applegrove
applegrove's JournalRome in push to decriminalise abuse of office despite corruption fears
Rome in push to decriminalise abuse of office despite corruption fears
Euractiv.com with AFP
https://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-affairs/news/rome-in-push-to-decriminalise-abuse-of-office-despite-corruption-fears/
"SNIP..........
Italy’s hard right government is scrapping the crime of abuse of office, setting Rome on a collision course with Brussels over a law supporters say is essential to fighting corruption.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition claims the offence deters mayors from taking tough decisions and bogs down the justice system, because most investigations into abuse of office come to nothing.
But in a country notorious for mafia infiltration of the social, economic and political spheres, particularly at a local level, some experts claim getting rid of it will make it harder to investigate and convict criminals.
The Senate’s Justice Committee took the first step Tuesday (9 January) towards removing the abuse of office crime, which exists in 25 out of 27 European Union countries, and which Brussels would like to extend bloc-wide.
. .........SNIP"
Applegrove:
That is how you entrench autocracy. With corruption only those who participate in graft get power. Honest people are left struggling. It is a structural change where people with admirable characters (except for those who experienced predjudice) used to be the ones to rise to positions of responsibility.
What Biden Needs to Tell Us (Great description of MAGA and populism)
What Biden Needs to Tell Us
Jan. 4, 2024
By David Brooks
Opinion Columnist
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/opinion/populism-trump-liberalism.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
"SNIP..........
Sometimes social revolutions emerge from ordinary ideas. In the 17th and 18th centuries, thinkers like William Petty, David Hume and Adam Smith popularized a concept called “division of labor.” It’s a simple notion. If I specialize in doing what I’m good at, and you specialize in what you’re good at, and we exchange what we’ve each made, then we’ll both be more productive and better off than if we tried to be self-sufficient.
It seems banal, but division of labor was part of a constellation of ideas that liberated our civilization from the savage grip of zero-sum thinking. For millenniums before that, economic growth had been basically stagnant. Many people simply assumed that the supply of wealth was finite. If I’m going to get more of it, it will be the result of conquering you and stealing what you have. In a zero-sum mind-set, the basic logic of life is dog-eat-dog, conquer or be conquered. Property is theft. Predators win.
Division of labor, on the other hand, and the other principles that underlie modern capitalism, encouraged a positive-sum mind-set. According to this way of thinking, the good of others multiplies my own good. Steve Jobs got to enjoy a fortune, but I get to enjoy the Mac I’m now typing on and tens of thousands get to enjoy the jobs he helped create.
In this kind of society, life is not about conquest and domination but regulated competition and voluntary exchange. Not about antagonism but interdependence. In this kind of marketplace, Walter Lippmann wrote in the late 1930s, “the vista was opened at the end of which men could see the possibility of the Good Society on this earth.”
..........SNIP"
*Thanks to my sister for the suggestion
Substack is being faced with having to decide whether or not to host
Nazis on their website. I say no. Nazis are psychopaths and psychopath use 'forced teaming' to get into the lives of their 'marks'. This means they migrate into areas where they don't belong to change people's thinking and to legitimize themselves in the eyes of others. Then they get more power over others.
First it was Spotify then Twitter now Substack. These people belong on the margins and the dark web not in mainstream enlightened discussion forums. Don't let them in. It is fine to have boundaries . Boundaries against people who destroy and elevate evil are good.
Hitler marched into the intimate lives of Germans because he put himself in everything and it was too painful to be human, and feel the red hot danger that he was, than just let him take over instead ...... saying to yourself "I'm sure it will be okay". It is not okay and it will not be if they are allowed to infect everywhere.
Women, lgbtq, people of colour, and jewish people will all be deminished and have even more freedom taken away. The life expectancy will drop 10 points as only rich people will be able to afford with private healthcare (medicare and obamacare are on the chopping block). It really looks like more women will be dying before & in childbirth without emergency D&Cs and the like. That allows for a second younger wife and no alimony as was normal in the 1800s. Say no to Nazis. It will not be okay. Substack is being targetted. As a very effective place for getting the liberal word out it is no wonder they are targetted.
Here is someone elses' take:
https://sfba.social/@skykiss/111696468613219462
Hey, remember how Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch #PLAGIARIZED a large portion of both his book AND his academic
https://sfba.social/@skykiss/111694680418434200Hey, remember how Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch #PLAGIARIZED a large portion of both his book AND his academic articles and he still sits on the Supreme Court?
My understanding from republicans is that this makes him ineligible for a position of power.
“I would apply an academic writing standard,” said Berenguer, who teaches plagiarism and legal writing. “Even if it were a legal opinion, it would be plagiarism under either.”
Neil Gorsuch, yep.
Neil Gorsuch yearbook quote "The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer".
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/01/03/florida-surgeon-general-ladapo-covid-vaccine/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzA0MjU4MDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzA1NjQwMzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MDQyNTgwMDAsImp0aSI6IjBkNjlkNGI3LWZmNWMtNDIxYS1iMDA4LWIzMDZlZWQ2NTAyMCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9oZWFsdGgvMjAyNC8wMS8wMy9mbG9yaWRhLXN1cmdlb24tZ2VuZXJhbC1sYWRhcG8tY292aWQtdmFjY2luZS8ifQ.J4HTwDLRdNKy0q7mqEBU1MDUqr-oaO_7kiLAFjddOsM
Applegrove:
Florida Surgeon General is a wackadoodle. Seems these GOP attacks on professional hirees only matter when they can take out a Democratic person or someone who seems to be nominated for a position that is viewed as a diversity hire and plagerized some boilerplate portions in some of her work, not someone who pushes the GOP cause of autocracy and inequality.
And millions dying due to bad information from the Florida Surgeon General and lack of vaccines is seen as a win in Florida for the right wing. Being against mRNA vaccines means not only covid but cancers, HIV and Malaria will not be fought. That is not science that is human husbandry. Or voter husbandry. This is about ensuring most people don't make it to 75 and saves on social security and Medicare costs. For sure he, nor Gorsuch, will face a career changing correction at the hands of Democrats. But certainly not at the hands of the hypocrites on the right.
Gas Prices Fall Below $3 a Gallon for Most Americans
Gas Prices Fall Below $3 a Gallon for Most Americans
January 2, 2024 at 7:26 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 69 Comments
https://politicalwire.com/2024/01/02/gas-prices-fall-below-3-a-gallon-for-most-americans/
"SNIP.........
“Gas prices have spent the last 10 days bouncing around within a two-cent range, currently averaging at $3.10 a gallon nationwide. But the median average is $2.79, as the national number is heavily influenced by higher prices on the West Coast,” CBS News reports.
...........SNIP"
Applegrove:
You have to wonder if the oil companies have looked at authoritarianism and the resulting destruction of the middle class and thought "we want people to be able to afford to buy cars"?
Gas Prices Will Fall in 2024
Gas Prices Will Fall in 2024
December 28, 2023 at 9:46 am EST By Taegan Goddard 121 Comments
https://politicalwire.com/2023/12/28/gas-prices-will-fall-in-2024/
"SNIP........
Gas prices will fall in 2024 for the second year in a row, according to GasBuddy projections, CNN reports.
GasBuddy, which had a forecast for 2023 that proved to be eerily accurate, expects U.S. gas prices will average $3.38 a gallon in the key election year of 2024.
.........SNIP"
Applegrove:
I wonder too if the Saudis finally see that a corrupt, autocratic USA under Trump would be bad for investments in the US. Where would they invest their money if the West falls to autocrats? Sure it is better to have a monarchy at home and robust democracies with transparency and rule of financial laws to invest in abroad. 
Just maybe the Saudis don't want Trump to win.
Moms for Liberty's overtly anti-public school rhetoric has fully seeped into the Republican Party, making
https://www.threads.net/@thedailybeast/post/C1DQwhcx7G_/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ=="Moms for Liberty’s overtly anti-public school rhetoric has fully seeped into the Republican Party, making the idea of a publicly funded school system “sound a lot like public health care or public transportation, right?”
“And unfortunately if we look at public health care and public transportation in many places and many cities in this country, that means for poor people only.”
Host
@deetwocents
added: “What you have laid out is a permanent working class, a caste system.”"
Houthis bombing ships in Red Sea. BP reroutes its oil tankers
around Africa. Price of oil goes up. Houthis are backed by Iran. Is this planned as in oil inflationary trap to put Biden in in an election year? Is Russia involved in Yemen at all?
Here is background:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/19/houthi-red-sea-global-shipping-effects/
The Authoritarians love the retired and the multiple study types
at business consulting firms. The first thing Mckenzie employees are asked when they are hired by China is "tell me everything you've learned in your previous work/studies". I am sure it is so for all the retired politicians and former Government employees of western countries. Why all countries should have lobbying registeries and make examples of those who don't register.
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