USA: A permanent emergency
USA - President Trump has become the third president to renew a post-9/11 emergency proclamation, stretching what was supposed to be a temporary state of national emergency after the 2001 terror attacks into its 17th year. But the ongoing effects of that perpetual emergency aren't immediately clear, because the executive branch has ignored a law requiring it to report to Congress every six months on how much the president has spent under those extraordinary powers, USA TODAY has found.
Exactly 16 years ago Thursday, President Bush signed Proclamation 7463, giving himself sweeping powers to mobilize the military in the days following terrorist attacks that crashed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field. It allowed him to call up National Guard and Reserve troops, hire and fire military officers, and bypass limits on the numbers of generals that could serve.
Presidents Bush and Obama renewed that emergency each year. And on Wednesday, Trump published a now-routine notice in the Federal Register extending the emergency for the 16th time, explaining simply that "the terrorist threat continues."
Sessions launches pro-Christian ‘religious liberty task force’
USA - US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced the creation of a “religious liberty task force,” charged with defending the rights of the faithful to say no to creeping atheism. Speaking at Monday’s Religious Liberty Summit, Sessions said that the task force would help implement the religious liberty guidance the Justice Department issued last October. While the guidance clearly instructs government agencies to respect the freedom of all religions, Sessions cited examples of mostly anti-Christian persecution in his speech at the summit.
“We’ve seen nuns ordered to buy contraceptives,” he said. “We’ve seen US senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma — even though the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for public office. We’ve all seen the ordeal faced so bravely by Jack Phillips,” he added, referencing the case of the Colorado baker who won a Supreme Court victory recently, appealing his punishment for declining to bake a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple based on his religious beliefs.
Religious freedoms are guaranteed under the First Amendment of the Constitution, but courts across the country have encountered problems balancing this protection with anti-discrimination laws, as was the case with Phillips.
Sessions went on to describe the cultural climate in America as hostile to people of faith, and promised his Department would defend God-fearing Americans’ right to practice their religion. “In short, we have not only the freedom to worship — but the right to exercise our faith. The Constitution’s protections don’t end at the parish parking lot nor can our freedoms be confined to our basements,” he said. “Religious Americans are no longer an afterthought.”
Yes, the media really is the ENEMY of the People
USA - After maliciously lying about President Trump in tens of thousands of fake news articles that have driven America to the brink of civil war, the “media monopolists” now claim it’s wrong for Trump to talk about how evil they are. While the media can freely criticize, smear, defame and slander Donald Trump, Alex Jones or any other independent media voice, they absurdly claim that any criticism of the media is “an attack on the First Amendment.”
Media monopolists have a unique, guaranteed right to lie with impunity, they claim, and no one is allowed to question anything the fake news media reports (CNN, WashPost, NYT, MSNBC, etc).
…The media is the true enemy of the People, and it’s time for the federal government to take action to halt their election fraud and malicious efforts to overthrow the President of the United States. Today’s media is acting not just as the enemy of the People, but as the enemy of America. So-called “journalists” are actually seditious traitors trying to carry out an illegal coup against a duly-elected President.
Mark Cuban on artificial intelligence
USA - Billionaire Mark Cuban didn’t hold back when he recently discussed the dangers of artificial intelligence. Refusing to mince words, Cuban said, “Let me scare …you, all right? If you don’t think by the time most of you are in your mid-40s that a Terminator will appear, you’re crazy.”
Cuban is a billionaire entrepreneur, a star of the ABC reality show “Shark Tank” and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. He is also certain that a version of the Terminator is coming thanks to the advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics weaponry.
Speaking to an audience of high school students at the High School Leadership Summit Turning Point USA event in Washington DC, Cuban laid down several serious warnings about the future of artificial intelligence and among them was a reference to the 1984 movie, “The Terminator,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cyborg assassin.
“For weaponry, we already have the ability to have weapons think… They’re only going to go further and further as technology progresses,” declared Cuban, according to Observer. “If we don’t win this battle, the world is going to be upside down and that scares …me.”
Trump Takes on the Federal Reserve
USA - The president has criticized Federal Reserve policy for undermining his attempts to build the economy. The best way to make the central bank serve the needs of the economy is to make it a public utility. For nearly half a century, presidents have refrained from criticizing the “independent” Federal Reserve; but that was before Donald Trump.
In response to a question about Fed interest rate policy in a CNBC interview on July 19, 2018, he shocked commentators by stating, “I’m not thrilled. Because we go up and every time you go up they want to raise rates again… I am not happy about it. …I don’t like all of this work that we’re putting into the economy and then I see rates going up.” He acknowledged the central bank’s independence, but the point was made: the Fed was hurting the economy with its “Quantitative Tightening” policies and needed to watch its step.
In commentary on CNBC.com, Richard Bove contended that the president was positioning himself to take control of the Federal Reserve. Bove said Trump will do it “both because he can and because his broader policies argue that he should do so… By raising interest rates and stopping the growth in the money supply [the Fed] stands in the way of further growth in the American economy.”
How could the president take control? Bove explained: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is required to have seven members. It has three. Two of the current governors were put into their position by President Trump. Two more have been nominated by the president and are awaiting confirmation by the Senate. After these two are put on the Fed’s board, the president will then nominate two more to follow them. In essence, it is possible that six of the seven Board members will be put in place by Trump.
The president can and will take control of the Fed. It may be recalled when the law was written creating the Federal Reserve the secretary of the Treasury was designated as the head of the Federal Reserve. We are going to return to that era.
Europe Will Be Anti-Globalist Bastion of Christian Culture
HUNGARY - Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has told supporters he will use his third consecutive election victory as an opportunity to advance into a “new era”, with Central Europe becoming a bastion of Christian culture and nation-state democracy as multicultural globalism turns liberal democracies into “liberal non-democracies”.
Speaking at an event in the predominantly ethnic Hungarian region of Székely Land in Romania, the Fidesz leader said he was looking forward to the end of the present European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker, and to elections to the European Parliament in 2019 — which he predicts will for the first time revolve around one common European issue: mass migration.
Orbán said these elections would provide an opportunity to block “the great goal of transforming Europe and moving it towards a post-Christian and post-national era” and hand a heavy defeat to “the elite of ’68” and their liberal democratic system. “In European politics it is the turn of the anti-communist generation, which has Christian convictions and commitment to the nation,” he declared.
South Africa to legalize taking away white farmers' land
SOUTH AFRICA - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the ruling African National Congress must initiate a parliamentary process to enshrine in the constitution a proposed amendment, paving the way for land grabs without compensation. Ramaphosa, who vowed to return the lands owned by the white farmers since the 1600s to the country's black population after he assumed office in February this year, said on Tuesday that the ANC would introduce a constitutional amendment in parliament. There have been growing fears that the planned expropriation will deal a blow to commercial farming in the country and might put it on the verge of a food production crisis, like the one that struck Zimbabwe when it unleashed a similar crackdown on white farmers in 1999-2000.
America Has Millions Of Millennial Brats
USA - America has millions of millennial brats that need to move away from Mommy and Daddy and start acting like adults. If young adults are America’s future, then they better get their act together. Today, over 30 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds live with their parents or other family members. Meanwhile, marriage rates and fertility rates in the United States have both hit record lows in recent years.
Instead of coddling these self-absorbed Millennial narcissists well into their adult years, we need to be kicking them out of the nest and encouraging them to learn to fend for themselves. In many instances, if they do not learn how to act like adults by the time they are 35, they never will. It is time for parents all over America to exercise some tough love, because we are facing a major national crisis.
If you go all the way back to the mid-1970s, well over half of all 18 to 34-year-olds were already married and lived with their new spouse in their new households. But today the most common living arrangement for those in that age group is living with Mommy and Daddy… Yes, I know that life is rough and housing is expensive and good jobs are hard to find. But that is what being an adult is all about – overcoming the tough times and learning to stand on your own.
If we want America to have any sort of a positive future, we need to completely change our approach to education, and then we need to kick our kids out of the nest when they reach a certain age so that they can learn to be adults. Because right now what we are doing is not working, and as a result we have a giant mess on our hands.
College Course Disputes Idea That Hetersosexual Sex Is 'Natural'
USA - Eugene Lang College, part of The New School in Lower Manhattan, will offer a course next semester for students who wish to fight “heterosexist” explanations of animals and nature. Taught by Heather Davis, “Queer Ecologies” is a four-credit course offered by the school’s Culture and Media department for students who wish to “disrupt prevailing heterosexist discursive and institutional articulations of sexuality and nature.”
According to the professor, these "heterosexist" explanations of sexuality and nature often involve referring to male/female animals. According to the course description, students will be taught to “reimagine evolutionary processes, ecological interactions, and environmental politics in light of queer theory” by drawing from research in fields such as feminist science studies and environmental justice.
Students will also “draw important connections between the material and cultural dimensions of environmental issues, and examine the ways in which sex and nature are understood in light of multiple trajectories of power and matter,” the description adds. Other upcoming classes offered by the New School Media and Culture department include “Foucault and His Legacy,” “Feminist, Queer Theory and The Arts,” and “How to Overthrow the US Government, Legally.”
German Support for Merkel Bloc Plummets to 12-Year Low
GERMANY - Support for Angela Merkel’s centre-right bloc has dropped to its lowest point since 2006, polling figures show, after recent high profile criticism of the German Chancellor’s decision to open the nation’s borders. Bild am Sonntag’s weekly ‘Sunday Trend’ poll revealed that voter backing for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), had fallen to 29 percent. Conducted by pollster Emnid, which offered no explanation for the change in figures, the survey showed support for the bloc had dropped one point from the previous week, and 4 points since September’s election, which had already been branded a “disaster” for Germany’s establishment parties.
CHINA: NATO ‘Should Be Relegated to the Dustbin of History’
CHINA - A column in China’s Communist Party People’s Daily newspaper commended President Donald Trump on Monday for allegedly exhibiting “disdain” for NATO, calling for the eradication of the military coalition entirely. The People’s Daily lamented that NATO continues to exist, demanding the group “should be relegated to the dustbin of history.” In particular, the publication appeared disappointed that American foreign policy experts condemned Trump for criticizing the current state of NATO rather than urging him to dismantle it entirely.
Jeremy Hunt tells EU Britain will not 'blink'
UK - Jeremy Hunt has warned the European Union the likelihood of a no deal Brexit is “increasing by the day” and it must recognise Britain will not “blink” during negotiations. The Foreign Secretary said the European Commission must change its approach and show a willingness to engage with Theresa May’s Chequers plan for withdrawal. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has savaged Mrs May’s blueprint but Mr Hunt said it was a “profound misunderstanding of us as a nation” to think the UK will bow to Brussels. It came amid reports Mrs May fears Labour could launch a parliamentary ambush in a bid to delay Brexit by forcing ministers to seek an extension to the Article 50 process.
Michigan Declares State Of Emergency
USA - Michigan officials declared a state of emergency on Sunday after high levels of Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) were discovered in Kalamazoo County tapwater, reports Mlive.com The declaration was made by Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley (Republican), several days after the toxic compound was found in the water supply of Parchment and Cooper Township. “This declaration will allow the state to supply additional resources to help with response efforts and ensure the health and safety of residents in Parchment and Cooper Township,” Calley said in a statement, adding "This helps make sure that every resource that is possible is on the table and that we can work as expeditiously together as we possibly can. State and local officials and members of the community have been working in full partnership to ensure people in the area have safe water in the short, medium and long term," Calley said.
Twin wildfires threaten California homes
USA - The northern Sacramento Valley was well on its way to recording the hottest July on record when the Carr fire swept into town last Thursday. It was 113 degrees, and months of above-average temperatures had left the land bone-dry and ready to explode. Within a few hours, hundreds of structures were lost and six people killed. The destruction adds to California’s worst wildfire year on record — dozens dead since October, with more than 10,000 structures lost from San Diego to Redding. There are many reasons for the grim totals, but experts say one common denominator connects the disastrous fires: California is facing extreme heat, the likes of which it has never seen in the modern historical record. [There are 16 active wildfires burning across California right now.]
The EU Backs Off its War on Cash
EUROPE - The European Commission, in its official war on cash, admitted that physical cash is perhaps not quite the source of all evil that many EU institutions, including the Commission itself, had made it out to be. And it has abandoned its war on cash. In its final conclusions the Commission states it is not considering “any legislative initiative” on EU-wide cash restrictions “at this stage”, which should be cause for relief for EU-based cash lovers.
Nonetheless, the Commission’s report is peppered with caveats, including this ominous statement at the end: “Considering the internal market aspects and the significance and sensitivity of such a potential measure, this matter requires further assessment.”
But its war on cash is not over. In May, EU Member States and the EU parliament ratified the Commission’s proposals to tighten cash controls on people entering or leaving the EU. These measures will enable authorities to impound “cash” below the traditional €10,000 threshold, “if criminal activity is suspected.” It also broadens the definition of cash to include precious stones, precious metals, and prepaid credit cards.
As such, while the European Commission may have pressed the pause button on its war against cash within the EU, it appears to have expanded it at its borders.
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The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.
