A tiny screw by Pascal Volk Via Flickr: You can see some common screws in the background.

I wish you a happy Macro Monday and a great week!

Da hat der Kollege Schwein gehabt

Gut gegangen! Ein Kollege fährt in der Firma auf den Parkplatz, steigt aus und fummelt irgendwas am linken Vorderrad. Es kommt zu uns die Treppe rauf und präsentiert das Prachtstück von Schraube, das Ihr auf den Fotos seht. Das Dingen steckte im Reifen, glücklicherweise ist nach wie vor keine Luft entwichen, immerhin hat sie wahrscheinlich eine Reise von mindestens ca. 70 Kilometern hinter…

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Trick - Hack

Isabella Cirnski 🇸🇪, Melissa Overgaard 🇸🇪, Janina Scheuer 🇩🇪, Sahra Kozakiewicz & Jennifer Schraube 🇩🇪 (📷 Gary Huddlestone)

Any professor, but especially any Jewish professor, who researches antisemitism is well familiar with the reflexive scepticism that our field of study is often greeted with—the almost instinctual demand for assurance that we’re not one of ‘those people’ who calls anything and everything antisemitic. ‘Anything and everything,’ in this context, means ‘anything that I don’t already think is antisemitic.’ And so if I depart from their preconceived notions, the conclusion they draw is not that I’m making a contribution to an academic debate that they are not yet prepared to agree with, it’s that I’m engaged in a project of intentional political slander and defamation.

David Schraub

Chappell Roan – Brooklyn Steel – October 18, 2023

Alternative-pop singer-songwriter Chappell Roan has been getting a lot of love for her first full-length release, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, which dropped in September. “Roan is a blazing tour de force on her debut album,” raves the Line of Best Fit. “She tackles every corner of human sexuality, psychology, desire and lust, all on some of the hookiest choruses of this year.” And as terrific as her recorded material is, it sounded even better live last night at Brooklyn Steel, her second of two sold-out shows at the venue.

Photos courtesy of Samantha Schraub | @samcsch

25. August 2023

Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, dann föhnen sie noch heute

Der Föhn der Liebsten wird am Kabel heißer als dort, wo die Luft austritt: Ein untrügliches Zeichen dafür, dass das Kabel vom vielen Hin- und Herbiegen mürbe geworden ist und nun wohl eine Litze nach der anderen bricht. Der Widerstand im Kabel erhöht sich, und es wird heiß.

Wie schon so oft, wird in mir der Ehrgeiz geweckt, die "Luftbrause" umgehend zu reparieren. Aber ich ahne auch bereits, was auf mich zukommt: Derlei Geräte sind häufig mit – wie ich sie nenne – Arschloch-Schrauben zugeschraubt, Schrauben mit sternförmiger Vertiefung mit einem Gnubbel in der Mitte, einem Schlitz mit Steg, fünfzackiger Sterne und so weiter. Heute sind es zwei Schrauben mit 3-gezacktem Schlitz, auch Tri-Wing genannt.

Vor vielen Jahren habe ich mal ein Sortiment Schraubereinsätze ("Bits") gekauft, in dem sowas alles drin ist.

Schrauberbits für alle möglichen Eventualitäten

Dummerweise sind die Schrauben in dem Föhn aber so tief versenkt, dass ich sie mit einem Schraubenzieher, der so einen Sechskantaufsatz für die Bits hat, nicht erreiche. Ich gucke erst mal bei Amazon. Von dort würde man mir bis morgen ein Schraubenzieher-Set liefern. Kostet aber auch 20 Euro.

Als Nächstes suche ich nach einem alten Schraubenzieher, den ich nicht mehr (unbedingt ...) brauche und nehme einen passenden Schraubereinsatz aus dem Kasten. Dann schleife ich alles blank (ZInk und Chrom muss ab) und aktiviere mein WIG-Schweißgerät. Innerhalb kurzer Zeit ist der Bit an den Schraubenzieher geschweißt. Jetzt nur noch die Schweißpunkte rundschleifen, und schon kann die Reparatur losgehen.

An einen Schraubenzieher angeschweißter Schrauberbit mit Y-Schraube (oder Tri-Wing)

Das Kabel kürze ich um 30 cm. Damit ist es immer noch lang genug. Ich finde auch die Stelle, wo das Kabel gebrochen ist. Schon ist der Föhn wieder heile, und eine kleine Schlacht im Kampf gegen die Unreparierbarkeit gewonnen.

(Markus Winninghoff)

Boah, kann mir jetzt bitte jemand sagen, wie es nach der Sommerpause zumindest weitergeht. So Sendetermine, sodass man sich auf seine Lieblingsteam freuen und über die Titel schon mal spekulieren kann. 

Wat soll ick denn mit vagen Ankündigungen und “da kommt noch was Großes als Begleitprogramm vom WDR”. Ehrlich man Digitaler Sherlock-Holmes-Spielen macht auf Dauer auch nur Kopfschmerzen und erzeugt unnötigen Zusatzfrust, den wir so welttechnisch gesehen gerade gar nicht gebrauchen können. Also gebt mir doch bitte wenigstens meine Lichtblicke. KONKRETE Lichtblicke. Danke. Rant out. 

What they said.

And I could have put another 4-6 similar messages in here, I can tell what is weighing on peoples' minds. Though we are outnumbered, it is not hard to see through the lies of our enemies. We just need people who will listen to us.

"Every accusation is a confession" was never more true than in claiming JEWS want to kill off ARABS. The briefest review of regional demographics - WHO has actually wiped out WHOM - makes that instantly clear. Mahmoud Abbas said his family fled their home in Safed in 1948 because they were sure the Jews would try to get revenge for Arab massacres in 1929. In 1967 when Israel took the West Bank, Arabs in Hebron were so afraid of reprisals for 1929 that they flew white bedsheets from their windows and piled their weapons outside their front doors.

There is no such thing as a "genocide" that is true for Palestinians but false for white people. And while most of the time, posting about hypocrisy and double standards isn't going to make a real-life change, this is one time where I'd really like people to point it out, to demand answers from those who correctly identify the Alt-Right as lying. We should also request clarification on whether all warfare involving urban bombing is automatically considered genocide (spoiler: it isn't, but this time Jews are involved, aha!).

Desmond Tutu was notorious for insisting Jews forgive the genocide that had actually been committed against them and also that they be constantly condemned and judged for the potential genocide they were always just about to commit. It is not even meant as a statement of fact - just a way to put us in our place. As David Schraub put it:

For thousands of years, for much of the world, part of the cultural patrimony enjoyed by all non-Jews -- spiritual and secular, Church and Mosque, enlightenment and romantic, European and Middle Eastern -- was the unquestionable right to stand superior over Jews. It was that right which the Holocaust took away, or at least called into question; the unthinking faith of knowing you were the more enlightened one, the spiritually purer one, the more rational one, the dispenser of morality rather than the object of it. To be sure, some people were better positioned to enjoy this right than others. And some people arrived onto the scene late in the game, only to discover that part of the bounty they were promised may no longer be on the table. Of course they're aggrieved! The European immigrant who never owned a slave but was at least promised racial superiority is quite resentful when the wages of Whiteness stop being what they once were. Similarly, persons who lived far from the centers of Christian or Muslim power where Jewish subordination was forged are nonetheless well aware of what was supposed to be included in modernity's gift basket. They recognize what they've "lost" as acutely as anyone else.

Every definition of "genocide" rests on intent; you cannot accidentally do it. That's what both the U.N., Genocide Watch, and basic common sense say. The militia going door-to-door to torture and massacre all the children and elderly is genocidal intent. "The missile launcher built into your house just fired at us, we will now destroy it, you have 5 minutes to evacuate" is not.

I have no idea what is coming next in Gaza, how long it will last or how bad it will get. Godforbid, if the death toll gets another zero at the end, it may become impossible to get people to see it as non-genocidal, regardless of what is empirically, definitionally true. But if people are going to cite sources and moral authorities, let them stick with the boundaries they have introduced.

Precisely because the path of historical maximalism promises everything, it can ultimately offer nothing: "a moral race to the bottom" that is inevitably a path towards death. Acknowledgment of the pluripotent strands of history can be the means through which we resist maximalism and extremity, resist the siren's call of boundless violence, and instead reform around a pragmatic humanism whose very lack of complete self-assuredness serves as a bulwark against our instinct to rationalize atrocity.

I've long found David Schraub (@schraubd) to be a reliable source of more thoughtful and reasonable commentary on the Israeli Palestinian conflict than much of the entire rest of the internet and definitely recommend you check him out. This might be because I tend to agree with him much more than I don't, but y'know.

(And of course his entire body of work is much more broad and varied than just I/P stuff and tends to also be pretty damn good).

Klein … by Pascal Volk Via Flickr: Magnification 🔎: 5:1

In der Fabrik

Mit Rad und Riemen, Schaft und Schraube droht Polypengleich das schwarze Ungeheuer Und wirft die Schlacken aus wie flüssig Feuer Und taucht den Mittag in ein falbes Rot.   Ein Wutgeheul! Der Riesenkörper bebt ... Ein hundertarmig Ineinandergreifen, Ein tückisch Vorwärtsschießen, Rückwärtsschleifen, Von einer einz'gen großen Kraft belebt!   Und um den Herrn der Knechte dunkle Schar In Ruß und Rauch ... die Riesenhämmer klingen, Die Funken tanzen, und die Räder singen Das große Lied der Arbeit und Gefahr.   Im Schlund der Esse loht es purpurbraun ... Und wo die Räder hart und stählern blitzen, Seh' ich ein Weib mit heißen Augen sitzen Und fest und saugend mir ins Antlitz schaun.   Der nackte Arm wie ein verdorrtes Scheit, Finster die Stirn und rauchgeschwärzt die Wange ... Sie neigt sich mir, - sie spricht mit wildem Klange: »Ich bin die graue Not, ich bin das Leid.   Herrin des Weltalls ich - wie keine war! Sahst du schon je so eifrig die Vasallen Durch Glut und Rauch für ihre Herrin wallen, Unsichtbar, stets den Opferkranz im Haar?   Ja, ich bin stark, und mein das größte Reich! Mein Hauch bewegt die tosenden Maschinen, Mein Blick allein heißt tausend Arme dienen Und macht die kecksten Männerstirnen bleich.«   Sie springt empor, sie bebt - ihr Auge lacht ... Die Achsen kreischen, und die Hebel krümmen Sich von der Last, die roten Essen glimmen, Durch Rad und Riemen tobt die wilde Jagd.   Die Menschen keuchen: »Arbeit nur und Brot!« Und durch das Wutgeheul, Schleifen und Krachen Hör' ich ein leises, sieggewohntes Lachen: »Herrin des Weltalls ich - die graue Not!«

--Hedwig Dransfeld

Wisconsin Man's Upward Fall Arrested

Democracy may finally be coming to Wisconsin, as Janet Protasiewicz defeated arch-conservative Daniel Kelly to flip a key seat on the state supreme court.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has been a national embarrassment for years. This was the court where a justice tried to choke out one of his colleagues, after all. More recently, it was by far the court that came closest to endorsing Donald Trump's authoritarian campaign to overturn the 2020 election. Members of the conservative faction have since openly questioned the validity of President Biden's victory, putting them far outside even the conservative judicial mainstream and marking them as little more than partisan thugs.

Can you imagine the sort of totalitarian hellscape where the votes of the majority play essentially no role in determining who wins elections? pic.twitter.com/VScxrZV5CR

— David Schraub @[email protected] (@schraubd) July 8, 2022

And yet, even among this sorry bunch, Daniel Kelly would have stood out.

I first wrote about Daniel Kelly when he was initially appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by then-Governor Scott Walker. He had made an argument comparing affirmative action to slavery, something that -- even restricted to the "civil rights programs are the new slavery!" field -- was jaw-dropping in its stupidity (and "civil rights programs are the new slavery!" is already a field saturated with stupidity).

Over the course of his career, and over the course of this campaign, Kelly has proven himself to be the definition of a mediocrity who's managed to fall upward via the beneficent hand of the right-wing gravy train. His academic pedigree is undistinguished. He had no judicial experience when he was appointed to the court by Walker in the first place, and after his (first) defeat he stayed plugged into Wisconsin GOP politics by providing legal advice to the effort to steal the state for Trump after Joe Biden's 2020 victory. And of course, all have now witnessed his petulant response to being defeated by Protasiewicz:

"I wish that in a circumstance like this, I would be able to concede to a worthy opponent," he said at an event held at the Heidel House Hotel in Green Lake. "But I do not have a worthy opponent to which I can concede."

Kelly called Protasiewicz's campaign "deeply deceitful, dishonorable and despicable." "My opponent is a serial liar. She's disregarded judicial ethics; she's demeaned the judiciary with her behavior. This is the future that we have to look forward to in Wisconsin."

Adding: "I wish Wisconsin the best of luck, because I think it’s going to need it."

[...]

"The people of Wisconsin have chosen the rule of Janet. I respect that decision because it is theirs to make," he said. "I respect the decision that the people of Wisconsin have made, but I think it does not end well."

 If ever there was a definition of "lacking in judicial temperament," he personifies it.

Yet beyond that, Kelly is a familiar, if not archetypical figure. He is suffused with entitlement for that which he has not earned, and consumed by rage when he doesn't get it. There are thousands -- millions -- of men (almost always men) just like him. Most don't go on to become state supreme court judges, though many do bully themselves into positions far beyond their talents or capacities by a mixture of being useful to the right people and being an impossible menace when they don't get what they want. When they do, finally, see their upward fall arrested, they are incredulous and infuriated at the injustice of it all. Hell hath no fury like a mediocre White man scorned.

Indeed, perhaps Kelly's only mistake was being appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court instead of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals -- a position from which he could never be dislodged no matter how apparent it became that he was ill-suited for the position. On the federal bench, with life tenure, he could have prowled and fulminated and lashed out with impunity, forever; secure in the knowledge that it would be constitutionally impossible to ever hold him accountable. One can only imagine the law school classes he would have baited and berated.

But alas, Daniel Kelly is a creature of the state bench, and in Wisconsin, supreme court justices must meet the approval of the voters. Twice now, the voters have resoundingly rejected Daniel Kelly as unsuited for the role of state supreme court justice. Kudos to them. And while Democrats are celebrating Protasiewicz's win, the bigger winner is the small-d democracy that has been under siege in Wisconsin for far too long.

via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/lRL0wm7

Now of course, it is fair to say that these ‘criticisms of Israel’ are not the ones that the letter writers had in mind when they complained of criticism of Israel being characterised as antisemitic. They were not thinking of criticisms of Israel’s domestic policy arrangements, they were not thinking about religious liberty issues afflicting non-Orthodox Jews, and they certainly were not thinking of criticism of Israel’s wartime behaviour (however passionately expressed) that nonetheless holds sympathy for Israel’s genuine security dilemmas. They were envisioning meatier fare. But this is precisely the point: it is not the case the any criticism of Israel is called inherently antisemitic. Rather, specific criticisms in specific contexts are called antisemitic for specific reasons. These reasons may, of course, be well- or ill-taken. But even the most poorly-reasoned assertion of antisemitism almost certainly does not rely on a fallacy quite so blatant as a belief that any criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic.

This may seem like splitting hairs. It isn’t. Rather, it identifies a dangerous conflation of its own. By framing accusations of antisemitism as generally being predicated on flagrantly absurd premises, the letter writers can skip past the more demanding work of actually responding to the specific claims being made. And precisely because the refutation ‘criticism of Israel is not inherently antisemitic’ literally responds to no one, it can be wielded against anyone and everyone. All contentions of antisemitism tied to claims about Israel can be dismissed through this reply—the well-reasoned, the ill-founded, and everything in between [emphasis mine].

David Schraub

Swans Rattle a Sold-Out Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday

Swans – Music Hall – October 1, 2023

The walls of Music Hall of Williamsburg were shaking on Sunday night. As was the floor and the ceiling and the body parts of everyone at the band’s third straight sold-out show at the venue. An opening set from guitarist Norman Westberg established the evening’s energy, solo guitar and effects that seemed to buzz and resonate into every nook of the club’s foundation, eventually finding sweet melodies and enchanting echoes.

A little after 9 p.m., Swans took the stage for their third of three packed shows. Crowded on a stage bathed in a deep red for the night, Michael Gira led the ensemble with the strums of an acoustic guitar. The simplicity of the opening chords soon yielded to complex layering, first Gira’s chanting lyrics, then a shower of cymbal rattling, shrieks of electric guitars, lap steel moans, and hair-raising bass and drum drones. It was a growing intensity that was mirrored by an almost pronounced gentleness running counter in the empty spaces left by the growing wall of sound, the drums reaching a tribal pitch as the whole room trembled in response, rattling parts of my body I’m not sure are supposed to be rattled. This was “The Beggar,” the title track of the newest release from the veteran noise-rockers, a thick sauna of sound, nearly unbearable and yet cleansing.

When I looked at the time again, it was 10 p.m. and I’m not sure how many songs had been played or if I had passed out from the intensity of the noise, but it did feel good. The rest of the night was a taffy-pull of seven or eight more songs, many, like “The Memorious” and “Ebbing,” were off the new record, dark poetry and wild-eyed, room-shaking music. The latter was a personal highlight, a spellbinding intro, Gira’s chanting feeling like a summoning of spirit as he sang, “Gestating — just dreaming / Not breathing” making way to lovely melodic bits even as the chaotic energy grew. In the end, the show was a two-hour-plus endurance test, similar peaks and troughs of dark and light, a massive sound that, despite all the vibration, had no cracks in its foundation. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

Photos courtesy of Samantha Schraub | @samcsch