DECADENT DEMOCRATS: The Enemies of America are Our Best Friends Forever

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“Last night, at my direction, the United States military successfully executed a flawless precision strike that killed the number-one terrorist anywhere in the world, Qasem Soleimani.” – President Donald J. Trump on January 3, 2020.

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” – Robert K. Hudnut, A Sensitive Man and the Christ, 1971

It has become clear there are those in the Democrat Party, the media and in Hollywood who take exception to the termination of Iranian al Quds General Qasem Soleimani. Some members of Congress, like Nancy Pelosi, are upset that they were not notified prior to the termination of this “number-one terrorist.” Others have shouted that this termination is tantamount to an act of war against Iran.

It seems like the Democrats are tripping over themselves to undermine our national security.

Iran, Democrats Best Friends Forever

Let’s look at a few Twitter posts to understand how the enemies of America are the Democrats best friends forever.

First Rose McGowen, NYT bestselling author of #BRAVE Amazon.

Here is Max Blumenthal the Editor, the @GrayzoneProject, , Co-host of Moderate Rebels, @moderate_rebels  Author, The Management of Savagery. Note Blumenthal is at the White House standing shoulder to shoulder with Code Pink, Answer Coalition and Pop Resistance.

MSNBC Iran’s BFF

The big lie from Susan Rice on speaking to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC stating that during the entire eight years of the Obama administration wasn’t “presented an opportunity” to terminate Soleimani.

Representative Ilhan Omar Iran’s BFF

President Trump stated in his announcement of the termination of Qasem Soleimani:

We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.

This statement was not good enough for Ilhan Omar (D-MI). She has made this a campaign issue and is using it to raise funds for her reelection.

Omar and war crimes.

Iran’s new Quds Force Commander Ismael Qaani.

CONCLUSION:

In a TownHall.com column titled There Is Something Fundamentally Wrong With Democrats Derek Hunter writes:

It’s odd how the political left cheers America’s shortcomings and mourns its victories.

[ … ]

Weirdly, the people who use the word “justice” most often saw no justice in the death of a man who’s been killing innocent people for their whole lives. Ilhan Omar reacted the way someone would when their childhood hero passes away, then tried to fundraise off of it because anti-Americanism translates into cash on the left.

Rashida Tlaib warned about a “lawless President recklessly moves us closer to yet another unnecessary war that puts innocent lives at risk.” She expressed no concerns for the innocent lives Soleimani had taken over his career.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez whined that “the President engaged in what is widely being recognized as an act of war against Iran, one that now risks the lives of millions of innocent people.”

Democrats and their supporters support Iran. They have, since President Trump withdrew from the Iranian Nuclear Deal, tried to undermine him and his foreign policy in the Middle East.

© All rights reserved.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader vows jihad for Qassem Soleimani’s killing

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Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has threatened the United States with ‘jihad’ after an American drone strike killed Qassem Soleimani, the chief of Iran’s elite Quds Force.

“All Enemies should know that the jihad of resistance will continue with a doubled motivation, and a definite victory awaits the fighters in the holy war,” Khamenei said in a televised statement.

In his Friday’s sermon, Khamenei vowed revenge for the slain terrorist, saying, “this is the time to clear the region from these insidious beasts.” The chants of “Death to America” followed the weekly Islamic prayer.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iran-backed terrorist group Hizbollah, which operates in Lebanon, also joined in the Iranian call to jihad, urging “all resistance fighters worldwide” to avenge the killing of the top Iranian commander.

Soleimani, considered to be one of the most powerful figures in the Iranian regime, was the chief architect of Iran’s network of terrorist groups across the Middle East. The head of Quds Force, the elite wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was responsible for the killing of hundreds of American servicemen and women in Iraq, the U.S. Defense Department confirmed. At the time of the attack, he was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” the Pentagon disclosed.

Soleimani’s Quds Force is tasked with carrying out terrorist operations beyond Iran’s borders, propping up pro-Iran regimes, and building proxy terrorist militia. For two decades, he was in charge of Iran’s foreign intelligence and terrorist operations. “The killing of Qassim Soleimani is one of the biggest developments in the Middle East for decades – it far eclipses the deaths of Bin Laden or Baghdadi in terms of strategic significance and implications,” the UK newspaper Telegraph noted.

Iran’s allies, Russian and China, condemned the U.S. anti-terror operation, calling all sides to exercise restraint, “especially the United States.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry offered glowing praise for the slain terrorist: “Soleimani served the cause of protecting Iran’s national interests with devotion. We express our sincere condolences to the Iranian people.” His killing “was an adventurist step that will increase tensions throughout the region,” the Russian news agencies RIA Novosti and TASS reported citing Foreign Ministry sources.

The response from the EU and European leaders was muted, with Germany and France calling for “easing” of the tensions and “deescalating” the situation.

The French TV channel EuroNews reported the European response the U.S. counter-terrorism strike:

The first European country to react to the killing of Soleimani is France. The country’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, Amelie de Montchalin said on RTL radio, “we are waking up to a more dangerous world. Military escalations are always dangerous.” She added that “escalation is underway.”

Montchalin indicated that urgent reconciliation efforts are being launched behind the scenes. French President Emmanuel Macron and his foreign minister were reaching out to “all the actors in the region,” she said.

The British government is urging caution, saying “further conflict is in none of our interests.””

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stated that the UK has “always recognised the aggressive threat posed by the Iranian Quds force led by Qasem Soleimani.“

The statement does not explicitly endorse or condemn the actions of the U.S., a major British ally.

Germany says the situation in the Middle East has reached ” “a dangerous escalation point” and that conflicts in the region can only be resolved diplomatically.

German government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer characterised the U.S. move as “a reaction to a “whole series of military provocations for which Iran bears responsibility,” pointing to attacks on tankers and a Saudi oil facility.

The drone strike that killed Soleimani also took out Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the commander of Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. The terrorist group was behind the storming of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Sunday. The terror outfit also carried out a recent rocket attack at a U.S. military base in northern Iraq, killing one American civilian contractor and injuring several soldiers.

Hours after the strike, Iran was busy regrouping its terrorist network in the region. Iranian leader Khamenei appointed Esmail Qaani (Ghaani) as commander of Quds force to replace the slain terrorist.

Cross-posted from Legal Insurrection.

COLUMN BY

Vijeta Uniyal

Vijeta Uniyal is an Indian journalist based in Germany. He is Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

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RELATED VIDEO: Muslims rally in Times Square calling for an Intifada in America

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Iran at the Flash Point

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To fully grasp Iran’s current situation, we need to be reminded of the Islamic revolution of 1979. Many Iranians have compared the 1979 Islamic revolution to the Arab-Muslim conquest of Persia in 651 AD when Arab conquerors forced the Persians to convert to Islam and started to demolish Zoroastrian temples. Those who refused to convert, a special tax was imposed known as jizya (poll tax), and acquired the status of dhimmis.

Ibn Kathir (Commenting on Quran 2:256 in the unabridged version of his tafsir) – “Therefore all people of the world should be called to Islam. If anyone of them refuses to do so, or refuses to pay the jizya, they should be fought till they are killed.”

The 1979 Islamic revolution was a plague upon the Iranian people. Most people are under the impression that Iranians voluntarily chose an Islamic government. Nothing could be further from the truth. On March 30, 1979, the new and unstable Islamic leadership conducted a referendum asking all Iranians over the age of 16 a simple yes or no question: should Iran be an Islamic republic?  Michael Axworthy states “there may have been some irregularities in the referendum.” According to many people, it was a complete sham. Those who marked no, faced severe consequences.

To give legitimacy to the illegitimate government they closely monitored the voting process. For forty years, the Iranian people have tolerated this brutal regime. They gradually developed Stockholm syndrome.  If Iran were to hold a referendum on the Islamic Republic today, over 80% would clearly oppose it—The 1979 brief post-revolutionary excitement and sense of freedom quickly gave way to the new rulers’ systemic Islamization of state and society.

Since the beginning of the Islamic revolution, the regime has used coercion, co-optation, and persuasion to try to change the cultural values of the Iranian people. They purged all traces of the Persian monarchy and renamed every street in Iran. They closed universities for three years (1980–1983) and after reopening, banned many books and purged thousands of students and lecturers from the schools. In the end, it failed miserably.

From 1981 until 1985, almost 8,000 people were executed, and similar numbers were killed during the so-called “great massacre” in the final year of the 1980–88 war with Iraq. The Islamic Republic became one of the most oppressive regimes in the world and presently holds the world’s highest execution rate.

Since the 2009 Green Revolution, the situation in Iran has become more tense and unstable. Sporadic protests have intensified. Within 48 hours, protests were trembling at least 80 cities, and the refrains of the demonstrators had catapulted from economic grievances to explicit denunciations of the system and the entirety of its leadership. In fact, it directly aimed at the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei who called the crackdown a justified response to a plot by Iran’s enemies at home and abroad and towards Velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the Islamic jurist).

The recent uprising by millions of people throughout Iran is a clear indication that the Islamic theocracy is in irreversible collapse. The overwhelming majority of the people are determined to establish a fully secular democracy with complete separation of mosque and state. Iranians want nothing less than regime change.

The supreme leader Ali Khamenei is in a state of panic. He has ordered his security forces to do whatever it takes to crack down on the protesters. The regime realizes the current protests are much different and much larger than the 2009 Green Movement. The recent protests show the working class and lower middle class Iranians in small towns and medium-sized cities across Iran calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Many have chanted in support of exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi. For many demonstrators, the miserable state of the Iranian economy and corruption provided the perfect vehicle for pent-up expressions of Persian nationalism.

The call of the opposition has been resoundingly answered by President Trump and some of his cabinet members. Iranian leaders are despised by all segments of the Iranian population. It is just a matter of time for the regime to fall. The main concern however now is how to ensure a smooth transition from a theocracy to a secular democracy and to ensure Iran’s territorial integrity.

In short: The people of Iran wish nothing less than a complete regime change through the democratic process of a free referendum. They believe it is the surest, safest and the fastest way to achieve a democratic Iran and end the world’s nightmare of nuclear holocaust that is currently confronting us all.

© All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Evangelicals for Trump Rally in Kendall, Florida

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Global News published the below video and commentary on the Evangelicals for Trump rally:

U.S. President Donald Trump attended an “Evangelicals for Trump” rally in West Kendall, Florida a day after authorizing the targeting killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.

Trump stated that Soleimani was “plotting attacks against Americans” and that his execution was a “warning to terrorists.” The overnight attack was a dramatic escalation in a “shadow war” in the Middle East between Iran and the United States and its allies, principally Israel and Saudi Arabia.

© All rights reserved.

President Trump Ordered Military Hits on Islamic Terrorists to Deter Further Aggression

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“The American People will come first once again. My plan will begin with safety at home – which means safe neighborhoods, secure borders, and protection from terrorism. There can be no prosperity without law and order.” –  Donald J. Trump

“To defeat Islamic extremist terrorism, we must put them on defense. If they are at war against us – which they have declared – we must commit ourselves to unconditional victory against them.” – Rudy Giuliani

“Every year, the State Department declares Iran to be the world’s primary supporter of terror. And within the government, within the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, you have practically eliminated any training or any use of the term ‘radical Islam.’ That’s what we’re facing.” – Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn (RET)

“But there’s one thing we must all be clear about: terrorism is not the pursuit of legitimate goals by some sort of illegitimate means. Whatever the murderers may be trying to achieve, creating a better world certainly isn’t one of their goals. Instead they are out to murder innocent people.” – Salman Rushdie

In his book, Field of Fight, Lt. General Michael T. Flynn stated, “We’re in a world war, but very few Americans recognize it, and fewer still have any idea how to win.  I’ve been fighting for more than thirty-three years, much of the time at the top levels of U.S. military intelligence. I have some strong feelings about the war, about our ‘field of fight.’  The three-word title comes from the ancient Greek epic poet Homer, writing in The Iliad about a battle involving both men and gods.  Our most fanatical contemporary enemies think they are in a similar battle with us.  Most of them believe their cause is blessed and supported by the Almighty.  We must prove them wrong.”

Oh, that this brilliant Army intelligence officer who gave 33 years in service to our country was still President Donald J. Trump’s National Security Advisor.  I’d feel so much safer.  Our President has learned so much from his first National Security Advisor, and he ordered our military to eliminate two leaders of Islamic terrorism who desired America’s destruction.

Islamic Terrorists

If it’s ISIS, you take out global terrorist and Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi; if it’s Iran, you take out the top military terrorist commander, Qasem Soleimani. President Trump ordered both hits and our military carried them out with precision.

Within 24 hours of the attack on our Iraq embassy, the number two Iranian, was eliminated.  Soleimani had been planning further attacks on American diplomats and military personnel and had approved the attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad on New Year’s Eve.

The Pentagon on January 2, 2020 confirmed a strike killed Soleimani, who as head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force became the architect of Tehran’s proxy conflicts in the Middle East.  The IRGC is an arm of the Iranian government, and the Quds Force conducts clandestine and overt military operations outside of Iran on its behalf.  It has been a designated terror group since 2007, and is estimated to be 20,000 strong. Considered one of the most powerful men in Iran, Soleimani routinely was referred to as its “shadow commander” or “spymaster.”

Hours after the attack was announced, President Trump tweeted a simple image of the American flag.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1212924762827046918

In April 2019, the State Department announced Iran was responsible for killing 608 U.S. troops during the Iraq War. Soleimani was the head of the Iranian and Iranian-backed forces carrying out those operations killing American troops. According to the State Department, 17 percent of all deaths of U.S. personnel in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 were orchestrated by Soleimani.

In this short video, President Trump speaks to America about the attack on Soleimani.

Soleimani was the military mastermind whom Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had deemed equally as dangerous as Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In October 2019, Baghdadi killed himself during a U.S. raid on a compound in northwest Syria, seven months after the so-called ISIS “caliphate” crumbled as the terrorist group lost its final swath of Syrian territory in March of 2019.

Baghdadi led the genocide of more than 10,000 Yazidis because of their ethnic, racial, and religious identities. (The Yazīdī religion includes elements of ancient Iranian religions as well as elements of Judaism, Nestorian Christianity and Islam.)  He blew up playgrounds full of children. He and his organization ordered and/or praised the slaughter of LGBTQ individuals, including those in a Florida nightclub. Other human rights atrocities directly linked to Baghdadi include widespread sex slavery, gang rape, executions, beheadings, floggings, and brutal premeditated terrorist attacks.  Link

Baghdadi repeatedly raped and tortured American Kayla Mueller, a young woman held by Baghdadi for her Christian faith and refusal to denounce Jesus Christ.  Her parents praised President Trump for pulling off the daring raid that killed al-Baghdadi.

Congress and Media Angered

Despite all this, much of the mainstream national press turned Baghdadi’s death into a story of Trump declining to inform Democratic leaders in Congress about the planned attack. They downplayed the significance of Baghdadi’s death, looking for angles to disparage Trump’s foreign policy and the relevance of Baghdadi.

The Washington Post called Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi an “austere religious scholar” in an initial headline for his obituary.  He was never a talented celebrity. He was a vicious, racist, murderous thug. As mainstream media downplayed his death, they further alienated grassroots Americans and proved the point of Trump’s most ardent fans.

Trump has learned to tell the Democratic controlled house absolutely nothing. They leak like sieves to the enemy, to their colleagues and allies in mainstream media. Their desire is the destruction of this President who longs to return America to her greatness and to protect her citizens from both foreign and domestic enemies, many of whom are in our Congress.

With the exception of Israel, world leaders who publicly reacted to the killing of Soleimani called on the United States to show “restraint” with many calling the U.S. actions cowardly, destabilizing, and provoking.  Our own Democratic socialists have vilified the attack on Soleimani stating it is a march to war with Iran, but it is just the opposite.  President Trump warned Iran and he is not a neo-con war monger like former National Security Advisor, John Bolton.

President Trump’s Resolve

The President and his staff remain firm in their resolve to defend American interests and the American people.

Former FBI Agent, John Guandolo of Understanding the Threat writes,

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar are at the center of driving the Global Islamic Movement. All are parties to the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) which is the largest voting bloc in the United Nations and is made up of 57 member states, including the Head of State of every Muslim nation on earth.

The OIC officially states they relate to the non-Muslim world only through the lens of “Allah’s divine law”/sharia.  All authoritatively published sharia mandates total war against the non-Muslim world (“jihad”) until sharia is the law of the land over every person on the planet.

The Muslim armies can only stop waging jihad when they are incapable of doing so. For those engaged in war with the Islamic powers, this means they need to feel utterly defeated in order to cease waging jihad.

President Trump demonstrated a willingness to do what no other President in recent history has done – do what it takes to defeat the enemy and win this war.

To actually do this, however, will require a strategy that includes defeating Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, as well as waging economic warfare – and possibly military war – against Qatar which funds Al Qaeda, Islamic State, et al.

It will also mean dismantling and destroying the U.S. jihadi network which includes the most prominent Islamic organizations in America – USCMO, CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, Muslim Advocates, MPAC, MAS, MSA, et al – whose objective is the same as Iran, Al Qaeda, Saudi Arabia, and the Islamic State.

To do this, the U.S. government must dismantle the U.S. Marxist Counter-State which is driving/supporting the U.S. Islamic Counter-State.

Can Mr. Trump lead his cabinet members through this war and do what needs to be done?

I believe he can and will, especially if we regain the House from the Democratic Socialists.

Conclusion

We have seen the results of Islamic hatred against Jews, Christians and Kafirs/infidels.  Jews in France must have armed guards over their synagogues and homes. Simon Wiesenthal warned Jews about the dangers of travel to Paris, France over three decades ago.  Germany is much the same, and now even Spain, England and Italy are feeling the barbaric hatred of Islamists against Jews and Christians.

America is now seeing the growth of hatred against our Jewish brethren, attacks on synagogues, rabbi’s homes, and Jewish folks in the streets of New York and across America.  President Trump knows the dangers and he is working to protect all of us.

Anti-communist Archbishop Fulton Sheen was a venerable servant of God and he loved all of God’s people.  In a novena by the Bishop, he stated these words,

Protestants, Jews and Catholics have God, morality, and religion in common. In the name of God, let us – Jews, Protestants, and Catholics – do two things: 1. Realize that an attack upon one is an attack upon all, since we are all one in God; it is not tolerance we need, but charity; not forbearance but love. 2. Begin doing something about religion, and the least we can do is say our prayers; to implore God’s blessings upon the world and our country; to thank Him for His blessings; and to become illumined in the fullness of His truth.

Pray for our President, his family and administration.  He loves this country, and wants to keep all of us safe from harm.

© All rights reserved.

VIDEO: President Trump Statement on Soleimani

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TRANSCRIPT:

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP ON THE KILLING OF QASEM SOLEIMANI

Mar-a-Lago
Palm Beach, Florida
January 3, 2020
3:13 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:

Hello, everybody. Well, thank you very much. And good afternoon.

As President, my highest and most solemn duty is the defense of our nation and its citizens.

Last night, at my direction, the United States military successfully executed a flawless precision strike that killed the number-one terrorist anywhere in the world, Qasem Soleimani.

Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him.

Under my leadership, America’s policy is unambiguous: To terrorists who harm or intend to harm any American, we will find you; we will eliminate you. We will always protect our diplomats, service members, all Americans, and our allies.

For years, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its ruthless Quds Force — under Soleimani’s leadership — has targeted, injured, and murdered hundreds of American civilians and servicemen.

The recent attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq, including rocket strikes that killed an American and injured four American servicemen very badly, as well as a violent assault on our embassy in Baghdad, were carried out at the direction of Soleimani.

Soleimani made the death of innocent people his sick passion, contributing to terrorist plots as far away as New Delhi and London.

Today we remember and honor the victims of Soleimani’s many atrocities, and we take comfort in knowing that his reign of terror is over.

Soleimani has been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilize the Middle East for the last 20 years. What the United States did yesterday should have been done long ago. A lot of lives would have been saved.

Just recently, Soleimani led the brutal repression of protestors in Iran, where more than a thousand innocent civilians were tortured and killed by their own government.

We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.

I have deep respect for the Iranian people. They are a remarkable people, with an incredible heritage and unlimited potential. We do not seek regime change. However, the Iranian regime’s aggression in the region, including the use of proxy fighters to destabilize its neighbors, must end, and it must end now.

The future belongs to the people of Iran — those who seek peaceful coexistence and cooperation — not the terrorist warlords who plunder their nation to finance bloodshed abroad.

The United States has the best military by far, anywhere in the world. We have best intelligence in the world. If Americans anywhere are threatened, we have all of those targets already fully identified, and I am ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary. And that, in particular, refers to Iran.

Under my leadership, we have destroyed the ISIS territorial caliphate, and recently, American Special Operations Forces killed the terrorist leader known as al-Baghdadi. The world is a safer place without these monsters.

America will always pursue the interests of good people, great people, great souls, while seeking peace, harmony, and friendship with all of the nations of the world.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless our great military. And God bless the United States of America.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

© All rights reserved.

SECOND U.S. Airstrike North of Baghdad – Three Vehicle Convoy of Iran-backed Shia Militia Leaders . . .

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From the Conservative Treehouse:

Reports of new late-night U.S. airstrikes north of Baghdad are starting to be confirmed.  According to developing reports a convoy of two or three vehicles carrying Iran-back Shia Militia leaders was targeted near Taji in Northern Baghdad.

From Citizen Free Press

Trump Does It Again – Second Terrorist Convoy Carrying High-Value Targets Just Obliterated In Iraq…

Shibl al-Zaydi, leader of the PMU has been confirmed dead after the US conducted another air strike targeting his convoy in Taji. Two vehicles hit. Story is developing.

6 killed in airstrike north of Baghdad targeting convoy carrying Shia militia members – report

A convoy carrying members of the Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, was hit by an airstrike while traveling in Baghdad, media report.

The three-car convoy was struck in the northern outskirts of the Iraqi capital in the district of al-Taji, according to an Iraqi military source cited by Reuters. Six militiamen were reported killed in the attack, with three others critically injured. It remains unclear who carried out the strike.

The six killed in the strike have yet to be named, but early reports suggesting they hit two paramilitary commanders – Shibl al-Zaydi, secretary general of the Kataib al-Imam militia, as well as Qais al-Khazali, leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq – were refuted by the PMF in a statement.

The U.S. unofficially denies this strike.

EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column with video posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Iranians, Iraqis celebrate Soleimani’s death, thank Trump #TnxPOTUS4Soleimani

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https://twitter.com/Shivar44045709/status/1213058230668189696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1213058230668189696&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jihadwatch.org%2F2020%2F01%2Firanians-iraqis-celebrate-soleimanis-death-thank-trump-tnxpotus4soleimani

CNN is reporting about demonstrators in Iran mourning Soleimani and vowing revenge. CNN doesn’t tell you about the other Iranians, as well as Iraqis, who are celebrating the death of the man who was responsible for destroying the lives of so many of their people. See the hashtag #TnxPOTUS4Soleimani on Twitter.

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SECOND U.S. Airstrikes North of Baghdad – Three Vehicle Convoy of Iran-backed Shia Militia Leaders…

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Rose McGowan apologizes to Iran for killing of Soleimani, says “we are being held hostage by a terrorist regime”

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Soleimani helped plan Benghazi jihad massacre of American diplomats UPDATE: 2016 commission found he didn’t

RELATED VIDEO: Greenfield, “Thank You President Trump For Eradicating Suleymani.”

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Iraqi TV says Iran’s Quds Force top dog Soleimani killed in US airstrike at Baghdad’s airport

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In August 2018, Soleimani posted an image on Instagram of the White House exploding. His death, if confirmed, shows that the US is now serious about confronting the belligerence and aggression of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

On January 1, 2020, the Ayatollah Khamenei tweeted to Trump: “You can’t do anything.”

“Iraqi TV: Iran’s Gen. Soleimani killed in Baghdad strike,” by Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press, January 2, 2020:

Baghdad (AP) — Iraqi TV and three Iraqi officials said Friday that Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, has been killed in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport.

The officials said the strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Their deaths are a potential turning point in the Middle East and are expected to draw severe retaliation from Iran and the forces it backs in the Middle East against Israel and American interests.

The PMF blamed the United States for an attack at Baghdad International Airport Friday….

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Breaking: Hours After Trump’s Def. Sec. Warns Iran, Airstrike Devastates Iranian Leadership

Obama Hosted a Terrorist Connected to the Recent U.S. Embassy Attack at the White House

RELATED VIDEO: Top Iranian general killed in US air strike on Baghdad.

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

How a Lowly Monk Ended Rome’s Bloody Gladiator Duels

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Telemachus, a previously unknown monk, moved the heart of a Roman Emperor.

Fought in stadiums before tens of thousands of boisterous onlookers, ancient Roman gladiator duels are well known today—more than 1,600 years since the last one was fought. Too few people, however, know of the one man who deserves the most credit for bringing those bloody spectacles to an end. A lowly monk from either Turkey or Egypt, his name was Telemachus.

By the old Julian calendar of Telemachus’s day, he performed his famous duel-ending deed on January 1, 404 A.D. You can wait a couple of weeks and celebrate it on January 14 if you choose, because that’s the corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar the world uses today. Before I tell you what this humble humanitarian did, allow me to provide some historical background.

The Latin root of “gladiator” is “gladius,” meaning “sword.” Gladiators (swordsmen) were combatants armed with swords but also with spears, daggers, and nets. They sparred in the arenas throughout the welfare/warfare state of the late Roman Republic and for the great majority of the period of the Roman Empire.

The most famous of all Roman gladiators was Spartacus (not to be confused with New Jersey Senator and presidential flame-out Cory Booker). He fought fiercely in the arenas, escaped, and led a failed slave revolt in 73-71 B.C.

Gladiators entertained the increasingly morbid sentiments of a public thirsty for blood. Most were free men. A small number were women. Professional gladiators were a privileged class in ancient Rome, even endorsing products as idolized athletes. An especially illuminating article about them is “Misconceptions About Roman Gladiators” by Indiana University historian Spencer Alexander McDaniel.

Emperor Commodus, who joined in the killing as a gladiator himself on numerous occasions, once decapitated an ostrich in an amphitheater. Then, holding the head aloft, he signaled to the senators present that they might be next. Power corrupts, just as Lord Acton told us.

The bloodiest shows in Roman arenas, the still-surviving Coliseum being the best-known, did not involve the professional gladiators. The combatants in those instances were prisoners of war or criminals condemned to death. Others were slaves and were forced to fight to their last breath. They not only fought each other but frequently even wild animals—including lions, tigers, and bears (oh, my!).

By January 404, the remaining days of the western Roman Empire were numbered. Its decadence moderated slightly by the legalization of Christianity in the previous century, it would nonetheless fall like ripe fruit to barbarian invaders in 476. In 410, Rome itself was briefly occupied and sacked by the Visigoths. The place had largely become a moral cesspool run by brutal and often megalomaniacal tyrants—men who controlled whatever aspects of other people’s lives their whims fancied.

In this environment, Telemachus made his appearance. Rome was his destination after a long sojourn from Asia Minor. A stadium packed with raucous, sadistic pagans may not sound like a place that would attract a pious pilgrim, but Telemachus was on a mission. What happened on that fateful January day in 404 was recorded as follows by Bishop Theodoret of Cyrus in Book V of his Ecclesiastical History:

There, when the abominable spectacle was being exhibited, he went himself into the stadium, and stepping down into the arena, endeavored to stop the men who were wielding their weapons against one another.  The spectators of the slaughter were indignant and inspired by the fury of the demon who delights in those bloody deeds, stoned the peacemaker to death.

When the admirable Emperor (Honorius) was informed of this he numbered Telemachus among the victorious martyrs and put an end to that impious spectacle.

Another account claims that as he raised his arms between dueling gladiators, Telemachus repeatedly cried out, “In the name of Christ, stop!” Yet another, though likely spurious one, reports that the spectators fell silent at the monk’s murder and then, one by one, quietly filed out of the stadium. There’s no real dispute over this central fact, however: Moved by those last, courageous moments of Telemachus’s life, Emperor Honorius immediately stopped the killing games of ancient Rome—forever.

One man made a difference. He was a man of little note before January 1, 404. We know almost nothing else about him but what I’ve told you here. It’s likely that few, if any, in the stadium that day noticed him when he entered, but they all knew afterward what he came for and what he did.

Without knowing the outcome, Telemachus gave his life for something in which he strongly believed. He surely realized that the odds he could succeed were long at best. It’s doubtful he put himself in danger because he thought that doing so would result in earthly fame, fortune or power for himself. While it might be tempting to dismiss him as nuts or stupid or naively altruistic, I suspect his motivation was quite noble: He loved and valued life—the lives of others at least as much as he cherished his own.

Some people write or speak about their principles, and that’s perfectly fine. I do that a lot myself. But one graduates to a higher level of conviction and commitment when he (or she) assumes the ultimate risk and pays the ultimate price on behalf of those principles. Though they are a small minority, such heroes appear again and again in human history.

I’m grateful for that fact, and I am inspired by it. I hope you are too.

Happy New Year!

For related information, see www.fee.org/rome

COLUMN BY

Lawrence W. Reed

Lawrence W. Reed is President Emeritus, Humphreys Family Senior Fellow, and Ron Manners Ambassador for Global Liberty at the Foundation for Economic Education. He is also author of Real Heroes: Incredible True Stories of Courage, Character, and Conviction and Excuse Me, Professor: Challenging the Myths of Progressivism. Follow on Twitter and Like on Facebook.

EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

A Worthy New Year’s Resolution

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Teddy Roosevelt remarked in 1914:

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”

If that was true then, it is truer today—because of the curse of political correctness.

With a new year upon us, and the opportunity to turn over a new leaf, why not resolve to spend more time in the wonderful book God has given us—the Bible?

This is the book that has had unparalleled influence on so many great people in history. Many of our nation’s presidents made it a habit to read the Bible on a regular basis. It is part of what made them who they were.

Consider these sample opinions:

  • John Adams, our second president and a key founding father: “I have made it a practice every year for several years to read through the Bible.”
  • His son, John Quincy Adams, American president who was a champion against slavery, and who greatly influenced the thinking of fellow Congressman Abraham Lincoln during the latter’s one term (1847-1849): “The Bible is the book of all others to read at all ages and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once, or twice, or thrice through, and then laid aside; but to be read in small portions of one or two chapter a day, and never to be omitted by some overwhelming necessity.”
  • Abraham Lincoln: “In regard to this great book, I have but this to say: It is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. Except for it, we would not know right from wrong.” The 16th president made that statement when a delegation of African-Americans visited him in 1864 and gave him a beautiful copy of the Scriptures. Having known of this story for years, I was overjoyed to see the actual Bible at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. about a year ago.
  • Lincoln’s winning general, Ulysses S. Grant, later our 18th president: “Hold fast to the Bible as the anchor of your liberty; write its precepts in your hearts and practice them in your lives.”
  • FDR: “Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration. It is a fountain of strength and now, as

always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.”

  • Ronald Reagan: “Inside the Bible’s pages lie all the answers to all the problems man has ever known. I hope Americans will read and study the Bible…it is my firm belief that the enduring values presented in its pages have a great meaning for each of us and for our nation. The Bible can touch our hearts, order our minds, and refresh our souls.”

But what about George Washington? An influential book written in the early 1960s claimed that our first president did not quote the Bible.

But that is not so. In Appendix #2 in the book I co-wrote with Dr. Peter Lillback, George Washington’s Sacred Fire, we show example after example of quotes and phrases and special vocabulary found in the writings/speeches of Washington (public or private) that come from the Bible. It is as if you cut Washington, he would have bled Scripture.

Clearly Washington was a Bible reader and very familiar with it. For example, more than 40 times he alludes to Micah 4:4 in the King James: “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.”

Author Dr. Art Lindsley of the Institute of Faith, Work, and Economics, told me regarding Micah 4:4, our first president’s favorite verse:

“[Washington] uses it up to about 50 different times in his writings. And it’s really what he wanted for America….Your own vine and your own fig tree. There’s the idea of private property, that you can have property that’s your own, which, of course, is the antithesis to Marxism and some forms of socialism—with no one to make them afraid. And it particularly shows the primary place of government as a rule of law, and thoroughly fits in with a biblical perspective on that subject.”

Why not make it your goal in 2020, like some of our presidents, to read through the whole Bible or to continue to study the sacred volume? I have found a classic book from the 1940s, Search the Scriptures (edited by Alan Stibbs, IVP), as a wonderful aid to help me study the Bible, passage by passage.

Teddy Roosevelt once remarked,

“If a man is not familiar with the Bible, he has suffered a loss which he had better made all possible haste to correct.”

© All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: A New Year’s Resolution for America: Realize That Politics Isn’t the Most Important Thing

VIDEO: Hizballah militia besieging US embassy in Baghdad screams “Allahu akbar”

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This gives the lie to the establishment media claims about the meaning of “Allahu akbar.” It does not mean “God is great,” and is not a simple manifestation of Islamic piety. It means “Allah is greater,” i.e., greater than your god. The demonstrators besieging the embassy are proclaiming the superiority of Allah and Islam over the United States. And the best part is that in analyzing what is happening here, the first thing mainstream analysts in the State Department and elsewhere will do is ignore Allah and Islam.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Clarion’s 2020 Predictions: Bernie, Jew Baiters and Western Insanity

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As 2020 makes its entrance, Clarion editor Meira Svirsky makes predictions on five trends will can expect to see:

Democrats Go Left (Before Heading South)

Joe Biden will self-destruct his “front-runner” candidacy in 2020. It won’t be difficult as all he has to do is open his mouth.  Elizabeth Warren, already on a steady road down, will continue to fall out of favor due to her manifold lies and hypocrisy. From her false narratives of (1) being a native American, (2) getting fired from a job because she was pregnant, (3) that her children went to public schools to railing against the rich when she is a millionaire and accepts huge donations from the same, Democrats are waking up to the fact that Trump would make mincemeat of her on the campaign trail.

That leaves Bernie Sanders, the favorite tortoise among the bevy of hares vying for the Democrat nomination. Bernie might have garnered it last time if not for the rigging of the vote by Hillary through her super delegates.

Yet, with Bernie, we would not only get socialism (the kind that turned Venezuela from a promising country to a hellhole), we would also get his “surrogates,” who are already out stomping for him. These are the likes of Islamists and anti-Semites such as Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Linda Sarsour, as well as plain old wacky millennial AOC (which is not to underestimate her own pro-BDS version of anti-Semitism).

Clarion predicts Bernie and his triple trio may get the nomination but they will go south fast in 2020.

Anti-Semitism Becomes the New Fashion of Macho Violence

This is a scourge on the soul of America that will not abate in 2020.

The Left’s inability to accept that Donald Trump was actually elected to be the president of the United States, egged on by the mainstream media and their constant churning of fake news, the Left’s willingness to lie to the American public and cheat their way through a faux impeachment process to get him out of office has contributed to the extreme polarization of American society – a state which makes the Left’s demonization of Republican politicians from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush look (almost) like fairy tale.

Who gets caught in the crossfire of this polarization? The Jews.

On the Left, Jews are accused of being everything from white colonialists (by the BDS, Palestinian chic and campus crowd) to slum lords and blood suckers (witness the spate of black-on-Jew crimes in the last months and listen to Black Muslim preacher Louis Farrakhan).

While the Left still cozies up to Farrakhan as well as the likes of Jew-baiting racists like Al Sharpton, the U.S. Congress can’t even muster the votes to censure the likes of Ilhan Omar for trolling us all with her anti-Semitic tropes on Twitter.

This is not to mention how, in New York, many of those who are committing violent anti-Semitic offenses are simply receive a “Get Out of Jail Free” card (along with metro cards to ride around on the subway, two debit cards with $25 each  and a burner cell phones.)

I’m not making this up.

Take the case of Tiffany Harris, a young black woman, who admitted to slapping three Jewish women while hurling at them anti-Semitic epithets. She was quickly released from jail without having to post bail (due to the early implementation of NY’s new bail reform) and got all those goodies mentioned above.

Once out on the street, she punched a woman in the face in front of the woman’s two children, was arraigned yet again and released (this time with “supervision,” which doesn’t mean much).

While a man in Iowa was charged with a hate crime for burning a LGBT flag (which resulted in a 16-year sentence due to his prior two felony convictions), NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is defending letting Ms. Harris out of jail:

Jew hatred on the Far Right has always existed and didn’t need much of push to bring it out in the open and even manifest in violence. The classic Far Right tropes about Jews as socialists out to destroy our country or, alternatively, as rich capitalists feeding on the poor are now back in fashion thanks to the Left.

The increasing frequency of anti-Semitic attacks in America will bring many other Jew haters out of the woodwork to claim their day of “fame” in the news.

Case in point: As I write, this just in from the largely Orthodox Jewish community of Lakewood, New Jersey:

The Life Gets Sucked Out of Iran by Trump

Some potential good news for 2020 is on the horizon. Rather than initiate a new foreign war (a concept to which Trump is ideologically opposed and which would ruin his chances of reelection), Trump will respond to the latest aggression against the U.S. embassy in Iraq by Iranian-backed militias with new and crushing sanctions on Iran.

Will that mean the collapse of this failed and brutal Islamist state? We’ll be following that story.

Western Insanity Rolls Over for Islamist Supremacy

If the stories coming out at the beginning of 2020 are an indication of how political correctness is careening Western countries into the hands of Islamists (without them lifting a finger to gain control through jihad), we are embarking on a course of civilizational suicide.

  • This week in the UK, 11 armed officers burst into the home of cancer-victim Paul Newey in the wee hours of the morning and threw him in a top security cell reserved for the worst terrorists. Newey’s crime? Sending $200 to his son Dan, who decided to quit his job as an insurance salesman and do something noble. Dan joined the Kurdish forces in Syria fighting against ISIS. Those forces were not only backed by Britain, but they were trained by the SAS, UK’s special forces.
  • Also in the UK, under the nose of British authorities, Pakistani Muslim sex grooming gangs victimized 19,000 children in 2019 alone. For over a decade, this exploitation was known to local government officials, social workers and law enforcement officials. Yet, for fear of being called racists, authorities took no steps to prevent the horrific abuse of young, white British girls.Excuses still abound. Just a year ago, Sarah Champion, a Labour MP from Rotherham where the story broke in 2012 and a tireless campaigner for the victims of these gangs, was forced to resign from her position as shadow (opposition) secretary for women and equalities after writing an article in The Sun telling the facts about the sex grooming gangs: “Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls … There. I said it. Does that make me a racist? Or am I just prepared to call out this horrifying problem for what it is?” Champion wrote.
  • In Switzerland, child marriage (which often is arranged by Muslim families for their underage daughters) is essentially recognized. It works like this: A girl can be married off at any age by her family. When she reaches the age of 18, her “marriage” becomes legally binding. This rule holds for those born both inside and outside of Switzerland. Due to this law, there is no recourse for girls often forced into marriage as early as the age of 14.

American Universities Continue to Get Rich by Taking Islamist Money

Foreign donations — to the tune of over $10 billion since 2012 – continue to flow in to U.S. universities. With that money comes influence ops to try to mold public opinion and policy.

In some cases, the funding comes via government-tied entities with known links to subversion, spying, terrorism and extremist ideology. For example, the terror-linked Qatar Foundation donated $33 million to Georgetown University in 2018 alone.

Over the years, Iran used a well-known front to send donations to about 30 universities in the U.S. and Canada. These donations, for example, don’t even show up U.S. records.

The Department of Education is currently investigating funding from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and (presumably) other countries. We are, too. Stay tuned for Clarion’s next film in 2020 on foreign funding of U.S. universities.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Clarion Project column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

Regarding the New Decade

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Note: As we enter the 2020s, it’s only natural to be thinking about what lies ahead. So we asked some of TCT’s deep thinkers to speculate about the future – freely, but no end-of-the-world scenarios allowed, since those short circuit the whole enterprise. Some responded with high seriousness, others with sparkling wit, still others with – well, you decide. All of us at The Catholic Thing are as one, however, in wishing all our readers and friends a very Blessed New Year. – RR 

We know of course that, on New Years Days in the past, almost no one was bracing himself for the shock to come of Pearl Harbor or 911, the assassination of John Kennedy – and who, on January 1, 2016 honestly anticipated the election of Donald Trump? We know that we’ll have to brace ourselves for a turbulent year to come. The growing strength of the transgender movement has intimidated even the medical profession into a cowardly reticence. The situation recalls Michael Novak’s line about the Polish Optimist and Pessimist: The Pessimist says, “Things can’t get any worse!” And the Optimist, ever buoyant, says, “Oh yes they can!”

But as Matt Ridley reminds us, in The Rational Optimist, we’ve had for centuries a stream of alarms, warning of “turning points” and the end of life as we know it. Even over the last forty years we’ve had credentialed people proclaim warnings, proven false each time, that millions would die of starvation because we couldn’t produce enough food to feed them; that we were running out of oil and other minerals; that there would be more chemical contamination of the waters, producing more cancers. As Ridley showed, the panic was not shared by people who were able, with detachment, to read the record of evidence. Chesterton, reading the movement of the age, anticipated that “the Roman religion will be the only Rationalistic religion”; that others will be slipping into relativism of one form or another. With their hold on reason, Catholics may be better tuned to see the world as it is. And that is ever a step to a better humor. The apt scene then may be the end of Brideshead Revisited, when Charles Ryder, in uniform, visits the chapel, crosses himself after prayer, and when he gets in his jeep to ride off back into the War, a passerby says, “You’re looking unusually cheerful today.”

Retirements and Reruns

David Carlin

In 2020, nothing seems impossible anymore, so we may see:

  • When Trump is acquitted Nancy Pelosi discontinues praying for him; says God obviously misunderstood the intention behind her prayers.
  • Tom Brady announces he will retire when Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) retires.
  • Queen Elizabeth and Pope Francis make similar announcements.
  • Putin delivers keynote address at Republican National Convention.
  • Pope Francis delivers keynote address at Democratic National Convention.
  • California decriminalizes necrophilia.
  • S. House re-impeaches Trump.
  • RBG retires. You can hear the cracking of liberal hearts all over America.
  • Riots occur at Columbia University when history professor writes op-ed for New York Times saying that Trump, though very bad, is not as bad as Hitler.
  • California refuses to decriminalize bestiality; Pit Bulls object.
  • Pope Francis tears down Vatican walls; uses resulting rubble to build bridge to North Africa.
  • To console broken-hearted liberals RBG goes on national tour singing her favorite operatic arias.
  • New York City enacts ordinance banning trans-phobic words like “right” and “wrong.” Instead New Yorkers must say “on the right side” or “on the wrong side” of history.
  • Tom Brady is put on the Supreme Court, elected Pope, and crowned King of Great Britain.

Joining High-Voltage Wires

Anthony Esolen

“The Yankees will regret making Babe Ruth into an outfielder,” said Tris Speaker. Famous last words.

What cloud looms on the horizon, no bigger than a man’s hand? Is anything about to break that will seem to change the world? I say seem, because man does not change. Is there something permanent in human nature that we’ve ignored, or taken little advantage of, but that is there, waiting, like the Babe’s uppercut?

One obvious charge against feminism, as I see it, is the utter failure of single women, en masse, and of female teachers and schools dominated by female manners, to teach boys. Where are our boy prodigies, the young Mendelssohns and Edisons and Pascals? They have been smothered by schools, and they waste their lives on the Internet. This condition cannot last forever. Nor can colleges last forever, such as they are: the swindle of the age, delivering little knowledge and less wisdom. Two high voltage wires, lying idle. Someone will put them together, and it will happen soon, because it can.

I see the first stirrings: new schools for boys, whose teachers put power-tools into their hands: Homer, pipe wrenches, Michelangelo, lathes, jigsaws, history, Latin, Palestrina, chisels, songs.

No Illusions, No Despair

Daniel Mahoney

I have always been a sworn enemy of progressivist illusions but never of the human and Christian virtue of hope. Those of us who have not succumbed to the regnant religion of humanity know that the “natural order of things” can never be completely subverted by the illusions of the age. Nor are people of good sense and good will obliged to give in to “progressive little notions” as Dostoevsky so strikingly called them. Pierre Manent recently remarked to me: a considerable segment of our Western societies remains committed to good sense, practical reason, and the natural moral law. Let us find strength in that fact.

We may no longer be strong enough to shape a governing consensus but we are too numerous, too in touch with the enduring wellsprings of human nature, to be ignored. So let us avoid passivity and exercise our free will in accord with the full range of the cardinal and theological virtues. No illusions, no despair.

Repudiation of the Lie remains our preeminent task. Against the religion of diversity, we need to affirm both personal responsibility and the deep and abiding truth of common humanity (which has nothing to do with humanitarian sentimentality). Faced with “gender theory,” which denies the unity of body and soul, and the sheer givenness of Reality, we must cheerfully defend Genesis: “male and female He made them.”

We must remain faithful to the truths conveyed by the Apostles and all who have followed in their footsteps, the witnesses who matter: John Paul II, Solzhenitsyn, Havel, Cardinal Mindszenty, and the like. Bob Royal’s indispensable book on Catholic martyrs might be a good place to begin. In our age, the recovery of memory is the beginning of the recovery of wisdom.

So this is my hope. May we avoid passivity, speak the truth, and recognize good and evil for what they are. The future lasts a long time, and we help shape it through our free will and the exercise of the virtues.

Sufficient for the Day

Brad Miner

Perhaps it’s a reflection of recent challenges to my health, but I find I’m disinclined to look ahead, except to specific events: a trip home to Ohio for a reunion; a trip to Israel for a reunion of another kind; a family gathering tonight.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.” (Mt. 6:34)

Illness and aging have the effect of making Christ’s admonition easier to follow. At my age, the whirl of events, local and global (impeachment and nationalism; terrorism and war), do not affect me as once they did. As James wrote, I am but “a mist that appears for a moment and then vanishes.” (Jas. 4:13-15)

This is not creeping indifferentism. In fact, my Catholic faith is stronger than ever – as that moment when I shall meet the Lord face to face (1 Cor. 13:12) draws closer – and I’m not even much concerned that the Vatican seems intent upon changing the Church into an NGO, although I predict it’s a progression that will continue.

I’ll express the selfish hope for a healthy 2020 and prophesy that all our lives will be improved by prayer, the sacraments, and love. Deo volente.

The Coming Great Awakening

Michael Pakaluk

AGreat Awakening is coming in the United States. This would be only the third in our history. There cannot be an Awakening without a heartfelt, widespread, and shared sense of sin, which was not present in the Social Gospel movement and certainly not in the 1960s.

There is no lack of matter of repentance. Who does not have an abortion, some grave irresponsibility, or some shameful abuse of one’s own body in the background? We are sadly a nation of murderers, adulterers, and fornicators. And idolaters insofar as we are materialists. Now add: self-promoters, narcissists, and voyeurs. I am not being harsh, simply objective. That’s us.

Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. I am simple enough to believe that the blood of the martyrs is the seedbed of the Church, and that the millions of martyrs from the last century have not yet seen their progeny. I firmly believe in God’s blessing on America. It is not His way to abandon those he originally blessed. I prefer to hope that what I see now in a few young persons will break out into widespread good for the many.

We do not lack instruments. For all Christians, the sacraments of baptism and marriage, easy ability to study the Scripture, and the insane closeness of the entire Christian tradition through the Internet. For Catholics, there are the “movements,” broadly construed, like Opus Dei, Communion and Liberation, and the Neo-Catechetical Way.

Sic erit verbum meum quod egredietur de ore meo non revertetur ad me vacuum sed faciet quaecumque volui et prosperabitur in his ad quae misi illud. (Is. 55:11)

The Many and the One

Robert Royal

God may be a God of surprises, as the pope likes say; but human beings are surprising too, in ways not as good. So the plot thickens and stretches beyond our reckoning.

Still, some broad lines suggest themselves. There is the presidential election, consequential in itself, but really a proxy for a bigger, one might say epochal struggle in both the world and the Church, over which is more universal: particulars, like faith in Jesus Christ, or the emerging movement to establish a new global “humanism.”

About this, as so much else, Pope Francis is clearly unclear. Are Jesus and His teachings enough? Or in need of postmodern supplements? In May 2020, for example, he will host leaders from various religions in search of an “educational alliance” to create a “new humanism,” “promote and implement . . . the forward-looking initiatives that give direction to history.”

This is both quixotic – since it can’t work – and ironic, since, early in his pontificate, he would recommend Robert Hugh Benson’s dystopian novel Lord of the World, which warns precisely of the seductiveness and dangers of a leader who would try to unite the world on non-Christian grounds.

For a century and more, there have been quite serious efforts to create a new Christian humanism, which is a very different thing. We’ve seen how false pretensions to a universalism among American elites have produced a (so far) cold war. There will be major and minor skirmishes of a similar nature in 2020 over Brexit, French, Italian, German politics, and global life generally. One side regards race, class, and gender as the markers of a new “humanism.” The other – without necessarily losing universal vistas – will defend family, church, and nation, the reality-based human habitations.

God have mercy on us all.

Twenty Twenty

David Warren

Ivaguely remember, about forty years ago, contributing to a feature entitled, “Vision 2020.” The title has been often used, recently for philanthropic efforts on behalf of the dull-sighted. At the time, however, we were looking at the economic future, for the west side of the Pacific Rim. It would be bright and happy. All detectable problems would be solved.

Now we look at 2020 in a different way. It is this morning. We are older. Even on that Pacific Rim, many problems remain; plus, as bonus, there are new ones. Who would have guessed that Japan, for instance, would NOT overtake the economy of the United States? That China would become a viable threat? That in Seoul, Korea, along Itaewon, the Korean girls would be cashiers, and those of more questionable profession would be from Vladivostok?

Some things “never change.” For instance, the Pacific Ocean is still there; and they still have earthquakes and volcanoes.

I predict the same for 2020. There will be surprising events over the next year. We will know as little about it at the end as at the beginning. However: the Pacific Ocean will still be there.

Destined for Joy

James Matthew Wilson

The ancients no less than ourselves recognize a distinction between fate and destiny, fortune and providence. The harsh material gears of history, with their clear logic of cause and effect, and their figural conformity to mechanical laws, seem always to be barreling down the path of fate, whose end is nothing. Meanwhile, the life of the spirit is, true to form, more spritely, evasive, and unbounded by any condition. The spirit reappears and renews time most clearly when least expected, and reminds us that all things were created for God, though their internal laws had seemed dead set on mere death.

At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis gave us Evangelli Gaudium, the Joy of the Gospel, and while his papacy has often seemed a mere creeping into the Church of our dismay at the rolling on of fate, I believe this first gift to the Church will continue to appear and appear until the whole world hears it at last with relief, receives it in a moment of conversion, and experiences it at last as true joy.

Why? Everyone now sees fate for what it is. Our secular anti-culture offers us only the emptiest and most superficial imitation of freedom and the angriest, most vapid and bizarre vision of the equality or righteousness for which we by nature thirst. The time is soon to come when even the most distracted among us cannot but see that our only choice is between Christ and nothing. Being creatures destined for joy, in the decade ahead, we will choose it. This I believe. A revival of our faith will come not because of the genius, cleverness, or efficiency of we rather terrible stewards of it, but because everyone is ordered by destiny for joy, and fate has made a ruin of everything except the Gospel.

The Catholic Thing

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Have Ilhan Omar and CAIR Bred Acceptance of Today’s Rampant Anti-Semitism?

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The ongoing horror over the rhetoric of America’s new Muslim congresswomen has turned to questions over whether Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, along with other prominent Islamists, have contributed to the acceptance of the rampant anti-Semitism being displayed in the U.S. today.

In addition, did the  failure by Democrats in the House to censure Omar help to create a breeding ground for extremists on both sides of the political spectrum to take it to the next step — physical violence, which is what we are seeing now?

2019 has seen shocking upticks in attacks against Jews that are increasing daily in frequency and intensity. Here are the “contributions” to today’s rampant anti-Semitism that some of the most prominent and vocal Islamists on the U.S. scene today made in 2019:

Ilhan Omar

Omar’s rampant anti-Semitism was in full force as soon as she was elected. While she was campaigning, she said she didn’t support the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel. But just days after her election, she changed her tune, saying that she did, in fact, believe in and support the BDS movement.

It was a stunning display of duplicity.

According to the definition of anti-Semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and officially adopted by the U.S. (and 31 other nations, including many in the European Union), the BDS movement has been deemed at its core an anti-Semitic movement.

This is fundamentally because the movement “[applies] double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of by any other democratic nation.” For example, there are at least 100 land disputes across the globe that are not subject to “BDS” movements.

Omar’s outbursts of shocking anti-Semitism dominated the conversation in 2019, as the headlines of Clarion’s articles show:

Linda Sarsour & Zahra Billoo

2019 saw big names in the U.S. Islamist scene — sharia– apologist Linda Sarsour and CAIR official Zahra Billoo — were kicked out of the Women’s March for spewing anti-Semitism.

Sarsour not only promoted the anti-Semitic BDS movement, but her rhetoric was so racist at times that she managed to label Jews as white supremacists in order to remove them from a protected class and demonize them among the “intersectional” victim crowd.

Clarion’s top stories about Linda Sarsour and her anti-Semitism in 2019 included:

Anti-American Islamist Zahra Billoo was set to replace Linda Sarsour as a board member in the Women’s March movement. However, due to tremendous and immediate backlash after her appointment due to Billoo’s anti-Semitism, the Women’s March rescinded their invitation in a big win in 2019.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) spent a tremendous amount of energy and resources last year promoting the anti-Semitic BDS movement. While they spoke from one side of their mouth condemning physical attacks on Jews, they were busy suing state governments over anti-BDS legislation and opposing the adoption of the IHRA’s definition of anti-Semitism by the Department of Education.

CAIR filed lawsuits in a number of states who have laws on the books against the BDS movement. They even awarded their “Muslim of the Year Award” to a woman who CAIR helped fight for the right to be anti-Semitic while working in a public school in America.

CAIR’s Muslim of the Year Award was given to Bahia Amawi, a Texas speech pathologist who lost her job in a Texas public school because she refused to comply with the state’s anti-BDS legislation.

Here were Clarion’s top stories documenting CAIR’s overt anti-Semitism in 2019:

Rashida Tlaib

Rashifa Tlaib is also a vocal supporter of the anti-Semitic BDS movement. Tlaib also made waves this year for her close connections with Hezbollah supporters. Hezbollah — an Iranian-proxy Lebanese terror group — is dedicated to killing Jews and wiping out the state of Israel

Our top stories in 2019 on Talib’s anti-Semitism included:

In addition, Tlaib had the gall to request public funds to finance a Congressional delegation to the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories in Israel, essentially putting the U.S. in a situation where American tax dollars would be supporting an anti-American political body that has a history of paying terrorists – some of whom have specifically targeted and killed American citizens.

Louis Farrakhan

Louis Farrakhan wins the prize for his overt and unapologetic anti-Semitism. His hate is out there for everyone to see.

Farrakhan’s organization, the Nation of Islam, has a long history of Holocaust denial and demonizing Jews. Farrakhan regularly calls Jews “Satanic” and claims that they “control everything and mostly everybody.” He refers to Jews as the “synagogue of Satan” and “termites.”

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