Friday, July 11, 2014

some news early july 2014

In a summer of what already seemed too many catastrophes, happening all at once, all but one are threatening to spiral worse. Meanwhile, and surreally, the world cup competition is being called the 'pope match' as the tournament this year reaches its last weekend in Brasil. Germany who will play Argentina tomorrow have each been the home countries of the last two popes, consecutively and coincidentally.

The big news today is that Germany outed a CIA station chief and threw him out of the country. These things usually happen between agencies, quietly. This never happens in such a public, defamatory way.  The US and Germany are close allies and have big work to accomplish with major trade deals coming soon. Quite a remarkable story.
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Of course, the Iraq war and the Syrian war rage on. Last weekend saw reprisals of brutality on kids in Israel and Gaza, then riots, then further violent escalations followed by a number of days of shelling. Here's an independent twitter timeline of the latest violence. Chris Hayes has a sobering take. 4 min video


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The pro-Russian separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine are slowly being driven from the cities like Slovyansk and Donetsk this week. Reports of numerous brutalities have surfaced. Here a bridge was blown up as forces retreated.
In another, but related area, how media in the west carefully manage their selective amnesia.
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There have been a number of penetrating articles about the NSA et al targeting Muslim Americans since Wednesday, and what this may mean for the rest of us. Another on the lack of real independence (not to mention opacity) afforded to the FISA court, the much ballyhooed but amenable 'oversight' court for such queries.
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Earlier in the week a massive typhoon hit southern Japan. Thank goodness it turned out this time not near as bad as they feared.
An interesting series of longer clips on daily life in Japan from the early 1960's show a well-managed commercial and manufacturing economy, framed by model patriarchal families. The portraits themselves seem designed for American business and 'community educational' purposes. One focuses on the wife of a business manager. Another on the life of an electrician is a German made film from 1966. All seem to indulgently reflect as positively as possible on American influence and benevolence.
Here's a modern overview in pictures from The Japan Times.
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