Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow and Will County Regional Office of Education Superintendent Dr. Lisa Caparelli-Ruff deliver the refrigerators that were donated to Lincoln School. Courtesy of Will County Regional Office of Education
By Ron A. Marchionna Public Information Officer, Will County Regional Office of Education
Updated11/6/2023 5:54 PM
It has only been four months since Dr. Lisa Caparelli-Ruff was sworn in as Superintendent of the Will County Regional Office of Education on July 3, 2023. When looking at some of her early accomplishments in office, one truly stands out above the rest:
On Friday, Sept. 8, Dr. Caparelli-Ruff was touring Lincoln School, Will County’s Regional Safe School Program (RSSP). She asked Principal Scott Pritchard: “Where do the students eat? I don’t see a cafeteria.” Principal Pritchard responded, “We don’t have a meal program here, although I’ve asked for 12 years!”
Upon hearing such an incredulous statement, Dr. Caparelli-Ruff immediately proclaimed: “I don’t care what it takes, I will see that the students eat immediately! This is a priority.”
Principal Pritchard recalls the conversation vividly. “I was told: ‘This is Friday! On Monday, we need to be serving lunch to our kids!’ And we did. On Monday, Sept. 11, we served the first lunch to Lincoln students in 12 years.”
Prichard continued: “By the following Friday (Sept. 15), we had made arrangements for Niko’s, a local catering company, to provide lunches for the kids, at a cost of $5 per student. The kids are now eating every day and the Will County ROE has picked up the tab for the catering!’
Dr. Caparelli-Ruff stated that “97% of our students receive free or reduced-priced lunches. We realize it is a process to work with ISBE to begin getting licenses for food, but there is no valid reason that this was not done previously.”
When Dr. Caparelli-Ruff mentioned the situation at the Joliet school to Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, he was furious.
Glascow asked what he could do to help. Within days, his office donated and delivered a large commercial refrigerator unit to the school, something that they did not have and desperately needed.
Lincoln School is now able store juices and leftover food from lunch — such as sandwich wraps — in the refrigerator. After school, the students are allowed to take whatever food that is left over home to their families. And as some of the emotional thank you cards received by the ROE Superintendent state, many of these families are truly grateful.
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.” William Shakespeare from Macbeth
Miss Constitution has been providing background regarding the modern Middle East crisis that can be said to have begun with a letter written (by British PM Lloyd George) in 1917 to Baron Rothschild, with the approval of American President Woodrow Wilson and other allies, proposing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The proposal was finally supported by the United Nations in 1948, after the devastation to European Jews in WWII, and immediately all hell broke out in Palestine. To stem the panic of the Palestinians the UN immediately appointed Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte to mediate the crisis. He was assassinated in Jerusalem by a Jewish militia opposed to his ideas. The beginnings, one might say, of hell-broth boil and bubble.
While even the most conscientious scholar has difficulty factually following subsequent events in this saga, protesters from all over the world seem to know all the twists and turns, all the national motives, all the attempts at peace, all the eyes of newt and toes of frog included in the bubbling caldron, and have come to the conclusion that the answer lies in exterminating one of the sides in the conflict. With lightening speed, after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, thousands of signs were printed, Palestinian flags and scarves produced, and marches organized. Former President Obama opined that one has to be comfortable with the complicated to have an intelligent opinion. Okay; here are the complications the demonstrators purport to know:
They know that the original UN Resolution created a two-state solution as did the proposal by Count Bernadotte that added provisions for an open seaport, shared airports, and special provisions for historic Jerusalem. Palestine was to include part of Galilee, Samaria, Gaza, and the West Bank; Israel was to include a large portion of the desert in the south. Count Bernadotte proposed a “right of return” for Palestinians who fled in panic and also a United Nations Commission on Refugees.
They know that modern Israel was immediately unsuccessfully attacked by its Arab neighbors. Attacks on Jews and retaliatory attacks on Arabs continued for years. They must know of Egypt’s hostility regarding the Suez; of the 1967 Six-Day War in which Israel was completely surrounded by hostile actors and had to take preemptive action; of the 1969 War of Attrition in which the Soviet Union participated; and of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the role America played in it. With each victory Israel acquired more land.
They know that the UN in 1975 declared that Zionism is equivalent to Racism, though they rescinded the Resolution in 1991. They know that Arab Oil sanctions in the 1970s devastated Israel’s economy and they turned, in the 1980s, from Marxism to capitalism to thrive. They know of the 1978 Camp David Accords for comprehensive peace that failed; of Israel’s necessary preemptive strike on Iraq’s nuclear reactor that the UN condemned; of the Arab Summit rejecting any Arab-Israeli peace; of the bombing of a UN peace-keeping force in Beirut; of a 1983 belligerence pact between Lebanon and Israel that the Syrians forced Lebanon to renounce; of the 1988 US recognition of the PLO; of the 1993 Oslo Accords for peace opposed by Hamas; of the Hebron Agreement to limit settlements near Jerusalem; of the Wye River Memorandums that were not honored; of Hamas taking over Gaza in 2007; of endless rocket attacks on Israel and subsequent cease-fires; and of Palestine declaring an Islamic Jihad against Israel. Finally, they know that Hamas attacked Israeli settlers on October 7, 2023 with such brutality and inhumanity that pictures of it cannot be shown to the public. Two-hundred plus hostages were also taken and are still in captivity awaiting rescue.
Here’s what the demonstrators might not know:
They might not know the United States, by current policy, does not support Israel’s existence. The United States, by current policy, supports an Iranian regime that funds the terrorist groups that have attacked Israel and will do so again. All rhetoric to the contrary by the State Department is disingenuous. The protesters, on behalf of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are supporting a hell-broth in the Middle East.
They might not know Israel herself has changed. When formed she had no Constitution or Bill of Rights. Her religious matters were controlled by the extreme orthodox. She was a Marxist-Zionist state. But Israel made a decision to become more entrepreneurial, more free market, less socialistic and she began to thrive. When the Soviet Union fell in 1991 professional Russian Jews emigrated to Israel to her benefit. Israel’s Zionist beginnings, the boil and bubble of lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing, her rejection by the Arab world, the assassinations of her leaders, countless massacres and revenge massacres, all have taken their toll on the Israeli people and her Arab neighbors, and while she will defend herself from attack, seems ready to share prosperity with her neighbors.
They might not know the entire world-wide Evangelical Christian community is deeply attached to the Holy Land, Ancient Israel, and the precious history discovered there. Archaeological digs have confirmed many historic aspects of the Bible. Scientists and scholars of all religions find the region priceless.
What can we conclude?
Factually, we can conclude that what the UN created in 1948 has been mostly abandoned by that international body. We can conclude that at the present time the government of the US has also abandoned Israel, although the US official position is the opposite. It is also possible that many Arab states are weary of the 75-year old religious battle and are ready to support a new path.
Miss Constitution would suggest that the programmed demonstrations against Israel are partly a product of flash mob social media, particularly Communist China’s tic tok. America has also slipped from the rational and empirical to an elevation of the meritless. Our entire system of education, from once-great universities to K-12, needs to be re-examined. “Double, double toil and trouble. . .like a hell-broth boil and bubble.” It is possible to cool this hell-broth – all it takes is honesty, savvy, and strength – all qualities America has traditionally had, and a willingness to turn the ship of state around and return to a moral path. Let’s hope Israel and Palestine can find that path, as well, as shared stewards, along with the entire international community, of a very important part of the world.
A green energy company on Tuesday pulled the plug on two wind projects off the coast of New Jersey which were approved for an estimated $1 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and state lawmakers.
The Danish outfit Orsted cited high inflation, rising interest rates and supply chain issues as their reasons for scrapping its Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects – both of which were buoyed by tax incentives included in President Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
“Macroeconomic factors have changed dramatically over a short period of time, with high inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain bottlenecks impacting our long-term capital investments,” Orsted Americas CEO David Hardy said in a statement.
“As a result, we have no choice but to cease development of Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2. We are extremely disappointed to have to take this decision, particularly because New Jersey is poised to be a US and global hub for offshore wind energy.”
The Biden administration’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act grants federal tax credits to green energy companies.
Murphy, a strong proponent of the project, fumed over Orsted’s announcement, calling the pullout “outrageous” amid the unprecedented accommodations granted by the Garden State to the foreign company.
“Today’s decision by Orsted to abandon its commitments to New Jersey is outrageous and calls into question the company’s credibility and competence,” Murphy said in a statement. “As recently as several weeks ago, the company made public statements regarding the viability and progress of the Ocean Wind 1 project.”
Murphy he would explore legal options regarding the abandoned Orsted project after the state worked hard to secure the funding.
Opponents of the Ocean Wind project argued that the huge turbines threaten marine life and could interfere with radar systems.
“In recognition of the challenges inherent in large and complex projects, my Administration in partnership with legislative leadership insisted upon important protections that ensure New Jersey will receive $300 million to support the offshore wind sector should Orsted’s New Jersey projects fail to proceed,” he added.
“I have directed my Administration to review all legal rights and remedies and to take all necessary steps to ensure that Orsted fully and immediately honors its obligations.”
The failed development, which would have provided the state with its first offshore wind farm just 13 miles off the South Jersey coast, was expected to generate enough energy to power half a million homes.
In July, New Jersey legislators approved tax breaks for Orsted valued as high as $1 billion to keep the project moving forward — a move Republicans, commercial fishermen and activists slammed as a generous subsidy for a potentially harmful environmental project.
Part of a foundation for an offshore wind turbine rests on rollers outside a manufacturing facility in Paulsboro, NJ.
In exchange for the handout, which allowed Orsted to pocket federal tax breaks it was initially required to give back to New Jersey ratepayers, the company was required to place a $200 million guarantee into state coffers, which will ostensibly be returned to ratepayers now that the company has scrapped the project.
State Sen. Ed Durr (R-Gloucester) criticized the subsidy at the time, arguing that when Orsted first received approval to build the wind farms it “agreed to apply for and return to ratepayers any federal tax incentives that might become available to offset the higher costs that ratepayers are paying today for the development of wind energy.”
“Despite the deal they signed, Orsted is realizing that wind farm projects don’t make economic sense without major government subsidies, so now they’re looking for a huge handout at the expense of New Jersey utility customers,” he added.
Land-based wind turbines in Atlantic City, NJ, turn on July 20, 2023.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, renewable developers stand to receive tax credits of up to 30% for qualifying investments that use union labor, and more credits if the project meets additional criteria.
The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, which argued sustainable fisheries and other maritime activities off the New Jersey coast were being threatened by the project, welcomed Orsted’s decision and said it was a sign that the future offshore wind projects would be doomed to fail.
“Billion-dollar cost overruns incurred in spite of generous giveaways from the Biden administration and the state of New Jersey will dominate accounts of the demise of these projects,” the group said in a statement.
Wind turbines that are a part of the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm, which was the first coastal wind turbine farm in the United States and is located in Atlantic City, NJ
“These fiscal and logistical pitfalls are instructive for all states considering a transition to offshore wind energy. But these challenges should not eclipse consideration of the urgent threat offshore wind farms pose to the fisheries, maritime communities, and the marine environment.”
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), another critic of the project, called Orsted’s announcement “a victory for local residents.”
“Governor Murphy abandoned the people of New Jersey by throwing taxpayer dollars at unsound and improperly vetted offshore wind projects even when his own Division of Rate Counsel noted that ratepayers would have to pay higher costs and Orsted would earn more money as a result of the billion-dollar bailout he signed into law in July,” Smith told The Post.
“While Orsted’s withdrawal is a victory for local residents, environmentalists, and New Jersey commercial and recreational fishermen who have been subjected to the coercive power of the Biden and Murphy Administrations, we are not out of the woods yet. We must continue this critical fight to protect the Jersey Shore from their ocean industrialization plans that would eviscerate our marine ecosystem, put recreational and commercial fisherman out of business, seriously impair radar navigation, and jeopardize our national security,” the congressman added.61
The company said it would be moving forward with its Revolution Wind project in Connecticut and Rhode Island and its South Fork Wind project in New York despite the cancellation of Ocean Wind 1 and 2.
White House spokesperson Michael Kikukawa said in a statement that “momentum remains on the side of an expanding US offshore wind industry,” despite the collapse of the Ocean Wind project.
“While macroeconomic headwinds are creating challenges for some projects, momentum remains on the side of an expanding U.S. offshore wind industry — creating good-paying union jobs in manufacturing, shipbuilding, and construction; strengthening the power grid; and providing new clean energy resources for American families and businesses,” Kikukawa said.
POLITICS·Oct 24, 2023 · BabylonBee.comClick here to view this article with reduced ads.
Capitalists and communists have been at each other’s throats for years — but why? Aren’t they, deep down, all just the same? To find out, we recruited a team of expert political scientists to explain the key differences between these two ideologies so we can feel smarter.
Here are ten major differences between capitalism and communism:
Difference #1:
Under capitalism, the Starbucks barista sometimes gets your order wrong.
Under communism, there is no Starbucks and you’ve been dead for thirty years.
Difference #2:
Under capitalism, going to the grocery store is such a chore. There are too many choices!
Under communism, the bread lines only stock official Government Bread™, so you don’t have to make any decisions whatsoever. Simple!
Difference #3:
Under capitalism, you can feast on more delicacies than ancient kings could ever have imagined.
Under communism, also true. Haha, just kidding. You were dreaming of such things in Gulag.
Difference #4:
Under capitalism, people can enjoy millions of streaming TV shows and movies.
Under communism, you get to watch the Super Most Excellent Life of Kim Jong-Un Happy Fun Hour every single day. Or you go to Gulag.
Difference #5:
Under capitalism, big tech companies spy on you on behalf of the government.
Under communism, the government spies on you directly – much more honest and efficient.
Difference #6:
Under capitalism, free enterprise has fostered unprecedented innovation and growth in industry, technology, and the arts.
Under communism, the greatest technical innovation was the pickaxe for working in the slave mines. OK, maybe Tetris too. Communism wins this round.
Difference #7:
Under capitalism, the national pastime is baseball.
Under communism, the national pastime is beating enemies of the state with sticks. Which is kind of like baseball, but less boring.
Difference #8:
Under capitalism, everyone owns his or her own automobile.
Under communism, the village shares one ox cart. Also, the ox is dead and you are eating it for food. Also, you were just dreaming that you are eating an ox for food, because you are in Gulag.
Difference #9:
Under capitalism, healthcare costs, like, $50,000 for an Advil.
Under communism, suicide is completely free.
Difference #10:
Under capitalism, Disney continues to make tons of Star Wars movies.
Under communism, there are no Disney Star Wars movies whatsoever. Communism is sounding pretty good, actually.
Which government system do you live under? Capitalism or communism? Do you like it? Let us know in the comments below.
Babylon Bee subscriber JM Sieg contributed to this report. If you want to pitch your own headline ideas to our staff, click here to check out all of our membership options!
Their culture is not your costume. DO NOT appropriate ghost, zombie, or vampire culture this Halloween.
“Republicans were suppressed at ten times the rate of Democrats. That’s because old Twitter was fundamentally controlled by the far left,” Musk said.
ELON MUSK: Jack [Dorsey] didn’t really know this, but the degree to which Twitter was an arm of the government is not well understood by the public. And it was whatever the official government — it was like Pravda, basically, a state publication is the way to think of old Twitter, a state publication.
JOE ROGAN: And was the justification from their perspective that they are progressive liberals, they have the right intentions, it’s important that the progressive liberals stay in government, in power, because this is their —
ELON MUSK: There was basically oppression of any views that would even be considered middle of the road, but certainly anything on the right. I’m not talking like far-right, I’m just talking mildly right. Republicans were suppressed at ten times the rate of Democrats. That’s because old Twitter was fundamentally controlled by the far left.
Since electing current ALA president Emily Drabinski, a self-proclaimed Marxist, the ALA has come under increased scrutiny. Drabinski was recently asked about the role of librarians in curating books with sexual content and said, “Librarians are professionals, we have master’s degrees.”
“We are experts in thinking about books and thinking about collections we build for everybody, not just the individual reader,” she said.
Drabinski authored an academic paper, “Queering the Catalog: Queer Theory and the Politics of Correction,” which encourages librarians to incorporate Queer Theory into their curation practices, in 2013.
The ALA has also advocated for books with sexually explicit content, such as “Gender Queer,” All Boys Aren’t Blue,” and “Lawn Boy” to be kept in school libraries, according to an ALA policy titled “Access to Library Resources and Services for Minors: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.”
In late September, the South Carolina State Library announced its withdrawal from the ALA, citing the group’s partisanship, while the Montana State Library (MSL) Commission voted in July to leave the association.
Court Overturns Ganim Win in Bridgeport Primary, Calling Evidence of Fraud ‘Shocking’
— Sophia Muce, 11.1.2023
Bridgeport Democratic mayoral candidate John Gomes outside of the Fairfield Judicial District courthouse on Oct. 12, 2023 (CT Examiner).
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BRIDGEPORT – A judge ruled on Wednesday to overturn the city’s Democratic primary election, initially won by incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim, following claims of absentee ballot fraud by his opponent, John Gomes.
After two weeks of evidentiary hearings for Gomes’s absentee ballot fraud lawsuit, Judge William Clark ordered a new Democratic primary based on 180 pieces of evidence presented by Gomes’s legal counsel.
In the 37-page ruling, Clark said the video footage presented by Bill Bloss – Gomes’s attorney – was particularly alarming.
“Mr. Ganim was also correct to be ‘shocked’ at what he saw on the video clips in evidence that were shown to him while he was on the witness stand,” Clark wrote. “The videos are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties.
Ganim was one the many city officials called to the Fairfield Judicial District Superior Courthouse for questioning, along with Wanda Geter-Pataky, vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee and operations specialist for the city, and Eneida Martinez, a former City Council member accused by Gomes of stuffing ballot dropboxes.
At the witness stand, Ganim told the court he was “shocked” by an 18-minute video – subpoenaed by Gomes from Bridgeport police – that appeared to show 12 instances of Geter-Pataky either depositing stacks of ballots herself or handing ballots to others from behind her reception desk, and four instances of Martinez dropping off ballots.
Asked about the footage during the hearings, both Geter-Pataky and Martinez asserted their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination . Ganim, who appeared to win the primary by 250 votes after a count of absentee ballots, denied any involvement in the alleged fraud.
Under state election law, absentee ballots may be only returned by the ballot applicant, a family member, a police officer, an election official or a caretaker. Clark said the footage provides direct evidence that state law was violated when “unauthorized partisans” handled and submitted ballots.
In addition to the police footage, Bloss argued in court that many of the absentee ballots should never have been counted given that they were improperly stamped.
According to state law, Bloss argued, stamped ballots accepted by Town Clerk Charles Clemons should have included the date and time they were received and the Clemons’ signature. But many of the ballots presented by Bloss were missing the signature.
In a closing brief, the Office of the Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas – a defendant named in the lawsuit alongside Ganim, Clemons and Democratic Registrar of Voters Patricia Howard – argued that the court should reject the challenge to the absentee ballots.
Clark accepted the office’s recommendation, finding the stamp to be “substantially compliant.”
Still, the video evidence allowed Gomes to overturn the primary – the aim of his challenge in court – and in a statement, he reflected on his win.
“This is a victory for the people of Bridgeport,” Gomes said. “Our campaign always believed that the integrity of our democratic process must be upheld and Superior Court Judge William Clark agreed.”
On a Wednesday phone call with CT Examiner, Bloss said the new ruling is a “necessary first step” towards correcting absentee ballot misuse in Bridgeport.
“It’s a well-reasoned ruling. Very fact-intensive,” Gomes said. “I think Judge Clark’s expression of shock at the videos was something that many people shared – everybody except the city officials, frankly.”
Rather than ordering a new primary on a specific date, Clark ordered city and state officials to work together to schedule the new election.
According to Bloss, the Nov. 7 general election will still list Ganim as the Democratic candidate and Gomes as the Independent candidate on the ballot.
If Ganim or one of the other mayoral candidates win the general election, Bloss said, the new primary would likely be held in December. But if Gomes wins, he said he would assume the court would cancel the new primary.
Asked how the Wednesday decision could impact future Bridgeport elections, Bloss said there should be major reform to the city processes.
“I think there are some reforms that can be used in terms of the application process, in terms of preparing signatures, in terms of identifying people who return absentee ballots on behalf of voters if they use dropboxes or the U.S. mail,” Bloss said. “The system works everywhere in the state of Connecticut, except in Bridgeport.”
While he said it was not up to him to investigate the alleged fraud further, Bloss told CT Examiner that he would not be surprised if the state pursued criminal charges against Geter-Pataky and Martinez moving forward.
Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio said Wednesday he would continue to hold up nominations in the Department of Justice over the Biden administration’s targeting of former President Donald Trump.
Special counsel Jack Smith secured a four-count indictment of Trump in August relating to his efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election, months after a federal grand jury issued a 37-count indictment against Trump in June based on an investigation into allegations surrounding classified documents. Some of Trump’s top rivals for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, condemned the indictment as a weaponization of the Justice Department. (RELATED: ‘My Hold Is Still In Place’: Tuberville Takes Victory Lap As Schumer Folds On Military Appointments)
WATCH: https://rumble.com/embed/v3qizb3/?pub=kxsg
“This whole policy that I’ve implemented on Department of Justice nominees is unprecedented,” Vance said on the Senate floor, referencing a complaint by Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. “He mentions that we have, in the past, this body, before I got here, approved a number of Department of Justice nominees through unanimous consent. What the senator from Illinois doesn’t mention, Madam President, is that in that time, when these nominations sailed through unanimous consent, the Department of Justice was not trying to throw the political rival of the president of the United States in prison.”
“I objected this because we are living in a banana republic, where the president is using his Department of Justice to go after his chief political rival, the person he will appear on the ballot with in about a year,” Vance said. “If the Department of Justice will use these nominations for a law instead of politics, I am happy to end this whole policy. But so long as the Department of Justice uses its nominations and uses its personnel to go after its political opponents, from the president of the United States on down, I will object. Because of that, Madam President, I do object.”
Vance announced the hold on Justice Department nominations in a June 13 release, citing the indictment of Trump.
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has been holding up most senior military promotions since March to protest the Pentagon’s policy of paying for female servicemembers to travel for out-of-state abortions after a number of states placed restrictions on the procedure.
Last week in Thlipsis, Miss Constitution posited that the only way out of the volatile situation in the Middle East is understanding how we got where we are regarding Israel, being honest about our role in where we are regarding Israel, and using this information with savvy and strength to find an acceptable international solution. Israel bombing Hamas into the Stone Age or Iran using nuclear weapons and supersonic missiles to annihilate Israeli Jews (free Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea) may lead to a world out of control that will eventually suffocate all humanity.
How did we get where we are? Part of the explanation —
Buying into the notion of Manifest Destiny, under the guise of war, Theodore Roosevelt went West as head of an imperialist power (America) and took Hawaii and the Philippines, among other nations, as conquerors. Teddy also secretly courted Japan and chose her to rule Korea and the Far East. Congress was left in the dark about his agreements with Japan. His successor, William Howard Taft, true to his Oath of Office, pursued his policies within the bounds of the US Constitution, but so infuriated Teddy Roosevelt by honoring America’s Rule of Law that Teddy ran as a third-party Progressive thereby electing Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States.
Wilson, Miss Constitution contends, is the Mother of Our Current Travails. He was intelligent but not savvy, subject to ego stroking, talked into thinking that America was ready for the intrigues of world politics, and led to believe he would be seen as its Caesar and Savior. Instead, he was played like a violin by Great Britain who supported the Zionist Movement (a national home for the Jewish people) as a way to jump ahead of its rival France in splitting up World War I spoils in the Middle East. There would have been no British Balfour Declaration without the consent of Wilson. In fact, the horror that was World War I would have ended but for the entrance of the United States. At that moment, America could have come to her senses and returned to her adherence to Founding Principles and a time-honored national mission, but Wilson was not up to the task. When he finally figured it out he surrendered to a fatal stroke.
From Wilson on the tribulations of the world have gotten heavier. Two ardent Zionists – Weizmann and Sokolow – talked (in addition to Brandeis in America who persuaded Wilson) France, Italy, Japan, China and even Pope Benedict XV into the Balfour Declaration. Then, having talked the allies into it, Great Britain suddenly withdrew the Declaration in 1939 and left millions of European Jews to die at the hands of the Nazis by refusing to let them emigrate to Palestine. After World War II Britain abandoned its Palestinian Mandate and turned the whole question over to the United Nations. Israel was then born and Arabs were displaced as a result of the United Nation’s decision. Arab/Israeli Wars have followed in succession both as religious as well as political conflicts. The glimmer of hope that is the current Abraham Accords, by bypassing religious impossibilities and political blunders, is peace by economic alliances that can be shown to advance all Middle East societies, including a non-terrorist Palestinian society.
Are America’s hands “dirty” in all this?
It would be easy to say, “yes”, after Wilson’s decision to enter World War I, but Miss Constitution would say America’s hands are sometimes well-meaning but naive. Following the logic of Ockham’s Razor (the simplest explanation is usually the best), American Presidents and Secretaries of State have felt compelled to justify past Presidential decisions so that it appears that America’s political positions have an inter-generational “moral” dimension that needs to be continued. World War I led to World War II and World War II led to the Korean War and then the Vietnam War and then led to War after War until we find ourselves today in an impossible position of what we do with a terrorist attack on the Israel we helped create that includes atrocities so horrible they cannot be shown to the public.
If America decided to use savvy and strength, what is an acceptable international solution to the current tribulation?
In American aviation protocols, the message says “Place your own oxygen mask on first before placing the mask on others.” America returning to her appropriate mission and her proper place in international affairs is placing our nation’s oxygen mask on first. America’s mission is to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. To secure these Blessings the American military must be second to none. To secure these Blessings the American educational system must teach all Americans what the philosophical foundations of the Republic are and what constitutes the American Rule of Law. To secure these Blessings American foreign policy must be based on what is in the best interests of our nation not other nations or global cabals. America returning to Securing the Blessings of Liberty will help in finding an acceptable solution to the current Middle East crisis as returning to our historic mission undergirds our strength.
The second step is America returning to her productive potential in every economic sphere. America is weakened when she buys rather than produces the energy the nation needs. America is weakened when other nations confess their desire to destroy America and our response is fawning and supplication. America is weakened when foreign entities control our monetary policy. Decisions regarding America’s finances belong in the halls of Congress not in international banking cartels.
The third step is America re-igniting her duty to God and awakening in her people the roots to a virtuous life required for Liberty to thrive. When these three steps are taken, when America’s mask is on first, we can then influence tragic events through strength and attempt to help find the solutions to seemingly intractable international problems. In the current crisis in Israel this might include:
Using trained extraction teams to help locate and free the hostages taken by Hamas
Engaging in crisis diplomacy with Egypt to provide temporary civilian sanctuary and aid
Acknowledging the incurable destructive nature of Radical Islam
Finally, Miss Constitution would remind Americans what George Washington advised: “A passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. . excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side. . we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.” America’s decisions to blindly follow what is in Great Britain’s interests has cost us dearly in the 20th century.
Temporary alliances, military and naval strength, a God-fearing people, honest education, knowledge of historic context, and a willingness to turn the big ship of state around when on the wrong course represent the savvy and strength America needs to have a positive influence on the tribulations of the world. The Bible says that thlipsis creates patience, character, and hope; but to obtain a rightful outcome in the current crisis, the world needs America to be honest, savvy, and strong. We need to turn the American ship of state around as the last best hope for mankind.
Thlipsis: Greek – meaning pressure or distress. “[T]ribulation produces patience, patience produces character, and character produces hope.” Romans 5:3-4
Two thousand years ago one method of torture was to put a huge stone on someone’s chest the pressure of which slowly suffocated the victim. So, too, crucifixion, the weight of one’s body finally preventing enough air to enter the lungs. This, in literal terms, is thlipsis. In symbolic terms, it cannot better describe what a majority of Americans feel today about affairs in Israel.
Tribulation produces patience. . .
Miss Constitution would say that understanding the causes of the tribulation helps produce the patience and characterto endure it; adding an empirical and rational mindhelps fix it; and grace through faith, helps one see the hope patience, character, and intellect have painstakingly produced. The tribulation we need to understand is the stone on the chest of humanity in the Middle East.
The rich history of the Temple Jews, the scattering of Jews in the world, their critical role in nation-state finance, the debate regarding whether a race or religion aside, the critical question underlying the modern Jewish Question is whether they were to survive assimilating into other cultures or whether they were owed a sovereign state of their own. The debate regarding Zionism (a homeland for the Jewish people) was real and fierce. In 1917, under the British Progressive Labour Party of Lloyd George, it was proposed that such a homeland be created in the British Mandate of Palestine – ancient Israel. Woodrow Wilson was at first opposed to the plan but was later persuaded to support it by his top advisor, Colonel House, influenced by a leading American Jew and later Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis.
Riots in Jerusalem soon broke out. The Palestinians felt betrayed as they had been promised nationhood if they stood with the Allies against Turkey in World War I. America severely reduced the immigration of Jews from Europe with the Immigration Act of 1924. In 1929 only 6,500 Poles could enter the United States, only 377 Romanians. Anti-German sentiment in the 1930’s grew understandably alarming. Many Americans feared that Jewish immigrants might be spies, their loyalties as assimilated Germans outweighing the growing threats of cultural extinction. Prior to the war, with European Jews unable to emigrate to safety anywhere, proposals were made to allow emigration to Africa – namely Kenya – and also Madagascar, but nothing came of it. The Holocaust soon followed.
And so, after the utter tragedy of Jewish annihilation in World War II, the British transferred their Palestinian Mandate to the United Nations, who created the State of Israel in 1948. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced. Truman recognized the new nation and welcomed 40,000 “displaced persons” – survivors of the genocide – into the United States. Nothing but Arab/Israeli Wars have followed and we now face the prospect of maniacal bloodshed, of Holy War – Jihad – of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran all as allies against Christians, Jews, and non-Jihad Muslims – considered filthy, loathsome, and degenerate by Radical Islamists. Hence, the recent butchery of Jews by Hamas in southern Israel, living in land (Gaza) ceded to them by Israel in 2006, is, to some, due and owed.
Patience produces character. . .
But does it produce savvy? It is not the fault of anyone living today that America lost her way at the beginning of the 20th century. George Washington had warned us a century earlier not to get entangled in the ridiculous and deadly affairs of Europe. We looked on with horror as concepts from our own Revolution against Great Britain were warped into the bloodshed that was the revolution in France. Napoleon sold us a third of what is now the United States to wage devastating European wars in the early part of the 19th century. We thought they would leave us alone but France and Great Britain never lost their interest in reclaiming America. Plans were laid to partition what was left of the Union after the Civil War. Alexander II of Russia, luckily for us, told them “no.”
If not through war, the European banking cartel sought to control us through central-banking lending schemes – Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, luckily for us, said “no.” Capitalism’s extraordinary success as an economic system gave rise to the opposing ideologies of anarchy and Marxism by the mid 19th century. Wealthy individuals in America – Jacob Schiff, for one – began to operate as private secretaries of state and fund war and peace as individuals. The treatment of Jews in Russia became his obsession and we mistakenly plunged, through his and others’ influence, right into the middle of the Jewish Question in Europe. America put a huge stone on her own chest.
Character produces hope. . .
Miss Constitution would say savvy produces hope. It is abundantly clear that the ramifications of our entry into World War I – making the world safe for democracy – (never our national mission) have been a complete disaster. The arranged national marriages of different peoples into artificial nation-states has only produced deep-seated hatreds and resentments, endless war, nuclear weapons, carnage, and bloodshed. International organizations created to make sense out of the senseless have collapsed under the weight of their own corruption. The banking schemes America once said “no” to have morphed into grotesque global financial giants whose purpose is to control the entire world by ending the concept of the nation-state and creating “one-world government.” America’s actual mission as articulated in the Preamble to the United States Constitution – securing the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity – seems sweetly naive.
And so, how do we remove the stone we placed on our own chest? And how do we help remove the stone placed on Israel’s chest? How are we to be relieved of thlipsis?
We remove it, Miss Constitution would say, not with patience, character, and hope but with realism, honesty, and strength. We need to be realistic about the love affair America’s intelligentsia has had with the ideas of Karl Marx since the Russian Revolution of 1917. We need to be realistic about the indoctrination of these ideas into our precious children today. We need to be honest about the mistakes in policy America has made in the past and turn back to the philosophical Foundations of the nation. We need the strength to disassociate ourselves with world financial schemes and return control of America’s monetary policy back to Congress and the United States Treasury.
Israel’s tribulations are, in part, the result of an “experiment” first articulated in the late 1800s and supported as part of the administration of the British Empire with America’s help. Realistically, America’s current administration is supporting Israel’s primary enemy. Israel is essentially on her own.
The hope Israel has, and the strength that she needs, will depend on the savvy of her leaders. To depend on America would be a mistake. We are slowly suffocating ourselves.
Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow and Will County Regional Office of Education Superintendent Dr. Lisa Caparelli-Ruff deliver the refrigerators that were donated to Lincoln School. Courtesy of Will County Regional Office of Education
