Middle Class Political Economist
After several years of work, my colleague Susan G. Mason (Boise State University) and I have published a new article on TIF in Missouri, specifically in the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas. "Exploring Patterns of Tax Increment Financing Use and Structural Explanations in Missouri's Major Metropolitan Regions" appeared in the July 2018 edition of the HUD journal Cityscape , downloadabl
News From Atlantis.
The liberal dystopia we have become completely swamped by, is very bizarre. Full of contradictions, this cause of social insanity is the result of trying to stabilise cognitive dissonance, with such ludicrous notions of the the coexistence of mutually exclusive ideas and attitudes. Multiculturalism is a prime example of an inherent contradiction in liberal thought. Atheists and Theists can only c
Killed With Kindness, by Paul Dutton The scene is set in Fallowfields Chesterton Cambridge there is an elderly lady in her 90’s her name is Matilda she used to sell ticket for Cambridge football club, she also put up a lot of players when they came to Cambridge back in the old days she also helped dig the holes for the spot lights when they were fitted she stopped helping Cambridge united football
Obsidian Wings
by wj I recall that one of the lines Trump used in denouncing his predecessor was "the world is laughing at us." And now, finally, it has come true . Today at the UN, Trump got a novel reaction. Nobody applauded him. But there were chuckles, and some outright laughter, when he tried telling everyone that in “less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administrati
by liberal japonicus Like a military history buff who spends an inordinate amount of time looking at some skirmish down the road from Waterloo or Gettysburg, I'm pretty fascinated by not so much the main event, but the little wins and losses on the periphery. At for this post, Amy Chua. Background below the fold. Amy Chua is references as the author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother , and she st
by liberal japonicus Like the salt and meat diet, only the truly strong can subsist on a reading diet of only he said, we aren't going to believe what she said , and wimps like me need our swiss chard and salads. So for us wimps, an interesting article about China's new social credit system. Leave no dark corner The integration of video with the article is quite powerful, but comes at the loss of
by wj I see that things with Brexit are looking increasingly problematic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/theresa-may-just-warned-of-a-no-deal-brexit-here-are-some-of-the-doomsday-scenarios/2018/09/17/3507ab2c-943b-11e8-818b-e9b7348cd87d_story.html https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/09/14/britains-housing-market-could-be-headed-for-disaster Brexit Secretary Dominic R
by liberal japonicus This seems interesting Sheldon Whitehouse Asks Brett Kavanaugh If He Has A Gambling Problem I usually don't post breaking stuff (I think this is) but Whitehouse was a US attorney and a State Attorney General and the last political thread is quite full. Interesting times...
by Ugh This whole Florence thing has the 9YO freaked out. Living just outside DC on the MD side makes me think he might be overly worried but that's his mojo. In other news, I can't really say Serena was robbed (if anyone it was Osaka who was clearly outplaying the legend up to that point and had her celebration spoiled), but that ump has got to go. I mean, WTF? Is it just me or is Kavanaugh "at
Pesticide Action Network
Rebuilding a fair and resilient farming system means giving voice to those who have often been left out. Historically underserved farmers are just that – historically and systematically shut out of financial resources, markets, and technical assistance, among other opportunities. A group of farmers and farm allies across California seeking to change that lent their voices to some events at the St
Congress is taking up the Farm Bill again, and many issues key to our food and agriculture system are on the table — including how we deal with pesticides. Learn more Slideshow Category: Flex Slider
The California Farmer Justice Collaborative is a collective of organizations working toward equity with and for historically underserved farmers in California. Learn more Slideshow Category: Flex Slider
As the headlines of their corporate misdeeds pile up, the Monsanto name is becoming even more synonymous with shady dealings and the obfuscation of science, all at the expense of public health. Will the company’s recent mega-merger with fellow seed and pesticide giant Bayer erase Monsanto’s track record? Bayer seems to think so, as they made the decision to drop the Monsanto name completely post-
Congress is taking up the Farm Bill again this week, and many issues key to our food and agriculture system are on the table — including how we deal with pesticides. Earlier this summer, the Senate passed its version of the 2018 Farm Bill. While flawed, the Senate bill was much better than the widely-criticized House version of the bill, which narrowly passed a week prior. A small group of Senato
This week, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) officially announced their hiring of the new Farm Equity Advisor (FEA), a position now filled by Thea Rittenhouse . The creation of this position was one of the main pieces included in the Farmer Equity Act of 2017 ( AB 1348 ) — legislation proposed by the farmer and farmer-advocate group, the California Farmer Justice Collaborat
Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home
I see scenarios where employees leave work early for entirely sane reasons. For instance: They are threatened by a coworker or customer and feel unsafe They are so upset by a confrontation with management or a coworker that they are crying They are sexually harassed They are called racial, ethnic, or other discriminatory names Yet in each of these circumstances, I also see employers claim the empl
After a storm, I usually get lots of calls and emails about employers making employees work in conditions they deem unsafe. In general, you don't have to work in unsafe conditions, so I'm re-posting this for those affected by Florence. Here's what OSHA says about workplace safety: You have the right to a safe workplace. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) was passed to prevent
In the bad old days, after an employee filed a Charge of Discrimination, employers would file a position statement and then one of two things happened: either the investigator would read a summary of the position statement quickly over the phone, or the investigator would write up a summary of the position statement. Then the employee would have 10 days to respond. I say the bad old days, because
It's time, unfortunately, to re-run this popular and necessary column. I hope you make out okay in Hurricane Florence and suffer no damage. However, you may be wondering if you're getting paid. Whether you’re entitled to be paid when the office is closed depends on whether you are “exempt” salaried or not. Just being salaried doesn’t necessarily mean you aren’t entitled to overtime. It’s possible
Syria Comment
David Lesch The Game Above the Game by David W. Lesch For Syria Comment – Sept 21, 2018 The various combatants in and around Idlib seem to have hit the pause button for the time being. What just a short time ago appeared to be an imminent onslaught by Russian and Iranian supported Syrian government forces to take back one of the last areas outside of the control of Damascus, accompanied by widesp
The Duck of Minerva
This post comes from Dr. Fabiana Sofia Perera , Assistant Research Fellow at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies and a 2016 alumna of Bridging the Gap’s New Era Workshop . Defense Secretaries from the countries of the western hemisphere will convene in Cancun, Mexico next month to talk about the most pressing issues facing defense and security institutions in the Americas.
There is a spat of ecumenical proportions brewing in the Eastern hemisphere: Patriarch Krill of Russia stopped praying for the Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. The reason for that is simple: the patriarch of Constantinople is rumored to consider granting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church an autocephalous status that would potentially carve out a third of Russian Orthodox Church curacies sever
Great opportunity to donate in memory of a beloved scholar of African politics. The Lee Ann Fujii Minority Fellows Program Travel Grants will help up to 15 scholars from underrepresented backgrounds get to APSA each year, 2019-2023. Details: #APSA2018 pic.twitter.com/0eUgcg3vsQ — Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) August 31, 2018 This is a guest post by Lahoma Thomas, a doctoral candidate in the Departm
I woke up to find a piece that castigates the academic world for being ignorant about the armed forces . My reaction was: I love how broad this brush is. “I talked to some folks who are profs and they say some dumb stuff, so let’s suggest that this is a broader thing” Confirmation bias much? https://t.co/jWhcaniD2B — Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) September 20, 2018 Tom Ricks, who posted this quest
The fall semester is upon us, and with APSA in the rear view window, we’d like to bring on a new slate of guest Duck bloggers to continue to bring IR-related insights to bear on important real world problems, to explore important debates in the academy, and to do some professional introspection. We’re especially keen on having gender balance and increasing representation of voices from beyond Nor
This is a guest post by Nicholas Chan , a lecturer at the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. Follow him on Twitter at @nickdotchan Three years after the Paris Agreement (PA) was agreed, 2018 has been termed the year where “ it’s time to figure out the fine print .” The ‘Paris Agreement Work Programme’ , due to be finalized at December’s COP24 climate change conference
The High-fat Hep C Diet
One of the great mysteries of nutrition is the behaviour of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). They often look good in the kind of sloppy epidemiology used to drive or latterly protect dietary guidelines*, are more ambiguous in RCTs, and can easily be shown to have deleterious effects in a number of specific medical and experimental conditions that might be expected to have a "canary in the coa
The Straight Goods
Written by Grant I and many others had high hopes for Rachel Notley when she got elected and became Alberta's premier....not quite four years ago, though it seems like ages ago to me.. We here at The Straight Goods wrote flattering things about NDP Rachel Notley when she was vying to be premier...I was impressed with her platform, her stated goals, in fact before even being elected she stated tha
JUSTIN TRUDEAU KNOWS THERE IS A GOD… AND HE KNOWS THAT GOD IS A LIBERAL Written by Robin Mathews Sweating a little before the cameras, Justin Trudeau saw that Andrew Scheer was becoming ‘reasonable’. BUT HE IS NOT the much more strange creature thrown up (“thrown up”?) by the Conservative Hordes … Stephen Harper … who wrested all power from ‘Progressive Conservatives’, then pulled Rightest admire
The View from Taiwan
" ...But we have crossed millions of miles of nothingness. We have visited another world. And our Locar had said `Why bother? What is the worth of it? It is all vanity, anyhow.' And the secret is," I lowered my voice, as at a poetry reading, "he was right! It is vanity, it is pride!""You will say to them in Warwickshire: Eh, he wor a wonderly fine candle?" I should have been a pair of ragged cla
An address sign in Guocuoli Time once again for our regularly irregular feature on a scholarly paper about Taiwan... While I was looking at the complicated ethnic history of Quanzhou in Fujian, where 45% of the pre-1949 immigrants to Taiwan came from, I ran across this fascinating paper by Oded Abt entitled "Muslim Ancestor, Chinese Hero or Tutelary God:Changing Memories of Muslim Descendants in
Yesterday was first nice day in weeks. I hit the mountains. It was wonderful. This week brought us a sloppy and potentially libelous headline from Taiwan News on Mayor Ko and Ethan Gutmann's book on organ harvesting in China: Book claims Taipei Mayor transplanted organs from Falun Gong prisoners . To wit: Butterfly Orchid Cultural Creativity (蝴蝶蘭文創), the pro-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) pub
thwap's schoolyard
This is a good essay from commondreams.org: "No, Capitalism Will Not Save the Climate" by Karin Nansen . We are facing deep-rooted climate, social, and environmental crises. The current dominant economic system cannot provide solutions. It is time for system change. For Friends of the Earth International this means creating societies based on peoples’ sovereignty and environmental, social, econom
This is one of the most pervasive assaults on left-wing calls for social justice; that we expect that the world owes us (and everyone else) a living, simply by virtue of our having arrived on the planet. It is at this point that those who champion an economic system of unlimited growth on a finite planet begin to shriek about "scarce resources" and how we can't just give people riches without the
This piece - "Workers' Power vs. Climate Destroyers: What It Will Take to Save the Planet," by Bruce Lesnick, is the kind of thing I'm talking about here: Asking those few with wealth and power to please do the right thing is not a very effective strategy and it hasn’t gotten us very far up to now. A much better approach would be to take the power and wealth into our own hands – into the hands of
Vagabond Scholar
Happy Labor Day! These videos are repeats, but they're good. Here's Robert Reich from 2013, about celebrating labor on Labor Day. This a Woody Guthrie classic, performed at the Pete Seeger 90th birthday concert: Given the latest pushes from conservatives to further concentrate wealth and power with the wealthy, to let wages stagnate, and to slash the social safety net, it's a
Weekly Geo-Political News and Analysis
The satan-worshipping Khazarian mafia is in a frenzy of fear as military tribunals loom. As a result, they are offering the world (as if it were theirs to give) to China in exchange for protection, according to Gnostic Illuminati and Asian secret society sources. In addition to this, they are threatening to unleash pandemics, blow up the Yellowstone Caldera, set off a massive EMP attack, and caus
The deadlock has ended in the undeclared U.S. civil war that lasted all summer, and the good guys have already begun a series of stunning moves against the cabal, including shooting down their secret satellites, multiple sources confirm. Also, a complete reset of the global financial system has already begun, assert CIA sources connected to the self-described “good side” of the Rothschild family.
A pandemic scare is looming as airplanes in multiple countries reported to be full of “diseased” people are landing and being put in quarantine. However, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) sources say the incidents all appear to be fake ones involving crisis actors. The pandemic scare comes as the execution of U.S. Senator John McCain sent shock waves through Khazarian mafia ranks, who are now act
General Milan writes about financial technology and cryptocurrency for the Earth Alliance, a loose-knit global alliance working for the benefit of humanity. The battle over the future of Planet Earth has in many ways always been a financial battle. As time passes and technology advances, that financial battle is increasingly being fought out in the cryptocurrency arena. Follow General Milan on Tw
There is a very real chance that Khazarian cabal rule will collapse over the next three months, and alternative power structures need to be made ready in time for that, according to British MI6 intelligence sources. The trigger is expected to be arrests of senior cabalists in the U.S. starting in October, the sources say. Pentagon sources, for their part, said, “The Cabal has been deaf and blind
Hi Ben, I’m a follower of your work with the Dragon families and even administer a group on Facebook dedicated to your weekly updates along with the fight against the cabal. I have a concern, however. You appear to be sounding increasingly prejudiced toward the LGBT community (and you have many people who support you from within that community, many of whom are GOOD people.) So my question is: ar
Welcome Back to Pottersville
So, less than a half hour ago, this happened: Every piece of shit Republican just voted to get Kavanaugh out of committee , the split, as usual, along party lines, 11-10. The eclair-spined Jeff Flake, after being waylaid this morning by angry women after issuing a statement he was going to vote for Kavanaugh, weakly suggested delaying the vote for a week so the FBI could do a limited investigatio
(By American Zen 's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari) " If this is the new norm, you better watch out for your nominees. "- Lindsey Graham to Democrats “ This first allegation was held in secret for weeks by a Democratic member of this committee and by staff. It would be needed only if you couldn’t take me out on the merits. When it was needed, this allegation was unleashed and publicly deployed
Where we promise to never menacingly flare our combovers at you. "Well, we've just barely begun investigating why the Democrats' truck was shot while she still in it in her driveway but we think it was random." This is what passes for police work in Colorado. The headline : "Father and son charged with killing man over fight about trash." Yes, they stood their ground over a mattress in a Dumpster
In which every single day is Trump Day and is about nothing else. Ever. So, Trump was recently on a South Dakota station and was asked if he had any words of comfort for farmer hurt by his insane trade wars. And this is what the sociopath in chief said in response: "They were gonna lose them, anyway." Yes, he actually said that. But not to worry, because he's gonna save them like nobody else can.
S eptember’s Author of the Month of Scottish mystery author CA Asbrey (the pen name for Christine Lyden). CA is becoming rapidly known throughout Facebook’s mystery-reading and -writing indie community with her new Innocents mystery series set in 1860’s Wyoming. 15) OK, you’re Scottish by birth and presently live in England. How on earth does a Scottish author come to write a western mystery seri
With all due respect to the unflappable Mike Flannigan who has capably and often brilliantly toiled here without pay for over a decade, his three part post yesterday didn't do justice to the full ramifications of the incendiary NY Times op-ed that set the nation, and the Trump White House, in flames on the 5th. He made some pretty good points, to be sure, but not all of them were addressed. Not e
What Is Sustainable
Note: I need to devote more time to my upcoming book, now known as Wild Free & Happy . The following is Jim Minter’s review of James Howard Kunstler’s book, Home from Nowhere . It was posted over 20 years ago (5 December 1996) on the e-design website. This was back when the Peak Oil movement still lived in caves. Oddly, most of the essay could have been written in 2018. America’s fanatical addict
Our Ontario trip was a mixed bag of ups and downs, but mostly ups. Everything is pretty good with some not-so-good mixed in. Traveling with Diego. We loved it! It was so much fun having us with him all the time, and seeing him so happy and content. Downside: Traveling with a dog can be a bit limiting. We had planned to leave him alone while we explored Sudbury and Thunder Bay, but when we were act
We're going glamping! Allan, Diego, and I are hitting the road -- in this: Going here: Killarney Provincial Park Lake Superior Provincial Park Sleeping Giant Provincial Park Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park Pancake Bay Provincial Park Grundy Lake Provincial Park Plus quick visits to Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, and Thunder Bay. Hike, grill, explore. Watch dogs play on beaches. Read. Keep an eye on the
In July, I wrote that we planned to get rid of our LP collection. Well, the deed is done. We turned this into this First Round then this What's left: classical, soundtracks, CD box sets, and albums Allan didn't want to part with (front). and finally, this. We got much more money than we expected, thanks to the honesty and integrity of Lincoln Stewart. * * * * For the most part, the business of bu
In my most recent Listening to Joni post, I said that I write with my brain, but I listen to music with my heart. A few nights ago in New York City, my music heart broke in pieces, over and over again. I've seen a lot of theatre -- and quite a bit of Bruce Springsteen -- but I'd never experienced anything quite like this. Springsteen on Broadway is one of the most intensely moving theatrical exper
This is one of those posts I write only for myself. This blog functions as my travel diary, and I like that diary to be complete. So here I am. Feel free to ignore. Which of course you always are, and you don't need me to tell you that. I was supposed to go to New York by myself to see Springsteen on Broadway . (Review to follow in separate post.) I had been trying to get a ticket since they first
WWF - Latest News
Three newly released reports paint a complex picture of China's ivory market post ban; with sales 'on the street' slowing, the same cannot be said for overseas travellers and auction houses. 1. China's Ivory Market after the Ivory Trade Ban in 2018. 2. Demand under the Ban - China Ivory Consumption Research Post-Ban 2018. 3. China's Ivory Auction Market: A comprehensive analysis of legislation, h
Tokyo, Japan, 13th September 2018 - Yahoo Japan is the single biggest online platform for elephant ivory sales in Japan, according to a new TRAFFIC investigation, which recorded a staggering 4,414 ivory items plus 35 whole tusks for sale over a four-week period in June and July 2018. The latest findings were revealed today in System Error, Reboot Required: Review of online ivory trade in Japan ,