The Best Thing I've Ever Done
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LIVESTREAM of May Day Protest from Around the country
Robert Fife: "Canada's always had a strong left-wing voting bloc ... Avi Lewis is articulate. He's putting out policies that will appeal to a lot of people on the Left. I think he has an opportunity to bring the [NDP] back."
Two chickens a second. 18 hogs per minute. That’s how fast meatpacking plants can currently run in the U.S. Meatpacking workers repeat the same motions thousands of times a day, resulting in reported rates of occupational illness six times higher than the national average across all industries. Short-staffed meat inspectors have little time to identify carcasses contaminated with feces or disease and face immense pressure to keep lines going rather than halt them for inspection. Despite these dangers, President Trump’s Department of Agriculture plans to let packers run the lines even faster. It’s the administration’s latest deregulatory gift to the meat industry, after pausing new protections for livestock farmers, repealing salmonella standards, and rehiring a food safety lead with deep industry ties. - Food and Power
What makes Žižek's theory of ideology so original and insightful is how it explains the function of jouissance within ideological systems. Typically, ideology is thought of as false consciousness, which means that ideology can be fought with knowledge-based critique. If ideology is simply a matter of misconceptualization, then explaining the truth of the situation with the ideological subject ought to be enough to free him or her from it. However, this is not how ideology really works. What we find is that people tend to have stubborn attachments to their ideologies. The reason for this being that human beings are not merely duped by ideology but, more importantly, they enjoy it. This is why Žižek holds that we must go beyond the ideological symptom (meaning) in order to arrive at the ideological sinthome (jouissance) if we are to reach the hard kernel of an ideology. The idea is that every ideology superegoically authorizes its subjects to partake of some form of obscene enjoyment that comes to be the libidinal center of gravity of their lives. If you say to the ideological subject, "Hey, you need to let go of your ideology, since it makes you do things that act against your own self-interest", then the ideological subject will likely respond, "I'll give you my ideological enjoyment when you pry it from my cold, dead hands — give me ideological enjoyment or give me death!" And this is reinforced by the authoritative injunction of the superego. "Enjoy! most fundamentally means "Enjoy your ideology!" - The Dangerous Maybe
“The more I see of the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine.” - 1899 George Bernard Shaw
The origins of turbo-folk are something of a joke. Musician and self-styled “media manipulator” Rambo Amadeus coined the term in 1988 to describe his debut album. He put out a track list with electronic rhythms that exaggerated Balkan melodies and vocal trills, sung with folksy lyrics about lowly passions. It was intended to mock the way culture was headed. But somehow the genre was taken up earnestly by the music industry in Serbia, as if they were long looking for the name. - Novum
How the War Saved the Iranian Regime
Carney looks squarely at the expanding and multiplying catastrophes of late-stage capitalism and remains unshaken in his conviction that structural changes are unnecessary. He sees a world on the brink and wants to do nothing more than tinker with the finer points of public policy. This should not surprise us. Carney’s career is defined by small adjustments; a 0.5 percent increase in interest rates, a rewording of lending regulations—these fine tunings might fulfill the role of a central banker but for a prime minister this tinkering is not enough. Carney’s vision for the future of Canada is an oligarchy of better-behaved oligarchs. Of a neoliberalism with ‘values.’ A capitalism that chooses to be sensible and responsible. A corporate technocracy that resolves the twin crises of declining living standards and environmental catastrophe without slowing capital accumulation. - Canadian Dimension
Right now, 50 countries — including Canada — are talking about how to quit fossil fuels. Meeting reflects growing frustration with failures of UN climate negotiations. - CBC
HOW TO GUARANTEE FASCISM: German government plans massive cuts to health, pensions and social benefits. As early as Wednesday, the federal cabinet wants to decide on the cornerstones for the future budget and pass healthcare reforms that will cut the spending of the statutory health insurance funds by €20 billion next year. The consequences will be poorer care and more expensive medicines for patients and even more unbearable working conditions for healthcare personnel…Additional “capital-funded elements of occupational and private old-age provisions” were necessary, said the former BlackRock manager Merz, “and on a much larger scale than we currently have, largely on a voluntary basis.” This not only means old-age poverty for everyone who cannot afford such capital-funded insurance, but it also provides banks and investment funds with additional money and hands over old-age provisions to the whims of the financial markets. The government is also taking a sledgehammer to social spending. It has already abolished Bürgergeld (basic welfare payments) and replaced it with a “New Basic Security Benefit,” which is tied to much harsher requirements and enables the state to force the unemployed into any job, no matter how poorly paid. But that was only the beginning. - WSWS
Europe is losing nearly €500 million a day as the Middle East conflict drives up fossil fuel costs, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday, as turmoil in the Persian Gulf continues to rattle global energy markets. “In just 60 days of conflict, our bill for fossil fuel imports has increased by over €27 billion, without a single molecule of additional energy,” she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. - Politico
‘Full force’ of Iran war will hit food prices soon, supermarkets warn
European allies have mostly responded by scurrying to obey—offering advantageous trade deals, bludgeoning Iran, vowing to spend 5 per cent of gdp on defence, naturally without consulting voters.footnote35 Despite their bleats about the international rule of law, none has raised a finger over Maduro’s abduction, the blockade of Cuba or the assault on Iran. Tellingly, the one issue on which they managed to screw their courage to the sticking place was the Kingdom of Denmark’s historic right to the possession of Greenland, where sub-imperial pride was stung. A genuine strategy of disengagement would look very different: declaring an end to nato expansion and out-of-area operations would be a first step; drawing down American forces in Germany, Poland and Romania would follow.footnote36 A European left that was serious about democratizing the continent would fight for it to be free of all foreign bases. - Susan Watkins NLR
This is what corporate consolidation in the food supply chain looks like when it has metastasized for fifty years. Bland, frozen, shed-meat, forced-labor-seafood food served continuously to restaurant-goers, schoolchildren, federal prisoners, and the members of Congress who could have regulated it. The cost shows up in something other than money, in the slow decade-by-decade collapse of regional food identity, in the disappearance of the diner that tasted like a place, in the convergence of every menu in every town toward the same private-label pallet. The Sysco/Jetro deal is the next beat in the food quality collapse. The same truck pulls up to the alley behind two restaurants. Same boxes. Same dinner. The next time you sit down to eat, you’ll know what’s on your plate. - Worse On Purpose
A Palestine Action activist charged with causing criminal damage at the UK site of an Israel-based defence firm has told a court that taking part in the raid was the “best thing I’ve ever done”. Zoe Rogers, 22, is accused of breaking into the Elbit Systems factory near Bristol in August 2024 before destroying property and clashing with security guards and police. Representing herself, Rogers told a jury at Woolwich Crown Court there was a “good chance” that “innocent lives were saved” due to the action taken. - BBC
The number of billionaires in the world could reach nearly 4,000 by 2031, figures suggest, as the super-rich accumulate wealth at an accelerating rate. There are now 3,110 billionaires globally, according to analysis by the estate agent Knight Frank. This is forecast to rise by 25% over the next five years, taking the total to 3,915. The multimillionaire class is also expanding rapidly, with the number of people worth at least $30m (£22m) around the world rising from 162,191 in 2021 to 713,626 today – an increase of more than 300%, Knight Frank found. - Guardian
“I am the danger. We are the danger. We’re dangerous to the corporate bottom line. I am a danger to those who seek profit and put the interests of profit over the interests of people. I’m beholden to no one but the American working class” - Hasan Piker
On any given day, Los Angeles’s Hollywood Boulevard teems with tourists and street performers clustered near the area’s many landmarks. But in recent months, the strip has been set abuzz for a new reason. Throngs of mostly adolescent boys and young men have been rushing the Church of Scientology’s international headquarters on the famed street.The so-called “speed runs” appear to be bids for social media valor – clips of the raids have amassed millions of views on TikTok – as much as they are an outgrowth of public intrigue surrounding the church, which has previously drawn accusations of being a cult. Some users have developed blueprints for the building based on information gathered from videos of the raids. - Guardian
Israel just quintupled its PR budget to $730 million; experts say it won’t work. Skeptic say that country’s image after Oct. 7 has become so tarnished by government policy and dereliction that even with vast public relations funds, it’s too late for a face lift. - Times of Israel
“In the capitalist system, the human being ceases to be an individual and is reduced merely to a ‘function.’” - Short Film
“We don’t slow dance any more,” said my Grade 8 niece, like she was stating a fact of nature. They don’t even play slow songs at her dances. She’s never slow danced with someone she likes. Not once. Apparently, the kids are just… vibing in general proximity to one another, filming each other ironically, or acting out TikTok choreography in one-minute increments while their phones lean against a Gatorade bottle. And honestly? In the age of sped-up songs and sub-three-second attention spans, this tracks. We’ve raised a generation who can lip-sync every beat of a Doja Cat remix at 1.75x speed, but if you asked them to sway in a dark gym to a five-minute ballad? They would sooner eat drywall. Or call their therapist. Or both. - Globe & Mail
