Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
When the parties do finally implode, the general mood will be: good riddance.
History informs us that once something is obsolete, it can disappear far faster than anyone expected. While we generally think of obsoleted technologies vanishing, social and political systems can become obsolete as well.
Walter Shaub, an attorney and the director of the government’s ethics office who regularly clashed with President Trump over his business interests, submitted his resignation on Thursday. He is leaving his office nearly six months before the end of his term. Shaub's last day as the head of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) will be on July 19, according to his resignation letter to Donald Trump which he posted on his Twitter account.
pic.twitter.com/x9TsOKABZ7
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 6, 2017
In the latest diplomatic escalation between the EU and Turkey, on Thursday the European Parliament voted to suspend Turkey's EU accession talks, which as a reminder have been dragging on for decades, if Ankara proceeds with its tplanned constitutional reform which grants sweeping powers to President Recep Erdogan.
As part of his trip to Poland, Donald Trump is delivering a speech in Krasinski Square, scene of a Polish uprising against the Nazis in 1944. In the speech the president will reprise his message that nations need to safeguard their borders or risk terrorist attack.
“While we will always welcome new citizens who share our values and love our people, our borders will always be closed to terrorism and extremism,” Trump plans to say, according to a speech excerpt provided by the White House.
After praising Poland’s conservative ruling party during his visit to Warsaw on Thursday, President Trump quickly shifted his focus back to the escalating missile crisis in North Korea, saying that he is contemplating “some pretty severe things” to retaliate against Kim Jong Un after he tested an ICBM on America's independence day, capable of reaching US territory.
“I have some pretty severe things we’re thinking about," Trump said at a news conference in Warsaw. "Doesn’t mean we’re going to do them. I don’t draw red lines."