A Time To Hope and Pray "Forward Into Broad, Sunlit Uplands"

 

Remembering December Eight Decades Ago

By Clayton Spann www.americanthinker.com

As we enter this troubled December, let us reach back eighty years.  To another December, and eight days that birthed the world of peril and promise we occupy today.

In the first days of December 1941, the German Army was approaching Moscow from the north, west and south.  The Wehrmacht steadily advanced despite snow, bitter cold, and fanatical resistance.  Everyone in Europe and the United States braced for word that the Soviet capital had fallen.  The Soviet Union – a horrible entity to be sure – seemed doomed.

But General Georgy Zhukov had assembled a massive reserve of nearly sixty divisions.  On Dec. 5 he unleashed a counterattack against the German forces to the northwest of Moscow.  The attack achieved total surprise.  The Germans reeled backwards.  On Dec. 6 Zhukov launched attacks to the west and southwest.  Again the Germans were driven back.

The counter-offense of Zhukov ended Hitler's hope for a decisive victory in 1941.  Hitler and his generals now knew that they were locked in a war of attrition with the Soviet Union.  A war of attrition with an adversary possessing twice their population and a greater industrial base, augmented by Lend-Lease supply.  The Germans also faced a regime – and a leader – even more ruthless and brutal than their own.

On Dec. 7, the Soviet offensive continued.  But the eyes of the world shifted elsewhere, to the Pacific Ocean.  That morning, hundreds of Japanese aircraft descended on the airfields and naval berths of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands.  Over twenty-four hundred American servicemen were killed and an array of warships and planes laid in wreckage.  Seven hours after the attack, Japan belatedly declared war on the United States and Great Britain.

Also that day (EST) the tentacles of Japan reached elsewhere.  Their troops invaded Thailand, Malaya (a British colony and a vital source of rubber), and Hong Kong.   Their warplanes struck Singapore, the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island.

Also that day, in Germany, Adolf Hitler issued the sinister Night and Fog Decree.  The secret decree allowed for the disappearance of political opponents and resistance fighters.  Most of the thousands of victims were nocturnally seized and no word was given to families on their fate (often death in concentration camps).

On Dec. 8, President Roosevelt delivered his famous “a date which will live in infamy” speech to a joint session of Congress.  It is inspiring to watch video of that speech, both the ringing call to arms by FDR (“the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory”) and the roaring cheers of the united audience.  Shortly after the speech, Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan.

On Dec. 9, China declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy.  Japan had already inflicted great devastation and death on China.  It is little noted in the West that Japan killed nearly four million Chinese civilians (often marked by appalling atrocities) between 1937 and 1945.  But China has not forgotten nor forgiven.

Dec. 10 brought the sinking off the Malayan coast of the British warships Repulse and Prince of Wales (the latter in May had traded shots with the German battleship Bismarck).  Japanese torpedo planes dealt the fatal blows.  The sinking of the two capital ships by aircraft shocked the world and announced the arrival of a new age in naval warfare.  The British should not have been surprised, since six months earlier, their own torpedo bombers disabled the Bismarck.

Dec. 11 brought the decisive day of World War II:  In the greatest blunder of that war, Adolf Hitler delivered a speech before Reichstag deputies in Berlin.  Citing a long list of grievances, he declared war on the most powerful economic nation in the world.  Over the next four years, that nation would also become the supreme military power.

In turn, the United States declared war on Germany.  We must remember that prior to Dec. 7, the nation was vehemently split between the interventionists and the isolationists.  In the immediate days after the Pearl Harbor attack, united support existed only for war with Japan.  William Shirer wrote¹:

My own impression in Washington at that moment was that it might be difficult for President Roosevelt to get Congress to declare war on Germany.  There seemed to be a strong feeling in both Houses as well as in the Army and Navy that the country ought to concentrate its efforts on defeating Japan and not take on the additional burden of fighting Germany at the same time.

Without the Unites States at war against Nazi Germany, it is doubtful the British could have successfully invaded France.  Nor is it likely that the British alone could have expelled the Germans from North Africa or landed in Sicily or Italy.  Without American involvement, the Nazis would perhaps to this day remain masters of western Europe.

With the United States sidelined, the Germans could have concentrated nearly full force against the Soviets.  Could the Wehrmacht have raised the price in blood high enough to gain a stalemate in the East?  Already it had achieved a six-to-one causality ratio in battle.  With forces not needed for a second front, at the very least the Germans could have greatly slowed any Soviet advance.

We must also consider that with America battling only in the Pacific and the Soviets slowed, Germany would have had time to develop and field impressive numbers of their advanced weapons.  To wit, jet fighters and bombers, ballistic and guided missiles, fortress tanks, night vision equipment, and yes, eventually, nuclear weapons.

All this Hitler negated by his astounding error of Dec. 11.  If Hitler had decided otherwise, the world today could be profoundly different.

On the last of the eight days, Dec. 12, Hitler made another decision -- one which still haunts us many years after the destruction of his heinous regime.

In a meeting in the Reich Chancellery with top subordinates, Hitler gave a green light for the Holocaust.  Prior to this meeting, SS death squads (Einstazgruppen) had murdered many thousands of Jews in Poland and the USSR.  But annihilation of European Jewry was not yet an official policy.  This decision laid the foundation for the death factories which methodically consumed millions of Jews and others hated by Hitler.

Eight days in December of 1941.  Eighty years ago.  Which wrenched the world into total war and unleashed the worst of our demonic impulses.

Are the leaders of the great powers of today wise enough to refrain from initiating another global war?  The present world, for all its troubles, is on the verge of creating paradise.  A world where want and disease and perhaps death itself will fade away. Where humankind can achieve Winston Churchill's vision of moving “forward into broad, sunlit uplands”.

As we move towards another Christmas, let us pray for the vision to become reality.

 

Global Migrants Transform Nations With Their Feet

 

The West's Fear That Dare Not Speak Its Name

12/2/2021 - Pat Buchanan Townhall.com

With the drowning deaths of 27 migrants crossing the Channel from France to England, illegal migration from the Third World is front and center anew in European politics.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has proposed that France take back to its shores all migrants who cross the Channel illegally and come ashore in Britain.

In the run-up to French elections this April, a startling development suggests that resistance to illegal migration is spreading and the idea of dealing with it resolutely and unapologetically is taking root.

Marine Le Pen, president of the rightist National Rally, formerly the National Front, who is expected to reach the finals for president of France against Emmanuel Macron, is suddenly being challenged.

The rising star on the right is Eric Zemmour, who, writes The New York Times, "became one of France's best-selling authors in the past decade by writing books on the nation's decline -- fueled, he said, by the loss of traditional French and Christian values, the immigration of Muslim Africans bent on a reverse colonization of France, the rise of feminism and the loss of virility, and a 'great replacement' of white people."

Zemmour is being called "the Donald Trump of France." And he and Le Pen are now running third and second behind Macron in the polling to become the next president of France, which suggests the power of the issue on which they agree: uninvited and unwelcome Third-World migration.

"You feel like a foreigner in your own country," said Zemmour in his announcement speech Tuesday, declaiming, "We will not be replaced."

Neighboring Spain is gripped by the same concern. Refugees and migrants from the global south use Morocco as a base from which to breach the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the African coast.

Spain has taken to pushing the intruders back into Morocco.

Madrid has accused Rabat of using the migrants as a diplomatic weapon to extort changes in Spanish policy.

Italy, whose native-born ethnic population has been in a steady decline, patrols the Mediterranean Sea to prevent migrants from Libya from reaching its shores. Drowning deaths are not uncommon. The Channel and the Mediterranean Sea are more formidable and unforgiving waters to cross than the Rio Grande.

Greece is attempting to keep Turkey from moving refugees and migrants from Middle East wars onto the Greek islands off Turkey's coast.

Half a decade ago, Turkey was bought off with billions of euros to prevent the millions of Arab and Muslim refugees within its borders from crossing over into the EU.

In the recent clash between Poland and Belarus, the weapon of choice for Alexander Lukashenko was -- migrants.

Brought into Belarus from the Mideast, they were moved to the Polish border, forcing Warsaw to deploy troops to keep thousands out of Poland. Lukashenko was exploiting the migrants to punish Poland and the EU for supporting sanctions on his regime.

After Europe united against him, Lukashenko moved the migrants away from the border and sent many back to Syria and countries whence they came.

In the hierarchy of European fears, the perceived threat to national identities that comes with mass migrations from the failed and failing states of the Third World appears to rank as a greater concern than the prospect of a Russian army driving toward the Rhine.

Most European nations have a birth rate below what is needed to replace their native-born ethnic populations. And as the founding peoples of these nations pass on, they are being replaced by peoples from what were once colonies that the old European empires controlled.

Most of these European nations have not had the experience with mass immigration the Americans have -- from the Irish migration of 1845-1849 to the millions from Central and Eastern Europe between 1890 and 1924.

Yet even the Americans had never known a migration of the magnitude of the one that began in 1965 and continues today, legal and illegal, a migration that has altered irreversibly the ethnic composition of the country of Ike and JFK.

In President Joe Biden's first year, over a million illegals breached the U.S. southern border along with hundreds of thousands of "got-aways" who made it into our country without any contact with border authority.

The rising resistance to illegal immigration in Europe is being denounced by Euro-elites as xenophobia and racism, and the proscribed term used to define it is the one the Times associates with Zemmour.

What is "The Great Replacement"? A hostile critic defines it thus:

"The Great Replacement Theory is an ethno-nationalist theory warning that an indigenous European -- e.g., white -- population is being replaced by non-European immigrants.

"The Great Replacement concept was popularized by French writer Renaud Camus in his 2012 book, 'Le Grand Remplacement' ('The Great Replacement')."

The English translation of Camus' book is entitled, "You Will Not Replace Us!" Growing numbers of Western peoples appear to fear exactly what it is that Zemmour and Camus say they fear.

 

 

This Bill is DOA But Necessary

 

GOP Senators Intro Bill to Stop Biden's Plan to Pay Illegals

12/2/2021 - Spencer Brown Townhall.com

A handful of Republican Senators introduced legislation Thursday to stop President Biden's plan to hand out up to $450,000 to each illegal immigrant who broke the nation's laws and was separated from a family member as a consequence of illegally entering the United States. 

The bill titled Protect American Taxpayer Dollars from Illegal Immigration Act — introduced by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tom Cotton (R-AR), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — would ensure no federal dollars could be handed over to illegal immigrants from the pockets of American taxpayers. If Biden's plan isn't stopped, they warn, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars could be directed to individuals whose first action arriving in the United States was breaking the law. 

"Our southern border is a disaster, and President Biden's failed policies have continued to fuel this ongoing crisis," Senator Tillis pointed out. "We are seeing the most illegal immigration this year alone than ever recorded, and now President Biden wants to give illegal immigrants a payout, further rewarding lawlessness and chaos," he added. "I am proud to work with my colleagues to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

Not to mention the false hope Biden's planned payments to illegals may give others, spurring additional illegal immigration. Senator Cotton noted that "the Biden administration's promises of citizenship and entitlement programs have already caused the worst border crisis in history" and "a huge cash reward will make it even worse."

"The cash settlements the Administration is considering would only further incentivize families to make the dangerous journey and exacerbate the problem along our southern border," added Senator Cornyn.

Senator Cotton also pointed out the flawed logic of Biden's "height of insanity" plan, saying "it would be unthinkable to pay damages to a burglar who broke into your home for the 'psychological trauma' they endured during the crime. And yet the Biden administration wants to reward migrants who illegally entered our country with up to $450,000 each for just that reason."

"While American families are struggling anxiously just to keep pace with President Biden's inflation, the President now wants to make millionaires out of people who crossed the border illegally," said Leader McConnell before noting Biden's plan is "beyond parody."

The Protect American Taxpayer Dollars from Illegal Immigration Act was introduced with co-sponsoring Republican Senators Risch (ID), Inhofe (OK), Moran (KS), Blackburn (TN), Boozman (AR), Hawley (MO), Cramer (ND), Graham (SC), Daines (MT), Ernst (IA), Crapo (ID), Lee (UT), Moore Capito (WV), Lankford (OK), Hoeven (ND), Hagerty (TN), Shelby (AL), Scott (FL), Wicker (MS), Braun (IN), Thune (SD), Tuberville (AL), Young (IN), Collins (ME), and Romney (UT).

 

 

Biden Administration Loaded With Hoaxes and Smear Campaigns

 

Remember those screaming headlines about migrants and border 'whips'?

By William Davis www.americanthinker.com

If you haven't heard anything about Border Patrol agents on horseback allegedly "whipping" migrants lately, it's because the anti-borders left and the corporate media just had another narrative blow up in their faces.

After a weeks-long moral panic about Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) agents allegedly mistreating migrants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is no longer pursuing an investigation into those agents.  The DHS's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announced earlier this month that they will not pursue an investigation of the agents, who were photographed on horseback in front of Haitian migrants earlier this year.

At the time, anti-borders groups and Biden administration officials falsely claimed that the agents were engaged in whipping the migrants, despite statements from the photographer that the agents were not using whips, but were merely holding on to their reins.  Still, the photos were used to engineer not only a smear campaign against innocent law enforcement officials, but dramatic policy changes within DHS.

When the photos first started circulating across the internet, DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas initially defended the agents as doing their jobs.  After the White House took a different tack, Mayorkas quickly backtracked and promised a swift investigation into agents, which would be completed in a matter of days.  According to USAToday:

Mayorkas said the actions were "met with our nation's horror because they do not represent who we are as a country."

Mayorkas's timeline turned out to be a sham, as the OIG announced nearly two months later that no investigation would take place.  Despite the agents being cleared, much damage has already been done by the invective launched against them.  After the incident, Mayorkas suspended the use of horses on the border, depriving border patrol agents of yet another crucial tool they need to secure the border and keep Americans safe.

Despite the OIG declining to investigate the agents, Mayorkas has not said when or if he will allow agents to resume using horses at the border.  His continued suspension of the policy based on false pretenses was a gift to anti-borders groups.  By giving these groups a significant policy victory, Mayorkas and the White House are encouraging future character assassination campaigns against law enforcement agents.

It's as if the Biden administration is doing everything in their power to make the jobs of Border Patrol agents harder.  These agents were punished and smeared for simply doing their jobs.  Joe Biden himself attacked these agents, vowing that they would "pay" for their actions.  Biden wasn't clear about what he had in mind, but it is clear that the agents have already faced many consequences, despite being essentially cleared by the OIG.

The agents were victimized by a public relations campaign orchestrated at the highest levels of power.  They were removed from their posts, sent to desk duty for an indefinite amount of time, and left twisting in the wind for nearly two months before the OIG finally acknowledged that there was no basis for an investigation.  That's a lot for these agents to go through, all for doing their job.

Much has been written about the Biden administration's incompetence, but not enough is said about their malevolence.  This administration has constantly worked to undermine and impede the efforts of law enforcement to secure the border and keep this country safe.  From releasing unvetted migrants into vulnerable communities to declaring much of the country off limits for immigration enforcement authorities to the disgraceful campaign against CBP agents attempting to repel an invasion, much of the damage this administration is inflicting at the border is being done intentionally.  This is the work of the far-left ideologues and pro–illegal immigration zealots who make policy inside the Biden White House.

Smear campaigns and politically motivated hoaxes are nothing new for the left, especially on issues of immigration.  Just three years ago, Time magazine featured a photo of a young girl crying in front of Donald Trump as its cover, suggesting that the girl was separated from her family at the border, except the girl on the cover was never separated from her family.  It was a lie, just like the lie that border patrol agents on horseback were whipping Haitian migrants.  But, as the saying goes, a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth finally comes out.

Because of orchestrated lies, millions of Americans now believe that Border Patrol agents whipped migrants at the border, just as they believed that the girl on the cover of Time magazine was separated from her family.  That is the point of these hoaxes and smear campaigns.  The left does not seek relief for victims of real injustices, but makes up fake injustices to further the false narrative that America itself is unjust.