Many Need to Shop Around on HealthCare.gov as Prices Jump, U.S. Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/us/politics/many-may-find-unpleasant-surprise-on-healthcaregov-high-rate-increases.html
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Saturday, October 31, 2015
Many Need to Shop Around on HealthCare.gov as Prices Jump, U.S. Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/us/politics/many-may-find-unpleasant-surprise-on-healthcaregov-high-rate-increases.html
Cameron is right to schmooze the Chinese
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/
Cameron is right to schmooze the Chinese
Niall Ferguson
Niall Ferguson
24 October 2015
| The Times
The prime minister is neatly repositioning Britain alongside the world's rising power, Just as the US did 40 years
ago.
To listen to some people — from the Speaker of the House of Commons to the leader of the Opposition — you
would think that the Jedi had invited the Emperor Palpatine to discuss increased investment by the Death Star in
the planet Tatooine.
President Xi Jinping's state visit to London this week provided a rare opportunity for left and right to unite. Fraser
Nelson, the usually astute editor of The Spectator, accused David Cameron and George Osborne of "the longest
kowtow in diplomatic history". The Labour MP Paul Flynn went further by comparing Britain to "a supplicant
fawning spaniel that licks the hand that beats it", which was the kind of thing Mao's Red Guards used to chant
during the Cultural Revolution. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4594729.ece
Iran to send ‘fleet of warships’ to the Atlantic Ocean
Iran to send ‘fleet of warships’ to the Atlantic Ocean
Tehran’s navy chief says vessels will ‘soon berth’ at Atlantic ports
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-to-send-fleet-of-warships-to-the-atlantic-ocean/
Adolf, Amin and Bibi By Uri Avnery
| Adolf, Amin and Bibi By Uri Avnery | |
 | A troubling suspicion is getting around: that our prime minister has serious mental problems. Is he losing his marbles? - http://www. |
U.S. Special Forces To Invade Syria: Official
| U.S. Special Forces To Invade Syria: Official By Richard Engel, Kristen Welker and Cassandra Vinograd | |
 | The
special operations forces will be stationed in northern Syria and work
alongside groups with a "proven track record" of fighting ISIS. - http://www. |
=======
| U.S. Stopped Syria Air Strikes While Nusra And IS Prepared Attack On Government Supply Route By Moon Of Alabama | |
 | The
operations room in Damascus, suspects that the attack on the supply
corridor was coordinated at a higher level than just between Nusra and
the Islamic State. - http://www. |
China Sea Blues: A Thing Not to Do
China Sea Blues: A Thing Not to Do
Fred ReedOctober 30, 2015 | http://www.unz.com/freed/
The Vincennes. The boxy thing up front is the radar. It is not hardened.Being something of a technophile, I took all of this in with admiration, but I thought—what if it gets hit? As a kid in my preteens I had read about the battleships of WWII, the Carolinas but in particular the Iowa class, fast, brutal ships with sixteen-inch belt armor and turrets that an asteroid would bounce off of. The assumption was that ships were going to get hit. They were built to survive and continue fighting.http://www.unz.com/freed/china-sea-blues-a-thing-not-to-do/
Israel Takes On the First Amendment: Free speech except regarding Palestine
Israel Takes On the First Amendment: Free speech except regarding Palestine
Back to the Dark Side: Dick Cheney’s Pax Americana
Back to the Dark Side: Dick Cheney’s Pax Americana
The former vice president's latest book smacks of sedition
By Ambassador Joe Wilson (ret.) and Valerie Plame
Posted on October 22, 2015
Exceptional, the new book from
former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz, is not. It is
nothing more than an unhinged rant that smacks of sedition.Posted on October 22, 2015
“The children need to know the truth about who we are, what we’ve done, and why it is uniquely America’s duty to be freedom’s defender,” the prologue proclaims. The book, however, is not about who we are but who Cheney wants us to become. It is a call for Americans to reject constitutional government and those values that have guided our nation for 227 years and replace it with imperial rule in the name of “freedom”––even when that rule includes wars of choice, intrusive violations of our privacy and civil liberties, and of course, an aggressive regime of torture.http://washingtonspectator.org/back-to-the-dark-side-dick-cheneys-pax-americana/
Letter to NBC News Suspending Debate Partnership
Moments ago I sent this letter to NBC News:
Mr. Andrew Lack
Chairman, NBC News
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, New York 10112
Dear Mr. Lack,
I write to inform you that pending further discussion between the Republican National Committee (RNC) and our presidential campaigns, we are suspending the partnership with NBC News for the Republican primary debate at the University of Houston on February 26, 2016. The RNC’s sole role in the primary debate process is to ensure that our candidates are given a full and fair opportunity to lay out their vision for America’s future. We simply cannot continue with NBC without full consultation with our campaigns.
The CNBC network is one of your media properties, and its handling of the debate was conducted in bad faith. We understand that NBC does not exercise full editorial control over CNBC’s journalistic approach. However, the network is an arm of your organization, and we need to ensure there is not a repeat performance.
CNBC billed the debate as one that would focus on “the key issues that matter to all voters—job growth, taxes, technology, retirement and the health of our national economy.” That was not the case. Before the debate, the candidates were promised an opening question on economic or financial matters. That was not the case. Candidates were promised that speaking time would be carefully monitored to ensure fairness. That was not the case. Questions were inaccurate or downright offensive. The first question directed to one of our candidates asked if he was running a comic book version of a presidential campaign, hardly in the spirit of how the debate was billed.
While debates are meant to include tough questions and contrast candidates’ visions and policies for the future of America, CNBC’s moderators engaged in a series of “gotcha” questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone, and designed to embarrass our candidates. What took place Wednesday night was not an attempt to give the American people a greater understanding of our candidates’ policies and ideas.
I have tremendous respect for the First Amendment and freedom of the press. However, I also expect the media to host a substantive debate on consequential issues important to Americans. CNBC did not.
While we are suspending our partnership with NBC News and its properties, we still fully intend to have a debate on that day, and will ensure that National Review remains part of it.
I will be working with our candidates to discuss how to move forward and will be in touch.
Sincerely,
Reince Priebus
Chairman, Republican National Committee
Friday, October 30, 2015
The Silence of the CIS: Russia’s Neighbors and the Syria Crisis
The Silence of the CIS: Russia’s Neighbors and the Syria Crisis
The Commonwealth of Independent States summit that took place in Kazakhstan earlier this month went by without a single expression of public support for President Vladimir Putin. The only person who spoke out in favor, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev, did so only during a post-summit interview to a Russian television channel.
The silence reflects the fact that the ruling elites of the other post-Soviet states are less than thrilled by Russia’s recent foreign policy actions. They see Russia’s behavior in Ukraine as a threat to their sovereignty and territorial integrity. The most that the Kremlin can count on from them is a recognition of the reality that Crimea is now de facto part of Russian territory.http://carnegie.ru/commentary/?fa=61785&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRohvKjKZKXonjHpfsX57uQsW6Sg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YQFRMd0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D
Do Corrupt Politicians Deserve a Second Chance?
Do Corrupt Politicians Deserve a Second Chance?
http://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2015/10/30/do-corrupt-politicians-deserve-a-second-chance/
On Syria, the U.S. should take cues from Beijing, not Moscow
On Syria, the U.S. should take cues from Beijing, not Moscow
https://www.washingtonpost.
Matthew
Spence, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy
from 2012 to this year, is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson
Institute for Global Affairs.
Russia is dominating the debate over Syria. President Vladimir Putin’s supposed masterstroke was to use tactical bombing
to regain the strategic initiative in the Middle East and throw the
United States back on its heels. But Russia is hardly the right model
for U.S. action in Syria. Instead, another U.S. rival offers a more
valuable strategic perspective: China. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-china-model-for-syria/2015/10/29/af7b4892-79c1-11e5-b9c1-f03c48c96ac2_story.html
Mission Impossible Frontline
http://www.frontline.in/world-
On October 15, United
States President Barack Obama stepped away from his campaign pledge to
remove all U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan. He said that the nearly
10,000 troops that were now in the country would remain and that by the
end of the year they would be reduced to half that number. During
Obama’s tenure, in other words, U.S. forces would remain in Afghanistan.
To be fair to Obama, he has cut the U.S. troop presence from 1,00,000
in 2010 to a mere 5,000 at the end of 2015. This is as close to a
withdrawal as one might expect from the U.S. http://www.frontline.in/world-affairs/mission-impossible/article7809687.ece?homepage=true
Barack Obama goes back on his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Without a decisive defeat of the Taliban, the U.S. has lost its Afghan war.
The detritus of regime change in Libya
http://www.alaraby.co.uk/
Date of publication: 28 October, 2015
The doctrine of liberal
interventionism has destroyed post-Gaddafi Libya, just as it destroyed
post-Saddam Iraq, writes Vijay Prashad.
Four years ago, as NATO prepared to bomb Libya, I asked a senior
Western diplomat if he thought the experience of Iraq would inform this
adventure.
After all, regime change in Iraq had resulted in chaos - out of which had emerged, in 2006, the Islamic State of Iraq. Regime change produced chaos, which allowed the worst aspects of politics to reveal themselves. The Western diplomat scoffed at my concerns.
Libya would be different, he said.http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2015/10/28/the-detritus-of-regime-change-in-libya/
The detritus of regime change in Libya
By: Vijay PrashadDate of publication: 28 October, 2015
After all, regime change in Iraq had resulted in chaos - out of which had emerged, in 2006, the Islamic State of Iraq. Regime change produced chaos, which allowed the worst aspects of politics to reveal themselves. The Western diplomat scoffed at my concerns.
Libya would be different, he said.http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2015/10/28/the-detritus-of-regime-change-in-libya/
The House Benghazi Hearings: A Different Perspective By Kenneth Eliasberg
The House Benghazi Hearings: A Different Perspective
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/10/the_house_benghazi_hearings_a_different_perspective.html
No, Hillary Didn't Care About Chris Stevens
No, Hillary Didn't Care About Chris Stevens
http://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2015/10/28/no-hillary-didnt-care-about-chris-stevens-n2071864
EU Parliament votes to protect Edward Snowden
EU Parliament votes to protect Edward Snowden
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/29/europe/eu-edward-snowden-vote/Hillary Clinton’s Failed Libya ‘Doctrine’
Hillary Clinton’s Failed Libya ‘Doctrine’
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/10/22/hillary-clintons-failed-libya-doctrine-2/
Putin urges dollar to be ditched in oil deals:
Putin urges dollar to be ditched in oil deals:
Addressing
oil executives and government officials in the Kremlin, Putin renewed
the call, saying national currencies should be widely used in
operations with the countries with which Russia is actively trading
Russian intel chief warns where ISIS may invade next:
Russian intel chief warns where ISIS may invade next: -
Russian
intelligence on Wednesday warned of an increased risk of fighters with
the Taliban or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, invading
Central Asia. President Putin earlier this month called the situation
in Afghanistan "close to critical" and urged other ex-Soviet nations to
be prepared to act together to repel a possible attack
American Drone Assassinations May Violate International Law, Experts Say
American Drone Assassinations May Violate International Law, Experts Say:
The
standards governing America's drone assassinations may violate the
Geneva Conventions and other international norms, legal experts say.
https://theintercept.com/2015/10/29/american-drone-assassinations-may-violate-international-law-experts-say/
US deserves a war crime charge:
Not only
do the American public not know the details about the drone program,
but U.S. officials also don't even know who or how many people they are
killing
The Devil's Chessboard Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
| The Devil's Chessboard Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government By Prof. Edward Curtin | |
 | David Talbot has exposed the face of evil incarnate in Allen Dulles, the hit-man for the power elite. - http://www. |
GOP Debate: Main Event (Full Debate) Video and Transcript
| GOP Debate: Main Event (Full Debate) Video and Transcript | |
 | Video And Transcript: Full Text of the CNBC Republican Debate in Boulder - http://www. |
The Oligarch Recovery U.S. Military Veterans are Selling Their Pensions in Order to Pay the Bills
| The Oligarch Recovery U.S. Military Veterans are Selling Their Pensions in Order to Pay the Bills By Michael Krieger | |
 | An
economic rebound so robust that an ever increasing number of Americans
are being forced to borrow money at usurious rates just to pay the
bills. - http://www. |
The Week with IPS
| 2015/10/30 |
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Brazil’s Megaprojects, a Short-lived Dream
Mario Osava
Working as a musician in a military band is the dream of 21-year-old
Jackson Coutinho, since hopes that a petrochemical complex would drive
the industrialisation of this Brazilian city near Rio de Janeiro have
gone up in smoke.
"I'll try out for the navy, army and even the military police, but ...
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Southeast Asia: How to Make Good Business Out of Doing Good
Diana G Mendoza
When his father drove back to pay the 47 Malaysian cents they owed to
the food stall they had just left, then nine-year-old Anis Yusal Yusoff,
today president and chief executive officer of the Malaysian Institute
of Integrity, learned the meaning of standing firm by one’s values.
“To me, that ...
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Sri Lanka: A Ray of Hope for those Looking for War Missing
Amantha Perera
Thavarasa Utharai’s most treasured belongings are stuck inside several
plastic bags and tucked within old traveling bags.
Inside, wrapped in more plastic sheets, are old fading photographs,
scrap books, legal documents and even some old bills. These are the only
processions the 36 year old ...
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Opinion: When Schools Become Barracks, Children Suffer
Bede Sheppard
Surprise turned to confusion, then to horror, when the children at Kiata
primary school realized that the soldiers they had spotted at the
bottom of the hill were heading for their school and its occupants.
As the soldiers reached the hilltop school in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo, ...
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Pakistani Communities Reel in the Wake of Massive Earthquake
Ashfaq Yusufzai
“My grandmother rushed inside the room to save me. Roof suddenly
collapsed and she died,” said 12-year-old Mushtari Bibi.
Bibi is one of the 1,950 people who received multiple injuries in
Monday’s massive earthquake that jolted Pakistan and some neighbouring
countries and caused heavy material ...
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Analysis: Turkey at a Crossroads Prior to Sunday's Snap Elections
Joris Leverink
This Sunday, November 1, Turkey heads to the polls for the second time
this year, to elect the 550 members of its Grand National Assembly. The
snap elections were called for by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in late
August when the different parties failed to form a coalition government
after the ...
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Zimbabwe’s Smallholder Farmers Seek Address Food Security and Health Risks with Air Tight Storage Technology
Busani Bafana
Last season, Mollene Kachambwa lost a tonne of the 5 tonnes of maize the
family harvested to weevils and fungi.
This season, weevils and fungi have to find a new host. Kachambwa, who
is from the Kachambwa village located 75 km north east of Zimbabwe's
capital Harare, has stored her maize ...
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Bangladesh Facing Tough Climate Choices
Amantha Perera
Twice a week, 20-year-old Kulsum Begam, a young mother of two, spends
over three hours gossiping with the neighbours.
Neither her husband nor his family raises any objections. In fact, they
encourage the bi-weekly ritual, almost pushing her out the door to go
and meet her friends.
But there ...
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Opinion: People-Powered Data Set to Transform Dull Statistics
Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah
You probably didn’t notice it was World Statistics Day last week
because, let’s be honest, statistics don’t have the most exciting
reputation. Thankfully, I have a feeling this is about to change, big
time.
Dhananjayan (Danny) SriskandarajahWe are witnessing a radical
democratisation with ...
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Agricultural Keys to Malaria in African Highlands
Mzizi Kabiba
Sixty-five years after a major international summit here on malaria, the
mosquito-borne disease remains a scourge and its incidence may even be
rising in parts of sub-Saharan Africa due to the combined effects of
climate change, agricultural practices and population displacement.
Almost half ...
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Itaborai, a City of White Elephants and Empty Offices
Mario Osava
Itaboraà still recalls its origins as a sprawling city that sprang up
along a highway, not far from Rio de Janeiro. But a few years ago big
modern buildings began to sprout all over this city in southeast Brazil,
whose offices and shops are almost all empty today.
The number of white elephants, ...
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Terrace Farming - an Ancient Indigenous Model for Food Security
Marianela Jarroud
Terrace farming as practiced from time immemorial by native peoples in
the Andes mountains contributes to food security as a strategy of
adaptation in an environment where the geography and other conditions
make the production of nutritional foods a complex undertaking.
This ancient prehispanic ...
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Thursday, October 29, 2015
Regime change may not be for the better
http://www.businesstimes.com.
Regime change may not be for the better
America's recent experience in the Middle East and the mess that its policies created in Iraq, Syria and Libya suggest that the conventional wisdom of ousting dictators is wronghttp://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion/regime-change-may-not-be-for-the-better
Hillary's Worst Crime Was Against the 'Filmmaker'
Hillary's Worst Crime Was Against the 'Filmmaker'
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/10/hillarys_worst_crime_was_against_the_filmmaker.html
The Left's Ugly Hatred of Ben Carson
The Left's Ugly Hatred of Ben Carson
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/10/the_lefts_ugly_hatred_of_ben_carson.html
How the U.S. Treasury Avoided Chronic Deflation by Relinquishing Monetary Control to Wall Street
How the U.S. Treasury Avoided Chronic Deflation by Relinquishing Monetary Control to Wall Street
http://www.unz.com/mhudson/how-the-u-s-treasury-avoided-chronic-deflation-by-relinquishing-monetary-control-to-wall-street/
http://www.unz.com/mhudson/how-the-u-s-treasury-avoided-chronic-deflation-by-relinquishing-monetary-control-to-wall-street/
‘Mentally Unstable’ Obama Looking To Start A War With China?
‘Mentally Unstable’ Obama Looking To Start A War With China?
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/mentally-unstable-obama-looking-to-start-a-war-with-china
George Washington: The 6 Reasons China and Russia Are Catching Up to the U.S. Military
Bishop to Congress: We Have Moral Obligation to Help Central American Children
Bishop to Congress: We Have Moral Obligation to Help Central American Children
"If we export enforcement, we also must export protection"
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/bishop-to-congress-we-have-moral-obligation-to-help-central-american-children
FORUM: The Tyranny of the Powerful
FORUM: The Tyranny of the Powerful
"We are conditioned, in America, to think that whatever we want
to do ought to be protected in law as a right. However, we should
remember that our rights do not come from government"
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/forum-the-tyranny-of-the-powerful
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth, But They Shouldn’t Be President
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth, But They Shouldn’t Be President
http://humanevents.com/2015/10/28/the-meek-shall-inherit-the-earth-but-they-shouldnt-be-president/?utm_source=hedaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
CNBC just set the standard for catastrophic debate performances
CNBC just set the standard for catastrophic debate performances
Last night, CNBC's moderators did the impossible: They made the Republicans onstage look competent by comparison
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/29/jeb_bushs_stunning_televised_implosion_how_the_former_gop_frontrunner_became_a_sad_pathetic_joke/
Four Score and Seven Years Ago... at Disney World
Four Score and Seven Years Ago... at Disney World
The Demobilization of the American People and the Spectacle of Election 2016
By Tom Engelhardt
You may not know it, but you’re living in a futuristic science fiction novel. And that’s a fact. If you were to read about our American world in such a novel, you would be amazed by its strangeness. Since you exist right smack in the middle of it, it seems like normal life (Donald Trump and Ben Carson aside). But make no bones about it, so far this has been a bizarre American century.
Let me start with one of the odder moments we’ve lived through and give it the attention it’s always deserved. If you follow my train of thought and the history it leads us into, I guarantee you that you’ll end up back exactly where we are -- in the midst of the strangest presidential campaign in our history.
To get a full frontal sense of what that means, however, let’s return to late September 2001. I’m sure you remember that moment, just over two weeks after those World Trade Center towers came down and part of the Pentagon was destroyed, leaving a jangled secretary of defense instructing his aides, “Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not.”
I couldn’t resist sticking in that classic Donald Rumsfeld line, but I leave it to others to deal with Saddam Hussein, those fictional weapons of mass destruction, the invasion of Iraq, and everything that’s happened since, including the establishment of a terror “caliphate” by a crew of Islamic extremists brought together in American military prison camps -- all of which you wouldn’t believe if it were part of a sci-fi novel. The damn thing would make Planet of the Apes look like outright realism.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176062/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_campaign_2016_as_a_demobilizing_spectacle/#more
The Demobilization of the American People and the Spectacle of Election 2016
By Tom Engelhardt
You may not know it, but you’re living in a futuristic science fiction novel. And that’s a fact. If you were to read about our American world in such a novel, you would be amazed by its strangeness. Since you exist right smack in the middle of it, it seems like normal life (Donald Trump and Ben Carson aside). But make no bones about it, so far this has been a bizarre American century.
Let me start with one of the odder moments we’ve lived through and give it the attention it’s always deserved. If you follow my train of thought and the history it leads us into, I guarantee you that you’ll end up back exactly where we are -- in the midst of the strangest presidential campaign in our history.
To get a full frontal sense of what that means, however, let’s return to late September 2001. I’m sure you remember that moment, just over two weeks after those World Trade Center towers came down and part of the Pentagon was destroyed, leaving a jangled secretary of defense instructing his aides, “Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not.”
I couldn’t resist sticking in that classic Donald Rumsfeld line, but I leave it to others to deal with Saddam Hussein, those fictional weapons of mass destruction, the invasion of Iraq, and everything that’s happened since, including the establishment of a terror “caliphate” by a crew of Islamic extremists brought together in American military prison camps -- all of which you wouldn’t believe if it were part of a sci-fi novel. The damn thing would make Planet of the Apes look like outright realism.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176062/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_campaign_2016_as_a_demobilizing_spectacle/#more
Making Waves in the South China Sea
Making Waves in the South China Sea
A ChinaFile Conversation
http://www.chinafile.com/conversation/making-waves-south-china-sea
Saudis to Join in Talks on Syria With Iran, Russia
Saudis to Join in Talks on Syria With Iran, Russia
Key to ending conflict may be whether President Assad must go http://www.wsj.com/articles/saudis-to-join-in-talks-on-syria-with-iran-russia-1446058221
Very quietly, Iraq is ceasing to exist
Very quietly, Iraq is ceasing to exist
Tuesday, 27 October 2015| http://english.alarabiya.net/
Netanyahu's Apartheid Vision for Israel's Future read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.682912
Netanyahu's Apartheid Vision for Israel's Future
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.682912
Haaretz editorial http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.682912
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.682912
Haaretz editorial http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.682912
Europe’s Physical and Mental Walls Against Refugees
Europe’s Physical and Mental Walls Against Refugees
First it was Hungary. Now Slovenia and Austria are thinking about doing the same: building fences to control the flow of refugees entering their countries. But if some EU states believe that putting up walls will make Europe’s refugee problem disappear, or that they can shut themselves off from the crisis, they are making a big mistake.
Erecting walls will put even more pressure on the Western Balkan countries that are already struggling with tens of thousands of refugees trekking across this part of Europe. And it will lead to a fortress Europe—precisely what the Eastern members of the EU didn’t want the union to become vis-Ã -vis their own Eastern neighbors once they joined the EU in 2004. The new member states didn’t want their neighbors isolated from Europe.http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=61802&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonvKXNZKXonjHpfsX57uQsW6Sg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YIGRcR0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D
First it was Hungary. Now Slovenia and Austria are thinking about doing the same: building fences to control the flow of refugees entering their countries. But if some EU states believe that putting up walls will make Europe’s refugee problem disappear, or that they can shut themselves off from the crisis, they are making a big mistake.
Erecting walls will put even more pressure on the Western Balkan countries that are already struggling with tens of thousands of refugees trekking across this part of Europe. And it will lead to a fortress Europe—precisely what the Eastern members of the EU didn’t want the union to become vis-Ã -vis their own Eastern neighbors once they joined the EU in 2004. The new member states didn’t want their neighbors isolated from Europe.http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=61802&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonvKXNZKXonjHpfsX57uQsW6Sg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YIGRcR0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D
New Post on GAB Announcement: New Edited Volume on “Greed, Corruption and the Modern State”
Announcement: New Edited Volume on “Greed, Corruption and the Modern State”
by Matthew Stephenson
Please forgive the self-promotion, but some of our readers out there might be interested in the new volume, Greed, Corruption and the Modern State,
co-edited by Susan Rose-Ackerman and Paul Lagunes. (I said it's
self-promotion because I have a chapter in the book on the relationship
between democratic electoral institutions and corruption.) The
publisher's information page is here, and the online e-book can be found here. Just to save interested readers a bit of time, I'll list here the contents, with direct links to PDFs of the chapters:
- Jennifer Bussell, “Typologies of Corruption: A Pragmatic Approach"
- Kalle Moene & Tina Soreide, “Good Governance Facades"
- Raymond Fisman, “Political Connections and Commerce—A Global Perspective”
- Matthew C. Stephenson, “Corruption and Democratic Institutions: A Review and Synthesis”
- Fu Hualing, “Wielding the Sword: President Xi’s New Anti-Corruption Campaign”
- Stephane Straub, “The Story of Paraguayan Dams: The Long-Term Consequences of Wrongdoing in Procurement”
- Paul Lagunes & Rongyao Huang, “Saving Gotham: Fighting Corruption in New York City’s Property Tax System”
- Sandra Sequeira, “Corruption and Trade Costs”
- Nancy Hite-Rubin, “A Corruption, Military Procurement and FDI Nexus?”
- Alberto Diaz-Cayeros, Beatriz Magaloni & Vidal Romero, “Caught in the Crossfire: The Geography of Extortion and Police Corruption in Mexico”
- Dimitris Batzilis, “Bribing Abroad”
- Kevin E. Davis, “Regulation of Foreign Bribery: The FCPA Enforcement Model”
- Peter Alldridge, “Tax Avoidance, Tax Evasion, Money Laundering and the Problem of ‘Offshore’”
- Federico Varese, “Underground Banking and Corruption”
Pentagon: U.S. troops in combat 'every day' against ISIS:
Pentagon: U.S. troops in combat 'every day' against ISIS:
U.S.
troops are in combat despite administration assertions to the opposite,
Carter said that U.S. forces are participating in combat operations,
but the mission against the Islamic State is not a combat mission.
Saudi Prince: I Side with Israel - Not the Palestinians By United with Israel
| Saudi Prince: I Side with Israel - Not the Palestinians By United with Israel | |
 | "Saudi
Arabia and Israel must bolster their relations and form a united front
to stymie Tehran's ambitious agenda," - Prince al-Waleed bin Talal" - http://www. |
Neocons Launch 2016 Manifesto By Jim Lobe
| Neocons Launch 2016 Manifesto By Jim Lobe | |
 | If you sense a rebirth of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), you're probably not far off. - http://www. |
We Must Oppose Obama's Military Escalation in Syria and Iraq! By Rep. Ron Paul
| We Must Oppose Obama's Military Escalation in Syria and Iraq! By Rep. Ron Paul | |
 | I cannot condemn in strong enough terms this ill-advised US military escalation in the Middle East. - http://www. |
CIA Must Stop Illegal, Counterproductive War to Overthrow Assad
| CIA Must Stop Illegal, Counterproductive War to Overthrow Assad By Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard | |
 | The
US allying with Islamist extremists to overthrow Syrian President
Assad is an illegal, counterproductive war that will cause even more
human misery in the region - http://www. |
The Bible’s crash course on living in the world
The Bible’s crash course on living in the world
http://blogs.ancientfaith.com/joeljmiller/bibles-crash-course/
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
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