Category Archives: Global Politics

The New Generation Gap by Joseph E. Stiglitz – Project Syndicate

These three realities – social injustice on an unprecedented scale, massive inequities, and a loss of trust in elites – define our political moment, and rightly so.More of the same is not an answer. That is why the center-left and center-right parties in Europe are losing. America is in a strange position: while the Republican presidential candidates compete on demagoguery, with ill-thought-through proposals that would make matters worse, both of the Democratic candidates are proposing changes which – if they could only get them through Congress – would make a real difference.Were the reforms put forward by Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders adopted, the financial system’s ability to prey on those already leading a precarious life would be curbed. And both have proposals for deep reforms that would change how America finances higher education.But more needs to be done to make home ownership possible not just for those with parents who can give them a down payment, and to make retirement security possible, given the vagaries of the stock market and the near-zero-interest world we have entered.

Source: The New Generation Gap by Joseph E. Stiglitz – Project Syndicate

Colonial-era borders meet 21st century indigenous displacement in West Africa’s Bakassi Peninsula

Borders drawn across the African continent continue to have geopolitical repercussions even into the 21st century. In 2002 the International Court of Justice at Hague issued a ruling in a territorial dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon. The land in…Original enclosures: 20160303Olukoya-Bakassi.mp3 » Play • Play in background player • Enqueue

Source: Colonial-era borders meet 21st century indigenous displacement in West Africa’s Bakassi Peninsula

Merkel to stick to refugee policy despite election defeat

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood firm Monday on her liberal refugee policy, despite a drubbing in regional elections described as a “debacle” in which disgruntled voters turned to the anti-migrant AfD.Original enclosures:

Source: Merkel to stick to refugee policy despite election defeat

Donald Trump: I love this country. We’re going to make our country great again.It’s payback time! It’s payback time! | 3CHICSPOLITICO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNelSuoHzlI

Donald Trump is a dangerous racist sob. How can he be allowed to continue his campaign? It’s payback time? Who is he going to pay back? And for what? The country electing a black Potus? This is scary. It will not end well.

Source: Donald Trump: I love this country. We’re going to make our country great again.It’s payback time! It’s payback time! | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Video: Donald Trump Encourages Violent Supporters & Vows To Ruin Protesters’ Lives: Gothamist

And because doubling down is something Trump is good at, he further encouraged the violent rhetoric with a tweet threat directed at Bernie Sanders this morning (see below). Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” he denied it was a threat, and instead deployed double-speak to argue that he “should get credit, not be scorned” for how he’s handled these “disruptions” from his enemies. In response to all that, Sanders told Tapper that his campaign “had nothing to do” with what happened in Chicago. “Even his Republican colleagues make this point: His language, his intonation, when he talks about carrying people out in stretchers…this is a man who keeps implying violence, and then you end up getting what you seek,” he said.

Source: Video: Donald Trump Encourages Violent Supporters & Vows To Ruin Protesters’ Lives: Gothamist

Germany and Russia – which deja vu?

The German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) is one of the institutions that, for some time, have been systematically researching real or alleged Russian influence in Germany and the EU. Already in September, the think tank had published an analysis, wherein it proposed that Russian media activities in the West, e.g. “Russia Today” or “Sputnik” be counteracted with a reinforcement of western programs in the East, such as the government financed “Deutsche Welle’s” Russian-language programs.[1] The struggle for influence must be systematically approached and the “analysis of the developments in Russia and the other post-Soviet countries,” comprehensively intensified. Recently a wide-ranging research was made on both Moscow’s policy and its sphere of influence during the cold war. According to the DGAP, “national research must be reinforced” in the study of the Soviet Union’s successor states, not only by think tanks, but even “at universities.” For this, a better “pan-EU … coordination of the various research institutions” is needed. The DGAP leaves no doubt that it is on the lookout for all sorts of channels of Russian influence. Not least among its objectives is the disclosure of Russia’s networks, its financial flows and its economic relations within the EU.”[2]

Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com

McGraw-Hill destroys textbook to placate pro-Israel bloggers | The Electronic Intifada

Given the highly politicized nature of all discussion related to Palestine in the United States, the definition of who is an “independent academic” would vary widely depending on the perspective of who is making the assessment. And if the “experts” are indeed independent, they should be willing to provide an explanation of how and why they deemed the maps to be inaccurate. The only way that McGraw-Hill’s credibility can be assessed is with some transparency about the groups or “experts” who made this recommendation. Otherwise, we are left to assume that McGraw-Hill is effectively burning books to placate the censorship demands of right-wing anti-Palestinian bigots.

Source: McGraw-Hill destroys textbook to placate pro-Israel bloggers | The Electronic Intifada

A Texas Candidate Pushes the Boundary of the Far Right – The New York Times

Ms. Bruner’s anti-Obama, anti-Islam, anti-evolution and anti-gay Facebook posts have generated national headlines and turned an obscure school board election into a glimpse of the outer limits of Texas politics. In a part of the state dominated by conservative Christians and Tea Party activists, Ms. Bruner’s candidacy has posed a question no one can answer with any certainty — how far to the fringe is too far for Texas Republicans? Ms. Bruner was a relative political newcomer when she started her campaign to represent a 31-county section of northern East Texas on the 15-member board that sets curriculum standards, reviews and adopts textbooks, and establishes graduation requirements in Texas public schools. Because of the board’s clout in selecting textbooks for all of the state’s schools, it can influence the content of textbooks produced nationwide. Here in Ms. Bruner’s hometown, Mineola, and elsewhere in intensely conservative East Texas, her views fit a widely accepted anti-Obama and conspiracy friendly antigovernment mind-set. Inside Kitchens Hardware and Deli, the combination hardware store and diner where Mr. Clark was eating, a sign on a shelf read, “Hillary for Prison 2016.” A woman in a nearby store who declined to give her name said she would not hold Ms. Bruner’s Facebook posts against her, and spoke at length about her belief that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 was a government-staged hoax.

Source: A Texas Candidate Pushes the Boundary of the Far Right – The New York Times

Knesset bill to deport family members of Palestinian assailants gains massive support – {Collective punishment was popular with Germans in countries they invaded from 1939-1945 and has been popular in Israel for years.}

PNN/Jerusalem A bill was formally submitted to the Israeli Knesset on Wednesday by Israeli

Source: Knesset bill to deport family members of Palestinian assailants gains massive support

Settlers spray death threats over home walls, southern Bethlehem

PNN/ Bethlehem/ A group of Israeli settlers on Thursday have sprayed hate slogans and death threats on a Palestinian family home in Shushahla village south of Bethlehem, central West Bank. Local sources said that the settlers from Danial illegal settlement made a hole in the razor wire between the settlement and the village, broke in, and

Source: Settlers spray death threats over home walls, southern Bethlehem