*Delicious Avozilla | Angerpolitik as Foreign Policy | The War on Families

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” – Sun Tzu

“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.” – Ibid. (Cough, cough, Afghanistan as the Graveyard of Empires)

Trump’s Angerpolitik is Directed Towards America’s Allies: President Trump arrived in Brussels and delivered his expected verbal thrashings against America’s western allies Wednesday, but then signed on to the 23-page joint declaration of all 29 NATO members that largely reaffirms existing commitments. Trump’s hardest hits were aimed at his usual whipping boy, Germany, criticizing it not just about inadequate and “delinquent” defense spending, but claiming it was “totally controlled by Russia” because of its dependence on imported natural gas. Trump said the US spends heavily to defend Germany from Russia, but then “Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia.” Trump also complained that Berlin had given approval for Gazprom, the Russian energy titan, to construct the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a $10 billion project. As a result of its energy dealings, Trump concluded “Germany is a captive of Russia. I think it’s something that NATO has to look at.”

The Nord Stream 2 is an 800-mile-long, planned pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea. The German government has been pursuing the project for years, despite criticism from the US and some Eastern European nations. It is opposed by many on security and environmental grounds. Most of Europe relies on natural gas from Russia, which has cut off supplies in the past to exert pressure on other countries. Current pipelines pass through Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland. Nord Stream 2 would bypass those countries, arguably allowing Russia to manipulate supplies to its Eastern European neighbors while maintaining flows to Western Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has declined to halt the controversial pipeline project.

While Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, did not engage with Trump on the pipeline per se, she did remind the president that she had learned firsthand what it means to be a “captive ” nation, and modern Germany is not one. Merkel noted politely but firmly that, after the US, Germany was the second-largest provider of NATO troops, sending thousands of soldiers to support American-led efforts in Afghanistan.

– Macedonia wants to join NATO, but first, it has to change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia and get a ‘yes’ vote from the Greek parliament. At the Belgium summit on Wednesday Greece announced it was expelling four Russian diplomatsfor interfering with the plan, including by encouraging rallies to oppose the Macedonian name change and offering bribes to opponents of the deal. Russia’s influence in the Balkans would be weakened once Macedonia is allied militarily with NATO. (The Guardian)

– Cybersecurity research firm FireEye has reported that a mysterious Chinese cyberespionage group known as TEMP. Periscope has targeted Cambodian politicians, media, and important opposition figures in advance of the country’s July 29 elections. The daughter of jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha was among those targeted, along with Cambodia’s National Election Commission, the Interior Ministry, opposition party members of parliament, two Cambodian diplomats, and several media outlets. Prime Minister Hun Sen dissolved the main opposition party and jailed Kem’s father last year, ruling out any real surprises in this month’s elections. (Buzzfeed)

The United States has signed a deal which will allow Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE the ability to resume operations in the US after almost three months. ZTE had paid a one billion dollar fine last month, but a new escrow agreement requires ZTE to make a deposit of another four hundred million before the ban is lifted. (Reuters)

Trump’s Euro trip Includes a Stop With Professor Putin and Tea With the Queen: Russian president Vladimir Putin has already won big at home, even though his summit with President Trump hasn’t happened yet. For Moscow, the summit is seen as US recognition of Russia’s status as a great power, and overdue realization that its interests cannot be ignored. Expectations are that Putin will have his way with Trump, given that the former has 18 years of global experience and the latter was a high-stakes political neophyte when elected. As one senior Russian lawmaker put it “… Vladimir Putin will give a real master class to the inexperienced politician Donald Trump.” (Reuters)

In between the NATO summit and his Helsinki summit with President Putin, President Trump will stop over in the UK for a two-day visit which will include tea with the Queen. Before leaving the White House on Tuesday Trump said: “So I have NATO, I have the UK which is in somewhat turmoil, and I have Putin. Frankly, Putin may be the easiest of them all. Who would think! Who would think? But the UK certainly has a lot of things going on.” Trump spoke warmly of Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary and Brexit leader who resigned on Monday. Trump called the anti-EU Johnson a friend who had always been “very nice to me.” (The Guardian)

-Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers told a federal judge on Tuesday that in the process of enforcing the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy it may have separated a father and a toddler who could both be US citizens. The revelation came after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit in June over the administration’s family separation policies, and the judge ordered the government to reunify children under age 5 with their families by July 10. Just before the deadline, DOJ admitted that of 102 cases, it could not account for 27, including one “because the parent’s location has been unknown for more than a year … and records show the parent and child might be US citizens”. 

 Anna Clark has written a new book titled “The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban Tragedy” which details the story of government failure and misconduct in dealing with an all too real crisis. With no voice or power to change their own lives, the people of Flint suffered under a system which ignored their needs and put thousands of lives at risk from infected water.

In an interview, Clark also spoke about the dangers of a future Flint Water Crisis which could hit any number of potential cities. “We have lead pipes and lead plumbing infrastructures everywhere. Chicago’s actually the city that has more lead pipes than anywhere else. This is not OK.” With officials blatantly ignoring the masses, there could be an epidemic of water poisonings in the future if new regulations and standards are not put in place.

– If it looks like an avocado and taste like an avocado, then it’s obviously not a duck. Bad jokes aside, Avozilla (literally branded Avozilla by Australians, I can’t make this up) have arrived in Australia. Weighing in at around 2.6 pounds on average, these huge avocados are as big as your head but pack the same loveable avocado taste. (Guardian)

– Promotions aren’t always given to “Mr. Right;” rather, it often comes down to one simple factor: political skill. Though political skills are not something special to “toxic people,” nor do all “toxic people” possess this skill, it gives a clear reason why people often noted as deceitful or lazy or plain incapable are given the same promotions as hard-working, competent coworkers. (HBR)

– New research by the University of Chicago shows that our choice of bread, napkins, and any other product can be used to predict our political stance, race, income, education, and gender! With almost ninety percent accuracy, this shows how much of a divide there is between people in the current day and age, and how polarized political parties and socio-economic classes have become. (Washington Post)

– A chain of California shopping centers have been sharing license plate data with a well-known ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) contractor. Real estate group Irvine Company has been sharing data from its fifty malls with Vigilant Solutions, a private surveillance tech company which sells data and tech to government institutions. (TechCrunch)

– Did all humans originate from the same place? New research says no. Though “common knowledge” as it stands now has people thinking that all humans came from a singular tribe originating in West Africa, a team of prominent scientists have reason to believe that this is not true. The latest analysis of fossil bone structure shows that it would make much more sense that there was actually a widespread of tribes throughout the continent, which would explain the differences in fossil structure, and that Homo Sapiens may have lived with another primitive human species known as Homo Naledi. (Guardian)

LAST MORSELS

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker

“Activism is my rent for living on the planet.” – Ibid.

Please consider making a donation to Daily Pnut, an independently operated and bootstrapped publication. Many thanks to everyone who already supports us!