The Mueller Indictments

https://theintercept.com/2017/09/28/yet-another-major-russia-story-falls-apart-is-skepticism-permissible-yet/

What a soap opera. This story is hard to write about because it constantly changes. But despite the clamour in the media, it's pretty safe to say that virtually every angle of the Russia Conspiracy has all but collapsed.

And then today, three indictments were handed down. But what does it mean?

Fiendish Facebook

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/19/facebooks-war-on-free-will

This article/extract should be read by all. Franklin Foer does well in explaining the transformational nature of power in our new social dynamic and how people [sic] like Zuckerberg are able to wield it.

The Trump Transformation of Evangelicalism

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/13/trump-religious-conservative-values-voters-summit

Trump just plays these people like a fiddle. Drunk on power and the prospect of it they are incapable of understanding how hypocritical they look, how foolish they are, indeed how heretical is their understanding of the Kingdom and its ethics.

While heresy and apostasy were already rampant in the American Church it has (if possible) gotten worse over the past year and a half. The Trump effect was of course already bringing about its rotten harvest during the 2016 campaign.

Iraqi Kurds Betrayed Again: A Quick Summary

The Kurds of Iraq were backed by the US through the Shah of Iran during the 1970s. This was when Tehran was a close US ally and Saddam Hussein had been pushed into the arms of the Soviets and thus had become Washington's enemy.

The Sin of Transgenderism

http://www.christianpost.com/news/justin-welby-to-worried-christian-couple-transgender-children-at-school-not-a-problem-200168/

I watched some of the video clips of the parents on the news in the UK. I was struck by their confusion and inability to articulate their concerns. They appeared petty, arbitrary and unprincipled. Perhaps they're timid? I don't know. Perhaps they fear the ferocious backlash were they to speak out in a more direct fashion.

If they were trying to take an easy road, they have certainly learned by now that it didn't work.

Syria and the Media Dilemma

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/russian-lieutenant-general-valery-asapov-death-conspiracy-theories-killed-syria-isis-truth-a7984391.html

This Fisk article raises several points of interest.

Apart from the very suspicious evidence that someone is collaborating with ISIS... which could just as easily be the Israelis as it is the Americans, it also presents a view of the Syrian War absolutely unknown in Western media.

The Smartphone Generation

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/

Some of you will have already read this article from The Atlantic. Written by an unbeliever and full of worldly and thus flawed wisdom it is nevertheless worthwhile.

Murder and the Panama Papers

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/malta-car-bomb-kills-panama-papers-journalist

We've had countless incidents like this in the United States. Investigators and journalists have been killed under the most suspicious of circumstances and they're deemed accidents.

Of course a car bomb cannot be written off and yet once again in the US I would not be surprised if it were chalked up as a leaking fuel line or something to that effect. There have been some pretty outrageous rulings that beggar belief.

Turkey and Questions of Kurdish Independence

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41237812

Turkey continues to move away from NATO in both symbolic and concrete terms. Erdogan continues to dismantle Kemalism, the legacy of the country's founder Mustapha Kemal Ataturk. Turkey was formed in the wake of the Ottoman Empire and it was created on the basis of a secular pro-Western ideology which has dominated the country since its founding almost a century ago. The turn away from this foundation has all but destroyed the basis for Turkey's relationship with Europe and the United States. While Erdogan's dreams of Neo-Ottomanism have been wounded and waylaid they have not been abandoned. Erdogan hopes to bring Turkey into a position of power by means of its geography, cultural influence and its ability to project power within its unique and varied sphere.

Catalonia, Kosovo and Crimea: Separatism, Hypocrisy and the Tenuous Status of the Nation State

https://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2017&mm=10&dd=02&nav_id=102456

Aleksandar Vučić is of course absolutely right. There is a double standard and we also see it at work with regard to Crimea. It is simply unthinkable to the Western Establishment that the people of Crimea would voluntarily and democratically seek to ratify the Russian annexation. Of course the history of Crimea has been all but ignored by Western media. I'm referring to its Imperial history, its Soviet history and even the attitudes and political maneuvers taking place in the 1990s.

Inbox: What about Carroll Quigley's Tragedy and Hope?

I'm somewhat familiar with Quigley. I don't actually own the book but a local library has a copy and I've checked it out before. It's massive and I'll confess I didn't read it all. I pretty much focused on the conspiratorial Round Table sections everyone talks about. And mind you, it's been a good fifteen years or more since I looked at it.

Years of Lead, Years on the Run

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2017/10/06/brazil-plan-to-send-battisti-back-to-italy-media-4_43cdeea4-4526-46df-8b9e-896bb0d82051.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/italian-fugitive-freed-brazil-border-detention-163940290.html

Battisti is one of those enigmatic figures from the Years of Lead. This period (mainly the 1970s and 1980s) so-named by the Italians due to the constant threat of terrorism and the many deaths and injuries that resulted from attacks, is still shrouded in unanswered questions.

Many crimes haven't been solved. Many officials and reporters insist that suspects are being protected and many of the investigatory trails lead back to intelligence services. Left-wing organisations like the Red Brigades were heavily infiltrated by Right-wing fascists. While Italy wasn't the only place this was happening, in many ways its legacy continues to be the most complex and mysterious. The ties extend not only to the Mafia and the Vatican but to South America and even some former Nazis.

Placing the American Empire in its Present Context

https://theintercept.com/2017/09/24/decline-american-empire-donald-trump/

I found this article too generous in its assessment of the American Empire and the 'good' it does around the world.

I will grant that the Empire does bring a degree of stability and stability can be a good thing. And yet at what cost? And is stability an end? Are a host of grave sins permissible for the sake of stability? Is this not yet another case of the ends justifying the means?

Many of course would say in the realm of international politics that's about as good as you can hope to get.

While that adage may be true in terms of worldly wisdom, we as Christians should be able to come up with something better.

The Empire in East Africa

https://theintercept.com/2017/09/13/nsa-ethiopia-surveillance-human-rights/

The Intercept ran this story on Ethiopia and its relationship with the NSA. While it fails to expand on the wider context of the US-Ethiopian relationship it nevertheless provides some useful information in understanding the nature of the US footprint with the Horn of Africa. There is a great game afoot as the US seeks to control the region and do what it can to check Chinese economic influence.

Proxy-Conflicts in Kazakhstan

https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/11/09/2017/Kazakh-ex-spy-chief-jailed-for-divulging-state-secrets

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/229307-Kazakhstans-ex-spy-chief-jailed

Nazarbayev is a dictator and one supported by the United States. He brought his geographically expansive nation into the Western bloc during the 1990's. This move marked a major defeat for Russian interests and any dreams of Soviet irredentism.

Peering into the Labyrinth: Frontline's Guns, Drugs and the CIA (1988)

I recently found this little gem, an old Frontline documentary from an era on PBS that's hard to imagine in our day. There's no way they would produce or condone a film like this anymore.