Quoting Captain Ahab’s men:
“All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick.” – Ahab’s men struggle to understand his hatred of Moby Dick.
Jon Robb over at Global Guerillas writes another insightful observation about the future of American commerce under Trump in “Will the World be Safer or More Dangerous Under a Trump Presidency?” The “bromance” we addressed earlier between Trump and Vladimir Putin has been a source of angst for many. Trump’s relationship with Putin is fleshed out a bit more by Robb:
…Trump inverts that policy relationship. In Trump’s post cold war world, US foreign policy will be dominated by trade policy. Even national security policy will be subservient to trade policy. If trade policy is dominant, we’ll see China, Mexico and the EU (Germany) become competitors. Russia, in contrast will become an ally since it doesn’t pose a trade threat.
Which reveals a lot into the public positions and cordial statements Trump has made about the Russians and Putin over the months during the 2016 campaign, and the focus on China in the debates and Trump’s foreign policy priorities. China – an economic behemoth and burgeoning naval power – is the main challenger to an American president scope-locked in on economic revival in our times.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
This is President Donald Trump’s signature book, detailing his business and world view. For Evangelical Christians who voted for Trump – at the expense of the other Biblically qualified candidates, I suggest you get your hands on it and read it.
Every President comes to the office with a personal world view and philosophy that subsequently impacts the decisions they make, that then impact and influence, not only the citizens of the United States, billions of others globally. That is the extent of the United State’s reach.
Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. and Jr. had world views and philosophies, conservative rugged individualism and self sufficiency grounded in their ranch upbringings and military service. Obama has a world view grounded in corrupt Chicago, big city politics and “progressive” socialist outlook.
Trump? A big city liberal until just recently. All business and every decision from here on out influenced by that cost/benefit world view, and his high-flying campaign promises and rhetoric, oh, the Monday after inauguration day, to come crashing up against the rocks of the reality of his adversary’s opposition, both here and abroad.
Should we pray and support him as President? You bet! Will he “Make America Great Again?” For a while, in the eyes of a lost world with a truly messed up view of what “greatness” is, opposed to greatness in God’s economy. It is unfortunate and a sign of the times many professing Christians in this nation are so deluded by the former.
I’ve dealt with sketchy salesmen my whole life. And I know one when I see them. Evangelical Christianity was just sold a bill of goods. I really have a problem with that. More so, I have a problem with high-profile Christian celebrity “leaders” using their pulpits and position to issue verbal threats, religious coercion, and guilt manipulation, as was prevalent during this election cycle, to abandon Biblical principle and truth for “pragmatism,” in strong-arming the flock of God to vote a certain way. Yet, it is their same moral and spiritual corruption that sowed the cultural ground to produce this insane situation.
And the Lord is going to bless this?
We will see.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. (Matthew 4:8-9)
A world reflexively hostile to the Jews and the Jewish nation Israel would not hesitate at all to justify an aggressive action against Israel if they started disrupting economic realities that prevail at the present time. Especially Russia. The European energy marketplace is their backyard and one of Putins’ main sources of leverage over the EU and NATO.
The discovery of these fields in recent years will prove to be a major issue in the future of energy and the geo-politics of the region.
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary, retired USMC General, James Mattis.
Defense Secretary-designate James Mattis bluntly stated under questioning at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017, that,
“…The capital of Israel that I go to, sir, is Tel Aviv, sir, because that’s where all their government people are.”
Got that? Tel Aviv – NOT Jerusalem. The Defense Secretary is previously on the record supporting a “two state” solution in the conflict between the Israelis and the “Palestinians.” A “two state” solution is a non-starter. It always has been, especially since the George W. Bush “Road Map to Peace” Republican debacle, and the subsequent Israeli “Disengagement”from the Gaza strip. I was heading the Christian Supporters of Israel list at FreeRepublic.com at that time, and remember well the way the Bush Administration strong-armed Arial Sharon and the Israelis into that disaster.
Arial Sharon ended up in a stroke induced coma, George Bush left office with some of the lowest presidential ratings in history, the Democrats swept to power under Barack Obama, and the Arab terrorist organization HAMAS has controlled the Gaza strip ever since.
I really resent the GOP trotting out the “move the American embassy to Jerusalem” canard every election cycle to manipulate and placate the Evangelical demographic – for votes.
Consistently.
I am disappointed the majority Evangelical Christian community and Israeli Zionist organizations let the corrupt GOP pull their strings like mindless marionettes, to sway them. Now again, with Trump. The LORD never blesses our self-delusion.
The U.S. government has no intentions whatsoever of moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. Mattis knows this. Especially as the Secretary of Defense now, and having to potentially contend with the ensuing fallout of the regional violence and wars that would follow such a move.
Daniel Cloud, lecturer at Princeton University Center for Human Values/Humanities Council, posits an interesting thesis at a blog post at Zero Hedge, after president elect Trump’s call to the leader of Taiwan. In “Trump’s Shot Across China’s Bow,” he articulates various times in history when miscommunications between nations have led to wars that would have otherwise been, possibly, prevented. The current “bromance” between Trump and Putin has caused some angst in national security and global circles. This is understandable.
Setting aside the more complex issues of the recent energy and currency wars based in the decades long reign of the petro-dollar and the BRIC’s nations attempts to unseat that global financial hegemony, it is helpful to shed more light on what is more obvious to the casual observer.
Both Trump and Clinton in the 2016 presidential debates made their foreign policy priorities clear. Hillary Clinton was very clear she was going to challenge Putin and his military adventurism (whether in the Ukraine and Crimea or the Middle East) by insisting on a “no fly” zone over Syria. This, a notion long time ago hobbled by hers and the outgoing Obama administration’s failure to act years ago in that country, would have put American NAVY and air force fighter jockeys in immediate direct conflict with the Russian and Syrian air forces. There already is a no-fly zone in Syria. It’s enforced by Russian air power, backed up by their S-300 air defense missile systems. It would have been WWIII.
Trump’s foreign policy priorities are China and the South China sea. He was very adamant about it in the debates, and it is even more clear in his foreign policy priorities listed on his web site. He has stated he supports Russia destroying ISIS, and we should let them do it. Daniel Cloud says that Trump’s phone call to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was a clear warning shot across China’s bow concerning any repercussions on moves they might make in the future against that country, and how, historically, not doing so – being clear on our intentions and potential responses to scenarios like this – can only invite disaster. He is right, and I agree with other analysts who presented the same theory. Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait is a perfect example. I remember that well.
Here’s the wrinkle: while Team Trump is gearing up to challenge “Chy-Na!” and their expansionism in the South China sea and currency manipulation in the years ahead, forecasting his position to the Chinese, he’s failing to maintain the same deterrence against Russia and her allies in the immediate future as they seek to expand their influence throughout the Middle East.
10 Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates… (Ezekial 38:10-11)
The inevitable target in that scenario? The Bible teaches explicitly in Ezekial 38-39 that “in the latter days” a coalition from the North (Russia is now dug in, in Syria) will invade the “hills of Israel.” With the radical changes nationally and globally in energy and the currency wars and the withdrawal of America from the Middle East as a priority because of our energy independence, Israel is in a precarious position, more than any time in their history.
A billboard poster has been placed on a busy road in the town of Danilovgrad by a shadowy pro-Russian and Serbian group called In4s.
I understand perfectly Trump has vocalized unequivocal support for the Jewish nation. Nonetheless, dealing with an individual like Putin who has dominated national news headlines for a longtime now because of his aggressiveness and shrewdness, and the extremely morally ambiguous and compromised Trump, who as a businessman views everything on a cost/benefit plane, the idea of the U.S. rushing in to defend Israel in an Ezekial 38-39 scenario is unfortunately based largely on a lot of sentimentalism and severely misplaced hope. Hope in Trump, not the Holy One of Israel.
This is President Donald Trump’s signature book, detailing his business and world view. For Evangelical Christians who voted for Trump – at the expense of the other Biblically qualified candidates, I suggest you get your hands on it and read it.
Or, it could make enemies out of “friends.”
