Category: Media and Culture,

Inflation hits 6-year high, wiping out wage gains for the average American

On By peanutgallerynhIn Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Prices rose at their highest clip since 2012 over the past year, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The cost of food, shelter and gas have all risen significantly in the past year. Gas skyrocketed more than 24 percent, rent for a primary residence jumped 3.6 percent and meals at restaurants and cafeterias rose 2.8 percent.

…For workers, more pain may be coming, as economists are concerned that prices could rise further due to …tariffs on many foreign imports. Trump put a 20 tariff on foreign washing machines earlier this year, and the inflation report Thursday showed more than a 13 percent spike in laundry equipment over the same period last year.

…Wage growth has been lackluster since the Great Recession. …Typically, companies raise wages sharply in this kind of environment, but average hourly earnings are still stuck below 3 percent, a low level historically.

Inflation hits 6-year high, wiping out wage gains for the average American – Chicago Tribune

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Cop who Tased 11-year-old: ‘This is why there’s no grocery stores in the black community’

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Modern Parenting,, Race,Leave a comment

Cincinnati police Officer Kevin Brown was working an off-duty security job at the Kroger in Spring Grove Village when he stopped 11-year-old Donesha Gowdy and some friends outside the store.

…A review of the incident found that Brown violated policy, adding that he deployed his Taser without warning and expressed prejudice concerning race.

“Quite frankly, I believe the officer violated our policy. I believe the use of force was unnecessary in this particular circumstance,” Police Chief Elliott Isaac said.

Cop who Tased 11-year-old: ‘This is why there’s no grocery stores in the black community’

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Bob Woodward’s Trump book

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Trump’s closest aides have taken extraordinary measures in the White House to try to stop what they saw as his most dangerous impulses, going so far as to swipe and hide papers from his desk so he wouldn’t sign them, according to a new book from legendary journalist Bob Woodward.

…Woodward offers a devastating portrait of a dysfunctional Trump White House, detailing how senior aides — both current and former Trump administration officials — grew exasperated with the President and increasingly worried about his erratic behavior, ignorance and penchant for lying.

…The letter would have withdrawn the US from a critical trade agreement with South Korea. Trump’s aides feared the fallout could jeopardize a top-secret national security program: the ability to detect a North Korean missile launch within just seven seconds.

Woodward reports Cohn was “appalled” that Trump might sign the letter. “I stole it off his desk,” Cohn told an associate. “I wouldn’t let him see it. He’s never going to see that document. Got to protect the country.”

Cohn was not alone. Former staff secretary Rob Porter worked with Cohn and used the same tactic on multiple occasions, Woodward writes. In addition to literally stealing or hiding documents from Trump’s desk, they sought to stall and delay decisions or distract Trump from orders they thought would endanger national security.

…Woodward also quotes an unnamed White House official who gave an even more dire assessment of the meeting: “It seems clear that many of the president’s senior advisers, especially those in the national security realm, are extremely concerned with his erratic nature, his relative ignorance, his inability to learn, as well as what they consider his dangerous views.”

A recurrent theme in Woodward’s book is Trump’s seeming disregard for national security concerns because of his obsession with money — trade deficits and the cost of troops overseas.

In meeting after meeting, Trump questions why the US has to pay for such a large troop presence in South Korea.

“We’re doing this in order to prevent World War III,” Mattis, the defense secretary, bluntly explained to Trump at one January 2018 meeting, which prompted Mattis to tell close associates afterward that Trump had the understanding of a “fifth or sixth grader.”

Bob Woodward’s Trump book: Author details aides’ worries about Trump – CNNPolitics

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Now the Trump administration wants to limit citizenship for legal immigrants

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Race,Leave a comment

…Immigrants living legally in the U.S. who have ever used or whose household members have ever used Obamacare, children’s health insurance, food stamps and other benefits could be hindered from obtaining legal status in the U.S.

…In late November, the Trump administration announced they would end temporary protected status for Haitians who came to the U.S. after the deadly 2010 earthquake.

…”Any policy forcing millions of families to choose between the denial of status and food or health care would exacerbate serious problems such as hunger, unmet health needs, child poverty and homelessness, with lasting consequences for families’ wellbeing and long-term success and community prosperity,” said the National Immigration Law Center in a statement.

Now the Trump administration wants to limit citizenship for legal immigrants

sigh…

Explaining how to be an ‘antiracist,’ Ibram X. Kendi rattles conventional wisdom

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

Once at the pulpit, Kendi responded with his own Douglass quote, one from 1874 that, he said, sums up the entire sorry history of racist thought: “When men oppress their fellow men, the oppressor ever finds in the character of the oppressed, a full justification.”

…“How and why did racist ideas become, literally, our common sense — in which racist ideas make sense to us, and antiracist ideas seem radical, extreme, and completely nonsensical and illogical?” Kendi wondered.

……He argued that ultimately there are only two causes of racial tension, or only two exits from any discussion of racism. Either the inferiority of some races to others is a true fact, or the existence of discrimination is. 

…He said that writing Stamped from the Beginning, which chronicles that ideological evolution over more than five centuries to the present, led him to a concept he calls the “dual racial history of America” — a dynamic process, like something from Newtonian physics but a lot harder on people. In this duality, every evidence-based effort to undo racism provokes a new and more sophisticated defense of racism.

Take, for example, the Jim Crow laws that followed the defeat of the South in the Civil War.

…He argued that people implement racist policies to protect their own political, cultural, and economic interests and then, perhaps on the principle that the best defense is a good offense, deploy racist ideas to advance those policies.

…“A dominant strain within abolitionist thought,” Kendi said, “was this idea that slavery, of course, was wrong — but one of the reasons it was so bad is because it was preventing black people from receiving the fruits of superior New England culture.

…“Following the Civil War, there were many well-meaning former abolitionists who were like, ‘We finally now have the ability to go down into the South and civilize some of these people.’ Probably some of your well-meaning ancestors went down there and did that” — albeit with antiracist motivations, as they rejected the racist notion that former slaves couldn’t be civilized because they were biologically inferior.

But in fact, Kendi said, slaves brought culture from Africa and developed culture in slavery (and elements from those cultures, obviously, remain vital in contemporary U.S. culture). If you want to be an antiracist, don’t judge other cultures by the standards of your own culture — that only creates a hierarchy in which other cultures can’t prevail.

…Kendi’s conclusion wasn’t surprising, but was certainly uplifting. “What becomes the activity of the antiracist?” he asked. “I would encourage each of you, when you look out at racial disparities, to see not what’s wrong with people, but what’s wrong with policies.”

Explaining how to be an ‘antiracist,’ Ibram X. Kendi rattles conventional wisdom | News | Bates College

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On Conspiracy Theories and Election Hacking [Updated]

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

…There is no definitive proof votes were altered in the 2016 election. Full stop.

But there’s even more we don’t know.

“We truly do not know, and we are making no attempt to find out,” Marks reiterated. “It’s because we don’t want to find out. And it’s not Robert Mueller’s responsibility. It’s not Congress’ responsibility. It’s the responsibility of the people. It’s the responsibility of the press.”

…“I don’t think we’ll ever know,” said Gregory Miller, founder of the OSET Institute, a nonprofit advocating for open-source election software. “It’s impossible to believe, without question, that votes or tallies weren’t manipulated.”

Miller, who has testified before Congress and worked with the Obama White House on election cybersecurity, explained the difference between voting machines and tallying machines, and reiterated countless times over the course of an hour that there are no verifiable, accurate, secure, and transparent systems in America.

As it specifically relates to vote-tallying systems, which Miller called the “honeypot of the elections systems,” the experts agree that changing tallies wouldn’t be difficult at all.

…Then, in May 2018, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s Unclassified First Installment in Russia Report said “The Committee has not seen any evidence that vote tallies were manipulated or that voter registration information was deleted or modified,” adding:

The Committee has limited information about whether, and to what extent, state and local officials carried out forensic or other examination of election infrastructure systems in order to confirm whether election-related systems were compromised. It is possible that additional activity occurred and has not yet been uncovered.

…“If votes were changed, they were done in a way that is hard to detect,” he explained. “But no one has done any analysis to determine it. And the reason for the wild speculations is because the people responsible for analyzing the data aren’t interested in doing so.”

…”There is a difference between ‘voting machines’ and ‘election systems.’ This often leads to confusion,” Miller explained. “The voting machines are the most visible part of the process. But the transaction of the ballot that we call an ‘election system’ involves the voter registration system or poll books, the voting machines, a system for tabulating or counting votes, and the system for reporting these votes.”

…People familiar with voting systems explained that all voting machines can be hacked even when they don’t have a modem or web access, because almost every widely used system in America is “internet-adjacent.”

They use memory cards and electronic files that contain software that was loaded on an internet-connected computer. The central tabulators transmit results over local area networks. They accept flash drives from computers that are connected to the internet. They are configured by vendors who use internet connections, making them all vulnerable.

…Miller explained that the reports of hacking may not simply have been attempts to access data at all. He explained how hackers may have been trolling for the digital blueprint for a GEMS server used by Georgia and county election officials across the country, which could, if acquired, have given Putin’s plotters access to thousands of vote tallying machines.

“There is a widespread belief that not being connected to the internet is a measure of security,” said Miller. “But many of these vote-tallying machines are not dedicated machines only used for counting ballots. Many of them are used for issuing fishing licenses and building permits. It would take a half-second for someone to infect a machine with a USB thumb drive.”

On Conspiracy Theories and Election Hacking [Updated]

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Much of the US Electric Grid Could Go the Way of the Landline Phone

On By peanutgallerynhIn Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Making electricity, in other words, is becoming a less profitable business. And Garg worries that these costs will eventually reach consumers and send ripples throughout the economy. “You don’t need a huge amount of people to leave to cause a huge issue with the grid,” he says.

Unlike in the phone industry, an enervated electric grid can hurt just about everybody. Even most folks with solar panels on their roof still need that baseload power when the clouds block the sun long enough for the fridge to suck their Powerwall dry, or wires onto which they can shunt their excess power whenever the panels are generating more juice than any home can use.

…“The regulatory structure basically paid utilities to build power plants, and charge customers for the cost of those plants through bills, but didn’t provide much incentive for the utilities to be efficient,” says Seth Blumsack, who studies energy policy at Pennsylvania State University. So long as you didn’t have any competitors eyeing your market share, why innovate or look for cheaper fuel sources?

…Another tack would be changing the way the industry is regulated, all over again. Even with restructuring and deregulation, government policy still rewards big capital expenditures like new power plants or miles of transmission line. Regulations could easily be written that reward companies that make the existing grid operate more efficiently. However, the current administration hasn’t really caught up to what the market is saying.

Much of the US Electric Grid Could Go the Way of the Landline Phone | WIRED

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American white people really hate being called “white people”

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

In fact, it’s difficult to think of a US setting in which the words “white people” are received neutrally. The term is always charged somehow, freighted with meaning and potential conflict, vaguely subversive. White people. White people. White people.

…It must be alienating to feel like one is on probation in one’s own country, that one’s presence is subject to the approval of white people. And it must be a familiar feeling, especially these days, for everyone who is not white (and male).

It occurred to me that white people rarely if ever experience questions like this, about their very legitimacy. Do they belong? Is having more of them around good for America?

…So, as a bit of goofy provocation, I made just such a poll:

…“Identity politics” — dragging around the baggage of one’s identity, constantly being forced to reckon with it, to work around the stereotypes and discrimination it attracts, to speak for it, to represent it — is something that is forced on other groups, not something they choose. Do you think a young black man likes walking into a store knowing he’s already carrying the weight of a million suspicions and expectations, that he has to behave perfectly lest he invoke them? He’d probably like to be thinking about tax policy too, if he didn’t have to worry about getting shot by the cops on his way home. But that worry comes with his identity.

…White men bridle at the notion of being part of a tribe or engaging in identity politics. …Alone among social groups, they are allowed the illusion that they have only their own bespoke identity, that they are pure freethinkers, citizens, unburdened and uninfluenced by collective baggage (unique and precious “snowflakes,” if you will).

No one else is allowed to think that — at least not for long, before they are reminded again that they are, in the eyes of their country, little more than their identity, their asterisk. No one else gets to pretend their politics are free of identity.

White people do. But simply saying the words “white people” is a direct attack on that illusion. It identifies, i.e., creates (or rather, exposes) an identity, a group with shared characteristics and interests. It raises questions (and doubts) about the group’s standing and power relative to other groups. It illuminates all that hidden baggage. Lots of white people really hate that.

…As many have pointed out and this political era has made painfully clear, to a dominant demographic, the loss of privilege feels like persecution. Being just one group among many feels like losing. After all, what good is being white in the US, especially among poor whites, if some third-generation Ugandan immigrant has just as much control over their fate as they have over hers? If a poll asks whether they’re any good for her, rather than the other way around?

For the dominant group, being judged and asked to justify itself, as so many subaltern groups are judged and asked to justify themselves, feels like an insult.

American white people really hate being called “white people” – Vox

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Carl Bernstein: Trump attacks ‘degenerate’ Watergate reporter

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

[Trump] called Mr Bernstein a “sloppy” and “degenerate fool” who invented stories.

…Mr Bernstein, a famed journalist who covered the Watergate scandal during the Nixon presidency, responded saying he stands by his reporting.

Carl Bernstein: Trump attacks ‘degenerate’ Watergate reporter – BBC News

The irony! It’s like doublespeak is this White House’s first language.

Ron DeSantis Tells Florida Not To ‘Monkey This Up’ By Electing Andrew Gillum

On By peanutgallerynhIn Gulf Coast Region,, Race,Leave a comment

During an appearance on Fox News with Sandra Smith, DeSantis, who is white, doled out backhanded compliments to Gillum, who is black, calling him “an articulate spokesman.” 

…“The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by [electing Gillum]” said DeSantis to Smith.

Ron DeSantis Tells Florida Not To ‘Monkey This Up’ By Electing Andrew Gillum | HuffPost

A racist comment two-fer in one interview. Oh my…

Texas School Beats ADHD by Tripling Recess Time

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Local Interest,, Modern Parenting,, Schools,Leave a comment

One Texas school has kindergartners and first graders sitting still and “incredibly attentive.”

What’s their secret? Their recess time has tripled.

…Their teachers say it’s totally transformed them.

The kids are less fidgety, less distracted, more engaged in learning and make more eye contact.

…The pilot program is modeled after the Finnish school system, whose students get some of the best scores in the world in reading, math and science.

Texas School Beats ADHD by Tripling Recess Time

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Federal Court: First Amendment Protects Sharing Food With Homeless People

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

In a colorful decision that managed to invoke the Boston Tea Party, Lady Macbeth and Jesus of Nazareth, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that feeding the homeless is “expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.” The decision revives a challenge brought by a local chapter of Food Not Bombs, which sued Fort Lauderdale, Florida for requiring a permit to share food in public parks.

…“The court’s opinion recognized sharing food with another human being is one of the oldest forms of human expression,” said Kirsten Anderson, litigation director at the Southern Legal Counsel and lead attorney on the case. “We think this decision strengthens our message to cities across the country that they need to invest in constructive solutions to homelessness instead of wasting government resources on punishing people who seek to offer aid.”

Federal Court: First Amendment Protects Sharing Food With Homeless People

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Unite the Right 2018: The psychology of the alt-right

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

Dehumanization is scary. It’s the psychological trick we engage in that allows us to harm other people (because it’s easier to inflict pain on people who are not people). Historically it’s been the fuel of mass atrocities and genocide.

…The alt-right wants and supports organizations that look out for the rights and well-being of white people. Historically, such groups have done so by striking fear in the hearts of immigrants, Jews, and minorities.

…The survey also asked participants to state how often they engaged in aggressive behaviors, like doxxing, the releasing of private information without a person’s permission. They also asked about how often respondents physically threatened another online, or made offensive statements just to get a rise out of people.

Here, too, the alt-righters were much more likely to admit to engaging in these behaviors.

…Alt-righters in the survey scored higher on social dominance orientation (the preference that society maintains social order), right-wing authoritarianism (a preference for strong rulers), and somewhat higher levels of the “dark triad” of personality traits (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism.)

Unite the Right 2018: The psychology of the alt-right – Vox

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