US DEBT CEILING NEARING CRISIS

Dollar softer as US debt ceiling crisis unresolved, inflation data eyed (https://wkzo.com/2023/05/09/dollar-softer-as-us-debt-ceiling-crisis-unresolved-inflation-data-eyed/)

The US treasury is set to run out of cash in early June, which means the country is rapidly approaching a fiscal breaking point. That’s why President Joe Biden is huddling with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leadership on Tuesday for urgent debt ceiling discussions.

The June deadline poses a Catch-22 for McCarthy, whose options are to hold the government hostage or compromise on Republican demands by striking a deal with the Democrats. The latter would lead to a backlash from his own party and likely cost him his job.

Why this matters:  The debt ceiling is the limit on how much the government can borrow from the US treasury to pay its bills. The US functions at a massive deficit, so the government has to borrow money to pay for things like Social Security, veterans’ benefits, and Medicare.

The US officially hit its limit back in January and has been operating under “emergency measures” ever since, enabling the US to fulfill its financial obligations. But the government’s ability to borrow through these measures could dry up as early as June 1. If a deal isn’t reached before then, the government stops functioning and could wind up defaulting on its debt – a historic first that would plunge global markets into crisis. (Gzero Signal, 5/9/2023)

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Netanyahu tells members of Congress that Iran could threaten ‘every city in the US’ — Speaking to US lawmakers in Jerusalem, prime minister says Tehran is as dangerous as ’50 North Koreas,’ after defense minister warns Greek counterpart of Iran’s uranium enrichment.  (https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-may-4-2023/)

TERRORIST’S MOTHER CONDONES KILLINGS OF 3

The mother of the Hamas terrorist who killed Lucy, Maia, and Rina Dee said the following about the Jewish people: “The Jews are our enemies. We should fight them, devour them with our teeth.”

“Anyone with courage in his heart cannot accept what the Jews did to us.”

With parents and examples like this, it’s no wonder why there is a flourishing hate filled jihadist culture thriving in Judea and Samaria and beyond within the Arab Muslim world.   (Israel Unwired, 5/8/2023)

A DIFFERENT WORLD

Iranian Official Public Announcement:  If A Woman Is Caught Without Her Hijab Inside A Car, It May Be Impounded; Syrian Islamic Scholar:  It Is Better For A Wife To Endure ‘Disciplinary’ Beatings Than Get A Divorce And Lose Her Children. (MEMRI, 5/5/2023)

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The coronation of King Charles won’t just be an amazing spectacle —The west needs to grasp what it says about nation and religion

Procession down the Royal Mall, London; dress rehearsal for coronation of King Charles III

On Saturday, Britain’s King Charles III will be crowned in London’s Westminster Abbey.

The coronation, which will be viewed by millions around the world, promises to be a spectacle of ceremony and magnificence for which the British have no rivals.

Even this week’s dress rehearsal, which was carried out in the middle of the night, was attended by crowds of spectators and produced awe-struck responses to the mile-long military procession taking the gold state coach to the abbey from Buckingham Palace.

The significance of the event, however, goes far deeper and wider than all the pomp and circumstance. The coronation makes two statements of great importance for today’s world about the place of religion in public life and the importance and meaning of the nation.

Both religion and nation are currently opposed, scorned and vilified by the dominant progressive elites of western culture. Many such people also oppose the monarchy, viewing it as an anachronism redolent of hereditary privilege that has no place in a modern democracy.

Throughout the west, there is now an all-out assault on the very idea of the nation along with its inherited culture. This is fueled by a determination to impose supposedly universal values that will usher in the unity of all mankind.

This onslaught involves an attempt to dismember the traditional nuclear family; vilify white society, normative sexuality and men; and hijack education and replace knowledge and rationality with propaganda and the suppression of dissent.

At the core of this agenda — whose echoes can also be heard in the anti-government protests that have been rocking Israel — lies the aim of exiling religion from the public square.

The monarchy in Britain embodies both religion and nation. The core of the coronation is a religious dedication. Dressed in a simple shirt, the King will be anointed with holy oil and in this private ritual will take his monarchical oath of service to God.

Few realize that the British monarchy is patterned on Jewish history. Early English kings even believed they were descended from King David. They appreciated the revolutionary aspect of ancient Israel: its monarch was not the supreme ruler, a status which invites tyranny and despotism, but was himself answerable to God, the one true king over all.

The British coronation rite is modeled on the accession of King Solomon as described in the Book of Kings. Solomon was escorted to the throne by both religious and military leaders, as will happen to Charles, and was anointed by Zadok the high priest, represented this weekend by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The choir in the abbey will raise the roof with Handel’s sublime “Zadok the Priest,” and the holy oil will have been brought from Jordan, part of the original Land of Israel.

Jews know better than anyone that what keeps a nation together is continuity — the adherence to principles, traditions and rites that shape a people and are handed down through the generations.

Britain, however, is a very different nation from the one that greeted the late Queen Elizabeth II when she was crowned more than 70 years ago. Demographically, it is far more diverse, with a plethora of different cultures and faith.

This will be acknowledged at the coronation. Britain’s Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, and the equivalent representatives of Britain’s Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist communities, will step forward towards the King at the end of the ceremony and extend to him their good wishes and blessings.

To ensure the Chief Rabbi does not break Shabbat, he and his wife will spend the night before the coronation at St. James’s Palace so they can walk to the abbey, and his words will not be amplified by a microphone.

In addition, a Jew, a Muslim, a Sikh and a Hindu will present the King with artifacts that play a part in the ceremony — the Imperial Mantle, the sovereign’s ring, a pair of ceremonial bracelets and the coronation glove.

There is relief among traditionalists that, while these gestures are a sensitive nod towards diversity, the core principle underpinning the coronation has not been eroded. This is that the monarch swears to defend the Protestant Christian faith.

Although when he was Prince of Wales Charles stated his wish to be “defender of faith,” he will in fact retain the all-important definite article and swear to be “defender of the faith.”

An increasing number of people can’t see the point of this in a society where religious belief is now a minority pursuit. However, Christianity remains key to the nation’s integrity and sense of itself.

Christian values are fundamental to the west. Justice and the rule of law, compassion and putting others first, above all respect for every individual’s humanity as created in the image of God — all come from the Hebrew Bible and the Christianity that cemented them into western culture.

The idea that minority cultures can only thrive without that umbrella structure is mistaken. In its absence, groups will fight other groups for power and the weakest will go to the wall.

America, which has neither a monarchy nor an established religion, nevertheless subscribes to those values. Biblical precepts and the example of ancient Israel are explicitly referenced through America’s foundational institutions.

Only a nation whose citizens are united by a common culture within a delineated territory can defend those values and that territory, and thus protect civilization itself. (Melanie Phillips, 5/5/2023)

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TO THE POINT

• Canada has expelled a Chinese diplomat following claims that Beijing tried to intimidate a Canadian politician and interfere in the country’s elections. In a statement, Canada’s Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly declared Toronto-based diplomat Zhao Wei “persona non grata.” The Canadian Security Intelligence Service found an accredited Chinese diplomat in the country had targeted opposition lawmaker Michael Chong, and his relatives in China, after he supported a motion to condemn China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority group.   (The Week, 5/9/2023)

• Two million households in the UK missed or defaulted on at least one mortgage, rent, loan, credit card payment or bill last month, according to Which. The consumer group found that 700,000 of this number had missed their housing payments. The Mirror said that a “significant number” of those surveyed – 3.1% – also missed mortgage payments in the last month as Bank of England interest rates continued to climb. The “shock figures” come among a “backdrop of rising costs putting a strain on UK households in recent months,” said the paper.  (The Week, 5/9/2023)

• Scott Baio has had enough of California. The actor is so sick of its left-wing politics, and the crime, the homelessness, the lawlessness, and the grim future it holds, after 45 years he is taking his family with him and leaving.

• Vladimir Putin’s annual Victory Day speech was shorter than usual, and the number of troops on parade in Moscow was the lowest since 2008. (Spectator, 5/9/2023)

• KING’S CORONATION:  TV companies gave a great deal of attention to anti-monarchist groups in the UK during the coronation of King Charles III.   Nothing was said about failed republics.   Next door France is still experiencing riots and turmoil with talk of a new French Republic (the 6^th); former colony Nigeria is witnessing a contested result following an election; while the US cannot sort out its debt problem or stop mass shootings (200+ so far this year). 

COMMENTARY – A TROUBLESOME PRIEST

Just as the king cannot get directly involved in politics, it’s time the same rule applied to the Archbishop of Canterbury.   The Archbishop has been critical of Britain’s policy toward so-called asylum seekers.   These asylum seekers are primarily young men who want to live in a country that offers greater opportunity.   Some are attracted by illegal activity that offers quick money with minimal risk.

Very few women are in their midst.

Why is the archbishop so concerned about the asylum seekers?   They are unlikely to join his church, with its watered-down teachings and pro-gay agenda.   

Clearly this man, with a senior role in Britain’s hierarchy, is a liberal-socialist, which remains the dominant mood amongst the UK’s establishment.

Allowing Syrians, Albanians, Eritreans, and others into a small island will only increase ethnic tensions.   It also means greater pressure on housing, the National Health Service and other venerated institutions.

This is not the way it should be.  Note the following verse in Acts.

“From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.”  (Acts 17:26)

For centuries, the British Isles was the ancestral home of the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples.   It is clearly not the intent of the British government, now or any government in the last fifty years, to maintain this.   Already, over 20% of the country is non-white, probably more.   London and Birmingham, the two biggest cities, are majority non-white.

If the plan is to make the whites a minority, the government should be honest and say so.

It would certainly help things if the archbishop would shut up.

In the famous words of Henry II in 1170:  “Will nobody rid me of this troublesome priest?”

ALBANIAN INVASION

The home secretary, Suella Braverman, in parliament on 31 October, where she spoke of an ‘invasion’ on the south coast. (Photograph: Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament/AFP/Getty Images)

For hundreds of years, Great Britain had the biggest navy in the world.   It kept all invaders out of the British Isles and kept them away from Britain’s vast colonial empire as well.  Chief amongst its enemies were Spain and France, two Catholic powers that wanted to restore Britain to the church.  More recently, there was Germany.   In two world wars Britain kept the German invader out and maintained the country’s independence.

But everything is different now.  The Royal Navy was the great protector of Great Britain, keeping out the Germans, before them, the French and Spanish.  But now they are being defeated by an irregular force of Albanians, who, apparently want to expand their criminal activities to England (human trafficking, gambling and drugs).   At least one thousand people a week arrive in dinghies, claiming asylum.  It should be noted here that there is absolutely no reason for them to seek asylum, as Albania is a democracy.  It’s been a member of NATO since 2009.  And since most arrivals are young men (and not women and children), these new arrivals are clearly economic migrants, simply out to better themselves.

The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) rescues them, gives them a hot cup of tea, and brings them safely to shore where they are then housed in 3- or 4-star hotels at tax-payer expense.  They are given three meals a day and 38 pounds spending money a week. This, at a time when many people in Britain do not have enough to eat.

Suella Braverman, Home Secretary (Interior Minister) in the UK, described what is happening as an “invasion.”   She was criticized in parliament for using that word, but what word should she use?   The waves of immigrants in recent years are changing Great Britain out of recognition; making it worse is that people have been silenced through repressive laws that limit their freedom to speak on this issue.

Once again, Britain is asking the French to help stop the flow.  They are to pay France 72.2 million euros (the dollar and the euro are on a par right now), up from 63 million last year.    One question: If it didn’t work then, why should it work now?

A solution might be to bring some royal naval commanders out of retirement.  They will know what to do and take great pleasure in doing it!

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PS:  It’s just been announced that only 46% of the British people, in a recent survey, consider themselves Christian.   In the US it’s 71% Coincidentally, my electronic Bible opened up at the following verse this morning: “The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. ” (Deut 28)

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US MIDTERMS

The Republicans had a disappointing electoral result in the Midterms.   Inflation did not turn people against the Democrats.   Many commentators said it was the female vote that did it.  More specifically women who support abortion.

For the GOP, it’s an opportunity to launch investigations on stuff like the origins of COVID, the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Republicans’ favorite target: Biden’s own son, Hunter. It might even lead to impeaching the president. On foreign policy, expect the GOP to penny-pinch US aid to Ukraine and make Congress get even tougher on China — perhaps not the best idea after Biden and Xi Jinping decided to cool things down at the G-20 in Bali.  (Gzero Signal, 11/17/2022)

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UN Mideast envoy warns West Bank ‘reaching a boiling point’ The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, warns the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “reaching a boiling point.”  (Times of Israel, by Luke Tress, 28 Nov 2022)

“The high level of violence in the occupied West Bank and Israel in recent months including attacks against Israeli and Palestinian civilians,” Wennesland says, “have caused grave human suffering.”  

“The targeting of civilians can never be justified and the violence must stop,” Wennesland says at a Security Council briefing, calling for a return to a political process for a resolution to the conflict.  He condemns the recent terror attacks in Jerusalem and Ariel, as well as settler violence against Palestinians in Hebron.  He warns that “demography is moving faster than politics,” and that the rapid population growth in Gaza and the West Bank will make it “increasingly difficult” to manage the conflict.  The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, condemns the terror attacks against Israelis and settler violence.  The US “is deeply concerned about the sharp escalation,” Thomas-Greenfield says. “This has been the deadliest year in the West Bank since 2004.”  She condemns the Palestinian Authority’s payments to terrorists and the “disruption to the historic status quo of holy sites.”  Thomas-Greenfield blasts the UN for its “lopsided focus” on Israel, including the open-ended Commission of Inquiry and the request for the International Court of Justice to weigh in on the conflict.  “The UN system is replete with anti-Israel actions and bodies,” she says. “Instead of grandstanding and pursuing unproductive measures, we hope the UN will start focusing on concrete steps that improve the lives of Israelis and Palestinians.” 

(https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-november-28-2022/)

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BERLIN AND THE “UKRAINIAN HOLOCAUST”

The German Bundestag wants to declare the 1932/33 famine in Ukraine a genocide and is thus adopting a politically motivated classification from the milieu of the former Ukrainian Nazi collaboration. As research by historians shows, the claim that the famine was a deliberately planned “Ukrainian Holocaust” originated within the Ukrainian exile community in Canada, where former Nazi-collaborators set the tone. In the late 1980s, this claim was subsumed under the newly coined term “Holdomor.”  Historians overwhelmingly reject this claim, particularly because the famine affected the populations of agrarian regions throughout the Soviet Union. The Bundestag plans to pass its resolution on the “Holdomor” already on Wednesday. This also threatens to have serious domestic consequences. Last Friday the Bundesrat had approved the recent tightening of §130 of the German penal code, according to which “the public condoning, denying, or grossly trivializing” of war crimes and genocide will be punishable by law.   (German Foreign Policy, 11/28/2022)

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT COLLAPSES – THE LEFT AND ARABS TAKE CONTROL OF COUNTRY

Photo from: https://www.newsdelivers.com/2022/06/20/israeli-pm-to-dissolve-government-call-new-elections/

Due to increased defections from dissatisfied Yamina party members, the coalition was unable to function and became increasingly reliant on Arab parties within the coalition and in the opposition to function. Given that, Bennett and Lapid took to two podiums to announce the breakup of the 24th Knesset, handing Yair Lapid the role of caretaker Prime Minister until new elections.

This move gives Lapid, an ardent secularist, what he has always sought – control of Israel – albeit with limited powers and only until a new government is formed. Still, with elections in September, the damage a Lapid government can do, especially in partnership with Arab parties, may be irreversible.

With President Joe Biden arriving in Israel in July, a Prime Minister Lapid may attempt to sell Israel out to the Arabs in order to make irreversible changes to Israel’s standing vis a vis Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem. While no agreement is binding, the mere mentions of unilateral concessions is dangerous.

Even without a public capitulation, Lapid’s standing in Israel will be increased and his ability to manipulate the body-politic going into elections will be higher than ever. (Micha Gefen, Israel Unwired, 6/21/2022)

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SOUTH AFRICA

Ramaphosa calls Putin to discuss food and fertiliser supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine scrambled global markets.
During a phone call on Wednesday, the two BRICS leaders stressed intention to ‘expand mutually beneficial cooperation’

“They also discussed in detail issues of food security, including the supply of Russian agricultural products and fertilisers to the African continent, in particular South Africa. The leaders also noted the importance of joint work within BRICS in order to further promote the role of this association in global politics and economics.”  Western governments have accused Russia of manipulating food supplies to gain a diplomatic advantage. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently stated:   “There are credible reports, including as we saw in one of our leading newspapers today, that Russia is pilfering Ukraine’s grain exports, to sell for its own profit.”

Last month, Russian Industry Minister Denis Manturov raised eyebrows when he proposed at a meeting of BRICS industry ministers that all five countries should jointly refine oil and gas and develop green energy — avoiding the need for “unreliable external partners.”  This was seen by some as a Russian attempt to bypass Western sanctions by calling on its BRICS allies. 

(https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-06-16-ramaphosa-calls-putin-to-discuss-food-and-fertiliser-supplies-after-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-scrambled-global-markets/)

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THE FAR-RIGHT AND NORSE GODS

Payton Gendron, the suspect in the killing of ten people in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, is the latest far-right extremist to allegedly murder defenseless people in the name of white supremacy. His hate-filled manifesto is full of baffling contradictions, vile stereotypes, unhinged conspiracy theories and, predictably, Norse symbolism.

Gendron ended his manifesto with the contradictory message: “God bless you all and I hope to see you in Valhalla.” This follows the lead of the terrorist who attacked a summer camp in Utøya, Norway, who named his guns after the weapons of the Norse gods. Even more recently, the shooter who attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand bookended his manifesto with references to Norse culture.  (The Week, 6/20/2022)  (https://dennis.slgnt.eu/optiext/optiextension.dll?(ID=MefMeMVdRQlZ9rarZ%2BbAQ7HC4pwiH7YOeft3i1vGc9iOtAawUn3dMx5eNE3Ff0DjUeDTIy0yd5ps_RwHW%2ByRzm64E2e25)

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“UNSTABLE AS WATER”

“Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it – he went up to my couch!”   (Genesis 49:4 ESV)

The results of the French parliamentary elections have been “much worse” for Emmanuel Macron than “almost anyone anticipated”, writes Jonathan Miller in The Spectator. The French president “has been humiliated by voters, weeks after being re-elected by an unenthusiastic electorate”, he says. “The hyper-president with ambitions to lead Europe looks like he will not even be able to lead France,” and the country “looks more ungovernable than ever.” Having lost his parliamentary majority, Macron “must now hope to create ad hoc” coalitions to pass reforms, “but he has few allies and will pay a high price.” And he “is not only incapable of uniting the country, he bears heavy responsibility for dividing it” too. Macron “commands little to no affection” and is now “doomed to preside over escalating chaos” as France faces cost-of-living, law and order, and energy crises. (https://dennis.slgnt.eu/optiext/optiextension.dll?ID=MefMgjmtq5ZUHTiP0SV_nGXxz9tSTkjXVlmvD7%2BWo_Jwz%2BiwV4Mli_KaNiikwThT37hVDCk2V45iuf05EZq0GCBJE7Owc)

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THE EU’S CHARM OFFENSIVE IN ISRAEL

People dining this week on the charming terrace at Jerusalem’s King David hotel were surprised to find at the next table Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

Given the EU’s long-standing hostility towards Israel, it was a bit like spotting Amber Heard knocking back the tequila with Johnny Depp in a Los Angeles bar.

That may be unfair to von der Leyen herself, who was described later that day by Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, as “a great friend of the Jewish people and a great friend of Israel.”

She had certainly come to Israel on a charm offensive. In a speech at Ben Gurion University where she was awarded an honorary degree, she said:  “I have put the fight against antisemitism and fostering Jewish life in Europe at the core of the European Commission’s agenda. Our democracy flourishes if Jewish life in Europe flourishes, too. Throughout the centuries, the Jewish people have been ‘a light unto the nations.’ And they shall be a light unto Europe for many centuries ahead.”

So she pressed all the right buttons about the Jewish people. The real reason for her trip, however, was panic.

As a result of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the EU has boycotted Russian natural gas. This has left its energy supplies seriously depleted. Until the war, Russia was supplying some 40 per cent of the gas that Europe consumes.

Now that Israel has emerged as a major player in the energy market, the EU is desperate to import Israeli gas to keep the lights on this coming winter. This week, it signed a deal that will see Israeli gas sent to Egypt, where it will be liquefied and from there shipped to Europe where it will be changed back to gas.  (Melanie Phillips, 6/17/2022)

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AMERICAN BELIEFS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The vast majority of U.S. adults believe in God, but the 81% who do so is down six percentage points from 2017 and is the lowest in Gallup’s trend. Between 1944 and 2011, more than 90% of Americans believed in God.

Gallup’s May 2-22 Values and Beliefs poll finds 17% of Americans saying they do not believe in God.

Gallup first asked this question in 1944, repeating it again in 1947 and twice each in the 1950s and 1960s. In those latter four surveys, a consistent 98% said they believed in God. When Gallup asked the question nearly five decades later, in 2011, 92% of Americans said they believed in God.

A subsequent survey in 2013 found belief in God dipping below 90% to 87%, roughly where it stood in three subsequent updates between 2014 and 2017 before this year’s drop to 81%.

Gallup has also in recent years asked other questions aimed at measuring belief in God or a higher power. All find the vast majority of Americans saying they believe; when given the option, 5% to 10% have said they were “unsure.”

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PRINCE CHARLES INTERFERING IN POLITICS

British cabinet ministers have fired a warning shot at Prince Charles, who they fear will plunge the country into a constitutional crisis if he continues to meddle in government business when he becomes king.

Clarence House issued a statement on Saturday insisting Prince Charles would remain “politically neutral” as monarch, despite reports he had branded the UK government’s policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda “appalling.”  His alleged comment followed a High Court ruling in favour of the policy. The first such flight to the east African country is scheduled for Tuesday.

The Times reported that Charles had been heard expressing opposition to the policy several times in private, and that he was “more than disappointed” by it. Cabinet ministers are concerned by reports from courtiers that Charles wants to be more forward in stating his views.

A rift is said to have developed between Charles and Boris Johnson because of the UK prime minister’s “disrespectful” behavior during the men’s first meeting.   (The Times, 6/12/2022)

Britain’s Prince William turns 40 on 21 June 2022: 40 photos.

The world watched as Prince William grew from a towheaded schoolboy to a dashing air-sea rescue pilot to a father of three.  But as he turns 40, William is making the biggest change yet:  assuming an increasingly central role in the royal family as he prepares for his eventual accession to the throne.

(https://apnews.com/article/prince-william-turns-40-1c7fdbee66b84453bfb7205743a3645c/gallery/f97adccf829f40d8a3990ac1847a323d)

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TO THE POINT

• Economic growth in the UK will be the worst in the G20 apart from Russia, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has forecast. The Paris-based organisation said the effects of high inflation and a further round of tax increases will be the main factors in the UK’s expected weak economic activity. Laurence Boone, chief economist of the OECD, said the UK was unique because it was simultaneously facing high inflation, rising interest rates and increasing taxes.  (The Week, 6/9/2022)

• The Queen’s health is now a topic of constant discussion. To see her looking fit and well during the Jubilee celebrations was a relief for the millions who regard her as the ‘proper’ face of the contemporary monarchy. But given the self-indulgent shenanigans that her family seem intent on creating during the final years of her reign, she might be forgiven for wanting to abandon the whole pack of them, retiring to Windsor Castle and letting her ungrateful brood get on with sabotaging the institution that she has spent seven painstaking decades protecting. Many of us would sympathize with that desire.   (“The royal rabble versus the Queen,”  Alexander Larman, The Spectator, 6/13/2022)

• Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia (born 10 June 1976) is a German businessman who is the current head of the Prussian branch of the House of Hohenzollern, the former ruling dynasty of the German Empire and of the Kingdom of Prussia.  He is the great-great-grandson and historic heir of Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, who abdicated and went into exile upon Germany’s defeat in World War I in 1918.  Thus, he is a fourth great-grandson of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and a distant cousin of many European monarchs.  (Wikipedia article based on a German article:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Friedrich,_Prince_of_Prussia)

• The world economy will pay a “hefty price” for the war in Ukraine through weaker growth, stronger inflation and potentially long-lasting damage to supply chains, according to the OECD club of rich nations. The grim outlook came as talks between Russia and Turkey brought no signs of progress on a deal to unblock shipments of Ukrainian grain in the face of a global food-supply crisis. Even worse, a United Nations expert said removing mines near Ukraine’s key ports could take months. As the war passes 100 days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the ongoing battle in the city of Sievierodonetsk may be the most critical of the conflict, and could determine the fate of the east of the country.   (Bloomberg, 6/9/2022)

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FINAL THOUGHT

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”  (Benjamin Franklin)

AMERICAN IMPOTENCE

(Daily Mirror, Feb 22. 2022)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is underway.   The fact is, it began eight years ago when Moscow invaded Crimea, which was a part of Ukraine.  Now, they want two regions of Ukraine where Russian speakers live.  They will be nominally independent but will certainly depend on Moscow.  Sending the military in to these areas has been condemned by the White House as an “invasion.”

President Biden has already said that the US will not send troops to Ukraine.  Any war with Russia could soon turn nuclear so the risks are very great.

There is very little that can be done.  Sanctions are not going to make Putin back down.  He’s known about the threat of sanctions for weeks but it has not stopped him.

In Afghanistan, the US was defeated after a war that lasted twenty years.   This time, the US and its allies are defeated before any fighting can take place.  (Leviticus 26:19) “I will break the pride of your power.”

As Beth Rigby said on Sky News:  “Sanctions are like bringing a pea-shooter to a gunfight!”   She also made another point, that this is the worst thing that’s happened to Europe since World War II.

“It is not the first time the Russian president has tried to rearrange borders in Europe with the flick of his pen.  Eight years on from the annexation of Crimea, The Week explores his next moves in what The Moscow Times has called the ‘expanding motherland.’”  (The Week, 2/22/2022)

In danger are other alliances.  Most immediately is Taiwan.  A Russian victory in Ukraine can only embolden the Chinese to take back Taiwan.   America is not likely to do anything.

Argentina claims the Falklands just as Russia claims Ukraine.

SANCTIONS DON’T MATTER

Putin is without a doubt the wealthiest person in the world. The source of his wealth is power and corruption. And the basis of his power is lies, propaganda and falsified election results. You want to influence Putin, then influence his personal wealth . . . Everybody knows the names of the oligarchs and friends of Putin who hold his money. We know those who finance his yachts and palaces. Those who support his second and third families. It takes a majority of these oligarchs to split Putin’s elites. Give them a signal that the regime in Russia today will not be an eternal paradise where they can rob the people inside Russia while easily and freely spending their earnings in Europe and the U.S.” — Alexei Navalny, Time Magazine, January 19, 2022.   (Gatestone, 2/21/2022)

“Total Russian private wealth held abroad is assessed at $800 billion . . .   Putin’s crony capitalism condemns Russia to near stagnation for as long as he stays in power. No political or economic reform is on his agenda, since reform would undermine his political power. Instead, Putin needs foreign adventures, such as the wars in Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria to rally his people around the flag. The best defense of the West against Putin’s authoritarian and kleptocratic regime is transparency, shining light on this anonymous wealth, which is probably held predominantly in the United States and the United Kingdom . . .” – Anders Åslund, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of the book Russia’s Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy.   (Gatestone, 2/21/2022)

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EU SAYS BRITS DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHEN THEY VOTED FOR BREXIT

The British public did not understand what they were voting for when they backed Brexit in the 2016 referendum, the European Parliament has claimed. In a report on the Article 50 process, MEPs said UK voters “had scant knowledge about the European Union” and “were not adequately informed about the far-reaching consequences of the decision to leave the union.”  A UK government source told the Daily Telegraph that “being lectured on transparency by the European Parliament shows just how little many in the EU have learnt from Brexit.”  (The Week, 2/17/2022)

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EU-AFRICA DISPUTE

Serious disputes between the EU and the African Union (AU) are overshadowing the EU-Africa Summit, which begins tomorrow in Brussels. On the one hand, the African nations are protesting the European powers’ persistent refusal to at least temporarily lift patents for Covid-19 vaccines. South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa recently accused the wealthy nations of the transatlantic West of imposing a “vaccine apartheid.” At the same time, nearly all of the EU countries – Germany included – are refusing to donate some of their unneeded special drawing rights (SDR) to Africa, which they had received from the IMF in August 2021. With these, African countries could have generated billions to help fight the pandemic. According to EU plans, African countries should instead become suppliers of “green” hydrogen, to help Europe achieve its energy transition. Resentment in Africa is growing toward the EU – which is generous with phraseology, but stingy with development aid. Africa is turning more toward other countries – China, Russia, or Turkey.  (German Foreign Policy 2/16/2022)

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Israel inaugurates earthquake warning system – Many buildings in the north still remain at high risk in case of earthquakes

Israel’s east is overdue for a powerful earthquake, and the government is finally making preparations for the day the big one strikes.  Prof. Michael Tsesarsky of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba told The Media Line, “We have a statistical estimate of about one major earthquake every century in this area, along the Dead Sea tectonic fault.”  The Dead Sea fault forms part of the boundary between the African and Arabian plates. The last severe earthquake took place in 1927, with the epicenter in the Jericho area, and the one before that was the Galilee earthquake of 1837, centered close to the city of Safed, Tsesarsky said, adding that both caused great damage.  “So we are within the time frame of the next [big] earthquake. We cannot say when exactly it will strike, but we can say that with every day that passes, the probability rises,” he continued.  Tsesarsky said that in the worst case, we can expect to see a quake of 7.5 on the Richter scale, and according to a more optimistic scenario, one of about 6-6.5 in magnitude.

It is well known which segments of the Dead Sea fault are at the most risk, Tsesarsky explained. Northern Israel is one of them, he added. Israel has a building code called Standard SI 413, designed to make structures earthquake-resistant.  The problem, Tsesarsky said, is that this code only became effective in 1980, and around 100,000 buildings in Israel, built before then, are in great danger. (Jerusalem Post, 7 Feb 2022)

New water supply system for Jerusalem – Designated by the government as a national infrastructural project, the system is set to connect Jerusalem and nearby settlements to desalinated Mediterranean waters

The project, six years in the making, saw Mekorot mine a 13 k.m. tunnel through the Jerusalem hills at a cost of NIS 2.5 billion.  Fiber optics were attached to the pipes connecting Israel’s capital to the Mediterranean Sea for future monitoring of malfunctions in the system.  Herzog was joined at the groundbreaking ceremony by First Lady Michal Herzog,  (Energy Minister Karin Elharrar and Mekorot CEO Itzhak Aharonovitch, Jerusalem Post, 13 Feb 2022, https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/energy-and-infrastructure/article-696245)

EARTHQUAKE EXPECTED IN ISRAEL

A massive earthquake killing thousands of civilians is expected to hit Israel at some point in the future, the Army Home Front Command warned on Tuesday, following a small earthquake in northern Israel. Another small earthquake occurred shortly after the announcement.  The initial tremor was measured at a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale and was felt by residents in Beit She’an, Tiberius, Safed and the Jordan Valley.  (Haaretz  216)

In 1st, Israel advancing plan to expand national park onto E. Jerusalem church lands – Visiting US lawmakers raise concern with PM about move slated to clear preliminary hurdle next month; church leaders blast plan to ‘nationalize one of Christianity’s holiest sites’ (by Jacob Magid, Times of Israel, 20 Feb 2022)

Israeli officials are preparing to advance an unprecedented project to expand a national park  onto church-owned lands and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem, sparking fierce opposition from local Christian leaders, The Times of Israel has learned. (Times of Israel)

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SOUTH AFRICA

Crime stats: Murder rates up, sexual offences down
Out of 6,859 people killed in the country from October to December 2021, 902 of them were women and 352 were children

South Africa’s murder rate increased by 8.9% from October to December 2021, according to the latest quarterly crimes statistics.

According to Police Minister Bheki Cele, out of 6,859 people killed in the country from October to December 2021, 902 of them were women and 352 were children. 232 murders were a result of domestic violence.  “Murder remains worryingly stubborn. In the three months of reporting, an 8.9% increase in murder was recorded, that is 562 more people were killed in South Africa,” the minister said.  Cele said the North West province recorded the highest increase of murder cases, while fewer people were killed in the Free State and Western Cape provinces.  He said the top four reasons behind the high rates of murder were arguments, vigilantism, robberies and revenge or retaliation by perpetrators.  “A total of 2,599 people were murdered in public places. The second most likely place for murder to occur is at the home of the victim or of the perpetrator. Liquor outlets were the third most likely place to be killed in South Africa,” Cele said. (The Citizen, 18 Feb 2022, https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/crime/3026644/crime-stats-murder-rate-18-february-2022/)

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TO THE POINT

• UK:  Teachers have been forbidden from promoting campaigning groups such as Stonewall and Black Lives Matter under new government guidance. The Department for Education said schools must ensure that any “contentious and disputed” historic periods such as the British Empire and imperialism are taught in a “balanced” manner. Teaching unions told The Times the new guidance could impinge on freedom of speech by limiting what schools felt comfortable teaching.  (The Week, 2/17/2022)

• The year 2021 “saw the worst persecution of Christians in history” – with an average of 16 Christians murdered for their faith every day. (MEF, 2/13/2022)

• Over 360 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith – a rise of 20 million from last year. The number represents one in seven Christians worldwide. This year records the highest levels of persecution since the first list was published 29 years ago.   (Raymond Ibrahim, 2/13/2022)

FEAR OF NEW EUROPEAN CONFLICT

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (Image source: © РИА Новости / Пресс-служба МИД РФ)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that Europe could be returning to what he called the “nightmare of military confrontation.”

At a European security conference in Sweden, Mr. Lavrov floated the idea of a new European security pact to try to stop Nato from expanding further east.   US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned of “serious consequences” if Russia sought conflict with Ukraine.

The meeting comes as Russia boosts its military near Ukraine’s border.   Ukraine says Russia has amassed more than 90,000 troops there.   Moscow denies it is preparing an attack on Ukraine and accuses Kyiv of its own military build-up.  (BBC 12/2/2021)

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Trump ally calls for ‘one religion’

Donald Trump’s former national security adviser has called for “one religion” in the US to win a battle of good versus evil. CNN said Michael Flynn made the comment during a speech to a conservative Christian audience on the ReAwaken America tour in Texas. “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion,” he said. “One nation under God and one religion under God, right? All of us, working together.” 

Flynn is a Catholic. (The Week, 11/16)

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Emad Al Swealmeen: the motivation for Liverpool taxi bomb examined

The suspected terrorist who appeared to blow himself up outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Remembrance Sunday has been named as 32-year-old Emad Al Swealmeen. Officers from Counter Terrorism Policing North West have said that they “strongly believe” Al Swealmeen was the passenger who was proclaimed dead at the scene when the taxi he was in exploded. The driver, named locally as David Perry, managed to escape before the vehicle burst into flames at a drop-off zone near the hospital’s entrance. It was claimed that Perry, who has been heralded as a hero, locked Al Swealmeen in the cab.   (The Week, 11/16/2021)  (https://dennis.slgnt.eu/optiext/optiextension.dll?

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Move to Jerusalem, or Else!Government threatens financial sanctions against ministries that fail to move their offices to the capital by Ryan Jones, 15 Nov 2021, Israel Today

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It’s a fact that much of the rest of the world is belatedly accepting.   If only Israel could get its own government ministries to do the same. 

Israel Today has in the past spoken to Israelis who complained that it was no use trying to convince the rest of the world that Jerusalem was the capital of the State of Israel when its own Ministry of Defense and other major government bodies remained in Tel Aviv.  Israel’s new “government of change” is looking to, well, change that.  Cabinet ministers on Sunday voted in favor of a plan requiring all ministries and government offices within the next 120 days to either obtain a special exemption or submit a detailed plan to move to Jerusalem.  Ministries and government offices that fail to meet the deadline will have their budgets for furniture and renovations revoked, and will start paying rent on the Jerusalem properties earmarked for their use, even if those properties remain unused.  Currently some 100 government units operate outside the capital, including the Israel Prison Service, the Health Ministry’s food division, the police fraud and traffic units, and the tech divisions of the ministries of transportation and education.  “The government decision passed today is another part of correcting Jerusalem’s status as the capital and governing city of Israel, and it is extremely important,” Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion told Ha’aretz.  Some are worried that the influx of government offices will exacerbate Jerusalem’s traffic problems and make the capital even more overcrowded. 

But others insist that strengthening the Holy City’s status as the eternal and undivided capital of Israel trumps all other concerns.(https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/move-to-jerusalem-or-else/)

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‘Experts’ told you if you complied with lockdowns, censorship, masks and vaccinations — life would return to normal. ‘Conspiracy theorists’ told you Covid was never going to end, and governments would use it to usher in a totalitarian new world order. Who do you believe now? — Candace Owens

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KEEP YOUR EYES ON GOVERNMENT SPENDING

“Keep your eye on one thing and one thing only: how much government is spending,” Milton Friedman once said.  Today his eyes would be popping.   Governments have spent $17 trillion on the pandemic, including loans and guarantees, for a combined total of 16% of global GDP.  On current forecasts government spending will be greater as a share of GDP in 2026 than it was in 2006 in every major advanced economy.   America is about to put $1.8 trillion into expanding its welfare state; Europe is doling out a 750 billion euro  ( $850 billion) investment fund; and Japan is promising a “new capitalism,” with even more government largesse.”  (“The triumph of big government,” The Economist, 11/20/2021)

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THE END OF US DOMINANCE IN THE PERSIAN GULF

The incoming German government should intensify its efforts to gain influence at the Persian Gulf, thereby assuring that the EU can be “an actor” in the “global contest” for obtaining regional power. This demand is raised by the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in its current position paper, due to the power vacuum that is developing from the US focus on its power struggle against China, and therefore withdrawing from the Middle East. The People’s Republic of China, on the other hand, is strengthening its position, not only in Iran, with which it had concluded a 25-year “strategic partnership” last March and is seeking means for circumventing US sanctions, but in Arab Gulf countries as well. Beijing, for example, is also expanding its activities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and in Saudi Arabia – and is supplying them with 5G technology from the Huawei corporation, that Washington is so fiercely opposing. Appeals to Berlin and Brussels to strengthen the EU’s position in the region have so far been in vain. The DGAP warns that, in light of the global “rebalancing of power, ” raising the question of whose order will prevail.  (German Foreign Policy, 11/23/2021)

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CHINESE SAVING FACE DEMANDS TAIWAN

There is an error in the excerpt from Memri below.   Taiwan was separated from China in 1895.  It was ruled by Japan until the end of World War II, then was briefly reunited with China.

The Kuomintang government retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after the Communist Party seized power in mainland China. Since then, Taiwan and mainland China have been divided for 72 years. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has yet to achieve its cherished “reunification,” and this is its biggest concern, since not achieving the annexation would mean a “national humiliation.” Consequently, to seize Taiwan is a matter of “honor” (荣耀) for the CCP, which cannot afford to lose its national prestige as well as its legitimacy as the sole representative of the Chinese people. In fact, the concept of “honor” is deeply rooted in Chinese culture. An ancient Chinese saying goes: “A man can be killed but not humiliated.”

In Chinese culture, the notion of “honor” is connected to the “face” (面子). The “face” concept is so important that “losing face” may even be more frightening than the loss of life itself. Hence, “saving face” is a very important factor affecting judgment and choices.  (MEMRI, 11/29/2021)

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THE BAD GUYS ARE WINNING

“If the 20th century was the story of slow, uneven progress toward the victory of liberal democracy over other ideologies — communism, fascism, virulent nationalism — the 21st century is, so far, a story of the reverse,” Anne Applebaum writes in this tour de force for The Atlantic. From Venezuela, to Belarus, to Russia, to China, she details the myriad ways in which the “bad guys” are winning. “If America removes the promotion of democracy from its foreign policy, if America ceases to interest itself in the fate of other democracies and democratic movements, then autocracies will quickly take our place as sources of influence, funding, and ideas,” she concludes. “If Americans, together with our allies, fail to fight the habits and practices of autocracy abroad, we will encounter them at home; indeed, they are already here. If Americans don’t help to hold murderous regimes to account, those regimes will retain their sense of impunity. They will continue to steal, blackmail, torture, and intimidate, inside their countries—and inside ours.” (The Atlantic, 11/17/2021)

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Holocaust Museum removes photo of Mufti of Jerusalem with Hitler   (Jihad Watch, 11/29/2021)

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AMERICA IN TROUBLE

 “America is still the world’s greatest power.  But since the late 2000’s its ability to deter foes and reassure friends has waned.   George Bush’s invasion of Iraq ended in failure.  Barack Obama drew a “red line” against the use of chemical weapons but did nothing when Bashar al-Assad crossed it in Syria.  Donald Trump scorned America’s allies. Joe Biden ditched Afghanistan.

“Other countries sense, not exactly a vacuum, but many areas of the world where American power is unlikely to be deployed vigorously.  Mr. Biden said he had to ditch Afghanistan to concentrate on China.  If all his attention is on China, other regimes may calculate that they are free to flex their muscles elsewhere.”   (Geopolitics, The Economist, 11/27/2021).

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POINTERS

• “Indeed, of all of the Black folks who will have died of homicide or murder in D.C., Baltimore, Philly and New York this year, how many will have been shot or stabbed by Proud Boys, Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, white vigilantes, white supremacists or rogue white cops?”  (Return of ‘law and order’ issue, Pat Buchanan, 11/30/2021)

•   So many people nowadays are described as heroes, I thought I would look for a definition of the term. . .  Here it is.  A definition of “hero”:  a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.  With that definition in mind, could somebody please explain why the singer Rihanna was called a hero when she attended celebrations in her homeland of Barbados?  The event was the birth of the Republic of Barbados, which has now ceased to be a Commonwealth Realm.   The event on the 300,000-population island was also attended by Prince Charles.

• COVID-19 is a serious disease, but it bears constant repeating that the recovery rate now is between 97% and 99.75%.   (Gatestone, 12/2/2021)

• Call the Midwife” has been consistently one of the most heartwarming shows on television.  Now in its tenth year, it seems set to go on indefinitely.  It’s only just reached 1966 so it has a long way to go.  Unfortunately, a recent episode dealing with abortion, legalized in the UK in 1967, suggested that all the Anglican nuns at Nonnatus House supported the change in the law.   In the same episode, when a young mother from India turned out to have been traumatized during Partition, the doctor in the series remarked on how it was all Britain’s fault, and that it was due to “arrogance and stupidity.”   And there was me thinking it was due to the fact that the Hindus and the Muslims hated each other.  Silly me!

• UK army to leave Canada base – British armed services are to leave Canada after 50 years and move their biggest training base to the Middle East. The British Army Training Unit Suffield in Alberta, western Canada, has been in operation since 1972. The thousand-square-mile base, seven times the size of Salisbury Plain, has trained thousands of soldiers. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace is expected to announce that the military will open a training area in Oman to take its place.  (The Week, 11/24/2021)

• Hamtramek   becomes first US city to have an All-Muslim council

•   “[We are being more effectively challenged militarily today than at any other time in our history.” — US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, September 20, 2021.   (Gatestone, 11/16/2021)         

• An ancient philosopher is attributed to once observing that a nation can survive deprivation or even a battlefield defeat but it cannot survive the loss of confidence in its leadership.  (Gatestone, 11/29/2021)

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FINAL THOUGHT

In a book on European history, The Forge of Christendom, by Tom Holland, published in 2008, I came across the following quote: “The faith is Europe.  And Europe is the faith.”   (Hilaire Belloc 1870-1953;  Mr. Belloc was a famous historian, writer and satirist.   He was also a committed Catholic.)

This statement reminds me of certain passages in scripture.   Daniel 7 and Revelation 17 are all about the church-state relationship that has been the norm for 2,000 years.   Prophecy shows that this system will rise again to form a powerful political and military system at the time of the end.

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.”

BUILDING UP OUR OWN FUNERAL PYRE

In the summer of 1683, 300,000 warriors of the Ottoman Empire began the siege of Vienna. The fall of the city would have opened the way to conquer Europe.  On September 11 was the main battle between the Polish cavalry and the Turks.  The lifting of the siege ended the threat from the Ottoman Turks of taking over Europe.

Just as September 11 stopped the Ottoman advance, so 9/11 in 2001 meant the Moslems are back.  The invasion of the West would now continue.

Twenty years later, the defeat of the United States in Afghanistan will embolden Muslims worldwide to attack the West.   They have seen how weak and divided the West is and will take advantage.

Every conflict we have fought in the Middle East and with Islamists has been lost.   The US has had no victories this century.  

A contributory cause of our defeats is that we still fail to understand Islam.

It is true that not every Muslim is a terrorist, but I haven’t heard one Muslim voice in the West condemn the killings of thirteen Americans in Kabul in August.

The author Salman Rushdie who was raised a Muslim but is now an atheist, told a New York audience some years ago that when a Muslim moves to Detroit from the Middle East, he is not seeking to better himself by taking advantage of America’s economic system, but rather he is there to advance the cause of Islam in the US.

In the wider world, we have tried to turn Islamic failed states into a version of the United States.   This “nation building” doesn’t work.   As Holger Hoock of the University of Pittsburgh showed in his book “ Scars of Independence,” the US keeps making the same mistake in foreign policy.  Misreading its own history, the US thinks it can successfully introduce democracy into other nations, just as the US introduced it into its own.

The United States ignores the cultural factors that make democracy impossible in many parts of the world.   It forgets that the thirteen colonies that formed the US were democracies before independence.   The Anglo-American culture was a major contributory factor in the success of the US.   It cannot be exported to most countries.

After the Afghan mess, voices have been raised that the United States should no longer practice nation building and that invading other countries should only be done to protect the American homeland.   We shall see what happens.   Americans have very short memories.

After 9/11 many people thought the United States would stop immigration from Muslim countries, but that was not to be.   The prevailing opinion from the 1960’s was that all peoples, regardless of race, tribe or religion, would be transformed into Americans once they got here. The BBC some years ago interviewed Somali immigrants in Minneapolis and found that all Somalis wanted to live under Sharia law.  They felt no loyalty to the US.  

In this context, it’s also interesting to note that Muslim countries do not allow people from the West to move there and become citizens.    They know that the two eventually will not get along!

Western thinking changed dramatically in the post-World War II period to encourage peoples from all countries to move to the West, primarily the Anglo-Saxon countries (the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), but also western Europe.    Terrorist attacks have become commonplace and will likely increase after the loss of Afghanistan.

There were bound to be problems. Islam means “submission.”   The West is built on individualism.   These two are in contrast with each other.

Our ancestors were mostly Christians.    The Bible teaches us that salvation can only come from a belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and through obedience to Him.

‘There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).   Obedience must follow conversion (Acts 2:38).

Not all religions preach peace and tolerance.  Islam is different.

Tucker Carlson made it clear.   “We invade other countries, then they invade us!”   Tens of thousands of Muslim Afghans are moving into western countries.   Many have been fighting for decades.  It was reported in England that the average Afghan family is seven people.  

A famous politician in England over 50 years ago warned of the consequences of our liberal immigration policies.   ‘We are a nation building up our own funeral pyre,” were his words, referring to the Indian custom of wives being burned to death on their husband’s funeral pyre.  He had lived in India and was familiar with the practice.  

In various countries, we are truly building up our own funeral pyre.

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TWENTY YEARS ON

Millions dead, rampant poverty, dozens of millions of refugees and several devastated countries:  This is the result of western wars throughout the broader Middle East since September 11, 2001. Launched in the name of a war on jihadi terrorism, waged under the banner of “freedom and democracy,” the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia have above all caused human suffering and misery of historic dimensions. The actual or purported objectives have not been achieved. Thriving societies have emerged nowhere, neither at the Hindu Kush nor at the Euphrates and Tigris. Jihadi terror is today “stronger” and more widespread on a global scale than in 2001, according to experts. Western armed forces and intelligence services have also committed the most egregious war crimes and human rights violations – from targeted assassinations of unarmed civilians to abductions of thousands to torture chambers. Germany has been involved in all of this. (German Foreign Policy, 9/10/2021)

For the west, there are no “forever wars.”  For the Islamists, war is indeed forever. (Melanie Phillips, 9/10/2021)

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KORAN ON UNBELIEVERS

Qur’an 16:125 tells Muslims: “Call them to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching.” In a hadith, Muhammad has been depicted as telling Muslims to follow up the “invitation,” if refused, with a second invitation asking non-Muslims to enter the Islamic social order as dhimmis, with institutionalized second-class status; or if they refuse both, to go to war with them:  “Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war . . .   When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them . . .  If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them.” (Sahih Muslim 4294)

Germany:  Afghan Muslim migrant who stabbed two tried to convert his neighbors to Islam

This fellow invited his neighbors to accept Islam. He might have felt it incumbent upon him to begin to be violent in light of their apparent refusal to become Muslim.

“He wanted to convert his neighbors to Islam – then he stabbed a woman in the neck,” translated from “Wollte Nachbarn zum Islam bekehren – dann stach er einer Frau in den Hals,” by Rene Rabeder, Exxpress, September 6, 2021. 

He tried to convince his neighbors to follow Islam. Again and again he talked on the balcony or proselytised on the street. Always friendly, they say. Then he stabbed a woman several times in the neck with a knife. Because she was a woman practicing a profession. More and more details about the insane crime from Berlin are becoming known.

The woman is pruning bushes in a small green area. She’s been doing this for eight years. Voluntarily and with pleasure. Her son lives here. According to eyewitnesses, she is suddenly approached by the Afghan. Then he rams a knife into her throat several times. A 66-year-old man rushes to her aid, and he is also stabbed in the neck several times with the knife.  (Jihad Watch, 9/7/2021)

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QUOTE FROM THE LONDON TIMES

As the US prepared to mark the anniversary tomorrow of the 9/11 attacks, Gerard Barker said in The Times that “it is not too bleak a view to say that, 20 years on, in the war on terror, the terrorists won.”  After all, he continued, the “fanatical ideology” that gave rise to the attacks “has been rebuffed but not defeated,” and “some of its most extreme advocates, and the enablers of the 9/11 terrorists, have just triumphed in Afghanistan.”  (The Week, 9/10/2021)

On August 27, 2021, the pro-Al-Qaeda Thabat News Agency published a report praising recent “bloody attacks” by the mujahideen of Al-Qaeda affiliates in three African countries, Mali, Somalia, and Kenya, which resulted in the death of more than 150 “Crusaders and apostates,” the seizure of over 30 vehicles, and the “liberation” of nine towns. The report concluded by noting that “the Crusaders and apostates” are afraid of more attacks ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, especially “after the blessed conquest in Afghanistan.”  (MEMRI, 9/9/2021)

Pro-Al-Qaeda Magazine Celebrates Taliban Takeover Of Afghanistan; Taliban Spokesman Justifies 2001 Taliban Refusal To Hand Bin Laden Over:  The US Refused To Present Evidence That He Was Responsible For 9/11 Attacks (MEMRI 9/8/2021)

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Berlin and Brussels seek to use the West’s defeat in Afghanistan to push for the establishment of a new EU intervention force.  “Nearly nothing” was done “to counter” the US’ decision to withdraw from the Hindu Kush, because of the lack of our military “capabilities” complained Germany’s Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. We can only “win,” if the EU gets “on a par with the USA.” Just prior, in a guest essay, EU Foreign Policy Commissioner Josep Borrell made a plea, above all, for the Union to create a particularly powerful “Initial entry force,” alongside its increasing “pivotal military capabilities.” Currently, there is talk within the EU of a unit of 5,000 soldiers, modeled on NATO’s “Spearhead” unit, with an augmentation of up to 20,000 also being in discussion. A decision should be made in November. Resistance is coming particularly from the Eastern and Southeastern European pro-US members of the EU. (German Foreign Policy, 9/6/2021)

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Revealed:  The secret report that shows how the Nazis planned a Fourth Reich … in the EU by Adam Lebor, updated May 2009

Link for the report:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1179902/Revealed-The-secret-report-shows-Nazis-planned-Fourth-Reich–EU.html

The paper is aged and fragile, the typewritten letters slowly fading. But US Military Intelligence report EW-Pa 128 is as chilling now as the day it was written in November 1944.

The document, also known as the Red House Report, is a detailed account of a secret meeting at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944. There, Nazi officials ordered an elite group of German industrialists to plan for Germany’s post-war recovery, prepare for the Nazis’ return to power and work for a ‘strong German empire.’ In other words: the Fourth Reich.   Daily Mail (5/9/2021)

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TO THE POINT

• The Queen and the Royal Family are supporters of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, a senior royal representative has said.  Ken Olisa, the first black lord-lieutenant of London, told Channel 4 that he has “discussed with the royal household this whole issue of race, particularly in the last 12 months since the George Floyd incident.”  (The Week, 9/10/2021)
  
• 2,000-year-old quarry found to supply stones for ancient Jerusalem Archaeologists uncover the site in the hi-tech hub of Har Hotzvim, the Hebrew name for ‘Quarrymen’s Hill.’  By Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post, 5 Sept 2021 — Har Hotzvim, one of Jerusalem’s main hi-tech hubs, owes its name, which in Hebrew means “Quarrymen’s Hill,” to a much more ancient industrial activity:  It is where archaeologists from the Antiquities Authority have uncovered a quarry dating back some 2,000 years, the IAA revealed Sunday. The quarry was discovered during a salvage excavation before a new building project was set to begin.  According to law, a salvage excavation must accompany all construction projects. “The large-scale building projects in ancient Jerusalem, such as the Temple Mount, required a vast amount of building materials and the ability to organize and coordinate the quarrying and transportation of thousands of building blocks to the ancient city,” IAA excavation director Moran Hagbi said. During the Second Temple period, magnificent construction projects were carried out in Jerusalem. In the first century BCE and up to the destruction of the city at the hands of the Romans, Jerusalem underwent great changes.

(https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/2000-year-old-quarry-of-stones-used-to-build-ancient-jerusalem-found-678768)

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)

DIVERSITY ISN’T WORKING

A Palestinian uses a slingshot during an anti-Israel protest over cross-border violence between
Palestinian militants in Gaza and the Israeli military, near Hawara checkpoint near Nablus.
(Image: Reuters)

The news is increasingly biased.   Most reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is pro-Palestinian.  The Palestinians can do no wrong whereas the Israelis can do nothing right.  As conservative Jew Melanie Phillips put it in a recent article: “Hamas commits war crimes.  Israel is blamed.  Of course.”

We are reminded in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah 5:20 “ Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

The mantra “diversity is a strength” is being disproved everywhere.   In Israel, Israeli Arabs have taken to the streets and clashed with Israeli Jews, viciously and violently. 

In England, anti-semitism has reared its ugly head.  And here in the US racial strife continues in our big cities.  Yet our leaders still say diversity is our strength.

PIPES WARNS OF CONFLICT WITH ISRAELI ARABS ……………….. 20% of Israel’s citizens are Israeli Arabs, citizens of Israel

L’Informale:  The conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to a new phenomenon: widespread riots by Israel’s Arab citizens. Do you agree with Israeli historian Benny Morris’ 2004 assessment that Israeli Arabs are a “time bomb”?

Daniel Pipes:  Very much so. I have written on Israeli Arabs since 1986 and argued since 2006 that they represent Israel’s “final enemy” and an “existential danger.” After foreign states and external Palestinians are neutralized, the Arab citizens of Israel remain as the enemy that cannot be defeated but must be integrated, a far more difficult task.   (“Israel’s policy should be victory,” Daniel Pipes, 5/16/2021)

• The Palestinians are upset because Jews are being permitted to tour the Temple Mount. The Palestinians do not want to see Jews visiting their holy site; they do not want to see Jews in Jerusalem, and they do not want to see any Jew at all in the land that stretches from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.  (Bassam Tawil, Gatestone, 5/11/2021)

• There is one sure-fire way of guaranteeing that Hamas will continue to employ terrorism against Israel . . .   That sure-fire way is to reward the terrorists who employ this tactic and to punish their intended victims who try to fight back.

• The real root cause of terrorism is that it is successful – terrorists have consistently benefited from their terrorist acts. Terrorism will persist as long as . . . the international community rewards it, as it has been doing for the past [many] years. (Alan M. Dershowitz, Gatestone, 5/14/2021)

• Now, with Palestinian militants once more targeting Israeli civilian areas with rockets and missiles, the folly of Mr. Biden’s ill-advised approach to the Middle East has been exposed . . .   Indeed, the extent of Iran’s military support for Palestinian militants was revealed by an official with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation who boasted last week:  “The rockets we use to pound Tel Aviv, our weapons, and our food are provided by Iran.”   (Con Coughlin, Gatestone, 5/17/2021)

Pressure is mounting on the Biden administration to strengthen its public stand on the violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories – and specifically, to speak out and act more forcefully in the defense of Palestinian lives and human rights. With key Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez this weekend describing Israel as an “apartheid state,” the progressive left is stepping up its campaign for a pivot in the US’s long-held commitment to Israel first and foremost.   (Andrew Naughtie, Independent, 5/17/2021)

Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades Calls For General Mobilization In West Bank, Instructs Fighters To Make Life ‘An Unbearable Hell’ For Israelis (MEMRI, 5/17/2021)

Diversity isn’t working in the UK, either

Video from UK ‘Palestinian’ demo:  ‘F*** the Jews, rape their daughters’  (Jihad Watch, 5/16/2021)

CNN CONTRIBUTOR ANTI-SEMITIC

A longtime contributor to CNN found himself in hot water after tweeting, “The world today needs a Hitler.” The inflammatory tweet, which could be interpreted as a call for the extermination of the Jewish people, was posted to Twitter on Sunday amidst the rising tensions and violence between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.

The CNN contributor quickly deleted the post, but it sparked social media users to comb through his Twitter profile. Adeel Raja, who has written dozens of articles for CNN, also appears to have a history of posting anti-Semitic messages on Twitter.

Donald Trump Jr. posted screenshots of the “Hitler” tweet as well as a CNN article that indicates Raja as a co-author, and his LinkedIn profile, where he describes himself as a “Freelance Contributor at CNN.”   (The Blaze, 5/16/2021)

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SAUDI-IRAN GET CLOSER

Washington is one reason. In a dangerous world, the Saudis are worried about the Biden administration. “Saudi Arabia can no longer expect the same backing that they had under Trump,” says Ahmed Al-Omran, editor of the (very good) Riyadh Bureau newsletter.  Since coming to office, Smokin’ Joe has cut support for Saudi Arabia’s ruinous military campaign against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, chided Riyadh over its lousy human rights record, and launched a full-bore diplomatic effort to revive the Iran nuclear deal — something the Saudis always opposed.

Given Biden’s broader push to reduce American involvement in the Middle East, the Saudis might be keen to find a better modus vivendi with their main regional rivals. The Saudi overtures to Tehran come amid fresh thaws with Syria and Turkey as well.

Meanwhile, from Iran’s perspective, easing tensions with the Saudis is one way to mollify Riyadh’s opposition to a revived nuclear accord. What’s more, al-Omran says, it could open the way to broader economic ties with the Arab world after a new deal is done. (Israel’s misgivings about a new nuclear deal, of course, may be harder to overcome.)   (Gzero Signal, 5/13/2021)

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SWISS VOTE TO BAN BURQA

On March 7, the Swiss narrowly voted to ban all face coverings in public.  The initiative behind the referendum was launched in 2016 by associates of the Swiss People’s Party and the Egerkingen Committee, that had in 2009 successfully pushed for a vote to ban the building of new mosque minarets in the country.

With the outlawing of the Islamic face veil, Switzerland joined 18 other nations that have to some degree banned the burqa. They include Austria, Denmark, France, Belgium, Tajikistan, Bulgaria, China, Cameroon, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Latvia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

It is now time to ban the burqa in Canada as well.   (Tarek Fatah, Toronto Sun, Middle East Forum, 5/10/2021)

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PRIORITY ON CHINA

• “Our purpose is not to contain China, to hold it back, to keep it down. It is to uphold this rules-based order that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we’re going to stand up and defend it.” — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 60 Minutes interview, May 2, 2021

• For American diplomacy, this is a significant admission that America no longer wants to lead the world, but instead gracefully back away as the world’s reigning superpower.  (Peter Schweizer, Gatestone, 5/13/2021)

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UK

Nicola Sturgeon is Scotland’s First Minister.   She is singularly focused on bringing independence to Scotland.

• Is Nicola Sturgeon now the main threat to Boris Johnson? She’d like you to think so but in this week’s issue Douglas Murray and I take another look at the narrative of SNP resurgence. Support for independence is back down to where it was in the 2014 referendum and the party has fewer votes than a decade ago.   (The Spectator, 5/13/2021)

• Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, says another independence referendum for Scotland is now a matter of “when not if,” and that after leaving the UK, Scotland will launch a bid to rejoin the EU. But there are formidable obstacles ahead. Getting to a vote will force a complex game of chicken with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. If a majority of Scots then vote for independence — hardly a sure thing – the process of extricating their new country from the UK will make Brexit look easy. Next, come the challenges of EU accession. In other words, Scotland’s journey down the rocky road ahead has only just begun.  (Gzero Signal, 5/14/2021)

• The British Labour has accused the prime minister of a “reckless failure to protect our borders,” saying he acted too late in banning travel from India to prevent the spread of B16172.  (The Week, 5/17/2021)

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USA

DailyKenn.com — Even though our national family and individual families rely on energy, White House occupant Joe Biden is prepared to shut off more energy pipelines. 

Even following fuel shortages from shutdown pipeline, Jen Psaki says Biden is still considering canceling existing pipelines (pic.twitter.com/TeBU6ZlNJa) (RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 11, 2021)

Biden’s announcement came via White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Even as Psaki spoke gas shortages were plaguing much of the southeast where ransomware hackers disrupted the fuel flow through the Colonial Pipeline.   Effectively, she admitted that the administration looks at each pipeline project individually and isn’t making a sweeping policy towards pipelines in general; a dark harbinger of things to come.

It turns out that Biden and his gang are no different than the DarkSide Russian gang that hacked Colonial. Biden may be worse. DarkSide targeted only one pipeline and didn’t close it permanently. Biden is eyeing multiple pipelines whose closure could seriously cripple the nation’s economy. Seem like Russian collusion?

• Biden’s decision to deny Americans full access to energy seems rooted in the discredited man-made climate change “science.” Biden, along with many on the far-left, also seem to embrace other fake science tenets such as a plethora of genders (in reality, there are only two) and an absurd notion that race is a social construct. (Daily Ken, 5/13/2021)

• “But the defining crisis of the Biden presidency may be the crisis on America’s southern border . . . an annual rate of 2 million people walking into our country uninvited, the advance guard of a Third World invasion that will change the character and composition of the United States.”  (Pat Buchanan, 5/14/2021)

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TRUTH DIES IN AUSTRALIA

The Australian Museum claims it’s putting on the most important show in its 194-year history. And it’s right: This proves that truth is now officially dead. That is a huge deal for a museum. On Saturday, the Australian Museum will open Unsettled, an exhibition about the “devastation” of colonisation that it says “illuminates the power of truth-telling.” But truth-telling is the last thing to now expect in a museum we funded for generations to promote it.

For one, this exhibition treats as true the “stolen generations” – the myth that “generations” of children were stolen from caring parents just because they were Aboriginal.

I’ve challenged activists for two decades to name even just 10 such children. Prove they were taken because they were Aboriginal, not because they were neglected, abandoned, abused or sent away to school.

But worse is this museum’s fact-lite promotion of atrocity claims.

Its exhibition includes a huge map of Australia claiming to show where whites massacred Aborigines. We are asked to believe that in 1921 almost two-thirds of Australia was a massacre site.   (Australian Museum’s ‘Stolen Generation,’ show proves that truth is officially dead,” Andrew Bolt, SMH, 5/16/2021)

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Ministers in ‘furious’ row over Australia trade deal

UK cabinet ministers are locked in a “furious” battle over whether to sign off on a trade deal with Australia that would grant Australian farmers tariff-free access to UK markets.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss is pushing for the deal but she faces “stiff opposition” from Environment Secretary George Eustice, who fears a “backlash” from the UK farming industry, according to the Financial Times.   (The Week, 5/18/2021)

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JUST A THOUGHT

After my comment last week that you can’t trust the French, a comment was posted by a fellow Englishman who asked if you can trust the British.   Good point.   The British joined the EU in 1973, signing the Treaty of Rome.  They have since reneged on this.  Now, they are breaking the Brexit rules.  

There’s a famous patriotic song called “Rule Britannia,” sung every year at the Last Night of the Proms, which contains the words “Britannia rules the waves.”  These words were inspired by Britain’s naval supremacy, which ended with World War II.   Sometime after the war, a short book was written titled “Britannia waives the rules,” as Britain turned its back on its former dominions.

Clearly, you can’t trust the English, either.

It was a Frenchman, the Marquis de Ximenès (1726–1817), who first coined the term “Perfidious Albion,” claiming that England could not be trusted when it came to international relations.  Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain.

This reminds me of a British TV series a few years ago about Anglo-French relations.  It was called “With Friends Like These.”

Perhaps the problem is democracy.  Governments change hands regularly – and policies, too.   The US is no different as we are witnessing right now under President Biden.

Maybe you can’t trust politicians?  Or maybe it’s just human nature!

ISRAEL-GAZA VIOLENCE ESCALATES

Taking cover in Ashdod, Israel, on Tuesday as sirens warned of incoming rockets from Gaza.Credit…Abir Sultan/EPA, via Shutterstock

Luke 21:20 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.

Zech 12:3  And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

“The UK, the United States and the European Union have appealed to Israel and the Palestinians to calm the violence which has broken out between them, as soon as possible.

It’s after days of unrest turned into rocket fire and military air strike attacks between the two sides. The violence escalated on Monday night after Palestinian militants fired rockets toward Jerusalem.  In response, the Israeli military launched air strikes at targets in Gaza – which is ruled by a Palestinian militant group called Hamas.”

The past few days have seen the worst violence in Jerusalem for years.  (Newsround, 5/11/2021)

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FRANCE

ISLAMIST KILLS POLICEWOMAN IN FRANCE

An Islamist terrorist pounced on a police officer in an area southwest of Paris, France and stabbed her to death. The terrorist was shot and killed. The 49-year-old officer was the mother of two children.

The extremist is not believed to have been under investigation or on law enforcement’s radar and was not previously arrested. He came to France illegally from Tunisia in 2009 and was granted residency last year.   (Clarion Project, 5/4/2021)

FRENCH GENERALS WARN OF CIVIL WAR

The warning comes amid a wave of jihadist attacks — including the beheading of a schoolteacher — committed by young men, none of whom were previously known to French intelligence services. The letter also comes after widespread public indignation over a French justice system compromised by political correctness — as evidenced by the refusal to prosecute an African immigrant from Mali who, while shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is the Greatest”), killed an elderly Jewish woman by breaking into her home and pushing her off her balcony.

“Every Frenchman, whatever his belief or non-belief, should everywhere be at home in continental France [l’Hexagone]; there cannot and must not exist any city or district where the laws of the Republic do not apply.” — From an open letter signed by 20 retired generals, a hundred senior officers more than a thousand other members of the French military, April 21, 2021.  (Soeren Kern, Gatestone, 5/4/2021)

Police scuffled with protesters in Paris on Saturday, firing tear gas as thousands turned out across France for May Day workers’ rights demonstrations. 

A police source told AFP that far-left “black bloc” protesters had repeatedly tried to block the trade union-led march in the French capital, with 34 people detained. 

Some protesters smashed the windows of bank branches, set fire to dustbins and threw projectiles at police, who responded with volleys of tear gas and stingball grenades. An injured policeman had to be evacuated, an AFP journalist saw.   (AFP, 5/4/2021)

By an amazing coincidence the problems between France and England turned violent on the same day that President Emmanuel Macron of France was at a ceremony to commemorate the 200th^h anniversary of the death of the Emperor Napoleon, who died on the British island of St Helena.   It says a lot that Macron wanted to publicly remember the Emperor, who conquered most of Europe, restored slavery in 1804 and tried to impose his will on the Catholic Church.

The right to bear arms goes back at least to Henry II (it may go back further to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that existed prior to 1066).    Henry required all able-bodied men over the age of 14 to carry a lethal weapon to protect themselves from the French. The French had been raiding the coasts of England.   It may be time to bring back this legal requirement in view of the fishing dispute with France over territorial waters.  One thing we should have learned is that you can’t trust the French – England has fought France more than any other nation; so has America, though before the revolution and in the form of French Canada.

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AFGHANISTAN

While it is true that nobody has ever won over the Afghans since Alexander the Great led his army into the country in the fourth century BC, that’s not the whole picture.   The British lost heavily in three attempts to subdue the Afghans in the 19^th Century.   More recently, the Russians wasted ten years there and lost a lot of men.   Now, we are there.   Our losses have been 2,312.   It was not a wise decision to go into the country.   But that doesn’t mean it’s wise to get out at the present time.

The difference now is that the country is more subdued than it’s ever been and therefore less of a threat.    It’s also the case that it’s a coalition of forces that is operating there.    Once the US leaves, everybody else will and Afghanistan will likely be taken over by the Taliban, providing international terrorists with a base from which to operate.

This is not a partisan issue as President Trump also announced his intention to pull out.

MUSLIM BOYS TAUGHT TO HATE NON-BELIEVERS

Boys throughout the Muslim world are increasingly indoctrinated into becoming super jihadis: ISIS 2.0. The news is coming in fast from a variety of sources.

A documentary filmmaker, Alan Duncan, for instance, recently made a brief video of his visit to al-Hawl refugee camp in northeastern Syria, run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Although 80% of the camp consists of women and (27,000) children, many of whom had fled ISIS, the camp is known as the “Womb of ISIS.”

In the video, highlighted in a February 2021 report, eight- to ten-year-old boys appear raising one finger — symbolic of jihad. When asked about the gesture, one boy responded:  “This means the Islamic State remains.”  On being asked if they want to be doctors or teachers when they grow up, one boy says, “We don’t want to be a doctor. We want to be a brother fighter. We want to fight the apostates.”  Then a woman, dressed in a black burka, declares that she wants the children to become “mujahidin who fight in the way Allah” — who “fight the infidels.”  (Raymond Ibrahim,  MEF,  4/8/2021 )

“The number of NATO forces peaked at about 140,000 in 2011, but decreased in subsequent years as NATO countries wound down combat operations, handing over control to local security forces. Countries with troops still in Afghanistan include the US, Georgia, Germany, Turkey, Romania, Italy, the UK and Australia.“  (BBC News)  

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POLITICS

• BIDEN’S BIG SPENDING PLANS:   First, we would all do well to remember the frequently quoted Mr. Micawber principle.  His advice in David Copperfield was this: ‘Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 19 [pounds] 19 [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds ought and six, result misery.’ 

• Conservatives triumph in Hartlepool – Hartlepool has a Conservative MP for the first time since the seat was created in 1974 after the Labour candidate Paul Williams attracted little more than half the votes of his Tory rival Jill Mortimer.  The by-election was “a key test of Labour’s appeal to its traditional heartlands,” says The Guardian, “and defeat will leave Keir Starmer facing huge questions over the future direction of his party.”  (The Week, 5/7/2021)

• Economy bouncing back, says Bank – The Bank of England says Britain is on course for its strongest year of economic growth since the Second World War as households splash their lockdown savings and businesses increase their investment.  After contracting by 9.8% in the worst recession since 1709 last year, growth will bounce back to 7.25% this year. Sandra Horsfield, UK economist at Investec, described the forecasts as “a hefty upward revision.”  (The Week, 5/7/2021)

• “Today’s billionaires’ boys club has come to understand how to make its astonishing wealth acceptable…  Set up a tax-exempt foundation, fund it with billions of dollars, invite in liberals to sit on the board, and, at munificent salaries, to run it and distribute its income to liberal causes.”   (PB, 5/7/2021)

• Modi’s costly revamp angers India — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come under fire for pushing ahead with a £1.3bn parliamentary revamp, including a new home, during the country’s Covid surge.  The costly renovation has been categorised as an “essential service” so construction is allowed to continue even when most building projects have been paused. CNN says the public and opposition politicians are “infuriated” and two citizens have lodged a case with the Delhi High Court to try to halt construction.   (The Week, 5/7/2021)

•   If China were serious about reducing emissions, that intent would have been evident from its new five-year plan for the years 2021-2025, released in March. This plan, however, has been described as containing “little more than vague commitments to tackle carbon dioxide emissions.”   As the Wall Street Journal wrote in an editorial in February, initiatives like this explain why “Beijing loves Biden and Paris”. They allow China, in the words of the editorial, to get “a free carbon ride” — meaning unfettered economic growth at a time when China is looking to become the world’s dominant economic and technological power.   (Judith Bergman, Gatestone, 5/8/2021)

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GERMAN CALL TO HIT RUSSIA WHERE IT REALLY HURTS

German foreign policy makers and government advisors are calling for escalating western aggression against Russia. “We must hit Russia, there, where it really hurts,” admonishes foreign policy expert Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP). Experts at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) support military activities – such as “a military mission in the Black Sea” – as “foreign policy intimidation” of Moscow. Disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT global payment system should also be considered. According to EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell, the EU must “be prepared for a long and hard period in our relations with Russia.”  German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer claims that Moscow is already engaged in “warfare in the middle of Europe.”  The Russian government, on the other hand, is beginning to defend itself against the EU’s sanctions and other coercive measures. At the end of last week, Moscow imposed counter-sanctions on several EU politicians. The conflict is escalating.  (German Foreign Policy, 5/3/2021)

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TALKING POINTS

• We are supposed to be a racist society, guilty of “Systemic racism.”   Yet more and more people are lining up to get into the US!

• RUSSIAN SCHOOL SHOOTING LEAVES 7 CHILDREN DEAD  —  Russian school shootings are rare in Russia.   This one was in Kazan.

• Biden’s ‘Day of Prayer’ Remarks Never Mentioned God, But It DID Talk of ‘Racial Justice’ and ‘Climate Change’   (The  latter are current obsessions of the Catholic Church!)

• “There’s nothing like family!”   Family reunion after Covid.   (Channel Ten news 5/9/2021)

• Is it time Germany opened up its stores on Sundays?  Many in Germany are familiar with the unseemly clamor to stock up  on groceries before Sundays.  That’s because here, Sunday is an explicitly noncommercial day.  Economists are demanding a more flexible approach.   (Deutsche Welle, 15 April 2021)