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

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

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

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

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

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

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SOUTH AFRICA

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

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

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

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

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THE FAR-RIGHT AND NORSE GODS

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

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

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“UNSTABLE AS WATER”

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

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

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THE EU’S CHARM OFFENSIVE IN ISRAEL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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AMERICAN BELIEFS

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

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

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

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

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

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PRINCE CHARLES INTERFERING IN POLITICS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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TO THE POINT

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

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

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

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

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FINAL THOUGHT

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

RUSSIAN INVOLVEMENT AGAINST ISRAEL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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PROTESTS IN IRAN

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

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MAJOR EXPANSION OF CHINA’S NUCLEAR FACILITIES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CUBAN RALLIES

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

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NEWSLETTER – MANEUVERS IN EAST ASIA (II)

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

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AN ALTERNATE VIEW:   COVID VACCINE KILLS MORE THAN OTHER VACCINES

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

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

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

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TO THE POINT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRINCE PHILIP’S DEATH

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

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STEYN ON PHILIP

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

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

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TRUMP ON PHILIP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LINGUISTIC RIVALRIES

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

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AUSTRALIAN MP TRIES TO REIN IN POWER OF FACEBOOK

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

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

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

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

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

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UK FOREIGN AID CUT

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

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

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

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

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INDIAN REALITIES

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

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

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

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KERRY BETRAYS ISRAEL

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

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

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

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BIDEN RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

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

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

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

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MCDONALDS PAYS PEOPLE TO INTERVIEW

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

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

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UNSUSTAINABLE SYSTEM

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

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

The problem is that the whole system is ultimately unsustainable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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COVID – PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

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

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

IS AMERICA HEADED FOR A SUEZ CRISIS?

We’re in the process of watching “Atlantic Crossing,” an eight-part series that is the latest offering on Masterpiece, Sundays on PBS.   It tells the story of a Norwegian princess and her friendship with President Franklin Roosevelt, while she was a refugee in America.   Norway had been invaded by Nazi Germany and was a part of the Third Reich.

There is one mistake in the series, however, and it’s one that our local newspaper made a few months ago on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.  That is in calling the President of the United States the most powerful man in the world or the leader of the free world.

This particular accolade was not used until after World War II when it was clear that America had emerged as the global leader.   In 1948 an Englishwoman wrote to the Times of London describing the US as the “leader of the free world.”  This description soon caught on.

Before World War II, England with its vast empire, was the leader.  During WWII, it could be said that Germany was the dominant power as it conquered most of Europe.  The “mistake” in Atlantic Crossing is not a serious one.   It’s also not as bad as when I saw President Polk (1845-1849) described as the leader of the free World.   I’ve even seen a tee-shirt with “Ruling the world since 1776” emblazoned across it.   Students of American history will be aware that America amounted to nothing until the twentieth century.

Why is this important?

Because Americans need to be aware that the “leader of the Free World” was not always the United States and, looking ahead, may not be in the future.

The British historian (and American resident), Niall Ferguson, speculated recently the US may have a “Suez crisis” soon with communist China.

The Suez crisis in 1956 finished off the British Empire.   A combined British/French/Israeli military action took place against Egypt when it seized the Anglo-French owned Suez Canal.  The international force won, but the US told Britain to get out.   Nobody knows the reason why Eisenhower refused to back the British, but he threatened to dump the British currency on the world, which would have broken the British economically.  In other words, by 1956 it was clear that the United States was the Leader of the Free World and that no western power could do anything without American support.

Mr. Ferguson foresees such a humiliation for the US when China moves to annex Taiwan.

President Xi has made it clear that, before he leaves office, Taiwan will be an integral part of China.

“With swarms of ships, Beijing tightens its grip on South China Sea” was the headline in Monday’s New York Times.

The US is pledged to defend Taiwan.   But the logistics of this would be challenging, to say the least.

And if the US loses Taiwan to the western world, there will be no confidence left in the US in the Pacific sphere.  It would certainly break the pride of our power (Leviticus 26:19).  As with Britain in 1956, it would be the end of the American Empire!

GERMANY DOUBTS OUTCOME OF US WAR WITH CHINA

China’s countermeasures to recent EU sanctions is spurring a debate over further punitive measures and the possibility of closing ranks behind the United States. The renunciation of the recently concluded investment agreement with the People’s Republic of China, for example, is now in discussion. This agreement had been reached through considerable efforts, particularly by Berlin, because major German companies are dependent on business with China for their very existence. Volkswagen and Infineon, for example, generate around two-fifths of their revenues in China. Transatlantic-oriented political advisors are now demanding that Germany “wake up” and take up position against “China’s economic might.” An influential commentator calls for “closing ranks” with Washington and speculates on Berlin’s stance in the case of a war between the United States and China. For years already, US experts have been contemplating such a war. Today however, they are no longer sure that the United States can win that war.  (German Foreign Policy, 4/2/2021)

BIDEN CREATING JOBS . . . IN CHINA

For three principal reasons, his [Biden’s] jobs plan will create full employment in China. First, Biden will create substantially more demand for Chinese materials to go into America’s planned physical infrastructure improvements. Second, the large corporate tax increases he proposes will drive even more businesses out of the U.S. — and across the Pacific. Third, Biden’s “green energy” ideas will eliminate one of the crucial advantages American manufacturers now have: cheap energy.

“Unless we invest in the capacity to make the steel, cement, and the other materials that go into our roads, bridges, and other infrastructure, we will always be at the mercy of China’s Communist Party” — Jonathan Bass, CEO of Whom Home and onshoring advocate, in an interview with Gatestone Institute, April 2021.  (Gatestone, 4/7/2021)

ISLAM

AMERICAN DEFEAT LOOMS IN AFGHANISTAN

The intelligence community is warning the Biden administration that the Taliban could control most of Afghanistan within 2-3 years and allow Al-Qaeda to reconstitute if U.S.-led military forces withdraw before the Afghan government and Taliban strike a deal to share power.

However, some senior administration officials argue that the threat of ISIS or Al-Qaeda turning Afghanistan into a major base is overblown because the Taliban is an enemy of ISIS and claim that Al-Qaeda’s presence is small.   (Clarion Project, 4/1/2021)

ISLAMIST THREAT TO US STILL REMAINS

On April 6, 2021, a new group, Zulfiqar Forces, which is part of the Iranian-backed ‘Islamic Resistance in Iraq,’ released on its Telegram channel a poster threatening to launch an attack inside the United States.

The poster depicted a masked fighter wearing the group’s uniform and holding a machine gun, against the backdrop of the U.S. Capitol Building, edited to appear in ruins. The Arabic text at the bottom of the poster read “Companion of Death,” highlighting the fearlessness of the group’s fighters.  (MEMRI, 4/6/2021)

ISLAMISTS CONDEMN BUTTIGIEG

In a Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of Union County, NJ, the imam, who was not identified in the video, said that homosexuality is a disease that is spreading. The imam added that all religions consider homosexuality to be a sin, the same way they view adultery, stealing, lying, and killing as sins. However, he added, “we have not seen a killer, adulterer, thief, fornicator, or liar” run for the highest office in the U.S. and yet a homosexual ran for president and subsequently became a Secretary of a Department in the U.S. government – a reference to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. He said that Muslims must build a shield between their children and the “disease” of homosexuality that “keeps spreading.” The sermon was posted on ICUC on YouTube and Facebook on March 19, 2021.  (MEMRI 4/1/2021)

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UK NEWS

Race report ‘glorified slavery’
The UK government’s race review has been condemned as “culturally deaf” and accused of “glorifying” slavery. The report by the independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities argued that the era of slavery was about how “culturally African people transformed themselves.” Marsha de Cordova, Labour’s shadow women and equalities minister, said the comments put a “positive spin on slavery and empire.” Lord Woolley of Woodford, a crossbench peer who founded Operation Black Vote and formerly chaired the government race disparity unit’s advisory group, said: “The only good narrative about the enslavement of Africans is that we survived.”  (The Week, 4/1/2021)

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US

Dwight D. Eisenhower did not talk about his accomplishments in his famous farewell speech of 1961. Instead, he warned us about the rise of a “technological elite” who could control public policy without anyone knowing. He warned us about a future in which democracy would be meaningless. What I have to tell you is this: The technological elite are now in control. You just don’t know it. Big Tech had the ability to shift 15 million votes in 2020 without anyone knowing that they did so and without leaving a paper trail for authorities to trace. Our calculations suggest that they actually shifted at least six million votes to President Biden without people knowing. This makes the free-and-fair election — a cornerstone of democracy — an illusion.  (Gatestone, 4/4/2021)

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This $2.3 trillion in Great Society II and Green New Deal spending is the modest fraction to be allocated to infrastructure — airports, bridges, roads, ports, public transit. Most of the rest is to be used to grow social programs and launch new ones.

Biden plans to lead the nation into a new “forever war,” an endless war on climate change. Meanwhile, the Chinese pump ever more carbon into the atmosphere, as Americans sacrifice to take it out.  (PB, 4/22/2021)

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US CHURCH AFFILIATION DROPPING

The proportion of Americans who consider themselves members of a church, synagogue or mosque has dropped below 50 percent, according to a poll from Gallup released Monday. It is the first time that has happened since Gallup first asked the question in 1937, when church membership was 73 percent.

In recent years, research data has shown a seismic shift in the U.S. population away from religious institutions and toward general disaffiliation, a trend that analysts say could have major implications for politics, business and how Americans group themselves. In 2020, 47 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque. The polling firm also found that the number of people who said religion was very important to them has fallen to 48 percent, a new low point in the polling since 2000.

For some Americans, religious membership is seen as a relic of an older generation, said Ryan Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and a pastor in the American Baptist Church. Gallup’s data finds that church membership is strongly correlated with age: 66 percent of American adults born before 1946 belong to a church, compared with 58 percent of baby boomers, 50 percent of Generation X and 36 percent of millennials.

Burge said many Christians still attend church but do not consider membership to be important, especially those who attend nondenominational churches. But no matter how researchers measure people’s faith — such as attendance, giving, self-identification — Americans’ attachment to institutional religion is on the decline.  (“Church membership in US has fallen below majority,” Sarah Pulliam Bailey, 3/29/2021, Washington Post).

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TO THE POINT

• Queen cancels more honors — The Queen is quietly stripping honours from increasing numbers of recipients, The Times reports. Over the last decade, a record 70 people had their honours “cancelled and annulled” – more than three times as many as any previous decade since the 1950s. Among those to lose their honours are Harvey Weinstein, the convicted sex offender and film producer, who lost his honorary CBE and Rolf Harris, the Australian entertainer convicted of 12 indecent assaults on girls as young as eight.  (The Week, 4/6/2021)

• Vaccine passports — “The biggest question facing Boris Johnson is the future of his so-called vaccine passports,” writes Fraser Nelson in The Spectator. “A few months ago, the idea was dismissed by No. 10 as ‘discriminatory.’”  But fast-forward to now and, “without debate or democratic scrutiny, vaccine passports are quickly heading from unthinkable to unstoppable.”  The conclusion of the government’s first lockdown review, published this weekend, “primarily looks at vaccine passports and international travel,” Nelson continues. “It clearly says that vaccine identity cards could be demanded ‘in hospitality settings’ – in other words, in pubs.” And that means that “contrary to what some of the weekend papers had been briefed, a passport for the pub is a live idea.”  (The Week, 4/6/2021)

• Scottish independence —  Even some supporters of independence are wavering. Stuart Campbell, a staunch nationalist, recently said of the SNP:  “If they somehow miraculously achieved independence tomorrow, we’d be afraid to live in the Scotland they’re creating.”

• Capitol murder — It should be noted that last Friday’s murder of a white security guard at the Capitol by a black man influenced by the Nation of Islam did not result in a riot.  Hopefully, others will follow their example.

• Harry and Meghan fall-out — Oprah’s interview with Meghan and Harry is slowly adding to the unemployment line.  Piers Morgan resigned after criticizing Meghan Markle.   It was made clear to him that any criticism of Ms. Markle was “racist.”   Subsequently, Sharon Osbourne also resigned for supporting Mr. Morgan.  Apparently, that was also racist.  Meghan is poison all round, starting with Prince Harry!

• More than one in three Covid survivors are diagnosed with a mental health or neurological condition within six months, a major study has found. Researchers say Covid is “robustly associated” with an increased risk of conditions such as anxiety, mood disorder and dementia.  Hospitalised patients were found to be at higher risk of having a stroke or a brain haemorrhage.   (The Week, 4/7/2021)

HARRY AND MEGHAN INTERVIEW

Posted March 8, 2021 23:08 by Josh Darvill

For this is what the LORD says: David will have a descendant sitting on the throne of Israel forever.   (Jeremiah 33:17 New Living Translation)

Three African-American women were involved in Sunday’s interview.    Oprah Winfrey, a billionaire, sat down with Meghan Markle, a millionaire, (most probably) in millionaire Gayle King’s mansion, to discuss, amongst other things, white oppression.    With Oprah, once described as “race baiter in chief,” inevitably the subject of race came up.  The accusation was made over a comment about baby Archie’s skin color.  In response Buckingham Palace observed, that “recollections may vary.”  It is possible that Meghan is particularly sensitive on this issue.

There was no suggestion that the Queen herself is a racist.    After all, she has spent decades promoting multiculturalism and the Commonwealth, whose 54 member countries include much of Africa and the Caribbean.  Meghan specifically stated that the controversial comment on baby Archie’s skin color was not made by either the Queen or her husband, Prince Philip.  It was the kind of comment that could be made in any family and, quite rightly, the Queen’s subsequent statement said it would be addressed within the family.  

Monarchy is, at its core, about identity.   For centuries the English people, along with many in western Europe, have had a monarch as the symbol of their unity.   In 1603 the Scottish king, James VI, moved to England and became King (as James I) of both countries.   Wales had already been conquered and so was Ireland.

The four kingdoms are united by the Crown.   If the monarchy were ever abolished, it is doubtful that the four nations would stay together.   Even with the monarchy, the strains of the pandemic highlighted differences between the four.   Scottish nationalism has been a threat for some time.    Scottish nationalists have been very critical of England, but never of the Queen, as this would not gain them any support.    It’s also the case that the Commonwealth would likely not survive without the Queen as its members could never agree on a new leader.

After almost 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II enjoys an 82% approval rating as Head of State.   American presidents must envy her.   Half of the people in the US do not vote and roughly half of those who do, support the president.  That’s about 25% (or less) approval, less than a third of what the Queen enjoys.   Even in Canada she enjoys 55% support.  A referendum in Australia in 1999 showed 54% support.   Another referendum in St Vincent and the Grenadines, a majority black country, gave the Queen two thirds of the vote.   No wonder Barbados is not risking a vote on the issue.  The government there is ending the Queen’s role as Head of State later this year, giving the Labor Party unprecedented power and authority.   

Nobody wants the American system of government, which is seen as a personality contest between two multi millionaires.   An alternative republican model, proposed in Australia, would simply replace the Queen with a figurehead president.   This would give the politicians greater power, as one of them would likely be president.   A big advantage of retaining the monarchy is that the monarch is a neutral figurehead.   Even in American academic circles, the present Australian model is seen as the best, combining the Crown (British) and an elected Senate (American), the best from both countries.

President Biden described Meghan after the interview, as “courageous.”  Hillary Clinton used the same word and added that the Royals were “insensitive.”   It seems unwise to comment without hearing the other side.   It may be that Meghan was lying.  Whatever the case, it’s a matter for the constitutional monarchies of the Commonwealth to address.   The US deliberately cut itself off from the institution over 200 years ago!

Perhaps this was all inevitable.   Multiculturalism, a term first coined in Canada exactly 50 years ago when it became clear that newly arrived immigrants were not going to assimilate, has been all the rage for five decades, as more and more immigrants arrived from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.  They have not inherited the same identity as the English with the monarchy.  It was inevitable that values and priorities would eventually clash.

One grievance mentioned was the absence of a title for Archie when William’s sons have one.  But this has been the law since George V.   Only the children and grandchildren of a monarch are given titles.    As William will be king, his children got one; Harry is unlikely to be king, but his father will be one day, and then Harry’s children would qualify.  (There’s too much fretting about other titles.  Canada and Australia get by without them.  Surely only the king and queen and those most immediately in line should get a title.   All the rest can survive without.   The rest of us do.)

I just have two questions:  I know that Harry and Meghan were paid nothing for the interview, but how much did Oprah make?  

The second question:  the wedding cost the UK taxpayer almost $40 million.   Additionally, a few million was spent renovating their home.  Are Harry and Meghan going to pay all of this back?

Historical footnote: King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936. He and his American divorcee wife became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and settled in Paris. In 1970 they gave a TV interview. They made no criticism at all of the royal family!

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According to legend, British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham once saw a distinguished looking woman in a hotel foyer.  Believing he knew her but unable to remember her name, he paused to talk with her.  As the two chatted, he vaguely recollected that she had a brother.  Hoping for a clue, he asked how her brother was doing and whether he was still working at the same job.  “Oh, he’s very well,” she said, “And still king.”   (Our Daily Bread, 3/4/2021)

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The Society of Editors has denied the media is racist after Prince Harry said racism from within the tabloid press was a “large part” of why he and Meghan Markle left the UK. In the couple’s tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey, broadcast on ITV last night, the Duke alleged that the tabloid media in the UK is “bigoted” and creates a “toxic environment.”  However, the media freedom organization criticized the couple for accusing the press of racism without “any supporting evidence.”   (The Week, 3/9/2021)

Biden offers Taliban power-share
Joe Biden has offered the Taliban a return to power in Afghanistan as he seeks to bring the longest war in American history to an end. The White House is ready to offer the Islamic fundamentalists a power-sharing deal with the Afghan government if they agree to lay down their arms. The offer comes almost two decades after the US invasion that “routed the Taliban regime and triggered a bloody insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people,” The Times says.   (The Week, 3/9/2021)

UK could have fourth wave
England’s deputy chief medical adviser has warned that it is too soon to rule out a fourth wave of Covid-19. Jenny Harries told the daily press briefing that under current levels of infection, “a new wave could easily take off again.”  Her call for caution came as Boris Johnson admitted that with the re-opening of schools “there will be a risk of increased transmission” that could delay the end of lockdown. The UK yesterday reported less than 100 deaths for the second day in a row, the first time that has happened since 9 October.   (The Week, 3/9/2021)

Call for action on conversions
Campaigners have warned that ministers are not moving quickly enough to ban LGBT+ “conversion therapy.”   Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch insisted that the government is “committed” to “ending” the practice and takes the issue “very seriously.”  But equality campaigners said targeted action is required. Conversion therapy refers to any form of treatment or psychotherapy that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation, “ranging from electric shock treatment to religious teaching and discussion,” the BBC reports.  (The Week, 3/9/2021)

“We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border,” says Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat whose Texas district abuts Mexico. “Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic.”  (Patrick Buchanan, 3/9/2021)

“Through economic bribery and military aid, the Chinese Communist Party has relentlessly manipulated African governments and opposition groups, controlling the affairs of African countries while imposing the communist Chinese model and its values on them.”  (Epoch Times, 2/24/2021)

Southwest-Based Neo-Nazi Group Outlines Replacement Of U.S. Government With Germanic Ethno-State, Hangs Posters Throughout U.S., Canada Including On College Campuses; Leader Glorifies Hitler  (MEMRI, 3/5/2021)

GERMAN GOVERNMENT TO SPY ON OPPOSITION

“Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) have placed the Alternative for Germany (AfD) under surveillance, according to local media.

“That designation gives state agents more powers for surveillance in certain circumstances, including potentially tapping the party’s communications.”  (DW 3/3/2021)

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Farming has destroyed a lot of the rich soil of America’s Midwestern prairie. A team of scientists just came up with a staggering new estimate for just how much has disappeared.  The most fertile topsoil is entirely gone from a third of all the land devoted to growing crops across the upper Midwest, the scientists say.   (NPR 2/25/2021)

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President Joe Biden will formally create a gender policy council within the White House as part of two executive orders he intends to sign Monday to mark International Women’s Day.  (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/08/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-sign-executive-orders-establishing-the-white-house-gender-policy-council-and-ensuring-education-free-from-sexual-violence/ )  

The council will include a staff of four, three of whom will hold the title of special assistant to the president, according to a senior administration official who previewed the two orders.

The council’s mandate is to work across the federal government’s domestic and foreign policy to fight discrimination and bias, boost economic security, increase access to health care, and advance general equality through diplomacy, trade and defense.

The second order asks the Department of Education to re-examine the Trump administration’s policies and rule-making on Title IX, the 1972 law which governs the way sex-based discrimination in schools is handled.   (Newsmax 3/8/2021, https://www.newsmax.com/politics/biden-gender-equity-title-ix-sex-misconduct/2021/03/08/id/1012908/  )

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TO THE POINT

• Switzerland now joins Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands and Sweden, all of which currently have full or partial bans on religious and non-religious face coverings.  “In Switzerland our tradition is that you show your face. That is a sign of our basic freedoms.” — Walter Wobmann, member of the Swiss People’s Party, the biggest political party in Switzerland.   (Gatestone, 3/10/2021)

• A terrorist who claimed asylum in Britain after he was sentenced to death in Egypt for a failed assassination plot is set to win the right to stay in this country. Yasser Al-Sirri, 58, first claimed asylum in 1994 but was turned down and has taken the issue to court more than eight times at great cost to British taxpayers.  Al-Sirri, who was also charged in the US with assisting someone involved in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, has appeared in several tribunals since. And last week a tribunal decided he was entitled to remain in the U.K. as a refugee.  (MEF, 2/14/2021)

• German companies are increasingly dependent on business with China and are shifting their activities to the People’s Republic at a growing rate, as current economic data and a recent survey of German companies reveal. China is not only one of the very few countries, to which German companies could continue to export in 2020 as much as in the previous year, but it is also the only major economy, to which they could already export this January more than during the same month the previous year. The fact that exports to the People’s Republic are a vital support for the German economy is particularly significant, because Germany’s domestic consumption remains sluggish, due to the pandemic. Already five DAX companies, such as VW, Daimler, Infineon, are generating their largest share of sales in China, more than on their German domestic market. To protect themselves against the risks of US economic warfare, German companies doing business with China are increasingly relocating their activities to the People’s Republic. Efforts to encourage their withdrawal from China have failed.  (German Foreign Policy, 3/10/2021)

ALL I KNOW IS . . .

Michigan is one of those states where the election result is being challenged, with allegations that dead people were voting as well as other irregularities.

I’ve spent quite some time in rural areas lately, taking my grandson to see trains and related sights.   Wherever we have gone, yard signs were overwhelmingly for Trump/Pence.  Occasionally, signs were for Biden/Harris, surprising me when I saw them.   They were at least 75% for Trump and may have been as much as 90% for him.

The only exception was East Lansing, where 52% of residents work for Michigan State University and know who butters their bread.  I didn’t visit Ann Arbor in the weeks before the election, but, as the home of the University of Michigan, I can safely declare that the majority of signs were for Biden/Harris. Some call it the Socialist Republic of Ann Arbor!

Because of this, I expected a landslide for Trump in Michigan (I can’t speak for other states).  Instead, the final result was a victory for Biden.  When we went to bed late on Tuesday, Trump was winning by quite a number; when we turned on the TV on Wednesday it was Biden.   Rumors of ballots arriving at 4am, turning the tide, encouraged speculation that something inappropriate was going on.

I’d like to think that everything was above board.  If not, it was a brilliant coup.

Except for the fact that some saw through it!

Melvin Rhodes

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“President Donald Trump, given all he has endured for five years from those piously pleading now for a “time of healing,” cannot be faulted for his defiant resolve to unearth any and all high crimes or misdemeanors committed in the counting of ballots in the election of Tuesday last. Trump owes his people this, and he owes the establishment nothing.”   (Pat Buchanan, 11/10/2020)

If the shoe was on the other foot, you can guarantee that the Democrats would be contesting every single vote that went against them; and the expected riots would have taken place.   The media spent three years after Trump’s victory claiming the Russians were behind it, but won’t allow Trump three days to challenge their “victory.”  Prior to the election the Dems also said that Trump would not leave office peacefully.   Could mean they were expecting this.  (Pat Buchanan, 11/10/2020)

“If Democrats can kill the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court, if they can add four new senators from Puerto Rico and D.C., and if they can pack the electorate by turning millions of migrants, legal and illegal, into U.S. citizens and regular voters, then you don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.”  (Pat Buchanan, 11/13/2020)

“We’re fixing to overturn the results of the elections in multiple states. President Trump won by not hundreds of thousands of votes but by millions of votes that were shifted by this software that was designed expressly for that purpose. We have sworn witness testimony of why the software was designed — it was designed to rig elections.” — Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor and a member of President Trump’s legal team.  (Gatestone, 11/17/2020)

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REACTION FROM AMERICA’S ENEMIES

Nobody is enjoying the messy results process more than Washington’s adversaries abroad, with enemies and rivals lining up to mock the delays and claims of election fraud, in barely veiled references to US scrutiny of their own elections:

“What a spectacle!” said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. “One says this is the most fraudulent election in US history. Who says that? The president who is currently in office.”

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro – whose overthrow Trump has encouraged – raised an eyebrow at America’s “surprising electoral process” but insisted:  “The United States. I don’t stick my nose in.”  (The Guardian, 11/6/2020)

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TRUMP WILL PUSH ISRAELI ANNEXATION BEFORE JAN 20 – and Israel Might Grab ‘Once In A Lifetime’ Chance

Trump will push annexation of West Bank and, if Netanyahu sees it as in his political interest to be antagonistic to Biden, he will accede, say two prominent Israel lobbyists.

Michael Koplow of the Israel Policy Forum said he is “very confident” that Trump will push Israeli annexation. 

Aaron Weinberg, government relations director of Israel Policy Forum, echoed the view that the Trump administration would push annexation in the next few weeks. by Philip Weiss, Mondoweis, 11 Nov 2020 (https://mondoweiss.net/2020/11/trump-wi)

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GERMANY

Foreign policy experts consider the ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be a success for Russia and a strategic defeat for the West.  The mediation of a cease-fire was a “spectacular diplomatic move” by Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Carnegie Moscow Center. “The West” has “once again yielded the floor to Putin,” criticizes the government-financed Deutsche Welle. In fact, Moscow has once again successfully ended an armed conflict in close cooperation with Ankara – like previously, for example, in Syria. The OSCE’s “Minsk Group” (USA, France and Russia), which had dealt with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, has failed, just as Berlin and the EU’s attempts failed to end that war. Russian troops will now monitor the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian armed forces are deployed in all three South Caucasian countries – for the first time since the early 1990s.  (German Foreign Policy, 11/12/2020)

The German government plans to send a frigate for patrol in the Indian Ocean and to deploy German naval officers on Australian warships, announced German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on the occasion of her talks with her Australian counterpart. A training expedition of the frigate “Hamburg” to the Indian Ocean was originally planned for this year but had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.  According to Kramp-Karrenbauer, the Indo-Pacific has become an arena of “global challenges” and “Germany needs to mark its position in the region.” At the same time, Kramp-Karrenbauer is quoted saying that Germany wants to maintain business with China, which is currently helping the German industry through the Corona crisis. According to an article in the foreign policy magazine “Internationale Politik,” Germany should rearm Taiwan’s armed forces and conduct joint military exercises with them. This would amount to a profound breach in relations with Beijing.  (German Foreign Policy, 11/10/2020)

Little more can be said about the course of the US presidential elections and Germany’s foreign policy reaction. All that has been said about the incumbent US president, his nightly intention to stop counting the votes, his self-proclamation as winner, and the upcoming battle in US courts because of alleged electoral fraud – all that is innocuous, because it does not correspond to the actual developments. It reduces the extent of abuse inflicted on the ideals of bourgeois democracy in the purported homeland of its reign, as if all this is just a rude interlude, a perilous performance, which can still avert the end of the drama in the next act, with a better kind of protagonist, with another script and a German prompter. However, it is too late for that.  (German Foreign Policy, 11/6/2020)

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ISLAM 

Pakistani Politician And Islamic Scholar Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi Calls On Pakistani Government To Use The Atom Bomb, In The Wake Of The Charlie Hebdo Cartoons Affair  (MEMRI, 11/2/2020)

Canadian Imam Younus Kathrada: Samuel Paty Was A Cursed, Evil-Spirited, Filthy Excuse For A Human-Being  (11/3/2020)

Samuel Paty was the French schoolteacher beheaded in the street for teaching a class on freedom of speech.

“Political Islamic organizations are the reason for perpetuating terrorism and hatred. These organizations are banned in most of the Islamic countries, while Europe, especially Britain, embraces them and allows them to operate freely.  Europeans can only blame themselves.” — Mohammed al-Sheikh, Saudi writer, Twitter, October 29, 2020.  (Gatestone, 11/13/2020)

Australian Preacher Urges Muslims To Boycott France, Stresses Death Is The Only Punishment For Offense To Prophet Muhammad (MEMRI, 11/13/2020)

POST-ATTACK COMMENTS

“I expect an end to the misconceived tolerance, and for all the nations of Europe to finally realize how dangerous the ideology of political Islam is for our freedom and the European way of life.” — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Die Welt, November 3, 2020

“We see very clearly that terrorist actions can actually be led by some people who use migratory flows to threaten our territory.” — French President Emmanuel Macron, Politico, November 5, 2020.

For once, the sudden upsurge in terror attacks appears to have prompted European leaders to acknowledge the glaring deficiencies in their ability to protect Europe against Islamist-inspired acts of terrorism.   (Con Coughlin, Gatestone, 11/16/2020)

Senior Journalist Eggert:  Russian Leaders From The Tsars To Boris Yeltsin Kept The Turks At Bay, Now Under Putin, The Turks Have Entered The Caucasus And The Dreams Of The Turkish Sultans Have Come True

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RECONSIDERING ISLAM?

“I expect an end to the misconceived tolerance, and for all the nations of Europe to finally realize how dangerous the ideology of political Islam is for our freedom and the European way of life.” — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Die Welt, November 3, 2020.

“We see very clearly that terrorist actions can actually be led by some people who use migratory flows to threaten our territory.” — French President Emmanuel Macron, Politico, November 5, 2020.

For once, the sudden upsurge in terror attacks appears to have prompted European leaders to acknowledge the glaring deficiencies in their ability to protect Europe against Islamist-inspired acts of terrorism.   (Con Coughlin, Gatestone, 11/16/2020)

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DENYING THE PAST

JOHANNESBURG – Government is set to begin a comprehensive national audit of all the statues and monuments in the country to decide which of them are heritage symbols and which should be removed. The process is expected to be completed by March, with a team of over 260 people carrying out the audit. The debate on whether or not to continue displaying symbols related to the apartheid regime has long been a heated issue in the country, with some saying the symbols promote constitutional post-colonial” and “post-apartheid” values. Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa has suggested that the statues and other relics of apartheid be relocated to a historical theme park, if there’s public support for such a thing His spokesperson Masechaba Khumalo: “The South African Heritage Resources Agency will be championing this project and the budget allocated is R10 million. The targeted number of employees is 260 and they will be spread across all of the nine provinces.” 

(https://ewn.co.za/2020/11/16/govt-audit-of-nation-s-statues-and-monuments-to-decide-on-removal)

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CRUSADERS REACH ANTIOCH

The Crusaders arrived at the gates of Antioch in 1097.

“The sight of the city, however, daunted them; apart from their brief glimpse of Constantintople, none of them had ever seen a city like Antioch.  It had been founded in 300 BC by one of Alexander’s generals, Seleucus, and named after his father Antiochus. For centuries it had rivaled Alexandria, both cities claiming to be the second city of the Roman world, and in one respect at least it had literally outshone its rival; for Antioch had been the first city in the world to be lit by streetlamps at night.  To Christians it was remarkable as the place where they had first received the name of Christian, and although earthquakes and wars had somewhat diminished its former glory, it was still one of the great cities of the world and immensely strong.” (The Crusades, page 87, Antony Bridge, 1980)

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IMPERIAL REDUX
“His descendants will become a multitude of nations.”  (Genesis 48:19)

“Phil Percival had a wonderful farm at Machakos (in colonial Kenya) and I envied him his life.  Off into the bush on safaris with some rich American or titled European to earn money, and in between relaxing in his comfortable house, waited on hand and foot by his native servants, who obviously adored him.  His wife was a sweet woman who was addressed by one and all on the farm as ‘Mama.’  She, too, was adored and was doctor, nurse, and midwife to the hundreds who worked there.  I saw only smiling faces when I visited the little huts with their allotted shambas where they grew corn to make pombe (strong African beer).  I get so tired of hearing form the media, who usually know nothing about Africa, how the African has been exploited and enslaved by the British.  I’m not referring to the Dutch, German, Belgian and French colonists – I’m not an authority on their methods – I can only talk from my own experiences.  The farmers and planters of Kenya, Tanganyika, and Uganda that I met looked after their workers, saw to their health and comfort and the education of their children.  Are they faring any better now?”   (Sparks Fly Upward, page 174, Stewart Granger, 1981)

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TO THE POINT

• The psychological illnesses triggered by Covid – Almost 20% of coronavirus patients are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder or mental health issue within three months of testing positive for Covid-19, a new study has found.  The research, outlined in a paper in The Lancet, adds to the growing list of “long Covid” symptoms being reported.  Experts have warned that “action is needed to mitigate the mental health toll” of the global pandemic, says The Guardian.  (The Week, 11/16/2020)
• Obama says Queen ‘didn’t mind’ hand on shoulder – Barack Obama has dismissed the controversy about whether his wife Michelle breached royal protocol by placing a hand on the Queen’s shoulder. The former US president insists in his new memoir, A Promised Land, that Her Majesty “didn’t seem to mind.”  Writing of the incident that took place in 2009, he said the Queen even “slipped her arm around Michelle in return.”  (The Week, 11/17/2020)
• Man behind The Crown defends invented scenes – The lead writer of The Crown has defended creating scenes in which Lord Mountbatten reprimands Prince Charles for his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Peter Morgan, creator of the Netflix saga, admitted he “made up in my head” details of the conversations between the men, but believes they accurately “represent [Mountbatten’s] view.”  (The Week, 11/17/2020)
• “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength.”  Napoleon Bonaparte
• “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  Winston Churchill
• The modern Left aren’t even clever enough to realise that wealth has to be created before it can be redistributed.  They think the Government just ‘has’ all this wealth that it’s hoarding and refusing to spend on good causes aka free stuff for them.  (Tweet by @TheAliceSmith, retweeted by Matt Maddock, Republican State Representative in Michigan)
• “Biden repudiates an “America First” foreign policy that puts U.S. security, sovereignty, liberty and vital interests above the interests of any other nation. But what is it, then, that Biden puts first? Globalism. A New World Order. A Crusade for Global Democracy.” (Pat Buchanan, 11/17/2020)

MORE ON CORONA

AMERICA AHEAD

Good morning.   “The US has more confirmed cases of the coronavirus than any other nation on Earth.  Yet Donald Trump has fallen back on his favorite solution to any problem, announcing an executive order that would temporarily suspend all immigration from other countries.   Democrats slammed the move, with one congressman calling it no more than “xenophobic scapegoating.”

Meanwhile, epidemiologists have warned that the greater threat is from within, saying recent anti-lockdown rallies across the country could lead to a surge in new infections.   In Georgia, governor Brian Kemp announced businesses including gyms, cinemas and restaurants would reopen in the state over the coming days, despite the objections of public heath experts.   (Tim Walker, The Guardian, 4/21/2020)

This is a typical Guardian piece from across the water.   It seems to me that the president made a very sensible decision, to halt immigration to help save American jobs.  It’s only for two months.  When things get back to normal, if unemployment persists, there should be no going back to open borders.

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CHINA’S ECONOMY DOWN

 That the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic will be immense is obvious.  Just how bad?  And when can countries start to heal?  China offered a preliminary answer today when it announced that its first-quarter GDP fell by 6.8%, compared with last year.  The last time China’s economy shrank was 1976, the year the Cultural Revolution ended.  It was a foregone conclusion that growth had suffered after lockdowns were imposed nationwide in late January. More notable therefore were indicators for March.   Encouragingly, industrial production fell just 1% year-on-year, a reflection of progress made in restarting factories.   Discouragingly, retail sales were down 16% over the same period, with stores and restaurants open but few visiting them.   Having drastically reduced new infections, China’s economy is creaking back to life.   But people remain anxious and movement is restricted.   In such an inhospitable environment, familiar now around the world, the recovery is likely to be tepid at best.  (The Economist, 4/17/2020)

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GERMAN FOREIGN POLICY

The German government is joining the US campaign of allegations against China regarding the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.  Last weekend, US President Donald Trump warned the People’s Republic that it should face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for the spread of the pandemic.  Washington is simultaneously spreading deliberate rumors that the virus could have originated in a Chinese laboratory.   Whereas, scientists vehemently refute the allegations, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas declared, he “does not want to exclude” that the WHO will have to deal with these issues.   On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Beijing to show “transparency” on the issue.   Senior German military officials have recently been demanding that the EU adopt “a joint political-strategic response” to China’s growing strength, because in the Corona crisis, Beijing is gaining considerable influence.   According to a recent poll, more than half of the Italian population sees China as a “friend,” while nearly half see Germany as an “enemy.”  (German Foreign Policy, 4/21)

ANTI-CHINESE FEELING HIGH IN GERMANY

In view of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the German media are stepping up their blame on China by moving to openly ask for compensation.  The People’s Republic “has caused the pandemic,” this is what the mainstream media repeatedly say.   And the Springer press insists on “compensation” by headlining “What China already owes us.”   The agitation began when it became apparent that the People’s Republic of China was able to overcome the crisis more lightly than the Western powers and their global rise are likely to continue, while the transatlantic states are in danger of being thrown back by their totally inadequate preparation for the pandemic.   The claims are accompanied by a massive anti-Chinese sentiment; just to make an example, it is currently stated that Peking follows a “strategy of unrestricted warfare, already formulated by the Chinese military a good two decades ago.   The statement is not correct, but it is similar to claims based on lies used against Russia for years.   (German Foreign Policy, 4/17/2020)

BERLIN – The editor-in-chief of Germany’s largest paper Bild on Thursday launched a full frontal attack on China’s communist President Xi Jinping for his regime’s failure to come clean about the coronavirus outbreak and the massive human rights violations carried out by the Communist Party.   Julian Reichelt, the prominent editor-in-chief of the Bild, wrote to Jinping that  “Your embassy in Berlin has addressed me in an open letter because we asked in our newspaper Bild whether China should pay for the massive economic damage the coronavirus is inflicting worldwide.”

He wrote that, “You [Jinping], your government and your scientists had to know long ago that coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it.  Your top experts didn’t respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan.   You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace.”

Reichelt said that, “You rule by surveillance.  You wouldn’t be president without surveillance.  You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country.  You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stalls where bat soup is sold.   You are not only monitoring your people, you are endangering them – and with them, the rest of the world.”

He continued with his bill of particulars, noting that “surveillance is a denial of freedom.   And a nation that is not free, is not creative.   A nation that is not innovative, does not invent anything.   This is why you have made your country the world champion in intellectual property theft.

“China enriches itself with the inventions of others, instead of inventing on its own,” Reichelt wrote.   “The reason China does not innovate and invent is that you don’t let the young people in your country think freely.   China’s greatest export hit (that nobody wanted to have, but which has nevertheless gone around the world) is coronavirus.”

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ISRAEL FINALLY GETS A NEW GOVERNMENT

Israel will soon have a new coalition government after an agreement was signed on Monday evening between Likud and Blue and White, putting an end to a 17-month political stalemate that resulted in three elections.

As part of the deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has served as caretaker prime minister since December 2018, will remain prime minister for another 18 months and then will be replaced in October 2021 by Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, who will serve as vice prime minister in the meantime.   Netanyahu will be vice prime minister under Gantz after that, but if Netanyahu leaves the Prime Minister’s Office sooner, Gantz would already take over

“I promised the State of Israel a national emergency government that will work to save lives and livelihoods of Israeli citizens,” Netanyahu said.   Gantz expressed his relief that an election that would have been held on August 4 if a deal was not reached by May 7 had been averted.   “We prevented a fourth election,” Gantz said. “We will protect our democracy and fight against the coronavirus.”

US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, including its clauses enabling Israel to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, will be able to be implemented in July, when maps are set to be finalized.   In a controversial clause, both Netanyahu and Gantz will have the right to an official residence fully funded by the state.   In another, the so-called Norwegian law will be changed to allow ministers to quit and new MKs to enter the Knesset, including in Blue and White, skipping over MKs from the Yesh Atid and Telem parties that will remain in the opposition.

The Movement for Quality Government and other watchdog groups petitioned the High Court of Justice late Monday, demanding that the court prevent Netanyahu from forming a government, due to his criminal indictments.

(MORE:  https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/a-joint-meeting-between-netanyahu-and-gantz-to-start-soon-625241)

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South Africa deploys over 70,000 troops to enforce lockdown

More than 70,000 extra troops will be deployed in South Africa to help enforce a lockdown intended to stop the spread of coronavirus, President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced.  South Africa has had 3,465 confirmed coronavirus cases – second only to Egypt in Africa – and 58 deaths.  The country has some of the most stringent coronavirus lockdown restrictions in the world.  But security forces have struggled to enforce them.  Since 27 March only essential service providers, such as health workers, financial services providers, journalists and retail workers, are allowed to continue going to work.  Businesses that provide essential services have been applying for a special permit from the government that allows their members of staff to go outside.  The restrictions include no jogging outside, no sales of alcohol or cigarettes, no dog-walking, no leaving home except for essential trips and prison or heavy fines for law-breaking.

President Ramaphosa said he had decided to deploy an extra 73,180 soldiers in a letter addressed to parliament on Tuesday.

The lockdown restrictions currently apply until Thursday 30 April.

Economic relief package:   He also announced an economic relief package worth $26bn (£21bn) intended to protect companies and three million workers during the coronavirus pandemic. I  n a televised address, he said the assistance amounted to 10% of South Africa’s entire GDP.    Mr. Ramaphosa said the measures included tax relief, wage support through the unemployment insurance fund and funding to small businesses. (4/22/2020)   (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-52387962  

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AUSTRALIA’S REPUBLICANS AT IT AGAIN

The Australian Republican movement bears no resemblance to Republicans in the United States.  They are not a conservative force at all.   Their sole aim is to end Australia’s constitutional monarchy, which has helped the country achieve unparalleled stability and prosperity.  They have now stooped to attacking Queen Elizabeth’s faith, claiming it discriminates against other religions.  The fact is the Queen’s Protestantism and that of her ancestors laid a foundation of religious tolerance for the country.   The Queen, who turned 94 on Tuesday, is highly respected by most Australians.

PRO-republicans are engaged in a heartless waiting game as they plot to overturn Australia’s constitutional monarchy.

Realizing a vast majority of Australians retain a deep admiration for their 93-year-old Queen, republicans are counting down her demise before launching an emotion-charged assault on Australia’s constitution.

By taking this tack they hope to muddy the debate around the nation’s most important foundational document.

Their aim is to shift the conversation from one of constitutional protections and reason into an emotion-charged hysteria about the “un-likability” of Queen Elizabeth’s heirs.

If you think the Queen is nice, their argument goes, then we should remain a constitutional monarchy. But if her successor doesn’t do it for you, then we must change.

They believe time is on their side.   (Sean Burke, Politicom, 3/13/2020)

Politicom is a conservative Australian newsletter.

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US DEFEAT IN AFGHANISTAN

On February 29, 2020 – after 18 months of talks sponsored by Qatar in Doha – the U.S. and the jihadi group Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban organization) signed an agreement in the Qatari capital on the future of Afghanistan.  The democratically elected government of Afghanistan, headed by Ashraf Ghani, was excluded from the talks and from the agreement, and, despite the fact that the Taliban rejected any ceasefire as a precondition for the talks, the U.S. capitulated and agreed to a one-week “Reduction In Violence” on the part of the Taliban.

The agreement was hailed as victory and as an American surrender by Al-Qaeda and by the Taliban leaders at celebratory events across Afghanistan.   The agreement was titled “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan Between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Which is Not Recognized by the United States as a State And is Known as the Taliban, And the United States of America,” but the Islamic Emirate issued a statement in which it dubbed the pact the “Termination of Occupation Agreement Between the Islamic Emirate and U.S.”

A month after the Doha agreement, the democratically elected government of President Ashraf Ghani is being badgered by both the U.S. and the Taliban to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners.   (MEMRI,  4/21/2020)

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DOES EUROPE HAVE ANY CONSERVATIVES?

Does Europe have any conservatives?   That is, believers in individual responsibility, national independence, free markets, a single law for all, the traditional family, and maximum freedom of speech and religion.

Seemingly not. Politicians called conservative – such as Angela Merkel of Germany Jacques Chirac of France, and Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden – are often in reality mild leftists, as are their parties.  One might conclude that conservatism is defunct in its homeland.

One would be wrong.   A substantial conservative movement exists and is growing in Europe.  It is hiding in plain sight, obscured by being tarred as populists, nationalists, extreme-right, or even Neo‑Nazis.   I call this group by another name:   civilizationists, acknowledging that (1) they focus on preserving Western civilization and (2) they forward some distinctly un-conservative policies (such as increased welfare and pension payments).

Civilizationists’ top concern is not battling climate change, building the European Union, nor staving off Russian and Chinese aggression; rather, they focus on preserving Europe’s historic civilization of the past two millennia.  They worry about Europe becoming an extension of the Middle East or Africa.   Already, indigenous Europeans complain of feeling like strangers in their hometowns, of pensioners too scared to leave their houses, and of a school’s few Christian and Jewish students beat up by immigrant bullies.   Imagine how things will look as the proportions change.

The civilizationists’ anxiety contains four main elements: demography, immigration, multiculturalism, and Islamization (or DIMI, recalling the Arabic word dhimmi, the status of Jews and Christians who submit to the rule of Muslims).   (“Finding Europe’s hidden conservatives,” Daniel Pipes, 4/21/2020)

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AFRICAN LEADERS ENJOY FIRST CLASS MEDICAL CARE WHILE THEIR PEOPLE GO WITHOUT

When Muhammadu Buhari was elected president of Nigeria in 2015 — amid a wave of disgust towards the corruption that plagues his giant nation — he promised to put a stop to politicians flying abroad for medical treatment.   It was a popular pledge, especially after revelations that the state spent $1bn a year on health tourism for rich elites while offering dire services for almost everyone else.   He underlined his stance soon after taking office, telling a doctors’ conference he did not want “hard-earned resources” frittered away on officials seeking care abroad when it could be delivered at home.

Such fine and righteous words.   So there was fury the following year when this leader in his seventies flew to London for treatment of an ear infection.   This was “a tragic blot” on Nigeria’s image, thundered Dr. Osahon Enabulele, a former head of its medical association.  The new president, he added, should have used his minor ailment to focus people on the urgent need for domestic health reform.

But Buhari was not listening.   He went off on several more trips and, by the end of his first term last year, had spent at least 170 days in Britain on health grounds.

Buhari is far from the only African leader to display such lack of faith in his own nation.  Robert Mugabe died last year aged 95 in a Singaporean hospital, having so wrecked Zimbabwe and its medical system that life expectancy plummeted by 26 years at one point. “It is very symbolic the former president who presided over the system for three decades can’t trust the health system,” said one doctor after his death.  Other physicians complained of carrying out surgery without even putting on protective gloves.

Meles Zenawi ruled Ethiopia for 21 years, suckering Western admirers who overlooked his savage repression as they fell for his talk of development — yet this wily despot died in a Belgian hospital. Omar Bongo ran Gabon for 42 years, then died in Barcelona having plundered his country’s wealth obscenely while leaving his tiny 2.2m population trapped in poverty.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled and ripped off Angola for almost as long, travelled to the same Catalan city for treatment. Algeria’s former president went to a Swiss hospital after running his nation for 20 years, then suffering a stroke.   Benin’s president went to France for surgery.   Two Zambian leaders died abroad while receiving medical attention.   (“Covid-19 will expose Africa’s tyrants”, Ian Birrell, Unherd, 4/20/2020)

Due to the pandemic,  Africa’s leaders can no longer travel abroad for medical treatment.

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IRAN’S DRONES CAN HIT ISRAEL

Iran’s Defense Ministry unveiled a mass of new drones [unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs] over the weekend for the Islamic Republic’s army and air force.   According to Tehran the drones have new capabilities, and can fly more than 1,000 km, which means they could reach Israel from Iran.

Iran has been producing drones since the 1980s and is an innovator in drone warfare.   It used 25 drones and cruise missiles to attack Saudi Arabia last September, and has flown drones into Israeli airspace.

Iran’s Defense Minister Brig.-Gen. Amir Hatami showed off the drones on Saturday.   He said that one jet-powered UAV could fly at speeds of 900 km per hour at an altitude of 12,000 meters.  This would rival the best drones that the US and other countries are now using.   These drones have a range of up to 1,500 km, he said, and can fly for several hours.   It is a message to Israel, the US and their allies: We can reach you.  (Iran’s drones can reach Israel, Seth Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, 4/19/2020)

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TO THE POINT

• A UNIQUE RAMADAN BEGINS – The Islamic holy month of Ramadan will begin worldwide around April 23.   Because the month typically involves daily social gatherings and communal prayer in mosques, it will present yet more security and economic challenges to local and national governments in Muslim-majority countries already struggling to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.   With some countries like Egypt shutting down traditional Ramadan charity tents for fear of the virus spreading within them, the month could see an exacerbation of existing socioeconomic strain, and with it some disruption to stability over time.   In Indonesia, the annual Mudik pilgrimage could see an estimated 1.3 million people leave the Jakarta area for rural destinations across the archipelago — a potential vector to spread COVID-19 outside its current epicenter in the nation, and one the government has hesitated to crack down on.  (Stratfor, 4/18/2020)
• With half the world in lockdown, with little else to do but Netflix-and-try-to-chill, the streaming giant unsurprisingly unveiled a bumper set of first-quarter results.   Netflix said it had added nearly 16m new subscribers in the quarter, 23% more than during the same period last year.   Net income, meanwhile, more than doubled to $709m over the same period.   (The Economist, 4/22/2020)
• 24NYT, a Danish news service, reported on Sunday that the Danish Bible Society just published a revised translation of the New Testament.   The new edition has many surprises, including a new name:   the New Agreement.   But even more shocking is that the “New Agreement has all but removed any references to Israel, whether it describes the land or the people”.
• Washington:   A day after laying out a roadmap for reviving economic activity, US President Donald Trump has urged his supporters to “liberate” three Democrat-led states, effectively calling for protests against stay-at-home orders aimed at containing the coronavirus.   In a series of tweets, the President urged people in Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia to rise up and “liberate” themselves from restrictions.  He also hit out at New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo for criticising the federal response.  Cuomo “should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining,”‘ he said, adding: “Less talk and more action!”  (AP, 4/18/2020)
• Corona and the Rise of the German Police State by Thomas Klikauer (author), Jeffrey St. Clair, Editor of Counterpunch (California).       The current crisis is used to prevent protests and to impose measures in a highly authoritarian way.  Currently, there is not much resistance against police measures.   Currently, signs are that Germany is moving [toward] more restrictions issued every day.  There might not be a fully developed police state in Germany but democracy is suffering in Germany and elsewhere.   https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/04/17/corona-and-the-rise-of-the-german-police-state/)

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AFTER THOUGHT

Scientists (including medical experts) are highly respected right now.

It hasn’t always been that way.  There was a time when science had to bow to religion.  All new theories had to fit with the teachings of the established church.

The theory of evolution in 1859 changed all that.

A lot of good has been achieved, but it should also be remembered that there’s been a negative side to science:  abortion, euthanasia, nuclear weapons to name just three.

We must be careful not to elevate scientists and health care professionals, which we are in danger of doing right now.   Scientists likely caused the corona virus through experiments in Wuhan.

We must also be concerned that a victory over corona does not extend to a carte blanche on all things to do with the environment.   A highly respected profession may take us in a direction that could cause all kinds of problems.

All Christians should remember to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matt 6:33).   A British news program said earlier this week that:  “the NHS is the closest thing Britain has to a national religion.”   Comments like this one are disturbing.

Worshipping science or the health services would be unwise.  That way, we set ourselves up for a fall.

MR     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NATO SUMMIT COULD BE DECISIVE

The new NATO Headquarters on Boulevard Leopold III, 1110 Brussels.

A few weeks ago, I said I gave up on television news when my grandson, aged 5, made a remark about how nasty everybody is.  Today, I’m back to watching while I write this blog.   There are two reasons for this – Sky News (from the UK) and the young soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand.   As we no longer have cable, Sky is a real treat – a free 24/7 news channel with no sensationalism, no shouting and few commercials. It has more international content than US TV channels, though not as much as the BBC, which has more foreign correspondents than any other source.   I recommend it to those of you who have also “cut the cord.”

There’s a great deal going on in the world right now.   The implications are quite profound for almost all countries.

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NATO SUMMIT

Next week, President Trump will be attending the NATO summit in Brussels.   The 70^th anniversary of the alliance is coming up.   After seven decades of working together to maintain the peace of the western world, the 29-nation military grouping is facing its biggest challenge yet:   President Trump.

The US president is adamant that European countries need to contribute more, a justifiable demand on the part of the US Administration.   But, perhaps a greater challenge is growing indifference to the alliance in the US as increasing numbers of people turn isolationist.   Americans are focused primarily on their own problems.

Today’s Economist led with the following words:   “The Western alliance is breaking apart.”

The collapse of NATO will quickly lead to radical change and realignments in Europe; ultimately leading to the fulfillment of Revelation 17.

President Trump will be visiting the UK after the NATO summit.  His “working” visit will include meetings with Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth.

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EU SECURITY TIES

No country can replace the US in the short term, but European countries are certainly moving in the direction of closer security ties. NATO was formed to keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down!   Russia is no longer the greatest threat to European security.   Note the following comment:

‘Europe today is not afraid of Vladimir Putin reaching the Rhine. Europe is afraid of Africa and the Middle East reaching the Danube.”  (“The Never-Trumpers are never coming back,” Pat Buchanan, 7/6).

Attitudes are certainly changing on the continent:   “In Italy, rising popular sentiment against immigration has found a forceful spokesman and leader in (Deputy PM Matteo) Salvini, who has refused entry to Italian ports to migrant rescue ships, saying “NGO rescue ships will only see Italy on postcards.”   

Nations are increasingly working together to keep the Muslims out.   Others are still letting them in.

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TRADE WAR BEGINS

“The U.S. and China slapped levies on $34 billion of each other’s exports, the first tangible shots in a trade battle that both sides are bracing to fight for months – if not years.” (WSJ  7/6).

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NHS @ 70

The British are proud of their National Health Service (NHS). Everybody in the country, at least in theory, has equal access to free health care, which costs 9.8% of GDP.   Conservatives, Liberals and Socialists in the UK all support the NHS, competing with each other to promise increased funding.

“In 2014, Britain spent 9.8 per cent of its GDP on healthcare, compared to the average for the EU . . . of 9.7 per cent.”  (ft.com).

In contrast, the US spent 17.9 % of its GDP on healthcare last year, almost twice as much per person and with no better results.

Over the last 70 years, the NHS has provided free health care for all British citizens.   But it has some serious problems:

• A shortfall of 100,000 doctors and nurses, who can often earn more in other countries.
• After 70 years of the NHS, people were asked in a recent poll if they thought it would last another 70 years.  Over two-thirds said “No.”
• “The NHS is drowning in bureaucracy”, a report noted in 2015.
• Rising costs are due to: recent medical developments that are very costly;  an increasing number of elderly.   55% of all the money allocated to the NHS is spent on people over 85;  foreign nationals taking advantage of the system.   Can no way be found to make them pay up BEFORE receiving treatment?   They can’t buy petrol at the pump without paying in advance – perhaps the petrol companies can help the NHS here?

Each year, the cost of the NHS increases by 8%; but the economy only grows at a 2%  rate.   This means that the NHS is unsustainable.

Mrs. May is promising the medical service an additional 20 billion pounds ($26.6 billion), out of the savings the country will make as a result of Brexit.

This will not solve the problem long-term.

• REALITY CHECK:   The same government that introduced the NHS started dismantling the British Empire and reducing the UK’s military power.   There IS a connection.   Military cuts have combined with increased medical bills over the last 70 years.  If the country cannot defend itself, there will be no NHS!

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BREXIT

As I write, Theresa May, UK Prime Minister, is trying to keep her Cabinet together as she draws up Britain’s final Brexit offer.   They are all meeting at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country home not far from London.   The country is due to leave the European Union in March of next year.   Many members of the Cabinet are concerned she will give too much away and tie Britain to the EU for decades to come.   The worst-case scenario is that Britain will become a European vassal state, constantly having to follow orders from Berlin.   Can’t the country find another Winston Churchill?

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CANADA:    “Canada’s Supreme Court has banned Christian schools and colleges from teaching Biblical values because the Bible does not support the Trudeau government’s vision of “diversity” and is therefore “harmful” to LGBT and Muslim students.

“Instead, Canada’s schools have been encouraged to adopt Common Core values such as ordering children as young as six to question their sexual orientation and gender identity, while teaching them how to use a range of vegetables as sex toys, and promoting anal sex as “normal.”

“Christian colleges and universities will be stripped of their accreditation if they continue to promote Biblical standards and values.   In other words, the highest Canadian court has ruled that Christianity and education are incompatible. ”  (“Canada Bans Christianity from the classroom”, Ray Pennings, 6/15, National Post)

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ROYALS

Rumors have long persisted that Queen Elizabeth was not as involved as she perhaps should have been in her children’s lives, especially when they were young.

In his controversial 1994 authorized biography of Prince Charles, Jonathan Dimbleby quotes the Prince of Wales saying it was “inevitably the nursery staff” who taught him to play, witnessed his first steps, and punished and rewarded him, as they are who took care of him.

But Princess Anne has publicly refuted any claim that her mother was an absent parent.   “I simply don’t believe there is any evidence whatsoever to suggest that she wasn’t caring.   It just beggars belief,” the Princess Royal said.

Indeed, Elizabeth II, who has four children, eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren (including newborns Lena Tindall and little Prince Louis) once described motherhood as “the only job which matters.”   (The Royal News from Town and Country, 7/6).

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GAY CONVERSION THERAPY TO BE BANNED IN  UK

“Gay conversion “therapies” are based on the premise that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is a mental illness that can be “cured.”   But there is no evidence that they work, and the techniques are largely discredited.   Members of UK professional bodies for counseling and psychotherapy are prohibited from using such techniques.” (CNN)   The government believes that the therapies are harmful and have driven some to suicide.

AUSTRIAN COALITION ANNOUNCED AT KAHLENBERG MOUNTAIN

Austrian Foreign Minister and the leader of the Austrian Peoples Party (OeVP) Sebastian Kurz attend a news conference at the Kahlenberg mountain in Vienna, Austria, Dec. 16, 2017. EPA-EFE/CHRISTIAN BRUNA

Whereas Germany is having difficulty putting together a coalition government, Austria’s youthful Chancellor, the youngest head of government in the world, has been successful.   Sebastian Kurz, 31, leads the Austrian People’s Party.   His party is now in coalition with the “extreme right” Freedom Party, led by Heinz-Christian Strache. The latter party is often compared to the Nazis, whose leader, Adolf Hitler, was from Austria.   This is an exaggeration, to say the least.

Both leaders and their supporters, are concerned about the invasion of their country by Muslims and encroaching Islamization. They announced the formation of their government on Kahlenberg Mountain outside of Vienna, the same hill where Islamic Turks were defeated on 9-11 (& 12), 1683, ending the Muslim threat to western Europe.   The new government joins Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia in turning against the tide of immigrants welcomed by Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel.   Interestingly, all five of these countries were parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which collapsed after World War One.

One thing is certain – Austria has become the first western nation with a genuine conservative government. 

“The new coalition was agreed on Friday (15^th December) by the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Freedom Party (FPÖ), pledging to stop illegal immigration, cut taxes and resist EU centralization.

It will be led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who took over the ÖVP in May and yanked it to the right, securing his party first place in October elections.  At 31, Kurz will be the world’s youngest leader.

At his side for the investiture by Austria’s (figurehead) president in the Hapsburg dynasty’s imperial palace in Vienna was FPÖ chief Heinz-Christian Strache, 48, now vice-chancellor, and FPÖ general secretary Herbert Kickl, the new interior minister.

“Strache has said Islam “has no place in Europe” and last year called German Chancellor Angela Merkel “the most dangerous woman in Europe” for her open-door refugee policy.

On Sunday, Strache trumpeted to his 750,000 followers on Facebook that the new government would slash social benefits for asylum-seekers.

“It will no longer happen that migrants who have never worked here a single day or paid anything into the social system will get thousands of euros in welfare!” he said in a post that has gained 9,000 “likes.”

(“European far-right jubilant as Austria’s new government is sworn in.” The Local, December 18^th)

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HAPSBURG MEMORIES

Empress Elizabeth of Austria, wife of Emperor Franz-Josef.

Coincidentally, at the same time the Austrian government was agreeing a coalition, my wife and I were watching the “Sisi” trilogy on Turner Classic Movies.  These three films, made over 50 years ago in Austria (with English sub-titles), portrayed the Austrian Empress Elizabeth, wife of the Emperor Franz Josef, who reigned from 1848-1916. Elizabeth came from Bavaria.  She was sympathetic to the aspirations of Hungarian nationalists and was influential in the historic agreement that united Austria and Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (in 1867).   Her life was rather tragic – her only son, the Crown Prince Rudolf, committed suicide and she herself was assassinated a few years later, while visiting Geneva.

It was an interesting time in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.   A great deal of liberalization took place under Franz Josef as Austrians tried to keep their multiethnic empire together.   Often overlooked is the fact that this major empire gave a home to eleven different nationalities, all united under the Hapsburgs.  Today, each ethnic group has its own sovereign state, each one weaker than the old empire.

“The great Czech historian Frantisek Palacky once said that if the Hapsburg Empire had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent it” (The Emperors, by Gareth Russell, 2014, pages 40-41).   The European Union is no replacement as it is German dominated.

Some of the former Austrian nationalities are again marching together.   Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are all opposed to further Muslim immigration, wanting to protect and preserve Catholic Europe.   These five countries are set to form the Eastern leg of the biblically prophesied revived Roman Empire.

Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in the fifth century, there have been a number of attempts to revive it – most recently, in 1922 Mussolini announced a revival of the Roman Empire; in 1957 European leaders signed the Treaty of Rome, forming what is now the European Union, another attempt at uniting Europe.   Perhaps out of the rubble of the EU will come the final European Union, led by Germany.

^“Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.  And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.  As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.  And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” (Daniel 2:41-44)

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ANNUAL MESSAGES FROM HEADS OF STATE

Every year, the British monarch speaks to the Commonwealth on Christmas Day.  This is a tradition that began with her grandfather, King George V, in 1932.   At the time Britain was a global superpower, ruling over a quarter of the world’s people.   With the introduction of radio in the previous decade, the king could now address all his subjects around the world.

In 1957 the annual radio broadcast began to be televised. By this time, the empire was fundamentally changing.   Indeed, in 1957’s broadcast, the Queen welcomed Ghana and Malaysia into the Commonwealth, as both nations had become independent that year. The 52-nation Commonwealth continues to this day, with the Queen as its Head.

For some years now, the queen’s message has embraced multiculturalism.   The Commonwealth is multicultural in itself, composed of nations that have different religions and a great deal of ethnic diversity.   This year, she took a different approach to her speech. Instead of emphasizing multiculturalism, she praised the citizens of London and Manchester who suffered terrorist attacks last year; and the heroism of Emergency Responders who helped save lives.

Sadly, it is, of course, multiculturalism which has led directly to terrorism, not just in the United Kingdom but in other countries in Europe.

The queen is a deeply religious woman, never more so than at Christmas.   In her speech this year she talked of how Jesus Christ “suffered rejection, hardship and persecution.”   Having experienced all three in recent years, I was encouraged by her words, which prompted a Bible Study from this angle.

Queen Elizabeth is not the only Head of State who gives an annual Christmas speech.   President Steinmeier of Germany addressed the German people on the same day.   The German president, like the British monarch, is a figurehead, playing an important role in unifying the nation at a difficult time.   The German president devoted his speech to reassuring the German people, who still do not have a government over three months after the election.   This is the longest period in the Federal Republic’s history and, for some, brings back memories of the rather unstable Weimar Republic.   Today’s German republic is more resilient and Germany should soon have a new coalition government, made up of two or more parties.

The Pope also gave a Christmas speech.   Whereas the British monarch and the German president were careful not to advocate more immigrants, the pope called upon nations to open their doors wider to receive more refugees.   Ironically, on the same day, ISIS in Somalia called for the assassination of the pope and for attacks on more western cities, like Manchester and London.

And so it goes on.  The West has lost its way and does not know how to respond to radical Islam’s assault upon it.   It won’t, until its religious roots are revived.   Most people in the West still give lip-service to Christianity, but few think deeply about their traditional religions, both Catholic and Protestant.

Acts 4:12 says of Jesus Christ:  “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”   Muslims deny Jesus Christ is the Son of God.   Therefore, to equate Islam with Christianity, makes no sense and endangers Christians, who are ill-prepared for the assault that is taking place upon them today.

The British monarch is the titular Head of the Anglican Community. The Pope is the Head of the Catholic Church.

They need to wake up to what is happening and to see clearly the threat to traditional Christianity.

The Pope, in his annual speech, focused on Jerusalem, calling for an independent Palestinian state, the “two state solution” that has been official policy of most countries in recent years.   What the pope is calling for pits him (and the Church) against the US Administration, which is recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

“Pope Francis has used his traditional Christmas Day message to call for “peace for Jerusalem” and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. Acknowledging “growing tensions” between them, he urged a “negotiated solution . . . .  that would allow the peaceful co-existence of two states.”   US President Donald Trump recently announced that America recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.   The hugely controversial move drew condemnation across the Muslim world.   The Roman Catholic leader gave his Urbi et Orbi speech, which in Latin means “To the city and world,” in Saint Peter’s Square.”    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42477274

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REVISIONIST HISTORY – CHECK THE FACTS!

I’ve taken to looking up just about everything depicted in historical movies and television programs.   As we watch a series, I keep my laptop on my lap and google the “facts” depicted by Hollywood and others who make movies.   The “facts” are rarely factual. Note the following:

1) The new “History” channel series “Knightfall” depicts the Knights Templar around the year 1300.   In the first episode of the series, the Catholic soldiers saved the Jews who were expelled from Paris by King Philip the Fair in 1306.   According to the series, the Jews were saved by the Knights Templar.

This is a total fabrication.   Note the following from the BBC’s Religion section:

“During the first half of the 13th century the attitude of the Church towards Jews hardened from disapproval to loathing. On 22 July, 1306 King Philip IV of France expelled all Jews from his kingdom.”

2) The second season of “The Crown” (Netflix) implies that Prince Philip cheated on his wife in the 1950’s and early 60’s.   There is no evidence for this.  It may be true – it may not be true.  But people watching the otherwise excellent series will no doubt believe everything they see.

3)   “A United Kingdom” was an otherwise good movie, telling the story of Seretse Khama and his wife Ruth Williams.   Sir Seretse led Botswana to independence in 1966.   He met his wife while studying in London.   They were a bi-racial couple in southern Africa, not very common in those days and forbidden in neighboring South Africa, the regional powerhouse.   In 1947 the movie referred to the presidents of four neighboring countries, not one of which had a president at the time, as they were all a part of the British Commonwealth.

4) This is the worst one!   ‘The Viceroy’s House” is a recent movie set in India at the time of independence and partition, in 1947.

Everything in the movie was good until somebody opened a drawer and pulled out a two-year-old highly secretive British government paper advocating partition of the country into India and (Muslim) Pakistan.   So what, you may ask?

Well, this file changed history.   Instead of Earl Mountbatten being responsible for partition, the file “revealed” it was war-time leader Winston Churchill.   As the anti-colonial Guardian reviewer put it – it was the equivalent of somebody in Germany opening a drawer and finding that the Holocaust was first proposed, not by Hitler, but by Mussolini.

Why can’t the entertainment industry ever get it right?   As far more people will watch the movie than read any book on the subject, Churchill will now be blamed for one of the greatest disasters of the twentieth century.

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One very good series we’ve seen was on the National Geographic Channel.  It was a biography of Albert Einstein.   One of the most brilliant minds in history, he was absolutely hopeless at personal relationships.

I thought you might appreciate the following quote from the great physicist himself:   “The universe is so extraordinary that only God could have created it.  My job is to figure out how He did it.”  (Einstein)

The two greatest scientists of all time were Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.     Many people today see science and religion as opposites — these men did not.  They both believed in God.    Be sure to share that fact with others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AUTISM ENTERS POLITICS . . . and other news

Pauline Hanson delivering her comments on autism in schools. (http://www.2gb.com/podcast/pauline-hanson-comments-on-autism/)

Pauline Hanson is an Australian Member of Parliament.  She has her own political party, “Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party,” and often speaks out on immigration and related issues.

This week she spoke out on autism.   Specifically, she is calling for autistic children to be separated from other children, so that the others are not held back in their education.

Our eldest grandson, Aubren, who is five, is autistic.   I drive him to school most days and collect him from school seven hours later.    Because of this, I interact with his teachers a great deal.

All are aware of his autism.  Their approach is very different to Ms. Hanson’s.

About half of the pupils in his pre-kindergarten class do not have special needs.  Those who do have special needs participate in everything.  In addition, they have private sessions with speech therapists and others to help them keep up with the other children.  From what I have seen, this works very well.

There could be a case for separating autistic children if it is found that they will benefit.   What Ms. Hanson is suggesting is that autistic children be educated separately as their presence in the classroom is having a negative effect on non-autistic children.   Again, I’ve not seen any evidence for this.  And with so many children with autism, normal children need exposure to this to understand it, handle it, and see these children as potential friends, not objects of scorn and derision.

Nobody knows for sure what causes autism.  There are plenty of theories.  Some of these are put forward quite volubly by their adherents, but it remains the case that nobody knows for sure what causes the problem.  What is known is that the number of autistic children is increasing.  It is now one in 68.

The correct name for autism is Autism Spectral Disorder.  There is a wide spectrum when it comes to autism.  Many autistic children function well in different areas; but there are others, at the other end of the spectrum, who find it difficult to carry on a conversation, or indeed, speak at all.    Communication is a major challenge for autistic children.   So are emotions and affection.   In addition, many autistic people need “sameness” – they do not adjust well to a different environment or any change to their routine.  We are anxious about Aubren’s first day at kindergarten in August – new school, new teacher, new environment; he may bolt, trying to escape from it as it could be overwhelming for him.  His teacher, Miss Sue, from the last school year has volunteered to regularly take him to his new school and new playground to familiarize him with his future environment.  The right teachers make all the difference!

Aubren is a delightful boy.   Everybody loves him.   He plays well with other children.  He’s affectionate and loving.  I for one am very much against the idea that autistic children should be separated from other children of the same age.   After all, when they finish school at 18, they are going to have to mix with others in the working world.   Why not start now?

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BRITISH COMPROMISE

The news from England can be quite discouraging, with terrorism and Brexit dominating everything.  Britain’s position on just about everything reminds me of a verse in the Old Testament about Ephraim.   In Hosea 7:8 we read:   “Ephraim compromises with the nations; he’s a half-baked cake.” (International Standard Version.)   A half-baked cake is of no use to anybody.

Julius Caesar put it somewhat differently, when he described Britain as “perfidious Albion.”   England is no longer ruled by those ancient Britons, having been taken over by Angles and Saxons shortly after the Romans left the country.   Perhaps it’s the weather, which is very unpredictable.

Whatever the reason, Mrs. May is perfecting “compromise.”   It’s been the British way all my lifetime.

Consider the following:

After a “terror” attack outside of a leading London mosque, she had the opportunity to boldly speak some badly needed truths.  The attack was by a “lone wolf,” a man from Cardiff in Wales who was obviously upset about recent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists. He drove his car into a crowd outside of the mosque.   Nothing can excuse this, but it provided Mrs. May with an opportunity to say that people are understandably scared after the recent terror attacks. Instead, she condemned “Islamophobia” and said the government was going to stamp it out. Islamophobia is a natural and reasonable response to Islamic terror – the only way to defeat Islamophobia is by Muslims themselves doing something about terrorism.

Also, was the driver of the car really a terrorist?   He had no links to any terror organization, domestic or foreign.  Describing him as a “terrorist” puts his act on a par with the real terror attacks that have taken place, when they are very different.   His was motivated by a fear of Muslims.

Thirdly, Mrs. May is promising more security for mosques.   There is no such protection for churches.  What the prime minister is doing is inadvertently giving Islam a special status.

Today, there was yet more compromise, this time with the European Union, as Britain negotiates itself out of the 27-member organization.

Mrs. May announced this morning that 3 million people from other EU countries can remain in Britain after Brexit.   Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, responded with: “It’s not sufficient.”  Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, was equally dismissive.   Neither man was elected by the people.  They are professional bureaucrats — with all the arrogance that comes with it.

The UK is going to find that compromise doesn’t work with the EU – or with Islam!   Britain will keep on compromising with both, until another Winston Churchill arises – if there is one.

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ROYAL DEPRESSION

It’s surely a depressing time for the Queen.   The multicultural dream she has spent decades developing seems to be crumbling.   It’s not just Islamic terrorism.   Even the fire at the 24-storey apartment block in London brought it out. Most of the residents were from other cultures with no understanding of the way Britain works. After an incident like this, there’s usually a government inquiry and then changes are made based on recommendations received.

On this occasion, residents were quick to protest and even riot, storming the local county offices who are responsible for building safety.   Mrs. May had to quickly promise new accommodation in a luxury apartment block.   The taxpayer will have to foot the bill.

It turned out the fire was started by a faulty fridge.   It spread quickly because of the insulation used.

In view of all these problems, it’s not surprising that nobody in the royal family wants to be king, according to Prince Harry in an interview this week.

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MEDIA BEWILDERED BY VOTE

I don’t know if the Queen has ever been to Georgia, a colony (now a state) named after her ancestor, George II, who reigned from 1727-1760.

Georgia was the center of attention this week due to a by-election in the 6th Congressional district.

As the election got nearer, TV news people were ecstatic at the prospect of a Democratic victory.   It had to happen as Donald Trump is so unpopular!  The election was even described as “a referendum on Trump.”

The party that represents the wealthy elite, the Democrats, spent more than eight times as much money contesting this seat, as the Republicans, now the party of the working man.   In spite of this massive outlay of cash, the Democrats lost.   If this truly was a referendum on Trump, he must be doing ok.

The BBC was totally discombobulated.   Commentators kept repeating that the president has less than a 40% approval rating, so how could this possibly be the result?   It won’t happen again when the mid-term elections take place in November next year, they assured viewers.

Haven’t they learned yet that polls are not reliable?

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ISRAEL’S TICKING TIME BOMB

“The southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv have been overrun in recent years.   The number of African asylum-seekers and economic migrants now living there is approaching 100,000.

Some have been repatriated.   But most remain in the country illegally.

Israel finds itself in a conundrum – how can it turn away or deport those in need considering the Jews’ own history?   At the same time, how can the tiny nation of Israel absorb such numbers without taking a serious hit to its economy?

And time’s running out to find a solution.

According to Oved Hugi, a social activist from southern Tel Aviv, the “infiltrators’ birthrate stands at 10,000 per year.   That means 50,000 children in five years, and that should cause the Prime Minister to lose sleep.   South Tel Aviv is a ticking time bomb.”   (Israel Today)

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SAUDIS BETRAY REAL FEELINGS

On June 8, 2017, the Saudi national football team met the Australian national team for a match in Adelaide as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The match began with a minute of silence for the victims of the London Bridge terror attack on June 3, among whom were two Australians.   However, while the members of the Australian team observed the minute of silence, the Saudi players appeared to ignore it and continued moving around the pitch. (MEMRI 6-21)

Why are people surprised, when Wahhabism is the official religion of Saudi Arabia? Wahhabis support violence against infidels (non-believers) and believe violence is justified to spread Islam.

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Canadian sniper makes record kill shot                                                                    A sniper with Canada’s elite special forces has shot and killed an Isis fighter in Iraq from a distance of 2.1 miles, shattering the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot previously held by a British sniper.  The shot took 10 seconds to reach its target and the sniper would have had to consider distance, wind and the curvature of the earth when taking aim.  (Globe and Mail) 

Refugees in Germany to be jobless for years                                                       Up to three-quarters of Germany’s refugees will still be unemployed in five years’ time, according to Aydan Özoğuz, the country’s commissioner for immigration, refugees and integration. The stark admission of the challenges Germany faces in integrating its huge migrant population comes as Angela Merkel seeks a fourth term as chancellor in elections in September. (FT)