“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.”
~ St. Paul, 1st century
Philippians 4:8 ~
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in
heavenly places.”
~ Ephesians 6:12 ~
"Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: 'Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'"
~ Ephesians 5:11-14 ~
"Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies."
~ Psalm 40:4 ~
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."
So Saturday’s “March for Science” was kind of a dud. Organizers had high hopes for the rallies, timed to coincide with Earth Day 2017 but, as William M. Briggs at the Stream relates ~
(They) lit the fuse of what they thought was going to be an enormous stick of dynamite. Wait until you hear the boom, honey! But what they got was tiny pop from a damp ladyfinger […]
In one of the satellite marches in Los Angeles, a good handful of people showed up, one carrying the sign, “Make wind, not warming.” Flatulence jokes in a science march? Where’s the respect?
Could the lack of enthusiasm mean that people realize that the hysteria over “climate change” really isn’t science? That the alarmism movement is factually-challenged? That today’s science settlers were yesterday’s prophets of environmental doom – Nostradamus wannabes, whose predictions completely failed to materialize?
At the very first Earth Day in 1970, we were assured the end of life as knew it was imminent. Lest anyone is tempted to fall for their hooey this time around, it’s worthwhile to recall the ridiculous claims of 47 years ago. Last year when Earth Day rolled around FEE (Foundation for Economic Education) reminded us just how far off the mark last century’s eco-fear mongers really were ~ 18 Spectacularly Wrong Prophecies from the First Earth Day.
There was Harvard biologist George Wald ~
“(C)ivilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
Sen. Gaylord Nelson, paraphrasing the secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, Dr. S. Dillon Ripley ~
(I)n 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
The perpetually-progressive New York Times ~
“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
And Peter Gunter, a North Texas State University professor ~
“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
But by far the worst of the climate apocalypse prophets was Paul Ehrlich, author of the panic-inducing – and now roundly discredited – book, “The Population Bomb.” Written in 1968, he grimly proclaimed that human population would soon outstrip the ability of the Earth to support it. We were doomed! ~
The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate…
Nearly 50 years later, we’re still here – and the global population has more than doubled (from 3.5 to more than 7 billion). But with the Left it’s always SSDD. The narrative may vary, but the objective remains the same; keep the sheeple in the dark and preferably panicked, because they’re so much easier to corral and manipulate that way.
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Don’t play along folks, just ignore the science settlers. Here’s the truth for non-sheeple – from some real rocket scientists ~ The Right Climate Stuff
The march was never about science. It’s about political activism masquerading as science […]
If science were an academic popularity contest, then one side of this issue is currently winning. But science clearly isn’t that. At its heart science is radically undemocratic. It’s the pursuit of correct answers regardless of popularity.
Stewart Brand, a former disciple of Ehrlich’s, asks: “How many years do you have to not have the world end to decide that it didn’t end because that reason was wrong?”
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set
on a hill cannot be hidden.” ~ Matt. 5:14
The Puritans were inspired by this directive, one which Jesus gave to his followers in His Sermon on the Mount. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was to be – as articulated by future governor John Winthrop – an example for the rest of the world in rightful living; “A Modell of Christian Charity.”
“We shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.”
“City on a Hill” from Casting Crowns is a sad reminder of a much brighter day in America. We’re a country that was never perfect (none ever are this side of heaven), but one that was undeniably a much more virtuous, moral, exemplary place when we were still inspired by the words of Jesus Christ ~
For far too long we’ve let the destructive forces of the Left divide and conquer our society through their divisive identity politics and relentless class warfare. By demanding that Americans focus almost exclusively on our differences, have the malcontents compelled us to extinguish that beacon of light completely? Or are there still some smouldering embers remaining that can be fanned back into the flames of revival? Can we return to our Christian roots, recognize that we are all created in God’s image, and realize that what we have in common is far more important than our differences?
With His help, yes.
Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:
Why Easter Brings Out the Worst in Islam ~ Clashing worldviews; ultimately only one can be true. Islamists think they can kill Christianity by killing Christians ~
While almost anything can provoke Muslims around the world to attack churches, there is a reason that the animus can reach a fever pitch during Easter: more than any other Christian holiday, Resurrection Sunday commemorates and celebrates three central Christian doctrines that Islam manifestly rejects: that Christ was crucified and died; that he was resurrected; and that by especial virtue of the latter, he is the Son of God.
Ironically, Muslims who believe they’ll go directly to paradise – and 72 virgins – if they die in the act of killing infidels, are making martyrs of Christians, thus sending them directly to heaven.
(B)y erecting suicide barriers on the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco liberals, who, for the unborn denounce the right to life, and, for the sick and dying support the right to die, want to inflict life on those who prefer death.
Euthanasia/assisted suicide is NOT about terminal illness. The issue is about normalizing killing as a response to human suffering.
Sure, the initial sales pitch would restrict doctor-administered or prescribed death to the dying. But that’s just to get people comfortable with the concept. Once a society accepts the principle, logic quickly takes it to a broad euthanasia license […]
This ever-broadening death license is only logical. If killing is indeed an acceptable answer to suffering, how can it be strictly limited to people diagnosed with a terminal illness? After all, many people suffer far more severely and for a far longer time than the imminently dying.
Bathed in blood: Possessed Haitian voodoo worshippers sacrifice goats and dance in sacred water over Easter weekend ~ This UK Daily Mail article is sprinkled throughout with the word “Easter” – almost as if the author is deliberately trying to conflate this sort of frenzied, fanatical ritual with Christian celebrations of the resurrection. These pagan ceremonies may have borrowed certain elements from Christianity, but they have nothing at all to do with the joy found in our risen Lord and Savior.
The key purpose of any scientific theory is to make skillful predictions of reality. Any theory that cannot do so, is a false or flawed theory. And we should not rely on false or flawed theories to make decisions about the world, especially ones that greatly influence all people.
Three months before closing, federal government boasted ‘Future So Bright, You Got To Wear Shades’ […]
According to state and federal documents, Suniva received three federal grants worth $8.8 million from 2014 to 2016. It also received a $5.7 million tax credit in 2010 to develop and produce solar cells and accompanying technologies.
The New York Times published an op-ed Monday written by a convicted terrorist, without informing readers that he is serving five life sentences in prison for helping murder five people and launch a failed suicide bombing.
Erdoğan’s victory to cement his autocratic rule over Turkey had received calls of approval from only Qatar, Djibouti, Guinea, the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas and the U.S. President Donald Trump. And now to cement his support for Erdogan, Trump just announced that he will host president Erdoğan on May 16-17 at the White House, in the first meeting between the two leaders.
When Bill O’Reilly Fought for Kate Steinle ~ Bill O was never my favorite talking head on the Fox News channel but, given that he’s largely responsible for the station’s impressive success, he certainly didn’t deserve to be ushered into obscurity in such a shoddy fashion ~
He is the latest conservative target of a liberal left that also targeted the likes of Herman Cain and even Donald Trump himself while excusing arguably the greatest sexual predator to hold a position of power, one William Jefferson Clinton […]
(S)exual abuse of power is always our business, whether it is in the Oval Office or the corridors of a news conglomerate. At this point, the credibility of the charges against Bill O’Reilly are not known, but the left’s hypocrisy on this subject is.
With Islamic State expelled, Iraqi Christians are trickling back to the ransacked town of Qaraqosh, beset by anxiety for their security and yet hopeful they can live in friendship with Muslims of all persuasions.
The town, about 20 km (12 miles) from the battlefront with Islamic State in the northern city of Mosul, shows why Christians have mixed feelings about the future of their ancient community.
“FGM.” It’s much less horror-inducing to use the acronym when discussing the barbaric Islamic rite than to actually use the technical name for the practice itself: female genital mutilation.
The very thought of FGM is so far outside the experience of most contemporary Americans it’s practically inconceivable. But this disgusting procedure is suddenly in the news after the arrests here in Michigan’s Detroit metro area of Jumana Nagarwala, M.D., and now another doctor and his wife ~ 2nd doctor, wife arrested in genital mutilation case.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, herself a victim of FGM, is an outspoken critic of this dehumanizing practice and an advocate for other victims. She spoke with Tucker Carlson (Fox News) a couple days ago, explaining that hundreds of thousands of young girls in the the U.S. either have been, or are in danger of mutilation, because we’re all so shackled by political correctness. Who are we to judge other cultural practices right? No matter how vile!
FGM removes some or all of external female genitalia. There is no medical benefit to the procedure, which causes severe pain and serious health problems. It usually occurs in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The World Health Organization calls FGM “a violation of the human rights of girls and women.” The organization notes that over 200 million women and girls currently living have undergone the procedure.
Islamists only seek a Sharia-compliant world, Ali said, in the wake of Wednesday’s attack in London, a city with progressive leadership, “and whoever is in their way is their enemy.”
She said anyone who does not understand that should not be legislating policy.
After last Sunday’s referendum it’s pretty clear that Turkey is intent on extracting itself from the 21st century – and has charted a direct course straight back toward the 7th ~ Turks Vote to Give Away Their Democracy ~
In a bitter irony, nearly 55 million Turks went to the ballot box on April 16 to exercise their basic democratic right to vote. But they voted in favor of giving away their democracy. The system for which they voted looks more like a Middle Eastern sultanate than democracy in the West.
According to unofficial results of the referendum, 51.4% of the Turks voted in favor of constitutional amendments that will give their authoritarian Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, excessive powers to augment his one-man rule in comfort.
The UK Daily Mail was a bit more forceful in their description ~
His victory is not just a catastrophe for the West, and for Turkish democracy, but also for the thousands of journalists, opposition politicians, academics and ordinary citizens critical of his regime who are increasingly vulnerable to interrogation and imprisonment.
Two decades ago Turkey – although predominately Muslim – was still primarily a secular nation. In fact the Turkish constitution specifically gave the military the duty to maintain a secular government. But along comes Erdoğan who has always been associated with fundamentalist parties, that is to say anti-secular (- and by extension, anti-constitution and anti-military). In 1998 the party he was affiliated with was actually declared unconstitutional under long-standing rules designed to preserve Turkey’s reputation for religious tolerance.
The Daily Mail relates his subsequent rise to power ~
Around the same time (late 90’s), Erdogan was handed a ten-month prison sentence for reading an Islamist poem at a party meeting.
The high-profile affair turned him from an obscure local politician into a hero of working-class Muslims, who, after his release, handed a landslide victory to his Justice and Development Party in the 2002 elections.
Cementing power with a mixture of hard-line policies that appeased his core voters — for example, overturning a ban on female civil servants wearing headscarves — and aggressive attacks on his opponents, who mostly hail from the urban, educated middle classes, Erdogan would go on to serve as prime minister until 2014, when he promptly became president.
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Like megalomaniacs everywhere, of course Erdoğan must have an elaborate palace suitable for a demigod ~
Erdogan paints himself as an ally to the West, but he’s unquestionably an Islamist using the democratic process to transform a once secular-democratic country of the Ataturk tradition to an authoritarian Islamic state that punishes dissenting opinions. Journalists, politicians, academics, military figures, and religious leaders alike have suffered under his rule.
Apparently the country favors oppression, because much more is sure to come.
The changes (resulting from Sunday’s referendum) make Erdogan head of government, head of state and head of the ruling party — all at the same time. He now has the power to appoint cabinet ministers without requiring a confidence vote from parliament, propose budgets and appoint more than half the members of the nation’s highest judicial body. In addition, he has the power to dissolve parliament, impose states of emergency and issue decrees. Alarmingly, the proposed system lacks the safety mechanisms of checks and balances that exist in other countries such as the United States. It would transfer powers traditionally held by parliament to the presidency, thereby rendering the parliament merely a ceremonial, advisory body.
But what’s much worse for the West than having a major player in the historical Levant revert to Islamic fundamentalism, is our increasingly cordial relationship with a Muslim despot. Why is the Trump administration following Obama’s misguided policy of cozying up to tyrants (Iran, Cuba, Venezuela) – at least with regard to the Turkish tyrant?
Why are we supposed to be enthusiastic about another fundamentalist Muslim regime? Erdoğan helped incubate ISIS and – due to the ongoing Sunni-Shia feud – is fanatically opposed to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad ~
The Sunni supremacist Erdoğan would therefore even shake hands with Satan for the downfall of the Nusayri al-Assad. And he did. Turkey quickly became the mentor of all Syrian opposition groups which, ideally, would first defeat al-Assad, then form an Islamist government and volunteer to become a de facto colony of the emerging Turkish Empire.
Languishing in a prison cell built for eight, which at times holds as many as 22 prisoners, of which Pastor Andrew Brunson is always the only Christian, he wonders if he has been forgotten. And just what crime has Pastor Andrew committed? He literally has no idea.
Under the current State of Emergency in Turkey, his file has been sealed and all visits from his attorney are recorded and all notes are copied. The only official written charge we have seen states, “membership in an armed terrorist organization,” a completely false charge against a peaceful pastor who has lived in Turkey for over 23 years without incident, raising his family there and humbly serving the people of Turkey.
Brunson and his wife Norine have lived in Turkey for more than two decades. They were originally detained last year on October 7th. Norine was released on October 19th but Andrew has been incarcerated at Izmir’s Sakran 3 Nolu T Tipi Prison since December.
In the letter, Vice President Pence wrote, “I can assure you both that the State Department and this White House, under President Trump’s leadership, consider Andrew’s release and reunification with you and your three children extremely important.”
Sounds nice. But while Pence voted for the Armenian Genocide Resolution in 2005 (to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide of 1915), he voted against it in 2007 and 2010, ostensibly out of concern for its possible fallout on US-Turkey relations.
And now, we have POTUS congratulating the despotic Erdoğan on his referendum victory?! Sounds like as awfully schizophrenic White House doesn’t it?!
#Turkey has reached its final destination. Say goodbye to Democracy as Erdogan moves forward in creating an Ottoman empire ruled by Sharia. https://t.co/oqfTitSPOq
101 years ago this week, the Ottoman Turks (last century’s Asia Minor Muslims) rounded up, deported to desert areas and murdered as many as 1,500,000 Armenian Christians. Known – by those of us who prefer historical accuracy – as the Armenian Genocide, this was a tragedy that leftists and present-day Muslims like to pretend never really happened. That way, when fascism starts to rear its ugly head again in the same corner of the world, by the descendants of the last tyrants, maybe no one will notice the similarities…
Like, for instance – Turkey’s President Erdogan seizing control of six Christian churches – under the duplicitous pretext of maintaining stability in the civil war-torn southeastern part of the country.
Amid reports of significant ballot-box stuffing, roughing up dissenters, and other electoral fraud, Turkey’s sharia-supremacist strongman, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hammered the final nail in the coffin of his country’s democracy. Last weekend, he narrowly prevailed in a referendum that formally concentrates in the presidency the autocratic powers he had previously usurped.
Afterwards, Donald Trump called to congratulate him.
You read that right. The president of the United States called to congratulate a terror-supporting Islamist ruler on completing his country’s turn away from Western liberalism. 🙁
With the passage of the referendum, regressive legislation vis-a-vis women’s rights will have an easier time being passed. It is likely also that the trend of violence and abuse of women will continue to rise.
Human rights attorney Ipek Bozkurt, an avocate for women’s rights, described how she felt as a woman in anticipation of the passage of the referendum.
“I am frightened and I feel suffocated, sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think about what will happen if there is a ‘yes’ vote, the whole system will change and it’s terrifying.”
April 19th, 1995: The date America sustained its first domestic attack at the hands of Muslim terrorists ~
From my 9-21-16 post ~
In what’s still referred to as the largest act of homegrown domestic terrorism in U.S. history, the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was blown up April 19, 1995, killing 168 Americans and wounding 680 others. But the “homegrown” and “domestic” labels are intentionally misleading. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were the fall guys for the horrific crime, but their collaborators got off scot-free.
Jayna Davis, a journalist who was working at KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City at the time of the attack, carefully covered the story from day one. She documented her findings in “The Third Terrorist,” published in 2004.
During the course of her extensive investigation, Davis discovered that a larger, more sinister story than the bombing itself was developing; strangely enough, the federal government seemed to have very little interest in learning who was actually behind it.
She found that no one in DOJ and other federal investigative agencies wanted to hear anything about suspicious Middle Eastern men who were spotted with McVeigh several times in the days leading up to the bombing. No one wanted to investigate numerous leads that clearly pointed to a much larger terrorist organization – with resources that neither of the two men convicted of the bombing would have had access to on their own. No one wanted to know about a strategy that Islamists sometimes employed to recruit “Lily Whites” for the cause. (The term refers to operatives with no criminal record and no known ties to Middle East terror networks. It just so happened that McVeigh and Nichols were perfect “Lily Whites.”)
In a brief moment of sanity last week, Michigan’s capitol city reluctantly realized that it was in their best interest to comport with reality. Just nine days after the city council voted to make Lansing a sanctuary for illegal aliens they reversed themselves.
As Hot Air reported, there were a couple different factors influencing the 180. Immediately after the original April 3rd vote ~
… three GOP members of Congress from Michigan denounced the move in no uncertain terms. Rep. Mike Bishop, whose district includes Lansing, called it “completely reckless,” adding that it “sends a dangerous message that local governments or individuals can simply pick and choose which laws they wish to follow.”
Then of course, money always talks ~
(W)hat did get their attention was the more than six million dollars in federal money which the city receives each year. On top of that, Bishop reminded them that there is currently a bill being considered in the state legislature which would shut off state level funds to sanctuary cities as well. That’s a pretty big hole to blow in the budget of a city which is already having trouble paying its bills.
Furthermore,
(T)he City Council members might have noticed the unexpectedly large number of people who showed up at the next meeting wearing their Make America Great Again hats and looking rather displeased. Thinking back to November, the area around Lansing actually overperformed for Trump, not to mention the Republicans running for Congress.
Good to see there are still enough of my fellow Michiganders who prefer government to do its primary job; protect citizens from criminals, and enforce the laws on the books. So do most U.S. voters ~ Poll (February): Americans overwhelmingly oppose sanctuary cities ~
An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that cities that arrest illegal immigrants for crimes should be required to turn them over to federal authorities.
The poll shows that President Trump has broad public support in his effort to crack down on sanctuary cities.
A survey from Harvard–Harris Poll provided exclusively to The Hill found that 80 percent of voters say local authorities should have to comply with the law by reporting to federal agents the illegal immigrants they come into contact with.
Being several decades older than the average millennial, I’m certainly familiar with the tale of Paul Revere’s midnight ride on April 18th, 1775, warning of the British invasion. But I’d never heard the story behind Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem about the heroic event. It was meant to inspire, and it still does ~
CARACAS: Opponents of Venezuela’s government said Wednesday a teenage boy was shot dead in fresh protests against President Nicolas Maduro, one of four people killed in a week of unrest.
Two 19-year-old students were killed during earlier unrest, one on April 6 and one on April 11, according to authorities.
Maduro is fighting efforts to oust him as Venezuela, once a booming oil exporter, struggles with shortages of food and medicine and a wave of violent crime.
Dozens of people have been injured and more than 100 arrested, according to authorities.
Judge Navarro has now taken her detest for the defense even further and imposed a rule stating that no copies of the U.S. Constitution were allowed in this Federal Courtroom.
Science march organizers have been racked by infighting over how much the event should emphasize diversity and gender issues. Some march leaders have resigned over such disagreements.
And what is most disconcerting for me is that fact that Jared Kushner is not, shall we say. aligned with the governing philosophy of the party that nominated Donald J. Trump. The concern is whether President Trump’s national security and foreign policy vision will be a constitutional conservative one, or more so a liberal progressive leftist perspective, since Kushner was not a registered Republican.
Should all students receive help when studying calculus or just minority students? Is it wrong to think that help should be provided on the basis of academic difficulty rather than race?
…NSW, Victoria and possibly South Australia face a 75 per cent chance of blackouts because their once great networked power systems had been vandalised by politicians who made the easy decisions of plonking solar and wind generators in their state but not the hard and expensive but essential decisions of investing in the grid and providing back up. It was rank irresponsibility, although decisions were made complex by the different owners of the various parts of the network and the need to earn a return on investment.
The drive to force radical ideas onto our children is alive and well in the classroom. Even at the first-grade level. “The purpose of our elementary schools is to teach writing, reading and arithmetic, not to encourage boys to wear dresses,” said Tami Fitzgerald of the North Carolina Values Coalition.
Yes, I do think “transgender folk” are mentally ill. I also think that any professor who actually thinks that my stated position on the mental stability of “transgendered folk” disqualifies me as a scholar qualifies as mentally ill. Please allow me to explain.
A Belgian psychologist and mother to an 18-month-old son, who worked with asylum seekers facing deportation, has been named as the first victim of last week’s terror attack in Stockholm.
Maïlys Dereymaeker, 31, had been waiting for friends on Friday afternoon when failed asylum seeker Rakhmat Akhmat Akilov ploughed a truck into crowds in what is thought to be an Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack.
A keen musician from the small town of Lembeek near Brussels, Belgium, Dereymaeker was the first to be hit by the vehicle and died instantly at the scene, local media reports.
The mother-of-one was “very committed to helping asylum seekers” according to daily newspaper La Dernière Heure. A former psychologist, working in detention centres for Belgium’s Immigration Office, Dereymaeker often helped illegal immigrants like her alleged killer whose asylum claim was rejected in Sweden last year.
Donald Trump and his suddenly-hawkish administration are banking on the fact that most Americans can’t even locate Syria on a map much less understand the volatile geopolitics of the Middle East. The ploy seems to have worked; his approval rating ticked up immediately after the attacks. And isn’t it weird how all the drumbeats to investigate the Trump connection to Putin and Russia’s interference in the election and suddenly faded away? (“Wag the dog” anyone?)
Unfortunately for the Syrians caught up in the middle of a prolonged and brutal civil war, most of us aren’t paying attention to anything beyond the latest headlines. So it’s easy to manipulate the facts about military offensives, attacks and ever-changing battle-lines, especially in a situation that’s as murky as the one in which Syria finds itself. (Most still don’t know the truth about Aleppo.) You need a play-card just to understand the various factions vying for control over all – or just their corner – of the country.
Khan-Sheikhoun is the site of “chemical attack”
Because I’ve been keeping abreast of the Christian genocide in the Middle East (see HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE), I’m extremely skeptical of the Trump administration’s (and their new support staff in the mainstream media) Syrian narrative for the following reasons:
Original sources accusing Bashar al-Assad of dropping a sarin gas bomb are all rebel–allied.
The alleged attack occurred in an opposition-held area (see map) – there are no credible independent news outlets embedded with these jihadis. So far, most of the information our news media is feeding us has come from suspect sources like the rebel-connected White Helmets, and guys like Shajul Islam, who has a real penchant for the limelight ~
Dr. Shajul Islam speaks with NBC News about his current experience treating Syrian victims of chemical attacks, which Mr. Islam says are becoming more dangerous and now hospitals are becoming targets
Do you ever ask yourself why rebels and jihadists never seem to die in these chemical attacks in rebel held areas Syria, that occur periodically against trapped and hostage-held civilians?
For some reason these “bombs” launched from the sky in “chemical attacks” manage to single out children in particular – the most perfect photo-op for a media outrage. They are immediately and blindly blamed on President Assad.
Why suddenly flip out and decide to gas innocent civilians – knowingly inviting immediate international condemnation? (Assad is no lunatic like the dear leader in North Korea). He’s no Mr. Rogers, but Assad’s reputation as a murderous thug who gleefully gases his own population is mostly a false construct. It’s an impression created primarily by a 2013 attack — one that was eventually attributed to anti-government forces (Syrian rebels used Sarin nerve gas, not Assad’s regime: U.N. official). But, as Goebbels is famous for saying, “a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.”
Trump has a whole new cadre of supporters.
Despite America’s regime change, our approach to the Middle East doesn’t appear to have altered much at all has it? We just have a POTUS who’s a little more impulsive. And there’s nothing like dropping a few dozen Tomahawks to get your former critics suddenly singing your praises ~ The Spoils of War: Trump Lavished With Media and Bipartisan Praise For Bombing Syria ~
In every type of government, nothing unites people behind the leader more quickly, reflexively or reliably than war. Donald Trump now sees how true that is, as the same establishment leaders in U.S. politics and media who have spent months denouncing him as a mentally unstable and inept authoritarian and unprecedented threat to democracy are standing and applauding him as he launches bombs at Syrian government targets.
Then there are Donald’s millions of new Muslim admirers, as Gatestone Institute reports ~
A new hero has been born in the Arab world and his name is Donald Trump. And this is not a joke […]
Thousands of Arabs have taken to social media to express their admiration and gratitude for Trump after the U.S. missile strike. Many are affectionately referring to Trump as “Abu Ivanka al-Amriki.”
Others are calling Trump “Lion of the Sunnis”, “Caliph of the Muslims” and “Defender of the Islamic Holy Sites.” Some wrote: “Blessed be the hands of Abu Ivanka al-Amiriki (Trump),” and expressed hope that he would do more to rid the Syrian people of their dictator. “We love you Trump” and “Trump is our hope” are two of many hashtags that have become extremely popular on social media, especially Twitter.
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Fielding questions regarding the alleged chemical bombing, this Russian spokesbabe makes way too much sense. Which of course is why the western media ignore her ~
Note ~ the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that Maria Zakharova mentions, did just meet yesterday to facilitate the investigation into this event.
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Plain and simple, we’re on the wrong side in this fight. Anything that hurts Assad helps the jihadis. That’s why POTUS is suddenly the “Lion of the Sunnis.” (ISIS, al Qaeda, al Nusra are all Sunni; Assad is Alawite, a Shia sect)
In a sea of ongoing Christian genocide, Bashar al-Assad is the only Muslim leader left in the Middle East who is a proven protector of ethnic and religious minorities. We topple him, we’re essentially – as John Zmirak puts it – giving al Qaeda a country, and dooming Syrian Christians, Kurds and Alawites to death or expulsion ~
Do we want to send U.S. troops to Syria, which would likely put al Qaeda in control of a major country? To cause the ethnic cleansing of another million Christians, as we made possible in Iraq? To remove the last safe country for Christians in the region, apart from Israel? And all to accomplish what?
Finally, after the mess the United States has made encouraging the Arab Spring (Iraq, Libya, Egypt) you’d think we’d learn, it’s NOT our business to decide who’s in charge in Syria! In an excellent article at National Review, Andrew C. McCarthy explains that ~
The U.S. attack is an impulsive intervention in a civil war in which both sides — the Damascus/Tehran/Moscow alliance and its Sunni-jihadist/sharia-supremacist opposition — are hostile to the United States. It is a war in which Bashar al-Assad’s continuation in power, dismal as that prospect may be, is in no way the worst conceivable outcome for American national security.
What should we be doing? Here’s an excellent article – from Jason Jones & John Zmirak, writing at The Stream – that helps make sense out of the multiple groups and alliances and who’s fighting whom: President Trump: Find Peace in Syria by Looking to Switzerland. The authors are suggesting that peaceful Switzerland could provide a blueprint for a collection of fractious ethic and religious groups by getting them to agree on individual territories, or states, within a confederation of sorts ~
… Switzerland was once a lot like Syria. Its ethnic factions engaged in vicious attacks and bloody vengeance. Its churches used to whip their members into mutual holy war […]
Localism and decentralization saved Switzerland. They could save Syria. In fact, a peace plan based on these principles is currently on the table, at the Russian-sponsored Astana talks — which the U.S. so far is boycotting.
At this point I’m more and more convinced that it really is about the oil. Because if the Trump administration were sincerely interested in diplomacy, brokering some sort of agreement in Syria leading toward a more stable Middle East, they would take Jones and Zmirak’s advice…
What are the odds?
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Related:
Should we take out Assad? ~ No. Excellent article from Dr. Michael L. Brown, who concludes with this ~
• First, if we are not 100 percent sure that the Assad regime is responsible for the chemical attack, we must continue gathering information, even after our first strikes. The lasting controversy over WMD’s in Iraq serves as a cautionary warning.
• Second, we must think through the long-term regional implications of whatever actions we take, lest our actions lead to even greater suffering and instability.
• Third, we must do what we can to support the best players in this bloody drama (if such players exist) while doing our best to protect and aid the innocent, like Syrian Christians who have been caught in the crossfire.
• Fourth, we must pray for God’s kingdom to come to Syria, in the words of the Lord’s prayer. Only divine intervention can bring real healing to that ravaged nation.
(A) U.S. intervention — beyond risking war with nuclear-armed Russia — would allow radical Sunni Muslims aligned with al Qaeda to take over Syria and commit genocide against religious minorities numbering in the millions, including Syria’s Christians. You know, the way they did in Iraq. That is why Syria’s Christian leaders have been begging Western Christians since 2013 to avert such a reckless intervention.
Given there is no evidence that Assad carried out the attack, the universal approval for military intervention from our political and media class is concerning. Based on impulse and without evidence, Trump bombed a sovereign nation allied with Russia before even knowing the details of the chemical disaster. And the ‘liberal’ media went from challenging his impulsivity on a number of important issues to unequivocal support.
Why does the prospect of war and armed conflict bring both sides of our political establishment (as well as the mainstream media) together in such a programmed – bordering on creepy – way? Are we becoming the very thing we’ve been fighting?
There is something strange lurking in the swamps of Washington…
I’ve been working on a longer post about the trumped-up Syrian debacle, but wanted to share this graphic I just spotted in my Twitter feed which pretty much sums up this entire travesty. Assad is an impediment ~
THIS is what the blustering about “regime change” is really all about. Trump, Tillerson and the rest of the swamp don’t care about dead kids any more than they care about hundreds of thousands of dead Christians.
Languishing in a prison cell built for eight, which at times holds as many as 22 prisoners, of which Pastor Andrew Brunson is always the only Christian, he wonders if he has been forgotten. And just what crime has Pastor Andrew committed? He literally has no idea.
