Foreign Policy

Members of Congress caught up in NSA surveillance of Israel

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NetanyahuWhile you were enjoying the holidays, there was a spy “scandal” last week that did not garner much media attention outside of the conservative media entertainment complex, which must maintain its “outrage of the day” business format.

It appears that some Republican members of Congress got caught up in NSA foreign intelligence surveillance collaborating with a foreign government to sabotage the foreign policy of the United States.

Some dare call it treason — unless that foreign government is Israel, “the 51st state” to many Reublicans (it is not).

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The Trump-Putin ‘bromance’

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Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin in his year end press conference commented on the American presidential race.  Putin praises ‘bright and talented’ Trump:

trump-putin_website-800x430Putin offered high praise for the billionaire businessman-turned-Republican presidential front-runner on Thursday during an annual news conference with reporters.

“He is a bright and talented person without any doubt,” Putin said, adding that Trump is “an outstanding and talented personality.”

And in remarks closely mirroring Trump’s assessment of the campaign, the Russian leader called Trump “the absolute leader of the presidential race,” according to the Russian TASS news agency.

‘Make tyranny great again!’: Ohio Gov. Kasich trolls Trump with hilarious Trump/Putin 2016 parody website.

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Landmark Paris climate change agreement

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ParisThe COP 21: UN climate change conference in Paris accomplished what all the naysayers said would never happen: 196 countries had to come to a unanimous agreement in order to reach an agreement, and they did. 196 countries approve historic climate agreement:

Negotiators from 196 countries approved a landmark climate accord on Saturday that seeks to dramatically reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for a dangerous warming of the planet.

The agreement, adopted after 13 days of intense bargaining in a Paris suburb, puts the world’s nations on a course that could fundamentally change the way energy is produced and consumed, gradually reducing reliance on fossil fuels in favor of cleaner forms of energy.

[Read the text of the draft climate agreement here.]

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Paris Climate Change Conference this week – too little too late

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More than 150 world leaders are arriving in Paris today for the 2015 Paris Climate Conference – COP21 beginning Monday.

ParisThe conference will, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, aim to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

France will play a leading international role in hosting this seminal conference, and COP21 will be one of the largest international conferences ever held in the country. The conference is expected to attract close to 50,000 participants including 25,000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental organisations, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society.

To visit the official COP21 website for more information, click here.

In advance of the conference, the largest demonstrations of climate change activists ever occurred today. Reuters reports ‘No Planet B’, marchers worldwide tell leaders before U.N. climate summit:

Hundreds of thousands of people from Australia to Paraguay joined the biggest day of climate change activism in history on Sunday, telling world leaders gathering for a summit in Paris there is “No Planet B” in the fight against global warming.

In the French capital, where demonstrations were banned by the authorities after attacks by Islamic State militants killed 130 people on Nov. 13, activists laid out more than 20,000 shoes in the Place de la Republique to symbolize absent marchers on the eve of the summit.

Screenshot from 2015-11-29 15:35:36

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Rep. Martha McSally demonstrates that she is just another partisan hack

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McSallyIt received little notice in the local Tucson media last week, but Rep. Martha McSally (R-Tucson) delivered the Republican response to President Obama’s regular radio address on Saturday. The topic was fighting ISIS.

Currently there are 80 Members in the U.S. House of Representatives who are Veterans. Veterans in Congress (114th). Somehow, Rep. McSally deems herself a “national security expert” based upon her service as an A-10 pilot in the Air Force. If previous military service is all it takes to be deemed a “national security expert,” then the other 79 members of Congress who are veterans, and millions of veterans who are not members of Congress, are equally “national security experts.” This notion is absurd.

Let’s break down what Rep. McSally had to say. Rep. Martha McSally Urges Obama Administration to ‘Step Up’ in Fight Against ISIS in Weekly Republican Address:

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Paris as they recover from last week’s horrific terrorist attacks. While we mourn this tragedy, let us be reminded those attacks could have happened here. This is not to instill fear, but to remind us to be vigilant. That’s why we’re calling on the administration to step up, provide global leadership, and put together a coherent and aggressive strategy to defeat ISIS.

“I need no reminders about the threats we face. Before being elected to Congress, I served 26 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a full colonel. I was the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat and the first to command a fighter squadron in combat in U.S. history. In my career, I flew 2,600 flight hours, including over 325 combat hours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I deployed to the Middle East and Afghanistan six times, serving in leadership positions for the initial air campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and counter-terrorism ops in Africa.

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