Persecution

January 8, 2026 by Leave a comment

ImageThe topics this week are mainly the almost incredible fraud in Minnesota, the Venezuela raid. and what looks like the imminent fall of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They stretch halfway around the world, and yet they form part of one the largest stories of our age. That story is the utter incompatibility of Islam with western civilization. The Trumpian United States seems to have mostly absorbed this lesson, although the Tucker Carlson/Candace Owens Axis, and some adjacent to them haven’t seemed to get the memo.

Yet it’s hard to see why, it’s been evident since before the First Crusade, and was noted during that, the fall of Constantinople, the siege of Vienna, and in truth, for Americans, The First Barbary War in the very early 1800s.

The regime in Venezuela, aligned with Tehran, Russia and China, all of whom are the enemies of the traditional American system, It’s one of the underlying causes why Iran is teetering, and the Somalian fraud rings ill-gotten gains are going to Arab terrorists who are active terrorist against the west, including Israel. Stella Morabito wrote about recently in The Federalist. Here is a taste

Nigeria is the epicenter of the fight for jihadist control and the imposition of sharia law over all of Africa.

[W]e’ve heard endless claims by the propaganda press and campus “protesters” that Islamic terrorists are oppressed, and “white” Christians are the oppressors. For example, recall how New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani famously suggested that the real victims of 9/11 are New York City’s Muslims because his “Auntie” felt like people looked at her funny while she wore her hijab on the train.

Such fig-leafed fables can never cover up the horrific realities on the ground. Islamic jihadists’ intolerance for any coexistence with Christianity and Western values of civil society becomes starker every day. Most recently, we’ve had to grapple with the ISIS-inspired attack on Bondi Beach in Australia and the probable funding of Somali terrorists by unwitting Minnesota taxpayers. Their terrorist attacks are more numerous than ever before.

So, unquestionably, the oppressors are jihadists whose outspoken hate for Jews and Christians too often leads them to kill without mercy. The best evidence of this today is the case of Nigeria.  For too long, the corporate press has been silent about — and even denied — the constant slaughter of Christians by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria.

Breaking the Silence

Until recently, you were expected to know nothing about the heinous acts committed daily against Christians worldwide, particularly in Nigeria. We were supposed to stay ignorant about the beheadings of priests in Nigeria, the destruction of 19,000 churches there, the machete hackings and live burnings of Christians there, the killings of about 8,000 Christians so far this year, and some 135,000 since 2009 in Nigeria alone. We were supposed to know zero about the persecution of Christians, even though they are overwhelmingly the most targeted of any religious group in the world by a large and growing margin.

Most of the perpetrators of Christian persecution in the modern world fall under two categories: communist governments such as those in North Korea and China; and Islamic jihadism, such as practiced by Boko Haram or Fulani militants in Nigeria, or the Taliban in Afghanistan, all of whom are intent on coercively imposing sharia law. This state of affairs was the central theme of “Persecuted and Prevailing: Addressing Christian Persecution in the Modern World” a recent livestreamed panel event at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

If not checked through intervention, their violence will continue to spread to the point where Sharia law will be at our doorstep, as Brad Brandon, founder of Across Nigeria, recently noted. He pointed out that Nigerian Christians live in a constant state of fear, not knowing when the next surprise attack will happen, as occurred in June in Yelewata, where 260 were massacred.

There is much more here at The Federalist. You need to understand this

 

Then of course, there is the UK,  In my opinion it stems from the Apostasy of the Church of England and many other contemporary churches which have forgotten their history to attempt to put butts in their pews no matter their beliefs.

Christian Woman Charged Again For Silently Praying Outside Of UK Abortion Clinic

[T]he United Kingdom’s thought cops have struck again, charging a Christian woman for silently praying outside abortion clinic.

Charitable volunteer Isabel Vaughn-Spruce has been under investigation since January for the “influence” she supposedly exhibited in her silent vigil for life.

Vaughn-Spruce and the speech police have been down this road twice before, with the 48-year-old Malvern woman ultimately being cleared of charges for the crime of praying in a public space. Vaughn-Spruce won a $17,000 judgment from the West Midlands police department for wrongful arrest.

But the latest charges are being brought under the UK’s new “buffer zones” law that went into effect last year as part of the Public Order Act 2023. The Attorney General Richard Hermer confirmed this week that “The Crown Prosecution Service has issued proceedings under Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023, in relation to one case, since it was commenced on” Oct. 31, 2024, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International.

Previously, Vaughn-Spruce was charged under buffer zone ordinances enforced by local law enforcement through the Public Spaces Protection Orders, ADF International, a Christian litigation and advocacy organization, noted in a press release. The new national law prohibits “influencing any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate abortion services” within 150 [meters] of abortion clinics, although the draconian law does not specifically mention silent prayer.

What does that mean for silent prayer? That question, it appears, is about to be decided again by a British court.

West Midlands police officials in March informed Vaughan-Spruce in March that they were investigating her for her “crime” allegedly committed on Jan. 27, as well as other subsequent occasions, according to ADF, which is supporting the Catholic pro-lifer’s legal defense.

Continue reading this also at The Federalist. 

I know this doesn’t sound like all that much, but all persecution starts mild and escalates. Our Founders knew this and that is why the First Amendment reads as it does:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Note that not only freedom of religion is guaranteed, but also the exercise of it, something an awful lot of our government employees forgot during Covid. Therefor, prayer is an absolute right. So is Islam, actually, but free speech does not override criminal law, something many of our loony leftists forgot or never learned, that it is completely up to us who has the privilege of living here, and/or becoming citizens.

Filed under Christianity, Culture, Donald Trump, History, Islam, Judaism, Military, MSM, Personal Responsibility, Terrorism, UK, United States, Western Civilization Tagged with , , , ,

Iran and more

January 6, 2026 by 2 Comments

Image

* See below

We are seeing something remarkable, we’ll talk just a bit about Venezuela in that connects but have you been watching what is happening in Iran? You’ve probably heard that there are serious protests  going on now. But why it matters, part of it is that the Mullahs have so mismanaged the irrigation systems that they are running out of water. Those systems are ancient, not quite as old as the ones in Babylon , now called Iraq, but old enough the three wise men who came from Persia which is now Iran, would have seen them. This is Persia, that even Rome stayed out of. Like the Roman world it became Christian, what we call “The Church of the East” which reached across Asia, through China, and down to the St. Thomas Christians in southern India. But it fell to Islam in the interregnum in the west after Rome.

In our time, the Shah’s Iran was a thriving, although short of freedom, on the western pattern, country aligned with the west, as it had been since World War Two, where General Motors had built a reassembly plant for 2½ ton trucks and a railroad to dliver Lend Lease to the Soviets.

Here’s more on it from Steve Turley.

This started once before, when Obama was President. Of course he sat there and watched the regime murder enough of its people to regain control.

This is funny. still another leftist protestor who can’t recognize the truth when it bites him on the arse.

It’s unconfirmed but there is a list floating around of many US Senators, most but not all Democrats, who have taken millions of dollars in contributions from the Maduro drug cartel/so-called government. If it proves out, it might be a major factor this year.

And just a note, I’m getting very tired of so-called MAGA types who seem to think that we can make America great by hiding behind our borders and letting the rest  of the world go  down. We perhaps can, but the last time we tried it we got the Great Depression followed by The Second World War. Don’t forget when the German troops went into the Rhineland on March 7, 1936, their orders stipulated that they were to withdraw if ONE (1) shot was fired. The rest followed. And that’s what the people now in their fifties were seemingly  not taught, how the cowardice of the Allied Powers leadership led to the most costly war in world history. Got that Tucker, Megan, and the rest of you maleducated fools.

And that is why Trump is right to call out all these regimes, otherwise China will rule the world, only America can stop it.

*From Brave

Historical Iranian Flag with Lion and Sun

The Iranian flag featuring the lion and sun emblem was the national flag of Iran until the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It symbolized a blend of ancient Persian heritage, monarchy, and national identity. The emblem consists of a passant lion holding a shamshir (curved sword), with the sun rising behind it. This design was officially adopted following the Iranian Constitutional Revolution in 1906 and was formalized in 1907, with precise specifications set in 1910.

The green, white, and red tricolour background has deep symbolic meaning:

  • Green represents Islam and faith

  • White symbolizes peace

  • Red stands for courage and valor

The lion itself has been interpreted as a symbol of kingship and strength, while the sun is linked to ancient Iranian deities like Mithra, representing light, justice, and divine power. During the Safavid era, the lion and sun came to represent the dual pillars of state and religion.

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Venezuela

January 5, 2026 by 2 Comments

ImageI’m no specialist on South America but some thing are clear. This operation was legal-it’s precedent i the operation in Panama some years ago, but this is cleaner/. Panama i now quite rich because it was rescued from a drug lord tyrant. With luck, Venezuela will be similar, it has a democratic tradition which has been suppressed but a lot of the people remember.

The other thing that caused this is that the illegitimate regime was cozying up to Russia, China, and Iran, we nzve always physically opposed colonialism in the New World, but these three ar obvious threats to free people everywhere. Remember the Monroe Doctrine  was put into place to stop Europe (read mostly, France, Spain, and Metternich’s Austria) from recolonizing the South American republics that had freed themselves under the leadership of Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín during the Napoleonic Wars. You probably know that Prime Minister of Great Britain George Canning, proposed it to President Monroe (not least to protect their trade relations with the continent) but Secretary of State John Quincy Adams advised that the United States should not give the impression of a ccocksboat in the wake of the British Man-of-War, and so we promulgated it on our own, knowing that the Royal Navy would enforce it, as they did.

Not the only time the two countries cooperated in those days. The US Atlantic Squadro9n also cooperated with the Royal Navy in stopping the transatlantic slave trade. That importation of slave was banned on January 1, 1808, during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, the earliest that allowed by the Constitution. Slavery was already illegal in Britain, arguably it always was. The3 abolition of slavery in the US would eventually cost the lives of more than 600,000 Americans, more than ll the wars of America from The Revolution till most of the way through Vietnam.

Anyway, what are the Venezuelans thinking about it. To soon to tell, but a lot of the ones here same to be approving eustatically. Here’s one of them with the guys from Triggernometry:

I’m very happy with the removal of this illegitimate ruler. My only caveat, is that we might have some short term things, military and financial, to help them recover our real gift is to give them the chance to fix there own country. We should remember that the day the US invaded Grenada is now a Grenadian holiday. We ain’t perfect, so we need to learn when to but out.

[Update] I just ran across this and its something I have been thinking about. I also note that Canada is  likely to lose Albertan oil anyway because Canada has always treated the Prairie Provinces as colonies. You all heard me compare them to the American colonies circa 1775. Their markets have always been in the US because of geography, which is even more important than politics. An example: my family is from Minnesota and North Dakota. Like most up there I have first cousins once removed scattered from Winnipeg on westward. That why they look and feel like the US plains. It is an extension, geographically and geographically.

So this matters but not maybe as much as she thinks.

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Peace Through Strength

December 31, 2025 by 6 Comments

ImageWe spoke about the new National Security Statement here, and it also has bearing on yesterday’s Battleship, bcauswe control of th sea is the sine qua non of security for a world wide maritime power such as the United States, because trade is one of the critical needs of our country, just as it was for our colonial ancestors. Remember the closing of the Port of Boston was one of the proximat  causes of the Revolution itself.

Katherine Tompson in The Federalist wrote an excellent article on what the President means, and how hard it probably will difficult to keep the focus. some excerpts form Here’s What Trump Means By Calling For ‘Peace Through Strength’

The Trump administration’s recent release of its National Security Strategy (NSS) finally provides the phrase some substance. Provoking a litany of fierce hot takes from both critics and supporters, the National Security Strategy reflects only the beginning of a larger sea change. The Trump administration is ushering in a shift away from “neo-Reaganite” primacy, which shackles the U.S. to the interests of the “rules-based international order,” and toward a model grounded in realism, in which America’s actions and policies are aligned in direct service to core national interests. The administration’s forthcoming National Defense Strategy (NDS), a document that translates the pillars of the NSS into concrete defense guidance, is poised to apply this strategic shift to American defense policy. […]

The secretary aptly harkened back to President Reagan’s Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger and the principles that guided decisions on the employment of U.S. military power at the time. The Weinberger Doctrine maintained that U.S. military force should be a “last resort,” used strictly in support of “vital national interests” and only employed with “political and military objectives” defined. Reagan’s strategic vision, as the secretary contended, found grounding in realism.

U.S. defense policy has, post-Reagan and post-Cold War, been unfortunately captivated by the fleeting promises of the “unipolar moment.” Secretary Hegseth unapologetically called out these disastrous distractions — “democracy building, interventionism, undefined wars, regime change” — which have left the United States in a precarious position of underpreparedness to face the increasingly dangerous strategic environment of today. […]

The recent preview of the NDS further suggests that prioritization of America’s core national defense interests — which will force U.S. defense policy back into contact with actual limits — will overarch the document as the main theme.

It’s a much-needed change of course.

There is quite a lot more and some specificity, and you really should read it. About the only point I would dispute is the reluctance about Venezuela, which I consider within the Monroe Doctrine for two reasons, one is the traditional necessity to protect the land approches to the US. Canada except that it has disamed itself militarily, while it is also a substantal contributor to the drug trade, as well as Chicom influence in the Americas is peent in both countries. But Venezuela is far more militant about it, and probably do need to be supressed. Also, like Mexico during our Civil War, it is an expressly ilegitimate regime, without th support of the population. You’ll remember that at the end of the Civi War, a Union army was advancing towards the Rio Grande whe Maximillion decided he should return to France.

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Battleship

December 30, 2025 by 2 Comments

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USS Alabama leds the Line of Fast Battleships entering Tokyo Bay, Japan on Sept. 5th 1945

Is there anything that showcases as nation’s power better than battleship? Whether it was an Athenian trireme at Salamis, a Roman galley patrolling off Cathage, Viking longships ranging from North America to Iceland to Spain, and down the rivers of Eastern Europe and into Constantinople, the Venetian galleys transporting the Crusaders to the Holy Land, HMS Victory leading the Royal Navy into battle at Trafalger, USS Olympia leading the US Asiatic flotilla into Manila Harbor, the drawn battle at Jutland, or USS Missouri leading the US Fleet into Tokyo Bay in 1945, the battleship was always the pride of the fleet, the mark of a nation that could project power.

The American Iowa class were the last into battle, in Operation Desert Storm, to liberate Kuwait. The Bitish completed the last one in 1946. One day in Korea a North Korean 155mm gun hit the Wisconsin, scraping the paint. the Wisconsin swiveled her main battery, and nine 16 inch shells elimated the hill the gun was. The cruiser behind her signalled, “Temper, temper.”

But the four Iowas (there supposed to be six) were the final word in battleships (BB), even though the navy had let contracts for four more, the Montana class, much like the Iowas, only about 29 knots and with four turrets at total of 12 of the same 16in 58 caliber guns as the Iowas. in fact they started procurement and laying the keel (in Kentucky) when it was decided the money should reallocated to building more Essex class carriers. a good decision.

There have been several plans to recommision the Iowas, which have joined the second most powerful fleet in the world, the US museum ships, but its hard to make a case for the large crew, and short range of big guns, no matter how impressive they are.

Now there is a new idea, the guided missle battleship, with multiple times the missjle loadout of even the Ticonderoga class cruisers which are nearing end of life. These are envisioned as well enough protected to go into harm’s way, even alone, or with a surface action group. I really like this idea,

When I first started reading on the internet, Bill Whittle was one of my favorite authors. He still is. Let’s see what he thinks.

Bill is correct about that British policy but it’s also true that they were rather relieved, when the German High Seas Fleet, which had, pursuant to the Versailles Treaty ending the Great War, scuttled iself instead of surrendering. You see, the US, had made a policy that the US fleet would henceforth be at least as large as the next two fleets. The British knew thet could not outbuild the Americans, if they tried, it would bankrupt them. And the Americans were already looking askance at the Japanese, who were allied with the British.

Remember this is about the control of the sea which Britain seized with what Mahan called, “those distant storm tossed ships” which confined the European powers to Europe, and kept them from reclaiming their colonies in the new world and kept that trade for Britain and th US. That is why George Canning proposed what became the Monroe Doctrine to the  United States, and while the US proclaimed it unilaterally, the Royal Navy enforced until the Spanish-American War.

The role is just as important now as it ever was. It remains as Sir Walter Raleigh stated, and Fleet Admiral Nimitz quoted:

“whosoever commands the sea commands the trade;

whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world,

and consequently the world itself“.

Since the Spanish Armada that has been the British and then the Americans, because of it the new world is free, the slaves have been freed, and people are far richer than any time before. This is our heritage  and our bequest to the future.

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A Bit of History

December 10, 2025 by 3 Comments

Nations have their origin, and the American one is very intertwined with the birth of the modern world driven by England. Both nations have kept memorial of our past. In England, there is the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship, and across the harbor, There is Lord Nelson’s flagship, The Victory, still in commission, albeit in drydock. Over here, in the Tudor Enterprise we call the United States, there is the frigate ordered by the Washington administration, to go with his Secretary of State’s comment, “Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute”. That ship is the USS Constitution, not only still in commission, but afloat and able to sail.

She and the other 5 frigates 1796 were originally offered for the First Barbary War,and she was, in company with some other ships whose names are famous, Enterprise, Constellation, and Intrepid. She was active in the quasi-war with France, but really won her fame in the War of 1812.

The most famous of her single ship actions was this.

We’ve always been prone to measuring ourselves against the very best.

After the war Constitution circumnavigated the Earth, and commanded the West African Sqadron which was theAmerican contribution to the Anti Slavery patrol in conjunction with the Royal Navy.

Anatomy of a legend, very well explained.

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