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)

———————————————————–

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/)

——————————————————

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)

——————————————————

“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)

——————————————————————-

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)

—————————————————————–

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.”

——————————————————————

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)

————————————————————-

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)

——————————————————

FINAL THOUGHT

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

PARANOID PUTIN PUTS PEACE ON PAUSE

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

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

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

BIDEN IGNORING JIHADI THREAT

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

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

TERRORISTS CROSSING BORDER

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

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

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

—————————————————–

AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY BENEFITS CHINA

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

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

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

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

———————————————————-

COUNTERING THE SILK ROAD

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

————————————————————-

COVID

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

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

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

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

—————————————————————

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

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

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

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

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

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

—————————————————

POPE LIBERAL ON SEX

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

—————————————————-

HIGH BLACK DEATH TOLL

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

The most deadly attacks appear to have targeted Black people. 

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

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

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

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

————————————————

POINTERS

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

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

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

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

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

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

————————————————————

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

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

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

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

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

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

These facts point to a fulfillment of the prophecy.

But, then, where is the Beast?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

——————————————————————–

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)

——————————————————————————

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)

———————————————————————-

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)

———————————————————–

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)

NORWAY FIRST COUNTRY TO ABOLISH COVID RESTRICTIONS

Solberg solemnly stated that, from 4pm from Saturday, (September 25), Norway will “remove most of the infection control measures,” giving “a big thank you” to citizens for complying.

The Norwegian government has declared that Covid is just like the flu, with no higher death toll due to 70% of the population being vaccinated.   So most restrictions were abolished.  Not everybody was happy with the decision.   To my knowledge, this has not been announced on American TV.

————————————————–

LA COUNTY ISSUES NEW COVID DIRECTIVES

The Los Angeles City Council on Oct. 6 approved one of the strictest COVID-19 vaccination mandates in the country, requiring proof of vaccination to enter indoor restaurants, movie theaters, salons, shopping centers, and many more indoor venues.

People will have to provide vaccination proof at gyms, sports arenas, museums, spas, indoor government facilities, malls, restaurants, and bars. For people with religious or medical exemptions, negative COVID-19 tests within 72 hours of entry will be required, according to the ordinance, which doesn’t make mention of “natural immunity” afforded by a previous COVID-19 infection.

Unvaccinated individuals attempting to use government services will be provided with “alternative arrangements for access to government services,” including online or outdoor services, or providing proof of a negative test to enter, according to the ordinance.   (Jack Phillips, Epoch Times, 10/6/2021)

—————————————————————-

NATURAL GAS PRICE SURGING

Global gas markets are preparing for a volatile winter, says Seb Kennedy. The world is fighting for gas – and China is determined to win.  Xi Jinping raised the stakes by ordering China’s state-owned energy companies to secure supplies ‘at all costs.’ Britain, along with the rest of Europe, will face the full force of this crisis. So will this winter feel like the apocalypse? Hopefully not. But a gas shortage will cause huge disruption to the economy, widespread shortages and a political crisis from which even the Johnson administration, with its formidable ability to bounce back, may not recover.   (The Spectator, 10/7/2021)

—————————————————————–

ISLAM

Senior Official Of Al-Qaeda In The Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Ibrahim Al-Qosi, Threatens U.S. With Attacks More Painful, Powerful Than 9/11  (MEMRI, 10/7/2021)

Swedish artist Lars Vilks, 75, who was best known (some would say infamous) for drawing a cartoon of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, with a dog’s body, has been killed in a highly suspicious automobile accident in Sweden. He had previously survived two attempts on his life. It is possible that he was killed in a third.   According to the UK’s Daily Mail, Vilks was traveling in a police car along with two police officers around three o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday in Markaryd, Sweden. The officers were supposed to be protecting him in light of the previous attempts to kill him and the ongoing threat under which he was living. The identities of the officers have not been revealed.   The car Vilks was in was speeding. Suddenly, it veered into the lane of oncoming traffic, right into the path of a truck.   (Jihad Watch, 10/5/2021)

Jihadi Clerics Rejoice In Death Of Swedish Cartoonist Lars Vilks In Car Accident: May He Burn In Hell Like He Burned Our Hearts With His Mockery Of Our Prophet (MEMRI, 10/5/2021)

MIDDLE EAST MIGRANTS – STAY IN YOUR CULTURE ZONE

As the prospect of great numbers of Afghans fleeing their country – five million have been mentioned – comes into focus, a near-universal assumption exists that the West – meaning here Western and Central Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – should be their ultimate destination. But does this make sense?

From the Afghan perspective, living in Christian-heritage, secular societies offend many of their mores and creates severe stresses. Their general lack of skills appropriate to modern economies holds them back. Finding host populations prejudiced against them, they complain tearfully about structural racism, xenophobia, and “Islamophobia.” They point to hate incidents and even murderous attacks, such as those in New York City, North Carolina, Quebec, New Zealand, and beyond.

From the Western perspective, the open invitation of 2015-16 by the leaders of Germany and Sweden, allowing into their countries an estimated 1 million and 100,000 unvetted migrants, respectively, from Syria and elsewhere, turned out badly. Westerners watched helplessly as Middle Easterners arrived by plane, boat, train, bus, car, and foot through the beaches, fields, and railroad stations of Europe. They then witnessed those large numbers bring disease, resist assimilation, impose Islamic laws, engage in crime wave, perpetrate the Cologne taharrush (mass sexual assault), and execute jihadi attacks in Paris and Brussels. They uneasily accepted that their societies turned into quasi-surveillance states.

These problems point to the need radically to rethink what is best for both migrants in distress and Westerners. I shall argue that the former generally should remain within their own cultural zone. That is where they most readily fit in, where they can stay truest to their traditions, best find economic roles, most easily can return home, and least disrupt the host society. Thus, East Asian refugees, asylum seekers, and illegals should be directed to resettle in East Asia, South Asians in South Asia, Middle Easterners in the Middle East, Africans in Africa, Latin Americans in Latin America, and Westerners in the West. This can mean internal migration, as in Syria, or moving to nearby countries.  (Daniel Pipes, American Spectator,10/3/2021)

————————————————————

WHY GERMANY IS THE WEST’S SANEST COUNTRY

Thank G-d for Germany. That is not a sentiment that you heard much during the 20th century. As the second world war drew to a close, Henry Morgenthau, the US Treasury secretary, argued that the only answer to the German question was the destruction of the country’s industrial capacity. François Mauriac, the French writer, welcomed the division of the country, joking “I love Germany so much, I’m glad there are two of them.”

When reunification loomed in 1990, a meeting of chiefly British intellectuals, convened by Margaret Thatcher, discussed the German national character. Her chief foreign policy adviser wrote minutes suggesting these were “in alphabetical order, angst, aggressiveness, assertiveness, bullying, egotism, inferiority complex, sentimentality.”

Thirty years on and these stereotypes about national character have been completely reversed. It is the US and the UK where politics seem increasingly prone to “angst, aggressiveness” and all those other unattractive, supposedly Teutonic, qualities. These days, it is German public life that is characterised by the virtues the British often attribute to themselves — calm, restraint, rationality and compromise.

The recent German election and its aftermath underline the point. It was a close contest, but the losers accepted the results gracefully. Nobody tried to claim that the voting was rigged or that their opponents were “scum” — or represented a mortal danger to the country.

The Social Democrats now look set to lead a German government for the first time since 2005. But a transition of power will not bring about an abrupt rupture in policies or an attempt by the political opposition to paralyse the government, as is happening in the US.

The SPD’s Olaf Scholz, who may become chancellor, ran as a continuity candidate. As my FT colleagues reported, voters saw Scholz “with his quiet demeanour, long experience in government and pragmatic politics, as Merkel’s natural successor.” How very different from the leadership profiles of Donald Trump or Boris Johnson.   (part of an article by Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, 10/4/2021)

The German Bundeswehr has commissioned the “fabrication and delivery” of high-resolution maps of Russia – vector maps in military format, according to a report. Germany is part of a cooperation network, wherein 32 countries – grouped around a NATO core – “share photos and maps with one another.” This procurement of militarily applicable maps comes at a time when tensions between the West and Russia continue to escalate. Most recently, the EU threatened new sanctions. According to the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), new investments must be made, not only “in the defense capacities within the NATO and the EU frameworks.” “Change in Russia” must also be promoted through Intensive contacts within the Russian society. At the same time, the US company, Google, and its video platform YouTube has deleted RT DE – the German language edition of the Russian international broadcaster “Russia Today.” This move is akin to measures the DGAP had proposed to accompany a more aggressive German foreign policy.  (German Foreign Policy, 10/3/2021)

———————————————————————

DEBT CEILING

There’s a lot of talk about the debt ceiling deadline on October 18^th.   Interestingly, no other country has a debt ceiling.  Why do we?

The debt ceiling standoff is starting to be taken more seriously by markets with only 17 days left (now ten days) to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s deadline for a deal to avoid default.  Speaking to the House Financial Services Committee yesterday she said there may be a few extra day’s grace on the deadline, but reiterated a default would be “catastrophic” for the country.  The Washington-based Institute of International Finance said in a report that U.S. debt appears to already be losing favor as a haven, while Germany and Japan remain popular. Investors are demanding a premium to hold bills that come due in October and November, with those instruments having noticeably higher yields.   (Bloomberg, 10/1/2021)

——————————————————————-

TO THE POINT

• Norway Cathedral photo Exhibition:  “The Palestinians are Jesus.   The Jews are criminals who crucify him again.  Daily.”  (Jihad Watch, 10/1/2021)

• Russia holds lavish royal wedding – Russia will celebrate its first royal wedding in a century today when Nicholas II’s purported heir is married in the former Imperial capital of St Petersburg. Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov, a hereditary pretender to the Russian throne, will marry Victoria Romanovna Bettarini amid a “lavish two days of imperial pomp and ceremony” complete with Faberge wedding rings, royal guests and a banquet provided by the catering tycoon known as “Putin’s chef,” reported The Telegraph.   (The Week, 10/1/2021)

• China is driving a wedge between America and Israel – In the last two decades, there have been more than 460 Chinese investments and mergers and acquisitions in Israel (30 Aug 2021, by Jake Wallis Simons, Spectator magazine).

• Remember “let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16)

GERMANY MOVES CLOSER TO RUSSIA

Angela Merkel replaced by ‘Putin sympathiser’ (Armin Laschet) as Germany poised to move closer to Russia (https://neewss.com/angela-merkel-replaced-by-putin-sympathiser-as-germany-poised-to-move-closer-to-russia/)

“Would a Germany that is doubling its dependency on Russia for the natural gas that fuels its economy be willing to go to war against that same Russia, and send German troops to fight alongside NATO? Would Berlin be willing to declare war on its own gas station?” 

When the U.S. created NATO, a primary purpose of the alliance was to serve as a western wall to defend Germany against the 400,000 Russian troops on the eastern side of the Elbe River.

Seventy years later, Germany has decided to double its dependence on Vladimir Putin’s Russia for the natural gas needed to run the German economy, despite the opposition of her great protector, the USA.   (Pat Buchanan, 5/25/2021)

———————————————————-

Growing military tensions in the Arctic overshadow today’s Arctic Council ministerial meeting. In recent years, the Arctic has increasingly become the theater of global rivalries. The melting of the polar ice facilitates access to natural resources and opens new maritime trade routes, thus exacerbating competition between the states involved. At the same time, Russia’s Arctic coast is gradually losing its protective barrier of ice and extreme cold and is becoming vulnerable. Moscow feels compelled to reinforce its defenses and has built new military bases in its Arctic regions. German government advisors concede that Moscow’s approach is “fundamentally defensive.” However, according to NATO, today Russia poses a “threat” to the entire region. With the active support of Berlin and the Bundeswehr, the war alliance is accelerating the militarization of the Arctic Ocean. NATO member Norway has announced that the largest maneuver in the Arctic since the end of the Cold War will be held in 2022.  (German Foreign Policy, 5/20/2021)

———————————————————————-

MIDEAST

For the watching world, the fourth Gaza war was defined by images of rockets streaking into the night sky. As both sides take stock amid a cease-fire, one data point will leap out at military planners throughout the Middle East: Hamas fired over 4,000 projectiles in 11 days of fighting.

That is a huge increase in the rate of fire compared to the 2014 Gaza war, when Hamas fired 4,500 in 50 days. Just as alarming is the improved quality of Hamas’ arsenal: In the latest conflict, it was able to lob projectiles much farther into Israel than before. Hamas also used so-called “suicide drones” which, unlike its rockets, can be directed at specific targets.  (Seth Frantzman, Bloomberg, 5/22/2021)

Armed drones crisscross Middle Eastern skies, bringing havoc and a new threat to U.S. Los Angeles Times, 24 May 2021 (Extracts) — Proliferation of military drones crisscrossing the region’s skies in unprecedented numbers. They target oil facilities, militant hideouts, Israeli and Palestinian territory and even U.S. bases in the region. “These small- and medium-sized [drones] present a new and complex threat to our forces and those of our partners and allies,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, told Congress last month. “For the first time since the Korean War, we are operating without complete air superiority.” Even cheaper nonmilitary drones and parts are widely available from China and other sources and can be easily fitted with explosives, turning them into crude but potentially effective single-use weapons, the U.S. officials say.  (https://news.yahoo.com/armed-drones-crisscross-middle-eastern-130054087.html)

Egypt:  In a video released on April 17, Muslims connected to the Islamic State in Sinai executed 62-year-old Nabil Habashi Salama, a Christian. Salama appears on his knees in the video, with three men holding rifles standing behind him. The one in the middle launches into a typical jihadi diatribe: “All praise to Allah, who ordered his slaves [Muslims] to fight and who assigned humiliation onto the infidels” —pointing contemptuously at the kneeling Christian before him — “until they pay the jizya while feeling utterly subdued.” The words are a paraphrasing of Koran 9:29, which commands Muslims to “fight the people of the book,” understood as meaning Christians and Jews, “until they pay the jizya (monetary tribute) with willing submissiveness and feel themselves utterly subdued.”  (This Week, 5/24/2021)

Hamas-Israel Cease-Fire Begins after 11 Days of Fighting  – Felicia Schwartz
Israel and Hamas in Gaza agreed to a cease-fire that began early Friday. Israel’s cabinet voted Thursday to accept an Egyptian-brokered bilateral cease-fire without any conditions. Hamas leader Osama Hamdan confirmed the cease-fire. Since May 10, Palestinians in Gaza have fired 4,340 rockets toward Israel, with 640 of them falling inside Gaza. (Wall Street Journal, 5/21/2021)

DailyKenn.com — As the banana republic culture floods over the border into the USA, Americans can expect a future very different from our past. A case in point is the massive violence that accompanies elections south of the border.  Abel Murrieta was one of dozens of candidates killed in recent weeks. He was fatally shot in the head while distributing flyers. He was a candidate for mayor in Ciudad Obregon. The city was named for a former mayor who was, himself, fatally shot in 1928, a testimony to the deep roots of violence that permeates Hispanic culture.  Why so violent?  Winning an election south of the border is akin to winning a lottery. Virtually every economy in every jurisdiction is rooted in corruption. That is, everything from building permits to traffic tickets is part of a cultural bribery scheme. The guy at the top receives a percentage of everything.  That culture of bribery and corruption is pouring over the border as invaders seek the low hanging fruit of Western civilization.   (Reuters, 5/26/2021)

————————————————————————

TALKING POINTS

• DailyKenn.com — Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot announced she would refuse one-on-one interviews with white reporters. It’s her way of fighting racial discrimination.  Lightfoot apparently is reacting to the reality that the news media is dominated by white people. In an effort to create an environment of diversity and inclusion, she is excluding the dominant group.  (5/20/2021)

• “The elevation of fitness to the highest of attainments is a sure sign of a culture grown neurotically inward and stunted. It’s a sign of diminished aspirations,” writes Lionel Shriver on UnHerd.  “When ‘self-improvement’ entails not learning German but doing star jumps, we’re aiming to clear the lowest of bars,” she continues. “In the end, no matter how much agony we undergo to build our biceps, those perishable muscles will still atrophy in old age and then end up on the scrap heap – at which point, what have we got to show?”  “The whole purpose of maintaining a functional body is to be able to do something else: write books, invent new software, land a rover on Mars. Theoretically, Michelangelo could have spent all his time on chin-ups and never have got round to the Sistine Chapel.”   (The Week, 5/18/2021)

• EU announces Belarus response – The EU has banned Belarusian airlines from European skies after a flight was diverted to Minsk so that a journalist on board could be arrested. Leaders also told EU airlines not to fly over Belarus and promised further economic sanctions. The British government has told all UK planes to cease flying over Belarus and summoned the country’s ambassador. Dissident reporter Roman Protasevich was arrested after his flight from Greece to Lithuania was rerouted.  (The Week, 5/25/2021)

• BLM activist ‘shot by gang’ – A leading Black Lives Matter activist who was shot in the head was the unintended victim of a gang attack, a fellow activist said yesterday. Sasha Johnson was shot by gang members who fired at rivals from a car in Peckham, southeast London, according to Imarn Ayton. She said the shooting in Consort Road just before 3am on Sunday was “more related to rival gangs as opposed to her activism”.  (The Week, 5/25/2021)

• Villages braced for new homes – Nearly 400,000 homes will be built on greenfield sites in the south of England over the next five years, The Times reports. Analysis of planning policy suggests that “huge parts of the countryside could be paved over by councils to meet revised housebuilding targets,” the paper says. Conservative backbenchers fear that the proposals will alienate their voters in the shires. (The Week, 5/25/2021)

• Prince William attacks BBC – Prince William says the BBC’s failures around Martin Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with his mother “contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation.” The royal spoke out after the publication of a report which concluded that the former Panorama reporter had used “deceitful behaviour” to induce Diana, Princess of Wales, to agree to the 1995 interview. The Times says the Duke’s rebuke of the corporation is “unprecedented.”   (The Week, 5/21/2021)

• Unrest follows Swansea vigil – Cars were set on fire in Swansea last night after a vigil descended into violence. South Wales Police said they attended “large scale disorder” in the Mayhill area of the city. The force warned people to stay indoors amid chaotic scenes after people gathered to remember a man who recently died. Footage on social media showed crowds cheering as a burning vehicle was rolled down a hill.   (The Week, 5/21/2021)

• Civil service given days for aid cuts – Civil servants were given just five to seven working days to prepare 30% cuts in the overseas aid budget last summer. The Guardian says the government spent only seven hours discussing the proposed £2.9bn cuts to multilateral and bilateral aid, and then imposed them on the world’s poorest countries. The cuts were made on the basis of a forecast shown five days later to be too pessimistic, the paper reports.  (The Week, 5/21/2021)

• Think tank says poverty rate soaring – The poverty rate among working households in the UK is the highest ever, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research. It says relative poverty has reached 17.4%. It blames higher rents, soaring property prices and childcare costs. (The Week, 5/26/2021)

————————————————————————————–

FINAL THOUGHT

Proverbs 16:4 – “The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” Scientists can study only what God has made.   . . . Like a good engineer, God made everything for a purpose.  Oct 1, 2018

GERMANY BACKS NAVALNY

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

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

RUSSIAN THREAT

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

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

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

——————————————————–

CAUTION ON VACCINE

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

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

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

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

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

————————————————————

POWER CUTS IN TEXAS LINKED TO KEYSTONE CANCELATION

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

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

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

———————————————————————–

TURKEY NOW A US FOE

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

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

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

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

—————————————————-

AUSTRALIA’S GOVERNOR GENERAL POLITICALLY CORRECT

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

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

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

————————————————————-

AUSTRALIA NOT PREPARED FOR WAR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

————————————————–

US DEFEAT IN AFGHANISTAN LOOMS

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

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

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

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

This would write an end to the Western military commitment.

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

———————————————————-

CATHOLIC CHURCH NOT HAPPY WITH BIDEN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

————————————————–

US LIFE EXPECTANCY DROPS

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

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

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

———————————————————————-

BIDEN SEEN AS ‘WEAK’ PRESIDENT

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

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

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

——————————————————-

TO THE POINT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DEATH OF QUEEN VICTORIA

No, I’m not late bringing you the news!

Rather, I’ve just read “Last Days of Glory,” by Tony Rennell (published in 2000).

The book answers any questions you might have about the death of Queen Victoria, in January 1901.   To my knowledge, hers was the biggest funeral service in history, befitting a woman who was the “Grandmama of Europe” and the most powerful woman in the world. If she had lived, World War One might have been avoided. The German Kaiser was her grandson and was present at her death and subsequent funeral.   By all accounts, he was on his best behavior and was well received by his Uncle Edward, Victoria’s son and successor, who also died before 1914.

 

She wasn’t England’s greatest monarch (that description belongs to Queen Elizabeth I), but she was by far the most influential, giving her name to an age. The Victorian Era carries connotations to this day.

 

Interestingly, President McKinley ordered the flag atop the White House (then known as the Executive Mansion), to fly at half-staff when he heard the news of her death, the first time this had been done for a foreign leader. He also attended a memorial service for her in Washington DC.

In reading of her life, I was reminded of a scripture in the Book of Proverbs, that “Righteousness exalts a nation” (Prov. 14:34).   Britain was exalted during the Victorian era, above all the other nations on earth.   Her empire was the greatest in history, ruling over one quarter of the peoples on earth.   She had the greatest navy in the world, giving her command of the seas.

Contributory factors were the abolition of slavery (in 1833).   There was a four-year transition period, at the end of which Victoria became Queen.   She was seen as a Liberator throughout her life.   Another contributing factor was her exemplary married life – during her short marriage to Prince Albert, they had nine children and were known to be a very happy couple.   This was in stark contrast to her two predecessors on the throne.

There’s no wonder more cities and towns around the world are named Victoria.   She reigned almost 64 years.   She left behind a country that has, sadly, rejected all the values she held dear.

—————————————————-

BRITISH EMPIRE FACTOID

“On the eve of the Second World War, Britain’s Colonial Empire was made up of 45 territories, 2 million square miles and 50 million inhabitants.   All but 300,000 square miles of the Empire was in tropical Africa, where there were no less than 14 territories, all of them staffed by members of the Colonial Service.” (Introduction, “Tales from the Dark Continent,” edited by Charles Allen, 1979)

________________________________________

TRUMP’S UPSETTING WORDS

When President Trump told four congresswomen to “go back where you came from” and accused them of having anti-American ideas, he had a point.   First and second generation immigrants bring in alien ideas, which can be upsetting.

When I worked for an African government, my wife and I lived quite comfortably on one salary.   When a native African took over, he could not.   The reason is the extended family.   Whereas I only had to support my wife and I, plus our baby daughter, he had 300 members of his extended family to support – brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles.

No wonder the first generation of African leaders asked for bribes to do their jobs, it was the only way they could support all those people.

In Ghana, my wife had a friend from the UK who had married a Ghanaian man.   She used to get very frustrated and angry at all the hangers on, family members who would turn up at all hours of the day and night to ask for money.   Her husband no doubt had to supplement his income in order to survive.

The extended family system is very much a part of African culture.  It is similar to socialism, whereby the guy at the top distributes largesse to everybody according to his will.   As Mrs. Margaret Thatcher put it so well:   “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples’ money.”   Whether it’s your own money or the tax-payers, eventually the funds will be exhausted.

Far better for each person to take care of himself and his own family. This was the foundation of Anglo-Saxon supremacy,

“If a man doesn’t work, neither should he eat” (II Thess 3:10).   I Timothy 5:8 adds:   “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

But the root of the “squad’s” thinking is the extended family system, correctly described by the president as “an un-American idea.”

With immigration (and even the second and third generation) the idea will grow in numbers, changing America significantly.

———————————————–

WAR WITHOUT END

“For nation (Greek “ethnos” = ethnic group) shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” (Matthew 24:7)

“When he slipped out of consciousness, Batsi Lokana watched the militiamen who had attacked him slice off his mother’s head.   When he came to, her body was gone.  “Either they ate her, or they threw her into the river,” he surmises from his hospital bed in Bunia, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province.   Given Ituri’s history of gore, it is not a far-fetched conclusion.   The past two decades have seen civil war, mass killings, systematic gang rape and a vile scramble for loot.   For some militias, cannibalism is just another way to terrify one’s enemies.

“Last month saw a reprise of the violence, as Ituri’s cattle-herding Hema and seed-sowing Lendu ethnic groups again turned on each other.   Armed men emptied villages, burned down houses, hacked bits off their occupants and ripped the fetus out of at least one woman.   A mass grave found in the village of Tche contained 161 bodies, babies and small children among them.”   (“Ituri’s injuries,” The Economist, July 13^th)

———————————————————–

EUROPE ELECTS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT

STRASBOURG — The European Parliament on Tuesday elected Ursula von der Leyen as the next president of the European Commission — the first woman to hold the EU’s top executive job.

Von der Leyen, from the center-right European People’s Party, served most recently as German defense minister and is a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel.  She will be the first German to lead the EU in more than a half-century, since Walter Hallstein served from 1958 to 1967.

Von der Leyen won 383 votes in a secret ballot, just slightly above the absolute majority of 374 she required to be elected — and far short of the 422 votes cast in favor of current Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in 2014.   There were 327 votes in opposition, 22 abstentions and one vote declared invalid.  (Politico.eu 7/16)

——————————————————–

“The Fourth Reich:   The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present

 Amazon books:

Ever since the collapse of the Third Reich, anxieties have persisted about Nazism’s revival in the form of a Fourth Reich.   Gavriel D. Rosenfeld reveals, for the first time, these postwar nightmares of a future that never happened and explains what they tell us about Western political, intellectual, and cultural life.  He shows how postwar German history might have been very different without the fear of the Fourth Reich as a mobilizing idea to combat the right-wing forces that genuinely threatened the country’s democratic order.   He then explores the universalization of the Fourth Reich by left-wing radicals in the 1960s, its transformation into a source of pop culture entertainment in the 1970s, and its embrace by authoritarian populists and neo-Nazis seeking to attack the European Union since the year 2000.   This is a timely analysis of a concept that is increasingly relevant in an era of surging right-wing politics.

———————————————————-

PLANS FOR THE [German Army] BUNDESWEHR
The relentlessly fighting AfD army
by VON PETER CARSTENS:  Political correspondent in Berlin,          10 July, 2019

The AfD* calls for a “strong military force” with “relentless” soldiers and a leadership role in Europe.    Their plans for the Bundeswehr are reminiscent of old times.  It would create a state in the state.  An analysis.

Some sympathizers of the AFD have come to the party because the Union has failed to take care of traditional conservatives.

They see themselves as patriotic people who love their country, respect the Basic Law and defend it if necessary with the weapon in hand.   This also applies to the Bundeswehr, which was neglected for years.

For a quarter of a century, from the Urals to the Atlantic, central European politics barely saw any territorial threat in the midst of its great peace project, which would have to be met militarily.  There remained peace operations and disaster relief to justify the existence of the Bundeswehr.

But times have changed.   Germany has been investing more in equipment, training and readiness for five years now.   It will, however, take time for the worst deficits to be balanced.   After all, it was possible in the late autumn to bring about 10,000 well-equipped soldiers and their vehicles and everything else for several weeks to Norway for the NATO maneuver “Trident Juncture”… [Google machine translation].    (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 10^th July)

* The AfD (Alternative for Deutschland) is the right wing opposition party in Germany.)

————————————————————————–

COUNTER-MEASURES TO US SANCTIONS

(Own report) – Berlin and Brussels are weighing countermeasures to the Trump administration’s growing number of extraterritorial sanctions.   The US government is seeking to globally enforce its unilaterally imposed sanctions to bind other countries, including allies, to its foreign policy course.   The sanctions against Iran are the most prominent example.   They also made German business with Iran largely impossible.   Washington first implemented extraterritorial sanctions in the mid-1990s, but finally reached agreement with the EU not to enforce them against European companies.   This was changed during the Obama administration, when it amassed billions in fines from banks in the EU.   The Trump administration has expanded the extraterritorial sanctions to include Russia and Cuba.   Following the failure of the INSTEX financial vehicle, German government advisors are proposing that legal action be taken in US courts.   Now, “asymmetric countermeasures” are also being discussed.   (German Foreign Policy, July 11^th)

————————————————————————

UNDOING THE PAST

PRUSSIAN MONARCHY HEIRS SEEK RESTITUTION OF ARTIFACTS FROM GERMAN STATE                                            Hohenzollerns want property and artworks lost after two world wars and Soviet occupation                                                                                        Guardian UK, 12 July 2019

Negotiations have been ongoing “for several years” between the Hohenzollern family, the federal government and the states of Berlin and Brandenburg over the aristocrats’ demand for restitution.  “The talks … are aimed at finding a lasting solution for different art and collection objects, which are valued differently by the public institutions on the one hand and the Hohenzollern House on the other hand,” said the culture ministry in a statement.   According to Der Spiegel, the Hohenzollerns are seeking the restitution of tens of thousands of paintings, sculptures, coins, books and furniture.  Further, they want a right to reside at one of several properties, including Cecilienhof Palace, where Allied powers met after second world war to decide on Germany’s future.

The restitution negotiations were spearheaded by Georg Friedrich Ferdinand, the great-great grandchild of Wilhelm II, the last emperor and king of Prussia, who was deposed and went into exile after Germany’s defeat in the first world war.   The Prussian royals were initially stripped of their properties without compensation after the monarchy was overthrown, but a deal on the monarchy’s assets was later brokered between the state and the Hohenzollerns under a 29 October 1926 law.    However, Soviet occupation following the second world war and the subsequent communist rule in half of Berlin and in the state of Brandenburg led to additional expropriations, further complicating things.

“The negotiations are about legal ambiguities in the agreement, but also with legal positions that have changed as a result of the subsequent historical events, in particular the measures of the Soviet occupying power and the government of the German Democratic Republic,” said the culture ministry.

As a first step, a list of concerned objects has been drawn up that concerns less than 0.1% of the collections in the Prussian Castles and Gardens Foundation in Berlin-Brandenburg, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the German Historical Museum.  Nevertheless, a rapid resolution of the talks is unlikely. “At the moment, the positions of the negotiating parties are still very far apart,” said the ministry.

(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/12/prussian-monarchy-heirs-reclaim-historical-artefacts-from-german-state)

——————————————————-

DUTCH ROYAL FAMILY STEP IN TO SAVE FORMER HOME OF KAISER WILHELM II                                                                                                 Huis Doorn in the Netherlands struggles to attract visitors due to controversial legacy of last German emperor                                        Guardian UK 2018

The Kaiser bought Huis Doorn, his home until his death in June 1941 at the age of 82, from Baroness Ella van Heemstra, the mother of Audrey Hepburn.   Between September 1919 and February 1922, five trains pulling 59 carriages arrived at Zeist station filled with his possessions.

Today those possessions remain largely untouched.  On his deathbed lies a small bunch of snowdrops and a note from his mourning son, Adalbert, who was serving in Hitler’s Wehrmacht when his father died.   Wilhelm’s morning gown hangs in his bedroom, above his fur-trimmed slippers.   A framed postcard from his grandmother, Queen Victoria, takes pride of place.   His cigars sit by an ashtray.

(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/18/dutch-royal-family-step-in-to-save-former-home-huis-doorn-kaiser-wilhelm-ii)

————————————————————————-

MUSLIMS ADD TO INSECURITY

“The BfV has found that all Islamist organizations active in Germany harbor anti-Semitic ideas and disseminate them in various ways. These ideas represent a considerable challenge for peaceful and tolerant coexistence in Germany.” — Annual report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV), 2019 (Gatestone, 7/17)

————————————————

Prominent California Islamists Praise Imam’s Call to Exterminate Jews     by Seth Westrop
Islamist Watch, July 9, 2019

While waiting at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, following a trip to the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, California imam Ahmed Billoo (also known as Ahmed Ibn Aslam), wrote on his private Facebook account that he was “feeling annoyed” about his location.   He offered a prayer to deal with the surfeit of Jews in the building: “Oh God, reduce their numbers, exterminate them, and don’t leave a single one alive.”   He added the hashtag “Zionists.”

Billoo seemed palpably relieved to arrive in Istanbul the next day, writing “So good to be in a Muslim country” and “#TiredofSeeingZionists.”

Billoo is a prominent cleric in California, and part of a prominent Islamist family.

He works as the religious director at the Islamic Center of Cypress, serves as a “professor” at California Islamic University, and is a teacher at the Institute of Knowledge, a seminary that offers religious advice to Muslim students and trains the next generation of imams.   Its faculty includes prominent clerics from the hardline Salafi and Deboandi strains of Islam. (Middle East Forum, July 9th)

(https://www.meforum.org/58906/california-islamists-praise-imams-call-to-exterminate-jews)

ISLAMIZATION CONTINUES

They were hardly major items of news, but they illustrate a disturbing trend, with profound implications for the United States and other western nations.

I’m referring to the Administration’s decision two days ago that federal prisons will no longer serve prisoners pork or pork products.   Apparently, prisoners have been complaining when they are offered pork.

The same day this announcement was made I got into a conversation with a small group of policemen in a restaurant in Indianapolis.  I hastily add our conversation was not prompted by any act on my part!  I had commented on how the best place to find policemen in Michigan was at Dunkin Donuts or some comparable fast food outlet; yet, here in Indianapolis, they were at Chick Fil A, which offers a healthier alternative.  One policeman responded with a comment about “the other white meat,” which led to the conversation on the pork decision announced earlier that day.

This particular policeman said it’s because so many people in prison are converting to Islam.

Now, I’m not a pork eater myself so, on one level, I support the decision.   However, there is a troubling aspect to this decision, a decision that comes just a few weeks after another executive decision to change the wording of the “Oath of Allegiance” that immigrants must repeat before being granted citizenship.   Under the old wording, new citizens had to promise to be ready to take up arms in defense of the country should it become necessary.   The change, introduced late in July, no longer requires them to pledge to do so.

It’s now been changed to accommodate Muslim sensitivities.  And that goes for the prison decision also.

A further example of this trend is that city councils have allowed muezzins to call people to prayer.   The Muslim muezzin historically has woken people up early with a loud call to prayer.   With a modern microphone it’s easy to wake up the whole neighborhood, Christian, Muslim or Jewish, whether they appreciate it or not.

At the same time, it has also been revealed that Arabic is the fastest growing language in the US.

America’s gradual embrace of Islam continues.

In Europe, however, a backlash has become apparent.   This is because of the unexpected decision on the part of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to allow Muslims from Syria to resettle in Germany.   They have been arriving in their tens of thousands.   Over a million are expected this year alone.

Demonstrations against the immigrants and physical acts of destruction against immigrant shelters have become common.   A lengthy article in the latest issue of Der Spiegel is titled:  “Deep concern over return of anti-Muslim Pegida protests.”   Pegida stands for:  “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the Occident.” It operates in a number of countries.   Weekly demonstrations directed against Muslims take place on Monday evenings.   The numbers demonstrating is once again on the rise, following Mrs. Merkel’s decision to let in so many migrants.

From Der Spiegel:  “In the right-wing magazine Compact, Jürgen Elsässer, a writer who speaks at Pegida events, issued a call to arms to Germany’s armed forces to resist the government.  “In this situation, it is up to you, soldiers of the Bundeswehr:   Fulfill your oath and protect the German people and the liberal and democratic order!  Occupy the border stations, above all the border train stations, and close all possible crossings, particularly from the South.  Don’t wait for orders from above!”

“At the very least, the movement is conducting “discursive arson,” warns political scientist Vorländer, adding that Pegida is “paving the way” for more radical behavior. In a current situation report, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Germany’s answer to the FBI, writes that agitation from the right is having a “catalyzing effect.”   During the first nine months of this year, the BKA registered more than 400 attacks on asylum-seeker hostels.  For all of 2014, there were only around 200 such attacks.

“The path from words to actions appears to be getting shorter and shorter, as illustrated by Pegida’s “We’ll help build the border” initiative. Announced for the first time in early October in the Saxon town of Sebnitz – a place that is also the site of anti-refugee protests – the action is expected to continue in Bavaria.   Hundreds of “wire mesh fence” enthusiasts have set up an event using Facebook for Nov. 8 to seal off the German border on their own.  One of the ringleaders is Michael Viehmann, a former supermarket worker from the western city of Kassel, who was also involved in the protests in Sebnitz. November 8, it should be noted, was the date that Adolf Hitler launched his failed “Beer Hall Putsch” in 1923.

“Last year, Viehmann established a Pegida offshoot in a western German state.   He is also known to have participated in “Hooligans against Salafists” events in the past and became the subject of a criminal complaint after posting hate speech on the web.  He allegedly incited against Jews on Facebook and blustered that, hopefully, “soon a revolution will break out and the whole pack of German politicians will have their skulls bashed in.”

Those with knowledge of German history will see similarities here between what is happening now and what happened in the 1920’s and 30’s.   Events then led to Hitler’s coming to power in 1933. Certainly, Mrs. Merkel’s decision to take a million migrants this year is boosting the cause of right wing groups like Pegida.

This is not just happening in Germany.   Other European countries that have taken in substantial numbers of Muslims are seeing the same development. In some Swedish cities, migrants are now the majority, totally transforming the country.   A report on Focus on Europe, a weekly newsmagazine program shown on PBS but produced by German public television, showed similar problems developing in neighboring Norway.

Bible prophecy shows that there will soon be rapid change in Europe, as ten nations come together to face urgent threats.

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

The whole chapter is about the Roman Empire and successive attempts throughout history to revive the empire.   The latest one was the revival of the Roman Empire proclaimed by Benito Mussolini in 1922, which led to the alliance with Germany’s Third Reich.  It is clear from the last verse that this event takes place immediately prior to Christ’s Second Coming.   So there is another attempt at European unity prophesied to take place.  Once again, it will be led by Germany, the dominant economic power in Europe.

A horn is symbolic of royal authority, but it does not have to be royal.

What this passage of scripture shows is that a sudden change is going to take place in Europe, similar to events in 1848 and 1989, when a number of European governments were overthrown and replaced by something quite different.

A perceived threat, like the one now facing European nations, could easily be the catalyst that leads to a major change in the social order.   Germany’s constitution requires the country to provide refuge to refugees.   If nothing can be done legally to change that, then public pressure is likely to mount, putting increased pressure on the Federal Republic itself.   This will only increase if the new arrivals do not assimilate and even threaten the social order.

The German Chancellor was seen until recently as a solid and stable leader in a time of profound change.   Many no longer feel this to be the case.

When viewed from the perspective of history, recognizing that Islam has often threatened the West, what is happening now is the latest attempt to spread Islam into the very heart of the West.

With better historical memory than most western leaders display, the leaders of Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic are cooperating to try to keep the migrants out, while others, including Germany, are encouraging them to enter. These four countries either suffered under the Ottoman Empire or fought against it when it tried to conquer central Europe.

As the European Union allows for the free movement of peoples within its borders, once any migrants receive citizenship, they will be able to go anywhere.

It remains to be seen what anti-migrant countries will do once the new arrivals can freely move around – but British voters will be more likely to vote to leave the EU, giving them greater freedom to stop the massive migration now taking place.

It’s a time of profound change in Europe, change that could spur the continent toward the formation of the union of ten nations.

FEAR BEHIND CHURCH ATTACK

Photo: EPA ; AP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which brings us to last week’s Danish election.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BRITAIN DISARMING, GERMANY REARMING: SOUND FAMILIAR?

David Cameron and Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister address a press conference in Berlin on 7 June 2012. Photograph: Carsten Koall/AFP/Getty Images

Two hundred years ago, on June 18^th, 1815, the British won the war against Napoleon.

Or so you thought.   As is generally the case with Europe, it’s not quite that simple.

British troops were only 36% of the allied troops that gained the victory.  Take away the Irishmen fighting in the British army, and the percentage of British troops was well below a third of those on the victorious side.

Other troops that fought in this allied cause, all wanting to end Napoleon’s domination of Europe, came from Prussia (eastern Germany) and what are today Belgium and the Netherlands. The battle took place on Belgian soil.

This is not to diminish the British contribution.   One result of the battle was that the United Kingdom became a global superpower and was unrivaled in Europe for almost one hundred years.

But it’s a classic example of how British relations with Europe are never that simple.   Also, of how the Brits can misread Europe, seeing their country as far more important than it really is.

Which brings us to the promised referendum on British relations with the EU, to take place in 2017.

There are 28 countries in the European Union, with more on the sidelines wanting to join the club. Britain is the third biggest economy in the Union.   It is, right now, the most successful economy, attracting hundreds of thousands of people to its shores every year.  These are mostly from Europe and, it is thought, attracted primarily by Britain’s generous social support system.   People from Eastern Europe can work in the UK and receive benefits for their progeny back home in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.   These benefits enable them to provide quite comfortably for their families, even if they earn a very small income in London or whatever other city they reside in.

British people get angry at this as they are the ones paying for it in their taxes.   But, as a member of the EU, the British government can do nothing about it.  The EU guarantees the free movement of people within member nations.

London wants to change this.  Most of the other members do not. The Polish leader made it clear to British Prime Minister David Cameron this is something he cannot change.  And that is correct. If the UK stays in Europe, it won’t change.  Mr. Cameron may hope it does, but it won’t – unless Germany is willing to change it, and that’s not likely.

Many (maybe most) British people are fed up with the EU, which they also heavily subsidize in other ways.  They want to withdraw from the organization and go back to the way they were 50 years ago.

What they don’t realize is that they cannot go back to the 1960’s, to the pre-EU days.

It’s not an option.

Prior to entering the European Common Market (as the EU was then called), Britain had an extensive system of trade with nations farther afield.   “Imperial preferences” left over from the days of the Empire, ensured close trade ties with the dominions of the Commonwealth: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.   These trade agreements were torn up by Britain when they joined Europe. It is unlikely that they can restore them more than 40 years later.

At the same time, in the 60’s, the British still had close trade ties with all their former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific, the ACP countries.  These gave Britain cheap food, while the British were able to sell manufactured products to these countries without the hindrance of tariffs.

After Britain joined the European Community, it was a matter of urgency to help these less developed nations. The Lome Convention was signed in 1975, taking effect in April 1976.   It gave preferential access to Europe for member countries’ food and mineral exports.   This treaty, agreed to in the capital of the former French colony of Togo, effectively embraced all former British, French and Dutch colonies.   As this agreement was to help less developed countries, it did not extend to the British dominions, who were on their own.

Effectively, Great Britain, thirty years after World War II, handed over its former Empire to the European Union, now dominated by Germany.  What a supreme irony of history!

There is no turning back.

This is not to say that Britain will be entirely on its own if it separates from the EU.   Norway and Switzerland are two European countries that are not members of the EU.  Both have a per capita income that is higher than the EU average.

But it won’t be easy for Britain, certainly not as easy as the anti-Europeans are making it out to be.

The Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957 by the original six members of the European Community, pledged member countries to form “an ever closer union.”   The EU today is very different from the old European Common Market. It is far more intrusive and controlling than it was at the beginning.   And it is already talking about greater cooperation, with an EU Army not too far ahead.

Bible prophecy shows that another superpower is set to arise, a European power that will be a revival of the Roman Empire.   You can read about this new power in Revelation chapters 13 and 17.   Note the following words from chapter 17:

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.” (Rev 17:12-14)   Clearly, this is not talking about the Roman Empire of two thousand years ago, as this superpower will be in existence when Christ returns.  The good news is that this “beast” power will not last long and will lead directly into the prophesied Kingdom of God.

Is Britain prepared for isolation, facing a German dominated European super-power on its doorstep, without any say in its composition and its purpose?

Interestingly, just four days ago, British defense chiefs warned that the country’s defenses had been so greatly diminished that the nation was now “feeble” on the world stage.   As Britain no longer has a deployable aircraft carrier, only one ship, HMS Ocean, is equipped to host US Marines and their MV 22 Osprey vertical take off aircraft, in the event of military action by Russia.   As Russia is rapidly increasing its military potential, warnings of a coming conflict between the West and Moscow are growing. The UK’s response is to go down the road of disarmament. The similarities with the 1930’s are quite blatant – Britain is once again disarming while Germany is rearming.

Berlin is spending an additional 8 billion euros (US 9 billion) on the new MEADS air defense system and the multi role combat ship 180.  3.9 billion euros ($4.37 billion) has also been set aside for four new battleships.

Germany is also working toward an EU Army, which will add to its military capacity.

Outside of the EU, Britain will have to fend for itself, something it seems ill-prepared for at this time.   Even a Conservative government is clearly more inclined to cut defense over higher health care costs, at a time of growing international tensions.

Individual Britons need to think carefully before the vote in the referendum.   There may be sound reasons to reject the EU, but there could also be serious consequences.   Britain’s relationship with Europe can be compared to a marriage.   It was certainly a mistake to marry in the first place, but divorce is not an easy option and needs to be considered carefully.