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Celerity
Celerity's Journal
Celerity's Journal
March 5, 2019
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said last week that some young people are concerned about having children given the threat climate change could pose to future generations.
The comments drew intense media attention and some pundits called the comment "fascistic."
But a new INSIDER poll found that nearly a third of Americans - and about 38% of those between 18-29 years old - believe a couple should consider the negative effects of climate change when deciding whether or not to have children.
https://www.businessinsider.in/more-than-a-third-of-millennials-share-alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-worry-about-having-kids-while-the-threat-of-climate-change-looms/articleshow/68262786.cms
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines last week when she suggested that some young Americans are concerned about having children because of the threat that climate change could pose to future generations.
"Our planet is going to hit disaster if we don't turn this ship around ... there's scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult," Ocasio-Cortez said during an Instagram livestream. "And even if you don't have kids, there are still children here in the world, and we have a moral obligation to leave a better world for them." So, the 29-year-old New York progressive went on, young people are grappling with the question: "Is it OK to still have children?"
The comment garnered significant media attention and blowback from pundits, who argued the remark amounted to Ocasio-Cortez advocating for a ban on children.
snip
More than a third of millennials share Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's worry about having kids while the
threat of climate change loomsRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said last week that some young people are concerned about having children given the threat climate change could pose to future generations.
The comments drew intense media attention and some pundits called the comment "fascistic."
But a new INSIDER poll found that nearly a third of Americans - and about 38% of those between 18-29 years old - believe a couple should consider the negative effects of climate change when deciding whether or not to have children.
https://www.businessinsider.in/more-than-a-third-of-millennials-share-alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-worry-about-having-kids-while-the-threat-of-climate-change-looms/articleshow/68262786.cms
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines last week when she suggested that some young Americans are concerned about having children because of the threat that climate change could pose to future generations.
"Our planet is going to hit disaster if we don't turn this ship around ... there's scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult," Ocasio-Cortez said during an Instagram livestream. "And even if you don't have kids, there are still children here in the world, and we have a moral obligation to leave a better world for them." So, the 29-year-old New York progressive went on, young people are grappling with the question: "Is it OK to still have children?"
The comment garnered significant media attention and blowback from pundits, who argued the remark amounted to Ocasio-Cortez advocating for a ban on children.
snip
March 2, 2019
The Crisis of Globalisation
In cooperation with our partners from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Hans Böckler Stiftung, Social Europe examined the different dimensions of the crisis of globalisation and what kind of policy mix could help addressing it. We bring together some of the best analyses and leading voices in the field and try to highlight some of the most innovative solutions to the major political and economic problems associated with the crisis of globalisation.
with contributions by Mark Blyth, Eunice Goes, Javier Lopez, Guillaume Duval, Anke Hassel, Colin Crouch, Jürgen Habermas, Sheri Berman, Paul Collier, Ngaire Woods, Catherine de Vries, David Held, Heikki Patomäki, Gustav Horn, Robert Kuttner and Dani Rodrik.
https://www.socialeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/The-Crisis-of-Globalisation-final.pdf
February 28, 2019
Austerity: 12 Myths Exposed
Belt tightening austerity policies have been the path for most countries shaken by the financial crisis more than ten years ago. The deep spending cuts were often justified based on questionable grounds. Austerity: 12 Myths Exposed debunks commonly held beliefs by the advocates of austerity as the solution to overcome an economic crisis.
Content
PART I: THE AUTHORITY OF AUSTERITY ECONOMICS
The great stagnation and the failure of business investment
Mickey Mouse numbers in economic history: the origins and spinning of 60 / 90 percent debt-to-GDP ratios
PART II: CONTEMPORARY AUSTERITY: RECONSTRUCTING THE IRON CAGE OF PUBLIC FINANCE
The myth of international tax ‘competition’
Privatization reduces the fiscal burden?
Fiscal consolidation: cut spending, solve fiscal problems and increase investment?
PART III: AUSTERITY AND THE EXPLANATION OF ECONOMIC CRISIS
The priority of deficit reduction and the myth of consolidation
Was the euro crisis caused by excessive sovereign debt?
PART IV: THE IMPACT OF DEBT ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Markets good, public bad—the false promises of market populism
The state must live within its means?
Swabian housewife economics is good for everyone?
PART V: THE IMPACT OF DEBT ON SOCIETY
Two worlds of austerity: mythologies of activation and incentives
Democratic austerity? Social concertation in the neoliberal state
FREE PDF DOWNLOAD
https://www.socialeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Austerity-Print.pdf
February 11, 2019
On January 23, right after a phone call from Donald Trump, Juan Guaidó, former speaker of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself president. No voting. When you have official recognition from The Donald, who needs elections? Say what? I can explain what’s going on in Venezuela in three photos:
First, we have Juan Guaidó, self-proclaimed (and Trump-proclaimed) president of the nation, with his wife and child, a photo prominently placed in The New York Times.
Next, the class photo of Guaidó’s party members in the National Assembly, white as snow…
…especially when compared to their political opposites in the third photo, the congress members who support the elected President Nicolás Maduro. The Maduro supporters are nearly all of a darker hue.
This is the story of Venezuela in black and white, the story not told in The New York Times nor the rest of our establishment media. This year’s so-called popular uprising is, at its heart, a furious backlash of the whiter (and wealthier) Venezuelans against their replacement by the larger Mestizo (mixed-race) poor.
Four centuries of white supremacy in Venezuela by those who identify their ancestors as European came to an end with the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez who won with the overwhelming support of the Mestizo majority. This turn away from white supremacy continues under Maduro, Chavez’ chosen successor.
snip
Greg Palast - In Venezuela, White Supremacy is a Key to Trump's Coup
https://www.gregpalast.com/in-venezuela-white-supremacy-is-a-key-to-trump-coup/On January 23, right after a phone call from Donald Trump, Juan Guaidó, former speaker of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself president. No voting. When you have official recognition from The Donald, who needs elections? Say what? I can explain what’s going on in Venezuela in three photos:
First, we have Juan Guaidó, self-proclaimed (and Trump-proclaimed) president of the nation, with his wife and child, a photo prominently placed in The New York Times.
Next, the class photo of Guaidó’s party members in the National Assembly, white as snow…
…especially when compared to their political opposites in the third photo, the congress members who support the elected President Nicolás Maduro. The Maduro supporters are nearly all of a darker hue.
This is the story of Venezuela in black and white, the story not told in The New York Times nor the rest of our establishment media. This year’s so-called popular uprising is, at its heart, a furious backlash of the whiter (and wealthier) Venezuelans against their replacement by the larger Mestizo (mixed-race) poor.
Four centuries of white supremacy in Venezuela by those who identify their ancestors as European came to an end with the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez who won with the overwhelming support of the Mestizo majority. This turn away from white supremacy continues under Maduro, Chavez’ chosen successor.
snip
February 4, 2019
Comedian Bill Maher is under fire after making a comment about fried chicken to a black congressman on a recent episode of his HBO show. On Friday’s edition of Real Time With Bill Maher, the political commentator sat down to interview Will Hurd, a Republican congressman from Texas, who is black. The discussion began when Maher asked about why Hurd is a member of the GOP.
“I’m just asking why you’re Republican. Because they’re not good at the debt, that was their big thing. You said limited government, they don’t do that,” Maher said. “What’s in it for you? What is in the Republican Party for you? You were in the CIA!”
“I was in the CIA for almost a decade. I was the dude in the back alleys at 4 o’clock in the morning collecting intelligence on threats to the homeland,” said Hurd, speaking about his background.
“That’s where they collect them, huh?” said Maher. “By the Popeyes Chicken.”
https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1091581265327910913
https://twitter.com/jelani9/status/1091672983972864000
snip
Bill Maher under fire after making fried chicken joke to black congressman Will Hurd
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bill-maher-fire-making-fried-chicken-joke-black-congressman-will-hurd-164546263.htmlComedian Bill Maher is under fire after making a comment about fried chicken to a black congressman on a recent episode of his HBO show. On Friday’s edition of Real Time With Bill Maher, the political commentator sat down to interview Will Hurd, a Republican congressman from Texas, who is black. The discussion began when Maher asked about why Hurd is a member of the GOP.
“I’m just asking why you’re Republican. Because they’re not good at the debt, that was their big thing. You said limited government, they don’t do that,” Maher said. “What’s in it for you? What is in the Republican Party for you? You were in the CIA!”
“I was in the CIA for almost a decade. I was the dude in the back alleys at 4 o’clock in the morning collecting intelligence on threats to the homeland,” said Hurd, speaking about his background.
“That’s where they collect them, huh?” said Maher. “By the Popeyes Chicken.”
https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1091581265327910913
https://twitter.com/jelani9/status/1091672983972864000
snip
February 1, 2019
New member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is having a huge impact on political discourse and the Democratic party, with several potential Presidential candidates reacting to her and criticizing her economic agenda, including Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is considering running as an Independent candidate. Venture Capitalist and entrepreneur, Nick Hanauer, tells Ari Melber that Ocasio-Cortez is advocating “for economic policies that benefit the broad majority of citizens” which is in fact more “
Billionaire Activist: AOC Is The Centrist, Not Howard Schultz The Beat With Ari Melber MSNBC
New member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is having a huge impact on political discourse and the Democratic party, with several potential Presidential candidates reacting to her and criticizing her economic agenda, including Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is considering running as an Independent candidate. Venture Capitalist and entrepreneur, Nick Hanauer, tells Ari Melber that Ocasio-Cortez is advocating “for economic policies that benefit the broad majority of citizens” which is in fact more “
January 31, 2019
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/30/howard-schultz-starbucks-president-white-house
Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, has a bold plan to rescue America, and it involves putting another billionaire in the White House to put a stop to dangerous ideas like universal healthcare and higher taxes on the wealthy. Schultz told CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday that he is “seriously thinking” about making a run for the Oval Office as a “centrist independent”. Why? Because, according to Schultz, “we see extremes on both sides … we are sitting with approximately $21.5tn of debt, which is a reckless example, not only of Republicans, but of Democrats. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat, independent, Libertarian, Republican. Bring me your ideas. And I will be an independent person, who will embrace those ideas. Because I am not, in any way, in bed with a party.”
As a remedy, the billionaire CEO is pitching an utterly unremarkable combination of middle-of-the-road policies and a language of moderation that would fall safely within the corporatist mainstream of the Democratic party. He believes popular, desperately-needed policies like Medicare For All are unaffordable and un-American, and is opposed to raising the top marginal rate of income tax lest people like him be taxed at levels unseen since that heyday of American communism otherwise known as the Nixon era.
He expresses concern that so many have so little money in the bank but doesn’t think low-earning workers deserve a raise, a union, free health insurance, or the opportunity to get an education without drowning in debt courtesy of sky-high tuition.
Whatever his superficial gestures towards moderation and inclusivity, Schultz is pledging to be a tribune for the billionaire class to which he himself belongs, over and against the growing current of popular, social democratic policies continuing to gather momentum within the Democratic party and among the wider US electorate. Given that the 2020 Democratic primaries are certain to include several Wall Street-friendly candidates, it’s unclear what exactly he hopes to accomplish beyond giving a voice to a handful of plutocrats who somehow find figures like Joe Biden and Cory Booker too extreme.
But perhaps that’s precisely the point.
snip
Sorry, Howard Schultz - America doesn't want another billionaire president
Schultz opposes Medicare for All and raising the top tax rate – his middle-of-the-road vision is not what America needshttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/30/howard-schultz-starbucks-president-white-house
Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, has a bold plan to rescue America, and it involves putting another billionaire in the White House to put a stop to dangerous ideas like universal healthcare and higher taxes on the wealthy. Schultz told CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday that he is “seriously thinking” about making a run for the Oval Office as a “centrist independent”. Why? Because, according to Schultz, “we see extremes on both sides … we are sitting with approximately $21.5tn of debt, which is a reckless example, not only of Republicans, but of Democrats. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat, independent, Libertarian, Republican. Bring me your ideas. And I will be an independent person, who will embrace those ideas. Because I am not, in any way, in bed with a party.”
As a remedy, the billionaire CEO is pitching an utterly unremarkable combination of middle-of-the-road policies and a language of moderation that would fall safely within the corporatist mainstream of the Democratic party. He believes popular, desperately-needed policies like Medicare For All are unaffordable and un-American, and is opposed to raising the top marginal rate of income tax lest people like him be taxed at levels unseen since that heyday of American communism otherwise known as the Nixon era.
He expresses concern that so many have so little money in the bank but doesn’t think low-earning workers deserve a raise, a union, free health insurance, or the opportunity to get an education without drowning in debt courtesy of sky-high tuition.
Whatever his superficial gestures towards moderation and inclusivity, Schultz is pledging to be a tribune for the billionaire class to which he himself belongs, over and against the growing current of popular, social democratic policies continuing to gather momentum within the Democratic party and among the wider US electorate. Given that the 2020 Democratic primaries are certain to include several Wall Street-friendly candidates, it’s unclear what exactly he hopes to accomplish beyond giving a voice to a handful of plutocrats who somehow find figures like Joe Biden and Cory Booker too extreme.
But perhaps that’s precisely the point.
snip
January 23, 2019
After starting a conspiracy theory smearing special counsel Robert Mueller as a sexual predator, a well-known Trump-loving, plagiarizing Twitter troll has gone old-school by rekindling “birtherism,” spreading it among low-IQ MAGA-culturalists and aiming it at the first black woman to throw her hat into the ring of 2020 presidential hopefuls.
One day after Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) announced that she is running for president, Jacob Wohl, the “Wolf of Wohl Street” accused of fleecing investors during his previous incarnation as a right-wing Bernie Madoff, tweeted that Harris was not eligible to become president because her parents were not born in the United States.
Although Wohl’s claims seemed like the perfect confluence of racism and xenophobia when people pointed out that Harris was born in America and spent most of her life here (aside from 10 years in Canada during her high school years), Wohl stuck to his racist guns.
https://twitter.com/JacobAWohl/status/1087736259517108224
https://twitter.com/JacobAWohl/status/1087756242154475521
snip
MAGA Troll Reboots Birther Conspiracy for Kamala Harris
https://www.theroot.com/maga-troll-reboots-birther-conspiracy-for-kamala-harris-1831964970After starting a conspiracy theory smearing special counsel Robert Mueller as a sexual predator, a well-known Trump-loving, plagiarizing Twitter troll has gone old-school by rekindling “birtherism,” spreading it among low-IQ MAGA-culturalists and aiming it at the first black woman to throw her hat into the ring of 2020 presidential hopefuls.
One day after Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) announced that she is running for president, Jacob Wohl, the “Wolf of Wohl Street” accused of fleecing investors during his previous incarnation as a right-wing Bernie Madoff, tweeted that Harris was not eligible to become president because her parents were not born in the United States.
Although Wohl’s claims seemed like the perfect confluence of racism and xenophobia when people pointed out that Harris was born in America and spent most of her life here (aside from 10 years in Canada during her high school years), Wohl stuck to his racist guns.
https://twitter.com/JacobAWohl/status/1087736259517108224
https://twitter.com/JacobAWohl/status/1087756242154475521
snip
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: London
Home country: US/UK/Sweden
Current location: Stockholm, Sweden
Member since: Sun Jul 1, 2018, 07:25 PM
Number of posts: 43,240
