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Thursday, April 26, 2018

Is Democracy Dying? Gerrymanders of GSpot Proportions

You academic (political)  types sure know how to make a simple thing complicated.
~Gerald Murnane, Goroke, December 2017


A Modest Proposal


The political intrigue, the horseback escape from arrest, the serial cheating — Pablo Neruda’s life was meant for telling. So how does a new biography fall flat? Neruda 

↩︎ The New York Times on Harrasers







World Bank recommends fewer regulations protecting workers Guardian. Note that the World Bank is yet another neoliberal enforcer, just not as visible as the IMF. Bill F:

This one should send chills down everyone’s spine. Looks like a synthesis of corporate economic thinking on a world-wide scale. This kind of dangerous nonsense calls into question the (not so) long-term viability of capitalism
Greens want donation reform after a look at minister's diary - The Fifth Estate
Gazcorp lobbyist 'assisting' NSW minister with re-election campaign - The Sydney Morning Herald



Is democracy in its death throes?
Peter Hartcher is the political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a Gold Walkley award winner, a former foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Washington
One of the central themes of ANZAC commemorations is that Australians have long fought and died for freedom and democracy.
Today, those appear to be lost causes. A few years ago the US academic Larry Diamond declared that a "democratic recession" had set in after about 2006. The long global expansion of democracy that began with the fall of the Soviet Union faltered. Worse, it then started to reverse.
If it was a recession then, it's full-blown depression today. A Washington-based watchdog, Freedom House, this year titles its annual assessment of the state of freedom in all the countries of the world "Democracy in Crisis".


All things to all people …
… that he might win their votes: NY Gov. Cuomo Says He's Muslim, Female, and Jewish, Among Other Things | Video





Is Democracy Dying? Havels Hattons of this world are aksing - Comment May/June 2018 Issue – By Gideon Rose: “Centralization of power in the executive, politicization of the judiciary, attacks on  independent media, the use of public office for private gain—the signs of democratic regression are well known. The only surprising thing is where they’ve turned up. As a Latin American friend put it ruefully, “We’ve seen this movie before, just never in English.” The United States has turned out to be less exceptional than many thought. Clearly, it can happen here; the question now is whether it will. To find an answer, the articles in this issue’s lead package zoom out, putting the country’s current troubles into historical and international perspective.  Some say that global democracy is experiencing its worst setback since the 1930s and that it will continue to retreat unless rich countries find ways to reduce inequality and manage the information revolution. Those are the optimists. Pessimists fear the game is already over, that democratic dominance has ended for good. To counsel against despair, Walter Russell Mead uses history, and Ronald Inglehart uses theory. Democracies in general, and American democracy in particular, have proved remarkably resilient over time. They have faced great challenges, but they have also found ways of rising to those challenges and renewing themselves. There is no reason they can’t do so once again—if they can somehow get their act together…”

AMAZON GETS TAX BREAKS WHILE ITS EMPLOYEES RELY ON FOOD STAMPS, NEW DATA SHOWS The Intercept (furzy)
 

How the Loss of Union Power Has Hurt American Manufacturing NYT. Uh, Duh. So obvious even the Grey Lady gets it.
Homeownership Does Not Guarantee Middle-Class Prosperity American Conservative

For those who receive — and deliver — Meals on Wheels, more than nutrition is on the menu Boston Globe (furzy). If I ever have time and money to retire, this is the sort of thing I would do (well, except it seems to require a car and I want never to own a car). I give now to charities that feed homebound people.

Government Accidentally Releases Documents on “Psycho-Electric” Weapons Popular Mechanics. This should not be news. Not long after the USSR fell, one of its prominent scientists wrote a book about the government’s parapsychological research program, which was investigating things like mind control and long-distance messaging. They concluded that there were people with real psychic abilities, vastly above random, but still not reliable enough to use for military purposes. The book said the US has a similar research problem….and not the one later described in The Men Who Stare at Goats, which may well have been the DoD funding some cranks to provide cover for their serious programs.
Singapore conquers the sea


Tis not the first time that, dreaming of freedom, we build a new prison.
-- poet Maximilian Voloshin

Last known survivor of the 19th century has passed away.  And a related thread. Jozef Imrich was born in 1911  Maria Imrichova was born in 1917 both were born under the Hungarian Austrian empire and they were forced to go though the feudalism, brif journey though democracy 1918-1938 - then Fascism, Communism, and back in 1989 when they were both still alive they came across the light of democracy again ... However as Havel used to say human have a habit of exchanging one brutalism with another ...

 The importance of local milieus, “How important are local inventive milieus: The role of birthplace, high school and university education,” by Olof Ejermo and Høgni Kalsø Hansen

At least since Aesop, animals were seen as symbols useful for understanding human morality. Then, in 1668, Descartes’s work changed everything... MEda Dragon  


Your Reputation Never Leaves You

 

Salim Mehajer found guilty of intimidating estranged wife Aysha Learmonth

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