Day: July 17, 2023

While Navy Pushes DEI, 37% of Attack Subs Are Out of Order~If only the Navy could repair subs as quickly as its transgender teams castrate sailors.

BY DANIEL GREENFIELD

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/while-navy-pushes-dei-37-of-attack-subs-are-out-of-order;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

On June 16, 2023, a date which will live in infamy, the Pearl Harbor base featured the story of Lt. Nick Grant, an “out gay cisgender man” who was a co-chair of the Naval Medical Force Pacific Transgender Care Team (NMFP TGCT).

The title of the Pride Month feature was “serving with pride”.

The Navy’s medical service, which can’t seem to do anything about active duty personnel killing themselves, has multiple “transgender care teams” for different regions composed of multiple specialists for different areas to “oversee and, in many cases, provide mental health, hormonal, and surgical interventions as needed to facilitate the gender transition process.”

There are some who say that the Navy ought to be focused on other things. Like getting its submarines to work. In the latest numbers, nearly 40% of attack subs are out of commission.

With only 31 subs operationally ready, the US Navy is more unready than ever to face off against the People’s Liberation Army Submarine Force of Communist China.

In 2017, 28% of submarines were out of commission. By 2022, it was 33%, and now it’s 37%. At the rate that the woke Naval brass are going, most subs will soon be out of order.

Under Biden, the number of operational nuclear powered attack subs has never gone above 33 out of 49. A third of our submarine attack fleet being out of order has become the new normal.

If only the Navy could repair subs as quickly as its transgender care teams castrate sailors.

As the U.S. Pacific Fleet (SUBPAC) commander responsible for 37 attack and ballistic missile submarines, Rear Admiral J.T. Jablon is “committed to broadening the diversity, equity, and inclusion of our Submarine Force”.

“Diverse representation without equity and inclusion degrades our readiness. Barriers to inclusion are the unconscious biases we carry without our awareness,” J.T. Jablon claimed in the official DEI statement. Everyone in the submarine fleet must be subjected to racial struggle sessions and political indoctrination, opportunities must be awarded based on race.

Not only hasn’t DEI improved readiness, but submarine readiness has drastically dropped.

“Diversity and inclusion are cornerstones of high organizational performance and mission effectiveness,” J.T. Jablon argued. The state of the submarine fleet proves otherwise.

The Navy is more diverse than ever. Pride Month is celebrated at American naval bases all across the Pacific. And even the most basic functions of the fleet are out of order.

When Biden nominated Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, a Democrat fundraiser, the former contractor was supposed to untangle the supply chain issues. But his company, SBG, benefited from government contracts as a “minority-owned business and a service disabled veteran owned small business” and he’s shown no ability to fix the Navy’s problems.

Del Toro, who had served on the Naval Academy Alumni Association’s Special Commission on Culture, Diversity, and Inclusion to purge political dissent, announced that his focus would be on China, Culture, Climate, and COVID. The US Navy is going green and promised that, like California, it would reach “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050”.

The Navy’s 2023 budget wastes $718 million on fighting global warming. That’s more than 10% of the $6.2 billion in maintenance costs for 151 Navy vessels. If the Navy focused as much on getting its vessels operational as it does on global warming, identity politics and other partisan leftist causes, we would have subs in the water and have nothing to fear from China.

Instead, China is laughing while the US Navy commits to “100 percent zero-emission vehicles by 2035” and “100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity” and has partly achieved its goal by having “37 percent zero-emission attack submarines” sitting and doing nothing.

“They have 13 shipyards, in some cases their shipyard has more capacity — one shipyard has more capacity than all of our shipyards combined. That presents a real threat,” Del Toro observed of China’s shipyards. We could have shipyards too, but they ‘emit’ things.

At a Naval diversity summit, Secretary Del Toro told senior leaders that, “in order to maintain our strategic edge, the Navy and Marine Corps team must operationalize innovative and cohesive initiatives, rooted in DEI’s goals.” Our strategic edge is blunted, the fleet is failing and our capabilities are falling behind China while our military operationalizes leftist political agendas.

Instead of working on vessels, the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard urges everyone to become an “ally” and consult “reputable sources like the Trevor Project, the Human Rights Campaign, and GLAAD.”

Meanwhile, a GAO report found that ‘steaming hours’ for Navy vessels had consistently decreased even as the DOD treated the number of the decreased as classified information. Navy officials responded to the maintenance backlogs, not by improving performance, but by trying to decommission and reduce the number of ships in the fleet to improve the numbers.

In 2019, more than half of the aircraft carriers were not ready to deploy. The US Navy is already badly backed up just repairing ships on routine deployments. In the event of a naval military conflict, another GAO report found that it would be absolutely overwhelmed.

The GAO report stated that the Navy “is in the early stages of determining how it will provide battle damage repair during a great power conflict.” The Navy has spent far more time thinking about how it will implement DEI programs and castration opportunities for sailors than it has how it will cope with repairing battle damage during a war.

The shipyards are not ready with “more than half the equipment at the shipyards is past its expected service life.” The submarines are not ready, with only 31 mission capable attack subs. And the fleet is not ready for a military conflict with a GAO report warning that “the Navy could handle a single battle damage event,” but they were “uncertain how the Navy might handle multiple simultaneous or near-simultaneous events”. But the DEI indoctrination is ready.

92% of ship fires may be going unreported, but Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday is on track with his true mission. “My goal is to put the Navy in a place over the next 20 years where we’re the most diverse service in the DoD,” Gilday told the State of the Navy.

China’s goal is to have the largest Navy in the world. After achieving that goal in 2020, it has kept on building and aims to have 400 vessels. But we will have the most diverse Navy. Our ships won’t work, but our struggle sessions will. We won’t win any wars except on ourselves.

The People’s Republic of China may take pride in ruling the seas, but we’ll take pride in Pride.

Afghanistan: Christians face regular raids on their homes, frequently receive threats, and lack access to education

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/07/afghanistan-christians-face-regular-raids-on-their-homes-frequently-receive-threats-and-lack-access-to-education;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Why is one of the world’s most self-consciously strict adherents of Islamic law so intolerant of Christians? The pope and many others assure us that Islam is peaceful and tolerant. Why doesn’t the Taliban get this?

“Freedom Focus Report: Afghanistan’s Christians Fight to Survive Under the Taliban,” International Christian Concern, July 13, 2023:

07/13/2023 Afghanistan (International Christian Concern) – Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, religious and civil liberties have rapidly deteriorated under Taliban rule. Under the current regime, former government officials and civil servants, and religious minorities like Christians endure intense governmental and societal pressure and scrutiny. They face regular raids on their homes by the Taliban, frequently receive threats against their jobs and families, and lack access to educational opportunities. 

The Taliban are attempting to cut contact between Afghani citizens and any Western groups and have practically eradicated on-the-ground relief efforts by NGOs. Any group looking to provide long-term relief efforts, such as livelihood relief, must be wary of Taliban spies among their workers. 

The state of religious freedom and Christian tolerance in Afghanistan has not improved since ICC reported Afghanistan as one of the worst places in the world to be a Christian in the 2022 Persecutor of the Year report. The Taliban are working to completely erase Christianity or any religious minority from the country, even stating that there are no Christians in Afghanistan, an obviously false claim. Many Christians have gone underground to avoid being kidnapped by the Taliban “courts.”  

Poverty, Betrayal, and Torture 

The rising starvation rates and increasing poverty in Afghanistan create an even higher security threat to these believers since now the Taliban are offering financial compensation to anyone who reports on Christians. In an interview with Mission News Network, Lana Silk, CEO of USA at Transform Iran, said, “The Taliban are offering money for Afghans to turn in any Christians they know. And Afghans are desperate, further heightening the security risk [to] Christians.” 

Unless ransomed by their families, Christians captured by the “courts” face brutal torture and even death. If redeemed, the survivors and their families, often bankrupt from the exorbitant ransom demands, must flee their homes to avoid repeated kidnappings from the various Taliban gangs.  

Pakistan’s Refugee Crisis 

Because of the persecution, many Christians escape to Pakistan and risk capture and death by the Taliban. Even if they make it to Pakistan, they must conceal their faith for fear of receiving worse treatment in already poor conditions. Some Christian refugees decide to return to Afghanistan, deciding they have a better chance of survival under the Taliban than in Pakistan.  

The Pakistani government, unprepared for the influx of refugees, has begun to crack down on immigration. Many immigrants cannot find work to provide food or rent for themselves and their families….

New York: Muslim migrant helped supply ‘thousands’ of recruits from Western countries to the Islamic State

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/07/new-york-muslim-migrant-helped-supply-thousands-of-recruits-from-western-countries-to-the-islamic-state;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Why did all these Western Muslims fall for the supposedly twisted and hijacked version of Islam that the Islamic State offers? Why didn’t the peaceful, benign Islam that they supposedly learned in their local mosques prevail?

“US Islamic State recruiter sentenced to life in New York court,” The New Arab, July 15, 2023 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A Kosovo-born US man who helped supply “thousands” of recruits to the Islamic State group was sentenced to life in prison Friday for helping the extremist group, the Justice Department announced.

Mirsad Kandic, 40, was a high-ranking member of the jihadist group between 2013 and 2017, when it controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria, the Justice Department said.

In 2013 he left his home in New York and traveled to Syria, where he joined IS, becoming a fighter in Haritan outside of Aleppo.

Then he was directed to move to Turkey to help smuggle foreign fighters and weapons for the group into Syria, it said.

He was also an emir for IS media, the department said, disseminating the group’s propaganda and recruitment messages online, including via more than 120 Twitter accounts.

As recruiter, “he sent thousands of radicalized ISIS volunteer fighters from Western countries into ISIS-controlled territories in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East,” the Justice Department said, using another acronym for IS….

Pope Kowtows to Chinese Communists, Accepts Cardinal Appointed by Beijing

Pope Kowtows to Chinese Communists by Accepting a Cardinal Appointed by the State

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/07/16/pope-kowtows-to-chinese-communists-by-accepting-a-cardinal-appointed-by-the-state-n1711021;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

In 2018, Pope Francis and the Vatican signed an agreement with the Chinese Communists that, among other things, gives both sides a say in the appointment of bishops. This agreement was ignored by Beijing three months ago when they unilaterally named Bishop Joseph Shen Bin to lead the Diocese of Shanghai.

Instead of standing up to the Beijing bullies, Francis gave in and announced on Saturday that he had accepted the Communist’s appointment despite Beijing’s blatant violation of the 2018 accord.

The Church in China is sharply divided between the “official” Catholic Church sanctioned by the government and an “underground” church that follows the Vatican. It puts Francis in a difficult position, but is he so naive as to believe that every time he gives in, the Communists won’t take advantage and push the agreement a little farther?

Cardinal Joseph Zen, a former bishop of Hong Kong, and other critics have complained that the agreement is “a betrayal of the country’s underground Catholics loyal to the pope,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The “official” Catholics have very little freedom.

Religious groups have been required to revise their practices and teaching in accordance with Communist Party doctrine and to develop what Xi has called “socialist religious theories with Chinese characteristics” through a process of “sinicization.”

The Vatican has acknowledged that the results of the deal have been meager so far. Only a handful of new Chinese bishops have been ordained under the agreement since 2018.

Last November, the Vatican accused Beijing of violating the deal by transferring Bishop John Peng Weizhao from his Vatican-approved post as bishop of Yujiang to a new role as auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi, a diocese not recognized by the Vatican.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Cardinal Secretary of State, said that Pope Francis wanted to “remedy the canonical irregularity created in Shanghai, in view of the greater good of the diocese and the fruitful exercise of the bishop’s pastoral ministry.”

“Canonical irregularity”? It’s important to properly prostrate oneself when paying homage to the Mandarins in China.

Related: FBI Wants to Deny Catholic Advocacy Group Access to Spying Records

Parolin said that the Pope’s “intention is fundamentally pastoral” and will allow the bishop to “work with greater serenity to promote evangelization and foster ecclesial communion.”

In other words, Francis is waving a big white flag and will now write a “strongly worded letter” to let the Chinese Communists know they can continue to walk all over him and the Catholic Church.

National Catholic Register:

In an interview with Vatican News published with the announcement of the Chinese bishop’s appointment, Cardinal Parolin underlined that it is “indispensable, that all episcopal appointments in China, including transfers, be made by consensus, as agreed, and keeping alive the spirit of dialogue” between the Holy See and China.

The Holy See first entered into a provisional two-year agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops in 2018, which was renewed in 2020 and again in 2022.

One month after the Holy See agreed to renew the deal last October, the Vatican said that Chinese authorities violated the terms stipulated in the agreement by installing Bishop John Peng Weizhao as an “auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi,” a diocese that is not recognized by the Vatican.

There are 10-12 million Catholics in China, and the Vatican apparently feels little responsibility to stand up for them in their bid to win the freedom of worship. “Indeed, the dialogue between the Vatican side and the Chinese side remains open and I believe that it is a path that is in some way obligatory,” Parolin said.

As long as the Chinese see that “obligation” going one way, nothing is likely to change.

Was There Just a Jihad Terror Attack in Fargo, North Dakota?

Was There Just a Jihad Terror Attack in Fargo, North Dakota?

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/07/16/was-there-just-a-jihad-terror-attack-in-fargo-north-dakota-n1711007;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

On Friday afternoon, police in Fargo, North Dakota, responded to a report of a car crash at 9th Avenue South and 25th Street South. Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski said it was a “routine traffic accident,” but what happened when they arrived on the scene was anything but routine. A Fargo resident named Mohamad Barakat, 37, opened fire on the officers, killing one and injuring three others. Zibolski said that Barakat attacked the officers “for no known reason,” and authorities have as yet offered no hints as to the shooter’s motive. One of the most obvious possibilities, however, is being steadfastly ignored, as one might expect given today’s media narrative.

A witness said, according to the Associated Press, that Barakat “appeared to have ambushed the officers.” He was standing behind a car that was parked in the parking lot of a bank near the scene of the crash, and he quickly opened fire on the police officers from about twenty feet away. The witness added, “He was holding up the trunk of the car with his arm, and then I see the gun come up, and he set it on his shoulder and just pointed it directly at an officer in front of him. It was like 10 shots right away.”

When Barakat began shooting, the police were busy with the traffic accident and weren’t even looking in his direction, but they quickly began to return fire. Another witness recounted, “I saw them firing at each other, both at once. But soon as the shooter took a break, the cop came walking towards him, letting off round after round. There was already an officer down, and a family hiding just on the other side of the vehicle next to the shooter.”

Zibolski, however, declined to confirm that Barakat had ambushed the officers, saying only, “The investigation into that is still ongoing.” He did reveal, however, that Fargo police had previously dealt with Barakat, although he downplayed these encounters as “not anything significant.”

Above all, Zibolski was puzzled. “The first thing we always want to know in a situation like this is, ‘Why?’” said Zibolski. “Why would somebody do this? What happened?” And he expressed amazement that such an incident could take place in Fargo, North Dakota: “This is an unconscionable act. It’s hard to fathom, it’s unbelievable that something like this would happen in our community. Many of us think this stuff can’t happen. It just happened.”

Yes, it did. And Zibolski added that the FBI had been called in, but given the fact that the feds are now far more interested in finding “domestic terrorists” at school board meetings and Catholic churches than in hunting down actual terrorists, Zibolski may still not get an answer to his question of why someone would do such a thing. FBI agents today would likely not recognize an Islamic jihadist if he stood behind a car and started shooting at them, but Mohamad Barakat may have been one. There is no indication that anyone is looking into this possibility, but it would provide an immediate explanation for the details of the case.

Related: This New Jersey Teen Had a Manifesto and a Massacre Plan, Yet You Didn’t Hear a Thing About It

This is because the Islamic State (ISIS) has repeatedly called upon Muslims in the West to attack police officers as well as other authorities. Back in September 2014, the Islamic State exhorted Muslims in the West not to “let this battle pass you by wherever you may be.” It called upon them to “kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be.”

Specifically, the jihadis said: “Strike their police, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves.” The jihadis should take advantage of all opportunities and means to kill: “If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him.”

Now, Mohamad Barakat may have had entirely different reasons for his attack. But the possibility that this was a jihad terror attack in Fargo, North Dakota, cannot be dismissed out of hand, even as authorities appear disinclined even to consider it as a possibility. The FBI and the entire Biden regime have never given any indication that they’re aware that the global jihad continues. Unfortunately, it does.