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Although this thread does not function under the same strict guidelines as the USPMT, it is still a general practice on TL to provide a source with an explanation on why it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion. Failure to do so will result in a mod action. |
On March 23 2018 06:02 Nyxisto wrote:
you're rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. Condos aren't expensive because they are condos, which isn't an explanation in the first place, they can only increase their property value because they exist in an environment of insufficient supply. It doesn't matter whether you have condos or apartments as long as the overall supply of housing expands. They simply cannot keep rising in value if they're subject to competition on the housing market. People could just as well build luxury apartments instead of luxury condos.
This is basically analog to the claim that organic food rises food prices. Which is obviously not true, organic food is more expensive because you buy organic food in the sort of neighbourhoods that are well off anyway, you're confusing correlation and causation. to your analogy only: 'organic' food is more expensive because one needs to be certified in it(specific/strict ways of production) and that costs thousands of euros even here. that is seen as a payed for right that allows one to sell his product at higher costs.
in the end, as with everything imo, if you find people who pay <X> for it and that covers your needs/expenses, then that's how much it's worth; it has nothing to do with the reality of <costs(production, logistics, quality ...etc)>.
(the market is only a factor/comes into play(its constrains) in extreme situations and everything in between is just speculation)
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50 years day for day after the events which prefigured Mai 68, between 323 000 (police) to 500 000 (unions) people demonstrated yesterday in France against Macron's plans. Those numbers are on the rise compared with the 209 000 and 223 000 people (according to police numbers) who demonstrated last year during the biggest days in September and October.
+ Show Spoiler +
Last week, the 15/03, between 120 000 to 200 000 people had demonstrated (mostly pensioners to protest against a tax rise). Interestingly, sizeable processions had been observed in medium-sized cities, where the mobilization is usually weaker. At the end of the day, Macron had said: “I don't feel anger in this country.”
Yesterday was initially organized by public servants, but railway workers and students joined too. Details here for the reasons of protests (university & high school ; public servants ; SNCF sections).
35% of the people working at the SNCF [national railway company ] were on strike, which is fairly high. The movement was weaker among public servants (only 7/9 trade unions were calling for protests yesterday, as opposed to 9/9 in last October), with around 11-13% of public servants on strike depending on the sectors, but there were more people in the streets anyway.
In the parisian procession, railway workers trolled Mélenchon: they gave him a hammer and made him detonate some device (apparently used to warn train drivers), much to the joy of people around them:
Meanwhile, shortly after he tried to enter the demonstration, the new secretary of the PS had to be evacuated under whistles, boos and “traitors!” from angry demonstrators. Workers have memory... 
12 left-wing movement/parties signed a common declaration to support railway workers. Various appeals to a common front to help them have been made. Mélenchon proposes a national march on a week-end (so that people who don't work the week-end can join without sacrificing a day of wage) to support their fight against the government. During the previous movement against Macron's executive orders, he had already proposed to “make one million of people surge on the Champs-Élysées” but it had not happened.
Though sizeable and decently successful, the mobilization is of course not enough to make Macron move. The arm wrestling will thus continue in the next weeks.
Now that the post-election wait-and-see policy is gone and that people are starting to feel the consequences of Macron's first measures (according to some recent poll, 74% of the French think Macron's policy is “unfair”), we will see if contestation cristallizes.
Railway unions have already planned a strike which starts next month, the 03/04, to protest against the SNCF reform by executive orders. They planned 2 days of strike every 5 days (i.e. 2 days of strike, 3 days of work, 2 days of strike, etc.) until the end of June, when the SNCF reform should be finally adopted if the government follows its schedule. But workers themselves might decide to do it every day in local general meetings.
Unions of the public sector meet the 27/03 to decide of what happens next.
The CGT suggests a new day of protests next month, the 19/04.
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United Kingdom13775 Posts
Terrorist attack in France, I’m surprised no one decided to tak about it.
Police have now arrested a second person believed to be linked to an attack in southwestern France that led to the deaths of four people, a judicial source says.
Another source said the man, a minor born in 2000, was a friend of the gunman.
Police arrested a woman connected to the attacker on Friday, a French prosecutor said.
Four people died and 16 were injured after Ladkim stormed the Super U supermarket in Trebes, near the city of Carcasonne at about 11am on Friday local time (9pm AEDT).
A claim of responsibility by the Islamic State extremist group was “currently being analysed”, he said.
www.news.com.au
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Who could have guessed that the left will be displeased with Berlusconi NOT getting to form a ruling coalition in Italy?
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So what are their common denominators? The end of Italian "austerity", extreme Euro-scepticsm, strong enviromental positions, pro-Russian stance?
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Puigdemont arrested in germany today. I hope he wont be handed over to spain. I surely dont understand everyhing going on in Catalunia, but it seems to me that he is less wrong than the spanish government. Or at least he has the better PR agency.
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On March 26 2018 05:51 Big J wrote:
So what are their common denominators? The end of Italian "austerity", extreme Euro-scepticsm, strong enviromental positions, pro-Russian stance?
anti-immigration and Euro-scepticism are probably the strongest ones.
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On March 26 2018 05:51 Mafe wrote:
Puigdemont arrested in germany today. I hope he wont be handed over to spain. I surely dont understand everyhing going on in Catalunia, but it seems to me that he is less wrong than the spanish government. Or at least he has the better PR agency.
It's not the Spanish government ordering the arrest but its judicial system. They're aligned on this but nonetheless not the same thing.
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It probably fits US, UK and Euro politics thread since all those countries all involved but i havent seen anyone post it yet (could have missed it obviously).
In any casy more than 100 Russian diplomats expelled as move of solidarity with UK after poisoning of Sergei Skripal.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43545565
Most likely most of them intelligence officers with diplomatic cover. I wonder why some countries decided to hold back (only around half of EU is expelling diplomats) in some cases it is obvious since those countries have pro Russia parties in power (like Hungary) but i am curious for countries like Spain, Portugal etc. any particular reason?
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On March 26 2018 19:45 warding wrote:Show nested quote +On March 26 2018 05:51 Mafe wrote:
Puigdemont arrested in germany today. I hope he wont be handed over to spain. I surely dont understand everyhing going on in Catalunia, but it seems to me that he is less wrong than the spanish government. Or at least he has the better PR agency. It's not the Spanish government ordering the arrest but its judicial system. They're aligned on this but nonetheless not the same thing.
Technically you are correct. However, I tend to assume that democracies follow the principle of separation of powers. Therefore a judicial system only judges based on the laws, but politicians (in particular governments) create the laws. So if a law is bad, the judical system should enforce this law nevertheless (within reasonable bounds of course, e.g. I expect them to not violate human rights even if some local laws would tell them to do so). The blame for a bad law should lie with the politicians who created this law and the people who elected them.
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On March 27 2018 00:30 Silvanel wrote:It probably fits US, UK and Euro politics thread since all those countries all involved but i havent seen anyone post it yet (could have missed it obviously). In any casy more than 100 Russian diplomats expelled as move of solidarity with UK after poisoning of Sergei Skripal. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43545565Most likely most of them intelligence officers with diplomatic cover. I wonder why some countries decided to hold back (only around half of EU is expelling diplomats) in some cases it is obvious since those countries have pro Russia parties in power (like Hungary) but i am curious for countries like Spain, Portugal etc. any particular reason?
The countries that are punishing Russia are basically taking Theresa May's word for truth. Its possible that some countries weren't convinced enough by the evidence on offer to take action.
This is just a theory though, although the countries that have taken action are the countries you would expect to be the most anti-Russian countries anyway so it was probably decided as soon as the murder happened.
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On March 26 2018 19:45 warding wrote:Show nested quote +On March 26 2018 05:51 Mafe wrote:
Puigdemont arrested in germany today. I hope he wont be handed over to spain. I surely dont understand everyhing going on in Catalunia, but it seems to me that he is less wrong than the spanish government. Or at least he has the better PR agency. It's not the Spanish government ordering the arrest but its judicial system. They're aligned on this but nonetheless not the same thing.
In fact, this timing is quite incovenient for Rajoy and his goverment. They were hoping for a new president in Catalonia so they can finish their intervention there, and start negotiating the central budget with other parties (particularly vasque nationalists) that refuse to do so until it ends. Now no new president will be proposed in the near term.
But the judicial system does not care.
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On March 27 2018 00:30 Silvanel wrote:It probably fits US, UK and Euro politics thread since all those countries all involved but i havent seen anyone post it yet (could have missed it obviously). In any casy more than 100 Russian diplomats expelled as move of solidarity with UK after poisoning of Sergei Skripal. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43545565Most likely most of them intelligence officers with diplomatic cover. I wonder why some countries decided to hold back (only around half of EU is expelling diplomats) in some cases it is obvious since those countries have pro Russia parties in power (like Hungary) but i am curious for countries like Spain, Portugal etc. any particular reason?
I know Italy gets most of their heating fuel from Russia. Could the same be true for Spain and they cannot afford to take a quick action against Russia without risking problems?
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2774 Posts
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Most of those countries which did expel diplomatics like Germany and all the eastern European countries get most of their gas from Russia. It's actually quite suprising that they did signal such a diplomatic move as to expell diplomats, considering that practically all of those countries are hesitant to condemn Russia for anything, precisely because they are dependent of Russia for gas. Especially since the EU is diplomatically nominally against UK, I actually wonder what is occuring behind the scenes. Did UK promise something exceptional to the EU? It is a remarkable show of friendship otherwise. Or did Russian diplomacy backfire in each of those countries, perhaps a threat that didn't go down too well?
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Or they simply know that Russia words to counter all those measures 1to1 is reliable in this case.
And then the question is, if they value kicking out some agents for losing some agents while showing some unity in Europe/NATO. In the end, this is mostly symbolic anyway, and looks like some valued that symbolism.
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Russia has been quite aggressive for a while now. It's not that surprising that eventually the targets of said aggression will respond in kind. I don't think there's really more to it than that.
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And it isn’t like all of these countries didn’t heat themselves before Russia came along with cheap gas. The relationships to NATO allies have been long term investments.
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Russian gas is a two way street anyway. They can hardly afford to stop selling gas and raising prices will only make the EU more eager to diversify into LNG (driving them.closer to the US) and renewables. It'll make Russia too reliant on China as well.
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EPT![[image loading]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DY7cGiaXcAID9qs.jpg)
