Month: February 2023

As if I required reminding about the danger of being an Uber driver

benfell

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Unauthorized violence


Fig. 1. “Ed Gainey poses with CeaseFirePA during the 2020 Women’s March in Downtown Pittsburgh.” Photograph by Megan Gloeckler, undated, via Pittsburgh City Paper,[1] fair use.

I had an order to pick up a passenger at the Sunoco station near the entrance to McKees Rocks along Pennsylvania Route 51 on Monday (February 27). The bridge was blocked off by white supremacist gangsters, one car from the McKees Rocks gang and the other from the Allegheny County gang. I overheard my passenger talking on her phone about a shootout and assumed the shootout had occurred on that bridge.

But the shooting had occurred some distance away, in Stowe Township. The civilians got away. Their car was found later in Mount Washington, a Pittsburgh neighborhood.[2]

But oh yeah, I’m supposed to feel safe as an Uber driver.[3]

Michael DiVittorio, “Pa. drug task force agents, McKees Rocks officer exchange gunfire with suspects in Stowe,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 27, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/pa-drug-task-force-agents-mckees-rocks-officer-exchange-gunfire-with-suspects-in-stowe/

COVID-19 Pandemic


Fig. 1. Photograph by author, November 8, 2022.

There is a new blog post entitled, “Following Alice down a rabbit hole on COVID-19 origins.”

Michael R. Gordon and Warren P. Strobel, “Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says,” Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a

Michael Hiltzik, “Despite latest reports, there’s still not a speck of evidence that COVID escaped from a Chinese lab,” Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-02-27/contrary-wsj-claim-theres-still-not-a-speck-of-evidence-that-covid-escaped-from-a-chinese-lab

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt


Fig. 1. “Jake Angeli (Qanon Shaman), seen holding a Qanon sign at the intersection of Bell Rd and 75th Ave in Peoria, Arizona, on 2020 October 15.” Photography by TheUnseen011101 [pseud.], October 15, 2020, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in any survey, let alone one conducted by Fox News. But that’s not really the point that Eric Lutz is reaching for. His question, really, is whether Republicans who would like to put Donald Trump behind them will muster the courage of their convictions,[4] when it is clear to everyone else concerned now that Trump is general election poison[5] and when Trump hews ever more toward white Christian nationalist extremists,[6] as if, bizarrely, it is only those extremists who will have a vote in November 2024.[7]

Eric Lutz, “The Republican Donor Class Seems Ready to Dump Trump. The Base? Not So Much,” Vanity Fair, February 27, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/donald-trump-ron-desantis-poll

Academic repression

Student loans


Fig. 1. Unattributed and undated image via James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal,[8] fair use.

Joe Biden’s student loan relief package came before the U.S. Supreme Court today. And it went just about as well as you’d expect at an ideologically white Christian nationalist court:

Taxpayers do not have standing to sue to stop the government from spending money, and it’s not clear if anyone could show they will be hurt if the government forgives another person’s loan.

But the conservative justices did not sound as though they were thinking of tossing out either of the two related cases before them. . . .

[Chief Justice John G.] Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas said the word “modify” does not describe a policy to forgive loans that would amount to more than $400 billion. Instead, they said this was a major change that should be decided by Congress.[9]

Just as Donald Trump was against it if Barack Obama had been for it, this court is against it if Joe Biden is for it.

David G. Savage, “Supreme Court casts more doubt on Biden’s plan to forgive student loans,” Los Angeles Times, February 28, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-02-28/supreme-court-cast-more-doubt-on-bidens-plan-to-forgive-student-loans

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,[10] fair use.

Ishaan Tharoor, “An awkward tension lies beneath the West’s support for Ukraine,” Washington Post, February 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/02/27/tension-ukraine-public-private-support-west/

Julia Ioffe, “Putin’s Oligarchs Fall in Line,” Puck, February 28, 2023, https://puck.news/putins-oligarchs-fall-in-line/

  1. [1]Charlie Wolfson, “Neighborhood groups try to curb shootings as Pittsburgh’s mayoral campaign puts political focus on gun violence,” Pittsburgh City Paper, October 20, 2021, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/neighborhood-groups-try-to-curb-shootings-as-pittsburghs-mayoral-campaign-puts-political-focus-on-gun-violence/Content?oid=20401296↩
  2. [2]Michael DiVittorio, “Pa. drug task force agents, McKees Rocks officer exchange gunfire with suspects in Stowe,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 27, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/pa-drug-task-force-agents-mckees-rocks-officer-exchange-gunfire-with-suspects-in-stowe/↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “Gaslighting Uber drivers on safety,” Not Housebroken, January 6, 2023, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/04/28/gaslighting-uber-drivers-on-safety/↩
  4. [4]Eric Lutz, “The Republican Donor Class Seems Ready to Dump Trump. The Base? Not So Much,” Vanity Fair, February 27, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/donald-trump-ron-desantis-poll↩
  5. [5]Natalie Andrews, Siobhan Hughes, and Lindsay Wise, “Frustrated Republicans Try to Explain Lack of Midterm ‘Red Wave,’” Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/frustrated-republicans-try-to-explain-lack-of-midterm-red-wave-11668036382; Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey, “One likely 2024 GOP contender triumphed on election night. It wasn’t Donald Trump,” Washington Post, November 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/09/desantis-trump-2024-presidential-election/; Dan Balz, “The vaunted red wave never hit the shore in midterm elections,” Washington Post, November 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/08/midterms-dissatisfied-voters-render-judgments-biden-republicans/; Jonathan Freedland, “The winner of the midterms is not yet clear – but the loser is Donald Trump,” Guardian, November 9, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/09/the-winner-of-the-midterms-is-not-yet-clear-but-the-loser-is-donald-trump; Amy Gardner, Reis Thebault, and Robert Klemko, “Election deniers lose races for key state offices in every 2020 battleground,” Washington Post, November 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/; Liz Goodwin, “A red wave of criticism crashes into Donald Trump after midterm losses,” Washington Post, November 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/11/trump-criticism-midterms-republicans/; David Lauter, “The midterm’s big loser: Trump suffers multiple defeats,” Los Angeles Times, November 9, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2022-11-09/the-midterms-big-loser-trump-suffers-multiple-defeats-essential-politics; Eric Lutz, “The Republican Donor Class Seems Ready to Dump Trump. The Base? Not So Much,” Vanity Fair, February 27, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/donald-trump-ron-desantis-poll; Tina Nguyen, “Has Trump Already Lost ’24?” Puck News, November 30, 2022, https://puck.news/has-trump-already-lost-24/; Greg Sargent, “Republicans want Trump to take the blame. Good luck with that,” Washington Post, November 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/11/trump-midterm-elections-gop-abortion-rights-2024/; Marianna Sotomayor et al., “Congressional Republicans panic as they watch their lead dwindle,” Washington Post, November 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/11/senate-republicans-mcconnell-midterms/; Brian Slodysko, “Election takeaways: No sweep for the Republicans after all,” Associated Press, November 9, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-takeaways-9381d3aaff26d19da95506e045fcd6e1; Jonathan Tamari and William Bender, “‘It’s time for him to retire’: Some Pa. Republicans want to push Trump aside after their election losses,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 10, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pa-republicans-blame-trump-2022-losses-20221110.html; Chris Walker, “Trump Is Blaming Everyone But Himself for Midterm Losses — Including His Wife,” Truthout, November 10, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/trump-is-blaming-everyone-but-himself-for-midterm-losses-including-his-wife/↩
  6. [6]Kristen Holmes, “Trump expresses support for Capitol rioters as he continues to embrace extremist groups,” CNN, December 2, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/02/politics/donald-trump-january-6-rioters-support/index.html↩
  7. [7]David Benfell, “More questions than answers as Donald Trump flags come down,” Not Housebroken, December 3, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/28/more-questions-than-answers-as-donald-trump-flags-come-down/↩
  8. [8]Richard K. Vedder, “Eliminate or Radically Restructure Federal Student Loans,” James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, September 16, 2020, https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2020/09/eliminate-or-radically-restructure-federal-student-loans/↩
  9. [9]David G. Savage, “Supreme Court casts more doubt on Biden’s plan to forgive student loans,” Los Angeles Times, February 28, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-02-28/supreme-court-cast-more-doubt-on-bidens-plan-to-forgive-student-loans↩
  10. [10]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↩

Coffee for stupid kids

benfell

Coffee


Fig. 1. “Starbucks Location in Eagles Landing, 2022.” Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user “Andrepoiy,” December 28, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.

When I go to Starbucks, I order tea anyway, because their coffee is appallingly bad, basically stronger Folgers, for people who want to pretend they’re drinking gourmet coffee but haven’t the first clue what it is. It’s a first step down the road of coffee stupidity for stupid kids and, even more appallingly, some of their elders. And of course, it’s because they order bad coffee that they have to drown it in additives to cover up its awfulness.

Some Starbucks workers said they themselves sometimes wonder whether black coffee should include sugar, or room for milk. They ask customers who order their coffee plain whether they also want it sweetened, just to make sure.

“It’s the biggest debate,” said Brooke Cross, a 20-year-old Starbucks barista in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “What is black coffee?”[1]

It appears that workers at Starbucks’ imitators are similarly confused.[2]

Heather Haddon, “​Ticket for Coffee Shop Frustration: Ordering Black Coffee,” Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/stump-your-barista-order-black-coffee-98d98f63

Work


Fig. 2. Yeah, this is me. The sign says, “If you’re whining about a labor shortage, STOP ignoring my job applications!” And the QR-code leads here. Photograph by author, January 16, 2023.

You know what they say about if you have to ask, you can’t afford it? I’m almost positive that’d be the story with a Law360 subscription. They have notified me that my free trial has now ended.

[U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen] found that [Gregory] Johnson couldn’t stand up his hostile work environment claim because he didn’t show that he experienced severe or pervasive harassment at work. Stray comments he said he heard from co-workers — the worst of which coming from a supervisor, who said Johnson didn’t look disabled because he had his shoes on the right feet — are not enough to show he was constantly harassed on the job, the judge said, prompting her to ax the claim.[3]

But the judge allowed the majority of the suit to move forward saying a jury would have to decide whether Whole Foods Market fired Gregory Johnson on a pretext of leaving work. Johnson claims that his post traumatic stress disorder had been triggered.

Travis Bland, “NC Strip Club Says Models Can’t Deny It Info On Photos,” Law360, February 22, 2023, https://www.law360.com/consumerprotection/articles/1578843

Spencer Jakab, “Lousy Tippers Are Just Misunderstood,” Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lousy-tippers-are-just-misunderstood-63094163

Daniel de Visé, “Twenty high-paying jobs that don’t require a college degree,” Hill, February 22, 2023, https://thehill.com/business/3863716-twenty-high-paying-jobs-that-dont-require-a-college-degree/

Tim Ryan, “Judge Drops Nationwide Injunction Against Starbucks,” Law360, February 23, 2023, https://www.law360.com/employment/articles/1579417

Grace Elletson, “Bulk Of Ex-Whole Foods Worker’s ADA Suit Moves Ahead,” Law360, February 24, 2023, https://www.law360.com/employment/articles/1579839

Gilead

Academic repression


Fig. 3. “The Evolution of Intellectual Freedom.” Comic by Jorge Cham, 2011, via Episyllogism[4] fair use.

Some things just make me so sick, I can’t bear to look at them, at least not right away.

[Florida] House Bill 999 takes up almost every bullet-pointed goal that [Governor Ron] DeSantis included for public higher education in a press release last month. It would prohibit public colleges from funding any projects that “espouse diversity, equity, and inclusion or Critical Race Theory rhetoric,” no matter the funding source; allow boards of trustees to conduct a post-tenure review of faculty members at any time for cause; and put faculty hiring into the hands of trustees. It also has new specifics DeSantis hadn’t proposed, such as a ban on gender studies as a major or minor.[5]

Nick Anderson, “Marymount University cuts English, several other majors,” Washington Post, February 24, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/24/marymount-university-humanities-majors-eliminated/

Francie Diep, “‘Never Seen Anything Like It’: New Bill Would Write DeSantis’s Higher-Ed Vision Into Law,” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 24, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/never-seen-anything-like-it-new-bill-would-write-desantiss-higher-ed-vision-into-law

Student loans


Fig. 4. Unattributed and undated image via James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal,[6] fair use.

We already know we have an ideological U.S. Supreme Court which picks and chooses principles, as particularly seen with its ruling in favor of folks who confuse their guns with their penises,[7] to serve predetermined ends.[8]

It’s fairly clear that in a pair of cases on Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan reaching the U.S. Supreme Court that opponents of the plan have strained to claim standing even to sue. Nonetheless, conservative courts have ruled against Biden’s plan.[9] It’s also fairly clear that the plain text of the applicable law allows the plan.[10]

But this is a white Christian nationalist Supreme Court so there’s significant reason to suspect it will rule against the plan.

George Miller, “Can Biden legally cancel student debt? There’s no question,” Washington Post, February 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/22/student-debt-cancellation-congress-heroes-act/

Jimmy Hoover,“Up Next At High Court: Biden’s Debt Plan In Crosshairs,” Law360, February 24, 2023, https://www.law360.com/employment/articles/1579803

Robert Barnes and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “Biden’s student loan forgiveness program comes before Supreme Court,” Washington Post, February 26, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/26/biden-student-debt-supreme-court/

  1. [1]Heather Haddon, “​Ticket for Coffee Shop Frustration: Ordering Black Coffee,” Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/stump-your-barista-order-black-coffee-98d98f63↩
  2. [2]Heather Haddon, “​Ticket for Coffee Shop Frustration: Ordering Black Coffee,” Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/stump-your-barista-order-black-coffee-98d98f63↩
  3. [3]Grace Elletson, “Bulk Of Ex-Whole Foods Worker’s ADA Suit Moves Ahead,” Law360, February 24, 2023, https://www.law360.com/employment/articles/1579839↩
  4. [4]Bob Lane, “Academic Freedom,” Episyllogism, November 3, 2016, https://boblane.com/2016/11/03/academic-freedom/↩
  5. [5]Francie Diep, “‘Never Seen Anything Like It’: New Bill Would Write DeSantis’s Higher-Ed Vision Into Law,” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 24, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/never-seen-anything-like-it-new-bill-would-write-desantiss-higher-ed-vision-into-law↩
  6. [6]Richard K. Vedder, “Eliminate or Radically Restructure Federal Student Loans,” James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, September 16, 2020, https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2020/09/eliminate-or-radically-restructure-federal-student-loans/↩
  7. [7]Saul Cornell, “Clarence Thomas’ Latest Guns Decision Is Ahistorical and Anti-Originalist,” Slate, June 24, 2022, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/clarence-thomas-gun-decision-bruen-anti-originalist.html; David G. Savage, “Supreme Court bolsters gun owners’ right to carry a weapon in public,” Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-06-23/supreme-court-gun-owners-right-to-carry-a-weapon-in-public; Mark Joseph Stern, “Clarence Thomas’ Maximalist Second Amendment Ruling Is a Nightmare for Gun Control,” Slate, June 23, 2022, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/supreme-court-new-york-concealed-carry-law-gun-control-bruen.html; Ariane de Vogue, “Samuel Alito lashes out at liberals in guns case as tensions boil over at SCOTUS,” CNN, June 23, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/politics/samuel-alito-stephen-breyer-guns/index.html↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “The white Christian nationalist Supreme Court,” Not Housebroken, September 18, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/09/18/the-white-christian-nationalist-supreme-court/↩
  9. [9]Robert Barnes and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “Biden’s student loan forgiveness program comes before Supreme Court,” Washington Post, February 26, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/26/biden-student-debt-supreme-court/; Jimmy Hoover,“Up Next At High Court: Biden’s Debt Plan In Crosshairs,” Law360, February 24, 2023, https://www.law360.com/employment/articles/1579803↩
  10. [10]George Miller, “Can Biden legally cancel student debt? There’s no question,” Washington Post, February 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/22/student-debt-cancellation-congress-heroes-act/↩

Too many lips a flappin’

benfell

COVID-19 Pandemic


Fig. 1. Photograph by author, November 8, 2022.

The Department of Energy has concluded, with “low confidence,” that a lab leak is the most likely source of COVID-19. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had earlier reached a similar conclusion with “moderate confidence.”[1] The reason the lab leak hypothesis lives is that an animal source has not been conclusively identified and the expectation is that such a source for a zoonotic disease should surely have been identified by now. And it doesn’t help that the Chinese have been less than forthcoming about what may or may not have happened at their labs.[2]

But the truth is that an absence of evidence is an absence of evidence, nothing more, nothing less. It is reasonable to be suspicious. It is not reasonable to affirm any conclusion. And nothing about any perceived need for such a conclusion changes that.

Michael R. Gordon and Warren P. Strobel, “Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says,” Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a

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.

No one, it seems, but the Ukrainians think they can expel Russia from Crimea. The expectation seems to be for a long slog of trench warfare.[4]

Part of this is surely that we are now in a winter pause where progress on either side is halted. Under such circumstances, it is easy to forget that the Russians have consistently underperformed expectations and the Ukrainians have consistently outperformed expectations. The nay-sayers are the same people who, a year ago, were certain Kyiv would fall within days.

We need to be skeptical of conventional wisdom in this conflict. But that doesn’t mean it’s entirely wrong. And we also can’t discount the possibility that Vladimir Putin may go nuclear if defeat is imminent.[5]

But what this is really all to say is that nobody knows what is going to happen. Pundits and politicians are flapping their lips because they’re supposed to be experts. Real experts will be much more cautious.

Ishaan Tharoor, “An awkward tension lies beneath the West’s support for Ukraine,” Washington Post, February 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/02/27/tension-ukraine-public-private-support-west/

Gilead

Academic repression

Student loans


Fig. 1. Unattributed and undated image via James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal,[6] fair use.

Robert Barnes and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “Biden’s student loan forgiveness program comes before Supreme Court,” Washington Post, February 26, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/26/biden-student-debt-supreme-court/

  1. [1]Michael R. Gordon and Warren P. Strobel, “Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says,” Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a↩
  2. [2]Michael R. Gordon and Warren P. Strobel, “Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says,” Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a; Deborah Netburn, “Did the coronavirus escape from a lab? The idea deserves a second look, scientists say,” Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-05-13/did-coronavirus-escape-from-lab-scientists-urge-second-look; Matthew Rozsa, “A virologist unpacks the lab leak hypothesis,” Salon, May 29, 2021, https://www.salon.com/2021/05/29/a-virologist-unpacks-the-lab-leak-hypothesis/↩
  3. [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. [4]Ishaan Tharoor, “An awkward tension lies beneath the West’s support for Ukraine,” Washington Post, February 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/02/27/tension-ukraine-public-private-support-west/↩
  5. [5]Julia Ioffe, “Peace & Gossip in Munich,” Puck, February 21, 2023, https://puck.news/peace-gossip-in-munich/↩
  6. [6]Richard K. Vedder, “Eliminate or Radically Restructure Federal Student Loans,” James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, September 16, 2020, https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2020/09/eliminate-or-radically-restructure-federal-student-loans/↩

Yes, medication abortion is in trouble

benfell

Gilead

Abortion


Fig. 1. Sign at demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, May 3, 2022. Janni Rye, via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

An anti-abortion judge is set to rule on a case where he could override the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of one of the drugs used to induce a medication abortion.[1] Some clinics are ready to go to a one pill regimen, which is less reliable and more prone to induce cramping, should he do so.[2]

Caroline Kitchener and Ann E. Marimow, “The Texas judge who could take down the abortion pill,” Washington Post, February 25, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/25/texas-judge-abortion-pill-decision/

Academic repression


Fig. 1. “The Evolution of Intellectual Freedom.” Comic by Jorge Cham, 2011, via Episyllogism[3] fair use.

Marymount University trustees voted unanimously Friday to phase out majors in English, history and several other fields that the Catholic school in Northern Virginia says have drawn low student interest.

The 20-0 vote, according to a university spokesman, represents a watershed moment for a regional university of about 3,700 students that is seeking to increase enrollment and revenue. It also shows the continuing vulnerability of humanities in higher education at a time when pressure is high to deliver degrees that many students and families perceive as more valuable in the job market. . . .

The majors to be eliminated are art, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, secondary education, sociology, and theology and religious studies. A BA program in economics will be eliminated, but the BS in that field will remain. The university is also cutting a master’s program in English and the humanities.[4]

Nick Anderson, “Marymount University cuts English, several other majors,” Washington Post, February 24, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/24/marymount-university-humanities-majors-eliminated/

White Christian nationalism (Trumpism)


Fig. 1. In terms of geographic area, Pennsylvania is very much a white Christian nationalist kind of place. Photograph by author, January 5, 2023.

“Scott Adams is a disgrace,” Darrin Bell, creator of “Candorville” and the first Black artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, told The Post on Saturday. “His racism is not even unique among cartoonists.” Bell compared Adams’s views to the Jim Crow era and more recent examples of White supremacy, including “millions of angry people trying to redefine the word ‘racism’ itself.”

In fact, Adams did exactly that on his YouTube show Saturday. He offered a long, quasi-Socratic defense of his comments, which he said were taken out of context, and seemed to define racism as essentially any political activity. “Any tax code change is racist,” he said at one point in the show. He denounced racism against “individuals” and racist laws, but said, “You should absolutely be racist whenever it’s to your advantage. Every one of you should be open to making a racist personal career decision.”[5]

“Oh no, my enemies are sending me lots of energy. Oh no, what will I do with all of that attention?” [Scott Adams] stated before hinting at retaliation.

“Here’s what’s interesting about this situation. Anyone who knows my actual opinion doesn’t wanna give it more attention. So it’s gonna be sort of a dicey situation if they cancel me. You don’t wanna give me more attention. That’s not gonna work for whatever you’re trying to achieve.,” he stated.[6]

In urging “white people . . . to get the hell away from Black people,”[7] Scott Adams sounds like a paleoconservative, advocating segregation.

The shift in [Scott] Adams’s public image was initially intertwined with his praise for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Since then, he has identified himself with increasingly extremist viewpoints.

In 2019, he apologized to the victims of a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California for a tweet in which he used the tragedy to advertise an app he created. Adams also claimed in June 2020 that the “Dilbert” television show was canceled because he’s White, adding that it “was the third job I lost for being White.” He tweeted in January 2022 that he planned to “self-identify as a Black woman.” He has suggested Americans were brainwashed into supporting Ukraine, and praised anti-vaccine advocates last month.

Last May, Adams used “Dilbert” to mock workplace diversity and transgender politics through a new character called Dave the Black Engineer.[8]

But a lot of this sounds paranoid. I’d say he’s unhinged, like a lot of White Christian nationalists. It’s certainly deplorable, but it’s also regrettable.

Chris Quinn, “We are dropping the Dilbert comic strip because of creator Scott Adams’ racist rant: Letter from the Editor,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 24, 2023, https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/02/we-are-dropping-the-dilbert-comic-strip-because-of-creator-scott-adams-racist-rant-letter-from-the-editor.html

Tom Boggioni, “Dilbert creator lashes out after papers pull his strip: ‘Dicey situation,’” Raw Story, February 25, 2023, https://www.rawstory.com/dilbert-creator-lashes-out-after-papers-pull-his-strip-dicey-situation/

Thomas Floyd and Michael Cavna, “‘Dilbert’ dropped by The Post, other papers, after cartoonist’s racist rant,” Washington Post, February 25, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/02/25/scott-adams-dilbert-canceled/

Right-wing militias

Police White supremacist gangs


Fig. 2. 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,[9] fair use.

There is a “common thread of the cities that I am aware of where this is happening,” [Saint Louis Mayor Tishaura] Jones said. “Where there has been a concerted attempt to strip power [over local police] away from local leadership, the mayors are Black.” She pointed to Kansas City, Missouri, where residents have been fighting to regain control of the police department from the state, and Jackson, Mississippi, a majority-Black city that could see the creation of a separate court system and police force appointed by white state officials if Republican lawmakers get their way.[10]

Akela Lacy, “Bristling Under Progressive Mayor, St. Louis Police Seek State Takeover,” Intercept, February 24, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/02/24/st-louis-missouri-police-department/

Human Science

Inquiry

Quantitative
Artificial idiocy

Drew Harwell, “Tech’s hottest new job: AI whisperer. No coding required,” Washington Post, February 25, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/25/prompt-engineers-techs-next-big-job/

  1. [1]Caroline Kitchener and Ann E. Marimow, “The Texas judge who could take down the abortion pill,” Washington Post, February 25, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/25/texas-judge-abortion-pill-decision/↩
  2. [2]Susan Rinkunas, “If the Main Abortion Pill Is Banned This Week, Providers Are Prepared to Go Off-Label,” Jezebel, February 7, 2023, https://jezebel.com/mifepristone-ban-misoprostol-only-abortions-in-the-us-1850083070↩
  3. [3]Bob Lane, “Academic Freedom,” Episyllogism, November 3, 2016, https://boblane.com/2016/11/03/academic-freedom/↩
  4. [4]Nick Anderson, “Marymount University cuts English, several other majors,” Washington Post, February 24, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/24/marymount-university-humanities-majors-eliminated/↩
  5. [5]Thomas Floyd and Michael Cavna, “‘Dilbert’ dropped by The Post, other papers, after cartoonist’s racist rant,” Washington Post, February 25, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/02/25/scott-adams-dilbert-canceled/↩
  6. [6]Tom Boggioni, “Dilbert creator lashes out after papers pull his strip: ‘Dicey situation,’” Raw Story, February 25, 2023, https://www.rawstory.com/dilbert-creator-lashes-out-after-papers-pull-his-strip-dicey-situation/↩
  7. [7]Scott Adams, quoted in Tom Boggioni, “Dilbert creator lashes out after papers pull his strip: ‘Dicey situation,’” Raw Story, February 25, 2023, https://www.rawstory.com/dilbert-creator-lashes-out-after-papers-pull-his-strip-dicey-situation/↩
  8. [8]Thomas Floyd and Michael Cavna, “‘Dilbert’ dropped by The Post, other papers, after cartoonist’s racist rant,” Washington Post, February 25, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/02/25/scott-adams-dilbert-canceled/↩
  9. [9]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↩
  10. [10]Akela Lacy, “Bristling Under Progressive Mayor, St. Louis Police Seek State Takeover,” Intercept, February 24, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/02/24/st-louis-missouri-police-department/↩

Dilbert is ‘canceled,’ for racism

benfell

Gilead

White Christian nationalism (Trumpism)


Fig. 2. In terms of geographic area, Pennsylvania is very much a white Christian nationalist kind of place. Photograph by author, January 5, 2023.

There are some problems here. Among other things,

[‘Dilbert’ creator Scott] Adams said Black people are a hate group, citing a recent Rasmussen survey which, he said, shows nearly half of all Black people do not agree with the phrase “It’s okay to be white.”[1]

Relying on notoriously right-wing Rasmussen surveys is a problem. Relying on surveys is a problem. Relying on a single study, with improbable results unreplicated, is a problem. Generalizing from “nearly half” to all is a problem.

I have little doubt that some Black people do indeed hate white people, just as I have little doubt that some white people hate Black people. One question is how many in each group. A second is whether that number is sufficient to label the entire group a ‘hate group.’ I would suggest that by the logic Scott Adams employs,[2] men could be labeled a ‘hate group’ against women, and white people could be labeled a ‘hate group’ against Black people and people of Latin, indigenous, and Asian ancestry.

Chris Quinn, “We are dropping the Dilbert comic strip because of creator Scott Adams’ racist rant: Letter from the Editor,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 24, 2023, https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/02/we-are-dropping-the-dilbert-comic-strip-because-of-creator-scott-adams-racist-rant-letter-from-the-editor.html

Academic repression


Fig. 1. “The Evolution of Intellectual Freedom.” Comic by Jorge Cham, 2011, via Episyllogism[3] fair use.

I’ve been much too slow getting to this, but Marymount University’s proposal to cut nine “liberal arts” majors—they’re counting mathematics and economics as “liberal arts”—seems reminiscent of Saybrook University’s decision to cut its Human Science program.

True to our mission, all university programs will continue to be grounded in the liberal arts and focused on the education of the whole person, but [Marymount University] cannot financially sustain offering majors with consistently low enrollment, low graduation rates, and lack of potential for growth.[4]

The problem with this rationale is that it relies on reductive analysis, assuming that each of these majors has limited impact on the university as a whole, indeed that you can sustain a “ground[ing] in the liberal arts” without the liberal arts scholars and the emphasis that these programs ensure. What I saw with the Human Science program at Saybrook was that it was at the core of Saybrook’s curriculum; ripping it out untethered the university and turned it into just another California “new age” institution.

The path that Marymount follows will likely be different, but the loss of these programs no less detrimental.

Julian Roberts-Grmela, “9 Liberal-Arts Majors Are on the Chopping Block at Marymount U.,” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 17, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/9-humanities-majors-are-on-the-chopping-block-at-marymount-u

Peoples Park

It’s amazing that all these decades later, the University of California at Berkeley is still trying to develop Peoples Park—they’ve been at it since the 1960s—and folks are still fighting to preserve it as a park.

UC Berkeley “failed to assess potential noise impacts from loud student parties in residential neighborhoods near the campus, a longstanding problem that the [environmental review] improperly dismissed as speculative,” the final ruling said.[5]

I don’t know where the University gets off calling such impacts speculative. I traversed UC Berkeley a fair amount in the final years of my time in the San Francisco Bay Area and it is clearly a university where almost anything except academics receives emphasis. So-called “Greek life” clearly predominates in the neighborhoods surrounding the campus and traffic to and from football games hopelessly snarls traffic on narrow streets.[6] What I see here is everything university administrators use to attract students, alumni, and money, everything, that is, except scholarship.

Teresa Watanabe, “Court ruling halts UC Berkeley from building student housing at People’s Park,” Los Angeles Times, February 24, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-24/court-ruling-halts-uc-berkeley-from-building-student-housing-at-peoples-park

Criminal injustice

One of the biggest reasons reforms are needed is that the current system allows prosecutors to use “impermissibly coercive incentives” to get defendants to agree to plea bargains — even when they’re innocent, according to the [American Bar Association] report.

Tactics that include imposing harsher sentences on defendants who choose to go to trial, holding those who reject plea deals in pretrial detention and selecting charges that offer prosecutors bargaining power are just some of the ways defendants are coerced into pleading guilty, the report says. . . .

Concerns about innocent defendants pleading guilty are heightened by the fact that in many states, defendants are barred from challenging their convictions based on new evidence of their innocence once they have accepted a guilty plea, according to the report. . . .

There are significant racial disparities when it comes to prosecutors’ decisions to drop or reduce charges, with white defendants being 25% more likely than Black defendants to have their most serious charge dropped or reduced as part of a plea deal, according to [Belmont University College of Law professor Lucian E.] Dervan.

Black defendants are also more likely than white defendants to be held in jail before trial, increasing the likelihood they will take a plea deal, according to the report.

Plea bargains also make it difficult to uncover that racial bias and other police and prosecutorial bias or misconduct, the report added, because such misconduct is usually unearthed through pretrial litigation or at trial.[7]

Jack Karp, “Use Of Plea Bargains Undermining Justice, ABA Report Says,” Law360, February 22, 2023, https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/1578138

Ukraine


Fig. 2. “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.

I could see why [Hanna] Hopko was so angry at the divergence between what Western leaders declared publicly and what they said privately. There were a couple off the record events I went to, so I can’t say who they were with, but the distinct sense I was starting to get from them and as I left Munich was that for all the talk of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” the West was fundamentally not comfortable helping Ukraine to win on Ukraine’s terms. There was a very realistic and accurate assessment that [Vladimir] Putin’s nuclear threats were not empty and that he very well might act on them if the Russian military collapsed or if Ukrainians took Crimea. That is, Putin would go nuclear if Ukraine won the war.

Putin has made this war existential. He cannot lose it and survive as the leader of Russia. At that point, everything is on the table, and given my conversations with Moscow, that still very much includes a potential tactical nuclear strike on the battlefield. That, from everything I’ve heard in my conversations with people in the Biden administration, would force the United States to get directly involved. Does that mean that the U.S. and Europe can’t let Russia lose and Ukraine win?[8]

Robyn Dixon and Catherine Belton, “Putin, czar with no empire, needs military victory for his own survival,” Washington Post, February 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/20/putin-czar-with-no-empire-needs-military-victory-his-own-survival/

Maria Katamadze, “Can Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin challenge Putin?” Deutschewelle, February 19, 2023, https://www.dw.com/en/can-wagner-head-yevgeny-prigozhin-challenge-putin/a-64744266

Anton Troianovski and Valerie Hopkins, “One Year Into War, Putin Is Crafting the Russia He Craves,” New York Times, February 19, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/19/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-putin.html

Anne Applebaum, “Biden Went to Kyiv Because There’s No Going Back,” Atlantic, February 20, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/biden-trip-ukraine-kyiv/673134/

Missy Ryan et al., “Biden makes surprise visit to Ukraine ahead of Russian invasion anniversary,” Washington Post, February 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/20/president-biden-kyiv-ukraine-visit-war/

Marc Santora, Peter Baker, and Michael D. Shear, “Biden Visits Kyiv, Ukraine’s Embattled Capital, as Air-Raid Siren Sounds,” New York Times, February 20, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/us/politics/biden-ukraine-visit.html

Ishaan Tharoor, “Biden in Kyiv and Warsaw is a reminder of who really leads Europe,” Washington Post, February 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/02/20/biden-leader-europe-kyiv-trip/

Evan Vucci et al., “Biden in Ukraine ahead of war anniversary: ‘Kyiv stands,’” Associated Press, February 20, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-biden-f00af220669457d5ba07127c7e57a27b

Julia Ioffe, “Peace & Gossip in Munich,” Puck, February 21, 2023, https://puck.news/peace-gossip-in-munich/

Tom Nichols, “Putin’s Desperate Hours,” Atlantic, February 21, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/02/putins-desperate-hours/673150/

Ann M. Simmons, “Putin Suspends Nuclear-Arms Treaty Between Russia, U.S.,” Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-suspends-new-start-nuclear-arms-treaty-with-u-s-6498b44

Evan Vucci, John Leicester, and Zeke Miller, “How do you sneak a US president into a warzone without anyone noticing?” Associated Press, February 21, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-kyiv-politics-74c9de636c489393c86ad115e5cbcb48

Ed Pilkington and J Oliver Conroy, “Putin aiming to divide US public opinion with nuclear treaty pullout, experts say,” Guardian, February 22, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/22/putin-biden-us-nuclear-new-start-treaty-russia-ukraine

  1. [1]Chris Quinn, “We are dropping the Dilbert comic strip because of creator Scott Adams’ racist rant: Letter from the Editor,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 24, 2023, https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/02/we-are-dropping-the-dilbert-comic-strip-because-of-creator-scott-adams-racist-rant-letter-from-the-editor.html↩
  2. [2]Chris Quinn, “We are dropping the Dilbert comic strip because of creator Scott Adams’ racist rant: Letter from the Editor,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 24, 2023, https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/02/we-are-dropping-the-dilbert-comic-strip-because-of-creator-scott-adams-racist-rant-letter-from-the-editor.html↩
  3. [3]Bob Lane, “Academic Freedom,” Episyllogism, November 3, 2016, https://boblane.com/2016/11/03/academic-freedom/↩
  4. [4]Irma Becerra, quoted in Julian Roberts-Grmela, “9 Liberal-Arts Majors Are on the Chopping Block at Marymount U.,” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 17, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/9-humanities-majors-are-on-the-chopping-block-at-marymount-u↩
  5. [5]Teresa Watanabe, “Court ruling halts UC Berkeley from building student housing at People’s Park,” Los Angeles Times, February 24, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-24/court-ruling-halts-uc-berkeley-from-building-student-housing-at-peoples-park↩
  6. [6]David Benfell, “Women’s lives are still expendable,” Not Housebroken, October 22, 2017, https://disunitedstates.org/2017/10/22/womens-lives-are-still-expendable/↩
  7. [7]Jack Karp, “Use Of Plea Bargains Undermining Justice, ABA Report Says,” Law360, February 22, 2023, https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/1578138↩
  8. [8]Julia Ioffe, “Peace & Gossip in Munich,” Puck, February 21, 2023, https://puck.news/peace-gossip-in-munich/↩

The 2024 election looks like it will be between white Christian nationalism and everybody else

benfell

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt


Fig. 1. “Jake Angeli (Qanon Shaman), seen holding a Qanon sign at the intersection of Bell Rd and 75th Ave in Peoria, Arizona, on 2020 October 15.” Photography by TheUnseen011101 [pseud.], October 15, 2020, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

If I had to bet on who will be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024, right now, and largely based on the Washington Post reporting,[1] I’d have to pick Ron DeSantis.

What seems less in doubt it that the contest will be between white Christian nationalism and everybody else. What the Washington Post shows, and as Molly Jong-Fast correctly (despite her headline) understands, is that the Republican Party is the white Christian nationalist party, even if no longer quite so much the party of Donald Trump,[2] just as the Democratic Party remains the neoliberal party, having co-opted Bernie Sanders, the “Squad,” and anyone claiming to be “progressive.”

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Arizona’s top prosecutor concealed records debunking election fraud claims,” Washington Post, February 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/22/arizona-election-fraud-claims-mark-brnovich/

Isaac Arnsdorf et al., “Trump’s grip on the Republican base is slipping — even among his fans,” Washington Post, February 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/23/trump-support-declining-2024-election/

Molly Jong-Fast, “The Fever of Trumpism Shows No Sign of Breaking in 2024,” Vanity Fair, February 23, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/donald-trump-trumpism-ron-desantis-2024-election

Work


Fig. 1. Yeah, this is me. The sign says, “If you’re whining about a labor shortage, STOP ignoring my job applications!” And the QR-code leads here. Photograph by author, January 16, 2023.

Starbucks chief executive officer Howard Schultz has long demonstrated an antipathy toward unions.[3]

Nonetheless, a judge ruled that the National Labor Relations Board had failed to show a nationwide pattern of Starbucks retaliation for union activity. An order forbidding such retaliation continues to apply to an Ann Arbor store.[4]

That the burden of proof has been placed where it is in this matter reflects a neoliberal imagination, utterly unsupported by evidence, of corporations as good and as benevolent toward workers. Corporations should rather be presumed to be hostile toward unions and toward organizing activity until proven otherwise.[5]

Tim Ryan, “Judge Drops Nationwide Injunction Against Starbucks,” Law360, February 23, 2023, https://www.law360.com/employment/articles/1579417

Self-driving cars


Fig. 1. Photograph by Mark Doliner, August 1, 2012, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Kris B. Mamula, “Pittsburgh driverless truck startup Locomation to close,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 23, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/tech-news/2023/02/23/locomation-carnegie-mellon-university-aurora-argo-autonomous-self-driving/stories/202302230089

Work


Fig. 1. Yeah, this is me. The sign says, “If you’re whining about a labor shortage, STOP ignoring my job applications!” And the QR-code leads here. Photograph by author, January 16, 2023.

Travis Bland, “NC Strip Club Says Models Can’t Deny It Info On Photos,” Law360, February 22, 2023, https://www.law360.com/consumerprotection/articles/1578843

Spencer Jakab, “Lousy Tippers Are Just Misunderstood,” Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lousy-tippers-are-just-misunderstood-63094163

Daniel de Visé, “Twenty high-paying jobs that don’t require a college degree,” Hill, February 22, 2023, https://thehill.com/business/3863716-twenty-high-paying-jobs-that-dont-require-a-college-degree/

Illiberalism


Fig. 1. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE.

Ishaan Tharoor, “Jimmy Carter’s warning: Without peace, Israel must face ‘apartheid,’” Washington Post, February 24, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/02/24/jimmy-carter-israel-apartheid-palestine-peace/

  1. [1]Isaac Arnsdorf et al., “Trump’s grip on the Republican base is slipping — even among his fans,” Washington Post, February 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/23/trump-support-declining-2024-election/↩
  2. [2]Isaac Arnsdorf et al., “Trump’s grip on the Republican base is slipping — even among his fans,” Washington Post, February 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/23/trump-support-declining-2024-election/; Molly Jong-Fast, “The Fever of Trumpism Shows No Sign of Breaking in 2024,” Vanity Fair, February 23, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/donald-trump-trumpism-ron-desantis-2024-election↩
  3. [3]Greg Jaffe, “Howard Schultz’s fight to stop a Starbucks barista uprising,” Washington Post, October 8, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/08/starbucks-union-ceo-howard-schultz/↩
  4. [4]Tim Ryan, “Judge Drops Nationwide Injunction Against Starbucks,” Law360, February 23, 2023, https://www.law360.com/employment/articles/1579417↩
  5. [5]David Benfell, “Hatred for workers,” Not Housebroken, October 9, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/10/09/hatred-for-workers/↩

Will a white Christian nationalist Supreme Court rule against a white Christian nationalist Twitter?

benfell

Gilead

Twitter


Fig. 1. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,[1] fair use.

From what I’m seeing, it looks to me like a pair of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging a Section 230 defense for social media companies hosting so-called “terrorist” content might be splitting across partisan lines:

Justice Neil Gorsuch repeatedly said that the law required substantial assistance to the specific person who commits the [terrorist] act, seeming to reject the plaintiffs’ “butterfly effect” theory where everything is connected.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett at one point even offered a holding in the case that would insulate generally available services, absent some specific knowledge that the services would be used to commit such acts.[2]

In a counterexample to the challenge that algorithms may recommend or elevate “terrorist” content to users, Clarence Thomas deployed an example involving rice pilaf from different regions.

It was Elena Kagan, by contrast, who compared Twitter’s conduct to a bank opening an account for Osama bin Laden.[3] And I have to say I’m skeptical of John Bergmayer’s argument here:

John Bergmayer, legal director of Public Knowledge, told the Berkman Klein Center that algorithmic recommendations “fit the common law understanding of publication. There is no principled way to distinguish them from other platform activities that most people agree should be covered by 230. The attempt to distinguish search results from recommendations is legally and factually wrong.” If the Supreme Court comes down against the platforms, Bergmayer said, it could limit the usefulness or even viability of many services. The internet, he argued, “might become more of a broadcast medium, rather than a venue where people can make their views known and communicate with each other freely. And useful features of platforms may be shut down.”[4]

Such an argument rests on equivalence between “boosting” and not “boosting.” The former can be seen as an editorial decision, even if made by a machine; the latter sounds neutral and I think this is the point Julian Angwin reaches:

Julian Angwin . . . wrote in her inaugural column for the New York Times that while tech companies claim any limitation to Section 230 could “break the internet and crush free speech,” this isn’t necessarily true. What’s needed is a law drawing a distinction between speech and conduct,” she said.[5]

An abstraction that the machine did it can’t really fly. Algorithms are written by humans. Humans can’t be held blameless for what they do. Negligence certainly applies; this question certainly reduces to degrees of culpability. And these might have been really lousy cases to try to decide such a question:

In a podcast discussion of the two cases being heard by the Supreme Court, Evelyn Douek—a professor of law at Stanford who specializes in online content—suggested that both options seem like a stretch, because neither one mentions any specific content recommended by YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter that allegedly caused the deaths in question. Her guest, Daphne Keller, the director of platform regulation at the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, agreed. “I don’t even have a good theory about why they would choose such exceedingly convoluted cases,” Keller said. “Maybe it’s just that Justice [Clarence] Thomas had been champing at the bit for so long they finally felt they had to take something, and they didn’t realize what a mess of a case they were taking.”[6]

Some say that regardless, the social media companies are protected by the first amendment,[7] but this assumes that freedom of speech is an unlimited right, which, thanks to slander and defamation laws, we know not to be the case.

All that said, it kinda sorta sounds like the now white Christian nationalist Twitter might see favorable treatment from a white Christian nationalist Supreme Court and other social media companies might be beneficiaries.

Jimmy Hoover, “Justices Skeptical Of Twitter’s Liability For Terrorism, ” Law360, February 22, 2023, https://www.law360.com/california/articles/1578710

Matthew Ingram, “Section 230 gets its day in court,” Columbia Journalism Review, February 23, 2023, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/section_230_supreme_court.php

Academic repression


Fig. 2. “The Evolution of Intellectual Freedom.” Comic by Jorge Cham, 2011, via Episyllogism[8] fair use.

Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez, “What Does ‘Woke’ Mean Anyway?” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 21, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/race-on-campus/2023-02-21

Student loans


Fig. 3. Unattributed and undated image via James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal,[9] fair use.

George Miller, “Can Biden legally cancel student debt? There’s no question,” Washington Post, February 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/22/student-debt-cancellation-congress-heroes-act/

Critical Race Theory History

Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez, “What Does ‘Woke’ Mean Anyway?” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 21, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/race-on-campus/2023-02-21

Ukraine


Fig. 4. “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.

[Vladimir] Putin may be a dictator, but even dictators have to justify losses. . . .

Putin has put himself and his country in a desperate situation, and he has run out of options, including nuclear threats. This is not to say that the risk of nuclear conflict has evaporated; as I noted on the most recent episode of the Radio Atlantic podcast, there is still plenty of room for Putin to do something foolish and set a terrible chain of events in motion. But after a year, it seems that the Russian president’s plan—if it can even be called that—is to consign more of his young men to the Ukrainian abattoir while hoping that the West somehow tires of the whole business. . . .

The Russian president is still counting on Kyiv and its armies to collapse, or perhaps on an election to remove Biden, or for Europe to lose its nerve, or for China, perhaps, to come to Moscow’s rescue (which would be both a balm and a deep humiliation). But he also knows that time may be running out at home: After a year of war, there are only so many young men left to kill and only so many generals left to blame.[10]

Robyn Dixon and Catherine Belton, “Putin, czar with no empire, needs military victory for his own survival,” Washington Post, February 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/20/putin-czar-with-no-empire-needs-military-victory-his-own-survival/

Maria Katamadze, “Can Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin challenge Putin?” Deutschewelle, February 19, 2023, https://www.dw.com/en/can-wagner-head-yevgeny-prigozhin-challenge-putin/a-64744266

Anton Troianovski and Valerie Hopkins, “One Year Into War, Putin Is Crafting the Russia He Craves,” New York Times, February 19, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/19/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-putin.html

Anne Applebaum, “Biden Went to Kyiv Because There’s No Going Back,” Atlantic, February 20, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/biden-trip-ukraine-kyiv/673134/

Missy Ryan et al., “Biden makes surprise visit to Ukraine ahead of Russian invasion anniversary,” Washington Post, February 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/20/president-biden-kyiv-ukraine-visit-war/

Marc Santora, Peter Baker, and Michael D. Shear, “Biden Visits Kyiv, Ukraine’s Embattled Capital, as Air-Raid Siren Sounds,” New York Times, February 20, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/us/politics/biden-ukraine-visit.html

Ishaan Tharoor, “Biden in Kyiv and Warsaw is a reminder of who really leads Europe,” Washington Post, February 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/02/20/biden-leader-europe-kyiv-trip/

Evan Vucci et al., “Biden in Ukraine ahead of war anniversary: ‘Kyiv stands,’” Associated Press, February 20, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-biden-f00af220669457d5ba07127c7e57a27b

Tom Nichols, “Putin’s Desperate Hours,” Atlantic, February 21, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/02/putins-desperate-hours/673150/

Ann M. Simmons, “Putin Suspends Nuclear-Arms Treaty Between Russia, U.S.,” Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-suspends-new-start-nuclear-arms-treaty-with-u-s-6498b44

Evan Vucci, John Leicester, and Zeke Miller, “How do you sneak a US president into a warzone without anyone noticing?” Associated Press, February 21, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-kyiv-politics-74c9de636c489393c86ad115e5cbcb48

Ed Pilkington and J Oliver Conroy, “Putin aiming to divide US public opinion with nuclear treaty pullout, experts say,” Guardian, February 22, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/22/putin-biden-us-nuclear-new-start-treaty-russia-ukraine

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Infrastructure


Fig. 5. Post-collapse scene at the Fern Hollow Bridge, photograph by National Transportation Safety Board, January 29, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Julia Felton, “Pittsburgh officials considering more extensive repairs on Swindell Bridge,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 21, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-officials-considering-more-extensive-repairs-on-swindell-bridge/

Hallie Lauer, “Mayor Ed Gainey is on a committee that can fund Pittsburgh bridges. But he rarely shows up,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 22, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2023/02/22/charles-anderson-pittsburgh-bridge-funding-ed-gainey/stories/202302220015

Work


Fig. 6. Yeah, this is me. The sign says, “If you’re whining about a labor shortage, STOP ignoring my job applications!” And the QR-code leads here. Photograph by author, January 16, 2023.

Travis Bland, “NC Strip Club Says Models Can’t Deny It Info On Photos,” Law360, February 22, 2023, https://www.law360.com/consumerprotection/articles/1578843

Daniel de Visé, “Twenty high-paying jobs that don’t require a college degree,” Hill, February 22, 2023, https://thehill.com/business/3863716-twenty-high-paying-jobs-that-dont-require-a-college-degree/

  1. [1]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩
  2. [2]Jimmy Hoover, “Justices Skeptical Of Twitter’s Liability For Terrorism, ” Law360, February 22, 2023, https://www.law360.com/california/articles/1578710↩
  3. [3]Jimmy Hoover, “Justices Skeptical Of Twitter’s Liability For Terrorism, ” Law360, February 22, 2023, https://www.law360.com/california/articles/1578710↩
  4. [4]Matthew Ingram, “Section 230 gets its day in court,” Columbia Journalism Review, February 23, 2023, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/section_230_supreme_court.php↩
  5. [5]Matthew Ingram, “Section 230 gets its day in court,” Columbia Journalism Review, February 23, 2023, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/section_230_supreme_court.php↩
  6. [6]Matthew Ingram, “Section 230 gets its day in court,” Columbia Journalism Review, February 23, 2023, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/section_230_supreme_court.php↩
  7. [7]Matthew Ingram, “Section 230 gets its day in court,” Columbia Journalism Review, February 23, 2023, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/section_230_supreme_court.php↩
  8. [8]Bob Lane, “Academic Freedom,” Episyllogism, November 3, 2016, https://boblane.com/2016/11/03/academic-freedom/↩
  9. [9]Richard K. Vedder, “Eliminate or Radically Restructure Federal Student Loans,” James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, September 16, 2020, https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2020/09/eliminate-or-radically-restructure-federal-student-loans/↩
  10. [10]Tom Nichols, “Putin’s Desperate Hours,” Atlantic, February 21, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/02/putins-desperate-hours/673150/↩

‘Heroes work here’

benfell

COVID-19 Pandemic


Fig. 1. Photograph by author, November 8, 2022.

Consider COVID-19 an intensely exacerbating factor.

One of my stories in Pittsburgh was that I was seriously impressed with the health care here. My experience as a Medicaid patient here has been far superior to what I encountered in California under their equivalent program, MediCal. It led me to think—I no longer think this—my aging mother would be better off here.

But over the last couple years, I’ve started hearing from nurses among my passengers, vaguely speaking of conditions they believe endanger patients. First, I thought, maybe, only maybe, a malcontent, then I remembered the abuse health care workers were particularly subject to—some tell me they have stopped wearing scrubs in public—in a white Christian nationalist backlash during the pandemic,[1] with swamped emergency rooms, hospitals at or beyond capacity, and people being denied care for lack of capacity. I noticed billboards desperately seeking nurses and students for nursing programs (no, it’s not so easy to get in, I’m told) and remembered the warnings I’d heard about burnout and staffing shortages as workers had contemplated changing careers. But it seems that’s only part of the story.

Another part of the story, and I’m hearing this, too, from my passengers, is that management sucks.[2] It isn’t just the various rehabilitation and convalescent hospitals that, all over the country, are much too often shady operations. It’s main line hospitals as well. I hear mostly about University of Pittsburgh Medical Center facilities probably mostly because they’re the biggest around Pittsburgh, but I hear about Allegheny Health Network hospitals as well, and my landlord had a terrifying experience when his wife had to go in to Saint Clair Hospital. They’re all understaffed and the remaining workers are having to put in ludicrously long shifts.

“Heroes work here.” Some such signs still remain around these places. Some even refer to “superheroes.” Healthcare worker treatment should match the rhetoric.

Jennifer Miller, “Why are nurses quitting? Ask the nurse no hospital will hire,” Washington Post, February 21, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/02/21/katie-duke-instagram-nursing-pandemic/

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Infrastructure


Fig. 1. Post-collapse scene at the Fern Hollow Bridge, photograph by National Transportation Safety Board, January 29, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

It appears that one reason Pittsburgh isn’t getting the money it needs for bridge maintenance may be that Mayor Ed Gainey doesn’t show up for meetings, a ten-minute walk from his office that he could also attend virtually, of the committee that allocates the money. He isn’t even sending other officials to appear in his place.[3] I gotta tell you: I had far higher hopes for this man than this but, in effect, he’s proving no better than his predecessor, Bill Peduto.

Hallie Lauer, “Mayor Ed Gainey is on a committee that can fund Pittsburgh bridges. But he rarely shows up,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 22, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2023/02/22/charles-anderson-pittsburgh-bridge-funding-ed-gainey/stories/202302220015

Vegans

Some older folks need to catch up. Of course, the question is whether they will:

The student union voted yesterday to “initiate talks” with central catering services about removing all animal products from its cafes and canteens, creating a “sustainable and 100 per cent plant-based” menu.

The decision came after lobbying from Cambridge’s Plant Based Universities campaign, which is supported by Animal Rebellion, an offshoot of activist group Extinction Rebellion.

The group’s motion, which calls for the change in response to “climate and biodiversity crises”, was backed by 72 per cent of non-abstaining student representatives who voted.

However, the student union’s decision does not guarantee that Cambridge’s catering services will go fully vegan, as the power to change food policies lies with the university.

The vote also does not directly apply to the university’s 31 colleges, although the campaign said that it provided “an extremely strong mandate for colleges to begin transitioning to 100 per cent plant-based menus”.

It comes after Stirling University became the first in the UK to commit to transitioning to 100 per cent plant-based food in November.[4]

And it’d be nice if a few other countries would catch up.

Telegraph, “Cambridge University students vote for vegan-only menu,” February 21, 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/21/cambridge-university-students-vote-vegan-only-menu/

Gilead

Abortion


Fig. 1. Sign at demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, May 3, 2022. Janni Rye, via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Caroline Kitchener et al., “Abortion is now banned or under threat in these states,” Washington Post, February 21, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/24/abortion-state-laws-criminalization-roe/

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,[5] fair use.

Emigration is one factor in a ‘purification’ of Russia, in which departing dissidents leave supporters of Vladimir Putin’s war even more dominant in Russian society.[6] But dissent is being repressed as well.[7]

Meanwhile, Putin is playing to the ‘tankies’ with his decision to withdraw from the last nuclear arms treaty with the U.S.:

Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who was a Russian specialist at the White House National Security Council from 2017 to 2019, told the Guardian that Putin was “playing to the rifts in the United States”. The strategy was to increase political discord in an attempt to embolden calls for an end to US support for Ukraine.

“It’s playing to all those people who want Ukraine to surrender and capitulate to avoid a massive nuclear exchange and world war three, a kind of nuclear armageddon,” she said.[8]

He’s losing the war in every other way. But he still has a chance to manipulate public opinion, both at home and abroad,[9] and it’s really his last shot.[10]

Robyn Dixon and Catherine Belton, “Putin, czar with no empire, needs military victory for his own survival,” Washington Post, February 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/20/putin-czar-with-no-empire-needs-military-victory-his-own-survival/

Maria Katamadze, “Can Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin challenge Putin?” Deutschewelle, February 19, 2023, https://www.dw.com/en/can-wagner-head-yevgeny-prigozhin-challenge-putin/a-64744266

Anton Troianovski and Valerie Hopkins, “One Year Into War, Putin Is Crafting the Russia He Craves,” New York Times, February 19, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/19/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-putin.html

Anne Applebaum, “Biden Went to Kyiv Because There’s No Going Back,” Atlantic, February 20, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/biden-trip-ukraine-kyiv/673134/

Missy Ryan et al., “Biden makes surprise visit to Ukraine ahead of Russian invasion anniversary,” Washington Post, February 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/20/president-biden-kyiv-ukraine-visit-war/

Marc Santora, Peter Baker, and Michael D. Shear, “Biden Visits Kyiv, Ukraine’s Embattled Capital, as Air-Raid Siren Sounds,” New York Times, February 20, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/us/politics/biden-ukraine-visit.html

Ishaan Tharoor, “Biden in Kyiv and Warsaw is a reminder of who really leads Europe,” Washington Post, February 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/02/20/biden-leader-europe-kyiv-trip/

Evan Vucci et al., “Biden in Ukraine ahead of war anniversary: ‘Kyiv stands,’” Associated Press, February 20, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-biden-f00af220669457d5ba07127c7e57a27b

Ann M. Simmons, “Putin Suspends Nuclear-Arms Treaty Between Russia, U.S.,” Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-suspends-new-start-nuclear-arms-treaty-with-u-s-6498b44

Evan Vucci, John Leicester, and Zeke Miller, “How do you sneak a US president into a warzone without anyone noticing?” Associated Press, February 21, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-kyiv-politics-74c9de636c489393c86ad115e5cbcb48

Ed Pilkington and J Oliver Conroy, “Putin aiming to divide US public opinion with nuclear treaty pullout, experts say,” Guardian, FEbruary 22, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/22/putin-biden-us-nuclear-new-start-treaty-russia-ukraine

  1. [1]Shira Hanau, “Marjorie Taylor Greene blames ‘vaccine Nazis’ for ‘ruining our country’ months after Holocaust museum apology,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 3, 2021, https://www.jta.org/2021/11/03/united-states/marjorie-taylor-greene-blames-vaccine-nazis-for-ruining-our-country-months-after-holocaust-museum-apology; Peter Jamison, “Their neighbors called covid-19 a hoax. Can these ICU nurses forgive them?” Washington Post, July 6, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/07/06/appalachian-covid-deniers-nurses-virginia/; Ron Kampeas, “In latest Nazi analogy, Marjorie Taylor Greene invokes ‘medical brown shirts’ in decrying vaccination outreach,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 7, 2021, https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/in-latest-nazi-analogy-marjorie-taylor-greene-invokes-medical-brown-shirts-in-decrying-vaccination-outreach; Oliver Laughland and Jessica Glenza, “Inside a Tennessee hospital grappling with Delta and vaccine hesitancy,” Guardian, July 24, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/24/tennessee-coronavirus-covid-delta-variant-cases-vaccines; Tawnya Panizzi, Renatta Signorini, and Natasha Lindstrom, “‘You can’t fix it with facts’: Doctors share patients’ excuses for covid vaccine refusal,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 17, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/regional/you-cant-fix-it-with-facts-doctors-share-patients-excuses-for-covid-vaccine-refusal/↩
  2. [2]Jennifer Miller, “Why are nurses quitting? Ask the nurse no hospital will hire,” Washington Post, February 21, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/02/21/katie-duke-instagram-nursing-pandemic/↩
  3. [3]Hallie Lauer, “Mayor Ed Gainey is on a committee that can fund Pittsburgh bridges. But he rarely shows up,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 22, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2023/02/22/charles-anderson-pittsburgh-bridge-funding-ed-gainey/stories/202302220015↩
  4. [4]Telegraph, “Cambridge University students vote for vegan-only menu,” February 21, 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/21/cambridge-university-students-vote-vegan-only-menu/↩
  5. [5]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↩
  6. [6]Francesca Ebel and Mary Ilyushina, “Russians abandon wartime Russia in historic exodus,” Washington Post, February 13, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/13/russia-diaspora-war-ukraine/; Anton Troianovski and Valerie Hopkins, “One Year Into War, Putin Is Crafting the Russia He Craves,” New York Times, February 19, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/19/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-putin.html↩
  7. [7]Anton Troianovski and Valerie Hopkins, “One Year Into War, Putin Is Crafting the Russia He Craves,” New York Times, February 19, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/19/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-putin.html↩
  8. [8]Ed Pilkington and J Oliver Conroy, “Putin aiming to divide US public opinion with nuclear treaty pullout, experts say,” Guardian, FEbruary 22, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/22/putin-biden-us-nuclear-new-start-treaty-russia-ukraine↩
  9. [9]David Benfell, “If Vladimir Putin doesn’t make sense, he doesn’t make sense, and he cannot last,” Not Housebroken, February 19, 2023, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/10/10/if-vladimir-putin-doesnt-make-sense-he-doesnt-make-sense-and-he-cannot-last/↩
  10. [10]Robyn Dixon and Catherine Belton, “Putin, czar with no empire, needs military victory for his own survival,” Washington Post, February 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/20/putin-czar-with-no-empire-needs-military-victory-his-own-survival/↩

Vladimir Putin rattles his nuclear saber yet again

benfell

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.

Vladimir Putin is rattling his nuclear saber again, suspending Russian participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the U.S.[1]

Ishaan Tharoor hails Joe Biden’s trip to Kyiv for symbolizing a Western unity that might not have come together without him. Indeed, Tharoor concludes by noting that “[Peter] Neumann recently told an Austrian newspaper that, had Ukraine only been able to depend on Europe, it would already be Russian.”[2]

It’s entirely reasonable to suspect that the Putin-loving[3] Donald Trump is a spent force.[4] It’s far less apparent that the same can be said of Putin-loving white Christian nationalists[5] and “tankies.”[6] While each of the latter groups is a distinct minority, the fear that Western resolve may yet weaken[7] cannot so easily be put to rest.

Robyn Dixon and Catherine Belton, “Putin, czar with no empire, needs military victory for his own survival,” Washington Post, February 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/20/putin-czar-with-no-empire-needs-military-victory-his-own-survival/

Maria Katamadze, “Can Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin challenge Putin?” Deutschewelle, February 19, 2023, https://www.dw.com/en/can-wagner-head-yevgeny-prigozhin-challenge-putin/a-64744266

Anne Applebaum, “Biden Went to Kyiv Because There’s No Going Back,” Atlantic, February 20, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/biden-trip-ukraine-kyiv/673134/

Missy Ryan et al., “Biden makes surprise visit to Ukraine ahead of Russian invasion anniversary,” Washington Post, February 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/20/president-biden-kyiv-ukraine-visit-war/

Marc Santora, Peter Baker, and Michael D. Shear, “Biden Visits Kyiv, Ukraine’s Embattled Capital, as Air-Raid Siren Sounds,” New York Times, February 20, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/us/politics/biden-ukraine-visit.html

Ishaan Tharoor, “Biden in Kyiv and Warsaw is a reminder of who really leads Europe,” Washington Post, February 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/02/20/biden-leader-europe-kyiv-trip/

Evan Vucci et al., “Biden in Ukraine ahead of war anniversary: ‘Kyiv stands,’” Associated Press, February 20, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-biden-f00af220669457d5ba07127c7e57a27b

Ann M. Simmons, “Putin Suspends Nuclear-Arms Treaty Between Russia, U.S.,” Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-suspends-new-start-nuclear-arms-treaty-with-u-s-6498b44

Evan Vucci, John Leicester, and Zeke Miller, “How do you sneak a US president into a warzone without anyone noticing?” Associated Press, February 21, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-kyiv-politics-74c9de636c489393c86ad115e5cbcb48

Gilead

Right-wing militias

Police White supremacist gangs


Fig. 2. Photograph by Lorie Shaull, April 1, 2021, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Philadelphia in late 2021 became the first big city in the country to pass a “Driving Equality” law, which reclassified seven low-level offenses as “secondary,” meaning they can’t serve as the sole reason a police officer pulls over a motorist. The law, which was designed to cut down on racial disparities in car stops, took effect in early 2022.[8]

Pittsburgh has also banned minor traffic stops[9] but the white supremacist gangs are ignoring the law.[10] Which, of course, is not what they tell anyone else to do. Pittsburgh mayor Ed Gainey is curiously okay with their defiance, accepting a rationalization[11] that makes no sense.[12]

Anna Orso, “Memphis to consider version of Philadelphia law that bans minor traffic stops in response to Tyre Nichols killing,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 20, 2023, https://www.inquirer.com/news/memphis-philadelphia-driving-equality-tyre-nichols-20230220.html

Housekeeping

It appears I am stuck in Pittsburgh for a while longer. The idea had come up for me to return to my mother’s house in California, but she no longer has the space available that I had when I was there before. There’s a good reason for that, which I won’t divulge publicly, but there would be no space for my books and precious little space for anything else. My problem remains that too many people are telling me “no.”


Fig. 3. Graph of estimated daily average net income (in blue, using Internal Revenue Service mileage allowance) by month since January 2022, against estimated daily operating costs (in red, using Internal Revenue Service mileage allowance), what the federal minimum wage would be for a six-and-a-half hour day had it kept pace with productivity[13] (in green), the (outdated[14]) federal poverty line[15] (in light orange), and the Pennsylvania minimum wage[16] (in orange), created by author, February 10, 2023, revamped February 18, updated daily.

I can’t have a real job; my applications won’t even be considered.[17] I can’t have a way of job hunting that might prove effective; even temporary agencies “ghost” me.[18] I can’t make any money to live on because Uber and Lyft have cut driver pay so deeply (figure 3). I must instead live to be abused by sadistic companies[19] in a neoliberal wet dream made real. And, of course, to be abused by Pittsburgh drivers.[20]

If people want me to live, they should consider that they aren’t the ones having to live my life. Until somebody finds a way to tell me “yes,” it’s all arrogance and hypocrisy.

  1. [1]Ann M. Simmons, “Putin Suspends Nuclear-Arms Treaty Between Russia, U.S.,” Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-suspends-new-start-nuclear-arms-treaty-with-u-s-6498b44↩
  2. [2]Ishaan Tharoor, “Biden in Kyiv and Warsaw is a reminder of who really leads Europe,” Washington Post, February 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/02/20/biden-leader-europe-kyiv-trip/↩
  3. [3]Philip Bump, “‘Genius,’ ‘Savvy’: Trump reacts to Putin’s moves on Ukraine exactly as you’d expect,” Washington Post, February 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/22/trump-reacts-putins-invasion-ukraine-exactly-youd-expect/↩
  4. [4]David Benfell, “More questions than answers as Donald Trump flags come down,” Not Housebroken, December 3, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/28/more-questions-than-answers-as-donald-trump-flags-come-down/↩
  5. [5]David Benfell, “Vladimir Putin’s [T/t]rump card,” Not Housebroken, November 7, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/05/21/vladimir-putins-t-trump-card/; Aaron Blake, “Tucker Carlson goes full blame-America on Russia’s Ukraine invasion,” Washington Post, March 8, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/08/tucker-carlson-goes-full-blame-america-russias-ukraine-invasion/; Adam Gabbatt, “Tucker Carlson leads rightwing charge to blame everyone but Putin,” Guardian, February 26, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/feb/25/tucker-carlson-fox-news-russia-putin; Molly Jong-Fast, “The Far Right Is Now Anti–anti-Putin,” Atlantic, March 16, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62323220199fdd002140baa5/gop-tucker-carlson-putin-propaganda/; Justin Ling, “How ‘Ukrainian bioweapons labs’ myth went from QAnon fringe to Fox News,” Guardian, March 18, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/18/ukrainian-bioweapons-labs-qanon-fox-news; Robert Mackey, “Russian TV Uses Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard to Sell Putin’s War,” Intercept, February 27, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/russian-tv-uses-tucker-carlson-tulsi-gabbard-sell-putins-war/; Richard M. Nixon [Justin Sherin], “Putin’s Strengths,” Patreon, February 16, 2023, https://www.patreon.com/posts/putins-strengths-78789256↩
  6. [6]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/; Anatol Lieven, “Diplomats & experts: negotiate, or expect ‘drastic escalation’ by Russia,” Responsible Statecraft, January 20, 2022, https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/01/20/diplomats-experts-negotiate-or-expect-drastic-escalation-by-russia/; Robert Mackey, “Russian TV Uses Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard to Sell Putin’s War,” Intercept, February 27, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/russian-tv-uses-tucker-carlson-tulsi-gabbard-sell-putins-war/; Richard M. Nixon [Justin Sherin], “Putin’s Strengths,” Patreon, February 16, 2023, https://www.patreon.com/posts/putins-strengths-78789256↩
  7. [7]Richard M. Nixon [Justin Sherin], “Putin’s Strengths,” Patreon, February 16, 2023, https://www.patreon.com/posts/putins-strengths-78789256↩
  8. [8]Anna Orso, “Memphis to consider version of Philadelphia law that bans minor traffic stops in response to Tyre Nichols killing,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 20, 2023, https://www.inquirer.com/news/memphis-philadelphia-driving-equality-tyre-nichols-20230220.html↩
  9. [9]Julia Felton, “Pittsburgh bans traffic stops for minor violations,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 28, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-bans-traffic-stops-for-minor-violations/↩
  10. [10]Kiley Koscinski, “Pittsburgh Police resume secondary traffic stops despite city ordinance against them,” WESA, January 12, 2023, https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2023-01-12/pittsburgh-police-resume-secondary-traffic-stops-despite-city-ordinance-against-them↩
  11. [11]WTAE, “Controversial memo prompts Gainey’s response on secondary traffic stops,” January 14, 2023, https://www.wtae.com/article/gaineys-stangrecki-secondary-traffic-stops-memo/42507062↩
  12. [12]Kiley Koscinski, “Pittsburgh Police resume secondary traffic stops despite city ordinance against them,” WESA, January 12, 2023, https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2023-01-12/pittsburgh-police-resume-secondary-traffic-stops-despite-city-ordinance-against-them↩
  13. [13]Dean Baker, “Correction: The $23 an Hour Minimum Wage,” Center for Economic Policy and Research, March 16, 2022, https://cepr.net/the-26-an-hour-minimum-wage/↩
  14. [14]Areeba Haider and Justin Schweitzer, “The Poverty Line Matters, But It Isn’t Capturing Everyone It Should,” Center for American Progress, March 5, 2020, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/poverty-line-matters-isnt-capturing-everyone/↩
  15. [15]U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “Federal poverty level (FPL),” n.d., https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-fpl/↩
  16. [16]U.S. Department of Labor, “State Minimum Wage Laws,” January 1, 2023, https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state↩
  17. [17]David Benfell, “About my job hunt,” Not Housebroken, n.d., https://disunitedstates.org/about-my-job-hunt/↩
  18. [18]David Benfell, “About that alleged ‘labor shortage,’” Not Housebroken, February 4, 2023, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/05/09/about-that-alleged-labor-shortage/↩
  19. [19]David Benfell, “A life worth living,” Not Housebroken, February 18, 2023, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/12/27/a-life-worth-living/↩
  20. [20]David Benfell, “Reckless driving as routine,” Not Housebroken, January 28, 2023, https://disunitedstates.org/2023/01/25/reckless-driving-as-routine/↩

Popular long-term professor threatened with dismissal for teaching about racial justice at Christian college

benfell

Gilead

Academic repression

Critical Race Theory History

In the 12 years that I have been teaching a racial-justice unit, no [Palm Beach Atlantic] administrator had ever voiced any concern about my unit. This was the first time. So the first time was also the time when I was told that my contract may not be renewed. I was told that I would be notified on or before March 15 if the contract would be renewed.[1]

Scott Jaschik, “Professor’s Job Endangered for Teaching About Race,” Inside Higher Ed, February 20, 2022, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/02/20/professors-job-endangered-teaching-about-race

So-called ‘ridesharing’

Drivers


Fig. 1. Yeah, this is me. The sign says, “If you’re whining about a labor shortage, STOP ignoring my job applications!” And the QR-code leads here. Photograph by author, January 16, 2023.


Fig. 3. Graph of estimated daily average net income (in blue, using Internal Revenue Service mileage allowance) by month since January 2022, against estimated daily operating costs (in red, using Internal Revenue Service mileage allowance), what the federal minimum wage would be for a six-and-a-half hour day had it kept pace with productivity[2] (in green), the (outdated[3]) federal poverty line[4] (in light orange), and the Pennsylvania minimum wage[5] (in orange), created by author, February 10, 2023, revamped February 18, updated daily.

It’s been another round of “no” answers. I’m still in an utterly untenable situation.

Everyone *says* go on living. But nobody has a “yes” to anything that would make that possible.

No, I can’t have a real job. https://disunitedstates.org/about-my-job-hunt/

There are only a few “yes” answers:

1) I may keep on driving for Uber despite the fact that Uber has cut driver pay by 40 percent and there’s nothing, after operating costs, left to live on.

2) I can keep plunging further into debt trying to stay alive until I’ve maxed out my credit cards or they cut me off because I can’t make the payments.

3) I can keep job hunting in ways that have failed me for 22 years. https://disunitedstates.org/about-my-job-hunt/

Nobody is making any fucking sense here.[6]

Somebody needs to start making some fucking sense.