Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Saturday, 13 February 2016

The European Union Times


Posted: 12 Feb 2016 02:59 PM PST

The EU has overridden objections from Athens, giving Greece three months to tighten up security on its borders. If it fails to do so, other Schengen states will be entitled to erect border controls around Greece for up to two years.
A list of 50 recommendations for Greece was drawn up on the basis of a report compiled by the EU Commission last week. When the proposal was tabled in Brussels on Friday, among the 26 Schengen states, only Greece voted against, with Cyprus and Bulgaria abstaining.
“It is of utmost importance that Greece addresses the issues identified in the report adopted by the Commission as a matter of priority and urgency,” said a statement from the EU. “The action recommended covers areas such as registration procedures, sea border surveillance, border check procedures, risk analyses, human resources and training, infrastructure and equipment and international cooperation.”
The report had accused Athens of failing to register and fingerprint incomers, thus letting them pass easily onto target destinations in northern Europe.
The ultimatum will give Greece just one month to devise new border control measures, with their effectiveness assessed at the end of the three-month trial period.
“Greece has taken a number of measures to deal with the situation, but that given the scale of the situation, further efforts are needed. The overall functioning of the Schengen area is at serious risk,” said a statement on the European Council website.
More than 1 million migrants entered the EU without visas last year, and over 800,000 of those did so through Greece. This has rendered the Schengen agreement – which presupposes free movement inside European borders, providing that outside borders are secured – ineffective, leading countries such as Hungary, Germany and Austria to haphazardly police their own borders.
With the European Council statement acknowledging that the continent is facing an “unprecedented migratory and refugee crisis” and that “any member state would be placed under severe pressure” the new measures may have a secondary purpose: to allow the EU to legally implement border controls for a longer period, if, as expected, Greece fails to stem the flow of new arrivals.
Currently, EU states are using suspensions of the free travel treaty of up to six months under an extraordinary clause of the Schengen Agreement, known as Article 26. Germany recently extended its own suspension through the end of May. Under the new provision, EU states may be able to implement Article 26 for up to 2 years.
“The point is not locking Greece out of Schengen. The point is – if the external border is not being controlled, it allows member states to keep the controls that are in place on their own internal borders. If you don’t do this, you are in a lawless zone and controls could last forever,” a senior EU official told Reuters.
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Posted: 12 Feb 2016 02:51 PM PST

Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis met in Havana, Cuba for a historic meeting between the two churches, pledging to come together for the future of Christianity.
“We spent two hours in an open brotherly discussion, with full understanding of responsibility for our churches, for faithful people, for the future of Christianity and the future of the human civilization,” Patriarch Kirill said. “It was a very constructive conversation that helped us understand each other and get a sense of each other’s positions.”
Following the meeting, Pope Francis said Patriarch Kirill was open and in the spirit of unity.

“We spoke as brothers, we have the same baptism, we are bishops, we spoke of our churches,” he said.
At the conclusion of their meeting, the two religious leaders signed a joint declaration which stated “We are not competitors but brothers, and this concept must guide our mutual actions as well as those directed to the outside world.”
The document also addressed the problems of capitalism.

“The unrelenting consumerism of some more developed countries is gradually depleting the resources of our planet. The growing inequality in the distribution of material goods increases the feeling of the injustice of the international order that has emerged.”
Both leaders expressed their concern over the decreasing significance of the traditional family, and stated their positions on euthanasia and abortion.
“The emergence of so-called euthanasia leads elderly people and the disabled begin to feel that they are a burden on their families and on society in general,” the statement reads. “We call on all to respect the inalienable right to life. Millions are denied the very right to be born into the world.”
Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis agreed that Europe should remain true to its Christian roots.

“While remaining open to the contribution of other religions to our civilization, it is our conviction that Europe must remain faithful to its Christian roots,” the document reads.
“In affirming the foremost value of religious freedom, we give thanks to God for the current unprecedented renewal of the Christian faith in Russia, as well as in many other countries of Eastern Europe, formerly dominated for decades by atheist regimes. Today, the chains of militant atheism have been broken and in many places Christians can now freely confess their faith.”
The document also addresses the crisis in Ukraine.

“We deplore the hostility in Ukraine that has already caused many victims, inflicted innumerable wounds on peaceful inhabitants and thrown society into a deep economic and humanitarian crisis. We invite all the parts involved in the conflict to show prudence, to show social solidarity and show action aimed at constructing peace.”
With the Syrian conflict threatening to push the world to the brink of war, the document calls on all Christians to pray for peace.
“We exhort all Christians and all believers of God to pray fervently to the providential Creator of the world to protect His creation from destruction and not permit a new world war.”
Friday’s meeting marks the first time that leaders of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches have met in nearly 1,000 years. The two broke apart over theological differences in 1054, officially separating in 1438.
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Posted: 12 Feb 2016 02:37 PM PST


Jeb! just can’t seem to get any respect.
At a rally before the Nashua rotary club in New Hampshire Tuesday, the former Florida governor experienced yet another cringe-worthy moment when he was awkwardly cut off in the middle of a speech.
“They’re kicking me out the door,” Jeb said, confused on why he was being ushered off stage. “They’re kicking me out the door,” he repeated.
“I believe your schedule has a hard stop,” a man taking the podium says, as he moves on to his speech.
The incident follows a line of embarrassing moments for former President George W. Bush’s brother, who has had a hard time fighting the perception that he is a “low energy” candidate.
Over the weekend, his opponent Donald Trump had some harsh words after Jeb’s mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, said she was “sick” of the billionaire and his alleged disrespect towards women.
Trump shot back that Jeb had to bring “mommy” in to slap him.
During a speech at the Hanover Inn in New Hampshire last week, Jeb had possibly his most awkward moment yet when he had to beg the audience to clap after one of his speeches.

Earlier this week, the Bush clan member scurried off after mocking the release of the missing 28 pages of the Congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11 when confronted by Infowars.

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Posted: 12 Feb 2016 02:30 PM PST

US Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush is not yet dead as a viable candidate but he is in a coma and still running his 2016 campaign on a discredited 2004 platform, an international lawyer and political analyst says.
Barry Grossman, who is based on the Indonesian island of Bali, made the remarks during an interview with Press TV while commenting on a an article titled “Jeb Bush is not dead” which was published by The New York Times on Thursday, two days after the New Hampshire primary where Bush finished fourth.
Bush, who was once considered the leading candidate for Republican nomination, has failed to gain traction on the campaign trail and in the polls.
“We have to give credit where credit is due and, for a brief moment, by standing against public opinion and Trump’s bizarre call to ban all Muslims from entering the homeland, Jeb Bush almost came across as the voice of reason and as the only serious candidate,” Grossman said.
“Of course with the leading contenders for the Republican nomination being Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, by the standards of lunacy they have set, it doesn’t take much to come across as being almost rational.”
Bush’s vision of America’s global role
Grossman said that the problem for Jeb Bush is that “we already know him from everything else he has said and done.”
“On domestic policy, his leadership in Florida hardly comes across as something any significant constituency is rushing forward to embrace as a vision for the entire nation. The kindest thing one can say is that his domestic policy vision represents a whitewashed version of what some paleo-conservatives in the South aspire to, but he is an anathema to most other people, that is, to the overwhelming majority of American voters,” he stated.
“The real problem with Jeb Bush is certainly not his bona fides but rather his deluded vision of America’s role globally and his astoundingly incompetent foreign policy position which is little more than a puffed up repackaging of the same belligerent rhetoric that his kid brother George Dubya peddled to flag waving Americans still reeling in the aftermath of 9/11,” he noted.
Bush’s solution to Mideast problems
“Not only does Jeb still consider that the fabled US surge in Iraq was – in his own words – ‘a brilliant and heroic success,’ but he also embraces that same kind of blind and ineffective militarism as the solution to all problems in the Middle East,” Grossman said.
“You don’t have to go too far out on a limb to say that Jeb Bush has completely misjudged the American people’s appetite for more war and more military spending at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table,” he added.
“He is running a 2016 campaign, with a platform which has not washed with the US public since George [W.] Bush won his second term. Somebody needs to tell him that he left his run more than a decade too late. In any case, if he is not dead as a viable candidate, he certainly is in a coma and he is no Lazarus,” the analyst noted.
Bush supports vast increase in military spending
Grossman said “Jeb Bush is on record as supporting a vast increase in military spending and has committed himself to increasing troops numbers. He has pledged to increase submarine production and to make a substantial investment in new aircraft for the Air Force. He has also called for improvements to missile defense systems and surveillance and cyber security capabilities.
“In his own words, he believes that ‘the best policy for creating the conditions for peace is to develop the capability to wage war with crushing force.’ Again in his own words, he says that ‘whether it’s our command of the seas, the land, or the air, of space or cyberspace, America’s goal should be technological superiority beyond question. My plan puts the war fighters first, to maintain a force without equal,’” he pointed out.
“Of course he doesn’t stop at echoing neocon calls for beefed up military spending and preparedness. He is also committed to putting boots on the ground in both Syria and Iraq.”
Bush’s delusions on Iran
“According to Jeb, Trump hasn’t ‘thought these things through.’ yet he echoes Trump’s own lunacy by taking the position that the historic P5+1 multilateral nuclear accord with Iran ‘gives legitimacy to Tehran and does nothing to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions,’ notwithstanding that Iran’s legitimacy is not in any way derived from the accord and the 17 agencies comprising the US security apparatus have consistently maintained for years that Iran has no nuclear ambitions, something which the accord guarantees will be the case for the foreseeable future,” Grossman said.
“Indeed, if anyone is confused about just how deluded Jeb is, they need only consider his claim that: ‘For the first time in the history of Israel, its greatest existential threat has been created by its greatest ally.’ And what he is referring to there is the US agreement with Iran arising out of the P5+1 nuclear accord,” he said.
“The fact that does not disqualify him as a serious candidate, then it is worth remembering that in his much maligned November foreign policy speech, he exceeded even the heights of madness reached by his younger brother. According to Jeb, ‘radical Islamic terrorists have declared war on the western world. Their aim is our total destruction.’ The way he sees it, ‘we can’t withdraw from this threat, nor negotiate with it. We have but one choice: to defeat it. We are at war with radical Islamic terrorism. It is the war of our time, and a struggle that will determine the fate of the free world,’” the commentator argued.
“It is really quite challenging to work out just how delusional a person has to be in order believe such utter nonsense. Neither George Bush nor Trump have dared to go that far,” Grossman concluded.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 20:50