by Oui
Thu Dec 28th, 2017 at 10:29:02 AM EST
[Note: Trump's appreciation for support to get elected was rewarded with his gift of Jerusalem to the "Jewish" State of Israel]
The rise of the alt-right in Western politics due to Middle-East wars [neocon policy] and the refugee crisis in its aftermath. Also the effects of Anglo-American banking, financial institutions, off-shore deposits, stock market, corporate might in capitals and political parties causing wealth accumulation by the 0.1%. The rich getting richer, turning the dials of tax reform, promising trickle-down cents for the working majority. Instead inequality is on the rise in the last 50 years and people's revolutions are managed for regime change in the mirror of American capitalism while undermining labor rights. Welcome to the new year 2018, more of the same?
Attacking church sermons on Christmas Day ....
'Colluding in Exclusion'- Anglican bishop attacks Christians who back Trump
A senior Church of England bishop has lambasted conservative evangelical Christians in the US for their "uncritical support" of Donald Trump, urging them to reflect on how their endorsement of the president relates to their faith.
Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, said "self-styled evangelicals" risked bringing the word evangelical into disrepute, and added there was no justification for Christians contradicting God's teaching to protect the poor and the weak.
Bayes told the Guardian: "Some of the things that have been said by religious leaders seem to collude with a system that marginalises the poor, a system which builds walls instead of bridges, a system which says people on the margins of society should be excluded, a system which says we're not welcoming people any more into our country.
German newspaper editor Die Welt accuses churches of left-wing bias
The editor-in-chief of Die Welt, one of Germany's leading right-wing newspapers, triggered a social media meltdown on Christmas by complaining about supposed left-wing bias in Germany's Christmas midnight masses.
Ulf Poschardt wondered aloud on Twitter on Christmas Eve: "Who would voluntarily go to a midnight mass if at the end of the sermon he thinks he spent the evening with the Jusos or the Green youth?" -- referring to the youth organizations of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green party, who both represent the left wing of their centrist parties.
Pope Francis: the revolutionary spark of God's love
Then they found themselves having to face perhaps the most difficult thing of all. They arrived in Bethlehem and experienced that it was a land that was not expecting them. A land where there was no place for them.
And there, where everything was a challenge, Mary gave us Emmanuel. The Son of God had to be born in a stable because his own had no room for him. "He came to what was his own and his own people did not accept him" (Jn 1:11). And there, amid the gloom of a city that had no room or place for the stranger from afar, amid the darkness of a bustling city which in this case seemed to want to build itself up by turning its back on others... it was precisely there that the revolutionary spark of God's love was kindled. In Bethlehem, a small chink opens up for those who have lost their land, their country, their dreams; even for those overcome by the asphyxia produced by a life of isolation.
So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary. We see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away but, driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones. In many cases this departure is filled with hope, hope for the future; yet for many others this departure can only have one name: survival. Surviving the Herods of today, who, to impose their power and increase their wealth, see no problem in shedding innocent blood.
Pope Francis: Immigrants not a threat, but an opportunity to build peace
Researchers chart rising wealth inequality across millennia | WSU News |
Societies with high inequality have low social mobility. Kohler pointed to a Science magazine paper from earlier this year that found rates of mobility have fallen from 90 percent for U.S. children born in 1940 to 50 percent for children born in the 1980s. The results, wrote the researchers, "imply that reviving the 'American dream' of high rates of absolute mobility would require economic growth that is shared more broadly across the income distribution."
The 2017 Allianz Global Wealth Report, puts the U.S. Gini at .81, and Kohler has seen the U.S. Gini pegged at .85, "which is probably the highest wealth inequality for any developed country right now."
Other studies have found that unequal societies tend to have poorer health, while more equal societies have higher life expectancies, trust and a willingness to help others.
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