The West in self-destruct mode

I wonder if the West has the intelligence and raw sense of survival needed in this day and age. The soft sentimentality of stupidity on the left allowed the Americans to elect Obama. One of his parting gifts, and it won’t be the last:

The United States has allowed the UN Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a “flagrant violation” of international law, in a striking rupture with past practice.

In doing so, the outgoing Obama administration brushed aside Donald Trump’s demands that the US exercise its veto and provided a climax to years of icy relations with Israel’s leadership.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered several diplomatic steps in retaliation, including recalling his nation’s ambassador to New Zealand, which had jointly proposed the resolution. . . .

Friday’s resolution was proposed by nations in four different parts of the world: Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela. It is the first resolution on settlements to pass in 36 years, Malaysia’s UN Ambassador Ramlan Bin Ibrahim said.

There is, however, this:

Given the world’s widespread opposition to settlements, the action will be almost impossible for anyone, including Trump, to reverse.

Nevertheless, Trump vowed via Twitter: “As to the UN, things will be different after Jan. 20th.”

An additional feature from The New York Times:

Israeli diplomats believe they were misled by the U.S. during a meeting last week between high-ranking Israeli and Obama administration officials in which the U.S. side offered reassurances about its efforts to support Israel but declined to explicitly state that the U.S. would veto such a resolution if it came up. The Israelis told their counterparts that “friends don’t take friends to the Security Council,” the official said.

No one should be misled by anything said by the man who promised if you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance. You do despair at a civilisation that seeks its own destruction.

And it’s not just the millennials

This is about Why the Millennials Will Finally Get the Punishment They Deserve. It’s just that they will be taking a lot of others with them, but you will see the point. From Captain Capitalism:

The 2016 presidential election showed me the true and horrific colors of the modern day left.

From…

threatening the lives of electoral college electors,
to denying Bernie Sanders a fair vote in the Democratic party,
to beating up Trump supporters,
to the abysmal cry-baby shit show that followed a legitimate election,
to vomiting the canard to our children that “we apologize for you having to grow up in this world”
to the hypocrisy claiming democracy was broken

the left has shown they are a hate-filled, racist, bigoted, violent group, who have no interest in democracy, and will gladly institute a dictatorship if they can get their way and other people’s money.

Naturally not all leftists are like this. Many of them are also complete tools, unaware of the evil that is festering and growing within their own party, naively thinking today’s democrats are the JFK party “of the little guy.” And, of course, we hope the 2016 election woke some of them up to the point they’d maybe clean house in the democrat party. But it wasn’t until I was talking to a buddy of mine did I see a clear delineation line, a trait that more or less identifies which leftists in the democrat party are simply well-intended, though ignorant bleeding hearts, and those that are tyrants, thugs, racists, and hate-mongers whose hearts are filled with envy, greed, and jealousy.

Is that over the top? Perhaps, but then again I can see what he means. But it is also many of their elders who fit the mould as well. It’s really my own generation which has never managed to grow up, as also pointed out.

Of course, the millennials did not do this simply on their own. They were led, taught, and indoctrinated by the public school system and universities which is honeycombed with the most worthless, talentless members of the baby boomer and Gen X generations. Never setting foot in the real world, nor having an independent thought, thousands of teachers and professors successfully brainwashed millions of millennials into leftists. And not just leftists, but the most entitled, spoiled, incompetent, irresponsible, delusional, brainless, programmable, and narcissistic group of leftists the world has ever seen. Coupled with the choir of worthless parents who pampered the genetic crap that resulted from their copulation, these veritable worthless human beings are incapable of self-supportation, independent thought, honoring the golden rule, sympathy, and respecting other people’s rights. And if they got their way, they would have enslaved the rest of us to pay for their parasitic lifestyles, while working crusaderishly to chisel away at freedom, democracy, and the United States.

Bad things are going to follow.

The lone wolf social media group

I mentioned some time back that ISIS would perhaps hold off its rampaging until after the American election was finally settled, which only finally occurred this week. So whether a coincidence or part of a deliberate strategy, there does seem to have been a decided uptick in terrorist activity. We now have this, ISIS Puts Out Holiday Attack List Of U.S. Churches.

The Islamic State published the names and addresses of thousands of churches in the United States and called on its adherents to attack them during the holiday season, according to a message posted late-night Wednesday in the group’s “Secrets of Jihadis” social media group.

It is a genuine issue why governments refuse to level with the public. Sure they are responsible, sure they have been completely wrong about the nature of the problems our civilisation faces, but that is no reason to pretend the problem doesn’t exist or that lying about its nature will make things go away.

THE LONE WOLF SOCIAL MEDIA GROUP COMES TO MELBOURNE: Melbourne Christmas Day terror attack foiled. The emphasis should not, however, be on the word “foiled” but on the missing word “planned”.

Terror plotters allegedly planned to attack Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station, Federation Square and St Paul’s Cathedral.

Heavily armed police raided homes across Melbourne’s north on Friday morning and made several arrests.

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said police had been watching the alleged plotters for some time, and believed they were preparing a multi-mode attack.

“Over that last fortnight that has accelerated,” Mr Ashton told reporters on Friday. . . .

Mr Ashton said police believe the plotters planned to use an explosion and other weapons in the attack.

“We believe it was certainly going to involve an explosive event,” Mr Ashton said.

Five people have been arrested, four of them were born in Australia and are of Lebanese background, while a fifth is an Egyptian-born Australian citizen.

“These are self-radicalised… (but they were) inspired by ISIS and ISIS propaganda,” Mr Ashton said.

And the very notion that they had been “self-radicalised”, which means there is nothing in the societies from which they come or in the ideologies others around them may hold, is a truly inane conclusion based on no facts.

No reason to suspect any motivation of any kind whatsoever related to politics, religion or ideology

A van is driven into the Australian Christian Lobby building with a number of gas canisters set alight that burns down half the building. I completely agree with the police, there is absolutely no reason to suspect any motivation of any kind whatsoever related to politics, religion or ideology. From the latest report in The Oz.

The head of the Australian Christian Lobby has accused ACT police of “prejudicing” the investigation into a van explosion outside the group’s headquarters, saying an announcement it was not politically, religiously or ideologically motivated “just doesn’t add up”.

ACL managing director Lyle Shelton also said he still had unanswered questions following phone calls with the police and was unconvinced by their “quick” conclusions.

ACT Policing has determined after a “very short” conversation with the 35-year-old driver of the van — who was undergoing medical treatment at the time — that the incident was not motivated by political, religious or ideological reasons. Inquiries continue “to fully understand the circumstances” surrounding the explosion, which occurred at around 9.35pm last night.

The man is in a critical condition in Canberra Hospital.

“While obviously I have deep respect for the police and the job they do, I’m not convinced you can come to that conclusion so quickly. There are just too many coincidences,” Mr Shelton told The Australian.

“When I questioned them (the police) on the phone they said ‘of course you can’t unequivocally rule out that this was a targeted attack’ but they have come to this conclusion nonetheless.

“We don’t even know this guy’s name. Apparently he gave some statement when he was grievously injured last night and now he’s in a coma. I can’t see how you can say ‘case closed’ after a guy who is obviously suffering terribly has made certain statements where there hasn’t been an opportunity for a full interrogation of him.

“To me it just doesn’t add up.”

ACT Policing said the man, a local resident and Australian national who was not previously known to them, “appears to have ignited gas cylinders within the vehicle, causing an explosion which damaged the vehicle and building”.

He then walked himself about 4km to Canberra hospital where he presented with serious burn injuries.

“Local resiodent”. “Australian national”. But does he have a name and what does it say on his facebook page? And are there any clues picked up that might prevent future events of this kind or is it entirely a random event, like being hit by a meteorite? Very mysterious, I have to say. Whoever is being protected, it’s not the public.

Speaking of festive greetings, what happened almost 2017 years ago that began the count?

multicultural-christmas-and-new-year-card

I picked up from Andrew Bolt how our Multicultural Commission sends out Christmas cards that deliberately don’t mention Christmas. But even so, I do notice that they are wishing others “a wonderful new year”. I can only presume they are referring to the New Year that begins the week after Christmas, on the first day of January, and not any of the calendar years that have existed and continue to exist.

Once upon a time, we would say that the year is AD 2017 [AD being Anno Domini, the Year of our Lord]. We would compare that with, say, the year of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. [B.C. being “Before Christ”]. But however you like to designate the year, the count starts with the birth of Jesus Christ even if apparently it’s out by a year or two. There are other calendars around, and there are different years we are up to in all of those calendars. But this one is ours, and it has more or less become the calendar across the world and accepted by all cultures, in no small part because it is the only solar calendar around – which, as it happens, Julius Caesar picked up from Cleopatra while sailing down the Nile in around 47 BC. That is why it was the Julian calendar, which was replaced in the sixteenth century by the Gregorian Calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII.

ISIS Claims Responsibility for Berlin Attack

The heading comes from this story: Berlin truck attack, ambassador assassination point to Trump challenges. It’s from The Wall Street Journal reprinted in The Australian. They haven’t caught whoever has done the actual deed, but if ISIS is claiming responsibility, at the very least they are claiming that they would have been quite happy to have done it even if in this case they did not, although they probably did. But look at this story, as Trump is contrasted with Obama. The question left unanswered in the story – which is written as if the problems had just descended from outer space – is who is responsible for the mess Trump will inherit?

The assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey and the apparent terror attack on a Berlin Christmas market underscore the global tinderbox President-elect Donald Trump is set to inherit in coming weeks, and his initial response suggests his White House will take a sharply different approach to such unexpected crises.

Mr Trump’s written statements just hours after the incidents were a notable contrast from those coming out of the Obama White House.

He labelled the assassin in Ankara a “radical Islamic terrorist,” even though Turkish authorities hadn’t yet drawn conclusions about the gunman’s possible affiliations or motivations, whereas the White House simply stressed President Barack Obama’s “determination to confront terrorism.” Mr Trump called the Berlin ambush a “horrifying terror attack,” while the White House called it a “horrific incident” that “appears to have been a terrorist attack.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she is “shocked, shaken and deeply saddened” by the attack on a Berlin Christmas market that killed at least 12 people yesterday. ​ ​Ms Merkel ​said that it would be “particularly sickening” if it turns out the attacker was an asylum-seeker who sought refuge in Germany.

“It’s a completely different style for better or for worse,” said Lorenzo Vidino, director of the program on extremism at George Washington University, adding there are upsides and downsides to both approaches.

James Jeffrey, who served as Mr Obama’s ambassador in Iraq and is now a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, pointed to Mr Trump’s immediate use of the term “Islamic” terrorism, contrasted with Mr Obama’s steadfast refusal to link Islam with extremism — something Mr Trump frequently criticised during his campaign.

You obviously cannot get a more neutral authority than Obama’s ambassador to Iraq. Obama has not just let this problem fester for eight years, but in almost everything he did do has made things worse. He has not fought Islamic terrorism and extremism, but preferred to look at its manifestations as a problem that has been exaggerated because of the sensationalism that surrounds all such events. The journalist in this story seems to have taken the same approach: asleep at the wheel of history. But for a sample of the vast ignorance and incompetence of such journalists to even conceive beyond a first year university level of superficiality the goings-on in the world, this is truly bizarre:

Mr Trump receives intelligence briefings several times a week, though not daily as Mr Obama has.

Trump won’t even be president for a month. He was only formally elected yesterday. Obama notoriously and regularly skipped out on his intelligence briefings. Obama is responsible, to the extent anyone can be held responsible, for the problems we have. I’d be interested if someone could point to a single act Obama took to diminish the threat from Islamic terrorism. Journalists who cover for Obama are just as evil and morally culpable as the president himself.

“We are responsible for our own destruction”

Let us begin with this passage from an op ed in The Australian today by Tim Wilson on 18C requires non-racial remit without curbs on free speech. There we find:

No other area of federal law seeks to make public acts unlawful simply for offending, insulting or humiliating someone.

In its present form 18C has more in common with anti-blasphemy laws in theocracies than it does with other federal laws.

To put into context just how bad 18C is, under federal law you can urge violence against groups of people with a disability, gays or women but you can’t offend people on the basis of their race.

In its present form 18C is not a protection of people’s human rights on the basis of race; it grants a special privilege that isn’t afforded to others in society.

Absolutely. You cannot rule out public debate because someone might find themselves insulted by what someone else is saying. Take for instance this from the letters page in The Oz today, just opposite Tim’s column. Can it make any sense to prosecute any of the letter writers below?

Islam is winning the world war and will be victorious, culminating in the destruction of Western civilisation and democracy.

The writing is on the wall, on the footpath and on the road, written in blood because Western leaders and politicians, mainstream media and academics appeases the enemy by refusing to name Islam for what it is.

Islam is a religion invented to give divine sanction to Arabic military expansion through a supremacist, totalitarian ideology dominated by intimidation, fear, ignorance and irrationality. It has violence at its core.

It has no place in an ordered, rational society. But it’s too late now. We are responsible for our own destruction.

PT, Cornelian Bay, Tas

The only good that can come from the shocking carnage in Berlin is a New Year’s resolution from the Germans to oust Angela Merkel from office. As Tony Abbott said in his recent Prague address, effective border protection is not for the squeamish, but it is absolutely necessary to save lives and to preserve nations.

MM, Singleton, NSW

Germany has wonderful Christmas markets and such a fantastic atmosphere but now this latest atrocity from what we are always told are peace-loving Muslims. Germany welcomed them in with open arms. What a way to repay the kindness.

The Russian ambassador murdered, again by a peace-loving Muslim in Turkey.

No wonder Pauline Hanson is doing well as she does at least speak the truth. We deplorables are not that stupid.

MS, Halls Head, WA

A Russian diplomat is assassinated by a man “using Arabic phrases”.

Yet Angela Merkel, Barack Obama and Malcolm Turnbull still sit inert and in bemusement at why the likes of Donald Trump and Pauline Hanson are being elected. Society clearly wants someone with the courage and mettle to call out and challenge intolerant religious ideology.

AM, Port Melbourne, Vic

It is getting harder to say certain things, but unless the aim is to hasten the destruction of our way of life, all of this has to be open for debate, irrespective of the personal feelings of those who might merely pretend to be offended to prevent others from saying what they think.

Politics and friendship

There is nothing at all surprising about this: Poll: Dems more likely to unfriend people due to political posts. The only thing that’s possibly surprising is how low the ratio is, but there is an obvious reason for that. But first the stats:

Democratic voters are almost three times as likely to have “blocked, unfriended, or stopped following someone on social media” after Donald Trump’s victory, according to a study released Monday.

The nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI ) found 24 percent of Democrats distanced themselves from people on social media because of a political postings. Nine percent of both Republicans and independents reported doing the same to those in social media circles.

Additionally, 28 percent of liberals surveyed said they removed someone from their social media circle because of the content that person posted, compared with 8 percent of conservatives.

And the reason it’s only 3:1 is that Democrats already live in a self-imposed bubble so that by the time Trump won the election, most Democrats would already have blocked people of the right out of their lives. And I have to say that most people on the left are defenceless against anyone on the right who has even a modest understanding of the political news. What can anyone on the left really say that is equivalent to our saying – come on, I mean really, you don’t know that Castro was a mass murderer who held the Cuban people in an island prison for almost sixty years? So you either don’t say it to preserve your friendships, or you do say it and have them write you out of their lives.

Princess Hill “teachers for refugees”

princess-hill-teachers

No real reason to mention it other than that my wife went to Princess Hill. A refugee from communist Poland, Australia has certainly been her home. However, her parents came as legal migrants and both had paid work within the first month of arrival. From Andrew Bolt, who writes:

Have you wondered what kind of teacher could possibly think it appropriate to wear shirts with political slogans at schools, here is a sample.

Strange. Somehow I just didn’t need the slogans to identify the politics of some of them.

But I wonder how they can justify misusing their authority and position to preach politics beats me.

TEACHERS have posted pictures of themselves in class wearing T-shirts supporting refugees, and claim not one was punished despite warnings from the government.

Victoria’s Education Department and federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham advised teachers could face action and even the sack if they wore “Teachers for Refugees — Close the Camps, Bring Them Here” T-shirts this week in protest at offshore detention camps.

Not punished? What signal does that send students about rules and authority?

And would there be no punishment if teachers wore “Teachers for climate scepticism” shirts, advertising a cause that is at least rational?