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Tue, 07/05/2024 - 20:39
April 19, 2024 ROBERT SKIDELSKY George Orwell’s great contribution to dystopian literature was not his depiction of the modern surveillance state, but rather his insight that if everyone used only state-approved language, surveillance would become redundant. The difference today is that Newspeak has emerged from the mechanisms of liberal democracy itself. LONDON – Language shapes … Continue reading The Language of Political Control
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Tue, 07/05/2024 - 20:27
March 21, 2024 ROBERT SKIDELSKY Faced with a choice between parasitic capitalism and emerging neo-fascism, it is no wonder that Western societies are increasingly pessimistic. While pessimism has pervaded previous eras, today’s mood is sustained, and partly defined, by the absence of a redemptive vision. LONDON – In 2003, the literary critic Fredric Jameson famously observed … Continue reading Post-Capitalist Pessimism
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Tue, 07/05/2024 - 19:26

It was once the second-richest city in Europe, known for its hosiery, knitwear, shoe, and light engineering industries. ‘Leicester clothes the world,’ some said. By the 1970s, however, the Midlands metropolis saw its major manufacturing giants collapse as recession kicked in and unemployment rose.  It was to this Leicester, suffering serious economic downturn, that 11,000 […]

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Tue, 07/05/2024 - 08:30
Trump cares nothing for the party, only himself: You may have heard about this:  Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and his wife were indicted last week on conspiracy and bribery charges. The Justice Department alleged that Cuellar took nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani government-controlled oil company and a Mexican bank. In return, prosecutors allege that Cuellar agreed to “influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan” and advance the bank’s interests in the U.S., per the indictment. You would think that would make Trump very happy and he’d be calling for Cuellar to resign immediately in order to help the GOP congress maintain their at least a two vote margin. (They only have one at the moment.) But no. Axios reports: Trump’s rare defense of a vulnerable Democratic lawmaker runs counter to Republicans’ desire to pressure Democrats to call for Cuellar’s removal. The National Republican Congressional Committee plans to accuse Democrats of a double standard if they stay mum on Cuellar following their pressure on ex-Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) to resign, Politico reports.
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Tue, 07/05/2024 - 07:00
Kristi Noem really loved that puppy murdering story Politico reports: Kristi Noem’s story about killing her dog made headlines across America. But it wasn’t news to people who worked on her first book, where the tale made it into a draft of the memoir before the publishing team nixed it. Then, as now, Noem wanted the story in because it showed a decisive person who was unwilling to be bound by namby-pamby niceties, while others on the team — which included agents, editors and publicists at Hachette Book Group’s prestige Twelve imprint, and a ghostwriter — saw it as a bad-taste anecdote that would hurt her brand. The tale was ultimately cut, according to two people involved with the project… It’s been a busy week for that communications team, and not just for Cricket-related reasons. The book’s fact-checking has also been called into question: Last week, the Dakota Scout reported on a passage of the book in which Noem claims to have met the dictator of North Korea while she was serving as a backbencher in Congress. The improbable meeting never happened. That first book did very well, setting her up as a national figure.
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Tue, 07/05/2024 - 06:23
4 cups bite-size pieces lettuce, chilled1 pound cooked shrimp, chilled¾ cup sliced celery4 hard-cooked eggs, quartered8 asparagus spears4 marinated artichokes, cut in half Louis Dressing:¾ cup mayonnaise or salad dressing½ cup chili sauce1 tablespoon chopped chives½ teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce¼ teaspoon salt Prepare dressing at 30 minutes ahead of serving time. Mix all ingredients and chill. […]
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Tue, 07/05/2024 - 06:00

Interview with Jason W. Moore by Gennaro Avallone on Oltre la giustizia climatica: Verso un’ecologia della rivoluzione [Beyond Climate Justice: Towards an Ecology of Revolution] (Verona: Ombre Corte, 2024).

The post Climate, Class & Empire: Towards an Ecology of Revolution appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).