#Central Worlds Security

[madlovenovelist]

Book Review – ‘The Ship Avenged’ (#7 Brainship) by S. M. Stirling

A sci-fi franchise taken on by a new author who has no idea what they are doing. Genre: Science Fiction No. of pages: 364 It’s ten years later, and Joat, the eleven year old techno-demon from “The Ship Avenged,” is an adult herself, and by hook, crook, and blackmail (with an assist from Rand, her very own Artificial Intelligence), she’s become one of the youngest commercial ship owners in…

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#aliens #Anne McCaffery #Belazair #book #Brainship #Casey Carlisle #Central Worlds Security #CritiqueCasey #disease #Fiction #Joat #kolnari #Novel #Rand #Review #S. M. Stirling #science fiction #spaceship #The City Who Fought #The Ship Avenged #Writing #WYAL

[head-post]

Britons have to choose between heating and eating this winter

The UK has some of the most poorly insulated homes in Europe, although the nation was previously a leader in this area. Fifteen years ago, around a million homes a year were retrofitted with insulation and a target was set for all new homes to be zero-carbon by 2016, Big Issue reports.

However, all these initiatives are now forgotten. The UK has pulled out of the race for a low-carbon economy – and working families in need of money will be paying the price. As the cold weather arrives, energy prices are on the rise again, and from this month, people are facing another price hike: a typical annual energy bill will rise by £95 to £1,928.

It costs over £700 a year more to heat a poorly insulated home than a well-insulated one. Yet the government offers nothing to the millions of people living in draughty homes and being overcharged.

The abolition of minimum energy efficiency standards in rented properties and a return to fossil fuel boilers points to a fundamental failure of leadership, according to Big Issue.

Read more HERE

#world news #world politics #news #europe #european news #uk politics #uk news #england #united kingdom #heating #central heating systems #utilities #passivhaus #energy saving #energy storage #energy security #energy efficiency

[disturbnot]

ash kinda doesn't like most governments, and by association he's not fond of interpol either — whatever happens to have world pokémon association fingerprints on it. not strictly for overt corruption in most places, but for the sheer fact he's that sort of neurodivergent that neither understands nor respects bureaucracy and the convoluted way in which regions work on a mass scale. he's SO allergic to red tape.

#ooc tag tba . #dash comm . #at least that's how it is in shan canon #there are regional governments and then there's the world pokémon association #a somewhat globalist entity that seeks to regulate any and all human-pokémon affairs and relations #their reach is far wide and sneaking #it's the WPA that mandates pokeball use and creates the relatively uniform framework that belies almost every pokémon league #gym leaders really are like gov officials. elites and champions are central to a region's security and overall relationship with pokémon #this is also why ash has chosen to be a champion to a league beyond this remit and reach #the kalia region - and by association the kalia battle federation - are not under WPA influence #but that's all a lore dump for another day *rips bong*

[communistkenobi]

like one of the many reasons I am not an anarchist is that decentralised planning seems like a dogshit way to manage mass societal problems

#even just looking at a specific issue like disability. enacting universal design programs is basically impossible unless it’s centralised #like if you take universal design to its radical conclusion it’s the idea that we need to shrug off the able bodied conception #of ontological security. to build the world for more than just a single type of subject #you need to like centrally agree on what those UD principles are #if you want to actually do that #especially because the current order of the built environment enforces that hegemony #among many others #you can’t just reduce everything to rubble and start over again you need to contend with what’s here #anyway gonna disable reblogs on this one I prommy I’m not trying to start fights

[panicinthestudio]

José Andrés accuses Israel of deliberately targeting World Central Kitchen members, April 3, 2024

The bodies of foreign aid workers killed in an Israeli strike early Tuesday morning have left Gaza and are flying home. On Wednesday, World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés accused Israel of targeting his employees deliberately, an accusation Israel denies. Nick Schifrin reports. PBS NewsHour

Family and friends pay tribute to aid workers killed by Israeli strike in Gaza, April 3, 2024

Family and friends of two of the aid workers killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza have paid tribute to them. Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip killed seven staff members of the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen while they were returning from delivering aid to people in Gaza. Three British citizens were killed, along with a US-Canadian dual citizen, a Polish citizen, an Australian and a Palestinian. Jessica Olney paid tribute to her friend Zomi Frankcom. Adam McGuire and Amy Roxburgh-Barry spoke about their cousin, James Kirby. The Guardian

#Jose Andres #World Central Kitchen #Gaza Strip #Israel #humanitarian aid #war #food #food security #death #news #PBS NewsHour #The Guardian #Youtube

[thedappleddragon]

Gotta stop having teeth falling out dreams

#thanks for coming to my ted talk #had one last night where I lost 3 teeth #by the end I realized it was a teeth falling out dream and was mad that it was so realistic n painful instead of just like. #spitting out teeth #like it was connected to the vein nerve thingy!! it sucked!! it hurt!! #the point still stands I do need to go to a dentist #but yeah #also watched a kinda ahitty movie in my dream that I made up #the intro is two shapeshifting species who are pushing a baby carriage or raising their son as two gay dads #one is from water origins and one is from mammal origins #n they’re like how did we get here #or there’s a lot about free roaming trains that act as security #there’s rules against how much a shapeshifter can shapeshifting and what forms they can use un public #namely for some reason they have to be in their feral form when traveling #which is least efficient for them #there’s also holes in space time that they can utilize but they’re not supposed to and the government is trying to regulate them too #long ago abstract creatures from all over used there’s portals to connect to each other’s realms #and like a central hub world #kind of like clan meeting from warriors #and they developed forms that the humans could understand #one group chose mammals. creating newer prettier more ferocious beasts than what existed in earth #the ocean ones loved the mermaids that humans came up with and wanted to emulate that #there was a third group but I don’t remember what they looked like #all that matters is that the two gay dads are from the mammals and the ocean #or I guess I could call them beast and ocean. whatever #uhh the mammal dad kinda looked like that bitch from fer.Al #and the ocean dad was like half panther half pippocampus #idk then it transformed to me sleeping at a church and my girlfriends house and on the beach #dream

[sayruq]

World Central Kitchen announced that it will resume operations in Gaza on Monday, almost one month after seven of its aid workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the enclave. The U.S.-based nonprofit group, founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, suspended operations in Gaza for four weeks after the workers were killed on April 1, according to a statement. The organization identified the aid workers as Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, a 25-year-old Palestinian; Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, a 43-year-old Australian; Damian Soból, a 35-year-old from Poland; Jacob Flickinger, a 33-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada; Security team members John Chapman, 57, James (Jim) Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, all from the United Kingdom, were also killed in the attack.

Before halting operations, the organization had distributed more than 43 million meals in Gaza “and accounted for 62% of all international NGO aid,” WCK said in a statement. “The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire,” said Erin Gore, the nonprofit’s chief executive officer. “We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding as many people as possible.” WCK has 276 trucks carrying almost 8 million meals that are ready to cross into Gaza via Rafah, and will send trucks into the enclave via Jordan too, it said in a statement. The organization is also continuing to explore delivering food with the help of Open Arms, a Spanish humanitarian organization, and the United Arab Emirates.

#yemen #jerusalem #tel aviv #current events #palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #news on gaza #palestine news #news update #war news #war on gaza #world central kitchen #famine #gaza genocide #genocide

[plounce]

researching stuff for a post about misinformation regarding girl scout cookies and man this article (10/28/23) about this palestinian-american girl scout nearly made me burst into tears

In her short 17 years on earth, Amira Ismail had never been called a baby killer.

That’s what happened one Friday this month, Amira said, on New York City’s Q58 bus, which runs through central Queens.

“This lady looked at me, and she was like: ‘You’re disgusting. You’re a baby killer. You’re an antisemite,’” Amira told me. When she talked about this incident, her signature spunk faded. “I just kept saying, ‘That’s not true,’” she said. “I was just on my way to school. I was just wearing my hijab.”

Amira was born in Queens in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks. She remembers participating as a child in demonstrations at City Hall as part of a successful movement to make Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha school holidays in New York City.

But since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in which an estimated 1,400 Israelis were killed and some 200 others were kidnapped, Amira, who is Palestinian American, said she has experienced for the first time the full fury of Islamophobia and racism that her older relatives and friends have told stories about all her life. Throughout the city, in fact, there has been an increase in both anti-Muslim and antisemitic attacks.

In heavily Muslim parts of Queens, she said, police officers are suddenly everywhere, asking for identification and stopping and frisking Muslim men. (New York City has stepped up its police presence around both Muslim and Jewish neighborhoods and sites within the five boroughs.) Most painful though, she said, is the sense that she and her peers are getting that Palestinian lives do not matter, as they watch the United States staunchly back Israel as it heads into war.

“It can’t go unrecognized, the thousands of Palestinians that have been murdered in the past two weeks and even more the past 75 years,” Amira said. “There’s no way you can erase that.” That does not mean she is antisemitic, she said. “How can I denounce one system of oppression without denouncing another?” she asked me. The pain in her usually buoyant voice cut through me. I had no answer for her.

Many New York City kids have a worldliness about them, a certain telltale moxie. Amira, a joyful, sneaker-wearing, self-described “Queens kid,” can seem unstoppable.

When she was just 15, Amira helped topple a major mayoral campaign in America’s largest city, writing a letter accusing the ultraprogressive candidate Dianne Morales of having violated child labor laws while purporting to champion the working class in New York.

“My life and my extremely bright future as a 15-year-old activist will not be defined by the failures and harm enabled by Dianne Morales,” Amira wrote in the 2021 letter, which went viral and helped end Ms. Morales’s campaign. “I wrote my college essay about that,” Amira told me with a slightly mischievous smile.

In the past two years, Amira has become a veteran organizer. Last weekend, she joined an antiwar protest. First, though, she’ll have to work on earning her latest Girl Scout badge, this one for photography. That will mean satisfying her mother, Abier Rayan, who happens to be Troop 4179’s leader. “She’s tough,” Amira assured me.

At a meeting of the Muslim Girl Scouts of Astoria last week, a young woman bounded into the room, asking whether her fellow scouts had secured tickets to an Olivia Rodrigo concert. “She’s the Taylor Swift of our generation,” the scout turned to me to explain.

A group of younger girls recited the Girl Scout Law:

“I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place and be a sister to every Girl Scout.”

Amira’s mother carefully inspected the work of some of the younger scouts; she wore a blue Girl Scouts U.S.A. vest, filled with colorful badges, and a hot-pink hijab. “It’s no conflict at all,” Ms. Rayan told me of Islam and the Girl Scouts. “You want a strong Muslim American girl.”

At the Girl Scouts meeting, Amira and her friends discussed their plans to protest the war in Gaza. “Protests are where you let go of your anger,” Amira told me.

Amira’s mother was born in Egypt. In 1948, Ms. Rayan told me, her grandfather lost his home and land in Jaffa to the state of Israel. At the Girl Scout meeting, Ms. Rayan was still waiting for word that relatives in Gaza were safe.

“There’s been no communication,” she said. When I asked about Amira, Ms. Rayan’s eyes brightened. “I’m really proud of her,” she said. “You have to be strong. You don’t know where you’re going to be tomorrow.”

By Monday, word had reached Ms. Rayan that her relatives had been killed as Israel bombed Gaza City. When I asked whom she had lost, Ms. Rayan replied: “All of them. There’s no one left.” Thousands of Palestinians are estimated to have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in recent weeks. ... Ms. Rayan said those killed in her family included six cousins and their children, who were as young as 2. Other relatives living abroad told her the cousins died beneath the rubble of their home.

As Ms. Rayan spoke, I saw Amira’s young face. I wondered how long this bright, spirited Queens kid could keep her fire for what I believe John Lewis would have called “good trouble” in a world that seems hellbent on snuffing it out. I worried about how she would finish her college applications.

“I have a lot of angry emotions at the ones in charge,” Amira told me days ago, speaking for so many human beings around the world in this dark time.

I thought about what I had seen over that weekend in Brooklyn, where thousands gathered in the Bay Ridge neighborhood, the home of many Arab Americans, to protest the war. In this part of the city, people of many backgrounds carried Palestinian flags through the street. Large groups of police officers gathered on every corner, watching them go by.

The crowd was large but quiet when Amira waded in, picked up her megaphone and called for Palestinian liberation. In an instant, thousands of New Yorkers repeated after her, filling the Brooklyn street with their voices. My prayer is that Amira’s generation of leaders will leave a better world than the one it has been given.

i believe she recently got her gold award (which, if youve never been in girl scouts, is really difficult - way more difficult than eagle scout awards), or is almost done with it. i hope she's doing okay.

this article (no paywall) about muslim and palestinian girl scout troops in socal also almost made me cry (it's like 2am). i really really hope all these kids are doing alright. god. they and their families all deserve so much better

#chirps

[moonfireshadow]

Rewatched Saltburn and I'm obsessed with Farleigh and Oliver's tutoring scene. The essay specifically. For those who don't remember: Oliver did his homework and all his assignments and genuinely gave a well thought out essay for their summer assignments. Farleigh shows up hungover and late and didn't even read the books. But the teacher immediately loves Farleigh and is chatting him up with an interest he barely tried to show Oliver. Even after Oliver gives his presentation and shows that he's clearly a much better student than Farleigh. Obviously this is the real start of their rivalry. But it's also such a beautiful look into their characters and how they mirror eachother. Farleigh understands Oliver's essay, I believe. But like the teacher he's bored by it. The knowledge and work is there, but the presentation of it is boring and strange. Academic and correct, but lacking the appeal to the audience. (Which, can we talk about the fact Farleigh was genuinely listening at all? The teacher zoned out and switched channels, but Farleigh was interested and paying enough attention to know the exact number of times Oliver used the word "thus" in his essay. They respect each other truly even if they despise eachother at this point, and refuse to acknowledge the grudging respect.) So Farleigh does what he does best, he gloats over Oliver. He picks apart the style of the essay and it's presentation rather than addressing the central argument or topic. This delights the teacher and frustrates Oliver who is like, "so you're going to critique the style of my essay rather than it's substance? Seems a bit lazy" and that's the core component of these two characters.

Farleigh is ALL about presentation. He knows how fragile his pedistal is placed up and in view for everyone to see. He's a charity project, just like every other rando of the month. Sure he has some familiar connection, and that's given him a leg up in this world. But it's still shakey at best. He always has to give the correct performance, say the right words, keep his audience on HIS side. Unless he wants to get knocked down with the rest of the common rabal that he knows he's belongs with, but can't stand the idea of. So yes, of course he picks apart the one thing he knows Oliver is failing at. He takes his one advantage over Oliver and uses it mercilessly to both entertain and secure his audience on his side. (I wonder if the positions had been different some how, if Farleigh would have had anything to say about the substance of the essay itself. He was paying attention to it, did he want to have a real academic conversation? Did he possibly want to try and connect to Oliver in that way? A real and non performative way with someone who's so similar to him?)

As for Oliver, obviously his character is intelligent. He does the readings. He does the research. He puts the time and effort in to *learn* in the way Farleigh never does. And it must infuriate him that his essay is so easily pushed to the side for a cheep critique that doesn't even address the central argument of his essay. Of course he would hate Farleigh from the start for that. It's such a quick negation of all that Oliver has to offer and give just because it's not wrapped up in a pretty bow. And that's just his character. The substance is there, the intelligence is there. But it's not enough. It will never be enough. Because Oliver doesn't know how to translate it to his audience in a way they'll care about. He learns and tries to mimic, but it always falls short because he just can't seem to figure out the way to blend in and present himself so seamlessly as Farleigh.

And that's why they're such perfect mirrors of each other. They're both intelligent and clever. But they've found different ways of getting what they want and proving themselves. Farleigh is the face and the presentation, Oliver is the substance and body. In another world imagine what these two could have done and been if they hadn't been pitted against each other for the same prize. And the fact Oliver definitely deliberately shoved Farleigh out at the perfect time so he wouldn't get hurt and killed? Oliver and Farleigh respect and admire the other. But their tragedy is they can never be on the same page or team because the world they're in says there is only room for one. And they'd both do anything to get that title.

#saltburn #farleigh start #oliver quick #saltburn spoilers #character analysis #i just really feel gay for these two #its about the narrative foils #im obsessed

[decolonize-the-left]

World Food Programme, UNICEF and the World Health Organization said that new entry routes need to be opened to Gaza or its population will suffer widespread famine and disease.

The European Union has added Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to its “terrorist” sanctions blacklist over the October 7 attacks on Israel.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has confirmed that it seized what it claims to be alleged Iranian missile components sent to the Houthis in Yemen last week.

The UK is continuing to export weapons to Israel, alleging Israel’s commitment to complying with international law despite legal action brought forward by two human rights organisations.

Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has sharply criticised the withdrawal of the military’s 36th Division from the Gaza Strip, describing the decision as ‘grave and dangerous mistake’.

#free Palestine #free gaza #Palestine #Gaza #Israel #January 16 2023 #i/p

[catgirlhell]

listen, i just think everyone should become a lot more normal about trans women and black people.

i think if you'd participate in the smear campaigns against a trans woman you'd be willing to lynch a black man, and if you're willing to lynch a black man you're willing to kill a black woman even quicker. i feel like if your reaction to an allegation of abuse against a minority is to condemn and excise a person from community without ever confirming evidence of accusation then you are no different than the monsters who lynched Emmett Till.

you are prepared to maim and destroy a person based on hearsay and you will call it "protecting your community." you are the same as Trump with the Central Park 5. you are every single jury that has put an innocent black man to death. you are the girl on my 5th grade soccer team who tried to get me suspended for not passing the ball to her by crying to the coach and saying i called her a slut, you are my sophomore chemistry teacher who called security on me for "making her feel unsafe," you are my high school debate partner who threatened to strangle me if i made physical contact with her and tell the world i tried to rape her.

you are every single fair-skinned cis girl who has known exactly how blow the whistle that summons dogs that kill negroes, and my job is now to make sure you never come near me and mine for the rest of my life.

#kakitalk

[historyandmemes]

Sunday, Dec. 25, 2023 — Another day, another horrific massacre of innocent Palestinians by Israel. The US and the international community must force Israel to STOP the carnage, STOP the war crimes, STOP the depravity.

The world continues to watch as the rogue state of Israel inflicts unthinkable crimes against humanity. The complicity is sickening, the inaction despicable. Palestinians deserve better, we've failed them.

At least 70 killed in Israeli strike on refugee camp in central Gaza, health ministry says — (Source: The Guardian) Guardian staff and agencies | Sun 24 Dec 2023 18.04 EST

An Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp in central Gaza has killed at least 70 people, Palestinian health officials have said as they warned the toll was likely to rise and the strikes that began hours before midnight continued into Christmas Day. The Palestinian health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, said the death toll was likely to climb. “What is happening at the Maghazi camp is a massacre that is being committed on a crowded residential square,” he told Reuters.

Israel strikes 2 homes, killing more than 90 Palestinians. Biden says he didn’t request a cease-fire — (Source: Associated Press) BY NAJIB JOBAIN AND SAMY MAGDY | Updated 4:12 PM EST, December 23, 2023

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, calling it a long and private conversation a day after the Biden administration again shielded Israel in the diplomatic arena. On Friday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza, but not for a cease-fire. “I did not ask for a cease-fire,” Biden said of the call. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “made clear that Israel would continue the war until achieving all its goals.”

Netanyahu vows to fight on in Gaza; Islamic Jihad joins Cairo talks — (Source: Reuters) By Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams | December 24, 2023 2:58 PM EST

CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to fight deeper into Gaza after his troops endured one of the worst days of losses of their ground war, while militant group Islamic Jihad joined talks in Cairo, a sign diplomacy was still alive. ... The militant groups have so far said they will not discuss any release of hostages unless Israel ends its war in Gaza, while the Israelis say they are willing to discuss only a temporary pause in fighting.

DON'T LOOK AWAY. KEEP UP PUBLIC PRESSURE. PUSH FOR PEACE.

#gaza #gaza strip #world news #news #middle east #israel #palestine #news on gaza #ceasefire #israel palestine conflict #human rights #humanitarian crisis #international law #DONT LOOK AWAY #current events #social justice #ceasefire now #end occupation #palestinians #world politics #politics #free gaza #important #signal boost #united nations #us politics

[slyandthefamilybook]

since we now know that all those "my blog is safe for Jewish people" posts are bullshit, here are some Jewish organizations you can donate to if you actually want to prove you support Jews. put up or shut up

FIGHTING HUNGER

Masbia - Kosher soup kitchens in New York

MAZON - Practices and promotes a multifaceted approach to hunger relief, recognizing the importance of responding to hungry peoples' immediate need for nutrition and sustenance while also working to advance long-term solutions

Tomchei Shabbos - Provides food and other supplies so that poor Jews can celebrate the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays

FINANCIAL AID

Ahavas Yisrael - Providing aid for low-income Jews in Baltimore

Hebrew Free Loan Society - Provides interest-free loans to low-income Jews in New York and more

GLOBAL AID

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee - Offers aid to Jewish populations in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in the Middle East through a network of social and community assistance programs. In addition, the JDC contributes millions of dollars in disaster relief and development assistance to non-Jewish communities

American Jewish World Service - Fighting poverty and advancing human rights around the world

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society - Providing aid to immigrants and refugees around the world

Jewish World Watch - Dedicated to fighting genocides around the world

MEDICAL AID

Sharsheret - Support for cancer patients, especially breast cancer

SOCIAL SERVICES

The Aleph Institute - Provides support and supplies for Jews in prison and their families, and helps Jewish convicts reintegrate into society

Bet Tzedek - Free legal services in LA

Bikur Cholim - Providing support including kosher food for Jews who have been hospitalized in the US, Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Israel

Blue Card Fund - Critical aid for holocaust survivors

Chai Lifeline - An org that's very close to my heart. They help families with members with disabilities in Baltimore

Chana - Support network for Jews in Baltimore facing domestic violence, sexual abuse, and elder abuse

Community Alliance for Jewish-Affiliated Cemetaries - Care of abandoned and at-risk Jewish cemetaries

Crown Heights Central Jewish Community Council - Provides services to community residents including assistance to the elderly, housing, employment and job training, youth services, and a food bank

Hands On Tzedakah - Supports essential safety-net programs addressing hunger, poverty, health care and disaster relief, as well as scholarship support to students in need

Hebrew Free Burial Association

Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services - Programs include early childhood and learning, children and adolescent services, mental health outpatient clinics for teenagers, people living with developmental disabilities, adults living with mental illness, domestic violence and preventive services, housing, Jewish community services, counseling, volunteering, and professional and leadership development

Jewish Caring Network - Providing aid for families facing serious illnesses

Jewish Family Service - Food security, housing stability, mental health counseling, aging care, employment support, refugee resettlement, chaplaincy, and disability services

Jewish Relief Agency - Serving low-income families in Philadelphia

Jewish Social Services Agency - Supporting people’s mental health, helping people with disabilities find meaningful jobs, caring for older adults so they can safely age at home, and offering dignity and comfort to hospice patients

Jewish Women's Foundation Metropolitan Chicago - Aiding Jewish women in Chicago

Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty - Crisis intervention and family violence services, housing development funds, food programs, career services, and home services

Misaskim - Jewish death and burial services

Our Place - Mentoring troubled Jewish adolescents and to bring awareness of substance abuse to teens and children

Tiferes Golda - Special education for Jewish girls in Baltimore

Yachad - Support for Jews with disabilities

#atlas entry #please add any more you know of an especially add fundraisers for you or people you know #if there are any fundraisers for synagogues please add those as well #jew #jewish #judaism #jumblr #punch nazis

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A taxonomy of corporate bullshit

Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

There are six lies that corporations have told since time immemorial, and Nick Hanauer, Joan Walsh and Donald Cohen's new book Corporate Bullsht: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America* provides an essential taxonomy of this dirty six:

https://thenewpress.com/books/corporate-bullsht

In his review for The American Prospect, David Dayen summarizes how these six lies "offer a civic-minded, reasonable-sounding justification for positions that in fact are motivated entirely by self-interest":

https://prospect.org/culture/books/2023-10-27-lies-my-corporation-told-me-hanauer-walsh-cohen-review/

I. Pure denial

As far back as the slave trade, corporate apologists and mouthpieces have led by asserting that true things are false, and vice-versa. In 1837, John Calhoun asserted that "Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually." George Fitzhugh called enslaved Africans in America "the freest people in the world."

This tactic never went away. Children sent to work in factories are "perfectly happy." Polluted water is "purer than the water that came from the river before we used it." Poor families "don't really exist." Pesticides don't lead to "illness or death." Climate change is "beneficial." Lead "helps guard your health."

II. Markets can solve problems, governments can't

Alan Greenspan made a career out of blithely asserting that markets self-correct. It was only after the world economy imploded in 2008 that he admitted that his doctrine had a "flaw":

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/greenspan-admits-flaw-to-congress-predicts-more-economic-problems

No matter how serious a problem is, the market will fix it. In 1973, the US Chamber of Commerce railed against safety regulations, because "safety is good business," and could be left to the market. If unsafe products persist in the market, it's because consumers choose to trade safety off "for a lower price tag" (Chamber spox Laurence Kraus). Racism can't be corrected with anti-discrimination laws. It's only when "the market" realizes that racism is bad for business that it will finally be abolished.

III. Consumers and workers are to blame

In 1946, the National Coal Association blamed rampant deaths and maimings in the country's coal-mines on "carelessness on the part of men." In 2003, the National Restaurant Association sang the same tune, condemning nutritional labels because "there are not good or bad foods. There are good and bad diets." Reagan's interior secretary Donald Hodel counseled personal responsibility to address a thinning ozone layer: "people who don’t stand out in the sun—it doesn’t affect them."

IV. Government cures are always worse than the disease

Lee Iacocca called 1970's Clean Air Act "a threat to the entire American economy and to every person in America." Every labor and consumer protection before and since has been damned as a plague on American jobs and prosperity. The incentive to work can't survive Social Security, welfare or unemployment insurance. Minimum wages kill jobs, etc etc.

V. Helping people only hurts them

Medicare will "destroy private initiative for our aged to protect themselves with insurance" (Republican Senator Milward Simpson, 1965). Covid relief is unfair to people that are currently in the workforce" (Republican Governor Brian Kemp, 2021). Welfare produces "learned helplessness."

VI. Everyone who disagrees with me is a socialist

Grover Cleveland's 2% on top incomes is "communistic warfare against rights of property" (NY Tribune, 1895). "Socialized medicine" will leave "our children and our children’s children [asking] what it once was like in America when men were free" (Reagan, 1961).

Everything is "socialism": anti-child labor laws, Social Security, minimum wages, family and medical leave. Even fascism is socialism! In 1938, the National Association of Manufacturers called labor rights "communism, bolshevism, fascism, and Nazism."

As Dayen says, it's refreshing to see how the right hasn't had an original idea in 150 years, and simply relies on repeating the same nonsense with minor updates. Right wing ideological innovation consists of finding new ways to say, "actually, your boss is right."

The left's great curse is object permanence: the ability to remember things, like the fact that it used to be possible for a worker to support a family of five on a single income, or that the economy once experienced decades of growth with a 90%+ top rate of income tax (other things the left manages to remember: the "intelligence community" are sociopathic monsters, not Trump-slaying heroes).

When the business lobby rails against long-overdue antitrust action against Amazon and Google, object permanence puts it all in perspective. The talking points about this being job-destroying socialism are the same warmed-over nonsense used to defend rail-barons and Rockefeller. "If you don't like it, shop elsewhere," has been the corporate apologist's line since slavery times.

As Dayen says, Corporate Bullshit is a "reference book for conservative debating points, in an attempt to rob them of their rhetorical power." It will be out on Halloween:

https://bookshop.org/a/54985/9781620977514

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/27/six-sells/#youre-holding-it-wrong

#pluralistic #corporate bullshit #lies #books #reviews #taxonomies #labor #denialism #consumerism #Nick Hanauer #Joan Walsh #Donald Cohen #history #object permanence #taking the right seriously

[panicinthestudio]

#art #activism #Luke Ching Chin Wai #advertising #intervention #labour rights #hong kong national security law #Umbrella Movement #protest #art world #Hong kong #social activism #employment #sanitation #economics #unions #politics #advocacy #Occupy Central #MTR #labour #Hong Kong Free Press

[zvaigzdelasas]

Celebrity chef José Andrés' World Central Kitchen, among the largest providers of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, is pausing its operations following the deaths of 7 workers in an Israeli airstrike, the organization said Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an investigation into "a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people" was underway.

Despite coordinating movements with the Israeli military, the convoy was hit Monday as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, WCK said. The team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route.

The workers killed include a Palestinian and citizens from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom and a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada. [...]

Haaretz reported that Israelis fired three missiles in quick succession at three vehicles[...]

Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to probe the deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers.

"It happens in war," he said [sic]. "We are conducting a thorough inquiry and are in contact with the governments. We will do everything to prevent a recurrence."[...]

Hamas condemned the "heinous act" and demanded the U.N. Security Council put an end to Israel's "crimes of the occupation and its aggression" against Palestinians and their supporters.

"This crime reaffirms that the occupation still insists on the policy of systematic killing against defenseless civilians and against international relief teams and humanitarian organizations, within the framework of efforts to terrorize their employees, to prevent them from continuing their humanitarian duties," the militant group said in a statement.[...]

“I am heartbroken and appalled that we, World Central Kitchen, and the world lost beautiful lives today because of a targeted attack by the Israeli military," CEO Erin Gore said.[...]

The United Nations agency charged with leading the humanitarian aid effort in Gaza has complained for months about obstacles created by Israeli officials. In a report issued Monday, prior to the WCK tragedy, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said that "access impediments continue to severely compromise the ability of humanitarian actors to reach people in the Gaza Strip." Since March 1, 30% of humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza were denied by Israeli authorities, the agency said.[...]

The obstacles prompted other efforts, including sea shipment such as the one World Central Kitchen was using Monday. The U.S., partnering with Jordan and other regional nations, has also used airdrops. But trucking aid in from Egypt is viewed as the best method for meeting the tremendous demand.

2 Apr 24