China is … very confident about its ability to stand up to the U.S. and its allies in the Pacific, as is evident in the way that Chinese experts describe the balance of power between China and the U.S. For example, when prominent Chinese Professor Jin Canrong discussed the possibility of an American reaction to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, he said: “We have complete confidence in our ability to beat any opponent within 1,000 nautical miles, including the United States and its coalition forces… We have superior electronic warfare capabilities [and] China leads the world in medium- and medium-long-range conventional missiles. There is no force on the planet that can compete with us. The United States has fallen far behind us [and] we are the best in hypersonic missiles… The United States has a single 300m dock that can build one aircraft carrier. How many do we have? 49 of them! We have nothing to be afraid of.” (MEMRI, 1/1/2022)
. . . it seems to be what the Taliban leadership had in mind this summer when they occupied Kabul and immediately began arresting and murdering Afghan officials and civilians. Financial collapse was looming, but they didn’t care. As one Western official working in the region told the Financial Times, “They assume that any money that the west doesn’t give them will be replaced by China, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia.” And if the money doesn’t come, so what? Their goal is not a flourishing, prosperous Afghanistan, but an Afghanistan where they are in charge. (“Autocracy is winning,” The Atlantic, 12/21/2021)
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Emmerson Mnangagwa calls for Cecil John Rhodes to be exhumed
The Zimbabwean president wants the remains of the colonialist to be exhumed and repatriated to Britain (21 Dec 2021, by Sharon Mazingaizo, Business Live)
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has called for the remains of colonialist Cecil John Rhodes to be exhumed and repatriated to Britain. Rhodes died in 1902. His self-chosen burial place is at Matobo Hills National Park, south of Bulawayo.
Mnangagwa told traditional leaders on Friday in Harare that Rhodes’ remains should be returned in exchange for Zimbabweans’ ancestors’ remains in the UK. “We still have Rhodes’ remains in Matobo. What do you think about it?
If you go to the shrine, you don’t know whether you are talking to Rhodes or our ancestors. His remains must be returned to where he hailed from and we can also have our ancestral remains which are being kept in Europe,” said Mnangagwa.
Calls for Rhodes’ exhumation date back to 2012. The late former president Robert Mugabe blocked war veterans and Zanu-PF politicians from exhuming his remains, saying his legacy was part of the country’s history. The veterans had blamed his grave for the lack of rain in the Matobo area. The gravesite is a tourist attraction, visited by thousands of tourists both local and foreign. It lies at the summit of a hill known as the “World’s View.” Locals call the hill where Rhodes lies “Malindadzimu,” a word meaning “burial place of the defied [openly resisted] ancestors.”
Zimbabweans are charged ZWL$40 entry to the national park and an additional ZWL$25 to see Rhodes’ grave. Foreigners pay US$15 (R237) for admittance and an extra US$10 (R158) to view the site. In 2003, the sacred Matobo Hills was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site and the gravesite is under the custodianship of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe. Rhodes was a colonialist and politician who played a dominant role in Southern Africa in the late 19th century. A business-person who made his fortune in SA’s diamond fields, he founded the De Beers diamond firm.
(https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/world/africa/2021-12-21-emmerson-mnangagwa-calls-for-cecil-john-rhodes-to-be-exhumed/)
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- HITLER APPROVED OF THE ROMANIAN IRON GUARD’S RUTHLESSNESS
Romania’s ‘homegrown’ Holocaust: 80 years since forgotten. Bogdanovka massacre In the final days of 1941, Romanian authorities massacred 40,000 Jews in a chapter of the genocide in which 420,000 Jews were killed in ‘broad daylight’ with collaborators’ help. by Matt Lebovic, Times of Israel, 1-1-2022
When typhus broke out at a Romanian concentration camp 80 years ago, authorities at Bogdanovka decided to murder 40,000 Jewish inmates and burn down the camp. Carried out in Romanian-occupied Ukraine by Romanian soldiers, Ukrainian regular police, and local ethnic Germans, the Bogdanovka massacre has largely been ignored by historians, along with Romania’s “distinct” role in the genocide of Europe’s Jews. “I’m embarrassed to say, that I had no knowledge of that atrocity,” Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, told The Times of Israel in reference to Bogdanovka. In Romania, Hitler’s stalwart ally dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu expanded his borders after Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Hitler gave Antonescu a free hand to solve Romania’s own “Jewish question,” and an estimated 420,000 Jews under Antonescu’s control were murdered relatively early in the war.
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For the first time in U.S. history, more fentanyl than heroin has been intercepted by federal law enforcement at the country’s borders. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, 11,201 pounds of fentanyl was seized in fiscal year 2021, compared to 5,400 pounds of heroin. Other drugs seized include 319,447 pounds of marijuana, 190,861 pounds of methamphetamine, 97,638 pounds of cocaine, and 10,848 pounds of ketamine. 2,158 pounds of fentanyl has been seized in fiscal year 2022 to date, compared to 277 pounds of heroin. …. As The Daily Wire noted, from May 2020 to May 2021, America reached a deadly milestone. 100,255 Americans died of drug overdoses, the first time more than 100,000 people died in such a way, with much of the increase being driven by the stream of fentanyl flooding the country. “Fentanyl or other synthetic opioids are involved in 64% of all overdoses, according to the CDC. Over the same period, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized twice as much fentanyl — which is between 80 and 100 times stronger than morphine — than it did last year,” The Daily Wire explained. . . . In January 2021, the Congressional Research Service stated that China remains a major producer of illegal fentanyl, which is smuggled into the U.S. by traffickers, often through the mail.
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Fire damages South African Parliament – A massive fire broke out in Cape Town Sunday morning, spreading to South Africa’s Parliament complex and causing one building’s roof to collapse. The National Assembly chamber was also damaged. The blaze, which began only hours after the state funeral of anti-apartheid activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu, started in a nearby office building. Government officials originally said the fire was contained, but soon after it spread to the new Parliament building. Local officials say the building’s sprinkler system appears to have malfunctioned. Parliament is currently on its holiday recess, and no injuries have been reported. Police have brought in one person for questioning. (CNN, The Associated Press, 2 Jan 2022)
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Germany and the EU are at risk of losing out in the world’s most significant growth region, business representatives warn, regarding the world’s largest free trade agreement RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), which became effective on January 1, and is still hardly known in Germany. RCEP is a free trade agreement (FTA) between 15 countries of the Asia-Pacific region, which includes the world’s second and third largest economies – China’s and Japan’s respectively. Together, the RCEP countries represent nearly a third of the global GDP. RCEP has the potential of consolidating international supply chains within its member countries, luring production sites away – also from Germany, for example – and to set globally important trade norms and industrial standards. The new free trade alliance is a structural consequence of the shift in the balance of forces from the Atlantic to the Pacific and of former colonies turning their backs on their former colonial powers. German business representatives are calling for swift action to prevent potential losses to the German industry. (German Foreign Policy, 1/6/2022)
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TO THE POINT
- “Hegel would not have been possible but for Kant, who would not have been possible but for Plato. These three, more than any others, are the intellectual builders of Auschwitz.” (page 44, “The Ominous Parallels,” 1982, Leonard Peikoff)
- According to Bill C-4, which goes into force on January 8th, the Bible’s teaching on sexuality and gender is defined as a “myth” under Canadian Law. The promotion and sharing of biblical teaching on such topics will be a jailable offence that officially “causes harm to society.” (Prophecy News Watch, 1/8/2022)
- Sadiq Khan is set to decriminalise drugs in London as part of a plan to end the prosecution of young people caught with cannabis. The mayor of London will allow under-25s caught with Class B drugs to be offered “speeding course-style classes or counselling instead of arrest,” The Telegraph said. The scheme would mean police officers would be told not to arrest young people caught in possession of drugs including cannabis, ketamine or speed. (The Week, 1/4/22)
- Emmanuel Macron has said he intends to make life difficult for people in France who have not been taken the Covid vaccine. “I really want to hassle them, and we will continue to do this – to the end,” the French president told France’s Le Parisien newspaper. Opponents have condemned his sentiments, with Bruno Retailleau, Senate leader of the centre-right Republicains, saying: “No health emergency justifies such words.” (The Week, 1/5/22)
FINAL THOUGHT
Only one British prime minister was ever assassinated. Spencer Perceval was shot on May 11, 1812, by a merchant with a grievance.
“Perceval was opposed to Catholic emancipation and reform of Parliament; he supported the war against Napoleon and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. He was opposed to hunting, gambling and adultery; he did not drink as much as most MPs at the time, gave generously to charity, and enjoyed spending time with his thirteen children.” (wikipedia)
What is particularly interesting here is not the assassination itself so much as what happened afterwards.
He was shot by John Bellingham. Within one week, there was a trial and, a week to the day after the incident, he was hanged.
There was a great deal of sympathy for the man and donations from the public enabled his wife and children to live a better life than they had before.
There’s a verse in the Bible that is interesting here. In Ecclesiastes 8:11 we read: “When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong.” (New Living Translation)
Bellingham’s crime was the only time a prime minister has been murdered. The death penalty was meant to be a deterrent. This time it certainly was.
Today, people on death row wait an average of 21 years before their sentence is carried out. That is “cruel and unusual punishment.”
There is little to deter anybody from any crime today. A quick trial and execution would go a long way toward reducing the murder rate in our societies. Over 200 years ago, they knew that. Over 200 years ago they knew their Bible.
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