Donald Trump, Civil War
When I criticize a “sweetness and light” approach to Trumpists, this is why:
Accelerationism holds that the modern, Western democratic state is so mired in corruption and ineptitude that true patriots should instigate a violent insurrection to hasten its destruction to allow a new, white-dominated order to emerge. . . . The objective of accelerationism is to foment divisiveness and polarization that will induce the collapse of the existing order and spark a second civil war.[1]
“Sweetness and light” is every bit as delusional as the conspiracy theories and the alternative reality that Trumpists embrace.
Jacob Bacharach, “The Next Coup Attempt Will Be More Dangerous,” review of The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It by Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague, New Republic, January 4, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/164914/next-coup-attempt-will-dangerous-teague-bowden-book-review
Philip Bump, “What we’re talking about when we talk about civil war,” Washington Post, January 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/04/what-were-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-civil-war/
Stephen Marche, “The next US civil war is already here – we just refuse to see it,” Guardian, January 4, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/next-us-civil-war-already-here-we-refuse-to-see-it
Bruce Hoffman, “A Year After January 6, Is Accelerationism the New Terrorist Threat?” Council on Foreign Relations, January 5, 2022, https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/year-after-january-6-accelerationism-new-terrorist-threat
Ashley Parker, Amy Gardner and Josh Dawsey, “How Republicans became the party of Trump’s election lie after Jan. 6,” Washington Post, January 5, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-jan-6-election-lie/2022/01/05/82f4cad4-6cb6-11ec-974b-d1c6de8b26b0_story.html
Molly Jong-Fast, “The Scariest Thing About Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Atlantic, January 6, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/61d5bb077097fc002053fbb4/the-scariest-thing-about-marjorie-taylor-greene/
Daniel McCarthy, “January 6 was an alarm bell,” Spectator, January 6, 2022, https://spectatorworld.com/topic/january-6-was-an-alarm-bell/
Ben Sixsmith, “The Capitol riot transformed right-wing activism in America,” Spectator, January 6, 2022, https://spectatorworld.com/topic/capitol-riot-fall-rise-right-wing-activism/
Tina Nguyen, “My Country, Right or Far Right?: January 6th and the World It Created,&rdq; Puck News, January 6, 2022, https://puck.news/january-6th-and-the-world-it-created/
Pittsburgh snow
The storm had been forecast well in advance,[2] but guess what? The Pittsburgh Department of Public Works couldn’t be bothered to mount plows on the fronts of their trucks ahead of time.[3] These are people who flatly do not believe and refuse to comprehend that they have jobs to do. This is corruption, right in our faces,[4] and it’s going to take a lot more than politicians going for ride-alongs in DPW trucks to fix.[5]
Still it’s amusing to see people who’ve previously gotten better service now that they aren’t. This is Davina Rose, who lives in the North Side and works in Oakland. The latter area, near the hospitals, is a priority area for what I would think are obvious reasons,[6] but also where I found snow still on the roads last night:
I guess this is Pittsburgh’s first winter ever. We’ve never seen snow before, we are never ever prepared. But let’s hope we make it till April.[7]
And guess what? Well, you know, it is winter.[8]
Rick Earle, “Pittsburgh Public Works launches internal investigation following snow response issues,” WPXI, January 7, 2022, https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/pittsburgh-public-works-launches-internal-investigation-following-snow-response-issues/3ZAYYSR5WNCD5H5KE67WJ6SKBU/
Julia Felton, “Plowing continues on snow-covered Pittsburgh streets,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 7, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/plowing-continues-on-snow-covered-pittsburgh-streets/
Gig economy
Understand that Uber and Lyft are not companies any conceivable path to profitability. They exist as stock market swindles. They have spent exorbitantly to fight off efforts to treat drivers as employees, in part claiming that to do otherwise would put them out of business when in fact they don’t have viable business plans in the first place.[9]
So here’s Uber chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi doing what?
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi reassured investors concerned about new European Union regulations in December, telling a group of bankers that his company can continue to thrive even under rules that would force it to hire drivers as employees.
“We can make any model work,” Khosrowshahi said when asked about potential EU legislation that would require Uber to designate drivers as employees or provide additional rights such as vacation time and a pension.[10]
The bullshit is getting deep. Very, very deep.
Lee Fang, “Uber CEO Admits Company Can Afford Labor Protections for Drivers,” Intercept, January 7, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/01/07/uber-drivers-labor-protections-dara-khosrowshahi-european-union/
- [1]Bruce Hoffman, “A Year After January 6, Is Accelerationism the New Terrorist Threat?” Council on Foreign Relations, January 5, 2022, https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/year-after-january-6-accelerationism-new-terrorist-threat↩
- [2]Paul Guggenheimer, “Season’s 1st winter snowfall headed to Western Pennsylvania,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 4, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/regional/seasons-first-winter-snowfall-headed-to-western-pennsylvania/↩
- [3]Rick Earle, “Pittsburgh Public Works launches internal investigation following snow response issues,” WPXI, January 7, 2022, https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/pittsburgh-public-works-launches-internal-investigation-following-snow-response-issues/3ZAYYSR5WNCD5H5KE67WJ6SKBU/↩
- [4]David Benfell, “It is what it is,” Not Housebroken, December 31, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/12/31/it-is-what-it-is/↩
- [5]Julia Felton, “Plowing continues on snow-covered Pittsburgh streets,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 7, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/plowing-continues-on-snow-covered-pittsburgh-streets/↩
- [6]Rick Earle, “Pittsburgh Public Works launches internal investigation following snow response issues,” WPXI, January 7, 2022, https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/pittsburgh-public-works-launches-internal-investigation-following-snow-response-issues/3ZAYYSR5WNCD5H5KE67WJ6SKBU/↩
- [7]Davina Rose, quoted in Rick Earle, “Pittsburgh Public Works launches internal investigation following snow response issues,” WPXI, January 7, 2022, https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/pittsburgh-public-works-launches-internal-investigation-following-snow-response-issues/3ZAYYSR5WNCD5H5KE67WJ6SKBU/↩
- [8]Paul Guggenheimer, “Another potential winter storm headed our way,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 7, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/another-potential-winter-storm-headed-our-way/↩
- [9]David Benfell, “This is not a business plan,” Not Housebroken, November 28, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/06/20/this-is-not-a-business-plan/↩
- [10]Lee Fang, “Uber CEO Admits Company Can Afford Labor Protections for Drivers,” Intercept, January 7, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/01/07/uber-drivers-labor-protections-dara-khosrowshahi-european-union/↩