https://pjmedia.com/author/richard-fernandez/feedPJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usThu, 09 Apr 2026 17:30:30 -0400<![CDATA[Sometimes chance brings us back to a place and time in our lives that we left decades ago. Maybe a funeral notice, a school reunion, or just a fortuitous turn in the road reunites us with people and a place that we left long ago. And if things have changed little enough, the effect is like traveling to the past. We return after a long absence to be reunited with people as they have since become and as you yourself would have likely resembled had fate not borne you elsewhere.]]>Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:31:00 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Conservatism]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2026/04/02/belmont-club-funerals-and-weddings-n4951359<![CDATA[The showdown came as no surprise to Tehran. The Islamic Republic (IR) had long readied itself for war against the conventionally superior U.S./Israel coalition by adopting what has been called the Mosaic Defense or the Defa-e Mozaiki in Persian. It aims to win with a strategy designed to make the IR virtually unkillable. It is the product of experience in fighting Israel both directly and through proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas for decades.]]>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:27:00 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Iran]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2026/03/23/belmont-club-cracking-the-mosaic-defense-n4950950<![CDATA[One of the reasons regime change is so risky is that the downside risk very often dominates upside potential. &nbsp;As we know from the Anna Karenina Principle, named from Leo Tolstoy’s novel, to get something right, all key factors must be present, while failure can occur by simply lacking just one. "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," goes the famous quote. The chances of casting Scrabble tiles on a board and, through chance, forming an actual word are much lower than the odds of getting gibberish.]]>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 09:50:00 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Foreign Policy]]><![CDATA[Iran]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2026/03/13/belmont-club-regime-change-n4950599<![CDATA[One of the reasons the Quentin Deranque murder is so sensitive in France is that the U.S. ambassador was actually summoned to the foreign office for commenting on it because it potentially exposes the semi-official status of political street gangs in a country that likes to think of itself as tolerant. After Deranque, a conservative activist (always referred to as extreme right-wing by the media), was killed in Lyon in what was apparently an organized attack, his death became a kind of litmus test for French political commentary. You can’t mention it without taking a position.]]>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 15:05:01 -0500<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Communism]]><![CDATA[France]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2026/02/23/belmont-club-the-face-beneath-the-mask-n4949834<![CDATA[Back in the bipolar world, it was easy for the public to take policy sides: it was their team versus our team. Later, when unipolarity was in vogue, things were even simpler. All a member of the public had to do was take cues from the international community. But things are harder to understand now. Are the EU and US even on the same side? What is the game? Who is on first? The average guy is confused.]]>Sat, 24 Jan 2026 09:03:00 -0500<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[European Union]]><![CDATA[United Nations]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2026/01/24/belmont-club-the-newer-world-order-n4948684<![CDATA[If the Nationals and Liberal parties want a good solid public policy alternative to the reflexive gun and hate speech control strategy of Australian Prime Minister Anthony&nbsp;Albanese&nbsp;they should implement an upgrade of the police and intelligence data systems instead of blowing their budget on buying back guns and focusing on hate speech.]]>Mon, 22 Dec 2025 11:45:45 -0500<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Islamic Terrorism]]><![CDATA[Terrorism]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/12/22/belmont-club-what-is-the-opposition-alternative-to-more-australian-gun-control-n4947370<![CDATA[The most important thing to learn from the December 2025 Bondi Beach attack is how to better anticipate and mitigate the next attack. There is probably going to be another attack, somewhere, sometime. The auguries are plain.]]>Fri, 19 Dec 2025 02:18:54 -0500<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Antisemitism]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/12/19/belmont-club-bondi-is-not-past-but-prologue-n4947234<![CDATA[People are at once the greatest treasure and the greatest bane. Who hasn’t watched the movie where sadistic convicts take the guards hostage with makeshift knives and threaten to kill them one by one unless their demands are met? Or the scenario where a cab driver refuses to drive all the way into a high crime area and drops his passenger off in a dimly lit street, leaving him to walk the rest of the way past a group of youths hanging menacingly out in an alleyway? Or perhaps we’ve heard of the pizza delivery employee hesitating to take a food order to a neighborhood that even the police avoid, leaving some elderly person without food because he can’t walk to the nearest store because of the gangs?]]>Mon, 01 Dec 2025 18:15:28 -0500<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/12/01/belmont-club-the-hollow-man-n4946580<![CDATA[The BBC chair will apologize presumably for a failure of checks after BBC director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness resigned over a documentary that joined two parts of Trump's speech together so he appeared to encourage the Capitol Hill riots of January 6.]]>Tue, 11 Nov 2025 13:49:17 -0500<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Media Bias]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/11/11/belmont-club-when-you-cant-take-the-high-hand-n4945852<![CDATA[The stabbing attacks in the UK involving migrants underscore the political dilemma facing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. What should the Labour Party stand for? Muslim advocacy groups are deeply embedded in progressive NGOs, parties, and activists in the UK; 86% of Muslims voted Labour last election. Starmer is part of the problem because he cannot undermine his own coalition.]]>Sat, 08 Nov 2025 08:05:00 -0500<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Democrat Party]]><![CDATA[New York]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/11/08/belmont-club-the-redgreen-multiple-personality-disorder-n4945751<![CDATA[What do people wear to protests? The "No Kings" protests of Oct. 18, 2025, predominantly featured white people aged from 55 to 70+. About 70% were comprised of women, and although they sometimes wore prescription glasses, most were without facial coverings or glasses. They were mostly liberal but ordinary, and they wore ordinary civilian clothes.]]>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 08:56:00 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Antifa]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/10/22/belmont-club-clothes-make-the-militant-n4945114<![CDATA[AI is now able to convincingly simulate and in a growing number of cases replace movie actors.The fakes look just like the real thing. ”There's a new celebrity in Hollywood and her name is Tilly Norwood. Tilly is already causing major controversy because she is AI-generated. Tilly is the creation of a Dutch comedian who says 'multiple talent agents have shown interest in signing the AI actress.' AI protection was a key sticking point during the writer and actor strikes in 2023. They were wary of replacement. Now, their fears seem to be coming true.”]]>Sun, 12 Oct 2025 08:51:00 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/10/12/belmont-club-the-irreplacibility-of-politicians-n4944759<![CDATA[September 2025 has been an interesting month.The undeclared cold civil war in the West is everywhere coming out of the closet. Both the Woke and Populist coalitions in every country have openly declared political war on one another —clashing over ideology, generational voter bases, and economic policy.The moment of open conflict can be dated approximately from Charlie Kirk's assassination and the MAGA coalition crossing "red lines" on border policy domestically and Palestinian recognition internationally. There were other similar lines of departure in the UK, France and Germany.]]>Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:08:43 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Woke]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/10/01/belmont-club-out-in-the-open-n4944323<![CDATA[Politicians are hunkering down as they wonder who might be the next target following the Charlie Kirk assassination. The Associated Press writes that “politicians in both parties and at virtually every level of public service are suddenly being forced to deal with acute security concerns … some political leaders are canceling public appearances. Others are relying on a large police presence to keep them safe." The two unsuccessful attempts on the life of then presidential candidate Donald Trump and the successful assassination of Kirk by three seeming amateurs impelled by obscure ideologies have made it nearly impossible for bodyguards to predict where the next blow might come from.]]>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 19:15:00 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Charlie Kirk]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/09/15/belmont-club-assassins-n4943712<![CDATA[The rise of courtroom media has provided the public with hundreds of glimpses into that supremely tragic moment when a felon, sometimes just a teenager, learns he is sentenced to life imprisonment. Then, despite their efforts at bravado, there is no hiding the shock and disbelief. His life is over. The possibility that he blotted from his consciousness has actually become unbearably real.]]>Sun, 10 Aug 2025 22:08:22 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Crime]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/08/10/belmont-club-our-guardian-angels-n4942583<![CDATA[“War is hell,” as William Tecumseh Sherman famously observed, but it is also theater. War is a staple of movies, literature, and religion due to its ability to encapsulate universal themes of good versus evil, courage, sacrifice, and the human condition. It is ubiquitous in human history. Who has not heard of the War in Heaven? War features in the&nbsp;Iliad, the&nbsp;Koran, the&nbsp;Bhagavad Gita, not to mention&nbsp;Shakespeare,&nbsp;War and Peace,&nbsp;The Lord of the Rings, and countless movies and drama serials. &nbsp;It’s definitely theater: ironically it's the history of our lives.]]>Sun, 27 Jul 2025 04:16:10 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Gaza]]><![CDATA[Israel]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/07/27/belmont-club-the-glamor-of-evil-n4942131<![CDATA[Recent attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on non-American-flagged shipping in the Red Sea have once again raised questions about the security of shipping in a so-called "global world."]]>Wed, 16 Jul 2025 09:14:00 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Houthis]]><![CDATA[Iran]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/07/16/belmont-club-the-red-sea-sharks-n4941795<![CDATA[Donald Trump has urged everyone in Tehran to evacuate "before it is too late," reports&nbsp;USA Today. Too late for what? Is this like the Usual Suspects, where only at the end do we know what the movie was about?]]>Mon, 16 Jun 2025 22:16:12 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Iran]]><![CDATA[Israel]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/06/16/belmont-club-two-strategies-n4940864<![CDATA[The BBC reports that Vladimir Putin has told U.S. President Donald Trump that he will respond to Ukraine's major drone attack, codenamed Spider’s Web, on Russian airbases.]]>Wed, 04 Jun 2025 23:27:21 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Russia]]><![CDATA[Ukraine]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/06/04/belmont-club-putin-in-the-spiders-web-n4940464<![CDATA[News from Cambridge that they may have detected biochemical signatures on a relatively nearby exoplanet has altered the solution probabilities to the Fermi paradox. The New York Times writes that “a team of researchers is offering what it contends is the strongest indication yet of extraterrestrial life, not in our solar system but on a massive planet, known as K2-18b, that orbits a star 120 light-years from Earth. A repeated analysis of the exoplanet’s atmosphere suggests an abundance of a molecule that on Earth has only one known source: living organisms such as marine algae.”]]>Thu, 24 Apr 2025 09:41:00 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]><![CDATA[Science]]><![CDATA[Science Fiction]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2025/04/24/belmont-club-where-are-they-n4939185