Tuesday, February 28, 2017

We No Longer Have Three Branches of Government

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/three-branches-government-separation-powers-executive-legislative-judicial-214812

We No Longer Have Three Branches of Government

I served in Congress for 16 years and taught civics for 13 more. Our government no longer looks like the one I told my students about—or the one the Constitution describes.

By Mickey Edwards http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/three-branches-government-separation-powers-executive-legislative-judicial-214812

Monday, February 27, 2017

Putinism as Gaullism

https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/marlene-laruelle/putinism-as-gaullism

Putinism as Gaullism

Marlene Laruelle 21 February 2017

There are limits of defining a regime by the name of its leader, but Putinism has the echoes of post-war France, and of its president.https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/marlene-laruelle/putinism-as-gaullism

Catechists, Apologists, Evangelists…WAKE UP!

https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/lecture/catechists-apologists-evangelistswake-up/5397/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_term=fb-wof&utm_content=2017-la-congress&utm_campaign=lecture

2016 – A Victory of Conservative Realism

http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/number/2016--A-Victory-of-Conservative-Realism-18585

Memo to the NSC: Check Out Some Databases at the State Department before Finalizing that New Executive Order

https://lawfareblog.com/memo-nsc-check-out-some-databases-state-department-finalizing-new-executive-order?ncid=newsltushpmgspecial

Bridge failure severs Big Sur’s ties to outside world - San Francisco Chronicle

Trump team looks to bypass WTO dispute system

Trump team looks to bypass WTO dispute system

Unilateral trade sanctions would test a pillar of the US-built global economic order

by: Shawn Donnan and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

The Financial Times | February 27, 2017
https://www.ft.com/content/7bb991e4-fc38-11e6-96f8-3700c5664d30

At the altar of American greatness: David Brooks, Trump and the Church of America the Redeemer

http://www.salon.com/2017/02/26/at-the-altar-of-american-greatness-david-brooks-trump-and-the-church-of-america-the-redeemer_partner/?ref=yfp

Bishop Barron's Daily Gospel Reflection February 26, 2017

Your daily Gospel reflection...

Sunday, February 26, 2017

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Matthew 6:24-34

Friends, our Gospel today calls us to entrust our lives completely to God. How often the Bible compels us to meditate on the meaning of faith! We might say that the Scriptures rest upon faith, that they remain inspired at every turn by the spirit of faith.

Paul Tillich said that “faith” is the most misunderstood word in the religious vocabulary, and I’ve always felt that he’s right about that. What is faith? Faith is an attitude of trust in the presence of God. Faith is openness to what God will reveal, do, and invite. It should be obvious that in dealing with the infinite, all-powerful person who is God, we are never in control.

This is precisely what we see in the lives of the saints. Mother Teresa moving into the worst slum in the world in an attitude of trust. Francis of Assisi just abandoning everything and living for God. Rose Hawthorne deciding to take cancer sufferers into her own home. Antony leaving everything behind and going into the desert. Maximilian Kolbe saying, “I’m a Catholic priest; take me in his place.” So do not worry and depend on God for everything—have faith!

Sir 17:20-24

To the penitent God provides a way back,
he encourages those who are losing hope
and has chosen for them the lot of truth.
Return to him and give up sin,
pray to the LORD and make your offenses few.
Turn again to the Most High and away from your sin,
hate intensely what he loathes,
and know the justice and judgments of God,
Stand firm in the way set before you,
in prayer to the Most High God.

Who in the nether world can glorify the Most High
in place of the living who offer their praise?
Dwell no longer in the error of the ungodly,
but offer your praise before death.
No more can the dead give praise
than those who have never lived;
You who are alive and well
shall praise and glorify God in his mercies.
How great the mercy of the LORD,
his forgiveness of those who return to him!

Mk 10:17-27

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,
knelt down before him, and asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother."
He replied and said to him,
"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
"You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement, his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
"How hard it is for those who have wealth
to enter the Kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words.
So Jesus again said to them in reply,
"Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God."
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
"Then who can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said,
"For men it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God."

Sunday, February 26, 2017

What Does Steve Bannon Want? - The New York Times

The Art of the Trumpaclysm How the U.S. Invaded, Occupied, and Remade Itself

The Art of the Trumpaclysm
How the U.S. Invaded, Occupied, and Remade Itself
By Tom Engelhardt
It’s been epic! A cast of thousands! (Hundreds? Tens?) A spectacular production that, five weeks after opening on every screen of any sort in America (and possibly the world), shows no sign of ending. What a hit it's been! It’s driving people back to newspapers (online, if not in print) and ensuring that our everyday companions, the 24/7 cable news shows, never lack for “breaking news” or audiences. It’s a smash in both the Hollywood and car accident sense of the term, a phenomenon the likes of which we’ve simply never experienced. Think of Nero fiddling while Rome burned and the cameras rolled. It’s proved, in every way, to be a giant leak. A faucet. A spigot. An absolute flood of non-news, quarter-news, half-news, crazed news, fake news, and over-the-top actual news.
And you know exactly what -- and whom -- I’m talking about. No need to explain. I mean, you tell me: What doesn’t it have? Its lead actor is the closest we’ve come in our nation's capital to an action figure. Think of him as the Mar-a-Lego version of Batman and the Joker rolled into one, a president who, as he told us at a news conference recently, is “the least anti-Semitic person that you've ever seen in your entire life” and the “least racist person” as well. As report after report indicates, he attacks, lashes out, mocks, tweets, pummels, charges, and complains, showering calumny on others even as he praises his achievements without surcease. Think of him as the towering inferno of twenty-first-century American politics or a modern Godzilla eternally emerging from New York harbor.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176247/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_a_trumpian_snapshot_of_america/#more

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Tuesday, February 28, 2017