rees.ch - Stuff 2018

Some things I like

2018

Where	What	Comments
Guardian	PM accused of Brexit deal desperation over John Redwood honour	Man given a gong for betting against his country. Must be the Tories!.
Guardian	Four reasons Jeremy Corbyn is dead wrong about EU state aid - George Peretz	And why Corbyn is simply wrong about his resistence to the EU.
Guardian	Outside the EU, Britain faces a bleak future in Trump's world - Simon Tisdall	A revealing picture of what things might actually look like if the UK does indeed Brexit - beyond scary.
Guardian	Revealed: legal aid cuts forcing parents to give up fight for children	The Tories, they consider themselves to be the party of law and order, and also stability, and looking out for those less well-off... Quote: "Protracted austerity since 2012 has reduced funding by about £950m a year in real terms, causing an alarming rise in the number of people forced to represent themselves. The number of people receiving legal aid has fallen more than 80% in eight years. Critics say the result is unnecessary conflict and stress, and unsatisfactory justice."
Guardian	Top Amazon boss privately advised US government on web portal worth billions to tech firm	Anyone who doesn't think capitalism has gone viral needs to open their eyes...
Guardian	Labour's leadership is at rock bottom - it won't be forgiven for conniving in a rightwing Brexit	Just about sums up the Brexit project. One wonders how the Empirists actually managed to get Cameron to kick off this whole catastrophy...
Vox	A new theory for why Republicans and Democrats see the world differently	This resonates with me. Quote:"Hetherington and Weiler call these worldviews, which express themselves in everything from policy preferences to parenting styles, "fixed" versus "fluid." The fixed worldview "describes people who are warier of social and cultural change and hence more set in their ways, more suspicious of outsiders, and more comfortable with the familiar and predictable." People with a fluid worldview, by contrast, "support changing social and cultural norms, are excited by things that are new and novel, and are open to, and welcoming of, people who look and sound different.""
Jacobin	Socialism Is For Humanity	There is still so much propaganda directed at socialism, mostly confusing it with communism. The Right seems to be so scared of a system which takes a humanitarian approach to civil organisation...
The Guardian	Britain fell for a neoliberal con trick - even the IMF says so	Sold a pup, but the majority of the UK population don't even know they have.......
The Guardian	I have made no false promises on Brexit - I'm free to tell you the truth	What a balls up.......
The Guardian	Helena Kennedy: 'Brexit is a disaster for women	There you are ladies.......
ABC News	'Renewables capital of Australia'? Port Augusta shows off its green energy credentials	Apparently the sun shines a lot in Australia....
ABC News	Almost 20 per cent of Australian honey samples found to not be pure	This is a world-wode problem. Many of the "Non-EU" sourced products are almost 100% honey (if it is real honey) from China and they are of particularly poor quality. The solution is to buy local honey....
The Guardian	Which cities will sink into the sea first? Maybe not the ones you expect	An interesting look at the effects of climate change in centuries to come, or maybe sooner....
The Guardian	Rightwing thinktanks unveil radical plan for US-UK Brexit trade deal	I have been saying this for a number of years. The Tories will take the UK to pirate country.. Quote: "The IFT/Cato Institute free trade deal recognises that its proposals are likely to be unpopular. "Health services would benefit from foreign competition, although we recognise any change to existing regulations would be extremely controversial," it says. It recommends testing the waters with foreign competition in education and legal services first."
The Guardian	Brexiters failed to grasp significance of single market to EU, says Brussels chief	The EU has siad the same thing time and again, yet the UK seems unable to listen.. Quote:" Speaking at Columbia University in New York, he said: "One reason we have so many misunderstandings in the talks is that in the UK from the very start participating in the EU was purely an economic issue - a common market. So therefore when they started negotiating with the rest of Europe they thought, 'Common market, they are not stupid. If we have a hard Brexit, the German car industry etc will be hit. They will back down.' That was the fundamental flaw in the thinking of the Brexiteers.""
The Guardian	Don't buy the Brexit hype: it's a border in the Irish Sea or the customs union	This has gone completely claggy. May has lost, but most of all the UK has. Still, Cameron is the worst PM for many a year, he kicked off this giag and then did a runner..
BBC	Women 'struggling to access contraception'	This is yet another national scandal, well done those Tories!
The National	10 years on from the global financial crash, we need to bust its myths	We haven't heard the end of these bankers. They are still doing what they did in 2008.The next crash is pre-programmed.
Respons	The ideology of economism can explain the rise of right-wing populism in upcoming Swedish election	Sounds very plausible, much like the multi-year study done in the US where low-educated, mainly white men felt they had been left behind and others had jumped the queue. The fact remains that all of out governments in the EU (not forgetting all the other western regimes) are beholden to vulture capitalism. The EU Commission bases much of its viewpoints on a bed of corporatism amd capitalism which benefits the rich. The level of inequality is now higher than before the 1929 depression. This all does not bode well....
The Guardain	The real Goldfinger: the London banker who broke the world	Probably the most corrupt country in Europe... Well done Thatcher, you achieved your goal. A prirate elite and privatisation of as much public good as possible.
Youtube	Richard Dawkins on Brexit: No, the British people have NOT spoken - Viewsnight	Yep!.
TED	The sex-starved marriage \| Michele Weiner-Davis \| TEDxCU	This all just makes perfect sense to me.
The FT	Donald Trump's circus act is a sinister distraction	We really don't yet fully comprehend the level of destruction this man is wreaking. It will take a generation to build it back up again, and Climate Change will have made it even more difficult by then.
The Sydney Morning Herald	Cancer eating the heart of Australian democracy	No, really Murdoch? He's just an old billionnaire surely?
The Guardian	'We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else will dare mention	But, they still have control of the Primary Schools - get them young, legal brainwashing. Religious belief is simply stupid, resulting in evil. Quotes: ".....the world’s population must globally move to zero emissions across agriculture, air travel, shipping, heating homes – every aspect of our economy – and reduce our human population too. Can it be done without a collapse of civilisation? “I don’t think so,” says Hillman. “Can you see everyone in a democracy volunteering to give up flying? Can you see the majority of the population becoming vegan? Can you see the majority agreeing to restrict the size of their families?" "It’s almost as if we’re deliberately attempting to defy nature. We’re doing the reverse of what we should be doing, with everybody’s silent acquiescence, and nobody’s batting an eyelid.”
The Guardian	The only way to end the class divide: the case for abolishing private schools	Britain is still a highly class-based system... Here is one of the reasons, which also has the delightful effect of supporting religious brainwashing... Quote: "Finland's politicians and educational figures recognised that a profoundly unequal education system did not simply reproduce inequality down the generations, but weakened the fabric of the nation itself. Following a long period of discussion - which drew in figures from the political right and left, educators and academics - Finland abolished its fee-paying schools and instituted a nationwide comprehensive system from the early 1970s onwards. Not only did such reforms lead to the closing of the attainment gap between the richest and poorest students, it also turned Finland into one of the global educational success stories of the modern era."
The Guardian	It's too late. Not even Pope Francis can resurrect Catholic Ireland	But, they still have control of the Primary Schools - get them young, legal brainwashing. Religious belief is simply stupid, resulting in evil. Quotes: "The church itself is like a suit made for a very fat man who has now slimmed down to a fraction of his old weight." "In the meantime, there is only one sermon that can be truthfully preached in the ruined Irish church: absolute power corrupts absolutely."
The Guardian	Right to buy exposes the cynicism of a Tory party whose base is dying out.	Just another one of those Tory dogmas which has screwed people...........
The Guardian	Government admits role in Birmingham prison failure .	Just the job! Privatise public services. What could possibly go wrong?
The Guardian	People want a proper say on Brexit. Let them have it - Gina Miller	Well, this just about covers it...........
Facebook Group - Population Matters	Posted 1-AUG-2018	"In 2012 America's teenage girls had an average of thirty-one births per one thousand. In Canada, the number was fourteen. In France, six. In Sweden, seven. The difference is that those countries promote contraception without shame. "So it seems like if they want to reduce abortion, the best thing to do would be to support contraception-but they're against contraception, too, because contraception and abortion decouple sexuality from procreation. That's why I think religious preoccupation with abortion is largely about controlling the sexuality of women."
The Washington Post	Across the globe, taxes on corporations plummet	Well, this is either going to lead to cuts in public services or austerity, or both, with the populations (well not the rich of course) paying more...........
The Guardian	Sorry, you can't be working class and socialist in the new authentocracy	Well, when a conservative says they support the working classes or the poor, remember this.........
The Guardian	Nevis: how the world's most secretive offshore haven refuses to clean up	Guess what? The rich don't want this amoral stuff cleaned up......
The Guardian	Gina Rinehart company revealed as $4.5m donor to climate sceptic thinktank	Fake Science - paid for by rich individuals......
The Guardian	It's never their fault: why the Brexiteers love to cry betrayal	On the money this......
The Guardian	'There used to be a bus every hour. Now we hardly leave the house'	How to destroy a country one bus at a time. It's the Tories......
The Guardian	Who profits when private providers take over health services?	The Tories would sell their gandmas, their grandchildren and everyone in between. It's dogma.
The Guardian	Revealed: how US sex traffickers recruit jailed women for prostitution	USA, USA, USA. Where are the Christians when you need their compassion?
Truth Out	Noam Chomsky on Fascism, Showmanship and Democrats' Hypocrisy in the Trump Era	A commentator whom you'll rarely see on MSM. He has a very insightful analysis of the situation in the US on practically every issue and time. Quote: "The “We are America, bitch” posture appeals to chauvinistic instincts and the white supremacy that is a deeply rooted feature of American culture and is now exacerbated by concern that whites might even become a minority. The posture can also delude working people into believing that their tough-guy protector will bring back the world they’ve lost. Such propaganda exercises cannot, of course, target those actually responsible for the plight of the victims of neoliberal globalization. On the contrary, attention has to be diverted away from corporate managers who largely shape state policy while establishing complex global supply chains to maximize profit at the expense of working people."
Youtube	Why Westminster is not a democracy by Mhairi Black	What a mess. If anyone says that Westminster is a functioning democracy - show them this.
The Guardian	The academy dream is in freefall. Schools should not have to pick up the pieces	The dogmatic right-wing conservatives. Will they ever learn that privatising things which are part of the public good is a very bad idea. The rapist capitalists simply have a field day.
The Guardian	Tory MP Christopher Chope blocks progress of upskirting bill	What a dreadful right-winger he is. From the last century.
The Guardian	The SNP's Brexit walkout shows Westminster's contempt for Scotland can't go on	Just yet another example of how bad things have become in Westminster. This shows a shameful lack of regard for democracy. I hope Scotland can break free of this nonsense, dominated largely by right-winger who think they are entitled to direct the country in the direction they want.
ABC News	'You've got to play to the base': Why the ABC is a political football	News as a political football. The current situation where "News" organisations act largely to protect their financial interests is sickenning.
The Guardian	SNP delegates rebuke ministers with vote for state-run financing	I whole-heartedly agree. Public projects should be government funded. Two interesting side facts though: 1)This didn't appear in the Scottish "The National" (then it did: http://www.thenational.scot/news/16279787.Conference_backs_publicly_owned_infrastructure_company/) and 2)The UK MSM seem to have a very selective attitude to Scottish news if the only article printed in one "newspaper" is critical of the SNP.
The Guardian	We don't need Brexit. I have a plan to build a modern, fairer Britain - Will Hutton	Well, that just about covers much of what could/needs to be done.
Youtube	NATION 1 Faroe Islands - the connected nation	It makes so much sense for government to be done "in the small"...
The Guardian	The Guardian view on Brexit and parliament: another way is possible	It does seem as if there may be a way out of the Brexit disaster...... Quote: "If the prime minister were to change course, the hardliners would denounce her for betraying pro-Brexit voters. They would be wrong in law and principle. Anything that ends full UK membership of the EU is a valid Brexit and partial detachment would be a more democratic expression of the close referendum result than total severance. The 2016 vote does not prohibit a soft Brexit. The 2017 general election result demands one by virtue of parliamentary arithmetic alone. To deliver it, the prime minister would have to relinquish the support of the most fanatical Tory caucus, but she could make up the numbers with support from opposition MPs."
The Guardian	Britain sees the Commonwealth as its trading empire. It is sadly deluded	Thinking the Commonwealth countries want a seperate trading relatonship wit the UK is simply delusional.
The Guardian	Carillion fiasco shows why auditors must be accountable to parliament	This idea of having the companies which monitor and report on other companies being paid by the very companies they are monitoring is simply a rotten idea. Quote: "The big four now style themselves “professional services” firms, cashing in on the contacts and insight that come from their stranglehold on the market; they now audit 97% of Britain’s top 350 listed companies. Their senior partners, none of whom made their careers in the unsexy auditing arms of their firms, target fee income rather than financial probity. The commanding heights of business are audited by outfits that are no longer accountancy firms. This major and still under-appreciated fault line through the world economy guarantees future financial earthquakes."
The Guardian	It's not Harry and Meghan. It's the monarchy I oppose	I couldn't agree more. It is embarassing in century 21 that a major country still has an active monarchy. Quote: "I am a republican and a humanist. Indeed, I am a republican because I am a humanist. I wish the individuals well and the institution ill."
The Guardian	A woman's final Facebook message before euthanasia: 'I'm ready for my trip now...'	It is so obvious that there should be a choice, people should be able to decide for themselves. The right should understand this as a choice and freedom issue, but I have my doubts they will.
The Guardian	Australia could become first country to eradicate cervical cancer	Vaccination has done so much for humans.
ABC News	Faithful dog waits outside Brazilian hospital four months after his homeless owner diesAustralia could become first country to eradicate cervical cancer	Heart warming
The Guardian	Council tax should be fair and progressive. Ours is neither	Yep, wealth in the UK is almost untaxed.
The Guardian	UK minister rebuffs call to make tax havens reveal company owners	As if we didn't know what the UK government thinks of the tax havens under its jurisdiction. Why do people vote for this lot - against their own best interests?
The Guardian	How a small town reclaimed its grid and sparked a community revolution	All too bloody obvious, corporations are far too powerful, but there are alternatives.
The Guardian	My husband died and my son is angry I'm in a new relationship	A lovely description of boys.
The National	Neoliberalism has been the root of many ills ... so how has it survived?	A very good summary. It seems to me it is difficult to imagine things will improve towards collectivism because too many forces (and money) are against it.
The Guardian	Tax relief has become a gigantic welfare state for the well-off.	Wealth inequality is staggering and getting worse by the minute. Still, nothing will be done about it, the politicians don't want their people to be penalised for having so much.
The Guardian	Stripes of wildflowers across farm fields could cut pesticide spraying	A brilliant idea - hope it works!
The Guardian	Holidays for one: why I love to hit the road alone	Interesting perspective.
The Irish Times	Fintan O'Toole: Is Brexit the maddest thing England has ever done? Not quite	Good grief, privatised war? We Brits didn't just invent Concentration Camps then?
The Guardian	As Theresa May is discovering, the UK's overblown sense of its place in the world has led to overplaying our hand with the EU.	Garry Younge is an excellent journalist and he is right on the money with this article.
Viralvo	choir mimics a thunderstorm using their hands, then they start singing.	Grand!
The National	How tough love on healthcare pays off for Norwegians	Some excellent ideas in the .no approach to healthcare.
Youtube	Tom Rush - Remember Song	I have no idea why this is funny?
The Guardian	Is sex the answer to your relationship woes?	What is there to say?
Youtube	The Best Interview In The History Of Television [Robin Williams]	A man sorely missed....
The Guardian	What happens when the jobs dry up in the new world? The left must have an answer - John Harris	A sort, but good article pondering the not-to-distant future.
The Guardian	We can undo privatisation. And it won't cost us a penny. Will Hutton	This looks like an idea worth following.
The Guardian	As corporate goliaths grow ever larger, Britain looks increasingly exposed. Will Hutton	An excellent article on how capitalism is on the way to causing huge imbalances. Could this be the beginning of the end - and what will take it's place? Sadly, (or maybe happily,) I won't be around to see it.
The Guardian	Why Europe's wars of religion put 40,000 'witches' to a terrible death	Sounds about right to me "Market Share". After all it's just a scheme to extract money out of the stupid.....
Vimeo	Trailer " Bengal Shadows"	Most Brits know nothing of the affects of Empire, just the jolly, stiring music.
Guardian	The sun may never set on British misconceptions about our empire, Ian Jack	And the Brexiteers want Empire 2.0! Quotes:"But according to a YouGov poll conducted around the time of the Rhodes Must Fall protests two years ago, 43% of British people believed the British empire was a good thing and only 19% a bad thing, with 25% believing it was neither." "....Churchill's refusal to heed the advice of his Indian administration was instrumental in the death of between 2 and 3 million people."