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The case for radical modernity

Jeremy Gilbert Red Pepper
Socialism has only been able to develop a successful political programme when it has understood itself as a modernising project, working with the grain of technological and organisational progress

The Iowa Winnow

Robert Borosage Campaign for America's Future
Now the pace accelerates: New Hampshire next week, followed by South Carolina, Nevada and the Super Tuesday states, as more and more Americans discover that a presidential campaign has begun. Iowa will be dissected over the next days, but here are five quick takeaways the morning after.

Adding Up the Costs of Hillary Clinton’s Wars; Or, Hillary & the Urn of Ashes

Conn Hallinan Foreign Policy in Focus
Historical blindness has been much on display in the primary season. On the Republican side, candidates promised to “kick ass” in Iraq, make the “sand glow” in Syria, and face down the Russians in Europe. While the Democratic aspirants were a little more measured, they generally share the pervasive ideology that binds together all but “cranks” like Ron Paul: America has the right, indeed the duty, to order the world’s affairs.

Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams To Block Audio, Records Show

Mark Konkol and Paul Biasco DNAinfo Chicago
Chicago Police Department officers stashed microphones in their squad car glove boxes. They pulled out batteries. Microphone antennas got busted or went missing. And sometimes, dashcam systems didn’t have any microphones at all, DNAinfo Chicago has learned. Police officials last month blamed the absence of audio in 80 percent of dashcam videos on officer error and “intentional destruction.”

The Silvertown Strike - A Partisan History

John Tully Monthly Review
The bourgeoisie does not rule by force alone; it does so by inculcating its ideas and values—its ideology—into the population at large. It follows, then, as the GMB’s John Callow argues in his preface to Silvertown, that “history, like politics…is a fiercely contested ideological space.” Historians who claim to be impartial and “value-free” are not to be trusted—or they are simple.

Time’s (Almost) Reversible Arrow

Frank Wilczek Quanta Magazine
The laws of physics work both forward and backward in time. So why does time seem to move in only one direction? One potential answer may also reveal the secrets of the universe’s missing mass.