Dilip Simeon's blog

NB : The flag of 'freedom and democracy' is wearing a bit thin on Western shoulders. The list of criminal interventions on other countries + nuclear tests in the Pacific + war crimes is very long indeed. Vietnam (1963-75); Iran (1953); Bikini atoll and Marina islands; Chile (1973), Argentina (support of military dictators); wars in Iraq; long standing support for the apartheid regime in South Africa; support for Yahya Khans military genocide in Bangladesh (East Pakistan, 1970-71); the assassination of Mujibur Rehman - these a re just a few of the prominent examples. And their permanent alliance with the brutal Saudi Arabian regime shows that democracy is not exactly on top of their diplomatic agenda. As to the CIA involvement in the global heroin trade , the less said the better. Maybe the freedom to die of heroin addiction is included in the western list of liberties Meanwhile the totalitarian disdain for justice, human rights and truth has been exemplified by the Soviet (and ...

There’s a battle under way at the heart of British politics and reactionaries are in the ascendancy. With the Brexit wind in their sails, when an issue of history or culture comes into prominence, they set the terms of the debate. Whether it is the singing of Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia on the closing night of the Proms; history teaching in schools; statues in public spaces: the Right has a consistent story to tell and they find plenty of places to say it. Whether it is tub-thumpers like Richard Littlejohn, Rod Liddle and Toby Young; opportunist academics like Matthew Goodwin and Eric Kaufman; or Etonian intellectuals like Douglas Murray and David Goodhart, they tell a common story about Britain’s proud past that is now being trashed by ‘metropolitan liberal elitists’ and the ‘woke’ mob who are threatening our ancient liberties. In response, progressives are allowing themselves to be distracted and pigeon-holed, ignoring the economic and social content of many women’s, ra...

"Reshuffling cat shit on a litter tray." "A Shakespearian tragedy: written by monkeys on typewriters" ' Leave it to a comedian to give a far more honest commentary on the situation than any of the actual media' Bye Bye Boris : Jonathan Pie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKrLBPmRsrM Boris Johnson: any democracy should look to his case and ask if it is enabling machiavellian leaders Invincible Summer – Albert Camus Albert Camus's “The Human Crisis” (March 28, 1946) - 'No cause justifies the murder of innocents' The Almond Trees by Albert Camus

Blaming the failings of an entire political culture on the moral deficiencies of one leader might make us feel righteous, but most of us know that the rot goes rather deeper than   one flamboyant character . The fall of Johnson could be taken as a historical juncture to be built upon and not just in the UK. S ome have   argued   that the political debate preceding the Brexit referendum was a   nadir ; that public hopes and fears were cynically exploited by politicians who did not even believe the substance of their own messages. Bye Bye Boris Johnson’s premiership fell because it seemed to recognise  no distinction  between what is true and what is politically expedient. Once that distinction ceases to matter, democratic discourse becomes unsustainable and political communication becomes a matter of permanent decoding. Integrity depends upon binding structures, such as codes of conduct and ethics committees. It also relies on a cultural commitment by politi...

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, followed shortly by Rishi Sunak , the chancellor, posted their letters of resignation on Twitter, criticising the competence of the government. Neither explicitly mentioned the sexual misconduct and Partygate scandals that have dogged the government for months. Sunak in particular claimed the prompt for his resignation was his differing approach on the economy. But the backdrop to both resignations was Johnson’s catastrophic handling of the Chris Pincher affair, after he admitted appointing his ally as deputy chief whip despite having been told of misconduct allegations against him. Just seconds earlier, Johnson had told the cameras that he was sorry for his mistakes in appointing Pincher , and he had toured the House of Commons tearoom saying that “everyone deserves a second chance”. The problem is that Johnson is not on his second chance but a number much higher than that after scandals such as Partygate, Tory donors funding his flat renova...

NB:  This is the kind of detailed documentation that we require in India. Those interested in studying the jurisprudence of lawlessness further could read William Scheuerman's book:  The End of Law . DS Chris Hedges: Fascists in our midst Supreme Court rulings, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, herald the ascendancy of Christian fascism in the United States... The Supreme Court is relentlessly funding and empowering Christian fascism. It not only overturned Roe v. Wade, ending a constitutional right to an abortion, but ruled on June 21 that Maine may not exclude religious schools from a state tuition program. It has ruled that a Montana state program to support private schools must include religious schools. It ruled that a 40-foot cross could remain on state property in suburban Maryland . It upheld the Trump administration regulation allowing employers to deny birth control coverage to female employees on religious grounds .  It ruled that employment discrim...

January 6 wasn't the end of the fascist revolt against democracy. We're watching democracy be taken away not by Proud Boys waving batons, but by conservative justices who hide their grotesque anti-democratic views behind the trappings of the Supreme Court.    The end of Roe v. Wade: American democracy is collapsing   Judges appointed by popular vote-losing presidents used a stolen Supreme Court seat to overturn the people's will...  Donald Trump may be out of office, but his stubby misogynist fingers are still grabbing Americans by the pussy . Any hope that the reaction to the leaked draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health would shame the Republicans on the Supreme Court into not overturning Roe v. Wade was crushed on Friday morning. Spontaneous protests break out across U.S. after Supreme Court overturns Roe Justice Samuel Alito - a human-shaped incel forum crammed into an itchy judicial robe -  was determined to make these words the public reco...

In 2001, the Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah published By the Sea, the story of Saleh Omar, a man who arrives at Gatwick airport as a refugee. The border official he speaks to says his parents also came to Britain as refugees, “But my parents are European, they have a right, they’re part of the family.” He goes on to say, “You don’t belong here … and we don’t want you here. We’ll make life hard on you, make you suffer indignities, perhaps even commit violence on you.” Omar is far from unaffected, but he carries within him an important piece of knowledge: he knows that by the British government’s own rules he is entitled to asylum, and though the official might spew racist language he will have no option in the end but to stamp Omar’s passport and allow him through. As indeed he does. I have read the novel twice, 20 years apart. The behaviour of the official becomes no less appalling but, even so, I read the Gatwick scene very differently the second time around. In Priti Patel’s B...

Trump’s attempted coup continues .... The Republican party’s biggest backers – such as billionaire Peter Thiel, who has donated tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of big lie candidates JD Vance and Blake Masters – show no sign of reducing their backing in light of the committee’s findings. Big corporations continue to write fat checks to big lie candidates. In April alone (the last month for which data is available) Fortune 500 companies and trade organizations gave more than $1.4m to members of Congress who voted not to certify the election results, according to an analysis by the transparency group Accountable.US . AT&T led the pack, giving $95,000 to election objectors. Money from corporations like Boeing, Koch Industries, Home Depot, FedEx, UPS and General Dynamics continues to flow to politicians who reject the 2020 election results based on the big lie, according to a tally kept by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as Crew... https://ww...

Factoring in the value of human life and ethical considerations in economic and social policy making could bring about change. “To allow the market mechanism to be sole director of the fate of human beings and their natural environment… would result in the demolition of society,” warned political economist Karl Polanyi in his book The Great Transformation, published in 1944. Had Polanyi been alive today, his statement would have found prophetic validation in the condition of society in the United States, one of the world’s most dominant economies. For most of the late 20th century, the economy of the United States was built around an industrialised, mass-scaling model of weaponising itself and other nations while designing tools of finance to profit from war. That same economy is now in a situation where its gun industry, guided by the compulsions of less- regulated market forces, is wrecking its own society. On May 24, a mass shooting at a school in Uvalde in Texas , kil...