The 2020 RNC: Obscene, Fictitious and Dangerous (Part 2)

The whole escapade was to Christian eyes a disgusting display. Few seem to have noticed the campaign has no real platform – as indeed Trump doesn't actually stand for anything. There are no real goals – it's just an endless hymn of praise for Trump and the whole thing culminated in his fascistic tirade.

The 2020 RNC: Obscene, Fictitious and Dangerous (Part 1)

The Democratic National Convention was also obscene and fictitious in its narratives and ideas but the GOP convention had a distinct Christian air about it and it was making an explicit Evangelical appeal – and that's why I'm compelled to be more interested in what was happening there. 

In fact on the final night there were some one hundred Evangelical leaders in attendance at Trump's speech and while Christian media made much of the crowds shouting at them upon their exit, the same Christian media has chosen to largely ignore the Trump-inspired teenage gunman in Kenosha, Wisconsin who after gunning unarmed people down in cold blood walked through the police line – even while voices cried out that he had just shot people. The police stood by and let him pass and return to his home in Illinois. 

The QAnon Problem

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/20/904237192/journalist-enters-the-world-of-qanon-it-s-almost-like-a-bad-spy-novel

This interview was extremely interesting and informative and yet also frustrating.

The Falwells: Two Dirty People

Months, even years ago it was clear to me that something was amiss with Jerry Falwell Jr. In all sincerity based on his actions and his words, I didn't believe him to be a genuine Christian. And this was before we learned he was some sort of unrepentant pervert.

F-16 Fighters for Taiwan

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/taiwan-finalizes-dollar62bn-purchase-of-f-16-jets-from-lockheed-martin/ar-BB17YD2V

Militarism always leads to war. In the minds of some a weapons and military buildup is a form of deterrence and yet they're playing a dangerous game.

A Serbian Rubicon?

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/08/11/serbia-considers-buying-chinese-missiles-despite-us-warning/

Normally I would say 'yes', this does represent a Rubicon moment in which Serbia is making a conscious decision to turn away from Brussels (the EU and NATO). Belgrade is (it would seem) done flirting with the West and is throwing in with Moscow.

But it might be more complicated than that.

Belarus and the Evangelical Trap

https://evangelicalfocus.com/europe/7536/belarussian-christians-let-others-know-about-what-is-happening-here

Sadly we've seen this sort of thing all too often – Evangelicals going to the West (and specifically the United States) and functionally allying their Christianity and ecclesiastical activities with US geopolitical power.

Covid-19: The Age of Masks and Facial Recognition

https://www.cnet.com/health/facial-recognition-firms-are-scrambling-to-see-around-face-masks/

It's one of the rare blessings of the Covid-19 era. My wife and I were talking about this a couple of months ago when the new reality started to settle on American shores. We were talking about it because as the pandemic was spreading, everyone was talking about tracking apps and government surveillance. Facial recognition had already been in the news for some time as it has been proliferating over the past couple of years.

Tech Resistance in the Face of Orwellian Surveillance

One might say it's a case of fighting technology with technology or perhaps one could view it as a type of counter espionage. While most of the public willingly surrenders their information to the state and/or the corporate entities which exist in a symbiotic relationship with it – some of us are more than a little concerned.

Social Credit Scores Today and Tomorrow

https://www.thehour.com/opinion/article/Data-isn-t-just-being-collected-from-your-phone-15451658.php

The Snowden revelations in 2013 confirmed our fears that the Orwellian TIA (Total Information Awareness) programme had lived on despite the fact that it had supposedly been canceled by the Bush administration.

German Tanks for Orban

https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2020/07/31/Hungary-upgrades-military-with-delivery-of-German-tanks/4891596226305/

The weapons trade represents a form of diplomacy that trumps all. Countries that cultivate the industry are desperate to promote it and are often willing to sell arms – even to nations and governments that they would otherwise frown upon. Avarice drives the trade but at the same time there are political reasons for selling arms. It's an element to the industry that's often overlooked.

The Context of the Hagia Sophia Controversy

Erdogan's conversion of the Hagia Sophia museum back into a mosque has generated a fair bit of news coverage in the West, coupled with not a little consternation and some confusion.

Trump +1294: The Rubicon

Our area is flooded with signs and flags: Trump 2020: No More Bulls---

But with Trump, that's all you get. What a strange moment – the candidate Evangelicals continue to rally around, the same Evangelicals who decried the degradation of the presidential office under Clinton, has brought the office lower than it has ever been in history. For those old enough to remember, can you even imagine such a moment that the unofficial 'Christian' candidate would have an unofficial campaign slogan like that?

Belarus Drowning in Intrigue

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/tens-thousands-rally-belarus-pre-election-crackdown-200731074941570.html

In Belarus, there's a pending presidential election due to take place on 9 August 2020. To no one's real surprise the candidate posing a viable threat to Alexander Lukashenko (who has been president since 1994) has been arrested. Sergei Tikhanovsky, a dissident blogger turned presidential candidate was arrested and charged with collaborating with Russian mercenaries in order to foment unrest. It's a pretty sensational story.

Iconoclasm, Traditionalist Roman Catholicism and Trump

I occasionally listen to Taylor Marshall as well as some other Roman Catholic Traditionalists. For obvious reasons I don't agree with Marshall but I like some of the topics he covers and I've long been intrigued by Roman Catholic history – especially in the wake of the 19^th century. This was only amplified by the time I spent in Italy along with the multiple trips I took to Rome. It whets the appetite to be sure. I'm not speaking in terms of conversion but rather the intrigue and frankly, the evil.