Canada US Relations: Canada has long feared the Chaos of US politics

When the nation of Canada was founded in 1867, its people deliberately chose a form of government meant to avoid the mistakes and problems they saw in the U.S. government next door.

That helps explain why Canadian police used emergency powers to arrest hundreds of people and tow dozens of vehicles while ending the trucker protests in Ottawa, Canada’s capital.

Read more at: https://theconversation.com/canada-has-long-feared-the-chaos-of-us-politics-177208

Politics: Karl Marx: Five reasons why the thinker was ahead of his time

Without his wife Jenny Marx (1814-1881), Marx's accomplishments would not have been possible. Born Johanna Bertha Julie Jenny von Westphalen, Marx's better half was not only a journalist but also his first critical reader. She debated with him and the publicist and philosopher Friedrich Engels and collaborated on the creation of the "Communist Manifesto." In the only handwritten version of the booklet that has survived the years, the first lines are written by her.

As a journalist, she wrote texts about the 1848 March Revolution in Germany and reviews of William Shakespeare for the renowned Frankfurter Zeitung newspaper, negotiated with publishers and spoke a number of foreign languages — better than her husband. Her skills came in handy, since the Marx family was forced to spend most of their lives in exile. Friedrich Engels called her and her husband the two "highly gifted natures" and said of Jenny after her death that "her bold and wise counsel" would be bitterly missed.

In 1866, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels helped make the eight-hour day an official demand of the International Workers Association. As early as the 1810s, Welshman Robert Owen is said to have coined the slogan in Britain: "Eight hours work, eight hours sleep, and eight hours leisure and recreation."

The eight-hour day was introduced by law in Germany, for the first time in 1918. Since then, however, the law is changing: Six-hour days are now being tested in several European countries. 

Read more at : https://www.dw.com/en/karl-marx-five-reasons-why-the-thinker-was-ahead-of-his-time/a-60716738

Global Politics: The Top 10 Global Risks of 2022 - by Ian Bremmer

We’re done with the pandemic, but it’s not yet done with us, and the finish line depends on where you live. Critically, China’s “zero COVID” policy will fail.

In the developed world, the end is near. The highly transmissible Omicron variant is colliding with highly vaccinated populations that are bolstered by highly effective mRNA vaccines and COVID-19 treatments. That’s why the pandemic will likely become endemic for advanced industrial economies in the first half of this year. Yet even in the developed world, the economic hangover from the pandemic will endure this year with disrupted supply chains and persistent inflation.

But China, the primary engine for global growth, will face highly transmissible COVID-19 variants without the most effective vaccines and with far fewer people protected by previous infection. China’s policy will fail to contain infections, lead to larger outbreaks, and require more severe lockdowns. That means greater economic disruptions, lower consumption, and a more dissatisfied population at odds with the triumphalist “China defeated COVID” of the state-run media. China ‘s problem will continue until sometime after it has rolled out domestically developed mRNA shots and boosters for the world’s largest population—at the end of the year by the earliest. Paid Partner Content

CDC Recommends COVID Vaccines for Everyone 5+ By U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

In general, developing countries will be hit hardest, and political incumbents will bear the brunt of public anger. Demand for booster shots in wealthier countries will prevent effective vaccines from becoming more widely available. New outbreaks will slow economic growth in emerging markets and leave poorer governments with more debt.

In all these ways, Covid-19 will continue to drive political and economic instability. 2. Technopolar world The world’s biggest tech firms decide much of what we see and hear. They determine our economic opportunities and shape our opinions on important subjects. E.U., U.S., and Chinese policymakers will all tighten tech regulation this year, but they won’t limit their ability to invest in the digital sphere where they, not governments, remain the primary architects, actors, and enforcers.

In November, Republicans will almost certainly win back majority control of the House of Representatives—and maybe the Senate. If so, Democrats will view GOP control as the illegitimate result of a voter-suppression campaign, and Republicans will see victory as further evidence of 2020 election fraud. Biden’s impeachment will lead the GOP agenda and public trust in American political institutions will take an even larger hit.

More important is what the midterms mean for the 2024 presidential election. Donald Trump is signaling he will run for president in 2024. If he is defeated by a Democrat, a Republican House could vote to overturn state-level election results, but a Democrat-controlled Senate would limit the fallout.

But if Republicans win both the House and Senate this November, if Trump responds to possible defeat in 2024 by challenging the result, and if state-level officials submit alternative certifications that Republican congressional majorities accept, the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be broken and a constitutional crisis will result.

5. Russia A buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine has opened a broader confrontation over Europe’s security architecture. President Vladimir Putin could send in troops and annex the occupied Donbas, but his current demand is for major NATO security concessions and a promise of no further eastward expansion. But a grand bargain is unlikely, and close encounters between NATO and Russian ships and planes will become more frequent and more dangerous, increasing chances of an accident. Add ongoing concerns about Russian cyber-attacks and interference in U.S. elections. Possible U.S. sanctions that target the secondary market trading of Russian sovereign debt would end any hopes of more stable U.S.-Russian relations.

Read more at: The Top 10 Global Risks of 2022 | Time

Global Energy Supplies: Europe needs an energy policy independent of US interference

It is no secret to the world that the US government has been obstructing the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for many years by imposing all types of political and economic sanctions on related parties. The stake is high behind the US' suppression of the project, because the pipeline could enable more cheap gas supplies from Russia to Europe, depriving US suppliers of a prime export market.

Whether the Nord Stream 2 will promote energy cooperation between Russia and Europe, or become a trigger of tensions across the Atlantic will remain to be seen. While the US doesn't really care about Europe's energy security, Washington won't tolerate anything that threatens its energy trade.

What the US government wants is to preserve its global hegemony in the energy sector. The US energy hegemony is one of the important pillars of American global hegemony. So, the US will do everything in its position to ensure global energy supply patterns are in line with its global geopolitical power play. If the energy cooperation between Russia and Europe were allowed to unfold without any complications, it is conceivable that many things would be out of the control of the US.

If anything, the energy crisis is another example demonstrating why Europe needs to have the ability to independently form its own political and economic policies including energy security. Europe needs to be clear that its interests are not the same as the US', and it cannot completely follow the US lead on many issues, or it will end up hurting itself.

Read more at: GT Voice: Europe needs an energy policy independent of US interference - Global Times

‘USA: A core threat to our democracy’: threat of political violence growing across US - by Joan E Greve

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stood on the House floor and implored her colleagues to hold Paul Gosar accountable for sharing an altered anime video showing him killing her and attacking Joe Biden.

“Our work here matters. Our example matters. There is meaning in our service,” Ocasio-Cortez said in her speech last week. “And as leaders in this country, when we incite violence with depictions

Read more: ‘A core threat to our democracy’: threat of political violence growing across US | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | The Guardian

USA: Quo Vadis, America? - by César Chelala

U.S. intervention in other countries have generally not led to better living conditions for the populations of those countries. In most cases, it has had the opposite effect.

This is true not only in the case of Afghanistan. It is also true of countries such as Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

It is not cynical to replace the old saying “familiarity breeds contempt” with “intervention in other countries breeds contempt.

read more at: Quo Vadis, America? - The Globalist

Politics and Social Media: Revealed: the Facebook loophole that lets world leaders deceive and harass their citizens - by Julia Carrie Wong

Facebook has repeatedly allowed world leaders and politicians to use its platform to deceive the public or harass opponents despite being alerted to evidence of the wrongdoing.

The Guardian has seen extensive internal documentation showing how Facebook handled more than 30 cases across 25 countries of politically manipulative behavior that was proactively detected by company staff.

The investigation shows how Facebook has allowed major abuses of its platform in poor, small and non-western countries in order to prioritize addressing abuses that attract media attention or affect the US and other wealthy countries. The company acted quickly to address political manipulation affecting countries such as the US, Taiwan, South Korea and Poland, while moving slowly or not at all on cases in Afghanistan, Iraq, Mongolia, Mexico and much of Latin America.

Read more at Revealed: the Facebook loophole that lets world leaders deceive and harass their citizens | Facebook | The Guardian

Belarus- Eurovision: Eurovision bosses ‘pressured by politicians & haters on social media’ to disqualify entry from Belarus

Belarus’ state broadcaster says the people behind the Eurovision Song Contest bowed to anti-government activists and an online hate campaign by booting the country from the competition.

The contest’s organizer, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), ruled earlier this month that the initial entry by Belarusian band Galasy ZMesta undermined “the non-political nature” of Eurovision and risked damaging the contest’s reputation.

The song ‘Ya nauchu tebya’ (I’ll Teach You) was widely seen as mocking the protesters who claim that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko rigged last year’s election to secure a sixth term in office, and are demanding his resignation. Several large-scale anti-government rallies have been held, some of which have ended in clashes with police. Lukashenko claims the protests were incited from abroad.<

Read more at: https://www.rt.com/russia/519391-belarus-eurovision-entry-scandal/

EU-Russia Relations: Why Russia politics threaten European security - by Mark Galeotti

Arguments over the plight of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Saturday's (23 January) street protests across Russia demonstrate that there is no such thing as purely domestic politics, and may have serious implications for Europe.

Navalny, poisoned by Russian security officers in August, had been recuperating in Berlin until his return on 17 January. His prompt arrest on questionable charges triggered major nationwide protests this past Saturday, but what was no doubt originally envisaged by the Kremlin as a purely domestic act of repression has become an international concern.

The Kremlin had made it clear that its immediate response to the protests is it to try and outlast them.

Read more at: Why Russia politics threaten European security

Technology: The Dictatorship of Data

Google’s deference to data has been taken to extremes. To determine the best color of a toolbar on the website, Marissa Mayer, when she was one of Google’s top executives before going to Yahoo, once ordered staff to test 41 gradations of blue to see which ones people used more. In 2009, Google’s top designer, Douglas Bowman, quit in a huff because he couldn’t stand the constant quantification of everything. “I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that,” he wrote on a blog announcing his resignation. “When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. That data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company.”

This is the dictatorship of data. And it recalls the thinking that led the United States to escalate the Vietnam War partly on the basis of body counts, rather than basing decisions on more meaningful metrics. “It is true enough that not every conceivable complex human situation can be fully reduced to the lines on a graph, or to percentage points on a chart, or to figures on a balance sheet,” said McNamara in a speech in 1967, as domestic protests were growing. “But all reality can be reasoned about. And not to quantify what can be quantified is only to be content with something less than the full range of reason.” If only the right data were used in the right way, not respected for data’s sake.

Read more at: The Dictatorship of Data

Religion and Politics: Why Churches Cannot Endorse or Oppose Political Candidates

Churches cannot favor or oppose particular candidates for political office. The ban on electioneering has nothing to do with the First Amendment or Jeffersonian principles of separation of church and state. Instead, the ban is based on a provision in the 1954 tax reform act prohibiting all tax-exempt organizations from supporting or opposing political candidates. I show that the provision grew out of the anti-communist frenzy of the 1950s and was directed at right-wing organizations such as Facts Forum and the Committee for Constitutional Government. It was introduced by Lyndon Johnson as part of his effort to end McCarthyism, protect the loyalist wing of the Texas Democratic Party, and win reelection to the Senate in 1954. I also discuss the implications these findings have for contemporary church policy.

Read more at: 
Why Churches Cannot Endorse or Oppose Political Candidates on JSTOR

EU-Turkey relations, Politics versus Reality: Why hasn't the EU lifted travel ban on Turkey?

Beginning with July 1, The European Union opened its borders to visitors from 15 countries. The full list of the first 15 countries ranges from Algeria to Uruguay, from Georgia to South Korea, from Serbia and Montenegro to New Zealand, from Morocco to Canada. Europe will open its borders to China as well, provided China opens up to travelers from the EU. 

European doors will remain closed to travelers from the United States, Brazil, and Russia, due to the rate of the spread of coronavirus. Turkey, a candidate member of the EU, which performed well above the EU average in the Covid-19 struggle, however, is among those countries that the travel ban from and to the EU will remain in effect. 

Given the success of the Turkish Covid-19 strategy, the disappointment expressed by the spokesperson of the Turkish Foreign Ministry for the decision was not unexpected.  

Indeed, Turkey’s coronavirus statistics, for instance, in comparison to EU member Sweden, are much better. The Turkish population is almost nine times as much as Sweden, but the number of cases per 1 million is 2,370 in Turkey, while the figure stands at 6,777 in Sweden. The death rate in Turkey is 60.8 per 1 million in Turkey, and 528.1 in Sweden. Even in comparison to Germany, which has roughly the same population as Turkey and is lauded for a successful Covid-19 strategy, Turkey seems to be doing as well as Germany. The number of total confirmed cases in Germany is some 200,000 and in Turkey is some 195,000.  

The reason for Turkey’s exclusion from the EU’s reopening can be explained by political reasons instead of public health concerns.

Read more at:

Why hasn't the EU lifted travel ban on Turkey?

Geopolitics - The new world disorder

 SEVENTY-FIVE years ago in San Francisco 50 countries signed the charter that created the United Nations—they left a blank space for Poland, which became the 51st founding member a few months later. In some ways the UN has exceeded expectations. Unlike the League of Nations, set up after the first world war, it has survived. Thanks largely to decolonisation, its membership has grown to 193. There has been no third world war.

Read more at:
Geopolitics - The new world disorder | Leaders | The Economist

USA - a thoroughly corrupt political process: Billionaires got $565 billion richer during the coronavirus pandemic

American billionaires are now nearly 20% richer — by $565 billion,to be exact — than they were at the start of the coronavirus pandemic,according to a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies

Six billionaires, including Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Tesla's Elon Musk, and Zoom's Eric Yuan, have seen their net worths grow by more than $2billion each since March, according to the think tank's analysis of Forbes' Billionaires List.

The coronavirus crisis has been an economic disaster for the rest of America, as an end unprecedented 42.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the past 11 weeks.

Note EU-Digest: This is another major problem facing America, and has resulted in the overwhelming influence Corporate America has on the political environment of the US and beyound. What's been happening with White House and Congressional politics could only be described as a thoroughly corrupt process, with the blessings of a Supreme Court dominated by justices hand-picked to protect the same process.

Read more at:
Billionaires got $565 billion richer during the coronavirus pandemic - Business Insider

USA Anger and politics - The violence in American cities reflects the fury of polarisation

The summer heat has its way of energising our political passions. The American and French revolutions both began in earnest with the sweltering June and July air stuck to each soldier’s skin. In 1967, a “long hot summer” of violence erupted throughout the United States as protesters against police brutality and racial injustice clashed with police and the national guard in most big cities. The following summer saw similar protests, and—like today—a hotly contested presidential election. The current unrest in America is similar in many ways to the riots of the 20th century, with young people and minorities expressing grievances over both racial inequality and the relationship with their government. But two recent developments serve both to worsen the tensions between protesters and their opponents and to decrease the chance that the government will find a solution: political polarisation and partisan rage.

The turmoil of 1968 is the most obvious parallel to today’s. Then, the Republican Party’s Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew were the candidates of “law and order,” pledging to crack down on the violence and extend sentences for rioters. That year’s election was also a major catalyst for the marriage of race and political party in America. Nixon’s and Agnew’s electoral strategies probably helped them capitalise on the anger and anxiety of many white voters. In a new research article about the contest, Omar Wasow, a political scientist at Princeton University, finds that the year’s protests “likely caused a 1.5–7.9% shift among whites towards Republicans and tipped the election”. Since then, characterising protests as racial violence and and promoting to crack down on it has become the linchpin of the Republican party electorial playbook

Read more at:
Anger and politics - The violence in American cities reflects the fury of polarisation | United States | The Economist

Hungary: 'Critics silenced' in social media arrests as EU debates Orban's powers | Euronews

Opposition politicians in Hungary are alarmed by a spate of detentions for alleged scaremongering on social media about the coronavirus pandemic.

It comes as the EU, citing Hungary, called on Thursday for emergency government powers granted during the crisis to be eased along with lockdowns.

Several people have been arrested at their homes and detained for several hours over social media posts. Police said on Thursday that 16 people have been questioned during their investigations.

Hungary: 'Critics silenced' in social media arrests as EU debates Orban's powers | Euronews

Will COVID-19 Remake the World? by Dani Rodrik

Crises come in two variants: those for which we could not have prepared, because no one had anticipated them, and those for which we should have been prepared, because they were in fact expected. COVID-19 is in the latter category, no matter what US President Donald Trump says to avoid responsibility for the unfolding catastrophe. Even though the coronavirus itself is new and the timing of the current outbreak could not have been predicted, it was well recognized by experts that a pandemic of this type was likely.

SARS, MERS, H1N1, Ebola, and other outbreaks had provided ample warning. Fifteen years ago, the World Health Organization revised and upgraded the global framework for responding to outbreaks, trying to fix perceived shortcomings in the global response experienced during the SARS outbreak in 2003.

In 2016, the World Bank launched a Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility to provide assistance to low-income countries in the face of cross-border health crises. Most glaringly, just a few months before COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, a US government report cautioned the Trump administration about the likelihood of a flu pandemic on the scale of the influenza epidemic a hundred years ago, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide.

In short, COVID-19 may well not alter – much less reverse – tendencies evident before the crisis. Neoliberalism will continue its slow death. Populist autocrats will become even more authoritarian. Hyper-globalization will remain on the defensive as nation-states reclaim policy space. China and the US will continue on their collision course. And the battle within nation-states among oligarchs, authoritarian populists, and liberal internationalists will intensify, while the left struggles to devise a program that appeals to a majority of voters.

Read more at: Will COVID-19 Remake the World? by Dani Rodrik - Project Syndicate

US Politics and Coronavirus - a poisonous mexture: Trump knows economic meltdown brings political pain

The record-breaking amount reflects a US economy put into deep-freeze almost overnight. The government-ordered shutdown hasn't just shuttered businesses temporarily, it has vaporised the jobs of millions of Americans - many of whom are the particularly vulnerable hourly service workers who live paycheque to paycheque.

The stock market free-fall and early reports of layoffs foreshadowed Thursday's grim news, prompting Congress to craft its largest-ever aid package, which passed the US Senate Wednesday night. The test now will be whether the multi-trillion-dollar relief will do enough, quickly enough, to staunch the bleeding.

What's clear at this point, however, is the physical disease that is afflicting tens of thousands of Americans and growing will be accompanied by an economic ailment that adversely affects the lives of millions.

 Read more: Coronavirus: Trump knows economic meltdown brings political pain - BBC News

Finland, World Leader in working around challenges

What could the U.S. learn from Finland’s stellar example for its own many challenges?

Read more at:
https://www.theglobalist.com/united-states-finland-society-healthcare-taxation-social-mobility-gender-equality-sanna-marin/

USA: How Democrats are losing 2020, already: Trump must not win reelection, but the candidates lining up to beat him are giving a good chance - by Rick Wilson

Donald Trump cannot win the 2020 election, but the Democrats sure as hell can lose it. That’s why the Democrats have two options for the 2020 presidental race: Make the race a referendum on Trump and Trumpism, or lose.

It’s just that simple. So please, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Joe Biden, if you’re running, and the other dozen people stuffed into the growing field, heed my prayer: Check yourselves before you wreck yourselves, because at the rate you’re going, rushing to the left with reckless abandon, Trump’s reelection is looking more and more likely.

You might not want to believe a Republican consultant, but on this one, please trust me: I want what’s best for you, because I want what’s best for the country.

As the party that always seeks its own political death, the Democrats have a remarkable opportunity to win, but an innate ability to lose.


Read more at: How Democrats are losing 2020, already: Trump must not win reelection, but the candidates lining up to beat him are giving a good chance - New York Daily News