Europe’s Amazing Vanishing Act

“Now you see it! Now you don’t!” the Super Star Magician recites the magic words, “Allahu Akbar!” (in lieu of “Presto!”).

The Islamic magician, sporting a magnificently bejeweled turban (in lieu of a top hat), and a handlebar moustache (not strictly halal) with lascivious grins, first gropes the prone near-nude form of Europa in its intimate parts to prove to the audience that it is a real person and not a mannequin. Then the lights dim, he waves his baton, and sweeps his cape with its blood red lining before the table, and snaps it once with a deft flick of the wrist. When he jerks the cape away, the table is empty. In fact, the table itself has even disappeared.

How did he do that?? The audience applauds and wonders.

No one suspects that the table and its captive assistant vanished through a stage trapdoor.

More Than Half of Russians Want the Soviet Union Resurrected

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin addresses a rally at the Manezhnaya Square just outside the Kremlin in Moscow. (DMITRY ASTAKHOV/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Some 25 years after the Soviet Union’s collapse, the majority of Russians say they regret that it happened. An April 19 Interfax report discussed the statistics, which were derived from a Levada Center survey (Trumpet translation throughout):

More than half of Russians believe that the Soviet Union’s collapse could have been avoided (51 percent) and regret that it happened (56 percent) .… The majority of respondents (58 percent) said they would welcome the revival of the Soviet Union and the socialist system, while 44 percent said that currently it is unrealistic. At the same time, one in three (31 percent) said they would not want to rebuild the old Soviet socialist system.

Would China Launch a “Pearl Harbor-Style” Strike on America?

Whether the Chinese would launch a Pearl Harbor-style attack on America is debatable only by those who never learned from history and refuse to see the events building before their very eyes today. The CCP and PLA make quite clear in the following previous posts their objectives:

War Is Not Far from Us and Is the Midwife of the Chinese Century

China’s Military Threatens America: ‘We Will Hurt You’

China’s leader is telling the People’s Liberation Army to prepare for war

 

“Our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan, but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites.”

– Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian, December 2005.

 

 

If Imperial Japan’s past turns out to be a Rising China’s prologue, Beijing could well order a Pearl Harbor-style attack on America, possibly within a decade.  Potential targets range from American aircraft carriers in the Taiwan Strait and bombers on the runways of Okinawa and Guam to the military satellite network serving as the eyes and ears of the U.S. high command.  Even civilian infrastructure like America’s electricity grid may be at risk.

If you believe that prediction to be alarmist, consider these historical parallels with another rising Asian power during the early 20th century.