EppsNet

Unemployment Stays Unbelievably Low

by Paul Epps on 14 Jan 2023

Bed Bath & Beyond to Close Three More Stores in Los Angeles, Orange Counties https://t.co/ELCIzMhY3Q

— Paul Epps (@paulepps) January 14, 2023

The company is closing about 150 stores overall, plus layoffs in corporate and supply chain.

You can swap new company names (Coinbase, Goldman Sachs, etc.) into these layoffs and closing stores stories every day and still get sunny government economic reports based on nothing I can see except unbelievably low unemployment numbers.

And when I say “unbelievably low,” I mean literally not believable (see here and here).

When Empires Start to Collapse

by Paul Epps on 8 Jan 2023

Yeah, I think if you look at history, it’s really interesting when empires start to collapse, when you start to get such a breach between how the elite lives and how the rest of the country lives. There are usually two options: you can either start to placate and appease the vast majority of the country who are living in deprivation — some symbolic gestures of social programs just enough to keep them mollified so they don’t go out into the streets — or you can decide, “You know what, we don’t really care how angry the citizenry gets. What we’re going to do instead is ‘paramilitarize’ the country, we’ll put them under a massive surveillance system.

“We’ll keep a really close eye on everything they’re doing, we’ll listen to their communications and we’ll crush, first by demonizing and then, criminalizing and, then, censoring any form of dissent so that they have absolutely nowhere to turn. So, they can get as angry as they want. We’ll just make ourselves so powerful and so opaque, no one will know what we’re doing — but we can see everything they’re doing, that there’s nothing they can do about it anyway”. Amazingly, it is the American left who has become the main ally in imposing that.

— Glenn Greenwald

The only part of this I take issue with is that I don’t think there’s any need to “placate and appease” anyone to keep them from taking to the streets. In America, this is done with mindless entertainment and gadgetry, i.e., “I’d like to revolt against the government but I’d have to miss my TV programs.”

Democratic Election Deniers

by Paul Epps on 3 Jan 2023

I just wanted to “bookmark” this as it provides a good catalog of Democratic election deniers over the past 20 years or so.

House Democrats’ New Leader Doesn’t Believe in Democracy

The Difference Between Television and Movies

by Paul Epps on 3 Jan 2023

The thing about TV series that I don’t understand and I think is hard for both of us to get our minds around is, you know, feature films have a beginning, a middle and an end. But open-ended stories have a beginning and a middle — and then they’re beaten to death until they’re exhausted and die. They don’t actually have an end. And thinking about that in the context of a story is rather alien to the way we imagine these things.

Not to be shitty about it, but you can look at stories that they have a beginning, middle, and end. But so much of television has a beginning, a middle, a middle, a middle, a middle, until the whole thing dies of exhaustion. It’s beaten to death and then you find a way of ending it. That’s how a lot of long-form television works, so it’s a hard thing to get your head around.

— Joel Coen

Another Explanation for Low Unemployment Numbers

by Paul Epps on 2 Jan 2023

People who are not employed but not looking for employment are not considered unemployed and are not included in calculating the unemployment rate.

I’ve theorized that one reason for the artificially low unemployment rate is people dropping out of the workforce, although I couldn’t explain why so many people were dropping out of the workforce.

But now I think I can explain it.

The Committee to Unleash Prosperity, an economist-founded nonprofit, analyzed how unemployment benefits and ObamaCare subsidies in each state stacked up against employed people’s compensation. The writers of the report found that these two benefits alone could total up to $120,000 per year for a family of four.

In 14 states — including North Dakota, Oregon, Colorado, Montana, and Minnesota — unemployment benefits and ObamaCare subsidies were found to be the equivalent to a head of household earning $80,000 in salary.

In other words, a spouse would have to earn more than $80,000 a year from a 40-hour a week job to have the same after-tax income as certain families with two unemployed spouses receiving government benefits.

The three states with the largest benefits were Washington, at nearly $123,000; Massachusetts at $117,000; and New Jersey at nearly $109,000 for the year.

This would affect different people in different ways. If you’re one of the software engineers recently let go at Facebook, the prospect of making $80,000 for not working is probably not appealing, but there are a lot of jobs where that would not apply.

For example, when I go to a restaurant or a convenience store, most of them have Help Wanted signs posted, and if I had a choice between washing dishes for whatever a dishwasher gets paid vs. getting paid $80,000 to not wash dishes, I’m taking the $80,000, dropping out of the workforce, and I would not be considered unemployed.

I Dislike Oxford Commas

by Paul Epps on 1 Jan 2023

I dislike Oxford commas. They’re unnecessary, they take time to type and they slow down reading.

Keep it quick, keep it simple.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The New Yorker Cartoons (@newyorkercartoons)

Lying Your Way to the Top

by Paul Epps on 1 Jan 2023

For more than a decade, I have been saying in all kinds of venues, in my written journalism, in speeches, and in interviews, that the most bizarre and surreal aspect of American journalism is that getting caught lying is no barrier to advancement and success. Specifically, I’ve long said, as long as you lie for the right people and causes mainly to advance the interest of neo-liberal global economic institutions, or do the bidding of the U.S. security state, then, I said, you can lie for as much as you want and it will not have any impact whatsoever on your career in corporate journalism.

But that formulation that I’ve long endorsed is far too generous to the point of being misleading. Indeed, it’s actually untrue to say that getting caught blatantly lying has no effect on one’s career in corporate journalism. I was wrong about that. It does have an effect, a very big effect. Namely, the more you lie on behalf of power centers, the more advancement, promotion, and success you will be guaranteed in the world of corporate journalism. Indeed, even that amended formulation still does not go far enough. It is really not hyperbole to say that if you really want to rise to the top of the heap of corporate journalism, lying on behalf of power centers is a requirement. Conversely, if you’re unwilling to lie for those power centers, then success in corporate journalism is all but impossible. It’s a requirement for the job. It’s really astonishing because it’s literally true, the journalists who lie most frequently, casually, and aggressively on behalf of government and economic power centers, are the ones who shoot at the top of the corporate journalism ladder

— Glenn Greenwald (emphasis added)

More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of: Gender-Affirming

by Hostile Witness on 31 Dec 2022

“Gender-affirming” can be used in a couple of ways. One is just generically by itself, suggesting that a male announces he’s a female or a female announces she’s a male, and someone with no qualifications at all to diagnose or treat gender dysphoria, e.g., a school teacher, takes the announcement at face value and encourages the person to “be who they are,” or some such thing.

“Gender-affirming” can also be used in a phrase, often “gender-affirming therapy.” Is that really the job of a therapist, to “affirm” whatever self-diagnosis a patient presents with, perhaps accompanied by a little pat on the head? I thought the job of a therapist was to get to the root of whatever is causing a problem in a patient’s life and to work with them in a way that enables them to move forward.

And the root of the problem may not be what the patient says it is.

My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Pelé

by Paul Epps on 29 Dec 2022

Pelé is the the only man to win the World Cup three times, winning with Brazil in the 1958, 1962 and 1970 tournaments. At the time of his first World Cup competition, Pelé was 17 years old and the youngest player to ever participate.

In 1999, the International Olympic Committee gave him the honor of Athlete of the Century.

RIP Pelé

Pele

Individuals Have Rights

by Paul Epps on 26 Dec 2022

Individuals have rights, and there are things no person or group can do to them (without violating their rights). So strong and far-reaching are those rights that they raise the question of what, if anything, the state and its officials may do. . . .

Our main conclusions about the state are that a minimal state, limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts, and so on, is justified; that any more extensive state will violate persons’ rights not to be forced to do certain things, and is unjustified; and that the minimal state is inspiring as well as right. Two noteworthy implications are that the state may not use its coercive apparatus for the purpose of getting some citizens to aid others, or in order to prohibit activities to people for their own good or protection.

— Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia

We Cannot Remain Silent, Except When We Can

by Paul Epps on 26 Dec 2022

We cannot remain silent about Elon Musk’s reckless decision to suspend numerous journalists’ Twitter accounts. — Center for American Progress, AFT and other progressives

The New York Post responds:

“Journalism is the cornerstone of free speech,” 14 progressive groups fume. “An attack on journalism” is an “assault on one of our fundamental pillars.” No, progressives can’t “remain silent” when that happens — unless, of course, it’s The Post reporting a story that’s unfavorable to a Democratic nominee for prez, as with the paper’s 2020 scoop on Hunter Biden’s laptop. When Twitter banned The Post for that, you could’ve heard a pin drop from the supposedly high-minded defenders of “journalism” and “free speech.”

Render Unto Ukraine What We Need at Home

by Paul Epps on 26 Dec 2022

Now, I don’t think it’s controversial to note that many Americans here at home are not doing very well. You can pick whatever problem you think is the gravest: lack of wage increases and wage stagnation; the need to work multiple jobs if you have children, especially even if you’re a married couple — the fact that one parent, if they want, can’t stay home and take care of their children any longer, what was a foundational property of American life for decades and that no longer is the case. It’s gone.

There aren’t enough good jobs, so people have to work two jobs just to sustain their family, to pay other people to raise their kids, and to pay other people to take care of their elderly parents. Huge numbers of people are without health care. Some of those people without health care got Medicaid benefits during the COVID pandemic on the grounds that, ‘look, if we’re going to have this pandemic with a very serious disease that can kill a lot of people, then we ought to give people Medicaid’. Those people, however, are about to lose their Medicaid by the millions — not Ukrainian citizens, but American citizens.

Here you can see, from AP this week, “Millions to Lose Medicaid Coverage Under Congress’s Plan”. The AP reports: “Millions of people who enrolled in Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic could start to lose their coverage on April 1 if Congress passes the $1.7 trillion spending package leaders unveiled Tuesday”. It has money for Ukraine, but not for your fellow citizens to have health care. “The legislation will sunset a requirement that the COVID-19 public health emergency that prohibited states from booting people off Medicaid.”

I really just want anyone to explain to me in clear language how it’s justifiable that the United States is spending $100 billion on a war on the other side of the world where there are no vital U.S. interests, while people at home are suffering in all sorts of ways.

— Glenn Greenwald (emphasis added)

Ukraine: What is the Benefit?

by Paul Epps on 26 Dec 2022

I regard this as the most important question when it comes to the always profound debate of whether the United States government will involve itself in a war or, for that matter, it’s the most important question when it comes to debates over whether the U.S. government will do anything. In what ways has your life or the lives of your families been improved, secured, or enhanced by the more than $100 billion sent by the U.S. government to fuel this war on the other side of the world?

Now, to be fair, there are some Americans whose lives have been materially improved by these expenditures. Those are the tiny sliver of Americans who own large amounts of shares of the leading weapons manufacturers. 2022 has been quite a poor year for the stock market in general. Stocks are down across the board. [NYSE has an overall loss of 13.3% for 2022.] Fortunately, though, arms manufacturers have not succumbed to this decline. And that’s due almost entirely to the ongoing transfer of huge amounts of your money into the coffers of weapons manufacturers to send weapons to Ukraine and then to deplete our own depleted stocks. [Northrop Grumman stock is up almost 40% this year. Lockheed, up over 25%.]

The stockholders are Americans who own large amounts of stock in those countries. But for ordinary Americans, what is the benefit to them from these huge outlays of money for Ukraine? I’m asking that earnestly. I’ve yet to hear any politician who supports these expenditures even once articulate a reason why these expenditures could possibly improve the lives of American citizens, or why the U.S. role in Ukraine could do that.

— Glenn Greenwald (emphasis added)

More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of: RESIST

by Hostile Witness on 24 Dec 2022

I hate all forms of it: RESIST, resistor, resistance, any of the preceding as a hashtag . . .

What do resistors think they’re resisting?

The dominant force in DC, Hollywood, academia, the US Security State, corporate media and Big Tech is liberalism. Resistors are about servitude to power.

As devastating as it is to their self-image as brave dissidents and radicals — nobody in any power center regards them as threatening. They’re servants, obedient dweebs, useful tools for these institutions of power. No Democratic politician or group would be censored by Big Tech.

FBI: Exposé of Our Spread of Misinformation is “Misinformation”

by Paul Epps on 24 Dec 2022

The “Twitter Files” have been coming out in installments over the last couple weeks or so, documenting how the FBI, CIA, the Democratic party, almost every major news outlet, and tech giants like Twitter collaborated to label any information that might make people want to vote against Democrats as “misinformation,” and using that label to justify hiding the information from public view.

The centerpiece of this collaboration was the Hunter Biden laptop story, reported by the New York Post shortly before the 2020 election.

50 members of the U.S. intelligence community signed a letter, which, if you read it carefully, said that the laptop could be Russian “disinformation,” although there was no evidence that it was Russian disinformation, and they really had no way of knowing whether it was Russian disinformation, but that it looked like like the kind of sneaky trick that Russia would pull, knowing that it would be lazily reported (it was) as “U.S. intelligence community says Hunter Biden laptop looks like Russian disinformation.”

This was then used as a justification for banning the New York Post story from Twitter (even via direct messaging), suspending the New York Post Twitter account, and suspending other accounts that tried to tweet out the story.

We know now, with the 2020 election long past, that every word of the New York Post story was true, and that the FBI and the Democratic party were in constant contact with Twitter to suppress tweets and accounts containing “misinformation,” i.e., information that they would prefer to hide from the citizenry. The FBI even paid Twitter millions of dollars for its efforts in this scam.

The FBI has had about 2 weeks to respond to the “Twitter Files” and it seems like the best they’ve been able to come up with is to label them as — that’s right — “misinformation.”

It would be hilarious if it weren’t so dystopian.

It’s Great to Be an American

by Paul Epps on 23 Dec 2022

Stanford University has released a guide to eliminate “harmful language.” I haven’t read it. It must be pretty extensive as it has 10 “harmful language” sections: ableist, ageism, colonialism, culturally appropriative, gender-based, imprecise language, institutionalized racism, person-first, violent and additional considerations.

Among the words the university urges people to avoid is “American.” People are instead urged to use “U.S. Citizen” because “American” typically refers to “people from the United States only, thereby insinuating that the US is the most important country in the Americas.” The Americas, the index notes, comprises 42 countries.

Well . . . the United States is the most important country in the Americas. Or if it isn’t, what is?

Anyway, this guide reminds me of a couple of things. George Orwell used to say “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

And Salman Rushdie has said, “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” That’s a strong one because Rushdie has literally put his life on the line for it.

And here I’ll add my own admonition: Don’t traffic with anyone who considers it important to control the way other people speak.

EppsNet Book Reviews: Night Train by Martin Amis

by Paul Epps on 23 Dec 2022

A police officer investigates the apparent suicide of a longtime friend.

There are layers here. Peel them away and each one is darker than the last.

If you have someone on your gift list who you’d like to see become so depressed that they end their own life, give them this book.

Rating:

Winter Palace

by Paul Epps on 23 Dec 2022

Most people know more as they get older:
I give all that the cold shoulder.

I spent my second quarter-century
Losing what I had learnt at university.

And refusing to take in what had happened since.
Now I know none of the names in the public prints,

And am starting to give offence by forgetting faces
And swearing I’ve never been in certain places.

It will be worth it, if in the end I manage
To blank out whatever it is that is doing the damage.

Then there will be nothing I know.
My mind will fold into itself, like fields, like snow.

— Philip Larkin, “Winter Palace”

Love Songs in Age

by Paul Epps on 23 Dec 2022

She kept her songs, they kept so little space,
The covers pleased her:
One bleached from lying in a sunny place,
One marked in circles by a vase of water,
One mended, when a tidy fit had seized her,
And coloured, by her daughter –
So they had waited, till, in widowhood
She found them, looking for something else, and stood

Relearning how each frank submissive chord
Had ushered in
Word after sprawling hyphenated word,
And the unfailing sense of being young
Spread out like a spring-woken tree, wherein
That hidden freshness sung,
That certainty of time laid up in store
As when she played them first. But, even more,

The glare of that much-mentioned brilliance, love,
Broke out, to show
Its bright incipience sailing above,
Still promising to solve, and satisfy,
And set unchangeably in order. So
To pile them back, to cry,
Was hard, without lamely admitting how
It had not done so then, and could not now.

— Philip Larkin, “Love Songs in Age”

A Berkeley Prof Explains Why Grocery Prices Are Skyrocketing

by Paul Epps on 21 Dec 2022

The question is why are they skyrocketing NOW? There's nothing in your tweet that hasn't been true for 10 years. You don't have to be a Berkeley prof to know that so why are you pumping out this BS? https://t.co/rtp6bJM65G

— Paul Epps (@paulepps) December 22, 2022

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