#^d 2024-09-30 #^h Speaking of Which

As expected, I've had very little time to work on this all week. The idea of starting each week's post with an evolving executive summary will have to wait until next week, at the earliest.

Trying to wrap this up Monday afternoon, but I soon have to take a break to buy some lumber and tools, and I should spend most of the day working on the upstairs room (having wasted my weekend on what should have been a simple wiring job, and, well, much of the bulk below. I probably won't post this until late, so I'll likely find more, but in lieu of trying to summarize my main points, let me just emphasize two:

  1. I've tried very hard for very long to be as understanding as possible to Israelis, even though I never embraced the nationalist movement that founded and led the "Jewish State" (never mind the crypto-religious settler cult that currently holds sway over it). Nor have I been reluctant to criticize when I've sensed similar (correlative?) movements among Palestinians, even when I saw in them reflections of the dominant Israeli trends. I believe that people of all sides deserve human rights, and I'm sympathetic to those who are denied them, regardless of whose fault that might be (even when the fault is one's own). However, at this point Israel alone -- by which I mean the current governing coalition and all those who support them (not all Israelis, but most; not most Americans, but some) -- bear exclusive responsibility for all pain and suffering in the region, even their own. One thing that follows from this is that every violence from any side is properly viewed as a consequence of Netanyahu's incitement and perpetuation of this genocidal war. Just for the record, I don't approve of Hamas or Hezbollah violence any more than I approve of Israeli violence, but I understand that when Israel acts as it has been doing, human nature will respond in kind. Israel alone has the power to end this conflict. That they refuse to pay even the minimal rights of according Palestinians a right to live in peace and dignity puts this all on them.

  2. I have very little new to say about the US elections. Trump, Vance, and virtually every other Republican have proven to be even more boorish and benighted than previously imagined. Honest and decent American voters have to stop them, which means electing Democrats, regardless of their flaws. I will continue to note some of these flaws, but none of them can possibly alter the prime directive, which is to stop the Republicans. To that end, I will continue to note pieces that expose their failures and that heap derision on them, but I don't see that doing so here makes much difference. I, and probably you, know enough already. Aside from voting, which is the least one can and should do, I wouldn't mind tuning out until November, when we can wake up and assess the damages.

I could write much more about each of these two points, but not now.


Top story threads:

Israel: Israel dramatically expanded its genocidal war into Lebanon this week, which warrants yet another section, below

Israel targets Lebanon: Following last week's stochastic terrorist exercise -- detonating thousands of booby-trapped pages and walkie-talkies -- Israel escalated its bombing of Lebanon, Israel targeting and killed senior Hezbollah leadership, including long-time leader Hasan Nasrallah. In many quarters, this will be touted as a huge success for Netanyahu in his campaign to exterminate all of Israel's enemies, but right now the longer-term consequences of fallout and blowback are incalculable and probably even unimaginable. We should be clear that Hezbollah did not provoke these attacks, even in response to Israel's genocide in Gaza.

(In 2006, Hezbollah, which had been formed in opposition to Israel's 1982-2000 occupation of southern Lebanon, did act against Israel, as a diversion after Israel launched its first punitive siege of Gaza. Israel shifted attention to Lebanon, and conducted a horrific bombing campaign, as well as an unsuccessful ground incursion.)

Rather, Israel has repeatedly provoked Hezbollah -- which has tried to deter further attacks by demonstrating their ability to fire rockets deep into Israel, a strategy I regard as foolish ("deterrence" only deters people who weren't going to attack you in the first place; it works for Israel against its hapless neighbors, but when others try it, it just provokes greater arrogance and aggression by Israel). As I've stressed all along, Israel's expansion of the war into Lebanon serves two purposes: to provide "fog of war" cover for continuing the genocide in Gaza, and expanding it into the West Bank; and to lock reflexive US support in place, which is tied to the supposedly greater regional threat of Iran. The US could short-circuit this war by denouncing Israel's aggression, by demanding an immediate cease-fire, and by negotiating a separate peace and normalization with Iran (which Iran has long signalled a desire for). Instead, the Biden administration continues to let Netanyahu pull its strings.

Note that I haven't tried to subdivide these links, but events unfolded quickly, so dates may be significant.

America's Israel (and Israel's America):

Israel vs. world opinion:

Election notes:

Trump:

Vance, and other Republicans:

Harris:

Walz, Biden, and other Democrats:

Supreme Court, legal matters, and other crimes:

Climate and environment:

Economists, the economy, and work:

Ukraine and Russia:

Elsewhere in the world and/or/in spite of America's empire:


Other stories:

Obituaries:

Books

Chatter


I saw this in a Facebook image, and felt like jotting it down (at some point I should find the source):

Banksy on Advertising

People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, ttakle a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no chance whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't . . .

Quite some time ago, I started writing a series of little notes on terms of interest -- an idea, perhaps inspired by Raymond Williams' book Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, that I've kept on a cool back burner ever since. One of the first entries was on advertising, and as I recall -- I have no idea where this writing exists, if indeed it does -- it started with: "Advertising is not free speech. It is very expensive . . ." Williams would usually start with the history of the word, including etymology, then expand on its current usage. I was more focused on the latter, especially how words combine complex and often nuanced meanings, and how I've come to think through those words. Advertising for me is not just a subject I have a lot of personal experience in -- both as consumer or object and on the concept and production side -- but is a prism which reveals much about our ethics and politics. In particular, it testifies to our willingness to deceive and to manipulate one another, and our tolerance at seeing that done, both to others and to oneself.

In looking this up, I found a few more useful links on Raymond Williams (1981-88) and Keywords:

Local tags (these can be linked to directly): music.

Original count: 171 links, 10266 words (13367 total)

Current count: #^c