Politics

"Brazil is being governed by a joke,” political commentator Josias de Souza says. “It's turned into an aspiring banana republic."

What was already an unimaginably bad situation took a decisive turn for the worst this week in Brazil when embattled President Dilma Rousseff, fearing that her mentor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was about to be arrested on corruption charges, appointed the former President to a ministerial position.

The European Union has joined a chorus of international condemnation over Israel’s latest massive land appropriation in the West Bank. They say that the seizure of 579 acres near the city of Jericho is hindering the process towards a to a two-state solution and is an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.

Submitted by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

“If his poll numbers hold, Trump will be there six months from now when the Sweet 16 is cut to the Final Four, and he will likely be in the finals.”

My prediction, in July of 2015, looks pretty good right now.

Herewith, a second prediction. Republican wailing over his prospective nomination aside, Donald Trump could beat Hillary Clinton like a drum in November.

Indeed, only the fear that Trump can win explains the hysteria in this city.

Turkey and the EU came back to the negotiating table on Thursday and Friday in Brussels in the latest installment of a long-running attempt to hammer out a deal that will help stem the flow of refugees into Europe.

Germany, Sweden, Austria, and a number of other countries are quite literally breaking under the pressure and everyone involved fears things could get far worse as winter turns to spring and the Balkan route thaws.

Submitted by Jason Ditz via TheAntiMedia.org,

Concerns about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authoritarian leanings have been at the fore in the nation’s political dialogue since he assumed the presidency, and appear to have been well founded, as in a televised speech today he declared “democracy, freedom, and the rule of law have absolutely no value any longer.”