nothing here but the pretty and the dead (CEO)

issue 274 - 8th December, 2024

CJW: Hey there! Let’s get to it.

If you would like to support us, you’ve got a couple of options:

Both give you access to the full bonus archive, as well as new bonuses as they are posted. Another thing you can do to help spread the word is forward this email to someone you think might enjoy it.

The Team

Daniel Harvey (DCH) - Designer, writer, provocateur. Pro-guillotine tech critic. @dancharvey
Marlee Jane Ward (MJW) - is also Mia Walsch. Writer & visual artist. Hates the internet.
Corey Jae White (CJW) - author, voidwitch, vampire in the corner.

Lidia Zuin (LZ) - Journalist, MA in semiotics, and PhD in Arts.

Climate Change & The Environment

DCH: Opinion: The Upside of Climate Pessimism by Katarina Zimmer at Undark

What matters, it seems, is not so much whether a person feels hopeful or unhopeful about the future, but how constructively they deal with their emotions. “How people interpret their emotions and rationalize the threat of climate change might be the determining factor in whether it leads to action or inaction,” Matthew Ballew, an environmental psychologist at Pierce College in Puyallup, Washington, wrote to me in an email. In this light, effective climate communication means not only highlighting the rosier end of climate trajectories and the solutions that may help get us there, but also the possibility of a bleak future and the massive amount of work it will take to avoid it.

Another read from the “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will” pov

Just the headlines:

Geoengineering Could Alter Global Climate. Should It? by Ramin Skibba at Undark.

Geopolitics & Empire

CJW: Gaza Security Forces Ambush Gang Accused of Looting Aid with Israeli Support - Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Jeremy Scahill at Drop Site News

In some cases, the remaining members of local police forces tried to take action against the looters but were attacked by Israeli troops. Many incidents are taking place close by or in full view of Israeli forces, without them intervening, even when truck drivers asked for assistance.

Israel allying with ISIS affiliated militants to starve Gaza - Owen Jones

Israel has de facto allied with criminal collaborators in Gaza as part of a systematic attempt to starve the people. That is[,] up to and including Isis.

So, IDF forces are allying themselves with criminal gangs who target aid trucks, all in service to their plan of starving Gaza. They go as far as attacking Gazans brave enough to fight against the criminal gangs.

Oh, and some of these criminal gangs are affiliated with literal ISIS.

Israel is a terrorist state. If that seems like a controversial statement then you haven't been paying attention.

CJW: Lebanon Ceasefire Had Built-in Loopholes for Israel - Sharif Abdel Kouddous at Drop Site News

What may superficially appear to be a brazen disregard for the terms of the deal brokered by the U.S. and France is in fact a dramatic demonstration of the exact intent of the Biden administration’s effort to ensure Israel would continue to pound Lebanon under the auspices of “self defense.” Both the framing of the deal itself and the Biden administration granting Israel a blank check in the form of a secret “side letter” essentially allow for Israel to continue its military assaults while demanding Hezbollah cease all its operations.

Jesus Christ, the lengths the US will go to in order to let Israel do whatever the fuck it wants would be impressive if it wasn't for all the death and genocide it was facilitating.

“While Fortem is still a relatively small company, its counter-drone technology is already in use on the battlefield in Ukraine, and it represents a species of system that the U.S. Department of Defense is investing in: small, relatively inexpensive systems that can act independently once a human gives the okay. The United States doesn’t currently use fully autonomous weapons, meaning ones that make their own decisions about human life and death.” The Technology for Autonomous Weapons Exists. What Now? by Sarah Scoles at Undark (DCH: emphasis mine)
‘The ICC’s findings so far have only scratched the surface’ by Mohammed R. Mhawish at 972 Magazine
What does Trump’s return mean for the Middle East? by Michael Arria at Mondoweiss (DCH: Given the number of evangelicals in key roles the answer is obviously nothing good)
Leak reveals UK lawyers, Israeli government planned ‘special unit’ to counter human rights reporting. Here’s what we know. by Anas Ambri at Mondoweiss
Guess Who Profits From Trump’s Deportation Plan? Private Equity Firms. by Matt Sledge at The Intercept
These Tech Firms Won’t Tell Us If They Will Help Trump Deport Immigrants by Sam Biddle at The Intercept

Science & Space

“The clearest picture yet of our “last universal common ancestor” suggests it was a relatively complex organism living 4.2 billion years ago, a time long considered too harsh for life to flourish.” All Life on Earth Today Descended From a Single Cell. Meet LUCA. by Jonathan Lambert at Quanta Magazine

Tech & Design

DCH: A Marriage Made in Hell: An Introduction to Microsoft’s Complicity in Apartheid and Genocide by No Tech For Apartheid Campaign at Medium

The purpose of this primer is to publicly expose Microsoft’s complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide against the people of Palestine, and to connect technology workers to the No Azure for Apartheid campaign.

A long read from activist tech workers calling for an end to code that kills. Highlights include Silicon Valley’s contributions to murder tech we’ve covered in the newsletter before like Lavender and Where’s Daddy? that have bootstrapped the genocide in Palestine.

Related: Documents Contradict Google’s Claims About Its Project Nimbus Contract With Israel by Sam Biddle at The Intercept

“What duties do developers have to users who become emotionally dependent on their products? If users are relying on AI agents for mental health, how can they be prevented from providing dangerously “off” responses during moments of crisis? What’s to stop companies from using the power of anthropomorphism to manipulate users, for example, by enticing them into revealing private information or guilting them into maintaining their subscriptions?” What do you love when you fall for AI? by Josh Dzieza at The Verge

Just the headlines:

FTC Bans Location Data Company That Powers the Surveillance Ecosystem by Joseph Cox at 404 Media
The Met is watching you: How UK police went all in on facial recognition by Abigail Buchanan at The Telegraph
TikTok loses court bid to stop U.S. ban. Supreme Court appeal is expected by Wendy Lee at The Los Angeles Times
Courts in Buenos Aires are using ChatGPT to draft rulings by Victoria Mendizabal at Rest of World

Society & The Culture

LZ: In Guatemala, if you don't pay the rent, you're evicted… even after death

TW: Images of corpses

So there's this profile on Instagram which I follow sort of closely, Festering Vomitous Mass. It says 3 in the URL because, as you can see, the kind of content that this fellow posts obviously gets flagged by Instagram. But yeah, recently he (I think it's a guy) posted these photos of mummified corpses being removed from their tombs and thrown into mass graves after families fail to pay the renewal of their “rent”, something like 10 dollars.

Well, it's true in many countries that bodies are exhumed after some years and the bones are put in ossuaries or delivered to the family to decide what to do with them – at least I heard this is common practice in Brazil. But the thing is that these are not bones, they are mummified, desiccated corpses that can be seen leaning on walls and uncannily posing like they are… alive?

I found the photos pretty striking, and by that I mean interesting. It reminded me of an article that I wrote years ago about The Collective of Radical Death Studies and how they research topics such as inequality, racism, sexism, and all sorts of prejudice and oppression that happen after death.

These days, most modern cemeteries are standardized and will have only small tombstones, maybe even just drawers or shelves for urns, so it kind of feels like death really leverages us all (as they say). However, it's not exactly like that when you think of occasions like this one in Guatemala or how much it costs to make a funeral, to “process” the body, and how that affects the way your loved one will be treated and prepared for the wake… not to speak of necrophilia or any other kind of abuse of the cadaver. In Brazil, we have a specific law for that – which makes one wonder… if there's a law, then there's a terrible history.

So yeah, feeling like killing yourself due to the effects of late capitalism? Sorry to say that even your corpse may be affected by it, though.. well, I guess you won't be here to face it, so that's a win?

Reality raids - Rob Horning - CJW: Lots of interesting stuff here - well worth the read, just hard to grab a pull quote when it covers a few topics in equally interesting ways.
“‘Brain rot’ was just announced as the 2024 Oxford Word of the Year. Why now, and not any of the last ten years or so? I prefer “brain poisoning,” as the preceding discussion should support—it feels more precise. We are not decaying online so much as being incrementally loaded up with heavy metals like tuna in the ocean over the course of a lifetime, carrying this accumulation inside of us wherever we go.” - The Meme Fossil Record - Drew Austin - CJW: Some parallels to the above.

Health, Cooking, and Related

DCH: An Assassin Showed Just How Angry America Really Is by Matt Stoller at Big

Early on Wednesday morning, an assassin killed UnitedHealth Care CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan. UnitedHealth Care is the biggest health insurer in America, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, which is the largest employer of doctors, a giant pharmacy benefit manager, a technology firm, and so forth, basically a giant health care platform. (I wrote up how these types of firms formed in 2020 in a piece called How CVS Became a Health Care Tyrant.)
We don’t know why the killer did it, though he scrawled “deny” “defend” and “depose” on bullet casings, indicating that he at least wants people to believe it’s a result of unjust and routine denials of care by the health insurance giant.

This is far and away the biggest news in healthcare and out of America right now. Emphasis mine. Scathing indictment of America that the suspect list is a Venn diagram of patients fucked by insurance companies (to juice profits), employees shit-canned by insurance companies (to juice profits), and gun owners.

Labour & Economics

CJW: The Rich Are Hoarding Their Wealth Using Charity Funds - Helen Santoro at Jacobin

So-called donor-advised funds not only operate under a cloak of donor anonymity and bankroll anti-government and hate groups at more than three times the rate of other charitable sources, but there is also no requirement that the money is ever distributed to charities. This means wealthy individuals can get a charity-based tax break without actually participating in charitable giving.

Quelle surprise!

“But DOGE, as they’ve taken to styling it, isn’t just about a self-aggrandizing project of cutting costs and gutting the agencies that could limit the power of the tech industry. It’s also an opportunity for Musk to revive some of his longstanding personal vendettas. No surprise, California’s high-speed rail project is near the top of the list.” Elon Musk is sending DOGE after high-speed rail by Parix Marx

Just the headlines:

Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package is rejected for a second time. What to know by Caroline Petrow-Cohen at Los Angeles Times

Movies + TV

CJW: Smile 2 Is a Smart Allegory for Dehumanizing Capitalism - Elliot Piros at Jacobin

For many people, it can be hard to see an alternative beyond self-destruction — a fact reflected in the startling incidence of drug addiction, suicide, and deaths of despair. When people are tasked with recharging the device of their bodies at home and powering on again each morning for another round of soulless exploitation, there is an understandable allure to sabotaging the machinery itself.

I barely remember the original Smile beyond the opening sequence, so I wasn't particularly interested in checking out the sequel until I heard a lot of positive word of mouth. And that word of mouth was not wrong - in fact I'd go as far as to say that Smile 2 retroactively makes the first movie better, which is an odd and rare thing.

If you're a horror fan that hasn't already seen it, don't wait. It's brutal, tense, smart, and put together incredibly well.

MJW: The Quick and the Dead (1995)

In the mid nineties, when Sharon Stone was a huge star and Leonardo Dicapro a 21 year old up and comer, they joined Gene Hackman and Rusell Crowe for a shootout movie directed by the Evil Dead guy. True story! This overlooked semi-spaghetti western is so much fun. It’s got a simple storyline (big man in town holds shootout comp for cash prize) and typical plot points, but everyone is great, especially Hackman and our Rusty. Most of all, it looks fantastic: stylised and slick, dusty and camp.

Music

LZ: Grima - Skull Gatherers (Single)

It pains me a lot that I missed the Red Forest Ritual tour last year since they didn't come to Sweden or Denmark – the closest gig was in Hamburg and I was traveling then. Buuuut at least there's a new album coming up next year and another tour, again closest place being Hamburg. Well, if the quality of the album matches this first single, then it's totally worth spending 12 hours on the train to see them live. They recently signed up with Napalm Records, so I am expecting them to grow bigger and play in more places. Exciting!

LZ: Prophecy Fest 2025 or an upcoming black metal festival inside a stone age cave in Germany

Speaking of spending hours on the train, I hope I can go to Prophecy Fest next year. Apparently, it always takes place in this cave in Balver Höhle. As described on their website, there is a Germanic Saga that says that the blacksmith Wieland had his workshop in this cave. This dude is a well-known Nordic legend apparently (which I had never heard of), but so it goes, according to Wikipedia:

Wayland's story is most clearly told in the Old Norse sources Völundarkviða (a poem in the Poetic Edda) and Þiðreks saga. In them, Wayland is a smith who is enslaved by a king. Wayland takes revenge by killing the king's sons and then escapes by crafting a winged cloak and flying away. A number of other visual and textual sources allude to similar stories, most prominently the Old English poem Deor and the Franks Casket.
Wayland is also mentioned in passing in a wide range of texts, such as the Old English Waldere and Beowulf, as the maker of weapons and armor. He is mentioned in the German poems about Theoderic the Great as the father of Witige.[3] He is also attributed to have made various swords for Charlemagne and his paladins, namely Curtana, Durendal and Joyeuse.

What a thrill for all the incels in lederhose! I'm so in, since apparently I have more or less the same taste in arts of a femcel, apparently. For music, I'm surprised this compass doesn't include black metal hehe