Absolutely Padriag, Morgan Freeman is spot on. I don't think they will ever stop talking about racism, it is the ticket to victimhood.
A student loan debt crisis is also looming, and this is something that is mostly ignored. Loan payments have been paused due to the pandemic, and Biden continues to kick the can down the road. When these federal and private educational loans finally come due, there will be hundreds of thousands of borrowers so deeply in debt their financial futures will be paralyzed by large monthly payments. With rising inflation, and the cost of housing and food soaring, the majority of these loans will most likely go into default. All of this will trickle down to our economy. They know this is coming, and it will be ugly.
I watched Trump’s Newsmax interview this morning. He said if he were President China would pay us trillions because of the pandemic. Unfortunately, he’s not President. It’s will be very ugly.
I feel for young people growing up nowadays. The future they are heading for in a human sense looks very, very bleak indeed. Especially in terms of restrictions of human freedoms. One thing I have noticed recently is a real addiction to Smart Phones. I do notice in the hospital that the young Doctors and Nurses always seem to have them in their hands, almost as though they were part of their bodies and they become so engrossed in them as to become lost and I would bump into them if I did not step out of their way. They also seem so submissive of Government and every kind of authority, to me they don't seem questioning enough. On a more hopeful side they seem less accepting of sexual decadence. Of one night stands. But there are dangers surrounding them on so many sides. If it comes to making time for God in their lives, I don't think they would find it easy to find the time for God. There are so few occasions of silence. We need silence to hear the voice of God speaking in our hearts and in today's world there is so little silence. The thing that gives me the greatest hope though is that Mary has promised us victory. 'In the End my Immaculate Heart will Triumph'. Mary is the Great Sign God has given us for these End Times.
Agree completely. I am dealing with phone dependency myself. Lent is coming. I think I will unplug for my penance. (It will take a firestorm of grace from the Holy Spirit but I think He will help.) Young people have been horribly let down by the culture. Even th ose with good parents get sucked into it. They really are sheep without a shepherd and we know from scripture that Jesus took great pity on them. This is my hope for all of them. That Jesus will take great pity on them and answer our prayers.
Administration is totally on board with the agenda. You are declared ‘racist’ if you dare to complain. It is horrible.
Op-ed: Xi and Putin tout a ‘redistribution of power in the world,’ and they aren’t shy about their ambitions Published Sun, Feb 6 2022 11:51 AM EST Frederick Kempe@FredKempe https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/06/op-...and-they-arent-shy-about-their-ambitions.html Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China February 4, 2022. Aleksey Druzhinin | Sputnik | Kremlin | via Reuters This is big. The two leading authoritarians of our time have declared unprecedented common cause, perhaps even a de facto security alliance, with aspirations of shaping a new world order to replace the one fashioned by the United States and its partners after World War II. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to make sure the world didn’t miss the importance of their 38th personal meeting in Beijing on Friday, just hours before the opening of the Winter Olympics and with more than 100,000 Russian troops threatening Ukrainian independence and sovereignty. So, they publicly released the entirety of their audacious, 5,300-word joint statement in English this weekend, declaring that “a trend has emerged towards redistribution of power in the world” – namely toward them and away from the U.S. and its democratic partners and allies. There’s a lot in the statement worth reading and digesting, but here’s my rough executive summary: Russia and China are throwing in their lot in a gesture of cooperation that exceeds even Stalin’s partnership with Mao, in each other’s regions and around the world. For the first time, Beijing has joined Moscow in opposing NATO enlargement and embracing Putin’s vision for a new European security order. Russia returned the favor by opposing the new Australia-U.S.-U.K. security agreement, endorsing its One China Policy, embracing the Russia-India-China cooperation format, and blessing its Arctic role. Russia and China aren’t calling their partnership an alliance of the NATO variety, but they aren’t shy about its ambitions. Xi and Putin, read the statement, “reaffirm that the new inter-State relations between Russia and China are superior to political and military alliance of the Cold War era. Friendship between the two States has no limits. There are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation (emphasis added), strengthening of bilateral cooperation is neither aimed against third countries nor affected by the changing international environment and circumstantial changes in third countries.” A Biden administration official sees a silver lining in that the statement doesn’t mention Ukraine by name, perhaps showing China’s discomfort with the prospect of invasion but, at the same time, Xi has said nothing to dissuade Putin’s escalation. In the statement, the two sides are redefining the very meaning of democracy to embrace their repressive systems that censor media, prohibit dissent, lock up political opponents and support like-minded authoritarian systems. Ludicrous as this democracy embrace might sound, it’s further evidence that China and Russia are trying to wrest the high moral ground from electoral democracies through Orwellian gobbledygook. “The sides note,” reads the statement, “that Russia and China as world powers with rich cultural and historical heritage have long-standing traditions of democracy, which rely on thousand-years of experience of development, broad popular support and consider of the need and interests of citizens.” Further, “It is only up to the people of the country to decide whether their State is a democratic one.” Elsewhere, however, it warns “that the advocacy of democracy and human rights must not be used to put pressure on other countries.” The broad areas the agreement embraces are head-spinning. The sides agreed to more closely link their economies through cooperation between China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union. They will work together to develop the Arctic. They’ll deepen coordination in multilateral institutions and to battle climate change. Back in June 2019, I wrote in this space, “It’s time to start worrying more about what could become the most profound geopolitical shift of the post-Cold War years. China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are deepening their two countries’ strategic alignment even as long-time democratic allies across the Atlantic grow more distant.” Perhaps the biggest mistake Western strategists have made since then has been to separate the Chinese and Russian challenges to the post-Cold War international order as distinct and only loosely related. The Biden administration even hoped to “park” the Russia issue as it dealt with the more pressing and long-term China challenge. Yet for all the two countries’ historic animosities and considerable remaining differences, perhaps never in their history have they been closer. Never since World War II have the leading authoritarians of their time been so strategically aligned or personally close – at a time when both have an eye on their historic legacies. As Putin considers his own options regarding Ukraine, his relationship with China also could help him manage any potential new sanctions through deepened energy agreements and financial arrangements. On Friday, China and Russia announced new oil and gas deals valued at an estimated $117.5 billion. Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, announced a new agreement to supply 100 million tons of crude through Kazakhstan to China’s state company CNPC over the next 10 years, while Gazprom agreed it would ship China 10 billion cubic meters of gas a year through a new pipeline. There’s no denying the economic numbers: Last year trade between the two countries hit a record $147 billion, making China Russia’s largest trading partner. Western intelligence sources consider the time of maximum danger for Ukraine to be after Feb. 20, the last day of the Olympics, which at the same time coincides with the end of the massive “Allied Resolve” military exercises in Belarus (that could mask invasion preparations). It also is a time when the Ukrainian ground and rivers remain sufficiently frozen to allow for heavy military equipment to move most effectively. Whatever Putin chooses regarding Ukraine, however, this week’s joint statement underscores a tectonic shift in global relations that will require far more creative, collaborative and long-term thinking among the U.S. and its partners. The growing closeness between Russia and China has increased both countries’ advantages at a time when their leaders believe they have the momentum, that democracies have weakened, the U.S. is politically divided, and where new technologies are empowering authoritarian leaders’ ability to surveil and control their societies. It’s tempting to poke holes in the 5,300-word joint statement, noting its inconsistencies and its hypocrisy. What unites Russia and China remains mostly their opposition to the U.S. They’ve cynically appropriated the concepts that define U.S. foreign policy – democracy, human rights, and economic development – although their actions are ridiculously inconsistent with their rhetoric. Without a more aggressive and consistent push-back among democracies, expect more Chinese-Russian push forward. It would be a profound mistake to see the Ukraine crisis in isolation at a time when Xi and Putin have provided its disturbing context. —Frederick Kempe is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Atlantic Council.
13 Martyrs from 2021, note, we may think of Africa but there are 3 from Mexico. I vaguely recall the story of Nuns killed in South Sudan (story link after image): ACN Organizes Night of Witness in France – Exaudi Bottom row, Frere Luigi in Venezuela, the article reads he was killed by Thieves: RIP Brother Luigi Manganiello - Beloved Catholic Religious Brother Killed by Thieves in Venezuela (catholicnewsworld.com) I added that last bit in because though, I knew about the others, I Had not heard this.
It really is horrible. The inmates have captured the asylum! Hard not to think of the movie Matrix. One massive brainwashing. "They will be insane and will say to you--you are mad! You are not like us."(St Anthony of Egypt describing our times)
Vladimir Putin keeps saying how super Christian Russia is... Well then how can they be close friends with the devil's who control China?
I saw Putin at the opening ceremony of the Olympics. He was in the empty stands alone, waving to the Russian team. I was thinking that he had just met with Xi, and wondered what plan was hatched between the two.
Putin may be brilliant, but how passing are the things of this World. I read a wonderful quote from St Vincent De Paul. He said that the only important thing in life is to love God. Everything else is nonsense. How true
I don't like to borrow from trouble, but today I noticed the nearby middle school has gone from being ____ Middle School to ____ Community Middle School. The school's name is NOT the name of this town. It is NOT in a suburb; it is IN this town and in fact its western (property) boundary is a scant 5 minute walk from where I'm sitting. I have NEVER seen the word Community attached to an in-town (or otherwise) school before. A Marxist thing?
Statements are one thing but let's see how united they are when China starts feeling the economic pinch as a result of siding with Putin's policies. Most telling IMO will be to see which European nations continue to try to sit the fence on this issue.
I don't know anything about Victor David Hanson other than that he seems to be popular with American Conservatives, but some here might be interested in his take on the current political situation in the US. From the outside looking in, I think he makes a lot of sense but maybe US based members know something about him that I don't which would make his opinion less reliable. It took a while to dawn on me that what Americans call the middle class is really a combination of what traditionally would have been our working and middle class categories.
I believe Victor Davis Hanson is seen very positively. Victor Davis Hanson - Wikipedia The Conservative website, "Townhall" has a wide array of writers, I can't vouch for them however that is where I first saw VDH write; and he and most of the other well known writers there are very good. Victor Davis Hanson: Biography and Latest Articles (townhall.com) Matt Vespa, Katie Pavlich, Guy Benson, all stalwarts, some of the names look a bit different now. I never read it often but would sometimes. Townhall: Conservative News, Cartoons, Top Stories & Commentary And maybe decent cartoons too.
Thank you for those links. I look forward to reading some of his articles in the Town Hall link. Skimming his Wikipedia page jogged my memory. I recall watching another interview where he spoke about his farming background but I recall little else of what that interview was about. Here's another perspective on the situation in Ukraine. This one is a talk given by John Meirsheimer at the University of Chicago in 2015. It's worth watching although Meirsheimer comes across as an egotistical bigot presenting himself as tolerant, even handed and all-knowing. As far as I can see, the only people occupying the high moral ground where Ukraine is concerned are the innocent, powerless citizens being treated like pawns on a chessboard. There's certainly nothing likeable about Meirsheimer who bemoans American meddling but comes across as someone who would be happy enough if he were Secretary of Meddling.
I have seen it before where a larger school absorbed several smaller school districts that were closed for declining enrollment or other such reason.
