Month: June 2019

Why even bother having a presidential election in 2020? Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden are already demonstrating how the neoliberal party will lose

benfell

Iran

Michael D. Shear et al., “Trump Approves Strikes on Iran, but Then Abruptly Pulls Back,” New York Times, June 20, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/world/middleeast/iran-us-drone.html

Donald Trump

Nancy Pelosi is wrong about lots of stuff—her ignorance on the concentration camps on the U.S. southern border and her defense of Joe Biden are astounding, appalling, and unacceptable. But there is absolutely one thing she remains right about: impeachment.

Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney, “Dems see Hope Hicks testimony as huge gift in legal battle with Trump,” Politico, June 21, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/21/hope-hicks-democrats-trump-1374706

Nancy Pelosi

The Speaker of the House needs to do her homework before speaking.

Pelosi told reporters that she was not “up to date” on Ocasio-Cortez’s comments and that she had not spoken to her about them.[1]

There is no question the centers the Trump administration is using to hold migrants on the southern border are concentration camps. I wouldn’t even know where to begin citing authorities on this: There are so many. But concentration camps are not the same as ‘death camps’ and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s critics are conflating the two to accuse her of invoking the Holocaust. Even many rabbis disagree, explicitly saying that the phrase “never again” is meaningless if not applied here.

As for Pelosi’s defense of Joe Biden,[2] I can only attribute that to her presumptive neoliberal preference for his candidacy in 2020. But what we may very well see here is how her moral cowardice on these issues undermines her authority in resisting calls for impeachment. This is how the neoliberal party fucks up. Every god damned time.

I mean seriously, with this shit, you might as well call the 2020 general election even now: Donald Trump wins re-election.

Chris Mills Rodrigo, “Pelosi on Biden: ‘I have no criticism of what he believes is his story to tell,’” Hill, June 20, 2019, https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/449509-pelosi-responds-to-bidens-comments-on-working-with-segregationists-i-have

John Wagner, “Pelosi warns Democrats that Republicans can exploit their words as controversy continues over Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘concentration camp’ comments,” Washington Post, June 19, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/pelosi-warns-democrats-that-republicans-can-exploit-their-words-as-controversy-continues-over-ocasio-cortezs-concentration-camp-comments/2019/06/19/368dcc1c-929e-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html

Joe Biden

I can’t be any more disgusted with the neoliberal party than I’ve been since I noticed John Kerry’s 2004 presidential platform was indistinguishable from Republican positions and certainly since they rigged the 2016 contest in favor of Hillary Clinton. But I gotta tell you, they’re making a hell of a try with Joe Biden.

Moira Donegan, “What does Biden have in common with Trump? Delusional nostalgia,” Guardian, June 21, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/21/joe-biden-trump-sexism-delusional-nostalgia

Matt Viser and Annie Linskey, “Tensions ripple through Biden campaign as his past working relationship with a segregationist senator comes to the forefront,” Washington Post, June 20, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tensions-ripple-through-biden-campaign-as-his-past-working-relationship-with-a-segregationist-senator-comes-to-the-forefront/2019/06/20/2518afe6-9394-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html

U.S. exceptionalism

Peter Beinart, “AOC’s Generation Doesn’t Presume America’s Innocence,” Atlantic, June 21, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/aoc-isnt-interested-american-exceptionalism/592213/

  1. [1]John Wagner, “Pelosi warns Democrats that Republicans can exploit their words as controversy continues over Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘concentration camp’ comments,” Washington Post, June 19, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/pelosi-warns-democrats-that-republicans-can-exploit-their-words-as-controversy-continues-over-ocasio-cortezs-concentration-camp-comments/2019/06/19/368dcc1c-929e-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html↩
  2. [2]Chris Mills Rodrigo, “Pelosi on Biden: ‘I have no criticism of what he believes is his story to tell,’” Hill, June 20, 2019, https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/449509-pelosi-responds-to-bidens-comments-on-working-with-segregationists-i-have↩

The “touchy feely” misogynist racist pervert

benfell

Joe Biden

Joe Biden is being Joe Biden again:

Gotta tell you, my mind is blown too. And I’m not even Black. There is no better way to persuade me you are a racist than to deny that you are a racist:

“They know better,” [Joe Biden] told reporters as he went to a fundraiser. “Apologize for what? Cory [Booker] should apologize. He knows better. There’s not a racist bone in my body; I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career. Period. Period. Period.”[1]

But also, Joe Biden’s appeal to ‘civility’[2] echoes the right-wing whenever anybody calls them out for bigotry; even worse, it grossly misrepresents the history of the Senate:[3]

The Southern bloc of segregationist senators used every means of procedural warfare at its disposal in the Senate to mount a full-blown, scorched-earth campaign of resistance to any and all racial progress — one that lasted for decades.

As Robert Mann recounts in “When Freedom Would Triumph,” that Southern bloc adhered to this “massive resistance” as a “philosophy,” one committed to fighting to maintain white supremacy in the South “to the last ditch.”

These senators literally depicted the civil rights movement as “the enemy,” for years. As Mann recounts, when President Dwight Eisenhower sent in federal troops to enforce school desegregation in Arkansas while angry white mobs protested, [Herman] Talmadge likened it to “Russian tanks and troops in the streets of Budapest.”

For his part, [James O.] Eastland depicted one early civil rights measure as “the very worst form of Stalinist tyranny,” and claimed another bill “takes us back to Stalin, Khrushchev, Nasser, Hitler.”

None of this was overcome by “civility” or “getting things done” together. It was overcome by years of mass protests and struggle, much of it undertaken while braving fear of violence and death, in the face of terror.[4]

It doesn’t get any better as Greg Sargent, whom I quoted at length above, points out that Biden opposed busing to desegregate the schools.[5] I doubt that Biden was working for civil rights when he treated Anita hill the way he did.[6] And I’m remembering a previous failure to apologize,[7] which I addressed at the time.[8]

Simply put, it’s folks like Biden, much more than Donald Trump or any of the racists Biden worked with, who help to explain why the Left often hates white men in general. The blatant bigots don’t represent all white men. But you throw in folks like Biden, and you account for a lot more. It’s still not all of us—I still take exception to being lumped in with wealthy and powerful white men as “privileged” when I can’t even find a job, and it’s still unfair, but it’s a lot more understandable.

Stephen Collinson, “Joe Biden gets in his own way on race,” CNN, June 20, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/politics/joe-biden-race-2020-election/index.html

Scott Detrow, “Democrats Blast Biden For Recalling ‘Civil’ Relationship With Segregationists,” CNN, June 19, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/06/19/734103488/democrats-blast-biden-for-recalling-civil-relationship-with-segregationists

Matt Viser and Sean Sullivan, “Biden faces backlash over comments about the ‘civility’ of his past work with racist senators,” Washington Post, June 19, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-faces-backlash-over-comments-about-the-civility-of-his-past-work-with-racist-senators/2019/06/19/c0375d2a-92a8-11e9-b58a-a6a9afaa0e3e_story.html

Greg Sargent, “Joe Biden is badly undermining his ability to challenge Trump,” Washington Post, June 20, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/20/joe-biden-is-badly-undermining-his-case-against-trump/

Elizabeth Warren

Natasha Korecki and Charlie Mahtesian, “Warren emerges as potential compromise nominee,” Politico, June 19, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/19/democratic-establishment-elizabeth-warren-1369874

Reparations

I’ve been noticing lately that those Memorial Day banners commemorating each town’s war dead I still see in so many places around the Pittsburgh area are nearly, if not entirely, all of white people. Even in areas that seem predominantly Black.

There are a couple of issues here. First, to the extent that these areas were largely white at the time these (almost all) men went to war, this would seem to lend further weight to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ claim that demographic shifts (“white flight”) occurred as devalued (“redlined”) areas (especially around the Monongahela River) were reserved for Blacks as whites were encouraged to leave.[9] I haven’t actually tried to find statistics here but what I see looks way too much like what Coates describes for me to have much doubt.

But second, and to me even more disturbing, what must Blacks think when they see these banners of “heroes” only of whites? Am I to infer that only whites will be recognized as “heroes?” Who makes that decision? Is there even in predominantly Black communities a lingering racist white power structure?

A few images have sepia tone or those weird artificially pink cheeks that I guess people thought were a good idea in the early days of photography—these I guess to date to World War I or before. Some of the images seem to date to World War II or Korea. But some are clearly more recent. I’d be awfully, awfully surprised if no Blacks died in any of these wars. Where are their banners?

Marc Parry, “Congress Is Taking On Reparations. At the First Hearing, Academic Historians Were Absent,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 19, 2019, https://www.chronicle.com/article/Congress-Is-Taking-on/246527

Israel

My inclination would be to agree with Shabtai Shavit. But:

“They called us chah’chahim, amulet-kissers and bots, and now we’re ‘ignorant people,’ [Binyamin Netanyahu] said in a brief statement. “There’s no end to the left’s condescension toward Likud voters. Our response will come in the ballot booth.”[10]

The trouble here should be apparent and this helps to explain the affinity that Donald Trump and Binyamin Netanyahu have for each other. Both point to the Left as bigoted against the right. It’s the authoritarian populist playbook of victimhood and the Left too often plays right into it.

Times of Israel, “Ex-Mossad head: Netanyahu voters are ‘ignorant,’ have no moral standards,” June 20, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-mossad-head-netanyahu-voters-are-ignorant-have-no-moral-standards/

Bureaucracy

The Supreme Court only just upheld the transfer of power from the Legislative Branch to the Executive Branch with Samuel Alito concurring only because at the time the Court heard the case, it was short a Justice. The conservatives all want to reaffirm the nondelegation clause; Elena Kagan, on the other hand, wrote that if this delegation is unconstitutional, “most of Government is unconstitutional — dependent as Congress is on the need to give discretion to executive officials to implement its programs.” Even with its own deregulatory fervor, the Trump administration sought to defend the law.[11]

Elena Kagan, quoted in Ariane de Vogue and Veronica Stracqualursi, “Supreme Court upholds the scope of federal sex offender registration law in case testing ‘nondelegation doctrine,’” CNN, June 20, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/politics/supreme-court-sex-offender-registration-law-gundy/index.html

  1. [1]Matt Viser and Sean Sullivan, “Biden faces backlash over comments about the ‘civility’ of his past work with racist senators,” Washington Post, June 19, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-faces-backlash-over-comments-about-the-civility-of-his-past-work-with-racist-senators/2019/06/19/c0375d2a-92a8-11e9-b58a-a6a9afaa0e3e_story.html↩
  2. [2]Stephen Collinson, “Joe Biden gets in his own way on race,” CNN, June 20, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/politics/joe-biden-race-2020-election/index.html; Scott Detrow, “Democrats Blast Biden For Recalling ‘Civil’ Relationship With Segregationists,” CNN, June 19, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/06/19/734103488/democrats-blast-biden-for-recalling-civil-relationship-with-segregationists; Matt Viser and Sean Sullivan, “Biden faces backlash over comments about the ‘civility’ of his past work with racist senators,” Washington Post, June 19, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-faces-backlash-over-comments-about-the-civility-of-his-past-work-with-racist-senators/2019/06/19/c0375d2a-92a8-11e9-b58a-a6a9afaa0e3e_story.html↩
  3. [3]Greg Sargent, “Joe Biden is badly undermining his ability to challenge Trump,” Washington Post, June 20, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/20/joe-biden-is-badly-undermining-his-case-against-trump/↩
  4. [4]Greg Sargent, “Joe Biden is badly undermining his ability to challenge Trump,” Washington Post, June 20, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/20/joe-biden-is-badly-undermining-his-case-against-trump/↩
  5. [5]Greg Sargent, “Joe Biden is badly undermining his ability to challenge Trump,” Washington Post, June 20, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/20/joe-biden-is-badly-undermining-his-case-against-trump/↩
  6. [6]Elise Viebeck, “Joe Biden was in charge of the Anita Hill hearing. Even he says it wasn’t fair,” Washington Post, April 26, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/joe-biden-was-in-charge-of-the-anita-hill-hearing-even-he-says-it-wasnt-fair/2019/04/26/a9a6f384-6500-11e9-82ba-fcfeff232e8f_story.html↩
  7. [7]Brett Samuels, “Biden: ‘I’m not sorry for anything that I have ever done,’” Hill, April 5, 2019, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/437582-biden-im-not-sorry-for-anything-that-i-have-ever-done↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “Joe Biden blows his #MeToo moment, Not Housebroken, April 5, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/04/05/joe-biden-blows-his-metoo-moment/↩
  9. [9]Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” Atlantic, June 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/↩
  10. [10]Times of Israel, “Ex-Mossad head: Netanyahu voters are ‘ignorant,’ have no moral standards,” June 20, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-mossad-head-netanyahu-voters-are-ignorant-have-no-moral-standards/↩
  11. [11]Elena Kagan, quoted in Ariane de Vogue and Veronica Stracqualursi, “Supreme Court upholds the scope of federal sex offender registration law in case testing ‘nondelegation doctrine,’” CNN, June 20, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/politics/supreme-court-sex-offender-registration-law-gundy/index.html↩

benfell

I have a new page up on Not Housebroken, “About my job hunt.” It is a page, not a post, because I might revise it in the future. It takes on urgency as it becomes increasingly clear that even moving to Pittsburgh, for a lower cost of living, is not making my situation sustainable. But as this page makes clear, the traditional means of finding work are an abject failure for me. I need something that will actually work for me and I absolutely don’t have it.

Socialism

The trouble with the term ‘socialism’ is that many people understand it as what is actually authoritarian socialism, the kind of socialism that centralizes authority over the means of production. Democratic socialists mean, in essence, a revival and fortification of the New Deal.

John Cassidy, “Why Socialism Is Back,” New Yorker, June 18, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-socialism-is-back

Pittsburgh

U.S. Steel had barely gotten its pollution controls on line,[1] after months of pumping out air pollution,[2] when another fire knocked them out again.[3] The Allegheny County Health Department sought to join a federal lawsuit against U.S. Steel prior to this latest fire and the judge has approved that motion,[4] but with the latest fire, surely enough is enough.

KDKA, “Allegheny Co. Health Department Joins Federal Suit Against U.S. Steel,” June 18, 2019, https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2019/06/18/allegheny-county-health-department-suit-against-us-steel/

  1. [1]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↩
  2. [2]Jessi Quinn Alperin, “Clairton, PA, wants to be clear: Residents demand accountability from U.S. Steel,” Environmental Health Network, May 13, 2019, https://www.ehn.org/clairton-coke-works-air-pollution-2636784943.html; Kristina Marusic, “Pittsburgh’s air quality continues to decline, new report finds,” Environmental Health Network, April 24, 2019, https://www.ehn.org/pittsburghs-air-quality-continues-to-decline-new-report-finds-2635280543.html↩
  3. [3]Kris Maher, “U.S. Steel Suffers New Fire Knocking Out Pollution Controls in Plant Near Pittsburgh,” Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-steel-suffers-new-fire-knocking-out-pollution-controls-in-plant-near-pittsburgh-11560795102↩
  4. [4]KDKA, “Allegheny Co. Health Department Joins Federal Suit Against U.S. Steel,” June 18, 2019, https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2019/06/18/allegheny-county-health-department-suit-against-us-steel/↩

Just substitute an ‘n’ for the ‘q’ in ‘Iraq’ and try it again, but (oh!) with a bigger, more populous, and (oh!) different country

benfell

Updates

  1. Originally published,June 18, 2019, 7:36 pm.
  2. June 18, 2019, 9:45 pm:
    • The U.S. Steel plant in Clairton suffered yet another fire affecting the same two control rooms that were damaged in the previous fire.[1]

Iran

Having failed to persuade[2] with its earlier blurry black and white video, purportedly of Iranian forces removing an unexploded limpet mine from a tanker,[3] the Pentagon now has a sharper, color video (available via Politico’s tweet above).[4]

The video still doesn’t show national identification, although “Justin Bronk, a combat technology specialist at the Royal United Services Institute, said the patrol boat shown in the US military’s video was known to be the kind used by the IRGC.”[5] I would advise waiting for independent expert analysis of the new video itself: The color balance seems way off to me, leading me to suspect the color is not in the original, and I don’t understand why the Pentagon would first release a blurry black and white video if it had this much sharper color version available.

This evidence seems post hoc to me—actually, I just think they’re fabricating it just as fast as they can—and I’m thinking about those headlines I’ve seen about “deep-faking,” where anybody can be made to appear to have said or done anything—this doesn’t strike me as even a particularly good example of that. I am now inclined toward number three in my earlier list of possibilities:

Some or all of it is bullshit:

[T]he Japanese operator of Kokuka Courageous said the crew saw “flying objects” just before the attack, suggesting the tanker was damaged by something other than mines. Yutaka Katada, the company president, said reports of a mine attack were “false”.[6]

Avenues of information from the region are limited. The U.S. can pretty much say what it wants, claim whatever it wants to claim, and not many folks are going to question it. Remember, John Bolton, who is now Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, has been lusting for war with Iran for decades and he has falsified claims in the past.[7] Further remember that journalists have a long history of falling into line even with dubious White House and Pentagon claims on international affairs.[8][9]

Actually, it turns out that lots of people are skeptical—just not enough of them being journalists, and Andrew Butters has a blistering critique in the Columbia Journalism Review of “the hysterical way America’s relationship with Iran is covered in the US press.”[10] Jeff Schogol wrote for Task and Purpose that “not a single U.S. official has provided a shred of proof linking Iran to the explosive devices found on the merchant ships.”[11] An interview on National Public Radio yesterday illustrates the problems that 1) the Trump administration seems determined to sink the Iran nuclear deal that Europe would like to preserve, 2) the U.S. has a history of fabricating evidence in the Middle East (and elsewhere, as Butters points out[12]), and 3) the Trump administration has accumulated a reputation for falsehood.[13] This new video really doesn’t alleviate those doubts.

It’d be nice if our delusional raging narcissist-in-chief will finally realize that he needs to be credible with other people besides his base. I am not holding my breath.

Andrew Lee Butters, “What the press gets wrong on the US-Iran relationship,” Columbia Journalism Review, June 17, 2019, https://www.cjr.org/opinion/what-the-press-gets-wrong-on-the-us-iran-relationship.php

Jackie Northam, “White House Struggles To Convince Allies That Iran Is Responsible For Tanker Attacks,” National Public Radio, June 17, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/06/17/733497801/white-house-struggles-to-convince-allies-that-iran-is-responsible-for-tanker-att

Jeff Schogol, “As the US sends 1,000 more troops to Middle East, the Pentagon is a rudderless ship caught in a storm,” Task and Purpose, June 17, 2019, https://taskandpurpose.com/pentagon-adrift-iran

Al Jazeera, “US releases new images from suspected attacks on Gulf tankers,” June 18, 2019, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/pentagon-releases-images-gulf-oman-attack-190618055528966.html

Deutschewelle, “Germany says there is ‘strong evidence’ Iran behind tanker attacks,” June 18, 2019, https://www.dw.com/en/germany-says-there-is-strong-evidence-iran-behind-tanker-attacks/a-49248524

Pittsburgh

Kris Maher, “U.S. Steel Suffers New Fire Knocking Out Pollution Controls in Plant Near Pittsburgh,” Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-steel-suffers-new-fire-knocking-out-pollution-controls-in-plant-near-pittsburgh-11560795102

  1. [1]Kris Maher, “U.S. Steel Suffers New Fire Knocking Out Pollution Controls in Plant Near Pittsburgh,” Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-steel-suffers-new-fire-knocking-out-pollution-controls-in-plant-near-pittsburgh-11560795102↩
  2. [2]Jackie Northam, “White House Struggles To Convince Allies That Iran Is Responsible For Tanker Attacks,” National Public Radio, June 17, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/06/17/733497801/white-house-struggles-to-convince-allies-that-iran-is-responsible-for-tanker-att; Jeff Schogol, “As the US sends 1,000 more troops to Middle East, the Pentagon is a rudderless ship caught in a storm,” Task and Purpose, June 17, 2019, https://taskandpurpose.com/pentagon-adrift-iran↩
  3. [3]Nick Allen, Raf Sanchez, and Rozina Sabur, “US releases footage ‘showing Iran removing unexploded mine’ from stricken oil tanker,” Telegraph, June 14, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/14/us-releases-footage-showing-iran-removing-unexploded-mine-stricken/; Julian Borger and Patrick Wintour, “US says video shows Iranian military removing mine from tanker,” Guardian, June 14, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/13/mike-pompeo-iran-gulf-oil-tanker-attacks↩
  4. [4]Al Jazeera, “US releases new images from suspected attacks on Gulf tankers,” June 18, 2019, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/pentagon-releases-images-gulf-oman-attack-190618055528966.html↩
  5. [5]Al Jazeera, “US releases new images from suspected attacks on Gulf tankers,” June 18, 2019, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/pentagon-releases-images-gulf-oman-attack-190618055528966.html↩
  6. [6]Nick Allen, Raf Sanchez, and Rozina Sabur, “US releases footage ‘showing Iran removing unexploded mine’ from stricken oil tanker,” Telegraph, June 14, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/14/us-releases-footage-showing-iran-removing-unexploded-mine-stricken/↩
  7. [7]Dexter Filkins, “John Bolton on the Warpath,” New Yorker, April 29, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/06/john-bolton-on-the-warpath↩
  8. [8]J. Herbert Altschull, Agents of Power: The Media and Public Policy, 2nd ed. (White Plains, NY: Longman, 1995); David Halberstam, The Powers That Be (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 2000); Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon, 2002).↩
  9. [9]David Benfell, “John Bolton’s wet dream may turn real,” Irregular Bullshit, June 14, 2019, https://disunitedstates.com/2019/06/14/john-boltons-wet-dream-may-turn-real/↩
  10. [10]Andrew Lee Butters, “What the press gets wrong on the US-Iran relationship,” Columbia Journalism Review, June 17, 2019, https://www.cjr.org/opinion/what-the-press-gets-wrong-on-the-us-iran-relationship.php↩
  11. [11]Jeff Schogol, “As the US sends 1,000 more troops to Middle East, the Pentagon is a rudderless ship caught in a storm,” Task and Purpose, June 17, 2019, https://taskandpurpose.com/pentagon-adrift-iran↩
  12. [12]Andrew Lee Butters, “What the press gets wrong on the US-Iran relationship,” Columbia Journalism Review, June 17, 2019, https://www.cjr.org/opinion/what-the-press-gets-wrong-on-the-us-iran-relationship.php↩
  13. [13]Jackie Northam, “White House Struggles To Convince Allies That Iran Is Responsible For Tanker Attacks,” National Public Radio, June 17, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/06/17/733497801/white-house-struggles-to-convince-allies-that-iran-is-responsible-for-tanker-att↩

Oh, that other requirement to be a politician? A psychopathic, narcissistic, or Machiavellian personality

benfell

Democracy

In an interesting coincidence, George Monbiot starts from a different place, two psychology classes he took, and reaches a similar conclusion to my own, yesterday, eschewing representative democracy (a republic) in favor of a system that promotes kindness and caring.[1]

I’ve only had one psychology class, deeply rooted in Sigmund Freud’s pathologies, when I attended American River College, in Sacramento, in the 1970s. But with his two, Monbiot gets to a point often, but not often enough, suspected, that the style of politics and electioneering we have today rewards people with “psychopathic, narcissistic or Machiavellian personalities.” Which, to summarize Monbiot, is a hell of a way to run a country.[2] Another point not made often enough: Though a delusional raging narcissist, Donald Trump is a symptom of the disease, not the disease, who is simply too obvious to ignore, while his predecessors were more circumspect.

Indeed, to read the the Federalist Papers, at least as far as I’ve read them, is to read insufferable snobbery. Some of the arguments for a more powerful central government are, for all intents and purposes, monarchist. Indeed, despite the United States having so recently fought a revolution to free itself from monarchy, John Jay, later the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, unapologetically begins “Federalist no. 5” by citing a letter from Queen Anne arguing for the union of England and Scotland. Bigger is better, she argues, in terms that evoke the elite contest to control people, territories, and resources, yet promise peace (at least between Scots and the English) and trade.[3] Would I dare to suggest that the authors of the Federalist Papers, three of the vaulted “founding fathers” of the United States shared the characteristics Monbiot points to? Let the record show: I’m awfully tempted.

George Monbiot, “Outer Turmoil,” June 17, 2019, https://www.monbiot.com/2019/06/17/outer-turmoil/

  1. [1]George Monbiot, “Outer Turmoil,” June 17, 2019, https://www.monbiot.com/2019/06/17/outer-turmoil/↩
  2. [2]George Monbiot, “Outer Turmoil,” June 17, 2019, https://www.monbiot.com/2019/06/17/outer-turmoil/↩
  3. [3]Kelly Kyuzawa with Robert Brammer, eds., “The Federalist Papers,” Congress, May 3, 2016, https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/The+Federalist+Papers↩

Real Democracy, not the fake kind

benfell

There is a new blog post entitled, “The species we must become: On direct democracy, or why its alleged bugs are features.”

Brexit

It seems that some Tories are waking up to the realization that a leadership change changes nothing about Brexit. (As if there was ever any shortage of people who have said this all along.) The trouble here is that even this realization is simply being subsumed to the power struggle,[1] which is what Brexit had become.[2]

But it’s worse than that because even though a majority in Parliament opposes it, no-deal is still the default.[3] The hard Brexiteers can get their way simply by waiting it all out through October. That is, if the government isn’t forced to call a general election, likely to be “disastrous” for the Tories[4] and that threatens to put Nigel Farage[5] in at 10 Downing Street.[6]

Real democracy may suck (it threatens rather than empowers the rich, which is why James Madison specifically opposed it.[7]) but it sure the hell beats this. Y’all really ought to try it some time.

Michael Savage and Toby Helm, “Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit plan ‘will trigger early election,’” Guardian, June 15, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/15/boris-johnson-no-deal-brexit-plan-will-trigger-early-election

  1. [1]Michael Savage and Toby Helm, “Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit plan ‘will trigger early election,’” Guardian, June 15, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/15/boris-johnson-no-deal-brexit-plan-will-trigger-early-election↩
  2. [2]David Benfell, “Brexit hits the fan,” Irregular Bullshit, January 18, 2019, https://disunitedstates.com/2019/01/18/brexit-hits-the-fan/↩
  3. [3]Jack Maidment, “Theresa May’s deal defeated again by 58 votes – PM hints at general election to break deadlock,” Telegraph, March 29, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/03/29/brexit-latest-news-theresa-may-final-push-mps-prepare-vote-withdrawal/↩
  4. [4]Michael Savage and Toby Helm, “Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit plan ‘will trigger early election,’” Guardian, June 15, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/15/boris-johnson-no-deal-brexit-plan-will-trigger-early-election↩
  5. [5]Sam Knight, “The Alarming Return of Nigel Farage,” New Yorker, May 21, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-alarming-return-of-nigel-farage↩
  6. [6]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↩
  7. [7]James Madison, “Federalist No. 10,” in The Federalist Papers, ed. Garry Wills (1982; repr., New York: Bantam, 2003), 50-58.↩

Good news, bad news on self-driving cars

benfell

Self-driving cars

As Ryan Felton argued over two years ago, Uber may well have been over-optimistic in betting the bank on self-driving technology, which is to say, it may go bankrupt before it can eliminate human drivers,[1] and really, the same argument applies to Lyft:

For decades ahead, this fusion of human minds and machine reflexes will likely be the norm. Researchers at Cleveland State University estimate that only 10 to 30 percent of all vehicles will be fully self driving by 2030. That’s in line with predictions from others—a PwC analysis estimates that 12% of all vehicles will be fully autonomous by then. Initially, all fully self-driving vehicles will be Level 4—that is, they have to be in geographically constrained areas, and will only operate in good weather, as does Waymo’s fleet of self-driving vans that it is testing in Phoenix. Truly autonomous, aka Level 5, cars are still science fiction. . . .
That could have huge implications for the fortunes of companies like Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk said would transform its existing fleet of cars into a 1 million-strong robo-taxi armada by 2020—something few analysts believe is feasible. It could also spell doom for companies such as Uber and Lyft, which aren’t yet profitable and might not be until they can cut out their high human costs—that is, removing drivers from vehicles.[2]

What’s cool, though, is that the advances being made in developing self-driving cars are being added to new human-driven models, making the latter significantly safer.[3]

But it’s all still bad news for me: If Lyft goes out of business because its business model is unsustainable (which, one has to assume, it likely will), I’ll be out of the only job I can find, even with a fucking Ph.D. And in the meantime, I’m not getting paid shit, so it isn’t like I can afford to save any money for an entirely foreseeable impending catastrophe: I’m working seven days a week just trying, not very successfully, to keep my head above water. And oh yeah, winter is coming, when icy conditions will increase my risks and limit the days I can work. Even in Pittsburgh, where my costs are indeed significantly lower, my income has dropped to match. My situation doesn’t appear sustainable here either.

(And I really wish people would stop with the “start your own business” or “write a book” suggestions. In the modern world, these require marketing ability. If I could market, I could market my way into a job.)

Christopher Mims, “Self-Driving Cars Have a Problem: Safer Human-Driven Ones,” Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/self-driving-cars-have-a-problem-safer-human-driven-ones-11560571203

Hong Kong

Natasha Khan and Chun Han Wong, “Hong Kong Suspends Extradition Bill That Sparked Protests,” Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-to-suspend-controversial-extradition-bill-11560579580

Brexit

Boris Johnson got away with lying.[4] Again. Now he seems most likely to be prime minister.[5] The parallels between British and U.S. politics, dating back to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher on neoliberalism, now apparently to be with Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, are becoming far too eery.

Robert Hutton and Tim Ross, “His Critics Say He Lies, But Tories Want to Trust Boris Johnson,” Bloomberg, June 14, 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-14/his-critics-say-he-lies-but-tories-want-to-trust-boris-johnson

  1. [1]Ryan Felton, “Uber Is Doomed,” Jalopnik, February 24, 2017, https://jalopnik.com/uber-is-doomed-1792634203↩
  2. [2]Christopher Mims, “Self-Driving Cars Have a Problem: Safer Human-Driven Ones,” Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/self-driving-cars-have-a-problem-safer-human-driven-ones-11560571203↩
  3. [3]Christopher Mims, “Self-Driving Cars Have a Problem: Safer Human-Driven Ones,” Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/self-driving-cars-have-a-problem-safer-human-driven-ones-11560571203↩
  4. [4]Gareth Davies, “Boris Johnson has misconduct allegations quashed in High Court,” Telegraph, June 7, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/07/boris-johnson-has-misconduct-allegations-quashed-high-court/↩
  5. [5]Robert Hutton and Tim Ross, “His Critics Say He Lies, But Tories Want to Trust Boris Johnson,” Bloomberg, June 14, 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-14/his-critics-say-he-lies-but-tories-want-to-trust-boris-johnson↩

John Bolton’s wet dream may turn real

benfell

Iran

“I think Iran is showing that it has teeth,” said Charles Hollis, a former British diplomat in Tehran who is now managing director of the Falanx Assynt consultancy. “It’s a way of showing that if they are backed into a corner they are not without means of causing grief.”[1]

I see three additional possibilities, none of which I regard as particularly more likely than any of the others:

  1. Iran’s government has, or perhaps the Revolutionary Guards have, concluded that if war is to come, it’s better to get on with it sooner rather than later. Their assessment would be due to economic sanctions diminishing Iranian war capability (if they in fact do).
  2. A “false flag” operation by either the U.S. or its allies, including Israel.

    Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, said “suspicious doesn’t begin to describe” the incident in Gulf of Oman. He previously suggested without evidence that Israel was staging the attacks to undermine Iran.[2]

    The video is blurry and black and white. Even if we accept Mike Pompeo’s claim that the attack required a certain level of expertise and weaponry,[3] such a video does not support attribution to any particular state actor.

  3. Some or all of it is bullshit:

    [T]he Japanese operator of Kokuka Courageous said the crew saw “flying objects” just before the attack, suggesting the tanker was damaged by something other than mines. Yutaka Katada, the company president, said reports of a mine attack were “false”.[4]

    Avenues of information from the region are limited. The U.S. can pretty much say what it wants, claim whatever it wants to claim, and not many folks are going to question it. Remember, John Bolton, who is now Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, has been lusting for war with Iran for decades and he has falsified claims in the past.[5] Further remember that journalists have a long history of falling into line even with dubious White House and Pentagon claims on international affairs.[6]

The Telegraph has the video.[7] Trust nothing, especially appeals to “classified” evidence.[8]

Remember as well that Donald Trump 1) can use a distraction or two, 2) relies almost exclusively on various bullying tactics to “negotiate,” and 3) is stymied when bullying tactics fail. With number three on that list, and Bolton’s lust for war, the situation with Iran can only be described as extremely dangerous. This would not be a war the U.S. can win, any more than it won in Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq. Many, possibly millions of, people will die all so Bolton can get a hard-on.

Nick Allen, Raf Sanchez, and Rozina Sabur, “US releases footage ‘showing Iran removing unexploded mine’ from stricken oil tanker,” Telegraph, June 14, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/14/us-releases-footage-showing-iran-removing-unexploded-mine-stricken/

Julian Borger and Patrick Wintour, “US says video shows Iranian military removing mine from tanker,” Guardian, June 14, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/13/mike-pompeo-iran-gulf-oil-tanker-attacks

Donald Trump

Donald Trump “is historically unpopular for a President by many measures, but no matter what he does the allegiance of some forty per cent of the American public has so far remained unwavering.”[9] Presumably that’s based on nine percent response rate polling.

Susan B. Glasser, “Forget “No Collusion.” Trump Is Now Pro-Collusion,” New Yorker, June 13, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/forget-no-collusion-trump-is-now-pro-collusion

Ride sharing

Sarah Holder, “Uber and Lyft Really Don’t Want California to Pass This Worker Rights Bill,” Atlantic, June 13, 2019, https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/06/gig-economy-employment-law-california-bill-ab-5-uber-lyft/591565/

  1. [1]Nick Allen, Raf Sanchez, and Rozina Sabur, “US releases footage ‘showing Iran removing unexploded mine’ from stricken oil tanker,” Telegraph, June 14, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/14/us-releases-footage-showing-iran-removing-unexploded-mine-stricken/↩
  2. [2]Nick Allen, Raf Sanchez, and Rozina Sabur, “US releases footage ‘showing Iran removing unexploded mine’ from stricken oil tanker,” Telegraph, June 14, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/14/us-releases-footage-showing-iran-removing-unexploded-mine-stricken/↩
  3. [3]Nick Allen, Raf Sanchez, and Rozina Sabur, “US releases footage ‘showing Iran removing unexploded mine’ from stricken oil tanker,” Telegraph, June 14, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/14/us-releases-footage-showing-iran-removing-unexploded-mine-stricken/; Julian Borger and Patrick Wintour, “US says video shows Iranian military removing mine from tanker,” Guardian, June 14, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/13/mike-pompeo-iran-gulf-oil-tanker-attacks↩
  4. [4]Nick Allen, Raf Sanchez, and Rozina Sabur, “US releases footage ‘showing Iran removing unexploded mine’ from stricken oil tanker,” Telegraph, June 14, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/14/us-releases-footage-showing-iran-removing-unexploded-mine-stricken/↩
  5. [5]Dexter Filkins, “John Bolton on the Warpath,” New Yorker, April 29, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/06/john-bolton-on-the-warpath↩
  6. [6]J. Herbert Altschull, Agents of Power: The Media and Public Policy, 2nd ed. (White Plains, NY: Longman, 1995); David Halberstam, The Powers That Be (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 2000); Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon, 2002).↩
  7. [7]Nick Allen, Raf Sanchez, and Rozina Sabur, “US releases footage ‘showing Iran removing unexploded mine’ from stricken oil tanker,” Telegraph, June 14, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/14/us-releases-footage-showing-iran-removing-unexploded-mine-stricken/↩
  8. [8]The claim that evidence is “classified” is an excuse for not supplying that evidence. It is unacceptable in lieu of the actual evidence.↩
  9. [9]Susan B. Glasser, “Forget “No Collusion.” Trump Is Now Pro-Collusion,” New Yorker, June 13, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/forget-no-collusion-trump-is-now-pro-collusion↩

If you vote for the lesser of two evils, do not be surprised when you get evil

benfell

Donald Trump

I honestly don’t understand how it is that people can vote, election after election, for “the lesser of two evils” and be surprised or outraged when they get evil. They voted for evil, they got evil, and then they complain about evil. There’s some kind of insanity here, as if you can support evil, and yet, as if by pulling a rabbit from a hat, get virtue.

The 2016 election gave us a meaningful choice between just two candidates, neither of whom I could endorse: Hillary Clinton, who can’t keep her nose clean, and Donald Trump, who has no bottom: He’s a black hole. When you think he’s already sunk as low as he can get, you’re missing the meaning of a black hole.

Yes, I saw his latest offering to the already outraged,[1] guaranteed to further outrage them. This isn’t even, by a long shot, the lowest he’s sunk (for that, I’d suggest family separation and putting children in cages[2]). So I don’t care. It’s not sane to care.

But oh, say the wannabe impeachers, what about “democracy?” First, it’s a republic not a democracy.[3] Second, a system that gives us a choice between Clinton and Trump is dubious at best.

Third, you who like this fucking system so much, you supported a race of the alleged “lessers of evil” to the deepest depths of Hell, you’ve gotten what you deserve. Because this is what it produces. You asked for it. You got it. Quit complaining about it. (And no, I have not forgotten that you also blamed me for not voting and told me I had no right to complain.[4] So fuck off.)

Uighurs

(This is the first time I have seen the word ‘Uighur’ spelled with a ‘y’ rather than an ‘i.’ I continue here to use the variation I have seen in the past.)

Asia News, “Many Muslim countries ‘silent’ on Uyghur persecution,” June 6, 2019, http://asianews.it/news-en/Many-Muslim-countries-silent-on-Uyghur-persecution-47211.html

O. J. Simpson

13_09:24:28-13
There’s a great story behind this photograph, by Allen J. Schaben, for the Los Angeles Times, of O. J. Simpson leading the California Highway Patrol on a slow-motion chase on June 17, 1994, and you can read it here. With Donald Trump deadening souls, this’ll do you good. (Fair use.)

  1. [1]Colby Itkowitz and Tom Hamburger, “Trump says he’d consider accepting information from foreign governments on his opponents,” Washington Post, June 12, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-hed-consider-accepting-dirt-from-foreign-governments-on-his-opponents/2019/06/12/b84ba860-8d5c-11e9-8f69-a2795fca3343_story.html; Alex Leary, “Trump Says He’d Consider Accepting Information on His Rivals From Foreign Governments,” Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-says-hed-consider-accepting-information-on-his-rivals-from-foreign-governments-11560387251; Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, and Daniel Lippman, “Trump gives the impeachment crowd a gift,” Politico, June 13, 2019, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2019/06/13/trump-gives-the-impeachment-crowd-a-gift-446663↩
  2. [2]British Broadcasting Corporation, “Trump migrant separation policy: Children ‘in cages’ in Texas,” June 18, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44518942; Nancy Cook, “Trump aides plan fresh immigration crackdowns before midterms,” Politico, June 18, 2018, https://www.politico.com/amp/story/2018/06/18/trump-aides-plan-fresh-immigration-crackdowns-before-midterms-652246; Kevin Liptak, Kaitlan Collins, Jeff Zeleny, and Sarah Westwood, “White House scrambles to contain immigration fallout,” CNN, June 18, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/immigration-white-house-pressure/index.html; Nesrine Malik, “Trump is creating his American caliphate, and democracy has no defence,” Guardian, June 18, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/18/trump-american-caliphate-democracy-arab-world; Reuters, “Tent city for immigrant children in Texas,” June 19, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/pictures-report-idUSRTX69U2N; Brianna Rennix, “Understanding The Administration’s Monstrous Immigration Policies,” Current Affairs, June 17, 2018, https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/06/understanding-the-administrations-monstrous-immigration-policies↩
  3. [3]James Madison, "Federalist No. 10," in The Federalist Papers, ed. Garry Wills (1982; repr., New York: Bantam, 2003).↩
  4. [4]David Benfell, “Why I do not vote,” Not Housebroken, February 23, 2016, https://disunitedstates.org/2016/02/23/why-i-do-not-vote/↩

Medical reversals point to underlying problems

benfell

Inquiry

I had already noted that medical research seems much too often to confound correlation with causation.[1] Now issues with reversals and sampling are emerging.[2]

After reviewing 3,000 articles, their work uncovered 296 medical reversals. About 92 percent of studies were conducted on subjects in high-income countries. Conversely, only 8 percent took place in low or middle-income countries.[3]

These are all serious methodological issues. Reversals suggest that studies aren’t being replicated, meaning a single study is being accepted as authoritative when a basic positivist precept calls for studies to be repeated to confirm original results. The sampling issue means that the sample is not representative and only one step up from a convenience sample, making the replication that isn’t happening all the more important. Correlation fails to establish a causal relationship: Assumed causal relationships can be spurious, with actual causes overlooked and false causes attributed; replication would help to minimize these failures. I can’t condemn these methodological failures strongly enough. This isn’t science anymore but rather the pretense of science: It’s absolute bullshit, all the worse because people trust their lives to it.

Tauren Dyson, “Scientists declare nearly 400 medical practices ‘ineffective,’” United Press International, June 11, 2019, https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2019/06/11/Scientists-declare-nearly-400-medical-practices-ineffective/4451560281604/

Census

Surprise, surprise! Donald Trump is hiding something.

Matt Zapotosky and Trump asserts executive privilege to shield documents on census citizenship question,” Washington Post, June 12, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/trump-asserts-executive-privilege-to-shield-documents-on-census-citizenship-question/2019/06/12/971263c8-8d11-11e9-adf3-f70f78c156e8_story.html

Brexit

When I used this cartoon before, I didn’t have an article to explain. But really:
3031
Cartoon by Ben Jennings, via the Guardian, June 9, 2019, fair use.

I was reluctant to use something from the British press on this one because, just as with coverage of events in the U.S., sometimes, it’s better to get a foreign perspective. In this case, I was wanting something from outside the U.K. Amy Davidson Sorkin will do nicely.[4]

Amy Davidson Sorkin, “The Contest to Replace Theresa May Raises an Unexpected Question: How Many Tories Inhaled?” New Yorker, June 11, 1029, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-contest-to-replace-theresa-may-raises-an-unexpected-question-how-many-tories-inhaled

Joe Biden

“I believe that If we’re successful in this [2012] election, when we’re successful in this election, that the fever may break, because there’s a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that. My hope, my expectation, is that after the election, now that it turns out that the goal of beating Obama doesn’t make much sense because I’m not running again, that we can start getting some cooperation again,” [Barack] Obama said.[5]

Some people never learn:

“The thing that will fundamentally change things is with Donald Trump out of the White House. Not a joke,” [Joe] Biden told reporters at a diner in Concord, New Hampshire. “You will see an epiphany occur among many of my Republican friends.”[6]

Yes, I know, this is pathetic. But sometimes, somebody has to say the fucking obvious:

Every Democratic contender has to answer how they’ll get anything done with Congress so deeply divided along ideological lines, especially given the difficult of winning the Senate in 2020. But of all the answers so far, [Joe] Biden’s may be the most unrealistic.[7]

(And, obviously, it has to be somebody other than me.)

Matt Ford, “Someone Please Tell Joe Biden That Bipartisanship Is Dead,” New Republic, June 12, 2019, https://newrepublic.com/article/154183/someone-please-tell-joe-biden-bipartisanship-dead

  1. [1]David Benfell, “Big Data (Mining),” Irregular Bullshit, May 30, 2019, https://disunitedstates.com/2019/05/30/big-data-mining/↩
  2. [2]Tauren Dyson, “Scientists declare nearly 400 medical practices ‘ineffective,’” United Press International, June 11, 2019, https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2019/06/11/Scientists-declare-nearly-400-medical-practices-ineffective/4451560281604/↩
  3. [3]Tauren Dyson, “Scientists declare nearly 400 medical practices ‘ineffective,’” United Press International, June 11, 2019, https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2019/06/11/Scientists-declare-nearly-400-medical-practices-ineffective/4451560281604/↩
  4. [4]Amy Davidson Sorkin, “The Contest to Replace Theresa May Raises an Unexpected Question: How Many Tories Inhaled?” New Yorker, June 11, 1029, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-contest-to-replace-theresa-may-raises-an-unexpected-question-how-many-tories-inhaled↩
  5. [5]Byron Tau, “Obama: Republican ‘fever’ will break after the election,” Politico, June 1, 2012, https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2012/06/obama-republican-fever-will-break-after-the-election-125059↩
  6. [6]Eric Bradner and Gregory Krieg, “Joe Biden predicts a post-Trump ‘epiphany’ for Republicans,” CNN, May 14, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/politics/joe-biden-republicans-trump-epiphany/index.html↩
  7. [7]Matt Ford, “Someone Please Tell Joe Biden That Bipartisanship Is Dead,” New Republic, June 12, 2019, https://newrepublic.com/article/154183/someone-please-tell-joe-biden-bipartisanship-dead↩