Monday shorts and links....

Gay marriage a big issue in Taiwan, with just over 50% supporting...

• LANDMARK: NYTimes editorial encouraging same-sex marriage in Taiwan: "Taiwan should become another nation to recognize that love is love, regardless of sexual orientation." Another nation. 
• Meanwhile: Large protest in support of gay marriage today in front of the Legislature. DPP might reverse position on gay marriage but it looks like it will come up with a separate but equal civic union law which civic groups do not want. Civic groups rally in support of gay marriage. News Lens: Religious lobby might derail gay marriage. Religious backers of the democracy movement here are some of the strongest DPP supporters. Now they demand that the party stop gay marriage because "nobody could be prevented from marrying Ferris Wheels". No kidding, someone actually said something that stupid. That's why J Michael argued that the struggle, as in so many areas, is between reason and obscurantism. The KMT moved to block the bill by delaying it. So far my favorite item aside from that completely ridiculous Ferris Wheel remark is this KMT-produced chart which shows majority support for gay marriage -- but note the different sizes of the pie portions....
  
  
• DON'T MISS: Commonwealth on illegal land use by factories. It's big companies, not small ones, that are the problem.
• Cyberspies target Taiwan's security, energy sector. It's only going to get worse over time.
• SCMP warns Trump might not follow US policy in Asia. Yes, but I think fears of a trade war are totally unfounded. US corporations will never permit it. Moreover, someone will point out that "China" products have lots of input from Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, which are US allies. 
• SCMP: Lawrence Chung's gleeful, misleading analysis of why Tsai Ing-wen is losing approval. Best line: "But her eagerness to push for so-called transitional justice serves only to create the crisis of class struggles and resentment towards the government." LOL. That's right, it's not years of government being in bed with big business, falling wages, rising income inequality, rising housing prices, and declining economic prospects that caused social resentment. It's... transitional justice.
• President Tsai Ing-wen in the Economist on 2017. No, we are not going to be an Asian Tiger. Ever again. Those days are dependent on the existence of robust, well paid middle class in the US, which 30 years of neoliberalism have destroyed.
• Meet Hualien's British barber 
• Starting wages for new graduates fall. How long can this go on? 
• Dengue fever cluster first in five years
• Slowing economic growth likely to hit financial firms
• Party identification in Taiwan: Taiwan Indicators Survey Research: 17.7% support #KMT, 27% #DPP; 37.2% neutral. 25.3% Pan-Blue; 35.2% Pan-Green. 
• Social activists rally to protest DPP government's failure to do what they want. It's been -- count it -- six months since Tsai came into office. Seriously. 
• NIA says 53,000 workers AWOL in Taiwan
• New Bloom on the idea of Foxconn head Terry Gou as KMT presidential candidate
• Chinese fishing boats using old Taiwanese fishing methods in Taiwan waters
• Forbes: latest threat to hi-tech sector: falling notebook demand
• Consumer confidence at three year low
• Taiwan to spend $56 billion on renewables
• In the foreign community, this incident of a foreigner kicking and beating his Taiwanese g/f was met with widespread disgust. But since she won't press charges, there is nothing anyone can do under current laws.  

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