American Paganism | Commonweal Magazine

American Paganism | Commonweal Magazine:

In an essay praising Donald Trump’s “animal instinct” for “order” and “social cohesion,” Sohrab Ahmari opposed an America of “traditional Christianity” to one of “libertine ways and paganized ideology.” These are our only choices, he insisted. Between such incompatible enemies, there can be only “war and enmity,” so true believers should be ready to sacrifice civility in the battles ahead to reconquer the public square. Rod Dreher has speculated that Trump, while unpalatable, could be a divine emissary holding back the horrors of Christian persecution, like the biblical figure of He Who Delays the Antichrist, an implicit nod to old pagan enemies. “If Christians like me vote for Trump in 2020,” Dreher warns, “it is only because of his role as katechon in restraining what is far worse.” Though in a calmer tone, Ross Douthat entertained similar ideas in his column “The Return of Paganism,” wondering if the pantheist tendencies in American civil religion could morph into a neo-paganism hostile to Christian faith.

An open letter of apology to all South Africans | News24

An open letter of apology to all South Africans | News24:

We had witnessed how an oppressive government had been defeated by the people of our country. It was a magical moment.

With this belief, I voted for the ANC in 1994 and 1999.

For this, I offer my most profound apology.

We need a split of Orthodoxy and the breakdown of Russia, and Ukraine, where betrayal is the norm of public morality, will help us in this - Brzezinski

We need a split of Orthodoxy and the breakdown of Russia, and Ukraine, where betrayal is the norm of public morality, will help us in this - Brzezinski:

American political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski, back in 1997, in his book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives wrote: “After the victory over communism, we need a split of Orthodoxy and the breakdown of Russia, and Ukraine, where betrayal is the norm of public morality, will help us in this."

SOCIALISTS LOSE PROPERTY IN REICH; All Party's Holdings and Those of Reichsbanner Attached for Eventual Union Claims. PAPERS' PLANTS INCLUDED Nazis Announce Corruption Proved and Union Funds Turned Over for Political Purposes. - The New York Times

SOCIALISTS LOSE PROPERTY IN REICH; All Party's Holdings and Those of Reichsbanner Attached for Eventual Union Claims. PAPERS' PLANTS INCLUDED Nazis Announce Corruption Proved and Union Funds Turned Over for Political Purposes. - The New York Times:

BERLIN, May 10. -- By order of the State prosecuting attorney in Berlin, the entire property of the German Socialist party throughout the Reich, including its newspapers, their publishing plants and the property of the Reichsbanner, has been attached to serve as security for eventual claims of the trade unions.

EXCLUSIVE: Cronin lifts veil on new draft expropriation law | Fin24

EXCLUSIVE: Cronin lifts veil on new draft expropriation law | Fin24:

A task team on expropriation, previously led by Cronin, identified land and property that could be expropriated without compensation as abandoned buildings, unutilised land, commercial property held unproductively and purely for speculative purposes, underutilised property owned by the state, and f land farmed by labour tenants with an absentee titleholder

Ramaphosa hands out title deeds in Tembisa during Thuma Mina campaign – The Citizen

Ramaphosa hands out title deeds in Tembisa during Thuma Mina campaign – The Citizen:

He said through handing over title deeds, the government was giving people their dignity back, giving them a store of wealth and empowering them economically.

“A house is the most important asset that one can own,” Ramaphosa said.

He urged title deed holders to treat their certificates as valuable assets, adding that title deeds would be handed out throughout the country.

Pussy Riot Founder Says American Liberals Scapegoat Putin To Distract From Democrats' Problems

Pussy Riot Founder Says American Liberals Scapegoat Putin To Distract From Democrats' Problems:

Vladimir Putin has become a fixture in the U.S. political conversation, as a majority of Americans have come to believe he helped rig the 2016 election for Donald Trump. Yet one prominent anti-Putin activist who was jailed by the Russian government says, in a new podcast interview, that America's political class is deliberately promoting an inaccurate picture of Putin to distract from the United States' own domestic problems.

David Lindsay: �Venceremos!

David Lindsay: Venceremos!:

I do not deny the problems with human rights in Cuba, any more than I deny the ghastliness of the "exiles" in Miami who aspire to turn the place back into the giant drug den and brothel depicted in The Godfather Part II.

A government that is allied to Saudi Arabia is not entitled to criticise the human rights record of any other country apart from North Korea. The reverse would also hold.

How the Cuban revolution failed

How the Cuban revolution failed:

When Fidel Castro and Che Guevara rode victoriously into Havana sitting atop a tank and smoking cigars, the Cuban masses rejoiced. The banks were immediately nationalized, the casinos were shut down, prostitution was eradicated, and the national resources that had previously been siphoned off by America were now restored to the control of the Cuban populous. Socialism had prevailed. The poor were liberated. The power of the people had overcome the oppression of the American capitalist machine. At least that’s what the people were initially led to believe.
But the socialist revolution quickly turned into a communist nightmare. And it did so almost overnight. Fidel and Che immediately let it be known that they were not at all interested in democratic socialism. Atheistic communism is what they espoused, and Batista’s capitalist backed dictatorship would now be fully and thoroughly replaced by a repressive communist dictatorship. And when those who fought side by side with Fidel and Che - and who suffered and bled for the revolutionary democratic socialist ideal - dared to oppose the hard and drastic communist turn that Fidel and Che took, they were either executed or imprisoned.

Analysis: The Khampepe Report, a crushing blow to SA’s diplomatic credibility | Daily Maverick

Analysis: The Khampepe Report, a crushing blow to SA’s diplomatic credibility | Daily Maverick:

For more than 12 years, the South African government fought to keep the contents of the Khampepe Report under wraps. Finally, they failed, and the details of a damning cover-up were revealed: Zimbabwe’s 2002 elections were rigged, and South Africa knew all about it. Zimbabwe has been paying the price for this ever since. Now it’s South Africa’s turn. By SIMON ALLISON.

Thank heavens for Justin Welby! � The Spectator

Thank heavens for Justin Welby! -- The Spectator:

This week, payday loan companies are facing reform (or in some cases oblivion) as new caps on interest payments come into effect. That the industry finds itself in this position is thanks, in no small part, to it having been hooked around the neck by the Archbishop’s crosier.

Welby has inspired reform of the industry not by trying to set himself up as the leader of the opposition in a cassock, but by acting as an effective leader of the Church of England. His approach to the payday loan industry was not to demand that it be banned, he being aware that an even darker industry of doorstep loan sharks would replace it, but to compete with it head on. He took the church to the needy by supporting credit unions which will do the job of Wonga but without annualised interest rates of 5,853 per cent and threatening letters from fictitious firms of lawyers.

SS songs and antisemitism: the week Golden Dawn turned openly Nazi | World news | The Observer

SS songs and antisemitism: the week Golden Dawn turned openly Nazi | World news | The Observer: Supporters of the far-right party gave Hitler salutes and sang the Horst Wessel song outside parliament last week. Helena Smith reports from Athens on how Golden Dawn has taken on a sinister new tone

Analysis: An Arab spring for South African Jews | Daily Maverick

Analysis: An Arab spring for South African Jews | Daily Maverick: South Africa’s Jewish community is regarded as one of the most conservative in the diaspora, its blinkered support for the Jewish state characterised as an approach of ‘Israel – right or wrong’. But recent developments are recalibrating local Jewish opinion on Israel-Palestine, and posing challenging questions regarding the politics of sovereignty, security and democracy. By REBECCA HODES.

Are There Secular Reasons? - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

Are There Secular Reasons? - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com: ". . . the secular vocabulary within which public discourse is constrained today is insufficient to convey our full set of normative convictions and commitments. We manage to debate normative matters anyway — but only by smuggling in notions that are formally inadmissible, and hence that cannot be openly acknowledged or adverted to."

Sub Ratione Dei

Sub Ratione Dei: "Most will by know of seen, or at least heard of Sarah Palin’s remarks on the occasion of attending a graduation service for Wasilla Assembles of God Church. This is not a post about Palin. The truth is I am highly suspicious when politicians refer to their faith, I do not know whether Palin’s religion is genuine of a ploy. However, if a ploy then this is just as concerning for it indicates something of pentecostalism’s current identity crisis."