Month: August 2016

A case for a broader education: Daily Bullshit, August 30, 2016

benfell

Humanities

I comment on Scott Newstok’s article in a new blog entry.

Scott L. Newstok, “How to Think Like Shakespeare,” Chronicle of Higher Education, August 29, 2016, http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-to-Think-Like-Shakespeare/237593

Ride-sharing

Google will charge riders a maximum of 54 cents a mile,[1] barely the amount allowed by the Internal Revenue Service as a per-mile deduction,[2] and, at least for now, take no cut. Unlike Uber and the Lyft, the intention is not for drivers to actually make money. “Waze [owned by Google] wants to connect riders with drivers who are already headed in the same direction. The company has said it aims to make fares low enough to discourage drivers from operating as taxi drivers.” In so doing, Google hopes to avoid taxes, treating “payments through its service effectively as money for gas.”[3]

Jack Nicas, “Google Takes on Uber With New Ride-Share Service,” Wall street Journal, August 30, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-takes-on-uber-with-new-ride-share-service-1472584235

Scholarly journals

It’s bad enough that even libraries struggle to pay for subscriptions to journals publishing research that, by all rights, ought to be publicly accessible. It’s worse when so many “open access” journals charge authors to publish. It’s even worse yet when journals are predatory.

Paul Basken, “Federal Prosecutors Join Fight Against Predatory Journals,” Chronicle of Higher Education, August 30, 2016, http://www.chronicle.com/article/Federal-Prosecutors-Join-Fight/237615

  1. [1]Jack Nicas, “Google Takes on Uber With New Ride-Share Service,” Wall street Journal, August 30, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-takes-on-uber-with-new-ride-share-service-1472584235↩
  2. [2]Internal Revenue Service, “2016 Standard Mileage Rates for Business, Medical and Moving Announced,” December 17, 2015, https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/2016-standard-mileage-rates-for-business-medical-and-moving-announced↩
  3. [3]Jack Nicas, “Google Takes on Uber With New Ride-Share Service,” Wall street Journal, August 30, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-takes-on-uber-with-new-ride-share-service-1472584235↩

Geologists may be about to recognize the #Anthropocene: Daily Bullshit, August 28-29, 2016

benfell

I’ve been reluctant to put out an issue of the (Almost) Daily Bullshit because I didn’t feel like I had quite enough. I tend to feel it’s a disservice when I promote these entries on Twitter and only have one story in the issue, sometimes even without any commentary whatsoever. And when one is determined to avoid covering the train wreck that passes for a U.S. presidential election cycle this year, one’s choices are limited.

Anthropocene

There is a “strong case” to be made for declaring a new geological epoch, the Anthopocene. Alas, it is built from unmistakable markers of humanity’s dubious impact on earth. “[A]n official expert group . . . presented the recommendation to the International Geological Congress in Cape Town on Monday.”[1]

Damian Carrington, “The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age,” Guardian, August 29, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth

Brexit

The ‘Brexit’ vote may not be having the economic impact some feared, at least not yet.[2] If it is indeed not, this is yet another disgrace[3] for a discipline in denial of its own ideology.[4]

Josh Zumbrun, “When Economic Doomsayers Stumble: Cautionary Tales From Brexit, Grexit and U.S. Budget Battles,” Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/forecasts-of-brexit-gloom-may-be-overdone-1472406752

Realism

Realism is a political science theory which posits that countries act largely in their own self-interest. It also, at least according to one of my professors (I don’t remember her name) at California State University, East Bay, overlooks non-governmental players: so-called ‘terrorists,’ non-governmental organizations, and others. So while I’m critical of economics for being ideological, I should also emphasize that that field is by no means the only social science guilty of the sin. Realism is probably (again according to that professor whose name I don’t recall) the dominant theory among political scientists and students of foreign affairs. And realism isn’t the only suspect political science theory. And when, in despair, I learned that political science also seemed ideological, it was at a time when I had already concluded that my own field—then communication—was heavily ideological.

Patrick Porter is almost certainly a realist. But he makes a point that no matter what your guiding principle, international law not only fails to advance that cause but may impede it.[5]

Patrick Porter, “Sorry, Folks. There Is No Rules-Based World Order,” National Interest, August 28, 2016, http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/sorry-folks-there-no-rules-based-world-order-17497

  1. [1]Damian Carrington, “The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age,” Guardian, August 29, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth↩
  2. [2]Josh Zumbrun, “When Economic Doomsayers Stumble: Cautionary Tales From Brexit, Grexit and U.S. Budget Battles,” Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/forecasts-of-brexit-gloom-may-be-overdone-1472406752↩
  3. [3]Hites Ahir and Prakash Loungani, “‘There will be growth in the spring’: How well do economists predict turning points?” Vox, April 14, 2014, http://www.voxeu.org/article/predicting-economic-turning-points; Richard Alford, “Why Economists Have No Shame – Undue Confidence, False Precision, Risk and Monetary Policy,” Naked Capitalism, July 19, 2012, http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/richard-alford-why-economists-have-no-shame-undue-confidence-false-precision-risk-and-monetary-policy.html; Robert Atkinson and Michael Lind, “Econ 101 is killing America,” Salon, July 8, 2013, http://www.salon.com/2013/07/08/how_%e2%80%9cecon_101%e2%80%9d_is_killing_america/; Dean Baker, “Discredited Harvard Austerity-Pushers Reinhart and Rogoff Keep Lying to Protect Themselves,” Alternet, April 26, 2013, http://www.alternet.org/economy/discredited-harvard-austerity-pushers-reinhart-and-rogoff-keep-lying-protect-themselves; Ha-Joon Chang and Jonathan Aldred, “After the crash, we need a revolution in the way we teach economics,” Guardian, May 10, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/11/after-crash-need-revolution-in-economics-teaching-chang-aldred; Eugenio Facci, “EU austerity hawks shrug off criticism of flawed academic paper,” Christian Science Monitor, May 17, 2013, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0517/EU-austerity-hawks-shrug-off-criticism-of-flawed-academic-paper; Alan Greenspan, “Why I Didn’t See The Financial Crisis Coming,” Foreign Policy, November, 2013, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/140161/alan-greenspan/never-saw-it-coming; Mike Konczal, “Reinhart/Rogoff-gate isn’t the first time austerians have used bad data,” Washington Post, April 20, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/20/reinhartrogoff-gate-isnt-the-first-time-austerians-have-used-bad-data/; Paul Krugman, “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” New York Times, September 2, 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/magazine/06Economic-t.html; Paul Krugman, “The Austerity Debacle,” New York Times, January 29, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/opinion/krugman-the-austerity-debacle.html; Paul Krugman, “Economics in the Crisis,” New York Times, March 5, 2012, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/economics-in-the-crisis/; Paul Krugman, “Economics, Good and Bad,” New York Times, June 26, 2012, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/economics-good-and-bad/; Paul Krugman, “Dwindling Deficit Disorder,” New York Times, March 10, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/11/opinion/krugman-dwindling-deficit-disorder.html; Paul Krugman, “The Excel Depression,” New York Times, April 18, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/opinion/krugman-the-excel-depression.html; Paul Krugman, “How the Case for Austerity Has Crumbled,” review of The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire, by Neil Irwin, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, by Mark Blyth, and The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America, by David A. Stockman, New York Review of Books, June 6, 2013, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jun/06/how-case-austerity-has-crumbled/; Robert Kuttner, “Austerity never works: Deficit hawks are amoral — and wrong,” Salon, May 5, 2013, http://www.salon.com/2013/05/05/austerity_never_works_deficit_hawks_are_amoral_and_wrong/; Lynn Stuart Parramore, “Meet the 28-year-old Student Who Exposed Two Harvard Professors Whose Shoddy Research Drove Global Austerity,” Alternet, April 18, 2013, http://www.alternet.org/economy/meet-28-year-old-student-who-exposed-two-harvard-professors-whose-shoddy-research-drove; John Quiggin, “Austerity Has Been Tested, and It Failed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, May 20, 2013, http://chronicle.com/article/Austerity-Has-Been-Tested-and/139255/; Dani Rodrik, “Free-Trade Blinders,” Project Syndicate, March 9, 2012,  http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/free-trade-blinders; Paul Romer, “My Paper ‘Mathiness in the Theory of Economic Growth’,” May 15, 2015, http://paulromer.net/mathiness/; Howard Schneider, “An amazing mea culpa from the IMF’s chief economist on austerity,” Washington Post, January 3, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/03/an-amazing-mea-culpa-from-the-imfs-chief-economist-on-austerity/; Andreas Whittam Smith, “The age of austerity is over. Why? It doesn’t work,” Independent, April 25, 2013, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-age-of-austerity-is-over-why-it-doesnt-work-8586201.html; Noah Smith, “Most of What You Learned in Econ 101 Is Wrong,” Bloomberg, November 24, 2015, http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-11-24/most-of-what-you-learned-in-econ-101-is-wrong; Cass R. Sunstein, “Why Free Markets Make Fools of Us,” review of Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception, by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller, New York Review of Books, October 22, 2015, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/oct/22/why-free-markets-make-fools-us/; Mark Thoma, “Are Economists Driven by Ideology or Evidence?” Fiscal Times, November 3, 2015, http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2015/11/03/Are-Economists-Driven-Ideology-or-Evidence; Mark Thoma, “The Politics of Economics and ‘Very Serious People,’” July 28, 2015, http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2015/07/28/Politics-Economics-and-Very-Serious-People↩
  4. [4]Jefferson Cowie, “Why Are Economists So Small-Minded?” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 7, 2016, http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Are-Economists-So/235159↩
  5. [5]Patrick Porter, “Sorry, Folks. There Is No Rules-Based World Order,” National Interest, August 28, 2016, http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/sorry-folks-there-no-rules-based-world-order-17497↩

Now that #Brexit has already passed, #EU decides to help workers: Daily Bullshit, August 26, 2016

benfell

As I pick up the pieces from my email fiasco of the last few days (explained in yesterday’s post, notice of which was not disseminated in the usual fashion), it’s increasingly apparent that some mail has indeed been lost. I’m continuing to make progress but some of this is slow going, in part due to issues with FreeBSD ports. (Hey guys, graphics/gd has been broken with circular dependencies for several weeks now. Don’t you think maybe it’s time to fix that?)

Brexit

Apparently Britain’s impending withdrawal from the European Union both eases a turn to improved social protections (Britain’s neoliberal government has been a prominent skeptic) and impresses upon elites the need to stem populist movements. Businesses oppose the move, claiming the problem is competitiveness rather than what they claim are already ample social protections in Europe. The story does not offer substantiation for the latter claim,[1] although among Wall Street Journal readers, this might be taken for granted.

“Competitiveness,” of course, is the very argument for globalization and a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions, as well as deregulation generally. This is the hallmark of a neoliberal regime: Employers are empowered to improve their bottom line at the expense of workers, all while pointing to cheaper workers in other lands, and prefer a pool of desperate potential workers—“a bottom tier of workers trapped in declining economic sectors with stagnant wages who lack skills to gain work elsewhere”[2]—to be readily available to replace workers who might dare to seek better wages or working conditions.[3] This is why, in the present paradigm, political power is essential to balance economic power, why regulatory capture (of political interests by economic interests) is such a problem, and why so-called anarchocapitalists have no right to the “anarchist” label.

Laurence Norman, “EU Hopes Helping Workers Will Blunt Populism,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-hopes-helping-workers-will-blunt-populism-1472157500

Israel

I’m always a little startled to see conservatives criticize the U.S. relationship with Israel, but this is one things that marks a bright line between neoconservatives and traditionalist conservatives: The former are absolutely uncritical of Israel and even of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, while the latter favor a far less aggressive—some might even say isolationist—foreign policy.

Daniel Larison, “A Useless ‘Alliance’ with Israel,” American Conservative, August 24, 2016, http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/a-useless-alliance-with-israel/

Donald Trump

I’m still really trying to avoid talking about the presidential election campaign this year, but this matter of the “alt-right” is a point of technical interest. First, Donald Trump is over-generalizing but probably mostly right when he claims “[n]obody even knows what [the ‘alt-right’] is.”[4] I haven’t evaluated Hillary Clinton’s speech to determine whether or not she knows what it is, so I’ll refrain from commenting on Trump’s assertion that “she didn’t know what it was.”[5]

Suffice it to say, the “alt-right” certainly know who they are. I identify them as paleoconservatives and on a web site entitled the Alternative Right, they are certainly happy to tell you who they are (I’m saving you the click):

Equality is bullshit. Hierarchy is essential. The races are different. The sexes are different. Morality matters and degeneracy is real. All cultures are not equal and we are not obligated to think they are. Man is a fallen creature and there is more to life than hollow materialism. Finally, the white race matters, and civilisation is precious. This is the Alt-Right.[6]

It’s tempting to view paleoconservatives as a breed apart from other conservatives, but in my dissertation, on the topic of unauthorized migrants, I wasn’t able to clearly delineate them from authoritarian populists and I observed that Donald Trump was appealing to both.[7] And what they say in that passage is pretty much common to nearly all conservatives (except capitalist libertarians). The real difference between paleoconservatives and other conservatives, as a practical matter, is in rhetoric: Paleoconservatives profess what they believe while other conservatives are in denial about their racism (and capitalist libertarians are in denial about their authoritarianism).

Alternative Right, “We are the Alt-Right,” August 26, 2016, http://alternative-right.blogspot.com/2016/08/we-are-alt-right.html

Caitlin MacNeal, “Trump When Asked About Alt-Right: ‘Nobody Even Knows What It Is,'” Talking Points Memo, August 26, 2016, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-alt-right-nobody-knows

  1. [1]Laurence Norman, “EU Hopes Helping Workers Will Blunt Populism,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-hopes-helping-workers-will-blunt-populism-1472157500↩
  2. [2]Laurence Norman, “EU Hopes Helping Workers Will Blunt Populism,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-hopes-helping-workers-will-blunt-populism-1472157500↩
  3. [3]George Kent, Ending Hunger Worldwide (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2011).↩
  4. [4]Caitlin MacNeal, “Trump When Asked About Alt-Right: ‘Nobody Even Knows What It Is,'” Talking Points Memo, August 26, 2016, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-alt-right-nobody-knows↩
  5. [5]Caitlin MacNeal, “Trump When Asked About Alt-Right: ‘Nobody Even Knows What It Is,'” Talking Points Memo, August 26, 2016, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-alt-right-nobody-knows↩
  6. [6]Alternative Right, “We are the Alt-Right,” August 26, 2016, http://alternative-right.blogspot.com/2016/08/we-are-alt-right.html↩
  7. [7]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).↩

Torture is stupid. And not just because it doesn’t work: Daily Bullshit, August 24-25, 2016 (updated)

benfell

Updated for an article challenging the rationality of a marketplace that simultaneously needs more professors for a growing student body and leaves folks with Ph.D.s like myself scrambling (unsuccessfully) for employment.[1]

I’ve been in email hell for the last few days and, almost certainly, some, hopefully not a lot, was lost.

I’d run into problems a few weeks ago with a flood of duplicated email. I couldn’t identify the cause but had been wanting to try a more secure operating system for my mail server anyway. So I installed OpenBSD and tried to get stuff working properly. And tried. And tried. And tried. Last night, I gave up and put FreeBSD back on. And a lot of stuff is working better already. I still have a ways to go, but progress is being made.

Torture

Okay, I don’t mean to suggest that OpenBSD is torture, but I can see where you might get that idea. (And for the record, while I had problems with OpenBSD, it’s important to recognize that the OpenBSD folks have made several important contributions to the open source software world that should be appreciated.)

Douglas A. Johnson, Alberto Mora, and Averell Schmidt, “The Strategic Costs of Torture,” Foreign Affairs, September/October, 2016, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/strategic-costs-torture

Uber

So let’s do some arithmetic. Apparently, Uber has cut rates so far that drivers are down to 80 cents a mile. Uber takes 20 percent of that, so they’re making 64 cents a mile. But that’s only when they actually have a passenger in the car. Apparently about half their total miles are “dead” miles—a proportion consistent with my own experience as a cab driver—for which they don’t get compensated at all.[2] So they’re really making 32 cents a mile overall. If we accept the Internal Revenue Service allowance of 54 cents per mile[3] as an indication of actual operating costs, Uber drivers are losing 22 cents a mile.

Jacob Bogage, “Uber’s controversial strategy to finally defeat Lyft,” Washington Post, August 23, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/08/23/ubers-controversial-strategy-to-finally-defeat-lyft/

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Uber is offering retirement accounts for some drivers,” August 25, 2016, http://blog.seattlepi.com/techchron/2016/08/25/uber-is-offering-retirement-accounts-for-some-drivers/

Obamacare

“Increasingly, there are two ObamaCares,” writes Peter Sullivan for the Hill. “There’s the one in coastal and northern areas, where the marketplaces include multiple insurers and plans. And there’s the one in southern and rural areas, where there is often little competition, a situation that can lead to higher premiums.” Insurers say they have been losing money in the Obamacare marketplaces, but Sullivan offers no explanation for why this seems to be the case in southern and rural areas and not in coastal and northern areas. One piece of the puzzle might be that the plans—apparently often Blue Cross Blue Shield plans—remaining in many of these areas “have expressed reservations about continuing to offer ObamaCare plans, particularly if they do not win their preferred policy changes [like tightening up the rules for extra sign-up periods that sick people can use to game the system].”[4]

That would seem to suggest that people in southern and rural areas are more often “gaming” the system. It’s a leap to suggest that they may be doing so because of their opposition to Obamacare, but these are the same sorts of areas where authoritarian populists are more prevalent.[5]

Peter Sullivan, “How ObamaCare is splitting in two,” Hill, August 22, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/292019-how-obamacare-is-splitting-in-two

Unemployment

Aaron R. Hanlon, “Are PhD Students Irrational?” Los Angeles Review of Books, August 24, 2016, https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/phd-students-irrational/

  1. [1]Aaron R. Hanlon, “Are PhD Students Irrational?” Los Angeles Review of Books, August 24, 2016, https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/phd-students-irrational/↩
  2. [2]Jacob Bogage, “Uber’s controversial strategy to finally defeat Lyft,” Washington Post, August 23, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/08/23/ubers-controversial-strategy-to-finally-defeat-lyft/↩
  3. [3]Internal Revenue Service, “2016 Standard Mileage Rates for Business, Medical and Moving Announced,” December 17, 2015, https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/2016-standard-mileage-rates-for-business-medical-and-moving-announced↩
  4. [4]Peter Sullivan, “How ObamaCare is splitting in two,” Hill, August 22, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/292019-how-obamacare-is-splitting-in-two↩
  5. [5]Thomas Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas? (New York: Henry Holt, 2005).↩

An insurance company keeps its word: Daily Bullshit, August 18, 2016

benfell

Obamacare

It appears Aetna threatened to reduce its participation in Obamacare if its merger with another insurer was not approved.[1]

Anna Wilde Mathews and Stephanie Armour, “Aetna Warned U.S. Before Exiting Health Exchanges,” Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/aetna-warned-it-would-withdraw-from-exchanges-if-humana-deal-was-blocked-1471436663

  1. [1]Anna Wilde Mathews and Stephanie Armour, “Aetna Warned U.S. Before Exiting Health Exchanges,” Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/aetna-warned-it-would-withdraw-from-exchanges-if-humana-deal-was-blocked-1471436663↩

9th Circuit upholds state medical marijuana laws: Daily Bullshit, August 17, 2016

benfell

Marijuana

It’s worth noting that the U.S. Supreme Court is notorious for reversing decisions of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. If Antonin Scalia was still alive, I’d think it probable in this case. Now, I’m not sure.

But this isn’t really the battle. I’ve always seen medical marijuana laws as something of a gateway to full legalization and, in the meantime, a loophole that would be exploited to its fullest (which is probably another reason—see here for what I think is the main one—why law enforcement types right up all the way to the executive branch are so dead set against them).

Paul Elias and Gene Johnson, “Court Bans Feds From Prosecuting Medical Marijuana Cases If No State Laws Broken,” Talking Points Memo, August 17, 2016, Court Bans Feds From Prosecuting Medical Marijuana Cases If No State Laws Broken

Post-colonialism is hard!!! At least for Star Trek? Daily Bullshit, August 16, 2016

benfell

I’ve really been trying to refrain from comment on the 2016 presidential campaign. As my readers surely well know by now, I regard both major party candidates as a catastrophe. That this is so surely seems manifest now, as “[Donald] Trump has destroyed himself more efficiently than any opposition campaign could ever have done,” discrediting populism especially for elite propaganda purposes, and freeing Hillary Clinton to triangulate to the right.[1] Trump, whom Michael Moore thinks didn’t really want to be president in the first place,[2] has decided he won’t (and perhaps can’t) tack towards more responsible rhetoric, all but assuring his defeat in November.[3] His performance as a general election candidate has been much, much worse than I anticipated, so bad as to earn condemnation from Karl Rove.[4] And if Clinton indeed “seeks to placate her own party’s liberals,”[5] she shows no sign of it in appointing a decidedly non-progressive (except perhaps on family issues) transition committee.[6] (I intentionally disregard as mere hot air Clinton’s campaign advertising—among other progressive goodies—“pledge to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and to impose a new tax on companies who move their headquarters abroad . . . [to] spend . . . on big new infrastructure projects.”[7]) In all this, it is Chris Hedges, in a column Truthdig republished yesterday from a couple months ago, who appears prophetic, forecasting doom for progressivism[8] that Thomas Frank now sees realized.[9] Of course, some of us realized all along, even if not in this particular form, that this is what Clinton would do anyway.

Star Trek

I found The Next Generation and Deep Space 9 infinitely more interesting than the original series. I especially liked the latter series (DS9) because it wasn’t just one more big happy Starfleet crew; Voyager’s crew might have been part Maquis, but with rare exceptions, they much too rapidly came together as yet another harmonious Starfleet crew whose captain could never muster even the philosophy of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (which, for all his gravitas, is still sorely lacking). And Enterprise was cringe-worthy in every aspect right up until they decided to cancel it—which is a pretty weird time to decide to actually bring in some decent scripts.

And in these days, those micro mini-dress uniforms for female characters in the original series are more than a little too much. Let’s not even talk about Yeoman Rand as stereotypical blonde secretary or Captain James T. Kirk’s serial and oh so predictable feel ’em, fuck ’em, and forget ’em womanizing (where power is an aphrodisiac and we know that in the closing scene that Kirk can smile contentedly because he just got laid but Mr. Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy maybe not so much).

Annalee Newitz may not be giving the interplay between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy its due, but I think those of us who have ever been Star Trek fans have some soul-searching to do: What underlies this incredibly optimistic vision of the future? Does it really reduce to good versus evil, paradoxically disregarding the Prime Directive that every Starfleet officer allegedly swears to uphold even on pain of death? Does it not rationalize colonialism under the guise of an allegedly beneficent Federation in a cold (sometimes hot) war with the demonized and unsubtly imperialist Klingon empire?

Are we really ready to accept that in this 23rd century enlightened but still with a ways to go “United Federation of Planets,” where as Newitz puts it, “humans [still] have to work for a living,”[10] that we are not fooling ourselves in imagining there is no political and economic equivalent to the military-industrial complex? In such a suspension of disbelief, how do we explain the mentality and persistence of Section 31 and its self-declared rationale for its “dirty work” and for its own existence of enabling the allegedly high morals of Starfleet? What about that military-style hierarchy in Starfleet itself?

In a contest between good and evil within the Federation and within Starfleet, how indeed can we imagine that “good” prevails, mostly, except for Section 31, over “evil?” Is such altruism even possible when “humans [still] have to work for a living?”[11]

What about the role of Earth not only in the Federation but in Starfleet? Is Earth not like the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, first among “equals,” but with a veto? And are crude capitalist characters such as Cyrano Jones or better-established but still profit-seeking-above-all-else corporations really such an anomaly? Really?

Yes, indeed, I think Newitz may have a point. But critical theory emphasizes omissions and her essay should be seen as a beginning of criticism, not an end.

Annalee Newitz, “Why does the Star Trek franchise keep returning to its origins?” Ars Technica, August 16, 2016, http://arstechnica.com/staff/2016/08/why-does-the-star-trek-franchise-keep-returning-to-its-origins/

  1. [1]Thomas Frank, “With Trump certain to lose, you can forget about a progressive Clinton,” Guardian, August 13, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/13/trump-clinton-election-chances-moderate-policies-economy↩
  2. [2]Michael Moore, “Trump Is Self-Sabotaging His Campaign Because He Never Really Wanted the Job in the First Place,” Alternet, August 16, 2016, http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-self-sabotage-campaign↩
  3. [3]Nolan D. McCaskill, “Trump: ‘I don’t wanna change,’” Politico, August 16, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/is-trump-changing-his-strategy-227075↩
  4. [4]Tom Boggioni, “Angry Karl Rove blisters ‘impulsive’ Trump in epic rant: ‘Does he want to win?’” Raw Story, August 12, 2016, http://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/angry-karl-rove-blisters-impulsive-trump-in-epic-rant-does-he-want-to-win/↩
  5. [5]Gerald F. Seib, “Hillary Clinton’s Conundrum: Keeping Left Happy, Pursuing Opening on Right,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-conundrum-energetic-left-opening-on-right-1471275257↩
  6. [6]Matthew Yglesias, “Hillary Clinton’s newly announced transition team gives us a hint of her priorities as president,” Vox, August 16, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/8/16/12500798/clinton-transition-team-salazar↩
  7. [7]Gerald F. Seib, “Hillary Clinton’s Conundrum: Keeping Left Happy, Pursuing Opening on Right,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-conundrum-energetic-left-opening-on-right-1471275257↩
  8. [8]Chris Hedges, “Con vs. Con,” Truthdig, August 15, 2016, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/con_vs_con_20160619↩
  9. [9]Thomas Frank, “With Trump certain to lose, you can forget about a progressive Clinton,” Guardian, August 13, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/13/trump-clinton-election-chances-moderate-policies-economy↩
  10. [10]Annalee Newitz, “Why does the Star Trek franchise keep returning to its origins?” Ars Technica, August 16, 2016, http://arstechnica.com/staff/2016/08/why-does-the-star-trek-franchise-keep-returning-to-its-origins/↩
  11. [11]Annalee Newitz, “Why does the Star Trek franchise keep returning to its origins?” Ars Technica, August 16, 2016, http://arstechnica.com/staff/2016/08/why-does-the-star-trek-franchise-keep-returning-to-its-origins/↩

Brexit process to begin in January, 2017: Daily Bullshit, August 15, 2016 (updated)

benfell

Updated for two articles on student loans.

Brexit

Steven Swinford, “Theresa May tells feuding ministers to ‘stop playing games’ and get on with the job,” Telegraph, August 14, 2016, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/14/theresa-may-tells-feuding-ministers-to-stop-playing-games-and-ge/

Turkey

I’m just not seeing how this failed coup was anything but a gift to anti-Democratic forces.

Marc Herman, “Hassles mount for journalists in Turkey after failed coup,” Columbia Journalism Review, August 15, 2016, http://www.cjr.org/watchdog/turkey_journalism_coup_crackdown.php

Unemployment

David Sirota, “The ‘Big Lie’ Behind The Unemployment Rate,” National Memo, August 14, 2016, http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-big-lie-behind-the-unemployment-rate/

Homelessness

It appears 1) that a move toward permanent housing has been embraced far more widely—even at the federal level—than I thought or even would have imagined, and 2) that this is not a panacea, that even if in the long run it will better serve more people, many are being left out in the cold in the meantime.[1]

Doug Smith, “Is the shift to permanent housing making L.A.’s homelessness problem even worse?” Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-transitional-housing-cutbacks-20160815-snap-story.html

Scottish independence

Elisabeth O’Leary, “RBS says main office would move if Scotland were independent: BBC,” Reuters, August 15, 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-scotland-rbs-idUSKCN10Q0QT

Student Loans

I remember telling my students that while they should not be irresponsible, that they shouldn’t worry too much about the debt they were accumulating, that this was a middle class issue, and that therefore some adjustments would be made. At that time, I underestimated the extent to which politicians were and are selling out the middle class, but Barack Obama didn’t make me a liar. He initiated various income-based repayment programs that forgive any remaining debt after varying lengths of time[2] and even though some of my own student loan debt predates his time in office, I’m presently consolidating all my student loan debt—including the Perkins loans that wouldn’t otherwise be eligible for income-based repayment—into a loan (with higher interest) under the most generous of these programs.

Even so, criticism that this debt lays too heavy a burden on students, that too many of them are defaulting, that collectors are corrupt and their tactics are brutal, that the repayment system is excessively complex, and even that this debt might be yet another “bubble” about to burst has never abated.[3] Indeed, one motivation for my consolidation was that Navient seemed not to be acting upon my income-based repayment requests, so I consolidated with Great Lakes with the repayment plan baked in, and unless lightning strikes and I actually get a job, my payments will remain zero, with all the debt to be forgiven in twenty years.

Now Daniel Pianko argues that a great deal more student loan debt than previously anticipated, perhaps even the majority of it, will never be repaid.[4] And Leon Botstein argues that the economic stimulus that universal forgiveness would offer is badly needed.[5] It’s hard for me to imagine that such forgiveness might actually occur. I agree with Botstein (he also argues against neoliberal trends that are destroying higher education[6]) but when recognizing reality so obviously costs money, politicians would generally prefer to kick the can down the road, even when doing so will more subtly cost more money.

Leon Botstein, “Why the Next President Should Forgive All Student Loans,” Time, August 12, 2016, http://time.com/money/4449990/next-president-should-forgive-all-student-loans/

Daniel Pianko, “Writing Off Student Loans Is Only a Matter of Time,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/writing-off-student-loans-is-only-a-matter-of-time-1471303339

  1. [1]Doug Smith, “Is the shift to permanent housing making L.A.’s homelessness problem even worse?” Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-transitional-housing-cutbacks-20160815-snap-story.html↩
  2. [2]Tara Siegel Bernard, “Program Links Loans to Future Earnings,” New York Times, July 19, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/your-money/unusual-student-loan-programs-link-to-future-earnings.html; Michael Stratford, “Income-Based Repayment Expansion Advances,” Inside Higher Ed, May 1, 2015, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/01/federal-rule-making-panel-oks-plan-expand-income-based-repayment-program; Anya Kamenetz, “The One Thing Obama Didn’t Say About Student Loan Repayment,” National Public Radio, June 9, 2014, http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/06/09/320351501/the-one-thing-obama-didn-t-say-about-student-loan-repayment; Tamar Lewin, “U.S. to Contact Borrowers With New Options for Repaying Student Loans,” New York Times, September 24, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/education/us-to-contact-borrowers-with-new-options-for-repaying-student-loans.html; Maggie McGrath, “How Obama’s Executive Order Helps Student Borrowers — And Where It Falls Short,” Forbes, June 9, 2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2014/06/09/how-obamas-executive-order-helps-student-borrowers-and-where-it-falls-short/; New York Times, “Relief for Student Borrowers,” December 31, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/opinion/relief-for-student-borrowers-in-pay-as-you-earn.html; Christi Parsons, “Student loan relief: Obama’s order caps payments at 10% of income,” Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2014, http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-obama-student-loans-20140609-story.html; Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President on Opportunity for All: Making College More Affordable,” White House, June 9, 2014, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/09/remarks-president-opportunity-all-making-college-more-affordable; Christi Parsons, “Student loan relief: Obama’s order caps payments at 10% of income,” Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2014, http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-obama-student-loans-20140609-story.html; Justin Pope, “New student loan-repayment options available,” Seattle Times, December 22, 2015, http://www.seattletimes.com/business/new-student-loan-repayment-options-available/; Michael Stratford, “Obama’s Loan-Repayment Plan Will Be ‘Windfall’ for Wealthy, Report Says,” Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2012, http://chronicle.com/article/Obamas-Loan-Repayment-Plan/135144/; Michael Stratford, “Obama Expands IBR, Pushes Refinancing,” Inside Higher Ed, June 10, 2014, http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/10/obama-expands-income-based-repayment-older-borrowers-pushes-democrats%E2%80%99-student-loan; Michael Stratford, “Income-Based Repayment Expansion Advances,” Inside Higher Ed, May 1, 2015, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/01/federal-rule-making-panel-oks-plan-expand-income-based-repayment-program↩
  3. [3]Ellen Brown, “Students loans fail usury test,” Asia Times, May 16, 2012, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NE16Dj03.html; Kevin Carey, “Student Debt Is Worse Than You Think,” New York Times, October 7, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/upshot/student-debt-is-worse-than-you-think.html; Kevin Carey, “Student Debt in America: Lend With a Smile, Collect With a Fist,” New York Times, November 27, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/upshot/student-debt-in-america-lend-with-a-smile-collect-with-a-fist.html; David Dayen, “Student Loan Servicer Corruption Rewarded, Covered For in New Round of Obama Executive Actions,” Naked Capitalism, June 10, 2014, http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/06/student-loan-servicer-corruption-rewarded-covered-new-round-obama-executive-actions.html; John J. Duncan, Jr., “Federal student loans creating ‘indentured students’,” Washington Examiner, May 7, 2015, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/federal-student-loans-creating-indentured-students/article/2564073; Nancy Folbre, “Mortgaged Diplomas,” New York Times, June 3, 2013, http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/mortgaged-diplomas/; Audrey Williams June, “The Cost of a Ph.D.: Students Report Hefty Debt Across Many Fields,” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 16, 2014, http://chronicle.com/article/The-Cost-of-a-PhD-Students/144049/; Natalie Kitroeff, “Loan Monitor Is Accused of Ruthless Tactics on Student Debt,” New York Times, January 1, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/us/loan-monitor-is-accused-of-ruthless-tactics-on-student-debt.html; Alec Liu, “The Student Loan Bubble Looks Awfully Like the Housing Crisis, Top Bankers Say,” Vice, May 13, 2013, http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-student-loan-bubble-looks-awfully-like-the-housing-crisis-bankers-warn-fed; Josh Mitchell, “Student-Loan Defaulters in a Standoff With Federal Government,” Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/student-loan-defaulters-in-a-standoff-with-federal-government-1470080970; Gretchen Morgenson, “A Student Loan System Stacked Against the Borrower,” New York Times, October 9, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/business/a-student-loan-system-stacked-against-the-borrower.html; Libby Nelson, “Student loan repayment is so complicated, even a top expert can’t figure it out,” Vox, October 14, 2014, http://www.vox.com/2014/10/14/6970129/student-loan-repayment-plans-bob-shireman-ibr; Helaine Olen, “1 in 5 college grads can’t repay their student loans,” Salon, August 8, 2013, http://www.salon.com/2013/08/08/1_in_5_college_grads_isnt_repaying_student_loans_newscred/; Kyle Schmidlin, “Give student loans the finger: A new solution to a massive generational outrage,” Salon, October 18, 2014, http://www.salon.com/2014/10/18/give_student_loans_the_finger_a_new_solution_to_a_massive_generational_outrage/; Lee Siegel, “Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans,” New York Times, June 6, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/opinion/sunday/why-i-defaulted-on-my-student-loans.html; Yves Smith [Susan Webber], “The Student DebtCropper System: Even the Destitute Hounded by Debt Collectors,” Naked Capitalism, January 2, 2014, http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/01/student-debtcropper-system-even-destitute-hounded-debt-collectors.html; Matt Taibbi, “Ripping Off Young America: The College-Loan Scandal,” Rolling Stone, August 15, 2013, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ripping-off-young-america-the-college-loan-scandal-20130815; Jordan Weissman, “Our Student Loan System Is Broken, and These New Statistics Prove It,” Atlantic, August 8, 2013, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/our-student-loan-system-is-broken-and-these-new-statistics-prove-it/278453/↩
  4. [4]Daniel Pianko, “Writing Off Student Loans Is Only a Matter of Time,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/writing-off-student-loans-is-only-a-matter-of-time-1471303339↩
  5. [5]Leon Botstein, “Why the Next President Should Forgive All Student Loans,” Time, August 12, 2016, http://time.com/money/4449990/next-president-should-forgive-all-student-loans/↩
  6. [6]Leon Botstein, “Why the Next President Should Forgive All Student Loans,” Time, August 12, 2016, http://time.com/money/4449990/next-president-should-forgive-all-student-loans/↩

Is this a trend? Actually listening to homeless people? Daily Bullshit, August 13, 2016 (updated)

benfell

Updated for an article on the possible collapse of the Islamic State[1] and an article arguing for the expulsion of Turkey from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).[2]

Homelessness

I’m just not sure what to make of this. Yesterday, I saw a story in which, at the direction of Albuquerque’s Republican mayor, workers are actually “[g]enuinely ask[ing] why they are in the predicament they are.”[3]
Today, I see a county supervisor in rock-solid Republican Orange County talking about “sit[ting] and talk[ing] with people who are currently living at the Civic Center”[4] and learning that they really need access to bathrooms at night.[5] I hope it’s a trend. We could do with a lot more listening and a lot less lecturing to the poor generally.

Jordan Graham, “Bathrooms for homeless to be installed at Santa Ana Civic Center,” Orange County Register, August 11, 2016, http://www.ocregister.com/articles/homeless-725476-civic-center.html

Failed Turkish Coup

I realize I’m supposed to believe it’s better that the coup failed. But given all that has transpired since,[6] I’m having a harder and harder time with that claim. Doug Bandow recommends expelling Turkey from NATO;[7] a move I would not oppose, even if Bandow writes for capitalist libertarians.

Doug Bandow, “Toss Turkey Out Of NATO,” Cato, August 9, 2016, http://www.cato.org/blog/toss-turkey-out-nato

Deutschewelle, “Turkey says no compromise on Gülen extradition ahead of US VP Biden visit,” August 13, 2016, http://www.dw.com/en/turkey-says-no-compromise-on-g%C3%BClen-extradition-ahead-of-us-vp-biden-visit/a-19473023

Steve Andreasen, “Let’s get our nuclear weapons out of Turkey,” Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-andreasen-nuclear-weapons-turkey-20160811-snap-story.html

Racist Police

Jelani Cobb, “The Ordinary Outrage of the Baltimore Police Report,” New Yorker, August 12, 2016, http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-ordinary-outrage-of-the-baltimore-police-report

Islamic State

Mohammed Nuruzzaman, “Is the ISIS Caliphate Collapsing?” National Interest, August 13, 2016, http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-isis-caliphate-collapsing-17338

  1. [1]Mohammed Nuruzzaman, “Is the ISIS Caliphate Collapsing?” National Interest, August 13, 2016, http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-isis-caliphate-collapsing-17338↩
  2. [2]Doug Bandow, “Toss Turkey Out Of NATO,” Cato, August 9, 2016, http://www.cato.org/blog/toss-turkey-out-nato↩
  3. [3]Kellie Tillerson, quoted in Colby Itkowitz, “This Republican mayor has an incredibly simple idea to help the homeless. And it seems to be working,” Washington Post, August 11, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/08/11/this-republican-mayor-has-an-incredibly-simple-idea-to-help-the-homeless-and-it-seems-to-be-working/↩
  4. [4]Andrew Do, quoted in Jordan Graham, “Bathrooms for homeless to be installed at Santa Ana Civic Center,” Orange County Register, August 11, 2016, http://www.ocregister.com/articles/homeless-725476-civic-center.html↩
  5. [5]Jordan Graham, “Bathrooms for homeless to be installed at Santa Ana Civic Center,” Orange County Register, August 11, 2016, http://www.ocregister.com/articles/homeless-725476-civic-center.html↩
  6. [6]Associated Press, “Arrests mount in Turkey after failed coup,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, July 21, 2016, http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/arrests-mount-in-turkey-after-failed-coup-1.3688939; Robert-Jan Bartunek, “Turkey government seemed to have list of arrests prepared: EU’s Hahn,” Reuters, July 18, 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-eu-hahn-idUSKCN0ZY0EA; Ken Bredemeier, “Turkey Escalates Purge of Teachers, Workers Allegedly Connected to Failed Coup,” Global Security, July 19, 2016, http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/turkey/2016/turkey-160719-voa01.htm; British Broadcasting Corporation, “Turkey coup attempt: Crackdown toll passes 50,000,” July 20, 2016, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36842073; Deutschewelle, “Turkish President Erdogan declares three-month state of emergency following coup attempt,” July 20, 2016, http://www.dw.com/en/turkish-president-erdogan-declares-three-month-state-of-emergency-following-coup-attempt/a-19415502; Deutschewelle, “Turkey says no compromise on Gülen extradition ahead of US VP Biden visit,” August 13, 2016, http://www.dw.com/en/turkey-says-no-compromise-on-g%C3%BClen-extradition-ahead-of-us-vp-biden-visit/a-19473023; Pinar Ersoy, “Women are being silenced in Turkey’s crackdown,” Public Radio International, July 19, 2016, http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-07-19/women-are-being-silenced-turkeys-crackdown↩
  7. [7]Doug Bandow, “Toss Turkey Out Of NATO,” Cato, August 9, 2016, http://www.cato.org/blog/toss-turkey-out-nato↩