Month: February 2024

Donald Trump: A wounded animal, cornered

benfell

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump


Fig. 1. “Your Honor, in an effort to insure a fair trial, we move for a change of venue to the defendant’s imagination.” Cartoon by Teresa Burns Parkhurst, apparently on February 16, 2024, via the New Yorker, fair use.

Finances


Fig. 2. Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas, undated image credited to https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/ [bad link], via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

A ruling “order[ing] the Trump Organization to pay $364 million in penalties and barr[ing] the former president from any role in running a business in New York state for three years”[1] “will have such an enormous impact on the operation of his business. But it will also provide a strong basis for an appeal.”[2]

This is the second recent judgment against [Donald] Trump that vastly outweighs the original asking price in damages. When the trial began in October, [Letitia] James requested that the state punish Trump and his two sons, Don Jr. and Eric Trump, also Trump Organization executives, to the tune of $250 million. But after significant grandstanding about his alleged net worth during his deposition, James asked in a post-trial brief that the state penalize him for $120 million more, bringing the total sum up to $370 million, a little more than [Arthur F.] Engoron’s final ruling on Friday.[3]

The other such penalty is in E. Jean Carroll’s successful defamation suit. “With these verdicts, Trump now owes more than $440 million in damages.”[4]

With the court-ordered monitor, Donald Trump could have difficulty even posting a required bond for an appeal and that cost could crimp his presidential campaign.[5] This is the kind of thing I refrain from speculating on: I lack the expertise and what experience I do have suggests that forecasts such as this often prove to be wrong. We shall see.

The Trump Organization is going to exist. It is going to be hamstrung, but I think it still exists.[6]

As to the appeal itself,

Unless [Donald] Trump settles the claims, it will now be up to appeals courts to decide whether the penalties and sanctions should stand. The appeals fight will likely focus on whether the state [of New York] established Trump’s liability under a state fraud statute intended to combat consumer scams and corporate malfeasance that harms the marketplace. Trump’s lawyers also have argued that most of the claims in the attorney general’s lawsuit should have been dismissed for falling outside the statute of limitations.[7]

Again, we shall see.

Lukas I. Alpert, “Trump is backed further into a financial corner after losing control of his company,” MarketWatch, February 16, 2024, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-is-backed-further-into-a-financial-corner-after-losing-control-of-his-company-85aa467e

Jacob Gershman and James Fanelli, “Judge Orders Trump to Pay More Than $350 Million for Misrepresenting His Wealth,” Wall Street Journal, February 16, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/donald-trump-new-york-civil-fraud-trial-ruling-6447c2cd

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, “Trump Enters Full Meltdown Mode Over $355 Million Verdict in Fraud Trial,” New Republic, February 16, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/179110/trump-meltdown-reaction-civil-fraud-trial-verdict

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, “Very Stable Genius Trump Hammered to Tune of $350 Million in Fraud Trial,” New Republic, February 16, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/178566/trump-verdict-bank-fraud-trial

Joy Wiltermuth, “No quick end to Trump’s real-estate business after New York fraud case ruling,” MarketWatch, February 16, 2024, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-quick-end-to-trumps-real-estate-business-after-new-york-fraud-case-ruling-7c29db55

  1. [1]Lukas I. Alpert, “Trump is backed further into a financial corner after losing control of his company,” MarketWatch, February 16, 2024, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-is-backed-further-into-a-financial-corner-after-losing-control-of-his-company-85aa467e↩
  2. [2]Randy Zelin, quoted in Lukas I. Alpert, “Trump is backed further into a financial corner after losing control of his company,” MarketWatch, February 16, 2024, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-is-backed-further-into-a-financial-corner-after-losing-control-of-his-company-85aa467e↩
  3. [3]Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, “Very Stable Genius Trump Hammered to Tune of $350 Million in Fraud Trial,” New Republic, February 16, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/178566/trump-verdict-bank-fraud-trial↩
  4. [4]Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, “Very Stable Genius Trump Hammered to Tune of $350 Million in Fraud Trial,” New Republic, February 16, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/178566/trump-verdict-bank-fraud-trial↩
  5. [5]Lukas I. Alpert, “Trump is backed further into a financial corner after losing control of his company,” MarketWatch, February 16, 2024, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-is-backed-further-into-a-financial-corner-after-losing-control-of-his-company-85aa467e↩
  6. [6]Evan Gotlob, quoted in Joy Wiltermuth, “No quick end to Trump’s real-estate business after New York fraud case ruling,” MarketWatch, February 16, 2024, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-quick-end-to-trumps-real-estate-business-after-new-york-fraud-case-ruling-7c29db55↩
  7. [7]Jacob Gershman and James Fanelli, “Judge Orders Trump to Pay More Than $350 Million for Misrepresenting His Wealth,” Wall Street Journal, February 16, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/donald-trump-new-york-civil-fraud-trial-ruling-6447c2cd↩

Democrats sit much more comfortably in opposition, where they can complain about Republicans and where no one expects them to actually accomplish anything

benfell

Imperialism

Israel

Lebanon


Fig. 1. “Sabra & Shatila Massacre 1982 Memorial in Sabra, South Beirut,” photograph by Bertramz, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

There’s just never enough war, is there?

Peter Beaumont, “Hezbollah vows to retaliate for civilian deaths in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon,” Guardian, February 15, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/hezbollah-vows-to-retaliate-for-civilian-deaths-in-israeli-airstrikes-on-lebanon

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 2. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[1] fair use.

The president has dismissed any talk of slowing arms sales to Israel, U.S. officials said, and instead has largely relied on the bully pulpit to try to express discontent.[2]

It’s not enough for Joe Biden to get mad.[3] He needs to actually do something about Binyamin Netanyahu who just wants ever more war:

On Wednesday, [Binyamin] Netanyahu’s office said the government wouldn’t send a delegation back to Cairo to continue negotiations.[4]

The pressure on Israel to avoid a ground offensive [in Rafah] is coming from almost all quarters, including allies such as the US, UK, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The shadow of a return to the international court of justice and a further Algerian-sponsored UN security council resolution is looming over Israel.[5]

It remains to be seen what leverage the [Joe] Biden administration might be willing to use to address this gap between Israel and the United States on the Gaza endgame and the revived two-state solution concept. It’s one thing to leak messages of discontent and disapproval—it’s another thing to make a policy shift that might matter and lead to a different debate or decision calculus inside of Israel.[6]

America’s pressure on Israel must go beyond stern words and leaked angry conversations. The U.S. today is complicit in the destruction of Gazan society, the immiseration of much of the strip. But even at this late stage there are choices to be made and further catastrophe to be avoided.[7]

The U.S. State Department makes its excuses:

I think that sometimes people pretend that the United States of America has a magic wand that it can wave to make any situation in the world roll out in exactly the way that we would want it to,” he said, “and that is never the case.[8]

But the simple fact is that Biden is not doing everything he can to rein in Netanyahu.[9]

Yasmeen Abutaleb, John Hudson, and Tyler Pager, “Biden moving closer than ever to a breach with Netanyahu over war in Gaza,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/biden-netanyahu-closer-to-a-breach/

Liz Goodwin and Mariana Alfaro, “Aid bill for Ukraine, Israel on track to pass Senate early this week,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/senate-aid-ukraine-israel-taiwan-aid/

James Politi and Neri Zilber, “Biden says Israel must have plan to avoid civilian casualties in Rafah,” Financial Times, February 11, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/b00a8dcc-f8e3-4da6-a65b-280bb2289f5f

Andy Bounds, James Shotter, and Jonathan Wheatley, “Dutch court bans export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel,” Financial Times, February 12, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/502ebca5-5f2c-497c-968f-e710e617f268

Susie Coen, “Joe Biden considers going public with frustration over ‘a–hole’ Benjamin Netanyahu,” Telegraph, February 12, 2024, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/02/12/joe-biden-going-public-frustration-benjamin-netanyahu/

Chao Deng, Carrie Keller-Lynn, and Daniel Michaels, “Defying Biden, Netanyahu Doubles Down on Plans to Fight in Rafah,” Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/defying-biden-israels-netanyahu-doubles-down-on-plans-to-fight-in-rafah-7b66d1dd

Emine Sinmaz, “Israel says two hostages freed in raid Gaza officials say killed 67 Palestinians,” Guardian, February 12, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/12/israeli-hostages-freed-rafah-idf-gaza-report-dozens-palestinians-killed-strikes

Matthew Rosenberg et al., “A Tunnel Offers Clues to How Hamas Uses Gaza’s Hospitals,” New York Times, February 13, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/12/world/middleeast/gaza-tunnel-israel-hamas.html

Dion Nissenbaum and Jared Malsin, “U.S. Probes Israeli Strikes That Killed Civilians in Gaza, Possible Use of White Phosphorus in Lebanon,” Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-probes-israeli-strikes-that-killed-civilians-in-gaza-possible-use-of-white-phosphorus-in-lebanon-b8fb043b

Dion Nissenbaum and Vivian Salama, “Biden-Netanyahu Relationship at Boiling Point as Rafah Invasion Looms,” Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-relationship-at-boiling-point-as-rafah-invasion-looms-b893bec5

Ishaan Tharoor, “As Israel corners Rafah, Netanyahu defies the world,” Washington Post, February 16, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/02/16/israel-rafah-pressure-global-displaced-assault/

Patrick Wintour, “Pressure builds on Israel to ditch Rafah offensive as ministers gather in Munich,” Guardian, February 16, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/pressure-builds-on-israel-to-ditch-rafah-offensive-as-ministers-gather-in-munich

Neoliberalism

Democratic (neoliberal) Party

Joe Biden


Fig. 3. Joe Biden and Pope Francis, unknown photographer, April 29, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

I have said it before and it is particularly relevant now: The Democratic (neoliberal) Party strongly prefers sitting in opposition, where they can complain about the Republicans and where no one expects them to actually accomplish anything.

Donald Trump retains the undying support of his base. His base is not a plurality. He should be eminently defeatable.

So what do the Democrats do? Insist on nominating Joe Biden, whose excuses for his memory lapses under questioning by Robert Hur[10] fall flat even if the consensus is that Hur’s report was a political hit job,[11] and whose love for Israel, but not for anyone else who lives in the region, costs him votes[12] among everyone who recognizes genocide when it walks up and introduces itself. Now, those Democrats who missed the memo—we want to lose, remember?—are freaking out.[13]

Y’all should have gotten yourselves a party that actually wants to win. Me? I’d settle for one that cares about somebody besides the “donor class.”

Tara Palmeri, “The Old Man & The Scene,” Puck, February 15, 2024, https://puck.news/the-old-man-the-scene/

  1. [1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
  2. [2]Dion Nissenbaum and Vivian Salama, “Biden-Netanyahu Relationship at Boiling Point as Rafah Invasion Looms,” Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-relationship-at-boiling-point-as-rafah-invasion-looms-b893bec5↩
  3. [3]Dion Nissenbaum and Vivian Salama, “Biden-Netanyahu Relationship at Boiling Point as Rafah Invasion Looms,” Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-relationship-at-boiling-point-as-rafah-invasion-looms-b893bec5↩
  4. [4]Dion Nissenbaum and Vivian Salama, “Biden-Netanyahu Relationship at Boiling Point as Rafah Invasion Looms,” Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-relationship-at-boiling-point-as-rafah-invasion-looms-b893bec5↩
  5. [5]Patrick Wintour, “Pressure builds on Israel to ditch Rafah offensive as ministers gather in Munich,” Guardian, February 16, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/pressure-builds-on-israel-to-ditch-rafah-offensive-as-ministers-gather-in-munich↩
  6. [6]Brian Katulis, quoted in Dion Nissenbaum and Vivian Salama, “Biden-Netanyahu Relationship at Boiling Point as Rafah Invasion Looms,” Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-relationship-at-boiling-point-as-rafah-invasion-looms-b893bec5↩
  7. [7]Michael Hanna, quoted in Ishaan Tharoor, “As Israel corners Rafah, Netanyahu defies the world,” Washington Post, February 16, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/02/16/israel-rafah-pressure-global-displaced-assault/↩
  8. [8]Matthew Miller, quoted in Dion Nissenbaum and Vivian Salama, “Biden-Netanyahu Relationship at Boiling Point as Rafah Invasion Looms,” Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-relationship-at-boiling-point-as-rafah-invasion-looms-b893bec5↩
  9. [9]Dion Nissenbaum and Vivian Salama, “Biden-Netanyahu Relationship at Boiling Point as Rafah Invasion Looms,” Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-relationship-at-boiling-point-as-rafah-invasion-looms-b893bec5; Ishaan Tharoor, “As Israel corners Rafah, Netanyahu defies the world,” Washington Post, February 16, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/02/16/israel-rafah-pressure-global-displaced-assault/↩
  10. [10]Matt Viser and Tyler Pager, “Biden responds angrily to special counsel report questioning his memory,” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-hur-response/↩
  11. [11]Robert Kuttner, “A Partisan Hit Job on President Biden,” American Prospect, February 9, 2024, https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-02-09-partisan-hit-job-president-biden/↩
  12. [12]Dion Nissenbaum and Vivian Salama, “Biden-Netanyahu Relationship at Boiling Point as Rafah Invasion Looms,” Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-relationship-at-boiling-point-as-rafah-invasion-looms-b893bec5↩
  13. [13]Tara Palmeri, “The Old Man & The Scene,” Puck, February 15, 2024, https://puck.news/the-old-man-the-scene/↩

Nukes in space?

benfell

Imperialism

Russia


Fig. 1. Historic Russian empire, from the New York Times, possibly March 6, 2014, fair use.[1]

Rozina Sabur, “Russia is preparing to launch nuclear weapon into space, US fears,” Telegraph, February 15, 2024, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/14/russia-is-preparing-to-launch-nuclear-weapon-into-space/

Ukraine


Fig. 2. “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,[2] fair use.

Zachary Basu, “House’s Ukraine showdown escalates with calls to bypass Johnson,” Axios, February 13, 2024, https://www.axios.com/2024/02/14/ukraine-house-republicans-mike-johnson-discharge

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 3. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[3] fair use.

Yasmeen Abutaleb, John Hudson, and Tyler Pager, “Biden moving closer than ever to a breach with Netanyahu over war in Gaza,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/biden-netanyahu-closer-to-a-breach/

Liz Goodwin and Mariana Alfaro, “Aid bill for Ukraine, Israel on track to pass Senate early this week,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/senate-aid-ukraine-israel-taiwan-aid/

James Politi and Neri Zilber, “Biden says Israel must have plan to avoid civilian casualties in Rafah,” Financial Times, February 11, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/b00a8dcc-f8e3-4da6-a65b-280bb2289f5f

Andy Bounds, James Shotter, and Jonathan Wheatley, “Dutch court bans export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel,” Financial Times, February 12, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/502ebca5-5f2c-497c-968f-e710e617f268

Susie Coen, “Joe Biden considers going public with frustration over ‘a–hole’ Benjamin Netanyahu,” Telegraph, February 12, 2024, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/02/12/joe-biden-going-public-frustration-benjamin-netanyahu/

Chao Deng, Carrie Keller-Lynn, and Daniel Michaels, “Defying Biden, Netanyahu Doubles Down on Plans to Fight in Rafah,” Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/defying-biden-israels-netanyahu-doubles-down-on-plans-to-fight-in-rafah-7b66d1dd

Emine Sinmaz, “Israel says two hostages freed in raid Gaza officials say killed 67 Palestinians,” Guardian, February 12, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/12/israeli-hostages-freed-rafah-idf-gaza-report-dozens-palestinians-killed-strikes

Matthew Rosenberg et al., “A Tunnel Offers Clues to How Hamas Uses Gaza’s Hospitals,” New York Times, February 13, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/12/world/middleeast/gaza-tunnel-israel-hamas.html

Dion Nissenbaum and Jared Malsin, “U.S. Probes Israeli Strikes That Killed Civilians in Gaza, Possible Use of White Phosphorus in Lebanon,” Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-probes-israeli-strikes-that-killed-civilians-in-gaza-possible-use-of-white-phosphorus-in-lebanon-b8fb043b

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.

Akash Sriram, “Uber, Lyft, DoorDash drivers to strike on Valentine’s Day for fair pay,” Reuters, February 12, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/uber-lyft-doordash-drivers-us-strike-valentines-day-fair-pay-2024-02-12/

Lizzy McLellan Ravitch, “PHL Airport Uber and Lyft drivers will strike on Valentine’s Day. Here’s why,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 13, 2024, https://www.inquirer.com/jobs/labor/uber-lyft-philadelphia-phl-strike-20240213.html

Evan Robinson-Johnson, “Uber, Lyft drivers plan daylong strike over complaints about wages, traumatic work experiences,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 14, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/2024/02/13/uber-lyft-drivers-strike-pittsburgh-wages-trauma/stories/202402130096

Bezzle


Fig. 5. “Clarkdale Classic Gas Station, Clarkdale, Arizona,” Photograph by Alan Levine, October 28, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

[Uber] announced new long-term financial targets during a virtual analyst meeting Wednesday morning that pointed toward better-than-expected growth in bookings, adjusted pretax earnings and free cash flow. The low end of Uber’s target implied free cash flow hitting about $9.3 billion in 2026—nearly triple what it generated last year and above Wall Street’s consensus target of $9.1 billion for that year. Uber also announced its first-ever share buyback, worth $7 billion.[4]

Dan Gallagher, “Uber Put a Lot More Gas in Its Tank,” Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/uber-put-a-lot-more-gas-in-its-tank-90b0bc74

Illiberalism


Fig. 6. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE.

Ishaan Tharoor, “The world’s third-biggest democracy could be sliding backward,” Washington Post, February 14, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/02/14/indonesia-elections-democracy-backsliding-prabowo-widodo/

  1. [1]New York Times, “Ukraine Crisis in Maps,” n.d., http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/02/27/world/europe/ukraine-divisions-crimea.html↩
  2. [2]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↩
  3. [3]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
  4. [4]Dan Gallagher, “Uber Put a Lot More Gas in Its Tank,” Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/uber-put-a-lot-more-gas-in-its-tank-90b0bc74↩

Israeli evidence still falls short

benfell

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[1] fair use.

The Israeli military, however, has struggled to prove that Hamas maintained a command-and-control center under [Al-Shifa Hospital]. Critics of the Israeli military say the evidence does not support its early claims, noting that it had distributed material before the raid showing five underground complexes and also had said the tunnel network could be reached from wards inside a hospital building. Israel has publicly revealed the existence of only one tunnel entrance on the grounds of the hospital, at the shack outside its main buildings. . . .

After the raid on the Qatari Hospital, the commonly used name for the Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics, the Israeli military showed a video on Nov. 5 of what it said was the entrance to “a tunnel that was being used for terror infrastructures” on the hospital’s grounds.

But the video appears to show something else: a water storage area built in 2016, when the hospital was constructed, according to engineering plans and images from the hospital’s construction reviewed by The Times.[2]

Evidence available to the New York Times supports only some, not all Israeli justifications for the war crimes it has committed at Gaza hospitals.[3]

Yasmeen Abutaleb, John Hudson, and Tyler Pager, “Biden moving closer than ever to a breach with Netanyahu over war in Gaza,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/biden-netanyahu-closer-to-a-breach/

Liz Goodwin and Mariana Alfaro, “Aid bill for Ukraine, Israel on track to pass Senate early this week,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/senate-aid-ukraine-israel-taiwan-aid/

James Politi and Neri Zilber, “Biden says Israel must have plan to avoid civilian casualties in Rafah,” Financial Times, February 11, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/b00a8dcc-f8e3-4da6-a65b-280bb2289f5f

Andy Bounds, James Shotter, and Jonathan Wheatley, “Dutch court bans export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel,” Financial Times, February 12, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/502ebca5-5f2c-497c-968f-e710e617f268

Susie Coen, “Joe Biden considers going public with frustration over ‘a–hole’ Benjamin Netanyahu,” Telegraph, February 12, 2024, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/02/12/joe-biden-going-public-frustration-benjamin-netanyahu/

Chao Deng, Carrie Keller-Lynn, and Daniel Michaels, “Defying Biden, Netanyahu Doubles Down on Plans to Fight in Rafah,” Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/defying-biden-israels-netanyahu-doubles-down-on-plans-to-fight-in-rafah-7b66d1dd

Emine Sinmaz, “Israel says two hostages freed in raid Gaza officials say killed 67 Palestinians,” Guardian, February 12, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/12/israeli-hostages-freed-rafah-idf-gaza-report-dozens-palestinians-killed-strikes

Matthew Rosenberg et al., “A Tunnel Offers Clues to How Hamas Uses Gaza’s Hospitals,” New York Times, February 13, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/12/world/middleeast/gaza-tunnel-israel-hamas.html

So-called ‘ridesharing’

Drivers


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.

I guess I’ve got a day off tomorrow.[4] According to my tax data, Uber is taking an average of about 45 percent of each fare, but when passengers happen to tell me how much their fare is, that difference often appears more like 60 percent. Uber attributes the cut it takes to its fees, taxes, and insurance. But it does not even tell drivers how much of each fare it withholds, let alone how much of each fare goes to each, allowing drivers only aggregate data.

Uber clearly has something to hide. That it has something to hide strongly implies that it has something to be ashamed of. And this presumably underlies its ludicrously expensive insistence on misclassifying drivers as independent contractors.[5]

But organizers of a driver strike scheduled for tomorrow[6] also clearly have trouble getting the word to drivers. I heard about this from a passenger who was unclear on where the strike was occurring (it’s U.S.-nationwide[7]). I had to search a couple of times, a couple of different ways before I found the Reuters story.[8]

Akash Sriram, “Uber, Lyft, DoorDash drivers to strike on Valentine’s Day for fair pay,” Reuters, February 12, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/uber-lyft-doordash-drivers-us-strike-valentines-day-fair-pay-2024-02-12/

  1. [1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
  2. [2]Matthew Rosenberg et al., “A Tunnel Offers Clues to How Hamas Uses Gaza’s Hospitals,” New York Times, February 13, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/12/world/middleeast/gaza-tunnel-israel-hamas.html↩
  3. [3]Matthew Rosenberg et al., “A Tunnel Offers Clues to How Hamas Uses Gaza’s Hospitals,” New York Times, February 13, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/12/world/middleeast/gaza-tunnel-israel-hamas.html↩
  4. [4]Akash Sriram, “Uber, Lyft, DoorDash drivers to strike on Valentine’s Day for fair pay,” Reuters, February 12, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/uber-lyft-doordash-drivers-us-strike-valentines-day-fair-pay-2024-02-12/↩
  5. [5]Michael Hiltzik, “Uber and Lyft just made their campaign to keep exploiting workers the costliest in history,” Los Angeles Times, September 8, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-09-08/uber-lyft-most-expensive-initiative↩
  6. [6]Akash Sriram, “Uber, Lyft, DoorDash drivers to strike on Valentine’s Day for fair pay,” Reuters, February 12, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/uber-lyft-doordash-drivers-us-strike-valentines-day-fair-pay-2024-02-12/↩
  7. [7]Akash Sriram, “Uber, Lyft, DoorDash drivers to strike on Valentine’s Day for fair pay,” Reuters, February 12, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/uber-lyft-doordash-drivers-us-strike-valentines-day-fair-pay-2024-02-12/↩
  8. [8]Akash Sriram, “Uber, Lyft, DoorDash drivers to strike on Valentine’s Day for fair pay,” Reuters, February 12, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/uber-lyft-doordash-drivers-us-strike-valentines-day-fair-pay-2024-02-12/↩

Time to order my Great Asteroid Strike 2024 stickers

benfell

Imperialism

United States


Fig. 1. “American Progress,” painting by John Gast, 1872, digital version 2006, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

One expert was pleasantly surprised with the understated nature of the responses from Defence Minister Bill Blair and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly — but others warned there can be no room for complacency and said important security arrangements beyond NATO could be thrown into chaos if [Donald] Trump returns to the Oval Office. . . .

Trump, who is running for re-election in November, said during a weekend campaign event that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines. He said he would not offer such a country U.S. protection.[1]

Much of the debate on [Donald] Trump’s comments so far has focused on the consensus among most right-thinking people that it would run counter to American interests. But for Europe at this stage, that’s almost irrelevant. Europe would be crazy to leave its security every four years up to the whims of about 50,000 American swing-state voters (the rough margin of victory in recent presidential elections).

The reality is that whoever wins in November, MAGA will remain a factor in American politics for some time to come. Whose [sic] to say Trump’s Republican heir doesn’t renew his anti-NATO bent? It’s a risk Europe can’t afford to ignore.[2]

Right now, it looks like any Republican victor of a U.S. presidential election for the foreseeable future will be anti-Ukraine and, nearly as likely, opposed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Western European institutions, including NATO, are globalist, favoring cosmopolitan values just like they do international trade. White Christian nationalists are, emphatically, not. The latter are, as Thomas Frank describes his ‘cons,’ suspicious even of people living in cities along the U.S. Atlantic or Pacific coasts.[3]

Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity?[4]

Tucker Carlson’s rage in the foregoing is directed at an ‘other’ that includes not only migrants, people of color, and people of divergent sexual orientations or gender identities, but even native-born white cis U.S. citizens, really anybody who might dare to disagree with an ideology that is, by its very nature, exclusionary. This is an ideology—you might call it ‘fascist’—that in fact depends upon the presence of this ‘other’ to rage at. Institutions like NATO are targets for representing everything white Christian nationalists despise.

The crucial question—I cannot answer it—is how far that rage will go. If, hypothetically, we do not call a majority of white Christian nationalists fascists, we are nonetheless tumbling into that chasm.

Even if, as I do, you agree in some part with white Christian nationalists about trade, I hope you abhor any notion that other people are anything but people, sometimes better in some ways, sometimes worse in some ways, sometimes about the same in some ways. This abhorrence I expect lies at the heart of cosmopolitanism, which welcomes rather than fears intercultural contact and exchange, which welcomes rather than fears difference. Our conflict with white Christian nationalism is due to their absolute intolerance for us and our values, their insistence that we must conform to their ideology utterly regardless of, well, um, reality.

I remain absolutely gobsmacked by the question of how the hell either the fascist (Donald Trump) or the war criminal (Joe Biden) win this November and I am dumbfounded, even as I have warned that the result of voting for the lesser evil still yields evil, that we are reduced to such despicable choices. It’s far beyond my comprehension.

Murray Brewster, “Trump’s NATO comments aren’t cause for panic — but they should be taken seriously, experts warn,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, February 12, 2024, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-nato-canada-bill-blair-1.7113129

Matthew Karnitschnig, “Donald Trump just did Europe a favor,” Politico, February 13, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-just-did-europe-a-favor/

  1. [1]Murray Brewster, “Trump’s NATO comments aren’t cause for panic — but they should be taken seriously, experts warn,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, February 12, 2024, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-nato-canada-bill-blair-1.7113129↩
  2. [2]Matthew Karnitschnig, “Donald Trump just did Europe a favor,” Politico, February 13, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-just-did-europe-a-favor/↩
  3. [3]Thomas Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas? (New York: Henry Holt, 2004).↩
  4. [4]Tucker Carlson, quoted in 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↩

Early data casts doubt on PennWest University consolidation

benfell

Pennsylvania

Higher Education


Fig. 1. The Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh (“Pitt”). Photograph by “RealNordyNed,” December 17, 2015, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Maddie Aiken, “PennWest is struggling. Its campuses are experiencing those challenges differently,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 11, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2024/02/11/pennwest-california-edinboro-clarion-student-enrollment/stories/202402090083

Erie


Fig. 2. Lake Erie, from Presque Isle State Park. Photograph by author, April 3, 2021.

Regrettably, I am having to defer my intended move to northwestern Pennsylvania. Landlords check credit; mine was damaged severely when Uber blindsided me with a 40 percent pay cut in late 2022. Historically, Uber has blamed “seasonality” for such cuts,[1] but of course, once the pay is cut, they have almost no incentive to raise it again, and I didn’t see any sustained increase in 2023. Because I use credit cards to smooth the fluctuations in a highly variable income, the result was a substantial increase in credit card debt.

I’ve been making significantly-more-than-minimum payments on time, because I have a high cash flow, but have not yet turned the tide on my debt. With the addition of a pension from Social Security and the technological improvements I’ve made to improve my ability to be offered orders, I have some limited hope that I can improve the situation this year. In the meantime, because nearly all landlords check credit, I’m stuck where I am.

This is a problem because rents have been increasing dramatically nationwide.[2] My landlord here has been threatening a significant increase, pretty much since the first year I renewed the lease. (With a wife now in memory care, he actually does now need the money.)

Valerie Myers, “The truth about slavery in Erie County in the 19th century,” Erie Times-News, February 12, 2024, https://www.goerie.com/story/news/local/2024/02/12/erie-pa-black-history-month-slavery-enslavement-abolition-history-census-fugitive-hamot-grubb/72393483007/

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 3. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[3] fair use.

So long as you are supporting [Binyamin] Netanyahu’s military operation in Gaza without condition, it makes absolutely no difference how much you turn the dial in your comments. Fundamentally, you have to make a decision not to give Bibi a blank check of support.[4]

And until Joe Biden imposes, really imposes conditions on aid to Israel, he and the United States are complicit in Israel’s genocide. And for what? It’s not like Israel is indeed achieving “total victory” over Hamas:

In a closed-door briefing last week, U.S. intelligence officials told lawmakers that while Israel had degraded Hamas’s military capabilities, it is not close to exterminating the group more than 100 days into its campaign, said officials familiar with the briefing, which was first reported by the New York Times.

U.S. leaders are skeptical of Netanyahu’s claim that he has destroyed two-thirds of Hamas’s fighting regiments, and they warn that the high levels of civilian casualties are ensuring that a radicalized population will live adjacent to Israel for decades to come.[5]

That should not even be remotely surprising. As the Soviets discovered in Afghanistan, as the Russians should have discovered in Ukraine, as the U.S. should have learned in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, modern war simply fails to produce an expected result. It doesn’t work except in extraordinarily limited ways.

At this writing, I do not have confirmation of social media reports that Israel’s operation in Rafah has already begun, with its beginning apparently coinciding with the Super Bowl kickoff. Israel does, however, claim to have rescued two hostages in an operation that reportedly killed at least 67 Palestinians[6] and that some may have mistaken for a full attack on Rafah.

Yasmeen Abutaleb, John Hudson, and Tyler Pager, “Biden moving closer than ever to a breach with Netanyahu over war in Gaza,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/biden-netanyahu-closer-to-a-breach/

Liz Goodwin and Mariana Alfaro, “Aid bill for Ukraine, Israel on track to pass Senate early this week,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/senate-aid-ukraine-israel-taiwan-aid/

James Politi and Neri Zilber, “Biden says Israel must have plan to avoid civilian casualties in Rafah,” Financial Times, February 11, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/b00a8dcc-f8e3-4da6-a65b-280bb2289f5f

Chao Deng, Carrie Keller-Lynn, and Daniel Michaels, “Defying Biden, Netanyahu Doubles Down on Plans to Fight in Rafah,” Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/defying-biden-israels-netanyahu-doubles-down-on-plans-to-fight-in-rafah-7b66d1dd

Emine Sinmaz, “Israel says two hostages freed in raid Gaza officials say killed 67 Palestinians,” Guardian, February 12, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/12/israeli-hostages-freed-rafah-idf-gaza-report-dozens-palestinians-killed-strikes

Russia

Ukraine


Fig. 4. “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,[7] fair use.

Liz Goodwin and Mariana Alfaro, “Aid bill for Ukraine, Israel on track to pass Senate early this week,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/senate-aid-ukraine-israel-taiwan-aid/

Illiberalism


Fig. 5. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE.

Ishaan Tharoor, “The powerful lesson behind Pakistan’s stunning election result,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/02/11/pakistan-election-results-khan-lessons/

Neoliberalism

Banking

Commercial real estate


Fig. 6. The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, with the “Golden Triangle” and downtown Pittsburgh. Photograph by author, October 15, 2023.

[O]nly 26% of the $35.8 billion of office [commercial mortgage-backed securities] loans that matured in 2023 was actually paid off in full, as borrowers struggled to get refinancing or to sell their properties. . . .

The pool of troubled loans is growing, with 10.5% of CMBS office debt in distress by the end of January. Distressed loans are those that are more than 30 days late paying or have been transferred to a special servicer. This is more than triple the rate seen a year ago and is likely to rise as an additional $46.6 billion of CMBS office loans come due through 2025, CRED iQ data shows. . . .

Of a list of 220 troubled loans that have recent reappraisal data, the average valuation decline for offices is 40%, according to CRED iQ. Buildings that were revalued in 2023 have plunged almost 50%.[8]

Commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) data may be a bit pessimistic in relation to the commercial real estate market as a whole,[9] but I’m going out on a limb here and guessing the fun ain’t over.[10]

Something to remember is that people working from home are not the only threat to downtowns. Brick and mortar retail has been struggling due to online shopping. At some point, you have to ask, what do downtowns, let alone the “walkable cities” some advocate, even exist for? Is it so those of us who live in cities can fight traffic by day and listen to siren symphonies and gunshot percussion by night, all night?

Carol Ryan, “What Mortgage Bonds Say About the Office Meltdown,” Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/what-mortgage-bonds-say-about-the-office-meltdown-a231bcb3

  1. [1]Sheldon Ingram, “Pittsburgh Uber drivers to launch Valentine’s weekend strike,” WTAE, February 11, 2016, https://www.wtae.com/article/pittsburgh-uber-drivers-to-launch-valentine-s-weekend-strike/7477721↩
  2. [2]Jordan Anderson, “Cost of rent is hitting record levels, including in Pittsburgh, but not enough low-cost units are available,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 10, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2024/02/10/pittsburgh-cost-of-rent-harvard-study/stories/202402080091; Jacob Geanous, “As evictions soar in Allegheny County, a sense of urgency permeates,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 11, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2024/02/11/landlord-evictions-allegheny-county-public-housing/stories/202402090067↩
  3. [3]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
  4. [4]Ben Rhodes, quoted in Yasmeen Abutaleb, John Hudson, and Tyler Pager, “Biden moving closer than ever to a breach with Netanyahu over war in Gaza,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/biden-netanyahu-closer-to-a-breach/↩
  5. [5]Yasmeen Abutaleb, John Hudson, and Tyler Pager, “Biden moving closer than ever to a breach with Netanyahu over war in Gaza,” Washington Post, February 11, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/11/biden-netanyahu-closer-to-a-breach/↩
  6. [6]Chao Deng, Carrie Keller-Lynn, and Daniel Michaels, “Defying Biden, Netanyahu Doubles Down on Plans to Fight in Rafah,” Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/defying-biden-israels-netanyahu-doubles-down-on-plans-to-fight-in-rafah-7b66d1dd; Emine Sinmaz, “Israel says two hostages freed in raid Gaza officials say killed 67 Palestinians,” Guardian, February 12, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/12/israeli-hostages-freed-rafah-idf-gaza-report-dozens-palestinians-killed-strikes↩
  7. [7]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↩
  8. [8]Carol Ryan, “What Mortgage Bonds Say About the Office Meltdown,” Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/what-mortgage-bonds-say-about-the-office-meltdown-a231bcb3↩
  9. [9]Carol Ryan, “What Mortgage Bonds Say About the Office Meltdown,” Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/what-mortgage-bonds-say-about-the-office-meltdown-a231bcb3↩
  10. [10]Alena Botros, “Morgan Stanley analysts are forecasting something ‘worse than in the Great Financial Crisis’ for commercial real estate,” Fortune, April 4, 2023, https://fortune.com/2023/04/04/how-bad-commercial-real-estate-banking-crisis-svb-morgan-stanley-outlook/; Eric Platt and Harriet Agnew, “Charlie Munger: US banks are ‘full of’ bad commercial property loans,” Financial Times, April 30, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/da9f8230-2eb1-49c5-b63a-f1507936d01b; Dror Poleg, “The Next Crisis Will Start With Empty Office Buildings,” Atlantic, June 7, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/commercial-real-estate-crisis-empty-offices/674310/; Akila Quinio, “Office space vacancies in US and London reach at least 20-year highs,” Financial Times, October 10, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/698f41af-0d88-424b-80b0-241be01dac35; Konrad Putzier, “America’s Downtowns Are Empty. Fixing Them Will Be Expensive,” Wall Street Journal, October 21, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/wrecking-ball-targets-empty-downtown-offices-d0e3391; Carol Ryan, “Property Loans Are Starting to Crack,” Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-jones-06-09-2023/card/heard-on-the-street-property-loans-are-starting-to-crack-0tae3dxXRfn1hWR5jqar; Rachel Siegel, “How the ‘urban doom loop’ could pose the next economic threat,” Washington Post, August 28, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/28/commercial-real-estate-economy-urban-doom-loop/; Natalie Wong et al., “The World’s Empty Office Buildings Have Become a Debt Time Bomb,” Bloomberg, June 23, 2023, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-23/commercial-real-estate-reset-is-causing-distress-from-san-francisco-to-hong-kong↩

Why are the most delusional people making the most money?

benfell

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump
Coup attempt

2024

Fig. 1. Cartoon by Ben Jennings, January 24, 2024, via the Guardian,[1] fair use.

Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage, “Takeaways From the Trump Ballot Case,” New York Times, February 8, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-ballot-takeaways.html

Chris Geidner, “The Supreme Court must fully resolve Trump disqualification case now to avert ‘chaos,’” Law Dork, February 9, 2024, https://www.lawdork.com/p/supreme-court-must-fully-resolve-sec-3-case

Imperialism

United States


Fig. 2. “American Progress,” painting by John Gast, 1872, digital version 2006, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Why are the most delusional people making the most money? My one quibble with Jon Schwarz would be that he seems to assume that U.S. imperialism is a thing of the past.[2] To be honest, I don’t know where he gets that or how anyone could even imagine it. As for the infinitely delusional Erik Prince, just never mind.

Guardian, “Donald Trump says he would encourage Russia to attack Nato allies who pay too little,” February 10, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/11/donald-trump-says-he-would-encourage-russia-to-attack-nato-countries-who-dont-pay-bills

Jon Schwarz, “Erik Prince Calls for U.S. to Colonize Africa and Latin America,” Intercept, February 10, 2024, https://theintercept.com/2024/02/10/erik-prince-off-leash-imperialism-colonialism/

Russia


Fig. 3. Historic Russian empire, from the New York Times, possibly March 6, 2014, fair use.[3]

Who can be surprised by anything Donald Trump says?

Guardian, “Donald Trump says he would encourage Russia to attack Nato allies who pay too little,” February 10, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/11/donald-trump-says-he-would-encourage-russia-to-attack-nato-countries-who-dont-pay-bills

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Housing


Fig. 4. Once upon a time this was a Whole Foods Market. The store is part of a complex that replaced the Penn Plaza Apartments.[4] Whole Foods has now relocated to a larger location a few blocks away. Photograph by author, August 23, 2023.

It seems a large part of the problem is the apparent disappearance of affordable housing in combination with inflation.[5] There’s plenty of high-cost housing being built in “desirable” neighborhoods that techies can afford.

The root of the problem, according to Ms. [Cinda] Watkins, is that the costs of basics continue to outpace wages. In 2021, household costs in Allegheny County were well above the federal poverty level of $12,880 for a single adult and $26,500 for a family of four, according to PA 211 data. The average costs for housing, childcare, transportation, food, tax payments and other basics averaged to about $30,636. For a family of four, it was $74,424.[6]

In Pennsylvania, the supply of apartments below $999 shrunk by more than 191,000 units between 2012 and 2022, while apartments with rents above $1,000 multiplied by over 276,000 units.

Apartment operators’ cash flows siphoned as interest, insurance premiums and operating costs shot up during the pandemic. To keep pace with the market, property owners are pricing out vulnerable, low-income tenants.

“From the real estate side of things, we see a lot of these kinds of small apartment buildings go up for sale, and they are often marketed as an opportunity for a new owner to raise rents on existing tenants,” Mr. Madia said. “We’re actually losing apartments that would be considered naturally affordable apartments and could be a good option for somebody that has a Section Eight voucher, things like that. That creates just a ton of pressure for the folks who are really living paycheck to paycheck and need this housing the most.”[7]

But I also see the office construction in South Oakland along the Monongahela River. In Oakland itself, Fifth Avenue is forever tied up with lane closures for buildings under construction. Downtown now encroaches the Hill District with a bank building going up on the old Civic Arena site across Centre from the PPG Paints Arena that’s supposed to somehow reconnect the Hill with Downtown. I see ludicrous development in the Strip District along the Allegheny.

Politicians just talk about bringing in jobs. They don’t mention that the people who will fill those jobs will come from out of town. I still see a surprising number of California and even Oregon license plates as I drive around Pittsburgh. I assume those plates belong to techies who don’t solve any real problems but who certainly jack up the rent.

Meanwhile Uber keeps right on cutting my pay. For now, the technological upgrades I’ve made seem to be helping but the main help is that I was able to start collecting Social Security early. I’m still being squeezed out.

But because Uber blindsided me with a 40 percent pay cut late in 2022, my credit is now in shambles. And landlords check credit. I might soon be on the street myself. But hey, I’m clearly subhuman, rejected by this society from birth, tormented by my father and school children, abandoned on the side of the information superhighway in the dot-com crash, refused a decent job throughout my life, now even with a Ph.D., so obviously, who the fuck cares?

Jordan Anderson, “Cost of rent is hitting record levels, including in Pittsburgh, but not enough low-cost units are available,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 10, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2024/02/10/pittsburgh-cost-of-rent-harvard-study/stories/202402080091

Jacob Geanous, “As evictions soar in Allegheny County, a sense of urgency permeates,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 11, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2024/02/11/landlord-evictions-allegheny-county-public-housing/stories/202402090067

  1. [1]Ben Jennings, “Ben Jennings on Donald Trump’s progress along the Republican nomination trail – cartoon,” Guardian, January 24, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/jan/24/ben-jennings-on-donald-trumps-progress-along-the-republican-nomination-trail-cartoon↩
  2. [2]Jon Schwarz, “Erik Prince Calls for U.S. to Colonize Africa and Latin America,” Intercept, February 10, 2024, https://theintercept.com/2024/02/10/erik-prince-off-leash-imperialism-colonialism/↩
  3. [3]New York Times, “Ukraine Crisis in Maps,” n.d., http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/02/27/world/europe/ukraine-divisions-crimea.html↩
  4. [4]Bob Bauder, “Pittsburgh settles court battle over Penn Plaza Apartments,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 27, 2017, https://archive.triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/pittsburgh-settles-court-battle-over-penn-plaza-apartments/↩
  5. [5]Jordan Anderson, “Cost of rent is hitting record levels, including in Pittsburgh, but not enough low-cost units are available,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 10, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2024/02/10/pittsburgh-cost-of-rent-harvard-study/stories/202402080091↩
  6. [6]Jordan Anderson, “‘The perfect storm’: Loss of pandemic-era benefits puts families on the brink,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 5, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2023/09/04/pandemic-era-benefits-covid-snap-pennsylvania-government-assistance/stories/202308240096↩
  7. [7]Jordan Anderson, “Cost of rent is hitting record levels, including in Pittsburgh, but not enough low-cost units are available,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 10, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2024/02/10/pittsburgh-cost-of-rent-harvard-study/stories/202402080091↩

Joe Biden finally does something about Israel. Maybe

benfell

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[1] fair use.

Joe Biden issued an executive order requiring recipients of some—air defense systems are exempt—military aid to comply with international human rights law. We’re obviously supposed to infer that this is directed at Israel, but this is not in the text.[2] There is also the question of how these words are interpreted and whether they will indeed be meaningfully applied to Israel.

Don’t hold your breath.

Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Biden says Israel’s military conduct in Gaza has been ‘over the top,’” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-israel-gaza-speech-netanyahu/

Lazar Berman, “Israel cannot use Oct. 7 as ‘license to dehumanize others,’ Blinken warns in Tel Aviv,” Times of Israel, February 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-cannot-use-oct-7-as-a-license-to-dehumanize-others-fumes-blinken-in-tel-aviv/

Ron Kampeas, “Calling Israel’s response in Gaza ‘over the top,’ Biden conditions defense aid on allowing humanitarian assistance,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, February 9, 2024, https://www.jta.org/2024/02/09/politics/calling-israels-response-in-gaza-over-the-top-biden-conditions-defense-aid-on-humanitarian-assistance

Ishaan Tharoor, “Netanyahu’s delusional, deadly quest for ‘total victory,’” Washington Post, February 9, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/02/09/netanyahu-israel-total-victory-hamas-palestine/

Neoliberalism

Democratic (neoliberal) Party

Joe Biden


Fig. 1. Joe Biden and Pope Francis, unknown photographer, April 29, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

I have been contemplating the whole fiasco over the special counsel’s report on Joe Biden accusing him of some rather serious memory lapses.[3] Biden responded angrily and his explanation for the lapses might even have merit.[4]

In a newsletter for the American Prospect, Robert Kuttner points out that Special Counsel Robert Hur is a Republican. Therefore, Kuttner presumes, based on his reading of Hur’s report, that Hur was being unduly partisan.[5] I’m not saying Kuttner is wrong. On the contrary, he might well be right.

The problem is that neither of those are really the problem here. The problem is that people have already been worried about Biden’s age[6] and the special counsel’s report authoritatively confirmed their fears. Combine that with Biden’s enabling of genocide in Gaza and there’s just no two ways about it: Biden is in deep, deep trouble.

At this moment, I don’t even see how Biden wins re-election. Also at this moment, I don’t see how Donald Trump wins re-election. And finally at this moment, I don’t see how anybody dislodges either of them from their positions as runaway favorites to win their respective party nominations. This is why I’m still calling the race a toss-up.

Betsy Woodruff Swan, “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/biden-classified-documents-charges-special-counsel-00140509

Matt Viser and Tyler Pager, “Biden responds angrily to special counsel report questioning his memory,” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-hur-response/

Robert Kuttner, “A Partisan Hit Job on President Biden,” American Prospect, February 9, 2024, https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-02-09-partisan-hit-job-president-biden/

  1. [1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
  2. [2]Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Biden says Israel’s military conduct in Gaza has been ‘over the top,’” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-israel-gaza-speech-netanyahu/; Ron Kampeas, “Calling Israel’s response in Gaza ‘over the top,’ Biden conditions defense aid on allowing humanitarian assistance,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, February 9, 2024, https://www.jta.org/2024/02/09/politics/calling-israels-response-in-gaza-over-the-top-biden-conditions-defense-aid-on-humanitarian-assistance↩
  3. [3]Betsy Woodruff Swan, “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/biden-classified-documents-charges-special-counsel-00140509↩
  4. [4]Matt Viser and Tyler Pager, “Biden responds angrily to special counsel report questioning his memory,” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-hur-response/↩
  5. [5]Robert Kuttner, “A Partisan Hit Job on President Biden,” American Prospect, February 9, 2024, https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-02-09-partisan-hit-job-president-biden/↩
  6. [6]Richard M. Nixon [Justin Sherrin], “The Politics of Old Age,” Patreon, June 4, 2023, https://www.patreon.com/posts/politics-of-old-84054418↩

Binyamin Netanyahu rambles on about ‘total victory.’ What he really means is delaying an election as long as possible

benfell

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[1] fair use.

When asked by a reporter to further explain what “total victory” meant in the current context, [Binyamin] Netanyahu invoked a chilling metaphor, citing how one smashes glass “into small pieces, and then you continue to smash it into even smaller pieces and you continue hitting them.”[2]

Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Biden says Israel’s military conduct in Gaza has been ‘over the top,’” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-israel-gaza-speech-netanyahu/

Lazar Berman, “Israel cannot use Oct. 7 as ‘license to dehumanize others,’ Blinken warns in Tel Aviv,” Times of Israel, February 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-cannot-use-oct-7-as-a-license-to-dehumanize-others-fumes-blinken-in-tel-aviv/

Ishaan Tharoor, “Netanyahu’s delusional, deadly quest for ‘total victory,’” Washington Post, February 9, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/02/09/netanyahu-israel-total-victory-hamas-palestine/

  1. [1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
  2. [2]Ishaan Tharoor, “Netanyahu’s delusional, deadly quest for ‘total victory,’” Washington Post, February 9, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/02/09/netanyahu-israel-total-victory-hamas-palestine/↩

So maybe Joe Biden does have memory issues

benfell

Okay, I’m up way past my bedtime catching up on email and preparing this, so light up some midnight oil. I’ll surely be sound asleep. Like real soon.

Neoliberalism

Democratic (neoliberal) Party

Joe Biden


Fig. 1. Joe Biden and Pope Francis, unknown photographer, April 29, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

I’ve been blocking people on social media as ageist for accusing Joe Biden of dementia:

[W]hile the report withheld condemnation of [Joe] Biden on legal grounds, it presented a harsh portrait of his conduct and mental faculties. . . .

In the report, Special Counsel Robert Hur, a well-respected former U.S. Attorney, explained the president’s “lapses in attention and vigilance demonstrate why former officials should not keep classified materials unsecured at home and read them aloud to others, but jurors could well conclude that Mr. Biden’s actions were unintentional.” . . .

One of [Biden’s] attorneys, Bob Bauer, took umbrage with the portrayal, accusing Hur of “essentially, ‘trashing’ the subject of an investigation” with extraneous, unfounded and irrelevant critical commentary.” Biden’s attorneys also wrote directly to Hur and his team before the report’s publication to complain about the focus on the president’s memory lapses. As documented in the report, they called the focus “gratuitous” and urged Hur to revise his summarizations, saying it was beyond his “expertise and remit.”[1]

Biden himself also objected[2]—I don’t know how he even could let this stand when he’s running for re-election—but it seems he couldn’t remember accurately when he was vice president or when his son Beau died. The “memory lapses” dated even to his time as vice president[3] and, I would certainly expect, have gotten worse since. Indeed it seems he also confused Mexico with Egypt[4] (potential or real cross-border migration flows are relevant with both countries so I don’t think this is quite as weird as it sounds). I’d be inclined to give him benefit of the doubt here, but I’ll bet you my mother could tell you to the minute—certainly the hour—when her husband (my stepfather) passed away and, at least to the month and year, when she retired. Biden apparently wasn’t even close.[5]

I’m guessing it’s too late for Biden to pull a Lyndon Johnson. Johnson chose to abandon his expected quest for re-election as it became clear that the Vietnam War was in fact going very poorly and protests against it swelled.[6] But this country needs to do far better.

Betsy Woodruff Swan, “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/biden-classified-documents-charges-special-counsel-00140509

Matt Viser and Tyler Pager, “Biden responds angrily to special counsel report questioning his memory,” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-hur-response/

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump
Coup attempt

2024

Fig. 2. Cartoon by Ben Jennings, January 24, 2024, via the Guardian,[7] fair use.

The consensus I saw on social media that the Supreme Court will rule to keep Donald Trump on the Colorado ballot seems to be largely borne out in the reporting and analysis I’m seeing really pretty much across the board in the email newsletters I see.[8]

Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage, “Takeaways From the Trump Ballot Case,” New York Times, February 8, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-ballot-takeaways.html

Chris Geidner, “Supreme Court almost certain to allow Trump to remain on Colorado’s primary ballot,” Law Dork, February 8, 2024, https://www.lawdork.com/p/supreme-court-trump-colorado-section-three

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 3. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[9] fair use.

Joe Biden seems finally to be realizing that his position on Israel has been a vote-loser. So it’s good to see Antony Blinken lecturing Israelis on the need to not dehumanize others[10] and good for Biden to admit that the Israel Defense Force has been excessively brutal.[11] But on the other hand, the U.S. gives Israel considerable diplomatic cover, especially in the United Nations Security Council and billions of dollars in financial and military aid. There are concrete things that Biden can do. Deeds matter much more than words.

Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Biden says Israel’s military conduct in Gaza has been ‘over the top,’” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-israel-gaza-speech-netanyahu/

Lazar Berman, “Israel cannot use Oct. 7 as ‘license to dehumanize others,’ Blinken warns in Tel Aviv,” Times of Israel, February 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-cannot-use-oct-7-as-a-license-to-dehumanize-others-fumes-blinken-in-tel-aviv/

  1. [1]Betsy Woodruff Swan, “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/biden-classified-documents-charges-special-counsel-00140509↩
  2. [2]Matt Viser and Tyler Pager, “Biden responds angrily to special counsel report questioning his memory,” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-hur-response/↩
  3. [3]Betsy Woodruff Swan, “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/biden-classified-documents-charges-special-counsel-00140509↩
  4. [4]Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Biden says Israel’s military conduct in Gaza has been ‘over the top,’” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-israel-gaza-speech-netanyahu/↩
  5. [5]Betsy Woodruff Swan, “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/biden-classified-documents-charges-special-counsel-00140509↩
  6. [6]Paul S. Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision, 8th ed. (Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2014).↩
  7. [7]Ben Jennings, “Ben Jennings on Donald Trump’s progress along the Republican nomination trail – cartoon,” Guardian, January 24, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/jan/24/ben-jennings-on-donald-trumps-progress-along-the-republican-nomination-trail-cartoon↩
  8. [8]For examples: Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage, “Takeaways From the Trump Ballot Case,” New York Times, February 8, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-ballot-takeaways.html; Chris Geidner, “Supreme Court almost certain to allow Trump to remain on Colorado’s primary ballot,” Law Dork, February 8, 2024, https://www.lawdork.com/p/supreme-court-trump-colorado-section-three↩
  9. [9]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
  10. [10]Lazar Berman, “Israel cannot use Oct. 7 as ‘license to dehumanize others,’ Blinken warns in Tel Aviv,” Times of Israel, February 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-cannot-use-oct-7-as-a-license-to-dehumanize-others-fumes-blinken-in-tel-aviv/↩
  11. [11]Lazar Berman, “Israel cannot use Oct. 7 as ‘license to dehumanize others,’ Blinken warns in Tel Aviv,” Times of Israel, February 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-cannot-use-oct-7-as-a-license-to-dehumanize-others-fumes-blinken-in-tel-aviv/↩