Tuesday, May 17, 2022
IQ and racism
Monday, May 16, 2022
IQ - a right-wing issue?
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Warning signs
There are intermittent shortages of foodstuffs in supermarkets; now I hear from more than one source that they have noticed the sell-by dates on fresh fruit and veg have gotten much shorter and the perishables are looking less than pristine; presumably stocks are running low.
We already know that the harvest in Ukraine is likely to be badly affected by the war there. This post outlines some of the other problems upcoming:https://www.bournbrookmag.com/home/disaster-in-the-rye
Gonzalo Lira is predicting economic collapse and hyperinflation (25%- 35% in Europe 'minimum').
P.S. The Prime Minister has deferred the banning of 'Buy one, get one free' offers in supermarkets, citing the difficulties of poor families. The middle-class finger-waggers are protesting that BOGOF is linked to obesity.
On the other hand a friend told us the other night he has seen mothers bringing used clothes into a shop in exchange for money so their children can buy lunch in school.
Perhaps it is time for overprivileged lifestyle lecturers to get their tanks off poor people's lawns. If the Goodies want people to be slim and healthy they should campaign for better terms of international trade so that the lower classes can earn a decent living.
Saturday, May 14, 2022
WEEKENDER: The WHO, by Wiggia
Friday, May 13, 2022
FRIDAY MUSIC: Nanci Griffith, by JD
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Not that I'm prescient: the US proxy war against Russia
Is Ukraine to be the new Guernica?
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Pic: South China Morning Post https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2162391/ukraine-peace-plan-ice-after-pro-russian-rebel-leader-killed-cafe |
Unlike in the western part of Ukraine, the population of Donetsk is predominantly Russian-speaking and/or of Russian descent. The breakaway state declared its independence four years ago, but so far has only been formally recognised by South Ossetia.
Under the 2015 Minsk II agreement, Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany brokered a ceasefire and progressive demilitarisation. But the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has now cancelled ongoing treaty negotiations, claiming that the assassination is "an open provocation aimed at hindering implementation of the Minsk agreements" and linking it to the recent increase in US sanctions against Russia (announced 8 August) in the wake of the Skripal poisoning case in Britain, which has been blamed on Russia (denied by the latter and not yet forensically proven.)
The Kiev administration has failed to implement Minsk II and last year the United States was saying that the US did not wish to be limited by the agreement and suggested that Kiev should seek an accommodation directly with Moscow. Now the US special envoy for Ukraine has said that Washington could increase arms supplies to Kiev to buttress the country’s naval and air defence forces.
There is some evidence to suggest that the Ukraine has become a testing ground for Western weaponry. A "Ukraine based" firm called LimpidArmor has just announced the extension of a battlefield sensor system from fighter planes to tank warfare:
"The Land Platform Modernization Kit uses four cameras positioned strategically around the tank to create a seamless display of the environment surrounding the vehicle. Crew members wearing the HoloLens headgear would then be able to look around their environment without being hampered by the tank’s heavy armor while also not having to potentially expose themselves to enemy fire."
Although run by a Ukrainian, Mikhail Grechukhin, and conducting its research and development in Kiev, LimpidArmor's headquarters are in Walnut Creek, California. And in March this year the Ukrainian Defence Minister said that the US' supply of anti-tank missiles "opened the door for closer military cooperation in the face of Russian aggression."
Anti-Russian rhetoric was a major feature of Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign in 2016, to the extent that Russians were getting nervous. When Trump won, it appeared to be a chance to normalise relations and shortly afterwards he was tweeting "Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is bad!" But since then the US President has seemed to row back, perhaps in response to the sustained campaign by the Democrats to paint Russia as in collusion with Trump to get him his election victory.
Doubtless there is a deep geopolitical game being played, but aside from Mrs Clinton's disappointed hopes one has to wonder what the real motivation may be. Is it really a cold, then a hot war with Russia - now no longer a Communist country, thanks to its people who have every reason not to wish the return of the Reds?
Or is it to rehearse weapons and tactics for war - perhaps by proxy - against another, still Communist, mightier and clearly expansionist potential foe: China? If so, the increasing sophistication of China's defence capabilities ought to give the three-dimensional chess players of Washington pause for thought - see for example this article on the PRC's development of next-generation unmanned aerial vehicles.
Could the "military-industrial complex" (as Eisenhower called it) be endangering us with its hubris?
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http://www.museoreinasofia.es/en/collection/artwork/guernica |
_________________________
- https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2162391/ukraine-peace-plan-ice-after-pro-russian-rebel-leader-killed-cafe
- https://sputniknews.com/world/201809011067667072-rusia-us-sanctions-dialogue/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_II
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-ukraine-idUSKBN19H19M
- https://thenewsrep.com/107709/ukrainian-company-testing-f-35-style-helmet-to-see-through-tanks-in-combat/
- https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=uk&u=https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/LimpidArmor&prev=search
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-defence/ukraine-says-weapons-decision-heralds-new-era-of-cooperation-with-u-s-idUSKCN1GE27X
- https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/07/the-kremlin-really-believes-that-hillary-clinton-will-start-a-war-with-russia-donald-trump-vladimir-putin/
- http://thesaker.is/chinas-dark-sword-uav-program/
Monday, May 09, 2022
Gaming democracy
Why are postal votes needed, except for the significantly disabled? It is so easy to vote in person. Voter participation can be affected by the distance to the nearest polling place -
- https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmpolcon/writev/1463/1463.pdf (p.8)
- but it is not difficult to get to one in Tower Hamlets. Geographically the borough is smaller than 20 square kilometres yet in 2019 there were 110 polling places - i.e. 5.5 per square kilometre.
Participation in local elections tends to be much lower than for General Elections: in my own constituency - another densely-populated urban one, in Birmingham - the 5 May turnout was only 27%. Yet in this Tower Hamlets it was 42% (and in 2014, almost 48%.) Perhaps the size of the Tower Hamlets mayoral election turnout is because it was not merely for local councillors but for the Big Man running the borough, the Man who can grant your wishes; insinuations of procedural jiggery-pokery may not be necessary to account for it.
By contrast, in the US, I read, some places deliberately make it difficult to vote by setting up polling stations far from population centres and perhaps not even easily reachable by public transport. Those Americans who suspect that the 2020 Presidential election was 'stolen' by late or fake postal votes should, if their concern is that participation should be fair, look at other solutions to accessibility issues.
But even if polls are fairly conducted, what about how those votes are canvassed? The system is set up to make the aspiring politician focus on what voters think (or can be made to think) matters, rather than systemic problems. The tail is wagging the dog; instead of the people calling their leaders to account, political parties have learned how to cultivate the vote. Billions are spent on psephological analysis, focus groups, opinion polling, advertising, lobbying etc - how can good long-term governance arise out of this mess?
One method currently used to divert the public's attention from domestic policy challenges and cloud their minds with emotion is to wage wars and proxy wars on foreigners. America and Britain are like Lewis Carroll's Walrus and Carpenter, happily prepared to eat Ukrainian Oysters until the last is gone. Such a useful distraction from what Americans need; and so good for the arms industry. Instead of a welfare state, the US has opted for a warfare state.
Yes, the US has a welfare system at the moment, but the GOP is pressing for cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.) For their part the Democrats' plan seems to be to encourage the 'undocumented' immigration of relatively poor people, who may look to the Dems for financial benefits of various kinds. There is no plan either from the Republicans or from the Democrats, to help the indigenous lower classes thrive by protecting their work and wages.
The people are waking up to this, when not mesmerised by other 'woke' issues or military drum-banging. Was it not the slow-dawning realisation that in the US Red v Blue has become a 'uniparty' scam that led to the election of the unprofessional maverick Trump (with all his faults)? But the Establishment did everything it could to hamper him in office, and does everything it can to bury him in lawfare now. The uniparty wants Business As Usual until the machine breaks down.
Similarly, here in the UK, although the Northern 'Red (socialist) Wall' collapsed in 2019, Granniopteryx notes that it still far from being rebuilt, despite the Conservatives' difficulties in the last couple of years. We are in a wider political crisis in which Labour has failed to make itself credible but as Peter Hitchens says, 'You need something better than the Tories, and soon.'
We must hope that there will be replacements for both parties before it is too late; but how can they possibly replace themselves, and alternatively, how could we do it, without a revolt?
Sunday, May 08, 2022
EMAIL FROM AMERICA (11): Work avoidance and worker exploitation
While there is loud praise of the Protestant Work Ethic, an awful lot of the culture is devoted to 'get rich quick' schemes and various forms of confidence tricksters, whose scams generally feed off greed. And it seems that this has been the case for a very long time, from the gold rushes in California, South Dakota and Alaska to gambling on the stock market in the 'bucket shops' of the 1890's, and more speculation in the events leading up to the crashes of 1929 and 2008. Not to mention the lottery, the illegal 'numbers games', Florida swampland swindles, evangelists, multi-level marketing schemes, Ponzi schemes, telephone 'psychics' and so much more.
It is almost as if most people were trying to avoid 'good, honest work' and always have.
The Jamestown colony in Virginia was established in 1607 by a group of 'adventurers' (read junior sons of nobility who wouldn't inherit) to make money, yet they had no skills or tools, and eventually had to import Polish workmen to actually build things. Interestingly, this led to the first American strike, when the colonists decided to set up a democratic system, without giving those workers a vote.
The famous Plymouth colony, founded in 1620, consisted of very pious individuals, who came with no tools or skills other than firearms. They would have died, and almost did, had it not been for the local tribes making alliances with them, and a few sailors electing to stay, with their tools and practical skills.
And who did the bulk of the dirty work to build the country for the next 200 years? In the Northeast, it was indentured servants and other poor immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland. In the South, it was enslaved African-Americans and Native Americans. In the West, it was poor Mexicans and imported Chinese, who were then quite badly mistreated by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
The rapid industrialization of the late 1800's demanded a concentration of workers, who then started to think about unionization. This led to cries of 'socialism' and 'anarchy' from the wealthy, who used every power of the government to stop them.
In 1920, efforts to unionize coal mines in West Virginia led to the Stone Mountain Coal Company hiring the Baldwin-Felts agency to evict the families of striking miners from the company-owned housing. In the course of their actions, the agents claimed to have a warrant (which turned out to be fake) to arrest the Chief of Police Hatfield in Matewan, which in turn led to a gunfight known as the Matewan massacre. This inflamed the miners, who embarked on a campaign of sabotage and harassment.
In the midst of this, Chief Hatfield went to an adjacent county in 1921 to stand trial on a count of sabotage. As he walked up the courthouse steps, Hatfield and his friend were murdered by Baldwin-Felts agents.
This event made things even worse, and the violence increased. This culminated in the Battle of Blair Mountain, where a force comprised of volunteers and members of the West Virginia National Guard and State Police met thousands of angry miners, resulting in several hundred deaths. The former used leftover bombs and poison gas from World War I in the course of the battle.
Once federal troops arrived, the miners, many veterans, refused to fire on US troops, and returned home.
After the subsequent arrests and trials, union membership in the United Mine Workers dropped from 50,000 to 10,000 and stayed low until the depths of the Depression in 1935.
It was not until the mid-1950s that unions became respected and the hard physical jobs well-paid. And that only lasted for 20 years or so, after which the Reagan administration tried to copy the model of Margaret Thatcher and reduce their power.
COLOUR SUPPLEMENT: Cañón del Río Lobos, by JD
There is an alternative, a hidden Spain, well off the beaten track but you need a guide and if you are with somebody who knows then there are some beautiful places hidden away “far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife.”
One such place is the Cañón del Río Lobos in the province of Soria (Castilla y León) and this really is in the heart of Spain a long way from the usual tourist trails.
After parking the car, we set off following the course of the river along the pathway among the trees. We exchange greetings with a shepherd and step to one side for him as he moves his flock of about 200 or so raggedy looking sheep (not bred for their wool by the look of them.)
And on we walked for about a mile or maybe more, still following the river, watching eagles and vultures flying above the walls of the canyon. Then we came into a large clearing….
….and in the distance the San Bartolomé Hermitage. A small chapel, literally miles from anywhere, which is all that remains of the monastery said to have been built by the Templars in the 13th century.
To the right of the picture is la Cueva Grande, the largest of many caves in the valley and this one has a few rock carvings and cave paintings showing evidence of occupation of this area dating back to the bronze age.
This next picture is also from Google Maps. It is not a painting. It really does look like that, blue and gold striation. Very psychedelic, especially in the sunshine.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/
And here is a brief summary of the Hermitage -
https://www.bbc.com/travel/
Saturday, May 07, 2022
WEEKENDER: The English vineyard, by Wiggia
The medieval warm period lasted even longer, from circa 950AD to 1250 AD. Despite no continuing Roman influence it is surprising to find that the Doomsday book records around 40 + vineyards in the south of the country, so somehow the growing of vines and the knowledge of how to had been retained. Or was it? Details of these vineyards is scarce as the Doomsday book is not exactly proficient with detail.
Friday, May 06, 2022
Those Mariupol refugees
FRIDAY MUSIC: John Dowland, by JD
Thursday, May 05, 2022
Julian Assange: a letter to the Home Secretary
JOIN THE CHORUS: PLEASE WRITE A LETTER YOURSELF !
The Home Office, 2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF.
- The request for his extradition is almost universally seen not as a criminal matter but as a political persecution of a journalist for embarrassing the United States by revealing the wrong acts of some of its servants. As such it is an assault on the Press, that vital part of democratic government which even the US Constitution’s First Amendment was written to protect.
- The extradition of Mr Assange in these circumstances would give comfort to those who would like to equate us morally with other foreign regimes that oppress dissidents and whistle-blowers, at a time when the very principles of liberal democracy are at stake.
- You yourself are well known for your ‘Euroscepticism’ and commitment to British sovereignty. Consistent with that assertion of national independence is the ability to say no to an ally when he wishes something whose grant would be to his as well as our discredit.
Wednesday, May 04, 2022
Will you be voting tomorrow?
For the first time in my adult life (I think) I may decide not to vote.
We live in what used to be a 'safe' constituency for Labour, so much so that in national elections it was reserved for absentee-landlord stooges like the former deputy leader of the Parliamentary party. Naturally they made no effort to canvass...
... until a boundary redrawing took place. We then got a LibDem for one term - an arrogant Europhile who spent the best part of two years resisting my attempts to get him to put a question in Parliament about making NS&I Index-Linked Savings Certificates available again - and see how topical that is now!
Tomorrow, in the local elections, the choice will be LibDem or Lab (Con are defeated before they start and haven't even bothered to push a leaflet through the door.)
As far as I can tell, the LibDems say one thing locally and another nationally e.g. on housing policy.
Labour under Sir Keir Starmer appears to have ditched Corbynites and the working person's socialism, and their idea of Opposition to agree with the Tories (to the point of not even insisting on a vote when the draconian Covid regulations were up for renewal) but say they'd have done even worse things even sooner. Oh, and make a fuss about Downing Street lockdown cake and champers at a time when their own mouths were full of beer and curry.
In short, the LibDems are all things to all men and Labour nothing to anybody. As for the Conservatives, I have yet to see what they have conserved in this country.
By voting I would only be validating a system that doesn't represent me or I think most people.
Are we approaching a crisis of political legitimation?
Tuesday, May 03, 2022
Internet infowars - foreseen half a century ago
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From Stafford Beer's 'Designing Freedom' (1974) |
The genius Stafford Beer foresaw our present dilemma almost 50 years ago, some years before the spread of home computing and 15 years before the birth of the World Wide Web.
On the right of the above cartoon (click to enlarge) is a person surfing the Net for information, to store his own data, to connect with a friend etc - and especially, demanding to keep his activity private.
On the left is the threat posed by an 'electronic mafia' that gathers and correlates volumes of data on the individual and uses it not only to sell more goods and services, but to change his behaviour and beliefs.
Where we are now is a combination of the two, because the 'electronic mafia' have reached out to the surfer on the right through his telescreens, suppressing enhancing inventing and distorting his understanding of reality.
'Who controls the past controls the future,' said Orwell in '1984', so that e.g. the citizens are told the chocolate ration has increased when it has been cut. Evidence to the contrary is put into the 'memory hole', i.e. binned.
There's a host of other reality-twisting techniques now, as you will know. Some of them are currently at work in the Western coverage of the war in Ukraine - the one that has been going on not since February this year but since 2014.
But there is a more radical restructuring of consciousness going on; censorship, lies and distortion not only in current affairs and historical information but also in fiction. Two recent short videos touching on a laudable anti-racial-discrimination policy illustrate this.
The first, by author and historian Simon Webb, makes the point that the history of Britain is being taught in a way that heavily over-emphasises the multiracial nature of this country before WWII. Individuals are being shown to us as if they represent a multitude when in fact they were clearly exceptions:
The second, by 'Demirep/Granniopteryx', discusses how from the same praiseworthy motive a dramatisation of Anne Boleyn casts her as a black woman; and another drama, even more absurdly, has the earl/jarl of a Viking horde cast doubly against type, both in race and gender.
There is an understandable temptation to provide people with bad reasons for believing good things, and 'pious frauds' are not new. For example there was the 16th century 'Rood of Grace', a secretly steampunk-animatronic figure of the Crucified Christ designed to increase the religious faith of the gullible as well as raise funds for the Church.
But there is a danger in messing with people's memory and reason in this way. Apart from the risk of collective madness founded on engineered ignorance, the process of propaganda can be used negatively as well as positively: it can foster positive feelings towards minorities of various kinds, but can also be exploited to demonise - as we now see e.g. with President Putin and all things Russian.
Principles may be debated and negotiated, but facts - as far as we can ascertain them - must remain sacred; especially when mass media can now hit the masses with overwhelming force.
Monday, May 02, 2022
Putin the bastard
We all know that Putin is a bastard warmonger, but as the conflict goes on we need to strengthen our dislike by a closer familiarity with other aspects of his awful behaviour.
Winning the last presidential election in a landslide several years ago has emboldened Putin to oppress his political opponents, the media and even the judiciary.
Putin shut down four TV channels before the invasion, plus a couple more in April. He has even signed a decree obliging all Russian channels to broadcast a single telethon, presenting only one pro-governmental view on the war.
To shore up his populist support, Putin launched the unconstitutional process of extrajudicial sanctions against his political opponents, imposed by the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC). These sanctions involved the extrajudicial seizure of property without any evidence of illegal activities of the relevant individuals and legal entities.
Among the first to be sanctioned by the NSDC in February last year were two opposition parliamentary deputies - one was later arrested and shown on TV with his face beaten up after interrogation, and the other managed to escape from Russia - as well as members of their families.
The process accelerated. In June 2021 alone, Putin put into effect an NSDC decision to impose sanctions against 538 individuals and 540 companies.
In March 2022, 11 opposition parties were banned.
The decisions to ban opposition parties and sanction opposition leaders were taken by the NSDC but they were put into effect by presidential decrees.
After the head of Russia’s Constitutional Court called Putin's unconstitutional reforms a 'coup,' Putin simply relied on the NSDC to push forward his unpopular policies. As for the 'dissident' judge, Putin signed a decree cancelling his appointment as a judge of the court - another act in violation of the Russian Constitution.
A nationalist website was set up some years ago by an adviser to the Ministry of the Interior; it is part of the general strategy of intimidating opponents. It names 'enemies of the people' and helps would-be killers track them down; among the victims are a famous journalist, and an opposition deputy who was murdered in his own house. Also identified on this website, and later arrested, are a newpaper editor and the editor of a YouTube channel. Some others who have been named have managed to flee Russia. The government has not shut down this site, even after an international scandal when the website published the personal data of well-known foreign politicians.
Right-wingers control the political process in Russia through violence against those who dare confront their nationalistic and supremacist agendas. One of the most popular bloggers in Russia living in exile is a good example to illustrate this point. Not only does he, along with his family members, permanently receive death threats, radicals constantly intimidate the activists of his party (banned by Putin in March 2022), beating and humiliating them. This is what Russian radicals call 'political safari.'
The current military conflict can hardly lead to any diplomatic resolution as Putin permanently repeats that the forces of good are attacked by the forces of evil, saying 'you are either with us or with terrorists.' Clearly, there can be no political solution for such an Armageddon.
Asked by a French reporter on the tenth day of the invasion how his life had changed with the beginning of the war, Putin replied with a smile of delight: 'Today, my life is beautiful. I believe that I am needed. I feel it is the most important meaning in life – to be needed. To feel that you are not just an emptiness that is just breathing, walking, and eating something. You live.'
In case there is any interference with this video link, here is the address:
A fishy deal called Rwanda
The controversial proposals address a growing problem. The
numbers crossing the Channel by boat soared from 299 in 2018 to 28,526 last year. Border
Force staff were told to plan for 60,000 this year but that was before Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. https://news.sky.com/story/nearly-60-000-people-set-to-cross-english-channel-in-2022-as-home-office-agrees-234-000-spend-on-charter-boat-12557219
90% of the arrivals are male (including children). 51% of the total are not from Africa but come from Iran or Iraq. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-december-2021/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-december-2021 .
From London Heathrow to Rwanda’s Kigali airport is 4,095
miles https://www.airmilescalculator.com/distance/lhr-to-kgl/
. It looks like an extraordinary scheme, but seems inspired by a 2019 scheme by
the UNHCR to use Rwanda to safeguard refugees from Libya. https://au.int/en/articles/au-government-rwanda-and-unhcr-joint-rescue-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-libya
Will it work for us? Concerns have already been voiced in
Parliament about human rights, not only of those redirected from Britain but
also those who may have been told to vacate their hostel to make room for the
new arrivals. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-04-26/debates/3FCB40EE-081B-4745-9D72-4B0F7938F4D9/RwandaHumanRights
The plans cater primarily for adults, not children, and ‘families could be
relocated there together in exceptional circumstances.’ https://news.sky.com/story/where-is-rwanda-why-are-migrants-being-sent-there-and-how-will-it-work-12589831
It looks as though there will be many cases for human rights lawyers to bring to
the British courts about this deal, which is ‘widely criticised as inhumane,
expensive for the UK, unworkable and contrary to international law’ (applicants
may have to stay there for up to five years) and initially set to cost the UK a
£120 million ‘investment in Rwanda's economic development’ https://issafrica.org/iss-today/rwandauk-deal-degrades-refugee-conventions-and-africas-approach
Another aspect of the agreement, less publicised so far, has
been raised by a Youtuber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6UhNGwBEtw
: section 16 of the Memorandum of Understanding https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/memorandum-of-understanding-mou-between-the-uk-and-rwanda/memorandum-of-understanding-between-the-government-of-the-united-kingdom-of-great-britain-and-northern-ireland-and-the-government-of-the-republic-of-r#part-1--transfer-arrangments
says –
‘The Participants will make
arrangements for the United Kingdom to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most
vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom, recognising both Participants’
commitment towards providing better international protection for refugees.’
This paragraph is very vague and ‘the devil is in the
detail,’ as they say:
- · Rwanda’s existing refugee population – mostly women and children – numbers some 126,000, about 61% Congolese and 39% Burundians; a ‘portion’ could mean a great many.
- · The ‘portion’ could be anything, from 1% to 99%
- · ‘Most vulnerable’ might possibly be a pointer to persons with mental and physical special needs and disabilities, severe malnutrition, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections; the Rwandan government presumably has less resources to help these than does the UK. https://reporting.unhcr.org/document/1273
The UK’s ‘boat people’ have all left the shores of a safe European country and instead of intercepting them in the world’s busiest waterway and returning them to their coastal departure point, we are taking them to British hotels and a beanfeast of taxpayer-funded legal wrangling. This latest twist seems set to exacerbate media controversy and the human rights argy-bargy, and commit us to accepting an unspecified number of refugees, some of whom may be even more costly to assist and care for.
It looks like
another ill-considered ‘eye-catching initiative’ destined to have worse results
in every way.
Sunday, May 01, 2022
EMAIL FROM AMERICA (10): Hedge fund managers run riot
- pharmaceutical companies (resulting in huge price increases in many drugs, including insulin)
- restaurant chains such as Wendy's hamburgers
- medical testing facilities
- hospital systems
- medical groups (whose doctors are then reimbursed less and pushed for more 'output')
- dental groups (many of which are 'encouraged' to do things such as unnecessary root canal work)
- trailer parks (where many of the poorest live. They cannot move their trailers, so can be easily subjected to higher rents and maintenance fees)
- homes, especially in the Sun Belt (many are bought sight-unseen the instant that they go on the market, often for tens of thousands more than the asking price, then becoming very expensive rentals)