RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/another-nato-summit-another-tranche-of-happy-talk/

Last week the annual Nato summit gathered in Vilnius. Like last year’s, the meeting was dominated by the Ukrainian crisis, and was accompanied by the usual cheerleading from foreign policy mavens and globalist media. Also like previous summits, this one didn’t seriously address the problems and weaknesses of the Alliance.

Ukrainian officials who attended the meeting were visibly and vocally disgruntled. One beef is the festering issue of Ukraine’s membership in Nato, promised 15 years ago after Putin’s unpunished territorial predations in Georgia. The long, formal process of meeting requirements hasn’t even begun yet, apart from certain conditions agreed upon at the summit that Ukraine must meet. Nato still made empty promises to Ukraine about membership, even though there’s no chance that all 31 Nato nations will give their approval, and membership requires the consent of every member.

There are several arguments for and against Ukraine’s membership, but one of the weakest against it is the claim that giving Ukraine Article 5 protection––an attack on one member is an attack on all––might ignite a nuclear war with Russia. Yet this provision, regularly and reverentially touted by Nato’s cheerleaders, is what James Madison called a “parchment barrier” riddled with loopholes. Notice the crafty wording of this provision: each state will respond to an attack “by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force”  [emphasis added].

But “deems necessary” invites a liberal interpretation about how any nation can respond; and “including armed force” makes a military response just one option among numerous less costly ones. That means actually funding and mobilizing a nation’s military can be replaced by speechifying at the UN, issuing blustering diplomatic demarches, or sending money or weapons and other materiel––just what the Nato nations have been doing in the case of Ukraine. This suggests that even if Ukraine had been a Nato member, the alliance’s response wouldn’t have been much different from the current one.

Exacerbating Ukraine’s frustration is the delays in the Nato nations’ provision of weaponry and ammunition. Yet those nations’ stockpiles of both are dangerously low, and as historian Niall Ferguson put it earlier this year, Nato nations’ “military industrial complex has withered away,” making it a challenge to ramp up production of armaments. It’s so bad in the U.S. that the Biden administration announced it would send shrapnel-spewing cluster bombs instead of artillery rounds, weapons most of the world’s nations have proscribed by treaty.

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/banking-on-a-witch-hunt?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The most striking aspect of the shocking treatment of Nigel Farage, the godfather of Brexit whose account with the quintessentially establishment Coutts bank was closed because it said his views “do not align with our values,” was that it also said his views “were at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation”.

So in pursuit of inclusivity, the bank excluded Farage. Clearly, logic doesn’t figure as one of its values. Nor does the bank appear to grasp the meaning of language.

Coutts is owned by another bank, NatWest. That’s run by Dame Alison Rose. Last year she declared:

Our focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is integral to our purpose of championing the potential of people, families and businesses. And NatWest Group’s employee-led networks are playing a huge part in creating a truly inclusive culture at the bank.

In practice, this entailed behaving towards Farage like the Soviet secret police. This is now becoming the new normal in a culture where words such as “equality”, “inclusivity’ and “non-discrimination” have turned values hitherto considered the bedrock of a civilised society into the charge sheet for a witch-hunt.

A 40-page dossier released to Farage has revealed the true reason for his exclusion from the bank. It lists his comments about Brexit, his views on LGBT rights and his friendship with Donald Trump and the former Wimbledon player Novak Djokovic as being among many reasons why he was not “compatible with Coutts”. 

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19816/pakistan-blasphemy-case

Mohd Abdul Gaffar, a retired Pakistan Air Force officer from Green Town, reported that as he was returning home after morning prayers… he discovered a small pamphlet containing blasphemous content on the boundary wall of his house. The contents of the pamphlet were highly disrespectful towards Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other revered figures. The pamphlet also contained derogatory comments against the holy Quran and even praised the recent burning of a Quran in Sweden.

Past incidents include those… where several people were murdered, some burned alive, while dozens of Christians are still languishing in prison, awaiting their fate. It is worth noting that all those accused of committing blasphemy (who were not murdered by lynch mobs) were eventually proven innocent in court and freed.

It is believed that, regrettably, certain individuals in Pakistan are exploiting the incident of the Quran burning in Sweden as an excuse to fuel the flames of hatred and seek revenge against local Christians, who are peaceful, believe in respect for all religions, and have no connection to the Swedish incident.

It is crucial for the Pakistani government to take necessary steps to stop the ongoing misuse of the Penal Code’s blasphemy sections against Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan.

Another blasphemy incident has occurred in Pakistan, leaving local Christians deeply concerned for their safety. It is believed that, certain individuals in Pakistan are exploiting the incident of the Quran burning in Sweden as an excuse to fuel the flames of hatred and seek revenge against local Christians, who are peaceful, believe in respect for all religions, and have no connection to the Swedish incident.