Tag: Politics

Paul Street – Shameless Hypocrisy

Link to an article by Paul Street:

“Shameless Hypocrisy: Lessons of the Great Khashoggi Kill Story”

 

Street (following Herman and Chomsky) is wrong to suggest that this kind of journalism is hypocritical.  Rather, Domenico Losurdo has explained how this disavowed politics of exclusion is central to the kind of liberalism that these sorts of journalists adhere to.  See Liberalism: A Counter-History (“The political criticism that Losurdo directs towards liberalism is based upon a precise philosophical analysis: he exposes the lack of universalism in this train of thought: its inability to go beyond representing the special interests of the strongest classes.”).

Ginger Jentzen – Minneapolis’ Housing Plan Rewards Developers, Punishes Working People

Link to an article by Ginger Jentzen:

“Minneapolis’ Housing Plan Rewards Developers, Punishes Working People”

 

Bonus links: “When Capitalists Build Too Much” and “Residents an Afterthought in Public Housing Privatization Coverage” and “‘Poor Door’ Tenants of Luxury Tower Reveal the Financial Apartheid Within” and “The Corporate Steamroller of Gentrification is a Deliberate Process” and “Turning Libraries Into Condos” and “Capitalism Can’t Give Us Affordable Housing” and “Euphemisms All the Way Down” and “Why Rent Control? An Interview with Kshama Sawant” (and “Amazon Is on the Attack Against Kshama Sawant”) and “MPHA Enlists Rep. Ilhan Omar for Its Privatization Campaign” and “What a Bernie Sanders Agenda on Affordable Housing Should Look Like” and “Universal Rent Control Now” and “We Can Have Beautiful Public Housing” and “A Communist Designed Your Kitchen” and “Marxism, Space and a Few Urban Questions: A Rough Guide to the English Language Literature” and “Why Rent Control Works” and The Pruitt-Igoe Myth and “The New Deal State and Segregation” and “When Capital Threatens to Strike in Your City” and “We’ve Solved the Housing Crisis Before. We Can Do it Again”

Bonus quote:

“This is the real estate state: a government . . .  fine-tuned to ensure that government actions are calibrated toward rising profits for developers, landlords, speculators, and flippers. Like other state assemblages (the welfare state, the carceral state, the warfare state, etc.) the real estate state is never totalizing, but its influence is particularly strong at the local level, where most US land use decisions take place.

Whatever problems planners attack, the solutions they propose are likely to include luxury development as a key component — even when that problem is a lack of affordable housing. Planners in the real estate state are tasked with stoking property values: either because they are low and investors want them higher, or because they are already high and . . . their deflation could bring down an entire budgetary house of cards. Working to curb speculation and develop public and decommodified housing seem like absurd propositions to a planning regime whose first assumption is that future public gains come first through real estate growth.

In this system, gentrification is a feature not a bug.”

“Gentrification Is a Feature, Not a Bug, of Capitalist Urban Planning” (for what it’s worth, this article makes a very confused reference to real estate developers et al. as “capitalists”) see also The Social Structures of the Economy

Daniel Zamora – Should We Care About Inequality?

Link to an article by Daniel Zamora:

“Should We Care About Inequality?”

 

This is really an article about historical battles for ideological hegemony.

Bonus links: Slavoj Žižek On Political Struggle and Trouble in Paradise and Making Money and The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives and The Lie of Global Prosperity: How Neoliberals Distort Data to Mask Poverty and Exploitation

Max Blumenthal & Jeb Sprague – Facebook Censorship of Alternative Media “Just the Beginning,” Says Top Neocon Insider

Link to an article by Max Blumenthal & Jeb Sprague:

“Facebook Censorship of Alternative Media ‘Just the Beginning,’ Says Top Neocon Insider”

 

Bonus links: “Fake News on Russia and Other Official Enemies” and “Russiagate and the Men with Glass Eyes” and “Untying PropOrNot: Who They Are” and “Clinging to Collusion” and “Three Variations on Trump Quote”

John Steppling – Before the Law

Link to an article by John Steppling:

“Before the Law”

 

While fairly detailed in its analysis and proffered support, the asserted parallels with fascist regimes of the past aren’t fully convincing.  Does the current moment not have neo-feudalist (or neo-Bonapartist) aspects?  Doesn’t the present moment have some unique features without complete historical precedent?

Bonus link: The Courts Are Political

Benjamin Fogel – Against “Anti-Corruption”

Link to an article by Benjamin Fogel:

“Against ‘Anti-Corruption'”

 

Curiously, while the author says moralism isn’t an answer, his argument is essentially moral!  He really is saying mere moralistic, individualistic finger-wagging won’t convince political opponents to change their own ways, which is a tactical argument that recognizes that the problem does not lie at an individual level and therefore cannot be solved at the individual level either but glosses over normative/ideological (moral) bases for structural/institutional action.  But isn’t the author simply arguing that instead of criminalizing the political left through “anti-corruption” laws such policies should instead criminalize the political right?  He offers no real explicit argument to this effect, relying instead on implicit ideology and morality/ethics.  This is about a political struggle for hegemony, making certain specific procedural/tactical suggestions along the lines of Rosa Luxembourg’s famous “socialism or barbarism” maxim.

Bonus links: Slavoj Žižek On Political Struggle (technocrats as defenders of hierarchy) and Slavoj Žižek on Populism (populists) and Ibi Rhodus, Ibi Saltus! Quote (ethics/morals are ultimately political)

Jedediah Purdy – The Courts are Political

Link to an interview of Jedediah Purdy conducted by Meagan Day:

“The Courts are Political”

 

Bonus links: Slavoj Žižek On Political Struggle and “Before the Law” and History of the Supreme Court of the United States and “What Is Socialism Nowadays? (Part II)” and “The New Venezuela: An Interview With Supreme Court Justice Fernando Vegas” and “The Kavanaugh Case: Sex, Lies, Privilege (and Plenty of Beer)” and “Ten Items Corroborate Dr. Blasey Ford’s Allegation Kavanaugh Tried to Rape Her” and “Why Conservatives (Still) Like Kavanaugh” and “Kavanaugh Confirmed, Supreme Court Is Instrument of Ruling-class Reaction” and “The Oligarchic Courts”