German train drivers  strike for second time in less than a month

2023/12/07

The display at Berlin Central Station refers to the GDL strike. From Thursday 07 December evening, 10 p.m., until Friday evening, 10 p.m., passengers will once again have to prepare for thousands of train cancellations throughout Germany.

 Fabian Sommer/dpa

Travellers and commuters on Germany's rail network will be forced to make alternative travel plans on Friday, as the fourth strike at Deutsche Bahn this year comes into force.

The train drivers' union GDL has called on its members to walk off the job Thursday evening at 10:00 pm (2100 GMT). The strike on Germany's national rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) passenger services will end 24 hours later, on Friday evening at 10:00 pm.

Disruptions are expected even before the strike begins, and are expected to have knock-on effects afterwards. An emergency timetable with greatly reduced services will apply during the strike.

Employees of Deutsche Bahn, including the S-Bahn suburban rail companies in Berlin and Hamburg as well as the railway companies Transdev, AKN and City-Bahn Chemnitz and other companies have been called out on strike.

The freight transport strike will begin at 6:00 pm on Thursday evening.

The German Train Drivers' Union (GDL) wants to increase the pressure in the current collective bargaining round. The union is demanding a reduction in working hours for shift workers.

"The employers are stonewalling everywhere and are not prepared to give the employees the appreciation and recognition they deserve for the work they have done," criticized the union.

However, passengers can at least breathe a sigh of relief in one respect: the union has said there will be no further strikes through the busy public holiday period.

"We will now carry out this strike action on Thursday and Friday, and it will be the last one for this year," said GDL boss Claus Weselsky on Wednesday evening.

"This will be followed by the ballot and the count on December 19." He promised no further industrial action until after the first week of January.

Deutsche Bahn criticized the GDL for spoiling the second Advent weekend for millions of uninvolved people. A strike so soon after the onset of winter and so close to the timetable change was irresponsible and selfish, criticized Martin Seiler, member of the Deutsche Bahn Executive Board for Human Resources.

"Instead of negotiating and facing up to reality, the train drivers' union is going on strike for unrealizable demands. This is absolutely unnecessary," he said.
The GDL last called a strike at Deutsche Bahn on November 15 and 16.

In March and April, the larger railway and transport union (EVG) called one-day strikes. A ballot on indefinite strikes is already underway in the unusually tough collective bargaining round for train drivers.

© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

German train drivers to strike for 24 hours starting Thursday
2023/12/06

Claus Weselsky, Chairman of the German Train Drivers' Union (GDL), speaks to media representatives after declaring the collective bargaining negotiations between Deutsche Bahn and the GDL have failed. 

Christoph Soeder/dpa

Train drivers at Germany's national railway Deutsche Bahn will go on strike from Thursday evening until Friday evening, the trade union GDL announced.

The nationwide strike from 10 pm (2100 GMT) on Thursday until 10 pm on Friday will likely lead to thousands of train cancellations.

The strike affects long-distance and regional trains, as well as suburban commuter rail lines in Hamburg and Berlin. Freight service will also be disrupted beginning at 6 pm, the union announced.

The latest strike comes amid contentious collective bargaining talks between the GDL trade union and Deutsche Bahn management over wages and working hours. GDL has demanded shorter working hours for drivers in addition to substantial raises.

GDL leader Claus Weselsky declared negotiations a failure on November 24 after Deutsche Bahn management offered smaller raises but outright rejected the possibility of shortening full-time working hours.

Deutsche Bahn swiftly denounced the strike call on Wednesday as "irresponsible and selfish" and accused the union of ruining the weekend for millions of regular passengers not involved in the dispute.

"Instead of negotiating and facing up to reality, the train drivers' union is going on strike for unfulfillable demands. This is absolutely unnecessary," said Martin Seiler, Deutsche Bahn's director of human resources.

During the most recent GDL strike on November 15 and November 16, Deutsche Bahn was forced to cancel about 80% of all long-distance trains as well as numerous regional trains across the country.

The strike is the fourth labour action to hit Deutsche Bahn this year.

The train drivers' decision to strike apparently ignores the position of the German Civil Service Federation (dbb), an umbrella group of public-sector labour unions to which GDL belongs.

Dbb is scheduled to hold collective bargaining talks on Thursday and Friday.

"It would be absurd if our actions were to be torpedoed by strikes by our own member organization," dbb chairman Ulrich Silberbach recently told the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper.

GDL, which represents about 10,000 Deutsche Bahn employees, is the smaller of two unions for workers at the state-owned railway. But because of their critical role, the drivers hold an outsized power to cripple service on the Deutsche Bahn network.

Martin Seiler, Chief Human Resources Officer at Deutsche Bahn, makes a statement on the failure of the wage negotiations between Deutsche Bahn and the GDL. Train drivers at Germany's national railway Deutsche Bahn will go on strike from Thursday evening until Friday evening, the trade union GDL announced on Wednesday. 

Christoph Soeder/dpa

© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

German train driver strikes will be 'longer and more intense' in 2024
2023/12/08

A woman walks across a platform, a notice on the display board reads "Please note the posted timetable". Despite not striking over the upcoming holidays the German train drivers' union (GDL) announced that strikes will pick up again next year and "be longer and more intense," GDL leader Claus Weselsky told Bayerischer Rundfunk radio on Thursday. Christoph Reichwein/dpa

Would-be rail passengers in Germany will have to choose alternative transport means until 10:00 pm (GMT 2100) Friday, as the German train drivers' union (GDL) strike interrupts services.

Delays and disruptions are also expected to continue through the weekend, as the network gets back to normal. The union has promised not to strike over the Christmas holiday period, but warned that their industrial campaign will switch up a gear in the new year.

The train drivers' union (GDL) announced that strikes will become "longer and more intense," GDL leader Claus Weselsky told Bayerischer Rundfunk radio on Thursday.

The announcement came as the GDL wanted to increase the pressure in the current collective bargaining round. The union is demanding a reduction in working hours for shift workers.

A ballot on indefinite strikes is already under way in the unusually tough collective bargaining round for train drivers.

"We will count the ballot on December 19 and will not strike in the first week of January, but after that the strikes will be longer and more intense," the GDL leader said.

Travellers and commuters on Germany's rail network are again being forced to make alternative travel plans on Friday, as the fourth strike at rail operator Deutsche Bahn this year kicks in.

The train drivers' union GDL had called on its members to walk off the job on Thursday evening at 10 pm (2100 GMT). The strike on Deutsche Bahn's passenger services will end 24 hours later, on Friday evening at 10 pm.

Deutsche Bahn criticized the GDL for spoiling the second Advent weekend for millions of people. A strike so soon after the onset of winter and so close to the timetable change was irresponsible and selfish, criticized Martin Seiler, a member of Deutsche Bahn's executive board for human resources.

"Instead of negotiating and facing up to reality, the train drivers' union is going on strike for unrealizable demands. This is absolutely unnecessary," he said.

The GDL last called a strike at Deutsche Bahn on November 15 and 16.

In March and April, the larger railway and transport union EVG called one-day strikes.

Disruptions are expected to occur even before the strike begins, and to have knock-on effects afterwards. An emergency timetable with greatly reduced services will apply during the strike.

Employees of Deutsche Bahn, including the S-Bahn suburban rail companies in Berlin and Hamburg as well as the railway companies Transdev, AKN and City-Bahn Chemnitz and other companies have been called out on strike.

A freight transport strike will begin at 6 pm on Thursday evening.

"The employers are stonewalling everywhere and are not prepared to give the employees the appreciation and recognition they deserve for the work they have done," criticized the union.

A passenger sits on a platform with a suitcase. Despite not striking over the upcoming holidays the German train drivers' union (GDL) announced that strikes will pick up again next year and "be longer and more intense," GDL leader Claus Weselsky told Bayerischer Rundfunk radio on Thursday. Christoph Reichwein/dpa

Rail passengers wait on a platform at Munich Central Station. The German Train Drivers' Union (GDL) had called for another 24-hour warning strike at Deutsche Bahn AG. Sven Hoppe/dpa

Rail passengers wait on a platform at Munich Central Station. The German Train Drivers' Union (GDL) had called for another 24-hour warning strike at Deutsche Bahn AG. Sven Hoppe/dpa

© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

US envoy slams Hungarian govt for 'disregarding' interests of NATO allies
2023/12/05


BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy to Budapest sharply criticised the Hungarian government on Tuesday for "disregarding" the interests of its NATO allies and strengthening ties with Russia at a time when its allies are isolating it.

In a speech at AmCham to U.S. companies that have invested in Hungary, Ambassador David Pressman said Hungary has thrived as a member of the European Union and NATO, allowing companies run successful businesses in the Central European country that joined the EU in 2004.

"Yet today, we are increasingly seeing an Ally that relies upon its NATO Allies, but feels comfortable disregarding the interests of those same Allies and our Alliance, including during a time of war in Europe," Pressman said.

"That disregard is evident when the prime minister embraces (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, when his government threatens to hold up crucially needed aid to its neighbor, Ukraine.... When independent media and civil society organizations are investigated and attacked."

Relations between Budapest and Washington have soured because of Hungary's foot-dragging over the ratification of Sweden's NATO accession and also over Prime Minister Viktor Orban's warm ties with Moscow despite the war in Ukraine.

Sweden's NATO membership is pending ratification by

Turkey and Hungary.

Pressman's criticism comes a week before a crucial EU summit due next week where Orban has demanded that European Union leaders should avoid any decision on Ukraine's coveted goal of getting a green light for membership talks even as the country fights Russia's invasion.

Budapest opposes Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but Orban has kept up close relations with Moscow - partly due to Hungary's continued energy dependence on Russia.

Pressman again raised deep concerns about a "sovereignty protection bill" drafted by Orban's ruling party that is waiting to be passed in parliament, saying it would create "a new domestic security agency, armed with unfettered and unchecked investigative powers."

(Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Marguerita Choy)



© Reuters

Oldest mosquito fossil comes with a bloodsucking surprise
2023/12/05


By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are killed annually by malaria and other diseases spread through the bite of mosquitoes, insects that date back to the age of dinosaurs. All of these bites are inflicted by females, which possess specialized mouth anatomy that their male counterparts lack.

But it has not always been that way. Researchers said they have discovered the oldest-known fossils of mosquitoes - two males entombed in pieces of amber dating to 130 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period and found near the town of Hammana in Lebanon. To their surprise, the male mosquitoes possessed elongated piercing-sucking mouthparts seen now only in females.

"Clearly they were hematophagous," meaning blood-eaters, said paleontologist Dany Azar of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology and Lebanese University, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Current Biology. "So this discovery is a major one in the evolutionary history of mosquitoes."

The two fossilized mosquitoes, both representing the same extinct species, are similar in size and appearance to modern mosquitoes, though the mouthparts used for obtaining blood are shorter than in today's female mosquitoes.

"Mosquitoes are the most notorious blood-feeders on humans and most terrestrial vertebrates, and they transmit a certain number of parasites and diseases to their hosts," Azar said.

"Only fertilized female mosquitoes will suck blood, because they need proteins to make their eggs develop. Males and unfertilized females will eat some nectar from plants. And some males do not feed at all," Azar added.

Some flying insects - tsetse flies, for instance - have hematophagous males. But not modern mosquitoes.

"Finding this behavior in the Cretaceous is quite surprising," said paleontologist and study co-author André Nel of the National Museum of Natural History of Paris.

The delicate anatomy of the two mosquitoes was beautifully preserved in the fossils. Both displayed exceptionally sharp and triangle-shaped jaw anatomy and an elongated structure with tooth-like projections.

The researchers said they suspect that mosquitoes evolved from insects that did not consume blood. They hypothesize that the mouthparts that became adapted for obtaining blood meals originally were used to pierce plants to get access to nutritious fluids.

Plant evolution may have played a role in the feeding divergence between male and female mosquitoes. At the time when these two mosquitoes became stuck in tree sap that eventually became amber, flowering plants were beginning to flourish for the first time on the Cretaceous landscape.

"In all hematophagous insects, we believe that hematophagy was a shift from plant liquid sucking to bloodsucking," Azar said.

The fact that these earliest-known mosquitoes are bloodsucking males, Azar added, "means that originally the first mosquitoes were all hematophagous - no matter whether they were males or females - and hematophagy was later lost in males, maybe due to the appearance of flowering plants, which are contemporaneous with the formation of Lebanese amber."

Plenty of animals were present to provide blood meals: dinosaurs, flying reptiles called pterosaurs, other reptiles, birds and mammals.

The researchers said while these are the oldest fossils, mosquitoes probably originated millions of years earlier. They noted that molecular evidence suggests mosquitoes arose during the Jurassic Period, which ran from about 200 million to 145 million years ago.

There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes worldwide, found everywhere except Antarctica. Some become disease vectors transmitting malaria, yellow fever, Zika fever, dengue and other diseases. According to the World Health Organization, more than 400,000 people die annually from malaria - a parasitic infection - mostly children under age 5.

"On the other side, mosquitoes help to purify the water in ponds, lakes and rivers," Nel said. "In general, an animal can be a problem but also can be helpful."

(Reporting by Will Dunham, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)



© Reuters

Hanukkah in wartime: Israelis take stock two months on
2023/12/07


By Howard Goller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Two months into a war with Hamas, the faces of Israelis taken hostage to Gaza still appear on individual posters plastered across Jerusalem bus stops and flashed across buildings.

The sombre mood was all-consuming on Thursday at the start of Hanukkah, the first Jewish festival since Oct. 7 when Israel says Hamas massacred 1,200 people.

It was a solemn moment for all of Israel and not only for families of the 138 Israelis still held hostage.

For some Israelis, the feeling is of a country shrinking.

Some 200,000 Israelis have been uprooted from both the south of Israel where Hamas infiltrated and the north of Israel where Hezbollah attacked from Lebanon. Absent tourists because of the war, hotels have accommodated many of the evacuees.

"Oct. 7 was a day that changed the course of history in Israel," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat said, calling it "the worst day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust."

Aghast at the Hamas killings, Israelis have bought up guns with the government's blessing.

The nation is largely self-absorbed. Israeli television channels, dominated by war news, rarely broadcast scenes from Gaza except to show soldiers in action.

Israelis must look to channels abroad to view the landscape of buildings destroyed or vacated during an Israeli bombardment and ground offensive in which Gaza health officials say more than 16,000 people have been killed.

Gone are weekly demonstrations that for months drew hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets to protest against a government plan to limit the judiciary they assailed as anti-democratic.

The country seems less polarised, at least for now, as it readies to celebrate Hanukkah.

Commemorating an ancient Jewish victory, Hanukkah is a family festival lasting eight nights and featuring candle lighting and frying of foods in oil because, tradition says, of a miracle that oil found to fuel a ceremonial lamp was only enough for one day, but it burned for eight.

JOE BIDEN AN ISRAELI HERO

Although affected emotionally, many Israelis say the war hasn't broken them. Psychologist Danny Brom said, though, he had been receiving more patients since Oct. 7.

People struggling not to feel helpless have found purpose in baking cookies and braided challot bread for soldiers, he said, while one woman offered swimming lessons to evacuees at a hotel.

Public opinion is generally with the soldiers and for the continuation of the war.

Israelis take pride in the Iron Dome missile defence system developed in Israel with U.S. backing to counter the rockets fired from Gaza and Lebanon.

Perhaps the biggest hero of the moment is U.S. President Joe Biden who, in the face of global criticism, has consistently supported Israel's military action.

A billboard shows Biden smiling in front of Israeli and U.S. flags on Jerusalem's Emek Refaim Street with the word "Thanks" in English across the top.

Israeli families have publicly thanked Biden, along with Egypt and Qatar, for helping to free the hostages.

Centre stage on the activist front are relatives and supporters of the hostages who have set up camp at a Tel Aviv square outside the Defence Ministry where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes his war cabinet.

They have renamed the square "Hostages Plaza" and joined in increasingly impatient chants that insist on bringing back their loved ones "Now. Now. Now" with each "Now" louder than the last.

Fighting for his political survival, Netanyahu cites as priorities wiping out Hamas and the return of the hostages.

A commission of inquiry is expected into the military and political failures that led to the Oct. 7 attack but its work is likely months away with the country focused on the war itself.

PEACE ACTIVISTS EYE THE DAY AFTER

Opinion polls show little backing for a decades-old vision of peacemaking with the Palestinians. That, many Israelis say, was blown apart by the actions of an Iranian-backed Hamas committed to Israel's destruction.

Israeli support for negotiations with the Palestinian Authority dropped 23% in two months, based on a Peace Index survey in late October for the Tel Aviv University International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation.

"We are talking about the lowest point for negotiation and the biggest drop in support from one poll to the next that we've ever witnessed" in three decades of polling, said Nimrod Rosler, academic head of the program.

Activists for peace with Palestinians and campaigners who before the war assailed the Netanyahu government's judicial overhaul are focused on the war but eyeing the day after.

"You cannot just overthrow this sort of semi-state and not say what is going to happen after that," said Yael Drier Shilo, a founding member of the Israeli-Palestinian peace group Standing Together.

"We are willing to say we want a moderate Palestinian state and we are willing to negotiate and give them the possibility to dismantle Hamas," she said.

Meredith Rothbart, CEO of a nonprofit committed to facilitating peace-building, said that with interest growing in its Israeli-Palestinian leadership institute, it has expanded to two tracks - one for CEOs and another for mid-level leaders.

"This moment does not tell me that we have failed. It tells me that maybe other people see what's needed," said Rothbart, whose Amal-Tikva organisation is a combination of the Arabic and Hebrew words for hope.

Her goal is to engage the two peoples in peacemaking from within their societies - rather than through a diplomatic solution - so that each sees peace as best for its own people.

'IT'S NOT THE TIME NOW,' SAYS PROTEST LEADER

Ron Scherf is a founder of the Brothers in Arms coalition that mobilized protests against the judicial overhaul. After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack it pivoted to organise aid to victims, survivors and soldiers before the government did.

Scherf said it was too early to talk about resuming the anti-government protests.

"I hope they (the government) will be able to take responsibility and understand the guilt and go away. And if not, we will return to the streets when it will be the time for that. It's not the time now," he said.

(Reporting by Howard Goller, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)











© Reuters

SINOPHOBIA

GOP Sen. sounds alarm about national security risk posed by garlic from 'communist China'

SECRET HACKERS HIDDEN IN BULBS

Sarah K. Burris

RAW STORY
December 7, 2023

Senator Rick Scott speaking with attendees at the 2021 Student Action Summit.

 (Gage Skidmore)

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is sounding the alarm on communist garlic, The Cato Institute's Scott Lincicome pointed out Thursday.

The Republican sent a letter to Washington, D.C. secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo pointing out that the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 gives the Commerce Secretary the power to investigate imports that could be national security threats — and that garlic from China is one of them.

"I write to request such an investigation into imports from Communist China of all grades of garlic, whole or separated into constituent cloves, whether or not peeled, chilled, fresh, frozen, provisionally preserved or packed in water or other natural substance, and the threat they pose to U.S. national security," Scott wrote in his letter.

"Food safety and security is an existential emergency that poses grave threats to our national security, public health and economic prosperity."

ALSO READ: A neuroscientist explains how Donald Trump exploits the minds of conspiracy theorists

He doesn't give any specific security cause for concern from the bulbs.

The website Spices Inc and a report by USA Today says most of the garlic sold in the U.S. comes from China — more than 60%.

Of domestic garlic, The California Farmland Trust says that 90 percent of commercial garlic comes from that state.

UK
Barrister Starmer gives damning assessment of new Treaty with Rwanda

“So apart from members of his own Cabinet, how many people has the Prime Minister sent to Rwanda?”

 by Jack Peat
2023-12-06

PA

Rishi Sunak defended the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as Sir Keir Starmer mocked it as a costly “gimmick” which is not making progress.

The Prime Minister would not say when challenged how many refugees the UK would accept from Rwanda under the plans, but insisted stopping small boats crossing the Channel requires an “effective deterrent and returns agreement”.

But Sir Keir said the plan gives Rwanda “hundreds of millions of pounds for nothing in return”.

The leaders’ exchanges took place at an excitable session of Prime Minister’s Questions, prompting multiple interventions from Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons: “If the purpose of the Rwanda gimmick was to solve a political headache of the Tories’ own making, to get people out of the country who they simply couldn’t deal with, then it’s been a resounding success – after all they’ve managed to send three home secretaries there, an achievement for which the whole country can be grateful.

“So apart from members of his own Cabinet, how many people has the Prime Minister sent to Rwanda?”

“Do everything it takes”

Mr Sunak replied: “We will do everything it takes to get this scheme working so that we can indeed stop the boats and that’s why this week we have signed a new legally binding treaty with Rwanda which together with new legislation will address all the concerns that have been raised.

“Because everyone should be in no doubt about our absolute commitment to stop the boats and get flights off.”


Mr Sunak said “deterrence is critical” before criticising Labour for pledging to scrap the scheme, adding: “Once again instead of being on the side of the British people, he finds himself on the side of the people smugglers.”

Sir Keir Starmer said the Government had scaled down its predictions for how many people would be deported to Rwanda, adding: “The current number of people sent there remains stubbornly consistent – zero.

“At the same time, Article 19 of the treaty says the parties shall make arrangements for the United Kingdom to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom.

“So, how many refugees from Rwanda will be coming here to the UK under the treaty?”

“So apart from members of his own Cabinet, how many people has the Prime Minister sent to Rwanda?”

Supreme Court concerns

Rishi Sunak said the treaty “addresses all the concerns of the Supreme Court” before again attacking Labour’s approach.

Sir Keir Starmer questioned if the Prime Minister had read the latest deal, saying: “Article 4 says the scheme is capped at Rwanda’s capacity, that is 100; Article 5 says Rwanda can turn them away if they want; Article 19 says we actually have to take refugees from Rwanda.

“How much did this fantastic deal cost us?”

Mr Sunak replied: “As the Home Secretary was crystal clear about, there is no incremental money that has been provided. This is … ensuring that the concerns of the Supreme Court have all been addressed in a legally binding treaty that will allow us to operationalise the scheme.”

Sir Keir continued: “Annexe A says on top of the £140 million he has already showered on Rwanda, when we send people there under this treaty we have to pay for their accommodation and their upkeep for five years.

“That is not all, this morning a Government minister admitted that anyone we send to Rwanda who commits a crime can be returned to us.”
“Batshit”

Referring to claims that James Cleverly called the plan ‘batshit’, Sir Keir added: “I am beginning to see why the Home Secretary said the Rwanda scheme was something to do with ‘bat’, I think, was it?

“What does he first think attracted Mr Kagame to hundreds of millions of pounds for nothing in return?”

Rishi Sunak replied: “The simple point is there is a simple question here. If you believe in stopping the boats, as we on this side of the House do, you need to have an effective deterrent and returns agreement. It is as simple as that.”

Referring to Labour MPs’ lobbying to prevent deportation flights of foreign criminals, the Prime Minister added: “He is not interested in stopping the boats, which is why he is not interested in the Rwanda plan.”

Sir Keir said the Rwandan Government “saw this Prime Minister coming a mile off”, adding: “You can only imagine their delight, their sheer disbelief, when having already banked £140 million of British taxpayer money without housing a single asylum seeker, the Prime Minister appears again with another offer they can’t refuse.

“A gimmick that will send taxpayers’ money to Rwanda, refugees from Rwanda to Britain, and won’t stop the boats.

“There was mention of Margaret Thatcher… (how did the Tory party) go from ‘up yours Delors’ to ‘take our money Kagame’?”

Mr Sunak said Sir Keir can “roleplay Margaret Thatcher all he wants, but when it comes to Europe his answer is the same – yes, yes, yes.”

'Trump spent like a Democrat': WSJ attacks ex-president's conservative record in op-ed

Matthew Chapman

RAW STORY
December 7, 2023 

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport on March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas. - Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America/TNS


The conservative Wall Street Journaleditorial board took former President Donald Trump to the shed on Thursday evening, pointing out that he has no leg to stand on with fiscal responsibility.

The board used the recent GOP debate as a means to raise the subject to readers.

"The more potent attacks during the debate were on his record as President. Ms. Haley gamely noted that he added $9 trillion to the national debt in four years, 'and we’re all paying the price of that.' Mr. Trump spent like a Democrat on domestic programs, and there’s little reason to think he would show spending restraint during a second term," wrote the board. "He showed no resistance to the $2 trillion Covid blowout in March 2020. He tapped Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to extend the enhanced unemployment benefits during the summer of 2020 after they had lapsed. He even complained that Congress’s $900 billion Covid spending bill in December 2020 was too stingy."

Indeed, the board noted, it was Trump's original COVID stimulus relief that Democrats saw fit to one-up him on. And moreover, his bona fides on other conservative issues are shaky when you take a closer look, the board said.

"Mr. Trump’s successes on judges, tax reform and deregulation were based on conventional conservative ideas that were teed up for him. Former Reps. Kevin Brady and Paul Ryan and Sen. Pat Toomey midwifed the 2017 tax reform. Mr. Trump nearly blew up the legislation toward the end when he reportedly dallied with Steve Bannon’s recommendation to raise the top marginal tax rate to 44%," said the report. "The Federalist Society gave Mr. Trump originalist judicial nominees, which Mitch McConnell made sure were confirmed. Deregulation happened thanks to Mike Pence’s guidance and nominees like Neomi Rao at the White House budget office."

A second Trump term, on the other hand, would be different. Trump has many big plans — and some GOP groups are laying out a controversial authoritarian vision — but those who shaped conventional GOP policy in the last administration "aren’t coming back for a second Trump term. Instead the country will get Mr. Bannon and immigration svengali Stephen Miller."

WAIT, WHAT?!
"The danger for Republican voters to consider is that his chaos theory of governance would result in a second term that failed to deliver on his promises and set up the left for huge gains in 2026 and 2028," the board concluded.

WSJ raises alarm at publicity-seeking GOP 'loudmouths' pushing out 'smart conservatives'
Tom Boggioni

RAW STORY
December 7, 2023 

Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz (MTG via screenshot, Gaetz via AFP)

According to the editors of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the surprise announcement by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) to not run for re-election is another bad sign for the Republican Party that is increasingly seeing "smart conservatives" driven away by their far-right colleagues.

McHenry, who has served in Congress since 2004, recently served as interim Speaker after the also-departing former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted by a rebel group of extremist conservatives, during a period the WSJ called "a silly interlude."

With McHenry giving little reason for his departure other than stating there’s “a season for everything,” the Journal's editors lauded his understanding of economics and budgeting that will be sorely missed — particularly in light of who is remaining.

"Republican intellectual capital on economics is in need of renewal on Capitol Hill, and Mr. McHenry is only the latest departure. The three Ways and Means chairmen—Dave Camp, Paul Ryan and Kevin Brady—who laid the groundwork for the 2017 tax reform are gone," the editors wrote before suggesting the new generation of extremist House members are to blame.

"It’s hard not to wonder whether in an alternative universe, one with a less-dysfunctional House GOP conference, Mr. McHenry might stay to work on the next generation of conservative policy," they wrote before asking, "But is Congress no longer a place for serious people and instead mainly a venue for loudmouths who want to burnish their media brand?"

"It’s hard not to wonder whether in an alternative universe, one with a less-dysfunctional House GOP conference, Mr. McHenry might stay to work on the next generation of conservative policy," they wrote before asking, "But is Congress no longer a place for serious people and instead mainly a venue for loudmouths who want to burnish their media brand?"

"Readers can wish the best to Mr. McHenry and his family, while continuing to worry about the trend of smart conservatives who decide their options are better elsewhere," they lamented.

You can read more here.

NEW YORK CITY

Tip Tricks Dampen Delivery Worker Celebration of New $18-an-Hour Wage

Posted on December 7, 2023 by Yves Smith

Yves here. DoorDash, UberEast, and GrubHub have acted in a deplorable yet predictable manner by changing its app so as to deny deliveristas the benefit of a New-York-City mandated wage increase.

DoorDash and UberEats have taken the most extreme retaliatory move via changes to tipping on its app. Readers have heard a plenty about how Uber squeezes its drivers. DoorDash is a particularly vile company and you should NOT use them, not only for the benefit of workers and restaurants, but also to protect yourself from being scammed. From Eater Chicago, Chicago Sues Grubhub and DoorDash for Allegedly Scamming Basically Everyone: Restaurants, Drivers, and Customers:

The city of Chicago has filed separate lawsuits against Grubhub and DoorDash alleging the third-party delivery companies “engaged in deceptive practices to prey on its affiliated restaurants.” The lawsuits, filed today, August 27, in Cook County circuit court, contain a multitude of allegations, including that the companies use bait-and-switch tactics to fool customers into thinking they’ll be paying lower fees compared to what they’re ultimately charged.

The DoorDash lawsuit also alleges that the company “used consumer tips to pay itself rather than its drivers.” There’s also the question of the Chicago Fee, the charge DoorDash added to compensate for the city’s pandemic-era fee cap. The city says DoorDash tried to make it seem like the Chicago Fee was being administered by the city, and even included a customer’s tweet from January in the lawsuit: “one thing about Chicago, they gon tax your ass LMAO.”

A DoorDash spokesperson says drivers get 100 percent of tips but had no comment on the Chicago Fee. Tipping was also the subject of a $2.5 million settlement after the Washington, D.C. attorney general investigated DoorDash in November 2020. At one point, DoorDash was using tips to subsidized wages for drivers, meaning employees wouldn’t earn more than their locked-in wages. DoorDash has since ended this practice.

Attorneys for the city listed many issues relevant to restaurant owners in the lawsuits, including adding restaurants to the platform without the owner’s knowledge or consent, using telephone routing numbers to charge commission on phone calls that didn’t result in orders, and even creating fake restaurant websites to redirect customers to the delivery platform.

Now to the latest DoorDash grifting.

By Claudia Irizarry Aponte. Published at THE CITY on December 6, 2023

Delivery workers make the rounds in lower Manhattan, Dec. 5, 2023. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

Food delivery workers in New York City are now earning a mandated minimum $17.96 an hour before tips, following months of unsuccessful legal challenges by delivery platforms DoorDash, Uber and Grubhub.

But a sudden coinciding move by the affected apps to change how customers can tip is taking money back out of their pockets, the workers say — and the city’s labor enforcement agency says it’s reviewing the situation.

The new wage, which went into effect on Monday and will increase $19.96 an hour by 2025, accounts for workers’ costs of operating, including vehicle and insurance costs.

Because the apps classify delivery workers as independent contractors and not employees, they are not currently entitled to a standard minimum wage. The city’s tens of thousands of delivery workers previously earned an estimated $11 hourly on average.

For the workers organizing under the banner of Los Deliveristas Unidos, a group of mostly Indigenous Latino and immigrant delivery workers, the change marked a hard-fought achievement in the works since the depths of the pandemic.

“It brings me immense pride and joy,” Sergio Ajche, a delivery worker who founded the WhatsApp group in 2020 that became Los Deliveristas Unidos, said on Wednesday. “Three years ago I could only hope for this moment. This is a tremendous change, and it shows that anything is possible.”

At a celebration held at the NYC Central Labor Council’s midtown Manhattan headquarters, delivery workers, flanked by mayor Eric Adams, touted the historic victory, which makes New York is the first major U.S. city to establish pay minimums in the gig delivery economy.

“This is a historical moment — don’t downplay it,” Adams told the Deliveristas, adding that this was more than a victory in the courts. “You won the case, the fight to say across this entire country: People deserve to be paid the wages they deserve.”

But this week at least two major companies have responded to the new New York City standards by overhauling how their apps process tips.

Doordash now only provides a tipping option after a customer’s order and payment are completed and a delivery person has been assigned. And Uber Eats now only offers a tipping option after the food has been delivered to a customer.

Customers were previously allowed to tip as soon as they placed their orders for delivery — an amount that, by law, must be shown to workers before they accept an order.

Workers say their tips have already plummeted to near nil. The city agency in charge of enforcing the law, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), is looking into the apps’ new tipping practice, said commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga.

“We certainly don’t endorse that — people should pay as they wish,” said Mayuga in response to questions from THE CITY.

‘Productivity Gains’

The pay scale is mandated by a 2021 local law, part of a package aimed at boosting delivery workers. Among other measures, it requires restaurants to provide restroom access on demand.

The legislation was inspired by the Deliveristas’ organizing and reporting by THE CITY, which in 2020 first exposed the challenges delivery workers face on the job, from low pay to harassment, assault, injury and death.

When the law went into effect Monday, DoorDash and Uber notified customers and workers via the app that they were overhauling their tipping practices — a move several workers and advocates who spoke with THE CITY charged was retaliatory.

“It’s bittersweet — this is a huge victory for us, but to see the companies take this position, it’s disappointing. Workers are complaining that they’re hustling but not getting tips,” said Toño Solís, a delivery worker and organizer, who said the companies’ move felt like “a form of revenge.”

Added Solís: “The companies have played with us long enough — this proves why we cannot let our guard down.”

DoorDash now tells its customers at checkout that the changes were happening “in response to” the new law in New York City, while Uber says its change is “as a result of” the law.

Asked by THE CITY to clarify their claim, both companies referred to a section in a 2022 DCWP study of the industry designed to set the wage scale, which includes changes to tipping as one scenario companies might pursue to offset any additional costs of higher wages.

“Policies have consequences, and these changes come as a direct result of the extreme earnings standard imposed in New York City,” said DoorDash spokesperson Eli Scheinholtz, who added the move helps the company “balance the impact” of the law on workers, customers and merchants.

Uber spokesperson Josh Gold said the company moved to overhaul its tipping practices to incentivize workers to work harder: “The city’s emphasis on productivity gains to achieve the minimum wage will force couriers to do more deliveries — this is one way to start to do that.”

Grubhub is the only one of the three major platforms that has not overhauled its tipping model, but it reduced the range for suggested tips upon checkout to 0-10% from the 10-25% it had presented to customers as recently as Monday, a change the company made only in New York City.

A spokesperson for the DCWP condemned the changed tipping procedures.

“This is entirely Uber and DoorDash’s own business decision,” the spokesperson, Michael Lanza, told THE CITY. “DCWP supports customers having the option to tip whatever amount they would like, and we do not endorse this nor have we suggested the apps change their tipping policy.”

Ajche said that some customers have begun to share their frustrations about not being able to tip upon checkout on the apps. Some have resorted to tipping in cash or via Venmo and other forms of payment, he said. “To the companies, I would say — this is making you look bad, these games you’re playing.”

 

Russia’s Ideology Is Now National Liberation of the World From the US Empire, With an Assist From Patriarch Kirill

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Yves Smith

Yves here. John Helmer does the important service of summarizing and discussing the implications of the increasingly overtly ideological themes in Putin’s speeches, and his criticism of US policies of hegemony, conflict-fomenting, and touting its self-serving “rules-based order” as contrasted with  multipolarity. Note the latter can and per Putin does imply stronger nation states and cultural identities. Putin has also taken to touting Russia’s multi-ethnicity and (without using these words) arguing that it is subsumed under a national identity  without the loss of cultural identity, while “wokeness” sharpens divisions….which  is a feature, not a bug.

Helmer also sets forth some internal contradictions in Putin’s views, as well as his consistency of application, particularly with respect to terrorism and the conflict in Gaza.

By John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties. Helmer has also been a professor of political science, and an advisor to government heads in Greece, the United States, and Asia. He is the first and only member of a US presidential administration (Jimmy Carter) to establish himself in Russia. Originally published at Dances with Bears

Between 1917 and right now in Russian history, it has been clear that the horse pulls the cart. That’s to say, the ideas people have, or the ideology of groups and the propaganda of media, churches, and governments are pulled along by their economic interests, by the class structure of the underlying society.

Not the horse in the picture. That’s the icon image, popularised in the Georgian Orthodox Church from the 11th century, depicting St. George, patron saint of believers, spearing to death the Roman emperor Diocletian. Actually, Diocletian ruled the Roman empire from 284 until 305 AD, when he became the first emperor to resign voluntarily and retire harmlessly. Before that Diocletian, a professional soldier, did a lot of spearing of Gauls, Balkan tribesmen, and Persians, as well as Christians in Syria, before he decided to rusticate in his garden on the Adriatic.

The icon doesn’t represent what really happened. Long after Diocletian was forgotten, the icon has come to represent the victory of Orthodoxy over the anti-Christian empire. The icon image was mentioned last week by Andrei Ilnitsky, an advisor to the Russian Defense Ministry and lead ideologist for the United Russia party, in a speech to the Patriarch and President Vladimir Putin. According to Ilnitsky, St George represents Russia,  and the spearing of Diocletian represents what Russia is doing to the US empire on the Ukrainian battlefield.

Now — most precisely at the World Russian People’s Council meeting in Moscow on November 28 — Ilnitsky, the Patriarch, and Putin are reversing the order of history. It’s now the cart of Russian ideology pulling the horse of Russian forces into battle with the Americans.

“They are fighting with us,” declared Ilnitsky,    “for the way people think, for the way they perceive the world. Right now we are fighting a civilisational war for the future. It is this war that we are waging on the battlefields of our own. We will win and revive ourselves by being reborn, or our identity will be wiped out. This is exactly what happened in the Ukraine for thirty years before the start of the SVO [Special Military Operation].”

Putin went further than spearing the emperor. “Our fight”, he declared, “for sovereignty and justice is, without exaggeration, one of national liberation, because we are upholding the security and well-being of our people, and our supreme historical right to be Russia – a strong independent power, a civilization state. It is our country, it is the Russian world that has blocked the way of those who aspired to world domination and exceptionalism, as it has happened many times in history. We are now fighting not just for Russia’s freedom but for the freedom of the whole world.”

This is the first time Putin has identified the doctrine of national liberation in ideological, economic, and in battlefield war against the US doctrine of hegemony and exceptionalism.

“We can frankly say that the dictatorship of one hegemon is becoming decrepit. We see it, and everyone sees it now. It is getting out of control and is simply dangerous for others. This is now clear to the global majority. But again, it is our country that is now at the forefront of building a fairer world order. And I would like to stress this: without a sovereign and strong Russia, no lasting and stable international system is possible.”

During the World Russian People’s Council, Ilnitsky said the threats of the US empire are emanating from three directions of US strikes on the country and the people. “I will not talk about purely military aspects, but about how we do not lose the world. This is what is called ideology. A month ago, the US national security strategy was adopted. The Americans position themselves as the global hegemon. The so-called autocracies have been declared enemy number one; in fact, they are the nation states which are pursuing a sovereign policy. Russia is mentioned in this document 69 times! Even more often than China. And Ukraine is cited only as anti-Russia.  Russia is the civilisational opponent of the West. Without the elimination of Russia, the development of the Western world is impossible. It will not be possible to normalise relations because of the deepest difference in goals and values.”

“At the same time,” Ilnitsky went on, “violence has become the defining concept of Western politics. War is a component of such a world of violence. How are they going to implement this violence? Everything is said in the US national defence strategy. They confront us on land, in the air, at sea, in space. And also in the information sphere. But now they are striving for informational and cognitive dominance. The US Joint Chiefs of Staff identified three areas of their attack: technological warfare (including artificial intelligence); the war in the city; the transition from informational to cognitive-mental dominance. Psychological operations will be enhanced as much as possible. This is no joke. This is the same mental war where the destruction of the enemies’ self-consciousness is the goal,” Ilnitsky emphasised.

Andrei Ilnitsky speaking to the World Russian People's Council in Moscow on November 27. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTbHrAS0EyY

Starbucks gives free coffee to NHS workers across the UK

 STARBUCKS APPRECIATES NHS WORKERS MORE THAN THE TORIES

6th Dec 2023 - 05:00

Today (Wednesday 6th December) Starbucks is giving away a free tall beverage to all NHS workers as a festive thank you for their hard work.

This is the fourth year that Starbucks has been providing this festive treat as part of the company’s support for NHS Charities Together. Select hospitals without a nearby Starbucks store will receive deliveries of Starbucks Frappuccino Mocha Flavoured Chilled Coffee and Starbucks Toffee Nut Latte Premium Instant Coffee.   

NHS staff can order any tall beverage of their choice from Starbucks stores across the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) when they show their work identity card in store.

Alex Rayner, general manager at Starbucks UK, said: “We want to thank NHS staff across the UK for all the work they do and as a token of our appreciation, we are bringing back the free tall beverage on 6th December for the fourth year running. Coffee brings people together and we hope that NHS staff can take a moment today to share the festive joy and raise a coffee to one another to celebrate.

"We know how much NHS staff have enjoyed taking part in this special day and it’s something we look forward to year after year, so we are thrilled to see our partnership with NHS Charities Together flourish and our offer extend to more NHS workers than ever before. We look forward to building on this success so we can continue to give back to the communities we serve.”