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The myth of cure-all female corporate boards: Not a guarantee companies will do better or act more humane

Barbara Kay
National Post
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 16:02 UTC
boardroom
© Postmedia News
Bill C-25 would force businesses to open their diversity policies to shareholders or explain why they don’t.
Female dominance on corporate boards is no guarantee that companies will perform better or more humanely

The Liberals are looking at an amendment to diversity-themed Bill C-25 that would force businesses to open their diversity policies to shareholders or explain why they don't ("comply or explain"). At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, "Companies should have a formal policy on gender diversity and make the recruitment of women candidates a priority."

Earnest leftie that he is, Trudeau attributes women's imbalance on business boards - at present they are at 14 per cent, up from 11 per cent in 2015 - to bias alone, therefore a problem requiring state intervention to redress.

Trudeau should watch the now infamous interview (more than six million views at last count, three of them mine) between Jordan Peterson and BBC's Channel 4 reporter Cathy Newman, another earnest leftie, who can't get her head around the notion that bias isn't tenable as a unitary explanation for gender disparity at corporate summits.

Comment: See also: Five Feminist Lies We Take For Granted

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Brain

Jordan Peterson's Vice News Interview: Another Cathy Newman Moment

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 21:40 UTC
Harassment1
The short video below is the latest of many dozens of interviews that Jordan Peterson has given over the last year, yet it stands out as one of the very few that were conducted by a reporter that was either hostile towards, or largely clueless about, Peterson's agenda. In their short write-up on their website, Vice News describes Peterson's book, 12 Rules for Life, as "a mix of pop psychology and self-help" which, for anyone familiar with the book or Peterson's work, tells you all you need to know about Vice News.


The interview with Peterson is less than 6 minutes long, yet even in that short period of time, the Vice reporter manages to expose his own ignorance while Peterson conveys the depth of his thinking on the issues of the #metoo movement, sexual harassment in the workplace and 'political correctness' in general.

The Vice reporter gets straight to the point when he suggests that political correctness in universities is confined to university campuses and that it is not "veering towards apocalypse". Peterson points out that "it's spreading into corporations throughout the US via HR departments". Which is true. The reporter counters with "yes, but in what ways that are not 'hey, how about you not grab the ass of your coworker..."
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Jet3

Middle East military balance shifting as Syria successfully shoots down Israeli F-16

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Sat, 10 Feb 2018 22:10 UTC
israeli jet shot down Syria

Israeli security stands around the wreckage of an F-16 that crashed in northern Israel on Saturday. The Israeli military shot down an Iranian drone it said infiltrated the country before launching attacks on at least a dozen Iranian and Syrian targets inside Syria.
Syria's success in shooting down an Israeli F-16 shows the marked improvement in combat capability of the Syrian military

The shooting down by Syria of an Israeli F-16 shortly after Israel carried out an air strike on Syrian territory has provoked world headlines, as well as a mixture of consternation and threats from Israel.

There is much about this incident which is unclear, but the central fact about it is that an Israeli F-16 has been shot down by the Syrian military, and that its wreckage fell on Israeli territory.

The Israeli claim is that this happened after an Israeli air strike on an Iranian drone trailer near Palmyra, which the Israelis say they carried out in response to an intrusion of an Iranian drone from Syria into their airspace.

Comment: How will Israel react when it finally realizes it can't bully its neigbors any more? Even if Netanyahu runs to the US begging for the latest war toys, the US is so far behind Russia (and possibly Iran) technically that anything the US can offer up will be useless. Then what?

Syria Shoots Down Israeli Jet - It's About Time

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Arrow Down

San Francisco Bay area residents moving out in droves

Len Ramirez
CBS San Francisco
Sat, 10 Feb 2018 12:16 UTC
San Francisco
© Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
San Francisco
The number of people packing up and moving out of the Bay Area just hit its highest level in more than a decade.

Carole Dabak spent 40 years living in San Jose and now she's part of the mass exodus that is showing no signs of slowing down.

The retired engineer's packing up and calling it quits about to move to the state of Tennessee.

"I loved it here when I first got here. I really loved it here. But it's just not the same," Dabak said.

Of course people come and go from the Bay Area all the time, but for the first time in a long time, more people are leaving the Bay Area than are coming in. And the number one place in the country for out-migration is now, right here.

Comment: Besides the high cost of housing and the politics, it's also sitting on newly discovered fault lines which don't bode well for the area.

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2 + 2 = 4

Establishment Dems are making discourse totalitarian by accusing their opponents of being Russian agents

Rainer Shea
Medium
Sat, 10 Feb 2018 20:14 UTC
book burning
The paradigm of McCarthyism the establishment has created reflects how an entrenched system reacts to its own demise. As objections to the status quo mount, and as the ruling class loses control, dissent becomes less and less tolerated. At this point, the struggle between ideologies has heightened so much that almost no one can publicly voice dissenting views without being accused of working for Russia.

This attack strategy is directly descended from the paranoia of the cold war era, when civil rights supporters, socialists, and opponents of war were maligned as Russian agents. It's been normalized through incessant media propaganda, where images of Russian spies and trolls have been drilled into the national psyche. Its effect is that anyone with an online following who criticizes the Democratic Party establishment, promotes independent journalism, or speaks out against the Russia and Syria war campaigns will almost certainly be accused of being a Kremlin troll. "In its capacity to exclude dissent," writes Jackson Lears about the new McCarthyism, "it is like no other formation of mass opinion in my adult life, though it recalls a few dim childhood memories of anti-communist hysteria during the early 1950s."
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Pistol

HRW: Kurdish forces responsible for executions of ISIS suspects in Iraq


RT
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 18:41 UTC
Peshmerga
© Ako Rasheed/Reuters
Kurdish Peshmerga forces detain Islamic State militants southwest of Kirkuk, Iraq.
An HRW researcher told RT the rights group has collected enough evidence suggesting that dozens of alleged Islamic State fighters were executed by Kurdish security forces in Iraq.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a lengthy report on Friday, suggesting that Kurdish security forces, or Asayish, had executed dozens of alleged Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) members. Belkis Wille, the group's researcher in Iraq, told RT the investigation into alleged mass killings was launched after footage of purported mass execution sites began emerging on social media.

The report, which cites a former Kurdish security force member and a number of local eyewitnesses, says the Asayish last year executed dozens of Islamic State fighters in their detention and disposed of their bodies in a mass grave northwest of Mosul.

"Summarily executing of detainees is a very serious violation of the laws of war. In fact, it amounts to a war crime," Wille told RT. "As we understand, the orders to execute these men came from senior members of the Asayish security forces."

Comment: Radicals and recognized militias, involved in such complicated arenas as those of Iraq and Syria, have not unilaterally signed onto any one specific and encompassing creed spelling out the 'laws of war'. The gross inhumanity of one man to another, in the context of current warfronts, sadly happens every day.

Please note: "Soros-financed Human Rights Watch has played a major role in falsely portraying ISIS and Al Qaeda civilian bombings and other atrocities as the work of the Assad regime, building support for military action from the US and EU." ~ William Engdahl

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Brick Wall

Jordan Peterson's new book is a US bestseller - except where liberal newspapers say it isn't

Deborah Dundas
The Star
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Jordan Peterson
© Rene Johnston / Toronto Star/ File
Jordan Peterson giving a lecture at the University of Toronto last year. Peterson is the author of bestselling self-help book 12 Rules for Life.
Controversial author Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life fails to crack the New York Times' prestigious bestsellers list. We set out to find out why.

It's the dream of many writers - to make it onto the New York Times bestsellers list. There's prestige attached. And increased book sales.

But for the University of Toronto's controversy-courting professor Jordan Peterson, it just might be the impossible dream.

Since it was published on Jan. 23, Peterson's 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos has soared to the top of the charts. This week it tops the Star's non-fiction list and other lists across Canada.

Readers in the United States seem to like him, too. It's the No. 4 best-selling book in the U.S. overall, according to Publishers Weekly. It's No. 1 on Amazon. It's No. 2 on the Washington Post's non-fiction list. It's No. 4 on USA Today's overall list.

But it didn't seem to cast even a shadow on the New York Times' prestigious list. Why would that be?

Comment: Though the author of this article asks some good questions, she may also be a bit too forgiving. The US is right now in the middle of a raging culture war; a war of ideas, perceptions and lies versus truths. Mr. Peterson has drawn a line in the sand and stood up articulately and unequivocally for the side of truth as few have in recent years - and for that, it can be safely assumed, some would like to see his point of view and rationale utterly squelched, twisted and undermined:

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USA

US to send 1,000s of troops to the East Pacific to counter Russia and China


RT
Sat, 10 Feb 2018 17:42 UTC
troops in water
© U.S. Navy
The Pentagon reportedly plans a "major muscle movement" from the Middle East to East China, with thousands of extra Marines to be deployed. The goal is to "persuade Pacific nations to stand with the US" and not China.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the US plans to boost its military presence in the East Pacific with rotating deployment of Marine Expeditionary Units, or MEUs. An MEU is a group of about 2,200 Marines who operate from amphibious assault ships and have their own aircraft, tanks, heavy weapons, and other resources. A typical deployment lasts for seven months and may involve missions on the shore like patrols or military-to-military training.

The report, citing military officials, does not say how many MEUs will be sent to the region. The US already has about 50,000 service members in Japan, almost 30,000 in South Korea, and 7,000 more in Guam.

In a related move, the Pentagon will expand the number of Marines deployed in Darwin, Australia. At the moment, 1,250 troops are stationed there in rotating training assignments lasting six months each year. The WSJ said it was not yet clear how large the number of additional troops in Australia will be.

The deployments will be made at the expense of the US military presence in the Middle East, and are in line with the new National Defense Strategy published earlier by the Trump administration, which sets countering Russia and China as a priority for the military. According to the report, the MEUs in East Asia will help the US "persuade Pacific nations to stand with the US."
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Star of David

At least 57 Palestinians injured in clashes with IDF on 10th weekly 'Day of Rage'


RT
Sat, 10 Feb 2018 19:01 UTC
Palestinian demonstrators
© Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters
A Palestinian demonstrator reacts during clashes with Israeli troops, near the border with Israel in the southern Gaza Strip February 9, 2018
At least 57 people have been injured by Israeli forces who used live ammunition to suppress the tenth 'Friday of Rage' protests that have gripped the Palestinian territories since the US recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Massive clashes have once again erupted across the occupied West Bank and Gaza following Friday prayers. Israeli security forces moved in to put down the unrest using volleys of tear gas, rubber bullets and in many cases live ammunition - while the Palestinians hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at the Israeli soldiers. At least 57 people were injured in the clashes, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.


Comment: See also: 'Day of Rage': Thousands of Palestinians clash with IDF in anti-Trump demonstration

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Chess

China's most recent move in the 'graveyard of empires'

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 17:24 UTC
Wakhan Corridor Afghanistan
© Agence Frande-Presse
The rugged Wakhan Corridor of Badakhshan province in northern Afghanistan.
Beijing's strategic priority is to prevent ETIM fighters exiled in Afghanistan crossing the Wakhan Corridor to carry out operations in Xinjiang

The latest plot twist in the endless historical saga of Afghanistan as a graveyard of empires has thrown up an intriguing new chapter. For the past two months, Beijing and Kabul have been discussing the possibility of setting up a military base alongside Afghanistan's border with China.

"We are going to build it [the base] and the Chinese government has committed to help financially, provide equipment and train Afghan soldiers," Mohammad Radmanesh, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, admitted to the AFP.

"We are going to build it [the base] and the Chinese government has committed to help the division financially, provide equipment and train the Afghan soldiers," he added.

On the record, the Chinese Foreign Ministry only admitted that Beijing was involved in "capacity-building" in Afghanistan, while NATO's Resolute Support Mission, led by the United States, basically issued a "no comment."

Comment: Smart money would be on China's 'win-win' policy. It has already produced demonstrable positive results.

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