RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/3941/Vladimir-Bukovsky-1942-2019.aspx

The news I have been dreading comes out of England tonight: Vladimir Bukovsky has died. He was 76.

Now that Bukovsky is no more on this earth with the rest of us mortals, the obituaries, like so many doves, will be released to mark his passage out of our lives and into our memories.

I think I have always known that no matter how “prepared” one might be, this moment would be overwhelming. How do we mark the consequence and courage of such an extraordinary man who chose to lead his life in outspoken opposition to evil, who chose to sacrifice years of his life in Soviet labor camps and psychiatric hospitals rather than submit to communist slavery? The unflinching heroism, the giant scale of battle, the enormity of achievment was for Vladimir Bukovsky life’s routine, and thus defies the normal sort of reckoning at life’s end. The quandary lies in the colossal metaphysical sense of him that must be conveyed only in words.

Certainly, at this time there can be no better words than his own. I find myself thinking about a line that recurs in both of his memoirs, To Build a Castle (1979) and Judgment in Moscow (2019): “I did all that I could.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/amid-italys-beauty-a-vista-of-decline-11567180425

There was a joke that was popular when I was in college. “I had a great summer job this year,” it went. “What was it?” went the reply. “I was prime minister of Italy.”

I didn’t quite get the job this summer, though I did something even better—spending several weeks in the Tuscan countryside, resting, reading and writing. While I was there, on cue, the Italian government collapsed, and this timely juxtaposition of inner serenity and public turmoil prompted a few thoughts about our larger dispensation.

It’s hard to imagine a better place to ponder the arc of our civilization’s history than the rich, hilly lands from Tuscany down to Rome. It’s partly the views—across vine-covered slopes and cypress-studded hilltops to gorgeous honeyed-stone villages—and the long lunches of pasta and red wine that induce a contemplative mood under the relentless sun.

But it’s also the ubiquitous reminders of our historical roots in this fresco landscape. You can make a solid case that the small swath of hilly terrain between Florence and Rome has had more impact on our civilization than any other territory anywhere on Earth.

The empire that grew out of the little city on the Tiber bequeathed a language, literature and institutions whose heritage continues to shape our lives today. A millennium after the collapse of that empire, the Florentines and their local rivals secured achievements in art, architecture, science and commerce that represent the most intense flowering of human creativity in history. The church that still calls itself universal and ruled much of this land for centuries has guided the lives of billions of adherents.

The single-child family is almost standard, so millions of Italians have no siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins.

But what of it all now? The condition of modern Italy evinces the biblical lamentation for another lost civilization: Quomodo sedet sola civitas. How lonely the city stands.

You can see here a metaphor for the contemporary condition of the West. In Rome this week, they have just about finished putting together Italy’s 62nd (I think) government in 75 years. The country’s comic political instability was the source of humor for decades.

But no one is laughing now. Italy has had no real economic growth for almost 20 years. Its accumulated public debt is almost 1½ times the value of its GDP. Just about all the ambitious Italians I meet want their children to be educated in the U.S. or U.K.

The country was among the first in the West to enter a demographic death spiral. The Italian birthrate is below replacement. The single-child family is almost standard, so millions of Italians have no siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins. The extended family, that natural community of love and support, is going extinct.

The traditional centerpieces of life—family, workplace, community—have been eroded to the bone. Religious observance has collapsed. In the beautiful Tuscan churches I visited, there were probably more priceless works of Renaissance art than there were worshipers. A Caravaggio for every communicant.

The Italian genius for creativity is undiminished, though. I was staying near Montalcino, a small city in southern Tuscany of almost ineffable beauty. Fifty years ago, it was headed the way of many similar European towns. But someone discovered that the local grapes produced one of the finest wines in the world—Brunello—and with investment, a lot of hard work and marketing flair, the place exploded with energy.

In much of the country, however, depopulation is advancing. Moving into the empty spaces have been waves of immigrants, many from North Africa and the Middle East. The migrants have filled vital gaps in the labor force, but the transformation of Italian towns has left increasing numbers of citizens resentful, fearful for their identity. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15080/iran-executioner-children

European leaders, of course, who seem never to tire of sanctimoniously posturing on behalf of human rights, are meanwhile pursuing appeasement policies with a government that is called the world’s leading executioner and torturer of children — and others.

Two 17-year-old boys, who apparently did not even did not even know about their death sentences, were flogged before being executed.

Iran’s Islamic Penal Code also allows girls as young as 9 and boys as young as 15 to be executed. Vague charges are generally brought up by the Islamic Republic’s judiciary system or the Revolutionary Court, such as “waging war against God”. These charges can be stretched to allow for presumably lesser acts, such as criticizing the Supreme Leader, to become a crime, so that that an order of execution can be carried out.

Earlier this year, the Iranian government was in the process of executing three Kurdish children: Mohammad Kalhori, Barzan Nasrollahzadeh, and Shayan Saeedpour.

The other two favorite pastimes of which the EU also never seems to tire are: increasing its censorship and demonizing Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, and one that actually implements human rights. When will the EU finally become nauseated by its own hypocritical self-righteousness?

The European Union continues to assist Iran’s ruling mullahs in evading US sanctions through appeasement policies, including a payment mechanism labeled as INSTEX. The initials stand for Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges; the organization is a payment mechanism that will permit European firms and corporations to continue doing business with the Iranian government in spite of US economic sanctions against Tehran.

The European Union recently boasted in a statement:

“France, Germany, and the United Kingdom informed participants that INSTEX had been made operational and available to all EU member states, and that the first transactions are being processed”.

In other words, the EU is legitimizing the despotic theocratic establishment through trade and diplomatic relationships, as well as empowering the it by helping Iran’s ruling clerics gain more revenues.

European leaders, of course, who seem never to tire of sanctimoniously posturing on behalf of human rights, are meanwhile pursuing appeasement policies with a government that is the world’s leading executioner and torturer of children — and others.

Some of the children who have been executed are as young as 12. The Un

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14942/italy-mass-immigration-suicide

“In my son’s kindergarten there is a serious integration problem, I have to take him away”…. At the time of enrollment, Mohamed explained, they had seen drawings with flags of all nationalities in the school, but, “when we arrived at school the first day, we found ourselves in a class with all foreign children. The teachers are even struggling to pronounce the children’s names.

The migrant reception center on the island of Lampedusa, the front line of Italy’s migration crisis, is now in a state of “collapse” due to the rapidly rising numbers of arrivals.

“The lifestyle of the migrants will be ours”. — Laura Boldrini, former president of Italy’s Parliament; Il Giornale, 2015.

Will Italians integrate into the new culture of the migrants?

With a native population already shrinking, if Italy is open to the mass legalization of migrants, we should be aware that it will be culturally suicidal.

Describing Italy, Gerard Baker, former editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal, recently wrote:

“In much of the country… depopulation is advancing. Moving into the empty spaces have been waves of immigrants, many from North Africa and the Middle East. The migrants have filled vital gaps in the labor force, but the transformation of Italian towns has left increasing numbers of citizens resentful, fearful for their identity.”

He went on to call this transformation, “a kind of pioneer of Western decline”. Already, the effects of mass migration are becoming dramatically visible in many of Italy’s elementary schools. In just the last few days, examples from two large cities have surfaced.

The first was in Turin, Italy’s fourth largest city, where there are now elementary school classes with not even one Italian child: “In all classes, school principal Aurelia Provenza explained, the percentage of foreigners is very high, equal to 60% of the total number of pupils”.

https://www.steynonline.com/9798/scheer-genius

A few random thoughts on a grey morning after:

~According to the deranged dominion’s useless and government-subsidized media, Canadians’ priorities in this election were climate change and indigenous reconciliation, and the breakout star of the campaign was NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.

Back in the real world, Mr Singh’s party lost over a third of its seats, and twenty per cent of its vote, and is no longer the third biggest caucus in the House of Commons. And, whatever voters may tell pollsters about global climate concerns and indigenous reconciliation, the real consequences of the last four years are a resurgent Québécois nationalism and Albertan alienation. Both are testament to what Justin’s “sunny ways” boil down to in practice.

~As has often been said, Canadians rarely deny a party promoted to majority a second majority. The last time it happened was in 1935 – to R B Bennett’s Tories. However, to the best of my recollection, during the ’35 campaign old flickering silent movies did not surface of milord Bennett capering about in blackface with a banana stuffed down his trousers. As I pleaded three weeks ago:

Couldn’t we have contemplated the sheer weirdness of Canada’s head of government a while longer? On the election debate stage, [Trudeau] will be the only blackface devotee. Likewise at the G7 summit. And indeed at the G20. And Nato. If I’m not entirely confident about making the same claim of the Commonwealth Conference, it’s only because Her Majesty’s biennial beano has commanded the presence of some rum coves over the years, but nevertheless I am certain that Justin with his thrice-confessed blackface has worn it more than all the other prime ministers combined.

And yet Andrew Scheer couldn’t lay a glove on the guy – notwithstanding that he’s micro-managed and minded by some of the sleaziest low-down bare-knuckled dirty-tricksters in Canada, from Hamish Marshall even unto Warren (Catsmeat) Kinsella. These are self-proclaimed mean motherf**kers. But not apparently mammyf**ckers. If you can’t make hay while the Sonny Boy shines, what’s the point?

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2019/10/isis-caliph-dead-after-us-raid-daniel-greenfield/

Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, to whom Islamic terrorist groups around the world had sworn fealty to, is dead after US forces raided his family compound. In a seeming echo of Osama bin Laden’s death, Baghdadi exposed family members to risk by taking shelter among them, while ‘hiding out’ in an unlikely place, but likely, once again, under the protection of Sunni Islamist allies.

Idlib was really the last Sunni Islamist stronghold in Syria. Considering Turkey’s influence in Idlib and the longstanding rumors about ties between ISIS and Turkey, it’s not implausible that Erdogan’s Islamic terror state had been shielding the ISIS leader. If so, that would be a close repetition of the relationship between Pakistan and Osama bin Laden. It’s also less than impossible that recent US actions in Syria were part of a trade with Erdogan giving up the Caliph’s location, before the Russians and Syrians were likely to nail him anyway with their offensive, in exchange for getting the Kurds. But all that is just speculation.

The Caliph of ISIS is dead and that’s significant. He appears to have blown himself up with a suicide vest, but unlike Obama, President Trump was unlikely to have wanted him alive anyway. Obama had wanted to capture Osama and put him through a civilian trial.

No such agenda here.

Assuming al-Baghdadi is indeed dead, and if ISIS confirms as much (if they don’t, their allies will probably assume that he isn’t), this will affect the various pledges that Islamic terrorist groups around the world have made to ISIS. And the status of the Islamic State.

While Osama bin Laden was an important symbolic figure, the leader of ISIS had actually declared himself the Caliph. That significantly raised the theological stakes and convinced many Muslims that a new age was here. His death will bury that age for some terrorists.

The Islamic State was supposed to usher in a new era in history. That era is now dead. The endless war against the Jihad however goes on.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15078/iran-lebanon-soleimani

I think Soleimani is wrong to write-off Lebanon as a nation-state and reinvent it as an Iranian bridgehead. Having known Lebanon for more than half a century, I can tell him that there is such a thing as “Lebanese-ness” that transcends sectarian and political divides. The Lebanese look to the Mediterranean and the exciting possibilities of the modern world rather than the recesses of the Iranian Plateau under the mullahs with their antediluvian ideology. As a matter of taste, Lebanese-ness is closer to the beach than to the bunker.

The way the state-controlled media in Tehran put it, the wave of protests in Lebanon is about “showing solidarity with Palestine.” Photos of a dozen people burning Israeli and American flags in Beirut come with surreal captions about “Lebanese resistance fighters” calling for jihad against “baby-killing Zionists” and the American “Great Satan.”

What is certain is that the uprising has shaken the parallel universe created by Major-General Qassem Soleimani’s Madison Avenue depiction of Lebanon as the bridgehead for the conquest of the Middle East by Khomeinist ideology. Those familiar with Tehran’s propaganda know that the mullahs regard Lebanon as their most successful attempt at empire-building, worth every cent of the billions of dollars invested there.

The Iranian media often boast that Lebanon is the only country where the Islamic Republic controls all levers of power, from the presidency to security services, passing by the Council of Ministers and parliament. More importantly, perhaps, Tehran has forged alliances with powerful figures and groups within every one of the ethnic and sectarian “families” that constitute Lebanon.

In Iraq, Iran has to contend with the presence of powerful Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties and personalities that, while prepared to accommodate Tehran, refuse to act as puppets.

In Yemen, though dependent on Tehran’s money and arms for survival, the Houthis try not to be dragged into the Khomeinist strategy of regional hegemony.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15044/iraq-government-protests-christians

“The Iraqi government should accept the protesters’ demand for early elections, with a new electoral system to be organized and monitored by the UN: the current Iraqi electoral system is corrupt.” — Ashur Sargon Eskrya, head of the Assyrian Aid Society, to Gatestone.

“It’s time to pay attention. The country [Iraq] is riddled by protests by members of almost every ethnic or religious group, and the government is unstable and ineffective, with an uncertain future If the Iraqi regime were to collapse, most of the country that Americans fought so hard and long to liberate could become, de facto, a colony of Iran.” — Juliana Taimoorazy, founding president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, to Gatestone.

“We [Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac Christians] were the group most ruthlessly ethnically cleansed, right under the noses of US troops, as our people became the scapegoats for any angry Muslim fundamentalists who resented America’s policy. They treated us as honorary Westerners, but the West did nothing for us.” — Juliana Taimoorazy, to Gatestone.

“Now we are asking again for the right to self-governance and self-defense…. The answer for Iraq is still the one that doesn’t appeal to the powerful or the connected, but offers the best chance of civil peace: real, effective decentralization of political, military and economic power.” — Juliana Taimoorazy, to Gatestone.

Iraq’s security forces recently were joined by Iran-backed militias in a violent crackdown on anti-government protests. These protests have been taking place, since October 1, throughout much of the country as well as in Baghdad.

The mass demonstrations were sparked by widespread fury on the part of Iraqi youths at Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and what they view as his corrupt government’s failure to rehabilitate Iraq after its battle against ISIS and provide basic necessities, such as electricity, clean water and jobs. According to Amnesty International, activists and journalists have been brutally intimidated by Iraqi authorities and gunned down in the streets by snipers. The death toll has passed 180, with figures in the thousands for those wounded.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15079/persecution-christians-august

Boko Haram “has terrorised Christian communities in Nigeria for the last decade and has now splintered and spread its violent ideology into Cameroon, Niger and Chad.” — Staff writer, Christian Today, August 8, 2019.

“They asked him to deny Christ and when he refused they cut off his right hand. Then he refused [again], they cut to the elbow again. In which he refused, before they shot him twice, at the head, the forehead, the neck, and chest.” — Enoch Yeohanna, speaking on CBN News, August 29, 2019. Nigeria.

“Every year at least a thousand girls are kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert to Islam, even forced to marry their tormentors.” — Tabassum Yousaf, a local Catholic lawyer, quoted in Newsbook MT, August 12, 2019. Pakistan.

Hate for and Violence against Christians

Cameroon: Militant Muslims, allegedly affiliated with the Nigerian-based Islamic terror group Boko Haram, “reached new heights” of depravity. Boko Haram, after devastating the Christian village of Kalagari in a raid and kidnapping eight women, later released them but some had their ears “chopped off” (image here). The report adds that Boko Haram “has terrorised Christian communities in Nigeria for the last decade and has now splintered and spread its violent ideology into Cameroon, Niger and Chad.”

Nigeria: On August 29, Chuck Holton, a CBN News reporter, aired a segment on his visit with Christian refugees who had fled Boko Haram’s invasions into their villages. Among the stories of death and devastation, the following, spoken by a young man, stood out: