Univ. of Michigan’s ZEUS will be most powerful laser in US

By MIKE HOUSEHOLDERyesterday

University of Michigan research scientist Andrew McKelvey inspects a prototype vacuum compatible mirror mount inside the ZEUS laser facility on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022, in Ann Arbor, Mich. The newly constructed facility will be home to the most powerful laser in the U.S. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — A newly constructed University of Michigan facility that will be home to the most powerful laser in the United States is hosting its first experiment this week as the nation seeks to become competitive again in the realm of high-power laser facilities.

The experiment will be conducted at ZEUS — short for Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System — by researchers from the University of California, Irvine. They traveled to Ann Arbor as part of their study of extremely intense interactions of light and matter, and how such interactions can be harnessed to shrink particle accelerators.

At the height of its power, ZEUS will be a 3-petawatt laser.

Three petawatts is “3 with 15 zeroes after it,” said Louise Willingale, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Michigan.

And “3 petawatts is 3,000 times more powerful than the U.S. power grid,” she said.

Michigan was awarded $18.5 million by the National Science Foundation to establish ZEUS as a federally funded international user facility.

Initially, the facility — housed in a building that is home to U-M’s Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science — will host research teams conducting experiments that use a fraction of the laser’s full power potential. The system gradually will ramp up, and ZEUS is expected to begin its signature experiments in the fall of 2023.

The U.S. built the world’s first petawatt laser a quarter-century ago, but hasn’t kept pace with more ambitious systems in Europe and Asia. While ZEUS doesn’t feature the same raw power as its contemporaries overseas, its approach will simulate a laser that is roughly 1 million times more powerful than its 3 petawatts.

ZEUS primarily will study extreme plasmas, a state of matter in which the electrons have enough energy to escape atoms, creating a sea of charged particles. Nearly all of the seen universe is made of plasma. The sun is an example of a plasma.

Experiments are expected to contribute to the understanding of how the universe operates at the subatomic level and materials change on rapid timescales. Scientists also hope they lead to the development of smaller and more compact particle accelerators for medical imaging and treatment.

ZEUS will “have a huge range of applications across science, technology, engineering and medicine,” Willingale said.

Proposals to use ZEUS will be evaluated by an external panel comprised of scientists and engineers. Because of the NSF funding, there will be no cost to users whose experiment proposals are selected to conduct research, beyond providing their own travel costs to the facility.

The proposals will be selected on scientific merit and technical feasibility, Willingale said.

Franklin Dollar, an associate professor in Cal-Irvine’s Department of Physics & Astronomy, and four UCI graduate students arrived at Michigan last week to begin preparing for their experiment.



University of Michigan research scientist Andrew McKelvey inspects a prototype vacuum compatible mirror mount inside the ZEUS laser facility on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022, in Ann Arbor, Mich. The newly constructed facility will be home to the most powerful laser in the U.S. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

“One of the major challenges in our field is access to high quality, intense laser light,” Dollar said. “ZEUS will not only be the most powerful laser beam on the continent, but perhaps more importantly will provide multiple powerful beams.

“Rather than solely making highly energetic plasmas from a laser, there is a second beam which can interact with the plasma as well,” he said.

ZEUS is an upgrade over the University of Michigan’s 0.5-petawatt laser, known as HERCULES.

While Michigan researchers are thrilled with the birth of ZEUS, they are cognizant of how their naming conventions aren’t exactly in keeping with the chronology of Greek mythology.

“HERCULES was the predecessor to ZEUS,” Willingale said. “It’s slightly backward, because Hercules was the son of Zeus.

“So, we’re building the father after the son.”

Shell CEO to step down as oil giant looks to climate goals

CEO of Royal Dutch Shell Ben van Beurden speaks at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 21, 2017. Van Beurden, is stepping down at the end of the year after nine years in charge and will be replaced by Wael Sawan, the company announced Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. (Sergei Karpukhin/Pool Photo via AP, File)

LONDON (AP) — Shell CEO Ben van Beurden is stepping down at the end of 2022 after nine years in charge, the energy giant said Thursday, a change that comes as oil and natural gas companies are under pressure to shift away from fossil fuels even as they see soaring profits from energy price s driven up by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Taking over Jan. 1 is Wael Sawan, who has worked for Shell for 25 years and is now director of integrated gas, renewables and energy solutions. The choice signals the focus of the London-based company to take what it calls a leading role in the energy transition despite facing criticism that it’s been slow to reduce climate-changing emissions.

“I’m looking forward to channeling the pioneering spirit and passion of our incredible people to rise to the immense challenges, and grasp the opportunities presented by the energy transition,” said Sawan, who has been a member of Shell’s executive committee for three years.

He takes over at a tumultuous time for Shell and other oil and gas giants. While the world is looking to transition to renewable sources like wind and solar, the war in Ukraine has created volatility that has driven up energy prices and fueled inflation.

Natural gas prices have soared as Russia has curbed supplies to Europe, where an energy crisis is forcing governments to institute conservation measures and go back to coal and oil despite climate goals to ensure the lights stay on this winter.

Volatile oil prices soared above $120 per barrel in June, pushing gasoline prices at the pump to record highs in the United States. Crude has since fallen below $90.

That has translated to record profits for energy companies at a time when households and businesses are getting stung by rising costs. Some European governments have approved taxes on excess profits of energy companies to help households and businesses, and the European Union’s executive Commission proposed Wednesday a similar levy on electricity producers across the 27-nation bloc.

“It’s a dynamic time to be in charge of an oil and gas major, with oil prices highly reactive, and the public very sensitive surrounding allegations of profiteering and environmental damage,” said Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, an investment services firm.

She called Sawan’s appointment “a clear marker” that Shell intends to make its renewable strategy clearer, even if “change won’t happen overnight.” He “won’t be ignorant to the fact oil prices can collapse at short notice” and that is “all but guaranteed to be something he’ll have to navigate,” Lund-Yates added.

Shell Chairman, Sir Andrew Mackenzie, called Sawan “an exceptional leader, with all the qualities needed to drive Shell safely and profitably through its next phase of transition and growth.”

In late July, Shell posted record profits of $11.5 billion for a second straight quarter. That was up from $5.5 billion in the same three-month period last year, despite a hit worth billions from pulling out of Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.

Formerly known as Dutch Royal Shell, the company late last year left the Netherlands and consolidated its headquarters in London as it simplified its archaic corporate structure. Shell has resisted pressure to break itself up, with one company focused on renewable energy and the other on legacy fossil fuels, as other firms have done.

It has a goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 by investing in renewable energy, restoring forests and taking other steps but has been accused of moving too slowly.

Last year, the Hague District Court ordered Shell to cut carbon emissions 45% by 2030, saying the company’s net-zero target “is not concrete, has many caveats and is based on monitoring social developments rather than the company’s own responsibility for achieving a CO2 reduction.”

With climate challenges ahead, Mackenzie, the board chairman, praised van Beurden, saying h “has been in the vanguard for the transition of Shell to a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 and has become a leading industry voice on some of the most important issues affecting society.”

The outgoing CEO, who will remain as an adviser to the board until June 30, said it was an honor to “have served Shell for nearly four decades and to lead the company for the past nine years,” saying he has “great confidence in Wael as my successor.”

Germany urges firms to make tax-free payments to employees

Yasmin Fahimi, Chairwoman of the German Trade Union Confederation, right, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, center, and Rainer Dulger, BDA President, go to make a statement after a Concerted Action meeting in the Chancellor's Office in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Sept.15, 2022. With the second meeting on the so-called Concerted Action, Chancellor Scholz wants to discuss solutions together with the social partners to support businesses and employees in the current inflation crisis. 

(Wolfgang Kumm/dpa via AP)


BERLIN (AP) — The German government is urging companies to make a one-off payment to their employees of up to 3,000 euros (dollars) as a way of addressing the impact of rising prices while preventing a spiral of inflation in Europe’s biggest economy.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday that the government would waive the usual salary-related taxes “if this means that employees can get through the crisis better with such a payment.”

Speaking after a meeting with top employers and labor union representatives at his Berlin office, Scholz said the disbursements would be voluntary “but I am sure that employees will be happy to receive a tax- and duty-free payment in addition to the agreed wage.”

The chancellor said he understood the worries many people have about sharply rising utility bills and prices at supermarkets and gas stations.

Scholz noted that businesses also are coming under increasing price pressure and stressed that “the German government is not leaving anyone alone with the burden.”

During the summer, Germany temporarily lowered taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline at the pump and introduced an ultra-cheap ticket that allowed people to use all local and regional public transportation for 9 euros (less than $10) a month.

German labor unions have demanded higher-than-usual pay increases this year to make up for rampant inflation, threatening strikes unless their demands are met.

MAKING A WITHDRAWL
After heist, Lebanese activists promise more bank raids

SELF EXPROPRIATION

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB


FILE - A Lebanese policeman stands guard next to a bank window that was broken by depositors to exit the bank after attacking it trying to get blocked money, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. A Lebanese activist group said they will continue to organize bank raids to help people retrieve their trapped savings. Activists from the Depositors' Outcry group made these remarks at a press conference on Thursday, after activists helped Sali Hafez retrieve $13,000 in her savings to help fund her sister's cancer treatment on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese activist group on Thursday vowed to organize more bank heists to help people retrieve their locked savings as the country’s years-long economic crisis continues to worsen.

Activists from Depositors’ Outcry group accompanied Sali Hafez into a Beirut bank branch on Wednesday, and she was able to retrieve some $13,000 in her savings to fund her sister’s cancer treatment.

Hafez carried a toy gun when she walked into BLOM Bank on Wednesday, while the activists who accompanied her poured about gasoline, threatening to set the bank on fire if she did not get her money out.

The group told The Associated Press that they had also coordinated with a man who tried to take some of his money from a bank in the mountainous town of Aley. Local media said he carried an unloaded shotgun.

Lebanon’s cash-strapped banks have imposed strict limits on withdrawals of foreign currency since 2019, tying up the savings of millions of people. About three-quarters of the population has slipped into poverty as the tiny Middle East country’s economy continues to spiral.

Alaa Khorchid, the head of Depositors’ Outcry, said there is now no other choice for Lebanese bank depositors but to “take matters into their own hands.” He spoke at a press conference in Beirut.

An ATM is covered with diesel fuel after it was vandalized by angry depositors who attacked a bank, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022.

Lebanese policemen enter a bank from a window that was broken by depositors to exit the bank after trying to get their money, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. 

 

A man sprays Arabic that reads: "Bank theft and prostitution," on the window of a bank that was attacked in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022.

“BLOM Bank issues a statement saying that this is a pre-orchestrated operation. Yes it is, what were you thinking?” Khorchid told reporters, referring to the bank’s statement condemning Hafez and the activists.

“And we’re organizing more than this, and you have no choice. People’s rights are sacred,” he added, addressing banks in general.

“The real beginning of the revolution started yesterday, when Sali Hafez entered the bank, and there is no turning back,” Ibrahim Abdullah, a member of the Depositors’ Outcry group said at the press conference. “This revolution is against all the banks.”

Several groups advocating and protesting for Lebanese depositors have emerged since 2019, with some — like the one named the Depositors’ Union — opting to file lawsuits against banks to help depositors retrieve their money.

Wednesday’s heist occurred weeks after a food delivery driver broke into another bank branch in Beirut and held 10 people hostage for seven hours, demanding tens of thousands of dollars in his trapped savings. Many Lebanese hailed him as a hero.

The standoff and public sympathy for those taking matters into their own hands to get their savings has exposed the depths of people’s despair in Lebanon’s economic crisis, which has pulled over three-quarters of the country’s population into poverty, unable to cope with skyrocketing food, electricity, and gasoline prices.

Meanwhile, Lebanese officials struggle to implement structural reforms for an economic recovery plan approved by the International Monetary Fund to unlock billions of dollars in loans and aid to make the country viable again.

Depositors hold up two Lebanese banks to grab their own money

 

Reuters  Wednesday September 14, 2022 16:09

Kitco News

BEIRUT, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Two seemingly armed and desperate Lebanese depositors held up banks on Wednesday to force access to their own money, which has been blocked during a national financial meltdown.

One woman with a gun and some associates briefly held hostages at a branch of BLOM Bank (BLOM.BY) in the capital Beirut, before leaving with more than $13,000 in cash from her account, a source from a depositors' advocacy group said.

Shortly afterwards, in the mountain city of Aley, an armed man entered a Bankmed branch and retrieved some of his trapped savings, before handing himself into authorities, the Depositors Outcry and a security source said.

Lebanon's banks have locked most depositors out of their savings since an economic crisis took hold three years ago, leaving much of the population unable to pay for basics.

In a phenomenon illustrating the plight, Wednesday's holdups came after a man last month held up another Beirut bank to withdraw funds to treat his sick father. read more

BLOM Bank said a customer and accomplices arrived with a gun, threatened to set people on fire, and forced the branch manager and treasurer to bring money from a safe.

'NOTHING MORE TO LOSE'

Before going into hiding, the woman, Sali Hafiz, told local news channel Al Jadeed TV the gun was a toy and that she needed the money for her sister's cancer treatment.

"I have nothing more to lose, I got to the end of the road," she said, saying a visit to the bank manager two days previously had not provided an adequate solution.

"I got to a point where I was going to sell my kidney so that my sister could receive treatment."

BLOM confirmed the customer had been in to seek her money for her sister's treatment, saying she was offered total cooperation and requested to provide documentation.

"All we have is this money in the bank. My daughter was forced to take this money - it's her right, it's in her account - to treat her sister," her mother Hiam Hafiz told local TV.

Authorities did not immediately comment on the incidents.

Bankmed did not comment on its branch holdup.

Following last month's holdup, which also involved hostages, the accused perpetrator was arrested but then released without charge after the bank dropped its lawsuit.

One senior Lebanese banker, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters it was a worrying precedent,

"I think this is an invitation for other people to do the same. As long as people get away with it, they will continue. What a failed state," the banker said.

Banks say they make exceptions for humanitarian cases including hospital care, but depositors say that rarely happens.

Reporting by Timour Azhari, Laila Bassam and Issam Abdallah; Writing by Maya Gebeily Editing by Frank Jack Daniel, Alexandra Hudson and Andrew Cawthorne.

Factbox-Just how bad is Lebanon's 

economic  crisis?

Sep 14, 2022

An ATM machine is covered with a liquid substance outside a Blom Bank branch in Beirut, Lebanon September 14, 2022. 

REUTERS/Emilie Madi

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Savers held up two banks in Lebanon on Wednesday to demand access to their own deposits frozen in the country's paralysed financial system, underlining desperation among citizens unable to access savings since an economic crisis began in 2019.

There were similar incidents in Beirut in August and in eastern Lebanon in January.

The result of years of state corruption, waste and unsustainable financial policies, the World Bank says the crisis is one of the worst globally since the mid-19th century.

Just how bad is the situation?

* Gross domestic product plunged to an estimated $20.5 billion in 2021 from about $55 billion in 2018, the kind of contraction usually associated with wars, the World Bank says.

* The Lebanese pound has lost some 95% of its value, driving up prices and demolishing purchasing power in the import-dependent country. A soldier's monthly wage, once the equivalent of $900, is now worth less than $50. Poverty rates have sky-rocketed in the population of about 6.5 million, with around 80% of people classed as poor, the U.N. agency ESCWA says.

* Big lenders to the state, which defaulted on its hard currency debt in 2020, Lebanon's banks have frozen ordinary depositors out of dollar accounts and severely limited all withdrawals. Withdrawals in local currency apply exchange rates that erase up to 95% of their value

* A World Bank report said in August "a significant portion" of savings had been "misused and misspent over the past 30 years". A visiting U.S. official said last year the Lebanese people deserved to know where their money had gone.

* The financial system has suffered eyewatering losses. The government estimates overall losses at around $70 billion. The deputy prime minister said in March the figure was expected to grow to $73 billion while the crisis is not addressed, yet the government has yet to enact any recovery plan.

* With Lebanon reliant on imported fuel, power is in short supply. Households are lucky to get more than a few hours a day. Fuel prices have soared as authorities gradually lifted subsidies, entirely ending them in September. A ride in a shared taxi, a popular form of transport, cost 2,000 pounds pre-crisis but now costs 50,000.

* Lebanese have emigrated in the most significant exodus since the civil war. Believing their savings are lost, many have no plans to return. A 2021 Gallup poll found a record 63% of people surveyed wanted to leave permanently, up from 26% before the crisis.

* Among those leaving are doctors. The World Health Organization has said most hospitals are operating at 50% capacity. It says around 40% of doctors, mostly specialists, and 30% of nurses have permanently emigrated or are working part-time abroad.

* Officials and the media talk of Lebanon becoming a "failed state". Public services have ground to a halt. President Michel Aoun warned last year that the state was "falling apart"

Armed woman breaks into Beirut bank demanding her savings

 

WHITE SUPREMACY RULES
Alabama sidesteps compensation for survivor of  ’63 KKK blast

Debris is strewn from a bomb that exploded near a basement room of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. on September 15, 1963, killing four black girls. Sarah Collins Rudolph lost an eye and has pieces of glass inside her body from a Ku Klux Klan bombing that killed her sister and three other Black girls inside an Alabama church 59 years ago. (AP Photo, FILE)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Sarah Collins Rudolph lost an eye and still has pieces of glass inside her body from a Ku Klux Klan bombing that killed her sister and three other Black girls at an Alabama church 59 years ago, and she’s still waiting on the state to compensate her for those injuries.

Gov. Kay Ivey sidestepped the question of financial compensation two years ago in apologizing to Rudolph for her “untold pain and suffering,” saying legislative involvement was needed. But nothing has been done despite the efforts of attorneys representing Rudolph, leaving unresolved the question of payment even though victims of other attacks, including 9/11, were compensated.

Rudolph will meet with President Joe Biden at the White House for a summit about combatting hate-fueled violence on Thursday, the anniversary of the bombing.

Rudolph, known as the “Fifth Little Girl” for surviving the infamous attack, which was depicted in Spike Lee’s 1997 documentary “4 Little Girls,” has been rankled by the state’s inaction.

Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Rudolph said then-Gov. George C. Wallace helped lay the groundwork for the Ku Klux Klan attack on 16th Street Baptist Church with his segregationist rhetoric, and the state bears some responsibility for the bombing, which wasn’t prosecuted for years.

“If they hadn’t stirred up all that racist hate that was going on at the time I don’t believe that church would have been bombed,” said Rudolph.

Rudolph said she still incurs medical expenses from the explosion, including a $90 bill she gets every few months for work on the prosthetic she wears in place of the right eye that was destroyed by shrapnel on Sept. 15, 1963. Anything would help, but Rudolph believes she’s due millions.

Ishan Bhabha, an attorney representing Rudolph, said the state’s apology — made at Rudolph’s request along with a plea for restitution — was only meant as a first step.

“She deserves justice in the form of compensation for the grievous injuries, and costs, she has had to bear for almost 60 years,” he said. “We will continue to pursue any available avenues to get Sarah the assistance she needs and deserves.”

Five girls were gathered in a downstairs bathroom at 16th Street Baptist Church when a bomb planted by KKK members went off outside, blowing a huge hole in the thick, brick wall. The blast killed Denise McNair, 11, and three 14-year-olds: Carole Robertson, Cynthia Morris, also referred to as Cynthia Wesley, and Addie Mae Collins, who was Rudolph’s sister.

Sarah Collins Rudolph and her husband, George Rudolph, talk in their home on Nov. 16, 2016, in Birmingham, Ala. Rudolph lost an eye and still has slivers of glass inside her body from the racist bombing that killed her sister and three other Black girls inside a church 59 years ago Thursday. She's still waiting on the state to compensate her for those injuries. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File)

Three Klan members convicted of murder in the bombing years later died in prison, and a fourth suspect died without ever being charged. The bombing occurred eight months after Wallace proclaimed “segregation forever” in his inaugural speech and during the time when Birmingham schools were being racially integrated for the first time.

The church itself has gotten government money for renovations, as has the surrounding Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, formed by President Barack Obama in 2017 in one of his last acts in office. “But not me,” Rudolph said.

Ivey, at the time of the apology, said in a letter to Rudolph’s lawyer that any possible compensation would require legislative approval, said press secretary Gina Maiola.

“Additionally, in attorney-to-attorney conversations that ensued soon after, that same point was reiterated,” she said.

No bill has been introduced to compensate Rudolph, legislative records show, and it’s unclear whether such legislation could win passage anyway since conservative Republicans hold an overwhelming majority and have made an issue of reeling in history lessons that could make white people feel bad about the past.

While the Alabama Crime Victims’ Compensation Commission helps victims and families with expenses linked to a crime, state law doesn’t allow it to address offenses that occurred before the agency was created in 1984.

Rudolph has spent a lifetime dealing with physical and mental pain from the bombing. Despite her injuries and lingering stress disorders, Rudolph provided testimony that helped lead to the convictions of the men accused of planting the bomb, and she’s written a book about her life, titled “The 5th Little Girl.”

Rudolph’s husband, George Rudolph, said he’s frustrated and mad over the way his wife has been treated. Victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks were compensated, he said, as were victims of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.

“Why can’t they do something for Sarah?” he said.

___

Reeves is a member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity Team.

FROM SOCIAL DEMOCRACY TO SOCIAL FASCISTS
Success for party of ‘Sweden first’ energizes global right

By VANESSA GERA and JAN M. OLSEN

an hour ago


1 of 4

Party leader of the Sweden Democrats Jimmie Akesson gives a speech during the party's election watch at the Elite Hotel Marina Tower in Nacka, near Stockholm, Sweden, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. The leader of a nationalist populist party has declared victory for a right-wing bloc in Sweden’s weekend election, vowing that it is “time to put Sweden first.” Akesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, said Wednesday, Sept. 14, that his party would be “a constructive and driving force in this work” of rebuilding safety in Sweden. (Stefan Jerrevång/TT News Agency via AP, File)

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Sweden Democrats party was founded by neo-Nazis and skinheads in the 1980s. Today, the rebranded and reformed nationalist party stands on the edge of unprecedented influence.

Following a weekend election held amid fears of rising crime, the anti-immigration party is the now second-most popular party in the Scandinavian country.

The development is the latest global example of a political force once widely deemed socially unacceptable moving into the political mainstream.

Vowing to put “Sweden first” and to “make Sweden good again,” the slogans of party leader Jimmie Akesson echo those that have resonated with ex-President Donald Trump’s supporters in the United States.

Its surge has energized right-wing forces in Europe as they eye further gains against the left.

“Let this be an omen and model for the rest of Europe,” said a tweet from the European Conservatives and Reformists party, whose president is Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party.

In 10 days, Italians will elect a new Parliament in balloting that, if opinion polls prove right, could see Meloni triumph as part of a center-right electoral alliance and even possibly become Italy’s premier.

Steve Bannon, Trump’s longtime ally, also hailed the Sweden Democrats’ surge on his “War Room” podcast, calling the shift to the right in traditionally progressive Sweden a “political earthquake.” He praised the Sweden Democrats because “they want their borders, they want their sovereignty.”

Bannon described Sweden as a destroyed society — a right-wing trope that exaggerates the scale of Sweden’s challenges.

Sweden is for the most part a prosperous and thriving European Union member, though many have been shaken by shootings and gang-related violence. Some, though not all, of the rising violence, has taken place in largely immigrant neighborhoods.

The populist party’s strong showing was confirmed Wednesday evening, three days after a vote so close that the final result had to wait for postal and other outstanding votes to be counted.

With the tally clarified, the right-wing bloc of parties has 176 seats while Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s center-left bloc has 173. On Thursday, Andersson submitted her resignation to the speaker of Parliament.

Despite the Sweden Democrats’ surge — it won 20.5% of the vote, making it the largest right-of-center party — the stigma which it cannot entirely shake means that it will not be the first party to be tapped to form the government. Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderates party, another member of the right-of-center bloc, is expected to be the first to get a chance to try to form a governing coalition.

Many Swedes worry that the Sweden Democrats’ history and hard-line stance on immigration threaten the democratic identity of a nation that is home to the Nobel Prizes and where generations of refugees have been welcomed, and thrived.

Emily Jeremias, a 45-year-old musician, said that she was worried but not surprised about “a right-wing kind of extremist party ... gaining so much power.”

“We see kind of a right-wing movement in the whole of Europe, so it’s not surprising that’s happening here as well,” she said.

During her campaign, the outgoing prime minister depicted the Sweden Democrats as a possible threat to the country’s pluralism and tolerance.

And as Andersson acknowledged defeat, she said she personally had been subject to a “hate campaign,” and alleged that the party used “organized trolls” to target young activists.

She and others on the left have also accused the Moderates of being complicit in normalizing the Sweden Democrats by being willing to work with them.

The populist party’s more acceptable image is the result of years of efforts by Akesson, its 43-year-old leader. He says the party’s transformation from its early days is sincere and that it rejects fascism and Nazism.

Under his leadership, the party long ago traded its torch symbol for a flower, aiming to underscore its reformation.

Akesson’s interest in politics started as a teenager when Sweden became a member of the EU in 1995. He opposed it at the time, but in another shift, the party today supports membership in the 27-member bloc. It also supports NATO membership, which Sweden applied for this year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Akesson’s personal image is of someone smooth and well-groomed. He plays keyboard in a soft rock band, and in his speeches avoids inflammatory language, using humor and irony instead with his opponents.

As part of its reckoning with the past, the party recently published a study into the roots of the Sweden Democrats. Swedish newspaper Expressen revealed the author was a party member. Nonetheless, the investigation confirmed that several of the party’s founders in the 1980s had links to fascist and neo-Nazi movements.

The party says immigration to Sweden in the past was mostly acceptable, but that it has become too much in recent years. In 2015 alone the country of 10 million took in a record 163,000 refugees — the highest per capita of any European country.

Party members say they welcome Ukrainian refugees, but that Sweden should not have to accept more from the Middle East or Africa.

The party is vowing to limit asylum approval to a bare minimum and to deport any migrants or refugees who commit crimes. In its election program it alleged that there are cases of asylum-seekers who claim dishonestly to be persecuted because they are gay or rejected Islam, suggesting it would limit such claims.

The Sweden Democrats say that Sweden has become “a magnet for the world’s migrants” and their aim is “to restore Sweden to what it once was.”

While it is unclear whether the Sweden Democrats will join the eventual government — not all the center-right parties in the bloc are ready to agree to that — it is clear that any right-wing government would need their support in order to muster a majority in Parliament to pass legislation. The star is on the rise for Akesson and his party.

___

Olsen reported from Copenhagen, Denmark.

THE 1%

Hotel mogul, UFO believer spending in Nevada governor’s race

By GABE STERN

yesterday

1 of 4

Robert Bigelow, founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace, speaks at a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 7, 2016. Las Vegas-based hotel magnate and longtime UFO researcher Bigelow has donated, through his owned companies, a total of $5.7 million to Nevada GOP gubernatorial nominee Joe Lombardo's campaign or PACs supporting his campaign this election cycle. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Robert Bigelow, a Las Vegas-based hotel magnate, has always had a cause.

For decades, he invested his hotel profits into UFO research, creating his own aerospace company while lobbying senators to fund additional research. More recently, he offered nearly $1 million in prizes for a contest to show consciousness after death, part of his newer interest in the afterlife.

Now Bigelow, 78, has become the largest donor this cycle in Nevada’s midterm gubernatorial race, donating $5.7 million through his companies to the campaign for Nevada GOP gubernatorial nominee Joe Lombardo and to political action committees supporting him. The race has implications for inflation policy, reproductive rights and the Democrats’ hold on the Legislature.

Bigelow’s donations give a lifeline to a Republican challenger who is spending more and fundraising less than the Democratic incumbent. As of the latest filings, Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak leads Lombardo, the Clark County sheriff, in cash-on-hand $10.78 million to $1.2 million, which includes direct contributions to their campaigns but does not account for donations to political action committees, which make up the bulk of Bigelow’s donations in support of Lombardo.

PACs are required to operate independently from candidates, meaning they can raise money for candidates but aren’t allowed to coordinate with the their campaigns.

Bigelow has made his wealth through his extended-stay apartment chain Budget Suites of America, which he has used to fund his UFO research. He was also a vocal critic of the federal eviction moratorium, calling it “legalized theft” as some tenants didn’t pay rent, and he filed 46 eviction actions at the height of the pandemic. He lamented Sisolak’s statewide closure of nonessential businesses early in the pandemic, which he said sank his aerospace company.

Bigelow’s political and social influence in Nevada has long been pronounced, most notably in his UFO research that is now shifting toward afterlife research. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said that UFOs are “under our noses” and wondered why news organizations have not extensively covered UFO sightings.

But Bigelow, a staunch Republican, said his interest in UFOs and the afterlife is not related to his current political donations.

“Number one, honesty in government. That’s the foundation,” Bigelow said of his priorities. “Liberalism, that’s a cancer. And we have U.S. senators and representatives that need to go. And the second would be a philosophy of freedom — a philosophy of free enterprise and freedom for everybody.”

He called Sisolak a “puppet” to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is a frequent target of Republican politicians. And he likened Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to a young Ronald Reagan, saying that he hopes the Republican runs for president in the future after he bucked other states’ approach of issuing COVID-19 emergency protective orders during the pandemic. Earlier this summer, Bigelow donated $10 million to DeSantis-backed political action committees, making him the largest individual donor to DeSantis’ reelection race as well.

For decades, Bigelow has invested millions in UFO research with money he has made from his hotel and real estate business. He has also pushed it in politics. He once convinced his friend and then-U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat, to allocate $22 million to a secretive program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification program, which investigated reports of UFOs from 2007 through 2012. Much of the money went to Bigelow’s company to investigate and the allocation was not made public until a 2017 New York Times investigation. The Pentagon said the program shut down in 2012, though Reid later said he had no regrets about the funding.

Bigelow said he considered Reid a good friend, though toward the end of Reid’s tenure in the Senate, they maintained that friendship by not talking politics.

Since shifting his focus toward the afterlife, he has founded the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies and offered nearly $1 million in prizes last year for a contest that shows “the survival of consciousness after permanent bodily death.”

Bigelow donated $5.5 million to PACs supporting Lombardo this cycle — $3.5 million to Better Nevada PAC, which has financed pro-Lombardo ads, and $2 million to Stronger Nevada PAC, which transferred money to Better Nevada PAC. Through 39 donations of $5,000 each through his companies, he donated $195,000 directly to the Clark County sheriff.

The Nevada contributions have provided a talking point for Sisolak, who has tied Bigelow’s support for Lombardo to the housing crisis in Nevada, referencing Bigelow’s pandemic evictions.

“While the governor is fighting for housing affordability, creating good paying jobs and making historic investments to support hardworking families, Joe Lombardo is siding with the Ultra Wealthy, standing with his campaign’s single largest donor — a billionaire who got rich off of evicting families during the pandemic,” spokesperson Reeves Oyster said in a statement last month.

Lombardo’s campaign did not respond to email requests for comment.

Lombardo has been vastly outraised by Sisolak in direct contributions, which is common for a challenger facing an incumbent. Sisolak has raised the second-highest amount in direct contributions for a Nevada gubernatorial campaign since 2000 and he’s on pace to break his own 2018 record, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks political spending.

“Overall, challengers do need to spend in order to overcome the incumbency advantage,” said Christina Ladam, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nevada-Reno, in an email. “While Joe Lombardo was a familiar name in the Vegas area, he was less well known in northern Nevada. Sisolak does not need to spend as much in terms of getting name recognition.”

Still, Lombardo has outspent Sisolak this year — $3.1 million to about $727,000 as of the latest filing date — after facing a crowded primary field.

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Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues. Follow Stern on Twitter https://twitter.com/gabestern326

US moved online, worked more from home as pandemic raged

By MIKE SCHNEIDER

1 of 4

Traffic winds its way through the tangle or roads connecting the Fort Pitt Bridge with the Fort Duquesne Bridge at Pittsburgh's Point on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022.

 (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)

During the first two years of the pandemic, the number of people working from home in the United States tripled, home values grew and the percentage of people who spent more than a third of their income on rent went up, according to survey results released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Providing the most detailed data to date on how life changed in the U.S. under COVID-19, the bureau’s American Community Survey 1-year estimates for 2021 showed that the share of unmarried couples living together rose, Americans became more wired and the percentage of people who identify as multiracial grew significantly. And in changes that seemed to directly reflect how the pandemic upended people’s choices, fewer people moved, preschool enrollment dropped and commuters using public transportation was cut in half.

The data release offers the first reliable glimpse of life in the U.S. during the COVID-19 era, as the 1-year estimates from the 2020 survey were deemed unusable because of problems getting people to answer during the early months of the pandemic. That left a one-year data gap during a time when the pandemic forced major changes in the way people live their lives.

The survey typically relies on responses from 3.5 million households to provide 11 billion estimates each year about commuting times, internet access, family life, income, education levels, disabilities, military service and employment. The estimates help inform how to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending.

Response rates significantly improved from 2020 to 2021, “so we are confident about the data for this year,” said Mark Asiala, the survey’s chief of statistical design.

While the percentage of married-couple households stayed stable over the two years at around 47%, the percent of households with unwed couples cohabiting rose to 7.2% in 2021 from 6.6% in 2019. Contrary to pop culture images of multigenerational family members moving in together during the pandemic, the average household size actually contracted from 2.6 to 2.5 people.

People also stayed put. More than 87% of those surveyed were living in their same house a year ago in 2021, compared to 86% in 2019. America became more wired as people became more reliant on remote learning and working from home. Households with a computer rose, from 92.9% in 2019 to 95% in 2021, and internet subscription services grew from 86% to 90% of households.

The jump in people who identify as multiracial — from 3.4% in 2019 to 12.6% in 2021 — and a decline in people identifying as white alone — from 72% to 61.2% — coincided with Census Bureau changes in coding race and Hispanic origin responses. Those adjustments were intended to capture more detailed write-in answers from participants. The period between surveys also overlapped with social justice protests following the killing of George Floyd, who was Black, by a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020 as well as attacks against Asian Americans. Experts say this likely lead some multiracial people who previously might have identified as a single race to instead embrace all of their background.

“The pattern is strong evidence of shifting self-identity. This is not new,” said Paul Ong, a professor emeritus of urban planning and Asian American Studies at UCLA. “Other research has shown that racial or ethnic identity can change even over a short time period. For many, it is contextual and situational. This is particularly true for individuals with multiracial background.”

The estimates show the pandemic-related impact of closed theaters, shuttered theme parks and restaurants with limited seating on workers in arts, entertainment and accommodation businesses. Their numbers declined from 9.7% to 8.2% of the workforce, while other industries stayed comparatively stable. Those who were self-employed inched up to 6.1% from 5.8%.

Housing demand grew over the two years, as the percent of vacant homes dropped from 12.1% to 10.3%. The median value of homes rose from $240,500 to $281,400. The percent of people whose gross rent exceeded more than 30% of their income went from 48.5% to 51%. Historically, renters are considered rent-burdened if they pay more than that.

“Lack of housing that folks can afford relative to the wages they are paid is a continually growing crisis,” said Allison Plyer, chief demographer at The Data Center in New Orleans.

Commutes to work dropped from 27.6 minutes to 25.6 minutes, as the percent of people working from home during a period of return-to-office starts and stops went from 5.7% in 2019 to almost 18% in 2021. Almost half of workers in the District of Columbia worked from home, the highest rate in the nation, while Mississippi had the lowest rate at 6.3% Over the two years, the percent of workers nationwide using public transportation to get to work went from 5% to 2.5%, as fears rose of catching the virus on buses and subways.

“Work and commuting are central to American life, so the widespread adoption of working from home is a defining feature of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Michael Burrows, a Census Bureau statistician. “With the number of people who primarily work from home tripling over just a two-year period, the pandemic has very strongly impacted the commuting landscape in the United States.” 

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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Census data: Hispanic Texans may be the state's largest demographic group

By Alexa Ura, The Texas Tribune

Josie and Santos Ramos dance during a Cinco de Mayo parade and festival on April 30. The couple have been married for 49 years and raised their family in Texas City. 

Photo by Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune

Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A closely watched estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday indicates that Texas may have passed a long-awaited milestone: the point where Hispanic residents make up more of the state's population than White residents.

The new population figures, derived from the bureau's American Community Survey, showed Hispanic Texans made up 40.2% of the state's population in 2021 while non-Hispanic White Texans made up 39.4%. The estimates -- based on comprehensive data collected over the 2021 calendar year -- are not considered official.

The bureau's official population estimates as of July 2021 showed the Hispanic and non-Hispanic White populations virtually even in size. But in designating Hispanics as the state's largest population group, the new estimates are the first to reflect the foreseeable culmination of decades of demographic shifts steadily transforming the state.

The incremental trend demographers have been tracking for years reflects the state's profound cultural and demographic evolution. The state lost its White majority in 2004. However, the Hispanic population's relative growth, through both migration and births, has not been reflected in many facets of the state's economic and political landscape.

The 2020 census captured how close the state's Hispanic and White populations had come, with just half a percentage point separating them at the time. By then, Texas had gained nearly 11 Hispanic residents for every additional White resident over the previous decade. And Hispanics had powered nearly half of the state's overall growth of roughly 4 million residents since 2010.

Hispanic Texans are expected to make up a flat-out majority of the state's population in the decades to come, but they are already on the precipice of a majority among children. The latest census estimates showed that 49.3% of Texans under the age of 18 are Hispanic.

Without corresponding political and economic gains, Hispanic residents' economic and political reality is captured in the persistent disparities also reflected in the latest census data. Hispanic people living in Texas are disproportionately poor. They are also less likely to have reached the higher levels of education that often serve as pathways to social mobility and greater economic prosperity.

The new census estimates showed Hispanic residents are more than twice as likely as White residents to live below the poverty level. Although 14.2% of Texans overall are considered poor, 19.4% of Hispanic residents live below the poverty level, compared with just 8.4% of White residents.

Texas households are also divided by significant income inequality. The median income for a White household in 2021 was $81,384, but it was just $54,857 for a Hispanic household, according to the estimates.

Up against longstanding educational disparities, Hispanic children have been less likely to graduate college-ready compared with White students and left unprepared to succeed in a flourishing Texas economy that increasingly requires some form of education after high school. The new estimates show that 95% of White adults have at least a high school diploma, compared with only 70% of Hispanic adults. Only 18% of Hispanic adults graduated from college with bachelor's degrees or higher, compared with 42% of White adults.

And while their growing numbers have allowed them to secure local political power in many communities, Texas remains a state governed by primarily White Republican men. Texas lawmakers have a lengthy history of discriminating against Hispanics and other voters of color in pursuit of political control, devising political maps that weaken the impact of their votes.

In the face of the growing Hispanic population share that works against their political dominance, the Republican-controlled Legislature redrew the state's legislative and congressional districts last year to shore up their hold on state offices. But in the process, they gave White voters greater control of political districts throughout the state, elaborately manipulating district lines in some areas where Hispanics and other voters of color were gaining political ground.

The state now faces nearly a dozen consolidated legal challenges -- brought by individual voters of color, organizations that serve communities of color and the U.S. Department of Justice -- to its four political maps that include allegations of intentional discrimination, vote dilution and racial gerrymandering.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune. Read the original here.

The Critique of Everyday Life

Posted by futuresandpasts under Uncategorized | Tags: Lefebvre |

Historically speaking, Henri Lefebvre’s three-volume The Critique of Everyday Life was a great influence on the New Left, ’68 and all that. Lefebvre also continues to be an influence on the work of David Harvey, Fredric Jameson etc. Rather then discussing Lefebvre’s historical importance, this summary will outline Lefebvre’s argument and emphasizing The Critique of Everyday Life’s contemporary relevance.

Lefebvre’s premise is that “the only real critique was and remains the Critique of the Left…Because it alone is based on knowledge.” Lefebvre acts on this premise by arguing for a Marxian endevour at odds with the vacuous formalism of the official Stalinist Marxism of his time. Emphasizing the sociological basis of Marx’s thought and the central importance of Marx’s concepts of alienation, fetishism and mystification, Lefebvre’s argues these categories should by used to critique everyday life.
These extended quotations demonstrate how Lefebvre conceptualizes and formulates the critique of everyday life.

“We need to think about what is happening around us, within us, each and everyday. We live on familiar terms with people in our own family, our own milieu, our own class. This constant impression of familiarity makes us think that we know them, that their outlines are defined for us, and that they see themselves as having those same outlines. We define them. and we judge them. We can identify with them or exclude them from our world. But the familiar is not the necessarily known. “ 14-15

“For us, in our society, with the forms of exchange and the division of labour which govern it, there is no social relation- relation with the other-without a certain alienation. And each individual exists socially only by and within his alienation, just as he can only be for himself within and by his deprivation (his private consciousness.) 15-16

“To sum up, work, leisure, family life and private life make up a whole which we can call a ‘global structure’ or ‘totality’ on condition that we emphasize its historical, shifting, transitory nature. If we consider the critique of everyday life as an aspect of a concrete sociology we can envisage a vast enquiry which will look at professional life and leisure activities in terms of their many-sided interactions. Our particular concern will be to extract what is living, new, positive—the worthwhile needs and fulfilments- from the negative elements; the alienations.” 42

“so to reach reality we must indeed tear away the veil, that veil which is forever being born and reborn of everyday life, and which masks everyday life along with its deepest and loftiest ambitions” 57

“The true critique of everyday life will have as its prime objective the separation between the human (real and possible) and bourgeois decadence, and will imply a rehabilitation of everyday life. 127

To undertake this Critique of everyday life, Lefebvre articulates how the critical knowledge contained in six Marxian categories can be utilized as a “beacon” in the critique of everyday life. These six categories are still issues of utmost importance in contemporary theory. They are of contemporary relevance and share striking affinities with Wendy Brown’s contemporary work Tolerating Aversion. Following my posting of notes on Brown’s work, I will compare Lefebvre and Brown and discuss why they are remarkably relevant and important.

A) Critique of Individuality.  (Central theme; the ‘private’ consciousness’)
“And nowadays we are still struggling with this deep- in other words everyday-contradiction: what makes each of us a human being also turns that human being into something inhuman. More biological than truly human, this organization  ( i.e. capitalism ) smothers the individual, dividing him and stunting his development at the very moment it is striving to create him as a human individual….How can this organization be superseded? By practical and theoretical participation in work and in the knowledge of work, in the social and human totality. If the world is to be transformed, this is one of the fundamental problems…we must supersede the “private consciousness.” 150

B) Critique of Mystifications (central theme: the ‘mystified consciousness)

“the private consciousness and the mystified consciousness go hand in hand, reinforcing each other and becoming increasingly  entrenched as a result of instabilities which have their origins in real life and not in pure ideas” 153

C) Critique of Money ( central theme: fetishism and economic alienation)

“Although deprivation and alienation are different for the proletarian and the non-proletarian, one thing unites them; money, the human being’s alienated essence. This alienation is constant, i.e. practical and everyday.” 161

D) Critique of Needs (Central theme; psychological and moral alienation)

Consumpton does not satisfy a need.  Nor do the needs the culture industry creates.

E) Critique of Work ( Central theme: the alienation of the worker and of man)

“Analysis must therefore distinguish between the real ‘human world’ on the one hand, the totality of human works and their reciprocal action upon man, and, on the other, the unreality of alienation.

But this unreality appears to be infinitely more real then anything authentically human. And this appearance contributes to alienation; its becomes real, and as a result a great abstract ‘idea’ or a certain form of the State seems infinitely more important than a humble, everyday feeling or a work born of man’s hands. “ 169

F) Critique of Freedom (Central theme; man’s power over nature and over his own nature)

The Marxist definition of freedom is concrete and dialectical. The realm of freedom is established progressively by ‘The development of human powers as an end in itself)…it is won progressively by social man. For Power, or, more exactly, the sum total of powers which constitute freedom belong to human beings grouped together in society, and not to the isolated individual….in the realm of necessity, human needs become degraded…they just keep on working, and their lives are spent just staying alive. This, in a nutshell, has been the philosophy of everyday life—and still is.
Freedom needs;

(a)    “the associated producers must…govern the human metabolism with nature in a rational way, bringing it under their collective control instead of being dominated by it as a blind power.”
(b)    The material and moral parameters of practical (everyday) life, which are determined by private property, must be transformed.
(c)     Through activities devoted to satisfying and controlling immediate necessities, there must be a growth in the sphere of  ‘the true realm of freedom, the development of human powers, as an end in itself, [which] begins beyond it, though it can only flourish with this realm of necessity as its basis.’ This sphere, this ‘spiritual’ domain of man, consists in the first place in a social and rational organization of free leisure. As Marx asserts in Capital; ‘ the reduction of the working day is the basic requisite.’

This utilization of Marx results in Lefebvre’s programmatic sketch for a critique of everyday life;

(A)    It will involve a methodological confrontation of so-called ‘modern’ life on the one hand, with the past, and on the other- and above all- with the possible, so that points or sectors where a ‘ decadence’ or a withdrawal from life have occurred- the points of backwardness in terms of what is possible- the points where new forms are appearing, rich in possibilities can be determined.
(B)    Studied from this point of view, human reality appears as an opposition and ‘contrast’ between a certain number of terms; everyday life and festival- mass movements and exceptional movements- triviality and splendour- seriousness and play- reality and dreams, etc.
The critique of everyday life involves and investigation of the exact relations between these terms. It implies criticism of the trivial by the exceptional- but at the same time criticism of the exceptional by the trivial, of the ‘elite’ by the mass- of festival, dreams, art and poetry, by reality.

©   Equally, the critique of everyday life implies a confrontation of effective human reality with its ‘expressions’; moral doctrines, psychology, philosophy, religion, literature.
From this point of view, religion is nothing but a direct, immediate, negative, destructive, incessant and skilful criticism of life- skilful enough even to give itself the appearance of not being what it really is.
Philosophy was an indirect criticism of everyday life by an external (metaphysical) ‘truth.’ It is now appropriate to examine the philosophy of the past from this perspective—and that is the task facing ‘today’s’ philosopher. To study philosophy as an indirect crticism of life is to perceive (everyday) life as I direct critique of philosophy

(d)    The relations between groups and individuals in everyday life interact in a manner which in part escapes the specialized sciences. By a process of abstraction these sciences infer certain relations, certain essential aspects, from the extraordinary complexities of human reality. But have they completed this task? It seems that once the relations identitifed by history, political economy or biology have been extracted from human reality, a kind of enormous, shapeless, ill-defined mass remains. This is the murky background from which known relations and superior activities (scientific, political, aesthetic) are picked out.
It is this ‘human raw material’ that the study of everyday life takes as its proper object. It studies it both in itself and in its relation with the differentiated superior form that it underpins. In this way it will help to grasp the ‘total content’ of consciousness; this will be its contribution towards the attempt to achieve unity, totality—the realization of total man.
Going beyond the emotional attempt by philanthropists and sentimental (petty-bourgeois) humanists to ‘magnify’ humble gestures, and beyond that allegedly superior irony which has systematically devalued life, seeing it merely as back-stage activity or comic relief in a tragedy, the critique of everyday life- critical and positive- must clear the way for a genuine humanism, for a humanism which believes in the human because it knows it.” 251-252

1. The Critique of Everyday Life, Volume 1: Introduction

   https://www.thecharnelhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Henri... · PDF file

   Critique of everyday life I Henri Lefebvre: translated by John Moore :with a preface by Michel Trebitsch. p. em. Translation of the 2nd ed. of: Critique