VIDEO: Disaffected Michael Matt asks: Did you REALLY vote for this?

I am one of the many 1000s who are (to put it mildly) disappointed that President Trump has not yet succeeded in Making America Great Again. I think POPTUS made a hyuge (mildly, again) mistake in attacking Iran, after having promised to keep us from getting entangled in any more Mid-East wars, and putting the treasure spent on Iraq and Afghanistan to better use at home. And yet, here we are, wondering how in hell he's going to get America out of this hot mess. See "WINNING! "The war is over!" POTUS orders 5000 troops back to USA", WWW 2/5/26.

I know Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper, agrees with me [or vice versa. Ed.] Here's an excerpt from the latest edition of the Remnant Underground, in which Mr Matt asks: What's going on with Trump's America? Is this what we voted for?!

ICYMI, Mr Matt said it seems to him that there's not much to choose from between the Trump Republicans and "the other guys", that neither party seems prepared to do what is necessary to truly fix a broken America. He might agree with my argument in "Uniparty politics FAILS in UK... still working in Canada though", WWW 10/5/26, that we (the AABC countries) are headed in the wrong direction, no matter which half of the Uniparty is in power.

Can you say "stalemate", boys 'n' girls?

Call me a traitor if you like, but it has to be said that the US of A has form for starting wars which it can't finish. Before Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam we can point all the way back to the War of 1812, which then POTUS James Madison said would be "only a matter of marching", all over in a month or so. Does this sound familiar?

Since the outcome of the War of 1812 is barely mentioned in US schools nowadays, let us review how Madison's little excursion turned out. There was fighting, mostly on the Canadian (British, in those days) side of the Great Lakes. The Royal Navy attacked and burned the American capital, causing Dolly Madison to pack up her dishes and flee the White House. The Americans won the final battle (New Orleans) nearly a month after a truce had been agreed. The borders of the US of A remained as they had been ante bellum. Much treasure and blood was expended, but nothing was gained.

Walt predicts a similar outcome for the American-Israeli war on Iran. 

Again, call me a traitor if you like, but I don't see a lot of winning going on here! The Israelis are said to have invaded Lebanon, but that's a sideshow. The Big Show is Iran. The mission (so far as we can understand it) is to (a) terminate the Chief Mullah and so (b) to effect the overthrow of the Islamist theocracy, while also (c) ensuring that Iran would never have nuclear weapons and (d) the supply of Big Oil would be secure forever more, Or (e) all of the above.

Three weeks in, after the loss of dozens of American lives and expenditure of many millions of dollars, as nearly as Walt can see, only (a) has been accomplished. So what? The same gang of mullahs may be hiding behind a cardboard cutout of the Son-of-the-Mullah, but they're still in control. A few oil tankers are getting through the Strait of Hormuz, but the US is clearly incapable of keeping that channel oopen to the point where President Trump is almost screaming "A little help here!?!?" at America's fair weather friends.

I can't see any favourable outcome to this conflict. POTUS says it'll be over when he thinks it's over, but when will that be? Seems to me the stage is being set for a declaration of victory and a "withdrawal" under cover of a cease-fire which will be touted as a Big Win, just like that over Hamas a few months ago.

Many Americans have been killed. US military bases in the Gulf are burning. America's so-called allies are running for diplomatic cover. The only "winning" is being done by the Israelis, who are finishing what they couldn't do in 1967. Clearly the US of A has lost control of a war that will not end until Iran says so. 

Any realist has to call the situation a strategic stalemate, with intense air campaigns failing to force capitulation or halt Iranian retaliations. While initial strikes damaged infrastructure, Iran has continued targeting energy routes in the Strait of Hormuz, leading to a protracted conflict with no clear endgame. Iran has successfully targeted global energy security, creating a protracted war.

The stalemate is causing major global disruptions, with oil prices rising over $100/bbl and increasing economic uncertainty in other regions, notes. It's hard to see how this ends except in a "draw" where both sides declare victory, or settle into a low-level, long-term confrontation that could reshape the region. Or not.

I would dearly love to be wrong. I would like to see the people of Iran liberated from the yoke of Islamist oppression. I have similar hopes for the people of Venezuela and (even more so) the people of Cuba. But we're not there yet... are we...

"Allahu Akbar!" in Michigan

Isn't it the truth I told yez yesterday when I wrote, "Islamic terrorism -- coming soon to a locale not far enough from your home!" You never know where the jihadis are going to strike next. For instance...

If you go north from Detroit on US 24, passing through the majority-Arab city of Dearborn as quickly as you can, you will come after a few minutes to a nicer place, just off to the west, called West Bloomfield Township. Being a cleaner, more prosperous exurb, it has a population of Jews large enough to support a nice temple called Temple Israel -- the largest Reform temple in America.  

There, yesterday, while more than 100 children were going to school, someone drove a pickup truck "purposefully" into the synagogue, where he exchanged gunfire with security guards, and was shot dead.

30 police officers were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation as the synagogue became engulfed in flames from the truck. One security guard is being treated at hospital for injuries and is expected to recover. The school's 140 students, staff, and teachers have all been accounted for and are safe. 

Jennifer Runyan, the DEI special agent in charge at the FBI's Detroit Field Office, told the meeja "We are leading the investigation right now as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community." Strangely, though, Ms Runyan would say nothing about the dead suspect's identity, ethnicity or religion other than "There is one subject involved in this incident, who is now deceased." 

Why not tell us more? Because, she said, she had to "protect the integrity of this investigation." And to prevent the spread of Islamophobia, of course, although she didn't say that. 

However, our suspicions were confirmed within hours when the Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect, as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, who was born in Lebanon. The late Mr Ghazali entered the United States on 10 May 2011. [How? Ed.] The DHS said he then married an American, obtained an immigrant visa and became an American citizen in 2016. That's all ye know and all ye need to know.

UPDATED: Don't celebrate too soon!

Assad is an evil bastard, to be sure, and richly deserves a fate worse than living in exile in Moscow... in the winter. Hey, it could be Ottawa! 

But what do we know about Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the leaders of the so-called revolution? Only that they are a jihadist group once linked to al-Qaeda, now rebranding themselves as "moderate Muslims" -- an oxymoron if ever there was one.

If you're a Christian or a Jew, or "the wrong kind of Muslim", anywhere in the Middle East, don't just stand by... brace yourself! Worse is yet to come.

UPDATE ADDED @ 1630: No sooner said than done! Breitbart News has a report, quoting the New York Times, that Syrian rebels who overthrew the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday are executing their opponents, imposing Islamic sharia law, and threatening non-Muslim minorities, including the Kurdish population in the north. 

Videos are circulating on social media showing Syrian rebels killing people associated with the regime, some of whom may have been part of the state security services, and others who appear to have been ordinary employees.

Islamic State forces on Tuesday killed 54 people in the Homs region in central Syria who had been part of the Syrian government’s military and fled during the collapse of the Assad regime, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group.

The killings highlight the chaos in Syria as various rebel factions operate in different regions. One video also shows thousands of smashed bottles of liquor at the duty free store of the Damascus airport, where Islamist rebels apparently enforced the Islamic ban on alcohol by force, as Islamists did in Lebanon in the 1980s.

Let's not hear "I didn't see that coming" from Western leaders like Senile Joe and the Governor of the Great State of Canada.

3 things that could upset the electoral applecart

As I remarked yesterday, things are very quiet on the electoral front. 

Comrade Harris's handlers are running a textbook "basement campaign", just as they did with Senile Joe four years ago. Since the couple of interviews she gave were dumpster fires, she doesn't do interviews any more. She's appeared at a few small rallies and fundraisers, but doesn't do pressers. When someone somehow asks a question, her stock answer is, "So, I was raised in a middle-class family." That's it, that's all. Nothing to see or hear here, folks.

As for the Donald, he's out there doing rallies, making speeches, putting himself forward. Yesterday he spoke at events in Ohio and Indiana, in the same day. We're told the campaign plan for the next 40 days is to get out there into the red states, the blue states, and the purple states -- anywhere he can get a crowd, and that includes New York, California, Wisconsin and North Carolina!

The trouble is that getting out to see the American people and let them see him -- "They didn't get me yet!" -- is risky. It's not as if presidential candidates, and even sitting presidents, haven't been shot before. I'm minded of George Wallace, because this Routh, apparently suffering from severe TDS, is the same kind of nutjob who nearly killed the Little Judge and certainly ended his campaign. I do hope someone other than the security forces of the Deep State has Mr Trump's back.

Here are three things that could happen between now and the Day of Reckoning which would force the Cackler's hand and throw the election into confusion and chaos.

Demented Joe dies, or Article 25 is invoked. Brandon's "good days" -- when he knows what's going on around him -- are becoming increasingly rare. The gaffes and "senior moments" are becoming downright embarrassing. Even staunch Dimocrats should be uncomfortable when their President's wife starts running cabinet meetings!

If the President [pro tem! Ed.] kicks the bucket or is found to be non compos mentis so there's no choice but to remove him from office under the provisions of Article 25 of the Constitution, that would make the Cackler... wait for it... President. Ready or not. Among the issues she would be forced to deal with would be

The outbreak of a full-on war by Israel against both Hamas and Hezbollah. Things are starting to get hot and heavy in and around Israel. Yesterday, campers, the government you (allegedly) elected sent more American troops to the Middle East in the run-up to the next Gulf War. How many troops or where they will be deployed is, of course, a state secret. 

What will Hock Ptui (or, more accurately) her handlers do when the shit-hammer falls? Whose side will she take -- the Jews or the Arabs? It won't be possible to remain on tghe fence, or to say "I was raised in a middle-class family" any longer. 

Questions will also be raised, quite properly, about why the administration of which Ms Harris is so proud to be a part didn't do anything to prevent the hostilities reaching this boiling point. Senile Joe and Winken Blinken have put forth no plans, drawn no red lines, or done anything except to urge the warring parties to keep talking. Is the Biden-Harris tag team going to do anything of substance between now and November 5th, ot just wait and hope the whole thing blows over?

There is also the possibility that Deep State may finally succeed (God forbid!) in its efforts to assassinate President Trump. Let's skip the outrage and recriminations and consider the reality. Walt's legal advisor (Agent 3) is weak on US constitutional law, but believes that it is now too late to remove Citizen Trump from the ballot. And even if his name no longer appears on the ballot, you could write him in. So you will be able to vote for him, even if he's dead.

What happens, then, if the late Donald Trump wins? Remember that he has a running mate, the estimable Senator J.D. Vance, and (Agent 3 thinks) in most states you vote for them together, as a team. So if the Republican team, now down its star quarterback, wins, doesn't that make the second-string quarterback President?

But wait (as Vince Offer would say), there's more... It's not the popular vote that really counts, but the vote in the Electoral College. When you vote Republican -- you will, won't you? --  you are really voting for a slate of electors bound to cast their votes for... well, it could be anyone. And their votes would almost certainly go to J.D. So the death of President Trump could very well result in the election of J.D. Vance as 47th President of the United States of America!

VIDEO: From Lebanon: the exploding goats story

This is all over the Internet, but ICYMI... a report of a third wave of booby-traps rigged by the IDF to explode in the faces (or other parts) of Hezbollah jihadis in Lebanon.

This is too good -- too funny -- to be true. And it's not even from the Babylon Bee. Kudos to those responsible.

ISIS atrocities worse than ever; Canada ends mission

While Christian ["post-Christian", surely! Ed.] nations paused on the 11th to mourn and show respect for those who died to keep the world free from tyranny, racism [etc etc. Ed.], the Islamic extremists of ISIS pursued their jihad against Christians, Jews and all non-believers, including other Muslims.

In Lebanon, two suicide bombers blew themselves into Islamic smithereens, taking with them some four dozen other Muslims in a mainly Shi'ite quarter of Beirut. And in the Afghani province of Zabul, IS fighters beheaded seven ethnic Hazaras, who happen to be Shi'ites as well. The followers of the Prophet used razor wire to cut off the heads of four men, two women, and a child!

In Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, carrying coffins containing the bodies of the victims. Al Jazeera reports that the protesters, including women and men from Afghanistan's different ethnic groups - Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara - marched on the presidential tent ["palace", surely. Ed.] to urge the government to take action against rising violence against Afghan civilians.

Of course the Afghan government is pretty much powerless to do anything to or about ISIS or the Taliban, or al-Qaeda, or any of the bearded beheaders and bomb-throwers who infest not just their sandpit but the entire Middle East. That's why the US-led coalition is there, right? Because someone -- step forward President O -- thinks "we" bear some kind of responsibility for the wretched people of the armpit of the world.

Walt thinks the only responsibility America bears is that of having invaded the Middle East in the first place, during the reign of Bush I, thus exacerbating the instability and sectarian violence from which that region has always suffered and always will suffer, no matter what "we" do. Walt says it's time to go home and leave the Muslims to beheading and otherwise butchering each other. And may Allah have mercy on them.

UPDATE: Canada's new Liberal government (starring Justin Trudeau, now on screens across the Great Not-so-white North) has ordered its Defence Minister -- as Sikh! -- to end the combat mission in Iraq and Syria ASAP. Will the American forces miss their Canuck counterparts? Probably not as much as the Canucks would like to think. But at least they won't be pour any more dollars into the desert sands.

PHOTO GALLERY: The Holy Land in the 19th century

Next week is Holy Week, the prelude to the most important date in the Christian calendar -- Easter Sunday.

When we think of the Holy Land now, we get images in our mind of a crowded, dangerous, strife-torn place, not the kind of place you'd go to contemplate the events and mysteries of the Faith. So it is today, and it has been so in the past, but not always. Thanks to Agent 6 for sending us the link to "Gorgeous Pictures Of The Holy Land From 120 Years Ago"

Presented by the Business Insider website, this is a gallery of hand-coloured picture postcards from Palestine, Lebanon, Samaria and that region, which looked much the same in the late 19th century as they did in the time when Our Lord Jesus Christ walked among us. As you look at the pictures, let your mind dwell on thoughts of peace.

Another Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary... not enough?

At the specific request of Pope Francis, the bishops of Portugal consecrated that country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Lady of Fatima. This week Béchara Cardinal Boutros Raï, the patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, consecrated Lebanon and the entire Middle East to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin. Click here to read the report from Fides.


During the consecration, Cardinal Boutros Raï prayed:
Our Lady of Lebanon, we ask you to bestow your tenderness upon our beloved country Lebanon and all the Middle East, this region which soil witnessed the fulfillment of the events of His plan of redemption and from where the Church, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, took off to bring the Good News to the entire populations, bearing witness to the Lord Jesus until martyrdom and acting as the guarantor of the treasure of faith, in order to transmit it from generation to generation, until it reached us.

It is wonderful to see the aid of the Blessed Virgin being sought, for the intervention of Heaven is the only way the world will ever know a period of peace, as She promised when She appeared to the seers of Fatima.

Click here to read the report from Fides.

However... the princes of the Church and Pope Francis himself need to recall that what Our Lady asked for was the solemn and public Consecration of Russia, by name, by the Pope in union with all the bishops of the world. Nothing more...and nothing less. As Pope John Paul II said himself, Our Lady is still waiting.

Where next? Syria? Iran? Walt's morning line

Last week was a slow news week. Republican presidential wannabes are chewing on each other's haunches. The Greeks and the EU are still in denial about the former's effective bankruptcy and the inevitable demise of the euro. (Lifetime pct .986) And sound of gunfire and explosions reverberates through the streets of Baghdad, Tripoli, Homs, Damascus, Cairo etc. etc. ad infinitum.

As to Syria, the usual forces for Peace and Progress are shrieking that Something Must Be Done. And since the Arab Union (sic) and the United (sic) Nations can't agree to do anything, who better to take matters in hand than the good ole US of A.

There's also been some talk that Weapons of Mass Destruction -- to wit, nuclear bombs -- are being developed by Iran. You may think you've seen this movie before, but that was Iraq and the intended target of the non-existent WMDs was... well... that was never altogether clear but it didn't really matter, since the WMDs were really just a pretext to start a fight that the US was pretty sure it could win. (Lifetime pct .010)

No, the next American invasion of a Middle Eastern country will be a sequel to the glorious successes of Iraq and Afghanistan. And it's been in the pipeline -- the oil pipeline, that is -- for at least nine years.

In February of 2003, John Bolton (then "under-secretary of state for arms control" -- how's that for a title?!) told Israeli government officials that it would be "necessary to deal with" Iran, Syria and North Korea after the war in Iraq. Source: respected journalist Gwynne Dyer, in his column of 30 March 2003, reproduced in With Every Mistake (Random House, 2005).

Note, please, that Bolton was speaking to Israeli officials. Today the high-ranking American "advisor" doing the talking is General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. General Dempsey, echoed by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, is warning the Israelis not to attack Israel, because an Israeli attack is "not prudent". Since that phrase was already taken, Mr. Hague said an attack would not be "a wise thing".

Walt's translation and sub-text: "Hang on a minute. We're not ready yet!"

Clearly, if the Jews start a war with Iran, they will be counting on the West to intervene on their side. And plenty of people in high places in London, Ottawa and (especially) Washington would be happy to do so. The only problem is that the West is broke. The war in Afghanistan is still syphoning billions of dollars a month out of the American and Canadian economies, and the governments of Britain and other EU countries are still pouring their pounds and euros down the rathole that is Greece. The West can't afford another war.

Nor can Israel, if the West doesn't send troops, arms and matériel. Yet Iran is the Middle Eastern power the Jews fear most. Israel believes a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its very existence, citing Iran's support for Arab militant groups, its sophisticated arsenal of missiles capable of reaching Israel, and its leaders' calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

The Jews have been known to attack their neighbours before. There was the infamous Six-Day (Non-)War in 1967. In 1981, the Israeli air force destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor. And in 2007, Israeli warplanes are believed to have destroyed a target in Syria that foreign "experts" think might have been an unfinished nuclear reactor... or possibly a hospital, who knows?

But Iran would prove a much tougher nut to crack than Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq or Syria. It is doubtful that the Israelis could single-handedly destroy, Iran's nuclear facilities, if such there be. And the Iranians (not being Arabs) would surely fight back. They could fire missiles at Israel, get their Muslim friends Hezbollah and Hamas to launch rockets into "the Jewish entity" and cause global oil prices to spike by striking targets in the Gulf.

So... if the Jews are smart ["if"? Ed.] they'll wait until Western support has gone from rhetoric to military readiness. That should take until 2013, at least. Walt's prediction: no war against Iran... this year. (Lifetime pct .986)