Ukraine
There is a new blog post entitled, “Ukraine and the refutation of so-called ‘realism.’”
Arne Delfs, “Merkel Warns of Isolating Russia After Putin’s ‘Big Mistake,’” Bloomberg, June 7, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-07/merkel-calls-putin-s-invasion-big-mistake-in-public-return
Julia Ioffe, “The Case Against Appeasement,” Puck News, June 7, 2022, https://puck.news/the-case-against-appeasement/
San Francisco
There is another new blog post entitled, “San Francisco hypocrisy.”
Laura J. Nelson, James Queally, and Anabel Sosa, “San Francisco voters recall progressive D.A. Boudin. Crime and homelessness at issue,” Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-06-07/2022-san-francisco-district-attorney-chesa-boudin-recall-election-results
Pittsburgh
Infrastructure
Mark Belko, “Pittsburgh International Airport decides against closing its longest runway,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 7, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2022/06/07/pittsburgh-international-airport-runway-10-right-28-left-christina-cassotis-faa-cargo-911th-airlift-wing-171st-air-refueling/stories/202206070051
Nick Matoney, “15 days of restrictions: Pittsburgh drivers should prepare for slowdowns on the Parkway East,” WTAE, June 7, 2022, https://www.wtae.com/article/15-days-of-restrictions-pittsburgh-drivers-should-prepare-for-slowdowns-on-the-parkway-east/40214850
Work
A study of 300 top US companies released by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) on Tuesday found the average gap between CEO and median worker pay jumped to 670-to-1 (meaning the average CEO received $670 in compensation for every $1 the worker received). The ratio was up from 604-to-1 in 2020. Forty-nine firms had ratios above 1,000-to-1.[1]
Corporate Boards of Directors seem desperate to increase chief executive officer pay; corporations often buy back their own stock, handing additional compensation to CEOs who time them for favorable swings in stock valuations, rather than raising worker pay; and many of these companies have extremely lucrative federal contracts,[2] a form of corporate welfare.
Amazon, the second-largest federal contractor in the sample, amassed $10.3bn in federal contracts. Last month shareholders approved a $212m pay deal for Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, 6,474 times the company’s median pay.[3]
Sarah Anderson and Sam Pizzigati, “Executive Excess 2022,” Institute for Policy Studies, June 2022, https://ips-dc.org/report-executive-excess-2022/
Hope King, “Musk’s WFH warning amplifies threat level for workers,” Axios, June 1, 2022, https://www.axios.com/2022/06/01/musks-wfh-warning-amplifies-threat-level-for-workers
Javier E. David, “Remote work may not be working any more,” Axios, June 5, 2022, https://www.axios.com/2022/06/05/work-from-home-elon-musk-remote-office-meetings
Vivian Giang, “The Office Monsters Are Trying to Claw Their Way Back to 2019,” New York Times, June 5, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/04/business/dealbook/companies-return-to-office.html
Andrea Hsu, “The idea of working in the office, all day, every day? No thanks, say workers,” National Public Radio, June 5, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/06/05/1102744672/remote-work-from-home-return-to-office-covid-pandemic-workers-apple-google
Dominic Rushe, “Wage gap between CEOs and US workers jumped to 670-to-1 last year, study finds,” Guardian, June 7, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/07/us-wage-gap-ceos-workers-institute-for-policy-studies-report
Gig economy (neoliberal wet dream)
Bezzle
John Colley, “Gig economy: ride-hailing and takeaway firms may not survive the cost of living crisis,” Conversation, June 7, 2022, https://theconversation.com/gig-economy-ride-hailing-and-takeaway-firms-may-not-survive-the-cost-of-living-crisis-184581
Gun nuttery
So the City of Pittsburgh, reacting to the anti-Semitic white supremacist Tree of Life synagogue mass shooting,[4] tried to pass gun control legislation. This legislation was subsequently struck down due to a Pennsylvania preemption law, which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court may soon review.[5] But evidently the mere attempt provoked an attempt to file a private criminal complaint alleging “official oppression:”[6]
“This matter involves a City of Pittsburgh ordinance that never came into existence. It still does not exist,” [Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr.] said. “You cannot enforce an individual’s grievances against a law that does not exist.”
Three days after city council passed its gun regulation in April 2019, a group of private citizens went to the district attorney’s office and tried to file private criminal complaints against then-Mayor Bill Peduto and six city council members alleging official oppression.
Zappala refused to accept the complaints. His office said that until the city of Pittsburgh cited someone for violating the gun legislation, he could not consider a private criminal complaint.[7]
The Commonwealth Court, overturning a Court of Common Pleas ruling, disagrees, finding that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr., erred.[8]
Kanishka Singh and Daniel Trotta, “Nine dead in three mass shootings across United States,” Reuters, June 6, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/least-three-dead-philadelphia-latest-us-mass-shooting-2022-06-05/
Matthew Hutson, “Can Researchers Show That Threat Assessment Stops Mass Shootings?” New Yorker, June 7, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/can-researchers-show-that-threat-assessment-stops-mass-shootings
Paula Reed Ward, “Court says Zappala erred in ignoring criminal complaints on gun legislation,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 7, 2022, https://triblive.com/news/top-stories/commonwealth-court-says-zappala-erred-in-ignoring-criminal-complaints-on-gun-legislation/
- [1]Dominic Rushe, “Wage gap between CEOs and US workers jumped to 670-to-1 last year, study finds,” Guardian, June 7, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/07/us-wage-gap-ceos-workers-institute-for-policy-studies-report↩
- [2]Sarah Anderson and Sam Pizzigati, “Executive Excess 2022,” Institute for Policy Studies, June 2022, https://ips-dc.org/report-executive-excess-2022/↩
- [3]Dominic Rushe, “Wage gap between CEOs and US workers jumped to 670-to-1 last year, study finds,” Guardian, June 7, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/07/us-wage-gap-ceos-workers-institute-for-policy-studies-report↩
- [4]Campbell Robertson, Christopher Mele, and Sabrina Tavernise, “11 Killed in Synagogue Massacre; Suspect Charged With 29 Counts,” New York Times, October 27, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/us/active-shooter-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting.html↩
- [5]Bob Bauder, “Judge strikes down Pittsburgh’s controversial gun bills,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 29, 2019, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/judge-strikes-down-pittsburghs-controversial-gun-bills/; Angela Couloumbis and Stephen Caruso, “Pennsylvania’s highest court could give cities the go-ahead to craft their own gun laws,” Public Source, June 1, 2022, https://www.publicsource.org/pennsylvanias-highest-court-could-give-cities-the-go-ahead-to-craft-their-own-gun-laws/; Julia Felton, “Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court rules against Pittsburgh gun regulations,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, May 27, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/pennsylvania-commonwealth-court-rules-against-pittsburgh-gun-regulations/↩
- [6]Paula Reed Ward, “Court says Zappala erred in ignoring criminal complaints on gun legislation,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 7, 2022, https://triblive.com/news/top-stories/commonwealth-court-says-zappala-erred-in-ignoring-criminal-complaints-on-gun-legislation/↩
- [7]Paula Reed Ward, “Court says Zappala erred in ignoring criminal complaints on gun legislation,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 7, 2022, https://triblive.com/news/top-stories/commonwealth-court-says-zappala-erred-in-ignoring-criminal-complaints-on-gun-legislation/↩
- [8]Paula Reed Ward, “Court says Zappala erred in ignoring criminal complaints on gun legislation,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 7, 2022, https://triblive.com/news/top-stories/commonwealth-court-says-zappala-erred-in-ignoring-criminal-complaints-on-gun-legislation/↩