Apologies are due. I could have published this issue last night. I could have published it this morning. I could have published it early this afternoon.
I am only now, finally, remembering to publish it.
Of course, with all this delay, the issue has become quite long. There’s a lot of news to cover that’s just all been accumulating while I’ve been absent-minded.
Sorry.
(dis)United Kingdom
Prime minister
Fig. 1. President Reagan on the South Lawn during the arrival ceremony of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom. U.S. Government photograph, November 16, 1988, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Esther Webber, Hannah Brenton, and Eleni Courea, “Liz Truss panics as markets keep plunging,” Politico, October 11, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-economy-liz-truss-mistakes-markets-tax-kwarteng/
Ukraine
Fig. 2. “Destroyed Russian military vehicles located on the main street Khreshchatyk are seen as part of the celebration of the Independence Day of Ukraine in Kyiv, August 24.” Photograph by Gleb Garanich for Reuters, August 24, 2022,[1] fair use.
This is how Jade McGlynn ends her Telegraph op-ed, published under the tempting headline, “Desperate Putin is out of time as rival elites begin to circle:”
Put yourselves in the Russians’ shoes: you can either accept as false the premise of this war, in which Putin has tied up your national identity, and demand the radical overhaul of society in the face of terrifying force, or you can pretend the real issue is that the military and politicians haven’t been trying hard enough and, once they start doing so, Russia will win.
The second narrative is much less demanding and much more tempting, but it will only exacerbate Russia’s problems since Russia cannot win. The Ukrainians are not for breaking. Every Russian attack just makes them more defiant. This is why Putin will not reassert authority over his unruly elites or the public if he continues to pursue a path of escalatory aggression. But it is difficult to ascertain another way out and he has left himself very little, if any, space to turn back.
At some stage, however, the elites will have to make a choice: whether to prop up [Vladimir] Putin or save themselves. History suggests the latter is far more likely.[2]
It’s a flawed headline. McGlynn’s argument is more that Vladimir Putin’s escalation of his war criminality in Ukraine and his appointment of Sergei Surovikin, also known as “General Armageddon,” to lead it[3] are a response to Russian war hawks. She suggests that Putin is doing this under compulsion[4] from the one source of war criticism he has permitted.[5]
I think to infer from these moves that Putin is losing agency, as McGlynn does,[6] would require that Putin is doing something he hasn’t tried before in less challenging times. But these tactics are not new. Indeed, “General Armageddon” has built his career in the Russian military, including in Syria, including under Putin, on them.[7]
Certainly, we see desperation. Putin’s war has gone wrong from the start. And certainly there will be consequences.[8] He will lose agency. Events will swirl beyond his control. But I do not see evidence that this is already happening and it is premature to say that it is.
Mary Ilyushina, Emily Rauhala, and Isabelle Khurshudyan, “Ukraine hammers Russian forces into retreat on east and south fronts,” Washington Post, October 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/04/russia-retreat-kherson-lyman-ukraine/
Pjotr Sauer, “Attempts to play down retreats in Ukraine no longer wash inside Russia,” Guardian, October 5, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/05/attempts-to-play-down-retreats-ukraine-russia-war-kremlin-military-failure
Ishaan Tharoor, “Annexations show the depth of Putin’s imperial delusion,” Washington Post, October 5, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/10/05/putin-colonial-imperial-delusion/
Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Biden suggests Putin’s nuclear threats mean a ‘prospect of Armageddon,’” Washington Post, October 6, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/06/biden-putin-nuclear-armageddon/
Charlie Cooper, “Coal built the EU. Will gas destroy it?” Politico, October 6, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/prague-summit-enegy-gas-eu-ukraine-war-russia-vladimir-putin/
Robyn Dixon, “As Ukraine war falters, Russians ask a risky question: Could Putin fall?” Washington Post, October 6, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/06/putin-successor-president-russia-war/
Alex Horton, “Russians flee by boat to Alaska after Putin’s military mobilization,” Washington Post, October 6, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/06/russians-flee-alaska/
Nandita Bose and Pavel Polityuk, “Biden says Putin’s nuclear threat brings risk of ‘Armageddon,’” Reuters, October 7, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraine-forces-break-through-russian-defences-south-advance-east-2022-10-03/
Christian Esch et al., “Berlin and Washington Play Out Nuclear Scenarios,” Spiegel, October 7, 2022, https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/berlin-and-washington-play-out-scenarios-of-a-nuclear-strike-by-putin-a-ecbc1772-8526-4ce1-ae0d-7270309df54e
Greg Miller et al., “Putin confronted by insider over Ukraine war, U.S. intelligence finds,” Washington Post, October 7, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/07/putin-inner-circle-dissent/
Peter Beaumont, “Impact of Kerch bridge blast will be felt all the way to the Kremlin,” Guardian, October 8, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/08/impact-of-kerch-bridge-blast-will-be-felt-all-the-way-to-the-kremlin
Adam Schreck and Vasilisa Stepanenko, “Explosion on Crimean bridge damages key Russian supply route; 3 dead,” Los Angeles Times, October 8, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-10-08/truck-bomb-damages-crimea-bridge-a-key-supply-artery-for-russias-war-effort
Maite Fernández Simon and Paul Sonne, “Putin’s bridge of dreams explodes in flames,” Washington Post, October 8, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/08/kerch-bridge-crimea-symbolism-putin/
Times of Israel, “Russia says truck bomb caused Crimea bridge explosion, stops short of blaming Kyiv,” October 8, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-says-truck-blast-caused-crimea-bridge-explosion-stops-short-of-blaming-kyiv/
Yaroslav Trofimov, “Major Explosion Hits the Bridge Between Crimea and Russia, Halting Traffic,” Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/major-explosion-hits-the-bridge-between-crimea-and-russia-halting-traffic-11665215052
Peter Beaumont, “Vladimir Putin calls blast on Crimea-Russia bridge an ‘act of terror,’” Guardian, October 9, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/09/russia-ukraine-war-attack-housing-zaporizhzhia
Siobhán O’Grady, Anastacia Galouchka, and Whitney Shefte, “In Russian-occupied Izyum, she was raped and tortured,” Washington Post, October 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/09/izyum-rape-torture-occupation-russia/
Alice Speri, “The Mother Crime: Will Putin Face Prosecution for the Crime of Aggression in Ukraine?” Intercept, October 9, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/10/08/russia-putin-ukraine-war-crimes-accountability/
Dan Sabbagh, “GCHQ head: Putin making strategic errors due to unconstrained power,” Guardian, October 10, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/10/gchq-head-putin-making-strategic-errors-ukraine-russia
Dan Sabbagh, “Kremlin decision to target Ukraine’s cities was political, not tactical,” Guardian, October 10, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/10/kremlin-decision-to-target-ukraines-cities-was-political-not-tactical
Pjotr Sauer, “Sergei Surovikin: the ‘General Armageddon’ now in charge of Russia’s war,” Guardian, October 10, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/10/sergei-surovikin-the-general-armageddon-now-in-charge-of-russias-war
George Styllis, Gareth Davies, and Grace Millimaci, “Deadly strikes are just ‘first episode’ of response to Crimea attack, says Medvedev,” Telegraph, October 10, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/10/10/ukraine-russia-war-latest-putin-nuclear-crimea-bridge-zaporizhzhia/
Julia Ioffe, “‘General Armageddon’ & Putin’s Bridge to Nowhere,” Puck News, October 11, 2022, https://puck.news/general-armageddon-putins-bridge-to-nowhere/
Jade McGlynn, “Desperate Putin is out of time as rival elites begin to circle,” Telegraph, October 11, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/11/desperate-putin-time-rival-elites-begin-circle/
Adela Suliman, “Russian military ‘exhausted,’ Putin’s judgment ‘flawed,’ U.K. spy chief says,” Washington Post, October 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/11/russia-military-exhausted-gchq-ukraine/
Emily Rauhala et al., “U.N. condemns Russia’s annexation of Ukraine territory; NATO says air defense systems a ‘priority,’” Washington Post, October 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/12/russia-ukraine-war-latest-updates/
Pittsburgh
Annexations
Fig. 3. Photograph by author, November 25, 2020.
Ryan Deto, “Wilkinsburg ballot question could lead to home-rule charter in face of annexation push,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 11, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/wilkinsburg-ballot-question-could-lead-to-home-rule-charter-in-face-of-annexation-push/
Gig economy (neoliberal wet dream)
‘Rideshare’ driving
Fig. 4. “Clarkdale Classic Gas Station, Clarkdale, Arizona,” Photograph by Alan Levine, October 28, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
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Veena Dubal, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law, said the administration’s rule leaves a lot of leeway in how it can be interpreted, she said.
“There’s just a lot of wiggle room,” she said. “This is kind of like the middle-of-the-road-back-to-how-things-were proposed rule.”
Ms. Dubal, a critic of the gig economy business model, said she was skeptical that big companies such as Uber and Lyft would change their practices in response to the rule. Instead, they would likely mount a legal challenge.
“They could take this all the way up to the Supreme Court,” she said. “They would really play hardball in that regard.”[9]
I do desperately wish that these companies, whose managers aren’t by any means actually out on the road driving people around and doing deliveries, would stop claiming to speak for drivers who do actually do that work.
Gabriel T. Rubin and David Harrison, “Biden Rule Would Add More Gig Workers to Company Payrolls,” Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/labor-department-proposes-changes-to-independent-contractor-rules-11665498794
Noam Scheiber, “Biden Proposal Could Lead to Employee Status for Gig Workers,” New York Times, October 11, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/business/economy/biden-gig-workers-contractors-employees.html
Gilead
Gun nuttery
Fig. 5. Foxtrot comic strip by Bill Amend, August 21, 2022, via GoComics, fair use.
Joanna Slater, “Alex Jones ordered to pay nearly $1 billion to Sandy Hook families,” Washington Post, October 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/12/alex-jones-sandy-hook-verdict/
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Fig. 6. Department of Justice photograph of seized materials, reportedly partially redacted, via the Washington Post, August 31, 2022, public domain.[10]
“The fact that we have to sit there, and play this game with a former president of the United States? ‘I want my documents back?’ He’s not entitled to them,” [Michael] Cohen said. The longtime [Donald] Trump fixer argued that anyone else would be in jail “in 24 hours” if they did what Trump is accused of.
“He’s playing the art of the deal, where he says ‘I will trade you this for that,’ — this is beyond unheard of,” he said.[11]
Since Michael Cohen raises the question, why are we playing this game with Donald Trump? Why isn’t this mother fucker already in jail?[12]
The answer, necessarily, is the same as the one to why Merrick Garland took so long to authorize the search at Mar-a-Lago in the first place,[13] when it is so obvious that this decision is a no-brainer. He’s hopelessly chickenshit; he’s just desperately fishing for yet another excuse not to prosecute.[14]
Areeba Shah, “Legal experts: Russia link to Trump documents means it’s a matter of ‘when, not if’ he is indicted,” Salon, October 11, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/10/11/legal-experts-link-to-documents-means-its-a-matter-of-when-not-if-he-is-indicted/
It’s all a bit deeper in the weeds of high finance than I can quite wrap my head around, but William D. Cohan argues that in the present interest rate environment, Twitter is essentially worthless and Elon Musk will need to sink even more money into it to keep vulture financiers out of it. The banks and his equity partners are all in for huge losses.[15] But you know, given our present operating definition of intelligence, the world’s richest man must also be the world’s smartest man.
Remember that as the lights come on, that is, if someone can pay the power bill, and Cohan’s predicted “quite a show” goes on.[16]
William D. Cohan, “The Elon Financial Mindfuck,” Puck News, October 12, 2022, https://puck.news/the-elon-financial-mindfuck/
- [1]Reuters, “Ukraine puts destroyed Russian tanks on display in Kyiv,” August 25, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ukraine-puts-destroyed-russian-tanks-on-idUSRTSALV9Q↩
- [2]Jade McGlynn, “Desperate Putin is out of time as rival elites begin to circle,” Telegraph, October 11, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/11/desperate-putin-time-rival-elites-begin-circle/↩
- [3]Julia Ioffe, “‘General Armageddon’ & Putin’s Bridge to Nowhere,” Puck News, October 11, 2022, https://puck.news/general-armageddon-putins-bridge-to-nowhere/; Pjotr Sauer, “Sergei Surovikin: the ‘General Armageddon’ now in charge of Russia’s war,” Guardian, October 10, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/10/sergei-surovikin-the-general-armageddon-now-in-charge-of-russias-war; George Styllis, Gareth Davies, and Grace Millimaci, “Deadly strikes are just ‘first episode’ of response to Crimea attack, says Medvedev,” Telegraph, October 10, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/10/10/ukraine-russia-war-latest-putin-nuclear-crimea-bridge-zaporizhzhia/↩
- [4]Jade McGlynn, “Desperate Putin is out of time as rival elites begin to circle,” Telegraph, October 11, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/11/desperate-putin-time-rival-elites-begin-circle/↩
- [5]Thomas Grove and Matthew Luxmoore, “As Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Stalls, Critical Voices Emerge in Moscow,” Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-stalls-critical-voices-emerge-in-moscow-11652958665; Pjotr Sauer, “‘We have already lost’: far-right Russian bloggers slam Kremlin over army response,” Guardian, September 8, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/08/we-have-already-lost-far-right-russian-bloggers-slam-kremlin-over-army-response↩
- [6]Jade McGlynn, “Desperate Putin is out of time as rival elites begin to circle,” Telegraph, October 11, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/11/desperate-putin-time-rival-elites-begin-circle/↩
- [7]Julia Ioffe, “‘General Armageddon’ & Putin’s Bridge to Nowhere,” Puck News, October 11, 2022, https://puck.news/general-armageddon-putins-bridge-to-nowhere/; Pjotr Sauer, “Sergei Surovikin: the ‘General Armageddon’ now in charge of Russia’s war,” Guardian, October 10, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/10/sergei-surovikin-the-general-armageddon-now-in-charge-of-russias-war↩
- [8]David Benfell, “If Vladimir Putin doesn’t make sense, he doesn’t make sense, and he cannot last,” Not Housebroken, October 11, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/10/10/if-vladimir-putin-doesnt-make-sense-he-doesnt-make-sense-and-he-cannot-last/↩
- [9]Gabriel T. Rubin and David Harrison, “Biden Rule Would Add More Gig Workers to Company Payrolls,” Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/labor-department-proposes-changes-to-independent-contractor-rules-11665498794↩
- [10]Devlin Barrett, “Justice Dept. says Trump team may have hidden, moved classified papers,” Washington Post, August 31, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/31/trump-documents-removed-storage-room/↩
- [11]Areeba Shah, “Legal experts: Russia link to Trump documents means it’s a matter of ‘when, not if’ he is indicted,” Salon, October 11, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/10/11/legal-experts-link-to-documents-means-its-a-matter-of-when-not-if-he-is-indicted/↩
- [12]Areeba Shah, “Legal experts: Russia link to Trump documents means it’s a matter of ‘when, not if’ he is indicted,” Salon, October 11, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/10/11/legal-experts-link-to-documents-means-its-a-matter-of-when-not-if-he-is-indicted/↩
- [13]Sadie Gurman and Aruna Viswanatha, “Merrick Garland Weighed Search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for Weeks,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/merrick-garland-weighed-search-of-trumps-mar-a-lago-for-weeks-11660601292↩
- [14]David Benfell, “It is now even more urgently orange jumpsuit time,” Not Housebroken, September 19, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/24/it-is-now-even-more-urgently-orange-jumpsuit-time/↩
- [15]William D. Cohan, “The Elon Financial Mindfuck,” Puck News, October 12, 2022, https://puck.news/the-elon-financial-mindfuck/↩
- [16]William D. Cohan, “The Elon Financial Mindfuck,” Puck News, October 12, 2022, https://puck.news/the-elon-financial-mindfuck/↩