The End of a beginning

Nicholas Roerich

Lift not the painted veil which those who live

Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,

And it but mimic all we would believe

With colours idly spread,-behind, lurk Fear

And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave

Their shadows, o’er the chasm, sightless and drear.

I knew one who had lifted it-he sought,

For his lost heart was tender, things to love,

But found them not, alas! nor was there aught

The world contains, the which he could approve.

Through the unheeding many he did move,

A splendour among shadows, a bright blot

Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove

For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

This marks the end of posts here on Blogger. Why, you may ask. Upon which you might cast an eye on this page.

From now on it's back to here.

Reading Lounge

1. The integrated superblocks that dominate Jakarta

2. “external shrinkage”

3. Limewire

4. TV, or not TV: The story of our bike box

5. The man who fell from the sky

6. Blockchain is dead

7. Don’t go to grad school. Get a turtleneck instead

8. "You start off with a grey. And then you add a little concrete colour, so every paving stone is slightly different”

German Constitutional Court looking for scientist to learn if constitutionally guaranteed subsistence level of Hartz 4 could be reduced by 60%

Are you a scientist? If yes, we, the German Constitutional Court @BVerfG would like to hear from you.#HartzIV

— Clarky Cat Boz Boz (@ErebusSagace) November 12, 2019

"So far, the effectiveness of this reduction in performance has not been adequately researched either with regard to the immediate goal of attaining participation or with regard to special or general preventive effects". (recital 193)

— Clarky Cat Boz Boz (@ErebusSagace) November 12, 2019

You may as well drop by our fancy digs in Karlsruhe and, please, do not feel ashamed or misplaced when you see us in our solemn attire. As Beau Brummell said: “Fashions come and go; bad taste is timeless.” pic.twitter.com/GVA0j1QClh

— Clarky Cat Boz Boz (@ErebusSagace) November 12, 2019

Reading Lounge

1. The seething sexual inferno of Japanese couples

2. "There is no 'P' in hamster."

3. and here the Twitter thread

4. Limited edition beer cans which read 'Epstein didn't kill himself' on the bottom

5. Beau Brummell spent five hours a day getting ready and polished his shoes with champagne

6. The Peanut Butter and Mayonnaise Panic of 1969

7. The secret of China's economic success uncovered by EU Commissioner Oettinger: »The Chinese take shorter and colder showers"

8. Sick of Led Zeppelin? A classical orchestra in Germany aims to "make climate change audible" with a reworking of Antonio Vivaldi's famous violin concertos "The Four Seasons" using algorithms based on climate data

9. The Micromobility Mirage

German economics students gently rocking the boat

One may ask what took them so long? Anyhoo, here they are:

Open Letter: Rethinking the Role of Banks in Economics Education

Dear Economics Professors and Teaching Staff,

Banks and their role in the creation of money are integral to our modern, financialised economies. Yet, the teaching economics students receive doesn’t give them the full picture. As those with the power to influence the next generation of economists, it is essential that you review the teaching of the role of banks in economics courses and bring it in line with up-to-date research. Our economics graduates need to understand how banks function in the real-world, in order to avoid past crises and to create better economies in future. 

What is currently taught?

Economics textbooks across the world, some of them first published in the 1960s, continue to teach students a model of the monetary system in which commercial banks act as intermediaries, that only move existing money around the system, like lubricant in a machine. Many economics courses rely on the models in these textbooks, without recognising the empirical evidence that undermines them. This gives an unbalanced view of the way the monetary system functions and of the role of banks in the economy.

How is money created?

As research from the Bank of England, Bundesbank and numerous academics has shown, banks are not intermediaries channelling pre-existing funds from savers to borrowers. Commercial banks create the vast majority of money in circulation. Unlike other financial institutions, they create money when they extend loans to borrowers. In the process of extending a loan, banks do not move pre-existing funds from any other account but newly ‘invent’ the money by crediting the borrower’s account. Therefore, banks’ lending is constrained by borrowers’ demand, profitability considerations and financial regulations, not by pre-existing funds (i.e people’s savings) nor by central bank reserves. This reality is in line with the credit creation or endogenous money theory, which is absent from most current economics textbooks and teaching.

Commercial banks also determine where money is directed in the economy. Around 80% of new money created in countries like the US and UK currently goes towards existing property and financial markets, rather than the ‘real’ or productive economy, leading to soaring house and land prices, and housing crises. In the Global South, 33 major global banks poured $1.9 trillion into fossil fuels since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, directly influencing the trajectory of economies that will be hit first and hardest by climate change. The power of banks to create money therefore has enormous implications for the shape and stability of our economy. Yet, in an overwhelming number of cases, economics textbooks and courses do not teach this to the economists of tomorrow.

What are the consequences of this teaching?

These models, taught without balance or regard for existing evidence on the financial sector, lead economics graduates – who often gain influential positions in society – to draw flawed conclusions. One example is the misconception that in order to increase investment in the economy we need to encourage people to save money first. Other misconceptions that arise are that money is a scarce resource and that public investment always ‘crowds out’ the private sector.

Furthermore, a main driver of the 2008 global financial crisis was the build-up of debt and credit by the private sector, as banks lent unprecedented amounts to property and financial markets. The crash was unanticipated by the majority of academic economists. This was in no small way influenced by blind spots regarding the power of banks to create money and influence the wider economy.

The same theories that led to these blind spots are still being uncritically presented to economics students 11 years on. When real-world evidence demonstrates that banks function a certain way, why is this not taught to students? Any decisions these students take in their future careers – from financial regulation, to approaching issues like asset price bubbles or unproductive lending – will be influenced by their education at university.

Full letter here.

There is also an extended version. Conspicuously, German rock star economists Fratzscher and Fuest (cough) are not among the signees.

Manchmal muss dem SG München einfach mitgeteilt werden, dass es persona non grata ist

FAX

Sozialgericht München
Richelstr. 11
80634 München

Vertretungsvollmacht

Hiermit erteile ich

xxx

meinem Vater xxx (Adresse im Kopf des Faxes)

die Vollmacht, mich in unseren Angelegenheiten vor den Sozialgerichten zu vertreten. Mein Vater ist berechtigt, verbindliche Erklärungen abzugeben, Anträge zu stellen und Rechtsmittel einzureichen und zurückzuziehen.

Ich stelle weiters fest, dass ich keinen Kontakt in jedweder Form von den Sozialgerichten betreffend den andauernden Streitigkeiten mehr wünsche und verweise insbesondere auf die eindeutigen Aussagen in der Email der Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes vom 11. Okt. 2019 nach Beschwerde durch meinen Vater. Diese wurde dem SG München und dem Bayer. LSG am 15. Okt. 2019 zur Kenntnisnahme weitergeleitet.

München, 29. Okt. 2019

It may be three decades since the Berlin wall came down but too many others have recently proliferated

"No wall that excludes people and limits freedom is so high or so wide that it can not be broken," Merkel said in the Chapel of Reconciliation on the former death strip on Bernauer Strasse.


David Gow differs: It may be three decades since the Berlin wall came down but too many others have recently proliferated.

In Social Europe he writes

Europe: tear down those walls!

‘Die Mauer in den Köpfen’ (the wall in the heads) is a phrase I first heard as a German correspondent in the 1990s, not that long after the October 1990 celebrations of reunification at the Reichstag in Berlin, on which I reported. The famous dictum of the former long-time Social Democrat leader Willy Brandt at the Schöneberg town hall a year earlier—‘es wächst zusammen was zusammen gehört’ (what belongs together grows together)—had swiftly turned to dust.

Then, as now, economic disparity had something to do with it, even though on average €100 billion a year has been transferred from west to east over the last three decades. Three million east Germans lost their jobs within barely a year. The overwhelming number of senior posts were taken over by Besserwessis. And today, as the Hans Böckler Foundation’s WSI institute recently reported, east German wages are 16.9 per cent lower than for western counterparts with the same qualifications.

Indeed, in the run-up to the decidedly low-key, typically soul-searching 30th-anniversary celebrations in Germany, there were many reflections on the emotional, cultural, sociological and psycho-political walls remaining between east and west. The chancellor, Angela Merkel, who grew up in the old German Democratic Republic, told Der Spiegel: ‘Different experiences of life in east and west are a fact. We should talk more about it and make a greater effort to understand each other.’ She blamed an initial lack of curiosity and interest on the part of west German politicians.

And, I might add, the west German media. When I returned from a week-long visit to Saxony in 1991, investigating neo-Nazi attacks on migrants and asylum-seekers, colleagues in the Bundespressekonferenz (official lobby for political correspondents) asked incredulously: ‘Why on earth go there? They’re a different, difficult lot …’ Outside the Zwinger museum complex in Dresden 15 years later, a group of tourists from Düsseldorf admitted to me that it was the first time they had set foot in the east—and insisted they still had little in common with their compatriots.

Now, I imagine, they would be shaking their heads in disbelief at the fact that, together, the Left Party (Die Linke, part-successors to the old east German Communists) and the far-right populist Alternative für Deutschland commanded over 53 per cent of the vote in the recent state election in Thuringia or that the AfD came a strong second in Brandenburg and Saxony. It scores 13 per cent in current national polls; it won 23.4 per cent in Thuringia, 27.5 per cent in Saxony and 23.5 per cent in Brandenburg.

Read the full article at Social Europe.

Reading Lounge

1. “Craft distilleries are like assholes, everyone’s got one, and what comes out of them tastes like shit.” IOW, let’s read about gin.

2. "You want the truth? It’s hopeless. It’s completely hopeless.” 

3. My life as a bargain-bin Cyrano de Bergerac

4. Sex bias in bird conservation plans

5. LEGO - The Toy of Smart Investors

6. Cinnanyms

7. It's like the vaginal version of "do not back up; severe tire damage."

How Germany (Accidentally) Created a Prototype for Global Online Censorship

Cross-posted from JUSTITIA

BY JACOB MCHANGAMA ON 5. NOVEMBER, 2019

Global Internet freedom is in decline. Authoritarian states manipulate the Internet to serve their own illiberal ends. But liberal democracies have also limited Internet freedom to counter contemporary scourges such as fake news, hate speech, and terrorist content.

Germany´s Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) is the most prominent weapon in the online arsenal of democracies. NetzDG obliges social media platforms to remove illegal content within 24 hours or risk huge fines. But in a global free speech race to the bottom, the NetzDG matrix has been copy-pasted by authoritarian states to provide cover and legitimacy for digital censorship and repression.

A new report by Jacob Mchangama and Joelle Fiss documents that at least 13 countries have adopted or proposed models similar to the NetzDG matrix. According to Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net (2019), five of those countries are ranked “not free” (Honduras, Venezuela, Vietnam, Russia and Belarus), five are ranked “partly free” (Kenya, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines), and only three ranked “free” (France, UK and Australia). Most of these countries have explicitly referred to the NetzDG as a justification for restricting online speech. Moreover, several of these countries, including Venezuela, Vietnam, India, Russia, Malaysia, and Kenya, require intermediaries to remove vague categories of content that include “fake news”, “defamation of religions”, “anti-government propaganda” and “hate speech” that can be abused to target political dissent.

“Authoritarian states are copy-pasting illiberal laws designed by liberal democracies. Whereas Germany’s initial goal was to curb hate online, the NetzDG has provided a blueprint for Internet censorship that is being used to target dissent and pluralism. This development creates a regulatory race to the bottom that undermines freedom of expression as guaranteed by international human rights standards” says Jacob Mchangama, Executive Director of Justitia and co-author of the report.

Read “The Digital Berlin Wall: How Germany (Accidentally) Created a Prototype for Global Online Censorship”

The report is presented in Foreign Policy: Germany’s Online Crackdowns Inspire the World’s Dictators

Reading Lounge

1. NASA’s Grueling Underwater Test for Astronauts

2. Notes on Camping and Fashion

3. Carbon taxes and carbon pricing are not solutions to the climate crisis

4. Skate Gaze

5. Masa Son's Masterwork Is A PowerPoint Presentation About WeWork That Will One Day Hang In The Louvre

6. Who was responsible for the introduction of toilets on trains in India?

7. How to Stop Crying

8. The Vaporfly 4% Edition

Weather Report

always good with this band

AEON

Øystein Sture Aspelund

Who was responsible for the introduction of toilets on trains in India?

If Lord Dalhousie, the then Governor General of India, is hailed as the father of Indian Railways, the father of toilets in railways is a dhoti-clad Indian named Okhil Chandra Sen from the then undivided Bengal (Bengal Presidency).

An aggrieved Okhil Chandra Sen’s letter of complaint, in broken English, to the Sahibganj divisional railway office drew attention to the discomfort and inconvenience of passengers for the lack of toilet facility during train travel in 1909-1910 when the nationwide protests, including Swadeshi Movement, against the Partition of Bengal were in full swing. The letter reads:

“Dear Sir,

I am arrive by passenger train at Abmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance the guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with lota in one hand and dhoti in the next. When I am fall over and expose all my shockings to man and woman on platform. I am got leaved at Abmedpur station.

This too much bad, if passengers go to make dung, the damn guard not wait train five minutes for him? I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake otherwise I am making big report to papers.

Your’s faithfully servant,

Okhil Ch. Sen”

This November 19 is the World Toilet Day.

more here

A carbon tax will prolong the climate crisis

The UK's Richard Murphy has a good post on the folly of the carbon tax. Actually, it is not  a folly,  it is rather what government is all about (see left). (underline and bold by me)

Carbon taxes and carbon pricing are not solutions to the climate crisis

I have for some time resisted writing about why I found the issues of carbon pricing and carbon taxation so difficult. I think the time to address those issues has arrived.

At its core the reason why I dislike both those notions is that they miss the point of the climate crisis. What they presuppose is that we can price our way out of an emissions crisis that we now know threatens the future of life on earth. And the simple fact is that we can’t do that. There is no way we can be priced out of this issue. We can only solve the emissions crisis by stopping emissions. And taxing them won't do that, any more than taxing tobacco has ever stopped smoking. Other measures - like bans - have been needed to make progress on that goal. That is even more the case for carbon.

As importantly, the essence is that what both carbon tax and carbon price arguments suggest is that business can carry on supplying products emitting carbon as before, but that those products will simply suffer a price differential when compared to lower or non-carbon emitting products and what we are then supposed to rely on is the price mechanism of the market to alter consumer demand. I suggest that logic is wrong.

First, this assumes that none of the responsibility for the climate crisis rest on the manufacturers of the products that have get us into this mess. That's definitely wrong. They are primarily to blame. They have known for decades what they have been doing with regard to carbon emissions, and have carried on doing it regardless. And we can be quite sure that they will carry on doing so into the future if they can pass the blame to us as consumers who, they will say, clearly indicate we still want their polluting and life-threatening products if we still buy them after carbon taxes are added. What this ignores is the fact that much of that demand will be driven by an absence of alternatives, which business will have no incentive to promote if there are carbon taxes, and that consumer behaviour is anyway heavily influenced by supplier behaviour through advertising and other market-distorting activities.

Second, this assumption presumes that we, as consumers, know as much about the products that we buy as those who sell them do. It is presumed, therefore, by the proponents of carbon taxes and carbon trading that we can make rational, informed decisions on this issue after tax is added to a price.  That, though, is clearly absurd. The makers of products known massively more about the carbon impact of what they are doing than a consumer might ever do. The asymmetries between the two are enormous. In that case to presume that the consumer can make an informed choice on such an issue, even after a tax is added, is just wrong.

And third, there is no market for carbon. There has never been. It’s a fictional creation that pretends that something is being done when that is not true. No one wants to buy or sell carbon. It’s an externality that cannot be priced. That’s partly because no one wants it. That essential quality of a market - a willing buyer - does not exist.  But it’s also because you cannot price something that we know has to be unavailable to any market. A market presumes that there will be demand. The reality is that we have to eliminate that demand to ensure there can be life on earth.

...

Carbon taxes also shift the whole blame for carbon consumption from the manufacturers, who willfully create the carbon outputs, to consumers, who are offered few or no alternatives to polluting products.

In addition, carbon taxes, by shifting the blame to consumers, put no responsibility for innovation or change on manufacturers. The result is that they will still sell polluting products, knowing they will still be bought.

read on at RM

Strafanzeige gegen OStA (HAL) Ken Heidenreich und OStAin Osthoff wg. Rechtsbeugung und versuchter Strafvereitelung im Amt

Staatsanwaltschaft München I
Linprunstraße 25
80335 München

06. Nov. 2019

Hiermit erstatte ich Strafanzeige gegen

OStA (HAL) Ken Heidenreich und OStAin Osthoff

wegen Rechtsbeugung und versuchter Strafvereitelung im Amt (§§ 339, 258a II StGB) in dem Fall 120 Js 194031/19 (Verfügung vom 11. Okt. 2019) sowie identischer Fall 201 Zs 2559/19 f (Verfügung vom 26.09.2019) und 120 Js 194032/19 (Verfügung vom 11. Okt. 2019). Die Verfügungen sind beigefügt.

Die Sachlage

Die Beschuldigten lehnten in allen drei Fällen die förmliche Einleitung des Ermittlungsverfahrens ohne jede inhaltliche Begründung ab. Zwischen August 2019 und Oktober 2019 forderte ich die Beschuldigten mit drei Strafanzeigen zur förmlichen Einleitung von Ermittlungsverfahren in zwei zugrundeliegenden  Fällen auf. Die Strafanzeigen basierten auf klaren und einhundert Prozent faktischen Belegen.

I. Dem Fall 120 Js 194032/19 zugrunde liegend ist die Hartz 4 Regelsatzanpassung ab 1. Januar 2019 für München. Diese wurde von der Behörde Jobcenter München (GFin Farrenkopf, Nowack und MAin Strama) nicht vorgenommen und stellt damit auch einen Verstoss gegen § 17 SGB I dar.

II. Den Fällen 120 Js 194031/19 und 201 Zs 2559/19 f liegt die klar belegbare Urkundenunterdrückung (Urkunden eingesandt per belegbarer Emails am 14. und 18. Jan. 2016 an das Jobcenter) sowohl durch das rassistische Jobcenter München (GFin Farrenkopf, Nowack, Erhardt und MAin Strama) als auch dem kungelnden “Richter” Ehegartner zugrunde, um meine Tochter um rechtmässig verdientes Geld zu betrügen.

Begründung

Ich habe nach der Rechtsprechung des BVerfG einen Rechtsanspruch auf Strafverfolgung: Vier gleich lautende Entscheidungen des BVerfG normierten einen echten Rechtsanspruch des Verletzten gegen die Staatsanwaltschaft auf effektive Strafverfolgung und damit auf ernsthafte Ermittlungstätigkeit. Diese vier gleichlautenden Entscheidungen des BVerfG sind die Beschlüsse des Bundesverfassungsgerichts

• vom 26. Juni 2014, 2 BvR 2699/10 im Fall Tennessee Eisenberg;
• vom 6. Oktober 2014, 2 BvR 1568/12 im Fall Gorch Fock;
• vom 23. März 2015, 2 BvR 1304/12 im Fall Münchner Lokalderby und
• vom 19. Mai 2015, 2 BvR 987/11 im Fall Luftangriff bei Kundus.

Der Verletzte hat insbesondere einen echten Rechtsanspruch auf ernsthafte Ermittlungstätigkeit gegen die Staatsanwaltschaft in folgender Fallgruppe: Steht ein Amtsträger im Verdacht, im Rahmen der Ausübung der ihm anvertrauten Amtstätigkeit eine Straftat begangen zu haben, hat der Verletzte einen echten Rechtsanspruch gegen die Staatsanwaltschaft auf die förmliche Einleitung eines Ermittlungsverfahrens gegen den Amtsträger und auf sorgfältige Ermittlung des Sachverhalts von Amts wegen, sofern ein Anfangsverdacht i.S.d. § 152 StPO gegen den Amtsträger besteht. Mit diesen vier gleichlautenden Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichts wurde die „seit Menschengedenken“ bestehende einhellige Rechtsprechung über den Haufen geworfen, wonach dem Verletzten hinsichtlich der Strafverfolgung lediglich ein sog. Reflexrecht zur Seite steht.

In den vier Beschlüssen des BVerfG vom 26. Juni 2014 (Tennessee Eisenberg), vom 6. Oktober 2014 (Gorch Fock), vom 23. März 2015 (Münchner Lokalderby) und vom 19. Mai 2015 (Kundus) wird postuliert, dass der Verletzte dann einen echten Rechtsanspruch auf Strafverfolgung gegen Dritte, d.h. auf ernsthafte Ermittlungsbemühungen der Strafverfolgungsbehörden hat, wenn es um Straftaten von Amtsträgern bei der Ausübung des ihnen anvertrauten öffentlichen Amtes geht. Das ist eben z.B. auch in der vorliegenden Sachverhaltsgestaltung, also bei richterlicher Spruchtätigkeit, der Fall. In Absatz 11 der grundlegenden Tennessee-Eisenberg-Entscheidung stellt das Bundesverfassungsgericht folgendes Postulat auf:

„Ein Anspruch auf eine effektive Strafverfolgung kann auch dort in Betracht kommen, wo der Vorwurf im Raum steht, dass Amtsträger bei Wahrnehmung hoheitlicher Aufgaben Straftaten begangen haben, weil ein Verzicht auf eine effektive Verfolgung solcher Taten zu einer Erschütterung des Vertrauens in die Integrität staatlichen Handelns führen kann. In diesen Fällen muss bereits der Anschein vermieden werden, dass gegen Amtswalter des Staates weniger effektiv ermittelt wird oder dass insoweit erhöhte Anforderungen an eine Anklageerhebung gestellt werden.“

Denselben Absatz – weitestgehend wortgleich! – enthalten auch die nachfolgenden drei Entscheidungen des BVerfG. Es handelt sich also um eine durchgängige Rechtsprechung, nicht nur um die Entscheidung eines Einzelfalls. Aus alldem ergibt sich: Ich habe einen Anspruch darauf, dass ein Ermittlungsverfahren wegen Rechtsbeugung förmlich eingeleitet und ernsthafte Ermittlungen angestellt werden.

Bestätigen Sie mir also bitte unverzüglich die förmliche Einleitung des Ermittlungsverfahrens gegen OStAHAL Ken Heidenreich wegen Rechtsbeugung und versuchter Strafvereitelung im Amt (§§ 339, 258a II StGB) in den Fällen 120 Js 194031/19 (Verfügung vom 11. Okt. 2019) und 120 Js 194032/19 (Verfügung vom 11. Okt. 2019) sowie im Fall 201 Zs 2559/19 f (Verfügung vom 26.09.2019) gegen OStAin Osthoff. (1)

Mit besten Grüssen


(1) In enger Anlehnung an ©RA Würdinger.

Be sure to put your pronouns in your bio ...

More on that, if you care, here and here. Over and out.

Reading Lounge

1. Misconceptions in particular among better-educated Germans about Weimar (inflation) and Hitler (Pdf)

2. What investors can learn from top poker players

3. Cash is here to stay

4. Double Standard Pertaining to Masturbation

5. Holding heavy objects makes us see things as more important

6. The Myth of the Nazi War Machine

Reading Lounge

1. Quarrel about shitty rock

2. Someone tried a Surface Laptop 3

3. The big Bitcoin heist

4. Counties with fracking potential associated with higher rates of gonorrhea infections

5. Germany Chooses Economic Nostalgia Over Saving the Planet

Reading Lounge

1. Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

2. On the other side of Essex

3. Kids influence parents

4. There’s Something About Darcy

5. Firefighters for the rich

6. Brutalism in architecture

7. How to gift: Sloppily-wrapped gifts more favorably rated by friends than by acquaintances

The Aftermath Of Love

There’s Something About Darcy

For over two hundred years, Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy has been an enigma and an idol—prompting Pride and Prejudice fans to re-visit the novel, create books and movies, and inspire writers to model their own heroes after his noble mien to relive their time with him in the original novel.

What is it about Darcy that makes him so admired, igniting passionate debates? Is he an arrogant snob, or a shy introvert? Why does his character arc in the novel move some so deeply, and anger others? Why do some actors excel in their portrayal of the iconic hero on screen, and others fail? While the discussions continue, Dr. Gabrielle Malcolm offers insights on all these questions, and more, in her forthcoming There’s Something About Darcy, publishing on November 11, 2019, from Endeavour Quill.

Like Mr. Darcy, this new literary criticism is much more than what appears on first acquaintance. We will not proclaim it tolerable (as he did when he first met Elizabeth Bennet), but declare it as tempting as his £10,000 a year income to any grasping Regency era mother. Here is a description from the publisher and an exclusive excerpt from the author. 

BOOK DESCRIPTION: 

For some, Colin Firth emerging from a lake in that clinging wet shirt is one of the most iconic moments in television. What is it about the two-hundred-year-old hero that we so ardently admire and love?

Dr. Malcolm examines Jane Austen’s influences in creating Darcy’s potent mix of brooding Gothic hero, aristocratic elitist and romantic Regency man of action. She investigates how he paved the way for later characters like Heathcliff, Rochester and even Dracula, and what his impact has been on popular culture over the past two centuries. For twenty-first-century readers the world over have their idea of the ‘perfect’ Darcy in mind when they read the novel and will defend their choice passionately.

more here

German Ministry of Labor, please investigate Institutional racism at Munich social courts

Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS)
Wilhelmstrasse 49
10117 Berlin

Oct 31, 2019

Institutional racism at Munich social courts

Dear Labor Minister Heil,

After my complaint to the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency about “Judge” Ehegartner of the Social Court Munich and the “judges” Ocker, Karl and Braun of the Bavarian State Social Court, I received an answer in October 2019 which contained the following salient passage:

"Of course, in Germany there is structural racism in state agencies as well, and legal proceedings can also lead to discrimination by state authorities. ... "

The occasion was the theft of the income from a vacation job in summer 2015 of my Tibetan daughter by the civil servants of the racist government agency Jobcenter Munich CEOs Farrenkopf and Nowack, as well as Erhardt and Strama. This was done by suppressing two documents that we had sent to the JC in January 2016. These documents attest to the legitimacy of the holiday income. "Judge" Ehegartner from the Social Court in conjunction with the "judges" Ocker, Karl and Braun from the Bavarian State Social Court chose to disregard them as well, although these documents were in their case files.

Consequently, some reason had to be found to legally cover this theft. Nothing easier for some tricky "judges" in Bavaria: our appeals sent by email were not signed with a qualified signature. In addition, Section 144 (1) sentence 1 Social Court Act blesses theft below the amount of € 750!

The BSSC had invited my daughter to attend the appeals hearing in Oct. 2019. However, contrary to Article 101 (1) of the Basic Law which states among others that the names of the judges must be disclosed in advance, this information was not given. Obviously this was deemed dispensable by the court considering that the appellant was a mere migrant.

Accordingly, in representation for my daughter who does not want any further contact with Bavarian courts, I applied for a postponement of the trial by at least one week with reference to this article of the basic law. My application was rejected on the grounds that it was "frivolous". I can not resist the impression, and this is based on years of personal experience, that in racist Germany the basic law does not apply to migrants. The term migrant as such is per se discriminatory and racist, because one remains a migrant in Germany. Germany is internationally known for its institutional racism. This was further corroborated when a sublease contract of my daughter was dismissed as “not credible" by the racist Jobcenter and further their attempt to lure my daughter out of higher education into a job.

I would therefore ask you to make inquiries as to whether there are any more such tendentious and biased court decisions of these “judges" and/or statements that point in the direction of institutional racism. Are relevant verbal statements known?

In the aforementioned complaint to the Anti-Discrimination Agency the agency pointed out that the AGG covers only discrimination in employment and in private legal transactions. In cases of discrimination by government agencies such as courts (or even authorities such as the Jobcenter) the AGG - strangely, I might add - does not apply. It refers instead to the Art. 3 basic law:

"For these offices, the general prohibition of discrimination in accordance with Article 3, paragraph 3, sentence 2 of the Basic Law (GG) applies, so that you are not defenceless against sovereigns.”

This must be questioned when a substantiated reference to the basic law is swept aside by “judges" as being “frivolous”. Deceiving adolescents and migrants is a disreputable behavior, all the more when it is committed by “judges”. It flies in the face of this conspicuous and strange campaign of the Federal Ministry of Justice "We are the rule of law”. What was it before?

I would be pleased to receive a substantiated response from you, while at the same time expressing my deepest regret for my unqualified signature. I should mention, the BMJV informed me in a letter of Nov. 4, 2014 (file # R A 3 - 6303 II -R1 351/2014):

"Within the Federal Government, the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is responsible for social and social court matters. Since, according to the provisions of the Basic Law, each Federal Ministry manages its business area on its own responsibility, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection is not authorized to act in the business area of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

Therefore, with you permission, I have forwarded your letter.”

This was met with a lively silence by the Labor Ministry’s well-fed minister with catastrophic teeth Mrs Nahles.

Sincerely,

Arbeitsminister Heil, sind weitere tendenziös rassistische Verlautbarungen bei Richter Ehegartner vom SG München und Richtern Ocker, Karl und Braun vom Bayer. LSG zu finden?

Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales (BMAS)
Wilhelmstraße 49
10117 Berlin

Per Email und cc SG München, Bayer. LSG, JC

31. Okt. 2019

Institutioneller Rassismus an Münchner Sozialgerichten

Guten Tag Arbeitsminister Heil,

Nach meiner Beschwerde bei der Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes über Richter Ehegartner vom SG München in Verbund mit den Richtern Ocker, Karl und Braun vom Bayer. LSG erhielt ich im Oktober 2019 eine Antwort, bei der die folgende Passage hervorstach:

“Natürlich gibt es in Deutschland auch in staatlichen Stellen strukturellen Rassismus, und auch in Gerichtsverfahren kann es zu Benachteiligungen durch die staatlichen Organe der Rechtspflege kommen. …”

Anlass war der Diebstahl des Ferienverdienstes (Ferienjob in 2015) meiner tibetischen Tochter durch die Mitarbeiter der rassistischen Behörde Jobcenter München GFin Farrenkopf und Nowack, sowie Erhardt und Strama. Dies geschah mittels Unterdrückung von zwei Urkunden, die belegbar im Jan. 2016 von uns an das JC gesandt wurden. Diese Urkunden bezeugen die Legitimität des Ferienverdienstes. “Richter” Ehegartner vom SG München in Verbund mit den “Richtern” Ocker, Karl und Braun vom Bayer. LSG schlossen sich dieser Urkundenunterdrückung an, obwohl sich diese in ihren Akten befanden und brachten den Betrug in trockene juristische Tücher.

Irgendein Grund musste gefunden werden, um diesen Diebstahl juristisch zu legitimieren.  Nichts einfacher als das für tricksende “Richter” in Bayern: unsere Widersprüche waren nicht mit einer qualifizierten Unterschrift versehen. Nicht genug damit, § 144 Abs. 1 Satz 1 SGG segnet Diebstahl unter € 750 ab!

Zum Beschwerdetermin im Okt. 2019 vor dem Bayer. LSG erging eine Ladung an meine Tochter OHNE Angabe der Namen der Richter. Aus Art. 101 Abs. 1 Satz 2 GG folgt, dass die Regelungen, die der Bestimmung des gesetzlichen Richters dienen, im Voraus so eindeutig wie möglich festlegen müssen, welches Gericht, welcher Spruchkörper und welche Richter zur Entscheidung des Einzelfalls berufen sind. Dies schien diesen Richtern bei einer Migrantin offensichtlich dispensabel. Migranten werden wohl ohnehin als naiv angesehen in Deutschland.

Daraufhin beantragte ich in Vertretung für meine Tochter, die mit bayerischen Gerichten nichts mehr zu tun haben will, die Vertagung der Verhandlung um mindestens eine Woche unter Bezug auf diesen Artikel des GG. Mein Antrag wurde abgelehnt mit der Begründung, er sei “missbräuchlich”. Ich kann mich des Eindrucks nicht erwehren und er stützt sich auf jahrelange Erfahrungen - teils aus erster Hand -, dass in diesem widerlichen Rassistenland Deutschland das GG nicht für Migranten gilt. Der Begriff Migrant als solcher ist schon diskriminierend und rassistisch, denn man bleibt Migrant in Deutschland. Ohnehin ist Deutschland international für seinen Institutionellen Rassismus bekannt. In dieses Bild passt auch, dass ein Untermietvertrag meiner Tochter von der Rassisten-Behörde JC München als “unglaubwürdig” tituliert wurde. Ebenso pertinent der Versuch dieser Behörde JC meine Tochter aus einer Weiterbildenden Schule mit rechtsbrechenden Mitteln in einen Job zu locken.

Ich bitte Sie daher, Eruierungen anzustellen, ob bei den genannten “Richtern” Ehegartner, Ocker, Karl, Braun weitere tendenziöse Beschlüsse aufzufinden sind und/oder Verlautbarungen, die in diese Richtung des Institutionellen Rassismus deuten. Sind einschlägige verbale Äusserungen bekannt? 

Die Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes gab zu bedenken, das AGG erfasse nur Benachteiligungen im Erwerbsleben und bei privaten Rechtsgeschäften. Für Benachteiligungen durch staatliche Stellen wie Gerichte (oder auch Behörden wie das Jobcenter) gilt das AGG nicht. Seltsam, nicht wahr?. Sie verweist stattdessen auf den Art. 3 GG:

“Für diese Stellen gilt das allgemeine Benachteiligungsverbot gemäß Artikel 3 Absatz 3 Satz 2 Grundgesetz (GG), sodass Sie auch gegenüber Hoheitsträgern nicht schutzlos gestellt sind.”

Dies muss in Zweifel gezogen werden angesichts des selbstgefälligen Wegwischens eines begründeten Bezugs auf das Grundgesetz durch diese “Richter”. Jugendliche und Migranten zu betrügen, ist ein irreputables Verhalten. Die “Richter” Ehegartner, Ocker, Braun und Karl haben sich hinterhältig und niederträchtig komportiert. Es kollidiert mit dieser seltsamen Kampagne des Bundesjustizministeriums “Wir sind Rechtsstaat”. Was war es vorher?

Ich freue mich, von Ihnen mit einer fundierten Antwort bedacht zu werden und drücke gleichzeitig meine tiefstes Bedauern über meine nicht qualifizierte Signatur aus und bitte um Nachsicht. Salvatorisch sei angeführt,  das BMJV teilte mir mit Schreiben vom 4. November 2014 und Az. R A 3 - 6303 II -R1 351/2014 mit:

“Für sozialrechtliche und sozialgerichtliche Angelegenheiten ist innerhalb der Bundesregie- rung das Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales zuständig. Da nach den Bestimmungen des Grundgesetzes jedes Bundesministerium seinen Geschäftsbereich eigenverantwortlich leitet, ist das Bundesministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz nicht befugt, in dem Geschäftsbereich des Bundesministeriums für Arbeit und Soziales tätig zu werden. 

In der Annahme Ihres Einverständnisses habe ich deshalb Ihr Schreiben nach dort weitergeleitet.”

Vom BMAS und seiner vollgefressenen damaligen Arbeitsministerin mit katastrophalen Zähnen Nahles wurde ich - wie üblich im maulfaulen Deutschland - mit lebhaftem Schweigen unterhalten.

Mit besten Grüssen

Fukushima, or be careful what you wish for, Germany

After the Fukushima event Germany's chancellor switched on a moment's notice away from nuclear energy to - alleged - renewable energy. All paid for by the citizens, NOT the industry.

Here is a paper that deals with the after-effects in Japan. It does not look good and can, cum grano salis, be applied to Germany in the widest sense.

BE CAUTIOUS WITH THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE: EVIDENCE FROM FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR ACCIDENT

Conclusion

In this paper, we evaluate the downstream effects from invoking the precautionary principle following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in which Japan ceased operation at all nuclear power plants throughout the country. In an effort to meet the energy demands, nuclear power was replaced by imported fossil fuels, which led to increases in electricity prices. The price increases led to a reduction in electricity consumption but only during the coldest times of the year. Given its protective effects from extreme weather, the reduced electricity consumption led to an increase in mortality during very cold temperatures. We estimate that the increased mortality resulting from the higher energy prices outnumbered the mortality from the accident itself, suggesting that applying the precautionary principle caused more harm than good.

Another potential welfare impact from replacing nuclear power with fossil fuels is the health effects from local air quality. In addition to the lower marginal costs of energy production, nuclear power has minimal impacts on local air quality. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, emit a wide range of pollutants that deteriorate local air quality and have significant effects on morbidity and mortality (see, for example, Graff Zivin and Neidell 2013, and references within). Indeed, estimates from the US show that closure of nuclear power plants after the Three Mile Island accident led to increased particle pollution and higher infant mortality (Severnini 2017).26 Therefore, the total welfare effects from ceasing nuclear production in Japan are likely to be even larger than what we estimate, and represents a fruitful line for future research.

Given this surprising result, why do governments invoke this principle? One possible explanation is that salient events, such as a nuclear disaster, affect perceived risk, which is often based more on emotions and instincts than on reason and rationality ... Meanwhile, deaths from higher energy prices are largely unnoticed; we cannot attribute any particular death to the higher energy prices, but can only estimate population level impacts. Although the public and policy makers place greater fears on the deaths directly attributable to the accident, the two are equivalent from a cost-benefit perspective, and should be treated accordingly. The precautionary principle emphasizes salient events – the worst case scenario – and in doing so ignores the alternative, thereby encouraging inefficient policy-making.

A few speculative explanations for lower functional achievement rates on dating sites

If you are "fun-loving, love to laugh and travel", your homologation reduces the diagnostic value on a dating site. IOW, you just sound like the ordinary Tom, Dick and Harry which probably leads to a left-swipe.

Self-presentation and impressions of personality through text-based online dating profiles: A lens model analysis

In online dating, the self-authored profile serves as the primary way for daters to introduce themselves to others and to learn more about potential partners. However, few studies have examined the extent to which daters’ self-authored profile content is consistent with the impressions that others actually form. Using the meaning extraction method, we analyzed 190 profiles. Consistent with the lexical approach to personality, daters were able to encode aspects of themselves through linguistic self-description, and observers were able to decode profile information to form impressions. However, there were few significant associations between a dater’s self-presentation and observers’ judgments. 

The two categories most strongly associated with senders’ encoded personality traits were spending time with others and life aspirations. We offer a few speculative explanations for these lower functional achievement rates: on the senders’ side, dating sites may encourage “formulaic” profile responses, thus reducing the diagnostic value of words and phrases as they appear too often, and can subsequently lead observers to perceive that a profile is too stereotyped. Daters’ dissatisfaction with the homologation of profiles has been documented “‘Everyone’s always fun-loving, loves to laugh, loves to travel, um, loves to hang out with friends, loves to watch Netflix or go out to the bar.” Thus, the standardized nature of online dating profile self-description may be too generic to accurately reflect underlying personality traits.

CHIC ‘Le Freak’

Reading Lounge

1. Hedonic consumption not necessarily associated with self-control failure

2. "When in doubt, write like Hemingway", or Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration

3. NEW ATHEISM: THE GODLESSNESS THAT FAILED

4. Smaller women ratio, more binge drinking among men but not women

5. Heavy, rough and hard – how the things we touch affect our judgments and decisions

6. Overworked Japanese employees mourn unused paid holidays at new Buddhist memorial service

7. The residents of Vatican City drink more wine per person than any other country, at least as of 2014