"AS ONE WHO IS BOUND IN SERVICE TO THE LORD, I URGE YOU TO LIVE A LIFE WORTHY OF THE CALLING WHICH YOU HAVE RECEIVED. BE HUMBLE AND GENTLE; BE PATIENT, BE ACCEPTING OF ONE ANOTHER WITH LOVE. MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO MAINTAIN THE ONENESS OF THE SPIRIT IN THE UNITY OF PEACE. THERE IS ONE BODY AND ONE SPIRIT, AS YOU WERE CALLED TO ONE HOPE AT YOUR OWN CALLING; ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM; WITH ONE GOD THE FATHER OF ALL, WHO IS OVER ALL, AND THROUGH ALL, AND IN ALL." 
EPH 4:1-6

The Middle Precariat: The Downwardly Mobile Middle Class

From Naked Capitalism:

The middle class has taken a big hit. Is it going to mobilize?

Today, with their incomes flat or falling, these Americans scramble to maintain a semblance of what their parents enjoyed. They are moving from being dominant to being dominated. From acting to acted upon. Trained to be educators, lawyers, librarians, and accountants, they do work they can’t stand to support families they rarely see. Petrified of being pushed aside by robots, they rankle to see financial titans and tech gurus flaunting their obscene wealth at every turn.

Headlines gush of a humming economy, but it doesn’t feel like a party to them—and they’ve seen enough to know who will be holding the bag when the next bubble bursts.

The “Middle Precariats,” as Quart terms them, are suffering death by a thousand degradations. Their new reality: You will not do as well as your parents. Life is a struggle to keep up. Even if you achieve something, you will live in fear of losing it. America is not your land: it belongs to the ultra-rich.

Much of Quart’s book highlights the mirror image of the downwardly mobile middle class Trump voters from economically strained regions like the Midwest who helped throw a monkey wrench into politics-as-usual. In her tour of American frustration, she talks to urbanites who lean liberal and didn’t expect to find themselves drowning in debt and disappointment. Like the falling-behind Trump voters, these people sense their status ripped away, their hopes dashed.

And there signs that they are starting to revolt. If they do, they could make their own mark on the country’s political landscape...

Historically, the more affluent end of the middle class tends to identify with and support the wealthy. After all, they might join their ranks one day. But when this dream dies, the formerly secure may decide to throw their lot in with the rest of the Precariats. That’s when you have the chance for a real mass movement for change...

If the growing ranks of Precariats can work together, maybe it won’t take a natural catastrophe or a war or violent social upheaval to change America’s unsustainable course of gross inequality. Because eventually, something has to give.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/07/middle-precariat-downwardly-mobile-middle-class.html

"LET YOUR GENTLENESS BE EVIDENT TO ALL. THE LORD IS NEAR. DO NOT BE ANXIOUS, BUT IN EVERY SITUATION, BY PRAYER AND PETITION, WITH THANKSGIVING, PRESENT YOUR REQUESTS TO GOD. AND THE PEACE OF THE LORD, WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING, WILL GUARD YOUR HEARTS AND YOUR MINDS IN CHRIST JESUS. WHATEVER IS TRUE, WHATEVER IS NOBLE, WHATEVER IS RIGHT, WHATEVER IS PURE, WHATEVER IS LOVELY, WHATEVER IS ADMIRABLE, IF ANYTHING IS EXCELLENT OR PRAISEWORTHY, TREASURE THESE IN YOUR HEARTS." 
PHIL 4:4-8

Two Senate Democrats Call for Investigation into Smart TVs

From Naked Capitalism:

Two Senate Democrats seek regulation of smart TVs. Since this is unlikely to happen anytime soon, consumers are faced with not purchasing such devices in the first instance, or attempting to configure them to prevent them from hoovering up personal data.

esterday’s New York Times reports that two Senators, Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal, have written to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairman Joseph Simons asking for an investigation “into the privacy policies and practices of smart TV manufacturers.”

The agency has so far taken limited steps to regulate this area– including conducting a workshop, and entering into a February 2017 settlement with Vizio, one of the world’s largest manufacturers and sellers of smart TVS, thus resolving charges that the company had collected viewing data on eleven million TVs without the knowledge and consent of consumers.

Unfortunately, I’ll have to rely heavily on the NYT account– as at the time of posting, I could find no other reporting on the topic other than what appeared in the NYT (except for  a short TV Tattle squib, which merely summarizes the NYT’s original reporting).

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/07/two-senate-democrats-call-investigation-smart-tvs.html

China's Military Interests Along The Silk Road Stretch From Sea To Shining Sea

From Zero Hedge:

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Oriental Review,

Leaked Chinese military documents purport that the People’s Liberation Army will seek to expand its presence across the world in order to defend its Silk Road interests.

The Japan Times was the first outlet to report on the plans that putatively circulated in Chinese circles back in February and which implored the state to concentrate on expanding its force projection capabilities beyond coastal defense and into the maritime and land realms. Although not directly stated, this is in clear reference to the need that China has to protect its Silk Road infrastructure investments and Sea Lines Of Communication (SLOC), mirroring the path that all other globally relevant Great Powers before it followed in having their overseas military activity driven by economic interests.

It was only a matter of time before China naturally did so as well, despite publicly eschewing this approach and being extremely sensitive to how it’s portrayed, though with good reason because of the likelihood that this will be exploited through weaponized infowar means as supposed “proof” that the country is really just “another imperial power”, albeit one that cleverly disguises its military moves with win-win Silk Road slogans. That’s not entirely correct, though it feeds into India’s paranoia about China’s creeping military encirclement through the so-called “String of Pearls” infrastructure projects around its South Asian periphery.

About those, it would make the most sense for China to reach agreements with the host states there and beyond similar to the 2016 Logistics Exchange Memorandum Of Agreement (LEMOA) between the US and India in allowing both parties to use each other’s military facilities on a case-by-case “logistical” basis,essentially giving some category of Silk Road projects such as seaports and airports a dual function even though this is exactly what American think tanks warned would eventually happen. Even so, it’s the most logical and cost-effective security solution available.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-14/chinas-military-interests-along-silk-road-stretch-sea-shining-sea