Political Critique: Elections in Romania: a Polish perspective

Having won 45 per cent of the votes, Romania’s Social Democrats, PSD, have managed to win the general election, and as such will form the new government with support from the smaller, center-right ALDE. Interestingly enough, it is still not clear whether the party’s leader, Liviu Dragnea, can become the prime minister because he is currently serving a suspended 2-year sentence for vote rigging in 2012. The law does not allow a person with a criminal record to become Prime Minister but the constitutionality of that law might be challenged as part of a political deal to let Dragnea, a powerful politician, run the executive anyway. [...]

Compared to the PiS, PSD’s nationalism is considerably “tamer”.  They have played the „Romania for Romanians” card during their campaign, they speak about focusing on home economy and they are not above taking a stab at foreigners. The Romanian President is ethnically German and the wife of outgoing Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, as well as Clotilde Armand, one of the leaders of the rival part USR, are French born. Dragnea has made xenophobic comments about them all, though he was not the only one: in fact, most parties running in the elections have resorted to some form of nationalism, which resonates well with voters in Romania. But PSD is still quite far from the ultra-nationalism that is being shown by PiS. The rhetoric is lighter, as is the instrumentalisation of history, and the Romanian Orthodox Church, though close to PSD, can only dream of ever having the influence of the Polish Catholic one. Romanians – at least until recently – have generally maintained a self-deprecating attitude towards their nationality. While it is certainly quite possible this will change, especially given the current international climate, it is important to note that there were also new, well-financed far-right parties running in these elections and none of them made it into the Parliament. [...]

As with Poland, there is no real left-wing party in Romania. The PSD, despite its promises of minimum wages and tax breaks, is quite far from being an actual social-democratic party. Even if we ignore the corruption, they have repeatedly been in power and have done little to reduce income inequalities, alleviate poverty, improve working conditions or offer good quality social services. The cuts they propose for their upcoming mandate include both the rich and the poor and it remains to be seen what funding they intend to allocate to social services. Their social conservatism and nationalism also have no place in a left-wing movement.

read the article 

Jacobin Magazine: The Hammer and Cross

Working-class Christians have seized on the progressive elements in Christianity to challenge hierarchies and inequalities within churches; to advocate for labor, land, and housing rights; and to agitate against militarism, racism, and poverty. Among Protestants in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Social Gospel pointed the way toward not just individual but social salvation. The Catholic Worker movement continues to preach anti-militarism and service to the poor.

Some Christians — including Thomas J. Hagerty, a key figure in the formation of the Industrial Workers of the World — have incorporated socialist and communist (if not explicitly Marxist) ideas into their social analysis and political practice. In the South American context, Christianity and Marxism fused to form liberation theology, which cast the poor and oppressed as primary agents fighting economic exploitation and challenging dictatorship, repression, and US imperialism. [...]

Some thinkers have tried to work through some of these tensions, arguing that there are grounds for a rapprochement. Andrew Collier’s book Christianity and Marxism: A Philosophical Contribution to Their Reconciliation is one such attempt. [...]

On the other side, Collier decries the “bourgeois aspirations” of the Soviet’s “privileged bureaucracy” and laments the inability of states that called themselves socialist to forge a “socialist civil society,” leaving “atomised individuals confronting a top-heavy state.” Here, Collier suggests, socialists can learn from Christians’ reflexive opposition to “totalitarian commercialism” and resistance to modish ideas. [...]

Collier’s attempts to reconcile Marxism and Christianity underscore not just the political possibilities of an alliance but the persistent gulf between the two. A meeting of the hammer and the cross — it may not be a far-fetched Christmas miracle, but rather a political necessity in the age of Trump.

read the article 

VICE: How to Know When You're Masturbating Too Much

Although I have met many people in my life that I'd label "masturbation experts," Laqueur is a true authority on the subject: In 2003, he wrote Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation. When we speak on the phone, he's just gotten home from walking his dog and had gotten a late start because he went to the opera the night before. [...]

According to Laqueur, the concept of "too much masturbation" is relatively novel, since in ancient times the great thinkers were unconcerned with the subject. "It's not like Plato wasn't thinking about sex," he specifies. "He just wasn't thinking about that particular form of sex." And so the timeless art of self-pleasure cruised under the radar until the Enlightenment era.

This sea change in the discourse of diddling has roots in a 1712 tract written by an anonymous physician, who decried the practice of masturbation as a disease he termed "Onanism." This comes from the the biblical story of Onan, who, rather than marrying his dead brother's wife and raising his children as his own, chose to "spill his seed on the ground." (This was the Old Testament, so God ended up smiting him as punishment.)

Until then, people interpreted the story as a parable about why you shouldn't shirk your responsibilities. However, the anonymous physician interpreted the text as evidence that if you jacked off, God would punish you. "It was totally cynical," Laqueur tells me. "This guy said, 'How can I make some money? I can say masturbation causes illness!'" [...]

And mind you, Katehakis isn't a vigilant anti-masturbation crusader—she's a licensed sex therapist. "Porn and masturbation should be a pleasurable part of a person's healthy sexuality," she declares, specifying that she just wants people of all genders to be safe when they jank it. That means making sure your masturbatory habits aren't interfering with your daily life, handling your equipment gently, and using lubrication.

One of the reasons people might not know safe masturbation techniques is that we're never encouraged to learn about them. "Adults are shamed about masturbation since day one," said Elise Franklin, an LA-based therapist who promotes pro-sex attitudes through her practice. "When you're two years old and your parents catch you touching yourself, they tell you, 'Don't do that!' When you're in school and take sex education, the topic is greeted with discomfort and giggles."

read the article 

Politico: No country for old fascists

While no far-right party has managed to get a single lawmaker into the national parliament or any of the 17 regional assemblies in the past three decades, Spain looks to be as fertile ground for right-wing populism as any other country in Europe. It just seems to be awaiting a charismatic leader to upset the established order.

Anti-immigration and anti-establishment sentiment — key factors driving the right-wing revival elsewhere — are at least as strong in Spain as the rest of Europe, according to research by Sonia Alonso and Cristóbal Rovira, who studied opinion polls across the Continent and found no meaningful differences. [...]

Spain’s fragmented far-right parties are largely driven by nostalgia for Franco and live up to the stereotype: a few thousand bickering extremists who gather to commemorate the dictator’s death carrying Francoist flags, doing the Nazi salute and singing the Falangists anthem “Cara al sol.” [...]

If that is to happen, the right-wingers will not only have to overcome their own strategic shortcomings and stop the infighting. They must also cope with the biggest factor that limits their growth: the ruling Popular Party’s largely unchallenged hegemony among far-right Spaniards. It is estimated that more than 80 percent of people who describe themselves as far-right voted for Rajoy in the past two national elections.

read the article 

Al Jazeera: Web extra: Is boycotting Israel anti-Semitic?

In this Web Extra, we ask a panel of journalists and academics whether the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement has any relation to anti-Semitism."

What it does is it hits a very raw nerve that's used because they have a memory of boycotts. So, as a tactic it has a very unfortunate history," says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland.

"[Israeli leaders have] incapacitated all other forms of intervention and resistance, including legal forms, diplomatic forms, and otherwise," says Palestinian-American human rights lawyer, activist and academic Noura Erakat. "This is not about BDS alone, this is about making sure that Palestinians have no form of resistance left available to them that's legitimate."

"I find the BDS movement pretty innocuous. It hasn’t had any impact whatsoever on the facts on the ground," says Israeli-Canadian journalist Lisa Goldman, a contributor to the left-wing Israeli news site +972. "Boycotting is nothing new inside Israel either."

watch the video

Atlas Obscura: You Can Follow a Hidden Stream Beneath Indianapolis—If You Know Where to Look

Not far from Pogue’s cabin was the site that Indiana’s newly organized General Assembly had picked, in 1820, for the capital of the four-year-old state. The assembly hired Alexander Ralston, who had worked with Washington. D.C.’s famed planner Pierre L’Enfant, to draw up a scheme for the new city. Ralston’s elegant design echoed D.C’s: Indianapolis would be a square grid, a mile on each side, with a circular plaza in the center and four wide, stately boulevards radiating out towards each of the square’s corners.

Except—in the southeast corner of the city, the gridded blocks tilted, askew. There was a black line snaking through the plan, throwing the grid off kilter. That was Pogue’s Run, ruining the city’s planned symmetry. [...]

Eventually, city planners decided they’d had enough. By 1905, they were planning a “straightjacket” for the stream, to keep its water contained, and in 1915, they trapped the run underground. [...]

Hyatt walked the whole length of the tunnel, twice, with “an urban explorer type of dude who had been through it before,” he says. It’s not entirely clear which government agency has responsibility for it, or whether they were trespassing. Inside the pitch-black tunnel built more than a century ago, the water can be deep, or, depending on the rainfall, can slow to almost nothing, leaving dry concrete pathways on either side.

read the article 

Atlas Obscura: Rudolph and Ruins: Photographs of Abandoned Santa Parks

Whether the early displays of holiday cheer fill your heart with anticipation for the coming winter months, or dread and irritation for another long, bombastic season of endless carols and swarming lights, there’s no denying that the Christmas spirit is again taking its hold.

Some places have tried to capture this fleeting joy year-round with “santa parks” where there are always prancing reindeers and busy elves. Yet even this attempt at capturing holiday joy as a sort of amusement park has its expiration date, and like a pine tree tossed to the curb with its tinsel and garland still tousled around its branches, these santa parks have been abandoned and left to ruin. 

see the photos

Al Jazeera: Whitewashing Assad and his allies must be challenged

In the past few months, three Western women have gone to Syria, two of them by invitation and the third on a regime-approved reporting trip. The first two are now on "speaking tours" to explain "what's really happening in Syria" to the Western public. The third one, however, was kicked out of Syria by the Bashar al-Assad regime. Her crime? "Untrue reporting" in the form of sharing tweets containing photos and witness accounts from people in besieged Eastern Aleppo, because the regime wouldn't give her or the other journalists with her access to that part of the city. [...]

The first two of these women, however, call themselves independent journalists, yet post gushing photos of themselves posing with Bashar al-Assad on social media, appear on Russian state television to peddle the Assad regime's lines and travel across the United States to accuse anyone opposing Assad of being an al-Qaeda sympathiser.

Channel 4, Snopes, EA Worldview and Pulse Media and others have done thorough fact-checking debunking Bartlett in particular. There is no need to rehash their findings. [...]

For six years now, even the United Nations, which itself is guilty of being biased towards the regime in more ways than one, cannot but admit that the biggest criminals in Syria are the regime and its allies. [...]

Nuance in analysing Syria has been and continues to be a problem across pro-regime, opposition and even "neutral" media. This has been particularly evident as the world suddenly woke up to the fact that something bad was indeed happening in the country only in the past few weeks as eastern Aleppo made headlines.

read the article 

Al Jazeera: India to build giant statue of medieval king Shivaji

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundation stone for what is set to be the world's tallest statue nearly four kilometres into the sea off Mumbai, as its projected cost and environmental impact drew criticism.

The 192-metre statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, a medieval Hindu ruler in the western state of Maharashtra who fought the Muslim Mughal dynasty and carved out his own kingdom, is expected to be completed by 2019.

To be built at a cost of about $530m, it will be more than twice the size of the Statue of Liberty in New York and five times higher than Christ the Redeemer in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro. [...]

By Saturday evening, about 27,000 people had signed a Change.org petition asking that the government spend the money on infrastructure and development instead.

read the article