Links - 20th November 2019 (1)

Julie Ivory - Never forget. - "hey remember when the panama papers came out and revealed that all the rich people in the world are part of enormous criminal conspiracy to dodge taxes and hoard stolen wealth in offshore accounts and literally nothing happened"
"That's not quite true. The reporter behind the story, Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered."

Andrew Yang on Twitter - "We should learn from other countries. Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden all tried a wealth tax and then repealed it, mainly because of the implementation issues and that it did not generate as much revenue as projected."

The Worst of Twitter - Posts - "Today on the @OC_Transpo I came face to face with a Nazi. He was wearing a shirt depicting a man being lynched and a #Germany hat. #Ottawa #OttCity"
*HellHammer - Triumph of Death* (Swiss metal band)

U.S. Immigration Courts’ Backlog Exceeds One Million Cases - WSJ - "The administration’s actions have had the effect of allowing most people who already have asylum cases pending to stay longer—though TRAC data suggest most of these immigrants will ultimately not qualify for asylum. Asylum seekers are currently issued work permits while they wait, though the administration has moved to do away with the requirement to issue these work permits.The Trump administration has argued that the extensions and work permits provide a back door for immigrants to stay in the country and that the wait times have made crossing the border only more attractive for prospective migrants... Administration officials are also weighing a new rule to attach a nearly $1,000 fee to appeals in the immigration court system, according to a person familiar with the matter. Such a policy would deter most immigrants from being able to afford appeals, advocates say. In a statement, a Justice Department spokesman said the fee for appeals—currently at $110—hasn’t been adjusted since 1986, unlike most other immigration-related fees."

'It's difficult to make new friends': Germany ranked one of hardest countries for settling in - "For the third year in a row, Germany landed in the bottom five of the Ease of Settling in Index in the latest edition of global community Internations' annual Expat Insider Survey.The Bundesrepublik ranked 60th out of 64 countries surveyed in the index, with 55 percent of expats in Germany stating that the find it challenging to make local friends - a full 16 percentage points above the global average of people living abroad (39 percent)... More than a quarter of expats, or 27 percent, rated the friendliness of the Germans negatively, compared to a global average of 16 percent. "It's difficult to socialize and make new friends here," said one survey taker."
Interestingly, Taiwan is #1. Taiwan consistently is the best at quality and affordability of healthcare

‘Okra is the most foul thing ever grown’: chefs on their most hated ingredients - "When fusion food became a thing in London, chefs started using every ingredient on the planet and, if you don’t know what you’re doing with okra, it goes really slimy – and tastes bitter, too. The only time it’s near-edible is when you deep-fry the hell out of it. But anything works deep-fried; what’s the point? I refuse to work with it. If I see it in a dish, I ask for it to be removed."

CCTV of five blacks attacking a white woman on bus at London Bridge - YouTube

AntiVax mothers say, like black people, they’re the new Civil Right sufferers

Am I really ‘hurtling towards middle age’ at 35? | Arwa Mahdawi - Jul 2018
Men's fixation on young women is another sign of masculinity in crisis | Arwa Mahdawi - Aug 2018

Why Ivanka Trump’s new haircut should make us very afraid | Arwa Mahdawi - "The Daily Beast, for example, mused that it “could be an optics ploy to communicate control in a derailed administration”. Salon asked whether the shorter cut was a “nod to her growing ambitions”, while an image consultant told Refinery29 that Trump “wants to re-establish credibility because her father’s campaign is coming up ... this hair makes her look more grounded and more mature and more professional.”"
Strange, I thought it was misogynistic to obsess over women's appearances

Indonesia to make non-marital consensual sex a criminal offence, applies to foreigners too - "unmarried couples who “live together as a husband and wife” will either be jailed for up to six months, or fined 10 million rupiah (S$978)... Women who have an abortion will also be imprisoned for up to four years, unless a medical emergency or rape was involved.What’s more, anyone who has helped a woman have an abortion will face a jail term of up to five years.Fines will also be imposed on people who promote contraception, while unauthorised discussion of the “tools of abortion” carry a maximum sentence of six months. Nasir Djamil, a politician from the Prosperous Justice Party, stated that the law was necessary and that leaders from all religions had been consulted on the changes.He said: “The state must protect citizens from behaviour that is contrary to the supreme precepts of God.”... The Institute for Criminal Justice Reform said that millions of Indonesians could be caught by the new laws and highlighted a study that found that 40 per cent of Indonesian youth engaged in pre-marital activity... Andreas Harsono, a senior Indonesian researcher from Human Rights Watch, called the law a disaster for minorities in Indonesia.He said the passing of the law “will confirm that Indonesia is now becoming an Islamic state” and further alleged that the law was largely based on Shariah law, sans the lashing."
This won't stop people from citing Indonesia as an example of "moderate Islam"

Australians cancel holidays to Bali over risks of arrest from new laws banning sex before marriage - "After living on the holiday island for 15 years, Ms Travers believes the tough new laws would be more detrimental for tourism than volcano eruptions... Under the new 628-article revised Criminal Code, providing contraception to children under 18, the abortion pill and insulting religion would also be crimes punishable by jail.It would also outlaw insults on the president's dignity, the vice president, the national flag and the national anthem - a move rights groups have criticised as an assault on basic freedoms... Lawmakers said that the new penal code, which would replace a Dutch colonial-era set of laws, was a long overdue expression of Indonesian independence and religiosity.  'The state must protect citizens from behaviour that is contrary to the supreme precepts of God'... A prosecution can proceed if a village chief, who heads the lowest tier of government, files a complaint with police, and parents or children of the accused do not object. Parents, children and spouses can also lodge a complaint.The inclusion of the new power for village chiefs was warranted because 'the victim of adultery is also society'... The code also establishes prison terms for those found to commit 'obscene acts', defined as violating norms of decency and politeness through 'lust or sexuality' for both heterosexual and homosexual people. The new laws will also apply to foreigners. However, asked whether tourists in Indonesia could face jail for extramarital sex, Taufiqulhadi said: 'No problem, as long as people don't know.'There would also be a maximum four-year prison term for women who have an abortion, applicable if there was no medical emergency or rape involved. The code further introduces fines for some people who promote contraception, and a six-month prison term for unauthorised discussion of 'tools of abortion'... Insulting the government and state institutions also carries a prison term - which activists say could have an impact on press freedoms - a similar law was struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2006...
Article 2: This recognizes 'any living law' in Indonesia, which could be interpreted to include (customary criminal law) and Sharia (Islamic law) regulations at the local level. As there is no official list of 'living laws' in Indonesia, rights groups say this article could be used to prosecute minority groups, including women and members of the LGBTQ communities
Article 419: This part of the penal code states that couples who live together without being legally married could be sentenced to six months in prison"

Controversial Signs Posted In Downtown Winchester - "several flyers appeared in town, taped to light poles in the town center. They read: “Islam is RIGHT about women”“I find it disturbing, and I hope it’s just a prank that someone didn’t think through,” said one resident, who was shown a photo of the signs."
It's Islamophobic to say Islam is not right about women

Women are chopping the hair of non-hijabis in Egypt and it's truly appalling - "women have cut the hair of other women and verbally harassed them in Egypt ... all because the victims do not wear the hijab... two niqab-wearing women assaulted and forcefully cut the hair of a Christian woman on a metro in Egypt. The assaulters reportedly called their victim an "infidel," pushed her off the metro, and thus broke her arm... The topic sheds light on a number of alarming issues plaguing the Egyptian community, including religious extremism, intolerance against non-Muslims, authorities' failure to sufficiently protect women, as well as the debates surrounding the face veil. At least >10 percent of Egypt's 95-million population are Christian, many of whom have admitted feeling unsafe in their own country. "You always feel that you are ready to be killed or kidnapped, just being a Christian with no hijab"... The attack on non-hijabi women also raises questions regarding the security concerns surrounding the >face veil, which some believe emboldens women to carry out such acts without fearing identification. As such, several nations, including Muslim-majority countries >Tunisia and Algeria, have imposed a ban on the niqab."

In Brazil, Some Inmates Are Using A Novel Way To Get Out Of Prison Earlier - "Prisoners get four days lopped off their sentences for each book they read. To get those days of freedom, they must write a short paper about the book... Only certain books qualify under the reading program, including foreign and Brazilian classics and kids' books for prisoners learning to read. Books with very violent themes are banned. Prisoners can't binge read their way over the razor wire and concrete walls. There's a maximum of 12 books a year"

Woke Critics Rip ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ as Racist - "Apparently, the mistake Stallone made was making a movie that dares to reflect real life, which is something movies are only supposed to do when the villains are white, Christian males, preferably from the Deep South or a country with a name that ends with “vakia.”But no, Stallone decided instead to reflect a real life crisis involving Mexican drug cartels, which means Mexicans are the bad guys.These censorious scolds are tedious and exhausting, but also revealing. They are angry over a movie that explores a very real problem, a movie that asks us to pay attention to the sex slavery that is happening along our own border, and their only argument for this censorship is “racist!”... In a sane world where people actually wanted to stop sex-trafficking, , Rambo V would be lauded for “raising awareness” about the horrors of Mexican cartels and sex slavery. But when raising that kind of awareness interferes with the left’s goal of flooding the country with illegal Democrats to turn Texas blue — can’t have that."

Broke men are hurting American women's marriage prospects - "“Most American women hope to marry, but current shortages of marriageable men — men with a stable job and a good income — make this increasingly difficult”... To investigate the man drought, researchers created profiles of potential husbands, based on real husbands as logged in American Community Survey data. They then compared these hypothetical spouses with actual unmarried men.They found that a woman’s made-up hubby makes 58 percent more money than the current lineup of eligible bachelors... sure, there’s the whole “love” factor in a marriage. But, in the end, “it also is fundamentally an economic transaction”"
Apparently it's men's fault women are materialistic
If there were a headline that read: "Fat women are hurting American men's marriage prospects"...

Is a Shortage of Desirable Men to Blame for Fewer Marriages? - "the kind of men that single women likely would marry, if they married—i.e., the "synthetic spouses"—were not only 26 percent more likely to hold a job, and more highly educated, but they also had nearly a 55 percent higher income than what the available men in the U.S. actually make...
Older women have an even smaller dating pool of economically desirable men than younger women, who would have a slightly easier time finding a suitable partner
Well-educated women face more of a shortage of economically desirable men than lesser educated women
Minority women, particularly Black women, have a heightened unlikelihood of finding a partner who is economically desirable."
The side effects of gender equality

Women Did Everything Right. Then Work Got ‘Greedy.’ - The New York Times - "The returns to working long, inflexible hours have greatly increased. This is particularly true in managerial jobs and what social scientists call the greedy professions, like finance, law and consulting — an unintentional side effect of the nation’s embrace of a winner-take-all economy. It’s so powerful, researchers say, that it has canceled the effect of women’s educational gains.Just as more women earned degrees, the jobs that require those degrees started paying disproportionately more to people with round-the-clock availability. At the same time, more highly educated women began to marry men with similar educations, and to have children. But parents can be on call at work only if someone is on call at home. Usually, that person is the mother... To maximize the family’s income but still keep the children alive, it’s logical for one parent to take an intensive job and the other to take a less demanding one... In European countries, with more family-friendly policies, women are likelier to work than they are in the United States — but they’re even less likely to reach senior levels. It’s only in the last two decades that salaried employees have earned more by working long hours. Four decades ago, people who worked at least 50 hours a week were paid 15 percent less, on an hourly basis, than those who worked traditional full-time schedules. By 2000, though, the wage penalty for overwork became a premium... Overwork is most extreme in managerial jobs and in the greedy professions, a term coined by the sociologist Lewis Coser in 1974 to describe institutions that “seek exclusive and undivided loyalty.” (Rose Laub Coser, a sociologist and his wife, also used it to describe the expectations of motherhood)... People are increasingly marrying people with similar educations and career potential — a doctor is likely to be married to another doctor instead of a nurse. Yet the pay gap between husbands and wives is biggest for those with higher education and white-collar jobs. Some parents on elite career paths each continue on them and outsource child care, while others decide not to maximize their family earnings and each take lower-paying, more flexible jobs... Meanwhile, being a parent, particularly a mother, has become more intensive. Working mothers today spend as much time with their children as stay-at-home mothers did in the 1970s. The number of hours that college-educated parents spend with their children has doubled since the early 1980s, and they spend more of that time interacting with them, playing and teaching... “No one explains this to you when you’re 21, but in retrospect, it was not a smart decision” to go into debt for law school, she said."
At least at the high end of the spectrum, this solves the problem that comes when women want men who are more 'successful' than them

Executive Women and the Myth of Having It All - "There is a secret out there—a painful, well-kept secret: At midlife, between a third and a half of all successful career women in the United States do not have children. In fact, 33% of such women (business executives, doctors, lawyers, academics, and the like) in the 41-to-55 age bracket are childless—and that figure rises to 42% in corporate America. These women have not chosen to remain childless. The vast majority, in fact, yearn for children. Indeed, some have gone to extraordinary lengths to bring a baby into their lives. They subject themselves to complex medical procedures, shell out tens of thousands of dollars, and derail their careers—mostly to no avail, because these efforts come too late. In the words of one senior manager, the typical high-achieving woman childless at midlife has not made a choice but a “creeping nonchoice.”... When it comes to career and fatherhood, high-achieving men don’t have to deal with difficult trade-offs: 79% of the men I surveyed report wanting children—and 75% have them. The research shows that, generally speaking, the more successful the man, the more likely he will find a spouse and become a father. The opposite holds true for women, and the disparity is particularly striking among corporate ultra-achievers... Media hype about advances in reproductive science only exacerbates the problem, giving women the illusion that they can delay childbearing until their careers are well established. My survey tells us that 89% of young, high-achieving women believe that they will be able to get pregnant deep into their 40s. But sadly, new reproductive technologies have not solved fertility problems for older women. The research shows that only 3% to 5% of women who attempt in vitro fertilization in their 40s actually succeed in bearing a child. This kind of information is hard to come by because the infertility industry in this country likes to tout the good news—with dire consequences. Too many career women put their private lives on the back burner, assuming that children will eventually happen for them courtesy of high-tech reproduction—only to discover disappointment and failure... in 2000, at the height of the labor crunch, Census Bureau data showed that fully 22% of all women with professional degrees (MBAs, MDs, PhDs, and so on) were not in the labor market at all...
My survey data suggest that high-achieving women have an easier time finding partners in their 20s and early 30s...
Choose a career that will give you the gift of time. Certain careers provide more flexibility and are more forgiving of interruptions. Female entrepreneurs, for example, do better than female lawyers in combining career and family—and both do better than corporate women. The key is to avoid professions with rigid career trajectories."
Surely this has nothing to do with women wanting men as successful as or more successful than them
Maybe someone should write an article on the feminist myth of having it all - no gender pay gap, 50% women in all professions, earning as much as men despite working fewer hours and taking more career breaks etc