Yet another cloud hangs over Saybrook University

I have received the following communication from Saybrook University, where I received my Ph.D. in Human Science:

Dear Saybrook Alumni,

I am writing to share some important news with you. Saybrook University has decided not to renew the employment contract of Dr. Stanley Krippner. His last day as a member of our faculty is May 31.

This decision was not made lightly. It was made after Dr. Krippner acknowledged multiple violations of university policy. An independent law firm, retained by the University, confirmed these violations. Because this is an employment issue, we are not at liberty to provide additional details.

We plan to launch a nationwide search for a new faculty member who will carry on the critical work of supporting our humanistic psychology programs and specializations.

This recruitment will be an extremely important step for Saybrook University. We will strive to look for a candidate with a strong background in research, humanistic psychology and consciousness studies, as well as someone who can skillfully mentor students through the thesis and dissertation process.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at [email address elided].

Sincerely,

Nathan Long, President[1]

I never worked with Stanley Krippner and did not really know him. I certainly knew of him; his reputation was stellar. I am uncertain who Krippner refers to in using the second person pronoun “you” in his response on Facebook, but if I pick up the pieces correctly, among other things, the “Filipino blackmailers” hacked into Krippner’s account and posted now-deleted messages, so the pronoun may refer to those who followed his page:

You have received some messages from the Filipino blackmailers. They have also sent numerous emails to the Saybrook president and staff. So this morning I was fired for actions “putting the institution at significant risk.”[2]

I would encourage you, my readers, to read the original post and the comments attached to it. There are a number of additional issues here I am ill-prepared to delve into.

To say the least, this is a saddening and troubling development for a university I have considered troubled since it began “teaching out” the Human Science program. (“Teaching out” means that enrolled students are permitted to finish their degrees, but that the program does not accept new students and is moribund.) At that time, I had still-unanswered questions about the school’s more-often-than-not shaky finances, which seemed to have declined precipitously with, not so much preceding, but with, the takeover by The Chicago School Educational Services (TCSES), an organization that, now at least, seems to have zero(!) web presence.

Accordingly, I continue to believe that if anyone has “put[] the institution at significant risk,” it would be TCSES and Nathan Long, long before Krippner.


Uber

Georgia Wells, “Uber Cites Tight Competition After Posting $1 Billion Loss,” Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ubers-first-quarter-loss-tops-1-billion-11559246846


Trade

My problem with so-called “free” (ask, for whom? to do what? to whom?) trade, apart from the fact it is a part of an exchange system of economics that inherently privileges whomever has the greater power to say no (hint: not workers), is that it forces workers to compete on terms outside their control: the cost of living, environmental regulation, working conditions, all in the name of so-called “efficiency.” Hence the oft-cited “race to the bottom” in wages and regulation that so animates neoliberalism.

For me, then, an appropriate use of tariffs would be to redress unfair competition. Workers and would-be workers cannot wait for the capitalist libertarian and neoliberal fantasy that as living standards rise in the developing world, the dire effects of deregulation and lower wages will ease. But the rich can certainly afford to wait a little longer for their fucking rents.

Now, Donald Trump proposes to use tariffs, up to 25 percent, to “punish” Mexico for unauthorized migration.[3]

White House officials did not immediately explain how driving up the cost of Mexican goods might stem the flow of migrants. If the tariffs damaged the Mexican economy, more of its citizens would try to cross the border to find work in the United States, experts said.[4]

So don’t even bother trying to make sense of this move on its own terms. It is, on those terms, completely irrational. The only way I see to make sense of it is that Trump can reliably rally his authoritarian populist base with the migration issue. It doesn’t matter whether what he’s doing makes any fucking sense whatsoever. It rallies his xenophobic base.[5]

David Randall, “World stocks drop, bonds rally as trade tensions fan growth fears,” Reuters, May 28, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/global-recession-fears-hit-stocks-bonds-rally-idUSKCN1SZ02F

Damian Paletta, Nick Miroff, and Josh Dawsey, “Trump says U.S. to impose 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports beginning June 10 in dramatic escalation of border clash,” Washington Post, May 30, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-prepares-to-threaten-mexico-with-new-tariffs-in-attempt-to-force-migrant-crackdown/2019/05/30/0f05f01e-8314-11e9-bce7-40b4105f7ca0_story.html

Damian Paletta, Taylor Telford, and Mary Beth Sheridan, “U.S. and Mexico plan summit in Washington on Wednesday in bid to head off trade dispute,” Washington Post, May 31, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/31/lawmakers-express-alarm-trump-forges-ahead-with-mexico-tariffs/


Israel

Whispers within Likud suggest Binyamin Netanyahu is at the end of his career.[6] That might be part of the story behind Avigdor Lieberman’s refusal to join Netanyahu’s coalition.[7]

Liel Leibovitz, “Avigdor Lieberman’s Risky Bet,” Tablet, May 30, 2019, https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/285621/avigdor-liebermans-risky-bet

Shalom Yerushalmi, “Behind closed doors, Likud officials blame Netanyahu and think about what’s next,” Times of Israel, May 31, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/behind-closed-doors-likud-officials-blame-netanyahu-and-think-about-whats-next/


Donald Trump

Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman, “Justice Department does not comply with court order to release transcripts of Michael Flynn’s conversations with Russian ambassador,” Washington Post, May 31, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-department-fails-to-comply-with-court-order-to-release-transcripts-of-michael-flynns-conversations-with-russian-ambassador/2019/05/31/9b4a6754-83b8-11e9-95a9-e2c830afe24f_story.html


  1. [1]Nathan Long to Saybrook Alumni list, “Update Regarding Dr. Stanley Krippner,” May 30, 2019.
  2. [2]Stanley Krippner, [social media post], Facebook, May 30, 2019, https://www.facebook.com/stanley.krippner.9/posts/1768601623272094
  3. [3]Damian Paletta, Nick Miroff, and Josh Dawsey, “Trump says U.S. to impose 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports beginning June 10 in dramatic escalation of border clash,” Washington Post, May 30, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-prepares-to-threaten-mexico-with-new-tariffs-in-attempt-to-force-migrant-crackdown/2019/05/30/0f05f01e-8314-11e9-bce7-40b4105f7ca0_story.html
  4. [4]Damian Paletta, Nick Miroff, and Josh Dawsey, “Trump says U.S. to impose 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports beginning June 10 in dramatic escalation of border clash,” Washington Post, May 30, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-prepares-to-threaten-mexico-with-new-tariffs-in-attempt-to-force-migrant-crackdown/2019/05/30/0f05f01e-8314-11e9-bce7-40b4105f7ca0_story.html
  5. [5]Damian Paletta, Taylor Telford, and Mary Beth Sheridan, “U.S. and Mexico plan summit in Washington on Wednesday in bid to head off trade dispute,” Washington Post, May 31, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/31/lawmakers-express-alarm-trump-forges-ahead-with-mexico-tariffs/
  6. [6]Shalom Yerushalmi, “Behind closed doors, Likud officials blame Netanyahu and think about what’s next,” Times of Israel, May 31, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/behind-closed-doors-likud-officials-blame-netanyahu-and-think-about-whats-next/
  7. [7]Liel Leibovitz, “Avigdor Lieberman’s Risky Bet,” Tablet, May 30, 2019, https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/285621/avigdor-liebermans-risky-bet

Big Data (Mining)

eus-2019-05-30-10As of 10:00 this morning. The fun continues.


Donald Trump

Making Amerikkka Great Again.

Colby Itkowitz and Dan Lamothe, “White House wanted USS John S. McCain obscured during Trump’s Japan visit,” Washington Post, May 29, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/meghan-mccain-hits-out-at-trump-over-report-white-house-wanted-uss-john-s-mccain-covered-up/2019/05/29/3ad314b2-8272-11e9-933d-7501070ee669_story.html


Big Data (Mining)

I’d already realized that “big data” would methodologically rely on correlation as if it were causation.

My first methods professor, back in, I think, 2003 or maybe 2004, Valerie Sue, warned against “data mining,” that is, simply sifting through data, identifying correlations, picking one, and publishing an article on it. There’s pressure to do something like this because eligibility even for tenure-track faculty positions generally hinges on publication credits. Even tenured professors are expected to continue publishing, even as they continue to take on full class-loads.

But there’s no showing of a causal relationship. The variables can be completely random. Which, as I realized what “big data” means, and how it must operate (statistically, of course, and on a massive scale), would be precisely how it would work. And the results will be wrong—or, worse, occasionally right, but only by happenstance. It’s idiocy with statistics. It’s what they warn you against in statistics classes and on a massive scale.

And guess what so-called “artificial intelligence” is going to rely upon? Very heavily, big data mining. Which is why I call it “artificial idiocy.” Welcome to the new world.

Allison Schrager’s attack is a little different. Her argument boils down to that old financial services disclosure: “Past performance is no indicator of future results.” What’s big data relying on? Past performance, that is, data that’s already been accumulated. Again, there’s no causal relationship established: The assumption is the very inverse of that financial services disclosure.[1]

Taken to heart, this could shake up positivism. Yes, there’s always been a research cycle in which theorizing is an integral part. You are supposed to explain that causal relationship. But as I saw when I looked at chronotype research, and have discovered of medical research (yes, this is the stuff people are trusting their lives with) in general, it’s often elided, which means it’s garbage “research.”

Why? Because “why” questions are hard. Statistics can never answer them. I remember being discouraged from asking the “why” questions later on in my undergraduate career. But I never could stop asking those questions, which is part of how I wound up as a human scientist, not a positivist.

Allison Schrager, “Here’s a prediction: In the future, predictions will only get worse,” Quartz, May 29, 2019, https://qz.com/1623596/what-if-all-the-data-we-use-is-wrong/


James Comey

Robert Mueller may be done with his investigation. He might not want to testify before Congress.[2] It doesn’t seem like Congress is done with him, as even a Republican wants him to testify:

“Mr. Mueller’s statement…is a case study in pettifoggery, and reinforces my position that he should be compelled to testify before Congress,” McClintock said in a statement provided to McClatchy. “Any president can be indicted after he leaves office and it was Mueller’s job to make a recommendation for prosecution, if one existed. He did not.”

“Instead, he prefers to make innuendoes while hiding behind DOJ [Department of Justice] guidelines and not be questioned,” McClintock continued. “Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.”[3]

Kind of interesting that no one in the Twitter bubble seems willing to let Congress make that decision “on their own” and cognizant of political reality.

The neoliberals (mainstream Democrats) would lose in 2020 because they’re neoliberal and because they can’t stop themselves from nominating a pervert (Joe Biden). The Left would lose because they pushed for impeachment, banging their heads against the wall because it made them feel better, while invoking a backlash that sees Donald Trump re-elected.[4]

So guess how I think 2020 is going to turn out?

Emily Cadei, “Tom McClintock accuses Mueller of ‘pettifoggery,’ says he should testify before Congress,” Sacramento Bee, May 30, 2019, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article230959753.html


Census

Tara Bahrampour and Robert Barnes, “Despite Trump administration denials, new evidence suggests census citizenship question was crafted to benefit white Republicans,” Washington Post, May 30, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/despite-trump-administration-denials-new-evidence-suggests-census-citizenship-question-was-crafted-to-benefit-white-republicans/2019/05/30/ca188dea-82eb-11e9-933d-7501070ee669_story.html


Migration

Abigail Hauslohner and Maria Sacchetti, “Hundreds of minors held at U.S. border facilities are there beyond legal time limits,” Washington Post, May 30, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/hundreds-of-minors-held-at-us-border-facilities-are-there-beyond-legal-time-limits/2019/05/30/381cf6da-8235-11e9-bce7-40b4105f7ca0_story.html


  1. [1]Allison Schrager, “Here’s a prediction: In the future, predictions will only get worse,” Quartz, May 29, 2019, https://qz.com/1623596/what-if-all-the-data-we-use-is-wrong/
  2. [2]Robert S. Mueller, III, “Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III Makes Statement on Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” Department of Justice, May 29, 2019, https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/special-counsel-robert-s-mueller-iii-makes-statement-investigation-russian-interference
  3. [3]Emily Cadei, “Tom McClintock accuses Mueller of ‘pettifoggery,’ says he should testify before Congress,” Sacramento Bee, May 30, 2019, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article230959753.html
  4. [4]Will Bunch, “Trump’s diabolical plan to blow up democracy, get reelected and avoid jail just might work,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 5, 2019, https://www.philly.com/opinion/commentary/trump-wants-impeachment-2020-reelection-strategy-blame-democrats-ignore-subpoenas-20190505.html

The lesser of two perverts

Thunderstorms

So last night was a night (see the updates yesterday if you haven’t already, and yet another thunderstorm, less dramatic but still, came in after that) and I still woke up with sweat pouring off my body this morning and my sheets drenched. As of 6:00 this morning:eus-2019-05-29-06The pattern remains in place.


Joe Biden

I’m not (yet anyway) seeing coverage of this:

I’ve long characterized a two-party system’s electoral choices as the lesser of two evils.[1]
But with Joe Biden the presumptive neoliberal (why even call them ‘Democrats’ anymore?) nominee, the race in 2020 looks to be a choice of the lesser of two perverts. I have previously addressed the issue of Joe Biden’s inappropriate behavior towards women.


Employment

It’s called selective observation:

According to her Twitter profile, Melissa Kearney is an economics professor, which tells you most of what you need to know here. As anyone in the real world knows, incompetence long predates the alleged “tight labor market” and has long been preferred (incompetent subordinates do not threaten their incompetent superiors). Indeed, it’s obviously how she got her job.


James Comey

Robert Mueller announced the closure of the special prosecutor’s office and expressed reluctance to appear before Congress. Otherwise, absolutely nothing here is new.[2]

The glaring problem here, which Mueller did not address, is that only self-interested people are now in control of his unredacted report. As long as that is the case, it is not possible for “the office’s written work [to] speak for itself.”

I need to emphasize here that a redacted report is no substitute for the full report. Not only has William Barr cast considerable suspicion upon himself by priming the public with a—to put it mildly—likely biased and apparently misleading framing of Mueller’s conclusions, but the only thing that truly speaks for the report is the report itself, not selected passages. A redacted report simply does not constitute acceptable evidence.

Mueller’s statement, being work of the U.S. government, is in the public domain. I have archived a copy here.

Robert S. Mueller, III, “Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III Makes Statement on Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” Department of Justice, May 29, 2019, https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/special-counsel-robert-s-mueller-iii-makes-statement-investigation-russian-interference


Brexit

The question seems not to be so much about whether Boris Johnson lied about the amount of money the United Kingdom would save in campaigning for Brexit—he did, and continued to do so even after “[t]he chair of the U.K. statistics authority disputed the figure, saying it didn’t account for rebates Britain receives from the EU, and wrote to Mr. Johnson in 2017 complaining about his continued citation of it”—but rather whether this lying rises to the standard of misconduct.[3]

Max Colchester, “U.K.’s Boris Johnson to Appear in Court Over Brexit Claims,” Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-s-boris-johnson-to-appear-in-court-over-brexit-claims-11559136361


Israel

Loveday Morris and Miriam Berger, “Israel will hold unprecedented second election after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fails to form a governing coalition,” Washington Post, May 29, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/prospect-of-new-israeli-vote-looms-as-netanyahu-struggles-with-coalition/2019/05/29/9155b71a-8171-11e9-b585-e36b16a531aa_story.html


  1. [1]David Benfell, “A false dichotomy view of politics,” Not Housebroken, November 2, 2016, https://disunitedstates.org/2016/11/02/a-false-dichotomy-view-of-politics/; David Benfell, “The lesser of two evils? The more successful con artist,” Not Housebroken, May 15, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/05/15/the-lesser-of-two-evils-the-more-successful-con-artist/
  2. [2]Robert S. Mueller, III, “Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III Makes Statement on Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” Department of Justice, May 29, 2019, https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/special-counsel-robert-s-mueller-iii-makes-statement-investigation-russian-interference
  3. [3]Max Colchester, “U.K.’s Boris Johnson to Appear in Court Over Brexit Claims,” Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-s-boris-johnson-to-appear-in-court-over-brexit-claims-11559136361

Fractured Politics and Tornados

Updates

  1. Originally published, May 28, 7:47 pm.
  2. May 28, 8:35 pm:
    • I realized I had misinterpreted an image that was included with the Weather Underground email relaying the warnings. See the revised text.
  3. May 28, 10:39 pm:
    • I was lying on top of my bed, trying to get to sleep when a thunderstorm finally arrived. It was probably as close to the center of a thunderstorm as I have ever been and it seemed especially dramatic. A heavy rain commenced. And then, as quickly as it had arrived, it was gone, leaving noticeably cooler temperatures.

Uber apparently finally decided to stop playing games, possibly because I threatened legal action. The money they owed me now appears in my account as a pending transaction. But I won’t return to driving for them. I’m not, no way, no how, a banker, and it’s a huge red flag for me when anybody gets weird about paying up.

Lyft seems to dominate much of the market around here anyway. My problem with them, as always, is that I often travel much too far for short rides on a rate scheme that pays much too little.

But I had a little experience with ridesharing here with just Lyft, which didn’t require a fresh background check, before Uber came on line for me. My income didn’t improve with Uber.


Tornados

I woke up around three this morning to flashes of lightning and thunder. (It’s not unusual for me to wake up around this time, needing hydration. I typically take a whack at email and then go back to bed.) I’m pretty sure this is the same storm that delivered tornados to Ohio, killing at least one.[1]
eus-2019-05-28-08
This afternoon, a tornado watch—not a warning, but just a watch—was issued for areas including Allegheny County, where I live. It will remain in effect until 10:00 pm. A flash flood warning was issued, to be in effect until 9:30 pm, this evening, for specific areas I’m not particularly near (I’m on high ground, anyway). As this issue goes to publication, I grabbed another gif:
eus-2019-05-28-18
You can see the storm and it’s overcast right now where I am but no sign of thunderstorms and, perhaps ominously, the breeze I felt earlier has died down.

Timothy Bella and Kayla Epstein, “Deadly tornadoes leave trail of destruction across Ohio,” Washington Post, May 28, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/28/large-destructive-tornado-rips-through-dayton-ohio-area-reportedly-causing-injuries-extensive-damage/


Brexit

While the Tories are the party most visibly and most dramatically torn asunder by Brexit, Labour has also been riven by Remain and Leave factions. Jeremy Corbyn, something, at least, of a Euroskeptic, has been trying to let the Tories take all the heat without committing Labour either way. Even though Labour has long been the principal opposition to the Tories.

Corbyn’s gambit failed miserably as Remainers deserted Labour in the European Union Parliamentary election. So now he’s calling for a second referendum.[2]

The trouble is that Brexit isn’t the only thing dividing Labour. Just like with the Democrats in the U.S., Labour has also long been divided into neoliberal (so-called “centrist”) and compassionate factions. But there is considerable overlap between the Remainers and the neoliberals, Britain does not have an institutionalized two-party system, and Britons have credible neoliberal alternatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens (yes, the Greens). Labour might have lost these voters for the foreseeable future as Corbyn has been outspoken in opposition to neoliberalism.

Rowena Mason and Jessica Elgot, “Corbyn backs referendum on Brexit deal after EU election exodus,” Guardian, May 28, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/27/jeremy-corbyn-signals-more-support-for-second-referendum-after-voter-exodus


Prisons

I understand there are concerns, including about replication, about Philip Zimbardo’s description of “the power of the situation,” based on his notorious Stanford Prison Experiment.[3] But then something like this[4] happens. And it doesn’t happen in isolation. Such cases, as Zimbardo argued, are not simply the work of “bad apples.” Rather, they point to something systemic.[5]

Positivists can argue about what they call “science” all they like. People are dying who are not supposed to die, guards keep being callous even when people’s lives are on the line, and I am not impressed.

Isaac Stanley-Becker, “‘Somebody owes me lunch!’: Prison guards bet on an inmate’s suicide. Then, choking sounds came from her unit,” Washington Post, May 28, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/28/somebody-owes-me-lunch-prison-guards-bet-an-inmates-suicide-then-choking-sounds-came-her-unit/


  1. [1]Timothy Bella and Kayla Epstein, “Deadly tornadoes leave trail of destruction across Ohio,” Washington Post, May 28, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/28/large-destructive-tornado-rips-through-dayton-ohio-area-reportedly-causing-injuries-extensive-damage/
  2. [2]Rowena Mason and Jessica Elgot, “Corbyn backs referendum on Brexit deal after EU election exodus,” Guardian, May 28, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/27/jeremy-corbyn-signals-more-support-for-second-referendum-after-voter-exodus
  3. [3]Brian Resnick, “The Stanford Prison Experiment was massively influential. We just learned it was a fraud,” Vox, June 13, 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/6/13/17449118/stanford-prison-experiment-fraud-psychology-replication; Brian Resnick, “Philip Zimbardo defends the Stanford Prison Experiment, his most famous work,” Vox, June 28, 2018, https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/28/17509470/stanford-prison-experiment-zimbardo-interview
  4. [4]Isaac Stanley-Becker, “‘Somebody owes me lunch!’: Prison guards bet on an inmate’s suicide. Then, choking sounds came from her unit,” Washington Post, May 28, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/28/somebody-owes-me-lunch-prison-guards-bet-an-inmates-suicide-then-choking-sounds-came-her-unit/
  5. [5]Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (New York: Random House, 2008).

Environmental Injustice in Mon Valley

Memorial Day

Functionalist conservatism:

What’s most surprising isn’t that politicians start wars to consolidate their own power, but that the people don’t always simply assume that leaders choose war for that reason. Of course, the main calculation for politicians when making decisions is whether or not those decisions will help tighten their grip on the levers of society. From prime ministers to dictators, anyone who doesn’t think about that first and foremost will be, evolutionarily speaking, selected against, and quickly find themselves outside the palace walls.[1]

Happy Memorial Day.

Jon Schwarz, “We Need Memorial Day to Obscure the Unbearable Truth About War,” Intercept, May 29, 2019, https://theintercept.com/2017/05/29/we-need-memorial-day-to-obscure-the-unbearable-truth-about-war/


Pittsburgh

I think, if it occurs, my next move will be farther from the Monongahela River and Mon Valley and especially from the U.S. Steel plant. I’ve seen neighborhoods by the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers that seem quite nice.

Note the source of this report that U.S. Steel has repaired air pollution controls: the Wall Street Journal,[2] not a particularly environmentally friendly newspaper. What I see here is that repairs have been done. I do not know their effectiveness or even in absolute terms how safe the air now is—even the Journal headline only says “easier,” not “easy;” I picked someone up near that plant recently and it still stunk to high hell (the resuscitated air pollution controls might not yet have been switched on).

I also wonder about any decision to even allow the plant to continue operating. I don’t live in Mon Valley, but I’m close. I pick up a lot of people there. And I have to tell you, the very fact of that plant and the industrialization along the Monongahela River looks to me like an environmental justice issue, where the working class and poor, many of them Black, get to live with health and safety risks because that’s where they can afford to live or because that’s where they’ve always lived.

And lest we forget, much to my absolute horror, there are homeless people here. I can’t imagine how they survive winter. But for many, that would be the only alternative.

Kris Maher, “Pittsburgh Breathes Easier After Repairs at U.S. Steel Coke Plant,” Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/pittsburgh-breathes-easier-after-repairs-at-u-s-steel-coke-plant-11558872000


Brexit

This tweet might not translate the way it should because it lacks the context where neoliberals and nationalists (authoritarian populists) have broken off from the main parties, Republicans and Democrats, to form separate parties. But that’s the context imagined in this tweet.

At the time I looked at British Broadcasting Corporation coverage, returns were not complete. Counting had not even begun in some areas. But it seems worth noting that though Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party was the winning single party, the total tally of Remainer parties, including the (neo)Liberal Democrats and the Greens exceeded Brexit by double digits. Meanwhile, both Tories and Labour took a drubbing, with the former winning a historically low portion of the vote.[3]

Take that with a grain of salt: Final results might, but now seem unlikely to, reveal a different story. And these results have limited applicability to, for many Britons, a far more important general election. On Twitter, at least, Jeremy Corbyn has been calling for just that and Labour is now more loudly calling for a second referendum.[4] This has seemed to me foolish: I am sad to say that, just as in the U.S., it appears many Britons still subscribe to a so-called “centrist” neoliberal view on the idea that this ideology—just as hateful, really, as anything the far right can muster—constitutes a “middle road.”

British Broadcasting Corporation, “European elections 2019: Brexit Party dominates as Tories and Labour suffer,” May 27, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48417228


Abortion

No student of women’s history should even remotely be surprised that women will network to ensure access to reproductive health.[5] Some will do so even in the face of legal impediments and the men who would control their bodies should know that the latter efforts are doomed to failure. Just as they always have been.

It should also be noted that as always, the effects of abortion bans will fall hardest on those without the wherewithal to travel. The rich can always get abortions, often even close to home. It will be the poor who are least able to travel and who will most need to travel. Class cannot be separated from gender here.

Monica Hesse, “Abortion bans have some women preparing for the worst. It involves ‘auntie networks,’” Washington Post, May 26, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/abortion-bans-have-some-women-preparing-for-the-worst-it-involves-auntie-networks/2019/05/24/4af2dcce-7d77-11e9-a5b3-34f3edf1351e_story.html


Elon Musk

Sometimes I need to say, pay no attention. The headline is misleading: There is a disagreement over tactics here but there wasn’t really a “fight” between the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system and Elon Musk[6] and I have to strongly doubt that this is one of Musk’s visions that will come to fruition.

To give an idea how Musk’s vision might fall short, I was noticing with a passenger how many roads here have been reduced to one lane in sections due to subsidence.

This happens a lot in California too and the cause of this is clear: Lots of rain and unstable mountainside and cliff geology due to erosion. My passenger pointed out that here, there are many old mining tunnels: Though this has been a wet spring here, subsidence can be a problem even without it.

In California, the rock is largely, in various forms, metamorphic. Here, it’s largely sedimentary. We don’t have the massive and dramatic geologic forces that forge California rock; sedimentation happens slowly, over time. California rock is inherently a lot stronger, structurally, than Pennsylvania rock.

That doesn’t mean tunnels can’t be built. Pittsburgh has many, many more of them than I had remembered from my limited childhood experience with the area. But I wouldn’t count on technology developed in southern California working here.

Eric Ting, “BART picks a fight with Elon Musk on Twitter over tunnels,” SFGate, May 25, 2019, https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/BART-Elon-Musk-Twitter-tunnel-Bay-Boring-Company-13896393.php


Greece

Alexis Tsipras sold out to the European Union’s austerity demands and settled a dispute with (North) Macedonia over its name so the latter country could join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. He did everything the E.U. wanted, grudgingly at first, totally capitulating later.[7] The austerity killed people[8] and there is no better evidence of neoliberalism’s prioritization of money even over human life. The E.U. offered Tsipras no reciprocity. Functionalist Conservatives, take note and beware.

Michele Kambas, “Greek PM comes unstuck over Macedonia, austerity in European vote,” Reuters, May 27, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-election-greece-idUSKCN1SX0YI


  1. [1]Jon Schwarz, “We Need Memorial Day to Obscure the Unbearable Truth About War,” Intercept, May 29, 2019, https://theintercept.com/2017/05/29/we-need-memorial-day-to-obscure-the-unbearable-truth-about-war/
  2. [2]Kris Maher, “Pittsburgh Breathes Easier After Repairs at U.S. Steel Coke Plant,” Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/pittsburgh-breathes-easier-after-repairs-at-u-s-steel-coke-plant-11558872000
  3. [3]British Broadcasting Corporation, “European elections 2019: Brexit Party dominates as Tories and Labour suffer,” May 27, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48417228
  4. [4]British Broadcasting Corporation, “European elections 2019: Brexit Party dominates as Tories and Labour suffer,” May 27, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48417228
  5. [5]Monica Hesse, “Abortion bans have some women preparing for the worst. It involves ‘auntie networks,’” Washington Post, May 26, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/abortion-bans-have-some-women-preparing-for-the-worst-it-involves-auntie-networks/2019/05/24/4af2dcce-7d77-11e9-a5b3-34f3edf1351e_story.html
  6. [6]Eric Ting, “BART picks a fight with Elon Musk on Twitter over tunnels,” SFGate, May 25, 2019, https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/BART-Elon-Musk-Twitter-tunnel-Bay-Boring-Company-13896393.php
  7. [7]Michele Kambas, “Greek PM comes unstuck over Macedonia, austerity in European vote,” Reuters, May 27, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-election-greece-idUSKCN1SX0YI
  8. [8]Nikolia Apostolou, “Athens suicide: a cry for dignity from downtrodden,” Christian Science Monitor, April 5, 2012, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0405/Athens-suicide-a-cry-for-dignity-from-downtrodden-video; Democracy Now! “General Strike Sweeps Europe as Millions Reject Austerity as Solution to Economic Crisis,” November 14, 2012, http://www.democracynow.org/2012/11/14/general_strike_sweeps_europe_as_millions; Deutschewelle, “Pensioner’s suicide triggers Greek austerity protests,” April 5, 2012, http://www.dw.de/pensioners-suicide-triggers-greek-austerity-protests/a-15860196; Teo Kermeliotis, “Austerity drives up suicide rate in debt-ridden Greece,” CNN, April 6, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/06/world/europe/greece-austerity-suicide/index.html?_s=PM:EUROPE; Nigel Morris, “Spike in suicide rate in Europe and US linked to financial crisis,” Independent, September 18, 2013, http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/spike-in-suicide-rate-in-europe-and-us-linked-to-financial-crisis-8822729.html

Chicken

Brexit

26_04:24:15-226_03:20:07-1
Photographs by Luke Dray, via the Guardian, fair use.[1]

It suits that Boris Johnson has lately been depicted with a bicycle helmet and steely determination: A childhood example of toxic masculinity is a game of “chicken,” in which two boys ride bicycles on a collision course towards each other as fast as they go. The first to turn aside is “chicken,” and this stupidest of stupid games seems to be Johnson’s approach toward Brexit.

In any event, the European Union has repeatedly made clear they aren’t playing, saying they’re done negotiating. So Johnson would ride his bicycle (Britain) the wrong way up a freeway off-ramp and straight into traffic. But gee, he isn’t “chicken.”

Michael Savage, Jamie Doward, and Toby Helm, “Stop Boris campaign launched by Tory moderates opposed to no-deal Brexit,” Guardian, May 25, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/25/moderate-tories-launch-stop-boris-johnson-campaign

Andrew Rawnsley, “What makes the Tories think that anyone must be better than Mrs May?” Guardian, May 26, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/26/what-makes-tories-think-anyone-must-be-better-than-theresa-may


Facebook

It’s called defamation. But Facebook will not take down a video manipulated to make Nancy Pelosi appear drunk.[2]

Brian Fung, “Why it took Facebook so long to act against the doctored Pelosi video,” CNN, May 25, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/25/politics/facebook-pelosi-video-factchecking/index.html


Israel

It would be a new axis: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage, and Binyamin Netanyahu. And I suppose all this is “anti-Semitic” as well—it is about corrupt Jews and money, after all, thus a trope, to criticize the Jewish government of a self-proclaimed “Jewish state.”

Raoul Wootliff, “Not just Netanyahu: The other 4 lawmakers who may need immunity from prosecution,” Times of Israel, May 22, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/not-just-netanyahu-the-other-4-lawmakers-who-may-need-immunity-from-prosecution/

Jacob Magid, “Bid to stifle court akin to those of pre-Nazi Germany, 98 retired judges say,” Times of Israel, May 23, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/bid-to-stifle-court-akin-to-those-of-pre-nazi-germany-98-retired-judges-say/


Sleep

Bryan Clark, “No, Night Owls Aren’t Doomed to Die Early,” New York Times, May 23, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/smarter-living/no-night-owls-arent-doomed-to-die-early.html


  1. [1]Andrew Rawnsley, “What makes the Tories think that anyone must be better than Mrs May?” Guardian, May 26, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/26/what-makes-tories-think-anyone-must-be-better-than-theresa-may; Michael Savage, Jamie Doward, and Toby Helm, “Stop Boris campaign launched by Tory moderates opposed to no-deal Brexit,” Guardian, May 25, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/25/moderate-tories-launch-stop-boris-johnson-campaign
  2. [2]Brian Fung, “Why it took Facebook so long to act against the doctored Pelosi video,” CNN, May 25, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/25/politics/facebook-pelosi-video-factchecking/index.html

A “special relationship:” Boris Johnson and Donald Trump

On the frontier with Greater Appalachia


I live in Allegheny County, which Colin Woodard counts as the Midlands, and that is where I took these photographs, neither very far from where I live. But Greater Appalachia, which I have associated with authoritarian populism,[1] is just across the county lines to the south.[2] I’ve also been skeptical that these boundaries should be treated as sharply drawn borders, thinking that the old notion of frontiers was a more appropriate way of thinking about it.

A couple vehicles with signs on their rear windows, one advocating Sean Hannity as a purveyor of “truth,” and the other declaring distrust in the “liberal media,” offer a little support for my notion of frontiers, but also support my theory of the morality of polarization.[3] I certainly do not advocate what media scholars sometimes informally refer to as Faux News. I don’t trust the other side’s information either. I don’t trust the other side’s motivations either.

And in fact, when I get into a conversation with a white in my car, I often finding myself in teaching mode. Not so with Blacks who live the experience that, as a critical theorist, I can only theorize about. They’re already hip to much of what I would talk about.


Brexit

I dread the prospect of Boris Johnson being prime minister while Donald Trump remains president. I do not know what the emergent properties of this “special relationship,” a term more usually applied to the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, will be. They can only be evil.

Natasha Frost, “Why Boris Johnson is the bookies’ favorite to be Britain’s next prime minister,” Quartz, May 24, 2019, https://qz.com/1627532/boris-johnson-is-the-bookmakers-favorite-for-britains-next-pm/


Donald Trump

This, on the other hand, is going a little better.

Karen Tumulty, “Pelosi is a dangerous foil for a president who operates on impulse,” Washington Post, May 24, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pelosi-is-a-dangerous-foil-for-a-president-who-operates-on-impulse/2019/05/24/ecfe2ea2-7e34-11e9-a5b3-34f3edf1351e_story.html


Homelessness

Scott Wilson, “Berkeley loves its sanctuary label, but a housing crisis is testing its liberal values,” Washington Post, May 24, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/berkeley-loves-its-sanctuary-label-but-a-housing-crisis-is-testing-its-liberal-values/2019/05/23/805b2b48-7721-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html


  1. [1]David Benfell, “Barack Obama asks, ‘Why is it that the folks that won the last election are so mad all the time?’” Not Housebroken, November 4, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2018/11/04/barack-obama-asks-why-is-it-that-the-folks-that-won-the-last-election-are-so-mad-all-the-time/
  2. [2]Colin Woodard, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America (New York: Penguin, 2011).
  3. [3]David Benfell, “The morality of polarization,” Not Housebroken, September 21, 2018, https://disunitedstates.org/2018/09/21/the-morality-of-polarization/

The Loony Left

It is now Friday, and Uber still hasn’t paid me. They claim the bank details are wrong. (These would be the same details that have worked before.) I have re-entered them and now Uber has another week’s excuse. A reminder: This is about $162.68, which unless their cash flow, already backwards to begin with, has gone totally off the deep end backwards, is a hell of a lot more money to me than it is to them.


There is yet another new blog post, entitled “Calls for impeachment are the latest displays of the naturalistic fallacy and system justification. When people speak of the “Loony Left,” this is it, in action, even if for very different reasons than they had imagined when they coined the phrase. The Left has really gone off the deep end.


When I look at the satellite photos trying to make sense of the weather here, there’s just no sense to be made of it. It’s madness. Complete chaos.

One of my passengers told me he thought the National Weather Service was right about 80 percent of the time. If true, it’s a miracle. The complexity here is off the charts compared with anything I saw out west. Weather seemingly appears from nowhere.

And so far, I’d have to say the Weather Service has not, in fact, been doing so well. Yesterday’s forecast was for just your basic hot and muggy. No mention of thunderstorms.

By afternoon, that had changed to warnings of severe thunderstorms (which mostly passed to my north), strong winds (which did indeed materialize), and the possibility of one-inch hail or quarter-size hail, depending on when you looked. Last night a thunderstorm rolled in with the craziest lightning I had ever seen.

And no, it’s not like I’ve never seen lightning before. I lived here for a couple years as a kid, spent a couple summers at camp in the Colorado Rockies, and lived for about three years in Reno, Nevada.

In general, the weather has been cooler than people expect. A common refrain: “When’s it gonna warm up?”


Currency

I can’t say it’s a lie though I think it is: To hear him tell it, Steven Mnuchin is focused on improving counterfeiting resistance on the $10 and $50 bills and simply deferring the $20 that Harriet Tubman had been selected for.[1]

I’ve handled a lot of cash over the years: At least in part due to the ubiquity of $20 bills dispensed by automated teller machines (ATMs), the $20 is far more commonly seen than $10’s or $50’s. So one could rationalize this by suggesting that it would be prudent to test new counterfeiting features on less commonly used bills. One might also note that the $10 and $50 bills aren’t being redesigned with a new honoree’s portrait.

One can as easily argue that if one is indeed concerned about counterfeiting, the $20 is much, much more urgent.

I don’t know how to resolve that particular question and, to be honest, am not that concerned about doing so. Because I doubt the veracity of the counterfeiting excuse in the first place.

James Hohmann, “The Daily 202: Trump administration’s spurning of Harriet Tubman opens a new front in the monument wars,” Washington Post, May 23, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2019/05/23/daily-202-trump-administration-s-spurning-of-harriet-tubman-opens-a-new-front-in-the-monument-wars/5ce5834a1ad2e52231e8e771/


Brexit

At long last, Theresa May is stepping down. If this “solves” anything, it will be that a hard Brexit is even more likely than before.[2]

Elizabeth Piper, William James, and Kylie MacLellan, “Tearful May resigns, paving way for Brexit confrontation with EU,” Reuters, May 24, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-may/tearful-may-resigns-paving-way-for-brexit-confrontation-with-eu-idUSKCN1SU0UF


Donald Trump

I had already awarded round 4 to Nancy Pelosi just on demeanor; Stephen Collinson articulates all that, but goes a step farther to explain how Pelosi is able to play Donald Trump’s narcissism to her advantage in fending off idiotic[3] calls for impeachment.[4] It has to be said: Pelosi is smart in how she’s handling Trump—and in pretty much the very ways I expected her to be.[5]

That score, again, is Pelosi with 3 won rounds, zero lost, one draw (3-0-1). Round five might be beginning with William Barr’s newly awarded power to selectively declassify information on the origins of the Robert Mueller probe[6] and many are already rushing to judgment. But there’s a time when one has to bow to experience, which Pelosi and many House Democrats have in abundance. The round isn’t over until it’s over. Let it play.

Aaron Blake, “Trump just gave William Barr carte blanche to declassify information. What could go wrong?” Washington Post, May 24, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/24/trump-just-gave-william-barr-carte-blanche-declassify-information-what-could-go-wrong/

Stephen Collinson, “Donald Trump falls for Nancy Pelosi’s trap,” CNN, May 24, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/politics/donald-trump-nancy-pelosi-democrats-republicans/index.html


  1. [1]James Hohmann, “The Daily 202: Trump administration’s spurning of Harriet Tubman opens a new front in the monument wars,” Washington Post, May 23, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2019/05/23/daily-202-trump-administration-s-spurning-of-harriet-tubman-opens-a-new-front-in-the-monument-wars/5ce5834a1ad2e52231e8e771/
  2. [2]Elizabeth Piper, William James, and Kylie MacLellan, “Tearful May resigns, paving way for Brexit confrontation with EU,” Reuters, May 24, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-may/tearful-may-resigns-paving-way-for-brexit-confrontation-with-eu-idUSKCN1SU0UF
  3. [3]David Benfell, “Why Nancy Pelosi is right about impeachment,” Not Housebroken, May 22, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/05/22/why-nancy-pelosi-is-right-about-impeachment/; David Benfell, “Calls for impeachment are the latest displays of the naturalistic fallacy and system justification,” Not Housebroken, May 23, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/05/23/calls-for-impeachment-are-the-latest-displays-of-the-naturalistic-fallacy-and-system-justification/
  4. [4]Stephen Collinson, “Donald Trump falls for Nancy Pelosi’s trap,” CNN, May 24, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/politics/donald-trump-nancy-pelosi-democrats-republicans/index.html
  5. [5]David Benfell, “It might actually be a good thing that Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House right now,” Not Housebroken, January 12, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/01/12/it-might-actually-be-a-good-thing-that-nancy-pelosi-is-speaker-of-the-house-right-now/
  6. [6]Aaron Blake, “Trump just gave William Barr carte blanche to declassify information. What could go wrong?” Washington Post, May 24, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/24/trump-just-gave-william-barr-carte-blanche-declassify-information-what-could-go-wrong/

Uber slow to pay off

There is another new blog post, “Family values and children as commodities.”


I just noticed that I have not received my final payout from Uber. Normally, it would have been in my account Wednesday (yesterday). By their own reckoning, they owe me $162.68 and they have notified me it was on the way.
FireShot Capture 032 - Statements - partners.uber.com
This would have been the weekly payout and should not have been affected by their suspension of my access to Instant Pay.

I’m glad I quit working for them.


Currency

It seems that (white, male, slave-owning) Andrew Jackson is Donald Trump’s favorite dead president. It’d help a lot if Steven Mnuchin would explain just how it is that counterfeiting is a problem on the Harriet Tubman $20 bill and not the $10 or $50 bill or even the Jackson $20 bill. (Maybe he did: The Washington Post links to an article on a site that prohibits ad-blockers, rendering the site an unacceptable source.)[1] I can’t help but suspect he’s choosing an alternative meaning to “counterfeit.”

DeNeen L. Brown, “Whether she’s on the $20 bill or not, Harriet Tubman made men pay for underestimating her,” Washington Post, May 22, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/05/22/whether-shes-bill-or-not-harriet-tubman-made-men-pay-underestimating-her/

Isaac Stanley-Becker, “A 3-year-old touched a Harriet Tubman mural. Now, she’ll wait a decade to touch a $20 Tubman bill,” Washington Post, May 23, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/23/year-old-touched-harriet-tubman-mural-now-shell-wait-decade-touch-tubman-bill/


Julian Assange

Chris Megerian, “Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, faces 17 more charges in new U.S. indictment,” Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-julian-assange-indictment-wikileaks-20190523-story.html


World Cop

Uri Friedman, “America’s Alliance System Will Face One of Its Biggest Tests Yet,” Atlantic, May 23, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/05/us-and-south-korea-gear-burden-sharing-talks/589999/


  1. [1]DeNeen L. Brown, “Whether she’s on the $20 bill or not, Harriet Tubman made men pay for underestimating her,” Washington Post, May 22, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/05/22/whether-shes-bill-or-not-harriet-tubman-made-men-pay-underestimating-her/

Pittsburgh driving

The latest online service provider to run afoul of my own terms and conditions is the Boston Globe which is now on my absolute shit list. I have no patience left for this arrogant bullshit.


The other thing that’s really been pissing me off lately is the clamor for impeachment grandstanding. I explain this in a new blog post entitled, “Why Nancy Pelosi is right about impeachment.


I think I might finally be just barely beginning to get the hang of Pittsburgh driving. What I’ve found so far is that one can almost never relax about the lane one is in and that there is a high likelihood that the lane with most of the cars in it will be the lane one needs. This obviously remains difficult when Google Maps doesn’t see fit to inform you which lane you need to be in in a number of ambiguous situations (these are many) and when the correspondence between the road signs and how Google labels ramps is, well, weak at best.

I’ve long been baffled by what turns Google sees fit to regard as turns and which ones it doesn’t. There’s seemingly no rhyme or reason to it. In Pittsburgh, this becomes all the more difficult because ambiguities exist where Google doesn’t even recognize that there’s a decision to be made.

This is still really, really hard driving. I find I simply can’t do it as long as I could in California. I am literally getting headaches from the strain.


Donald Trump

We’ve had to wait a while for this but yes, I’m still keeping score: Round four goes to Nancy Pelosi who also won rounds one and two, while round three was a draw.

Mike DeBonis et al., “Trump angrily walks out of meeting with Democrats after Pelosi says he is ‘engaged in a coverup,’” Washington Post, May 22, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-takes-aim-at-house-democrats-as-they-prepare-to-discuss-impeachment-calls/2019/05/22/a36ea0d0-7c79-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html

Renae Merle, Michael Kranish, and Felicia Sonmez, “Judge rejects Trump’s request to halt congressional subpoenas for his banking records,” Washington Post, May 22, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/judge-rejects-trumps-request-to-halt-congressional-subpoenas-for-his-banking-records/2019/05/22/28f9b93a-7ccd-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html