Blogs

This is the problem with China:

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/08/china-activist-who-called-xi-cluel...

http://www.zeit.de/amp/politik/ausland/2020-01/great-britain-brexit-alie...

Overall a brilliant article; this quote especially sprang out at me:

Australia has its fair share of colourful politicians, and Craig Kelly is certainly one of those sufficiently colourful (in the yellow journalism sense) to be a frequent guest on Sky News, for example. After the 2019-2020 bushfires, he notoriously referred to Laura Tobin as an "ignorant Pommy weather girl" who had "no idea what she's talking about", despite her university degree in physics and meteorology. For his own part, Craig Kelly completed high school.

In 2005 a horrific video showed a raccoon dog clubbed, hung upside down, and then skinned. The skinned animal is then thrown on a pile to die.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/05/flybe-collapses-two-mont...

“Events, dear boy, events.” Said Harold Macmillan.

A series of unfortunate ones here, but there you go.

http://bylinetimes.com/2020/02/27/brexit-is-costing-the-uk-more-than-all...

I think folk need to read the article, I’m not going to selectively quote out of context just to whet fool’s appetites... or provide a synopsis for the TL;DR crowd... oh alright then...

James Melville on how the £200 billion cost of four years’ lost growth equals the entire UK contribution to the EU budget since it joined.

There’s a synopsis. And a quote.

Bernie Sanders is the first Jewish frontrunner for any political party in American history and most establishment Jewish organisations are not only actively working against him, but also silent on the antisemitism he faces.

Just this week CNN compared Bernie’s momentum to the coronavirus; an old trope about Jews bringing diseases like rats. Meanwhile conspiracies are abound about Bernie hoarding our money, being hungry for our money, and being a communist. All old racist tropes.

What Defra’s post-Brexit plan means for farmers
https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/unravelled-defras-post-brexit-plan-agriculture

Basic Payments will be reduced by 5-25% next year for farmers in England, the government has confirmed.
https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/payments-schemes/defra-confirms-reduction...
Wherein we find that farm subsidies will be cut by up to 25%.

SYRIA UPDATE: Turkey is now basically at war with Assad, and it's moving in the direction of war with Russia (though I doubt that it will get that far).

We have received an urgent update from the Education International -- please read on
...

Despite international solidarity, human and trade union rights abuses continue in the Philippines. The red-tagging and vilification campaign targeting members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers is escalating, with support from the Department of Education of the Duterte regime.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) reports renewed attacks on its members.