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196 [lbo-talk] London Riots anew -- rank: 1000

Richard Seymour writes Bespeaks .. conflagrations ..belies (It is not the kind of talking that is going to help you to get down with those you dare to call the kids .) All of this blather, though, is a sorry excuse for a lot of bad behaviour. Scores of people burned out of their homes not by riot police or CS gas canisters, but by looters. Three men dead after being run over protecting their corner shop. A Gay bookshop done over. A Malaysian student robbed on the ground. Richard has a tall ...

Document Size:	6186
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Aug 15 16:51:26 PDT 2011

197 [lbo-talk] London Riots anew -- rank: 1000

Anyone hoping for some insurrectionary potential in the outbreak of looting in the UK will be disappointed. The initial clashes in Tottenham began with a political protest against the police over the killing of Mark Duggan. The looting that followed was opportunistic and destructive, without any political content at all. Around a hundred people were burned out of their homes. Three young Muslims were killed after being run down by a car. A 68-year old man who tried to put a fire out was assaulte ...

Document Size:	5537
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Aug 13 09:42:54 PDT 2011

198 [lbo-talk] The criminalization of the poor -- rank: 1000

'Also: a dude got arrested in Florida for popping zits at a McDonalds' You should definitely go to prison for popping your zits in McDonalds'

Document Size:	4674
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Aug 11 09:06:34 PDT 2011

199 [lbo-talk] Britain Needs a Better Way to Get Rich Than Looting -- rank: 1000

Me on Britain s riots: Britain Needs a Better Way to Get Rich Than Looting The vigil that Duggan s friends and family held outside the Tottenham police station was a spark that set off rioting across Britain for the last week, and at the time of writing is still not under control. Read more: http://www.newgeography.com/content/002376-britain-needs-a-better-way-get-rich-than-looting

Document Size:	5236
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Aug 10 13:49:08 PDT 2011

200 [lbo-talk] European cities... -- rank: 1000

'Most Americans are in the pockets of banks and corporations - one paycheck away from homelessness. So instead of risking their jobs and their way of life by barking at banks and corporations, they bark at safe targets - the government and the immigrants. It is relatively safe. And if some of them get really angry, they go postal.' Maybe I read it wrong, but anti-banker sentiment is quite strong, no? It is in the UK, and listening to Brian Lenihan in Ireland, and to looking at the French protest ...

Document Size:	5741
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Sep 30 16:29:50 PDT 2010

201 [lbo-talk] Me, debating London's future, this Tues., 6.30pm -- rank: 1000

Future City Is London growing too big, too fast? London is the most populated city in Europe, and still growing. Migration has brought wealth and new talent, but there is a need to ensure the infrastructure meets new needs. What kinds of innovations do we need in the twenty-first century? Can dynamism in past innovation, from the railways and the docks to airports and Canary Wharf, inspire us to respond to new challenges, or should we just put the brakes on and protect London from change? Speake ...

Document Size:	5926
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Sep 30 07:15:38 PDT 2010

202 [lbo-talk] European cities hit by anti-austerity protests (correction) -- rank: 1000

Doug: 'If you want to think of productive activity that occurs through corporations as done by people, fine - but why not the same for governments?' Yes, I suppose you could say that the $1 trillion the US spends on defence is activity, but productive? Hardly. And what of the $89 billion spent on the Troubled Asset Relief Program? Productive activity, or paying rich people to stay rich? Why is the left irrelevant? Because it confused capitalism's growing dependence on the state as some kind of s ...

Document Size:	5408
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Sep 29 16:08:49 PDT 2010

203 [lbo-talk] European cities hit by anti-austerity protests (correction) -- rank: 1000

Dennis: 'if it wasn't for the stimulus people would be wearing barrels. Instead of acknowledging that, they're back to blaming government ' There's something rather peculiar about this statist outlook. After all, in the end, governments don't make anything, people do. Should the people be grateful for the government? They create the wealth that the government disburses (largely to the obscenely wealthy). And if the people have truly lost the government's trust, then perhaps the government should ...

Document Size:	5409
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Sep 29 13:27:53 PDT 2010

204 [lbo-talk] maps that show the racial breakdown of America's biggest cities -- rank: 1000

Charles writes: "Speaking of residential segregation and desegregation, evidently a deseg process is going on in Detroit in the last several years." citing "Detroit sees rise in white residents after 60 years BY JOHN WISELY FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER et etc" Hasn't 'white flight' been in reverse in many cities for some time? Certainly London has seen gentrification of some of its inner cities. I thought the same was true of many American cities?

Document Size:	5319
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Sep 29 12:53:04 PDT 2010

205 [lbo-talk] European cities hit by anti-austerity protests -- rank: 1000

When I look at who are the recipients of government largesse, I think that you could cut spending by about half, and still improve the lives of working people (http://www.metamute.org/en/content/state_capitalism_in_britain). What passes for the welfare state is for the most part welfare for the very rich. Sadly, what cuts do fall will not fall on those.

Document Size:	5192
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Sep 29 12:48:46 PDT 2010

206 [lbo-talk] maps that show the racial breakdown of America s biggest cities -- rank: 1000

>From the Daily Mail today Revealed: The maps that show the racial breakdown of America s biggest cities By David Gardner Last updated at 5:49 PM on 25th September 2010 These are the maps that show the racial breakdown of America s biggest cities. Using information from the latest U.S. census results, the maps show the extent to which America has blended together the races in the nation s 40 largest cities. With one dot equalling 25 people, digital cartographer Eric Fischer then colour-coded ...

Document Size:	5737
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 26 02:44:14 PDT 2010

207 [lbo-talk] War for Oil (was Drescher, etc.) -- rank: 1000

Wojtek: 'James, your argument rests on an assumption that is not very plausible to my mind - that the US policy establishment is a unified body and speaks in one voice. Without that assumption - the whole series of events leading to Persian Gulf War 1 looks like a tug of war between different factions plus an occasional fuckup here and there and indecisiveness, and finally pro-war faction getting the upper hand and the rest of the establishment grudgingly going along.' The way I see it, that's ...

Document Size:	7292
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 26 01:09:17 PDT 2010

208 [lbo-talk] War for Oil (was Drescher, etc.) -- rank: 1000

SA writes, largely against the 'war for oil' thesis: '1. US intervention in the First Gulf War *did* have something to do with oil, in the sense that Bush Sr. would have been much less likely to intervene if Kuwait had not been a major oil producer. Adding Iraq's oil to Kuwait's oil would put a lot of oil - and all the power (e.g., weapons) that go with it - in the hands of Saddam Hussein. ' But if you look at the discussions that were being had (say in Norman Schwarzkopf's memoirs, it Doesn't T ...

Document Size:	7458
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Sep 25 00:08:11 PDT 2010

209 [lbo-talk] One Wilshire -- rank: 1000

Fantastic photos. these are my photos of the Jested telecommunications Tower and hotel in the Czech Republic, the path to modernism not taken (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54024&id=756513153&l=4845a67795). I have someothers that I never posted up of the inside of the tower - a kind of Solaris-style wreckage of the future that got built at Wilshire One. Richard Barbrook's book Imaginary Futures (http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/) is quite good on the Czech cybernetics. (Going off ...

Document Size:	5323
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Sep 24 15:48:49 PDT 2010

210 [lbo-talk] Save the CLR James library -- rank: 1000

Those philistines at Hackney Council want to re-name the CLR James library. Tell them no! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveclrjameslibrary/

Document Size:	4873
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Sep 23 07:10:15 PDT 2010