Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Good News & Bad | National Catholic Reporter

Good News & Bad | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The collapse of ISIL was predictable, first because they are offering nothing new from when they were Al Queda in Iraq and the Sunni Tribal leaders turned on them (no, it was not the surge that did it).  That and they are taking money from the Saudis without even considering that perhaps the House of Saud is the Caliphate for most of that region (because the Hashemites, who are rightly the heirs to the prophet are burdened with Palestinian refugees rather than oil money - and the crown's ties to the US - former Queen Noor - make it suspect).  In Gaza, whether you like them or not - they were effective at social services.  I don't see ISIL governing compassionately.  Rather, they are cruel extremists with a power complex which they wrongly base in the Koran.  Such groups disburse, sometimes into civil society and sometimes because they are killed or arrested - or just leave.



Sadly, the intractiblity of poverty is not new - it is one of the older findings of social research on poverty and it is not likely to change - although there is some promise in limiting the penalties from the war on drugs - although changing welfare so it is not punitive to intact families is nowhere on the Conservative agenda.  They care only for tax reform to make the rich richer.  The Democrats are not much better, but everyone fears the socialists who could make some progress.  As for consumerism, it is a good thing unless you really want to radicalize the poor into a fighing force for the deprived, joining the ranks of the Red Brigade and ISIL.  Lets just start with winning back Congress and go from there - maybe with a few surprise Socialists in the mix.

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