Posts made by ravena1

There is a way for conservative Christians to make a strong, winsome case for traditional views of sexuality and gender. Unfortunately, the Nashville Statement isn’t it.

This week, a group of prominent evangelicals released a “Christian manifesto,” which argued that LGBT people who embrace their sexual or gender identity are living in sin. The statement was coordinated by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and many intelligent and respectable people, including my father, signed it. I assume most did so because of their convictions, however misguided, rather than hatred.

source: http://religionnews.com/2017/08/30/take-a-deep-breath-the-nashville-statement-wont-change-anything/

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Francis and Orthodox Christian leader Patriarch Bartholomew have released a passionate joint appeal to protect the environment, marking the first time that a pope and the ecumenical patriarch have joined forces in such a way.

They made their appeal for the Earth, a major theme of Francis’ papacy, on Friday (Sept. 1), as Texans grappled with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, South Asians coped with floods that have left millions homeless and scientists warned that such natural disasters will multiply if climate change is not addressed.

Both the pope, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, and the patriarch, leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians, expressed an urgent need in their appeal for global powers to take action to stave off the ravages of environmental degradation.

source:http://religionnews.com/2017/09/01/pope-and-orthodox-christian-leader-issue-unprecedented-appeal-for-the-environment/

PETALING JAYA: Culture activist Eddin Khoo has given equal blame to politicians and the general Malaysian public for the persistence of racial politics in the country.
Speaking to FMT, he said Malaysian political discourse could not move away from considerations of race because Malaysians had defined themselves along racial lines.
“We have already decided that we want to maintain our identity rather than come together,” he said. “So we institutionalise our political parties along racial lines.”
Khoo appeared unimpressed by claims coming from such parties as DAP and PKR that they are multiracial.

source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2017/09/02/why-race-politics-will-endure/

Ireland’s largest opposition party, Fianna Fáil, has criticised Sinn Féin’s rejection of a compromise offer from the Democratic Unionists over an Irish language act in Northern Ireland.

The rejection of the offer has cast doubt on the resumption of negotiations aimed at restoring power-sharing in Belfast.

Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader in the Stormont assembly, accused the DUP and its leader, Arlene Foster, of failing to learn any lessons from the collapse of the previous government.

source: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/01/sinn-fein-arlene-foster-irish-language-act-compromise

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly examining a draft letter written by President Trump enumerating his reasons for firing former FBI Director James Comey. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump will make an announcement on DACA, the Obama-era program offering protections for young undocumented immigrants, on Tuesday. Meteorologists are tracking Hurricane Irma, a storm brewing in the eastern Atlantic ocean that became a Category 3 hurricane on Thursday. Trump is expected to visit Texas and Louisiana on Saturday, his second visit to the flood-ravaged region this week. The U.S. economy added 156,000 jobs in August, and the unemployment rate increased slightly to 4.4 percent.

source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/09/the-atlantic-politics-policy-daily-dear-jim/538737/

Whispers of collaboration waft through the air. Rumours of a new political entity emerging into the light. Stories of politicians ready to cast aside tribal instinct and join something new.
But that is quite enough about the political intrigue in Germany where, weeks before the general election, there is no doubt breathless discussion in the cafes near the Bundestag about who Angela Merkel may end up working with if she's returned as chancellor again.
I talk of the occasional chat here, among those who describe themselves as forced to sleep on the political streets: homeless in the era of Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn.

source: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-41096500

A ballot initiative proposed Friday would allow California consumers to know what personal information businesses are collecting from them, what they do with it — and to who they are selling it.

Backers of the initiative, dubbed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, are aiming for a spot on the November 2018 statewide ballot. The measure would establish a consumer's right to request that a business disclose what categories of personal data it gathers, and to say no to the sale of any of that information without fear of losing services or facing discrimination.

It would require businesses to make those disclosures free of charge within 30 days.

Robin Swanson, a general consultant for the measure, says it would "give Californians more control over what personal information is shared."

The proposed ballot initiative, led by Mary Ross, president of Californians for Consumer Privacy, comes several months after President Trump signed into law a repeal of privacy regulations limiting what broadband providers can do with customer data.

source: http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-proposed-california-ballot-initiative-1504313223-htmlstory.html

source: https://www.ft.com/content/df7f2840-8f79-11e7-a352-e46f43c5825d

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After half of century of fighting in the jungles and mountains of Colombia, the country’s biggest and best-known guerrilla group, the FARC, announced its transformation into a political party this week, vowing to respect the rules of democracy while sticking to its leftwing principles.

The party will still be known as the FARC but its name has changed. Rather than being the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, it will now be the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force.

Its symbol, unveiled at a packed news conference at a hotel in Bogotá on Friday, will be a red rose — strikingly similar to those of the British Labour party and the Spanish socialist party, the PSOE.

“Maybe for some the FARC initials have a negative connotation but at the same time they represent our collective history and our revolutionary past,” Ivan Márquez, one of the Farc’s leaders, told reporters.

“We want people, when they see the rose, to associate it with us and see the FARC,” he said, holding up a single red flower for the cameras. “The rose is a very positive image. The rose is beautiful. The rose means love. The rose means friendship and an open heart.”

Mr Márquez said the new party would compete in congressional elections next year and has bold ambitions.

“We have entered legal political life because we want to be the government or part of it,” he said.

The party’s launch marks a remarkable metamorphosis. Formed in 1964 as a Marxist guerrilla movement, the FARC became one of the most feared and powerful armed groups in the world. At its height in the 1990s, it numbered about 20,000 men and controlled vast swaths of the country, even encircling the capital.

source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-melania-taylor-swift-politics-0901-story.html

when people ask me what I do, I tend to brace myself a bit, battening down the proverbial mental hatches. “Oh, I’m a writer,” I’ll say cheerily, warily scanning my new friend’s eyes, especially if that person is my doctor, an Uber driver, a hairdresser, or someone else who happens to temporarily hold my life in his or her hands.

“What’s that? What do I write about? Oh …” — here’s the part where I scan the room for an escape hatch and inevitably fail. “I write about politics,” I say.

Almost instantly, what was previously a sanguine discussion usually escalates into a passionate yelling match, complete with high-octane scoffing, sullen dirt-kicking, occasional hair-pulling, and that classic and excruciatingly painful torture method older brothers use where they punch you in the exact same place on your upper arm over and over. (Mine told me it was “a bravery test.”)

Next, we inevitably take off in different directions, never to speak again, with the exception of occasionally leaving each other passive-aggressive comments with purposely confusing emojis on our public Instagram accounts.

Actually, that never happens. I don’t even have an operable Instagram account!

The most common response, you’ll be pleased to learn, is actually rueful laughter: “Politics? Well, you certainly have a lot to write about! I bet it’s never boring!” The first sentence is correct: There is absolutely no shortage of political material to write upon, given that our culture seems to be slowly morphing into a disturbing default mode of “All Politics, All The Time.”

The second assumption, however — “I bet it’s never boring!” — is sadly amiss. This is because our culture’s encroaching default mode of “All Politics, All The Time” is almost exhaustingly boring. It is cringeworthy. It is tedious. It could signal the slow death of fun as we know it.

Witness the odd metamorphosis of Teen Vogue, a once-innocent delivery vehicle for capitalism’s more frivolous byproducts, including lipstick, overpriced high heels — a species of shoe that is now considered highly problematic and distressing, as we’ll discuss below — and occasional helpful assurances that No, For Heaven’s Sake, You Do Not Look Fat In Your Dress, You’re Twelve.

The large room on the first floor of Soweto’s Orlando Stadium — filled with about 400 members of independent churches and religious bodies — erupts into ululations and applause as Prophet Samuel Radebe, head of the Revelation Church of God, enters.

“How do we trust such biased, abusive liars?” Radebe asks when he eventually addresses the gathering, mobilised by the All African Federation of Churches in response to what it sees as a bid by the state to control religion — driven by the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.

In 2015, the commission began investigating the commercialisation of religion and the abuse of people’s belief systems.

The commission’s chairperson, Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, says the investigation was undertaken following “controversial news reports and articles about pastors [that] have left a large section of society questioning whether religion has become a commercial institution or a commodity to enrich a few”.

News reports have shone a light on preachers’ potentially harmful practices, including spraying congregants with insecticide and making them eat snakes or drink petrol.

The commission’s report, which has been tabled before Parliament, includes a recommendation that all religious practitioners be registered with the commission through an accredited umbrella organisation of their choice.

“This was necessitated by the fact that currently there is no comprehensive register where the communities can verify who is a bona fide religious practitioner … This register will also ensure that the religious leaders are compliant with the various laws of the country,” the report noted.

The recommendations didn’t sit well with those at Orlando Stadium on Saturday.

Radebe is a vocal opponent of the investigation. He refused to appear before the commission and ignored its request to view his church’s financial statements.

Guest speaker Liverson Mdongo kicks off the discussion: “Today we are gathered here in what is going to go down in the annals of history as a gathering of the religious community in protest.

“The report amounts to state control of religion. There should always be, in any democracy, a distinction between religion and state,” he states.

source: https://mg.co.za/article/2017-08-30-state-is-trying-to-control-religion-and-doesnt-listen-to-us

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s leftist FARC rebel group will debut its political party at a conference beginning on Sunday, a key step in its transition into a civilian organization after more than 50 years of war and its first chance to announce policy to skeptical voters.

The six-day meeting in Bogota of FARC members, who have handed in more than 8,000 weapons to the United Nations during their demobilization, is expected to conclude Friday with a platform that the party, still officially un-named, will campaign on in elections next year.

Under its 2016 peace deal with the government to end its part in a war that killed more than 220,000, the majority of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters were granted amnesty and allowed to participate in politics. Whether Colombians, many of whom revile the rebels, will be inspired to back them remains to be seen.

The FARC’s often-old fashioned Marxist rhetoric strikes many as a throwback to their 1964 founding, but proposals for reforms to labyrinthine property laws may get traction with rural voters who struggle as subsistence farmers.

The peace accord, rejected by less than a 1 percent margin in a referendum before being modified and enacted, awards the FARC’s party 10 automatic seats in Congress through 2026, but the group may campaign for others.

“I think the FARC will try for a regional consolidation, using the presence and influence they have in certain provinces,” said Catalina Jimenez, politics professor at Externado University. “At a national level they need a large amount of votes they still don’t have.”

The FARC is open to coalitions, the group said this week.

Fractured by in-fighting, leftist parties have long struggled in conservative-leaning Colombia, despite some success in winning urban positions.

“We have to define our course of action, which will surely bring up the need to have coalitions,” FARC secretariat member Pastor Alape told reporters on Friday, adding the group wants a “big political convergence that redefines the limits of the left.”

Colombia’s “semi-feudal” state will need to be modernized, and the country must wake up to the scourge of corruption, Alape said.

Both legislative and presidential elections will take place in 2018. It is not yet clear for which positions the FARC will field candidates.

Widespread corruption scandals will likely be a top issue for the crowded field of 2018 presidential candidates, as will bettering the daily lives of Colombians, many of whom say improvements to security, public education and healthcare are desperately needed.

The FARC says the government of President Juan Manuel Santos, which gives a certain amount of regulated funding to each party, should help carry the costs of the conference, given the rebels have handed over their assets to be used as reparations for victims of the war.

But though the peace deal is the cornerstone of Santos' legacy, the government has raised doubts about the veracity of the rebels' $324 million asset list, creating a commission to check the FARC have included all profits they may have earned from extortion, ransoms and drug trafficking, and saying the group must play by the same rules as any other party.

The new party has no official name yet, though one rebel leader has said it could be called the Revolutionary Alternative Force of Colombia, preserving the FARC initials in Spanish.

OPINION: About the time you read this, I'll be in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, arriving to the wedding of two dear friends.

Marriage has been on my mind this week – because of the Berkshires nuptials (and a much-relished weekend away on bikes and hiking trails), but also because of its interesting analogy to our relationships with our political leaders.

Here in America, with a president only about 35 per cent of the country approves of, and a Congress at an abysmal 16 per cent approval, you might say our marriage is on the rocks.

Danielle McLaughlin: The numbers show that most Americans are concerned about Trump's fitness to lead, and worried about …
Danielle McLaughlin: The numbers show that most Americans are concerned about Trump's fitness to lead, and worried about where his "marriage" with the American people is headed.

Marriage counsellors will tell you the most dangerous emotion that can enter a marriage is contempt.  The word originated in 1393, from the Latin word contemptus, meaning scorn. Defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "the feeling that a person or a thing is worthless or beneath consideration". It has been explained by John Gottman, a world expert on marriage, as the feeling that fuels actions that communicate arrogance.

READ MORE:

• Donald Trump Jr and the death of Socrates
  ​* Confederate monuments belong in the memory

Gottman warns that contempt is the opposite of empathy.  Empathy – the ability to understand and share another person's emotions and experiences – is vital to keeping people in relationships feeling safe, and for the survival of the marriage itself.

The US president's contempt for his enemies, perceived and real, was on full display this week in a rage-filled 75-minute rally in Phoenix, Arizona.

Trump railed against the media's coverage of his response to Charlottesville, engaging in a little revisionist history as he left out his controversial "on many sides" statement in reciting his earlier remarks back to the crowd.

In fairness, the media had focused on his failure to be morally unambiguous when equating the white supremacists with the counter-protesters, but it gave little weight to his clear denunciations of white supremacy and Nazism.

Trump told the audience that the "fake media" was turning off their cameras mid-speech (as we watched the late-night rally at home on CNN and MSNBC).  Without saying his name, he denigrated Arizona Senator John McCain, currently undergoing cancer treatment, for voting his conscience on a ham-fisted attempt to repeal Obamacare.  Even though Trump's off-the-cuff remarks were interspersed with a teleprompter script, it was, at its core, a divisive, reckless, and scornful performance.

But he's not the only one.  It is becoming increasingly clear that some in the media, and some in politics, tired of the relentless attacks and the behaviour they just cannot square with the obligations of the presidency, are starting to show their own contempt for Trump.

It began with over 60 Democratic congressmen and women boycotting  the Inauguration. After Trump's Phoenix rally, CNN's Don Lemon described Trump as "a man who is so petty that he has to go after people who he deems to be his enemy like the imaginary friend of a 6-year-old".

It is hard to imagine a cable host saying that about any prior president, just as it is hard to imagine Obama or any of his predecessors delivering the kind of speech Trump did in Phoenix. Just last week, a Democratic State Senator from Missouri, Maria Chappelle-Nadal, wrote on Facebook that she hoped the President would be assassinated.  She apologised, but many, rightfully, have called for her resignation.

In marriage, as in life, well-meaning people can disagree.  But the descent into contempt is dangerous and destructive.  William Shakespeare, in Anthony and Cleopatra, perhaps put it best:

What our contempt often hurls from us,
We wish it our again; the present pleasure,
By revolution lowering, does become
The opposite of itself

Certainly, the president is beloved by some. They embrace the belligerence he directs at those in media and government who wonder out loud whether Trump has elevated himself the way the presidency demands.  But the numbers show that most Americans are concerned about his fitness to lead, and worried about where this marriage is headed.

The survival of this marriage will require not only less contempt, but also less criticism, and more communication – particularly more truthful communication.  It will also require respect on all sides for the institutions – the courts, Congress, and even the free press – that hold us all together.

The president has to learn how to model this behaviour.  If he does, the rest of us will surely follow.

I walk into today's wedding full of hope.  Hope for our beloved friends, for the longevity of their marriage, for shared empathy and mutual respect and for the clouds of contempt never to threaten their union.

I wish the same for this country.

n just nine days, President Donald Trump might have badly hobbled Arizona Republicans headed into a competitive Senate race and hurt his own re-election prospects in the state.

Trump's efforts to unseat Sen. Jeff Flake in the state's 2018 Republican primary have left Trump's allies confused and divided over which of several possible anti-Flake candidates should get their support.
And the President's decision to pardon controversial former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio – quietly, on a Friday night, with Hurricane Harvey set to make landfall in Texas as a Category 4 storm -- handed Democrats such a potent tool to turn out Latino votes that it might not matter who the GOP puts on the ballot.
Pardoning Sheriff Joe is the absolute epitome of Trumpism
Pardoning Sheriff Joe is the absolute epitome of Trumpism
The Arpaio pardon is sure to please Trump's base -- particularly those who favor a strict crackdown on immigration, many of whom attended his campaign rally Tuesday night in Phoenix, the Maricopa County seat.
But it also could come at a steep political cost.
While Maricopa is one of the few major urban counties in the United States that still backs Republican presidential candidates, Trump won by a paltry 3.4 percentage points there -- much worse than the 12 points by which Mitt Romney bested former President Barack Obama in the county in 2012.
Trump took the state by just 3.5 points -- a smaller margin of victory than the traditional swing states of North Carolina, Iowa and Ohio.
Arpaio, meanwhile, was easily ousted last year after 24 years in office as Maricopa County sheriff. Democratic challenger Paul Penzone won 56% to Arpaio's 44%.
That means a substantial share of Trump's supporters in Maricopa County -- more than enough to swing the key county, which made up about half of Trump's margin of victory and the entire state -- voted against Arpaio last year.
Why Joe Arpaio was found guilty
Why Joe Arpaio was found guilty
Arpaio is a deeply controversial figure, in part for his immigration sweeps that targeted Latino neighborhoods and the conditions in his county jail, which included an outdoor "Tent City" in the Arizona desert. He was convicted of criminal contempt last year for defying a 2011 court order to stop detaining people based on suspicion of their immigration status with no evidence those people had committed another crime.
"Regarding the Arpaio pardon, I would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course," Flake tweeted Friday night, in an acknowledgment of the political fallout of Trump's pardoning of Arpaio.
Arizona's senior senator, Republican John McCain, said in a statement on the pardon that "no one is above the law and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold."
"Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judge's orders," McCain said. "The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions."
Phoenix reacts to ex-Sheriff Arpaio's pardon
Phoenix reacts to ex-Sheriff Arpaio's pardon 01:39
Democrats, meanwhile, came out swinging hard Friday night.
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, the Democrat preparing to run for the Senate against Flake in 2018, tweeted: "I am dismayed by the President's decision to pardon Joe Arpaio. Arpaio hurt Arizonans & cost taxpayers a great amount of grief & money. He should be held accountable. No one is above the law."
"Prejudice doesn't deserve a pardon," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez. "Donald Trump just gave a free pass to his buddy Joe Arpaio, the nation's most notorious agent of racism and bigotry, during a natural disaster that could hurt millions. That's not presidential, that's a coward."
Trump had teased that the Arpaio pardon was coming at his campaign rally in Phoenix on Tuesday night.
At the same rally, he took a shot at Flake without mentioning him by name, calling the Republican senator "weak on borders, weak on crime" and claiming "nobody knows who the hell he is."
But Trump, who has wanted Flake ousted since 2016, telling Arizona Republicans before the election that he'd spend $10 million of his own money against the senator, might have complicated that task, too.

MOST people could sense a swing against the Coalition in the lead-up to the last Federal Election.

Polling suggested Lyons was a risk but the seats of Braddon and Bass were likely to be held by the incumbents.

Then, within the first few hours of polling night, it quickly became apparent all three local Liberal MPs would be swept from power.

It gave this newspaper an easy “Adios Amigos” headline but it also prompted some serious soul searching across political parties and media.

We all knew the swing was on, but even the most seasoned polling analysts didn’t predict such a merciless whitewash.

In the end, it was former Lyons MP Eric Hutchinson who actually performed the best of the Liberal members.

Much post-election analysis has since occurred, with the Coalition largely blaming a “Mediscare” campaign.

Our analysis pointed the finger firmly at the worst Federal Election campaign we could remember by a sitting government; a centralised, largely meaningless and fairly random collection of thought bubbles that failed to connect with Tasmanian voters and issues they actually cared about (think health).

It all matters little now. The change occurred and the federal ALP appears to be going from strength to strength. But, above and beyond everything else, it highlighted the importance of connecting with grassroots communities, whether you are a local MP, a political party, a councillor or a journalist … and the damage that can occur if you don’t.

If everyone had listened a little harder, worked more closely with those affected communities, the outcome may well have been far less of a surprise.

US president Donald Trump won largely on the back of a constituency that had lost faith in the so-called “elite”; a backlash against a mainstream political and media establishment that many felt only reflected what was happening in the corridors of powers, not the struggling, working class communities that actually held the sway of the vote and were battling to make ends meet. In our political discourse, they are often referred to as the inner-city latte sippers. Mr Trump exploited that to perfection.

That is our challenge, particularly leading into the next State Election, with a rise likely in minor party influence and an increasingly volatile electorate: to look at the real issues and how people at the coal face feel these issues genuinely affect their lives.

To get beyond the politics, the activists and the rent seekers on all sides of the political spectrum, and tell the real stories of real people, their hopes, dreams, challenges and aspirations.

As the US has blatantly shown us all, ignore this at your peril, for that is where the real power lies.

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday termed the latest political developments in Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK as "low comedy turning into farce", and asked why was the governor not taking any action.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly has 233 members and the governor should not allow time to "artificially alter strength", he said in an apparent reference to the tug of war between AIADMK factions.

"AIADMK politics is low comedy turning into farce. Where is TN Governor?" he tweeted.

AIADMK politics is low comedy turning into farce. Where is TN Governor?

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 27, 2017
There have been demands for a trust vote in the Tamil Nadu assembly by the DMK, Congress and the AIADMK faction led by TTV Dhinakaran.

In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, the AIADMK has 134 MLAs. There is no one representing the RK Nagar constituency in the House, which late AIADMK supremo and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa had represented.

File image of P Chidambaram. PTIFile image of P Chidambaram. PTI
The DMK has 89 seats, Congress eight and IUML one.

Nineteen AIADMK MLAs loyal to Dhinakaran revolted against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy. The 19 MLAs have been staying in a resort in Puducherry. Later, two more MLAs joined the Dhinakaran camp.

The AIADMK will soon join the NDA and be a part of the Modi government at the Centre, a senior BJP leader has said.

"The AIADMK will certainly join the NDA. It is only a matter of time. And when it joins the NDA, then it is natural that it will also join the government," the leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

He also played down the rebellion by a group of AIADMK MLAs, who owe allegiance to Dhinakaran, claiming that it was more an internal matter of the regional party and not a threat to the state government.

Following the recent merger of two AIADMK factions headed by Palaniswamy and former chief minister O Panneerselvam, the party has been hit by fresh dissent with a group of MLAs rallying behind Dhinakaran, whose aunt, VK Sasikala, is the AIADMK chief and in jail on a corruption case.

The two factions' decision to remove Sasikala from the post of party general secretary triggered the unrest.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro offers a press conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on August 22, 2017.Chile said Tuesday it has granted diplomatic asylum to five Venezuelans who took refuge in its embassy in Caracas, amid political turmoil as Maduro moves to consolidate power. The five were among a group of 33 jurists who had been named to the Venezuelan Supreme Court by the opposition-controlled National Assembly on July 31 in defiance of the government. / AFP PHOTO / Juan BARRETO (Photo credit should read JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images)

The Donald Trump administration has imposed more sanctions upon the Venezuelan economy but if we're honest about it this isn't going to have much effect beyond the simply political–the economic effect just isn't going to be that much. Fortunately, they stopped well short of real sanctions on the oil business, something which would have both crashed the Venezuelan economy entirely but also have been costly to the US itself. The point here being that the US is a major importer of that heavy Venezuelan oil and why make it more difficult to buy what you want to in order to punish someone else?

Columbia: The White House on Friday amped up pressure on Venezuela's cash-strapped government, restricting access to vital US capital markets and escalating a standoff between Washington and Caracas.

In a move aimed at leveraging America's vast financial power against Nicolas Maduro`s regime, President Donald Trump banned US trade in new bonds issued by the government or its cash-cow oil company PDVSA.

Well, banning the trade in bonds has effects, yes, but they're pretty marginal for a country in Venezuela's situation. They've not got many bonds themselves--Goldman Sachs bought most of those that the government did own in one form or another some months back. And they're certainly not issuing more at present:

Maduro, who has frequently blamed the United States for waging an “economic war” on Venezuela, said the United States was seeking to force Venezuela to default — but he said it would not succeed.

One of the real oddities of this situation is that any economic manager with any sense at all would have defaulted on that debt well back--certainly 12 months back if not more. It's not payable without constricting the Venezuelan economy more than any economy should be constricted. And we have a system to deal with that concerning sovereign bonds, simply default and reschedule. But Maduro doesn't appear to have the economic good sense of a damp hedgehog, to be exceeding polite about it, which must be why he's so determined to not default:

The new sanctions prohibit financial institutions from providing new money to the Caracas government or state oil company PDVSA. It would also restrict PDVSA's U.S. subsidiary, Citgo, from sending dividends back to Venezuela as well as ban trading in two bonds the government recently issued to circumvent its increasing isolation from western financial markets.

People just aren't going to be lending more money into that system--at least not through the public markets which the US has some control over. We might of course see lending for political reason from China or Russian interests but there just aren't going to be subscriptions to new bond issues at anything other than entirely punitive rates. At I do mean punitive, rates which someone simply wouldn't issue at like 25% or above:

To mitigate harm to the American and Venezuelan people, the Treasury Department is issuing general licenses that allow for transactions that would otherwise be prohibited by the Executive Order. These include provisions allowing for a 30-day wind-down period; financing for most commercial trade, including the export and import of petroleum; transactions only involving Citgo; dealings in select existing Venezuelan debts; and the financing for humanitarian goods to Venezuela.

That's from the press secretary's statement. Which brings us to why they've not banned the oil trade. Venezuela's oil is very heavy, thick stuff, so much so that they actually import lighter crude from the US to mix into it to get it up to a standard that refineries can take it. However, it still means that a refinery has to be adjusted to be able to take it and those along the Gulf Coast of the US are those able to do so. If the US refused to take it, outlawed it, then that would cause a shortage in the US market--why hurt yourself when you're trying to hurt someone else? Perhaps more importantly it would immediately collapse the Venezuelan economy. There's no one else who can take that oil, not without months of reforms and adjustments to their refineries, a disruption that the people of Venezuela simply couldn't handle. The point after all is to try to stop Maduro oppressing, not punish the people for being oppressed by Maduro.

The administration stopped short of prohibiting imports of Venezuelan crude oil to American refineries, which would almost certainly be a crippling step. American refiners have lobbied hard against sanctions against oil imports, arguing that they would raise fuel prices, slash profit margins and potentially cost oil company jobs along the Gulf Coast.

Labour’s latest policy shift is the most important development in the politics of Brexit since Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech last January established Britain’s red lines in negotiations with the European Union. It comes as Brexit secretary David Davis travels to Brussels on Monday for the third round of negotiations with the EU, following the publication of a number of British position papers on aspects of Brexit.
The prime minister in January ruled out remaining in the Single Market and the Customs Union, as well as the continuing jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Britain after it leaves the EU in March 2019.
After months of deliberate ambiguity, Labour has adopted a clear policy in favour of a “soft” Brexit, accepting the outcome of last year’s referendum but calling for Britain to remain full members of the Single Market and the Customs Union for up to four years after it leaves the EU.
This would mean that Britain would continue to pay into the EU budget, the ECJ would retain jurisdiction, and free movement of people would continue.
It would temporarily avoid the worst consequences of Brexit for Ireland, including the issue of how to police a customs border on the island.
And by postponing the implementation of a final exit deal with the EU, it holds open the possibility that Britain could change course and seek the closest possible relationship as a non-member, similar to that enjoyed by countries like Norway and Switzerland.
Arithmetic
More immediately, Labour’s shift has transformed the parliamentary arithmetic as MPs prepare to return to Westminster next week. By placing his party firmly on the side of a soft Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn has ensured that the government will face a treacherous task as it seeks to pass the huge European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.
May’s confidence and supply deal with the DUP gives her a working majority of 13, so that just seven Conservative rebels can trigger a defeat for the government.
The parliamentary arithmetic of Brexit is complicated by the presence of a small rump of diehard Brexiteers on the Labour benches and a larger group of Conservatives who favour a soft Brexit.
There is little doubt, however, that Corbyn’s move has created a majority in the Commons who favour a soft Brexit.
The move highlights a feature of Corbyn’s leadership which is often overlooked – his willingness to compromise on policy in pursuit of success for his party. Labour’s election manifesto was more left-wing that most of his MPs initially wanted but it also included policies Corbyn personally opposes, such as the retention of the Trident nuclear missile programme.
Ambiguity
Labour’s ambiguity on Brexit was driven by the political imperative before the election to avoid alienating supporters who voted Leave and to prevent the Conservatives from making Brexit the central choice in the election.
The strategy was successful, but political conditions have changed since the election, not least because of Corbyn’s success in holding Labour seats in its industrial heartland and making gains in the southeast and in Scotland.
Most of Labour’s gains – and its new target seats – are in areas which voted Remain, and recent polls show clear majorities among Labour supporters and members for a clear policy in favour of a soft Brexit.
The scent of power is a great adhesive, and the unexpected prospect of returning to government after the next election should ensure that Labour MPs and activists will rally around the new policy on Brexit.

Mark Cuban isn't ready to launch a formal campaign to challenge President Donald Trump.

Yet Cuban, an outspoken Texas billionaire who describes himself as "fiercely independent" politically, sees an opportunity for someone to take down the Republican president, who is increasingly viewed as divisive and incompetent even within his own party.

"His base won't turn on him, but if there is someone they can connect to and feel confident in, they might turn away from him," Cuban told The Associated Press. "The door is wide open. It's just a question of who can pull it off."

Indeed, just seven months into the Trump presidency, Republicans and right-leaning independents have begun to contemplate the possibility of an organized bid to take down the sitting president in 2020. It is a herculean task, some say a fantasy: No president in the modern era has been defeated by a member of his own party, and significant political and practical barriers stand in the way.

The Republican National Committee, now run by Trump loyalists, owns the rulebook for nominating the party's standard-bearer and is working with the White House to ensure a process favorable to the president.

Yet Trump's muddled response to a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this month has emboldened his critics to talk about the once unthinkable.

GOP officials from New Hampshire to Arizona have wondered aloud in recent days about the possibility of a 2020 primary challenge from a fellow Republican or right-leaning independent. No one has stepped forward yet, however, and the list of potential prospects remains small.

Ohio's GOP Gov. John Kasich has not ruled out a second run in 2020. Another Republican and frequent Trump critic, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, last month visited Iowa, which hosts the nation's first presidential caucuses. And a handful of wealthy outsiders including Cuban and wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, are being encouraged to join the fray.

Trump's comments about Charlottesville "frightened" many Republicans in New Hampshire, said Tom Rath, a veteran Republican strategist in the state that traditionally hosts the nation's first presidential primary election.

"While he has support from his people, the party itself is not married to him," Rath said of his party's president.

Trump denounced bigotry after the Virginia protests, but he also said "very fine people" were on "both sides" of the demonstrations, which drew neo-Nazis, white nationalists and members of the Ku Klux Klan. One woman was killed when a man drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters.

Even before the divisive remarks, Trump's public approval ratings were bad. Gallup found in mid-August that the president earned the approval of just 34 percent of all adults and 79 percent of Republicans. Both numbers marked personal lows. And as he lashes out at members of his own party with increasing frequency, frustrated Republican officials have raised questions about the first-term president's political future.

On Monday, Maine Sen. Susan Collins said it's "too early to tell" whether Trump would be the GOP presidential nominee in 2020. On Wednesday, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said Trump's divisive governing style was "inviting" a primary challenge. And on Thursday night, former Sen. John Danforth, of Missouri, called Trump "the most divisive president in our history" in a Washington Post op-ed.

"There hasn't been a more divisive person in national politics since George Wallace," Danforth wrote.

Trump has also disappointed "The Rock," a former Republican-turned-independent, who told Vanity Fair in May that he'd "like to see a better leadership" from the Republican president.

Trump's response to Charlottesville "felt like a turning point" among those thinking about 2020, said Kenton Tilford, a West Virginia political consultant who founded "Run The Rock 2020." He said the group has already organized volunteers in Iowa and New Hampshire.

"He's vulnerable," Tilford said of the president.

Yet there is good reason why no sitting president since Franklin Pierce in 1852 has been defeated by a member of his own party. As is almost always the case, the most passionate voters in the president's party remain loyal. And in Trump's case, activists across the country are starting to come around.

The president has personally installed his own leadership team at the Republican National Committee and in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, where new GOP chairmen are more devout Trump supporters than their predecessors.

As RNC members from across the country gathered in Tennessee this week, leaders had already begun focusing on protecting Trump in 2020.

RNC co-chairman Bob Paduchik, who ran Trump's winning campaign for Ohio last year, was named to lead an RNC effort to review the presidential nominating process in conjunction with White House political advisers.

One possibility, last invoked during President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election, would allow party officials in some states to decide primary contests in closed caucuses without voter input. Such a change could make it all but impossible for another Republican to run a successful nationwide primary challenge.

Two members of the RNC rules committee, Bill Palatucci of New Jersey and Henry Barbour of Mississippi, said they've heard nothing of such an effort.

RNC chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel suggested that the blowback for Trump's Charlottesville comments only reminded his hardcore supporters what they like most about him.

"He's not filtered. He's not poll-testing everything. That's part of the appeal he has," McDaniel said. "He has a great understanding of the pulse of the grassroots Republicans right now."

Other RNC members seemed more concerned about the president's statement there were "very fine people" on both sides of the white supremacist rally.

Palatucci said Trump "got it wrong" in his initial comments, but he stands by the president's agenda, especially business deregulation and his recent decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Barbour said the confusion following Trump's response to Charlottesville was "a huge distraction." The president's future will brighten, he said, if the GOP-controlled Congress overhauls the tax code and approves sweeping public building projects.

"If he doesn't get those done, we're going to have trouble," Barbour said.

Yet few predicted a significant primary challenge in the most important early voting states.

New Hampshire RNC member Steve Duprey said he's heard no serious talk of one. Said Iowa RNC committeewoman Tamara Scott, "I firmly stand behind my president."

Religion, political manipulation and preferential policies are widening the cultural divide between Malaysia’s ethnic groups and could be hindering the nation’s chances of unity as the next general election looms.

That’s according to a new research paper – “Fault Lines and Common Ground in Malaysia’s Ethnic Relations and Policies” – that found despite general interethnic goodwill, each race tended to stick to itself when it came to forming friendships and partnerships. The paper, by Dr Lee Hwok-Aun at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, is based on five recent public opinion surveys addressing Malaysian ethnic relations.

His findings are likely to prove disquieting for many Malaysians in the run-up to a general election that must take place on or before August 24 next year. Racially charged rhetoric has characterised politics in this multi-ethnic and multi-religious country ever since its independence from Britain more than 50 years ago and this election looks like it will follow the pattern – both the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (National Front) and opposition leader Mahathir Mohamad have already been accused of trying to exploit latent racial tensions to garner support.

An ethnic Malaysian-Chinese girl at the Guan-Di Temple in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP
An ethnic Malaysian-Chinese girl at the Guan-Di Temple in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP

But it’s not all bad news. While Hwok-Aun found Malaysians generally did not have close friendships with people of different ethnicities, some of this was “due to demographics and not necessarily choice”.

Citing a survey conducted by Ananthi Al Ramiah, Miles Hewstone and Ralf Wölfer, all scholars at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, Hwok-Aun said Malays, particularly those living in rural areas, were less likely to come into contact with non-Malays. Indians on the other hand were more likely to live in diverse neighbourhoods. “They are more likely to have non-Indian friends,” he said. “But Malaysians also do not have much opportunity to develop interethnic friendships [because] schools and workplaces lack diversity, and this is due to a combination of public policy, personal choice, language and cultural differences, political manipulation of ethnic tension, and other factors,” said Lee.

Why Malaysia's hopes for a post-racial politics are fading

The survey identified several points of contention between Malaysia’s three main ethnic groups of Malay, Chinese and Indian – religious differences, vernacular education and bumiputra policies (preferential policies for Malays and indigenous people).

On education, the study found almost half of all ethnic Chinese respondents had a strong desire to leave the country, particularly those who had completed secondary education or higher.

On religion, Muslims were found to favour their own beliefs “far above others”. Ranked from zero (not favourable) to 100 (extremely favourable), Muslims rated Islam 90 and other religions 40 or below. Malaysian Buddhists and Hindus, meanwhile, rated their religion about 70 and other religions 50.

The real reason Malaysia's Mahathir is taking on the Sultan of Johor

Lee said there was an “unwholesome” deficit of religious knowledge particularly among Muslim respondents, and despite few reports of negative real-life encounters with persons of other beliefs, “rather unfavourable views of others prevail”.

Malaysian Prime Minister Razak Najib. Photo: AFP
Malaysian Prime Minister Razak Najib. Photo: AFP

“On the whole, therefore, religion arguably presents a major barrier to national integration, and this is an area where change of attitude and perception, and increase of knowledge, are especially important.”

But the isolated nature of Malaysia’s religious groups has not come about without help. According to political analyst Oh Ei Sun, it is has been encouraged as a “political tool”.

“I believe that if and when people perceive that they are treated equally in this country, then these differences in perception of religion will go away. But there’s a perception of inequality and as it grows more pronounced it becomes attributed to religion or race.”

Mahathir versus the Sultan: how Chinese investment could sway Malaysian election

Racially charged politics are nothing new for the multi-ethnic nation. Appealing to a fear of Chinese economic influence and foreign labour imports have proved to be effective social levers during election time and have galvanised support among ethnic Malays for the favourable bumiputra policies. Former premier and current opposition leader Mahathir Mohamad in particular has been accused of exploiting fears of the clout wielded by the economically dominant Chinese community to appeal to rural ethnic Malay voters and win their support from Prime Minister’s Najib Razak’s coalition.

The Zapatistas, the most powerful political rebels in Mexico in nearly 100 years, are renouncing armed revolution, after decades of opposing the government, for a simple reason: Mexico is so riddled with violence, they say, that the country cannot handle any more of it.

The decision is a searing commentary on the state of Mexico today, analysts say. The rebels have not reached a peace deal with the government, nor won their longstanding push for indigenous rights. But killings in Mexico are rising so quickly that even a movement rooted in armed struggle feels compelled to back away from violence.

“This shows the extent to which Mexicans are tired of violence,” said Jesús Silva-Herzog, a political-science professor at the School of Government at Tecnológico de Monterrey. “Political radicalism today has to be pacifist because the public, social and economic life in Mexico has been stained with blood for far too long.”

Subcommander Marcos, the rebel leader who became a global phenomenon in 1994 when the Zapatistas stormed into towns in the state of Chiapas, stood on stage for a brief moment a few months ago, hidden behind a throng of fighters, youngsters with piercings and indigenous followers in hand-stitched blouses.

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After a few rounds of applause, photographs and revolutionary chants, he quietly walked off the stage, a stark departure from the fiery speeches on inequality and armed revolution that once drew him international attention and willing recruits.