Neoliberalism
Banking
Commercial real estate
Fig. 1. The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, with the “Golden Triangle” and downtown Pittsburgh. Photograph by author, October 15, 2023.
I’m not quite sure what to make of a sudden and recent increase in coverage of problems affecting the commercial real estate market. I don’t know if the situation has suddenly taken a turn for the worse, affecting many more downtowns, or if the vagaries of my news gathering have produced a coincidence.
Natalie Sherman, “What a $1 deal says about America’s office market,” British Broadcasting Corporation, March 9, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68472143
Work
Fig. 2. 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.
Steven Greenhouse, “Major US corporations threaten to return labor to ‘law of the jungle,’” Guardian, March 10, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/10/starbucks-trader-joes-spacex-challenge-labor-board
Imperialism
Israel
Palestine
Fig. 3. Graphic by Roya News,[1] March 3, 2024, fair use.
I don’t understand how you even begin to justify banning some of the items (figure 3) that Israel bans from entering Gaza.[2] But clearly, this is not what Binyamin Netanyahu is concerned with as he has promised to defy Joe Biden’s “red line” in attacking Rafah.[3]
Which brings me to one of my complaints about the Democrats. Not just Joe Biden.
Where a Republican, being defied the way Biden is, would ruthlessly seek out their adversaries’ weak spots and relentlessly exploit them to compel capitulation, the Democrats are entirely too “polite” to do this. “Polite,” that is, if you call enabling a genocide “polite.”
Israel’s leader [Binyamin Netanyahu] was careful in his criticism of his American counterpart, and even more circumspect when asked whether he would prefer Republican candidate Donald Trump. “The last thing I want to do is enter the American political arena,” he said.[4]
Netanyahu, we should recall, was far less circumspect a few years ago, when he bypassed Barack Obama to address the U.S. Congress. He effectively apologized to Obama in that speech, acknowledging that Obama had on numerous occasions supported Israel,[5] but it takes quite some ahistorical naïvete to imagine that Netanyahu was not well aware that he was biting the hand that feeds him.
He still does. He plays hardball. Biden and the Democrats prefer bringing knives to gunfights.
Paul Ronzheimer and Carlo Martuscelli, “Netanyahu vows to defy Biden’s ‘red line’ and invade Rafah,” Politico, March 10, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/israels-netanyahu-says-he-will-defy-bidens-red-line-and-invade-rafah/
Roya News, “Exposé reveals list of essential aid items banned by ‘Israel’ from entry into Gaza,” March 10, 2024, https://en.royanews.tv/news/49795/2024-03-03
- [1]Roya News, “Exposé reveals list of essential aid items banned by ‘Israel’ from entry into Gaza,” March 10, 2024, https://en.royanews.tv/news/49795/2024-03-03↩
- [2]Roya News, “Exposé reveals list of essential aid items banned by ‘Israel’ from entry into Gaza,” March 10, 2024, https://en.royanews.tv/news/49795/2024-03-03↩
- [3]Paul Ronzheimer and Carlo Martuscelli, “Netanyahu vows to defy Biden’s ‘red line’ and invade Rafah,” Politico, March 10, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/israels-netanyahu-says-he-will-defy-bidens-red-line-and-invade-rafah/↩
- [4]Paul Ronzheimer and Carlo Martuscelli, “Netanyahu vows to defy Biden’s ‘red line’ and invade Rafah,” Politico, March 10, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/israels-netanyahu-says-he-will-defy-bidens-red-line-and-invade-rafah/↩
- [5]David Benfell, “Asking the wrong question on Bibi’s speech,” Not Housebroken, February 17, 2015, https://disunitedstates.org/2015/02/17/asking-the-wrong-question-on-bibi-speech/; David Bernstein, “Is Netanyahu’s address to Congress unconstitutional?” Washington Post, January 25, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/01/25/is-netanyahus-address-to-congress-unconstitutional/; Jodi Rudoren, “Netanyahu Talk Stirs Backlash in Israeli Race,” New York Times, January 27, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/world/middleeast/israeli-opposition-takes-aim-at-netanyahu-over-planned-speech-to-congress.html; Washington Post, “The complete transcript of Netanyahu’s address to Congress,” March 3, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/03/03/full-text-netanyahus-address-to-congress/↩