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.
According to interview data recently released by the PEW Research Center, the percentage of Americans labeling themselves as “Christian” has fallen significantly in the last ten years (October 17, 2019). In addition, significantly fewer attend church services regularly.
On October 14, thirteen state police officers in Mexico’s western state of Michoacán were ambushed and massacred by a fast-growing local drug cartel (The Guardian, November 5, 2019). The police were outnumbered, outgunned, and wore subpar protective gear.