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March 2022

Did Biden just escalate in Ukraine? Because of the US president’s recent remarks, it is likely that this conflict will drag on by Brandon J Weichert

https://asiatimes.com/2022/03/did-biden-just-escalate-in-ukraine/

On Friday, reports began emanating from Russia’s military command that they were changing the objectives of what many Western analysts claim has been Moscow’s flagging invasion of Ukraine.

Whether or not the West’s instant claims that Russia had failed at the outset of its illegal invasion of its proto-democratic neighbor Ukraine, the fact remained that Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, was clearly under political pressure to succeed in Ukraine as quickly as possible.

In fact, earlier last week, it was reported that Putin had ordered his military to have the unpopular war wrapped up by May 9 – just 11 weeks after the massive invasion began – and the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

Meanwhile other analysts, such as this author, have fretted that the longer the conflict wore on inconclusively, the more likely the Kremlin was to order unconventional escalation involving cyberspace attacks on the United States, potential tactical nuclear strikes on NATO supply depots in Poland, and the use of chemical or biological weapons against targets of opportunity in Ukraine.

“Oh Allah… Destroy the Jews, the Christians, the Hindus, the Russians, and the Shiites!”: The Persecution of Christians, by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18360/persecution-of-christians-february

Authorities called on ten other Muslim converts to Christianity, who were earlier cleared of all charges, to take “re-education” classes led by Islamic clerics… Earlier, the prosecutor in the case against these Christians had said that “apostasy” from Islam was punishable under Islamic law, or sharia, “and in the hereafter,” even though it was “not criminalised in the laws of Iran.” . – articleeighteen.com, February1, 2022, Iran

“It’s not clear why or how he [a Christian] came to be arrested. Other charges, relating to violations of Egypt’s cyber-crime law and using religion to promote extremist thought, were added later without offering Gerges or his defence team an opportunity to respond…. A law banning ‘insulting the heavenly religions’, criminalising blasphemy, has been repeatedly used to silence Egypt’s religious minorities….” — worldwatchmonitor.org, February 9, 2022, Egypt

“He accused me of being an infidel by converting to Christianity, and that Allah will reward them in Jannah [garden paradise] if they kill me. He said to me that it is now the right time for me to receive punishment from Allah, whereby I was going to be burned alive and the birds of the air will enjoy me as their meat….They started beating me up as others gathered firewood, while another was sent to go for petrol because they wanted to use it to burn me alive…. They found me behind the house about 100 meters away, tied and with firewood around me.” – Morningstarnews.org, February 16, 2022, Uganda

“Jihadists came by motorbike….The invaders told the Christians that “they don’t want to see crosses.” – catholicnewsagency.com, February 11, 2022, Burkina Faso

“The man, Mohammed Derrab, remains in detention for anti-conversion charges brought against him.” — –International Christian Concern, persecution.org, February 28, 2022, Algeria

“The threats come as a result of failure to comply with the 2006 ordnance that requires non-Muslim worship to operate only in licensed buildings. However, the licensing commission has yet to issue a single permit.” –International Christian Concern, persecution.org, February 28, 2022, Algeria

The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of February, 2022:

From Guernica to Mariupol by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18359/mariupol-guernica

To justify his invasion, Putin has cited irredentist demands coupled with kith-and-kin claims and national security interests. If adopted as acceptable behavior, Putin’s scenario would be applicable to numerous other cases across the globe.

The most obvious example is that of China, where the Communist regime can threaten Taiwan on the basis of Putin’s arguments. But the same arguments could also be used against Russia by China and Japan. Russia occupies large chunks of Chinese territory along with the Japanese Kuril Islands archipelago.

And what about Mexico trying to “liberate” California and Texas from the Yankee Imperialists?

If we adopt the Putin Doctrine, we end up with a lawless world in which Hitler’s slogan “Force is Right” operates. We would take a giant leap back into an age in which war was the principal arbiter of relations along nations.

It would be absolute folly to ignore the message of Mariupol and not to try and stop the spiral to global hell created by a senseless war.

Whatever the outcome of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the crisis it triggered may have one lasting effect: the return of war as a routine instrument of politics on a global scale.

Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage  Rep. Dan Crenshaw

In 2012, on his third tour of duty, an improvised explosive device left Dan Crenshaw’s right eye destroyed and his left blinded. Only through the careful hand of his surgeons, and what doctors called a miracle, did Crenshaw’s left eye recover partial vision. 

And yet, he persevered, completing two more deployments. Why? There are certain stories we tell ourselves about the hardships we face – we can become paralyzed by adversity or we can adapt and overcome. We can be fragile or we can find our fortitude. Crenshaw delivers a set of lessons to help you do just that. 

Most people’s everyday challenges aren’t as extreme as surviving combat, and yet our society is more fragile than ever: exploding with outrage, drowning in microaggressions, and devolving into divisive mob politics. The American spirit – long characterized by grit and fortitude – is unraveling. We must fix it.

That’s exactly what Crenshaw accomplishes with Fortitude. This book isn’t about the problem, it’s about the solution. And that solution begins with each and every one of us. We must all lighten up, toughen up, and begin treating our fellow Americans with respect and grace. 

Fortitude is a no-nonsense advice book for finding the strength to deal with everything from menial daily frustrations to truly difficult challenges. More than that, it is a roadmap for a more resilient American culture. With meditations on perseverance, failure, and finding much-needed heroes, the book is the antidote for a prevailing “safety culture” of trigger warnings and safe spaces. Interspersed with lessons from history and psychology is Crenshaw’s own story of how an average American kid from the Houston suburbs went from war zones to the halls of Congress – and managed to navigate his path with a sense of humor and an even greater sense that, no matter what anyone else around us says or does, we are in control of our own destiny.

Overall demographic reality west of the Jordan River Yoram Ettinger

https://bit.ly/3Lbac3Q

In 2022, in contrast to conventional demographic wisdom, Israel is not facing a potential Arab demographic time bomb in the combined areas of Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) and the pre-1967 Israel. In fact, the Jewish State benefits from a robust Jewish demographic tailwind. 

In 2022, the political and demographic establishment in Israel and the West persist in reverberating the official Palestinian numbers without due-diligence (auditing), ignoring a 50% artificial inflation of the population numbers.

In 2022, Israel is the only Western democracy endowed with a relatively high fertility rate, which facilitates further economic growth with no reliance on migrant labor.  Moreover, Israel’s thriving demography provides for bolstered national security (larger classes of recruits) and a more confident foreign policy.   

In 2022, for the first time – in defiance of projections made by Israel’s demographic establishment since the early 1940s – Israel’s Jewish fertility rate exceeds Israel’s Muslim fertility rate. Moreover, Israel’s Jewish fertility rate is higher than all Arab countries other than Yemen, Iraq and Egypt.

In 2022, Israel is facing a potential wave of Aliyah (Jewish immigration) of some 500,000 Olim from the Ukraine, Russia, other former Soviet republics, France, Britain, Germany, etc. 

In 2022, the Westernization of Arab demography persists as a derivative of modernity, urbanization, women’s enhanced social status, women’s enrollment in higher education and increased use of contraceptives. 

Of Boiling and Jumping Frogs Our rulers think they have anesthetized those portions of the population they have not simply bought off. They might find that there is quite a lot of jump left in the frog yet. By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2022/03/26/of-boiling-and-jumping-frogs/

“When average families can no longer pay their rent or mortgage, gas up their car, or even put food on the table, all bets are off. Our rulers think they have anesthetized those portions of the population they have not simply bought off. They might find that there is quite a lot of jump left in the frog yet. If so, they may be the ones in hot water.”

It’s said that if you toss a frog into a pot of hot water it will instantly jump out. If, however, you toss it into a pot of cold water and then very gradually increase the heat to the boiling point, the frog will linger languidly in the increasingly hot bath as it is slowly cooked alive. 

Despotic politicians who also abhor the fuss of public unrest have long noted the application of this apologue to human affairs. In early March 2020, if Anthony Fauci had said that we were about to shut down the economy for two years, force people to wear paper masks, “socially distance,” and forcibly prevent people from going to church, or visiting their dying friends and relatives, there might well have been a revolt. 

But that isn’t how it happened. Fauci and the health police got everything they wanted, they destroyed thousands of middle-class businesses, enriched the entitled class, and, more generally, made fools and peons of us all. But they did it slowly. “Two weeks to flatten the curve.” Remember that? Remember when, early on, Fauci said that it would be fine for young, healthy people to go on a cruise? Remember when he pooh-poohed the effectiveness of masks? 

Whatever else they demonstrated, the regime’s COVID policies, and the public’s response to those policies, showed that entire populations could be herded and shorn like sheep. All you needed was a public health pretext—not a genuine emergency, mind you, just a pretext—and battalions of aspiring Gauleiters willing to enforce the rules and, bang, instant and prolonged hysteria. 

Like a well masticated stick of chewing gum, COVID has lost its savor. New gambits must be devised to cow the public. “Climate change” and green energy are hardy perennials, but the economic devastation wrought by their advocates has stripped the sheen off those baubels of elite, virtue-signaling. 

How the Left Is Using Ukraine to Discredit Trump and ‘America First’ America First means keeping America out of unnecessary wars promoted by the liberal elite for nation-building in which we have no strategic interests. By Fred Fleitz

https://amgreatness.com/2022/03/26/the-lefts-cynical-effort-to-use-the-ukraine-crisis-to-discredit-president-trump-and-america-first/

Desperate to change the subject from how Joe Biden’s weak leadership and incoherent foreign policy set the stage for Vladimir Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine, many on the Left and in the mainstream media have resorted to a familiar tactic: Find a way to blame this crisis on President Trump—even though he has been out of office for 14 months. 

The first attempt by liberals, like Washington Post editorial writer Eugene Robinson and former National Security Council staff member and Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Fiona Hill, was to claim that Trump’s national security policies, especially concerning Russia and NATO, emboldened Putin to invade Ukraine. 

This criticism didn’t make sense since Putin ordered invasions of neighboring states during three of the last four presidencies, but none while President Trump was in office. All of these invasions—Georgia during the George W. Bush Administration in 2008, Ukraine during the Obama Administration in 2014, and Ukraine now during the Biden Administration—occurred when there was a global perception of American weakness and lack of resolve. 

There’s no question the world sees weakness and lack of resolve in the Biden presidency after the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and a year of confusing and unserious national security policies focused on climate change and wokeness in the U.S. military. 

What’s happening to the Marines? By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/03/whats_happening_to_the_marines.html

Lately, when we think about what’s happening to America’s military under Biden, we’ve been focusing on the Pentagon’s obsessions with race, LGBTQ+++ issues (especially transgenderism), women’s rights, and political “wrong think” (i.e., conservativism). That obsession has consistently put progressive social policy ahead of military cohesion and readiness. However, Jim Webb, who was a Marine infantry officer while in Vietnam, then the Navy secretary under Ronald Reagan and, lastly, a Virginia senator during the Obama years, has written an op-ed about a different concern: The potentially damaging, purely operational changes Marine commandment Gen. David Berger intends to impose on the Corps.

Webb raises the issues in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. Berger’s proposed changes including (1) eliminating infantry battalions, (2) reducing the number of Marines in the remaining battalions, and (3) eliminating two reserve-component battalions, 16 cannon artillery battalions (to be replaced by 14 rocket artillery battalions), all of the Marine Corps tanks, and multiple tilt-rotor, helicopter, and attack helicopter squadrons.

From the outside looking in, that seems like a very significant force reduction. It turns out that this isn’t just an uninformed lay person’s perception. Marines are also worried about Berger’s plans:

Among Marines there are serious questions about the wisdom and long-term risk of dramatic reductions in force structure, weapon systems and manpower levels in units that would take steady casualties in most combat scenarios. And it is unclear to just about everyone with experience in military planning what formal review and coordination was required before Gen. Berger unilaterally announced a policy that would alter so many time-honored contributions of the Marine Corps.

Secret Seizure of James O’Keefe Cloud Email, Abusive DOJ Lawyers and a Vindictive Father President By J. Christian Adams

https://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2022/03/26/secret-seizure-of-james-okeefe-cloud-email-abusive-doj-lawyers-and-a-vindictive-father-president-n1584457

In the Washington D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Va., carjackings have made the news lately. Thieves steal cars at Virginia gas stations and race across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac and into Maryland to relative safety.

The Department of Justice doesn’t seem to be doing anything about enforcing the federal laws prohibiting transport of stolen goods across the Virginia-Maryland state line.

If the carjacker was named James O’Keefe of Project Veritas, things would be very different.

The saga of James O’Keefe’s quite possibly completely legal acquisition of Ashley Biden’s diary, and the resulting DOJ secret seizure of his emails from the Microsoft Office 365 cloud, is disgraceful. The lawyers involved should be ashamed, and perhaps even sanctioned by the bars to which they belong. It is an example of a Justice Department even more politicized than it was under Eric Holder, something few thought possible.

It also is a warning about storing documents and communications on someone else’s computer, aka the Cloud.

BOMBSHELL REPORT: Hunter Biden Emails Show He Secured Funds for Biolabs in Ukraine By Kevin Downey Jr.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2022/03/26/bombshell-did-russia-invade-ukraine-because-of-the-bidens-biolabs-hunters-laptop-says-yes-n1584441

If you thought Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” was just a collection of drug porn, buckle up. It appears as though Hunter’s emails show that he invested in and helped find millions of dollars for biolabs in Ukraine, which is one of Putin’s declared reasons for invading the nation.

FACT-O-RAMA! U.S. officials have dismissed Putin’s accusations of Biden’s funding of Ukrainian biolabs as “Russian propaganda.“

Vyacheslav Volodin, Russia’s State Duma speaker, claims the emails are solid proof that Hunter and Gropey Joe Biden are involved in Ukraine’s bioweapons research.

According to the New York Post, “US intelligence officials had earlier dismissed Russia’s messaging as war propaganda, explaining that Ukraine’s network of biological labs dedicated to pathogen research were not secret, and had publicly received funding from Washington.”

Although the statement was posted on Tass, Russia’s state-run propaganda outlet, the New York Post, said Volodin’s claim is “accurate” based on emails from Hunter’s laptop reviewed by both The Post and the UK Daily Mail.

Volodin further declared, “US President Joe Biden himself is involved in the creation of bio laboratories in Ukraine. An investment fund run by his sun [sic] Hunter Biden funded research and the implementation of the United States’ military biological program. It is obvious that Joe Biden, as his father and the head of state, was aware of that activity.”

Volodin also openly accused George Soros of helping to fund the biolabs.

He stresses that involved in the same program was the fund of the ‘notorious mastermind of color revolutions, George Soros, who openly calls for changing government in our country.

Here are the details, and remember also that then-Vice President Joe Biden was in charge of relations with Ukraine at the time all of this was happening:

Hunter Biden was a partner in a company called Rosemont Seneca.
Rosemont Seneca invested $500,000 in a pathogen research company called Metabiota. Hunter also helped raise millions more for the company through investors.
Emails from his laptop show Hunter introduced Metabiota to his friends at Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which was paying Hunter $50 thousand per month as a “board member.”
The money was used for a “science project” involving biolabs in Ukraine.

Now we know why Burisma was paying all that cheddar to Hunter: he was bringing them money for their biolabs. Hunter’s own emails appear to prove it.