Probably not the right way to raise graduation rates: Daily Bullshit, April 11-14, 2017

benfell

Updates:

  1. April 12, 2:55 am:
    • Lawmakers and their aides from both major parties say Susan Rice did nothing wrong in asking for the identities of U.S. citizens caught up in spying allegedly directed at foreign nationals.[1] (Golden Showers)
    • A rather thin silver lining to the Trump administration’s xenophobic policies is that Jeff Sessions is pushing for the hiring of more immigration judges.[2] (Unauthorized Migration)
  2. April 12, 3:17 am:
    • The Federal Bureau of Investigation did obtain a FISA warrant on one of Donald Trump’s advisors.[3] (Golden Showers)
    • Yet another top executive is leaving Uber.[4] (Ride-sharing)
    • An article I forgot to include earlier: The New York Times editorial criticizing the “gig” economy.[5] (Ride-sharing)
  3. April 12, 11:25 am:
  4. April 13, 1:14 am:
  5. April 13, 11:40 am:
    • Rents are rising as more commute to Silicon Valley, leading to rising Homelessness.[8]
  6. April 14, 5:17 am:
    • The border wall may remain a Trump fantasy, even as his administration solicits bids for its construction.[9] (Unauthorized Migration)
    • Richard Florida offers a look at who’s driving up the rent.[10] (Rent)
    • Yet another Uber scandal.[11] (Ride-sharing)
    • The assertion that Barack Obama didn’t order wiretaps on Donald Trump’s campaign increasingly appears as a distinction without a difference.[12] (Golden Showers)
    • Donald Trump may be in trouble with the larger part of his base, even if they haven’t stopped supporting him—yet.[13] (Authoritarian Populists and Donald Trump)
    • Any further attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare may be dead—so-called “centrist” Republicans say they won’t support it.[14]
  7. April 14, 12:15 pm:
    • Donald Trump is going more mainstream (for which, read more neoconservative and—unsurprisingly since for neoconservatives, neoliberalism is a moral imperative, neoliberal) on foreign and economic policy.[15] (Authoritarian Populists and Donald Trump)
    • Another day (although, admittedly, I’ve gotten the scandals in reverse order chronologically), and yet again, another Uber scandal[16]—I mean really, now, when do you vulture capitalists pull the plug? (Ride-sharing)

For-Profit Schools

A historically Black college is teaming up with University of Phoenix to offer online courses to college drop-outs. But “[South Carolina] State has a six-year graduation rate of 37 percent, slightly below the national average of 42 percent, according to the latest U.S. Department of Education data. University of Phoenix has a nationwide graduation rate of 16 percent, and an even lower rate of 11 percent at its campus in Columbia.” Skeptics (count me among them) argue that this is just a way to funnel money from a state-supported public institution to a for-profit scam. The latter could make up to nearly $1 million as “S.C. State has agreed to pay $395 to University of Phoenix for every online course in which each student enrolls, starting this fall.”[17]

Paul Bowers, “South Carolina State online program could be a cash cow for University of Phoenix,” Charleston Post and Courier, April 10, 2017, http://www.postandcourier.com/news/south-carolina-state-online-program-could-be-a-cash-cow/article_185285c4-1872-11e7-8a0c-9bc8648bf5f7.html

Ride-sharing

If—admittedly, a big ‘if’—I’m understanding correctly, the judge’s ruling in Waymo’s suit against Uber is an early defeat for Cory Levandowski’s assertion of fifth amendment privilege that might not mean much in the end, as “[t]he judge is not at this time requiring that the report be opened up to the court, but is ordering it to be included in that list [of documents that a party in a lawsuit argues should not be opened up to the court because they contain privileged information] without basic details redacted.” Still, it seems striking, to me, at least that Levandowski seeks to assert the privilege against self-incrimination over “[a] due diligence report . . . conducted by a third party as part of an acquisition.”[18] What? Really?

There are a couple things about this that make absolutely no sense to me. First, how can a report prepared by a third party be self-incrimination? Second, how can a report on due diligence be self-incrimination? Which, admittedly, doesn’t leave much about this that does make any fucking sense at all. Something has to be deeply wrong here and people ought to be a more suspicious of and less acquiescent to the mysteries of an incomprehensible legal system. Especially when Uber is shedding executives like there’s no tomorrow.[19] Once upon a time we surely would have said something stinks to high heaven or something’s rotten in Denmark. But I guess we don’t do that anymore.

New York Times, “The Gig Economy’s False Promise,” New York Times, April 10, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/opinion/the-gig-economys-false-promise.html

Tess Townsend and Johana Bhuiyan, “The judge in the Alphabet/Uber lawsuit rejects a Fifth Amendment claim to keep key details private,” Recode, April 10, 2017, https://www.recode.net/2017/4/10/15252660/judge-denies-privelege-log-report-alphabet-uber

Eric Newcomer, “Uber Loses Another Senior Executive Amid Turmoil,” Bloomberg, April 11, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-12/uber-loses-another-senior-executive-amid-turmoil

Heather Somerville, “Lyft lands $600 million in fresh funding; company valued at $7.5 billion,” Reuters, April 11, 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-lyft-funding-idUSKBN17D2I8

Steve Gorman, “Uber may face $1 million fine over California drunken-driving complaints,” Reuters, April 13, 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-drunken-idUSKBN17G06D

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Report: Uber used secret program to track Lyft drivers,” April 14, 2017, http://www.seattlepi.com/business/technology/article/Report-Uber-used-secret-program-to-track-Lyft-11072027.php

Golden Showers

Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett, and Adam Entous, “FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page,” Washington Post, April 11, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-obtained-fisa-warrant-to-monitor-former-trump-adviser-carter-page/2017/04/11/620192ea-1e0e-11e7-ad74-3a742a6e93a7_story.html

Jim Sciutto, Manu Raju, and Eric Bradner, “Classified docs contradict Nunes surveillance claims, GOP and Dem sources say,” CNN, April 11, 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/11/politics/intelligence-contradicts-nunes-unmasking-claims/index.html

Jim Sciutto, Pamela Brown, and Eric Bradner, “British intelligence passed Trump associates’ communications with Russians on to US counterparts,” CNN, April 14, 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/13/politics/trump-russia-british-intelligence/index.html

Unauthorized Migration

Danny Vinik, “The one area Jeff Sessions and immigration advocates agree,” Politico, April 11, 2017, http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/04/the-one-area-jeff-sessions-and-immigration-advocates-agree-000411

Homelessness

I drive around the San Francisco Bay Area a lot these days and it’s a rare freeway underpass that doesn’t have at least one homeless person with a tent set up. Often there are many tents, all pitched right next to each other, with chairs and other property set around them. I don’t know whether to call them Trumpvilles (it seems a bit early for that), Obamavilles, Bushvilles, or even Clintonvilles, but make no mistake, Hoovervilles have returned.

Lauren Hepler, “‘It’s a perfect storm’: homeless spike in rural California linked to Silicon Valley,” Guardian, April 13, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/13/california-homelessness-silicon-valley-tech-commuters

Rent

Richard Florida, “Mapping the New Urban Crisis,” CityLab, April 13, 2017, https://www.citylab.com/politics/2017/04/new-urban-crisis-index/521037/

Unauthorized Migration

Robin Marty, “That Mexican Border Wall May Be Even Worse Than You Thought,” Truthout, April 13, 2017, http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40196-that-mexican-border-wall-may-be-even-worse-than-you-thought

Authoritarian Populists and Donald Trump

Alexander Bolton, “Conservative activists want action from Trump,” Hill, April 13, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/328778-conservative-activists-want-action-from-trump

Alex Isenstadt and Madeline Conway, “Trump’s base turns on him,” Politico, April 13, 2017, http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/trump-base-supporters-turn-on-him-237200

Obamacare

Peter Sullivan and Scott Wong, “GOP centrists push back on ObamaCare repeal,” Hill, April 13, 2017, http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/328769-gop-centrists-push-back-on-obamacare-repeal

Tracy Wilkinson and Brian Bennett, “President Trump has backed off many of his provocative foreign policy promises,” Los Angels Times, April 13, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-fg-trump-foreign-policy-20170413-story.html

  1. [1]Jim Sciutto, Manu Raju, and Eric Bradner, “Classified docs contradict Nunes surveillance claims, GOP and Dem sources say,” CNN, April 11, 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/11/politics/intelligence-contradicts-nunes-unmasking-claims/index.html↩
  2. [2]Danny Vinik, “The one area Jeff Sessions and immigration advocates agree,” Politico, April 11, 2017, http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/04/the-one-area-jeff-sessions-and-immigration-advocates-agree-000411↩
  3. [3]Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett, and Adam Entous, “FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page,” Washington Post, April 11, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-obtained-fisa-warrant-to-monitor-former-trump-adviser-carter-page/2017/04/11/620192ea-1e0e-11e7-ad74-3a742a6e93a7_story.html↩
  4. [4]Eric Newcomer, “Uber Loses Another Senior Executive Amid Turmoil,” Bloomberg, April 11, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-12/uber-loses-another-senior-executive-amid-turmoil↩
  5. [5]New York Times, “The Gig Economy’s False Promise,” New York Times, April 10, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/opinion/the-gig-economys-false-promise.html↩
  6. [6]Heather Somerville, “Lyft lands $600 million in fresh funding; company valued at $7.5 billion,” Reuters, April 11, 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-lyft-funding-idUSKBN17D2I8↩
  7. [7]Heather Somerville, “Lyft valued at $7.5 billion in new funding round: source,” Reuters, April 6, 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-lyft-funding-idUSKBN1782GW↩
  8. [8]Lauren Hepler, “‘It’s a perfect storm’: homeless spike in rural California linked to Silicon Valley,” Guardian, April 13, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/13/california-homelessness-silicon-valley-tech-commuters↩
  9. [9]Robin Marty, “That Mexican Border Wall May Be Even Worse Than You Thought,” Truthout, April 13, 2017, http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40196-that-mexican-border-wall-may-be-even-worse-than-you-thought↩
  10. [10]Richard Florida, “Mapping the New Urban Crisis,” CityLab, April 13, 2017, https://www.citylab.com/politics/2017/04/new-urban-crisis-index/521037/↩
  11. [11]Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Report: Uber used secret program to track Lyft drivers,” April 14, 2017, http://www.seattlepi.com/business/technology/article/Report-Uber-used-secret-program-to-track-Lyft-11072027.php↩
  12. [12]Jim Sciutto, Pamela Brown, and Eric Bradner, “British intelligence passed Trump associates’ communications with Russians on to US counterparts,” CNN, April 14, 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/13/politics/trump-russia-british-intelligence/index.html↩
  13. [13]Alexander Bolton, “Conservative activists want action from Trump,” Hill, April 13, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/328778-conservative-activists-want-action-from-trump; Alex Isenstadt and Madeline Conway, “Trump’s base turns on him,” Politico, April 13, 2017, http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/trump-base-supporters-turn-on-him-237200↩
  14. [14]Peter Sullivan and Scott Wong, “GOP centrists push back on ObamaCare repeal,” Hill, April 13, 2017, http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/328769-gop-centrists-push-back-on-obamacare-repeal↩
  15. [15]Tracy Wilkinson and Brian Bennett, “President Trump has backed off many of his provocative foreign policy promises” target=”_blank”>President Trump has backed off many of his provocative foreign policy promises↩
  16. [16]Steve Gorman, “Uber may face $1 million fine over California drunken-driving complaints,” Reuters, April 13, 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-drunken-idUSKBN17G06D↩
  17. [17]Paul Bowers, “South Carolina State online program could be a cash cow for University of Phoenix,” Charleston Post and Courier, April 10, 2017, http://www.postandcourier.com/news/south-carolina-state-online-program-could-be-a-cash-cow/article_185285c4-1872-11e7-8a0c-9bc8648bf5f7.html↩
  18. [18]Tess Townsend and Johana Bhuiyan, “The judge in the Alphabet/Uber lawsuit rejects a Fifth Amendment claim to keep key details private,” Recode, April 10, 2017, https://www.recode.net/2017/4/10/15252660/judge-denies-privelege-log-report-alphabet-uber↩
  19. [19]Eric Newcomer, “Uber Loses Another Senior Executive Amid Turmoil,” Bloomberg, April 11, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-12/uber-loses-another-senior-executive-amid-turmoil↩

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