November 25th, 2018 • 2h 49m

1089: Puppet Mouth

TODAY

Black Friday 2018: A Not-So-Wild Day for American Shoppers - The New York Times

Sat, 24 Nov 2018 04:56

Image Shoppers walking along Fifth Avenue in New York on Friday. Credit Credit Jeenah Moon for The New York Times Here we are again: Mildly annoyed by the obvious consumerism, but totally in love with the deals. It must be Black Friday.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is still the official start of the holiday shopping season, but things are changing. For starters, Thanksgiving is no longer sacred '-- shoppers head outside or online to get an early start before the turkey is even cold. And instead of lining up at the crack of dawn after sleeping off their feasts, more people are shopping on their phones. In fact, if you follow the advice of our friends at Wirecutter, you'll stay home and shop in your P.J.s. (Check out our full breakdown of how Black Friday has changed in recent years.)

Shoppers won't want for time this year: The gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas '-- 32 days if you don't count the holidays themselves '-- is long (next year it will be just 26 days). That means procrastinators get more time to put things off and retailers get one more shot at luring you in. But beware: Hanukkah is coming on the early side this year.

We'll be covering it all here, with reporters weighing in from near and far.

Going to the Mall '-- But Not for the ShoppingJust before 11 a.m. at the Fashion Island mall in Orange County, Calif., the line to see Santa Claus was about 15-people deep, including parents and grandparents. Laura Natale, who lives nearby, brought her three-year-old son Christopher to see Santa. Asked if the crowds were any larger than a typical Friday, she said: ''Not really.''

Others had anticipated more bustle at this palm-and-Christmas-tree-laden outdoor mall near Newport Beach, saying they remembered a bigger post-Thanksgiving rush last year. ''It's more empty than I expected,'' said Michelle Gorczyza, who also lives in the area. She did encounter a long line at Anthropologie, so she skipped the store, deciding she could just as easily buy online.

Her husband Danny said that nowadays people come to the mall more for the food and the experience than the shopping. ''You don't see people running around with 10 bags,'' he said. ''They're happy to spend $50 on lunch and just soak in the atmosphere.''

That's what 28-year old Mitch Williams did on this sunny morning, sitting beneath one of the palm trees. ''My grandpa is visiting from Ohio, so we're having coffee and omelets.''

Image Shoppers in the shoes section at Macy's in New York on Friday. Credit Jeenah Moon for The New York Times Was he doing any shopping? He shook his head no: ''I do that online.''

'-- Cade Metz

Black Friday Has Lots of CompetitionBlack Friday, a ''holiday'' that wasn't a holiday until it was deemed to be by American retailers a few decades ago, has a remarkably enduring position on the calendar as the year's most significant celebration of commercialism.

Retailers start marketing it months in advance. Hordes of shoppers turn out in person and online. Google even programmed it into its calendar as an official holiday.

But Black Friday has competition. Lots of it.

Shopping holidays abound. World Fair Trade Day was May 12. Small Business Saturday falls on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The Monday after that is Cyber Monday '-- a creation of the not-so-long-ago era when shopping online seemed almost exotic. And Dec. 14 is Free Shipping Day.

Those are just the free-for-alls, where all retailers can participate.

Many companies have laid claim to their own corporate holidays. Alibaba's Singles Day festival on Nov. 11 topped $30 billion in sales. Customers bought more than 100 million products in Amazon's Prime Day event in July.

There was also Overstocktober, which Overstock.com used to push promotions before rebranding it as Customer Day on Oct. 15 of this year. eBay declared the second Monday of each December to be Green Monday. Wayfair had Way Day in April for what it calls ''better-than-Black-Friday deals.'' Macy's held a ''Black Friday in July'' sale over the summer.

''If we've seen anything in retail over the last 20, 30 years, it's that consumers need to be motivated to shop,'' said Michael Brown, a partner with A.T. Kearney's retail practice. ''They need to be provoked.''

And not just in the United States. Boxing Day in Britain, which comes after Christmas, has evolved into a day to observe hallowed shopping rituals. In Australia, Click Frenzy in February focuses on online shopping.

Image Customers shopping on Black Friday at Target in Brooklyn. Credit David Dee Delgado for The New York Times For anyone above all that crass consumerism? There's a day for them, too.

The website for Buy Nothing Day urges consumers to ''escape the Shopocalypse,'' noting that the ''anarchy that ensues on Black Friday has now become an absurd dystopian phenomenon.''

'-- Tiffany Hsu

A Strong Start for RetailersRetailers and analysts said Black Friday 2018 got off to a strong start '-- and all indications were that it finished strong, too.

Adobe Analytics, reported that as of 8 p.m. Eastern, consumers had already spent about $4.1 billion on Black Friday '-- a 23 percent increase from the same period last year.

Though the cold weather in the eastern United States may have kept some shoppers home, Mastercard SpendingPulse said that generally ''online sales appear to be filling in any weather related soft spots in brick and mortar sales.'' The clothing, electronics and interior furnishing sectors were seeing especially good traction, the analysis said.

The upbeat prognosis was supported, at least in part, by photos and videos posted Friday morning on Twitter, which showed long lines and bunches of bundled shoppers gathered at places including a Kohl's in Mansfield, Mass., and the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

''Stores are busy, there's good traffic, the queues are manageable and well-staffed, and inventory levels appear to be good for the time of day too,'' said Frank Layo, managing director of Kurt Salmon, which is part of Accenture Strategy. ''Retailers helped themselves by starting promotions much earlier this year to spread out the holiday shopping traffic and mitigate chaos. Their efforts appear to be paying off.''

'-- Matt Stevens

But There Are HiccupsEarly in the day, J. Crew wrote on Twitter that it was ''experiencing some technical difficulties'' with its website. The site appeared to be functioning fine soon afterward.

Image Shoppers lined up in the early morning at a Best Buy store in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Friday. Credit Eugene Garcia/EPA, via Shutterstock About three hours later, the home page for Lowe's displayed a message that it was undergoing maintenance. The site was soon restored.

Still, analysts monitoring Black Friday said online sales were chugging along, driven in part by the cold, wet weather in some parts of the country, which they said may have nudged some shoppers away from stores and toward their computers or smartphones.

'-- Matt Stevens

What to Buy: A Cheat SheetFeeling overwhelmed by deals? You're not alone. In the hope of clearing out inventory, retailers bombard us with thousands of items that are marked on sale. Many of these products are of subpar quality, or they aren't actually on sale at all. We wrote a cheat sheet of the types of products that are hot '-- and the ones that are not '-- on Black Friday to help you home in on the quality, deeply discounted goods.

Here's the upshot: Black Friday is a great time to buy a new video game console, a television, headphones or a smart home product like the Amazon Echo or Google Home. One of the most notable deals we've seen: Best Buy, Amazon and many retailers are selling Sony's PlayStation 4 with a new Spider-Man game for $200, down from the normal price of $300 for the console alone. So come prepared: Jot down a list of things you'd like to buy in those categories and look out for price drops.

'-- Brian X. Chen

You Look Hungry for MoreYou clearly have an insatiable appetite for The Times's Black Friday coverage! Here are a few recent stories you might enjoy about this very American ''holiday'' and how it fits into the broader economy.

' Some stores haven't embraced the Black Friday madness. Among the holdouts: Dunham's department store in rural Pennsylvania. Michael Corkery recently visited to learn why it doesn't participate in Black Friday.

' F.A.O. Schwarz '-- the iconic but then shuttered toy store '-- is back, under new management: private equity. The new business model involves outposts in airports and ''stores within stores'' at larger retailers.

Image Shoppers on Black Friday in New York. Credit Stephanie Keith/Getty Images ' Over in the Opinion section, David Leonhardt has a cool idea for anyone who is preparing to join the Black Friday scrum and spend on gifts or other purchases: Instead, use that money to subscribe or donate to a local news media organization!

' And for anyone who assumes that Amazon has put the final nail in the coffin of the bricks-and-mortar retail industry, not so fast: It turns out that more Americans are venturing back into stores, and some old-school retailers are actually doing better than in the recent past.

'-- David Enrich

Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Black Friday Has Got to GoBelieve it or not, not everyone is a fan of Black Friday.

REI, the outdoor equipment retailer, has generated headlines every year since 2015 when it first said it would not open the day after Thanksgiving. Instead, REI urged people to spend time with friends and family in nature, with the hashtag #OptOutside.

This year will be no different. Even as major retailers plan to promote blockbuster sales, labor groups like Occupy New Hampshire Sea Coast say they will be staging protests in front of stores to draw attention to employment issues.

''We're fighting for respect and a fair wage at work,'' David Holt, one of the organizers of the demonstration, said in an interview on Wednesday. He added that Black Friday was an especially appealing time for labor movements to organize. ''One of the things this Black Friday protest is about is consumerism.''

Mr. Holt said he hoped that holding the demonstration in front of a Walmart would encourage shoppers to think about labor conditions for the store's employees.

'-- Zach Wichter

Black Friday Goes Global '...There is no Thanksgiving holiday in Europe, but that hasn't stopped the associated consumer bonanza from hitting shops there. French retail brands like Darty, Fnac and Monoprix joined Apple, Sephora and Uniqlo in efforts to attract bargain hunters on Friday.

Image Amazon opened a pop-up shop and had Black Friday sales in London this year. Credit Alex Mcbride/Getty Images In Britain, where sales used to take place after Christmas, shops have added Black Friday to their promotional calendars. Offers have been trickling in for at least a week. Amazon started its sales on Nov. 16.

Most other stores have joined the fray with even discount supermarkets offering money off everything from vintage turntables to legs of ham.

'-- Amie Tsang

'... With Even Canadians on the Bandwagon '...Yes, Black Friday is everywhere '-- even Canada.

The ''holiday'' '-- in French-speaking Montreal, they call it ''Vendredi Fou'' '-- has reportedly become Canada's busiest shopping day of the year, eclipsing Boxing Day (or Dec. 26), when the traditional post-Christmas Day sales would bring out hordes of shoppers.

This Black Friday, the stores in Montreal were packed, especially in the underground, labyrinth-like malls such as Eaton Center, which was crowded with people seeking shelter from the subfreezing weather. Athletic wear, women's shoes and men's suits were marked off at 50 percent or more in the Eaton Center mall. Outside one electronics store, velvet ropes were set up to keep the queues under control.

It's said that Black Friday first migrated to Canada in the early 2000s, when the American and Canadian dollars were roughly on par. These days the greenback is worth 1.32 Canadian dollars, making these discounts even greater.

'-- Stuart Emmrich

'... Though China Has Its Own VersionChina celebrated its own invented shopping holiday this month. The country's economic ascent has turned hundreds of millions of people into eager consumers. And they are buying stuff online with great gusto thanks in part to low wages that make shipping fast and cheap.

The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said it sold $30.8 billion worth of goods on Nov. 11, the annual online bonanza known as Singles Day. The company rang up $1 billion in sales in the first 85 seconds of this year's frenzy. It took an hour to reach $10 billion. All in all, the company says it generated more than a billion delivery orders that day.

Image Shoppers rushed through the corridors of Macy's flagship store at Herald Square in Manhattan on Thursday evening. Credit David Dee Delgado/Getty Images For some context: In the United States last year, online shopping from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday totaled about $19.62 billion, according to Adobe Analytics. (Yes, it's true, that doesn't include all the in-store shopping that took place on Black Friday.)

In addition to inundating phone owners with coupons and deals for weeks in advance, Alibaba deploys subtler methods to gin up sales on Singles Day. This year, users of the company's Taobao shopping app could see how their spending on Nov. 11 compared to that of other people in their area.

[Read more about this year's Singles Day, and why the party may not last]

'-- Raymond Zhong

Shopping on 'Black Thursday' (a.k.a. Thanksgiving)For many shoppers, Black Friday actually begins right in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner.

Even on this, the second coldest Thanksgiving in New York City history, and the coldest since 1901, revelers still took to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and shoppers still lined up for Black Friday deals (or at least paid someone to do it).

Walmart took the lead competing head-on with Thanksgiving dinner by throwing in-store parties with free food. Calling it a way to ''pump up customers,'' the company expected to be handing out 4 million free Kuerig coffees and 2 million Christmas-themed cookies starting at 4 p.m. In-store Black Friday deals began at 6 p.m., but it wasn't customers' first crack at them: The chain began offering holiday bargains on Nov. 8.

Target opened its doors at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving (same with Kohl's). In announcing its Black Friday plans, Target admonished customers to ''head to the store after dinner.''

'-- Nellie Bowles

Shopping from the Dinner TableOnline shoppers, too, were busy on Thanksgiving Day. They shelled out $3.7 billion on Thursday, an increase of about 28 percent compared to last year, according to a report from Adobe Analytics, which tracks transactions from 80 of the country's top 100 online retailers.

Image A Kmart store open early with Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day in Rosemead, Calif. Credit Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse '-- Getty Images And many of those online shoppers aren't heading to their desks or even grabbing their laptops. Thanksgiving marked the first day during which $1 billion in sales came from smartphones, Adobe said. And consumers spent more on their phones, with average order values up 8 percent compared with Thanksgiving Day last year.

'-- Zach Wichter

Shopping on the 'GramSocial media is playing a bigger role than ever in people's holiday shopping habits. According to Accenture, 15 percent of shoppers in 2018 will use social media for some of their purchases, up from 8 percent last year. With a growing share of retail sales taking place online '-- and nearly half of those sales coming on mobile devices '-- social media might be a way for brands to counter the competition.

It could help retailers offset some of the deep discounts that consumers expect on Black Friday.

''If you can grab people in the inspirational moment, they're not going to be as price-sensitive and maybe they won't shop around,'' said Jill Standish, Accenture's global lead for retail.

Ms. Standish compared selling via social media to Amazon's 1-click ordering (something that, according to one survey, had 70 percent of respondents spending more money).

Another advantage? Online, Ms. Standish said, it can be easy ''for a small brand to look big'' if they know how to present themselves, and know how to attract the right influencer profiles to promote their products. A strong social media presence can make a company seem instantly reputable.

'-- Zach Wichter

When Bargains Become a TraditionThere are three reasons that Black Friday is so popular, and two of them are the deals, according to Tulin Erdem, a marketing professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.

''The economic savings, feeling good about yourself having found a good deal, being a shrewd consumer,'' she said, all add up to one key factor. Plus, because so many stores offer Black Friday sales, it's easier to find discounts without having to search as hard as you might during the rest of the year.

But, Dr. Erdem said, another reason Black Friday remains so popular is tradition.

''It still has its appeal because of this ritualistic aspect,'' she said. ''It's like going to a big important baseball game or Super Bowl as an American family.''

[See how one family spent their Black Friday last year.]

Consider that the National Retail Federation surveyed 7,516 consumers about their shopping plans this year, and 26 percent of those who planned to shop on Black Friday said it was because of tradition. An additional 23 percent said they would shop because it's just something to do. (As far as we know, nobody was asked whether they're shopping just to get away from family members.)

Of course Black Friday is just the start of things. If retailers don't start discounting before Thanksgiving '-- and most seem to '-- they are certainly using the holiday shopping season to push merchandise at every turn. The biggest discounts tend to come on ''Super Saturday'' '-- the last Saturday before Christmas, said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail analysis firm.

But Black Friday does matter. Consumers surveyed by the retail federation said they planned to shop more on Black Friday than on any other day of the Thanksgiving weekend.

And Black Friday maintains cultural cache, especially for ''new Americans,'' said Mr. Johnson, as recent immigrants are more likely to take part. ''That's how you learn to be an American consumer, by showing up and shopping on Black Friday.''

'-- Zach Wichter

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

of the New York edition

with the headline:

A Modest Horde Of Savvy Shoppers Descends Again For Black Friday

. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

Knight Assistance Request

Hoping the show

can help...

Almost six months out of work with seven people depending

on me to pay the bills. Money runs out on Christmas Day, would you believe it!

I’m hoping a producer somewhere can help.

Long story short, I was made redundant from my job as a

product manager for a Silicon Valley tech company in July after seven years. I

have a weird set up as I’ve been working from home in Brisbane Australia for US

companies for over a decade. I’ve been a remote worker for over a decade and I

make it work REALLY well.

Trouble is this: it seems that no one these days will

consider a product manager who’s remote. Not even Australian companies out of

Sydney or Melbourne. Unfortunately relocation isn’t possible for family

reasons.

So I’ve spent the last six months looking for work with

local BRISBANE based companies, and I’ve hit a different problem: they all

think I’m great but no one will hire me because I’m “over qualified” and the

roles here “won’t give me enough of a challenge”... I’ve had a half a dozen

responses along these lines so far.

I had a company tell me I totally knocked their socks off

in the interview but they didn’t want to hire me because they think I’ll only

stay till I find something better in 3-6 months.

It’s bananas.

I’ve got a strong track record and amazing references.

So here’s the ask: attached is a link to my one page CV.

If there are any producers out there who need or know someone who needs a

rockstar product manager, please send them my CV or give them my email address:

(not for reading in the air: snrkl@snrkl.org)

My cv is attached and also available on the link below

(also not for reading on the air)

http://files.clarkefamily.co/AidanClarkeCV.pdf

Thanks in advance. I’m hoping the NA family can help a

fellow knight out in his time of need.

Sir Snrkl, Knight, producer and long time subscription

donor (even though I’m going broke!!)

Dockless Mobility

e-scooters lithium ion battery

Electric scooters burst into flame due to bad batteries, company says | US news | The Guardian

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 11:37

It was a late night in late August when an employee at a Lime scooter facility in Tahoe, heard a loud bang. One of the bright-green rental scooters '' which have meteorically swarmed streets in crowded cities around the world over the past year '' had burst into flames, seemingly, all on its own.

According to a blog posted by Lime on Tuesday, nearly two months later, bad batteries were to blame. Stating that the defect had affected less than 0.01% of the ''fleet'', the company conceded that a ''manufacturing defect could result in the battery smoldering, or in some cases, catching fire''.

It's the latest controversy over the dockless scooters, that have spread to cities across the globe in recent years. The Washington Post, which first reported the story, found that employees had alerted the company to potential issues and felt they had not been adequately addressed, putting riders and ''juicers'', people paid to charge the scooters overnight, at unnecessary risk.

Since starting just over a year ago, Lime boasts it has millions of riders. The company emphasized in its response that it has taken extra precautions to ensure the safety of anyone who uses or charges its scooters.

Writing that the batteries were manufactured by Segway Ninebot, a company merged from a Chinese company and an American one that produces transportation products, Lime stated it had created software to detect any that were defective. Then, it made a second software program to find all the Scooters that might have one, bringing them all home to local headquarters.

''When an affected battery was identified '' with a red code '' we promptly deactivated the scooter so that no members of the public could ride or charge it,'' the company wrote in the statement.

Reiterating that it did not want to take any chances, it also will now have employees familiar with the issue on hand for 24 hours a day at facilities where the Segway Ninebot Scooters are held and will run daily diagnostics on all scooters, regardless of where they were made and if they might have rogue batteries.

But according to Lime mechanics, who spoke anonymously to the Post, their concerns over the scooters were dismissed by senior staff, especially over the safety of ''juicers'' who may have unknowingly charged machines with potentially dangerous defects.

''These people are plugging these scooters into their house at night and going to sleep thinking they're safe and that they just earned an easy $15,'' one employee told the Post. ''When I asked my managers if we were going to tell them all I got was shrugged shoulders and 'I don't know'.''

Others voiced frustrations in their mechanic Slack chat, calling for the company to remove the scooters from the market until the issues were better addressed.

''I get that the scoots are expendable and replaceable,'' one person wrote. ''But are we now resigned to say the same for the safety of employees and customers?''

This isn't the first safety issue raised, as scooter companies have rapidly descended on cities around the world. Seen as either the scourge or saviors in crowded cities, where cheap, efficient transportation is scarce, proponents have argued for their use as a sustainable solution, while critics point out the dangers.

Scooter-caused emergency-room visits are becoming increasingly common, and there have been allegations that the proper upkeep has not been done by startup scooter companies.

In cities like San Francisco, the response was swift, and scooters that did not end up in trashcans or in local lakes were taken off the streets by regulatory officials, before they were brought back in smaller doses. Other cities are working to create better scooter rules, as scooter startups continue to increase their scale.

Lime disputes any questions over its intentions, and emphasized safety is of utmost importance. ''Lime takes full responsibility for our scooters,'' it wrote. ''The safety of our riders, Juicers, and community is our highest priority, and we will continue to hold our equipment manufacturers and ourselves to the highest possible standard.''

Agenda 2030

U.N. Environment Envoy Quits After Audit of Expenses - The New York Times

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 13:56

Climate | U.N. Environment Envoy Quits After Audit of Expenses Image Erik Solheim was found to have spent nearly $500,000 on travel in 22 months. Credit Credit Manish Swarup/Associated Press Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter.

There were too many trips to Paris. And it wasn't helping to save the environment.

That was among the conclusions of an internal audit that resulted in the resignation Tuesday of Erik Solheim, a veteran Norwegian diplomat, from his post as head of the United Nations Environment Program. The investigation, conducted by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services, criticized the environment agency for ''a culture of scant regard for internal controls and existing rules'' on the use of public funds.

Mr. Solheim said in a statement he had decided ''with a heavy heart'' to step down after receiving the final audit results on Saturday. He admitted no wrongdoing and, in a statement, said that he remained ''committed to doing what I believe to be in the best interest of U.N. Environment and the mission we are here to achieve.''

The United Nations secretary general, Ant"nio Guterres, without mentioning the audit, said Tuesday he had accepted Mr. Solheim's resignation. In a statement later in the day, Mr. Guterres described Mr. Solheim as ''a leading voice in drawing the world's attention to critical environmental challenges.''

The scrutiny of Mr. Solheim and his travel expenses came at a time of shrinking resources at the world body, so much so that some donors to the environment program decided to withhold funds pending the final audit results.

The audit, which was seen by The Times, cited ''uneconomical routing of flight itineraries, opting for more expensive airlines, implementation of teleworking arrangements that were outside the existing policy on flexible working arrangements.'' It also noted a failure to account for absences from the office.

At issue in particular were his frequent trips to Paris and Oslo. The audit found that Mr. Solheim, referred to in the audit as ''a senior manager,'' had spent 79 percent of his time away from the agency's headquarters in Nairobi and incurred $488,519 in travel expenses over a 22-month period.

According to the audit, he selected flight itineraries that passed unnecessarily through Oslo and Paris and failed to account for what he did in those cities for a total of 72 days. The audit found that the travel arrangements were ''uneconomical'' and contravened United Nations travel rules.

''Most of the rerouted trips to the two cities were made prior to or during weekends or public holidays,'' the audit found. Immediately after taking office, in July 2016, the audit found, Mr. Solheim flew to Paris for a one-day meeting but stayed for a month, accounting for nine days as his annual leave. Then, he went on a six-city tour of North and South America. His travel costs for the whole trip exceeded $14,000.

Separately, he flew through Oslo on his way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which is only a two-hour flight from Nairobi. On another occasion, he flew to Paris between meetings in Washington and New York. He refunded the world body $7,022 in travel expenses after an internal investigation of that trip.

For more news on climate and the environment, follow @NYTClimate on Twitter.

Somini Sengupta covers international climate issues and is the author of "The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India's Young." @ SominiSengupta ' Facebook

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

of the New York edition

with the headline:

U.N. Environment Envoy Quits After Audit Finds $500,000 Spent on Travel

. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

UN Environment Chief Resigns After Racking Up Huge Carbon Footprint | Zero Hedge

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 13:56

Members of the United Nations recoiled in horror last year when President Trump slashed the US's UN budget by nearly $300 million after the international agency rebuked the US over its decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem. Looks like the jokes on them.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has accepted the resignation of UN Environmental Chief Erik Solheim, a veteran Norwegian diplomat, after an internal audit by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services criticized the environment agency for "a culture of scant regard for internal controls and existing rules" on the use of public funds. This "misuse" included Solheim racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal flights to Paris (sound familiar?), according to the New York Times. Unfortunately for Solheim, those flights had nothing to do with the agency's work on the Paris Accords.

What's even more embarrassing for the agency, the alleged overspending happened at a time when resources for combating climate change were shrinking. Some of the agency's biggest donors even decided to withhold funds pending the final results of the audit.

Aside from the profligate spending, the report also found Solheim was routinely absent from the office without accounting for where he was or why.

The report found "uneconomical routing of flight itineraries, opting for more expensive airlines, implementation of teleworking arrangements that were outside the existing policy on flexible working arrangements."

In fact, Solheim spent as much as 80% of his time away from the agency's office in Nairobi, and frequently took flights to Paris and Oslo for what appeared to be personal reasons. Right after accepting the position in July 2016, Solheim flew to Paris for a "one-day meeting." He ended up staying for a month. Many of the "official" trips were also taken during public holidays when he apparently had no official business there.

Sometimes, Solheim took flights on circuitous routes, or flew back to Europe between back-to-back meetings in the US - without any apparent reason.

But tell us again how President Trump is dismantling crucial international institutions for wanting to cut costs, abuse and waste?

Humans didn't cause animal extinctions in Africa, Science study says

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 20:58

In this file photo, a herd of adult and baby elephants walks in the dawn light as the highest mountain in Africa Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is seen in the background, in Amboseli National Park, southern Kenya. Elephants are one of a few megaherbivores still in existence. (Photo: Ben Curtis, AP)

A new study disagrees with a longstanding view that humans wiped out large animals that previously occupied Africa.

In research published in the journal Science on Friday, authors analyzed records on megaherbivore communities in eastern Africa over seven million years. A megaherbivore is a mammal weighing more than 2,000 pounds. They concluded that extinctions of diverse mammal communities in Africa occurred before evidence of human hunting.

The animal decline might have instead been because of environmental factors such as declining atmospheric carbon dioxide and expansion of grasslands, researchers write.

"Low CO2 levels favor tropical grasses over trees, and as a consequence savannas became less woody and more open through time," John Rowan, a postdoctoral scientist from the University of Massachusetts Amherst who was involved in the research, said in a statement. "We know that many of the extinct megaherbivores fed on woody vegetation, so they seem to disappear alongside their food source."

Analysis suggests 28 lineages of megaherbivores went extinct, starting around 4.6 million years ago, according to lead author Tyler Faith, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Utah. Today, only elephants, hippopotamuses, giraffes and white and black rhinoceroses exist.

More: Buried? Feds to release major climate report day after Thanksgiving

More: Milu deer fighting its way out of extinction

University of Oxford, U.K., researchers cautioned that it isn't exactly clear when humans began affecting large animal populations, but there is strong evidence that human impact played a role in losses tens of thousands of years ago.

"The causes of megaherbivore decline are probably complex, multidimensional, and varied across time and space," Ren(C) Bobe and Susana Carvalho wrote in the same issue of Science.

Follow Ashley May on Twitter: @AshleyMayTweets

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/11/23/humans-didnt-cause-animal-extinctions-africa-science-study-says/2090400002/

Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 24 Nov 2018 06:36

U.S. Global Change Research Program1800 G Street, NW, Suite 9100, Washington, DC 20006 USATel: +1 202.223.6262 | Fax: +1 202.223.3065

Some figures and images are copyright protected.Permission of the copyright owner must be obtainedbefore making use of copyrighted material.

2018 version 1 of this website was created by USGS for the USGCRP.GCIS and metadata-enabled version 2 of the website will be available in 2019.

Gore Rips Trump for Trying to Bury Climate Report

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 24 Nov 2018 06:34

You are here:

Home

/ Environment / Gore Rips Trump for Trying to Bury Climate Report

November 23, 2018 at 8:27 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Al Gore blasted the White House, saying it was trying to ''bury'' a long-awaited government report on climate change by releasing it on the day after Thanksgiving, CBS News reports.

Said Gore: ''Unbelievably deadly and tragic wildfires rage in the west, hurricanes batter our coasts '-- and the Trump administration chooses the Friday after Thanksgiving to try and bury this critical U.S. assessment of the climate crisis. The President may try to hide the truth, but his own scientists and experts have made it as stark and clear as possible.''

Save to Favorites

Waarom klimaatdoel onhaalbaar en onbetaalbaar is - Elsevier Weekblad - Blendle

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 24 Nov 2018 06:29

Marcel Crok

190 sea turtles found frozen to death along Cape Cod

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 24 Nov 2018 13:41

Nov. 23, 2018 / 3:42 PM ET

By Didi Martinez and Julmary Zambrano

Close to 190 dead sea turtles were found frozen off the coast of Cape Cod Friday after low temperatures stifled their ability to make it safely to shore.

The Mass Audubon wildlife sanctuary said a ''once in a lifetime weather system'' of ''gale force winds,'' cold temperatures and high tide caused the migrating turtles to become ''incapacitated'' by the time they were found along the Massachusetts peninsula around 6 a.m. ET Friday.

''A lot of the turtles were found frozen in the water still,'' Mass Audubon's director Bob Prescott told NBC News. ''I picked up two to three myself that were still in the water, the slushy water.''

Prescott said that while the organization will help facilitate tests on the turtles to determine the exact cause of death, the turtles did ''essentially freeze.'' Overall, the Mass Audubon said they have found over 400 dead turtles this season.

Close to 400 sea turtles have been found dead along the Cape Cod this season as cold water temperatures cause some of them to die in frozen waters, said Mass Audubon wildlife sanctuary director Bob Prescott. Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife SanctuaryAccording to researchers, the timing of the species' migration has only increased the chances of turtles getting frozen. Back in 1990s, sea turtles used to arrive to the Cape Cod area in October but now, they have been coming to shore around November when the water is much colder.

''Sea turtles are moving further north along our coast, or south to the southern hemisphere, as waters are warming and they are expanding their ranges,'' said Wallace J. Nichols, a research associate at California Academy of Sciences and sea turtle biologist. ''So when we get these quick swings from warm to cooler, the turtles that haven't made it south definitely get into trouble.''

Migration is a seasonal way of life for sea turtles '-- traveling thousands of miles to feed and lay their eggs, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Conservation efforts in recent years have helped to stabilize the sea turtle population and allowed them to make their way to locations they haven't visited in years, according to Nichols. However, changing temperatures have made them unprepared for what is headed their way in those areas.

''Climate change is impacting sea turtles very clearly,'' Nichols said, adding that ''cooked'' turtle eggs caused by warmer waters has affected the animals' migration patterns both ways.

Since the discovery, Prescott said that water temperatures have gotten a ''little warmer'' allowing some turtles to make it to shore, and about a dozen turtles have been sent to the New England Aquarium. Most of the turtles coming into the Cape Cod area this time of year are tropical or subtropical in nature, preferring water temperatures of 75-85 degrees Fahrenheit, Prescott said.

He added that they were unable to revive the turtles found Friday morning '-- some of which were the critically endangered species Kemp's Ridley sea turtle.

"The problem here is that they can't get out of Cape Cod Bay in time," Prescott said, adding that they still don't know how many turtles have been frozen to death in areas like Brewster, Massachusetts, where the beaches have been iced in. "The shape of the bay just confuses them."

CORRECTION (Nov. 23, 2018, 5:07 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated the location of Brewster. It is in Massachusetts, not New York.

Didi Martinez writes for NBC News.

State AGs for Rent - WSJ

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 25 Nov 2018 15:10

With the courts and Trump Administration rolling back federal climate regulation, green activists have turned to the states. But there's a troubling ethical twist: Instead of merely lobbying, activists are placing employees in Attorneys General offices in dubious private-public condominiums.

Consider a remarkable arrangement brokered by the NYU Law School's State Energy and Environmental Impact Center to fund legal services for state AGs. The group was launched in August 2017 to advance a liberal climate and energy agenda, courtesy of a $6 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, which also financed the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign.

In August 2017 the NYU outfit emailed then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office, offering to cover the salary and benefits of ''special assistant attorneys general,'' pending an application from the office that demonstrated how the new attorneys would be used. These privately funded staffers would work out of an AG's office for two years and deliver quarterly progress reports to the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center.

Those progress reports would explain ''the contribution that the legal fellow has made to the clean energy, climate change, and environmental initiatives'' within the attorney general's office, according to a December 2017 draft of an agreement between the Center and the New York AG obtained by Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Attorneys General do sometimes bring on legal fellows or outside help to handle unique cases. But subject-matter experts aren't in-house or chosen with specific intent to promote specific policies, according to Randy Pepple, who was chief of staff for former Washington Republican AG Rob McKenna. In the New York case, a special interest is funding staffers who could wield state law-enforcement power to punish opponents.

The State Energy and Environmental Impact Center made clear that state AG offices would only qualify for special assistant AGs if they ''demonstrate a need and commitment to defending environmental values and advancing progressive clean energy, climate change, and environmental legal positions,'' according to the August 2017 email to numerous AGs. Mr. Schneiderman's office suggested in its application for the fellows that it ''needs additional attorney resources to assist'' in extracting compensation from fossil-fuel emitters.

That's exactly what's happening. The New York AG currently has two NYU fellows on staff, according to the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center. One of the fellows, Gavin McCabe, signed off as ''special assistant attorney general'' on an amicus brief in June in support of New York City's suit for damages against BP, Chevron , ConocoPhillips , Exxon Mobil , and Royal Dutch Shell for alleged climate sins. That case was thrown out in July by federal Judge John Kennan on grounds that problems arising from climate change ''are not for the judiciary to ameliorate.''

The other, Matthew Eisenson, signed New York state's suit filed last month against Exxon for allegedly misleading investors about the risks that climate-change regulations pose to its business. The free help will also make for welcome reinforcements in New York-led litigation against the Trump Administration, including a suit against the EPA for its methane regulation.

A lack of government transparency makes this arrangement especially troubling. The New York AG's office, now run by Acting AG Barbara Underwood, declined to comment. Mr. McCabe and Mr. Eisenson could not be reached for comment by our deadline.

The State Energy and Environmental Impact Center said in a statement that the state offices it works with ''has the authority consistent with applicable law and regulations to accept a Legal Fellow whose salary and benefits are provided by an outside funding source.'' It added that it places workers with AGs who already have a long history of advancing the center's energy priorities. ''The work that NYU law fellows perform is directed by those AGs and not by the Center,'' the Center said.

At least six state AG offices have already brought on board a special assistant attorney general, according to an August report by Mr. Horner. Besides New York, the jurisdictions include Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia. In September, Mr. Horner learned that Illinois and New Mexico have brought on special assistant AGs as well, which was confirmed by the NYU outfit.

The ethical problems here should be obvious. Private interests are leveraging the police powers of the state to pursue their political agenda, while a government official is letting private interests appear to influence enforcement decisions. None of this is reassuring about the fair administration of justice.

Virginia AG Faces Lawsuit for Claiming He Could Hire Privately Funded Environmental Activists

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 25 Nov 2018 15:10

PoliZetteHe said there was no law prohibiting the execution of the Bloomberg-funded program '-- but was unable to prove itBy Connor D. Wolf | Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (shown above right) was hit with a lawsuit on Wednesday for his involvement in a questionable program that places privately funded environmental activists in his office.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute filed the lawsuit as part of its continuing efforts to expose what it sees as a scheme.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (above left) launched a program alongside the New York University School of Law that places lawyers in the offices of state attorneys general. The purpose: to go after energy companies and advance environmental policies.

Democratic state attorney generals in several states signed onto the program '-- but it has seemed to taper out since facing increased legal scrutiny in recent weeks.

Virginia posed a rather interesting case and thus attracted the lawsuit over the other states.

The top attorney in the state simply said there was no law prohibiting the action, but then was unable to prove that assertion.

Related: Bloomberg Buying State AG Jobs to Launch Anti-Trump Enviro, Energy Lawsuits

''The question is, did they, in fact, conclude this,'' CEI senior fellow Chris Horner told LifeZette. ''Or did they just say it? Because it is inconceivable that the top legal office for the state, if it looked at the law, could conclude there are no legal impediments to a privately funded Special Assistant Attorney General in Virginia. And it's equally inconceivable the top lawyer for the state would just say that, without looking at the law.''

Every attorney general in the program had to first certify that it was legal in his or her particular state before participating. A few states were able to point to statutes that showed it was. Virginia supposedly checked the state code of professional responsibility and didn't find any prohibitions.

CEI then asked for any memorandums, analyses, conclusions and opinions asserting that this is authorized.

The Virginia attorney general responded to the request by claiming there were no records backing up that assertion. This raised a red flag '-- for if they did look into whether the program was legal, there would likely be records and some analysis to that effect.

CEI was essentially left with the question of whether the attorney general concluded it on legal grounds or just said it as his opinion.

''Which of these two inconceivable scenarios is the reality? This is the AG's office. It could not possibly have simply declared that it can do what it wants, without an analysis. And no analysis or opinion could conclude that those statutes, they're no problem. This is a very curious situation.''

Related: Trump Acts to Keep America Running with Crisis Power

The University of California Board of Regents was also sued under the state public records law to compel UCLA Law School for information related to the program including alleged secret meetings.

The meetings were apparently used to talk with prospective funders. CEI accused the college of stonewalling its request for information.

The board also noted concern over how such scheme could erode trust in the justice system.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board published a piece last week arguing that the ethical problems should be obvious when looking at the program generally.

The board also noted concern over how such scheme could erode trust in the justice system.

Herring, Bloomberg, the UCLA Law School and the New York University School of Law did not respond to requests for comment by LifeZette.

And if you didn't catch this video on midterm-related activity by Michael Bloomberg, click below:

Scientists have new plan to fight global warming: Dimming the sun '-- RT World News

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 25 Nov 2018 02:52

Scientists have come up with a new and ingenious way of fighting global warming: use chemicals to blot out the sun. Whether we'll then have to fight (and do everything else) in the shade, the research doesn't quite spell out.

Since the world can't seem to agree on reducing CO2 emissions, why not tackle the problem from the other end, scientists from Harvard and Yale have surmised. The researchers recently published a study which says that spraying large amounts of sulfate particles into the Earth's lower stratosphere in order to literally dim out the sun could cut the effects of global climate change in half, and it might even be cheap!

With all the excitement over the ''hypothetical'' and ''highly uncertain and ambitious'' plan, there are no guarantees that it will not actually make things worse in a catastrophic sort of way. There is a suspicious lack of information about what 'dimming the sun' could possibly do to those of us who rely on it for basic things '' like growing food, or not freezing to death.

Instead, the study published in Environmental Research Letters discusses the potential costs and necessary technology to realize the ambitious, if not hubristic, plan. The researchers discuss a variety of potential ways to accomplish the large-scale 'geoengineering' project: planes, balloons, or even just shooting chemicals in the air with large guns.

Scientists: We need to dim the sun to avoid a climate change disasterMe: Is it gonna rain tomorrow?Scientists: Weather is an extremely complicated system, I can only give my best guess.Me: Leave the Fucking Sun alone.

'-- Carpe Donktumð--¹ (@Carpedonktum) November 23, 2018Even apart from that, there's a fairly serious problem with the proposal: no aircraft currently exists that could actually deliver the payload. Adapting an existing version of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket has been ruled out, citing the cost.

The proposal suggests a launch could be accomplished within 15 years, with an initial cost of around $3.5 billion, followed by another 15-year running period costing an additional $2.5 billion '' a relatively low price given the scale and significance of the project, they argue. An initial fleet of eight ships would initially expand to nearly 100 in order to deploy the necessary amount of chemicals around the world.

There are other less technical drawbacks to the proposal as well. Among the most obvious is that the plan would require international coordination between numerous countries, including the United States '' whose president, Donald Trump, regularly expresses doubt about climate change in general.

Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming?

'-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2018Dr Phil Williamson, an Honorary Reader at University of East Anglia, critiqued the proposal, saying that nations which ''continued to experience extreme climate events'' might then ''consider that solar geoengineering had been responsible'' and would need to be compensated. In other words, cutting the earth off from the heavens might be a real liability issue.

Others have critiqued the strategy for being a band-aid response that ignores the actual causes of the problem.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!

NWO

Global Compact for Migration

180713_agreed_outcome_global_compact_for_migration.pdf

Nederlandse Grondwet - Artikel 94: Voorrang internationale rechtsorde boven nationale wet

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 15:07

Binnen het Koninkrijk geldende wettelijke voorschriften vinden geen toepassing, indien deze toepassing niet verenigbaar is met een ieder verbindende bepalingen van verdragen en van besluiten van volkenrechtelijke organisaties.

In andere talen:English "English"

Fran§ais "Fran§ais"

Deutsch "Deutsch"

Espa±ol "Espa±ol"

EnglishStatutory regulations in force within the Kingdom shall not be applicable if such application is in conflict with provisions of treaties or of resolutions by international institutions that are binding on all persons.

Fran§aisLes dispositions l(C)gales en vigueur dans le Royaume ne sont pas appliqu(C)es si leur application n'est pas compatible avec des dispositions de trait(C)s ou de d(C)cisions d'organisations de droit international public qui engagent chacun.

DeutschInnerhalb des K¶nigreichs geltende gesetzliche Vorschriften werden nicht angewandt, wenn die Anwendung mit allgemein verbindlichen Bestimmungen von Vertr¤gen und Beschl¼ssen v¶lkerrechtlicher Organisationen nicht vereinbar ist.

Espa±olLos preceptos legales en vigor dentro del Reino no sern de aplicaci"n, si la aplicaci"n de los mismos fuere incompatible con estipulaciones de tratados y de acuerdos de organizaciones internacionales de derecho pºblico que obligan a toda persona.

Inhoud sopgave van deze pagina:

Het is mogelijk dat nationale wettelijke voorschriften in strijd zijn met internationale bepalingen. Dan gaan de internationale bepalingen voor. Zo was bijvoorbeeld het ontbreken van een weduwnaarspensioen in de (inmiddels vervallen) Algemene Weduwen- en Wezenwet in strijd met het gelijkheidsbeginsel uit het internationaal verdrag inzake burgerrechten en politieke rechten.

Deze voorrang geldt niet voor het ongeschreven volkenrecht omdat de werking van verdragen en van besluiten van volkenrechtelijke organisaties bekend gemaakt moet zijn door middel van publicatie (artikel 93). Met het ongeschreven recht is dat niet het geval.

Mocht blijken dat nationale wettelijke voorschriften in strijd zijn met internationale bepalingen in verdragen en besluiten van volkenrechtelijke organisaties, dan moet de toepassing van de nationale voorschriften achterwege worden gelaten; de internationale bepalingen gaan dan voor.

Zo is, om een voorbeeld te noemen, het ontbreken van een weduwnaarspensioen in de (inmiddels vervallen) Algemene Weduwen- en Wezenwet in strijd geacht met het gelijkheidsbeginsel uit het Internationaal Verdrag inzake burgerrechten en politieke rechten.

Deze voorrang wordt in artikel 94 niet toegekend aan het ongeschreven volkenrecht. De werking in de nationale rechtsorde van verdragen en van besluiten van volkenrechtelijke organisaties, is afhankelijk gesteld van hun bekendmaking.

Met het oog daarop bepaalt artikel 95, dat de wet regels dient te geven omtrent die bekendmaking. Deze wettelijke regeling is sinds 1994 opgenomen in de .

Afspraken in internationale verdragen en beslissingen van internationale organisaties die voor burgers gelden zijn belangrijker dan Nederlandse wetten.

Uitleg

In dit artikel staat dat afspraken in internationale verdragen en beslissingen van internationale organisaties belangrijker zijn dan Nederlandse wetten.

Dit betekent dat iedere overheidsorganisatie en iedere rechter de plicht heeft een Nederlandse wet niet toe te passen, als een internationaal verdrag iets anders zegt dan onze wet. Dit is alleen zo als in het verdrag rechten en plichten van burgers staan.

Statutory regulations in force within the Kingdom shall not be applicable if such application is in conflict with provisions of treaties or of resolutions by international institutions that are binding on all persons.

Les dispositions l(C)gales en vigueur dans le Royaume ne sont pas appliqu(C)es si leur application n'est pas compatible avec des dispositions de trait(C)s ou de d(C)cisions d'organisations de droit international public qui engagent chacun.

Innerhalb des K¶nigreichs geltende gesetzliche Vorschriften werden nicht angewandt, wenn die Anwendung mit allgemein verbindlichen Bestimmungen von Vertr¤gen und Beschl¼ssen v¶lkerrechtlicher Organisationen nicht vereinbar ist.

Los preceptos legales en vigor dentro del Reino no sern de aplicaci"n, si la aplicaci"n de los mismos fuere incompatible con estipulaciones de tratados y de acuerdos de organizaciones internacionales de derecho pºblico que obligan a toda persona.

1953

Binnen het Koninkrijk geldende wettelijke voorschriften vinden geen toepassing, wanneer deze niet verenigbaar zou zijn met overeenkomsten, die hetzij v""r, hetzij na de totstandkoming der voorschriften zijn bekend gemaakt overeenkomstig artikel 66.

1956

Binnen het Koninkrijk geldende wettelijke voorschriften vinden geen toepassing, wanneer deze toepassing niet verenigbaar zou zijn met een ieder verbindende bepalingen van overeenkomsten, die hetzij v""r, hetzij na de totstandkoming der voorschriften zijn aangegaan.

1983

Global compact for migration | Refugees and Migrants

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 14:18

The global compact for migration is the first, intergovernmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.

Today, there are over 258 million migrants around the world living outside their country of birth. This figure is expected to grow for a number of reasons including population growth, increasing connectivity, trade, rising inequality, demographic imbalances and climate change. Migration provides immense opportunity and benefits '' for the migrants, host communities and communities of origin. However, when poorly regulated it can create significant challenges. These challenges include overwhelming social infrastructures with the unexpected arrival of large numbers of people and the deaths of migrants undertaking dangerous journeys.

In September 2016 the General Assembly decided, through the adoption of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, to develop a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.

The process to develop this global compact started in April 2017. The pages in this section detail 18 months of consultation and negotiation, and provide the relevant documentation for each of the events.

On 13 July 2018 UN Member States finalized the text for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (Text available in all official languages).

The Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration will be held on 10 '' 11 December in Marrakech, Morocco.

Global CompactThe Global Compact for Migration is the first-ever UN global agreement on a common approach to international migration in all its dimensions. The global compact is non-legally binding. It is grounded in values of state sovereignty, responsibility-sharing, non-discrimination, and human rights, and recognizes that a cooperative approach is needed to optimize the overall benefits of migration, while addressing its risks and challenges for individuals and communities in countries of origin, transit and destination.

The global compact comprises 23 objectives for better managing migration at local, national, regional and global levels. The compact:

aims to mitigate the adverse drivers and structural factors that hinder people from building and maintaining sustainable livelihoods in their countries of origin;intends to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities migrants face at different stages of migration by respecting, protecting and fulfilling their human rights and providing them with care and assistance;seeks to address the legitimate concerns of states and communities, while recognizing that societies are undergoing demographic, economic, social and environmental changes at different scales that may have implications for and result from migration;strives to create conducive conditions that enable all migrants to enrich our societies through their human, economic and social capacities, and thus facilitate their contributions to sustainable development at the local, national, regional and global levels.The list of the 23 objectives can be found in paragraph 16 of the Global Compact for Migration.

Hillary calls on Europe to control migrants to thwart populism

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 25 Nov 2018 15:48

The New York Times spoke to a number of shocked progressives reeling from Mrs. Clinton's statements to the Guardian:

"I was kind of shocked," Eskinder Negash, the president and chief executive of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, said of Mrs. Clinton's comments. "If she's simply saying you need to cut down on refugees coming to Europe to ask for asylum because they have a well-founded fear of persecution, just to appease some right-wing political leaders, it's just not the right thing to do."

Tanja Bueltmann, a history professor at Northumbria University in Britain who focuses on migration issues, said Mrs. Clinton's perspective was "tragically misjudged."

"Ultimately, immigration is not actually the problem that inflamed voters: Much more foundational issues, such as austerity, are the real reason," Professor Bueltmann said. "Immigrants and refugees are simply the scapegoats populists have chosen to use to drive forward their ideas."

The context in which the interview took place may (or may not) explain Mrs. Clinton's straying away from the Party Line that uncontrolled immigration is an absolute good. The Guardian, you see, is attempting to raise an alarm about global populism and conducted interviews with that it called three "center-left" politicians: Mrs. Clinton, Tony Blair, and former Italian P.M. Matteo Renzi, whom it called "rightwing populism's greatest scalps." In this hypothesis, with the danger of listening to what non-elite voters think on her mind, Mrs. Clinton committed a gaffe in the Michael Kinsley sense: telling the truth by mistake. Her focus was actually on the dangers of the right. The amount of verbiage disparaging her enemies that made it to print is considerable and reeks of projection:

File photo by Gage Skidmore.

Clinton, Blair and Renzi all said rightwing populism had not just fed off issues of identity but was also driven by a disruptive way of conducting politics that dramatises divisions and uses a rhetoric of crisis. The centre left struggles to get its voice heard over the simplistic, emotional language used against it, they said.

This is laughable. The left controls mass media, academia, and popular culture in all three nations, and social media chip in suppressing distribution of conservative voices. And yet they are feigning the role of vici suable to make their voices heard. This would be psychotic-level denial of realty if it were more than a talking point.

The disparagement of her enemies leads to an absurd caricature of them as big-government liberals like Mrs. Clinton:

Clinton said rightwing populists in the west met "a psychological as much as political yearning to be told what to do, and where to go, and how to live and have their press basically stifled and so be given one version of reality."

Remind me: is the Nanny State a goal of conservatives or Democrats?

Almost as if she has been hanging out in lectures at the Heritage Foundation, Mrs. Clinton suddenly is a fan of the Founders' intent:

"The whole American system was designed so that you would eliminate the threat from a strong, authoritarian king or other leader and maybe people are just tired of it. They don't want that much responsibility and freedom. They want to be told what to do and where to go and how to live ... and only given one version of reality.

And we know that it is conservatives (AKA, for now, "populists") who want to run a Nanny State:

"I don't know why at this moment that is so attractive to people, but it's a serious threat to our freedom and our democratic institutions, and it goes very deep and very far and we've got to do a better job of shining a light on it and trying to combat it."

She also reveals her contempt for Steve Bannon, whose attempt to bolster rightwing populist parties in Europe is stalling everywhere outside of Italy. "Rome is the right place for him since it is bread and circuses and it's as old as recorded history. Keep people diverted, keep them riled up appeal to their prejudices, give them a sense they are part of something bigger than themselves '' while elected leaders and business leaders steal them blind. It's a classic story and Bannon is the latest avatar of it."

Tom Maguire suggests that this interview signals that she is not running in 2020:

But one more thing for which to be thankful '' with an anti-immigrant message like this, she won't be running.

I disagree. I think she is attempting to "triangulate" the way her husband did in the 1990s, heeding the advice and terminology of Dick Morris. The venerable technical term for this is co-opting a rival's issue. But Bill Clinton had far more political talent and was a much, much better liar than Hillary, and he was already in office with the left committed to keeping him there because he was their guy.

Hillary may be opening up a world of trouble for herself by speaking out clumsily, or she may be attempting to run against the leftward lurch of her party, with the Sandernista faction feeling its oats. After all, equally inarticulate Nancy Pelosi seems to have vanquished the Progs and secured a return to the speakership. I don't think her lust for power as POTUS has abated.

If this is part of a conscious triangulation strategy, President Trump may well attempt to work his deal-making on her and her allies in Congress, with an appeal for border wall funding.

So far, there is nothing in Trump's Twitter feed on Hillary latest, but then again, it is still early on the start of the holiday weekend.

Triangulation or too much chardonnay? Stay tuned.

In what may be either a instance of triangulation or too much chardonnay, Hillary Clinton has confounded both friends and foes by taking a position against mass, uncontrolled immigration (in Europe, not the USA). Of course, she says the reason has nothing to do with the crime wave, displacement, and sharia that accompanied the arrival of over a million "migrants," but rather is necessary to contain the rise of "populism" in Europe.

The interview with the U.K. Guardian in which she expressed these opinions was conducted before the midterms (according to a separate Guardian article) and for some reason was published only after the voters had spoken. Gee, did the Guardian editors want to avoid depressing (or, as Stacey Abrams would say, "suppressing") Democrat voter turnout by causing some open borders enthusiasts to stay home?