The left’s spiritual connection with Islam

American Thinker 

Yesterday, the barrier between Spain and Morocco broke, as up to 60,000 young, military-aged Muslim men swam from Morocco past the border at Ceuta and Melilla into Spain. The incentives were twofold.

The first was that Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s hard-socialist president, announced that illegal aliens in Spain who applied for legal status would receive it. The second was that the leftist Supreme Court announced that, while those who entered Spain over a land border could instantly be turned away, those who entered through a waterway would instantly be registered as asylum seekers, entitled to a full hearing. Spain’s geography and the shared coastline between Morocco, Ceuta, and Melilla made the outcome obvious.

We also know why Spain’s leftists are happy to welcome Muslims: As leftists, they hate their national heritage and everything it stands for. When Spain parted ways with its Catholic past, it did what leftist nations do when they abandon the Biblical faiths: It stopped having children. Its birthrate is almost half the rate needed for a nation to maintain its population, let alone grow.

Spain and Islam also share a common cause: hatred for America and Israel, specifically, and the West, generally. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that.

But President Sanchez unwittingly hit upon one other reason the left loves Islam, and that’s Islam’s powerful and compatible spiritual essence. Spirituality and leftism? That sounds ridiculous, but give me a minute to make my case.

This idea came from a New York Times op-ed in which President Sanchez argued for allowing unlimited numbers of illegal aliens from across the Muslim world:

We, as Western nations, must choose between becoming closed and impoverished societies or open and prosperous ones. Growth or retreat: Those are the two options before us. And by growth, I’m not talking only about material gain, but also our spiritual development.

“Spiritual development”?! What in the world is he talking about?

Well, it occurred to me that he may be on to something. Leftism is nihilistic. It believes only in the state, and the state is an infinitely changing entity that responds to and sets rules for the needs of those in power.

Leftism offers no solutions to the fundamental, existential issues: Why am I here? (You’re a parasite. The state thinks most of you should die.) Why shouldn’t I murder, rob, cheat, assault, sleep with my sister, etc.? (You’re free to do so, as long as it benefits the state.) What happens at the end? (You’re dead. Just dead.)

Islam is different. For starters, it believes in itself. In Europe, Christianity is a dead letter.

Sure, there are pockets of Christians, but leftism either wipes out Christians or, what may even be worse, it coopts them. So you have a Pope who encourages unassimilable Muslims to enter Europe illegally, or leftism has churches that preach that God is utterly wrong when it comes to that whole gender binary thing, that homosexual sex should be encouraged, that marital sex is a farce, and that God really expects nothing of anybody. Priests in various faiths announce that they’re not even sure there is a God, so they’re kind of riffing the whole thing.

Islam is different. It stands for something. And here’s what’s really great about what it stands for: It stands for a lot of the things leftists love.

My cousin, who converted from being a Jewish atheist to Christianity, and then became a pastor, spent decades working in the Virginia prison system. Many years ago, he wrote an email to me that stated something very profound about how common it was for prisoners to convert to Islam. What’s significant is that they didn’t do so because they felt remorse for their crimes, repented, and sought redemption. Instead, something very different was going on:

It is not a contradiction to be a Muslim and a murderer, even a mass murderer. That is one reason why criminals “convert” to Islam in prison. They don’t convert at all; they simply remain the angry, judgmental, vicious beings they always have been. They simply add “religious” diatribes to their personal invective. Islam does not inspire a crisis of conscience, just inspirations to outrage.

And there it is: The “spiritual” nexus between Islam and socialism.

For socialists, Islam is everything they want, plus it answers the big questions: Why am I here?

To serve Allah.

Why shouldn’t I murder, rob, cheat, assault, sleep with my sister, etc.?

You’re free to do so, as long as it benefits Islam.

And then there’s the kicker: What happens at the end?

It’s not the end. You ascend to Paradise. If you’ve been a soldier for the cause, you get a wonderful paradise, plus endless sex with 72 women, a good sales pitch for leftist men.

If you’re a regular guy, you get to live in a wonderful paradise, complete with sex with your “purified” spouses, something that will work for leftist men.

As for women, they get to be young, free of negative emotions, material goods, and surrounded by friends and family…but no sex. For leftist women, riddled with angry emotions and utterly degraded and demoralized by hook-up culture, this may actually end up sounding very good.

We’ve long thought that there’ll be a war at the end between the Muslims and the leftists, with the world going to the last ideology standing. Listening to President Sanchez, I suspect that all but the most die-hard leftists will be easily sold on Muslim conversions.

Podcast thread for August 2nd

 

just another tough day.

Corrupt and Despotic Ukraine Is Not Worth Fighting WWIII

American Thinker 

Seeing Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral seemed fitting: Z-Man’s money-laundering operation in Kyiv was the proximate cause of Graham’s death.  Had the senator not been working so hard to add to the butcher’s bill in Europe, he would still be alive today.  Surely there is a lesson here for some people to see.

I know there are plenty of pro-Ukraine cheerleaders who just cannot stomach any criticism of an ongoing military conflict that has now lasted longer than WWII.  However, I have never seen this as anything other than a civil war that British, European, and American globalists have exploited for monetary and geopolitical reasons that have nothing to do with the sovereignty of Ukraine.  

Ukraine is not a member of the European Union.  It is not a member of NATO.  If Ukraine’s diminutive dictator wishes to turn what’s left of his country into a parking lot, so be it.  Let the weight of this folly fall on the head of a comedian who has led his country to slaughter and will leave it a rump of its former self.  When the war finally ends, the multinational investment firms will recycle the carnage into reconstruction profits.  Ukraine will be stripped and sold for parts.  Its people will live in other countries.  Foreigners from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East will be dumped into Ukraine by the millions to make up for the rump state’s depleted workforce.  Ukraine will never look the same.  And future historians will wonder why a comedian was allowed to destroy an entire nation.

It’s not as if the Ukrainian people have had a choice in this matter.  Elections have been canceled.  Public dissent is outlawed.  Opposition political parties are outlawed.  Even church services are outlawed if the Christian congregations are seen to have Russian sympathies.  The fact that millions of military-aged Ukrainians have refused to fight (by either fleeing the country or hiding from Kyiv’s brutal press-gangs on the streets) suggests that they do not see this conflict as worth the cost of their blood.  It seems counterintuitive to me for Americans, Brits, or Europeans to demand that Ukrainians sacrifice their lives in a war that they do not want.  Dying for Ukraine should be a choice for Ukrainians.  The Ukrainian people alone should decide whether to fight or sue for peace.  

This whole conflict is centered around territories that lie on the border between Russia and Ukraine.  If you look at election results going back to Ukraine’s post-Soviet Union independence in 1991, a clear pattern emerges: The Western provinces have consistently voted for political candidates who are seen to be more pro-European Union; the Eastern provinces have consistently voted for political candidates who are seen to be more pro-Russian Federation.  This breakdown has largely remained an 80/20 split within the two geographical regions of Ukraine.  In the Western lands, roughly 80% of voters have been in favor of strengthening political and economic ties with Europe.  In the Eastern lands, roughly 80% of voters have been in favor of strengthening political and economic ties with Russia.  This makes sense because the Eastern territories of Ukraine are filled with Russian-speaking people who attend Russian church services, read Russian newspapers, and share Russian customs.  In reality, the post-’91 territorial boundaries of modern Ukraine fused two politically and culturally distinct nations together.

These things happen.  Post-war treaties and realpolitik conjure untenable nation states into existence all the time.  The Middle East has been in a constant state of war since WWI primarily because Europe carved up its former colonies into unnatural nation states filled with culturally distinct peoples whose historic grievances guaranteed a century of political revolution, social resentment, and regional instability.  In a similar way, Czechoslovakia came into existence at the end of WWI after declaring independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire; by the end of the Cold War, it peacefully split into two sovereign states: the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  Something similar should have happened with Ukraine.   

To my ear, it is preposterous to hear Ukraine’s pro-war cheerleaders screaming about “democracy,” “self-determination,” and “sovereignty.”  For thirty years, the people living in Ukraine’s Eastern provinces have voted along that 80/20 split to align themselves with Russia.  After anti-democracy forces overthrew legitimately-elected, pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in a 2014 coup d’état — rebranded as the “Revolution of Dignity” — the people living in the Eastern provinces sought to separate from a Ukrainian government that had just deposed their elected leader.  Kyiv declared war on those people, and a civil war has been raging ever since.

Just because the U.S. State Department, Britain’s MI6, and the European Commission supported the 2014 coup doesn’t make it “democratic.”  The people living in the East have voted to separate from Ukraine.  It is Kyiv and its Western backers who refuse to allow those people to determine their own futures.  Pretending to respect territorial borders as some indispensable hallmark of national sovereignty is a ruse, especially when American, British, and European globalists have opened their own borders to foreign invaders for decades.  

Furthermore, dictator Zelenskyy has stated that, should he ever permit another election in Ukraine, the people in the Eastern provinces will not be allowed to vote.  It will surely be much easier for pro-E.U. candidates to win future elections if all the people who would normally vote for pro-Russia candidates are denied suffrage.  But the absurdity of fighting a war for “democracy” just to disenfranchise voters proves that this conflict has never been about preserving Ukrainians’ self-determination.  A dictator refuses to hold elections.  But if he does hold elections, only his friends get to vote?  People are dying for Ukrainian corruption and Ukrainian tyranny.

This war isn’t about “democracy.”  It’s not about national “sovereignty.”  It’s not about protecting little bitty Ukraine from big, bad Russia’s “unprovoked invasion.”  If it were about any of those things, responsible leaders would at least be wary of allowing tit-for-tat attacks to spiral into WWIII between nuclear powers.  Instead, Western globalists seem to yearn for war between the Russian Federation and the United States.  

Last December, NATO Secretary Mark Rutte urged member countries to prepare for war with Russia.  Around the same time, rogue American Intelligence bureaucrats disseminated propaganda to the press claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attack all of Europe.  Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was forced to publicly refute that claim.  She wrote, “[T]his is a lie and propaganda” being pushed by “warmongers who want to undermine President Trump’s tireless efforts to end this bloody war that has resulted in more than a million casualties on both sides.”  Furthermore, she accused Western propagandists of “fomenting hysteria and fear among the people to get them to support the escalation of war, which is what NATO and the EU really want in order to pull the United States military directly into war with Russia.”

If we could go back and stop WWI or WWII, would we?  If the answer is “yes,” then why wouldn’t we treat the present moment as an invaluable opportunity to avoid rushing into WWIII?  When hundreds of millions of lives are on the line, why are Western leaders almost giddy about going to war with Russia?

This war is about nothing more than making money and maintaining political power.  British, European, and, unfortunately, American globalists have decided that WWIII is the best way to distract Western citizens from “green energy”-induced inflation, central bank currency manipulation, foreign invasion, and a litany of other economically and culturally suicidal policies.  Western governments are so committed to destroying Western civilization that WWIII seems like the cherry on top of a “new world order” sundae.

🎭 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓

 

Welcome to 

The 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓 

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NYC Kommisar Mamdani Publishes Hit List of Affluent New Yorkers for Targeting

Comrade citizens, following the successful targeting and assassination of an insurance company executive, the newly installed Komisar of New York City has published the names and addresses of affluent New Yorkers for wealth targeting and taxation.  However, many of the activist citizens who advocated for Mamdani are not terribly pleased to find their personal information published by the new Democrat Socialist city leadership.

Affluent podcaster Scott Galloway, an advocate for the targeting approach, is flummoxed to discover his name, address and identifying information has been uploaded by the city to the ‘too wealthy’ target list. [First two minutes]

Fear not Comrade Galloway, all good citizens of the New York DSA will happily pay the necessary pied-à-terre tax. It even sounds collectively fabulous.  There is no reason to worry about being on a list of 950,000 wealthy citizens who have too much.  After all, sharing is caring.

NEW YORK – Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has published a searchable database of Big Apple properties that could fall under the state’s new pied-à-terre tax, effectively doxxing thousands of wealthy New Yorkers.

The city’s Department of Finance uploaded the comprehensive list – which purports to cover all unoccupied, non-primary residences in the five boroughs worth north of $1 million – including the full names and addresses of every property owner.

“It’s a reckless and foolish move, especially considering there are potentially thousands of properties on this list that do not qualify as second homes or whose owners will successfully dispute their inclusion,” Council Minority Leader David Carr (R-Staten Island) — whose own home appears on the list — told The Post Monday.

[…] Mamdani threatened to raise city property taxes by a staggering 9.5% in February unless he was allowed to “tax the rich” to cover a $12 billion budget gap that was later revised down to $5.4 billion.

[…] Citywide, The Post counted over 960,000 residences and individuals listed as potentially in line to be hit with Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax, even though just about 13,000 homes were supposed to be targeted by the new levy as he and Hochul initially sold it to the public. (read more)

Watch: Hero Armed Civilian Shoots It Out With Idaho Gunman

RedState 

We're learning more about the Saturday afternoon shooting out at an Idaho In-N-Out Burger that has reportedly left three people dead and several others injured, including the fact that an armed civilian may have engaged the gunman as he rampaged around the restaurant's parking lot.

As RedState's Nick Arama reported, law enforcement responded to an incident in one of Twin Falls, Idaho’s busiest commercial areas. A spokesman for the city confirmed the shooter was deceased and shelter-in-place orders had been lifted. 

“We believe that the threat to the community is over,” said Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks, adding that the suspect “was nearby on the scene there, and we are working to try to ascertain his identity and the motivations behind that.”

And it looks like police may have gotten a bit of help from a private citizen armed with a pistol. 

Witness Lane Koehn told one media outlet that he was waiting at a nearby stoplight when he saw someone with an AR-style rifle emerge from the drive-thru area of the In-N-Out. Koehn also saw the armed civilian shoot it out with the gunman.

He also saw some of the carnage.

He then saw someone in an In-N-Out uniform drag a person, also uniformed, bleeding from a gunshot wound in her chest across the parking lot. The employee, Koehn and the man with the pistol stayed until paramedics arrived for her.

“She was pretty bad off, but I don’t know. I hope she made it,” Koehn said.

Another video of the incident that was taken from a nearby vehicle shows a man in a dark T-shirt and blue pants moving near two parked Teslas before aiming what appears to be a handgun at one of the cars. 

Two shots ring out in quick succession, with a visible muzzle flash accompanying each discharge.

The man then lowers the weapon and briskly walks away before breaking into a run across the parking lot, still carrying the firearm.

The person filming can be heard whispering, “Oh my gosh” moments before the shots.

Trump Puts Cornyn and Tillis on Notice Over Blanche — and the Anti-Weaponization Bill

RedState 

President Trump is growing tired of a pair of lame duck Senators holding the good of the nation hostage over personal grudges.

In a Truth Social post Saturday morning, the President put John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) squarely on notice over the nomination of Todd Blanche for Attorney General.

Trump made it clear that their refusal to move Blanche forward won’t stop him. And it just might end with him achieving both things the duo are trying to drag their feet on.

"If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche ... to be the United States Attorney General, then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard to get the Anti-Weaponization Bill ... PASSED," he wrote.

Trump pointed out why the anti-weaponization bill is important, noting it takes care of those who were persecuted over their political beliefs under the Biden administration.

"Todd Blanche was a voice of reason!" the President added. "It (the weaponization bill) will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done."

Cornyn and Tillis are currently blocking Blanche’s confirmation because they want firm, written guarantees that the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is permanently shut down. The fund was part of a settlement tied to Trump’s IRS case and was meant to compensate people who claim they were wrongly targeted by the Justice Department. 

Both senators, who are leaving office soon, say they won’t move the nomination forward until they get those assurances.

Pretty sure the President just told them both to go pound sand. Break out the sad panda faces, fellas, because Trump might have some wiggle room on this.

Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, an acting official can generally serve for 210 days, but that period extends for as long as a formal nomination remains pending in the Senate. In Blanche’s case, because he was already the confirmed Deputy Attorney General, legal experts say he can likely continue serving in that capacity for many more months.

While it won't be indefinitely, the game appears to be afoot. Who can hold out longer? Cornyn and Tillis only have five months remaining in the Senate.

Tillis, in full projection mode, responded by calling the targets of Biden's harassment "punks."

"Despite comments as late as yesterday that the fund is dead, President Trump clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans in the Senate would be against," he wrote on X.

"It’s unfortunate that Todd Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, will not be confirmed because of this reversal. Hopefully, we can resolve this by Tuesday."

Tillis, meanwhile, is the same punk who has been an outspoken critic of the SAVE America Act, arguing that current versions of the bill are fundamentally flawed and impossible to implement in time for the 2026 midterms. He has even threatened to use procedural tactics to stall the legislation if it reaches the Senate floor.

He and Cornyn are grandstanding, of course, to the detriment of the American people, all because of an unwillingness to recognize they are dinosaurs in the Republican Party, heading toward obscurity in the private sector.

Trump Halts Massive Iran Attack Plan. Here's Why.

Townhall 

President Donald Trump is pausing plans for a major attack on Iran, he announced on Saturday with the hopes of reviving an agreement with the country. 

The president was mulling whether or not to hit areas that would impact foundational elements of the Islamic Republic’s grid, as well as infrastructure, according to Axios.

“The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II,” Trump posted to Truth Social. 

“Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to. This would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran's nuclear threat,” he continued.

He conditioned that an agreement is required in order to fully prevent an attack of a large scale. 

“Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” the president added, noting that the Israeli government is also on board with the plan.

“Get to work, everybody, and get it DONE,” Trump wrote.

The president reportedly spoke with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday, who cautioned against massive strikes on the Islamic Republic, CNN reported. 

In June, the United States and the Islamic Republic signed a Memorandum of Understanding, but it was effectively shattered when Iran began striking cargo ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, which led to a continual U.S. military response.

Sunday Scripture

 

Overview of Isaiah 40:31

Isaiah 40:31 is a well-known verse from the Bible that offers a message of hope and strength. It emphasizes the importance of waiting on the Lord and the renewal of strength that comes from faith.

Main Themes

• Renewal of Strength: The verse promises that those who wait on the Lord will have their strength renewed.
• Imagery of Flight: It uses the metaphor of soaring on wings like eagles to illustrate the elevation and empowerment that faith can provide.
• Endurance: The verse also highlights the ability to run without growing weary and to walk without fainting, symbolizing perseverance in daily life.

♦️𝐖³𝐏 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝

 

W³P Daily News Open Thread. 

posted by DarkGoldenMan

Welcome to the W³P Daily News Open Thread. 

Post whatever you got in the comments section below.

This feature will post every day at 6:30am Mountain time. 

 

Ukraine Terrorist Bombs Moscow Upscale Restaurant Killing Three

From independent reporting on the ground, CTH has established an upscale Italian dining restaurant in Moscow, Balzi Rossi, was hosting a private dining event (at least in most of the facility) when a female Ukrainian terrorist attempted to gain entry carrying a bomb.

The woman terrorist was intercepted by a security member and denied entry to the facility; however, during the stop the woman detonated the IED which was filled with nails and ball bearings.  The bomber and the security guard were killed instantly as well as one of the people attending the venue.

Dozens more people were injured by the shrapnel, nails and ball bearings. The security guard is being heralded as a hero for stopping what would have been a much more deadly attack. Reports are now beginning to surface on western media outlets.

MOSCOW – A bomb detonated at a restaurant Saturday in ‌central ⁠Moscow killing at least three people, including the bomber, Russian state media said, citing local officials.

At least 21 people were also injured when the explosive device detonated at the restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said, quoted by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

An unidentified woman who attempted to carry the explosive device into the restaurant died in the blast as did a security guard and a patron, the news agency said.

Ria Novosti reported the woman attempted to smuggle the bomb into the establishment but the security guard refused to let her in before the bomb exploded.

The attack was still being investigated, the Moscow Investigative Committee told the news agency. (more)

Ukraine has been using female terrorists to carry bombs targeting Russians for several years.  However, the target of this specific bombing in Moscow is not yet identified.

In April 2023, a Ukraine woman carried a bomb into a café in Saint Petersburg, Russia, killing military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. More recently on June 29th in Monaco Ukrainian terrorist Anastasiia Berezovska, working for Ukraine intelligence, used a parcel bomb to target Vadym Iermolaiev.

The attack today follows a similar pattern.