“There is this old-fashioned notion that we actually vote before we go to war,” Paul said. But, he added, “My main objection in this whole thing is the war in Yemen is a tragedy like most wars, but it’s a particular tragedy because they’re one of the poorest countries on the planet … I think it is something we should not be participating in.”

Paul also slammed the 17-year-old War in Afghanistan, which is costing about $45 billion per year. There are currently about 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan training and advising Afghan forces to fight the Taliban.

“You can’t find a foreign policy person, Republican, Democrat or Independent, who thinks there’s a military solution to Afghanistan,” he said. “In fact, if you ask them if there’s a military solution to Yemen they don’t think there is. In fact, probably for at least five years, people have been saying there is no military solution to Syria and yet we still react with a military response when we say there is no military solution.”

“I’m convinced that there is a majority of American people who believe as I do and as many of you do that we’ve been at war too long, and in too many places. I think there is a possibility for changing things, and I will continue to agitate for that.”

In other words, they don’t have enough to eat. Many parents out there choose to skip a meal (or two) each day just so that their kids can have full stomachs.  But sometimes the money runs out completely, and that is when it gets really tough. In recent years, the wealthy have been doing quite well, and many of them have very little sympathy for the struggles of the poor.

But the cold, hard reality of the matter is that the gap between the wealthy and the poor is now the largest that it has been since the 1920s, and approximately one-third of the entire nation cannot even afford the basics each month. Consider the following statistics. The average American can’t scrape together $500 for an emergency. A third of Americans can’t afford food, shelter, and healthcare. Healthcare for a family now costs $28k about half of median income, which is $60k. Those are very sobering numbers, and you won’t often hear them repeated by the mainstream media.

At this point, more than half of all US households with children receive assistance from the government each month. The middle class is steadily eroding, and the ranks of the “working poor” have been growing rapidly. Many of the working poor are single parents, and they often suffer in silence because they don’t want those around them to look down on them. It can be absolutely soul crushing to work as hard as you possibly can day after day and it still isn’t enough.

In the end, you have got to do what you have got to do in order to survive from month to month. At one time, America’s “endless prosperity” seemed like it would roll on indefinitely, but now we have entered a different era. Things are going to be tough during the days to come, and we are all going to need more flexibility than ever before.

Despite efforts by state legislators at creating a socialist utopia, California still has the highest poverty rate in the nation at 19%, despite a 1.4% decrease from last year according to the Census Bureau. And while California has a “vigorous economy and a number of safety net programs to aid needy residents,” according to the Sacramento Bee, one out of every five residents is suffering economic hardship – which is fueled in large part by sky-high housing costs, according to Caroline Danielson, policy director at the Public Policy Institute of California.

It’s not just housing prices driving the exodus, of course. Punitive taxes – more than twice as much as some other states, are eating away at disposable income. Nearby Arizona’s income tax rate is 4.54% vs California’s 9.3%, while the new tax bill may accelerate the exodus.

The potential collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would be a key factor in deciding when the US proposal should be unveiled, the officials said. Officials said Friedman, along with some advisers, were warning against releasing the plan during an Israeli election campaign, in order to prevent the vote from becoming a referendum on the US plan.

The report came as Netanyahu’s government appeared on brink of collapse, likely moving up the next Knesset elections before their scheduled date in November 2019.

"We have an entire year until the election. We are in the midst of a campaign and you don't pull out in the middle of a campaign or play politics. National security is beyond politics," Netanyahu said in his speech on Sunday. "I will not say this evening when we will act and how. I have a clear plan. I know what to do and when to do it. And we will do it."

Bennett referred to Netanyahu's address in saying that Jewish Home, which has eight of parliament's 120 legislators, would remain in his coalition. "If the prime minister is serious, and I want to believe his words last night, then I say here to the prime minister: We are withdrawing all our political demands and we will stand by you in this mighty task, so that Israel starts winning again."

Following reports over the weekend that Deutsche, JPM and Bank of America had been approached by federal investigators about their correspondent banking business's involvement in clearing transactions for Danske Bank's Estonian branch, the whistleblower who helped blow the lid off Danske's $234 billion money laundering scandal said during testimony to the Danish Parliament that $150 billion of the money had been cleared by a large European lender, stopping short of naming Deutsche, likely to respect confidentiality rules governing the whistleblower's work at Danske.

Incidentally, as Bloomberg adds citing a "person familiar", the unnamed bank is Deutsche Bank.

He also warned that the next time Israeli soldiers entered the Strip, they would only return through a prisoner exchange for “thousands of prisoners.” Speaking at a ceremony honoring the seven gunmen killed during a firefight on Sunday with Israeli undercover special forces, Sinwar pulled out a handgun with a silencer which he said belonged to one of the special forces troops.

One Israel soldier, identified only as Lieutenant Colonel Mem, was killed and another injured in the fight. Sinwar mocked Israel for assuming its decision to allow fuel and Qatari funds into Gaza before the latest flareup — as part of Egyptian-mediated efforts to achieve a long-term truce — would prevent his group from launching a large-scale attack against the Jewish state.

Earlier this month, the alarms were activated for the first time, said Hussein al-Hasanat of the Petra Development & Tourism Region Authority. Sirens blared minutes before a torrent fed by heavy rains approached the UNESCO World Heritage site carved into the rose-hued rock face.  Hundreds of tourists were able to seek higher ground and were later evacuated, he said.

Amateur video posted online at the time showed visitors running through a steep, narrow canyon leading to the Treasury, Petra’s main draw, as guides urged them to hurry. Later, visitors were seen standing on a higher patch near the Treasury as knee-high water poured through the canyon.  Elsewhere in Jordan, such alarms are still missing. Thirty-four people were killed in flash floods in late September and early November.  

The last fatal flash flood struck Petra in 1963 when 22 French tourists and a local guide were killed by rapidly rising waters. In response, Jordan’s Department of Antiquities built a dam to keep water from entering the canyon leading to the Treasury.  In 2014, the alarm system was installed as added protection, with sirens set to go off when flood water rises above a certain level.

With half a year until European Parliament elections in which far-right forces look to make gains, Macron made a passionate plea for stronger backing from Merkel on a range of reforms to strengthen Europe. "Europe, and within it the Franco-German couple, have the obligation not to let the world slip into chaos and to guide it on the road to peace," Macron told the German parliament.

"That's why Europe must be stronger... and win more sovereignty," he said at a ceremony to honour the victims of past wars and dictatorships. Macron said it was Europe that had led the drive for green energy and against climate change and was now most strongly pushing multilateral approaches to trade, security, migration and environmental policy.

The first French president to address the Bundestag in 18 years, Macron called for greater European unity in order for the bloc to meet future challenges in an uncertain world.

This new complex has justified its enhanced power and control over the country’s resources primarily by citing threats to US security posed by Islamic terrorists. But like the old military-industrial complex, it is really rooted in the evolving relationship between the national security institutions themselves and the private arms contractors allied with them.

Eisenhower was prophetic in his warning about the threat of the original complex (which he had planned to call the military-industrial-congressional complex) to American democracy. But that original complex, organized merely to maximize the production of arms to enhance the power and resources of both the Pentagon and their contractor allies, has become a much more serious menace to the security of the American people than even Eisenhower could have anticipated.

Now it is a system of war that powerful arms contractors and their bureaucratic allies may have the ability to maintain indefinitely.