Category: Uncategorized

The Ignored Genocide of Christians in Nigeria

The mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, which some international observers have classified as genocide, is reaching unprecedented levels.

According to an August 4 report, at least 171 Christians were slaughtered by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in the space roughly three weeks:

“And these are only those we know of. In reality, the toll is likely to be far higher. Many thousands are also being displaced by the violence from homes and such livelihoods as they had left after covid lockdown brought economic havoc…. Our news desk has been swamped by such stories for many months, yet this relentless and bloody toll of Christian lives is disturbingly absent from wider mainstream media.”

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A Geopolitical Earthquake Just Hit the Mideast.

by Thomas L. Friedman (of all the people you’d never expect to laud Trump)

For once, I am going to agree with President Trump in his use of his favorite adjective: “huge.”

The agreement brokered by the Trump administration for the United Arab Emirates to establish full normalization of relations with Israel, in return for the Jewish state forgoing, for now, any annexation of the West Bank, was exactly what Trump said it was in his tweet: a “HUGE breakthrough.” ……

Just go down the scorecard, and you see how this deal affects every major party in the region — with those in the pro-American, pro-moderate Islam, pro-ending-the-conflict-with-Israel-once-and-for-all camp benefiting the most and those in the radical pro-Iran, anti-American, pro-Islamist permanent-struggle-with-Israel camp all becoming more isolated and left behind.

It’s a geopolitical earthquake.

To fully appreciate why, you need to start with the internal dynamics of the deal. It was Trump’s peace plan drawn up by Jared Kushner, and their willingness to stick with it, that actually created the raw material for this breakthrough…………….

This deal will certainly encourage the other gulf sheikhdoms — Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — all of which have had covert and overt business and intelligence dealings with Israel, to follow the Emirates’ lead. They will not want to let the U.A.E. have a leg up in being able to marry its financial capital with Israel’s cybertechnology, agriculture technology and health care technology, with the potential to make both countries stronger and more prosperous.

NSSF STATEMENT ON NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL’S INTENT TO DISSOLVE THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION

NEWTOWN, Conn. – NSSF®, the trade association for the firearm industry, is troubled by the politically-driven decision of New York Attorney General Letitia James to seek to dissolve the National Rifle Association, America’s oldest civil rights organization. The lawsuit filed today by Attorney General James seeks to punish the over five million members of the National Rifle Association based on mere allegations of possible wrongdoing by a few individuals.

NSSF is deeply concerned about the apparent political agenda to silence the strongest voice in support of the Second Amendment ahead of the election in November.

This lawsuit, and one filed today by the District of Columbia Attorney General, should concern all Americans who cherish both the First and Second Amendments to our Constitution regardless of their views on what laws and regulations are appropriate to address the criminal misuse of firearms.

BARR OUTMANEUVERS THE DEMOCRATS:

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Attacks on federal property and personnel have been going on for weeks. The need for action is plain. Mr. Barr was unflappable, but blunt. One highlight came when he was being questioned by Congressman Steve Chabot, a Republican of Ohio. “Federal courts are under attack,” Mr. Barr said, before exclaiming: “Since when is it okay to try and burn down a federal court?”

That a U.S. attorney general has to make that point to Congress is itself amazing, and Mr. Barr marked it well. “This is the first time in my memory,” he said at one point, “that the leaders of one of our great two political parties — the Democratic Party — are not coming out and condemning mob violence and the attack on federal courts. Why can’t we just say, you know, violence against federal courts has to stop? Can we hear like that?”

No answer was forthcoming.

Now Gun-Control Activists Want to Preach from the Pulpit?
by Charles C.W. Cooke

It can be difficult to keep up with the politically correct rules these days. Can we follow the evidence wherever it leads, or may we simply reject it, as the anti-Second Amendment groups do, when it is inconvenient to our politics? Are we permitted to bring religion into politics, or must it be shunned completely?

All too often, the answers to questions like these, according to the mainstream media, seem to be: “Whatever helps the gun-control movement at any given moment.”

In May of this year, Everytown for Gun Safety announced the formation of what would once have been dismissed by progressive policy groups as a “faith-based initiative.” They formed a working group composed of more than a dozen religious leaders. These activists are hoping to elect candidates in the upcoming general election who want more gun-control laws.

On the one hand, this might seem like a natural move: The gun-control movement’s modus operandi has long been to claim the moral high ground, to publish its edicts without expectation of contradiction in the media and to attempt to excommunicate from polite society anyone who has the temerity to dissent, so it was perhaps inevitable that they would glom onto those who have faith.

And yet, one cannot help but sense a certain resignation in the move; after all, the data is as clear as day: As the number of guns in private hands has increased and as the gun laws have been loosened in almost every state, violence committed with firearms has fallen.

Tens of millions of Americans have become concealed carriers, and, in about half of the geographical area of the United States, state governments have abolished the need for permits completely. Meanwhile, violence committed with firearms has continued to go down. The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban expired in 2004 and the AR-15 has become the most-popular gun in the country. As this has happened, violence committed with firearms has kept going down.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the obvious truth that the Second Amendment protects an individual right, and a host of states saw their restrictive regimes struck down. As this has occurred, violence committed with firearms kept going down.

More typically, gun controllers have shouted about “science!” Is this out of fashion now that the results of the great American test are clearly in?

Crime statistics clearly show that more guns do equal less crime. When good citizens can carry their freedom with them, as in their Second Amendment freedom, then criminals, who prefer unarmed victims to armed citizens, are less likely to prey on people. That’s not just common sense anymore; we’ve run the experiment over generations here in America; the results are profound: yes, good, old-fashioned freedom does work.

Meanwhile, all told, the religious are just as capable as anyone else of recognizing the benefit that gun ownership confers upon the good.

Given all of this, the leaders of Everytown’s initiative seem about as confused as you would expect them to be. One of them, the Rev. Rob Schenck, insists that “you never want to pray for something you’re unwilling to be the answer to.” But this help, as in the real life-saving help a law-abiding person who carries concealed can bring, is exactly what people of faith pray for.

Jack Wilson, the heroic security guard who stopped the shooting at the West Freeway Church of Christ near Fort Worth, Texas, was in a position to be the answer because of a law that Everytown vigorously opposed.

I think he’s a little premature. We’re approaching, but still not close to what the nation was going through in the ’60s. And no one called that civil war.

America’s Second Civil War Has Already Begun

America’s second civil has already begun — sans the real shooting (and abject carnage), at least yet. If you doubt this, take a hard look at New York City, Washington DC, Atlanta, St. Louis, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and most other major urban centers — our so-called civilized society is tearing itself apart. As such, the U.S. federal government must intervene to crush the violent insurrectionists wherever they rear their heads. The Insurrection Act of 1807 authorizes this action, and if our current situation doesn’t warrant deploying it, then what does? Bottom line, we must stop this insurgency before it goes ‘hot’ like our first Civil War.

Non-violent protests should continue to be respected and protected — freedom of speech and the right to ‘peaceably’ assemble are bedrocks of our republic. However, politically-motivated protesters who use violence to attack officers of the law, physically harm others, and destroy property; as well as elected public officials who encourage or condone such acts (thus violating their oath to defend the U.S. Constitution), should be arrested and charged with insurrection against the United States, a.k.a. treason. This behavior needs to be stopped in its tracks. Serious federal measures must be deployed — the risks to our republic are growing by the day. Continue reading “”

You don’t say

Arson suspected in fire that destroyed historic Nantes cathedral in France

A fire at a historic cathedral in France may have been arson. Videos and photos surfaced of the fire shattering the famous stained glass windows in the Gothic cathedral.

The cathedral in the city of Nantes in western France dates back to the 15th century. A French prosecutor said the fire started in three separate places. They treated it as a criminal act.

Many of the tourists and people there said the fire reminded them of the devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last year.

The CCP has no one to blame but themselves.

China Provocations Hasten Japan’s Military Revival.

China’s ascent has reshaped security policies across the Asia-Pacific region. Australia recently detailed $186 billion in high-tech defense spending over the next 10 years and, along with India, it is drawing closer to Japan and the U.S. through military drills and cooperation. South Korea is boosting spending on jet fighters after incidents such as one last year when Seoul accused Russian and Chinese bombers of intruding into its airspace and scrambled fighters in response. On Monday, the U.S. offered support to its allies in the region by formally opposing Chinese claims in the South China Sea.

Nowhere has the impact been stronger than in Japan. Its military is now one of the world’s best-equipped and trained, increasingly visible on exercises around the globe. A close partner of the U.S., Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has moved the country away from its strict pacifism during his 8½ years in power over two stints. China’s military rise, along with the threat of North Korean missiles, has been a major catalyst.

In March of last year, Japan opened military bases on Amami-Oshima, the island shadowed by the Chinese submarine, and on another island further south, both equipped with antiship and surface-to-air missiles. Another base is planned for a third island. In 2016, it added a military radar station on one of its islands closest to China.

Other investments designed primarily to protect Japan’s islands include the largest fleet of F-35 fighters outside the U.S. and a network of satellites capable of guiding newly procured cruise missiles to shoebox-sized targets. Annual military spending lags far behind China, but under Mr. Abe it has risen by 10%.

If this could result in lighter, more effective armor for the troops, I’m all for it. Interceptor armor weights a ton and the newer stuff wasn’t much lighter.

Shock-dissipating fractal cubes could forge high-tech armor.

Tiny, 3-D printed cubes of plastic, with intricate fractal voids built into them, have proven to be effective at dissipating shockwaves, potentially leading to new types of lightweight armor and structural materials effective against explosions and impacts.

“The goal of the work is to manipulate the wave interactions resulting from a ,” said Dana Dattelbaum, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author on a paper to appear in the journal AIP Advances. “The  for how to do so have not been well defined, certainly less so compared to mechanical deformation of additively manufactured materials. We’re defining those principles, due to advanced, mesoscale manufacturing and design.”

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July 8

1099 – The army of the First Crusade begins the siege of Jerusalem

1663 – Charles II grants John Clarke a royal charter to Rhode Island.

1775 – After a revision, The Olive Branch Petition is signed by the Continental Congress as a last attempt at reconciliation with George III

1853 – A naval expedition to Japan under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Edo Bay with a treaty requesting trade.

1889 – The first issue of The Wall Street Journal is published.

1932 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22.

1947 – Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico

1960 – Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.

2011 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program.

Birthdays
1838 – Eli Lilly, Ferdinand von Zeppelin
1839 – John D. Rockefeller
1908 – Nelson Rockefeller
1926 – John Dingell
1934 – Marty Feldman
1947 – Kim Darby
1951 – Anjelica Huston
1958 – Kevin Bacon

Deaths
810 – Pepin of Italy
1695 – Christiaan Huygens
1898 – Soapy Smith
1994 – Kim Il-sung, Dick Sargent
1999 – Pete Conrad
2006 – June Allyson
2011 – Betty Ford
2012 – Ernest Borgnine
2018 – Tab Hunter

Venezuela: UK court blocks Maduro’s attempt to access $1 billion in gold

Venezuela’s embattled ruler Nicolás Maduro has been denied access to roughly $1 billion in gold reserves held by the Bank of England after a UK court ruled that the British government has recognized Juan Guaidó as president.

Venezuela’s central bank, which is still controlled by Maduro’s government, had sued the Bank of England, seeking access to €930 million ($1 billion) in gold reserves that it said would help the country cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Venezuela intended to liquidate the gold to purchase health care supplies and food through the United Nations Development Programme, according to court documents.

But the British government, along with the US government and dozens more worldwide, recognizes Guaidó, rather than Maduro, as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. Venezuela’s political turmoil stems from 2018, when Maduro secured another six-year term in presidential elections widely viewed as a sham.

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If the student will read the reports of Congressional hearings together with available books by ex-Communists, he will find all of these Communist objectives described in detail. Furthermore, he will come to understand how many well-meaning citizens have become involved in pushing forward the Communist program without realizing it. They became converted to Communist objectives because they accepted superficial Communist slogans. Soon they were thinking precisely the way the Communists wanted them to think.-
Willard Cleon Skousen

45 Communist Goals For America In 1963 – How Many Have Come True?

Current Communist Goals
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use [“]united force[“] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

Why the Right Foresaw the Statues Coming Down

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Conservatives saw all this coming, and they were relentlessly mocked for it. But they were right, and their foresight was based on the fullest understanding of the arguments that America’s historical revisionists tacitly endorsed but never scrutinized…………..

When Donald Trump wondered whether it would be “George Washington next week” and “Thomas Jefferson the week after,” he was treated to haughty and dismissive dispatches in the mainstream press explaining why these Founders were more than just their proximity to slavery. These were valuable missives, but Trump wasn’t the right audience. They should have been directed at the activists who have taken their campus-based maximalism with them into the workforce.

The failure on the part of polite liberal opinion makers to anticipate this attack on America’s foundations is a failure of imagination and an act of hubris. They assumed they spoke for the mob when it was the mob that spoke for them. But their revisionism was only ever as myopic as the South’s hidebound dead-enders.

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