Turkey′s election system the ′most unfair′ in the world

With days to go until general elections, the fairness of Turkey's voting system has come under international scrutiny. When compared with other democracies, the Turkish voting system appears to be designed to leave underdogs in the lurch.

The British daily newspaper The Guardian reported that Turkey had "the world's most unfair election system." This was based on the fact that a 10 percent threshold kept smaller political movements from entering parliament - forfeiting dozens of seats to their rivals under the country's d'Hondt voting system, which allocates parliamentary seats proportionally according to vote totals.

The Guardian's primary criticism is that Turkey only allocates seats to parties that win at least 10 percent of the vote.

Though such a barrier is not exclusive to Turkey, 10 percent is the highest threshold of its kind. German politics employ a 5 percent threshold, and many other countries - the United Kingdom, France and Portugal among them - don't feature any such hurdle.

The Turkish voting system is also regarded as unjust for facilitating minority governments. Under certain circumstances, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) could manage to gain a majority of parliamentary seats with merely 45 percent of the popular vote, in which case the wishes of 55 percent of the electorate could effectively be ignored.

These guidelines could create an unpredictable outcome at Sunday's polls. While AKP has managed to grow support in its 13-year-reign, taking full advantage of the 10 percent threshold, the latest polls suggest that its luck may change. The Konda Research and Consultancy institute in Istanbul gave the party of President Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu only about 41 percent of the vote.

Read more: Turkey′s election system the ′most unfair′ in the world | News | DW.DE | 04.06.2015

Life Expectancy: Ubble: the online test to predict if you'll die within five years

If you are a middle-aged man and want to know if you are going to die in the next five years, you simply need to ask yourself how healthy you think you are.

Whether you would rate your health as excellent, good, fair or poor is a better predictor of death in the next five years for men aged 40 to 70 than physical measures including blood pressure and pulse rate, according to scientists writing in the Lancet medical journal. Other significant questions include how briskly you walk and how many cars you own.

The first major publication from scientists using data from the UK Biobank scores 655 different measures that can affect the chances of premature death. The researchers have used this to put together a short questionnaire. Just 13 questions for men and 11 for women will produce a percentage risk factor for death within five years.

While self-assessed health is the strongest risk factor for men, the strongest for women is any diagnosis of cancer, which is the biggest cause of women’s death in this age group. For people of both sexes who do not have any serious disease or disorder, smoking is the most significant factor.

The website, called Ubble (for UK Longevity Explorer), also tells people their “Ubble age”. If their Ubble age is lower than their real age, then their risk of early death is also low. If it is higher, say researchers, people might like to think about making possible improvements to their health such as stopping smoking and a better diet.

The website has been designed with the help of the charity Sense About Science.

The death rates in the 40-70 age group are low. Among the nearly 500,000 Biobank participants, 8,352 died over a five-year period – fewer than 2%. There are no questions about weight or body mass index because they will not impact mortality over a five-year period.

The researchers found that how many cars a household owned was a factor, however – because more cars indicated a more affluent family. Walking briskly was more obviously an indicator of better health.

he scientists, Professor Erik Ingelsson from Uppsala University and Dr Andrea Ganna from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, have also put their more detailed findings about the 655 significant measures on the website.

To do the test click here.

Read more: Ubble: the online test to predict if you'll die within five years | Science | The Guardian

US Police - US police officers kill more than two people a day

US police have reportedly shot and killed 385 people over the past five months, a rate of more than two per day, reports the Washington Post. The figure is much higher than typical federal counts.

The analysis is based on data the Washington Post newspaper is compiling on every fatal police shooting in 2015. The investigation also includes information about every officer killed by gunfire while on duty over the past five months.

“We are never going to reduce the number of police shootings if we don't begin to accurately track this information,” said Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, a not-for-profit organization committed to improving law enforcement.

Federal Bureau of Investigation records for the past decade show the occurrence of around 400 fatal police shootings per year, or an average of 1.1 deaths a day.

The death rate reported in the Washington Post newspaper on Saturday is more than twice that cited by the federal government over the past decade.

Read more: Report: US police officers kill more than two people a day | News | DW.DE | 31.05.2015

IS THE LOTTO RIGGED ? YES IT IS !

You may have heard that you are more likely to be hit on the head by a meteorite than to win the lottery. This is certainly so. 

Assuming that the game is honest, the odds are roughly one in several hundred million. Even with these odds, lottery commissions are not satisfied. The lottery is rigged.

The giant multi-state and individual state lotteries are more fixed than pro wrestling. The jackpots go up and up, with no winners.  People get lottery fever. Millions nationwide are willing to wait in a line just like the ones for bread in the former Soviet Union for the pipe dream of striking it rich.   

The rigging works like this: super computers keep track of each combination sold, and then the ping-pong balls are weighted to assure that a losing combination comes up. On rare occasions, all possible combinations are sold, and they must let someone win. Only then is the game honest.

Why? The lottery, which is a state-run version of the Mafia's numbers racket, is a great money grab scam, as long as it brings in more than it pays out. In the past, lotteries were abolished because they lost money. 

 

The worst part of this is whom it hurts. The poor and desperate are the most common victims of lottery fever.  Children go hungry and senior citizens go without their medication because of it. People prone to gambling addiction also blow huge sums.

We spoke with an employee at a state lottery agency. We can not reveal his name or even which state, as some of the same gangsters who ran the numbers racket now run the lottery, and they would kill him.

 

“Yes, I personally am involved in it. Lottery ping-pong balls have a small valve, like a basketball or soccer ball, only it’s very tiny, and nearly invisible. We use a hypodermic needle to inject heavier-than-air gasses such as radon into the balls we don’t want to come up. At first, we tried helium in the ones we did want to rise, but they jumped up so quickly that it was obvious. Lotteries are raking in much more than if the games were honest, and people don’t know they have literally no chance!”

“If you think about it logically, you certainly don’t play anyway. You are betting that you can predict which six of 45 or more balls are going to come out of the hopper. In some games, the order even matters! It’s a sucker’s bet, and that’s when it’s honest! Most drawings are rigged, making the odds zero in infinity! The lottery is not only a tax on people who don’t understand math; it is an unfair and unjust tax. Didn’t we have the American Revolution over taxes like that?”

You read it here first.

In other words - you can better throw your money in the fire than play the lottery and it is high time governments which allow or organize Lotto review these fraudulent  Lotto games.

Read more: THE LOTTERY IS RIGGED

The Netherlands - Almere: Free Concert by Holland's Hottest Gospel Choir "the Amsterdam FireChoir" in Almere tonight

Holland's most popular Gospel Choir, the Amsterdam FireChoir, which also performed with Barbara Streisand at the Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome will be giving a free concert in Almere tonight.

FireChoir is open to everyone! People of all cultures, nationalities, religious or non-religious persuasions. FireChoir is a professional and exciting musical adventure.

Tonight's event  - (May30 - 19.30) is at t'Klankbord, Pianoweg 117, Almere, Muziekwijk, located  next to the parking of the Muziekwijk train station.  A 4 minute walk  from the station.

The New Day International Church in Almere is the sponsor of this free event.

Almere-Digest

Fifa Scandal or Politics on Steroids ?: Why is the US policing a global game ?

The BBC asked in one of their recent programs - "America does not even like football, or so many people think. Why is it leading the charge against alleged Fifa corruption?"

Good question.

At dawn, Swiss police rounded up seven Fifa officials at the behest of US authorities who have conducted a massive investigation into corruption at football's governing body.
So how did a country where football is more niche than entrenched come to police the world's beautiful game?

"Too many countries are cowed by Fifa," said Alexandra Wrage, a former Fifa anti-bribery adviser who resigned in protest from the organization.

"As with international bribery more generally, the US Department of Justice has said they'll step up to investigate corruption if others won't," she said.

It is not clear what specific event - if any - prompted the US investigation. Some have pointed to the United States' failed bid in late 2010 to host the the 2022 World Cup, and suspicions that bribes were paid to encourage votes for Qatar.

Note EU-Digest:The US involvement in Fifa is questionable and looks much more like politics gone on steroids. Everyone is aware bribery in sports has been going on for years now, not only in the FIFA globally, but also in just about every sector of US sports.  Another possible point of this US contention could be that Russia will be hosting the next World Cup in 2018!  The country submitted its candidacy in early 2009 and was selected by the FIFA Executive Committee in Zurich on December 2, 2010, beating out England and joint bids from Portugal/Spain and Belgium/Netherlands. 

Who knows, the US might be wanting to turn this decision for Russia to host the 2018 world cup around by proving bribery charges favored the selection of Russia and in that way indirectly also punish Russia for the Ukraine crises.

Another aspect, and maybe the most important one, is that the commercial benefits of hosting a World cup and all the perks that come with it involves major corporate involvement and profits. 

This complicates matters even more, since corporate money these days,  more often than not,  usually controls political action.   

EU-Digest 

USA - Democracy on the rocks? The Super Rich Have a New Way to Buy Elections - by Robert Faturechi and Jonathan Stray

US Super PAC's

Super PACs bankrolled by a single donor quadrupled their share in the US of overall fundraising in 2014. And there’s no sign of letup in ’16.

The wealthiest Americans can fly on their own jets, live in gated compounds and watch movies in their own theaters.

More of them also are walling off their political contributions from other big and small players.

A growing number of political committees known as super PACs have become instruments of single donors, according to a ProPublica analysis of federal records. During the 2014 election cycle, $113 million—16 percent of money raised by all super PACs—went to committees dominated by one donor.

That was quadruple their 2012 share.

The rise of single-donor groups is a new example of how changes in campaign finance law are giving outsized influence to a handful of funders.

The trend may continue into 2016. National Review recently reported that Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination would be boosted not by one anointed super PAC but four, each controlled by a single donor or donor family.

The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling helped usher in the era of super PACs. Unlike traditional political action committees, the independent groups can accept donations of any dollar size as long as they don’t coordinate with the campaign of any candidate.

The Super Rich Have a New Way to Buy Elections - The Daily Beast