Lux Lucet

An F-18 takes off from a US aircraft carrier.

My apologies for the rather bland headline this week. I just couldn’t think of a catch title for this edition of the Review. Well, I’ll try to do better next week. And without further ado, let’s dive into this week’s stories.

Syrian Crisis Escalates

Perhaps the biggest story this past week was the downing of a Syrian government SU-22 jet by US F-18s from the aircraft carrier George Bush. The incident, which occurred Sunday 6/18, is said to represent the first time a US jet has downed a foreign manned aircraft since 1999.

The US has claimed that the jet was attacking fighters of the US backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), but, as Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams reported this week, this clam has been contradicted by the Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, which stated “sources confirmed that the warplane did not target the Syria Democratic Forces in their controlled areas.”

As Daniel McAdams pointed out, the Syrian Observatory For Human Rights is generally considered to be pro- US backed rebels. The group has even been cited the US government. As such, it is surprising for this group to contradict the storyline put out by the US.

The Syrian government claims that the jet, rather than attacking the SDF, actually was going after ISIS at the time it was shot down. If what Damascus says is true, it would be another piece of evidence backing the contention that the US, in fact, supports ISIS.

Although this may sound like a shocking claim, the logic of it is simple and compelling. The US and ISIS have a common goal in Syria, both want to overthrow Syrian president Bashar Assad. And if they have this common goal, would it be such a stretch to believe that the US would shoot down a Syrian government jet that was attacking ISIS?

Syria’s ally Russia reacted angrily, announcing it would no longer us a communication channel designed to prevent the targeting of US aircraft operating in Syrian airspace.

The big takeaway in all this is that the US and Russia took another step closer to war in the middle east, a place where the US has no legitimate security interests, but which could serve the powder keg that sets off a major regional or world war.

Dems 0-5 In Special Elections, Nancy Peolsi In Trouble

After another special election shellacking on Tuesday, the Democrats, in particular the party leadership, are starting to feel the heat.

The race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel in Georgia’s 6th Congressional district seat was widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s agenda. If this was in fact the case, then the Donald came out on top in a big way.

This loss, more than the others, really hurt the Democrats. It was the most expensive US Congressional race in history. With Ossoff having raised a record setting $23 million, the Democrat outspent his Republican opponent 7 to 1. And he still lost.

Even more interesting than the outcome of the election was the reaction of high-profile Democrats. some of whom were quick to pin the blame on Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

In the wake of Tuesday’s loss, Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio went so far as say “Our brand is worse than Trump.” Indeed it is. As the New York Times
reported this week, Ryan said the Democratic brand “had also become ‘toxic’ in much of the country because voters saw the Democrats as ‘not being able to connect with the issues they care about.’ ” True, that.

The Democrats, historically identified as the party of the working man, has in more recent times become the party of – to borrow a turn of phrase from David Stockman – the bicoastal elites, Social Justice Warriors, globalists, homosexuals and professional race hustlers.

If the Democrats are serious about turning around their electoral fortunes, a good place to start would be stopping their palpable hatred of ordinary Americans. Tim Ryan seems to understand this, but I’m not so sure about others in his party.

In her New York Times op-ed, Maureen Dowd takes the stance that the Dems are losing, not because of their message which is unquestionably righteous and good and just, but because they’re getting out politicked.

Dowd quotes Michael Bloomberg saying, “Hillary never got a real message out.”

And Dowd quotes Rahm Emanuel reflecting, “We congenitally believe that our motives are pure and our goals are right,” but “You’ve got to run a good campaign. In elections, politics matter.”

Earth to Democrats: The problem is not your politicking, it’s your platform.

You’re so full of your own self-righteousness that you fail to understand that ordinary Americans, those strange folks who inhabit Flyoverstan, have come to realize that on nearly every issue that matters, your party’s stance is hostile to their best interests.

Your party has gone so far off the deep end that it’s a wonder to me that you get any votes at all.

Take Rahm Emanuel, for example. Here’s a guy who’s mayor in the Democratic stronghold of Chicago, murder capital USA, located in a state historically controlled by Democrats that’s in the process of going bankrupt, and he has the gall to talk about the purity of his parties motives and goals.

If Emanuel spent less time turning his city into a flophouse for illegal aliens and more time effectively addressing Chicago’s obvious problems, his words might warrant serious consideration. As it is, he’s just another shill for the failed status quo Democratic party politics.

Haters Gonna Hate

Has anyone else been shocked by the level of hatred directed at conservatives from the SJW left these days? For my part, I’ve never seen things so nasty. And by far the nastiest comments have come from the people who, as Rahm Emanuel put it, have pure motives and right goals.

There’s a lot that could be said on this topic, but in the interest of time I’ll cite just one example.

As you may have heard, American Otto Warmbier, an American college student held captive in North Korea for a year and a half, died this week shortly after being returned to the US.

Warmbier was taken prisoner by North Korea on January 2 2016 as he was preparing to leave the country after a three day tour. According to North Korea, Warmbier had stolen a propaganda poster and was sentenced to 15 years hard labor.

It’s a compelling and sad story of a young man who was killed at the hands of one of the world’s most brutal regimes. And one would think that anyone, regardless of political affiliation, could feel some sympathy for him as for his family.

But such is not the case in today’s America. The SJW’s, it turned out, wanted their pound of flesh, and weren’t going to stop until they got it.

Exhibit A for this is a truly toxic post published on the Huffington Post’s blog by someone named La Sha, who castigated Warmbier in her post North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal for the unforgivable sin of being a “cis white male.”

For those of you unfamiliar with SJW lingo, “cis” stands for “cisgender,” which is opposite of transgender. Which simply means that Warmbier was, as we used to say, straight. That is to say, he wasn’t fashionably gay or in some way confused about his sexuality.

Being “cis” is enough to make anyone suspect in the eyes of our SJW cultural commissars, but when you add to that the fact that Warmbier was white and male, well, that’s just too much for any self-respecting progressive to process. Off with his head!!

La Sha continues, “If he [Warmbier] had obeyed North Korea’s laws, he would be home now.” But how does La Sha know that Warmbier actually committed the crime of which he was accused? The North Korean government said he was guilty, therefore he is?

Worth noting are recent comments by Danny Gratton, Warmbier’s roommate on the trip. Gratton is of the opinion that Warmbier was not the sort of person to pull the stunt he was accused of.

Is it not possible the North Korean’s wanted to seize an American to use as a bargaining chip? I don’t know if this was the case or not, but it’s worth considering. Why is La Sha so quick to take the North Korean government’s word?

La Sha concludes her rant by comparing her life in the US as a black woman to that experienced by the people of North Korea. She writes, “The hopeless fear Warmbier is now experiencing is my daily reality living in a country where white men like him are willfully oblivious to my suffering even as they are complicit in maintaining the power structures which ensure their supremacy at my expense.”

Does La Sha really expect us to believe that her life in the US is so horrible that it’s no better than if she lived in North Korea? Seriously, I doubt even she really believes this nonsense.

After reading this column, I’m reminded of the words of Jesus who said “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

This isn’t, as many seem to think, a blanket prohibition against rending judgment. But is it a warning not to judge by unbiblical standards. If what Jesus said is true, and it is, then La Sha is setting herself up for a judgment that will not be pleasant for her. She would do well to repent.

After all, what harm did Otto Warmbier ever do to La Sha other than to be white and male? He never asked to be a public figure. He seemed to be well-regarded by his high school classmates. Why comment on his case at all? Would it not be better simply to remain silent and let the family grieve in peace?

La Sha’s post is a hate-filled rant.  It is without mercy.  It is without compassion.  It has no place in any journal that wants to be taken seriously. Yet the Huffington Post gladly publishes it. Sad.