NATO faces a crisis of ideals: Vladimir Putin’s “quasi-mystical beliefs” and the rebound of authoritarianism

When we die our money, fame, and honors will be meaningless. We own nothing in this world. Everything we think we own is in reality only being loaned to us until we die. And on our deathbed at the moment of death, no one but God can save our souls.
Michael Huffington

Gold dealer connected to jewellery robberies fronts court

In addition, Mendieta Blanco is reportedly being investigated by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for his alleged participation in the goods and services tax (GST) fraud scheme involving the gold bullion and precious metals industries. It is understood the ATO began investigating Mendieta Blanco's tax affairs ...

Exclusive: Photos Show Aftermath of Lethal South Carolina Prison Brawl that Left Seven Dead Prison Legal News. Warning: graphic images.

Commonwealth leaders to discuss next Head of State this week, UK government confirms

Ghosting is the act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone. MEdia gets lots of silent treatments these days ... ;-)

NATO faces a crisis of ideals as more of its Eastern European members slide into authoritarianism.

↩︎ The Atlantic
AMP misled ASIC over 'fee for no service' fiasco

You might remember Yale historian Timothy Snyder from his 20 lessons on fighting authoritarianism (which he turned into a short bestselling book, On Tyranny). Snyder has a new book out called The Road to Unfreedom that covers the rebound of authoritarianism first in Russia and then in Europe and America.
According to this review from The Economist, the book goes into some detail about the ideological beliefs of Vladimir Putin in his quest to undermine Western democracy. A favorite thinker of Putin’s, a Revolution-era philosopher named Ivan Ilyin, advocated for a Russian monarchy while another, Lev Gumilev, believed that nations draw their power from cosmic rays?

Also present in Mr Putin’s thinking is an even more extreme anti-liberal ideology: that of Lev Gumilev, who thought that nations draw their collective drive, or passionarnost (an invented word), from cosmic rays. In this bizarre understanding of the world, the West’s will to exist is almost exhausted, whereas Russia still has the energy and vocation to form a mighty Slavic-Turkic state, spanning Eurasia.

The result, according to Snyder:

What these ways of thinking have in common, Mr Snyder argues, is a quasi-mystical belief in the destiny of nations and rulers, which sets aside the need to observe laws or procedures, or grapple with physical realities. The spiritual imperative transcends everything, rendering politics, and the pursuit of truth in the ordinary sense, superfluous or even dangerous.

You can see where the election of Donald Trump — with his own “quasi-mystical belief in the destiny” of himself and without “the need to observe laws or procedures” — is a welcome ally/patsy for Putin.
See also Putin’s playbook for discrediting America and destabilizing the West: “Just wanna make sure you all know there is a Russian handbook from 1997 on ‘taking over the world’ and Putin is literally crossing shit off.”

Ikea-style instructions for programming algorithms:

Sándor P. Fekete, Sebastian Morr, and Sebastian Stiller came up with these Ikea-style instructions for algorithms and data structures used in computer science. In addition to the three pictured above, there are also instructions for several other searches, trees, sorts, and scans.

In a recent podcast interview with David Axelrod - How Bill Russell stopped Charles Barkley from complaining about taxes - , ( former NBA star Charles Barkley talks about how NBA legend Bill Russell persuaded Barkley to stop publicly complaining about how much income tax he paid (transcription by Steven Greenhouse).

Bill Russell called me one time… He says, “Charles Barkley.” I said, “Yes, sir, Mr. Russell.”
“You grew up in Alabama. Right?” I said, “Yes, sir.”
He says, “Did you go to public school?” I said, “Yes, sir.”
He says, “Did the cops ever come to your neighborhood?” I said, “Yes sir.”
He said, “Any of the houses ever on fire and the firemen come?” I said, “Yes, sir.”
He said, “I don’t want to see your black ass on TV complaining about your taxes anymore.” I says, “What do you mean?”
He says, “So now that you got money you don’t want to help other people out, but when you were poor, other people took care of you.” And I says, “You know what, Mr. Russell, you will never hear me complain about my taxes again.”
And it was a very interesting lesson for me, because I do think rich people should pay more taxes. I’m blessed to be one of them, and we should pay more in taxes. I learned my lesson. I never complain about taxes.

I think Bill Russell needs to make a few phone calls to Congress…

Nesta's guide to tools and insights on innovation for governments.
"Nesta has pioneered new tools for governments to tap ideas and knowledge from a diverse range of sources, combining machine and human intelligence." (Nesta.org.uk)

Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct NYT. Those readers who live in places where chip and PIN cards are standard will find this rather backward. US credit cards now have chips, but still lack PINs

We examine the value of a statistical life (VSL) in interwar Soviet Union. Our approach requires to address the preferences of Stalin. We model these on the basis of the policy of statistical repression, which was an integral part of the Great Terror. We use regional variation in the victims generated by this policy to structurally estimate the value that Stalin would have been willing to accept for a reduction in citizens’ fatality risk. Our estimate of this value is $43,151, roughly 6% of the VSL estimate in 1940’s US and 29% of the VSL estimate in modern India.

That is from a new paper the Value of Human Life under Jozef Stalin the Man of Steel by Paul Castañeda Dower, Andrei Markevich, and Shlomo Weber. 

HUD Long Neglected These Residents. Now As They Move Out, Some Feel HUD Let Them Down Again. ProPublica

Subprime Carmageddon: Specialized Lenders Begin to Collapse Wolf Street (EM)
Finding College by Way of Prison The Marshall Project

Rust Belt Cities Need Investment, Not Gentrification Worries American Conservative

A new study says older people want the same things from a job as millennials: A good boss and a chance to change the world – “Older workers are more likely to look for work where they can have a positive impact, new data shows. The study also found that regardless of age, workers want a job where they can develop personally and have confidence in leadership. The survey collected responses from 500,000 employees at 750 companies. Older workers may not be as jaded as you might think.


Immigration policy by stealth
"So it was a surprise when the department announced that the 2016–17 migration program came in at around 6400 below the planning level." (Inside Story)

Democracy, data and dirty tricks
"We set our emails with a self destruct timer...There's no evidence, there's no paper trail, there's nothing. Don't make a note of that!" (Four Corners, ABC)

Does it matter that strikes against Syria violate international law?
"The air strikes in Syria by the US, UK and France after suspected chemical weapon attacks on civilians violate the UN Charter and international law — but does it matter?" (University of Melbourne)
 

 Peta Credlin boasted about admonishing Josh Frydenberg. How is that OK?