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Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Nineteen

 

A Morning Thought @ 3000

Azar Majedi ✊ December 10 is International Human Rights Day. 

The United Nations adopted the Declaration of Human Rights three years after its establishment in 1948. The bitter irony is that this declaration was adopted a few months after the recognition of Israel on May 15, a day that the Palestinians have called the Nakba (catastrophe). About 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their land overnight. And in the war that followed this recognition in 1948, more than three million Palestinians were displaced forever, and Israel occupied this land. The adoption of a declaration called Human Rights in the midst of a war and genocide in Palestine with the full support and cooperation of the United States, Britain and France and also the Soviet Union is more like a joke. But the United States and Western imperialism succeeded in feeding this big lie to a large part of the world.

World War II began with the rise of fascism on the European political scene and led to the death of about 80 million people. Fascism emerged in response to the October Revolution in Russia to confront the threat of communism. The end of the war did not end as its initiators had expected; the Soviets not only were not defeated, but they succeeded in conquering Germany. However, this did not mean the defeat of fascism. Fascism was set back and many of its main figures were used by the United States and other Western powers; for example, the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim, was a fascist and a member of the German army; Waldheim was serving as an officer in the Balkans during the German occupation of the Balkans, which resulted in mass killings. Adolf Heusinger, secretary of the NATO Military Committee from 1961 to 1964, was a high-ranking Nazi officer, as were Hans Speidel and General von Kielmansegg, high-ranking NATO officials. Many Nazi scientists and officials were employed by the American, German, and other Western governments. Exact figures are not available; at least over 1,600 former Nazis were transferred to the United States and over 1,000 were employed as spies in various countries.

The end of the war coincided with the beginning of the Cold War. Under the guise of preserving democracy and confronting the Soviet Union, the United States and the West launched an all-out war against communism to suppress and exploit the world. The United Nations, human rights, and democracy were all different elements of the deceptive narrative western imperialism succeeded in feeding the world. 

The Truman Doctrine, announced by Truman, the US president in March 1947, was the doctrine of coup, war, and regime change. Under the guise of defending democracy, this doctrine announced the beginning of an all-out war against communism. During the Cold War, the United States organised at least 72 coups under the guise of defending democracy. Including Iran in 1953, Colombia in 1954, the attempt to overthrow the Cuban government in 1961, Brazil in 1964, the genocide in Indonesia in 1965-66, Chile in 1973, Argentina in 1976; It has bombed a large part of the world and killed millions of people, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Korea are some examples. *

From the outset, the United Nations has always endorsed the killing, suppression and genocide committed by America and the West. This has been an obvious fact; but never has the United Nations been so discredited and disgraced as in the last two years. Two years of genocide in Palestine and the inability of the United Nations or, in their own words, the "international community" to stop Israel, the full support of western and powerful governments for Israel have led to the collapse of the entire false edifice of human rights, democracy and "international law". No one cares about the United Nations and various "human rights" institutions anymore.

Western imperialism had succeeded in feeding a false ideology to a large part of the world under the name of the "superior" civilisation of the west that respects freedom, democracy, human and civil rights, it is rule-based, free from superstition and based on logic and science. But with the deep crisis in which it is immersed, this entire premise has collapsed. The masks have been torn. 

The past two years have been an eye-opening moment for the whole world: The complete and unwavering support of western governments for Israel and the genocide and cleansing of the Palestinians, their hypocrisy and double standards in dealing with Ukraine and Palestine and defending the aggressive and occupying policies of the United States, the latest of which was to award the Nobel Peace Prize to a well-known Venezuelan ally of US working for regime change at the same time as US was deploying warships to the Venezuelan coast, have exposed the lies.

The statements, resolutions and declarations of the United Nations and numerous human rights and pro-democracy institutions must be exposed; the role of these institutions is not to defend human rights or justice, but to sustain the ruling oppressive and criminal order. This order, along with all its fake institutions and ideas, is in complete collapse. Absolute and blatant force is on the agenda. But this is not the whole picture; the world is awakening to the truth. We are observing an international awakening and resistance movement. This movement must be equipped and organised to try to push back the oppression, exploitation and genocide.

* Below is a list of countries bombed or occupied by the United States from the end of World War II to 2020:

Source: Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, by William Bloom.

Afghanistan 1998, 2001-
Bosnia 1994, 1995
Cambodia 1969-70
China 1945-46
Congo 1964
Cuba 1959-1961
El Salvador 1980s
Korea 1950-53
Guatemala 1954, 1960, 1967-69
Indonesia 1958 Laos 1964-73
Grenada 1983
Iraq 1991-2000s, 2015-
Iran 1987
Korea 1950-53
Kuwait 1991
Lebanon 1983, 1984
Libya 1986, 2011-
Nicaragua 1980s
Pakistan 2003, 2006-
Palestine 2010
Panama 1989
Peru 1965
Somalia 1993, 2007-08, 2010-
Sudan 1998
Syria 2014-
Vietnam 1961-73
Yemen 2002, 2009-
Yugoslavia 1999

⏩ Asar Majed is a Member of Hekmatist Party leadership & Chairperson of Organisation for Women’s Liberation.

The Declaration Of Human Rights, A Bitter Historical Irony!

Labour Heartlands ☭ Written by Paul Knaggs.

When did anyone seriously expect Labour to keep its word on workers’ rights? 

Somewhere between Tony Blair’s Clause IV moment and Rachel Reeves prostrating herself before the City, the party of Keir Hardie became the party of boardroom appeasement. 

This week’s humiliating U-turn on day-one protection from unfair dismissal simply confirms what we already knew: Labour stopped being a workers’ party long ago.

The betrayal is precise and documented. In their 2024 manifesto and accompanying “Plan to Make Work Pay,” Labour explicitly promised to introduce basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal. Ministers from Angela Rayner to Jonny Reynolds and Peter Kyle repeated this commitment as recently as September. The promise formed a central plank of Labour’s pitch to working people: elect us, and we will end the Dickensian two-year waiting period during which employers can sack you at will.

Now, after meetings between major industry groups and unions, the government has quietly downgraded this manifesto pledge. Workers must now wait six months before claiming unfair dismissal protection, down from two years but a universe away from the day-one rights that were solemnly promised.

Labour Ditches Day-One Protection From Unfair Dismissal 🪶 The Party Of Business Completes Its Betrayal Of Workers

Dr John Coulter ✍ As a preacher’s kid married to a preacher’s kid, church life is a major part of my spiritual DNA, so I have always assumed I’ve seen and heard it all in Christianity.


No one was more shocked than myself when then Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI), one of Northern Ireland’s largest Protestant denominations, Rev Trevor Gribben, announced he was stepping down over safe-guarding systems.

As the son of a Presbyterian minister and a religious commentator journalistically, I always felt I had my ear close to the ground in PCI. But as the saying goes, I didn’t see that one coming.

After all, only a few weeks earlier before that shock PCI press conference, I’d had tea and traditional Presbyterian tray bakes as I chatted with Rev Gribben at a Service of Recognition for Accredited Preachers in First Antrim Presbyterian Church.

As well as the shock of that resignation press conference, there was also the surprise of comments from internationally renowned safe-guarding expert Ian Elliott speaking to BBC Spotlight when it was said the Presbyterian crisis ‘could be like the Catholic Church’.

Such is the concern over the revelations, that a special meeting of the General Assembly has been called for later this week to be attended by clerics and elders, but which is open to the public and media and will also be live-streamed.

Having been a religious affairs correspondent in my time in journalism and covered the General Assembly as a reporter, normally it tends to be as routine as a past district council committee meeting.

But Thursday’s meeting is scheduled to be one of the most important in the history of PCI. It will be a defining moment and could set the direction of the denomination for decades to come.

Whilst what appears to have triggered the crisis concerns one convicted sex offender in one congregation, there is the real danger Thursday’s meeting could be the beginning of lifting the lid off further allegations of lapses in safe-guarding, abuse, bullying or harassment.

Put bluntly, a drop could become a trickle, which could result in a flood. The real dangers for PCI are the long-term consequences of this meeting and the fact that the police have launched a criminal investigation.

Could a situation emerge that if future allegations come out of the woodwork, rank and file Presbyterians may become so embarrassed or ashamed of what has allegedly taken place, they move to other denominations or places of worship.

PCI is already facing a challenge of a fall in numbers in the pews to such an extent it has also launched a so-called ‘reconfiguration’ of its congregations across the island of Ireland - a move which could see churches merge, amalgamate, having more closer co-operation, or even shut.

A glance at PCI’s journal, The Presbyterian Herald, shows an almost staggering amount of vacant churches across Ireland. Like many Christian denominations, gone are the days when there was almost a waiting list for folk wanting to train for the ministry.

Equally worrying for PCI could be the outcome financially if, like the Catholic Church, cases of alleged abuse resulted in compensation payouts. Over the years, the Catholic Church has had to pay huge compensation sums to victims of clerical sex abuse.

While any visit to the Vatican in Rome will convince anyone of the Catholic Church’s assets and its ability to pay such compensation claims, the key question must be asked - does PCI have the same cash funds if compensation was required?

Put bluntly, could PCI be bankrupted by potential compensation claims arising from alleged safe-guarding issues?

And just as the Catholic Church has faced allegations of historical sex abuse, in terms of this current PCI safe-guarding crisis, how far back in time will allegations go?

I have often written about my own experiences as a Presbyterian minister’s son growing up in the north east Ulster Bible Belt in the Seventies and being made an example of simply for being the preacher’s kid.

The worst incident happened in my early teens. I had become a born again Christian at the age of 12. I was keen to grow in my Christian faith. Then I got a Sunday school teacher who was very theologically liberal. He was one of the most bad tempered Presbyterian elders I have ever encountered.

His classes were downright boring on Sundays. There was no discussion on the catechism passages, bible verses or memory hymns we had to repeat parrot fashion. So to lighten the boredom, us lads would have some craic among ourselves.

This elder was a strict disciplinarian so us laughing did not amuse him and he decided to stop this trivial behaviour. He did so by punching me in the face reducing me to tears in front of my peers. It certainly stopped the craic! Why was I being singled out?

But those early Seventies was an era when corporal punishment was legal in schools in Northern Ireland - and that also applied to Sunday schools.

You could imagine the legal furore which would erupt in 2025 if a Presbyterian elder punched a young teenager in Sunday school in front of witnesses!

The elder in question is dead. If he was alive, he’d probably defend his action, that discipline had to be maintained in his Sunday school class and making an example out of the minister’s son was the best method.

There is also to be a time of worship prior to Thursday’s special meeting of the General Assembly. No doubt in any prayers of intercession, there will be a time to remember the persecuted church across the globe. Perhaps in their prayers, too, delegates could remember folk who have been persecuted BY the church.
 
As these events unfolded in recent weeks, I have often pondered what my late father, Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE, would have made of the situation.

Dad died in September 2018 and hardly a day goes by that I don’t think about him. I miss him dearly. But in one way, I am glad he is not around to see the crisis which has consumed the denomination to which he devoted so much of his life.

The photo accompanying this column is taken from the Sixties when dad, pictured left, was assistant minister in Westbourne Presbyterian Church in east Belfast and the senior minister was the Rev David Alderdice, pictured right. Both ministers are sadly gone.

Rev Alderdice is the father of Lord John Alderdice, a former Alliance Party leader. Lord Alderdice helped compile the dossier alleging a culture of bullying and abuse of power within PCI.

Both our dads later moved to the Ballymena Presbytery of PCI, my dad in Clough Presbyterian Church; Lord Alderdice’s dad in Wellington Street Presbyterian Church.

Information and allegations surrounding the current crisis may leak out in dribs and drabs. But surely the time has also come for my earlier call for there to be a dedicated trade union for clerics to become a reality.

For me as a communicant member of PCI, the church has been a bedrock in my spiritual journey. But as a minister’s son, I have also experienced at times what I can only describe as the brutality and abuse of being in PCI.
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

Has Safe-Guarding Crisis The Potential To Bankrupt PCI?

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Eighteen

 

Pastords @ 21

 

A Morning Thought @ 2999

Dixie Elliot ✊I remember it well.

Why Sinn Fein should hang its head in shame over Scappaticci silence

Adams, McGuinness, and Gerry Kelly - all faces which would demand respect among those still stupid enough to believe that they were solid Republicans.

And there was also Danny 'The Rat in a Hat' Morrison who is a bigger liar than even Gerry himself.
I remember McGuinness using the term, 'Dissident Journalists' at some point and thought, 'ah f*ck off, you're ripping the arse out of it now!'

But it was Morrison who went on to contradict their 2003 defence of Scappaticci in an 2016 interview with the Irish News in which he said that he, Scappaticci, had been stood down in 1990, under a cloud of suspicion, after 'the Sandy Lynch affair.'

If he had been stood down back in 1990 under a 'cloud of suspicion' why were they so forceful in their defence of him in 2003?

It's not that they had taken Scappaticci away to some remote cottage and given him the same treatment as his own victims before him.

This was, after all 1990, and the war was still four years away from the ceasefire. They had no problem doing it to Caroline Mooreland a few weeks before that ceasefire - in the full knowledge it was coming - and dumped her body at the side of the road.

In regards to Scappaticci the so called leadership of Adams, McGuinness, Gerry Kelly and their faithful lackey Danny Morrison have as many questions to answer as British Intelligence do.

Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.
Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie

Many Questions

Anthony McIntyre ⚽ Mo Salah returned to the Liverpool match squad yesterday after a period of absence extended by a post match outburst in an interview after last week's away fixture at Leeds.

His simmering ego hit boiling point as a result of not making it off the subs bench during the 3-3 draw at Elland Road. Yesterday at Anfield he made an early introduction to the action courtesy of an injury to Joe Gomez. It gave him more playing time than his underwhelming performances this campaign merited. Despite his return to the pitch there was no real sign of a return to the peak that made him such a crucial and popular figure to the Kop. Against Brighton he was unable to outpace defenders, and missed a brace of easy opportunities. The one noticeable difference was a willingness to pass the ball rather than zero in on goal. Even then his decisions can be called into question. Why pass when a better opportunity exists to score by going it alone?

Salah voraciously demands and devours a lot of money to play for Liverpool, so at the very least can be expected to earn his way. Liverpool has never been the UK government's favourite city. Impoverished, 'one part of Merseyside ranks among England's top ten most deprived.' Many fans, if they can afford the ticket, will see their household budget scream under the strain. Salah should forego his sense of entitlement and instead of taking his exorbitant wage might consider it - given his performances - 'immoral earnings' which the food banks and homeless charities throughout the city are more in need of than he is. Apart from Stormont MLAs, well known for giving themselves lucrative pay increases for work they fail to do - 'unfinished business' has acquired a new meaning in that iniquitous club - soccer players are a narcissistic breed in that they expect to be paid for delivery failure.

Discussing the Salah situation with my son, who also supports Liverpool, I commented that were he to go to college, hand in no projects, put his feet on the desk, his arms behind his head, then tell the tutor he has a right to be top student given his performances in recent years, his class mates would laugh at him and the tutor would tell him where to go.

No Mo, you no longer deserve your place or your dough. You have fallen asleep at the wheel and are not entitled to be carried as a passenger by your more industrious colleagues. The supporters who ultimately pay a large part of your wages should not have to finance your lavish lifestyle. Soccer should be your passion not your pension.

Play or get off the pitch.
⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.


No Mo

National Secular Society ★ CPS: unanaesthetised circumcision was "gratuitous infliction of pain" and "deliberate disregard" for child welfare.


The Government has "no plans" to require ritual circumcisers to use anaesthesia, and refuses to say whether unanaesthetised non-therapeutic circumcisions are even legal.

Responding to a series of parliamentary questions from Lib Dem peer Paul Scriven, the Government would only acknowledge that there is no legal requirement for circumcisers to be medically trained or to have "proven expertise".

The National Secular Society campaigns to protect all children from non-therapeutic genital cutting. Male circumcision is performed on babies and children for religious reasons in some Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities.

'Gratuitous infliction of pain'

Earlier this year, ritual circumciser Mohammad Siddiqui was convicted of child cruelty for performing an unanaesthetised circumcision on an infant.

In court, the Crown Prosecution Service described this as "gratuitous infliction of pain" and a "deliberate disregard" for the child's welfare.

The judge in the case called for "safeguards and protections" to be put in place as a "matter of urgency, to ensure that babies and young children are protected."

Despite this, religious groups openly perform unanaesthetised circumcisions. 

Continue @ NSS.

Government Greenlights No Anaesthesia Circumcision Of Boys

Right Wing Watch 👀 Written by Peter Montgomery.


Rep. Nancy Mace, who is running for governor of South Carolina in a crowded Republican primary field, sent campaign emails to several right-wing email lists Sunday and Monday with the subject line, “Christ is Lord. Do you agree?”

“Patriot, it’s Nancy Mace,” begins the email. “Today, I’m thanking Jesus—not just for another day, but for the fire in my soul to keep going.”

Mace's email claims that "The Left is trying to erase Christ from every part of American life."

The landing page for her fundraising ask reads:

If you’re a proud Christian who’s sick of the attacks on faith, freedom, and basic biology, I’m asking you to stand with me.
This is your reminder: ✝️ CHRIST IS LORD
I need YOU, Patriot, to help me defend that truth from the Governor’s mansion.

This emphasis appears to be the latest example of Mace’s political malleability as well as evidence of the MAGA movement’s open embrace of Christian nationalism.

In 2022, when journalist Jack Jenkins asked Mace about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green’s assertion that the GOP should become the party of Christian nationalism, Mace said that the separation of church and state “should continue to be a guiding principle of our Republic.”

But when Bill Maher asked her about Christian nationalism this September, she said, “You’re making it sound like it’s a bad thing.”

Rep. Nancy Mace Makes Christian Nationalist Appeal In Bid To Become South Carolina Governor

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Seventeen

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