Tuesday’s vote is nonbinding, but it is likely to lead to a new leadership contest that could deepen divisions within a party already riven with fractures between its moderate and hard-left factions.
Category Archives: Fail!
Brexit and the New Axis? Germany, France and Italy? Cameron becomes the deja vu – oops – Chamberlin?
The New Directorate
Beyond such long-term agreements, Chancellor Angela Merkel has invited France’s President, François Hollande, Italy’s Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi and EU Council President Donald Tusk to Berlin, Monday to discuss the EU’s future, after Great Britain’s withdrawal. The objective is to agree upon important stipulations prior to the EU’s Tuesday summit – which is similar to the 2010 – 2011 meetings she had held with the French president at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy (“Merkozy”), to set the guidelines for the EU’s handling of the Euro crisis. Observes point to the fact that Merkel’s inviting Renzi along with Hollande has ostentatiously demoted France’s status. Simultaneously, German media are speaking in terms of the EU’s “new directorate.” Of course, there is no doubt that “Germany remains the most important EU nation, both politically as well as economically.”[11] In practice, the “directorate” serves the function – as in the previous cases of Merkel’s Sarkozy meetings – primarily of transmission of German specifications to the EU’s other member countries.
The Central Role – Berlin’s predominance within the EU is being, more or less, officially confirmed by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. Also in the future, Germany will “continue to play a central role, if not an even more significant role, in the European Union,” Juncker declared.[12]
Supranational Repression
Parallel to preparations for the transformation of the European Union, leading German Social Democrats are calling for supplementary steps for the political-economic streamlining the EU or its core.[13] For example, in their position paper entitled “Re-Found Europe,” Germany’s Minister of the Economy, Sigmar Gabriel, and the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, are calling for an expansion of the EU’s single market, under the topic an “economic Schengen.” In the process, across the board “central” job market reforms must be implemented. The masses in the French population are currently up in arms fighting the imposition of these job market reforms.[14] In addition, Gabriel and Schulz are calling on the EU to “more than ever” “act as a unified governing force,” which would signify that the “communitarization” of the EU’s foreign policy. The implementation of this communitarization, would mean Germany’s global interests being pursued via institutions in Brussels due, to a large extent, to Berlin’s predominance within the EU. Finally, the German social democrats are calling for the systematic creation and expansion of supra-national structures of repression. For example, institutions warding off refugees from the EU must be systematically reinforced (“effectively securing European external borders”) and cooperation between domestic repressive authorities intensified. The creation, for example, of a “European FBI” should be an objective.
Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com
From Julia Gillard to Hillary Clinton: online abuse of politicians around the world | Technology | The Guardian
Hillary Clinton received almost twice as much abuse as Bernie Sanders on Twitter this year, according to a wide-ranging analysis provided to the Guardian that compared the treatment of politicians in the US, UK and Australia.The abuse of politicians online, particularly women, is perceived by some to come with the territory. But as high-profile cases flag the urgent need to clean up the web, the scope of the problem is now revealed in greater detail in work by a Brisbane-based social data company, Max Kelsen.
NATO couldn’t stop Russian attack on Baltics: US general – The Local “Err… when did generals in US Army start being public mouthpieces for neo-con propaganda?”
“Russia could take over the Baltic states faster than we would be able to defend them,” Hodges was quoted as saying in a German-language article by news weekly Die Zeit. The general said he agreed with an assessment by military analysts that says Russian forces could conquer the capitals of Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia within 36 to 60 hours. Hodges also said NATO forces had found numerous deficiencies during the recent “Anaconda” military exercise in Poland, according to the article from Thursday’s edition of Die Zeit released early to AFP. Heavy military equipment could not be moved fast enough from western to eastern Europe, he said, while also voicing concern about the alliance’s communication technology.
Source: NATO couldn’t stop Russian attack on Baltics: US general – The Local
Norway court: Grandpa asleep when he assaulted young girl – The Local – Self-delusion and evil results for the victim!
The Sør-Trøndelag District Court ruled that the 50-something man carried out the attack while asleep and thus couldn’t be held accountable. The case dates back to a 2014 incident in which the man slept in the same bed as his 14-year-old granddaughter. The girl awoke to find her grandfather touching her lower body and then rushed into the bathroom where she called a friend who reported the incident to the police. When officers arrived, they were able to gather evidence including the grandfather’s DNA on the girl’s underwear and genitals. The man insisted that he must have done it in his sleep because the first thing he could remember was waking up when his granddaughter stood up to leave the bed. The court ruled that although it was certain a sexual incident occurred, the man should be acquitted because he was asleep.
Source: Norway court: Grandpa asleep when he assaulted young girl – The Local
Greens swallow hard and vote for stricter immigration laws – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio – Petra Kelly would be weeping over and fighting this delusion!
The Swedish parliament is set to vote on stricter asylum laws today. The Green party sees it as a painful, but necessary move, to stop even stricter proposals going through. The proposed law will make temporary residence permits the rule and during that period, there is virtually no right to family reunion, unless you are able to earn a living here. For the Green Party, the smallest party in government, this has been a painful decision, but a necessary one, says Maria Ferm, who is the party’s spokesperson on migration. “We were afraid that the alternatives would be even worse. You have several big opposition parties in Sweden, who want to close the borders completely and stop migration, and we were afraid that those kind of proposals would be implemented,” she said.
Source: Greens swallow hard and vote for stricter immigration laws – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio
Car That Crushed Anton Yelchin To Death Was Under Recall For Roll-Away Problems: LAist

LAPD officials told CBS News that the car that killed Yelchin was a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was subject to a Fiat Chrysler voluntary recall of 1.1 million cars over a shifter that led people to mistakenly believe their car was in park. TMZ reports that Yelchin’s car never got the fix. Yelchin’s car was in neutral and still running when his body was discovered, and the coroner’s office has officially ruled his death an accident.
Source: Car That Crushed Anton Yelchin To Death Was Under Recall For Roll-Away Problems: LAist
Bahrain strips top Shiite cleric of citizenship, sparking outrage – France 24 What is there beyond dumb? Bahrain!
Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of the spiritual leader of the kingdom’s Shi’ite Muslim majority, state news agency reported on Monday, prompting protests outside his home and a sharp rebuke from an Iranian paramilitary chief. The move against Ayatollah Isa Qassim comes less than a week after a court ordered Bahrain’s main opposition al-Wefaq group closed, accusing it of fomenting sectarian unrest and of having links to a foreign power, in an apparent reference to regional Shi’ite power Iran.
Source: Bahrain strips top Shiite cleric of citizenship, sparking outrage – France 24
What Donald Trump Learned From Joseph McCarthy’s Right-Hand Man – The New York Times
The year was 1977, and Mr. Cohn’s reputation was well established. He had been Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Red-baiting consigliere. He had helped send the Rosenbergs to the electric chair for spying and elect Richard M. Nixon president. Then New York’s most feared lawyer, Mr. Cohn had a client list that ran the gamut from the disreputable to the quasi-reputable: Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno, Claus von Bulow, George Steinbrenner. But there was one client who occupied a special place in Roy Cohn’s famously cold heart: Donald J. Trump. For Mr. Cohn, who died of AIDS in 1986, weeks after being disbarred for flagrant ethical violations, Mr. Trump was something of a final project. If Fred Trump got his son’s career started, bringing him into the family business of middle-class rentals in Brooklyn and Queens, Mr. Cohn ushered him across the river and into Manhattan, introducing him to the social and political elite while ferociously defending him against a growing list of enemies. Decades later, Mr. Cohn’s influence on Mr. Trump is unmistakable. Mr. Trump’s wrecking ball of a presidential bid — the gleeful smearing of his opponents, the embracing of bluster as brand — has been a Roy Cohn number on a grand scale. Mr. Trump’s response to the Orlando massacre, with his ominous warnings of a terrorist attack that could wipe out the country and his conspiratorial suggestions of a Muslim fifth column in the United States, seemed to have been ripped straight out of the Cohn playbook.
Source: What Donald Trump Learned From Joseph McCarthy’s Right-Hand Man – The New York Times
Supreme Court Says Police May Use Evidence Found After Illegal Stops – The New York Times
Justice Sotomayor said the court had vastly expanded police power. “The court today holds that the discovery of a warrant for an unpaid parking ticket will forgive a police officer’s violation of your Fourth Amendment rights,” she wrote. “Do not be soothed by the opinion’s technical language: This case allows the police to stop you on the street, demand your identification and check it for outstanding traffic warrants — even if you are doing nothing wrong.
Source: Supreme Court Says Police May Use Evidence Found After Illegal Stops – The New York Times







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