RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15468/china-hegemonic-objectives

It [the deal] does not prevent China from its pursuing its aggressive designs on the South and East China Seas, where it is positioning itself to challenge the U.S.’s role as protector of the world’s sea lines of communication…

Cambodia’s concession to China includes a 99-year lease for 20% of its coastline. This arrangement provides China with the ability to keep Vietnam’s granting of access to the U.S. Navy in check.

Of equal, if not greater, significance is China’s purchase of territory overlooking the potential maritime chokepoint, the Panama Canal Zone.

The other [Chinese acquisition] is a 99-year lease of Australia’s Port Darwin, where U.S. Marines train for six months of each year. This means that China will be able to document American military exercises and collect ship signal emissions from U.S. combatants.

This pattern of China’s investments in some 20 ports around the globe should be of great concern to the Free World.

The recent signing of the first stage of a trade pact between the United States and China should not mask what appear to be Beijing’s ultimate hegemonic ambitions.

Phase 1 of the deal, which went into effect on January 19, includes a partial reduction of current — and cancellation of planned — tariffs; a Chinese pledge to increase American agricultural imports; and an agreement from Beijing to address Washington’s concerns about U.S. technology being transferred to China by American companies doing business there, and about intellectual property theft.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15413/china-tibet-dialogue

China has persisted in doing inestimable damage to Tibetan identity, language, culture and ecology. Communist China has destroyed more than 6,000 Tibetan monasteries on the Plateau, and Beijing’s destructive activities in Tibet continue unabated. Since 2009, at least 156 Tibetans have immolated themselves in protest against Chinese rule.

It is not only the Dalai Lama, however, who needs to push for complete Tibetan independence. All liberal democracies that uphold the value of freedom need to do so, as well.

The US Congress recently introduced the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2019, which seeks to impose sanctions and a visa ban on any Chinese official who interferes in the selection of a successor to the current Dalai Lama, and which requires the establishment of an American consulate in Lhasa.

The next step for the US administration in its negotiations with Beijing should be to insist on total Tibetan independence.

Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, apparently hoping to ease the tension that has existed between Lhasa and Beijing since 1949, recently expressed interest in “explor[ing] the same channels of communication” with the Chinese government that he had established in the past.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/01/anti-christian-oppression-around-world-jack-kerwick/

Whether it is true that attacks against Jews are, as we’ve been hearing from certain Jewish leaders, activists, and commentators within some quarters of the media, actually on the rise may or may not be true.  The very same people—American blacks—who are overwhelmingly responsible now for preying upon Jews have been harassing, insulting, pummeling, and, in some instances, murdering Jews for many years.

Nevertheless, that this pattern of predatory conduct on the part of black thugs is a national outrage that should be resoundingly, unequivocally condemned by all decent people should be self-evident.

And it has indeed been so condemned, but not just by Jewish figures, but as well by no small number of non-Jews, specifically those of a Christian background.

At the same time, though, it’s easy to forget—if anyone in the United States (or elsewhere throughout the West) ever noticed it to begin with—that Christians throughout the world constitute by far and away the single largest persecuted religious group. 

In other words, it is “Christophobia,” not “anti-Semitism” and most assuredly not “Islamophobia,” that, globally speaking, is the most pervasive and cancerous form of anti-religious bigotry.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/all-aboard-the-crazy-train-11579554512?mod=opinion_featst_pos3

Davos, Switzerland

“As the millionaires, billionaires and Greta Thunberg assemble in Davos this week to debate the future of the world, they face a crisis of relevance. What if, with all of their competence, experience, cosmopolitan vision and, yes, goodwill, the Davoisie are merely passengers, comfortably ensconced in first-class seats, on a train whose route they do not know and cannot control?”

For half a century the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum has brought a mix of business leaders, politicians, pundits, academics, activists, “social entrepreneurs” and celebrities to this small village high in the Swiss Alps. For the year-round inhabitants, the conference is a mixed blessing. Security barriers and heavy traffic turn the narrow streets into a nightmare. With well-situated one-bedroom apartments renting for as much as $5,000 a night, however, many a Davos-dweller can escape the madness and pocket a nice profit. The resort’s hotels also make out well; with corporations and governments competing to reserve ballrooms and salons for their events, local hoteliers can clear more in a week than they likely could make during the whole ski season in the old pre-WEF days.

There is something inescapably ridiculous about a gathering this self-important; certainly Marie Antoinette and her friends dressing up as shepherdesses to celebrate the simple life has nothing on the more than 100 billionaires descending, often by private jet, on an exclusive Swiss ski resort for four days of ostentatious hand-wringing about the problems of the poor and the dangers of climate change. This year an earnest young aide at registration told me that, to reduce the event’s carbon footprint, no paper maps of the town were being distributed; one could almost feel the waves of relief from the nearby Alpine glaciers at this sign of green progress.

Yet smirk as one may, and sometimes as one must, this year’s WEF arrived at a difficult time for the Davoisie—those who are at home in the thin air of this global gathering. Leaders the world over are now having to come to grips with a new age of populism, nationalism and protectionism.

For the Davoisie the rise of populism is a huge problem. A world increasingly separating into rival blocs as supply chains begin to decouple isn’t a hospitable environment for global governance, Third Way capitalist reform and their many other hopes and projects.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15469/austria-coalition-agreement-serfdom

Most of what the People’s Party and the Greens grandly announce in their pact paves the road to an illiberal democracy, even a totalitarian country, by introducing a dictatorship of political correctness.

“[There is a] major restriction, if not ultimately, the abolition of the most important fundamental and human right, freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is the central basis and prerequisite for any democracy based on the rule of law. This is exactly why Turkey or Russia are not democracies — there are elections there, but people are constantly being locked up for [their] opinions.” — Andreas Unterberger, Austria’s most widely read political blogger, January 3, 2020.

Now, a number of institutions, funded by taxpayer money, will be established to monitor those people whose opinions are no longer acceptable…. the measures introduced in the coalition agreement which target only “right-wing extremism or extremists” will lead to a new wave of turning people in that is reminiscent of a very dark era in Austrian history.

“This is the first time since 1945 that the fight against thoughts has become official government policy in Austria.” — Andreas Unterberger.

While most of the world’s attention was focused on the death of a terrorist leader, Iran’s Qasem Soleimani, and the ensuing missile retaliation in the Middle East, a small country in the heart of Europe was once again ruled by an elected coalition government. Following snap elections in late September 2019, the Austrian population exhibited great patience until the start of a new decade, when, on January 2, the Austrian People’s Party and the Greens proclaimed, to paraphrase the Vatican: “Habemus gubernationem!” (We have a government!)

Given that the two parties entering this government are polar opposites in terms of political orientation, left vs. right, it is not surprising that the negotiations for a “viable” and lasting government took 100 days until their successful conclusion. Moreover, given what the Greens stand for — the climate, preventing “right-wing extremists” (namely the Austrian Freedom Party) from entering government ever again, and transparency — it would seem irreconcilable with the People’s Party’s goals: migration and law and order. At first, only the Austrian and European mainstream media and the European Union enthusiasts in Brussels were optimistic about this new coalition. The latest polls, however, indicate rising approval among the population.

How long this enthusiasm will last, remains to be seen. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz praised the 326-page coalition agreement as “incorporating the best of both worlds”, and although it contains the proverbial “good, bad and ugly”, regretfully only little can be considered good. In fact, most of what the People’s Party and the Greens grandly announce in their pact paves the road to an illiberal democracy, even a totalitarian country, by introducing a dictatorship of political correctness. As argued by Andreas Unterberger who runs Austria’s largest political blog:

“[There is a] major restriction, if not ultimately, the abolition of the most important fundamental and human right, freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is the central basis and prerequisite for any democracy based on the rule of law. This is exactly why Turkey or Russia are not democracies – there are elections there, but people are constantly being locked up for [their] opinions.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/01/beware-fools-gold-diplomacy-bruce-thornton/

The killing of Qassem Soleimani by a U.S. drone strike, and Iran’s accidental downing of a Ukrainian commercial airliner, have both humiliated the mullahs and exposed their lethal incompetence. Continuing protests by Iranian citizens against the feckless and corrupt regime reveal deepening fissures in the Iranian political order, as President Trump’s “maximum pressure” on Iran’s economy continues to bite deeper.

But while we should be pushing harder on the tottering regime, the same old voices of idealistic internationalism are calling for “diplomatic outreach” and “negotiations” to rewrite the nuclear deal. President Trump’s goal of that pressure, at least rhetorically so far, is also to renegotiate the nuclear deal and give it teeth, though he has put the burden on Iran to take the first step. And Britain, France, and Germany have triggered the nuclear agreement’s “dispute mechanisms” which could lead to broader “snap-back” sanctions on Iran. They too are calling for a renegotiated agreement.

But instead of yet again mining the fool’s gold of diplomacy, we should resist this glittering fraud. Diplomatic “engagement” with Iran will achieve nothing other than to give Iran time to spin its centrifuges, and inch closer to a nuclear weapon and the missiles to deliver them.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/during_the_busy_lunar_new_year_an_aggressive_coronavirus_is_on_the_move.html

A growing viral threat in China reminds us that there’s a very thin line between civilization and disaster. Moreover, it tells us that our government should be focusing on disease preventing and not on whether boys should be using girls’ bathrooms. But first, a little history to put things in perspective.

The world’s biggest die-off in recorded history – known as the Black Death, the Great Morality, the Pestilence, or the Great Plague – got its start thanks to a period of global cooling following the life-giving force of the Medieval Warming Period (950-1100 A.D.). During the warming period, land became more productive, and the population grew and expanded into formerly barren lands. (Greenland was once actually green.) When the climate began to cool, though, crops diminished, leading to starvation and weakened immune systems. War was normative.

The plague started in China, as rodents fled areas that were drying out in the cooling world. In 1347, Genoese traders were in the port city of Kaffa on the Crimea (now in Ukraine), when the Mongol hordes, who were looking for greener pastures, laid siege to the city. The plague-ridden Mongol army engaged in biological warfare by catapulting corpses into the city. The Genoese traders who escaped carried the plague to Sicily, and from there it spread to the rest of Europe. Best guesses are that 75 to 200 million people died.

Now that the stage is properly set, here’s the news from China today, and it’s way better than the news from China in the 14th Century:

An outbreak of a never-before-seen coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan dramatically worsened over the last few days—the case count has more than tripled, cases have appeared in new cities, and authorities have confirmed that the virus is spreading person to person.

The World Health Organization announced Monday that it will convene an emergency meeting on Wednesday, January 22, to assess the outbreak and how best to manage it

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15466/iran-nuclear-deal-what-next

“It’s unlikely that the parties will be able to reach a serious resolution, and the EU knows it….” — Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner, January 17, 2020.

“Trump has distinguished himself from his predecessor. The world’s most famous dealmaker appears not to be angling for a deal, and for good reason — there’s no deal to be had because there’s nothing left to negotiate. [Former U.S. President Barack] Obama set it up that way.” — Lee Smith, Tablet Magazine, January 13, 2020.

“The JCPOA guaranteed that the Iranians would all but have a bomb within 10 years — or by the end of the second term of Obama’s successor…. The point of the deal was not to stop Iran from ever building a bomb but to prevent the Iranians from doing so until Obama left office.” — Lee Smith, Tablet Magazine, January 13, 2020.

“The nuclear deal with Iran is over — it failed. You cannot and must not continue to negotiate with the Islamic regime, you cannot trust it. Such talks are useless. Governments should stop defending the regime through such talks, keeping it alive.” — Mina Ahadi, Chairwoman of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Germany, Bild, January 14, 2020.

Britain, France and Germany, the three European signatories of the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have activated the agreement’s dispute mechanism in an effort to force Tehran into compliance with its commitment to curb its nuclear program.

The three European countries — also known as the E3 — triggered the so-called Dispute Resolution Mechanism (DRM) on January 14, a week after Iranian authorities announced that they would no longer be bound by any of the agreement’s restrictions in terms of the numbers or type of centrifuges that they can operate or the level of uranium enrichment that they can pursue.

The DRM (Paragraphs 36 and 37 of the JCPOA) starts the clock on a process that could result in the return of international sanctions on Iran. The deal’s signatories now have up to 30 days to resolve their differences, although that time period can be extended by consensus. If the dispute cannot be solved, the matter could be brought before the UN Security Council and could result in the re-imposition of sanctions that had been lifted under the deal. That effort, however, could also easily be blocked by a Chinese or Russian veto.

Iranian authorities said that they were justified in violating the deal because the United States broke the July 2015 agreement by withdrawing in May 2018. In a statement, the E3 foreign ministers rejected Tehran’s argument:

“We do not accept the argument that Iran is entitled to reduce compliance with the JCPOA. Contrary to its statements, Iran has never triggered the JCPOA Dispute Resolution Mechanism and has no legal grounds to cease implementing the provisions of the agreement.”