#also good for Venezuela for beating Saudi Arabia

[renah]

Colombia: *starts losing then ties with South Korea*

Ecuador: *loses to Australia*

Uruguay: *ties with Japan*

Peru: *loses to Germany*

Brazil:*loses to Morocco*

Paraguay please, don't disappoint me

#rena ramblings #futebolposting #''but Rena Paraguay is playing against Chile...'' #I know. I don't care about the chilean nt #sudaca solidarity ends with chile #God what is going on with South american football 🙃 #good for Argentina I guess but I can't say winning against Panama is that big of feat #also good for Venezuela for beating Saudi Arabia

[docsnotes]

Views on Cancel Culture, Woke-ness, Political Correctness & Other Related Issues From The Perspective of an Irrelevant Nobody: Why People Think it Helps & Why it Does Not. By Bradley “Holliday” Rozier I had hoped this first post would be a lot more light-hearted, but after an article and the related tweets I read yesterday, I had to write and share this. So, it is roughly November 2017, I decided to join Greenpeace because I felt it would be a great way to put my mind and anxiety to good use.  Through the connections I made, I ended up with some really good friends and some people who I thought would be a positive asset to my growth and recovery, but ended up not being so.  However, we will get to THAT part later.  First I want to say, generally speaking, I am against most everything the “Woke” movement is against, I simply feel that, tactically speaking, it could and should be handled differently.I was born September 9, 1984 at 10 something PM at what was then “University of Florida Medical Center”, but is now called “UF Health Shands” (Named so after William Augustine Shands, fun fact, W. Shands was not a Doctor, but a politician)  on 8th street in Jacksonville, Florida.  I grew up in culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhood on the northside of town called “Highlands” (named so because it is at a slightly higher elevation than most of the rest of the city) as well as various other places (my biological mother moved, A LOT) so, from an early age, I was presented a multitude of other cultures and backgrounds to embrace and learn from.  The most important factor in this point is my Grandmother, Geraldine Rozier, and my Aunt, Donna Ogle.  Both of whom drilled two very important lessons. Love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:31) Treat others as you want to be treated. (‎Matthew 7:12) Now, as many of you know, I have particular disdain for organized religion, as more often than not I see it bring out the worst in people, if you doubt my words, wait for the next thing I post.  Yet, even I can find value in these teachings.  These teachings also come into play with the topic at hand and I feel that this was a necessary preface for what may come out as being exceptionally harsh.  I need you to understand: this is all coming from a place of love and compassion, though I understand how this may be hard to believe as this is my first blog post. This morning, as I drank my coffee and smoked my first cigarette of the day, I was reading a Revolver article about Glenn Danzig (who is easily one of my favorite musicians).  The article was basically him talking about how punk rock could have never have happened in today’s sociopolitical climate. It received A LOT of hate, but the simple fact is, he was right.  Think about this: The Ramones, New York Dolls, The Clash and The Sex Pistols all put out songs that were offencive to some people, however, that was kind of the point.  In 1976 the Ramones put out their self titled debut, on this album was a song called “Beat on The Brat” the 6 repeated lines from this song involve beating some annoying kid with a baseball bat.  On the 1973 self titled New York Dolls debut there is a track called “Looking For A Kiss” which is about pressuring someone to be intimate with the singer.  The Clash, in 1977,again with the self titled debut, has a song called “Protex Blue” which is a song shaming a girl for not being “wholesome” enough.  Finally, The Sex Pistols, who’s name alone may be enough to get them cancelled these days, finally straying from the “self titled” trend with their 1977 debut album “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols” had a song called “God Save the Queen” which was about anything except saving the Queen.  In today’s world, these bands would have been stopped dead in their tracks and with them, almost 50 years of other artists. Which brings me to what led me to start this and with it, I hope, a dialogue.

The reason people THINK that cancel culture, woke-ness and political correctness works is because it makes THEM feel warm and fuzzy inside.  They got to “stand up” for the “little guy”.  The reality is these people do this for themselves and that is what I am going to illustrate in the next part. The first point I want to make, which I almost didn’t because I didn’t want to seem nationalist, is the Freedom of Speech.  Now, this is often something people mention when trying to explain how “America is the greatest nation on earth.” However, this is not strictly an American right, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 217A - 10DEC1948 Code-A/RES/3/217A) which was voted for by 48 Nations, and 8 nations abstained1 states that Freedom of Expression as a fundamental human right.  So, I say this with the full certainty that it is absolutely imperative that ALL people should be allowed to express themselves.

My second point, it is insanely important that we teach ourselves that reality is sometimes offensive.  The world does not walk on eggshells and people will be insensitive, it is a simple fact.  Preparing our children (and ourselves) for this fact is a quintessential part of life.  Now, it would be great if everyone was nice and perfectly well mannered all the time.  If you prepare your children for a flat tire you should prepare them for hurt feelings, conversely, it is also a useful tool in teaching children how they should behave by showing them how they should not act.  Using a negative to teach a positive can be a very effective method.  

Third, let’s talk about being “woke” which will bring us back to one of the people I met through my Greenpeace affiliation who was a negative influence on my life. I have no desire to smear this person, so I will simply refer to her by her initials D.H. I met her at a coffee shop where we met to discuss racism in general, but, primarily in Jacksonville. Our introduction was uneventful, but informative for me.  Over the next few months, we would communicate multiple times and meet up at multiple events. At one point she would call me “one of the most ‘woke’ white guys she ever met” which, at the time, I took as a great compliment.  As time would pass we would start to disagree on certain things, mostly things of basic morality. The final straw was when a mutual “friend” of ours decided that it was morally acceptable to lie to someone who was going through a catastrophic period in her life. She made a comment that I completely agreed with in the general context, however in this exact situation it was incorrect.  She said “He didn’t owe her anything”, which is correct, except for the fact that he broke a promise.  I was raised that if you give your word, you honor it. So, yes, he owed her his word, if not,at least an answer as to why he broke it (which was all she wanted). I mention this to say the biggest problem/misconception with ”woke culture” and it is simply this: Being “woke” does not make you a good person.  I also would like to point out that being “woke” 75% of the time does not undo the 25% that you are an asshole.In conclusion, the idea that “wokeness” and Cancel Culture will fix the problems of our society is absolute garbage.  I feel that the only way we can actually fix things is with a dialogue, not by simply throwing people out when they say things that we don’t agree with. Alienation is not fixing anything, in fact, I would argue that it makes things worse.  It is better to extend a hand than slam a door. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this, I hope to see you next time.

1- For (48) - Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Siam, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Against (0) - Zero

Abstained (8) - Byelorussian SSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Ukrainian SSR, South Africa, Soviet Union and Yugoslavia ( artwork is by marisa deroma @marisa_deroma on instagram)

#politically incorrect #cancel culture #woke #politics #law #free speech

[redshift-13]

1

“Venezuela is experiencing a profound humanitarian crisis. Any attempt to deny as much is abhorrent as it ignores the massive suffering of the Venezuelan people.

2

The crisis has all but obliterated the undeniable and impressive social gains achieved between 2003 and 2013, when Venezuela saw massive reductions in poverty and inequality and dramatically improved living standards. The crisis has also severely eroded Chavismo’s equally impressive and undeniable political gains, such as the significant (albeit uneven) empowerment of swaths of society previously excluded from politics. We should recognize these losses without surrendering to the narrative that proclaims Chavismo was doomed to fail from the beginning. This narrative must be rejected not only because it is false, but also because it is part of a broader reactionary project of demonizing Chavismo and the left project of building a better world. We must also reject the narrative that Chavismo is “dead.” While severely battered, the popular movements that are the beating heart of Chavismo have not disappeared: these movements continue to fight, and will be vitally important in determining the future of Venezuela.

3

The origins of the crisis are complex and involve a mix of long-, medium-, and short-term factors, including: Venezuela’s century-old dependence on oil, which is in turn a legacy of the capitalist world order and Venezuela’s peripheral position within this order; flawed government measures, particularly related to currency policy, which fostered corruption estimated to exceed many hundreds of billions of dollars; government repression of peaceful protest and dissent amid a broader turn away from political democracy and towards authoritarian rule; opposition actions such as speculative hoarding of goods, killing of civilians and government personnel, and intentional damage to public infrastructure and resources, including medical facilities and stored food; US government actions, including overt and covert support for the most violent sectors of the opposition, and the direct and indirect effects of sanctions, which since at least 2015 have deprived the government of significant funds, mostly by denying it access to international credit markets.

4

Recent US actions — particularly the sanctions imposed in August 2017 and January 2019 — have severely exacerbated the crisis and must now be seen as a leading proximate cause of the extremely dire situation facing millions of Venezuelans. A recent report estimates that August 2017 sanctions caused an additional forty thousand deaths in Venezuela by the end of 2018. While this number is impossible to verify, and may be too high or too low, it is both illogical and abhorrent to deny that US sanctions have produced a massive increase in suffering in Venezuela.

5

US policy towards Venezuela is not motivated by a concern with democracy, human rights, or humanitarianism. Washington has long backed regimes with political and human rights records that are often far worse than the Maduro administration’s, including Saudi Arabia, Colombia (where being an organizer is often a death sentence), Brazil, Honduras, and Haiti. Several of these countries have recently held deeply flawed or openly fraudulent elections that are nonetheless recognized by the US. Washington’s lack of real concern over Venezuelans’ suffering is also patently obvious: how else to interpret Trump officials’ willingness to joke about the debilitating impact of sanctions by, for example, comparing it to Darth Vader’s death grip? Or consider the US’s recent decision to end all flights to Venezuela, which even the New York Times notes is likely to significantly deepen the already catastrophic level of human suffering.”

#venezuela #jacobin magazine #us foreign policy #human rights #gabriel hetland

[blogthetortoise-blog]

Trade tariffs & counter tariffs

As the US nears mid-term elections vital for Trump’s legislative agenda, the White House will be ready to impose 10% tariffs on $200 bn of Chinese-made products, ranging from clothing to television parts to refrigerators by 30th August. The levies together with some $50 bn already in the works stand to raise import prices on almost half of everything the US buys from the Asian nation. China has time till end August to make a deal or dig in and try to outlast the US leader. President Xi Jinping, facing his own political pressures to look tough, has vowed to respond blow-for-blow. He’s already imposed retaliatory tariffs targeting Trump’s base including Iowa soybeans and Kentucky bourbon. NIFTY reclaimed 11k on 12th July for the 1st time since 1st February 2018 largely supported by a few high weightage stocks like TCS, Infosys, Reliance, HUL, Asian Paints & HDFC Bank with the broader markets having taken a beating with many smaller companies falling by 25-30% from their peak.The current correction in some quality mid-cap stocks is providing some good opportunities to enter at reasonable valuations. FIIs have been net sellers for the last three months. They were sellers to the tune of Rs. 6468 cr in April, followed by Rs.4977 cr in May  & Rs.1899 cr in June largely due to global factors like FED rate hike, crude price rise & INR depreciation. The trend has continued in July with net outflows Rs.1377 cr till 12th July. FII selling has been more pronounced over the last few months in the debt markets. The domestic MF industry’s AUM in June 2018 has increased by mere 1.2% m-o-m to Rs. 22.86 lakh cr. The increase in AUM has been primarily led by inflows in liquid/money market segment, which saw an inflow of Rs. 52,104 cr. It was followed by inflows in equity schemes, which witnessed a total inflow of Rs. 8,794 cr. ETF segment saw huge inflows to the tune of Rs. 8,313 crore. In terms of outflows, ‘income funds’ and ‘arbitrage funds’ saw a huge redemption of Rs. 23,119 cr and Rs. 1,426 cr respectively. Several factors such as US sanction on Iran, trade war and outages from Libya and Venezuela fueled fears of a global supply crunch, and crude prices were nearing $80/bbl. While the OPEC agreed on an increase in oil production by about 1 mn bpd, or 1% of global supply from July, the additional barrels may not be enough to meet growing demand. Oil prices fell sharply last week on news that Libya was suddenly set to restore higher production and the US struck a softer line on Iran sanctions. Saudi Arabia told OPEC it raised oil output by almost 500,000 bpd last month to 10.5 mn bpd as they tried to cap rallying prices by ramping up output. As per IMD, the western and central parts of the country have seen strong rainfall but the north India plains, including in big agrarian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gujarat, have been left out, despite a strong start to the monsoon in June. The southwest monsoon is expected to make a strong comeback in the next few days over north and east India, along with Gujarat, which might bring down the cumulative seasonal deficit to 2-3% from the current 8%. Midcap stocks which had taken a hammering over the last few months are currently consolidating at lower levels. Some quality midcaps & some large caps are at a quotational loss with no apparent problem in the companies. This euphoria could be a good opportunity to make some money in midcaps stocks which have fallen sharply & we expect to bounce back partially due to a feel good factor of NIFTY being at 11k. As evident from auto sales volumes we expect FY19 numbers to show good growth due to low base effect of last year. Q1FY19 results have just stared coming out with TCS, Infosys among the big companies declaring good results. Results for other Companies are expected to be declared over the next month. Given current market valuations, a substantial growth in profits will be critical for stocks to sustain at current prices. In addition how the NPA recovery unfolds for PSU banks over the next year will be critical for the overall economy. SIP inflows remain strong & DII flows have over the last few months supported FII outflows to an extent. Government borrowing/fiscal deficit is a concern & with inflation inching up g-sec yields could also be under pressure. Crude prices have been range bound but declining & a lower crude price would auger well for India. With inflation rates inching up further rate hikes cannot be ruled out completely. Though the broader indices are touching all-time highs, it has largely been due to a few stocks only & broader markets, especially mid-cap stocks have continued to correct sharply. This is providing a good opportunity to enter quality midcaps at reasonable valuations. One should still avoid cyclical stocks & accumulate good quality companies where there is a long term structural story in place. Will the US China trade war last? Midcap stocks on a free fall Sabyasachi Paul has been associated with equity research and advisory on equity markets in India for over 9 years & currently heads the equity research desk of Eastern Financiers Ltd, Kolkata. He also manages a portfolio on the online platform Kristal. Find link to the strategy named ‘The Tortoise’ Read the full article

#crude #IMD #midcaps #Nifty #Sensex #SIP #tradewar

[cks11]

Paper Towel Market Analysis for the Coming Years

Paper Towel Market Analysis for the Coming Years

Paper Towels - Type Segmentation Analysis Global paper towel market is segmented into four major groups namely: Regular Paper Trousers, Long Trousers, Rolled Trousers and Folded Trousers. Each sub-group is further subdivided into several classes. The analysis also gives an idea about the trend of each sub-group. The market is analyzed by utilizing various techniques like the interviews, data gathering and market research. This article presents the paper towel market analysis.

Global Paper Towel Market - Type Segmentation Based on Present And Future Trends This type of paper products is expected to grow faster than other paper products. It gained a competitive edge through increasing processing power and unique design. As of now, there are some specific paper materials that are more resistant to water compared to the rest; however, competition is tough. In order to maintain their lead in the global market, many companies are developing new fabrics that can easily beat the competition.

Global Paper Towels Market Size and Growth Trends The paper towel market size are increasing globally due to the different applications. Some regions are seeing significant increases in the paper towel market growth trends like Asia and Africa. These regions provide good business opportunity due to the large customer base and increasing disposable income for businesses.

Asia-Pacific Region: Asia-Pacific region is the second largest consumer of paper products. The paper towel manufacturing companies have established extensive industrial plants in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. With this, the competitive landscape of the paper industry has grown to a more developed level, which provides more opportunities for companies.

Emerging Economies: Asia's economy is growing at a very fast pace. This high economic growth can be attributed to the rapidly increasing disposable income of people in this region. The increasing demand for paper towel among the Asian consumers has also played a crucial role in the segmented markets. Some segments are experiencing faster market growth than the other. Among them are the paper towel manufacturers in Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Global paper towel  Market Share: Asia has the biggest market share of any paper product worldwide. Moreover, the region has experienced the fastest and most rapid growth in its consumer base. Asia's economy is highly diversified. It offers various services to its customers including electronics, automobiles, chemicals, construction materials, apparel, healthcare, and tourism. A global market overview of the paper towel market trends can be found in the Global Markets Research Report of The Conference Board of Trustees.

Technological Trends: With the emergence of new technology and modern approaches to manufacturing, the global towels market will witness numerous advancements. The market trends have been forecasted based on these technological shifts. The forecast sees major changes taking place in areas such as packaging and paper selection. The report also looks into the impact of new technologies on the demand for global towels.

Factors Affecting the Paper Towel Market Segment - The forecasted changes in the paper towel market can be traced to several factors such as the economy, society and other topical issues. There are several segments in the market, each with its own characteristics. Some of these are the eco-friendly and natural, health and hygiene, recyclable, customized and paper free, eco-tourism and paper towel manufacturers. The markets can be segmented further into three categories, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. The Middle East and Asia are witnessing tremendous growth due to various reasons in the next five years.

Market Growth Forecast for Middle East and Asia - The Middle East and Asia is expected to grow at a faster pace, contributing to an increased demand in the coming five years. This paper towel market size is expected to expand from the current area of about 13.5 million rolls by the end of fiscal years 2021 to more than 50 million rolls by the end of the same period. It is projected to cross the fifty million roll target during the second decade of the next century. This paper towel market has the potential to expand rapidly in the coming years.

European Demand - The paper towel market in Europe has been targeted by various studies for its potential growth. The demand comes from the growing number of tourists visiting various tourist destinations in the European Union. The number of tourists visiting different countries in Europe has been increasing substantially over the last twenty years. It is believed that this increase in European tourists will boost the consumption in this part of the world. The European demand has been seen as a bright spot in this paper towel market's future.

Two other segments that are expected to perform well in the paper towel market over the coming years are the commercial users and the commercial/corporate users. The commercial users include hotels, restaurants, offices, clinics and shopping malls who need paper towel dispensers to serve their customers effectively. The commercial segment of this paper towel market offers the biggest opportunity for companies that have established a strong demand base among their target segments. The market competition for these markets has been less aggressive and much less expensive compared to the residential markets. In order to take advantage of this, some companies have started to focus on certain segments of this market while other companies have remained dedicated to serving all types of customers.

The research team projects that the Paper Towel market size will grow from XXX in 2020 to XXX by 2027, at an estimated CAGR of XX. The base year considered for the study is 2020, and the market size is projected from 2020 to 2027.

The prime objective of this report is to help the user understand the market in terms of its definition, segmentation, market potential, influential trends, and the challenges that the market is facing with 10 major regions and 50 major countries. Deep researches and analysis were done during the preparation of the report. The readers will find this report very helpful in understanding the market in depth. The data and the information regarding the market are taken from reliable sources such as websites, annual reports of the companies, journals, and others and were checked and validated by the industry experts. The facts and data are represented in the report using diagrams, graphs, pie charts, and other pictorial representations. This enhances the visual representation and also helps in understanding the facts much better.

By Market Players: Procter & Gamble (P&G) Heng An Kimberly-Clark SCA Metsä Tissue Georgia Pacific Asaleo Care Kruger Cascades WEPA C&S Paper Seventh Generation Essendant Inc (Boardwalk) Oasis Brands

By Type Rolled Paper Towels Boxed Paper Towels Multifold Paper Towels

By Application At Home Away From Home (AFH)

By Regions/Countries: North America United States Canada Mexico

East Asia China Japan South Korea

Europe Germany United Kingdom France Italy Russia Spain Netherlands Switzerland Poland

South Asia India Pakistan Bangladesh

Southeast Asia Indonesia Thailand Singapore Malaysia Philippines Vietnam Myanmar

Middle East Turkey Saudi Arabia Iran United Arab Emirates Israel Iraq Qatar Kuwait Oman

Africa Nigeria South Africa Egypt Algeria Morocoo

Oceania Australia New Zealand

South America Brazil Argentina Colombia Chile Venezuela Peru Puerto Rico Ecuador

Rest of the World Kazakhstan

Points Covered in The Report The points that are discussed within the report are the major market players that are involved in the market such as market players, raw material suppliers, equipment suppliers, end users, traders, distributors and etc. The complete profile of the companies is mentioned. And the capacity, production, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, sales volume, sales revenue, consumption, growth rate, import, export, supply, future strategies, and the technological developments that they are making are also included within the report. This report analyzed 12 years data history and forecast. The growth factors of the market is discussed in detail wherein the different end users of the market are explained in detail. Data and information by market player, by region, by type, by application and etc, and custom research can be added according to specific requirements. The report contains the SWOT analysis of the market. Finally, the report contains the conclusion part where the opinions of the industrial experts are included.

Key Reasons to Purchase To gain insightful analyses of the market and have comprehensive understanding of the global market and its commercial landscape. Assess the production processes, major issues, and solutions to mitigate the development risk. To understand the most affecting driving and restraining forces in the market and its impact in the global market. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by leading respective organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for the market. Besides the standard structure reports, we also provide custom research according to specific requirements.

The report focuses on Global, Top 10 Regions and Top 50 Countries Market Size of Paper Towel 2016-2021, and development forecast 2022-2027 including industries, major players/suppliers worldwide and market share by regions, with company and product introduction, position in the market including their market status and development trend by types and applications which will provide its price and profit status, and marketing status & market growth drivers and challenges, with base year as 2020.

Key Indicators Analysed Market Players & Competitor Analysis: The report covers the key players of the industry including Company Profile, Product Specifications, Production Capacity/Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin 2016-2021 & Sales by Product Types. Global and Regional Market Analysis: The report includes Global & Regional market status and outlook 2022-2027. Further the report provides break down details about each region & countries covered in the report. Identifying its production, consumption, import & export, sales volume & revenue forecast. Market Analysis by Product Type: The report covers majority Product Types in the Paper Towel Industry, including its product specifcations by each key player, volume, sales by Volume and Value (M USD). Markat Analysis by Application Type: Based on the Paper Towel Industry and its applications, the market is further sub-segmented into several major Application of its industry. It provides you with the market size, CAGR & forecast by each industry applications. Market Trends: Market key trends which include Increased Competition and Continuous Innovations. Opportunities and Drivers: Identifying the Growing Demands and New Technology Porters Five Force Analysis: The report will provide with the state of competition in industry depending on five basic forces: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, and existing industry rivalry.

COVID-19 Impact Report covers Impact of Coronavirus COVID-19: Since the COVID-19 virus outbreak in December 2019, the disease has spread to almost every country around the globe with the World Health Organization declaring it a public health emergency. The global impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are already starting to be felt, and will significantly affect the Paper Towel market in 2021. The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought effects on many aspects, like flight cancellations; travel bans and quarantines; restaurants closed; all indoor/outdoor events restricted; over forty countries state of emergency declared; massive slowing of the supply chain; stock market volatility; falling business confidence, growing panic among the population, and uncertainty about future.

For more details contact as  https://www.reportmines.com/contact-us.php

[ericfruits]

Why voting with your feet is more effective than a ballot

WHEN A VOTER casts a ballot, his choice is unlikely to affect his life. If he votes with his feet, there is a good chance he will change his life dramatically, observes Ilya Somin of George Mason University, author of a forthcoming book, “Free to Move”. Consider Edinson Infante, a Venezuelan who makes handbags out of banknotes, folded and glued together. A single lipstick placed in one of his bags is worth far more than the stack of Bolivars from which it was made. That is why Mr Infante emigrated.

He could not make a living in Venezuela, a socialist dictatorship. So he moved to Colombia, the reasonably well-run country next door, where he sells his art on the streets. He now earns enough to pay rent, eat properly and send groceries home to his mother. He says he feels free in Colombia. He can stroll without feeling scared, and afford occasional treats like caramel sweets.

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Since 2014, 4.6m Venezuelans have voted with their feet against the violent, corrupt regime of Nicolás Maduro—a seventh of the population. In a country where elections are rigged, the only way they can get a better government is to go and find one.

Foot-voting can take place over any distance and for many reasons. A person may move from Congo to Botswana to be better governed, or from New York to Florida for a lower tax bill and kinder weather. Foot-voters are typically better informed than ballot-casters. One vote is unlikely to affect an election result, so hours spent analysing each candidate’s policies are probably wasted. When migrating, by contrast, an informed choice pays huge dividends and an ignorant one can spell disaster.

If people were allowed to vote freely with their feet, they would have more choices about the kind of society in which they lived. A gay man might choose to leave Iran, where his love is punishable by death, and move to Uruguay, where he could get married. A traditional Saudi man might choose to remain in Saudi Arabia, where Islamic piety is enforced and women are kept in their place. His wives might prefer to move to Canada, where they would be free to divorce him. The biggest gains from foot-voting often accrue to ill-treated groups such as ethnic and sexual minorities, and women.

The lengths to which people will go to vote with their feet give a hint of how large the benefits can be. Emmanuel, for example, left Gabon because it fails to protect young women like her from sexual violence. Her father used to abuse her. When her mother found out, she blamed Emmanuel, beat her, threw her clothes into the street and ordered her out of the house.

It is hard enough reporting a sex crime in a rich democracy, where the police are trained to treat allegations sensitively. In Gabon the cops are as scary as the criminals. Emmanuel saw no chance of justice, so when a friend offered her a plane ticket to Turkey, she went. From there, heavily pregnant, she boarded a flimsy boat bound for Greece. It leaked, and began to sink. She fell into the freezing water. Her friends called the coastguard, who found her after 45 minutes. Amazingly, both she and her baby survived. Now in Athens, she helps out at Melissa Network, a refugee charity, and hopes to train as a medical secretary. She says she feels much safer in Greece: “You have human rights here.”

A worry about foot-voting is that it might retard reform in the places migrants leave. If the strongest objectors to Venezuela’s dictatorship have gone, who will stand up to it? It is a reasonable fear. When ethnic minorities flee to escape mistreatment, their departure may indeed reward their tormentors. For example, a politician may court the votes of his own tribe by stirring up animosity against another, thus spurring the out-group to leave his electoral district and making it easier for him to win re-election.

However, foot-voting can also accelerate reform. Dissidents often find safety abroad. Exiles played a big role in ending apartheid in South Africa, and today are the most audible critics of authoritarian regimes in China and North Korea. Even the possibility of exit can influence how societies are run. If taxpayers can move, governments must govern better to avoid losing them. When the citizens of the closed, communist states of eastern Europe were allowed to head west and sample the fruits of capitalism in the late 1980s, the Soviet empire was revealed to be a failure, and collapsed. Migrants often stimulate reform at home by finding good ideas overseas and bringing or sending them back. India’s successful economic opening in the 1990s was informed by the observation that Indians were prospering everywhere except in India.

The arguments for allowing more freedom to move are partly economic. Migrants from poor to rich countries could collectively increase their incomes by tens of trillions of dollars. For this opportunity, they would surely be willing to share some of the benefits with the rich-country voters who let them in. Since the economic disruption caused by migration is modest, an imaginative government with sensible policies (come to work, do not draw welfare) could raise living standards all round.

But that is only half the story. Liberal, democratic capitalist societies have many flaws, but also great virtues: peace, freedom, tolerance and a culture that fosters innovation. The simplest way to spread these virtues is to let more people in. Every time a migrant flees a dictatorship for a democracy, global freedom grows a little. Every time someone leaves a kleptocracy for a more law-abiding state, humanity is slightly better governed. Every time a woman leaves a country where her testimony is worth less than a man’s, global sexism ebbs a millimetre or two. Migration is, therefore, a deeply moral issue.

The more the West opens its doors, the richer and more powerful it will be in 50 years

Rich countries have a choice. They are ageing. Without immigration, their populations will soon start to shrink, if they have not started already. They can choose to dwindle gradually into comfortable obscurity. Or they can confidently recruit talent from everywhere, inviting bright minds and willing hands to help build a bigger Australia, a bigger America or even a bigger Japan.

Smoke on your pipe and put that in

The more the West opens its doors, the richer and more powerful it will be in 50 years. Indeed, as the world’s population stabilises and falls, each country’s weight in the world will depend more and more on whether people want to live there. This is one of the biggest advantages that rich democracies have over nationalist dictatorships such as China. On current trends, most will squander it.

Potential migrants watch the news. The brightest have choices, and will shun places they think might mistreat them. Already, brainy Chinese are wondering whether they will be welcome in America, which is one reason why the number of new foreign students there fell by 7% in 2017-18. Brainy Indians are tiring of the interminable wait for a green card. Some give up and go elsewhere.

Uma Kanekar, a high-flying Indian IT specialist, moved to Canada after a decade in the United States waiting vainly for a green card. The last straw was the realisation that her daughter Disha, a college student who had lived in New Jersey since she was six, might be sent back to India when she turned 21 and was no longer covered by her mother’s temporary work visa. Canada gave the family permanent residence in eight months. “It’s so nice to be in a country where you feel you belong,” says Disha.

For all the furious demagoguery around migration, there is hope. Despite (or perhaps because of) Mr Trump, more Americans today say immigration should be increased than say it should be cut, finds a Pew poll. Majorities in Spain, Canada and Japan support keeping migrant flows the same or raising them. Most Greeks, Italians and Russians do not. So be it. Countries can have different policies. Many will build walls. If they fail to put well-designed doors in them, they will end up poorer, weaker and duller. ■

This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline "The greatest liberty"

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[the-record-columns]

Aug. 7, 2019: Columns

The irony of stamp values and

 the visit from an old friend

While this doesn’t really relate to the column on this page, my visit from Carl Anderson, 88, clearly was the highlight of last week. I met Carl while working on the Mayflower apartment above The Record. He did an amazing amount of work, stripping old doors and furniture of multiple coats of paint, and then later, salvaging and restoring things from the horrible fire on E Street that destroyed our former offices in 2004. Carl has become a dear friend, whose visits are an absolute delight as we reminisce about folks we remember. This past Friday, his daughter, Carla, brought him by to see me, and I have no memory of an hour and a half passing that quickly. I am thankful to know and love this man, who truly has a heart of gold. Record photo by Ken Welborn

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

I am an amateur philatelist.

Now, before anyone thinks I need to begin a hearty round of penicillin to get over that malady, I hasten to point out that a philatelist is stamp collector; the word literally means “lover of stamps.”

Many years ago, as a young adult working for Paul Cashion at the then Top 40 radio station WWWC in Wilkesboro, he introduced me to the stamp collecting hobby. I also feel I should point out that, for 99.9 percent of us, stamp collecting is just that, a hobby, not an investment. 

According to many sources, it has been the biggest hobby in the world since 1940, and, if for no other reason than that one, it is why I always emphasize that statement again; that it is a hobby, not an investment. Frankly put, anybody that wants a stamp probably has already got it, making the resale market thinner than a cheap suit. The folks who do invest in stamps, almost exclusively do so in stamps issued before 1940, and very carefully at that.

As an educational tool stamps are priceless.  Just about anyone or anything that is significant in any way has been commemorated in a United States postage stamp, and, if not by the good ole U.S. of A., there are countless other countries that issue stamps as well. 

One of my favorite examples of the learning value of stamps is the 13-cent stamp which commemorated the development of the “Pap Smear” or “Pap Test.”  Of course I knew of the test which had saved countless lives by detecting cervical cancer, but I had no idea what a pap was and was afraid to ask.  Turns out that the doctor who developed the test in the early 1940’s was named George Papanicolaou, hence the nickname “Pap Test.”

Another fun thing about the hobby is putting the right stamp on an envelope to fit the recipient. I always worked in an 8-cent Pharmacy stamp when writing to my friend Rick Brame at the Red Cross Pharmacy.  Of course everything can backfire, and, after a friend of the second lovely Mrs. Welborn showed up pregnant with her second child before we had even sent a gift to the first one, I wallpapered the box the gift was shipped in with 4-cent Family Planning stamps.

Her friend did not think that was funny at all.  Lesson learned.

Or was it?

In 1981, the Postal Service got a dose of what I got from the lady who had managed to get pregnant about an hour after she came home from the hospital with her new baby. 

On Aug. 19, 1981, an 18-cent stamp was introduced which read: “Alcoholism  You can beat it!”  The idea was to promote the fact that alcoholism was indeed a disease and that there were many avenues available for treatment.  It was a public education stamp, if you will.  However, many of the folks who received letters with this particular stamp affixed took great offense, as if they were being singled out by the letter writer as an alcohol abuser.  That word spread quickly and the stamp became an abysmal seller for the Post Office, and, after a time, thousands upon thousands were returned to headquarters, so to speak, and destroyed.

If I am not mistaken, the only stamp in the modern era that sold any more poorly than the “Alcoholism. You can beat it!”  version was the 1995, 32-cent Richard Nixon stamp.  The memories of Watergate and his resignation 20 years earlier were just too strong and, while I personally feel sorry for the man, not too many others did.

The absolute irony of these two stamps is the fact that because so many were returned and destroyed because of poor sales, this actually makes them a bit more valuable than most—simply because of this artificial scarcity.  To put it in perspective, in 1981 the alcoholism stamp had a production run of 97,535,000 stamps; the Nixon one in 1995 was 80,000,000; but the Ronald Reagan stamp of 2005 had a run of 170,000,000.  The Reagan stamp was unbelievably more popular than either of the other two, but today can actually be purchased cheaper by a new collector.

Now and then someone will stop in my office with an envelope or even a box full of full sheets of mint stamps that an uncle or parent had been buying up for 10 or 20 years.  They always look at me like a man from Mars when I tell them that a generous offer is face value.  At that point I get out my book of common stamps which features definitives and commemoratives back as far as 100 years. 

After they ooh and aah over them for a while, I explain, usually to their great disbelief, that I use these to mail letters—because that is after all, actually what they were made for.

Millions upon millions at a time.

UNESCO - condemning Israel and rewriting history

By EARL COX and KATHLEEN COX

Special to The Record

As Israel continues to come under physical attack from Palestinians in Gaza, a desperate situation for those living in southern Israel which is not being reported here in the United States, Israel is also at war on another front in an effort to keep history accurate. 

A favorite tactic of the Palestinian PR machine in their ongoing efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel is the replacing of factual history with fake history. Working in conjunction with the greater Islamic world, the Palestinians are plotting a course to disconnect Jews, and by extension Christians, from the ancient city of Jerusalem and the entire land of Israel. 

For more than fifteen years the United Nations has been assaulting Israel’s connection to Jerusalem by attempting to rewrite history replacing historical truths with outright lies despite tangible archaeological evidence supporting Israel’s position.

The fight for the truth should not be Israel’s fight alone.  All who value freedom and democracy have an obligation to stand up against the diplomatic and public relations assaults being hurled at Israel and Jerusalem on an almost daily basis.  Fake news and fake history must be challenged and corrected.  The only force that will protect Jerusalem for all the world’s faiths is the modern State of Israel whose enemies throughout the ages have sought to forcibly erase all Jewish connection with the Holy City.  

Three years ago the Palestinian Authority, backed by Arab states, succeeded in passing UNESCO  (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) resolutions that essentially denied any Jewish claims to the Temple Mount and Western Wall - two of the holiest sites in the Jewish faith.  Throughout these and subsequent resolutions, Israel's Jewish holy sites were referred to by their Muslim names. 

The UN’s disproportionate assault against the Jewish state undermines the institutional credibility of what is supposed to be an impartial international body. Politicization and selectivity harm its founding mission, eroding the UN Charter promise of equal treatment to all nations large and small.

It’s obvious that the UN is corrupted and manipulated by Israel’s enemies as it continually singles out the only Jewish state for condemnation continually bringing forth unbalanced or redundant resolutions against Israel. It is telling that not a single UN General Assembly resolution is planned for victims of gross human rights abusers such as Saudi Arabia, Burundi, Turkey, Venezuela, China, or Cuba.  At a time when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his state-controlled media continue to incite their people to stab and shoot Israeli Jews and riot on Israel’s southern border burning fields and crops, the UN’s inexplicable response is to reflexively condemn Israel while remaining mute on Palestinian abuses.

At the beginning of this year, both Israel and the United States pulled out of UNESCO. Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “We are not going to be a member of an organization that deliberately acts against us.”

Previously, the United States pulled out of UNESCO during the Reagan administration because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests.

History does repeat itself.  With the largest voting bloc in the UN comprised of Islamic countries, the deck is stacked against the only Jewish state in the world and the only democracy in the Middle East.  UNESCO is again being used to advance an agenda and further Islamic interests.

 Blackbeard and Goose Feathers

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

When traveling I find adventures far more exciting if you are open to new experiences. I have some friends who are satisfied with going to the same place all the time. The same hotels, the restaurants and the same shows. Year after year the same. No need for change. I have come to understand the comfort of the why however is still is not enough for me.  

There are many places I enjoy return visits however I seem to be driven for the discovery of something new. I have the good fortune of necessity on my side as the telling of new stories dedicates that I visit new places and meet new people so that we can create new content to share.

I enjoy revisits to areas and adding new stories or updates to past stories. It’s a way for me to visit with friends I’ve made along the way and catch up on the progression of life. Often, we share those developments with our audience but not always. In this way we all get to know each other a bit better.  

This week was coastal.

We visited Bath NC for the 300th Anniversary Festival of Blackbeard’s demise. It was a two-day affair starting on Friday in nearby Washington NC with trial. The focus was on the question of, did Virginias armed incursion and the Royal Navy have the right chase Blackbeard into Ocracoke capturing him and executing him. According to noted historian and author Kevin Duffus the answer is NO.  According the jury the answer was NO, however the judge did not agree and the previous rulings of the crown was unchanged. To which “Long Live the King” echoed throughout the chamber.

Saturday was the big day in Historic Bath which was formed in 1705 and has the prestige of being the oldest town and oldest port in North Carolina. The streets were lined with vendors, many in period style, the enthused attendees were exited with all things Blackbeard. Our go to Blackbeard historian Kevin Duffus was the events primary organizer. There was a Blackbeard parade which boasts of having among other things the largest gathering of Blackbeard on Earth.  The display and earth-shaking boom of the six-pounder cannon being fired along the banks of Bath Creek was an experience unlike any other in almost 300 years.  

For the true Blackbeard traveling enthusiast the following week marked the annual gather of the Blackbeard Jamboree on Ocracoke  Island. Another event that attracts attendees from near and far. So, if you are like me and you have interest in the history of Blackbeard and the quest for historic accuracy or something that resembles it anyway there is a place for us in the Carolinas.  

It the midst of these Blackbeard adventures I had the opportunity to spend the night in Belhaven at the Bellport Inn B&B. Yvonne DeRuiz, the Inn Keeper, an abundance of stories of world travel and adventure. My night was spent in the Asia Room offers up wonderful collection of items acquired during Yvonne’s travels. The pillows on my bed were hand made by an 83 year on man in Budapest.

Yvonne told the story of the visit she had with her friend. They took the narrow steps leading down to his shop. When she told the master pillow-maker what she wanted he went to work. He grabbed a bolt of cloth, measured off the correct amount, cut and sewed. He then selected the feathers which he had previously hand sorted and in a short period of time the pillows were made. She witnessed the whole process and I had the honor of sleeping on those pillows. When I close my eyes and think about this story I see the man dressed in a suite with fine goose down feathers all about and with great pride he presents his handy craft to Yvonne and she now shares that feeling with guest from around the world who come to visit here in the little town of Belhaven.

 On to the next adventure we go.

[qatarsoccernet]

Qatar National Team Must Take Another Step Forward in 2020

[caption id="attachment_514157" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Qatar won the Asia Cup in 2019[/caption]

Whether the rest of the world likes it or not, Qatar is set to serve as the host of the 2022 World Cup. The tournament is now less than three years away, with qualification already underway for the Asian and African federations.

To check out online sports betting for the World Cup or any other sporting event, check out All-Bets. After the Club World Cup in Qatar went off without a hitch in December, there is finally some optimism about the small Middle Eastern country hosting the world’s largest sporting event.

Of course, hosting duties at the World Cup come with the pressure to perform on the field. Hosts are expected to play well in front of their home fans and at least reach the Knockout Stage of the tournament.

Russia did just that in 2018, reaching the quarterfinals and nearly advancing further, rallying the entire country behind it along the way.

South Africa in 2010 was the only host nation to fail to make it out of the Group Stage at a World Cup. Reaching the round of 16 should be considered the bare minimum of what the Qatar national team will be expected to accomplish as hosts in 2022.

That’s a tough ask for a small nation with little football history of which to speak that will also be playing in the World Cup Finals for the first time. With a challenging schedule ahead in 2020, the performance and results of the Maroons will play a big role in the squad’s development ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

It will give the rest of the world a good indication of whether or not Qatar will belong on the field at the World Cup and whether it will have a legitimate chance to reach the Knockout Stage.

On the surface, Qatar still looks like the nail that sticks up in world football. Not only has it never been to a World Cup, but it finished at the bottom of its group in the final round of qualification for the 2018 World Cup.

Virtually all of its players play domestically, making them unknown entities to the rest of the world. Finally, Qatar was ranked No. 55 in the world in the FIFA world rankings in December 2019, making it the fifth-best team in Asia according to FIFA’s outdated algorithm for determining the rankings.

However, all of that must be put into context. At the end of 2018, Qatar was ranked 93rd in the FIFA world rankings, the 13th highest team in Asia. Over the course of a banner year, the Maroons climbed nearly 40 spots.

Major Step Forward

The past 12 months have provided the first evidence that Qatar is improving as a footballing nation, perhaps setting the stage for better things to come in 2020 and beyond.

It all started with an unprecedented win at the 2019 Asian Cup. The Maroons dominated the Group Stage, winning all three matches with 10 goals scored and none conceded. That included a 2-0 win in the highly-anticipated match with Saudi Arabia, who is not only a political rival but typically the best football team in the Middle East.

Qatar’s good fortune continued in the Knockout Stage with a shocking upset of South Korea in the quarterfinals, a dominating 4-0 win over the host UAE in the semifinals, and the memorable 3-1 win over Japan in the final.

It proved to be the best team in Asia by beating the teams that everyone believed were the best in Asia.

When all was said and done, Qatar had scored 19 goals and conceded just one while winning all seven of its games at the Asian Cup. Sudanese-born Almoez Ali emerged as the star of the tournament, scoring nine goals while no other player in the tournament scored more than four.

He has joined the likes of Akram Afif as captain to form one of the most dangerous attacking bands in Asian football.

On the heels of their triumph at the Asian Cup, the Maroons took a summer trip to South America after being invited to participate in the 2019 Copa America. While they were drummed out in the Group Stage, Qatar gave a strong account of itself.

It scored a draw with Paraguay in its opening match, pushed Colombia to the brink in a hard-fought 1-0 loss, and did the same in a 2-0 loss to Argentina.

While the results were disappointing, the Maroons displayed the speed and skill required to compete on the same field as some of the top South American teams.

In the fall, Qatar returned to Asian competition, scoring four wins and a draw in the first five games of World Cup qualifying that is also serving as qualifying for the next Asian Cup. Those results catapulted them to the top of their group.

Unfortunately for the Maroons, they failed to follow up their Asian Cup win earlier in the year at the Arabian Gulf Cup. As tournament hosts, Qatar lost to Iraq in the Group Stage and fell to Saudi Arabia in the semifinals, taking a clear step backward after such impressive results earlier in the year.

New Year

Now that 2020 has arrived, it’s time for Qatar to prove that last year’s Asian Cup title wasn’t a fluke and that its No. 55 FIFA ranking isn’t the best it can do. First on the agenda is securing the top spot in Group E of World Cup qualification, a feat that could hinge on a June trip to Oman, which sits one point behind the Qataris with three matches left to play.

After that is a return trip to South America for the 2020 Copa America this summer.

However, things will be different this time around. Rather than three group games, Qatar will play five matches during the Group Stage. Those five games will be played over just 18 days, a schedule that will test Qatar’s depth, endurance, toughness, and character in ways they’ve never been tested before.

Playing five South American teams in less than three weeks is nothing short of brutal, and further challenges await them if they finish among the top four spots in the six-team group.

During the Group Stage, Qatar will face world heavyweights Brazil and Colombia, as well as 2018 World Cup participant Peru. The Maroons will also have fixtures against Ecuador and Venezuela, two scrappy South American sides that will view Qatar as an opponent they should beat.

As usual, it will be up to Qatar to prove both critics and its opponents wrong. The Maroons were able to do so throughout 2019, but they will have to do it all over again in 2020.

After the 2020 Copa America, there is little on the horizon with regard to competitive games for Qatar until the 2022 World Cup. This is its last chance to challenge itself by playing top teams in competitive games.

It’s also its last chance to prove itself at an international tournament before it serves as host of the greatest sporting event in the world.

If Qatar wants to set itself up for success as World Cup host in 2022, it needs to prove in 2020 that it is a team that needs to be taken seriously on the field.

source: https://qatar-soccer.net/

[recentanimenews]

Decade in Review: The Most Watched Anime of the Decade by Country

  We are mere hours before the end of 2019, which means we’re also just about to close out the 2010s. With the end of the decade within our grasp, we on the Editorial team thought it would be fun to look at some of the viewing habits and trends of our lovely Crunchyroll users over the past 10 years.

  In this article, we’re taking our viewership-by-country map and showing which anime was watched the most during the last decade in EVERY. SINGLE. COUNTRY. Let’s see which anime each country loved the most over the past decade. Throw on your hiking boots and take my hand as we go on an anime world tour together!

  North & Central America

Click for larger image

  Naruto, Naruto, Naruto. The Seventh Hokage can stand tall knowing that he is beloved not only by the US and Mexico, but a whole host of others like Puerto Rico, Panama, and about 10 more. There’s a phrase we use a lot around the office–“Crunchyroll is the house that Naruto built”–and that’s honestly really true! Shippuden was not without competition, of course. Luffy literally became a pirate of the Caribbean, with One Piece showing up in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Barbados. Neighboring island nations saw the Straw Hats’ shonen colleagues with Black Clover in a few countries including Anguilla, and BORUTO laying claim to Haiti and St. Vincent & the Grenadines. Taking a jump up North, our friends in Canada were quite the holdouts, being the only country that watched Attack on Titan the most. The scouts couldn’t oust Naruto from the throne, despite valiant efforts. Growing into a kind, responsible, loving person, achieving his dream of becoming Hokage, and now taking over the majority of North America–Naruto Uzumaki is a truly unstoppable force.

  Overall Most Popular in North America: Naruto Shippuden

  South America

  Click for larger image

  While it may appear that we have another Shippuden-heavy region, that’s mostly thanks to the sheer geographic area of Brazil. In reality, we only have three countries where Naruto took the crown (and NONE where Boruto won!). The real MVP here is Mr. Shonen himself, Goku. Starting at Venezuela and Colombia, Dragon Ball Super makes an unbroken victory down the western coast of South America, through Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and numerous others along the way. Getting a new sequel to the Dragon Ball franchise was a truly historic event for anime. For many of us, Goku and his friends were the first characters to welcome us to the world of anime. Dragon Ball Super felt like coming home for many of us, and the fact that it was really, really good makes that return all the sweeter.

  Overall Most Popular in South America: Dragon Ball Super

  Europe

  Click for larger image

Oh wow! Contrary to the Americas, Europe has no obvious winner, and many of the anime are well represented by multiple countries! Again, Shippuden makes a very respectable showing with Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, and, interestingly, more ‘S’ countries. My Hero Academia gave our orange boy a run for his money with comparable representation. Users in the Vatican favored Academia, which makes me hopeful that at least a few priests and nuns are keeping up with Class 1-A. But despite Deku’s best efforts, Asta’s unending determinism can be seen through more countries favoring Black Clover over any other anime. Despite its relatively recent beginning in the Fall of 2017, Black Clover’s tale of unending perseverance and growth has become a mainstay in the shonen heavy hitter lineup. Asta and his friends have been embraced by the anime community, and, luckily for us, the series isn’t going away any time soon.

  Russia, a titanic country that spans two continents watched Black Clover more than any other Crunchyroll anime. We should keep in mind here that Crunchyroll was only recently rolled out in Russia, so there is a recency bias. This advantages Black Clover over other long running series that were airing in the earlier part of the decade–namely Shippuden.

  It must be noted that the tastemakers of Poland and Belarus are the first countries on our tour to have watched JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure the most in the past decade. Truly, two neighboring countries comprised of anime fans of the most refined tastes.

Overall Most Popular in Europe: Black Clover

  The Middle East

  Click for larger image

  Contrary to their European neighbors, our users in Middle Eastern countries had a very clear cut preference. As with North America, Naruto Shippuden was the series of choice for Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and a bit more than ten others. Our boy is coming in clutch again. Black Clover made a showing in Iran and Iraq, and BORUTO ended up being Yemen’s favorite of the decade. Interestingly, the anime that show up in multiple countries always occur in contiguous countries. I guess Naruto and Black Clover fans truly do stick together!

  Overall Most Popular in the Middle East: Naruto Shippuden

  Africa

  Click for larger image

And we have another clear-cut winner! Our users in African countries had a pretty clear cut preference for Black Clover, being represented by a tens of countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Coming in second is our stalwart Shippuden, showing up in Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, and a few others. South Africa refused to conform and favored My Hero Academia above other anime.

  Overall Most Popular in Africa: Black Clover

Asia

    Click for larger image

  Welcome……… to the world of Shippuden. If you thought North America and the Middle East had a lot of Naruto, Asia has both beat. In one unbroken, continental swath, Shippuden stretches from Kazakhstan in the northwest, east through India, Nepal, and China, and then down Southeast Asia through Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and countless others. The global influence of our favorite ninja really can’t be overstated, and that holds true for the region closest to the series’ country of origin–which, itself is rather interesting, but we’ll get to that.

  There are, of course, some holdouts. The contiguous trio of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan favored Black Clover (the former two), and BORUTO (the latter). Now we need to talk about the elephant in the room. Japan, the country that invented and is majorly the origin point of most anime, watched RWBY, an American-made series, more than anything else. While a big part of this is the fact that most anime viewing in Japan doesn’t happen on Crunchyroll, the viewership of RWBY in Japan is actually quite impressive. Anime is becoming a truly global industry and fandom, and the fact that the country that invented anime has embraced a foreign animated series is a pretty beautiful indication of this.

  Overall Most Popular in Asia: Naruto Shippuden

Oceania

  Click for larger image

  Oceania is comprised of an extremely diverse set of island nations, and that diversity showed up in our results in some very cool ways! We’ll start with the largest member of the region, Australia, and neighboring New Zealand. The Aussies and Kiwis both favored My Hero Academia and were actually the only Oceanic countries to do so besides the US Minor Outlying Islands. Shippuden and BORUTO made appearances, of course, with the former showing up in Papua New Guinea and Guam, among others, and the latter hitting the quartet of Fiji, Niue, Palao, and Samoa.

  Heavy hitters aside, Oceania had some fascinating one offs. Micronesia’s favorite anime was long-running shonen series Fairy Tail, Nauru favored the lawyer video game adaptation Ace Attorney–the only non-action oriented title on this map–, and Norfolk Island favored Bladedance of the Elementalers–the only series with an episode count in the teens.

  Overall Most Popular in Oceania: Naruto Shippuden

Antarctica

  Click for larger image

  We’ll end our journey with one of the largest, most sparsely populated regions on earth. Antarctica.

  Yes, against all odds, we did have some video views recorded from users in the land of ice and snow. Regrettably, the most watched show here was not A Place Further Than the Universe. The winner, however, was fan favorite shonen series Hunter x Hunter! Truly, one of the best anime arcs of all time has to be Chimera ANTarctica. THANK YOU, AND GOODNIGHT.

  Oh, and for good measure, here's the final score:

  Most popular anime WORLDWIDE: Naruto Shippuden

  ---

  Cayla Coats is the Editor-in-Chief of Crunchyroll News. She tweets @ceicocat

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

[keywestlou]

IT'S THE OIL, STUPID

December 7, 1941. As President Roosevelt stated. “A  day which will live in infamy.” Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. More than 2,400 American lives lost. The U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet destroyed.

How did the day come about? What caused Japan to conduct the heinous act?

Oil. Plain and simple.

Japan became a warmongering nation in the early 1920’s. In 1931, it invaded Manchuria. Various events caused Japan to enter into an all out war with China in 1937.

It was Japan’s invasion of French Indochina in July 1941 that broke the camel’s back. The invasion set the stage for the invasion of Pearl Harbor in December.

President Roosevelt felt Japan’s invasions had reached the “too much” point. He sought to temper Japan’s war activities.

On July 26, 1941, Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the U.S. The result was that Japan lost access to three quarters of its overseas trade and 90 percent of its imported oil.

Britain followed suit.

The oil deprivation was a killer in the making. Japan could not survive without oil. It imported its oil. Japan’s oil reserves at the time would last no more than 3 years. One and a half years if war with the U.S. was commenced causing its fuel supply to be consumed at a faster pace.

Roosevelt assumed/hoped Japan would back off certain of its conquests. Then the U.S. would cease the freeze and permit the flow of oil to Japan again.

Japan faced a dilemma. Back off its invasion of Southeast Asia and hope the oil embargo would be eased. Or, continue its invasion policy and seize the oil in Malaysia and other Pacific locations. Such would further antagonize the U.S. and the West. Perhaps even lead to war.

Japan decided its future. It opted for a preemptive strike “before its oil gauge ran empty.” The preemptive strike Pearl Harbor.

Japan believed its overwhelming strike at Pearl Harbor and other U.S. and British holdings in the Pacific within a few days would bring the U.S. to the peace table. If not, Japan still would have secured the oil reserves it needed by occupying southeast Asia.

Even today, oil continues to be gold. A necessity of life for most nations. Wars still fought with oil the real reason for invasion or contemplated invasion. Syria, Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia examples.

It’s the oil! Not one country wanting to help the abused peoples of another.

One of the visiting law professors before the House Intelligence Committee monday was Jonathan Turly. The sole representative for the Republicans.

Turly is a law professor at George Washington University. In addition, he has frequently been involved in representing one side or another in governmental matters.

Do not assume Turly is a rock hard conservative Republican. Far from it. Turly understands the function of an attorney. A lawyer represents a position in the law. Many disputes arise as to what the law means, was intended, etc. Close calls. Turly does his best to represent the position of his client as the law might be.

He understands and does his job as an advocate.

I do not know his political party. Could be either of the major ones. Or, perhaps independent. His legal positions lead many to believe he is a liberal at heart.

He once argued for the legalization of polygamy.

He has often in recent years expressed his worries that the Supreme Court is injecting itself into partisan politics. He has frequently expressed the view that recent nominees to the Court hold extreme views.

Turly argued an opposite view from that he expressed monday in a previous impeachment proceeding. The Clinton impeachment trial before the Senate. Turly spoke at the time, “Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker; it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

The world is catching up with Trump. Democratic nations are moving ahead without him. His opinions finally seem to have no value.

Due to Trump’s actions, thought process, etc., other leaders are losing respect for the U.S. The U.S. can no longer be depended upon.

Lack of respect for Trump was evident at the recent NATO meeting in London. He was laughed at in a private chit chat between several leaders at a social function. Macron told him to be “serious” when he attempted to make a joke at what Maron considered a serious matter. He referred to Trudeau as “two faced.” The pot calling the kettle black? He left the conference early. Failing to attend a news conference scheduled for him alone.

It is basic. If one wants respect, he must give respect. Trump does not understand this. He is a bully. Beats up on people. When he does, which is often, he cannot expect those same people to look upon him favorably thereafter.

Joe Biden said it right after Trump’s embarrassing performance at the NATO meeting: “The world is laughing at President Trump.”

No question about it. The only problem is it means they are laughing at the U.S. also.

Some parents no matter how good have a wayward child among their brood. So it appears with Joe Biden. His son Hunter.

Our children are our children. Parent don’t pick their children, nor do children pick their parents. The child the result of nature. An act of God.

In some instances, the child a cross for the parent to bear.

Hunter’s most recent escapade occurred this week. He failed to show up for a child support hearing regarding his out of wedlock child. The mother a Washington stripper. Her name Lunden Roberts.

Lunden in court seeking $11,000 in legal fees and child support. A DNA test recently revealed that Hunter is the father.

Hunter previously had told the court he could not pay. He was broke. Additionally he wanted the court to seal his financial records because of his “significant debts.”

Being broke an amusing defense. Recall all of what is going on with Hunter, the Ukrainian company Barisma, and Hunter’s consulting firm being paid $83,333 per month for his services as a director.

Homelessness unquestionably a major U.S. problem. When we think of the homeless, we generally think of adults. It must be remembered children are among the homeless, also.

New York City recently reported that there are 114,000 homeless children in the New York City school system.

It is the same across the U.S. Nothing to be proud of!

Genocide always in eh news. Thousands, even millions, killed here and there.

Mass killings not a today thing alone. In 1240, the Mongols under Bata Khan occupied and destroyed Kiev. A one day battle. Only 2,000 survived of the 50,000 who lived in Kiev prior to the battle.

Finally! Santa Claus is coming to town! Tonight! The annual Key West Christmas Parade. On Truman and Duval. Tonight at 7.

The best anywhere in the country!

Enjoy your day!

      IT’S THE OIL, STUPID was originally published on Key West Lou

[whittlebaggett8]

Bernie Sanders is running for president in 2020. Here’s everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition., Defence Online

caption

Bernie Sanders.

source

Win McNamee / Getty Images

Who is Bernie Sanders?

Current job: US senator from Vermont. Running for president of the United States as a Democratic candidate.

Age: 77

Family: Sanders is married to political consultant Jane Sanders, and has one biological son (Levi) from a previous marriage and three stepchildren (Heather, Carina, David).

Hometown: Burlington, Vermont

Political party: Independent but caucuses with Democrats

Previous jobs: Mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989. Member of the US House of Representatives from Vermont’s at-large district from 1991 to 2007.

Who is Bernie Sanders’ direct competition for the nomination?

Based on a recurring series of national surveys we conduct, we can figure out who the other candidates competing in Bernie Sanders’ lane are, and who the broader opponents are within the party.

Despite their ample political differences, as the two most popular candidates with experience running for the presidency both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden would be satisfactory to large groups of people who said they’ll vote in the Democratic primary. All told, just over 60% of people who’d be satisfied with Sanders as nominee would also be satisfied with Biden as the nominee.

source

Defence Online

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is also popular among those who’d be satisfied with Sanders. Indeed, Warren is in the unique position of being the only contender as or more popular among Sanders supporters than she is among Democratic primary voters as a whole. Of those who’d be satisfied with Sanders as nominee, 45% said they’d also be satisfied with Warren as nominee.

Much like Biden supporters, the people who would be satisfied with Sanders as nominee are unique in that they are very cool on other Democrats. Let’s compare people who like Sanders as nominee with the general set of Democratic primary voters. The percentage who would be satisfied with Kamala Harris as nominee is 20 percentage points lower than the overall set of Democrats. We see numbers that are nearly as bad for O’Rourke, Booker and Castro.

INSIDER has been conducting a recurring poll through SurveyMonkey Audience on a national sample to find out how different candidate’s constituencies overlap. We ask people whether they are familiar with a candidate, whether they would be satisfied or unsatisfied with that candidate as nominee, and sometimes we also ask whether they think that person would win or lose in a general election against President Donald Trump.

Read more about how we’re polling this here.

What are Bernie Sanders’ political positions?

On healthcare:

Sanders is leading the charge for universal healthcare, which has become popularly known as “Medicare-for-all” and is being embraced by most 2020 Democrats. He sponsored a bill pushing for this in 2017. Under Sanders’ plan, every American would be provided with health insurance through Medicare and private insurers would be eliminated.

“The goal of health care must be to provide quality care to all in a cost effective way, not tens of billions in profits for the insurance companies and outrageous compensation packages for CEOs,” Sanders said in a campaign speech in California in late March.

On immigration:

On climate change:

On campaign finance:

Sanders has zeroed-in on campaign finance reform for years.

Sanders gained popularity in 2016 by refusing corporate donations and looking to small donors to fund his presidential campaign. He’s continuing with this policy in 2020.

He’s pushed for a constitutional amendment that would “effectively prevent corporations from bankrolling election campaigns, and would give Congress and the states explicit authority to regulate campaign finances.”

Sanders has referred to Citizens United as “one of the worst decisions ever brought about by the Supreme Court of this country.”

On abortion:

On LGBTQ rights:

On education:

Sanders supports making public college and universities tuition-free for undergraduate students.

Unders Sanders’ College for All Act, the federal government would cover 67% of this cost, while the states would be responsible for the remaining 33% of the cost.

Sanders has also pushed for drastically lowering student loan interest rates, stating it’s “revolting” the federal government makes “billions in profits off of student loans each year.”

On guns:

On criminal justice reform:

Sanders has been outspoken on mass incarceration for many years, but did vote for a 1994 crime bill that many critics feel made the problem worse.

Sanders has repeatedly said the US should invest more in jobs and education than incarcerating people.

He’s called for an end to the war on drugs, and is in favor of legalizing marijuana at the federal level.

The senator wants to end private prisons and cash bail.

Sanders has described America’s criminal justice system as “racist,” stating that “far too many of our black brothers and sisters end up dead at the hands of law enforcement.”

On trade:

Sanders opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump withdrew the US from in 2017.

Sanders has pushed for trade policy that “is fair to American workers, not just large multi-national corporations.”

He routinely speaks out against the exploitation of low-wage workers in foreign countries, and the impact this has on the job market in the US.

Sanders is against Trump’s tariffs against Canada and the European Union, but has expressed support for imposing “stiff penalties on countries like China, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam to prevent them from illegally dumping steel and aluminum into the US and throughout the world.”

Sanders has said Trump is right about the problem with trade with countries like China but has called for a more “comprehensive approach.”

“We need to fundamentally rethink our trade policies and move to fair trade rather than just unfettered free trade,” Sanders said in March 2018.

On foreign policy:

Sanders voted against the 2003 Iraq War, which he often points to as a defining moment in his career. He’s generally against US intervention, and only supports war as a last resort.

Sanders is strongly in favor of a foreign policy that involves working with the international community to solve global crises. He also wants to drastically cut US defense spending.

He opposed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

Sanders led the charge in the Senate for the US to end support the Saudi Arabia in the Yemen conflict.

Sanders has been critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, but still supports the historic US-Israel partnership.

Sanders has faced criticism for praising dictatorial socialist regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua, and the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

More recently, he has caught flak for not being more forceful in condemning Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

Sanders opposes “endless” wars and wants to see conflicts like the Afghanistan War come to a conclusion.

On taxes:

Sanders is strongly in favor of taxing the wealthy to address inequality, calling on millionaires and billionaires to “pay their fair share.”

He’s proposed a plan that would implement a 77 percent rate on billionaires’ estates. Sanders would tax the estates of those who inherit more than $3.5 million,

Sanders has railed against major companies like Amazon, Netflix, and GM paying “nothing” in federal income taxes.

Sanders has also pledged to target offshore tax havens.

What are Bernie Sanders’ political successes?

How much money has Bernie Sanders raised?

Could Bernie Sanders beat President Trump?

Referring back to INSIDER’s recurring poll, Bernie Sanders overall is believed to be a strong candidate in a general election against Donald Trump compared to your typical Democrat. For a typical candidate, the majority of respondents are undecided about how they think they’d perform, but not Sanders: 49% of people who say they’ll vote in the Democratic primary think he’d beat Trump, and 10% think he’d lose. That winning percentage is about 13 points higher than typical, which is rather good among the 2020 contenders.

Read more of our best stories on Bernie Sanders:

The post Bernie Sanders is running for president in 2020. Here’s everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition., Defence Online appeared first on Defence Online.

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[gyrlversion]

The worlds happiest countries REVEALED: Finland comes top and UK 15th

Finland has been crowned the happiest country in the world for the second year in a row, leading a top ten that is made up of five Nordic nations.

The World Happiness Report, released today, ranked 156 countries by happiness levels, based on factors such as life expectancy, social support and corruption.

But while the Nordic nations of Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland topped the table, there was no sign of Britain in the top ten.

Fans of skiing, saunas and Father Christmas won’t be surprised to hear Finland has been named the happiest place to live in the world for the second year in a row. Its capital Helsinki is shown in this file picture

The UK placed 15th, up from 19th last year, one above Ireland and four above the US – which came in at its lowest ranking ever at 19th. 

But Britain still trailed behind the likes of Israel, Austria, Costa Rica, Australia, Luxembourg, Canada and New Zealand. 

The North African nation of South Sudan was at the bottom of the happiness index which found America was getting less happy each year even as the country became richer – falling from 14th place in two years.

It is the second year the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network evaluated 117 countries by the happiness and well-being of their immigrants as part of the annual report.

Europe’s Nordic nations, none particularly diverse, have dominated the index since it first was produced in 2012.  

Finland took the top spot with a score of 7.769 out of ten, beating second-placed Denmark which scored 7.6.

Filling out the top five was Norway in third, with 7.554 and Iceland fourth, scoring 7.494, narrowly ranking above fifth-placed Netherlands with 7.488. 

Propping up the table was South Sudan, with a score of just 2.853. The bottom ten also included Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Yemen, Malawi, Syria, Botswana, Haiti and Zimbabwe.   

Meanwhile Russia was 68th – down from 59th – France 24th and China 93rd.

Relatively homogenous Finland has about 300,000 foreigners and residents with foreign roots, out of its 5.5 million people.

Its largest immigrant groups come from other European nations, but there also are communities from Afghanistan, China, Iraq and Somalia. 

Meik Wiking, CEO of the Copenhagen-based Happiness Research Institute, said the five Nordic countries that reliably rank high in the index ‘are doing something right in terms of creating good conditions for good lives,’ something newcomers have noticed.

He said the happiness revealed in the survey derives from healthy amounts of both personal freedom and social security that outweigh residents having to pay ‘some of the highest taxes in the world.’

‘Briefly put, (Nordic countries) are good at converting wealth into well-being,’ Wiking said. The finding on the happiness of immigrants ‘shows the conditions that we live under matter greatly to our quality of life, that happiness is not only a matter of choice.’

Four different countries have held top ten spots in the five most recent reports- Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland.

All the top countries tend to have high values for all six of the key variables that have been found to support well-being: income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity. 

South Sudan, which has been wracked by five years of civil war that has killed as many as 400,000 people, ranked last in the index 

The US was 11th in the first index and has never been in the top ten. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, explained this citing several factors.

He said: ‘The long-term rise in U.S. income per person has been accompanied by several trends adverse to subjective well-being (SWB): worsening health conditions for much of the population; declining social trust; and declining confidence in government. 

‘Whatever benefits in SWB might have accrued as the result of rising incomes seem to have been offset by these adverse trends… [It’s] apparently due in part to the astoundingly large amount of time that young people are spending on digital media: smartphones, videogames, computers, and the like.

‘The prevalence of addictions in American society seems to be on the rise, perhaps dramatically… They include gambling; social media use, video gaming, shopping, consuming unhealthy foods.

‘These addictions, in turn, seem to be causing considerable unhappiness and even depression.’  

Happiness rankings per country

 1. Finland (7.769)

2. Denmark (7.600)

3. Norway (7.554)

4. Iceland (7.494)

5. Netherlands (7.488)

6. Switzerland (7.480)

7. Sweden (7.343)

8. New Zealand (7.307)

9. Canada (7.278)

10. Austria (7.246)

11. Australia (7.228)

12. Costa Rica (7.167)

13. Israel (7.139)

14. Luxembourg (7.090)

15. United Kingdom (7.054)

16. Ireland (7.021)

17. Germany (6.985)

18. Belgium (6.923)

19. United States (6.892)

20. Czech Republic (6.852)

21. United Arab Emirates (6.825)

22. Malta (6.726)

23. Mexico (6.595)

24. France (6.592)

25. Taiwan Province of China (6.446)

26. Chile (6.444)

27. Guatemala (6.436)

28. Saudi Arabia (6.375)

29. Qatar (6.374)

30. Spain (6.354)

31. Panama (6.321)

32. Brazil (6.300)

33. Uruguay (6.293)

34. Singapore (6.262)

35. El Salvador (6.253)

36. Italy (6.223)

37. Bahrain (6.199)

38. Slovakia (6.198)

39. Trinidad and Tobago (6.192)

40. Poland (6.182)

41. Uzbekistan (6.174)

42. Lithuania (6.149)

43. Colombia (6.125)

44. Slovenia (6.118)

45. Nicaragua (6.105)

46. Kosovo (6.100)

47. Argentina (6.086)

48. Romania (6.070)

49. Cyprus (6.046)

50. Ecuador (6.028)

51. Kuwait (6.021)

52. Thailand (6.008)

53. Latvia (5.940)

54. South Korea (5.895)

55. Estonia (5.893)

56. Jamaica (5.890)

57. Mauritius (5.888)

58. Japan (5.886)

59. Honduras (5.860)

60. Kazakhstan (5.809)

61. Bolivia (5.779)

62. Hungary (5.758)

63. Paraguay (5.743)

64. North Cyprus (5.718)

65. Peru (5.697)

66. Portugal (5.693)

67. Pakistan (5.653)

68. Russia (5.648)

69. Philippines (5.631)

70. Serbia (5.603)

71. Moldova (5.529)

72. Libya (5.525)

73. Montenegro (5.523)

74. Tajikistan (5.467)

75. Croatia (5.432)

76. Hong Kong SAR, China (5.430)

77. Dominican Republic (5.425)

78. Bosnia and Herzegovina (5.386)

79. Turkey (5.373)

80. Malaysia (5.339)

81. Belarus (5.323)

82. Greece (5.287)

83. Mongolia (5.285)

84. Macedonia (5.274)

85. Nigeria (5.265)

86. Kyrgyzstan (5.261)

87. Turkmenistan (5.247)

88. Algeria (5.211)

89. Morocco (5.208)

90. Azerbaijan (5.208)

91. Lebanon (5.197)

92. Indonesia (5.192)

93. China (5.191)

94. Vietnam (5.175)

95. Bhutan (5.082)

96. Cameroon (5.044)

97. Bulgaria (5.011)

98. Ghana (4.996)

99. Ivory Coast (4.944)

100. Nepal (4.913)

101. Jordan (4.906)

102. Benin (4.883)

103. Congo (Brazzaville) (4.812)

104. Gabon (4.799)

105. Laos (4.796)

106. South Africa (4.722)

107. Albania (4.719)

108. Venezuela (4.707)

109. Cambodia (4.700)

110. Palestinian Territories (4.696)

111. Senegal (4.681)

112. Somalia (4.668)

113. Namibia (4.639)

114. Niger (4.628)

115. Burkina Faso (4.587)

116. Armenia (4.559)

117. Iran (4.548)

118. Guinea (4.534)

119. Georgia (4.519)

120. Gambia (4.516)

121. Kenya (4.509)

122. Mauritania (4.490)

123. Mozambique (4.466)

124. Tunisia (4.461)

125. Bangladesh (4.456)

126. Iraq (4.437)

127. Congo (Kinshasa) (4.418)

128. Mali (4.390)

129. Sierra Leone (4.374)

130. Sri Lanka (4.366)

131. Myanmar (4.360)

132. Chad (4.350)

133. Ukraine (4.332)

134. Ethiopia (4.286)

135. Swaziland (4.212)

136. Uganda (4.189)

137. Egypt (4.166)

138. Zambia (4.107)

139. Togo (4.085)

140. India (4.015)

141. Liberia (3.975)

142. Comoros (3.973)

143. Madagascar (3.933)

144. Lesotho (3.802)

145. Burundi (3.775)

146. Zimbabwe (3.663)

147. Haiti (3.597)

148. Botswana (3.488)

149. Syria (3.462)

150. Malawi (3.410)

151. Yemen (3.380)

152. Rwanda (3.334)

153. Tanzania (3.231)

154. Afghanistan (3.203)

155. Central African Republic (3.083)

156. South Sudan (2.853)

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[paulrfrank]

Comment response detailing systematic efforts by U.S. and others to undermine Venezuela’s government

I tried to dive into the topic and take a fresh look at it.  Thanks for the comment about nationalization — I wasn't aware of the extent of it (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-election-nationalizations/factbox-venezuelas-nationalizations-under-chavez-idUSBRE89701X20121008).  I first looked at Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortages_in_Venezuela) which provided analysis closer to your analysis than mine.  There were a number of statements that didn't seem . . . shall we say "balanced."  Then I came to this statement:  "Gasoline was also rationed allegedly because subsidized Venezuelan gasoline was being smuggled to Colombia where it was sold for a higher price."  I live in Colombia in the first major city after the border city of Cucuta, and Venezuelan gasoline is a major underground business here.  I can't drive up the hill without several "gentlemen" coming out and waving their sticks with an empty liter soda bottle on the end of it, the well-recognized symbol for bargain Venezuelan gas for sale.  There is nothing  "alleged" about the large scale sale of Venezuelan gas in Colombia.  To be clear, the problem is NOT that the Wikipedia article providing false information, but rather the systematic bias of the main author's perspective in this article.  (More on this later.) So I decided to dig deeper.  For simplicity, I will simply paste in a bunch of highlights from three different sources that address the "economic warfare" Maduro complained about.  (At the end, I have included a media-bias-fact-check report for the three main sources for your convenience.  Skip over it if you don't care.)  I apologize for the length of my response. I have put what I believe most important in bold and inserted some comments in italics.  Feel free to peruse the bold parts with more detail available when you want it. First, the FAIR.org (Facts & Accuracy in Reporting) article: Likewise, the local US-backed opposition’s role in the economic crisis is barely mentioned. The opposition, which controls much of the country’s food supply, has officially accepted responsibility for conducting an “economic war” by withholding food and other key goods.  [See following excerpt from venezuelanalysis.com] For example, the monolithic Empresas Polar controls the majority of the flour production and distribution crucial for making arepa cornbread, Venezuela’s staple food. Polar’s chair is Leopoldo Lopez, national coordinator of Juan Guaidó’s Popular Will party, while its president is Lorenzo Mendoza, who considered running for president against Maduro in the 2018 elections that caused pandemonium in the media (FAIR.org, 5/23/18). Conspicuously, it’s the products that Polar has a near-monopoly in that are often in shortest supply. This is hardly a secret, but never mentioned in the copious stories (CNN, 5/14/14, Bloomberg, 3/16/17, Washington Post, 5/22/17, NPR, 4/7/17) focusing on bread lines in the country. Also rarely commented on was the fact that multiple international election observer missions declared the 2018 elections free and fair, and that Venezuelan government spending as a proportion of GDP (often considered a barometer of socialism) is actually lower than the US’s, and far lower than most of Europe’s, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation.  [To be fair, this has hurt Venezuela's credit rating — and hence what it pays for debt service.  While the U.S. has done what they could to contribute to this, the drop in the price of oil has done the most harm here.  (But the U.S. actually is part of that also.  More below.)] Regardless of these bothersome facts, the media has continued to present Venezuela’s supposedly socialist dictatorship as solely responsible for its crisis as a warning to any progressives who get the wrong idea. So useful is this tool that it is being used to attack progressive movements around the world. The Daily Express (2/3/19) and Daily Mail (2/3/19) condemned UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for his “defense” of a “dictator,” while the Daily Telegraph (2/3/19) warned that the catastrophe of Venezuela is Labour’s blueprint for Britain. Meanwhile, the Greek leftist party Syriza’s support for Maduro (the official position of three-quarters of UN member states) was condemned as “shameful” (London Independent, 1/29/19). “Venezuela” is also used as a one-word response to shut down debate and counter any progressive idea or thought. While the panel on ABC’s The View (7/23/18) discussed progressive legislation like Medicare for All and immigration reform, conservative regular Meghan McCain responding by invoking Venezuela: “They’re starving to death” she explained, leaving the other panelists bemused. President Trump has also used it. In response to criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren over his “Pocahontas” jibe, he replied that she would “make our country into Venezuela” (Reuters, 10/15/18). The weapon’s effectiveness can only be sustained through a media in lockstep with the government’s regime-change goals. That the media is fixated on the travails of a relatively small and unimportant country in America’s “backyard,” and that the picture of Venezuela is so shallow, is not a mistake. Rather, the simplistic narrative of a socialist dictatorship starving its own people provides great utility as a weapon for the establishment to beat back the domestic “threat” of socialism, by associating movements and figures such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jeremy Corbyn with an evil caricature they have carefully crafted. (https://fair.org/home/venezuela-medias-one-word-rebuttal-to-the-threat-of-socialism/) ______ Next, the venezuelanalysis.com article reporting on the agreement acknowledging the opposition's participation in "economic warfare." From the Vatican-led negotiations, "Both sides also agreed to design a series of policies to aid cooperation efforts between the public and private sectors to “monitor, tax and control” the acquisition and distribution of goods. "The public statement is the first time that the MUD[4-party opposition coalition] has officially accepted the government’s assertions that it is the victim of an economic boycott." ______ Thirdly, from COUNTERPUNCH: Mint Press’s Caleb Maupin has blamed the U.S. for the collapse in oil prices in 2014, noting that U.S. ally Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil in order “to weaken those opponents of Wall Street, London, and Tel Aviv, whose economies are centered around [state-owned] oil and natural gas exports,” including Venezuela, Ecuador, Russia, Brazil and Iran. Interviewed in 2015, John Pilger similarly referred to the “current conspiracy between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil” in order to cause a “coup” in Venezuela “so they can roll-back some of the world’s most important social reforms.” The collapse in the price of oil devastated the Venezuelan economy. Economist Mark Weisbrot argues, “Washington has been more committed to ‘regime change’ in Venezuela than anywhere else in South America – not surprisingly, given that it is sitting on the largest oil reserves in the world.” The U.S. and the Venezuelan opposition want the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to be privatized, but instead the company has lately been forming partnerships with Russia, China, Iran and others – thereby adding to the urgency of the counter-revolution. But oil is not the only resource that the U.S. wants to get its hands on. Celebrated Venezuelan writer and member of the Venezuelan Council of State, Luis Britto Garcia, recently wrote: “The current economic situation Venezuelans are going through result from political actions undertaken by those who want to seize power of a country that has the largest oil reserve, the second largest gas reserve, and the largest freshwater reserve, gold and coltan in the world. . . . . . . Economic Sabotage The Canadian Peace Congress states: “For the past several months, US imperialism and its allies domestically and internationally have been exacerbating Venezuela’s economic difficulties by attacking its international credit rating (making foreign loans increasingly expensive), by weakening the foreign exchange value of the national currency through purposeful speculation, and by withholding basic commodities needed by the people (but whose distribution is still controlled by private monopolies), such as milk, coffee, rice, oil and basic necessities like toilet paper, toothpaste and medicines.” A new book by Venezuelan economist Pasqualina Curcio Curcio – called The Visible Hand of the Market: Economic Warfare in Venezuela – reveals more precisely just how some of this economic sabotage is being done: through multinational corporations, whose brand names we all recognize. For example, Curcio shows that Big Pharma is “responsible for the import and distribution of 50% of pharmaceuticals in Venezuela,” while companies like “Procter & Gamble, Colgate, Kimberly Clark and Johnson & Johnson” control the Venezuelan market for personal and household hygiene products. In league with local private distributors, these multinationals appear to be re-routing and withholding products, and/or bypassing Venezuela completely. As Curcio notes, “The dependence of the people in Venezuela on large transnational corporations for the acquisition of medicines and personal care products is one of the weaknesses of its economy.” Another economic warfare weapon that Curcio investigates is the “country-risk indicator,” a calculation that suggests the probability of foreign debt payment default by any country. The higher the country-risk, the higher the risk-premium, or the interest-rate paid on debt. Curcio reveals that the “Large banks and rating agencies are responsible for continuously monitoring the credit risk of countries.” Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings are involved in the country-risk calculation, as are “Credit Suisse, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank.” Curcio writes, “Since 2013, when an escalation of the country-risk [for Venezuela] started, to the present, Venezuela has paid US $63.566 billion for foreign public debt service [interest charges]. The country has fulfilled all its commitments in a timely manner,” and yet its country-risk index was “hiked by 202%”.  [As noted above, the drop in the price of oil plays contributes significantly to this.] The author also reports that “90% of Venezuelan bondholders” have not sold their bonds, “a sign of confidence in the [debt-servicing] payment capacity of the Venezuelan State.” But shortly after Curcio’s book was translated into English in 2017, Goldman Sachs reportedly sold $300 million of Venezuelan bonds to hedge funds – contributing to the narrative of Venezuela’s impending economic collapse. Recalling that Goldman Sachs was central to the demise of Greece’s economy, it’s reasonable to question the timing and motives of this sale.  [While there is no smoking gun here, the belief that large players such as Goldman Sachs WOULD NOT crash a nation's economy for their own benefit is naive.] . . . . . . Shortly after being elected, Donald Trump named billionaire Wilbur Ross as his choice for Commerce Secretary. Known as the “King of Bankruptcy,” Ross spent 24 years with N. M. Rothschild & Sons, where he specialized in “asset stripping,” or leveraged buyouts of distressed firms that could later be sold for a large profit. At his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing in January, Ross talked about the Trump administration’s desire to re-negotiate NAFTA. As reported by the World Socialist website (Jan. 21, 2017), “Ross did not shy away from spelling out the aggressive implications of Trump’s trade policy. He boasted about the recent collapse in the value of the Mexican peso and the further weakening of the Canada dollar. ‘The president-elect,’ said Ross, ‘has done a wonderful job of preconditioning other countries [with] whom we will be negotiating that change is coming. The peso didn’t go down 35 percent by accident. Even the Canadian dollar has gotten somewhat weaker – also not an accident. He [Trump] has done some of the work that we need to do in order to get better trade deals’,” Ross said. If that’s how the U.S. deals with its friends, it’s not too hard to imagine what’s being done to Venezuela. MEDIA BIAS CHECK FOR SOURCES This topic is particularly sensitive to ideological bias, so I wanted to provide a media bias check for you on the sources I cite here.  My view is that the U.S. media, in particular, has horribly misrepresented the situation in Venezuela, (I can only speculate it is done in support of its compromised-by-corporate-interests reporting).  Ideally, I would evaluate each author, but a publication review will have to stand in today. First, F.A.I.R. — Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting: Analysis / Bias In review, articles generally use moderate to low biased words in both headlines and articles such as: ‘The Rule Is Designed to Deter People From Reporting’. This story is very well sourced to credible media that we rate High for factual reporting. Although FAIR stories tend to favor the left politically they are all sourced properly and written in a mostly neutral tone. A factual search reveals that FAIR has not failed a fact check. (https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fairness-accuracy-in-reporting-fair/) I don't find a review page for venezuelanalysis.com on mediabiasfactcheck.com.  As close as I come is that I find the site widely cited by a broad spectrum of news media on their associated FACTUAL NEWS SEARCH feature.  The site is clearly progressive, but seems to be a reliable source of factual information.  The site itself bills itself thusly: The site's aim is to provide on-going news about developments in Venezuela, as well as to contextualize this news with in-depth analysis and background information. The site is targeted towards academics, journalists, intellectuals, policy makers from different countries, and the general public. This is consistent with how it is cited with a spectrum of sources.  Descriptions elsewhere describe it as a supporter of the Bolivarian Revolution. COUNTERPUNCH was described by mediabiasfactcheck.com: Factual Reporting: HIGH Notes: CounterPunch is a bi-monthly magazine published in the United States that covers politics in a manner its editors describe as “muckraking with a radical attitude”. It has been described as left-wing by both supporters and detractors. CounterPunch provides excellent journalism and sources their information.  As indicated they have a left-wing bias politically and they run a lot opinion type pieces which they also properly indicate. (https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/counterpunch/) While I have nothing to point to, in ways this article paralleled the Wikipedia article in that the language was systematically slanted to favor Maduro.  I don't question the gross facts, just the slant. Concluding Remarks The Venezuelan economy was doing fine until the price of oil dropped in 2013(?; see Wikipedia article above).  (The drop in oil prices seems to be quite intentional, done by the Saudis in conjunction with the U.S. to weaken economies in Iran, Russia, Venezuela among others.  Hence, Trump and Obama, etc. before him overlook Kashogi, Yemen, etc.  But that's another topic to dig into.)  Then, support for the Bolivarian revolution was hit by a significant decline in its supporting income.  I think that key in the alternative analyses was how each treated price controls.  I am in general not a fan of them, but Maduro used them.  Many of the items where there are current shortages were items put under price control.  I don't have the full list of both to make the comparisons and check, but at least a number of businesses rebeled.  Thus, the Wikipedia author(s) pointed to price controls as the problem, whereas some other authors analyzed it as "economic warfare."  I don't think the prices were necessarily untenable, just less than what the market could bear (and the profits that could be extracted).  I don't know how much to attribute to this, but this would be an important question for me going forward. Nevertheless, the mainstream narrative on this is a hit job.  There is no meaningful attempt to explain all the things intentionally done to harm Venezuela's economy, nor to present Venezuela's side of the story.  This is not a test of socialism, but more significantly a test of how an economy can be intentionally harmed by powerful outsiders.  I am a fan of the motivation behind the Bolivarian Revolution, but I am often at odds with the economic philosophy.  Leopoldo Lopez's family has a long history with the pre-Chavez kleptocracy, and also participated in the 2002 coup of Chavez, something again not noted in the frequent reports of Maduro's "jailing" of opposition figures.  In the U.S. he would have been executed for treason. These are my thoughts on the materials I have examined.  I have tried to be as transparent about my process as possible.  You, of course, need to draw your own conclusions.  Cheers, Paul

#Venezuela #Economic War #Maduro #U.S. crimes

[businessweekme]

Saudi Oil Chief Faces Toughest OPEC Test

Since he became Saudi Arabian energy minister two years ago, Khalid Al-Falih has had a good run: he persuaded a fractious OPEC to cut oil production, convinced Russia to join the cartel in curbing output, and then saw Brent crude rise nearly 75 percent to $80 a barrel.

But his toughest test comes this week when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries holds what’s likely to be its most difficult meeting in years. As economic growth, renewed sanctions on Iran and the collapse of Venezuela’s petroleum industry stretch the global oil market, he needs to ensure a smooth exit strategy from the cuts without causing a crash in prices.

To make things more complicated for the mechanical engineer turned oil diplomat, OPEC is being buffeted by competing geopolitical agendas. While Riyadh and Moscow have agreed to open the taps,  Caracas and Tehran want higher prices to compensate for the impact of U.S. sanctions. On Sunday, Iran threatened to veto any Saudi proposal to increase output.

“The consensus is imploding,” said Roger Diwan, a veteran OPEC watcher at consultant IHS Markit Ltd. “I don’t see how you can reconcile the positions of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran. The contradictions are too many.”

And behind the scenes, a Trump administration worried about the impact of rising gas prices on mid-term voters is lobbying hard for a surge in production.

“This is the most political OPEC meeting in a long time,” said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultant Energy Aspects Ltd.

When Al-Falih was appointed energy minister in May 2016, replacing the veteran Ali Al-Naimi after almost 25 years in the job, Saudi Arabia had little grip on the market: U.S. shale production had stolen market share and OPEC’s policy response was essentially every man for himself. With prices barely above $45 a barrel, Saudi Arabia was bleeding foreign reserves at the rate of $10 billion a month.

Al-Falih, a methodical technocrat who rarely sleeps more than four hours each night, rolled up his sleeves. First, he made clear Riyadh was prepared to reverse the pump-at-will policy Naimi had forced on the rest of OPEC in 2014. Then, with the help of his boss, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he reached out to Russia, convincing Moscow to join OPEC production curbs for the first time in more than a decade.

He built an a close working relationship with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak, cementing the alliance between the world’s two largest exporters. They talk regularly, both by phone and in person, and like to put forward a united front in joint media appearances. Last Thursday, they were at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium to watch Russia beat Saudi Arabia in the opening match of the World Cup together. Two days later, Novak visited Saudi Arabia for a working meeting with Al-Falih.

Mohammed al-Shatti, the national representative at OPEC from Kuwait, said that Al-Falih delivered two new things to the cartel.

“The first is his good cooperation with non-OPEC and that’s one of the reasons behind the success of the current production cut agreement,” he said. “The second feature is his ability to think outside of the box and look for new ideas all the time.”

Even then, the initial results were paltry, in part because Saudi Arabia decided to compensate for lower production by drawing down its own inventories rather than limiting exports. In mid-2017, Al-Falih changed course after meeting in secret with oil traders and hedge funds in London. The kingdom slashed exports to the U.S. to a 30-year low.

Then, everything started to come right.

After years of lackluster growth, the global economy boomed, propelling oil demand beyond its usual trend; the once-mighty Venezuelan petroleum industry collapsed; and, this year, the Iranian oil sector came under renewed U.S. sanctions.

It was a mixture of hard work and luck, but the results were impressive. With Brent back to just below $80 a barrel, the kingdom is breaking even. In March, Saudi Arabia added $13 billion in hard currency, the biggest inflow of petrodollars since late 2013.

Inside OPEC, few would besmirch Al-Falih’s achievements, but privately officials and delegates sometimes complain about his methods. To some, the Saudi minister is overly direct, occasionally bordering on undiplomatic. For others, he’s a micro-manager. It’s certain Al-Falih has brought a business-like approach to OPEC — creating dashboards to check whether countries deliver on their promises, for example. That’s angered old-timers who prefer the cartel’s Byzantine traditions.

Al-Falih, who likes to start the day at around 5 a.m. after exercising on a treadmill, is an oil man by birth, education and work.

He was born in 1960 in Dammam, the petroleum capital of Saudi Arabia, where his father, Abdulaziz al-Falih, was a senior executive at Aramco, the country’s giant energy company. Al-Falih followed in his father’s footsteps, and after joining Aramco in 1979 the company sponsored him to study mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, a campus town half-way between Houston and Dallas.

Progressed Quickly

On his return to Saudi Arabia in 1982, Al-Falih progressed quickly, from project engineer to running the big Ras Tanura refinery then negotiating big deals with international oil companies. During this time, he also pursued studies for an MBA at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, receiving his degree in 1991.

The post Saudi Oil Chief Faces Toughest OPEC Test appeared first on Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

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#Energy #oil #OPEC #Saudi Arabia