#Union Budget 2017

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Phillip Jackson at HuffPost:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would give federal and state officials more power to hold police departments accused of bad behavior to account. The Enhancing Oversight to End Discrimination in Policing Act, led by Warren and in the House by Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), would strengthen the power of state attorneys general to launch investigations into police departments involved in civil rights violations if the Justice Department fails to act on them. The bill would also task the Justice Department with looking beyond “traditional law enforcement mechanisms” when providing reforms to selective police departments such as mental health support, civilian oversight bodies, and community-based restorative justice programs, according to Warren’s office.

Warren had introduced a version of the bill in 2020. This newest version of the measure would also revitalize the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, granting an increase in funding to pursue civil rights investigations into police departments and other government offices accused of discriminatory practices. It would increase funding for the civil rights division to $445 million per year over a 10-year period. (For scale, the 2023 budget for the division was $189.9 million.)

Warren first introduced her bill following the death of George Floyd in 2020. That earlier draft also called for Attorney General Merrick Garland to rescind a 2017 memorandum from his predecessor, Trump-era Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that limited the DOJ’s ability to initiate consent decrees on police departments — a key way of stopping bad behavior. (Garland rescinded that memorandum in April of 2021.)

Nine senators co-sponsored the bill: Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). Several civil rights organizations are backing Warren’s new bill, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League and others.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and 9 other co-sponsors in the Senate are supporting the Enhancing Oversight to End Discrimination in Policing Act to strengthen police accountability. Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA) is pushing this in the House.

[greatyme]

i'd be interested in your recent movie list - it's nice to hear what people are watching 🥰

OOOHHH thank you for asking!!! This gives me the perfect excuse 2 talk abt some of my favs ty hehe <3 The genres, years, countries, etc. might be wildly different and there’s no particular order to what I’m gonna list but here we go:

1. The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Ivan Dixon; action/political drama; America; 1973

EVERYONE needs to watch this honestly… it’s probably my favorite film I’ve seen this year. The movie’s about the first Black man, Dan Freeman, to be trained by the CIA, who then quits and takes the techniques he’s learned to create a team of Black youths to fight for freedom and against racism. Even though it’s a fictional plot, the real FBI pulled it from theaters for being too radical, and it has indeed been described as “the only true Black radical movie ever made.” I seriously can’t recommend it enough

2. Medicine for Melancholy

Barry Jenkins; romance/drama; America; 2008

If you’re familiar with Moonlight, you already know this filmmaker. Medicine for Melancholy is Barry Jenkins’ first film, about the romance between Jo and Micah after a one night stand that takes place in San Francisco. Some things I like about it are the ways the city and its racial issues so heavily influence the characters’ relationship so much so that it essentially becomes a character in itself. Since this is Jenkins’ first film, the budget was smaller ($15k) and it has a different feel from his newer movies which I personally really liked

3. They Cloned Tyrone

Juel Taylor; sci-fi/mystery; America; 2023

This movie was released on barbenheimer day and was WAY BETTER THAN BOTH OF THEM!!!! When Fontaine, a drug dealer played by John Boyega, seemingly gets shot and killed, Slick, a pimp, is shocked to see him walking around the next day as if nothing happened. Together, Slick, Fontaine, and Yo-Yo, a sex worker, work to uncover what actually happened and find that it’s much bigger than they could’ve imagined. This is a FANTASTIC sci-fi film with some fantastic writing (a lot of great one-liners lmao) and all the actors do amazingly. Also, the title goes hard!

4. Bad Genius

Baz Nattuwat; thriller; Thailand; 2017

I literally watched this last night (happy birthday Nonkul!) lol. In this movie the character Lynn gets paid to work with her friends to help other high school students cheat on tests. When I tell you this had me SWEATING from stress. It was very entertaining, I really liked the way it was shot and how it consistently kept the tension up

5. Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee; drama/comedy; America; 1989

Taking place on an unbearably hot summer day, racial tensions rise between the Black civilians and the Italian owners of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. This is a v famous movie, directed by Spike Lee, and honestly many of the themes still ring true today

6. Sorry to Bother You

Boots Riley; sci-fi/comedy; America; 2018

Set in the Oakland, Cassius Green becomes a telemarketer and uses a “white voice” to do better at his job. But when his coworkers form a union, he decides to take a promotion instead, leading to unexpected consequences. I don’t want to spoil anything, and this is another famous movie that many people have probably already seen and have probably been spoiled BUT. there is a crazy twist. I really enjoyed the messages and craziness this movie had to offer

7. Marry My Dead Body

Cheng Wei Hao; comedy/mystery; Taiwan; 2022

I saw this with my friend on my birthday and honestly it could not have been a better way to watch it. A homophobic cop accidentally gets into an arranged marriage with a dead gay ghost. Is that not one of the best plot descriptions u have ever heard. It’s horror, it’s comedy, it’s gay, it’s a romance (TO ME! And like everyone else who watched it)… WHAT MORE COULD U WANT!! It gave me a similar feeling as Secrets in the Hot Spring & Pee Mak, two movies that somehow seem to cover So Many Genres & that I love sooo much (the former is my fav movie ever). I literally laughed so hard I almost peed myself at times <3

Other than that some other movies I watched & enjoyed this year are: Love Lies Bleeding (2024), Claudine (1974), Eve’s Bayou (1997), and Bottoms (2023). I don’t wanna make this too long so I’ll stop it here but I hope you enjoy these films too if you decide to watch any!!

[sapphire-weapon]

Hey so... Capcom hates unions, right? If this is the case... I'm kinda wondering if Stephanie even works with them any more.

See, the past couple of years she's been posting stuff on her Instagram stories about strikes and picketing. Not even just with the recent video game VA ones. The SAG-AFTRA stuff. IIRC she even stopped promoting Death Island stuff for a little while there. This is all good, don't get me wrong... all the AI bullshit needs to stop and I'm ecstatic she's being vocal about it.

As far as I've seen, other RE VAs haven't been posting anything about any of that. I could be wrong about this however.

But this could explain why she's been a little more bold with her statements about stuff lately. And when people asked if Claire was going to be in RE9 she said something like, "Oh they're making that?" Like, she maybe legitimately didn't know they were.

Isn't this the reason why they stopped using the last VA for Claire too? Or am I wrong?

Plus, even if she was replaced, we wouldn't know until the next game or movie comes out or is close to coming out since this seems to be the pattern recently.

Again, I'm probably looking too much into this but I just saw someone else talking about Capcom and unions and IDK... got me thinking.

so... this is something that's been lost to time in a game of telephone. it's something i've even been guilty of perpetuating and only just now realized that i fucked up by perpetuating it when i looked it up to refresh myself on what happened.

alyson court came out in 2017 and said that she would not be returning as claire for RE2make and said that capcom had decided to go with non-union actors instead. paul mercier then also came out and backed up her statement -- that he would not be returning as leon. alyson then made a follow-up video stating that this was NOT related to the recent voice actors strike. it was simply about contracting. basically, capcom shopped around until they found actors they liked that were willing to work at a price that capcom was willing to pay. alyson said that it was extremely disappointing that capcom wasn't willing to pay actors a working wage.

but despite alyson's clarifications, the damage had already been done. what was intended as "i was union-protected to ask for a certain amount of money, and capcom wasn't willing to pay it" morphed into "CAPCOM WILL NO LONGER WORK WITH UNION ACTORS."

but that's patently untrue.

because they kept on matt mercer for both vendetta and DI despite him having always been in the union.

capcom also pays top dollar for union actors in devil may cry. reuben langdon (dante), dan southworth (vergil), and johnny young bosch (nero) are all union actors.

hirabayashi has come out and told us that RE2make was built on a very tight budget due to capcom's lack of faith in the project, so it makes sense that they decided to cut costs where they could -- including when it came to voice acting.

so, really, capcom is willing to work with union actors... but only when they see the cost benefit for doing so.

if steph is no longer voicing claire, it won't be because she's in a union. it'll be because capcom doesn't feel she's worth the money anymore.

but her lack of knowledge of RE9 has nothing to do with her still being in capcom's good graces. as far as we know from leaks, claire isn't in RE9. and if claire isn't in RE9, why the fuck would steph know about its existence? game companies don't contact every single main cast actor in a series and update them every single time a new project is underway. only people who are working on the project know about it.

so, unfortunately, the likeliest explanation remains: stephanie panisello is just an asshole.

good question, tho. good ask.

[beardedmrbean]

One of the leading daily Helsingin Sanomat's most widely read stories on Monday examined the problem of Finland's plummeting birth rate and shrinking pension funds.

Trade unions are currently negotiating pension reforms at the behest of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP). Simultaneously, a working group led by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Ministry of Finance is also mulling pension reform. The report is due by the end of January 2025.

The reform is driven by Finland's low birth rate, which has fallen from 1.9 to below 1.3. Without immigration, a rate of 2.1 is needed to maintain the population. With the current birth rate, the reform is necessary to keep the pension system functional for younger generations, according to the HS report.

Negotiations aim to achieve an annual adjustment of around one billion euros and to ensure the stability of the agreed contribution level through some automatic mechanism. Options include raising contributions, cutting benefits or boosting birth rates and immigration.

Experts from the Finnish Centre for Pensions (ETK) have calculated that a shortfall caused by declining birth rates could be offset by increasing pension contributions by about one percentage point.

But if the decline in birth rates is not addressed in time, pension contributions would need to be increased by 2–3 percentage points in the future.

"Alternatively, the scale of the issue could be addressed by reducing pension benefits by about three percent," the CEO of ETK, Mikko Kautto, told HS.

Last spring, Kautto told business daily Kauppalehti that the pension system's financing situation could be balanced if annual net immigration were 30,000 people or the total fertility rate rose to 1.5–1.6.

Finland addressed rising life expectancy in its 2017 pension reform. The system links retirement age to life expectancy, with the minimum age currently at 64 years and 9 months, rising to 68–69 years for those born in 2000.

Criticism for plans to cut household tax credit

The government aims to save 100 million euros by tightening the conditions to receive tax credits for household expenses starting next year. The proposed changes have been opposed by multiple organisations, according to a report by Aamulehti.

The plan includes reducing the maximum deduction amount from 2,250 euros to 1,600 euros and lowering reimbursement rates from 40 percent to 35 percent. The out-of-pocket share would increase from 100 euros to 150 euros.

Finland's tax credit for household expenses provides deductions that allow individuals to claim a percentage of costs for services such as cleaning, childcare, nursing care and renovations performed in their homes.

Several organisations, including the Taxpayers' Association of Finland, the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, the Finnish Homeowners' Association and the Finnish Commerce Federation among others have opposed the move.

They argue that the cutbacks could drive the growth of the black market, negatively impact employment in the construction sector, lead people to delay necessary home repairs and make it harder for the elderly to manage in their homes.

However, the VATT Institute for Economic Research said household tax credit mostly benefits high-income households, costing around half a billion euros annually. They view the proposed reduction as a suitable measure for budget adjustments and suggest further cuts could be considered.

Study: Newspapers most trusted media

Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported on a recent study commissioned by the trade association News Media Finland (Uutismedian Liitto) that found newspapers to be the most trusted media across all age groups.

Nearly four out of five respondents considered printed or digital newspapers reliable. Television channels and their online services were trusted by three out of five respondents, while just over two out of five found radio channels and their websites trustworthy.

Social media, YouTubers, and blogs were trusted by only 1–5 percent of respondents.

The study also revealed that nearly 90 percent of respondents prioritise reliability as the most valued quality for news and current affairs media, followed by expertise and independence. Newspapers ranked high in all categories.

The survey, conducted in August by IRO Research, included 1,000 Finnish adults and has a margin of error of over three percentage points.

[mariacallous]

Fifteen years ago, when Europe went through a financial crisis, an economic depression, and a euro crisis, most political fights between European countries were about money. As a result, a deep divide emerged between northern and southern countries on debt and government deficits. At some point, the disputes got so fierce that some northerners proposed breaking the euro in two: a “neuro” for the north and a “zeuro” for the south.

In 2015, when hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees came to Europe, the money issue subsided, and European countries began having disputes about asylum and migration instead. This time, the divide many speculated about was not between the north and the south but between Europe’s east and west.

And what is today’s divide? Well, as the French say: comme ça change. It is not debt or even migration—it is security.

With a war on its doorstep and hybrid attacks on its public infrastructure, businesses, and media on the increase, Europe’s priorities are once again shifting fast. Many Europeans feel that the peace and prosperity they have built and enjoyed since the early 1950s are at stake.

European citizens often complain about what Europe is doing wrong. But with Europe’s public space flooded with fake news from Russian troll factories, its external borders violated by Russian and Belarusian armed men pushing refugees in, and its hospitals, businesses, and municipalities hacked for ransom, many feel vulnerable and have realized they have a lot to lose.

As a result, there seems to be a kind of reappraisal going on about European integration. The Eurobarometer, the opinion poll that asks citizens in all member states every six months whether membership is a good thing for their country, confirms this. In the mid-2000s, 50 percent of Europeans said yes. Today, it is 72 percent. This is probably why during the European elections in June, contrary to the predictions and expectations of many pollsters, the Euroskeptic far right hardly made any gains. Instead, the big winner of the elections was the European People’s Party (EPP), the family of European center-right parties.

Across Scandinavia and the east—in other words, in European Union member states bordering Russia and/or Ukraine—most Euroskeptic far-right parties even received a beating. So close to the fire, voters appear much less in the mood for political experiments than in countries further west such as France or Germany, where extremist parties came in first and second, respectively.

Moreover, in recent months, several EU member states have been rocked by scandals brought to light by the Czech intelligence service, showing how the Kremlin pays far-right politicians across Europe to undermine the social and political fabric in their countries by, among other things, spreading Russian propaganda. That some of them had been in Russia’s pocket was no secret. The warm ties between Moscow and France’s National Rally and the Freedom Party of Austria have been meticulously documented, for example in Anton Shekhovtsov’s Russia and the Western Far Right: Tango Noir, published in 2017.

In different times, when European governments bickered over budget deficits or refugee quotas, citizens could perhaps afford to be less upset about these ties. But now, with a war raging at Europe’s external border and Russian President Vladimir Putin regularly threatening EU countries with nuclear war, Russian money flows to far-right politicians elicit more controversy. Are Dutch far-right conspiracy theorist Thierry Baudet, Belgian far-right politician Filip Dewinter, and others actually undermining security in Europe? Who are their backers, and what are their real agendas? Ten years ago, far-right politicians got away with vague answers and conspiratorial rants about the “deep state” and “woke” media. No longer.

The new security discourse is drawing a fresh dividing line through European politics. Increasingly, it separates those who are supportive of a strong EU, trans-Atlantic relations, and Ukraine from those who are not.

In France, this divide shaped both the European elections and the parliamentary elections that President Emmanuel Macron triggered afterward in an attempt to overturn the far-right victory. But the winner of the parliamentary elections was a left-wing alliance including La France Insoumise, which is almost as Euroskeptic, anti-American, anti-NATO, and unsupportive of Ukraine as the far right. Now, the political center, severely damaged, seeks to form a government with moderate elements of the left-wing and right-wing blocs. Whether it will manage remains to be seen.

Even in Austria, which is notoriously Russia-friendly, finally some limit seems to have been reached. Vienna is still considered a hub for Russian spies taking advantage of diplomatic immunity and has Europe’s laxest anti-spy legislation. Nevertheless, in late March, former Austrian intelligence officer Egisto Ott, who sent sensitive information to Moscow about journalist Christo Grozev and others on Russia’s hit list, was finally arrested. Ott’s arrest warrant was 86 pages long.

In another sign, Hungary’s recent decision to loosen restrictions on visitors from Russia elicited an exceptionally strong rebuke from EPP leader Manfred Weber. For years, the EPP had turned a blind eye to Hungary’s violations of EU values and laws because the country’s ruling party, Fidesz, was a member. In 2021, after many conflicts, Fidesz left the group, but Weber still avoided publicly escalating rows with Hungary, such as over its blockage of Sweden’s NATO membership or its refusal to allow EU weapons deliveries to Ukraine. This time, however, the reaction was immediate and sharp. Weber condemned Hungary’s lax visitation restrictions, saying they raised “serious national security concerns” and called for Europe’s national leaders to “adopt the most stringent measures” to protect Europe’s border-free Schengen Area, which Hungary could soon be flooding with undesirable Russian individuals.

These examples show how within political families, within EU member states, and between European countries security is becoming the major concern. In European politics, cards are reshuffled as a result. The center right, as the winner of June’s European elections, is taking full advantage of it.

Already last year, Klaus Welle, a former secretary-general of the European Parliament who was an influential political strategist within the EPP, wrote an essay for Le Grand Continent arguing that in an increasingly dangerous world, Europe’s center right must categorically exclude cooperation with all parties that are pro-Russian, anti-American, anti-NATO, and anti-EU. “Putinism,” Welle wrote, “is no longer a workable option in a civilized Europe.”

By contrast, in his view, cooperation was possible with those far-right parties that agree Europe must be protected from Russia’s 19th-century imperial ambitions, support NATO and good trans-Atlantic relations, and recognize the rule of law in Europe, which he called a “necessary complement to the nation-state.” In the article, the parties of the prime ministers of Italy and the Czech Republic were mentioned as examples. Both have, though stemming from the far right, moved to the center of the European political spectrum on these issues—at least, until this summer.

During the European Parliament’s first working weeks in July, Welle’s mechanism was already in full swing. The Euroskeptic, Russophile far right, including members from Fidesz and the National Rally, did not get influential positions in the political committees, barred by a large block of centrist political families including the now all-powerful center right. But the EPP refused to join a similar cordon sanitaire to block more so-called moderate far-right parties (such as Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy) from acquiring those positions.

The new security divide in European politics, then, appears to be a great occasion for the center right to broaden its dominance. As Europe’s security challenge has only just started, with Russia stepping up its hybrid attacks, that dominance will probably last a long while.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

I'm a bit delirious now but regarding the lumber incident, is that the one last 2017? I read that Canada placed tariffs on US gypsum exports in retaliation, and even planned to impose tariffs on coal and other products made in Oregon (the hometown of that senator who advocated for tariffs against Canada but I can't remember the name). but I remember that the book I read about this was by Thomas Oatley

anyway, NA bros pettiness 😭

So preface: This is one of those topics where I am blatantly a Canadian. Like violently angry about the US bullshit on this. Like you want a topic that instantly makes me a blue-flannel, blowing-up-busts-of-queen-victoria Quebecois stereotype, this is it. My family has been seasonal loggers for literally centuries and my ancestral plot of old growth trees was obliterated in a fire this past summer so this is an emotional topic for me. That said, its BC that gets fucked more in the ass every time this happens nowadays but still.

The Canadian side is absolutely as petty about it but the consequences on the Canadian side are profound. The lumber industry beef goes back to.... fuck. The Conquest really. It's older than the US or Canada as independent states but where it really came to a head was back in 1982. But tbh, on a civics level, what it comes down too is a difference in how two nations exercise sovereignty over undisputed, internationally recognized territory. In Canada, the government, represented by the crown has automatic ownership over the vast majority of land where softwood lumber farms exist, rather than being in private hands like the US. It's an inherent aspect of Canadian democracy that often moderates our politics. And the Canadian lumber industry is a fucked up thing, I might call it evil, and GOD knows there's labour exploitation but there are usually more and better unions, labour negotiation and working conditions on the Canadian side of this argument that get shaken everytime this shitshow resurges. And it fucks over indigenous peoples and people of colour especially.

In the US, the lumber industry has a powerful lobby that takes what has often been a series of difficult but more or less even handed agreements between two governments at least pretending to operate on a more or less respectful level by using institutions like NAFTA and the World Trade Organization to negotiate. Instead of moving forward, these people turn it into a nationalist shit show that takes US economic power and says "oh you want to be a fully recognized neighbor? fuck you. take your beating and say thank you or you'll get another."

Like tbh save the Northwest Passage which in practical military terms Canada likely won't have choice but to cooperate with the US and its giant defense budget this is one of the issues where the US really allows capitalism to fuck us up in the face of American law and international trade standards. And honestly in the grand scheme of things, God knows we've got it better than pretty much anyone else who lives next to a large superpower but its really sad to see that a majority of Americans in the last few years would rather take a nationalist stance, blame Canada for being 'communist' than take their own corporations to task. Its yank consumers getting fucked over here too. It should be a fucking solidarity issue on both sides, with workers and unions demanding the adoption of more and better legislation but instead its devolved into a nationalist shit show. On both sides, honestly but its kind of hard not to feel a lot resentment when people I've known for years as kind, cooperative, pro-labour people start parroting fuck Canada over they're dirty foreign communists like its 1924 all over again.

I generally try to shy away from headcanons about specific and more current stuff like this but considering its been a major contributer to Canadian economic woes and global inflation, its a topic where Matt vomits blood and Alfred says "have you tried not being a socialist?" and gets a mug thrown at his head. They're both fucking assholes but Alfred is still driving a tank to a knife fight.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Scott Horton  · Drew Sheneman, Newark Star-Ledger

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 15, 2023

Heather Cox Richardson

President Joe Biden hit the road today to continue the push to highlight the successes of his administration's investment in the economy. In Lanham, Maryland, at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 26, he celebrated the economic plan that “grows the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not the top down.”

He praised union labor and said that the nation’s investment in green energy would mean “good-paying jobs for electricians, plumbers, pipefitters, laborers, carpenters, cement masons, ironworkers, and so much more. And these are good jobs you can raise a family on.” “It’s a stark contrast to our Republican friends, who are doubling down on the same failed politics of the past. Top-down, trickle-down economics is not much trickle down…to most kitchen tables in America,” he said.

He reiterated that he would lay out his budget on March 9 and that he expected the Republicans to lay out theirs, so people can compare the two. Biden maintains that his policy of investing in infrastructure and putting money in the hands of ordinary Americans will nurture the economy and reduce the deficit as growth brings in more tax dollars. Meanwhile, he said, the Republican tax cut of 2017 has already added $2 trillion to the federal deficit.

Good economic news is putting wind under Biden’s wings. The economy continues to perform better than expected in 2023. Retail buying increased 3% in January, and the job market remains strong. The administration today highlighted another series of large private sector investments in American manufacturing: Boeing announced that Air India has contracted to buy more than 200 aircraft; Ford announced it will build a $3.5 billion factory in Marshall, Michigan, to make advanced batteries for electric vehicles; and Texas Instruments announced it will build an $11 billion semiconductor plant in Lehi, Utah.

Biden emphasized that these investments would provide “good-paying jobs that [Americans] can raise a family on, the revitalization of entire communities that have often been left behind, and America leading the world again in the industries that drive the future.”

Biden accused the Republicans of proposing measures that would raise the deficit, which is already rising again. The Congressional Budget Office today projected a much higher deficit for 2023 than it did in May 2022 because of new laws, mandatory spending for Social Security and Medicare, and higher interest rates in place to combat inflation. The CBO notes that “spending substantially exceeds revenues in our projections even though pandemic-related spending lessens. In addition, rising interest rates drive up the cost of borrowing. The resulting deficits steadily increase the government’s debt. Over the long term, our projections suggest that changes in fiscal policy must be made to address the rising costs of interest and mitigate other adverse consequences of high and rising debt.”

This is precisely what Republicans have been complaining about with regard to the Democrats’ recent laws to rebuild infrastructure and invest in the economy, while ignoring that their own tax cuts have also added mightily to the deficit. Republicans want to address the rising deficit with spending cuts; Biden, with taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations.

Biden appears to be trying to turn the nation to a modern version of the era before Reagan, when the government provided a basic social safety net, protected civil rights, promoted infrastructure, and regulated business. Since the 1980s, the Republicans have advocated deregulation with the argument that government interference in the way a company does business interrupts the market economy.

But the derailment of fifty Norfolk Southern train cars, eleven of which carried hazardous chemicals, near East Palestine, Ohio, near the northeastern border of the state on February 3 has powerfully illustrated the downsides of deregulation. The accident released highly toxic chemicals into the air, water, and ground, causing a massive fire and forcing about 5,000 nearby residents in Ohio and Pennsylvania to evacuate. On February 6, when it appeared some of the rail cars would explode, officials allowed the company to release and burn the toxic vinyl chloride stored in it. The controlled burn sent highly toxic phosgene, used as a weapon in World War I, into the air.

Republican Ohio governor Mike DeWine has refused federal assistance from President Biden, who, he said, called to offer “anything you need.” DeWine said he had not called back to take him up on the offer. “We will not hesitate to do that if we’re seeing a problem or anything, but I’m not seeing it,” he said.

Just over the border, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said that Norfolk Southern had botched its response to the accident. “Norfolk Southern has repeatedly assured us of the safety of their rail cars—in fact, leading Norfolk Southern personnel described them to me as ‘the Cadillac of rail cars’—yet despite these assertions, these were the same cars that Norfolk Southern personnel rushed to vent and burn without gathering input from state and local leaders. Norfolk Southern’s well known opposition to modern regulations [requires] further scrutiny and investigation to limit the devastating effects of future accidents on people’s lives, property, businesses, and the environment.”

Shapiro was likely referring to the fact that in 2017, after donors from the railroad industry poured more than $6 million into Republican political campaigns, the Trump administration got rid of a rule imposed by the Obama administration that required better braking systems on rail cars that carried hazardous flammable materials.

According to David Sirota, Julia Rock, Rebecca Burns, and Matthew Cunningham-Cook, writing in the investigative journal The Lever, Norfolk Southern supported the repeal, telling regulators new electronically controlled pneumatic brakes on high-hazard flammable trains (HHFT) would “impose tremendous costs without providing offsetting safety benefits.” Railroads also lobbied to limit the definition of HFFT to cover primarily trains that carry oil, not industrial chemicals. The train that derailed in Ohio was not classified as an HHFT.

Nonetheless, Ohio’s new far-right Republican senator J. D. Vance went on the Fox News Channel show of personality Tucker Carlson to blame the Biden administration for the accident. He said there was no excuse for failing infrastructure after the passage last year of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, and said that the administration is too focused on “environmental racism and other ridiculous things.” We are, he said, “ruled by unserious people.”

He also issued a statement saying that “my office will continue to work with FEMA” over the issue, although FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has not been mobilized because Ohio governor DeWine has not requested a federal disaster declaration.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[1whimsicalgal]

👄 Pam, The O'riginal Chainsaw Gal 

Flower Child

March 1971 - when I was a free-spirited little hippie gal, all of 19. My boyfriend of 8 months, George, was taking my picture in front of the house he shared with Gunner Hansen. It was on Avenue G in Central Austin, near the UT campus. Gunner and I were sworn enemies. He was relentless in making sure I was left out while he and George went out to hunt chicks, drink beer, and smoke pot. George was quite easily encouraged in all three cases. After 13 months with philandering George, the incessant liar, I’d had my fill. I got out the back, Jack didn’t look in the rearview and happily lost track of both of them. George would try to talk to me on campus, but I was done. I’d taken the cure. Ah, love. Good riddance I said. I hoped.

This was two years and four months before Gunner’s and my paths would cross again. It was on July 18, 1973, the first day on the set where we were beginning filming what would become the cult horror classic, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," 1974. The TCM cast, crew, producers, et all were gathered in Quick Hill, just outside Austin, Texas, at what would be called, “The Sawyer house”. It was located across a dirt road from what we came to think of as “the old Hardesty house”.

I was in for a big surprise that morning. Unbeknownst to either Gunner, or myself, we'd both been cast in this little non-union (aka ’scab’) local horror film, "HEADCHEESE”, a working title. I was standing outside the Sawyer house on that muggy, hot Texas morning, chit-chatting with my acting colleagues, ‘Sally’, ‘Kirk’, ‘Jerry’, and ‘Franklin’ (you know them). We were getting to know one another. We were all dressed in our costumes, all our own clothes that they’d picked out from different outfits we’d brought from home for them to choose from, for us to wear in the film, a strictly low-budget affair. Nearby, parked in the yard of the Sawyer house, was the Vortex RV/trailer/office, a no frills, no AC job, where we were soon to sign our first contracts. Everyone was pretty excited and a bit lost.

Producer-writer, Kim Henkel, stuck his head out the open RV door and excitedly called over to me, “Hey, Teri!! Come over here! I want to introduce you to 'Leatherface!” OK, I’m ready. Kim seemed thrilled, proud as punch for us to meet. As I stepped inside, I made my way down the narrow aisle, walking toward a very large figure, a man with a head full of brown curly hair, who was sitting with his back to me. He took up one of the two banquette seats. Someone was seated across from him, but I can’t remember who. As I got even with him, I noted he was almost as tall sitting down as I was standing up. This guy was big. I was feeling an eery sense of deja vu. Kim said, “Leatherface, meet Pam!” Ta-da! He turned toward me and cocked his head to look at me, both of us prepared to say, “Hey, nice to meet ya!!” Instead, we both looked at one another in sheer horror. We each jerked back with our mouths wide open. Simultaneously, we both blurted out, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??!!!” They call them "excited utterances."

Well, we got through the moment, gathered our wits, quickly cooled our heels, and shared little with those around us. (Ai-yi-yi!! What have I gotten myself into? ) Toward the end of the day, on a break, we had coffee together. Turns out, George and Gunner had had a falling out. George had parted the G-Avenue house owing Gunner money, just as good ol’ George had also owed me money when we’d parted. Gunn and I buried the proverbial hatchet and the rest, my friends, is history.

Rest In Peace

Gunnar Hansen 1947-2015

George 1945-2017

**Thanks to my friend Eric Goode for the cleanup and colorization on these 50-year-old B&W photos.

Teeny-Tiny Addendum - It would be grossly unfair to posterity not to list GRWB’s many good qualities. Gunner would want me to do that. Over the years, they managed to reconcile. In 2012 Gunner invited me to meet him at El Mercado in S Austin, to interview me for his book. At the end, he asked if I ever talked to George, and had a few choice tidbits to tell me… but that’s a whole other story!

GB and I moved back in together after he moved from Ave G, however he never told me why he left Ave G and Gunner, or even that they’d had a falling out. He could be sneaky! All I knew was that I didn’t have to ever see my sworn mortal enemy, Gunner Dang Hansen, ever again! Pretty sure GB moved out at the end of the spring semester of ’71, (after that picture above taken of me at their house). Then, we moved back in together (again!) to a cool house in Tarrytown in Austin.

George was charming, imaginative, smart, witty, spontaneous, creative, LOVED good music, laughing, and was often thoughtful, kind, crazy/wild, very sweet, positive, complimentary, expert at apologizing, remorseful, loving, adventurous, a true dreamer. We had electric chemistry and loads of fun times together. We went to Willie’s first picnic together in ’71. I believe we broke up 13 times in 12 months, usually getting back together within 48 hours. Incredibly talented, and, he had an absolute genius for finding new places for us to live. #credit

Thanks for reading.

Sending love to all. Posted on Pam's FB page: Saturday, 6 PM, January 22, 2022. Fair to Midland, partly cloudy, clear skies ahead.

#thecircuitousrouteissometimesbest  #lifeislong 

#lifeisshort

[finschool]

Indirect Tax

Recent changes in Indirect Tax

Indirect taxes are taxes that are assessed by Government on goods and services, rather than on individualities or businesses directly. These taxes are collected by businesses from consumer when they buy goods or services, and also remitted to the government. Indirect taxes are often referred to as consumption taxes because they are based on consumption of goods and services rather than income or wealth. Indirect taxes can take many forms, including sales taxes, value-added taxes (VAT), excise taxes, and tariffs.

During the Union Budget of 2023 “Amrit Kaal”, It was the very first time when the indirect tax proposals were presented before the direct tax proposals. In the Proposal of indirect tax Presented in the Union Budget of 2023 there were 4 major changes which caught the attention of the citizens.

Following are the 4 major changes:

Customs Perspective:  In the Union Budget, to promote the ‘Make in India’ campaign and give to a boost to domestic manufacturing and enhance exports, the government and our FM has proposed few changes in the rate of import duties. The import duties on electric chimneys and cigarettes will now be more expensive, while on the other hand import of gold, silver, platinum, coin, etc., will be cheaper. Also, some exemption has been proposed towards goods or machinery used for manufacturing of lithium-ion battery.

GST Returns To Be Filed Within Three Years:  GSTR 1, GSTR 3B and GSTR 9and GSTR 9C would now be restricted for filing, post expiry of three years from the due date of filing of the relevant GST return. Until now, there was no threshold on time for filing GST return and any taxpayer could file belated returns along with interest and late fees. However, going forward, in future these dates have been locked so as to have clarity on the timelines for litigation.

Widening of Scope of OIDAR:  The Online Information and Database Access and Retrieval (OIDAR) services were brought under the tax bracket in the service tax regime and subsequently, in the GST regime. However, due to some exceptions in OIDAR and non-taxable online recipient, multiple services were escaping tax. In order to remove those exceptions, the Budget proposes to amend both the definitions and make OIDAR a wider segment for taxability purpose.

Taxability of High Sea Sales and Out-And-Out Sales: Out-and-out sales and high-sea sales were inserted in schedule III of the CGST Act, 2017 with effect from Feb. 1, 2019. However, the GST authorities were demanding GST from July 1, 2017 to Jan. 31, 2019. So to clarify this ambiguity and confusion, the budget has stated that such insertion will be with retrospective effect from July 1, 2017. This is a relief for taxpayers who are undergoing a litigation on these aspects. However, if the taxpayer has already paid the taxes for such period on the specified sales, the Budget has clearly specified that no refund of such tax can be claimed.

Although there are other changes as well but from Tax perspective the above 4 are major changes.

[shadetreader]

Reposted from @zinneducationproject On Feb. 19, 1968, over 27,000 teachers and administrators from the Florida Education Association (FEA) handed in their resignation letters and walked out. It was the first statewide teachers strike in the United States. The Florida Teachers’ Strike of 1968 occurred in response to Governor Claude Kirk’s refusal to meet Florida Education Association (FEA) demands on salary and school budget increases, and the overall failure of Florida legislators to fund public education. The strike lasted until March 8, when the State Board of Education and FEA came to an agreement on increasing funds for public education. Many teachers went back to work after the strike ended but thousands were also refused rehire due to their involvement in the strike. Learn more about the strike in “For the students: the 1968 Florida teacher strike” (undergraduate thesis by Jody Noll) and “‘We Are Not Hired Help’: The 1968 Florida Statewide Teacher and the Formation of Modern Florida” by Jody Noll. Florida Historical Quarterly 95, no. 3 (2017): 356-382. In his 2017 article, Noll describes how the strike was a continuation of Florida’s Black Civil Rights Movement and how African-American “leaders within Florida’s civil rights movement viewed the teachers’ strike as a means to address the disparities between white and African-American schools.” The strike occurred after Florida’s teachers unions merged as an integrated FEA in 1966. With the unions united, Black and white teachers found common ground in the labor struggle. This is one of many people's history stories in Florida history that could be labeled too "controversial" to teach — in Florida and other states. What's the "danger" of these stories? That young people learn from the past how to shape a more just future. In solidarity, The New Press has partnered with the Zinn Education Project to send books to teachers and teacher educators in Florida (as well as Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas). Learn more at https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/free-books-florida-texas-virginia [linked in bio] https://www.instagram.com/p/Co3k8RutJIN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Igor Bobic at HuffPost:

Donald Trump is vowing to enact policies if he is elected president in November that would benefit voters’ pocketbooks, while offering few details as to how he plans to pay for them — a series of campaign promises that fly in the face of longstanding Republican Party orthodoxy about fiscal prudence and small government. Last week, Trump announced that the government would pay for the costs of fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization, which can run to tens of thousands of dollars per cycle, if he becomes president again. He has also proposed eliminating taxes on workers’ tips and on Social Security benefits, which nonpartisan scorekeepers say would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit. His campaign has not said how he intends to pay for these ideas.

Coupled with his plans to extend key parts of his 2017 tax cut bill and cut corporate taxes even more, Trump’s policy blueprint would add nearly $6 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, according to a Penn Wharton Budget Model analysis. Trump’s plans amount to handing out what now-Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who lost to former President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential race, once decried as “gifts.” Trump’s rhetoric shows how he has transformed the party from one which at least touted fiscal responsibility — even if the national debt actually skyrocketed under the last two GOP administrations — to one in which the presidential nominee is free to do whatever it takes to win.

Trump making lofty campaign promises is nothing new. During his 2016 run, he pledged to build hundreds of miles of wall on the southern U.S. border if elected, and to make Mexico pay for it. Mexico did not pay; the U.S. government picked up the tab for the sections of border barrier he was able to build. Trump also promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with a “much better” health care program. That also never came to pass.

What is noteworthy about Trump’s second run for the White House, however, is his focus on wooing two critical voting blocs for Democrats: women skeptical of his stance on abortion rights and Black and Latino working-class voters. Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, quickly endorsed eliminating taxes on tips last month shortly after Trump did so, an acknowledgement of the idea’s popularity with union workers in Nevada and in other states. “Trump doesn’t have firmly grounded roots in policy development, developed over many years working with conservative leaders,” GOP strategist Kevin Madden, who served as an adviser to Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, told HuffPost on Wednesday. “He’s transactional, approaching his audience the same way any real estate professional or salesman would.” “Both Harris and Trump are under enormous pressure to compete for the remaining sliver of swing voters,” he added. “Their strategies aren’t very different, in that they’re addressing the top issues like inflation, housing and health care by making big promises that poll really well, even though the costs and prospects for turning those promises into actual legislation may be out of reach.” Harris, meanwhile, has proposed more generous child and earned income tax credits to support families, and payments for Americans to make housing more affordable, insisting that the return on investment these policies would have for the economy would make them functionally pay for themselves. But since she supports rolling back some of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and raising the corporate tax rate, her agenda is estimated to cost substantially less than that of her GOP rival: about $1.7 trillion over 10 years. Whoever wins in November will have to deal with making their fuzzy election promises reality by working with Congress to craft legislation. Lawmakers must decide whether and how to extend Trump’s tax cuts, which are set to expire next year for individuals, as well as agree to raise the debt limit — two difficult tasks that will almost certainly require horse-trading on both sides of the aisle.

Donald Trump (and Kamala Harris) are promising to give voters “free stuff” that Mitt Romney criticized in his 2012 run.

[diggertradecom]

Mini Excavator Rental in Russia

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We sell special equipment in Russia

MMZ Avangard, a government contractor that churns out the lion's share of the country's defense budget, was not shy about using Extreme's wares. The company, whose headquarters are in Moscow's affluent northern suburbs, had been using Extreme's networking equipment for a few years when they put out a tender for its network of networked computers. The company's CEO and CFO did not return emails seeking comment.

Extreme did not have an official line on the company's wares, but did make it a point to maintain contact with Russian clients. The company also was a savvy marketer, posting a record $41.5 million worth of equipment to Russian customers in the four years preceding the end of the current Obama administration. The company's website boasts that it has a "long history" in Russia, dating back to the days of the Soviet Union. The company also reportedly won the aforementioned mega contract for the construction of a new state-of-the-art naval training center at the former Russian naval base of Sevastopol. The company, which has its own state-of-the-art data center in Moscow, reportedly supplied IT equipment to other government and military entities in Russia. Its biggest customers include Almaz-Antey, the largest weapons manufacturer in the world, and Russian aerospace giant Rosoboronexport. The company's most recent contract, for the design and construction of a new Russian missile storage facility, was the result of a tender that was a trifle less transparent.

New arrivals of road and construction equipment

During the first three months of 2021, the Russian market of road and construction equipment grew by 26.4%, with the growth of special equipment in the first quarter being a factor in the stabilization of the market. This market is characterized by preferential lending, leasing agreements, state support, and subsidies for research and design work.

In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin limited the possibility of leasing foreign equipment to regions. This measure was taken in order to limit the imports of foreign construction equipment in the presence of Russian analogues.

Another positive factor was the tax policy, which led to the decline in imports of construction equipment. In addition, the government adopted a statement on import replacement.

Russian companies were still purchasing machine control systems for heavy equipment. In fact, these systems were introduced in Russia over ten years ago. In some cases, they were used to control equipment according to 3D models.

During the first half of 2017, sales of new construction equipment fell by 10% in Russia. This was caused by the general economic situation. It is possible to expect a positive trend in the industry during the second half of the year.

In addition, the government will allocate 35 billion roubles for the development of federal roads before the end of the year. This will provide an additional source of financing for Russian construction companies. This will also help accelerate the implementation of the national strategic programme Safe High-Quality Roads.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.14 (after 1970)

1970 – Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organization. 1970 – Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including almost all of the Marshall University football team. 1971 – Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars. 1973 – In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey. 1973 – The Athens Polytechnic uprising, a massive demonstration of popular rejection of the Greek military junta of 1967–74, begins. 1975 – With the signing of the Madrid Accords, Spain abandons Western Sahara. 1977 – During a British House of Commons debate, Labour MP Tam Dalyell poses what would become known as the West Lothian question, referring to issues related to devolution in the United Kingdom. 1978 – France conducts the Aphrodite nuclear test as 25th in the group of 29 1975–78 French nuclear tests. 1979 – US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis. 1982 – Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border. 1984 – Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city. 1990 – After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder–Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland. 1991 – American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103. 1991 – Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years in exile. 1992 – In poor conditions caused by Cyclone Forrest, Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashes near Nha Trang, killing 30. 1995 – A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs. 2001 – War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters take over the capital Kabul. 2001 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes a remote part of the Tibetan plateau. It has the longest known surface rupture recorded on land (~400 km) and is the best documented example of a supershear earthquake. 2003 – Astronomers discover Sedna, a distant trans-Neptunian dwarf planet. 2008 – The first G-20 economic summit opens in Washington, D.C. 2008 – Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-126 to continue assembly of the International Space Station. 2012 – Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to an escalation of rocket attacks by Hamas. 2016 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Kaikōura, New Zealand, at a depth of 15 km (9 miles), resulting in the deaths of two people. 2017 – A gunman kills four people and injures 12 others during a shooting spree across Rancho Tehama, California. He had earlier murdered his wife in their home. 2019 – A mass shooting occurs at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, resulting in three deaths, including that of the perpetrator, and three injuries.

[beardedmrbean]

re: the WGA strike, I am 100% in favor of people being paid what they are owed. I am not going to argue that point for even a second. Where I run up against problems with them, however, are their other demands, the ones that they don't talk about publicly. Such as, requirements of EVERY television show to have a writers' room of MINIMUM six people, even if a show doesn't need it. Or requiring guaranteed minimum employment periods of at LEAST 13 weeks, up to a guaranteed full YEAR, no matter if the show needs it or not. Streaming services created a bubble, and now that the bubble is popping, due to streaming services being massively unsustainable, there are a large number of people who don't like the fact that they're redundant, and like so many other unions, they're just trying to save the less-employable people.

I haven't seen their demands, I did figure they'd toss so weird stuff in there or random things that a lot of the time as I understand it they do to have things they can pull out to make it look like they're making concessions.

"guaranteed minimum employment periods of at LEAST 13 weeks" I got no problem with, some of these people have to uproot their lives to go to wherever production is, sucks ass to get there and find out that it's gonna be 2 weeks and they couldn't be assed to tell you ahead of time. That or they said it was going to be X but things changed and now it's B and someone passed on a gig they were offered because they thought they would be working on whatever it is they're working on.

A clear minimum time commitment from the studio up front isn't unreasonable, full year is a bit much unless it's work on something like the Tolkien series or Witcher one.

There is going to be a culling of writers and what not I imagine, we've been oversaturated with shows for a while now. OG CSI used to pull in 20+ million viewers a week, satellite came in and no shows can seem to pull in 10 million and now with streaming services they get views but no clue how many people are actually watching the show, just that it's on and what the account is.

the person that watched Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted 352 times as of Dec. 1 in 2017 they don't know if she's insane or what, just that it played.

back in the day

That's about 250% more people than watched the Superbowl, there were 3 networks and the local stations, things got spread out budgets got trimmed to reflect that.

So ya they're going to be culling the herd some and there's gonna be some writers out of luck.

Just remembered something

Anyone doin this or are kimmel, noah, and the rest all just not worrying about it this time round?

Sorry this was disjointed, got a few other things going on atm too, hope it makes sense

[mariacallous]

A recent report from the British House of Lords laments that the European Union has chosen “stability over democratic values” in the Western Balkans and expresses “serious concern that gains made towards good governance and the rule of law are in danger of being lost as countries in the region turn to authoritarian leadership.” As ironic as it may be for an unelected institution like the House of Lords to fret over democratic values, the authors of the report have a point: most post-Yugoslav governments have become “stabilitocracies” rather than democracies — and nowhere is this dynamic more evident than in Serbia.

Since returning to government in 2012 following a 12-year spell in opposition, Aleksandar Vucic has methodically climbed Serbia’s political ladder, rising from defense minister to prime minister before finally ascending to the presidency last spring. President Vucic is a reformed ultranationalist who served as Slobodan Milosevic’s minister of information in the final days of the Yugoslav wars, a role that involved fining journalists who criticized the regime and banning unfriendly TV networks. In recent years, he has presided over a period of alarming democratic backsliding. His ruling center-right Serbian Progressive Party enjoys a complete stranglehold on Serbia’s government, judiciary, and security services, and he has neutered the local media to such an extent that only a handful of outlets have dared to publicize the substantial allegations of corruption, cronyism, and voter intimidation that have plagued his time in office.

Over the last six years, Vucic has established what could best be described as a soft autocracy: On the surface, Serbia is still a democratic society with nominally free elections and a political opposition, where dissenting voices are able to criticize the ruling party without fear of mysteriously disappearing in the night. But Vucic’s control over Serbia’s centers of power is so complete and the democratic process is so skewed in his favor that dissent poses no threat to his rule.

His political opponents are free to run against him, but they have few means to make their voices heard. The country’s institutions are so totally controlled by Vucic’s allies that there is nothing to stop him from subverting democratic norms.

This is most evident in the media. Vucic has managed to strangle the press by taking control of its main income stream: advertising. Most of the country’s advertising agencies are owned by a handful of media tycoons loyal to Vucic, who, rather than basing publicity budgets on market factors, buy advertising space from TV stations and newspapers that give the president favorable coverage and withhold funds from those that criticize him. Media outlets have another incentive to toe a pro-government line: RTV Pink, the country’s biggest private broadcaster, received at least 7 million euros in government loans between 2014 and 2016. According to Dubravka Valic Nedeljković, a professor of media studies at the University of Novi Sad, when Vucic ran for president in 2017, Pink returned the favor by devoting 267 times more coverage to his campaign than to all of his opponents combined. Although few newspapers or TV stations function as outright government mouthpieces, most avoid asking any difficult questions.

Those who try to hold leaders accountable often find their bank accounts blocked by the tax authorities while they’re placed under investigation for alleged financial irregularities. Danas, a prominent independent newspaper, has lost so many advertisers that its daily edition now fits on 24 pages instead of the usual 32, despite offering the cheapest advertising space on the market. Individual journalists who have been too stinging in their criticisms of the president have been taken in for questioning by the BIA, Serbia’s national intelligence agency, on charges as outlandish as blackmail and sex trafficking.

In an interview with Radio Free Europe in October 2017, the president of the European Federation of Journalists, Mogens Blicher Bjerregard, singled out Serbia as the nation with the worst violations of media freedom in the Balkans. Yet EU officials such as Johannes Hahn, the European commissioner for European neighborhood policy and enlargement, have been more than happy to look the other way as Vucic tramples on the “European values” that they purportedly hold so dear. Austria’s new chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, once gushingly described him as “an anchor of stability,” while German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently told Vucic that “we are impressed by how successful Serbia is on its way to reform.” Their silence regarding his antidemocratic behavior is deafening.

As long as Serbia remains outside the European Union, Brussels is able to dissociate itself from Vucic’s antics. Unlike Viktor Orban’s illiberal democracy in Hungary, Serbia’s soft autocracy isn’t a stain on the European brand.

Vucic may be a poor representative for the European project, but he is a reliable enabler who allows Brussels to move closer to its geostrategic goals in the Balkans.

Indeed, Vucic offers stability in a volatile region and has successfully overseen a series of International Monetary Fund austerity measures to reduce Serbia’s debt and budget deficit by cutting public sector wages and pensions, which are part of a much wider restructuring of the Serbian economy aimed at meeting EU enlargement criteria. For all his democratic failings, Vucic is a relative moderate by Serbian political standards, and his domination of national politics ensures that unrepentant ethnic chauvinists like Vojislav Seselj, Milosevic’s former deputy prime minister who spent 11 years on trial at The Hague fighting charges of crimes against humanity, remain marginalized. He’s been hitting all the right notes on Kosovo and recently declared that “we must live and work together successfully.” Normalizing relations between Serbia and Kosovo, which would set the ground for an eventual recognition of its independence, is arguably the EU’s top priority in the Balkans.

EU officials are also wary of exerting too much pressure on Vucic lest he look east instead. The Serbian president maintains close ties to the Kremlin, and some of his local critics have accused him of leveraging that relationship against Brussels. Vucic is adamant that, unlike neighboring Montenegro, Serbia will never join NATO, and he refused to follow the lead of Western powers in imposing sanctions on Russia. This is because pro-Russian sentiment runs high in Serbia: The two countries are connected by their shared Orthodox Christian faith and Slavic heritage. “Serbia won’t be changing its policy … and will not impose sanctions on Russia,” Vucic said after a recent meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In June 2017, just a day after Montenegro’s accession to NATO, Serbian troops took part in a joint military exercise with Russia and Belarus near the Polish border, and the Serbian military later that year received a donation of six fighter jets from Moscow, which also promised 30 tanks and 30 armored vehicles.

Serbia’s efforts to play both sides haven’t gone down well in Washington. Texas Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson wrote a letter to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urging him not to meet with Vucic when he visited the United States in mid-2017, and Hoyt Brian Yee, who recently resigned as U.S. deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, told Serbian officials late last year that a country “cannot sit on two chairs at the same time, especially if they are that far apart.” Yee also expressed fears that a Russian-run humanitarian center near the southern Serbian city of Nis might double as an espionage base, a charge that the Russians have dismissed as absurd.

Vucic’s overtures toward Moscow are mostly rhetorical — designed to throw a bit of a red meat to the Russophiles in his party and the broader electorate. For all of his grandstanding, Serbia’s army still took part in 13 drills with NATO or its member states in 2017, seven of which were with the United States, and some experts argue that the country is a NATO member in all but name. Ties with NATO is a subject that the Serbian government is desperate to avoid: Resentment toward the military alliance is still widespread in Serbia, which was subjected to a three-month-long bombing campaign by NATO forces in 1999.

When Putin pressed Vucic to grant diplomatic status to Russian staff at the aforementioned humanitarian center, he responded with calculated aloofness, dragging his feet and ignoring the more ardent pro-Kremlin voices in his Cabinet until the matter faded. The EU buys nearly 10 times as many Serbian exports as Russia does, and Dimitar Bechev, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, tells Foreign Policy that “for all the noise about links with Moscow, Serbia’s economy and, to some degree, society is deeply integrated into the EU’s.” Vucic is well aware, Bechev argues, that “billions of EU funds benefit member states and feed clientelistic politics. He wants that, too, even if he is no exemplary democrat buying into EU values.”

Even if Serbia’s president clearly knows which side his bread is buttered on, the country still remains heavily dependent on Russia for oil and gas. The Russian energy giant Gazprom owns a majority stake in Serbia’s national oil company, and Serbia might be included in the TurkStream natural gas pipeline.

The fact that Serbia stands resolutely on the European path isn’t necessarily a problem for Moscow, though: Vucic’s pro-Russian sentiments are genuine, and having more sympathetic voices join with Orban and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras inside the EU will likely work in the Kremlin’s favor.

“Serbia in the EU is a gain for Russia; they don’t expect more,” Bechev tells FP. “The status quo — political links plus some economic cooperation — suits Moscow.”

The EU’s tolerance of Vucic may be politically pragmatic and an easy way of maintaining stability in the Balkans, but it’s also deeply cynical. Indeed, the EU is undermining its own moral authority. All across the continent, people are losing faith in the European project, and this dissatisfaction doesn’t only come from the populist right: British left-wingers promote the merits of a progressive Brexit, and the union’s cruel treatment of Greece during the eurozone crisis gave ammunition to its critics and tested the faith of Pan-European idealists. In Italy’s recent parliamentary election, two Euroskeptic parties, the Five Star Movement and the League, together won around 48 percent of the vote. Sluggish growth makes the bloc difficult to defend on economic grounds and, by backing corrupt authoritarians like Vucic, Brussels adds weight to the accusations that the EU and its centrist defenders no longer truly stand for anything.

After all, Europe has little right to lecture the Putins, Orbans, Erdogans, and Kaczynskis of the world on their democratic failings if it’s prepared to embrace the likes of Vucic. The growing gulf between the EU’s words and deeds can then be easily weaponized by its populist detractors who, if nothing else, at least practice what they preach.

[arpov-blog-blog]

"Wealth inequality.

There is little that leaves people as pissed off and frustrated as the feeling that no matter how hard they work, they can’t ever seem to get ahead. And this feeling has been slowly festering since the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan and his cadre of supply-side economists launched the first salvos in what would become the great fucking-over of the American middle and working classes.

The frustration was evident in something two very different women in two very different states told me on the very same day in 2022 for a story on how America spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year subsidizing retirement plans mostly for rich people: “I’m going to have to work until I die.”

The great fucking-over commenced with President Reagan’s gutting of unions and the wealth-friendly tax cuts he signed into law in 1981 and 1986. The trend continued with George W. Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, and culminated with the Trump tax cuts of 2017—which, like all of those other Republican initiatives, failed to generate the degreee of growth and prosperity the supply-siders promised. They did, however, make the rich richer as wages stagnated and the middle class shriveled.

We talk a lot about income inequality, but wealth and income are different beasts. Income is what pays your bills. Wealth is your security—and in that regard, most American families are just not feeling sufficiently secure.

In January 1981, when Reagan took office, the households of the Middle 40—that’s the 50th to 90th wealth percentiles—held a collective 31.5 percent of the nation’s wealth. Fast-forward to January 2022: Their share of the pie had dwindled to 25.7 percent, even as the combined wealth of the richest 0.01 percent of households soared from less than 3 percent of the total to 11 percent.

Put another way, 18,300 US households—a tiny fraction—now control more than a tenth of the nation’s wealth.

And what of the bottom 50 percent? How have they fared over the past four decades or so? When Reagan came in, their average household wealth was a paltry $944. (All figures are in 2023 dollars.) Today they have even less—just $659 on average, according to projections from Real Time Inequality, a site based on data from the Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. All told, those 92.2 million households now hold less than 0.05 percent of the nation’s wealth—which rounds down to zero. In short, half of the people living in the richest nation on the planet have no wealth at all.

They’re not doing so hot income-wise, either. In September, the Congressional Budget Office reported that average income of the highest-earning 1 percent of taxpayers in 2021 was more than $3.1 million, or 42 times the average income of households in the bottom 90 percent, according to the nonprofit Americans for Tax Fairness. That’s the most skewed income distribution since CBO began reporting this data in 1979, the group noted. Back then, the disparity was only 12 to 1.

And the billionaires? I’m glad you asked. Based on Forbes data, from January 1, 2018, when the Trump cuts took effect, to April 1 of this year, the nation’s 806 billionaires saw a 57 percent gain in their collective wealth—after adjusting for the inflation that has plagued working families.

“It’s a class and inequality story for sure,” Richard Reeves, the author of 2017’s Dream Hoarders, concurred when I ran my premise by him. “But it’s also a gendered class story.” (His latest book, Of Boys and Men, examines how “the social and economic world of men has been turned upside down.”) And he’s right.

But are you starting to see why the broader electorate, race and gender notwithstanding, might be just a little fed up?

I suppose, having also written a book about wealth in America, that I know enough to assert that wealth insecurity is fundamental.

But why, you might ask, would someone living on the edge vote for Republicans, whose wage-suppressing, union-busting, benefit-denying policies have only tended to make the poor and the middle class more miserable?

And why in the name of Heaven would they vote for Trump, a billionaire born with a silver spoon in his mouth who has lied and cheated his way through life? A man whose latest tax-cut plans—though some, like eliminating taxes on tips and Social Security income, can sound progressive—will be deeply regressive, giving ever more to the rich and rationalizing cuts that will hurt the poor and middle class and accelerate global climate chaos.

The reason, my friends, may well be that those on the losing end of our thriving economy don’t see it as thriving. Historically, every election cycle, when reporters fan out to ask low-income voters in swing states what they are thinking, the message has been roughly the same: Presidential candidates, Democrats and Republicans, come around here every four years and talk their talk, and then they leave and forget about us when it comes to policy."