Month: November 2021

Pittsburgh to emulate Silicon Valley?

benfell

Pittsburgh

They speak of being “in the pre-dot-com era when it comes to the life sciences”[1] and, as I read all this, it sounds an awful lot to me like their idea is to make Pittsburgh into something of a Silicon Valley for those sciences.[2] Pittsburgh already has the gentrification.[3] And while I see a lot of California license plates as I drive around Pittsburgh, I would hope that some of those folks would feel at least some trepidation at repeating Silicon Valley’s mistakes here.

Natasha Lindstrom, “Pitt gets $100M infusion to build biomanufacturing hub at Hazelwood Green brownfield site,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 17, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pitt-gets-100m-infusion-to-build-biomanufacturing-hub-at-hazelwood-green-brownfield-site/

Donald Trump

Matt Ford argues[4] that the very facts that the Department of Justice had to bring charges against Steve Bannon[5] and that Donald Trump is able to try to run out the clock on the January 6 investigation[6] even on records requests[7] exposes the weakness of Congressional oversight power.[8]

My guess is that even unimpeded, this investigation would be unlikely to reveal anything startlingly new. The real problem isn’t so much that Trump is able to resist this investigation but that the coup attempt even happened.

Matt Ford, “The Dark Side of Steve Bannon’s Contempt Case,” New Republic, November 17, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/164444/steve-bannon-contempt-january-6

Abortion

The text called the Eucharist the most profound way God accompanies Catholics and called people back to church, saying “we miss you and we love you.” It also emphasized the “special responsibility” of Catholic public figures to shape their own views based on “the Church’s faith and moral law.” It said bishops are responsible “to work to remedy situations that involve public actions at variance with the visible communion of the Church and the moral law.”

But that’s as close as the document got to [Joe] Biden, who on Wednesday was in Detroit to promote electric vehicles and his infrastructure bill.[9]

It’s oblique but means bishops can be political and call pro-abortion Catholic politicians “irresponsible.”[10] As such, I interpret this a bit more harshly than David Gibson:

I think the bishops pushing this document did not want to be seen as too political. They wanted plausible deniability. They made it so innocuous and generic that to vote against it was to vote against the Eucharist itself. If you want to use the Eucharist in a political way, you can continue to use it in a political way. If you see the Eucharist in a different way, in a more Pope Francis way, then that’s what you’ll do.[11]

Assuming this is indeed what the bishops wanted to do, I think they failed.

Michelle Boorstein, “U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approves Communion document without singling out politicians who back abortion rights,” Washington Post, November 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/11/17/catholic-bishops-communion-vote-biden/

Wilkinsburg

Charlie Wolfson, “If Wilkinsburg is annexed into Pittsburgh, what would happen to its residents’ taxes?” Public Source, November 16, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/wilkinsburg-pittsburgh-annexation-merger-property-taxes-school-pennsylvania/

Democrats

There is a new blog post entitled, “Democrats and contradiction.”

Ryan Grim, “It’s Not Just White People: Democrats Are Losing Normal Voters of All Races,” Intercept, November 15, 2021, https://theintercept.com/2021/11/15/democrats-voters-virginia-glenn-youngkin/

Infrastructure

Andrew Duehren and Richard Rubin, “House Set to Pass $2 Trillion Social Spending and Climate Bill,” Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/house-closes-in-on-vote-for-2-trillion-bill-11637262546

Pandemic

Elliot Douglas and Rina Goldenberg, “COVID: Germany introduces new measures to curb the pandemic,” Deutschewelle, November 18, 2021, https://www.dw.com/en/covid-germany-introduces-new-measures-to-curb-the-pandemic/a-59852951

Malcolm X

Shayna Jacobs, “They served decades in prison for killing Malcolm X. Now their names are cleared,” Washington Post, November 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/malcom-x-aziz-islam-cleared/2021/11/18/479f4b38-47f1-11ec-95dc-5f2a96e00fa3_story.html

  1. [1]Patrick Gallagher, quoted in Natasha Lindstrom, “Pitt gets $100M infusion to build biomanufacturing hub at Hazelwood Green brownfield site,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 17, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pitt-gets-100m-infusion-to-build-biomanufacturing-hub-at-hazelwood-green-brownfield-site/↩
  2. [2]Natasha Lindstrom, “Pitt gets $100M infusion to build biomanufacturing hub at Hazelwood Green brownfield site,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 17, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pitt-gets-100m-infusion-to-build-biomanufacturing-hub-at-hazelwood-green-brownfield-site/↩
  3. [3]Bob Bauder, “Pittsburgh settles court battle over Penn Plaza Apartments,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 27, 2017, https://archive.triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/pittsburgh-settles-court-battle-over-penn-plaza-apartments/; Tom Davidson, “Is there a crisis of ‘forced mass displacement’ of Black Pittsburghers? Residents, council divided on answer,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 6, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/is-there-a-crisis-of-forced-mass-displacement-of-black-pittsburghers-residents-council-divided-on-answer/; Ryan Deto, “Pittsburgh is one of the most gentrified cities in the U.S.,” Pittsburgh City Paper, April 4, 2019, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/pittsburgh-is-one-of-the-most-gentrified-cities-in-the-us/Content?oid=14381722; Ryan Deto, “The displacement of Anthony Hardison from his Lawrenceville apartment is a microcosm of a neighborhood epidemic,” Pittsburgh City Paper, January 15, 2020, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/the-displacement-of-anthony-hardison-from-his-lawrenceville-apartment-is-a-microcosm-of-a-neighborhood-epidemic/Content?oid=16556108; Rich Lord, “House hunters: How an anti-blight law has become a tool for ambitious landlords in Allegheny County,” Public Source, November 24, 2020, https://www.publicsource.org/conservatorship-allegheny-county-wilkinsburg-east-liberty-garfield-taiani-chaney-cp-development/; Kimberly Rooney, “How rising rents and renovations have displaced Pittsburghers and added to the city’s ongoing issues with gentrification,” Pittsburgh City Paper, April 28, 2021, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/how-rising-rents-and-renovations-have-displaced-pittsburghers-and-added-to-the-citys-ongoing-issues-with-gentrification/Content?oid=19360553↩
  4. [4]Matt Ford, “The Dark Side of Steve Bannon’s Contempt Case,” New Republic, November 17, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/164444/steve-bannon-contempt-january-6↩
  5. [5]Kyle Cheney et al., “Steve Bannon indicted for defying Jan. 6 committee investigation,” Politico, November 12, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/12/steve-bannon-indicted-for-defying-jan-6-committee-investigation-521177↩
  6. [6]Matt Ford, “The Dark Side of Steve Bannon’s Contempt Case,” New Republic, November 17, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/164444/steve-bannon-contempt-january-6↩
  7. [7]Charlie Savage, “Judge Rejects Trump’s Bid to Keep Papers Secret in Jan. 6 Inquiry,” New York Times, November 9, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/us/politics/trump-january-6-committee.html↩
  8. [8]Matt Ford, “The Dark Side of Steve Bannon’s Contempt Case,” New Republic, November 17, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/164444/steve-bannon-contempt-january-6↩
  9. [9]Michelle Boorstein, “U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approves Communion document without singling out politicians who back abortion rights,” Washington Post, November 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/11/17/catholic-bishops-communion-vote-biden/↩
  10. [10]Michelle Boorstein, “U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approves Communion document without singling out politicians who back abortion rights,” Washington Post, November 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/11/17/catholic-bishops-communion-vote-biden/↩
  11. [11]David Gibson, quoted in Michelle Boorstein, “U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approves Communion document without singling out politicians who back abortion rights,” Washington Post, November 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/11/17/catholic-bishops-communion-vote-biden/↩

More charging stations for electric vehicles in Pittsburgh?

benfell

Pittsburgh

Bill Peduto proposes to incorporate charging stations in any new or renovated city facilities but the public would be encouraged to use them.[1] That latter part is important; the number of charging stations out there increases somewhat if you count facilities that are reserved for employees, residents, or guests of various establishments and adding more stations like those would really not help. Peduto seems to be attempting to avoid that mistake.

I don’t expect it to increase the number of available stations very rapidly; I don’t see many city facilities under construction or renovation. But Pittsburgh presently is something of a charging station desert, with oases few and far between. Any new stations will be an improvement.

Julia Felton, “Peduto proposes incorporating electric car charging into city construction, renovation projects,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 15, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/peduto-proposes-incorporating-electric-car-charging-into-city-construction-renovation-projects/

University of Austin

I think Tina Nguyen[2] and I[3] are pretty close to being on the same page on the University of Austin. Like Theodore Schleifer,[4] she thinks the money behind this school will be sufficient to purchase accreditation,[5] which of course is not at all what accreditation is supposed to be about. Add this to the list of ills besetting modern academia.

Tina Nguyen, “Is Bari Weiss U. For Real?” Puck News, November 15, 2021, https://puck.news/is-bari-weiss-u-for-real/

Infrastructure

Andrew Restuccia and Eliza Collins, “Biden Signs $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Into Law,” Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-infrastructure-bill-signing-11636997814

Pandemic

Pennsylvania region

The report was way, way, way late today. It’s supposed to come out at noon. It was after 4 pm when it hit my email. Originating from the Allegheny County Health Department, it says, “In the last 24 hours, 658 new cases were reported to the Health Department. Of these, 397 are confirmed cases and 261 are probable cases.”

That’s a lot of cases for twenty-four hours, even by recent standards. At one point we were down in the low double digits. As the Public Source report[6] indicates, the case counts really haven’t been dropping here.

Allegheny County averaged 350 to 400 new cases per day over the past two weeks and reported 600 new cases today alone.[7]

From the messages I’ve been getting, it has seemed higher.

Paula Reed Ward, “Pennsylvania court throws out state’s school mask mandate,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 10, 2021, https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-court-throws-out-governors-school-mask-mandate/

Amelia Winger, “Not done with the virus: Allegheny County reports rising cases despite decline last month,” Public Source, November 10, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/important-info-on-coronavirus-preparation-in-allegheny-county/

Kamala Harris

Here’s Amber Phillips:

Let’s start today with a tweet. It’s the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, writing on Sunday that Vice President Harris (@VP) is a valued partner to President Biden (@POTUS).


Why would she need to assert that? Because the political world is starting to question where Harris is.[8]

Phillips is being kind. Jen Psaki said what should not need to be said and therefore you may pretty safely assume that every word of it is somehow false.

Phillips explains that “[Kamala] Harris supporters are frustrated that [Joe] Biden has handed her some big, intractable problems, such as addressing the root causes of illegal immigration.” And I gotta tell you, I see their point. In addition to the migration issue, which makes a whole lot of people—not just Donald Trump supporters—see red, we’re talking about voting rights, abortion rights, oh, and ruffled French feathers over that submarine deal.[9]

You could look long, and you could look far, but you won’t find any sympathy from me for the French on that last one. This is a fucking arms deal we’re talking about. This is capitalism at its most heinous. And they expect “loyalty?” Really? I’d call them delusional but this makes Donald Trump seem absolutely sane and thoroughly connected to reality by comparison. This is so far past delusional I haven’t the first idea what even to call it.

And the rest of that list doesn’t look much easier. Whether you love, hate, or feel indifferent to Harris, Biden is sabotaging her.

  1. [1]Julia Felton, “Peduto proposes incorporating electric car charging into city construction, renovation projects,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 15, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/peduto-proposes-incorporating-electric-car-charging-into-city-construction-renovation-projects/↩
  2. [2]Tina Nguyen, “Is Bari Weiss U. For Real?” Puck News, November 15, 2021, https://puck.news/is-bari-weiss-u-for-real/↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “The inexcusable, insufferable idiots coming to Austin,” Not Housebroken, November 13, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/11/09/the-inexcusable-insufferable-idiots-coming-to-austin/↩
  4. [4]Theodore Schleifer, “Who’s Funding Bari Weiss?” Puck News, November 12, 2021, https://puck.news/bari-weiss-tim-draper-vance-masters-thiel/↩
  5. [5]Tina Nguyen, “Is Bari Weiss U. For Real?” Puck News, November 15, 2021, https://puck.news/is-bari-weiss-u-for-real/↩
  6. [6]Amelia Winger, “Not done with the virus: Allegheny County reports rising cases despite decline last month,” Public Source, November 10, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/important-info-on-coronavirus-preparation-in-allegheny-county/↩
  7. [7]Amelia Winger, “Not done with the virus: Allegheny County reports rising cases despite decline last month,” Public Source, November 10, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/important-info-on-coronavirus-preparation-in-allegheny-county/↩
  8. [8]Amber Phillips to 5-Minute Fix list, “What’s Vice President Harris up to?” Washington Post, November 16, 2021, https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=5a39652eae7e8a58807f9446&s=619426399d2fdab56b8eae9b&linknum=5&linktot=51↩
  9. [9]Amber Phillips to 5-Minute Fix list, “What’s Vice President Harris up to?” Washington Post, November 16, 2021, https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=5a39652eae7e8a58807f9446&s=619426399d2fdab56b8eae9b&linknum=5&linktot=51↩

They Say Colleges Are Censorious. So They Are Starting a New One.

benfell

Anemona Hartocollis, “They Say Colleges Are Censorious. So They Are Starting a New One,” New York Times, November 8, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/us/ut-austin-free-speech.html

Sarah Jones, “Who’s Afraid of Higher Education?” New York, November 8, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/bari-weiss-university-of-austin-nothing-new.html

Katherine Mangan, “A Planned University ‘Dedicated to Truth’ Will Welcome ‘Witches Who Refuse to Burn,’” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 8, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-planned-university-dedicated-to-truth-will-welcome-witches-who-refuse-to-burn

Theodore Schleifer, “Who’s Funding Bari Weiss?” Puck News, November 12, 2021, https://puck.news/bari-weiss-tim-draper-vance-masters-thiel/

Tina Nguyen, “Is Bari Weiss U. For Real?” Puck News, November 15, 2021, https://puck.news/is-bari-weiss-u-for-real/

Geoff Shullenberger, “The Guild and the Grifters,” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 18, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-guild-and-the-grifters

Democrats doomed in 2022

benfell

Migration

When I first returned to school in 2003, I chose a Mass Communication major on the theory that if everything else fell through, I could at least be a reporter.

It was a horrendous mistake. I was much more interested in the academic side than the journalistic side of my studies and, as to the latter, because my now retired mother was a reporter, I rapidly developed a wholly unjustified sense of having been there, done that. I even recognized at the time that that sense was wholly unjustified, but I couldn’t help it. It felt too much like a return to previously trodden ground.

And it absolutely did not help that as a beginning journalist I could look forward to a beginning salary of around, as I recall, $14,000 per year. This, after four years in college. Now, I understand a four-year degree is insufficient. You need a Master’s to qualify for such a spectacular salary.

It would also have been a mistake for another reason. Anthony Faiola bravely delves in where I doubt I could bear to, summarizing the current horror of European migration and pointing as well to U.S. malice.[1]

Words cannot express how utterly reprehensible this all is.

Anthony Faiola to Today’s WorldView list, “Belarus is the latest country to use migrants as pawns. The West is guilty too,” Washington Post, November 15, 2021, https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=5a39652eae7e8a58807f9446&s=6191e9839d2fdab56b8c3c9b&linknum=4&linktot=87

Cryptocurrencies


Geoffrey Mak, “Exclusive clubs called ‘DAOs’ are popping up online. What’s it all about?” Guardian, November 14, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/14/exclusive-clubs-called-daos-are-popping-up-online-whats-it-all-about

Joe Biden

Here’s that list again:

Of these, only the evictions issue seems to be fading, mainly because it hasn’t been as bad as anticipated, apparently because more rental assistance money is finally being distributed.[2] The bipartisan infrastructure framework passed,[3] but in a way that leaves an even further watered-down reconciliation package, now dubbed “Build Back Better” and priced at under $2 trillion, in serious doubt as to whether it will pass.[4]

My reading is that the Supreme Court will likely overturn the Texas law that outsources an abortion ban to private civil suits,[5] but overturn Roe v. Wade with the Mississippi case.[6] Contraception may well be next.[7]

The other issues are simply where they were: Dead in the water due both to Democratic Party divisions and Republican intransigence. All this certainly isn’t a record I’d want to run on. But it turns out Joe Biden’s administration now appears simply to have been flatly wrong on a number of issues.[8] A lot of folks are saying this leads to a blowout in 2022, probably with Donald Trump resurgent in 2024. I’ve tried to be more optimistic, but I really don’t have a defense for that optimism.

Some Democrats, including within the administration, are still trying to resuscitate that optimism, mostly with spin and hope that next year will be different.[9] But I look at that list and I see way too many disappointments. They’re really going to fix all this in an election year?

Tyler Pager, “Biden has underestimated problems facing the country — and Democrats fear that has become a political problem,” Washington Post, November 14, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-promises-politics/2021/11/14/45a7817a-43f9-11ec-a3aa-0255edc02eb7_story.html

Donald Trump

Miscellaneous

If indeed Donald Trump returns to office in 2025, he’ll have to find his emoluments elsewhere.[10]

Ben Protess and Eric Lipton, “Trump to Sell Marquee Washington Hotel for at Least $375 Million,” New York Times, November 15, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/14/us/politics/trump-hotel-sale.html

  1. [1]Anthony Faiola to Today’s WorldView list, “Belarus is the latest country to use migrants as pawns. The West is guilty too,” Washington Post, November 15, 2021, https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=5a39652eae7e8a58807f9446&s=6191e9839d2fdab56b8c3c9b&linknum=4&linktot=87↩
  2. [2]Chris Arnold, “Evictions rising even as rental help from Congress reaches millions of people,” National Public Radio, November 11, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/11/11/1053540080/evictions-rising-even-as-rental-help-from-congress-reaches-millions-of-people↩
  3. [3]Tony Romm, Marianna Sotomayor, and Mike DeBonis, “Congress approves $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, sending measure to Biden for enactment,” Washington Post, November 6, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/11/05/house-infrastructure-reconciliation-vote/↩
  4. [4]Robert P. Baird, “Inside the Democrats’ Battle to Build Back Better,” New Yorker, November 8, 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/inside-the-democrats-battle-to-build-back-better↩
  5. [5]Robert Barnes, “Supreme Court seems willing to allow challenge of Texas’s restrictive abortion law,” Washington Post, November 1, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-supreme-court/2021/11/01/548c7ea2-3b0c-11ec-bfad-8283439871ec_story.html; John Bowden, “Kavanaugh flags a major catch in Texas anti-abortion law for conservative gun owners,” Independent, November 2, 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kavanaugh-supreme-court-texas-abortion-b1949460.html; Irin Carmon, “The Texas Abortion Ban Could Lose at the Supreme Court,” New York, November 1, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/texas-abortion-ban-could-lose-at-the-supreme-court.html; Jordan Smith, “Texas Admits Its Abortion Law Puts All Rights Up for Grabs,” Intercept, November 2, 2021, https://theintercept.com/2021/11/02/abortion-texas-sb8-supreme-court/↩
  6. [6]Ariane de Vogue, “Mississippi asks US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade,” CNN, July 22, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/politics/mississippi-roe-v-wade-abortion/index.html; Ed Kilgore, “Is Roe v. Wade Now Doomed?” New York, May 17, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/is-roe-v-wade-now-doomed.html; Adam Liptak, “Mississippi asks the Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade,” New York Times, July 22, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/us/politics/mississippi-supreme-court-abortion.html; Nia Prater, “Supreme Court to Hear Case That Threatens Roe v. Wade,” New York, May 17, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/supreme-court-to-hear-case-that-threatens-roe-v-wade.html; David G. Savage, “Supreme Court agrees to hear major abortion case challenging Roe vs. Wade,” Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-05-17/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-abortion-case↩
  7. [7]Molly Jong-Fast, “The Anti–Birth Control Movement Is the New Anti-Abortion Movement,” Vogue, July 1, 2021, https://www.vogue.com/article/anti-birth-control-movement↩
  8. [8]Tyler Pager, “Biden has underestimated problems facing the country — and Democrats fear that has become a political problem,” Washington Post, November 14, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-promises-politics/2021/11/14/45a7817a-43f9-11ec-a3aa-0255edc02eb7_story.html↩
  9. [9]Tyler Pager, “Biden has underestimated problems facing the country — and Democrats fear that has become a political problem,” Washington Post, November 14, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-promises-politics/2021/11/14/45a7817a-43f9-11ec-a3aa-0255edc02eb7_story.html↩
  10. [10]Ben Protess and Eric Lipton, “Trump to Sell Marquee Washington Hotel for at Least $375 Million,” New York Times, November 15, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/14/us/politics/trump-hotel-sale.html↩

The utterly predictable COP26 failure

benfell

Climate crisis

I have said for several years now that the elite were incapable of responding adequately to the climate crisis because they benefit too much from the status quo. It is why I have repeatedly argued that human survival depends on a change in our system of social organization. And why I have interpreted the failure of such change to materialize as dooming our species.

Knowing this, it didn’t make very much sense to pay close attention to the Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow and so I didn’t. But Greta Thunberg’s profanity[1] and George Monbiot’s fury[2] are noted. And I cannot say I’m much disappointed in this outcome—“the U.N. Environment Program reported that COP26 would likely end with Earth on track to warm 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit)”[3]—because my expectations were so low to begin with.

Brady Dennis and Sarah Kaplan, “At COP26, nations speed climate action but leave world still headed for dangerous warming,” Washington Post, November 13, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/11/13/cop26-agreement-climate-change-glasgow/

Language

There is a new blog post entitled, “On the death of the apostrophe and the evolution of discourse.”

Camilla Turner, “Apostrophe is marked for extinction as language becomes less formal,” Telegraph, November 13, 2021, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/13/apostrophe-marked-extinction-language-becomes-less-formal/

Pandemic

(Inter)national

Charlie Savage, “Appeals Court Extends Block on Biden’s Vaccine Mandate for Employers,” New York Times, November 12, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/us/politics/court-vaccine-mandate.html

  1. [1]Melanie Reid, “Cuss away, Greta — it’s not the end of the world,” Times, November 8, 2021, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cuss-away-greta-its-not-the-end-of-the-world-pkfb2dl6l↩
  2. [2]George Monbiot, “Wealth Curse,” November 12, 2021, https://www.monbiot.com/2021/11/12/wealth-curse/↩
  3. [3]Brady Dennis and Sarah Kaplan, “At COP26, nations speed climate action but leave world still headed for dangerous warming,” Washington Post, November 13, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/11/13/cop26-agreement-climate-change-glasgow/↩

Keep your testosterone off my tail

benfell

There is a new blog post entitled, “Hoarding and hollowing out.”


Fig. 1. Sign designed by author for the old car. It doesn’t fit on the new one.

I had to quit early last night. Too many people driving far too aggressively. I need to get a new version of this sign (figure 1) made for the new car because, incredibly, there’s really nowhere to fit the ones I have on it.

I’m a little reluctant to do it because I think it needs to fit on the inside of the rear glass. My idea is that it should occupy that entire space so as to ameliorate the double image I sometimes get with the digital rear view mirror (I wasn’t expecting this but it came as part of one of the option packages I ordered) but I am required also to have Uber and Lyft stickers there and I desperately don’t want to make those permanent.

I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.[1]

The reality, however, is that the current bout of inflation has little to do with [Joe] Biden’s recovery program—and is actually the result of perverse policies that [Larry] Summers and his confreres foisted on America over three decades. As that Bolshevik, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, could explain to Summers, the current inflation has little to do with macro pressures and everything to do with bottlenecks resulting from the supply chain crisis.[2]

It’s worth noting here that Jerome Powell is a Republican, appointed by Donald Trump.

Saskatchewan

So you know I pay attention to secession movements.[3] But this[4] might not be the source of information I’m looking for. It’s pretty funny, though, and I have heard rumblings that there are indeed such movements in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The pattern should be familiar: Rural areas losing in the demographic race for control of the larger jurisdictions. I haven’t heard about but am wondering about Manitoba.

Steve Burgess, “Please Advise! Now Saskatchewan Wants to Split?” Tyee, November 11, 2021, https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2021/11/11/Please-Advise-Saskatchewan-Exit/

Pandemic

(Inter)national

Finally a politician dares to apply precisely the correct framing: “I don’t see why two-thirds should lose their freedom because one-third is dithering.”[5]

Samantha Lock, “Austria province to place millions of unvaccinated people in Covid lockdown,” Guardian, November 11, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/12/austria-province-to-place-millions-of-unvaccinated-people-in-covid-lockdown

Climate crisis

Between Greta Thunberg’s apparently skillful profanity,[6] this tweet, and this article,[7] you really know all you need to about the Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow:


George Monbiot, “Wealth Curse,” November 12, 2021, https://www.monbiot.com/2021/11/12/wealth-curse/

White supremacist gangs

There are two accusations, neither to my knowledge confirmed: First, that Jim Rogers was stealing a bicycle; and second, that the white supremacist gangster hit him several times with a Taser. Apparently, the video evidence does not capture the entire incident.[8] This happened in October,[9] but the investigation—some will say coverup—is still ongoing.[10]

Patrick Varine, “Protesters block Grant Street, demand prosecution in Jim Rogers’ death,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 12, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/protestors-block-grant-street-demand-prosecution-in-jim-rogers-death/

Donald Trump


Kyle Cheney et al., “Steve Bannon indicted for defying Jan. 6 committee investigation,” Politico, November 12, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/12/steve-bannon-indicted-for-defying-jan-6-committee-investigation-521177

  1. [1]Sun Bear, quoted in SmartBrief to Business Transformation SmartBrief list, “Does the metaverse feel like promise or hype to you?” SmartBrief, November 12, 2021, https://www2.smartbrief.com/servlet/encodeServlet?issueid=3DF05ACC-4A13-43BF-AF80-06BCDFC5085E&sid=ad3b5385-5e73-422b-b557-5bf68a7b31e6↩
  2. [2]Robert Kuttner to American Prospect list, “Is Summers Owed an Apology—or Does He Owe Us One?” American Prospect, November 12, 2021, http://americanprospect.activehosted.com/index.php?action=social&chash=c3e0c62ee91db8dc7382bde7419bb573.1189&s=1e9c8da033986e0d1f0baa630b5bb784↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “What is the State of Jefferson?” Not Housebroken, October 3, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/09/19/what-is-the-state-of-jefferson/↩
  4. [4]Steve Burgess, “Please Advise! Now Saskatchewan Wants to Split?” Tyee, November 11, 2021, https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2021/11/11/Please-Advise-Saskatchewan-Exit/↩
  5. [5]Alexander Schallenberg, quoted in Samantha Lock, “Austria province to place millions of unvaccinated people in Covid lockdown,” Guardian, November 11, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/12/austria-province-to-place-millions-of-unvaccinated-people-in-covid-lockdown↩
  6. [6]Melanie Reid, “Cuss away, Greta — it’s not the end of the world,” Times, November 8, 2021, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cuss-away-greta-its-not-the-end-of-the-world-pkfb2dl6l↩
  7. [7]George Monbiot, “Wealth Curse,” November 12, 2021, https://www.monbiot.com/2021/11/12/wealth-curse/↩
  8. [8]Patrick Varine, “Protesters block Grant Street, demand prosecution in Jim Rogers’ death,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 12, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/protestors-block-grant-street-demand-prosecution-in-jim-rogers-death/↩
  9. [9]Rick Earle and Amy Hudak, “Pittsburgh’s mayor wants police policy review after man dies following incident with taser,” WPXI, October 22, 2021, https://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/news-conference-planned-mayor-wants-policy-review-after-man-dies-following-police-incident/65UF44HFSRAXPNBLDMKJHIVKP4/↩
  10. [10]Patrick Varine, “Protesters block Grant Street, demand prosecution in Jim Rogers’ death,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 12, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/protestors-block-grant-street-demand-prosecution-in-jim-rogers-death/↩

Don’t look. No, I mean it. Really. Don’t look.

benfell


The one fault I would find with Bandy Lee’s formulation is that there is no theory of truth that withstands scrutiny. The questions of “best available knowledge” and “agreed-upon standards” are fraught, now even politically polarized, and, in the end, they leave us very nearly where we started.

There is value to Lee’s formulation nonetheless.

I had to get a new trimmer for my beard. Oops, wrong attachment.

The beard will grow back but I can never un-see those jowls that I think I inherit from my maternal grandfather. He wore them a lot better than I do.

Somewhere along the way, I lost track of when Veterans Day is. I gather from my Twitter feed it is today.

Pandemic

(Inter)national

Andrea Salcedo, “San Francisco police officer dies of covid while on leave for failing to meet vaccination requirement,” Washington Post, November 11, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/11/san-francisco-officer-dies-covid-unvaccinated/

Supreme hypocrites

benfell

Death penalty

Mark Joseph Stern, “The Supreme Court’s Conservatives Finally Found a Religious Objection They Don’t Like,” Slate, November 9, 2021, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/11/ramirez-collier-execution-religious-liberty-kavanaugh-thomas.html

Uber

There is a new blog post entitled, “Uber and wheelchairs.”

Preetika Rana, “Justice Department Sues Uber Over Charging Wait-Time Fees for Disabled People,” Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-sues-uber-over-charging-wait-times-fees-for-physically-disabled-people-11636570208

San Francisco schools

The entire lot of them, the mayor included, should be tossed out on their ears.[1]

Joshua Bote, “Mayor London Breed comes out in support of San Francisco school board recall,” SFGate, November 10, 2021, https://www.sfgate.com/bay-area-politics/article/London-Breed-supports-school-board-recall-16609815.php

Pandemic

Pennsylvania region

Paula Reed Ward, “Pennsylvania court throws out state’s school mask mandate,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 10, 2021, https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-court-throws-out-governors-school-mask-mandate/

Tesla

That whole drama about Elon Musk’s offer on Twitter to sell some Tesla stock triggered a TL;DR (too long, didn’t read) reflex in me, but I figure I need to archive something about it, you know, just in case. If you suffered a similar reflex but are even mildly curious, well, you can probably do a whole lot worse than William Cohan’s article.[2]

The upshot is that Musk probably looked at Tesla’s soaring stock, particularly in the wake[3] of that deal with Hertz that he denies having made,[4] and figured it was time to cash some of his in but didn’t want to accept responsibility for the decision. But actually, it turns out, he’d already scheduled the sale.[5]

William D. Cohan, “Tesla’s Icarus Syndrome,” Puck News, November 10, 2021, https://puck.news/teslas-icarus-syndrome/

Rebecca Elliott, Richard Rubin, and Theo Francis, “Elon Musk Sells Around $5 Billion in Tesla Stock,” Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-sells-1-1-billion-in-tesla-stock-11636589559

  1. [1]David Benfell, “San Francisco’s political establishment doth protest too much,” Not Housebroken, March 22, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/03/22/san-franciscos-political-establishment-doth-protest-too-much/↩
  2. [2]William D. Cohan, “Tesla’s Icarus Syndrome,” Puck News, November 10, 2021, https://puck.news/teslas-icarus-syndrome/↩
  3. [3]William D. Cohan, “Tesla’s Icarus Syndrome,” Puck News, November 10, 2021, https://puck.news/teslas-icarus-syndrome/↩
  4. [4]British Broadcasting Corporation, “Elon Musk says Tesla has not signed deal with Hertz,” November 2, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59132512; Emily Glazer and Nora Naughton, “Hertz Will Have to Wait for Teslas, Just Like Other Buyers,” Wall Street Journal, November 4, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/hertz-will-have-to-wait-for-teslas-just-like-other-buyers-11636028622; Fred Lambert, “Tesla order could double to 200,000 Model 3s to satisfy deal with Uber, says Hertz CEO,” Electrek, October 28, 2021, https://electrek.co/2021/10/28/tesla-order-double-200000-model-3s-satisfy-deal-uber-hertz-ceo/; Joann Muller, “A big EV push for Uber drivers,” Axios, October 27, 2021, https://www.axios.com/a-big-ev-push-for-uber-drivers-358a720f-f1ba-4c28-9a83-1bb86061c9e4.html↩
  5. [5]William D. Cohan, “Tesla’s Icarus Syndrome,” Puck News, November 10, 2021, https://puck.news/teslas-icarus-syndrome/; Rebecca Elliott, Richard Rubin, and Theo Francis, “Elon Musk Sells Around $5 Billion in Tesla Stock,” Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-sells-1-1-billion-in-tesla-stock-11636589559↩

No more fix-it tickets in Pittsburgh?

benfell

White supremacist gangs

There is a new blog post entitled, “Will Pittsburgh deprive its white supremacist gangs of one tool for harassing the poor, especially of color?”

Julia Felton, “Proposal would prevent Pittsburgh police from pulling over drivers for minor, secondary violations,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 8, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/proposal-would-prevent-pittsburgh-police-from-pulling-over-drivers-for-minor-secondary-violations/

Donald Trump

Charlie Savage, “Judge Rejects Trump’s Bid to Keep Papers Secret in Jan. 6 Inquiry,” New York Times, November 9, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/us/politics/trump-january-6-committee.html

Higher (not really) education

There is another new blog post entitled, “The inexcusable, insufferable idiots coming to Austin.”

Anemona Hartocollis, “They Say Colleges Are Censorious. So They Are Starting a New One,” New York Times, November 8, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/us/ut-austin-free-speech.html

Katherine Mangan, “A Planned University ‘Dedicated to Truth’ Will Welcome ‘Witches Who Refuse to Burn,’” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 8, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-planned-university-dedicated-to-truth-will-welcome-witches-who-refuse-to-burn

Infrastructure

There is a yet another new blog post entitled, “When politics are more important than the country.”

Robert P. Baird, “Inside the Democrats’ Battle to Build Back Better,” New Yorker, November 8, 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/inside-the-democrats-battle-to-build-back-better

Marianna Sotomayor, Paul Kane, and Josh Dawsey, “Tensions rise among Republicans over infrastructure bill and whether any agreement with Biden should be tolerated,” Washington Post, November 9, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-infrastructure-biden/2021/11/09/cc0c4c9e-4167-11ec-9ea7-3eb2406a2e24_story.html

Academic freedom, rest in peace

benfell

The upshot of my tax situation is that the tax preparation person H&R Block assigned to do my taxes in 2019 and 2020 was a real fuck-up and I now owe hundreds of dollars I did not expect to owe. The person at the local office seems okay but to say I’m upset that this fuck-up happened in the first place would be an understatement.

I wouldn’t object so strenuously but these taxes are due to governments that have not only failed to secure rights under international human rights law, specifically to a decent job,[1] but which enable the multifaceted fraud I participate in for less than poverty wages and under duress[2]—because I can’t find a real job.[3] These governments, which should be protecting me, instead join Uber and Lyft as monsters and bullies, kicking me precisely because I am down.

Voting rights

There is a new blog post entitled, “The death of academic freedom.”

Lindsay Ellis, “After Scathing Criticism, U. of Florida Will Let Professors Testify Against the State,” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 5, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/article/after-scathing-criticism-u-of-florida-will-let-professors-testify-against-the-state

Colleen Flaherty, “Just the End of the Beginning,” Inside Higher Ed, November 8, 2021, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/11/08/uf-says-professors-can-be-paid-experts-theyre-suing-anyway

Academia

Sarah Jones explains that the University of Austin—not to be confused with the University of Texas at Austin—will be a bible college for (capitalist) libertarians.[4]

Sarah Jones, “Who’s Afraid of Higher Education?” New York, November 8, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/bari-weiss-university-of-austin-nothing-new.html

Pennsylvania


That bright red spot in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania? It’s Allegheny County, where I live.

Pandemic

Pennsylvania region

In addition to white supremacist gang resistance to vaccine mandates,[5] it turns out that hundreds of individual Pittsburgh gangsters are considering quitting or retiring. The article cites the vaccine mandate as a factor,[6] but it also strikes me that the possibility the incoming mayor of Pittsburgh, Ed Gainey, who will be the city’s first Black mayor, may impose curbs on their white supremacy[7] may be a factor.

I don’t really know what the situation is with corruption in Pittsburgh. I have heard unseemly things about the relationship between judges and white supremacist gangs.[8] But the utter inadequacy of Pittsburgh’s snow plowing operation suggests to me a form of low-level corruption where too many people have comfortable niches from which they can be extracted only with enormous difficulty—a common complaint about civil service—and so a lot of people who should take action instead turn a blind eye, because it’s just too damned hard to do anything else. My hunch is that this is even more so the case with Pittsburgh white supremacist gangs. Gainey’s promises threaten to upset the gangsters’ apple cart and I’m pretty clear that they won’t like that even one little bit.

Nicole Ford, “Hundreds of Pittsburgh police officers considering retiring, leaving job,” WPXI, November 5, 2021, https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/allegheny-county/hundreds-pittsburgh-police-officers-considering-retiring-leaving-job/WQ2AWSGVMJADBDXFI4DZ4SLO3U/

  1. [1]International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, December 16, 1966, United Nations, General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI), https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cescr.aspx↩
  2. [2]David Benfell, “Getting what I deserve,” Not Housebroken, November 1, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/10/31/getting-what-i-deserve/↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “About my job hunt,” Not Housebroken, n.d., https://disunitedstates.org/about-my-job-hunt/↩
  4. [4]Sarah Jones, “Who’s Afraid of Higher Education?” New York, November 8, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/bari-weiss-university-of-austin-nothing-new.html↩
  5. [5]Sarah Boden, “Experts question the science of police union’s challenge to Allegheny County’s vaccine mandate,” WESA, October 20, 2021, https://www.wesa.fm/health-science-tech/2021-10-20/experts-question-the-science-of-police-unions-challenge-to-allegheny-countys-vaccine-mandate; Megan Guza, “Pittsburgh police union file grievance over covid vaccine mandate,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 5, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-police-union-file-grievance-over-covid-vaccine-mandate/↩
  6. [6]Nicole Ford, “Hundreds of Pittsburgh police officers considering retiring, leaving job,” WPXI, November 5, 2021, https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/allegheny-county/hundreds-pittsburgh-police-officers-considering-retiring-leaving-job/WQ2AWSGVMJADBDXFI4DZ4SLO3U/↩
  7. [7]Tom Davidson, “Peduto challenger Ed Gainey: Fewer words, more action needed from next mayor of Pittsburgh,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 22, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/peduto-challenger-ed-gainey-fewer-words-more-action-needed-from-next-mayor-of-pittsburgh/; Julia Felton, “Ed Gainey declares historic victory with commanding lead in Pittsburgh mayoral race,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 2, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/gainey-grabs-early-lead-in-pittsburgh-mayoral-race/; Kim Lyons, “A Keystone Election: Meet the 2021 candidates for Pittsburgh mayor,” Pennsylvania Capital-Star, April 21, 2021, https://www.penncapital-star.com/government-politics/a-keystone-election-meet-the-2021-candidates-for-pittsburgh-mayor/; Chris Potter, “State Rep. Ed Gainey To Challenge Peduto In Mayoral Race,” WESA, January 19, 2021, https://www.wesa.fm/post/state-rep-ed-gainey-challenge-peduto-mayoral-race; Charlie Wolfson, “Gainey topples Peduto in primary, will be Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor barring a November challenge,” Public Source, May 18, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/gainey-topples-peduto-in-primary-on-course-as-first-black-pittsburgh-mayor/; Charlie Wolfson, “Pittsburgh elects its first Black mayor,” Public Source, November 2, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/gainey-pittsburgh-mayor-announces-victory-moreno/↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “Stephen Zappala’s resignation would be nowhere near enough,” Not Housebroken, November 6, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/06/03/stephen-zappalas-resignation-would-be-nowhere-near-enough/↩