Study of 923 attacks between 2015 and 2016 likens group’s tactics to Japan’s use of kamikaze pilots in the second world war
Reflections from news and commentary of the day
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Bishop Barron's Lenten Gospel Reflection March 2, 2017
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
The State of Trump's State Department
The State of Trump's State Department
Anxiety and listless days as a foreign-policy bureaucracy confronts the possibility of radical change
“It just feels empty,” a recently departed senior State official told me.mhttps://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/state-department-trump/517965/
New Report Says Islam Will Surpass Christianity And Become The Largest Religion In The World
New Report Says Islam Will Surpass Christianity And Become The Largest Religion In The World
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/new-report-says-islam-will-surpass-christianity-and-become-the-largest-religion-in-the-world
Pauline Books & Media: Inviting Goe in - A Minute a Day for Lent
| ||||
| ||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
||||
| ||||
| ||||
|
Donald Trump Goes All In for the Military-Industrial Complex
Donald Trump Goes All In for the Military-Industrial Complex
The president’s address signaled his plans for domestic austerity and military bloat.
By John NicholsTw
https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trump-goes-all-in-for-the-military-industrial-complex/
Losing a War One Bad Metaphor at a Time Thrashing About in the Afghan Petri Dish
Losing a War One Bad Metaphor at a Time
Thrashing About in the Afghan Petri Dish
By William J. Astore
America’s war in Afghanistan is now in its 16th year, the longest foreign war in our history. The phrase “no end in sight” barely covers the situation. Prospects of victory -- if victory is defined as eliminating that country as a haven for Islamist terrorists while creating a representative government in Kabul -- are arguably more tenuous today than at any point since the U.S. military invaded in 2001 and routed the Taliban. Such “progress” has, over the years, invariably proven “fragile” and “reversible,” to use the weasel words of General David Petraeus who oversaw the Afghan “surge” of 2010-2011 under President Obama. To cite just one recent data point: the Taliban now controls 15% more territory than it did in 2015.
That statistic came up in recent Senate testimony by the U.S. commanding general in Afghanistan, John "Mick" Nicholson Jr., who is (to give no-end-in-sight further context) the 12th U.S. commander since the war began. Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he called for several thousand more U.S. troops to break what he optimistically described as a "stalemate." Those troops would, he added, serve mainly as advisers and trainers to Afghan forces, facilitating what he labeled “hold-fight-disrupt” operations.
U.S. Allies Are Learning that Trump’s America Is Not the ‘Indispensable Nation’
U.S. Allies Are Learning that Trump’s America Is Not the ‘Indispensable Nation’
On Saturday night, President Donald Trump dined at his new D.C. hotel with the governor of Florida, Rick Scott, his daughter Ivanka, her husband and powerful senior White House advisor Jared Kushner, and Nigel Farage, the nemesis of the European Union. A few tables away, alone with his wife, sat Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the man nominally charged with charting America’s relations with the rest of the world.Photos of the president dining with a smiling Farage, the former UKIP leader who has railed against the EU for years, and who led the populist campaign to pull Britain out of Europe, only served to reinforce growing doubts about America’s stance toward the European Union and much of the international order forged by U.S. leadership in the years after World War II.
Trump’s Grand Strategic Train Wreck
Trump’s Grand Strategic Train Wreck
Believe it or not, the president has a grand strategy. But it's a nightmarish mess.
Believe it or not, President Donald Trump has a grand strategy. According to some analysts, Trump’s endless streams of erratic and apparently improvisational ideas don’t add up to anything consistent or purposeful enough to call a grand strategy. We see it otherwise. Beneath all the rants, tweets, and noise there is actually a discernible pattern of thought — a Trumpian view of the world that goes back decades. Trump has put forward a clear vision to guide his administration’s foreign policy — albeit a dark and highly troubling one, riddled with tensions and vexing dilemmas.Grand strategy is the conceptual architecture that lends structure and form to foreign policy. A leader who is “doing grand strategy” is not handling global events on an ad hoc or case-by-case basis. A grand strategy, rather, represents a more purposeful and deeply held set of concepts about a country’s goals and orientation in international affairs.http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/31/trumps-grand-strategic-train-wreck/
Isis has industrialised martyrdom, says report into suicide attacks
Isis has industrialised martyrdom, says report into suicide attacks
At least 923 Isis militants killed themselves in attacks between December 2015 and November 2016, according to Charlie Winter, the author of the report, War by Suicide. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/28/isis-has-industrialised-martyrdom-says-report-suicide-attacks?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=*Situation%20Report
Winners and losers from President Trump’s big speech to Congress
Winners and losers from President Trump’s big speech to Congress
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/28/winners-and-losers-from-president-trumps-big-speech-to-congress/?utm_term=.cf14d31673b0&wpisrc=nl_heads-draw6&wpmm=1
President Trump’s surprisingly presidential speech to the nation, annotated
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/28/president-trumps-first-big-address-to-the-nation-annotated/?utm_term=.56ad89e79eb0&wpisrc=nl_heads-draw6&wpmm=1
Trump and the PISS Industry
Trump and the PISS Industry
by David IsenbergGiven his reputation as an allegedly successful businessman before being elected president, it should come as no surprise that Donald Trump favors greater use of the private sector. Thus, those favoring privatizing and outsourcing activities previously done by the government are predictably elated by Trump’s election.
Various private security companies in particular are licking their chops. I previously wrote about the good times the private military and security contracting industry can expect in the Trump era. But Iraq, Afghanistan, or Africa are not the only realms for private security contractors. Another venue for private contractors, both here at home and in many other parts of the world, is the one dealing with immigrant, refuges, and homeland security issues, and it’s about to get very big. You could call it PISS (Private Immigrant and Security System).
Most people think of this industry only in the context of the occasional headline concerning private prison companies like Corrections Corporation of America (since rebranded CoreCivic) or GeoGroup. But the PISS industry is global. http://lobelog.com/trump-and-the-piss-industry/#more-38237
Trump has WTO rulings in sights, leaked report shows
Trump has WTO rulings in sights, leaked report shows
Administration vows to defend American sovereignty on policy
https://www.ft.com/content/60b30712-fe0f-11e6-96f8-3700c5664d30
Bishop Barron's Lenten Gospel Reflection March 1, 2017
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday
Lectionary: 219
Reading 1 Jl 2:12-18
Even now, says the LORD,return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.
Blow the trumpet in Zion!
proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the people,
notify the congregation;
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the infants at the breast;
Let the bridegroom quit his room
and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, "Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples,
'Where is their God?'"
Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land
and took pity on his people.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14 and 17
R. (see 3a) Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
"Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight."
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
2 Cor 5:20—6:2
Brothers and sisters:We are ambassadors for Christ,
as if God were appealing through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Working together, then,
we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says:
In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.
Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.
Verse Before the Gospel see ps 95:8
If today you hear his voice,Gospel Mt 6:1-6, 16-18
Jesus said to his disciples:"Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
"When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
"When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you."
22 of 47 Your Lenten Prayer for Ash Wednesday
|
 |
||||||
|
Choosing a Lenten Sacrifice that's Just Right | The Great Adventure Catholic Bible Study
Choosing a Lenten Sacrifice that's Just Right | The Great Adventure Catholic Bible Study
First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19 or Romans 5:12, 17-19
Verse Before the Gospel: Matthew 4:4B
Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19 or Romans 5:12, 17-19
Verse Before the Gospel: Matthew 4:4B
Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
Little Sisters of the Poor Journey Through Lent
 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)