• Facing a rising tide of anti-immigrant resentment in Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a supporter of open borders within the European Union, caved into hardline demands from her Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to create border internment camps for asylum seekers. The surrender to Seehofer, leader of Merkel’s long-time coalition partner, the Christian Social Union, threaten to topple the German coalition government which also includes the center-left Social Democrats.
(“Migration Deal Rescued Merkel’s Government. Now, She Must Save the Pact.” New York Times, July 4, 2018; “The Real Reason Merkel’s Coalition Is in Crisis Is the Rise of the Far-Right AFD,” Vice News, July 5, 2018; “Germany, Austria and Italy to Consider ‘Closing’ Southern Migrant Route,” Guardian, July 5, 2018)
• President Donald Trump recently returned to Wisconsin for the groundbreaking of the much heralded Foxconn manufacturing complex that will make flat panel display screens. Trump joined Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker and GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan in promoting the massive plant near Milwaukee underwritten by nearly $5 billion dollars in state financing. This is just the latest example of huge tax giveaways to high-tech firms promising to create jobs.
( “’It’s a Huge Subsidy’: the $4.8 Billion Gamble to Lure Foxconn to America,” Guardian, July 2, 2018)
• On March 18, one of Uber’s driverless cars, a Volvo SUV, hit and killed a homeless woman, Elaine Herzberg while she was trying to cross a street in Tempe. Arizona. The crash put a halt to Uber’s plans to develop a driverless fleet this year in Arizona. Uber is just one of a dozen companies testing the use of autonomous vehicles, or AV, to establish a driverless service. According to In These Times magazine, the emergence of driverless cars could totally transform transit options for generations.
(“Our Driverless Future: Heaven of Hell,” In These Times, July 6, 2018)
