After months of denial, the European policy elite finally begins to understand that something is seriously wrong in the eurozone.
But the prevailing definition of the problem is still too narrow – the consensus in France and, even more, in Germany is that "this is a Greek problem". Even the most negative still think that Portugal and Spain can easily escape serious damage.
This is a major misconception, as we pointed out last week – and as we have been emphasizing, to anyone who would listen, for more than a year.
If you want to call for a "rescheduling" of Greece's debts – a position that is becoming increasingly popular among leading north European intellectuals – that is fine. But you also need to recognize that the policy elite (central banks and ministries of finance) are completely unprepared to handle the consequences, which would be immediate and devastating for other weaker eurozone countries.
You simply cannot do a low-cost or small unilateral restructuring of government debt in this kind of situation; the market will at once take that as a signal that Portugal, Spain, Italy and perhaps even Ireland will face difficulties (in fact, this is exactly what spreads in the 2-year European government bond market are saying today). The French may smile upon such outcomes with a feeling of superiority, but they might also consider not throwing bricks in glass houses.
It is fine – even appropriate – to emphasize that big European banks have aided and abetted the irresponsible behavior of eurozone authorities. The profound stupidity of these banks-as-organizations is beyond belief, and it is deeply puzzling quite why leading figures in the US Senate would see them as a model for anything other than what we need to euthanize as soon as possible in the global financial system.
But do not fall into the trap of thinking just because "megabanks are bad" (undoubtedly true) that you can whack them with losses and not face the consequences – these people are powerful for a reason; they hold a knife to our throats. For all his hubris, missteps, and over-reliance on Goldman group think, Hank Paulson had a point in September 2008: If the choice is chaotic global collapse or unsavory financial rescue, which are you going to choose?
There is also the absurdity of having a fiat currency backed not by a nation but by a federation that is incapable of making or enforcing hard decisions. I think the market is waking up to that reality. The process of de-euroization will be very interesting to watch.
If the EU did not work because of "group think/special interests" of European elites, why would the "group think/special interests" of the G20 be better?
[T]he programme prevents an immediate shock to fragile financial systems: it is overtly a rescue of Greece, but covertly a bail-out of banks. But it is far from clear that it will help other members now in the firing line. … Other eurozone members might well end up on their own. None is in as bad a condition as Greece … But several have unsustainable fiscal deficits and rapidly rising debt ratios.
Wolf is not optimistic and has "huge doubts".
If you are a country like the US, the UK, or Japan that can monetize its fiscal deficits, then you won't have a sovereign debt event but high inflation that erodes the value of public debt. Inflation is therefore basically a capital transfer from creditors and savers to borrowers and dissavers, essentially from the private sector to the government.
Couldn't the EU prevent de-euroization by denying EMU members the right to issue their own debt? Couldn't the EU coerce them into channelling their deficit spending through the ECB? Greece and other weaker Euro states have issued debt that they can't service – so force them to get their money from Frankfurt.
As Krugman noted a couple days ago, Greece is running a PRIMARY deficit of 8+% of GDP. That means that even if they repudiated all debt, they would still need to borrow. And unless their domestic citizens can finance that debt (8+% is a lot – perhaps 2 or 3%?) then they'll need to borrow from abroad. And that's bad, since no one wants to lend.
Meanwhile the Fed and the ECB are now in a pi33ing match. During the run/carry trade on the dollar last year (after Bernanke & Co engaged some limited amount of QE – over the doom threats of every Austrian/gold fanatic in teh country), the US endured a run on the dollar while the ECB lectured the US, and made a naked grab for Euro status as world reserve currency (with all the "benefits" thereof).
The ECB, enamoured of its <2% inflation target even when REAL rates are high due to price deflation and demand implosion, watched the Euro climb to 1.50/dollar even as the German Business Federation (rightly) screamed about the threat to lost exports. Trichet was happy, however – he got his "price stability"! Sanctimoniously, he watched his "price stability" send the entirety of southern Europe into a recessionary tailspin.
Trichet was willing to sacrifice the south of Europe to preserve the value of the Euro. Except – OOPS! – that darn J-curve again. It looks like EXPORTS AND IMPORTS DO MATTER (even though the nominal value of trade is much less than the notional value of all the derivatives and securities built around real trade)!!!!
Now the southern economies are not pulling out of the recession, which is now dragging the entire world economy. AND, seeing this, the capital markets are responding by questioning southern Europe's long term ability to pay future debt (since their national incomes are plummeting due to a combination of transfer payments and economic stagnation due to an overvalued currency and high real interest rates). The perceived risk of future default has caused a feedback into the credit system, raising real rates even higher (the CDS market shows the risk premium explosion), and now Greece is truly fubared.
And why should Bernanke help now? First, this is his opportunity to stand up Trichet (that SOB who tried to kill the dollar). And second, this is his opportunity to kill the EURO. Goldman is shorting the sh!t out of the EUR/DOL pair (and PUBLICLY stating this). How _convenient_ for Bernanke, especially since Goldman can leverage using the US domestic capital markets to sustain its derivative-fueled attacks on the Euro.
But All-in-All, maybe it's a good thing that the Dollar is finally going to kill the Euro, since it's abundantly clear the ECB is incompetent and not inclined to cooperate internationally to alleviate any sort of funding crisis (as we saw in 2008-2009).
Other than the folks who created the Euro in the first places, the ECB _totally_ owns this catastrophe in southern Europe.
Incompetence peppered with delusion and denial. Wait for it…..wait for it….
If that really is the choice, which is something constantly asserted but never proven, I'd choose freedom even at the cost of temporary economic difficulty.
The knife-at-the-throat analogy isn't quite right.
It's more like a thug wired my house with explosives and is threatening to press a button to detonate them if I shoot him with the gun I hold in my hand. He's demanding I hand over the gun, be his slave from then on, and live in the wired house which could spontaneously explode at any time, and is guaranteed to in the near future anyway.
I would shoot him and take the hit to my house. Then I could rebuild as a free man, however hard the work, and live in freedom ever after.
one cannot allow the re-establishment of an entitled aristocracy extracting rents with no productive labour because of the fear they spread. I believe you americans already fought that revolution once and the world was better for it.
That recipe would certainly make for a blockbuster disaster movie!
You have an opportunity to write yourself into this flick, based on your ability to stay solvent longer than the markets can stay irrational.
According to Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, the German banks want to make a significant contribution for overcoming the crisis in Greece. But the level of commitment was not quantified by Josef Ackermann, head of Deutsche Bank. Instead he talks about a "gentlemen's agreement". Do the banks take money in hand to help Greece? No. Are there any commitments? No. The banks want to purchase the bonds issued by the state bank KfW, which is in charge for funding the German contribution to the "Loan and Austerity Package" of EU and IWF for Greece.
The banks will use these bonds as collateral for the repo deals with the ECB. The Banks can receive money from the ECB for virtually zero conditions. The borrowed money are going to be invested by the banks either in government bonds, which yield around 3% (i.e. easy profits) or in derivatives on the Over-the-counter market (beyond the real economy) for continuing speculations. Or the banks could bet this time with credit default swaps for the sinking of Portugal and/or Spain.
The whole thing is a baloney. A dishonest PR-campaign by the banks.
"The idea that I've struggled with is how do we deal with all of the sovereign debt we've created to bail out the global economy. There has to be a reckoning at some point.
We've been essentially trying to dodge the reality associated with 40 years of personal, private and governmental debt accumulation. When the markets crashed we transferred private debt to the public to keep the music playing but something has to give somewhere.
We can't just keep accumulating debt forever without some kind of consequence. Either we start paying it off and at best we do this without a crash but endure 20 years of a mediocre economy as we siphon large sums of cash from the economy to pay off debt or we let the debt go bad – which in some respects it is already – and endure a nasty crash with 25% unemployment, sort through the mess and begin growing again 5 years.
It seems unlikely we'll avoid the crash but perhaps world leaders will cooperate enough to avoid that. They've pulled it off so far but we're quickly running out of the ability to add more debt so it'll be either printing money or crash.
You say "expect nothing." If "nothing" is what we get, what happens next? Wild inflation? Complete credit halt? Even China can't avoid disaster if the western economies, including the US, all crash.
Can you give us an idea of what armageddon will look like?
I'm invested mostly in gold shares. Should I buy bullion instead, and hire bodyguards?
I'm serious, not playing games.
Screw it. Just print the damn money.
Then see if you can actually produce something worthwhile to pay it off.
The Banks call the shots. They lobbied hard against restructuring of Greek debt. They are in too deep to bite that bullet. Politicians were 'advised' to embrace the bailout. This is about what's in the interests of TBTF Banks. To understand the European behind-the-scenes machinations, one need only look to how the puppets in Washington essentially move in unison to Wall Street's commands. And of course, the perfect storm is being manipulated to enrich the speculators who presently have the Euro under intense pressure, if not attack.
Maybe Greece should pass a baklava subsidy. If it works as well as our corn subsidy, the world will soon be awash in baklava. As for the insulin spikes resulting, we'll deal with that later by dropping the baklava subsidy in favor of a roasted lamb subsidy.
What would happen if Greece, Portugal and Spain simply repudiated their debt? They would then have to stop borrowing, and cut government spending,but that's got to happen someday anyway, and the sooner the better. Holders of the debt would lose. The only reason to worry about that is that European regulatory authories have imprudently allowed their banks to gamble by buying risky EU sovereign debt. So isn't the answer to let those 3 countries slide, and process some bank bankruptcies in Germany and France if necessary for the financial system?
What do China's super-rich do with their money?
Nice to know that decades of foreign aid and the gifting of North America's manufacturing jobs is working out for them.
Financial armageddon is seriously NOT a game.
Restructuring the debt would change nothing as far as Greek tax receipts being too small relative to state spending outside of interest payments. So the way out is more taxes, less spending.
I wish you would expand on this. Public? Private? Relative to the equivalent US Institutions? Why are they incompentent?
The G20 is just as unwieldy as the EU. The Chinese and US are not going to bail out Europe. Question is, if things go very badly in Europe then what effect will this have on the US recovery. If the US is pitched back into the tank, what are the political implications of that?
I don't understand why Greece wasn't shown the door temporarily from the EU until it was able to get is house in order. If the current bailout manages to go through which I'm beginning to doubt due to political concerns in Germany, this will ultimately set up yet another moral hazard situation without end. Moody's this morning is taking a closer look at both Portugal as well as Spain.
Last month a group of US hedge funds were investigated for collusion in planning short selling assaults on the euro. Having exhausted the developing world, which has largely tossed them out, have the economic hit men finally turned on the developing world?
This is not to say that Greece, Portugal, or Spain are without problems or fault. There is a general crisis in many of the developed country's fiat currencies, including the United States. The rising price of gold and silver, despite the heavy handed manipulation by a few of the banking centers, is a sure sign of a flight from paper controlled by central banks.
As the NY based stock tout crowed on Bloomberg this morning, "The US can inflate its way out of this crisis much more easily than can any other country." Well, it is an advantage to own the printing press, and to control key elements of the global financial system. Too bad the Eurozone folks didn't let their member states hold onto their printing presses just in case of emergencies. At this point the Elite running the show for the euro seem to be more like deer caught in a car's headlights.
The US will through the back door of the IMF. as it is the member nations that have to fund this group. No doubt, US tax payers will wonder why we're helping bail out Greece when we have greater problems at home that are not being addressed.
"Barbara": "I don't understand why Greece wasn't shown the door temporarily from the EU until it was able to get is house in order." Why is not California shown the door temporarily from the USA? Ridiculous statement is it not?
"If the choice is chaotic global collapse or unsavory financial rescue,which are you going to choose ?"____What Hank Paulson gave us (coincidently – a quite timely synthetic placebo) was an illicit panacea of transient amnesia parsed in druid youthism – this poison pill of faux-naif vulpinism that we swallowed whole! Lastly,I'd like too quote a line,or two from "8 Miles" (Marshall Bruce Mathers III/ Eminem &"Lose Yourself") "The clocks run out,times up over,Bloah – Snap back to reality,Oh there goes gravity"! (God I love this guy). This guys a voice crying for societies welled-up tears!!!
Spread your risk, unless you have a crystal ball. Don't invest more than 5% of your assets in commodities. When China crashes, all commodities will tank. Focus on asset preservation, don't chase profits. Put enough away to live on in an emergency for 6-months, including canned goods.
The EU is not a sovereign but an association of sovereigns. The EU is not much more than the US Confederation before 1789, a union of sovereignties. The Confederation was terribly weak and the EU is probably too weak to survive. The solution is a sovereign federal union of Europe which is impossible culturally, I should think. Sectional differences in the United States tore it apart and may well do so again. What glue their was in the United States derived from all sections being dominantly Anglo Saxon politically until possibly very recently. It seems rather evident that trends today are towards the ending of Federal Unions or at least their serious weakening. Look at the political weakening evident in the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
The sovereign's of the EU issue their own currency in Euro's through their central bank. Each Euro bill carries a designation of which state central bank issued the bill. L on a Euro bill denotes it was issued buy the Bank of Greece , if I remember correctly. The unredeemed liability for issued currency is carried on the books of the state central bank. The backing for the unredeemed currency of the state central bank are it's assets. This is the same methodology of currency managed by the United States Federal Reserve Banks.
Globalism by it's very nature will require strong regional federal unions and the opposite has been happening. More and more there is a return to tribalism associated in weak federations. The first ill wind looks to blow over the EU.
If this crisis does not collapse the EMU another surely will in the near future. The EU was a touchy feely globalist thing while most Europeans are as ethnic as they come. The EU survives only if it transforms itself into a strong federal union similarly to The Federal Republic of Germany.
The states of the United States , as sovereigns are not responsible for bailing out the debt of other states of the federation as is being attempted here. The current attempt to save the EMU derives from the same practical weakness albeit slickly hidden from view.
The crux of the problem is that a strong Hamiltonian federal union might be able to cure the problem. But such a state does not exist. It still boils down to the equivalent of say Wisconsin and Minnesota being required to guarantee the debts of California.
>Hank Paulson had a point in September 2008: If the choice is chaotic global collapse or unsavory financial rescue, which are you going to choose?
Horse manure! We made the world safe for Wall Street bankers and still had/have a global collapse. Paulson and the boys told us if we didn't act we'd have a huge drop in the stock market. We had that anyway!
We should have nationalized every company that required bailouts. Then we could have denied bonuses and forced those companies to reorganize. I seem to remember Simon saying this either in the book or in an interview. Paulson is the perfect example of the village idiot.
Re: @ StatsGuy_____Hmmmm,the Greenback pegged to the Yaun should/could do what?
Yeah, and next to the chile, keep a firearm handy.
Here's the link to the full 69 page Societe Generale: "Worst-Case Debt Scenario: Preparing Yourself Against Economic Collapse" (They're not joking.).
One of the problems in Europe is that many people obtained mortgages in foreign currency. Iceland is a good example. These people's mortgage payments have now skyrocketed. If any of the PIIGS repudiate their debt, I would imagine Germany and the other strong economies demanding their immediate departure from the euro zone. Their local currency would precipitously drop in value, okay for people who buy/live locally, but nasty for those tied into other currencies.
Not actually. The idea was floated by several EU members.
Why will China crash? You are thinking wishfully. China is rapidly becoming the world's top economic, not to mention military, power. They are locking-up important minerals that the rest of the world needs.
See my blog post "The coming USA-China war" (http://saucymugwump.blogspot.com/2009/11/coming-usa-china-war.html) and the many updates for more details.
Re: @ Wyndtunnel____"The Eqailizer",such is the wonderful dish of cyclicality fomented by gravity?
You forgot this Black Swan.
Temporarily or permanently? I've read of plenty of people wanting to permanently eject Greece from the euro zone and possibly from the EU, but I have yet to read anything about a temporary solution. Who would define the conditions under which Greece would be allowed to return? And why would the remaining countries allow a lying government back in? Do you have any URLs for this proposition?
Sovereigns, hah! Just wait until California has a monster earthquake. The federal government will give it trillions to rebuild and the other states will pay for it in taxes. The Orange County tea baggers will not be marching in the streets to halt that bailout.
When China Crashes, all commoddities will tank. YES OK.
Create alternating runs on both currencies. Misalignment of fiscal/monetary borders is disastrous. LatAm borrowing in dollars in the 1970s/80s.
Why would California not expect aid after having constitutionally delegated certain sovereign characteristic's on joining the United States of America? If a sovereign characteristic of power is delegated, the responsibilities that went with the delegation go with it.
Are States of the United States of America now only provinces? Personally, I think so, since the change to direct election of Senators a century ago. Of course, direct election of Senators had long been senile in and of itself. The legislatures ratifying the change converted sovereign states into a lost limbohood between sovereignties and provinces. The states united into the United States of America through their legislatures assembled have no representation in their own union.
Those reserves consist of fiat money printed by the 'blue-eyed devils' of the West. They can especially savor those Euros as they continue to fall in value.
Secondly, having grown up in a democratic country you seem to have forgotten that nation-states also have armies and the ability to change laws as they see fit. "Expropriation" can take care of a lot more than all the bankers in the world can dish out.
I agree the G20 involving itself in restructuring of loans (frauds) over the last ten years. Perhaps the int'l criminal court needs to consider crime and punishment for credit deals, both the banks intending to deceive and the politicians involved the same.
Unsavory financial rescue involves more moral hazard of lenders and investment banks.
Look, it's video of a voter from Greece, spent the last 11 years in a patio chair watching foreign tourists walk by. Now he's upset.
Do we really know how invested American banks are with the European bankrupt nations? Everytime the IMF gets involved in restructuring sovereign debt, the US taxpayers are also on the hook for big bucks. The prevailing notion is that the Euro crisis will not pose a substantial threat to the American economy. But can we really be sure about that?
Barbara: Floated by interpretation of what "EU members" means, seen from USA. You are obviously unawares of the existing EU constitution. There is no way out.
Thanks Jerry for the try. What I come away with is that the ECB is a facade because the "unredeemed liability for issued currency" is not carried on its books – its carried on the books of members' central banks. In contrast the FED carries virtually all, if not all (any US notes still in circulation?) unredeemed liability for issued dollars.
Does the ECB issue debt?
I wrote something a bit like this, and tried to publish it three times, but no luck. Our American, and some of our English friends, have little idea of what the EU is. It's is built on a need-to-build basis. The EU is not going to disappear, because it is an union built out of 1,000 years of war and mess, and the anxiety not to repeat it.
This crisis just show more European construction needs to be pushed. And you know what? This is strictly a Franco-German problem. Sarkozy may not be the best for this, and a more steady hand may be needed at the helm. Sarkozy should not have tried to go it alone with the Mediterranean Union, in a way that upset the entire Franco-German understanding.
So what happens when this "entitled aristocracy" has bought off our elected officials and controls our media?
Does the EU issue debt? Could it consolidate Greece's debt and issue Greek recovery bonds?
Each Federal Reserve Bank issues it's own currency based on it's asset holdings. The issued currency liability is recorded by each FRB on it's own books. One of the assets backing the currency at the FRB level are Gold Certificates valued at $42.35 an ounce. The Federal Reserve Board has no assets of a banking nature itself and issues no currency of it's own.
The ECB is an umbrella central bank with banking assets to act as a manager of the Euro system. Thus they do a lot of repos and reverse repos with the state central banks.
The unredeemed liability for currency is really a capital contribution on any FRB or central bank since it will never be " paid off". There would be no currency outstanding if they called in the currency. Before 1913, the US had ten kinds of currency and specie. It took until 1980 for the FRB's to grow and absorb the directly issued currencies of the United States. If the currency were called in, it would need to be replaced. Over the years after 1913, United States Notes were returned to the Treasury and the FRB's replaced the United States Notes and National Currency. This was done only as fast as the asset base of the FRB's could build. That is, as fast as the FRB could buy and hold Treasuries and also redeem US notes out of earnings repatriated to the Treasury. When a US Note was redeemed it was charged against the Treasury Deposit Liability Account to the extent that the same account was credited for interest or profits on Federal Reserve Notes.
The key point here is that the European States still issue currency directly traceable to their state central banks.
The current Greek bailout if it were in the US and the US had the EU system would be that the central banks of Wisconsin and Minnesota ,if they existed, would force their banks to buy the state debt of California.
The fate of the Euro money system depends now on state banks guaranteeing the bonds of other states within the Euro system. American states are not that far behind the PIIGS of Europe. The Federal Reserve System will also be forced to guarantee the state bonds of US states and their subdivisions on some basis akin to what happens in Europe.
If not, at some point Phhhhttttt to the US state financing system too.
The next few weeks will be very informative to say the least.
I've wrestled with this one for a long time in a different scenario. I concluded given a choice, to choose a short good time rather than a long miserable time.
Freddie Mac Chief Executive Officer Charles E. Haldeman, Jr.
I would agree if the miserable times were the same. But, I don't think they are. If this were the S&L crisis in the 90's we could paper it over, moral hazard involved. This time we can't. Therefore, I think this is a false choice based on not assessing the type of misery.
I see the misery being far greater taking out seconds with global banks. I see it far worse because of this bull market. We needed a purge and delevering. We didn't get it to protect the asset class. The protection is fake, it's tipping point debt.
Patrice, Greece lied and cheated it's way in. It has disrupted the tranquility of the EU. The EU is breaking all kinds of rules to appease them.
Of course there is a way out. Give them the boot. Once Greece defaults, banks and governments can take Greece to court and garnishee their revenue streams or take over title to their properties. Any attempt by an EU government to run interference will lead to a swift change in that country's government.
Leaving the EU is not a legal matter. Leaving the EU is a political matter. A few changes of government and the rules are clarified and the deed is done.
Re: @ Anonymous_____Ah yes,…live for the moment,maybe tommorrow the good lord comes to take you away! Yea baby,…and no one knows if the moment is a day or a hundred years. Fabulous!
I agree, and this latest crisis has significant potential to completely wreck the extremely fragile global economic 'recovery.' Things can happen with frightening speed when it comes to the markets. Unfortunately, most people would rather not prepare for the worst and simply hope for the best.
I fear that what we are living through, in hindsight might defined as, the best of times.
Surreal. More grief for the taxpayer and more insanity.
Just to clarify a bit, Euros are issued by the Eurosystem just as Federal Reserve Notes are issued by the Federal Reserve System. The notes actually are issued by component Federal Reserve Banks and you can see the individual currency liabilities in the US system. I sometimes look at the Eurosystem Consolidated Balance Sheet which was showing around E750 bn of issued currency liability and Gold and Gold Receivable assets of around E240 bn. They do not disclose the separate central banks consolidated into the Eurosystem. Does anyone know how to look at the individual banks consolidated into the Eurosystem Balance Sheet? The US Federal Reserve Board issues a weekly consolidation of all Federal Reserve Banks with consolidating detail.
Oddly, state gold holdings can be found listed by state elsewhere. Wikipedia.
The essential point of comparison to the US system is that the Federal Reserve Banks are controlled by a single polity, the United States of America, while the Eurosystem must share polity with member sovereigns. That must be a very difficult source of weakness in adversity as at present.
The crux here is that Greece wants a " Jamie Deal". As we now know, at the heart of the US crisis in September 2008, the other big banks all wanted " Jamie Deal's" too.
Are the European pols stuck and cannot avoid a financial collapse without political heat they cannot survive?
Are Europe's leaders losing control of the debt crisis?
Some economists are questioning whether European leaders are losing control in their attempts to contain the crisis.
SCAD's, wars for resource grabs & profits, and plenty of corporate welfare.
Elimination of anything more than a regulatory facade, allowing the "entitled aristocracy" and the corporations they control to run amok.
Axel Weber is currently the President of the Bundesbank and Jean Claude Trichet the President of the ECB.
In 2011 Weber may be the head of the ECB, but its not a done deal yet.
I've got the ECB's de-facto Chief Economist, Dr. Jurgen Stark is Asia next month, hopefully he'll be able to address some of the issues Simon and the numerous posters have raised.
Dr. James Bullard will be responding on behalf of the Federal Reserve – could be an interesting gathering in Tokyo and Hong Kong!!!
Control? Too late. This virus has mutated and has a life of its own.
The hope of an organic recovery at the cost of socializing losses, privatizing profits have vanished into the world of 'counter-party' risk taking.
The window of opportunity was missed while the political beasts howled socialism at the prospect of the over-lords owning up to the misdeeds, with temporary nationalization and then breaking up of the TBTF institutions and putting them back into the public sector with their weedy/greedy growth properly and cleanly hoed out. Now the food doesn't have a chance to grow and will be choked out and die.
The US missed its opportunity to show true leadership as a world power and the land of the free and the brave. No bravery here, only self-interest that is the virulent pox on us all.
Simon Johnson is right, expect nothing. The people will be hobbled by the trillions of excrement while responsibility and clear laws are totally skirted.
History is a fine teacher of what comes next only this time, I fear, the consequences will be far, far more dire.
There is really only one solution. The United Nations must declare a universal wealth tax, on all accumulated wealth above a certain figure, say $1 million. It could be a graduated tax, but it will have to be very stiff. In effect all those with assets of $1 billion or more should be paying at least 70%. The money should then go into a bailout fund and be paid out in grants (NOT loans) to all too-big-to-fail institutions (both businesses and governments). The UN can then hire every college graduate in the world without a job as investigators and police to make sure the tax is assessed fairly and is actually PAID.
Ignorant yank bias opinion? Which post are you singling out exactly? And how is an ignorant yank's opinion different from that of a limey? Please educate us.
Re: @ Pylon Yank___Pylon,…it's "Slimy Limey's"!
Righteo–I think you got it awfully good.
I say, bloody good, old chap.
My recollection is that Europe was well on its way to "unification" until Napoleon's disastrous overreach to Russin in 1812. Something similar happened when Herr Hitler looked east. Dictators do a great job of unifying disparate nations through the simple expedient of killing everyone more or less equally. All of the elements of "the former Yugoslavia" and "the former Soviet Union" were held together that way. It actually works. Only problem is all those bodies. If you truly want all debt issuance controlled by Frankfurt, just click your jackboot heels together and say, "There's no place like Das Reich; There's no place like Das…".
The EU fills a deep seated need for stability in Europe. The EU represents political and economic cooperation, the Euro fills out the trinity with a unified monetary union. Both the EU and the EMU have a great deal of support at all levels of European society. Having prospered for decades within the EU there is a willingness to make every reasonable effort to make the system work. I do not see the EU or the EMU breaking up any time soon. I do see the systems evolving over time to meet each new crisis as they arise.


text:
Archbishop Gomez…Coadjutor Sheriff…with Rights of Succession!
Posted on April 6th, 2010
by Hugh McNichol in All News
This mornings appointment of Archbishop Jose Gomez as the successor to Los Angeles' Cardinal Mahoney is a welcome announcement for the Catholic Church in the United States. As Coadjutor-Archbishop of Los Angeles, Gomez will be uniquely poised to take over the total administration of the Archdiocese when the Cardinal reaches the canonical age of retirement in February 2011.
Well regarded and held in high esteem by other members of the Church's hierarchy, Archbishop Gomez is perhaps the most logical appointment for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles because of his Hispanic heritage, but also because he had consistently shown his pastoral leadership in the Archdioceses of Denver, as an auxiliary bishop and as Archbishop of San Antonio. During his tenure in both of these positions, Archbishop Gomez has diligently applied the Catholic Church's moral teachings and worked with great zeal in considering the needs of migrants and immigrants of Hispanic origins.
Uniquely, he is also the only member of the American Catholic hierarchy that is a member of the personal prelature of Opus Dei. Initially ordained a priest for the service of the personal prelature of John-Paul II, Archbishop Gomez has risen steadily through the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. With an education that was based in Rome through Opus Dei, Los Angeles Catholics can expect their future Archbishop as one that observes Catholic Church teachings and doctrines from the perspective of Rome and Pope Benedict XVI.
With the appointment of Archbishop Gomez to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Pope Benedict XVI is sending a clear signal to the American Catholic Church that he trusts the future Ordinary of Los Angeles to effectively handle the crisis of clergy sex abuse that took place during the tenure of Cardinal Mahoney. With the appointment of Gomez, Catholics in the Los Angeles Archdiocese can anticipate another Archbishop that will become a member of the College of Cardinals after the retirement of the current incumbent. Most importantly, Benedict XVI is showing pastoral concern for the increasing number of Hispanic Catholics that continues to grow in the American Catholic Church. According to latest figures the Catholic population of Hispanic heritage is over one third of the American Catholic believers' ranks in the United States. South America continues to develop as the largest Catholic population in the world. The appointment of Archbishop Gomez signals a developing awareness of the Hispanic influences in the Western hemisphere, especially in the Western United States.
With Archbishop Gomez's ties to Opus Dei, the importance of evangelization and catechesis according to the traditional norms of the Catholic Church marks a strong departure for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which has traditionally had a less than orthodox approach to Catholicism. During his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI has made appointments of bishops in the United States of those that are mostly conservatives in interpreting Church teachings and directives, much to the disappointment of groups that are in favor of ordination of women and full inclusion of active homosexuals into daily Church life.
Most importantly, Archbishop Gomez at fifty-eight years old presents a new breed of traditional bishops that are obedient to the direction that Rome offers for the Universal Church. The liberal tendencies of the Catholic Church in the United States that developed after the Second Vatican Council are finally on the verge of total demise.
With this significant appointment of Archbishop Gomez, the Catholic Church in the Western United States is moving towards a revival of traditional and orthodox Catholicism, something Los Angeles hasn't seen in decades.
Thank God for the appointment of Archbishop Gomez to the See of Los Angeles. Ad Multos Annos!
Hugh J.McNichol is a Catholic author and journalist writing on Catholic topics and issues. He attended Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, where he studied both philosophy and theology. He writes frequently at http://verbumcarofactumest.blogspot.com & http://nothing-left-unsaid.blogspot.com . Hugh writes about his Irish Catholic upbringing and educational experiences at http://graysferrygrapevine.blogspot.com . He has contributed works to Catholic News Agency, Catholic Online, The Irish Catholic, Dublin, the British Broadcasting Company, London and the Philadelphia Bulletin, Catholic Exchange, Pewsitter.com, Blogger News Network & The Catholic Business Journal,CatholicMom.com. & Catholic.net Comments are always welcome at hjmn4566@gmail.com.
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The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
Previously published in slightly different form in The Cube.
"Man is not an animal," states Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Lancaster Dodd. Freddie Quell, portrayed in a career-defining turn by Joaquin Phoenix, seems willed into existence to challenge that belief. A pugnacious vagabond with a predilection for toxic alcoholic concoctions, Quell is a ball of twitchy-nervousness and repressed feelings that externalize themselves in his contorted posture and persistent sneer. Meanwhile, Hoffman brings Dodd to life with a distinctly Wellesian theatrical air. He is a man always aware of his audience, even when alone. The performances—like the characters—are a study in contrasts; this dichotomy is expertly visualized midway through the film in an excruciatingly long take that uses a dividing wall as a makeshift split-screen, observing the opposing reactions the characters exhibit when presented with the same predicament.
The contrapuntal relationship between these men is at the film's heart. Lancaster Dodd is the titular "Master," the figurehead of a burgeoning religion or, if you are feeling less charitable, cult. Freddie quite literally stumbles into his wake and is quickly swept away. The magnetism that develops between them in Freddie's first "processing" session is such that the viewer cannot help but submit to its attraction. Dodd sees in Freddie's mania something of an acid test for his crackpot theories, and Freddie, a man who has lived his entire life held at an arm's length by others, is mesmerized by the constant attention Dodd bestows upon him. The latest in a chain of surrogate father-son relationships that populate the films of Paul Thomas Anderson, it serves to both fuel and undermine the characters while inspiring concern in Dodd's wife.
Anderson's last film, There Will Be Blood, was widely considered one of the best films of the previous decade, and the intervening five years—rife with production disputes, financiers backing out, etc.—have created a wave of anticipation for The Master. If it does not appear to reach the heights of its predecessor, it is likely because Anderson has forgone the spectacular set pieces of previous films in favor of a quieter style that is less cathartic. Intimate close-ups wrench every ounce of emotion from the actor's faces, while patient wide shots relate the rare bursts of action. This strategy conveys the cast's performances to the audience as transparently as possible without ceding directorial authority. Beautiful cinematography, seamless editing, and a disconcerting score, courtesy of Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, make it all appear effortless.
Much has been made of the film's roots in the history of Scientology, and while that is undoubtedly a factor, Anderson has greater aims. A film satirizing or condemning the contentious religion would have been much easier to conceive but resulted in a lesser artistic expression. Anderson's masterstroke is humanizing Lancaster Dodd, seeing in him a long line of charlatans, showmen, and hucksters who have populated the American landscape and captivated its imagination. Scientology's L. Ron Hubbard is only the most imposing of these men who believe—or at least profess to believe—they possess the cure to the nation's spiritual ills.
In this sense, The Master is a markedly modernist work, tracking Dodd's tortured Superego as it attempts to tame the unruly postwar American Id as manifested in Freddie Quell. Amy Adams, as Dodd's wife, attempts to play the role of the Ego, but never manages to do more than delay the growth of the malignant codependency developing between the two. It is a metaphor for the film itself, the epic, self-assured filmmaking struggling to come to terms with the messiness of the personalities on display. In fact, the most common complaint likely to be leveled at the film is that, within this metaphor, it lacks an effectual Ego in the form of a recognizable narrative structure. Nonetheless, it is an example of an artist in complete command of his craft; just don't go in expecting easy answers, The Master doesn't have them.
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A Thread Runs Through It
A Facebook friend posted that he has gone running for 425 days straight, logging in a whopping 4,463 miles. In response, his Japanese friend wrote this comment:
素晴らしい継続力ですね。
Wonderful ability to stick to it!
素晴らしい (すばらしい: wonderful); 継続力 (けいぞくりょく: stick-to-it-ness)
The word 継続力 arrested me, and not only because I'd never encountered it before. At its heart we find this word, which I'll enlarge so you can fully appreciate its appearance:
継続 (けいぞく: continuity, continuation) to follow + to continue
I love how the "thread" radical (糸) repeats here, creating a striking visual. And it makes sense that the "thread" radical would keep popping up in a word for "continuity." After all, consider the ways in which we use the word "thread." We might say, "Don't lose the thread of the narrative as you write this article" or "The thread running through everything you've said is ..."
I've actually been thinking a lot about continuity lately—in particular about the connection between the past and present. Both voluntarily and by chance, I keep revisiting my earliest years, trying to remember what happened and to bring a different perspective to it all. In my Nia dance class last week, for instance, the teacher had us "return" to an embryonic state and then move through infant development, eventually crawling and then standing. (She pronounced this profoundly healing for some people. I was not one of them!)
I couldn't always tolerate a return to the past. For years I envisioned life as a timeline in which the past faded into oblivion off the left side of the "page." I wanted to turn toward the future, the "right side," and I felt an almost reckless amount of license to ignore the past, as if none of it mattered anymore. After all, we hear plenty of messages about that. People often urge us to move forward, to let go of what has happened. We're encouraged to reinvent ourselves, to start fresh, to treat tomorrow as the first day of the rest of our lives. (Can I squeeze any more cliches in there?!)
But it's really not so simple, is it? The past remains alive in every part of me, often flooding me with memories against my will. Actually, this happened when I joined Facebook a few years ago. As I accepted friend requests (because it seemed safer to remain passive about the whole "friending" business), I was stunned to feel the past rushing toward me. So many people from so many schools and towns that I'd left behind. No one had stayed frozen in 1982 or 1990, though that's where I had left them. Rather, they were very much in the present, often with their own kids. Nevertheless, these old classmates wanted to reminisce about long-ago years. Oh, and people mainly seemed to have happy memories!
As I realized, Facebook reconnects you not only with people but also with vast stretches of time.
My classmates' reminiscing initially terrified me. I had walled off so much of the past in my mind, and their chitchat threatened to blast apart my "Berlin Wall."
But the longer this went on, the more I realized that the past is common space that we all inhabited. It's not just my personal material to reject as I please! And as long as other people remember the things we experienced and the places we lived, the past remains relevant and accessible.
The flat timeline stretching across the page isn't really an accurate image, then. What shape should it have?
When I wrote essay 1835 on 又, which primarily means "again," I kept coming back to the circular aspects of life. Every night turns into day again. Every year brings us back to spring. For instance, I included this sample sentence in the essay, noting that it seems to be full of hope.
春が又巡ってきた。
Spring has come around again.
春 (はる: spring); 巡る (めぐる: to go around)
Of course, 又 could just as easily convey the return of typhoon season!
I decided that we're preoccupied with daily and annual cycles, largely because these repetitions often bring us comfort, telling us what to expect and reminding us that we've survived similar challenges before.
As I considered the repeating rhythms of life, I kept hearing certain songs in my head, including Harry Chapin's "All My Life's a Circle." And, as I realized, it makes sense to associate music with the concept of "again." After all, people often sing about upsetting patterns. Countless songs convey something like "He did it to me again" or "I've lost at love again." What better way to heal from pain than to sing about it?
Then, too, songs contain huge amounts of repetition. Chords repeat. Choruses repeat. The repetition is the structure. When it comes to music, we actually love repetition. Once we know how a song goes, we feel a terrific sense of mastery and comfort. Unlike with most things, we don't require a fresh experience each time we hear music. Rather, there's a certain pleasure in going down a familiar road again and again, emotionally speaking.
Eventually, I decided to go with this strong association and to find a musical pairing for each nuance of 又, much as a sommelier finds wine to accompany any given dish. I ended up producing "Mata: The Musical," which just went live today! A preview:
Coincidentally, the theme of memory came up in a different way last night. I remembered that Rajorshi De had once sent me this wonderful photo (though in a worrisome lapse of memory I didn't recall where I had stored it and needed to dig out that old email again!):
Photo Credit: Rajorshi De
Hotel Kanji in Jaipur in Rajasthan, India.
I figured that this picture would be a great complement to the FAQ section "How Will Joy o' Kanji Help Me Learn Japanese Characters?" In that part of the site, I had mused about how the memory works. And as I realized yesterday, our brains are like "kanji hotels" with scads of rooms in which characters can lodge. Or at least our brains should work like that, but lots of characters seem to "check out" far too soon, don't they?!
It's so tricky, this matter of memory and of what stays in our minds forever while other things slip out immediately.
Enough of all this. I hope you have an incredibly memorable weekend—in a good way!


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Ralph LaRossa Takes on New Tasks: President and COO of PSEG Power
Tom Johnson | June 26, 2017 | Energy & Environment
Move, press release seem to confirm speculation that he is being groomed to replace Izzo — chairman, president, and CEO of PSEG
Ralph LaRossa, president and COO of PSEG Power
Ralph LaRossa, the executive who led Public Service Electric & Gas through a huge modernization of the century-old utility over the past few years, is getting a new job — with a more prominent position likely in his future.
The 54-year-old LaRossa, a self-described Jersey guy from Bergen County, will take over as president and chief operating officer of PSEG Power and its fleet of generating stations, which supplies electricity to most of the state. He starts October 2.
David Daly will take over the helm at the state's largest electric and gas utility, serving as president and chief operating officer of PSE&G. The 55-year-old Daly joined the utility in 1983 and most recently was president and COO of PSEG Long Island.
For LaRossa, the promotion appears to confirm speculation that he is in line to replace his boss, Ralph Izzo, chairman, president, and CEO of PSEG, one of the state's most influential and biggest employers.
In announcing the new job, the 59-year-old Izzo hinted his longtime colleague would eventually replace him in the company's press release on Friday. "Moreover, the broadening of Ralph's background is consistent with our long-term succession-planning efforts,'' Izzo said.
In taking over PSEG Power, LaRossa faces some tough issues in a tumultuous energy sector. Cheap natural gas prices have lowered prices for power suppliers. That's a boon to consumers, but has punished the bottom line for generators using nuclear and coal.
Closing down coal plants
PSEG earlier this month closed its two remaining coal plants in New Jersey at Hudson and Mercer, and the company is pushing hard to win financial incentives for its three nuclear units, which Izzo has threatened to close if they start losing money.
Less than a decade ago, PSEG Power was the primary driver of profits for its Newark parent, pulling in more than two-thirds of PSEG's earnings. Today, PSE&G has reversed that role, increasing its profits with a huge investment program that is expected to run more than $13 billion over the next five years, most of it devoted to the utility.
The spending includes building new transmission lines; improving the utility's resiliency to extreme storms; and modernizing its aging gas pipelines.
At PSE&G, LaRossa, a well-known and well-regarded figure to the state's powers that be, also presided over the utility during the spate of huge storms that left millions without power, most notably Hurricane Sandy. The storm flooded dozens of substations, knocking out power to customers for a week or more in some cases.
In its aftermath, PSE&G won approval from state regulators for a $1.2 billion Energy Strong program to enhance its distribution system and to make it more resilient to avoid long blackouts in the future.
LaRossa joined the utility in 1985, advancing through a variety of management positions in the utility's gas and electric operations. He had been president at PSE&G since 2006, eventually leading the utility through its largest capital program in its history.
The designation as heir apparent to run PSEG is not unexpected. "It doesn't surprise me, given the long time Ralph has worked there,'' said Paul Patterson, an energy analyst at Glenrock Associates in New York City.


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Ashley Calingo
Marine Corps off-the-shelf utility vehicles are getting some upgrades
(US Marine Corps photo by Ashley Calingo)
The Marine Corps' Utility Task Vehicles are undergoing several upgrades designed to improve the safety and performance of the vehicle.
Using critical feedback from Marines and taking inspiration spanning the automotive industry to desert racing, engineers and logisticians from the Light Tactical Vehicle program office at Program Executive Officer Land Systems have been working diligently to research, test, procure and implement changes to the UTV.
These changes include high clearance control arms, new run-flat tires, floorboard protection, a road march kit, a clutch improvement kit and an environmental protection cover.
"We bought the vehicle as a [commercial-off-the-shelf] solution, so it's not going to have everything we want right from the factory," said Jason Engstrom, lead systems engineer for the UTV at PEO Land Systems.
Since PEO Land Systems started fielding the UTV in 2017, Marines have consistently pushed the limits of their vehicles, said Engstrom, in many ways beyond what is expected or imagined with a typical off-the-shelf solution.
"Even though we're in the operations, maintenance and sustainment phases with the vehicle, it's such a new vehicle and we're seeing Marines constantly push the limits of the truck," said Engstrom. "Every day we're seeing Marines come up with new ideas on how to use the truck."
High Clearance Control Arms
US Marines drive a Utility Task Vehicle at Fire Base Um Jorais in Iraq, July 4, 2018.
(US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Carlos Lopez)
The first of these upgrades involves installing high clearance control arms on the vehicle — a crucial component of the vehicle's suspension system.
"With the different types of terrain Marines cover in these vehicles, we noticed the [original] control arms were frequently getting bent," said Engstrom. "Rocks were probably the biggest hazard, and that's primarily where the Marines were driving."
A bent or damaged control arm can disable a vehicle, said UTV logistician Rodney Smith.
To address this issue, the team looked to industry and ultimately settled on a control arm comprised of material about twice as strong as the original control arms and that provided an extra 2.5 inches of clearance.
With this upgrade, Marines are better equipped to drive off the beaten path while minimizing their risk of damaging the control arms on their vehicles.
Clutch Improvement Kit
US Marines conduct Utility Task Vehicle training at Story Live Fire Complex in South Korea, June 9, 2017.
(US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. David A. Diggs)
The UTV team is also outfitting the vehicle with a clutch improvement kit. The UTV's clutch is an important component of the vehicle's transmission system, which is essential in making the vehicle run.
"One of the things that came right from the factory was a belt-driven [transmission] system," said Engstrom. "Just like with the control arms, a broken belt takes the whole vehicle out of action."
The upgraded clutch kit reconfigures the clutch system, enabling it to better engage the belt to keep it from breaking, said Engstrom.
Floorboard Protection
Marines unload a Utility Task Vehicle from an MV-22B Osprey on Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, February 19, 2019.
(US Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Camila Melendez)
The team has also began upgrading the vehicle's floorboard, which showed evidence of damage after a recent deployment.
"When Marines deployed the vehicles to Australia, they found that high-density sticks and branches on the ground have the potential to pop up and puncture the plastic floorboard, which is a safety hazard," said Engstrom.
Upon receiving this feedback from Marines, the UTV team researched and tested various potential materials to use in protecting the floorboard.
"We wanted to find a solution that kept the weight down because putting too much weight in the design of the vehicle — like a reinforced floorboard — impacts the amount of cargo Marines can carry on it," said Smith. "Every pound counts."
For the UTV's tire upgrades, the team turned to a novel source for inspiration: the Baja off-road racing industry.
"There's a new approach to run-flat technology — called 'Tireballs,'" said Engstrom. "Inside each tire are 16 inflatable cells, so if any one cell pops from running over a spike or nail, you'd still have 15 other cells full of air to continue driving on."
This, said Engstrom, significantly enhances the UTV's operational readiness for Marines, allowing them to go farther for longer in the UTV. Along with the Tireballs, the team selected an upgraded tire from BF Goodrich that is more durable than the previous, exceeding performance requirements in various environments that mimic the challenging terrains Marines face.
"The Baja racers are using these tires now while completing 1000-mile races out in the desert," said Engstrom. "We decided it would be a good upgrade for Marines."
Environmental Protection Cover
US Marines patrol in their Utility Task Vehicle during a combat readiness evaluation, North Carolina, August 1, 2019.
(US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Kenny Gomez)
The Environmental Protection Cover, another upgrade to the UTV, provides Marines with protection from the elements while they're out in the field.
"Have you ever been in a convertible on a hot, sunny day and put the roof up? That's exactly what this is," said UTV engineer Christopher Swift. "It's necessary after being out in the field 8-12 hours a day in the hot sun, especially if it's the only shelter available."
Road March Kit
The team started fielding the UTV's Road March Kit — comprising turn signals, a horn, and a rearview mirror — last March. Marines from III Marine Expeditionary Force requested these features be added for safety, especially when transitioning between training areas on roads also used by civilian motorists.
The Road March Kit upgrade, along with the other vehicle upgrades, underscores the importance Marines' user feedback is to the acquisition professionals tasked with delivering products to the warfighter.
"We try to meet customer needs within the requirement [determined by Marine Corps Combat Development and Integration]," said UTV Team Lead Lorrie Owens. "If we can meet the customers' need to make it more reliable and durable, we will certainly do so within the realm of the requirement."
The UTV team is taking advantage of the vehicle's general maintenance schedule to implement the upgrades, which will be done alongside regular maintenance and services.
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The 13 funniest military memes for the week of April 19th


Dyno-tab® ULTRA Fuel Booster is designed for lower sulfur diesel fuel, or any gasoline/petrol that is of low quality or diluted with alcohol. This complete multi-functional additive delivers all the benefits of Dyno-tab® and Dyno-tab® PLUS, such as reduced friction, wear, emissions and carbon buildup. It increases power and performance, aids in keeping fuel fresh, boosts mileage and has a proprietary lubricant to aid in engine longevity. In the USA, for off-road use only. Give it a try today!


To overcome whale optimization algorithm's disadvantages of poor convergence and being easily trapped in local optima in solving Job-Shop scheduling problem, this paper proposed a quantum whale optimization algorithm(QWOA) based on the idea of quantum computation. Then it provided the computational complexity analysis, global convergence proof and simulation experiments of QWOA. Based on a set of 11 JSP benchmark instances, the simulation experiments show that QWOA has better results than whale optimization algorithm(WOA), cuckoo search(CS) and grey wolf optimizer(GWO), in the minimum value, average value and success rate. Finally, this paper concludes that QWOA has the merits of higher convergence accuracy, higher local optima avoidance and better exploration.


Air Arms obviously make a wide range of quality air rifles and pistols, either pre-charged pneumatics (PCPs) or spring powered; they also make numerous accessories. They don't do anything by halves and everything that they make is well designed and manufactured; there's no re-branding of existing products here! I've recently been looking at a couple of items from their range, a target and a gun bag – here's what I thought.
The target comes as a 'kit' that needs to be assembled and it really is easy, well, it is if you read the well-written instructions; if you can't put this item together, you shouldn't be using an air rifle in the first place!
There are 11 zinc-coated steel parts that need to be assembled but you only need two 10mm spanners to fit it all together. The main part of the unit is shaped like an elongated capital 'Y' and the bottom part is twisted for strength and pointed at the end, so that it can be pushed into the ground; the top 'arms' are also twisted, with holes drilled in the top. There are three spinners that have to be positioned along a 4½-inch bolt, with steel spacers between them. It's important to assemble the spinners and spacers in the correct order, otherwise they won't be able to move correctly; I once saw one of these targets on an air rifle range and people couldn't work out why it wouldn't work correctly – they obviously hadn't read the instructions!
Once everything is assembled correctly, the Nyloc nut is tightened and you're nearly ready to go, as you need to stick the circular targets on the end of the spinners. The round targets on the end of the bars are smaller on the top and, once either the top or bottom are struck, the weight of the heavier bottom disc resets it. The targets range in size from 12mm to 30mm, so it's a challenging target to use and the range can be altered to make it more difficult. All in all, a very well-made target.


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Toronto shortlisted as a new Amazon HQ2 location
News · January 24, 2018 7:00 am ·
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Toronto was recently shortlisted by Amazon as a candidate site for the company's massive new headquarters.
Alongside Toronto — which was the only Canadian city shortlisted — there are 19 US cities, including Austin, Boston, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Over 200 cities began vying to be selected when last year, the e-commerce giant Amazon issued a call for cities to submit proposals to be the potential location of the company's second headquarters.
In response to Amazon's call for cities to submit their proposals, Toronto Global — a not-for-profit organization established by the government — put forward a proposal on behalf of the Toronto Region, a phrase they use to refer to the "cities of Toronto, Mississauga, and Brampton and the Regions of Durham, York and Halton as well as the neighbouring municipalities of Guelph, Waterloo Region, and Hamilton."
The proposal emphasizes Canada's open immigration policies as well as the abundance of science and technology oriented post-secondary institutions in the Greater Toronto Area, which could potentially bring talent to Amazon.
Amazon has said that they plan on making their new headquarters equal in size to its current headquarters in Seattle, which it claims to have made a tremendous contribution to the local economy.
Specifically, the proposal singles out three of the major universities within the GTA and Waterloo Region: McMaster University, the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo, for their high stature in global university rankings, with an emphasis on the University of Waterloo's large and robust co-op program.
Unlike a number of other cities that made the shortlist, however, Toronto did not offer Amazon large subsidies as incentive.
"[It's] critical to remember that the Toronto Amazon HQ2 bid did not offer subsidies as a way to get at the table. Our proposal touted our quality of life, openness to immigration and current/forthcoming transit investments as the key reasons to come," Jennifer Keesmaat, former chief city planner for City of Toronto, said in a tweet on Jan. 18 following the announcement.
Excited by the announcement was Toronto mayor, John Tory, who tweeted the potential economic boost which Amazon could bring to the region.
"We have incredible homegrown success stories and Amazon would further accelerate our success by investing more than $5 billion in construction and creating as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs. We are excited to have this opportunity and to be able to tell Toronto's unique story," Tory said in a Jan. 18 tweet.
"Amazon estimates its investments in Seattle from 2010 through 2016 resulted in an additional $38 billion to the city's economy — every dollar invested by Amazon in Seattle generated an additional $1.40 for the city's economy overall," reads a statement on Amazon's website.
The next steps for the selection process include more direct communication between Amazon and prospective cities as well as a deeper analysis of each city's proposal, per an Amazon press release.
Tags: Amazon, HQ2 Draft, Short list, Toronto
Author: Jake Watts
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Home / EVENTS / Rugby World Cup in India.…for those 25 million Rugby fans who are ranked the third highest in the world
Rugby World Cup in India.…for those 25 million Rugby fans who are ranked the third highest in the world
Poulomi Kundu August 9, 2018 EVENTS Leave a comment
Commonwealth Games- P V Sindhu and Manpreet Singh lead the Indian contingent in the Parade of Nations
Chess Olympiad- the 44th edition of the biggest show of Chess begins in India
A research by the renowned global information and data agency Nielsen shows that there are around 25.7 million Rugby fans in India. The analysis further reveals that India is the third largest in the world in terms of supporters of this beautiful game. In the last two years there has been an upright growth and development of Rugby across India. The nation is now ranked first in Asia and third in the world in terms of participation numbers through World Rugby's Get Into Rugby programme. It has reached to over 1,60,000 participants, with 40 per cent female participation in 2017.
Rajyavardhan Rathore at the inauguration of World Cup Trophy Tour in Delhi
Noticing this growth in India, the World Federation had chosen India as one of their destinations for the Rugby World Cup Trophy Tour in the lead up to Japan 2019. Along with India, the Webb Ellis Cup (the World Cup as it is known as) will also visit Malaysia, Pakistan, Brazil, Nepal and Chile for the first time. In total there are 18 nations where the Cup will travel.
Sports Minister, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, launched the Trophy Tour in India, welcoming the Webb Ellis Cup to Delhi. "We are delighted to welcome the Webb Ellis Cup to India as the countdown to Rugby World Cup 2019 gets underway. We are happy to see India included within the 18 nations that will be visited by the Rugby World Cup 2019 Trophy Tour," addressed Rathore in the presence of World Rugby Chief Executive Brett Gosper, Asia Rugby President Aga Hussain and Rugby India President Numazar Mehta.
Ex-Indian player and film actor Rahul Bose in Mumbai with the trophy
The sport that was once confined to Indian elites in the Gymkhanas of Mumbai and Clubs of Kolkata, has managed to expand its base to smaller towns and rural areas of India. Rugby is now a core sport in the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) for the U-14, U-17 and U-19 boys and girls categories. It is also part of AIU's National University Games calendar. Elated by this rapid growth of Rugby in India, Brett Gosper said "As rugby continues its unprecedented global growth, with 9.1 million men, women and children playing the sport in 2017, we want to inspire and engage Rugby fans and players in India using the excitement of the Webb Ellis Cup and sharing the values and passion of Rugby. We are delighted to see Rugby become a core sport in national schools and universities and look forward to working with the authorities and our partners to continue to grow the game throughout India."
The event in Delhi was hosted by former Indian Rugby player and film actor Rahul Bose. With the excitement of seeing Rugby's greatest prize in India, Bose conferred, "Rugby has grown beyond Rahul Bose. It is a sport that has now been picked and accepted by the common man."
From left to right: Gautam dagar, Neha Pardeshi, Asia Rugby President Aga Hussain, Vahbiz Bharucha and Nasser Hussain
Film actor Sidhdhrth Malhotra and Rahul Bose involved in a fun session of Rugby during the tour in Mumbai
The Trophy Tour that aimed to engage and excite new and existing Rugby fans, had its next stops at Mumbai and Bhubaneshwar. The national governing body not only supported the Tour, but also used it as an opportunity to reach out to 50,000 new Rugby participants. All Rugby India affiliated State Associations, Zonal Associations, District Associations, clubs, schools, universities, colleges, communities, corporate and volunteers were involved to make it India's biggest Get Into Rugby activation to date.
This is for the first time the Rugby World Cup is to take place in an Asian country. Speaking on that Brett Gosper said, "Japan 2019 marks the first time the world's third largest sports event will be hosted in Asia and every effort is being made to maximise this opportunity to grow the sport in the region. Project Asia 1 Million, part of the Impact Beyond legacy programme which set a target of attracting one million new Rugby participants by 2020, is making very strong progress with over 5,00,000 new participants involved already."
Poulomi Kundu
PoulomiKundu started her career in 2000 as a freelance journalist in Hindustan Times. Soon after she was selected an intern in Zee News, Kolkata.
After her post- graduation in English, Poulomi joined the leading television production house of eastern India, Rainbow Productions. She was a journalist in Khas Khobor, a Bengali news magazine programme in Doordarshan and also headed the post production department of another programme, Khas Kolkata.
In 2004, Poulomi moved to Delhi as a creative writer in an advertising agency, Brand Stewards Pvt. Ltd. In 2005, she again shifted her base for a better opportunity and that in Mumbai. There she got the job in Raa Media Pvt Ltd. as an associate director of two programmes for Doordarshan-Yuva and Paisa Vasool. In the meantime, she also wrote features in DNA as a freelancer.
Poulomi directs promotional videos, develops scripts for films for Corporate and NGOs. But an ardent sports lover, Poulomi always had an urge to contribute somewhere in the field of sports. Her love for sports started from an early age when she played gully cricket and football for local teams. Academics and professional hazards sometimes took her away from her passion, but it never died in her. She always nurtured the never-ending dream.
So she materialized her dream in the form of 'SPORTSAVOUR'. It is an online sports portal that serves sports with the tagline 'For the indigenous, unconventional, unknown'.
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World Games 2022- India's participation continues with team comprising of veterans like Pankaj Advani and newbies like Dhanush Babu
India has been participating in the World Games since its inception; the 11th edition of …


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Home News Shark Tales lands lawyer in hot water
Shark Tales lands lawyer in hot water
William Pimlott
A lawyer who featured in a Cherwell video stands to face disciplinary procedures, the Independent has reported.
The lawyer appears in the video saying: "I'm a City Lad and I fucking love the ladness… The ladness is basically just fucking people over for money.' Later he remarks "I refuse my consent for this to go on the internet and I will sue you if you put it on".
The video was released on the 10th of May and the lawyer's remarks initially went unreported. But the video found its way onto legal blogs on Friday and Clifford Chance has now responded saying: "The comments made are inappropriate and they are at odds with our principles and the professional standards we espouse as a firm. One of our trainee lawyers is the subject of our formal disciplinary procedures which may result in termination of the training contract with the firm"
Clifford Chance is known as one of the City's magic circle law firms and according to an article in The Lawyer published on the 4th of June on its website pays its trainees for the upcoming year £39,000 in the first year and £44,000 in the second year.
Toby Mather, the presenter and director of Shark Tales, commented "What the news of this disciplinary procedure illustrates is the evolution of modern working life in an age of social media: changing one's name on Facebook to help get a job is all good and well, but if you then fling drunken opinions at a camera lens once in the job, it does to some extent undermine all the hard work."
"Blaming the influence of alcohol to explain away such bigotry is pretty flimsy; I'm no Freudian, but that guy has a really big 'id'."
In other news Mather, photographer for a naked calendar of Oxford University's blues sportsmen, is believed at the moment to be taking legal advice over breach of copyright by major news organisations.
The video is available on Cherwell's YouTube channel. The appearence in question can be found at 4:15 and 6:43.
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Q: create Realm DB for each user in Chat App this one for sending message and save it to realm db
 var messageIndex = try! Realm().objects(MessageRealm.self).sorted(byKeyPath: "timeStamp")

 func didPressSend(text: String) {
    if self.inputContinerView.inputTextField.text! != "" {
        let messageDB = MessageRealm()
        let realm = try! Realm()
        let userRealm = UsersRealm()

        messageDB.textDownloadded = text
        messageDB.fromId = user!.fromId
        messageDB.timeStamp = Date()
        print(messageDB)

        try! realm.write ({
            print(realm.configuration.fileURL)
            userRealm.msgs.append(messageDB)
            //realm.create(MessageRealm.self, value: ["textDownloadded": text, "fromId": user!.fromId, "timeStamp": Date()])
        })
        if let userTitleName = user?.toId {
            print(userTitleName)
            OneMessage.sendMessage(text, thread: "AAAWatree", to: userTitleName, isPhoto: false, isVideo: false, isVoice: false, isLocation: false, timeStamp: date, completionHandler: { (stream, message) in
                DispatchQueue.main.async {
                    OneMessage.sharedInstance.deleteCoreDataMessage()
                }
                self.inputContinerView.inputTextField.text! = ""
            })
        }
    }
}

This for when recieving message im trying to save user (send id )
  let realm = try! Realm()
                    userData.sender = sender
                    userData.toId = toUser
                    print(userData.sender)
                    print(userData.toId)
                        try! realm.write ({
                            realm.add(userData, update: true)

                        })

this my Realm Object Class
class MessageRealm: Object {

dynamic var textDownloadded = String()
dynamic var imageDownloadded = NSData()
dynamic var videoDownloadded = String()
dynamic var voiceDownloadded = String()
dynamic var fromId = String()
dynamic var timeStamp = Date()
dynamic var messageId = NSUUID().uuidString
let userSelect = List<UsersRealm>()
override class func primaryKey() -> String? {
    return "messageId"
}

}

class UsersRealm: Object {
dynamic var sender = String()
dynamic var fromId = String()
dynamic var toId = String()
dynamic var lastMessage = String()
dynamic var timeStamp = Date()
dynamic var profileImage = NSData()
let msgs = List<MessageRealm>()
override class func primaryKey() -> String {
    return "sender"
}
}

sending and reciving is ok and its save to realm db but all any user send message i recived in one user i want to seprate for every user have his sending and recive database i miss something here but i dont know i try to search nothing its long question but i cant figure out the soluation
and sorry for my week english
Thank you

A: If I understood your case correctly you're using a single realm url for all users that's why all your clients have the same data. You should probably create a separate realm for the conversation and share it between the users who participate in that chat. Please learn more about sharing realms in our docs at https://realm.io/docs/swift/latest/#access-control.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Silicon Valley Tech Giants Race to Build Africa's Internet Infrastructure. Should Africa worry?
by Kelvin Nyaga, October 20, 2021
Written by Kofi Yeboah
Since the 1990s, several local and international efforts have been made by governments, telecommunications firms and development organizations to improve internet infrastructure networks in Africa.
Yet, Africa still has the lowest internet penetration rate at below 40 percent compared to the global average of 58 percent in the world. Only seven African countries in the 2019 Networked Readiness Index top 100 rankings — with none in the top 70.
Now, tech giants like Google and Facebook, based in the United States' Silicon Valley, in California, lead the race to invest in internet infrastructure in Africa. What's at stake for these tech giants to take such a lead in Africa's digital future?
Before these tech giants came along, other internet infrastructure projects implemented in Africa intended to widen internet connectivity for all Africans. For example, the African Union established the e-Africa program, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) committed $15 million under its Leland project, the African Development Bank supported the establishment of the East Africa Submarine Cable System and the World Bank committed about $424 million.
All projects had a collective goal to build internet infrastructure that connects all African countries to each other and the rest of the world through existing and planned submarine and terrestrial cable systems.
Africa has the world's fastest growth in terms of mobile phone penetration, making the continent "business attractive" to global tech companies like Google and Facebook.
Silicon Valley tech companies take the lead in Africa
Over the years, the private sector — mostly telecommunications — has driven internet infrastructure expansion on the continent, but billion-dollar tech companies in Silicon Valley have dominated this expansion over the last few years.
Google is the first tech and non-telecommunication company not only to invest in a high-bandwidth subsea cable system but also to build a private intercontinental cable.
In 2011, Google started an internal project, CSquared, to build metropolitan fiber-optic networks, which is leased by Mobile Network Operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on a wholesale model.
The project — now an independent and commercially driven company — has partnered with Mitsui & Co. (Japan), Convergence Partners (South Africa) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank Group), under a consolidated fund of $100 million, to invest in broadband internet infrastructure in Africa.
The tech company now owns and operates over 890 kilometers of metropolitan fiber in the cities of Kampala and Entebbe in Uganda; more than 1070 kilometers of fiber in three cities in Ghana and 180 kilometers in Monrovia, Liberia.
Google also operates its own private internet infrastructure projects in Africa, including Project Loon, currently operating in Kenya, and Equiano (named after the Nigerian writer and former slave Olaudah Equiano) — a subsea fiber optic internet infrastructure that will connect Africa and Europe when completed in 2021.
Clearly, Google intends to lead the race in investing in infrastructure in Africa, but Facebook also seems to be a fierce competitor, despite the failed attempts to use solar-powered internet drones to provide internet access.
Facebook tried alternative options to connect Africans to the internet via its Freebasics application, in which the company partnered with telecom providers in developing countries to let users access a pre-selected number of sites, including Facebook, without using any extra data. Freebasics was banned in India and heavily criticized by civil societies, including Global Voices, for being a medium to collect user data and did not actually connect the "unconnected" to the internet.
In the past, Facebook largely focused on leveraging existing internet infrastructures in advanced economies rather than investing in new ones. For example, Facebook partnered with Internet Society to provide internet to rural communities in Africa by using Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)— an access point where multiple local and international networks, ISPs, and content providers interconnect their networks instead of through third-party networks.
The company also implemented its Express Wifi project in Africa, where Facebook provides a comprehensive Wi-Fi platform that partners (telecom operators) can leverage to better manage and grow their Wi-Fi offering to local communities.
In 2013, Mark Zuckerberg explained in an essay why it does not make economic sense to invest in building internet infrastructure in the developing countries to provide internet:
Although the cost of building and maintaining networks made it prohibitively expensive to provide full internet access to everyone in the world, a focused effort on reducing the cost of delivering data and building more efficient apps would make it economically feasible to provide a set of basic online services for free to those who could not afford them.
Yet, Facebook has now committed several millions of dollars to build internet infrastructure in developing countries — including Africa. Zuckerberg understood that to "beat" Google in this race, it needed to be a real athlete.
Last year, Facebook partnered with Main One to build a 750-kilometer terrestrial open-access fiber optic internet infrastructure in Nigeria, partnered with Airtel to build an 800-kilometer fiber connection in Uganda, and a 100-kilometer fiber connection in South Africa.
On May 13, Facebook announced 2Africa — one of the company's hugest investments yet in building internet infrastructure in Africa. The project intends to build arguably the largest internet submarine fiber-optic cable to provide internet to Africa and the Middle East. The partnership includes Facebook, China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect (a branch of the South African MTN group), French multinational telecommunications corporation Orange, Saudi Arabia-based telecom firm STC, Telecom Egypt, British multinational telecommunications company Vodafone, and West Indian Ocean Cable Company. Together, they will build 37,000- kilometer-long cables that will interconnect Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa.
The project is expected to be completed by 2023-2024.
What's in it for tech giants?
Aside from these tech giants, who else can ensure that Africa gets connected to the internet at the fastest pace without delays?
But these tech giants do not offer freebies worth billions without expecting returns.
Quartz writer Yomi Kazeem highlights the obvious profit motive of these tech companies. "The tens of millions of people who will come online as a result also represent a larger target market for their ever-growing cache of products and advertising services," he wrote.
Also, as the number of people disconnected from the internet dwindles in Europe and the Americas, tech companies are eager to seek other emerging and lower-income markets to increase their revenue and expand their market share.
For example, over 70 percent of Facebook's 2.3 billion monthly active users live in Africa and Asia, while Google has an over 90 percent lead in the search engine market share in Africa. In Kenya, more than half of the country's mobile traffic is directed through applications owned by Facebook and Google.
The two companies also derive most of their revenue from advertising (ads provide 98 percent of Facebook revenue and 85 percent of Google) — their profitability depends on increasing the number of users or the revenue they generate from each.
Should Africa be concerned? Yes.
In Africa, where about 33 countries do not have data privacy laws, overreliance on global tech companies to provide internet poses great challenges.
Policymakers have so far done very little to approach and engage with tech companies to address these challenges.
Africa is therefore vulnerable to mass mis- and disinformation, market monopolization, exploitation and misuse of personal data, as evidenced, for example, by the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Pathways for Prosperity Commission rightfully points out that in developing countries, "digital design and usage is almost entirely absent from discussions about development policymaking. Governments' potential regulatory levers mostly revolve around managing the telecommunications market, controlling the internet connection to the outside world and stewarding the ecosystem of domestic digital offerings."
Facebook has been very lackadaisical in responding to abuse and violent content shared on its platforms. Although the company receives warnings, it does little to address them, as seen recently with US President Donald Trump's recent violent tweet about the ongoing #BlackLivesMatter protest in the United States. While Twitter publicly flagged the tweet for violating its rules, Facebook did not. Zuckerberg explained:
I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online. Private companies probably shouldn't be, especially these platform companies, shouldn't be in the position of doing that.
Should governments lead — or engage with tech companies?
Governments in developing countries do not seem to prioritize internet access in their policies. Ideally, governments could negotiate with tech companies, but without a framework to initiate the conversation, anticipated digital policies or laws are not realistic.
In a 2019 report published by the Center for Global Development, the authors warn:
Developing such a framework will not be easy, however, as it will require finding ways to (1) estimate the worth of disparate pieces of personal data whose value depends on being combined with other data to produce useful information and (2) track the value of data across multiple uses.
African governments must admit that the internet is now a global public good and a human right that provides tremendous social and economic benefits for its users. Without a comprehensive and more realistic digital regulatory framework and policy for these tech companies, their digital platforms will be irresponsibly used to spearhead violence and abuse instead of supporting economic growth and innovation.
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text:
Q: Why is swap() sometimes implemented by passing an array? In some comp-sci papers and tests, I see swap() implemented like so:
void swap(int x, int y, int *a)
{
    int t = a[x];
    a[x] = a[y];
    a[y] = t;
}

Why not simply implement it like so:
void swap(int& x, int& y)
{
    int t = x;
    x = y;
    y = t;
}

Is the idea to the former to make the calling code cleaner, by not having to index into the array for the first two arguments? I realize it's not a very important question, since we should be using std::swap(), but I'm still curious.

A: Not all programming languages support calling by reference. For instance, the latter way of doing swap doesn't apply to Java.
In books containing pseudo-code, usually there's a convention that arrays and pointers are not copied when passed and everything else is copied in a function call.  The former way requires no special explanation about the way arguments are passed.
Regarding your final point about cleanliness, it's not so much different: in the former case, your call to swap would be simply: swap(i, j, a); whereas in the latter, you'll have to swap(a[i], a[j]);, introducing some brackets in the expression.

A: Your second code sample is C++, NOT C.  C++ supports reference parameters, but C only supports reference indirectly via pointers.
I agree that the second implementation is cleaner.  In order to make it work in C, change the & in each of the parameters to * and dereference each x and y (also with *) inside the function.


text:
NIMBYs
How a Small Group of Neighborhood Activists Have Taken the Hollywood Sign Hostage
By Adrian Glick Kudler Jan 7, 2015, 2:13pm PST
The publicly-owned Hollywood Sign is Los Angeles's most high-profile landmark and a symbol of the city, but somehow a small group of private homeowners is holding it hostage. How did that happen? In the past few years, "a few dozen activists," with the help of city officials, have banished tour buses from the Beachwood Canyon neighborhood, convinced mapping companies like Garmin and Google to mislabel the sign on maps, and, just this month, gotten the upper part of Beachwood Drive (directly below the sign) turned into a permit parking zone; while they were waiting for the zone to go into effect, city officials helpfully kept the public Hollyridge trailhead closed for nine months to keep visitors away (meanwhile, a gate was installed to keep cars out at all times and hikers out after dark). Gary Baum at The Hollywood Reporter has a fantastic overview today of the battle that reveals how a handful of homeowners have taken control of access to the Hollywood Sign.
Part of the problem is that no one takes full responsibility for the Hollywood Sign. The sign itself and the land it's on are owned by the city; the Hollywood Sign Trust, which is largely controlled by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, maintains the sign, while the chamber itself controls its trademark rights (and benefits from their licensing, which is handled by a private firm). The LA Department of Recreation and Parks, the LA Department of Transportation, and the LADWP are all involved with sign access in various ways too. The division's already been done; all the group in Beachwood have had to do is conquer.
And this is not the average NIMBY force. The residents are led by "a veteran corporate PR strategist" named Tony Fisch, who's guided their arguments to focus more on safety issues than the noise/crowd/trash complaints that dominated the early days of the fight. (The LAFD says access for their responders isn't really a problem in the neighborhood and a Battalion chief who works in Beachwood says the residents cause at least part of their own trouble: "[T]hey often use their garages for storage and park on the streets. I don't know that the tourist issue is actually a main factor.")
Resident Sarajane Schwartz, a former actress and president of the Hollywoodland Homeowners Association (the original seed from which the anti-tourist movement grew), has also produced what sounds like a ridiculous 30-minute propaganda film that residents say is "a key element in winning the hearts and minds of city officials." Lucky THR got "a rare screening of the closely guarded documentary": "The wry narrative includes an overlaying of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring as doofusy tourists ride Segways, light up in hazardous areas and take nude pictures or pose with liquor bottles." The film isn't available online because, by Schwartz's own admission, it's embarrassing: "we didn't want it to end up on The Tonight Show — you know, making fun of us."
Next up for the Beachwood troublemakers: lobbying for permanent closure of the freshly-reopened Hollyridge trailhead and the razing of an overlook at the edge of Lake Hollywood Park. They also seem to be rooting for a fire- or traffic-related liability lawsuit, "threatening to strongly support" anything that comes up. And they're throwing their weight around in the race to replace outgoing City Councilmember Tom LaBonge (who's been remarkably sympathetic and helpful to their cause, although you wouldn't know it from the way they talk about him). One candidate is happy to pander: "I don't care how draconian or how drastic, I will consider every measure."
Meanwhile, it seems like Beachwood Canyon is still a pretty damn attractive place to live. About a third of the 450 houses closest to the sign have sold in the past five years, many in just the last year.
· War Over Hollywood Sign Pits Wealthy Residents Against Urinating Tourists: "One of These Days Someone Will Get Shot" [THR]
· Why Has the Hollywood Sign Trail Been Closed For Five Months? [Curbed LA]
· Hollywood Sign Viewing Spot Wars [Curbed LA]
, , CA 90068 Visit Website
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Some days I'm embarrassed to call myself a farmer
April 22 2020 03:12 PM
Can't we just be kind and supportive of each other?
By Jessica Peters, Pennsylvania dairy farmer
At this point, if you're on social media, you've seen the awful comments left by activists on farmers' posts. They range from a hateful comment on a post about how antibiotics are used on a farm to a condescending comment on an uplifting post about how excited a farmer was to save a sick, young calf.
But then there's another set of comments that get my blood boiling even more. A private message tells an agvocate that he or she shouldn't be sharing about farming because they're "not a real farmer" since they also work off the farm. It goes even further to a sexist comment directed at a female farmer about how ridiculous it is that she does her hair and wears makeup while she works. Or worse, the comment telling her that she would actually be pretty if she did do her hair and put on some makeup. In the last week, I've seen all of these comments left by other farmers on fellow farmers' social media posts.
Let me make this super easy for you . . . stop it!
Why? Do you think you're helping? Do you think that by publicly arguing with or putting down another farmer that makes you look like a better farmer? Is it really important to you that women either look extra pretty or extra plain when they work? If so, can you maybe make us up a set guidelines because we're very confused.
Recently, I read a post where farmers were arguing over who had it worse during this COVID-19 quarantine! I wanted to punch them all in the face.
It makes me sad to know that there are people in this world who need to make others feel like they've lost just to feel like they themselves have won. No, it makes me feel sad that there are farmers who think like that.
Aren't we supposed to be better than that? In everything we say and do, we hold ourselves at an impossibly high standard, but then we sit down in front of the TV or at the table and open our social media apps. Then, just like the rest of humanity, we become no better than the Scum of the Earth.
I expect better. You're a farmer. Live up to it.
Jessica Peters
The author dairies in partnership with her parents and brother at Spruce Row Farm in Pennsylvania. Jessica is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, and since 2015, she has been active in promoting dairy in her local community. You can find her and her 250 Jersey cows on Facebook at Spruce Row Dairy or on Instagram at @seejessfarm.