Here comes that rendition of Kumbayah: The Daily Bullshit, April 26-30 (early), 2016

I’ve been out of town for a couple days. Now I’m back, trying to catch up.


Donald Trump

Scott Wong and Jonathan Easley, “GOP warms to Trump,” Hill, April 28, 2016, http://thehill.com/homenews/house/278077-gop-warms-to-trump


UC Davis

Scott Jaschik, “The Final Straw at UC Davis,” Inside Higher Ed, April 28, 2016, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/04/28/uc-davis-chancellor-placed-leave-over-employment-daughter-law-and-son


Doctors Without Borders

When the U.S. struck that hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, was it just stupidity, as the U.S. military claims, or a war crime, as the non-governmental organization that ran the hospital apparently continues to believe?

Krishnadev Calamur, “The Fallout From the Kunduz Airstrike,” Atlantic, April 29, 2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/us-military-kunduz-hospital/480507/

Melissa Click is still self-righteous as hell: Daily Bullshit, April 25, 2016

I’m disappearing into Windows so I’m putting this out now; there might be more later.


Melissa Click

Having famously called for “some muscle over here,”[1] Melissa Click now wants to be judged on her intent.[2] This is, to be sure, a harsh way of putting it, but it also captures her dilemma, because it’s pretty rare that calling for “some muscle” means anything other than beating the crap out of someone, in this case, a student journalist who was perfectly and unambiguously within his rights in public space.[3] I continue to view Click, then a communication professor, as having had absolutely no excuse for her actions even in the heat of the moment, especially at a university that hosts what is probably the premier journalism school in the United States.

Robin Wilson, “Being Melissa Click,” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 24, 2016, http://chronicle.com/article/Being-Melissa-Click/236226


The Horse Race

Robert Reich, “Those who expect Sanders supporters to switch to Clinton may be in for a surprise,” Raw Story, April 25, 2016, http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/robert-reich-those-who-expect-sanders-supporters-to-switch-to-clinton-may-be-in-for-a-surprise/


Footnotes

  1. [1]Melissa Click, quoted in Josh Logue, “Journalists as the Enemy,” Inside Higher Ed, November 11, 2015, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/11/video-shows-mizzou-student-press-clash-protestors
  2. [2]Robin Wilson, “Being Melissa Click,” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 24, 2016, http://chronicle.com/article/Being-Melissa-Click/236226
  3. [3]Deborah Douglas and Afi-Odelia Scruggs, “Mizzou protesters could use some media training,” Columbia Journalism Review, November 11, 2015, http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/mizzou_protesters_media.php; Josh Logue, “Journalists as the Enemy,” Inside Higher Ed, November 11, 2015, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/11/video-shows-mizzou-student-press-clash-protestors

Bernie Sanders blames the victims: Daily Bullshit, April 24, 2016 (updated)

Updated for a story on an alleged high Al Qaeda official who was detained and tortured and remains in solitary confinement, despite not even being a member of Al Qaeda.[1]


Bernie Sanders

I’m sorry to see Bernie Sanders take the turn he has. But before blaming poor people for not voting[2]—and we have no proof they would vote for him anyway—he should offer a comprehensive and credible answer to the many reasons for not voting.[3]

Evelyn Rupert, “Sanders: I’ve lost because ‘poor people don’t vote,'” Hill, April 23, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/277415-sanders-ive-lost-because-poor-people-dont-vote


Abu Zubaydah

Rebecca Gordon, “The Al-Qaeda Leader Who Wasn’t: The Shameful Ordeal of Abu Zubaydah,” Tikkun, April 24, 2016, http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/american-war-crimes-that-still-ought-to-be-prosecuted


Footnotes

  1. [1]Rebecca Gordon, “The Al-Qaeda Leader Who Wasn’t: The Shameful Ordeal of Abu Zubaydah,” Tikkun, April 24, 2016, http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/american-war-crimes-that-still-ought-to-be-prosecuted
  2. [2]Evelyn Rupert, “Sanders: I’ve lost because ‘poor people don’t vote,'” Hill, April 23, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/277415-sanders-ive-lost-because-poor-people-dont-vote
  3. [3]David Benfell, “Why I do not vote,” Not Housebroken, February 25, 2016, https://disunitedstates.org/?p=8743

How to feed the world? Go vegan: What I’m reading, April 23, 2016

There may be more later. I’m disappearing into Windows (ick).


Feeding the world

Assuming these results hold up, it can now be said that the choice to consume animal products is a choice to starve other people and to cut down more trees.[1] This is in addition to increasing greenhouse gas emissions and wasting water both through high consumption and through pollution.[2] The notion that a person can both claim to be an environmentalist and consume animal products has long been, to put it charitably, dubious. With these results, it is no longer even tenable.

Karl-Heinz Erb et al., “Exploring the biophysical option space for feeding the world without deforestation,” Nature 7, no. 11382 (April 19, 2016): doi: 10.1038/ncomms11382

Patrick Monahan, “Veganism could save the world, new study argues,” Science, April 19, 2016, http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/veganism-could-save-world-new-study-argues


Footnotes

  1. [1]Karl-Heinz Erb et al., “Exploring the biophysical option space for feeding the world without deforestation,” Nature 7, no. 11382 (April 19, 2016), doi: 10.1038/ncomms11382
  2. [2]David Benfell, “‘We have found the enemy, and he is us’ — and our system of social organization,” March 6, 2013, https://parts-unknown.org/drupal7/journal/2013/03/06/we-have-found-enemy-and-he-us-and-our-system-social-organization

Trump Studies (with a capital ‘S’). Yes, really: Daily Bullshit, April 22-23 (early), 2016

I was tied up in Windows all day, so didn’t get to this until late.


Donald Trump

Darren Samuelsohn, “The Rise of Trump Studies,” Politico, April 22, 2016, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-trump-studies-213838


Paul Ryan

David Dayen, “Paul Ryan Is Making John Boehner Look Like a Legislative Genius,” New Republic, April 22, 2016, https://newrepublic.com/article/132942/paul-ryan-making-john-boehner-look-like-legislative-genius


The Horse Race

Nick Gass, “State Dept. spokesman: Trump isn’t the only candidate worrying world leaders,” Politico, April 22, 2016, http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/04/are-world-leaders-scared-2016-presidential-elections-222307


Encryption

Of course, it was worth every penny.

Tara Golshan, “Unlocking the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone was the FBI’s most expensive public hacking job yet,” Vox, April 22, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/4/22/11486506/fbi-paid-millions-san-bernardino-iphone-hackers


Uber

Tara Golshan, “Uber just settled 2 major lawsuits, and its drivers still aren’t employees,” Vox, April 22, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/4/22/11486576/uber-lawsuit-settlement-drivers-contractors


Hillary Clinton

We will be hearing about this at least right up to November.

Hanna Trudo, “FBI could leak Clinton email investigation, Grassley warns,” Politico, April 22, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/hillary-clinton-emails-chuck-grassley-fbi-leak-222345

The Republican Party choir warms up its Kumbaya rendition: Daily Bullshit, April 21, 2016

The Horse Race

As “[a] pro-choice Republican who supports same-sex marriage, [Richard] Hanna has long been a maverick known to roam off the party reservation, particularly on social issues,”[1] so he apparently cannot be taken as a voice of the Republican Party establishment. That’s unfortunate because it really isn’t enough for the Republican Party establishment to worry about Donald Trump or Ted Cruz’s electability, particularly if, indeed, they would support either of these candidates in the general election.[2] In exploiting the social conservatism of authoritarian populists, neoconservatives, social conservatives, traditionalist conservatives, and sometimes even paleoconservatives, they have conferred legitimacy on extreme views and, although I mostly blame Democrats for this, helped to push the range of acceptable political discourse in the U.S. ever farther to the right, which enables the very candidates they now complain about.

Joe Mahoney, “Hanna: GOP’s extremism will make it lose,” Oneonta Daily Star, April 20, 2016, http://www.thedailystar.com/news/local_news/hanna-gop-s-extremism-will-make-it-lose/article_e88ad354-bdef-5c81-aaf7-cb6fc76b430d.html


Donald Trump

How about that round of Kumbaya?

Andrew Prokop, “For leading Republicans, #NeverTrump is often paired with ‘unless he wins the nomination,’” Vox, April 21, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11471650/trump-republicans-general-election


Footnotes

  1. [1]Joe Mahoney, “Hanna: GOP’s extremism will make it lose,” Oneonta Daily Star, April 20, 2016, http://www.thedailystar.com/news/local_news/hanna-gop-s-extremism-will-make-it-lose/article_e88ad354-bdef-5c81-aaf7-cb6fc76b430d.html
  2. [2]Andrew Prokop, “For leading Republicans, #NeverTrump is often paired with ‘unless he wins the nomination,’” Vox, April 21, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11471650/trump-republicans-general-election

About the Daily Bullshit, renamed and reframed from What I’m Reading

After a little while of posting these entries, I’m renaming this blog (which is separate from my regular blog and from my vegetarian ecofeminist blog) the Daily Bullshit.

First, the entries in this blog are mostly coming out daily, sometimes with updates. Second, journalism is sadly, but to a very high degree, and in multiple and insidious ways, bullshit.[1] If we are to be informed, we have no choice but to succumb; but I hope to often offer yet another—and it is very important that it should be yet another—somewhat critical view.

At heart, this will remain what it has been from the beginning, yet another “what I’m reading” list, even originally and not so originally named What I’m Reading. Sometimes, I’ll pass stories on without comment. Whether I comment or not, I’m thinking about these stories. But it is also crucial to remember that in doing so, I reproduce many of the forms of aforementioned bullshit. I’m not pretending to be objective, but I’m selecting stories that catch my eye, culled from stories that other editors have decided, for whatever reason, to publish. In this, I’m vulnerable to the emphasis that other editors assign. This is mitigated only by the number and variety of sources I rely upon, which is some help, but not enough—publishers are often elites, sharing common interests that are not so much in common with the rest of us.[2] They face pressure to conform, enforced only in part with “flak,”[3] and generally end up reproducing the governing ideology even when not the ruling ideology or rulers’ preferred narratives.[4] And so there are many important stories that I may never see. But also, there will be stories I choose not to follow for reasons that you, the reader, might as well put down to whimsy: Sometimes, I’m tired; sometimes, I don’t immediately recognize the importance of a story; very often, I see many stories as distractions, offering more heat than light; and very often, I’m just not interested.

As before, you may be automatically notified of new entries and other important announcements on all my blogs through my Thoughts mailing list or, for this blog only, the RSS feed.

  1. [1]J. Herbert Altschull, Agents of Power: The Media and Public Policy, 2nd ed. (White Plains, NY: Longman, 1995); David Croteau and William Hoynes, Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences, 3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2003); David Halberstam, The Powers That Be (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 2000); Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon, 2002); Susan D. Moeller, Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death (Routledge: New York, 1999); George Seldes, 1000 Americans: The Real Rulers of the U.S.A. (New York: Boni and Gaer, 1948; Joshua Tree, CA: Progressive, 2009)
  2. [2]C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (1956; repr., New York: Oxford University, 2000); C. Wright Mills, “The Structure of Power in American Society,” in Great Divides: Readings in Social Inequality in the United States, ed. Thomas M. Shapiro, 3rd ed. (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2005).
  3. [3]Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon, 2002).
  4. [4]J. Herbert Altschull, Agents of Power: The Media and Public Policy, 2nd ed. (White Plains, NY: Longman, 1995).

John Boehner’s resignation didn’t solve the problem: What I’m reading, April 20, 2016

Hillary Clinton won the New York primary, but contrary to what seems to be universal mass media spin, really didn’t increase her delegate margin substantially. The trouble, of course, is that Bernie Sanders needs to be substantially cutting into that margin; he didn’t, and it seems like the only remaining question is when what has been from the beginning a very steep hill he has had to climb becomes an unscalable cliff. At this point, he probably needs to hope that Clinton’s “damn emails”[1] catch up with her.

On the Republican side; Donald Trump won handily, improving his chances of 1) avoiding a contested convention, 2) prevailing even at a contested convention. Upcoming primaries may also be Trump-friendly. On April 9, having seen a little too much negative coverage, I said “I now think what I was reluctant to conclude before, that Trump has done himself enough damage and perhaps has attracted enough of the wrong kind of attention that he has let the nomination slip away.”[2] I probably should have held on to that reluctance a bit longer. Trump now once again appears to be the most likely nominee, but with a huge caveat that the Republican Party establishment now seems a bit more determined and a bit more convincing in its efforts to shut him down. To be certain of prevailing, he really needs to avoid a contested convention and it’s clearly too early to say he can do that.

What does all this mean for the general election, when all leading candidates except Sanders are despised?[3] I would caution against reading too much into that Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey result—a mistake that a CBS News account seems to have made in declaring that respondents “said they couldn’t see themselves voting” for these candidates,[4] a claim I don’t see in the Wall Street Journal story.[5] I haven’t actually checked the survey results themselves to see if the question that CBS News claims was answered was even asked; even if it was, voters will surely choose whomever they think is the lesser of evils, a situation that isn’t really all that different from previous elections.

The question here, really, is whether perceptions of Trump as misogynist, racist, “fascist,” or “proto-fascist” or of Ted Cruz as even scarier will substantially increase voters’ willingness to turn out and vote for Clinton. In my bubble, that’s a really hard question to answer right now.


Paul Ryan

It appears that doubts about Republicans’ ‘governability’ in the House of Representatives that swirled around the succession drama last year[6] may have been vindicated. I can’t help but suspect that this is helping to motivate the party establishment to shut Donald Trump down, even at the risk of alienating the authoritarian populist base.

In that, even though I also see Ted Cruz as authoritarian populist, his appeal to social conservatives is greater. Social conservatives aren’t causing the problems in the House that authoritarian populists are and functionalist conservatives might now just be willing to sacrifice a portion of the authoritarian populist vote, particularly if it helps to constrain authoritarian populist influence, if they can hold on to the social conservative vote.

John Bresnahan, “Paul Ryan’s House of woes,” Politico, April 20, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/paul-ryan-house-speaker-republicans-222098


UC Davis

Sam Stanton and Diana Lambert, “UC Davis spent thousands to scrub pepper-spray references from Internet,” Sacramento Bee, April 13, 2016, http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article71659992.html

Ellen Wexler, “How (Not) to Hide a Scandal,” Inside Higher Ed, April 20, 2016, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/04/20/why-uc-daviss-campaign-manipulate-search-results-backfired


Canadian Border

So maybe you thought the National Review was relatively sane for vociferously opposing Donald Trump.[7] Guess again. (And, by the way, judging from a headline—the article itself is actually a little better—they’re still in denial.[8])

Michelle Malkin, “Yes, We Need a Canadian Border Wall,” National Review, April 20, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434263/canadian-border-wall-why-we-need-one


Donald Trump

Jeremy Carl, “Nothing Changed Yesterday—And Trump Is Still Not on the Path to Nomination,” National Review, April 20, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434267/donald-trump-new-york-primary-win-changes-nothing


The Horse Race

Tara Golshan, “Some New Yorkers feel disenfranchised by the primary. They are taking the fight to court,” Vox, April 20, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/4/20/11466578/new-york-primary-voter-lawsuit


Footnotes

  1. [1]Colleen McCain Nelson, Laura Meckler, and Peter Nicholas, “Hillary Clinton Confronts Critics at First Democratic Debate,” Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clinton-confronts-critics-at-first-democratic-debate-1444791926
  2. [2]David Benfell, “Trump begins to feel a noose around his neck: What I’m reading, April 9, 2016 (updated),” What I’m Reading, April 9, 2016, https://parts-unknown.org/reading/2016/04/09/trump-begins-to-feel-a-noose-around-his-neck-what-im-reading-april-9-2016/
  3. [3]Janet Hook, “Both Parties’ Presidential Front-Runners Increasingly Unpopular,” Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/both-parties-presidential-front-runners-increasingly-unpopular-1460898001
  4. [4]Emily Schultheis, “Poll: More than half of voters wouldn’t back Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton,” CBS News, April 18, 2016, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-more-than-half-of-voters-wouldnt-back-donald-trump-ted-cruz-hillary-clinton/
  5. [5]Janet Hook, “Both Parties’ Presidential Front-Runners Increasingly Unpopular,” Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/both-parties-presidential-front-runners-increasingly-unpopular-1460898001
  6. [6]Jennifer Steinhauer, “Paul Ryan Is Elected House Speaker,” New York Times, October 29, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/us/politics/paul-ryan-set-to-take-over-as-speaker-hoping-to-manage-the-chaos.html; Deirdre Walsh, “Republicans back Paul Ryan as speaker,” CNN, October 28, 2015, http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/28/politics/paul-ryan-speaker-leadership-elections-republicans-gop/index.html
  7. [7]National Review, “Against Trump,” January 21, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430137/donald-trump-conservative-movement-menace
  8. [8]Jeremy Carl, “Nothing Changed Yesterday—And Trump Is Still Not on the Path to Nomination,” National Review, April 20, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434267/donald-trump-new-york-primary-win-changes-nothing

Apparently we need international observers for the primary elections as well: What I’m reading, April 19, 2016

As I publish this, early projections indicate that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have won the New York primary.


The Horse Race

Following the bungled Arizona primary, in which “[r]educed numbers of polling stations in Maricopa County resulted in long lines that may have prevented some people from being able to vote,”[1] some voters discovered their party affiliations had been changed,[2] “Truthdig . . . heard reports that similar party affiliation changes are occurring in New York.”[3] So it now seems and there have been other snafus as well, which have interfered with voting.[4] I do not know if, as in Arizona,[5] alleged suppression may have targeted voters more likely to support Bernie Sanders.

Jason Silverstein, “New York City primary voters outraged by broken machines, closed polling places,” New York Daily News, April 19, 2016, http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-primary-voters-outraged-broken-machines-late-polls-article-1.2606810


Texas secession

Amber Phillips, “The Texas secession debate is getting kind of real,” Washington Post, April 19, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/19/the-texas-secession-movement-is-getting-kind-of-serious/


Footnotes

  1. [1]Stephanie Dube Dwilson, “Was There Election Fraud in Arizona? 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know,” Heavy, March 23, 2016, http://heavy.com/news/2016/03/arizona-election-voter-fraud-bernie-sanders-azelectionfraud-provisional-ballot-maricopa-registration-long-lines/
  2. [2]Stephanie Dube Dwilson, “Was There Election Fraud in Arizona? 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know,” Heavy, March 23, 2016, http://heavy.com/news/2016/03/arizona-election-voter-fraud-bernie-sanders-azelectionfraud-provisional-ballot-maricopa-registration-long-lines/; Emma Niles, “Arizona Secretary of State Confirms Election Fraud During Primary Vote,” Truthdig, April 1, 2016, http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/arizona_secretary_of_state_confirms_fraud_during_primary_vote_20160401
  3. [3]Emma Niles, “Arizona Secretary of State Confirms Election Fraud During Primary Vote,” Truthdig, April 1, 2016, http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/arizona_secretary_of_state_confirms_fraud_during_primary_vote_20160401
  4. [4]Jason Silverstein, “New York City primary voters outraged by broken machines, closed polling places,” New York Daily News, April 19, 2016, http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-primary-voters-outraged-broken-machines-late-polls-article-1.2606810
  5. [5]Stephanie Dube Dwilson, “Was There Election Fraud in Arizona? 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know,” Heavy, March 23, 2016, http://heavy.com/news/2016/03/arizona-election-voter-fraud-bernie-sanders-azelectionfraud-provisional-ballot-maricopa-registration-long-lines/

A reminder of the dot-com bust: What I’m reading, April 18, 2016

The Economy

The subheading on Scott Martin’s article is, “Quarterly decline in venture-capital funding is largest since dot-com bust,”[1] which is certain to grab my attention. The dot-com bust in 2001 ended what seems to have been my last hope for gainful employment. Since then, we’ve suffered the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and now I can’t help but feel we’re headed into yet another recession when I still haven’t recovered from the one in 2001.

As to Martin’s story, it appears the “gig” economy is taking a hit as other start-up companies fail to replicate the success of Uber and Lyft.[2] The larger lesson that no one will draw from this is that any quantitative valuation is arbitrary but because these companies’ stocks aren’t traded on public exchanges, capitalists will insist that the problem is limited to the private valuations used by investors prior to an initial public offering (IPO).

Scott Martin, “Startup Investors Hit the Brakes,” Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/startup-investors-hit-the-brakes-1460676478


The Horse Race

All of the remaining contenders are losing popularity except one: Bernie Sanders (figure 1). And while Donald Trump’s approval rating is farthest underwater, Hillary Clinton’s trend looks especially bad and John Kasich, who appears least likely to be nominated, appears to be the most popular of all.[3]

Attitudes toward remaining presidential candidates, Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2016, fair use.
Fig. 1. Attitudes toward remaining presidential candidates, Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2016, fair use.

Janet Hook, “Both Parties’ Presidential Front-Runners Increasingly Unpopular,” Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/both-parties-presidential-front-runners-increasingly-unpopular-1460898001


Texas secession

Given that Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz are on top of the Republican race for the presidential nomination, I wouldn’t expect Texas Republicans to be especially disenchanted with the Union this year. I might be wrong.

Dylan Baddour, “In Texas, some local GOPs call for statewide vote on secession,” Houston Chronicle, April 15, 2016, http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/texas-secession-independence-nationalist-movement-7248746.php


Footnotes

  1. [1]Scott Martin, “Startup Investors Hit the Brakes,” Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/startup-investors-hit-the-brakes-1460676478
  2. [2]Scott Martin, “Startup Investors Hit the Brakes,” Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/startup-investors-hit-the-brakes-1460676478
  3. [3]Janet Hook, “Both Parties’ Presidential Front-Runners Increasingly Unpopular,” Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/both-parties-presidential-front-runners-increasingly-unpopular-1460898001