Neoliberalism
Work
Fig. 1. The spectre of Death, in the form of a large skeleton, rises with the smoke and flames of the burning Asch Building during the Triangle fire, as people jump and fall to their death. Artist unknown, from International Ladies Garment Workers Union Photographs (1885-1985) at The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
I am still more than a little mystified by the headline on Kate Aronoff’s article. This has absolutely nothing to do with the climate crisis. It’s about United Parcel Service drivers getting air conditioning in their vans,[1] which is a good thing, and to be duly noted here, but not about the climate crisis.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania provides us with the latest example of the games Democrats play. One chamber in the state legislature has passed an increase in the minimum wage that the other chamber is bound to reject. Democrats control the former chamber, burnish their undeserved reputation for fighting for workers,[2] but, in actual effect, uphold the all-important neoliberalism because they know the other chamber will kill it. Republicans control the latter chamber, burnish their undeserved reputation for business-friendliness, but are the bad guys for denying an awful lot of Pennsylvania workers a raise.[3]
Yes, in our ultra-polarized horse race, the Democrats will wound the Republicans just a bit. It’s a loss the Republicans can bear—as long as they float on Donald Trump’s hot air, but, as we saw with the 2022 midterms, only as high as they can float on Trump’s hot air, which, an awful lot of the time, simply wasn’t high enough.
I think if I were a Republican, I’d probably want to be in a coma for the next ten or twenty years, however long it takes to purge the party leadership of this vote-losing madness.
Kate Aronoff, “The Teamsters’ Strike Has Already Claimed a Climate Win,” New Republic, June 16, 2023, https://newrepublic.com/post/173746/teamsters-strike-already-claimed-climate-win
Lora Kelley, “Why It Matters Who Caused Inflation,” Atlantic, June 16, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/06/why-it-matters-who-caused-inflation/674448/
Greg Jaffe, “Lexi Rizzo fought to unionize her Starbucks. Now she’s out of a job. Her struggle is just beginning,” Washington Post, June 17, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2023/starbucks-union-fired-worker/
Madhumita Murgia and Anjli Raval, “AI in recruitment: the death knell of the CV?” Financial Times, June 18, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/98e5f47a-7d0d-4e63-9a63-ff36d62782b8
Gillian McGoldrick, “Pa. House votes to raise state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 20, 2023, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-house-passes-bill-raising-minimum-wage-20230620.html
Human Science
Inquiry
Quantitative
Artificial idiocy
Madhumita Murgia and Anjli Raval, “AI in recruitment: the death knell of the CV?” Financial Times, June 18, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/98e5f47a-7d0d-4e63-9a63-ff36d62782b8
Cordilia James, “The Best AI Apps to Try Now,” Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ai-apps-tools-214958d8
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Housing
Fig. 2. Most of the homeless encampments I’ve seen around Pittsburgh have been on the North Side. This one is downtown, right by a Parkway (Interstate 376) onramp. Photograph by author, May 22, 2023.
Homelessness has become increasingly visible in Pittsburgh since the pandemic and it’s one more thing Mayor Ed Gainey is mishandling.[4]
Jordan Anderson, “As Smithfield shelter closure potentially pushes more to the street, advocates work to create a protective policy for unhoused people,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 20, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2023/06/20/pittsburgh-homeless-smithfield-shelter-sager-settlement/stories/202306190072
Imperialism
China
Fig. 3. “Map of Qing Empire filled with the flag.” Graphic by Daniel222potato [pseud.], via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Discussions for the [new joint military training facility] facility on Cuba’s northern coast are at an advanced stage but not concluded, U.S. intelligence reports suggest. The Biden administration has contacted Cuban officials to try to forestall the deal, seeking to tap in to what it thinks might be Cuban concerns about ceding sovereignty. Beijing’s effort to establish a military training facility in Cuba hasn’t been previously reported. . . .
China and Cuba already jointly run four eavesdropping stations on the island, according to U.S. officials. That network underwent a significant upgrade around 2019, when a single station expanded to a network of four sites that are operated jointly, and Chinese involvement deepened, according to the officials.[5]
Warren P. Strobel et al., “Beijing Plans a New Training Facility in Cuba, Raising Prospect of Chinese Troops on America’s Doorstep,” Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-plans-a-new-training-facility-in-cuba-raising-prospect-of-chinese-troops-on-americas-doorstep-e17fd5d1
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Healthcare
Kris B. Mamula, “UPMC prevails over Allegheny Health Network for Washington Health System,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 20, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/healthcare-business/2023/06/20/washington-health-system-upmc-allegheny-health-network-merger-highmark/stories/202306200071
- [1]Kate Aronoff, “The Teamsters’ Strike Has Already Claimed a Climate Win,” New Republic, June 16, 2023, https://newrepublic.com/post/173746/teamsters-strike-already-claimed-climate-win↩
- [2]Gillian McGoldrick, “Pa. House votes to raise state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 20, 2023, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-house-passes-bill-raising-minimum-wage-20230620.html↩
- [3]Gillian McGoldrick, “Pa. House votes to raise state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 20, 2023, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-house-passes-bill-raising-minimum-wage-20230620.html↩
- [4]Jordan Anderson, “As Smithfield shelter closure potentially pushes more to the street, advocates work to create a protective policy for unhoused people,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 20, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2023/06/20/pittsburgh-homeless-smithfield-shelter-sager-settlement/stories/202306190072↩
- [5]Warren P. Strobel et al., “Beijing Plans a New Training Facility in Cuba, Raising Prospect of Chinese Troops on America’s Doorstep,” Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-plans-a-new-training-facility-in-cuba-raising-prospect-of-chinese-troops-on-americas-doorstep-e17fd5d1↩