Die geplante Verfassungsreform zur Bereinigung der Bund/Länder-Kompetenzen betrifft auch die Justiz: Gerichtsbezirke sollen künftig vom Bund allein per Verordnung festgelegt werden. Am Zustimmungsrecht der Länder sind schon mehrere Versuche gescheitert, kleine Bezirksgerichte zusammenzulegen. Die Länder wollen auch weiterhin mitreden - und die Richtervereinigung ist "entschieden" gegen die Neuregelung.

So the Austrian government plans a reform of the constitution. Among other things they want to change judicial borders by ministerial decree instead of law.
Can't see how that could have any bad effects on judicial independence.

European Union regulators also are investigating restrictions Google has placed on third-party websites to prevent them from displaying search advertisements from Google's competitors. This is known as the AdSense case.

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If you want less of something ... tax it.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

En Marche officials have been courting members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe parliamentary group (ALDE) with the hope of forming a large pro-European force after the election. But so far "Macronmania" has not infected the European Parliament; few believe Macron's group will be able to rival the EPP for dominance.

Salvini's problem is that Euroskeptics are heterogeneous and divided, and in some areas ideological enemies. On economics, for example, the National Rally and Alternative for Germany (AfD) sit at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Creating a large Euroskeptic group would require him to bridge those differences.

Still, Macron and Salvini don't have to come in first to change the way things are run in Brussels. As the most disruptive forces in the upcoming campaign, they have the capacity to drive the election debate. Traditional parties might rush to adopt some of their policies, on EU reform for Macron or immigration for Salvini -- a victory of sorts.

Theresa May is to tell the European Union it is time to drop what she feels is their inflexible view on an Irish border solution and "evolve" their position to break the impasse in Brexit talks.

Die Züge sind pünktlich, schnell und picobello sauber, die Fahrpreise niedrig, der Service freundlich. Welches Geheimnis, fragt sich unser Autor, steckt hinter dem Erfolg der italienischen Staatsbahn?

Man stelle sich vor: der gebuchte Zug kommt pünktlich. Er verkehrt nicht "heute ausnahmsweise an Gleis 5 anstelle von Gleis 8" und auch nicht "heute ausnahmsweise in veränderter Wagenreihung". Es hastet also niemand schwer bepackt am Gleis entlang, um sein Abteil zu erreichen. Der Zug hält exakt dort, wo er halten müsste.

Labour officials ran a secret operation to deceive Jeremy Corbyn at last year's general election, micro-targeting Facebook adverts at the leader and his closest aides to convince them the party was running the campaign they demanded.

Who would suffer more in a no deal WTO Brexit? The UK or EU? The IMF's (unsurprising) answer is here: pic.twitter.com/lGO0zHg5ba

— Ben Chu (@BenChu_) July 19, 2018

UK to warn public every week over `no-deal Brexit'

The information will be distributed as "bundles" to consumers and companies as Britain counts down to its departure from the European Union on 29 March 2019, said the newspaper.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters in Berlin after meeting German counterpart Heiko Maas that "there is now a very real risk of a Brexit no deal by accident [!]"

"But my real concern is that it will change British public attitudes to Europe for a generation."

[German FM Heiko] Maas declined to comment on the threat from Britain's lead negotiator [WHO?] on Brexit that London might not pay its 39 billion pound ($51 billion) divorce bill if no trade agreement with the EU is reached.

Story here.

Unfortunately, though, Greece's firefighters say that they are less ready operationally than they were last year this time; many senior officers and other experienced firefighters have left the service, fearing that new social security legislation will offer fewer benefits for pensioners; fewer firefighting aircraft are available; government austerity measures have reduced wages by between 150 and 300 euros. All of these factors mean that fewer and less-experienced firefighters will be doing more work than ever - for less pay. This would seriously demoralize the service.

Thousands of Poles demonstrated  as President Andrzej Duda signed judicial reform legislation into law that has been criticized within Poland and internationally for enabling the ruling government to effectively take control of the country's Supreme Court. https://t.co/4iw0UOj79x

— dwnews (@dwnews) July 27, 2018

The PiS party has said an overhaul is needed to make the courts more efficient and eradicate the influence of Poland's communist past.

"Without (judiciary) reforms, we cannot rebuild the Polish state so that it serves its citizens," said Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the eurosceptic party [PiS] that combines left-leaning economics with nationalist politics.

The European Commission is running an unprecedented "rule-of-law investigation" that could lead to the suspension of Poland's voting rights in the 28-member bloc. It has also opened several separate legal cases against Poland, the largest former communist EU state, including some over the Supreme Court.

In several EU member states, notably in Bulgaria and Slovakia, the convention's critics claim that the Council of Europe document is a Trojan horse aimed at introducing a "third sex" and same-sex marriage.

So far, the 2011 Istanbul Convention has been ratified by 18 EU members: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
[...]
In Bulgaria, key political forces, including the opposition Socialists and the United Patriots, junior partners to the ruling GERB, openly oppose the Istanbul Convention.

We publish today the conclusions of our investigation into Vote Leave's EU referendum spending. We found significant evidence of undeclared joint working between the lead leave campaigner, Vote Leave, and the campaign group BeLeave. Read the full report   https://t.co/L1qv1ihH72 pic.twitter.com/ezeI7puLDC

— Electoral Commission (@ElectoralCommUK) July 17, 2018

Meanwhile, Facebook -- whose platform played a key role in distributing referendum messaging -- booked revenue of around $40.7BN in 2017 alone, reporting a full year profit of almost $16BN.

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Always Read the Footnotes 2 Aug 2017

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

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Spanish Amazon workers call three-day strike over wages, rights

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Mann Act Revival UPDATEs
Why is it that so many govs criminalize "commercial sex acts," or prostitution?
Is a 'sex act' worthless? Or is it priceless?
&tc

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

He said the Fed's course of ["]tightening monetary["] policy 'now hurts all that we have done.'"

If he's truly dumb enough, he'll submit all his orders before the new year, leaving the electorate nearly two years to relish collapse of The Economy. This will put them in the proper frame of mind in 2020 to vote Anyone-But-Trump to claim the unitary executive office.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

"Facebook's advertising platform allowed unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, sexual orientation, disability and religion," [Washington AG Bob] Ferguson said.

But let's just see if Zuck can litigate the "business model" out of the US constitutional weeds.

A huge industry and the world waits with baited breath. I for one look forward especially to Airb CEOs on the dock.

archived
"microtargeting"

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

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sockpuppet

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

And Return of the Stress Test, over the Cliff Edge.

Asked about Brexit, [Carney the ex-Yank] said the bank could have a disorderly Brexit stress test within nine months.

The topic of today ...

When Obama's former CIA Intelligence Chief reacts this way, it's a GOOD sign. I trust Trump will take it as a motivation to move forward and not get stuck in the past of failed policy and diplomacy.

Donald Trump's press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of "high crimes & misdemeanors." It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump's comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???

— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) July 16, 2018

As I said today and many times before, "I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people." However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past - as the world's two largest nuclear powers, we must get along! #HELSINKI2018

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018

Trump will use the excuse: "It happened on Obama's watch."  #Crimea #NordStream2 #Syria

My diary - Trump Meets Putin [Updated].

'Sapere aude'

Интересно. Сразу по прилету в Москву с американского съезда Нац стрелковой ассоциации пошел на митинг сторонников права граждан на оружие.

— А.П. Торшин (@torshin_ru) April 16, 2012

Mother Jones investigative reporters allege.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Now the second thing: I believe that Russia is a democratic state, and I hope you are not denying this right to your own country, you're not denying that United States is a democracy. Do you believe United States is a democracy? And if so, if it is a democratic state, then the final conclusion in this kind of a dispute can only be delivered by a trial, by the court, not by the executive, by the law enforcement.

What we won't be told, however, is that Kennedy himself, considering his overall Supreme Court tenure and his unseemly ties to the Trump family, isn't really a centrist. Yes, Kennedy sometimes joined the court's liberals in high-profile cases. Undoubtedly, his foremost accomplishment as an occasional liberal was his 2015 majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, establishing the constitutional right of gay and lesbian couples to marry--a precedent that Kavanaugh's elevation will jeopardize.

But Kennedy's jurisprudence had a ["]dark side["] as well.

But Kennedy's jurisprudence had a devious purpose as well. In 2000, he joined the court's shameless 7-2 decision in Bush v. Gore, handing the presidential election to the GOP. In 2008, he joined Antonin Scalia's 5-4 majority ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, recognizing an individual's right to own firearms under the Second Amendment. The same year, he joined the majority to uphold Indiana's voter ID law in Crawford v. Marion County. In 2013, he signed on to Chief Justice John Robert's notorious decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted a major provision of the Voting Rights Act.

anonymous. political cartoon. digital photo composite. 2018.

Senate panel upholds finding that Russia backed Trump, contradicting House
The ICA relied not only on public Russian leadership commentary and state media reports, but also "a body of intelligence reporting to support the assessment that Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for Trump," the committee found.
[...]
The House committee declined to make an assessment about whether the intelligence community's underlying claim -- that Putin developed a clear preference for Trump -- was correct, one of the GOP members leading that probe said at the time. What the panel has taken issue with, according to Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), is "how they came to it and the underlying documents they used."

TheHill.com. comedy. 2018

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

CNN out of headlines at this point pic.twitter.com/Uuulcp5gef

— Michelle Collins (@michcoll) July 16, 2018

Putin certainly knows it. But even Trump, while not being a Clausewitzian strategist, may have had an intuition that the post-WWII liberal order, built by a hegemonic US and bent on permanent US military hegemony over the Eurasian landmass while subduing a vassal Europe, is waning.

While Trump firebombs this United States of Europe as an "unfair" competitor of the US, it's essential to remember that it was the White House that asked for the Helsinki summit, not the Kremlin.

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"It means that they are competitive."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Civil complaints and criminal charges forthcoming: It's not me! is not going to cut it.

## Mental disorder is a communicable disease.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

She appears to be the most popular member of the Trump administration, pulling off the unique trick of wooing Democrats with her independence while not alienating Republicans. (Democrats approved of her 55 percent to 23 percent after her "I don't get confused" rebuke of Larry Kudlow, and Republicans approved 75 to 9.) She's also extremely popular with the young conservative crowd she was speaking to Monday.

The problem isn't that CRISPR is going wild and producing this damage on its own [?]; instead, the issue is an unexpectedly sloppy repair job by the cell itself.

After a CRISPR snip, lead author Bradley explained in a Nature news writeup, "the cell will try to stitch things back together. But it [?] doesn't really know [?] what bits of DNA lie adjacent to each other."

First kites and balloons, and now birds are being used to by Palestinians in Gaza to set fires in southern Israel.

Israel Nature and Parks Authority personnel on Monday afternoon found a common kestrel, a member of the falcon family, hanging from a burned tree wearing a harness to which was attached a wire wrapped around flammable material.

In a vital decision that will help secure the rights of Internet users in the country, the Telecom Commission has approved the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on net neutrality. By endorsing steps that call for amendments to access services licences for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Telecom Operators, the Commission has made it clear that any violation of net neutrality will be treated as a violation of the licence conditions. It has said that some specialised and emerging services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) may be exempt from the non-discriminatory principles, but these cannot be at the cost of the overall quality of Internet access.

Sasha Baron Cohen impersonates a right-wing Israeli commando, and dupes GOP congressmen into supporting a phoney bill to arm 3-year-old American kids with automatic weapons and rocket launchers.

This country is so screwed... pic.twitter.com/CyB6sdyr06

— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) 16. Juli 2018

pic.twitter.com/Di14cR7gVD

— popular comedy account "the pixelated boat" (@pixelatedboat) 19. Juli 2018

Precisely where or in what or whom authority lies has also been contested for as long as human societies have existed. But outside tiny and arcane philosophical, religious or political circles, the idea that in principle compliance can be rightfully compelled never is.

buh-bye.

PS jobs saved or created
OneTrust.con | GDPR and ePrivacy compliance for cookies and online tracking technologies

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration has launched an offensive of speeches and online communications meant to foment unrest and help pressure Iran to end its nuclear program and its support of militant groups, U.S. officials familiar with the matter said.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in the more than four years of fighting in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. An estimated 1.6 million more have been displaced. The economy has been devastated. And there's risk of environmental damage -- contamination of the soil and air from destroyed factories, flooded coal mines, landmines and exploded military ordnance.

But for the country's once beleaguered wildlife, the war has been a godsend. Because of the ongoing fighting, there's no systematic monitoring of the region's wild animal population. But local residents, soldiers, rangers and environmentalists agree: The area is undergoing an unintended -- and unexpected -- rewilding.

As recently as 2014, wolves attacking domestic animals in eastern Ukraine were tales told by grandparents. Today, in part because of a hunting ban in the war zone, large, wild predators are flourishing -- along with other rare flora and fauna -- along the 450-kilometer frontline.

"For hundreds of years populations of big animals were controlled, and now for the first time they are uncontrolled," said Oleksiy Vasilyuk, an ecologist from the Ukrainian NGO Environment People Law. "For us, it's great news."

2015 Wildfires Rage Across Greece
2017 Arson suspected in fires raging on Ionian island of Zakynthos

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Life comes at you fast. pic.twitter.com/v318eYpNbo

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) 25. Juli 2018

Trump Again Breaks With Intel Chief Over Russia

"I have President Putin, he just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it [would | would not] be."

"The Till case has been re-opened by DOJ based upon the discovery of new information," according to a report issued to Congress on March 26.

The Honorable Michael R. Pence,
The Honorable Orrin G. Hatch,
The Honorable Mitch McConnell,
The Honorable Charles E. Schumer,
The Honorable Paul Ryan,
The Honorable Kevin McCarthy,
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi,
The Honorable Charles E. Grassley,
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein,
The Honorable Robert Goodlatte,
The Honorable Jerrold Nadler,

Pursuant to The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007 and the Emmett Till Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016, enclosed please find a report on the activities of the Department of Justice regarding pre-1980 racially motivated homicides.

Please do not hesitate to contact this office if we may provide additional assistance regarding this or any other matter.*

"Because the matter is ongoing, the department can provide no further information about the current investigation," the report continues.

Last year, news broke that Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose accusations of Till's alleged flirtation sexual harassment contributed to  incited his murder, had admitted she lied on the witness stand.

You're welcome.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

A personal matter ... in a friendly surrounding many years ago, the Pond community reacted to living reality and empathy.

Just a shout out ... my daughter's ugly divorce from a narcissistic partner, well educated and a lawyer, caused much grief and hardship. The Court actions lasted seven years and we managed to keep joined custody of her son. Son-in-law belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church ... ;) Damn!

The costs were an extreme burden for my daughters and we as parents who gave her all support during those years.

The lessons I learned about matters of Dutch Family Law and the Child Care and Protection Board I was able to use in a second case of a young mother with a lovely daughter. A friend of a friend of mine. Besides once again a narcissistic person. this partner had left her in the dark about extreme psychiatric problems. Today after years of Court actions, the Appeals Court upheld the earlier decree. The girl of six years old is safe by the mother. Due to risk for safety of the girl, the biological father does not get visiting rights where he is alone with the girl, his daughter. Only with supervision of a professional in a secure setting will the father meet her. Tough call all around.

PS Spend more time on these court actions during a decade than time spend on blogging :) haha working 24/7 during retirement.

'Sapere aude'

It was the Romans who came up with the idea of using lead for plumbing--naming plumbing after their word for lead, "plumbum," or liquid silver--but it was also the Romans who first discovered that there were good reasons not to drink from lead vessels. Observe the pallid color of lead workers and see how the "vigor of their blood" was destroyed by the fumes from casting lead, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio commanded. In his foundational work of classical architecture, De Architectura, the only architecture manual to survive from antiquity--in which he derived architectural aesthetics from a consideration of the human body, leading to one of Leonardo Da Vinci's most famous paintings to be called "The Vitruvian body"--Vitrivius argued that there was a relationship between how to build cities and houses and how to build bodies, and it therefore followed that we should keep lead out of both bodies. "Water should therefore on no account be conducted in leaden pipes," he writes, "if we are desirous that it should be wholesome."

Didn't know this. (from Naked Capitalism)

I'm going to answer, ultimatum. Now pay me.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

"I know mate. My favourite one is the character actor you have here who looks like a butch lesbian masquerading as a straight woman in charge of the DUP, the most homophobic political party in the UK."

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uh oh

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Musaibli, a natural-born U.S. citizen, will be arraigned in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday, it said. ... U.S. prosecutors in Indiana said Musaibli was transferred from the ["]custody["] of the Syrian Democratic Forces along with a U.S. woman, Samantha Elhassani, who has been charged with making false statements to the FBI.
[...]
Elhassani was accompanied by her four minor U.S. citizen children, who were placed in the ["]care["] of the Indiana Department of Child Services, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana said in a statement.

Both defendants arrived in Indiana on Tuesday. Musaibli was transferred to Michigan, and Elhassani, also known as Samantha Sally, will appear in federal court in Hammond, Indiana, at a later date, according to the statement.

Many greeted Ozil's claims of racism with scepticism, prompting thousands of others to come forward with their own experiences, attempting to highlight a problem that people from majority communities rarely experience.
[...]
"It's an opportunity to talk about integration, and what it actually means to be German," he added.

While America is a "melting pot", he said: "Here, it's like a salad bowl: everyone is somehow mixed but next to each other. We hope that we'll be a bit more like America."