Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.

21 - 27 January 2019

by Bjinse Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:01:40 PM EST

Your take on this week's news

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21 - 27 January 2019 | 162 comments (162 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Europe (none / 0)
EUROPE
by Bjinse on Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:03:25 PM EST
Re: Europe BAN HAMMER (none / 0)
Alex Salmond charged: Former Scotland leader faces attempted rape accusation
two counts of attempted rape, nine counts of sexual assault, two of indecent assault and one breach of the peace

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 04:10:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe (none / 0)
Let Justice be served!

Oops it's Italy, the land of Berlusconi. ;)

○ Italy's Salvini faces trial for 'aggravated kidnapping' over blocked migrants | France24 |

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 09:07:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe UH OH (none / 0)

What's behind the growing dispute between Italy and France? | ECOWAS vs. teh confederacy of reformed pirates
::
Al Jazeera is funded in whole or in part by the Qatari government wikiwtf

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 10:28:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe UH OH OOPs! (none / 1)


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 10:30:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe UH OH OOPs! (none / 0)
Court rules far-right leader Salvini can be charged with kidnapping 177 migrants on a boat

a neurotic angle on human "rights" to be sure

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 02:00:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe € 100 BONUSES (none / 0)
2018: Emmanuel Macron leaves France's suburbs in the lurch
a neurotic angle on human "rights" to be sure

archived
They are not all going back to where they came from.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 02:49:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe UH OH OOPs! (none / 0)
Cabinet tensions rise ahead of key debate on child refugee amnesty
"Some 400 to 700 children, many of whom were born in the Netherlands, are currently threatened with deportation because they don't meet the terms of the amnesty, which was established in 2013."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 02:42:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Known knowns ... (4.00 / 2)
'Elementary my dear Watson'?

"Al Jazeera is funded in whole or in part by the Qatari government wikiwt"

Before full ownership and production from Qatari government of the Emir, the Bush administration on two occasions did an attempt to blow the Al Jazeera office out of existence: in Baghdad and the other time in Kabul. Many journalists died at the hands of allied forces in both wars. In Kabul the targeted bombing nearly took out the BBC reporters at the same location.

○ Clinton Lauds Virtues Of Al Jazeera: 'It's Real News' | NPR |

To understand the Middle East, one needs to be able to distinguish the different strands of Islam. U.S. policy failed for many decades.

○ Threats and Responses: Readiness; U.S. is preparing base in Gulf state to run Iraq war | NYT - Dec. 2002 |

    The United States military is installing a new command center at a heavily guarded base in this small Persian Gulf state that would be ready to serve as the main headquarters for a war on Iraq.

    The official purpose of the work at the base, As Sayliyah, is to prepare for a major American military exercise in December called Internal Look. But it will be no ordinary exercise.

Muslim Brotherhood triangle: Qatar - Turkey - Egypt (president Morsi) and support for Hamas in Gaza Strip.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 11:07:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Known knowns ... (none / 0)
The notice about state-funded "media" is Google public policy to qualify "freedom of the press", remember?

Al Jazeera, cable TV broadcasting licenses in the USA, took a beating by the Bush administration after 9/11, remember?

Now, Sputnik must register in the USA with FARA just to get reporters in-country.

What significance do those events have in "reporting" obvious CFA dependencies on European finance among ECOWAS members? No one even mentioned money laundering or tax evasion opportunities for EU firms or Gadaffi's African Central Bank development.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 02:23:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Qatar Funding Humanitarian Aid In Gaza (none / 0)
Qatar to pay aid into Gaza, with Hamas approval | Ynet News |

Qatar on Friday said it will pay $20 million in humanitarian aid to boost the ailing economy of Gaza, a day after the coastal strip's Palestinian rulers stopped the oil-rich Gulf state from paying money directly to impoverished government workers there.

The move was widely seen as a compromise between Qatar, which appears intent on increasing its regional influence, and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Qatar's point-man for Gaza relief efforts, Mohammed Al-Emadi, said in Gaza: "It was agreed to allocate the Qatari financial grant to pay for humanitarian projects with full cooperation and coordination with the United Nations."

○ Gaza Truce: Clinton Rushed to the Side of Netanyahu, NOT the Palestinian People - Year 2012

○ The Hanging Gardens of the White House - Year 2014

On the same day Obama was apologetic to Israeli air strikes on Gaza with death toll rising above 300 victims ...

Vice President Biden welcomed Qatari Minister of State for Defense Affairs Hamad Bin Ali Al-Attiyah at the White House today.  The Vice President and Minister of State discussed regional issues, including Syria, Iraq, Libya, and the Gaza crisis.  The Vice President congratulated Qatar on the signing of Letters of Offer and Acceptance for Apache Helicopters and Patriot and Javelin defense systems and reaffirmed the strong strategic relationship between Qatar and the United States.


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 10:33:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe (4.00 / 2)
Di Maio's and Salvini's recent outbursts against Macron and France's colonial past, have very little to do with African history, or even their enmity with Macron, but are essentially linked to domestic Italian politics (you suspected that already, of course):

Why Italy's 5Stars are lecturing France on Africa

In reality, most migrants who arrive in Italy originate from countries such as Tunisia and Eritrea that don't use the CFA franc. Among the top 10 countries of origin for refugees arriving by sea in Italy in 2018, Ivory Coast is the first country using the CFA franc to appear, at No. 8, according to UNHCR figures.

Godwin Chukwu, founder of the Federation of the African Diaspora in Italy, said Italy should remember its own colonial past in Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Libya, adding: "Di Maio and Salvini cannot give lessons to France."

Chukwu cited Di Maio's promise to Italian voters that foreigners would not be eligible for the 5Stars' flagship campaign promise of a basic citizens' income. "Africa is here in Italy but the minister cares nothing for these poor people," he said.

by Bernard (bernard) on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 06:59:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe ANNEX (none / 0)
Mrs. H. E. Wilson, Our Nig; Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-story White House, North, [Boston: Printed by Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 1859)

Harriet Wilson was probably much more interested in telling her own story in this autobiographical novel than in re-writing Stowe's, and yet, as Henry Louis ["Skip"] Gates, Jr., puts it, her text can be read as "a complex response to Uncle Tom's Cabin."* It some respects it evokes the story Stowe's novel chose not to narrate: the experiences and opinions of Topsy in New England. As a victim of racism and abuse at the hands of a white woman, Frado (or "Nig") poses a direct challenge to Stowe's valorizations of the domestic and the feminine. Although in her Preface Wilson denies any desire to "palliate slavery at the South," her emphasis on the sufferings of a nominally "free black" in the North was a theme repeatedly developed by the white pro-slavery authors of the ANTI-TOM NOVELS that also contested Stowe's ideological assumptions. Some of those novels were popular. This novel, on the other hand, was apparently ignored when it first appeared, and remained invisible until 1982.
Happy Black History Y4 D26

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 07:33:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The Guardian misses the point (none / 1)
Guardian
Under the agreement, the former Yugoslav republic will be renamed the Republic of North Macedonia, ending a dispute that has divided the two countries for decades. But the backlash against the plans has been fierce.
But then,
Macedonia (sic) has already ratified the deal. "Congratulations my friend Alexi Tsipras, together with our peoples we reached a historical victory," the Macedonian  (sic) prime minister, Zoran Zaev, tweeted.
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 05:11:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe ECONOMICS & FINANCE (none / 0)
YLE is funded in whole or in part by Finland government.

Unemployment falls to 10-year low in Finland
"More than a half - about 46,000 - of the available jobs at the end of 2018 were new vacancies." (cf. JOLTS, USA)

January difficult month for poor families in Finland
"Her husband is employed, but all the money he earns goes to support the five-member family's everyday living." Pity: Fin gov put a lot of incentives into promoting fertility over the past decade.

Government pulls bill to ratify UN Declaration on Indigenous peoples' Rights
"The task of ratifying the UN declaration as well as a Nordic Sámi Convention and reforming the local Sámi Parliament will therefore fall to the incoming administration." yeah. m'k.

Finland's Foreign Ministry falls for €400K email scam
"The suspected money laundering offences are tied to the onward transfer of the ill-gotten gains." alrighty then.

Also Fin gov undecided on how to handle UK 'fugees

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 08:26:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe ECONOMICS & FINANCE (4.00 / 2)
GOOG crypt - Yle - Nokia headlines (EN)
I started following this story at Yle in 2013. MSFT $7B purchase of Nokea sent the country into a tail spin of fears of job losses and job losses from which it hadn't recover, when I stopped weekly monitoring in '15. By then Yle-Nokia news was settling into rounds of clucking over quarterly earnings misses.

2016: I missed this chapter of the IPR shell game.
Nokia phones are back after Microsoft sells mobile assets for $350M to Foxconn Technology, HMD

All of these deals will make HMD the "sole global licensee" for all types of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets.

2018: Now here we are. Saved!
Huawei rival Nokia profits from demand for 5G networks

Nokia, which is based in Espoo, Finland, said North America, Japan, China, South Korea and the Nordic countries are regions where the new [5G] technology will see its commercial launch. [CEO Rajeev] Suri was tight-lipped in commenting on the troubles currently facing Chinese competitor Huawei, which was Monday indicted on U.S. charges including technology theft.

archived
Federal agencies say American citizens shouldn't use Huawei or ZTE phones Feb 2018
Of hostages, oil, and iPhones , Dec 2018
No wonder westworld is branching into POW marketing. Jan 2019
Huawei accounted for 28 percent of last year's $32 billion global sales

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 09:32:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe ECONOMICS & FINANCE (none / 0)
RTE is funded in whole or in part by Ireland government.

EIB to step up financial support for Ireland as Brexit looms
"€300m in soft loans for companies who want to diversify away from the UK market"
Barclays gets go ahead to transfer €190bn worth of assets to Dublin
"which involves 5,000 clients"

archived
surprising no one

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 11:40:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe (none / 1)
Nurses' strike to go ahead after talks fail
It said: "The Government produced no proposals over the course of three days of talks to deal with the recruitment and retention crisis in Irish nursing and midwifery.

"We are very close to a national nurses' dispute where 35,000 nurses will be on strike next Wednesday.

This story has been brewing for months following years of health care collapse into Crater'08. After whacking the weeds over Ryanair, I didn't expect any support for the nurses. Did you?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 11:28:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe ANNEX (none / 1)
Labor Board Hearing Set for Nurses Who Allege [JOHNS] Hopkins [MEDICAL SYSTEM] Is Preventing Them From Unionizing, Baltimore, USA

Envoys came 'round to the Poor People's Campaign meeting. We call that "community outreach", in real life.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 11:46:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe ANNEX (none / 1)
UNION PERMISSION:Judge Approves Monday Start of LA Teachers' Strike, 10 Jan

UNION VICTORY: 22 Jan (EN) A/V, transcript


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 01:02:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe (none / 0)
Teachers plan nationwide strike on March 15 over pay and pressure of work
"The Aob is the biggest Dutch teaching union with some 84,000 members. It is joined in the strike campaign by the FNV trade union federation's education arm and the strike is supported by campaign groups PO in Actie ad WO in Actie, the Volkskrant said. The CNV-affiliated teaching union is not taking part."

(Waiting for some US American ass-hat to type 1400 words explaining how this is JUST LIKE or INSPIRED BY ...the LA Teachers strike or the WV teachers or #GoogleWalkout but not Chicago teachers)

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 02:39:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe (none / 0)
The 'Stylos Rouges' (Red Pens) take to the streets as French teachers demand change
"not linked with any political party or unions. Instead, it is a loose coalition of educators, administrators and others 'who share our convictions, if not our métier' "
«Gilets roses»: les nounous protestent contre la réforme de leur indemnisation chômage
avec l'État qui veut réaliser 3 milliards d'économies sur trois ans, ça risque d'être pire. Il pourrait la supprimer», redoute Véronique Delaitre, du syndicat national des assistantes maternelles FGTA-FO, qui a lancé en octobre dernier une pétition contre ce point de la réforme. Elle a recueilli, à ce jour, plus de 62.000 signatures.
[...]
La mobilisation a rassemblé une centaine de personnes à Paris, devant le ministère des Solidarités, et une centaine à Rennes, où les manifestantes scandaient «Assmats en colère, on ne va pas se laisser faire!», selon des journalistes de l'AFP. Vêtues de gilets roses, les manifestantes arboraient des pancartes proclamant «Assmat en colère, non à la réforme du cumul emploi-chômage», ou encore «la précarité, c'est pas notre métier». À Bordeaux, quelques dizaines d'assistants maternels, beaucoup en gilet rose, ont formé une chaîne sur une place de la ville, a constaté l'AFP.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 at 10:24:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe (none / 0)
France, the land of equal protest opportunity.
by Bernard (bernard) on Mon Feb 4th, 2019 at 07:34:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe DAVOS MAN* (none / 1)
THE HILL | European leaders give Venezuela's Maduro eight days to hold new elections
or else
French President Emmanuel Macron followed in suit soon after, saying that "the Venezuelan people should be able to freely decide their future."

"If elections are not announced in eight days, we could recognize Guaidó as the 'president in charge' of Venezuela to implement that political process. We will work jointly with out European allies."

A spokeswoman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel tweeted Saturday that, "the people of Venezuela must be able to freely and securely decide about its future," according to The Associated Press.

--
(*) Pepe Escobar coined "a thing" that has obtained currency (without attribution of course) with a few precarious anglophone "columnists" this week. How far will it circulate?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 07:16:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe MIGHTY WHITE OF YOU (none / 1)
Parliament recognises Guaidó in Venezuela and calls on 28 to follow
The resolution was largely backed by the main political groups in the Parliament, the European People's Party, the Socialists and Democrats, ALDE (liberals) and the European Conservatives and Reformists, with 439 votes in favour, 104 against and 88 abstentions.
wut
Most of the foreign interventions in Latin American countries in the past were carried out by the US. President Donald Trump was the first international leader to recognise  Juan Guaidó.
European Parliament votes to recognize Guaidó as Venezuela's interim president
Venezuelan election officials said Maduro won the country's May 2018 election, but the election was widely considered illegitimate and its results were not recognized by the European Union.
deadine < wipes tears >
Britain, France, Germany and Spain have said they will recognize Guaidó's claim to the presidency if Maduro does not call new elections by Feb. 3.
[...]
The purpose of the international contact group is clear -- it is enabling Venezuelans to express themselves freely and democratically through the holding of new elections," said Mogherini.
New Oil Sanctions on Venezuela: "Would Destroy What's Left of its Economy"

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 11:05:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe MIGHTY WHITE OF YOU (none / 1)
SANCTIONS AGAINST TRADE WITH VENEZUELA since 2006
established to impair economic and investment activities in Venezuela
US TREASURY | OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) 2015-present
required licenses, executive orders, statutes, CFR regulations and notices
-- Baker McKenzie | Prohibited Transacions, 2017, summary compliance for US "persons"
CRS (Congressional Research Serice) | Venezuela: Overview of US Sanctions
executive orders and statutes from 2006
Shearman & Sterling, 2017
SDGT designations of Venezuelan nationals

TELESUR | Tracking US Intervention in Venezuela Since 2002
historiography correlated to public US sanctions against Venezuela trade and USAID direct investment in Venezuelan electoral activities
::
How's that EU-IRAN SPV coming along?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Feb 1st, 2019 at 06:40:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe MIGHTY WHITE OF YOU (none / 0)
this.empowerment(Nathalie Loiseau)
"The ultimatum ends tonight. If between now and this evening Mr Maduro does not commit to organising presidential elections, we will consider that Mr Guaido is legitimate to organise them in his place. And we will consider him as interim president until the elections."
[...]
Loiseau added that Maduro's suggestion of bringing forward parliamentary elections was "a farce, a tragic farce".


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 at 05:21:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe MIGHTY WHITE OF YOU (none / 0)
Macron 'MULLS referendum' to quell French Yellow Vest CRISIS
"the chances of a May 26 referendum happening are very high".

The referendum is likely to contain several questions, inquiring on a number of economic, social and socio-economic issues, and would be the first of its kind in the French Fifth Republic's history. JDD speculated that such questions might include whether France needs to reduce its number of lawmakers, and whether their mandates should be shortened.

archived farce
The wording of the Greek debt referendum has been released ..., June 2015 - Aug 2018
40 Questions
A 2nd referendum to resolve Brexit?, Aug 2016


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 at 05:45:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Europe MIGHTY WHITE OF YOU (none / 0)
Debate in France over holding referendum on same day as European election
French President Emmanuel Macron would consider holding this consultation on 26 May - the same day as the European elections - on various issues covered as part of the "great debate," according to Le Journal du Dimanche weekly newspaper.

French voters would therefore be asked to express their opinion on reducing the number of French MPs, recognising blank votes and setting a time limit on holding multiple offices.

Mixing subjects?

UN leader avoids choosing side on Venezuela
"European Parliament President Antonio Tajani is pressing Italy's populist government to side with other EU countries on Venezuela."

archived representations
Italy referendum is seen as test of populism's rise , 2016
"Yes, this electoral law would give semi-dictatorial powers to whoever wins the election."
Libyan opposition fights for recognition both at home and abroad, 2011
"Two countries, France and Qatar, now recognize the Libyan National Council as the legitimate representatives of the Libyan people. But who comprises this body and what future do they envision for Libya?"

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Mon Feb 4th, 2019 at 07:33:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Prosecco rationing after Brexit? (none / 0)
Answer: probably not. The National:
Brexit gets weirder and weirder. And you can rely on the bookies to put a price on it. A few days ago, Paddy Power opened a line on "what the British Government would officially ration first in 2019". Fuel came top at 4/1, olive oil and bread at 16/1, chicken 66/1, prosecco 125/1.
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 at 01:01:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Brexit (none / 0)
BREXIT
by Bjinse on Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:03:28 PM EST
Re: Brexit WHAT IS THIS? (none / 0)
No backstop, no Brexit deal, say MEPs

< pick teeth, suck vigorously >

I for one look forward to the day, when the EU Council makes its decision to proceed with a UK agreement without the consent of the EP and contrary to the instruction of the TEU.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 03:33:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit WHAT IS THIS? (none / 0)
Facebook hires Nick Clegg as head of global affairs , Oct 2018

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 04:17:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (none / 0)
BBC considers setting up international base in Belgium after Brexit | Politics | The Guardian
The BBC is considering Brussels as the location for a new EU base after Brexit to allow it to continue to broadcast across the continent.
by generic on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 06:51:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
BWAH! (none / 0)


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 06:56:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (4.00 / 2)
Belgian Broadcasting Corporation. Will they have to broadcast in French and Dutch as well?
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 06:58:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit WALLOON HATE (none / 0)


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 07:51:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (none / 0)
Brussels is quite tricky on division ... not Dutch of course but Flemish! 😡

'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 07:56:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (4.00 / 2)
When I lived in Brussels (and also worked in Antwerp) everybody I knew called it Dutch (or Nederlands). I think the distinction is mainly made by foreigners, the way German book reviews distinguish between translated from the English or from the American (sorry Australians. You don't count, as usual).
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 08:41:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (none / 0)
Je hebt helemaal gelijk! Heel bijzonder, wij in Nederland maken juist het onderscheid: de Belgen spreken Vlaams. Er zijn zoveel bijzondere uitdrukkingen in het Vlaams wat je niet hoort in Nederland. Een van de mooiste vindt ik zelf: kuisvrouwe. Zal je NOOIT horen in Nederland!

○ Vlaanderen weer beetje minder Vlaams: scholen moedigen allochtonen aan om hun moedertaal in de klas te spreken

○ Het 'Vlaams', een taal of een misverstand? [pdf]

    Flemish, a language or a misunderstanding?
    My  contribution  "'Flemish',  a  language  or  a  misunderstanding"  describes  the  language  
    development  in  Dutch-speaking  Belgium  and  dwells  on  the  reasons  why  Flemish  is  often  
    considered  an  autonomous  language,  next  to  Dutch.  The  international  misunderstanding  
    about the position of Flemish is due to historical French language ideology and the language
    nationalism  of  both  Dutchmen  and  Flemings.  Dutch  should  be  considered  a  pluricentric  
    language with two natiolects: Netherlandic Dutch and Belgian Dutch (and Surinam Dutch
    as a third one}.


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 08:56:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (none / 0)
There used to be a language called Serbo-Croatian.

Now there are two.

A language is a dialect with an army and a navy (Chomsky?)

(That must explain why there is no "Swiss" language)

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 02:10:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (none / 0)
(Chomsky?)

Max Weinreich (but he attributes it to an audience comment in a lecture of his).

(That must explain why there is no "Swiss" language)

Then why is there a North Macedonian language?

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 02:16:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (none / 0)
You'll be surprised ... the Swiss are fully prepared for any attack and do have a Navy. 😃
Learned from a few years in a job for a US tech company w hq in Riverside CA and European hq in Zug ... where else 😉
Excellent lunches and wines ... many moons ago.

'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 03:07:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (none / 0)
Count Bosnian and Montenegrin and you have four.
by fjallstrom on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 04:12:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit ENGLISH (none / 0)
Ethnologue
It's a sobering resource about imperial basket cases and "globalism" since, oh, 1945.

archived
Step 1.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 02:35:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit ENGLISH (none / 0)
Walp, Varadkar toed his D-K threshold: "Victimized", he says. "Triggers" friend and foe alike, brushes off fleas.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 11:34:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (none / 0)
Also I must note that some fun hating editor changed the headline to "international base" from "international HQ".
by generic on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 07:03:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit DEFENSE (none / 0)
[IE] Government publishes plans for no-deal Brexit
The outline of the legislation that will underpin the Government's plan to deal with a hard Brexit has been published.

The legislation will be titled General Scheme of the Miscellaneous Provisions (Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on 29 March 2019) Bill

It will comprise 17 parts and encompass nine Government Departments.

The Government is aiming to have the Bill passed by the Oireachtas before 29 March - the day the UK is set to leave the European Union.

BATNA. Who is and who is not "on board," eh.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 06:53:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit GOT JOKES (none / 0)

Zim 'Government Buildings': We are not amused.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 08:17:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit GIB (none / 0)
Queen sends a Brexit message to UK politicians: end your bickering, nuance
"She's been a gold standard monarch for very nearly 67 years now and this is a particularly gilt-edged moment, I think it's very important what she said and how she said it," historian Peter Hennessy said.
Spain wants `new relationship' with Gibraltar, Sanchez tells CNN, "issue of the footnote"
"There is a dispute between the Government of Spain and the government of the United Kingdom concerning sovereignty over Gibraltar.

"The territory is registered on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories of the United Nations, subject to decolonisation."



Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 10:39:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit OMFG (none / 1)

Yvette Cooper's Article 50 amendment [sic] takes us in right direction - Sturgeon
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford is also expected to table an amendment on Monday calling on Mrs May to note the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Commons all voted "overwhelmingly" to reject her deal.
They will not be amending the TEU. They will attempt to amend the UK (Withdrawal) Bill, ppl, establishing parliamentary authority to consider either to revoke A.50 nottice or petition to EU for extended negotiation period.
"That's why I think now Article 50 should be extended, there should be a request made for that [TO WHOM? BY WHOM?] and the SNP were the first party to call for that.
compulsive "stitch up" "fudges" onanism
"We'll have to wait and see what Labour's position would be. Firstly we'd have to wait and see if there would be a general election. It's pretty inexplicable that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour leader here in Scotland (Richard Leonard) doesn't seem to be able to say what position on Brexit they would take in a general election."
[...]
She added: "I'm simply recognising the many hypotheticals underlying. I've always said - I said in the 2015 general election if you recall, I said it in the 2017 general election - that the SNP would want to be part of a progressive alternative to a Conservative government if the arithmetic leant itself to that. That remains the case. ...Until now the blockage to working together like that has come from the Labour side but I would always do whatever I could as leader of the SNP to keep the Tories out of Downing Street."
What is the matter with your government?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 08:08:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit OMFG (none / 0)
there was at least a glimmer of hope among the fudge.
Today, the European Parliament's Civil Liberties committee approved proposals to changes to the EU's visa rules that, with or without a Brexit deal, UK nationals will not need an EU visa for short-stays of up to three months.

The change now needs to be backed by governments before being signed off by MEPs in March, allowing it to enter into force before the 29 March deadline when, as it stands, the UK will formally leave the EU.
[...]
Provided that the UK does not revoke visa-free access, freedom of movement - albeit for up to three months - will not be ended by Brexit.

Tear up Irish backstop, MPs tell May in [old, frayed, soggy] Brexit twist
"The Withdrawal Agreement is and remains the best and only way to ensure an orderly withdrawal," stated European Council President Donald Tusk. "The backstop is part of the Withdrawal Agreement and the withdrawal agreement is not open for re-negotiation," he added.
[...]
In a series of other votes, MPs also voted to reject [1] an attempt to extend Article 50 until the end of 2019 if May could not secure an agreement on her Brexit deal, [2] an amendment allowing MPs to take control of Brexit policy, and [3] an amendment by the Labour party to keep the UK in a permanent customs union.
o. Look. Mme May has not called for a general election.
May now has two weeks to obtain new concessions before presenting a revised deal to the UK Parliament on 13 February.
Maybe she'll "mull" the general election option tomorrow.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 12:49:22 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit OMFG (none / 1)
In past 24 hours the Tories, Brexiteers (ERG group) and PM May cabinet ministers managed a deal to keep the party together thereby saving her skin. May will stay in power blaming the failure on the EU for not reopening negotiations on Irish backstop clause in WA. Next general election in 2022. No chance for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn to grab power. Too many Labour backbenchers voted in accordance to the referendum outcome of their constituencies and split the vote last night in favor of PM May's preferred result. A hard exit ahead, keeping the €39bn exit fee and a middle finger to mainland EU states. What about Spain and the Rock called Gibraltar?

'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 05:13:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]
They've Gone John Bull (none / 0)
"A whiff of grapeshot and the taste of cold steel will see off Johnny Foreigner."

Don't 'cha know.  

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 06:23:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit OMFG (none / 0)
Three more days until Elizabeth II, Regina, dissolves parliament.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Mon Feb 4th, 2019 at 08:11:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
wut (none / 0)
Uncommon protagonist: Speaker John Bercow in Brexit drama spotlight, (AFP) no by-line
Worryingly for the government [?], he has shown he is happy to rip up the rule book to allow parliament to have its say.

'Referee of our affairs'

Bercow was first elected as an MP for May's[?] Conservative party, but his elevation to Speaker in 1999 means that he is supposed to be politically neutral.

Animal Farm
He has also been accused of presiding over a culture of bullying in the Commons, and did not deny he [?] referred to a senior female government minister [?] as "stupid".
[...]
Another challenged him over a sticker spotted in the car he drives, saying "Bollocks to Brexit".
&tc

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 08:03:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit (none / 0)
by generic on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 at 08:01:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Trump (none / 0)
TRUMP
by Bjinse on Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:03:32 PM EST
Re: Trump (none / 1)
The situation is pretty psychotic here, still.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 07:53:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump (none / 0)

Cohen postpones testimony, personal injury
Miss Nancy scores a point
Dems retire H.R. 676, National Health Care bill, inserts NATO resolution
Google possessed by Taft-Hartley
GOP carries on with wtf
Warren proposes 'wealth tax' on assets over $50M
&tc.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 09:04:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump UNCANNY COINCIDENCE (none / 0)
Manafort Hobbles Into Court for Hearing on Plea Violations
no bubble graph

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 06:54:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
de jokes, (none / 1)



Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 09:46:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 09:49:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
Homicidal maniac prepares to burn donors, Primary 2020 DNC rivals

The Hill | Clinton not ruling out running in 2020: report , 27 Jan
"[CNN White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny said Sunday,] 'She wants to take on Trump. Could she win a Democratic primary to do it? I don't know the answer to that.'"
CNN | Hillary Clinton tells friends she's leaving 2020 door open
"'I'm told by three people that as recently as this week, she was telling people that look, given all this news from the indictments, particularly the Roger Stone indictment, she talked to several people, saying "look, I'm not closing the doors to this. '"
CNBC | Democratic donors slam Howard Schultz for flirting with an independent 2020 campaign, 28 Jan
"'This is a pathetic vanity project, and Howard Schultz better start laying off the espresso,' Robert Zimmerman, a leading party bundler, told CNBC on Monday."
USA Today | OpEd [Howard Schultz] |  A third-party centrist candidate like me could win the presidency in 2020, 29 Jan

I already believe that the idea of a third choice will resonate.

Our two parties are not working for most Americans. Sixty-six percent of likely voters say "neither party is really representing my needs or interests," according to a recent No Labels/HarrisX poll.



Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 07:27:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
IOZ | Howard Schultz Is a Presidential Candidate Only Late Capitalism Could Produce

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 09:27:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
White House hopeful Kamala Harris says she can unify country, because
she would be the first African-American woman and first person of Asian descent to be president.
[...]
Harris' campaign is expected to highlight her career as a prosecutor as part of her rationale for seeking the presidency.
[...]
Harris's campaign will be based in Baltimore [HQ(a)] and led by Juan Rodriguez who managed her 2016 Senate campaign. Aides say the campaign will have a second office in Oakland [HQ(b)].

her 'highest priority' is protecting Mueller probe

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 09:32:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
Truancy costs us all
By Kamala Harris
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Quick read, before Facebook cleans.

archived
2018, Donald Harris: Professor of Poundcake, Emeritus, Stanford University, Stanford, California

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 04:08:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)

Spartacus flogging "exciting differences" in for-profit charter schools for NJ

Spartacus, Christie, and Zuckerberg had a plan to reform Newark's schools, 2014

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Feb 1st, 2019 at 06:56:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
this.empowerment(Willie Brown)
Harris' office did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on Brown's letter to the Chronicle.

Brown was married at the time he and Harris dated, but - because he had been "estranged from his wife" Blanche Brown since 1981, according to People magazine -the relationship was not kept secret. A Sacramento Bee reporter told People that Brown "had a succession of girlfriends" and would "go to a party with his wife on one arm and his girlfriend on the other."

o. look. "poontronage"? Landssakes. And there's something out there called "marriedwiki.com". What's up wit dat? Looks kinda commie to me.

archieved believe dat
whisper lists
For 15 minutes I was livid.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 04:35:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
Willie Brown | Kamala Harris learns the perils of presidential front-running
Did I say that besides me helping her, she helped me? I honestly don't think I would have made it through my first grueling run for mayor without her smarts and support.

She loved me, and I loved me. It was a perfect relationship.

Now she's happily married to a great guy. And if she gets elected, I'll probably have to leave the country.

"flagged up"

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 at 09:12:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 at 09:16:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
Kamala Harris defends California's death penalty, 2014

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 04:42:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
Inmate who won order for sex reassignment surgery recommended for parole, 2015

California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris is challenging the order in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal, on behalf of the state corrections department, arguing that drug therapy and prison counseling made surgery medically unnecessary.

In seeking a stay to postpone surgery while the case is litigated, the ["]attorney general's office["] said the only urgency was the potential for Norsworthy to be paroled, which would make her case moot.

["]The state["] also argued that it would face security problems in determining where to house a gender-reassigned inmate, though the state system already has at least one prisoner who changed from male to female. That inmate is housed at a women's prison. ["]The state["] told the court it has had to move her several times because of threats and assaults.

archived For the people
(It's a decision my office made)

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 04:51:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
Harris Statement on Senate Passage of SESTA, 2018
"Victims of sex trafficking should be protected and have the ability to seek justice. That's why, from my earliest days as a prosecutor, I've led the fight against Backpage and other sex trafficking platforms. And I am proud to support the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, which will make it possible for victims and state prosecutors to hold online sex traffickers accountable.
Sex Trafficking Bills Backed By Dem Presidential Contenders Could Cause More Harm Than Good, 2018
Harris, who as California attorney general charged the CEO of Backpage with felony pimping, did not respond to requests for comment, and Gillibrand's office cited the fact that the bill has broad support from sex trafficking advocacy groups, tech groups and faith leaders.
Helped Make Sex Workers' Lives More Dangerous, 2019
Harris long advocated for the shutdown of Backpage-which eventually came to pass on April 6, 2018, when the FBI seized it because of the website's reported connections to child sex trafficking. She gave the opening remarks in a 2017 US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs hearing (see video), in which she characterized Backpage's business as "clear and pure exploitation for profit" by users who "sit behind their computer committing their crime."
Will 2020 Hopeful Kamala Harris Address Past Hostility to Sex Workers?

archived sex with FOSTA/SESTA
Feminist Current | INTERVIEW: Marian Hatcher sets the record straight on the new U.S. anti-trafficking bill, SESTA-FOSTA, Or Selling sex is selling children, Slavery!

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 05:37:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)

Here's what Trump contributed to Kamala Harris, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, 30 Apr 2016

archived'Israel Anti-Boycott Act'
AIPAC admits progressives are deserting Israel

California Senator Kamala Harris [D-CA] spoke at this year's [AIPAC] conference as she did last year ... repeating the standard claim by Israel advocates that the Zionist expulsion of Palestinians and settler-colonization of their land "made a desert bloom."


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 05:52:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
S.Res.6 -- 115th Congress (2017-2018), Sen. Rubio, Marco [R-FL] (Introduced 01/04/2017)

Kamala Harris and Israel: Taking the AIPAC Line

Harris insists that the United Nations should not have any role regarding Israel and Palestine. Her [!?] resolution asserts that the issue of these illegal settlements should be decided only through U.S.-sponsored "direct talks" between the Palestinians under occupation and their Israeli occupiers.
5 Jewish things to know about Kamala Harris: "She's more AIPAC than J Street"

archived
S.2080 - End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2017
Ms. Warren for herself and Mr. Rubio introduced the bill
Dems block [Rubio Combatting BDS Act], citing shutdown [?!]
16 of 58 co-sponsors
Sen. Marco Rubio (R) of Florida tweeted his disapproval of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 03:58:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 1)
But, like most presidential hopefuls, she is against the anti-BDS bill.
Sen. Harris said she will likely vote against it because of her First Amendment concerns about the part of it involving BDS, which she said she opposes...Sen. Harris added that since the BDS part of the Senate bill won't be in the House version she says GOPers are playing politics to try to make Democrats who support Israel look otherwise.
She would never think of playing politics, of course.
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 04:04:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
There's this thing about liars ...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 08:35:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 1)
Knee-gro-whisperer*, What is AKA?

L.A. Times has an answer for you! It's a fashion accessory and a floor wax.
California's big, but South Carolina may be key in Kamala Harris' presidential run

The California senator made her debut on the presidential campaign trail Friday night before 3,700 party-goers at the city's annual Pink Ice Gala.
[...]
It was no coincidence Harris chose this state to make her initial appearance. Nor was the locale an accident: the annual bash thrown by Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation's first sorority founded by African Americans, which Harris pledged as a student at Howard University.
Her mama? The Tamil Indian Hindu lady cancer researcher with an affinity for The Civil Rights Movement in the '60s (RIP)? Or was that the '70s?
"When we look at where we are at this moment in the history of this country, I think our founders gave us the right charge," the senator said of the 111-year-old sorority's community service mission. "We are all here because we stand on other people's shoulders. My mother taught us long ago, she would say to me, 'Kamala, you may be the first [BWAH!] to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.' "

Harris, 54, spoke for just three minutes and exited the stage to a swarm of fans eager for selfies.

(She was unaware.)
Harris strategists said they don't fret over the possibility voters here won't consider her liberal enough or black enough to support. Ian Sams, a spokesman, defended Harris' criminal justice record and said she looked forward to discussing it with voters.
FYI: I am 55, and I've never been a Canadian resident alien, so I wouldn't speak to that "piece."

---
(*) "Negro-whisper" is a jibe that Yvette Carnell throws around to flag MSM "presenters" who purport to represent the "black bloc" in the general market 'virtual integration' project.  Cracks me up. Kamala!? has got her throwing shade at Howard U. Kappa pretentions, now. Howard U. is Carnell's alma mater, too.

Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) is sort of like DKE in a mirror universe. Kappa is all Afro-Am and draws most "sorors" from HBCUs, because ... most Afro-Am females can't afford to attend "Top 50" colleges and universities. But these Kappas are "networking" for each other in plain sight all over the USA. Hell, I got a cousin, old enough to be my mama, who was a loyal, active Kappa in Philly until the day she died (RIP). Her daughter is a Kappa, too. "Have a blessed day" is how she ends e'ry conversation.

Kappas also "network" with Links and Jack and Jill chapters to do bidness, teach manners, and sell tickets to "black debutante" balls, which kind of ties the grift together, like. My SIL is deep into Links and Jack and Jill, an officer in both clubs.

My mama (a lapsed-Catholic Dem outta Brooklyn) wouldn't have any of it. So my daddy (a lapsed-Baptist Republican out NC) was stuck "networking" the black Duffers golf links and black Masons events on his lonesome for the most part. These difference in "respectability politics" caused some friction over time that could not be repaired. They divorced after 18 years marriage. Yes, that was well before Barry O'bama starred in a DNC Convention. The Talented 10th was such a small world, my daddy grew up with Cory Booker's dad. (I was blessed and cursed. You be the judge.) Just sayin'.

I reckon, Kamala!?'s mama wasn't a Kappa, Link, or Jack and Jill chaperone, either. Kamala!?'s strategists need to go deep, Spike-Lee-under-cover-Klansman deep, to get the wool to spin her Afro-merican bone fides into gold. Pity the fools. Maybe they can get tips from Michelle?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 11:28:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
knee-gro-whisperers unleashed
Congressional Black Caucus faces tough decision on Harris, Booker
only 640 days until Election 2020!

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 02:53:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
Cory Booker announces he is running for president

Newark, NJ is laughing with you.

NEWSWEEK | Cory Booker Says He's Having 'I Am Spartacus' Moment At Kavanaugh Hearing
"Booker knowingly and publicly leaked documents about Kavanaugh that were deemed "committee confidential" despite rules that could have him barred from the Senate."
WAPOO | OpEd |Cory Booker's `Spartacus' moment
"Then there was ol' T-Bone, the threatening drug pusher whom Booker says he befriended in Newark. Indeed, Booker used to mention T-Bone so often in speeches that inquiring minds went looking for him --"
THE HILL | Booker: I am not Spartacus
"Asked if he intended to compare himself with Spartacus, Booker replied pointedly, 'No.'"

archived warning
A whole lot of embarrassment can be saved

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Feb 1st, 2019 at 05:07:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
"Women and minorities" Edition
Pelosi adds pressure on Northam as calls for resignation build, because "black face" photo,

not insane clown opposition to reproductive rights.
Confusing comments by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam have fed a firestorm around the new bill.

The controversy has centered on a provision concerning third-trimester abortions. Under current Virginia law, in order for a patient to terminate a pregnancy in the third trimester, three doctors must certify that continuing the pregnancy would likely cause the patient's death or "substantially and irremediably impair" her mental or physical health. The new bill would reduce the number of doctors to one, and remove the "substantially and irremediably" qualifier -- abortions would be allowed in cases where a mother's mental or physical health is threatened, even if the damage might not be irreversible.

Gov. Northam, a Democrat, was asked about the bill in a radio interview on Wednesday, and his response only added to the controversy. Appearing to discuss what would happen if a child was born after a failed attempt at abortion, he said, "the infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother."

Todd Akin School of Physiology and Medicine in a "blue state." HA.
Sixth Circuit Takes Up Ohio Ban on Down Syndrome Abortion
Ohio had argued that federal law grants women "the right to choose whether to have a child, not the right to decide whether to have a particular child."
Now, imagine what would happen, if a Kasich and a Northam got together to "make a baby" law. The consequences might be as much fun as a Harris and a Barr!

archived public property
The green zone is not what it appears.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Feb 2nd, 2019 at 06:47:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
"Women and minorities" Edition

Kamala Harris Deserves Better Than Sexist Criticism About Her Personal Life
The 2020 presidential candidate has faced down creepy gossip about a past relationship for 20 years. It should stop--now.
JOAN WALSH

Ms Walsh, Joan. May I call you "Joan"? Joan, you're going at this finger-wagging with quite the wrong angle. Think BIG. Go WIDE. Transform Kamala!? into a martyr for your cause. Embrace her passion at the hands of the patriarchy! Celebrate her compassion for the weak who STILL toil under the boot of the patriarchy! Say, MeToo will be vindicated by The Survivor in Chief!


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Feb 2nd, 2019 at 09:11:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
Two Hollywood fundraisers planned for Harris this week: report
Universal Filmed Entertainment Group and a "West Hollywood eatery and night club"
"I support a Green New Deal," she said [at a CNN Iowa 'town hall'] while knocking politicians who take campaign contributions from non-renewable energy companies. "I think that the fact that we have policymakers who are in the pockets of big oil and big coal don't fully appreciate the fact that we are looking at something that is presenting an existential threat to our country."


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 02:47:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: de jokes, (none / 0)
Harris ZOOMS to front of Dems' digital pack
"'These numbers reveal a campaign powered by the people,' [Former Sanders 2016 consultant Mike] Nellis, Harris's digital director, said in a statement."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 11:10:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump (none / 0)
Quite interesting to read how European politics has developed since ...

○ Europe On The Brink of Panic by Gilgamesh @BooMan on July 14, 2005

The Minister of Interior, Giuseppe Pisanu, has also recently proposed the implementation of laws modeled on the USA PATRIOT act of 2001. I firmly believe that all of these developments should be carefully reflected upon, especially by those who call for a pause in the "politicization" of the discussion of the London bombings, within the context of this provocative observation made by the historian Juan Cole today on his blog:

One key al-Qaeda goal is to topple Western democracies and push them into fascism so as to punish Westerners for having supported authoritarian regimes in the Muslim world.

The important thing to note is that this strategy works, in part, by inducing the populations of Western nations into adopting submissive and supine attitudes of "national unity" based on fear of a common enemy (external and now even internal), exaggerated alarmism in the media and from the propaganda outlets of Western governments, and silencing of dissenting voices which will speak out loudly against the rising fascism.

In the aftermath of the London bombing! Two decades of terror and no end in sight.


'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 09:52:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump (none / 1)
BREAKING NEWS:

Roger Stone arrested in Fort Lauderdale FL. on an indictment for witness tampering and making false statements under oath ... that's it for now.



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 11:37:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump WIKILEAKS (none / 0)
next

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 02:24:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump WIKILEAKS (none / 0)
Meaning extradition, perhaps rendition, of Julian Assange.

'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 02:59:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump WIKILEAKS (none / 1)
US gov is long past rule of law. The idiot electorate is either unwilling or unable to grasp the travesty of justice unfolding in the press. So long as "social media" do not revoke their "free" user accounts.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 03:18:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump WIKILEAKS (4.00 / 2)
Oh no, we are doing everything strictly by the book. Sometimes it takes a while for the book to get to the final chapter, though.

Previous comparable investigations have taken multiple years, so this one is rolling along just as expected. Refer to timeline in here.

by asdf on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 04:06:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump WIKILEAKS (none / 1)
Agree about 'travesty of justice' and "free" user accounts, but, really, more about those who pay small sums to get their free user accounts and then post streams of sponsored propaganda, the ones "social media" sees as paying customers.


"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 04:44:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump WIKILEAKS (none / 1)
Mammon alert


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 05:51:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump WIKILEAKS (none / 1)
Mammon-alert.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 06:46:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump WIKILEAKS (none / 0)
Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently
Mammon alert (MPRS-R/15 comments)


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 08:45:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump < wipes tears > (none / 0)
The Hill | OpEd | What actually happens when ads are pulled over political controversy
If history has taught us anything, it's that you can love anyone. Just look at Rush Limbaugh and Elton John -- the most uncanny pairing of them all. John not only performed at Rush Limbaugh's 2010 wedding. The two remain friends today. "I've been sober for 24 years now, and one of the best lessons it taught me is to listen," John said. "When it comes to people who might enrage you sometimes, respectful dialogue is the only way. ... Whether you make an impact in one year or 30 years, it doesn't matter. You have to put your foot in the water and start the process."

Dan Granger is the CEO and founder of Oxford Road, the ad agency that launched Hulu, Lyft and Dollar Shave Club.

archived
Free Speech
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964)

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 08:36:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump WIKILEAKS (none / 0)
All shall be exposed to competition from foreign grads who are compelled to work in virtual indentured servitude. Were we to allow them permanent residency they could bargain for wages just like US grads. And people are worried about computers taking their jobs.
 

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 06:39:22 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump Ally Roger Stone (none / 0)


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 09:18:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump Ally Roger Stone (none / 0)
I'm almost ashamed to admit, his hair line is no distracting that I forgot to look into US bond service during the shutdown. The topic is conspicuous for its absence in MSM, what with all the starving civil servants and the miracle 3-week compromise on the table.

Now, I know, any reasonable person would expect US gov to pay the debt before feeding the children, but. I noodled around. Mnuchin's been up to "extra-ordinary measures," I surmise, since 2018Q4 shutdown. More ominous, The Donald's largesse (or Miss Nancy's cunning) expires about 20 minutes before the showdown over re-modeling the debt ceiling, 1 March.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 12:05:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]
so distracting ... (none / 0)

like that m-m-m-mole on the kid in Goldfinger. Diabolical!


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 12:30:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: so distracting ... (none / 1)
Can you say rug? Perhaps the yellow is the glue.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 06:41:06 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: so distracting ... (4.00 / 2)
Sure don't pull the room together.

I used to be afew. I'm still not many.
by john_evans (john(dot)evans(dot)et(at)gmail(dot)com) on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 12:32:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Press 'Freedom' (none / 0)

○ Justice Department Releases PressTV News Anchor from Prison | Tikun Olam |

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 05:07:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Press 'Freedom' (none / 1)
Jamil Dakwar must be new here.
Jamil Dakwar believes "journalists" are special people.
Maybe Jamil Dakwar believes "women and minorities" are special people.
Maybe Jamil Dakwar believes women minority journalists are extra special people.

Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 2004
US Constitution => U.S. citizen

Did the government violate Hamdi's Fifth Amendment right to Due Process by holding him indefinitely, without access to an attorney, based solely on an Executive Branch declaration that he was an "enemy combatant" who fought against the United States? [YES]
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 2006
Geneva Convention => Yemen citizen
May the rights protected by the Geneva Convention be enforced in federal court through habeas corpus petitions? [NO] Was the military commission established to try Hamdan and others for alleged war crimes in the War on Terror authorized by the Congress or the inherent powers of the President? [YES]

Arrest of Marzieh Hashemi Reveals Bipartisan Nature of Police State

Hashemi, an African American mother and grandmother converted to Islam, moved to Iran more than 25 years ago. She has become an internationally recognized journalist as a result of her press and media work in Iran, but specifically with her work on PressTV, an outlet that--like the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the United Kingdom--receives most of its support from the Iranian government....
See how well off we are in the West?


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 02:23:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Hashemi released last week (none / 0)
US releases American journalist working for Iranian state TV after uproar, 23 Jan
FBI cover story: "She was held as a material witness in an unspecified criminal proceeding, according to documents unsealed by the Department of Justice on Friday."
Marzieh Hashemi Says She Was Mistreated During US Detention
Laura Pitter, senior national security counsel in Human Rights Watch's (HRW) US program said that one of the problems with material witness laws is that the warrants are "issued in secret so we don't know what they are based on."

"Another problem is that the process for challenging the detention is often conducted in secret so we don't know what the grounds are for even using them in the first place or whether the process has been fair," added Pitter, who has studied the laws with HRW, particularly its expanded usage after 9/11.

Kamala!? will fix that.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 10:39:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Hashemi released last week (none / 1)
By "fix" do you mean the fact that they released her, even though she didn't prove her arrest was illegal in a "timely" fashion? BTW, her defenders are starting to defend her behaviour on the Daniel Larson case on the grounds that she wasn't involved in all the actions of her office, which should already be grounds to disqualify her (The buck stops somewhere else.)
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 10:47:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Hashemi released last week (none / 0)
If you have to ask despite my prior comments in this thread and others regarding Kamala!?'s professional record, I suppose, I must confirm:

"Kamala!? will fix that." is a facetious remark indicating that Kamala!? aspirations to  "unify the nation" will in no way remedy arbitrary arrest, or detention, of anyone by FBI agents whether or not the idiot electorate elects Kamala!? to office of the POTUS.

This person is demonstrably psychopathic by any standard set by politicians ruling the USA or UK. Romania, even.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 09:46:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Hashemi released last week (none / 1)
This person is demonstrably psychopathic by any standard set by politicians ruling the USA or UK. Romania, even.

Shouldn't that be "This person is demonstrably psychopathic by any standard set by politicians ruling the USA or Romania. UK, even." Though this may be correct only because nobody seems to be actually ruling the UK these days.

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 08:44:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Hashemi released last week (none / 0)
Another common spelling error.

Some people write ERG as European Research Group. Others write is as English Ruling Gentry. Still others deny any such political feature exists at all in Britain, like Voldemort.

So, no, to answer the question question you did not ask. Someone is ruling the UK.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 02:38:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump-like INDICTMENT (4.00 / 2)
US vs Roger Jason Stone, Jr

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 05:59:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Partners In State of the Union ... (none / 0)

Deserves many cheers :)

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 07:02:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump (none / 0)
Trump caves on the shutdown, threatens to go around Congress to get his wall

by Susan Ferrechio Washington Examiner January 25, 2019 02:01 PM

President Trump on Friday agreed to temporarily end the government shutdown without any guarantee of more money for his border wall after the five-week funding lapse had started to significantly hobble government operations.

"We have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government," Trump said at the White House.

Trump said he could agree to reopen the shuttered parts of government through Feb. 15, a move that will let hundreds of thousands of federal workers finally get paid.

But Trump also hinted that if Congress can't pass legislation funding his border wall by the middle of next month, he would be forced to declare a national emergency at the border. That move would let Trump spend emergency funds to build parts of his wall, although it's also expected to draw a legal challenge.



"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 06:50:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump (4.00 / 2)
by generic on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 08:13:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump UNCANNY COINCIDENCE (none / 1)
Account suspended

This account has been suspended. Learn more about why Twitter suspends accounts, or return to your timeline.



Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Feb 2nd, 2019 at 08:59:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Trump UNCANNY COINCIDENCE (none / 0)
Twitter suspends anti-Kamala Harris accounts suspected of being trolls
reproducing MSM record of Kamala!?'s "personal" and professional record. m'k.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 at 01:19:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
World (none / 0)
 WORLD 
by Bjinse on Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:03:34 PM EST
Re: World 'SACRED COWS' (none / 0)
Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae arrested
colluding with Japanese corps to evade WWII war crime trials

US demands cash for US occupation services
"The US is asking for US$1.2 billion (1.35 trillion won), which appears to reflect Trump's wishes". yathink?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 09:25:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World 'SACRED COWS' (none / 0)
Japan Court Upholds Sterilization to Register Gender Change
The court said the law is constitutional because it was meant to reduce confusion in families and society.
fascinating logic
The 2004 law states that people wishing to register a gender change must have their original reproductive organs, including testes or ovaries, removed and have a body that "appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs" of the gender they want to register.

archived nekkid humanity
I'm confident we're on the same page here.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 06:40:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World 'SACRED COWS' (4.00 / 2)
one cylinder, two stories
The British Museum (custodian NGO, allegedly) description with "new translation by Irving Finkel, Curator of Cuneiform Collections at the British Museum"
The text is incomplete. [...] the document is written as if Cyrus himself is speaking: 'I, Cyrus, king of the world ...'. [...] The text ends with a note of additional food offerings in the temples of Babylon and an account of the rebuilding of Imgur-Enlil, the city wall of Babylon, during the course of which an earlier building inscription of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria (668-627 BC), was found.
Iran Chamber Society (NGO, allegedly) description with translation "adapted from Robert W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, 1912: 380-84" and K.C. Hanson's Collection of Mesopotamian Documents)
he Cyrus the Great Cylinder is the first charter of right of nations in the world. It is a baked-clay cyliner in Akkadian language with cuneiform script. This cylinder was excavated in 1879 by the Assyro-British archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam in the foundations of the Esagila (the Marduk temple of Babylon) and is kept today in the British Museum in London. [...] In 1971, the Cyrus Cylinder was described as the world's first charter of human rights,[1, 2, 3, 4] and it was translated into all six official U.N. languages.[4] A replica of the cylinder is kept at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City in the second floor hallway, between the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council chambers.[5]
Translations don't write themselves, yo.

archived Persians
Geheimdienste Amyntor - Victor In Chains

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 04:32:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World 'SACRED COWS' (none / 1)
This week PR units seem half-heartedly to be recycling news about détente in "liberating" Afghanistan, most recently from the summer of '18. Propitious announcements were expected this weekend.

US-Taliban talks offer glimmer of hope on path to Afghan peace: "[Afghanistan President Ashraf] Ghani admitted on Friday that 45,000 members of Afghanistan's security forces had been killed since he took power in 2014, and the UN has warned fighting is taking a record toll on civilians."

NATO mandate to support Afhanistan's security forces appears ... counter-productive. [Former Afghanistan President] Karzai reminds US to stop bombing Afghan homes

The Taliban delegation to ceasefire "talks" in Doha with US front-man Khalilzad have not met with President Ghani. Al Jazeera summarizes contradictory statements to "progress" broadcast by US-funded (in whole or in part) media, such as VOA: 'Significant progress' made in US-Taliban talks in Qatar. South China Morning Post offers sarcastic remarks, too: Taliban ceasefire talks: Trump's need to `bring boys home' risks wasting lives already lost.

Neither The Hill nor Roll Call have speculated about the purpose of the cunning Miss Nancy's aborted trip to Afghanistan with a bus load of Democratic Party congressional representatives, allegedly.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 06:12:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World 'SACRED COWS' (none / 0)
More than 25,000 workers strike at Mexican border factories
The labor strife comes on the heels of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's promise to double the minimum wage in [MEXICO] to 176.2 pesos a day, the equivalent of $9.28 at current exchange rates.

However, workers who were making more than minimum wage in Matamoros factories would not have benefited from the hike in the minimum wage, sparking discontent.



Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 09:46:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World 'SACRED COWS' (none / 0)
US states USFK not part of agenda of 2nd N. Korea-US summit
In a speech titled, 'The implications of a new geopolitical era on the Korean Peninsula' delivered at a forum held in the Woodrow Wilson [!] Center in Washington, DC, on Jan. 30, [US Department of State's acting deputy assistant attorney general for East Asia and the Pacific Mark] Lippert said "The USFK issue has never been on the negotiating table with North Korea. The USFK issue is a matter between the US and South Korea, and both nations will closely monitor this issue in line with progress made on the North Korean issue."
[...]
On this point, The Hill reported on the same day that a bipartisan group of eight lawmakers, including second generation Korean American congressman Andy Kim (Democrat), had introduced a bill that would restrict the government from withdrawing troops from South Korea. The bill, called the "United States and Republic of Korea Alliance Support Act," would prohibit the use of Department of Defense funds from the 2019 fiscal year budget to reduce the total number of Armed Forces serving on active duty in Korea below 22,000. In order to reduce the stationed forces below that number, the defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would have to prove that "the Republic of Korea is fully capable of defending itself and deterring a conflict on the Korean Peninsula that would threaten United States interests following such a reduction."
Goodbye 'Freedom and Democracy' - Hello 'Rules-based International Order'

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Feb 2nd, 2019 at 10:02:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World [INCONTINENCE ALERT] (none / 0)
Venezuela's Guaido considering request for funds from IMF -sources

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 10:17:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World [INCONTINENCE ALERT] (none / 0)
Torygraph | Bank of England pleaded with not to give Nicolas Maduro $1.3 billion in gold  
"I am writing to ask you to stop this illegitimate transaction," the 35-year-old opposition leader wrote.

"If the money is transferred it will be used by the illegitimate and kleptocratic regime of Nicolas Maduro to repress and brutalise the Venezuelan people."

Dude. Dude!

You all you done is show your ass, as ancient afro-mericans were wont to say.

You, you? think yo' ass is worth $1.3B? Think again, chump. Only Nancy Pelosi is "good at what" she does.

That train left the station in '11 (99 tons). Everyone who could pulled physical gold from US, UK, Swiss, Canada, "European" banks did.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 06:31:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World [INCONTINENCE ALERT] (none / 0)
Trump's Brilliant Strategy to Dismember U.S. Dollar Hegemony
about that gold ...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 at 07:51:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Successful nation building (none / 1)

by generic on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 07:41:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Successful nation building (none / 1)


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 09:39:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Successful nation building (none / 1)


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 09:40:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Successful nation building (4.00 / 2)

by generic on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 08:10:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Very organic revolution (4.00 / 3)
that just lacked the internal element.
by generic on Mon Jan 28th, 2019 at 11:34:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Very organic revolution (4.00 / 2)
by generic on Mon Jan 28th, 2019 at 11:37:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I'll put this here (none / 0)
Venezuela opposition asks U.N. not to send observers to May vote | Reuters
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition alliance called on the United Nations on Monday not to send observers to the presidential election on May 20 to avoid legitimizing a poll it says is rigged in favor of Socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
by generic on Mon Jan 28th, 2019 at 11:52:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Very organic revolution (none / 1)
AP Exclusive: Anti-Maduro coalition grew from secret talks

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- The coalition of Latin American governments that joined the U.S. in quickly recognizing Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president came together over weeks of secret diplomacy that included whispered messages to activists under constant surveillance and a high-risk foreign trip by the opposition leader challenging President Nicolas Maduro for power, those involved in the talks said.

If Nixon had the wits about him to not act guilty and just give interviews boasting about all his crimes in the NYT he'd have been elected president for live.

by generic on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 12:17:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Very organic revolution (none / 1)
In Detail: The Deaths So Far | Venezuelanalysis.com
Despite the heavy press coverage, there is significant confusion over how these deaths occurred and at the hands of whom. In a bid for clarity, Venezuelanalysis provides readers with an in-depth and a complete account of the deaths so far below.

(Sorry for the spam/any repeats, I'm just catching up now.)

by generic on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 12:49:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Very organic revolution (4.00 / 3)

by generic on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 01:19:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World POW CAMP (none / 1)
US unveils sweeping fraud, tech theft charges against China's Huawei
The [DOJ] unveiled 13 charges against Huawei Technologies, its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou -- the daughter of the company's founder who is currently out on bail in Canada -- and two affiliates related to violating US sanctions on Iran.
[...]
In addition, 10 US federal charges were filed against two Huawei affiliates for stealing robot technology from T-Mobile.
[...]
"Both sets of charges expose Huawei's brazen and persistent actions to exploit American companies and financial institutions, and to threaten the free and fair global marketplace," said FBI Director Christopher ["Battery Warden"] Wray.
v1. Canada PM fires ambassador to China after remarks on Huawei casts doubt on extradition
v2. Canada fires ambassador to China after multiple comments on Huawei CFO case
v3. Canada's Prime Minister fires ambassador to China in Huawei row
v4. John McCallum fired as ambassador to China amid diplomatic crisis
On Tuesday McCallum, a longtime Liberal, was quoted telling a gathering of Chinese-language journalists in Toronto that he thought she had a strong case to fight extradition to the U.S. and listed several arguments he thought could help her with her case.

archived
Canada Takes A Hostage: Free Meng Wanzhou
"The pretext for her arrest is that Huawei has violated US sanctions against Iran. ..."
Trump totally punked Canada.
""Our extradition partners should not seek to politicize the extradition process ..."
Chinese National Accused of Stealing Battery Secrets

"China's goal, simply put, is to replace the U.S. as the world's leading superpower and they're using illegal methods to get there," FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a Thursday morning press conference.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 08:35:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World POW CAMP (none / 0)
The Internet and its infrastructure is owned by Uncle Sam ... protected by the extended reach of the arm of US Justice [think blindfold]. The dollar .. sanctions regime ... modern technological colonialism ... suppression took a major step forward after the attacks of 9/11 ... Patriots Act! All in the preliminary fase of AmericaFirst!

○ UKUSA Espionage For Decades

Sometimes ownership of DNS can be somewhat problematic ...

○ DHS: Multiple US gov domains hit in serious DNS hijacking wave

After the success of a no-deal Brexit, the AngloSaxon twins can do it all alone with no eyes from Brussels witnessing their shady dealings - black ops et all.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 09:43:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World POW CAMP (none / 0)
Chinese National Sentenced For Stealing Medical Device Plans
"Wenfeng Lu, 46, worked as an engineer at research facilities belonging to Southern California-based companies ev3 and Edwards Lifesciences Corporation from January 2009 until November 2012 when he was arrested before he could board a plane to China."

Running through the H1-B list kind of quickly.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 01:19:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World POW CAMP (none / 0)
[BOLSONARO] Issues 5 Arrest Warrants in Deadly Mine Dam Collapse
A German company that has inspected the dam said two of its employees had been arrested. The Munich-based TUEV company Sued declined to specify whether the arrested staff were from its German headquarters or its Brazilian branch.
Brazil mining dam collapse death toll rises with hundreds still missing
Israel was sending a mission to help with rescue operations and provide aid, according to a statement Saturday from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. Netanyahu made the help offer during a call with President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been an enthusiastic ally of Israel. Bolsonaro, who assumed office Jan. 1, did a flyover Saturday of the area affected by the dam collapse.
[BOLSONARO] prosecutor says Vale dam burst may scramble Samarco talks

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 01:40:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World POW CAMP (none / 0)
15 Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza
"shot and wounded on Tuesday afternoon by Israeli soldiers' gunfire during clashes that broke out in northern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel"
Death toll rises to 117 in Mexico pipeline explosion
Jan. 18 in the central state of Hidalgo: "600 and 800 people gathered at the site to collect leaked fuel with containers when the explosion took place. Authorities are investigating whether the illegal tapping of the pipeline was the result of fuel theft, a crime that cost the country some 3 billion U.S. dollars in 2018."
Death toll from Brazil dam disaster climbs to 84
"The dam held at least 13 million cubic meters of industrial waste that is estimated to have spread over an area of 125 hectares."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 01:59:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: World POW CAMP (none / 0)
homicidal maniacs saving and creating jobs
U.S. says to withdraw from arms control treaty in six months
"get everybody in a big and beautiful room and do a new treaty that would be much better"
Germany pronounces INF missile treaty dead
"We must note that the INF treaty has been violated by the Russian side and that the appeals of the last 60 days for more transparency and more information have come to nothing"
Majority Leader, US House of Representatives, Statement on President Trump's Decision to Withdraw the U.S. From the INF Treaty
"President Vladimir Putin would like nothing more than for our country to scrap the treaty altogether, giving him cover to pursue even more aggressive development of nuclear-armed missile systems"
Russia Joins US, Will Suspend INF Nuclear Treaty
"The Russian move follows a similar action Friday by the U.S."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Feb 2nd, 2019 at 09:38:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Living Off the Planet (none / 0)
LIVING OFF THE PLANET
Environment, Energy, Agriculture, Food
by Bjinse on Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:03:37 PM EST
Re: Living Off the Planet (none / 0)
Teenage Belgians in the lime light; no news on arrests.

euractiv Campaign 2019 agenda - (generic) coal-fired plants, air pollution, and NO* lovers

Particulate specialists, quality-of-life back in S. Korea news; no link to EU "desertification" yet.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 08:51:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: BELGIANS Off the Planet (none / 0)
Some 70,000 Brussels protesters demand action on climate
"Even though the direct impact on Belgian politics was likely to be small since the country currently is led by a caretaker government ..."
wut
"President Emmanuel Macron sees himself as a climate crusader, but suffered a serious setback when fuel tax increases meant to wean France off fossil fuels backfired dramatically, unleashing the yellow vest protests now in their third month."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 09:25:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Living Off the Planet (none / 0)
State of the Climate: How the World Warmed in 2018, illustrated
The climate data for 2018 is now mostly in, though the ongoing shutdown of the US government has caused some datasets to be delayed.

In this article, Carbon Brief explains why last year proved to be so remarkable across the oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere and surface temperature of the planet.

A number of records for the Earth's climate were set in 2018: ...



Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Jan 26th, 2019 at 09:35:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Living Off the Planet (4.00 / 2)
Blanket ban on glyphosates in France not possible: Macron
It will not be possible to do without glyphosate-based weed killers in certain French agricultural sectors in three years because some sectors would not be able to survive economically, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday.

Macron has previously said glyphosate would be banned in France by 2020 apart from limited exemptions, rejecting a European Union decision to extend its use for five years after a heated debate over whether the Monsanto-developed weed-killer causes cancer.

Macron choosing his camp. Again.

by Bernard (bernard) on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 07:33:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Living Off the Planet (none / 0)
EU Green-Lights US Soybeans for Biofuel Production
Specifically today the European Commission signed off on the Soybean Sustainability Assurance Protocol, which dictates best environmental practices for U.S. soybean producers.
[...]
"While this announcement applies only to soybeans exported for biodiesel, ASA sees it as a positive step for enhancing its EU market and validating the quality of the SSAP sustainability initiative," [American Soybean Association spokewoman Wendy] Brannen said in a statement.

archived
soybean futures, 2018
lower tariffs vs retaliatory tarrifs
China backs GMO soybeans in push for high-tech agriculture | Reuters, 2016
import substitution vs premium production

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Jan 30th, 2019 at 01:31:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Living On the Planet (none / 0)
 LIVING ON THE PLANET 
 Society, Culture, History, Information 
by Bjinse on Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:03:41 PM EST
Re: Living On the Planet (none / 0)
On Twitter, limited number of ["]characters["] spreading fake info
The researchers found the 16,442 accounts they analyzed by starting with a random pool of voter records, matching names to Twitter users and then screening out accounts that appeared to not be controlled by real people.
WTF

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 11:15:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Davos (4.00 / 3)
File under #welcometoGattaca

What If: Everyone Had Their Genome Sequenced at Birth?


As the cost of genome sequencing decreases, researchers and clinicians are debating whether all newborns should be sequenced at birth to facilitate a lifetime of personalized medical care. What if everyone had access to their genomic health data?

Join an in-depth discussion that explores the possible, plausible and probable impacts of genome sequencing at birth.

by Bjinse on Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 08:29:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]
On This Date (none / 0)
ON THIS DATE
by Bjinse on Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:03:45 PM EST
Re: On This Date (none / 0)
Yesterday -100: Already treated like slaves, "Women and minorities" Edition
The big powers decide on some of the details of the League of Nation, Berlin depressed by loss of colonies, particular US citizens denied passports by US gov.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 at 10:12:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
People & Klatsch (none / 0)
 PEOPLE AND KLATSCH 
by Bjinse on Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:03:50 PM EST
Re: Enemy of the People (4.00 / 2)
So yeah. I have many years ago elsewhere linked to Peter Watkin's La Commune (2000), director's notes, to illustrate a couple points. Chief among these was the educational opportunity afforded to "extras" simply by participating. Some significant number, many women, had no notions about that "insurgency", much less the passion its recreation would evoked in them.

The topic has surfaced again in the context of US history of "red scares." I count the communards first in a series of four purges, ending with the current generation aroused since 2016 by "treason" and "Russian" espionage. To illustrate I dug up this brief, "Foreign Criticisms of the 1871 Paris Commune: The Role of British and American Newspapers and Periodicals" (because the one NYT "digitization" of May 1, 1871 headlines is technically indisposed, as is the custom).

Mr Jamieson writes from 2010 about such "liberal" periodicals as Harper's and The Nation:

News sources, especially in America, were becoming increasingly worried about the rise of what they perceived as a Communist movement in Paris. This 'red fear' was based on both fascination and anxiety over the ideology. Because of the Commune's close ties with labor unions, the International Working Men's Association, socialists, and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the Commune thus "further reinforced the bourgeois notion of class war," as Gay Gullickson notes. "Journalists regularly referred to the 'Reds' in Paris and used 'communist' as a synonym for 'communard'...."33 Some journalists even used all three terms interchangeably. Both American newspapers and periodicals followed a similar path in criticizing the Commune and exposing it to the rest of the world. [...] The Paris Commune became the great fear of antiCommunist Americans who saw the actions of the working class in Europe as a major threat. It is important to note that there were varying degrees of sensationalism present in these publications.
Let's not stay stuck on McCarthy and "democratic values".

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 12:35:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Enemy of the People UH OH (none / 0)
Protesters in red scarves march against vandalism and violence in Paris
"We don't share all the demands expressed by the yellow vest movement, for instance demands about overthrowing the government, brutalising institutions," Laurent Segnis, a member of Macron's centrist Republic on the Move party, said.
never besmirch the property
Damage to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in December was a turning point for many of the counter-protesters at Sunday's march.
misplaced precision: 69,000 people nationwide, sez Interior Ministry
Police armed with guns that fire non-lethal [sic] rubber balls - ammunition that has seriously injured a number of demonstrators - were equipped with body cameras this weekend for the first time.

Officials said the cameras were being used as an experiment to record use of the non-lethal weapons, providing context and eventual evidence if needed.

AFP | Rubber bullets can lead to death, disability - study

archived GLI-F4 grenades, "Flash-Ball", LBD 40
Répression macroniste contre le peuple des Gilets jaunes : un état d'urgence qui ne dit pas son nom, 8 Dec 2018


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 07:26:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Enemy of the People UH OH (none / 0)
"Foreign Criticisms of the 1871 Paris Commune: The Role of British and American Newspapers and Periodicals" fashion statements and "color revolutions"
A Times correspondent described the situation in Paris on April 4th as "lugubrious" and "grotesque."28 In a similar fashion, journalist D. A. Bingham reported, "the streets were filled with swashbucklers who indulged in fanciful uniforms and quaint denominations, and appeared to be under no control."29 Historian Gay L. Gullickson analyzes this statement arguing that at the time, different military groups in Paris each had unique uniforms, thus the descriptions are unfounded. Ultimately, Bingham's words should be read as a caricature in lieu of fact.30 Additionally, many of these articles should be looked at under the same microscope, as we see that common insults espoused by these writers are often slanderous.
FOCUS, ppl: What are your goals? What are the barriers to your goals?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 07:42:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Barf (none / 1)
"Non-lethal weapons"

Gilets jaunes leader hit in eye during protest 'will be disabled for life'

A gilets jaunes (yellow vests) demonstrator injured in the eye at a demonstration in Paris will be disabled for life, his lawyer has said.

Jérôme Rodrigues, a high-profile member of the protest movement, claims he was struck by a "flash-ball", a launcher used by French riot police to fire large rubber pellets. They have been blamed for dozens of injuries, some serious, including the loss of an eye.

More than 15 people may have lost an eye (or got their jaw pulverized) since the beginning of the gilets jaunes protests last November. Dozens of others, including high-school students, over the past two decades. This is part of the  executive power implicit threat against would-be protesters: protest and you might loose a limb.

Other "non lethal" weapons in the arsenal of the republic: crowd-control grenades which killed one protester a couple of years ago in the south of France.

by Bernard (bernard) on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 07:43:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Enemy of the People UH OH (none / 0)
'Red Scarves' and 'Blue Vests' launch counter-protest against Yellow Vests
that had upended weekend traffic and resulted in the worst rioting in Paris in decades, costing taxpayers millions of euros.
[...]
On Saturday, nearly 10,000 people had ticked the participation box on the "#RepublicanMarchForFreedom" Facebook event page, and 27,000 people had said they were interested in going.

'People can't get to work'

The Red Scarves saw the light of the day in November, and began as a Facebook group set up by John Christophe Werner from the southern French region of Vaucluse. In an interview with regional newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré, Werner said he had created the group because French "citizens are being penalised every day by the Yellow Vests' methods".

punked again! by your bourgeois neighbors

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 07:48:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Enemy of the People UH OH (none / 0)
French Security 'Have Right' to Use Weapons at Protests
Council of State has ruled:  the frequency of violence and property destruction at protests, some of which deviated from approved routes or weren't declared in advance. It concluded that authorities' use of the devices doesn't constitute a "grave attack" on the freedom to demonstrate, or the right not to be EXPOSED to inhuman or degrading treatment."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Feb 2nd, 2019 at 03:19:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Enemy of the People UH OH (none / 0)
Acte XII
Sputnik | LIVE UPDATES 2 Feb 2019
"Yellow Vests demonstrations are underway on Saturday, with the anti-establishment movement reaching its twelfth week of nationwide protests. Rallies are expected to take place not only in Paris, but in Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Lille and numerous small French towns. ... 17:35
Video of Massive Protest in French City of Bordeaux Emerges Online "

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sat Feb 2nd, 2019 at 03:58:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: People &amp; Klatsch (none / 0)
A promising young life cut short, a reminder how well off we are in the West.

○ In Memoriam: Maolin Zhang

○ Maolin Zhang - Leiden University | Report Dutch News - video |
○ Article in Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Sun Jan 27th, 2019 at 04:58:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: People &amp; Klatsch (none / 0)
o, this is interesting.

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has removed its entry for "limited-purpose public figure" since it was featured here in Aug 2018. Indeed, rcfp.com no longer features a glossary.

I'm chalk up this episode as another blow to mutually intelligible communication (coherence) by innerboob "media". Dare I say, trust in "journalism"?  Landssakes. What is the world coming to when one can't find the "facts", much less trust the ones one finds? CHAOS, of course.

archived Stormy!
DICTION CORNER

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sat Feb 2nd, 2019 at 05:08:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]
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