Links 1/27/2026

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1. The Rev Kev January 27, 2026 at 7:34 am

   “US weighs ‘precision strikes’ on Iranian officials as military build-up surges, sources say”

   You could rewrite this headline to reflect local realities-

   ‘Iran weighs ‘precision strikes’ on US bases as military build-up surges, sources say’

   When you get down to it, officials can move around or go into hiding. Military bases can’t but can be sitting ducks. I also note the following sentence-

   ‘The US faced a supply crunch and even asked Saudi Arabia to agree to release Thaad interceptors that it had purchased, but Riyadh refused.’

   I take that to mean that the US wanted the Saudis to hand over their THAAD missiles to Israel so that they could help protect themselves – but which would strip out Saudi Arabia’s aerial defenses. No wonder they said no.

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2. Airgap January 27, 2026 at 9:24 am

   Re: Venezuela acting president says she’s had ‘enough’ of orders from Washington

   Recently while in our Santiago hotel, and roughly a week after the abduction of Maduro, we happened to watch a live televised speech by Venezuelan President Rodriguez. Not fluent enough to understand most of her words we were in agreement that she was on fire with patriotic rhetoric. We did understand enough to hear her stating that Venezuela was not for sale, will not be run by the USA or others and that Venezuelan resources belonged to the Venezuelan people. She spoke extemporaneously and passionately, only infrequently stopping to consult her notes and gather her thoughts.

   During panning shots of the audience we saw rapt attention with all eyes focused on her every word, faces eager to believe and heads nodding in approval. We didn’t need to be fluent in Spanish to understand that she had them in the palm of her hand. This is lady has steel and fire in her bones, and if Wash DC thinks she’ll be a pushover like Guido they’re in for a bucket of cold water.

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   1. Oregon Lawhobbit January 27, 2026 at 1:07 pm

      How did it work out for the last Venezuelan head of state who said, essentially, that he’d had enough of Washington’s BS?

      Asking for a friend. ;-)

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      1. Milton January 27, 2026 at 1:55 pm

         I am Spartacus…

         Reply ↓
3. The Rev Kev January 27, 2026 at 9:39 am

   “Trump Briefed on Intelligence Saying Iran’s Government Is Weaker”

   I hope that that is not the same intelligence that that told Trump that if he could kill Putin at Valdai using Ukrainian drones directed by the CIA, that it would let him win the war in the Ukraine and he would come out as being the “winner.” Iran has just survived a deliberate attack on their currency followed by Mossad and ISIS terrorists – or do I repeat myself? – killing people and burning mosques, government buildings, ambulances, etc. but was able to shut it all down in only two or three weeks. And their government is supposed to be weaker?

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   1. Pat January 27, 2026 at 10:06 am

      American delusion regarding their power has been fascinating. I first noticed the disconnect about two decades ago, probably around the second or third attempt to kill Hugo Chavez in the years following “Mission Accomplished” in the Middle East. We destroy economies, create massive human suffering, and plan and fund war crimes to put monsters in power who are properly beholden to our oligarchs in numerous countries or prop up Israel yet the world doesn’t ever become the oligarch paradise we seek. Hell Cuba has never been forced into the supplicant position that Rubio and allies have wished and worked so hard for in over half a century. True this groupof monsters’ grasp of reality is even less than the monsters before them, but that reality always has a way of throwing the middle finger to the idiots.

      I sometimes think back to the first months of the Bush2 administration when Cheney got schooled by smarter people that Iraq was not the problem in the Middle East, Israel Palestine was. Perhaps if we had less evil more reality based people in charge…..but we didn’t. I can only hope there are enough practical realities to defer the latest insanity.

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      1. Michael McK January 27, 2026 at 1:07 pm

         I worry that, much like Germans at the end of WW1, Americans who had believed the myths about our superiority will react to reality with disbelief and feelings of betrayal, blame the powerless, and set the stage for more propaganda guided reactionary fascist mass movements.

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         1. Kouros January 27, 2026 at 11:55 pm

            Yeah, me too. My fear is that only accelerated global warming/change and/or Yellostowne Caldera eruption would have the capacity to tamper the American sense of grandeaur. But then they will crumble, since, as Tocqueville remarked more than 200 years ago and the clinical need of Americans to be told how good they are… As if they all are mini-Trumps…

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   2. vao January 27, 2026 at 10:09 am

      Strictly speaking, attacks on the currency, economic sanctions, destructive riots, and other such aggressive measures do weaken Iran. The question is whether they weaken the country and its government enough to cause a breakdown — which is not at all certain.

      However, let us not forget that Iran is in the throes of an extremely serious ecological crisis as well, with severe water shortages and everything this entails economically, socially, and militarily.

      Cuba is possibly nearer the breaking point — 65 years of embargoes and sanctions do indeed wear down a country. Apparently, its energy infrastructure is by now so degraded that it is collapsing.

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      1. PlutoniumKun January 27, 2026 at 12:46 pm

         Iran may have an impressive domestic military machine, but its internal infrastructure has been chronically mismanaged and under resourced for several decades. Along with its ecological problems, it is a country under enormous internal strain, although given the lack of alternatives it seems unlikely that there would be a fall of the government.

         Trump seems aware that if you take down a government without an alternative you can make a bad situation much worse – so it may be that his ideal outcome is that a chastened Tehran backs down and makes concessions (hard to know what these would be – maybe reducing oil sales to China and backing down from supporting Yemeni and other Shia rebel groups).

         Cuba is in a very bad way for energy – without Venezuelan support its hard to see how they can keep their power system going. They are entirely dependent on a few rickety oil fueled power stations.

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         1. pjay January 27, 2026 at 1:49 pm

            “Trump seems aware that if you take down a government without an alternative you can make a bad situation much worse – so it may be that his ideal outcome is that a chastened Tehran backs down and makes concessions…”

            This seems to assume that making a bad situation much worse is not a desirable outcome. On the contrary. Though I really can’t figure out what’s in Trump’s own addled mind, I think I could say with near certainty that chaos and Balkanization (see the Korybko piece) would be just fine with Israel and their neocon brethren in the US and the Trump administration. Granted a full war scenario would be problematic; regional upheaval, the Strait of Hormuz, missiles headed toward Israel, etc. But a slowly accelerating hybrid offensive sounds right up their alley to me. As Korybko (and others) note, this may not result in acceptable regime change. But for these bastards, chaos, conflict, and maximum human suffering is a quite acceptable second preference.

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         2. juno mas January 27, 2026 at 8:11 pm

            Time for Cuba to go solar PV. China has a ready supply.

            May not be applicable to heavy manufacturing but certainly of great utility for lighting, agri-pumps, schools, rural medical (refrig.), etc.

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   3. skippy January 27, 2026 at 2:35 pm

      Maybe the drama is the successes of Empires might makes right propaganda for generational viewers at home, since WWII, blinds Empire that it does not hold true abroad …. something about a lived experience during said period …

      Additionally post the GFC and the advent of inverted totalitarianism required to advance the ideological agenda to its utopian conclusion e.g. market forces = individual freedoms.

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4. Gentleman Farmer January 27, 2026 at 10:21 am

   The Tennessee fungus article is interesting in the context of widespread immune damage from repeated Covid exposures. I expect more articles like it in the years ahead, all without saying why more and more people are inexplicably getting sick from something that is endemic to TN soils.

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   1. Norton January 27, 2026 at 1:23 pm

      Maybe Wuk can weigh in on Valley Fever?

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   2. JP January 27, 2026 at 3:19 pm

      Valley Fever, I’m sure you can look it up. It is fungal and in the soil in the central valley. The spot near Bakersfield called Shark Tooth Hill is a notorious concentration. A friend of my father thought he was infected with it for years but when he died they discovered he was carrying a fungal infection he picked up on a south sea island in WW2.

      Fungal infections cannot be cured with antibiotics that fight bacterial infections. They are mainly held in check by normal acidic conditions in the blood stream. So, if you are going to work in the dirt in the central valley, best load up on apple cider vinegar.

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5. t January 27, 2026 at 10:51 am

   what we are looking for are any and all criminals that they have in their possession.

   In his quote about the Trump call with Tim, the shambling wreck has his wit about him well enough to reinforce the lie that Minnesota was at fault and not following the law and taking all the murderous sex-trafficking illegals to ice cream socials every Sunday.

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6. Jason Boxman January 27, 2026 at 12:29 pm

   Microsoft Pledged to Save Water. In the A.I. Era, It Expects Water Use to Soar. (NY Times; 10 minute read)

   Internal forecasts that Microsoft made last year, which were obtained by The New York Times, show the company expected its annual water needs for roughly 100 data center complexes worldwide to more than triple this decade to 28 billion liters in 2030. That compares with 7.9 billion liters in 2020 and 10.4 billion liters in 2024.

   After The Times contacted Microsoft, the company said it had updated its projections to reflect new water-saving techniques, including a new data center design and better information from facilities that it leases. It now expects to use about 18 billion liters of water in 2030, up 150 percent from 2020. The new forecast does not include more than $50 billion in data center deals that the company signed last year.

   Microsoft’s water usage was expected to be particularly significant in areas already facing water crises. Near Jakarta, Indonesia, a metropolis sinking into the Java Sea partly because of drained aquifers, Microsoft last year estimated its water use there would more than quadruple to 1.9 billion liters in 2030, up from 380 million liters this year. The company has since revised that figure to 664 million liters in 2030 and said it no longer has 2026 estimates for any location.

   In the Phoenix area, which is navigating two decades of drought, Microsoft predicted last year that water withdrawals would reach 3.3 billion liters by 2030, more than any other place, up from an estimated 2.9 billion liters this year. The company reduced that estimate to 2 billion liters in 2030 as it runs the facilities at higher temperatures, meaning it needs less water for cooling.

   All that water, so we can have tons of trash. And everyone is forced to have Copilot if you pay for Office 365, it’s forced into Windows 11. It’s all trash.

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   1. Late Introvert January 27, 2026 at 1:45 pm

      And if you disable that crap, they kindly turn it all back on at the next forced update! Woo hoo!

      On the other hand, they are driving people to Linux more and more every day.

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      1. JCC January 27, 2026 at 10:41 pm

         I switched to linux as my primary operating system over 25 years ago and never looked back.

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   2. Antagonist January 27, 2026 at 2:51 pm

      I followed Solution 1 from ubackup.com’s guide to disable Windows 10 update with regedit. This supposedly locks in Windows version 22H2 and prevents an update to Windows 11. Despite following the guide, Microsoft still tried to force Windows 11 on me. I have been a long time Linux user. How do people stand this behavior from Microsoft?

      Reply ↓
7. Carolinian January 27, 2026 at 12:41 pm

   Korybko

   His latest suggests–quoting ZH–that resistance to ICE is some kind of leftwing regime change scenario.

   https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-minneapolis-insurgency-poses

   It must be hard for those who in the past year have given the Trumpies the benefit of a doubt to give up their illusions (yes you Taibbi). Meanwhile our lying eyes tell where the real aspirants to national takeover live (soon to have a ballroom).

   Indeed Trump’s whole purpose has been to provoke a reaction and an excuse. This would be revolutionary action doesn’t seem to be working out for him.

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   1. Geo January 27, 2026 at 5:05 pm

      Don’t feel bad for Taibbi. He’s found his groove trying to slander Pretti’s character and backstory.

      https://x.com/mtaibbi/status/2016267448937287829

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      1. AG January 27, 2026 at 8:41 pm

         Kirn in the latest show said something like:
         “everyone whose life is threatened has the right to use a gun and shoot someone.”

         I had his exact quote in my post yesterday but then messed it up and it got lost.

         But Walter strikes me sometimes as a twisted version of European artists (writers) who are cheerleading Ukraine because that´s what the government thinks is right.

         And questions to where and why normative powers are handed to some and not to others escape them and escape him.

         I still try to watch him because often there are smart or provocative thoughts. But it does reveal some serious lack of insight as I already wrote. Kinda puzzling…and sometimes too annoying and I tune out.

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      2. Jme January 27, 2026 at 9:21 pm

         I don’t have the X app, but what I can see from the browser suggests Taibbi sharing details on Pretti’s history with protest and confrontation. Not a bad thing, being active and opposing federal thuggery is great and no excuse for being executed. Perhaps one of the agents involved Saturday marked pretti as a known quantity and a target. Who knows. I do know that Taibbi has the benefit of the doubt from this Minneapolis resident until proven otherwise.

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8. XXYY January 27, 2026 at 12:55 pm

   How to Block ICE In Your City Labor Politics

   This is a really valuable and interesting piece. Not only as a boots on the ground reporting thing, but also for providing insight on how to run social resistance campaigns in a country like the US is becoming.

   I don’t think the main barrier in the US is fear. It’s skepticism. Most people don’t believe in our ability to change things. So one of the most important things for organizers right now is to pick campaigns that are ambitious, tangible, and winnable — wins that aren’t so small they feel meaningless but are still actually achievable. Because one of the biggest things we need to prove to ordinary people right now is that we really do have power over how the government operates, and over what happens in our society.

   This is a very important concept. Most boycotts and social campaigns may seem spontaneous, but actually havehave a tremendous amount of planning behind the scenes both in what to target, and what particular tactics to use. A few savvy and experienced political organizers are usually the difference between success and failure.

   These campaigns have several audiences: (1) the nominal target, like say Hilton Hotels upper management, who needs to have a genuine sense of annoyance or fear, but also (2) the local population, who needs to see the operation as a positive thing for the society, and also (3) the people who are directly involved in some tactical manner, who ideally will come away not only more savvy about how to conduct these campaigns but also feeling an increased sense of personal political power. So it’s really complex, and getting one of these things wrong may doom the whole effort.

   Along with everything else, what’s happening in Minnesota will hopefully serve as a real world school training thousands or millions of people how to build a better society.

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9. PlutoniumKun January 27, 2026 at 1:42 pm

   The demise of Zhang Youxia hits different Drew Thompson

   Its impossible to know from a distance what is really going on, but the public humiliation of Zhang Youxia is an extraordinary event – he is not just a ‘General’, he is probably the single most respected military figure in the country and a very high level strategic thinker. He is also a genuine war hero, being the last of the Sino-Vietnamese war veterans around. He could easily have been quietly pushed into retirement if Xi just wanted him out of the way, the fact that he has been so publicly defenestrated must be for a reason. The story that he leaked nuclear secrets is interesting not in itself (it is unthinkable that he did this), but interesting that there is no such allegation in Chinese media, but the WSJ story seems to have come directly from Chinese insiders briefing, so there is some pre-planned misdirection going on.

   Its not a one-off event – there have been repeated purges of senior officers for some years now, many of whom are Xi appointees. All are officially for reasons of corruption, which is widespread within the military, especially with so much money being pushed into numerous defence systems. But whether there is a strategy behind it (i.e. getting rid of all incompetents and/or potential naysayers) before a possible war with the US, or whether it represents paranoia by Xi, or is just the visible manifestation of a vicious internal battle for control, is anyone’s guess. Probably a mix of reasons.

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   1. lyman alpha blob January 27, 2026 at 2:38 pm

      If you click through the Arnaud Bertrand tweet, he traces some of the rumors back to Falun Gong –

      “The source for the coup story is Sheng Xue, a typical Chinese dissident based in Canada, whose rumor was spread by Falun Gong: all the signs of an evidence-free China rumor.”

      Reply ↓
10. AG January 27, 2026 at 5:25 pm

    re: Bari Weiss

    short item by THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

    Bari Weiss Unveils Sweeping Vision: “I Am Here to Make CBS News Fit for Purpose in the 21st Century”

    Weiss rallied the troops and outlined her vision at an all-hands meeting Tuesday morning, naming a lineup of new contributors: “Our strategy until now has been to cling to the audience that remains on broadcast television. If we stick to that strategy, we’re toast.”
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/bari-weiss-cbs-news-plans-revealed-staff-meeting-1236486076/

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    1. .Tom January 27, 2026 at 6:06 pm

       Huh? Is she making a joke or is she trying to insult her staff? The 21st Century began a long time ago. Being fit for it would have been appropriate when Bari was 15 years old.

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    2. The Rev Kev January 27, 2026 at 6:27 pm

       Well that should be fun. A new version of CBS but one that will not mention Palestinians, the Epstein files, criticism of Trump, Zionism, etc. I can see the kids lining up to watch that channel, especially after being giving a foretaste with the new “Americanized” Tik Tok that is doing all that stuff already. And when it was mentioned that Niall Ferguson was going to be a contributor, that told me all that I needed to know.

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       1. AG January 27, 2026 at 8:32 pm

          Ferguson
          yes, what an embarrassment. the worst she doesn´t grasp that and considers him an asset instead.
          p.s. Is Huberman a scientist or a podcaster now? (Or neither?)

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11. AG January 27, 2026 at 5:43 pm

    re: Guantanamo

    So while the US eventually is standing up against ICE, Guantanamo has gone down the memory hole. However using violence is part of the USA´s state DNA as set up by its elites in 1789 and administered since.

    Twenty Four Years After 9/11, 15 Are Still Imprisoned at U.S. Military Prison in Guantánamo, Cuba
    By Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright
    https://covertactionmagazine.com/2026/01/23/twenty-four-years-after-9-11-15-are-still-imprisoned-at-u-s-military-prison-in-guantanamo-cuba/

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12. Revenant January 27, 2026 at 7:35 pm

    Re “NATO planning ‘unmanned defense zone’ with robots, drones along Russia border”:

    And who is supposed to live in this killzone…?

    This sounds like half a plan, the other half being to depopulate said border region through either nuclear war if you are the USA or de-energisation (pace John Helmer) if you are Russia….

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13. AG January 27, 2026 at 7:50 pm

    re: anti-Obama protest of 2010

    A nice find I wanted to share:

    TROUTHOUT had an open letter critical of the Obama Administration addressed to those on the left who supported Obama.

    One could argue this was one visible sign of a coming rift within the left among those who are above the line so speak. Who however cannot do their work nor would be in their exposed positions without those below, those countless who suffer the blows of the empire at home and yet remain invisible – a humble point MLK too made – speaking of giants and shoulders.

    – Perhaps – just perhaps – the current dispute over who may or may not use video to document ICE´s conduct or rather how to evaluate those videos (e.g. the German mainstream focus!) – diverts from the fact that there has been a fundamental societal change.

    There is no limelight left elite any more who the supporters and those who do the leg-work pay homage to. In fact a democratisation of movement instead – most are equal now.

    And that is disturbing to those who still wish to create narratives – like Walter Kirn for instance (this is not intended as particular critique of him! I only mention him due to the most recent ATW episodes) – because narratives a a classic form of passing on knowledge are in need of hierarchies.

    This is a very important truism in order to understand why 99% of mass entertainment never really serve a leftist cause. And btw it is also the reason why Noam Chomsky for a long time opposed his turning into a media star. I actually addressed this briefly in letter to him in the 1990s and in his repsonse he made his point which I need not repeat here. Just adding as anecdotal “experience”.

    To quote Bert Brecht Finale of the Threepenny Opera:
    
    There are some who are in darkness
    And the others are in light
    And you see the ones in brightness
    Those in darkness drop from sight.

    An Open Letter to the Left Establishment

    By et al ,
    Christopher Sherman ,
    Cornell West ,
    Noam Chomsky ,
    Truthout

    December 10, 2010

    https://truthout.org/articles/an-open-letter-to-the-left-establishment/?Itemid=228article

    Intro:

    “A Call for Active Support of Protest to Michael Moore, Norman Solomon, Katrina van den Heuvel, Michael Eric Dyson, Barbara Ehrenreich, Thomas Frank, Tom Hayden, Bill Fletcher Jr., Jesse Jackson Jr., and other high profile progressive supporters of the Obama electoral campaign.

    With the Obama administration beginning its third year, it is by now painfully obvious that the predictions of even the most sober Obama supporters were overly optimistic. Rather than an ally, the administration has shown itself to be an implacable enemy of reform.”

    Ending with a list of initial signatories.

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14. MicaT January 27, 2026 at 7:54 pm

    I don’t know why there are so few comments.

    Anyway the number of deaths from the storm. I had a professor in college who always said that the number of people who actually died during a storm event was less than normal because less driving deaths etc. so while yes some people did die due to the storm it’s actually less than the number it would have been.
    Sensationalist with numbers.

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    1. Martin Oline January 27, 2026 at 9:09 pm

       Re. commenting, I swore I was done with it, but I just found out that Lu said four days ago that “Everybody knows the World’s Gone Wrong.” I suspect she is right but any time Lucinda Williams can make me cry is a good day.

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    2. Jonathan Holland Becnel January 28, 2026 at 2:39 am

       Because everyone’s outside starting THE REVOLUTION.*

       Duh

       AMERICAN 🇺🇸 REVOLUTION 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

       TOUCH GRASS & UNITE YOUR NEIGHBORS

       OMINA FAUSTA CANO

       *nope looks like the Retro Post is where it’s @

       Reply ↓
15. AG January 27, 2026 at 7:59 pm

    re: anti-Obama protest letter of 2010

    A nice find I wanted to share:

    TRUTHOUT had an open letter critical of the Obama Administration addressed to those on the left who supported Obama.

    One could argue this was one visible sign of a coming rift within the left among those who are above the line so speak. Who however cannot do their work nor would be in their exposed positions without those below, without those countless who suffer the blows of the empire at home and yet remain invisible – a humble point MLK too made – speaking of giants and shoulders.

    – Perhaps – just perhaps – the current dispute over who may or may not use video to document ICE´s conduct or rather how to evaluate those videos (e.g. the German mainstream focus!) – only diverts from the fact that there has been a fundamental societal change.

    There is no limelight left elite any more who the supporters and those who do the legwork pay homage to. In fact a democratisation of movement instead – most are equal now. And there is no one circle determining how the events are to be interpreted and the evidence is to be construed.

    And that is confusing to those who still wish to create narratives – like Walter Kirn for instance (this is not intended as particular critique of him! I only mention him due to the most recent ATW episodes) – because narratives as a classic form of passing on knowledge are in need of hierarchies.

    But a truly democratic entity defies hierarchies.

    This is a very important truism in order to understand why 99% of mass entertainment never really serve a leftist cause.

    And btw it is also the reason why Noam Chomsky for a long time opposed his being turned into a media star later in his life.

    I actually addressed this briefly in a letter to him in the 1990s and in his repsonse he made his point which I need not repeat here. Just adding as anecdotal “experience”.

    To quote Bert Brecht´s Finale of the Threepenny Opera:
    
    There are some who are in darkness
    And the others are in light
    And you see the ones in brightness
    Those in darkness drop from sight.

    An Open Letter to the Left Establishment

    By et al ,
    Christopher Sherman ,
    Cornell West ,
    Noam Chomsky ,
    Truthout

    December 10, 2010

    https://truthout.org/articles/an-open-letter-to-the-left-establishment/?Itemid=228article

    Intro:

    “A Call for Active Support of Protest to Michael Moore, Norman Solomon, Katrina van den Heuvel, Michael Eric Dyson, Barbara Ehrenreich, Thomas Frank, Tom Hayden, Bill Fletcher Jr., Jesse Jackson Jr., and other high profile progressive supporters of the Obama electoral campaign.

    With the Obama administration beginning its third year, it is by now painfully obvious that the predictions of even the most sober Obama supporters were overly optimistic. Rather than an ally, the administration has shown itself to be an implacable enemy of reform.”

    Ending with a list of the initial signatories. (too long to post here)

    Reply ↓