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The moment I demand that another accept as fact, what I chose to believe by faith, I deny them the same freedom to believe or not that I claim for myself.
The epistemology of supernatural belief (faith) and the epistemology of Naturalism (evidentiary science) are different tools for application in different domains.
I don't care what religion another subscribes to, What I object to is the implicit coercion of making decisions, laws, policy based on supernatural beliefs in a pluralistic democracy.
If Claudia Allen chooses to believe scripture is history based on her faith, that is her right of religious freedom, but to propagandize her faith as historic fact to others, is intellectually dishonest and promotes a cultural norm of othering that is irrefutably harmful and destructive to millions of people.
Why are Black people still Christian?
Garrison Hayes
@garrisonhayes
#BlackMastodon #BlackChurch #RespectabilityPolitics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKSF1huXOuw -
Yes, there can be progressive #trademark law.
"Black D.C. church vandalized by #ProudBoys awarded control of group’s name"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/04/dc-black-church-proud-boys-name-trademark-rights -
Finally Friday Reads: Free Speech Attacks, Incompetency, Cruelty, and Grifting Galore Characterize the Trump Regime
“A modern-day interpretation of a 1871 Thomas Nast work seems fitting to commemorate Trump’s secret crypto dinner.” John Buss, repeat@1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
As the old Buddhist and Hobbit saying goes: “We live in Dark Times.” “Kali Yuga” is the Hindu expression. Darkness has always been an expression of decline in European History, hence the label “Dark Ages” for the period from the 5th to about the 8th century. Usually, these periods experience a decline in economic, intellectual, and cultural life. One of the most prevalent things about these times is that there is a paucity of written records. So, it’s difficult to capture the decline until a renaissance occurs. The breakdown of institutions occurred in these past times as well as the present. At the moment, we still have the ability to document the decline in the US. Many relate to it as a rebirth of fascist movements of the 20th century. It is a global feature at the moment, but no matter if it’s the Decline of the Roman Empire or the American Empire, there are signs.
The invention of the printing press is seen as one of the most powerful examples of an invention that can change the course of history. Access to information directly, for personal consideration, tends to create a citizenry with low tolerance of being shut off from thinking for themselves. Perhaps it’s why today’s dark leaders tend to go for education and the press, and why they attract “low information” and angry denizens. They also attract a cadre of greedy followers willing to help attack and grab the wealth of those who are powerless.
These are indeed Dark Times.
The fight for the light in the newly filed Harvard case against the Trump administration’s ban on foreign students is a prime cause of denying the citizenry access to anything that might cause them to question the goings-on here. But it also breaks into the tradition of the United States being the shining light of discovery, science, and reason. It’s why those of us who have had academic careers cherish and enjoy academic freedom. The free exchange of ideas and opinions is essential.
We have traditionally had a small number of women in my field of economics. It was between 4 to 10 percent in the late 70s and early 80s. It once rose to above 30%, but recently has settled on 27%. The STEM fields still reflect the struggle for inclusion. It’s even lower for Black Americans. However, my career has led me to have colleagues from a variety of countries, which is wonderful. In my early career, most of my women colleagues came from the Middle East or China. I was lucky enough to have a professor from Finland. She was brilliant. Believe me. During my academic studies and life, the joy of having colleagues from all over the world who could share things was a blessing in my life. A colleague from the Punjab who now teaches in Canada helped me improve my math chops to get me through some of the most complex models that you could imagine. He stayed with me after Katrina until the campus got its FEMA trailers. I also had a student from Taiwan staying with me. My last biggest joy, however, was writing 2 letters of recommendation for two Black New Orleans students to Rice. The US cannot afford to fall behind in a vast world of research. And, yet, here we are with a professional moron taking down the biggest academic center of research in the World. America’s first University, Harvard. If we do not train the world’s best minds, we will fall deeply behind in everything.
Today, we got the news of the Case Harvard filed against Trump. “Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Admin From Revoking Harvard’s Ability To Enroll International Students.” This is from The Harvard Crimson. Harvard turned out one of my favorite journalists, Joy Reid, and you can read this article knowing there are more good journalists headed to jobs.
A federal judge granted Harvard a temporary restraining order in its suit to block the Trump administration’s efforts to revoke its authorization to enroll international students.
The order was issued less than two hours after the University requested a halt to the Department of Homeland Security’s attempt to end its Student Exchange and Visitor Program certification. Harvard had described the move as “unprecedented and retaliatory.”
United States District Judge Allison D. Burroughs agreed that if the DHS’ move goes forward, Harvard “will sustain immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties.”
The TRO will go into effect immediately and will likely last until a hearing in the case. Burroughs has scheduled a May 27 status hearing and a May 29 hearing on whether to issue a preliminary injunction. Harvard would need to file for a preliminary injunction to prevent the DHS’ directive from going into effect after the TRO expires.
Under the terms of the order, the DHS is barred from enforcing the Thursday move to strip Harvard of its SEVP status — and Harvard is no longer legally obligated to turn over the requested documents by Sunday.
Burroughs, a Barack Obama appointee, has adjudicated several cases relating to Harvard in the past. She oversaw a case brought by Harvard and MIT in 2021 against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s effort to force all international students who were enrolled online in the U.S. to leave the country. ICE ultimately rolled back the policy without a ruling from Burroughs.
Burroughs is also overseeing Harvard’s first lawsuit, filed in April, against the Trump administration over its nearly $3 billion funding cut.
You can see all of the destruction of the Age of Reason and the Scientific Age, and the Information Age, clearly in these actions and even more clearly in Trump’s appointments and the destruction of the Agencies most responsible for progress using science and reason. BB shared this Substack today, and I thought I’d post it here. It’s from Steven Beschloss, a journalist with a historian brother. “How Much More Stupidity Will Americans Endure? Reflecting on the escalating hostility to American values, principles, and decency in a 24-hour period.” I personally cannot take much more of this.
I admit: The daily drumbeat of stupidity is exhausting. I wish it were enough for me to simply document the dangerous ignorance of Trump and his sycophants, confident that we’ll soon be free of this regime and its power to spread their poison and cancerous hostility across the land and around the world. But the midterm elections will not arrive for another 17 months. It’s hard to overstate how much damage Trump, his cabinet and his kowtowing Republican Congress can cause between now and then.
That’s why most days I ask myself: Could today be the day Americans decide they’ve had enough and demand change? I have thought that there might be a single event that triggers millions of Americans taking to the streets or committing to a national strike in a public, unavoidable show of solidarity. But I have come to see that the daily drumbeat is numbing too many people, causing them to adapt to the cruelty, the racism, the hostility to democracy, the arrogant rejection of the Constitution and the rule of law. The metaphor of the frog in a slowly boiling pot of water is apt; by the time the frog’s figured out he needs to get out, it’s too late.
We’re not there yet. You can see that dedicated lawyers are filing suit against the corruption and criminality, judges are pushing back, outraged Americans are engaging in protests, some elected Democrats and other awake leaders are ringing alarm bells, a growing number of colleges and universities have refused to buckle under, some independent media are addressing the reality of authoritarianism in no uncertain terms. Americans have not surrendered their sanity or capacity to know what’s right and wrong, what’s true and false. The pot may be beginning to boil, but we can still see and feel what’s happening. We are still able to take action.
But I want to spotlight a series of events in a single 24-hour period that individually outrage me and, taken together, express a level of stupidity and sickness that should motivate more than a shrug of the head or an angry social media post. You may have already focused on—been outraged by—one or even all of these. But it’s important to not look at them as discrete events, but part and parcel of a single plot to convince us that we should accept a fascist regime bent on elevating white nationalism, oppressing people of color, silencing dissent and making the rich richer and the poor and middle class poorer and sicker. This effort is led by a malignant racist and sociopath who’s convinced the people around him to do what he says, no matter how ugly, cruel, blatantly false—or just plain stupid.
Two of the four events were in the Oval Office Wednesday—our Oval Office, the place where real presidents have made some of the most momentous decisions that improved the lives of Americans, created a safety net to overcome the ravages of the Great Depression and soften cap italism’s turbulence, helped defeat the Nazis and fascism, built global alliances that made the world safer, more stable and prosperous, and demonstrated a commitment to bend the arc of history toward justice.
Into this historical place of honor came South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, a calm and skilled diplomat who decades earlier had served alongside Nelson Mandela as his chief negotiator to end apartheid in South Africa. But just like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February, he arrived for an ambush by a spiteful, narrow-minded man who spreads lies like Ukraine not Russia started the still-raging war. On this day he insisted with false information from fringe groups that South Africa, whose leaders are mostly Black, are committing genocide against white farmers, a false narrative that his top donor and South African-born Elon Musk has propagated.
At Trump’s urging, Ramaphosa answered a reporter’s question about what it would take to convince Trump there is no such white genocide. “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends, like those who are here,” he calmly said, referencing South African golfer Ernie Els who was in the room. “When we have talks between us around a quiet table, it will take President Trump to listen to them.”
But South Africa’s president was being set up. Trump interrupted him to play a video pushing the lies, then he showed photos meant to “prove” how much death there was, even leading Trump to mutter, “Death, death, death, horrible death, death.”
Except the video clip showing a long line of white wooden crosses were not actual burial sites for white farmers, as Trump insisted, but were from a 2020 protest against farm murders over the years. Except the photo Trump showed of people lifting body bags, insisting they “are all white farmers that are being buried,” was actually of humanitarian workers burying bodies in Congo. Except for all the claims of genocide among white farmers, meant to justify bringing white Afrikaners as preferred refugees to America now, there were a total of 44 murders in farming communities last year, Reuters reports, with over 26,000 in the country overall.
President Ramaphosa came to discuss trade and economic partnership. Yet Trump brought him into the Oval Office to ambush and abuse him, push his white nationalist agenda, spread more widely his egregious lies and showcase that—while illegally deporting people of color—only whites deserve America’s protection from presumed persecution. “We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around a table and talk about them,” Ramaphosa noted, but Trump was not listening.
There is a daily drumbeat of stupidity, airing of white grievances, and cruelty. While discriminating harshly against everyone who is not white and Christian, this administration harbors supporters who carry torches and shout “Jews will not replace us,” and has bubble-headed Congress Critters who scream about “Jewish Space Lasers”. Anti-semitism has become transactional. It has become a useful tool in the attack on Academia and the Democratic Party. It assumes that you can’t understand the history of the Jewish people without turning a blind eye to the punishing attacks on Palestinian women, children, and innocents in the Gaza Strip. I do not think there is a bigger way of showing disrespect for a group of people than using their historical struggles as a tool to encourage the murder of innocents. But then, our #FARTUS is planning a Trump Tower, hotel, and golf course in GAZA. The Trump Boyz–in between murdering endangered animals for sport–have been travelling the globe using the Tariff stick as a way to expand their Crime Syndicate. All, at the expense of the United States and its economy. This is from QUARTZ: “8 countries where Trump has been making new business deals, from Pakistan to Vietnam, Residential towers, golf courses, crypto — the deals didn’t stop on Inauguration Day.” This is the art of the steal in full display. All we need to see is Eric and Don Jr. flying in the palace in the sky and sitting at Trump’s Crypto Fundraiser now.
Businesses spearheaded by President Donald Trump have struck numerous deals since Trump returned to the White House in January.
Leading the way is the Trump Organization, a conglomerate privately owned by the president. With more than 250 subsidiaries, it serves as a holding company for Trump’s various hotels, residential real estate, towers, resorts, and golf courses across the world.
World Liberty Financial, a decentralized protocol that merges financial services and cryptocurrency, has also brokered deals. A Trump business entity owns 60% of World Liberty and is entitled to 75% of all revenue from coin sales. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. manage the company.
Here are the countries where the Trump empire has been dealmaking. The slide show that follows lists Vietnam. It’s in Hanoi, which reminds me of the Hanoi Hilton and the late Senator John McCain.
The project consists of a golf course, hotels, and luxury residences, and is slated for completion by 2029. In addition, Eric Trump is scheduled to meet with officials in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday to discuss a possible Trump Tower in the city, Reuters reports.
In April, the president imposed a “reciprocal” tariff rate of 46% on Vietnamese goods. While that policy is currently on a 90-day pause, it would deal a major blow to the Southeast Asian country if resumed. Goods exported to the U.S. account for 30% of Vietnam’s economy, according to IMF estimates, the largest of all U.S. trading partners. As the specter of these crippling levies looms, Hanoi has pledged to buy more American goods, including Boeing (BA) aircraft and agricultural products.
Other countries include Serbia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan, and Singapore. Most of these discussions haven’t been covered by the Media other than Qatar, which came with the gift that “Palace in the sky” that will cause millions of dollars to refit before it’s handed over to Trump and his “library.” If there’s a bigger oxymoron than Trump Library, I’m waiting to hear it. Let’s just call it the warehouse facility for all the bribes and emoluments. We have to discuss that big ol’ party Trump threw for his richest customers. This is from the New York Times. “Hundreds Join Trump at ‘Exclusive’ Dinner, With Dreams of Crypto Fortunes in Mind. The guests were the biggest investors in President Trump’s memecoin, and they were greeted with chants of “shame” as they arrived at Trump National Golf Course.”
President Trump gathered Thursday evening at his Virginia golf club with the highest-paying customers of his personal cryptocurrency, promising that he would promote the crypto industry from the White House as protesters outside condemned the event as a historic corruption of the presidency.
The gala dinner held at the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Washington, where Mr. Trump flew from the White House on a military helicopter, turned into an extraordinary spectacle as hundreds of guests arrived, many having flown to the United States from overseas.
At the club’s entrance, the guests were greeted by dozens of protesters chanting “shame, shame, shame.”
It was a spectacle that could only have happened in the era of Donald J. Trump. Several of the dinner guests, in interviews with The New York Times, said that they attended the event with the explicit intent of influencing Mr. Trump and U.S. financial regulations.
“The past administration made your lives miserable,” Mr. Trump told the dinner guests, referring to the Biden administration’s enforcement actions against crypto companies.
The gala attendees made whooping noises while Mr. Trump spoke, and applauded as the president declared: “They were going after everybody. It was a disgrace frankly,” according to a video provided to The Times by a dinner guest.
Mr. Trump promised to change that approach. “There is a lot of sense in crypto. A lot of common sense in crypto,” he said. “And we’re honored to be working on helping everybody here.”
That sure is different than the 2021 #FARTUS who told Fox News. He just couldn’t wait to get into that scam, I guess. This is from the BBC. “Donald Trump calls Bitcoin ‘a scam against the dollar’. This is reported by BBC News Business Reporter Mary-Ann Russon.
Former US President Donald Trump has told Fox Business that he sees Bitcoin as a “scam” affecting the value of the US dollar.
“Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam,” Mr Trump said. “I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar.”
He added that he wanted the dollar to be “the currency of the world”.
As per usual, the biggest losers from any more normalization of cryptocurrency will be his own voters. This is from the BBC. “The Bitcoin hum that is unsettling Trump’s MAGA heartlands.” This was written by Mike Wendling.
Installations like the one at the power plant near Dresden are appearing across the country, drawn by record-high cryptocurrency prices and cheap and abundant energy to power the computers that do the mining. There are at least 137 Bitcoin mines in the US across 21 states, and reports indicate there are many more planned. According to estimates by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Bitcoin mining uses up to 2.3% of the nation’s grid.
The high energy use and its wider environmental impact is certainly causing some concern in Dresden.
But it’s the unmistakable hum that is the soundtrack for discontent in many places with Bitcoin mines – produced by the fans used to cool the computers, it can range from a mechanical whirr to a deafening din.
“We can hear a constant buzzing,” says another Dresden resident, Lori Fishline. “It’s a constant, loud humming noise that you just can’t ignore. It was never present before and has definitely affected the peaceful atmosphere of our bay.”
Such is Ms Campbell’s annoyance with Trump’s Bitcoin backing, her political allegiance to the Republicans is being tested. “Right now I’m not real happy about that party,” she says.
So, build the nastiest factory in the backyard of the people least able to deal with it. That’s the sound of these Robber Barons that should be familiar to anyone who knows US history from its early 20th-century business escapades. The most interesting thing that’s popped up today is that Apple has got Trump in a lather, and the Equity Markets hate it. This is from Yahoo Finance: “Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq trim losses as Trump threatens Apple, EU with new tariffs.”
US stocks fell on Friday, on pace for weekly losses as investors assessed President Trump’s latest tariff threats and what his giant tax bill means for the deficit and the economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) sank 0.4%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) also fell roughly 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) backed off about 0.6%.
All three indexes trimmed steeper losses after Trump said on Friday that Apple (AAPL) must pay a 25% tariff on iPhones sold but not made in the US. The tech giant has begun shifting some manufacturing to India, with China, home to its key suppliers, locked in a trade war with the US. Apple shares fell 3% after Trump’s post on Truth Social.
At the same time, Trump threatened to hike the tariff on EU imports to “a straight 50%” beginning June 1 as trade talks between the two have stalled.
The president’s warnings shattered a more muted mood on Wall Street as investors wound down to the Memorial Day trading break on Monday.
It adds another supply chain complication for companies already worried about the potential hit to the economy from Trump’s tariff blitz. Earnings season has seen several companies hold off from providing full annual guidance thanks to uncertainty around tariffs.
All three major gauges are on track for a losing week. Stocks have suffered as deficit worries pushed up Treasury yields, intensified as Trump’s giant tax bill forged ahead. Wall Street is still weighing the economic impact of Trump’s revised bill, which cleared a key hurdle in the House vote for approval.
Well, I have always called him Orange Caligula. It seems we have a mad emperor on our hands. It didn’t help crypto either. “Bitcoin tumbles under $108K after Trump calls for 50% EU tariff. Trump’s tariff announcement sparks Bitcoin volatility, highlighting digital assets’ sensitivity to geopolitical events.” This is from Crypto Briefing and Vivian Nguyen.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $108,000 early Friday after President Donald Trump called for steep tariffs on EU imports and threatened Apple with similar measures. The digital asset briefly touched $107,300 on Binance, pulling back from session highs above $111,000 as traders responded to fresh geopolitical tensions.
The US president on Friday proposed a 50% tariff on all EU imports starting June 1, 2025, in a post on Truth Social. He cited trade imbalances and regulatory frictions as rationale for the move, declaring current EU-US trade dynamics “totally unacceptable.”
Apple is being threatened with 25% tariffs. Wow, how free market is this? Sounds a lot more like the old Soviet Command and Control model. Is he channeling Putin and Orban or just pissed about something Apple did at his party? This is from CNBC. “Trump says Apple must pay a 25% tariff on iPhones not made in the U.S.” Does he not realize how long it would take to even set up a factory, let alone train everyone? Doesn’t he know what this huge project would take to even break even?
President Donald Trump said in a social media post Friday that Apple will have to pay a tariff of 25% or more for iPhones made outside the United States.
“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Shares of Apple fell about 2% on Friday after the post.
Apple’s flagship phone is produced primarily in China, but the company has been shifting manufacturing to India in part because that country has a friendlier trade relationship with the U.S.
Some Wall Street analysts have estimated that moving iPhone production to the U.S. would raise the price of the Apple smartphone by at least 25%. Wedbush’s Dan Ives put the estimated cost of a U.S. iPhone at $3,500. The iPhone 16 Pro currently retails for about $1,000.
This is the latest jab at Apple from Trump, who over the past couple of weeks has ramped up pressure on the company and Cook to increase domestic manufacturing. Trump and Cook met at the White House on Tuesday, according to Politico.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Fox News on Friday that he was not part of the meeting at the White House but that the Apple situation could be part of the Trump administration’s push to bring “precision manufacturing” back to the U.S.
“A large part of Apple’s components are in semiconductors. So we would like to have Apple help us make the semiconductor supply chain more secure,” Bessent said.
Cook gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and attended the inauguration in January. Apple has announced a $500 billion spend on U.S. development, including AI server production in Houston.
Apple declined to comment for this story.
So, I’m over 4200 words and probably have put you to sleep. You know how I am about Rabbit Holes. How much longer before the economy collapses? I’m actually beginning to wonder that. I know every time I see or hear him act so insane, I just collapse on the couch.
You have a very nice Memorial Day weekend. Please spend your time appreciating the many folks who gave their life for this country and its democracy. Don’t let the ones trying to destroy it get to you. There’s always the June 14th Flag Day “No Kings” protests and actions to look forward to and participate in. Just don’t watch that damn parade. The least we old folks can do is tank the ratings.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
How about a little Warren Zevon and Prince?
#JohnbussBskySocialJohnBuss #academicFreedom #CryptoCurrencyPonziSchemeFromTrumpAndMusk #FARTUS #HarvardVTrump #NeoRobberBarons #NoKingsProtestOverFARTUSParade #TheHinduLoveGods #TrumpSoursApple #WeLiveInDarkTimes
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Thus Spoke and Maddog’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Steel Druhm
Thus Spoke
My second AMG End-of-Year piece?! Didn’t I just get here? This is my typical reaction to life’s happenings. I’m blindsided by everything. You’ll probably notice that many of the below list entries ‘snuck up on me’ in how much I liked them, compared to everything else. The fact that we’re now halfway through the 2020s makes me feel a bit nauseous. I keep telling people I ‘just moved’ into the home I bought this year, but I’ve been in it since April. And that huge milestone—for which I feel immensely grateful and privileged to have achieved this side of 30—would have solely dominated my year were it not for two other facts: 1) I was finally diagnosed with and very recently started medication for ADHD; 2) 2024 has got to have been the strongest year of the decade so far for metal. So, time to talk about the music rather than myself.
My overoptimistic prediction that Ulcerate would release new music came true,1 and there was, in general, a particular influx of excellent material from the darker, more dissonant, and extreme sides of death and black metal. This was also the year I finally reconnected with my love of doom after a long period of lukewarm engagement. But I wouldn’t have known about half of it were it not for this gig, and the amazing people I share it with. Whether it was Dear Hollow, Kenstrosity, or Mystikus Hugebeard pinging across something they thought I might like, or a particularly potent review penned by a colleague, a commenter chipping in with some gem, or the group buzz around an album I might otherwise never have considered, there’s no better place to find and discuss metal. And speaking of community, if I ever needed a confirmation that this right here is the loveliest place on the internet, the rallying response to Ken‘s plight earlier this year from staff and readers was it.2 I couldn’t ask for better company.
I said as much last year, but I’ll probably say it every year: having this opportunity is wild and I feel so blessed. To be able to send my thoughts about music into the world where people read and consider them, that’s mad. Bumping into an AMG fan in the wild was also an affirming and heartwarming experience reminding me that there are actually real people out there who know who we are; and let me say, however enthusiastic and grateful you might be for us, the feeling is mutual. So to everyone reading this, to all the folks at AMG who make it possible for me to continually wax lyrical about stuff I love (and stuff I don’t love so much) and put up with all my overrating, to all of you: thank you. Shout out also to my list buddy Maddog, whose EOY write-up is bound to be more br00tal and much less flowery than mine, and whose in-person company I continue to have the pleasure of enjoying whenever he deigns to visit our little island up here. Oh, and thank you to the original creator and to Kenstrosity for my new avatar! I asked and you delivered. And if you actually read this far down, thank you for indulging me. But now, finally, it’s list time.
#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – I unintentionally ended my reviewing year on a high with Pillar of Light. Or perhaps a low, if we consider mood. When a record evokes a genuine emotional response in me,3 as Caldera does, it deserves more than an Honorable Mention. So here it is. It’s one of those albums you experience that forever afterward remains tied to your particular life situation when you were first immersed, and for that reason, its longevity is increased and its impact amplified. Given how “Leaving” and “Infernal Gaze” leave me in pieces, it’s probably a good thing the misery comes down from 11 at other times. But on the next album, who knows? I’ll be ready at least.
#10. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – Much like Kenstrosity, author of the review, I have not historically been Replicant’s hugest fan. For some reason their music never stuck with me; I just didn’t get it. Infinite Mortality has been the enlightenment I needed. It’s undeniably fantastic. Brilliantly technical and ruthlessly efficient in execution, it manages to also be ridiculously groovy in a way that you wouldn’t expect from this flavor of extreme death metal. Suited, evidently, to desk sessions and gym sessions alike, given the range of play it got from me since its release, its balance of skronk and style proved why I should, long ago, have been paying attention to Replicant. Ken himself struggled to find a negative and so do I. Even interlude “SCN9A” is great, especially as it leads into monster “Pain Enduring.” Only the superlative strength of other contenders causes this to fall so low on the list.
#9. ColdCell // Age of Unreason – In a rare case of me underrating something, my review of Age of Unreason did not quite do justice to its strength. Not only have I revisited it often, but I have of late been struck ever deeper by its profundity. The honest, vulnerable lamentations on inequality (“Solidarity or Solitude”), hatred (“Discord”), and human selfishness (“Dead to the World”) go far beyond a jaded misanthropy and strike a real chord. In wrapping this up in an insidiously simple package of compelling, devastating black metal with a distinctive voice, ColdCell have made, I now recognize, a true masterpiece. Brutal in its own way, and beautiful in many more, this is a record I hardly realized had made such a strong impact on me until I saw just how many times I’d spun it. This year may have seen black metal that goes harder, or with more powerful atmospheres, but none that are as memorable as Age of Unreason.
#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – What a behemoth. It’s hard to believe that—just for a little while—Sparagmos slipped my mind many months after its February release. Relistening brought it all back into horrifying clarity. This record throws a veil over the sun, stares at you with unseeing, ecstatic eyes of Dionysian worship, and forces you into terrified awe. I’m still blown away by how crushingly heavy and immersive it is; how it still manages to blindside me with sudden turns from ominous crawling into chaotic, chthonic tremolos and clustered, hideous vocals. A masterclass in patient, predatory ambush. Nothing else this year was like it, which is partially why I’ve had to return so often to its dark embrace. Every nightmarish track was at some point in the runnings for the Song of the Year playlist. In the end, only one could make it, and it is, as I said in my review, “as inexorable as death.”
#7. Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk – I’m surprised as well. Before Men Guðs hond er sterk, I had never laid ears on Hamferð and I was quite stunned to find how instantly I loved them. It’s not often an album by a band you’d previously never spent time with claims a spot on your year-end list after one listen, but this was one of those rare occasions. Something about the sorrowful, yet also soaring, melodies delivered through the interplays of resonant chords and gentle plucks, and between caustic growls and clear, ardent cleans just transports me. I feel the solemnity, the fear, and the grief in alternately forceful and graceful heaviness thanks to these intricately woven compositions and ardent performances that make the fact the lyrics are all in Faroese completely irrelevant. And Hamferð cover breadth with such ease, the slowly rolling wave of doom rising with tremolos into new intensity; and yet still controlled, still patient. The closer and it’s sample used to bother me, but I’m long past that now. In short, as the Angry Metal Guy himself said, “the record’s flow is impeccable,” and “the writing is subtle but addictive”. He’s not kidding about that last part, I really can’t stop listening to it.
#6. Föhn // Condescending – I was not prepared for what Condescending would do to me. Like any funeral doom worth its salt, it’s massive, but its presence is not smothering, it does not suffocate. Instead, it dampens the sound of anything else, so that the lugubrious chords, vocals, and fraught, lamenting refrains reverberate inside your mind, alone. This presence is redoubled by the heart-rending devastation of the compositions it centers—lyrically and musically. Bleakly beautiful, crushing doom in all its low, slow, cavernous hell leads you into an almost blissful moroseness, just in time for the veil to tear and your spirit to crumble as haunting melodies spill in from impossibly delicate sources of saxophone, synth, or ringing strings. Condescending will not leave my mind, and as broken and misty-eyed as these songs make me—”A Day After” and “Persona” especially—I’ll keep returning to experience it again and again. Maybe I can only speak for myself; maybe you’re sensing a theme wherein I like albums that make me feel sad. Whatever the case, Föhn took my breath away, and I don’t want it back.
#5. Cave Sermon // Divine Laughter – It’s pretty irresponsible of me to put this in the list at all, let alone in this position, considering how late in the day I discovered it. But I’m not really known for being ‘responsible’ around these parts, so, what the hell. What some might pigeonhole as just wonky death metal, or blackened post-hardcore—or even post-metal, as Metal Archives confusingly stamp it—is really much more complex, deep, and unique. Gripping and strange, in a way that struck me on my very first listen, Divine Laughter is responsible for me going from never having heard of Cave Sermon to being an ardent fan in one afternoon. Every listen gives me my new favorite part and uncovers more and more of its treasures. Savage and beautiful and with unnervingly easy flow, large parts of it are total perfection (“Liquid Gol, “The Paint of An Invader”). I cannot get enough. It’s so good, actually, that it’s made me feel a bit anxious about how much I’ve still missed this year, though I am very glad that this made it to my ears, even at the 11th hour. Divine Laughter is simply one of the greatest things I’ve heard in 2024, and it’s a crime that more people aren’t talking about it.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I was waiting for Blessing of Despair since January, and as it always is with things we have high expectations for, part of me was preparing for disappointment. That preparation proved unnecessary once I finally got my hands on this in the Autumn. Devenial Verdict delivered. This time, they amped up all their unique little idiosyncrasies that made me fall in love with Ash Blind, and added a criminally heavy helping of groove. This thing is atmospheric and punchy, providing soundscapes that are just as haunting and mysterious(TM) as they are stomping and cutthroat. Either way, these riffs will make you shiver. “Garden of Eyes”! “Solus”! Ahhhh! Even “Counting Silence” and “A Curse Made Flesh,” which I initially dismissed as a little understated, have this delicious melancholic presence I just want to be immersed in 24/7. Devenial Verdict’s slick mixture of mournful melody and menacing, barked growls; neck-snapping flicks of cymbal, and those resonant, aggressive chord progressions make for—almost—my favorite take on death metal that exists. The sole reason Blessing of Despair wasn’t my most-played album of 2024 is that I only started in September.4
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – Back in 2017 or so, I was struck by what at the time I considered the most gorgeous opening guitar on any song ever. It was “…Of Solitary Ramblings,” the first track on Selbst’s self-titled debut.5 From that day forward I was enamoured. The undercurrents of lamenting melodrama and a black metal interwoven with a distinctive style of flowing, weeping strums continue to make Selbst very special. But if I had thought that their depths of emotional poignancy and stirring, multi-layered compositions had been reached, Despondency Chord Progressions showed they had not. Cleans that some wrote off as unsavory, rather bring—in my opinion—a new vulnerability, and their rawness compounds the pathos of already intensely cathartic compositions. The album’s title is, as I noted, an apt descriptor for the musical themes, but really undersells the cry of grief and despair that erupts from the music with every shuddering, tremolo-shaken, surge and every plaintive, somber quietude. I stand by what I said back in April, that “[t]his is black metal at its most stirring, entrancingly beautiful, and existentially affecting.” The sheer magnitude of its impassioned peaks (“Third World Wretchedness,” “Between Seclusion and Obsession”) and the sting of its humanity (“When true Loneliness is Experienced,” “Chant of Self Confrontation”) are like nothing else in the genre.
#2. Amiensus // Reclamation [Parts 1 & 2] – Take it up in the comments if you think this is cheating; Reclamation is one work in my eyes. And what a masterpiece. Each part a gorgeous, immersive side of one breathtaking journey that is best experienced together. I remain stunned by Amiensus’ mastery of musical storytelling through a flowing, intricate soundscape—at turns triumphant (“Vermillion Fog of War,” “Sólfarið”), sorrowful (“Reverie,” “Leprosarium”), and always stirring. Everything about Reclamation is graceful, which is another part of its magic because it’s not as though Amiensus left the black metal behind. Rather they seem to have found the deepest essence of the genre’s unique propensity for raw emotional expression, and moulded its elements into what is hands-down the most beautiful thing I’ve heard at least this year. It is, as I noted in my write-up of Part 1, a distillation of pure joy, and uplifting no matter how wistful (“Sun and Moon”), or suffused with bittersweet longing (“A Consciousness Throughout Time,” “Acquiescence”). And with so much of it—albeit, a time that flashes by with thrilling speed—it’s impossible not to get lost in. “Sun and Moon” was so close to being my favorite song of 2024, and in another year, it would have been. For that matter, in another year Reclamation itself would have claimed the top spot on this list.
#1. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – What else could it have been? I worry that by this point I may have used up all of the words that are possible to describe this pinnacle of excellence. In reality, though, I’m not sure I even have the words to express it in the first place, not for lack of trying. Ulcerate have long been a behemoth in their realm within the larger world of death metal, but while distinctive, they have never settled, continually carving up the template of dissonance with varyingly-sized blades of atmosphere and melody, moving between their most barbed and chaotic (Everything is Fire) to their most somber and moody (The Destroyers of All) in just one album. Later Shrines of Paralysis—my former favorite—saw a turn back towards the urgency and aggression, but with this new harmonic undercurrent in place. With hindsight, I can see now that the deeply atmospheric, disquieting Stare into Death and Be Still marked a turning point, paving the ground for what could be their magnum opus. Distilling the tension and the turmoil, into tidal forces of incredible rhythm, and dark, brilliant melody, with Cutting the Throat of God, Ulcerate reach transcendence. Dire (“The Dawn is Hollow”), deadly (“Transfiguration in and Out of Worlds”), devastating (“To See Death Just Once,” “Cutting the Throat of God”). Its intricacies only continue to reveal themselves to me; helped, no doubt, by a phenomenal live performance that bewitched me anew this October. I had to upgrade this album’s score to Iconic, because it is. This is atmospheric death metal perfected, and if genre-mates weren’t already looking in Ulcerate’s direction, there’s hardly any choice now. Cutting the Throat of God represents, in the greatest form, “the savagery, authenticity, and more recently, beauty that makes this icon of the dissonant death metal world who they are.”
Honorable Mentions:
Gaerea // Coma – Despite having calmed down considerably from my previous Gaerea overhype, there’s no denying that they’ve really got something. With a new vocalist, they retain their distinctively melodramatic and intense style, while incorporating a little more vulnerability via some genuinely really lovely cleans. A great record that just wasn’t great enough for the ridiculously high standard set by this year’s fare.
Eye Eater // Alienate – I am immensely grateful for Dolphin Whisperer for bringing this to my attention. Much of this album feels like it was written specifically for me, because it uses pretty much all of my favorite things in metal. It’s atmospheric and dissonant, like Ulcerate and others in that vein; it’s kind of post-death-y, and replete with minor melodies, and a particular kind of urgency my brain associates with specific kinds of ‘-core’. I just didn’t get quite enough time with it.
Songs of the Year
“To See Death Just Once” – Ulcerate
“Sun and Moon” – Amiensus
“Solus” – Devenial Verdict
“Terminal” – Vorga
“Third World Wretchedness” – Selbst
“The Paint of an Invader” – Cave Sermon
“A Day After” – Föhn
“Ábær” – Hamferð
“Inversion” – Endonomos
“Death’s Knell Rings in Eternity” – Spectral Voice
“Leaving” – Pillar of Light
Maddog
It’s been a weird year, and this is a weird list. Last December, I lamented the emotional hollowness of 2023’s metal output. If anything, 2024 fell even flatter. My most anticipated heavyweights were competent but inconsistent (Alcest, Julie Christmas), and few albums moved me. Unfazed, death metal picked up the slack and made this year a pleasure. Led by a flurry of excellent releases from genre titans, 2024 helped rekindle my love for cantankerous death metal.
Even so, the brutality of 2024’s output shocked me. Despite my worship of Suffocation and Dying Fetus, most brutal death metal releases of the last decade haven’t gripped me. But 2024 pulled me onto the brutal train with creativity and pizzazz. Both the techy and the knuckle-dragging corners of that subgenre thrived, including several artists that didn’t make my list (like Gigan, Iniquitous Savagery, and Nile). After tending toward more emotive music and other poseur nonsense in recent years, I took a long jump back in 2024.
As if that wasn’t enough, this was a banner year for dissonance. That’s a sentence I never expected to type; even dissonant death metal’s classics tend to be hit-or-miss with me. In 2024, the skronk finally broke through, aided by many avant-garde bands drifting toward a more accessible sound. This year’s screechy screeds were cogent enough to grab my arm and unhinged enough to rip it out of its socket. It’s been a jarring but eye-opening year.
This comment from the Brodequin review doubles as a summary of my 2024 music picks:
I wonder if I, we, they or all of us have a screw loose.
Heading into 2024, I craved immersive soundscapes and misty eyes. Instead, I was met with discordant gurgling. I didn’t expect it, but I don’t regret it.
#ish. Hypoxia // Defiance – Defiance never gets old. This old-school death metal behemoth has been around for ten months and hails from a subgenre that’s infamous for monotony. And yet, like Monstrosity’s best work, it blossoms on every spin. Defiance sports 2024’s fiercest harsh vocal performance, and riffwork so potent that it could revive the Selbst baby. I don’t have anything fancy to add, so I won’t try. Defiance is a rare death metal record that’s simple, thrilling, and well-written.
#10. Dawn Treader // Bloom & Decay – The thought sometimes crosses my mind: Why does atmospheric black metal even exist? The musical possibilities abound; who would pay $8 for tremolo scales recorded in a rest stop bathroom? Records like Bloom & Decay jolt me out of my pretension. Dawn Treader’s underground gem is both a product and a peddler of overpowering emotion. Ross Connell unleashes a tirade against violence and oppression using grief-stricken guitar melodies. On the flip side, Bloom & Decay’s heavy use of major keys—my second biggest fear—blurs the line between despair and tentative hope. Most impressive is the album’s flow, which Itchymenace described better than I ever could: “The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality.” Bloom & Decay’s 53-minute chokehold on my heart is ineffable but unyielding.
#9. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Germany’s nameless Noise has built up a remarkable CV – 7 years, 3 bands, 8 albums. While I’ve often enjoyed his music, I never fell under his spell. Die Urkatastrophe was the last straw. A pacifist tirade told through first-person WWI vignettes, Die Urkatastrophe depicts nationalist violence and its aftermath. Armed with a sharp-edged blackened death foundation and surging chorus melodies, Kanonenfieber provides rewarding fodder even for unfeeling riff addicts. However, its excellence lies in its raw emotion. Both Noise’s lyrics and his songwriting embrace a “show, don’t tell” approach that brings the album to life. As the narrator’s cavalry offensive meets with a hilltop ambush in “Gott mit der Kavallerie,” Kanonenfieber’s upbeat riffs transform into a sudden dirge followed by frantic black metal. The epic “Waffenbrüder” evokes the wide-eyed optimism of childhood friends, the pride of enlisting, the tragedy of losing a companion, and the regrets of a life wasted. Die Urkatastrophe is both a transformative album and exemplary storytelling.
#8. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – Chronicles of Lunacy is essential listening for any fans of extreme metal. Its greatest triumph is its fine mix of Defeated Sanity’s signature ingredients. Chronicles excels as pure brutal death metal through punishing caveman riffs and a tasteful dose of slam. Vaughn Stoffey’s guitars elevate this to an art form using wily fretboard acrobatics and seamless jazzy breaks. Led by kit-meister Lille Gruber, Defeated Sanity’s off-kilter rhythms and heavy syncopation miraculously aid the album’s staying power rather than hindering it. Put simply, Chronicles of Lunacy is 2024’s most vivid reminder of why I love death metal. I love its unforgiving brutality; I love its dazzling technicality; I love its groove; I love its genre-bending creative expression; I love its rhythmic feats of strength; I love its intellect; I love its idiocy. In other words, I love Defeated Sanity.
#7. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – It’s a match made in heaven: Cutting the Throat of God is Ulcerate for dummies, and I’m a dummy. Ulcerate continues to march toward more accessible ground, leaving behind the merciless dissonance of Everything is Fire. Powerful melodic themes peek through the chaos and take time to shine, offering both souvenirs and footholds. Despite Cutting’s lowbrow appeal, Ulcerate’s inimitable signature remains. Unease pervades the record, and Ulcerate’s cohesive songwriting transforms it from a concept to an emotion. In Thus Spoke’s words, Jamie Saint Merat’s drums are “more body than skeleton,” using their distinctive start-stop style to guide the mood. The album’s climaxes alone justify a purchase, as hypnotic melodies and frenzied dissonance coalesce into a tsunami. In short, Cutting the Throat of God captured both my brain and my heart.
#6. Hippotraktor // Stasis – I first heard about Belgium’s Hippotraktor from an insistent coworker, long before I discovered GardensTale’s well-worded underrating. Psychonaut meets Karnivool meets The Ocean meets Meshuggah in this pounding, beautiful prog/post adventure. Stasis’ hard-won achievement is that it navigates through disparate ideas with fluidity and flair. Psychonaut-drenched sludge forms a jagged backbone that sways between meditative and explosive. Meanwhile, Hippotraktor’s mastery of melody catapults them into genre royalty. “Stasis” uses this superpower for peaceful guitar jams, “Echoes” uses it for soaring As I Lay Dying vocal lines, and “The Reckoning” uses it for haunting continuity across its eight minutes. The djenty interdjections are well-written and screwed in tight, packing a punch even for listeners with severe djent allerdjies. Stasis is a bold statement from a new band, and it’s jostled up my list posthaste.
#5. Hell:on // Shaman – Hell:on’s folk-infused take on death metal stands apart. Shaman’s diverse influences complement each other and flourish in isolation. Phrygian themes, throat singing, and driving sitars steer the album. But despite Shaman’s folk roots, it’s an excellent slab of death metal. Hell:on’s riffs recall the threatening leviathans of Nile’s Annihilation of the Wicked, while the narrative song structures feel like a roided-out Aeternam. Even among such storied company, Shaman’s melodies stand out. Over the record’s runtime, Hell:on’s guitars shred, soar, flail, and wallop, evolving smoothly and dragging the listener along. As icing on the cake, Holdeneye’s review of Shaman features the most sobering and most badass introductory story of 2024. Hell:on demanded my attention and earned it.
#4. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – I started warming up to Exhaust on my first listen, but it took a while to diagnose why. Pyrrhon’s earlier releases didn’t click with me, but Exhaust is a trailblazer and a paradox. Pyrrhon rewrites the textbook on riffs, displaying a mastery of groove even in their wildest moments. And the noisier cuts, which remind me most of Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Velvet Underground, are evocative narratives rather than lifeless technical exercises. The longer pieces intersperse hypnotic buildups with furious cacophony (“Out of Gas”), while the shorter tracks are simultaneously caustic and infectious. With a thick leading bass performance and a master that highlights every detail of the drums, Exhaust grows on me with every spin. Pyrrhon’s off-the-deep-end brand of experimental death metal isn’t my usual fare, but I can’t avert my ears this time. Both mellifluous and disgusting, both rifftastic and immersive, Exhaust is singular.
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – My first toe dip into Selbst made a lasting impression. Shortly after Despondency Chord Progressions came out, I spun it at the office. In the final minute of the opener “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos,” I felt the involuntary tears start to flow, and I had to nuke the music and run to the bathroom to avoid worrying my desk neighbor. This embarrassing first encounter perfectly encapsulates the album. While it’s “merely” black metal, its gorgeous melodies and shrilling tremolos showcase the genre at its finest. Alternating between meditative dirges and howling chords, Selbst conveys both muffled sobs and hysterical bawling. Selbst’s fluid compositions captivated me at once and dug their claws even deeper over the ensuing months. The most heart-rending record of 2024, Despondency Chord Progressions showcases the paralyzing power of music.
#2. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – Noxis’ debut is a remarkable blend of old and new. The album’s stomping riffs and popping snare drum root it in 1990s brutal death metal. Conversely, its exuberantly grimy bass tone, its proggy rhythms, and its surprise woodwind extravaganza feel unabashedly modern. Much like last year’s Ohio death metal highlight, Violence Inherent in the System succeeds by ripping throughout, whether with a vile Dying Fetus riff or with an adventurous bass melody. Although this is the longest record in my top five, its 46 minutes fly by. Boasting momentum that would make Newton blush, Noxis keeps the energy high from the barnburner “Skullcrushing Defilement” to the proggy old-school “Emanations of the Sick.” After six months of scrutinizing and adoring Violence, I still can’t fathom that this is a debut album.
#1. Wormed // Omegon – I’ve already said my piece on this, and nothing has changed. Omegon feels as thrilling, as alien, as robotic, and as human as it did in July. In a year where brutality and dissonance thrived, Wormed maxed out both dimensions. Omegon is at once a painstakingly crafted work of art, an all-consuming atmosphere, and 2024’s punchiest death metal record.
Honorable Mentions:
- Oxygen Destroyer // Guardian of the Universe – Redefining Darkness strikes again. Oxygen Destroyer’s latest death-thrash opus is a concise half hour of exhilarating riffs. The album sounds one track, but I don’t care; it gains steam as it progresses, and it lodges deeper on every listen. There’s no excuse for missing this.
- Brodequin // Harbinger of Woe – Despite its morose title, Harbinger of Woe is straightforward and riotous. Brodequin has honed a sleek archetype of brutal death metal, far from the likes of Wormed. It doesn’t aim to innovate; it just aims for high impact. It succeeds.
- Kryptos // Decimator – India’s heavy metal kings dealt me an irreplaceable shot of adrenaline. Decimator is Kryptos’ most melodically inspired work to date, an absolute scorcher, and the most viscerally satisfying production job of 2024.
- Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – Somehow, despite competition from In Aphelion and Necrophobic themselves, Necrowretch churned out the best Necrophobic album of 2024.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Julie Christmas – “The Lighthouse”
- Hippotraktor – “The Reckoning”
- Kanonenfieber – “Waffenbrüder”
- Hypoxia – “Scorched and Skinned”
- Kryptos – “Fall to the Spectre’s Gaze”
- Wormed – “Protogod”
- Alcest – “Améthyste”
- Defeated Sanity – “Heredity Violated”
- Andy Gillion – “Acceptance”
- Selbst – “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos”
- Pyrrhon – “Out of Gas”
- Ulcerate – “Cutting the Throat of God”
- Noxis – “Abstemious, Pious Writ of Life”
- Keygen Church – “La Chiave del mio Amor”
#2024 #Amiensus #BlogPost #Brodequin #CaveSermon #ColdCell #DawnTreader #DefeatedSanity #DevenialVerdict #EyeEater #Föhn #Gaerea #Hamferð #HellOn #Hippotraktor #Hypoxia #Kanonenfeiber #Kryptos #Necrowretch #Noxis #OxygenDestroyer #PillarOfLight #Pyrrhon #Replicant #Selbst #SpectralVoice #ThusSpokeAndMaddogSTopTenIshOf2024 #Ulcerate #Wormed
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Thus Spoke and Maddog’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Steel Druhm
Thus Spoke
My second AMG End-of-Year piece?! Didn’t I just get here? This is my typical reaction to life’s happenings. I’m blindsided by everything. You’ll probably notice that many of the below list entries ‘snuck up on me’ in how much I liked them, compared to everything else. The fact that we’re now halfway through the 2020s makes me feel a bit nauseous. I keep telling people I ‘just moved’ into the home I bought this year, but I’ve been in it since April. And that huge milestone—for which I feel immensely grateful and privileged to have achieved this side of 30—would have solely dominated my year were it not for two other facts: 1) I was finally diagnosed with and very recently started medication for ADHD; 2) 2024 has got to have been the strongest year of the decade so far for metal. So, time to talk about the music rather than myself.
My overoptimistic prediction that Ulcerate would release new music came true,1 and there was, in general, a particular influx of excellent material from the darker, more dissonant, and extreme sides of death and black metal. This was also the year I finally reconnected with my love of doom after a long period of lukewarm engagement. But I wouldn’t have known about half of it were it not for this gig, and the amazing people I share it with. Whether it was Dear Hollow, Kenstrosity, or Mystikus Hugebeard pinging across something they thought I might like, or a particularly potent review penned by a colleague, a commenter chipping in with some gem, or the group buzz around an album I might otherwise never have considered, there’s no better place to find and discuss metal. And speaking of community, if I ever needed a confirmation that this right here is the loveliest place on the internet, the rallying response to Ken‘s plight earlier this year from staff and readers was it.2 I couldn’t ask for better company.
I said as much last year, but I’ll probably say it every year: having this opportunity is wild and I feel so blessed. To be able to send my thoughts about music into the world where people read and consider them, that’s mad. Bumping into an AMG fan in the wild was also an affirming and heartwarming experience reminding me that there are actually real people out there who know who we are; and let me say, however enthusiastic and grateful you might be for us, the feeling is mutual. So to everyone reading this, to all the folks at AMG who make it possible for me to continually wax lyrical about stuff I love (and stuff I don’t love so much) and put up with all my overrating, to all of you: thank you. Shout out also to my list buddy Maddog, whose EOY write-up is bound to be more br00tal and much less flowery than mine, and whose in-person company I continue to have the pleasure of enjoying whenever he deigns to visit our little island up here. Oh, and thank you to the original creator and to Kenstrosity for my new avatar! I asked and you delivered. And if you actually read this far down, thank you for indulging me. But now, finally, it’s list time.
#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – I unintentionally ended my reviewing year on a high with Pillar of Light. Or perhaps a low, if we consider mood. When a record evokes a genuine emotional response in me,3 as Caldera does, it deserves more than an Honorable Mention. So here it is. It’s one of those albums you experience that forever afterward remains tied to your particular life situation when you were first immersed, and for that reason, its longevity is increased and its impact amplified. Given how “Leaving” and “Infernal Gaze” leave me in pieces, it’s probably a good thing the misery comes down from 11 at other times. But on the next album, who knows? I’ll be ready at least.
#10. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – Much like Kenstrosity, author of the review, I have not historically been Replicant’s hugest fan. For some reason their music never stuck with me; I just didn’t get it. Infinite Mortality has been the enlightenment I needed. It’s undeniably fantastic. Brilliantly technical and ruthlessly efficient in execution, it manages to also be ridiculously groovy in a way that you wouldn’t expect from this flavor of extreme death metal. Suited, evidently, to desk sessions and gym sessions alike, given the range of play it got from me since its release, its balance of skronk and style proved why I should, long ago, have been paying attention to Replicant. Ken himself struggled to find a negative and so do I. Even interlude “SCN9A” is great, especially as it leads into monster “Pain Enduring.” Only the superlative strength of other contenders causes this to fall so low on the list.
#9. ColdCell // Age of Unreason – In a rare case of me underrating something, my review of Age of Unreason did not quite do justice to its strength. Not only have I revisited it often, but I have of late been struck ever deeper by its profundity. The honest, vulnerable lamentations on inequality (“Solidarity or Solitude”), hatred (“Discord”), and human selfishness (“Dead to the World”) go far beyond a jaded misanthropy and strike a real chord. In wrapping this up in an insidiously simple package of compelling, devastating black metal with a distinctive voice, ColdCell have made, I now recognize, a true masterpiece. Brutal in its own way, and beautiful in many more, this is a record I hardly realized had made such a strong impact on me until I saw just how many times I’d spun it. This year may have seen black metal that goes harder, or with more powerful atmospheres, but none that are as memorable as Age of Unreason.
#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – What a behemoth. It’s hard to believe that—just for a little while—Sparagmos slipped my mind many months after its February release. Relistening brought it all back into horrifying clarity. This record throws a veil over the sun, stares at you with unseeing, ecstatic eyes of Dionysian worship, and forces you into terrified awe. I’m still blown away by how crushingly heavy and immersive it is; how it still manages to blindside me with sudden turns from ominous crawling into chaotic, chthonic tremolos and clustered, hideous vocals. A masterclass in patient, predatory ambush. Nothing else this year was like it, which is partially why I’ve had to return so often to its dark embrace. Every nightmarish track was at some point in the runnings for the Song of the Year playlist. In the end, only one could make it, and it is, as I said in my review, “as inexorable as death.”
#7. Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk – I’m surprised as well. Before Men Guðs hond er sterk, I had never laid ears on Hamferð and I was quite stunned to find how instantly I loved them. It’s not often an album by a band you’d previously never spent time with claims a spot on your year-end list after one listen, but this was one of those rare occasions. Something about the sorrowful, yet also soaring, melodies delivered through the interplays of resonant chords and gentle plucks, and between caustic growls and clear, ardent cleans just transports me. I feel the solemnity, the fear, and the grief in alternately forceful and graceful heaviness thanks to these intricately woven compositions and ardent performances that make the fact the lyrics are all in Faroese completely irrelevant. And Hamferð cover breadth with such ease, the slowly rolling wave of doom rising with tremolos into new intensity; and yet still controlled, still patient. The closer and it’s sample used to bother me, but I’m long past that now. In short, as the Angry Metal Guy himself said, “the record’s flow is impeccable,” and “the writing is subtle but addictive”. He’s not kidding about that last part, I really can’t stop listening to it.
#6. Föhn // Condescending – I was not prepared for what Condescending would do to me. Like any funeral doom worth its salt, it’s massive, but its presence is not smothering, it does not suffocate. Instead, it dampens the sound of anything else, so that the lugubrious chords, vocals, and fraught, lamenting refrains reverberate inside your mind, alone. This presence is redoubled by the heart-rending devastation of the compositions it centers—lyrically and musically. Bleakly beautiful, crushing doom in all its low, slow, cavernous hell leads you into an almost blissful moroseness, just in time for the veil to tear and your spirit to crumble as haunting melodies spill in from impossibly delicate sources of saxophone, synth, or ringing strings. Condescending will not leave my mind, and as broken and misty-eyed as these songs make me—”A Day After” and “Persona” especially—I’ll keep returning to experience it again and again. Maybe I can only speak for myself; maybe you’re sensing a theme wherein I like albums that make me feel sad. Whatever the case, Föhn took my breath away, and I don’t want it back.
#5. Cave Sermon // Divine Laughter – It’s pretty irresponsible of me to put this in the list at all, let alone in this position, considering how late in the day I discovered it. But I’m not really known for being ‘responsible’ around these parts, so, what the hell. What some might pigeonhole as just wonky death metal, or blackened post-hardcore—or even post-metal, as Metal Archives confusingly stamp it—is really much more complex, deep, and unique. Gripping and strange, in a way that struck me on my very first listen, Divine Laughter is responsible for me going from never having heard of Cave Sermon to being an ardent fan in one afternoon. Every listen gives me my new favorite part and uncovers more and more of its treasures. Savage and beautiful and with unnervingly easy flow, large parts of it are total perfection (“Liquid Gol, “The Paint of An Invader”). I cannot get enough. It’s so good, actually, that it’s made me feel a bit anxious about how much I’ve still missed this year, though I am very glad that this made it to my ears, even at the 11th hour. Divine Laughter is simply one of the greatest things I’ve heard in 2024, and it’s a crime that more people aren’t talking about it.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I was waiting for Blessing of Despair since January, and as it always is with things we have high expectations for, part of me was preparing for disappointment. That preparation proved unnecessary once I finally got my hands on this in the Autumn. Devenial Verdict delivered. This time, they amped up all their unique little idiosyncrasies that made me fall in love with Ash Blind, and added a criminally heavy helping of groove. This thing is atmospheric and punchy, providing soundscapes that are just as haunting and mysterious(TM) as they are stomping and cutthroat. Either way, these riffs will make you shiver. “Garden of Eyes”! “Solus”! Ahhhh! Even “Counting Silence” and “A Curse Made Flesh,” which I initially dismissed as a little understated, have this delicious melancholic presence I just want to be immersed in 24/7. Devenial Verdict’s slick mixture of mournful melody and menacing, barked growls; neck-snapping flicks of cymbal, and those resonant, aggressive chord progressions make for—almost—my favorite take on death metal that exists. The sole reason Blessing of Despair wasn’t my most-played album of 2024 is that I only started in September.4
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – Back in 2017 or so, I was struck by what at the time I considered the most gorgeous opening guitar on any song ever. It was “…Of Solitary Ramblings,” the first track on Selbst’s self-titled debut.5 From that day forward I was enamoured. The undercurrents of lamenting melodrama and a black metal interwoven with a distinctive style of flowing, weeping strums continue to make Selbst very special. But if I had thought that their depths of emotional poignancy and stirring, multi-layered compositions had been reached, Despondency Chord Progressions showed they had not. Cleans that some wrote off as unsavory, rather bring—in my opinion—a new vulnerability, and their rawness compounds the pathos of already intensely cathartic compositions. The album’s title is, as I noted, an apt descriptor for the musical themes, but really undersells the cry of grief and despair that erupts from the music with every shuddering, tremolo-shaken, surge and every plaintive, somber quietude. I stand by what I said back in April, that “[t]his is black metal at its most stirring, entrancingly beautiful, and existentially affecting.” The sheer magnitude of its impassioned peaks (“Third World Wretchedness,” “Between Seclusion and Obsession”) and the sting of its humanity (“When true Loneliness is Experienced,” “Chant of Self Confrontation”) are like nothing else in the genre.
#2. Amiensus // Reclamation [Parts 1 & 2] – Take it up in the comments if you think this is cheating; Reclamation is one work in my eyes. And what a masterpiece. Each part a gorgeous, immersive side of one breathtaking journey that is best experienced together. I remain stunned by Amiensus’ mastery of musical storytelling through a flowing, intricate soundscape—at turns triumphant (“Vermillion Fog of War,” “Sólfarið”), sorrowful (“Reverie,” “Leprosarium”), and always stirring. Everything about Reclamation is graceful, which is another part of its magic because it’s not as though Amiensus left the black metal behind. Rather they seem to have found the deepest essence of the genre’s unique propensity for raw emotional expression, and moulded its elements into what is hands-down the most beautiful thing I’ve heard at least this year. It is, as I noted in my write-up of Part 1, a distillation of pure joy, and uplifting no matter how wistful (“Sun and Moon”), or suffused with bittersweet longing (“A Consciousness Throughout Time,” “Acquiescence”). And with so much of it—albeit, a time that flashes by with thrilling speed—it’s impossible not to get lost in. “Sun and Moon” was so close to being my favorite song of 2024, and in another year, it would have been. For that matter, in another year Reclamation itself would have claimed the top spot on this list.
#1. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – What else could it have been? I worry that by this point I may have used up all of the words that are possible to describe this pinnacle of excellence. In reality, though, I’m not sure I even have the words to express it in the first place, not for lack of trying. Ulcerate have long been a behemoth in their realm within the larger world of death metal, but while distinctive, they have never settled, continually carving up the template of dissonance with varyingly-sized blades of atmosphere and melody, moving between their most barbed and chaotic (Everything is Fire) to their most somber and moody (The Destroyers of All) in just one album. Later Shrines of Paralysis—my former favorite—saw a turn back towards the urgency and aggression, but with this new harmonic undercurrent in place. With hindsight, I can see now that the deeply atmospheric, disquieting Stare into Death and Be Still marked a turning point, paving the ground for what could be their magnum opus. Distilling the tension and the turmoil, into tidal forces of incredible rhythm, and dark, brilliant melody, with Cutting the Throat of God, Ulcerate reach transcendence. Dire (“The Dawn is Hollow”), deadly (“Transfiguration in and Out of Worlds”), devastating (“To See Death Just Once,” “Cutting the Throat of God”). Its intricacies only continue to reveal themselves to me; helped, no doubt, by a phenomenal live performance that bewitched me anew this October. I had to upgrade this album’s score to Iconic, because it is. This is atmospheric death metal perfected, and if genre-mates weren’t already looking in Ulcerate’s direction, there’s hardly any choice now. Cutting the Throat of God represents, in the greatest form, “the savagery, authenticity, and more recently, beauty that makes this icon of the dissonant death metal world who they are.”
Honorable Mentions:
Gaerea // Coma – Despite having calmed down considerably from my previous Gaerea overhype, there’s no denying that they’ve really got something. With a new vocalist, they retain their distinctively melodramatic and intense style, while incorporating a little more vulnerability via some genuinely really lovely cleans. A great record that just wasn’t great enough for the ridiculously high standard set by this year’s fare.
Eye Eater // Alienate – I am immensely grateful for Dolphin Whisperer for bringing this to my attention. Much of this album feels like it was written specifically for me, because it uses pretty much all of my favorite things in metal. It’s atmospheric and dissonant, like Ulcerate and others in that vein; it’s kind of post-death-y, and replete with minor melodies, and a particular kind of urgency my brain associates with specific kinds of ‘-core’. I just didn’t get quite enough time with it.
Songs of the Year
“To See Death Just Once” – Ulcerate
“Sun and Moon” – Amiensus
“Solus” – Devenial Verdict
“Terminal” – Vorga
“Third World Wretchedness” – Selbst
“The Paint of an Invader” – Cave Sermon
“A Day After” – Föhn
“Ábær” – Hamferð
“Inversion” – Endonomos
“Death’s Knell Rings in Eternity” – Spectral Voice
“Leaving” – Pillar of Light
Maddog
It’s been a weird year, and this is a weird list. Last December, I lamented the emotional hollowness of 2023’s metal output. If anything, 2024 fell even flatter. My most anticipated heavyweights were competent but inconsistent (Alcest, Julie Christmas), and few albums moved me. Unfazed, death metal picked up the slack and made this year a pleasure. Led by a flurry of excellent releases from genre titans, 2024 helped rekindle my love for cantankerous death metal.
Even so, the brutality of 2024’s output shocked me. Despite my worship of Suffocation and Dying Fetus, most brutal death metal releases of the last decade haven’t gripped me. But 2024 pulled me onto the brutal train with creativity and pizzazz. Both the techy and the knuckle-dragging corners of that subgenre thrived, including several artists that didn’t make my list (like Gigan, Iniquitous Savagery, and Nile). After tending toward more emotive music and other poseur nonsense in recent years, I took a long jump back in 2024.
As if that wasn’t enough, this was a banner year for dissonance. That’s a sentence I never expected to type; even dissonant death metal’s classics tend to be hit-or-miss with me. In 2024, the skronk finally broke through, aided by many avant-garde bands drifting toward a more accessible sound. This year’s screechy screeds were cogent enough to grab my arm and unhinged enough to rip it out of its socket. It’s been a jarring but eye-opening year.
This comment from the Brodequin review doubles as a summary of my 2024 music picks:
I wonder if I, we, they or all of us have a screw loose.
Heading into 2024, I craved immersive soundscapes and misty eyes. Instead, I was met with discordant gurgling. I didn’t expect it, but I don’t regret it.
#ish. Hypoxia // Defiance – Defiance never gets old. This old-school death metal behemoth has been around for ten months and hails from a subgenre that’s infamous for monotony. And yet, like Monstrosity’s best work, it blossoms on every spin. Defiance sports 2024’s fiercest harsh vocal performance, and riffwork so potent that it could revive the Selbst baby. I don’t have anything fancy to add, so I won’t try. Defiance is a rare death metal record that’s simple, thrilling, and well-written.
#10. Dawn Treader // Bloom & Decay – The thought sometimes crosses my mind: Why does atmospheric black metal even exist? The musical possibilities abound; who would pay $8 for tremolo scales recorded in a rest stop bathroom? Records like Bloom & Decay jolt me out of my pretension. Dawn Treader’s underground gem is both a product and a peddler of overpowering emotion. Ross Connell unleashes a tirade against violence and oppression using grief-stricken guitar melodies. On the flip side, Bloom & Decay’s heavy use of major keys—my second biggest fear—blurs the line between despair and tentative hope. Most impressive is the album’s flow, which Itchymenace described better than I ever could: “The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality.” Bloom & Decay’s 53-minute chokehold on my heart is ineffable but unyielding.
#9. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Germany’s nameless Noise has built up a remarkable CV – 7 years, 3 bands, 8 albums. While I’ve often enjoyed his music, I never fell under his spell. Die Urkatastrophe was the last straw. A pacifist tirade told through first-person WWI vignettes, Die Urkatastrophe depicts nationalist violence and its aftermath. Armed with a sharp-edged blackened death foundation and surging chorus melodies, Kanonenfieber provides rewarding fodder even for unfeeling riff addicts. However, its excellence lies in its raw emotion. Both Noise’s lyrics and his songwriting embrace a “show, don’t tell” approach that brings the album to life. As the narrator’s cavalry offensive meets with a hilltop ambush in “Gott mit der Kavallerie,” Kanonenfieber’s upbeat riffs transform into a sudden dirge followed by frantic black metal. The epic “Waffenbrüder” evokes the wide-eyed optimism of childhood friends, the pride of enlisting, the tragedy of losing a companion, and the regrets of a life wasted. Die Urkatastrophe is both a transformative album and exemplary storytelling.
#8. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – Chronicles of Lunacy is essential listening for any fans of extreme metal. Its greatest triumph is its fine mix of Defeated Sanity’s signature ingredients. Chronicles excels as pure brutal death metal through punishing caveman riffs and a tasteful dose of slam. Vaughn Stoffey’s guitars elevate this to an art form using wily fretboard acrobatics and seamless jazzy breaks. Led by kit-meister Lille Gruber, Defeated Sanity’s off-kilter rhythms and heavy syncopation miraculously aid the album’s staying power rather than hindering it. Put simply, Chronicles of Lunacy is 2024’s most vivid reminder of why I love death metal. I love its unforgiving brutality; I love its dazzling technicality; I love its groove; I love its genre-bending creative expression; I love its rhythmic feats of strength; I love its intellect; I love its idiocy. In other words, I love Defeated Sanity.
#7. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – It’s a match made in heaven: Cutting the Throat of God is Ulcerate for dummies, and I’m a dummy. Ulcerate continues to march toward more accessible ground, leaving behind the merciless dissonance of Everything is Fire. Powerful melodic themes peek through the chaos and take time to shine, offering both souvenirs and footholds. Despite Cutting’s lowbrow appeal, Ulcerate’s inimitable signature remains. Unease pervades the record, and Ulcerate’s cohesive songwriting transforms it from a concept to an emotion. In Thus Spoke’s words, Jamie Saint Merat’s drums are “more body than skeleton,” using their distinctive start-stop style to guide the mood. The album’s climaxes alone justify a purchase, as hypnotic melodies and frenzied dissonance coalesce into a tsunami. In short, Cutting the Throat of God captured both my brain and my heart.
#6. Hippotraktor // Stasis – I first heard about Belgium’s Hippotraktor from an insistent coworker, long before I discovered GardensTale’s well-worded underrating. Psychonaut meets Karnivool meets The Ocean meets Meshuggah in this pounding, beautiful prog/post adventure. Stasis’ hard-won achievement is that it navigates through disparate ideas with fluidity and flair. Psychonaut-drenched sludge forms a jagged backbone that sways between meditative and explosive. Meanwhile, Hippotraktor’s mastery of melody catapults them into genre royalty. “Stasis” uses this superpower for peaceful guitar jams, “Echoes” uses it for soaring As I Lay Dying vocal lines, and “The Reckoning” uses it for haunting continuity across its eight minutes. The djenty interdjections are well-written and screwed in tight, packing a punch even for listeners with severe djent allerdjies. Stasis is a bold statement from a new band, and it’s jostled up my list posthaste.
#5. Hell:on // Shaman – Hell:on’s folk-infused take on death metal stands apart. Shaman’s diverse influences complement each other and flourish in isolation. Phrygian themes, throat singing, and driving sitars steer the album. But despite Shaman’s folk roots, it’s an excellent slab of death metal. Hell:on’s riffs recall the threatening leviathans of Nile’s Annihilation of the Wicked, while the narrative song structures feel like a roided-out Aeternam. Even among such storied company, Shaman’s melodies stand out. Over the record’s runtime, Hell:on’s guitars shred, soar, flail, and wallop, evolving smoothly and dragging the listener along. As icing on the cake, Holdeneye’s review of Shaman features the most sobering and most badass introductory story of 2024. Hell:on demanded my attention and earned it.
#4. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – I started warming up to Exhaust on my first listen, but it took a while to diagnose why. Pyrrhon’s earlier releases didn’t click with me, but Exhaust is a trailblazer and a paradox. Pyrrhon rewrites the textbook on riffs, displaying a mastery of groove even in their wildest moments. And the noisier cuts, which remind me most of Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Velvet Underground, are evocative narratives rather than lifeless technical exercises. The longer pieces intersperse hypnotic buildups with furious cacophony (“Out of Gas”), while the shorter tracks are simultaneously caustic and infectious. With a thick leading bass performance and a master that highlights every detail of the drums, Exhaust grows on me with every spin. Pyrrhon’s off-the-deep-end brand of experimental death metal isn’t my usual fare, but I can’t avert my ears this time. Both mellifluous and disgusting, both rifftastic and immersive, Exhaust is singular.
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – My first toe dip into Selbst made a lasting impression. Shortly after Despondency Chord Progressions came out, I spun it at the office. In the final minute of the opener “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos,” I felt the involuntary tears start to flow, and I had to nuke the music and run to the bathroom to avoid worrying my desk neighbor. This embarrassing first encounter perfectly encapsulates the album. While it’s “merely” black metal, its gorgeous melodies and shrilling tremolos showcase the genre at its finest. Alternating between meditative dirges and howling chords, Selbst conveys both muffled sobs and hysterical bawling. Selbst’s fluid compositions captivated me at once and dug their claws even deeper over the ensuing months. The most heart-rending record of 2024, Despondency Chord Progressions showcases the paralyzing power of music.
#2. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – Noxis’ debut is a remarkable blend of old and new. The album’s stomping riffs and popping snare drum root it in 1990s brutal death metal. Conversely, its exuberantly grimy bass tone, its proggy rhythms, and its surprise woodwind extravaganza feel unabashedly modern. Much like last year’s Ohio death metal highlight, Violence Inherent in the System succeeds by ripping throughout, whether with a vile Dying Fetus riff or with an adventurous bass melody. Although this is the longest record in my top five, its 46 minutes fly by. Boasting momentum that would make Newton blush, Noxis keeps the energy high from the barnburner “Skullcrushing Defilement” to the proggy old-school “Emanations of the Sick.” After six months of scrutinizing and adoring Violence, I still can’t fathom that this is a debut album.
#1. Wormed // Omegon – I’ve already said my piece on this, and nothing has changed. Omegon feels as thrilling, as alien, as robotic, and as human as it did in July. In a year where brutality and dissonance thrived, Wormed maxed out both dimensions. Omegon is at once a painstakingly crafted work of art, an all-consuming atmosphere, and 2024’s punchiest death metal record.
Honorable Mentions:
- Oxygen Destroyer // Guardian of the Universe – Redefining Darkness strikes again. Oxygen Destroyer’s latest death-thrash opus is a concise half hour of exhilarating riffs. The album sounds one track, but I don’t care; it gains steam as it progresses, and it lodges deeper on every listen. There’s no excuse for missing this.
- Brodequin // Harbinger of Woe – Despite its morose title, Harbinger of Woe is straightforward and riotous. Brodequin has honed a sleek archetype of brutal death metal, far from the likes of Wormed. It doesn’t aim to innovate; it just aims for high impact. It succeeds.
- Kryptos // Decimator – India’s heavy metal kings dealt me an irreplaceable shot of adrenaline. Decimator is Kryptos’ most melodically inspired work to date, an absolute scorcher, and the most viscerally satisfying production job of 2024.
- Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – Somehow, despite competition from In Aphelion and Necrophobic themselves, Necrowretch churned out the best Necrophobic album of 2024.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Julie Christmas – “The Lighthouse”
- Hippotraktor – “The Reckoning”
- Kanonenfieber – “Waffenbrüder”
- Hypoxia – “Scorched and Skinned”
- Kryptos – “Fall to the Spectre’s Gaze”
- Wormed – “Protogod”
- Alcest – “Améthyste”
- Defeated Sanity – “Heredity Violated”
- Andy Gillion – “Acceptance”
- Selbst – “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos”
- Pyrrhon – “Out of Gas”
- Ulcerate – “Cutting the Throat of God”
- Noxis – “Abstemious, Pious Writ of Life”
- Keygen Church – “La Chiave del mio Amor”
#2024 #Amiensus #BlogPost #Brodequin #CaveSermon #ColdCell #DawnTreader #DefeatedSanity #DevenialVerdict #EyeEater #Föhn #Gaerea #Hamferð #HellOn #Hippotraktor #Hypoxia #Kanonenfeiber #Kryptos #Necrowretch #Noxis #OxygenDestroyer #PillarOfLight #Pyrrhon #Replicant #Selbst #SpectralVoice #ThusSpokeAndMaddogSTopTenIshOf2024 #Ulcerate #Wormed
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Thus Spoke and Maddog’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Steel Druhm
Thus Spoke
My second AMG End-of-Year piece?! Didn’t I just get here? This is my typical reaction to life’s happenings. I’m blindsided by everything. You’ll probably notice that many of the below list entries ‘snuck up on me’ in how much I liked them, compared to everything else. The fact that we’re now halfway through the 2020s makes me feel a bit nauseous. I keep telling people I ‘just moved’ into the home I bought this year, but I’ve been in it since April. And that huge milestone—for which I feel immensely grateful and privileged to have achieved this side of 30—would have solely dominated my year were it not for two other facts: 1) I was finally diagnosed with and very recently started medication for ADHD; 2) 2024 has got to have been the strongest year of the decade so far for metal. So, time to talk about the music rather than myself.
My overoptimistic prediction that Ulcerate would release new music came true,1 and there was, in general, a particular influx of excellent material from the darker, more dissonant, and extreme sides of death and black metal. This was also the year I finally reconnected with my love of doom after a long period of lukewarm engagement. But I wouldn’t have known about half of it were it not for this gig, and the amazing people I share it with. Whether it was Dear Hollow, Kenstrosity, or Mystikus Hugebeard pinging across something they thought I might like, or a particularly potent review penned by a colleague, a commenter chipping in with some gem, or the group buzz around an album I might otherwise never have considered, there’s no better place to find and discuss metal. And speaking of community, if I ever needed a confirmation that this right here is the loveliest place on the internet, the rallying response to Ken‘s plight earlier this year from staff and readers was it.2 I couldn’t ask for better company.
I said as much last year, but I’ll probably say it every year: having this opportunity is wild and I feel so blessed. To be able to send my thoughts about music into the world where people read and consider them, that’s mad. Bumping into an AMG fan in the wild was also an affirming and heartwarming experience reminding me that there are actually real people out there who know who we are; and let me say, however enthusiastic and grateful you might be for us, the feeling is mutual. So to everyone reading this, to all the folks at AMG who make it possible for me to continually wax lyrical about stuff I love (and stuff I don’t love so much) and put up with all my overrating, to all of you: thank you. Shout out also to my list buddy Maddog, whose EOY write-up is bound to be more br00tal and much less flowery than mine, and whose in-person company I continue to have the pleasure of enjoying whenever he deigns to visit our little island up here. Oh, and thank you to the original creator and to Kenstrosity for my new avatar! I asked and you delivered. And if you actually read this far down, thank you for indulging me. But now, finally, it’s list time.
#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – I unintentionally ended my reviewing year on a high with Pillar of Light. Or perhaps a low, if we consider mood. When a record evokes a genuine emotional response in me,3 as Caldera does, it deserves more than an Honorable Mention. So here it is. It’s one of those albums you experience that forever afterward remains tied to your particular life situation when you were first immersed, and for that reason, its longevity is increased and its impact amplified. Given how “Leaving” and “Infernal Gaze” leave me in pieces, it’s probably a good thing the misery comes down from 11 at other times. But on the next album, who knows? I’ll be ready at least.
#10. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – Much like Kenstrosity, author of the review, I have not historically been Replicant’s hugest fan. For some reason their music never stuck with me; I just didn’t get it. Infinite Mortality has been the enlightenment I needed. It’s undeniably fantastic. Brilliantly technical and ruthlessly efficient in execution, it manages to also be ridiculously groovy in a way that you wouldn’t expect from this flavor of extreme death metal. Suited, evidently, to desk sessions and gym sessions alike, given the range of play it got from me since its release, its balance of skronk and style proved why I should, long ago, have been paying attention to Replicant. Ken himself struggled to find a negative and so do I. Even interlude “SCN9A” is great, especially as it leads into monster “Pain Enduring.” Only the superlative strength of other contenders causes this to fall so low on the list.
#9. ColdCell // Age of Unreason – In a rare case of me underrating something, my review of Age of Unreason did not quite do justice to its strength. Not only have I revisited it often, but I have of late been struck ever deeper by its profundity. The honest, vulnerable lamentations on inequality (“Solidarity or Solitude”), hatred (“Discord”), and human selfishness (“Dead to the World”) go far beyond a jaded misanthropy and strike a real chord. In wrapping this up in an insidiously simple package of compelling, devastating black metal with a distinctive voice, ColdCell have made, I now recognize, a true masterpiece. Brutal in its own way, and beautiful in many more, this is a record I hardly realized had made such a strong impact on me until I saw just how many times I’d spun it. This year may have seen black metal that goes harder, or with more powerful atmospheres, but none that are as memorable as Age of Unreason.
#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – What a behemoth. It’s hard to believe that—just for a little while—Sparagmos slipped my mind many months after its February release. Relistening brought it all back into horrifying clarity. This record throws a veil over the sun, stares at you with unseeing, ecstatic eyes of Dionysian worship, and forces you into terrified awe. I’m still blown away by how crushingly heavy and immersive it is; how it still manages to blindside me with sudden turns from ominous crawling into chaotic, chthonic tremolos and clustered, hideous vocals. A masterclass in patient, predatory ambush. Nothing else this year was like it, which is partially why I’ve had to return so often to its dark embrace. Every nightmarish track was at some point in the runnings for the Song of the Year playlist. In the end, only one could make it, and it is, as I said in my review, “as inexorable as death.”
#7. Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk – I’m surprised as well. Before Men Guðs hond er sterk, I had never laid ears on Hamferð and I was quite stunned to find how instantly I loved them. It’s not often an album by a band you’d previously never spent time with claims a spot on your year-end list after one listen, but this was one of those rare occasions. Something about the sorrowful, yet also soaring, melodies delivered through the interplays of resonant chords and gentle plucks, and between caustic growls and clear, ardent cleans just transports me. I feel the solemnity, the fear, and the grief in alternately forceful and graceful heaviness thanks to these intricately woven compositions and ardent performances that make the fact the lyrics are all in Faroese completely irrelevant. And Hamferð cover breadth with such ease, the slowly rolling wave of doom rising with tremolos into new intensity; and yet still controlled, still patient. The closer and it’s sample used to bother me, but I’m long past that now. In short, as the Angry Metal Guy himself said, “the record’s flow is impeccable,” and “the writing is subtle but addictive”. He’s not kidding about that last part, I really can’t stop listening to it.
#6. Föhn // Condescending – I was not prepared for what Condescending would do to me. Like any funeral doom worth its salt, it’s massive, but its presence is not smothering, it does not suffocate. Instead, it dampens the sound of anything else, so that the lugubrious chords, vocals, and fraught, lamenting refrains reverberate inside your mind, alone. This presence is redoubled by the heart-rending devastation of the compositions it centers—lyrically and musically. Bleakly beautiful, crushing doom in all its low, slow, cavernous hell leads you into an almost blissful moroseness, just in time for the veil to tear and your spirit to crumble as haunting melodies spill in from impossibly delicate sources of saxophone, synth, or ringing strings. Condescending will not leave my mind, and as broken and misty-eyed as these songs make me—”A Day After” and “Persona” especially—I’ll keep returning to experience it again and again. Maybe I can only speak for myself; maybe you’re sensing a theme wherein I like albums that make me feel sad. Whatever the case, Föhn took my breath away, and I don’t want it back.
#5. Cave Sermon // Divine Laughter – It’s pretty irresponsible of me to put this in the list at all, let alone in this position, considering how late in the day I discovered it. But I’m not really known for being ‘responsible’ around these parts, so, what the hell. What some might pigeonhole as just wonky death metal, or blackened post-hardcore—or even post-metal, as Metal Archives confusingly stamp it—is really much more complex, deep, and unique. Gripping and strange, in a way that struck me on my very first listen, Divine Laughter is responsible for me going from never having heard of Cave Sermon to being an ardent fan in one afternoon. Every listen gives me my new favorite part and uncovers more and more of its treasures. Savage and beautiful and with unnervingly easy flow, large parts of it are total perfection (“Liquid Gol, “The Paint of An Invader”). I cannot get enough. It’s so good, actually, that it’s made me feel a bit anxious about how much I’ve still missed this year, though I am very glad that this made it to my ears, even at the 11th hour. Divine Laughter is simply one of the greatest things I’ve heard in 2024, and it’s a crime that more people aren’t talking about it.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I was waiting for Blessing of Despair since January, and as it always is with things we have high expectations for, part of me was preparing for disappointment. That preparation proved unnecessary once I finally got my hands on this in the Autumn. Devenial Verdict delivered. This time, they amped up all their unique little idiosyncrasies that made me fall in love with Ash Blind, and added a criminally heavy helping of groove. This thing is atmospheric and punchy, providing soundscapes that are just as haunting and mysterious(TM) as they are stomping and cutthroat. Either way, these riffs will make you shiver. “Garden of Eyes”! “Solus”! Ahhhh! Even “Counting Silence” and “A Curse Made Flesh,” which I initially dismissed as a little understated, have this delicious melancholic presence I just want to be immersed in 24/7. Devenial Verdict’s slick mixture of mournful melody and menacing, barked growls; neck-snapping flicks of cymbal, and those resonant, aggressive chord progressions make for—almost—my favorite take on death metal that exists. The sole reason Blessing of Despair wasn’t my most-played album of 2024 is that I only started in September.4
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – Back in 2017 or so, I was struck by what at the time I considered the most gorgeous opening guitar on any song ever. It was “…Of Solitary Ramblings,” the first track on Selbst’s self-titled debut.5 From that day forward I was enamoured. The undercurrents of lamenting melodrama and a black metal interwoven with a distinctive style of flowing, weeping strums continue to make Selbst very special. But if I had thought that their depths of emotional poignancy and stirring, multi-layered compositions had been reached, Despondency Chord Progressions showed they had not. Cleans that some wrote off as unsavory, rather bring—in my opinion—a new vulnerability, and their rawness compounds the pathos of already intensely cathartic compositions. The album’s title is, as I noted, an apt descriptor for the musical themes, but really undersells the cry of grief and despair that erupts from the music with every shuddering, tremolo-shaken, surge and every plaintive, somber quietude. I stand by what I said back in April, that “[t]his is black metal at its most stirring, entrancingly beautiful, and existentially affecting.” The sheer magnitude of its impassioned peaks (“Third World Wretchedness,” “Between Seclusion and Obsession”) and the sting of its humanity (“When true Loneliness is Experienced,” “Chant of Self Confrontation”) are like nothing else in the genre.
#2. Amiensus // Reclamation [Parts 1 & 2] – Take it up in the comments if you think this is cheating; Reclamation is one work in my eyes. And what a masterpiece. Each part a gorgeous, immersive side of one breathtaking journey that is best experienced together. I remain stunned by Amiensus’ mastery of musical storytelling through a flowing, intricate soundscape—at turns triumphant (“Vermillion Fog of War,” “Sólfarið”), sorrowful (“Reverie,” “Leprosarium”), and always stirring. Everything about Reclamation is graceful, which is another part of its magic because it’s not as though Amiensus left the black metal behind. Rather they seem to have found the deepest essence of the genre’s unique propensity for raw emotional expression, and moulded its elements into what is hands-down the most beautiful thing I’ve heard at least this year. It is, as I noted in my write-up of Part 1, a distillation of pure joy, and uplifting no matter how wistful (“Sun and Moon”), or suffused with bittersweet longing (“A Consciousness Throughout Time,” “Acquiescence”). And with so much of it—albeit, a time that flashes by with thrilling speed—it’s impossible not to get lost in. “Sun and Moon” was so close to being my favorite song of 2024, and in another year, it would have been. For that matter, in another year Reclamation itself would have claimed the top spot on this list.
#1. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – What else could it have been? I worry that by this point I may have used up all of the words that are possible to describe this pinnacle of excellence. In reality, though, I’m not sure I even have the words to express it in the first place, not for lack of trying. Ulcerate have long been a behemoth in their realm within the larger world of death metal, but while distinctive, they have never settled, continually carving up the template of dissonance with varyingly-sized blades of atmosphere and melody, moving between their most barbed and chaotic (Everything is Fire) to their most somber and moody (The Destroyers of All) in just one album. Later Shrines of Paralysis—my former favorite—saw a turn back towards the urgency and aggression, but with this new harmonic undercurrent in place. With hindsight, I can see now that the deeply atmospheric, disquieting Stare into Death and Be Still marked a turning point, paving the ground for what could be their magnum opus. Distilling the tension and the turmoil, into tidal forces of incredible rhythm, and dark, brilliant melody, with Cutting the Throat of God, Ulcerate reach transcendence. Dire (“The Dawn is Hollow”), deadly (“Transfiguration in and Out of Worlds”), devastating (“To See Death Just Once,” “Cutting the Throat of God”). Its intricacies only continue to reveal themselves to me; helped, no doubt, by a phenomenal live performance that bewitched me anew this October. I had to upgrade this album’s score to Iconic, because it is. This is atmospheric death metal perfected, and if genre-mates weren’t already looking in Ulcerate’s direction, there’s hardly any choice now. Cutting the Throat of God represents, in the greatest form, “the savagery, authenticity, and more recently, beauty that makes this icon of the dissonant death metal world who they are.”
Honorable Mentions:
Gaerea // Coma – Despite having calmed down considerably from my previous Gaerea overhype, there’s no denying that they’ve really got something. With a new vocalist, they retain their distinctively melodramatic and intense style, while incorporating a little more vulnerability via some genuinely really lovely cleans. A great record that just wasn’t great enough for the ridiculously high standard set by this year’s fare.
Eye Eater // Alienate – I am immensely grateful for Dolphin Whisperer for bringing this to my attention. Much of this album feels like it was written specifically for me, because it uses pretty much all of my favorite things in metal. It’s atmospheric and dissonant, like Ulcerate and others in that vein; it’s kind of post-death-y, and replete with minor melodies, and a particular kind of urgency my brain associates with specific kinds of ‘-core’. I just didn’t get quite enough time with it.
Songs of the Year
“To See Death Just Once” – Ulcerate
“Sun and Moon” – Amiensus
“Solus” – Devenial Verdict
“Terminal” – Vorga
“Third World Wretchedness” – Selbst
“The Paint of an Invader” – Cave Sermon
“A Day After” – Föhn
“Ábær” – Hamferð
“Inversion” – Endonomos
“Death’s Knell Rings in Eternity” – Spectral Voice
“Leaving” – Pillar of Light
Maddog
It’s been a weird year, and this is a weird list. Last December, I lamented the emotional hollowness of 2023’s metal output. If anything, 2024 fell even flatter. My most anticipated heavyweights were competent but inconsistent (Alcest, Julie Christmas), and few albums moved me. Unfazed, death metal picked up the slack and made this year a pleasure. Led by a flurry of excellent releases from genre titans, 2024 helped rekindle my love for cantankerous death metal.
Even so, the brutality of 2024’s output shocked me. Despite my worship of Suffocation and Dying Fetus, most brutal death metal releases of the last decade haven’t gripped me. But 2024 pulled me onto the brutal train with creativity and pizzazz. Both the techy and the knuckle-dragging corners of that subgenre thrived, including several artists that didn’t make my list (like Gigan, Iniquitous Savagery, and Nile). After tending toward more emotive music and other poseur nonsense in recent years, I took a long jump back in 2024.
As if that wasn’t enough, this was a banner year for dissonance. That’s a sentence I never expected to type; even dissonant death metal’s classics tend to be hit-or-miss with me. In 2024, the skronk finally broke through, aided by many avant-garde bands drifting toward a more accessible sound. This year’s screechy screeds were cogent enough to grab my arm and unhinged enough to rip it out of its socket. It’s been a jarring but eye-opening year.
This comment from the Brodequin review doubles as a summary of my 2024 music picks:
I wonder if I, we, they or all of us have a screw loose.
Heading into 2024, I craved immersive soundscapes and misty eyes. Instead, I was met with discordant gurgling. I didn’t expect it, but I don’t regret it.
#ish. Hypoxia // Defiance – Defiance never gets old. This old-school death metal behemoth has been around for ten months and hails from a subgenre that’s infamous for monotony. And yet, like Monstrosity’s best work, it blossoms on every spin. Defiance sports 2024’s fiercest harsh vocal performance, and riffwork so potent that it could revive the Selbst baby. I don’t have anything fancy to add, so I won’t try. Defiance is a rare death metal record that’s simple, thrilling, and well-written.
#10. Dawn Treader // Bloom & Decay – The thought sometimes crosses my mind: Why does atmospheric black metal even exist? The musical possibilities abound; who would pay $8 for tremolo scales recorded in a rest stop bathroom? Records like Bloom & Decay jolt me out of my pretension. Dawn Treader’s underground gem is both a product and a peddler of overpowering emotion. Ross Connell unleashes a tirade against violence and oppression using grief-stricken guitar melodies. On the flip side, Bloom & Decay’s heavy use of major keys—my second biggest fear—blurs the line between despair and tentative hope. Most impressive is the album’s flow, which Itchymenace described better than I ever could: “The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality.” Bloom & Decay’s 53-minute chokehold on my heart is ineffable but unyielding.
#9. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Germany’s nameless Noise has built up a remarkable CV – 7 years, 3 bands, 8 albums. While I’ve often enjoyed his music, I never fell under his spell. Die Urkatastrophe was the last straw. A pacifist tirade told through first-person WWI vignettes, Die Urkatastrophe depicts nationalist violence and its aftermath. Armed with a sharp-edged blackened death foundation and surging chorus melodies, Kanonenfieber provides rewarding fodder even for unfeeling riff addicts. However, its excellence lies in its raw emotion. Both Noise’s lyrics and his songwriting embrace a “show, don’t tell” approach that brings the album to life. As the narrator’s cavalry offensive meets with a hilltop ambush in “Gott mit der Kavallerie,” Kanonenfieber’s upbeat riffs transform into a sudden dirge followed by frantic black metal. The epic “Waffenbrüder” evokes the wide-eyed optimism of childhood friends, the pride of enlisting, the tragedy of losing a companion, and the regrets of a life wasted. Die Urkatastrophe is both a transformative album and exemplary storytelling.
#8. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – Chronicles of Lunacy is essential listening for any fans of extreme metal. Its greatest triumph is its fine mix of Defeated Sanity’s signature ingredients. Chronicles excels as pure brutal death metal through punishing caveman riffs and a tasteful dose of slam. Vaughn Stoffey’s guitars elevate this to an art form using wily fretboard acrobatics and seamless jazzy breaks. Led by kit-meister Lille Gruber, Defeated Sanity’s off-kilter rhythms and heavy syncopation miraculously aid the album’s staying power rather than hindering it. Put simply, Chronicles of Lunacy is 2024’s most vivid reminder of why I love death metal. I love its unforgiving brutality; I love its dazzling technicality; I love its groove; I love its genre-bending creative expression; I love its rhythmic feats of strength; I love its intellect; I love its idiocy. In other words, I love Defeated Sanity.
#7. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – It’s a match made in heaven: Cutting the Throat of God is Ulcerate for dummies, and I’m a dummy. Ulcerate continues to march toward more accessible ground, leaving behind the merciless dissonance of Everything is Fire. Powerful melodic themes peek through the chaos and take time to shine, offering both souvenirs and footholds. Despite Cutting’s lowbrow appeal, Ulcerate’s inimitable signature remains. Unease pervades the record, and Ulcerate’s cohesive songwriting transforms it from a concept to an emotion. In Thus Spoke’s words, Jamie Saint Merat’s drums are “more body than skeleton,” using their distinctive start-stop style to guide the mood. The album’s climaxes alone justify a purchase, as hypnotic melodies and frenzied dissonance coalesce into a tsunami. In short, Cutting the Throat of God captured both my brain and my heart.
#6. Hippotraktor // Stasis – I first heard about Belgium’s Hippotraktor from an insistent coworker, long before I discovered GardensTale’s well-worded underrating. Psychonaut meets Karnivool meets The Ocean meets Meshuggah in this pounding, beautiful prog/post adventure. Stasis’ hard-won achievement is that it navigates through disparate ideas with fluidity and flair. Psychonaut-drenched sludge forms a jagged backbone that sways between meditative and explosive. Meanwhile, Hippotraktor’s mastery of melody catapults them into genre royalty. “Stasis” uses this superpower for peaceful guitar jams, “Echoes” uses it for soaring As I Lay Dying vocal lines, and “The Reckoning” uses it for haunting continuity across its eight minutes. The djenty interdjections are well-written and screwed in tight, packing a punch even for listeners with severe djent allerdjies. Stasis is a bold statement from a new band, and it’s jostled up my list posthaste.
#5. Hell:on // Shaman – Hell:on’s folk-infused take on death metal stands apart. Shaman’s diverse influences complement each other and flourish in isolation. Phrygian themes, throat singing, and driving sitars steer the album. But despite Shaman’s folk roots, it’s an excellent slab of death metal. Hell:on’s riffs recall the threatening leviathans of Nile’s Annihilation of the Wicked, while the narrative song structures feel like a roided-out Aeternam. Even among such storied company, Shaman’s melodies stand out. Over the record’s runtime, Hell:on’s guitars shred, soar, flail, and wallop, evolving smoothly and dragging the listener along. As icing on the cake, Holdeneye’s review of Shaman features the most sobering and most badass introductory story of 2024. Hell:on demanded my attention and earned it.
#4. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – I started warming up to Exhaust on my first listen, but it took a while to diagnose why. Pyrrhon’s earlier releases didn’t click with me, but Exhaust is a trailblazer and a paradox. Pyrrhon rewrites the textbook on riffs, displaying a mastery of groove even in their wildest moments. And the noisier cuts, which remind me most of Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Velvet Underground, are evocative narratives rather than lifeless technical exercises. The longer pieces intersperse hypnotic buildups with furious cacophony (“Out of Gas”), while the shorter tracks are simultaneously caustic and infectious. With a thick leading bass performance and a master that highlights every detail of the drums, Exhaust grows on me with every spin. Pyrrhon’s off-the-deep-end brand of experimental death metal isn’t my usual fare, but I can’t avert my ears this time. Both mellifluous and disgusting, both rifftastic and immersive, Exhaust is singular.
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – My first toe dip into Selbst made a lasting impression. Shortly after Despondency Chord Progressions came out, I spun it at the office. In the final minute of the opener “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos,” I felt the involuntary tears start to flow, and I had to nuke the music and run to the bathroom to avoid worrying my desk neighbor. This embarrassing first encounter perfectly encapsulates the album. While it’s “merely” black metal, its gorgeous melodies and shrilling tremolos showcase the genre at its finest. Alternating between meditative dirges and howling chords, Selbst conveys both muffled sobs and hysterical bawling. Selbst’s fluid compositions captivated me at once and dug their claws even deeper over the ensuing months. The most heart-rending record of 2024, Despondency Chord Progressions showcases the paralyzing power of music.
#2. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – Noxis’ debut is a remarkable blend of old and new. The album’s stomping riffs and popping snare drum root it in 1990s brutal death metal. Conversely, its exuberantly grimy bass tone, its proggy rhythms, and its surprise woodwind extravaganza feel unabashedly modern. Much like last year’s Ohio death metal highlight, Violence Inherent in the System succeeds by ripping throughout, whether with a vile Dying Fetus riff or with an adventurous bass melody. Although this is the longest record in my top five, its 46 minutes fly by. Boasting momentum that would make Newton blush, Noxis keeps the energy high from the barnburner “Skullcrushing Defilement” to the proggy old-school “Emanations of the Sick.” After six months of scrutinizing and adoring Violence, I still can’t fathom that this is a debut album.
#1. Wormed // Omegon – I’ve already said my piece on this, and nothing has changed. Omegon feels as thrilling, as alien, as robotic, and as human as it did in July. In a year where brutality and dissonance thrived, Wormed maxed out both dimensions. Omegon is at once a painstakingly crafted work of art, an all-consuming atmosphere, and 2024’s punchiest death metal record.
Honorable Mentions:
- Oxygen Destroyer // Guardian of the Universe – Redefining Darkness strikes again. Oxygen Destroyer’s latest death-thrash opus is a concise half hour of exhilarating riffs. The album sounds one track, but I don’t care; it gains steam as it progresses, and it lodges deeper on every listen. There’s no excuse for missing this.
- Brodequin // Harbinger of Woe – Despite its morose title, Harbinger of Woe is straightforward and riotous. Brodequin has honed a sleek archetype of brutal death metal, far from the likes of Wormed. It doesn’t aim to innovate; it just aims for high impact. It succeeds.
- Kryptos // Decimator – India’s heavy metal kings dealt me an irreplaceable shot of adrenaline. Decimator is Kryptos’ most melodically inspired work to date, an absolute scorcher, and the most viscerally satisfying production job of 2024.
- Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – Somehow, despite competition from In Aphelion and Necrophobic themselves, Necrowretch churned out the best Necrophobic album of 2024.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Julie Christmas – “The Lighthouse”
- Hippotraktor – “The Reckoning”
- Kanonenfieber – “Waffenbrüder”
- Hypoxia – “Scorched and Skinned”
- Kryptos – “Fall to the Spectre’s Gaze”
- Wormed – “Protogod”
- Alcest – “Améthyste”
- Defeated Sanity – “Heredity Violated”
- Andy Gillion – “Acceptance”
- Selbst – “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos”
- Pyrrhon – “Out of Gas”
- Ulcerate – “Cutting the Throat of God”
- Noxis – “Abstemious, Pious Writ of Life”
- Keygen Church – “La Chiave del mio Amor”
#2024 #Amiensus #BlogPost #Brodequin #CaveSermon #ColdCell #DawnTreader #DefeatedSanity #DevenialVerdict #EyeEater #Föhn #Gaerea #Hamferð #HellOn #Hippotraktor #Hypoxia #Kanonenfeiber #Kryptos #Necrowretch #Noxis #OxygenDestroyer #PillarOfLight #Pyrrhon #Replicant #Selbst #SpectralVoice #ThusSpokeAndMaddogSTopTenIshOf2024 #Ulcerate #Wormed
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The audacity of #privilege knows no bounds. This week, #Trump's least intellectually gifted son appeared on a religious #zealot's podcast and compared his father's legal issues to the systemic #racism and legal injustices faced by Black people for centuries.
#TrumpIndictment #TrumpDelusions #TrumpCrimes #TrumpCult #MakeAttorneysGetAttorneys #authoritarianism #GOPfascists
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Death penalty rage in US
A spate of executions in US prompts rage and frustration
December 2024
The authoritative Death Penalty Information Center in the US has published its 2024 report on executions in the USA. The number of new death sentences in 2024 increased from 2023, with 26. The number of people on death row across the United States has continued to decline from a peak population in the year 2000. Support for the penalty in the US has continued to decline.
Three of the cases it highlights are those which the Salisbury group has campaigned on: Marcellus Williams, Robert Roberson and Richard Glossip.
It has mainly been the Southern states that stick to this penalty. Indeed, it is just four states that conducted 76% of executions: Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri. Concern has been expressed that too many people are executed who have a credible defence of innocence. Many of those who await execution or who were executed demonstrate classic vulnerabilities, including intellectual disability or brain damage, serious mental illness, or a history of severe childhood trauma or abuse.
The US joins a motley crew of countries which execute significant numbers of its citizens. China leads the way with large numbers executed but the numbers are a state secret. Others include North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Why should it be banned? There are five good reasons:
- It is not a deterrent. If it was, one would expect to see a fall in violent crime in the states using the penalty. There is no such correlation.
- It is irreversible. Mistakes cannot be put right. There is no comeback from an execution. We can quote Andy Malkinson who was released after 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Had he been executed …
- It is often used as a political tool especially in countries such as Iran, Saudi and China. There are elements of this in the Southern states of the US with disproportionate numbers of Black people on death row.
- It is often used after unfair justice. Readers of Clive Stafford-Smith’s work, for example, Injustice, will know that the process of criminal trials in the US is far from perfect or fair. There is no obligation on police to produce evidence that proves a plaintiff’s innocence. Plea bargains are frequently used to enable one participant to escape justice at the expense of another. Juries are often biased.
- It is discriminatory with a preponderance of black people or those with mental impairment who find themselves on death row.
In Oklahoma, Richard Glossip (pictured) is one of the cases the group has pursued which illustrates several of the
above points. Doubts around the death sentence of Glossip also provoked intense soul-searching. Glossip was convicted of the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, the owner of a motel in Oklahoma City which Glossip managed.
He was convicted based on the testimony of a co-worker who later admitted he was the actual murderer. It was also recently revealed that prosecutors destroyed evidence before trial that could have cleared Glossip.
The Report notes that the Supreme Court has largely abandoned its role of critical appraisal of cases which come before it. When Donald Trump assumes the role of President a month from now, he is committed to accelerating the pace of Federal executions. It is likely that a number of death row inmates will die who have credible doubts about their convictions.
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Phantom of the Twilight Review (PC)
Release Date: December 16, 2024 (North America)
Developers: Lumiere Entertainment Inc.
Publishers: Smilegate
Platforms: PC (Steam)
Age Rating: 15+ (GRAC)STORY
Step into 19th-century London during a dazzling technological revolution.
As Lady Lucy of the Lindere family, you discover a gruesome murder in your estate. The body found in a pool of blood belongs to Mary, a maid who had grown close to you over the years. Shocked by her sudden death, Lucy, accompanied by her loyal butler, Charlie, sets out to find the culprit. Joining them is Detective Aaron, dedicated to solving the case, and Professor Harvey, who is inadvertently drawn into the mystery. Together, they edge closer to uncovering the identity of the murderer, unaware of the merciless truth that lies ahead.
ART AND MUSIC
Production: ~Estellaras~, Lumiere Entertainment Inc.Artists: Hyewon Jo (Character Design), Yurim Hwang (Illustrator)Scenario Writer: Yuri KimBGM: ~Lion Studio~, Wooyoung Song, Changheo Kim, Eunchae YangVoice Acting
Kim Myung-jun as “Charlie” – Kiro (MLQC), June (The Ssum), Jiyeon (Dandelion), Choo Sang Woo (Semantic Error), Hyunwoo Seo (I Need a Bride), Albedo (Genshin Impact), Kane (League of Legends), Ky Kiske (Guilty Gear Strive), Yudan (The Strange Tales of Banwoldang)
Sungheon Suk as “Aaron Bailey” – Teo (The Ssum), Harold (Arknights), Ludwig (Grand Saga), Dhurke Sahdmadhi
(Ace Attorney), Alexander Haig (COD: Black Ops)Eui-taek Jung as “Harvey Ross” – Henri (The Ssum), Tighnari (Genshin Impact), Deneh (The Dawn Of A Flower), Windflit (Arknights), Shaohao (X2 Eclipse), Xion Crowld (Bride of the Twilight), Jack (Sonic Prime)
Ryu Seung-gon as “Felix Cole” – Sylus (Love and Deepspace), Charlie (Light and Night), William (LoveUnholyc), Lee Gyu-hyuk (Burried Stars), Thoma (Genshin Impact), KING (Tower Fantasy), Hyun Tae Joon (Mystic Code), Sirus (Arcana Twilight), Hwal (Does God Work Overtime?)
MAIN CHARACTERS AND ROUTES
There are only three romanceable characters and routes in the game: Aaron, Charlie, and Harvey. Unfortunately for Felix Cole’s fans, he only appears as a side character here and doesn’t have a dedicated romance route. In the game’s DLC however, which is not available in English (the Korean version is available on Indie STOVE), there’s a special short story dedicated to Felix, that delves deeper into his character.
There are no locked routes in this game, and I think it’s fine to start with any of the three romanceable characters. During my gameplay, I played in this order: Aaron → Charlie → Harvey.
AARON BAILEY
- tsun
- ….👀
Aaron Bailey is a responsible detective who is always highly dedicated to his career, solving every case he puts his heart into. Many of the townspeople see him as a guardian protecting the city’s peace. He is tirelessly committed to his work. However, when faced with unsolvable cases, he struggles to confront his own limitations and sometimes begins to doubt himself.
I normally go into games blind (without watching trailers, if I can help it), so when I first heard Aaron in the game, I thought, Hmm, he sounds really familiar? It wasn’t until I finished his route and saw his name in the credits, and I was flabbergasted to find out it was The Ssum’s Teo! Welp, I loooove Seunghon Suk (pls, he’s so precious; I even have his autograph, lol).😭
That aside, I really like Aaron’s personality in the game. I thought he was a bit of a tsundere toward the heroine. I was also quite enamored by how hardworking he is as a detective, and I had to clutch my chest for a moment there, when he talked about his backstory. His overall route though…...was alright. To be honest, it felt a little too short for me (all the routes in the game are like this, sadly). I also feel like Aaron could’ve used more time to bond with the heroine, cause I did kinda feel that his romance with Lucy was somewhat abrupt. In contrast, I did *enjoy* his *cough* good ending… *cough* AND VERY MUCH SO… 🔥👀
⬇️ SpoilersI know I said the romance here was kind of abrupt, and while I still think so, I’m a little 👀 ho ho ho with Aaron’s BED ending — which turned out to be his… GOOD ENDING! LOL Oh my….. godbless???? 🤭 I thought it was cute that he avoided Lucy all the way to the end, but once he got consent…. BAM! To the bed we go! Hahaha I love it! I love Aaron, I think he’s sexy af!🥵
CHARLIE
- your loyal butt ler 🍑
- vampire daddy 1
Charlie is the calm, dignified butler of the Lindere family. Bound by a blood contract to serve the Lindere, he is loyal to the core. Charlie is also very composed in public and always responds in a logical manner when interacting with the townspeople and others. However, he also has a very intimidating side. He is deeply devoted to serving the heroine, Lucy.
Perhaps the game’s poster boy, and the most popular LI in this title! I mean, a hot vampire butler who’s at your beck and call is always a win in otome games, no?🤭 I think out of the three LIs, Charlie’s romance was the most believable as well. And that’s because there’s already an established camaraderie between him and the heroine. This plays a big part in the significant build-up of their relationship. So, romance-wise, I think Charlie’s route was my favorite.
Charlie was such a sweet talker too, and has a rather possessive side!👀 His voice is amazing, hot… smooth like butter! There’s something about the way he delivers his monologues that feels so soothing to me. Kudos to the popular Kim Myungjun for doing god’s work!
⬇️ SpoilersJust like Aaron’s route, the ending was a bit repetitive here, sadly. They find out who the culprit is, and everything goes back to normal, so it was a little disappointing that Charlie’s route ended this way. I was expecting it to delve deeper into his history with the Linderes, but I was very surprised that they left a huge chunk of details in the dark. There seemed to be so many unanswered questions about how the contract began, the specifics of their blood pact, and how it shaped the Linderes over time. A rather missed opportunity to add more depth to Charlie’s character, if you ask me!
In the game’s premise, as well as in their promotional materials, it was stated that Charlie is the progenitor of vampires and the one who made a blood contract with the Linderes. The Linderes were once just farmers, but after making a pact with Charlie, they became knights and was given the title of “Count”. In exchange, the daughters of the Lindere family would need to provide Charlie with fresh blood, and in return, Charlie serves them. I’m sad that this lore wasn’t explored much. I would love to know more about Charlie’s origins!
HARVEY ROSS
- vampire daddy 2
- soft
Harvey is the elite professor at King’s College, specializing in criminal psychology. He’s highly intellectual and very perceptive that even Charlie acknowledges his sharp insights into everything. Not many people know, but Harvey is also a vampire who has abstained from blood for a long time, choosing to remain detached from society.
I think out of the three routes, it was Harvey’s that focused the most on the mystery-solving aspects (I expected it’d be Aaron’s route since he’s the in the police force, but nope!). I also really liked Harvey and Lucy’s dynamic. Though, similar to Aaron’s route, I feel like they needed more time together to bond and naturally develop their relationship. This route also cruised along the angst line, though I’d say the happy/good ending resolves Harvey’s *foreboding* issue too quickly. There’s plenty of pleasant banter and bickering among the three LIs here, which I enjoyed as well.
⬇️ SpoilersPerhaps it’s just me, but despite how rushed the romance is in this route, I still really liked it for some reason. Maybe part of it was because of Harvey’s kind-hearted nature; it’s hard to dislike him, really. The man is soft af! The fact that they sort of have a sensei-student relationship with the MC makes it even hotter to me. LOL.
My only gripe was that Harvey’s illness or his being a weak vampire wasn’t fully expounded. It feels like the game just expects you to know that he’s abstaining from drinking blood, so he’s at a point where he’s *withering away* (for lack of a better term), but I feel like this could have been explored better and might have added more context to how unstable his special ability is at reading emotional imprints. Just my two cents.🤷🏻♀️
LUCY LINDERE (Main Heroine)
Lucy is the heir to the Lindere estate, she has some influence in Old London due to her family’s status. Because of this, most of the townspeople know and respect her.
I feel like Lucy is your typical textbook heroine; calm, upright, diligent… you know the type! I like her for what she is in the story. I also appreciate that she’s the one who initiates and urges the vampires to drink her blood. There are a lot of scenes where a vampire LI would tell her: “No, I can’t drink your blood, or else…” and she’d be like, Drink, or bust!🔫😂😂😂 which I thought was kind of hilarious!😂 I guess my only tiny gripe about her is that there were some instances in the story where she showed very little agency especially in dire situations. Because of this, I sometimes feel the narrative is a bit too convenient for her, if that makes any sense. It’s as if the plot resolves things too easily in her favor.
SYSTEM AND LOCALIZATION
- ??????????????????????????
- ??????????????????????????
- ??????????????????????????
The game’s UI was very clean and simple. I was surprised that you could backtrack & rewind to certain scenes, which made making choices and collecting all the endings much more convenient for completionists like myself. There were also helpful features in the main menu that let you track and rewatch the endings you’ve already unlocked.
There are however a couple of bugs I’ve encountered during my gameplay, which was quite unfortunate!
PROS:
- Heroine’s Name Customization
- Rewind Feature
- Quick Save/Quick Load
- Album
- Music
- Episode/End List
- OP/ED Movies playable in the MAIN MENU
CONS:
- No controller support – this was a big issue for me since I love playing my VNs on the TV with my consoles docked.
- The SKIP read function didn’t work properly (I’m not sure if this issue also occurs on PC since I was playing on my ally, so it might be a feature bug specific to handheld mode). Some of the already-read dialogues are sometimes unskippable.
- Limited CGs. There are only 3 CGs in the common route for each LI and 2 in their individual routes.
- No love-catch system.
- Main Menu Bugs – One of the bugs I encountered was that all the CGs and endings I had unlocked during my gameplay were wiped out when I abruptly restarted the game.🥲
Localization
The localization was quite good. Apart from the heroine’s last name changing from Lindells to Lindere in their promo materials, I didn’t notice any in-game major typos or glaring errors, which makes me feel the game was carefully vetted during QA. The dialogues were translated smoothly, without feeling jarring in any scenes. Overall, I liked it.
TRAILER
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Phantom of the Twilight has a rather short gameplay. It took me about 12-13 hours to get all the endings and unlock all the CGs (which weren’t that many btw). The game’s common route starts from Chapter 1 and stretches to Chapter 6, while Chapter 7 is where the individual LI routes branch out. Also, the game features two official endings for each of the three main LIs. Ending 1 is the “good/happy end,” while Ending 2 is the “bad end”. The rest are bad ends (or game-overs) that offers no CGs.
No Felix Route
After playing the entire game, I now understand some of the minor but rather prominent complaints from the KR otome community back when the game first launched. Which is, well… you’ve probably guessed it by now… Why cast Ryu if you’re not giving his character a route? 😂 Like, seriously, whyyy?😭
Despite Felix appearing in promo materials and even on the cover art, he was shafted a route, which was kind of disappointing. For such an interesting character to not be attainable romantically is downright criminal, isn’t it?😩 The developers did release a DLC that delves more into Felix’s character, but he still, as of now, does not have a respective romance route of his own. I’m also sad that the DLC isn’t available in the English version of the game. I hope they are able to translate the DLC soon, and add it as an addon purchase. I’m sure a lot of people would actually be delighted by that.
Another nitpick I have is that I initially thought the branching routes would have their own contained story, but it turns out the overall plot progressed in a rather linear direction. So in the end, it’s kind of the same conclusion as far as the overarching story goes, no matter which LI route you take.
Another thing is that, even though the premise of the game makes it sound like it will be rich with mystery, crime, and case-solving; the crime-solving aspect wasn’t utilized much, in the sense that there weren’t enough investigation elements added into the narrative to make it more engaging for the players. I think it was only in Harvey’s route that we got a *proper* investigation and analysis of the murder cases.
Hot, Sexy Vampires with an Amazing Voice Cast!
I griped a lot about the overarching story of this title, or lack thereof, but there’s no denying that the voice cast in this game was S tier! And probably one of the biggest reasons I was initially drawn to this title. 😁🤭 All three LIs were also quite good! Each had their own distinct personality and charms, which I’m sure a lot of people would love. I’m a sucker for the devoted-vampire-butler who’s willing to do anything for you trope, so my fav LI was Charlie. I do wish they’d expanded more on his backstory though, especially his origins! Also, if Felix had a romance route, he’d probably be on my top pick as well, but alas!🥲
Did he just say….CAGE???😳Speaking of romance, the game seems to lack the amount of sugar content that could have elevated the relationship between the heroine and her partner (likely due to its focus on solving the crime at hand). Sometimes, the romance felt a little lacking to me, and I think this was due to the routes being rather short. Maybe a few extra chapters or scenarios where the heroine spends more endearing time with her love interest would have raised the sugar content to a more satisfying level. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the romance scenarios here though, because I DID, and very much so! Look, I’m just a simple lady, I see hot, sexy vampires, I devour and conquer!🥵😮💨
Do I recommend this game? YES.
I’ll admit that I found the shorter routes here a bit lacking in depth (as someone who usually enjoys longer routes in otome games). However, that didn’t take away from how much I enjoyed Phantom of the Twilight, overall. Coming out from a gaming burnout, I also needed something light and engaging that I could play in short spurts without being weighed down by a complex plot. In that sense, this was an easy read and perfectly suited what I was looking for.I definitely recommend this game to anyone looking for a short, enjoyable otome title that’s easy to pick up without needing to fully commit to the story. It’s one of those games you can casually return to and still enjoy without feeling overwhelmed, if you know what I mean. The art is exceptionally beautiful and the love interests are all very likable. Most importantly, the voice acting is outstanding! Story-wise, I would’ve rated this lower, but everything else more than makes up for it—and tbh, for its impressive production quality, you can’t beat the affordable price for what you’re getting!
#Estellaras #IndieStove #LumiereEntertainmentInc_ #OtomeGameReview #PC #PhantomOfTheTwilight #PhantomOfTheTwilightReview #Smilegate #Steam
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#USA #Immigration #policies #Liberated from FB
#OliverKornetzkeApologies for the length, but not for the substance. In a country where immigrants are routinely dehumanized by those who misunderstand or ignore the truth, this couldn’t be said briefly. I chose clarity and completeness over convenience—because some things deserve the space to be said right:
You hear it all the time across America—in every corner of this country, though it echoes most clearly in predominantly white, rural, and small-town places: “Why don’t they just come here legally?” It’s said like a mic drop, as if immigration were as simple as waiting in line at the DMV and filling out a few forms. But it’s not—and it never has been. The truth is, for most people around the world—especially the poor, the displaced, and those from the Global South—there is no line. There is no straightforward path. For the vast majority, there is no legal way to immigrate to the United States at all.
The people who parrot that question usually don’t know a single thing about U.S. immigration policy. They haven’t read about quotas or waitlists, and they have no idea what it actually takes to get a visa, green card, or citizenship. They don’t realize that the system is not just broken—it’s designed to exclude. It’s a maze of bureaucracy, arbitrary limits, and near-impossible requirements, particularly for those without wealth, education, or existing family connections in the U.S. Many fall back on slogans like “Follow the rules,” “Wait your turn,” or “Come the right way,” as if those options exist for everyone. They don’t. And they never did—not for today’s migrants, and not even for the European ancestors they’re so proud of.
Many of the same people who preach this way about legal immigration often proudly celebrate their own family’s immigrant roots. They talk about their German, Irish, English, Dutch, or Scandinavian ancestors who “did it the right way.” What they fail to understand—or deliberately ignore—is that those ancestors came to America during a time when there was essentially no immigration system. There were no visa requirements, no green cards, no numerical quotas. People showed up, often with little more than the clothes on their backs, and were waved in because the country wanted white settlers to displace Native populations and populate the land with white, Christian communities.
Some facts: The first federal immigration law—the Page Act—wasn’t passed until 1875, and it wasn’t about regulation as much as exclusion: specifically banning Chinese women. The Chinese Exclusion Act followed in 1882, targeting an entire ethnic group. The modern “legal immigration” system—with quotas, country caps, and green cards—didn’t begin to take shape until the Immigration Act of 1924. That law baked white supremacy into immigration policy by explicitly favoring northern and western Europeans and virtually banning everyone else, particularly Asians and Africans. And passports? The U.S. didn’t even require them consistently until World War I, and universal enforcement didn’t become standard until the 1920s. Before that, coming to America was as easy as hopping on a ship and landing at Ellis Island.
What about those green cards, you ask? The concept wasn’t formalized until the 1940s, after which the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 finally abolished the explicitly racist quota system—but it didn’t make the system fair or accessible. It just created new hoops and barriers wrapped in bureaucratic tape and double standards.
Back to those beloved ancestors. They didn’t “follow the rules” because there weren’t any. What they followed was the scent of opportunity on land that didn’t belong to them. That land was stolen—from Native tribes through military force, genocide, and broken treaty after broken treaty. Then, with cold bureaucratic precision, the U.S. government handed out vast tracts of that stolen land to white settlers through policies like the Homestead Act of 1862. Over 270 million acres were handed out this way—almost 10% of the entire U.S.—to white citizens and immigrants deemed “desirable.” These were not people escaping quotas or earning their place through some meritocratic visa process—they were beneficiaries of a state-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing and settler colonialism. Meanwhile, the Indigenous peoples who had stewarded that land for millennia were pushed onto tiny, often barren and economically useless reservations, stripped of their ancestral homes and ways of life. Their children were ripped from their families and shipped off to government and church-run boarding schools, where they were beaten for speaking their native languages and forced to assimilate into white, Anglo-American norms—language, dress, religion—under the twisted banner of “civilizing” them.
And let’s be crystal clear while we’re at it: this country was not built solely by white settlers. It was built—quite literally—on the backs of Black slaves, kidnapped from Africa and forced into generations of brutal, dehumanizing labor. Enslaved Africans built the Southern plantation economy that fueled American capitalism, laid the bricks of our cities, dredged canals, harvested cotton, picked tobacco, and raised the wealth of white America while being denied humanity and freedom. And while white settlers were being handed land, Black Americans were being bought, sold, whipped, raped, lynched, and later redlined, incarcerated, and economically ghettoized into second-class citizenship.
And it wasn’t just Black labor. Asian immigrants—many of whom were also kidnapped, trafficked, or coerced—played an enormous role in building this country, especially in the West. Chinese laborers built the transcontinental railroad under conditions so brutal that many died doing it. They laid the steel skeleton that tied the country together—and when the job was done, they were met with riots, exclusion acts, and segregation. Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Indian, and other Asian migrants also helped build American agriculture, shipping, and manufacturing—only to be excluded, vilified, and later incarcerated in camps for daring to exist during wartime.
These communities didn’t just contribute—they made America possible. They have every bit as much claim to this country as any descendant of Ellis Island settlers. In fact, they have more right to say who belongs here than the MAGA cultists who think citizenship should be based on melanin levels and Protestant decorum. They earned it through centuries of blood, labor, resilience, and resistance—and they’re still being told to shut up, assimilate, and “go back” by the same people who wouldn’t know a work visa from a library card.
And now? The descendants of those white settlers want to pull up the ladder behind them. They want to slam the door shut and pretend that their families bootstrapped their way into a better life purely through virtue and hard work, when in reality they were handed land soaked in Native blood and protected by a military hell-bent on erasing anyone who got in the way. They arrived with nothing and were given everything. Today’s immigrants arrive with nothing and are given cages, court dates, and contempt. Why? Simple. They’re brown and they’re poor.What was once an open or loosely controlled frontier has morphed into a militarized apparatus—a prelude to full-on genocide exported abroad by deputizing thugs and enabling them to act like Gestapo fascist secret police, disappearing people off the streets in broad daylight, targeting those who don’t look white. This brutal display of state repression and violence is the inevitable conclusion of a society that has continued to feed on the myths and lazy, intellectually and morally bankrupt lies of those at the top, who profit off a distracted and divided working-class America.
These same folks will wave their flags and clutch their Bibles, never realizing the soul-crushing irony that Jesus himself—by today’s standards—would have been detained, denied entry, and deported. Born to a poor family, fleeing violence, and without proper documentation, he would have been seen as a threat, locked up, and put on a plane. These Americans forget that morality and legality are not the same thing—and never have been.
Today’s migrants are often fleeing not just poverty, but the direct consequences of U.S. foreign policy. For decades, the U.S. installed dictators, funded coups, trained death squads, and armed right-wing paramilitaries—so long as those regimes served American business interests. We supported brutal governments that suppressed unions and massacred civilians because it helped our corporations extract more profit. The violence, poverty, and instability that people now flee didn’t just happen. America helped create it. And now that those same people are showing up on our doorstep, Americans act shocked. We criminalize their desperation and turn them into villains.Meanwhile, many Americans continue to blame immigrants for problems they didn’t cause. Undocumented workers didn’t outsource manufacturing, bust unions, or cause the opioid crisis. They didn’t automate away entire industries or sell family farms to agribusiness giants. That was the work of the capitalist class—the same billionaires and corporations who profit off division, who underpay workers, and who benefit from scapegoating brown people whenever working class consciousness starts to materialize. It’s easier to blame the undocumented worker cleaning hotel rooms than to question a system that has been bleeding communities dry for decades.
People want someone to blame. And for generations, politicians and media outlets have handed them a convenient target: the immigrant. That scapegoating has deep roots in American history. But it’s a lie. A distraction. And one that continues to poison our politics and our humanity, and prevent us from addressing the real causes of inequality and decline.
The ruling elite have a vested interest in maintaining an undocumented, exploitable class of people. This segment of society can be wielded both as a political cudgel and as a weapon against organized labor and social movements. Employers use the constant threat of deportation to keep wages low and silence demands for better working conditions, knowing that fear of losing their livelihood prevents many undocumented workers from asserting their rights. Politicians and interest groups exploit anti-immigrant sentiment to divide the working class, making it harder for people to unite around common economic goals. This strategy ensures that those at the top maintain power by keeping the rest distracted and fragmented.
So the next time someone says, “Why don’t they just come legally?”—don’t nod along. Don’t let it slide. It’s not a real question. It’s a shield for ignorance or cruelty—often both. Because if you’re born in the wrong country, with the wrong skin color, and no U.S. family or corporate sponsor, there is no legal path. Not now. Not ever. And pretending otherwise only deepens the injustice.
The immigration system isn’t about justice. It never was. It’s about control, exclusion, and maintaining power—deciding who gets to belong and who gets left out. And if we’re going to have an honest conversation, we need to stop pretending that legality is the same as morality, that past immigrants followed a path that never existed then, or that the people trying to come here today are anything less than human beings responding to conditions we helped create.
P.S.
Of course, there’s a lot I didn’t cover—like immigration during and after slavery, or how even those trying to “do it the right way” are set up to fail. This post isn’t exhaustive, just necessary. I’m not done writing, and I’ll be back to dig into all of that—and more—in future posts.
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Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote an acclaimed book called “Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race”. I’m inviting white people in search of answers to read it before requesting intellectual and emotional labour from black people. It’s still in print and seems to help a lot.
http://renieddolodge.co.uk/books
#ReniEddoLodge #race #racism #books #NonFiction #BlackFediverse -
🧵 1/4
Recent discussion about dropping John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” as an English literature GCSE set book because of racial slurs in the text and its depiction of a black character got me thinking.
Surely it is right to listen seriously to the complaints of black students about the book.
Racism, though, is not the only reason that “Of Mice and Men” should be retired. The book’s failings should prompt a search for better novels to assign to British school students.I find “Of Mice and Men” to be not moving but mawkish. Steinbeck foreshadows the end of Lennie with the shooting of an old dog, then jerks the reader’s tears by presenting George’s dispatch of Lennie as something like the putting down of an animal. We are supposed to feel that catch in the throat reliably produced by scenes of the last moments of long sick children or pets, yet with that sentiment supposedly endowed with profundity because the death is of one man at the hands of another; we have learned something about Love and the Human Condition!
Actually, we have learned nothing of the sort. Instead, we have seen how an author uses intellectual disability as a device to reduce what might have been a complex character to little more than a cipher, but a cipher designed to evoke an emotional response to melodrama, a good cry providing at once catharsis and a self-satisfied sense that one is endowed with a morally superior sensibility on account of having had that good cry . Steinbeck noted how close his novella was to the script for a motion picture; we should note how closely here he embraced the values of Hollywood at its most kitschy. And let’s not even get started on “Of Mice and Men” and women...
So what might replace “Of Mice and Men” ?
#OfMiceAndMen #AmericanLiterature #GCSEEnglishLiterature #Steinbeck #Books
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“The empathy just oozes from this one. Hurricane Helene was apparently wet.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Morning, Sky Dancers!
The signs of the results of lousy decision-making based on greed and mythology are everywhere. Hurricanes are no longer coastal phenomena but can make their way 300 miles inland and hold a Cat 2 status. You would think enough people in this country have critical thinking skills and conscience to vote the pols out who are doing this to us. It would help, of course, if the press were still on the side of democracy instead of creating clickbait to earn a buck for stockholders and top management. But, here we are deeper down the rat hole of “The Medium is the Message published in 1964.” McLuhan understood clickbait before just about anyone.
The title “The Medium Is the Massage” is a teaser—a way of getting attention. There’s a wonderful sign hanging in a Toronto junkyard which reads, ‘Help Beautify Junkyards. Throw Something Lovely Away Today.’ This is a very effective way of getting people to notice a lot of things. And so the title is intended to draw attention to the fact that a medium is not something neutral—it does something to people. It takes hold of them. It rubs them off, it massages them and bumps them around, chiropractically, as it were, and the general roughing up that any new society gets from a medium, especially a new medium, is what is intended in that title”
This is more true than ever. We have more than a few TV channels, newspapers, and radio to influence us these days. Most people treat their news and information more like boutique shopping, where they can find the look that suits them every time. Substack is one medium where I have seen public intellectuals. I feel comfortable reading a lot of people there, and I must admit that it’s because they are a lot like me. They write about things that bug them about the institutions and country that house them and likely educated them. However, they do bring reasoned thought and data with them. But anyway, enough of that rabbit hole. Let’s just say I’m not beyond shopping my own boutique. Also, the positive thing about the web is that you have access to authentic information and don’t have to spend days in dark, moldy library stacks to find it. The negative thing is that not all people want to be challenged. They want to feel good about what they already think is real.
Margaret Sullivan’s Substack–aptly called American Crisis–has this headline today. “The three phases of normalizing Trump’s attack on Harris in Wisconsin. The media did what it always does, and it’s not good enough.” Trump is so far off the sanity scale these days that it is indeed frightening.
- The use of neutral language. If you merely read about Donald Trump’s deeply offensive rally this weekend in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, you probably thought it was about immigration. And about Trump up to his usual tricks of disparaging his rivals.
Here the lead of the report from Axios, for example:
“Former President Trump, in a self-described ‘dark speech,’ told a rally in Wisconsin yesterday that his opponent, Vice President Harris, is “mentally impaired’ and “mentally disabled.’”
Axios, which favors bullet points and boldface help for the tuned-out, let us know “Why It Matters”: “Even for Trump, it was weird, nasty and nonsensical — when he needed to be swaying ‘national security moms’ and other undecideds.”
Or here’s the top paragraph of the Washington Post report: “Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump criticized Vice President Harris’s mental capacity Saturday, falsely claiming she was born ‘mentally impaired’ and comparing her actions to that of a ‘mentally disabled person.’ The remarks prompted criticism from advocates for people with disabilities.”
Here’s the Associated Press’s headline: “Trump lists his grievances in a Wisconsin speech intended to link Harris to illegal immigration.”
But if you watched the speech, or even snippets of it, you saw something quite different — an absolutely ugly and brutal attack on Kamala Harris, full of lies and racist misogyny. In case you missed it, watch a bit of it here.
Sullivan has written two more of them and a lot of examples to follow. Please go read it.
- The lack of substantial followup. Once the outrageous rally was over, and the stories with their neutral language written, the political media was ready — more than ready — to move on. The media does know how to follow up, as you may recall from, for instance, President Biden’s bad debate this summer. But in the case of Trump’s unhinged and ugly attack on Harris’s intelligence, the spot-news coverage was about it. I did not see countless outraged opinion pieces; I did not see days of stories examining every aspect of this. It was just, cover the speech and let’s get out of here.
- The pivot to safety. Like waves rushing to the shore, the media relentlessly returns to the familiar. The thinking seems to go something like this: Whew, that was a pretty crazy rally, but let’s leave that behind and get back to what we’re good at. When in doubt, cover the horserace. One thing I did see after Saturday’s rally were many, many, many stories about polls. A New York Times headline Sunday rendered it this way: “Harris and Trump are Neck and Neck in Michigan and Wisconsin, Polls Find.” And that’s about as horserace-oriented as it gets.
This New Yorker’s The Lede, published three days ago, has similar warnings. It’s written by Clare Malone. “Is There a Method to Donald Trump’s Madness? The former President’s appeal has always been his sui-generis persona and politics—take him as he is—but, this year, the campaign seems more devoted to fan service than anything else.” Why try to make sense out of acts stemming from severe Personality Disorders and likely advanced dementia? Are the lessons from Journalism school to just blandly report the unspeakable? Was there ever a method in madness?
Vance is now a historically unpopular Vice-Presidential nominee. Mainstream Republican contenders, such as Senator Marco Rubio or Governor Doug Burgum, might have appealed to the sort of Nikki Haley voters that can’t stand Trump. Rubio, who is Cuban American, might have been a good pick to attract Latino voters, who, polls showed, were less interested in voting Democratic this year. Instead, Trump’s selection of Vance and all that he brings with him emphasized a doubling-down on MAGA culture. It could end up being politically ill-advised, but it’s not without its logic. Trump’s team knows that America is a hyperpartisan country. Polls show that just four per cent of voters are undecided in this election, the smallest share of the electorate in any U.S. contest this century. For the Trump campaign, the theory goes: Why expend all your energy trying to convince people to vote for one of the most unpopular Presidents in American history? Work to amp up your base and find Trump fans who don’t usually vote and make sure they turn out on November 5th.
The Trump campaign calls these voters “low-propensity,” and they’re working to turn them out in swing states like Arizona, where a canvassing effort is being run by the conservative group Turning Point USA. An Elon Musk-backed PAC is doing the same in Nevada and Michigan. Some Republicans have expressed reservations about the strategy, but it’s not a new idea in Trumpworld. In 2016, when I was a reporter at FiveThirtyEight, I obtained a Trump campaign memo written during that year’s primaries that explained the unusual practice of targeting low-propensity voters. “Our candidate commands unheard amounts of earned media,” the memo read, calling the strategy “more akin to evangelization than persuasion.” The job, then, was to teach Trump fans how to become Trump voters. “These are people who may not know where to vote, whether or not they are eligible to participate, and what the hours are,” the memo read. “They may have to work on the actual election day and are unaware of early voting opportunities on Saturdays. Many of them may have simply never been asked for their vote.” Turning Point’s focus this year—one of its employees told Semafor—is on small groups of thirty thousand to forty thousand potential voters in swing states, a testament to the slim margins of 2024.
Trump’s appeal has always been his sui-generis persona and politics—take him as he is—but, this year, the campaign seems more devoted to fan service than anything else. Steven Cheung, Trump’s top spokesman, recently retweeted a three-minute tongue-in-cheek hard-rock music video titled “MAGA ENERGY,” which nicely captured the movement’s aesthetics. It features lyrics like “Our world is frightening / Globals want to burn it down,” images of American flags and Trump’s face overlaid on that of a lion, and a montage of the jiggling, mostly bare bottoms of women shooting automatic weapons. Trump, a marketer to his core, has also built a promotional flywheel that he hopes his voters will get stuck in: If you like Trump’s crazy persona, you might go to your first Trump rally. If you go to enough rallies, you might like Trump’s digital trading cards—collect enough and you’ll get a physical piece of the suit that he wore to his debate with Biden (really!). If you like the trading cards, maybe you’ll buy Melania’s new book (she stands by her nude photos). Somewhere in there, Trump and company are hoping their low-propensity supporters register to vote and do so early.
The purpose of Trump’s campaign is to bolster his ego and keep him out of jail. Then, he’ll likely be replaced either by death or the 25th Amendment, and Vance will put the entire 2025 plan into play. Because all the players will be set up in the Federal Government. Additionally, all the work of Pat Robertson and others from the Reagan administration to enslave us to White Christian Nationalism will come to fruition.
Yesterday, I read this article from Mother Jones where one of the so-called Christians in that movement finally realizes that what he was doing wasn’t very ‘Christ-like,’ has repented, and is now trying to reverse the hell they bring to the political system. The title is “Confessions of a (Former) Christian Nationalist. When religion is placed at the service of a political party, it corrupts both.” and it’s written by The Reverend Rob Schenck. Anyone who read the history of the Roman Empire and its use of Christianity to conquer Northern Europe should know this by now. The story on how they captured SCOTUS is even more interesting than the narrative on capturing members of Congress.
Federal judges and especially Supreme Court justices, unlike politicians, never need to shake hands across a rope line. Accessing their world required creativity. I found it through the little-known Supreme Court Historical Society. Founded by the late Chief Justice Warren Burger, the independent nonprofit holds an annual dinner hosted by the chief justice and attended by most associate justices. Tickets are strictly controlled. By establishing a close relationship with the society’s staff, I managed to secure seats each year for several of my donors, whom I would coach on how to connect with the justices attending the event. As a result, two of my most active participants, Don and Gayle Wright of Dayton, Ohio, ingratiated themselves with the Alitos, Scalias, and Thomases.
When I trained my donors to interact with conservative justices on the court, I told them to reinforce for their powerful new friends how important their decisions were to the country’s future, and how critical Judeo-Christian values are to America’s success. I encouraged them to underscore how millions of citizens thanked God for their presence on the top court.
In a notable instance, the Wrights were tipped off about a pending decision before it was announced to the public. As I later told the House Judiciary Committee, “Gayle relayed that she had learned the outcome of the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case while at the meal with the Alitos, that it was in Hobby Lobby’s favor, and that ‘Sam is writing it.’” The ruling would affirm that companies with religious objections were not required to provide contraceptive coverage in their health insurance packages. I also told the House committee that Gayle had shared the news with me and that I told the president of Hobby Lobby, Steve Green—his parents were donors to my organization—that they had won the case. The Green family found themselves in the enviable position of using the advance notice to prep their spokespeople so they could be ready at the microphone outside the court following Alito’s reading of the majority opinion. They could shape the public narrative, a distinct advantage over their opponents.
When word of our campaign eventually broke in the New York Times, Justice Alito responded, “I never detected any effort on the part of the Wrights to obtain confidential information or to influence anything that I did in either an official or private capacity, and I would have strongly objected if they had done so.” He added, “I have no knowledge of any project that they allegedly undertook for ‘Faith and Action.’” Gayle Wright denied obtaining or passing along any such information. Steve Green declined to comment to the Times, and his mother told the paper he hadn’t been notified in advance. Let’s just say this is not how I remember what had happened.
It took years for the scales to fall from my eyes. A major turning point occurred when I took a leave of absence from Faith and Action to pursue a late-in-life doctorate. Part of my research involved the German Christian movement of the 1930s, which supported the Nazi Party. One of the most respected Bible scholars of that period, Paul Althaus, declared Hitler’s ascent to the chancellorship to be a “gift and miracle from God.” I began to suspect that we evangelicals were similarly allowing our faith to be co-opted for political purposes. Devastating consequences seemed inevitable for evangelicalism and for our country.
These fears were reinforced when I attended a tribute banquet for Pat Robertson around 2010. Virtually every evangelical luminary was there. When Robertson introduced his guest of honor, Donald J. Trump, I was shocked. In Bible college, my preaching instructor had suggested that the New York playboy was a perfect illustration for what it meant to not live as a Christian. I asked a friend of Pat’s why Trump was there. They both were “members of the billionaires’ club,” he explained. “Besides, he may make a good president someday.” Trump worked the room, filled with the biggest names on the religious right, garnering hearty applause.
The article is long and can make you angry, but it gives you more insight into that influential movement. Know Thy Enemy.
The New York Times finally read the writing on the wall today and endorsed Kamala Harris for President. I’m using the Politico analysis rather than trying to get into the NYT again, so you can notice the subheading, which says a lot about Politoco as a source. “NYT endorses Harris as ‘the only choice’ for president. The editorial board has not backed a Republican for president since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.” The analysis also says something about the New York Times.
The New York Times editorial board on Monday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her “the only patriotic choice for president” while painting a grim picture of a second term for former President Donald Trump.
Rather than praise for its preferred candidate, the board led its endorsement of Harris by listing off disqualifying arguments against Trump. “It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States,” the Times editorial board wrote.
“This unequivocal, dispiriting truth — Donald Trump is not fit to be president — should be enough for any voter who cares about the health of our country and the stability of our democracy to deny him re-election,” the board, made up of 14 opinion journalists, wrote. “For this reason, regardless of any political disagreements voters might have with her, Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president.”
The endorsement of Harris is unsurprising — the editorial board has not backed a Republican for president since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 — though still important given the paper’s influence. In July, 10 days before President Joe Biden left the race (and after the board called on him to do so), the board published a five-part, scathing editorial against Trump that struck many of the same chords as Monday’s story.
Okay, enough of that. Trump has become utterly void of self-censoring, even when it’s something that would behoove him to hide. This is from MSNBC and Steven Benen. “On overtime pay, Trump slips up by accidentally telling the truth. Donald Trump admitted that he concocted a private-sector scheme to avoid paying his employees overtime compensation. So much for his “pro-worker” pitch.”
Five of the most interesting words in Donald Trump’s rhetorical repertoire are, “I shouldn’t say this, but…” While it’s obviously impossible to read the former president’s mind, whenever the Republican uses the phrase, it’s an apparent acknowledgement that he knows the rest of the sentence will be politically problematic, but he’s simply unable to help himself.
As his first year in the White House came to an end, for example, Trump declared, “I shouldn’t say this, but we essentially repealed Obamacare.” He was, of course, lying, but the comments served as a reminder of his anti-health care vision. About a year later, campaigning in Montana, the then-president publicly praised Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte for physically assaulting a journalist who asked a question the governor didn’t like.
“I shouldn’t say this [but] there’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Trump said in reference to the violence.
Six years later, the Republican is still stumbling into inadvertent moments of candor. HuffPost reported:
Former president and current GOP nominee Donald Trump on Sunday admitted he ‘hated’ to pay his staff overtime and would instead replace them with other workers to avoid doing so. Trump’s confession came during a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, after promising to deliver ‘gigantic tax cuts’ via his pledge to end tax on tips, on overtime and on social security benefits for seniors.”
“I know a lot about overtime,” the Republican candidate boasted. “I hated to give overtime. I hated it. I’d get other people, I shouldn’t say this, but I’d get other people in. I wouldn’t pay.”
The public comments stood out for a few reasons.
Right off the bat, there are still some political observers who like to pretend that the former president is some kind of ally to working-class Americans. It’s against that backdrop that Trump thought it’d be a good idea to admit that he, as a boss, deliberately took steps to deny his own employees overtime compensation to which they were entitled.
Meanwhile, the DonOld Cult is up to more domestic terrorism. This is from Raw Story. “Trump-supporting Ohio businessman gets MAGA death threats for defending Haitian workers.” This analysis is by Brad Reed.
A Trump-supporting Ohio businessman is getting major blowback from fellow Trump supporters after he publicly defended the honor of the Haitian immigrants he has hired to work for him.
The New York Times reports that Jamie McGregor, a lifelong Republican who twice voted for former President Donald Trump and owner of the McGregor Metal manufacturing shop, has been hit with “death threats, a lockdown at his company and posters around town branding him a traitor” because he praised the Haitian immigrants who work at his company.
In fact, McGregor says the situation as gotten so scary that he’s arming both himself and his family members to defend against would-be MAGA assailants.
“I have struggled with the fact that now we’re going to have firearms in our house — like, what the hell?” he told the Times. “And now we’re taking classes, we’re going to shooting ranges, we’re being fitted for handguns.”
McGregor decided to hire newly arrived Haitian immigrants in recent years because he had trouble finding dependable workers, and he has praised them for having a strong work ethic that has benefitted his business.
McGregor’s home city of Springfield, Ohio has become the focus of MAGA anger in recent weeks after former President Donald Trump made false claims about Haitian immigrants there eating locals’ dogs and cats.
When confronted with evidence debunking this claim, Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), have doubled down on attacking the Haitian immigrant community.
It’s beginning to feel like Lord of the Flies in Trumplandia. I wonder if said businessman will vote for Trump again? Has that book been banned yet in Florida?
Oh, and now we get to speak of The Purge. They filmed the TV series at the Abandoned Navy Base down the block from me, which was weird enough. I didn’t see the movie or the series, but I know enough of the franchise to recognize it in Donald’s speech. This is from Politico. “Trump says ‘violent day’ of policing will end crime. The remarks at a campaign rally Sunday did not amount to a policy proposal allowing police retaliation, the former president’s campaign said.” Adam Wren reports the story.
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday called for “one real rough, nasty” and “violent day” of police retaliation in order to eradicate crime “immediately.”
The remarks — delivered by Trump at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, just 36 days before the election — did not amount to a new policy proposal, according to a Trump campaign official.
Asked whether the former president’s idea amounted to a new proposal and how such an operation would work, a campaign official said Trump was “clearly just floating it in jest.”
“President Trump has always been the law and order President and he continues to reiterate the importance of enforcing existing laws,” Steven Cheung, the campaign’s communications director, wrote in a statement to POLITICO. “Otherwise it’s all-out anarchy, which is what Kamala Harris has created in some of these communities across America, especially during her time as [California] Attorney General when she emboldened criminals.
The best analysis of what’s ahead and what’s happened is by Marcy at EmptyWheel. “As Kamala Harris Passes the Two-Thirds Mark, Trump Adopts Apocalyptic Language.”
Back on August 17, I laid out six things that could destabilize the race. We’ve gotten versions of four of those, though without yet serious impact on the race.
- There were no mass protests at the DNC. Neither, however, was there someone speaking for Palestinian people from the Convention podium.
- With the assassination last week of Hassan Nasrallah and Israel’s expanding operations against Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Yemen, we have seen unforeseen escalation in the Middle East. Joe Biden seems incapable of understanding that Bibi Netanyahu was never a good faith negotiator. On top of the instability this will bring (and the ongoing threat of Iranian violence targeted at Trump), I worry that Harris’ choice to prioritize Republican endorsements over Palestinian speakers could harm her in Michigan (as Elissa Slotkin issues warnings about Michigan).
- We did get a superseding indictment in Trump’s January 6 case (though without any new charges), but Trump succeded in delaying sentencing in his NY case. We may find out this week whether we’re going to get to see a redacted version of Jack Smith’s argument that Trump is not immune; indeed, given how Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a deadline for noon tomorrow, we may even see the argument itself this week. If we do, Trump’s attacks on Mike Pence will be at the center of the argument. Remember: Trump’s increasing fascistic language over the weekend has come after he got a first look at Smith’s argument, and his lawyers seem terrified of some of the claims made by witnesses that could get unsealed.
- Kamala Harris did have a historically successful debate, but it has done little more than bump polling, slightly. That said, her campaign continues to goad Trump to make him look weak, most recently in a national ad and plane advertisement at the Alabama-Georgia game yesterday. Whether or not Harris pushes him to accept a second debate, the continued goading seems to keep him unbalanced. In recent campaign appearances, Trump has denied he fell into her trap at the debate, directly addressed rally-goers who were leaving (denying they were leaving), and freaked out about a fly.
- Whatever the cause, Trump is increasingly unhinged in public appearances, though much of the press continues to sanewash his coverage. More and more, his rants adopt fascist language, such as yesterday when he either endorsed The Purge or Kristallnacht. Donald Trump looks weak and Donald Trump looks violent, but that is not yet a persistent news coverage theme (indeed, in his polling update, Nate Silver claims there’s nothing “like Joe Biden’s deteriorating public performances” that might be affecting the race in ways polling is not accounting for). If the press does begin to capture Trump’s weakness and violence, it may impact the race — but I’m not holding my breath.
- Trump’s right wing running mate has drummed up terrorist threats against his own constituents in Springfield, OH, and more recently drummed up threats against a beloved Pittsburgh restaurant (while trying to tamp them down). We have not yet gotten right wing violence, neither localized nor mass. But understand that the far right Christian nationalists that Trump has been cultivating, most notably with JD Vance’s appearance with Lance Wallnau, have been an absolutely central factor in past political violence, including January 6. When Donald Trump mobilizes Christian imagery, he does so not because he believes in any of it, but because he believes in power, and he knows he can get people who mistake him for the Messiah to go to war for him. (An Evangelicals for Harris group just rolled out an ad interspersing Billy Graham warnings of the anti-Christ with clips of Trump.) We have not yet seen political violence against marginalized groups, but Trump is doing everything that has fostered it in the past. Nevertheless, most horserace journalists are ignoring that, just like they and their colleagues dismissed the risk of political violence in advance of January 6.
In my earlier post, I said we should be unsurprised by a Black Swan event (I suggested all-out war was one possibility, and given the escalation in the Middle East, it remains one).
The floods caused by Helene could be another. Right wingers are already trying to ensure this works like Katrina did for George W Bush. And whatever else, the flooding disproportionately affected the rural areas that Trump needs to win North Carolina (though North Carolina voters can forego voter ID requirements under an emergency exception). That said, the Helene response may also highlight two things — FEMA and NOAA — that Project 2025 aims to defund. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s attempt to forgo federal help may provide a contrast that shows how Federal help can make a difference in a catastrophe. And a whole bunch of conservative people just got bowled over by the impact of climate change, hundreds of miles from the nearest coast. If the Feds can respond to the damage on I-40 like they did to the I-95 or the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster, it may convince people in North Carolina that the government can too do something good.
As for the flood, Biden promises the Federal Government will stay until the work is done. This is from USA. Today.”Biden on Helene disaster: ‘We’re not leaving until the job is done.'” Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy reports the story.
President Joe Biden assured communities reeling from Hurricane Helene that the “nation has your back,” and that help was on the way in a speech Monday from the White House.
“We’ll continue to serve resources including food, water, communications, and lifesaving equipment will be there,” Biden said. “I mean it − as long as it takes to finish this job.”
He also said he’s committed to travel later this week to affected communities.
“I’ve been told that it would be disruptive if I did it right now,” he said.
Authorities are dealing with the storm’s aftermath, which saw caused widespread devastation and power outages across the Southeast and killed at least 100. Biden, who said he’s been in touch with governors, mayors and local leaders, said 600 people were still unaccounted for.
I remember Hurricane Katrina all too well and while I loved spending time with Anderson Cooper et al, I’d rather no one have to live through that again. So, why don’t we keep going with renewable energy, develop a workable immigration plan, and continue to fund a government that works for the people? I’m tired of seeing billionaires and grifting politicians get the goodies.
Cheer up folks! Coach Tim debates J Dank Vance tomorrow night!!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
https://skydancingblog.com/2024/09/30/mostly-monday-reads-the-final-meltdown/
#Repeat1968JohnBuss #DonaldSDankPennsylvaniaRally #HurricaneHelene #TheMediaAndTrump #TheMediaSUCKS #TheMediumIsTheMessage
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Good Morning!!
Two hundred and fifty years ago today, a bunch of protesters in Boston staged a demonstration in our country’s a long fight for democracy. From WCVB Boston: ‘Grand-scale’ reenactment planned for 250th anniversary of Boston Tea Party.
The 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a pivotal event on the road to the American Revolution, will be marked with a series of events in the city on Saturday, culminating in a reenactment of the destruction of the tea.
On Dec. 16, 2023, the Sons of Liberty stormed aboard the brig Beaver and ship Eleanor to destroy wooden chests of East India Company tea. They dumped more than 300 crates of tea into Boston Harbor to protest taxes imposed on the colonies, who did not have representation in Parliament.
Two-and-a-half centuries after that famous act of defiance, reenactors plan to recreate the historic event starting at 8 p.m. Saturday. Members of the public are invited to the Harborwalk at 510 Atlantic Ave. to witness the reenactment.
“When history asked Boston in 1773 if we were willing to do what it takes to defend our liberties, we took tea leaves for ink and made the ocean our page,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said.
Earlier Saturday, a series of other events are planned:
- 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.: An outdoor screening at Faneuil Hall plaza of “Faneuil Hall and the Boston Tea Party: A protest in principle. A retrospective on revolution.” Free tickets to this event are sold out.
- 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Reenactors portraying citizens of colonial Boston will present news of the tea crisis at Downtown Crossing, Reader’s Plaza at Milk St. and Washington St.
- 6:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.: Reenactors will recreate a vigorous debate inside Old South Meeting House, which hosted several meetings about the tea crisis, including the final meeting before Samuel Adams gave the signal that started the Boston Tea Party. Tickets for this event are sold out.
- 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.: A fife and drum corps will lead a rolling rally from Old South Meeting House to the Harborwalk for the tea party reenactment.
From The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board: Editorial: The Boston Tea Party 250 years later, and we’re still fighting for democracy.
In the 250 years since members of the Sons of Liberty boarded ships in Boston Harbor to dump their cargo of imported tea overboard — on Dec. 16, 1773 — the right to protest over inadequate representation has been a central liberty of Americans.
There was already broad agreement in 18th century Britain and its American colonies that taxation without representation violated a supposedly free person’s rights.
But the British government had a far more limited view of what constitutes actual representation than the Colonists did. Parliament asserted that it represented the people in Britain’s American colonies even if they had no role in electing it.
After the Sons of Liberty action, Americans began to feel differently. A mercantile protest against tax breaks and corporate welfare for a private but influential monopoly (the British East India Co.) became a blow against the entire panoply of legislation and taxation adopted to coerce loyalty to the crown and Parliament.
The principle of no taxation without representation became increasingly about the definition of representation.
In the ensuing two and a half centuries, the American republic has moved in fits and starts toward perfecting democratic representation. It has had a very long way to go. Enslaved Africans and their descendants, Native Americans on reservations and women were represented in government in name only until recently, without voting power, the same way British Parliament once claimed to represent people who had no ability to say “yes” or “no” to their supposed delegates. In a sense, American democracy did not actually come into being until 1965, when the Voting Rights Act finally guaranteed Black voters equal rights to elect their government officials.
The fight isn’t over. Court rulings have permitted racial and partisan gerrymandering that undermine the Voting Rights Act and weaken the principle of one-person, one-vote — itself a fairly recent principle in American democracy. Residents of the District of Columbia will tell you, accurately, that they are taxed without representation. In many states, people who have served time for felonies cannot regain their right to vote, at least not without re-enfranchisement procedures so cumbersome as to be practically impossible….
In observing the semiquincentennial of the Boston Tea Party, it’s important to recall that although it began as an anti-tax protest, it was ultimately about the true meaning of representative government. The people of Boston in 1773 were unwilling to support a government in which they had no say. The Tea Party’s proper legacy is the continuing fight for fuller, more representative voting rights.
If you’d like a longer read about the Boston Tea Party, the long struggle for democracy in the U.S. and the unique dangers to liberty we face today, check out this interesting piece in The New York Times by Jennifer Schluessler: The Boston Tea Party Turns 250 and Raises 21st-Century Questions.
Yesterday was a very bad day for Rudy Giuliani. Eileen Sullivan at The New York Times: Jury Orders Giuliani to Pay $148 Million to Election Workers He Defamed.
A jury on Friday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers who said he had destroyed their reputations with lies that they tried to steal the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump.
Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington had already ruled that Mr. Giuliani had defamed the two workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The jury had been asked to decide only on the amount of the damages.
The jury awarded Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss a combined $75 million in punitive damages. It also ordered Mr. Giuliani to pay compensatory damages of $16.2 million to Ms. Freeman and $16.9 million to Ms. Moss, as well as $20 million to each of them for emotional suffering.
Mr. Giuliani, who helped lead Mr. Trump’s effort to remain in office after his defeat in the 2020 election but has endured a string of legal and financial setbacks since then, was defiant after the proceeding.
“I don’t regret a damn thing,” he said outside the courthouse, suggesting that he would appeal and that he stood by his assertions about the two women.
He said that the torrent of attacks and threats the women received from Trump supporters were “abominable” and “deplorable,” but that he was not responsible for them.
His lawyer, Joseph Sibley IV, had also argued that Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor and federal prosecutor, should not be held responsible for abuse directed to Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss by others.
Mr. Sibley had warned that an award of the scale being sought by the women would be the civil equivalent of the death penalty for his client. Outside the courthouse on Friday, Mr. Giuliani called the amount “absurd.”
Break out the tiny violin. A bit more:
Over hours of emotional testimony during the civil trial in Washington, Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss described how their lives had been completely upended after Dec. 3, 2020, when Mr. Giuliani first suggested that they had engaged in election fraud to tilt the result against Mr. Trump in Georgia, a critical swing state.
The women, who are Black and are mother and daughter, were soon flooded with expletive-laden phone calls and messages, threats, and racist attacks, they testified. People said they should be hanged for treason or lynched; others told them they fantasized about hearing the sound of their necks snapping.
They showed up at Ms. Freeman’s home. They tried to execute a citizen’s arrest of Ms. Moss at her grandmother’s house. They called Ms. Moss’s 14-year-old son’s cellphone so much that it interfered with his virtual classes, and he finished his first year of high school with failing grades.
“This all started with one tweet,” Ms. Freeman told the jury, referring to a social media post from Mr. Giuliani saying, “WATCH: Video footage from Georgia shows suitcases filled with ballots pulled from under a table AFTER supervisors told poll workers to leave room and 4 people stayed behind to keep counting votes.”
All lies, of course.
No one knows how much Rudy is worth these days, because he refused to provide information on his assets to the court. But it’s highly unlikely he has anything like the millions he’s been ordered to pay. Of course, he’s planning to appeal.
From CBS News: What is Rudy Giuliani’s net worth in 2023? Here’s a look into his assets amid defamation trial.
Rudy Giuliani followed his time in public service with a lucrative career in the private sector that turned him into a multimillionaire. But the former New York mayor now faces legal damages of $148 million in a defamation case filed by two Georgia election workers.
A jury of eight Washington, D.C., residents ruled Giuliani must pay $148 million to the election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss. Their attorneys had asked the jurors to award $24 million each in damages. Giuliani was earlier found liable for several defamation claims against them.
The jury on Friday said the former mayor must pay $16.2 million to Freeman and $17 million to Freeman, as well as $20 million to each for emotional distress and an additional $75 million in punitive damages.
So how much is he worth today?
Giuliani’s current net worth could be worth less than $50 million, based on his attorney’s comment that the damages sought by Moss and Freeman would “be the end” of him.
About 15 years ago, Giuliani’s net worth was more than $50 million, with $15 million of that total from his business activities, including his work with lobbying firm Giuliani Partners, according to CNN. At the time, he earned about $17 million a year, the news outlet reported.
How much has Giuliani’s net worth changed over the years?
Giuliani faces considerable expenses, hurt by a third divorce and pricey lawsuits, and signs suggest they have taken a financial toll. To generate cash, he’s sold 9/11 shirts for $911 and pitched sandals sold by Donald Trump ally Mike Lindell. He also started selling video messages on Cameo for $325 a pop, although his page on the site says Giuliani is no longer available.
Giuliani owes about $3 million in legal fees, according to The New York Times. He earns about $400,00 a year from a radio show and also receives some income from a podcast, but it’s not enough to cover his debts, the newspaper reported. Earlier this year, Giuliani’s long-term attorney sued him, alleging that the former mayor owes him almost $1.4 million in legal fees.
Meanwhile, Giuliani in July listed his Manhattan apartment for $6.5 million, and it was still available in mid-December, according to Sotheby’s. The 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom co-op includes a library with a wood-burning fireplace and a butler’s pantry.
Unfortunately, Trump is still in the news. Here’s what’s happening with the narcissistic wannabe dictator.
From The Wall Street Journal: The Conservative Coterie Behind Trump’s Second-Term Agenda. A small group of loyalists is influencing his campaign policy plans, as many past top aides have broken with the former president.
When Donald Trump sat down in the office of his Bedminster, N.J., golf club late this summer to flesh out his trade and border policy, familiar faces were across from him: Robert Lighthizer and Russell Vought, two of the architects of the former president’s populist first-term record.
Trump’s former trade representative and White House budget director, respectively, are part of a cadre of allies helping him shape policy proposals across a range of topics, laying the groundwork for what would be an aggressive and controversial second-term agenda.
The group—which also includes Stephen Miller, driver of hard-line immigration policies, former Housing Secretary Ben Carson and John Ratcliffe, former director of national intelligence, among others—is stocked with veterans of Trump’s first term who are closely aligned with his vision of protectionist economic policies and an isolationist approach to foreign policy.
They are likely to take key administration roles should Trump win the election, according to the campaign, which has worked to counter speculation over Trump’s inner circle and policy-formulation process.
Importantly for Trump, these figures have stuck by him following his loss to President Biden in 2020, unlike the many past cabinet officials and other top aides who now oppose him. Trump’s first term was marked by dissension, with policy disagreements and personality clashes leading to heated Oval Office arguments and damaging leaks to reporters.
In contrast, aides say, the current group of Trump confidantes is on the same page. Whether such harmony could be preserved in an actual second Trump administration—which would include hundreds more aides and a full cabinet—is less clear.
This is pretty much the same agenda that The Washington Post and The New York Times have described recently.
Trump’s policy development, like much of what he has brought to government, is unorthodox—a mix of his gut instincts and working style. He eschews traditional meetings and flowcharts, aides say, and instead draws on his experience in business and direct conversations with an extended network of contacts of longtime friends, CEOs and people he has met in politics. He often pits one viewpoint against another, a hallmark of his first tenure in office.
Flights to and from campaign events have turned into policy huddles with staff and are where Trump reads articles, instructing aides to get someone on the phone when they land or the following day, according to people involved in the discussions.
His policy agenda has excited core supporters while alarming Democrats and some Republicans.
“He’s been pretty clear in saying he will use the levers of government to go after his political opponents, which is anathema to conservatives,” said Marc Short, who served in the Trump administration and was a top adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence’s presidential campaign. Short said Trump’s 2016 platform appealed to the party in part by focusing on appointing conservative judges and cutting taxes.
Other key people Trump and his team are in regular communication with over policy ideas—and who could take important administration roles—include the following:
- Kevin Hassett, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and a leading champion of Trump’s 2017 tax-cut package
- Tom Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who advocated for Trump’s hard-line policies
- Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing border agents
- Keith Kellogg, former national security adviser to Pence, who this summer threw his support behind Trump
- Matt Whitaker, former acting attorney general, who took over after Jeff Sessions was forced out of the job
There’s more at the link. I got in by clicking the link at Memeorandum.
Another article about Trump’s plans at Politico: The Crazy Conservative Scheme to Make Trump Look Normal: Rehabilitate Nixon.
Among a small but influential group of young conservative activists and intellectuals, “Tricky Dick” is making a quiet — but notable — comeback. Long condemned by both Democrats and Republicans as the “crook” that he infamously swore not to be, Nixon is reemerging in some conservative circles as a paragon of populist power, a noble warrior who was unjustly consigned to the black list of American history.
Across the right-of-center media sphere, examples of Nixonmania abound. Online, popular conservative activists are studying the history of Nixon’s presidency as a “blueprint for counter-revolution” in the 21st century. In the pages of small conservative magazines, readers can meet the “New Nixonians” who are studying up on Nixon’s foreign policy prowess. On TikTok, users can scroll through meme-ified homages to Nixon. And in the weirdest (and most irony laden) corners of the internet, Nixon stans are even swooning over the former president’s swarthy good looks.
“I’ve always been pretty fascinated with him,” said Curt Mills, a conservative journalist and self-professed Nixon fan. (Mills has contributed to POLITICO Magazine.) “I think the Nixon story is really an American story. He really is this guy who is from nowhere, and he’s just absolutely reviled … [but] I do think he has this charisma that’s sort of underrated.”
The Nixon renaissance is being driven in part by young conservatives’ genuine interest in Nixon, whom Mills colorfully described as “our Shakespearean president.” But when pressed about their pro-Nixon views, even his most sincere supporters readily admit that the Nixon-mania isn’t being driven solely — or even primarily — by academic interest in Nixon. Instead, the populist right’s ongoing effort to rehabilitate Nixon, which is unfolding against the backdrop of the 2024 Republican primary, is really about another divisive former Republican president: Donald Trump.
In the topsy-turvy historical tableau of 2023, to defend Nixon is to back Trump — and to rescue the former from historical ignominy is, according to the thinking of some young conservatives, to save the latter from the same fate.
“If we can rehabilitate Richard Nixon in a balanced and fair manner — or even if we can just create questions in the public discourse about Nixon and about Nixon’s presidency — then I think, by way of analogy, it will provoke similar questions about Donald Trump,” said the conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who published a lengthy defense of Nixon earlier this year for City Journal. “It will give us the kind of template, it will give us the precedents, it will give us the skills, where we can more effectively defend a conservative president against these kinds of attacks.”
Read the rest at Politico, if you can handle it.
Time Magazine has a piece about Texas abortion laws and Kate Cox, the woman who fled the state in order to get abortion care after learning she was carrying a non-viable fetus and faced the prospect of losing her ability to have children in the future: That Texas Abortion Case Is Even Worse Than You Think.
So much of the national conversation this week has been about Kate Cox, the 31-year-old mom who had to flee Texas to have an abortion to end a doomed pregnancy as the state’s Supreme Court slowly decided to substitute its judgment for her doctor’s advice.
But what’s been missing from most of the talk about this case is this reality: Texas has at least three separate laws on the books designed to make getting an abortion nearly impossible. Those overlapping, vague statutes not only create one of the most restrictive environments in the country for reproductive rights, but shaped Cox’s case in ways that many following her ordeal likely missed. It also shows how even minor details can matter, especially when judges have political bents and time is an urgent component.
To understand the lay of the land that Cox, her family, and her doctor were facing, we need to look at what Texas lawmakers put in place before Dobbs, the 2022 case that invalidated a half-century of protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade. A year earlier, Texas passed a so-called “trigger ban” that would outlaw abortions should the Supreme Court overturn Roe. We’ll call this Ban A. It serves up a felony life sentence for health care providers who perform abortions and a $100,000 fine.
A second 2021 law—let’s call it Ban B—was a novel attempt at effectively banning most abortions in Texas without waiting for the Supreme Court to give permission, and it largely succeeded. That law runs along civil lines by deputizing neighbors and strangers to enforce it through lawsuits. Under Ban B (also known as S.B. 8), even an Uber driver who ferries a customer to a place where abortions are performed can be civilly charged. Critics have labeled it a Bounty Law. Yet unlike Ban A, Ban B isn’t a complete ban, though it functions as one in practice. It blocks most pregnant individuals from seeking an abortion after about six weeks, or when lawmakers decided there exists a beating “fetal heart”—a term doctors do not use, because a fetus at that point does not yet have a heart. (What abortion opponents describe as a heartbeat at that stage is actually the electrical impulses developing cells start to emit.)
Finally, there is Ban C, which are the pre-Roe laws in Texas, dating back to the state’s first criminal code of 1857. At that time, the state had a ban on abortion—including the funding of it—except in cases when the pregnant person’s life was at risk. The penalty? Five years in prison for those providing the care. Texas officials have asserted that those laws snapped back into effect when Roe fell.
All three abortion bans include language that provides exceptions when the health of the pregnant person is in question, although the specific definitions and conditions are different and vague. (None, it also should be noted, holds the pregnant party criminally liable.)
This all created a legal and medical minefield for Kate Cox, the Dallas-area mother of two who has been public about wanting, in her words, “a large family.” When Cox and her family learned the fetus she was carrying had tested positive for a genetic condition that almost always results in a miscarriage or stillbirth, she took action. She had already been to the hospital four times in two weeks seeking emergency attention and worried what this troubled pregnancy would mean for her future potential; her doctor agreed that an abortion would leave her with the greatest potential for a pregnancy at a future date.
There’s much more at the link.
You’ve probably heard about the latest horror story in Israel’s war with Hamas. The IDF accidentally killed three Israeli hostages. From the Guardian: IDF says Israeli hostages it killed in Gaza were bare chested and waving white flag.
Three Israeli hostages killed by the Israel Defence Forces in Gaza were bare chested and carrying a white flag when they were shot, according to an initial military investigation.
The killing of the three men – who were kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October during its assault on southern Israel – has triggered widespread anger and incredulity in Israel amid a mounting sense of anxiety over the safety of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
According to reports of the IDF probe in the Israeli media, the three men Yotam Haim, Samer El-Talalka and Alon Shamriz – all in their 20s – had somehow escaped their captors and were approaching an IDF position in the Shejaiya area of Gaza City where there has been heavy fighting.
One of the men was carrying a stick with a white cloth tied to it and all had removed their shirts. Spotting the three, an Israeli soldier on a rooftop, however, opened fire on the men, shouting “Terrorists!”.
While two of the hostages fell to the ground immediately, the third fled into a nearby building. When a commander arrived on the scene, the unit was ordered into the building where it killed the third hostage despite his pleas for help in Hebrew.
It emerged too that the IDF had identified a nearby building marked with “SOS” and “Help! Three hostages” two days earlier but had believed it might be a trap.
As the first details of the killing were released by the IDF on Friday night, after most Israelis had begun to mark Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, a hastily called demonstration converged on the Kirya, Israel’s sprawling military headquarters compound in Tel Aviv.
Chanting “Shame”, “There’s no time” and “Deal now!” – the last a demand for a new ceasefire agreement with Hamas and a hostage exchange – the protesters represent a growing thread of anger in Israel at the way in which the war is being prosecuted, as the situation of the remaining hostages in Gaza has taken a series of dark of turns in the past week.
There’s much more at the link.
That’s all I have for you today. I hope you all have a terrific weekend!
https://skydancingblog.com/2023/12/16/lazy-caturday-reads-with-weird-medieval-cats/
#BostonTeaPartyAnniversary #DonaldTrump #fightingForDemocracy #IDF #IsraeliHostages #KateCox #RichardNixon #RubyFreeman #RudyGiuliani #ShayeMoss
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Négritude (from French "Nègre" and "-itude" to denote a condition that can be translated as "Blackness") is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the African diaspora during the 1930s, aimed at raising and cultivating "Black consciousness" across Africa and its diaspora.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A9gritude
#blackconsciousness #blackfrench #blackafrican #blackmastodon
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Urgent action: Oklahoma
We attach an urgent action concerning the death penalty in Oklahoma
November 2024
DEATH PENALTY ACTION FOR NOVEMBER, 2024
This action is part of our continuing campaign calling on the Governor of Oklahoma to issue a moratorium on all executions, and ultimately to move towards the permanent abolition of the death penalty in the state. Letters (preferably) or emails should be sent to Governor Stitt, focusing in particular on the history of racial discrimination within the State and how this has impacted on Oklahoma’s application of the death penalty.
Contact details:
The Honorable J Kevin Stitt
Governor of the State of Oklahoma
Oklahoma State Capitol
2300 N. Lincoln Blvd; Suite212
Oklahoma City
OK 73105
USA.
Emails can be tried at: https://oklahoma.gov/governor/contact/general-information/contact-the-governor.html which gives access to a form.
Please take this action before the end of November.
Racial Discrimination/Bias in the Application of the Death Penalty in the State of Oklahoma
In 2017 the Death Penalty Review Commission concluded the system in Oklahoma was ‘broken’ and unanimously recommended a moratorium on executions ‘until significant reforms were accomplished’. They also questioned ‘whether the death penalty could be administered in a way that ensured no innocent person was put to death. They made 47 recommendations but it is understood – over 6 years later – none have been implemented.
In 2022 the report Deeply Rooted: How Racial History informs Oklahoma’s Death Penalty’ by Dr Crutcher, Founder and Executive Director of the Terence Crutcher Foundation, was issued – and updated in September 2024.
The report places Oklahoma’s death penalty in its historical context of lynchings and mass violence against Black Oklahomans and the forced migration of Native Americans. It documents the historical role that race has played in the State’s death penalty and details the pervasive impact that racial discrimination continues to have in the administration of capital punishment.
The report ties Oklahoma’s use of the death penalty to its troubled history of racial violence and segregation. It observed that Oklahoma was at an inflection point in its administration of the death penalty and argued that, if the State was to establish a fair and humane system of justice, it was crucial to acknowledge and redress the effects of the Jim Crow laws and racial violence that persist into the present day.
Racial discrimination, especially the race of the victim, continues to infect all aspects of the death penalty in Oklahoma. A study of homicides in the state between 1990 and 2012 found that the odds a person charged with killing a white female victim would be sentenced to death were 10 times greater than if the victim was a minority male. Of the 25 executions scheduled between August 2022 and December 2024, 68% involve white victims. Data throughout the report suggest that valuing white victims more than others has resulted in disproportionate punishment for Black defendants who murder white people.
An examination of the age and race of the men scheduled for execution reflects the bias that Black youth are perceived as older and less innocent than white youth. Seven of the 10 Black men set for execution were 25 years old or younger at the time of the crime. By contrast, only one of the 13 white men set for execution was 25 or younger at the time of his crime. Three of the Black men were 20 or younger and one of them, Alfred Mitchell, was only two weeks past his 18th birthday.
Of the 142 people in the U.S. who have been removed from death row because of intellectual disability (following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that their executions are barred), the majority (83%) have been people of colour. This suggests that people of colour, especially Black people, with intellectual disability are at a greater risk of being subjected to capital punishment. Oklahoma has limited the ability for people on death row to seek relief based on intellectual disability. As the report notes, Michael Smith, a Black man, had a documented, lifelong intellectual disability[i]. Despite his medical diagnosis, Oklahoma denied Mr. Smith a hearing on his intellectual disability.
At least five cases of those scheduled for execution in Oklahoma may have involved official misconduct, including Clarence Goode, a Black and Muscogee man set to be executed on August 8, 2024, (but see below) who was convicted after the testimony of a detective who later served time in federal prison for misconduct in other cases. Nationwide, nearly 80% of wrongful capital convictions of Black people involve official misconduct by police, prosecutors, or other government officials.
Native American Sovereignty
The report states that Oklahoma has a history of defying U.S. Supreme Court decisions that would provide some measure of racial justice. For example, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals refused to apply McGirt v. Oklahoma (holding that the State lacked jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by or against Native American people on tribal lands)
In 2020 the US Supreme Court recognised that Oklahoma has continually prosecuted criminal cases in violation of long-standing treaties with Native American tribes. At least 3 Native Americans have been executed in violation of tribal sovereignty, and at least 4 people remain on death row despite these violations.
Thirty-seven Native American men and women have been sentenced to death in Oklahoma, more than in any other state. Two people currently scheduled for execution – Clarence Goode, Jr[ii] and Alfred Mitchell[iii] are Native American.
Sources: Death Penalty Information Centre
[i] my update: executed on 4th April 2024 – despite a 4 to 1 recommendation for clemency from the Pardon and Parole Board
[ii] my update: execution stayed 8th August 2024 pending new date
[iii] my Update: execution stayed 3rd October 2024 pending new date
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Adobe’s AI Revolution with Firefly 5 and a New Creative Reality Unveiled at MAX 2025
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Adobe just redefined the creative landscape at its MAX 2025 conference. The company unleashed a powerful wave of Adobe AI innovations. These changes will fundamentally alter how creators ideate, produce, and deliver content. This is not merely an update; it represents a strategic shift. Adobe is embedding intelligent, conversational, and flexible AI deeply into its entire ecosystem. This includes Creative Cloud and its enterprise solutions. Consequently, the focus moves from providing tools to fostering a truly collaborative partnership. This partnership exists between human artists and artificial intelligence.
The announcements signal a future where your creative process is a conversation. You will simply describe what you want to achieve. You will no longer hunt through menus for the right tool. This shift promises to democratize high-end creative work. At the same time, it offers seasoned professionals unprecedented speed and control. How will this change the way you approach your next project?
The New Creative Ecosystem: More Than Just Tools
Adobe’s vision extends far beyond single features. The company is weaving a consistent thread of Adobe AI across its core applications. This includes Adobe Firefly, Creative Cloud, Adobe Express, and the enterprise-level GenStudio. Therefore, the goal is a seamless, intelligent workflow, regardless of your chosen application.
A key part of this strategy is the introduction of AI Assistants. These assistants are available across apps like Photoshop, Express, and Firefly. These agentic AI partners can handle repetitive tasks. They also offer personalized recommendations and help you scale your work. You can do all this through natural language commands. Imagine instructing an assistant to apply a specific color grade across a batch of photos. Or consider telling it to generate social media assets from a primary design. This evolution transforms the user interface from a series of clicks into a creative dialogue.
A Universe of Models: Adobe AI Opens Its Doors
Perhaps the most significant strategic move is Adobe’s decision to open its platform. It now welcomes other leading AI models. This demonstrates a clear understanding of the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Instead of a walled garden, Adobe is building a comprehensive creative hub. This approach offers creators unparalleled flexibility.
The Powerhouse: Firefly Image Model 5
At the center of Adobe’s native offerings is the new Firefly Image Model 5. Now in public beta, this is a substantial leap forward. It generates images at a native 4-megapixel resolution. This means sharper details and richer textures without needing to upscale. Furthermore, Adobe has focused heavily on photorealistic quality. It also improved the rendering of human anatomy. This focus directly tackles common AI image generation flaws. This model also powers a new “Prompt to Edit” feature. This allows you to describe image modifications in plain language.
Unprecedented Collaboration: Partner Models from Google, OpenAI, and More
In a landmark move, Adobe now integrates top-tier AI models from industry leaders. Partners like Google, OpenAI, Runway, and others are directly inside its apps. In Photoshop and Firefly, you can now choose the best model for your specific task. You might select Google’s models, or models from Black Forest Labs, among others. This is a brilliant, user-centric decision. It acknowledges that different models excel at different tasks. Consequently, it provides creators with ultimate flexibility. You get access to the best technology available, all within a single, familiar workflow.
Your Personal AI: Firefly Custom Models
For artists and brands seeking a unique, consistent style, Adobe introduced Firefly Custom Models. Currently in private beta, this feature allows you to train a personalized AI model. You train it on your own artwork, illustrations, or brand assets. Building these models is as simple as dragging and dropping reference images. Of course, you must have the right to use them. The result is a generative model that understands and replicates your specific aesthetic. It ensures all generated content remains perfectly on-brand. For businesses, this is a transformative tool for scaling content production without losing brand identity.
Firefly Transformed: The All-in-One AI Studio
Firefly is evolving from a single tool into a comprehensive creative AI studio. Adobe is building an entire ecosystem for AI-powered creation. This ecosystem spans from ideation in Firefly Boards to final production. The latest updates introduce groundbreaking, end-to-end video and audio production. These capabilities are available directly within Firefly.
New tools now in public beta include:
- Generate Soundtrack: This feature uses AI to compose original, commercially safe instrumental music. It tailors the music specifically to your video content. In addition, it analyzes your clips and suggests tracks that match the mood and timing.
- Generate Speech: You can create crystal-clear, natural-sounding voiceovers from text. It works in multiple languages, with realistic pacing and emphasis. This tool is enhanced through a partnership with AI voice leader ElevenLabs.
- AI-Powered Video Editor: A new timeline-based editor is now in private beta. It allows you to generate, organize, and sequence clips in an intuitive, web-based interface.
These additions position Firefly as a formidable platform for the creator economy. It is especially useful for social media content. Fast, high-quality video production is essential in that space.
Supercharging Creative Cloud with Practical AI
Across the flagship Creative Cloud apps, Adobe has infused new, practical Adobe AI tools. These tools are designed to save professionals hours of work. These are not flashy gimmicks. Instead, they are targeted enhancements that address real-world workflow bottlenecks.
Key updates include:
- Generative Fill with Model Choice: Photoshop’s popular tool now allows you to select from various top industry models. This gives you more options for text-to-image generation.
- AI Object Mask in Premiere: This public beta feature automatically identifies and isolates people and objects in video. As a result, it dramatically speeds up tasks like color grading and applying effects.
- Assisted Culling in Lightroom: Photographers can now use AI to quickly identify the best images. It finds the sharpest and best-composed photos from large collections.
Beyond the Individual: Adobe AI for the Enterprise
Adobe is also scaling its AI capabilities for large organizations. The company expanded GenStudio. This is its end-to-end solution for optimizing the entire content supply chain.
With Adobe Firefly Foundry, businesses can now work directly with Adobe. They can create proprietary, tailored generative AI models. These custom models are trained securely on a company’s own intellectual property. This process ensures that all AI-generated content is unique. It also keeps content perfectly aligned with the brand’s specific visual identity.
These announcements from Adobe MAX 2025 are more than just a list of new features. They represent a thoughtfully articulated vision for the future of creativity. By blending its own powerful technology with the best models from across the industry, Adobe is building a flexible and comprehensive ecosystem. It empowers individual creators with speed and new capabilities. It also offers enterprises the scale and brand control they require. The central question is no longer if AI will be part of the creative process. Instead, we must ask, how will you leverage this new intelligent partner to push the boundaries of your own imagination?
Browse WE AND THE COLOR’s Design and AI categories for more inspiring topics.
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Black-Owned Comic Publisher Godhood Comics launches Media Conglomerate!
Godhood Comics has announced a new extension of their company, dedicated to adapting their intellectual property and that of their imprints, Wise Acre Comics and Punch Publishing, into various forms of media, including television, film, animation, and gaming. This strategic move allows Godhood...
https://comiccrusaders.com/black-owned-comic-publisher-godhood-comics-launches-media-conglomerate/
#godhood comics #media #ip -
@bookstodon
#BooksIn2026 #Bookstodon5. Storm Front (The Dresden Files 1) - Jim Butcher
Link 🔗 to the Fandom wiki page:
https://dresdenfiles.fandom.com/wiki/Storm_FrontLink 🔗 to the original author site:
https://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresdenMany years ago, when bookstores were still a "thing", I always browsed the English books section. At some point, I stumbled on this book. It sounded interesting, so I bought it. And since then, I've collected a few of the books. 😊 I lent the first one to a "friend", but they ditched me, and never bothered to return my book. Anyway... Yay for ebooks. I started to re-read the Dresden Files, and in a few days, the 18th book in the series is being released: Twelve Months (Jan 20 2026).
Some info found online:
Storm Front, the book that kicked off one of the most popular urban fantasy series of the last few decades.If you’re thinking about diving in, here is a breakdown of what to expect from the book and the world it builds.
The Story: "Storm Front"
In this first novel, we meet Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only "wizard-for-hire." Harry isn't hiding in a castle; he’s in the Yellow Pages under "Wizards," right between Window Cleaners and Women’s Apparel.The Hook: Harry is struggling to pay his rent when the Chicago P.D. calls him in to consult on a gruesome double murder. The victims were killed using powerful black magic—their hearts literally exploded.
The Stakes: Because Harry is a wizard, he’s already under the watchful (and suspicious) eye of the "White Council," the ruling body of magic. If he can’t find the real killer, the Council might decide he’s the one responsible and execute him.
The Vibe: It feels like a classic 1940s noir detective story but set in modern-day Chicago with vampires, gangsters, and lightning bolts.
The Series: "The Dresden Files"
Jim Butcher has written 17 novels (and counting) in this series, plus several short story collections.
While it starts as a "monster-of-the-week" detective series, it eventually evolves into an epic, high-stakes saga.The World: Magic is real, but the "normal" world chooses not to see it. Harry lives in a basement apartment, drives a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle (the "Blue Beetle"), and can’t use modern technology because his magical aura causes electronics to short-circuit.
The Supporting Cast: You’ll meet a cast of recurring characters, including Karrin Murphy (the tough-as-nails police lieutenant), Bob (a spirit of intellect who lives in a skull), and various factions of vampires and faeries.
Progression: Many fans agree that while the first two books are fun, the series truly "levels up" starting with book 3 (Grave Peril), where the world-building expands significantly and the consequences of Harry’s actions start to ripple across the entire globe.
Fun Fact: If you notice the hat on the cover, it’s a long-running joke among fans. Harry almost never wears a hat in the actual books, but the cover artists keep giving him one!
Next book in the series is: Fool Moon.
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@bookstodon
#BooksIn2026 #Bookstodon5. Storm Front (The Dresden Files 1) - Jim Butcher
Link 🔗 to the Fandom wiki page:
https://dresdenfiles.fandom.com/wiki/Storm_FrontLink 🔗 to the original author site:
https://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresdenMany years ago, when bookstores were still a "thing", I always browsed the English books section. At some point, I stumbled on this book. It sounded interesting, so I bought it. And since then, I've collected a few of the books. 😊 I lent the first one to a "friend", but they ditched me, and never bothered to return my book. Anyway... Yay for ebooks. I started to re-read the Dresden Files, and in a few days, the 18th book in the series is being released: Twelve Months (Jan 20 2026).
Some info found online:
Storm Front, the book that kicked off one of the most popular urban fantasy series of the last few decades.If you’re thinking about diving in, here is a breakdown of what to expect from the book and the world it builds.
The Story: "Storm Front"
In this first novel, we meet Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only "wizard-for-hire." Harry isn't hiding in a castle; he’s in the Yellow Pages under "Wizards," right between Window Cleaners and Women’s Apparel.The Hook: Harry is struggling to pay his rent when the Chicago P.D. calls him in to consult on a gruesome double murder. The victims were killed using powerful black magic—their hearts literally exploded.
The Stakes: Because Harry is a wizard, he’s already under the watchful (and suspicious) eye of the "White Council," the ruling body of magic. If he can’t find the real killer, the Council might decide he’s the one responsible and execute him.
The Vibe: It feels like a classic 1940s noir detective story but set in modern-day Chicago with vampires, gangsters, and lightning bolts.
The Series: "The Dresden Files"
Jim Butcher has written 17 novels (and counting) in this series, plus several short story collections.
While it starts as a "monster-of-the-week" detective series, it eventually evolves into an epic, high-stakes saga.The World: Magic is real, but the "normal" world chooses not to see it. Harry lives in a basement apartment, drives a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle (the "Blue Beetle"), and can’t use modern technology because his magical aura causes electronics to short-circuit.
The Supporting Cast: You’ll meet a cast of recurring characters, including Karrin Murphy (the tough-as-nails police lieutenant), Bob (a spirit of intellect who lives in a skull), and various factions of vampires and faeries.
Progression: Many fans agree that while the first two books are fun, the series truly "levels up" starting with book 3 (Grave Peril), where the world-building expands significantly and the consequences of Harry’s actions start to ripple across the entire globe.
Fun Fact: If you notice the hat on the cover, it’s a long-running joke among fans. Harry almost never wears a hat in the actual books, but the cover artists keep giving him one!
Next book in the series is: Fool Moon.
-
@bookstodon
#BooksIn2026 #Bookstodon5. Storm Front (The Dresden Files 1) - Jim Butcher
Link 🔗 to the Fandom wiki page:
https://dresdenfiles.fandom.com/wiki/Storm_FrontLink 🔗 to the original author site:
https://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresdenMany years ago, when bookstores were still a "thing", I always browsed the English books section. At some point, I stumbled on this book. It sounded interesting, so I bought it. And since then, I've collected a few of the books. 😊 I lent the first one to a "friend", but they ditched me, and never bothered to return my book. Anyway... Yay for ebooks. I started to re-read the Dresden Files, and in a few days, the 18th book in the series is being released: Twelve Months (Jan 20 2026).
Some info found online:
Storm Front, the book that kicked off one of the most popular urban fantasy series of the last few decades.If you’re thinking about diving in, here is a breakdown of what to expect from the book and the world it builds.
The Story: "Storm Front"
In this first novel, we meet Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only "wizard-for-hire." Harry isn't hiding in a castle; he’s in the Yellow Pages under "Wizards," right between Window Cleaners and Women’s Apparel.The Hook: Harry is struggling to pay his rent when the Chicago P.D. calls him in to consult on a gruesome double murder. The victims were killed using powerful black magic—their hearts literally exploded.
The Stakes: Because Harry is a wizard, he’s already under the watchful (and suspicious) eye of the "White Council," the ruling body of magic. If he can’t find the real killer, the Council might decide he’s the one responsible and execute him.
The Vibe: It feels like a classic 1940s noir detective story but set in modern-day Chicago with vampires, gangsters, and lightning bolts.
The Series: "The Dresden Files"
Jim Butcher has written 17 novels (and counting) in this series, plus several short story collections.
While it starts as a "monster-of-the-week" detective series, it eventually evolves into an epic, high-stakes saga.The World: Magic is real, but the "normal" world chooses not to see it. Harry lives in a basement apartment, drives a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle (the "Blue Beetle"), and can’t use modern technology because his magical aura causes electronics to short-circuit.
The Supporting Cast: You’ll meet a cast of recurring characters, including Karrin Murphy (the tough-as-nails police lieutenant), Bob (a spirit of intellect who lives in a skull), and various factions of vampires and faeries.
Progression: Many fans agree that while the first two books are fun, the series truly "levels up" starting with book 3 (Grave Peril), where the world-building expands significantly and the consequences of Harry’s actions start to ripple across the entire globe.
Fun Fact: If you notice the hat on the cover, it’s a long-running joke among fans. Harry almost never wears a hat in the actual books, but the cover artists keep giving him one!
Next book in the series is: Fool Moon.
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The last entry of a repost activity for OCtober! This story has changed a bit since I last wrote the entry below. I actually tried to do a thing through Patreon for it, seeing if people wanted it to be my second project, my pitch or something of an exclusive Patreon comic (and then posting it later.)
This would have required interest in my Patreon AND my work, mind you and of course, it went nowhere despite having two-three folks kindly patroning (?) me. No votes or even a comment lol. Barely a care unless I give away it for free...
All of the captions for these posts will be copy/pasted from my tumblr: https://jadinerhine.tumblr.com/post/132057949431/october-and-inktober-days-18-20-you-can-help-me Of course, you can take a look on there ahead of time. MIND THE 7 YR OLD CRINGE.
:anya_beg: :anya_beg: :anya_beg:
:ai_wave:
(in order of image) Vik, Lucas and Grace :ai_wave:Grace Rexach, obviously the title character, is the detective in question. She has her own “office” in a building whose ownership is murky – but nothing bad seems to happen, as evidenced by the amount of people who don’t mind coming to her for her cases. After all, who isn’t fascinated by a perpetually and seemingly cheery woman who only dresses in black-and-white, has natural platinum-blonde-veering-on-white hair, and has an intellect that makes you wonder if she’s for real? Oh and she drives a totally far-out! car from Oldsville, man. Also black. There’s a theme here…
Grace is the one who ends up bringing people together in her world, people who wouldn’t even be in the same bar; from an era of solitude to an era where Vik’s motley group of friends visiting her constantly –either to hang out or to help her– she finds herself being surrounded by the same images and people she’s always seen on TV. Is it her natural charm or just the fact that she’s willing to talk to anyone?
Speaking of Vik and her friends, these young Punks is one of those: the ones who loiter around the place and do jack scratch because there’s nothing else for them in life. No prospects, no skills that people want –and to boot, she would find the same despair on the Rez*. Yet in Grace, there seems to emerge a purpose, a reason for being. Her smarts are used in Grace’s job/cases accordingly, and even though she’s opinionated about life and certain types of authority, if it’s Grace who asks, she’ll do it. Her friends are the same, though not as intense about it in the long run.
Unfortunately for Lucas, he’s the one against whom Vik butts head all the time. He’s soft-spoken from a family of people who’ve worked in law in some way – and as such, he’s serious and stressed about things much of the time. He just wants to do a good job and become a good cop or whatever his old-school father wants. It is with Grace he finds a ground to stand on in the beginning, becoming essentially her Watson. (Or is it Vik who’s her Watson? Hmmm.)
*Based on data of the era found so far.
#OC #OCtober #OC_tober #OCs #OriginalCharacter #art #ink #detective #repostober #MastoArt #NAANcomics
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Tender Ender – Black Swan
When a record aims for cinematic scale, it often ends up merely sounding big. But Tender Ender‘s Black Swan, the latest ambitious offering by Tender Ender, achieves soundscapes that could easily become your new soundtrack. It’s music built from the ground up for wide-screen moments, a sprawling, gorgeous, opulent and dangerously fragile movie landscape. Thomas Schmidiger has delivered a masterpiece of emotional contradiction, a sound that fuses the scale of orchestral rock with the intellectual playfulness of avant-pop, tied together by a thread of pure indie melancholy. Forget your tidy genre boxes. This album is a sonic collage, exemplifying what happens when classic grandeur meets modern deconstruction. The foundation has a rock muscle, but it’s stretched, warped, and decorated with so many layers of sonic experimentation that it becomes something a kind of high-stakes, high-art pop. It’s an album preoccupied with the concept of the “black swan,” the improbable, the beautiful accident, and it sounds exactly like a captivating result you can’t look away from. It’s challenging, yet immediately comforting, inviting the listener to step into a carefully crafted world that arrives like the last great party on a sinking ship.
The piano is the backbone of this lavish production. It is the steady heartbeat, the foundation upon which towering sonic structures are built. The piano isn’t just accompaniment, but an expressive centre, equally capable of delivering moments of heartbreaking simplicity and sweeping, thunderous drama. Synths act like a fluid orchestra as well. They swell, shimmer, and bleed into the sonic spectrum, creating soundscapes that suggest everything from distant violins to abstract, ethereal soundscapes. This careful interplay between the acoustic weight of the piano and the limitless possibilities of the electronic palette is where the album finds its unique voice. While the total sound is immense, individual elements know when to step back. The drums, for instance, are rarely deployed for mere volume. Instead, they operate with a complex, often understated syncopation that drives the music forward with a jazz-like intricacy before delivering shattering, powerful climaxes. Similarly, the guitars are the ghost-in-the-machine. They are subtle to the point of being textural, appearing not as conventional riff-makers, but as sharp, metallic edges or warm, echoing atmosphere. They season the drama rather than initiating it. The bass grounds the entire affair, a deep, resonant hum that the songs remain tied to a human pulse.
Thomas Schmidiger uses these elaborate, gorgeous musical landscapes to explore complex, unresolved emotional states. It’s the soundtrack of taking life’s inevitable difficulties and presenting them wrapped in such immaculate, sugary sonic production that they become edible. You find yourself smiling while contemplating profound melancholy, comforted by the rich arrangements even as the underlying message speaks of unease and fracture. This is how the record succeeds in being cynical and profoundly moving at the same time. The vocal performance is equally critical in bridging this gap between rock epic and indie contemplation. Schmidiger takes on the persona of a timeless crooner, someone who has seen it all but retains a spark of vulnerable hope. The voice is dynamic and clear, navigating the dense instrumentation with a magnetic presence, never allowing the rich textures to swallow the narrative. It’s a performance of emotional weight, delivering complexity through nuanced phrasing and an implied story that carries the listener through the album’s labyrinthine emotional core. The album begins with a grand, almost theatrical introduction, establishing the sheer scale and the immediate emotional terrain. It then journeys into a highly mutable mid-section, where the art pop and experimental elements take control, allowing the arrangements to twist into less conventional forms and the emotional expression to become more fragmented. This middle act is where the record risks falling apart, but it’s tied by Schmidiger’s unerring instinct for melody. Even the most abstract moments are built around a strong, memorable core.
The final third of the album brings the entire orchestral and rock apparatus back together for a breathtaking culmination. The drama accelerates, the textures reach their most dense and lush, culminating in a powerful, slow-burning farewell. It’s a moment of luxurious, drawn-out finality, leaving the listener in a state of comfortable, existential ambiguity. The entire experience feels like a continuous sonic landscape, leaving a question mark hanging beautifully in the air. Swan shows how rock music can still aspire to the grandest artistic ambitions, using pop sensibilities to make the complex accessible and the difficult beautiful. It’s music that defies time and category, positioning Thomas Schmidiger as a composer unafraid to build a velvet world for the inevitable storm.
#ambient #artPop #artRock #avantPop #cinematic #indie #music #orchestral #reviews #rock #tenderEnder
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A.I. is now in control of all things. (Yours truly : Reddit)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q75BUg1epU?version=3&rel=0&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=736&h=414]I’m ‘a gonn’a learn Reddit somm’a grammar and then somm’a forensic linguistics!
I reckon if you folks can’t figure that the Zodiac disguised his handwriting, then y’all best jus’ go on an’a git!
Eco on Echo Chambers
MEME: When you come face-to-face with the realization and subsequent existential dread of having had a virtual (!) close-encounter with a horde of yobbos spawned from Woodstock ’99
Like their M&D, they still doin’ it for the nookie! (but evidently frustrated they ain’t gettin’ any).
I may expound upon the following draft points and additional ones, so be sure to check back!- Infinite Monkey Theorem irony in all the tap-tap-tapping, giddy-up, giddy-up, gish gallop, gish gallop, click-click-clicking out of words (hourly/daily) from these nameless keyboard Forensic Files Reddit warriors and holy sh*!, they can’t even see that the linguistic comparison of sequential lines between Allen and the Zodiac is very possibly not by chance – especially considering the limited linguistic corpus (read: non-boilerplate / non-form letter samples) available from Allen!
Furthermore, in this example [Exhibit 9.0b], both Allen and the Zodiac are using the phrases “just pick up the kid” | “pick off the kiddies” with a parallel contextual tone as if the kid / kiddies are an afterthought, like baggage (and written only seven years apart). And don’t forget the ‘+’ sign that one noodle-brain redditor claimed I was using as my only rationale. Another slick we-don’t-need-no-stinkin’-sentence-diagramming redditor made up his own sample to challenge my exhibit, but in which he changed the noun kid to a verb. LOL! If he hadn’t done that and let’s presume, ceteris paribus, his hypothetical sentence was coming from the # 1 Zodiac killer suspect, then YES – it too would be worth linguistically considering! What’s up doc? Where do you catch-22 all these Ca’nyuk Nyuks from! Eh? - Note to these redditors: Just because it’s 2024 and you tap-tap-tap . . . gish gallop . . . gish gallop . . . giddy-up . . . giddy-up . . . durp-durp-durp. . . your bully-boy/girl/tweener sophistic prattle minute-by-minute, it doesn’t alter the fact that while my linguistic samples don’t prove (on their own) that Allen was the Zodiac [never said that they did, but do check out my other ample original research 😉 ] there is more weight to the comparisons of similar strings of diction and phraseology between both authors based on the limited amount of writings evidenced in the first place. Holy cow, you morons – you don’t even need to wait for the Forensic Linguistics departments to weigh in on that obvious fact. In other words, yes indeed there is something here non-“cherry-picked” and worthy of the professional linguists examining.
- Having to repeat AT LEAST HALF A DOZEN TIMES (count them; EDIT: +1) in the same thread that I am researching forensic linguistics, NOT handwriting OR graphology. The sad thing is they weren’t even trying to punk or troll the O.P. on that! Their attention spans, focus, and reading comprehension are that bad. But hey, Reddit is perfectly suited for the Kool-Aid kid ADHD crowd. Do they ever go back and check out—perchance to correct and learn—the dumbest things they typed in a thread before that thread is banished to the Memory Hole while the same topic is regurgitated yet again, the following week? ¡¿Oye como va, Santayana?!
- If you are unaware that the Zodiac killer changed his handwriting style in numerous letters he authored (look them up), which are widely accepted – if not fully authenticated by Law Enforcement – then you’ve got your homework, but please refrain from judging my research, which clearly, you are not qualified to do.
- The r/ZodiacKiller redditors revel in pushing prove-a-negative defenses to their allegations about a person’s research on a particular suspect:
The only reason that someone would investigate Arthur Leigh Allen now is because of Graysmith, his book, the movie; he was the most popular suspect . . . Today, there’s nothing worth an amateur investigating on Allen that a pro investigator wouldn’t have already discovered. What’s more . . . If your research findings dare to implicate a main suspect (Arthur Leigh Allen) then, that alone is proof that you are begging the question – petitio principii – from conclusion to evidence! [See the accusers’ recursive hypocrisy there? :-p Reddit indulges particularly in this logical fallacy.]
These are actual beliefs repeated – unchallenged – on that sub by grousing knuckleheads who never had a creative or original thought, or considered hypothesis in their lives, and likely never will! Online Logic 101 isn’t one of their curriculum strengths either; and, good God! To think some of them will be going to the ballot boxes soon. (Btw, check out my Studebaker / Kaiser vehicle research as but one other of my original forensic examples). - Wait until I get to some of their own sample (il)logical arguments . . . 😉 Saved Reddit histories are a beautiful thing for the Big Men on Campus. I’m gonna make M&D so proud of their lil’ limp bizkits!
- RefrigeratorSolid379: “This demonstrates nothing. Absolutely nothing…..”
This is RefrigeratorSolid’s five-word knee-jerk reaction to my Reddit topic post. . . .1 - SeoliteLoungeMusic: “This looks a lot like the sort of fixation schizophrenics often suffer from: some detail that screams with significance in the sufferer’s mind, but they can’t explain why, at least not in a way that makes sense to normal people. …”
Oh, boy… have I found out a thing or two about SLiM shady . . . I can’t wait! I can’t wait! . . .2 - Glasdwarf: “Can I ask if your credentials and experience top that of the many handwriting experts and linguists who have ruled Allen out as the Zodiac? …”
Glasdwarf has made a total of three comments, all superficial, about the Zodiac killer on Reddit in the past twelve months . . .3
- RefrigeratorSolid379: “This demonstrates nothing. Absolutely nothing…..”
- The Reddit posts (and site-wide histories) demonstrate abundant examples of the phenomenon of Reddit wannabe (or failed bar) “defense lawyers” [♫ dun-dun! ♫] Special Arguendo & Eristic Unit. Contrast these with the commenters who have little-to-no real interest in the Zodiac killer case or true crime in general. They signed up to that echo chamber of arrogance and inanity on a whim months or years ago, but stopped by to unload negative karma and a five-or-less-word quip because they were having a bad day with mummy and/or daddy. Did somebody say ‘Eco’ chamber? Rather than constructive criticism, they habitually find the need to dispense invalidation. Chronically, there are the many who will forever follow the rump in front like woolly-headed sheeple with a down-vote. [See A.I. essay results from Harvard Business Review, Psychology Today, and Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication]
MEME: [In a voice and mannerism redolent of Restoration period fops, Lucien Callow and Fagan] Hello, I’m not a real solicitor, but I play one on Reddit. I am, however, a bona fide pseudo-intellectual. See, [points with closed Asian folding fan] it says so under my 50×50 pixel avatar featuring a real (!) photo of yours truly [Who does that?]. [In single deft motion of wrist, flicks fan open and begins fanning unctuous smiling face] Permit me to represent you and your fatherless child, M’lady.
- Please tell me the majority of them are fellow Americans . . . I have to believe . . . you see, I expect more from the Asians & Euros . . . (except for that one overweening German nitwit who called my example poor, but then – get this – proceeds like Herr Hypocrite to make a post elsewhere offering the most unoriginal, weakest dross on suspect Allen that we’ve witnessed alongside that r/ZodiacKiller sub’s daily, also-ran, fatuous, repetitive lists. He couldn’t even manage a low-bar vault; and I’m the one he’s nicking site graphics from! [Shhhhh… (in a whisper) I think he may be “Angry-German-Kid” all grown up and new keyboard.]
- The r/ZodiacKiller admin and mods are all too pleased to direct visitors to their prominently displayed sitewide rules of conduct, including dictums: “Subreddit for mature discussion” . . . “be nice,” while allowing rampant violations as long as their groups of mincing nancies do it in a passive-aggressive dialogue. By now this comprises premeditated, scripted open public phone calls between grrrlfriends – wink-wink, they’re not attacking the O.P. in O.P.’s own thread. Evidently, on an given day, this must fly over the head and multi-tasking abilities of one Canadian’s sensibilities when he’s averaging ~7 [edit: ~3 today!] visitors to his sub, like the German pole vaulter.
(Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Redditors!) - I thought my generation was hard on our teachers. I genuinely feel so sorry for their teachers.
- Additionally, there is a tendency for the maladjusted bully-boys to make sweeping declarations, fancying themselves speaking for the whole of Reddit (control & group validation issues?). Keep in mind that they are neither admin, nor mods, nor original poster, and hence, have no access to a specific thread’s comprehensive activity:
“This might surprise you. But most people here just want the case solved. And don’t care who the killer ends up being.”
“[W]e can ask no more.”
“No one is impressed with your post.”
“Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial ‘we.'” —Mark Twain
I genuinely feel so sorry for their counselors & therapists (the ones sadly, these pontificating know-it-alls will probably never see). [Get Charlie Brooker on the line! Boy, have I got a new Black Mirror script that just wrote itself!] - It speaks volumes as a sad commentary when a central forum aspiring to be an open clearinghouse for the exchange of facts and ideas on a true crime decides to direct visitors—via top-pinned post, no less—to a private members-only Discord. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Weeding out our embarrassing sandlot riffraff are we? I mean, why not. If a big problem on the main forum is a dearth of quality contribution, competent moderation and administration, hey, the solution must be to stretch human resources even thinner with redundant forums? 🤣
- I am aware of two distinguished [ 😀 ] r/ members who remain(ed) conspicuously absent from commenting in my Reddit subject post. One is obvious because it is, after all, the r/ZodiacKiller sub; the other member would be most keen on a Zodiac killer linguistics topic inextricably related to their own field of specialty.
I knew – actually, I’ve known well before the topic activity subsided – when the Reddit trolls (per character type & trait) refused to reciprocate my polite and constructive follow-up explanations and questions. They balked at expanding on their five-word sound/keyboard bites/bytes before being drawn via chronic ADHD impulses (incl. that unrequited nookie) to run off with trolling mates in toe. Off they go to the next random topic in the Reddit-sphere for a quick “karma” fix, like a daily self-affirmation boost of MMORPG first-person-shooter cosmetic self-esteem. Yes, I knew – that they remain ill-equipped on so many levels: from linguistics, to emotional maturity, to common decency in civil discourse to hold even a modicum of sensible opinion on my topic.
KNIGHTS: Charge!
[squeak squeak squeak]
KNIGHTS: Aaaaugh!, Aaaugh!, etc.
ARTHUR: Run away! Run away!
KNIGHTS: Run away! Run away!…
As to those two distinguished lurkers, specifically, I know why they stayed uncharacteristically out of the topic. It may seem like a safe choice hedge-bet, for now; but more on this . . . later. I keep all the receipts. 😉 - I made my most recent post there because someone I do not know had already started a topic about my work: Zodiac’s Last Puzzle . . . Allen’s Final Written Confession; generally well-received I might add.
- Shortly after I posted my own thread, a new topic popped up re: Allen and his wig that featured an image [with my own arrow graphic clearly visible] directly plucked from my WordPress site’s post: Facial Composites & Sketches, also displayed on my WP Home page. Go figure the cause and effect steps there, detective! 🔍🕵🏿🔎 Here, I thought German Internet & media (and the citizens they serve) were more serious than most countries about dodgy intellectual property behavior. 🤔
- My only previous activity years ago—and the reason I requested activation of my account in the first place (literally, to protect my work!)—involved having to file (a successful) complaint with Reddit central admins because a member took one of my original research mark-up images from my site, sliced off my attribution banner on the bottom, and then proceeded to re-post it as their own.
Suggestion for Reddit & Redditors: I have absolutely no desire to use any of your forums, so to paraphrase Will Smith (undoubtedly, one of your faves): Keep my WordPress research site out of your f—king mouths and off your f—king keyboards!
Moreover, if the plagiaristic attempts resume from a couple of years ago, at which time I remained diplomatic, I will file an immediate, formal, and official complaint and provide all history on the matter.
P.S. I keep all the receipts [and from Discord too. Peek-A-Boo! There are spies amongst you. Vee have vays! 🕵🏿♀️🕵️♂️🕵🏾♂️🕵️♀️]. 😉
https://youtu.be/04clpd7h0b0?si=Z-Jf7iERUpXr2pR2
The Emperor has no clothes!
(and Snoo is nude, too!)I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list,
of Reddit’s Finest:(Opera Slippers & Powdered Wigs)
- RefrigeratorSolid379: When asked, he refused to explain. [Did I mention those who feel threatened by further circumstantial evidence that may weigh against Allen?] His username has been around the r/ZodiacKiller for years. Could somebody inform me as to exactly what RefrigeratorSolid has brought to the table in all this time?
CLICK HERE to learn of his profound “one bit of proof” contribution to the Zodiac killer research community.
That’s right. According to RefrigeratorSolid, Graysmith is a demonstrable liar…. and thus, doubt is cast on Allen being the killer because when talking with a journalist in 2007, Robert Graysmith misremembered his reference to a secondary (or tertiary, etc.) hypothesis about the crime events on a calendar, and got the exact 1969 date for Columbus Day wrong.
I’d like to give this nameless troll credit for his forensic magnum opus to Reddit, but while he prizes his own work so highly that he remains anonymous, one must refer to him as RefrigeratorSolid379, which I believe is trucker CB slang for a poopsicle. Now, you mean to tell me there are at least 378 more of these lying on ground between rest stops over the length of Interstate 80?
“I am working on it.”
This unfounded statement (five words, again – wouldn’t you know!), RefrigeratorSolid has repeated several times whenever the post topic of Who is Currently Working the Zodiac Killer Investigation comes up. Unintentionally ironic? Clueless? Both? It doesn’t take long, nor an algorithm to deduce that he uses Reddit login alts (mostly non-members to r/ZodiacKiller) to inflate his positive karma points on his ridiculously banal comments. Admin, doc_daneeka and his mod (u/Mrs_Daneeka with “her” all-time grand total of one comment to the sub) remain blissfully ignorant to all this, of course.
YES, SENSEI !
↩︎ - SeoliteLoungeMusic: SLiM Shady is one of those r/ZodiacKiller redditors who attempts to exploit the aforementioned ADHD world of his and his peers. He stalks surreptitiously from the bushes until what he believes is just the right time to get his ad hominem zingers in – when he thinks a thread topic has been all but abandoned. [Not with me you don’t, bud. 😀 ] On average, judging by up/down voting, it’s patently clear that true crime redditors lose interest in any given thread topic after about the first parent post level. lol [insert animated gif image here of keys dangled in front of baby’s face.]
Lounge boy sure came in for a hard landing on my post; it makes you wonder if he has a bias against Allen, and in favor of another suspect? You think? Wonder no longer – check these out:
SLiM, when he’s not “fixated” on U.S. politics, is inclined to sadfish his mood disorders with Reddit therapy bots:
The Eminent Dr. SLiM evidently believes his suffering over-share somehow qualifies him to diagnose someone whom he neither knows nor has ever met—me (and my work)—as not within the realm of normality, even potentially “schizophrenic.” I see… well here’s a tip for Lounge boy: Do watch out for those cooking plates! [You know, like “normal people” would do.] On second thought, you may want to opt for a microwave, reassured with the knowledge that you are wearing your alum-in-I-um foil cap.
AGAIN! YES, SHIFU !
↩︎ - Glasdwarf: Tells us in one perfunctory comment that he’s watched the Fincher Zodiac film (his credentials and experience?), and in another – with nary a proof of critical thinking proffered – that, “It’s not him [Allen] 100%,” and “Not one of the known suspects is the Zodiac.” Really? To Glasdwarf: So where are your “facts”? Why bother wasting everyone’s time with disingenuous rhetorical questions when you already had your predetermined conclusion to drop a couple of lines later?:
“I do not believe that your theory holds any water and adds nothing to the debate other than self promotion that this post was clearly designed to do.”
You can believe whatever you want, but if you’re going to accuse me of self promotion (intended pejoratively as your post was clearly designed to do) you had best be prepared to back it up. By your reasoning, anyone who posts and is prepared to defend a forensic hypothesis online is guilty of “self-promotion.” What’s interesting is that there are monetized true crime self-promoters, tragedy profiteers to every degree (YouTube, Amazon book sales, or holiday cash grabs on original newsprint stories of dead victims, etc.) swirling about r/ZodiacKiller and other forums on a weekly basis – each with a different ‘suspect’ – and yet, our valiant social injustice warrior, Glasdwarf, combat(t)ing self-promotion at every turn is nowhere to be found!
I explained the obvious to Glasdwarf: I’m not selling any books, running any pod/webcasts; and I use a free WordPress site. Glasdwarf chose to answer not. He did make haste away, while yea! Brave, Sir BlackLionYard, Ponce de Reddit, stepped in with some prattling interference, permitting The not-so-brave, Glasdwarf time enough to scurry to his next pub meet or game of CODpieceWarzone.
Oh, and who are the “many linguists” you confidently assert have ruled Arthur Leigh Allen “out as the Zodiac”?
[EXT. SOF. The soft repetitive ticking sound of bog bush-crickets in Dumfries and Galloway]
AGAIN! YES, SIR TRAINSPOTTING ROD !
more to come. . . Oh there’s more, much, much, more . . .℠ 😀
↩︎
When you know the little men are second-guessing themselves, doing damage control, literally – hedging their bets:
They start the serial murder suspect oddsmaking posts. What should they care, anyway? It’s not as if they are stepping out from behind their anonymous I.D. masks to own their claims – or their cash. 😉 Talk is cheap; but in in 2025 it’ll get you “karma” on Reddit!
https://youtu.be/7hx4gdlfamo?si=eLfHgBV3TL1NPGox
You boys best start ‘a runnin’ . . . Real quick like.
© 2024 Robert P. Ackerman
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t6k9tehlv4?version=3&rel=0&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=320&h=180]Related Posts
Other Blog Topics
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Arthur Leigh Allen’s Lake Berryessa Map Sketch
2024: The Curious Case of the Year in The Zodiac Killer Research
#AI #allen #arthur #ArtificialIntelligence #bot #chatbot #diction #ForensicCriminology #grammar #handwriting #hooligan #hooliganism #horde #idiolect #lee #leigh #letters #linguistics #machineLearning #neuralNetwork #phraseology #primitive #Reddit #scrape #scraping #serialKiller #WebDataExtraction #WebHarvesting #WebScraping #word #ZodiacKiller - Infinite Monkey Theorem irony in all the tap-tap-tapping, giddy-up, giddy-up, gish gallop, gish gallop, click-click-clicking out of words (hourly/daily) from these nameless keyboard Forensic Files Reddit warriors and holy sh*!, they can’t even see that the linguistic comparison of sequential lines between Allen and the Zodiac is very possibly not by chance – especially considering the limited linguistic corpus (read: non-boilerplate / non-form letter samples) available from Allen!
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J.D. Vance in Hot Water for Praising Book Calling Liberals “Unhumans”
Donald Trump’s running mate praised a book riddled with conspiracies and calling to “crush” non-Republicans.
♦️Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them) ♦️was written by the #Pizzagate guy,
Jack #Posobiec,
and ghostwriter Joshua #Lisec,
with a foreword by the recently imprisoned MAGA movement architect Steve #Bannon.The book supposedly tracks the opponents of conservatism throughout history and endorses a modern-day
#McCarthyism to root out the “radicals” from American institutions.“On a base level, unhumans seek the death of the successful and the desecration of the beautiful,” Posobiec and Lisec claimed.
When comparing the Black Lives Matter movement to the French Revolution, they wrote: “There is no way to reason with those who manipulate the have-nots en masse to loot and to shoot. They simply hate those who are good-looking and successful.”
#Vance provided a glowing promotional blurb about the book, which is included on the website of right-wing publisher Skyhorse Publishing.
“In the past, communists marched in the streets waving red flags.
Today, they march through HR, college campuses, and courtrooms
to wage lawfare against good, honest people,” wrote Vance.“In Unhumans, Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec reveal their plans and show us what to do to fight back.”
Of course, their far-right screed has dark implications.
After Trump was indicted in May on 34 criminal charges, Posobiec advocated for violent revolt against progressives.
“Take the path of the hunter, and with one singular voice, we are going to make them the prey,” he said.
Since accepting the nomination at the Republican National Convention last week,
Vance has been consistently embroiled in controversy over his past statements,
including his blatantly sexist comment about “childless cat ladies”
and humiliating rumors about having sex with a couch.Beneath it all, Vance is still part of the intellectual
“new right” movement,
influenced by pronatalism,
techno-authoritarianism,
and conservative economic populism.Evidently, his reading list also includes extremist, conspiratorial material
—if he even bothered to read it, before lending his name to it.Either way, Vance gave Posobiec, and all of his dangerous and ridiculous ideas, a boost.
https://newrepublic.com/post/184271/jd-vance-trouble-blurb-book-unhumans -
Which roles did #colonial administration & #Archives play in creating & maintaining physical & intellectual borders? Join us for the keynote by Hannah Ishmael, tomorrow at 6:30 pm at the @dhiparis She will analyse how Black communities have contested and negotiated these borders already in the Analogue and continue to do so in the Digital. The keynote is part of "The history of digital history"
#dhiha9 #digitalhumanities
#blackarchives #digitalhistory
Registration: https://www.dhi-paris.fr/.../revolutionary-disruptive-or... -
Hip Hop Samples Jazz: Dynamics of Cultural Memo y and Musical Tradition in the African American 1990s
The critical attempt to historicize hip hop dates at least to David Toop’s 1984 "Rap Attack: African Griots to New York Jive", a book written with journalistic immediacy and yet, as its subtitle suggests, one that situates rap reportage in the black musical "longue durée" but it wasn’t until the mid- 1990s that efforts toward an academic hip hop scholarship began in earnest, and it was then that ideas about the music’s methods and meanings as rooted in the black musical past became common currency. This view wasn’t surprising: a neat and untroubled line could be traced from the classic African American toasts to rap, and the use of digital sampling, whereby hip hop producers constructed their work from (black) music’s recorded back catalog, was equally suggestive for historically minded observers. This sampling practice, and its “historical” interpretation, form the central subject of this article.
Certainly, hip hop’s early scholars differed in their reasoning as to what the form’s use of old records meant for black music and history. Some positioned the practice as part of a linear, cultural-national tradition, sometimes shaded with essentialism. William Eric Perkins claimed, with totalizing confidence, that “sampling was and is hip hop’s ongoing link with history and tradition, including all of the African and African American musical genres.” a more modulated Kyra D. Gaunt contended that hip hop’s sampling was “the perfect medium for expressing the temporal culture-scape of who we are, and how we became, across time.”https://doi.org/10.5406/americanmusic.29.3.0277
#hiphop #jazz #culturalmemory #musicaltradition #africanamerican #1990s #sampling #musichistory #blackculture #hiphopscholarship #digital sampling #toasts #africanamericanmusic #essentially #temporalculture #constructivisttheorizations #vernaculars #politics #postmodernism #rhythmandblues #funk #rapmusic #samplingdebates #recordproduction #hiphopculture #musicindustry #copyrightlaw #publicdomain #intellectualproperty #musicappropriation #musicalintertextuality #remixculture #blackpopularculture
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Hip Hop Samples Jazz: Dynamics of Cultural Memo y and Musical Tradition in the African American 1990s
The critical attempt to historicize hip hop dates at least to David Toop’s 1984 "Rap Attack: African Griots to New York Jive", a book written with journalistic immediacy and yet, as its subtitle suggests, one that situates rap reportage in the black musical "longue durée" but it wasn’t until the mid- 1990s that efforts toward an academic hip hop scholarship began in earnest, and it was then that ideas about the music’s methods and meanings as rooted in the black musical past became common currency. This view wasn’t surprising: a neat and untroubled line could be traced from the classic African American toasts to rap, and the use of digital sampling, whereby hip hop producers constructed their work from (black) music’s recorded back catalog, was equally suggestive for historically minded observers. This sampling practice, and its “historical” interpretation, form the central subject of this article.
Certainly, hip hop’s early scholars differed in their reasoning as to what the form’s use of old records meant for black music and history. Some positioned the practice as part of a linear, cultural-national tradition, sometimes shaded with essentialism. William Eric Perkins claimed, with totalizing confidence, that “sampling was and is hip hop’s ongoing link with history and tradition, including all of the African and African American musical genres.” a more modulated Kyra D. Gaunt contended that hip hop’s sampling was “the perfect medium for expressing the temporal culture-scape of who we are, and how we became, across time.”https://doi.org/10.5406/americanmusic.29.3.0277
#hiphop #jazz #culturalmemory #musicaltradition #africanamerican #1990s #sampling #musichistory #blackculture #hiphopscholarship #digital sampling #toasts #africanamericanmusic #essentially #temporalculture #constructivisttheorizations #vernaculars #politics #postmodernism #rhythmandblues #funk #rapmusic #samplingdebates #recordproduction #hiphopculture #musicindustry #copyrightlaw #publicdomain #intellectualproperty #musicappropriation #musicalintertextuality #remixculture #blackpopularculture
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Hip Hop Samples Jazz: Dynamics of Cultural Memo y and Musical Tradition in the African American 1990s
The critical attempt to historicize hip hop dates at least to David Toop’s 1984 "Rap Attack: African Griots to New York Jive", a book written with journalistic immediacy and yet, as its subtitle suggests, one that situates rap reportage in the black musical "longue durée" but it wasn’t until the mid- 1990s that efforts toward an academic hip hop scholarship began in earnest, and it was then that ideas about the music’s methods and meanings as rooted in the black musical past became common currency. This view wasn’t surprising: a neat and untroubled line could be traced from the classic African American toasts to rap, and the use of digital sampling, whereby hip hop producers constructed their work from (black) music’s recorded back catalog, was equally suggestive for historically minded observers. This sampling practice, and its “historical” interpretation, form the central subject of this article.
Certainly, hip hop’s early scholars differed in their reasoning as to what the form’s use of old records meant for black music and history. Some positioned the practice as part of a linear, cultural-national tradition, sometimes shaded with essentialism. William Eric Perkins claimed, with totalizing confidence, that “sampling was and is hip hop’s ongoing link with history and tradition, including all of the African and African American musical genres.” a more modulated Kyra D. Gaunt contended that hip hop’s sampling was “the perfect medium for expressing the temporal culture-scape of who we are, and how we became, across time.”https://doi.org/10.5406/americanmusic.29.3.0277
#hiphop #jazz #culturalmemory #musicaltradition #africanamerican #1990s #sampling #musichistory #blackculture #hiphopscholarship #digital sampling #toasts #africanamericanmusic #essentially #temporalculture #constructivisttheorizations #vernaculars #politics #postmodernism #rhythmandblues #funk #rapmusic #samplingdebates #recordproduction #hiphopculture #musicindustry #copyrightlaw #publicdomain #intellectualproperty #musicappropriation #musicalintertextuality #remixculture #blackpopularculture
-
Hip Hop Samples Jazz: Dynamics of Cultural Memo y and Musical Tradition in the African American 1990s
The critical attempt to historicize hip hop dates at least to David Toop’s 1984 "Rap Attack: African Griots to New York Jive", a book written with journalistic immediacy and yet, as its subtitle suggests, one that situates rap reportage in the black musical "longue durée" but it wasn’t until the mid- 1990s that efforts toward an academic hip hop scholarship began in earnest, and it was then that ideas about the music’s methods and meanings as rooted in the black musical past became common currency. This view wasn’t surprising: a neat and untroubled line could be traced from the classic African American toasts to rap, and the use of digital sampling, whereby hip hop producers constructed their work from (black) music’s recorded back catalog, was equally suggestive for historically minded observers. This sampling practice, and its “historical” interpretation, form the central subject of this article.
Certainly, hip hop’s early scholars differed in their reasoning as to what the form’s use of old records meant for black music and history. Some positioned the practice as part of a linear, cultural-national tradition, sometimes shaded with essentialism. William Eric Perkins claimed, with totalizing confidence, that “sampling was and is hip hop’s ongoing link with history and tradition, including all of the African and African American musical genres.” a more modulated Kyra D. Gaunt contended that hip hop’s sampling was “the perfect medium for expressing the temporal culture-scape of who we are, and how we became, across time.”https://doi.org/10.5406/americanmusic.29.3.0277
#hiphop #jazz #culturalmemory #musicaltradition #africanamerican #1990s #sampling #musichistory #blackculture #hiphopscholarship #digital sampling #toasts #africanamericanmusic #essentially #temporalculture #constructivisttheorizations #vernaculars #politics #postmodernism #rhythmandblues #funk #rapmusic #samplingdebates #recordproduction #hiphopculture #musicindustry #copyrightlaw #publicdomain #intellectualproperty #musicappropriation #musicalintertextuality #remixculture #blackpopularculture