Las Vegas, Marseille, Edmonton and Barcelona -- the World Is not a Happy Place

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S REMARKS TO THE NATION AFTER THE LAS VEGAS SHOOTING. "My fellow Americans, we are joined together today in sadness, shock, and grief. Last night a gunman opened fire on a large crowd at a country music concert in Las Vegas, Nevada. He brutally murdered more than 50 people and wounded hundreds more. It was an act of pure evil. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are working closely with local authorities to assist with the investigation and they will provide updates as to the investigation and how it develops. I want to thank the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police department and all of the first responders for their courageous efforts and for helping to save the lives of so many. The speed with which they acted is miraculous and prevented further loss of life. To have found the shooter so quickly after the first shots were fired, is something for which we will always be thankful and grateful. It shows what true professionalism is all about. Hundreds of our fellow citizens are now mourning the sudden loss of a loved one, a parent, a child, a brother or sister. We cannot fathom their pain, we cannot imagine their loss. To the families of the victims, we are praying for you and we are here for you. And we ask god to help see you through this very dark period. Scripture teaches us the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. We seek comfort in those words, for we know that God lives in the hearts of those who grieve. To the wounded who are now recovering in hospitals, we are praying for your full and speedy recovery, and pledge to you our support from this day forward. In memory of the fallen, I have directed that our great flag be flown at half-staff. I will be visiting Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with law enforcement, first responders, and the families of the victims. In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one. And it always has. We call upon the bonds that unite us, our faith, our family, and our shared values. We call upon the bonds of citizenship, the ties of community, and the comfort of our common humanity. Our unity cannot be shattered by evil, our bonds cannot be broken by violence, and though we feel such great anger at the senseless murder of our fellow citizens, it is our love that defines us today. And always will. Forever. In times such as these, I know we are searching for some kind of meaning in the chaos, some kind of light in the darkness. The answers do not come easy. But we can take solace knowing that even the darkest space can be brightened by a single light and even the most terrible despair can be illuminated by a single ray of hope. Melania and I are praying for every American who has been hurt, wounded or lost the ones they loved so dearly in this terrible, terrible attack. We pray for the entire nation to find unity and peace, and we pray for the day when evil is banished and the innocent are safe from hatred and from fear. May God bless the souls of the lives that are lost, may God give us the grace of healing and may God provide the grieving families with strength to carry on. Thank you. God bless America. Thank you." • Our President believes in the power of God and of prayer. Let us join him in praying for the suffering now visited upon Las Vegas families and loved ones of those dead and injured after a gunman turned a Las Vegas concert into a killing field Sunday night, murdering at least 50 people and injuring more than 200 others in the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history. Authorities said one on-duty officer was in critical condition and another was wounded in the shooting. Two off-duty police officers attending the concert were killed. The gunman, who fired down on the concert from a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, killed himself before police could get to him.. As President Trump asked, let is pray for peace and love to bring unity to America. • • • SPAIN IS SUFFERING, TOO. Americna Thinker's Mike Konrad reminded us on Monday that "The news from Catalonia -- at the time of this writing, Sunday night in America -- is not good. There has been violent confrontation over the independence referendum. Police acting on orders from the Spanish government to stop the voting across the country’s northeastern region clashed with Catalans who were attempting to stop them from confiscating ballots. Videos that emerged Sunday on social media appear to show police using brutal force on people attempting to cast their vote. Catalonia’s health service said Sunday night that at least 844 people were injured today by the evening -- nearly half of them in the Barcelona region, where police fired rubber bullets near at least one polling station, according to The Associated Press. Spanish authorities said 11 police officers were injured in the mele", accroding to ABC News." • All of this because the people of Catalonia want to be independent, but the state apparatus in Spain has been doing all it can to obstruct and suppress the October 1 referendum vote. The national government in Madrid has threatened people, arresting Catalan officials, and even stepped in to take over the province's finances to prevent funds being used for an independence referendum it deems illegal, a move that limits the region's autonomy and puts in doubt the payment of thousands of public workers' salaries. American Thinker reported : "On October 1, Madrid followed through with its threats of force should the referendum go ahead. What immediately comes to mind is that Madrid did not act as forcefully as Franco would have. Franco would have sent in tanks and just killed people. The present Spanish response might have been thuggish, but it was measured. Likewise, the response of the Catalan people and their representatives were also measured." • Despite all, 90% of the Catalans who were able to vote -- perhaps as many as 3 million -- voted to be independent. The governùent has accused the Catalans of suppressing local anti-independence sympathies, and there may be a degree of truth to that; however, Catalonia had a long history of striving for independence. And, there is real local sympathy for their cause. The 90% vote for independence is a nightmare for Madrid. It indicates a massive sentiment to remove Spanish rule from Catalonia, even if the turnout was low, which can be blamed on Spanish police interference. Spanish riot police, who fired rubber bullets, also seized ballot boxes from polling stations in Catalonia on Sunday as thousands flooded the streets to vote in an independence referendum banned by Madrid, according to the UK Telegraph. • Spain is facing a meltdown of sorts. The national government is constitutionally required to preserve the unity of Spain. The Catalan government has obliged itself to act upon the results of the referendum within 48 hours, meaning there could be a unilateral Catalan declaration of independence. The dilemma is that Spain’s democratic constitution of 1978, which was approved by more than 90% of Catalan voters, gave wide autonomy to the regions but affirmed “the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation.” Only the Spanish parliament can change the constitution. So, if the Catalan province declares its independence, under Spanish law, the national government could still invoke emergency powers to take full administrative control of Catalonia. • What happens now?? That is anyone's guess. The European Union has unwaveringly supported Madrid. Presumably, for the EU, separatism won't be allowed to grow while the EU is trying to centralize everything. Jean-Claude Piris, the former director general of the EU Council’s legal service, warned in June that the EU would not welcome an independent Catalonia as a member state and called on Brussels to speak out. The EU has also remained conspicuously silent on the police tactics, which saw masked officers smash their way into polling stations and forcibly remove ballot boxeq on Sunday during the vote. One Catalan politician was quoted by the UK Daily Express as speaking up in anger at the EU for its silence, saying he no longer wants to be European. The Daily Ewpress also quoted another Catalan, who said : “Do not call me neither Spanish nor European any more ... I M CATALAN !!!” • The Catalan independence referendum is a much bigger issue for the EU than Brexit, according ot the Daily Ewpress, what reported Scots Observer : “The EU want a fascist United States of Europe. viva Catalan.” Catalonia is not merely a problem for Spain, but for the European bureaucracy. The American Thinker says : "In order for Catalonia to be free, it may not only have to defy Madrid, but also the European Union. If Catalonia wants to be free, she may have to decide for total freedom." • We can imagine the EU reaction if Greece decided to hold a referendum on breakign away form the EU -- something that has been suggested, although not acted upon. And, what if Poland or Croatia or Hungary decided to hold a referendum on breaking free of the EU because of its ham-fisted regulations on immigration that are widely rejected in those EU member states. There is also an undercurrent of breaking with the EU in Italy and France, and in Bavaria, the heartland of Germany, a breakaway group is already lobbying for a referendum vote on leaving Germany. Get the picture??? • • • FRANCE IS DEALING WITH SUNDAY'S TERRORIST ATTACK IN MARSEILLE. French media are reporting that the two people killed by the kinfe-yielding terrorist attacker were two 20 and 21-year-old cousins -- just two young women who became the terrorist's target as video cameras show that he wandered around the St Charles train station, focused on the first young woman, slit her throat, started to run away, and then returned to stab her cousin. He was a Tunisian in his 30s -- an illegal immigrant in France. The Frenxh military patrolling the station killed him on site. He has just been released from police custody qfter being arrested on saturday for stealing goods in a Lyon store. The murders are being investigated as as terrorist attack. Those in the station on Sunday said the assailant cried "Allah Akbar" before he attacked the two woung women. • • • EDMONTON ATTACKER CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER. The Canadian edia is reporting that Abdulahi Hasan Sharif faces five counts of attempted murder, four counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and one weapons-related charge. Although police have said that terrorism charges are expected, none have been laid so far. Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, 30, is a Somali refugee once investigated for allegedly espousing extremism. He is scheduled for a bail hearing in provincial court on Tuesday morning. Although police have said that terrorism charges are expected, none has been laid so far. Experts have said that the Edmonton attacks are instances of "unstoppable terrorism." Police have released video footage showing an officer hit by a car on Saturday in Edmonton. Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht said the events of Saturday night appear to have been the work of a single person. It started when a police officer handling crowd control at a Canadian Football League game at Commonwealth Stadium, just northeast of downtown, was hit by a speeding white Chevy Malibu that rammed through a barrier and sent him flying five metres through the air. The driver got out, pulled out a large knife and began stabbing Constable Mike Chernyk, a 10-year veteran, as he was lying on the ground. Chernyk fought back and the suspect fled on foot. Knecht told the media on Saturday : “He was in a struggle for his life, holding onto his gun with one hand and blocking the knife with his other. It’s a testament to his experience and training that he survived.” Chernyk had been released from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. He has stab wounds on his face and head and abrasions on his arms. Hours after the initial attack, a man driving a U-Haul cube van that police pulled over at a checkpoint produced identification linking him to the registered owner of the white Malibu. When police told him so pull over, the driver sped off toward Jasper Avenue, downtown Edmonton’s main east-west thoroughfare, with multiple police cars in pursuit. Knecht said that was when the suspect purposely drove into pedestrians, injuring four of them. Two suffered head injuries including a skull fracture. Two had been released from hospital as of Sunday afternoon. Knecht said officers used a “tactical maneuver” to force the truck to crash onto its side just south of Jasper Avenue and the suspect was arrested. Knecht said : “No shots were fired. In fact, no shots were fired anywhere in this entire incident.” Royal Canadian Mounted Police assistant commissioner Marlin Degrand said Sunday the suspect was checked thoroughly in 2015 after police received a report that he may have been radicalized. Investigators determined at that time that he did not pose a threat. Degrand said files on the suspect were kept and shared with other intelligence and police agencies after 2015, but that was as much as the law would allow. • • • DEAR READERS, the entire world is in turmoil these days. There is no nation free of jihadist terrorism, homegrowm dissent, or madmen wreaking havoc on innocent civilians. And, to add to our worries, last week the new FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, giving the Senators a stark warning about the future of islamic terrorism inside the United States. Terrorists, he said, are developing the ability to carry out attacks in the US using drones -- an attack capability that would not be easily countered by local law enforcement authorities. Wray said : “We do know that terrorist organizations have an interest in using drones; we’ve seen that overseas already with some growing frequency and I think the expectation is it’s coming here imminently. I think they are relatively easy to acquire, relatively easy to operate, and I think quite difficult to disrupt and monitor.” Wray’s testimony was backed up by testimony from Nicholas Rasmussen of the National Counterterrorism Center. Rasmussen told the Senate committee that terrorists could equip drones with grenades or chemical weapons to cause maximum havoc : “Two years ago this was not a problem. One year ago this was an emerging problem. Now it’s a real problem, and so we are quickly trying to up our game.” • The Washington Free Beacon reports that ISIS has been steadily working on drone technology for years : "ISIS first acquired commercial drones two years ago for surveillance purposes, but has since demonstrated a mounting desire to use the technology in attacks against US-led coalition forces. The militant group earlier this year announced the creation of an “Unmanned Aircraft of the Mujahideen” unit made up of bomb-equipped drones intended to present 'a new source of horror for the apostates!' " In its official al-Naba newsletter, ISIS said its drones had killed nearly 40 Iraqi troops in one week, though the Washington Post dismissed the claim as “almost certainly exaggerated.” ISIS released a propaganda video in February showing jihadists using a drone to drop a bomb on an Iraqi army outpost. The blast scattered Iraqi troops and appeared to leave one person either dead or wounded. In February, Steven Stalinsky of the Middle East Research Institute said it was only a matter of time before ISIS took their regional war capabilities and adapted them for a civilian population. Stalinsky told the Washington Post : "They’re now showing that these devices can be effective on the battlefield. With the way these groups use social media, my worry is that they’re also putting the idea into people’s heads that this is something you can now do.” • So, if you weren’t already worried enough about islamists using bombs, vans, guns, and airplanes to attack the West and its soldiers, you can now add drone attacks on civilians to wour worry list. Our western civilization will not be safe until every islamic jihadist terrorist is eliminated. But, we can also take comfort in the words of the one person in the world whom we know is on our side 24/7, President Trump, whose determination and faith in God shines brightly in these harrowing times : "We call upon the bonds that unite us, our faith, our family, and our shared values. We call upon the bonds of citizenship, the ties of community, and the comfort of our common humanity. Our unity cannot be shattered by evil, our bonds cannot be broken by violence, and though we feel such great anger at the senseless murder of our fellow citizens, it is our love that defines us today. And always will. Forever." Those words of comfort were meant not just for Americans, but for every person in the world who want to live in peace with his and her fellow human beings and to be free of intrusive, unwanted governments seeking to curtail their liberties.