Bloomberg 2: Plutocracy Day | He Thought We Would “Notsee” It | China Raises Silky Sails

“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” – Warren Buffett

“If you’re in the luckiest one per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.” – Warren Buffett

He Thought We Would “Notsee” It: When a prominent leader of the German far-right AfD party, Alexander Gauland, wrote his opinion piece for the conservative daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), perhaps he thought paraphrasing Adolf Hitler would go unnoticed. Perhaps he didn’t care that his article so closely echoed Hitler’s 1933 address to the workers of Siemensstadt in Berlin. It’s one or the other, because claiming he wasn’t aware of Hitler’s speech cannot be true. German historians specializing in the Nazi era immediately condemned the column, pointing out the “striking parallels” between Gauland’s sentiments and Hitler’s words.

One historian, a respected researcher on antisemitism, said “It’s a paraphrase that looks as if the AfD head had the Führer’s speech from 1933 on his desk when he was writing his column for the FAZ.” Another suggested Gauland was signaling to his educated followers that Hitler’s remarks against the Jews could be usefully applied to modern day opponents of the AfD. Gauland has been criticized repeatedly for his anti-immigrant remarks and comments that minimize the Holocaust. In June he described the 12 years of Nazi rule as a “mere bird shit in over 1,000 years of successful German history”.

At the nexus of Nazism is ethnic German identity, and German greatness to the exclusion of all others. Hitler youth shared two things: indoctrination and uniforms. Hitler himself was said to have been fond of the dirndl, a traditional feminine Alpine peasant dress; its male counterpart was lederhosen. For decades after Hitler’s defeat people eschewed wearing costumes that were evocative of a special German identity. But for millennials in 2018 Bavaria, tradition is trendy and custom is cool. Teenagers who once wore jeans and t-shirts in Oktoberfest are going clubbing in dirndl and lederhosen. To them, it’s just a celebration of heritage, and has nothing to do with politics.

The Search For Khashoggi Rages On: The uproar over the disappearance of high-profile Saudi Arabia dissident and Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, continues. Khashoggi is thought to have been murdered and dismembered a week ago after entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey and never exiting. Details on the alleged 15-member Saudi hit squad were on a flight manifest leaked to Turkish media. Several White House officials spoke to Saudi crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), requesting further information. And on Wednesday, 22 US senators signed a letter to the president, which triggered a provision of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act that requires Trump to investigate and determine whether a foreign person is responsible for a gross human rights violation. (Guardian)

Additional read: MBS has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Silicon Valley, which has encouraged big-wig venture capitalists and CEOs to overlook measures the crown prince has taken that border on human rights violations. But growing dismay over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi is causing some discomfort. (TechCrunch)

Cameroon’s Civil War: The Central West Africa country of Cameroon is a vital partner to the US in the battle against Islamic extremism. It is also on the brink of a civil war that has caused tens of thousands to flee the violence in the English-speaking parts of the country. (NYT)

The Most Faithful Of Filters And The Holiest Of Hashtags: After President Trump claimed Jerusalem was the capital of Israel, a US consular building in the residential outskirts of that city was renamed as the embassy. It’s become the newest pilgrimage site for some American visitors, particularly devout Christians. (NPR)

I Had The Time Of My Life: UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced her resignation Tuesday, was lauded by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin as “a true ambassador” for Israel and an “uncompromising advocate of American policy towards the Middle East and Israel.” Haley is believed to be the major force behind the Trump administration’s decision last month to cut all funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to 5 million Palestinian refugees scattered around the Middle East. Now that Haley will be leaving, Israelis joke that they will have only one ambassador left at the UN. (WaPo)

– “Greece bans ‘overweight’ tourists from riding donkeys: A burden has been lifted from the shoulders of Greece’s working donkey population.” (CNN)

China Raises Silky Sails: Chinese companies are investing in ports around the world. In the last 10 years, they have acquired stakes in 13 ports in Europe, including in Greece, Spain, France, Italy and Belgium. It’s part of China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which aims to connect the country with commercial hubs in Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania. But analysts say it could also have something to do with China’s advancement toward becoming a superpower of the seas. One analyst in Brussels said: “There’s a phrase, ‘pre-emptive obedience’, that’s often used to discuss relations with the Chinese. It means making decisions with the idea of not upsetting China. That’s already happening.” (NPR)

Additional reads: “In Pakistan, Learning Chinese Is Cool — And Seen As A Path To Prosperity: ‘Chinese is the language that can make Pakistan prosperous and help Pakistanis get a job,’ he says. ‘China can also help Pakistan move forward.’” (NPR)

– In the past decade China has become the biggest lender to African governments, which has allowed the building of all kinds of infrastructure projects. In Kenya, the Chinese built and now operate a train running the almost 300 mile distance between Nairobi to the port of Mombasa and back twice a day. Critics warn that the loans can become debt-traps for the countries. Even more worrisome are numerous reports of Kenyans being physically punished by Chinese managers. One paper reported: “Chinese nationals have created a small kingdom in which they run roughshod over Kenyan workers who say they are experiencing neo-colonialism, racism and blatant discrimination.” (NPR)

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Bloomberg 2: Judgement Day: Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg posted on Instagram Wednesday that he was re-registering as a Democrat, citing a potential constitutional crisis under fellow New York businessman and current Republican president, Donald Trump. Amid speculation he might make a White House run in 2020, Bloomberg said: “Today, I have re-registered as a Democrat – I had been a member for most of my life – because we need  Democrats to provide the checks and balance our nation so badly needs.” Is this a democracy or a plutocracy? And yes, to the many Pnut readers who wrote to us we know that America isn’t a democracy, it’s democratic republic. But will it become a plutocratic oligarchy? (Guardian)

The Thousands Who See the Many Fly Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: A survey by Yale Law School has found that more than 4,000 prisoners with serious mental illnesses are being kept in solitary confinement in US prisons at least 22 hours a day, despite the knowledge that holding people in isolation exacerbates mental problems and can even trigger them.(Guardian)

Additional read: A study published Tuesday in PLoS Medicine found that when people living with HIV are released from jail or prison, they are given a month’s worth of HIV medication to take with them. However, without continuing access to health care or services to keep them healthy over time, more than half of them fall out of care within three years. (NPR)

– “Cyber Tests Showed ‘Nearly All’ New Pentagon Weapons Vulnerable To Attack, GAO Says: Passwords that took seconds to guess, or were never changed from their factory settings. Cyber vulnerabilities that were known, but never fixed. Those are two common problems plaguing some of the Department of Defense’s newest weapons systems, according to the Government Accountability Office.” The Pentagon is run by that one Aunt who actually thinks they won a free iPhone. (NPR)

– “All Those Books You’ve Bought but Haven’t Read? There’s a Word for That”. (NYT)

– “How to Automate a Habit and Never Think About It Again: The best way to break a bad habit is to make it impossible to do. And the best way to create a good habit is to automate it so you never have to think about it again.” (James Clear)

– “Pensions Get Bolder in Challenging Private Equity on Investments’ Human Cost: Private equity firms and public pension funds have long had a symbiotic relationship: The funds supply the firms with billions of dollars to invest, and the firms deliver double-digit returns that help the funds support retired public servants.” (NYT)

– “Why big companies squander brilliant ideas” (Tim Harford)

– Yesterday Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, & Microsoft lost $191 billion dollars in market capitalization. “Tech stocks (and the stock market) are tanking thanks to rising interest rates.” (TechCrunch)

– “Climate Change Will Get Worse. These Investors Are Betting on It: If electric cars and clean energy aren’t enough to prevent rising oceans, then there’s money to be made in seawalls, indoor agriculture, and emergency housing.” (Bloomberg)

– “The New Atlanta Billionaires Behind An Unlikely Tech Unicorn:Mailchimp’s success is built on the backs of America’s small business owners. Its most popular service—email marketing—might seem a low-tech, unsexy medium in 2018.” Daily Pnut uses Mailchimp. (Forbes)

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minuteS to ruin it. If you think about that you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffett

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