What can the global left learn from Mexico
In the 18-APR-2025 Guardian: How to beat the far right – Mexico
History
James C. Scott and the Art of Resistance
James C. Scott and the Art of Resistance The late political scientist enjoined readers to look for opposition to authoritarian states not in revolutionary vanguards but in acts of quiet disobedience. By Nikil Saval New Yorker April 7, 2025 Some books: The Moral traditional societies of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (1976) … [Read more…]
Why some chaos-seekers just want to watch the world burn
Stealing (copying) directly from Science News: Why some chaos-seekers just want to watch the world burn This article is an interview with political scientist Kevin Arceneaux of the research university Sciences Po in Paris, France. In it, he and the author Sujata Gupta discuss this very relevant aspect of human behavior. Arceneaux helps us understand … [Read more…]
Jules Verne
Mar 19, 2023 Speaking of dry, a few years ago I reread 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Verne and recall skipping large chunks of page due to fin de siècle taxonomy, must have been fascinating at the time, but for us 20th C. sophisticates, not so much. More recently, Around the World in 80 … [Read more…]
Civil rights leader Rev. James Lawson Jr. dies at 95
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/10/lawson-obit-civil-rights-martin-luther-king-00162585 Civil rights leader James Lawson Jr. dies at 95 The pastor was a close adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and an advocate of nonviolent protest. By Associated Press 06/10/2024 05:44 PM EDT The Rev. James Lawson Jr., seen here in California in 2019, taught Gandhian principles to young civil rights activists … [Read more…]
In praise of failure : four lessons in humility by Costic? Br?d??an, 2023.
In praise of failure : four lessons in humility by Costic? Br?d??an, 2023. I just finished this quirky little book (273 p) and am left with more than a few things to think about – birth, death, humility, human frailty, hubris, genocide, madness, disease, senility, poverty and wealth to name a few. He uses the … [Read more…]
20 years ago on 9/11/01
On September 11, 2001, my wife and I were living in Switzerland, having moved there in November of 1999. At the end of August of 2001, my sister Theresa and nephew Thomas joined us, they arrived from Seattle, we met them in Zurich and brought them home to Neuchâtel. We celebrated my 50th birthday, it … [Read more…]
The world of Colonel Wingnuts
The Press Democrat, Monday, April 21, 1986 1B Photo Caption: Colonel Wingnuts at the microphone of radio station KOZT in Fort Bragg The world of Col. Wingnuts Ex-Air Force lieutenant part showman, part meteorologist By PAT McKAY Correspondent FORT BRAGG – Can you believe a weatherman by the name of Colonel Wingnuts really is … [Read more…]
Russian Exceptionalism
(The events in Moscow unfolded as I wrote this, it isn’t aimed at the current events except tangentially.) I finished this review in the New York Review of Books and wanted to share it. It is a long review, but rather fascinating for someone who knows next to nothing about this history, it filled in … [Read more…]
Christo’s Running Fence
In an article written in 2016, 40 years after the Running Fence was erected, Sonoma Magazine ran this article: Christo’s Running Fence