RUSSIAN INVOLVEMENT AGAINST ISRAEL

The London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat cited an unnamed “well-informed” Russian source as saying that following talks with Washington, Moscow had got the impression that “Washington does not welcome the continuous Israeli raids,” and thus believes it has the freedom to act more aggressively to thwart them.  In light of this, the Russians were now supplying Syrian forces with more advanced anti-missile systems and know-how, making them more capable of shooting down Israeli armaments, the report said. (Israel Defense Forces, the Times of Israel)

“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it? Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.” Thus says the Lord God:  “Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring you against them?   (Ezekiel 38:14-17)

On Thursday it was reported that the Israel Defense Forces is planning to change its tactics in Syria and will base its operations against Iranian targets in the area on long-range standoff munitions rather than on airstrikes. Obviously, the move will downgrade Israel’s operational prowess.

The report of Israel’s new policy of restraint followed the big story of the week:  Russia’s announcement that for the first time, it had assisted the Syrians in intercepting four missiles fired by Israeli F-16s at targets in Syria.

Russia’s statement came in tandem with its announcement that it is abrogating its 2015 agreement with Israel to coordinate and deconflict Israel’s military operations in Syria from Russian forces in the country.

For Jerusalem, Russia’s decision is a major strategic blow.   (Caroline Glick, Israel Hayom)

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PROTESTS IN IRAN

Protesters chanted: “Cannons, tanks, rockets, the mullahs should get lost” in a protest staged in Tehran, video of which was posted on Kian Sharif’s Twitter account on July 26, 2021. Protesters also chanted: “Not Gaza, not Lebanon, I will give my life only for Iran” in another video posted on the same day on the Twitter account of Iran News Wire. In the video, protesters further chanted: “Death to the dictator!” and “From Tehran to Khuzestan, unite, unite!” On July 31, 2021, videos of another protest were posted on the Irankargar YouTube channel, in which protesters burned tires and blocked a road. Protesters also chanted: “Death to the Rule of the Jurisprudent!” and “The country has no water, the massacre continues!” The protests in Tehran come following protests in Khuzestan and elsewhere.   (MEMRI, 8/2/2021)

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MAJOR EXPANSION OF CHINA’S NUCLEAR FACILITIES

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The U.S. military is warning about what analysts have described as a major expansion of China’s nuclear missile silo fields at a time of heightened tension between Beijing and Washington.

Researchers at the Federation of American Scientists estimate that China has approximately 250 underground missile silos under construction after they used satellite imagery to identify a new field being built in western China.

U.S. Strategic Command tweeted a link Wednesday to a story in The New York Times on the federation’s findings, which were published this week.

“The public has discovered what we have been saying all along about the growing threat the world faces and the veil of secrecy that surrounds it,” said Strategic Command, which oversees America’s nuclear arsenal.

The field in the Xinjiang region is the second one reported this summer. In June, researchers at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California identified another field under construction in neighboring Gansu province.

China has not commented on the reports. Asked about the latest one, the Foreign Ministry said Friday that it was not aware of the situation.

The reports come at a time when relations between the U.S. and China have plunged to their worst level in decades. The two nations remain sharply at odds over a range of issues, including trade, technology, cybersecurity, human rights and China’s increasingly assertive foreign policy under President Xi Jinping.

The expansion of China’s nuclear force would likely factor into any U.S. calculations for potential military confrontations over flashpoints such as Taiwan or the South China Sea.   (“US warns China is building more nuclear missile silos,” Huizhong Wu and Jon Gambrell, 7/30/2021)

MANDELA’S DREAM FOR SOUTH AFRICA IS IN RUINS Following the imprisonment of Jacob Zuma, and at a time when inequality is worse than during apartheid, mob violence is threatening the country’s constitutional order. by Robin Wright, who is a contributing writer and columnist, has written for The New Yorker since 1988.  (She is the author of “Rock the Casbah:  Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World,” The New Yorker, July 28, 2021)

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CUBAN RALLIES

Here is the ugly truth: Biden does not care a damn about the Cuban people throwing off 60+ years of communism. Cubans are holding the largest anti-government rallies in decades. American media coverage has been near zero. Half of Biden’s White House staff probably does not understand what the president means by “repression,” admires Fidel and Raul Castro, and can be found wearing Che Guevara T-shirts on the weekends.   (“Betraying the Cuban people, again,” Chris Farrell, Gatestone, 8/2/2021)

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NEWSLETTER – MANEUVERS IN EAST ASIA (II)

With its deployment of the frigate Bayern to East Asia on Monday, Germany is joining the rapid expansion of western war maneuvers in China’s close vicinity. In the fall, the frigate Bayern will conduct operations for monitoring US sanctions against North Korea and subsequently set off for home through the South China Sea. The UK Carrier Strike Group led by the new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth had entered the South China Sea already yesterday, after joint exercises also with warships from India and Singapore. Following naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal in early April, the French armed forces have conducted joint air combat exercises with US jets in Hawaii this month and specially relocated several Rafale fighter jets to its overseas territory French Polynesia in the middle of the South Pacific. The US air force is currently holding a maneuver that experts view as a realistic trial-run for war with China under contemporary conditions. High-ranking US military officials suggest that war is possible in the near future.  (German Foreign Policy, 7/30/2021)

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AN ALTERNATE VIEW:   COVID VACCINE KILLS MORE THAN OTHER VACCINES

There are now more deaths and injuries likely due to reactions to the coronavirus vaccines than all other vaccines combined, according to numbers published by the CDC.

The numbers can be found in the Centers for Disease Control Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The latest numbers were released last Friday, the National Vaccine Information Center noted.

The latest report shows that there have been 11,940 deaths and 618,648 injuries among 518,770 cases, including 12,808 permanent disabilities, 65,272 emergency room visits, 40,873 hospitalizations, and 11,198 life threatening injuries.  It is acknowledged that these numbers are not all such cases in the U.S., but this database is the most comprehensive one there is. There were also 1,175 deaths of unborn babies following COVID vaccine injections.  (Warner Todd Huston, 8/2/2021, Flag and Cross)

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TO THE POINT

• CALL FOR TAX ON MEAT – The founder of the world’s biggest plant-based meat firm is calling for a tax on meat to encourage people to cut their consumption of animal-based products.  Speaking to the BBC, Beyond Meat boss Ethan Brown said he is in favour of a “pigouvian tax.”  Past examples of such taxes include levies on tobacco and carbon. However, critics argue that a meat tax would raise the cost of living.  (The Week, 8/2/2021)

• CHINA:  Going into its second century, the CCP is not as invincible or as unified as it tries to appear, Schell notes. “Despite nationalist bravado about China’s ‘rejuvenation’ and success at nation building,” he writes, “the party’s ongoing obsession with control reveals a lack of confidence in the system it has confected.”   (Foreign Policy, 7/23/2021)

• NZ APOLOGIES FOR HISTORIC RACIST POLICING – New Zealand’s prime minister has issued a formal apology for historic racist policing of Pacific people, and offered scholarships to Pacific students. As some audience members at a town hall event wept, Jacinda Ardern said of the dawn raids of the 1970s that saw authorities hunt for visa over-stayers: “It remains vividly etched in the memory of those who were directly affected. It lives on in the disruption of trust and faith in authorities, and it lives on in the unresolved grievances of Pacific communities.”  (The Week, 8/2/2021)

• WELLBEING ON THE DECLINE IN ENGLAND – Analysis of data from the ONS shows that wellbeing in England has decreased in the last year while loneliness and mistrust in government has increased. Carnegie UK says “gross domestic wellbeing” has fallen to 6.79 out of 10 from 6.89 for 2018/19.  The number of adults in England feeling lonely has jumped by 44%, from 2.6m to 3.7m. Meanwhile, trust in government has suffered a 40% drop from 2018/19 to 2019/20.  (The Week, 8/2/2021)

• UK PM’S POPULARITY PLUMMETS – Boris Johnson has fallen nearly 40 points in a poll of grassroots Tory members after a challenging month for his government.  A Conservative Home survey found that the prime minister’s recent U-turn over self-isolating cost him 36 points. The news comes after an Ipsos Mori survey showed that public satisfaction with Johnson and his party had fallen to a nine-month low.  (The Week, 8/2/2021)

• FIRST REFUGEES ARRIVE – “The first flight evacuating Afghans who worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan brought more than 200 people, including scores of children and babies in arms, to new loves in the United States on Friday, and President Joe Biden said he was proud to welcome them home.”  (“Evacuation brings 221 Afghans to US,” Lansing State Journal, 7/31/2021)

• Hunger is expected to rise in 23 global hot spots in the next three months with the highest alerts to “catastrophic” situations in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, southern Madagascar, Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria, two UN agencies warned Friday.  (“UN:  Hunger to rise in 23 hot spots,” LSJ, 8/1/2021)

• Germany’s grand coalition presses ahead with military re-armament. Ahead of Germany’s federal election on 27 September, the federal grand coalition government is pressing ahead with military rearmament. In its last sitting of the legislative session, the parliamentary budgetary committee approved spending for 27 rearmament projects with a total value of close to €20 billion at the end of June. The projects include major purchases for the navy, air force and land-based armed forces. According to an official report on the Defence Ministry’s website, the investments cover “a broad spectrum of land, air, naval, and cyber dimensions.” Some of the most comprehensive projects are listed here: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/07/26/mili-j26.html  (World Socialist Web Site, 26 July 2021)

• CANADA’S G-G A FIRST – The Governor-General in Canada exercises the powers of Queen Elizabeth II in her absence.   He or she is appointed for five years.   The new G-G is a woman, the first time a Native Canadian has been appointed.  This follows scandals involving the Roman Catholic Church where hundreds of children’s bodies were found on reservations.  Some of this got blamed on the Queen and Queen Victoria.  

• CALL FOR WARNING ON FOOTBALL SALES – Footballs should be sold with health warnings, the scientist leading a landmark study has said.  Professor Willie Stewart of the University of Glasgow said the link between dementia and heading a football is now so clear that the laws of the game to be changed for amateur and youth football to reduce the risk of degenerative brain disease. The study found no evidence that the transition from heavy leather balls to synthetic replacements had made a difference.   (The Week, 8/3/2021)

BIDEN INTERFERING IN UK DOMESTIC MATTERS

President Biden has made it clear that he does not support Brexit.

He has also made it clear that he does not support the UK in its dispute with the EU over Northern Ireland.

Yet policies on both were arrived at democratically.   Does Mr. Biden want to appear to be undemocratic?

Brexit should now be a dead issue.  The British people voted on leaving the EU.  And they voted “yes.”  The US long supported British membership but don’t seem to trust the British who have found the EU to be somewhat wanting.   The EU as a trading bloc often works against the US, so it’s difficult to understand why he’s taking the stance he’s taking.

Could it have something to do with President Trump?   Trump supported the UK’s leaving the EU and repeatedly spoke out against the EU and its trading policies.  Mr. Trump made it clear that, in putting America First, he could add the UK into the equation.

Perhaps Mr. Biden sees the EU as it was in 1972, when he first entered Congress?  That year was crucial in Britain’s relationship to the bloc.  The UK entered the EU in January of the following year full of hopes and dreams, which were gradually shattered as the EU ceased to be simply a trading bloc and became something more controlling, even more dictatorial, certainly, definitely less democratic.

Mr. Biden shows a woeful ignorance of European history, based on an equal ignorance of American history.    

Nowhere is this more apparent than in his stance on Northern Ireland.   The French president, Emmanuel Macron, upset the Brits by saying that Northern Ireland was not a part of the U.K.   The British, who really must make a greater effort to defend themselves, should have responded, making it clear that France should butt out!  Or they could have said that Tahiti is not a part of France, an equal insult that would have sent President Macron on an eternal tantrum.

Religion, as always, complicates Northern Ireland.   The majority in the province are Protestants and far more zealous that protestants in the US or the rest of the UK.   If Northern Ireland is not fully a part of the UK, they will resort to violence. 

Yet this is exactly what Mr. Biden is proposing.   The so-called Northern Ireland protocol leaves Northern Ireland inside the EU, but nominally a part of the UK.   Mr. Johnson, the UK’s prime minister, should have suggested at this point that Hawaii join ASEAN, a South East Asian trading bloc, but remain in the US for political purposes.  Wouldn’t work?  No, it wouldn’t and neither will the Northern Ireland protocol.

It would not be in America’s interests to support a united Catholic Ireland.  Ireland is a neutral country.  America would lose access to British bases in the North.

Enter religion.   Could Mr. Biden be in favor of this because of his Catholicism?   Perhaps in his mind it would make up for years of supporting abortion, of contributing to the deaths of millions of innocents?   At 78, he wants to prove himself a good Catholic.

US THREATENS PROTESTANTS

Israel isn’t the only country that’s having to cope with a US administration threatening to undermine its security.

President Joe Biden last week ordered a senior American diplomat to issue a severe formal rebuke to Britain for the way it is dealing with the European Union over Northern Ireland.

Accordingly, Yael Lempert, the acting head of the US mission to the United Kingdom, issued a diplomatic reprimand to Britain’s Brexit minister, Lord Frost, and delivered a veiled threat that America’s proposed trade deal with Britain depended upon Boris Johnson’s government acceding to Biden’s demands.

The noxiousness of this rebuke — more commonly issued to adversaries than to an ally— doesn’t just derive from America interfering in the policies of a sovereign country. It’s also because, just as with Israel, this interference is based on an ignorant and dangerously partisan view that, under the guise of advancing peace, is in fact a powerful incentive to further violence and aggression.

. . . Since the Republic of Ireland remains in the EU while Northern Ireland left it along with the rest of the United Kingdom, the problem arose of trade checks with the province that the EU would now require.

In order to avoid creating a “hard” border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, the British government decided instead to leave the province inside the EU’s economic “single market.” This meant making the required EU checks on goods traffic between Northern Ireland and the British mainland.

This effectively created an invisible economic border down the middle of the Irish Sea, thus abandoning Northern Ireland’s Protestant Unionists to an anomalous limbo land. The only way through this political minefield was for people of good faith in Brussels and Dublin to adopt the lightest of touches to border trade controls.  (Melanie Phillipps, 6/11/2011)

“It is hard to convey the desire in an Asia-facing US for zero distractions in the rest of the world,” writes Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times. “The waiving of sanctions over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the exit from Afghanistan, the presidential talks with Vladimir Putin, all suggest a nation set on minimising non-Chinese sources of stress,” he writes. “To that end, Biden views the EU (a ‘strong and vibrant entity’) as a guarantor of European cohesion, like all pre-Trump presidents.” For the new president “there is no bitterness or even much discussion any more of Britain’s decision to leave it. But nor is there the slightest qualm about engaging with the continent through Berlin or Paris, if London renders itself peripheral or eccentric.” Indeed, “for all the pomp of the new ‘Atlantic Charter,’ Britain and America will keep returning to this crux. The point of Brexit is the flexibility to scour the world for commercial and diplomatic openings. But the new US vision is one of pan-western solidarity: against economic undercutting, against the raw weight of China.”   (The Week, 6/15/2021)

US TO BACK EU MILITARY POWER?

“It’s time for the EU to become a global military power — and for the U.S. to stop thwarting Europe’s ambitions on defense. That’s according to a new report by the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank with close ties to the Biden administration.

“The report . . . urges President Joe Biden to encourage the EU to develop hard-power military capabilities and calls on him to abandon decades of opposition to EU defense integration by previous U.S. leaders, under the guise of preventing wasteful duplication with NATO — which remains orthodox thinking for most American military commanders, and even for many EU governments…

“‘Since the 1990s, the United States has typically used its effective veto power to block the defense ambitions of the European Union. This has frequently resulted in an absurd situation where Washington loudly insists Europe do more on defense but then strongly objects when Europe’s political union — the European Union — tries to answer the call . . . This policy approach has been a grand strategic error . . .’

“EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have long endorsed the idea of creating an EU army . . .

“The report is likely to generate attention in part because the Center for American Progress has become known as a training ground for Biden administration officials . . .” (Politico, 6/11/2021)

EU PROJECTS POWER INTO GULF

The EU should take advantage of current turbulences on the Arabian Peninsula to intensify its activities for gaining more influence in the region, according a working paper just published by the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS), the most important military policy strategy center for the German government. As the BAKS notes, the energy transition compels the Arab Gulf states to abandon their economic focus on oil and gas. Moreover, following the change of US administrations, they are cautiously turning away from an openly confrontational policy toward Iran. This offers the opportunity to play a leading role in facilitating a new security dialogue in the Gulf, while enabling the EU to establish “a counterweight to Chinese influence in the region,” according to the BAKS. China is gaining strength on the Arabian Peninsula. It is setting up a regional manufacturing plant for Covid-19 vaccines in the United Arab Emirates, while Huawei is rolling out the country’s 5G network and is intending to upgrade it to a cyber security hub.   (German Foreign Policy, 6/13/2021)

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Israel awakens to its most representative government ever, courtesy of Netanyahu  Ex-PM, ironically, paved the path for new coalition.  His shunning of the traditional handover of power, after his graceless Knesset speech, underlines why his departure was overdue  by David Horovitz, Times of Israel, 14 June 2021

Israel awoke Monday to a new, post-Netanyahu dawn — to a fragile and phenomenally diverse coalition whose members chorused their determination to work for the good of the country. The sun rose as usual, just as Naftali Bennett had promised last week that it would, except he was now prime minister. “King Bibi,” it turned out, was not a monarch after all.

As they assembled for the traditional photograph with the president, there was no mistaking the breadth of Israel represented by the ministers in the government headed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid. On one side of President Reuven Rivlin sat Bennett, Israel’s first Orthodox prime minister and the former head of the Settlers Council. On the other sat Lapid, the secular centrist who drew together the radically improbable eight-party mix that on Sunday unseated Benjamin Netanyahu after 12 years.

Among those arrayed behind them stood an Ethiopia-born minister (Pnina Tamano Shata), a former IDF chief of staff (Benny Gantz), Israel’s first openly gay party leader (Nitzan Horowitz), a minister from the Arab community (Issawi Frej), other ex-army officers, and immigrants from the former Soviet Union. In her wheelchair to Lapid’s left was Karine Elharrar (she has muscular dystrophy), the incoming energy minister.

For Rivlin, who publicly declared his discomfort when charging Benjamin Netanyahu with forming a government after the March 23 elections, but expressed no such reservations when transferring the mandate to Lapid in May after Netanyahu failed, Monday’s ceremony was a fortuitously timed delight. Rivlin’s seven-year term ends next month, and he relished this most significant of his final events, taking the time to shake hands with all, and embrace many, of the 27 ministers in the government that has ended Netanyahu’s rule.

Not only does Israel’s new government hail from diverse backgrounds, however, but its component parties are advocates of radically contrasting ideologies . . .

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BOOK REPORT

“An Army of Children” (1978) by Evan H. Rhodes (no relation) is a first class read and opened my mind to a deeper appreciation of the Crusades.

It’s about the Children’s Crusade in 1212, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of children.   Many became slaves to Arabs and Turks.

The overwhelming impression I was left with is that their faith was very real.   They did not question their beliefs, the church or the pope and went off to liberate the city of Jerusalem, departing from Cologne, Paris or wherever they joined the throng.   

I recommend it.

When I looked up the book, it listed a hardcover copy as being worth $500.   Mine was hardcover.  If any reader wants to offer me $500, I will gladly send you my copy.   As to why it’s worth so much, I have no idea.   Supply and demand, I suppose.  The paperback was listed at only $6.79.

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TO THE POINT

• UK ‘agrees trade deal with Australia’ – The “broad terms” of a trade deal between the UK and Australia have been agreed, according to the BBC. Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison shook hands on the deal over dinner at Downing Street last night. The agreement, which would be the first trade deal to be negotiated from scratch since the UK left the EU, is expected to be formally announced later today. It would give UK and Australian food producers and other businesses easier access to each other’s markets.   (The Week, 6/15/2021)

• Biden talked Putin with Queen – Joe Biden says the Queen asked him about Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping during their 45-minute talk over tea at Windsor Castle yesterday. Speaking on the tarmac at Heathrow airport before he flew out of the country, the US president said: “We had a long talk, she was very generous. I don’t think she’d be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother.”   (The Week, 6/14/201)

• Aung San Suu Kyi on trial – Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader, has gone on trial more than four months after the military seized power in a coup. A court in the capital Naypyidaw heard the first criminal cases against the deposed leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Suu Kyi “seemed not very well,” her lawyer told CNN, adding that “throughout the hearing she seemed quite interested and paid keen attention”. She faces a wide range of charges, including breaching a natural disaster law by breaking coronavirus restrictions and allegations that she broke a communications law and an import law by illegally possessing walkie-talkies.   (The Week, 6/15/2021)

• China’s border actions against India have been described as a “salami tactic.” China seems to be seeking to dominate territory through incremental operations too small to attract international attention and not large enough to spark an actual war with India — but sufficient to accumulate real results over time in the form of gained territory. It is similar to the tactic China has been using in the South China Sea.  For this purpose, China uses gray-zone warfare, a maneuver at which the country has become expert, especially against Taiwan. The concept entails actions that fall just short of war — others have termed it “indirect war” — but the purpose is the same: to overcome resistance — or a perceived enemy — by inducing exhaustion.  (Judith Bergman, Gatestone, 6/15/2021)

• The new coalition government led by Prime Minister-elect Naftali Bennett has won Knesset backing, paving the way for the new government Sunday night. Bennett became Israel’s thirteenth prime minister Sunday night, ending Benjamin Netanyahu’s more than 12 consecutive years in power. Sixty MKs voted in favor of the new government, with 59 lawmakers voting against. While the government is set to include 61 MKs – an absolute majority in the 120-member Knesset, MK Said al-Harumi (United Arab List/Ra’am) abstained from the vote. * (Israel National News 6/13/2021)

• DIVERSITY DOESN’T WORK – Three headlines in the LSJ:   ANTI-ASIAN RACISM HURTS EVERYONE & USE OF RACIAL SLUR AT DOCTOR’S OFFICE STUNS Another headline, same day:  LANSING MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY TO SUPPORT ISIS (the man’s name was Mohamed Haji, 28).  (LSJ 6/11/2021)      

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FINAL THOUGHT

I read somewhere recently that 90% of all storage units in the world are in the US, which has 4% of the world’s population.   I can believe it – every town has dozens of these ugly buildings with people coming and going to look at their “stuff.”

We know people who not only live in a three-bedroom house, but also have at least three storage centers. The cost is over $300 per month.

Why not just throw out everything in the storage units and spend the money on something else?

“Matthew 6:19-21 – Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Luke 12:15 – Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Yet, clearly, many people think differently, that “a man’s life consists in the abundance of his possessions.”  The more material things we gather, the more successful we are.

I watched a very good program on Netflix.  Called Minimalism, it advocated getting rid of stuff until you’re down to the bare essentials.   Once you start doing it, you can’t stop.  The result is far less stress.

My daughter went to Goodwill to drop off two strollers she no longer needs.  They wouldn’t take them because people aren’t buying them.  They want new.  Obviously, people have too much money.  

An expression coined twenty years ago was Affluenza, the title of a PBS documentary.   Since the 1950’s we’ve been accumulating more and more stuff.   The average home then was 1100 square feet, with no garage.   Now it’s at least double that with a two car garage, which is mostly used to store “stuff.” We certainly don’t need all this stuff. 

DEFINITION OF A HOARDER

• Hoarding is a disorder that involves a compulsive need to keep objects, trash or animals.
• A level 1 hoarder has only small amounts of clutter, while a level 2 hoarder’s home has lots of clutter and noticeable odors and waste.
• A level 3 hoarder has visible clutter outside the home, but a level 4 hoarder may also have poor hygiene and bathing habits.
• Level 5 is the most severe hoarding disorder and involves fire hazards, rotting food and at least four too many pets.
• The consequences of hoarding include financial strain, depression and substance abuse. (The Recovery Village)