Bound To Failure
“The days of everybody enjoying cheap oil and Iranians suffering under sanctions, those are over.” - Dr. Foad Izadi
The “torture fantasy,” as it is described by Neroni, is one that sees the body as a repository of information that, bound to its wish for mere corporeal survival, can be made to purge whatever details are deemed necessary for the enhancement of the security state. Neroni contrasts the biopolitical torture fantasy with the psychoanalytic conception of the desiring subject. Unlike the biopolitical body, the desiring subject is not a repository of information. Rather, it is based in an irrational (unconscious) experience of enjoyment. Therefore, on the one hand the reigning torture fantasy, the one that sees the body as repository, opens up an avenue for the critical interrogation of biopolitics and biopower that Neroni pursues, and on the other hand, according to Neroni, the psychoanalytic interpretation of the desiring subject shows precisely why torture as a technique of interrogation is bound to failure. Through her interpretation of various media representations of torture, Neroni shows that the limits of torture are tied to ideologies of the body and knowledge that miss the pathological dimension of libidinal pleasure…This fantasy that torture is the key to truth underlies every contemporary practice of torture and most popular representations that justify the practice.’ - Matthew Flisfeder
Iran’s Control of Hormuz Means It’s Exporting More Oil Today Than Before the War. Tehran is letting ships carrying its crude go through the strait, while it scares off others. - WSJ
GAZA WAR CRIMES TO BE PROSECUTED: Unlike cases based on universal jurisdiction, where legal action depends on the suspect being physically present within a state’s territory, states retain permanent jurisdiction over their own citizens. This means governments already possess the authority to investigate and prosecute their nationals suspected of involvement in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide, regardless of where those crimes were committed. Since September 2024, HRF has been compiling extensive dossiers documenting the alleged involvement of dual nationals in atrocities committed in Gaza. These files include open-source intelligence, testimonies, and other forms of evidentiary material that can support future prosecutions. - The Hague Group
YouTube now generates more ad revenue than Disney, NBC, Paramount, and WBD — combined. YouTube is "one of the only" media companies that "will become stronger in the age of AI," Nathanson and Fishman wrote.
The US-Ecuadorian joint military operation launched March 3, ostensibly against drug cartels, has turned Ecuador into a proving ground for unleashing military violence upon every country in the hemisphere in furtherance of US hegemony. Neither the Pentagon nor the Ecuadorian Ministry of Defense, which has dubbed the onslaught “Operation Total Extermination,” have reported casualty figures. Subsequent reports, however, have made clear that the Pentagon and Ecuadorian forces are following a scorched-earth policy aimed not at cartels but civilians, akin to that employed by the military dictatorships in Central and South America over the last century. - WSWS
In a fair society, there would be no billionaires, and no one would live in poverty. - Jeremy Corbyn
"This technology disrupts humanity's train, largely Democratic voters, and makes their economic power less, and increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working class, often male voters. These disruptions are going to disrupt every aspect of our society." - Alex Karp CEO of Palantir
Iran said on Wednesday, March 11, it was ready for a long war of attrition that would “destroy” the world economy, after firing on two commercial ships and threatening any vessels from the United States or its allies. - Le Monde
Azerbaijan sent the first humanitarian aid to Iran in the early days, Iran’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mojtaba Demirchilou, told journalists, APA reports. “This stems from our shared culture that we help each other in difficult times,” the diplomat noted. - APA.az
Amid uncertainty and rising prices globally, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum renewed the deal with 96% of gas stations to freeze the price of gas at the pump, this is possible because the state-owned oil company PEMEX can offer discounts on the wholesale price. - State-Owned FTW
Today, new digitalized technologies enable perfectly faked documentary images, not to mention Virtual Reality, so that the motto “believe my words (argumentation), not the fascination of your eyes!” is more actual than ever. It is crucial to keep in sight how the logic of “Whom do you believe, your eyes or my words?” (i.e., “I know well, but nonetheless … /I believe/”) can function in two different ways that of the symbolic fiction and that of the imaginary simulacrum. In the case of the efficient symbolic fiction of the judge wearing his insignia, “I know very well that this person is a corrupt weakling, but I nonetheless treat him as if /I believe that/ the symbolic big Other speaks through him”: I disavow what my eyes tell me and choose to believe the symbolic fiction. On the contrary, in the case of the simulacrum of virtual reality, “I know very well that what I see is an illusion generated by digital machinery, but I nonetheless accept to immerse myself in it, to behave as if I believe it.” Here, I disavow what my (symbolic) knowledge tells me and choose to believe my eyes only. - The Big Other Does Not Exist
Europe is making “a disastrous strategic miscalculation” in its approach to the Iran war, Barnes-Dacey said: “For the sake of managing the Ukraine conflict and preventing more trade and economic shocks, they are effectively unwilling to confront Trump on a conflict that is so deeply going to impact their wider interests.” - Guardian
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 10, 2026) - High Art Capital today announced the launch of its GTA Rental and Affordable Housing Initiative, a fund expected to be capitalized with a minimum of $1.3 billion, to acquire blocks of newly completed, unsold condominium units across the Greater Toronto Area and convert them into long-term rental housing. - NFC
Love is the full recognition of the other in their otherness. If this other is very close to you, as in this case, it seems to me that what's at stake is harmony within difference. The difference between men and women is irreducible; there's no possibility of fusion." - Philippe Sollers (husband of Julia Kristeva)
First 6 days of Iran war cost $11.3 billion, Pentagon tells Congress
An informal system of “permits-for-passage” through the Straits of Hormuz is emerging after Tehran has started to grant navigation permission to oil tankers headed to “friendly countries” with cargos of oil and gas. - BNE
Capitalist modernity makes it impossible to enjoy sacrifice and loss because, at the conscious level, the subject must believe he or she is geared towards utility and rational self-interest despite the fact that the unconsious is always focused on sacrifice and the enjoyment it brings. This means that capitalism must enable us to persist in sacrifice but just in ways that remain unconscious. Capitalism is built around fetishist disavowal: “I know very well that I do not get my enjoyment from acting in my self-interest, but, still, I nevertheless act as if I do”. - The Dangerous Maybe
Sam Altman: “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”
Facility 1391: Israel’s secret prison. It has been removed from maps and airbrushed from aerial photographs. But Facility 1391 certainly exists - you just have to ask the Palestinians and Lebanese who have been imprisoned and tortured there. Chris McGreal reports: “The psychological torture is very intense. People have been there for months at a time. I’ve met five people from different cities across the West Bank, from different organisations, and they all describe the same methods of torture. They’re not beating people but there is very strong psychological torture that results in people hallucinating or having breakdowns.” - Guardian 2003
