RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12829/does-turkey-belong-in-nato

Loving one’s native culture and feeling comfortable in it is normal. Western leaders have respected the rights of new immigrants to love the cultures from which they have come. But unfortunately, those same leaders are tearing apart their own cultures by turning love of one’s own country into an unforgivable sin, when it is expressed by native citizens of Western countries. This trend needs to end.

Unless the leadership of Europe decides to stop the transformation of the continent with the same determination expressed by some extremist leaders that appear to want to transform it, its future is all too clear.

Turkey’s President Erdogan has been steadily abrogating NATO commitments, such as, “uphold[ing] democracy, including tolerating diversity,” and that members “must be good neighbors and respect sovereignty outside their borders.”

US President Donald J. Trump tends to state what many in the world are saying but few are willing publicly to express:

“I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad,” he recently said. Standing next to UK Prime Minister Teresa May, he stated his conviction that European immigration policies are changing the “fabric of Europe” and destroying European culture.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12800/qatar-france-mosques

The Great Mosque of Poitiers, for instance, sits in the vicinity of the site of the Battle of Tours, where Charles Martel, ruler of the Franks, stopped the advancing Muslim army of Abdul al-Rahman in the year 732.

“We have funds from abroad… it comes from the faithful of Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” says Ahmed Jamaleddine, treasurer of the Amal association, which is behind the construction of “the Great Mosque of Saint-Denis.” Saint-Denis also happens to be home to a famous Cathedral, the Basilica of Saint-Denis — which contains the royal necropolis where many of France’s kings are buried.

The Emir of Qatar appears to have a far greater grasp of French history than many French do.

Qatari activism in France should greatly worry those who care about the stability of European democracies. For years, Qatar has been the focus of many claims about its Islamic fundamentalism and its alleged support for the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran, ISIS, elements of al-Qaeda, Hamas, the Taliban and other Islamic extremists.

Qatar’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, recently provided solid proof that France is a privileged field of projection for his country, which, for more than a year, has had a severe boycott imposed on it by its Gulf neighbors. A July meeting in Paris between the Emir of Qatar and French President Emmanuel Macron was the third held in just a few months. Contracts worth more than 12 billion euros have already been signed, making Qatar the third largest French customer in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Qatar, however, casts its shadow not only over the French economy.

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/14/the-genocidal-elite-part-ii

Ask any social justice leftist about the tweets by the New York Times’ disgraceful new hire Sarah Jeong, and once you’ve got them off all the red herrings about Trump/white supremacy/fascism/incoherent screaming, you will get an answer along the lines of, “Come on, Jeong’s tweets are just the cathartic way that social justice warriors of color vent their frustrations with white supremacy. It’s not like whites are under any serious threat from this rhetoric. Just let them vent, and check your privilege, because if you have a problem with this rhetoric, you’re suffering from Toxic Whiteness ™.”

I noted this blasé style of apology for Jeong’s rhetoric in the first installment of this series, with Zack Beauchamp of Vox being the most honest example of it, though others have since joined the chorus. And I understand part of it: the defense that Jeong’s rhetoric is intentionally extreme for ironic purposes is one that can apply with equal force to 4chan trolls, after all.

The elite has shown no interest in mainstreaming 4chan’s hyperbolic rhetoric, however, and if they did, 4chan itself would be so horrified at the prospect of being considered respectable that the site’s users would find some other way to scandalize everyone.

In contrast, Jeong’s worldview, if not quite the extreme way she expresses it, has been accepted happily by large swathes of the elite, who seem intent on forcing the rest of us to accept it, too. This means that at minimum, it deserves a greater level of scrutiny.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271035/sweden-burning-joseph-klein

Multiple Swedish localities were subjected to what appears to be coordinated arson attacks on Monday, as youths set fire to at least 100 cars in and around the city of Gothenburg, the city of Trollhättan further north, Falkenberg and in the capital city of Stockholm. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven described the attacks as “very organized, almost like a military operation.” He said he was “really getting mad” and that “society must react in a tough manner.” No kidding! This is nothing new. Five years ago, for example, Sweden experienced days of rioting, with cars and buildings set ablaze. In early 2016, “Swedish police had to run for safety after being surrounded by an angry mob of migrants,” Express reported, “when they went to rescue a 10-year-old boy, who had allegedly been raped and 22-year-old Alexandra Mezher was stabbed to death by a Somali boy aged 15.” Riots broke out in a predominantly immigrant neighborhood of Stockholm in 2017, CNN reported, with vehicles set on fire. Also last year, a frustrated asylum-seeker embarked on a deadly rampage with a truck, killing or injuring several people.

There were 306 confirmed shooting incidents across Sweden last year, resulting in 41 deaths. These may seem like small numbers compared to the total number of shootings and homicides from gun violence in Chicago alone last year. However, it is not a small number for a Western European country. Indeed, Sweden is now reported to be the second most violent country in Europe. Its homicide rates are “significantly above the Western European average,” Politico reported. “Social unrest, with car torchings, attacks on first responders and even riots, is a recurring phenomenon.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/08/jeremy-corbyn-anti-semite-supports-terrorists-holocaust-deniers/He has a long history of honoring and supporting those who libel Jews, deny the Holocaust, and vow to destroy Israel.

When Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the British Labour party in the autumn of 2015, a chill ran through the Jewish community in Britain. They were fearful not because they anticipated the anti-Semitic storm that has since engulfed the highest ranks within the party — no one expected the situation to escalate to the contentious level it has now reached — but simply because they had been paying attention.

Behind Corbyn’s polished façade — beyond the walls of the carefully constructed bubble in which he is celebrated as an anti-racist social-justice campaigner for the most deprived in the world — lies a decades-long record of extensive links with terrorists, racists, and dictators. It explains why three leading Jewish publications recently took the unprecedented step of warning, in a joint editorial, that a government led by Corbyn would pose an “existential threat” to British Jewish life.

This is a serious charge, but the evidence has been lining up. Take the fact that Corbyn once described it as his “honour and pleasure” to host “our friends” from Hamas and Hezbollah in Parliament. Corbyn praised the two internationally designated terrorist groups, devoted to the total annihilation of the Jewish state, as organizations “dedicated towards the good of the Palestinian people . . . and bringing about long-term peace and social justice and political justice in the whole region.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/08/erdogan-must-release-pastor-andrew-brunson/Erdogan’s case against American pastor Andrew Brunson is ludicrous.

It’s never a good idea to negotiate with a hostage-taker, but when it’s a NATO ally, there isn’t much choice.

The Trump administration has been trying to get back a Christian pastor detained in Turkey since October 2016, and when a possible deal at the sidelines of the NATO summit fell through, it decided to drop the hammer.

A couple of weeks ago, the administration sanctioned Turkey’s justice and interior ministers — remember, these are top officials of a fellow NATO country. The action hit the Turkish currency and stock market hard. Then President Donald Trump intervened in his inimitable style, with a tweet promising a doubling of aluminum and steel tariffs against the country and pointedly noting the drop in the value of the lira.

As always, the president’s shoot-from-the-lip style is open to question, but Turkey deserved every last character — including the two exclamation points — in that presidential tweet. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not Justin Trudeau or Angela Merkel, a leader firmly within the liberal West who annoys Trump. He’s an Islamist authoritarian who is fundamentally changing the character of an erstwhile ally.

Erdogan’s resort to hostage-taking as a tactic to gain leverage over allies — it’s not just us — is a barbarous throwback and a disgusting homage to rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. He also has grabbed a Turkish-American NASA scientist and local employees of American consulates.

The case against the pastor, the highest-profile case, is ludicrous. Andrew Brunson lived with his family in a seaside city, Izmir, for more than 20 years until the government, after Erdogan survived a coup, decided that he was guilty of aiding terrorist organizations and carrying out military espionage.