Eternity Clauses and Electoral Democracy (Chapter 12) - The Entrenchment of Democracy - "This chapter explores the link between eternity clauses and electoral democracy by looking at two instances of unamendable democracy: party bans, both direct and indirect, and the protection of parliamentary mandates. These two approaches are illustrated via a range of case studies: the ban of anti-democratic parties in Germany; bans of ethnic, separatist, and religious parties in Turkey; indirect unamendability and its chilling effect on party competition in Israel; and the judicial protection of parliamentary mandates as unamendable in Czechia. Whereas such measures are adopted in the name of protecting democracy, the analysis here indicates that courts will not always strike the right balance between safeguarding and unduly narrowing democratic commitments. In some cases, they may even unintentionally undermine multipartyism itself or significantly influence electoral outcomes. Thus, the bluntness and open-ended nature of unamendability risks having a chilling effect on electoral democracy in both fragile and more stable democratic contexts."
Germany sees new debate over possible ban of the AfD - "the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was classified as "confirmed right-wing extremist" by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). Now, there has been a first fallout: two AfD politicians and parliamentarians are not allowed to accompany Hesse's Minister for European affairs, Manfred Pentz, on a trip to Serbia and Croatia. Pentz explained that he could not expect international partners "to sit down at the same table with representatives of a party that has been confirmed as right-wing extremist." Further measures also threaten the radical right-wing party: several federal states want to examine whether being a civil servant, including judges, police officers, teachers, or soldiers, is still compatible with being a member of the AfD. Referring to the decision by the BfV, CDU leader Friedrich Merz said: "Since last weekend at the latest, it has also become inconceivable for me to elect AfD members of the German Bundestag to the position of committee chairperson."... The AfD on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution at the Cologne Administrative Court. AfD co-chairs Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidelcalled the classification of the party as right-wing extremist "obviously unlawful." They claim that the authorities want to criminalize any criticism of Germany's immigration policy. The party leaders said that "it is not the AfD that is violating the constitution, but the German domestic intelligence service" itself. Their main point of criticism is the fact that the domestic intelligence service is an agency under the Ministry of the Interior, and thus an agency of the federal government. AfD politicians complain that the ruling parties are using the domestic intelligence agency to fight the political opposition."
Clearly, all AfD voters need to be banned from voting, because they are a Danger to Democracy
AfD: how Germany’s constitution was designed with the threat of extremism in mind - "quite apart from the fact that 2024 is not the same as 1933, there is one important structural difference: Germany’s constitution (the Grundgesetz or Basic Law). This was explicitly designed to prevent a recurrence of a totalitarian regime such as national socialism... The Basic Law also established one of the most powerful independent constitutional courts in the world. The court even has the right to ban political parties, or to limit the fundamental rights of individuals who are found to be undermining the constitutional order, as had been in the case in Weimar Germany. For this reason, Germany is considered to be a militant democracy... More subtly, Germany’s governance structures are designed to make it practically impossible for a hostile grouping to seize power democratically. The German chancellor has much less power than, say, the British prime minister. In particular, the structures of federalism and coalition government further constrain the room for manoeuvre of any individual politician or indeed any single political party. Major functions of policy implementation are delegated to powerful societal actors, such as professional bodies. These are geographically distributed around the country, along with the media, key corporate headquarters and the unions. The ability of Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, to set monetary policy independent of political control, itself a response to the hyperinflation of the early 1920s, has made it a model for both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England today. In short, and in the words of the German-American political scientist Peter Katzenstein, the German state is only “semisovereign”. In consequence, the Basic Law is not just a document setting out the political “rules of the game”, but an expression of Germany’s values. Its longevity has benefited from the willingness of political elites down the years to adapt its provisions, where necessary, to changing circumstances. And in several respects, the past remains very much the present in German politics"
Weird. The left usually tell us that you need a "living constitution". Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. Of course, destroying the existing state and setting up a new one to change eternity clauses is anti-democratic and Fascism, which is why France needs to re-establish the First Republic, or at least return to the Fifth Republic.
‘Rightwing extremist’ German magazine wins court battle against ban - "A German federal court has overturned a ban on a magazine classed by the government as rightwing extremist, in a high-profile legal battle seen as pitting efforts by the authorities to protect the democratic order against media freedom. The federal administrative court said that while Compact, a publication with close ties to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, had produced “anticonstitutional” content, it did “not yet” represent a threat to the state. “The basic law guarantees even the enemies of the constitution, with faith in the power of free societal debate, freedom of expression and the press,” the presiding judge Ingo Kraft said... Björn Höcke, the leader of the party’s most radical wing, welcomed Tuesday’s ruling in favour of Compact as setting a high bar for any government crackdown. “Instead of going after Islamists, she [Faeser] hunted down harmless critics of the government”"
Banning media is only fascist if it threatens the left wing agenda
Authentic Italian: Meet the real-life nonnas behind the most exciting restaurant in London - "I was out for dinner and my friend said ‘Peppe, why don’t you bring your mamma to cook? You’re always complaining.’ I thought, ‘one day I will’. But I couldn’t get it out of my head. She should have her own restaurant. So, I rang and asked, ‘Would you consider moving to London?’ She said, ‘Peppe, I’ll come tomorrow. Even today.’ She was googling flights while we were still on the phone.” Peppe quickly realised that perhaps he shouldn’t let his 60-year-old mother work in a new restaurant seven days a week. So, in 2018, he put out a Facebook call for additional mammas [mothers], nonnas [grandmothers], and zias [aunts] who’d like to come to London to cook. He was inundated with applications. What began as a crumb of an over-dinner idea rapidly grew into La Mia Mamma: three London restaurants, with a fourth opening this month, where all the food – pappa al pomodoro from Tuscany, cacio e pepe from Lazio, pacchero al cinque pomodori from Puglia – is made by Italian mothers from each region. “We flew them over, we found them a house,” Peppe says. “It’s amazing.” A decade earlier and the other side of the Atlantic on Staten Island, New York, the same seed had been sown in Joe Scaravella’s mind... he opened Enoteca Maria, a restaurant where all the chefs are Italian grandmothers. Eighteen years later, the eatery is still thriving and its origin story – from its logistical struggles to the spats between the chefs – is the basis for the new Netflix film Nonnas, starring Vince Vaughn"
Bill Bewick: Ottawa can mend Alberta rift by following the Constitution - "Oil and gas make up by far the greatest share of the country’s exports — 2.5 times greater than the auto sector. The fossil fuel industry supports nearly 900,000 mostly high-paying jobs across Canada. There is a suite of policies aimed at prematurely phasing it out, but there is no replacement on the horizon that matches its productivity. The Canadian dollar and our economy will suffer greatly if these policies — particularly the impossible emissions reduction target of 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 — are not swiftly discarded. Canada is in a productivity crisis, and our natural resource strengths are unmatched in offering a path to remedying that. LNG exports to displace Asian coal power would reduce global carbon emissions more than anything else Canada could do. Federal policies are not only overly aggressive in sacrificing a large economic engine for a tiny offset to the global expansion of carbon emissions, they also push right through the boundaries within our constitutional bargain. Natural resources and electricity are very clearly in the provincial domain — both before and after 1982. It will benefit all regions of the country if the feds respect this and retreat. In addition to the economic benefits it provides Canada, Alberta’s productivity funds federal programs. Here, too, the constitutional bargain has been shredded. When you filed your taxes last month, you may not have noticed you sent almost twice as much to Ottawa as to your province. With this imbalance of tax power, the feds have steadily made the provinces more and more dependent on them to deliver core provincial services like health, education and social supports. Many Canadians want to see more spending in health, addictions and homelessness, education, skills training, infrastructure and many other areas that are under provincial jurisdiction. Provinces somewhat legitimately turn to the federal government for help, given that most of their residents’ tax dollars were sent to Ottawa. This not only erodes accountability, but when Ottawa does step in, it also does so with strings attached and an entire second level of bureaucracy that must be fed before any dollars get to the front lines. In principle, if the federal government is using its dollars for legitimate federal functions, evenly spread throughout the country, there is nothing wrong with regions with higher incomes paying proportionately more taxes. Today in Canada, though, a large share of the federal budget is spent on matters of provincial jurisdiction and it is certainly not evenly spread throughout the country. The combination of higher incomes and lower federal spending in Alberta means we subsidize federal programs outside the province... For the last 10 years, while the federal government spent those dollars, layers of jurisdiction-bending economic and social policies were built to stand in the way of a prosperous future"
Left wingers are unable to understand that trying to destroy the economy of the people subsidising you just adds insult to injury
Canada's boutique military: 'Should we not be able to defend ourselves?' - "Decades of insufficient funding, painfully slow procurement and declining numbers of troops have resulted in what some have described as Canada’s “boutique” military — capable of niche operations and deployments, but not much more... “Don’t forget, a lot of Canadian businesses do some serious defence co-operation with American firms, Bombardier at the top of the list. Is the Trump government going to turn around and start hitting Canadian companies? The (F-35) is one of the best fighter aircraft in the world, and so we’re not going to get necessarily the best aircraft if we go with Rafale (France) or the Gripen (Sweden) or the Eurofighter (Germany, Italy, Spain, U.K.).” Canada needs to take the long view, Rigby cautioned. “We have to be really, really careful and we have to have contingency plans, and in a pinch, we may have to look elsewhere. But four or five years down the line, who knows where we’re going to be? “Trump will come and go,” Rigby continued. “Who knows what we’ll get after Trump? But we’ll still be sharing the same continent with these guys. And we have a responsibility to protect the continent, to work with the U.S. on overseas operations. Don’t forget Norad here at home. We have to think about that.”"
I wish I wasn’t autistic but society needs us
Clearly, glorifying autism does not mean you get more of it. Overdiagnosis can never be a thing. Too bad for the non-functioning autistics who get crowded out
Yes, Autism Self-Diagnosis Is On The Rise – But The Moral Panic Is The Real Issue - "Francesca Happé, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at King’s College London, said: “An increasing number of people are choosing to self-identify [as neurodivergent] without seeking a diagnosis.” As a result, she says, “we may well already be at a point where there are more neurodivergent self-identified people than neurotypical people.”... while some clinicians have noticed more attempts to “self-diagnose” online, a 2025 study found that only 27% of the top TikTok videos on autism showed accurate information. Another 32% were considered “overly generalised.”"
If everyone is neurodivergent, no one is neurodivergent
Are there more autistic people now? - "a rise in the number of people diagnosed with autism is not the same thing as a rise in the number of people who are autistic... The definition of autism has not been static. The first studies to describe autism appeared in the 1930s and 1940s, says Francesca Happé, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at King's College London, who's been researching autism since 1988. "The original descriptions of autism are of children who have pretty high support needs, typically are very late to talk," she says. "Some don't talk at all. And the focus really was on children, of course, and largely on males." But the definition was broadened, Professor Happé says, when in the 1990s Asperger's syndrome was added to diagnostic manuals. People with Asperger's were seen as on the autistic spectrum because of social difficulties and repetitive behaviour, but had fluent language and good intelligence, she says. The eightfold increase in new diagnoses that Ginny Russell found included Asperger's syndrome, which was seen as a particular type of autism. Another subset of autism added to the manuals was a "safety net diagnosis" called "pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified" (PDD-NOS) and that increased the numbers too. Today, diagnostic manuals refer simply to autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, which includes people previously diagnosed with Asperger's or PDD-NOS. The autism net has been cast wider. One group of people now falling under this net more often is women and girls. Studies looking at the huge rise in autism diagnoses show that the rise has been considerably faster for females than for males... between 2000 and 2018, new autism diagnoses of those with intellectual disability rose about 20%, while autism diagnoses in those without intellectual disability rose 700%. Autism's centre of gravity has shifted... A focus on celebrities can "glamorise" autism, says Venessa Swaby, who is also autistic and runs support groups for autistic children and their parents through her organisation A2ndvoice. Meanwhile, she says, families with non-speaking autistic children feel they are "written off". As the number of people diagnosed with autism has risen, so then has the diversity of autistic people, which, in turn, has brought tensions over who owns the word - and what it means."
Child mental health crisis: Better resilience is the solution, say experts - "Jane Graham has been a school nurse for nearly 20 years – and during this time the nature of her work has completely changed. "When I started, the majority of the support we provided was for physical health, like asthma, allergic reactions and injuries," she says. "Now it's mental health."... some experts in the field of mental health have raised another question: that is, is there really a mental health crisis or are young people simply not resilient enough? In other words, are they lacking the capacity to withstand or recover quickly from day-to-day difficulties that generations before them faced too?... one of the country's leading experts in child and adolescent psychiatry, Prof Andrea Danese believes that resilience needs to be taken seriously. While greater awareness of mental health "has generally been a positive thing", according to Prof Danese, who is general secretary for the European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, he says that he is concerned that it may also have "inadvertently contributed to over-pathologising distress in young people". Distress should not automatically be seen as a sign of mental ill-health, he continues. "Facing challenges and distress is normal and important in terms of individual growth," he says. "That's how young people develop emotional resilience – they learn coping skills in the face of many small challenges and build self-confidence about their ability to cope. The narratives we build matter." Ms Graham, the school nurse, is also of the opinion that many children who she has seen struggling - particularly those with more low level mental health problems - would benefit from becoming more resilient... Research by academics carried out in Poland suggests that higher levels of resilience improve life satisfaction and act as a buffer against mental health problems among young people. Two studies involving young people aged between 13 and 18 found those with greater resilience were more able to develop their own coping strategies when dealing with stress, including seeking support and advice from others, and were less likely to dwell on negative emotions or turn to drugs, alcohol or smoking... Adam Jones, a policy and public affairs manager at mental health charity Young Minds, is also wary of the term resilience, which he argues can be used in a "stigmatising" way. But he does share concerns that the current approach is "over-medicalised". More than 600,000 young people aged 15 to 25 in England were prescribed anti-depressants in 2023-24, according to NHS England, and thousands more are believed to have been prescribed other drugs to treat conditions such as anxiety. "Drug treatment can be useful for some, but clinical guidelines are clear that it should not be the first-line treatment for most," says Mr Jones."
We need even more "awareness" about the importance of mental health and to tell kids they are victims of bullying
Starbucks workers are walking out over new dress code. What to know. - "A workers union says that more than 1,200 Starbucks employees have gone on strike to protest a new dress code policy that went into effect this week. Walk-outs have taken place at roughly 100 stores nationwide, according to Starbucks Workers United, the company's union group arguing that the new policy is worsening an already prevalent understaffing crisis. The clash has created a standstill between the union and the company and paused bargaining efforts to finalize a contract that addresses staffing and pay concerns. Starbucks last month announced the dress code, which went into effect May 12. It requires baristas to wear a solid black top as part of an effort to maintain a "more defined color palette." The company promised to provide staff with two free black T-shirts, which the union is claiming many employees have not yet received. The company unilaterally enacted the policy without bargaining with Workers United, according to Jasmine Leli, a union bargaining delegate and Starbucks barista based in Buffalo, New York. She argues the dress code distracts the company from addressing key issues impacting staff by instead focusing on something trivial... Under the new Starbucks' new dress code, baristas are required to wear a solid black top, whether it's a crewneck, collared or button-up shirt. Meanwhile their bottoms must be a shade of black, khaki or blue denim."
This is what happens when you tell kids in school that all dress codes are oppressive, or even sexist
Our best punctuation mark is dying out; people need to learn how to use it - "Lisa McLendon, author of The Perfect English Grammar Workbook, found that more than half of British students didn’t know or understand how to use a semicolon. In a survey sent to the London Student Network’s 500,000 members, 67 per cent of respondents admitted to never or rarely using one, while a mere 11 per cent claimed to be frequent users. If anything, I’d wager that the latter, self-reported percentage is overly generous – perhaps massaged by students who were willing it, rather than believing it, to be true... Even for those who do feel confident deploying it correctly, the semicolon seems to have become increasingly unfashionable over the last century. Various respected writers, including Kurt Vonnegut, Edgar Allan Poe, Gertrude Stein and Cormac McCarthy, have publicly denounced my favourite punctuation mark as “showy”, “unnecessary”, “idiocy”, and a way of showing people “you’ve been to college”"
Meme - "Texas Mother Accused Of Supporting Son's Plans For Mass Shooting At Middle School. A Texas woman has been arrested for allegedly supporting her son's intentions to carry out a mass shooting at his middle school, including purchasing him tactical gear and live ammunition, and expressing support for his violent ideologies. Ashley Pardo, 33, was taken into custody on Monday after law enforcement was alerted to alarming behavior exhibited by her middle school-aaed son. Authorities say the boy expressed a fascination...
*Blue haired woman with face tattoos*"
Emil Kirkegaard on X - "In many species, mostly studied in humans and birds, species living away from the tropics are smarter and have bigger relative brains. This may also be true of elephants, though there's only 2 species."
Toronto woman says she was denied entry to U.S. for not having a visa : r/uscanadaborder - "I’m an immigration attorney and there is a lot of information missing from her story. She posted her withdraw document online and I can tell you she (and many here) are misunderstanding what it says. She was found inadmissible 7a1 which is the generic refusal code when entering and being refused from the US. It refers to being an “immigrant without documentation” basically it is the government’s way of saying “we don’t believe you have shown to US that you won’t overstay your time in the US and we believe you’re an immigrant. All immigrants need an immigrant visa and thus you need one to enter for that purpose” 7a1 is the generic refusal code for everything that isn’t a particular inadmissibility. I’m an immigration attorney and I’ve had clients get refused that way when applying for TNs, L1s, and more. I’ve seen people get refused 7a1 for having too much baggage and it looks like you’re moving to the states. She doesn’t go into details of the questions asked of her and she only says she was told she needed a visa. There is so many missing details here I don’t know how reliable this is. 7a1 just means at that time of entry you were found to not fit into a visa category you’re asking to enter under. Because of that you’re denied because if you don’t fall under the category we assume you’re intending to immigrate and all immigrants are required to get a visa.
Edit replaying to OP but for posterity to all in this thread. I need to correct their horribly misleading statement
'Canada and the U.S. have long-standing, reciprocal agreements that afford Canadian citizens special privileges — privileges recognized in U.S. law'
Neither US Citizens nor Canadians have “special privileges” when entering the US or Canada. Both countries recognize a relaxed standard with regards to documentation but all entrants to both US and Canada must comply with both countries immigration laws. Any US Citizen with a DUI is persona non grata in Canada just as any Canadian with multiple theft charges is inadmissible. The only people with special privileges to enter the US and Canada and their respective citizens and permanent residents.
'These are formally codified distinctions created by the US and agreed by both countries, not just relaxed standards.'
OP those are not privileges they are literally relaxed documentation standards for Canadians. Canadians are not exempt any inadmissibility rules period.
'have access to unique arrangements like TN status and NEXUS'
Also any Canadian PR with a valid US visa can participate in the NEXUS program. It isn’t exclusive to Canadians. Mexican citizens can also get TN jobs in the US because the old NAFTA was replaced with USMCA or the US Mexico Canada Agreement. OP is very ignorant of US immigration law. Which is fair because it’s a complicated mess.
Final Edit: OP blocked me for pointing out all of this. Proof but also tries to claim I blocked her. Laughable. I don’t block people."
Meme - Noah smith @Noahpinion: "it possible for advanced technology to actually reduce productivity in certain tasks?"
Christian Keil @pronounced_kyle: "Yes. Word processing is bad. Before it, document length was bounded by the human capacity to copy long-form text & about to plateau. After word processing, the tax & legal codes grew without check. And became incomprehensible to anyone but career experts."
Museum worker unfairly sacked over social media posts - "An under-performing museum worker whose social media posts for her employer were littered with typos was unfairly sacked, a tribunal has ruled. Anita Briggs was responsible for creating Facebook, LinkedIn and X posts for National Museums Scotland. However, the hearing was told she did not perform to the “standard” required of her for nearly two years, and would regularly miss deadlines and make spelling errors. In one month, Ms Briggs only created six posts compared with a colleague’s 73, the panel heard. After she failed three performance reviews, bosses lost “confidence” in her work ability and she was sacked. However, she has been awarded more than £22,000 in compensation, after the tribunal found she was not given enough warning of her potential dismissal... in the period from February 2021 to June 2023, Ms Briggs reported to Russell Dorna, a digital media content producer. It was heard that after joining he “had concerns” with her performance and in May 2022 he met with her to discuss these. Ms Briggs was put on an informal Personal Improvement Plan [PIP] which concluded some six months later. However, Mr Dorna felt there had not been any “satisfactory improvement in performance”. The tribunal noted that at this time Ms Briggs was dealing with a “number of challenging personal issues”. From June to August 2023, Ms Briggs “produced only two pieces of content” which was “substantially below what was expected of her”, the panel was told. Employment Judge Nielson said: “Ms Barton [head of digital media] considered that required performance had not been met as there were continued errors around typos, spelling, grammar and proofing; missed deadlines for producing content and a failure to follow processes for work allocation in line with wider team priorities.” The tribunal heard that the content producer was off sick for a period of time and upon her return to work she was notified that a formal PIP would commence until January 2024. She was told that at the end of this process, there could be a formal meeting and this may result in dismissal. But, just a month after it commenced, Ms Briggs failed to produce any content for the entirety of November. After she failed yet another PIP hearing, Ms Briggs was invited to a formal hearing and it was heard that Ms Barton had “no confidence” in the producer’s ability to design, coordinate and execute required content. The content producer was sacked on the grounds of lack of capability. She appealed the decision but this was dismissed and Ms Briggs took the museum to an employment tribunal, alleging unfair dismissal. The employee said there had been a “long-standing orchestrated campaign to terminate her employment”, an allegation rejected by the panel. The tribunal agreed that there were “clearly concerns” about Ms Briggs’ performance in her role at the museum and recognised there was a lengthy period in which her “performance was under scrutiny”. However, she won her claim after the tribunal found she was not provided with any formal warnings of the potential dismissal."