The US Economy is Failing
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/29/the-us-economy-is-failing/
Reflections from news and commentary of the day
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Friday, September 29, 2017
Iraq and Syria: Measuring the meaningless
Iraq and Syria: Measuring the meaningless
http://non-intervention.com/2998/iraq-and-syria-measuring-the-meaningless/
The Week with IPS 9/29/2017
| 2017/9/29 |
Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
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Merkel’s Defeat Confirms Dismail Trend for Europe
Roberto Savio
Generally, media have failed to analyse why the result of German
elections is the worst possible. Merkel is not a winner, but a leader
now in a very fragile position, who will have to make many compromises
and pay now for her mistakes. Let us make at least the most important
four points of ...
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Finally, Argentina Has a Law on Access to Public Information
Daniel Gutman
After 15 long years of public campaigns and debates in which different
political, social and business sectors held marches and
counter-protests, Argentina finally has a new law that guarantees access
to public information.
This step forward must now be reflected in reality, in this South ...
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To Be an Egyptian Migrant in Rome (And Also Make Great Pizza)
Baher Kamal
“I asked him: do you want to come with us to Greece? He said: ‘Why not?’
So my wife and myself packed up and drove to Athens to open our
‘trattoria’ there.”
Mario* (63) and his wife Concetta* (57) started telling their story
while waiting for the chef to prepare three pizzas and one spaghetti ...
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Marginalised Minorities and Homeless Especially Hard-hit by Mexico’s Quake
Emilio Godoy
Maricela Fernández, an indigenous woman from the Ñañhú or Otomà people,
shows the damages that the Sept. 19 earthquake inflicted on the old
house where 10 families of her people were living as squatters, in a
neighbourhood in the center-west of Mexico City.
The magnitude 7.1 quake, mainly felt ...
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Malawi’s Communal Fight Against Deadly Avian Disease
Charles Mkoka
Lydia Katengeza, a community vaccinator with the Nathenje Community Vaccination Association (NCVA), wakes up as early as 5 a.m.,
ready with her I-2 vaccine vial in a storage container in her hand. She
moves from one house to another, visiting each poultry farmer. All of
them are alerted a day in ...
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Where Do 50 Million Tonnes a Year of Toxic E-Waste Go?
Baher Kamal
Each year, the electronics industry generates up to 41 million tonnes of
e-waste, but as the number of consumers rises, and the lifespan of
devices shrinks in response to demand for the newest and best, that
figure could reach 50 million tonnes this year, according to specialised
studies.
Of ...
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Mercury Mining Awaits International Control in Mexico
Emilio Godoy
For environmentalist Patricia Ruiz the only word that comes to mind is
“devastating,” when describing the situation of mercury mining in her
home state of Querétaro in central Mexico.
“There are a large number of pits (from which the mercury is extracted),
and there are the tailing ponds ...
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More Public Spending, Not Tax Cuts, for Sustainable, Inclusive Growth
Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The Trump administration’s promise to increase infrastructure spending
should break the straightjacket the Republicans imposed on the Obama
administration after capturing the US Congress in 2010. However, in
proportionate terms, it falls far short of Roosevelt’s New Deal effort
to revive the US ...
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Crisis in Cameroon Spurs Govt Crackdown on Press
Mbom Sixtus
“For too long we have been afraid to speak out against injustices and
all sorts of atrocities happening in Cameroon, thinking it will protect
us. If I were to repeat what I have done on Canal 2 English , I will do
it again. I now stand ready for any eventuality,” says Cameroonian
journalist Elie ...
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The Urbanization of Malnutrition
Manipadma Jena
Rapid urbanization is increasingly shifting the impacts of malnutrition
from rural to urban areas. One in three stunted under-five children out
of 155 million across the world now lives in cities and towns.
Degrading land productivity, deepening impacts of changes in climate,
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A Short Distance from Southie, but a World Away
A Short Distance from Southie, but a World Away
Tara Wanda Merrigan recalls navigating between the very different realms of Harvard and home.https://longreads.com/2017/09/25/you-can-take-the-girl-out-of-southie/?utm_source=Weekly+Longreads+Email&utm_campaign=0781c461aa-Longreads_Top_5_September_29_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bd2ad42066-0781c461aa-239031537&mc_cid=0781c461aa&mc_eid=9528811089
On American Identity, the Election, and Family Members Who Support Trump
On American Identity, the Election, and Family Members Who Support Trump
Nicole Chung reflects on the burden of engaging with racism and educating white people, including some in her own family.https://longreads.com/2017/09/28/on-american-identity-the-election-and-family-members-who-support-trump/?utm_source=Weekly+Longreads+Email&utm_campaign=0781c461aa-Longreads_Top_5_September_29_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bd2ad42066-0781c461aa-239031537&mc_cid=0781c461aa&mc_eid=9528811089
House Bill Would End U.S. Role in War on Yemen
House Bill Would End U.S. Role in War on Yemen
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/house-bill-would-end-u-s-role-in-war-on-yemen/Thursday, September 28, 2017
Seeing With The Eye Of The Heart – A Funeral Sermon on 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9
Seeing With The Eye Of The Heart – A Funeral Sermon on 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9
https://interruptingthesilence.com/2017/09/28/seein
Islam in Switzerland: The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Jihad
Islam in Switzerland: The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Jihad
by Bruce Bawer • September 28, 2017 at 5:00 am
- What you would never know, from all this hand-wringing about "Islamophobia," is that only a few weeks before the conference, the country's media had reported on a popular imam in Biel who, in his sermons, "asked Allah to destroy the enemies of Islam -- Jews, Christians, Hindus, Russians, and Shiites."
- The imam in question, Abu Ramadan, preached that Muslims who befriended infidels were "cursed until the Day of Judgment" -- which, of course, is not radical at all, but is straight out of the Koran.
- The crisis is real. But, says Swiss Muslim author Saïda Keller-Messahli, Swiss politicians, "especially on the left," refuse to address it. Instead of trying to defend their country from radicalism, they think their job is to "protect minorities and multiculturalism."
- Mosque kindergartens and youth groups, too, are "places of religious indoctrination" for Swiss Muslims. So are the German-speaking public schools, in which imams are permitted to teach classes in Islam using instructional materials from Saudi Arabia or Turkey.
Saïda Keller-Messahli, the Swiss Muslim author of Switzerland: An Islamist Hub,
has spent years investigating institutional Islam in Switzerland and
urging politicians to take action against it. (Switzerland photo by
Monk/Wikimedia Commons)
If you listen to some of
Switzerland's pollsters and government officials, the country is
suffering from a serious and ever-intensifying crisis -- anti-Muslim
bigotry.
In August, a study
concluded that Swiss Muslims "are generally well integrated into Swiss
society." Their main problem? They face "Islamophobia."
Another
study the same month found that the percentage of Swiss non-Muslims who
feel "threatened" by Islam had more than doubled since 2004, from 16%
to 38%.
At a September 11
conference, Switzerland's Federal Commission against Racism (FCR) issued
an explicit alert: "hostility toward Muslims," it warned, was rising –
and was "fed by facts that have nothing to do with Muslims themselves."
Conference
organizers blamed this "hostility" on online "propaganda"; Interior
Minister Alain Berset accused Swiss citizens of erroneously holding
"Islam responsible for all the extremist acts committed in its name."
The Cost of Empire
The Cost of Empire
Americans must challenge Trump's policies in North Korea and
Yemen that stem from imperial priorities.
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/world-report/articles/2017-09-28/trump-administration-policies-in-north-korea-and-yemen-show-costs-of-empire
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Big 6 Tax Framework Could Cost $2.2 Trillion
Big 6 Tax Framework Could Cost $2.2 Trillion
http://www.crfb.org/blogs/big-6-tax-framework-could-cost-22-trillion
Fr. Warren's Week Reflection: Seek the Lord while He May be Found
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| Seek the Lord while He may be found | |||||
| We have a very beautiful first reading from Isaiah ‑ "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." Lovely poetry, often quoted but the beginning of this reading is perhaps, more practical. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call Him while He is near. Is there anyone you would like to say that to? Someone who, perhaps, was once a seeker of the Lord. Someone, close to you, a relative or a friend or maybe a child who has now gone in another direction? | |||||
| Such a person was Dan Wakefield, a novelist and screenwriter. He used to call himself a former Christian, a fallen angel. He lived the high life of New York and Hollywood. His books were best sellers and two of them became movies. He led a dissolute life in the very fast lane. On Christmas Eve in Boston he left his grand hotel and went to look for a bar, a bar with local color. He passed King's Chapel and he saw people going in. He thought to himself, oh yes, I remember Christmas Eve, that is what people do, they go to church. So he stumbled into the church and sat down by the crib. Seeing the Christ child there, that gentle God in human form and the words of St. John's Gospel kept going through his mind ‑ and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. | |||||
| He was caught by old memories of his family and a new emptiness in his life. Something resonated in his soul and it was not long before he returned to his roots, to Christ. He wrote a very beautiful book about that return, it is simply called Returning. He sought and he found the crib and its memories had caught him. | |||||
| Another person who was seeking was a young woman named Catherine Whitemore. She grew up an Episcopalian and she had good memories. She writes about coloring books in Bible school and stories about Jesus. In college she never went to church and she scoffed at organized religion. After her mother died, she decided she wanted to go back. She looked in the Yellow Pages and found 48 listings for Episcopal Churches. The first one was very grand with a famous choir and Liturgy. It all felt rather anonymous, you were an onlooker just listening to the wonderful music. Watching the movements on the Altar, she felt like part of an audience. She kept searching and found a small church where everyone took part in the Liturgy but what first attracted her was the large crucifix on the Altar. Her first thought was God so loved me that he allowed this to be done to His son. This is not the way I would have saved the world. | |||||
| No ‑ God's thoughts are not our thoughts ‑ God's ways are not our ways. It is interesting the paths these two seekers, Dan Wakefield and Catherine Whitemore, took. One is captured by the crib and the other by the cross but both were captured by the memories they stirred up. | |||||
| The basic testimony of both these people is that their return was precisely that, a return. That is to say that someone in their young years had already laid a foundation. There were pictures and prayers and Bible school and family church goings. Later on it is true, they left all that but it did not leave them. Grace was but dormant, merely waiting, waiting to be resurrected by the crib or the cross of another time, put there by someone significant. | |||||
| Their stories remind us of the importance of laying good foundations. The importance of you being here, the praise you are giving to God, the worship together, the example and witness. In short, the memories you are creating for this community, this family, this parish. Never underestimate the power of memories. | |||||
| Whether you teach others the gentleness and nearness of the crib or the demands and cost of the cross, do it early, do it often, do it faithfully, do it with your own lives. Never forget Isaiah's message ‑ seek the Lord while He may be found and call Him while He is near. | |||||
| If you do not forget perhaps, someone someday will remember. They will remember what you showed them by example and maybe, the crib or the cross will remind them that the Lord is near to all who call upon Him. | |||||
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Self-Described "Progressive, Mainstream" Muslim Groups in America Are Homophobic and Racist
Self-Described "Progressive, Mainstream" Muslim Groups in America Are Homophobic and Racist
by Samantha Mandeles • September 27, 2017 at 4:00 am
- According to Muslim feminist bloggers, who write regularly for the site muslimgirl.com, MAS, ICNA, and ISNA are blatantly racist.
- If Sarsour and her fellow Islamists in the United States are to be believed, they work to "make America better..." "...out of love" for fellow Americans. Yet, their behavior tells another story -- one of closeted bigotry and deceit -- all for the purpose of legitimizing their own false claims to the leadership of mainstream Muslims.
- In an interview published on ISNA's website, Muzzammil Siddiqi called homosexuality a "moral corruption," and explicitly stated that he supports laws in countries that execute homosexuals. ISNA's annual convention included Yasir Qadhi, dean of academic affairs at AlMaghrib Institute, who has been recorded teaching students that killing homosexuals is part of Islam.
Muzammil
Siddiqi, a former president of the Islamic Society of North America who
still sits on its board, has called homosexuality a "moral corruption"
and stated that he supports laws in countries that execute homosexuals.
(Image source: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
"Islam is a religion of
peace, but you can't have peace without justice," said self-styled
"civil rights activist" Linda Sarsour at the Muslim American
Society-Islamic Circle of North America (MAS-ICNA) convention in
December 2016. Sarsour, who describes herself as a "Palestinian-American
feminist," is but one example of a radical Muslim in the West who has
carefully cultivated an image of herself as righteously preoccupied with
liberal values and social justice -- and Islamist organizations, such
as MAS, ICNA and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), have tried
to do the same.
A highlight
reel from the MAS-ICNA convention features author Yasmin Mogahed
declaring, "We have to care about the pain and struggles of others," as
well as a prominent imam, Omar Suleiman, asking, "What have we done for
the marginalized in this country?"
Continue Reading Article
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11077/muslim-groups-homophobic-racist
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11077/muslim-groups-homophobic-racistWhy Your Orange Juice Might Be From Brazil: Florida’s Trees Are Dying
Why Your Orange Juice Might Be From Brazil: Florida’s Trees Are Dying
The state’s citrus industry, beset by a disease killing off groves plus hurricanes and international competition, is banking on producing a genetically engineered orange years away from potential sale https://www.wsj.com/articles/floridas-orange-industry-symbol-of-a-state-is-dying-1506437044
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
A Jewish-Catholic Partnership against Islamist Violence?
A Jewish-Catholic Partnership against Islamist Violence?
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11064/jewish-catholic
Monday, September 25, 2017
Foreign Policy ‘Realists’ Hit Nerve With Establishment Elite
Foreign Policy ‘Realists’ Hit Nerve With Establishment Elite
Attack on Mearsheimer and others comes perilously close to a McCarthyite smear.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/foreign-policy-realists-hit-nerve-with-establishment-elite/
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Saturday, September 23, 2017
New: CIA Agent Whistleblower Risks All To Expose The Shadow Government
New: CIA Agent Whistleblower Risks All To Expose The Shadow Government
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHbrOg092GA
Over 10% of the World GDP is in Offshore Bank Tax Havens
Over 10% of the World GDP is in Offshore Bank Tax Havens
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/09/over-10-of-the-world-gdp-is-in-offshore-bank-tax-havens.html
Insurers Scramble to Put a Price on a Cyber Catastrophe
Insurers Scramble to Put a Price on a Cyber Catastrophe
Trying to estimate the maximum cost of a devastating cyber event before one actually happens.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603937/insurers-scramble-to-put-a-price-on-a-cyber-catastrophe/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=8b2aab156b-Weekend_Reads&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-8b2aab156b-153856085&mc_cid=8b2aab156b&mc_eid=e25735476a
Security Experts Warn Congress That the Internet of Things Could Kill People
Security Experts Warn Congress That the Internet of Things Could Kill People
Poorly secured webcams and other Internet-connected devices are already being used as tools for cyberattacks. Can the government prevent this from becoming a catastrophic problem?
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603015/security-experts-warn-congress-that-the-internet-of-things-could-kill-people/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=8b2aab156b-Weekend_Reads&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-8b2aab156b-153856085&mc_cid=8b2aab156b&mc_eid=e25735476a
Connected Toys Are Raising Complicated New Privacy Questions
Connectivity
Connected Toys Are Raising Complicated New Privacy Questions
Toys and other devices are collecting loads of data from children. What could go wrong?
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601942/connected-toys-are-raising-complicated-new-privacy-questions/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=8b2aab156b-Weekend_Reads&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-8b2aab156b-153856085&mc_cid=8b2aab156b&mc_eid=e25735476a
Botnets of Things
Botnets of Things
The relentless push to add connectivity to home gadgets is creating dangerous side effects that figure to get even worse.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603500/10-breakthrough-technologies-2017-botnets-of-things/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=8b2aab156b-Weekend_Reads&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-8b2aab156b-153856085&mc_cid=8b2aab156b&mc_eid=e25735476a
Want Proof that Corporate Money Influences Politicians? This New Study Has It.
Want Proof that Corporate Money Influences Politicians? This New Study Has It.
It really is no coincidence that the members of
Congress who receive the most money from Wall Street are also the most
hands-off on regulating it.
http://inthesetimes.com/article/20543/corporate-money-citizens-united-corruption
Friday, September 22, 2017
The Energy Collective Daily: Why Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Won't Lead to Action on Climate Change
Why Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Won’t Lead to Action on Climate Change | The Energy Collective Daily |
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- Why Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Won’t Lead to Action on Climate Change
- Hurricane Irma Cut Power to Nearly Two-Thirds of Florida’s Electricity Customers
- Kerry Emanuel: This Year’s Hurricanes Are a Taste of the Future
- On Eve of Michigan Mobility Conference, a Flurry of EV Charging Activity
- A Pragmatic Proposal for Supplier Compensation