Month: September 2016

#OPEC agrees production cuts needed to prop up #OilPrice: Daily Bullshit, September 29-30, 2016

benfell

Oil Prices

The article in the Wall Street Journal expresses considerable skepticism that production cuts will actually be agreed upon[1] and certainly it seems like there’s a problem when they can’t even agree on how much oil they’re producing.[2] I’m guessing that’s the nature of this: They won’t agree until, suddenly, they do. Then some folks will be caught by surprise. But the simple fact is that, historically, they’ve always eventually worked it out.

Benoit Faucon, Georgi Kantchev, and Selina Williams, “OPEC Agrees on Need to Cut Oil Output,” Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/opec-reaches-understanding-on-output-cut-1475089079

Summer Said, Benoit Faucon, and Selina Williams, “Iraq Quarrel on Production Number Could Sink OPEC Deal,” Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/iraq-quarrel-on-production-number-could-sink-opec-deal-1475168419

Saudi Arabia

It turns out that the Wall Street Journal had already attempted an answer to my question from yesterday as to how one defends sovereign immunity.[3] I am not much impressed by their answer.

Wall Street Journal, “An Obama Veto Worth Backing,” September 20, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/an-obama-veto-worth-backing-1474413692

Jordain Carney, “GOP leaders express reservations a day after 9/11 veto override,” Hill, September 29, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/298530-gop-leaders-open-to-fixing-saudi-9-11-bill

Same-sex marriage

Southern Poverty Law Center, “Alabama’s ‘Ten Commandments judge’ suspended for rest of term for defying federal judiciary over same-sex marriage,” September 30, 2016, Alabama’s ‘Ten Commandments judge’ suspended for rest of term for defying federal judiciary over same-sex marriage

  1. [1]Benoit Faucon, Georgi Kantchev, and Selina Williams, “OPEC Agrees on Need to Cut Oil Output,” Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/opec-reaches-understanding-on-output-cut-1475089079↩
  2. [2]Summer Said, Benoit Faucon, and Selina Williams, “Iraq Quarrel on Production Number Could Sink OPEC Deal,” Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/iraq-quarrel-on-production-number-could-sink-opec-deal-1475168419↩
  3. [3]Wall Street Journal, “An Obama Veto Worth Backing,” September 20, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/an-obama-veto-worth-backing-1474413692↩

‘Sovereign immunity’ threatened as 9/11 victims may now sue Saudi Arabia: Daily Bullshit, September 27-28, 2016

benfell

Saudi Arabia

So “foreign governments view the measure [JASTA] as an effort to undermine their sovereignty [sic] immunity”[1] and “[t]he bipartisan vote on the Hill was a rebuke of the President who had argued the Justice for State Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) — which for the first time would allow suits in American courts against state sponsors of terrorist attacks inside the US — could open the US government to lawsuits for the actions of military service members and diplomats.”[2] How exactly is this an argument against the bill? How, exactly, does one defend sovereign immunity?

Ted Barrett, “Congress overrides Obama’s veto of 9/11 bill,” CNN, September 28, 2016, http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/28/news/override-obama-veto-911-bill/index.html

Brent Griffiths, “CIA’s Brennan: It’s ‘hard to believe’ senators defied Obama on Saudi 9/11 bill,” Politico, Spetember 28, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/senate-defies-obama-saudi-9-11-bill-john-brennan

Cascadia Subduction Zone

Sandi Doughton, “A new ‘how-to’ for tsunami-safe buildings: ‘We’re trying to save lives,’” Seattle Times, September 27, 2016, http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/a-new-how-to-for-tsunami-safe-buildings-were-trying-to-save-lives/

  1. [1]Brent Griffiths, “CIA’s Brennan: It’s ‘hard to believe’ senators defied Obama on Saudi 9/11 bill,” Politico, Spetember 28, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/senate-defies-obama-saudi-9-11-bill-john-brennan↩
  2. [2]Ted Barrett, “Congress overrides Obama’s veto of 9/11 bill,” CNN, September 28, 2016, http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/28/news/override-obama-veto-911-bill/index.html↩

Higher education as a scapegoat for neoliberal failure: Daily Bullshit, September 26, 2016

benfell

Liberal Arts

Barack Obama deserves credit for improving income-based repayment options on student loans and for his Education Department’s crackdown on for-profit colleges. But,

over the course of his tenure, President Obama would reflect, if not amplify, growing national skepticism of higher education, tempering his praise for the sector with deep concerns about college costs, bad actors swindling the disadvantaged, and an opaque system of oversight that denied students and families helpful information about what graduates could expect as a return on their investments.[1]

What Obama probably could not do, even if he had been so inclined (and I see no evidence that he ever was so inclined), was move back toward a national recognition that education is a public good in and of itself and that job training should not be the primary goal of higher education. The trouble is that this “growing national skepticism of higher education” is a self-reinforcing feedback loop: Uneducated and poorly educated people not only fail to appreciate higher education but may resent it,[2] further undermining support for higher education, leading to a spiral of funding cuts and reduced access to a truly liberal education. Such support has probably always encountered some headwinds in the U.S. and my own perception is that after nearly forty years of under-funding public universities, those headwinds have only gotten worse.

I would be less restrained in criticizing Obama’s quest for “accountability.” While the “gainful employment” rule has indeed led to a much-deserved and long-overdue crackdown on the for-profit sector, even the very word accountability, let alone any “college-ratings plan,” where “colleges should be judged in part by how much money their graduates earn,” and where such institutions are treated interchangeably like kitchen blenders, is code for the application of quantitative measures[3] to what ultimately should be a qualitative good. What Aaron Hanlon writes of the Ph.D. and research, that “by allowing the job market, and the job market only, to police our understanding of what’s rational, we’re ignoring that doctoral study is a way of accomplishing what the market typically cannot — a long-term, self-directed research project,”[4] really applies to education as a whole.

But here’s what may be most troubling: “Rather than reflect the values of the higher-education establishment, [Obama] came to mirror the anxieties of his time — a time of declining faith in institutions, including higher education, and weariness with spiraling costs and stagnant wages.”[5] Which is to say that in large part and that even for the left, higher education is being made a scapegoat for neoliberal failure.

Jack Stripling, “Obama’s Legacy: An Unlikely Hawk on Higher Ed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 25, 2016, http://www.chronicle.com/article/Obama-s-Legacy-An-Unlikely/237885

  1. [1]Jack Stripling, “Obama’s Legacy: An Unlikely Hawk on Higher Ed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 25, 2016, http://www.chronicle.com/article/Obama-s-Legacy-An-Unlikely/237885↩
  2. [2]Thomas Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas? (New York: Henry Holt, 2005).↩
  3. [3]Jack Stripling, “Obama’s Legacy: An Unlikely Hawk on Higher Ed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 25, 2016, http://www.chronicle.com/article/Obama-s-Legacy-An-Unlikely/237885↩
  4. [4]Aaron R. Hanlon, “Are PhD Students Irrational?” Los Angeles Review of Books, August 24, 2016, https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/phd-students-irrational/↩
  5. [5]Jack Stripling, “Obama’s Legacy: An Unlikely Hawk on Higher Ed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 25, 2016, http://www.chronicle.com/article/Obama-s-Legacy-An-Unlikely/237885↩

Our Nobel Prizewinning President: Daily Bullshit, September 23, 2016 (updated)

benfell

Updated for an article on the Interior Department granting native Hawaiians the right to form their own government.[1]

Barack Obama

People don’t believe me when I call Barack Obama a neoconservative.[2] But unless you subscribe to the neoconservative fantasy of a “liberal interventionist” distinction—which none of them ever actually explain—he most certainly is.

Tom Engelhardt, “You Must Be Kidding! Adventures in an American World of Frustration,” TomDispatch, September 22, 2016, http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176189/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_war%2C_peace%2C_and_absurdity

For-profit colleges

Associated Press, “Enrollment is tanking at the University of Phoenix, DeVry and other for-profit colleges,” Los Angeles Times, September 22, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-for-profit-enrollment-20160922-snap-story.html

International Law

I am less interested in “when [international law] will catch up to [the leaders of ISIS, Saudi Arabia, and Syria]”[3] and more interested in if it will ever catch up with the entire U.S. ruling class.

Michael Byers, “Justice Delayed: Why International Law Still Matters,” review of East West Street: On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes Against Humanity”, by Philippe Sands, Foreign Affairs, September 22, 2016, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2016-09-22/justice-delayed

Hawaii

Merrit Kennedy, “Native Hawaiians Now Have A Pathway To Form A Government,” National Public Radio, September 23, 2016, http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/23/495212183/native-hawaiians-now-have-a-pathway-to-form-a-government

  1. [1]Merrit Kennedy, “Native Hawaiians Now Have A Pathway To Form A Government,” National Public Radio, September 23, 2016, http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/23/495212183/native-hawaiians-now-have-a-pathway-to-form-a-government↩
  2. [2]David Benfell, “Oy Vey: Paleoconservatives, Neoconservatives, and Alleged Anti-Semitism,” April 1, 2014, https://parts-unknown.org/drupal7/journal/2014/04/01/oy-vey-paleoconservatives-neoconservatives-and-alleged-anti-semitism↩
  3. [3]Michael Byers, “Justice Delayed: Why International Law Still Matters,” review of East West Street: On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes Against Humanity”, by Philippe Sands, Foreign Affairs, September 22, 2016, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2016-09-22/justice-delayed↩

Horses can communicate symbolically: Daily Bullshit, September 22, 2016

benfell

Horses

Horses “join a short list of other species, including some primates, dolphins, and pigeons, with this talent,” that is, meaningfully “pointing to symbols.” In the experiment, horses demonstrated an ability to indicate a desire to have a blanket put on or left on in cold weather and to have it taken off in warmer weather.[1] Setting aside that this may be an example of humans using their own (self-serving) criteria to judge the worth of other species,[2] the ability to use symbols indicates a layer of abstract reasoning: When, for example, we use a finger to point to the moon, we distinguish between the finger as a sign and the moon as a referent, and the capacity to understand that distinction indicates that our cognitive capacities are not strictly concrete. Such capacities are a necessary component for intelligence as we understand it and their demonstration further erodes the sharp Cartesian distinctions between non-human and human animals.

Virginia Morell, “Horses can use symbols to talk to us,” Science, September 21, 2016, http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/horses-can-use-symbols-talk-us

City College of San Francisco

At least City College of San Francisco is not a for-profit and at least its accreditor is not the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (see next section).

Eric Kelderman, “In San Francisco, the Fates of a College and Its Accreditor Are on the Line,” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 22, 2016, http://www.chronicle.com/article/In-San-Francisco-the-Fates-of/237870

For-profit colleges

“The Obama administration on Thursday terminated the federal recognition of the nation’s largest accreditor of for-profit colleges — a rare move that could ultimately jeopardize the ability of hundreds of schools to access federal student aid.”[3] If the decision is upheld, “the colleges accredited by the [Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS)] would have 18 months to find a new accreditor.”[4] “Last year, [ACICS] allowed 243 colleges to tap into $4.76 billion worth of Pell Grants and federal student loans.”[5] Allegedly, “[a]bout 600,000 students currently attend ACICS-accredited institutions.”[6]

The process to remove an accreditor’s authority is lengthy, and could take nearly two years to complete even if there are no delays or legal challenges. But if the department’s recommendation regarding Acics is carried out, nearly 250 institutions, mostly for-profit, that together represent about 900 campuses will have to find a new accrediting agency if they want to continue to be eligible for federal student aid, such as Pell Grants and federally backed student loans.[7]

“ACICS will now have 30 days to file an appeal directly to Education Secretary John B. King Jr., who on Wednesday pledged to resolve such an appeal ‘quickly,’”[8] although “the education secretary has no deadline for deciding the appeal,” and the accreditor can also sue,[9] presumably dragging out the process further.

In retrospect, I find it curious that for-profit institutions were ever allowed to have their own accreditor in the first place. How could this not lead to regulatory capture and abuses like those that the for-profits are notorious for?

Jennifer C. Kerr, “Government severs ties with for-profit colleges accreditor,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, September 22, 2016, http://www.startribune.com/gov-t-severs-ties-with-accreditor-of-for-profit-colleges/394492031/

Michael Stratford, “Education Department issues death penalty to for-profit college accreditor,” Politico, September 22, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/education-department-federal-recognition-for-profit-college-accreditor-228555

Michael Stratford, “Education Department terminates federal recognition of for-profit college accreditor,” Politico, September 22, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/for-profit-colleges-accreditor-terminated-recognition-228541

  1. [1]Virginia Morell, “Horses can use symbols to talk to us,” Science, September 21, 2016, http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/horses-can-use-symbols-talk-us↩
  2. [2]Louis Pojman, “Do Animal Rights Entail Moral Nihilism?” Public Affairs Quarterly 7, no. 2. (1993): 165-185.↩
  3. [3]Michael Stratford, “Education Department terminates federal recognition of for-profit college accreditor,” Politico, September 22, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/for-profit-colleges-accreditor-terminated-recognition-228541↩
  4. [4]Eric Kelderman, “Call to Shut Down a Controversial Accreditor Could Shake For-Profit Higher Ed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 16, 2016, http://chronicle.com/article/Call-to-Shut-Down-a/236829↩
  5. [5]Michael Stratford, “Education Department issues death penalty to for-profit college accreditor,” Politico, September 22, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/education-department-federal-recognition-for-profit-college-accreditor-228555↩
  6. [6]Jennifer C. Kerr, “Government severs ties with for-profit colleges accreditor,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, September 22, 2016, http://www.startribune.com/gov-t-severs-ties-with-accreditor-of-for-profit-colleges/394492031/↩
  7. [7]Eric Kelderman, “Call to Shut Down a Controversial Accreditor Could Shake For-Profit Higher Ed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 16, 2016, http://chronicle.com/article/Call-to-Shut-Down-a/236829↩
  8. [8]Michael Stratford, “Education Department terminates federal recognition of for-profit college accreditor,” Politico, September 22, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/for-profit-colleges-accreditor-terminated-recognition-228541↩
  9. [9]Eric Kelderman, “Call to Shut Down a Controversial Accreditor Could Shake For-Profit Higher Ed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 16, 2016, http://chronicle.com/article/Call-to-Shut-Down-a/236829↩

A possible smoking in the Hillary #Clinton #email scandal: Daily Bullshit, September 20, 2016 (updated)

benfell

Updated, and the headline changed, for a possible smoking gun in the Hillary Clinton email scandal.[1]

Academic freedom

Kasia Kovacs, “Berkeley Resumes Palestine Course,” Inside Higher Ed, September 20, 2016, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/20/palestine-course-berkeley-reinstated-after-criticisms-violating-academic-freedom

Oil prices

Justin Scheck, “OPEC Chief: Cartel Won’t Cap Output at Upcoming Meeting–Energy Journal,” Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2016, http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/09/19/opec-chief-cartel-wont-cap-output-at-upcoming-meeting-energy-journal/

So-called ‘terrorism’

Utterly unsurprisingly, recent attacks are becoming a campaign issue targeting refugees and migrants. I am completely sympathetic when AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre calls it “a shame to see people like [Donald] Trump play a game with a serious thing like refugees fleeing violence”[2] and disgusted but not surprised when Trump advocates a profiling policy that can only be described as mindbogglingly stupid[3] and his son uses a tired analogy to compare refugees to candy.[4] Hillary Clinton is attempting to spin the attacks her way, saying (probably mostly correctly) “[w]e know that a lot of rhetoric we’ve heard from Donald Trump has been seized on by terrorists, in particular ISIS, because they’re looking to make this into a war against Islam rather than a war against jihadists,” but Trump is only a little unfair in “accusing Clinton of destabilizing the Middle East as secretary of State and ‘creating the vacuum that led to the founding of ISIS.’”[5] The real elephant in the room here is a history of U.S. and western intervention—I should probably say ‘imperialism’—in the Islamic world, including an unbalanced policy favoring Israel. Clinton has certainly played a role in this, but she’s far from solely to blame, and Trump’s policies, to the limited extent we even know what they really are, can hardly be said to be an improvement.

Meanwhile, this is the view we should worry about:

Long after I returned to the U.S. after living in Jerusalem I kept thinking about soft targets. The peak-hour commuter train that took me from Westchester to Grand Central. The snaking queue outside the security checkpoint at La Guardia Airport. The theater crowds near Times Square.

All of these places were vulnerable and most of them undefended. Why, I wondered, weren’t they being attacked?[6]

Notice the default assumption here. We are vulnerable. Therefore, it follows, we will be attacked. This is not an assumption that we are distant from zones of conflict. Rather, it is a rejection of ‘complacency’: “Things were absolutely fine until they absolutely weren’t.”[7] Nor is it a recognition of our own culpability in expanding those zones of conflict to our own shores. Rather, it is a rationalization for 1) “allow[ing] competent and responsible adults to carry guns,” and 2) intrusive “surveillance methods.”[8]

So here’s the question that confronts us: Do we want to live in a fearful society that accepts the risk of more armed people in the hopes that some of them will be “competent and responsible” and able to correctly react to armed attacks and that accepts invasions of privacy as necessary in order to continue a profoundly flawed foreign policy? Bret Stephens, the author of these passages, extrapolates from his time living in Israel under, as he perceives it, constant threat of attack, to the United States. He believes that “democracies rarely muster their full reserves of determination until they’ve been bloodied one time too many.”[9] Determination, not self-examination, is, in his thinking, the required response, just as Israel refuses to reconsider its treatment of Palestinians who it evicted to make room for a “Jewish state,” and just as the U.S. refuses to reconsider imperialism.

Bret Stephens, “Life During Wartime,” Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/life-during-wartime-1474328569

Jordan Fabian, “NY attack hangs over Obama push for action on refugees,” Hill, September 20, 2016, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/296739-ny-attack-hangs-over-obama-push-for-action-on-refugees

California methane

Jonathan J. Cooper, “California governor backs rules on cow, landfill emissions,” Associated Press, September 19, 2016, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5b1f0a6b25ee443b951ad61dd0334784/california-governor-backs-rules-cow-landfill-emissions

Guy Kovner, “Gov. Brown signs new state law curbing methane from dairy cows, landfills,” Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, September 20, 2016, http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6106903-181/gov-brown-signs-new-state

For-profit ‘education’

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “DeVry voluntarily dials back revenue from federal student aid,” Washington Post, September 20, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/09/20/devry-voluntarily-dials-back-revenue-from-federal-student-aid/

Hillary Clinton

It’s pretty hard not to get lost in the legal minutiae of the latest developments in Hillary Clinton’s email scandal but Jonathan Turley sheds some light. Basically, he treats two possibilities: “Either [Paul] Combetta did not disclose this effort [to conceal the identity of a very, very important person, presumably Hillary Clinton] in violation of his immunity deal or the Justice Department effectively removed a serious threat of indictment though the agreement.”[10] ‘Stonetear,’ believed to be Combetta, seeking advice on how to accomplish this task on a Reddit forum, allegedly wrote that “[t]he issue is that these emails involve the private email address of someone you’d recognize, and we’re trying to replace it with a placeholder address as to not expose it.”[11] If all this is true, and Combetta did disclose the effort or if the Department of Justice knew about the effort, then the Department is exposed as having gone to considerable lengths to avoid bringing a prosecution. If all this is true and Combetta did not disclose the effort, then apparently his immunity deal is now invalid. As Turley puts it,

It is such an amazing admission that I would like confirmation that this was not a set up. It is hard for me to believe that the FBI would give immunity to a guy who openly solicited advice on hiding information being sought as federal records — the same guy who would later destroy evidence being sought under congressional subpoena. Such a person would be at serious risk of indictment and many prosecutors would go ahead and charge while leaving open a plea bargain with cooperation. Instead, Combetta got immunity and has now refused to testify before Congress.[12]

So either 1) the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not know of the effort to obscure (most likely) Hillary Clinton’s identity or 2) extended immunity regardless. Turley again:

The allegation could prove particularly embarrassing for FBI Director James Comey who has been criticized for opting not to seek charges despite conflicts in testimony, the deletions of email, and mishandling of classified information. If this is indeed Combetta, it is hard to believe that a contractor would come up unilaterally with the idea of changing federal records to remove the identifying information.

Immunity deals do include provisions for rescinding the agreements if a witness fails to disclose information or misrepresents facts or fails to cooperate. The Reddit material represents an extremely serious development, if true. Congress would have ample reason to investigate such an effort and enforce its subpoena authority.[13]

Which is to say that Combetta was probably acting under instructions. Which further suggests that he would probably not have “used Bleachbit to destroy email records despite his knowledge that those records were being sought by Congress”[14] except under instructions.

As I read all this, I’m having a hard time seeing how this scandal goes away unless the powers that be persuade Combetta to convincingly fall on his own sword, admitting to acting as a rogue even when it seems exceedingly unlikely that he did so.

Katie Bo Williams, “House panel looking into Reddit post about Clinton’s email server,” Hill, September 19, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/296680-house-panel-probes-web-rumor-on-clinton-emails

Jonathan Turley, “Stonetear’s Secret: Immunized Former Clinton Aide Allegedly Sought Advice On Removing Email Address For ‘Very VIP’ Official,” September 21, 2016, https://jonathanturley.org/2016/09/21/stonetears-secret-immunized-former-clinton-aide-allegedly-sought-advice-on-removing-email-address-for-very-vip-official

  1. [1]Jonathan Turley, “Stonetear’s Secret: Immunized Former Clinton Aide Allegedly Sought Advice On Removing Email Address For ‘Very VIP’ Official,” September 21, 2016, https://jonathanturley.org/2016/09/21/stonetears-secret-immunized-former-clinton-aide-allegedly-sought-advice-on-removing-email-address-for-very-vip-official↩
  2. [2]Tefere Gebre, quoted in Jordan Fabian, “NY attack hangs over Obama push for action on refugees,” Hill, September 20, 2016, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/296739-ny-attack-hangs-over-obama-push-for-action-on-refugees↩
  3. [3]Ron Kampeas, “Even Israel doesn’t do ethnic profiling the way Donald Trump thinks it does,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, September 20, 2016, http://www.jta.org/2016/09/20/news-opinion/politics/even-israel-doesnt-do-ethnic-profiling-the-way-donald-trump-thinks-it-does↩
  4. [4]Associated Press, “Donald Trump Jr. likens Syrian refugees to poisoned Skittles,” McClatchy, September 20, 2016, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article102868992.html?rh=1↩
  5. [5]Jonathan Easley, “Homegrown terror roils 2016,” Hill, September 19, 2016, http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/296748-homegrown-terror-roils-2016↩
  6. [6]Bret Stephens, “Life During Wartime,” Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/life-during-wartime-1474328569↩
  7. [7]Bret Stephens, “Life During Wartime,” Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/life-during-wartime-1474328569↩
  8. [8]Bret Stephens, “Life During Wartime,” Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/life-during-wartime-1474328569↩
  9. [9]Bret Stephens, “Life During Wartime,” Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/life-during-wartime-1474328569↩
  10. [10]Jonathan Turley, “Stonetear’s Secret: Immunized Former Clinton Aide Allegedly Sought Advice On Removing Email Address For ‘Very VIP’ Official,” September 21, 2016, https://jonathanturley.org/2016/09/21/stonetears-secret-immunized-former-clinton-aide-allegedly-sought-advice-on-removing-email-address-for-very-vip-official↩
  11. [11]Stonetear, allegedly Paul Combetta, quoted in Jonathan Turley, “Stonetear’s Secret: Immunized Former Clinton Aide Allegedly Sought Advice On Removing Email Address For ‘Very VIP’ Official,” September 21, 2016, https://jonathanturley.org/2016/09/21/stonetears-secret-immunized-former-clinton-aide-allegedly-sought-advice-on-removing-email-address-for-very-vip-official↩
  12. [12]Jonathan Turley, “Stonetear’s Secret: Immunized Former Clinton Aide Allegedly Sought Advice On Removing Email Address For ‘Very VIP’ Official,” September 21, 2016, https://jonathanturley.org/2016/09/21/stonetears-secret-immunized-former-clinton-aide-allegedly-sought-advice-on-removing-email-address-for-very-vip-official↩
  13. [13]Jonathan Turley, “Stonetear’s Secret: Immunized Former Clinton Aide Allegedly Sought Advice On Removing Email Address For ‘Very VIP’ Official,” September 21, 2016, https://jonathanturley.org/2016/09/21/stonetears-secret-immunized-former-clinton-aide-allegedly-sought-advice-on-removing-email-address-for-very-vip-official↩
  14. [14]Jonathan Turley, “Stonetear’s Secret: Immunized Former Clinton Aide Allegedly Sought Advice On Removing Email Address For ‘Very VIP’ Official,” September 21, 2016, https://jonathanturley.org/2016/09/21/stonetears-secret-immunized-former-clinton-aide-allegedly-sought-advice-on-removing-email-address-for-very-vip-official↩

This is no time to acquiesce to two-party hegemony: Daily Bullshit, September 19, 2016

benfell

I realize that Hillary Clinton’s supporters have their thumbs in their ears and are singing la-la-la to themselves as loud as they can.

But consider this: If you don’t like Donald Trump, then you shouldn’t like the policies that led to his rise.

This has been said before, but it wasn’t until I responded to an Existential Comics discussion, in which someone attempted to defend moderation, that I realized it: So-called ‘third way’ policies, embraced by Democrats following the McGovern and Mondale defeats in 1972 and 1984 respectively, which embraced neoliberalism and neoconservatism, have led to a condition of despair for a substantial segment of the U.S. population.

Including me. Just as I reject praise for Barack Obama, who so infamously responded to persistent unemployment in November, 2009, by saying “[w]e all know that there are limits to what government can and should do, even during such difficult times,” and then uttered platitude after platitude while doing absolutely nothing meaningful to aid and, in some cases, pursuing policies to harm people facing long-term unemployment and people who were underwater in their mortgages, I reject the notion that more of the same–which is what Hillary Clinton is most likely going to actually do–will improve matters.

Hillary Clinton enthusiastically embraced, until well after it was politically inconvenient to do so, these ‘third way’ policies–neoconservative to all but those who imagine a ‘liberal interventionist’ distinction (which they never explain) and neoliberal because neoliberalism is a neoconservative moral imperative–that lend authoritarian populists the power they have today.

But it’s worse even than that. Because if you want progress, you have to know that even if she wins, Hillary Clinton will never be accepted as legitimate by many Republicans. We will have, very likely, eight more years of the very obstruction that you so often use to excuse Obama’s dismal performance. Because even the most optimistic observers (apart from the likes of Nancy Pelosi) forecast continued Republican control of the House of Representatives and that Democrats will fall short of a supermajority in the Senate.

Even if Clinton were not beholden to corporate interests and especially Wall Street, even if she weren’t so willing to tell people what they want to hear, even if you could trust a word that comes out of her mouth, even if she didn’t embody the status quo in all its nauseating criminality, she would not be able to accomplish what you, having drunk the kool-aid, so enthusiastically expect her to do.

And those of you who think you can hold her to account should consider the negligible (but for an increasingly militarized police) outcome of every social uprising since the Seattle World Trade Organization demonstrations.

In this election, where we so vividly see the outcome of accepting the lesser of two evils, election cycle after election cycle after election cycle, in which we are now presented with two profoundly evil major party candidates, there is in fact no better time to reject two-party hegemony.

Because we all, all of us on the left and right alike, deserve better.

So-called ‘terrorism

Devlin Barrett and Pervaiz Shallwani, “N.Y. Bomb Suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami Captured; No Others Being Sought,” Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/police-seek-man-in-new-york-bombing-probe-1474286549

Max Blau, Chandrika Narayan, and Steve Visser, “Suspect was acting strangely before Minnesota mall attack, sources say,” CNN, September 19, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/19/us/minnesota-mall-stabbing/index.html

Barbara Demick, Vera Haller, and Brian Bennett, “Suspected terrorist attacks in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota stir political debate,” Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-york-bomb-20160918-snap-story.html

#CADrought may well be the “new normal”: Daily Bullshit, September 18, 2016 (updated again and again)

benfell

Updated for a Wall Street Journal analysis of post-Brexit prospects for Irish reunification.[1] Updated again as CNN replaced its story on the New York City bombing[2] with another, with a different byline.[3] Updated yet again for a further updated version of still much the same story, but now at a separate URL, by the same authors,[4] and for a report of possibly related arrests.[5]

California drought

The impact of prolonged drought in California is probably incalculable. Not only do we have more, bigger, more intense wildfires. Not only do we have to cut back on water use. But even without the drought, California Central Valley aquifer use was probably unsustainable.[6] Central Valley agriculture and its associated livelihoods are probably toast.[7] A lot of our electricity comes from hydroelectric dams dependent on Sierra Nevada snowpack.[8] And not all of this is something California can do all that much about (although the state government is trying): “[A]ccording to current models, the increase in greenhouse gasses is contributing 15  to 25 percent to the severity of the current drought in California.”[9]

This is only one way in which the rubber is hitting the road with climate change. But it happens to be one that is particularly illustrative of the ways that individuals can contribute. The single biggest thing that people can do (even more than giving up cars[10]) to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions is to switch to a plant-based lifestyle. Yes, the livestock industry is increasingly being driven out of California.[11] That only shifts the grossly disproportionate—probably on the level of two orders of magnitude—impact of land use, energy, water use, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions of the industry[12] to other states. It helps California’s water supply, but the underlying causes of the drought are global. And given California’s disproportionate contribution to the world’s food supply, this shows how we starve ourselves as a species.

Jacob Margolis, “California’s drought could continue for centuries,” KPCC, September 15, 2016, http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2016/09/15/52133/california-s-drought-could-continue-for-centuries/

So-called ‘terrorism’

Some have suspected that a terrorist attack might propel Donald Trump to victory in November. Will this indeed do the trick? I guess we’re going to find out. Certainly when “[t]he blast [in New York City] occurred on the same day as an explosion went off near a Marine Corps charity run in New Jersey and a man stabbed nine people at Minnesota mall, leaving people across the United States on edge;”[13] the Islamic State, entirely too predictably,[14] claims credit for at least one of the attacks;[15] and people tend to respond to fear by moving toward the political right,[16] it won’t help Hillary Clinton.

Chandrika Narayan, “ISIS wing claims responsibility for Minnesota mall attack,” CNN, September 18, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/18/us/minnesota-mall-stabbing/index.html

Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, “New York bombing: Investigators search for suspects, motive,” CNN, September 18, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/18/us/new-york-explosion/index.html

Andy Mai, Nicole Hensley, Rocco Parascandola, and Leonard Greene, “FBI detains five people near Verrazano Bridge in possible connection to Chelsea bombing after pipe bomb cache find in New Jersey,” New York Daily News, September 19, 2016, http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/federal-agents-arrest-people-linked-chelsea-bombing-article-1.2797378

Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, “New York bombing: Police presence intensifies after explosion,” CNN, September 19, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/19/us/new-york-explosion-investigation/index.html

Brexit

Simon Nixon, “Brexit Revives Debate Over Prospects for Irish Reunification,” Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/brexit-revives-debate-over-prospects-for-irish-reunification-1474222008

  1. [1]Simon Nixon, “Brexit Revives Debate Over Prospects for Irish Reunification,” Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/brexit-revives-debate-over-prospects-for-irish-reunification-1474222008↩
  2. [2]Catherine E. Shoichet, Mallory Simon, and Tim Hume, “New York bombing: Investigators searching for suspects, motive,” CNN, September 18, 2016, Copy in possession of author↩
  3. [3]Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, “New York bombing: Investigators search for suspects, motive,” CNN, September 18, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/18/us/new-york-explosion/index.html↩
  4. [4]Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, “New York bombing: Police presence intensifies after explosion,” CNN, September 19, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/19/us/new-york-explosion-investigation/index.html↩
  5. [5]Andy Mai, Nicole Hensley, Rocco Parascandola, and Leonard Greene, “FBI detains five people near Verrazano Bridge in possible connection to Chelsea bombing after pipe bomb cache find in New Jersey,” New York Daily News, September 19, 2016, http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/federal-agents-arrest-people-linked-chelsea-bombing-article-1.2797378↩
  6. [6]Edward Ortiz, “Valley Groundwater Threatened if Farm Use Continues at Current Levels,” University of California, Irvine, July 22, 2012, https://ps.uci.edu/news/7768↩
  7. [7]Kurtis Alexander, “California drought: State’s water deliveries to be halted,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 31, 2014, http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/California-drought-State-s-water-deliveries-to-5193699.php; Michael Doyle and Mark Grossi, “As drought drags on, feds could seize water that Valley farmers saved,” Fresno Bee, January 27, 2014, http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/01/27/3735473/as-california-drought-continues.html; Carolyn Lochhead, “California drought: Central Valley farmland on its last legs,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 2014, http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/California-drought-Central-Valley-farmland-on-5342892.php; Jennifer Medina, “California Seeing Brown Where Green Used to Be,” New York Times, February 13, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/us/california-seeing-brown-where-green-used-to-be.html; Evelyn Nieves, “California’s farm towns are losing jobs and dying of thirst,” Salon, February 13, 2014, http://www.salon.com/2014/02/13/californias_farm_towns_are_dying_of_thirst_and_losing_jobs_partner/; David Perlman, “California drought a ‘train wreck’ for Central Valley farms,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 8, 2014, http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/California-drought-a-train-wreck-for-Central-5217669.php; David Pierson, “California drought ‘a borderline catastrophe’ in rural area,” Seattle Times, February 6, 2014, http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2022854095_califdroughtxml.html; Matt Weiser, “Water cutbacks looming for California farmers, water agencies,” Sacramento Bee, April 30, 2014, http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/30/6368291/water-cutbacks-looming-for-california.html; Matt Weiser, “Report: Well water under strain across California,” Sacramento Bee, May 1, 2014, http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/01/6371952/report-well-water-under-strain.html; Matt Weiser, “California orders thousands of Sacramento Valley water users to stop pumping from streams,” Sacramento Bee, May 29, 2014, http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/29/6441935/state-orders-sacramento-valley.html; Matt Weiser, “Feds: Zero water for Central Valley farms,” February 27, 2015, http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article11355200.html; Matt Weiser, “Central Valley, Delta water rights under scrutiny,” Sacramento Bee, March 1, 2015, http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article11882384.html; Matt Weiser and Mark Glover, “Forecast: ‘Zero’ water for many Central Valley farms,” Sacramento Bee, February 21, 2014, http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/21/6178681/forecast-zero-water-for-many-central.html↩
  8. [8]Dale Kasler, “Drought cuts into state’s hydro power supplies,” Sacramento Bee, February 4, 2014, http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/04/6125877/drought-cuts-into-states-hydro.html; Dale Kasler, “Californians urged to conserve on electricity use,” Sacramento Bee, February 6, 2014, http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/06/6135054/californians-urged-to-conserve.html↩
  9. [9]Jacob Margolis, “California’s drought could continue for centuries,” KPCC, September 15, 2016, http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2016/09/15/52133/california-s-drought-could-continue-for-centuries/↩
  10. [10]Lindsay Abrams, “Giving up beef can do more to save the planet than giving up cars,” Salon, July 21, 2014, http://www.salon.com/2014/07/21/giving_up_beef_can_do_more_to_save_the_planet_than_giving_up_cars/↩
  11. [11]Stacy Finz, “California drought: Grass-fed beef industry reeling,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 21, 2014, http://www.sfgate.com/food/article/California-drought-Grass-fed-beef-industry-5253718.php; Reuters, “California drought drives exodus of cattle ranchers to eastern states,” Guardian, April 28, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/28/california-drought-cattle-ranchers-water-beef↩
  12. [12]Lindsay Abrams, “Giving up beef can do more to save the planet than giving up cars,” Salon, July 21, 2014, http://www.salon.com/2014/07/21/giving_up_beef_can_do_more_to_save_the_planet_than_giving_up_cars/; David Pimentel and Marcia Pimentel, “Sustainability of meat-based and Plant-Based Diets and the Environment,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 78, no. 3 (2003), http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/78/3/660S.full; Brad Plumer, “Study: Going vegetarian can cut your food carbon footprint in half,” Vox, June 13, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2014/7/2/5865109/study-going-vegetarian-could-cut-your-food-carbon-footprint-in-half; Peter Scarborough et al, “Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK,” Climatic Change, June 11, 2014, doi: 10.1007/s10584-014-1169-1↩
  13. [13]Catherine E. Shoichet, Mallory Simon, and Tim Hume, “New York bombing: Investigators searching for suspects, motive,” CNN, September 18, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/18/us/new-york-explosion/index.html↩
  14. [14]Lori Hinnant and Sarah El Deeb, “Did Islamic State claim credit for latest attacks too soon?” Washington Post, June 15, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/did-islamic-state-claim-credit-for-latest-attacks-too-soon/2016/06/15/f48e10e4-32cc-11e6-ab9d-1da2b0f24f93_story.html↩
  15. [15]Chandrika Narayan, “ISIS wing claims responsibility for Minnesota mall attack,” CNN, September 18, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/18/us/minnesota-mall-stabbing/index.html↩
  16. [16]Michael Lerner, “Why the Right Keeps Winning and the Left Keeps Losing,” Tikkun, November 10, 2014, http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/why-the-right-keeps-winning-and-the-left-keeps-losing↩

U.S. economists don’t give a shit: Daily Bullshit, September 15-16, 2016

benfell

Economics

In the second half of the 20th century, the Chicago School pushed concern for social inequality to the margins of economics, emphasizing markets,[1] despite the fact that markets inherently exacerbate inequality,[2] and even as “many view [high levels of inequality] as a drag on the performance of the U.S. economy.”[3]

Perhaps a Donald Trump victory, which seems increasingly possible,[4] would focus some minds.

Arjun Jayadev, “Do U.S. Economists Ignore Inequality?” Institute for New Economic Thinking, September 14, 2016, https://www.ineteconomics.org/ideas-papers/blog/do-u-s-economists-ignore-inequality

Alana Semuels, “Why So Few American Economists Are Studying Inequality,” Atlantic, September 13, 2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/why-so-few-american-economists-are-studying-inequality/499253/

Dying

It’s hard to know for sure, but dying might often not be a very miserable experience at all.[5]

Jennie Dear, “What It Feels Like to Die,” Atlantic, September 9, 2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/09/what-it-feels-like-to-die/499319/

  1. [1]Alana Semuels, “Why So Few American Economists Are Studying Inequality,” Atlantic, September 13, 2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/why-so-few-american-economists-are-studying-inequality/499253/↩
  2. [2]Max Weber, “Class, Status, Party,” in Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings, ed. Charles Lemert, 4th ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2010), 119-129.↩
  3. [3]Arjun Jayadev, “Do U.S. Economists Ignore Inequality?” Institute for New Economic Thinking, September 14, 2016, https://www.ineteconomics.org/ideas-papers/blog/do-u-s-economists-ignore-inequality↩
  4. [4]John Zogby, “Clinton and Trump: How Not To Win a Majority,” John Zogby Strategies, September 11, 2016, http://johnzogbystrategies.com/clinton-and-trump-how-not-to-win-a-majority/↩
  5. [5]Jennie Dear, “What It Feels Like to Die,” Atlantic, September 9, 2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/09/what-it-feels-like-to-die/499319/↩

Social media and mosques deserve credit for repelling the Turkish coup: Daily Bullshit, September 14-15, 2016

benfell

Turkey

It appears that Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan may not deserve the credit he was given for inspiring a resistance to the coup, although “mosque networks, which are overseen by the Directorate of Religious Affairs, a government agency, coordinated a nationwide resistance through salah,” and deserve partial credit. But Twitter users recognized a coup attempt-in-progress amid considerable confusion, sounded an initial alarm, and “protestors organized and mobilized through digital networks, including Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, and SMS.”[1]

[O]ur comprehensive analysis of the data detected high levels of organic mobilization against the coup—first online, then through mosque networks, and finally on the ground—as early as 9:47 PM EEST (Eastern European Summer Time), long before Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made their appeals on live television at 11:05 PM EEST and 12:25 AM EEST, respectively. . . . opposition against the coup would have advanced regardless of high-level political speeches: it was a natural political reflex of the people.[2]

H. Akin Unver and Hassan Alassaad, “How Turks Mobilized Against the Coup,” Foreign Affairs, September 14, 2016, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2016-09-14/how-turks-mobilized-against-coup

For-profit colleges

In truth, for-profits were a fiasco long before the financial crisis, but it appears that politicians saw them as a way to claim they were doing something about job training following the crisis.[3] This was part of the scam, of course, as these same politicians were also hastening to continue and accelerate the defunding of public education.

Michael Stratford and Kimberly Hefling, “For-profit colleges spell trouble for politicians who backed them,” Politico, September 14, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/for-profit-colleges-228128

  1. [1]H. Akin Unver and Hassan Alassaad, “How Turks Mobilized Against the Coup,” Foreign Affairs, September 14, 2016, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2016-09-14/how-turks-mobilized-against-coup↩
  2. [2]H. Akin Unver and Hassan Alassaad, “How Turks Mobilized Against the Coup,” Foreign Affairs, September 14, 2016, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2016-09-14/how-turks-mobilized-against-coup↩
  3. [3]Michael Stratford and Kimberly Hefling, “For-profit colleges spell trouble for politicians who backed them,” Politico, September 14, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/for-profit-colleges-228128↩