#and the fact that its being distributed like this obviously doesnt help...

[klug]

The next puzzle pop update is taking forever and I knowwwww I've said before I'm patient but this is the last round of story updates and I want to see it and be disappointed and/or amazed so I can move on with my life

[horde-princess]

I honestly can see a very korrasami-esque ending for Catra and Adora. It’s totally obvious by now that Noelle meant for them to be romantic and that she would like to end with them on a romantic route. Unfortunately, I don’t know if DW will be onboard for something very “in your face”. So I can totally see them doing a korrasami ending but making it a bit more obvious that it’s romantic.

i know ive always said “they will definitely absolutely kiss no doubt in mind” but now that we’re at the end i think i should actually take the time to discuss this more… i’m what you might a call a realistic optimist because i choose to have faith but i’m not ignorant to the realities of the situation you know? so buckle up this is going to be a long and probably unpleasant ride lmao

to be real, going into the last season I’m trying to not let myself have too many expectations with catradora. I do 100% fully expect that their relationship will be shown to be explicitly romantic by the end, but unfortunately, yes, its possible that they may not kiss. i’m at peace with that and i hope this post helps you guys see my thinking and come to terms with it too

obviously i dont understand all the underlying mechanisms of producing a tv show. i do know that dreamworks has hardly been a progressive studio in terms of lgbt representation. there are a lot of factors that would go into a decision about whether to allow a lesbian kiss in one of their projects, not least the fact that She-Ra is a reboot. having said all that, i’m still optimistic and there IS evidence in favor of a kiss that i think is worth talking about! 

thinking about where to start with this discussion on Dreamworks vs. lgbt representation, Voltron came to mind. i’ve never seen the show but a quick google search brought me to this Geekdad article from an interviewer who did an investigation into Voltron’s lgbt rep failure and Dreamworks’ role in that. he argues that a lot of the blame belongs with the showrunners, because Dreamworks does at least provide resources and diversity consultants to help showrunners make respectful lgbt content, but the Voltron crew didn’t make use of them. the issue was not that Dreamworks actively blocked lgbt rep but rather that the studio did not work to ensure quality representation from the showrunners. which is a huge difference.

i dug a little deeper and found a transcript of an interview with the showrunners where they talk about the red tape they encountered, and what they say seems to implicate Voltron’s intellectual property holder as opposed to the Dreamworks studio itself. it sounds like Dreamworks’ hands were tied because the showrunners did not hold all the legal rights to the story.

of course we know IP is also an issue with She-Ra. however, correct me if i’m wrong, but I believe Mattel (the Masters of the Universe toy line) sold its property rights to NBCUniversal (Dreamworks’ parent company) a couple of years ago. this doesn’t mean all ties are cut with the original IP holder, but i think its safe to assume that She-Ra has some more wiggle room than Voltron did when it comes to the showrunners’ vision/creativity. especially because Mattel has been known to be pro-lgbt.

an interesting quote from Joaquim Dos Santos (voltron producer) was that after season 7, “She-Ra was in development within the studio and I think the studio was just sort of beginning to open its eyes to the possibilities of there being [lgbt] representation in their shows and there not being a huge public backlash for it.” 

Also, in a different interview they said “to Dreamworks’ credit, I think the tide started changing internally” regarding the studio’s outlook on lgbt rep around the time that seasons 7/8 were in production.

so in addition to potential IP issues, Dreamworks is obviously concerned about their reputation and losing money. however we can gather from these quotations that (due to recent cultural shifts in the U.S.) Dreamworks has felt comfortable making efforts in the last few years to distribute more/better lgbt rep.

you also have to consider that Dreamworks KNEW what they were getting into with hiring Noelle. it’s hard to know whether lgbt representation was the vision for the show from the beginning or whether Noelle brought it with her (tho it seems like the latter). but either way, the studio must have been actively seeking to improve their lgbt representation because i’m sure she made her vision clear from the very beginning.

There’s a great article where Noelle talks about the fight to include lgbt rep in She-Ra:

“When you’re aiming to tell a story like that, you have to get everyone who’s working on the show, whether on the crew, or at the executive level, to believe in that world as well. It’s all part of trying to create the type of world in real life that you’re creating in the show. While I hope it comes across in a natural way in the show, it’s something you have to constantly fight for. You can’t take it for granted. I never take it for granted. It’s a really important thing to fight for, and a lot of it is just, “Trust me, this is gonna work. Believe in me. I can pull this off.” I am really fortunate to work with executives who do believe in me and who have allowed me to do a lot with this show. I’m very fortunate for that.”

So that is awesome to hear!! It wasn’t a tug-of-war situation with Noelle having to make concessions for execs who didn’t believe in her vision. She says the studio was supportive. But I think only time will tell us what the definition of “a lot” is.

Okay so, whew, that was a lot of information. i’ll be amazed if anyone actually reads this far lmaoo 😂 anyway i wanna move away from logistical stuff and talk about some other things Noelle has said about her show.

geekdad did another great interview with Noelle (and a Dreamworks PR representative!! it’s a good read) where he asked “if you wanted to depict a same gender relationship with foreground characters, do you think we’re at that stage yet in children’s animation where you could? Or do you think we still have a ways to go?”

Noelle replies “I think that remains to be seen, and I think… that’s something that–you should watch the show. You should see the storylines that we pursue in the future.”

When asked about catradora’s romantic undertones, “just keep watching” is something Noelle has said repeatedly in many different interviews. She wouldn’t say that if there wasn’t going to be a payoff at the end. It’s obvious she’s not at liberty to discuss the ending of the show, you can tell she’s always extremely careful with her wording when she’s faced with questions like this. But she consistently expresses, as a lesbian herself, that she has created a show she expects her own community will be excited about. Whatever actually happens, Noelle doesn’t believe that She-Ra will let us down 😌

Shes also mentioned that she’s grateful for shows like Steven Universe and Adventure Time that were trailblazers before She-Ra, because every successive show has the opportunity to be a little bit more progressive than the shows that came before it. We all have to continually strive to push the envelope and demand more inclusivity. If it turns out that that’s all She-Ra is–a small step towards quality representation–then yes of course it will feel like a massive waste (just because this story Noelle created is so incredible), but we’ll have to remember that the show is still playing a very important role in the history of children’s media. Even without a kiss, She-Ra has made incredible strides in lgbt rep. what i would hate to see is people complaining (god forbid calling it “queer baiting”) if there isn’t a kiss. Noelle and the crew have worked on this show tirelessly and passionately and we can’t yell at them for something they had no control over. the only people we should hold accountable are Dreamworks/Mattel. so i agree with you there anon.

Personally, at this point, I’m just here for the ride because i trust Noelle Stevenson with my life and She-Ra is the best show i’ve EVER seen. and i’m gonna keep talking about catradora kissing because <:) homophobia doesnt exist on etheria babey !

[nochedura]

bane “nochedura” bane timeline of events

so the thing about bane is most of the shit written with him in it is a) racist, b) ooc, c) a horrible mix of both, or d) uses him because of his status as Bat Breaker as a way to show someone else’s strength which is often times not realistic (ex. theres a new villain in town and to show how tough they are they clowned on bane). a lot of interpretations tend to forget he is brawn And brain (tbh i tend to write him as a strategist first and a fighter second) and its all just a mess.

this interpretation of bane is an attempt to right these wrongs and also streamline his canon a bit because we All Know comics are a mess and extremely inconsistent but especially with characters who don’t get their own titles. nochedura is an anti-hero and also currently on the path of redemption. obviously he’s still not nice and has done a lot of Fuck Shit but yknow. who hasnt.

with that in mind this is a very broad timeline of events that have happened to this bane in particular (with the links to the comics accompanying these events) to clarify what the heck is happening with this man and why he’s like this. im taking a lot of liberties here but fuck everybody im god. without further ado.

bane is born in pena duro. he grows up under the prison’s influence, gets a vision that he was born to rule and in order to become his ideal self he must kill his fear (which takes the form of a bat, obviously), spends 10 years in the cavidad obscura* after killing a man at 6 y/o, and comes out the biggest and the strongest. he trains his body and his mind (by reading thousands upon thousands of books) as he pursues self actualization. he learns from his ally bird that the greatest city in the world is gotham and it is ruled by batman and he decides to break out of prison and kill him to take gotham by force. he is selected for venom experimentation and is the only survivor of the drug’s intensity. the venom aids him in his efforts to get to gotham (if you read nothing else on this list read vengeance of bane #1 (+ 2) because its Good and its required bane reading material)

bane relocates to gotham after kidnapping and killing pena duro’s warden and studies batman. he’s able to figure out his secret identity within a few months and unleashes everybody from arkham city with the intent of mentally and physically breaking bruce so that he can kill him. this culminates in the final confrontation in which batman isn’t even strong enough to fight back and bane decides that killing him would be a mercy and breaks his back. (knightfall is long and incomprehensible so i’ll just link the directory page and broken bat #11)

bane rules gotham for a while and its sexy up until batman’s replacement azrael clowns on him. the fight’s pretty sexy but honestly i dont care about this that much. (he who rules the night #11)

after losing to azrael bane does some silent contemplation in black gate prison. he was taken off of venom cold turkey and suffers through crippling withdraws but he, and i quote, “bears the pain.” he realizes venom was, in fact, poisoning him and taking him further away from his Ideal Self. he finds out venom is being further distributed and after some nonsense breaks out of prison Again to track these clowns down. he has a confrontation with bruce who he tells he has no qualms with, decides he wants to find his father, and presumably goes back to santa prisca. this is also the beginning of bane coming to the conclusion that he’s an innocent man which comes up later. (vengeance of bane #2)

so this is where im Really taking liberties. this is what i’m choosing to call the switcheroo arc where i clown around and decide im in charge and im going to make this more comprehensive. bane goes to santa prisca and gets told that there are five men who could be his dad and it probably takes some time to narrow down that list (while also finding out who each of these men are) so i’m declaring that’s what he’s doing for a while. this search is ongoing and doesnt stop until, well, he finds him. he’s still a villain at this point even though he claims to be innocent.

this is also where he’s knocking out some loose ends. specifically he tracks down a reporter who interviewed him as a teen and murders him for knowing something that could paint him as sympathetic. (batman secret files #2)

it’s at this point that he joins up with the secret six. he probably does this for the purpose of networking and garnering information, but then gets sort of swept up in everything and grows extremely attached to scandal savage, who he takes in as an adopted daughter. secret six 2008 is long and has a lot going on but its a good time. (SPOILERS) at the end of it he convinces everyone in the group to go on a suicide mission with an ulterior motive of severing his attachments to them because he feels that his affection has weakened him. everything goes according to plan and he breaks out of a police van and fucks off. (/SPOILERS) (secret six 2008)

after some time away from all that he gets into a feud with ra’s al ghul who wanted bane as his heir but some bullshit happened with talia, i forget, this doesnt matter to me, what Does matter is he’s now on a crusade to fuck up all the lazarus pits for funsies. this is also the point where he realizes one of the men on his Dad List is thomas wayne. he confronts bruce about this and everyone in the batfam is, understandably, cross. but bruce is nothing without his rehabilitation shtick so he goes crime stopping with bane in the batmobile until the results of the drug test come out and thomas is not, in fact, the father. this absolutely crushes bane for reasons he doesnt understand (he’s a lonely man and it turns out he Does need a family) but batman tells bane if he proves he’s Actually innocent by, yknow, stopping crime rather than doing crime, then he’ll help him find his actual dad. he agrees, but uses... unconventional (read: horrific) methods. (gotham knights #33-36) (tw for rape)

bane continues fighting crime and trying to prove his innocence and change/redeem himself up until he actually finds his real dad who is.......... king snake! who at this point in the canon is really fucked up and somehow alive in the himalayas and is just a real mean son of a bitch. bane is conflicted because like, hey cool, a dad, but also, he kinda sucks! bane’s kinda fucked up himself because he’s been climbing up a mountain and he’s a little brain sicky so i think hes just like... trying to absorb everything and then the bat crew shows up because they do Not like the idea of bane finding his dad who is king snake who is also at a fucking lazarus pit. king snake gets pissed when they show up and starts attacking and almost shoots batman but bane, distraught, jumps in front of the bullet and takes several in the back, lamenting that he wishes thomas was his father and not king snake. king snake ends up getting killed(?) and batman dunks bane in the remainder of the lazarus pit and gets brought back to life, reborn and changed. (gotham knights #47-49)

at this point this is just. my own writing. i guess. but after bane, yknow, literally died for bruce, bruce realizes that bane truly has bettered himself and is on the path of becoming a good man. he welcomes bane into the vigilante side and, eventually, to the batfam itself. when a man breaks your back and then takes several machine gun bullets for you a few years later i figure batman’s like... alright we’re square. comics are like that.

this is also where bane realizes he was wrong to cut ties with the secret six and seeks out scandal savage and her wives and brings them back into his life as his adopted daughter (and daughters in law)

so bane’s just... clowning now. he’s still like, brutal, and when he’s fighting baddies he’s not opposed to just Wrecking their shit (see: the time he used one of mr. freeze’s goons’ freeze gun on his arm) and i think he definitely does some murders but only if it’s like. the sort of bastard who really deserves it(tm) so like. mass murderers. the joker. sex criminals. etc. he’s not always in bruce’s best graces and he’s still on THIN ICE with dick and tim and the rest but its a work in progress. he’s trying.

anyway i left out a Lot of shit because like. theres a lot. but this is ... the basics believe it or not tl;dr bane is a good man born into horrific circumstances and he did a LOT of bad shit but he’s working on redeeming himself.

[crqelsummer]

oh yeah! the yamanashi incident where haruko lost two fingers--

-- super short story even shorter that i'll probably elaborate on soon, oha's pros (1-a and their generation) are mostly dealing with quirk enhancing drugs still, as gou is currently distributing them to 'even the playing field'. the intention is to make it obvious the lengths some people have to go through to even be able to make a name for themselves/get by, so the intention is to disrupt the hell of out of society and protest for change. he's just also going to a stupid amount of lengths because the drug is very very addictive and arguably, easy to get ones hands on.

the incident takes place because ken, a previous big three student, had been using them for quite a while to make his own quirk significantly stronger and get him by for his last year of school. haruko, having done an internship with him, was told about them and given one pill. haruko obviously had a moral dilemma about this, because even though he so desperately wants to be strong like everyone else, he has lingering feelings about whether or not he should take it.

ken disappears from school shortly after this and haruko never hears about him again. he isn't sure why.

the incident itself though takes place while haruko is working under shoto and izuku (and therefore also rin because aiko had put her name out towards deku) and when they'd been caught by some other nomus/enhanced quirk users, they'd basically almost overpowered shoto and were close to doing so to izuku. haruko was still carrying his own enhancer...so...

he obviously takes it. and its such a rush he's able to push his own acid further than he ever thought possible. he's powerful, and crazy strong. theyre able to get the fight back under control with haruko's help, but afterwards the enhancer is still driving his nervous system further and further until he's still leaking acid from his fingers and its burning them off.

he watches his own ring and pinky finger dissolve before his eyes and is so out of it shoto has to cool him pretty rapidly to get his heart rate down before he has a heart attack. he promptly passes out.

the thought here is that enhancers work better in people with decent control over their quirks, but also people with properly developed nervous systems that can handle the stress the enhancer puts on it. haruko is 15-16 at this point, and what ken gave him was almost double what he really shouldve taken the first time around. him already being stressed did not help, and so his quirk started actually doing damage to him. annnnnd ofc haru is not invincible to his own quirk...

im not sure -- eri wasnt around or something, but haru still loses his fingers its a really painful reminder of the fact that he's been too cocky in the past and needs to start relying on others -- the lone wolf thing doesnt work for him, even if he hates the fact he ever got hurt in the first place.

[blakegallo]

i want to congratulate black panther on it’s academy awards nominations. i’m happy for this historic moment, i’m happy for the cultural significance of the film. i thought i could complain briefly, but i rambled and so under the cut is me rambling and complaining. 

but i am happy. particularly for their costuming and production design awards. the movie did a lot really well.

but i don’t think it’s best picture?

i really liked black panther when i watched it the first time. i really enjoyed it the second time. shuri is the best thing to come from the mcu [ she’s been hardcore sidelined and offscreen dusted, but still.... ]

i’m not going to sit here and deny the cultural significance of the movie.

and as a black person i’m really happy to see black people on screen in a movie backed by a major studio...

but like, i’m also not going to sit here and say that those experiences actually reflected me? 

most of the characters are continental africans, n’jadaka is first generation american and his american mother is of so little importance that she’s not named or seen on screen at all period. his whole motivation as a child of the diaspora is to feel connected to this place that rejected him and his father and to destroy that place on a fundamental level. the other assumingly black american woman that’s his girlfriend has like no lines and is unceremoniously shot by him. while i get that black people sympathized with n’jadaka really nakia was the black liberation narrative that we needed. and if n’jadaka was meant to be the voice of the diaspora i feel like... it flopped? and no line about wanting to be buried at sea changes that. if anything i feel like it’s lowkey insulting to the africans that did make it to the americas/caribbean and endured slavery and created such diverse and enduring cultures. maybe that’s just me, but i find it insulting. maybe i’m reaching. i don’t know. 

the more stereotypical hood aspects of n’jadaka’s character are constantly presented on screen as a signifier of his antagonist status [ the same with andy serkis tbh... shoutout to gangster stereotypes there.... at least he dies. ] but the only time we really see the side that agent ross says is him being the best at destabilizing government is when he burns the flowers. like i guess you could say when he throws t’chala off the cliff, but like... eh. it doesn’t help that wakandan government to the movie going audience is loosely established before we get the nice shot of the throne upside down and all that. like eh. it didn’t feel all that well rounded to me in retrospect.

he also was deadass about to kill shuri so like no matter what i wasn’t going to like this man.

and again n’jadaka was the only black american in the movie and so like... that was the only black american rep it had. and it was all trash.

but also n’jadaka being the only sympathetic antagonist that’s dead and is human and won’t be back is also trash. like bucky and loki have had really great arcs but n’jadaka won’t get that is again trash. even if he was trash. like stop. 

sidenoting the fact that movie wants you to cheer for agent ross’s white cia ass as he shoots down ships piloted by africans to aid oppressed black people world wide is lowkey gross in a big picture way. now if you want to talk about the proliferation of dangerous weapons in general that’s fine. if you want to have a discussion about how armed revolution might not be the best solution that’s fine. if you want to talk about how these dangerous weapons could end up in the hands of criminal organizations even that’s fine. but agent ross being the bitch to do it, that’s not so fine.

like in that moment i guess he’s not technically operating as an extension of the united states government, and given the shit that the cia has done this isn’t a stretch. but it’s an odd thing to get people to cheer for. i’m not saying it’s wrong. or right. it has me feeling all kinds of way.

all the people piloting those ships were doing what their kind told them to do. i guess t’chala appeared right before they took off. or right after. it was in a grey zone, and that doesn’t absolve them from the potential damage that could have been done. but it furthers this narrative that 99% of the people that wanted to help oppressed black people had to die in the narrative, some by a literal white man.

nakia is the only one to survive. which is chill because i fuck with her and she got t’chala to see that she was right. or whatever and that’s good. but still.

this is a superhero movie, and like i get that regular wakandans aren’t going to the focus. but this movie does make you wonder what the fuck was going on with the people in the city that nakia and t’chala walked through. at the end of the movie only the border tribe was at war with the dora milaje so where the citizens of the city just like chill? were they confused? did they join the border tribe? how far away is the mountain if the jabari can be at the battle like five minutes after it starts? like. so many things that obviously weren’t going to be addressed but a bitch can be petty.

again, just to be a repetitive bitch, the only people that died on screen were americans. two of which were oppressed black americans trying to rise up. one of which was literally killed by a prince who had done nothing in his entire thirty years of existence to help oppressed black people until he murdered his cousin and lost his privlege by nearly dying.

so um yeah. t’chala is lowkey the bad guy.

also t’chala solution at the end of the movie feels like... it’s such a nonresolution? 

and only after killing people that also wanted to let the world use these same resources to liberate black people the way you are now. and not even just oppressed black people, but even the imperialist colonizers will have access to the resources and technological advancements that literally five seconds ago you were having people killed to stop them from being distributed.

okay susan.

[edwad]

“labor is the source of all wealth.”

to start with, the pretty obvious nod being attempted here is toward marx’s theory of value and the related notion of surplus value, but to quote marx himself from one of the first lines of the critique of the gotha programme, “labor is not the source of all wealth.”

the reasoning he gives is that wealth is conceived of as being material wealth, that is, use-values. marx goes on to say “Nature is just as much the source of use values (and it is surely of such that material wealth consists!) as labor, which itself is only the manifestation of a force of nature, human labor power.” in c1.1.2 he says something similar: 

“Use-values like coats, linen, etc., in short, the physical bodies of commodities, are combinations of two elements, the material provided by nature, and labour... When man engages in production, he can only proceed as nature does herself, i.e. he can only change the form of the materials. Furthermore, even in his work he is constantly helped by natural forces. Labour is therefore not the only source of material wealth, i.e. of the use-values it produces. As William Petty says, labour is the father of material wealth, the earth is its mother.” (p133-4, penguin edition)

but even more can be said than that. outside the realm of purely concrete articles and into the realm of value, that abstract quantitative form of wealth, there are commodities which are bought and sold without any value bound up in them. at the end of c1.1.1, marx gives the following examples: “Air, virgin soil, natural meadows, unplanted forests, etc.” clearly people can still own these, which shows that they are materially wealthy despite the fact that these commodified products of nature are untouched by human labor, but more importantly they can be priced without any reference to their labor costs or a marxian value theory in general. this means that money can be made off of the sale of such commodities without any physical intervention. this might be a purely fictitious transaction and considered peripheral to the “real economy” of industrial production (often contrasted with the “FIRE” sectors: finance, insurance, real estate), but it happens nonetheless and people can be made wealthier (in both senses) because of it. 

“to make a profit, a capitalist must sell a product for more than what it cost to pay the laborers that produced the product.”

this is true, but it doesnt mean much, in terms of the difference between the two amounts, yes the price of a day’s worth of products has to be more than a day’s worth of wages in order to afford to reproduce the commodity the next day, but labor is not the only cost. the capitalist also often has to pay rent to the landlord, taxes to the state, and for all sorts of other things which do not necessarily figure into the value of the commodity but do factor into its price. much of this can still be understood in terms of the distribution of surplus value, but often without reference to the living labor which is directly producing commodities for this capitalist today. 

there is also a whole world of “unproductive labor” which, to use the terminology of the physiocrats, would be considered “sterile” in that they are, as far as price-formation is concerned, only a cost, but as far as profiteering goes, a necessary one.

the above sentence is crude and almost suggests that the only cost to production is wages, which is cartoonish and obviously untrue. this is the sort of stuff that makes people assume we know nothing about economics, and if this is what we’re putting out into the public eye, we’re only making ourselves look bad.

“the laborers do not get paid the full value of their labor.”

this, again, is trying to emulate the rhetoric of exploitation in the marxian sense, but it completely misses the point. one of marx’s most important contributions in his critique is his assertion that workers dont sell labor, but rather their labor-power (their capacity to do labor, rather than its actual concrete output). a burger flipper gets paid the same wage for each hour of work, whether the restaurant is busy or not. the number of burgers put together have no effect on the hourly rate. it is clear from this that laborers do not get paid the full value of their output (sometimes they would actually make less if this were the case!), but marx’s critical point is that this doesnt come about through some sort of bizarre imbalance in the wage-form, where workers are structurally underselling their commodity, labor-power. in fact, exploitation can occur without any infringement of the laws of commodity exchange. the wage can be perfectly equal to the value of labor-power, and therefore workers could receive the full value for their commodity in its sale, whose use-value is to create more value for its buyer. marx makes this crystal clear in c1.7.2:

“The use-value of labour-power, in other words labour, belongs just as little to its seller as the use-value of oil after it has been sold belongs to the dealer who sold it. The owner of the money has paid the value of a day’s labour-power; he therefore has the use of it for a day, a day’s labour belongs to him. On the one hand the daily sustenance of labour-power costs only half a day’s labour, while on the other hand the very same labour-power can remain effective, can work, during a whole day, and consequently the value which its use during one day creates is double what the capitalist pays for that use; this circumstance is a piece of good luck for the buyer, but by no means an injustice towards the seller.” (p301, my emphasis)

what this amounts to isnt really a marxian view (and if it were to be restated in marxian terms it would be hardly revolutionary, considering “exploitation” for marx isnt really a moral concept in and of itself) but rather a ricardian socialist view, which generally suggests workers get full remuneration even of value-added, where laborers WOULD get paid the full value of their labor, but this isnt what marx wanted and it isnt what anybody working in the marxian tradition should want. the political future we ought to have in mind isnt simply a fairer system of distribution (inseparable from the mode of production anyway) but rather the destruction of capitalism and the value-structure itself. to quote marx again, 

Instead of the conservative motto: “A fair day's wage for a fair day's work!” they ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword: “Abolition of the wages system!"

it ought to be clear that the concern for the full value of our labor has some truth to it but is misplaced and often practically misleading. 

“profit is unpaid labor.”

as I already noted above, the system is much more complex than the crude labor-capital dynamic which this sort of logic rests on, and you can definitely talk about the ways in which modern profiteering has changed to include things like financialization, monopoly pricing, and the commodification of products nature, all of which will have some effect on profits outside of the realm of labor-time, but theres even more to say about the indirect link between surplus labor and profit-making. 

its important to recognize that a worker who spends 10 hours producing knick-knacks, and whose daily wage is paid from the first 6 hours, has expended 4 hours of surplus labor over the 6 hours of necessary labor in order to reproduce themselves. the source of profit is generally located in this gap, and this is what marx termed “exploitation”. however, the very existence of the gap doesnt automatically mean that this surplus labor is converted into surplus value which is sold for an equivalent profit, or even a profit at all. its more than possible that, although the laborer was paid for the value of 6 hours rather than the full 10, the capitalist is unable to sell the knick-knacks at all and force a profit. much of the labor, at least in the terms set out here, would be considered unpaid, but there would be no profit in sight. 

conclusion

what all this means is that there is a certain level of crudeness in anti-capitalist propagandizing which actually muddies the water more than it clears it. theres something to be said about avoiding jargon and over-complicating things, but oftentimes theres also plenty of danger in over-simplifying things, effectively obscuring all complexities and actually doing more damage than not. the outcome often makes us look dishonest or seriously ignorant, and therefore undeserving of serious consideration. i dont think we need to say all of this in a single image with bold font, but we ought to at least attempt to make our views sound somewhat realistic. otherwise, we’ll always be losing to the much more effective propaganda machines which have been set against us from the very beginning. 

[ralphmorgan-blog1]

How Google could fire up its smart home play

When it was unveiled at last years I/O, Home felt like little more than Googles attempt to cash in on the Echos success. And the intervening year hasnt done a lot to dispel that notion. The company announced a handful of additions to Home and Assistant at this years event to try to pull even with Amazons lead, but the whole Google Home offering still feels ambling and aimless.

That Google thought it had a slam dunk with Assistant on the mobile side hasnt helped much, either. Since launching on the Pixel back in October, the voice helper still has a limited reach. Amazon, meanwhile, has made the jump onto handsets by companies like HTC and Huawei, while others, including Samsung, have opted to just build their own damned assistant in house.

Its clear Assistant is a long play for Google. The company has the technological infrastructure and machine learning capabilities to build something truly great. For now, the thing doesnt do much to distinguish itself from Alexa (unless you count annoying people with unwanted audio ads, or being annoyingly triggered by opportunistic TV ads), but its still in the companys best interest to get Assistant as widely distributed as possible.

Home is definitely a big piece of that puzzle, as it attempts to plant its flag in the smart home. But from the looks of industry estimates, Googles late start isnt doing it any favors. Recent analyst estimates put the company at around 23 percent of the 35 million or so devices currently out there. Amazons number is hovering around 70 percent.

Last year, Sundar Pichai described Googles aim with AI as being to build a personal Google for everyone, everywhere. But the flip side of that desire is the fact that computing is no longer tethered to desktops and is fast becoming fragmented across all sorts of competing devices and interfaces (like Amazons Echo) so a strategic imperative here for Google is that the future of its search business depends on its algorithms remaining persistently available; within reach or earshot wherever people are, whatever network theyre using else it risks losing its hard-won status as a verb synonymous with digital search.

So while Mountain View is trying to seize on the smart home as an opportunity, consumer momentum on this front also presents an undeniable risk for it making Google vulnerable to a shift in computing behavior that favors voice assistants over traditional search. Because the best algorithm at organizing the internet is not automatically the best (or most popular) voice assistant.

Being able to plug into a vast e-commerce marketplace, as Amazons Alexa does, and reach out to all sorts of third-party services to extend utility (as Alexa keeps doing) is probably more obviously compelling to the average person sitting on their sofa right now versus summoning up a verbal version of Google. Alexa has most of the skills right now.

And theres more heat incoming. Earlier this week, Andy Rubin-led startup Essential also announced its own plans to attack the smart home. And, next week, Apple is expected to show off its big play at WWDC, with a rumored Siri speaker. Though, Apple being Apple, the company will most likely fixate on the premium end of the market, say with a device for audiophiles, not just control freaks. So while things are about to get tighter, Google still has some room to maneuver to grab itself a bigger chunk of the mainstream smart home market and thus a chance to reduce the strategic squeeze on its traditional search business.

OK, Google

Leverage your smart home synergies: Google, you own Nest. Why not use it to spread the Assistant gospel? Like Amazons recent partnership with Ecobee, Nest products are a no-brainer for Assistant integration and not just third-party actions. Build the Assistant directly into the product. Google has been making similar moves with its TV and Android Wear offerings, but adding a mic array directly into the thermostat or smoke alarm would be a simple way to place Assistant into even more homes without having to sell individual Home units.

Make a smaller, cheaper Home: Another no-brainer. A Google Home Dot, if you will. Weve heard rumblings that such a device is in development for a fall launch. Without much to distinguish Assistant on the back end at the moment, Google is going to have to keep its pricing competitive. Its a hard game to play for Google, for whom hardware is often a loss leader, but if it wants to lock users into Assistant fast, its going to have to offer something at around the $50 price point just to level with Amazons pricing.

Bundles: Better still, find a way to offer Google Home for free. For example: a Pixel/Home bundle. Weve also heard Google is plotting along these lines. Granted, by most accounts, the Pixel hasnt been a runaway hit (in terms of sales figures), but tossing in a free Home Dot could sweeten the deal and drive momentum to both Google hardware divisions. The competition has also been offering similar bundles for a while, such as Samsung with the Galaxy S8, which threw in a free Gear VR. Bundling is also a great way to prime the pump by, in this instance, getting a still by-no-means mainstream device into the living rooms of people who wouldnt buy a Home on its own merits and may not even have come across such a device yet.

Push for third-party integration: Were starting to see third parties offering up full Alexa functionality on their products, which has the potential to profoundly expand Amazons smart assistants reach. Lets be real, that isnt happening any time soon via Android Wear. Apple won the wearables category (at least for now). So be proactive, Google.Theres an important lesson to be learned from Amazons work with Conexant to create a mic system development kit that makes it easier for companies to prototype and, when the time comes, develop the on-board mic hardware into a production-ready unit. And while the Amazon brand clearly has big pulling power for consumers, which in turn gives third parties an incentive to plump for Alexa over Google, Googles stated aim for its AI Assistant to be everywhere, helping everyone is a reminder of the scope and scale of its ambition, too. And Google is still Google. For plenty of Android users the ability to get the same AI Assistant across lots of different IoT devices should be a strong selling point.

For now, it remains to be seen how much damage has been done to Googles search business by Amazons careful, long-term maneuvering in the voice AI space, and now by the Echos early lead inside the smart home. Theres still plenty to play for, given what are relatively low levels of adoption for these always-listening in-home AIs. Although there is also the question of whether or not there will be massively mainstream appeal to barking commands into a terminal. Its unlikely AI speakers are another smartphone-sized phenomenon. But again, Amazon is quickly expanding its hardware bets to try to convince all sorts of people that Alexa offers utility whether theyre fashion lovers orfamily-focusedhomebodies. Meanwhile, the Dot sets a low barrier for entry on the price front.

Its also clear that Jeff Bezos and company are benefiting from a lack of direction within Googles hardware business which one source described to us as extremely chaotic and disorganized, recounting how separate hardware teams inside the company have unknowingly ended up developing the same product. And while Mountain View is wasting energy grappling with how best to expand its Assistant beyond smartphones, you can be sure Amazon has its eyes fixed on the smart home prize.

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Reinforced Concrete Building Elements

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