*Is Law an Extension of Politics? | The Neverending Afghanistan War | The Juice Myth

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” – Plutarch

“The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.” – Ibid.

Mayday! May I Please Leave!: British prime minister Theresa May is having about as much success coming up with an agreeable Brexit plan as nailing Jello to a tree. Just last Friday, May claimed she had secured agreement on Britain’s biggest foreign and trading policy shift in almost 50 years. Then Sunday night Brexit minister David Davis, in charge of exit negotiations with the bloc, quit the cabinet, followed by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday. May’s plan, welcomed by business leaders, had proposed to keep Britain closely aligned with EU regulations in goods trade (not services). The plan was roundly criticized by anti-EU conservatives. Now, the resignations of the two leading EU-sceptic ministers have further complicated the prime minister’s attempts to continue ties with the EU.

May has had her work cut out for her since the 2016 vote to leave the EU. She has tried to keep the severed ties as painless as possible, but some worry that a growing challenge to her leadership could usher in a new prime minister who favored a harder break. May addressed parliament shortly after her office announced Johnson’s departure, saying: “In the two years since the referendum, we have had a spirited national debate, with robust views echoing around the cabinet table as they have on breakfast tables up and down the country. Over that time, I’ve listened to every possible idea and every possible version of Brexit. Mr. Speaker, this is the right Brexit.” May also urged the EU to support her plan for a free trade area for goods, or risk Britain’s leaving the bloc without any deal.

– President Trump has announced that he holds North Korea’s denuclearization talks in high regard, but has fears that China may be posing a threat to US-North Korea relations. He remains confident that Kim Jong Un will begin denuclearization and that the recent diplomatic mishaps are due to interventions from Beijing officials who are retaliating at the Sino-US trade war. (Reuters)

– Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a stop in Afghanistan and said that Trump’s strategy of maintaining an active military role is helping the country come toward a peace agreement. Though the United States will facilitate peace talks, Pompeo stated that the Afghans must conduct it themselves so that they may truly achieve domestic peace. Lest we forget, the United States has been in Afghanistan since 9/11/01. As Clausewitz noted, “War is an extension of politics.” (Washington Post)

– Beijing is meeting President Trump’s levies on Chinese-made goods tit for tat. Last week it imposed a 25% tariff on American-grown soybeans. Soy-producing states like Iowa and Illinois sold a third of their harvest to China in 2017. But that year nearly 90% of the imported soybeans China consumed, more than 100 million tons total, came from overseas. Truth is, farms in China are just too small and underdeveloped to keep up with the soybean demand. So……who’s really going to suffer most here? (NYT)

– Poor President Klaus Iohannis. He said he had no choice but to fire Laura Codruta Kovesi, Romania’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor, on Monday. For months the governing Social Democratic Party wanted her gone, the justice minister wanted her gone, and still, Iohannis had resisted. The country’s Constitutional Court ruled in May that Iohannis had no right to overrule the justice minister and had to fire Kovesi, and still Iohannis resisted. But when the Social Democratic Party said Friday it would consider removing Iohannis from office for refusing to act, he finally gave in. (NYT)

– The US has assured Ukraine that President Trump won’t betray its interests when he holds his first bilateral summit meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin on July 16. A Ukrainian diplomat, speaking anonymously, said: “It is important for us that no nasty surprise happens behind our backs, and we received assurances (from the US side) that this will not happen.” Let’s see how that goes. (Reuters)

Is Law an Extension of Politics?: President Trump selected Brett Kavanaugh to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the US Supreme Court. Kavanaugh, a Catholic, is a 1990 Yale Law School graduate with extensive conservative legal credentials and a lengthy political record. He was appointed to sit on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in 2006 after serving five years in the George W. Bush White House. While in the Bush administration, Kavanaugh led the investigation into the death of President Bill Clinton’s Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster. He also assisted with Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr’s 1998 report outlining the case for Clinton’s impeachment.

The 1998 report found that Clinton’s multiple refusals to testify before a grand jury in connection with Starr’s investigation were grounds for impeachment. However, in later years Kavanaugh wrote about whether a sitting president should be investigated or indicted, concluding that Clinton should not have had to face an investigation during his presidency.

CNN’s Jim Acosta said the network had confirmed Trump’s team expressed interest in Kavanaugh’s writings on indicting a sitting president. In 2009, Kavanaugh wrote: “The indictment and trial of a sitting President, moreover, would cripple the federal government.” Kavanaugh’s determination that a president shouldn’t have to face investigation or indictment while in office would inure to Trump’s benefit in light of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russians during the 2016 election and whether Trump subsequently obstructed justice.

Kavanaugh is expected to push the court to the right on a number of issues. He faces a tough confirmation process, but if confirmed, he would become the second young conservative jurist Trump has put on the top court in his first term.

– When thinking sugary, unhealthy drinks you’d probably imagine a cold Coca-cola or Gatorade, but in reality, juice is not as healthy as everyone thinks. Juices often contain little nutrients and almost the same amount of sugar as soft drinks, so before hitting the bottled juice cleanse, maybe stick to the solid formula and drink good old H2O. (NYT)

– Food is a necessity in all our lives, but we often have a love/hate relationship with it. Hungry when there’s no food, full when we’ve eaten good food – it’s a never-ending conflict. However, studies have shown that age is also a large factor in our relationship with food; our eating habits, hunger cues, and “ages of appetite” are split into various parts of our lives and they may explain why we sometimes go on diet crazes and other times pig out like there’s no tomorrow. (BBC)

– Sleeping on your side presents many health benefits for people who suffer from lung and heart problems, and even helps promote brain function. Stomach pain and snoring can also be alleviated by sleeping on your side, so just give it a whirl. (Business Insider)

– This week is the NATO summit in Brussels. How is US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis going to calm European allies and preserve the US-European bloc, something he feels is crucial to America’s security, when his boss, President Trump, doesn’t think it’s so important? Mattis is walking a tightrope, and Trump is shaking both ends. (Washington Post)

LAST MORSELS

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” – Plutarch

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