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The Opinion given by the US Supreme Court shows the thinking behind its decision to call Affirmative Action or race based admissions by colleges unconstitutional, as violating the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause. Because the respondents (Harvard College) use of race involves stereotyping and negative criteria the Court declared it invalidated. "It unduly harms non-minority interests," not permissible when all citizens are equal regardless of race or color. Proposed by Congress and ratified by the States the Fourteenth Amendment provides that no State shall "deny to any person.... the equal protection of the laws." Proponents of that law describing as the "foundational principle" as "not permitting any distinctions of law based on race or color." As WSJ shows today there are three times as many White as Black or Hispanic families in California making below $50,000 a year.  "That the law shall be the same for the black as well as the white, that all persons shall stand equal before the laws of the States." It was a blot on the face of America that this allowed racially segregated schools till this was changed, says the Supreme Court. It calls the Bakke decision to allow race based admissions as a deeply splintered decision and Judge Powell writing for himself allowed it only to allow the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body. The decisions in Grutter stated that in 25 years this race based admissions should end and in no way can it be used for stereotyping or as a negative- to discriminate against those racial groups that were not the beneficiaries of the preference. A university's use of race could not be used to "unduly harm non-minority interests." It also means engaging in stereotyping- "a demeaning assumption that students of a particular race think alike."  ...

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This editorial in Der Spiegel magazine sees something positive emerging from the current state of politics in Germany with the fragmentation in political parties. It says this situation is something that is happening for some time now. In the Netherlands there are a number of parties working together in a coalition government. And in France the Macron movement swept away the old parties. Something similar is also happening in Italy with the Five Star Movement as elections approach in March 2018. This may be a positive development in that the days of 100 percent convention votes, and of career politicians who move up the ranks from one political committee to another, are over. Voters are acting in individualistic way, don't trust the elites and old big tent parties with career politicians who may not be responsive to people's needs.  Young people are eager for more participation, and this may be a good thing, says Der Spiegel. It points out that not just parties like AfD are gaining as a result. SPD support dropped to 16 percent in one poll same as AfD. The Christian Lindner's Free Democrats in Germany also are benefitting,Macron in France is benefitting, Sebastian Kurz in Austria is benefitting. Their parties they prefer to call as "movements" with some marketing and political platforms that appeal to young people. Macron's movement moved aside the old political system and brought in younger people, revitalizing the decaying political system. The conclusion for Der Spiegel is that this change is not entirely good or bad, its a challenge. Our focus should not be on propping up obsolete structures, breathing new life into old political structures could be a good thing with new younger voters looking for participation. So don't be afraid of voters. ...

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This BBC report shows how contact tracing works in Singapore to control the spread of coronavirus. On 4 February 20 Chinese tourists visited a traditional Chinese medicine shop in Singapore. Only 18 coronavirus cases had been recorded in Singapore on that date. That visit to the medicine shop created a new cluster for the disease to spread. Singapore's contact tracing units traced such locations through its well developed and extensive contact tracing programme, which follows the chain of the virus, identifying and isolating people before they can spread the virus further. For about 40% of the 243 cases so far on March 19 the first indication they had was a call from the Singapore Health Ministry.      About 6000 people have been contact traced so far, using a combination of CCTV footage, labor intensive detective work with phone calling. This includes an incident of a taxi ride of 6 minutes in which the person a yoga teacher was identified and contacted by the Health Ministry. Enforcement is done as the person was contacted at her home by three people who showed her a quarantine order, which said you could not go out or its fine time and jail time. With about 8000 people per square kilometre, Singapore is small and densely crowded. It could easily be overwhelmed with hospitals not able to cope and the health system collapsing if this was not done. Wuhan could have happened here, says infectious diseases specialist Dr. Leong at Mont Elizabeth Novena hospital, who advises the government.  Because the crime rate is low the police were given this task of tracing as a priority in addition to hospital units working on tracing. It also included the armed forces personnel helping with tracing so that it could be done quickly without delay. This provides a lesson on how countries that have faced the health crisis have used innovative methods to tackle it with good results. ...

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When you remove the 7 Californians and 4 Independents  only about 9% of 264 Congressional Democrats, or 26 Democrats have reservations about the president running, 91% covering every part of the country, the vast majority of American states and congressional state delegations, have confidence in the president to make the best decision. The chances of California going Republican or Trump Republican are  very, very small. Wash. Post shows 37 members of Congress on July 19, 3 weeks after June 27 debate issues, saying don't run. This is of 264 Congressional Democrats. Aug 1 is only 11 days away for planned Aug1 roll call of delegates committed to Biden. Of this 37 only 1 each from Michigan and Wisconsin, and 2  from Arizona from swing states, none so far from Georgia or Nevada or Pennsylvania. What does this tell us? It says that 264 minus 37 or 227 Congressional Democrats think Biden should run only about 15% of Congressional Democrats vs 85% of Congressional Democrats. And of the swing states only 4 Democrats. Polls- 4 months before elections polls are not really useful and not meaningful, a lot can change. Congressmen in swing districts are likely to have questions, and it is not uncommon for this to happen before the election say people who follow Congressional history. The fact that 7 are from Republican states like Texas or Ohio and could be impacted may give some idea for their reasoning. Of the others 7 are from California and 3 from New York. Which suggests the largest group is from California, remove the 7 and take out the 4 Independents and 34 goes down to 23 or about 9% vs 91% of the rest of the country having faith in president Biden. In any case California is unlikely to go Republican or Trump Republican by a long shot. ...

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Biden gives a rousing call to the Nation, on what he has achieved for America and its workers and families, for the people of 51 states, and what the tasks are for the future to 2035. It surpasses the State of the Union address 2024 in the vigor and importance of his message, 76 days before a national election to decide the future of the Nation and the World. Key parts of the speech selected by Lyrarc, on Infrastructure above and Manufacturing here with 800,000 new Manufacturing jobs created. "Because of you and so many electeds out there, American manufacturing is back. Where the hell does it say we wouldn’t lead the world in manufacturing. Eight-hundred-thousand new manufacturing jobs. Our Republican friends and others made sure they’d go abroad to get the cheapest labor. We used to import products and export jobs. Now we export American products and create American jobs, right here in America, where jobs belong. With every new job, with every new factory, pride and hope is being brought back to communities throughout the country that were left behind. You know you’re from it, many of you. You know what it’s like when that factory closed where your mother, your father, your grandmother, grandfather worked. And now you’re back, providing once again, proving that Wall Street didn’t build America, the middle class built America, and unions—unions—built the middle class.  It’s been my view since I came to the Senate and that’s why I’m proud to have been the first President to walk a picket line and be labeled the most pro-union President in history. And I accept it. That’s a fact. Because when unions do well, we all do well.  ...

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This photos essay in The Guardian can be seen for pictures of US presidents since John Adams, at pivotal moments or moments that captured some symbolism of the times. John Kennedy is simply bending to look at a newspaper on the Oval office desk just  moments before meeting the French ambassador, yet the pressures of office show such as Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.  On November 22, 1963, Freedland says Kennedy warned against extreme groups. Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 had warned of radicalist groups if needed action for sharing the wealth and opportunity of the Nation were not taken. Kennedy said- "America’s leadership must be guided by learning and reason, or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain popular ascendancy, with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem.” Sometimes leaders are faced with difficult situations  “I want to tell you how grateful I am, and how worthy I’m going to try to be of all your hopes.”  a phone call to Martin Luther King Jr in 1963. Who was this US president? LBJ of Texas got it right for America, but lacked in international affairs knowledge of what John F. Kennedy had learned about aspirations in Asia and colonial rule during the war years in the Pacific. One president brought about 40 years experience in Congress to four major crises – the pandemic, crumbling infrastructure, loss of manufacturing in the US, and climate change– and passed the most far reaching legislation for trillions of dollars of investment since Franklin Roosevelt.  The most famous of these photos is the one showing Harry Truman holding the Chicago Tribune in 1948, which said "John Dewey Wins."   ...

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Franklin Roosevelt made this commencement address at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia calling on the young "not just to make their way in the world but to remake  the world you will find before you." This is the task of the new generation that Harris is calling on as she makes again a call for " bold, persistent experimentation," in the spirit of science that has powered western civilization since Brahe looked at the stars and Newton at the world around him. FDR visited Georgia and had a 1750 acre farm there at the top of Pine Mountain, called The Little White House. "The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." "We need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even unpleasant ones, bravely."   ...

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Obama adminstration officials say Mr Obama did not call for the resignation of Mubarak because it feared creating a power vacuum at the top. The administration's fears include one about Egypt under a new government not honoring the 1979 treaty Egypt signed with Israel. In doing so- as Elliott Abrams, deputy national security advisor under President George Bush, points out in the Washington Post, the administration's attempt at denying liberty in the Arab world is "nothing short of a tragedy." Abrams points out that the protestors span all classes of society, from businessmen to housewives in Cairo and Tunis,, including moderates and human rights activists. It is a supreme irony of the times that the law school analytical processes of Obama have shunted out the very voices of the dispossessed and the oppressed that Obama claimed to hear in his first book, and of his sometimes poignant personal encounters in Africa. In doing so Obama has missed an historic opportunity to put America in a right standing with the people of the Arab world, and as Abrams points out made "engagement" ring hollow, as "engagement" not with the peoples of the Arab world and Africa, but engagement with dictators who have outlived their time and place. In a separate editorial the Wall Street Journal called into question the credibility of the US foreign policy establishment that was caught by surprise with the protests in Tunis and Cairo....

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Libyan lawyer and human rights activist Azza Kamel Maghur, fled earlier this year to Canada with his 3 year old daughter. He writes about the people of Tripoli rising up against the Gaddafi regime. At the same time rebels were closing in on Tripoli in the third week of August 2011. He describes the Al Zuhur neighborhood of Tripoli on the day when the evening call to prayer from the Ben Nabi and Buhmeira mosques rang out longer than usual. This time a signal for people to take to the streets. Some of the youth were shot by snipers from rooftops of buildings. The struggle to free Tripoli was taking place. The carefully planned signal was coordinated with the rebels advance and NATO airstrikes. It enabled the rebels to advance quickly into the city.

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This editorial in the WSJ after the U.S. presidential election is critical of extreme positions on immigration in the Republican party. It reminds readers that George W. Bush won 40% of the Hispanic vote with some passable Spanish and a friendly attitude on immigration, Romney managed only 29%. It says supporting immigration is a natural position for Republicans because most immigrants are culturally conservative and hard working. It call deportation in large numbers morally wrong and not workable. It also comes as immigration from Mexico is down significantly and many Hispanics are returning to Mexico. Hispanics suffered from the high unemployment in the U.S. following the 2008 crisis making it less attractive to come to the U.S. Growth is also increasing in Mexico with a large middle class and a falling birth rate.

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This WSJ editorial after the riots in Baltimore, points out that the "blue city model" is not working. Baltimore has 8.4% unemployment compared to the 5.4% unemployment in the state, and 21% unemployment in the neighborhood of African- American Freddie Gray in Baltimore. It says failing public schools, economic decline with people leaving the city, and a general lack of opportunity, are causes for the breakdown in the city leading to the call of the National Guard by the governor to maintain law and order. The editorial emphasizes the need for private economic development, "broken windows" policing of the type encouraged under Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg in New York City, a culture of personal responsibility, and school choice, as a way out of the crisis in American cities such as Baltimore that are failing.

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Former Senator Jim DeMint lays out his reasoning for the Republican fight to defund ObamaCare, as the healthcare legislation is now called by Republicans. He points to problems with the legislation with issues about how much the added entitlements will cost in the future( more than the $250 billion by 2023 estimate of CBO insists DeMint based on the general lowballing of projections), and higher premiums for the young and elderly on exchanges. He says the 2012 elections were fought on economic issues not ObamaCare, and that the public he has met in visits to different states as president of the Heritage Foundation continues to be skeptical about ObamaCare. He sees the correct role of the Opposition party to point out the deficiencies in the law and call for corrections in the path for healthcare.

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As the British parliament prepares to vote on Brexit deal put forward by prime minister Theresa May, Joanna Sugden summarizes what is expected as the next step if parliament rejects it.  Why are a faction Conservative members opposed to it? There is the Irish backstop which they oppose. Keeping open the border between the two Irelands- Northern Ireland as part of Britain and Ireland as a EU country is important to preserve peace achieved through the Good Friday Agreement between the Catholic and Protestant communities.May wants to keep the border open. Far right Conservatives see this as keeping Britain connected to the EU in some way which they oppose. They stubbornly hold onto this view. Add to this the opposition from the Remain campaign which sees leaving the EU as bad for Britain's economic future. Some Leave supporters now see the dangers of Brexit, especially leaving with no deal made with the EU. Most of the Labour Party members fall into this group. What happens if parliament rejects May's deal by a small margin? The deal would be renegotiated with the EU to tweak it for more support. What happens if parliament rejects it with a huge margin? This would result in several options. May could call a general election. Britain could have a second referendum on Brexit. Or in a chaotic situation Britain could leave the European Union without a deal altogether, something everyone wants to avoid because of the disruptions it would cause. May is using this risk as  a way to persuade reluctant MP's but it may not work.     ...

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Melissa Eddy of the NYT provides this exceptional account of the debate in Germany on national priorities, as the child care educators represented by the Verdi service workers union go on strike for a 10% increase in wages. Workers at entry level jobs in manufacturing represented by strong unions earn the same pay as teachers in child care centers and early childhood education who have many years of experience. The child care education workers are supported by the federal family minister, SDP minister Manuela Schwesig, who says that the additional experience and education upto university level of the child care educators in early childhood education should be recognized. Schwesig said: "We need a debate in Germany on how much we value the work of those who take care of the early education of our children and with young adults." One aspect of the 240,000 child care educators strike has drawn less attention. This is the gender pay gap as a large percentage of educators in childcare centers are women. Equal Pay Day in Berlin was organized for June 5, to call for equal pay for women who have fallen behind in pay. Data from the European Commission in 2014 shows Germany ranks third to last in gender pay equality, with only Estonia and Austria trailing behind, as cited by Deutsche Welle. Schwesig who attended the rally pointed out: "When women, despite equal work and education, earn less than their male colleagues, it is not only unfair. It is wrong." While Germany has moved ahead in quotas for female employees, women in boardrooms, parental leave, this does not help women in critical areas such as early childhood education and elderly care, which suffer from a large pay gap with men working in manufacturing jobs. ...

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An obscure parliamentary precedent was used by Speaker Bercrow to end Theresa May's strategy of repeated votes in Britain's parliament to browbeat reluctant Brexiters to vote for her negotiated settlement with the European Union. The precedent was set as far back as 1604 and was designed to protect the powers of parliament in the face of a Scottish royal assuming the role of sovereign of Britain. Repeated votes on the same proposals are not allowed if the intention is to find ways to get reluctant members of parliament to vote in favor, essentially by bullying them into this. This is also why Brexiter MP's have hailed the Speaker's decision in their opposition to Theresa May. Britain's constitution is based not on a single document like the U.S. Constitution. It is based on a a collective set of laws and precedents. A parliamentary rule book published by Thomas Erskine in 1844 sets out these rules in 1097 pages, available for 439 pounds in parliament's bookshop. It has gone through 24 editions. Speaker Bercrow says of the rule he was referring to as a statement on page 397 of the 24th edition.  There is not much time, just 10 days, for prime minister Theresa May to end the current parliamentary session and call a new one to nullify Speaker Bercrow's decision. This would also further antagonize the 40 Brexiter MP's led by Mr. Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson in May's own party, making it impossible for parliament to agree on a course of action. ...

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Here are some ways to make for a better day at work.  1. Have what is called a "monk-mode" morning when you just keep out all phone calls and focus on "deep work," without distractions. Every little distraction in the form of a call or some other interruption has its costs in terms of having to refocus and not being able to concentrate on the task at hand as it deserves. 2. Have "meeting-free" days. These are days that you can focus, concentrate on tasks without distraction of meetings. Have walking meetings and meetings where you can walk out in the open for fresh air and some exercize. And no phones at meetings. 3. Replace reading with presenting powerpoint presentations. Have people write out their ideas for others to read so that discussion can be engaged and effective. Amazon CEO Bezos never believed in powerpoint presentations and required staff to write so that they could in the process improve on the clarity of their thinking. 4.  Have weekends free of email. This reduces the stress of workers under a manager who spend time writing and answering emails over weekends when they could replenish their energies and come back charged up on Monday morning for a fresh start on a new week. 55. Grab a coffee with a colleague and do some one on ones talking as one walks around the offices. This was done by Intel's Andy Grove as an effective way to get things done eliminating some of the need for formal meetings. This also provides an opportunity for casual conversation Also laugh and socialize in different ways.       ...

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As Tesla evolves into a mass manufacturer of automobiles it plans to turn to debt and equity markets for more capital. Tesla has about 455,000 net orders for the Model 3, mass market version of its electric car. The production line has to accelerate quickly from production of 2000 Model 3 cars per week at the end of 2016 to 10000 at the end of 2018. A steep jump which Tesla CEO Musk calls "production hell" that he has bought a ticket for.  Part of the problem is being short of capital for its ambitious program. In the past Tesla has planned to have cash on hand as reserve of $1 billion at the end of each quarter. Current plans call on spending $2 billion in cash in the second half of 2017 from the $3 billion in cash on hand at the end of the last quarter. 

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The lack of demand for Italian bank Unicredit's rights offering. The European Banking Authority is requiring European banks to increase their core Tier 1 capital ratios to 9%, to improve the cushion against a financial crisis. Unicredit will have to raise its reserves by $10 billion. Unicredit's shares have fallen sharply in January, with a decline of over 40%. Spain's Santander which has operations in Latin America was able to raise the $19 billion it needed for the higher capital reserves. Santander converted $6.8 billion euros in bonds into shares, retained profits and sold a stake in its Brazilian operations. The risk is that Unicredit and other European banks might cut lending to meet the new capital standards, leading to credit tightening and reducing economic growth further, says Carl Weinberg, chief economist of High Frequency Economics.

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Discussion in China's inner Communist party leadership circles about the way forward for democratic reforms, including free speech, and monitoring of government policy through criticism. This follows an unusually frank sppech in Shenzen in August, by premier Wen. A number of party elders call for further action in democratic reforms for better governance, and to curb corruption. The sense that China is reaching an impasse, and further development beyond what has been achieved in three decades requires democratic freedoms for the people of China. This has the potential to be a signifcant development, because it comes as economic policies of the past will have a harder time working now because of western resistance to high level of Chinese exports. The search for a new economic model may involve soul searching, and new thought on the political models that are needed now.

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Management changes as Blackberry sales fall by 25% in the last quarter include the exit of founder, Jim Balsillie, from the Board. Also leaving are Jim Rowan, the chief operating officer, and David Yach, the chief technology officer. RIM shares are now down 75% this year, falling to $13.73 on March 29, 2012. In the 4th quarter ending March 3, 2012, revenue decreased by 25% compared to same quarter prior year. Blackberry is facing unsold new models of products in stores and is writing off $267 million in unsold Blackberry 7 models. Blackberry 7 models are its latest product introduction. The iPhone now outsells the Blackberry in its home market of Canada. In a conference call, Thorsten Heins, the new CEO, said the company was conducting a strategic review including the option of selling the company.

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Financial Planner Carl Richards, warns investors about relying too much on market predictions. He cites the law of small samples as one way things go wrong. Another is investment managers with good track records in one decade doing badly in the next decade- David Miller in the 70's and Bill Miller of the Legg Mason Value Fund are others. To show how ridiculous market predictions based on computer models can get he gives the example of a researcher who found that over a 13 year period butter production in Bangladesh 'explained' 75% of the fluctuations in the annual returns of the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index. Adding in U.S. cheese production and the total population of sheep in Bangladesh and the U.S., this researcher was able to forecast past U.S. stock returns with 99% accuracy.

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The U.S. Library of Congress's exhibition, "The Books That Shaped America," in Washington D.C. from June 25 to September 29, 2012. The books include the McGuffey Readers, schoolbooksthat educated people like Henry Ford at the turn of the century, to Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and Dr. Seuss. Even Dale Carnegie. It includes social issue books by Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, W.E.B. Du Bois, Cesar Chavez. Literary works include Emily Dickinson, Thornton Wilder and Tennessee WIlliams. Carl Sagan's book on astronomy doesn't appear on this list. It is a pretty impressive list and a valiant effort to cover the American experience through books that most Americans are familiar with from school or other reading, and books that have conveyed a sense of America in all its struggles and humanity to people in other countries and especially the English speaking world.

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President Obama is acutely aware of Republican concerns of waste as the government increases spending to support the economy. He told the US Conference of Mayors, that "if there are wasteful projects" he would "call them out on it." He also said the preceding administration had paid too little attention to urban problems. His years as a community organizer in the urban environment of Chicago gives him aunique perspective of waht is happening on the ground level in cities across the country. Mayors spoke with Cabinet secretaries during their visit to the White House, and had avariety of projects in mind from new community health centers, new water towers, sewage treatment plants. Republican Mayors are also responding positively to the stimulus, now that the money is there, Mayors like Patrick McCrory of Charlotte, N.C., support finding the best way to use the money.

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Call from around the world for international agreements for proper supervision of financial markets and their products and vendors bercause much of the pain of the USA mortgage securities sold abroad has to be borne by countries from Australia, to Germany and Japan. A German call for nationalizing the ratings agencies which improperly certified these securities for profit.

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Steve Jobs of Apple never intended the iPhone to be used as an ubiquitous device that is there all the time with user attention riveted to it. A computer scientist, Prof. Cal Newport of Georgetown University, says the vision of the iPhone presented by Steve Jobs at the Mosconi Center in 2007 was very different from what it has become today. It was an iPod that could make calls, help you listen to music, not a device on which you had to constantly check emails, constantly be on the alert for messages, use for getting instant breaking news you didn't need all the time. At the time in 2007 the App store did not exist and Jobs by design did not focus on apps believing that whatever apps there would be would be better designed to be aesthetically good by Apple engineers. It was an iPod that made calls, a engineer on the team that developed the iPhone at that time tells Newport. Jobs vision was of an iPhone that did a few activities well- helping people listen to music , get directions, make calls. What he did not want to do was to change the rhythm of people's lives. Newport calls it a shame that this vision got somehow diverted and disrupted by what happened afterwards. We have become so used to the constant companion model that we forget its novelty, only a little over 10 years ago none of this existed. As a computer scientist writing about the influence of technology on culture Newport says it is important to remember the magnitude of this unintended shift, to know that Jobs got it right the first time and that it would be better for many of us to return to the minimalist vision for the phone that Jobs espoused. ...