‘Could Not Have Gone Better’: MSNBC Guest Praises Trump’s Trip To Japan
'The U.S.-Japanese alliance is still strong'
The UN once defended the oppressed. Now it defends the powerful.
I should be dead. Buried in an unmarked grave in Romania. But God had other plans.
As a young attorney living under Nicolae Ceaușescu’s brutal communist regime in the 1980s, I spent my life searching for truth in a regime of lies. I found it in the Bible — forbidden in my country. I answered the divine call to defend fellow Christians facing persecution in an ungodly land.
If the United Nations is to mean anything again, it must rediscover the courage that once gave refuge to dissidents like me.
For that “crime,” I was kidnapped, interrogated, beaten, and tortured. I spent months under house arrest and came within seconds of execution when a government assassin pointed a gun at me. I survived and fled to the United States as a political refugee.
The UN once stood for something
In his recent address to the 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly, President Donald Trump said the organization “has tremendous potential — but it’s not even close to living up to that potential.” He’s right.
When the United Nations was founded in 1945, its mission was noble: to promote peace, security, and human rights worldwide. It was meant to be a platform for honest dialogue, a beacon for humanitarian action, and a voice for the voiceless.
It once lived up to that promise. During the Cold War, the U.N. amplified the voices of dissidents behind the Iron Curtain and gave cover to lawyers like me defending Christians in communist courts. Its support for human rights cases in Romania helped expose Ceaușescu’s tyranny to the world.
That international pressure saved my life and countless others.
Bureaucracy replaced moral courage
Today’s U.N. bears little resemblance to that courageous institution. It has become paralyzed by bureaucracy and corrupted by politics. Instead of defending the oppressed, it often defends the powerful — or looks away altogether.
In Nigeria, Syria, and Yemen, millions suffer while the U.N. Security Council stalls over procedural votes. Permanent members protect their allies, veto resolutions, and block humanitarian intervention. Political calculations routinely outweigh moral imperatives.
When the institution created to prevent genocide can’t even condemn it, the crisis isn’t merely diplomatic — it’s spiritual.
Reform begins with courage
President Trump has proposed bold changes to restore the U.N.’s relevance. He called for adding permanent Security Council members — emerging powers such as India, Brazil, Japan, and Germany — to reflect modern realities and make the council more decisive.
He urged the U.N. to prioritize global security and counterterrorism while aligning its agenda with the legitimate interests of free nations. First lady Melania Trump, addressing the same assembly, launched Fostering the Future Together, a coalition promoting education, innovation, and children’s welfare.
These initiatives could help revive the U.N.’s moral voice and refocus it on its founding purpose: defending the oppressed and restraining the oppressors.
RELATED: Trump strongly defends Christianity at UN: ‘The most persecuted religion on the planet today’
Faith and courage still matter
My own survival came down to faith. When Ceaușescu sent an assassin to kill me, he pulled a gun and said, “You have ignored all of our warnings. I am here to kill you.”
In that moment of terror, I prayed: “Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior.” Peace replaced panic. I began sharing the gospel.
That armed killer, confronted with God’s word, lowered his weapon, turned, and walked away. Today, he is a pastor — serving the same faith he once tried to destroy.
The lesson is simple: Hearts can change. Institutions can too. But it takes conviction.
If the United Nations is to mean anything again, it must rediscover the courage that once gave refuge to dissidents like me. It must speak for the enslaved, the persecuted, and the forgotten — not for dictators and bureaucrats.
God spared my life so I could keep fighting for truth. The U.N. was part of that story once. It can be again — if it remembers why it was born.
Why Demon Slayer Speaks To The Soul And Disney Doesn’t
The problem isn’t that Americans are watching Japanese anime; it’s that Hollywood has stopped telling the kind of stories that 'set hearts ablaze.'Here's how a penguin avatar will be the new leader of a Japanese political party
A political party in Japan is turning to a non-human leader after failing to gain any seats in a recent election.
The Path to Rebirth party was launched in January after a former small-town mayor, Shinji Ishimaru, shocked Japan by coming in second in Tokyo's 2024 gubernatorial race.
'Legally, the representative must be a natural person.'
Despite not having any policies, platforms, or member guidelines, the party had hoped to gain traction in Japan's House of Councillors election. However, the Path to Rebirth party failed to pick up any of the 124 seats that were up for grabs in the election.
Ishimaru quit following the massive defeat, the Japan Times reported, and now a new leader has been installed.
Doctoral student Koki Okumura won the party's leadership race, but decided he is not fit for the job, and last week he tapped a new party leader.
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"The new leader will be AI," the 25-year-old declared.
Describing himself as the assistant to the artificial intelligence, the Kyoto University student said the AI will be a penguin avatar, a nod to Japan's love for animals.
Okumura said that while the party will "entrust decision-making to AI," he will be the formal figurehead because party leaders in Japan must be human.
"Legally, the representative must be a natural person, so formally, a human serves as the representative," he explained.
In an interview with CNN, Okumura said he believes AI will eventually take over all the decision-making for the Path to Rebirth party.
"I believe it has the potential to achieve things with greater precision than humans. This approach allows us to carefully consider voices that are often overlooked by humans, potentially creating a more inclusive and humane environment for political participation," Okumura added.
Perhaps surprisingly, the AI penguin is not the first major appointment for a non-human entity this month.
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Just a week prior, Albania announced that public tenders — bids made by companies to supply goods or services to the government — will be handled by an AI minister.
The AI, named Diella, meaning "Sun," was already in use as a virtual assistant for Albania's online public services website that deals with digital documents. Prime Minister Edi Rama boldly claimed that the AI will be "100% free of corruption."
As for the penguin leader, Okumura said there is no timeline for its formal implementation, and its appearance has not been revealed.
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East Asia’s Political Turmoil Could Hamper Trump’s Bid To Counter Red China
The Trump admin's efforts to get America's East Asian partners to increase defense spending may prove more difficult than anticipated.The God-given idea that helped make America great — and can save us again
Well before America’s founders drafted the Constitution, they understood that they had a national security problem rooted in economic and technological gaps.
Colonial America supplied Britain with raw materials, and the motherland traded us finished goods. That was tolerable then, despite its one-sided nature.
The intellectual property framework the founders designed democratized invention and creativity — and rewarded merit.
Then, Great Britain crossed the Rubicon. It unilaterally levied taxes on the colonies with the Sugar Act, which colonial resistance caused to be repealed. The Stamp Act of 1765 also imposed taxes without colonial consent. Then the taxes and regulations of the Townshend Acts further stirred colonial anger.
Revolutionary sentiments brewed, with public protests resulting in the Boston Massacre of 1770 and the “tea parties” in 1773 and 1774. Finally, combat broke out at Lexington and Concord in 1775.
Britain had the economic and military advantage over the largely agricultural colonies, which suffered chronic shortages of guns, gunpowder, blankets, and shoes.
Flourish by design
For America to survive as an independent nation, the model had to change. It needed to promote rapid economic and technological advancement. It needed a policy that coupled economic liberty with property rights.
The founders set a course for achieving what Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution calls “the progress of science and useful arts.” This was done “by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
The intellectual property framework the founders designed democratized invention and creativity — and rewarded merit. The Constitution was crafted to secure and enable an individual’s rights, including patent rights to the property someone created.
The founders understood that the ownership right would help unleash human flourishing. They had learned this from the Bible, the legacy of the Reformation, and great minds such as Edward Coke, William Blackstone, and John Locke.
Biblical basis
Property rights incentivized creative endeavors, which is precisely what the framers sought to do.
The biblical framework for invention and creativity flows from foundational truths. He who created the universe (e.g., Genesis 1:1, Job 38, Psalm 8:1-5) also claims ownership of His creation (e.g., Deuteronomy 10:14, Psalm 24:1, Isaiah 64:8).
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Moreover, God not only creates and owns, but He communicates those attributes to human beings, the creature who bears His image and is charged with stewardship of the lower creation (e.g., Genesis 1:26-30, Psalm 8:6-8, Micah 4:4). The founders applied this combination of creativity and ownership as the formula for maximizing human flourishing.
This resulted in America growing from a vulnerable agrarian society to the world’s premier industrial economy. By the 20th century, the United States led the world in economic and technological strength.
Our golden age
The golden age of American patenting started in 1836, when Congress established a dedicated U.S. Patent Office.
When someone produced a novel invention, he was awarded a patent. Applicants could appeal patent denials to impartial chief examiners — and they could obtain review in a federal court. A patent had a 14-year term from the date it was issued. Economic historian Zorina Khan notes in "The Democratization of Invention" that a seven-year extension could be provided to ensure “reasonable remuneration for the time, ingenuity, and expense bestowed” in developing and bringing an invention to market.
This system embodied the founders’ vision, implementing the biblical model of human creativity incentivized by secure ownership. This creativity-ownership combination has clearly stimulated mass flourishing in America, where we have experienced wealth creation and prosperity in vast measure.
Today, we approach the 250th anniversary of our independence, knowing what the founders did not: The American experiment turned out quite well.
Yet keen observers are less sanguine about our future.
Creative comeback
In recent years, the federal government has undermined the successful intellectual property model the founders gave us.
For example, a cardinal rule of the patent process was maintaining the confidentiality of inventions for which a patent was sought but not yet granted. But then the Clinton administration and Congress began publishing U.S. patents that were still being examined. Cutting-edge American technology was being transferred to Japan and China before an inventor’s exclusive legal rights had been secured at home.
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The 2011 America Invents Act wiped out several useful elements of the Patent Act. It established the quasi-judicial Patent Trial and Appeal Board, before which anyone can challenge and more easily invalidate issued patents. Today, the PTAB destroys value and wealth in newly created property, the very inventions that promise American leadership in the most cutting-edge technologies.
The United States is now falling behind in global technological leadership — but we must out-innovate foreign competitors, particularly China.
America must relink ownership with creativity to incentivize creativity through reliable, enforceable property rights. Secure IP rights coupled with economic freedom are pro-growth policy, just as much as the right tax policies.
To re-establish America’s technological and economic prowess, we must return to God’s design — that which the founders adopted with world-changing success.
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