DEMS OPPOSED TO VOTING MACHINES

“He said, she said.

“It turns out that your opinion about Dominion Voting Systems depends not only on who you are but when you’re asked.  If you zip way back to December 2019, then, if you are Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, or Amy Klobucher, you are very worried about their security.

“Back then, these high-minded public servants wrote letters warning that these widely used voting systems were “prone to security problems.”  “We are particularly concerned,” they wrote, that “voting machines and other election administration equipment, ‘have long skimped on security in favor of convenience’.”

“That was in December of last year – the good old days when NBC, for example, warned about “Chinese parts” and “hidden ownership” of the machines.

“Chinese manufacturers,” they noted, “can be forced to cooperate with requests from Chinese intelligence officials to share any information about the technology and therefore pose a risk for US companies,” not to mention “the concern of machines shipped with undetected vulnerabilities or back doors that could allow tampering.”

“As I say, that was a year ago.

“Today, post Nov 3, 2020, you don’t hear the Democrats worrying out loud about the security of the machines that counted (not to say manufactured) the votes that led to Joe Biden’s apparent victory.

“On the contrary, to raise questions now about Dominion Voting Systems and the software that powers them, as Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and others have done, is to obstruct “democracy” and promulgate “conspiracy theories.”

“Zip back to 2006, and you find CNN running stories about how vulnerable electronic voting systems are to interference and hacking.  Back then, the watchword was “Democracy for sale.”

“It was all especially worrisome since the machines are used in some 2000 counties across 30 states.”  (“Recounts needed to settle Dominion’s Role, and the Election.” Roger Kimball, The Epoch Times, 11/25/2020).

The 2020 presidential election is unlike any before and requires unprecedented measures to protect it, our republic, and our future.

The degree and scale of voter fraud was unprecedented. In swing states, President Donald Trump had large leads on election night.  Then, late at night counting was stopped while election observers were ushered out.  And then, huge, statistically impossible vote dumps occurred, giving Joe Biden the lead.

This pattern, which occurred only in the states where Biden had to reverse the results, and hadn’t occurred in previous elections, points to a coordinated effort to steal the election.   (The Epoch Times, 12/14/2020)

“Who was not stunned to learn that as Trump seemed to be pulling ahead in the voting count on Nov. 3, suddenly, around midnight, the vote counting appeared to stop in the crucial swing states, and we were told it would begin again early the next morning? Why the halt?”  (Pat Buchanan, 12/11/2020)

“Can a nation so distracted, so divided, so at war with itself continue to meet all of the duties, obligations and commitments that are ours as the self-proclaimed ‘leader of the free world’?”  (Pat Buchanan, 12/15/2020)

The federal government’s distribution of COVID relief funds over the past year has been disastrous. As Bloomberg reported in October, the Small Business Administration (SBA) “gave out $10,000 grants to almost anyone who asked.”  From fraudulent applications to identity theft, billions of dollars are believed to have been stolen.  However, criminals were not the only ones to benefit from governmental incompetence; federal COVID relief has also helped prop up extremist organizations with long-held ties to violence. The amounts may be small, but the examples are shocking.   (MEF, 12/7/2020)

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BENEFITS OF FURTHER MIDEAST PEACE – Jared Kushner scores late-term wins for Israel, upending expectations.

President’s son-in-law was widely mocked in the US but made historic breakthroughs in the Middle East, with four Arab countries recognizing the Jewish state within months
by Shaun Tandon and Francesco Fontemaggi, 13 Dec 2020, Times of Israel

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United Arab Emirates is getting top-of-the-line fighter jets. Morocco is winning recognition for decades-old territorial claims. And Sudan is coming off the US terrorism blacklist. The Arab nations are suddenly achieving long-sought goals after agreeing to normalize ties with Israel, in a last-minute triumph for the unorthodox diplomacy of outgoing US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Widely mocked for more than three years as a boyish lightweight, who was best known for his famous wife, troubled property deals and his father’s stint in prison, Kushner is scoring historic breakthroughs lauded by Trump’s base with four Arab nations since.

. . . Veterans of Middle East diplomacy agree that Kushner moved nimbly after the United Arab Emirates first signaled its willingness to recognize Israel. “He had the authority; he was smart enough to develop personalized relations. I think he clearly deserves some credit for taking advantage of what the landscape showed was possible,” said Dennis Ross, who served as Bill Clinton’s Middle East envoy. (MORE — https://www.timesofisrael.com/jared-kushner-scores-late-term-wins-for-israel-upending-expections)

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POTENTIAL SECURITY SCANDAL INVOLVING US CONGRESSMAN ERIC SWALWELL

This scandal involves a Chinese spy named Fang Fang (aka Christine Fang) who posed as a student in the San Francisco area and raised money for Swalwell’s first campaign for Congress, was placed as an intern in his Washington office and had a personal, possibly romantic, relationship with him. 

The FBI became so concerned about Swalwell’s ties to Fang that they gave him a “defensive briefing” on her in 2015. Shortly thereafter, Fang fled the U.S. for China after she learned she was being investigated by the FBI. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Swalwell have tried to downplay this story.  Swalwell says it happened many years ago and he severed all ties to Fang in 2015 after the FBI briefing.   (Fred Fleitz, Foxnews, 12/14/2020)  (See article “Afterthought” at end of blog.)

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BREXIT END GAME

“As an uncompromising Brexiteer, I believed from the very start that the only true Brexit was a no-deal Brexit.

That’s because iron logic always meant that any deal the UK might strike with the EU would keep the UK tied to it in some way. 

The reason for that is the premise upon which the EU is based. In essence, it is a protectionist bloc which, acting as a European super-state subsuming its 27 member countries, will resist anything that puts it at an economic disadvantage. 

It is therefore particularly sensitive to competition, particularly since it is itself so vulnerable. That’s because it’s trapped by its regulations, laws and bureaucratic rigidity into a permanent state of economic sclerosis and inability to respond flexibly to any shocks to the system — of which there are plenty. Its internal economic pressures are therefore dire and its long-term future unsustainable. In short, it’s an economic basket-case.

By contrast, the UK is innately nimble and flexible. It has the ability to adjust its financial and monetary levers to respond to shocks to the system. Its deep commitment to true liberty, so poorly understood in continental Europe, means it is far less regulated and therefore more entrepreneurial and potentially dynamic. And it commands the supreme global advantages of the English language, and in the City of London the world’s pre-eminent financial hub. 

Without minimizing the UK’s undoubted weaknesses, all these advantages mean that, unshackled from the EU, it stands poised to become a supreme competitive threat to its neighbors just across the English Channel — a threat that the EU has explicitly recognized and sworn to negate.

As indeed it must. That’s why it was always the case that the EU would never make any concessions to the UK that would place the EU at a disadvantage. That’s why it was always the case that the terms of any such deal would always be to the UK’s disadvantage. 

And that’s why the words that must strike deep dread into the heart of every true Brexiteer are “A deal now looks more likely . . . ”   (“The Brexit end-game,” Melanie Philips, 12/11/2020)

Scotland can’t afford to remain part of the Union from The Spectator magazine UK:  21 Nov 2020 by Andrew Wilson:  a former SNP MSP & author of the party’s recent ‘Growth Report’

Tony Blair’s biggest achievement was delivering a referendum that unified Scotland behind devolution and gave all parties a stake in its success. Boris Johnson is wrong to say it was ‘a disaster,’ but in being wrong is helping precipitate the logical next step: independence. The opinion polls that show a growing majority for Scottish independence will mystify those who believe the lazy, metropolitan idea that independence is an emotional fantasy — all Braveheart, Bannockburn and bagpipes. How, they ask, could a band of Caledonian romantics ever convince the canny Scots to opt for such a thing?

But what if the case for independence was a highly sophisticated position advocated by one of the most popular political leaders in the world? It is now supported by 64 per cent of those aged under 65, according to one of the latest polls. The Spectator, while founded by a Scot, has never supported the idea of his homeland’s independence. But its readers rightly pride themselves on reading different points of view. I seek not your support but your understanding as I try to explain what is really going on here.

The problem for Scotland is that it cannot afford to remain on the UK’s glide path. Staying in the Union is riskier than independence. Voters can see that.

In his outstanding book The Levelling:  What’s Next After Globalisation, the Irish author Michael O’Sullivan points out that in 1924 Argentina was three times wealthier than Japan but is today half as rich. His point is that countries can make colossal strategic errors. The UK has been in a slow descent for some time now. It used to be the richest country on Earth, but currently sits in 21st position in the IMF rankings, and Brexit is hastening the drop. Why should Scotland now buckle in and continue to not enjoy the ride?   (“Scotland can’t afford to remain part of the Union,” Andrew Wilson, a former SNP MSP, The Spectator, 11/21/2020)

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FIGHT AGAINST ISLAMIC SEPARATISM

On October 2, President Emmanuel Macron delivered a “Fight Against Separatism” speech to the French parliament, announcing stricter measures to crack down on the growing influence of what he called “radical Islamism” among France’s Muslim minority, proportionally the largest in Western Europe. This ideology, he said, has “a proclaimed, publicized desire, a systematic way of organizing things to contravene the Republic’s laws and create a parallel order, establish other values, develop another way of organizing society which is initially separatist, but whose ultimate goal is to take over [the Republic] completely.”

Macron’s proposals include abolishing home-schooling, closing down independent schools, devoting more resources to policing and courts, bringing community language teaching under the control of the state, restoring policing in Muslim-majority zones, which he acknowledges has been let slide, reversing ghetto­ization, preventing radical takeovers of Muslim organizations, and rolling back sharia creep, such as the public cafeterias which now offer only halal-compliant menus, and the separation of sexes in public swimming pools.

(Mark Durie is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum, founding director of the Institute for Spiritual Awareness, and a senior research fellow of the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam)

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CHINA ASSERTING ITSELF IN CARIBBEAN

• China also seems to have a military agenda in the Caribbean region . . .  Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe already is on record expressing China’s willingness to deepen military cooperation with Caribbean countries. Of more concern to US security interests is the ongoing seaport expansion project in the already commercially important port at Kingston, Jamaica, as well as the port at Freeport, Bahamas, China’s possible new base of operations 90 miles off the US coast.

• China is clearly not a government that honors its agreements . . .  The US can ill afford any Chinese drive to place under threat any Western Hemisphere country, much less the United States.

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SWAZI LEADER DIES OF COVID

Ambrose Dlamini:  Eswatini’s (Swaziland) PM dies after testing positive for Covid-19

The government of Eswatini says Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini has died, four weeks after he tested positive for coronavirus.  A government statement said Dlamini, 52, died on Sunday afternoon in hospital in South Africa.  No cause of death was mentioned, but Dlamini had recently been receiving treatment for Covid-19 in South Africa.  Dlamini had been prime minister of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, since October 2018.  The tiny landlocked country in southern Africa is one of the last absolute monarchies in the world.

With a population of about one million, the country has recorded 6,768 coronavirus infections and 127 deaths linked to the pandemic, according to the health ministry.  Dlamini announced he had tested positive for coronavirus on 16 November. At the time, he said he was asymptomatic and was feeling well.  A few weeks later, on 1 December, the Eswatini government said Dlamini had been moved to a hospital in South Africa, with the aim of fast-tracking his recovery.  But on Sunday the government said Dlamini died “while under medical care in a hospital in South Africa,” without giving more details. “Government in collaboration with the family will keep the nation informed of subsequent arrangements,” Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku said in the statement. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55297472)  

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SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

ELECTION 2016

In their infinite wisdom, the United States’ Founders created the Electoral College to ensure the STATES were fairly represented.  Why should one or two densely populated areas speak for the whole of the nation?  The following list of statistics has been making the rounds on the Internet.  It should finally put an end to the argument as to why the Electoral College makes sense. 

Do share this.  It needs to be widely known and understood. 

• There are 3,141 counties in the United States. 
• Trump won 3,084 of them. 
• Clinton won 57. 
• There are 62 counties in New York State. 
• Trump won 46 of them. 
• Clinton won 16. 
• Clinton won the popular vote by approx. 1.5 million votes. 
• In the 5 counties that encompass NYC, (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Richmond & Queens) Clinton received well over 2 million more votes than Trump.  (Clinton won 4 of these counties; Trump won Richmond) 
• Therefore these 5 counties alone, more than accounted for Clinton winning the popular vote of the entire country. These 5 counties comprise 319 square miles. The United States is comprised of 3,797,000 square miles.  When you have a country that encompasses almost 4 million square miles of territory, it would be ludicrous to even suggest that the vote of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election. 
• Large, densely populated Democrat cities (NYC, Chicago, LA, etc.) DO NOT and SHOULD NOT speak for the rest of our country! 
• And . . . it’s been verified and documented that those aforementioned 319 square miles are where the majority of our nation’s problems foment. 

PILGRIMS NO FUN

“James I had thrown his weight behind Anglicanism, which in tone, vestment, and ritual was modeled closely on Rome. Down at the other end of the Protestant spectrum lay the gloomy Puritans, straitlaced and austere, rabidly opposed to any form of religious ostentation, convinced that pleasure was the invention of the Devil.   Fun-loving James despised them and would, he gloated, harry them out of the land.  Many, most notably the Pilgrims Fathers, took him at his word and abandoned England to settle in the New World.”   (“Great Feuds in history,” Colin Evans, 2001, page 29.)

1949 LETTER FROM ALDOUS HUXLEY TO GEORGE ORWELL

“Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful.  My own belief is that the ruling oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World.  Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience.”  (Letter from Aldous Huxley to George Orwell – 1949)

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TO THE POINT

• Eton College teacher loses dismissal appeal — An appeal panel has ruled that Eton College’s dismissal of a teacher was justified. The headmaster of the institution said that there are “limits to the freedoms that teachers have.” Will Knowland, an English teacher at the prestigious school, was sacked earlier this year for gross misconduct after recording a lecture in which he questioned “current radical feminist orthodoxy”.  (The Week, 12/15/2020)
• Campaigners call for reusable face-masks – Calls are rising for a switch to reusable face coverings after it emerged that more than 100 million disposable masks are binned in the UK every week. Research for the North London Waste Authority found that nearly 70% of those who wear disposable masks are unaware they are single-use plastic. “Whether they are binned or littered they will damage the environment,” a spokesperson for the NLWA said.  (The Week, 12/15/2020)

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LESSON FOR THE US FROM A CENTURY AGO

1936 was a long time ago.       

Before the American president became the “leader of the free world”, the King of England held the most important position on the planet.    The British Empire was at the height of is territory and the king was Head of State.

It had been almost a thousand years since England had three kings in one year, yet it happened in 1936.   “The year of the three kings” began with King George V on the throne.  His death at the end of January saw his son David become king as “Edward VIII”.   Before the year was out David would abdicate in favor of his brother, George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II.

Abdication is such a rare event that many books have been written on the abdication.    The circumstances made if quite different from the last time there were three kings in one year (1066).  This is because the abdication was about a woman, an American divorcee (twice) from Baltimore.  Her name was Wallis Warfield Simpson.   The king is Head of the Church of England.  At the time, the church did not allow divorce.

In hindsight, a lot more is known.   Mrs. Simpson was having an affair even when dating the king, which might have compromised national security.  But, worse still, the king had definite Nazi sympathies, and would likely have compromised the nation’s security at a time when Germany posed a major threat to the United Kingdom.

The famous entertainer Noel Coward suggested at the time of the abdication that “a statue should be erected to Mrs. Simpson in every town in England for the blessing she has bestowed upon the country” (Great Feuds in History, Colin Evans, page 146). 

As I said, the abdication was a very long time ago.  But there’s a serious lesson here for Americans.  Just as England had a king who was a Nazi sympathizer, is it possible that the US could have a president working for communist China? 

Joe Biden seems to have extensive ties with the Chinese.  His son Hunter has been involved in questionable business activities with the Chinese and other foreign powers.  Certainly, on his salary of the last 50 years (he entered Congress in 1972), he could not afford the 10,000 square foot house he lives in.   

As it says in I Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”   He would not, of course, be the only member of Congress tempted by money.

Betrayal at the highest level is not inconceivable.

AMERICA CHANGING HANDS

A protester carries an Antifascist Action flag at a rally following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, in Boston, Massachusetts, US, May 31, 2020. (Reuters)

The Lessons of History

Empires rise and empires fall.  They usually don’t end with a bang. They end with a whimper.  Revolts become revolutions when those sent by the authorities to put them down instead join the revolt. Is that what we’re beginning to see as police and National Guard troops kneel in submission before BLM and ANTIFA?  Many who railed against those who kneeled for the playing of our national anthem now kneel before those who showed their contempt for America.  Are the reins of power about to slip from the limp hands of the descendants of the Minutemen, the Grand Army of the Republic, and all the heroes who won the wars and enforced the peace?  Are the cultural, financial, social, and political structures we’ve known all our lives about to be upended?   (Dr. Robert R. Owens, Canada free press, 7/5/2020)

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FRANCE AND GERMANY DIFFER

Serious conflicts between Berlin and Paris over foreign policy overshadow the beginning of the German EU Presidency.   French President Emmanuel Macron’s ongoing endeavors to cooperate more closely with Russia are being met with resentment in the German capital.  During a recent two-hour long video conference with his Russian counterpart. he agreed to soon visit Moscow.  In fact, the German government lays claim to leadership in determining the EU’s policy toward Russia.  There is also the conflict between France and Turkey, which had considerably escalated after a Turkish naval vessel carried out radar targeting of a French frigate in June. Paris therefore withdrew from a NATO operation and is demanding tougher EU sanctions being imposed on Ankara.  This runs counter to Berlin’s intention to seek the kind of cooperation with Turkey that can safeguard the refugee pact and serve its own geostrategic interests.  The dispute could escalate next week when the EU foreign ministers meet.  (German Foreign Policy, 7/6/2020)

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ILHAN OMAR CALLS FOR DISMANTLING US

In the most recent brazen ideological attack on the country that took her in from a war zone, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar called for the “dismantling” of the U.S. economic and political system.

Those who feared the Islamist threat to undermine the United States would come via “creeping sharia” can put that worry to rest. The threat is coming from a Marxist alliance, which includes the Far Left and its social justice rage mob paired with movements attaching itself to the George Floyd murder.

Of course, this political millieu is giving Islamists fertile ground to further destabilize and sow chaos in the American landscape.

In a press conference yesterday called by the Minnesota People of Color and Indigenous caucus, Omar said that the push for change can’t stop with criminal justice or policing reform.  “We are fighting to tear down systems of oppression that exist in housing, in education, in health care, in employment, in the air we breathe,” said Omar.

It’s a nod to dismantling the American system of government — the same government that gave Omar shelter as a refugee.  Notably, Omar’s statements also systematically called out the disparities between “white families” and black families, making her speech not just about oppression, but about white privilege as well.  (Clarion Project, 7/8/2020)

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CHURCHES SPREAD VIRUS

The virus has infiltrated Sunday sermons, meetings of ministers and Christian youth camps in Colorado and Missouri.  It has struck churches that reopened cautiously with face masks and social distancing in the pews, as well as some that defied lockdowns and refused to heed new limits on numbers of worshipers.

Pastors and their families have tested positive, as have church ushers, front-door greeters and hundreds of churchgoers.  In Texas, about 50 people contracted the virus after a pastor told congregants they could once again hug one another.  In Florida, a teenage girl died last month after attending a youth party at her church.

More than 650 coronavirus cases have been linked to nearly 40 churches and religious events across the United States since the beginning of the pandemic, with many of them erupting over the last month as Americans resumed their pre-pandemic activities, according to a New York Times database.    (NY Times, 7/8/2020)

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PLOT TO BLOW UP ST. PAUL’S

An unrepentant Muslim convert who was on course to become the UK’s first female homegrown suicide bomber has been jailed for a minimum of 14 years for plotting a terror attack at St Paul’s Cathedral.

But it is only good news for now, since Western leaders continue in their willful ignorance about jihad; jihadis go to jail and return to society unchanged or even more hardened in their violent beliefs than they were before.  Jihadis use the prison system to spread their messages of jihad and Islamic supremacy.   Anywhere they go, they view themselves as committed servants of Allah on the mission to expand and conquer, as per Islamic teachings.   British prisons are now grounds for radicalization; Muslim prison gangs have even been caught beating prisoners who won’t convert to Islam.  Female jihadis are no different from their male counterparts, although they are often presented in the media as victims.  The reality is that they victimize as much as the men do, and if they have children, they train them to be hardcore jihad fighters.  (Jihad Watch, 7/5/2020)

________________________________

The Implications of Withdrawing American Troops from Germany
by Alexander Luck: who received his MA in Political Science from the University of Leipzig.
FPRI (Foreign Policy Research Institute) Philadelphia, June 2020, A nation must think before it acts.

. . . Whatever the cause of the decision, the proposal has led to renewed debate over the significance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), German contributions to the Alliance, and the security benefits that Berlin derives from being a member.  The potential reallocation of forces has also caused European national security observers to take a closer look at the relevance of American military assets for national foreign policy and the benefits—actual or perceived—to its European partners. . . . the current American effort appears to have significant flaws in the limited impact on Germany, should redistribution simply mean troops remain in Europe, and the near impossibility of expecting Bundeswehr to be funded to the tune of 2% GDP any time soon . . . any drastic reductions would appear to pose a significant problem for unilateral U.S. military operations in support of its sovereign foreign policy execution.(https://www.fpri.org/article/2020/06/the-implications-of-withdrawing-american-troops-from-germany/)   (6/30/2020)

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AUSTRALIA PLANS FOR ARMED CONFLICT

Australia must and will prepare for the real risk of armed conflict in its region: that was the bracing message of the new defense plan launched by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday.

The document is innocuously titled the Defence Strategic Update.  But that is a euphemism for something of profound significance to the nation’s future – a blueprint for a military capable of fighting major wars, and thus in principle helping to prevent them from breaking out.

At one level, this is simply about government executing its first duty: providing for the security of the nation, its interests and values.

What has changed is that the government now recognises a rapidly worsening horizon of risk and knows it can no longer defer hard choices about what the Australian Defence Force is for.

The landscape of strategic hazard is much to do with the way in which the People’s Republic of China has not only strengthened its armed forces, but projected power right across the region that Australia calls home – the Indo-Pacific.

Depressingly, the opportunity for co-operation that came with the COVID-19 pandemic – in theory, a shared challenge that should compel nations to suspend their rivalry – has been lost. The reality is that China has chosen this window to intensify its push for dominance, from Hong Kong to Taiwan, from Japan to the South China Sea, from the Indian border to economic leverage against Australia.

China is increasingly active as a military power in south-east Asia, the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.   Much of the arc to Australia’s north is now a region of contestation and power plays, not only between China and America but increasingly between China and others such as Japan, India, Vietnam and Indonesia.

And Canberra has responded to this with the unequivocal statement that deterring threats to Australia’s interests in this arc – these northern, western, and eastern approaches – is the foremost priority for our forces’ sovereign capability that demonstrates an intent to allow Australian forces to operate more independently of our American ally is the new plan’s commitment to build a dedicated Australian satellite network and ground stations.

In other words, Australia is finally getting serious about being able to find and target potential adversaries without heavy reliance on the United States.

The government is also committing to stockpile much larger quantities of ammunition and fuel on Australian soil, so that in a future crisis this nation’s military would be able to sustain a long conflict or blockade.

The overall plan is a paradox of both less and more reliance on America.   Despite these steps towards more independent Australian deterrence and war-fighting capacity, the continued modernization of the force – longer-range missiles, more advanced aircraft, ships and unmanned systems – will depend fundamentally on US technology and supply.

And Morrison is certainly not writing off the future of the US alliance.   Despite all the awful vicissitudes of the Trump presidency, it is clear that the Australian strategic establishment remains convinced that the United States will remain engaged in our region.

After all, if the US is serious about competing with China – and there seems bipartisanship on this in Washington – then it is going to need to remain active in the Indo-Pacific and to sustain the alliances and partnerships that have been a unique American strength.  (Rory Medcalf, Sydney Morning Herald, 7/2/2020)

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BLACK LIVES MATTER IS A MARXIST ORGANIZATION

Black Lives Matter is a Marxist revolutionary movement aimed at transforming the United States into a communist dystopia.   BLM states that it wants to abolish the nuclear family, police, prisons and capitalism.   BLM leaders have threatened to “burn down the system” if their demands are not met.   They are also training militias.

“Cutting the LAPD budget means longer responses to 911 emergency calls, officers calling for backup won’t get it, and rape, murder and assault investigations won’t occur or will take forever to initiate, let alone complete.” — Los Angeles Police Protective League, the city’s police union.

“White people are so confused in America . . .   If there is systematic racism today it is a racism against white people, in the sense that white people are told that they are responsible for all the evils in the world . . . ”  (Dr. Carol M. Swain, university professor and advisory board member of Black Voices for Trump.  Gatestone, 7/2/2020)

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BLACK ON BLACK VIOLENCE ONLY GETS WORSE

Chicago has long struggled with violent crime, and Democratic leaders in the city haven’t been able to do anything about it.   Over the Independence Day weekend, that violence truly became out of control, with more than 70 people shot in the city, 14 of whom died.

It comes at a time when Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot faces increased scrutiny over her running of the city, and her constant pandering to the most far-left elements of the Democratic Party.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that some 74 people were shot over the weekend, 14 fatally, by 6:45 p.m. on Sunday, July 5.  If you believe the Chicago Tribune instead, the number was actually 80 people shot, and 17 people killed, by 5:29 p.m. on Sunday.

Whichever number is accurate, it’s too high.  (The Liberty Revolution, 7/8/2020)

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LATEST STATS ON MODERN SLAVERY

• There are an estimated 136,000 people living in modern slavery just in Britain.  Slavery in the UK takes the form of forced labor, and domestic and sexual exploitation.   Albanians and Vietnamese are among the groups that constitute the majority of slaves. — Global Slavery Index, 2018.
• There are currently an estimated 9.2 million black slaves in Africa.  Slavery, according to the index, includes forced labor, forced sexual exploitation and forced marriage. — Global Slavery Index, 2018.
• “According to the U.N.’s International Labor Organization (ILO), there are more than three times as many people in forced servitude today as were captured and sold during the 350-year span of the transatlantic slave trade,” Time Magazine,March 14, 2019.

(Judith Bergman, Gatestone, 6/27/2020)

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TO THE POINT

• Mauritanian Anti-Slavery Activist Maryam Bint Al-Sheikh: Slavery Still Exists in Mauritania; Slaves Can Be Bequeathed From Father To Son.  (MEMRI 7/5/2020)
• South African Farm Murders are ‘National Emergency’ Says DA, Calls for Urgent Parliamentary Debate — The Democratic Alliance (DA) has requested a debate in the National Assembly on the “scourge” of farm attacks and murders across rural South Africa, many of which have been “particularly heinous in nature with brutal torture”.   These attacks, they say, are a “national emergency” which must be addressed as a matter of urgency.(https://www.sapeople.com/2020/06/25/sa-farm-murders-are-          national-emergency-says-da-and-calls-for-urgent-                                        parliamentary-)
• South Africa To Borrow $7 Billion Globally as Debt Rises by SAPeople Staff Writer – Jun 24, 2020 — The government will need to borrow $7 billion from international finance institutions as one of the measures to cover the budget hole brought about by South Africa’s response to COVID-19,   Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said today during his supplementary budget.(https://www.sapeople.com/2020/06/24/south-africa-to-                         borrow-7-billion-globally-as-debt-rises/)

• King Leopold’s legacy:   The lingering chaos in DR Congo
 60 years after independence, traces of the system of exploitation and violence that Leopold II and colonial-era Belgium created still remain in DR Congo.  The propensity for violence is inherited, experts say. — More than a century of looting and terror began in 1885 when King Leopold II and Belgium were granted then barely developed Congo Basin at the Berlin Conference.   The “Congo Free State” served solely to enrich the monarch.   Congolese labor oiled this machine.   Anyone who resisted or stood in their way was brutally punished — photographs and reports of hands chopped off bear testimony to the stories.   This is how it largely remained, until Congo was given independence on 30 June 1960.   Yet, even 60 years later —with the exception of a small elite —many children are still born into bitter poverty.              (https://www.dw.com/en/king-leopolds-legacy-the-lingering-chaos-in-dr-congo/a-53982357)
• “RUNNING THE WORLD SINCE 1776” was the message on a Tee-shirt I saw this morning.   Are people really that ignorant?  The US did not become the leading power in the world until 1948!  A lot of people won’t even question it.

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AFTER THOUGHT

I finally got my malaria pills!

I ordered them over three months ago when I was given a new prescription.

I’ve been coming down with malaria for over 40 years.   It still comes back.   It was coming back once a year but it’s been three years since I’ve had it.  I was tempted to not bother buying the pills as they are quite expensive.  But there’s nothing worse than the shakes from malaria and I feel better knowing there’s a pill there I can take.  Just one and I’m usually ok.

But there was a complication this time.   Thanks to President Trump millions of people are taking chloroquine for Covid-19.   This led to a shortage and the price went up.   $132 for 24 pills.

Malaria remains the number one killer in the world.  Maybe Covid-19 has overtaken it temporarily.   But the pesky mosquito will be back, I’m sure of it.  All those aggressive females will be biting us wherever we go, taking every opportunity to suck the blood out of us.  (Only the females spread the disease.)

It used to be said that on the first day with malaria you’re afraid you are going to die.  On the second day, you’re afraid you’re going to live!

“O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.” (Psalm 38:9-10)

 

 

COMMON SENSE, WITH TACT

After Donald Trump’s call for a temporary halt in allowing Muslims to move to America, there has been a great deal of “moral outrage,” as CNN called it.   Prominent members of the liberal intelligentsia have been appearing on the various news channels.   Accusations of Trump being “un-American” are constantly being yelled out, even though America had no Muslims in its infancy and few until a change in the immigration laws fifty years ago.

Donald Trump has called for a ban on immigration to the United States by Muslims.  TV talk programs seem to have discussed nothing else since his controversial call Monday, which he referred to as “common sense.”

The liberal media, plus almost all politicians of both major parties, have condemned Mr. Trump and called him a “racist” and lots of other bad names.

Methinks they protest too much!   Why are they so determined to see so many Muslims in America?

Let’s consider the facts ……

The US is the leading nation of the western world.   The country has experienced a number of terrorist attacks by Muslims, including San Bernardino, Boston, Chattanooga, Garland, Fort Hood and 9-11.

The number two economy in the western world is Japan, with 130 million people.   Japan has not had a terrorist attack perpetrated by Muslims.   Japan has a very strict immigration policy, which does not encourage Muslims to move there.   Could there be a connection?
Mr. Trump lacks tact, a quality he needs and one that needs to be brought into this debate.

I remember a conversation with a member of the diplomatic service in an African country some years ago.   My wife and I were enjoying our visit to his country and I expressed the hope that they would have more tourists, which would boost their economy.   I told him that one thing they could do to help encourage tourism was to abolish the visa requirement for tourists.

He responded that the country had to require a visa, at a cost of $100, before any tourist could visit.   He explained that it was reciprocal. In other words, because the US insisted people from his country must get a visa to enter America, his country had to insist on visas for Americans.

The US requires peoples in many countries to get visas, to screen them before they visit and to weed out those who might visit and stay to look for work.

But my point is that visa requirements are reciprocal.

Can’t we do the same when it comes to immigration?

We should apply the same rules to people wanting to come to the United States, as their countries apply to Americans who go there.

As none of the 57 majority Muslim countries allows Americans to immigrate into their countries, we would effectively achieve the ban on Muslims Mr. Trump wants, but do it more tactfully.   The ball would be in their court!

Yes, there are Americans living in Muslim countries.   Some are married to locals in those countries, while some work there on contract, providing skills their economies need; but none have permanent resident status and will never be allowed to apply for citizenship.  Muslim nations know that Muslims and non-Muslims just don’t mix!

Quid pro quo.   Problem solved.   With tact, Mr. Trump!

There was also a lack of tact in the White House when Josh Earnest, White House spokesman, described Mr. Trump’s comments as “fascist,” forgetting that the most famous Democratic president of all, Franklin Roosevelt, interred Japanese, German and Italian Americans during World War II.

Meanwhile, a great deal of ignorance has been exposed in the media on this issue.   A number of news people have told us that Mr. Trump’s suggestion goes against the constitution.   It’s difficult to justify such a statement when there were no Muslims in the country at the time the constitution was written.   It wasn’t until after the Civil War that Muslims first came on the scene and the first mosque was built in Chicago as recently as 1929.

Nihad Awad, Executive Director and Founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, likened Mr. Trump’s comments to those of Nazis against the Jews, asking:  “Haven’t we learned anything from history, Mr. Trump?”   This blatant double standard went unquestioned.   It was a perfect opportunity to raise questions about attitudes toward Jews shown in some Muslim countries and during the Holocaust.

On the same day that this dominated the news, TIME magazine announced its choice of “Person of the Year.”   This year’s choice is Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, who opened Germany’s doors to allow in one million migrants this year, the equivalent of the US taking in four million.   The decision has already resulted in negative repercussions that must be borne by the German people.

The question arises – why is the media so determined to see the end of the European races?   At the same time as ridiculing Trump, most news sources are seen praising Frau Merkel for her decision.

Whatever you may think of Mr. Trump’s call to halt Muslim immigration at this time, Americans should be thankful the issue has been raised for one simple reason – any more attacks could easily result in a violent backlash against Muslims by other Americans. The population needs to be thoroughly educated on the religion and its goals toward the United States so that a responsible debate can take place.

 

 

 

 

FEAR BEHIND CHURCH ATTACK

Photo: EPA ; AP

The killing of nine people in a Charleston church last week and the election result in Denmark seemingly have little in common.   But at the root of both is fear.

The 21-year-old white male who shot dead nine African-Americans wore two badges on his jacket.   They were the Rhodesian flag and the South African flag of the old apartheid regime.   TV reporters were quick to say these flags represented racism and that Dylaan Roof identified with these countries because he, too, is racist.

As usual, there was very little depth shown by reporters.   It’s just not as simple as they made it out to be.

Rhodesia and South Africa were the last two nations on the African continent to be ruled by whites, people of European descent who had colonized Africa in previous generations.   During the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the European powers were rapidly dismantling their colonial empires.   The ruling whites of Southern Rhodesia, rather than have black majority rule forced upon them, declared themselves independent of Great Britain, something that had not happened since 1776.

Why did they do this?   Out of fear, fear of what would happen if the whites handed over to the majority African population.

This fear was not unfounded.   They had seen what happened when countries to the north of them got independence.

Tribalism, violent upheavals and economic collapse were quite normal in the years following independence.   In 1961, the whites of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), at the time in a federation with Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, had been instrumental in saving thousands of people from the Congo who had fled the country after Belgium pulled out.   Chaos and confusion were commonplace in Africa at the time. The whites at the southern end of the continent did not want the same fate to befall them.

In neighboring South Africa, apartheid also had fear at its root.   The white minority imposed segregation to protect themselves from violent crime, murder, and rapes, all of which have increased dramatically since the end of apartheid and the introduction of majority rule.   There was a great deal wrong with apartheid, but post-apartheid South Africa also has serious problems with little hope for improvement.

Which brings us to last week’s Danish election.

Scandinavia has been the last bastion of social democracy, with widely admired societies that have inspired leftist parties around the world.

But these days, social democracy in Nordic countries is in crisis.   The defeat of Denmark’s ruling social democrat party, led by Helle Thorning-Schmidt, means that for the first time in seventy years, Sweden is the only Scandinavian country with a social democrat government in power.   Even there, it’s doubtful it will survive long.

Their decline has been accompanied by a surge in support for anti-immigration, eurosceptic parties.   “Should the Danish People’s party — which came second, nearly doubling its support from the previous vote in 2011 — join a centre-right government, three of the four large Nordic countries would have such a group in power (Finland and Norway being the others),” the Financial Times reports on its website.   After decades of rule by parties of the left, this is a dramatic change.

“There is a familiar progression in the way that the DPP, True Finns, Sweden Democrats and Norway’s Progress party have hollowed out the establishment parties.   As with the DPP, they have started by stealing voters from the centre-left — the working class, the elderly — before taking them from the centre-right.

“It’s a worry and it’s a wake-up call,” says Carl Bildt, former Swedish prime minister.”   (ft.com)

What’s behind the swing to the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic parties? Fear.   The same fear that motivated the whites of Rhodesia and South Africa.   And the same fear that was behind the church shooting in Charleston.   This is not to suggest that the Danes, the Rhodesians or the South Africans would have been in agreement with Dylaan Roof’s actions.   It is simply that there is a commonality here – and that common denominator is fear.

The Danes are afraid of being overwhelmed by people of different cultures, especially Muslims from North Africa and the Middle East.   A significant percentage of people in every European country share the same fear.   They do not want to see their way of life threatened. These fears are not taken seriously by mainstream political parties, so voters are looking elsewhere.

The same fear led to Rhodesians breaking away from Britain.   Their “rebellion” lasted fourteen years, seven of which were spent at war with homegrown terrorists who wanted to take over the country. When the terrorists took over, white fears were realized when their land, jobs and money were all taken by the post-independence government of Robert Mugabe, who has been in power for over 35 years.

In South Africa, twenty years after apartheid, the country’s biggest problems are corruption, violence and life-threatening crime.   The affluent society the whites created is under increasing threat, driven by African demands for more and more at the expense of the white taxpayer.

In America, too, many whites fear for the future as they head rapidly toward minority status.   A recent announcement by the Obama Administration that instructs government agencies to enforce greater “diversity” in affluent neighborhoods will only make matters worse.

I’m writing this while we are headed back to our home on a train.   We had to change trains in Chicago.   While lining up for the second train, a young white lady next to me complained to her friends that “the Mexicans are pushing in ahead of us.”   A minor incident like this can trigger off a racial confrontation.   This time it was avoided.

The mad, multicultural mayhem created by the ruling intellectual elites is increasingly being found wanting throughout the western world.

We should expect more incidents like the one in Charleston and more election results similar to Denmark.   It could be the start of a white backlash against enforced multiculturalism.   Politicians should take note on both sides of the Atlantic.

A century ago, the world was dominated by Europeans and people of European descent.   Since World War II this has changed dramatically.   Today, only a handful of countries are still run by Caucasians; and, based on demographic trends, all of those will have a majority non-white population within the lifetimes of those now living.

When the dominant culture of a country changes, great upheaval can take place.   Rhodesia is the best most recent example of this.

Dylaan Roof, at 21, was not even born when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.   He may have worn the Rhodesian flag but was ignorant of Rhodesia’s realities.   Race relations were generally quite good in Rhodesia.   The “white” army was 82% black.  If Dylaan Roof had shot nine black Africans in Rhodesia, he would have been tried, sentenced and hanged within a few months.   I remember clearly a young white male who killed a black cab driver and was hanged, if I remember correctly, within 90 days of his sentencing.

The world’s media may have judged Rhodesia a racist society.   In the same way, it now judges South Carolina as seriously wanting in this regard.   But there has been an outpouring of love and support from different ethnic groups since the mass shooting in church.   The Governor of the state, Nikki Haley, has called for the old confederate flag to be taken down from the Capitol building in Columbia, the state capital.

Just as the world’s media stirred up feelings against Rhodesia and South Africa, it will do so against South Carolina.

Watching CNN on Monday morning, I was shocked at how much time was devoted to a one-sided discussion on the future of the “Stars and Bars,” the old Confederate flag.

What Dylaan Roof did was inexcusable and should be roundly condemned.   But he was just one man and a young man, at that.   His actions will not inspire the majority to replicate his act.   But the fears he expressed about the direction America is headed should be openly discussed.   The flag is not the issue.