I'm Seeing Green

Only 25% of Americans think capitalism is good for society

I don't know whether to believe this, from a website I recently found, businessinsider.com, a weirdly non-conservative business-focused site. Has plenty of coverage on current affairs (Floyd, Biden,) and is quite even. They actually have a series of articles on "Better Capitalism," no BS, with sections on sustainability, worker benefits and businesses that actually help their employees weather the COVID crisis (gasp.) I think it's progress, though many a progressive would be dismissive.

The story of the headline is:

"In May, the Harris Poll and Just Capital, an independent research firm founded by the billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones, surveyed 1,000 people on their thoughts about capitalism amid the pandemic. Only 25% of respondents said they believed our current form of capitalism ensures the greater good of society.

For many this doesn't come as a surprise. Prominent voices ranging from a top Harvard economist [how coy, to not name Rebecca Henderson, author of "Reimagining Capitalism," who says the coronavirus pandemic is a turning point in the conversation surrounding capitalism,] to the billionaire hedge-fund manager Ray Dalio [supposedly sounding the alarm on income inequality in the US,] have warned that capitalism would soon face a crisis because of the massive inequality exposed by the pandemic.

Temporary hazard pay has shown how little grocery employees, food-delivery workers, and other essential workers are being paid (not to mention that many don't get health insurance). The national closure of childcare centers also laid bare the unpaid work women do in the household. Black people, specifically Black women, were most at risk of layoffs and furloughs, and were less likely to survive (pay for groceries or rent) without work, according to research from Lean In, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's nonprofit.

The crisis that business leaders have been warning about has arrived. Now the majority of Americans are calling for change, including paid sick leave and higher wages for frontline workers, the data shows."

https://www.businessinsider.com/capitalism-in-crisis-how-to-fix-capitalism-for-workers-2020-6

The Stupid Trope of a "Few Bad Apples"

Let us examine the oft-rendered excuse for cops acting badly (a poor euphemism for killing, brutalizing, insulting, being aggressive towards.) Every time there's an incident, there's never just one cop there. Two at a minimum, twenty or forty in the current unrest. The mayhem may be instigated by one (ooh...bad apple...) but it's condoned, excused, ignored and abetted by the others. So it's just "bad apples flock together?"...the "vast majority" of the rest of these souls are peaceably controlling demonstrators, taking a symbolic (sham?) knee, marching in a symbolic (sham?) walk?

As Chris Rock so succintly puts it, "Some jobs, everybody gotta be good. Like … pilots. Ya know, American Airlines can’t be like, 'Most of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples that like to crash into mountains. Please bear with us.'"

Let's extend that. Some doctors are bad apples. You may die on the operating table; but that's OK...the vast majority of doctors are...

Some EMTs are bad apples, they may kill you by neglect when called on an emergency; but that's OK...the vast majority of EMTs are ...

Some babysitters are insane, and may throw your baby into the bathwater; but that's OK...the vast majority of babysitters are ...

Some plumbers are bad apples. They may hook up the sewer line to your kitchen faucet; but that's OK...the vast majority of plumbers. are ...

DO YOU SEE HOW FUCKING CRAZY THIS IS? There are some professions and avocations which demand total respect for the genre, total commitment to the job, total  requirement to never fucking up.In EVERY other case, the "bad apples" are treated with horror, as criminals.

And policing is one of them.

And, can you imagine your babysitter, who's just killed your child, being "investigated" for months while the DA decides whether or not to bring a case? Can you imagine that, if you shoot a terminally ill person, you could get off on the grounds that your action didn't kill the person, they died of their pre-existing condition (the possible defense in the Floyd case.)

Rock: https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2020/06/01/clip-chris-rock-about-police-brutality-going-viral

Gᴇᴛ Aɴɢʀʏ --- Bᴇ Sᴀꜰᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ Cᴏʀᴏɴᴀ Vɪʀᴜs

The Inner Cambridge Social Sciences Institute has published an interesting study on the effects of anger on susceptibility to the novel corona-virus. In the report, recently out in the Journal of Epidemiologic Research, there appears to be a positive correlation between the state of anger or irascibility (not defined,) and reduced chance of being infected with the virus.

 

“We think the correlation is a variation on the ‘fight or flight’ syndrome, which causes the body to produce adrenaline, among other changes. A constant state of anger or irascibility causes hormonal changes, which seem to boost the immune system and help ward off the corona-virus,” said Dr. Pradeep Mithraleya, chief author, in an interview with NPR, “We have not studied whether this phenomenon affects the susceptibility towards other viruses or diseases.”

 

The takeaway from this may explain why the Red states, particularly those with strong support for President Trump, are seeing much lower incidence of corona-virus infections (in an unattributed comment, Dr. Mithraleya also mentioned lower cases in India, where a nascent level of anger towards the government is, pardon the pun, endemic, as supporting his thesis.) While the study initially mentioned this conclusion in the study, the journal requested it be deleted from the published version on the grounds that it was a political statement.

 

So…get your ire up!

Study at : http://cambridge.ssi.org/studies/04888-9993-w

Defunding the Police

On the surface, this might seem a ridiculous idea...who do we call in an emergency? But the idea behind this trope is that police are over-funded, over-militarized, and (paraphrasing the famous quote from WW-II Brits,) over here.

LA mayor has proposed a $100 million reduction in police funding, to go towards grass-roots community policing efforts. That's the kind of tiny reform we need, a small step. Another big one would be to unilaterally cancel all police union contracts on expiration and start from scratch (did you know that many contracts specify that a rogue officer's disciplinary record is expunged after 6 months?!)

An excellent article on how to curb police is in Forbes (!) : https://www.businessinsider.com/research-based-methods-of-reducing-police-violence-2020-6

Two things that don't work, according to research, are body cameras and "sensitivity" training. AUthors suggest more accountability and tracking of , restrictions on use of force, community policing, federal oversight (yeah, well, good luck on that.)

Even the right-wing Reason Institute weighs in: 'An important first step would be to get rid of the legal doctrine of "qualified immunity," under which law enforcement officers are immune from suits for violating citizens' constitutional rights unless the officers' actions violate "clearly established" law.'

From the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/04/defund-the-police-us-george-floyd-budgets

"The movement to defund the police is gaining significant support across America, including from elected leaders, as protests over the killing of George Floyd sweep the nation."

“To see legislators who aren’t even necessarily on the left supporting at least a significant decrease in New York police department [NYPD] funding is really very encouraging,” Julia Salazar, a New York state senator and Democratic socialist, told the Guardian on Tuesday. “It feels a little bit surreal.” 

Tʜᴇ Uɴʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴀʙʟᴇ Nᴇᴠᴇʀ Eɴᴅs

Trump used a military helicopter to harass protesters in DC, a tactic used in warzones to "disperse insurgents." Bad enough, but —"𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙍𝙚𝙙 𝘾𝙧𝙤𝙨𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨. Conducting an offensive operation with equipment identified with the symbol is a violation of the Geneva Conventions." It was "an inherently dangerous maneuver for even an experienced pilot—clipping a building or an unseen power line could cause the helicopter to crash into the crowd below."

.

Like anyone cares about global norms.

Pᴀᴜʟ Bᴜᴛʟᴇʀ ᴡʀᴏᴛᴇ "CʜᴏᴋᴇHᴏʟᴅ - Pᴏʟɪᴄɪɴɢ Bʟᴀᴄᴋ Mᴇn"

“𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘚𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘑𝘪𝘮 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘸; 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘑𝘪𝘮 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘑𝘪𝘮 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘸. 𝘐𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮- 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘳𝘶𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘸.”

 

From an interview with Butler:

https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/6/2/21276799/george-floyd-protest-criminal-justice-paul-butler

In Chokehold, I argue that people tend to see the problems between black people and police in four different ways. So really quickly, the first way is that the problem is black men. It’s the way that we perform masculinity. If we would just pull up our pants, we wouldn’t have to worry about being stopped and frisked. There are quite a lot of people who think that.

 

The second framing is that the problem is under-enforcement of law, not over-enforcement. That what the black community needs even more than other communities is law and order. So when police selectively enforce the law in those communities, it’s actually a kind of reparations, it’s a payback for the time when 911 was a joke. And my friends who are prosecutors and police officers of color, that’s what they say. They say, “Hell yeah, I’m tougher in the hood than I am in the suburbs, because that’s my community.” That’s how they think.

 

Then there’s what I’d call a more liberal framing, which focuses on the relationship between black people and cops, like the problem is that they’re in a bad marriage and they just need to understand each other. This was very much the approach of the Obama administration, emphasizing the need to bring people together alongside tangible reforms like more body cameras and better training.

 

The fourth way of thinking about the problem is the focus on white supremacy. This is the new Jim Crow idea. Here, what people suggest is that if you only work on the police, that’s treating the symptom. But the disease will metastasize. So in this telling, it started with slavery, went to the old Jim Crow, and now it’s the new Jim Crow, enforced via a racially biased criminal justice system. And so the only way things will truly get better is to crush white supremacy.

 

 

 

Republicans Know No Bounds

"Mitt Romney leveled his harshest criticism of President Obama's reelection campaign to date in Ohio Tuesday, declaring that Obama should 'take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago.' "

The arrogance and the hyprocisy of the Republicans know no limits. For anyone on that side of the aisle to level a criticism like this is to believe in the string theory of multiple universes, one of which they reside in, but us normal people don't.

This is from the party that has its major sages say things like the following; OK, you may say that Romney is not responsible for these statements, but ... he has never repudiated any of it:

"Obama is a communist."

"Obama has a colonial mentality influenced by his Kenyan father." (hence he ain't one of us normal folk in these Yew Nited States of Um-erica.)

"Obama is bringing out country to its knees."

"Obama is a racist."  (now if you could explain that, I'd be grateful.)

And, of course, the not-born-in-America bs.

Romney's lie about Medicare from his latest salvo is breathtaking...to the effect that Obama[care] is taking $700 billion away from it. What's not to realize that Obamacare is dedicated to maintaining all Medicare services, the 700b. is projected savings by controlling future costs?" It's as if I promised to pay for your food costs in the future, and I mentioned that I was looking to save some money by buying local produce. Your food is the same, my cost is less. 

But how difficult may that be to convey to these great masses of people who vote R. and listen to Fox sound bites? That's what Romney is counting on, the short attention span of the American voters of whom a vast majority have not heard of Paul Ryan and have no opinion on him? Guess being Chair of the House Budget Committee is no claim to fame.

Faced with this level of ignorance, what should be the Democratic strategy? They're doing sort-of the right thing, taking the battle right into the enemy camp...disinformation, marignal truths and spin. Do they have a choice? No, I say good fo them. It's time to let the negativity hang out.

Mitt, you're a fool and a charlatan. Obama is indeed lowering himself to near, but not quite, your level (but, as Axelrod said, the Obama campaign will be glad to meet the Romney when they come to the "our high ground.")

Buy the O. bumper sticker: "Save Medicare, Vote Democrat". I'd go for one that says "Vote Republican, KILL Medicare" myself.

 

 

 

Online Community Goes Live

I'm a very regular reader of the Brooklyn real-estate blog, brownstoner.com. Its older self-description was 'an obsessive interest in brownstone Brooklyn,' though now its slogan is 'Brooklyn inside and out,' as befits its broader perspective. It's a prolific site, with all kinds of news about real-estate and current events broadly connected to the state of life and the built environment in Brooklyn (and New York). The Forum section deals with advice about everything from the minutiae of sealing marble counters, to how sleazy real-estate brokers are, to how to deal with the odd stoop-pooper.

One of the regular posters decided it would be a good thing to organize a get-together of 'brownstoners' in the flesh; the first one was back last October and the second was yesterday, both in bars with boccie courts, oddly enough, though none of the attendees actually played it...too much of interest otherwise.

I approached the first one with considerable curiosity. Being a regular ranter on the blog myself, and having been called many names due to my over-solicitousness to tenants' predicament and my over-willingness to suggest raising taxes on everyone making more money than me (that's my detractors speaking,) I wondered how it would be to meet in person the anonymous people I had been having many conversations with. Not the least of the curiosity was the unmasking of the body behind the login name, so to speak...since the names may not reflect the persons behind them at all, though over the months the sex (I was trained to use 'sex', not 'gender' as I keep telling my son, who's at the age that any use of that three-letter word is hilarious) of many had been revealed through their writings.

It was a very pleasant surprise. Rabid ranters seemed normal in person and I actually wondered whether it would be harder to make fun of/ridicule/dismiss as idiotic the writings of those whom I'd met (actually, the answer is yes and no, but that's another story.)

Last night was the second meeting. Though I'd forgotten many (the name tags were usually the on-line names, not the real ones,) it was like meeting  slightly eccentric family members at the next major holiday.

The blog/response scenario is of course such a recent phenomenon that practically anything could have been anticipated. The anonymity granted by posting on blogs under a pseudonym is quite cherished and unique...almost like writing anonymous letters in another era. But that action was considered anti-social and usually confined to the 'poison-pen' world. Nowadays the anonymity, while still used as a cloak for all kinds of excess, is self-protective as well...who wants the many internet trolls to identify you (I wondered if protectiveness  was operative in the ratio of men to women in the group yesterday, which was high, or whether there are many more men posting on brownstoner than women)?

Which is why this second meeting, with its glimmerings of an actual community developing, is so interesting. If you didn't know it, you might have thought that this was a group who worked together having an after-work social session. Lots of conversation and drinking. This may become a regularly scheduled event, and maybe real-life friendships will develop. But then would you have to control your posting language? I wondered perhaps if that was why many regulars were not present.

Global Weirding

There's something weird in the air nowadays, maybe we could blame it on global warming. It seems like all kinds of people are behaving in ways counter to their norm.

Or is it global weirding, as Thomas Friedman says in today's NY Times:

Remember: climate change means “global weirding,” not just global warming....And my trip with Denmark’s minister of climate and energy, Connie Hedegaard, to see the effects of climate change on Greenland’s ice sheet leaves me with a very strong opinion: Our kids are going to be so angry with us one day.

We’ve charged their future on our Visa cards. We’ve added so many greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, for our generation’s growth, that our kids are likely going to spend a good part of their adulthood, maybe all of it, just dealing with the climate implications of our profligacy. And now our leaders are telling them the way out is “offshore drilling” for more climate-changing fossil fuels.

And we have Mr. Bush saying this:

"America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists," Bush will declare in the marquee speech of his three-nation Asia trip. "We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly and labor rights _ not to antagonize China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential.

All true of course, but it's sure to anger the Chinese, and our dear Decider hasn't exactly been on the side of the angels in denouncing any untoward behavior in the world...maybe being a lame duck has put fire in his spine?

Then we have all those strange ads by McCain, calling Obama, in sequence, an empty celebrity, Moses and the Anti-Christ.

And� then Paris Hilton responds to the celebrity ad by making a YouTube video herself with the classic line: "But then that wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means that I'm running for president."; as Seth Grahame Smith notes:

In less than two minutes, she accomplished not one -- but FIVE things McCain himself has been unable to do in two years of campaigning:

1) Come off as intelligent and self-effacing.
2) Present a well-reasoned energy policy.

etc..

Wal-Mart's Anti-Democratic Moves

A scary story in the Wall Street Journal details how Wal-Mart is spreading scare stories about the negative effects of a Democratic victory in November. Democrats in power are more likely to increase union power, and of course Wal-Mart as both the largest retail employer and a non-union shop, is worried.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.

According to about a dozen Wal-Mart employees who attended such meetings in seven states, Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionized stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and may have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionization could mean fewer jobs as labor costs rise.

Of course, it is technically illegal for Wal-Mart to suggest how its (non-management) employees vote, so the Human Resources personnel walk a fine line:

"If anyone representing Wal-Mart gave the impression we were telling associates how to vote, they were wrong and acting without approval," said David Tovar, Wal-Mart spokesman. Mr. Tovar acknowledged that the meetings were taking place for store managers and supervisors nationwide.

Wal-Mart's worries center on a piece of legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act, which companies say would enable unions to quickly add millions of new members. "We believe EFCA is a bad bill and we have been on record as opposing it for some time," Mr. Tovar said. "We feel educating our associates about the bill is the right thing to do."

Oddly enough, or maybe not so oddly, Wal-Mart is also hedging its bets in case of a Democratic victory by splitting its donations between the parties:

Now, as the Democrats seem poised to gain control in Washington, 48% of its $2.2 million in political contributions go to Democrats and 52% to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that tracks political giving.