News

“Hate speech” is a rapidly spreading international catchphrase that is gaining traction in legislatures around the globe. As a result, freedom of speech clauses in constitutions and legal codes all around the world are coming under attack. Words and phrases that were considered fair and legal for many decades or centuries are being challenged and declared threatening and illegal.

Public health experts are concerned. “Despite spending more on health care than any other country, the United States has seen increasing mortality and falling life expectancy for people ages 25 to 64, who should be in the prime of their lives” (MSN, November 26, 2019).

Since French President Emmanuel Macron came to power as a Eurocentric change agent, he has passionately advocated for a stronger Europe and consistently pushed for greater centralization of European power. A Deutsche Welle article stated that Mr. Macron commented in a recent interview on how “US leadership caused the ‘brain death’ of NATO” (November 10, 2019). In Germany, both Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas have publicly disagreed with Mr.

In California, wildfires continue to burn and destroy homes and property. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes as strong winds and dry conditions fan fires to ever greater intensities. Planned blackouts, designed to reduce the risk of fire due to faulty electrical equipment, have also put millions of people in the dark.

The Western world exerts tremendous energy and spends huge amounts of money on political elections. It seems like the campaigning never stops. Since money is “the mother’s milk of politics,” there are endless fundraising events bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars or euros or pounds, or whatever is the national currency. All forms of media are used to promote the bid for office—and the power that goes with it. Inordinate sums of money are spent to win elections to offices that may have relatively modest pay.