First up, a the displacement of minorities that comes from within the very leftward government that runs NYC: not genocidal, but racist and profit-motivated. The merits of which are constantly being challenged by this consortium.

April 26, 2017. 3:30 pm. The LES (Lower East Side) consortium  of leftists, socialists and Communists were protesting real estate buy-outs and demanding the resignation of Comrades De Blasio and Chin.

Protest after protest, Mayor “Red Bill”  and Council Member, Margaret Chin have ignored their demands. Amid cries of racism, the residents feel there is no place for them in the De Blasio/Chin LES. And they might be correct.

Media Advisory says: “Chin – launched her own limited rezoning for Chinatown – excluding Latins, Blacks and other Asians from land use protections; destroying our communities; pitting Asian Americans, Blacks and Latinos against each other.” [Video]

Who is right. Wrong. Old buildings eventually come down. Is it necessary to eliminate the status quo? Is it inconvenient for them to remain in their communities?

Chinatown, LES, & Lower Manhattan residents and workers protest CM Margaret Chin’s divisive and destructive rezoning and land use policies.

The LES Community demands that Chin and Mayor “Red Bill ‘ de Blasio step down. Guilty of collusion with real estate developers and their racist policies, leading to the potential destruction of Chinatown, the Lower East Side and lower Manhattan.

Flickr slide show

Which takes me next to the Armenian Genocide Commemoration.

For the 100 year anniversary in 2015 there was a much larger gathering. But, large or small, each year’s theme is the same: NEVER FORGET.

The Muslim Turkish Government’s attempt to wipe the Armenian people off the planet was genocide and Hitler admired what the Turks nearly accomplished. This was his template used against the Jews of Europe – his Final Solution – GENOCIDE.

… millions of people around the world will mourn the implementation of a plan—devised by Ottoman officials a hundred years ago, amid the chaos of the First World War—to annihilate the Armenian people in their native homeland. Initiated in 1915, the policy was brutally effective; by the war’s end, it had resulted in the destruction of virtually every Armenian community outside Constantinople, and the elimination of more than a million people from territory in what is now modern Turkey. This is what is meant by the term “Armenian genocide.” [The New Yorker]

Flickr slideshow Armenian Commemoration

Sen. Chuck Schumer spoke, as he seems to do every year, addressing the collective Armenian trauma and Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the sins of their fathers.

… For many Armenians living around the world, in a state of post-Ottoman diaspora, that trauma has been compounded by the lack of official recognition and reconciliation. To this day, the Turkish state denies that a systematic annihilation ever occurred (by the name of genocide, or any other).And Armenians continue to struggle with the official negation: to endlessly combat it is its own form of prison, but to try moving past it unilaterally, abandoning the horrific events of 1915 in the shadows of denial, is to succumb to willful blindness and injustice … [The New Yorker]

Which brings me to my final entry: the 25th Anniversary of the world acceptance of Falun Dafa, accepted by al…except China! May 12 , 2017  was World Falun Dafa Day.  [Video]

I happened upon their parade at 42nd st. and 10th ave. Colorful. Joyful. Impressive. Banner after banner. They really are world-wide.

Their message: Falun Dafa Is Good.  A peaceful meditation that CHINA has decided is so EVIL that Falun Dafa practitioners must be eradicated. (Genocide)

This was a long parade. Never did see the end of it. Saw banner after banner representing countries around the world where Falun Dafa are accepted (but not in China). In China they are still harassed, imprisoned, murdered.

It seemed the NYPD was redirecting the parade away from the Chinese Consulate on 12th avenue. Odd since the Tibetans protest there regularly. Whatever, the Falun Dafa marched toward the Consulate in celebration and protest.

Flickr slideshow :

The LES Chinatown real estate situation is obviously not the Armenian and Falun Dafa genocides. But, the tyranny of government can go easily from real estate adventure, to eminent domain, to removing a whole people, leading to genocidal consequences.

Every time the free world attempts to protect itself from the one-world Islamic anschluss of terrorism and domination we are badgered with cries of racism, xenophobia, or even more ridiculously, Nazi. Who is right?  Who decides. Who wins?

Hitler. Stalin. China. Turkey. Geographically specific horrors. But Islamic domination and genocide is a worldwide horror. It’s here. It’s now. So as the city that never sleep plods on with parades, protests and rallies one phrase rings true: NEVER FORGET. (Never give in) Brave words to live by … or die.

++ Pictures and Video Property of Pamela Hall ++

Today marks the 102nd anniversary of an unfathomable crime against humanity. The precursor to The Holocaust, the Armenian genocide involved the systematic deportation and elimination of over 1.5 million Armenian Christians living within the Ottoman Empire. The Federalist has published a useful explanation of what this series of atrocities entailed, as well an answer to the question of why the current Turkish state refuses to acknowledge its responsibility for this heinous crime. The New York Times has a fascinating article about a Turkish historian who’s uncovered documents which directly refute the concerted campaign of denial waged by his country’s government.

For more good reading material, I would recommend previous posts on this very important subject.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

A few questions which should have been answered before tonight’s missile strikes. 

Politics makes for strange bedfellows. 

In deed, if nothing else. The Telegraph is covering the airstrikes against the Assad regime and their aftermath live. For an inkling of how complex this conflict is, I would suggest looking over this map of the Syrian Civil War, which illustrates the murky waters we are delving into as a nation. For what it’s worth, we have been militarily involved in Syria for over two and a half years, most recently attempting to separate Kurdish militias from the Turkish military. Turkey, it should be noted, is the nation asserting that the Syrian regime used sarin gas in the gruesome chemical attack which took place in Idlib province on April 4th.

Where this will lead is anyone’s guess.

Although the Turkish riots in Rotterdam-and despite media portrayals of poor, victimized Muslims, that’s precisely what they were-were intended to help Recep Tayyip Erdoğan consolidate power within Turkey, they have had a corollary effect. Namely, serving as the best single advertisement for Geert Wilders becoming the next Prime Minister of The Netherlands. Can there be a greater indictment of the decades-long failed experiment in multiculturalism and Islamic immigration than what just occurred in Holland, which was witnessed by the entire world?

The fatuousness disguised as intellectualism peddled by frauds like Ian Buruma has turned a beacon of religious and political freedom into a place where ordinary Dutch men and women are menaced by violent Islamic mobs. Where a state-bankrolled “watchdog” says its permissible to send gay people death threats if you happen to be a Muslim. Where parliamentarians such as Geert Wilders himself are censured because they express disapproval of certain ethnic and religious groups. The notion that liberal, Enlightenment values can be reconciled with a retrograde, 7th century Arabian ideology is preposterous, and the only people who still believe in this fantasy are endangering the future of Europe.

Europeans did not resist Ottoman aggression for centuries merely to invite their enemies into their countries and submit to their whims. What happened in Rotterdam yesterday was not an aberration. It was a foretaste of what is to come.

Update: Tommy Robinson right again, the perp arrived in Turkey via Syria. 

ISIS claims responsibility. 

Burying the dead. 

Graphic photos of the Istanbul massacre. 

A profile of the victims of jihad. 

For good ongoing overage of this attack, follow Abdullah Bozkurt’s Twitter feed.

One of the most exasperating parts of following news coverage of the latest wave of Islamic atrocities is the deliberately mendacious way these crimes against humanity are portrayed by the Fourth Estate, the Santa attack inside of an Istanbul nightclub being just the latest example of this willful deception. At least the editors of the Daily Beast had the courtesy to enclose that word in quotation marks, but people who didn’t read beyond the headline of this story would probably be under the impression that a deranged mall santa decided to go on  a bloody rampage, a la A Christmas Horror Story. No, this wasn’t a case of an otherwise non-ideological lunatic going postal, or a person cosplaying a scenario from a Batman vs. Joker film.

It was a calculated jihadist methodically mowing down Kufr and infidels-foreign tourists, but also secular Turks who enjoy living in (relative) freedom-as is prescribed in his scripture, i.e. the Koran. This terrorist was acting upon the same impulse as his fellow Turks, some of whom spent the Christmas season holding Santa Claus at gunpoint in order to express their displeasure at a religious/cultural festival which does not involve rivers of blood. When an acquaintance informed me of this massacre on New Year’s Eve, the way he described it made it seem like an utterly random outbreak of ultra-violence. This popular misconception needs to be challenged at every opportunity, because it is literally taking innocent life.

As horrifying as it is to admit that over 11,000 human beings have had their lives erased because of Islam in 2016 alone, this truth needs to be assimilated if we are to ever hope of living in anything approaching Western civilization. People need to reject the comforting delusions which have made these types of massacres more, not less, likely. We are facing a global ideology which is anti-civilization, anti-thought, and anti-humanity.

Saint Nicholas would not be allowed to live in modern-day Turkey, and if Santa Claus existed I’m almost certain he would have been quickly beheaded by one of the many Sunni terrorist groups operating within that country. 2016 should be a wakeup call to those who have been ignoring the exterminationist war being fought against crusaders and infidels. Continuing to live in ignorance is no longer an option.

Update: I’m not saying it’s an inside job, but…

Erdogan reaches out. 

The assassin was a member of the riot police, according to Turkey’s interior minister. 

Syrian opposition celebrates the assassination. 

The assailant-now deceased-appears to have been a Turkish policeman. Heckuva job, Erdogan! 

Footage of what appears to be the assassination. 

As if we needed another reason to halt our country’s disastrous involvement in Syria, the Russian ambassador to Turkey was just shot and killed in that nation’s capital. Syria, like Lebanon from 1975-1990, is an irresolvable tinderbox with too many warring factions to enumerate, all of whom-even the Kurds-are committing atrocities. Instead of sending more troops to this charnel house, we should be withdrawing every soldier on the ground and cutting off all military supplies to the jihadist rebels. Instead of following this sensible policy, the lunatics serving in Congress have decided that it would be a swell idea to arm these same Sunni terrorists with weaponry capable of downing civilian aircraft.

Just like in Star Wars, there are no good guys in this conflict. Whether it’s the Russian air force indiscriminately bombing Syrian cities and towns, Iranian proxy Hezbollah attempting to ethnically cleanse Sunni villages, American-backed moderate rebels beheading children, or Syrian Christians facing complete extinction at the hands of emboldened Sunnis, there are no parties to this conflict with clean hands. This country has no strategic interests in Syria, other than thwarting the spread of ISIS-which humanitarian, liberal interventionists have facilitated-and preventing jihadist sleeper cells from establishing roots in American soil through refugee resettlement.

CNN is one of those ubiquitous aspects of the American soundscape which I’ve always looked upon as part of our gradual cultural decline. Whether you’re in a dentist’s waiting room, or simply passing by a restaurant on your way home-as I was this weekend-you can’t help but overhear one of that network’s correspondents, news anchors or hosts do their best KCNA imitation. The fact that so many millions of Americans unconsciously imbibe its propaganda on a daily basis merely illustrates how difficult it will be to craft a counter-narrative to the open borders, liberal interventionist propaganda which shapes our government’s domestic and foreign policies. To successfully deprogram the people who are barely aware of the deliberate, pernicious bias which animates the media will be a monumental task.

However, on September 10th I inadvertently watched something of inestimable value on that network, an interview of Howard Lutnick. The CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a company which lost 658 employees during the 9/11 massacre, including Mr. Lutnick’s brother and best friend, he is a living reminder of the determination and compassion embodied by New Yorkers and Americans. I couldn’t watch that interview without tears welling up in my eyes, because I viscerally remember the horror of that day, as well as the weeks that followed. Although I’m blessed not to have lost any loved ones or friends that day, the desolation and despair those attacks left in their wake, the incalculable human grief and misery they inflicted upon this city and our nation, couldn’t help but make a permanent impression upon my psyche.

I still vividly recall the columns of smoke floating over the my college campus from the scene of destruction at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. The horrifically pungent smell of death wafting its way up to Union Square for nearly a month afterwards. The tangible fear and anxiety which gripped me for the following week whenever I boarded a bus or walked outside of my apartment in Brooklyn. The posters of missing men and women who would never return to their families, which blanketed the entire city and hundreds of which I passed on my way to visiting my late uncle in Cobble Hill later that month. Only later did I, like many Americans, begin to feel the incandescent rage and fury at the anti-civilization that had demolished 2 architectural landmarks which its emissaries could never have even conceived of, let alone designed and erected.

That anger and resentment has only increased in the intervening years, as the ruling class has done everything within its power to condition the American public to accept Islamic identity as equal-if not superior-to Western civilization and American values. Values which courageous FDNY, PAPD, NYPD and EMS workers-as well as heroic civilians like Howard Lutnick-displayed a decade and a half ago. Even as our rights and freedoms have been steadily diminished and we have witnessed Americans being slaughtered again and again on our television screens. With each anniversary of the single worst attack upon American soil the cognitive terrorism conducted by our press organs increases in intensity.

As others have pointed out, the main takeaway from the September 11th atrocities-for the enemedia, at any rate-is that it’s an event which has made the lives of Muslims slightly more uncomfortable. The fact that the commemoration of 9/11 this year coincides with a Muslim holy day-and the presidential candidacy of a man who refuses to pretend that the architects of this unprecedented provocation belonged to a religion of peace-has only intensified the Muslims as victims press coverage, no matter how inane or blatantly false the chimera of Islamophobic backlash is in reality.

The fact that we haven’t spent the past decade implementing measures to prevent future 9/11s from occurring-securing our borders, deporting national security threats, and curtailing immigration from nations which amount to terrorist incubators-but have instead dwelled upon how we can cosset the feelings of Muslims and contextually understand a book which has no context is absolutely infuriating. That future generations of American students will be taught that the victims of 9/11 were actually Muslims, and as abroad Austrians are being condemned by their purported countrymen for celebrating their ancestors’ defeat of an Ottoman army sent to perpetually enslave them, is so galling that it defies description.

The amount of mental space and emotional energy I’ve had to devote to understanding Islam-what motivates its adherents, why it’s persisted into the 21st century despite leaving no cultural or philosophical monuments of lasting significance, why Western intellectuals, going back to Gibbon, maintain that it has something of value to impart to our civilization-is spiritually enervating. I am, like the great Mark Steyn, Islamed out. I want future generations of American children to learn about the brilliance of men like Minoru Yamasaki, who designed an architectural masterpiece which 3 generations of Muslim immigration has never approached, and in all likelihood never will. A man who embodied the best of American values, i.e. individualism, perseverance, and creativity allowed to blossom in freedom, not ethno-religious resentment, ingratitude, and attachments to historic hatreds which will never be eradicated.

We are a warm and generous nation-and have been since our founding. Therefore, we should welcome Muslims throughout the world. As visitors though, not as settlers. Think of how many Ron DiFrancescos could have been admitted to this country in place of the Omar Mateens and Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs. It’s time to move past our culture’s pathological altruism and recognize the sacrifices of the men and women who perished on that bleak September morning. It might be too late to stop the civilizational suicide of our European allies, but there is still hope for us. America needs to preserve the memories of its martyrs and ensure more of them are not sacrificed on the alter of vibrant diversity.

Turkey’s historic brutality towards ethnic and religious minorities, particularly what was once a thriving, prosperous Armenian Christian community, is well known throughout the West. The notion that rational individuals with a basic historic awareness would be persuaded to accept Turkish revisionism and holocaust denial is absurd.  However, that hasn’t stopped the Turkish government from spending millions of dollars in an effort to cajole, coerce or bribe governments throughout the world, including our own, to ignore its complicity in one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century. Acclaimed scholars of the Middle East have repeated the lies spouted by fascistic Turkish demagogues as it relates to this subject, and we now have the Wall Street Journal running a full-page advertisement espousing the views of the men who orchestrated the virtual annihilation of the Armenian people.

That is why the Rally For Justice, to be held outside the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles this Sunday, is necessary. It’s an opportunity to remind the the world that the descendants of those who survived the Armenian Golgotha have not forgotten the persecution of their ancestors, and will not remain silent while Turkey attempts to airbrush its crimes out of history, even as its current government commits monstrous new ones upon another demonized minority. I would urge all of this website’s followers who live in Southern California to attend, and those who cannot to spread the word. In the face of unspeakable lies, remaining silent is not an option.

The facile nature of the immigration debate within this country can be infuriating to those of us who’ve invested time and effort into gaining a fuller understanding of this complex, interconnected series of issues. It often seems like we’ve living in the dystopian future outlined in the Neil Postman classic, Amusing Ourselves to Death. A world where linear thinking and the gathering of empirical evidence in order to buttress your argument are considered inconsequential, if not a hindrance, while the refraction of charged images and exploitation of emotional triggers are paramount. In that sense, the photo of Aylan Kurdi’s corpse being carried from the Mediterranean shore is emblematic of the type of discussion this subject engenders. Rife with emotionalism and moral preening, devoid of introspection, and remarkably fact and logic-free.

That’s why the chat between Professor Glenn Loury and economist George Borjas featured on Bloggingheads TV is such a breath of fresh air. They not only engage in a substantive examination of this topic-along with its profound implications for American society-but discuss why the rational, cost-benefit analysis that usually factors into any domestic policy debate is completely discarded when the subject turns to immigration. They honestly explore why the elites who have benefited from unfettered immigration from the developing world have stigmatized criticism of their agenda to the point where it is almost never broached in national conversation, and is taboo among Democratic Party incumbents and aspiring political leaders.

It’s worth watching in its entirety. I’m looking forward to your feedback.

This year marks the centennial of the Turkish campaign to wipe out the Armenian people and depopulate the Ottoman Empire of its Christian subjects. Last month was the official commemoration of this holocaust, known as Armenian Genocide Memorial Day. Our good friends at the Silent Majority No More have provided us with an illuminating photo-essay documenting the solemn acknowledgement of this genocide by the Armenian community living in New York City. In addition to explaining the historical background behind the most horrific instance of  Muslim brutality towards the Ottoman Empire’s economic engine, that essay also explores the continued Turkish denial of state crimes committed in defense of Islamic and national prejudices. 

For those who would like to learn more about this extremely important subject-and I would urge all of my readers to learn as much about the Armenian genocide as possible-there are many fantastic books on this subject. Including the brilliant work by Armenian-American scholar Peter Balakian, The Burning Tigris, which not only chronicles the Hamidian massacres and the much more comprehensive 1915 genocide, but also explores the extraordinary efforts of ordinary Americans who tried to turn the world’s gaze to the indescribable suffering of the Armenian people at the hands of the CUP and Turkish leadership.

Another worthwhile account of this horrific series of events was written by a survivor himself, Grigoris Balakian, a bishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church and relative of Peter Balakian. Armenian Golgotha is his testament to the persecution his people endured at the hands of the last great Islamic State. It also serves as a reminder that the people who would underestimate the threat posed by Islamic jihad, or who would warp their society’s ideals in order to appease  it, do not have a fundamental grasp of history.

We must remember.