Taking Royal Hostages

 

Historically, a militarily defeated country was required to provide hostages to the victor to ensure compliance to whatever treaty came into force after a war.  The defeated king would be required to send members of his family to be kept in the imperial household of the victor.  Thereafter, any violation by the defeated power would result in, among other consequences, the death of these hostages.

Thinking about the current situation in the Middle East and the Gulf, it seems so logical that the Gulf countries, whose economies depend on oil and gas infrastructure and whose people depend on desalinated water and also electricity for air conditioning would want to cut a deal with Iran for peace.  It is clear that Iran can target and hit any such facilities that they choose. 

So why haven’t these Gulf countries come to some sort of mutually agreeable terms to keep the Gulf open for shipping, sustaining life, etc.?  To my knowledge, the United States isn’t holding hostage any crown princes of the various Gulf monarchs.  But the United States is, in fact, holding countless billions (trillions) in wealth from these same monarchs.  Investments in US assets, investments held at US institutions, and investments denominated in US dollars. 

Is the US capable only of confiscating Iranian or Russian assets?  Of course not. 

These monarchs are between a rock and a hard place: watch their countries and, therefore, the source of their wealth destroyed, or watch their accumulated wealth confiscated.

Our Present Age

 

Romans 1: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

Romans 1: 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Clearly, we are governed by such people.  If anyone had any doubt about this before, there can be no doubt today. 

Where has such behavior led in the past?

Leviticus 18: 24 ‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. 25 For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.

Deuteronomy 20: 16 “But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, 17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.

People will cry, “Oh, that’s not fair; that isn’t just.”  Don’t be fooled.  God is very patient (He gave the Canaanites centuries), but He isn’t mocked.

Romans 2: 2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

We live in a wicked land, ruled by wicked people.  God’s judgment is true.

Some Clarity

Observations and thoughts about how things are going with MAGA.

Whatever the Reason

Whatever the reason that Trump isn’t get most of what he said he wanted to do get done, he isn’t.  Whether he wants to but can’t, or if he doesn’t want to and never wanted to, it doesn’t make a difference.  It just proves, perhaps more powerfully than ever – given the wave of support Trump had – nothing meaningful will change based on who you vote for.

The best way to kill a movement?  Give it what it wants.  Trump, with a majority in both houses of congress; some of the best anti-war / pro-transparency people in his cabinet.  Then prove that nothing important changes; they laughingly put your impotence right in your face.

But, a reminder to not forget what has changed.  Yes, the border seems to be reasonably closed – except for more H1-B visas and more foreign college students.  And yes, we don’t hear as much openly about how terrible you are if you are a straight white male.  So, that’s something.

Civil War

It was clear all along: supporting genocide was sure to split the republican base, just as it did the democratic elite from their base.  Note the difference: on the democrat side, the split is fundamentally between the elite and the base.  On the republican side, the split is in the base.  For both the democrat and republican elite, there is no split – they are all in.

It is tough to keep in mind, but while the people vote for revolution (e.g. Trump three times, Bernie Sanders in 2016, Mamdani today), the elite want civil war – keep the plebes fighting against each other, and that way they won’t revolt against the elite.

Problem Solved

In the first few months of Trump’s presidency, I wrote something about not being sure what to make of Trump 2.0.  The answer has become clearer to me, and not because I have deciphered his 17-D chess moves or anything like that.

When you want Thomas Massie out, and when Marjorie Taylor Greene is a traitor and resigns (read her resignation statement here, and see if this isn’t more like what people thought they voted for with Trump), and throw Rand Paul in there as some other kind of bad guy, there is no cause for confusion.  The most “America First” people in congress are enemy number one for Trump.

Need more be said?

A Turning Point for the USA

There have been several, just in my lifetime.  The assassination of JFK is probably the most important one, because it opened the way for the others: September 11 and the nothing-to-see-here Epstein files are two other rather obvious such turning points – maybe better to call these inflection points of greater acceleration…but that would kind of mess up the use of my title to this post.

Charlie Kirk was assassinated.  Did I even need to write that this event is what has prompted this post, given the title?  Many thoughts come to mind, but I will stick to a couple of quotes from Angelo Codevilla, who I have written about often over the last several years – even before Trump’s first election nine years ago.  So, here goes.

This he wrote even before Trump’s first victory in 2016:

We have stepped over the threshold of a revolution. It is difficult to imagine how we might step back, and futile to speculate where it will end. Our ruling class’s malfeasance, combined with insult, brought it about. Donald Trump did not cause it and is by no means its ultimate manifestation. Regardless of who wins in 2016, this revolution’s sentiments will grow in volume and intensity, and are sure to empower politicians likely to make Americans nostalgic for Donald Trump’s moderation.

This from a few weeks after Trump’s first inauguration:

Hear me…you see the entire ruling class essentially rejecting the Constitution, the American way, rejecting the legitimacy of elections.  There can be no mild response to that, and there isn’t one.  Trump’s voters want certain results and they don’t particularly care how they get them.  The ruling class wants its power and doesn’t particularly care how it holds on to it.

This also from around the same time:

In short, the P.C. “changes in law and public norms” (to quote Galston again) that the ruling class imposed on the rest of America, rather than having “gradually brought about changes in private attitudes across partisan and ideological lines” as the ruling class imagined (and as Gramsci would have approved) have set off a revolution—of which we can be sure only that it won’t be pretty.

What do all of these have to do with Charlie Kirk?  (Oh, and let’s not forget the image of a young Ukrainian female refugee knifed while on public transit in Charlotte, and the reaction this has caused.)

Charlie Kirk was just talking.  He held no involuntary authority over anyone.  No one was forced to do as he said, or even to listen to him.  He was not a politician; he did not manipulate the suffering masses to be pawns in his game. 

He was just talking.

No, I didn’t agree with him on everything, but he moved the conversation in America in a better direction, and he did it the way it should be done – by just talking.

Charlie Kirk was to be just such a voice for the next forty years.  Now?  We get to hear mainstream media talk about how he supported gun rights so he kind of deserved it, just a few days after they told us that the system failed the black man who came up behind a white woman and stabbed her.  And, by the way, here is the background of the system that failed him.

Someday, true conservatives (not the ones who merely wear the “R” label out of convenience, or the ones that support some tiny speck in the Middle East no matter what) are going to decide that Trump’s “moderation” is not going to get the result they want, and they want their results and don’t particularly care how they get them; it most certainly will not be pretty.

They know how to shoot back, and they are way better at it.  And, even though much of what they do is destructive, most people in the military and in law enforcement lean conservative and not kooky.

With that said, all of us are being set up by the elite written of by Codevilla. 

Conclusion

A 31-year-old young man, a husband, a father of two, was assassinated for talking.  This word combination can’t be real, but it is.

Christ or chaos.  We each face this choice in our personal lives, and as a society the choice is no different.  I pray we move toward Christ, but it seems we are being ever-increasingly pushed (manipulated) toward chaos.

Can America be MGA*?

 

*Made Great Again

There are two, only two, dynamics at work here: the truth and its opposite, pragmatism, or whatever works.

We need to raise our sights, to stop being obsessed with what is happening right now, and to see the future of mankind: peace, prosperity, and love on a world-wide scale because we have been influenced by His Spirit to treat our neighbor as we would wish to be treated BY our neighbor.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. There is no other way.

-          Roger

I have been thinking about this comment from Roger to my post, Quo Vadis MAGA? In that post, I discussed what is happening geopolitically through the lens of the Heartland Theory posited by Halford Mackinder about 120 years ago, and I used that lens to consider which way America is going under Trump and just what does he mean by “Make America Great Again.”  (Go back to the post to see what might be meant by this phrase that can mean almost anything.)

I used the post to take a step back, considering the confusion that is the Trump presidency.  And, by stepping back maybe getting some clarity – or at least reminding myself of the geopolitical lens through which I see world events playing out.

Roger’s comment has me thinking that I need to take a further step back – call it the ultimate step back – and ask: Can America be Made Great Again?  And to answer this question – to offer the ultimate and unassailable answer, there is only one source to use.

Jeremiah 18: 11 “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”’” 12 And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.”

This sounds like America today.

17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity.”

God showing the back and not the face is one of the most damning statements He makes.

2 Kings 17: 14 Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

This also sounds like America today.

18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.

Being removed from God’s sight.  Also one of the most damning statements God makes.

2 Kings 24: 3 Surely at the commandment of the Lord this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 4 and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon.

Again, removed from His sight. 

As Good a Time as Any

 

I have been thinking about this post for a while.  Given the most recent events, now is as good a time as any.

What to make of Donald Trump?  Well, that isn’t really my question, but something like that.  More like, now that we have had five months’ experience with Trump 2.0, where do we stand?  Are we headed toward an off-ramp, or are we still going full speed toward a head-on collision?

BTW – for purposes of this post, I don’t care if Trump is unwilling or unable or disallowed.  It makes no difference to answer the question: off-ramp or head-on collision?

The Good

Let’s talk about the good – none of which would have happened with anyone else as president.

Stopped the border – he seems to have done this effectively

Stopped DEI – yes…and no (more on the “no” in a minute).

MAHA – perhaps the brightest spot so far.

The Bad…or Ugly

Now for the bad / ugly – which is equal to or worse than what anyone else as president would have done.

I will end that war in one day - The only way to have done this – stop the funding, write an order stopping all aid, stopping all involvement by US personnel.  Anyone with half a brain knew this was the only way to end the war in a day.  So, I guess I assumed Trump had half a brain.

That war would never have started if I were president – you mean like Israel and Iran?  Let’s just say it really turned out to be great news that Trump didn’t bring back Bolton and Pompeo.

Reduce spending – Musk was right to call out Trump on this.

Free speech – a new DEI now aimed at protecting the most privileged group in all of the United States.

Conclusion

When Trump 2.0 began, I wrote that we would know which way we would head within 12-18 months (or I wrote something like this).  I think it is safe to say, there is no off-ramp. 

A couple of months’ ago, I asked some friends: in four years, do you think we will be in worse shape than today because Trump was president?  I think the answer is a clear YES.

Whatever comes after Trump, it will be tyranny.  Trump has further opened that door for the left, if the left wins; and if the right still doesn’t get what it wants from Trump, and the right wins, they will want an absolute tyrant.