Twitter and Facebook will no longer get updates from Not Housebroken and the Irregular Bullshit

benfell

I am still not caught up.

Housekeeping

I’ve been using Buffer to post updates from Not Housebroken and the Irregular Bullshit to Twitter, Facebook, and Mastodon. It’s a paid service and for not a lot of money. But it also has been having more and more problems—and not just with Twitter, which would be expected because that platform is having problems.

When I’m paying for something that isn’t working well, I start to doubt that I should be paying for it. And that’s where I am with Buffer.

I’m pulling the plug on it. This means, effective immediately, even with this post, Twitter and Facebook users will no longer get updates. Mastodon will only get the initial posts that another plugin does for free.

Imperialism

Russia

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,[1] fair use.

There has been reason to doubt the west’s commitment to Ukraine.[2] But Russia is looking like it’s down[3] and if there’s one thing this world loves to do, it’s kick people when they’re down.

Don’t get me wrong: Vladimir Putin brought this on himself. But having been down most of my life, and kicked relentlessly by this society which refuses to allow me a real job,[4] I can’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the man. He is defiant,[5] and he is wrong.[6] He deserves no such sympathy. But the kicking—it seems like he’s getting it from nearly every direction[7]—is hard for me to watch.

Julia Ioffe, “Yalta 2023: Planning for Life After the Russian Invasion,” Puck, May 30, 2023, https://puck.news/yalta-2023-planning-for-life-after-the-russian-invasion/

Richard Milne, Adam Samson, and Felicia Schwartz, “West steps up pressure on Turkey to admit Sweden into Nato,” Financial Times, May 30, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/2954fa63-4590-4570-96e6-962c85957904

Bojan Pancevski, Laurence Norman, and James Marson, “Ukraine and Allies Plan Peace Summit Without Russia,” Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-and-allies-plan-peace-summit-without-russia-72341551

Max Seddon and Christopher Miller, “Vladimir Putin vows retaliation for drone attack on Moscow,” Financial Times, May 30, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/cdde0e44-0e90-41c0-a3be-e5f6849b706b

Patrick Tucker, “Estonia Will Ask For a Clearer Path for Ukraine to Join NATO,” Defense One, May 30, 2023, https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2023/05/estonia-will-ask-clearer-path-ukraine-join-nato/386879/

Nataliya Vasilyeva, “James Cleverly backs Ukraine’s right to attack Russia after Moscow’s ‘Beverly Hills’ hit by drones,” Telegraph, May 30, 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/05/30/moscow-uav-drones-ukraine-kremlin-putin-civilain-attack/

Leila Abboud, Raphael Minder, and Henry Foy, “Emmanuel Macron backs Nato membership ‘path’ for Ukraine,” Financial Times, May 31, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/2cf5609d-3a2a-4177-8c3b-2336fc61cfa4

Svitlana Morenets, “Russia may be devoured by its neighbours,” Telegraph, May 31, 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/31/russia-may-be-devoured-by-its-neighbours/

Patrick Tucker, “Macron Will Push NATO For ‘Concrete’ Security Guarantee for Ukraine,” Defense One, May 31, 2023, https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/05/macron-will-push-nato-concrete-security-guarantee-ukraine/386951/

John Hudson and Dan Lamothe, “Biden shows growing appetite to cross Putin’s red lines,” Washington Post, June 1, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/01/ukraine-f-16s-biden-russia-escalation/

Missy Ryan, “U.S. rebuffs cease-fire calls in its strategy for Ukraine resilience,” Washington Post, June 2, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/02/ukraine-russia-blinken-address-finland/

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.

Brian Merchant, “Two Uber drivers read the fine print — and won millions for California gig workers,” Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-06-01/column-uber-david-and-goliath

Banking

Commercial real estate


Fig. 2. “The iconic Crescent stands as recognizable landmark in the upscale neighborhood of Uptown, Dallas.” Photograph by Dallasedits [pseud.], July 5, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Some building owners are already walking away from mortgages on properties such as big-city office towers rather than refinancing them, owing to things such as the rising cost of hedging the interest-rate risk of a floating-rate loan, or not wanting to put up more equity to cover for a property’s falling value.[8]

Telis Demos, “Commercial Real Estate Can Be a Problem for Banks, and Also a Solution,” Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/commercial-real-estate-can-be-a-problem-for-banks-and-also-a-solution-cb88eb5

Bill Cosby

Nick Vadala, “Bill Cosby is facing another sexual assault lawsuit,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 1, 2023, https://www.inquirer.com/news/bill-cosby-lawsuit-victoria-valentino-20230601.html

Gilead

Speaker of the House of Representatives, 2023


Fig. 3. Photograph credited to Office of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, date inconsistent with title but given as November 9, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

It was one tough vote for Democrats, but for [Kevin] McCarthy, the implications of Wednesday night are much further-reaching. It was not hard to find a grumbling Republican wandering the halls of the Capitol this week. “I can’t tell you how disappointed I am the way that this went down. It didn’t have to go down this way…. We gave everything away and there was no middle ground here,” Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace told reporters. “There’s nothing amazing about this deal,” she added when asked about McCarthy’s negotiation prowess.

“We were told they’d never put a bill on the floor that would take more Democrats than [Republicans] to pass. We were told that,” Representative Andy Biggs, who voted against the deal, said.

Some of the complaints came with a threat—one that has lingered over McCarthy’s Speakership from day one: a call to take back his gavel. “If we can’t kill it, we’re going to have to regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again,” Chip Roy said on BlazeTV ahead of the vote Wednesday. Following the vote, Ken Buck—another GOP defector—told CNN, “My constituents are furious and you know what’s so interesting about the calls in the district? They are not only ‘vote against this bill,’ but they are ‘take McCarthy out.’ That’s what the calls are coming in.” . . .

To be sure, the calls to oust McCarthy don’t appear to be widespread.[9]

Sure, [Kevin] McCarthy looks safe for now, but the motion-to-vacate bomb is still tied around his chest, if anyone wants to detonate it. But first, the G.O.P. consultant explained, there would have to be signals from the Conservative Partnership Institute that they’d want a regime change. The secretive, MAGA-oriented think tank run by former Heritage president Jim DeMint had been crucial in delaying McCarthy’s initial election as speaker—indeed, the C.P.I. headquarters near Capitol Hill served as a veritable war room for the 20—and would likely be the hub for any future opposition. Anger from the Club for Growth, too, would indicate trouble. “If there’s something coming out of Heritage, it’s literally just coincidence and bandwagoning, because nothing’s gonna happen if it’s not coming out of C.P.I. and the Club for Growth folks in that area,” the consultant said.[10]

In the House of Representatives, 165 out of 213 Democrats voted for the bill; only, but still a majority 149 out of 222 Republicans did.[11] “If a majority of Republicans are against a piece of legislation and you use Democrats to pass it, that would immediately be a black letter violation of the deal we had with McCarthy to allow his ascent to the Speakership, and it would likely trigger an immediate motion to vacate.”[12] This wasn’t and it didn’t.[13]

Overall, the House had passed the bill 314-117, well above the 218 needed; the Senate passed it 63-36, again with a healthy margin.[14] The harder-than-diamond-hard right was isolated, they had to know it, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s why Kevin McCarthy still has his head.

Sarah Ferris and Olivia Beavers, “How Jim Jordan and Marjorie Taylor Greene helped McCarthy get his debt deal through,” Politico, June 1, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/31/mccarthy-debt-limit-deal-gop-divisions-00099567

Tina Nguyen, “The Taliban 20’s McCarthy Red Line,” Puck, June 1, 2023, https://puck.news/the-taliban-20s-mccarthy-red-line/

Abigail Tracy, “Kevin McCarthy Got a Debt Deal Passed. It May Cost Him,” Vanity Fair, June 1, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/06/kevin-mccarthy-joe-biden-debt-deal-house-republicans

  1. [1]Reuters, “Ukraine puts destroyed Russian tanks on display in Kyiv,” August 25, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ukraine-puts-destroyed-russian-tanks-on-idUSRTSALV9Q↩
  2. [2]Julia Ioffe, “Peace & Gossip in Munich,” Puck, February 21, 2023, https://puck.news/peace-gossip-in-munich/; Julia Ioffe, “Biden’s Private Ukraine Deadline,” Puck, March 28, 2023, https://puck.news/bidens-private-ukraine-deadline/; 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/; Ishaan Tharoor, “The U.S.’s gloominess on the war in Ukraine is now clear to see,” Washington Post, April 14, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/04/14/gloom-united-states-outlook-ukraine-russia-outcome-leak/↩
  3. [3]Francesca Ebel, “Russia is shipping very old tanks west, signaling shortage in Ukraine,” Washington Post, March 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/23/russia-t54-t55-old-tanks/; Tom Nichols, “Putin’s Desperate Hours,” Atlantic, February 21, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/02/putins-desperate-hours/673150/↩
  4. [4]David Benfell, “About my job hunt,” Not Housebroken, n.d., https://disunitedstates.org/about-my-job-hunt/↩
  5. [5]Pjotr Sauer and Andrew Roth, “Putin prepares Russia for ‘forever war’ with west as Ukraine invasion stalls,” Guardian, March 28, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/28/putin-prepares-russia-for-forever-war-with-west-as-ukraine-invasion-stalls↩
  6. [6]Alex Horton, “Russia’s commando units gutted by Ukraine war, U.S. leak shows,” Washington Post, April 14, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/14/leaked-documents-russian-spetsnaz/↩
  7. [7]Leila Abboud, Raphael Minder, and Henry Foy, “Emmanuel Macron backs Nato membership ‘path’ for Ukraine,” Financial Times, May 31, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/2cf5609d-3a2a-4177-8c3b-2336fc61cfa4; Lili Bayer and Leyla Aksu, “Finland cleared to join NATO following Turkish vote,” Politico, March 30, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/finland-join-nato-memeber-turkey-parliament-vote/; Samantha de Bendern, “Putin claims he’s cancelling public celebrations over safety fears. The truth is more humiliating,” Guardian, May 2, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/02/putin-cancelling-public-celebrations-safety-fears-ukraine-war; Henry Foy et al., “Military briefing: the drone attack on the Kremlin,” Financial Times, May 5, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/fca39a1d-d642-4799-bdee-12423149cc61; John Hudson and Dan Lamothe, “Biden shows growing appetite to cross Putin’s red lines,” Washington Post, June 1, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/01/ukraine-f-16s-biden-russia-escalation/; Svitlana Morenets, “Russia may be devoured by its neighbours,” Telegraph, May 31, 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/31/russia-may-be-devoured-by-its-neighbours/; Anna Nemtsova, “I’ve never seen the Kremlin so rattled,” Washington Post, May 17, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/17/rattled-kremlin-ukraine-psychological-warfare/; Roman Olearchyk and Henry Foy, “Jens Stoltenberg vows Nato will stand with Ukraine for ‘as long as it takes,’” Financial Times, April 20, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/2c89bc02-17e9-4311-8df7-b472ca79cbdb; Bojan Pancevski, Laurence Norman, and James Marson, “Ukraine and Allies Plan Peace Summit Without Russia,” Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-and-allies-plan-peace-summit-without-russia-72341551; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, “Wagner Chief Prigozhin Says Russia’s Plan To ‘Demilitarize’ Ukraine Has Failed,” May 24, 2023, https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-wagner-prigozhin-failure/32425650.html; Missy Ryan, “U.S. rebuffs cease-fire calls in its strategy for Ukraine resilience,” Washington Post, June 2, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/02/ukraine-russia-blinken-address-finland/; Patrick Tucker, “Estonia Will Ask For a Clearer Path for Ukraine to Join NATO,” Defense One, May 30, 2023, https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2023/05/estonia-will-ask-clearer-path-ukraine-join-nato/386879/; Patrick Tucker, “Macron Will Push NATO For ‘Concrete’ Security Guarantee for Ukraine,” Defense One, May 31, 2023, https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/05/macron-will-push-nato-concrete-security-guarantee-ukraine/386951/; Allan Woods, “Why Vladimir Putin isn’t shutting down the outspoken ‘thug’ running the Wagner Group,” Toronto Star, May 15, 2023, https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2023/05/15/why-vladimir-putin-isnt-shutting-down-the-outspoken-thug-running-the-wagner-group.html↩
  8. [8]Telis Demos, “Commercial Real Estate Can Be a Problem for Banks, and Also a Solution,” Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/commercial-real-estate-can-be-a-problem-for-banks-and-also-a-solution-cb88eb5↩
  9. [9]Abigail Tracy, “Kevin McCarthy Got a Debt Deal Passed. It May Cost Him,” Vanity Fair, June 1, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/06/kevin-mccarthy-joe-biden-debt-deal-house-republicans↩
  10. [10]Tina Nguyen, “The Taliban 20’s McCarthy Red Line,” Puck, June 1, 2023, https://puck.news/the-taliban-20s-mccarthy-red-line/↩
  11. [11]Abigail Tracy, “Kevin McCarthy Got a Debt Deal Passed. It May Cost Him,” Vanity Fair, June 1, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/06/kevin-mccarthy-joe-biden-debt-deal-house-republicans; House of Representatives, “Party Breakdown,” n.d., https://pressgallery.house.gov/member-data/party-breakdown↩
  12. [12]Matt Gaetz, quoted in Abigail Tracy, “Kevin McCarthy Got a Debt Deal Passed. It May Cost Him,” Vanity Fair, June 1, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/06/kevin-mccarthy-joe-biden-debt-deal-house-republicans↩
  13. [13]Sarah Ferris and Olivia Beavers, “How Jim Jordan and Marjorie Taylor Greene helped McCarthy get his debt deal through,” Politico, June 1, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/31/mccarthy-debt-limit-deal-gop-divisions-00099567; Tina Nguyen, “The Taliban 20’s McCarthy Red Line,” Puck, June 1, 2023, https://puck.news/the-taliban-20s-mccarthy-red-line/; Abigail Tracy, “Kevin McCarthy Got a Debt Deal Passed. It May Cost Him,” Vanity Fair, June 1, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/06/kevin-mccarthy-joe-biden-debt-deal-house-republicans↩
  14. [14]Daniella Diaz and Katherine Tully-McManus, “Senate averts default, sends debt bill to Biden’s desk,” Politico, June 1, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/01/senate-averts-default-sends-debt-bill-to-bidens-desk-00099845↩

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