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Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor "dithering and hesitation have compounded the challenges we face" and the passage of $61 billion aid to Ukraine April 2024
04/26/2024
Mitch McConnell persuades 31 Republican Senators a majority of his caucus to support Ukraine's defense by joining Democrats, working "shoulder to shoulder" with Democrat Pat Schumer to get passage of Ukraine aid legislation in the vote 79 to 18 in April 2024. It comes at a critical moment of the defense of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, just 25 miles from the border as shown by NYT in April 24 coverage. It is part of the larger effort to secure a peace in Ukraine with the help of India and China as the war drags on for another year.
Linked Articles
Bucking G.O.P. Isolationists, McConnell Was Linchpin in Winning Ukraine Aid
NYTimes.com 04/24/2024
Senate Approves Aid for Ukraine and Israel, Sending It to Biden’s DeskNYTimes.com 04/24/2024
Severe floods in Germany 2021 Italy 2023 and effects of climate change in Europe
05/21/2023
The floods in Germany and Europe, the severe drought in parts of Spain and Italy are seen as signs climate change is here. At one southernmost point in Sicily the temperature recently reached about 49 degrees centigrade the highest ever in Europe.
Linked Articles
Italy’s disasters suggest the climate crisis is at the gates of Europe
The Guardian 05/18/2023
Scores dead, hundreds missing after massive floods in Germany, BelgiumFrance 24 07/16/2021
Nature walks and improved health and wellbeing- Essential during the Coronavius Pandemic
10/09/2021
Walks taken out in parks, nature settings, and further out in wooded areas are seen as essential for health and wellbeing during the pandemic. This is becoming increasingly popular in the UK and can be pursued in the US, other parts of Europe, India, other parts of Asia, Latin America and Africa as a way to promote neglected mental health during the pandemic. Vaccines are doing their part for body health yet much remains to be done for mental health which has taken a big hit during the pandemic.
Linked Articles
‘These salt marshes saved my life’: how nature is helping mental health
The Guardian 10/09/2021
Two-hour ‘dose’ of nature significantly boosts health – studyThe Guardian 06/13/2019
The success tackling coronavirus in the Indian state of Kerala
05/18/2020
Past experience with pandemics- most recently the Nipah virus in 2018 -helped the Indian state of Kerala set a unique state of preparedness of both the health ministry and the people in control of spread of coronavirus. Hardship is also a great teacher of solidarity- only recently in 2019 Kerala had the worst floods in a century from a cyclone that hit the coast of Kerala in southwestern India. It did not take long for people to take preventive action starting at the end of January when the first cases were being seen in Wuhan, China, led by Health minister Ms. Shailaja. She personally visited a region quarantined in the state to guide the effort.
Linked Articles
The coronavirus slayer! How Kerala's rock star health minister helped save it from Covid-19
The Guardian 05/14/2020
Coronavirus lockdown: Is India flattening the COVID-19 curve? | DW | 24.04.2020DW.COM 04/24/2020
India's general election in 2019- performance and flaws of the Modi government
06/05/2018
Differing views of the Modi government, views of the middle class hurt by demonetisation uncertainty from Dhume and views representing the interests of the rural, lower income and other part of the middle class from Arvind Panagriya. Some of the changes brought about by the Modi government reflecting the vision of Mahatma Gandhi for fundamental change from the ground up in the villages and rural parts of India- health and sanitation, access to bank accounts, access to health care- coupled with Nehru's vision of modernization using the technologies of the twenty first century.
Linked Articles
Times of India Blog 06/05/2018
Modi government at four years: It has pushed through a range of structural reforms whose results will showTimes of India Blog 05/30/2018
Why initiating Brexit by invoking the Lisbon Treaty's Article 50 could go into 2017, or even past 2020 into new general elections- (4) the elections in France and Germany in 2017, and chancellor Merkel likely to link granting benefits of the single market to free movement within the European Union
08/16/2016
Chancellor Merkel has clearly stated that she sees the benefits of a single market going along with the idea of free movement within the European Union. With elections in 2017 and after not giving into Eastern European states in 2016, Merkel is likely to again remind Germany and France of the the true spirit in which the founders setup the European Union.
Linked Articles
Wait and see: Theresa May is in no hurry on Brexit | Europe | DW.COM | 15.08.2016
DW.COM 08/15/2016
EU Governments Gird for Steely New British LeaderWSJ 07/12/2016
Why initiating Brexit by invoking the Lisbon Treaty's Article 50 could go into 2017, or even past 2020 into new general elections- (2) the British economy and the Bank of England's stimulus effort to avoid a recession
08/16/2016
The stimulus action of the Bank of England in August 2016 was designed to avert a recession in Britain. The Bank of England estimates that even with the stimulus the Brexit move will lead to a 1% drop in economic growth every year for 3 years as compared to staying in the European Union. The British public is weary of the austerity programs for 7 years under finance minister Osborne. if higher growth under Brexit turns out to be an illusion as the Bank of England forecasts show, there would be reason for much reflection on the meaning of the vote- seeing it as a rejection of the Cameron-Osborne government in favor of a government more in tune with the interests of working class people under Theresa May.
Linked Articles
Wait and see: Theresa May is in no hurry on Brexit | Europe | DW.COM | 15.08.2016
DW.COM 08/15/2016
Bank of England unveils four-pronged stimulus package in bid to avoid Brexit recessionThe Telegraph 08/04/2016
Peggy Noonan, Special Assistant to Ronald Reagan, on Donald Trump and the Republican Party
07/29/2016
Peggy Noonan gave a poignant, teary, and touching account of the changes in the Republican Party with the Trump movement. Such a massive rejection of the traditional party leaders is unprecedented. The "establishment" in both parties has lost touch with working class voters, yet this has happened in the past and this kind of "one man Show" is unprecedented in American history. In his letters George Washington did not reject criticism and maintained civility and composure in the face of doubters, even when he was chosen to be the first president of the U.S.
Linked Articles
A Disunited Party’s Successful Convention
WSJ 07/29/2016
That Moment When 2016 Hits YouWall Street Journal 04/23/2016
2016 U.S. presidential candidate Jeb Bush's Tax Plan that spells out details, and takes a shot at 4% growth for restoring lost social and economic mobility in the U.S.
09/09/2015
The efforts to wrestle with the deficit in 2011-2012 led to a vigorous debate on changing the tax code, yet political leaders failed to take up new ideas or spell out the details. Jeb Bush, with advisors Martin Feldstein and Kevin Warsh, takes the unconventional approach of putting in the details, and taking up ideas such as the idea of limiting itemized deductions to 2% of adjusted gross income proposed by Feldstein in that debate. On the $2.1 trillion in income held overseas by U.S. companies Bush proposes 8.75% tax paid over 10 years. On business investment he proposes capital investment be allowed to be deducted in full immediately. It is based on the idea that business investment can drive a vigorous recovery, that workers bear 50% of the burden of higer taxes through sluggish wage growth. It levels the playing field for debt and equity capital, removing "carried interest" provision, as a lesson from the excessive leverage taken by financial institutions in the past.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 09/10/2015
Jeb Bush Tax Plan Makes Forays Into PopulismNew York Times 09/09/2015
Faces in Changzhi and Chengdu as China closes cement and steel plants to cut large overcapacity in 2015
08/28/2015
The closing of a cement plant in Changzhi and the closing of the Panchenggang steel factory in Chengdu in 2015, are part of an overall effort to closer older, less efficent, higher polluting facilities. The transition means more workers laid off and a period of retraining in other fields, and economic uncertainty in these urban areas.
Linked Articles
China’s Shift Away From Industry Drains Life From a Steel Town
Wall Street Journal 09/08/2015
Zombie Factories Stalk the Sputtering Chinese EconomyNew York Times 08/28/2015
Lack of individual accountability for banks in legal settlements with regulators- (2) the old management still in place, " a solution to the problem or part of it?"
05/24/2015
The question put by Mr. Han Martin-Buhlmann of shareholder association VIP at the June shareholder meeting of Deutsche Bank was- "Mr. Jain are a solution to the problem or part of it?" Over a week later a new CEO was appointed.
Linked Articles
Economist 06/13/2015
Shareholders’ Rebuke Pressures Deutsche Bank CEOs to PerformWall Street Journal 05/24/2015
Greece and EU in 2015- (2) Was there a breakdown in a willingness to "compromise" and in building "trust"? Did the inexperience of Tsipras and Varoufakis play a part?
04/20/2015
Linked Articles
A Finance Minister Fit for a Greek Tragedy?
New York Times 05/20/2015
Greece on the BrinkNew York Times 04/20/2015
What Greece won in the negotiations and what Greece lost in the failure of talks with the EU, capital controls, closing of banks and the referendum on July 5, 2015
02/27/2015
Major concessions were won by Greece on the most important issues of the surplus, and the size of the public sector with high unemployment. Compromise was being reached on the value added taxes and age for getting pensions, next down the list. Next on the list were pension cuts which undoubtedly would hurt pensioners but in the larger picture of the economy would come after the size of the surplus and dateline, and the size of public sector. The size of these cuts is small compared to the cost of 60 billion euros from the damage done to the economy, and the alternatives for pensioners and the rest of the country. under bank closure. For the EU this was seen as part of pension reforms and for left leaning Syriza compromising on behalf of pensioners.
Linked Articles
IMF Raises Referendum Stakes With Call for More Aid for Greece and Debt Relief
Wall Street Journal 07/03/2015
What Greece WonNew York Times 02/27/2015
A parting of ways with Mr. Trump- Mr. Trump's Attorney General Barr followed by VP Mike Pence and now Joint Chief chairman Gen. Milley
09/30/2023
All three of the senior most members of Trump's administration make a parting of ways with Mr. Trump when it comes to the Constitution of the United States of America, free and fair elections, the separation of powers between Congress the Executive branch and the Judiciary, and the smooth transfer of power every four years to a newly elected government, with all 435 members of Congress elected every 2 years, checks and balances put in place by the framers of the US Constitution including Jefferson and Madison to protect Democratic form of government enshrined in the words "We the People.."
Linked Articles
Gen. Mark Milley Warns of Fealty to Dictators, in Exit Speech Aimed at Trump
WSJ 09/29/2023
Opinion | General Milley and the ‘Wannabe Dictator’WSJ 09/29/2023
Deforestation- is the pledge at COP26 Glasgow a bit too late for Indonesian rainforest?
11/02/2021
This is one of the amazing links in Lyrarc because it shows WSJ article from 2007 noted by Lyrarc that year, showing UN maps on deforestation in Borneo island in Indonesia for 2000, 2005, 2020. By 2020 most of the rainforest is shown as gone. Deforestation and climate ecologist Clare Rewcastle Brown, sister in law of former British prime minister Gordon Brown, from Britain, recalls colonial days in Sarawak, north Borneo Island, where her father was a police officer. And how much of the canopy of forest from that part of Malaysia was disappearing. She continued her protests from outside Malaysia in 2013 as reported by NYT and noted in Lyrarc that year. This is an amazing story of how deforestation of some of the last rain forests in the world took place at a time when awareness of climate change was sorely lacking in 2007-2013, and how by 2020 the rain forests in Borneo may have already disappeared from planet earth to combat climate change. One woman's fight and a fight that is still on after world leaders took a pledge to end deforestation on the planet by 2030 including Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, China, and the US, and a UN report that had the foresight to show a rainforest disappearing in 2007 in Tom Wright's WSJ report from Surabaya, Indonesia the same year.
Linked Articles
WSJ 07/03/2007
Barred From Malaysia, but Still Connecting With Critical JabsNew York Times 08/16/2013
Helping women a key part of Biden's $1.8 trillion Families Plan
05/05/2021
Linked Articles
Opinion | A New Deal, This Time for Everyone
NYTimes.com 05/04/2021
Nearly 1.5 Million Mothers Are Still Missing From the WorkforceWSJ 04/27/2021
East Gemany's struggle to find its own identity after young people leave and a sense of nostalgia for the economic security under the GDR
11/14/2019
By 2019 East Germany's search for identity is in full swing as it struggles with a nostalgia for the past before integration with west Germany, and following a departure of young people going west that leaves behind a rapidly aging society with less economic security. The promise of integration appears to be failed when seen as culture and identity, economic security.
Linked Articles
Germans still don’t agree on what reunification meant
The Economist 11/02/2019
Misrule in East Germany ‘triggered rise of the AfD’11/05/2019
Stable oil prices and low volatility in 2018- the result of U.S. shale oil supply stream and OPEC/Russia cuts
06/01/2018
This low volatility in oil prices is good for both producers and consumers, and shale oil from U.S. is a big part of this.
Linked Articles
How OPEC and Shale Have Squeezed Out Volatility in the Oil Market
WSJ 06/01/2018
The New Tech That Terrifies OPECWSJ 06/01/2018
Why initiating Brexit by invoking the Lisbon Treaty's Article 50 could go into 2017, or even past 2020 into new general elections- (3) the inclusion of key "Leave" supporters in Theresa May's cabinet
08/16/2016
By including a key member of the "Leave" vote, Mr Boris Johnson, former Mayor of London, in the cabinet as Foreign Secretary, Theresa May has given herself a lot more flexibility in tackling the Brexit issue so that it does not hurt the British economy. It would be hard for a key cabinet member not to be part of the team position on issues, and for the team to ignore the Bank of England's role in steadying the economy. By making the issues important to working class people in Britain her priorities Theresa May also lays the ground for everyone in Britain to gain moving forward as the economy recovers.
Linked Articles
Wait and see: Theresa May is in no hurry on Brexit | Europe | DW.COM | 15.08.2016
DW.COM 08/15/2016
Theresa May, New British Prime Minister, Gives Boris Johnson a Key PostThe New York Times 07/13/2016
Why initiating Brexit by invoking the Lisbon Treaty's Article 50 could go into 2017, or even past 2020 into new general elections- (1) the pro stay vote in Ireland and Scotland
08/16/2016
Theresa May, Britain's prime minister, is deeply committed to the idea of the union of England with Scotland and Ireland. Invoking Article 50 of Lisbon Treaty, a step necessary for Brexit, would also lead to Scotland's ruling Scottish National Party to initiate plans for a second referendum for Scottish independence, as Scotland votd to remain in the European Union. The issue of Ireland and Northern Ireland's vote to remain in the EU would also lead to serious repercussions. In short it will be hard to separate the leave vote in England from the stay vote in Scotland and Ireland, as it will be difficult for most British people to imagine a England without a British identity. If the referendum had asked the second question "Do you still vote leave if this means the end of Britain or the United Kingdom?" the vote could have turned out differently for nationalist voters.
Linked Articles
Wait and see: Theresa May is in no hurry on Brexit | Europe | DW.COM | 15.08.2016
DW.COM 08/15/2016
No return to border controls in Northern Ireland, UK PM May says | News | DW.COM | 25.07.2016DW.COM 07/25/2016
"Deaths of Despair", the causes and effects in a larger context, and the drop in America's ranking in the Social Progress Index to 19th in 2016
07/01/2016
How the middle aged white Americans 45-54 are faring in the current environment with fewer opportunities and greater vulnerabilities in health, education incomes, savings, quality of life, mortality, upward mobility, for this group. Tragically this means their children and the next generation is also affected in the way fewer opportunities are available in the future. The situation is unique to America with weaker social protection than Europe, and to Britain because of years of austerity. There are no quick fixes with easy slogans, and requires first a national awareness, national consensus, and may require the better part of a generation to solve and restore the hope and promise of Jefferson in making the "inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" available to all.
Linked Articles
Rising Death Rates for Middle-Aged White Americans Are Forcing a Policy Rethink
WSJ 06/30/2016
The U.S. Now Ranks 19th in ‘Social Progress,’ With Finland and Canada Topping the ListWSJ 06/30/2016
The failure of the U.S., UK, Canada and Australia to take in refugees from war torn Syria and other parts of North Africa- 1500 for U.S. , 166 for UK, 800,000 for Germany
09/04/2015
Ignatieff of the Kennedy School and Kristof of the NYT say the inaction of Obama, Cameron, Harper and Abbott, is deplorable considering the gap between the 800,000 Merkel and the German people have openly welcomed and the 1500 the U.S. has accepted, and 166 the UK has taken in. There is hardly any mention of the issue by the leaders of the U.S. and Canada in September 2015, even as the global media has covered this daily. In Hungary the Orban government faile to remember the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and the violent crackdown by the Soviets, leading to a wave of refugees reaching other parts of Europe and the U.S.
Linked Articles
New York Times 09/04/2015
The Refugee Crisis Isn’t a ‘European Problem’New York Times 09/05/2015
The huge contrast between Chancellor Merkel's approach and the approach of Obama and Cameron to the Syrian refugee crisis
08/20/2015
The German chancellor will be remembered in history for the way she handled the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015, and for the courage to say, "if Europe fails on the question of refugees, its close connection with universal civil rights will be destroyed." Reports in the Guardian newspaper say Germany is likely to accept about 1 million refugees in 2015. Chancellor Merkel says about 800,000 refugees will be admitted in 2015. Contrast this with the UK reports the Guardian which has 166 refugees admitted to the UK, and reports in the WSJ that about 1500 refugees have been admitted to the U.S.. Merkel has taken on the challenge in a spirited way as Europe faces anti-immigrant sentiment and rallied German society in a way that is remarkable. The withdrawal of the Obama administration from the Middle East led to the collapse of the fragile situation in Libya, Iraq and Syria, and the unravelling of these countries, leading to the current refugee crisis with about half of the Syrian population dislocated and large parts of the population of Libya, Iraq, and Kurdish regions dislocated.
Linked Articles
U.S. Pressed to Take More Syrian Refugees
Wall Street Journal 09/05/2015
Why some German universities will educate refugees for free - The Washington PostWashington Post 08/20/2015
Critics and the Obama administration's response on the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Pact (TPP)
05/22/2015
Linked Articles
In the Heat of the Pacific Trade Battle
New York Times 05/22/2015
Trade and TrustNew York Times 05/22/2015
The Obama administration's efforts on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), after losing allies in Asia and Europe to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
04/17/2015
The Obama administration pushes a free trade pact that includes the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. This free trade pact is now seen as a U.S. effort to counter China in the Asian region. India, UK, Germany, France, Italy and other European countries decided to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank sponsored by China, on its merits, after the U.S. refused to join.
Linked Articles
TPP: Momentum on Trade Deal Bolsters U.S., Japan Efforts to Counter China
Wall Street Journal 04/17/2015
Lawmakers Introduce ‘Fast Track’ Trade Bill, Triggering Democratic DiscordWall Street Journal 04/17/2015
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