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)