The job might be a bit different, but the Islamic State apparently has HR issues just like anywhere else.
According to a new report by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center, recovered ISIS documents show the group is suffering from financial pressures amid coalition airstrikes and struggling to keep costs down and retain employees after “reductions in benefits for Islamic State fighters.” From CNN:
The internal directives also call on ISIS fighters to reduce their electricity consumption and to stop driving official vehicles for personal use, a curbing of “perks” [report author Aymenn] al-Tamimi said was indicative of an organization under financial strain.
Documents obtained earlier had shown that ISIS members stationed in Raqqa, Syria, ISIS’ de facto capital, had to undergo a 50% pay cut.
One surprising document suggests that a number of ISIS members have even been trying to get falsified doctor’s notes “in order to avoid frontline duty,” according to Al-Tamimi.
“To the doctor brothers in Wilayat al-Kheir,” reads the memo. “We remind you that the medical report is tantamount to a witness statement and any doctor whose report we discover to be untrue will be held to account.”
Unfortunately, these problems don’t mean the Islamic State is likely to disappear anytime soon: Al-Tamimi concludes that people living in ISIS-ruled areas are accustomed to hardship and “will likely stomach further decreases in quality of life for the time being rather than rebel and risk a brutal crackdown.”
In addition to “reptilian personality” and “questionable hygiene,” Ted Cruz can now count “math” among the reasons why he won’t win the Republican nomination before July’s convention.
Still, that leaves Cruz a little better off than reluctant collaborator John Kasich, who has to win an even higher (imaginary) percentage of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination.
In a telephone interview with CNN, Donald Trump clarified his remarks last night that Hillary Clinton is “playing the woman card.” On Wednesday morning, he told CNN, “She does have the woman card.” However: “a lot of women don’t like Hillary, despite the card.”
In fact, Trump said, Clinton “is playing the woman card left and right.” The Republican frontrunner also claimed Tuesday that he will do more for women than Clinton ever would. (This isn’t the first time he’s played the “Hillary is playing the woman card” card, either.)
“She didn’t play it” in 2008, Trump said of Clinton’s woman card, which exists. But “she’s doing it more now. She’ll be called on it.”
The yogurt business is not the happy field of pleasant cows that you might imagine. It’s a seething hive of trickery, con jobs, and hustlers who will go to almost any length to make you, the consumer, forget that you are eating bad yogurt.
Cry over spilt milk? I won’t. But you know who should? You, the consumer. Because it is become increasingly clear that Big Yogurt has a smokescreen hiding around every last corner. And none of those smokescreens are made of high quality thick and creamy yogurt with a satisfying mouthfeel.
Yesterday, one Yogurt Company That Will Not Be Named wallowed in kudos for a very public Gesture That Shall Not Be Named designed to financially enrich its hardworking employees. Lost amid the plaudits from the easily distracted punditry was the fact that Chobani tastes like cow piss. One imagines that a large financial windfall is the very least that the executives of this Yogurt Company That Will Not Be Named could do to compensate its employees for the fact that they may never know the pleasure of using their yogurtmaking skills to produce yogurt that is actually tasty.
We shall speak no more of this.
We shall, however, relay to you the grim fact that this sort of dairy-based sleight of hand is not unique to the Yogurt Company That Will Not Be Named. It seems that DANNON, the yogurt that you ate when you were a kid before they invented good yogurt, is now undertaking an ostentatious program to ensure you, the consumer, that DANNON uses milk suppliers that adhere to various “animal welfare standards” and other environmental practices from which one can derive positive feelings. Not part of the new set of standards: a standard for making good yogurt.
Such gestures by these second-rate yogurt companies should be applauded. A gentle clap as you pass by them in the yogurt aisle on the way to the good yogurt should be sufficient.
That presents an uncomfortable reality for anti-Trump forces: they’re attempting to thwart the candidate who is likely to win more Republican primary votes than any GOP contender in at least the last 36 years, and maybe ever.
In an email to POLITICO, University of Minnesota political science professor (and Smart Politics blogger) Eric Ostermeier noted that only eight candidates have won more than 7.5 million Republican primary votes since the advent of the modern primary and caucus system. Ronald Reagan won about 7.7 million votes in 1980, the fewest other than George W. Bush’s 7.6 million in 2004, when he didn’t face a primary challenge.
The Islamic State exerts strict control on how it is represented in media: most accounts of what it is like to fight for ISIS take the form of glamorous propaganda.
The Pentagon recently pledged $415 million in aid to the Peshmerga, who are expected to assist the Iraqi military in its campaign to reclaim Mosul from ISIS.
Yesterday, Esquire.com published a piece of commentary by the author who goes by the Twitter handle @ProfJeffJarvis. @ProfJeffJarvis is not the former TV Guide critic and journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, but his online persona satirizes a mode of thinking that the real Jarvis is known for. After the real Jeff Jarvis complained, Esquire deleted the story. It runs below as originally published, with permission from @ProfJeffJarvis.
The outstanding piece by Jim VandeHei in the Wall Street Journal really struck a chord with me, and articulated something I have been thinking for a long time. Decades since the creation of the computer, and 15 years since the start of the #social era, I must know: Why are our politics still so backward?
So, today, I’m announcing that I am joining The Innovation Party.
This is not a tired old establishment political party, with its focus on bamboozling people into giving us their “votes.” Nor is it a party founded on polarizing demagoguery, Trump-style, or making feckless promises like Bernie Sanders.
No, this is a party founded on technology, and its ability to change the world. The Innovation Party will be algorithm-first—truly the greatest happiness for the greatest number—rather than a constant horse-trade that pits one group against another in the name of so-called “democracy.”
The Innovation Party will be phablet-first, and communicate only via push notifications to smartphones. The only deals it cuts will be with Apple and Google, not with special interests. We will integrate natively with iOS and Android, and spread the message using emojis and GIFs, rather than the earth-killing longform print mailers of yesteryear. This will give us direct access to netizens, so we can be more responsive than any political party in history.
We will be all about transparency. Our party leaders will leave their DMs open on Twitter, and post their Apple IDs on their Facebook page, so any netizen can Facetime with their new rulers at any hour of the day. We will even support Windows Phone and the BlackBerry Priv, to make sure that no netizen is left behind.
The Innovation Party will post its manifesto on Medium, and it will carefully read all Genius annotations about its policies, to make sure it stays accountable and truly enacts the will of the people. We will offer regular updates by posting micro-manifestos, either to Medium or to Plurk, such as “Why I’m raising a VAT,” or “Why you’re leaving New York” if we decide that resettlements are needed.
It’s not only traditionally public social media where The Innovation Party will be open and transparent. All party leaders’ Snapchat Stories must be set to “Everyone,” rather than only “My Friends.” Incremental change is not enough at this point.
With the full support of Apple and Google, and deep embedding into their OS, there will no longer be a need for lobbyists. We can go directly to the people, with Twitter Polls on traditionally fraught issues. Let the netizens decide, at last.
Similarly, instead of vesting too much authority in one person, the President of the United States, with all the temptations for abuse that centralizing power entails, we can and will distribute our power. Netizens will be co-opted to both fly drones over Pakistan, East Africa, and other trouble spots, and also to make the difficult call: Does this house really look like it is harboring terrorists? And should we deploy a Hellfire missile at the house or not? Cast your votes!
The Innovation Party will, in close cooperation with the App Store and Google Play, create a series of national apps: for example, to match unemployed citizens with on-demand services who need workers, or to identify overpopulated cities that need de-settling.
I really believe it’s time for a sea change in our civic life and government. We can leave behind the dumb politics of “meatspace” and drive the conversation straight ahead to Future Politics, where algorithms and coders make the best possible decisions for the many, not the few.
We are the Innovation Party. I hope you’ll join us on your preferred medium.
Prof Jeff Jarvis is a Hyperglocal thinkfluencer and a Journalism 3.0 advocate. He is the cofounder @ Mogadishu:REinvent unconference and CEO Mogadishu Capital Partners LLC. Not @JeffJarvis.
On April 12, Civilian Complaint Review Board Executive Director Mina Malik and her deputy, Robia Charles, brought a lawsuit against their boss, CCRB Chairman Richard Emery. The suit alleged that Emery referred to female employees as “pussies,” and that Emery slashed Malik’s responsibilities at the board when she filed a formal complaint about his behavior.
Malik and Charles’s lawyer told the New York Times that the plaintiffs were dropping the suit because of Mayor de Blasio’s “swift and decisive” acceptance of Emery’s resignation, and that they reserved the right to refile the suit at any time. “We hope that the filing of this lawsuit sends a powerful message to all of those who silently suffer at the hands of discriminatory and retaliatory employers that the legal system can create positive change,” the attorney, Douglas H. Wigdor, told the Times.
Emery denies the claim of sexism, calling the suit against him “frivolous and a distraction.”
Earlier this year, The New York Daily News reported that the chairman’s private law practice represented a client who was suing the NYPD based in part on a complaint he’d filed with the CCRB. Police union officials, eager to pile on a guy who makes his living criticizing the police, called Emery out on the apparent conflict of interest, and he responded by saying they were “squealing like stuck pigs.” Nice choice of words.
Former U.S. Congressman and accused child molester Dennis Hastert was confronted in open court today by one of his alleged victims, the brother of his longtime ally, former Illinois State Rep. Tom Cross.
Federal agents say Hastert allegedly assaulted at least four male students he encountered as a teacher and wrestling coach at the Yorkville High School, where he worked in the 1970's before entering national politics.
Hastert will never be charged with those alleged assaults because the statute of limitations has expired, but he did plead guilty to banking fraud charges after the feds caught him withdrawing millions of dollars in cash to pay off at least one of the alleged victims, referred to in court papers as “Victim A.”
Another victim, who was referred to in court papers only as “Victim D,” identified himself during proceedings as Scott Cross, a 53-year-old former student of Hastert’s, who now works as a banking executive.
During the sentencing hearing, Cross, at times in tears, spoke publicly about Hastert’s abuse for the first time. Cross says he wrestled for Hastert and was stunned by the abuse, which he said occurred when he was a 17-year-old high school senior.
“I’ve always felt that what Coach Hastert had done to me was my darkest secret,” Cross testified Wednesday. “I was alone. Coach Hastert told me I could lose weight by giving me a massage. I trusted him and took him at his word.”
Cross also testified that Hastert would routinely watch the boys shower from a recliner outside the locker room bathrooms.
Cross’s brother, former Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross, is a long-time Hastert supporter who has referred to the disgraced Congressman as a “political mentor” and sponsored a bill honoring him in 2008.
“Denny Hastert was a mentor, a parent and was a coach in so many ways and made them exceptional individuals as they went on in life,” Tom Cross reportedly explained in March 2013. “I also want to say thank you to Denny Hastert who has done so many great things for this state and political world, and we appreciate that on both sides of the aisle, I know.”
When Hastert was initially accused of improperly withdrawing funds to pay off his alleged victims, Rep. Cross told reporters he was “speechless” over the allegations.
“I am speechless. He is my friend, has been my friend [and] will always be my friend,”he told NBC Chicago at the time.
Hastert, who had 60 of his influential friends and family write letters asking the judge for leniency, apparently asked Rep. Cross to submit one as well. The Chicago Tribunereports that Rep. Cross was at that point aware that Hastert had allegedly molested his brother and did not respond.
Hastert, who testified after Cross, admitted “mistreating” some of the athletes he coached and reportedly answered “yes” when the judge asked if he had molested one of the alleged victims, Stephen Reinboldt. Confronted with Cross’ testimony, Hastert reportedly said, “I don’t remember that, but I accept his statement.”
The judge, who called Hastert a “serial child molester,” said Hastert will be required to register as a sex offender and may not contact any of his alleged victims as part of his conditional release.
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Today only, Amazon’s offering big discounts on a wide array of Skechers shoes, running the gamut from sandals to athletic sneakers to leather oxfords. Prices start under $20, so run, don’t walk, over to Amazon and make your selections before they start selling out.
Just note that this is a Gold Box deal, meaning these prices are only available today, and the best stuff could sell out early. Let us know what you got in the comments!
Let’s be honest here, thin fabric koozies are mostly useful for decoration; they don’t really keep a can cold for very long. This imposing metal Thermos contraption though? It’s the real deal.
Thermos’s stainless steel can insulator uses vacuum insulation and thick walls to actually provide a barrier between your beverage and the outside world. They go so far as to claim that it will keep a can cold for up to 3 hours, and even if that’s a little bit of marketing hyperbole, what could possibly be in that can that takes more than an hour to drink?
Over 1,200 Amazon reviewers have given the Thermos a 4.6 star review average, and you can get one (or more!) for just $9 right now. Cheers!
I can’t say I have experience with this model, but I bought the 700W Breville BJE200XL for my parents last year, and, well, I’ll let you watch the video below to witness the horror it unleashes on an unpeeled orange.
I recently acquired a Roomba 770, which is basically identical to the 650, but with HEPA filters and an extra virtual wall. While it does require a bit of babysitting from time to time, I haven’t vacuumed my house manually in over a month, and yet the floors always feel clean, even with two pets.
Can’t make it through 18 holes with losing a sleeve of golf balls? This deal will net you 48 recycled Nike balls for just $17, the best price Amazon’s ever listed. Reviews are admittedly a little mixed; some people say they got Callaway balls, and others complain of excessive scuffling, but it might be worth the risk if you’re just buying them for practice purposes.
If your Wi-Fi signal isn’t quite strong enough in certain corners of your home, this discounted wireless Powerline kit can fill in the gaps.
The kit comes with two pieces, an adapter and an access point. All you have to do is connect the adapter to your router with an ethernet cable, and plug it into an AC outlet on your wall. Then, plug in the wireless access point into another outlet, and all of the 1s and 0s will flow between them via your home’s existing electrical wiring, essentially turning the access point into an extra wireless router.
The kit almost always sells for $100 on Amazon, and today’s $80 deal matches an all-time low. If it helps eliminate your wireless dead zones, that’ll be money well spent.
A lot of you have bought compact car jump starters in the last year or so, but if you don’t want to pop your hood and hook up cables to use them, this gadget from Aukey will allow you to jump start your car from inside the cabin.
Just hook one end up to your jump starter, plug the other into a DC outlet in your car, and you’re ready to go. It also doubles as a voltage meter, so you can monitor the health of your car battery before it starts giving you problems.
Don’t have a jump starter yet? Here’s one for just $33.
While not without its flaws, Garmin’s Vivofit fitness tracker is unique in offering a truly waterproof design, the ability to pair with a heart rate monitor, and most notably, over a year of battery life via a standard watch battery. When it launched a couple years ago, the tracker and an optional heart rate monitor would have set you back $170, but now, you can get both for just $50.
If you still haven’t picked up Audio-Technica’s coveted ATH-M50x headphones, BuyDig’s eBay store will sell you a pair for $99 today, complete with a $30 VUDU credit and three months of Rhapsody. Even without the toss-ins, that’s one of the best deals we’ve ever seen.
The R2 can shoot at resolutions exceeding standard 1080p (2560x1080 or 2304x1296), and its 170 degree field of view means you’ll never miss a license plate, crash, or meteorite. This deal is easily the best we’ve seen on this model, but we don’t expect it to last long.
Big, hulking USB battery packs have their place, but sometimes, you need just need a pocket-friendly charger to drag your phone’s battery over the finish line and get through a day. This 3600mAh Aukey pack should be good for about a full phone charge, and it’s one of the thinnest I’ve ever seen.
If your ultraportable laptop doesn’t have quite enough USB ports, this travel-friendly hub will add three extras for just $9. Obviously, it’ll work with essentially any laptop, but its brushed aluminum design will look right at home next to a Mac.
$20 water-resistant Bluetooth speakers aren’t exactly rare, but I appreciate that this one from Mpow includes a suction cup mount to stick to the wall. It’s like a shower radio for 2016.
Most high-end gaming keyboards use mechanical switches, but if you prefer laptop-style chiclet keys, this Razer DeathStalker deal is right up your alley.
Like all modern Razer products, the DeathStalker works with Razer’s Synapse service, allowing you to save and sync your custom settings and macros to the cloud. Today’s $50 deal is the lowest it’s been all year, so click over to Amazon to lock in your order before it sells out.
If you’re sick of renting carpet washers every time you spot a new stain, you can buy your own for just $134. The Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe has a squeaky-clean 4.4 star review average from over 4,000 customers, and while today’s price isn’t an all-time low, it’s on the low end of its usual range.
Today’s Amazon Gold Box features deals on several iSonic ultrasonic cleaners, starting at $28. The smallest model is suitable for dentures, retainers, and the like, while the larger models can accommodate silverware, coins, gun parts, and a lot more. This is a Gold Box deal, so be sure to grab yours before they’re all cleaned out.
Packing cubes can make organizing clothes and toiletries for your next trip a little less hellish, and this highly-rated set of four from AmazonBasics is only $20 today. That’s $5 less than usual, and an all-time low. I actually just bought a set of these, and I absolutely love them.
Just to give you an example of how good this deal is, that promo code will net you 24 Pace 4 cartridges for about $20. These are the exact same cartridges, and work with the same handle, as Dollar Shave Club’s “4X” razor. But with Dollar Shave Club, you’d pay $36 over six months to receive the same number of blades. Even if you had to buy a handle from Dorco (which comes with two extra cartridges), you’d still come out way ahead.
Anker, purveyor of your favorite battery packs, Bluetooth earbuds, speakers, and more, is taking $6 off their PowerPort 4 USB charger today with promo code L7PU4JGO (black model) or QAAUTP8Q (white model). Featuring a foldable plug, 100-240 volt support, and 40W shared between four PowerIQ ports, this is an ideal USB charger for frequent travelers.
Obviously, this isn’t a cable you’ll want to travel everywhere with, but if you want to be able to charge your phone or tablet while sitting on the couch, or if your nightstand is are away from the nearest outlet, an extra-long cable like this should get the job done.
When it comes time to upgrade to 4K, you might as well take the opportunity to upgrade your TV’s size as well. This 65" Panasonic is marked down to $999 today, which is one of the best prices we’ve ever seen on any 4K TV of that size.
If your nearest movie theater is run by AMC or Regal, these discounted gift cards will save you 20% on your next outing. When popcorn costs $8, every buck you can save helps.
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Arianna Huffington, a famous liberal pundit who is also the editor-in-chief of one of America’s biggest online news sites, is now a board member of Uber. How does that...work?
Arianna Huffington is not just a professional schmoozer who writes books about why you should take naps; she is also the editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post. She has always taken a very hands-on approach to the editorial affairs of her enormous news site. (For example, she just hired her daughter as executive producer of a lavish new HuffPo video series.) At the same time, she is a prominent *OPEN SCARE QUOTES* “liberal” *CLOSE SCARE QUOTES* pundit, though her main activity in the class war has been terrorizing her own employees and helping out her prominent friends.
Uber, on the other hand, is a company valued at more than $60 billion that has earned the ire of the labor movement by systematically enriching itself by classifying its workers as “independent contractors” rather than regular employees. Forget undermining the taxi industry—many have a legitimate fear that Uber’s business model, left unchecked, could undermine the very foundations of the American middle class lifestyle, which has long relied on requiring employees to afford certain rights and benefits to employees. How quaint! Uber, a very newsworthy company, is also routinely reported on by journalists who work at HuffPo.
Today, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced via slickly produced video and blog post (crossposted to HuffPo, naturally) that Arianna is joining the company’s board, writing that “she believes deeply in our mission,” which he defines as “transportation as reliable as running water,” rather than the more accurate “making me and a small group of investors extremely wealthy.” He goes on to relay this story of dubious accuracy:
At a staff event last fall, Arianna told the crowd how she once used Uber to conjure a little magic of her own.
She recalled a panicked phone call from her former sister-in-law, Terry, who needed a ride for her daughter, who was stuck in Brooklyn during a snowstorm. Terry had tried every car service in town before calling her. “No problem,” Arianna said. “Tell Lindsay to look outside her window — there will be a car waiting for her in five minutes.” The crowd roared when she told them, “For the first time in my life, I felt like a genuine Greek goddess.”
Did the crowd really “roar?” Because that story is not funny. (Anyone who was present at this staff event, please email me.)
Even for a woman whose career is built on a foundation of gratuitously self-serving schmoozing with the global elite, this is clearly both an editorial and a political conflict of interest. One HuffPo reporter, alluding to Arianna’s troublesome history of editorial advocacy for her friends, told us “People are obviously uncomfortable with the relationship, but at least we’re aware of this one.”
Arianna Huffington is also a board member of the Center for Public Integrity, an organization whose mission is “To serve democracy by revealing abuses of power, corruption and betrayal of public trust by powerful public and private institutions.” Her knowledge in this field continues to grow.
We have asked Huffington for comment and will update if we hear from her.
Durst was arrested in New Orleans in March of last year, on the day that he appeared to confess to murder in the final episode of the the HBO show he sparked into production.
Of course, those seven years on that gun charge are the least of Durst’s worries. He is still set to face trial in Los Angeles for the murder of Susan Berman, who Durst allegedly killed so that she wouldn’t speak to authorities regarding the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack. At sentencing today, Durst’s attorneys asked that he be allowed to serve the seven years at a prison in California.
Higher education is an industry with a two-tier employment system: the full time and tenured professors and the administrators with well-compensated, stable jobs, and the adjunct professors who have no guarantee of job stability and pay near poverty levels. Last week, we asked for adjunct professors to write in and tell us about their financial, professional, and personal situations. We’ve received nearly 200 responses so far. Some common themes have emerged.
The pay is bad.
A commonly cited figure for adjunct pay is $2,700 per class. Our respondents mostly confirmed this as a general average, with most saying they were paid between $2,000 and $4,000 per class, though some schools fell higher or lower. Those whose positions were unionized (or at least somewhat organized) uniformly reported better pay, though some also reported retaliation against them from institutions bitter that they unionized in the first place. All agreed, though, that when you broke it down to an hourly wage by how much work is actually required, adjunct pay is absurdly low.
“I teach 5 courses per year, and make $21k before taxes. As you might imagine, each course takes work: we meet 2-3 times per week for a total of 150 minutes; each of these meetings takes about 1.5 hours of prep time, and then grading for each takes an average of 5 hours/week. Throw in office hours and it comes to the 40-hour week.”
“My quality of life is garbage. I share a two-bedroom apartment with three other people and I can’t afford to get a haircut. I’m on food stamps. My parents pay for gas for my car and for my health insurance, or I wouldn’t have any. People are incredulous when they find out that someone with a graduate degree in math lives like I do.”
“I’d make more money per hour if I worked retail.”
Many adjuncts must hustle madly just to make a living.
It is not just the low pay that makes adjunct careers so maddening. Many adjuncts say that they are forced to accept teaching gigs at several different far-flung campuses during the same semester, leading to long commutes and little time for anything else in life, just to try to scrape together a living. Others hold second or third jobs, teaching in the day and then bartending or tutoring at night. The nonstop scrambling makes it hard for adjuncts to form personal and professional relationships on campus, which in turn makes it harder for them to further their careers. It’s an academic treadmill to nowhere.
“I get paid $2000 a class but am only teaching one class due to a combination of long commutes and my desire to get a real full time job being exploited by corporate America. If my labor is gonna be exploited, I would at least like to be paid a living wage. I work for this one class roughly 12-15 hours a week. It was closer to 30 last semester, but I am teaching the same class and am recycling most of the tests, homework assignments, and presentations. Still the amount I work (due to professional pride) combined with the paltry amount of pay I get, is not very heartening.”
“I am an adjunct in the English department at a large public University in Texas. I also teach classes for a local community college. In addition, I do academic odd jobs, like ‘coaching’ in gigantic online distance ed classes and scoring AP exams. I started teaching in 2003 at the same time as I started grad school as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, teaching two classes while enrolled in 6 hours of coursework for what seemed at the time a princely sum of 18k a year (it was better than what I made waiting tables. On the other hand, I waited tables with a guy who was an adjunct and I’m pretty sure he made more waiting tables than he did teaching.)“
The Ph.D. system is unsustainable
Tons of people enter grad school and take on heavy student debt with the idea that they will become tenured professors when they get out. Most of them find that to be an impossible dream. Good, full-time teaching jobs are scarce and incredibly competitive. Simple math dictates that most Ph.D.’s will be forced into lower-paid adjunct teaching gigs—turning out replicas of themselves, the next generation of indebted and disappointed aspiring academics. The supply of new graduates vastly outstrips the demand for tenured college professors.
“It will end when the system no longer over-produces Ph.D.s. I recall quite clearly when a former colleague, when asked to justify his proposal for creating a Ph.D. program in Political Science at his, at best, third rate university explained that- ‘I’ve always wanted to be able to direct a dissertation.’ He was utterly unconcerned about whether the student would ever be able to get a job or pay off debt. If they were at all ethical, the major academic societies would convene in a small room, and after much discussion, brandy, and fine cigars, would arrive at a number. That number is the replacement rate needed for each field’s actual Ph.D. market. Sadly, there is no incentive for this to happen, and every incentive to keep producing even in the face of declining demand.”
“The problem, as your article points out, is that nobody is hiring. I’ve been on the market twice now, which means that this year I was applying for jobs alongside of people who just earned their degrees — and so this year, my cohort of 4 applied alongside another dozen or so. Of roughly 16 people (I don’t have the numbers on this exactly), 1 person landed a job. And of course, next year, those numbers will increase: the system has hit a bottleneck, so much so that after being told that the department intended to bring me back next year, just yesterday I received an email with the clause: “However, because of what is potentially an unprecedented number of new post-docs, we are uncertain at this time about our staffing needs for the fall. I wanted to let you know about the possibility that we may not be able to rehire you now so that you have some lead time to plan for that contingency.”
“When I was a GTA, I felt like there was an expectation that all of us would go on to be tenured professors. When I transitioned to being an Adjunct, I realized that the expectation was that we had pretty much no future and were as a group really depressing to hang out with since we reminded people what an awful scam the humanities was and how it was basically a bunch of postmodernists and Marxists running a Dickensian workhouse.”
So where is all the money in higher education going? To middle management administrators, not teachers.
Over and over again, adjuncts bitterly noted the swelling ranks of well-paid administrators in their universities, even as the people who actually do the bulk of the teaching remain poor. Some said that they saw tenured professors as allies; others said that those professors, who are paid multiples of what adjuncts get for essentially the same work, turn a blind eye to the inequities of the system that supports them.
“I think the enemy of the adjunct is not necessarily the full-time faculty (who are alternately busy and lazy), but administrations.”
“I would love to see instructor pay increase and to eliminate the exorbitant pay that many university presidents and administrators are receiving, but I just don’t see this happening.”
“Teaching is my passion. It’s what I’m good at. I love it, I love my students, they love me. It is continual heartache, degradation, and false hope to continue in this fundamentally exploitative system. Increasingly, I fault tenured professors who are able to maintain the belief in a meritocracy- that somehow they deserve making twice what I make.”
We will leave you with one response we got from a veteran adjunct, summing up many of the issues that others cited.
The following are my observations as an adjunct.
If you don’t get a tenure track position immediately out of grad school, you never will. There is no possibility that you will ever be even considered for a tenure track position if you’re one year away from exit from grad school. This is institutionalized regardless of your field.
Accumulated real world experience in your field’s private sector, or professional academic publication, bar none, acquired after graduate school has zero value to tenure track employment. This is not only my own experience. Any adjunct will attest to this.
There is a commonplace argument and perception that working adjunct has always been in place for people with sustaining outside jobs, who ostensibly bring real-world experience to the classroom. This is not only faulty thinking, it’s patently absurd. No real-world person ever comes even close to being assigned to teach in-depth courses.
I’ve worked adjunct for 10 years. The $2700 per course salary is set and controlled by the State’s board of regents, all of whom are clearly in lockstep nationally. It isn’t a criterion that a college sets.
We all know about administration’s salary bloat. Unionizing has the dual nature of having to deal with opposition from state’s teachers’ unions, from which the limitation of no-more-than-three-classes-per-campus sources. That’s an institutionalized problem for adjuncts.
My experience has been crushing penury. A little-discussed financial issue is that I, nor any other adjunct, can afford the expense of multiple commutes to far-flung campuses.
Professors (on tenure track as well as tenured) where I’ve worked have all, to a person, been in support of adjunct salary increases. Faculty’s stripping of effective power to sit on budget committees (as well as other vital committees) has been, in my experience, the greatest source of anger among faculty.
We will be running more stories from academia’s underclass in the weeks to come. Thanks to everyone who wrote in to share their stories.
Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House lauded by his political friends and family as “a man of high moral character”—the “best kind of public official,” who “doesn’t deserve what he is going through”—just admitted in open court that he is a serial child molester.
“I mistreated some of my athletes that I coached,” Hastert admitted Wednesday at his sentencing hearing. “I’m deeply ashamed to be standing before you today.”
When the judge specifically asked him if he’d sexually abused a former student named Stephen Reinboldt, Hastert said, “Yes.”
Hastert, who was a child molester long before he was elected to Congress in 1987, is alleged to have abused at least four students during his time as a teacher and wrestling coach at the Yorkville High School.
But he’ll never be charged for those crimes, which expired under Illinois’s statute of limitations, and rightfully should have landed him decades in prison. Instead, he’ll serve fifteen months in prison for banking fraud charges tied to secret payoffs he was making to one of his victims, identified in court papers only as “Victim A.”
His supporters... don’t seem to care. Before his sentencing today, Hastert received letters of support from 60 prominent friends and family members—43 of which were made public—asking the sentencing judge for leniency because of what a good man he is.
“I know his heart and have seen it up close and personal. We all have our flaws but Dennis Hastert has very few,” says Former Majority Leader Tom Delay, who in 2003 sponsored a bill that would have eliminated the statue of limitations on sex crimes involving children. “He doesn’t deserve what he is going through.”
“I know him as a man of faith, integrity and honesty,” says Former U.S. Congressman Thomas W. Ewing in Hastert’s defense.
The list goes on. It does not include testimony from Hastert’s political protegé, Illinois State Rep. Tom Cross—who said he was “speechless” over the allegations involving his “friend”—because Hastert allegedly abused Cross’s brother, Scott. (According to the Chicago Tribune, Cross found out about the alleged abuse sometime before the sentencing portion of the case and declined to participate.)
A judge today sentenced former U.S. Congressman and admitted child molester Dennis Hastert to fifteen months in federal prison—longer than the government had requested—citing the severity of Hastert’s crimes.
“Some conduct is unforgivable no matter how old it is,” Judge Durkin said to Hastert at the sentencing hearing this morning. “There is nothing ambiguous about this. This is sexual abuse.”
Hastert, who was accused of improperly withdrawing funds to pay off one of his accusers, was not charged with the molestation because the Illinois state of limitations had already expired. Instead he pleaded guilty to banking fraud charges, for which the government asked the court to sentence him to six months. Hastert, citing his ailing health and record in the U.S. House of Representatives, requested probation.
During the sentencing hearing, one alleged victim, Scott Cross, and the family of another, Stephen Reinboldt, testified about the alleged abuse. Hastert, during his testimony, admitted abusing Reinboldt, but said he could not remember touching Cross.
Calling Hastert a “serial child molester,” who lied to the FBI—a crime in and of itself—the judge rejected both sentencing recommendations, and instead sentenced Hastert to fifteen months.
“This is not meant to be a death sentence,” said Durkin, who had discretion to sentence Hastert to up to five years. The judge says he will recommend Hastert be housed in a level four medical facility. Hastert will also have to register for sex offender treatment, undergo two years of supervised release after his sentence, and pay a $250,000 fine.
On Tuesday, Maryland State Senator Jamie Raskin—a professor at American University and the husband of deputy treasury secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin—won Maryland’s 8th Congressional District Democratic primary, triumphing over both a former corporate executive married to a national television anchor, and a self-funding millionaire businessman. It was an expensive loss for them both.
Initially, the Washington Post recalls, Silver Spring’s gilded primary, which includes affluent suburbs north of Washington, D.C., looked to be a race between Raskin and Kathleen Matthews, theformer television anchor and Marriott International executive who is married to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. That expectation was upset when Democratic fundraiser and philanthropist David Trone, who owns a national chain of liquor stores, entered the race shortly before the February 3 deadline.
The millionaire businessman quickly made up for lost time: “I’ve spent $9.1 million to date on my campaign. Campaigns shouldn’t be this expensive,” Trone wrote in an ad he placed in the Post. “But they are, especially when you’re a big underdog in a fragmented media market.” (Other candidates included Will Jawondo, a former White House staffer who “has just about the perfect pedigree for an aspiring young politician.”)
According to a Baltimore Sun report from earlier this month, the candidates in the Democratic primary spent more than $14 million on the election, making it the most expensive House race in the nation—even without the $9.9 million Trone had spent by that point. In the weeks following that analysis, FEC filings show, Trone dropped another $2.7 million, bringing his total to $12.7 million.
Matthews, meanwhile, raised more than $2.5 million, including a $500,000 loan to her own campaign. Raskin’s no slouch, either: He raised more than $1.8 million, though he only spent $2,000 on himself. According to financial disclosure reports, Raskin and his wife list assets worth up to $6.8 million.
Unfortunately, Chris Matthews wasn’t on air last night to call his wife’s loss. Fellow MSNBC anchor Brian Williams told viewers that Matthews was off “attending to family business,” the nature of which was not explained.
Fifteen years after 9/11, the American public still doesn’t know if elements in the government of Saudi Arabia, an American strategic ally and client state, aided the hijackers. But according to once-secret U.S. government notes declassified last year, one of the conspirators, arrested in Pakistan in 2002, was found with what could be a clue.
Present and former American legislators are pushing for the declassification of those redacted 28 pages, and even advocating for 9/11 victims’ rights to sue the Saudi Arabian government, whileSaudi Arabia itself has made it clear they’re ready to retaliate if documents go public; foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir says his government would sell $750 billion in U.S. treasury securities should pro-transparency pols get their way. Such a liquidation would undoubtedly damage the American (and likely global) economy.
Last week, Brian McGlinchey, director of the 9/11 disclosure advocacy website 28Pages.org, reported on his findings from “Document 17,” a 47-page log of notes and follow-up questions compiled by investigators Dana Lesemann and Michael Jacobson, who worked for the joint congressional inquiry and, subsequently, the 9/11 Commission.
Document 17 was one of many such pages of supplementary notes quietly declassified by the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP) last year. “Document 17 outlines how the two investigators proposed to extend their earlier research,” McGlinchey reported. “The plans include many questions Lesemann and Jacobson felt the investigation should answer.”
“Doc 17 was drawn to my attention by a 9/11 widow who had been following up with ISCAP asking about the status of a [declassification] review of the 28 pages initiated by three investigative journalists,” McGlinchey told me. “ISCAP replied to her and noted that, while the 28 pages are still in their queue, in the mean time she might take interest in the batch of documents that had been released last summer including Document 17.”
On page nine of Document 17, under the header “A Brief Overview of Possible Saudi Government Connections to the September 11th attacks,” we find the following about Ghassan al-Sharbi, an admitted member of al Qaeda. Al-Sharbi attended flight school alongside the 9/11 hijackers, but didn’t take part in the actual attack. When the FBI captured Al-Sharbi Pakistan in 2002, they also found a hidden “cache of documents,” one of which was highly suggestive:
Why would a member of al Qaeda, with connections to the 9/11 hijackers, have materials from the Saudi Embassy? McGlinchey allows for the possibility that the envelope could be benign, noting that “people often re-use envelopes and citizens of any country may have legitimate reasons for correspondence with the embassies of their government in foreign countries they live in.” Indeed, al-Sharbi, an inmate at Guantanamo Bay since his arrest in 2002, is a Saudi citizen, and might have had perfectly non-terroristic reasons for receiving embassy stationary while living in the U.S. But Lesemann and Jacobson thought it was noteworthy, and flagged the envelope in a section of Document 17 titled “Key Questions Regarding Possible Saudi Government and Royal Family Connections to the September 11 Hijackers and Other Terrorists and Terrorist Groups”:
Why did Ghassan Al-Sharbi bury a cache of documents near where he was staying in Pakistan, including an envelope from the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D .C. containing his flight certificate from Embry Riddle University in Phoenix? Have you been able to determine his relationship to Haydar El-Awad, the individual whose name is on the envelope from the Saudi Embassy?
The 9/11 Commission did not answer Jacobson and Lesemann’s questions in its public report. According to The Commission, by Philip Shenon, Lesemann was fired from the commission after trying to view the secret 28 pages without permission, part of a pattern of 9/11 Commission director Philip Zelikow (who has downplayed the significance of the 28 pages) limiting the scope of commission investigators’ work.
Senator Ron Wyden has been one of the more outspoken advocates for the declassification of the pages, and though his office did not comment on the significance of Document 17, they did provide this statement on its continuing relevance to Gawker: “The FBI is clearly going to argue that they investigated these leads in the years after 9/11, and I think they can make a decent case. But that’s no reason to keep these pages secret—it’s a reason to release them with fewer redactions and make that case in public.”
Lesemann declined to comment for this story, and Jacobson did not respond to a request for comment. The Saudi Embassy also did not return a request for comment.
The city council of Oxford, Alabama unanimously passed a public ordinance last night making it illegal to use a public restroom bearing a gender-specific label that doesn’t match that of a person’s birth certificate. The proposed fine for such an infraction is $500 or six months of jail time. Of course, that’s if they catch you.
If somebody sees something that makes them uncomfortable, they would call the police. If the person is still there when the officer arrives, the officer has to witness the crime. Then we take down the person’s information, and the person who reported it has to sign out a warrant.
So while in principle, this law is demeaning to people who already face societal degradation simply for existing, in practice, it should be easy enough to break if you just get in and get out. Yes, you should be able to take your sweet time in a bathroom. Yes, the existence of this law is abhorrent and needless. But as trans people know well by now, there are ways of working around ignorance.
By the way, if the national average holds in Oxford, it means that this law targets a measly 64 people who identify as trans among the city’s 21,348 residents (that figure comes from the 2010 Census). That should put some perspective into how useless this effort actually is. What a waste of fucking time just to make a few dozen people feel worse about living in Alabama.
The Oxford Council President Steven Waits said in a statement that the ordinance is a response to the policy Target announced last week that trans people could use whatever bathrooms they saw fit. Waits also said the law was sought “not out of concerns for the 0.3 percent of the population who identify as transgender,” but “to protect our women and children.” Given the utter lack of documented attacks from trans people in bathrooms, what women and children are being protected from effectively is the exposure to people who are different than they are. They’re being protected from having the opportunity to experience a world where straw man arguments and fear-mongering legislation can be seen for the bullshit that they are.
According to the AP, Ted Cruz will announce today that he has selected Carly Fiorina as his running mate. Whatever—it wasn’t like he could lose any more.
It’s already mathematically impossible for Cruz—who lost every state last night—to clinch the ballot. Now it’s emotionally impossible too: Who wants to vote for Carly Fiorina? The answer is literally no one—despite her best efforts, she has never held political office.
