disunitedstates_0qjllk – Irregular Bullshit

Housekeeping: Announcing a new, faster host

August 28, 2022August 28, 2022disunitedstates_0qjllk

No real news today though stuff certainly continues to churn.

The real point of this post is to let you all know I have migrated Not Housebroken and The Irregular Bullshit to new, speedier hosting.

I had been really, really, really pissed off by WordPress.com for it’s “innovations” which made WordPress nearly unusable for me. It had ceased to be what I was paying for.

A friend from my days on Friendica, whose wishes about being identified I do not know, stepped in with his Contabo shared server, giving me the space to consider and find alternative hosting. That time was invaluable, allowing me to step away from the problem for a while.

But, as he was well aware, it was not the greatest performing hosting, and so I returned to the problem and selected a virtual private server with Dreamhost. This should be a little better.

Erasing history? Doug Mastriano accuses the Left of erasing history?

August 26, 2022disunitedstates_0qjllk

Pennsylvania

2022 election

I’m guessing that would be Doug Mastriano who appears at far left.

Here’s the photo of @dougmastriano in a Confederate military uniform. The War College has removed the photo from its hallways after Reuters inquired about it, says not in line with values.

— Jarrett Renshaw (@JarrettRenshaw) August 26, 2022

It’s possible that my pedagogical methods are insufficiently imaginative:

Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to [Doug] Mastriano’s campaign, mocked the brewing controversy on Twitter. Mastriano retweeted her comment.

“Media MELT DOWN that Mastriano apparently once posed as a civil war historical figure for a photo. And? He has a Ph.D in HISTORY. The left wants to erase history. Doug Mastriano wants us to learn from it,” Ellis tweeted.^[1]

Please explain the pedagogy that entails wearing a Confederate Army uniform in an Army War College faculty photograph. Would we teach the history of World War II parading around in a Nazi uniform, um, outside of class?

Oh, and by the way, about that bit about erasing ~~Critical Race Theory~~ history. . . .

Chris Brennan, “Doug Mastriano wore a Confederate Army uniform in an Army War College faculty photo,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 26, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/doug-mastriano-confederate-uniform-photo-army-war-college-20220826.html

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

The affidavit [filed in support of a request for a warrant to search Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago] suggests that if some of the classified documents voluntarily returned from Mar-a-Lago to the National Archives and Records Administration in January had fallen into the wrong hands, they could have revealed sensitive details about human intelligence sources or how spy agencies intercept the electronic communications of foreign targets. Over the spring and summer, the affidavit states, the FBI came to suspect that Trump and his team were hiding the fact that he still had more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, leading agents to want to conduct a search of the property.

“There is also probable cause,” the affidavit says, “to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found.” . . .

The warrant authorizing the August search said agents were seeking all “physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of three potential crimes,” including a part of the Espionage Act outlawing gathering, transmitting or losing national defense information. The warrant also cites destruction of records and concealment or mutilation of government material.^[2]

Cat Zakrzewski, “Lawmakers demand data about online threats against law enforcement,” Washington Post, August 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/19/fbi-social-media-law-enforcement/

Chris McGreal, “US political violence is surging, but talk of a civil war is exaggerated – isn’t it?” Guardian, August 20, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/us-political-violence-civil-war

Amy B. Wang and Tom Hamburger, “Sen. Graham gets temporary reprieve in testifying before Ga. grand jury,” Washington Post, August 21, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/21/lindsey-graham-trump-grand-jury-georgia/

Jon Swaine et al., “Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers,” Washington Post, August 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/22/election-system-copied-files-trump/

Igor Derysh, “‘Lawyers are giggling’: Legal experts scratch their heads at Trump’s ‘very strange’ new DOJ lawsuit,” Salon, August 23, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/08/23/lawyers-are-giggling-legal-experts-scratch-their-heads-at-trumps-very-strange-new-doj/

Jennifer Rubin, “Trump’s risk of indictment for his document snatch just skyrocketed,” Washington Post, August 23, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/23/trump-documents-indictment-risk-skyrocket/

Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, “Trump Tells His Lawyers: Get ‘My’ Top Secret Documents Back,” Rolling Stone, August 23, 2022, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-tells-lawyers-get-my-top-secrets-documents-back-1234580501/

Jan Wolfe, Alex Leary, and Sadie Gurman, “Mar-a-Lago Boxes Had More Than 700 Pages of Classified Papers, National Archives Letter Says,” Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/letter-to-trump-lawyer-highlights-national-archives-concern-over-sensitive-materials-before-mar-a-lago-search-11661271403

Josh Dawsey and Jacqueline Alemany, “Archives asked for records in 2021 after Trump lawyer agreed they should be returned, email says,” Washington Post, August 24, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/trump-records-archives-2021/

Tierney Sneed, “Justice Department ordered to release redacted Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit,” CNN, August 25, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/25/politics/trump-mar-a-lago-fbi-raid/index.html

Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, “Mar-a-Lago affidavit says many witnesses interviewed, 184 classified files returned in January,” Washington Post, August 26, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/26/trump-affidavit-released/

^[1]Chris Brennan, “Doug Mastriano wore a Confederate Army uniform in an Army War College faculty photo,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 26, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/doug-mastriano-confederate-uniform-photo-army-war-college-20220826.html ↩
^[2]Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, “Mar-a-Lago affidavit says many witnesses interviewed, 184 classified files returned in January,” Washington Post, August 26, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/26/trump-affidavit-released/↩

Google now promises to distinguish between Crisis Pregnancy Centers and abortion providers. We’ve heard this before.

August 26, 2022disunitedstates_0qjllk

Pittsburgh

Infrastructure

Hannah Wyman, “Ed Gainey hears from residents on unsafe intersections by Fern Hollow Bridge,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/08/23/ed-gainey-residents-unsafe-intersections-fern-hollow-bridge-listening-session-infrastructure-squirrel-hill-bike-pedestrian-paths/stories/202208230114

Ryan Deto, “$11.3M in federal funding to go toward infrastructure improvements in Hill District,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 25, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/11-3m-in-federal-funding-to-go-toward-infrastructure-improvements-in-hill-district/

Ukraine

Julia Ioffe, “Who Killed Dasha Dugina?” Puck News, August 25, 2022, https://puck.news/who-killed-dasha-dugina/

Gilead

Abortion

In a previous installment, Google had been lagging on distinguishing between anti-choice Crisis Pregnancy Centers and actual abortion providers in its search and Google Maps results:^[1]

According to the New York Attorney General Office, Google was made aware of this issue and promised to address it as far back as 2018. However, a recent test search for local abortion clinics of Google Maps by the office in Binghamton, N.Y., produced a list that included several crisis pregnancy centers.^[2]

Now, apparently:

The Alphabet Inc. . . . unit on Thursday said it has been working on the update for months and will rely on information provided by a business or authoritative data source to label what services a facility provides.^[3]

I hope so. I’m pretty sure a bunch of folks will want to hear that this is in fact working.

Why so skeptical? Not merely because Google should be delivering accurate results but because Google had, at least according to the New York state attorney general’s office, promised to do so “as far back as 2018” and apparently, simply dropped the ball.^[4] You know, pretty much like the Democrats who had decades to codify Roe v. Wade and didn’t,^[5] because for all the fiery rhetoric they now deploy, and for all the electoral benefits they now reap,^[6] they really didn’t really give a damn either.

Aaron Blake, “Buyer’s remorse could be creeping in for GOP on abortion,” Washington Post, August 25, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/republicans-abortion-politics/

Meghan Bobrowsky, “Google Says Maps, Searches Will Identify Clinics That Provide Abortions,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-says-maps-searches-will-identify-clinics-that-provide-abortions-11661457587

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Molly Jong-Fast, “The People Who Can’t Stop Making Excuses for Trump,” Atlantic, August 18, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62fd7788da4cea0020f4345e/trump-fbi-search-rand-paul-espionage-act/

^[1]Darryl Coote, “N.Y. AG to Google: Stop directing people seeking abortions to anti-abortion centers,” United Press International, June 30, 2022, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/06/30/New-York-Google-Maps/9871656579373/↩
^[2]Darryl Coote, “N.Y. AG to Google: Stop directing people seeking abortions to anti-abortion centers,” United Press International, June 30, 2022, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/06/30/New-York-Google-Maps/9871656579373/↩
^[3]Meghan Bobrowsky, “Google Says Maps, Searches Will Identify Clinics That Provide Abortions,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-says-maps-searches-will-identify-clinics-that-provide-abortions-11661457587 ↩
^[4]Meghan Bobrowsky, “Google Says Maps, Searches Will Identify Clinics That Provide Abortions,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-says-maps-searches-will-identify-clinics-that-provide-abortions-11661457587 ↩
^[5]Scott Bixby, “Activists Tell Biden to ‘Do Your F*cking Job’ and Protect Abortion Rights,” Daily Beast, June 12, 2022, https://www.thedailybeast.com/activists-tell-biden-to-do-your-fcking-job-and-protect-abortion-rights; Anna North, “Abortion has been treated as a fringe issue by Democrats for decades. This is the result,” Vox, May 5, 2022, https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2022/5/5/23057317/abortion-supreme-court-roe-v-wade; William Rivers Pitt, “Democrats Had 50 Years to Save and Protect ‘Roe.’ They Failed,” Truthout, May 6, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/democrats-had-50-years-to-save-and-protect-roe-they-failed/; Rachel Roubein, “Democrats don’t have the votes to scrap the filibuster for Roe,” Washington Post, July 1, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/01/democrats-dont-have-votes-scrap-filibuster-roe/; Meredith Shiner, “Democrats Can Go Scorched Earth on Abortion Rights, or Go Home,” New Republic, May 4, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/166293/democrats-abortion-rights-roe-2022; Karen Tumulty, “On abortion, Biden shows he is out of step with his party,” Washington Post, June 5, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/on-abortion-biden-shows-he-is-out-of-step-with-his-party/2019/06/05/e83ddc30-87cd-11e9-98c1-e945ae5db8fb_story.html ↩
^[6]Aaron Blake, “Buyer’s remorse could be creeping in for GOP on abortion,” Washington Post, August 25, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/republicans-abortion-politics/; Annie Gowen and Colby Itkowitz, “Kansans resoundingly reject amendment aimed at restricting abortion rights,” Washington Post, August 3, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/02/kansas-abortion-referendum/; Jonathan Tamari, “What the Kansas abortion vote might mean for Pennsylvania’s key 2022 races,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 3, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/kansas-abortion-vote-pennsylvania-2022-midterm-elections-20220803.html; Julia Terruso and Jonathan Lai, “Women are registering to vote in Pa. in numbers far exceeding men since the Supreme Court abortion decision,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 22, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-women-voter-registration-dobbs-20220822.html ↩

So Joe Biden’s student loan relief is only all but useless

August 25, 2022disunitedstates_0qjllk

Be very, very skeptical of this. I’m setting it up. Yes, it’s me. But previous experiments have fallen flat on their face.

There’s supposed to be an iframe box here:

That would be above this sentence.

I’m still really, really fumbling about here and I don’t really understand the concept of a “virtual server” in this context. It has to actually live somewhere, but I have no idea where that is. It seems not to actually live on any of my machines, which, given my technical aptitude these days, is good.

The impetus is a rather serious doubt that entities like Twitter and Facebook can ever get content moderation right. I still hold to a view that people ought to be accountable for what they say. But if an artificial idiot is your only way of moderating content at scale, which may very well be the case, well, that’s just not going to work, and I’m seeing fairly regularly, with folks posting screenshots of ludicrously censored posts, that it indeed doesn’t work.

I may never have an adequate answer here. But it would be good if some of you would join me in this experiment and “boost” this server, because otherwise I might actually have to actually buy more “boosts.” Ick.

Student loans

I’m learning a bit more about Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan. There are a couple pieces that do after all marginally—very marginally—apply in my situation.

[Joe] Biden also announced a four-month extension of the moratorium on student loan repayments, as well as plans to allow borrowers with undergraduate loans to cap repayments at 5% of their monthly income. . . .

The proposed rule says that borrowers who make less than 225% of the federal minimum wage — roughly $30,577, or what a full-time worker earning $15 per hour earns — are not required to make payments on their federal undergraduate loans, according to the Department of Education.

The rule calls for the government to forgive loan balances of $12,000 or less after a borrower has made 10 years of payments. Currently, borrowers must pay their loans for two decades and have a balance below that amount to have debt forgiven.^[1]

I have both undergraduate and graduate student loans amounting to something under $400,000. Because my repayments are already zero, because my income is so low, because I still can’t get a real job,^[2] neither the moratorium extension nor the repayment cap nor the income threshold changes affect my financial situation in the near term.

The proposal also would restrict unpaid monthly interest from accruing as long as borrowers are making payments, so those who are benefiting from capped loan payments won’t see their overall balances grow.^[3]

As I understand it, zero payments still count as payments, so this means the balance that will never be repaid will not actually grow beyond what it already is. It is already set to be forgiven after twenty years, probably meaning in 2036, which means this last bit is utterly meaningless:

The student-loan forgiveness will qualify as non-taxable income until 2025 under the American Rescue Plan, which Biden signed in March of 2021.^[4]

And yes, I understand that for tax year 2036, or whenever it is, I’ll suddenly have something under $400,000 in taxable income from the forgiven debt and I still won’t have the money to pay the taxes on it.

The psychological impact is another story. This is supposed to help people. It hardly helps me at all. It’s assumed that college graduates go on to great careers. Six years after graduating, I’m fucking driving for fucking Uber. The message here is that I’m alone, I’m the only college graduate, or at least one of a very, very few, let alone with a Ph.D., who can’t get a real job.

I know that message isn’t entirely true. I hear otherwise from university faculty and administrators who occasionally get in my car. But the political message is what counts for its failure to acknowledge my situation and that of others like me and because it promises at best negligible relief.

And that messages like the political even exist hurts. With help like this, it won’t just be white Christian nationalists chanting, “Let’s Go Brandon.”^[5]

Nancy Cook, Josh Wingrove, and Jennifer Jacobs, “Biden Unveils Plan to Free Students from ‘Unsustainable Debt,’” Bloomberg, August 24, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-24/biden-set-to-freeze-student-loan-repayments-for-four-more-months

Phil Mattingly, Katie Lobosco and Maegan Vazquez, “Biden announces student loan relief for borrowers making less than $125,000,” CNN, August 24, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/24/politics/student-loans-joe-biden-white-house/index.html

Gilead

Abortion

I cannot condemn strongly enough a claim to be “pro-life” when the mother’s life and health do not matter.

In a ruling late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the statute [which abortions except in cases involving rape, incest or when a woman’s life is in danger — and does not contain an exception for when a pregnant person’s health is at risk] violates a federal act that requires hospitals participating in the federally funded Medicare program to provide medical care when a person’s life or health is at stake. The “trigger” law was written by Idaho state lawmakers long before the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June, with the expectation that it would automatically go into effect soon after the court made that landmark ruling. . . .

The ruling sets up a potential clash in the federal court system, with a Texas court ruling Tuesday that the federal statute in question does not require states to allow abortions in instances when it could protect a pregnant patient’s health. With many states passing increasingly stringent abortion bans, legal experts expect the litigation over the health-exception issue to continue, potentially reaching the Supreme Court.^[6]

Perry Stein, “Judge blocks part of Idaho’s abortion law from taking effect,” Washington Post, August 24, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/idaho-abortion-ruling/

^[1]Nancy Cook, Josh Wingrove, and Jennifer Jacobs, “Biden Unveils Plan to Free Students from ‘Unsustainable Debt,’” Bloomberg, August 24, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-24/biden-set-to-freeze-student-loan-repayments-for-four-more-months ↩
^[2]David Benfell, “About my job hunt,” Not Housebroken, n.d., https://disunitedstates.org/about-my-job-hunt/↩
^[3]Nancy Cook, Josh Wingrove, and Jennifer Jacobs, “Biden Unveils Plan to Free Students from ‘Unsustainable Debt,’” Bloomberg, August 24, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-24/biden-set-to-freeze-student-loan-repayments-for-four-more-months ↩
^[4]Nancy Cook, Josh Wingrove, and Jennifer Jacobs, “Biden Unveils Plan to Free Students from ‘Unsustainable Debt,’” Bloomberg, August 24, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-24/biden-set-to-freeze-student-loan-repayments-for-four-more-months ↩
^[5]Ben Smith, “Brandon Just Wants to Drive His Racecar,” New York Times, December 19, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/19/business/brandon-brown-lets-go-brandon.html ↩
^[6]Perry Stein, “Judge blocks part of Idaho’s abortion law from taking effect,” Washington Post, August 24, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/idaho-abortion-ruling/↩

Chickenshit student loan relief from a chickenshit administration in a chickenshit political party

August 24, 2022disunitedstates_0qjllk

I am not caught up.

Student loans

The benefit I’ll personally see from this^[1] appears nonexistent to negligible.

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

The 700 pages of classified documents mentioned in a Wall Street Journal headline refer to papers recovered in January,^[2] well before the search on August 8.^[3]

Hannah Knowles, Josh Dawsey, and David Weigel, “Trump’s dominance in GOP comes into focus, worrying some in the party,” Washington Post, August 17, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/17/trump-cheney-wyoming-republicans/

Jordan Libowitz and Lauren White, “Secret Service held onto Pelosi threat until after insurrection,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, August 17, 2022, https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/secret-service-held-onto-pelosi-threat-until-after-insurrection/

Jordan Libowitz and Sara Wiatrak, “The Secret Service knew about Jan 6 threat. They dismissed it,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, August 17, 2022, https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/the-secret-service-knew-about-jan-6-threat-they-dismissed-it/

^[1]Phil Mattingly, Katie Lobosco and Maegan Vazquez, “Biden announces student loan relief for borrowers making less than $125,000,” CNN, August 24, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/24/politics/student-loans-joe-biden-white-house/index.html ↩
^[2]Jan Wolfe, Alex Leary, and Sadie Gurman, “Mar-a-Lago Boxes Had More Than 700 Pages of Classified Papers, National Archives Letter Says,” Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/letter-to-trump-lawyer-highlights-national-archives-concern-over-sensitive-materials-before-mar-a-lago-search-11661271403 ↩
^[3]Eric Tucker and Michael Balsamo, “Trump says FBI conducting search of Mar-a-Lago estate,” Associated Press, August 8, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-government-and-politics-9e8d683afe87389407950af7ccfdbdd6 ↩

Just one of Pittsburgh’s screwy intersections

August 24, 2022disunitedstates_0qjllk

I am not caught up.

Pittsburgh

Homelessness

Hallie Lauer and Rebecca Spiess, “City Council launches new initiatives to combat homelessness in Pittsburgh,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/social-services/2022/08/23/pittsburgh-city-council-initiatives-combat-homelessness-shelter-transitional-housing-redevelopment-affordable/stories/202208230098

Infrastructure

Fig. 1. Intersection of Forbes Avenue and South Dallas Avenue, with surrounding intersections, screenshot from Google Maps, August 24, 2022, fair use.

Pittsburgh has a number of really screwy intersections and screwy intersections are always especially dangerous for bicyclists and pedestrians because motorists have too much to watch even before you add non-motor traffic to the mix. The one (figure 1) under discussion in Hannah Wyman’s article^[1] is one of them.

I’m not sure what they mean by a “slip ramp”^[2] but if you look at the map (figure 1) just to the east of Forbes Avenue and South Dallas Avenue there is this weird shortcut from Beechwood Boulevard to Forbes Avenue. The reality of this is that there’s hardly any room even to stop at that intersection with Forbes Avenue and Forbes Avenue is a pretty busy street. I certainly see the hazard there.^[3]

The entire area is problematic from a traffic flow perspective. Beechwood Boulevard is here, not at its other end, relatively—only relatively—quiet, but Beacon Street hooks up with a main route through Schenley Park and thence, via Greenfield Road, to the other, much busier, end of, yes, Beechwood Boulevard and thus the Parkway East (Interstate 376). South Dallas Avenue connects with Penn Avenue, which is a main east-west thoroughfare through Pittsburgh and which itself hooks up with the Parkway East via a ramp from Ardmore Boulevard, which is also where U.S. Highway 30 breaks off from the Parkway, proceeding east. Then of course there’s Forbes Avenue itself. There’s a lot of fucking traffic here mostly on relatively narrow roads and a lot of it trying to get between Beacon Street and South Dallas Avenue.

The main commercial district of Squirrel Hill is to the west, along Forbes Avenue and Murray Avenue. On the way to all that other stuff, Beacon Street crosses Murray and so is also a main route to that commercial district. Frick Park is almost immediately to the east.

Squirrel Hill itself is what they call a “desirable” neighborhood. If money were no object and I were to remain in Pittsburgh, this neighborhood would certainly be one I might consider. (But if money were really no object, I’d probably be looking at Sewickley Heights, northwest of the city.)

Fig. 2. The area where I think there should be a traffic circle. It would occupy most of this space. Screenshot from Google Maps, August 24, 2022, fair use.

I think my solution for this would probably be a large traffic circle occupying most of the area shown in figure 2. The American Legion Memorial Gardens could, I presume, be relocated to the center of that circle, but one of an appropriate size would require taking some expensive private property through eminent domain and impinge on the cemeteries on the north side of Forbes. You’d have to move some graves. I don’t know how feasible all this would be.

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

There is a new blog post entitled, “It is now even more urgently orange jumpsuit time.”

^[1]Hannah Wyman, “Ed Gainey hears from residents on unsafe intersections by Fern Hollow Bridge,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/08/23/ed-gainey-residents-unsafe-intersections-fern-hollow-bridge-listening-session-infrastructure-squirrel-hill-bike-pedestrian-paths/stories/202208230114 ↩
^[2]Hannah Wyman, “Ed Gainey hears from residents on unsafe intersections by Fern Hollow Bridge,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/08/23/ed-gainey-residents-unsafe-intersections-fern-hollow-bridge-listening-session-infrastructure-squirrel-hill-bike-pedestrian-paths/stories/202208230114 ↩
^[3]Hannah Wyman, “Ed Gainey hears from residents on unsafe intersections by Fern Hollow Bridge,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/08/23/ed-gainey-residents-unsafe-intersections-fern-hollow-bridge-listening-session-infrastructure-squirrel-hill-bike-pedestrian-paths/stories/202208230114 ↩

Merrick Garland really needs to grow a pair. Seriously.

August 23, 2022disunitedstates_0qjllk

Ukraine

It seems that Vladimir Putin kept even folks who were supposed to be negotiating on his behalf in the dark about his decision to invade Ukraine.^[1]

Julia Ioffe, “Putin’s Surprise Triumph of the Will,” Puck News, August 23, 2022, https://puck.news/putins-surprise-triumph-of-the-will/

Ishaan Tharoor, “The global politics of Russia’s notorious nationalist ideologue,” Washington Post, August 23, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/08/23/ideology-alexander-dugin-global-far-right/

Gilead

Competitive authoritarian regime project

White Christian nationalism (Trumpism)

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Both Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post and Igor Derysh at Salon are saying much the same thing: That Donald Trump rifled through records as he was resisting handing them over while the National Archives and Records Administration was still being polite is all the proof a prosecutor needs that Trump knew he was holding classified materials. Oh, and that lawsuit Trump filed to try to get the records back is a joke.^[2] It’s all one less excuse for Merrick Garland to avoid prosecuting Trump.

I still think Garland is too chickenshit. That dithering over whether even to order the search^[3] is really pretty conclusive for me. But we can all certainly hope I’m wrong.

Sadie Gurman and Aruna Viswanatha, “Merrick Garland Weighed Search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for Weeks,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/merrick-garland-weighed-search-of-trumps-mar-a-lago-for-weeks-11660601292

Tom Hamburger and Eugene Scott, “Giuliani is target in Ga. criminal probe of 2020 election, lawyer says,” Washington Post, August 15, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/15/trump-2020-election-georgia-investigation/

Eugene Scott, “Graham must testify in Ga. probe of effort to overturn 2020 election, judge rules,” Washington Post, August 15, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/15/trump-2020-election-georgia-investigation/

Isaac Arnsdorf et al., “Trump is rushing to hire seasoned lawyers — but he keeps hearing ‘No,’” Washington Post, August 16, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/16/trump-lawyers-fbi-raid/

Natalie Andrews, “Liz Cheney Concedes to Trump-Backed Challenger in Wyoming Primary,” Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/liz-cheney-faces-uphill-fight-in-primary-against-trump-backed-opponent-11660642201

Matt Ford, “Trump’s Republican Defenders Inexplicably Forgot To Expect the Worst,” New Republic, August 16, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/167422/gop-response-mar-a-lago-search

Lauren Gambino, “Judge to consider unsealing Trump search affidavit as legal worries mount,” Guardian, August 16, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/16/donald-trump-search-affidavit-legal-cases

Julia Ioffe, “The C.I.A.’s Trump Deja Vu,” Puck News, August 16, 2022, https://puck.news/the-c-i-a-s-trump-deja-vu/

David Klepper, “Trump’s angry words spur warnings of real violence,” Associated Press, August 16, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-social-media-donald-trump-mar-a-lago-31741bb13f708ee68b523592623341eb

Maria Sacchetti, “Homeland Security watchdog Cuffari faces rebukes from lawmakers in missing texts case,” Washington Post, August 16, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/16/missing-secret-service-texts-cuffari/

^[1]Julia Ioffe, “Putin’s Surprise Triumph of the Will,” Puck News, August 23, 2022, https://puck.news/putins-surprise-triumph-of-the-will/↩
^[2]Igor Derysh, “‘Lawyers are giggling’: Legal experts scratch their heads at Trump’s ‘very strange’ new DOJ lawsuit,” Salon, August 23, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/08/23/lawyers-are-giggling-legal-experts-scratch-their-heads-at-trumps-very-strange-new-doj/; Jennifer Rubin, “Trump’s risk of indictment for his document snatch just skyrocketed,” Washington Post, August 23, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/23/trump-documents-indictment-risk-skyrocket/↩
^[3]Sadie Gurman and Aruna Viswanatha, “Merrick Garland Weighed Search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for Weeks,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/merrick-garland-weighed-search-of-trumps-mar-a-lago-for-weeks-11660601292 ↩

The cosmopolitan and the anti-cosmopolitan

August 22, 2022disunitedstates_0qjllk

There is a new blog post entitled, “The false dichotomy of mythologies that underlies political polarization.”

I’m thinking hard lately about the question, in terms of places to live, how I can reconcile what I can tolerate with what I can afford. On my recent trip west, my arrival in Sante Fe, New Mexico, felt like a breath of fresh air. There was a feeling of, to me, normalcy there that I haven’t felt since I moved to Pittsburgh.

If I could even live between the forks of the Ohio, in Pittsburgh, it would be better; this area, often populated by college students, is distinctly more cosmopolitan, which I see I need. But I also need forest, woods, and it seems like most rural areas are distinctly anti-cosmopolitan and intolerant. Cosmopolitan areas are also more expensive than, as long as I am stuck driving for Uber with no apparent alternative, anti-cosmopolitan ones.

It seems like there is no tolerable compromise, no concession in this life to any of the important things I really need.

Ukraine

I don’t know how I tell you to read this remarkable article^[1] without ruining it for you without just telling you to read it. So fucking read it. If you’re even remotely interested in history, it’ll be completely worth it.

Ted Widmer, “Russia-Ukraine: five lessons from the 19th-century Crimean war,” Guardian, July 21, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/aug/21/russia-ukraine-five-lessons-crimean-war-ted-widmer

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Renato Mariotti, “Espionage Isn’t the Strongest Case Against Trump. It’s Simpler Than That,” Politico, August 14, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/14/trump-classified-documents-doj-opinion-00051584

Marcy Wheeler, “Trump's Timid (Non-Legal) Complaints about Attorney-Client Privilege,” Empty Wheel, August 14, 2022, https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/08/14/trump-claims-the-ssa-receipt-includes-privileged-materials/

Matt Ford, “Trump’s Republican Defenders Inexplicably Forgot To Expect the Worst,” New Republic, August 16, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/167422/gop-response-mar-a-lago-search

Julia Ioffe, “The C.I.A.’s Trump Deja Vu,” Puck News, August 16, 2022, https://puck.news/the-c-i-a-s-trump-deja-vu/

^[1]Ted Widmer, “Russia-Ukraine: five lessons from the 19th-century Crimean war,” Guardian, July 21, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/aug/21/russia-ukraine-five-lessons-crimean-war-ted-widmer ↩

It’s all coming together and not in a good way

August 20, 2022disunitedstates_0qjllk

I’ve had projects this morning, including pulling together the Russia investigation page. I am not caught up.

Gilead

It’s all coming together and not in a good way.^[1]

We’re getting to a point where if the Trumpist faction wins, I think we’ll see sustained extremely high levels of violence for the foreseeable future. And if they lose, I think it’ll be worse.^[2]

Violence lies at the core of what anarchists call “illegitimate authority;” it is a final means of ‘persuading’ an intractable opponent.

When we have decided to resort to violence, we have decided that the ends justify the means, that the harm done is less important than what we think will be achieved. It appears a lot of people, especially white Christian nationalists, have reached this point.^[3] And pretty much, they’re the ones with guns, which threatens to make it a rather one-sided contest.

White Christian nationalism (Trumpism)

Competitive authoritarian regime project

Right-wing militias

Military

Police White supremacist gangs

Donald Trump

Russia investigation

Meg Kinnard, “Russia probe memo wrongly withheld under Barr, court rules,” Associated Press, August 19, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-donald-trump-william-barr-obstruction-of-justice-992952614b7619681df0e1109548a27f

Coup attempt

Clyde Hughes, “Rep. Greene files articles of impeachment against Attorney General Garland,” United Press International, August 13, 2022, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/08/13/-Marjorie-Taylor-Greene-articles-impeachment-Merrick-Garland-Attorney-General/4231660394406/

Arwa Mahdawi, “The Mar-a-Lago search prompts a big question: who snitched?” Guardian, August 13, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/13/mar-a-lago-search-ivanka-trump-week-in-patriarchy

Matt Ford, “Trump’s Republican Defenders Inexplicably Forgot To Expect the Worst,” New Republic, August 16, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/167422/gop-response-mar-a-lago-search

Julia Ioffe, “The C.I.A.’s Trump Deja Vu,” Puck News, August 16, 2022, https://puck.news/the-c-i-a-s-trump-deja-vu/

^[1]Chris McGreal, “US political violence is surging, but talk of a civil war is exaggerated – isn’t it?” Guardian, August 20, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/us-political-violence-civil-war ↩
^[2] Rachel Kleinfeld, quoted in Chris McGreal, “US political violence is surging, but talk of a civil war is exaggerated – isn’t it?” Guardian, August 20, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/us-political-violence-civil-war ↩
^[3]Chris McGreal, “US political violence is surging, but talk of a civil war is exaggerated – isn’t it?” Guardian, August 20, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/us-political-violence-civil-war ↩

White Christian nationalists gone wild

August 19, 2022disunitedstates_0qjllk

Pennsylvania

2022 election

I remember thinking it couldn’t get much stupider than Sarah Palin, but it’s hard to imagine a much better example of white Christian nationalist epistemology^[1] than arch-Trumpist^[2] Doug Mastriano:

[W]ith less than three months remaining before Election Day, [Doug] Mastriano continues to be haunted by … Doug Mastriano.

Whether it’s a thesis he wrote 20 years ago warning of a left-wing “Hitlerian Putsch,” or a since-deleted Facebook video he posted this spring about the state’s “deceitful” GOP establishment and its secret “disdain for veterans,” the Republican nominee for governor can’t seem to get out of his own way.

The post-primary hits keep on coming. This week? A 2018 radio interview resurfaced in which Mastriano claims that climate change is an academic fabrication (it’s not) and that Islam isn’t compatible with the U.S. Constitution (it is, as Thomas Jefferson himself acknowledged).^[3]

And there’s a lot more where that came from. Mastriano is right up there with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert.

William Bender, “Doug Mastriano’s comments on Islam and climate change resurface, the latest hit for his campaign,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 19, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/doug-mastriano-islam-global-warming-2018-governor-pennsylvania-20220819.html

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

I will tell you flat out that it will take a lot more than a crackdown on or by social networks^[4] to ameliorate the threat of right-wing violence. What we still don’t know is how many folks posting violent messages are actually prepared to carry out their threats. What we do know is that some very likely will.

Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey, “Agents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago seized 11 sets of classified documents, court filing shows,” Washington Post, August 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/12/trump-warrant-release/

Alex Leary, Aruna Viswanatha, and Sadie Gurman, “FBI Recovered Eleven Sets of Classified Documents in Trump Search, Inventory Shows,” Washington Post, August 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/fbi-recovered-eleven-sets-of-classified-documents-in-trump-search-inventory-shows-11660324501

Lisa Rein, “Under fire, Homeland Security watchdog delays probe — with GOP help,” Washington Post, August 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/12/joseph-cuffari-homeland-security-watchdog-investigation/

Betsy Woodruff Swan, Kyle Cheney, and Nicholas Wu, “FBI search warrant shows Trump under investigation for potential obstruction of justice, Espionage Act violations,” Politico, August 12, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/12/search-warrant-shows-trump-under-investigation-for-potential-obstruction-of-justice-espionage-act-violations-00051507

Eric Tucker and Michael Balsamo, “Trump calls for ‘immediate’ release of Mar-a-Lago warrant,” Associated Press, August 12, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-search-unsealing-the-warrant-5e00a3e6728cd77daa0d2180d078fcb6

Matt Ford, “Trump’s Republican Defenders Inexplicably Forgot To Expect the Worst,” New Republic, August 16, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/167422/gop-response-mar-a-lago-search

Julia Ioffe, “The C.I.A.’s Trump Deja Vu,” Puck News, August 16, 2022, https://puck.news/the-c-i-a-s-trump-deja-vu/

^[1]David Benfell, “A theory of conservative epistemology,” Not Housebroken, August 6, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/06/a-theory-of-conservative-epistemology/↩
^[2]Associated Press, “State Sen. Doug Mastriano opens Pennsylvania election audit plan,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 7, 2021, https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-state-sen-doug-mastriano-opens-election-audit-plan/; Marley Parish, Stephen Caruso, and Cassie Miller, “Pa. GOP lawmaker — and Trump ally — Mastriano initiates ‘forensic investigation’ into state elections,” Pennsylvania Capital-Star, July 7, 2021, https://www.penncapital-star.com/government-politics/pa-gop-lawmaker-and-trump-ally-mastriano-initiates-forensic-investigation-into-state-elections/; Andrew Seidman, “A top GOP candidate for governor campaigned at an event promoting QAnon and conspiracy theories about 9/11,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 27, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/doug-mastriano-teddy-daniels-qanon-conference-gop-candidates-20220427.html ↩
^[3]William Bender, “Doug Mastriano’s comments on Islam and climate change resurface, the latest hit for his campaign,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 19, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/doug-mastriano-islam-global-warming-2018-governor-pennsylvania-20220819.html ↩
^[4]Cat Zakrzewski, “Lawmakers demand data about online threats against law enforcement,” Washington Post, August 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/19/fbi-social-media-law-enforcement/↩