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Wednesday, September 30, 2020

In plain and simple language – whether in Government/Religion/Politics/Culture – the fundamental battle in all realms is between Christianity and Satanism - PERIOD! Therefore, choose carefully the side you’re on! – CL (Connecting more dots.)

FACT – Western Civilization was built on Christianity, Graeco-Roman law tradition and primarily in Europe – meaning within a White culture. That is undeniable from history!

The attack on WC is Satanic to its core – it is an attack on Christianity! Name the institution and you will see it in plain sight if you open your eyes – education, government, media, etc. etc. – and within the church itself.

Today - Vox Popoli: BLM is anti-Christian

The Dogma of the anti-Christian Bigots • by Jerry Newcombe • The American Vision

Is There a Time to Stop Praying and Start Doing? • by Gary DeMar • The American Vision

Evidence? How much time you got? DaLimbrawLibrary is loaded for bear – can you handle reality and truth?

Let’s start with a fundamental fact – our battle is SPIRITUAL – but it involves our actions which are physical. We simply need to understand who our enemy is!

More evidence – word search Western Civilization – and read for weeks!

Do not confuse Churchianity with Christianity!

Do your own word searches – and if you are new here, start at http://www.crushlimbraw.com/ to get oriented.

In summary, the war is on – choose your side – NOW!

Is There a Time to Stop Praying and Start Doing? • by Gary DeMar • The American Vision

Prayer is a good and necessary practice. But after we fall on our face, let’s be careful not to cover our ears, shut our eyes, and bind our feet. We might just hear God’s voice say, “Rise up! Get up and vote! Get your mother to vote! Get your pastor to vote and to tell the congregation to vote! Vote in terms of what the Bible says about these issues. Vote as a son of Issachar would vote: ‘Men who understood the times with knowledge of what Israel should do’” (1 Chron. 12:32). This means being an informed voter.

 

For decades, Christians have been reluctant to get involved in politics. These Christians either don’t vote or when they do vote they do so in terms of what government can do for them. The government is seen as their earthly savior. They are more concerned about where their next flu shot is coming from rather than the appointment of judges who with one vote can turn the Constitution on its head.

There are many more Christians who had given up on politics after the election of Ronald Reagan didn’t bring in the millennium. And when Bill Clinton got elected twice, hopelessness set in. George W. Bush was a big disappointment. Barack Obama was a disaster.

All that work, and for what? Christians who are experiencing political remorse are suffering from a case of faulty theology. Life is hard … There’s evil in the world … We must be faithful … We must be diligent to overturn evil with good.

Here we are in 2020 about to re-elect Pres. Trump or elect Joe Biden who will empower a government that will bring devastation to the United States that could set our nation back decades from which we may not recover.

After reading one of my articles about the seriousness of this election, I received this well-intentioned response:

I am with your reasoning but are we focusing more on voting than praying? We know that God will decide about coming peace or riots or hanging chads or voter fraud. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit” (James 5:16–18).

Both are necessary. We can’t pray our way out of something that requires action on our part. A student can’t pray to do well on a test if he or she didn’t study for it. Praying is not going to help if you plan to do stupid stuff.

Prayer and repentance are not to be dismissed. They are the first steps in a longer process. Before the events in Elijah’s day, Joshua went through an experience that resulted in a military defeat when he expected a victory. Israel won its first encounter with Jericho without a casualty. Why should the battle with Ai be any different? The spies thought Ai was weak enough that only “two or three thousand men need go up” (Josh. 7:3). Thirty-six Israelites were killed, and the rest were pursued and assaulted by the men of Ai with the result that “the hearts of the people melted and became as water” (7:5).

Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths

Have you ever heard fellow-Christians say, "We can't be inolved in politics because Jesus never got involved in politics, there's a separation between church and state, our citizenship is in heaven, we can't impose our morality on other people, Jesus' kingdom is not of this world, we must be neutral, we're not to judge,...?" Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths deals with these and many more misconceived arguments.

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You know what the Israelites were thinking. “Maybe we should have stayed out of this political thing. We were at least safe when we were ghettoized beyond the Jordan and could follow our privatized and quietist faith.” There was even fear that things would get a lot worse once the “Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land” heard about the defeat (7:9). Joshua, voicing these concerns to God, did what many Christians have concluded is the only action that should be taken. “Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell on the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, both he and the elders of Israel” (7:7). In a word, they prayed ... hard.

What did God tell him to do? “So the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them’” (7:11). In effect, God told Joshua to stop praying and act on the evil that brought them the defeat!

Prayer is not a magical formula, an incantation that brings forth God like a genie from a bottle. Prayer is an admission of weakness. It is in weakness that God can best use us (2 Cor. 12:9–10). But true faith and trust are not exercised if we do not act on the belief that God will work for us even in our weakness. Prayer is not the end but the beginning of the work God has called us to do, and in many cases, it is not a substitute for action. J. I. Packer says it this way:

The Spirit does what he does. His supernaturalizing of our lives enables Christians, as a matter of fact, to do much for the Lord that they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. That’s the whole doctrine of gifts and ministry. It’s my part to see what God calls me to do, to ask the Lord to enable me to do it, then to get up off my knees and go confidently into action, watching to see what help I shall be given, and finally to give thanks for what the Spirit did in and through me[1]

There is sin in the Christian camp. Entire denominations support abortion and homosexuality or remain silent which is the same as giving support. Politicians, many who claim to be Christians, maintain that abortion should be a protected right. They’re “personally opposed” to abortion, but they can’t impose their morality on others. Are they personally opposed to slavery and racial discrimination? Sure they are. Would they vote for laws to stop them? Sure they would. If someone is personally opposed to abortion because abortion takes a human life, then a law prohibiting abortion is a moral necessity.

The sins of Achan—“the mantle of Shinar” (humanism) and “silver and gold” (mammon)—are the sins of the church. Many pastors are afraid to lose members and their money if they teach what the Bible says about certain sins. Their sermons are humanistic in that they cater to fallen men and women and their needs rather than God and His laws. We will not change things at the top until we change things at the bottom.

Prayer is a good and necessary practice. But after we fall on our face, let’s be careful not to cover our ears, shut our eyes, and bind our feet. We might just hear God’s voice say, “Rise up! Get up and vote! Get your mother to vote! Get your pastor to vote and to tell the congregation to vote! Vote in terms of what the Bible says about these issues. Vote as a son of Issachar would vote: ‘Men who understood the times with knowledge of what Israel should do’” (1 Chron. 12:32). This means being an informed voter.

1.     J.I. Packer, “The Holy Spirit at Work,” Christianity Today (March 19, 1990). Emphasis added.[]

https://americanvision.org/24527/is-there-a-time-to-stop-praying-and-start-doing/ 

The Dogma of the anti-Christian Bigots • by Jerry Newcombe • The American Vision

Should being an active Christian bar you from public service? Yes, say many pundits today. It would seem that the left wants to impose a religious test to bar anyone who truly believes in Jesus from serving in government.

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg left a vacancy on the Supreme Court. In the days following her death, all of the candidates on President Trump's shortlist to replace her were dedicated Christians, and the left once again bared their anti-Christian bigotry.

The Constitution says there can be no religious test applied to those seeking office at the federal level (Article VI, clause 3).

A famous incident in 2017 involved California Sen. Dianne Feinstein scorning Catholic Amy Coney Barrett (who is now Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy), at a Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, for being too religious. The senator said, "I think whatever a religion is, it has its own dogma. The law is totally different. And I think in your case, professor, when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that's of concern."

Washington Post writer Ron Charles recently criticized Judge Barrett because of her belief that a "legal career is but a means to an end … and that end is building the Kingdom of God."


The United States: A Christian Nation

The classic 1905 book writen by one of America’s greatest Supreme Court justices is back in print—revised and expanded with a new introduction by Gary DeMar and enhanced with images and explanatory footnotes. The United States A Christian Nation is U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer’s lecture series on the unmistakably Christian origins and values of the United States. Drawing from a wealth of original sources, such as the colonial charters, state constitutions, and legal statutes of early American history, Brewer makes the undeniable case for the Christian character of this nation, and encourages his listeners to preserve and contribute to America’s Christianity in the face of adversity.

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When George W. Bush, an outspoken Christian, was president, one of his biggest antagonists (at least behind the scenes) was George Soros. The billionaire venture-capitalist is committed to a secular vision for America. Soros has paid out billions of dollars to try and impose his godless vision on America. With Bush 43 in mind, Soros said, "The separation of church and state, the bedrock of our democracy, is clearly undermined by having a born-again president."

These are amazing statements. Why not just hang out a sign on Constitution Avenue: "Government Service Openings: Christians Need Not Apply"?

One man had the impertinence to hold a different opinion than these. He said, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege of interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."

Oh my goodness. Who was this backwoods rube? Didn't he know anything about the Constitution and about our nation's sacred institutions—er, make that "secular institutions"? That quotation was from Founding Father John Jay, one of the three authors of the Federalist Papers, perhaps the finest political science writings in American history. John Jay was appointed by President Washington to serve as the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.


America's Christian History: The Untold Story

A necessary book if you want to understand how Christianity served as the foundational operating worldview of most of the early settlers, from sthe colonial constitutions to the establishment of colleges. For example, the New England Confederation stated that the purpose of the colonies was "to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel in purity with peace." Harvard College required that each student believe that "the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life." John Adams wrote, "The Christian religion is...the Religion of Wisdom, Virtue, Equity, and humanity."

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I spoke recently with my friend Dr. Peter Lillback of the Providence Forum on the radio, and I mentioned the Dianne Feinstein quote to him. He noted that we could turn it around and observe that Sen. Feinstein is also dogmatic. But her dogma is one rooted in secularism.

Gary DeMar of American Vision puts it this way: "The left hates any 'dogma' that questions their 'dogma.'"

Meanwhile, an honest reading of American history shows that faith—the Christian faith—was very important to most of the settlers and the founders of America:

  • This year we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower. The Pilgrims said they were establishing their colony "for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith."
  • Rev. John Winthrop, the leader of the Puritans who founded Boston and Harvard, said of their colony, "For we shall be as a city upon a hill," providing a metaphor for the future nation that ultimately came from Jesus Himself.
  • George Washington said, "[T]rue religion affords to government its surest support."
  • In his Inaugural Address, John Adams said, "I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service …" [emphasis added] Rather than prevent one from serving, being a devout Christian is an asset to one's service in government, said our second president.
  • Alexander Hamilton expressed his desire to create "the Christian Constitutional Society," but his premature death scuttled his plans.
  • Thomas Jefferson, certainly not as orthodox as most of the other founders, nonetheless said, "Of all the systems of morality ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus." (Letter to William Canby, Sept. 18, 1813).

The dogmatic anti-Christian bigots in our society are wrong in their notion that being a devout Christian should somehow disqualify you from public service. The idea that there's some sort of anti-Christian magnet over the threshold of government buildings does not comport with our history nor with our Constitution.

https://americanvision.org/24533/the-dogma-of-the-anti-christian-bigots/ 

Vox Popoli: BLM is anti-Christian

To turn blacks against BLM, all that is necessary is to point out, again and again, that anyone who supports BLM is setting himself against Jesus Christ. The truth is that BLM is no more black than the NAACP or the SPLC; it's just another anti-Christian front. 

 

It simply isn't possible to claim that BLM is compatible in any way, shape, or form with Christianity:

Beathard said the “All Lives Matter” sign hung on his door for nearly two weeks before he was “politely asked” by one of his superiors to remove it.

“They didn’t demand it,” Beathard said. “They just said, ‘As a favor, could you please take that off your door?’ I didn’t take it off right away. I sat there and prayed about it, and I said, ‘God knows where my heart is. That’s all that matters. If it will help to take it off, I’ll take it off.’ ”

Unbeknownst to him, a few days earlier, Beathard said someone had taken a picture of the sign and circulated it among members of the Redbirds team. Some players were offended. Beathard said the offseason had been filled with tension throughout the team. He said the coaching staff had been been on alert throughout the summer that it might have to deal with issues stemming from the national unrest caused by the death of George Fl0yd in Minneapolis. 

Beathard had no idea the escalating tension would eventually engulf him. On Sept. 2 it did. That’s when the school informed him he no longer had a position on the Redbirds staff. 

“All Lives Matter to Our Lord & Savior” — something Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Tony Dungy or any Christian would say nonchalantly — cost Kurt Beathard his job. BLM activists have cleverly turned a basic Christian belief into an affront to black people. 

You can question the sincerity of football’s alliance with religion and patriotism, but you cannot deny the longevity of the alliance. Beathard’s story speaks to BLM’s power to change the culture of football. The game is being disconnected from its traditional allies. Racial politics and anti-American sentiment have replaced Christianity and patriotism. 

To turn blacks against BLM, all that is necessary is to point out, again and again, that anyone who supports BLM is setting himself against Jesus Christ. The truth is that BLM is no more black than the NAACP or the SPLC; it's just another anti-Christian front. 

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2020/09/blm-is-anti-christian.html 

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

The Covidean Creed – (As Agreed at the Unholy Conclave at Davos) - by Ian Jenkins



We believe in one Virus, the SARS-COV-2, the Almighty, destroyer of heaven and earth, that is all there is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Malady, Covid-19, the only son of SARS-COV-2, eternally begotten of the Virus, God from God, Darkness from Darkness, true God from true God, begotten, not made (probably) of one Being with the Virus.

For diseases are they none but the One True Virus and Death comes not without Its presence. Thou shalt have no diseases before the One True Virus. They that die outside the Virus shall not have their passing told unto the people on a quotidian basis in hushed tones, but shall be quietly recorded in obscure tables when the time comes.

Through the Virus all things were unmade.
For us men (and women and all points in between) and for our damnation
It came down from heaven (or maybe from China or Maryland):

By the power of the Holy WHO
It became incarnate from the swirling microbes (or maybe bat soup through immaculate Zoonosis), and was made Pandemic.

For Its sake we were crucified under ongoing Lockdown;
It suffered not death, like unto most it afflicteth, and is never buried in the news.
Though by the evidence that appeareth on those who do pass away or wax sick, it hath waned to almost nought.

On the second wave It rose again
And though few did perish many were tested and lo! Many were deemed infected (probably) and ‘cases’ were they named, though sickness showed they none,
in accordance with the Great Plan;

It ascended into the collective consciousness
and is seated on the right and left hand of all (lest with sanitiser they do anoint themselves five score times hourly)

It will come again in glory, as many times as necessary to convince the living and the dead,
and his mask’d kingdom will have no end, it seemeth.

We believe in the Unholy pathogen, the Lord Rona, the taker of life (for they that are vulnerable), though he passeth the children by,
who proceeds from the laboratory and the test.
With the quest for a Vaccine, the donning of the Holy Mask and with sequestration of the faithful he is worshipped and glorified and Its name kept alive in the minds of all.

It hath spoken through ‘The Science’ and thereafter through the Media, through Potentates and Rulers and through the scriptures of the WEF and of the foundations and think-tanks that do proclaim Its Gospel.

Woe to they who do speak out against the words of the Powers of Covid or their servants, for they shall be anathema and their names removed from the Book of Face and platform shall they have none. One shall they be made with they that aver the Earth to be flat and Conspiracy Theorists shall they be named.

We believe in one unholy Catastrophic and Technocratic Global Church.
We acknowledge one Great Reset for the salvation of all.

We look in vain for the resurrection of Reason, Proportionality and Democracy,
and towards the life of the New World to come.

Amen.

https://off-guardian.org/2020/09/26/the-covidean-creed/ 




Vox Popoli: A little TOO close to the truth

Conspiracy Theory is just a name for the reality that the Promethean establishment doesn't want you to know about. If the story didn't reflect what was actually happening, they wouldn't care if you saw it or not.

 

 Slate is concerned that Amazon's Utopia is letting the cat out of the bag in full view of the public:

A group of comic book fans discover an unpublished manuscript for a graphic novel that they believe holds clues about the future, shadowy forces are also looking for the same manuscript, and eventually the comic book fans uncover a global conspiracy. So far, so run-of-the-mill.

But the nature of that conspiracy plays very differently in 2020 than it did in 2013, and the results are catastrophic.As the characters discover, the reason the comic book contains clues to things that haven’t yet happened is that it was drawn by one of the architects of a plan designed to stave off planetary collapse as the population rises and fossil fuels run out. Here’s the plan:

1.   Convince the general public that there is an outbreak of a deadly new virus. To sell the story, poison or otherwise kill people, then attribute their deaths to the phony virus.

2.   Once the fake pandemic is up and running and the public is terrified, announce that there is a vaccine that can defeat the virus.

3.   With the help of global elites, NGOs, and world governments, inject everyone on the planet with this “vaccine” as quickly as possible.

4.   Surprise! The vaccine is designed to permanently sterilize all or all but a certain percentage of the people who take it. Sit back and relax as the global population drops from 7.8 billion to about 500 million in a single generation, ushering in a new era of plenty.

You can probably see the problem here, and it’s an insurmountable one. We are in the middle of an actual pandemic, a staggering number of Americans sincerely believe that that pandemic is a politically motivated hoax, and an equally staggering number believed vaccines were harmful years before COVID-19 emerged. It’s not the filmmakers’ fault we’re in this mess, it’s not their fault so much of the public is superstitious and gullible, and it won’t be their fault if Utopia gives some dumbass the confidence they need to quit wearing a mask and infect and kill you or the people you care about. Make whatever art you like—the audience isn’t your problem! But if you’ve made something about a scrappy group of kids uncovering a giant conspiracy, and it turns out that in the time since you finished shooting, that exact conspiracy theory has suddenly revealed itself to be a) believed by a significant portion of the population and b) deadly, it might not be a bad idea to push the release date.

Conspiracy Theory is just a name for the reality that the Promethean establishment doesn't want you to know about. If the story didn't reflect what was actually happening, they wouldn't care if you saw it or not.

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-little-too-close-to-truth.html 

The Deconstruction of White Confidence - PaulCraigRoberts.org

Just think how many times you have witnessed a white person take the side of a black criminal in order to demonstrate that they are not racist.  Every day you hear and see excuses made for black misbehavior.  Democrat mayors, city councils, attorney generals, and governors have lost so much confidence that their response to rioting and looting is to defund the police.

This is a picture of a society that cannot survive.  

The insouciance of white Americans has resulted in the transformation of universities, schools, and media from educational and news organizations into anti-white propaganda organizations. 

 

You can tell what years of anti-white propaganda in American universities, public schools and media have done by looking at Ilhan Omar, a Somali who got herself elected to the US Congress by running a ballots-for-cash scheme. (See:  https://www.rt.com/usa/501891-omar-veritas-investigation-trump-ballots/  and  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cash-ballots-fraud-uncovered-ilhan-omars-minnesota-district-veritas?utm_campaign=&utm_content=Zerohedge%3A+The+Durden+Dispatch&utm_medium=email&utm_source=zh_newsletter )

Omar is very aggressive in her language toward white people and is confident that white people are too guilty to do anything about it. She can bully them all she wants.

Or look at the white dumbshits who poured $14 million dollars or more into the pockets of George Floyd’s brother because they believed the presstitutes’ lies that Floyd, a felon who killed himself by over-dosing on fentenyl, was murdered by a white police officer.

There are endless reports of American universities taking punitive actions against white male students, white faculty and white administratiors simply for using ordinary words all of us have used all our lives, or for being “insensitive” to those who claim to be transgendered and other favored abnormals.  Abnormal of course is an insensitive banned word. If I were  professor in an American university or a reporter or editor at an American newspaper or a TV talking head or a corporate employee, I would be fired for using it.

In public schools children are educated in critical race theory which maintains that white people are born racists.  Five-year old white kids learn that they are racists who abuse black people.

America’s leading corporations and government agencies make white people attend “sensitivity training” and confess their racism.  Males have also to take  training to be sensitive to women and repudiate their misogyny.

Just think how many times you have witnessed a white person take the side of a black criminal in order to demonstrate that they are not racist.  Every day you hear and see excuses made for black misbehavior.  Democrat mayors, city councils, attorney generals, and governors have lost so much confidence that their response to rioting and looting is to defund the police.

This is a picture of a society that cannot survive.  

The insouciance of white Americans has resulted in the transformation of universities, schools, and media from educational and news organizations into anti-white propaganda organizations.   

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/09/29/the-deconstruction-of-white-confidence/ 

Opinion - What U.S. Troops Are Really Doing In Syria - By Michael Hall

U.S. policy toward Syria is defined by an absurdity that can’t be neatly untangled—a low-intensity regime change mission defined as anything other than its central mission.

 

September 27, 2020 "Information Clearing House" -  James Mattis famously resigned from his secretary of defense post citing opposition to President Donald Trump’s order to remove U.S. troops from Syria. So it came as a mild surprise when it was recently confirmed that Mattis opposed a plan to assassinate Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria. This opposition was a prudent move as deposing Assad would not end Syria’s civil war but throw the country into deeper chaos. But this seeming incongruity of Mattis the hawk contra Mattis the dove is representative of the larger contradictions in Washington’s Syria policy.

These contradictions arise from the fact that U.S. policy in Syria has always been centered around opposition to Assad, rather than the defeat of ISIS, whose caliphate was destroyed long before Trump’s withdrawal order.

Perhaps this contradiction is most glaringly seen in the justifications Washington offers for the U.S. military presence in Syria. We are frequently told we’re there for one reason only to be given a new reason a few months later. It’s hard not to notice.

We were told the ISIS caliphate had to be defeated. But they lost their last scrap of territory in March 2019. Denied a physical base of operations, those going under the name of ISIS today are—as far as legitimate U.S. interests are concerned—indistinguishable from any other ragtag Sunni militias. But a defeated ISIS still wasn’t enough to convince Washington to withdraw.

ISIS’s caliphate was destroyed, completing the military mission that brought U.S. troops to the country. Why then are our soldiers still there? We’ve also been told they’re over there to counter Iran (which, by the way, had the same goal of destroying the ISIS caliphate).

Years ago, we were told that it’s important to be in Syria to counter Russia too. But today this mission—if it can be called that—amounts to the occasional road rage incident involving convoys representing the world’s only two nuclear superpowers pathetically struggling for space on a road or wheat field. It’s notable that this reason was recently revived to justify the decision to send more troops to Syria.

We’re also told that it’s important to support the Kurds and, though Washington has been quieter on this front lately, we were once told training and equipping anti-Assad militants was also vital. This latter notion resulted in an embarrassing situation where the CIA’s favored militants were fighting the Pentagon’s favored militants. These local groups have their own interests, but they shouldn’t be confused for America’s interests.

More recently, President Trump has touted a plan to “secure the oil” and his administration has paved the way for a U.S. company to manage some oil fields in the war-torn country. Trump has cited this as a reason for keeping the last few hundred U.S. troops in Syria. The thing is, ensuring American access to Syrian oil demands a certain level of security. More bluntly, it necessitates an endless occupation of Syria.

But, like any of the above reasons, it would be a mistake to accept that oil serves as the principal justification for the U.S. presence in Syria.

Trump has also defended the decision to keep a small contingent of troops in Syria by stating that Israel and Jordan asked him to keep our forces there. This justification was reaffirmed in a recent Trump rally where the president characteristically stated off-the-cuff, “The fact is, we don’t have to be in the Middle East, other than we want to protect Israel. We’ve been very good to Israel.”

What are we to make of this flurry of reasons for staying in Syria? It may be a little bit of each, but the overarching reason has always been to engage in a campaign of “regime change-lite,” tragically keeping Syria territorially divided in a simmering civil war and making Syrians bear the brunt of any—and there are many—negative consequences. This is why the United States originally armed anti-Assad rebels and why troops that were ostensibly sent to defeat ISIS have remained after the fall of the caliphate.

But viewing all these reasons together, it is dizzying to keep track of them. It is perhaps tempting to just take Trump at his word and assume that we’re actually there for the oil. While the amount of oil in Syria is a significant amount for Syrians, it’s nowhere near enough to be a vital concern for the United States. According to the U.S. Energy Information Association, the amount of oil in Syria is not even two percent of what Iran or Iraq boast, never mind America's own status as the number one oil producer in the world.

In fact, this is what’s striking about all of the above reasons in this list—not one of the justifications is about something vital to the security of the United States. Instead of carefully deconstructing each reason, this bird’s eye view is all we need to make sense of this confusing list of inconsistent and constantly evolving justifications for staying in Syria.

One of the greatest contradictions in Washington’s Syria policy is not the reason(s) that we’re there but the fact that we haven’t left. At least twice now, there has been an order to withdraw that has never been carried out.

U.S. policy toward Syria is defined by an absurdity that can’t be neatly untangled—a low-intensity regime change mission defined as anything other than its central mission. Every now and then, we’re offered a new explanation for why our troops are in Syria. At this point, the best response is to say, “enough is enough.”

We don’t need to keep playing this game of roulette where Washington spins the wheel and tells us why our troops are there—it’s a racket and should be recognized as such. Syria’s problems aren't our problems and the only sensible option that comports with U.S. interests is a full withdrawal of American forces.

Michael R. Hall is the communications manager of Defense Priorities and a geopolitical analyst. Follow him on Twitter: @michaelryhall.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/55634.htm 

Monday, September 28, 2020

Vox Popoli: The importance of discernment (If you can see evil and stay silent - are you culpable? If you cannot see it - WHY? - CL)

He is correct, however, to observe that the refusal to identify, acknowledge, and oppose evil is both prevalent and significant in society today. I have no patience or respect for those who insist on blathering about "stupidity" or how the Left "just doesn't understand". At this point, the inability to discern evil looks a lot more like a refusal to accept the reality of evil. 

 

I wouldn't go as far as Bruce Charlton in calling a lack of discernment a sin, but then, there is a qualitative difference in being unable to discern evil and being unwilling to do so:

I suspect that the discernment of evil is maybe the most important thing to do about evil; much more important than (supposedly) 'fighting' evil. We absolutely need to identify, and correctly, what and who is on the side of evil: who are evil-allied. And these evil-allied may well turn-out to be almost-everything, and almost-everybody - we should be prepared for that possibility. 

If I am right, this widespread and determined self-blinding to evil, the refusal to identify and acknowledge evil; may be one of the most prevalent and significant of our many modern sins. 

He is correct, however, to observe that the refusal to identify, acknowledge, and oppose evil is both prevalent and significant in society today. I have no patience or respect for those who insist on blathering about "stupidity" or how the Left "just doesn't understand". At this point, the inability to discern evil looks a lot more like a refusal to accept the reality of evil. Because rich and powerful individuals are not abusing children and offering them up to demons out of stupidity.

He's also right to point out that you have to spot the target before you can FFE on it.

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-importance-of-discernment.html 

Failure of discernment of evil... Is it damning? - Bruce Charlton's Notions

I have been thinking about this rampant problem that people cannot (or, at least, do not) discern evil; in particular that they impute good motivations even when evil is intended. 

I suppose most people would not regard this as a Bad Thing, and indeed might regard it as a sign of a Good Person that they assume other people are also Good... 

I find, however, that I can't believe it. I find that Good and evil are mostly about taking sides: the side of God and creation, or the side against them. So, a failure to discern evil is often - perhaps usually - in practice a matter of allying oneself with the side of evil, and against God

This would mean that a failure to discern evil - when one is in a position to do so - may be an act of self-damnation.

But the consequences may compound the sin. This comes out in all sorts of ways. For example, people will often try to explain-away and excuse evil acts by saying they are actually well-motivated, or actually Doing Good. This they term 'giving the benefit of the doubt'.  

In particular, actual evil things happening in our own personal experience and to people that we love, are instead assigned to be motivated by remote, abstract, ideological Good, which we know only secondhand and from habitually- and systematically-dishonest sources such as government, the media and indeed large institutions of any kind.

Yet God will surely make it possible for us to know evil when it impacts upon us personally? And also know this from our own personal direct experience, common sense and capacity for reason (rather than needing to be told it by 'experts'? 

(Unlike those old-style communists who went to party meetings to be told who to support, and why (nowadays this job is done by the mass media). I think of those who were fanatical anti-Nazi until 23 August 1939 when they discovered that Stalin had made a pact with Hitler. Presumably they then trooped obediently CP HQ to have it explained that - today - cooperation with fascists was Good...)

At the bottom line, I suspect that the discernment of evil is maybe the most important thing to do about evil; much more important than (supposedly) 'fighting' evil. We absolutely need to identify, and correctly, what and who is on the side of evil: who are evil-allied. And these evil-allied may well turn-out to be almost-everything, and almost-everybody - we should be prepared for that possibility. 

If I am right, this widespread and determined self-blinding to evil, the refusal to identify and acknowledge evil; may be one of the most prevalent and significant of our many modern sins. 

https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2020/09/failure-of-discernment-of-evil-is-it.html