Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, JULY 6

by A. Joseph Lynch
& Past Commentary of Dr. David Pence

THE WEEKLY BRIEF

PRESIDENT TRUMP VISITS NORTH KOREA

President Trump made history as the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea. This is a near miraculous turn around from where we were when Trump was elected in November 2016. While North Korea has not yet given up its nuclear weapons, the missile tests - which would lead to its ability to attack the U.S. - have stopped.

Neither the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un nor the president's brief entrance into North Korea had not been scheduled. Pursuing his strategy of "nation-to-nation, leader-to-leader discussions" President Trump made masterful use of Twitter to suggest a meeting: "After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!" The president's background in business - where personal relationships are extremely important - are paying dividends in our nation's relationship with North Korea.

Reflecting on Trump's strategy, we offer the following commentary from Dr. Pence on June 16, 2018:

When Donald Trump took office, Barack Obama told him the greatest immediate danger to the US was North Korea and their nuclear weapons. The Trump-Kim summit has walked back that threat in a dramatic breakthrough after direct one on one meetings between: 1) Kim Jong-un and the President, 2) South Korean leader Moon Jae-in and the President; 3) Chinese Supreme Leader Xi Jinping and the President, and 4) Prime Minister Abe of Japan and the President. This dramatic display of nation-to-nation, leader-to-leader discussions may redraw the entire encirclement alliances of the post WWII world. The Asian equivalent of tearing down the Berlin Wall that reunified Germany has just happened for the ancient civilization of Korea. Of course there is great uncertainty but it is the incertitude that precedes a risk for something big. Why is the minuscule so trumpeted and the profoundly significant so ignored? This can be attributed to the stunning geographical illiteracy, religious blindness, and historical ignorance of our very good looking modern journalists. The significance of this story cannot be discovered during pillow talk with cultivated sources. It can only be recognized by one who studies and reflects on strategic perspective and historical memory.

Politics is about organizing protection. Mao Tse Tung said governance comes out of the barrel of a gun. That is a well received majority opinion. Only in a handful of developed Western lands protected by agreements forged in the blood of their grandfathers is politics a continuation of high school student council campaigns and elections. Most leaders in a "rough world" came up rough. It is far better for the real leaders of the true major powers to sit down with one another and talk then stay in outmoded multinational alignments that keep the principals from talking face to face. Much more is learned and much more can be settled by Donald Trump sitting down with Vladimir Putin than making toasts with the feminist "defense minister" of Sweden while she badmouths Russia. Donald Trump's breakthrough in Korea has happened because he is developing relations with all the national leaders in Asia including Xi Jinping. It is far better to meet with the leaders of China and North Korea than organize a human rights conference with tough guy Marco Rubio so he can talk against China showing us his jutting presidential jaw in its best campaign mode against the latest threat to our way of life.

President Trump is actually proposing diplomacy over war games. He is talking to a nation man about inter-national relations before lecturing on human rights. He joins Lincoln who didn't free all the slaves at his first inauguration; Richard Nixon who didn't talk forced abortion with Mao; Pope Francis who is not lecturing the Chinese; and Ronald Reagan who spoke with the Soviets about tearing down the prison wall before listing the individual prisoners. President Trump left the white multilateralists of G7 to talk to the nationalist strong men of Asia. The diversity media scolded the President for talking to Asian bad boys instead of soothing the more familiar metrosexual leader of Canada. President Trump dared suggest that US troops in Korea are not forever. This is a strategic (and debt slashing) tsunami. President Trump met with President Kim in Singapore and evoked the independent Singapore model as a new way for Korea. The greatest international thinker of our time was the Father of Singapore. This is a serious time that would benefit if a few journalists studied the biography and speeches of Lee Kuan Yew. It would also help if religious leaders and the antiwar movement could find their old songbooks...because "All we are saying is, 'Give peace a chance'."

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

MEXICAN PRIEST ARRESTED FOR MURDER: He was arrested after celebrating the man's funeral. Police suspect they were in a gay relationship.

SCANDAL IN WEST VIRGINIA: Bishop Bransfield, removed for sexual and financial abuse, gave away $350,000 to bishops and other clergy before being removed. The money has been recollected, but who was paid (bribed?) and why? One article explores how the financial abuse happened. We believe larger churches should no longer be exempt from financial transparency when maintaining non-profit status.

OPEN BORDERS CATHOLICISM: Listen to the first half and skip the second. This priest's homily opens with a good overview of border walls in the Bible. Meanwhile Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso is helping illegals cross the border into the US.

II. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

SALUTE TO AMERICA: President Trump led the nation in a "Salute to America" Fourth of July celebration in Washington D.C. Far from self-serving, the event was genuinely patriotic and uplifting (watch the president's speech). Meanwhile liberal protesters burned the flag and chanted, "imagine a world without America." Pat Buchanan reflects on the event and the deepening divisions between the political right and left

GEN. KEANE HELPS HALT IRAN ATTACK: Retired Gen. Jack Keane generally supports an interventionist foreign policy, but he should be given some credit on halting the near attack on Iran after the shoot down of an unarmed US drone. Appearing on Fox News June 20, Keane reminded viewers - and the President - that the US accidentally shot down an Iranian passenger jet, killing nearly 300 (including 66 children). The US never apologized. After hearing about this, Trump spoke of it often as he was making his decision. In the end he called off the attack. Remembering the past's dead saved lives today.

KAMALA HARRIS' EX-LOVER SAYS SHE CAN'T WIN: The former mayor of San Francisco, who had an ongoing affair with presidential contender, Kamala Harris, and helped get her political career started, says neither she nor the other presidential hopefuls can beat President Trump. As her campaign seems to be rising with her faux attack on Biden, we remind our readers of her falling out with her father after dishonoring her family with comments about doing drugs.

III. THE NATIONS

PUTIN DECLARES LIBERALISM IS DEAD: As the atheist West continues to commit itself to sexual chaos and demographic suicide, Putin sees the world increasingly populated by nationalist leaders like Xi Jinping, Modi, Abe, Erdogan, Bolsonaro, and Trump. Pat Buchanan reflects on Putin's statement.

WAS MORSI MURDERED? Ex-President Morsi of Egypt was elected in 2012 and removed by a coup the following year. He was later sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned in 2016. Last month he died in court as he was being tried for espionage. His son suspects foul play. Here is an AoA reflection on Morsi and Egypt from May 23, 2015:

Egypt - Executing the Elected: The Mideast is complicated. One variant of Sunni purists are the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. They forswore violence and won a national election (51% - 48% for Mohammed Morsi as president in June 2012). They did not govern well and specifically threatened Egypt's Coptic Christians and, more importantly, questioned the favored social status of the Egyptian military. The Christians, secularists, multiple opposition groups, and the military all favored the military coup in July 2013 which overthrew the elected government of Mohamed Morsi. Army chief general Abdel Fattah el Sisi became the new President. His speech calling for a religious reexamination in the Mideast was widely praised in the West. The Saudis have supported the military coup. They never liked the Muslim Brotherhood. It favors a much more republican version of Islamic governance vs. their hereditary rule style. Qatar which has more religious freedom than Saudi Arabia was a defender of the Egyptian election and the Muslim Brotherhood. This led to a strain in relations among the Gulf monarchies. Now, President Morsi and many of his political followers have been sentenced to death. President Sisi of Egypt has helped the Gulf monarchies in their assault on the Houthis of Yemen. He has tried to win US favor in foreign policy. The execution of an elected but deposed president should not be too eagerly cheered.

BORIS IN THE LEAD: Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson face off to become Britain's next prime minister - but Boris has a strong lead. What this video to learn more about the election process.

ERDOGAN LOSES ISTANBUL: Reasons and implications.

IV. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

SHRINKING ODDS OF LIFE: A new study reveals that the habitable zone might be smaller than we had thought. We should again give thanks to God for His elective plan - from the vastness of the universe he elected this place of Earth for life and eventually for his Incarnation.

"PRIDE" (SHAMEFUL) BISHOPS: Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky has openly supported the homosexual agenda by writing a prayer in support of gay pride and seemingly asserting homosexuals were "made that way" by God. Bishop Malone of Buffalo, who attempted to place a predator gay priest in a parish with a grade school, recently said that gay priests are here to stay, falsely asserting that gay men in seminary have only to be chaste for three years before ordination. It must be recognized that there is a sin that automatically removes a priest from his apostolic brethren.

NIKE AGAINST AMERICA: Ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was able to pressure Nike to pull its American flag shoes from stores. As a Nike boycott looms, Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has announced that Arizona will be withdrawing the state's financial incentives to Nike.

THE WOMEN OF SOCCER: A game between an Austrian women's soccer team against the women's soccer team of the Vatican was cancelled after Austrian players disrespectfully attacked the Church's pro-life position. We ask: why does the Vatican need a women's soccer team? Elsewhere in soccer, the women's World Cup boats around 10% openly lesbian/bi-sexual players with many more still "in the closet."