#BUT ALSO what were seeing is the British Military forcing an indigenous man to sign a document and he does so with an x

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

And another thing! Literally any queer story that takes place during the colonial age would have a huge gaping hole in it if it didn't have anticolonialism as a theme. Especially one that centers indigenous people. Like the reason that every culture had their own concepts of gender until something happened and then suddenly the gender binary was ubiquitous is because western European colonial powers made their view of gender the only acceptable one as part of christianizing and colonizing the world. You're not gonna have a show set in 1717 in the Caribbean where the love interest is a gay Maori man and the main deuteragonist is a non-binary mestizo catholic and just skip over colonialism. Like these are exactly the people who western gender roles are being forced on at fucking gun point during this era. Jim and Ed are both mixed race characters who's gender and sexual identities are in active defiance of the colonial powers that be. And this is the fucking Stede Ed and Jim show.

And there's something to be said for the fact that Stede's toxic masculinity plot line is internalized and Ed's struggle with toxic masculinity is largely external in the form a white guy who rubs elbows with the British Navy when Ed doesn't behave to his standard of masculinity. That choice didn't come out of nowhere and it shows a deep understanding of where homophobia comes from. That's not to say that precolonial communities of color were paradise for people that we today would consider queer but the rich tapestry of sexual and gender expressions that existed in those communities were erased in the name of colonialism. That's going to affect literally any queer person at the time when OFMD is set. These two things are inextricably linked.

Like when David Jenkins says a lot of what we're taught about being men is wrong, motherfucker who taught us what a man was. Who taught Ed what a man was? Who taught Stede what a man was for that matter? It's the white dad with the English accent who is violent (derogatory) and overbearing.

Like you get what I'm saying right? Like it's a silly little rom com but also it must necessarily be that deep because of who these characters are and when and where they exist.

#ofmd meta #Our Flag walks the line like a fucking tight rope acrobat and I'm not gonna let fake fans sleep on that #like they depict things aesthetically without actually depicting them sometimes #ill talk about the aesthetics of episode 9 all fucking day #in universe what happens is Ed signs a paper with an x either because hes illiterate or because he doesnt want to sign it #and is resting on the assumption that hes illiterate to get away with not signing it either as longform fuckery or to soften the blow #and he signs it to save his white boyfriend from getting fucking shot #and then he goes to a privateering academy where he does enjoy folding socks and he's liberated from his black beard and hes cool with that #everything is more or less his choice which makes it palatable and doesnt completely take the tone somewhere dark and harrowing #BUT ALSO what were seeing is the British Military forcing an indigenous man to sign a document and he does so with an x #and then taking him to a secondary fucking school ass school away from his community where hes forced to change his appearance #but also they let him keep his hair so that they dont step on that particular trauma #im vibrating what the fuck is this show #how do they do it? #Like seriously this has been a comedy show????? #And don't tell me I'm reading into it too much episode 2 primes us to think about colonialism

[chrissyglikesbooks]

88 Crazy Things You Probably Didn't Know About Australia

1. Australia is as wide as the distance between London to Moscow.

2. The biggest property in Australia is bigger than Belgium.

3. More than 85% of Australians live within 50km of the coast.

4. In 1880, Melbourne was the richest city in the world.

5. Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, earns $1 million every half hour, or $598 every second.

6. In 1892, a group of 200 Australians unhappy with the government tried to start an offshoot colony in Paraguay to be called 'New Australia'.

7. The first photos from the 1969 moon landing were beamed to the rest of the world from Honeysuckle Tracking Station, near Canberra.

8. Australia was the second country in the world to allow women to vote (New Zealand was first).

9. Each week, 70 tourists overstay their visas.

10. In 1856, stonemasons took action to ensure a standard of 8-hour working days, which then became recognised worldwide.

11. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke set a world record for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds. Hawke later suggested that this was the reason for his great political success.

12. The world's oldest fossil, which is about 3.4 billion years old, was found in Australia.

13. Australia is very sparsely populated: The UK has 248.25 persons per square kilometre, while Australia has only 2.66 persons per square kilometre.

14. Australia's first police force was made up of the most well-behaved convicts.

15. Australia has the highest electricity prices in the world.

16. There were over one million feral camels in outback Australia, until the government launched the $19m Feral Camel Management Program, which aims to keep the pest problem under control.

17. Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia (mostly for meat production).

18. Qantas once powered an interstate flight with cooking oil.

19. Per capita, Australians spend more money on gambling than any other nation.

20. In 1832, 300 female convicts mooned the governor of Tasmania. It was said that in a "rare moment of collusion with the Convict women, the ladies in the Governor's party could not control their laughter."

21. Australia is home to the longest fence in the world. It is 5,614 km long, and was originally built to keep dingoes away from fertile land.

22. Australia was one of the founding members of the United Nations.

23. Melbourne is considered the sporting capital of the world, as it has more top level sport available for its citizens than anywhere else.

24. Before the arrival of humans, Australia was home to mega fauna: three metre tall kangaroos, seven metre long goannas, horse-sized ducks, and a marsupial lion the size of a leopard.

25. Kangaroos and emus cannot walk backward, one of the reasons that they're on the Australian coat of arms.

26. Speaking of, Australia is one of the only countries where we eat the animals on our coat of arms.

27. If you visited one new beach in Australia every day, it would take over 27 years to see them all.

28. Melbourne has the world's largest Greek population outside of Athens.

29. The Great Barrier Reef is the planet's largest living structure.

30. And it has it's own postbox!

31. The male platypus has strong enough venom to kill a small dog.

32. And when the platypus was first sent to England, it was believed the Australians had played a joke by sewing the bill of a duck onto a rat.

33. Before 1902, it was illegal to swim at the beach during the day.

34. A retired cavalry officer, Francis De Groot stole the show when the Sydney Harbour Bridge officially opened. Just as the Premier was about to cut the ribbon, De Groot charged forward on his horse and cut it himself, with his sword. The ribbon had to be retied, and De Groot was carted off to a mental hospital. He was later charged for the cost of one ribbon.

35. Australia has 3.3x more sheep than people.

36. Prime Minister Harold Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach, and was never seen again.

37. Australia's national anthem was 'God Save The King/Queen' until 1984.

38. Wombat poop is cube shaped! This helps it mark its territory.

39. European settlers in Australia drank more alcohol per capita than any other society in history.

40. The Australian Alps receive more snowfall than Switzerland.

41. A kangaroo is only one centimetre long when it is born.

42. Sir John Robertson, a five-time premier of NSW in the 1800s, began every morning with half a pint of rum. He said: "None of the men who in this country have left footprints behind them have been cold water men."

43. The Box jellyfish has killed more people in Australia than stonefish, sharks and crocodiles combined.

44. Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.

45. The average Aussie drinks 96 litres of beer per year.

46. 63% of Australians are overweight.

47. Australia is ranked second on the Human Development Index (based on life expectancy, income and education).

48. In 2005, security guards at Canberra's Parliament House were banned from calling people 'mate'. It lasted one day.

49. In Australia, it is illegal to walk on the right-hand side of a footpath.

50. Australia is the only continent in the world without an active volcano.

51. Aussie Rules footy was originally designed to help cricketers to keep fit in the off-season.

52. The name 'Kylie' came from an Aboriginal hunting stick, similar to the boomerang.

53. 91% of the country is covered by native vegetation.

54. The largest-ever victory in an international football match was when Australia beat American Samoa 31-0 in 2001.

55. There are 60 designated wine regions in Australia.

56. Melbourne has been ranked the world's most liveable city for the past three years.

57. If all the sails of the Opera House roof were combined, they would create a perfect sphere. The architect was inspired while eating an orange.

58. Australia is home to 20% of the world's poker machines.

59. Half of these are found in New South Wales.

60. Moomba, Australia's largest free festival, held in Melbourne, means 'up your bum' in many Aboriginal languages.

61. No native Australian animals have hooves.

62. The performance by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the 2000 Olympics opening ceremony was actually a prerecording- of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

63. The wine cask (goon sack) is an Australian invention

64. So is the selfie.

65. Durack, Australia's biggest electorate, is larger in size than Mongolia.

66. The world's first compulsory seat belt law was put into place in Victoria in 1970.

67. Each year, Brisbane hosts the world championships of cockroach racing.

68. In 1932, the Australian military waged war on the emu population of Western Australia. Embarrassingly, they lost.

69. Canberra was created in 1908 as a compromise when Sydney and Melbourne both wanted to be the capital city.

70. A gay bar in Melbourne won the right to ban women from the premises, because they made the men uncomfortable.

71. In 1992, an Australian gambling syndicate bought almost all the number combinations in a Virginia lottery, and won. They turned a $5m purchase into a $27m win.

72. Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable, meaning gum trees may explode if ignited, or in bushfires.

73. In 1975, Australia had a government shutdown, which ended with the Queen firing everyone and the government starting again.

74. A bearded Australian was removed from a darts match in the UK, after the audience started chanting 'Jesus!' at him, distracting the players.

75. There have been instances of wallabies getting high after breaking into opium crops, then running around and making what look like crop circles.

76. An Australian man once tried to sell New Zealand on eBay.

77. In 1940, two aircraft collided in midair, in NSW. Instead of crashing, the two planes became stuck together and made a safe landing.

78. The male lyrebird, which is native to Australia, can mimic the calls of over 20 other birds. If that's not impressive enough, he can also perfectly imitate the sound of a camera, chainsaw and car alarm.

79. Some shopping centres and restaurants play classical music in their car park to deter teenagers from loitering at night.

80. Despite sharing the same verbal language, Australian, British and American sign language are all completely different languages.

81. In 1979, debris from NASA's space station 'Skylab' crashed in Esperance, WA. The town then fined NASA $400 for littering.

82. There have been no deaths in Australia from a spider bite since 1979.

83. There currently a chlamydia outbreak among koala species, which has led to a 15% drop in koala populations.

84. In NSW, there is a coal fire beneath the ground which has been burning for 5,500 years.

85. An Australian election TV debate was rescheduled so it didn't conflict with the finale of reality cooking show Masterchef.

86. Chinese explorers travelled to Australia long before Europeans arrived. As early as the 1400s, sailors and fisherman came to Australia for sea-cucumbers and to trade with Indigenous peoples.

87. The first European to visit Australia was Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon, in 1606. More Dutch explorers visited the country over the next hundred years, plotting maps and naming it 'New Holland'.

88. Captain James Cook first landed on Australia's east coast in 1770. In 1788, the British returned with eleven ships to establish a penal colony. Within days of The First Fleet's arrival and the raising of the British flag, two French ships arrived, just too late to claim Australia for France.

#No littering! #even if you’re NASA #littering is bad! #yes these are all true #yes all our politicians prior to to 2000s were known for drinking #yes some of these I- an Australian- didn’t know #yes this country is batshit crazy sometimes #No I don’t know why melbourne is the most liveable city when I still can’t get a job #not fandom #Australia #we also invented wifi by accident #thank you CSIRO for your contibution to our internet addicions #tip: the number 1 way to break up a bar fight between Australians is to yell #Aussie Aussie Aussie #and they will imediately stop what they’re doing and yell #Oi Oi Oi! #actual facts #post stolen from facebook

[biofunmy]

Brexit, Iran, the Space Race: Your Friday Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning.

We’re covering a new hurdle for a no-deal Brexit, the downing of an Iranian drone by the U.S. military and France’s creation of a space command.

The move, which received stronger support than expected, set up a clash between Parliament and Boris Johnson, who is expected to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May next week. Mr. Johnson has entertained the idea of shutting down the legislature in the fall to ensure that, with or without a deal, Britain leaves the E.U. on Oct. 31.

What’s next: Results in the competition to lead Britain will be announced on Tuesday, days before Parliament goes into summer recess. Anti-Brexit lawmakers said the vote against suspending Parliament raised the chances of a second Brexit referendum.

U.S.-Iran tensions escalate

The American military shot down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, President Trump said. The drone is said to have come “within threatening range” of the Boxer, an American assault ship. It’s unclear if the drone was armed.

The news closely followed an announcement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran that it had detained a tanker, which it claimed had been smuggling fuel.

While the two episodes escalate the conflict that has pitted Iran against some of its neighbors and the U.S., Iran’s foreign minister moved in the opposite direction, proposing modest concessions and new talks.

Reminder: Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have risen in recent months after Washington imposed new sanctions.

Since then, there have been attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran has exceeded the amount and the purity of the uranium it is permitted under the 2015 nuclear agreement.

France nudges Europe into space race

President Emmanuel Macron of France announced the creation of a space command within his nation’s air force. Emphasizing that French and European independence was at stake, Mr. Macron said the command would “ensure our defense of space within space.”

The move was the latest sign that the era of fighting in space — disabling or even shooting down satellites on which warfare on Earth is increasingly dependent — was getting closer.

Big picture: Pooling resources has helped Europe keep its leadership in the civilian use of space, experts say. But when it comes to militarizing space, Europe remains divided, with France facing resistance from Germany and other nations.

Challenges: The lack of a unified vision could constrain France’s ambitions for its space command. Mr. Macron hinted as much in his announcement: While he spoke of reinforcing France’s “strategic autonomy,” he added that it must take place in a “European framework.”

Trump’s party frets over ‘send her back’ chant

Nervous Republicans urged President Trump to repudiate the “send her back” chant that was directed at a Somali-born congresswoman during a campaign rally on Wednesday. They feared that it could hurt their party in the 2020 election.

Mr. Trump responded by disavowing the behavior of his own supporters. He claimed he had tried to contain the chant, which was directed at Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a freshman Democrat who is Muslim.

Video of the event clearly contradicted that assertion.

The politics: The cleanup attempt reflected the misgivings of political allies, including House Republican leaders, who have warned Mr. Trump privately that he was playing with political fire.

If you have some time, this is worth it

One small step

Five decades ago tomorrow, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the powdery surface of the moon in humankind’s first ever journey from one world to another. Those bootprints “could outlast the race that made them,” our veteran space reporter Dennis Overbye writes.

To mark the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, The Times has produced ample special coverage, including a look at what life on the lunar surface would be like, a poem about the landing and a feature on Michael Collins, the astronaut who remained in orbit while Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. We also combined transcripts and select images to recreate the entire journey from liftoff to splashdown.

Here’s what else is happening

Japan: In what is believed to be one of the deadliest attacks in the country in decades, a man ignited a flammable liquid at an animation studio in Kyoto on Thursday, killing 33 people and injuring dozens more, the police said.

Morocco: Three men accused of murdering two Scandinavian hikers in the Atlas Mountains last year have been sentenced to death in an antiterrorism court in Morocco.

‘Unruly passenger’: Jet2, a British budget airline, said it had fined an English passenger about $106,000 for “aggressive, abusive and dangerous behavior” on a flight bound for Turkey last month. Military jets escorted the plane back to Stansted Airport, north of London.

Snapshot: Above, a prisoner flipping a sign to signify prayer time in the Detention Center Zone for the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. A Times reporter and photographer went inside the secretive prison, with tight restrictions on what they could see and photograph.

KLM: The Dutch airline found itself at the center of a heated online debate after a passenger posted on social media that a flight attendant had told her to cover up as she was breastfeeding her child on a flight last month.

Tour de France: Our columnist explores the vagaries — “the unexpected roundabout, the too-merry man waving a wine glass midroad” — that make this 2,162-mile race “so maddening and dangerous and, yes, enjoyable.”

What we’re reading: This essay in Vox. Jenna Wortham, a writer for the The New York Times Magazine, says it’s “a beautiful and meditative piece on the economy of ‘living your best life’ on Instagram, as told through the destruction of an indigenous landmark.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: This weekend, try a galette — an open-faced tart — with nectarines and blueberries.

Watch: In “The Lion King” remake, our critic found “a lot of professionalism but not much heart.”

Listen: The Israeli duo Lola Marsh makes sweeping, cinematic music dripping in retro charm and reverb. “Echoes” is a lush beach-blanket bop, wiggling with energy, our critic writes.

Read: “The Nickel Boys,” Colson Whitehead’s first novel since “The Underground Railroad,” was inspired by the real-life story of a reform school in Florida where more than 100 children died from 1913 to 1960. It’s one of 11 new books we recommend this week.

Smarter Living: Trees suck up carbon and, while planting one won’t solve climate change, every tree helps. To have a meaningful effect, a tree must live at least 10 to 20 years, according to one expert. The right type of tree for your area and proper placement are among the things you should consider.

And a growing number of theme parks, hotels and special attractions are introducing training and sensory guides to accommodate travelers with autism.

And now for the Back Story on …

‘Sir Ed’

Edmund Percival Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper who with Tenzing Norgay of Nepal made the first summit of Mount Everest, was born 100 years ago tomorrow.

Events in New Zealand will honor him, including the premiere of an orchestral work and the release of a special Land Rover. Nepal celebrates Everest Day on the anniversary of the climb, May 29, 1953.

Hillary and Norgay were the sole climbers from a Royal Geographic Expedition to reach the top of the world’s tallest peak, succeeding where 30 years of attempts had failed. A report in The New York Times centered on the fact that Queen Elizabeth II heard the news on the eve of her coronation.

The feat made the two men global celebrities. In the 1960s, Hillary founded the Himalayan Trust, which continues to work with communities in Nepal.

Known back home as “Sir Ed,” Hillary became synonymous with qualities his countryfolk prized: humility and steely determination. In 2008, he received a rare state funeral, and in 1992, his face replaced Queen Elizabeth’s on the country’s five-dollar note.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— William

Thank you Alisha Haridasani Gupta helped compile today’s briefing. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford wrote the break from the news. Charlotte Graham-McLay wrote today’s Back Story You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” busing as a tool of school desegregation in the U.S. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: subway map dot (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • The New York Times has dozens of free newsletters to bring our coverage to your inbox, including news, arts, music sports, opinion, arts and lifestyle.

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[up-bookends]

America as the Last Man Standing

Geert Wilders is a Dutch Member of Parliament

Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, at the Four Seasons, New York, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem.

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for inviting me.

I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.

First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.

The Europe you know is changing.

You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration.

All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entireMuslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, streetby street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.

There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.

Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities.

In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.

Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear, 'whore, whore.' Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.

In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.

In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during theRamadan.

Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.

A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe.San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.

Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.

The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.

Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.

Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.

The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages -at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.

Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.

Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to theQuran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel. First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.

This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the frontlines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, SouthernThailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.

The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.

Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything. So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is a danger greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.

Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe, American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe's children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.

[newstfionline]

As US pulls back from world, Canada steps up to fill the gap

Dylan C. Robertson, CS Monitor, June 30, 2017

OTTAWA--A few weeks ago, Canadians heard something from their country’s foreign minister that rattled them: pointed criticism of the United States.

“Many of the [American] voters in last year’s presidential election cast their ballots, animated in part by a desire to shrug off the burden of world leadership,” Chrystia Freeland told the House of Commons, before announcing an uptick in military spending.

“To put it plainly: Canadian diplomacy and development sometimes require the backing of hard power,” she said. “To rely solely on the US security umbrella would make us a client state.”

Such talk is not the sort that Canadians are used to hearing from their government. Canada has long seen itself as a middle power. Its $5 bill features the Canadarm, a mechanical arm affixed to the International Space Station to move around parts. It’s an apt--if perhaps humble--metaphor for how the country has built consensus on issues like the environment or aid, always through American-led multilateral institutions.

But as Canada gets ready to celebrate its 150th birthday on Saturday, it is taking a bolder stance on the world stage.

And although it may be distancing from its longtime ally, and even protector, to the south, it is doing so by doubling down on values it has long espoused, by anchoring itself to the global institutions it’s enthusiastically supported for decades, a decision the country made in similarly tumultuous times.

“[Ms. Freeland] went further than any Canadian official had ever gone in being critical of the America First approach,” says Roland Paris, a senior University of Ottawa research professor who helped craft the current government’s foreign policy. “But on the other hand, she emphasized the importance of working with the United States”--i.e. a cry for the status quo.

Unlike Americans’ rallying narrative of the War of Independence, Canadians see their history as a gradual, quiet set of negotiations--ones that took decades to iron out.

The Dominion of Canada was formed in 1867, after British and French settlers made peace with each other and most indigenous tribes. As an outpost of the British Empire, Canada didn’t control its own foreign policy until 1931--but Americans began coaxing Canadians to be more independent early on, says Christopher Sands, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

“It was in the US strategic interest to encourage Canadian nationalism, to be distinct from the British Empire,” Professor Sands says, “to get them to think of themselves as independent.” Successive American presidents saw Canada as a next-door neighbor that could align its economy and political views to the US, and take Britain down a notch from its global hegemony.

In 1909, Washington officials signed a treaty with Canada on mechanisms to solve water-boundary disputes--the first treaty Canada had signed on its own. In 1926, after Britain relinquished some control over its colonies, the US invited Canada to set up an embassy in central Washington. Sands says that the Americans believed giving Canada a taste of autonomy would leave them craving more.

That largely came true after World War I, when Canada fought for Britain under the Union Jack. In doing so, Canadian soldiers took heavy losses, but also often fought alongside each other--men from the Pacific coast, prairie, Quebec, Nova Scotia alike--in a way that they hadn’t before, helping to build a sense of Canadian nationhood. The cost of war and the nascent national identity helped build enough pressure on Britain that it granted some of its colonies, including Canada, full sovereignty in 1931.

A pivotal moment for Canada’s foreign policy came in 1947, in a speech by Foreign Minister Louis St. Laurent at the University of Toronto. Known today as “The Gray Lecture,” the speech laid out key concepts in what would become Canada’s performance on the world stage.

At that time Canadians were wary of international institutions. The United Nations faced political gridlock over regulating atomic energy. Canadians were sending millions of aid dollars to war-torn allies. A poll just weeks prior to St. Laurent’s speech showed 44 percent of Canadians doubting the UN could prevent another world war in the next quarter-century.

St. Laurent offered a different perspective. “The freedom of nations depends upon the rule of law between nations,” he told the audience of 2,000. St. Laurent positioned Canada as a bulwark of political freedom, that would co-operate with like-minded countries while maintaining dialogue with adversaries. “A country of our stature,” he said, would need to work with larger countries, own more than just a handful of embassies, and demonstrate a “willingness to accept international responsibilities.”

He also committed Canada to continue working in lockstep with the US, a “vastly more powerful, more self-confident, more wealthy” state “with purposes and ambitions parallel to ours.” Canada followed through by joining the US in fighting the 1950 Korean War and loudly opposing communism.

Sands says American presidents have long reciprocated that allegiance, by including Canada in the founding of the UN, International Monetary Fund, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Decades later, the US pushed to include Canada in what is now the Group of Seven. “[Americans] tried to create, in the major post-war institutions, a seat for Canada at every major group,” says Sands. Canada generally abided by that system until the 1970s, siding with the US in most UN decisions and housing American nuclear weapons.

Canada’s first major foreign policy achievement took place in 1956, in diffusing the volatile Suez Crisis. The conflict came after Egypt nationalized a key shipping canal, prompting Britain, France, and Israel to invade. Then Prime Minister Lester Pearson kept his criticism of Britain private, instead focusing on steering all sides toward a ceasefire, which was enforced by the UN’s first large-scale peacekeeping force. Canadians still identify peacekeeping as a landmark of their foreign policy, despite the practice’s rare use in modern conflicts.

But as the cold war dragged on, Sands says Canada started challenging American policies abroad. “We’re often on the same page,” he says. “The most significant moments are the ones where Canada really stands out, and tests the waters of that independence, to see if Americans really mean it.”

The man primarily responsible for this rough patch was Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, father of current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. During his time in office from 1968 to 1984, the elder Trudeau visited with Cuban President Fidel Castro, made nice with China’s communist leaders, and pushed back against the Vietnam War. Trudeau also had all US nuclear arms removed from Canada.

But even then, Trudeau’s government still kept close ties to the US, and Canada sheltered six American diplomats during the 1979 Iranian Revolution and issued passports to bring them to safety.

And Trudeau’s successor, Brian Mulroney, quickly returned to close partnership with the US--with high emphasis on consensus-building.

Sands says that since then, Canadian governments have oscillated between Mulroney’s staunch support for US policy and Trudeau’s outreach to adversaries, while relying on the UN and other global bodies to decide on military interventions.

The country has also stuck to carving out small-scale accomplishments. When UN talks to ban landmines sputtered, Canada hosted two conferences and multiple negotiations that led to the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, which forbade their sale and use. Today, 162 countries have ratified the treaty (but not the US, which sought an exemption for Korea’s Demilitarized Zone).

The only Canadian leader to dismiss the UN was recent Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper--and even his objections were mild. And he also relied on international partners, pioneering a maternal-health fund with the help of the World Bank. His diplomats reportedly played a key role in the private talks leading up to the 2014 rapprochement between the US and Cuba.

Today, with President Trump pulling back from the world stage, Canada has become more critical of its southern neighbor.

As refugee advocates picketed American airports during January’s first travel ban, Prime Minister Trudeau tweeted a message of hope: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada” Hundreds are now leaving the US to claim asylum in Canada--a phenomenon that started under Obama-era deportation campaigns but has increased under Mr. Trump.

But abroad, Trudeau is continuing the Canadian tradition of pushing neatly defined causes by garnering multilateral support. He’s launching what he calls a “feminist international assistance policy,” focused on women’s rights and gender equality. He’s leveraging the Commonwealth to push African and Asian countries to remove anti-LGBT laws. He calls the UN the “principal forum for pursuing Canada’s international objectives.”

Even in the US, Canada continues to push for consensus, if not always directly with the White House’s current occupant. Trudeau’s top staffers reportedly have almost-daily contact with daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. Prior to last fall’s election, Trudeau demanded his entire caucus never publicly criticize Trump, according to media reports.

And together with Mr. Mulroney, his father’s rival, Trudeau has arranged for members of his cabinet fly to the US to meet with mayors, business leaders, journalists, and unions on an almost-weekly basis. The idea is to shore up support for Canada in 11 key states, including Wisconsin (home to House Speaker Paul Ryan) and Indiana (where Vice President Mike Pence was governor). It’s yielded a New York State reversal on import tariffs, and climate talks about possible deals between provinces and states.

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