Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss:

SPD grabs key ministries as Merkel clinches coalition deal - Politico

BERLIN -- Germany's leading parties agreed a deal for a new government on Wednesday, setting the stage for a fourth term for conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel but giving Social Democrats control over the finance and foreign ministries.

After an all-night negotiating session, officials from Merkel's center-right bloc and the center-left SPD confirmed a deal had been reached. No details were officially released but national media outlets reported that SPD leader Martin Schulz would become foreign minister, while Hamburg mayor Olaf Scholz would take the finance minister post.

EP votes against transnational lists

"If we are not a federation, why would we need such lists?", [Paulo Rangel (EPP)] asked.
[...]
Following the end of the vote, the European Parliament finally decided to reduce the number of MEPs from 751 to 705 for the next elections and to remove the MEP reserve initially made for the constitution of a transitional list.

The remaining 27 seats, however, were granted by a large majority to the rebalancing of the Parliament's composition. ... countries that experienced an increase in population will get additional seats for the next elections. France notably gains the most by winning 5 more seats and going from 74 to 79 MEPs.

archived:
Don't rush to cheer up: EPP wants pan-EU lists for 2024
"for this to happen, the electoral law should ..."
national and transnational lists, degressive proportionality

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Paris Cracks Down on Slumlords

Under current laws, around 3,000 sites in France are condemned for their poor conditions each year, but only 80 to 90 landlords face actual criminal charges. This is partly because proving guilt is difficult under current laws, and partly because already marginalized tenants can be afraid to complain or testify because of threats and intimidation.

So what's to be done?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Sweden tried to drop Assange extradition in 2013, CPS emails show

The newly-released emails show that the Swedish authorities were eager to give up the case four years before they formally abandoned proceedings in 2017 and that the CPS dissuaded them from doing so.

Some of the material has surfaced from an information tribunal challenge brought late last year by the Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi.

The CPS lawyer handling the case, who has since retired, commented on an article which suggested that Sweden could drop the case in August 2012. He wrote: "Don't you dare get cold feet!!!".

As the case dragged on, the Swedish director of public prosecutions, Marianne Ny, wrote to the CPS on 18 October 2013 explaining that she had few options left. "There is a demand in Swedish law for coercive measures to be proportionate," she informed London.

"The time passing, the costs and how severe the crime is to be taken into account together with the intrusion or detriment to the suspect. Against this background, we have found us to be obliged to lift the detention order ... and to withdraw the European arrest warrant. If so this should be done in a couple of weeks. This would affect not only us but you too in a significant way."

This is interesting, and the question was raised last year why they didn't drop the investigation sooner, since the motive for dropping it was that it couldn't proceed with Assange at the embassy. Though the practical effects of dragging it out may be minimal, it centers the responsibility with the London authorities.

FOREIGN MINISTER UNDER FIRE OVER LIE ABOUT MEETING WITH RUSSIAN PRESIDENT
"The Minister has a problem"

I mentioned that I was a amateur cockroach theorist.
I am also an amateur inch theorist: give them one, they'll take a foot (metaphysical, physical, metaphorical, or any combination thereof).

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

It's Time for the ["]Pop-Up["] Olympics

The 35,000-seat pentagonal Olympic Stadium is an extreme example of pop-up architecture, a mega-event venue with a planned lifespan shorter than the career of an aerial snowboarder. The stadium will be used four times in all--for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Games and Paralympics. Then it's slated to be torn down.

With its simple structure and open roof, the temporary structure was designed with demolition in mind--a technique that has been employed before in previous Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, in 1992. Given the sub-freezing temperatures expected, the unheated and roofless facility is perhaps less than ideal.
[...]
In all, the Pyeongchang Olympics are set to cost as much as $13 billion, far beyond the $8 billion South Korea projected when the city won its hosting bid (in its third try) in 2011. That sounds like a lot, but put it in perspective: Russia's Sochi Olympics in 2014 cost $51 billion, Bloomberg Businessweek estimated, a feat of excess and state-sanctioned fraud unlikely to be easily duplicated.
[...]
"It's wasteful, there's no question about it," Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist [?] at Smith College and frequent critic of Olympic Games excess, says of the stadium demolition. "It's very hard to bring myself to say, `Knock it down.' But since the alternative seems to be it wouldn't be used, and it would cost $10 million to maintain as a white elephant, then, yeah, it's probably better to knock it down."

Finance
[1] Jun-beom and Da-mi, Korea Focus, "Success Formula for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games" (Feb 2018)

[2] AP, PC2018, "Fears over South Korea's rising 2018 Winter Olympics costs" (2018)


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Tariff sabotage: Free market extremists hijack Brexit trade chaos

The Policy Exchange think tank - which used to have a direct line to government and even now enjoys extraordinary influence - published a report this morning demanding Britain unilaterally reduce its tariffs as part of a potent new Britannia-rules-the-waves trading adventure.

Comparative Advantage Revival!

The report suggests a phased reduction of tariffs on all items from any country on earth. Goods could flow into the UK without any tax being imposed on them. ... Policy Exchange want to reduce our tariffs without having secured any reciprocal agreement from our trading partners. British producers would be left facing harsh competition without the government having done anything to help them reach the rest of the world.
[...]
Take British Sugar ™, which produces domestically and pays decent wages to its workers in the UK. It is unlikely to withstand the sudden arrival of cheap sugar from Brazil and Thailand, especially if [?] barriers go up to UK exports to Europe. But that is not because of the free market. It's because those governments subsidise their sugar industries. This isn't about capitalism. It's about protecting your workers

Mercantalism - Scourge of Free Nations!
Why UK exporters are set for a sugar rush Sep 2017

For the first time since 1968 the UK can produce and sell as much sugar around the world as it would like. The end of the quota also means that French, German and other EU producers can sell more sugar into the UK.

How big is the UK sugar beet industry?

• There are nearly 10,000 workers in the industry's UK supply chain
  
• The UK consumes 2 million tonnes of sugar a year
  
• 60% of that comes from UK beets
  
• Another 15% comes from EU beets and 25% from imported sugar cane

archived:
(50%+) tariffs  EG. BEETS, CAPS, EU prerogatives.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

letter

[W]e are referring Christopher Steele to the Department of Justice for investigation of potential violation(s) of 18 USC § 1001 (c)(2)

Quite

the bad penny is 18 USC under SCOTUS heel on 4th, 5th, and 14th Amd.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Russians Successfully Hacked U.S. Voter Systems Before 2016 Election, Top Official Says - Newsweek

Russians penetrated voter registration rolls in several states before the 2016 presidential election, according to a U.S. official charged with protecting American elections from hackers.

"We saw a targeting of 21 states and an exceptionally small number of them were actually successfully penetrated," Jeanette Manfra, the Department of Homeland Security's head of cybersecurity, told NBC News in a report published on Wednesday.

Manfra said her assessment came from a "snapshot in time with the visibility that the department had at that time." There was no evidence that any registration rolls were compromised.

Washington Post

Former U.S. representative Michele Bachmann has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate seat recently vacated by Al Franken, just weeks after she told a televangelist she was mulling the decision. Franken resigned effective last month after facing allegations of sexual misconduct.

In a broadcast published by Right Wing Watch, Bachmann told Minnesota radio host Jan Markell on Saturday that she's decided against running for office, saying she prayed about the race and "wasn't hearing any call from God to do this."

WHY A CONVICTED KILLER IS RUNNING FOR OFFICE IN TEXAS

His experiences certainly make him an important candidate, able to connect with the thousands who have been isolated and defined by previous misdeeds of theirs or others -- particularly in the city's minority communities, which as elsewhere are disproportionately impacted by the system. But his past might also make him ineligible to do so, depending on how you read a 33-year-old state statute that would seem to bar the formerly incarcerated from holding public office.

The statute is one of hundreds in place across the country that deny basic rights to the formerly incarcerated -- sometimes forever. While the Texas statute appears to offer a way for Conway to run, it isn't clear what path he must take to get there. He is determined to figure it out and, in turn, clear the way for others like him.

The Chronicle of Higher Education database of reported Title VII sexual assault cases is here.
The "Tracker" was cited by Politico in Too Much Netflix, Not Enough Chill: Why Young Americans Are Having Less Sex.

Starting in 2011, for instance, the Obama administration pushed colleges and universities to reduce sexual harassment and violence with a range of Title IX-inspired measures. These measures, and the concerns they underlined, led to the expulsions of hundreds, if not thousands, of men for alleged sexual assaults on campuses.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Russian passenger plane crashes near Moscow, no survivors reported | DW |

A Russian domestic passenger plane with 71 passengers and crew on board crashed on the outskirts of the Russian capital on Sunday.

The Antonov An-148 plane, operated by Saratov Airlines, had just taken off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport, and was headed to Orsk -- a city in the Urals near the border with Kazakhstan.

Russian news agencies said the jetliner crashed in the Ramensky district outside Moscow. Witnesses in the village of Argunovo saw a burning plane falling from the sky, according to local media.  

A plane just doesn't drop from the sky when it reaches 6,000 feet after take-off. Preliminary data ...

'Sapere aude'

From the Green Book to Facebook, how black people still need to outwit racists in rural America - Guardian

Barber, who teaches history at Missouri State University, was planning a road trip to Arkansas with his white wife and two young children, and was apprehensive about what they might encounter in the rural backwaters. Herbert had an idea - why not float the dilemma to friends on Facebook and see what came back?

"Sadly, it's 2017," Herbert went ahead and posted, "and we still have to consider the racial climate of some of the most beautiful places in this country before we decide to vacation there with our families."

The comment sparked intense Facebook reaction. A black friend divulged the fact that he had been called the N-word in Oklahoma and had run into the KKK in Texas. "I remember not taking our kids through parts of Missouri or Arkansas out of fear," he said.

A white woman lamented that, in this day and age, her black friends still had to think twice about where they could go. "This knocks the breath out of me. Your beautiful family has to consider factors mine doesn't. WTF, America?"

A third friend, a black playwright named Michelle Johnson, mentioned the Green Book, the historical travel guide for African American motorists that in the old days of Jim Crow had provided an invaluable roadmap. It listed locations where black drivers could fill up their tanks, get a bite to eat or stay the night, all without danger.

"Just saying," Johnson remarked. "Unfortunately, it needs a comeback."

What Today's Headlines About Famine Get Wrong - NPR

Famine is not a natural disaster -- it's primarily man-made.

A related and, de Waal argues, equally important insight from his analysis of famines over the last 150 years, is how few of them were due to natural disasters such as drought or flooding or simply an inability of a place to produce enough food.

Instead de Waal found that 70 percent of the deaths occurred in famines that were fully man-made, meaning they were created by government policies that were either recklessly incompetent (exhibit A is the Great Leap Forward) or expressly intended to starve people in the vein of the Nazi Hunger Plan.

This has also been the case with most of the famines or near-famines we face today -- the crisis in Yemen, for instance, is largely the result of the blockade by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that is preventing food and other supplies from getting in. Similarly, "in Syria we see the starving of cities as a tactic of war carried out by the Assad government."

h/t Melanchthon

Today -100: February 9, 1918: Of German agents, Wobblies, and meat

After much cogitation over various proposals, Baron Rhonda, the Food Controller, tonight issued a meat rationing order which gives each civilian about one pound of meat weekly.
[...]
The present prices of meat vary from about a shilling a pound for inferior grades to one shilling 9 pence for the best cuts, so that the persons contented with inferior cuts could obtain rather over a pound of butcher's meat for three coupons of a total value of 15 pence. Children under 16 are entitled to half a ration.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Jo'burg, The Haunting Legacy of South Africa's Gold Mines
"The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research estimated that as early as 2000, up to 20 percent of the stream flow around Johannesburg came from groundwater that was polluted, in part, by mines."
Water scarcity tops list of world miners' worries
"'To draw on wells to sustain your [sic] operations could be a source of potential conflict down the road,' Goldcorp CEO David Garofalo said in an interview late last month."
Water Treatment in South Africa
"The projected cost of this plan is 360 billion Rand, or $35.5 billion [10]. South Africa's Department of Water Affairs, however, currently only has $33 million for funding the project [3]."
Cape Town, Western Cape Government
"Other penalties such as fines or even imprisonment for blatant water wastage are also possible depending on your municipality's stipulations."

source: Life in Cape Town After 'Day Zero'

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Long, but intriguing - hadn't given this a thought before.

Talk is cheap: the myth of the focus group - Guardian

Focus groups came, over the course of the last century, to shape almost every aspect of our lives, from cake mix to Barbie dolls. Almost nothing is launched into the world without a focus group. Since the late 1980s, they have affected even the political discussions that ultimately determine what kind of society we can have, not to mention the toothpaste we use, the soap operas we watch, the news media we consume, and the video games we play. Focus groups have also helped to create and nourish a seemingly boundless culture of consultation, in which ordinary people weigh in on just about everything, before the people in charge make a decision. Aided by social media and other technologies, the scope of such consultation has, in recent years, expanded its reach with breathtaking speed, allowing companies to aggregate the views and feelings of millions of potential customers.

(....)

Traditionally, people have advanced their own interests by organizing and confronting the powerful. They do this by working together in groups. The focus group harnesses this cooperative impulse, but its only result is the production of data that serves the interests of the powerful. Groups have often been a means - indeed, for those without money, the only means - of building power, but the focus group, like the isolated individual, can only provide information. This is why the focus group is a quintessential ritual of, to borrow the historian Lizabeth Cohen's phrase, "a consumer's republic".

Most people in the corporate or political elite have no idea what the majority of people - whose votes or consumer dollars they badly need to win - are like. They don't know people who are not like themselves. Elites live in different neighbourhoods and have different values and habits from most people. Speaking of the clients on the other side of the mirror, former moderator Kara Gilmour says: "A lot of those people are really out of touch. They think they have all the answers because they're the professionals. But when was the last time that they went shopping in a mid-range mall? They never shop in a mid-range mall. They get all their clothes at the sample sales."

96 years ago today, representatives of the great powers signed the Washington Naval Treaty. Thanks to their statesmanship, mankind no longer cowers before the scourge of the dreadnought battleship

— The Discourse Lover (@Trillburne) 6. Februar 2018

I am fascinated by popular culture, when it expresses contemporaneous anxieties rather than valorizes normative mores. A serial drama that premiered this month on Netflix accomplishes the former task, Altered Carbon, by radically dissembling personal and institutional "identity" cues over the course of a conventional detective story.

soma esti sema debunked

I enjoy that, because I have for a long time had difficulty apprehending why some people need either to transform or "cling" (to borrow a pejorative term) to perception of a role or so-called social construct (a "skin", in the vernacular of the story) rather than one's ethical praxis.

MEMORABLE QUOTE:  If we do not know our role in this world, why are we in it?

The IMBD synopsis is somewhat amusing, where the protagonist's cause (raison d'être) is given as "to win his freedom", because the season ends with a liturgical narration of class struggle to UNITE the "princess" and the "peasant" in rebellion.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.