Writers from the Luasan Collective examine how long-standing bid-rigging between Hong Kong’s local state and building contractors created the conditions for the deadly Wang Fuk Court fires in Tai Po.

Land Value Politics, Kim Phillips-Fein interviews @dlondonwortel.bsky.social —"rather than seeing 'neoliberalism' as a turn towards economic logic, we should see it as a continuation of an older, very narrow fiscal imaginary." www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/d...

My new piece in @journalspectre.bsky.social on Jeffrey Epstein, blackmail, and primitive accumulation—analysing how kompromat became the structural engine of his wealth-building scheme, predetermining outcomes and entrenching power relations. spectrejournal.com/jeffrey-epst...

IG: @nigrotime 📷

The first translation of Siegfried Kracauer's "harrowing and hilarious" WWI novel, Ginster, comes out tomorrow. No battles for Ginster, stages his own minor acts of resistance far from the front.

Got a tip recently about how Trump's tariffs are preventing libraries from sharing books, and causing their loaned books to get stuck or lost in other countries: www.404media.co/libraries-ca...

curtis yarvin seems somewhat unhappy

I asked U.S. Northern Command about this (as the federalized California troops are under their authority); they directed me to the Pentagon which directed me to the White House. a WH spokesperson said Trump "exercised his lawful authority" after alleged "violent riots and attacks on law enforcement"

Not even the prospect of a $20 billion bailout paid by U.S. taxpayers is stabilizing Argentina after Milei’s peso/dollar manipulation failed. His sister (and chief of staff) is caught in a bribery scandal, and his top candidate was caught taking $200k from a narco. It’s over.

The funniest thing about this is how legit terrified ICE looks.

"Goodstein had reportedly been receiving death threats in the past few weeks.... 'She's had multiple death threats over the years,' "Just last month, she was involved in a controversial case in determining if voter's personal information in South Carolina could be handed over to the government. "

ICE reportedly opened fire on rapid responders on the southwest side this afternoon. There are *very few* details on this available at this time. Treat all rumors with caution until verified. This Sun-Times article cites a DHS statement that should be treated, as always, with extreme skepticism:

I spoke to a Venezuelan woman who was arrested in this raid and later released with her 4yo son. She said agents broke down their door, pointed guns at them and made sexualized remarks about Venezuelan women. When she returned to her apartment it was boarded up and all her possessions were gone.

This is how ICE drove by protesters yesterday. A row of state police separated protesters and ICE vehicles.

Palestinian scholar and feminist Eman Abdelhadi arrested today in Chicago. Here she is calling shame on the cops and demanding they question their life choices.

These fascists have taken my friend, Palestinian scholar and feminist @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social into custody.

"When she complained, she received a letter [...] The offences you are held on remand for are linked to Palestine Action and impact roles that are considered appropriate for you. The library orderly role is not considered appropriate." www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

In 1983, 50 companies controlled 90% of the U.S. media market. That number is now down to 5.

NEW: Recently we reported on L.A. honor student and track star Nory Sontay Ramos and her mom Estela, deported after a routine immigration check-in. Weeks after we met them in Guatemala, where they were in hiding, Estela died suddenly. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/d...

Political violence.

"FREE DC! FREE PALESTINE! TRUMP IS THE HITLER OF OUR TIME!"

Hilton Americas workers in Houston are ON STRIKE — the first Texas hotel worker strike in modern history. Strong unions build strong communities. When workers stand up for justice, they deserve leaders who stand with them. #LaborDay

As many as 100 survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and other victims of sexual abuse are expected to attend a rally Wednesday in Washington, D.C. as a bipartisan Congressional effort gains steam to force the U.S. Department of Justice to make public its controversial files on the disgraced sex trafficker.

Trump Boasts of Strike on “Drug-Carrying Boat” from Venezuela The U.S. military carried out an attack on a "drug vessel" in the Caribbean. It could mark the first shots of a new war. theintercept.com/2025/09/02/t...

"The hacking software – called Graphite – can hack into any phone [and] can also open and read information held on encrypted applications, like WhatsApp or Signal."

If you open the windows, Beelzebub gets out.

BREAKING: Trump’s use of the National Guard during immigration protests in Los Angeles is illegal, a judge rules. Follow AP's live updates.

The far Right has thoroughly inverted the meaning of antisemitism. It ostensibly no longer describes fascist antipathy toward "rootless cosmopolitanism" & "globalists" — as Hitler ranted on about in Mein Kampf. Now, it is supposed to refer to criticism of Hitler's ultra- and ethno-nationalism.

Israeli army calls up reserves amid fears of low turnout and falling morale - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-army-calls-reserves-amid-fears-low-turnout-and-lower-morale

As rumors fly that Trump has suffered a stroke, I was reminded that the motherfucker has always been a loathsome piece of shit. To make more money with a different tenant, Trump threw 74-year-old widow, Mary Filan, who had recently suffered a stroke out of her Queens apartment.

I wrote a whole monograph about how people endlessly try to emulate the Bad Thing at the center of a spectacle dystopia, but this really takes the cake.

Last night, about 60 Chicago activists and organizers gathered to discuss Trump's threatened military occupation of our city. Our convo centered around a worksheet that some friends and I put together this week—a tool that can help us build and strengthen local networks of support and protection.

NEWS: CVS, the largest pharmacy chain in the country, is currently not offering Covid vaccines in 16 states and DC — even to people who meet the new FDA criteria — because the CDC hasn't signed off and isn't expected to do so (if it does so) for at least three weeks.

Matthew Petti covers Jeffrey Epstein's attempt to pivot towards surveillance-tech in his later years—investing in the Israeli startup Carbyne, while leveraging ties with Ehud Barak and Peter Thiel.

Here's what the third day of elementary school looked like in Mount Pleasant, Washington DC.

'#Carney’s government appears more interested in deflecting attention from the damning arms trade revelations than in delivering real justice for #Palestinians.' socialistproject.ca/2025/08/expo...

Now online: 'David Harvey’s Value Theory: A Critique of Marxism *as* Political Economy' by Benjamin Tetler.

The economics of the Cracker Barrel rebrand explained: the tension between use and exchange.

Bill Fletcher, Jr.: "Neofascism sees the trade union movement as its enemy while at the same time trying to appeal to the working class who make up labour’s membership." inthesetimes.com/article/labo...

Eric Adams’ Close Advisor and Associates Indicted in Wide-Ranging Influence Schemes www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/21/e...

Worth noting that in post-WWI European fascism, the Freikorps (Germany) and the blackshirt squadistri (Italy) were both volunteer paramilitaries that laid the groundwork for the fascist states and imperial armies to come. The sneering, personalistic brutality is the point. This is fascism.

Abdaljawad Omar on Israel's plan for the occupation of Gaza, for which the killing of Anas al-Sharif was merely the prelude. Yet it's simply an excuse to carry out more destruction of the infrastructure and population, the slow accumulation of death.

All that is holy is profaned...

It's wild watching someone else maybe blackmailing Trump. From prison no less. And when (because I'm increasingly convinced we're in a when, not if situation) Trump pardons Maxwell, it might actually be enough to break the MAGA coalition permanently. Emphasis on *might.*

Trump transfers Ghislaine from Florida to cush Texas club fed camp as initial inducement to exonerate Trump as negotiation for pardon/commutation continues nypost.com/2025/08/01/u...