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/↩

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