October 2022 – Page 3 – Irregular Bullshit

Reportedly ‘a done deal:’ Rishi Sunak to be prime minister

October 17, 2022October 17, 2022benfell

(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.

It’s possible you’ve seen an earlier version of the following in an update to the relevant blog post. It’s been updated there as well.

It seems it’s the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, who’s turning the knife in Liz Truss’ back. As the Telegraph’s Chris Evans puts it, “In a statement lasting a little over five minutes, the new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, today scrapped almost all of the mini-Budget tax cuts,”^[1] that featured in Truss’ “mini-budget.” But of course she’s the one who put that knife there with a radical supply-side economic program^[2] in the first place; he’s only turning it.

The Conservatives were on the brink of open warfare on Saturday [October 15] night as ministers warned of “an assault on the Right” and supporters of Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, described Ms [Liz] Truss as a “prisoner” of Mr [Jeremy] Hunt. One senior Tory said: “She’s in office, he’s in power. That’s why she’s got to go.” Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, was being touted as a potential “unity candidate” to replace Ms Truss.^[3]

As appalling as Truss’ ideology is—and it is appalling—we should remember that the British conservatives signed up for it. Until they didn’t.^[4] As the Telegraph’s Christopher ‘Chopper’ Hope put it,

Today’s [October 17] extraordinary developments leave [Liz] Truss fatally weakened. Even her supporters will be counting her survival on weeks not months. Trussonomics is over. And so, probably, is Truss herself.

There is a good case now for Truss to step aside and let [Jeremy] Hunt take over at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. Right now it feels inaccurate to describe Truss as Prime Minister. Rather it might be better correct to state simply that she resides at 10 Downing St, and leave it at that.^[5]

Hope is now reporting that he’s seen a WhatsApp message indicating that “it’s a done deal” that Rishi Sunak will be prime minister, Hunt will continue as chancellor, and Penny Mordaunt will be foreign minister. He notes, however, that all of this is entirely “undemocratic” and argues for bringing back Boris Johnson.^[6]

For this to happen, [Boris Johnson] will have to get clear of a privileges committee inquiry into whether he lied to Parliament over partygate, apologise to his activists and MPs and change the way he governs.

It is a tall ask. But it is that or a general election. The Tories are in an invidious position, and it is all their own fault.^[7]

I would think calling that a “tall ask” would be putting it mildly. One thing we’ve seen is that Johnson is Johnson. He won’t change.

As Hope observes, blame for this mess really should be spread more widely,^[8] which is what British voters might be telling pollsters they intend to do and thus what might have something to do with those bogus methodology results.^[9]

But, of course, this really isn’t just the Tories. As I noted earlier, supply-side economics had its day in the U.S. as well;^[10] it’s really just a radical form of “trickle down” economics, intrinsic to neoliberalism, which is what happens when capitalist libertarianism comes to power with a notion that political power, but not economic power, over others is a problem,^[11] and which is really about an intense disdain for anyone who isn’t rich and powerful.^[12] This ideology has absolutely no intellectual legitimacy whatsoever,^[13] and this has been known for long enough that those who continue to promulgate it may be considered guilty of, for me, a cardinal sin: intellectual dishonesty.

Nick Gutteridge, “1922 Committee rules: How Tory MPs could oust Liz Truss,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/tory-mps-plotting-coronation-new-leader-replace-liz-truss/

Nick Gutteridge, “The runners and riders for PM if Liz Truss is ousted as Tory leader,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/runners-riders-pm-liz-truss-ousted-tory-leader/

Eleni Courea and Esther Webber, “Furious Tories conclude that Liz Truss is finished,” Politico, October 14, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-prime-minister-uk-conservative-party-finished/

Szu Ping Chan, “Kwasi Kwarteng cuts short Washington trip as axe looms over mini-Budget,” Telegraph, October 14, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/14/kwasi-kwarteng-cuts-short-washington-trip-axe-looms-mini-budget/

Larry Elliott, “Kwasi Kwarteng dashes home early from US amid tax U-turn chaos,” Guardian, October 14, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/14/kwasi-kwarteng-dashes-home-early-from-us-amid-tax-u-turn-chaos

Steve Goldstein, “Kwasi Kwarteng says he has accepted decision to stand aside as chancellor,” MarketWatch, October 14, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/kwasi-kwarteng-says-he-has-accepted-decision-to-stand-aside-as-chancellor-2022-10-14

Ben Riley-Smith, “Liz Truss clings to power after axing Kwasi Kwarteng,” Telegraph, October 14, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/14/liz-truss-clings-power-axing-kwasi-kwarteng/

Toby Helm and Michael Savage, “Senior Tories hold talks to discuss ousting Liz Truss to ‘rescue’ party,” Guardian, October 15, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/15/tories-talks-ousting-truss-rescue-party

Edward Malnick, Szu Ping Chan, and Will Hazell, “Jeremy Hunt delays 1p tax cut as Bank of England backs Chancellor,” Telegraph, October 15, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/15/jeremy-hunt-delays-1p-tax-cut-bank-england-backs-chancellor/

Christopher Hope, “I’ve seen a WhatsApp message setting out the future Tory leadership – and it’s brutal,” Telegraph, October 17, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/17/seen-whatsapp-message-setting-future-tory-leadership-brutality/

^[1]Chris Evans to From The Editor list, “Tax calculator: What Hunt’s U-turns will cost you,” Telegraph, October 17, 2022, https://m5.emails.telegraph.co.uk/nl/jsp/m.jsp?c=%406O9x1UyXHi4xosckHEj5m08NPPvQVT%2FXEYxMjotYsTfu1zOksQNQIACRWhdGmTBfOkOJO4Og3HIIC5wAXu56Qw%3D%3D&WT.mc_id=e_DM49431&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_Edi_New_Sub&utmsource=email ↩
^[2]Daniel Capurro, “Liz Truss: Now unchained, the dutiful servant turned PM is ready to lead from the front,” Telegraph, September 5, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/05/liz-truss-profile-prime-minister-tory-lib-dem-thatcher/; Pippa Crerar, Peter Walker, and Phillip Inman, “Liz Truss to hold emergency talks with OBR after failing to calm markets,” Guardian, September 29, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/29/liz-truss-to-hold-emergency-talks-with-obr-after-failing-to-calm-markets; Greg Ip, “The Return of Inflation Makes Deficits More Dangerous,” Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-return-of-inflation-makes-deficits-more-dangerous-11664366538; Heather Stewart, “Stick, twist … or sack Kwasi Kwarteng? The choices facing Liz Truss,” Guardian, September 28, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/28/stick-twist-or-sack-kwasi-kwarteng-the-choices-facing-liz-truss; Adam Taylor, “Kwasi Kwarteng and the ideology behind the British pound’s collapse,” Washington Post, September 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/09/29/kwasi-kwarteng-ideology-behind-british-pounds-collapse/↩
^[3]Edward Malnick, Szu Ping Chan, and Will Hazell, “Jeremy Hunt delays 1p tax cut as Bank of England backs Chancellor,” Telegraph, October 15, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/15/jeremy-hunt-delays-1p-tax-cut-bank-england-backs-chancellor/↩
^[4]Aubrey Allegretti and Patrick Butler, “Liz Truss on verge of major U-turn on real-terms benefits cut,” Guardian, October 9, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/09/liz-truss-on-verge-of-major-u-turn-on-real-terms-benefits-cut; Szu Ping Chan, “Kwasi Kwarteng cuts short Washington trip as axe looms over mini-Budget,” Telegraph, October 14, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/14/kwasi-kwarteng-cuts-short-washington-trip-axe-looms-mini-budget/; Eleni Courea and Esther Webber, “Furious Tories conclude that Liz Truss is finished,” Politico, October 14, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-prime-minister-uk-conservative-party-finished/; Larry Elliott, “Kwasi Kwarteng dashes home early from US amid tax U-turn chaos,” Guardian, October 14, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/14/kwasi-kwarteng-dashes-home-early-from-us-amid-tax-u-turn-chaos; Steve Goldstein, “Kwasi Kwarteng says he has accepted decision to stand aside as chancellor,” MarketWatch, October 14, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/kwasi-kwarteng-says-he-has-accepted-decision-to-stand-aside-as-chancellor-2022-10-14; Nick Gutteridge, “1922 Committee rules: How Tory MPs could oust Liz Truss,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/tory-mps-plotting-coronation-new-leader-replace-liz-truss/; Nick Gutteridge, “The runners and riders for PM if Liz Truss is ousted as Tory leader,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/runners-riders-pm-liz-truss-ousted-tory-leader/; Toby Helm and Michael Savage, “Senior Tories hold talks to discuss ousting Liz Truss to ‘rescue’ party,” Guardian, October 15, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/15/tories-talks-ousting-truss-rescue-party; Christopher Hope, “I’ve seen a WhatsApp message setting out the future Tory leadership – and it’s brutal,” Telegraph, October 17, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/17/seen-whatsapp-message-setting-future-tory-leadership-brutality/; Jill Lawless, “UK scraps tax cut for wealthy that sparked market turmoil,” Associated Press, October 3, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/business-financial-markets-liz-truss-0acea0ad013e41524c8be3981654b922; Edward Malnick, Szu Ping Chan, and Will Hazell, “Jeremy Hunt delays 1p tax cut as Bank of England backs Chancellor,” Telegraph, October 15, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/15/jeremy-hunt-delays-1p-tax-cut-bank-england-backs-chancellor/; Rowena Mason et al., “Truss’s cabinet in open warfare over key policies and coup accusations,” Guardian, October 4, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/04/kwasi-kwarteng-fiscal-plan-date-thrown-into-confusion; Andrew Rawnsley, “Johnson was slow-poisoning arsenic for the Conservatives. Liz Truss is instant cyanide,” Guardian, October 9, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/09/johnson-was-slow-poisoning-arsenic-for-tories-liz-truss-is-instant-cyanide; Ben Riley-Smith, “Liz Truss clings to power after axing Kwasi Kwarteng,” Telegraph, October 14, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/14/liz-truss-clings-power-axing-kwasi-kwarteng/; 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/↩
^[5]Christopher ‘Chopper’ Hope to Chopper’s Politics list, Telegraph, October 17, 2022, https://m4.emails.telegraph.co.uk/nl/jsp/m.jsp?c=%40e8fPb1oihmAOcvEa9nH51Aqd2OQMQiVPTyKvnvWeRPNUCJDoSAbUwaAQqqwHiAKsLZMFkQ60uZFSScwCS6YsUA%3D%3D&WT.mc_id=e_DM49379&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_FrB_New&utmsource=email ↩
^[6]Christopher Hope, “I’ve seen a WhatsApp message setting out the future Tory leadership – and it’s brutal,” Telegraph, October 17, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/17/seen-whatsapp-message-setting-future-tory-leadership-brutality/↩
^[7]Christopher Hope, “I’ve seen a WhatsApp message setting out the future Tory leadership – and it’s brutal,” Telegraph, October 17, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/17/seen-whatsapp-message-setting-future-tory-leadership-brutality/↩
^[8]Christopher Hope, “I’ve seen a WhatsApp message setting out the future Tory leadership – and it’s brutal,” Telegraph, October 17, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/17/seen-whatsapp-message-setting-future-tory-leadership-brutality/↩
^[9]Telegraph, “Labour surges to 33-point poll lead over Tories in wake of market turmoil,” September 30, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/30/labour-surges-33-point-poll-lead-tories-wake-market-turmoil/↩
^[10]David Benfell, “‘O ye of little faith,’ the British are doing supply side economics again,” Not Housebroken, October 14, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/09/29/o-ye-of-little-faith-the-british-are-doing-supply-side-economics-again/↩
^[11]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).↩
^[12]David Benfell, “The capitalist libertarian solution to the COVID-19 pandemic: Kill the poor,” Not Housebroken, August 13, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/08/13/the-capitalist-libertarian-solution-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-kill-the-poor/; David Benfell, “Hatred for workers,” not Housebroken, October 9, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/10/09/hatred-for-workers/↩
^[13]David Benfell, “A monster that does not bleed and cannot be killed,” Not Housebroken, June 9, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/06/09/a-monster-that-does-not-bleed-and-cannot-be-killed/↩

Lyft might actually be right about California’s Proposition 30

October 17, 2022benfell

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Unauthorized violence

Fig. 1. “A woman reacts at a makeshift memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue following Saturday’s shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Oct. 29, 2018,” photograph by Cathal McNaughton for Reuters, via ABC News, October 29, 2018,^[1] fair use.

There’s a new blog post entitled, “Not feeling safe, are you?”

Rich Cholodofsky, “North Side residents fed up, as 3 people killed, 1 injured in Saturday night shooting,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 16, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/3-people-killed-1-injured-in-pittsburgh-shooting/

So-called ‘ridesharing’

Electric vehicles

Fig. 2. Unattributed and undated image via Spencer Thomason in a disgraceful puff piece^[2] for Uber’s electrification effort,^[3] fair use.

I can’t tell you how much I distrust the gig economy and the companies exploiting workers in it. For me, it really is, if the companies are for it, it’s gotta be somehow evil and it must be opposed. But it’s possible Lyft is on the right side of this one.^[4]

California’s Proposition 30 would raise taxes on the rich to encourage electric vehicle adoption and fund charging infrastructure. Lyft is backing the measure; Uber is not participating.^[5] But it does not and, of course, cannot address the issue that kills electric vehicles as an option for me: range and charge time.^[6]

Preetika Rana, “Lyft Battles Gavin Newsom Over California Measure to Fund EVs,” Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lyft-battles-gavin-newsom-over-california-measure-to-fund-evs-11665864256

Illiberalism

Fig. 3. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

There is another new blog post entitled, “The global illiberal surge.”

Marc Fisher, “Leaders of democracies increasingly echo Putin in authoritarian tilt,” Washington Post, October 16, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/16/authoritarian-world-leaders-putin/

^[1]Bill Hutchinson et al., “Pittsburgh synagogue-shooting suspect wheeled into courtroom; Trump to visit city Tuesday,” ABC News, October 29, 2019, https://abcnews.go.com/US/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-suspect-discharged-hospital-set-make/story?id=58825389 ↩
^[2]Spencer Thomason, “Uber Drivers are Liking The Teslas,” Medium, July 28, 2022, https://medium.com/@sthomason/uber-drivers-are-liking-the-teslas-c211d15caf42 ↩
^[3]Andrew J. Hawkins, “Uber pledges to shift to ‘100 percent’ electric vehicles by 2030,” Verge, September 8, 2020, https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/8/21427196/uber-promise-100-percent-electric-vehicle-ev-2030 ↩
^[4]Preetika Rana, “Lyft Battles Gavin Newsom Over California Measure to Fund EVs,” Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lyft-battles-gavin-newsom-over-california-measure-to-fund-evs-11665864256 ↩
^[5]Preetika Rana, “Lyft Battles Gavin Newsom Over California Measure to Fund EVs,” Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lyft-battles-gavin-newsom-over-california-measure-to-fund-evs-11665864256 ↩
^[6]David Benfell, “Range anxiety, Uber and Lyft style,” Not Housebroken, November 4, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/05/21/range-anxiety-uber-and-lyft-style/↩

Four flailers flailing

October 16, 2022October 16, 2022benfell

The flailers include Liz Truss, Vladimir Putin, Doug Mastriano, and, to my surprise, John Fetterman.

Twitter

Dana Milbank, “Introducing the all-new Tesla Model Q: Join the conspiracy,” Washington Post, October 14, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/14/tesla-qanon-elon-musk-satire/

Residential schools

Matthew Brown, “Native Americans recall torture, hatred at boarding schools,” Associated Press, October 15, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/religion-native-americans-south-dakota-762797ee44f94d06e2f7776599bef374

(dis)United Kingdom

Prime minister

Between 15 and 20 former ministers and other senior [members of Parliament] have been invited to a “dinner of grown-ups”, convened by leading supporters of Rishi Sunak, to plan how and when to remove [Liz] Truss and install Sunak and fellow leadership contender Penny Mordaunt as a unity pairing.^[1]

What it must be like to be a dead woman walking. And to know it, as apparently Liz Truss does.^[2]

Ukraine

Fig. 1. “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,^[3] fair use.

Since the [Russian missile] onslaught began on Monday [October 10], more than three dozen people have been killed and scores more wounded. Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure appears to be the main target, meaning that some residential areas have been plunged into darkness, leaving civilians confronting the possibility of facing winter without power.

But conditions on the battlefield continue to favor the nimbler, more highly motivated and better armed Ukrainian military, which seems likely to retain the advantage over Russia’s lumbering, poorly equipped and exhausted army, at least for the foreseeable future.^[4]

Remember what I said about Liz Truss and flailing? How flailing rarely turns out well for the flailers?^[5] It’s the same with Vladimir Putin in his war on Ukraine. Almost nothing is going right for Putin^[6] and it’s increasingly clear that he continues the fight merely out of delusion.^[7]

What’s interesting is to see the tankies come out of the woodwork on Twitter. Now that Putin is losing and losing badly,^[8] they are desperate for a ceasefire, to “save lives,” they say. I’ve previously noted that they seem only to object to U.S. imperialism, not to anybody else’s imperialism and tyranny.^[9] Now we’re seeing that they actively support and embrace Russian imperialism, support and embrace Putin’s tyranny.

To my great dismay, this appears to include the Green Party in the U.S., leaving me no one on the Pennsylvania ballot to vote for, only a smorgasbord to vote against: Democrats for neoliberalism, Republicans for white Christian nationalism, capital-L Libertarians for capitalist libertarianism, and Greens for being, well, tankies.

Liz Sly, “Russia’s escalation won’t turn tide of the war, analysts say,” Washington Post, October 15, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/15/ukraine-military-situation/

Pennsylvania

2022 election

Fig. 1. There’s much too much of this kind of thing to be seen around Pittsburgh. Photograph taken by author through his windshield, May 17, 2022, just outside Braddock, Pennsylvania.

I’d managed to overlook that Doug Mastriano has a Ph.D. It seems, however, there are serious problems, including alleged academic fraud, with his dissertation, one of his committee members claims not to have signed off on it, and the University of New Brunswick is investigating.^[10]

We can be reasonably confident Mastriano will not win. He remains behind Josh Shapiro in results of a bogus methodology by double digits but, more significantly, continues to campaign only to his white Christian nationalist base.^[11]

Mehmet Oz, however, is another story. This is a race that was John Fetterman’s to lose, he suffered a stroke, has struggled to regain momentum, and it’s showing up in the results of a bogus methodology.^[12] This is intuitive, but I’m just not sensing the feedback I expect to feel for a Fetterman victory. The pit of my stomach, rather, tells me he’s toast, or that, at best, he prevails by only a slim margin.

William Bender, “In a rare rebuke, two retired War College professors say Doug Mastriano is unfit to be governor,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 16, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/news/doug-mastriano-war-college-biddle-coplen-alvin-york-20221016.html

Gilead

Competitive authoritarian regime project

Fig. 1. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Clarence Mitchell during signing ceremony of the voting rights act. Yoichi Okamoto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

A number of scholars are attacking Doug Mastriano for threatening the integrity of the election system and for backing Donald Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud.^[13]

^[1]Toby Helm and Michael Savage, “Senior Tories hold talks to discuss ousting Liz Truss to ‘rescue’ party,” Guardian, October 15, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/15/tories-talks-ousting-truss-rescue-party ↩
^[2]Toby Helm and Michael Savage, “Senior Tories hold talks to discuss ousting Liz Truss to ‘rescue’ party,” Guardian, October 15, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/15/tories-talks-ousting-truss-rescue-party ↩
^[3]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 ↩
^[4]Liz Sly, “Russia’s escalation won’t turn tide of the war, analysts say,” Washington Post, October 15, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/15/ukraine-military-situation/↩
^[5]David Benfell, “John Fetterman might be losing a race that was his to lose,” Irregular Bullshit, October 14, 2022, https://disunitedstates.com/2022/10/14/john-fetterman-might-be-losing-a-race-that-was-his-to-lose/↩
^[6]Liz Sly, “Russia’s escalation won’t turn tide of the war, analysts say,” Washington Post, October 15, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/15/ukraine-military-situation/↩
^[7]David Benfell, “If Vladimir Putin doesn’t make sense, he doesn’t make sense, and he cannot last,” Not Housebroken, October 12, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/10/10/if-vladimir-putin-doesnt-make-sense-he-doesnt-make-sense-and-he-cannot-last/↩
^[8]David Benfell, “If Vladimir Putin doesn’t make sense, he doesn’t make sense, and he cannot last,” Not Housebroken, October 12, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/10/10/if-vladimir-putin-doesnt-make-sense-he-doesnt-make-sense-and-he-cannot-last/↩
^[9]David Benfell, “The desperate attempt to blame anybody else for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine,” Not Housebroken, March 3, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/03/the-desperate-attempt-to-blame-anybody-else-for-vladimir-putins-invasion-of-ukraine/; Roane Carey, “Don’t Be a Tankie: How the Left Should Respond to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine,” Intercept, March 1, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/03/01/ukraine-russia-leftists-tankie/↩
^[10]William Bender, “In a rare rebuke, two retired War College professors say Doug Mastriano is unfit to be governor,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 16, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/news/doug-mastriano-war-college-biddle-coplen-alvin-york-20221016.html ↩
^[11]William Bender, “In a rare rebuke, two retired War College professors say Doug Mastriano is unfit to be governor,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 16, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/news/doug-mastriano-war-college-biddle-coplen-alvin-york-20221016.html; William Bender and Jonathan Tamari, “As campaign struggles, Doug Mastriano plans ‘40 days of fasting and prayer,’” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 28, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/news/doug-mastriano-fasting-prayer-campaign-rally-struggling-20220928.html; Ron Kampeas, “Critics compare salutes at Trump and Mastriano rallies to Nazi ‘Sieg Heil,’” Times of Israel, September 20, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/critics-compare-salutes-at-trump-mastriano-rallies-to-nazi-sieg-heil/; Dana Milbank, “And on the eighth day, God said: Let Mastriano win Pennsylvania,” Washington Post, September 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/09/doug-mastriano-prophet-julie-green/; Tina Nguyen, “Doug Mastriano’s Snowflake Strategy,” Puck News, September 14, 2022, https://puck.news/doug-mastrianos-snowflake-strategy/↩
^[12]Gillian McGoldrick, “Fetterman’s lead in U.S. Senate race is shrinking as Oz wins over GOP voters, latest poll shows,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 29, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election2022/2022/09/29/fetterman-vs-oz-poll-franklin-marshall-college-republican-support-pa-senate-race-mastriano-vs-shapiro/stories/202209290087 ↩
^[13]William Bender, “In a rare rebuke, two retired War College professors say Doug Mastriano is unfit to be governor,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 16, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/news/doug-mastriano-war-college-biddle-coplen-alvin-york-20221016.html ↩

A fraying thread holds the Sword of Damocles over Liz Truss’ head

October 15, 2022benfell

(dis)United Kingdom

Prime minister

Tory [members of Parliament] began casting around wildly for mechanisms to oust [Liz] Truss and candidates to replace her. While party rules make that complicated, rules can be changed and Truss’ removal is fast becoming a question of when, not if. Her only strength at this point, insiders say, is that there is no obvious successor.^[1]

But with the 1922 Committee chair still resisting a change to the rules needed to oust Liz Truss, this is starting to look like the British may be headed for an early election, which it seems clear the Conservative Party would lose, badly:^[2]

Another mechanism being mooted in some quarters is getting a majority of Tory MPs to agree on her replacement and installing the new prime minister via a majority vote in the Commons. Such a move might be technically possible but would drag the King into a constitutional row, with opposition parties demanding an election if Truss cannot command a parliamentary majority.^[3]

So as that thread holding the Sword of Damocles over Truss’ head frays ever more, the question remains what it was: when and how?

Pittsburgh

Gentrification

Fig. 2. The old Hazelwood library branch. It has been replaced with a new branch on Second Avenue. Photograph by author, May 1, 2020.

I have to say I’m wondering what the story is behind a story on Pittsburgh’s housing problems, focusing on the Larimer neighborhood, but, really, applicable to many more.^[4] It’s a good, thoughtful story. Somebody or some number of people put some serious work into it. They aren’t credited: The byline is simply the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

I have heard of this happening when reporters disagree with edits imposed by editors and so I wonder if that is what happened here. The story is, nonetheless, the basis for a new blog post entitled, “A non-argument on Pittsburgh housing.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods pay the price for abandoned and decrepit homes,” October 15, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2022/10/15/pittsburgh-blight-crime-urban-vacant-census/stories/202210160080

Fossil fuels

Northeast (especially Pittsburgh)

I can’t prove it, of course, but it sure looks like the U.S. Steel Clairton Works are responsible for recently spiking hydrogen sulfide levels. People gotta breathe this shit and they aren’t happy.^[5]

I haven’t heard whether the worst ovens at Clairton have indeed shut down as promised. It’s been over a year since this was announced,^[6] so I assume they have. If so, it’s clear that this was inadequate. The entire plant still needs to be shut down and razed.^[7]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “High levels of hydrogen sulfide in Mon Valley spark advocates’ frustration,” October 15, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2022/10/15/mon-valley-hydrogen-sulfide-levels-air-quality/stories/202210140123

^[1]Eleni Courea and Esther Webber, “Furious Tories conclude that Liz Truss is finished,” Politico, October 14, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-prime-minister-uk-conservative-party-finished/↩
^[2]Eleni Courea and Esther Webber, “Furious Tories conclude that Liz Truss is finished,” Politico, October 14, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-prime-minister-uk-conservative-party-finished/; Nick Gutteridge, “1922 Committee rules: How Tory MPs could oust Liz Truss,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/tory-mps-plotting-coronation-new-leader-replace-liz-truss/; Telegraph, “Labour surges to 33-point poll lead over Tories in wake of market turmoil,” September 30, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/30/labour-surges-33-point-poll-lead-tories-wake-market-turmoil/↩
^[3]Eleni Courea and Esther Webber, “Furious Tories conclude that Liz Truss is finished,” Politico, October 14, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-prime-minister-uk-conservative-party-finished/↩
^[4]Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods pay the price for abandoned and decrepit homes,” October 15, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2022/10/15/pittsburgh-blight-crime-urban-vacant-census/stories/202210160080 ↩
^[5]Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “High levels of hydrogen sulfide in Mon Valley spark advocates’ frustration,” October 15, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2022/10/15/mon-valley-hydrogen-sulfide-levels-air-quality/stories/202210140123 ↩
^[6]Ryan Deto, “Two large air pollution sources will soon be offline. Will Allegheny County’s air quality future be as clean as it can be?” Pittsburgh City Paper, June 23, 2021, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/two-large-air-pollution-sources-will-soon-be-offline-will-allegheny-countys-air-quality-future-be-as-clean-as-it-can-be/Content?oid=19710475; Kristina Marusic, “U.S. Steel abandons clean tech plans in Pittsburgh region following damning health study,” Environmental Health News, May 6, 2021, https://www.ehn.org/us-steel-pittsburgh-pollution-asthma-2652882219/residents-at-risk-and-in-the-dark; Oliver Morrison, “‘Today is a difficult day.’ U.S. Steel announces closure of several of Clairton’s ‘dirtiest’ coke oven batteries,” Public Source, April 30, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/mon-valley-clairton-us-steel-coke-works-pollution-f-grade-air-quality/↩
^[7]David Benfell, “The old, the filthy, and the decrepit,” Not Housebroken, May 6, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/02/25/the-old-the-filthy-and-the-decrepit/↩

The Green Party wants to reward Vladimir Putin

October 14, 2022benfell

Ukraine

I am ending my affiliation with the Green Party. It is clear from their tweets that they choose Russian propaganda and that they support rewarding Vladimir Putin for his aggression against Ukraine and his threats to use nuclear weapons. This at least acquiesces to Russian imperialism and is an absolutely unacceptable position for me. There is only one message that Putin will understand: humiliating defeat.^[2]

As it happens, I have not yet voted. Green Party candidates will not be getting my vote; the Democratic Party, with its persistent support for neoliberalism, has forever forfeited my vote; and so, as it now stands, there are no acceptable candidates on the ballot.

Pittsburgh

Unauthorized violence

Fig. 2. “A woman reacts at a makeshift memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue following Saturday’s shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Oct. 29, 2018,” photograph by Cathal McNaughton for Reuters, via ABC News, October 29, 2018,^[3] fair use.

Apparently, there was a shooting in Dormont and “there also had been police activity on Broadway Avenue in Dormont just before 4:30 a.m.” It is likely but not clear that the two events are related. Subsequently, according to Dormont white supremacist gangsters, there was a car chase led by a vehicle involved with the shooting ending in a crash on the ramp from the Liberty Bridge to Boulevard of the Allies.^[4] This is not the place for a high-speed turn; the turns onto the Boulevard are 90-degree turns in a short space.

Broadway Avenue isn’t very far at all from my grandparents’ old house in Dormont and the portion of Broadway that’s still in Dormont only extends a few blocks.

Julia Felton, “Police say Dormont shooting led to chase, crash on Liberty Bridge,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 14, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/police-say-dormont-shooting-led-to-chase-crash-on-liberty-bridge/

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 3. Department of Justice photograph of seized materials, reportedly partially redacted, via the Washington Post, August 31, 2022,^[5] public domain.

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/

Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey, “Trump worker told FBI about moving Mar-a-Lago boxes on ex-president’s orders,” Washington Post, October 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/12/maralago-witness-trump-boxes-moved/

Robert Barnes and Perry Stein, “Supreme Court rejects Trump request on Mar-a-Lago documents,” Washington Post, October 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/13/supreme-court-trump-mar-a-lago-classified-documents/

Ariane de Vogue and Katelyn Polantz, “Supreme Court rejects former President Donald Trump’s request to intervene in Mar-a-Lago documents fight,” CNN, October 13, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/politics/supreme-court-trump-mar-a-lago/index.html

Ashley Parker, “Jan. 6 hearing shows Trump knew he lost — even while claiming otherwise,” Washington Post, October 14, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/14/trump-knew-he-lost-jan-6/

Perry Stein, “Justice Dept. asks appeals court to end Mar-a-Lago special master,” Washington Post, October 14, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/14/maralago-appeal-special-master-documents/

^[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]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/↩
^[3]Bill Hutchinson et al., “Pittsburgh synagogue-shooting suspect wheeled into courtroom; Trump to visit city Tuesday,” ABC News, October 29, 2019, https://abcnews.go.com/US/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-suspect-discharged-hospital-set-make/story?id=58825389 ↩
^[4]Julia Felton, “Police say Dormont shooting led to chase, crash on Liberty Bridge,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 14, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/police-say-dormont-shooting-led-to-chase-crash-on-liberty-bridge/↩
^[5]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/↩

John Fetterman might be losing a race that was his to lose

October 14, 2022benfell

(dis)United Kingdom

Prime minister

To say that Liz Truss’ austerity project^[1] is not going well would be to understate the political calamity she now faces as she throws her chancellor to the wolves^[2] in a likely futile attempt to save her own premiership.^[3] It seems developments have been rapid:^[4]

As I write, Prime Minister Liz Truss is preparing to host a 2pm press conference at which she will announce that corporation tax will rise to 25 per cent this spring, as had been originally planned.

The about-turn means she is abandoning one of the flagship tax cut promises from her Tory leadership campaign and the mini-Budget – and indeed reinstates a policy originally championed by her leadership rival Rishi Sunak. . . .

What. A. Mess. Where are the grown-ups in 10 Downing Street? Why can’t Truss’s team act and behave like an administration with a working majority of around 70 in the Commons?

The next 48 hours are absolutely crucial for Truss. Even her allies are deserting her.

One Tory MP who backed her through all five leadership rounds told me this morning: “I think her leadership authority is now shattered. Party discipline has totally broken down.”^[5]

This kind of flailing^[6] almost never ends well for the flailers and indeed there is already speculation about who might replace Truss.^[7] But because Truss is so new in the job, a rules change will be needed for the Tories to oust her:^[8]

If enough MPs submitted no confidence letters in the Prime Minister, then the 1922 executive would have little choice but to act.

Reports have suggested Sir Graham [Brady] is reluctant to change the rules and would only do so in the face of overwhelming demand.

He may even stipulate that as many as 178 MPs – half of the parliamentary party – submitted no confidence letters before acting.^[9]

Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and unlike the Democrats in the U.S.,^[10] the Tories evidently very much prefer being in power;^[11] a poll showing a 33-point lead for Labour^[12] focuses their minds.

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 2. Original: The White House. Derivative work: J. J. Messerly, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

I haven’t really had the occasion to talk about this so I guess now is as good a time as any.

I am seeing a few more yard signs and flags in support of Donald Trump around southwest Pennsylvania lately. They remain far less common than before the Mar-a-Lago search. Most, but not all, are of the “Don’t Blame Me; I Voted For Trump” variety.

Along this vein, I’m seeing a few signs supporting Doug Mastriano for governor unaccompanied by those supporting Mehmet Oz. The sense I have of the race for the U.S. Senate race between Oz and John Fetterman is that Fetterman’s momentum stopped dead cold with the stroke and this campaign is exposing all of his weaknesses. I’m a lot more concerned about how this race may turn out than earlier.

Competitive authoritarian regime project

Fig. 3. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Clarence Mitchell during signing ceremony of the voting rights act. Yoichi Okamoto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Viktor Orbán lost an election in 2002 but has now been “Prime Minister [of Hungary] since 2010, is now the longest-serving head of state in the European Union, and [is] one of the most fiercely nativist and traditionalist.”^[13]

“You do not have to have emergency powers or a military coup for democracy to wither,” Aziz Huq, a constitutional-law professor at the University of Chicago, told me [Andrew Marantz]. “Most recent cases of backsliding, Hungary being a classic example, have occurred through legal means.” [Viktor] Orbán runs for reëlection every four years. In theory, there is a chance that he could lose. In practice, he has so thoroughly rigged the system that his grip on power is virtually assured. The political-science term for this is “competitive authoritarianism.” Most scholarly books about democratic backsliding (“The New Despotism,” “Democracy Rules,” “How Democracies Die”) cite Hungary, along with Brazil and Turkey, as countries that were consolidated democracies, for a while, before they started turning back the clock.^[14]

The parallel with Donald Trump and the reason for a competitive authoritarian regime is apparent:

Please recognize that President Donald Trump was in a unique position, better informed about the absence of widespread election fraud than almost any other American president. Trump’s own campaign experts told him that there was no evidence to support his claims. His own Justice Department appointees investigated the election fraud claims and told him — point blank — they were false. In mid-December 2020, President Trump’s senior advisers told him the time had come to concede the election. Donald Trump knew the courts had ruled against him.

He had all of this information, but still, he made the conscious choice to claim fraudulently that the election was stolen.^[15]

Trump could not tolerate the reality that he had lost to Joe Biden.^[16] And just as Orbán has ensured that he will never lose again, Republicans have long sought the same for themselves.

The crucial aspect here is that electoral results take second place to a particular self-righteousness. In Trump’s case, it is likely simply his narcissistic ego.^[17] For illiberals generally, it is a right-wing ideology, often white Christian nationalism. The epistemological foundation is not popularity, as reflected in election results, or empirical, but rather the way things should be, according to some morality, be it a selective reading (always selective) of religious scripture, be it capitalism, be it “tradition,” be it anything else.^[18]

Albertson’s

Kroger might be coming to a location near you.^[19] On the other hand, they might already be there, just under another name.^[20]

It’s an odd thing that Kroger always has my attention. When my parents and I lived in Pittsburgh, specifically Mount Lebanon, and I went to the store to pick up bread or milk, I’d go down to a store on Beverly Road. It’s no longer there. That space has, according to one of my passengers, since been divided into spaces now occupied by a Mexican restaurant (which he said he owns) and a coffee house.

My parents would do the main grocery shopping at a Kroger by where Cochran Road ends at Greentree Road in Scott Township. Kroger having left southwest Pennsylvania some years ago due to labor issues,^[21] a Giant Eagle (one of the less vegan-hostile locations) now occupies an expanded space (you can still see the outline of the original store inside) at the latter location.

I can still visit Kroger stores in West Virginia and Ohio.

Kroger, based in Cincinnati, operates 2,750 grocery stores across the United States under banners that include Ralphs, Dillons and Harris Teeter and has a market capitalization of about $32 billion. Albertsons, based in Boise, Idaho, runs 2,200 supermarkets under names like Albertsons, Safeway and Vons and has a market capitalization of roughly $15 billion.^[22]

But now Kroger is buying Albertson’s^[23] which had also merged with Lucky,^[24] which itself had purchased Gemco and sold off most of those stores (they became Target locations),^[25] as part of an long-ongoing consolidation in the grocery business in a deal which will likely attract antitrust attention, but, given the remaining competition in the grocery business, I’m guessing will ultimately go through in some form.^[26]

It’s really all a very different picture from when I was a kid, which makes my attention somewhat delusional.

Lauren Hirsch and Julie Creswell, “Grocery Giants Kroger and Albertsons Are Said to Be in Merger Talks,” New York Times, October 13, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/business/kroger-albertsons-merger-talks.html

Cara Lombardo and Jaewon Kang, “Kroger and Albertsons in Deal Talks to Create Supermarket Powerhouse,” Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/kroger-and-albertsons-in-deal-talks-to-create-supermarket-giant-11665675587

Jaewon Kang, “Kroger to Buy Albertsons in $24.6 Billion Deal,” Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/kroger-to-merge-with-albertsons-in-a-24-6-billion-deal-11665745735

^[1]David Benfell, “‘O ye of little faith,’ the British are doing supply side economics again,” Not Housebroken, September 29, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/09/29/o-ye-of-little-faith-the-british-are-doing-supply-side-economics-again/↩
^[2]Szu Ping Chan, “Kwasi Kwarteng cuts short Washington trip as axe looms over mini-Budget,” Telegraph, October 14, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/14/kwasi-kwarteng-cuts-short-washington-trip-axe-looms-mini-budget/; Larry Elliott, “Kwasi Kwarteng dashes home early from US amid tax U-turn chaos,” Guardian, October 14, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/14/kwasi-kwarteng-dashes-home-early-from-us-amid-tax-u-turn-chaos; Steve Goldstein, “Kwasi Kwarteng says he has accepted decision to stand aside as chancellor,” MarketWatch, October 14, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/kwasi-kwarteng-says-he-has-accepted-decision-to-stand-aside-as-chancellor-2022-10-14 ↩
^[3]Nick Gutteridge, “1922 Committee rules: How Tory MPs could oust Liz Truss,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/tory-mps-plotting-coronation-new-leader-replace-liz-truss/; Nick Gutteridge, “The runners and riders for PM if Liz Truss is ousted as Tory leader,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/runners-riders-pm-liz-truss-ousted-tory-leader/↩
^[4]Christopher ‘Chopper’ Hope to Chopper’s Politics list, “Liz Truss’s premiership is in severe peril,” Telegraph, October 14, 2022, https://m5.emails.telegraph.co.uk/nl/jsp/m.jsp?c=%402F4Tz%2BldBsw6FWX7UjCvUO1ob1%2FGHFjZjUjZv9c%2BZHTRSxkJ9DBMPdXk%2B16JGa6iHl2c%2FAflfxfy3pXfhAfPHg%3D%3D&WT.mc_id=e_DM48266&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_FrB_New&utmsource=email ↩
^[5]Christopher ‘Chopper’ Hope to Chopper’s Politics list, “Liz Truss’s premiership is in severe peril,” Telegraph, October 14, 2022, https://m5.emails.telegraph.co.uk/nl/jsp/m.jsp?c=%402F4Tz%2BldBsw6FWX7UjCvUO1ob1%2FGHFjZjUjZv9c%2BZHTRSxkJ9DBMPdXk%2B16JGa6iHl2c%2FAflfxfy3pXfhAfPHg%3D%3D&WT.mc_id=e_DM48266&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_FrB_New&utmsource=email ↩
^[6]Aubrey Allegretti and Patrick Butler, “Liz Truss on verge of major U-turn on real-terms benefits cut,” Guardian, October 9, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/09/liz-truss-on-verge-of-major-u-turn-on-real-terms-benefits-cut; Szu Ping Chan, “Kwasi Kwarteng cuts short Washington trip as axe looms over mini-Budget,” Telegraph, October 14, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/14/kwasi-kwarteng-cuts-short-washington-trip-axe-looms-mini-budget/; Pippa Crerar, Peter Walker, and Phillip Inman, “Liz Truss to hold emergency talks with OBR after failing to calm markets,” Guardian, September 29, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/29/liz-truss-to-hold-emergency-talks-with-obr-after-failing-to-calm-markets; Larry Elliott, “Kwasi Kwarteng dashes home early from US amid tax U-turn chaos,” Guardian, October 14, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/14/kwasi-kwarteng-dashes-home-early-from-us-amid-tax-u-turn-chaos; Steve Goldstein, “Kwasi Kwarteng says he has accepted decision to stand aside as chancellor,” MarketWatch, October 14, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/kwasi-kwarteng-says-he-has-accepted-decision-to-stand-aside-as-chancellor-2022-10-14; Greg Ip, “The Return of Inflation Makes Deficits More Dangerous,” Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-return-of-inflation-makes-deficits-more-dangerous-11664366538; Jill Lawless, “UK scraps tax cut for wealthy that sparked market turmoil,” Associated Press, October 3, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/business-financial-markets-liz-truss-0acea0ad013e41524c8be3981654b922; Rowena Mason et al., “Truss’s cabinet in open warfare over key policies and coup accusations,” Guardian, October 4, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/04/kwasi-kwarteng-fiscal-plan-date-thrown-into-confusion; Andrew Rawnsley, “Johnson was slow-poisoning arsenic for the Conservatives. Liz Truss is instant cyanide,” Guardian, October 9, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/09/johnson-was-slow-poisoning-arsenic-for-tories-liz-truss-is-instant-cyanide; Heather Stewart, “Stick, twist … or sack Kwasi Kwarteng? The choices facing Liz Truss,” Guardian, September 28, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/28/stick-twist-or-sack-kwasi-kwarteng-the-choices-facing-liz-truss; Adam Taylor, “Kwasi Kwarteng and the ideology behind the British pound’s collapse,” Washington Post, September 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/09/29/kwasi-kwarteng-ideology-behind-british-pounds-collapse/; Telegraph, “Labour surges to 33-point poll lead over Tories in wake of market turmoil,” September 30, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/30/labour-surges-33-point-poll-lead-tories-wake-market-turmoil/; 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/↩
^[7]Nick Gutteridge, “The runners and riders for PM if Liz Truss is ousted as Tory leader,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/runners-riders-pm-liz-truss-ousted-tory-leader/↩
^[8]Nick Gutteridge, “1922 Committee rules: How Tory MPs could oust Liz Truss,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/tory-mps-plotting-coronation-new-leader-replace-liz-truss/↩
^[9]Nick Gutteridge, “1922 Committee rules: How Tory MPs could oust Liz Truss,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/tory-mps-plotting-coronation-new-leader-replace-liz-truss/↩
^[10]David Benfell, “Democrats and contradiction,” Not Housebroken, September 2, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/11/18/democrats-and-contradiction/↩
^[11]Nick Gutteridge, “1922 Committee rules: How Tory MPs could oust Liz Truss,” Telegraph, October 13, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/13/tory-mps-plotting-coronation-new-leader-replace-liz-truss/↩
^[12]Telegraph, “Labour surges to 33-point poll lead over Tories in wake of market turmoil,” September 30, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/30/labour-surges-33-point-poll-lead-tories-wake-market-turmoil/↩
^[13]Zsuzsanna Szelényi, “How Viktor Orbán Built His Illiberal State,” New Republic, April 5, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/165953/viktor-orban-built-illiberal-state ↩
^[14]Andrew Marantz, “Does Hungary Offer a Glimpse of Our Authoritarian Future?” New Yorker, June 27, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/04/does-hungary-offer-a-glimpse-of-our-authoritarian-future ↩
^[15]Liz Cheney, quoted in Ashley Parker, “Jan. 6 hearing shows Trump knew he lost — even while claiming otherwise,” Washington Post, October 14, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/14/trump-knew-he-lost-jan-6/↩
^[16]Ashley Parker, “Jan. 6 hearing shows Trump knew he lost — even while claiming otherwise,” Washington Post, October 14, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/14/trump-knew-he-lost-jan-6/↩
^[17]George Simon, “Understanding and Dealing with Narcissistic Rage,” Counselling Resource, July 24, 2017, https://counsellingresource.com/features/2017/07/24/understanding-narcissistic-rage/↩
^[18]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).↩
^[19]Jaewon Kang, “Kroger to Buy Albertsons in $24.6 Billion Deal,” Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/kroger-to-merge-with-albertsons-in-a-24-6-billion-deal-11665745735 ↩
^[20]Lauren Hirsch and Julie Creswell, “Grocery Giants Kroger and Albertsons Are Said to Be in Merger Talks,” New York Times, October 13, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/business/kroger-albertsons-merger-talks.html ↩
^[21]Associated Press, “Kroger Selling Stores in Strike,” New York Times, February 14, 1984, https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/14/business/kroger-selling-stores-in-strike.html ↩
^[22]Lauren Hirsch and Julie Creswell, “Grocery Giants Kroger and Albertsons Are Said to Be in Merger Talks,” New York Times, October 13, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/business/kroger-albertsons-merger-talks.html ↩
^[23]Jaewon Kang, “Kroger to Buy Albertsons in $24.6 Billion Deal,” Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/kroger-to-merge-with-albertsons-in-a-24-6-billion-deal-11665745735 ↩
^[24]Melinda Fulmer, “Lucky Stores to Become Albertsons,” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1999, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-nov-03-fi-29443-story.html ↩
^[25]Denise Gellene, “Lucky to Close Gemco, Sell Most Stores to Dayton Hudson,” Los Angeles Times, October 10, 1986, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-10-10-fi-5075-story.html ↩
^[26]Lauren Hirsch and Julie Creswell, “Grocery Giants Kroger and Albertsons Are Said to Be in Merger Talks,” New York Times, October 13, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/business/kroger-albertsons-merger-talks.html; Jaewon Kang, “Kroger to Buy Albertsons in $24.6 Billion Deal,” Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/kroger-to-merge-with-albertsons-in-a-24-6-billion-deal-11665745735; Cara Lombardo and Jaewon Kang, “Kroger and Albertsons in Deal Talks to Create Supermarket Powerhouse,” Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/kroger-and-albertsons-in-deal-talks-to-create-supermarket-giant-11665675587 ↩

U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs Donald Trump on classified documents

October 13, 2022benfell

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 1. Department of Justice photograph of seized materials, reportedly partially redacted, via the Washington Post, August 31, 2022,^[1] public domain.

There were no noted dissents to the [U.S. Supreme Court’s] unsigned, one-sentence order [refusing to reinstate Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s order that a special master review classified documents taken in an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida home and private club]. It amounted to a quick and sharp rejection of an emergency request by the former president to intervene in the high-profile document review, which is part of an ongoing criminal investigation of the potential mishandling of classified material after Trump left the White House. . . .

The Supreme Court’s quick work in rejecting Trump’s request that it intervene in the case signals there was little interest in getting involved at this time. The court issued its order without waiting for Trump’s lawyers to reply to the Justice Department’s response, as is customary.^[2]

Gilead

Police White supremacist gangs

Fig. 1. Image credited to Darnella Frazier, made from a video posted to Facebook, of Minneapolis white supremacist gangster Derek Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck, May 25, 2020, via ABC News,^[3] fair use.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “1 year after Jim Rogers’ death, results of criminal investigation into officers’ conduct remain unclear,” October 13, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2022/10/13/jim-rogers-taser-death-grand-jury-investigation/stories/202210130131

^[1]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/↩
^[2]Robert Barnes and Perry Stein, “Supreme Court rejects Trump request on Mar-a-Lago documents,” Washington Post, October 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/13/supreme-court-trump-mar-a-lago-classified-documents/↩
^[3]Catherine Thorbecke, “Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes, complaint says,” ABC News, May 29, 2020, https://abcnews.go.com/US/derek-chauvin-knee-george-floyds-neck-minutes-complaint/story?id=70961042 ↩

What’s the plan? Donald Trump’s team has to be expecting a prosecution. Has to be.

October 13, 2022October 13, 2022benfell

This morning, I have two blackbirds competing for the spot in my kitchen fan.

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 1. Department of Justice photograph of seized materials, reportedly partially redacted, via the Washington Post, August 31, 2022,^[1] public domain.

The latest Washington Post story^[2] eviscerates any rationalization for Merrick Garland’s dithering over requesting a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago.^[3] Garland knew or should have known that Donald Trump was retaining highly sensitive government secrets and was resisting returning documents.^[4] In this paradigm, where mishandling of classified material is presumed to be a threat to national security, and the threat of highly classified material is even more so, it is of the utmost importance that those documents be recovered immediately. But Garland inexcusably dithered for weeks.^[5]

So a huge question is about Garland’s apparent gross negligence as attorney general.

But even as Garland is bending over backwards, desperately avoiding prosecuting Trump,^[6] Trump’s withholding of classified documents that have been subpoenaed^[7] sure makes it seem like he is desperate to be prosecuted.^[8]

Some of the former president’s closest aides have continued to work with [Donald] Trump even as they have seen FBI agents show up at their houses to question them and serve subpoenas.^[9]

I have been profoundly reluctant to attribute any intelligence to Trump whatsoever. Even this, I would attribute to someone else. But at the risk of conspiracy theorizing, this is starting to look like a plan to me. It is like Trump’s team is expecting a prosecution and that this prosecution is part of their plan.

I don’t know if the Department of Justice perceives such a plan or if the Joe Biden administration has a strategy for dealing with it. But what we’re seeing on the surface is seriously flunking a smell test.

^[1]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/↩
^[2]Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey, “Trump worker told FBI about moving Mar-a-Lago boxes on ex-president’s orders,” Washington Post, October 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/12/maralago-witness-trump-boxes-moved/↩
^[3]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 ↩
^[4]Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey, “Trump worker told FBI about moving Mar-a-Lago boxes on ex-president’s orders,” Washington Post, October 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/12/maralago-witness-trump-boxes-moved/↩
^[5]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 ↩
^[6]David Benfell, “It is now even more urgently orange jumpsuit time,” Not Housebroken, October 12, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/10/10/if-vladimir-putin-doesnt-make-sense-he-doesnt-make-sense-and-he-cannot-last/↩
^[7]Kaitlan Collins, “Justice Department insists to Trump’s attorneys that he return all documents marked classified,” CNN, October 6, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/06/politics/trump-white-house-documents-mar-a-lago-justice-department/index.html; Michael S. Schmidt, Maggie Haberman, and Katie Benner, “Justice Dept. Is Said to Believe Trump Has More Documents,” New York Times, October 6, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/us/politics/trump-white-house-documents-lawyers.html ↩
^[8]Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey, “Trump worker told FBI about moving Mar-a-Lago boxes on ex-president’s orders,” Washington Post, October 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/12/maralago-witness-trump-boxes-moved/↩
^[9]Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey, “Trump worker told FBI about moving Mar-a-Lago boxes on ex-president’s orders,” Washington Post, October 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/12/maralago-witness-trump-boxes-moved/↩

Is there a Nobel Prize for being chickenshit? Because it sure seems like Merrick Garland is angling for it.

October 12, 2022benfell

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

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.

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]

Twitter

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/↩

Vladimir Putin’s military-grade temper tantrum

October 11, 2022October 11, 2022benfell

Ukraine

Fig. 1. “The atomic cloud over Nagasaki 1945.” Photograph from Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information. Overseas Operations Branch, New York Office, News and Features Bureau, (12/17/1942 – 09/15/1945), by Charles Levy, August 9, 1945, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

There is a new blog post entitled, “If Vladimir Putin doesn’t make sense, he doesn’t make sense, and he cannot last.” I have already updated it.

In general, Vladimir Putin appears ever more to be acting out of desperation, delusion, and fury; indeed, some might call it a military-grade temper tantrum, potentially even with nuclear weapons.^[1] For all of it, there is still no coherent path to victory. Putin still isn’t making sense.

So on one hand, there is the suggestion in my original post that Putin must surely fall;^[2] this is, after all, no way to run a war, let alone a country. On the other, he appears ever more the cornered, wounded animal, albeit with nuclear weapons (that, admittedly, he may not actually be able to use^[3]), and thus, all the more dangerous. It’s a scary, scary time.

Josie Ensor, “Nuclear weapons convoy sparks fears Putin could be preparing test to send ‘signal to the West,’” Telegraph, October 3, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/10/03/nuclear-weapons-convoy-sparks-fears-putin-could-preparing-test/

Luke Harding, Isobel Koshiw, and Peter Beaumont, “Russia no longer has full control of any of four ‘annexed’ Ukrainian provinces,” Guardian, October 3, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/03/russia-has-no-full-control-of-any-of-four-annexed-ukrainian-provinces

Dominic Nicholls, “Russia’s bloated military has finally been properly tested – and the results are not good,” Telegraph, October 3, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/10/03/ukraines-lyman-victory-shows-skill-trumps-numbers-when-comes/

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/

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/

Julia Ioffe, “‘General Armageddon’ & Putin’s Bridge to Nowhere,” Puck News, October 11, 2022, https://puck.news/general-armageddon-putins-bridge-to-nowhere/

Pennsylvania

2022 election

Fig. 2. John Fetterman as mayor of Braddock, photograph uncredited and undated, via Next Pittsburgh,^[4] fair use.

In passing, Rebecca Traister mentions ads running in the Philadelphia area, which, like much of Pennsylvania, has a significant Black population, depicting John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, as soft on crime.^[5] I see similar billboards around Pittsburgh targeting Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate for governor. It does seem perplexing until you connect the Republican “law and order” trope as race-baiting. You see it also with the gun nuttery. It’s all—all of it—really playing on white fear of and revulsion toward Black people.

So why place these billboards where Black people will see them? First, because the campaigns in question have written off the Black vote, so they don’t care if Black people are offended. Second, because there are white people living in proximity to these Black people to whom these ads will appeal. It’s ugly as hell, but Republicans have been playing this game for a while now.

Rebecca Traister, “The Vulnerability of John Fetterman,” New York, October 10, 2022, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/john-fetterman-dr-oz-pennsylvania-senate-race.html

Gig economy (neoliberal wet dream)

‘Rideshare’ driving

Fig. 1. “Clarkdale Classic Gas Station, Clarkdale, Arizona,” Photograph by Alan Levine, October 28, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

“Companies just continue to break labor law,” Ms. [Lorena] Gonzalez Fletcher said. “They break it at the local level, the state level and federally, and there are no consequences. Everything is about enforcement.”^[6]

Gilead

Competitive authoritarian regime project

Fig. 1. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Clarence Mitchell during signing ceremony of the voting rights act. Yoichi Okamoto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Jonathan Lai and Jeremy Roebuck, “The Supreme Court just undid a key ruling for counting undated Pennsylvania mail ballots,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 11, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-undated-mail-ballots-us-supreme-court-20221011.html

^[1]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/; Bloomberg, “Russia Test-Fires Nuclear-Capable ICBM in Warning to U.S. Allies,” April 20, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-20/russia-stages-test-of-nuclear-missile-in-warning-to-u-s-allies; Daniel Boffey, “Russia reasserts right to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” Guardian, March 26, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/26/russia-reasserts-right-to-use-nuclear-weapons-in-ukraine-putin; Julian Borger, “Russia’s nuclear threats ‘totally unacceptable’, says UN chief,” Guardian, September 22, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/22/russia-nuclear-threats-totally-unacceptable-says-un-chief-antonio-guterres; 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/; Josie Ensor, “Nuclear weapons convoy sparks fears Putin could be preparing test to send ‘signal to the West,’” Telegraph, October 3, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/10/03/nuclear-weapons-convoy-sparks-fears-putin-could-preparing-test/; Edward Helmore, “Jake Sullivan: US will act ‘decisively’ if Russia uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” Guardian, September 25, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/25/us-russia-ukraine-war-nuclear-weapons-jake-sullivan; Mary Ilyushina, Miriam Berger, and Timothy Bella, “Russian TV shows simulation of Britain and Ireland wiped out by a nuke,” Washington Post, May 3, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/03/russia-ireland-nuclear-weapons-video-ukraine/; Yuras Karmanau, “Putin puts nuclear forces on high alert, escalating tensions,” Associated Press, February 27, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-business-europe-moscow-2e4e1cf784f22b6afbe5a2f936725550; Luke McGee and Claire Calzonetti, “Putin spokesman refuses to rule out use of nuclear weapons if Russia faced an ‘existential threat,’” CNN, March 22, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/22/europe/amanpour-peskov-interview-ukraine-intl/index.html; 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/; Farida Rustamova, “Vladimir Putin is making rash and secretive decisions in face of defeats, Kremlin insiders warn,” Telegraph, October 2, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/10/02/vladimir-putin-making-rash-secretive-decisions-face-defeats/; 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, “Putin flirts again with grim prospect of nuclear war – this time he might mean it,” Guardian, September 21, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/21/putin-flirts-again-with-grim-prospect-of-nuclear-war-this-time-he-might-mean-it; 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; Jordan Michael Smith, “Would Putin Really Go Nuclear? Well …,” New Republic, March 7, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/165634/putin-nuclear-weapons-ukraine-us-response; Paul Sonne and John Hudson, “U.S. has sent private warnings to Russia against using a nuclear weapon,” Washington Post, September 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/22/russia-nuclear-threat-us-options/; Adam Taylor and William Neff, “Why the world is so worried about Russia’s ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons,” Washington Post, March 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/29/why-world-is-so-worried-about-russias-tactical-nuclear-weapons/; Ishaan Tharoor, “Putin makes his imperial pretensions clear,” Washington Post, June 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/13/putin-imperial-russia-empire-ukraine/; Ishaan Tharoor, “Russia pushes the panic button and raises risk of nuclear war,” Washington Post, September 21, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/21/russia-referendums-ukraine-occupied-nuclear/; 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/; Simon Tisdall, “Putin is trapped and desperate. Will his friends in the west rescue him?” Guardian, August 28, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/28/putin-is-trapped-and-desperate-will-his-friends-in-the-west-rescue-him-russia-ukraine; Robin Wright, “What Does Putin’s Nuclear Sabre Rattling Mean?” New Yorker, March 1, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-does-putins-nuclear-sabre-rattling-mean ↩
^[2]David Benfell, “If Vladimir Putin doesn’t make sense, he doesn’t make sense, and he cannot last,” Not Housebroken, October 10, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/10/10/if-vladimir-putin-doesnt-make-sense-he-doesnt-make-sense-and-he-cannot-last/↩
^[3]Lewis Page, “Why Putin would be a fool to go nuclear in Ukraine,” Telegraph, October 2, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/10/02/why-putin-would-fool-go-nuclear-ukraine/↩
^[4]Kim Lyons, “Braddock Mayor John Fetterman keeps on truckin’ in his quest for the Senate,” Next Pittsburgh, March 11, 2016, https://nextpittsburgh.com/features/the-challengers-braddock-mayor-john-fetterman-keeps-on-truckin/↩
^[5]Rebecca Traister, “The Vulnerability of John Fetterman,” New York, October 10, 2022, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/john-fetterman-dr-oz-pennsylvania-senate-race.html ↩
^[6]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 ↩