Thomas Paine's version of "you didn't build that":
"Separate an individual from society,and give him an island or a continent to possess,and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end,in all cases,that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore,of personal property,beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice,of gratitude,and of civilization,a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came"
Submitted by Leah
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Nearly all of these are English-edition daily newspapers. These sites have interesting editorials and essays, and many have links to other good news sources. We try to limit this list to those sites which are regularly updated, reliable, with a high percentage of “up” time.
EU leaders have never been more divided about the very nature of the project – with Merkel, Macron and Orban split on fundamental issues
A Hungarian police officer stands guard at the border with Serbia. Photograph: Darko Vojinovic/AP
On Thursday the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, warned that the future of the EU depended on whether it could find answers to the question of migration. But as difficult as the issue of migration is, it is actually just one element of the hugely complex challenge facing the EU, which is divided along multiple, overlapping faultlines that have developed over the last decade and seem to be deepening.
The future of the European project depends not just on whether the EU can deal effectively with refugees in the Mediterranean, but also on whether it can find a way to reconcile diverging conceptions of what Europe should be.
It is above all the euro and refugee crises – which have become acute again almost simultaneously in the last couple of months – that have divided Europe along geographic and political lines. On each of the two issues, EU member states have formed different coalitions. For example, whereas Greece and Italy opposed Germany in the euro crisis, they now find themselves on the same side of the argument about migration – even as “populist” parties have come to power in Greece and Italy.
Amid this turmoil, three competing visions have emerged. The first is Merkel’s idea of a “competitive” Europe. Under her “leadership” since the euro crisis began in 2010, the EU has increasingly become a vehicle for imposing market discipline on member states. It is in the name of this idea of a competitive Europe that, led by Germany, austerity has been imposed on debtor countries in the eurozone. In other words, although it is expressed in pro-European terms and involves further integration, it is essentially a neoliberal vision.
The second vision is the French president Emmanuel Macron’s idea of a “Europe qui protège”, a Europe that protects. Macron envisages an EU in which there would be greater solidarity between citizens and between member states. In practice, this means more redistribution and risk-sharing in the eurozone – the “transfer union” that Germany and other creditor countries fear. This is a centre-left vision of Europe – although in France, because Macron has implemented structural reforms in an attempt to gain credibility in Berlin, he is himself increasingly perceived as neoliberal.
The third vision is the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s idea of a “Christian” Europe of sovereign states. His vision first emerged in response to the attempt, led by Germany, to force EU member states to accept mandatory quotas of refugees in 2015, but it has developed into a broader critique of the European project. Orbán defines himself as an “illiberal democrat” in opposition to what he sees as the undemocratic liberalism of the EU. His vision is shared not just by the Law and Justice party government in Poland but also by far-right parties in other EU member states.
Both centrists and populists see an elemental struggle between liberalism and illiberalism taking place. But the reality is messier – as illustrated by the fact that, despite their apparent differences on the issue of migration, Merkel’s “liberal” Christian Democrats and Orbán’s “illiberal” Fidesz party remain in the same grouping in the European parliament, the centre-right European People’s Party. Somewhere in between is the Bavarian Christian Democrats, led by the German interior minister, Horst Seehofer, who has threatened to bring down the Merkel government unless she moves further towards Orbán’s vision.
Nevertheless, the differences between the three visions are real. When Macron received the Charlemagne prize in Aachen in May, he increased the pressure on Merkel, who had failed to respond to his call for eurozone reform. “In Germany, there cannot be a perpetual fetish for budget and trade surpluses, because they are achieved at the expense of others,” he said. After listening to him speak, Merkel said they would find common ground despite their differences. “That is the magic of Europe,” she said. But Orbán promptly dismissed their idea of a more integrated Europe as a “nightmare”.
Two weeks ago, Merkel finally responded to Macron and agreed to a small eurozone “fiscal capacity” – that is, a budget – as part of a much-anticipated attempt to relaunch the Franco-German relationship as a “motor” for the EU. But the Meseberg declaration was widely seen as a disappointment – the concessions that Merkel made will not do much to make the single currency sustainable. Yet even these concessions were immediately – and unsurprisingly – opposed by other northern European countries that are even more hostile to Macron’s vision than Germany.
The danger is that the contradictions between the three visions will make the EU increasingly dysfunctional – exacerbating the backlash against it. Last week, the new Italian government – a coalition of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the far-right Lega – was so frustrated by the failure to make progress on migration that it refused to sign the conclusions of the European council. “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” an Italian official said.
Hundreds of protesters chanted ‘shame!’ and ‘not in cages!’ as they denounced the Trump administration’s policy of separating families caught crossing the border illegally. Advocacy groups, activists and local residents gathered with signs that called for President Donald Trump’s impeachment. Hundreds of marches took place on 30 June, in locations ranging from immigrant-friendly cities such as Los Angeles and New York to conservative Appalachia and Wyoming under the banner Families Belong Together.
Mass protests against Donald Trump and his immigration policies were held across the US on Saturday, in cities from Los Angeles to Boston and in state capitals and smaller towns between.
As large parts of the country sweltered beneath a heatwave, marchers braved the blistering sun to express fierce opposition to the president’s policy of separating undocumented immigrant families at the southern border. They also voiced concern over Trump’s forthcoming supreme court pick.
The president, who was playing golf at his club in New Jersey, attacked what he called “radical left” Democrats, who he said were behind calls to disband Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the agency central to his hardline immigration approach.
“To the great and brave men and women of Ice,” Trump tweeted early in the day, “do not worry or lose your spirit. You are doing a fantastic job of keeping us safe by eradicating the worst criminal elements. So brave! The radical left Dems want you out. Next it will be all police. Zero chance, It will never happen!”
Immigration policy is a central pillar of Trump’s appeal to his supporters ahead of November’s midterm elections. It is also key to motivating opposition to the president, particularly among the surging progressive wing of the Democratic party..
In Washington on Saturday, protesters gathered in Lafayette Square, close to the White House. Organised by MoveOn, the American Civil Liberties Union and dozens of other groups, the Families Belong Together march featured star speakers Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alicia Keys and America Ferrera. Miranda sang a lullaby, Dear Theodosia, from his hit musical Hamilton.
Activists shout during a rally to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies in New York. Photograph: Kevin Hagen/AP
.John Holland of Takoma Park, Maryland, was among a group of Buddhist-affiliated protesters who held hands, sang and played a Tibetan singing bowl as an early speaker described the “amazing effect it can have on everyone if we move slowly”. Asked why he had decided to brave the 95F (35C) heat, he quipped: “Peer pressure.”
Like many present, Holland attended the Women’s March on the National Mall in January 2017. The capital has turned into a site of major protest, including the March for Science last year and more recently a student-led gun control effort, the March for Our Lives.
On Saturday New York also saw a major rally, as did Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Boston and other big cities. Senior Democratic figures addressed crowds; in Boston, speakers included the possible 2020 presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren and the congressman Joe Kennedy III. In LA, Senator Kamala Harris, another potential 2020 pick, spoke after John Legend performed. Smaller protests were staged at federal facilities in Texas and outside Trump’s New Jersey club, where around 200 people gathered.
Trump was expected to begin interviewing candidates to replace Anthony Kennedy, the supreme court justice who announced his retirement this week. The protests were also focusing on that choice, which is expected to turn the court sharply right, placing in jeopardy rulings such as Roe v Wade, the 1973 opinion which guarantees the right to abortion. This week, the court upheld Trump’s travel ban against Muslim-majority countries and dealt a heavy blow to unionised labour.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck, stop-the-madness moment,” national protest organiser Ai-jen Poo told the Guardian. “It’s not a red or blue thing … what you are seeing is the downright refusal to accept this administration’s policies.”
This month, Trump stopped the separations policy, after intense public outcry over images and recordings of children held in cages at federal facilities. But his order was unclear and the administration has been criticised for the lack of a plan to reunite around 2,000 children with their parents. The administration is now claiming the right to detain families indefinitely, ignoring a 1997 court settlement that limits how long children can be held.
At the Washington protest on Saturday, Kate Earle of Maryland held a sign that said: “Make The Handmaid’s Tale fiction again.” She said: “Reunification of families is a start but locking them up together is not a solution.”
In Indianapolis, thousands gathered outside the seat of government in the home state of Vice-President Mike Pence. As people cheered, Mahri Irvine, a 35-year-old anthropologist, spoke to the Guardian by phone.
“Our country is really, really close to the edge of the abyss of just committing some serious human rights violations,” she said. “In fact, we have already. To me, it’s upsetting if people don’t have that level of imagination to think, ‘How would I feel if I had to flee a violent country, and I was incarcerated, and my children were taken away from me?’”
From Eau Clare in Wisconsin, 22-year-old Victoria Duarte said the rally there had been heartening, despite starting with a man yelling: “If you cant speak English, get out of the country.”
“I was out there today for so many reasons,” she said, “but mainly because us young people feel a lot of anger and a lot of frustration. We want to put it into the community in action.”
Six hundred days after the 2016 election, many US voters remain deeply skeptical of, if not hostile to, political polling.
The national polls in 2016 were actually fairly accurate: Hillary Clinton was supposed to win the popular vote by about three points and she ended up winning by two.
But election models portraying Clinton as a sure thing left her supporters feeling betrayed when, thanks to the electoral college, the presidency fell to Donald Trump. For those voters today, mistrust of surveys can take on an almost spiritual vehemence.
Yet while Americans who feel that Trump is harming the country can be leery of any survey that seems like good news for their side, the same voters might be too quick to believe numbers that look good for Trump but which upon closer scrutiny exaggerate the strength of the president’s political position…………….Easy come, easy poll: on Monday, Gallup had Trump back down at 41%, as Americans learned more about his policy of separating migrant families at the US border. In fact, Trump’s approval rating during his first term has been “incredibly stable” within a band from about 36% to 43%, polling analyst Harry Enten and others have pointed out.
Under normal circumstances, an overall approval rating much under 50% would spell doom for an incumbent president, ruling out re-election. And 90% in-party support is not unusual in recent presidential cycles.
“Don’t listen to the polls,” cautioned a 55-year-old army veteran and Clinton supporter from central Florida who tweets @politicalppatty and who did not want to give her name for fear of losing her Veterans Administration benefits.
“Even if they say Trump is going down, that he’s going to be impeached – don’t listen. Democrats don’t get out the vote. We do not band together. We don’t have a playbook like them [Republicans]. So don’t listen to the polls. Unless we show up, we’ll lose.”
Some voters find it hard to understand how Trump could maintain such strong support from Republicans. But while Trump is an unusual president, in terms of his political style and conduct, certain features of his presidency, such as his robust party support, are true to historical patterns, said Lynn Vavreck, a professor of political science at the University of California-Los Angeles.
“I think the problem is that people want to think that Trump should be different, and that he shouldn’t have the same approval rating as a ‘typical’ Republican president,” Vavreck said.
“But he is the president, he is a Republican, so it’s a little bit like the counter-question is: ‘Why would we expect him to look different?’ The answer to that is that he behaves differently. But that party label is still really important to people.”
In positive news for critics of the president, robust support from the Republican party might not be what it used to be, as the party shows signs of shrinkage. Democrats have built a seven-point advantage in registered voters, according to Gallup’s tracking poll, up from two in November 2016.
Photographer Josué Rivas spent seven months documenting the Native American community that came together to protest against the controversial Dakota pipeline. The work has been published in the book Standing Strong, which has won the 2018 FotoEvidence Book award with World Press Photo.
Police Mace water protectors and pipeline protesters at Cannon Ball, November 2016.
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