According to a Reuters’ article “Putin Sends Obama July 4 Message”: “Russian President Vladimir Putin called for dialogue based on equal treatment and mutual respect with the United States on Saturday in a congratulatory message to President Barack Obama marking U.S. Independence Day. “Putin said U.S.-Russian relations remained important for solving global crises. The two […]
Obama’s Eulogy, Which Found Its Place in History
NEW YORK TIMES: Barack Obama’s eulogy for the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., was remarkable not only because the president sang the opening refrain of “Amazing Grace” on live television, and not only because of his eloquence in memorializing the pastor and eight other parishioners killed […]
A Report on local volunteers’ relief effort in Southern Hungary
A few citizen (activists) have been alarmed, they ran to the station and did not let the guards push the migrants out of the building. When the guards told them they would call the police, the activists replied: “Do it!”. The police came and after a lengthy discussion the station stayed open.
Then in a very few days a lot of things happened.
Health Insurance Companies Seek Big Rate Increases for 2016
NEW YORK TIMES: President Obama, on a trip to Tennessee this week, said that consumers should put pressure on state insurance regulators to scrutinize the proposed rate increases. If commissioners do their job and actively review rates, he said, “my expectation is that they’ll come in significantly lower than what’s being requested.” The rate requests, […]
Why the Clinton campaign isn’t sweating the Sanders surge
POLITICO: …The explanation for the Sanders surge, Democrats aligned with Clinton and some who are unaffiliated say, is that he has largely captured the share of voters who had previously expressed a preference for Warren, who’s not running. In that way, he’s consolidated the anti-Clinton crowd… And because many Clinton allies inside and outside of […]
Budapest Beacon: “Europe and Hungary are experiencing a refugee crisis”
The fence will cost HUF 22 billion (USD 80 million) while last’s year’s budget for the whole of the immigration administration system was HUF 2.4 billion (USD 8.7 million). If one tenth of the fence’s construction price were spent on the system, it would not collapse under the pressure.
If Greece is ejected from the euro zone, it faces a chaotic currency switch
WASHINGTON POST: …A large majority of Greeks want to remain in the euro zone, and many do not see a “no” vote in the referendum as a rejection of the currency. But without serious talks toward a new bailout plan, the European Central Bank may feel that its rules oblige it to pull the plug […]
Airlines’ New Normal: More Seats, Fewer Flights
WALL STREET JOURNAL: …The disconnect arises from an industry technique known as “upgauging,” in which airlines increase capacity by adding seats on existing jets and replacing smaller planes with larger ones. As a result, U.S. airlines are offering 12% more domestic seats this month than two years ago, but 4.4% fewer flights, according to a […]
Homeless man will take your breath away playing piano in the streets
A homeless man with a scruffy beard and long scraggly hair looks like a lost soul. But he has magic fingers on the piano and his talent is breathtaking.
AFL-CIO leader tries to quell pro-Sanders revolt
POLITICO: Richard Trumka has a message for state and local AFL-CIO leaders tempted to endorse Bernie Sanders: Don’t. In a memo this week to state, central and area divisions of the labor federation, and obtained by POLITICO, the AFL-CIO chief reminded the groups that its bylaws don’t permit them to “endorse a presidential candidate” or […]
This Is What The End Of European Democracy Looks Like
HUFFINGTON POST COLUMN: …Europe’s desire for a change of government in Greece has become especially apparent in recent days. European Parliament president Martin Schulz told the German newspaper Handelsblatt that his confidence in the Greek government had hit “rock bottom” and that the government should resign if the public votes “yes” in Sunday’s referendum on […]
LETTER: “Naïve and timid White House policy on the Middle East”
Re: Richard Holbrooke’s decline and fall, as told in Hillary Clinton Nothing in it surprises me very much. Much as I like Obama otherwise, I never thought that his foreign policy and the White House foreign policy team accomplished much for the United States. A major reason for the emergence of the Islamic State and […]
KEISLING: Inaction and doubletalk give way to early protests at state capitol
Having filled the capitol rotunda steps with placard-bearing protestors, the angry group then took off down the hall to the General Assembly wing. Protestors lined the hallway outside of GOP speaker Mike Turzai’s office. For more than an hour they filled the hallway and shouted for the Republicans to “Tax shale and fund our schools.”
Nicholas Winton, Rescuer of 669 Children From Holocaust, Dies at 106
But there was no comparable mass-rescue effort in Czechoslovakia. Mr. Winton created one. It involved dangers, bribes, forgery, secret contacts with the Gestapo, nine railroad trains, an avalanche of paperwork and a lot of money. Nazi agents started following him. In his Prague hotel room, he met terrified parents desperate to get their children to safety, although it meant surrendering them to strangers in a foreign land…