2017 -Year of Change?

[Stavros]

Was 2017 a good year, was it a bad year, was it the year when real change began?

In the space of a year, it appears that the radical shake-up of democratic politics across the Atlantic that was marked in 2016 by the EU Referendum in the UK and the Presidential election in the USA has faltered.

At the beginning of the year, Theresa May was in an unassailable position, way ahead of the Labour Party in the polls where Jeremy Corbyn was viewed as a disaster who would lead Labour into oblivion if May called an election in the Spring. The year ends with Mrs May presiding over a divided Cabinet, unable to govern without the support of the fringe party the DUP, having so badly managed a general election her position as Prime Minister now seems temporary, while analysts and pundits could not believe so many people voted for Labour, though it suggests if there is a radical strain in politics, it may not be good news for the parties of the 'right', as the failure of Roy Moore's campaign in Alabama also suggests. Critically, the nationalist parties of the Netherlands, France and Germany failed to make significant changes to government there, though one notes their advance in Austria and Poland.

While the UK struggled to make sense of Brexit, the fire that destroyed Grenfell Tower in London stands out as the kind of preventable disaster that underlined the belief that our government is incompetent, and indifferent to human suffering. It stands there in Notting Hill like a coffin over a dead idea, a testament to social and economic division, a wound that will not heal.

For all his bombastic rhetoric, the 45th President has in reality done nothing to prevent the development of nuclear weapons in North Korea, if that programme is indeed moving ahead successfully, not precisely known; most of the President's 'achievements' appear to consist of executive orders amending or rescinding Obama Presidency rules while the tax bill as presently written appears to be a death sentence for the USA if the experience of tax cuts in Kansas are anything to go by. The 'Guardian Grim' review of Kansas is here-
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ailed-tax-cuts

Perhaps the most telling issue in Kansas is that the Koch brothers live there but there is no sign that private enterprise has any intention of entering the market where the state has failed. 21st century capitalists are mostly concerned with playing golf, and making choices between this yacht or that villa in the Caribbean, while the rest of America can go to hell as they won't be going to Puerto Rico.

On the other hand, as noted in the other thread, medical science continues to make positive advances in its attempts to combat disease, technology is making advances in energy sources that are not based on hydrocarbons, and in the development of androids/robots, but doubts continue to exist about the freedom of the internet, and the extent to which Artificial Intelligence will replace Human Intelligence.

Perhaps the most important change in 2017 has revolved around the collapse of Harvey Weinstein's reputation and the avalanche of claims of sexual harassment and assault that have since emerged. 2017 may be recalled as the year when it changed for women, that it marked the beginning of a real change in attitudes, and that it began not in Pakistan or Nigeria, but the USA.

[buttslinger]

I agree that while Trump has been seen as accomplishing nothing, his tax bill might be remembered as the beginning of THE END if 2008 is any indication. So that's quite an accomplishment.
The Republicans in Texas offer huge corporations sweetheart deals where they pay almost no state taxes, in exchange for building factories there. But you wouldn't want to send your kids to school there, I imagine.
Medical knowledge exploded after WWII, kids all over the World learn English with their Medical Studies.
My niece made a lot of money working for EPIC SOFTWARE, it's like a universal computer program for doctors for their patients. Lots of the doctor's didn't like it, because they had to learn to type and spend a lot more time doing "paperwork"
My Dentist's daughter went to the big WOMEN's PROTEST DAY around Trump's Inauguration,...she said "Mommy, what do all those signs mean???"
For me, 2017 ate shit, but I am encouraged to hear that the USA has a secret black money op looking into UFOs. I need a lift off this shitty planet.

[sukumvit boy]

Thanks for starting this new thread for 2017 , Stavros et al.
The NY Times published a nice comprehensive review of 2017 :
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...in-review.html

[filghy2]

I would call it the year of confusion. Trump and Brexit have predictably turned into god-awful messes and the populist tide failed to carry all before it. Whether this is sign of things getting back on track or just a precursor of more confusion remains unclear, however.

[Stavros]

A positive view of 2017 from Nickolas Kristof- an extract

"Every day, the number of people around the world living in extreme poverty (less than about $2 a day) goes down by 217,000, according to calculations by Max Roser, an Oxford University economist who runs a website called Our World in Data. Every day, 325,000 more people gain access to electricity. And 300,000 more gain access to clean drinking water.
Readers often assume that because I cover war, poverty and human rights abuses, I must be gloomy, an Eeyore with a pen. But I’m actually upbeat, because I’ve witnessed transformational change.
As recently as the 1960s, a majority of humans had always been illiterate and lived in extreme poverty. Now fewer than 15 percent are illiterate, and fewer than 10 percent live in extreme poverty. In another 15 years, illiteracy and extreme poverty will be mostly gone. After thousands of generations, they are pretty much disappearing on our watch.
Just since 1990, the lives of more than 100 million children have been saved by vaccinations, diarrhea treatment, breast-feeding promotion and other simple steps."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/o...ol-left-region

[peejaye]

So why the fuck is homelessness going up in your own country? It's currently at 307,000. That's an increase of 13,000 on last year !
STOP trying to put the world to rights & wake up to what's happening in your own country !
Just like our Government; You continuously want to give millions away in foreign aid whilst people born here are continuously persecuted by Government policy.

[Stavros]

You miss the general point, Peejaye, as the improvements to life described by Kristof do not downgrade or dismiss the specific cases which reveal problems that won't go away, such as homelessness. There are areas of extreme poverty in the US and the UK, you know that, and I know that, but was not the point of Kristof's argument.

I am not aware that citizens of the UK are being 'persecuted' by the British government, whereas neglect might be a more valid term to use.

The Foreign Aid budget, as we have discussed before, is a small part of the government's spending and is an important means whereby the UK acts as a responsible citizen in the world. A substantial amount of Foreign Aid is spent on health programmes co-ordinated by the World Health Organization that includes rolling programmes of immunisation against disease, without which millions of children would be vulnerable, and bear in mind these are also programmes offered free to children in the UK under the NHS.

If you think that the money from Foreign Aid would be better spent on projects in the UK, what projects? How much would they cost? The annual budget for the Department for Exiting the European Union is scheduled to cost £100 million a year, the cost of leaving the EU will cost even more in bureaucracy as VAT problems mount for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises who will have to pay up front for transactions, and that is without knowing if the value of the pound is going to rise or fall. Farmers watch crops rot in the fields in Cornwall because EU workers have stopped coming over to pick them; EU citizens are either not coming at all or are leaving with jobs in numerous sectors such as care homes, the NHS, schools and universities not being replaced. £100 Million spent on national suicide, which would be better spent on schools and hospitals, do you not agree?

Homelessness as a problem has increased, it could be due to personal problems, evictions for failing to pay rent under the universal credit system that doesn't seem to be working, and the more general problem of the decline in council house accommodation that we used to provide before it was slashed to ribbons by successive conservative governments since 1979, including that of Tony Blair.

Brexit is the axe hacking away at the UK, if you are outraged by homelessness, how do you think this country will look when we break from our largest trading partner with nothing to replace it? We are leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union, because that is what you voted for. We are losing thousands of jobs, because that it what you voted for. We are seeing the costs of imports rise even before we leave and it will get worse, because that is what you voted for. We face the prospect of a visit from the Fake President of the US who will demand the NHS be opened up to American corporations in trade deals to engage in an 'invest and raid' strategy where they take out more than they put in, which will in effect destroy the NHS as we know it, but which is what you voted for.

You could wake up and accept Brexit is the most damaging event to have hit the UK since 1940, and agitate to stop it. Or you can just go back to bed and pretend it is all a dream.

[peejaye]

Another year but the same old drivel again about fucking Br-exit!

[Stavros]

Another year but the same old drivel again about fucking Br-exit!

Whether or not what I say is drivel -and I note you have not bothered to debate foreign aid-, Brexit is the political reality that drives everything else in this country and will dominate 2018. So if you are fed up with it, as one of the people who voted for it, at least step forward to claim responsibility before walking away in an irresponsible manner, as if it was something to be ignored, someone else's problem.

[peejaye]

I don't give you the pleasure of debating Br-exit or anything else because it's a complete waste of time & very patronising, you just correct everyone who doesn't share your neo-liberal right of centre pro-establishment points of view.