The European Union Times |
- 50%+ Republicans want Christianity national US religion
- Russia not to cancel food embargo
- Obama Thanks Americans for Supporting Destruction of the Internet
- North Korean leader calls on army to ‘prepare for war’
- Rich get richer from fewer labor unions
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Posted: 28 Feb 2015 06:33 AM PST
 America’s Founding Fathers may have explicitly banned the formation of a national religion, but don’t tell that to Republican Christians. A poll found that over half of the religious right wants to establish Christianity as the country’s official creed. When asked if they supported “establishing Christianity as the national religion,” 57 percent of the Republicans surveyed told Public Policy Polling (PPP) that they were in favor. Three in ten opposed turning the US into a theocracy, while 13 percent were unsure. The Bill of Rights expressly prohibits the government from promoting one religion over others: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” the Constitution’s First Amendment states. Women were more likely to support the official establishment of Christianity in the US, with two-thirds – 66 percent – responding “yes” to the question, while less than half the men surveyed – 49 percent – chose that option. “It’s convenient that Republicans are so willing to ignore the Bill of Rights when it conflicts with any aspect of Christianity, but if you even for one minute mention any form of gun control, then you’re trying to destroy the Constitution and ruin America,” Amy Eddings wrote for Ring of Fire Radio. Science fared even worse than the First Amendment. The poll’s finding “supports the growing perception liberals have of conservatives,” meaning Republicans are “anti-science Christian theocrats,” the New Civil Rights Movement wrote. Those Republican primary voters who identified as members of the Tea Party were less likely to believe in evolution – only 27 percent were fans of Charles Darwin’s theory – than the 46 percent who believe in evolution and did not identify as part of the ideological group. Overall, 37 percent of those surveyed believe in the theory, with less than half – 49 percent – disbelieving. A majority of Tea Party members – 61 percent – said they don’t accept the theory of evolution. When it came to global warming, only a quarter of respondents said they believe in climate change, while two-thirds – 66 percent – do not. Self-identified Tea Party members were vehemently against the scientific phenomenon, with 91 percent being so-called “climate deniers.” Women were more likely to believe in global warming, at 30 percent. Only 20 percent of men agreed. Meanwhile, women were less likely to believe in evolution – 30 percent, compared to 43 percent of males.  That same survey also asked about climate change, finding that 51 percent of Americans believed in global warming, while 37 percent said the whole idea is a hoax. This margin was particularly high among Republicans, of which 58 percent said climate change is a made-up phenomenon. PPP, a Democratic-leaning firm, surveyed 316 Republican primary voters from February 20-22. The margin of error was 5.5 percentage points. The survey also asked questions about potential primary candidates and the favorability of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Source           |
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Posted: 28 Feb 2015 05:55 AM PST
 Russia has no intention of canceling its embargo on food products from countries that imposed sanctions on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich says. “We are not planning to cancel the food embargo so far,” said Dvorkovich at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum on Saturday. The deputy premier added that Russian authorities are instead discussing the reduction of import duties for a number of products from the food embargo list for countries, which have not imposed sanctions on Russia. Dvorkovich’s remarks came two days after four Russian lawmakers submitted a bill contesting the 6-month old embargo. The Lower House committee for Economic Policy has said it would not support the motion, saying the embargo “was right in principle.” Russia imposed a year-long food embargo against a number of countries including the United States, members of the European Union (EU), Australia, Canada and Norway last August in a tit-for-tat measure after Western governments applied bans on Russian individuals and entities for its alleged involvement in the Ukraine crisis. According to Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, the EU has lost some USD 24 billion as of the beginning of February due to the Russian bans on meat, fish, poultry, fruit, vegetables and dairy products. This is while the Western bans target Russia’s financial and energy sectors as well as a number of Russian nationals close to President Vladimir Putin. The West accuses Moscow of having a hand in the crisis in eastern Ukraine, which erupted when Kiev launched military operations in mid-April last year to silence pro-Russia protests there. However, the Kremlin denies the accusation. The fighting has left nearly 5,800 people dead, and some 14,000 others injured, according to the latest figures from the United Nations. Around 1.5 million people have been also forced from their homes over the past months of turmoil. Source      |
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Posted: 28 Feb 2015 05:47 AM PST
 Net neutrality is a classic Trojan horse. Obama thanked internet users for supporting the FCC’s decision to micromanage the internet:  As Ron Paul notes today the FCC is a non-elected federal government agency that has arbitrarily decided, without a vote from Congress or permission from the American people, to regulate the internet. Paul characterizes this as “the largest regulatory power grab in recent history” that will undoubtedly have serious consequences for the average internet user, including the possibility of “de facto censorship of ideas perceived as threatening to the political class – ideas like the troops should be brought home, the PATRIOT Act should be repealed, military spending and corporate welfare should be cut, and the Federal Reserve should be audited and ended.” In addition, the move will likely force online broadcasters and websites like Infowars.com and Drudge to provide “equal opportunities for political opponents.” The FCC is not shy about announcing this is what it plans to do. Like the Golden Age of Television, the Golden Age of the Internet will be destroyed by the heavy hand of the federal government. Kennedy’s Federal Communications Commission boss, Newton Minow, was responsible not only for destroying the Golden Age of Television, but also centralizing and placing more power in the hands of the big three television networks, which resulted in “reducing the range of choices in programs” and killing off creativity, as Paul Cantor notes. Obama and the federal government have bent over backwards to portray net neutrality as a win for the little guy. In fact, despite all the siren warnings about socialism and the FCC by Obama’s opponents, the agency is in the pocket of the telecommunications industry and always has been. Its current appointed boss, Tom Wheeler, is a former lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry, with positions including President of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. “The closer you look at Wheeler’s selection, the more questionable it appears. After being poorly led for more than a decade—particularly under the disastrous tenure of Michael Powell, son of Colin—a strong argument can be made that the last thing the F.C.C. needs is an industry insider with close ties to many of the companies it oversees,” John Cassidy wrote back in 2013 when the White House nominated Wheeler to head up the agency. Net neutrality is a classic Trojan horse. It will be used not only to censor speech and marginalize opposition to the political class, but will also deliver the internet to large and forever consolidating media corporations. Source      |
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Posted: 28 Feb 2015 05:08 AM PST
 North Korean leader has called on his country’s army to strengthen its preparedness for a possible military confrontation with the US and its allies amid what is called security threats ahead of the annual joint US-South Korea war games described by Pyongyang as provocative. Kim Jong-un made the remarks while opening a new hall at the country’s Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in the capital, Pyongyang, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Saturday. “The prevailing situation where a great war for national reunification is at hand requires all the KPA (Korean People’s Army) units to become (elite) Guard Units fully prepared for war politically and ideologically, in military technique and materially,” said Kim. Kim also urged the country’s military to train hard in order “to tear to pieces the Star and Stripes” referring to the US flag. The comments by Kim came after the US and South Korea conducted a prelude joint naval exercise involving a US Aegis destroyer and 10 South Korean warships ahead of the annual large-scale military drills to begin next week. The eight-week exercise, titled Foal Eagle, is set to kick off on March 2 and will involve air, ground and naval field drills, with some 200,000 Korean and 3,700 US troops. In addition, the two countries will stage a week-long largely computer-stimulated joint drill, dubbed Key Resolve. North Korea has denounced the maneuvers as a provocative “rehearsal for invasion,” calling for them to be called off to avoid military tensions between South and North Korea and improve bilateral relations. Pyongyang has also said it will take every measure to demonstrate its might as long as threats from the US persist. South Korea and the United States, however, say that the military exercises are “defensive” in nature. The US has close to 30,000 troops permanently stationed in South Korea. The two Koreas remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. Source      |
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Posted: 28 Feb 2015 05:03 AM PST
 A study by the International Monetary Fund tracked three decades of income and found that as unionization declined, the wealth of the richest 10 percent in advanced countries showed a continuous increase. More specifically, the study’s authors found that when researching income levels during the period of 1980-2010, the decline in unionization explained about half of the rise in incomes for the richest 10 percent, and half of the increase in the Gini coefficient (a measure of income inequality). “While some inequality can increase efficiency by strengthening incentives to work and invest, recent research suggests that higher inequality is associated with lower and less sustainable growth in the medium run, even in advanced economies,” argued the paper’s authors, Florence Jaumotte and Carolina Osorio Buitron.  The authors said traditional research has argued that the rise of inequality in advanced economies can be attributed to skill-based technology changes – such as new technology displacing workers – and globalization. They found that these developments led to some inequality changes at different rates and magnitudes, but not enough to account for the consistent increase in inequality that was being measured. Researchers looked for answers in recent studies that made the claim that financial deregulation and lower taxes were another factor – but again, that wasn’t showing the steady increases that researchers were charting. “…A rising concentration of income at the top of the distribution can reduce a population’s welfare if it allows top earners to manipulate the economic political system in their favor,” they wrote, referring to things such as lower taxes and business subsidies. They then considered what effect the decline in unionization and a flat-lining minimum wage could have on wealth disparity. Previous research said such things were unlikely to have a direct impact, but that is not what Jaumotte and Buitron found. They took samples of advanced economies between 1980 and 2010 and considered gross income, labor market institutions and controls for globalization, financial liberalization, and common global trends. “Our results confirm that the decline in unionization is strongly associated with the rise of income shares at the top…about half the increase…in net income is driven by deunionization,” said Jaumotte and Buitron.  Economists argue that stronger unions and higher minimum wages increase unemployment, but there isn’t strong evidence to support the claim. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development only found three studies out of 17 that showed an association between unions and unemployment. What it did find was that union rules lead to equal pay for workers, and that unionization didn’t maintain wages above “market-clearing” levels and cause unemployment. And unions, by mobilizing workers, encourage policymakers to engage in income redistribution and support for social and labor rights. In the US, there were 14.5 million union members in 2013, or 11.3 percent of the working population, compared with 17.7 million in 1983. Union members in the private sector have fallen under seven percent, levels not seen since 1932. Internationally, Germany has 18.4 percent of its population in unions, Canada 27.5 percent, and Finland 70 percent. Source     |
