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from The Atlantic Magazine
James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution
In an extraordinary condemnation, the former defense secretary backs protesters and says the president is trying to turn Americans against one another. James Mattis, the esteemed Marine general who resigned as secretary of defense in December 2018 to protest Donald Trump’s Syria policy, has, ever since, kept studiously silent about Trump’s performance as president. But he has now broken his silence, writing an extraordinary broadside in which he denounces the president for dividing the nation, and accuses him of ordering the U.S. military to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens.
THE VATICAN’S CHOICE: JIMMY LAI OR XI JINPING?
In mid-May, Chinese leader Xi Jinping unveiled a plan to bypass Hong Kong’s legislature and impose draconian new “national security” laws on the former British colony. Putatively intended to defend Hong Kong from “secessionists,” “terrorists,” and “foreign influence,” these new measures are in fact designed to curb the brave men and women of Hong Kong’s vibrant pro-democracy movement, who have been aggravating the Beijing totalitarians for a long time. With the world distracted by the Wuhan virus (which the Chinese government’s clumsiness and prevarication did much to globalize), the ever-more-brutal Xi Jinping regime evidently thinks that this is the moment to crack down even harder on those in Hong Kong who cherish freedom and try to defend it. This latest display of Beijing’s intent to enforce communist power in Hong Kong coincides with the most recent persecution of my friend, Jimmy Lai. Jimmy and I have only met once. But I have long felt a kinship with this fellow Catholic, a convert who first put his considerable wealth to work in support of important Catholic activities and who is now risking all in support of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Arrested in February, and then again in April, Jimmy Lai has been charged with helping organize and lead “unauthorized protests.” That he was in the front ranks of pro-democracy demonstrations is true. The question is, why do the Chinese communists regard peaceful protest in support of freedoms Beijing solemnly promised to protect as treasonous?
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from The Guardian (UK)
LEFT-CENTER, HIGH, British daily newspaper published in London UK
Oldest and largest Maya structure discovered in southern Mexico
Scientists using an aerial remote-sensing method have discovered the largest and oldest-known structure built by the ancient Maya civilization – a colossal rectangular elevated platform built between 1000 and 800BC in Mexico’s Tabasco state. The structure, unlike the soaring Maya pyramids at cities like Tikal in Guatemala and Palenque in Mexico erected some 1,500 years later, was not built of stone but rather of clay and earth, and was probably used for mass rituals, researchers said on Wednesday. Located at a site called Aguada Fénix near the Guatemalan border, the structure measured nearly a quarter-mile (400 meters) wide and nine-tenths of a mile (1,400 meters) long and stood 33 to 50 ft (10 to 15 meters) high. In total volume, it exceeded ancient Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza built 1,500 years earlier.
Oldest and largest Maya structure discovered in southern Mexico
Scientists using an aerial remote-sensing method have discovered the largest and oldest-known structure built by the ancient Maya civilization – a colossal rectangular elevated platform built between 1000 and 800BC in Mexico’s Tabasco state. The structure, unlike the soaring Maya pyramids at cities like Tikal in Guatemala and Palenque in Mexico erected some 1,500 years later, was not built of stone but rather of clay and earth, and was probably used for mass rituals, researchers said on Wednesday. Located at a site called Aguada Fénix near the Guatemalan border, the structure measured nearly a quarter-mile (400 meters) wide and nine-tenths of a mile (1,400 meters) long and stood 33 to 50 ft (10 to 15 meters) high. In total volume, it exceeded ancient Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza built 1,500 years earlier.
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from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
Azerbaijan Making Promising Strides in Advancing Economic Freedom
Azerbaijan stands at 24th among 45 countries in the Europe region, with its overall score just below the regional average, but well above the world average. Azerbaijan has been and will continue to be a country of geopolitical importance and economic competition. More than ever, continuing to adopt reform measures and advance economic freedom in a time of uncertainty is critical to Azerbaijan.
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Magazine of The Living Church Foundation (Anglican)
STANDING AT THE DOORS OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
The President’s Photo-Op and Our Need for Repentance By Elisabeth Rain Kincaid
One of the strangest images of this strange time will undoubtedly be that of the president of the United States standing in front of a boarded and burned Episcopal church (St. John’s, Lafayette Square), awkwardly clutching a Bible for a staged photo-op. As the story behind the picture has emerged, the photo appears even stranger.
Curry: ‘He Didn’t Say a Prayer,’ It Was ‘A Photo Op’
The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, was a guest on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC on June 2, discussing President Trump’s photograph in front of St. John’s Church in Lafayette Square.
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from Medium
LEFT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED, online social journalism publishing platform
LEFT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED, online social journalism publishing platform
The Punchline: We got it wrong and now we’re largely tracking it wrong. Did you know the “new cases” in daily reports are actually “old infections newly reported”? Most of what is reported is old news and not indicative of what is happening or how we are trending. We must look at “Date of Onset” to do ACCURATE trend analysis, but the CDC stopped reporting onset data in April.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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