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newstfionline · 2 months

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Saturday, March 30, 2024

Experiments with lowering the voting age around the world (Worldcrunch) Poland’s new Marshal of the Sejm—the speaker of the lower house—has said he intends to lower the country’s voting age from 18 to 16. Under EU law, member states are free to set their own minimum voting age, including for European elections. While the most popular minimum age is 18, three countries have lowered their voting ages: Greece reduced it to 17 in 2016, Austria to 16 in 2007, and Malta to 16 in 2018. “There is an old democratic principle which states that there should not be any taxation without representation,” the National Youth Council told the Times Of Malta, adding that 16 year-olds “should also be able to vote, since they are allowed to work and liable to pay taxes. While the EU has only recently begun to test the impact of younger voting ages, Brazil lowered its voting age to 16 in 1988. The country has a long history of crucial youth involvement in politics. One-fifth of all 16 and 17 year olds in Brazil registered to vote in the 2022 presidential election.

The four I’s (NYT) By many measures, President Biden is very unpopular. Since at least World War II, no president has had a worse disapproval rating (54%) at this point in his term. Relative to his international peers, however, Biden looks much better. Many leaders of developed democracies have disapproval ratings even higher than Biden’s, with Olaf Scholz of Germany heaing the list at 73%, followed by Emmanuel Macron of France with a 71% disapproval rating. Why are people so upset with their leaders? Some explanations are local, but four global issues have driven much of the public’s anger. Call them the four I’s: inflation, immigration, inequality and incumbency. Inflation: The world has seen a sharp increase in prices over the past few years. Immigration: Multiple migration and refugee crises have fueled anger against the more mainstream political parties that tend to be in charge in developed countries. Inequality: Across the world, the rich have captured a growing share of income. Big companies keep getting bigger. A few individuals have amassed more wealth than entire countries. Incumbency: Voters tend to tire of national leaders the longer they’re in power, and many current world leaders, or at least their political parties, have been in power for a while. National leaders have struggled to address these issues, often despite many years in power. The result is widespread disapproval of the people running the world.

Baltimore begins massive and dangerous cleanup after bridge collapse (Washington Post) Huge crane ships, thousands of relief workers and millions of dollars headed toward Baltimore on Thursday, as efforts turned from recovery after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge to a massive cleanup that some experts described as unprecedented and highly dangerous. The U.S. Navy deployed several floating cranes, including one that could lift 1,000 tons, while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would send more than 1,100 engineering specialists and other experts to begin removing the hulking debris that has crippled the Port of Baltimore. Top officials with the Corps, which is leading the effort to clear the Patapsco River, described a three step effort to get one of the nation’s largest shipping hubs back online. Teams would first try to clear the shipping channel of the massive steel trusses that block it to allow one-way traffic to begin flowing again into and out of the port. Second, they would lift pieces of the bridge draped across the 985-foot Dali and move it. Finally, they would dredge up concrete and steel that have settled on the river bed.

Rising Dengue Cases (1440) Dengue cases in the Americas were up three times higher in January through March compared to the same period last year. The news comes as Puerto Rico issued a public health emergency this week over the mosquito-borne illness, infecting 100 million to 400 million people annually. The current uptick in cases is believed to be driven in part by this year’s El Niño weather pattern, driving warmer, wetter conditions to the Southern Hemisphere. Officials are encouraging those in affected regions to apply mosquito repellent, use bed nets, and drain still water, which can attract mosquitoes.

Colombia-Argentina spat (Foreign Policy) Bogotá ordered the expulsion of several Argentine diplomats on Wednesday after Argentine President Javier Milei called his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, a “murdering terrorist” during a CNN interview, appearing to reference Petro’s time as a member of the long-disbanded M-19 guerrilla group. Milei is known for publicly criticizing world leaders. During the same interview, he called Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador “ignorant,” and last year, Milei described Pope Francis as an “imbecile who defends social justice.” In January, Colombia recalled its ambassador to Argentina after Milei referred to Petro as a “murderous communist who is sinking Colombia.”

‘France loves Brazil and Brazil loves France’ (Washington Post) French President Emmanuel Macron made a three-day state visit to Brazil, where he and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva held a bilateral meeting and launched an investment program aimed at raising one billion euros to protect the Brazilian and Guyanese Amazon. Afterwards, Macron tweeted: “Some people compared the images of my visit to Brazil to those of a wedding, and I tell them: it was a wedding! France loves Brazil and Brazil loves France!”

Russia’s Vast Security Services Fell Short on Deadly Attack (NYT) A day before the U.S. embassy in Moscow put out a rare public alert this month about a possible extremist attack at a Russian concert venue, the local C.I.A. station delivered a private warning to Russian officials that included at least one additional detail: The plot in question involved an offshoot of the Islamic State known as ISIS-K. Within days, however, President Vladimir V. Putin was disparaging the warnings, calling them “outright blackmail” and attempts to “intimidate and destabilize our society.” Three days after he spoke, gunmen stormed Crocus City Hall outside Moscow and killed at least 143 people in the deadliest attack in Russia in nearly two decades. ISIS quickly claimed responsibility for the massacre with statements, a photo and a propaganda video. What made the security lapse seemingly even more notable was that in the days before the massacre Russia’s own security establishment had also acknowledged the domestic threat posed by the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, called Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.

Israeli court halts subsidies for ultra-Orthodox, deepening turmoil over mandatory military service (AP) Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered an end to government subsidies for many ultra-Orthodox men who do not serve in the army—a blockbuster ruling that could have far-reaching consequences for the government and the tens of thousands of religious men who refuse to take part in mandatory military service. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces the most serious threat yet to his government as he struggles to bridge a major split over military service in the shaky national unity government cobbled together in the days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Inside his coalition, the powerful bloc of ultra-Orthodox parties—longtime partners of Netanyahu—want draft exemptions to continue. The centrist members of his War Cabinet, both former military generals, have insisted that all sectors of Israeli society contribute equally during its war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. If the ultra-Orthodox parties leave the government, the country would be forced into new elections, with Netanyahu trailing significantly in the polls amid the war.

Fighting Rages Around Two Gaza Hospitals as Pressure on Israel Rises (NYT) Israeli troops and Hamas fighters waged deadly battles in and around two of the Gaza Strip’s major hospitals on Thursday as the Israeli government came under growing pressure at home and abroad to moderate its approach to a war that has devastated the enclave. Fighting raged for the 11th day at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in an area Israeli forces first seized in November. The clashes illustrated the difficulty the Israelis are having in keeping control of places they had already taken as Palestinian militants melt away and then return. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, increasingly unpopular and facing criticism on multiple fronts, met for the first time with the families of kidnapped soldiers being held in Gaza, who accused him before the meeting of ignoring their plight for nearly six months. But there has been no apparent change in Israel’s determination to press on with its offensive in Gaza, despite pressure from, among others, hostage families, the Biden administration and the United Nations.

Airstrikes Kill Soldiers in Syria in Apparent Israeli Attack (NYT) Airstrikes killed a number of soldiers near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early Friday, Syria’s state news media and an independent organization reported, in what appeared to be one of the heaviest Israeli attacks in the country in years. The dead reportedly included 36 Syrian soldiers, seven Hezbollah fighters and a Syrian from the pro-Iranian militias. The attack appeared to have hit multiple targets, including a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia that Iran supports and has a presence in Syria. Earlier this month, Israeli officials said the IDF has hit more than 4,500 Hezbollah locations in Syria and Lebanon, killing over 300 militants, since Oct. 7.

Nigeria: an African giant’s economic growing pains (Les Echos/France) Nigeria is very much in the spotlight these days. The African giant is a promising market. The continent’s leading GDP, the country has a population of 220 million this year. And the United Nations forecasts a population of 400 million for 2055. By then, it will be more populous than the United States. But it also has its problems. Insecurity, smuggling and theft of hydrocarbons have reached such a level that oil revenues are tending to fall. Endemic poverty, terrorism and civil war with Boko Haram in the north are undermining the country. That is not to mention catastrophic economic policy in recent years. Even though the economy is sluggish, sectors such as high-tech are booming. The image of the “self-made man” is very important to Nigerians. Street slogans such as “no food for lazy men” are commonplace. Much of this “entrepreneurship” is explained by the need to survive. But that’s not all. “Nigerians have an American way of doing business,” says a Frenchman who arrived in Lagos a few years ago. “They’re pragmatic, hard-working and enterprising.” But emigration is on the rise. “The country has a lot of very competent people, but they tend to leave as soon as they can,” says Karim Belkaïd, head of Nigeria operations for the parapetroleum company DBN.

South Africa’s guns (BBC) For the last six years Penson Mlotshwa has been carrying a gun with him wherever he goes in the South African city of Johannesburg. To the shops, restaurants and even the gym. His gun has become an extension of him as the country battles record levels of crime. “Unfortunately, I’ve had to use my gun multiple times to protect myself,” he sighs, explaining how a man wanting his wallet pulled a knife on him after dinner one night. He drew his gun and made the mugger hand over the pocket knife, which he threw in the gutter. He did not fire the weapon. There are more than 2.7 million legal gun owners in South Africa, according to a 2021 survey by Gun Free South Africa (GFSA)—roughly 8% of the adult population. When it comes to the war against crime, South Africa’s police do appear to be losing. The murder rate in the country reached a 20-year high and guns are the weapon of choice. Adele Kirsten, the director of GFSA, told the BBC of her concerns that crime was not only increasing in South Africa, but the “nature of gun violence” was changing. Mass shootings and assassinations are becoming a “feature” of South Africa, she says.

#headlines #news

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swldx · 2 months

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BBC 0541 27 Mar 2024

6195Khz 0459 27 MAR 2024 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from SANTA MARIA DI GALERIA. SINPO = 55333. English, ID@0459z pips and newsday preview. @0501z World News anchored by Chris Berrow. Six people are missing and presumed dead after a container ship hit the landmark Francis Scott Key Bridge in the US city of Baltimore. The Coast Guard said it had suspended its search and begun a recovery effort. Several vehicles were crossing the bridge, which is more than 2.6km (1.6 miles) long, when it collapsed after the vessel hit a support. Officials say the ship suffered a "power issue" and issued a distress call moments before the crash. Boats and helicopters were part of a huge search and rescue effort searching for the six missing people. Two others were pulled from the water, with one in a serious condition. Top Russian officials have directly accused Ukraine and the West of being involved in the deadly Moscow concert hall attack, after it was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group. The EU has reacted that the accusations are absurd. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that now he will not send a delegation that had been expected in Washington, after the US refrained earlier that day from vetoing a UN Security Council resolution on a Gaza ceasefire. Brazil and France on Tuesday announced a program to protect the Amazon rainforest involving €1 billion ($1.08 billion) in funds over the next four years. The plan proposes the creation of a "carbon market" that intends to reward countries that invest in natural carbon sinks. The Amazon rainforest plays an important role in the fight against climate change, as it absorbs CO2 emissions. American lawmakers, backed by the drone industry, are looking to ban Chinese-made consumer drones. Like the proposed ban on TikTok, Chinese drone bans have been justified by fears of Chinese surveillance, but the real motivation seems to be protectionism: American companies are trying to edge out their foreign competition. Sports. @0506z "Newsday" begins. MLA 30 amplified loop (powered w/8 AA rechargeable batteries ~10.8vdc), Etón e1XM. 250kW, beamAz 185°, bearing 49°. Received at Plymouth, United States, 7877KM from transmitter at Santa Maria di Galeria. Local time: 2359.

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xtruss · 3 years

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Europe Looks to Go It Alone on Microchips Amid US-China Clash

Europe wants no part of a new Cold War and is seeking its own chip champions to avoid getting drawn in.

While Europe is a heavyweight at making planes and cars, it is a minnow when it comes to the chips that are vital to swaths of high-end manufacturing | Guillaume Souvant/AFP via Getty Images

— By Laurens Cerulus And Jakob Hanke Vela | POLITICO.EU | February 19, 2021

Europe is caught in the middle of an increasingly political showdown over microchips between the U.S. and China and is scrambling to get out of the firing line.

While Europe is a heavyweight at making planes and cars, it is a minnow when it comes to the chips that are vital to swaths of high-end manufacturing.

Europe accounts for only about 10 percent of the world's chip industry, and the Continent is poorly prepared for supply shocks. In the past few weeks, politicians and businessmen in Brussels, Paris and Berlin were caught off guard by how quickly supply disruptions in the semiconductor industry reduced output at the crucial car industry.

The calculus for Europe on this vulnerability is as much political as it is economic, and has laid bare Europe's dependence on America's top-end chipmakers.

The U.S. has already restricted the supply of its premium semiconductor products to Chinese companies such as Huawei, sparking fears among European businesses about how far Washington will go to keep key U.S. chip technology out of China. For EU companies trading with China and manufacturing there, the chief concern is that they could be caught up in this fight and be frozen out of irreplaceable U.S. semiconductor supply markets by export controls.

A separate shock to the car sector’s supply of chips has heightened alarm about Europe’s reliance on foreign players in past weeks, with semiconductor manufacturers, especially in Asia, failing to keep up with demand.

This shortage of chips has caused disruption at Volkswagen's headquarters in Wolfsburg — one of the largest car plants in the world. It's also being felt at factories across Europe, and carmaker CEOs expect that the problem will continue through the first half of this year.

“The semiconductor supply bottleneck resulting from the rapid recovery of automotive markets is causing significant disruptions in global vehicle production for various manufacturers,” VW said on Friday.

Semiconductor makers have been racing to satisfy demand from the lucrative consumer electronics industry in the coronavirus pandemic as the auto market sagged, creating a supply crunch.

This week, European policymakers identified the chip shortages as a key strategic concern and presented plans to deal with it.

"There is currently a game underway between the United States and China … and it is likely to continue to get tougher," the EU's Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton told reporters this week. "We in Europe intend to play our full part in this new geostrategic game of chess."

"I say it clearly, in the coming years we will see a certain number of tensions ... in the field of semiconductors, that can have implications, including geopolitical ones," Breton added. "In fact, we can already see that ... We see it in particular with the large Chinese companies that today suffer from the lack of these components, so let's not be naïve."

France's Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, speaking alongside Breton, said Europe "wants to be an industry power. We want to be an independent Continent when it comes to technology." He added Europe's reliance on foreign suppliers "is excessive and unacceptable. It makes us vulnerable. It weakens our production chains today [since] tens of thousands of cars are not produced for lack of electronic components."

On Tuesday, Germany and France published a paper calling for "a first set of measures" to "reduce, where relevant, strategic dependencies." It follows earlier support from Berlin to set up a joint European industrial project, and diplomatic efforts by the European Commission to launch an "alliance" of companies and governments to pour money into the semiconductor industry.

German tech lobby Bitkom said its members feared they were too dependent on foreign suppliers and universally backed initiatives for greater digital sovereignty. Some 94 percent wanted Germany to push for the EU to be on a level with China and the U.S., according to a poll of 1,100 medium and large companies released on Thursday.

The Commission even has dreams of setting up a leading factory for the most sophisticated chips — though industry officials have greeted that idea with skepticism.

All Out of Chips

The chip supply chain ran into a storm last year.

Under the Trump administration, China hawks in Washington identified the chip sector as an Achilles' heel in China's rise. While Beijing has proven successful in its strategies to overtake rivals on technologies like smartphones, solar panels, consumer tech, artificial intelligence technologies and more, the country has struggled to replicate or acquire some of the cutting-edge technologies needed to produce the most advanced microchips.

The Americans moved in on the weak spot. U.S. officials slapped new restrictions on chipmakers doing business with China's telecoms giant Huawei in May 2020. In December, Washington barred U.S. chip designers from doing business with China's state-owned manufacturer SMIC.

These measures took place in a world thrown into turmoil by the coronavirus pandemic. Demand for microchips for consumer products like computer screens, headphones, laptops and smartphones soared while car sales collapsed, prompting carmakers to cancel chip orders.

But Europe's car factories quickly found themselves short of chips with no capacity to produce them.

“Volkswagen has to make sure that wafer and semiconductor manufacturers also know our needs," the company said.

The car industry's worries extend beyond the immediate impact of the pandemic on their supply chains. Consumer electronics and telecoms products are expected to boom in coming years and the small, cutting-edge chips that power these devices are more profitable for chip manufacturers to make.

The crisis has pointed to the reliance on U.S. chip designers and Taiwanese manufacturers to keep up with global demand.

Breton's Clash With Industry

Buffeted by the U.S. and China trade war more generally, EU countries and officials in Brussels are cooking up wide-reaching plans for EU "strategic autonomy" and to reshore everything from masks and vaccines to lithium batteries.

Now chip factories are also part of those plans, spurred by the supply shortage.

Breton said that both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel support his work to set up an "alliance for semiconductors" that would support local chip firms and would also funnel public cash into building up production capacity in Europe. The alliance would be launched as soon as April, officials involved in the work said earlier.

In a presentation given to national diplomats by the Commission earlier this month, and seen by POLITICO, officials promised funding from its Recovery and Resilience Facility to rebuild the economy after the pandemic. It also sought support from national capitals to set up an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on microchips, a special funding scheme to allow state aid to critical technologies and industries.

That IPCEI already won support from the German government earlier this month. “We want Germany and Europe to become more sovereign and independent of imports when it comes to microelectronics and communication technologies," German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said when announcing the government's intention to join the scheme.

Europe does have some leaders in niche parts of the supply chain. Dutch chip printing equipment-maker ASML holds a global monopoly on the machines that enable foundries to print the latest generations of microchips. And firms like the Dutch-American NXP and German Infineon lead in designing chips for sectors including automotive.

But for Breton, Europe's autonomy will depend on having a leading-edge factory too.

"We must give ourselves the means to be autonomous on this chain," he said, with the ambition to manufacture the tiny chips used in smartphones and other high tech.

But that's where the European commissioner could lose support of its leading industry players, insiders warn.

Breton’s idea of a foundry that manufactures the most sophisticated generations of chips “is a bridge too far," said one industry official who is involved in discussions with European governments. "The gap is pretty wide between what Breton has in mind and what the industry can deliver without committing financial suicide."

Instead of the smallest-scale chips, Europe's car industry and other key sectors instead could use a factory that produces slightly larger semiconductors, industry experts said.

"The European ambition gets bigger and bigger by the quarter. It started as the project of the decade, now it's become the project of the century and soon it'll be the project of the millennium," the official said. "Meanwhile, we are forgetting to take the first step."

Mark Scott, Joshua Posaner and Stuart Lau contributed reporting.

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crayonlead2-blog · 5 years

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Links 2/25/19

All the winners at Oscars 2019 as Green Book is named Best Picture Metro.co.uk

Stanley Donen, director who filmed Gene Kelly singing in the rain, dies at 94 WaPo. Take heart, this year’s Oscar losers:

For all its later acclaim, “Singin’ in the Rain” drew favorable but not ecstatic reviews when it was released. …

“We were ignored,” Mr. Donen told his biographer. “Not that it’s such a big to-do. The year of ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’ the best picture went to ‘The Greatest Show on Earth,’ one of the worst movies ever made.”

Giant Tortoise Feared Extinct Reappears After 113 Years Motherboard

‘DUTCH OVEN LADY’ PROMOTES A NEW — OLD — COOKING STAPLE Daily Yonder

The White Earth Band of Ojibwe Legally Recognized the Rights of Wild Rice. Here’s Why Yes Magazine (martha r)

Is Drilling and Fracking Waste on Your Sidewalk or in Your Pool? ProPublica

Half glitzy, half dowdy Times Literary Supplement. On comedy double acts.

Are we on the road to civilisation collapse? BBC

Could we soon be able to detect cancer in 10 minutes? Guardian

‘Stop Funding Climate Change!’: Jamie Dimon Interrupted for Important Planetary Message Common Dreams

Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth Guardian

New Cold War

How Politics Trump Intel in the US-Russia Nuke Treaty Pullout American Conservative. Scott Ritter.

Women at State Dept. fear incentive program contributes to gender pay gap The Hill

Nessel reversing 16 years of GOP ideology in Attorney General’s Office Detroit Free Press (marla r)

AOC

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Depicted as Superhero in New Comic Book Breitbart

GND

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivers impassioned response to critics: ‘I’m the boss. How about that?’ Independent

2020

The Political Playbook of a Bankrupt California Utility NYT (Cal2) Hoisted from comments.

Will 2020 Democrats Help Trump By Destroying Each Other? New York magazine. Ahem. I’m posting this to allow members of the commentariat to exercise critical thinking skills.

Kamala Harris dismisses concerns about Green New Deal price tag: ‘It’s not about a cost’ Fox News. Yet another opportunity to deploy those critical thinking skills.

As Ex-Enron CEO Exits Prison, Some of Company’s Old Businesses Thrive WSJ. Seems like a different world, although it was only a dozen years ago when CEOs were prosecuted and sent to jail for their crimes.

Health Care

After Vox story, California lawmakers introduce plan to end surprise ER bills Vox

US HEALTHCARE DISGRACE: GOFUNDME-CARE SYMPTOMATIC OF EXTREME INEQUALITY Who What Why

‘A dark and elaborate art’: How pharma executives are training to avoid disaster at Tuesday’s congressional grilling Stat

Big Brother IS Watching You Watch

Popular Apps Cease Sharing Data With Facebook WSJ

The snow patrol drones saving skiers from an icy death BBC

North Korea

Why North Korea won’t be the next Vietnam Asia Times

China

Donald Trump to delay extra tariffs on Chinese imports SCMP

India

Most People Trust ‘Neutral Media’, Says New Report on Fake News The Wire

Pulwama attack: Imran Khan urges Narendra Modi to ‘give peace a chance’, repeats promise of action Scroll.in

India toughens Kashmir crackdown; 5 dead in battle with militants, more detained Reuters

Brexit

Jerri-Lynn here: I’ve deliberately gone light on Brexit links today, so as to steer interested readers to Yves’s post today – and thus concentrate the discussion there rather than here on the Links thread.

Big banks divided on defaults strategy after Brexit FT

BlackRock CEO unhappy with UK’s handling of Brexit — report Financial News

BMW and Daimler put aside rivalry to take on Google and Uber Handelsblatt

Class Warfare

Our Twisted DNA New York Review of Books

After Superstorm Sandy’s Rain, Cooperatives Sprang Up Like Mushrooms TruthOut (martha r)

‘Austerity, That’s What I Know’: The Making of a U.K. Millennial Socialist NYT

Helicopter parents: the real reason British teenagers are so unhappy The Conversation

Syraqistan

As US withdraws troops from Syria, France and UK remain in the back seat France 24

Trump Transition

Lower refunds amplify calls to restore key tax deduction The Hill

Wary of Trump’s Approach, Governors Seek to Forge Own Trade Agreements Governing.com

Cuba sees high turnout at polls for constitutional referendum Reuters

Venezuela

Psychopathic US Senator Openly Calls For Maduro To Suffer Gaddafi’s Fate Caitlin Johnstone

Warning ‘Every Option Is On the Table,’ Pompeo Stokes Fears of Military Force in Venezuela Common Dreams

Venezuela in crisis: All the latest updates Al Jazeera

Thomas Friedman Is Right: Pie Doesn’t Grow on Trees Rolling Stone. Matt Taibbi– latest in a long series, the first of which ran in New York Press aeons ago IIRC, on Friedman’s crimes against the English language. No need to have read any of those to enjoy the latest.

Antidote du Jour (via):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Links on February 25, 2019 by Jerri-Lynn Scofield.

Post navigation

← The Inevitable Death of Natural Gas as a ‘Bridge Fuel’ Skilling Released from Prison After A Decade of Doing Time : A Reminder of a Not So Distant Past, When the Rule of Law Applied to Corporate CEOs →

Source: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/02/links-2-25-19.html

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nofomoartworld · 7 years

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That Time Art Took Over a Former Military Complex

Díaz Lewis, 34,000 Pillows, 2016–ongoing (view from outside Battery Boutelle); used and donated clothing and Kapok fiber filling; courtesy the artists and Aspect/Ratio, Chicago; © Díaz Lewis; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

British philosopher Bertrand Russell once observed: “Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of great fear." So when Fort Winfield Scott, the former headquarters for coastal defense of California at the Golden Gate, decided to host a range of new commissions and recent works in various media, the aptly-titled Home Land Security prompted critical reflection on the burgeoning national security state, which so often feeds on the fear to which Russell referred.

Built in 1912 as the headquarters of the Artillery District of San Francisco, Fort Winfield Scott now belongs to the National Park Service. Displayed in five historic structures, Home Land Security gave artists the opportunity to examine the current state of the military industrial security complex, of which what is now a national park was once a key part. Three of the five sites used for the exhibition were open to the public for the first time since being decommissioned.

Battery Boutelle, one of five Home Land Security exhibition sites overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge; photo: Nina Dietzel

The 18 featured artists hailed from China, Cuba, France, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Syria, the United States, South Africa, and Vietnam, and their works fostered reflection on the human dimensions and increasing complexity of national security, including the physical and psychological borders people create, protect, and cross in its name.

The exhibition’s curator, Cheryl Haines, who also serves as executive director of the FOR-SITE Foundation, emphasized just how topical Home Land Security really was. "Exclusion defines home in a country built by immigrants," she said in a statement. "Our personal and intimate identities are open to surveillance, and those who are displaced, seeing conflicts sparked by fear, are the most vulnerable."

Haines also stressed that the "military setting" for the exhibition "turns a spotlight on the personal cost borne by soldiers, feelings of isolation and vulnerability, and the thin line between defense and attack. Placing art that examines the human cost of security inside a gun battery or missile installation collapses the distance between target and source: one cannot hide from the impact.”

Trevor Paglen, Operation Onymous (FBI Investigation of the Silk Road), 2016; high-density epoxy and chrome; courtesy the artist and Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco; © Trevor Paglen; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

The 25 timely works included in the exhibition addressed various aspects of security and defense, including questions about the nature of home, safety, and security. The featured works were created using a range of media, including painting, sculpture, video, installation, and performance. Four of the them were commissioned by FOR-SITE for this exhibition, including Trevor Paglen’s Operation Onymous, which focuses on the FBI Investigation of Silk Road.

Paglen’s contribution to the exhibition included an FBI challenge coin, a cryptic medallion recognizing an agent’s affiliation with the Bureau. The featured coin was given to agents facilitating the attack on the Silk Road online market in San Francisco. Paglen’s display also included a scrolling list of more than 4,000 code names used by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) for surveillance programs.

Do Ho Suh, Some/One, 2005; stainless steel military dog tags, stainless steel structure, fiberglass resin, mirrored stainless steel sheets; edition of 3, exhibition copy; courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong; © Do Ho Suh; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Meanwhile, Do Ho Suh responded to the American military presence on the Korean peninsula and explored questions of identity in his sculpture Some/One. The work incorporated thousands of dog tags representing individual soldiers in a larger-than-life suit of armor, reminiscent of the infamous cover of Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, with its suggestion of power forged by the becoming-one of the many. But closer inspection revealed the dog tags to be fictional, each “name” a nonsensical string of characters. The mirrored surface inside the sculpture reflected the ambiguity of the individual’s relationship to the piece: When we see ourselves enrobed in the garment, are we secure in its embrace, or are we complicit in the illusion of security?

Michele Pred, Encirclement, 2003; airport-confiscated sharps; courtesy the artist and Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York; © Michele Pred; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Referring to the misappropriation of personal property by the Transportation Security Administration, which figured in her own work in the exhibition, Encirclement, artist Michele Pred was clear on the reality of what some commentators have called "security theater."

"The small object that we have taken away from us here—we can replace them physically, but we do have the memories that have been partially taken away.” Thus, Pred said, “it’s sort of a false ritual to make people feel safe.” He observeed that scissors, for instance, “were a particularly interesting symbol of that time in that they could represent all the lives cut short, the pain of their families, and how what was once a mundane household tool was now considered a threat.”

As Paglen said, “What I want out of art is things that help us see the historical moment that we live in.” Given the pervasiveness and intrusiveness of attempts putatively designed to promote safety at all costs, Paglen’s concern couldn’t be more appropriate.

The Propeller Group, AK-47 vs M16, 2015; fragments of AK-47 and M16 bullets, ballistics gel, custom vitrine, and digital video; edition 14/21; courtesy the artists and James Cohan, New York; © The Propeller Group; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Bill Viola, works from the series Martyrs (installation view); single-channel video on LCD displays; 43 x 25 x 4 in.; executive producer: Kira Perov; performer: Darrow Igus; © Bill Viola; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Tammam Azzam, Untitled 1−3, 2016 (installation view); from the Storeys series acrylic on canvas; courtesy the artist and Ayyam Gallery, Dubai; © Tammam Azzam; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Krzysztof Wodiczko; Veterans' Flame, 2009; single-channel video projection with sound; courtesy the artist and Galerie Lelong, New York; © Krzysztof Wodiczko; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Shahpour Pouyan, Untitled 1−3, 2016; Untitled 4, 2014; courtesy the artist. Projectile 10, 2013; collection Nader Ansary, New York. All from the Projectiles series; steel, iron, and ink; © Shahpour Pouyan; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Tirtzah Bassel, Concourse, 2016; duct tape on wall (detail, installation view); dimensions variable; courtesy the artist; © Tirtzah Bassel; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Michele Pred, Encirclement, 2003; airport-confiscated sharps; courtesy the artist and Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York; © Michele Pred; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Shiva Ahmadi, Lotus, 2014; single-channel animation; courtesy the artist and Leila Heller Gallery, New York; © Shiva Ahmadi; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Shiva Ahmadi, Lotus, 2014 (still); single-channel animation; courtesy the artist and Leila Heller Gallery, New York; © Shiva Ahmadi

Alexia Webster, Refugee Street Studio, Bulengo IDP camp, D. R. Congo, 2014−ongoing (installation view); digital archival print; courtesy the artist; © Alexia Webster; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Yin Xiuzhen, Weapon, 2003–7; used clothes and materials from everyday life; courtesy the artist and Beijing Commune; © Yin Xiuzhen; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Yin Xiuzhen, Weapon, 2003–7 (view from outside Battery Boutelle); used clothes and materials from everyday life; courtesy the artist and Beijing Commune; © Yin Xiuzhen; photo: Robert Divers Herrick

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