Twice a year he reads the courtroom scene in “The Fountainhead”, where the hero says he’d rather go to jail than submit to the collective will b/c the individual can bend the arc of history to their will.
“What Javid admires in Rand’s novel is the portrait of a steel-willed individual for whom tooth-&-claw capitalism is the best system because it places the fewest restrictions on such individuals. If illegal or unethical methods are required, what of it?” westcountrybylines.co.uk/sajid-javid-he…
Radical libertarianism underpins thinking of the Cabinet & as well as Cummings, Koch bros, Mercer & Peter Thiel (whose Palantir runs the NHS Data Store)
They ignore the fact our existence is interwoven with the rest of the natural world in a highly complex interdependent system
On hot summer's day some years back I marinaded some chicken for a BBQ, filled the empty chicken boxes with water & put them outside my house with a "thirsty dogs" sign
That night, the old lady downstairs phoned
Wizzy, her pooch, who'd drank some water, was ill
“Did you wash the chicken containers very thoroughly?” the old lady asked
“Of course,” I said
I’d given them a good rinse. That was all
I didn’t get much sleep that night & in the morning I lay in bed listening out for Wizzy’s usual barks from the garden
2/. Journalists, MPs & human rights activists were selected as targets for surveillance by authoritarian regimes
#Pegasus is the spyware developed, marketed & licensed to govts around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group. @citizenlab#PegasusProject
3/. In the months before he died & a year after his murder, people associated with Jamal Khashoggi, were selected for potential surveillance by clients of NSO
Hungary’s far-right govt is suspected of hacking phones of journalists & targeting owners
Gil Scott/Heron’s stand-up was very funny & always ‘political’
“When I went to see “Jaws”, I identified with the shark. Jaws was the home team. He was in the water. This is where sharks are known to be. You go to the beach, he goes to the supermarket.”
1/. Charlottesville's Jackson Monument was erected 100 years ago in 1921
The erection of the statue coincided with a growth of the KKK
Lynchings were commonplace
In 2017, protests against removing the statue sparked a deadly far-right rally
Today it’s finally being taken down
2/. “The plague of racism is insidious, entering into our minds as smoothly & quietly & invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter into our bodies to find lifelong purchase in our bloodstreams” (Maya Angelou)
Last month, marked the centenary of the Tulsa massacre in Greenwood