2016年11月29日 星期二

a new generation of cannabis capitalists

The Economist
Over half of all American states have taken some steps to legalise marijuana, a move The Economist has argued for since 1989. There is now a burgeoning industry being shaped by a new generation of cannabis capitalists

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2016年11月28日 星期一

參與、代表的多樣性 (Diversity)

過去數十年，美國各層級、類別的組織都追求：參與、代表的多樣性 (Diversity)。

美國在台協會 AIT
隨著美國人口結構日趨多樣化，美國公職人員的組成也發生了變化。在2016年大選期間，美國選民選出了幾位反映美國多樣性的候選人進入州一級機構，例如明尼蘇達州選出一位美國索馬里亞裔的穆斯林女性立法官員，懷俄明州第一次出現納瓦霍族（Navajo）女性州參議員。美國國會每5名成員中就有一位是少數族裔，展現了全國範圍內的變化。一起來了解: https://goo.gl/EqgFSq
As the American population grows more diverse, U.S. public officeholders are following suit. American voters elected a number of diverse candidates at the state level in the 2016 election, including a female Somalian-American Muslim lawmaker in Minnesota and Wyoming’s first Navajo woman state senator. Meet the newest U.S. elected officials that reflect the diversity of America:https://goo.gl/EqgFSq
U.S. voters usher in more diversity to statehouses | ShareAmerica
The U.S. election ushered in a diverse group of state lawmakers, including a Somali-American Muslim woman and a Navajo woman.
SHARE.AMERICA.GOV|由 SHAREAMERICA 上傳

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Not so fast, Mr. President . ‘End of History’ Author Says Donald Trump Could Signal a Shift From the Liberal World Order


美國在台協會 AIT

5小時
美國總統侯選人在競選期間會承諾很多事情，但一旦勝選後宣誓就職，兌現諾言的能力則非常有限。根據美國憲法，總統的權力很大。但是立法和司法部門，即國會和由最高法院為首的聯邦法院也有很大的權威。憲法將政府的權力分配給一系列制衡機制，防止任何一個政府部門變得過於強大。因此許多因素決定了一位新總統的計劃有多少能成為現實。了解更多: https://goo.gl/Bxh4qA
Presidential candidates make many promises. Once the winner is sworn into office, his ability to fulfill them is limited. Under the U.S. Constitution, a president’s powers are significant. But the legislative and judicial branches — that’s Congress and the federal courts, headed by the Supreme Court — also have great authority. The Constitution apportions their powers as a series of checks and balances that prevent any one branch of government from becoming too powerful. A number of factors control just how much of a new president’s agenda becomes reality. Learn more: https://goo.gl/Bxh4qA

Not so fast, Mr. President | ShareAmerica
On the campaign trail, candidates promise to make major policy changes. But once elected, they may find it isn't so easy to implement them.
SHARE.AMERICA.GOV|由 SHAREAMERICA 上傳

研究世界民主問題的著名美國政治思想學者福山在談到川普現象時說，他本人並不喜歡川普，也不會投票給他，但是川普在政壇上的崛起確實也反映出了一些民意。
他說：“唐納德·川普拉低了美國政治的格調，我認為他也缺少文明風度。這在政治上不是件好事。但是我確實認為，他反映了民眾對很多事情在相當程度上的憤怒；不幸的是，那反映了美國的某種社會現實，也就是，很多人感到被忽視了，感到政治系統沒有回應他們的訴求。”
法西斯？美國人骨子裡沒有專制想法
不過，川普也因為發表了那些具有爭議性的言論而被反對他的一些人貼上了“法西斯”的標籤。中共黨媒《人民日報》旗下的《環球時報》在​​一篇評論川普現象的社論中提醒讀者說，墨索里尼和希特勒也是通過人民選舉上台的。
政治學專家弗朗西斯·福山（資料照）政治學專家弗朗西斯·福山（資料照）
福山說：“我認為，這只是反映出對美國社會的某種無知。美國人骨子裡就沒有專制的想法。我覺得，他們想要強有力的領導，但是他們希望這種領導受到法律和基本問責的約束。他們不希望有人讓反對者噤聲，或是對他們使用暴力。從根本上來講，美國的製度是建立在法律之上的。進一步來說，我認為身為商人和談判者的唐納德·川普很可能更願意與對手談判而不是主宰他們。”
福山認為，美國政治中確實存在一些問題，比如精英把持政治、金錢政治以及政府運作上的一些問題，但是川普現象本身並不表明美國的政治體制出現問題或者是危機。
權力制衡
他指出，美國民主不僅有民主選舉，還包括權力制衡。
他說：“美國總統和中國領導人不一樣。我們有權力制衡的憲政體系。你當選了總統並不意味著你想幹什麼就能幹什麼。總統必須和國會合作，他們必須在憲法框架內行事。總統實際擁有的權力是非常有限的，因此總統的效率實際上取決於他/她與政府其他部門，尤其是司法部門，建立共識的能力。……在中國，共產黨的領袖基本上沒有什麼可以制衡他。如果領導人的權力非常大，像習近平一樣，他們就可以做任何他們想做的事情，而人們只能希望有一個好的領導人。我認為，在某種程度上來說這是個更大的危險，因為不受制衡的權力會做很多糟糕的事情，比如侵犯民眾的基本權利，犯下不容易修正的大錯誤。”
既有選票還有法治
此外，福山還強調，在美國的民主體制中，有法治作保障。
他說：“我認為，非常重要的一點是，美國人不是選舉獨裁者，我們選出的總統必須在法治體系下行事，必須遵從法律。事實上，當川普說要殺了恐怖主義的家人或是做一些實際上是違法的事情的時候，包括美國軍方的許多人都表示，他們不會服從這樣的命令，因為那是違法的。他們首先是對法律忠誠，而不是選出的任何一位總統。我認為那​​是美國民主最重要的基礎。”
研究民主與治理的著名學者
弗朗西斯•福山目前是斯坦福大學民主、發展與法治中心的高級研究員。1989年初，福山發表題為《歷史的終結》 (The End of History)的文章並斷言，民主制將“成為全世界最終的政府形式”。在這之後不久，柏林牆倒塌，蘇聯共產黨帝國瓦解，福山聲譽鵲起。
這篇文章在1992年被擴展成專著《歷史的終結及最後之人》(The End of History and the Last Man)。福山在2014年出版了他的新書《政治秩序和政治衰敗》（ Political Order and Political Decay），他在新書中強調了治理問題。
2015年4月23日，福山和其他兩名學者受中共中央政治局常委、中紀委書記王岐山的邀請，在中南海與其見面。
川普能贏否？
這位知名政治學者對當下的美國總統選舉也做出了他的預測。福山說，從全國范圍的民調來看，不支持川普的人要比支持他的人多，因此他認為，川普即使拿下共和黨提名，當選總統的可能性也比較低。他說，如果是他來預測大選結果，他認為希拉里·克林頓會當選。
不過，自從川普宣佈出馬競選後，一個又一個的美國政治家和評論家預言他只是曇花一現，而這些預言卻一次又一次地被川普擊破。
~~~~~~

‘End of History’ Author Says Donald Trump Could Signal a Shift From the Liberal World Order

Francis Fukuyama says the U.S.’s role depends on whether Mr. Trump rules like a businessman or a ‘mafia boss’


By

37 COMMENTS
Francis Fukuyama, the Stanford University professor who famously said Western-style liberal democracy was triumphing in an “End of History” global political evolution, now says Donald Trump’s coming presidency could usher in the collapse of the postwar world order. Here are excerpts from a recent interview:
Q: You have said Donald Trump’s winning the White House is a watershed moment for world order. Why?
A: The bottom line of Trump’s policy is quite consistent: He’s a nationalist, both in terms of economic policy and global political order. He’s not going to buy into the type of cooperative arrangements that have been the underpinning of the liberal world order since the late 1940s.
But the real question that people have to pay attention to is, when he can’t get his way, which I suspect is going to be the case, is he going to escalate to more serious things like protective tariffs or punitive actions against companies that invest overseas?
This is tremendously dangerous because there’s a lot of economic nationalism already out there, and the U.S. has played a role in keeping this under wraps. If the hegemonic power shifts sides to a populist nationalist platform, the impetus towards maintaining that liberal order is potentially going to collapse.
In terms of global political strategy, that same liberal order has been maintained by U.S. alliance relationships, with NATO, Japan, South Korea, and the like. Here again, he’s been really skeptical that these are worth it for us.
This wouldn’t be quite so menacing if you didn’t have Russia and China on the kind of geopolitical roll that they’ve been on for the last five years where are both resentful, they’ve got territorial claims and they’ve been held at bay by the fact that the U.S. has been leading a coalition of like-minded democracies.
Q: Is Mr. Trump’s campaign rhetoric more bluster than reality and could advisers play a moderating role?
A: That’s a question that nobody has any idea what the answer is. There are two aspects to his personality. He’s a businessman, he likes to do deals, he likes to reach agreements with people. If that’s his basic outlook, then when he faces the reality of the limits of America’s ability to act unilaterally, then he may actually end up not too different from the kind of policies we’ve seen over the last generation.
On the other side, he’s got this kind of lunatic side where he is willing to be completely outside the consensus, threatening more like a mafia boss to take revenge on people who’ve disrespected him.
It’s inevitable there’s going to be some really big setback and he’s going to want to do something—when other countries push back or other parts of the U.S. government push back—and that’s going to be the critical moment when we don’t know how he’s going to react. Is he going to fall back to the transactional mode, and just settle for the best deal he can get, or is this more extremist side going to come out? And I just don’t think anyone knows right now.
Q: You say the existing world order is threatened by a Trump presidency. Why?
A. There was a world order, in the sense that there are a lot of formal institutions like all the Bretton Woods institutions and military alliances. Obviously if the world is populated by a lot of populist, nationalist leaders, they inherently don’t believe in international institutions, and so they’re not going to provide any support for those. They are creating an international network where they are lending support to one another.
The formal, structural institutions that we’ve been reliant upon will be weakened. It’ll be replaced by these networks of more like-minded regimes.
Q: In light of that scenario, could the world spiral down into trade and currency wars that led to global conflicts in the past?
A. Yes, this is the more likely one than the political one: Where you don’t like deals that you can negotiate, so you threaten a punitive tariff or you take actions against companies investing abroad and countries retaliate.
China has a lot of sources of leverage over us, beginning with how much of their currency they’ve been willing to buy, and they’ve been buying airplanes from Boeing and turbines from GE, and there’re all sorts of ways that economic relationship could go south very quickly.

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2016年11月27日 星期日

National Native American Heritage Month



美國在台協會 AIT
「美洲原住民是美國最早的住民，他們在美國每個歷史的轉捩點上都扮演了關鍵的角色。今天，年輕的美國印地安人和阿拉斯加的原住民主宰著自己的命運，迎接他們的是無限的可能。十一月是美國的原住民傳統月，我們承諾會和部落民族維持有意義的夥伴關係，並且重申我們對於這些部落的承諾，讓我們的下一代全部都能享有他們應得的未來。」--歐巴馬總統
“As the first Americans, Native Americans have helped shape the future of the United States through every turn of our history. Today, young American Indians and Alaska Natives embrace open-ended possibility and are determining their own destinies. During National Native American Heritage Month [November], we pledge to maintain the meaningful partnerships we have with tribal nations, and we renew our commitment to our nation-to-nation relationships as we seek to give all our children the future they deserve.” -- President Obama
Full text of Presidential Proclamation on National Native American Heritage Month, 2016: https://www.whitehouse.gov/…/presidential-proclamation-nati…
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2016年11月25日 星期五

美國記事：CNN感恩節半小時黃色謠言；俄羅斯黑客志在瓦解北約NATO


Robert Reich
I don’t go in for conspiracies, but two teams of independent researchers have found that the flood of “fake news” this election season got help from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online -- with the goal of hurting Hillary Clinton and helping Donald Trump. A recent Rand report dubbed Russian propaganda efforts a “firehose of falsehood” given their speed, power and relentlessness. These operations also worked to promote the “Brexit” departure of Britain from the European Union.
So, did Russia hack into the election in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin? More basically, why has Putin been so eager to get Trump elected? My guess: To end NATO. That's the heart of the deal.
What do you think?

USA TODAY
No, despite what you read, CNN did not run porn for 30 minutes last night.

False CNN-porn report shows how fast fake news spreads
News channel did not run porn for 30 minutes, contrary to a slew of reports.
USATODAY.COM

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One by One, ISIS Social Media Experts Are Killed as Result of F.B.I. Program




One by One, ISIS Social Media Experts Are Killed as Result of F.B.I. Program

By ADAM GOLDMAN and ERIC SCHMITT

American officials say a secretive campaign of surveillance and drone attacks has cut the Islamic State's ability to inspire attacks in the West.
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2016年11月23日 星期三

The power and perils of Trumponomics. Obama's Overtime Rule Thrown Out


The uncomfortable truth is that the fate of America's economy in 2017 depends on Donald Trump recognising the faults in his thinking

The power and perils of Trumponomics
Making recession great again?
THEWORLDIN.COM



美國加州、紐約等提高最低工資，.....線在德州盼暫停

Bill Moyers
Major setback for workers –> Marianne Levine for Politico: “In a stunning blow to the Obama administration’s economic legacy, a federal judge in Texas granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday delaying implementation of a regulation that would extend overtime eligibility to an estimated 4.2 million workers. The ruling puts in serious jeopardy the most significant wage intervention by President Barack Obama, who has been unable to persuade Congress to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour.”



Morning Reads: Obama's Overtime Rule Thrown Out; Clinton Urged to Challenge Vote in Three States
A roundup of some of the stories we're reading at BillMoyers.com HQ... Continue reading
BILLMOYERS.COM

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Trump disavows 'alt-right' supporters；White-Collar Supremacy



White-Collar Supremacy

By KELLY J. BAKER

There's nothing new about the alt-right's intellectual aspirations.



Stand News 立場新聞
特朗普被《紐約時報》記者問及另類極右一事，對該組織予以譴責，並表明自己無意鼓勵有關組織，如果那些組織因為他當選而感到受鼓勵，他會去了解背後原因：
“I condemn them. I disavow, and I condemn ... It’s not a group I want to energize, and if they are energized, I want to look into it and find out why....”


曾倡「和平種族清洗」　「另類右派」納粹手勢賀當選　特朗普譴責 | 立場報道 | 立場新聞
經常發表反移民言論的特朗普當選美國總統，被輿論視為「白人種族主義」的反撲（Whitelash）...
THESTANDNEWS.COM


Trump Seems to Retreat on Some Promises

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR, JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and MAGGIE HABERMAN 
In an interview with The New York Times, President-elect Trump offered the Clintons an olive branch, said he would keep an “open mind” on a climate accord and disavowed the alt-right.

Alt-right - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-right

The alt-right is a loose group of people with far right ideologies who reject mainstream conservatism in the United States. The alt-right has no formal ideology, ...
另類右派[1][2]（英語：alt-right或alternative right，又譯作另類右翼[3]、非主流右派[4][5]）是美國右派政治思想中反對主流保守主義的一個派別。[6][7]這一政治群體多活躍於網絡，尤其是4chan和8chan等匿名網絡論壇，習慣以網絡爆紅和表情包等表達自己的觀點。[8][9][10][11]活躍者中有一部分是為了戲謔或為激怒他人而發表相關的言論，亦有一部分人是認真支持其觀點，但具體身份和比例難以確定。[12][13]另類右派的支持者還常使用Twitter等社交平台發表言論。布萊巴特新聞網也被認為是此派觀點的集中地。[14][15][16]
另類右派總體上並無正式確定的政治理念，但其擁護者多支持2016年大選中的共和黨候選人唐納·川普，[17][18]贊同其反對外來移民，反對多元文化及反對政治正確的思想。[7][19][20]另類右派人士自認為其理念反建制，敢於突破禁忌，反對自我審查，認為當前的種族平權和女權運動已經過度。其支持者認為應當保護西方的文化，反對「一體化」的融合思想。[21]其內部對具體理念亦有分歧，部分支持者公開支持白人優越主義、反猶太主義和種族主義。
眾多主流意見則認為另類右派的核心是白人民族主義和白人優越主義。[6][7][13]「另類右派」這一說法也涵蓋不同方面，主要理念均為反對主流保守主義思想。不同報導指出，另類右派與反猶太主義、右派民粹主義、排外主義、反女權主義、恐伊斯蘭情緒、恐同思想等理念密切相關，與反全球化運動、「黑暗啟蒙運動」（或稱「新反動主義運動」）[9][22][23]、身份主義運動等政治運動亦有關聯。[24]

詞源[編輯]


2008年11月，美國政治學者保羅·戈特弗里德在談及H·L·孟肯俱樂部時提到「另類右派」（"alternative right"）這一說法。[25]2009年，美國在線政治文化雜誌《塔基雜誌》刊登了派屈克·J·福特（Patrick J. Ford）和傑克·亨特（Jack Hunter）的兩篇文章，其中深入探討了與主流右派存在差異的另類右派。[26][27]但一般認為這一術語的廣泛使用起源於美國政治作家理察·B·斯賓塞，他在2008年任《塔基雜誌》編輯期間將「在智力上、甚至情感和精神上都與美國保守主義格格不入」的右派群體稱為「另類右派」，之後於2010年離職創辦身份主義政論網站「另類右派」，日後成為這一政治派別的思想中心。這一術語之後被年輕追隨者縮寫為「alt-right」。[13][28][21][19][29]
In the news
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Trump disavows 'alt-right' supporters
BBC News‎ - 5 hours ago
Donald Trump repudiates the fringe "alt-right" group that celebrated his election win with ...
Trump disavows the white nationalist 'alt-right' but defends Steve Bannon hire
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