TRUMP INDICTED

Donald Trump is to become the first former US president to face criminal charges after being indicted by a New York grand jury yesterday.

A Manhattan jury decided that the former president should face “what sources said were more than 30 counts related to business fraud” over hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, reported CNN’s White House reporter Stephen Collinson.

Trump, who is alleged to have had an adulterous relationship with Daniels, has denied any wrongdoing and claims to be the victim of “political persecution and election interference” ahead of his 2024 bid.

The indictment is “the latest stunning barrier shattered by the nation’s most unruly president,” said Collinson. But some pundits claim that being prosecuted could ultimately boost Trump’s bid for a second stint in the White House.  (The Week, 3/31/2023)

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The attack on Netanyahu’s right to govern –  The true agenda of Israel’s mass protests has been laid bare

Whatever one thinks about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, any true Israeli patriot will surely react viscerally to US President Joe Biden’s outrageous attack on Israel’s right to govern itself without foreign interference.

On Monday, Netanyahu announced he was suspending his coalition’s judicial reform legislation in order to negotiate a compromise with the opposition.

The next day, Biden told Netanyahu to “walk away” from the legislation, saying he was “very concerned” about the health of Israeli democracy.  Warning that Israel “cannot continue down this road,” he added for good measure that he wouldn’t be inviting Netanyahu to the White House “in the near term.”

It is deeply disturbing that the US should brazenly and insultingly interfere in the internal affairs of another country and tell its prime minister how to behave.  Biden was supposedly speaking as Israel’s friend, but he sounded like a colonial administrator barking at the natives to fall into line.

While Likud politicians hit the roof, left-wing and centrist politicians and commentators got behind Biden and kicked Netanyahu even more viciously in the head.

After three months of mass protests, incitement to hysteria and ludicrous hyperbole about the end of democracy that have caused Israel untold social, financial and reputational damage, those who shared responsibility for the crisis took their cue from Biden and blamed Netanyahu instead.  (Melanie Phillips, 3/31/2023)

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This Sunday, Finnish voters will choose the party and prime minister who will lead the nation in its historic step into NATO membership.

This is a big moment for Finland. For decades, its leaders tried to safeguard its security by remaining officially neutral in conflicts between giant neighbor Russia and the West. A clear majority of Finns considered that the more prudent choice. Since the end of the Cold War, Finland has drawn closer to NATO but remained outside the alliance to avoid provoking the Kremlin.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and Finnish minds quickly changed. Polls say nearly 80% of Finns support full NATO membership, and the alliance is eager to welcome a valuable new partner.

Finland’s application cleared its one remaining hurdle on Thursday as lawmakers in Turkey, the last NATO member needed to make it official, approved Finland’s bid. Nothing left now but paperwork.

And this Sunday, voters in Finland will choose the party and prime minister who will lead the nation in this historic step. At stake are all 200 seats in Finland’s parliament, which are now divided among nine different parties.

Current Prime Minister Sanna Marin hopes her center-left Social Democrats will win enough seats to lead the next government, allowing her to finish the NATO process she pushed into motion last year. Polls suggest the race will be close because the center-right National Coalition Party and the far-right Finns Party both appear strong. (Gzero Signal, 3/31/2023)

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FRENCH RIOTS SHOW NO SIGNS OF ENDING

More than one million protestors took to the streets in France on March 24, 2023, in response to President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed pension reforms, which would raise the country’s retirement age from 62 to 64. This was the 10th day of national mobilization since January 19, 2023, and the demonstrations show no sign of stopping. After Macron’s government lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly in the 2022 legislative elections — leaving it unable to pass the law through a simple majority — the government decided to use a constitutional tool called Article 49.3, which allows it to pass a law in parliament without a vote on the text. The decision resulted in the government facing two votes of no confidence, which it didn’t lose — but the main one, pushed by a centrist minister of parliament, fell short by only nine votes, indicating how volatile the political situation in France is right now. Macron has said that he will not back down, though there is precedent for the government using Article 49.3 and then later withdrawing the law in response to massive and continuous public protests. (Tara Varmar, Brookings, 3/31/2023)

Last week, Uganda’s parliament passed legislation that criminalizes identifying as LGBTQ, which puts individuals at risk of life imprisonment, or in some cases, even death. Similarly, draconian legislation over identifying as LGBTQ is under consideration in Ghana, and VP Kamala Harris’s visit to Zambia this week – for a summit celebrating democracy – is stoking anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. As of 2023, many parts of the world are still unsafe for the LGBTQ community, as same-sex acts are deemed illegal in 65 countries, from Latin America to Oceania. The death penalty is a possibility in 11 countries worldwide.  (Gzero Signal, 3/31/2023)

TO THE POINT

• KING CHARLES ON OFFICIAL VISIT TO GERMANY.  King Charles III was due to visit France and Germany last month, to try to put things right following Brexit.  By putting these two countries first, England hoped to show it remained deeply committed to Europe.   Sadly, the French trip was canceled by France due to ongoing rioting in the country.   The visit to Germany was highly successful.   The audience was surprised when Charles spoke German half the time during a speech to the Bundestag.   It should be remembered that Charles has many relatives in Germany and visited the country over thirty times before becoming king.

• SCOTLAND’S FIRST MINISTER — A replacement has been found for Nicola Sturgeon.   Scotland’s new First Minister will be Humza Yousaf, an Indian national from the Punjab.  His appointment comes just a few weeks after Rishi Sunak became British Prime Minister.  Mr. Sunak is also of Indian descent.  Kate Forbes, an earlier and more competent candidate was not successful due to her conservative and Christian stance on sex outside of marriage.

• NEWQUAY DEMO — A small demonstration continues in Newquay, Cornwall, against asylum seekers who have been given a local hotel to stay in while their cases are heard. 

• INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION FOLLOWS LATEST SCHOOL SHOOTING – There have been so many school shootings, it was a surprise last week following the shootings in Nashville to see condemnation of the US in the international press.   How can the world’s premier nation possibly allow this to happen?  How can the US lead the western world when it can’t even keep its schoolchildren safe?  A few more and we may find these shootings have international ramifications.

FINAL THOUGHT

Philippians 2:12 – Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

GROWING MUSLIM THREAT ON EUROPEAN STREETS

“When the accused arrives at Hyttegata, he no longer has a bow and arrow. In Hyttegata, five people are killed with stabbing weapons,” Norwegian police said in a statement on Monday. Braathen is a Muslim convert who had previously been flagged for signs of radicalization. (https://rss24.news/norway-attack-victims-were-not-killed-with-a-bow-and-arrow-say-police/)

^“You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.”   (Deut. 28:19)

The suspect in a bow-and-arrow attack, which turned out to be knife attacks, that left five people dead in Norway was a recent convert to Islam who had been contacted by police over fears he was being radicalized.  A 37-year-old Danish man has been charged after admitting to carrying out the deadly attack, which also left two others seriously injured in the town of Kongsberg, according to prosecutor Ann Iren Svane Mathiassen. Norwegian security services said that it appears to have been an “act of terror.”

Police were alerted to the incident just after 6pm local time on Wednesday. The attacker then “managed to escape an initial confrontation” with police before being detained “35 minutes after the attack began,” during which time the victims “were most likely killed,” the BBC said.  (The Week, 10/14/2021)

LEIGH-ON-SEA, England, Oct 15 (Reuters) – British lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death in an Essex church on Friday by an assailant who lunged at him as he met voters, in what police said was a terrorist attack.

Amess, 69, from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, was knifed repeatedly in the attack at about midday in the Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, east of London.

The Metropolitan Police, whose counter-terrorism unit are leading the investigation of the incident, said in a statement early on Saturday that they declared the fatal stabbing as a terrorist incident.

The early investigation has revealed a “potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism,” the police added.   (Reuters, 10/15/2021)

Amess’ Qatar links examined
Police investigating the murder of David Amess are examining his ties to the Gulf state of Qatar. The Conservative MP was chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on the country. The man being questioned over the stabbing is the son of a former prime ministerial adviser in Somalia, where the current leadership is backed by Qatar. The MP’s family have called on the public to “set aside hatred and work towards togetherness.”  (10/18/2021)

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ISLAMIZATION OF GERMANY

The city of Cologne, once a stronghold of Christendom in Germany, has authorized mosques in the city to begin sounding Muslim calls to prayer over outdoor loudspeakers. The move, ostensibly aimed at promoting multicultural diversity and inclusion, represents a significant step toward the cultural normalization of Islam in Germany. It is taking German multiculturalism into uncharted territory.

Critics say that comparing Islamic prayer calls to church bells is a false equivalence because the muezzin proclaims religious slogans such as “there is no god but Allah” and “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is the Greatest”).  (Gatestone, 10/14/2021)

How Germany’s far-right gained, even as it lost         

On the face of it, Germany’s main far-right party should be licking its wounds. The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, dropped about 2 percentage points in last month’s elections from its showing in 2017, when it entered the country’s parliament for the first time and won the status of being the largest opposition party in the German Bundestag. With just about 10 percent of the vote, it has lost seats and will almost certainly no longer occupy the role of main opposition party as other more mainstream parties wrangle over the shape of the next government.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Both of Germany’s two traditional political mainstays — the center-left Social Democrats and center-right Christian Democrats — won less than 30 percent of the vote. The AfD can gain a stronger foothold in a context of deepening fragmentation in German politics. In the states that once comprised Communist-ruled East Germany, the AfD is solidifying its position as a major regional force. It is particularly popular among younger cohorts of voters, and the party could be in a position to dominate in future state elections in Saxony and Thuringia.

“I’m confident that sooner or later there is no way without the AfD,” Tino Chrupalla, one of the AfD’s co-leaders, told reporters last month. “It will certainly start on the state level.”

“The AfD is here to stay,” Matthias Quent, professor of sociology at Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences, told the New York Times. “There was the widespread and naive hope that this was a short-lived protest phenomenon. The reality is that the far right has become entrenched in the German political landscape.”  (Ishaan Tharoor, Columnist, Washington Post, 19 Oct 2021)

In case of further escalation of the power struggle between the USA and China, German business circles go so far as to consider breaking up companies into different regional units or taking even more drastic steps, according to a comprehensive analysis elaborated by the Bertelsmann Foundation in cooperation with the Federation of German Industries (BDI). The analysis outlines five scenarios for the development of this US American-Chinese conflict, two of which – more cooperative ones – are deemed unlikely. A third scenario envisions the continuation of the status quo, while another two anticipate a further escalation of tensions. This would lead to clearly delineated blocs, a dramatic military buildup and an eventual erosion of the EU between the USA and China, its disintegration and possibly even its economic collapse. Some companies could feel compelled to completely decouple from the Chinese market and not ruling out withdrawal from the US, or even from the “European home market.” Initial signs of a new orientation can already be discerned in current corporate decisions.   (German Foreign Policy, 10/18/2021)

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IRAN NOW FULL MEMBER OF SCO

• In another blow to the US, after many years of Iran trying to be a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), SCO members finally agreed in September to elevate Iran’s status from “observer” to “full member,” even though the global financial watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force, had placed the Islamic Republic on its terrorism financing blacklist.
• The SCO is a political, military, economic and security alliance that currently includes China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. This alliance will likely… assist the mullahs of Iran to defy the West.
• In the face of these critical developments, the Biden administration has remained silent. (Gatestone, 10/16/2021)

Danish Islamic Scholar Criticizes The Taliban:  Your Goal Should Be To Liberate Humanity From The Filth Of Liberalism, The Injustice Of Capitalism.  (MEMRI, 10/19/2021)

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US

To be clear, the spending bill is actually the creation of a national debt so massive that it has the means to destabilize a democracy dependent on a functioning economy.

For the Chinese Communist Party, seeking to master the 21st Century as the one global superpower, it represents a strategic victory without so much as firing a single bullet. They know that an economically weakened America cannot possibly sustain its military leadership when it is burdened with paying down a massive debt. Our allies and unaligned nations recognize this threat, as well, and will reinvent their relationship with China if they believe America’s best days are in the past.

This recipe for an economic apocalypse comes at a time when new job creation has stagnated and the specter of a serious inflation has begun to emerge….  As historians will tell you if we have the wisdom to listen, no one escapes the devastation of a debtor nation. No one.   (Gatestone, Lawrence Kadish, 10/21/2021)

JOURNAL‘S COMMENT ON BIDEN

What a change of political fortune. In July President Biden was still on a honeymoon with voters, but now his job approval rating is underwater. His disastrous handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal undermined his campaign pledge of governing competence, and now inflation and shortages of workers and goods are weighing on public confidence in his economic policies. The Labor Department reported that prices kept rising in September, and Americans are noticing that they’re paying more for gasoline, food, houses, cars and more. (Wall Street Journal, 10/18/2021)

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TO THE POINT

• China linked to English schools — The Times has revealed that top private schools in England are making tens of millions of pounds from close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The board of Harrow International School Hong Kong includes four senior Communist Party members, while the website of one of Dulwich College’s nine associated Chinese campuses lists policies and procedures for turning children into party members. Tom Tugendhat, Tory chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said: “Education is one of Britain’s great exports but these reports are concerning.”  (The Week, 10/18/2021)

• “The journey towards addiction is often multi-layered and complex. But, by recognising what lies beneath addiction, we can help remove the taboo and shame that sadly surrounds it.”  The Duchess of Cambridge warns that addiction can happen to anyone in a landmark speech as part of the Forward Trust’s Taking Action on Addiction campaign. (The Week, 10/19/2021)

• Prince William has suggested that tech billionaires should focus on saving Earth from the impact of climate change rather than directing their resources into space tourism.  Speaking to the BBC’s Newscast podcast, the Duke of Cambridge told presenter Adam Fleming that “we need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.” (The Week, 10/14/2021)

• The meteoric rise of a controversial television pundit has put him in prime position to replace Marine Le Pen as the biggest threat to Emmanuel Macron in next year’s French presidential election.  Dubbed the “French Trump” by Politico, Eric Zemmour is racking up “far more prime-time TV slots and front-page stories than many of his rivals.”  And while critics claim his “inflammatory rhetoric on immigration and Islam” is “degrading the public debate ahead of April’s election,” Zemmour is “on the rise in the polls,” said the news site.  (The week, 10/14/2021)

• “The numbers are staggering,” said Gino Hoel on Slate.fr. A landmark report published last week estimates that about 330,000 children were abused by clergymen and officials of the Catholic Church in France between 1950 and 2020. At least 3,000 priests and officials performed criminal acts, according to the 2,500-page review by Jean-Marc Sauvé, a former senior civil servant; about 90% of their victims were boys.   (The Week, 10/15/2021)

PRINCE PHILIP’S DEATH

A great deal of ignorance was expressed on television over the death of Prince Philip.   Many comments were along the lines of “I don’t see the point of it all,” a view of the monarchy that shows appalling ignorance.   I remember an article in Newsweek magazine twenty years ago, on the occasion of the Queen’s 5oth anniversary.  It was written by an American and claimed that the Queen had done more to advance the cause of democracy than any other personage on the global stage.   Whereas Americans had sent thousands of troops to their deaths, with little or nothing achieved, the queen went everywhere preaching that democracy is best and nudging countries in the right direction.   She did this in Ghana to great effect in November 1999, successfully facing down the dictatorship of Ft. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.   She constantly pushes Commonwealth nations to follow the democratic path.  The Commonwealth comprises 54 of the world’s 195 nations.   (Admittedly, she never went to Afghanistan and I doubt she would have gotten very far!)  She could not have done this without the support of Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years.

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STEYN ON PHILIP

Mark Steyn is one of my favorite commentators.   He is often interviewed on FoxNews (which we don’t even get, as we don’t have cable) and replaced Rush Limbaugh frequently as host of his radio program.  Mark Steyn is a native of Canada, but now lives in New Hampshire.   As a Canadian, he retains a soft spot for constitutional monarchy, claiming that it’s a good thing for the politicians to have somebody over them.  (Amen to that!)   I remember a story he told of a dinner he had at Buckingham Palace.   During the course of the evening, he and Prince Philip discussed the merits and otherwise of the Canadian and Australian political systems.  It should be remembered that the Queen is Head of State of both countries.   He was amazed that the Prince was so well versed in the subject.   Could there possibly be any other person in the world who would be that knowledgeable?   Prince Philip will be greatly missed.

YouTube showed an excerpt from a Germen television program in which the late prince spoke fluent German.    He also spoke French and English.  

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TRUMP ON PHILIP

“Prince Philip defined British dignity and grace. He personified the quiet reserve, stern fortitude, and unbending integrity of the United Kingdom,” Mr. Trump said.

The former president lauded Prince Philip for “serving Britain honourably and courageously as a naval officer in the Second World War” and for “putting his life on the line for God, country, and the values of freedom and self-government that forever unite America and the United Kingdom.”

Mr. Trump added that Prince Philip’s “greatest legacy” will be “his exceptional example of service, constancy, and patriotism.”

He also mentioned the duke’s wartime efforts with the Royal Navy during battles in the Mediterranean and “the pivotal Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.”   “For seven decades, Prince Philip brought the same sense of duty and purpose to his role as consort and husband to the Queen.  He was admired by his fellow citizens, and respected by everyone around the world,” Mr. Trump said.

The de facto leader of the Republican Party said that the Duke of Edinburgh was “a man who embodied the noble soul and proud spirit of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.”

The 45th president of the United States said that during their visits to the UK, he and former First Lady Melania Trump “saw firsthand how the Monarchy epitomizes and carries on the virtues of the British People – and no one did so more than Prince Philip.”

The statement concluded:  “As we grieve his loss, we celebrate his memory and rededicate ourselves to the values to which he devoted his extraordinary life. He will be greatly missed.”   (Gustav Kilander, Independent, 4/9/2021)

LINGUISTIC RIVALRIES

Not for the first time the EU is upset with the Brits.  They are insisting that all forms be in one of Europe’s four languages.  It has been suggested that the British require all forms to be in the 300 languages spoken in the UK!!!

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AUSTRALIAN MP TRIES TO REIN IN POWER OF FACEBOOK

Barely a day after being banished from Facebook, Australian MP Craig Kelly has acted swiftly to propose a new bill that will seek to rein in the power of Big Tech companies like Facebook.

The Independent Member for Hughes is basing the Bill on a similar law passed overnight in Florida that will penalize social media companies if they remove political candidates from their platform, a practice also known as de-platforming.

According to the Florida law, tech giants like Google, Facebook, or Twitter face fines of around $100,000 per day for each day a state-wide candidate is banned from their platform, and $10,000 fines for other candidates.

“The market power of the foreign controlled tech-giants and their ability to censor political speech is an immediate and direct threat to our democracy,” Kelly told The Epoch Times.

“We have seen in Australia Facebook acting as a media thug and bully, who believes they are above the law and are arbiters of truth.  Governor De Santis of Florida has acted to hold these social-media giants to account.”  (The Epoch Times, 4/27/2021)

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UK FOREIGN AID CUT

Somebody once defined foreign aid as money taken from poor people in rich countries and given to rich people in poor countries.

The UK has released the first details of how it intends to impose £4bn worth of cuts to international aid, with critics complaining the vague plans were “slipped out at the end of the day.”

The “long awaited statement” on the government’s international aid spending for 2021-22, which was set out by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in a written statement on Wednesday, did not fully outline cuts or future spending commitments to specific countries or programmes.  But, says The Guardian, “its new classifications for how it plans to distribute £8.1bn in aid imply massive reductions in key areas.”

The government is acting on plans to temporarily cut its spending commitments on foreign aid from 0.7% of the national income to 0.5%, in order to mitigate economic pressures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.  This is a reversal of a manifesto spending commitment made by the Conservatives in 2019. (The Week, 4/27/2021).

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INDIAN REALITIES

The British are persisting in seeing India as a poor country, when its GNP is actually higher than the mother country.  Note the following statistic.

The report said, “India’s economy is the fifth largest in the world with a GDP of $2.94 trillion, overtaking the UK and France in 2019 to take the fifth spot.”   The UK economy amounts to $2.83 trillion and France with $2.71 trillion.   … Since 1995, the country’s nominal GDP has jumped more than 700 per cent.”   (Feb 23, 2020)

So why then the frantic push to give them foreign aid?  Do we want them to remain poor forever?

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KERRY BETRAYS ISRAEL

Former Secretary of State John Kerry was a disaster during the Obama administration for many reasons. One of his flaws was his disastrous handling of relationships in the Middle East, which is now reportedly worse than previously thought.

“Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed in recently leaked audio that John Kerry, when he was serving as Secretary of State during the Obama administration, informed him of more than 200 Israeli operations in Syria,” Fox News reported.

It doesn’t take a foreign relations expert to see the issue with that. Israel is an ally of the United States, while Iran is not.   (Western Journal, 4/27/2021)

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BIDEN RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

US President Joe Biden has ended decades of US appeasement of Turkey by recognizing the genocide carried out 106 years ago against Armenians by a previous Turkish government.

The symbolic recognition comes decades too late for any survivors. It is a testament to the will of Joe Biden and his administration that the blackmail Ankara has imposed over just using the term “genocide” has finally ended.

For many years, Turkey not only was able to prevent the US leadership from using the word genocide, but was able to threaten US soldiers in Syria, kidnap and detain Americans, harass US consular employees, even possibly get security clearance revoked for Americans, and get people banned from the US as “terrorists.”   (Seth Frantzman, The Jerusalem Post, 4/25/2021)

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MCDONALDS PAYS PEOPLE TO INTERVIEW

McDonald’s in Florida is finding it so hard to get new employees they are paying people $50 to come to an interview.  This is not unique to the golden arches.  Apparently, thousands of companies cannot find employees as people are finding that staying home is a preferred option.  Government handouts are so generous ($600 a week was mentioned) that it’s just not worth working.

What’s going to happen when we all live on “welfare?”   Wait and see!

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UNSUSTAINABLE SYSTEM

Whenever I watch an old movie (old is defined as black and white), I marvel at some of the differences between then and now.   But one thing always stands out and that is the difference between families then and families now.  We have destroyed the family in the last sixty years.   Perhaps it would be closer to the truth to say that we “deliberately” destroyed the family.  I believe it started with welfare, designed to mitigate failings in the family but which, rather, helped lay the foundation for a post-familial system.

Thomas Sowell has written about this in the context of African-American families, how women started to find they could get more on welfare than by living with their husbands.   The result is the increasing violence we see in our cities.

The problem is that the whole system is ultimately unsustainable.

The book “1965” by James T. Patterson looks back at the year the Great Society started.

“At the beginning of 1965, the U.S. seemed on the cusp of a golden age.  Although Americans had been shocked by the assassination in 1963 of President Kennedy, they exuded a sense of consensus and optimism that showed no signs of abating.“

Then we got the Great Society and the massive deterioration in every aspect of our culture.

We now see dozens of fathers killing their children, thanks to divorce and the subsequent custody arrangements.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.  And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”  (Malachi 4:5-6)

If you watched any of the Covid reports from India, you will have noticed the strong family connections that exist in that country, in stark contrast to us here in the West.

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COVID – PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Michigan is reportedly going through a surge in Covid cases.   I became the latest statistic when I was admitted to the hospital on Friday April 16^th from severe dehydration because I was coming down with a cold and malaria jumped in there (as it usually does) and dehydrated me.  This had gone on for three days.  Of course, they tested me for Covid and I did test positive (rapid test).  My oxygen hovered around 90 but they decided to admit me to get it up to 94.  I was in ER for 15 hours waiting for a room, which I finally entered just before 4am.   I remained there for four more days and was not allowed to see anybody, including my wife.  I was put on Remdesivir and a steroid and my oxygen level got back up to 94-95.  I was released at noon on the fourth in-patient day.

One week later, I’m still a bit weak and occasionally have some difficulty being winded.  I’m also trying to stabilize blood pressure/blood sugar.  I never thought I would die while I was in the hospital, but the whole experience literally knocked the wind out of me and I hope it never happens again.  Also, a week later I’ve received a letter from the local health department telling me to self-isolate, which I had already done anyway.

Kamala harris is not the only one

Kamala Harris is likely to become the first female president of the US.   She will also be the first woman “of color.”   Perhaps more significantly, she will be the first person of Indian descent, her mother’s family having moved here from India two generations ago.

Of equal interest is that the next prime minister of the United Kingdom is expected to be ethnic Indian Rishi Sunak, currently the man in charge of the nation’s finances, the second most important governmental job in the UK.   Another Indian holds the third most important post, Priti Patel, the first female Home Secretary.  Leo Varadkar, the last prime minister of Ireland, was also of Indian descent.  Additionally, the CEOs of numerous multinationals are Indian, including Google, Microsoft, Citigroup, Nokia and Pepsi-Cola.

Indians have been amongst the most successful of all immigrant groups, here in the US, in the UK and other countries.  There are currently 2.7 million Indians in the US, making them the second biggest number of immigrants, after Mexicans.   Interestingly, although India does allow people to enter the country on work visas, they cannot become citizens.   “Indian law follows jus sanguinis (citizenship by blood) as opposed to jus soli (citizenship by birth).”  (vakilsearch.com). In other words, you have to be an ethnic Indian to become a citizen.

Our “progressive” immigration policies have brought about these significant changes.   God certainly had a different perspective when He warned us that “aliens” (foreigners with different gods) would take over.   In Deuteronomy 28:43 He said that:  “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.”

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WEST LOSING OUT IN MED

The Western powers, including Germany and the EU, are in danger of losing their pre-eminence in the Mediterranean, Admiral Luigi Binelli Mantelli, former Chief of the Defense Staff of Italy declared. According to Binelli Mantelii, Russia has become “the pre-eminent naval power in the Mediterranean,” and Turkey, in particular, is rapidly gaining influence. Together, Moscow and Ankara are in the process of superseding the “traditional” Western peacekeeping powers. The statement is being published at a time when Turkey has snubbed the navy of a leading EU power, for the second time. During the night from Sunday to Monday, a German boarding team seeking to inspect a Turkish cargo vessel en route to Libya, suspecting a possible breach of the UN arms embargo, had to abandon its inspection due to Ankara’s intervention. Already in June, Turkey had averted a similar French naval operation. Unaccustomed to defiance, the EU finds itself powerless to halt the rise of its Turkish rival.  (German Foreign Policy, 11/24/2020)

The German government is pushing for a quick return to the nuclear deal with Iran once designated US President Joe Biden takes office. Already months ago, Biden had declared his willingness to do so. German companies are hoping for lucrative business opportunities, which would also help them to weather the Corona crisis. However, obstacles persist in Washington, such as the presumed continued Republican majority in the US Senate and a new wave of sanctions initiated by outgoing President Donald Trump. Thus, supplementary, coercive measures, independent of the nuclear deal, would, in fact, be imposed on Iran’s entire oil sector. Biden is raising the demand – supported also by Berlin – that Iran refrain from seeking regional influence and limit its missile program massively. Teheran is unwilling to comply and – given its experience in dealings with the West – prefers a “look east” policy.  (German Foreign Policy, 11/26/2020)

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IRAN’S TOP NUCLEAR SCIENTIST SHOT DEAD NEAR TEHRAN
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, identified by Israel as director of nuclear weapons programme, ambushed in street – The Guardian UK, 27 Nov 2020

An Iranian nuclear scientist described as the guru of Iran’s nuclear programme has been gunned down in the street in a town near Tehran.  Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was ambushed in the town of Absard, 70km east of Tehran. Four assailants opened fire after witnesses heard an explosion. Efforts to resuscitate Fakhrizadeh failed, and his bodyguard was also wounded.  An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed that the country would retaliate against the perpetrators. “We will strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr and will make them regret their action,” tweeted Hossein Dehghan, a military commander.  The Iranian ministry of defence confirmed Fakhrizadeh’s death in a statement. “During the clash between his security team and the terrorists, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was seriously injured and taken to hospital,” it said. “Unfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving him, and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist, after years of effort and struggle, achieved a high degree of martyrdom.” Fakhrizadeh, on a US sanctions list, was regarded as the main keeper of Iranian knowledge of its nuclear programme. A brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and a professor of physics at the Guard’s Imam Hussein University, Fakhrizadeh was a man cloaked in mystery.

(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/27/mohsen-fakhrizadeh-iranian-nuclear-scientist-reportedly-shot-dead-near-tehran)

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CHINESE ANTI-AUSSIE PROPAGANDA

On November 18, 2020, the Chinese Embassy in Australia leaked an extraordinarily blunt dossier enumerating 14 grievances that purportedly implicate Australia in “poisoning the atmosphere of bilateral relations.”  In addition to protestations against Australia’s decision to block specific Chinese investment projects and to ban Chinese telecoms from building Australia’s 5G network, the dossier scorned Australia’s current stance on issues relating to Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the South China Sea, deriding it as “incessant wanton interference.”  Shortly after the list became public, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded by reaffirming that “Australia can never compromise on our national interests.”  (MEMRI 11/25/2020)

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison demanded an apology from the Chinese government on Monday after the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian tweeted a digitally altered image of an Australian soldier cutting the throat of an Afghan child and cited alleged war crimes, highlighting the latest escalation in deteriorating diplomatic ties between both nations.  (Forbes, 11/30/2020)

Chinese International Relations Professor: Australia is a small, boring country whose economy is in Decline; It is inconsequential when they talk about China, 5G. Australian wine becomes latest casualty in China’s trade war against Australia.” (MEMRI, 12/2)

Chinese Sociologist Dr. Li Yi:   We Are Driving America To Its Death; COVID-19 Has Been Beneficial For China, North Korea; There Will Be No U.S.-China War, But We Will Take Over Taiwan (MEMRI,12/1/2020)

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SOLUTION TO DISAPPEARING CASH

With disappearing ATMs:  How some Britons are getting cash by Kevin Peachey, Personal finance correspondent, BBC 24 Nov 2020

Purchase-free cashback at local convenience stores is being touted as one solution to the problem of disappearing access to notes and coins.

Millions of people – including the elderly, those without internet access, and some of the poorest in society – face being left behind in an increasingly cashless UK. The Covid crisis has accelerated the closure of bank branches and ATMs, especially in small, more rural or isolated communities where access to cash is getting harder.

Cashback trials are being run in Britain. One of those areas is Denny, a small town west of Falkirk.  “Denny is a town where we used to have a TSB, a Royal Bank of Scotland, a Bank of Scotland, a Clydesdale Bank. They’ve all shut,” says Imran Hamid, whose family has run a convenience store in the town for 50 years.  His is one of a small group of shops around the country trialling the no-purchase cashback scheme. Residents can come in, put their card in a PayPoint machine and request a balance or cash from Mr. Hamid’s till, without paying any charge.  The advantage to the business is that people coming into the shop to withdraw cash may also “pick up a juice, or a pack of cigarettes.” Mr. Hamid gets a small fee from the banks per withdrawal and it makes cashing up easier at the end of the day.  “We’ve also got people who are on benefits here. They want access to their cash. That’s another good thing about this – they can withdraw anything from a penny to £100.(https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55027393)

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“Watch your thoughts, for they will become actions. Watch your actions, for they’ll become . . . habits.  Watch your habits for they will forge your character.  Watch your character, for it will make your destiny.” – Margaret Thatcher

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POINTERS

• The 120,000 votes that mysteriously turned up – ALL for Biden. The chances of this are 1 in 2 to the power of 120,000. This is like tossing a coin 120,000 times and expecting heads each time. Only going to happen with a loaded coin. The number is the equivalent of 10 to the power of 36,000 . . .   (Politico, 11/23/2020)
• King of Spain in quarantine after Covid-19 contact
  Spain’s King Felipe VI has entered 10 days of quarantine after coming into contact with a person who tested positive for Covid-19. The monarch’s wife and the couple’s two daughters are expected to continue their activities as normal.  Spain has been hard hit by the pandemic, recording nearly 1.6 million Covid-19 cases and 43,131 deaths.  (The Week, 11/24/2020)
• Joe Biden names John Kerry as his climate envoy
  John Kerry will act as climate envoy when US president-elect Joe Biden takes office. The former secretary of state joins long-term Biden aide Antony Blinken, who will be the new secretary of state, and former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, who is expected to be chosen as treasury secretary. Biden said: “I need a team ready on day one to help me reclaim America’s seat at the head of the table.”  (The Week, 11/24/2020)
• Domestic violence victims told to take civil action in UK
  Victims of domestic abuse have been encouraged by the police to take civil action, rather than pursuing a criminal prosecution, because the system is clogged up, a new report claims. Victim Support’s study found that some victims had tried to kill themselves because of court delays, adding: “Many victims with delayed cases have already waited a long time for the court date, which has been cancelled.”   (The Week, 11/24/2020)
• UK Cabinet plans for risk of ‘systemic economic crisis’
  The UK faces an increased likelihood of “systemic economic crisis” this winter as Brexit coincides with the second wave of Covid-19, according to a secret briefing paper prepared for the cabinet. In a reasonable worse-case scenario, it says, we could see “a combination of severe flooding, pandemic influenza, a novel emerging infectious disease and coordinated industrial action, against a backdrop of the end of the transition period.” A Brexit agreement would neutralise “much of the calamitous economic fallout,” says the Daily Mail.  (The Week, 11/25/2020)
• Brutal attack leaves 110 civilians dead in Nigeria
  The UN says at least 110 civilians have been killed and many others wounded in an attack on farmers in northeast Nigeria. Armed men on motorcycles led a brutal attack on farmers harvesting rice in Koshobe, Borno state. Nobody has taken responsibility for the killings but the Islamist groups Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa are both active in the region.  (The Week, 11/30/2020)
• Labour asks regulator to investigate Sunak shares
  The ethics watchdog has been asked to assess whether Rishi Sunak broke the ministerial code by not declaring in the register of ministerial interests a multimillion-pound portfolio of shares held by his wife and her family. Labour has written to the chair of the committee on standards in public life, to ask him to look into the “serious questions” they say the report raises “as a matter of urgency.”  (The Week, 11/30/2020)
• Murdoch gets go-ahead for new TV channel in UK
  Rupert Murdoch has got the green light from media regulator Ofcom for his television news channel. News UK TV is locked in a battle with the rival Andrew Neil-backed channel GB News to be first on air. Both outlets believe there is a gap in the market for a right-leaning television news channel.  (The Week, 12/2/2020)
• METRO headline:   “Biggest UK slump in 300 years,” since “The Great Frost of 1709.”  (11/26/2020)
• It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot