This time around, it's some Syrian history, Chelsea Manning, race in Jamaica, and thoughts about the future of labor.
Geekout's list raft.
This edition is slightly less big-media than the last one.
Bruce Schneier argues that the IETF needs to work on aking the internet technologically safe for people.The US government has betrayed the internet. We need to take it back
I'm not sure how reliable this is, but it's interesting and led me to read about the Wikileak party and the Guardian. I wonder about the reliability of the chart - because some of those links seem tenuous. Also, the sums involved seem fairly small. Inculcating stupidity: Syria and Edward Snowden
The following is a rush transcript by Common Dreams of the statement made by Chelsea Manning as read by David Coombs at a press conference on Wednesday following the announcement of his 35-year prison sentence by a military court: 'Sometimes You Have to Pay a Heavy Price to Live in a Free Society'
Adam Curtis has a great old blog post on how the US executed a coup in Syria, and it backfired. BTW, the focus of the article is on Miles Copeland of the CIA. THE BABY AND THE BAATH WATER. READ THIS ONE!
This guy seems like he's WS racist, but I'm trying to ignore that, he explains something about adverse possession. The Nuts And Bolts Of Adverse Possession Explained
(I am pretty sure he's a nazi because his username is a neo nazi's, and he seems excessively interested in jews. fuckin south afrikan boer racist.)
We're on the race topic now. This is a documentary about minorities in Jamaica, the Chinese and Germans. Germacians, The last of the Jamaican Germans part 2, and Jamaican Chinese community part 3. Also Always Together.
In that Chinese vid, the guy points out that unlike in the US, in Jamaica they don't have hyphenated ethnic identities. As if that's some kind of sign of greater integration. That's not how it is at all - look these communities were separate until the 50s. There was separation.
I've heard Mexicans and Mexican Americans say that in Mexico, everyone's "just Mexican". I also heard that about Brazil. Yet, if you look, there is a lot of racial segregation in Mexico between very white people and Indians. In Brazil I just learned that the intermarriage with Japanese is lower than in the US. These communities are separate.
Yeah, I just see racism. The lack of naming ethnic differences, the wish to ignore difference, or to keep separate, seems like racism to me.
On to laborCan the left survive without labor? Harold Meyerson and Zocalo public snacks are doing this. It's a very effete scene with those KPCC folks. Probably worth going to if you like discussions.
This writer says the answer is obviously "heck no." Labor brings class conflict to a sharp point, and keeps the working class in the Democratic Party and left. The GOP has some of the brownshirts and fascists. If labor erodes more, we're going to see fascists chip away more and more at working class loyalty.
The main labor event was the strike against Walmart. It kicked ass. Unfortunately, none of the photos and news really got up on Indymedia, because the big money social media stole proletarian volunteer labor and got those photos.
The engineers ask Are Science and Technical Workers Overpaid?. Their answer is NO, but you have to read the ugly facts of flat or declining wages, and the linked article's thesis that the industry and universities are pushing these wages down deliberately. Yeah, engineers earn a ton, but the general trend is the wages are dropping due to market rigging.
Original: Geekout's Links 9.7.2013