Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Latest Commentary:
Erdogan Calls Early Elections in Turkey -- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has decided to hold elections on June 24, which is about a year and a half early. However, conditions favor him right now, the country is moving from a parliamentary to presidential system, and a state of emergency is in place until after the new election day. All of that almost guarantees him a stronger hand on the day after the election than he has now. After 15 years in power, the autocrat of Turkey seems to want more. [April 19]
No Brexit Deal Without Irish Border Solution -- Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, has said that there can be no deal with Britain about trade after it leaves the EU unless there is a soluion to the problem Brexit creates at the Irish border with Northern Ireland. His actual words were, "The UK's decision on Brexit has caused the problem and the UK will have to solve it. Without a solution there will be no withdrawal agreement and no transition." It is hard to see how this gets resolved. [April 18]
Macron Says Europe in Civil War over Liberalism -- The French are known for liking a bit of the dramatic, so one takes many things said in Paris with a grain of salt. In speech to the European Parliament, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that conditions in the EU are like a "civil war ... where there is an increasing fascination with illiberalism." That was a mild exaggeration. No armies are in the field after all. However, the threat he sees is very real. "I don't want to belong to a generation of sleepwalkers that has forgotten its own past", he said. No one should. [April 17]
US, UK, France Bomb Syrian Chemical Weapons Sites -- Friday night, the US. UK and France loosed 105 missiles at three sites in Syria that intelligence said were part of the Assad regime's chemical weapons infrastructure. The reason given was that these western powers wanted to deter future use of chemical weapons by Damascus. President Trump went so far as to state "mission accomplished" in one of his numerous tweets. In fact, the bombing was largely a public relations exercise for all involved, including the Russians and the Syrian government.. [April 16]
Facebook's Problems Stem from its Business Model -- Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, spent two days on Capitol Hill avoiding questions written by staffers who understand technology much better than the geriatric lawmakers for whom they work. A lot of the answers consisted of "I'll get back to you on that." The arcana of social media seems to confuse what is a very simple issue. Facebook is selling data about people without sufficient transparency. Regulation can address some of this, but the airtight solution would be for Mr. Zuckerberg to change his business model. [April 12],
© Copyright 2018 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
Volume XVI, Number 71
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