ZELENSKY IS PANICKING, PUTIN IS WATCHING

(Mark Stone, Sky News, Tuesday Morning (12/12/2023)

“Zelensky in Washington as time runs out to push Congress for more aid (Independent, 12/12/2003) – Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar spent decades studying Israel’s psyche. He is staking his life on what he learned.

“Sinwar is holding hostage 138 Israelis, including soldiers, betting he can force the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners and establish a permanent cease-fire. He understands that Israel will pay a heavy price,” said Yuval Bitton, who spent time with Sinwar as the former head of the Israel Prison Service’s intelligence division. “He understands this is our weak spot​.”  First, though, Hamas has to survive Israel’s powerful and deadly counterattack. If Hamas has miscalculated, Sinwar could be overseeing the destruction in Gaza of the U.S.-designated terrorist group – and lose his own life.    (Wall Street Journal, 12/9/2023)

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University of Pennsylvania’s leaders have resigned amid a controversy roiling colleges in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.

President Liz Magill and Scott L. Bok, the chairman of the university’s board of trustees, stepped down yesterday, capping a tumultuous week stemming from statements Magill made about antisemitism at a congressional hearing Tuesday. The resignations raise questions about the power major donors have over institutions and just where schools should draw the line on protecting free speech, generally considered a bedrock of academia. The war has also spurred fierce debate in politics—and no one has been more at the crux of the divisions it has spawned within the Democratic Party than Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress. For Tlaib, 47, the crisis has been a crucible, further alienating her from her party’s establishment while strengthening her resolve to speak for a community she believes has little other voice. (Wall Street Journal, 12/9/2023)

RAPE USED AS A WEAPON

The Israeli government has given evidence to the United Nations claiming Hamas militants used rape and sexual violence against women during the 7 October atrocities.

First responders and mortuary workers described multiple signs of sexual assault and torture on female bodies, the BBC reported, including mutilation, inserted objects and broken pelvises. Videos of naked and bloodied women being paraded around Gaza have circulated online.

Police say they have “multiple” eyewitness accounts of sexual assault, reported the broadcaster, but at the time of the BBC report, “they hadn’t yet interviewed any surviving victims.” Hamas has denied that its fighters sexually assaulted anyone.

“The trendlines for conflict-related sexual violence are worsening,” the UN special representative on the issue, Pramila Patten, warned in July – before the outbreak of war in the Middle East. Each new conflict brings new waves of what Patten described as “war’s oldest, most silenced and least condemned crime.”  (The Week, UK, 12/12/2023)

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Vanished in Russia

What has become of Vladimir Putin’s most prominent domestic opponent? Scarily, nobody knows.

Lawyers and spokespeople for jailed dissident Alexei Navalny say he is no longer at the prison where he has been held for the past two years, and they don’t know where he is now.

Navalny, a social media-savvy activist who led an anti-corruption protest movement of hundreds of thousands against Putin a decade ago, was poisoned with a nerve agent in Siberia in 2021 and flown to Germany for treatment. He later defied the Kremlin and returned to Russia, where he was promptly sentenced to 11 years in prison for fraud and other charges.

In August, a court dumped another 19 years into his sentence for good measure, and authorities had reportedly been planning to move him to an even harsher prison.

It’s not unusual to temporarily lose touch with Russian prisoners as they are shunted through the country’s continent-sized penal system. But as Navalny’s team prepares to launch a fresh campaign against Putin ahead of next year’s presidential “election,” they are especially worried about his fate.

For more on why Navalny’s team thinks Putin ordered his murder, see our interview with the director of the Oscar-winning documentary “Navalny.”  (Gzero Signal, 12/12/2023)

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SCOTTISH LEADER WANTS EU FLAG TO. FLY IN SCOTLAND

Humza Yousaf has demanded that the European flag be flown daily from Scottish Government buildings.

Scotland’s First Minister is following in the footsteps of his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon with that request.

Scottish Conservative deputy spokesperson for the constitution, external affairs and culture Alexander Stewart MSP said: “Humza Yousaf – just like his predecessor – clearly wants to play petty politics on the issue of flags.

“It is hardly surprising that he wants to distract from his scandal-ridden party and his government’s incompetence on a whole host of issues.  (Daily Express, 12/11/2023)

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EUROPE SWINGING TO THE RIGHT

As the EU gears up for elections next year, a new poll has shown that more voters are likely to back Eurosceptic parties than at the last election in 2019.

Poll aggregator EuropeElects has predicted the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group “become the third-biggest party” in parliament, up from fifth in 2019, the Financial Times‘s Andy Bounds reported, as the Conservatives and Reformists group also gains further traction. Pro-European groups across the political spectrum are “forecast to shrink.”

Firing the “opening salvo” of an EU-wide election campaign at a recent rally in Florence, “Eurosceptic firebrands” from the ID group promised liberation from the “Brussels bureaucracy,” Politico reported.

While “old taboos” dating back to Europe’s war against the Nazis used to stop most of the electorate voting for the extreme right, these are “gradually being eroded,” said the BBC’s Katya Adler in June. Look “north, south, east and west” of Europe, and you will see “far-right parties of different flavours – nostalgic nationalist, populist nationalist, ultra-conservative with neo-fascist roots and more – enjoying a notable resurgence.”

Since Italy crowned far-right leader Giorgia Meloni last year, French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen and the ultra-right Alternative for Germany party have gained ground in the polls, and populist Geert Wilders has surged to victory in the Netherlands. (Rebekah Evans, The Week, 12/11/2023)

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DISUNION IN THE ROMAN CHURCH

Pope Francis:  Worship of money helps terrorism to grow

In one corner: Pope Francis, who insists on a merciful Catholic Church open to everyone, a “field hospital” ready to bind up the wounds of a suffering humanity. In the other corner:  a small but vocal minority that has set itself against the Pontiff and his reforms.

A showdown between the two is underway.

The unofficial leader of the opposition is US Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the church’s legal experts and a figure whose style and approach harken back to the church of a different era and whose views closely align with those in its traditionalist wing. Francis, while maintaining he upholds the church’s doctrine and principles, has tried to move the church on from some of those customs he sees as hampering its mission.

Those who oppose Francis say they are deeply concerned about his openness to giving communion to divorced and remarried Catholics, along with his pastoral welcome to LGBTQ people. They don’t like his focus on migrants and the climate crisis, and they want a pope instead who lays down the law and presents doctrine in black-and-white terms.

This Pope preaches for a humbler church, one focused on service and which seeks to bring the Christian message into the world.

While the attacks on him are likely to have stung, Francis has frequently turned the other cheek, going so far as to say he does not seek to crack down on opponents; he’s also appointed to Vatican departments leaders who held different views than his own.

Now, though, in the 11th year of his papacy, the Pope is taking more assertive measures to tackle some of the opposition he’s been facing, which is centered in the US – where American politics also may be in play – and in certain Roman circles.

With his 87th birthday Sunday and as he battles health issues, he doesn’t have time to waste.  (Christopher Lamb, CNN, 10/13/2023)

BRIEFLY

Mullticulturalism is a form of colonization and occupation that has turned British cities and towns into third-world ghettos where Islamists, jihadis and radical leftists flourish, and in the process, the national identity of those cities and towns gets erased, rendering them virtually unrecognizable. Parts of Birmingham and London look like they could be mistaken for Pakistan or some other foreign country.  (Ahmed Anwar, Jihad Watch, 12/9/2023.  Mr. Anwar is an ex-Muslim)

An NHS trust in London is asking patients to choose their gender identity from a list that includes Demiboy, Demigirl, Gender Fluid and Questioning. The options are offered on a form administered by The Royal Brompton in Chelsea, which is run by Guy’s and St Thomas’ trust. “Patients have the option not to disclose this information if they prefer,” the trust said.  (The Week, UK, 12/11/2023)

COMMENTARY

Sixty years ago, I can remember a leading British comedian (I think it was Marty Feldman) giving the “news” on British television.  The news, by his own admission, was made up over lunch when he was at the pub.  One item was about the 1965 India-Pakistan War.   The “bulk of the fighting was in Birmingham,” said the comedian.

In 2024, if Mr. Feldman were still alive, he could report the same phenomenon in London, where Jews and Muslims were to clash in the Hamas-Israel conflict. 

This is one of the consequences of Britain’s post-WWII immigration policies, which clearly have not achieved unity in the country.

Particularly intriguing is that the “conflict” in the UK is between religious factions.   That was also the case in 1965 when Muslims and Hindus were genuinely supportive of their faiths.  Going way back, Britain had its own divisions – Catholic/Protestant,  Anglican/Methodist.   By the 1900’s there was peace.

I don’t think we were intended to live together in the same land.  It’s difficult to find God in the midst of terrible conflict.   But people will still be seeking Him in peace, in their own land.   Please read the following from Acts 17.

“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”  (Acts 17:26-27)

At the very least, this should make us think about the multi-cultural messes we live in.   Some countries wisely do not let foreigners into their lands.   India is one example.   Millions of Indians are in the UK and US (and other countries), but Brits and others cannot move there.

PARANOID PUTIN PUTS PEACE ON PAUSE

Biden and Putin square off for 2 hours as Ukraine tensions mount. (Reuters)

Polls show that the majority of people in Ukraine want to join the EU and NATO, but their powerful neighbor, Russia, under Vladimir Putin is against both.    Russia ruled Ukraine until 30 years ago and never got over its loss.  Putin himself described the break-up of the Soviet Union as the greatest disaster of the twentieth century.

No doubt he will find a way to stop Ukraine from moving further away from Moscow.   Once again, he could use Russian speakers in Ukraine to bring about a pro-Russian government in Kyiv.

BIDEN IGNORING JIHADI THREAT

Like his former boss Barack Obama, Joe Biden began his presidency by using the executive branch to treat his critics as “domestic terrorists.” When it comes to counterterrorism, the Biden administration is proving to be the third Obama term.

Within months of his inauguration, Obama directed the Department of Homeland Security away from Islamist terrorism and towards “right-wing terrorism.” Biden is doing the same, but even more aggressively and with both the DHS and Department of Justice.  (A.J. Caschetta, MEF, 12/3/2021)

TERRORISTS CROSSING BORDER

AUSTIN, Texas — The press office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection offered no judgments in a recent press release pregnant with unspoken meaning — just the facts, ma’am. But I certainly can.

The nation’s main border policing agency put out a November 30 press release pointing out that in just one randomly selected time frame in just one of the Texas border’s overwhelmed sectors (Del Rio), during the third week of November, Border Patrol agents caught migrants from regions of the world bristling with Islamic terrorist organizations.

Two men from Syria were caught on November 23. One man was from Lebanon. Another hailed from Tajikistan. Still another arrived after a long journey from Uzbekistan. Six showed up from Eritrea, which sits in a dangerous northeast African neighborhood sharing borders with Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. (“Migrants from Terror-Plagued Regions are crossing the southern border,” Todd Bensman, MEF, 12/3/2021)

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AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY BENEFITS CHINA

US technology has enabled China to build and successfully test an advanced nuclear-able hypersonic missile that could… evade US missile-defense systems, and succeed in striking the US mainland.

Overall, billions of dollars have been raised for Chinese companies producing computer chips, according to the Rhodium investigation.

Apart from investments, US companies are supplying Chinese companies with the trained manpower to boost their own microchip industry. China is intensively recruiting senior engineers and executives from US companies and their China affiliates.

The semiconductor field in China is booming. More than 22,000 new semiconductor companies were reportedly registered in China in 2020, and another 4,350 in the first two months of 2021.   (Judith Bergman, Gatestone, 12/7/2021)

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COUNTERING THE SILK ROAD

With an infrastructure initiative worth up to €300 billion, the EU attempts to compete with China’s New Silk Road (Belt and Road Initiative, BRI). The initiative named “Global Gateway” was officially presented last Wednesday after bumpy preparations that were widely criticized as largely inadequate. It is intended to provide finances for the construction of roads, railways and digital links – infrastructure projects worldwide to be mainly undertaken by companies from EU countries. The pressure on Brussels to launch the initiative has recently increased. Despite temporary difficulties due to the Corona crises, the BRI has been quite successful with 142 countries participating so far. Only those powers in rivalry with Beijing are not participating – the USA, the leading West European countries (except Italy), Australia, India, Japan. Observers, however, are skeptical, because no concrete Global Gateway project has yet been named and significant portions of the financing have yet to be secured. A previous EU project has long been considered a failure.  (German Foreign Policy, 12/7/2021)

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COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of fear, manufactured by individuals who were in the nominal positions of authority as the virus began to spread across the globe last year, according to Yale epidemiologist Dr. Harvey Risch.

In an appearance on Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders” program, Risch, an epidemiology professor at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, argued that by and large, what has characterized the entire CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic has been a “degree of fear and people’s response to the fear.”

“Overall, I’d say that we’ve had a pandemic of fear. And fear has affected almost everybody, whereas the infection has affected relatively few,” said Risch.

(“Covid 19 a pandemic of fear ‘manufactured’ by authorities: Yale Epidemiologist”, Isabel van Brugen & Jan Jekielek, Epoch Times, 12/5/2021)

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Pope says:  New meeting with Russian Orthodox patriarch possible 6 Dec 2021, Associated Press

Francis’ five-day trip to Cyprus and Greece has been dominated by the migrant issue and Francis’ call for European countries to stop building walls, stoking fears and shutting out “those in greater need who knock at our door.”

Pope Francis said Monday there are plans for a possible second meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, after their historic 2016 encounter in Cuba became a landmark in mending relations severed by the 1,000-year-old schism that divided Christianity.  Speaking to reporters as he traveled home from Greece, Francis said he planned to meet next week with the Russian church’s foreign envoy “to agree on a possible meeting” with Patriarch Kirill. He noted that Kirill is due to travel in the coming weeks but also said he was “ready to go to Moscow” even if diplomatic protocols weren’t yet in place.  “Because talking with a brother, there are no protocols,” Francis said. “We are brothers. We say things to each other’s face like brothers.”

The two churches split during the Great Schism of 1054 and have remained estranged over a host of issues, including the primacy of the pope and Russian Orthodox accusations that the Catholic Church is poaching converts in former Soviet lands.

Francis made the comments after meeting with two prominent figures in Christian Orthodoxy, the heads of the Orthodox Churches in Cyprus and Greece during his five-day trip to those two nations. Meeting this weekend with Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of Greece’s Orthodox Church, Francis issued a sweeping apology for all the mistakes Catholics had made against Orthodox, echoing the apology offered by St. John Paul II in Greece in 2001.

The Feb. 12, 2016 encounter between Francis and Kirill was the first-ever meeting between the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the largest in Orthodoxy. The two men met in a VIP room of the Havana airport while Francis was en route to Mexico.  “We are brothers,” Francis said that day as he embraced Kirill.  (Copyright 2021, The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

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POPE LIBERAL ON SEX

The Pope has suggested that Catholics can worry less about “sins of the flesh.” During a question-and-answer session with journalists on his flight back from a trip to Greece and Cyprus, Pope Francis said “sins of the flesh are not the most serious” – unlike pride and hatred. Robert Mickens, editor-in-chief of the Catholic daily La Croix International, said the Pope is “being less rigid on sex.”  (The Week, 10/8/2021)

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HIGH BLACK DEATH TOLL

585 people of color were killed by Islamic hate groups in November, 2021. Another 285 were injured.

The most deadly attacks appear to have targeted Black people. 

32 blacks were massacred in Central African Republic on Nov. 28 when terrorists group attacked two villages, Kaita and Bayengou. Among the dead were two soldiers. The others were civilians.

25 blacks were killed in Niger during an Islamic hate group raid on a village there. That attack occurred November 16. 

27 blacks were killed within three days in Burkina Faso as Islamic hate groups targeted the nation’s police (gendarmes). One civilian died.

More recently, over 100 blacks were killed in Niger and Mali. Some of the dead were the attackers, themselves.   (Daily Ken, 12/8/2021)

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POINTERS

• DIFFICULT YEAR FOR US FOREIGN POLICY – It is still early days in the Biden administration, but as far as foreign policy is concerned it has been a difficult year with a seemingly relentless flood of crises. The dramatic events in Afghanistan, with terrorism and people falling off airplanes, was certainly the most high-profile debacle. And while the AUKUS agreement against China seems promising, the year also saw Russia rewarded with Nord Stream 2 and undaunted on Ukraine’s borders. Elsewhere repression in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela continues mostly unanswered, while Iran, the likeliest biggest debacle of them all, looms. In Africa, the unfolding tragedy (begun during the Trump administration) in Ethiopia is clearly the primary challenge, with the volatile situation in Sudan in second place.  (MEMRI 12/7/2021)

• DISTRUST OF US INSTITUTIONS — US politics is becoming even more tribalized as TV and online media target politically like-minded consumers with hyperpartisan news coverage. Widening wealth inequality fuels the fire by separating white and non-white, urban and rural, and the more educated from the less educated. Deepening public mistrust of political institutions will fuel future fights over the legitimacy of US elections.  (Gzero Signal, 12/7/2021)

• ISIS Child Preacher Delivers Mosque Address:  Our Goal Is The White House, Not Baghdad Or Damascus; ISIS Weekly Glorifies Senior Commander Killed In U.S. Drone Attack In Kunar, Afghanistan:  14 Months After His Death, His Body Had Not Decomposed  (MEMRI, 12/6/2021)

• Yvan Benedetti, the extremist nationalist leader of the French movement “Les Nationalistes” who announced that he will run in the 2022 French presidential election, has recently shared several posts endorsing the Hizbullah military wing on his affiliated Telegram channels. The EU designates Hizbullah’s military wing as a terrorist organization.  (MEMRI 12/7/2021)

• The Australian prime minister has said his government officials will not attend the Beijing Winter Olympics, joining the US in a diplomatic boycott of next year’s Games. Speaking to reporters in Sydney, Scott Morrison cited human rights abuses in Xinjiang as one of the factors Australia had “consistently raised”. The Chinese embassy in Canberra accused Australian politicians of “political posturing” and suggested that the diplomatic representatives had not been invited anyway.  (The Week, 10/8/2021)

• Olaf Scholz replaced Angela Merkel as Chancellor of Germany today. (12/8/2021)

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IF VACCINES ARE THE MARK OF THE BEAST, THEN WHERE IS THE BEAST?

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”  (Revelation 13:16-17 NKJV)

The new Omicron variant from South Africa is half as bad as other variants but spreading twice as fast.  It’s yet another twist in the never-ending Covid saga.

The death toll from Covid remains at less than 1%, which puts it on a par with the flu.   This fact was recognized by Norway, which has abolished all restrictions.

Many people believe that this is the biblical Mark of the Beast.   And that could turn out to be the case.  Governments are increasingly inclined to make the Covid vaccine compulsory.   Governments have also taken the opportunity to increase their control of people.

Austria and Germany, at the heart of the prophesied Beast, have both made it mandatory for all people to receive a vaccine.   Restrictions on work and leisure are very much a part of the Covid, non-vaccinated, restrictions.

These facts point to a fulfillment of the prophecy.

But, then, where is the Beast?

To answer that, we need to look further and deeper into what is going on in the world, beyond Covid.

America is in decline and has been for a couple of decades.   It’s just more obvious now.  In the first year of the Biden administration that decline has speeded up.  Even his supporters admit that foreign policy is his greatest weakness.   Add that to economic policy, presumably his strength, and there’s a recipe for greater decline.  The dollar cannot hold its value forever with so much over-spending.

Europe will be the center of the Beast.   But European economic and defense ties are global.  “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”  (Revelation 13:8)

The Beast power will rise suddenly, most likely at a time when the US is in serious trouble.  

”The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.”

If Covid vaccines are indeed the mark of the beast, the Beast power can’t be far behind.

GERMANY BACKS NAVALNY

Andrei Navalny – Pic: Maxim Zmeyev/AFP/Getty Images

Among Germany’s ruling elites, demands for imposing new sanctions on Moscow and stirring up Russia’s younger generation are increasing. “The objectives we have in relationship to Russia are very big” explained Gabriel Felbermayr, President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), “we want . . . regime change.” The recent protests by the Russian dissident Alexey Navalny’s followers, which had been coordinated from Berlin, were not enough to endanger “the regime’s stability,” according to the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). One could, however, count on the young generation (“generation Putin”) that includes many young people, who are very critical of the government, an assistant of the Green Party-affiliated Heinrich-Böll Foundation suggests. Navalny is particularly appealing to younger people; he embodies “a new type of politician.” The man, German elites, acting in the manner of colonial rulers, would like to bring to power in Russia, is only supported by a small minority in the Russian population.   (German Foreign Policy, 2/18/2021)

RUSSIAN THREAT

As part of its growing focus on Arctic warfare and countering Russia on NATO’s flanks and more vulnerable states, such as Poland and the Baltics, the Pentagon has deployed supersonic B-1 strategic bombers to Norway.  CNN reported that four B-1s will go to Orland Air Base in Norway for missions in and around the Arctic Circle.

The new move, notes Warrior Maven’s Kris Osborne, brings “substantial aerial firepower much closer to the region in the vicinity of the Russian-dominated Northern Sea Route . . .” It also allows for a greater operations tempo for Bomber Task Force patrols in the area.

Ultimately, Osborne notes, it “sends an unmistakable deterrence message to Russia, indicating a growing resolve to increase presence and operational readiness in the area.  (American Defense News, 2/16/2021)

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CAUTION ON VACCINE

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made comments last year about COVID-19 vaccines that clash with policies that his platform has implemented, leaked video shows.

Zuckerberg said in July 2020: “I do just want to make sure that I share some caution on this [vaccine] because we just don’t know the long-term side effects of basically modifying people’s DNA and RNA . . . basically the ability to produce those antibodies and whether that causes other mutations or other risks downstream. So, there’s work on both paths of vaccine development.”

Zuckerberg took a different stance when appearing in a virtual forum in November 2020 with Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading government scientist.

“Just to clear up one point, my understanding is that these vaccines do not modify your DNA or RNA. So that’s just an important point to clarify,” Zuckerberg said, prompting Fauci to say: “No, first of all, DNA is inherent in your own nuclear cell. Sticking in anything foreign will ultimately get cleared.”

Facebook didn’t respond to a request for comment.  (Zachary Stieber, Epoch Times, 2/17/2021)

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POWER CUTS IN TEXAS LINKED TO KEYSTONE CANCELATION

Rolling blackouts in Texas have put the importance of oil pipelines into perspective, business executives say.

Ryan Palazzo, a former chief operating officer of a pipeline construction company and a resident of Houston, received text messages on Feb. 15 about rolling blackouts to protect the state’s electricity grid, which was strained by a massive winter storm that brought record-low temperatures and heavy snow. Millions have been affected since.

“It’s not because there’s not enough natural gas. It’s because of the switch to renewables. They’re not able to, in the short term, keep the grid stable. It’s unfortunate, but energy is essential to everything that we do,” said Palazzo, who was laid off in November, right after the election.  (Terri Wu, Epoch Times, 2/18/2021)

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TURKEY NOW A US FOE

Endy Zemenides, executive director at the Hellenic American Leadership Council, spoke to participants in a January 8 Middle East Forum webinar (video) about Turkey’s rapidly diminishing reliability as an American ally and Greece’s growing reliability as an American ally.

Greece and Turkey occupied a similar place in U.S. strategic thinking after the end of World War II, as barriers protecting the southeastern flank of Europe from communism and Soviet influence, and were welcomed into NATO. However, while Greece’s alliance with the U.S. has strengthened in recent years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has increasingly taken actions that threaten U.S. interests in the region. These include prioritizing fighting the Kurds rather than Islamic State in Syria, undermining American sanctions on Iran, opposition to Israel, sponsorship of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and acquiring the S-400 defense system from Russia. The latter led the Trump administration to impose CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act) sanctions on Ankara last year. Meanwhile, Erdoğan’s growing authoritarianism has become a greater and greater affront to American values.

Erdoğan’s Turkey, which was characterized as “neither friend nor foe” in the title of a 2018 Council on Foreign Relations report, has now become “more foe than friend,” said Zemenides.

Greece, in contrast, has “proven its political stability and . . . loyalty to the United States.” Its pro-American orientation is not subject to the whims of a particular leader but is a matter of consensus across the political spectrum. Even the Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (SYRIZA) led “the most pro-American government in Greek history” from 2015 to 2019.   (Marilyn Stern, Middle East Forum, 2/17/2021)

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AUSTRALIA’S GOVERNOR GENERAL POLITICALLY CORRECT

We were told that identity politics is something that young people indulge in when at universities, but it has no implications on the real world.

But when the highest office in Australia embraces it, we know it is no child’s play. The staff at the Governor General’s office has been asked to go on a ‘Privilege Walk’ to learn about their power and unlearn their unconscious bias.

As IPA’s (Institute of Public Affairs) Bella d’Abrera said: “The privilege walk has all the hallmarks of medieval penitents being forced to do public penance for their sins. In this case, the employees of the Office of the Governor are being told that they have ‘white guilt’ and ‘inher­ited guilt’ which they are obliged to overcome. They might as well be wearing sackcloth and ashes.  (Daily Telegraph, Australia, 2/18/2021)

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AUSTRALIA NOT PREPARED FOR WAR

Australia is ludicrously, irresponsibly, culpably, madly unprepared for any serious external national security emergency where the Americans don’t ride to our ­rescue. Take two critical examples: cargo ships, and fuel security. Once we had more than 100 cargo ships flagged and or controlled by Australia. Now we have 13. That’s right, 13. Four of these are dedicated LNG tankers that will soon be replaced by foreign vessels.

By comparison, Britain, about two and a half times our population and with a similar standard of living to us, has something like 470 such vessels.

In the normal scheme of things, not owning anything can be a cheap way to operate. We are wealthy because of iron ore, coal and other bulk commodities. As a Harvard study showed, we are the simplest and least-sophisticated economy of any nation in the world at our standard of living.

We use our mineral wealth to pay for a services economy that ­finances good hospitals and well-resourced universities. In both those we do some clever things. But as far as possible, we make nothing in Australia and buy it all from overseas.

If the world is perfectly peaceful, and you’re confident your minerals will last forever, that ­accords with economic theory and will maximise your income.

But national security trumps economic theory, or it should do. If the world is messy, and it mostly is, you’re in trouble very fast.

Our true national security policy has long been contained in five words: America will look after us. We better pray the Americans are always able and inclined to come to our rescue.   (Greg Sheridan, The Australian, 2/18/2021)

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US DEFEAT IN AFGHANISTAN LOOMS

“A Biden decision to suspend a final pullout of U.S. forces will be well received by our foreign policy elites. But the anti-interventionist wings of the two parties are growing in strength.”

Is President Joe Biden prepared to preside over the worst U.S. strategic defeat since the fall of Saigon in 1975?

For that may be what’s at stake if Biden follows through on the 2020 peace deal with the Taliban to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 1 — just two months from now.

Consider. if the 2,500 American troops remaining in Afghanistan are pulled out, the entire 10,000-troop NATO contingent departs.

This would write an end to the Western military commitment.

And the likelihood the Kabul government could then survive the constant and increasing attacks from the Taliban, as the latter now control half of the country and many roads leading to the capital, is slim.   (Pat Buchanan, 2/19/2021)

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CATHOLIC CHURCH NOT HAPPY WITH BIDEN

President Biden regards himself as a “devout Catholic,” but the archbishop who chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pro-life committee begs to differ.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City contends the president needs to be honest, “stop defining himself as a devout Catholic” and admit that his support for the killing of the unborn violates with the church’s unequivocal stance on the sanctity of life.

He said it would be “more honest” for Biden to say “he disagreed with his church on this important issue and that he was acting contrary to church teaching.”

“When he says he is a devout Catholic, we bishops have the responsibility to correct him,” said Naumann. “Although people have given this president power and authority, he cannot define what it is to be a Catholic and what Catholic moral teaching is.”

The archbishop said Biden is “usurping the role of the bishops and confusing people.”

He’s declaring that he’s Catholic and is going to force people to support abortion through their tax dollars. The bishops need to correct him, as the president is acting contrary to the Catholic faith,” he said.

Biden also has withdrawn the U.S. from the pro-life “Geneva Consensus Declaration” signed by the Trump administration last year with dozens of other countries. It declares there is “no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of States to finance or facilitate abortion.”

“What he is supporting is a serious evil. I don’t know the disposition of his mind and heart, but his act of supporting legal abortion is wrong,” Naumann said.   (Archbishop to Biden:  Stop calling yourself a ‘devout Catholic’,” Wnd, 2/16/2021)

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US LIFE EXPECTANCY DROPS

The average U.S. life expectancy dropped by a year in the first half of 2020, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics, a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Life expectancy at birth for the total U.S. population was 77.8 years – a decline of 1 year from 78.8 in 2019. For males, the life expectancy at birth was 75.1 – a decline of 1.2 years from 2019. For females, life expectancy declined to 80.5 years, a 0.9 year decrease from 2019.

Deaths from COVID-19 are the main factor in the overall drop in U.S. life expectancy between January and June 2020, the CDC says. But it’s not the only one:   A surge in drug overdose deaths are a part of the decline, too.   (NPR)

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BIDEN SEEN AS ‘WEAK’ PRESIDENT

The Arabs say they are worried because Iran sees Biden as a “weak” president, and that is why the mullahs in Tehran and their proxies in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon have increased their terrorist attacks in the Middle East.

Arabs are turning to the Biden administration with the frank plea: Your weak approach to the Iranian regime is already threatening whatever precarious stability exists in the Middle East. I t is already emboldening terrorist groups. We are begging you: do not back down to Iranian threats.

Such messages show that many Arabs share Israel’s concern over US and European efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. It is, frankly, the last thing the Arabs want. It will only lead to war and set back the region more years than one would care to count.  (Gatestone, 2/22/2021)

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TO THE POINT

• Nigerian economist poised to become first female WTO chief — The United States has given its support to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the top position at the World Trade Organization, ending a monthlong deadlock. The move represents yet another split with the previous administration.  (https://www.dw.com/en/nigerian-economist-poised-to-become-first-female-wto-chief/a-56479349)

• The UK unemployment rate rose to 5.1% at the end of last year, the highest for five years. ONS figures show that 726,000 people have lost their job during the pandemic, with three-fifths of those losses among under-25s.  (The Spectator, 2/23/2021)

• German police reported a total of 2,275 anti-Semitic hate crimes — an average of six per day — in 2020, according to preliminary data provided by the federal government. The tally represents a more than 10% increase over the number of anti-Semitic crimes reported in 2019. . . Police were able to identify 1,367 suspects — but only five individuals were ultimately arrested.  (Gatestone, 2/24/2021)

• Millions of residents have been left without electricity and heat in Texas amid bitter temperatures and heavy snow. Plus, Biden is set to announce plans to overhaul US immigration.  (The Guardian, 2/18/2021).   Once again, we’re taking in tens of thousands when we can’t cope with what we have already.

• ‘Hostile’ Woman’s Hour criticized — Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour has been accused of perpetuating “damaging and prejudicial tropes” about Islam during a “strikingly hostile” interview with Zara Mohammed, the first female general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain. An open letter signed by more than 100 public figures, including Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi, the Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Naz Shah, and the comedian Deborah Frances-White, criticised the show’s presenter, Emma Barnett, for repeatedly and aggressively interrogating Mohammed about the number of female imams in the country.  (The Week, 2/18/2021)

• In Japan, more young women are dying from suicide than from Covid.  (BBC, 2/18/2021)

• It’s been four weeks since Joe Biden moved into the White House, and he’s already feeling the Middle East heat on multiple fronts. Conflict, nuclear threats, human rights abuses, and diplomatic snafus are challenging his administration’s foreign policy priorities in the tumultuous region. (Gzero Signal, 2/18/2021)

• Bill Gates says ‘all rich nations should move to 100% synthetic beef’ to combat climate change – the Microsoft cofounder insists ‘you can get used to the taste difference.  (The Blaze, 2/16/2021)

• Teen suicide warning – More than 7% of British children have tried to kill themselves by the age of 17, a study has found. The Millennium Cohort Study, which tracks the lives of 19,000 people born at the start of the millennium, found that pressures from education and social media were among the causes of the suicide attempts. Fears are growing that the pandemic will increase mental health problems among young people.  (The Week, 2/22/2021)

• Homeless deaths surge in pandemic –- Deaths among homeless people have increased by more than a third in a year, according to a study which found that almost 1,000 of them had died across the UK in 2020. The Dying Homeless Project has called for action to prevent a repeat of such “terrible loss of life.” It said its findings show that the pandemic had hit a system “already cut to the bone from ten years of austerity.”   (The Week, 2/22/2021)

• While America and Europe are fighting over vaccines, China and Russia are giving them away. This is vaccine diplomacy, says Cindy Yu, and it matters. Xi and Putin are buying up influence – both directly and through proxies. It’s a new great game and the West hasn’t started to play.  (The Spectator, 2/18/2021)

• According to fox new.com Wednesday, the US is set to borrow as much money this year as in all previous years of its existence put together. “Owe no one anything,” (Romans 13:8)

KURDS ‘STABBED IN BACK’ BY US

The SDF was Washington’s main ally in Syria in the fight against ISIL [File: Maya Alleruzzo/AP Photo]

The US President Donald Trump has announced that an ally of the United States, Turkey, may attack and invade another ally, the Kurds, who fought with the US against ISIS.

Kurds warn Turkish offensive will bring ‘chaos once again’

Several of Donald Trump’s most loyal Republican allies have turned on him over his decision to pull US troops out of north-eastern Syria. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said the withdrawal would benefit Russia and Iran, while Senator Lindsey Graham – usually an outspoken defender of the president – warned that abandoning the Kurds in the region to allow a Turkish military offensive would be “a stain on America’s honor.”

War zone — Turkish forces are already massing near the border with north-eastern Syria as US troops withdraw.  A spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said the area would soon “turn into a war zone.”

Civilian suffering — Trump’s rash decision opens the way for a vicious struggle between the Kurds and Turkey’s military, says Simon Tisdall, who warns of war crimes and fresh civilian suffering ahead.   (The Guardian, 10/8)

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PARIS POLICE KILLED BY ISLAMIST

The knife attacker who killed four of his colleagues at Paris police headquarters this week showed signs of radicalization and appears to have planned his assault, French authorities said on Saturday. France’s anti-terror prosecutor said several witnesses had said the attacker — a 45-year-old IT professional who had been working at the Intelligence Directorate of the Paris Police Headquarters since 2003 — had adhered to “a radical vision of Islam.”   He had converted to the religion about 10 years ago.   On Thursday he killed four of his colleagues in an attack that lasted less than 10 minutes in the centre of Paris near Notre-Dame cathedral before being shot dead by an armed officer.

The anti-terror prosecutor took over the investigation on Friday after police examined the attacker’s mobile phone and questioned his associates, including his wife.   On the morning of the attack, said the prosecutor at a press conference, the perpetrator had exchanged 33 text messages with his wife and all of a religious nature, ending with the phrase “Allahu akbar [God is great]”.   He sent the messages 30 minutes before he bought the knives used in the attack.

The prosecutor said that the attacker had probably had contacts with members of the Salafist movement, a radical form of Islam, adding that the investigations had revealed his “approval for certain atrocities committed in the name of that religion,” including the deadly assault in 2015 against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and that he had changed his manner of dress over the past few months.

According to French media the attacker’s wife has described how he had begun hearing voices the night before the attack.   Over the past four years Paris has been hit by numerous large-scale and deadly attacks, including at the Bataclan theatre in November 2015 when extremists killed 130 people in the deadliest Islamist terror attack to strike France.  (Paris police attacker showed signs of radicalization, David Keohane, Financial Times, 10/5).

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Israel and Gulf states working on ‘historic pact’ to end conflict between them (Times of Israel * 5 Oct 2019)

Israel is reportedly negotiating with several Gulf states on a “non-aggression pact” between them as they face off against an increasingly emboldened Iran.   The deal, which Channel 12 news described as potentially “historic,” aims to put an end to the state of conflict between the Gulf states and Israel, and reportedly provides for friendly relations, cooperation in a variety of fields, and no war or incitement against each other.

Advancing the Israeli initiative, Foreign Minister Israel Katz met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month with several foreign ministers from Arab Gulf states, Channel 12 news reported Saturday night.   There was no immediate comment from the Foreign Ministry..   (https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-and-gulf-states-said-working-on-non-aggression-pact-as-they-face-iran/)

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Former MidEast envoy:   ‘anti-Iran alliance crumbling’
Times of Israel * 5 Oct 2019

Sensing US reluctance to respond forcefully to Iranian aggression in the region, and following the devastating September attack on its oil facilities blamed on Tehran, Saudi Arabia is quietly moving toward possible rapprochement with the Islamic Republic, according to multiple media reports.    The New York Times reported Friday that the Trump administration’s failure to react militarily to the September 14 missile and drone attack on Saudi oil facilities, which jolted global oil prices and temporarily knocked out nearly 6 percent of the world’s daily crude production, had led Riyadh to recalculate.

“The worst outcome for the Saudis is to move to a confrontation with Iran expecting the US to support them and find out they won’t,” Philip Gordon, a former White House Middle East coordinator, told the Times.   “This administration has shown it’s not really ready to take on Iran.”   . . . Saudi Arabia gave a “positive” response Friday to a truce offer from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and called for its implementation.   Saeed Shariati, a political analyst in Tehran, told the New York Times:   “We have reached the peak of Saudi-Iran tensions and both sides have concluded this balance of fear is detrimental to their interests.” (https://www.timesofisrael.com/saudis-said-moving-toward-detente-with-iran-amid-us-reluctance-to-act-militarily/)

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CHINESE LOANS TO FINANCE NEW ZIMBABWE CAPITAL IN POVERTY STRICKEN NATION

China has sunk her dragon claws deeper into Zimbabwe’s social, political and economic bone marrow by reportedly acquiring vast tracks of land in Mount Hampden, the new capital city of the country, thus effectively buying and owning it for a song, well before construction is even completed, Spotlight Zimbabwe, has been told.

Diplomatic and high level government sources at the ministry of lands, agriculture, and rural resettlement this week said Beijing had also struck a deal to provide the more than US$20 billion needed by government to develop the city, which is expected to house a new reserve bank, parliament building, international airport, government departments, presidential palace, shopping malls, five new opulent residential suburbs, and industrial sites.

Other features of the new city include a university, technology centre, schools, churches, hospitals, and official residences for the speaker of parliament and senate president. (Cynthia Goba, Zimbabwe News, 10/4)

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ISRAELI MAJORITY WANT MORE SECULAR STATE

A new survey by Hiddush, an Israeli organization that supports religious pluralism, shows that 57 percent of the Jewish Israeli electorate does not want the incoming governing coalition to include or depend on parties that are Charedi Orthodox, commonly referred to as ultra-Orthodox in the United States.  That 57 percent majority also wants the coalition to support religious freedom in Israel.

Thirty-four percent of Israeli Jews disagree:   They want the Orthodox parties in the coalition and are happy with current government policy, which gives Orthodox Judaism significant influence over Israeli law.   Charedi parties have been part of the Israeli government since 2015 and have sat in a series of coalitions throughout Israel’s history.

The survey’s finding is significant because some of the harshest rhetoric ahead of the election centered on religious issues.   Secular parties accused Orthodox parties of wanting to establish a theocracy in Israel.   Orthodox parties claimed that secular parties wanted to deprive Israel of its religious character.   The only reason for the election last week — Israel’s second in a year — was an intractable conflict between Orthodox and secular parties after the previous election in April.

Nearly all of those who voted for Blue and White, the centrist party led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid opposing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, want a secular governing coalition.   Most voters for Netanyahu’s Likud Party (56 percent) support a coalition with Orthodox parties, while 44 percent favor a secular coalition. (https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/israelis-want-a-more-secular-ruling-coalition/)

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IRAN MOVES NEARER TO ISRAEL

Israel is fighting off Iranian expansion across the Middle East, but danger for the Jewish state lurks near its own borders.   Painstaking work by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their loyal proxies has succeeded in laying the groundwork for a second Iranian front with Israel in the Golan Heights.

The first front is to Israel’s north in South Lebanon.   The Golan, which Israel won from Syria in 1967, lies further east.   Though Israel rules the skies, the Syrian land adjoining Israel’s border appears increasingly to belong to Iran.  (Jonathan Spyer, Wall Street Journal, 10/2)

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THREE MUSLIM LEADERS TO START TV NEWS CHANNEL

A leader of a country that has the death penalty for “blasphemy,” a leader who says he is a proud antisemite and a leader who threatens to invade foreign countries have united to push for a TV channel that will “fight Islamophobia.”   Pakistan’s Imran Khan, Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad, and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan met to propose a “BBC type English language TV Channel” that will “highlight Muslim issues,” Imran Khan said.

Khan tweeted that he met with his two counterparts on September 25 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.   The three decided to “jointly start an English language channel dedicated to confronting the challenges posed by Islamophobia and setting the record strait on our great religion.”   It’s unclear when he says “our” great religion if he means including other Muslim groups, such as Shi’ites or Ahmadis, both of which are routinely the victims of attacks in Pakistan.   Khan again tweeted about his meeting on September 30, claiming that this channel would be a “BBC type.” (Seth Frantzmann, MEF, 10/1)

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Israeli Security Cabinet to meet for first time in months, amid warnings of Iran threat.                                                                                    Security cabinet to convene Sunday as Liberman urges PM, Gantz to agree on unity, citing ‘national emergency’ and evoking Yom Kippur War; Islamic Jihad holds Gaza rally   (Times of Israel * 5 Oct 2019)

Members of the top forum will meet at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem in the afternoon.   In recent days Hebrew media has on several occasions quoted unnamed security officials as warning of the rising threat of an attack orchestrated by Iran.   The Blue and White party’s Gabi Ashkenazi, newly appointed head of the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, also spoke Thursday of “many challenges in the security realm, some known to all and some that are only discussed behind closed doors.” Liberman noted in a Facebook post that the country on Sunday will mark 46 years since the Yom Kippur War, the most traumatic conflict in the nation’s history and one in which the country was caught off guard by its enemies, and said it was imperative to remember its legacy “of leadership and love of country.”

Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad terror group on Saturday marked 32 years since its establishment, holding a rally in the Gaza Strip in which it showed off what it said was a new type of rocket. (https://www.timesofisrael.com/security-cabinet-to-meet-for-first-time-in-months-amid-warnings-of-iran-threat/)

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CATHOLIC CHURCH TO ORDAIN MARIED PRIESTS?

VATICAN CITY— Pope Francis formally opened a meeting of bishops that will debate whether the Catholic Church should loosen its 1,000-year-old requirement of celibacy for priests.

The potentially momentous debate pits those who say ordaining married men could relieve the church’s clergy shortage against those who warn that doing so would undermine the distinctive character of the priesthood.

In his homily on Sunday, at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope didn’t refer specifically to the celibacy debate, but called generally for innovation in the church’s ministry:   “If everything continues as it was, if we spend our days content that ‘this is the way things have always been done,’ then the gift vanishes, smothered by the ashes of fear and concern for defending the status quo.”   (“Pope opens debate on celibacy requirement for Catholic priests,” Francis X. Rocca, Wall Street Journal, 10/6)

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SCANDINAVIAN CRIME BOOSTED BY IMMIGRANTS

• “Most immigrants are not criminals, but when the immigrant population is overrepresented in almost every crime category, then there is a problem that we must dare to talk about.” — Jon Helgheim, immigration policy spokesman for the Norwegian party Fremskrittspartiet (FrP).
• “In the more than thirty years that the surveys cover, one tendency is clearer than all others, namely that the proportion of the total amount of crimes committed by persons with a foreign background is steadily increasing….” — Det Goda Samhället (“The Good Society”), Invandring och brottslighet – ett trettioårsperspektiv (“Immigration and crime – a thirty-year perspective”).   All statistics for the report were supplied by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
• Unless Scandinavian political leaders begin actively to engage with the facts that these statistics describe, the problems are only going to become more intractable — to the point where they may be entirely unsolvable.   (Judith Bergman, Gatestone, 10/4)

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Why some Albertans want to separate from Canada                              by Robin Levinson-King,  BBC News, Calgary, Alberta, 4 Oct 2019

Today, Albertans’ common concerns can be summarized with three words: representation, equalization and oil.    Peter Downing, “a right-wing political muckraker” is hoping to spin this feeling of economic betrayal into a viable political movement, with the creation of Wexit Alberta.

The group is campaigning for the western province to separate from Canada and form its own nation (possibly alongside another western province).   It’s an old idea that has gained momentum as relations between Alberta and the rest of the country have deteriorated.

Many Albertans blame Mr. Trudeau’s policies for this turn of events, and Mr. Cooper, the Albertan political scientist who is also a separatist, says he is certain that if Mr. Trudeau is re-elected, Albertan separation will soon follow.       (Extracts from:  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49899113)

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TO THE POINT

• “The China of Xi Jinping boasts land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers that provide a strategic deterrent against the United States.   Beijing’s conventional forces on land, sea, and in air and space rival any on earth.”   (Pat Buchanan, 10/4)
• Nasr Al-Din Mufreh, Sudan’s Minister of Religious Affairs, said in a September 7, 2019 interview on Al-Arabiya Network (Saudi Arabia) that Sudan is pluralistic in its views, values, cultures, ideologies, Islamic schools of thought, and religions, and he called upon Jewish minorities that may have left Sudan to reclaim their Sudanese citizenship and return to the country, which he pointed out is now ruled by secular law.   On a same-day interview on Sudania 24 TV, Sudanese writer Haidar Al-Mukashafi said that the Jewish presence in Sudan dates back over a century, and he said that this may be evidenced by a rumor in the Sudanese city of Merow that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was born and raised in Sudan.   Al-Mukashafi said that Jews and other minorities may return to Sudan if reforms take place and if there are incentives to do so.   (MEMRI, 9/19)
• Fatemeh Azad, a 58-year-old Muslim woman who had converted to Christianity against her Muslim husband’s will and fled to Germany, was denied asylum there and deported back to Iran. There she was immediately arrested by authorities waiting for her plane to land . . .   “When Fatemeh made her asylum appeal, her lawyers argued that apostasy (conversion away from Islam) is punishable by the death penalty in Iran.”   This, however, was insufficient for Germany . . . — Persecution.org; July 25, 2019. (Gatestone 9/22)
• Prince Harry’s decision to take British newspapers to court may backfire on him.   The British Royal family has always maintained a policy of “no comment” on newspaper articles about them. After all, if you deny some, you are, effectively, admitting that others are true.   At the same time, royals have a symbiotic relationship with the press – they can’t live without all the publicity and the press can’t live without the royals, who provide lots of news that people are interested in.   Suing the papers may end that relationship.   If the papers back away from the royals, that could mean no publicity, life-blood of the monarchy.
• SWEDISH KING KICKS GRANDCHILDREN OUT OF ROYAL HOUSE . . . AND CHARLES WANTS THE SAME (headline in Daily Express, 10/7).   “The five children lose the status of royal highness and are not expected to perform official duties.”  (BBC)
• The death of a 19-year-old British man, killed on his motorbike by a lady driving on the wrong side of the road, is clear cut.   It was an accident, but some appropriate punishment must be found. However, the motorist, a 42-year-old mother, fled to the US to avoid a court case.   This was made possible by the fact that she has diplomatic immunity.   We understand that there must be laws on diplomatic immunity, but for traffic accidents like this? She will hardly face the death penalty if she goes back for a trial.   And the family needs some sort of closure after losing a son to an American lady who got confused and drove on the right (wrong) side of the road!   (Diplomatic immunity even helps diplomats avoid traffic fines and cost the UK taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds per year.)
• The deaths of six elephants in Thailand was a tragic accident.   A baby in the herd fell down a waterfall.   The other five died trying to rescue her.   This kind of behavior is typical of elephants who are very caring of each other.
• I will not be posting a blog next week.

 

 

 

THE EU IS BUILDING AN EMPIRE

Farage:   The EU Is ‘Building an Empire. Why Deny It?’

¹² “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. ¹³ These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. ¹⁴ These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” (Revelation 17:12-14)

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has criticized senior Eurocrat Guy Verhofstadt for praising the new “world order” of “empires,” but said it was time to be straight about Brussels’ intentions to build a new European Empire.  The Brexit Party leader condemned the remarks of Verhofstadt, who said during the Liberal Democrat conference on Saturday:   “The world order of tomorrow is not a world order based on nation-states, on countries — it’s a world order that is based on empires.”  “The world of tomorrow is a world of empires, in which we Europeans, and you British, can only defend your interests, your way of life, by doing it together, in a European framework, and in European union,” he added.   The Belgian politician, leader of the left-progressive Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament, had called in May for the European Union to become an empire “capable of defending our interests,” but is not the first EU politician to do so.  In 2007, former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso had praised the EU “empire,” saying:   “Sometimes I like to compare the EU as a creation to the organization of empire.   We have the dimension of empire.”

Mr. Farage evoked the former Commission chief’s words while criticizing Verhofstadt on his LBC radio show on Monday, saying an EU empire “is where they are going.”   “That is what they want because Barroso, one of the previous bosses of the European Commission, he said:   ‘We’re building the first ever non-militaristic empire.’   “They’re building an empire.  Why deny it?”  Mr. Farage asked.

To go with this empire, the EU is also building its own military, after the majority of its member states signed the Permanent Structured Cooperation process, or PESCO, in November 2017, which is key to the European Defense Union plans set out by outgoing President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, who called for a “fully fledged” EU army by 2025.

And while Verhofstadt had called for an empire “capable of defending our interests,” French President Emmanuel Macron made the extraordinary claim in November 2018 that the bloc needs a “real European army” in order to “protect our interests.”

The French progressive politician’s call for a “real European army” was backed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr. Verhofstadt, and the most powerful of the Brussels bodies, the European Commission.   Two month later, Germany’s then-defense minister Ursula von der Leyen said that “Europe’s army is already taking shape.”

Mr. Farage criticized Mrs. von der Leyen, now President-Elect of the European Commission, in July as a “fanatic for building a European army” and accused her of readying to lead a European Union that seeks to “take control of every single aspect of our lives.”   “She wants to build a centralized, undemocratic, updated form of Communism where nation state parliaments will cease to have any relevance at all,” he warned.   (Breibart, 9/17)

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GERMANY’S SEARCH FOR A NEW DIPLOMATIC MAP

Being in charge of German foreign policy is a tough assignment these days — not just in Warsaw but in countries around the world.

Over the past few years, Berlin has watched with growing despair as friends have turned into foes and old certainties have dissolved into doubt.   A new breed of nationalist leader holds sway in capitals from Budapest and Warsaw to Rome and Washington, sounding a note of hostility and antagonism towards Berlin.   For reasons both economic and political, Germany’s relationships with key powers such as China, Russia and Turkey are marked by growing tensions.

At the same time, the dense web of alliances that has characterized German foreign policy for decades — and that underpinned the country’s postwar success — is under strain as never before:   NATO has descended into bitter recriminations over burden-sharing, leading many Germans to wonder how much longer the US will remain committed to the defense of Europe.   The EU itself, meanwhile, is riven by splits between north and south and east and west, and exhausted from the never-ending struggle over Brexit. The UK no longer counts as a reliable ally, and the relationship with France is going through a phase of barely-concealed irritation.  One by one, the fixed stars that have guided German foreign policy for generations have started to dim.   (Tobias Buck, Financial Times, 23^rd April)

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GERMAN “LUST FOR POWER”

The future EU Commission should play a “geopolitical” role and provide the Union with a leading position in global policy, confirmed Commission President Elect Ursula von der Leyen, whose team, according to observers, shows a newfound “lust for power.”   Von der Leyen’s plans for the coming five years are very much in line with Berlin’s plans to position the Union as an independent global power between the USA and China.   French President Emmanuel Macron shares this project and – in view of the escalating conflict between Washington and Beijing – cautions that, if it fails, all influence on global policy would be lost.   Influential German business circles opine that a German-European intermediate position cannot be avoided.   Otherwise they would lose business with China and suffer severe setbacks.   According to transatlantic circles, however, sooner or later, Berlin and Brussels will not be able to avoid siding with Washington.  (German Foreign Policy, 9/17)

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GERMAN SUPPORT FOR HK DEMO

Monday evening, activist Joshua Wong arrived in Berlin from Hong Kong for talks with German politicians, including Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.   Wong represents an opposition party that calls for a referendum, including a vote on Hong Kong’s future secession from China.   Just before his trip to Berlin, demonstrators rallied on Sunday in front of the US consulate in Hong Kong calling on US President Trump to intervene in their favor with the city authorities. Already since March, high-ranking members of Hong Kong’s opposition have repeatedly visited Washington for talks with US Vice President Mike Pence and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Berlin is now following suit and receiving leaders of the Hong Kong protests for talks with top government officials.   Washington is preparing new legislation for sanctions providing for punitive measures against Chinese officials and putting Hong Kong’s special economic status into question.   Billions in German business transactions are also at risk.   (German Foreign Policy)

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With its professionally choreographed reception of Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong, Berlin is presenting itself to the international public as the Chinese opposition’s foreign hub.   Wong was personally welcomed in Berlin by the Foreign Minister, and he demanded at the Federal Press Conference that action be taken against China.   Germany has already granted asylum to two other dissidents from Hong Kong, who had been calling for the city’s secession from China and have been indicted for their participation in riots.   For decades, Uighur separatist associations have had their foreign operational base in the Federal Republic of Germany, including one accused of participating in preparations of the pogrom-like riots, which claimed the lives of nearly 200 people. German politicians are supporting Tibetan separatists as well – seeing them as a point of leverage for weakening the People’s Republic of China.   A Chinese writer, who called China a “pile of garbage,” was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. (German Foreign Policy)

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FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN RETREAT

On June 22nd there was an alleged coup attempt in Ethiopia.   The army chief of staff was murdered, as was the president of Amhara, one of the country’s nine regions.   Ordinary Ethiopians were desperate to find out what was going on.   And then the government shut down the internet.   By midnight some 98% of Ethiopia was offline.

“People were getting distorted news and were getting very confused about what was happening . . . at that very moment there was no information at all,” recalls Gashaw Fentahun, a journalist at the Amhara Mass Media Agency, a state-owned outlet.   He and his colleagues were trying to file a report.   Rather than uploading audio and video files digitally, they had to send them to head office by plane, causing a huge delay.

Last year 25 governments imposed internet blackouts.   Choking off connectivity infuriates people and kneecaps economies.   Yet autocrats think it worthwhile, usually to stop information from circulating during a crisis.

This month the Indian government shut down the internet in disputed Kashmir – for the 51st time this year.   “There is no news, nothing,” says Aadil Ganie, a Kashmiri stuck in Delhi, adding that he does not even know where his family is because phones are blocked, too.   In recent months Sudan shut down social media to prevent protesters from organising; Congo’s regime switched off mobile networks so it could rig an election in the dark; and Chad nobbled social media to silence protests against the president’s plan to stay in power until 2033.

“Free speech is hard won and easily lost. Only a year ago it flowered in Ethiopia, under a supposedly liberal new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed.   All the journalists in jail were released, and hundreds of websites, blogs and satellite TV channels were unblocked.   But now the regime is having second thoughts.   Without a dictatorship to suppress it, ethnic violence has flared.   Bigots have incited ethnic cleansing on newly free social media.   Nearly 3m Ethiopians have been driven from their homes.

Ethiopia faces a genuine emergency, and many Ethiopians think it reasonable for the government to silence those who advocate violence.   But during the alleged coup it did far more than that – in effect it silenced everyone.   As Befekadu Haile, a journalist and activist, put it:   “In the darkness, the government told all the stories.” (The Economist, 8/17)

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CANADIAN THREAT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH

In a three-pronged blow to freedom of speech, Canada’s Trudeau government in May signed the “Christchurch Call to Action” – a government-led drive for more censorship; then launched a “Digital Charter,” much of it dealing with “hate speech and disinformation;” and in June, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights issued recommendations to the government for the fight against “online hatred,” increasing funding for law enforcement, crown attorneys and judges, and to “educate the population.”   (Nina Rosenwald, Gatestone, 8/15)

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THE LOST ART OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY

The neglect and distortion of American diplomacy is not a purely Trumpian invention.   It has been an episodic feature of the United States’ approach to the world since the end of the Cold War.   The Trump administration, however, has made the problem infinitely worse.   There is never a good time for diplomatic malpractice, but the administration’s unilateral diplomatic disarmament is spectacularly mistimed, unfolding precisely at a moment when American diplomacy matters more than ever to American interests. The United States is no longer the only big kid on the geopolitical block, and no longer able get everything it wants on its own, or by force alone.

Although the era of singular U.S. dominance on the world stage is over, the United States still has a better hand to play than any of its rivals.   The country has a window of opportunity to lock in its role as the world’s pivotal power, the one best placed to shape a changing international landscape before others shape it first.   If the United States is to seize that opportunity and safeguard its interests and values, it will have to rebuild American diplomacy and make it the tool of first resort, backed up by economic and military leverage and the power of example. (William J. Burns, “The lost art of American diplomacy,” Foreign Policy, May-June issue)

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STRAIT OF HORMUZ – STILL WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT SEA-GATE

The Strait of Hormuz links the majority of the world’s people who live along the shores of Asia and East Africa to the heart of the Middle East.   Long before the discovery of oil, it was the world’s carotid artery.   Cut off the blood supply almost anywhere else and the world would adapt. Here, however, an interruption could be fatal:    90 percent of oil exported from the Gulf, about 20 percent of the world’s supply, passes through Hormuz. Shipping through the strait, which is a mere 21 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point, is concentrated and hazardous.   In Musandam, the Omani exclave on the strait’s southern side, you can hear Persian radio from Iran as often as Arabic.   Along the rocky shorelines, islets and peninsulas thrust precipitously into the sky.   Heat, humidity, and a scorching wind make the climate inhospitable; many mountain ranges and valleys near Hormuz remain sparsely inhabited.   (“Why the Strait if Hormuz is still the world’s most important chokepoint,” Allen James Fromherz, Foreign Affairs, 7/17)

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SAUDI ARABIA AND IRAN HEADING FOR WAR

Less than 24 hours after a major attack by at least 10 drones or cruise missiles on key Saudi oil facilities, the rhetoric in the Middle East is heating up, and the region appears to be on the brink of conflict.

After US President Donald Trump spoke to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there was “no evidence” the large attack came from Yemen.

This now means that Saudi Arabia, which is investigating how the attack happened, is positioned to defend itself, but must choose wisely how.

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POPE APPOINTS LIBERAL CARDINALS

Pope Francis’ unexpected announcement this past Sunday that he would appoint 13 new cardinals to the College of Cardinals strengthens his grip on the Catholic Church and solidifies a liberal majority to select the next pope.

Since assuming the seat of St. Peter in 2013, Francis has been assiduously stacking the College of Cardinals with supporters, ones that will not only back his revisions to Church teachings, but choose his successor.

With his Sunday pronouncement, Francis will have picked 67 new members of the College of Cardinals, giving his backers a clear majority for the first time. Of the remaining members, 42 were selected by Benedict and 19 by John Paul II.

Francis’ new majority will also set a new tone, one in keeping with Francis’ desire that the Church move its focus away from tradition to one that is more active in secular politics, advocating such positions as socialist economic policies, environmental responsibility, immigrant rights, and diplomacy toward Islam.

On matters of doctrine, the Pope has sought to move the faith to one that accepts alternative lifestyles, including gays and lesbians, and eases restrictions of Catholics who have been divorced.   (Newsmax, 9/14)

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Pope Francis invites religious, political leaders to sign ‘Global Pact’ for ‘new humanism’

ROME, September 13, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — In a renewed and enthusiastic endorsement of globalism, Pope Francis has announced he is hosting an initiative for a “Global Pact” to create a “new humanism.”    The global event, set to take place at the Vatican on May 14, 2020, is themed Reinventing the Global Educational Alliance.   According to a Vatican statement issued on Thursday, Sept. 12, the Pope is inviting representatives of the main religions, international organizations and various humanitarian institutions, as well as key figures from the world of politics, economics and academia, and prominent athletes, scientists and sociologists to sign a “Global Pact on Education” so as to “hand on to younger generations a united and fraternal common home.”   “A global educational pact is needed to educate us in universal solidarity and a new humanism,” Francis said in a video message to launch the initiative.   In a strikingly secular message containing only one throw-away reference to the Lord, Pope Francis called on people to “capitalize on our best energies” and to be “proactive” in “opening education to a long-term vision unfettered by the status quo.”

Referencing the “Document on Human Fraternity and World Peace for Living Together,” which he signed with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Abu Dhabi last February, Francis explained that, in this new global village, “the ground must be cleared of discrimination and fraternity must be allowed to flourish.”   The Abu Dhabi document aroused controversy for stating that the “diversity of religions” is “willed by God.”   (https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-global-education-pact)

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AIM TO END CHINESE ROLE IN DARWIN

In 2015, the Northern Territory Government announced Chinese company Landbridge had been awarded a 99-year lease of Darwin port in a $500 million deal.   Concerns over Beijing’s steady military build-up in the Indo-Pacific region have since prompted renewed concerns about the foreign ownership of Australia’s northern-most port.

At top-level talks in Sydney over the weekend, the Australian Government again joined the United States in expressing alarm over reports China is moving to establish a new military base in a Cambodian port.

Mr. Champion, who is the deputy chair of Federal Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, believes the Commonwealth should now consider buying Darwin Port back.

“It’s a very important port because we have significant defence facilities in the Northern Territory and that’s the part of the world I guess we have to pay a great deal of attention to,” he said.

“We should look pretty clearly at making sure that that port is in government hands, and it’s for those reasons I think it should be nationalised.” (Andrew Greene, 8/4, ABC Australian Broadcasting Company)

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INTERNATIONAL PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS

“Christian persecution ‘at near genocide levels,'” the title of a May 3 BBC report, cites a lengthy interim study ordered by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and led by Rev. Philip Mounstephen, the Bishop of Truro.

According to the BBC report, one in three people around the world suffer from religious persecution, with Christians being “the most persecuted religious group.”   “Religion ‘is at risk of disappearing’ in some parts of the world,” it noted, and “in some regions, the level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of genocide, according to that adopted by the UN.”

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is also quoted on why Western governments have been “asleep” — his word — concerning this growing epidemic:

“I think there is a misplaced worry that it is somehow colonialist to talk about a religion [Christianity] that was associated with colonial powers rather than the countries that we marched into as colonisers.   That has perhaps created an awkwardness in talking about this issue – the role of missionaries was always a controversial one and that has, I think, also led some people to shy away from this topic.”

Whatever the merits of such thinking, the fact is that many of the world’s most persecuted Christians have nothing whatsoever to do with colonialism or missionaries.   Those most faced with the threat of genocide – including Syria’s and Iraq’s Assyrians or Egypt’s Copts – were Christian several centuries before the ancestors of Europe’s colonizers became Christian and went missionizing.

The BBC report highlights “political correctness” as being especially responsible for the West’s indifference, and quotes Hunt again in this regard:   “What we have forgotten in that atmosphere of political correctness is actually the Christians that are being persecuted are some of the poorest people on the planet.” (“Genocide of Christians reaches ‘alarming stage,’” Gatestone)

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TO THE POINT

• I’m amazed at the patience of the British people in waiting for Brexit. The majority voted for it over three years ago and it still hasn’t happened.   Maybe they should learn a lesson from their former colony of Hong Kong.   Massive demonstrations over the last three months got the HK government (and China) to back down on proposed legislation that would have given China greater control over the judicial process in the former colony.
• It’s very interesting seeing the demonstrations in Hong Kong.   The demonstrators have been singing “God save the Queen.”   Clearly, being a colony wasn’t all bad.
• A significant number of doctors and other medical personnel come from overseas, from countries much poorer than ours.   We are, in effect, stealing doctors from poor countries, leaving them with inadequate medical attention.   It’s time for a rethink.
• ‘Exit polls suggested that Israel’s general election was too close to call, with Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party taking 30-33 of 120 parliamentary seats and the centrist Blue and White Party, led by Benny Gantz, with 32-34.   That could make Avigdor Lieberman, a former defence minister, the kingmaker, with his far-right Yisrael Beitenu crucial to the formation of a coalition.’   (The Economist, 9/19)
• Condoleeza Rice has called for the restoration of freedom of speech. Pointing out on CBS’s Face the Nation that half the people deny the other half the freedom to express themselves, she added that “as soon as the word ‘racist’ is used, that’s the end of the discussion.”   It’s more sensible to let people have their say.    Let everybody express themselves.   We used to be proud of our tradition of freedom of speech – let’s return to it.

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has finally died, age 95.   As a Catholic, Mr Mugabe believes he is now in purgatory.   This is highly appropriate because that’s exactly where he’s put the people of Zimbabwe!

 

JOHNSON NEW PM

Queen Elizabeth welcomes Boris Johnson during an audience in Buckingham Palace. Photo: Reuters

LONDON – Boris Johnson formally became Britain’s prime minister Wednesday and immediately set about assembling a team of ministers and advisers to prepare an all-out push to get the U.K. out of the European Union by the fall.

The early appointments seemed to indicate that Mr. Johnson is taking a no-holds-barred approach to talks with the EU, staffing his inner team with several officials who worked with him during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.   Mr. Johnson has repeatedly said he wants better divorce terms from the EU and is prepared to abruptly break with the bloc on Oct. 31 if they aren’t offered.

In his first speech as prime minister, Mr. Johnson expressed confidence that he would be able to renegotiate the Brexit deal that his predecessor struck with the EU but was unable to push through the UK’s Parliament.

“We will do a new deal, a better deal, that will maximize the opportunities of Brexit,” Mr. Johnson said outside his new residence on Downing Street.  “In 99 days time, we will have cracked it.”

Mr. Johnson, who took the reins of power after an audience with Queen Elizabeth II, will later Wednesday begin announcing his cabinet.   This is a political minefield for the prime minister, who must build a team that will both support him but also aim to represent the differing views on Brexit across the country.

If Mr. Johnson fills the cabinet with too many Brexit true-believers, he risks alienating Conservative moderates alarmed by his rhetoric on exiting the bloc without any deal.   On the other hand, their being inside the government would force them to swallow his Brexit strategy or resign.   (“Boris Johnson takes the helm as Prime Minister,” Max Colchester and Jason Douglas, Wall Sreett Journal, 7/24)

COMMENT ON BREXIT

“If there were a referendum to vote out bankers in London I’d support it, but there isn’t.   Luckily I was given a once-in-a-generation opportunity three years ago to change things, so, along with 52% of the population, I took it.   Will voting for Brexit change the way bankers behave, or the housing crisis, created by financial speculation?   Who knows, but one thing is certain; voting for the status quo certainly won’t.”     (John Harris, Letters, The Economist, 7/20)

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CLEVER STRATEGY

“It is a familiar pattern.  The president says something outrageous – this time Donald Trump told four black and brown-skinned Democratic congresswomen, are all of whom are US citizens and three of whom were born in America, to “go back” where they came from.   His supporters, who have come to accept what many of them previously found unconscionable, stay silent.   His opponents, rightly appalled, lament what has happened to their country.   At the same time the Trump administration makes a big policy change that attracts far less attention – in this case, an edict that directly affects tens of thousands of people a year and overturns half a century of precedent.

“Last year 120,000 people claimed asylum, the majority of them at the south-western border.   On July 15^th the White House announced that claims will no longer be considered unless applicants can prove that they sought asylum in one of the countries they passed through on their way to America, and were rejected. There will be legal challenges to the new rule, because America is party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and because the change may contravene America’s own Refugee Acts of 1980.   But in the meantime anyone who passes through Guatemala or Mexico on the way to the southern border without first seeking refuge there may be turned away.”

“The land of the free has a proud history of resettling refugees from far-off places, rehousing many more than from any other country.”  (“While you were tweeting,” The Economist, 7/20).

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RETHINKING COLONIALISM

“Let me finish with an epitaph on the District Officer (colonial official) in Africa.   It comes from the late Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafewa Balewa.   In a speech made on Independence Day in October 1960, he paid tribute to the record of the British Colonial Service.   “We are grateful to the British officers,” the Prime Minister said, “whom we have known first as masters and then as leaders and finally as partners; but always as friends.” (Tales from the Dark Continent, page xvii, Charles Allen, 1979.)

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A CALL TO RESTORE FREEDOM OF SPEECH

It used to be that the worst sin you could commit was treason.   On a personal level, adultery was frowned upon. But now, without a doubt, it’s racism.

How can we have an adult discourse on immigration and changing demographics without the ability to discuss race?   We can’t.

Perhaps that’s the reason why restrictive laws were passed in the first place, to stop us questioning anything, while our culture and heritage are being destroyed.

Note this explanation of Mr. Trump’s voters in 2016 from the latest Economist.   “Rather, they were unified by nothing as much as antipathy to America’s growing diversity, and an attendant feeling whites were losing ground.   Both were expressed in hostility to immigration, immigrants and welfare spending (which many wrongly believed was being slurped up by immigrants).”   (Lexington, 20^th July).

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TRUMP, MACRON TO VISIT ISRAEL IN JANUARY 2020 TO MARK 75 YEARS SINCE AUSCHWITZ LIBERATION                                            The Post has learned that a major, unnamed donor has been enlisted to make the event possible.

Yad Vashem is in the process of organizing a major event in January that aspires to bring a number of world leaders.      by                                    Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, JULY 21, 2019

In addition to Trump and Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will also be invited, as will the prime minister of Britain. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might also participate.   It is not immediately clear whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will be involved.   Earlier this month, Putin – during a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – invited him to take part in a ceremony in Moscow in May commemorating 75 years to the defeat of the Nazis.  If Macron does take part in the event, it would be his first visit here as French president.              (https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Yad-Vashem-planning-to-host-Trump-Macron-other-world-leaders-in-January-596369)

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Germany’s Catholic Church lost more than 200,000 members in 2018                                                                                                                       According to a report by the Germany’s Catholic and Protestant Churches, the loss to both communities amounted to more than 430,000 faithful in 2018.     (Vatican News, 20 July 2019)

Germany’s Catholic Church lost 216,078 members an d Protestant churches lost some 220,000 in 2018, according to data published on Friday by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).   The losses have hit hard the two main Churches of the country, as members pay up to 9% of their taxable income as church taxes.  In total, around 23 million German citizens are still members of the Catholic Church and 21.14 million are members of the Protestant churches.   The two groups account for 53.2% of the country’s total population of over 83 million.(https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2019-07/germany-catholic-protestant-churches-decline-membership.html)

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“WE ARE NEVER HEARD.”      Persecution of Christians continues . . .

• “The assailants asked the Christians to convert to Islam, but the pastor and the others refused.”   So “they called them, one after the other, behind the church building where they shot them dead.” — World Watch Monitor, Burkina Faso, May 2, 2019.
• “When the next wave of violence begins to hit us, will anyone on your campuses hold demonstrations and carry signs that say ‘We are all Christians’?” — Rev. Bashar Warda, Archbishop of Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, in an address delivered in London.
• ” [A] new form of persecution is on the rise—Christian girls are being targeted by Muslim men.. . . .   Influential leaders are literally training young men to target Christian girls to impregnate them” . . .   “[T]hey’re forced into marrying that daughter into a Muslim family…. Once girls are married into the Muslim families, they’re often cut off from or abandoned by their families and they face even more difficult circumstances.   In some cases, girls are the second or third wife of their persecutor and they have few freedoms.” — Mission Network News; Lindsey Steele; May 22, 2019 — Indonesia.
• “The mob began shouting outside our home asking for our family to exit our home and receive divine retribution for our sin.   It did not seem very divine – we just saw raging evil violent people ready to kill us.” — British Pakistani Christian Association; May 21, 2019 — Pakistan

(Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone, 7/21)

• “There are Jews everywhere.   We must attack every Jew on planet Earth!   We must slaughter and kill them, with Allah’s help. We will lacerate and tear them to pieces.” — Fathi Hammad, Hamas senior leader, at a rally near the Gaza-Israel border, July 14, 2019. (Gatestone, 6/22)

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OUR CHILDREN’S DEBTS

The Mueller investigation is reported to have cost $40 million so far.   Every lawyer in the room is receiving thousands of dollars for a day’s work.   Never mind, just add it to the deficit!

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The Liberal Media Won’t Shame Me Out of Voting Again for Trump  by Dr. Michael Brown, host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program, July 19, 2019, Stream

I have no desire to defend the worst of President Trump’s tweets. Or the ugliest of his words. Or the most inappropriate aspects of his behavior.

And I have no idea whether he understands what it means to be a Christian or if he ever reads the Bible.

But in 2020, if it is Donald Trump vs. any of the Democratic candidates, I would vote again for Trump in a heartbeat.

And the liberal media will not shame me out of my vote.

(https://stream.org/liberal-media-wont-shame-voting-trump/)

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VAN DER LEYEN TO INCREASE EU POWERS

EU law will take precedence over national laws under new rules for the EU.

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Latest headline on Mueller hearings:  “Trump impeachment drive takes hit in bombshell free Mueller hearings” (Fox News, 7/24)

 

BRITISH EMPIRE WAS A BLESSING

It has been suggested that citizens of the sixteen Commonwealth Realms be given their own “fast lane” at UK Points of Entry.   This will be good news for citizens of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the smaller realms.   If the idea is approved, it will be a first step toward restoring closer Commonwealth ties that ended when Britain joined the EU.

While Britain has been a member of the European Union, EU citizens were able to go through the fast lane, while the rest of us waited for up to two hours, slowly inching forward in the “Aliens” line.

Post-Brexit, it will certainly be in Britain’s best interests to enter into closer trade and defense ties with the countries that share Britain’s parliamentary system and all have the same Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II.   Other Commonwealth countries have opted for a republican form of government, recognizing the Queen as Head of the Commonwealth but not retaining her services as their own sovereign.

It will also mean that, for the first time, the United Kingdom is reversing five decades of history and turning its attention again to its former Empire.

The word “Empire” has been a pejorative for two generations.   Before World War One, there was a great deal of enthusiasm for the British Empire around the world in territories that constituted the “empire upon which the sun never set.”   Over a quarter of the world’s people lived under the British flag.   Imperialism was in vogue and inspired millions of people to help develop other nations.

Today, people forget what a blessing the Empire was.  Let’s take a look at a few of those blessings.

1.  The Bible and religious freedom.

The fourteenth century philosopher and theologian, John Wycliffe, was the first man to translate all the scriptures into English.   His favorite verse was Philippians 2:12: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”   He struck the first blow for religious freedom and democracy by encouraging people to study for themselves and make up their own minds.

Two centuries later, the English Queen Elizabeth I, secured the Protestant Reformation by bravely sending her smaller fleet against the Spanish Armada.   England defeated the Spaniards, thereby thwarting an attempt by the pope to force the country back into the Catholic Church.

In the nineteenth century, the British and Foreign Bible Society, took the Bible into dozens of different countries.   The Wycliffe Bible Translation Society still exists, sending volunteers into poor and backward countries to develop a written language and then translate the Bible so that all may read it.

The most famous British missionary, David Livingstone, took the Bible with him into central Africa, to “bring light into darkness.”  He was also motivated by a desire to see the end of slavery, perpetrated by Arab slave traders, who were seizing black Africans as slaves.

2.  Britain was the first major country to abolish slavery.

Slavery was universal and had not been questioned until the eighteenth century.   It wasn’t just Africans who were taken as slaves.   One million white people were being held by Muslim slave traders at this time.   (“White Gold”, Giles Milton, 2004.)

In 1772, the Somerset decision by an English court, ruled that British people could not hold slaves, that all people in Britain were free. It took another 35 years before the slave trade was abolished and a further 27 years before slavery itself was ended throughout the British Empire.  (Denmark banned the slave trade in its territories a few years before Britain.)

One year after the abolition of the slave trade, the British government authorized the Royal Navy to stop ships on the high seas and free all the slaves.   Wikipedia has this to say about the West Africa Squadron:

“The Royal Navy established the West Africa Squadron (or Preventative Squadron) at substantial expense in 1808 after Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807.   The squadron’s task was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa.   With a home base at Portsmouth, it began with two small ships, the 32-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Solebay and the Cruizer-class brig-sloop HMS Derwent. At the height of its operations, the squadron employed a sixth of the Royal Navy fleet and marines.

“Between 1808 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans.^[“1]

Because of its role in fighting slavery, Britain was seen as a Liberator around the world.  Many tribes in Africa asked to be annexed into the British Empire, seeking protection from slave traders.  At one point, so many African tribes were asking to join the Empire that the British were overwhelmed. “The Dualla chiefs of the Cameroon repeatedly asked to be annexed, but the British either declined or took no notice at all.”  (Pax Britannica, James Morris, 1968, page 43)

In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, Victorians were caught up in an enthusiastic desire to see slavery ended in Africa, and the Bible, Protestant Christianity, democracy and the rule of law introduced (“Africa and the Victorians,” Robinson and Gallagher, 1961)

Sadly, in the sixty years since the end of the British Empire, slavery is back in every single African country, according to UNESCO.   The former Ghanaian President, John Kufour, condemned slavery in Ghana a few years ago on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire; he also apologized for the role Ghana’s own chiefs had played in promoting slavery by selling their own people and members of other tribes.

3.  British capital developed many nations.

The definitive books on British investment around the world are the two volume “British Imperialism” by Cain and Hopkins.  The books highlight “London’s role as the chief provider of economic services during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries” (back cover, volume one).   London remains the world’s number one financial center (New York has the world’s biggest stock exchange).   Not only did British capital develop every country in the Empire, it was also responsible for developing the United States, Argentina, Brazil,Chile, the Ottoman Empire and China.

Interestingly, one reason that members of the European Union are upset over Brexit, is that Britain has been a net contributor to the EU, helping to finance development in other member nations.  When the UK leaves, where is the money going to come from?

4.   Another blessing of British rule was its governmental system and the administration of its various colonies.

Britain’s democratic parliamentary system and its constitutional monarchy is the most stable political system in the world.   It was successfully exported to all its colonies and dominions.  Sixteen of those countries have retained the same system since independence, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a number of majority black countries in the Caribbean.  Queen Elizabeth remains as Head of State in all of these countries.

38 other countries, former colonies of Great Britain, did not retain the Queen as Head of State but still look to her as the Head of the Commonwealth.  Many of these nations have suffered through coups and counter-coups and periods of military rule.  In many, corruption is rife and the people are worse off than they were when colonies.

Interestingly, it was recently suggested that the United States join the Commonwealth, as an Associate member.  The Royal Commonwealth Society is opening a branch in New York City.

5.   The free world’s first line of defense.

For two centuries Great Britain was the “policeman of the world.”  The country brought down Napoleon, after which she was the undisputed leader of the world.  A century later, with her dominions and colonies, she brought down the Kaiser.  In World War Two, the British Empire was the only power that was in the war from beginning to end.   With later help from the Soviet Union and the United States, the Empire defeated Hitler and his monstrous Third Reich that was the most racist regime in modern history.  The Empire’s forces also kept the peace on the North-West frontier of India, in what are now Pakistan and Afghanistan and in other trouble spots around the world.

America’s pre-eminent historian, James Truslow Adams, wrote his history of “The British Empire 1784-1939” in the year that World War Two started, 1939.   This is the final paragraph in his book:   “In this world crisis, we in America have a great stake.  We know that stability is impossible without respect for law and order, for the honesty of the written and spoken word.  Without liberty of thought, speech and press, progress is impossible.  What these things mean to the world of today and tomorrow has been amply demonstrated by the negation of them in certain great nations during the past few years.   Different peoples may have different ideals of government but for those who have been accustomed to freedom of person and of spirit, the possible overthrow of the British Empire would be a catastrophe scarcely thinkable.  Not only would it leave a vacuum over a quarter of the globe into which all the wild winds of anarchy, despotism and spiritual oppression could rush, but the strongest bulwark outside ourselves for our own safety and freedom would have been destroyed.”  (page 358)

The Empire has indeed been replaced by “the wild winds of anarchy, despotism and spiritual oppression.”

It’s no wonder that, at the height of the Empire, during Queen Victoria’s reign and the first few years of the twentieth century, many people in Britain and its overseas territories, believed the Empire was a fulfillment of biblical promises made to Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Israel.  In Genesis, chapter 48, we read of howJoseph’s descendants were to become a great “multitude of nations” and a “great (single) nation,” the British Empire and Commonwealth and the United States.  They were to be a physical blessing to the world (Genesis 12:3).  In the late Victorian period, believers published a weekly newspaper called “The Banner of Israel”  — they enthusiastically tracked the daily growth of the British Empire and the United States at the time.

This belief was widely held in the trenches of World War One.  It’s ironic that those same trenches shattered the religious convictions of many, who witnessed the carnage first-hand.

No empire was perfect.  Britain made mistakes.  Often listed by anti-imperialists is the Amritsar massacre of 1919.  This was not deliberate government policy, but rather the misjudgment of the commanding officer.  The 1943 Bengal famine is also often mentioned; overlooked is the fact that this was in the middle of World War II when other nations also experienced famine. Historical mistakes were made in Ireland, which caused problems to this day.

Imperialism had been in vogue before 1914; after two world wars, there was great disillusionment.   Additionally, the colonial powers had serious financial problems.  Decolonization followed.  It was the end of the European empires.

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BREXIT 2 AND MARTIN LUTHER

Next year marks the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, an act that is considered the start of the Protestant Reformation.   Luther was particularly upset about the sale of indulgences, whereby wealthy members of the Roman Catholic Church could buy a certificate, which would reduce the time they would spend in purgatory, itself an invention of the church.

The revolution that Luther started soon spread to other countries.

Europe has seen a number of revolutions that have spread from nation to nation, leading to significant change.   1989 was one such year when communist governments in Eastern Europe were brought down by the people they claimed to represent.   1918 was another such year, as World War One ended and ancient monarchies were overthrown.   Going back further, in 1848, revolutions took place across Europe as the people demanded more democracy.

This year started another revolution that could spread.   The vote for Brexit in the United Kingdom was a vote against globalization and mutliculturalism and the elites who have forced these upon the people.   A second Brexit may follow in a few days when the US holds its presidential election.   A victory for Donald Trump will be a vote against globalization and multiculturalism; a vote for Mrs. Clinton will be a vote for continuity, for more of the same, led by the same elites that have dominated for five decades.

Like the Church 500 years ago, the Clintons have been selling indulgences.   For a gift of a few million dollars to their own private Foundation, foreign leaders were granted access to Mrs. Clinton, then Secretary of State.   “Government for sale” does not sit well with the American people – she may very well lose the election because of the ensuing scandal.

Donald Trump has his problems, too, particularly with women. He is not winning the female vote due to his reputation as what was once called a “male chauvinist pig.”  He has also made outlandish remarks in the past that have led many to conclude he is not suited to the presidency.

The following letter from our local newspaper sums up the dilemma that many voters face:

“Being a voter this year is kind of like being a condemned man the warden likes so he lets you choose the method of your death.  Donald Trump is a sexist pig, (Bill Clinton is, too) and he has the maturity of a 10 year old.  Hillary C is a pathological liar who is probably already selling ambassador jobs for a “contribution” to the Clinton Foundation.  If characters were gun powder, these two combined would not have enough to kill a fly.  Someone will smile and be declared the winner Nov 8.  We’re all losers with these two wretched candidates.”  (Lansing State Journal)

In four days it should all be over.

Mr. Trump has claimed the voting is rigged.   While there may or may not be problems in the voting booth (both before and after), voting is rigged in at least two ways.

Firstly, media bias, which manifests itself in many ways.   The mass media in the United States is overwhelmingly supportive of the Democrats.   Fox News is the only television network that is different and it’s only available on cable. One example of bias was just this morning. Fox showed footage of illegal immigrants crossing into the US across the southern border, in a last-minute attempt to get in before Trump builds his wall; such footage would sway many Americans to vote for Trump so, naturally, nothing was said or shown on the main TV networks.  If the electorate knew that 1,000 people a day are now crossing illegally into their country, they would be alarmed.

Another example of bias is from the New York Times, which did not even mention Hillary Clinton’s problems with her emails until it had to.   I’ve been reading the Sunday editions of the Times for a few weeks and it is clearly one-sided.

Secondly, there is another way in which the election is rigged.   Immigration.

It was the Democrats who brought in the 1965 Immigration Act which has flooded the country with people from developing countries, most of whom support big government programs and vote for the Democrats at every election.   Every four years when a presidential election is held, the percentage of whites is down a further 1% — it is the white population that has dominated America in the past.   They generally support traditional free enterprise and small government.

There are an estimated 11 million illegal aliens in the country. Mrs. Clinton favors a fast-track to citizenship, enabling them all to vote for her party; Mr. Trump wants them to return home and then apply for legal entry.

Elections are always difficult to predict, but I will say one thing for the benefit of those who live outside of the United States – there are more Trump signs on front lawns than there are Clinton signs.   There may be a lot of silent Trump supporters, people even who have never voted and are therefore not receiving calls from pollsters.

One final thought: whoever loses only has himself or herself to blame.   A biblical principle that keeps coming to mind is found in Numbers 32:23:   “be sure your sins will find you out.”   Whoever loses will be losing partly because of personal indiscretions.

This brings us back to the Roman Church and Martin Luther.   At the time, the corruption in the Church was pervasive – from the top down, popes, cardinals, archbishops and priests all had their fingers in the pie.   The result was rebellion on the part of the people.   The descendants of those same people today have the same attitude toward the elites that have grown fat at their expense.

This is what Brexit was all about.   It’s also the biggest issue in the US election.

But Brexit was not the end of the matter. In the United Kingdom, the elites are putting up a fight to reverse Brexit.  A decision of the High Court on Wednesday ruled that parliament must vote on the issue before the country can apply to leave the EU.  As two-thirds of the members of parliament are against Brexit, this is a definite blow to a people who want freedom from globalization and multiculturalism.   Theresa May, the UK’s prime minister, will appeal the decision to the country’s Supreme Court.   Mrs. May herself was against Brexit when the vote was taken in June, but now stresses that the will of the people must be upheld.

The globalist elites will resist change just as the kings did decades ago.   A Trump victory will be challenged in every way – if elected, he will not find it easy to “drain the swamp”!

At stake is America’s leadership of the western world.   Sixty years ago this week Britain and France invaded Egypt in an attempt to get back control of the Suez Canal, which they had built and owned.   US intervention ended the conflict.  It was, effectively, the end of the British and French Empires.   It’s a sobering reminder to Americans that just one error of judgment, particularly in the Middle East, can bring down the American Empire.   Don’t think it cannot happen to the United States.

THE NEW HEART OF DARKNESS

Bangui is the capital of the Central African Republic, one of the worst failed states on a continent of failed states!   Most world leaders are not likely to even think about going there. But Pope Francis has just been there for two days.

It’s one of those African countries that is on the fault-line between Christianity and Islam, a fault-line that runs west to east across the continent, dividing the Islamic world to the north and the Christian world to the south.

After spending Sunday in the Christian half, today the pope ventured into the volatile Muslim half of the capital.  He delivered a message of reconciliation to the city’s main mosque and observed that Christians and Muslims have long lived peacefully together.  He described Christians and Muslims as “brothers.”

Unfortunately, it’s not really true, not in the CAR or anywhere else for that matter.

In point of fact, the opposite is the case.   For 1400 years, since the birth of the Islamic religion, the two dominant religions in the world have been in conflict.   Occasionally, those conflicts have exploded into major warfare between the two.   It looks like we are heading in that direction again!

Marco Rubio, one of the people running for President of the United States at this time, referred a couple of weeks ago to “the clash of civilizations” that has developed between radical Islam and the Christian West.   His comment has been much maligned.   One newspaper dismissed the whole concept of a clash of civilizations by pointing out that ISIS is not civilized, so it doesn’t qualify.

But that’s just the point.   ISIS has a view of the world, which is totally at variance with the view in the West.  We may consider them barbaric, but that does not make it any easier to defeat them, thereby heralding a new kumbaya world order!

Besides, ISIS isn’t the problem so much as Islam.   ISIS is relatively new.   It simply exploits a hatred that’s already there, the hatred of Muslims toward all other religions.   The intellectual elite are fond of saying that all religions are religions of peace, but where is the evidence of this, particularly when it comes to Islam?

Islam means “submission” – the very word is antithetical to what the West stands for.   Salman Rushdie warned more than a decade ago that when a Muslim moves to the West (he said “Detroit”), he is not looking to take advantage of our way of life to better himself; rather, he sees himself as part of the advance guard to spread Islam to his new country.   This is why migrants want “sharia” law, rather than to live under the legal system of their new country.

The Hungarian prime minister made a profound comment last week, when he observed, that “not all migrants are terrorists, but all terrorists are migrants.”   That comment was immediately condemned, with people pointing out that many of the terrorists in Europe are home grown.   Yes, but the home-grown terrorists are Muslims.   Some are first generation, some were raised in Europe by migrant parents. The prime minister is right – the Paris attacks and the threat of further attacks stem from a seismic shift in demographics across the continent – whereas six decades ago there were very few Muslims, now there are tens of millions.   This simple equation changes everything.

So long as Europeans and westerners in general see Islam as a peaceful religion comparable to Christianity, it will not be possible to deal with the problem we now face.

Donald Trump is another presidential candidate who has come in for a lot of criticism, especially for claiming that, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, he saw Muslims celebrating in New Jersey.   I have to say that I do not remember that.   What I do remember is a brief video of people on the West Bank (Palestinians) celebrating.   I also know that we were not shown that a second time.   In an interview a few weeks later, the chief of the CNN News Bureau that day, was asked why it was only shown briefly.   Her response was that she knew the celebrants were only a few people, that the majority couldn’t possibly feel that way, so she wouldn’t show it again.

Now the video has been recovered from the archives to expose Mr. Trump as a “liar.”   How convenient!   How typical of the liberal media.

Yesterday, one of the Sunday morning news programs interviewed Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who were in Baghdad. Both were advocating 20,000 US troops be sent to Syria to fight ISIS.   The same morning, a one-hour documentary produced by Fareed Zakaria, interviewed the German journalist who is the only known westerner to have spent time in ISIS territory.   He said that ISIS wants US troops in Syria, that’s what they have been hoping for. Once they have western troops in Syria, their home turf, they will have a fulfillment of their long held dream, the apocalyptic battle between Islam and the West, the clash of civilizations liberals deny.

Amongst other things, western forces will boost the number of ISIS volunteers.   Before the US invasion of Iraq, there was no ISIS or al-Qaeda in either Iraq or Syria.   It’s impossible to predict the outcome in the region of western coalition “boots on the ground.”

It’s not just US politicians who do not know how to deal with ISIS.   In Paris today leaders from around the world are gathered to discuss climate change.   Rather than agree a plan to defeat the immediate threat of terrorism, they are talking about the long-term threat from climate change.   They have even tried to link the two, when there is no link.

A century ago, Africa was often referred to as the “Heart of Darkness,” after a novel of that name published in 1899.   Although the story was set in Africa, it wasn’t just Africa that had a heart of darkness; the white hero Kurtz, representing imperialism at its height, was also guilty.   Today, Islam is the heart of darkness, with ISIS, a fundamentalist resurgence of primitive Islam, threatening the peace and prosperity of the world.

But Islam does not have the exclusive patent on violence.

The other major religion in the news with the pope’s visit, is Roman Catholicism. Pope Francis is currently reaching out to Muslims, claiming that Christians and Muslims are brothers.   But that approach could suddenly change.

In 1095, faced with violent attacks on Christians by Muslims, Pope Urban II called on the nations of western Europe to launch a “crusade” to free the holy places from Islamic rule.   The crusades that followed lasted two hundred years.

Far from being ancient history, the Islamic world sees today’s western nations as “crusader states” and Israel as a revival of the twelfth century Kingdom of Jerusalem.   Their medieval mindset has not moved on from that struggle.

It was the Catholic Church that galvanized the nations of western Europe to fight militant Islam.   Jesus Christ warned His followers that “false Christs” would appear before His second coming:

“Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”  And Jesus answered and said to them:   “Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” (Matt 24:3-5).

In Revelation 6 we see false religion as the first of the four horsemen that bring destruction upon the earth.

The medieval Christian church could be just as barbaric as ISIS.   Beheadings and burnings were common punishments for dissent.

It’s well to remember these lessons of history in the hope that we can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.