Month: June 2022

Delusions of diplomacy

benfell

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

There is a new blog post entitled, “Keeping it real.”

Jon Allsop, “The January 6 hearing and the value of spectacle,” Columbia Journalism Review, June 10, 2022, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/january_6_committee_hearing_media.php

Harold Meyerson, “All Roads Lead to Trump,” American Prospect, June 10, 2022, https://prospect.org/politics/all-roads-lead-to-trump-january-6th-hearing/

Privacy

It looks like Chromium-based browsers, including Google Chrome, may soon stop supporting the Ghostery ad blocking extension. AdBlock Plus will continue to work. Firefox will continue to support Ghostery.[1]

Historically, I’ve relied on AdBlock Plus and Ghostery, but these days, I rely principally on AdGuard, which requires a paid subscription. It operates on two levels. One is a program that runs apart from your browser, protecting your system and you from ads and tracking. The other is with a browser extension. I use both levels of AdGuard and implement the VPN feature that, as I understand it, reroutes browser and browser-like traffic within your system to the system-wide program.

My experience with Firefox has that it fails with some Google tools, like Google Docs, which for me are now (not when I was a student, but now) sufficient for my word processing and spreadsheet needs, so I haven’t been able to eliminate Chrome entirely, but Firefox is now my default browser. (I’m not a Reddit fan, but this thread seems to match even my more recent experience.)

On Mac OS, I’m able to use Mimestream for Gmail, so most links I click in email still open in Firefox. I still have a tab open for Gmail in Chrome, but I use this principally with Google Tasks and to add filtering rules. Mimestream is now free in beta; it will eventually cost money.

I have no recent experience with Thunderbird but historically, it was possible to use this with Gmail on Windows and Linux systems.

Corin Faife, “Firefox and Chrome are squaring off over ad-blocker extensions,” Verge, June 10, 2022, https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/10/23131029/mozilla-ad-blocking-firefox-google-chrome-privacy-manifest-v3-web-request

Ukraine

The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, has harshly criticized France and Germany for continuing to attempt diplomacy with Vladimir Putin. From what I can see Duda is largely right, though perhaps overstating the matter a bit:

“Did anyone speak like this with Adolf Hitler during World War II?” [Andrzej] Duda said.

“Did anyone say that Adolf Hitler must save face? That we should proceed in such a way that it is not humiliating for Adolf Hitler? I have not heard such voices,” he continued.

Duda argued that such conversations achieve nothing and “only bring about a legitimization of a person who is responsible for the crimes the Russian army is committing in Ukraine.”[2]

Duda’s argument[3] appears broadly consistent with Julia Ioffe’s.[4]

French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted that the West must not “humiliate” Russia,[5] and:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized [Emmanuel] Macron’s remarks, reportedly saying earlier this week: “I do not really understand what is humiliating Russia. Are we talking about the fact that for eight years they have been killing Ukrainians?”[6]

I do not see that the French and German efforts can be productive. Putin lives in his own set of delusions and it is clear that this has not changed[7] since before the war.[8] To the extent that diplomacy, even if futile, is not in itself capitulation, I am not seeing that what is reported of the conversations[9] is harmful.

But Ioffe’s portrait of Putin’s childhood[10] leaves little doubt that Macron is wrong, that Putin must indeed be humiliated, as this is the only language the bully will understand.

Times of Israel, “Polish president compares Putin to Hitler, slams France, Germany for talking to him,” June 10, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/polish-president-compares-putin-to-hitler-slams-france-germany-for-talking-to-him/

Electric vehicles

Joe Biden’s order requiring public, as in really public, charging stations every fifty miles is good news but it apparently only applies to the Interstate Highway system,[11] and thus omits cities like Fresno, California, which, believe it or not, is not served by an Interstate Highway.

There remain two problems: First, it takes time to recharge a battery, much longer than filling a gas tank. And second, because of that time requirement, even with high availability of charging stations, an electric car’s daily range remains practically constrained to far less than that of a gasoline-powered car.

Biden’s order is important. But it’s still not a substitute for improvements, which I’m reasonably confident are forthcoming, in battery technology.

Michael Collins, “Biden to require electric vehicle charging stations every 50 miles on federal highways,” USA Today, June 9, 2022, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/09/electric-vehicles-biden-charging-stations-every-50-miles/7561566001/

White Christian nationalism (Trumpism)

Megan Guza, “Mt. Lebanon mothers sue school district, teacher over gender identity lessons,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, https://triblive.com/local/mt-lebanon-mothers-sue-school-district-teacher-over-gender-identity-lessons/

Pittsburgh

Unauthorized violence

Megan Guza, “Pittsburgh leaders brace for busy weekend amid ongoing violence,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 10, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-leaders-brace-for-busy-weekend-amid-ongoing-violence/

Megan Tomasic, “Police: Man shot to death in Pittsburgh’s Knoxville neighborhood during dispute,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 10, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/police-man-shot-to-death-in-pittsburghs-knoxville-neighborhood-during-a-dispute/

Inflation

I don’t know if we’re going into a recession or not. What I can say is that since worries about the economy kicked into overdrive, I’d say about three weeks ago, I’ve seen a marked change and decrease in my business as an Uber driver. I don’t know how much inflation is really hurting people but I think I am seeing decreased business especially, but not exclusively, in poor neighborhoods. In some ways, it’s feeling like it’s back to what it was like pre-pandemic: There are often intervals between the orders I receive; I may wait quite some time for my first order of the day.

I can’t say it’s killing me yet, but it is impacting the progress I’d hoped to make financially this year.

  1. [1]Corin Faife, “Firefox and Chrome are squaring off over ad-blocker extensions,” Verge, June 10, 2022, https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/10/23131029/mozilla-ad-blocking-firefox-google-chrome-privacy-manifest-v3-web-request↩
  2. [2]Times of Israel, “Polish president compares Putin to Hitler, slams France, Germany for talking to him,” June 10, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/polish-president-compares-putin-to-hitler-slams-france-germany-for-talking-to-him/↩
  3. [3]Times of Israel, “Polish president compares Putin to Hitler, slams France, Germany for talking to him,” June 10, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/polish-president-compares-putin-to-hitler-slams-france-germany-for-talking-to-him/↩
  4. [4]Julia Ioffe, “The Case Against Appeasement,” Puck News, June 7, 2022, https://puck.news/the-case-against-appeasement/↩
  5. [5]Julia Ioffe, “The Case Against Appeasement,” Puck News, June 7, 2022, https://puck.news/the-case-against-appeasement/↩
  6. [6]Times of Israel, “Polish president compares Putin to Hitler, slams France, Germany for talking to him,” June 10, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/polish-president-compares-putin-to-hitler-slams-france-germany-for-talking-to-him/↩
  7. [7]Julian O’Shaughnessy, “I’m reconquering just like Peter the Great, insists Vladimir Putin,” Times, June 10, 2022, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/president-putin-creates-police-department-to-impose-martial-law-xqhlt79fn; Reuters, “Hailing Peter the Great, Putin draws parallel with mission to ‘return’ Russian lands,” June 9, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hailing-peter-great-putin-draws-parallel-with-mission-return-russian-lands-2022-06-09/↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “Vladimir Putin is a fool,” Not Housebroken, May 18, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/01/24/vladimir-putin-is-a-fool/↩
  9. [9]Times of Israel, “Polish president compares Putin to Hitler, slams France, Germany for talking to him,” June 10, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/polish-president-compares-putin-to-hitler-slams-france-germany-for-talking-to-him/↩
  10. [10]Julia Ioffe, “About a Boy: The Roots of Putin’s Evil,” Puck News, May 10, 2022, https://puck.news/about-a-boy-the-roots-of-putins-evil/↩
  11. [11]Michael Collins, “Biden to require electric vehicle charging stations every 50 miles on federal highways,” USA Today, June 9, 2022, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/09/electric-vehicles-biden-charging-stations-every-50-miles/7561566001/↩

Yes, really, World War III

benfell

I haven’t finished going through the news, but it’s already 12:33 pm as I write this. I gotta get to work.

Ukraine


Fig. 1. Historic Russian empire, from the New York Times, possibly March 6, 2014, fair use.[1]

There can no longer be any doubt that Vladimir Putin’s intentions will extend far beyond Ukraine as he “has compared the war in Ukraine to Peter the Great’s conquests in the Baltic, arguing that in both conflicts Russia was recovering its own territory.”[2] This historical analog Putin points to is a war Pyotr Alekséyevich waged against Sweden; this particular conquest includes Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg.[3] Though there are certainly other arguments, such as those Julia Ioffe correctly[4] offers,[5] the map (figure 1) alone[6] refutes those who are so desperate to appease Putin,[7] leaving little doubt that any intention to recover lost territory entails a vast claim.[8]

You may ridicule the Russian military’s underwhelming performance so far in Ukraine, as undermining any prospect of wider ambition, but Putin has nuclear weapons and a lot of them.[9]

Reuters, “Hailing Peter the Great, Putin draws parallel with mission to ‘return’ Russian lands,” June 9, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hailing-peter-great-putin-draws-parallel-with-mission-return-russian-lands-2022-06-09/

Julian O’Shaughnessy, “I’m reconquering just like Peter the Great, insists Vladimir Putin,” Times, June 10, 2022, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/president-putin-creates-police-department-to-impose-martial-law-xqhlt79fn

Ideology as ‘science:’ economics

The man’s got a point:

John Fugelsang, “The media calls it #inflation. . . .” Twitter, June 10, 2022, https://twitter.com/JohnFugelsang/status/1535265258046214144

Pittsburgh

I have previously remarked on how Pittsburgh drivers are too often assholes.[10] It seems they are also idiots.[11]

As gas prices go up, waiting longer to fill your pump does not mean they will go down. My mechanics have always advised never running below a quarter tank. My understanding is that the ratio of sediment to fuel rises when you do so, potentially clogging your fuel filter. It appears you also put your fuel pump at risk—not a cheap repair—and, of course, when you run out of gas and your engine dies, power assisted things like brakes and steering may fail as well. But guess what folks in Pittsburgh are doing.[12] Assholes. Idiots.

Of course, it’s the drivers of testosterone trucks, you know, the ones who roll coal and think it’s patriotic to park their gas guzzlers in electric vehicle charging parking spaces, who are worst affected. I’d favor their elimination through natural selection, but when they’re being jackasses on the road, that puts me at risk as well.

Ethan Dodd, “High gas prices are leaving Pittsburghers on the side of the road,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 10, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2022/06/10/high-gas-fuel-cost-prices-roadside-assistance-aaa-inflation/stories/202206100065

  1. [1]New York Times, “Ukraine Crisis in Maps,” n.d., http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/02/27/world/europe/ukraine-divisions-crimea.html↩
  2. [2]Julian O’Shaughnessy, “I’m reconquering just like Peter the Great, insists Vladimir Putin,” Times, June 10, 2022, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/president-putin-creates-police-department-to-impose-martial-law-xqhlt79fn↩
  3. [3]Reuters, “Hailing Peter the Great, Putin draws parallel with mission to ‘return’ Russian lands,” June 9, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hailing-peter-great-putin-draws-parallel-with-mission-return-russian-lands-2022-06-09/↩
  4. [4]David Benfell, “Ukraine and the refutation of so-called ‘realism,’” Not Housebroken, June 7, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/06/07/ukraine-and-the-refutation-of-so-called-realism/↩
  5. [5]Julia Ioffe, “The Case Against Appeasement,” Puck News, June 7, 2022, https://puck.news/the-case-against-appeasement/↩
  6. [6]New York Times, “Ukraine Crisis in Maps,” n.d., http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/02/27/world/europe/ukraine-divisions-crimea.html↩
  7. [7]Joe Barnes, “Germany ‘deliberately watering down’ EU embargo on Russian oil,” Telegraph, May 27, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/05/27/germany-deliberately-watering-eu-plans-embargo-russian-oil-imports/; 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/↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “Where does Vladimir Putin stop?” Not Housebroken, May 18, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/04/where-does-vladimir-putin-stop/↩
  9. [9]David Benfell, “Nuclear survival,” Not Housebroken, May 18, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/13/nuclear-survival/↩
  10. [10]David Benfell, “The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) wants to improve safety? REALLY?!!???!!!!” Not Housebroken, May 24, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/05/24/the-pennsylvania-department-of-transportation-penndot-wants-to-improve-safety-really/↩
  11. [11]Ethan Dodd, “High gas prices are leaving Pittsburghers on the side of the road,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 10, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2022/06/10/high-gas-fuel-cost-prices-roadside-assistance-aaa-inflation/stories/202206100065↩
  12. [12]Ethan Dodd, “High gas prices are leaving Pittsburghers on the side of the road,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 10, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2022/06/10/high-gas-fuel-cost-prices-roadside-assistance-aaa-inflation/stories/202206100065↩

The Washington Post, who should know much, much better, has fired Felicia Sonmez

benfell

Democrats

Sarah Jones tells us what the Democrats will not do.[1] We can argue about whether they can or should do it—I would agree with Jones that they should—but I can promise you that they won’t.

Sarah Jones, “Democrats Need a Vision. Fast,” New York, June 9, 2022, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/06/democrats-need-more-than-january-6-hearings-to-save-them.html

Washington Post

I wasn’t paying much attention to the Dave Weigel affair, but Dylan Byers writes,

To be clear, everyone that I spoke with believed that [Dave] Weigel [who had retweeted a vulgar joke stating that all women were either bipolar or bisexual and was subsequently suspended for a month] had been foolish. And while sources didn’t question [Felicia] Sonmez’s passion for standing up to what she saw as misogyny, they were genuinely upset that she seemed hellbent on upending the [Washington] Post to make her point. One thing I’ve learned about the Post over the years is that its reporters really do like the place, despite its imperfections, and many people I spoke to explained how Sonmez’s tweets were a lot less productive than a hard, private conversation with management. Reporters including Dan Balz, Carol Leonnig, Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker, Rosalind Helderman, Michael Scherer, and Amy Gardner, among others, have all issued tweets to that effect. (Sonmez declined to comment for this piece, though many of her tweets suggest she believes that management is unresponsive to her concerns.)[2]

It should not require a critical theorist to note that it is terribly, terribly problematic when institutional reputation takes precedence over grievances about discrimination or harassment. When this happens, the institution makes itself a discriminator, whatever the merits of the original claims, or a harasser. This is an incomprehensibly stupid thing for an organization to do.

And while Weigel, who arguably should have been fired for numerous offenses, was merely suspended, Felicia Sonmez has apparently now been fired.[3]

Sonmez was in the process of appealing the dismissal of her discrimination claim against the Washington Post.[4] I am not a lawyer, but whatever the merits of her original complaint, she’s surely got a case now.

Dylan Byers, “The Washington Post’s Twitter Fragility,” Puck News, June 8, 2022, https://puck.news/the-washington-posts-twitter-fragility/

  1. [1]Sarah Jones, “Democrats Need a Vision. Fast,” New York, June 9, 2022, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/06/democrats-need-more-than-january-6-hearings-to-save-them.html↩
  2. [2]Dylan Byers, “The Washington Post’s Twitter Fragility,” Puck News, June 8, 2022, https://puck.news/the-washington-posts-twitter-fragility/↩
  3. [3]Dylan Byers, “The Washington Post’s Twitter Fragility,” Puck News, June 8, 2022, https://puck.news/the-washington-posts-twitter-fragility/↩
  4. [4]Dylan Byers, “The Washington Post’s Twitter Fragility,” Puck News, June 8, 2022, https://puck.news/the-washington-posts-twitter-fragility/↩

Elites love their zombie

benfell

Ideology as ‘science:’ economics

There is a new blog post entitled, “A monster that does not bleed and cannot be killed.”

James Meadway, “The present crisis calls for a new economic paradigm,” New Statesman, June 8, 2022, https://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2022/06/cost-of-living-crisis-new-economic-paradigm

Social networks

There is another new blog post entitled, “Social networks and political polarization: We don’t fucking know.”

Mathew Ingram, “Have the dangers of social media been overstated?” Columbia Journalism Review, June 9, 2022, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/have-the-dangers-of-social-media-been-overstated.php

Erie

Jim Martin, “Erie job market earns low marks in national study; how concerned should we be?” Erie Times-News, June 8, 2022, https://www.goerie.com/story/business/2022/06/09/erie-investments-have-topped-600-million-has-it-made-a-difference/65357595007/

Pittsburgh

Infrastructure

What inquiring minds really want to know is how Pittsburgh’s bus service, now to be called Pittsburgh Regional Transit,[1] got to be called the Port Authority in the first place; it does not exercise authority over ports, at least as near as I can tell. The closest it comes to this is rights of way that somehow traverse rivers and “T” (light rail) stations near those rivers. But I can just about guarantee that a lot of riders will wish they’d spend the money on improving service instead of new paint jobs.

Ed Blazina, “Goodbye Port Authority, hello Pittsburgh Regional Transit: Agency unveils new name, branding,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 9, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/06/09/port-authority-allegheny-county-new-name-pittsburgh-regional-transit-prt-pat-buses-t-light-rail/stories/202206090131

  1. [1]Ed Blazina, “Goodbye Port Authority, hello Pittsburgh Regional Transit: Agency unveils new name, branding,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 9, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/06/09/port-authority-allegheny-county-new-name-pittsburgh-regional-transit-prt-pat-buses-t-light-rail/stories/202206090131↩

The road not traveled

benfell

Property and the Commons

Peter Kropotkin wrote a history of cooperative social organization that lasted into, and to a decreasing degree, a little beyond the Middle Ages. It included common lands, the Commons, that were used by the people and Kropotkin recorded that elites worked assiduously to end these arrangements and claim private property.[1]

Kropotkin was an anarchist; he of course was telling me what I wanted to hear, and in a source far older than I’m accustomed to citing, so I sought confirmation. I caught bits and snatches here and there, enough to assure me he wasn’t just talking out his ass, but little substantive, and in fact had forgotten about this story when I decided I was no longer an anarchist.[2] It’s a history that’s rarely told and seemed, to me at least, to have been lost. Until Eula Biss.[3]

Along the way, Biss writes[4] of Garrett Hardin, author of the infamous Tragedy of the Commons,[5] which Elinor Ostrom had refuted even before Hardin wrote it. Hardin’s thesis, that humans are intractably selfish, inevitably exhausting any shared resource, it turns out, relies on, at best, selective evidence. Counterexamples, it also seems, were abundant even before Hardin’s widely cited essay.[6]

Hardin, it turns out, was also a horrendous racist,[7] advancing a version of the paleoconservative white replacement theory.[8] No matter; the prevailing ideology embraces his thesis and ignores Ostrom’s.[9] To do otherwise would be to suggest that there is, after all, a viable alternative to capitalism and capitalist property relations. And you know we can’t have that.

Biss finds a town, Laxton, England, where land remains “unenclosed,” a Commons. It is far from the desolate, environmentally exhausted patch Hardin imagines. And it exists to this day.[10] It is indeed the case that we humans had a potential to be something else than than the self-destructively selfish assholes we generally are.

The trouble remains, however, what I wrote in that blog entry when I decided I was no longer an anarchist.[11] The experience of the climate crisis, which too many of us prefer to deny even at the likely expense of our own survival, and of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which too many of us often violently refused mitigation regulations and refused vaccinations, shows that a large proportion of us are incorrigible assholes. As I wrote following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election, we have failed the test of survival as too many of us command that reality conform to our ideology rather than that our ideology should conform to reality.[12]

The particulars of climate and plague are of little import here; our end will surely be violent as Hardin’s self-fulfilling prophesy, following the logic of capitalism that he erroneously attributed to anarchism,[13] is realized.

Eula Biss, “The Theft of the Commons,” New Yorker, June 8, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/essay/the-theft-of-the-commons

  1. [1]Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (London: Heinemann, 1902; Mineola, NY: Dover, 2006).↩
  2. [2]David Benfell, “I am no longer an anarchist,” Not Housebroken, January 29, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/01/29/i-am-no-longer-an-anarchist/↩
  3. [3]Eula Biss, “The Theft of the Commons,” New Yorker, June 8, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/essay/the-theft-of-the-commons↩
  4. [4]Eula Biss, “The Theft of the Commons,” New Yorker, June 8, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/essay/the-theft-of-the-commons↩
  5. [5]Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Science 162, no. 3859 (December 13, 1968): 1243-1248, doi: 10.1126/science.162.3859.1243↩
  6. [6]Michelle Nijhuis, “The miracle of the commons,” Aeon, May 4, 2021, https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth↩
  7. [7]Michelle Nijhuis, “The miracle of the commons,” Aeon, May 4, 2021, https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth↩
  8. [8]Eula Biss, “The Theft of the Commons,” New Yorker, June 8, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/essay/the-theft-of-the-commons↩
  9. [9]Michelle Nijhuis, “The miracle of the commons,” Aeon, May 4, 2021, https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth↩
  10. [10]Eula Biss, “The Theft of the Commons,” New Yorker, June 8, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/essay/the-theft-of-the-commons↩
  11. [11]David Benfell, “I am no longer an anarchist,” Not Housebroken, January 29, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/01/29/i-am-no-longer-an-anarchist/↩
  12. [12]David Benfell, “We have failed the test,” Not Housebroken, December 9, 2016, https://disunitedstates.org/2016/12/09/we-have-failed-the-test/↩
  13. [13]Michelle Nijhuis, “The miracle of the commons,” Aeon, May 4, 2021, https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth↩

You know the Amazon chief executive officer needs the money

benfell

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. [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. [2]Sarah Anderson and Sam Pizzigati, “Executive Excess 2022,” Institute for Policy Studies, June 2022, https://ips-dc.org/report-executive-excess-2022/↩
  3. [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. [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. [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. [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. [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. [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/↩

Let’s all celebrate incompetence

benfell

Police White supremacist gangs

There is a new blog post entitled, “The question should not be ‘Why Are Police So Bad at Their Jobs,’ but why is the criminal injustice system so bad at its job?”

Alexander Sammon, “Why Are Police So Bad at Their Jobs?” American Prospect, June 2, 2022, https://prospect.org/justice/why-are-police-so-bad-at-their-jobs/

Work

There is another new blog post entitled, “By all means, cherry pick your studies on ‘work from home.’”

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

Elon Musk

It’s bad enough that Elon Musk does not seem to have outgrown puberty; I honestly think the man is seriously unstable. Twitter is an amusing annoying sideshow; matters such as selling cars that need to be safe and safely shooting people into space are somewhat more serious.

Will Feuer, “Elon Musk Threatens to End Deal With Twitter,” Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-sends-letter-to-twitter-requesting-data-on-spam-fake-accounts-11654521207

Gun nuttery

United States

I’m really trying not to get too much into the weeds here because to do so is so blatantly pointless. No matter how many die, nothing really changes.[1] California demonstrates that something could be done,[2] but to think it will be done is simply delusional. Meanwhile, as the U.S. Supreme Court may well be set to loosen gun restrictions even further,[3] people keep dying, as mass shootings seem lately to have become some kind of a craze.[4]

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/

  1. [1]Jon Allsop, “A massacre in Uvalde, and the ‘numbing script’ of gun-violence coverage,” Columbia Journalism Review, May 25, 2022, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/uvalde_shooting_media.php; Molly Jong-Fast, “Democrats Should ‘Do Something’ the Way the GOP Does Things,” Atlantic, June 1, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62977fdd66d6b500218ffc11/biden-democrats-midterm-elections-gun-laws-uvalde/; Ashley Parker, Tyler Pager, and Colby Itkowitz, “From Sandy Hook to Buffalo: Ten years of failure on gun control,” Washington Post, May 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/22/guns-biden-democrats-buffalo/; David Siders, “‘It’s straight out of a playbook’: At NRA convention, conspiracy theories abound,” Politico, May 27, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/27/nra-convention-uvalde-shooting-00035842; Laurel Wamsley, “The U.S. is uniquely terrible at protecting children from gun violence,” National Public Radio, May 28, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/05/28/1101307932/texas-shooting-uvalde-gun-violence-children-teenagers↩
  2. [2]Shawn Hubler, “California Has America’s Toughest Gun Laws, and They Work,” New York Times, May 31, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/us/california-gun-laws.html↩
  3. [3]Kevin Rector, “U.S. gun laws are getting looser, not stronger, despite more mass shootings,” Los Angeles Times, May 25, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-25/mass-shootings-renew-calls-for-stricter-gun-laws-experts-say-the-opposite-is-coming↩
  4. [4]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/↩

Stupid people doing stupid stuff (Updated)

benfell

Abortion

Lauren Hepler, “Two women were charged with murder after having stillbirths. The cases are rocking this conservative corner of California,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 4, 2022, https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/roe-wade-central-california-17218901.php

Pittsburgh

Unauthorized violence

The text originally here has been incorporated into a new blog post entitled, “Night time is the right time to confuse your gun for your penis.”

Megan Guza, “Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey unveils plan to combat city violence,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 3, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-mayor-ed-gainey-unveils-plan-to-combat-violence-in-the-city/

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Man hospitalized after being shot in South Side,” June 4, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2022/06/04/pittsburgh-south-side-shooting-carson-street-police-17th-street/stories/202206040040

Erika Stanish, “Leaders call for crowd control on South Side to curb violence,” KDKA-TV, June 4, 2022, https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/south-side-crowd-control-violence/

Latrine politics in Pennsylvania

benfell

John Fetterman

There is a new blog post entitled, “https://disunitedstates.org/2022/06/04/pick-your-piss-a-pennsylvania-latrine-may-help-determine-control-of-the-u-s-senate/.”

Hannah Knowles, “David McCormick concedes to Mehmet Oz in Pa. Republican Senate primary,” Washington Post, June 3, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/03/david-mccormick-concedes-mehmet-oz-pa-republican-primary-senate-race/

Dan Merica, “Fetterman’s cardiologist says Democrat, who had stroke, suffers from atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathy,” CNN, June 3, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/03/politics/john-fetterman-health/index.html

Jonathan Tamari, “David McCormick concedes to Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/david-mccormick-concede-pa-senate-primary-mehmet-oz-20220603.html

To deliver or not to deliver, that is the question

benfell

Police White supremacist gangs

Julia Felton, “Pittsburgh City Council considers new stop-and-frisk policy for police,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 1, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-city-council-considers-new-stop-and-frisk-policy-for-police/

Gun nuttery

United States

Molly Jong-Fast begins, correctly in my view, by pointing to a need for the Democrats to actually deliver results. But the larger part of her call to action is yet another show vote,[1] in which the Democrats can (mostly) vote yes, point fingers at Joe Manchin and Kyrstin Sinema, point fingers at the Republicans, and rest completely assured that they will have accomplished absolutely nothing. Which, to state the obvious, is not what I would call delivering results.

She also suggests that the state of New York should do[2] what Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested liberal states might do if Texas’ S.B. 8, enabling private parties to sue to enforce an anti-abortion policy that the state couldn’t enforce itself, due to Roe v. Wade, is upheld,[3] which was subsequently what Gavin Newsom said California should do,[4] that is, pass a law enabling private parties to sue to enforce an anti-gun policy that the states can’t enforce themselves.[5] My understanding is that a ruling on the Texas law is still pending at the Supreme Court; my expectation remains that the Court will rule to overturn Roe v. Wade in the Mississippi case but reject the Texas approach for the very reason that Kavanaugh raised, which of course would eviscerate Jong-Fast’s and Newsom’s suggestions.

And yes, all these people should be crediting Kavanaugh for the idea. Jong-Fast should, in addition, be crediting Newsom.

Jon Allsop, “A massacre in Uvalde, and the ‘numbing script’ of gun-violence coverage,” Columbia Journalism Review, May 25, 2022, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/uvalde_shooting_media.php

Kevin Rector, “U.S. gun laws are getting looser, not stronger, despite more mass shootings,” Los Angeles Times, May 25, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-25/mass-shootings-renew-calls-for-stricter-gun-laws-experts-say-the-opposite-is-coming

David Siders, “‘It’s straight out of a playbook’: At NRA convention, conspiracy theories abound,” Politico, May 27, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/27/nra-convention-uvalde-shooting-00035842

Laurel Wamsley, “The U.S. is uniquely terrible at protecting children from gun violence,” National Public Radio, May 28, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/05/28/1101307932/texas-shooting-uvalde-gun-violence-children-teenagers

Shawn Hubler, “California Has America’s Toughest Gun Laws, and They Work,” New York Times, May 31, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/us/california-gun-laws.html

Molly Jong-Fast, “Democrats Should ‘Do Something’ the Way the GOP Does Things,” Atlantic, June 1, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62977fdd66d6b500218ffc11/biden-democrats-midterm-elections-gun-laws-uvalde/

  1. [1]Molly Jong-Fast, “Democrats Should ‘Do Something’ the Way the GOP Does Things,” Atlantic, June 1, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62977fdd66d6b500218ffc11/biden-democrats-midterm-elections-gun-laws-uvalde/↩
  2. [2]Molly Jong-Fast, “Democrats Should ‘Do Something’ the Way the GOP Does Things,” Atlantic, June 1, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62977fdd66d6b500218ffc11/biden-democrats-midterm-elections-gun-laws-uvalde/↩
  3. [3]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/↩
  4. [4]Sophia Bollag, “Gavin Newsom calls for bill modeled on Texas abortion ban to crack down on gun manufacturers,” Sacramento Bee, December 11, 2021, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article256524466.html↩
  5. [5]Sophia Bollag, “Gavin Newsom calls for bill modeled on Texas abortion ban to crack down on gun manufacturers,” Sacramento Bee, December 11, 2021, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article256524466.html; Molly Jong-Fast, “Democrats Should ‘Do Something’ the Way the GOP Does Things,” Atlantic, June 1, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62977fdd66d6b500218ffc11/biden-democrats-midterm-elections-gun-laws-uvalde/↩