Catholicism Exposed (REBUTTAL to Calvinist John MacArthur)

 

A ‘Palestinian’ State is a Death Wish for the West

 Some two weeks before the 2nd anniversary of October 7, the UN, the UK, France, Australia, Canada and other failed radical governments rallied to commemorate the massacres, kidnappings and rapes by giving the Islamic terrorists responsible for it their own ‘state’.

Along with a High Holidays gift to the Jews celebrating their new year.

The invention of a ‘Palestinian’ state is the capstone to the Big Lie that this is a war between Israel and some smaller population in Gaza or the West Bank rather than a regional conflict between Muslims and Jews, as part of a global conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Since Oct 7, Israel has been forced to fight not only Hamas in Gaza, but Muslim terrorist forces in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iran. A possible war with Egypt may be on the horizon. And while that may seem like a lot, but back in 1948, Israel was forced to fight its War of Independence against genocidal invasions by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

During that conflict, Egypt and Jordan seized control of those parts of Israel that they today claim represent a ‘Palestinian’ state. No such state was created because those territories never represented a unique culture or nationality, only a platform for pursuing the Muslim genocide of the Jews of Israel, as part of the larger mission of the Islamic conquest of non-Muslims.

With the complicity of plenty of those same non-Muslims.

The Jordanian armies in 1948 were under the command of British generals with the sanction of the Labour government which not only backed the Islamic invasions of Israel but that same year began the process of filling the United Kingdom with Muslim mass migration through the British Nationality Act. PM Keir Starmer is doubling down on both policies of his Labour predecessors, supporting Islamic terrorists in Israel and inviting them to invade and overrun the UK.

That is what ‘globalizing the intifada’ really means.

The ‘intifada’ is not a war in Israel. It’s a world war. It may well be the final world war. But unlike Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union or Communist China, the invaders don’t represent a mighty military force that can swamp the civilized world on its own. It could not claim a single piece of territory without our sustained appeasement, mutual backstabbing and helpful nation building.

The oil industry that funds the global war was built by America, British and other western hands, that was then nationalized by Muslim dictatorships, or like Aramco, gradually nationalized with American taxpayers funding the Saudi tyranny through the ‘Golden Gimmick’ lobbied for by John J. McCloy, the former president of the World Bank, chairman of the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, who had once quipped, “the Constitution is just a scrap of paper.”

Western governments built up Muslim armies in the hopes that they would prove a bulwark against Communism. They welcomed every Muslim dictatorship into the UN, for the same reason, making a mockery of its commitment to democracy, only to have them either side with the Soviet Union against America, or play America and the USSR against each other.

Western governments were tasked with maintaining the power of the same Muslim governments that were funding airline hijackings and bombs in their own cities. And then when America and Europe intervened to protect those governments, that was used as a rallying cry for Jihadists to launch a new era of terrorism, and when we intervened to promote ‘democracy’, that allowed the Jihadists to come to power and then double down on waging a war on the West.

After selling out the Christians of Lebanon and the secular government of Iran, Western governments spent a generation working to legitimize an Islamic terrorist state inside Israel made up of the parts of Israel that Egypt and Jordan had lost during their attempt to wipe out Israel in the Six Day War, to finally bring about peace. A generation later the ‘Palestinian’ state demonstrated that it could kill far more people and cause far more havoc once it had land.

Oct 7 should have buried the ‘Palestinian’ state experiment once and for all, instead it gave it new life, showing once again that the real impetus for the ‘Palestinian’ cause isn’t peace: it’s war. Peace has never been a real world criteria for ‘Palestinian’ statehood. If it had, the state wouldn’t have been set up by terrorists, the terrorists wouldn’t have been armed by Western governments, and Oct 7 wouldn’t have led Western governments to embrace a terror state.

Too many people suffer from the misunderstanding that if only they prove to these same governments that the ‘Palestinian’ state is a terrorist operation, they would stop pushing for it. But the only thing such arguments accomplish is to make leaders like France’s Macron or the UK’s Starmer briefly cringe like clergymen caught on camera in a whorehouse before they go right back to vocally advocating for a terrorist state. Because it’s the terrorism they really want.

When there is a fundamental discrepancy between what people say they want and what they do, the answer is to ignore what they say and pay attention to their actions. If only their behavior had been limited to Israel, some might be justified in attributing it to antisemitism. But if Starmer, Macron, Canada’s Carney, Australia’s Albanese and many others simply hate Jews, why are they filling their own countries with Muslim terrorists and suppressing opposition to them?

Western leaders calling for a ‘Palestinian’ state are not antisemitic. (Or at least that doesn’t prove they are.) They’re trying to destroy Israel just like they’re destroying their own countries.

Even as European leftists are demanding a ‘Palestinian’ state in Israel and threatening to bring its existence into being by force, they’re creating ‘Palestinian’ states in their own countries. And the Americans who are the most enthusiastic about waving PLO flags want to destroy America.

This isn’t putting words in their mouths or their minds. It’s what they now openly say.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest, whose most famous figure, Mahmoud Khalil, was embraced by Democrats and the media, called for the total eradication of Western civilization.”

At The People’s Conference for Palestine, there was a call to “destroy the idea of America in Americans’ heads.” The ‘globalized’ intifada is about a world war on a truly global scale.

The drive for a ‘Palestinian’ state is a civilizational death wish out to destroy the civilized world. Those who collaborate with it want war, not peace, and they are as willing to destroy their own countries as they are enthusiastic about bringing down Israel. The only supporters of a ‘Palestinian’ state are the enemies of civilization and their useful idiots.

A ‘Palestinian’ State is a Death Wish for the West | Frontpage Mag

After a string of leftwing buffooneries, Rubio throws Colombia's President Petro out of the U.S.

 One of President Trump's most valuable cabinet members, Marco Rubio, who wears both the Secretary of State cap, and the National Security Advisor cap, gets called on to perform a lot of duties. 

One of them is the equivalent of barroom bouncer.

At the United Nations, he threw out the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro from the U.S. premises.

After a string of leftwing buffooneries, Rubio throws Colombia's President Petro out of the U.S. - American Thinker

Qatar’s Gamble With Hamas Backfires

 For decades, Qatar has held itself out as a U.S. ally while simultaneously acting as a patron of Hamas, a U.S. government-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Qatar housed Hamas’s leadership, financed its operations, and used the Al Jazeera network, the mouthpiece of the Qatari government, to spin Hamas’s terrorism as “resistance” or a “struggle for freedom.” Qatar’s doublespeak and double-dealing have finally come to an end.

Predictably, Arab media and official statements rushed to frame Qatar as a “victim” of Israeli aggression. Talking heads lamented: how could Israel dare to strike inside the borders of Qatar, which had been “helping” to secure the release of Israeli hostages? The irony is unbearable. Just one day before the strike, Al Jazeera celebrated a terrorist attack in Jerusalem on civilians waiting at a bus stop. Hamas leaders in Doha praised the terrorist attack, claimed responsibility, and called for more carnage. When Hamas terrorists in Gaza carried out the horrific October 7 attack on Israel, Al Jazeera broadcast Hamas leaders in Doha celebrating and praying as a group while images of Hamas terrorists rampaging and massacring Israeli civilians played on a nearby television.

Qatar should not be surprised that the terrorists it hosted on its soil brought Israeli fire within its borders. A sovereign state cannot be a patron to a terrorist organization while expecting immunity from the consequences. Because Qatar enabled Hamas to attack the sovereign state of Israel, it was inevitable that Israel would respond.

Qatar’s Gamble With Hamas Backfires | Frontpage Mag

The Evil Roots of Jew-Hating Social Influencers

 In the last year, especially the last few months, we have seen many  social influencers who claim to be “devout Christians” attacking Israel specifically and all Jews generally.  From Tucker Carlson to Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes to Jake Shields, pundit after pundit has been attacking Judaism to lesser and greater degrees.  Denying the Holocaust, praising Adolf Hitler, accusing different scoundrels like Jeffrey Epstein of actually being Mossad agents, accusing Judaism of being a religion of pedophilia and Israel a nation that welcomes sexual abusers, and even accusing Israel of assassinating JFK...the list of their vile lies seems endless.

Many of these Jew-hating pundits, especially Fuentes and Owens (and their followers), justify their hate by “revealing” what they say are quotes from the Talmud (a sacred Jewish text and commentary assembled between the third and sixth centuries).  They justify their antisemitism through a litany of clearly horrific “quotes”: “A Jew may have sex with a child under 9 years old,” “Gentiles prefer sex with cows,” “ Even the best of Gentiles should be killed,” and more.  These ignorant influencers claim that the Talmud has all sorts of anti-Christian quotes about Jesus: that he is “a fool and insane,” “a bastard conceived in menstruation,” “Christ is evil and was Esau himself,” “a seducer,” and “is buried in hell.”  And more...

Owens claims to have “done her research” and that this is hidden Jewish theology.  Except, without exception, the quotes that are being used are either entirely fabricated or conscious mistranslations.  So how is it that these antisemitic pundits are referencing anything about the Talmud?

Almost without exception, these mistranslations and made-up quotes are coming from a book called The Talmud Unmasked, written in 1892 by a Jew-hating criminal priest named Justinas Pranaitis (some of which he took from Motiejus Valancius, a bishop from a generation earlier).  Pranaitis was a convicted blackmailer, forced to flee St. Petersburg because of his crimes, and an avowed hater of Jews.  When called in as an “expert witness” for the blood libel trial of Menahem Bellis in 1912, his testimony demonstrated such an extreme lack of knowledge about Judaism and the Talmud that “many in the audience occasionally laughed out loud when he clearly became confused and couldn’t even intelligibly answer some of the questions asked by [Bellis’s] lawyer.”  (Bellis was acquitted.)

But in 1892, he wrote this book, which the Jew-haters like Fuentes, Owens, et al. are quoting from, which is subtitled “The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians.”  In it, he purports to quote from the Talmud teachings about Jesus, Christians, Freemasonry, secret Jewish rituals, Jewish conspiracy movements, etc.  This book has been universally rejected by scholars and academics as a work of antisemitism couched as a piece of academia, but that doesn’t stop the Jew-hating social influencers from quoting it repeatedly.

The Evil Roots of Jew-Hating Social Influencers - American Thinker

UK Gets a Muslim Terrorist Counterterrorism Minister

 

• [I]t's also a new chapter for the people of England as a Pakistani Muslim woman who has made no secret of her hatred and contempt for them will now be empowered to persecute them using not only her control over immigration to displace them, but also her new arsenal of 'public safety', 'national security' and 'law enforcement' power to escalate her targeting of them.

• What sort of chapter it is can be understood from Mahmood's past declaration that "the people you see holding the English flag most of the time down my neck of the woods will be the EDL and they are white and they are male and they're bad people."

• The Home Secretary is responsible for law enforcement. These "white men" will be the ones she comes after. Mahmood had previously proposed banning offenders from 'pubs' instead of arresting them. This new twist on the Starmer regime's infamous two-tier policing would punish Englishmen while giving Muslims a pass. And implement Islamic Sharia law in the bargain.

• While Shabana Mahmood deemed English people terrorists, actual Muslim terrorists were another matter entirely.

UK Gets a Muslim Terrorist Counterterrorism Minister :: Gatestone Institute

Gunman Shouting “Free Palestine” Opens fire at New Hampshire Country Club

 A Nashua country club where a wedding was taking place turned into a war zone when a gunman opened fire while declaring “Free Palestine”.

One man is reportedly dead and a number of others are wounded in the attack that took place in the restaurant at the Sky Meadow Country Club.

There was a wedding at the country club at the time and the couple did not appear to be Jewish. There’s no apparent reason why it would be the target of a terrorist attack, but that’s what happens when the ‘intifada’ gets globalized.

The attack could have been worse, but one of the men on the scene smashed a chair over the shooter’s head.

“Free Palestine” being shouted at terrorist attacks usually means the perpetrators are leftist ‘red’ auxiliaries of the ‘green’ Islamic terrorists.

Gunman Shouting "Free Palestine" Opens fire at New Hampshire Country Club | Frontpage Mag

Look in the mirror, Jimmy

 Many years ago, my father’s cousin in Cuba was arrested for expressing a public opinion against the Castro regime.  He spent 14 years in a political prison after the regime made up some excuses to find him guilty in a sham trial.  My point for bringing up that story is that nothing like that is going to happen to Jimmy Kimmel.  He is free to sign with another network or do whatever he wants.

Hopefully, someone will tell Jimmy to look in the mirror and see the man responsible for his demise, as The New York Post reminds us:

So Kimmel had zero excuse for his Monday claims, and even less for staying silent on Tuesday, despite rising public outrage: No retraction, apology nor even words of regret.

His only ‘excuse’ is that he lives in a coastal bubble, utterly removed from anyone who’d challenge the increasingly unreal left-liberal narrative.

It’s a problem for most elite US media, of course, but also for the late-night hosts who’ve dived so deep into political commentary — and been hemorrhaging viewers as a result, turning shows that once minted money into loss-leaders.

Funny how business works.  You call Trump a fascist and racist every night and people tune you out.  It does not make the advertisers happy either, because they want their products and services consumed by as many people as possible, not just Kamala Harris voters.

Jimmy forgot a basic business principle: Insult your audience and it will get smaller!

So the networks have to look at their programming and ask a simple question:  Who do we want watching our shows?  Before they answer the question, go back and watch a little of the Johnny Carson magic.  He was very successful because he avoided the partisan politics that consumed Kimmel, CNN, and others.

Look in the mirror, Jimmy - American Thinker

Michigan Muslim Mayor Informs Christian He’s ‘Not Welcome’ in Dearborn After He Objects to Street Signs Honoring Islamic Terrorist Sympathizer

 The mask has totally fallen off of Islamists who are in political power in the United States. A glaring example of that is Dearborn Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud, who told a Christian resident that he was no longer welcome in the city after he objected to street signs that honor an Islamic terrorist sympathizer.

The mask has totally fallen off of Islamists who are in political power in the United States. A glaring example of that is Dearborn Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud, who told a Christian resident that he was no longer welcome in the city after he objected to street signs that honor an Islamic terrorist sympathizer.

Michigan Muslim Mayor Informs Christian He’s ‘Not Welcome’ in Dearborn After He Objects to Street Signs Honoring Islamic Terrorist Sympathizer - RAIR

Qatar is an Islamic Terrorist State

 Why are Hamas leaders in Qatar? Same reason Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, was there before a member of the Qatari royal family helped him escape ahead of the FBI coming in to get him.

American officials say the FBI and CIA just missed capturing the al Qaeda leader believed to have organized the 9/11 attacks — and now believed to be planning a new attack against Americans — because it appears he was protected and tipped off by a member of the royal family in Qatar, Abdullah Bin Khalid al-Thani.

In 1996, the FBI tracked Mohammed, under indictment on charges of terrorism, to Qatar’s capital city, Doha, and was within hours of capturing him.

“We had located Khalid Sheikh,” Cloonan told ABCNEWS. “We were prepared to fly the plane in and to take him out.”

But Cloonan says Mohammed was tipped off shortly after Qatar officials were told of the plan and headed for the airport.

Same reason Taliban leaders were there. Or how the Qataris got our people killed in Benghazi.

Qatar made itself into a hub for the Muslim Brotherhood, the group behind Hamas and Al Qaeda, and various Islamist operations around the world.

It’s an enemy of America, Israel and the entire civilized world, but it also engages in bribery on a global scale at almost unthinkable levels, it deploys a worldwide propaganda machine, Al Jazeera, and despite being a tiny slave state with a small population, punches far above its weight.

We should not be in Qatar. And Qatar should not be in America.

Qatar is an Islamic Terrorist State

Palestinian Journalists Attacked – By Whom?

 

• Reporters Without Borders also ignored allegations that many of the Palestinian journalists targeted by the Israel Defense Forces were affiliated with Hamas and other terror groups.

• The silence of the international community has empowered Hamas to get rid of most of its political critics, as well as journalists who dared to criticize the terror group and its leaders. Consequently, the only Palestinian journalists who were free to operate in the Gaza Strip for nearly the past two decades were those working for Qatar's Al-Jazeera (Arabic) television empire, serving as Hamas's unofficial mouthpiece, or those whose reporting was limited to attacking and smearing Israel.

• Several international news agency journalists received telephone threats and warnings against covering Hamas' suppression of the protests.

• Those who continue to ignore Hamas atrocities and human rights abuses against Palestinians are doing a great disservice to the Palestinians: they are allowing Hamas to get away with its crimes against its own people.

Palestinian Journalists Attacked – By Whom? :: Gatestone Institute

Hamas-Aligned CAIR Outraged after DHS Cuts Funding to Terror-Linked Islamist Groups

 A prominent Muslim nonprofit organization linked in a federal court case to Hamas is crying foul after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cut an estimated $8 million in security grants to Muslim American groups accused of “alleged affiliations to terrorist activities.”

Yet, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has urged Muslim American groups to reject DHS grants, bears direct responsibility for corrupting the federal government’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

For years, CAIR helped promote the security program among radical mosques and Islamic centers. Now, CAIR claims that the government is cutting off funds to Muslim nonprofits merely because of their “criticism of Israel’s genocide.”

In a statement to Fox News, CAIR insisted that “the government cannot ban American organizations from receiving federal grants based on their religious affiliation or their criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

In truth, DHS pulled security grants to dozens of radical organizations in response to a Middle East Forum report, written by this author, that exposed $25 million in historical DHS grants to groups with ideological links to terrorism. CAIR, which placed American communities at risk when it helped extremist groups apply for security funding, dismissed the report as “ravings.”

Published on July 21, “Homeland Insecurity: Unraveling DHS Funding of Terror-Linked and Extremist Groups,” went as far back as the Obama administration to identify DHS grants to 501(c) nonprofits with ties Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, among others. The lionshare of this funding was allocated through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administered grants for security improvements to houses of worship, such as bulletproof glass, surveillance cameras, and armed security guards.

There is nothing in the 10,000-word report to suggest that political criticism of Israel resulted in any group’s disqualification. Instead, the study documents antisemitic sermons and anti-Jewish conspiracies expressed at government-funded Islamist mosques. It shows how taxpayer dollars went to mosques that harbored 9/11 hijackers and other terror suspects.

Hamas-Aligned CAIR Outraged after DHS Cuts Funding to Terror-Linked Islamist Groups - Middle East Forum

Japan’s PM Shigeru Ishiba Resigns as Critics Call His ‘African Hometown’ Program a Gateway to Mass Migration

 Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced Sunday he will step down as his Liberal Democratic Party slumps in the polls and critics blast his government over its “African Hometown” program seen as a backdoor scheme to enable mass migration from Africa to Japan.

Ishiba, who took office in October, had resisted resignation demands within his own party for more than a month, saying such a step would cause a political vacuum when Japan faces key challenges in and outside the country, AP reports.

His departure came one day before his party was to decide whether to hold an early leadership election, a barely disguised no-confidence motion against him if approved.

It also follows what is seen as an attempt by Ishiba, 68, to quietly open the borders of Japan to mass migration schemes, as Breitbart News reported.

Japan’s PM Shigeru Ishiba Resigns as Critics Call ‘African Hometown’ Program a Gateway to Mass Migration

Zohran Mamdani’s brain trust is full of young, privileged lefty radicals with little government experience — who could one day lead NYC

 Shirkers of the world, unite!

A strong collective of Zohran Mamdani’s core brain trust are 30-somethings or even younger Gen Zers with little to no experience in government — but long histories of radical left-wing politics, a review by The Post found.

Mamdani’s front-runner status in the Big Apple mayoral race puts these untested youths — who variously have ties to billionaire George Soros, grew up in swanky homes and went to posh private schools — a stone’s throw from the levers of power.

“We’re getting ready for another administration of shocking naïveté,” one Democratic operative said.

The 33-year-old socialist Queens lawmaker harnessed the youth vote to pull off an astounding win in the Democratic primary, all while waving off attacks from opponents that he was too wet behind the ears to effectively govern the nation’s largest city.

But Mamdani has done little after clinching the Dem nomination in June to build up a strong stable of seasoned hands or those bearing the calluses of the working-class voters whom he champions.

Out of roughly 20 operatives in Mamdani’s inner circle, eight are under 36 years old.

Three of those politicos have ties to Soros, the progressive activist and investor — and about half a dozen grew up in million-dollar pads, according to Zillow estimates, with access to celebrities and private schools. 

The median salary in the Big Apple is about $58,000 a year — but many of Mamdani’s top confidantes rake in an average of $10,000 to $12,000 a month, a review of campaign finance records found. 

“His City Hall inner circle would also be in their 20s and 30s,” said Ken Frydman, a former press secretary for Rudy Giuliani’s City Hall and a longtime Democratic operative.

Zohran Mamdani's brain trust is full of young, privileged lefty radicals with little government experience — who could one day lead NYC

Swiss-Tunisian scholar says Islamic norms of male superiority are fueling domestic violence and femicides in Switzerland

 

Switzerland is confronting a surge in domestic violence after 15 femicides were recorded in the first half of 2025. In a commentary for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Swiss-Tunisian scholar and political Islam activist Saïda Keller-Messahli said that offenders disproportionately often come from Muslim countries and that the role of Islam in shaping attitudes toward women must be openly acknowledged.

“Reports of men killing their wives, ex-partners, or daughters because they don’t behave as they wish are increasing,” she noted.

She cited research by forensic scientist Frank Urbaniok showing that Afghans are reported for serious violent crimes five times more often than Swiss citizens, Moroccans eight times more often, and Tunisians nine times more often.

“The disproportionate crime rate has a lot to do with cultural influences. It is about how violence is dealt with, the image of women, or the role of the rule of law in these countries,” Urbaniok told the same newspaper in April.

“I have been dealing with criminals for 33 years and have seen thousands of cases at close range. That’s why I know how strong and relevant these imprints can be. Sometimes, they persist for generations,” he added.

Swiss-Tunisian scholar says Islamic norms of male superiority are fueling domestic violence and femicides in Switzerland

Pedophile and wife Beating supporting Grace Community Church Lied About Asbestos in School, Then Fired Workers for Complaining, Lawsuit Alleges

 Three former employees of the late John MacArthur’s megachurch have filed a lawsuit, claiming they were forced to work on an asbestos-laden construction site in a rush job to build a new school. Then, when the workers complained to Grace Community Church (GCC) and refused to drop the matter, GCC fired them, they say.

When asbestos turned up in the tile flooring, supervisors from Grace Community Church (GCC) lied to the workers, they say, claiming a lab test found no asbestos.

The workers stated they worked with no protective equipment and returned home to their families—and a newborn baby—with the cancer-causing fibers on their clothes, court records show.

Now Mauricio Calderon, Jose Lara, and Chad Pritchett are suing the Sun Valley, California-based church and up to 100 unnamed “Does.”

“Hour after hour, they breathed in dust, debris got on their hands and under their nails, and particulate settled on every inch of their skin, clothing, and hair,” the suit states. “They brought it home with them, releasing it into the air, where their families—including a newborn infant and immunocompromised wife—breathed it in.”

GCC Lied About Asbestos in School, Fired Workers Who Complained, Lawsuit Alleges

Hanoi's ‘green’ path to poverty and blackouts

 Vietnam's decision to prohibit gasoline-powered motorcycles in central Hanoi beginning July 1, 2026, is a textbook example of climate dogma disrupting developing economies with potentially devastating consequences.

The policy will take effect in Hanoi's downtown districts, then expand to outer areas by 2027 and eventually include gasoline automobiles. Other urban centers, such as Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, are exploring similar bans in a national push to electric vehicles.

While cleaner air is a worthy goal, this policy -- driven by global climate obsessions -- imposes heavy financial burdens on Vietnam’s people and risks destabilizing an already strained electricity grid. Presented as a triumph for the environment, Vietnam’s action could turn out to be a reckless gamble with the livelihoods of millions and domestic energy security.

This Southeast Asian nation is not Europe, where two-wheeled vehicles are mostly recreational and secondary to cars. In Vietnam, two-wheelers fulfill 73% of Hanoi’s transportation needs. The country has more than 77 million registered motorized bikes and one of the world's highest ownership rates. Vietnamese families typically have multiple motorcycles for daily commutes, school transportation, work duties, and leisure.

The government's assault on this essential transportation network reveals a stunning disconnect from citizens' needs. The cost of replacing gasoline motorbikes with electric alternatives is staggering for most families.

“Everyone wants a better environment but why give us (this) burden without proper preparation?” one local resident said in expressing her frustration to France24. Her family would need to spend about $3,000 to replace its four motorbikes. That figure represents more than 40% of Hanoi’s per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product). For working-class households, this is more than an inconvenience; it is a financial impossibility.

Vietnam's electricity infrastructure struggles to meet current demand, making mass motorcycle electrification a recipe for catastrophic grid failure. The country's electricity consumption is projected to grow 10-12% annually through 2030 -- among Asia's fastest rates. For every 1% of economic growth, electricity demand increases 1.5%. With Vietnam targeting 7% annual economic growth, electricity requirements will surge far beyond current capacity.

Summer 2023 brought devastating outages when insufficient rainfall reduced hydropower generation, forcing factories and businesses to halt operations. The economic damage reached $1.4 billion, which is equivalent to 0.3% of Vietnam's GDP. Northern Vietnam experienced rolling blackouts and sudden power cuts, with some businesses receiving little or no warning.

The country’s north, where the motorcycle ban begins, is under a particularly acute strain. Companies like Foxconn, Samsung, and Canon have established major operations there, creating unprecedented electricity demand. The power shortage got so severe that authorities requested manufacturers to voluntarily reduce consumption by 30% during months of peak usage.

Vietnam asks existing industrial users to reduce consumption, yet plans to add millions of electric motorcycles to the grid. This represents central planning at its most delusional, ignoring mathematical reality in pursuit of green ideology.

"Authorities will not be able to stop the huge amount of gasoline bikes from entering inner districts," says office worker Nguyen My Hoa, predicting enforcement difficulties. This assessment recognizes fundamental differences between Vietnamese and European urban contexts. Unlike European cities where motorcycles represent lifestyle choices, urban Vietnam depends on two-wheel transportation for economic survival.

Because Vietnam generates a large share of its electricity at coal- and natural gas-fired plants, every e-bike will run indirectly on fossil fuels. In effect, the ban will be a shift in the burning of fossil fuels from internal combustion engines to power plants. The so-called “environmental payoff” is negligible, if it exists at all, while the costs are immense.

The government frames its electric vehicle promotion as "essential for realizing green development objectives and fulfilling international commitments." This is a bureaucratic admission to satisfying international environmental pressures at the expense of serving the needs of Vietnamese citizens.

Vietnam's commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050 is driving policies that ignore economics. The motorcycle ban represents everything wrong with contemporary climate policy: The ideological priorities of wealthy nations are imposed on populations who cannot afford them, supported by infrastructure that does not exist, and powered by energy systems already failing.

Vietnam's leaders should choose economic sovereignty over environmental submission before irreparable damage is inflicted on their nation's prosperity and their people’s welfare.

Hanoi's ‘green’ path to poverty and blackouts - American Thinker

Tianjin Summit: The Authoritarians’ Answer to NATO

 Over the Labor Day weekend, as missiles rained down on Kyiv and war continued in Gaza, a vastly different drama unfolded in Tianjin, China. More than twenty heads of state gathered under the banner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Among them: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of Iran.

Western readers may not recognize the SCO the way they recognize NATO or the G7. But they should. Once a regional talk shop, the SCO has become a powerful geopolitical platform, the world’s largest authoritarian-leaning bloc, a forum where adversaries of the free world confer legitimacy on one another.

A Stage for Putin

Think about the timing. Russia escalates missile barrages on Ukraine’s cities. Children die in their sleep as air raid sirens wail. And yet Vladimir Putin walks into Tianjin not as a pariah, but as a “partner.”

On stage, Putin reframed the Ukraine war not as an invasion but as a response to Western provocation: “We are responding to a coup, not waging an aggression.”  With India, China, and even the UN Secretary-General in the room, that line gave Moscow’s false narrative an international platform.

Putin also held bilateral meetings with Modi, Erdoğan, and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian -- evidence that sanctions have not cut him off from global relevance. Each embrace from Xi, each staged photo-op, chipped away at the credibility of Western isolation strategies.

Xi’s Alternative World Order

For Xi Jinping, who set the meeting’s tone, the SCO is not just about keeping Russia afloat. It is about building a parallel world order. He urged members to resist “Cold War mentality” and “bullying states [a thinly veiled swipe at the U.S.].” Then he put money on the table: a SCO Development Bank, $1.4 billion in loans, 10 billion yuan for the Interbank Consortium, plus scholarships and training programs.

This is not rhetoric -- it is Beijing buying loyalty, binding Eurasia’s economies closer to China. The message to the Global South (developing nations across Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Oceania) was unmistakable: “The West does not run the world anymore. We do.”

Modi’s Balancing Act

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck a careful balance. For the first time in seven years, he visited China, signaling a tentative thaw. In Tianjin, he promoted India’s vision of the SCO on three pillars: “Security, Connectivity, and Opportunity.”

He condemned terrorism and warned against “double standards” after the  Pahalgam attack, then pressed Putin directly for a peaceful resolution in Ukraine. Modi’s presence highlighted the SCO’s reach but also India’s cautious hedging -- neither fully with the West nor fully in Beijing’s camp, a posture reminiscent of its Cold War-era nonalignment.

Iran’s Push to Escape the Dollar

Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, urged the SCO to bypass the dollar. He proposed special SCO accounts, national currency settlements, and CBDC-based infrastructure to settle cross-border trade in central bank digital currencies, along with a multilateral currency swap fund. For Tehran, this is not theory, it is survival. For Beijing and Moscow, it is a prototype of an alternative financial architecture designed to blunt U.S. sanctions and reduce dollar dominance.

Tianjin Summit: The Authoritarians’ Answer to NATO - American Thinker

Sadia Khan Got EXPOSED

 

Students could graduate faster without curriculum ‘bloat,’ expert says

 Students haven’t been completing college in four years—that’s a bad thing. And since we can’t rely on Congress to make meaningful fixes—like when the House’s attempt to raise Pell Grant eligibility from 12 to 15 credits per semester fell by the wayside—reformers need to look elsewhere. That elsewhere is making cuts to the bloated core curriculum. Not all of it, of course—sadly, colleges still have to remediate what K–12 fails to teach—but much of the excess could and should be cut.

Few issues in higher ed get less attention than the growing time it takes students to earn a degree. The average time to complete a bachelor’s degree in the U.S. is now five to six years. That’s insane. The longer students stay in school, the more it costs taxpayers, delays workforce entry, and increases reliance on aid. As Jaison Abel and Richard Deitz of the New York Fed note, the clearest cost is tuition—about $6,500 a year after aid—but the bigger loss is time. These students could be working. Instead, they’re stuck in class.

One reason for the delay? Degree requirements are bloated. A standard bachelor’s degree requires about 120 credit hours, but at least 25 percent of those are unrelated to the degree itself, and probably 10 percent are completely useless.

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, for example, students must complete 11 general education courses—nearly as many as some majors require. A core curriculum is supposed to enrich culture, cultivate character, and expose students to a broad base of knowledge. But categories like “Social & Cultural Diversity” often translate to semesters spent in courses unmoored from academic rigor and laden with ideological messaging, which not only keeps students in college longer but also delays maturity. Glenn Ricketts, a political science professor at Raritan Valley Community College and Public Affairs Director at the National Association of Scholars, says his students “often behave like middle schoolers—who endlessly defer making adult decisions about their lives.”

Some core classes offer real value. But requiring every liberal arts student to take multiple math and science courses—or STEM majors to slog through multiple English courses and diversity studies—is a waste. They don’t retain the material anyway. I had to take a geology class to meet my core requirements, and I can’t tell you a damn thing about a rock.

Students could graduate faster without curriculum ‘bloat,’ expert says | The College Fix