Gilead
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.
Jeremy C. Owens, “Sorry, Elon, a ‘super app’ is never going to fly in the U.S.,” MarketWatch, September 7, 2023, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/sorry-elon-a-super-app-is-never-going-to-fly-in-the-u-s-eac7c36c
Speaker of the House of Representatives, 2023
Fig. 2. Photograph credited to Office of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, date inconsistent with title but given as November 9, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Tina Nguyen, “McCarthy’s Impeachment Theater,” Puck, September 7, 2023, https://puck.news/mccarthys-impeachment-theater/
White Christian nationalism
Fig. 3. If one weighs by geography rather than population, Pennsylvania is very much a white Christian nationalist kind of place. Photograph by author, January 5, 2023.
Mackenzie Mays, “California lawmakers OK bill to fine school boards that ban books over race, LGBTQ+ issues,” Los Angeles Times, September 7, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-07/california-lawmakers-ok-bill-to-crack-down-on-school-boards-amid-textbook-culture-wars
Neoliberalism
Democratic (neoliberal) Party
Joe Biden
Hunter Biden
Aruna Viswanatha, “Prosecutors Will Seek to Indict Hunter Biden This Month,” Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/hunter-biden-indictment-september-29-c4f77986
Tina Nguyen, “McCarthy’s Impeachment Theater,” Puck, September 7, 2023, https://puck.news/mccarthys-impeachment-theater/
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Allegheny County Jail
Even the praise was qualified.[2]
Jordan Anderson, “Critics chide retiring Allegheny County Jail Warden Orlando Harper at oversight board meeting,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 8, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2023/09/07/retiring-allegheny-county-jail-warden-orlando-harper/stories/202309070140
Ed Gainey
Hallie Lauer and Mark Belko, “‘Not the mayor we want.’ A labor leader sours on Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 8, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2023/09/07/pittsburgh-mayor-ed-gainey-labor-unions/stories/202309070130
So-called ‘ridesharing’
Drivers
Fig. 4. 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.
The federal lawsuit [filed by murdered Uber driver Christina Spicuzza’s mother, Cindy] alleges that Uber touts its sophisticated technology to “screen out potentially violent or dangerous drivers from offering rides,” but “failed to employ basic identity-verification technology to screen out the customer who murdered Ms. Spicuzza.”
“Moreover, Uber discourages its drivers from using their own judgment to avoid potentially unsafe situations by penalizing them for failing to accept rides,” the lawsuit said. . . .
Drivers do not receive their passengers’ photo or full name, and therefore have no way to verify the person who requested the ride is who they are picking up, the complaint said.
“If Uber had properly equipped Ms. Spicuzza with passenger verification data, she could have been alerted that Mr. Crew was not the requesting rider and that he had a criminal history,” the complaint said.[3]
Short of having drivers scan driver’s licenses for each passenger, I doubt this is a problem that can be effectively solved.
Paula Reed Ward, “Lawsuit: Uber’s lax security practices led to Turtle Creek driver’s killing,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, September 8, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/monroeville/lawsuit-ubers-lax-security-practices-led-to-turtle-creek-drivers-killing/
Illiberalism
Gilead
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Fig. 5. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,[4] public domain.
Amy Gardner, “Judge denies Mark Meadows’s effort to move Georgia case to federal court,” Washington Post, September 8, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/08/mark-meadows-court-decision-georgia/
- [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]Jordan Anderson, “Critics chide retiring Allegheny County Jail Warden Orlando Harper at oversight board meeting,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 8, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2023/09/07/retiring-allegheny-county-jail-warden-orlando-harper/stories/202309070140↩
- [3]Paula Reed Ward, “Lawsuit: Uber’s lax security practices led to Turtle Creek driver’s killing,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, September 8, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/monroeville/lawsuit-ubers-lax-security-practices-led-to-turtle-creek-drivers-killing/↩
- [4]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html↩