc. In North Carolina, the
new law was overturned because it was found to deliberately target
people of color. In other states, like Ohio, court challenges failed
or weren't finished in time.

Further, the ugly sentiments expressed in the Trump campaign have
been voiced for years now in the Gamergate movement, among the "Sad
Puppies," and across many alt-right web sites. Young white men
especially have been radicalized through these sites and movements,
and now one of there ring-leaders, Stephen Bannon of Brietbart News,
has been appointed as Trump's chief strategist.

Finally, if this was really all or evn mostly about economics, why is
there now such an upsurge in hate crimes against muslims, women, and
especially people of color, even in affluent urban areas?

We all know that the US doesn't like to talk about class, but it
likes talking about race even less, and so focusing on economic
dissatisfaction allows a more comfortable discussion. It is leftist,
but avoids race and gender aspects, which are even less welcome topics
than class.


On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 8:47 AM, Alice Yang 
wrote:

> I absolutely agree with Angela: "a theory of capitalism that is not also
> a theory of racism and gender (and sexuality) is a very poor theory of
> capitalism."
>
> There's a lot of talk in this thread about how white dissatisfaction in
> the Midwest comes from a so called real place.
>
> As a women of color, I know that I have to work twice as hard for just a
> seat at the table (where I will fill a token role and people will talk
> over me). To me, the white dissatisfaction in the Midwest is precisely
> that: dissatisfaction.


<>


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Re: VW

[KMV]

   I'm afraid you may be right, that the closed system is so entrenched
   that it utterly negated the possibility of an open system.  Tesla made
   a lot of designs open-souce last year, and I have seen no effect from
   that at all, in spite of demand for electric and hybrid vehicles being
   very high.

   http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

   On Sun, Sep 27, 2015 at 11:14 AM, John Hopkins

wrote:

 This is the way the industry always works when closed-source. This event
 should remind everyone (and especially consumer associations) how
 important is to have the industry release its software open-source, down
 to the firmware and hardware. This must be an imperative especially for
 <...>



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Re: tensions within the bay area elites

[KMV]

There is also tension within Google, that is interesting to observe.
I have a friend working in Google.org, the humanitarian arm that works
on projects like apps to help find missing persons after some type of
disaster.  he and others there are often extremely frustrated by what
goes on over at google.com, not only because they might disagree on
ethical or political grounds, but also because Google and quite a few
of the big tech joints play at being counter culture, but often have
the effect of making countercultural events and locales too expensive
for the people who started them/built them.

Even so, many people here, while disliking Google for some things,
also recognize that some of the tech giants are making real efforts on
environmental issues, and some of them are trying to at least consider
how they affect local communities.  But sometimes it's hard to
disentangle corporate policy from personal behavior by employees
(whether it's positive or negative).

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 8:36 AM, Hans de Zwart  wrote:

> -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
> Hash: SHA512
>
> Hey Geert,
>
> The tension between the Bay area elites is less interesting than the
> grassroots unrest from the 'data-havenots' who are slowly starting to
> feel uncomfortable with the level of governance/jurisdiction that Google
> is having in their lives:
 <...>

-- 

Kim De Vries

http://kdevries.net/blog/


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Re: The Californian Reality (from: New Geography)

[KMV]

I have certainly seen these changes during the past eight years that I
have lived in California, near Sacramento.  However, the green
initiatives cannot be simply written off that way considering our
miserable air quality, the water rationing that has just started, the
loss of pollinating insects, and our struggles to resist large-scale
fracking. All of these are important not just for quality of human
life, but for agriculture.

The agricultural economy of California is as important as the tech,
not only for the state, but for the US food supply, and it has been
carried out in an unsustainable way for far too long. The ignorance of
techno-oligarchs about how the rest of the state lives doesn't help
either, because LA, SF and those other coastal areas ask for ever more
water each year.

I'm not sure yet where the growing frustration with inequality in
California will take us, but my impression is that more and more
people around me are reaching a limit.  That could lead to a stronger
grassroots movement, or it could lead to people just leaving the
state.  If the drought continues into late 2014, some areas of the
state may become simply unlivable, either because they have no water,
or because water and food have become too expensive.  So migration
rather than revolution may be the most likely future.  I suppose an
exodus might simply reinforce the growing inequality in California, as
those in the "99%" who can afford to, leave, and those who can't,
starve.

The above article makes valuable points, but leaves out some very
important environmental issues. Further it demonizes the environmental
movement and ignores the very real problems that movement tries to
address.


On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 9:47 AM, Geert Lovink  wrote:

> (I got this from Thorsten Schilling, it reminded me of the recent
> attacks on the Google busses in SF /geert)
>
> California's New Feudalism Benefits a Few at the Expense of the 
> Multitude
>
> by Joel Kotkin 10/05/2013
 <...>

--

Kim De Vries

http://kdevries.net/blog/


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Re: Morphology of a copyright tale

[KMV]

Love it, particularly the fate of the bearded flute-playing man.  :-)

--But was his beer free?  ;-)

On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 6:54 AM, Aymeric Mansoux  wrote:

> # This text is based on the work from Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp in
> # his 1928 essay "Morphology of the Folktale." By studying many
> # Russian folktales, Propp was able to break down their narrative
> # structure into several functions, literally exposing an underlying
> # thirty one step recipe to write new and derivate similar stories.





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