Origins of Our Time

We think of communist cells as concealed units, but in January 1947, found one by walking into a “tiny cafe on the Rue St Jacques,” in the Latin Quarter.

Economics is all about tradeoffs. In a classic 2013 blogpost, Seth Ackerman made this point. Faced with a bad Matt Yglesias post about economics, one has the option of writing a response for free on the internet. But since this requires writing something which is not only “tedious” but also “an exercise in obviousness,” there is a significant opportunit…

According to one definition, “country music is born when the country becomes a nostalgic idea.” One of the largest forces behind this social transformation has been war, which mobilizes rural labor in new military-industrial settings. The Bakersfield sound emerged when Okies and Arkies left the cotton fields for aircraft factories.

This still from The Assassination of Fred Hampton made an indelible impression on free jazz saxophonist Frank Lowe, who recalled: It was a documentary on this eat named Fred Hampton, who was a big leader of the Chicago Black Panthers, who organized breakfast for the kids. He was ambushed one night in his bed—the police shot through the walls, assassinated him right through the walls. As the camera was panning the room that was shot up, under the bed there were some records.

“OpenAI’s project in Saline Township is the biggest single investment in Michigan’s history, according to the state, requiring hundreds of electricians working 10-hour days, seven days a week.” - NYT “New multi-billion-dollar facility will grow Michigan’s economy, create 2,500 good-paying union construction jobs, 450 permanent high-skill, high-paying jobs on-site, and 1,500 more across [Washtenaw] county.” - Gov.

Above is a picture of future Vice President JD Vance with Rod Dreher, a strange and sad and grimlyfascinating right-wing blogger. The Stalin-esque void between them represents Rod’s divorce: My ex-wife prefers privacy, understandably, and she certainly wouldn’t want to be linked any more with me. So I blanked her out to honor her privacy concerns. I had an oyster photo up to make a joke about my love for Paris oysters, but a couple of you felt I was making fun of her.

The DNC’s 2024 autopsy is 200 pages long. Here's what’s not in there. “The draft report, which is disorganized and leaves empty entire sections…offers only vague or limited conclusions about the party’s failings.” - NYT Whitewashing Genocide Origins of Our Time is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The military budget is now a trillion-dollar affair. But the failure of U.S. power to dispense quickly with Iran has left the people who run the New York Times surprised, disappointed, and disoriented. The solution? According to the NYT editorial board, we need a more lethal military.

Everyone says AI is getting better and better. I continue to find it highly unreliable for basic tasks ranging from “put this in alphabetical order” to “what is the median income in X county.” But I have to admit that the chatbots have gotten much better at writing AI versions of what Adorno might say about AI. On AI, Gaza, and the Mechanization of Destruction In Gaza, the apparatus of war has fused with the machinery of computation.

Maybe one of you can explain this to me: Perplexed? The article goes on to explain: This was never supposed to happen…Few thought the Strait of Hormuz would ever be allowed to choke. The world is too dependent on the enormous amount of oil, gas and fertilizer that is exported through the waterway….At around 35 miles wide, maybe it was actually too small to fail — or just small enough that it could. TBTF does not mean that things which are really important cannot fail.