Saturday, November 30, 2024

"Now, we are here, in the middle of it. In the dark land of Dystopia". This outstanding article must be read and re-read a dozen times!

 

A Disaster Foretold

By Lars Møller www.americanthinker.com

The myth of Laocoön is tragic. In vain, he warned his countrymen in Troy against opening the gate to the colossal wooden horse left behind by Greek invaders. However, he was blinded by the gods who then had him killed by giant sea serpents.

So, it is not as if it has not been foretold. As a matter of fact, it has been the subject of countless essays, speeches, and novels. We cannot plead ignorance.

In retrospect, the “Rivers of Blood” speech by British Member of Parliament Enoch Powell, a modern Laocoön, on April 20, 1968, ranks as a milestone. It marked a historical break with the politely restrained, purely observational attitude to large-scale immigration. The thing is that Powell — and others with allegiance to Western civilization — had a premonition of danger: they clearly saw a disaster in the making. Unless drastic measures were taken to prevent it, chances were that it would unfold in the near future, deeply affecting the lives of their own children and grandchildren.

Back then, when there was yet time to reverse the course of events, warnings went largely unheeded; they were ridiculed, trivialized, or ignored. As the West was subsequently overrun by migrants from Africa, the Middle East, and beyond, however, the political conflict intensified and — without further ado — absorbed the revolutionary, sentimental-manipulative elements of traditional “class struggle.”

Socialists without a credible cause in the “postmodern” world were thrilled to identify a new underclass of “oppressed” who could replace the white workers of the past. Showing signs of self-conscious individualism and aspiring to the middle class of society, the latter — “ungratefully” as it was perceived — tended to renounce their well-meaners and self-appointed guardians. Inarticulate, illiterate Third-World proletarians, by contrast, provided social activists with the perfect material for fake solidarity, purposeful manipulation, and violent social upheaval.

Accordingly, socialists felt strongly encouraged to revise — opportunistically “update” — their narrative. Like destitute orphans after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they threw their violent cadres into the struggle for the Third World, demanding (a) atonement for the injustices of colonialism/racism, (b) open borders, and (3) relativistic tolerance of non-Western values (e.g. intolerant creeds) as imported by endless waves of migrants.

So far, warnings against the destruction of the West, whose relative success is due to the workings of Judeo-Christian institutions rather than natural resources (e.g. oil), have been arrogantly dismissed as the politically biased exaggerations of conservatives, if not “right-wing” radicals. With the self-righteous conviction of a revolutionary tribunal, progressive elites have been clamping down on public expressions of concern, accusing the presumptuous of “bigotry,” “racism,” or “xenophobia.” Thus, for a long time, Westerners turned their backs on the ominous events to avoid ridicule and defamation.

Now, we are here, in the middle of it. In the dark land of Dystopia. We have arrived in the future. Europe is burning. The disaster has occurred exactly as foretold. Those who once ridiculed the warnings — and the people who had the courage to step forward and alert their countrymen — refuse to take responsibility but persist in their treachery, telling other lies about how we should embrace diversity, be confident, and conform to the realities of a world changed beyond recognition. We are exhorted to go global in earnest and sacrifice our prosperity, welfare, and culture to accommodate all those who approach our borders from near and far.

In suburbs all over Western Europe, belligerent members of immigrant communities have taken control whether they patrol the streets as short-tempered, reckless gangsters, harassing civilians and authority persons alike, or solemnly preach their religious claim to supremacy and disdain for “infidels” in their houses of worship. The enemy is already in our midst. That is the tragedy of our time. Yet, half of us are not even willing to admit it.

As clarified by archaeological studies, the ancient city of Troy, located on the southern bank of the Hellespont, was repeatedly destroyed by invaders and rebuilt. In our time, the enemy that threatens us with annihilation has never encamped outside the gates of our cities, allowing us to prepare for battle. Tragically, we have been thoughtless and let it in ourselves a long time ago. We have been partly outwitted. However, some have also committed treason against the rest of us. At any rate, we are divided and vulnerable to outside attacks.

Deep in the West, the thousand Trojan horses of our enemy have been driven into position. Thus, it is not about a single horse as in the Aeneid (i.e. an epic by Roman poet Virgil), but infinitely many horses: roughly speaking, a horse for each and every city. For a long time, the features of the fake animals have been blindly worshiped by post-Christian pagans of the West in much the same way that Israelites worshiped the golden calf while waiting for Moses. Hypocrites to the core, the aberrant worshipers of our time also refuse to endure the absence of God, whom they themselves have denied, and are constantly in search of idols (e.g. Lenin, Stalin, and Mao).

However, the veil of mystery is being lifted now. The Trojan horses are cracking. In outrageous numbers, enemy invaders are spilling out of their arseholes. The damage to the West is conspicuous everywhere. Both gangsters and anti-Western protesters of foreign origin signal that they “own” the West. The social order is tottering. Ordinary people are robbed, shops looted, and cars ignited. If it occurs to anybody to protest against the deranged, supremacist behavior of the invaders, they are immediately condemned by the “secular clergy” of progressives.

If the Trojan horses were originally stabled in the suburbs, the invaders emerging from their bellies have already spread to society at large. As a result, neither women nor men visibly belonging to Western civilization can really feel safe anywhere. No sooner have they professed Christianity or declared themselves atheists than the invaders categorize them as inferior and indulge the impulse to dominate them.

The public space, where Westerners have loved to linger since antiquity, engaging in polemics, shopping for groceries or simply enjoying a family stroll, is now ravaged by the invaders. Peace and security are gone. Instead, a state of war prevails. Neither police nor courts, formerly pillars of a high-trust society, are capable of protecting anybody against the vagaries of stray barbarians. True enough, civilization has failed to put up a defense and is heading for dissolution.

No matter how woke, tolerant, and soft-spoken in political debates a person might be, it does not save his skin if he is cornered on his own in the wrong place at the wrong time. As it stands, wearing Christian or Jewish symbols in the open is tantamount to challenging fate. Sad to say, the well-organized, anti-Semitic riots taking place in Amsterdam a few weeks ago bring to mind the pogroms of tsarist Russia. The enemy is marching in our streets.

Our ancestral home in the West has been invaded and colonized by enemies from outside — Trojan horse invaders. Impatient to share in the unimaginable prosperity created by others, they have arrived at the invitation of those socialist idolaters who hate the West and strive to harm it whatever it takes. The disaster is complete.

We really should have listened to the Laocoön of our time, the late Enoch Powell, and burned the Trojan horses in time. Now, however, the West (Europe) has been taken. Those, who remain, will pay the price for the cunning of the enemy and the primary betrayal on the part of their own countrymen.

In the Aeneid, Greek soldiers jump out of the wooden horse at night and open the city gate for the rest of the invading army. Likewise, migrant invaders of the West have become so numerous by now that they can blackmail incumbent governments and cause the borders to be opened for even more migrants.

Insofar as the West has been in conflict with itself all along, the decision about the willful collapse of civilization has been characterized by ambivalence. Now, however, the suicide seems to be a reality. In Europe, at least, there is no turning back.

 

Friday, November 29, 2024

Things are 'a-changing - let's hope for the best!

 

Smirking illegal alien in New York is the poster boy for sanctuary lawlessness

By Dale Wilcox www.americanthinker.com

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/11/smirking_illegal_alien_in_new_york_is_the_poster_boy_for_sanctuary_lawlessness.html

As the Biden era comes to an end, one image will come to define the immigration lawlessness of this era.

After an illegal alien linked to the Venezuelan transnational gang Tren de Aragua was arrested for allegedly performing a lewd act after breaking into the home of a New York City prosecutor, a photo went viral on the internet and social media of the alien giving a wry smirk during a court appearance.

 


Image: Screen shot from Eyewitness News ABC7NY video, via YouTube

While the illegal alien, 25-year-old Brandon Simosa, is now being held without bail, he had previously had several run-ins with the law, including alleged incidents of thefts and assault, according to the New York Post. Despite Simosa allegedly engaging in repeated criminal activity and living in the country illegally, the sanctuary city of New York had given him a pass until he allegedly robbed one of their own prosecutors.

New York City was ranked by the Immigration Reform Law Institute in 2022 as the most dangerous sanctuary city in the U.S. for its consistent coddling of criminal illegal aliens. The city’s chief law enforcement officer is Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a notoriously soft-on-crime prosecutor and staunch supporter of New York’s sanctuary policies. Now, Bragg’s malfeasance has led to the victimization of someone in his own office, an unfortunate irony that was noticed across social media, including by X (formerly Twitter) CEO Elon Musk. As the New York Post’s Jennie Taer remarked: “They think they're untouchable here. It makes sense when they're let go multiple times, like this monster.”

The unfortunate incident underscores the persistent culture of lawlessness that has engulfed New York, especially when it comes to immigration. The city’s illegal immigration problem has become so pervasive that even the powerful are no longer safe from its consequences, although it should certainly be noted that the city’s elite seemed content to allow this particular alleged criminal illegal alien to continue menacing the city’s residents until he apparently came for one of their own.

This latest incident is one of many unnecessary and unfortunate offenses perpetuated by those who should never have been in the country in the first place. Given the tragic results of illegal alien crime we’ve seen throughout the country just this year, with the murders of several innocent young women, including Laken Riley and Rachel Morin, it is a great relief that the outcome of this alleged robbery didn’t turn out even worse.

That our government continues to tolerate high levels of illegal immigration even as Americans are continually victimized by illegal aliens is one of the greatest derelictions of duty in U.S. history. Since taking office in January 2021, Joe Biden has allowed more than 10 million illegal aliens to enter the U.S., and is spending his final weeks in office attempting to further degrade American sovereignty. This administration and their allies in sanctuary cities are responsible for creating a culture of lawlessness that emboldens illegal aliens to commit crimes with a smile.

The reason so many illegal aliens including Simosa feel they are above the law is because the most powerful people have sent a clear message that there are no consequences for violating our nation’s laws. When foreign nationals who enter the U.S. illegally are rewarded with free meals, stays at luxury hotels, and debit cards, it demonstrates that our nation’s elites are happy to disregard the rule of law when it comes to classes and constituencies they believe will benefit them politically. After all, if foreign nationals are allowed and even encouraged to violate America’s immigration laws, why would they respect any of our other laws?

That someone who entered the country illegally and allegedly went on to commit several crimes felt like he could attack a law enforcement official without consequence is an indictment not just of the illegal alien, but of the nation’s irresponsible ruling class. Political leaders including Joe Biden and Alvin Bragg have spent years allowing foreign nationals to violate our laws with impunity at the expense of the safety and sovereignty of U.S. citizens. Their culture of lawlessness was firmly rejected by the American people at the ballot box in November’s election as more and more people have become fed up with the consequences of illegal immigration.

No photo sums up the absurd immigration lawlessness the U.S. has endured over the past four years than the photo of Simosa smirking in court after allegedly assaulting a prosecutor. It is up to the incoming Trump administration to follow through on their promises of border security and mass deportations to ensure the American people get the last laugh.

 

Thursday, November 28, 2024

We have much to be thankful - let us all say a prayer today!

 

This Thanksgiving, Let Us Listen

By J.B. Shurk www.americanthinker.com

On Thanksgiving Day in 1944, a young American platoon sergeant named Mac St. Johns led his men on a scouting mission in the French countryside.  They were looking for German soldiers known to be in the area.  Heading toward a crossroads under the faint light of dawn, Mac “stood stark still” and argued with himself about what to do next.  He knew that he should have his men “fan out so that they could move with the cover of the trees” in the surrounding forest.  But a voice in his head told him not to do so.  After some hesitation, he chose to walk his men down the road in a single column.  Though they were exposed, no Germans fired.  In fact, Mac and his men encountered no German resistance near the crossroads at all. 

Turning around to return to camp, they quickly realized how close they had come to death.  Nailed to the backs of the trees, German signs warned, “Minen!”  Had they moved through the woods earlier that morning, they would have been “blown to bits.”

Weeks later in mid-December, Mac got a letter from his mother.  “Can you remember where you were on Thanksgiving Day?” she asked.  His mother explained that she had awakened just after midnight with a sense of terror.  “I had a strong feeling that you were in great danger.  When I opened my Bible, a phrase in Second Chronicles [20:17] gleamed on the page: ‘Stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord with you…’”  Stand…ye…still.  Mac had definitely received his mother’s Thanksgiving message.

I came across Mac’s story in this collection of inspiring Thanksgiving miracles.  It spoke to me because I have had my share of similar moments in life — when a whisper stopped me in my tracks and moved me in a different direction.  In each of those instances, the choice before me seemed small, but the voice inside my head insisted that it would be consequential.  That voice has always been right.  So it is in this world: sometimes a single step is our undoing, and sometimes a single step is our salvation.  When you hear an unexpected whisper, it’s best to listen.

We don’t always listen, though, do we?  Sometimes we ignore any misgivings and continue down our original path.  And when those choices burn us down the road, we have an even more consequential decision to make: do we let our past mistakes define our futures, or do we use our newly gained wisdom to defeat challenges yet to come?  

It is not easy to admit when we’ve been wrong.  It is even harder to find peace when our bad decisions harm others.  It is tempting to cover up one bad choice with another.  You do that enough times, though, and you eventually realize that you’ve done nothing but bury important truths.  

When I was younger, a wise man told me to be thankful for my regrets.  “Thankful?” I remember thinking in disbelief.  I preferred to carry my regrets like weights around my neck.  I refused to let them go.  Living like that means living with inconsolable pain.  But there was something else that old philosopher said that stuck with me: your regrets give you a chance to be a better person today than you were yesterday.  Be thankful for your regrets, he argued, because they are the instruments that mold our character.  Use your pain to grow, or your pain will one day use you up.  Some of the best people around us have profound regrets.  Often, it is their profound regret that has shaped them into such morally excellent people.

Be thankful for the hard lessons.  Wisdom is rarely obtained with ease.  If it were, everyone around us would be wise.  Wise people stand out because wisdom comes with a cost.  We humans all suffer in one form or another.  Only some of us, however, learn to use that suffering to become better versions of ourselves.  

Sometimes bits of wisdom seem contradictory.  In a single evening with friends, you might hear one argue, “People never change,” and another insist, “People do change.”  Are our natures set in stone from the moment we enter this world, or are we capable of real, substantial growth?  I have always been fond of what the Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus had to say on the matter: “A man’s character is his fate.”  Who we are affects our decisions, and our decisions ultimately affect our futures.  

But think about the advice from the old wise man I mentioned above who encouraged me to be thankful for my regrets.  If our character is shaped by how we handle our regrets, then surely we have some measure of control over our fates.  Perhaps the more we understand about ourselves, the more capable we become of creating our own futures.

There have been only a few times in my life when I was near someone who gave me the shivers.  If you’ve ever found yourself around such a person, it is difficult not to believe in the existence of evil.  Aside from truly evil human beings, though, most people are capable of doing both bad and good things.  You can take a boy without a family, give him a gun, and tell him to protect his neighborhood gang.  Awful acts soon follow.  You can give a boy a family, help him learn from his mistakes, and encourage him to protect his community.  The same boy becomes a selfless police officer.  Often, it is not a question of whether we humans change or not but rather how we channel our inherent natures.  When we are wise enough to learn from our mistakes and listen to those who wish to help us, we become better people.

As Mac St. Johns’s Thanksgiving Day story from WWII shows, sometimes the difference between life and death is a steadfast faith in God.  Will we listen when He whispers, or will we walk the other way?  Will we allow Him to shape our character, or will we insist on doing so without His help?  So much is at stake.  At any moment, we might face the most consequential decision of our lives.  

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, many of us are also celebrating President Trump’s election victory.  Something has been rotten in America for quite some time.  Our national borders, shared history, and common love for freedom have been disappearing.  Multinational corporations and international bureaucrats have long exerted more influence over our country’s direction than the people who call America home.  Our national debt is unsustainable.  Our government is corrupt.  Our Constitution is ignored.  Our Union is divided.  Our culture is vulgar.  Our moral compass is broken.  President Trump’s return to office offers the prospect of needed change.

The questions now are straightforward: will we learn from our past mistakes?  Will we admit that we have sometimes taken the wrong path as a nation, caused unnecessary harm, and hurt ourselves?  Will we stop covering up one bad choice with another?  Will we make use of our suffering and grow stronger?  Will we learn from painful experiences and gain wisdom?  Will we choose to be thankful for our many regrets?

A country’s character is its fate, too.  Any country is capable of both tremendous good and shocking atrocity.  Any country can nurture its people’s best impulses or exacerbate its people’s worst instincts.  Any country can submit to evil or seek God’s guidance and forgiveness.  

If we have been given a second chance this year, let us be supremely grateful.  Let us be penitent.  Let us demonstrate wisdom.  Let us harness the best parts of our natures.  Let this be the first of many joyous Thanksgivings to come.  Above all else: let us be still…and listen.