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the target to hold a vote would be a plenary session due March 11-14. [...] "We have to vote during the first March plenary," [Danuta] Hubner told her [constitutional affairs] committee. "The second one (due March 25-28) will be too late because after us the Council (of all EU member states) must look into this again."
The EU parliament also wants to vote only after Britain's parliament, to avoid endorsing a deal that may then get struck down in London.
Genauso kam es. Die Parlamentarier fügten sich, und die Lücke blieb. Privatflieger genießen seither speziellen Datenschutz. Das zeigt nach Meinung der EU-Abgeordneten Ana Gomes, ,,dass die Regierungen es nicht ernst meinen, wenn sie behaupten, sie machen ein Gesetz zur Bekämpfung des Terrorismus und dann bauen sie ein solches Schlupfloch ein".
Turns out you can't be a terrorist if you come with a private jet.
Das klingt abenteuerlich - und ist doch wahr. Derzeit sind in Deutschland 88 kleinere Flugplätze als Grenzübergangsstellen zugelassen. Dort reisten allein im Jahr 2017 mehr als 11 000 Passagiere aus Ländern ein, die nicht zur kontrollfreien Schengenzone der EU gehören.
There are 88 small air ports in Germany where you can enter without any police control (if you can charter a private jet).
Frustrated with the slow transition towards open access (OA) in scientific publishing, 11 national funding organizations in Europe turned up the pressure today. As of 2020, the group, which jointly spends around 7.6 billion on research annually, will require every paper it funds to be freely available from the moment of publication. In a statement, the group said it will no longer allow the 6- or 12-month delays that many subscription journals currently require before a paper is made open-access, and it won't allow publication in so-called hybrid journals, which charge subscriptions but also, for extra fees, make individual papers open-access.
She said the "alliance" had 101,000 adherents who had signed up to the project -- billed by some media as resembling grassroots movements in Britain, France and the USA that are intent on regulating "neo-liberal" capitalism. [...] Nearly two-thirds of Germans (62 percent) do not believe Aufstehen will succeed in winning over disenchanted voters, according to a survey conducted by the pollster Civey for the key German online news provider t-online. Only 19.8 percent of 5,000 respondents surveyed believed the movement had a chance long-term.
archived? Far-right AfD split over Gauland's Nazi 'bird shit' remark, June 2018 Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
If you add the people who already support the Left to the people who think communists run the country....
One would be entitled to be a little cynical of Merkel. Though often mistaken for some sort of bleeding-heart liberal, she had cheerfully baited migrants and Muslims, and declared multiculturalism a failure, and bears significant responsibility for the fortification of `Fortress Europe'. But when Wagenknecht attacked her, it was for suggesting that Germany could handle the refugee inflow. She later blamed Merkel's "uncontrolled border opening" and police cuts for causing a major attack carried out by an ISIS supported in Berlin in December 2016.
I find the whole article pretty useful. Overall I find it darkly funny that you call your leftist splitter group a "Sammelbewegung", a name that claims to be a broad collection of a movement. Wagenknecht's utterances have often been interpreted in something approaching bad faith to be much more racist than a straight reading would suggest. However, it is true that the point over which this split occurred, and it is a split, the Left party conference disagreed with the plan, is exactly the policy on refugees. The Wagenknecht faction basically adopted the mainstream (formerly right-wing) position wholesale. To no one's surprise I think that is a daft idea. However, while the positioning on the refugee question here looks like rank opportunism, there seems to be an ideological split happening on the European left, even from the currently low level. There is the Diem left that still believes that the only hope lies in internationalism within the current institutions and the "Aufstehen" left that sees the way forward in conquering the power of the nation state. Currently, both look rather unlikely.
Die Linke might become a potential partner. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
If "the IHRA definition does not restrict freedom of speech" as the Jewish Leadership Council asserts, then why is the JLC so irate about a "free speech caveat" that, logically on the JLC's terms, cannot affect IHRA? pic.twitter.com/v1JFhbhcWs— Alex Nunns (@alexnunns) 4. September 2018
If "the IHRA definition does not restrict freedom of speech" as the Jewish Leadership Council asserts, then why is the JLC so irate about a "free speech caveat" that, logically on the JLC's terms, cannot affect IHRA? pic.twitter.com/v1JFhbhcWs
If you weren't sure, yes that IS a "Rangers" supporter using the USA, Australia, India and Canada of examples of why Scotland SHOULDN'T gain its independence from the UK, and berating someone ELSE for harking back to ancient battles in the past.
archived uh oh Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
An awful lot of these groups with various authoritative-sounding names, including "British Board of Jewish Deputies", who are extensively quoted in the press as representative voice of British Jews end up upon examination to be representing only themselves.
But if enough of these groups create enough sound and fury, then sod the truth, the press will simply print the legend keep to the Fen Causeway
The US is getting incredibly petty with North and South Korea, now refusing to allow North Korean athletes who were part of a united Korean team to visit the United States. https://t.co/2g3gJgAFoz— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) 5. September 2018
The US is getting incredibly petty with North and South Korea, now refusing to allow North Korean athletes who were part of a united Korean team to visit the United States. https://t.co/2g3gJgAFoz
As anyone could have predicted Trump promptly forgot that Korea exists after he had his shiny summit.
British authorities identified the suspects as Russian nationals travelling on genuine passports under the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. [...] Police released security camera images of the two suspects and outlined a three-day mission that took them from Moscow to London to Salisbury, where they sprayed poison on Skripal's door before flying back to Moscow hours later. [...] May's spokesman said May had briefed U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening. US Ambassador to Britain Woody Johnson said on Twitter the United States stood with Britain in holding Russia accountable for its "act of aggression". Britain will update the U.N. Security Council at a meeting on Thursday. [...] Security cameras filmed the suspects near Skripal's house, and traces of Novichok were found in their London hotel room. [...] A woman near Salisbury, Dawn Sturgess, died in July and her partner Charlie Rowley fell ill after Rowley found a counterfeit bottle of Nina Ricci perfume in a charity collection box and brought it home. It contained Novichok. Basu said police had no doubt the events were linked, and were discussing charges over the Sturgess and Rowley case with prosecutors.
A secret Treasury document has raised questions about "rail access to the EU" after a no-deal Brexit.
The document - snapped as it was carried into a Whitehall meeting - also reveals that Philip Hammond's department has codenamed its contingency planning "Operation Yellowhammer".
Russians, Bribes and Spies Raise the Scandal Bar for EU Banking | Bloomberg - Feb. 2018 | "In money-laundering centers like Latvia there's a sense that their hands aren't really dirty" "For 25 years, Rimsevics controlled everything," Guselnikov, the Norvik owner, said by phone from London. "He and his team are unmovable. He's been in charge of supervision since 1992 and all his employees have been there since the 1990s or 2000 and they owe him their careers and positions." Since the North Korean fine, Guselnikov, who's also a British citizen, has lured two western security experts to Norvik's board: former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and former German foreign intelligence chief August Hanning. Cofer Black, the former head of the CIA's counter-terrorism center, is also a director of a Latvian lender, Baltic International Bank.
"In money-laundering centers like Latvia there's a sense that their hands aren't really dirty"
"For 25 years, Rimsevics controlled everything," Guselnikov, the Norvik owner, said by phone from London. "He and his team are unmovable. He's been in charge of supervision since 1992 and all his employees have been there since the 1990s or 2000 and they owe him their careers and positions."
Since the North Korean fine, Guselnikov, who's also a British citizen, has lured two western security experts to Norvik's board: former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and former German foreign intelligence chief August Hanning. Cofer Black, the former head of the CIA's counter-terrorism center, is also a director of a Latvian lender, Baltic International Bank.
At 1.80 euros ($2.09) for a simple espresso, Starbucks (SBUX.O) will charge nearly double what Italians pay at their local bars.
... As we walk around, Mr. Abdirahman, who is single and childless, confesses: "When I came here in 1998, to me this place was paradise. Today, I wouldn't want my children to grow up here." ... ... the government, dominated by the traditionally strong Social Democrats and the centrist Moderate Party, did far too little. That left an opening for the Sweden Democrats, until recently a group relegated to the racist fringe of Swedish politics. ... ... Even if the Sweden Democrats win big on Sunday, the election might be a force for good. The Moderate Party, which is likely to take second place, might split over the question of whether to rule with them. And the Social Democrats, already under pressure to move to the left, might likewise fall apart. Sweden's party landscape, in other words, might be blown to pieces. If the country is lucky, some parts from this explosion will bind together as a new force -- one that takes seriously the need for realism on immigration and integration, without falling for the siren song of right-wing populism.
... the government, dominated by the traditionally strong Social Democrats and the centrist Moderate Party, did far too little. That left an opening for the Sweden Democrats, until recently a group relegated to the racist fringe of Swedish politics. ...
... Even if the Sweden Democrats win big on Sunday, the election might be a force for good. The Moderate Party, which is likely to take second place, might split over the question of whether to rule with them. And the Social Democrats, already under pressure to move to the left, might likewise fall apart. Sweden's party landscape, in other words, might be blown to pieces.
If the country is lucky, some parts from this explosion will bind together as a new force -- one that takes seriously the need for realism on immigration and integration, without falling for the siren song of right-wing populism.
Murder rates are down, not up. Integration worked just fine until around 1990, when full employment policies were dropped, not that you would know it from this article and the neither the Moderates nor the Social Democrats are falling apart.
Ahead Of Elections, A Swedish City Reflects The Country's Ambivalence On Immigration | NPR
... While the rate of certain violent crimes is up in Malmö, the overall reported crime rate has gone down. Because Sweden does not keep records on the ethnicity of perpetrators, substantiating a link between immigrants and crime is a largely speculative exercise. But political scientist Mikael Sundström from Lund University says that hardly matters. "You don't need solid data to sell the idea, from the Sweden Democrats' point of view, that immigrants are linked to crime," he says. "You just need to make sure that it stays in the public mind that this or that crime was committed by an immigrant." And in that, he says, they have succeeded. Polls suggest the Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in the neo-Nazi movement, could garner 20 percent of the vote this weekend, potentially becoming Sweden's second biggest party.
But political scientist Mikael Sundström from Lund University says that hardly matters.
"You don't need solid data to sell the idea, from the Sweden Democrats' point of view, that immigrants are linked to crime," he says. "You just need to make sure that it stays in the public mind that this or that crime was committed by an immigrant."
And in that, he says, they have succeeded. Polls suggest the Sweden Democrats, a party with roots in the neo-Nazi movement, could garner 20 percent of the vote this weekend, potentially becoming Sweden's second biggest party.
But hopefully you're right. Guess we'll find out on Sunday. Point n'est besoin d'espérer pour entreprendre, ni de réussir pour persévérer. - Charles le Téméraire
`The decision means that we are now being seen as equals,' campaigner Jiska Stad-Ogier told reporters. `That this plan was ever dreamed up is too bizarre for words - shutting out a vulnerable group out and paying them less money while they have such high care costs.'
a 2015 decision by the French regulator requiring Google to remove results for all its search engines on request, and not just on European country sites.
○ Dutch Gov't Admits Support for Salafist Jihadists in Syria
... and no, the Dutch didn't deliver military goods. ;)
By agreement with Western allies these were provided by Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. After the initial provisions, the UK and the US were more deeply involved in sending military equipment as well. Much of it ended up with the extremist groups linked to Al Qaeda and ISIL which evolved into ISIS. In early stages of the civil strife the West used the Islamic State as a proxy for a new front in the goal to overthrow the Assad regime. Global Warming - distance between America and Europe is steadily increasing.
CAPTION:"About one million people took to the streets of Barcelona to demand Catalan independence from Madrid on Tuesday [12 SEP], marking the region's "Diada" anniversary when Barcelona fell to Spain in 1714."
Tens of thousands of British holidaymakers could be stopped from travelling to the continent if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, government papers suggest. Anyone whose passport has less than six months to run faces being turned away at borders when existing rules become obsolete overnight at the end of next March. Under current arrangements, Britons can travel to Europe as long as their passport is valid to the end of their stay. But in the event of a `no-deal' Brexit they would in all likelihood be treated like travellers from non-EU countries.
Anyone whose passport has less than six months to run faces being turned away at borders when existing rules become obsolete overnight at the end of next March.
Under current arrangements, Britons can travel to Europe as long as their passport is valid to the end of their stay. But in the event of a `no-deal' Brexit they would in all likelihood be treated like travellers from non-EU countries.
Offliners fuck the Internet. pic.twitter.com/b9vFLNYS50— Michel★Reimon (@michelreimon) 12. September 2018
Offliners fuck the Internet. pic.twitter.com/b9vFLNYS50
Schlußabstimmung Urheberrecht, Abgeordete aus Österreich: Zustimmung: Becker, Karas, Mandl, Rübig, Schmidt; Freund, Graswander-Hainz, Kadenbach, Regner, Weidenholzer (VP & SP)Ablehnung: Mlinar, Reimon, Vana, Waitz; (G & N)Enthaltung: Kappel, Mayer, Obermayer, Vilimsky (FP)— Michel★Reimon (@michelreimon) 12. September 2018
Schlußabstimmung Urheberrecht, Abgeordete aus Österreich: Zustimmung: Becker, Karas, Mandl, Rübig, Schmidt; Freund, Graswander-Hainz, Kadenbach, Regner, Weidenholzer (VP & SP)Ablehnung: Mlinar, Reimon, Vana, Waitz; (G & N)Enthaltung: Kappel, Mayer, Obermayer, Vilimsky (FP)
Fun fact: Remember when basically every Austrian parliamentary faction declared their intention to vote against the upload filter? Lied again, this time joined by the Socialists.
Dieses Plakat ist in deinem Land nicht verfügbar! #fckcdu #dankeeu #niewiederinternet pic.twitter.com/MGh9gi8NjN— Lars Krause (@GroeLVBaZ) 12. September 2018
Dieses Plakat ist in deinem Land nicht verfügbar! #fckcdu #dankeeu #niewiederinternet pic.twitter.com/MGh9gi8NjN
Jean-Claude Juncker struck a largely emollient tone on the subject of Brexit talks which he said were being "masterfully handled by my friend Michel Barnier".
France, Ipsos poll:Approval ratings (president+party leaders):Mélenchon (FI-LEFT): 30% (+3)Bayrou (MoDem-ALDE): 26% (+1)Macron (LREM-ALDE): 25% (-7)Le Pen (RN-ENF): 24% (-1)Hamon (G.s-S&D): 24% (+1)Wauqiez (LR-EPP): 18% (+2)+/- vs. July '18 pic.twitter.com/uUMUDSEzt1— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) 12. September 2018
France, Ipsos poll:Approval ratings (president+party leaders):Mélenchon (FI-LEFT): 30% (+3)Bayrou (MoDem-ALDE): 26% (+1)Macron (LREM-ALDE): 25% (-7)Le Pen (RN-ENF): 24% (-1)Hamon (G.s-S&D): 24% (+1)Wauqiez (LR-EPP): 18% (+2)+/- vs. July '18 pic.twitter.com/uUMUDSEzt1
"Björn Höcke dreht Hitler-Foto auf seinem Nachttisch um." Diese Schlagzeile stammt - man ahnt es fast - aus dem Online-Satiremagazin Der Postillon . Anfang März 2017 machten sich die Internet-Spötter in Wort und Bild über den AfD-Rechtsaußen lustig. "Du machst mir nichts als Ärger", lässt der Postillon Höcke zum Foto auf seinem Nachttisch sagen. Der reale Höcke hatte kurz zuvor dem Wall Street Journal ein Interview gegeben, in dem er über den Massenmörder Folgendes sagte: "Wissen Sie, das große Problem ist, dass man Hitler als das absolut Böse darstellt ... Wir wissen aber natürlich, dass es in der Geschichte kein Schwarz und kein Weiß gibt. Und dass es viele Grautöne gibt." Grautöne? Bei Hitler? Der Postillon spießte das genüsslich-satirisch auf. Ein 27-jähriger Musiker aus München fand die Persiflage so gelungen, dass er ihr ein "Like" auf Facebook gab. Das wiederum gefiel dem Staatsschutz der Münchner Polizei überhaupt nicht: Bierernst monierte der ermittelnde Kriminaloberkommissar, das gehe ja nun überhaupt nicht, das mit dem Hitlerbild. Die Sache bekam ein Aktenzeichen. Und weil es sich bei dem "Like"-Klick für den Postillon-Hitler um einen möglichen Verstoß gegen den Paragrafen 86a des Strafgesetzbuches ("Verwenden von Kennzeichen verfassungswidriger Organisationen") handelt, leitete der Beamte den Vorgang an die Kollegen vom Kommissariat 44 weiter.
Ein 27-jähriger Musiker aus München fand die Persiflage so gelungen, dass er ihr ein "Like" auf Facebook gab. Das wiederum gefiel dem Staatsschutz der Münchner Polizei überhaupt nicht: Bierernst monierte der ermittelnde Kriminaloberkommissar, das gehe ja nun überhaupt nicht, das mit dem Hitlerbild. Die Sache bekam ein Aktenzeichen. Und weil es sich bei dem "Like"-Klick für den Postillon-Hitler um einen möglichen Verstoß gegen den Paragrafen 86a des Strafgesetzbuches ("Verwenden von Kennzeichen verfassungswidriger Organisationen") handelt, leitete der Beamte den Vorgang an die Kollegen vom Kommissariat 44 weiter.
Politisch motivierte Delikte werden im Polizeipräsidium München nämlich von drei verschiedenen Kommissariaten bearbeitet. Kommissariat (K) 43 kümmert sich um mutmaßlich linke Straftaten, K 44 um die von rechts. Das Kommissariat 45 ist für ausländischen Extremismus zuständig.
Unless the link title doesn't include more than one word (Hipster) from the article's title.
According to an amendment passed yesterday. Or depending on the size of the publisher. Or something. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
Er sagte: ,,Sie alle wissen, dass Dialekt intelligenter macht, das sieht man an der bayerischen Staatsregierung jeden Tag."
Next ... Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Speaking after the Chief Minister, RBS International's Mr McLaughlin recounted an anecdote about the oak-beamed roof of the Great Hall in New College in Oxford. He reflected on how those who built the hall in 1379 had had the foresight to ask a forester to plant a new oak wood in case the beams had to be replaced in the future. It was not until 1918 that beetle rot was discovered and the replacement beams were needed. "That's called long term thinking and playing a long game," Mr McLaughlin said.
He reflected on how those who built the hall in 1379 had had the foresight to ask a forester to plant a new oak wood in case the beams had to be replaced in the future.
It was not until 1918 that beetle rot was discovered and the replacement beams were needed.
"That's called long term thinking and playing a long game," Mr McLaughlin said.
What do you think Mr McLaughlin was drinking? Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
So, I think any dreams they may have of consequence may be disappointed keep to the Fen Causeway
Shared MEP, no slush fund. AND their dream of "no deal, same deal" has been dashed (no thanks to PM Picardo).
archived [ADULT ENTERS ROOM] help, help Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Three Seas Leaders Must Overcome External Influence And Internal Disunity to Achieve Prosperity The Three Seas Initiative will have to overcome continuous Russian attempts to undermine CEE energy projects, growing Russian-German energy cooperation, and skepticism in the region over whether the project is just as a second-coming of Poland's Intermarium ambitions. While the Initiative enjoys the support of the United States and financing from EU Structural Funds, China's increased presence in the region is also alarming Berlin and Brussels. The commitment of some participating countries is also in question, as Austria for instance has sided with Germany on the energy disputes.
The Three Seas Initiative will have to overcome continuous Russian attempts to undermine CEE energy projects, growing Russian-German energy cooperation, and skepticism in the region over whether the project is just as a second-coming of Poland's Intermarium ambitions. While the Initiative enjoys the support of the United States and financing from EU Structural Funds, China's increased presence in the region is also alarming Berlin and Brussels. The commitment of some participating countries is also in question, as Austria for instance has sided with Germany on the energy disputes.
My intuition tells me, a USD cash advance is more important than Trump attention to the Initiative. Atlantic Council PR is out to shake the bushes until someone at State's "CEE" desk sends ambassadors with at least a matching pledge and a few suits from Bechtel, Halliburton, and Fluor. Maybe Skadden ;)
That article needs a simpler elevator pitch though, don't you think? Trump's admin isn't stocked with the a sophisticated team. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
The EU didn't fly the flag at the first two gatherings. But today, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is personally going to the Romanian capital, in what can be seen as an attempt to put the pro-American initiative into an EU framework. Trump is not going to Bucharest but he sent a message, stating that the US is committed to staying a strong ally and partner of this initiative. In his typical salesman style, he took the opportunity to advise the countries involved to buy US LNG.
Trump is not going to Bucharest but he sent a message, stating that the US is committed to staying a strong ally and partner of this initiative. In his typical salesman style, he took the opportunity to advise the countries involved to buy US LNG.
archived Ian Welsh and Norbert Haring, semiologists 2018 Parliament blocks SWIFT. 2010 Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Now, compare it with currencies that are gaining against the US dollar: the Ukrainian hryvnia, the Georgian lari and the Colombian peso. Not exactly G20 heavyweights - and all of them also inside Washington's influence.
archived [IMF IMPERIAL BASKET EUR, USD, JPY] + RMB - GBP Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
"It is a total mess because the African countries do not agree among themselves on the need of the ACP group," underscores Jean Bossuyt.
Later, at the start of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Xi announced $60 billion in funds for eight initiatives over the next three years, in areas ranging from industrial promotion, infrastructure construction and scholarships for young Africans. He added that Africa's least developed, heavily indebted and poor countries will be exempt from debt they have incurred in the form of interest-free Chinese loans due to mature by the end of 2018.
He added that Africa's least developed, heavily indebted and poor countries will be exempt from debt they have incurred in the form of interest-free Chinese loans due to mature by the end of 2018.
A study by the Center for Global Development, a US think-tank, found "serious concerns" about the sustainability of sovereign debt in eight Asian, European and African countries receiving Belt and Road funds. But South African President Cyril Ramaphosa defended China's involvement on the continent, saying FOCAC "refutes the view that a new colonialism is taking hold in Africa as our detractors would have us believe." During a visit to China last month, Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed warned against "a new version of colonialism", as he cancelled a series of Chinese-backed infrastructure projects worth $22 billion.
But South African President Cyril Ramaphosa defended China's involvement on the continent, saying FOCAC "refutes the view that a new colonialism is taking hold in Africa as our detractors would have us believe."
During a visit to China last month, Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed warned against "a new version of colonialism", as he cancelled a series of Chinese-backed infrastructure projects worth $22 billion.
Djibouti has become heavily dependent on Chinese financing after China opened its first overseas military base in the Horn of Africa country last year, a powerful signal of the continent's strategic importance to Beijing.
PHOTO OP:People hold Chinese and Djiboutian national flags as they wait for Djibouti's President before the opening of a 1,000-unit housing construction project in Djibouti on July 4, 2018. The project was financially supported by a Chinese company. Photo: AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba
"serious concerns" about the sustainability of sovereign debt
is definitely worth a hearty laugh. She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
Bounded rationality is a paradigmatic example. Early criticisms of rationality from people like Herbert Simon were broad ranging criticisms of the idea that people could even begin to behave in the way depicted by the standard utility-maximising model given that they had neither the information, the capacity to process that information, nor the ability to act upon it that would be required. Thus they would use rules of thumb, `satisfice' instead of `optimise', and and so forth.
`Imperfect information' in mainstream economics is another example: in a sense individuals have more information than under perfect information, since they know all the probabilities and possible states of the world instead of just one of the latter. And as I have previously argued, this point applies even to the name of macroeconomic models -- which claim to be Dynamic, Stochastic, General and Equilibrium, but are not really the first 3 in any meaningful sense. Critics would like to see their issue at the core of theories instead of bolted on at the end.
Today several branches of applied science assist the firm to achieve procedural rationality. 3 One of them is operations research (OR); another is artificial intelligence (AI). OR provides alogrithms [RULES] for handling difficult multivariate decision problems, sometimes involving uncertainty. Linear programming, integer programming, queuing theory [eg FIFO], and linear decisions rules are examples of widely used OR procedures. To permit computers to find optimal solutions with reasonable expenditures of effort when there are hundreds or thousands of variables, the powerful [RULES] associated with OR imposes a strong mathematical structure on the decision problem. Their power is bought at the cost [EXPENDITURE] of shaping and squeezing the real-world problem to fit their computational requirements: for example, replacing the real-world criterion function and constratins with linear approximations so that linear programming can be used. Of course the decision that is optimal for the simplified approximation will rarely be optimal in the real world, but experience shows that it will often be satisfactory. The alternative methods provided by AI, most often in the form of heuristic search (selective search using rules of thumb) [BIAS, PREJUDICE], find decisions that are "good enough," that satisfice. The AI models, like OR models, also only approximate the real world, but usually with much more accuracy and detail than the OR models can admit. They can do this because heuristic search can be carried out in more complex and less well structured problem space than is required by OR maximizing tools. The price paid [EXPENDITURE] for working with the more realistic but less regular models is that the methods generally find only satisfactory solutions, not optima. We must trade off satisficing in a nearly-realistic model (AI) against optimizing in a greatly simplified model (OR). Sometimes one will be preferred, sometimes the other.
To permit computers to find optimal solutions with reasonable expenditures of effort when there are hundreds or thousands of variables, the powerful [RULES] associated with OR imposes a strong mathematical structure on the decision problem. Their power is bought at the cost [EXPENDITURE] of shaping and squeezing the real-world problem to fit their computational requirements: for example, replacing the real-world criterion function and constratins with linear approximations so that linear programming can be used. Of course the decision that is optimal for the simplified approximation will rarely be optimal in the real world, but experience shows that it will often be satisfactory.
The alternative methods provided by AI, most often in the form of heuristic search (selective search using rules of thumb) [BIAS, PREJUDICE], find decisions that are "good enough," that satisfice. The AI models, like OR models, also only approximate the real world, but usually with much more accuracy and detail than the OR models can admit. They can do this because heuristic search can be carried out in more complex and less well structured problem space than is required by OR maximizing tools. The price paid [EXPENDITURE] for working with the more realistic but less regular models is that the methods generally find only satisfactory solutions, not optima. We must trade off satisficing in a nearly-realistic model (AI) against optimizing in a greatly simplified model (OR). Sometimes one will be preferred, sometimes the other.
Costs to Yield Curve Manipulation The Mitchell post explains why the government can set the entire yield curve. I will instead focus on the potential risks to such a posture. Losing the ability to influence the economy via setting interest rates. The political cost of changing bond prices. The loss of market information. Political cost of interest expense. I will cover these in turn.
Losing the ability to influence the economy via setting interest rates. The political cost of changing bond prices. The loss of market information. Political cost of interest expense.
I will cover these in turn.
archived EU Moves to Reform WTO as Trade War Escalates Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee got off to a chaotic start on Tuesday, as Democrats protested the committee's handling of records from the judge's time in the [beloved] George W. Bush White House.
Assuming the backbench is composing a complaint for any presiding judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia that must survive appellate judgment error (unless it concerns former-governor Bob McDONNELL)in order to "qualify" for Teh Writ ... on or before Mr Trump's impeachment ... right after mid-term elections, when minority partisans become majority partisans controlling the odious.
Let us not consult American Scripture for guidance from the founding fathers in this politicized time of independence, sovereignty, and republic denied.
In different words, by different authors, for different audiences, Congress again and again repeated the same message. An address "to the Inhabitants of Great-Britain" adopted on July 8, 1775, insisted that the Americans acted as the "Descendants of Britons" in defense of "glorious Privileges" for which their "gallant and virtuous Ancestors" had "fought, bled, and conquered."
During their retreat to Charlestown, British troops plundered and burned private houses; "Women in child bed were driven by the Soldiery, naked into the Streets"; old men, "peaceably in their Houses, were shot dead; and such Scenes exhibited as would disgrace the annals of the most uncivilized Nation." All these vicious acts were explained as "Marks of ministerial Vengeance" against Massachusetts "for refusing, with her Sister Colonies, a Submission to Slavery." The colonists nonetheless remained "loyal and dutiful Subjects" of the King, ready "to defend his person, Family, Crown and Dignity" with their "Lives and Fortunes." They hoped for support from the "Honour, Wisdom, and Valour of Britons," especially since the ministry's campaign of oppression "must end in the ruin and Slavery of Britain, as well as the persecuted American Colonies."
Ban on Corporate Campaign Spending Upheld in Massachusetts
Massachusetts' highest court affirmed a state ban on political contributions from corporations in a unanimous decision Thursday. [...] "Both history and common sense have demonstrated that, when corporations make contributions to political candidates, there is a risk of corruption, both actual and perceived." The state's high court also ruled against the business owners' equal-protection argument related to unions and nonprofits, which are permitted to make contributions, because the business owners failed to show that corporations are similarly situated to unions. [...] The Massachusetts ban came about in 1907, the same year Congress passed the Tillman Act, which banned corporate contributions in federal elections.
The state's high court also ruled against the business owners' equal-protection argument related to unions and nonprofits, which are permitted to make contributions, because the business owners failed to show that corporations are similarly situated to unions. [...] The Massachusetts ban came about in 1907, the same year Congress passed the Tillman Act, which banned corporate contributions in federal elections.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary,issued a statement criticising the anonymous official. "The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected president of the United States," she said. "He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign."
And how their behaviour is just as unConstitutional as anything Trump has done.
It's a mess keep to the Fen Causeway
What are the results of this viral op-ed everyone's talking about? So far it's a bunch of Democratic partisans making a lot of excited whooping noises, and Trump loyalists feeling completely vindicated in the belief that all of their conspiracy theories have been proven correct. Many rank-and-file Trump haters are feeling a little more relaxed and complacent knowing that there are a bunch of McCain-loving "adults in the room" taking care of everything, and many rank-and-file Trump supporters are more convinced than ever that Donald Trump is a brave populist hero leading a covert 4-D chess insurgency against the Deep State. In other words, everyone's been herded into their respective partisan stables and trusting the narratives that they are being fed there.
The most cursory familiarity with the house style of political op-eds ghost-written by junior staffers plainly reveals this piece to be precisely that. Some kid, or committee of kids, wrote it.— Jacob Bacharach (@jakebackpack) 6. September 2018
The most cursory familiarity with the house style of political op-eds ghost-written by junior staffers plainly reveals this piece to be precisely that. Some kid, or committee of kids, wrote it.
Reported first by the Associated Press, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood subpoenaed all eight of New York's Roman Catholic dioceses this morning as part of a broadening civil investigation.
Citing anonymous law enforcement sources, the article describes the subpoenas as seeking documents relating to abuse allegations, payments* to victims or findings from internal church investigations. [...] In conjunction with the subpoenas, Underwood issued a statement Thursday that calls on state legislature to pass the Child Victims Act, which would allow all victims to file civil suits until age 50 and seek criminal charges until age 28. Under current law, victims only have until age 23 to file civil cases or seek criminal charges for most types of child sexual abuse.Senate Bill S809: Perfected or flawed? ... PURPOSE : This bill eliminates the statutes of limitation for prosecuting child sexual abuse crimes and filing civil lawsuits for damages against individuals, public institutions, and private institutions related to child sexual abuse. This act also creates a one-year revival period for previously time-barred civil actions which alleged conduct representing the commission of certain sexual offenses committed against a child less than eighteen years of age. [...] JUSTIFICATION : According to the United State Department of Justice, approximately 1.8 million adolescents in the U.S. have been the victims of sexual assault. An estimated 90t of perpetrators of sexual abuse are known to the child, with about a third being family members. As a result, disclosure of sexual abuse is often delayed, usually until adulthood. Children often avoid telling anyone because they are afraid of a negative reaction or of further abuse or harm at the hands of their abuser. ...She encouraged any victim of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy to participate in this investigation, regardless of the statute of limitations for prosecution, noting that all victim information will be "helpful to understanding and reforming the institutional approach of the church." Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling called it unsurprising that New York would open such an investigation."
Senate Bill S809: Perfected or flawed? ... PURPOSE : This bill eliminates the statutes of limitation for prosecuting child sexual abuse crimes and filing civil lawsuits for damages against individuals, public institutions, and private institutions related to child sexual abuse. This act also creates a one-year revival period for previously time-barred civil actions which alleged conduct representing the commission of certain sexual offenses committed against a child less than eighteen years of age. [...] JUSTIFICATION : According to the United State Department of Justice, approximately 1.8 million adolescents in the U.S. have been the victims of sexual assault. An estimated 90t of perpetrators of sexual abuse are known to the child, with about a third being family members. As a result, disclosure of sexual abuse is often delayed, usually until adulthood. Children often avoid telling anyone because they are afraid of a negative reaction or of further abuse or harm at the hands of their abuser. ...
Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling called it unsurprising that New York would open such an investigation."
---- * "hush money," extortion, unlawful claim to damages Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
"The rescission of the Confidential Settlement Agreement will result in Ms. Clifford returning to Essential Consultants the $130,000 she received in consideration, as required by California law," he added. A source familiar with Cohen's thinking told the network that Cohen no longer benefits from Daniels [CLIFFORD]'s promise to keep quiet about the alleged affair. [...] The news of Cohen's decision to tear up the agreement came after Bloomberg News reported Friday that other Trump Organization officials were under investigation for payments that Cohen made to Daniels and Karen McDougal, another woman who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006.
A source familiar with Cohen's thinking told the network that Cohen no longer benefits from Daniels [CLIFFORD]'s promise to keep quiet about the alleged affair. [...] The news of Cohen's decision to tear up the agreement came after Bloomberg News reported Friday that other Trump Organization officials were under investigation for payments that Cohen made to Daniels and Karen McDougal, another woman who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006.
archived extortion demanded refund by Ms "Clifford" refund demanded by Bechard consideration "thing of value" [4] Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
[NEWS TO ME:] Daniels signed the agreement under the pseudonym [!] Peggy Peterson. Trump was listed under the pseudonym [!] David Dennison, according to the initial lawsuit filed in March.
Daniels said the contract was invalid because Trump never signed his name.
Since then, the company and Trump sued Daniels for $20 million for violating the terms of the contract.
The unlawful corporate contribution was for $150,000 and a separate excessive ["]campaign contribution["] of $130,000. Those figures matched a payment [BY NATIONAL ENQUIRER] to former Playboy model Karen McDougal as hush money over an alleged affair with Trump
Cynthia did not win. However, Cynthia's message of party reform did unexpectedly earn the endorsement of several county caucuses beyond NYC but within Albany spheres of "influence." Albany County is the seat of the state's capitol.
In any case, registered Democratic Party voter turn-out was ridiculously low --OR-- voter suppression was ridiculously efficient, that much is obvious. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
victory lap
Whatever. To judge from sample returns, she is a shoe-in to succeed WHAT'S HIS NAME? for the general election. Totally hoovered NYC (including Staten Island?!) and, AND, Lawn Guyland.
archived paths to NY governor Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
President Trump, emboldened by America's economic strength and China's economic slowdown, escalated his trade war with Beijing on Monday, saying the United States would impose tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods and was prepared to tax all imports. <snip> Mr. Trump's decision is a significant escalation of an already serious trade dispute -- one with seemingly no end in sight. After months of failed trade talks, top officials from China and the United States were tentatively scheduled to talk later this month in Washington. But it is unclear whether Beijing will agree to come to Washington with the new tariffs set to go into effect.
<snip>
Mr. Trump's decision is a significant escalation of an already serious trade dispute -- one with seemingly no end in sight. After months of failed trade talks, top officials from China and the United States were tentatively scheduled to talk later this month in Washington. But it is unclear whether Beijing will agree to come to Washington with the new tariffs set to go into effect.
Meanwhile ...
China to take countermeasure after US imposes new tariffs
China will have to take countermeasures to respond to the US' fresh tariff decision, in a move to safeguard the country's legitimate interests and the global free trade order, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.
and have followed-up with ....
China Sets Tariffs On $60 Billion In U.S. Goods, Retaliating Against U.S. Duties
Chinese state television on Tuesday reported that the government has decided to impose tariffs of 5 percent to 10 percent on $60 billion worth of U.S. products, starting on Monday. The tariffs will apply to 5,207 items.
also saying
"The Chinese side reiterates that the aim of imposing these tariffs is to prevent trade frictions from escalating and it is a measure of last resort against American unilateralism and trade protectionism," the Chinese state television report said.
According to a White House SpokesIdiot these tariffs will result in "we'll see more production here in the United States." SpokesIdiot didn't address the fact the US manufacturing networks have been systematically destroyed making it impossible to produce goods now made in the PRC until those networks are replaced. She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
How Trump's tariffs will hurt US tech companies - The Verge
This dynamic is familiar to economists, who see intermediate goods like circuit boards as fundamentally different from consumer goods like laptops. "It is well-known that tariffs on intermediate goods will harm producers of the final goods," says Eric Bond, who studies international trade at Vanderbilt University. "Historically, protectionist countries have taken this into account by putting higher tariffs on producers of final goods to offset the impact of tariffs on intermediate products." So far, the Trump tariffs have ignored that logic, exempting major products to focus on minerals, metals, and unassembled components.
A lot of the pieces rattling around my head now fit better together: Saudi. Qatar. The UAE, the Brotherhood, Nasser, the British and French of course. Al Jazeera Arabic and English.
Some random claims from the interview: (Noprth-)Yemen was the only independent Muslim country in the inter-war period and had a relationship with the Soviets from the 20s. They ere allied with Nasser and pan-arabism till shortly before the 1962 war. There appears to be a lot of unexploited gas fields in Yemen and the Saudis are running out of money and oil(but we knew this since the peak-oil years). Quatar bought a share in the Clinton(and Obama) clan and lost out. The Brotherhood was encouraged to grow in British Egypt. Nasser threw them out since they screwed with his land reform plans. He filled the Egyptian Islamic Universities with their opponents. The Saudis jumped into the breach and founded Medina University as an alternative, stuffed with brotherhood scholars. The Brits still smarted from Suez and helped out. There was a falling out and Quatar is now the main backer of the Brotherhood and replaces Saudi as the "pure" Islam for the younger generation, growing up in the Saudi funded mosques, since the Kingdom is just too obviously corrupt.
Well, it got me to buy the book.
wiki bio for MSNBC's favorite war pusher is scathing pic.twitter.com/1w9Lz26Tgo— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) 31 August 2018
wiki bio for MSNBC's favorite war pusher is scathing pic.twitter.com/1w9Lz26Tgo
Gordon Hsiao-shu Chang (张少书 Zhāng Shàoshū; born 1948) is the Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities and a professor of American history at Stanford University. His academic interests lie in the connection between race and ethnicity in America, and American foreign relations. He has written on Asian-American history and US-East Asian interactions,[1] and he also researches the fields of U.S. diplomacy, the U.S.-Soviet cold war, modern China and international security.[2] Chang is the author of Friends and Enemies: The United States, China and the Soviet Union, 1948-1972 (1990), Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi and His Wartime Writing, 1942-1945 (1997), Asian Americans and Politics: An Exploration (2001), Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present (2006), Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970 (2008), and Fateful Ties: A History of America's Preoccupation with China (2015).
Chang is the author of Friends and Enemies: The United States, China and the Soviet Union, 1948-1972 (1990), Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi and His Wartime Writing, 1942-1945 (1997), Asian Americans and Politics: An Exploration (2001), Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present (2006), Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970 (2008), and Fateful Ties: A History of America's Preoccupation with China (2015).
Can't do it.
I am all too often reminded of my limitations! Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Workers from South Africa's mainly-white Solidarity union staged a go-slow protest at the petrochemicals firm Sasol on Monday over a share scheme offered exclusively to black staff, and said they would begin a full strike on Thursday. South African companies are required to meet quotas [!] on black ownership, employment and procurement as part of a drive to reverse decades of exclusion under apartheid. Meeting the rules makes a company more likely to qualify for government tenders.
South African companies are required to meet quotas [!] on black ownership, employment and procurement as part of a drive to reverse decades of exclusion under apartheid. Meeting the rules makes a company more likely to qualify for government tenders.
Solidarity has been waging a challenge against racial quotas in the workplace, and lodged a complaint against the policy in 2016 with the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Sasol, the world leader in technology that converts coal and gas to fuel, has sold 25 percent of its local operations to qualifying [?] black employees, a foundation and the black public in a 21 billion rand ($1.5 billion) deal financed [?] by the company ["out of thin air"]. ...3. How are Black people defined in the Sasol Khanyisa Transaction? The definition of "Black people" is contained in the B-BBEE Act, which currently means Africans [BWAH!], Coloureds and Indians who are citizens of South Africa -- by birth or descent or who became citizens of South Africa by naturalisation before 27 April 1994; on or after 27 April 1994 and who would have been entitled to acquire citizenship by naturalisation prior to that date. 4. How many shares or rights to shares will each participant receive? [...] Employee Participants - Sasol employees participating in Sasol Inzalo trusts: -who are actively employed at the inception of Sasol Khanyisa; -will each receive, at no cost to the employee, vested rights in SOL or SOLBE1 shares to the value of R100 000 (once off share award); -this will be subject to tax when vesting takes place; -whieh will give full ownership in 3 years' time (2021), provided that an employee is still in the employ of Sasol group [US-Eng., Restricted Stock Units]; ...Solidarity said the scheme was discriminatory and that it would file a complaint to U.S. regulators [!]. Sasol also operates in the United States.
Sasol, the world leader in technology that converts coal and gas to fuel, has sold 25 percent of its local operations to qualifying [?] black employees, a foundation and the black public in a 21 billion rand ($1.5 billion) deal financed [?] by the company ["out of thin air"]. ...
3. How are Black people defined in the Sasol Khanyisa Transaction? The definition of "Black people" is contained in the B-BBEE Act, which currently means Africans [BWAH!], Coloureds and Indians who are citizens of South Africa -- by birth or descent or who became citizens of South Africa by naturalisation before 27 April 1994; on or after 27 April 1994 and who would have been entitled to acquire citizenship by naturalisation prior to that date. 4. How many shares or rights to shares will each participant receive? [...] Employee Participants - Sasol employees participating in Sasol Inzalo trusts: -who are actively employed at the inception of Sasol Khanyisa; -will each receive, at no cost to the employee, vested rights in SOL or SOLBE1 shares to the value of R100 000 (once off share award); -this will be subject to tax when vesting takes place; -whieh will give full ownership in 3 years' time (2021), provided that an employee is still in the employ of Sasol group [US-Eng., Restricted Stock Units]; ...
The definition of "Black people" is contained in the B-BBEE Act, which currently means Africans [BWAH!], Coloureds and Indians who are citizens of South Africa --
archived < cough, cough > "Cynthia, where are my reparations?!" Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
I contend that we cannot understand the regulation of interracial relationships in comparative context without reference to racial ideas. An emphasis on the autonomy and influence of ideas about race will reveal a number of themes that permeate the regulation of interracial intimacies in both Canada and the United States: the transgression of gendered/raced social boundaries; the exposure of raced/gendered sexualities; the interlocking and mutually reinforcing nature of patriarchal, white supremacist and capitalist systems of domination; the threat of non-white access to white capital; the potential of mixed-race progeny; and the predicament of racial categorization precisely at the points at which categories come undone, classification schema crumble and 'race' is most clearly illustrated as a social and political construction with real consequences. Above all else, this paper will reveal the law as an important site where boundaries around identities are created and manipulated. Our purpose, among others, is to explore why the boundaries of race and gender lie where they do and to expose that the determination of inclusiveness and exclusivity of racial categorizations are neither obvious nor given.
From the start, antifa* activists have deemed Méric's death a "political killing" while right-wing extremists have claimed the accused acted in legitimate "self-defence". [...] The trial is scheduled to span two weeks. The accused, ultra-right-wing activists Esteban Morillo and Samuel Dufour, both 25, are charged with violence leading - involuntarily [?] - to Méric's death, committed in a group and using a weapon, brass knuckles.
The trial will address pressing questions that have hung over the case since that late-spring evening five years [!] ago: Was a weapon used and did the accused intend to kill Méric, or was his death the result of a brawl gone wrong.
The roots of the case however go back to December 2017 and are centred around India's caste politics, a powder-keg issue in a country where, it's often said, citizens don't cast their vote, they vote their caste [!]. On December 31, 2017, tens of thousands of people - primarily members of India's downtrodden Dalit community - started gathering in the small town of Bhima Koregaon near the western Indian city of Pune for the annual commemoration of the January 1, 1818 Battle of Koregaon. [...] "The Modi government is veering towards full Erdogan [!], arresting people in the middle of the night, detaining social activists and journalists across the country under very vague provisions of the Unlawful Activities Act merely for the possession of books written by authors deemed leftist and activist pamphlets from as far back as the 1970s. These are taken to constitute active membership in a plot," said Mira Kamdar, a Paris-based author of the book, India in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know [...] However when a public prosecutor revealed the "terrorist" assassination plotters were part of an "anti-fascist* front", it drew howls of laughter across the country. Wags noted that they had no idea that fighting fascism was a terror offence. The government's critics meanwhile relished the fact that the public prosecutor had inadvertently admitted that the BJP was fascist.
-- * Last week Jeffrey Toobin, cosmopolitan CNN celebrity, tried a joke at parochial US Americans' expense. He was derided on Twitter as racist, when he said in part, "Antifa is widely perceived as an African American organization" [since any "Black bloc" in the USA is a euphemism for African American voters' "widely perceived" uniform preference for and statistical contribution to Democratic Party candidate election]. Bad timing, wrong audience: Network operators were quick to credit "white" Americans for anti-fascist agitation or Mr Trump for "appeals to racism".
Wow. Either CNN is really really bad at their job or black antifa is just always hiding from the cameras.#AntifaSoWhite https://t.co/RpJq9IphzU— ... (@lesilly) August 29, 2018
Wow. Either CNN is really really bad at their job or black antifa is just always hiding from the cameras.#AntifaSoWhite https://t.co/RpJq9IphzU
KIRK LAZARUS: I know who I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude! ... Everybody knows you never go full [retard].
On Aug. 17, some 2,500 OB-GYN doctors in the country announced they would boycott all abortions, signaling a new low point in the growing discontent at the nation's 65-year-old abortion ban. Abortion is banned in Korea by criminal law. Unlike neighboring Japan, where the abortion ban can be overruled for socioeconomic reasons, abortions are only allowed here in cases of rape, high chances of birth defects, or significant health risks for the woman. [...] "I'm not sure if they made this abortion boycott decision with women's health in mind," Kim [Dong-suk, head of the Korean College of OB-GYNK] said. "Designating abortions as immoral acts or declaring an abortion boycott will not stop abortions; it will just increase the number of dangerous operations that threaten women's health." [...] And in May this year, the Constitutional Court held a high-profile debate on the constitutionality of the abortion ban before making its decision on the issue. However, the ruling was delayed indefinitely, the Constitutional Court confirmed with The Korea Times, Thursday. And the promised government research has not been started for the past two months. [...] "Women who are economically better off will probably be able to go to China or Japan to get an abortion but those without money or a social network will suffer more," said Koh Kyung-sim, a retired obstetrician and a member the Physicians' Association for Humanism who testified in favor of overturning the abortion ban at the Constitutional Court in May. "If OB-GYN doctors refuse to perform the operation, many women will miss the ideal time period for a safe operation."
Abortion is banned in Korea by criminal law. Unlike neighboring Japan, where the abortion ban can be overruled for socioeconomic reasons, abortions are only allowed here in cases of rape, high chances of birth defects, or significant health risks for the woman. [...] "I'm not sure if they made this abortion boycott decision with women's health in mind," Kim [Dong-suk, head of the Korean College of OB-GYNK] said. "Designating abortions as immoral acts or declaring an abortion boycott will not stop abortions; it will just increase the number of dangerous operations that threaten women's health." [...] And in May this year, the Constitutional Court held a high-profile debate on the constitutionality of the abortion ban before making its decision on the issue. However, the ruling was delayed indefinitely, the Constitutional Court confirmed with The Korea Times, Thursday. And the promised government research has not been started for the past two months. [...] "Women who are economically better off will probably be able to go to China or Japan to get an abortion but those without money or a social network will suffer more," said Koh Kyung-sim, a retired obstetrician and a member the Physicians' Association for Humanism who testified in favor of overturning the abortion ban at the Constitutional Court in May. "If OB-GYN doctors refuse to perform the operation, many women will miss the ideal time period for a safe operation."
archived Online abortion ads: Doctors defend right to inform patients, Aug 2018 Women rally against criminalization of abortion, June 2018 reproductiverights.org, map Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
"News": Trump Targets 401(k) Minimum Distribution Requirement "Insights": U.S. and U.K. Changes in Pay Equity Laws Call for Employers to Look Internally to Avoid Discrimination Claims
US Social Security annals (vol. 2008) automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans Michelle Obama unveils Blueprint for America's Working Women and Families Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
"I had this not well formed impression of her being this mythical person. I wasn't sure how much I believed my dad. I thought he might have been exaggerating about her antics. I learned about her life, especially her earlier life, and some of the tragedy she lived through - it shaped who she became." "She was born in 1838 in Cork, Ireland. She was a child during the famine. Her father moved the family to North America during the 1840s. He first came with his son and then the rest of the family came later. She was a young lady in Canada. And then Chicago. And she became a school teacher. She moved to Memphis where she married a union laborer named George Jones. They had four kids." "Then in 1867, her husband and all four kids died of yellow fever [!] within one week. ... [...] Do the politics of this era resonate with you now? "For one thing, it seems we haven't learned the lessons. Things haven't changed that much. The way the wealthy class treats the working class. It has sort of reverted back. There is this attitude that people of lower income classes can be taken advantage of and it's okay. Somehow, they don't have the rights of the upper classes." "For many people, it's not an overt [!] conscious way of thinking or of believing, but it's sort of ingrained in our politics, in our culture and in our economy."
"She was born in 1838 in Cork, Ireland. She was a child during the famine. Her father moved the family to North America during the 1840s. He first came with his son and then the rest of the family came later. She was a young lady in Canada. And then Chicago. And she became a school teacher. She moved to Memphis where she married a union laborer named George Jones. They had four kids."
"Then in 1867, her husband and all four kids died of yellow fever [!] within one week. ... [...] Do the politics of this era resonate with you now?
"For one thing, it seems we haven't learned the lessons. Things haven't changed that much. The way the wealthy class treats the working class. It has sort of reverted back. There is this attitude that people of lower income classes can be taken advantage of and it's okay. Somehow, they don't have the rights of the upper classes."
"For many people, it's not an overt [!] conscious way of thinking or of believing, but it's sort of ingrained in our politics, in our culture and in our economy."
DPRK's founding anniversary parade highlights economic development
An array of industrial workers wearing uniforms and helmets were among the participants. A slogan of "All our might to build the economy" and working scenes of agriculture, fisheries and metallurgy were among the floats. [...] As a sign of improving ties between Pyongyang and Seoul, the parade also featured a float under the theme of national reunification. The float was decorated with a board showing the Panmunjom Declaration, the June 15th North-South Joint Declaration and the Oct. 4 Joint Declaration.
CAPTION: South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) hold working-level talks on military affairs at Tongilgak, a DPRK building in the border village of Panmunjom, Sept. 13, 2018. The military talks came ahead of the summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, scheduled to be held in Pyongyang for three days from Sept. 18. (Xinhua/Ministry of National Defense of South Korea)
< wipes tears > Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
The opening of a permanent channel for deliberations between South and North Korean officials in the face of US opposition serves as another stepping stone toward the success of the upcoming inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.(provided by the Ministry of Unification)
cue Krugman Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
"Criticism of Mark Knight's Serena Williams cartoon shows the world has gone too PC & misunderstands the role of news media cartoons and satire," said Charlie Hebdo, executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, which owns the Herald Sun.
Methinks someone is taking the piss rather offensively keep to the Fen Causeway
Shaul Horev dropped a bombshell, but hardly anyone noticed. Horev, an Israel Defense Forces reservist brigadier general who has served, among other posts, as the navy chief of staff and chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, is currently director of the Research Center for Maritime Policy and Strategy at the University of Haifa. At the end of August, the center held a conference, to which participants from the United States were invited, to examine security issues relating to Israel and the Mediterranean region. In an interview with the religious-Zionist media outlet Arutz Sheva, Prof. Horev noted that one topic that came up at the event was Chinese investments in Mediterranean ports, and in Israel in particular. Pointing out that a Chinese company will soon start operating Haifa Port, he said that Israel needs to create a mechanism that will examine Chinese investments to ensure that they do not put Israel's security interests at risk. "When China acquires ports," Horev said, "it does so under the guise of maintaining a trade route from the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal to Europe, such as the port of Piraeus in Greece. Does an economic horizon like this have a security impact? We are not weighing that possibility sufficiently. One of the senior American figures at the conference raised the question of whether the U.S. Sixth Fleet can see Haifa as a home port. In light of the Chinese takeover, the question is no longer on the agenda."
In an interview with the religious-Zionist media outlet Arutz Sheva, Prof. Horev noted that one topic that came up at the event was Chinese investments in Mediterranean ports, and in Israel in particular. Pointing out that a Chinese company will soon start operating Haifa Port, he said that Israel needs to create a mechanism that will examine Chinese investments to ensure that they do not put Israel's security interests at risk.
"When China acquires ports," Horev said, "it does so under the guise of maintaining a trade route from the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal to Europe, such as the port of Piraeus in Greece. Does an economic horizon like this have a security impact? We are not weighing that possibility sufficiently. One of the senior American figures at the conference raised the question of whether the U.S. Sixth Fleet can see Haifa as a home port. In light of the Chinese takeover, the question is no longer on the agenda."
While these regimes may differ in some respects, they share key attributes: hostility toward democratic norms, antagonism toward a free press, intolerance toward ethnic and religious minorities, and a belief that government should benefit their own selfish financial interests. These leaders are also deeply connected to a network of multi-billionaire oligarchs who see the world as their economic plaything. Those of us who believe in democracy, who believe that a government must be accountable to its people, must understand the scope of this challenge if we are to effectively confront it.
Those of us who believe in democracy, who believe that a government must be accountable to its people, must understand the scope of this challenge if we are to effectively confront it.
○ Europe's Four Freedoms - [Update]
Big update with Opinion piece in The Guardian by Bernie Sanders - a man speaking his mind and from the heart! Global Warming - distance between America and Europe is steadily increasing.
Our era will be remembered for the triumphant march of a globally unifying rightwing - a Nationalist International - that sprang out of the cesspool of financialised capitalism. Whether it will also be remembered for a successful humanist challenge to this menace depends on the willingness of progressives in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom as well as countries like Mexico, India and South Africa, to forge a coherent Progressive International.
Massive wind and solar energy installations in the Sahara and nearby Sahel deserts would increase local temperatures, rainfall and vegetation - all benefits for the region, according to a climate-modeling study published Thursday in the journal Science [SUBSCRIPTION WAIVED]. We primarily focused on the effect of such large wind and solar farms in the Sahara region (including the most arid parts of the Arabian Desert) and the neighboring Sahel region for several reasons: (i) The Sahara is the largest desert in the world and has a great supply of solar and wind energy. (ii) The Sahara is sparsely inhabited, and thus the development of wind and solar farms would have minimal competition for land surface area against natural and other human land uses, such as agriculture (15). (iii) The Sahel is a transition region between desert and wooded savanna and, as such, is highly sensitive to land changes (18, 19, 23). (iv) Both regions are near Europe and the Middle East, areas with enormous current energy demand, and sub-Saharan Africa, which has a large projected growth in energy demand (see supplementary text). (v) Massive investment in solar and wind generation could promote economic development in the Sahel, one of the poorest regions in the world, as well as provide clean energy for desalination and provision of water for cities and food production (24). The wind and solar farms simulated in this study would generate approximately 3 and 79 TW of electrical power, respectively, averaged over a typical year (see supplementary text).
We primarily focused on the effect of such large wind and solar farms in the Sahara region (including the most arid parts of the Arabian Desert) and the neighboring Sahel region for several reasons: (i) The Sahara is the largest desert in the world and has a great supply of solar and wind energy. (ii) The Sahara is sparsely inhabited, and thus the development of wind and solar farms would have minimal competition for land surface area against natural and other human land uses, such as agriculture (15). (iii) The Sahel is a transition region between desert and wooded savanna and, as such, is highly sensitive to land changes (18, 19, 23). (iv) Both regions are near Europe and the Middle East, areas with enormous current energy demand, and sub-Saharan Africa, which has a large projected growth in energy demand (see supplementary text). (v) Massive investment in solar and wind generation could promote economic development in the Sahel, one of the poorest regions in the world, as well as provide clean energy for desalination and provision of water for cities and food production (24). The wind and solar farms simulated in this study would generate approximately 3 and 79 TW of electrical power, respectively, averaged over a typical year (see supplementary text).
archived desertec Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Also, use excess power to pump desalinated seawater inland. tbh, this couldbe rolled out across any desert area near to the sea.
If you grew coppiced trees underneath and then sink the wood into the sea below 100m or so, he wood will continue to sink and place the captured carbon beyond return to the atmosphere. I dunno, do this to Australia, Sahara and Arabian deserts and you might manage to keep atmospheric CO2 down while we work out how to get polticians who give a shit keep to the Fen Causeway
I've seen some very interesting youtubes about desert reclamations using quite small amounts of water but delivered consistently. the soil creation is very rapid, 3 - 6 years from bare sand. keep to the Fen Causeway
The Sahara desert, unlike the Gobi for example and purportedly the optimal site of Desertec equipment, is 80:20, sand:soil, unevenly distributed. The maximum depths of its dunes and packed strata are, basically, unknown.
I found a youtube doc about Libyan (Gadaffi's) investment in reclamation that offers a succinct explanation of the financial and technical hurdles to agricultural success --without even the added expenses of solar and wind siting and maintenance.
Astro turf appears the least cost option. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
The typhoon's top winds declined to about 167 kilometers per hour (103 mph), from 195 kph earlier, according to the U.S. Navy and Air Force's Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii. Mangkhut's structure will be ripped by wind shear, weakening its top winds as it approaches the coast to Hong Kong's west. [...] Mangkhut struck Cagayan province in the northern Philippines Saturday with winds of up to 269 kilometers an hour, leaving at least eight dead and sending about 206,000 people to shelters, according to data from various agencies.
fact-checking is a brain disease https://t.co/OqJ8PybPnC pic.twitter.com/KB46vajffc— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) 30 August 2018
fact-checking is a brain disease https://t.co/OqJ8PybPnC pic.twitter.com/KB46vajffc
This weekend --after headline perversion out of eSwatini (Swazi land)-- I delved into the interboobs for update on S.A. historiography (last retrieved ~ 2006, keyword mfecane). A politcally influential essay (pub'd. 1988) sequestered by JSTOr has been since liberated. Arguably this type of primary source critique that revises canon has informed CAPS II tuition in S.A. juvenile education as well as continuing studies into truth and reconciliation.
The Mfecane as Alibi (fabricated myth about "depopulation" and innocent by-standers) Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
I am not fluent in Vietnamese. And even if I could find volumes of English translation, I wouldn't read them. It's not a topic in its particulars that interests me. The "Conflict" --as my eminently offended parents reminded us back in the day-- is barely History. The stories to tell are still memoirs, which is to say, in my mind, abject and belated explanations for ones's part dressing a naked genocidal project this way or that.
When I was a child I watched news of The Conflict on the evening news delivered by Cronkite, Huntley, and Brinkley. Mr Lt. Calley's trial was a topic in my "social studies" class. About the same time, for different reasons, we were given a project to present our family histories. I, by comparison to the many purported descendants of Mayflower settlers, little to offer to the grand scheme. My daughter informs me that the narrative of personal mementos scattered around the National Museum of African American History leaves the same impression.
I have spent a little time though in Ho Chi Minh City twenty years or so ago. The city was teeming with youth and poverty. I was startled that my guide could find no war memorials of the "American War". I was startled to learn that "Yo!" is a toast to good health. This all gave me pause for thoughts about symbols signifying tribute or triumph. If I'd ever made it to Hanoi or crawled through the tunnels, I might have today a different perspective on the history of the Vietnamese peoples, but I doubt it. I've learned my lesson.
So in my dotage I amuse myself reading "revisions" as black history of the world's civilizations comes to light. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
In May 1998, the mainstream press of Western Europe and North America announced the death of a man by the name Pol Pot. This man was said to have caused the death of more than two million people in Cambodia--a small country in Southeast Asia bordered by Vietnam and Thailand. Pol Pot was said to have committed this "crime against humanity" between 1975 and 1978 when he was in power in Cambodia. Journalists, newspaper editorialists and political commentators in Nigeria, including those who had never before heard of Cambodia, proceeded from this Western announcement to condemn Pol Pot and regret that the "monster" died just as he was about to be handed over, not to the government of his country, but to the United States of America, to be tried for his heinous crimes. In all this expression of righteous indignation the Western press did not tell us, and the Nigerian press did not ask, what sustained Pol Pot in the jungle of that small country for 20 years, from the time of his removal from power in 1978 to his death in 1998. We were not told how Pol Pot came to power in the first place and how and by whom he was removed from power. We were not told how Pol Pot managed to kill more than two million of his country men and women. Did he run amuck slaughtering them in the manner of Rwanda? Did he march them into gas chambers in the manner of Adolf Hitler? Did he simply starve them to death? If we have been told all this, we probably would still have condemned Pol Pot, but we would at least have known that the man came to power in the Second Indo-China War, that is, the war in the third quarter of the 20th century between the peoples' liberation forces of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, on the one hand, and American forces on the other; that, in that war, American forces killed, through bombing and starvation, more than two million Cambodians; that American governments sustained Pol Pot for 20 years after he was overthrown by the Vietnamese in a border war; and finally that those in power in Cambodia today, through the help of American government, were all collaborators of Pol Pot.
In all this expression of righteous indignation the Western press did not tell us, and the Nigerian press did not ask, what sustained Pol Pot in the jungle of that small country for 20 years, from the time of his removal from power in 1978 to his death in 1998. We were not told how Pol Pot came to power in the first place and how and by whom he was removed from power. We were not told how Pol Pot managed to kill more than two million of his country men and women. Did he run amuck slaughtering them in the manner of Rwanda? Did he march them into gas chambers in the manner of Adolf Hitler? Did he simply starve them to death?
If we have been told all this, we probably would still have condemned Pol Pot, but we would at least have known that the man came to power in the Second Indo-China War, that is, the war in the third quarter of the 20th century between the peoples' liberation forces of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, on the one hand, and American forces on the other; that, in that war, American forces killed, through bombing and starvation, more than two million Cambodians; that American governments sustained Pol Pot for 20 years after he was overthrown by the Vietnamese in a border war; and finally that those in power in Cambodia today, through the help of American government, were all collaborators of Pol Pot.
Happy Black History Y3 D252 Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
China not [only] hitting crypto*, video gaming now discouraged
The authorities were having none of this and have closed a number of crypto-related groups in addition to closing down a number of blockchain news outlets on China's largest platform WeChat. It did not stop there. According to local news reports, Chinese tech giant Baidu has now joined other major online firms Tencent and Alibaba in imposing new anti-crypto measures as Beijing toughens its stance again.
It did not stop there. According to local news reports, Chinese tech giant Baidu has now joined other major online firms Tencent and Alibaba in imposing new anti-crypto measures as Beijing toughens its stance again.
* criminalized initial coin offering (ICO) solicitation
archived Always Read the Footnotes Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
New study quantifies bitcoin's ludicrous energy consumption
A new study estimates that this process consumes at least 2.6GW of power--almost as much electric power as Ireland consumes. This figure could rise to 7.7GW before the end of 2018--accounting for almost half a percent of the world's electricity consumption.
The whole thing is predicated on every transaction on the network is sent to every node on the network meaning "Satoshi Nakamoto" - whoever she, he, or they are - lacked any awareness of Combinatorics. She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
It's just as well it doesn't work, because if the libertarian nutbags got their way and enough people used it, it would be the end of tax collection. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
"Folks, there's nothing left from the Linguistics division. We lost all the indigenous languages collection: the recordings since 1958, the chants in all the languages for which there are no native speakers alive anymore, the Curt Niemuendaju archives: papers, photos, negatives, the original ethnic-historic-linguistic map localizing all the ethnic groups in Brazil, the only record that we had from 1945. The ethnological and archeological references of all ethnic groups in Brazil since the 16th century... An irreparable loss of our historic memory. It just hurts so much to see all in ashes." Cira Gonda, translated by Diogo Almeida, about the fire at Brazil's National Museum.
Cira Gonda, translated by Diogo Almeida, about the fire at Brazil's National Museum.
Found the fire news elsewhere while searching for (not trade) news about employment of anthropologists. Ended up reading more than I cared about Brazil's royal family.
Considered rereading 100 Years of Solitude.
A lot of consequences tied up in that event go unmentioned. I'm not alluding to replacement value. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
archived "Our focus is not only on the sexual act but the relationship between two consenting adults and the manifestation of their rights under Articles 14 and 21" Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
The tenth Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was declared on 1st August in the North Kivu province, on the north-eastern part of the country. [...] The total number of cases are: confirmed (91) + probable*, (30) = 121 total cases, suspect cases: 14, deaths amongst confirmed cases: 51 and 17 health staff infected (Source: Congolese MoH). The national laboratory (INRB) confirmed on 7 August that the current outbreak is the Zaire strain on the virus, the most deadly and the same that affected West Africa in 2014-2015 as well as Equateur province, in western DRC earlier in 2018 - although the virus' strain was different from an outbreak to another. [...] Whilst cases have decreased dramatically we cannot yet say that the epidemic has stabilized or is under control. New cases are still arriving at our treatment centre in Mangina but we are not seeing the number of suspect cases we would expect to see at this stage of the epidemic. We are concerned that this could be not only because of a reduction in the number of infections but because those patients experiencing symptoms are too afraid to access care or do not understand the importance of early hospitalisation and treatment. We also don't have a clear idea about how many unreported deaths could happen at community level.
-- *Probable refers to community deaths that have links to confirmed Ebola cases but which were not tested before burial.
archived living lab 18 Aug Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Water and sanitation infrastructure is collapsing. ... "The numbers are growing by the day and to date there are about over 2,000 cases, that's quite a big number," the minister said, attributing the outbreak to shortages of safe drinking water and poor sanitation. "This whole problem has arisen as a result of blocked sewers. The other problem is that garbage hasn't been collected on a regular basis. There is water problems, no water availability."
Meanwhile in Libya, $25B still burning. NATO bombs the Great Man-Made River Two workers killed in second attack on Libyan water plant
"An armed attack was carried out by terrorist groups on the Tazirbu site causing havoc, looting, killing and terrorizing families, children and the workers who ensure the supply of water to cities," said a statement from the Great Man-made River Project, a pipe network supplying ground water from the Libyan Sahara.
Time until someone born after 9/11 can enlist to go to war in Afghanistan: pic.twitter.com/wajIpPLrO5— Richard White (@CheekyAmriki) 10. September 2018
Time until someone born after 9/11 can enlist to go to war in Afghanistan: pic.twitter.com/wajIpPLrO5
I. If there is such a mode of common being as inauthenticity, then all of History is inauthentic and action in History results in inauthenticity; authenticity reverts to individualism. Conversely, if the nature of man is to be realized at the end of History, authenticity must be willed for itself as the very condition of historical struggle. Any doctrine of conversion runs the real risk of being an a-historicism. 2 Any doctrine of historicity runs the real risk of being an amoralism. 1
The thesis gets kind of sketchy, what with all the metaphorical veil waving, after that. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
"Prize Day," he goes on, "is generally preceded by an expiatory sacrifice. The youngest professor assumes all the sins of the year and does penance for them in public: this is what we call the customary address. When he utters the last word, his purification is complete: thus, each fall, all the high schools of France can start the new academic year in a state of grace. On the other hand, this punishment is often less difficult for the scapegoat than for those who have to listen to him: at least he can choose his subject; nor does this subject have to be absolutely pertinent to the ceremony. And so I am going to take advantage of my rights and talk to you about movies." The students react with smiles and laughter the parents with consternation, discomfort, and silence. Invoking Anatole France, Aesop, and Pirandello, Sarte shows this cold, affected town and its frozen, haughty bourgeois that cinema is "really art."
SCHOLARS: If only tech had an understanding of the humanities, we wouldn't be in this situation!ZUCKERBERG: On my honeymoon, I abandoned my wife to wander the great monuments of Rome. Like Augustus, my country is wretched mud--but I, too, will leave it marble.SCHOLARS: Wait no, pic.twitter.com/5M34Tdic5c— Quantian📉 (@quantian1) 10. September 2018
SCHOLARS: If only tech had an understanding of the humanities, we wouldn't be in this situation!ZUCKERBERG: On my honeymoon, I abandoned my wife to wander the great monuments of Rome. Like Augustus, my country is wretched mud--but I, too, will leave it marble.SCHOLARS: Wait no, pic.twitter.com/5M34Tdic5c
Summary of purported controversy EU Parliament is to vote whether to enact Articles 11 and 13 as emended 12 September 2018.
No citation to the proposed directives' texts is provided.
No reference to directives in force governing expiry of EU member persons' digital copy rights to any use by any person in perpetuity ("public domain") is provided.
No reference to directives prescribing permissible fair-use of copyright-protected material is provided.
"Platform" owners and operators expect revenue losses if these amendments to ECU Council Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC are adopted by the several nation-state signators. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Articles 11 and 13 anticipate high growth YouTube channels sales Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
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