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)

————————————————————————————-

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)

——————————————————-

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)

——————————————————

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)

——————————————————————————————

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).

—————————————————————–

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)