Month: June 2020

The capitalist god is still getting its human sacrifice

benfell

Updates

  1. Originally published, June 11, 7:08 am.
  2. June 12, 5:07 am:
    • My mother has been convinced I am confusing ACT UP! with another group in the below, but one of the articles she sent me confirms my recollection. In San Francisco, there are two ACT UP groups: ACT UP Golden Gate, which succeeded in pushing for more research, and which I’m guessing Gregg Gonsalves hails from, and ACT UP San Francisco. The latter does indeed deny that HIV causes AIDS and this idea has been banging around since the 1980’s, well before when I encountered it in the 1990’s along Market Street, probably very near where ACT UP (both groups) meet today:[1]

      Why has denialism sprung up? Actually, it’s a revival. The deniers’ main claim, that HIV does not cause AIDS, has circulated like a rumor since the 1980s—based largely on the work of one Berkeley biologist, Peter Duesberg. The theory has been so thoroughly repudiated by the science that it now resembles more fantasy than hypothesis.[2]

Pandemic

My recollection of ACT UP! in San Francisco is of folks who denied that HIV was responsible for AIDS, who accordingly resisted using condoms, and who glued conspiracy theories about AIDS to streetlight poles. So I’m more than a little surprised to see an alumnus from this group as an epidemiologist working on the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. But here Gregg Gonsalves is, in a New York Magazine interview, seeking to help today’s protesters navigate the pandemic.[3]

We’re at a moment of conservative backlash to public-health professionals. They accuse you [Gregg Gonsalves] and others of hypocrisy for backing the protests against police brutality while advocating shutdowns and social distancing. I want to ask you first what you think about the premise implied here — that the pointy-headed public-health people have been bossing people around. 

You know, if only. If only the public-health people had been in charge. And that’s not just Republicans. Bill de Blasio was basically giving the hand to his department of public health; public health was marginalized even by ostensibly one of the top Democrats in the country. At the federal level, they all serve at the president’s pleasure. There were some very tough choices to be made, and often what the science says is not palatable to our leaders. Even now. In Connecticut, we’d love the governor to release people from prison, and he doesn’t want to do it. If we think about the inability of Governor Cuomo to confront the nursing industry, if we think about the meatpacking plants.[4]

The pandemic is not over[5]—the articles today emphasize that[6]—but as I have said repeatedly, we have refused to support people through the lockdown,[7] and naturally, the cops are making everything worse with their usual asinine response to protests.[8]

The capitalist god is getting its human sacrifice.[9] And it isn’t just the elites who don’t care.[10]

Alexis C. Madrigal, “America Is Giving Up on the Pandemic,” Atlantic, June 7, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/06/america-giving-up-on-pandemic/612796/

Irin Carmon, “An Epidemiologist’s Lessons From the ACT UP Era, for Today’s Protesters,” New York, June 10, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/is-it-safe-to-protest-during-a-pandemic.html

  1. [1]Jim Nelson, “The AIDS Deniers,” Gentleman’s Quarterly, June 16, 2017, https://www.gq.com/story/the-aids-deniers↩
  2. [2]Jim Nelson, “The AIDS Deniers,” Gentleman’s Quarterly, June 16, 2017, https://www.gq.com/story/the-aids-deniers↩
  3. [3]Irin Carmon, “An Epidemiologist’s Lessons From the ACT UP Era, for Today’s Protesters,” New York, June 10, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/is-it-safe-to-protest-during-a-pandemic.html↩
  4. [4]Irin Carmon, “An Epidemiologist’s Lessons From the ACT UP Era, for Today’s Protesters,” New York, June 10, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/is-it-safe-to-protest-during-a-pandemic.html↩
  5. [5]Joel Achenbach et al., “Coronavirus hot spots erupt across the country; experts warn of second wave in South,” Washington Post, May 20, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/coronavirus-hot-spots-erupt-across-the-country-experts-warn-of-possible-outbreaks-in-south/2020/05/20/49bc6d10-9ab4-11ea-a282-386f56d579e6_story.html; Joel Achenbach, Rachel Weiner, and Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Study estimates 24 states still have uncontrolled coronavirus spread,” Washington Post, May 22, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/study-estimates-24-states-still-have-uncontrolled-coronavirus-spread/2020/05/22/d3032470-9c43-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html; Irin Carmon, “An Epidemiologist’s Lessons From the ACT UP Era, for Today’s Protesters,” New York, June 10, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/is-it-safe-to-protest-during-a-pandemic.html; Emma Farge with Peter Graff, “WHO warns of ‘second peak’ in areas where COVID-19 declining,” Reuters, May 25, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-peak/who-warns-of-second-peak-in-areas-where-covid-19-declining-idUSKBN2311VJ; Alexis C. Madrigal, “America Is Giving Up on the Pandemic,” Atlantic, June 7, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/06/america-giving-up-on-pandemic/612796/; Reis Thebault and Abigail Hauslohner, “A deadly ‘checkerboard’: Covid-19’s new surge across rural America,” Washington Post, May 24, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/24/coronavirus-rural-america-outbreaks/↩
  6. [6]Irin Carmon, “An Epidemiologist’s Lessons From the ACT UP Era, for Today’s Protesters,” New York, June 10, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/is-it-safe-to-protest-during-a-pandemic.html; Alexis C. Madrigal, “America Is Giving Up on the Pandemic,” Atlantic, June 7, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/06/america-giving-up-on-pandemic/612796/↩
  7. [7]Anne Applebaum, “The Coronavirus Called America’s Bluff,” Atlantic, March 15, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-showed-america-wasnt-task/608023/; David Benfell, “Elite priorities: Why social, animal, and environmental justice remains essential with COVID-19,” Not Housebroken, April 26, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/04/26/elite-priorities-why-social-animal-and-environmental-justice-remains-essential-with-covid-19/; David Blanchflower, “Pandemic Economics: ‘Much Worse, Very Quickly,” New York Review of Books, March 26, 2020, https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/03/26/pandemic-economics-much-worse-very-quickly/; Zak Cheney-Rice, “Even Naked, America Cannot See Itself,” New York, April 27, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/coronavirus-inequality-america.html; Amy Goldstein, “First, the coronavirus pandemic took their jobs. Then, it wiped out their health insurance,” Washington Post, April 18, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/first-the-coronavirus-pandemic-took-their-jobs-then-it-wiped-out-their-health-insurance/2020/04/18/1c2cb5bc-7d7c-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html; William Gumede, “The impact of coronavirus could compare to the Great Depression,” Al Jazeera, May 3, 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/impact-coronavirus-compare-great-depression-200420070542882.html; Kim Hart, “The coronavirus economy will devastate those who can least afford it,” Axios, March 23, 2020, https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-economy-layoffs-children-families-bad-d588cc93-ff26-4031-8be8-5654cce05a15.html; Zoë Hu, “A New Age of Destructive Austerity After the Coronavirus,” New Republic, April 23, 2020, https://newrepublic.com/article/157417/new-age-destructive-austerity-coronavirus; Sarah Jones, “Dear Rich People: Please Stop Hoarding Things,” New York, March 30, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/things-are-bad-and-rich-people-arent-helping.html; Hanna Kozlowska, “Coronavirus is revealing ugly truths about social structure in the US,” Quartz, March 14, 2020, https://qz.com/1818548/coronavirus-is-revealing-ugly-truths-about-social-structure-in-the-us/; Eric Levitz, “In the Age of the Coronavirus, Biden’s ‘Results’ Require Bernie’s ‘Revolution,’” New York, March 16, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/who-won-the-democratic-debate-between-biden-and-bernie-coronavirus.html; Joe Lowndes, “The Morbid Ideology Behind the Drive to Reopen America,” New Republic, April 30, 2020, https://newrepublic.com/article/157505/morbid-ideology-behind-drive-reopen-america; Tony Romm, “Uber drivers and other gig economy workers were promised unemployment benefits. It may be a long wait,” Washington Post, April 2, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/02/uber-airbnb-lyft-unemployment-coronavirus/; Jenny Schuetz, “America’s inequitable housing system is completely unprepared for coronavirus,” Brookings, March 12, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/03/12/americas-inequitable-housing-system-is-completely-unprepared-for-coronavirus/; Luke Taylor, “When coronavirus is behind us, will you still think of restaurant and bar workers?” Vox, March 21, 2020, https://www.vox.com/2020/3/21/21188210/coronavirus-restaurant-bar-workers-economy-service-industry; Reis Thebault, Andrew Ba Tran, and Vanessa Williams, “The coronavirus is infecting and killing black Americans at an alarmingly high rate,” Washington Post, April 7, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/07/coronavirus-is-infecting-killing-black-americans-an-alarmingly-high-rate-post-analysis-shows/; Funda Ustek-Spilda et al., “The untenable luxury of self-isolation,” New Internationalist, March 18, 2020, https://newint.org/features/2020/03/18/untenable-luxury-self-isolation; Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Denise Lu, and Gabriel J.X. Dance, “Location Data Says It All: Staying at Home During Coronavirus Is a Luxury,” New York Times, April 3, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/03/us/coronavirus-stay-home-rich-poor.html↩
  8. [8]Alexis C. Madrigal, “America Is Giving Up on the Pandemic,” Atlantic, June 7, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/06/america-giving-up-on-pandemic/612796/↩
  9. [9]David Benfell, “The capitalist death cult,” Not Housebroken, March 27, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/03/27/the-capitalist-death-cult/; David Benfell, “An impatient capitalist god demands human sacrifice. Now,” Not Housebroken, April 17, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/04/15/an-impatient-capitalist-god-demands-human-sacrifice-now/↩
  10. [10]Alexis C. Madrigal, “America Is Giving Up on the Pandemic,” Atlantic, June 7, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/06/america-giving-up-on-pandemic/612796/↩

Yes, it is possible to be safe without the police, at least in some places for a limited time

benfell

I’m going ahead and publishing this now. The weather has gotten interesting north of here—apparently a tornado near Beaver Falls—and a severe thunderstorm warning has been posted for at least very close to my area.

George Floyd

With so many examples of how humanity is not ready for anarchism, it’s quite a surprise to read an account of how a community protected itself without the police and without replicating the problems of the police.[1] I don’t know how sustainable this is or how widely applicable, but it’s quite a story and certainly worth looking at.

Meanwhile Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor looks more broadly, both historically and topically, at the issues the U.S. needs to address[2]—and of course, won’t. I had not seen her article when I tweeted my response to Chuck Wendig above, but I think we’re on the same page.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “How Do We Change America?” New Yorker, June 8, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-do-we-change-america

Hahrie Han, “What Happened When the Minneapolis Police Lost Legitimacy?” New York Times, June 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/opinion/floyd-minneapolis-police-protests.html

  1. [1]Hahrie Han, “What Happened When the Minneapolis Police Lost Legitimacy?” New York Times, June 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/opinion/floyd-minneapolis-police-protests.html↩
  2. [2]Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “How Do We Change America?” New Yorker, June 8, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-do-we-change-america↩

Even with the best of intentions, these graffiti artists exploited structural racism

benfell

George Floyd

black-lives-matter-downtown-pittsburgh-graffiti
Fig. 1. Looks lovely, doesn’t it? Except that this graffiti, painted by whites costumed as a construction crew and unmolested by police in a city that treats graffiti artists harshly, was enabled by structural racism, which is the larger subject of protest. Photograph by Jared Wickerham, undated, via Pittsburgh City Paper, June 9, 2020,[1] fair use.

Amanda Waltz, “Black Pittsburgh artists respond to graffiti protest mural produced by white team,” Pittsburgh City Paper, June 9, 2020, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/black-pittsburgh-artists-respond-to-graffiti-protest-mural-produced-by-white-team/Content?oid=17431125

Pandemic

Fingers in ears, singing “la la la” loudly, we refuse to hear that the pandemic still rages:[2]

Data from states that are now reporting some of their highest seven-day averages of new cases is disproving the notion that the country is seeing such a spike in cases solely because of the continued increase in testing, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.

Many of these states that have experienced an increase in cases have also had an increase in hospitalizations, with a handful of states also nearing bed capacity. Hospitalizations nationwide are difficult to track, with states reporting hospitalization numbers in varying ways, or not at all. Even states that do report hospitalization numbers may not have always received complete data from every hospital in the state at the time of their reports.[3]

Associated Press, “Pennsylvania GOP seeks to dismantle Wolf’s shutdown,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 9, 2020, https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-gop-seeks-to-dismantle-wolfs-shutdown/

Samantha Pell, Candace Buckner, and Jacqueline Dupree, “Coronavirus hospitalizations rise sharply in several states following Memorial Day,” Washington Post, June 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/06/09/coronavirus-hospitalizations-rising/

Dominic Rushe, “Fauci: coronavirus pandemic that ‘took over the planet’ is far from over,” Guardian, June 9, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/09/anthony-fauci-coronavirus-pandemic-far-from-over

  1. [1]Amanda Waltz, “Black Pittsburgh artists respond to graffiti protest mural produced by white team,” Pittsburgh City Paper, June 9, 2020, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/black-pittsburgh-artists-respond-to-graffiti-protest-mural-produced-by-white-team/Content?oid=17431125↩
  2. [2]Dominic Rushe, “Fauci: coronavirus pandemic that ‘took over the planet’ is far from over,” Guardian, June 9, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/09/anthony-fauci-coronavirus-pandemic-far-from-over↩
  3. [3]Samantha Pell, Candace Buckner, and Jacqueline Dupree, “Coronavirus hospitalizations rise sharply in several states following Memorial Day,” Washington Post, June 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/06/09/coronavirus-hospitalizations-rising/↩

On kente cloth and appropriation

benfell

Elon Musk

Instead, Elon Musk gets to manufacture automobiles, dig tunnels, and launch astronauts to the International Space Station. Seriously, how insane is this?

It appears Tesla workers were infected with COVID-19 prior to an agreement with Alameda County that allowed company to resume production in Fremont and so the company was not required to, and did not, report the cases to the county.[1]

Faiz Siddiqui, “Tesla defied county orders so it could restart production. Days later, workers tested positive for the coronavirus,” Washington Post, June 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/09/tesla-factory-coronavirus/

George Floyd

imrs.php
Fig. 1. Photograph by Manuel Balce Ceneta of the Associated Press, via the Washington Post, June 9, 2020,[2] fair use.

The concern I have with Congressional leaders wearing kente cloth stoles (figure 1) is with what’s called ‘appropriation,’ in which, as I understand it, a colonizer appropriates cultural objects of a colonized culture. The critique applies generally when whites, whose heritage is inextricable from colonialism and imperialism, deploy objects from other cultures with little regard for the cultures themselves.

I acknowledge the complaint, at least to the degree I understand it, but I also see treacherous ground: Cultural interchange happens. Is every white woman in a yoga class thus guilty? And what, really, are the boundaries here? Is this a charge applicable only to whites?

I suspect the charge of appropriation more strongly applies when the political leadership of a hegemonic world power deploys cultural artifacts, which is what I see with Nancy Pelosi and other congressmembers wearing the kente cloth. I can see where it might be different had they repudiated neoconservative policies, including the neoliberalism which neoconservatism sees as a moral imperative and which colonizes poor and working class people even today, but they most certainly have not.

I don’t really have an answer for all this and I’m not really one to say. In the case of the kente cloth, I’d very much rather hear from Blacks on this, some of whom do indeed seem disturbed.[3] Most of the response I’m seeing so far is more along the lines of Benjamin Dixon’s and Eric Haywood’s tweets, quoted above, which is that they are more concerned with the (predictably and woefully inadequate) political response to the protests than they are with the possible appropriation.

Robin Givhan, a fashion critic at the Washington Post, appears a little better placed to respond—and along with some useful background on kente cloth, she has some suggestions as to how the cloth might better have been used.[4]

Alicia Lee, “Congressional Democrats criticized for wearing Kente cloth at event honoring George Floyd,” CNN, June 8, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/politics/democrats-criticized-kente-cloth-trnd/index.html

Robin Givhan, “Congress’s kente cloth spectacle was a mess of contradictions,” Washington Post, June 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/06/09/congresss-kente-cloth-spectacle-was-mess-contradictions/

Censorship

Mark Zuckerberg has refused to take action against Donald Trump for inciting violence on Facebook[5] against Black protesters. But on spurious allegations of fraud, Facebook shut down (and later restored, after—this was in an earlier version of the article—the Sacramento Bee requested comment from Facebook’s legal department) Black Zebra’s page. The latter organization has been providing video documentary coverage of Black Lives Matters protests, especially since the George Floyd murder, directly through a social media presence and to the Sacramento Bee.[6]

Racism much?

Alex Hern, “Facebook moderators join criticism of Zuckerberg over Trump stance,” Guardian, June 8, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/08/facebook-moderators-criticism-mark-zuckerberg-donald-trump

Michael McGough, “Facebook page restored for Black Zebra, team covering Sacramento protests, after being disabled,” Sacramento Bee, June 9, 2020, https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article243401291.html

  1. [1]Faiz Siddiqui, “Tesla defied county orders so it could restart production. Days later, workers tested positive for the coronavirus,” Washington Post, June 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/09/tesla-factory-coronavirus/↩
  2. [2]Robin Givhan, “Congress’s kente cloth spectacle was a mess of contradictions,” Washington Post, June 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/06/09/congresss-kente-cloth-spectacle-was-mess-contradictions/↩
  3. [3]Alicia Lee, “Congressional Democrats criticized for wearing Kente cloth at event honoring George Floyd,” CNN, June 8, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/politics/democrats-criticized-kente-cloth-trnd/index.html↩
  4. [4]Robin Givhan, “Congress’s kente cloth spectacle was a mess of contradictions,” Washington Post, June 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/06/09/congresss-kente-cloth-spectacle-was-mess-contradictions/↩
  5. [5]Alex Hern, “Facebook moderators join criticism of Zuckerberg over Trump stance,” Guardian, June 8, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/08/facebook-moderators-criticism-mark-zuckerberg-donald-trump↩
  6. [6]Michael McGough, “Facebook page restored for Black Zebra, team covering Sacramento protests, after being disabled,” Sacramento Bee, June 9, 2020, https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article243401291.html↩

Now that rich folks’ property is safe…

benfell

George Floyd

And yeah, I was kinda wondering about this:

Miriam Berger, “Pittsburgh paper accused of barring black reporters from covering protests, censoring stories,” Washington Post, June 6, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2020/06/06/pittsburgh-post-gazette/

Recession

It’s official. We are in a recession which began in February. At least as I read their press release, they still blame the pandemic.[1]

National Bureau of Economic Research, “Determination of the February 2020 Peak in US Economic Activity,” June 8, 2020, https://www.nber.org/cycles/june2020.html

  1. [1]National Bureau of Economic Research, “Determination of the February 2020 Peak in US Economic Activity,” June 8, 2020, https://www.nber.org/cycles/june2020.html↩

The lessons of this recession will carry a high price

benfell

Updates

  1. Originally published, June 5, 2020 at 10:49 pm.
  2. June 6, 2020, 10:18 am:
  3. June 6, 12:25 pm:

Recession

There is a new blog post entitled, “Tipping point.”

[See update for June 6, 10:18 am.]

Kriston Capps, “What Happens When the Eviction Bans End?” CityLab, May 29, 2020, https://www.citylab.com/equity/2020/05/pay-rent-eviction-ban-coronavirus-housing-crisis-landlord/612277/

Eric Levitz, “Why the Shockingly Good Jobs Report Might Be Bad News,” New York, June 5, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/unemployment-jobs-report-congress-bls.html

Eli Rosenberg, “Unemployment rate drops to 13 percent, as the economy picked up jobs as states reopened,” Washington Post, June 5, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/05/may-2020-jobs-report/

The proof might be in the property values

benfell

George Floyd

When I saw the headline, “When Black lives are valued, property becomes worth saving,” on a Brookings Institute piece,[1] I immediately thought of the decrepit and rotting housing I have seen in so many neighborhoods around Pittsburgh that I referred to in my second reply to Mayor Bill Peduto (reproduced in a recent blog post[2]). This housing is allowed to rot, I thought, precisely because the lives of the human beings who live in it are not valued.

To be generous, that would be an imprecise rendering of Andre Perry and Jonathan Rothwell’s point.[3] They really return to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ point, without ever mentioning redlining, about the way that devalued properties rob Blacks of wealth. They merely allude to a larger point that indeed Blacks have been systematically robbed of wealth, beginning—only beginning—with slavery.[4] That said, Perry and Rothwell advocate a series of policy recommendations meant “to restore the value that racism has extracted from them. Those who are chiding protestors should redirect their pleas to policymakers who can do such a thing.”[5]

That said, the deprivation of wealth surely affects Black property owners’ ability to maintain their housing. In effect, redlining continues as lines of credit are constrained by the values of collateral property as well as by the incomes Blacks are most often able to earn.

Andre M. Perry and Jonathan Rothwell, “When Black lives are valued, property becomes worth saving,” Brookings Institute, June 3, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/06/03/when-black-lives-are-valued-property-becomes-worth-saving/

Recession

Associated Press, “1.9 million seek jobless aid even as reopenings slow layoffs,” Los Angeles Times, June 4, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-06-04/jobless-unemployment-claims-coronavirus

Pandemic

It sounds like the Lancet study reported last month that found risks and no benefit to hydroxychloroquine[6] was a meta-analysis, that is, a study that essentially aggregates the results from many studies to reach a conclusion. Here, the full data for one of those studies was not available, so even though the authors might have gained access to all the data for all the other studies, they chose to retract when (I’m guessing) peer reviewers raised questions about the one.[7] This is the intellectually honest thing to do and I have to praise them for it, but it is possible, perhaps even likely, that their conclusions were nonetheless correct.

It looks like the New England Journal of Medicine study also being retracted is being retracted for the same reason for the same data.[8] Whoops.

This is the purpose of peer review. A failure doesn’t mean the conclusion is wrong. It means that the support for that conclusion is inadequate. And yeah, especially in this case, it really sucks.

And my heart goes out to “Peter Lurie, a former top FDA official who now heads the Center for Science in the Public Interest, [who] called the [Lancet study] ‘another nail in the coffin for hydroxychloroquine — this time from the largest study ever.’”[9] Ouch. Seriously, ouch.

Jared S. Hopkins and Russell Gold, “Authors Retract Study That Found Risks of Using Antimalaria Drugs Against Covid-19,” Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/authors-retract-study-that-found-risks-of-using-antimalaria-drug-against-covid-19-11591299329

Charles Piller and Kelly Servick, “Two elite medical journals retract coronavirus papers over data integrity questions,” Science, June 4, 2020, https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/two-elite-medical-journals-retract-coronavirus-papers-over-data-integrity-questions

  1. [1]Andre M. Perry and Jonathan Rothwell, “When Black lives are valued, property becomes worth saving,” Brookings Institute, June 3, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/06/03/when-black-lives-are-valued-property-becomes-worth-saving/↩
  2. [2]David Benfell, “The reason the status quo is not the answer is that the status quo cannot be the answer,” Not Housebroken, June 1, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/06/01/the-reason-the-status-quo-is-not-the-answer-is-that-the-status-quo-cannot-be-the-answer/↩
  3. [3]Andre M. Perry and Jonathan Rothwell, “When Black lives are valued, property becomes worth saving,” Brookings Institute, June 3, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/06/03/when-black-lives-are-valued-property-becomes-worth-saving/↩
  4. [4]Sven Beckert, “Slavery and Capitalism,” Chronicle of Higher Education, December 12, 2014, https://www.chronicle.com/article/SlaveryCapitalism/150787/; Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” Atlantic, June 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/; Thomas M. Shapiro, ed., Great Divides, 3rd ed. (Boston: Mc Graw Hill, 2005).↩
  5. [5]Andre M. Perry and Jonathan Rothwell, “When Black lives are valued, property becomes worth saving,” Brookings Institute, June 3, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/06/03/when-black-lives-are-valued-property-becomes-worth-saving/↩
  6. [6]Ariana Eunjung Cha and Laurie McGinley, “Antimalarial drug touted by President Trump is linked to increased risk of death in coronavirus patients, study says,” Washington Post, May 22, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/22/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-study/↩
  7. [7]Jared S. Hopkins and Russell Gold, “Authors Retract Study That Found Risks of Using Antimalaria Drugs Against Covid-19,” Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/authors-retract-study-that-found-risks-of-using-antimalaria-drug-against-covid-19-11591299329; Charles Piller and Kelly Servick, “Two elite medical journals retract coronavirus papers over data integrity questions,” Science, June 4, 2020, doi: 10.1126/science.abd1697↩
  8. [8]Charles Piller and Kelly Servick, “Two elite medical journals retract coronavirus papers over data integrity questions,” Science, June 4, 2020, doi: 10.1126/science.abd1697↩
  9. [9]Ariana Eunjung Cha and Laurie McGinley, “Antimalarial drug touted by President Trump is linked to increased risk of death in coronavirus patients, study says,” Washington Post, May 22, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/22/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-study/↩

Pieties

benfell

George Floyd

There is another new blog post entitled, “Pieties in defense of the status quo.”

The charges against Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on George Floyd’s neck, have been upgraded to second degree murder and charges for aiding and abetting that murder have been laid against the other officers at the scene.[1] I remain skeptical that any charges would have been brought whatsoever had the protests not been so widespread and intense.

Also, the only surprising thing about Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s resistance to Donald Trump’s threat to send in the troops to quell protests over the murder of George Floyd is that he did so publicly.[2]

Ben Collins, Brandy Zadrozny, and Emmanuelle Saliba, “White nationalist group posing as antifa called for violence on Twitter,” NBC News, June 1, 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/twitter-takes-down-washington-protest-disinformation-bot-behavior-n1221456

Sandy Smith, “You Can Be Supportive of the Rioters and Angry With the Looters at the Same Time,” Philadelphia, June 1, 2020, https://www.phillymag.com/news/2020/06/01/philadelphia-looters-protesters/

Colby Itkowitz, “George W. Bush calls out racial injustices and celebrates protesters who ‘march for a better future,’” Washington Post, June 2, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/george-w-bush-calls-out-racial-injustices-and-celebrates-protesters-who-march-for-a-better-future/2020/06/02/2d2f7252-a511-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html

Josh Campbell, Sara Sidner, and Eric Levenson, “All four former officers involved in George Floyd’s killing now face charges,” CNN, June 3, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/us/george-floyd-officers-charges/index.html

  1. [1]Josh Campbell, Sara Sidner, and Eric Levenson, “All four former officers involved in George Floyd’s killing now face charges,” CNN, June 3, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/us/george-floyd-officers-charges/index.html↩
  2. [2]Dan Lamothe, Missy Ryan, and Paul Sonne, “Pentagon chief balks at Trump’s call for active-duty military force on U.S. citizens, and Mattis rips president,” Washington Post, June 3, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/despite-suggestions-from-trump-pentagon-chief-says-he-does-not-support-invoking-insurrection-act/2020/06/03/8e8dad2e-a59e-11ea-8681-7d471bf20207_story.html↩

The disgrace is complete

benfell

George Floyd

I can’t say I’m much impressed. There are, in all honesty, some great quotes in these Washington Post stories.[1] And that’s the real reason I archived them. But there is nothing here that points to actual work towards actual justice, nothing that points to a positive peace.

If the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic raised the question of whether the country is a failed state,[2] this surely answers it.

They turned holy ground into a battleground.[3]

Meanwhile, Evan Osnos has an account of Donald Trump and what happened at that Episcopalean Church near the White House[4] that has infuriated many Christians (but not some evangelical Protestants).[5]

The disgrace is complete.

Michelle Boorstein and Sarah Pulliam Bailey, “Episcopal bishop on President Trump: ‘Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence,’” Washington Post, June 1, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/bishop-budde-trump-church/2020/06/01/20ca70f8-a466-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html

Egan Millard, “Outraged Episcopal leaders condemn tear-gassing clergy, protesters for Trump photo op at Washington church,” Episcopal News Service, June 2, 2020, https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/06/02/episcopal-leaders-express-outrage-condemn-tear-gassing-protesters-for-trump-photo-op-at-washington-church/

Toluse Olorunnipa, “As nation convulses with fiery protests, leaders struggle to address deep racial despair,” Washington Post, June 2, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-nation-convulses-with-fiery-protests-leaders-struggle-to-address-deep-racial-despair/2020/06/02/92ecd452-a428-11ea-b473-04905b1af82b_story.html

Evan Osnos, “‘An Abuse of Sacred Symbols’: Trump, a Bible, and a Sanctuary,” New Yorker, June 2, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/an-abuse-of-sacred-symbols-trump-a-bible-and-a-sanctuary

  1. [1]Michelle Boorstein and Sarah Pulliam Bailey, “Episcopal bishop on President Trump: ‘Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence,’” Washington Post, June 1, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/bishop-budde-trump-church/2020/06/01/20ca70f8-a466-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html; Toluse Olorunnipa, “As nation convulses with fiery protests, leaders struggle to address deep racial despair,” Washington Post, June 2, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-nation-convulses-with-fiery-protests-leaders-struggle-to-address-deep-racial-despair/2020/06/02/92ecd452-a428-11ea-b473-04905b1af82b_story.html↩
  2. [2]George Packer, “We Are Living in a Failed State,” Atlantic, June 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/underlying-conditions/610261/↩
  3. [3]Gini Gerbasi, quoted in Egan Millard, “Outraged Episcopal leaders condemn tear-gassing clergy, protesters for Trump photo op at Washington church,” Episcopal News Service, June 2, 2020, https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/06/02/episcopal-leaders-express-outrage-condemn-tear-gassing-protesters-for-trump-photo-op-at-washington-church/↩
  4. [4]Evan Osnos, “‘An Abuse of Sacred Symbols’: Trump, a Bible, and a Sanctuary,” New Yorker, June 2, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/an-abuse-of-sacred-symbols-trump-a-bible-and-a-sanctuary↩
  5. [5]Michelle Boorstein and Sarah Pulliam Bailey, “Episcopal bishop on President Trump: ‘Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence,’” Washington Post, June 1, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/bishop-budde-trump-church/2020/06/01/20ca70f8-a466-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html; Egan Millard, “Outraged Episcopal leaders condemn tear-gassing clergy, protesters for Trump photo op at Washington church,” Episcopal News Service, June 2, 2020, https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/06/02/episcopal-leaders-express-outrage-condemn-tear-gassing-protesters-for-trump-photo-op-at-washington-church/; Evan Osnos, “‘An Abuse of Sacred Symbols’: Trump, a Bible, and a Sanctuary,” New Yorker, June 2, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/an-abuse-of-sacred-symbols-trump-a-bible-and-a-sanctuary↩