Friday, November 10, 2017

In the news, Monday, October 16, 2017


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OCT 15      INDEX      OCT 17
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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from Asia Times Online

Russia emerging as new player in Middle East balance of power
Moscow's sale of a better defense system to the Saudis than to its "ally" Iran is consistent with the pattern of its attempts to influence outcomes in the region, writes Spengler.

Does China really pose a threat to Taiwan?
Concerns over a potential cross-straits conflict may be roaring back.

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from DEBKAfile
Media/News Company in Jerusalem, Israel

Tehran chalked up a major victory Monday when Iraqi Shiite militias under the orders of the Revolutionary Guards’ Qassem Soleimini, alongside the Iraqi army, delivered the Kirkuk oil center to Baghdad after a short-lived operation. The Kurdish Peshmerga surprised by showing hardly any resistance after the desertion of a group of Kurdish units. The Peshmerga later issued a statement accusing a faction from one of the two main Iraqi Kurdish political parties, the ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), of committing “a great and historic treason.”

An Iranian-Iraqi war on the semiautonomous Kurdish Republic of Iraq was launched early Monday, Oct. 16, around Iraq’s northern oil center of Kirkuk. It began with an attack on the K1 military air base, the town’s airport and the oil fields south of the city. An official Baghdad statement named Iraq’s Security forces (ISF), its Counterterrorism Services (CTS) its Federal Police and the Shiite Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) as leading the engagement in three columns with the Kurdish Peshmerga defending the city.

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from The Guardian (UK)
LEFT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, daily newspaper

Men, you want to treat women better? Here's a list to start with
Over the last week, there’s been a lot of talk about how women are treated in the workplace – and elsewhere. TV writer Nicole Silverberg argues that if men want to step up, they can

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from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, think tank in Washington, D.C

Starting a New Business Shouldn’t Be This Hard
The lack of startups lowered overall business productivity growth by at least 3.1 percent. Restoring a pro-growth climate and reducing the costs of regulatory compliance should be a top priority for policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels. The relative dearth of startups may help explain why American workers feel insecure about their role in the economy.

Why Tax Reform Should Eliminate State and Local Tax Deductions
Deducting state and local taxes reduces the cost of those taxes and facilitates government imposition of higher taxes and wasteful spending. The municipal bond interest deduction encourages state and local governments to run up debts that could lead to insolvency and unfairly subsidizes wealthy investors. Eliminating the state and local tax and municipal bond interest deductions would generate an estimated $1.669 trillion in revenues over the next 10 years.

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from Hoover Institution

The Relevance Of World War I
In the decades before the First World War, vast scientific and technological changes altered the face of the globe. Those changes had immense implications for the world’s military institutions. The invention of the internal combustion engine, nitroglycerine, smokeless power, barbed wire, the telephone, and medical advances had all changed the civilian world and seemed to have major implication for the conduct of war. They did. Most military experts calculated that such technological changes would lead to quicker wars. In that respect, they were wrong. In fact, the massive industrial and societal changes confronted Europe’s military organizations with a whole host of unintended consequences. While the technological changes had certainly made the battlefield more lethal, they also enabled the combatants to suffer immense manpower and resource losses and still remain on the battlefield. It took nearly four years before the armies on the Western Front were capable of breaking through the dense and increasingly effective defenses their opponents had established.

Margaret MacMillan, The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 (2013)
In her introduction to a book that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Barbara Tuchman’s landmark The Guns of August, Margaret MacMillan asks “what made 1914 so different” that European leaders were unable to back away from the precipice of general war, as they had so many times in the years following Napoleon’s exile? Unlike Tuchman’s focus on a single month, MacMillan takes the reader back several decades to identify the people, events, and decisions that led to the outbreak of war in 1914. In the process, she provides all the background the reader could possibly hope for, with a style that makes the journey absolutely enjoyable.

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from Mises Institute
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Trump vs. Jefferson on Freedom of the Press
If one takes freedoms of speech and the press seriously, and applies those same standards to media that did not exist in our founders’ days, there is never a time to acceptably deny Americans’ freedoms, even for “fake news.” 

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from National Review
RIGHT BIAS

A Classical War of Modern Violence
World War II traced the contours of previous conflicts to an endpoint of unprecedented death and destruction. Some 60 million people died in World War II. On average, 27,000 people perished on each day between the invasion of Poland (September 1, 1939) and the formal surrender of Japan (September 2, 1945) — bombed, shot, stabbed, blown apart, incinerated, gassed, starved, or infected. The Axis losers killed or starved to death about 80 percent of all those who died during the war. The Allied victors largely killed Axis soldiers; the defeated Axis, mostly civilians.

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from NBC News (& affiliates)
LEFT-CENTER BIAS

Trump says military should not have to help with food, water distribution in Puerto Rico
The military is helping distribute water and food in Puerto Rico, but President Trump says that's "something that really they shouldn't have to be doing." The U.S. territory has been reeling in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which left most of the island without power or access to clean drinking water. Trump has faced criticism for an apparent lack of empathy amid the disaster response.

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from NPR (& affiliates)

In The Wake Of Harvey Weinstein Scandal, Women Say #MeToo
The news of Harvey Weinstein's expulsion from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences over the weekend is prompting victims to share their own experiences of sexual harassment and assault.

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from Portland Press Herald
Newspaper in Portland, Maine

Trump warns McCain after senator’s blunt speech
McCain, who is battling brain cancer, told reporters Tuesday morning that he's faced 'tougher adversaries.'

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from uCatholic

Pope Francis Said Doing This Is Like Stealing From The Poor… And YOU Probably Do It Everyday.
During his pontificate, Pope Francis has ardently pleaded with the world to address the dire situation around the world’s food supply. Keeping in line with his simple and pragmatic nature, he proposes that everyone make one simple change that can make a major impact: reducing food waste. “Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of the poor and the hungry,” he said.

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