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Thursday, June 30, 2016

Our bulldozers, our rules

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21701505-chinas-foreign-policy-could-reshape-good-part-world-economy-our-bulldozers-our-rules?cid1=cust/ednew/n/bl/n/20160630n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/NA/n
Our bulldozers, our rules
China’s foreign policy could reshape a good part of the world economy
THE ECONOMIST | Jul 2 2016 | BEIJING 
THE first revival of the Silk Road—a vast and ancient network of trade routes linking China’s merchants with those of Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe—took place in the seventh century, after war had made it unusable for hundreds of years. Xi Jinping, China’s president, looks back on that era as a golden age, a time of Pax Sinica, when Chinese luxuries were coveted across the globe and the Silk Road was a conduit for diplomacy and economic expansion. The term itself was coined by a German geographer in the 19th century, but China has adopted it with relish. Mr Xi wants a revival of the Silk Road and the glory that went with it.
This time cranes and construction crews are replacing caravans and camels. In April a Chinese shipping company, Cosco, took a 67% stake in Greece’s second-largest port, Piraeus, from which Chinese firms are building a high-speed rail network linking the city to Hungary and eventually Germany. In July work is due to start on the third stage of a Chinese-designed nuclear reactor in Pakistan, where China recently announced it would finance a big new highway and put $2 billion into a coal mine in the Thar desert. In the first five months of this year, more than half of China’s contracts overseas were signed with nations along the Silk Road—a first in the country’s modern history.

Will Clinton Follow the Money on Foreign Policy?

http://lobelog.com/will-clinton-follow-the-money-on-foreign-policy/#more-34837

Will Clinton Follow the Money on Foreign Policy?

by Eli Clifton
With a combined $10 million in contributions, billionaire Haim Saban and his wife Cheryl Saban are emerging as the biggest donors to the super PAC Priorities USA Action, which supports Hillary Clinton. For her part, Clinton has done much to assure Saban, who described himself in a 2010 New Yorker interview as a “one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel,” that she shares his views on Israel.
Last July, Clinton addressed a letter to Saban in which she committed to opposing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction Movement (“BDS”), writing:
I know you agree that we need to make countering BDS a priority. I am seeking your advice on how we can work together—across party lines and with a diverse array of voices—to reverse this trend with information and advocacy, and fight back against further attempts to isolate and delegitimize Israel.
If Clinton has an open-door policy with her eight-figure super PAC donor, as the letter suggested, then it’s worth exploring some of the other policy advocacy that Saban helps support. http://lobelog.com/will-clinton-follow-the-money-on-foreign-policy/#more-34837

Showdown between Clinton and Trump too Close to Call; Trump leads Clinton Big among Independents


Zogby Analytics News Wire June 30, 2016

Showdown between Clinton and Trump too Close to Call; Trump leads Clinton Big among Independents

A new Zogby Analytics online survey of 875 likely voters, conducted between 6/28/16 - 6/29/16 with a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points, shows Hillary Clinton with a two point lead, 39%-37%, over Donald Trump in the latest Zogby Analytics national survey. Almost one in five (17%) are not sure, while Gary Johnson receives 5% and Jill Stein receives 3%. Trump has been able to close the gap in key groups such as the all important Independent and middle class likely voters, which is explained in further detail below.
208. If the election for President were being held today and the Democratic nominee for President is Hillary Clinton and the Republican nominee for President is Donald Trump; the Libertarian nominee is Gary Johnson and the Green party nominee is Jill Stein for whom would you vote?
Hillary Clinton 39%
Donald Trump 37%
Gary Johnson 5%
Jill Stein 3%
Not sure 17%
Please click on the link below to view the full release:
http://zogbyanalytics.com/news/753-showdown-between-clinton-and-trump-too-close-to-call-trump-leads-clinton-big-among-independents

http://zogbyanalytics.com/news/753-showdown-between-clinton-and-trump-too-close-to-call-trump-leads-clinton-big-among-independents

Arrogance, recklessness and scorn for ideas — no, not Trump. George W. Bush

http://wpo.st/fljj1

Arrogance, recklessness and scorn for ideas — no, not Trump. George W. Bush

By David Greenberg June 30 at 11:01 AM
David Greenberg is a professor of history at Rutgers University and the author of “Republic of Spin.”
David Greenberg, a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, is the author of “Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency.”
The fireball candidacy of Donald Trump has created shock waves of nostalgia for an ostensibly moderate, reasonable Republican Party of yore. Trump’s vulgarity, anti-intellectualism, mendacity, mean-spiritedness and brawling, bullying style have been deemed unprecedented and unparalleled.
But anyone prone to romanticize the old GOP should take a bracing shot of “Bush,” a hefty biography of our 43rd president by the prolific and acclaimed biographer Jean Edward Smith. Written in sober, smooth, snark-free prose, with an air of thoughtful, detached authority, the book is nonetheless exceedingly damning in its judgments about George W. Bush’s years in office. It reminds us anew of Bush’s own arrogance, recklessness, scorn for ideas and strong-arm politics — and of the apoplexy he provoked from liberals and Democrats who felt powerless to rein him in. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/arrogance-recklessness-and-scorn-for-ideas--no-not-trump-george-w-bush/2016/06/29/7b6e5960-33fa-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html?postshare=7171467320599835&tid=ss_mail

Friends With Benefits? Russian-Chinese Relations After the Ukraine Crisis


Friends With Benefits? Russian-Chinese Relations After the Ukraine Crisis




http://carnegie.ru/publications/?fa=63953

The Hangover (British Version)

http://lobelog.com/the-hangover-british-version/#more-34842

The Hangover (British Version)

by John Feffer
It’s the morning after. The British have woken up, dazed and woozy.
They’re not exactly sure what happened a few days ago. But one thing is clear: Their political environment is a shambles. Some things are mysteriously missing, like leadership and a whole lot of money ($3 trillion from the stock market). Other things are just as mysteriously present, such as international ridicule.
The poor British have a vague memory that someone might have spiked their drinks at a party last week, someone who looked a lot like Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party, and in retrospect it was a very bad idea to have drunk that intoxicating Kool-Aid. Certainly a lot of really stupid things were said. But it’s the really stupid thing that was done that so many people would dearly love to forget ever happened.
And now begins the madcap adventure in which the British try to retrace their steps and figure out how they can either undo all the damage or live uncomfortably with the consequences. Welcome to the British redo of that inexplicably popular 2009 film, The Hangover. http://lobelog.com/the-hangover-british-version/#more-34842

Is the EU on the Same Page as the United States on China?

Special Forum

Is the EU on the Same Page as the United States on China?

Theresa Fallon, European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS)

“There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.” Winston Churchill
The European Union needs China, first and foremost, as an economic partner and, second, also for addressing international and regional crises. China uses its leverage and lobbies the European Union to stay out of the South China Sea dispute. As a result the European Union tries to avoid this issue, leaving the United States to fight on its own for freedom of navigation there. Will the United States be able to sway the European Union into supporting its position?
China backs changes in global governance as a strategic objective. It is slowly reweaving the international fabric of interrelations and governing structures. In contrast, the European Union behaves as if geopolitics and power politics no longer exist. It often prefers to see Chinese actions as benign, which breeds complacency. Robert Kagan famously compared Europe to Venus and the United States to Mars. But, as Robert Cooper wrote in 2003, “Most of the rest of the world lives in a modern world of states competing for power, or in a pre-modern world of failed states.”1 To paraphrase Tolstoy, Europe’s postmodern approach leads some to declare that they are not interested in geopolitics—but geopolitics is always interested in them. http://www.theasanforum.org/is-the-eu-on-the-same-page-as-the-united-states-on-china/#

Nationalism Isn't Replacing Globalism

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/nationalism-isnt-replacing-globalism-16792

Nationalism Isn't Replacing Globalism

June 30, 2016
Much of the post-Brexit and primary election conventional wisdom seems to be stuck in a political narrative in which the Brexit vote and the rise of Trumpism in the United States are seen as symbols of the populist revolution. These symbols are combined with a nationalist tide has been sweeping not only the United Kingdom and the United States, but also many other parts of Europe, including Poland, Hungary, France, The Netherlands and Scandinavia, not to mention, Russia, Turkey, India and Israel.
According to this narrative, economic insecurity and cultural anxiety that reflect sociodemographic trends have given momentum to ethnonationalism and religious separatism in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The Rust Belt is pitted against New York City, and the Midlands against London.
The aging blue-collar workers and residents of the rural areas, remnants of the shrinking white English tribe—patriotic, God-fearing and hardworking—have lost their jobs in the declining manufacturing industries the never recovered from the Great Recession. They feel that they have been economically squeezed by the forces of globalization that are being promoted by the political and economic elites in New York and London, that they are culturally marginalized and threatened by nonwhite immigrants who are “taking over” their country, and that secular liberal elites are responsible for the cultural decadence that is supposedly inflicting their societies.http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/nationalism-isnt-replacing-globalism-16792

Trump and China

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/06/30-trump-and-china-dollar

The Brookings Institution
David Dollar | June 30, 2016 

Trump and China

Trade with China has led to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States and put downward pressure on wages for blue-collar jobs here. This is a real problem and campaigns in both political parties are grappling with how to address it. In a speech this week, Donald Trump proposed high tariffs on imports of Chinese goods, labeling the country a “currency manipulator,” and ripping up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). These measures are not likely to reverse the damage that trade has done to blue-collar workers in the United States.
First, on high tariffs: There is a long-term trend for manufacturing employment in the United States to decline as a share of employment. This reflects the fact that automation and productivity growth are easier in manufacturing than in services. The United States is still a manufacturing powerhouse from the point of view of production, but it simply does not take that many workers to produce the output. Trade with China accelerated that trend, and that was bad for the United States because slow adjustment is easier than the rapid adjustment that occurred. But imposing tariffs on Chinese imports now is truly closing the barn door after the horse has left. Jobs in apparel and footwear or the low end of electronics are not coming back to the United States. Tariffs aimed at China will divert that production to other developing countries. If we try to keep out imports from all of the low-wage countries then we are contemplating an end to the open trading system that has been a source of political and economic stability in the world. Economic results for the United States are not likely to be good even if there is no retaliation. But there is almost certain to be retaliation, especially from China which is a powerful and nationalistic country.http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/06/30-trump-and-china-dollar

Three Amigos Work to Cut Carbon while California’s Amigos Work to Cut Carbon-Free Nuclear


Three Amigos Work to Cut Carbon while California’s Amigos Work to Cut Carbon-Free Nuclear

https://www.environmentalleader.com/2016/06/30/three-amigos-work-to-cut-carbon-while-californias-amigos-work-to-cut-carbon-free-nuclear/

The ‘Dissent’ Memo That Isn’t

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/06/29/the-dissent-memo-that-isnt/


The ‘Dissent’ Memo That Isn’t

June 29, 2016
The major U.S. media touts a State Department “dissent cable” urging military strikes on the Syrian military as a brave act by 51 diplomats, but it actually matches the views of Secretary Kerry and other top officials, notes Gareth Porter.
By Gareth Porter
The memorandum by 51 State Department officials calling for U.S. military intervention in Syria has been treated in news media coverage as a case of “dissent” from existing Syria policy by individual officials involved in Syria policy.
But the memo has all the earmarks of an initiative that had the blessing of the most senior officials in the department – including Secretary of State John Kerry himself – rather than having been put together by individual officials entirely on their own. And it may mark the beginning of an effort to take advantage of the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton. https://consortiumnews.com/2016/06/29/the-dissent-memo-that-isnt/

Articles: Heart of Darkness: the Evil at the Core of Modern Liberalism

Articles: Heart of Darkness: the Evil at the Core of Modern Liberalism

'Unprecedented': Scientists Declare Global Climate Emergency After Jet Stream Crosses Equator | Alternet

'Unprecedented': Scientists Declare Global Climate Emergency After Jet Stream Crosses Equator | Alternet

Bill Clinton Holds 'Private' Meeting With Loretta Lynch As FBI Probes Hillary | Zero Hedge

Bill Clinton Holds 'Private' Meeting With Loretta Lynch As FBI Probes Hillary | Zero Hedge

Fr. Mike’s Independence Day Special


Fr. Mike’s Independence Day Special



http://ascensionpresents.com/video/fr-mikes-independence-day-special/?mc_cid=f620df4bd1&mc_eid=2bb902f84a

Millions exposed to dangerous lead levels in US drinking water, report finds | Environment | The Guardian

Millions exposed to dangerous lead levels in US drinking water, report finds | Environment | The Guardian

Pew Research Survey finds world sees Americans as greedy, arrogant and violent | McClatchy DC

Pew Research Survey finds world sees Americans as greedy, arrogant and violent | McClatchy DC

Bill Black: The Terrible Cost to Democrats and Our Nation of Ignoring Tom Frank’s Warnings

Bill Black: The Terrible Cost to Democrats and Our Nation of Ignoring Tom Frank’s Warnings


http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/06/bill-black-the-terrible-cost-to-democrats-and-our-nation-of-ignoring-tom-franks-warnings.html

Tomgram: Thomas Frank, Worshipping Money in D.C.

TomDispatch.com: A Regular Antidote to the Mainstream Media
June 30, 2016
Tomgram: Thomas Frank, Worshipping Money in D.C.
[Note for TomDispatch Readers: Read today's piece and then get your hands on Thomas Frank's new book, Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? It's the political must-read of this season if you want to know where liberalism went in the last two and a half decades. The next TomDispatch post will be on Tuesday, July 5th. Tom]

I’m no stranger to shakedowns. I’ve experienced them, in one form or another, from Asia to Africa.

Sometimes the corruption is subtle. Sometimes it’s naked. Sometimes you press folded currency into someone’s palm. Sometimes there’s a more official procedure. Sometimes a payment is demanded outright. (A weapon might even be involved.) Other times, it’s up to you to suggest that we somehow work things out privately.

Luckily, I live in the United States, and if the 2016 presidential campaign has reminded me of anything, it’s that America is, by definition (and unlike so many of the other countries on the planet), a corruption-free zone. Mind you, no one would claim that the race for the Oval Office is free of unethical behavior. It’s just that the actions and efforts involved aren’t considered “corrupt” here.

Take an Associated Press (AP) exposé last week. It revealed that the campaign of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump had “plowed about $6 million” -- roughly 10% of his expenditures -- “back into Trump corporate products and services.” The campaign paid, for instance, about $520,000 in rent and utilities for its headquarters at Manhattan’s Trump Tower and an astounding $4.6 million to TAG Air, the holding company for the billionaire candidate’s airplanes.

The AP investigation found that the Trump campaign was “unafraid to co-mingle political and business endeavors in an unprecedented way,” while noting that there is, in fact, “nothing illegal about it.” In other words, while it may seem shady, feel fraudulent, and -- to steal a Trumpism -- sound crooked, it’s all on the up and up according to our unique American system.

Today, Thomas Frank, author most recently of Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?, takes us on a tour of another dimly lit corner of corruption-free America, a completely legal and remarkably unethical world that comes with its own guidebook: a newsletter chronicling daily dalliances involving money, alcohol, and political influence. Though it may seem like a foreign world to those of us outside the Beltway bubble, it influences our daily lives in myriad ways.  Think of it as a circuit of cocktail hours and cocktail parties linked by a well-greased set of revolving doors; an endless series of social events attended by the influential, the influencers, and those looking -- for the right price -- to be influenced. If it seems like I’m using that word -- influence -- a little too much, it isn’t by chance. Let the influential Thomas Frank explain how influence and Influence have warped Washington and the rest of our world. Nick Turse
The Life of the Parties
The Influence of Influence in Washington
By Thomas Frank
Although it’s difficult to remember those days eight years ago when Democrats seemed to represent something idealistic and hopeful and brave, let’s take a moment and try to recall the stand Barack Obama once took against lobbyists. Those were the days when the nation was learning that George W. Bush’s Washington was, essentially, just a big playground for those lobbyists and that every government operation had been opened to the power of money. Righteous disgust filled the air. “Special interests” were much denounced. And a certain inspiring senator from Illinois promised that, should he be elected president, his administration would contain no lobbyists at all. The revolving door between government and K Street, he assured us, would turn no more.
Instead, the nation got a lesson in all the other ways that “special interests” can get what they want -- like simple class solidarity between the Ivy Leaguers who advise the president and the Ivy Leaguers who sell derivative securities to unsuspecting foreigners. As that inspiring young president filled his administration with Wall Street personnel, we learned that the revolving door still works, even if the people passing through it aren’t registered lobbyists.
But whatever became of lobbying itself, which once seemed to exemplify everything wrong with Washington, D.C.? Perhaps it won’t surprise you to learn that lobbying remains one of the nation’s persistently prosperous industries, and that, since 2011, it has been the focus of Influence, one of the daily email newsletters published by Politico, that great chronicler of the Obama years. Influence was to be, as its very first edition declared, “the must-read crib sheet for Washington’s influence class,” with news of developments on K Street done up in tones of sycophantic smugness. For my money, it is one of the quintessential journalistic artifacts of our time: the constantly unfolding tale of power-for-hire, told always with a discreet sympathy for the man on top.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176159/tomgram%3A_thomas_frank%2C_worshipping_money_in_d.c./#more

A British Tragedy in One Act

https://www.neweurope.eu/article/british-tragedy-one-act/

A British Tragedy in One Act

By Chris Patten
The last British Governor of Hong Kong and a former EU commissioner for external affairs, is Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

OXFORD – Thursday night is said to have been momentous for those who campaigned to leave the European Union and turn Britain’s back on the twenty-first century. On that, at least, I can agree. As Cicero wrote: “O wretched and unhappy was that day.”
The decision to leave the EU will dominate British national life for the next decade, if not longer. One can argue about the precise scale of the economic shock – short- and long-term – but it is difficult to imagine any circumstances in which the United Kingdom does not become poorer and less significant in the world. Many of those who were encouraged to vote allegedly for their “independence” will find that, far from gaining freedom, they have lost their job.
So, why did it happen?https://www.neweurope.eu/article/british-tragedy-one-act/

Does Fighting Terrorists Abroad Keep Americans Safe at Home?

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/does-fighting-terrorists-abroad-keep-americans-safe-home-16779?page=2

Does Fighting Terrorists Abroad Keep Americans Safe at Home?

June 29, 2016
In the aftermath of the Orlando massacre two weeks ago, there were renewed calls by members of congress, former government officials and security experts for increasing our resolve to fight terrorists “over there” so the U.S. homeland would be safe from any future such attacks “over here.” As seductive and reassuring as these statements might be to some, there is no evidence that U.S. military operations overseas do anything to reduce the threat of domestic terrorism. To the contrary, it is becoming increasingly apparent that such actions do more to feed the threat than it ever did to diminish it.
The question now before the country: do we continue—or even expand—global military operations that aren’t working or seek alternative solutions?http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/does-fighting-terrorists-abroad-keep-americans-safe-home-16779?page=2

The VIDEO that WALMART DOESN'T Want You To See!! Future RFID Chipping Hubs... - YouTube

The VIDEO that WALMART DOESN'T Want You To See!! Future RFID Chipping Hubs... - YouTube

The IMF’s Grim Long-Term U.S. Outlook in Six Charts

The IMF’s Grim Long-Term U.S. Outlook in Six Charts

The agency cited weak energy sector, strong dollar and overseas turmoil


http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/06/28/the-imfs-grim-long-term-u-s-outlook-in-six-charts/

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

I was wrong in my presumption that Israel desired peace’ –Chas Freeman -

 I was wrong in my presumption that Israel desired peace’ –Chas Freeman -
I was wrong in my presumption that Israel desired peace’ –Chas Freeman - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/presumption-desired-freeman/#sthash.ScYmUsRi.dpuf

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/presumption-desired-freeman/

Alex Jones Video Going Viral! Sends Stark Message to Globalists… | Alternative

Alex Jones Video Going Viral! Sends Stark Message to Globalists… | Alternative

Alex Jones Video Going Viral! Sends Stark Message to Globalists… | Alternative

Alex Jones Video Going Viral! Sends Stark Message to Globalists… | Alternative

Neoconservatives Endorse Hillary Clinton for President Because They Know She’s One of Them

Neoconservatives Endorse Hillary Clinton for President Because They Know She’s One of Them


http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/neoconservatives_endorse_hillary_clinton_for_president_because_they_know_sh

As Obama Years Draw to Close, President and U.S. Seen Favorably in Europe and Asia

As Obama Years Draw to Close, President and U.S. Seen Favorably in Europe and Asia

Few overseas confident that Trump can handle foreign policy


http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/06/29/as-obama-years-draw-to-close-president-and-u-s-seen-favorably-in-europe-and-asia/

Jeff Cavins: Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/1559cb7930084a22

WPR Articles June 23 — June 29


WPR Articles June 23 — June 29

Brexit’s Ripple Effects Will Reach the Middle East, Too

By: Ellen Laipson | Column
The outcome of the Brexit referendum is bad news for the Middle East region on a number of scores, in particular what it says about Western attitudes toward migrants and Muslims, and about loss of support for economic integration, a big idea that would improve prospects for the Arab world.

Erdogan and Military Both Seek Political Gains in Turkey’s War Against the PKK

By: Iyad Dakka | Briefing
The escalating violence of Turkey’s war against the PKK has led some to begin speaking of the “Syrianization” of the country’s southeastern region. But there are important political dividends to be won, something both President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish military recognize clearly.

South China Sea Spat a Symptom of U.S.-China Jockeying for Advantage

By: Timothy R. Heath | Briefing
Maritime tensions in the South China Sea stand out as the most prominent of a set of disputes between China and the United States. Underpinning these various issues lays an intensifying strategic competition, even as both countries face constraints against pursuing a destructive confrontation.

Brexit Makes Early Warning on International Crises Even More Imperative

By: Richard Gowan | Column
A major crisis in the international system is often followed by a host of smaller crises. In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, major powers and international organizations need to make a priority of early warning mechanisms for such crises as well as diplomatic engagement to handle them.

The Hidden Factors Behind Resurging Violence in Mexico

By: Benoît Gomis | Briefing
The leaders of Mexico, Canada and the U.S. meet today for the final so-called Three Amigos summit of Barack Obama’s presidency. While other issues will be high on the agenda, so too will the longstanding problem of violence associated with transnational drug trafficking, particularly in Mexico.

Buhari’s Policy Shifts Raise Hopes for Economic Pragmatism in Nigeria

By: Ayso van Eysinga | Briefing
Nigeria’s currency, the naira, lost 30 percent of its value after the central bank abandoned its peg to the dollar Monday. The bank’s move was a substantial but long-overdue shift after a year of haphazard and detrimental economic policy under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Germany and Turkey Hit a Rough Patch, but Long-Term Ties Strong

By: Maria Savel | Trend Lines
Ties between Germany and Turkey have hit a rough patch after Germany recognized the Armenian genocide and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the prosecution of a German comic. But given the migrant crisis and cultural bonds between them, bilateral ties aren’t at risk of eroding.

How India Uses Tech Assistance to Expand Ties With Africa

By: The Editors | Trend Lines
Earlier this month, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee went on a six-day tour of Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Namibia, where he announced new grant assistance and lines of credit as well as expanded scholarship opportunities. In an email interview, Amanda Lucey discusses India’s outreach to Africa.

Will Netanyahu Be Able to Hold Off the Rise of Israel’s Political Center?

By: Frida Ghitis | Column
It is in the political center that the newest sprouts of activism are rising in Israel, and it is from there that the next Israeli political force is likely to emerge. It remains to be seen if that force, and whoever ends up leading it, will be able to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Brexit Heightens Uncertainty for the EU, but Alarmism Might Be Premature

By: The Editors | Trend Lines
In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and host Peter Dörrie discuss the impact of the Brexit vote on the U.K. and the European Union. For the Report, Richard Weitz joins us to talk about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to shore up ties with China.

Rural Protests Add a New Wrinkle to Colombia’s Post-Conflict Challenges

By: Charlotte Mackenzie | Briefing
Two weeks of protests and roadblocks ended in Colombia two weeks ago after peasant farmers and indigenous groups reached an agreement with the Colombian government to include them in future rulings on mining and other issues in the country’s rural areas. Now the key will be implementing the deal.

Three National Security Questions for the U.S. Presidential Candidates

By: Steven Metz | Column
Thus far, foreign and security policy have received more attention than is normal for this phase of a U.S. presidential election. But even given this attention, the two candidates have only provided an outline of their positions. The media should press them for answers on three questions in particular.

Gulf Geopolitics Drive, and Shield, Bahrain’s Crackdown on Shiites

By: Karina Piser | Trend Lines
Last week, authorities in Bahrain stripped Sheikh Isa Qassim, the country’s most prominent Shiite cleric, of his citizenship. The move was just the latest in an ongoing crackdown on the largely Shiite opposition. Bahrain’s straitjacket on dissent is nothing new, but it has visibly tightened recently.

Post-Fukushima, Japan Faces Bigger Hurdles to Combat Climate Change

By: The Editors | Trend Lines
Japan announced earlier this year that it had been successful at cutting its carbon dioxide emissions by 3 percent—the first time emissions have decreased since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. In an email interview, Aiko Shmizu discussed Japan’s contribution and response to climate change.

Caribbean Regionalism Set to Suffer Under New St. Lucia Leadership

By: The Editors | Trend Lines
St. Lucia went to the polls earlier this month, with the conservative United Workers Party, led by Allen Chastanet, beating the incumbent Labour Party on a platform of tax cuts and economic growth. In an email interview, Tennyson Joseph discussed the elections and the state of politics in St. Lucia.

The Grass-Roots Efforts That Will Help Nairobi Urbanize Quickly—and Well

By: Abigail Higgins | Feature
With Nairobi’s slums, trash heaps and poor infrastructure, the growing city reveals the consequences of a global shift toward urbanization, and the risks of being ill-equipped to make important structural changes to facilitate a rising population. Some promising projects, however, are underway.

The UAE’s Yemen Pivot Could Make Differences With Riyadh Unbridgeable

By: Peter Salisbury | Briefing
In recent remarks declaring an end to UAE combat operations in Yemen, a high-ranking UAE official may have revealed something many analysts have suspected for some time: that the UAE is no longer involved in the battle for northwest Yemen, but is instead focused on securing the south of the country.

Memo to U.S. Pundits: Stop Looking for the Brexit Culprit in Washington

By: Michael A. Cohen | Column
In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, the debate among U.S. foreign policy pundits has taken a predictable turn: looking for who is to blame. Not surprisingly, if you are familiar with U.S. foreign policy punditry, the culprit is to be found, not in London or Brussels, but in Washington.

U.S. Reports on Benghazi Attacks Are an Indictment of Bedlam in Washington

 U.S. Reports on Benghazi Attacks Are an Indictment of Bedlam in Washington

There is no sane planet in which the 2012 terrorist assault, tragic as it was, justifies more probing than 9/11, the Beirut bombings or Pearl Harbor.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.727703

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.727703

Another Corporation Is Suing the US Government, Thanks to Trade Agreements

Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future: Because the Obama administration rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada is suing the US government for $15 billion in damages under North American Free Trade Agreement rules. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would increase the chances of similar lawsuits in the future.

A massive financial crime and terrorism database has leaked

A massive financial crime and terrorism database has leaked

The list contains 2.2 million names of high-risk individuals and organizations -- including those thought to be involved in financial crime and terrorism.


http://www.zdnet.com/article/world-check-financial-crime-and-terrorism-database-leaked/?ftag=TRE49e8aa0&bhid=25151283725937532891160407260705

This Week's Reflection from Fr. Bob Warren: Will You Keep Plowing?



Franciscan Friars
Franciscan Friars
Will You Keep Plowing?
(Luke 9:51-62)
 
It is obvious from today's gospel that Jesus is not promising us a rose garden. He cannot even promise His followers a place to lay their heads. He even seems harsh in His demands of loyalty. His concern is more for quality rather than quantity. And He will not take excuses. The man who said "let me bury my father" was, in effect, saying 'I am not yet ready to give my life to You.' There is no indication that his father was already dead. In His compassion, Jesus would surely have given the man time to go to the funeral.
The father was probably still alive, and these words only highlight the urgency of the invitation. You see, in everything, there is a critical moment. If that moment is missed, the thing most likely will never be done at all. The man in the story wanted to make changes to follow Jesus. Now was the time. If he did not seize the moment, he would let it slip through his fingers.
Psychologists tell us that every time we have a fine feeling and do not act on it, the less likely we are to act on it at all. The emotion becomes a substitute for action. Sometimes we feel we would like to write a letter, perhaps a letter of sympathy, a letter of thanks or, a letter to heal a relationship. If we put it off until tomorrow, it will, in all likelihood, never be written.
Our gospel today tells us that there was nothing eccentric about Christ... in many ways He was quite ordinary. He was a Jew of His time. He was born of a Jewish maiden and died five miles from His manger. He came in His own words, eating and drinking. He came to Cana for a wedding and to Bethany for a burial. He ate with respectable people like Martha and with outcasts like Matthew, the tax collector. He felt at home with everyone, not only with Peter's mother-in-law, but with the Mary who had seven devils, and the Samaritan woman who had five husbands .
Children curled up in His arms, and grown men like Nicodemus talked far into the night with Him. He could grow angry—angry enough to whip money changers from the temple. He could also sympathize with a widow who had lost her son. He wept over Jerusalem, and over Lazarus. He knew the thoughts of shepherds, farmers and fisherman. He spoke the language of His people. He spoke of war and peace. He worked with His hands. He learned what hunger and thirst were. He was tired enough to sleep through a storm in an open boat. He knew what it meant to flee for His life, to be cursed and spat upon.
Yes, Christ was very human. Yet, He was more than human, not simply because He was God. His life is a living proof that human life can be thoroughly human, and yet lived on a level above human. In His every action, whether He came eating and drinking or preaching and praying, living or dying.
In His every action, there shone a love that was not born of man. His life was a living lesson: Love God with your whole heart; love your neighbor as yourself. His life, human as it was, was one long act of love that found its consummation in the Crucifixion—Crucifixion for the objects of His love. Crucifixion for every human being who has ever come or ever will come into this world.
In His public life, Christ could not be disregarded. And He intended it so. He intended that every human being who touched the hem of His garment or looked into His eyes or heard His voice should put a question to themselves: "Is this for me? Is this the way human life was meant to be lived? Is this fascinating marriage of the human, and the more than human, is this what is lacking in my life?"
And there, I submit, lies your vocation as Christians. Christians are very much a part of their world. We work and eat and sleep just like everyone else. We sorrow and laugh. We are moved to anger and pity. We are quick to be hurt and maybe a little slower to forgive. We marry or stay single. We vote as we please.
Statistics show very little difference between us and the non-Christians. And yet there should be a difference, because your life, human as it is, is more than human.
Scripture tells us that to be a disciple of Christ, you have to lose your life in order to find it. I do not know what life it is that Christ is asking you to surrender. What is keeping you from Him?
I do know there are special moments, critical moments in every life where, to be a Christian you have to choose to commit yourself, to risk and to have to give up something that rules your life. Something that takes the place of Christ. It could be anything from material goods to position and power, honors and glory. The peril is simply that they are mine and can dominate my existence and manipulate me. Like money, never enough; more power, never enough. If they do, all else takes second place, including Christ.
In other words, what rules your life? What makes you tick? Who or what rules your heart? Something does or someone does... or, a dreadful thought perhaps, nothing does.
Today's gospel, my friends, is heavy metal. Nowhere to lay your head. Do not look back. Keep plowing. But still, it is good news... glad tidings.
What is so good about it? It answers a critical question — How shall I live? Make sure no person, however deeply loved... no thing, however precious... pre-empts the place Christ should occupy in your priorities. Stop trying to fit Christ into your life. Instead, try fitting your life around Christ, and ask yourself, is this for me?
Here is a life, thoroughly human and yet more than human. Is this the way human life was meant to be lived? There is something about the human spirit that rises to the challenge when asked. The trouble is that we are not confronted with such challenges very often. So, we drift along in our self-serving and self-satisfied ways.
But God meets us every day with a challenge. If we have eyes to see it and ears to hear it. He calls for the best in us every day of our lives, following the One who said, I am the way, the truth and the life.
Fr. Robert Warren
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Robert Warren Signature
Fr. Robert Warren, S.A.
Spiritual Director
Franciscan Friars
Franciscan Friars of the Atonement
— Graymoor —
www.AtonementFriars.org

Welcome to the Orthodox Prayer Group Where Women Lead — and Men Sit Behind Mechitza

Welcome to the Orthodox Prayer Group Where Women Lead — and Men Sit Behind Mechitza



http://forward.com/news/343840/welcome-to-the-orthodox-prayer-group-where-women-lead-and-men-sit-behind-me/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_MainList_Title_Position-1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Daily%202016-06-29&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20Monday-Friday

Peace and Security Philanthropy: Opportunities for All Written by Alexandra Toma

Peace and Security Philanthropy: Opportunities for All  Written by Alexandra Toma


http://www.diplomaticourier.com/peace-security-philanthropy-opportunities/

Brexit unleashes chaos among global currencies

Brexit unleashes chaos among global currencies


https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/brexit-unleashes-chaos-among-global-currencies/2016/06/28/82323c2e-3c8f-11e6-84e8-1580c7db5275_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

Venezuelans are storming supermarkets and attacking trucks as food supplies dwindle

Venezuelans are storming supermarkets and attacking trucks as food supplies dwindle


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelans-are-storming-supermarkets-and-attacking-trucks-as-food-supplies-dwindle/2016/06/28/70020a14-37c8-11e6-af02-1df55f0c77ff_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

Defying Republican orthodoxy, Trump trashes trade deals and advocates tariffs

Defying Republican orthodoxy, Trump trashes trade deals and advocates tariffs


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/defying-republican-orthodoxy-trump-trashes-trade-deals-and-advocates-tariffs/2016/06/28/3b47617e-3d5a-11e6-84e8-1580c7db5275_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

The United States Of Europe: Germany And France Hatch A Plan To Create An EU Superstate


The United States Of Europe: Germany And France Hatch A Plan To Create An EU Superstate

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-united-states-of-europe-germany-and-france-hatch-a-plan-to-create-an-eu-superstate

Full transcript: Donald Trump's jobs plan speech


Full transcript: Donald Trump's jobs plan speech

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/full-transcript-trump-job-plan-speech-224891

The Age of Disintegration Neoliberalism, Interventionism, the Resource Curse, and a Fragmenting World


The Age of Disintegration
Neoliberalism, Interventionism, the Resource Curse, and a Fragmenting World
By Patrick Cockburn
We live in an age of disintegration. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Greater Middle East and Africa. Across the vast swath of territory between Pakistan and Nigeria, there are at least seven ongoing wars -- in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and South Sudan. These conflicts are extraordinarily destructive. They are tearing apart the countries in which they are taking place in ways that make it doubtful they will ever recover. Cities like Aleppo in Syria, Ramadi in Iraq, Taiz in Yemen, and Benghazi in Libya have been partly or entirely reduced to ruins. There are also at least three other serious insurgencies: in southeast Turkey, where Kurdish guerrillas are fighting the Turkish army, in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula where a little-reported but ferocious guerrilla conflict is underway, and in northeast Nigeria and neighboring countries where Boko Haram continues to launch murderous attacks.
All of these have a number of things in common: they are endless and seem never to produce definitive winners or losers. (Afghanistan has effectively been at war since 1979, Somalia since 1991.) They involve the destruction or dismemberment of unified nations, their de facto partition amid mass population movements and upheavals -- well publicized in the case of Syria and Iraq, less so in places like South Sudan where more than 2.4 million people have been displaced in recent years. http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176158/

Clinton Slams Benghazi Report As "Discredited, Conspiracy Theories" | Zero Hedge

Clinton Slams Benghazi Report As "Discredited, Conspiracy Theories" | Zero Hedge

"People Need To Know The Real Hillary Clinton And How Dangerous She Is"

"People Need To Know The Real Hillary Clinton And How Dangerous She Is"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-28/people-need-know-real-hillary-clinton-and-how-dangerous-she