Ordinary World

Ordinary World
14 January 2019

As always, all linked pieces are for discussion and consideration, not as implied endorsement of the author’s views by Ordinary Times

[OW1] Referenda Delenda Est: Brexit shows how direct democracy can be dangerous By George Will: “It is dismaying that most of the binding law in Britain comes from the European Commission in Brussels. But why, with its primacy at stake, did Parliament punt one of the most momentous decisions in British history to a referendum? The bedrock principle of representative government is that “the people” do not decide issues, they decide who shall decide. And once a legislature sloughs off responsibility and resorts to a referendum on the dubious premise that the simple way to find out what people want is to ask them, it is difficult to avoid recurring episodes of plebiscitary democracy.”

[OW2] Jair Bolsonaro Is Not the New Trump. He’s Worse. By Ruth Ben-Ghiat: ““Bolsonaro is as much an apparition from Brazil’s past as a harbinger of its future,” historian Kenneth Serbin wrote at Foreign Affairs the day of the inauguration: Only a “politics of forgetting” about the violence of the military dictatorship has made his ascent possible. I’d go further: Bolsonaro advances a new phase of remembrance that rehabilitates the people and causes of that terrible time. During the 2016 congressional proceedings leading to Rousseff’s impeachment, Bolsonaro dedicated his vote against her to her torturer—Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, de facto chief of army intelligence services, which ordered Rousseff, then a leftist guerrilla, tortured for three weeks in 1970 (she was then a political prisoner for two years). Sympathizers like Bolsonaro publicly honor those who subjected Brazilians to torture methods such as “the barbecue,” where victims were tied to a metal rack and given electric shocks on and inside their bodies.”

[OW3] New Congress Should Target Tariffs, Not Tax Reform by Ross Marchand: “Where Republicans see an encroachment on the free market, Democrats see executive abuse by the president. By tackling the tariff issue, both parties can gain credibility with the hundreds of millions of American consumers who have seen their taxes gone up since the start of the trade war. One important place to start is the reassertion of congressional authority over trade matters. When the president raised tariffs last year, he invoked the little-known section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 which allows the chief executive to raise import taxes in the name of “national security.” Congress can take this broad, vague power away by insisting that “national security” tariffs be tied to an actual authorization of military force or a (vanishingly rare) formal declaration of war.”

[OW4] What Makes A Refugee? by Gary Brooks “Creating an image of false refugees, foreigners invading the UK when it’s full up and taking opportunities from the natives, is an appeal to a sense of victimization and grievance which is easily exploited. Six-hour queues for a doctor at the surgery is one example people rail against, and it’s “because of all these refugees we let in.” Rather than examine strains on the NHS due to private tendering policies or any other cause, it’s much easier to adopt the populist notion that this is only a problem because foreigners are here clogging up the system and taking the rightful place of the natives. People are upset when there is a woman in a niqab in front of them in the doctor’s office, but they rarely notice when the same hold-up is caused by Doris from flat 4B down the road.”

[OW5] Sweetheart deals for big companies aren’t what Florida needs by Alex Muresianu: “It’s hard to think of a more wasteful use of taxpayer money. For every dollar the state gave to film production companies, the state economy only grew by 18 cents. Even worse, an analysis from the University of Southern California found that film tax incentives nationwide have had a minimal — even negative — impact on economic growth. Furthermore, a report from Michigan’s state senate found that each job created by film tax incentives only lasts an average of 23 days.”

[OW6] The World Isn’t Laughing at Just Trump: American allies are laughing at the whole country by Rachel Donadio: “The moment was a silly one, a bathetic expression of competitive dominance-signaling, that nonetheless revealed something real: People confident in their own power don’t often feel the need to demonstrate it so theatrically—and for all Trump’s attempts to showcase his might, global confidence in his ability to handle international affairs is low and sinking, according to the Pew Research Center. Tellingly, whereas Macron later revealed an ironic awareness of the absurdity of The Handshake, Trump did not. The world was laughing with Macron, at Trump.”