The United Kingdom joined the European Union on January 1st, 1973. Tomorrow is a national referendum in Great Britain on whether or not to leave the EU. British voters, ask yourselves one simple question:
Is Britain better off today than it was in 1972?
Recall that in 1972, Britain manufactured most of its goods domestically, was a world leader in technology, aerospace, and media; had the best military in Europe; riots and civil unrest were rare; a British Pound bought you what 13 Pounds do today; and nobody was seriously worried that the country would be under Islamic Sharia Law.
The difference between then and now; brought to you courtesy of the European Union.
It is time for the EU to die, so that Britain might live again.
VOTE BREXIT
Because the UK didn't win two World Wars just to get bossed around by Berlin.
While Chinese President Xi Jinping is busy leading this year's Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting---which will likely unite economically and militarily most of Central Asia, Obama and his LGBTQ-friendly Pentagon are expending US funds on some further pointless military exercises in the South China Sea. If Obama fails to start WW3, his Administration will likely be remembered as producing some of the most expensive photo-ops in history.
This week, the Village People's Navy is taking its roadshow to the Philippine Sea and features two aircraft carriers. According to an Admiral, Marcus Hitchcock, these exercises are designed to show China "our unique capability to operate multiple carrier strike groups in close proximity," as if China is supposed to be impressed with a naval maneuver developed in the 1940s; and then boasts " No other Navy can concentrate this much power on one sea."
Maybe if Admiral Hitchcock had spent more time studying naval tactics than political correctness, he would know that concentrating forces in an era of atomic weaponry is bad strategy. Weapons of Mass Destruction are called by that name because are designed to destroy mass concentrations. But then again, we are talking about a Navy led by Admirals who are little better than pirates.
China, though, at whom all these provocations are aimed is taking the matter seriously.
"The timing of the operation---just ahead of a ruling on South China Sea disputes---is surely a calculated one" a Xinhua editorial stated, "After countless promises not to take sides in the dispute, the arrival of warships is hardly an aspect of the peaceful resolution Obama claims to support."
China is certainly right to be suspicious; Obama's treacherous foreign policy record should automatically make foreign power presume his intentions are the polar opposite of his actual words.
But the great danger involved in Obama's passive-aggressive foreign policy is not only that it isolates us economically and weakens us diplomatically. Obama has pushed the world closer to WW3 than any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Unlike 1962, the US is in no position to fight a war on that scale---even presuming our cause is just, which it is not.
Obama's continual prodding of major powers: China, Russia, and, increasingly, Iran, is generating within those countries political elements who want a more hardline approach than their current leaders. Even more dangerous is his policy of employing highly unstable regimes as buffer-states between these powers. The Neo-Nazis in Ukraine and the gangsters in Turkey have made no secret of their desire for war with Russia; the drug-addicted Wahhabi Saudi regime and their satellites consider the Shia Iranians infidels; and Duterte in the Philippines and Abe in Japan have territorial designs against China. Any one of these points is a time-bomb waiting to explode and suck the US military into the conflict.
China is not going to leave the Nansha Islands voluntarily and has made this position non-negotiable. What the Iranian Navy did to our sailors in January is going to be mild compared to what the Chinese Navy is capable of doing. And more to the point, it will be a fight over an issue that the United States has absolutely no national interest in winning, although China does have a national interest in it.
Unfortunately, this is the motive behind this and other regional conflicts. It is not about securing US interests; it is simply to grandstand and appear powerful before the Ameroboob electorate. And the Ameroboobs need to put down their hookah pipes and turn off the cable news long enough to think long and hard about the consequences of a war with China.
But chances are, this will not happen. It won't be until the average American starts seeing Silkworm missiles coming into his neighborhood that he'll realize there's a problem. And even then, he'll probably just blame it all on whatever scapegoat of choice he blames for all his other problems, drop some more pills, and settle into another New Normal.
The Ameroboobs have managed to expend to date almost 10 days of outrage on the Orlando shooting, much to the enrichment of the Media Cartels' bottom lines. Even the US Senate, who recently had to authorize a sanctions-waver to buy critical rocket engines from Russia, managed to introduce and debate a gun control bill. An opportunity to infringe on liberties always gets Congress to spring into action; investing in American technology and infrastructure, not so much.
Behind all the headlines interviewing every known relative of the suspect, and the carefully staged victims speaking out, the rest of the world has gone on. It's somewhat pointless to debate the merits or demerits of the Senate Bill; it is all political theatre and Orlando will be forgotten as soon as the Government-Media Complex encounters a new national crisis to exploit.
Contrary to what most Ameroboobs imagine, the 2nd Amendment actually exists for a reason. It is no accident that the two most-heavily armed nations---the United States and Switzerland---owe their independence largely to an armed citizenry. For a contemporary example, consider Iraq. Both under Saddam Hussein and Bush Junior, Iraq had strict anti-gun laws. Those laws did not prevent the rise of ISIS; but importantly, the situation there has proliferated firearms among the population. Guess what the Iraqi people are discovering? That Iraqis with guns can fight back. They've even formed militias and have driven ISIS out of some areas. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms really works.
But effete postmodern Americans shudder at the possibility that they might have to take enough personal responsibility even to defend themselves. Such a suggestion will be met with the cynical sneer and retorts to the effect that the 2nd Amendment didn't prevent Orlando or any other recent shooting. But what the media and politicians are carefully trying to keep Americans from realizing is that nothing could have prevented Orlando.
The Pulse Nightclub shooting and most other cases like it were the handiwork of deranged lunatics who were obsessed with doing what they did. Existing laws against premeditated murder haven't prevented any of these killers from committing it. If there were no guns, an IED or poison gas may have been deployed.
This is a difficult fact to face in a populace accustomed to safe spaces and hate-free zones. But it happens to be reality. There are, like it or not, evil people in the world who would kill you for no other reason than they feel like doing so. Access to guns; getting dissed by his homo lover; school bullying; sympathy for ISIS---these things and things like them are the excuses for, and not the reasons behind, Orlando or most other mass-killings.
"Yes" some Liberal might pipe up, "But wouldn't you agree that we have an epidemic of gun violence today, while other countries do not?" To which we would answer, that is a relative thing. Compared to countries like Syria, Iraq, or Yemen right now---no. Compared to Switzerland---yes. Which brings up the point that, if we are seeing more violence than before, there must be some reason for this other than gun ownership, which has been legal since 1789 in the US.
When we consider that most of these recent acts of violence---from mass shootings to urban uprisings---are being committed by people of roughly the same age, maybe we should consider that social and educational changes during the last 30 years might be a contributing factor?
But try and suggest that to the Ameroboob, and you'll hear: "No way! We're Exceptionalists! We got to get those gun-nuts (or whomever)! People died, now somebody's got to pay!"
And our political and media moguls can rely on just such a response. That's why they'll go on milking the Orlando tragedy for all the political and financial gain they can; whipping on the hate and the outrage; and in the end, nobody other than themselves will have been helped in the least.
Allied media sources report this morning the good news that an unknown number of Christian and Yazidi women were rescued from the clutches of ISIS outside of Fallujah today. Zulfikar Baldavi, commander of an Iraqi Volunteer Unit, told the press that the female hostages were bound for the Slave Market but were abandoned in a cell when their ISIS captors fled Fallujah.
ISIS and other Jihadists have forcibly deported hundreds of women to Turkey where they are sold in the Black Market slave trade. Turkey is a member of NATO; a Coalition Partner of the Obama Administration and, as such, largely has escaped world scrutiny for the numerous Crimes Against Humanity in which its government has been complicit.
Baldavi also stated to the press that Allied Forces are continuing to clear Fallujah of Jihadi snipers and booby-traps. The Iraqi Volunteer Units are comprised of citizen-soldiers fighting alongside the regular army; in a capacity not unlike the French Maquisards in WW2 or the American Minutemen of our War of Independence.
In other war-related news, Syrian forces repulsed an ISIS counterattack against the recently captured oil fields east of Raqqa. Lebanon---a recent participant in the Alliance---announced that its forces had destroyed an Al-Qaeda camp on their northern border. The camp was apparently employed as a way-station for the Jihadi Ratlines; smuggling fleeing war criminals from the area.
Russian military sources also announced that 2 1/2 tons of humanitarian aid were delivered by convoy this morning to refugee settlements southwest of Damascus.
Good Men Doing Good Things
On Sunday, one of the largest mass-demonstrations to date took place on Okinawa. An estimated 65,000 Okinawan citizens rallied in the capital city of Naha demanding that the US base there be closed.
The Pentagon's policies of redefining the soldier and deconstructing masculinity in the military---a process ongoing since the 1990s---has led naturally to substandard recruitment policies, poor leadership, and undisciplined and unprofessional personnel. The US military has suffered an ongoing problem with criminal behavior among the troops. This problem likewise has been exacerbated by the increasing policies of outsourcing military functions to shady private contractors. Okinawa has been hit especially hard by the effects of these policies. Okinawa is far removed from frontline military theaters; hence it tends to draw the types of personnel who, for whatever reason, are not top quality, even by the Pentagon's nonexistent standards.
Much to the mortification of the Imperial Japanese government, Okinawan Governor Takeshi Onaga was among the speakers at the rally and demanded that Tokyo remove the base, to the applause of the crowd. Onaga also denounced the treacherous legal chicanery the Pentagon routinely employs to evade its obligations under the 1960 Status of Forces Agreement. By the rules of SOFA, US Military Law is applied to servicemen in Japan. But 1960, the Pentagon's premises were to see justice done to the satisfaction of the Japanese; today, like most the rest of the US legal system, it exploits legal loopholes to protect the criminal element.
The situation in Okinawa is becoming a major problem for the Japanese Empire---at time when it is reasserting itself as a militaristic power. There is a small, but determined move for Okinawan independence brewing and the discontent in Okinawa is spilling over into the Japanese population at large. Last week, 10,000 protestors turned out in Tokyo to denounce visiting Pentagon chief, Ash Carter. Even more to the point, a resolution read in Naha on Sunday stated that the situation 'had become intolerable'. By some estimates, US personnel are responsible for nearly 90% of the crimes committed on the island.
Okinawa is situated in the Ryukyu Island Chain between Japan and Taiwan; and the volatile situation has drawn China's attention as a regional security issue. Hua Chunying, at a Chinese Foreign Ministry press briefing noted today that the bilateral agreement between the US and Japan "should not target third parties."
"There needs to be a serious discussion about how US presence on Okinawa serves the interests of the countries and peoples in the region." Hua said.
Kantoku Teruya, a member of the Okinawan Parliament agrees. In an interview with Xinhua news, Teruya said that Okinawans are becoming increasingly incensed at the increasing crime, noise, and pollution emanating from the base, and with Tokyo's ongoing toadying to Washington.
"The two governments view Okinawa as their military colony" Teruya said, "And they uphold the rights of the US military over the rights of the Okinawan people and ignore the burdens the base puts on the island. For generations, the Japanese government has bowed to the United States while treating the Okinawan people as inferiors."
Matters may thus be reaching a point where Chinese diplomatic pressure may be required to bring the Okinawan people's plight to world attention. At any rate, the Imperial government is in a difficult situation. Their expansionist plans obviously cannot tolerate a colonial uprising; but closing the base is not an option either. After a series of military humiliations in the South China Sea, the Pentagon is not likely to relish the thought of being forced off a tiny island a few miles off the Chinese Coast. A plausible solution might be to relieve the American officers and replace them with Japanese ones: their army at least knows how to maintain discipline. But the Pentagon is not likely to welcome that kind of diversity in their ranks.
The ideal course though would be for Okinawa to begin a serious move for independence. As a sovereign state, it would have control over its own military, foreign policy, and its own law enforcement. Okinawa was once an independent country until forcibly annexed by the Japanese Empire in 1879. It was occupied by the US after WW2 from 1945-1972; and since returned to the Empire in exchange for operating a US base there. US-Okinawan relations were generally good until the 1990s, when our military itself began to decline.
An independent Okinawa has considerable economic potential as well. Though a tiny island, its tropical location makes it a viable tourist location; it's geographic location is ideal for a financial/commercial hub. There is some port potential as well. At any rate, it would do much better than now; as all peoples do when they claim their freedom.
Blogger Wintery Knight has published a synopsis and commentary on the recent Southern Baptist Convention, which produced a statement in defense of traditional marriage. The Southern Baptists have had a lot of good proposals on these issues recently; especially last year's proposal encouraging younger people to marry and challenging our absurdly high age-of-consent-laws.
The Southern Baptists made some strong stands this year, declaring their support for traditional marriage and gender-roles and some proposed legislation defending Christian rights against the legal onslaughts of the Gay Mafia. Among these were the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment Defense Act.
While the Southern Baptists are to be applauded for their stand; they are overlooking two obvious problems. The first one is, simply that, if American culture has sunk to the level that our largest Christian denomination has to explain to us what marriage and gender are; and that Congress actually has to debate over the First Amendment---then it is a fairly safe assumption that our culture has rotted to the point where these types of resolutions are not going to have much effect.
The second---as Wintery Knight points out---the Republican Party has already nominated a candidate who's largely ejected ideology from his platform. The Donald has had very little to say on such matters. Given that he is on his third marriage and Hillary's relationship with our ex-President Clinton is somewhat notorious it hardly seems that these concerns are resonating much with the voters either.
And really, we should not expect it to be otherwise. Traditional families are actually a minority these days. The Divorce Industry, the Abortion Racket, the Gay Mafia, Relationship Counseling, Adultery/Dating Sites, the Domestic Violence Industry, the Welfare/Child Protection Syndicate, Media-driven Sex Scandals and Controversies---these are all billion-dollar industries in the Prozac Nation. The Smart Boys never let a good crisis or human tragedy go to waste when there's a fast buck to be made.
Traditional families don't make good political capital either. All that politicians in the past could do is be proud of our strong families and promise to keep defending them. But the Wise Guys of today understand that by deconstructing and redefining everything, the resulting confusion and uncertainly alone generates unlimited opportunity.
And this is nothing new with Donald Trump. The last Republican candidate who ran an ideologically-driven campaign was Ronald Reagan, who won landslide victories in 1980 and 1984. Since then, American so-called Conservatives have pursued the strategy utilized by the Left; i.e., abandoning ideology to pander to the worst elements in human nature. That strategy gave us failures like the Bushes and Gingrich; and candidates like Dole, McCain, Romney and Trump.
That's the point that the Baptist Leadership is wholly missing. They assume there is no difference between a Conservative in 2016 and a Conservative in 1980. In 1980, the Moral Majority was a genuine political force; to the point where the Rev. Pat Robertson was a serious presidential contender in 1988. Ben Carson, whose platform was probably closest to that group won a whopping 9 delegates in 2016.
The Ameroboob of today is not an ideologue. Recall that almost 1/5 of American high-school graduates today cannot even read. He's also very highly amoral. Religious leaders of any faith are not liable to influence public policy very much when these factors are the prevailing public attitudes.
A better idea for the Baptist Leaders would be something like organizing a project to set themselves up in a colony in some foreign country. Like it or not, things have gotten that critical in the US---and the situation is not likely to improve. The Baptists originally began here in America in the same way. It's time to do it again.
The Russian media reported this week the deaths of two soldiers, the most recent of whom stopped a suicide-bomb attack on a humanitarian aid distribution center but was himself killed as well. The other was a soldier named Mikhail Shirokopyas, a sergeant and career soldier from Siberia. Sgt. Shirokopyas died from wounds sustained while guarding a humanitarian aid convoy near Aleppo, which was attacked by moderate rebels.
Shirokopyas left behind a wife and a 13 year-old daughter. It is noteworthy how many slain Allied soldiers were married men and fathers. The toll has been a lot heavier on the Syrians---an estimated 11% of Syrian children are now orphans: thanks to the Jihad.
But in our postmodern Western dystopias, where both fatherhood and heroism are held in contempt, such sacrifices are difficult to comprehend. The fact is that fatherhood and heroism are culturally closely related concepts; and, typically when a culture degenerates, both disappear together. Contemporary male reaction to a story like Sgt. Shirokopyas' typically comes in one of two ways. The effete male feminist type affects a cynical sneer and thinks it a purposeless sacrifice; while the Red Pill manly-alpha-leader type shakes his head that anyone could be foolhardy enough to risk his life.
In contemporary America, the Smart Boys all agree that those in the know never assume responsibility, work hard, or make personal sacrifices. Those things are for suckers and chumps. The postmodern successful man knows that winning the Game is about getting suckers and chumps to do all those things, while he reaps the rewards for their actions. In less politically correct times, such men were referred to more commonly as shysters and rooks. Back then, facing responsibility with manly courage was far more honorable than knowing how to work the system.
When one considers what a father actually does, we see that he assumes responsibility for the provision and protection of a woman and her children. Heroism is only one step removed from that in that it extends provision and protection to a community or nation. In a religious context, sainthood is the step beyond that those, extending those responsibilities to a Faith.
So it is not surprising that fathers like Sgt. Shirokopyas would risk---and sometimes lose---their lives for a greater good. Deprive men of a belief in a greater good and society produces 'heroes' who look like this instead.
So far from being a useless sacrifice, actions that these family men who've died in Syria have saved literally hundreds of lives. Had one not been present to stop a Jihadi suicide bomber, how many more would have died? Can any of us say that one of the boys whose life was saved that day won't live to be a greater man than the soldier who saved him?
And that is what Fatherhood is all about. There is an old maxim which truly says that the two things a man really wants before he dies is to see his sons higher than himself and his enemies, lower. That's what heroism is all about, too. But we see in our culture today is a world everyone is lower than everyone else instead. And until men want to be fathers again and women want to be mothers again---don't look for any heroes here any time soon.
