Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Trump: The Peace President
President Donald Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a member of the Norwegian Parliament, nominated the president for his success in securing the historic peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
That historic agreement – the first Middle East peace deal in more than 25 years – will be formalized at a White House ceremony next week. And it is already yielding results.
Kosovo and Serbia announced late last week that they are opening embassiesin Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed this breakthrough, saying, "Kosovo will be the first country with a Muslim majority to open an embassy in Jerusalem."
Tybring-Gjedde said of Trump's nomination, "I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees." Well, he's certainly done more than Barack Obama did when he was nominated.
Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize less than eight months after taking office in 2009. He won simply for "inspiring hope." In other words, he hadn't done anything yet.
And by the time Obama left office, Russia had seized the Crimean Peninsula, Libya was in a civil war, China was on the rise in the Pacific and the Middle East was in crisis with the barbarians of the Islamic State and the mullahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran fighting for control.
Speaking of peace, the Pentagon announced today that the U.S. is significantly reducing our troop presence in Iraq from 5,200 soldiers to 3,000.
Police Chiefs Quit
Yesterday, the police chief of Rochester, New York, announced his resignation. A deputy chief and commander also resigned.
Chief La'Ron Singletary denounced the media's reporting on the death of Daniel Prude as a "mischaracterization" and "politicization" of the facts and an attempt to destroy his character and integrity.
Chief Singletary isn't the only police chief stepping down. In recent weeks, the police chiefs of Atlanta, Dallas, Portland, Richmond and Seattle have all resigned. Three of these six police chiefs were black and two were women. None of these individuals were remotely close to the infamous Bull Connor, quite the opposite.
For years the goal of the civil rights movement was to make police departments more diverse. America's big city police departments are the most diverse they have ever been in the history of our country.
And yet we're constantly told there is "systemic racism" in our police departments, meaning the entire department is racist. Officers are being forced to go through diversity training and sensitivity training to get rid of their racism – even as we have more and more police departments led by minority chiefs and supervisors.
Operation Legend
Attorney General William Barr gave an update today on the progress of Operation Legend, a targeted effort by federal agents to crack down on violent crime. More than 2,500 criminals have been arrested, with 600 facing federal charges.
Barr added that the success of Operation Legend has been "most dramatic" in Chicago. The attorney general said:
"Over the first five weeks of Operation Legend in Chicago, murders dropped by 50% over the previous five weeks. August ultimately saw a 45% decrease in murders compared to July, and a 35% decrease compared to June."
Trump's List
President Trump today announced his latest list of potential Supreme Court justices should another vacancy open up.
Judges are an extremely important issue to many Americans as the courts, and the Supreme Court in particular, often end up deciding fundamental issues like the sanctity of life, our Second Amendment rights and the fate of religious liberty.
With Justices Ginsburg and Breyer now in their 80s, the next president will likely make one or possibly two Supreme Court appointments.
COVID Update
The number of new reported Covid-19 cases yesterday (22,219) was the lowest daily total in nearly two months. The number of Covid deaths yesterday (358) was the lowest in two weeks. It was also the first time in two months that we had five days in a row with death totals below 1,000 a day.
This is encouraging news that the media are largely ignoring. Instead, they are fretting over a possible post-Labor Day surge in order to keep people panicked.
In related news, Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health, reassured members of Congress that his agency's "top priority" is the safety and effectiveness of potential Covid-19 vaccines.
Proud Dad
Carol and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary today. It is a big day for another reason too. Our daughter, Sarah, has written a wonderful book, "The Space Between Us," that is now available on Amazon.
All of our children have brought us incredible joy. All of them love the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus. Each one believes Jesus is the answer to the ills of mankind. And each of them, including Sarah, has gone into an arena of American life to try to make the country and the world a better place.
Sarah's latest contribution to the effort to make the world a better place is her wonderful, thought-provoking book, "The Space Between Us: How Jesus Teaches Us to Live Together when Politics and Religion Tear Us Apart." It is superbly well-written and will make you laugh, cry and think, sometimes simultaneously.
I hope and pray that you will be inspired by Sarah's book to try to heal the broken relationships in your own family, church and community.
Our country has important conversations and important decisions to make in the years ahead about the sanctity of life, racial discord, religious liberty, rebuilding families and our need to restore virtue to our nation. The Founding Fathers were right – only a virtuous people can remain free.
"The Space Between Us" is an important and compelling contribution to that desperately needed conversation. Order your copy today at Amazon.com.