Author: admin

24 things that Jeremy Corbyn believes

Jeremy Corbyn is the new leader of the Labour party. What are his beliefs?

1. The deficit should be tackled – but not through spending cuts and not to an “arbitrary” deadline. Instead Corbyn would fund its reduction via higher taxes for the rich and a crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion while tackling “corporate welfare” and tax breaks for companies.

2. Britain’s railways should be renationalised. He is also opposed to the HS2 rail scheme, saying it would turn northern cities into “dormitories for London businesses”

Read on from the BBC

Prohibition? The Economic Argument

Excessive drinking doesn’t just result in a high bar tab, it also lowers productivity and costs the country billions….

They found that the most significant cost was the lost productivity of hungover workers who either showed up for work barely able to function, or who were unable to show up at all, which cost nearly $90 billion. In total, all forms of lost productivity accounted for about $179 billion of alcohol-related costs. The researchers estimate that the government, and thus taxpayers, cover about 40 percent of the total $250-billion bill.

Labour promises to renationalise English railways

The Labour conference has formally committed itself to the renationalisation of the English rail network as it pledged to oppose another round of “unneeded, unwanted and ill-thought-through privatisation”.

In a significant boost for the party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who has suffered a series of setbacks over the EU and Trident, Labour’s national executive committee agreed a statement that paves the way for the rolling renationalisation of the rail network.

A Scientific Analysis of Civil War Beards

How Civil War commanders wore their facial hair, in one chart:

More than 90 percent of commanders studied had some kind of facial hair, most sporting either the long beard or the short beard. Very few went with muttonchops or a goatee. However, there were some significant differences between North and South here.

Government may privatise Channel 4

The government has inadvertently provided further evidence that it is looking at privatising Channel 4, after an official was photographed entering Downing Street with a document setting out options for a sell-off.

After months of ministerial obfuscation on whether the sale of the state-owned, commercially funded broadcaster was being considered, the document reveals that proposals have already been drawn up in a bid to raise an estimated £1bn for Treasury coffers.

Oopsies.

NPR Fresh Air Interview – 'Policing The Police': How The Black Panthers Got Their Start

Nearly 50 years ago, in 1966, a group of six black men in Oakland, Calif., came together in an effort to curb police brutality against African-Americans in the city. Because of a quirk in California law, the men were able to carry loaded weapons openly. The Black Panthers, as they became known, would follow the police around, jumping out of their cars with guns drawn if the police made a stop.

“They would observe the police and make sure that no brutality occurred,” filmmaker Stanley Nelson tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “What they were really doing was policing the police.”

Nelson, who chronicles the Panther movement in his new documentary, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, says the group was a response to what some saw as the limitations of the nonviolent civil rights movement.

German Nationalism Lecture Notes

My Lecture Outline

  • Neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire: “300 Germanies”
  • Impact of the Congress of Vienna on Germany and Prussia
  • “Siamese Twins”: Zollverien and Railroads
  • Struggles for Nationalism, Liberalism and Democracy in Vormaerz:
    • Wartburg Festival (1817)
    • Carlsbad Decrees (1819)
    • Hambach Festival (1832)
    • Gottingen Seven (1837)
  • The Spirit of ‘48
  • Frankfurt Parliament
  • Constitution of St. Paul’s Church
  • Erfurt Union & Punctuation/Humiliation of Olmutz
    • Germany: Born of War?
    • Von Roon, von Moltke, and the Prussian military machine
    • Schleswig-Holstein Wars (1848-52, 1864)
    • Austro-Prussian War (1866)
    • Franco-Prussian War (1870-71)
  • Proclamation of German Empire (18 January 1871)
  • More Than Iron & Blood: Karl Baedeker, Brothers Grimm, von Fallersleben, and von Humboldt

Here is my Power Point on the road to German unity.  Enjoy!

What's China gonna do? Better check this music video

After China’s state-run news agency Xinhua posted the music video online overnight, it’s gone viral. A quick listen to the lyrics makes Communist centralized economic planning seem cheery:
Hey have you guys heard about what’s going on in China? / President Xi Jinping’s new style? / Yes! And there’s more! / The Shi San Wu! / The what? / China’s 13th five-year plan! / Yeah! The Shi San Wu! / Oh! / Every five years in China, man, they make a new development plan…

The video raises a lot of questions, like: Why are hippies with guitars and bongo drums atop a VW bus singing about China’s 13th five-year plan?

Or: Why did Xinhua think this would appeal to foreigners?
Or, simply: Why?

Debate: Western Liberal Democracy Would be Wrong For China


People everywhere are better off living in liberal democracy: that has been the reigning assumption of the western world. But could it be we’ve got it wrong? If you were one of the world’s billions of poor peasants might you not be better off under a system dedicated to political stability and economic growth – one that has lifted 400 million out of poverty – rather than one preoccupied with human rights, the rule of law, and the chance to vote out unpopular rulers?

So is China better off without democracy? Or is that just the age-old mantra of the tyrant?

Speakers for the motion
Martin Jacques
Author of When China Rules the World, visiting senior research fellow at the London School of Economics, and visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing
Zhang Weiwei
Senior Fellow at the Chunqiu Institute, author of The China Wave: the Rise of a Civilizational State, and former translator to Deng Xiaoping

Speakers against the motion
Anson Chan
Former Chief Secretary of Hong Kong and campaigner for democracy

Jonathan Mirsky
Historian of China, and former China correspondent for The Observer and East Asia editor of The Times

Your Assignment:
Come to class with detailed notes from this debate. Your notes should detail:

  1. The speaker’s arguments
  2. Evidence deployed to substantiate his/her arguments
  3. Rebuttals made to 2 and/or 3 above

Though you may type or write your notes, use this note organizer. Your notes will be collected and assessed.

Watch (or listen to) the entire program; the first 55 minutes is opening speeches, the second 45 minutes is debate and closing remarks.

We will continue the debate over this motion in class. Come to class decided on the motion. But be prepared to argue both sides in class, as I might choose to assign sides.

If you prefer, you can listen to this debate on a mobile device, either in podcast or streaming formats.

UK General Election 2015

The BBC coverage of the election and results

A collection of coverage from the Economist 

StatWonk Nate Silver’s 538 coverage 

Anne Applebaum offers this jeremiad in response to the election results

UK General Election Assignment
Write an 800-1200 word (1.5 – 2 page), single-spaced, thesis driven essay due in response to the following questions:

  • Describe: What happened in the May 7 general election and why?
  • Analyze: What stands out as particularly interesting or anomalous in the election results?
  • Evaluate: What do the results mean for the UK? What challenges might ensue from coalition rule?

Use the articles given. You may also do your own research.

Properly cite your essay using parenthetical citation. You do not need a works cited page.

You will present and defend your essay in class. I look forward to it.

Meddling Ex-Presidents during the Civil War

When Abraham Lincoln became president in 1861, five former presidents were still alive.Chris DeRose tells how this ex-Presidents’ Club maneuvered, plotted, advised, and aided during the Civil War. DeRose’s book The Presidents’ War: Six American Presidents and The Civil War That Divided Them explores the stories of the ex-presidents who remained active, influential, and occasionally treacherous as the Union sought to save itself.