Monday, July 1, 2013

Monday Links

  • Above is European/Eurozone unemployment.  Still not stabilizing.
  • Europe is really, really steamed over US spying now.  Spying on your friends and allies is not the greatest idea.  French greens are pressing for Snowden to be given asylum in France (you heard it here first). "The Americans justify everything with combatting terrorism," said the Luxembourg foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, who on Sunday described the latest allegations as disgusting. "The EU and its diplomats are not terrorists."  And this:  The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said in a statement that he was “deeply worried and shocked.” He added, “If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on E.U.-U.S. relations.”  Does anyone seriously doubt that these allegations will prove true?
  • On a side note, this situation is going to be very bad for Britain's relations with Europe also.  The British appear to have been functioning as very important enablers of American spying, and this is not going to forgotten or forgiven quickly by the Germans, French, etc.  (Of course, I don't doubt that the French at least are up to their ears in their own version of this stuff too).
  • NY Times confirms that Snowden was involved in cyber-offense for the US government.  I first hypothesized that this must have been the situation three weeks ago.  The tone of the NY Times coverage is starting to shift.  They are realizing that the Obama administration has been materially dishonest in this area and therefore its denials cannot be trusted going forward.  The linked piece has a good discussion of the weakness of the administration's shifting defenses.
  • Washington Post is also realizing it's been lied to.
  • Egypt is definitely falling apart again.

2 comments:

jemand said...

I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what the Egyptian protestors are protesting, though there is at least some information on this, and even more trouble figuring out what they are calling for.

I'm wondering if this is clear and not being reported well, or if there is something else going on.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like they are shocked, shocked to find out there is gambling in this establishment.

Does anybody really believe in today's world that any sufficiently funded, large government is not actively engaged in spying on virtually everybody they can, friend and foe alike? This is simply the dirty little secret that polite folks don't talk about at the dinner table. Snowden talked and now everybody is feigning hypocritical outrage. More theater.