RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14447/iran-attacks-escalate

Iran’s actions are clear; there has been virtually no attempt on its part to disguise hostile intentions. Why is there no international outrage? The mainstream media continue to fail to report adequately Iran’s attacks. There has been no focus placed on the increase over the past two months of these attacks.

On several occasions, the Trump administration invited Iran to the negotiating table in an attempt to deescalate tensions. It is Iran that rejects the talks and continues to act aggressively, all while openly threatening the U.S. and its allies.

How many people must be threatened, tortured, or slaughtered, before Trump’s response will be deemed warranted?

Criticism continues to fly at the Trump administration in response to the White House’s attempts to deter Iran’s threats. Despite increasing acts of violence, and aggressive behavior towards the US, President Trump is criticized by some people for his determination to hold the Iranian government accountable.

By using its military to attack the US and its allies, the Islamic Republic has been unabashedly resorting to hard power tactics. Iran’s actions are clear; there has been virtually no attempt on its part to disguise hostile intentions. Why is there no international outrage? The mainstream media continue to fail to report adequately Iran’s attacks. There has been no focus placed on the increase over the past two months of these attacks.

The Iranian government’s policy appears to be two-pronged. The first facet seems linked to instructing its proxies across the region to attack and wreak havoc on entities linked to the United States, European countries, and Gulf states.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/iran-says-new-u-s-sanctions-mark-permanent-closure-of-diplomacy/

Iranian officials said Tuesday that new U.S. sanctions mean “closing the doors of diplomacy” between the two countries amid increasingly acrimonious relations.

The sanctions, which target the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other top Iranian officials, are “outrageous and idiotic,” President Hassan Rouhani said.

“You sanction the foreign minister simultaneously with a request for talks,” Rouhani complained, before calling the White House “mentally retarded.”

“Trump’s government is annihilating all the established international mechanisms for keeping peace and security in the world,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi wrote on Twitter, calling the Trump administration “desperate.”

In response, President Trump issued a warning that attacking American targets will result in disaster for Iran.

“The wonderful Iranian people are suffering, and for no reason at all. Their leadership spends all of its money on Terror, and little on anything else,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Twitter. “Iran’s very ignorant and insulting statement, put out today, only shows that they do not understand reality. Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration.”

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Last week, Trump called off airstrikes planned as retaliation for Iran’s downing of an unmanned American drone with just minutes to spare. He later cited concerns about the potential casualties, which he said would have been around 150, in justifying the decision.

Tensions with Iran have been escalating ever since the White House backed out of the 2015 nuclear weapons deal last year, brokered by the Obama administration and consistently disparaged by Trump.

https://creativedestructionmedia.com/analysis/2019/06/22/u-s-china-trade-war-part-two-the-thucydides-trap/“We have met the enemy, and they are us.”

Pogo

Intellectual elites and mainstream media have been captivated by Dr. Graham Allison and his prediction that China and the United States are inexorably heading toward war. Like Francis Fukuyama’s 1992 book, “The End of History and the Last Man,” Dr. Allison’s book is fatally flawed. 

Fukuyama’s analysis of the fall of the Soviet Union created a storm of controversy in learned circles. He postulated that the victory of democracy and capitalism over communism meant that there were no more challenges to freedom and global security, and therefore history was ended. His book is based on philosophers like Plato, Hegel and Marx. Like Fukuyama’s work, the best-selling book by Dr. Graham Allison “Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?” is also based on an ancient Greek philosopher. 

The Greek philosopher Allison used was also a general in the wars in which Sparta, an ascending power, ultimately defeated Athens, the most powerful city-state in the Greek multi-state ‘polis.’ Based on a comment by general-philosopher Thucydides, “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable,” Allison and his team in Harvard’s ‘Thucydides Trap Project’ cited 16 instances in the last five hundred years in which an established power was challenged by an ascending power. In 12 of those 16 examples, the rivalry resulted in war. 

Allison considers the United States and China to be the 17th case, with the Harvard Belfer Center describing it as “irresistible rising China is on course to collide with an immovable America.” Among the reasons the work of Allison and his team is flawed, besides describing China as “irresistible,” is that they ignored important details in their 16 examples. One such detail is that in 11 of the 12 cases that resulted in war, the cause was a rising power (like Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany) that was violently and aggressively expanding its territory.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14443/trump-rescue-china-communism

China has violated its WTO promises and all the other trade deals. Now, President Trump is seeking to remedy Beijing’s failure to follow promises — and its continued annual theft of hundreds of billions of dollars of American intellectual property — by inking another pact.

Moreover, Washington’s determination to end Chinese theft of intellectual property also undermines Xi Jinping’s signature Made in China 2025 initiative to dominate eleven critical technologies by that year.

In short, there is no chance that Xi will comply with any agreement that is acceptable to the United States.

A trade agreement now will be seen as an end to the “trade war” and as Trump’s support for Xi. A pact, therefore, would constitute America’s fourth great rescue of Chinese communism.

Three times — in 1972, 1989, and 1999 — American presidents rescued Chinese communism. Now, Xi Jinping’s China, plagued by problems of his own making, desperately needs a lifeline.

A trade deal with President Donald Trump looks as if it is the only thing that can revive the Chinese economy and thereby save Xi’s brand of communism. Many, in fact, are urging Trump to drop his Section 301 tariffs and sign such a pact.

Will the American president do so?

At the moment, Xi is besieged, blamed for multiple policy mistakes. First, his relentlessly pursued back-to-Mao policies have helped push the Chinese economy downward, perhaps to the point of contraction, as May’s depressing numbers suggest. Perhaps the most indicative statistic is that of imports, which during the month fell 8.5%, a clear sign of softening domestic demand.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14364/india-modi-minorities

“In cases involving mobs killing an individual based on false accusations of cow slaughter or forced conversion, police investigations and prosecutions often were not adequately pursued. Rules on the registration of foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were discriminatorily implemented against religious minority groups…” — United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Annual Report, 2019.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi must now make it his mission to realize his own mantra, and guarantee the safety and freedom of all minorities in his country.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s landslide re-election on May 23 presents an opportunity to correct societal ills that in past years have been neglected. In particular, Modi, who was sworn in on May 30, might focus on addressing the concerns of the country’s minorities.

Modi has long been talking of “sabkasaath, sabkavikas” (“everyone’s support, everyone’s development”). Upon his re-election, he added to the motto,”sabkavishwas” (“everyone’s trust”).

“This is our mantra,” Modi said in an address in the central hall of Parliament to MPs of his Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP). “I will work for all citizens of India.”

Modi’s statement is in keeping with the Constitution of India, which states that no citizen is denied “equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India” (Article 14); prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion (Articles 15 and 16); grants everyone freedom of speech and expression (Articles 19 and 21); gives every individual the right to practice religion (Articles 25 to 28); and grants minorities the right to conserve their own culture and language, and run their own educational institutions (Articles 29 and 30).

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274097/musical-chairs-britain-bruce-bawer

Last week the people Britain were treated to a prolonged game of musical chairs, with the candidates for head of the Conservative Party – and thus Prime Minister – being reduced, day by day, in a series of votes by their party colleagues in Westminster, from six – Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Sajid Javid, Rory Stewart, and Dominic Raab – to five to four to three to two. In the televised debates that were held along the way, the contenders displayed all the usual ambition and aplomb and deployed all the usual rhetoric about all the usual issues. Yes, Brexit, as expected, was Topic A. But at the June 16 debate on Channel 4 – from which Johnson, the former London mayor and odds-on favorite to succeed Theresa May as PM, chose to absent himself – nobody exhibited a credible sense of urgency about getting Brexit done already, now that three supposedly firm deadlines have come and gone, each time ratcheting up public rage and frustration.

At the June 18 debate on the BBC, with Johnson in attendance this time – and setting the tone with an expression of firm determination to honor the current Brexit deadline of October 31 – his competitors at least paid lip service to the notion of urgency. But at least two of them still didn’t get it: with classic English nonchalance, Hunt said he would be willing to “take a big longer” to withdraw from the EU, and Gove conceded he wouldn’t mind if it took an “extra couple of days” to get Brexit done. Viewers who had been following month after month of Brexit speeches in the House of Commons were treated to yet more of the tiresome nit-picking and hair-splitting – not to mention rote hand-wringing about the purportedly dire potential consequences of a no-deal Brexit – that they’ve seen at Westminster and that have brought the Tories to the brink of disaster.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14296/muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-designation

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, is a pro-jihad, Islamist movement that has branches throughout the world and seeks to implement Islamic sharia under a global caliphate. Terrorism is only one of the methods the Brotherhood employs, and among its, goals, “democratization” has never been seen as one of them.

The Counter Extremism Project “has recorded 44 individuals and groups tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, including terrorist groups, foreign fighters, extremist propagandists, and political leaders.”

The Trump administration’s designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror organization would be an effective blow to pro-sharia and jihadi groups across the globe and help to bring about less violence and more stability to both the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.

US President Donald Trump is working to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), the White House announced on April 30. The spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Omer Celik, responded by saying that if the United States designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, it would “hamper democratization efforts in the Middle East and serve militant groups like Islamic State.”

The Muslim Brotherhood, however, founded in Egypt in 1928, is a pro-jihad, Islamist movement that has branches throughout the world and seeks to implement Islamic sharia under a global caliphate. Terrorism is only one of the methods the Brotherhood employs, and among its, goals, “democratization” has never been seen as one of them.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14442/istanbul-everything-is-coming-up-roses

The invincible Erdoğan took a great risk: a second loss for the man who thinks “whoever wins Istanbul wins Turkey” would mean just more than just an embarrassing mayoral loss. Comparatively speaking, the difference in votes between Imamoğlu and Erdoğan’s candidate, Yıldırım, widened within less than two months from 13,000 to nearly 800,000.

“It appears that losing Istanbul entails too many risks for the AKP for the matter to be left to its own resources. Many are convinced that if the AKP were to lose Istanbul to the opposition, after having held it – with its precursor – for 25 years, a hornet’s nest of vested interests, corruption, and abuse of power would be revealed.” — Semih Idiz, a columnist for Sigma Turkey, an Ankara-based think tank.

The more the masses start feeling the economic pressure, the more Erdoğan’s popularity will sink.

A political Islamist party that comes to power by popular vote would never leave power by popular vote. That suggestion is overwhelmingly accurate. But not always. Any Turks younger than 18 has never seen an election defeat for (former prime minister) President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On June 23 a little-known small district mayor won Istanbul for the first time since Islamists first won Istanbul’s mayorship in 1994 – a good quarter of a century.

In fact, that was the second time Ekrem Imamoğlu won Istanbul in less than two months. “Who wins Istanbul wins Turkey,” has been Erdoğan’s dictum since 1994, when he won mayoral elections in Turkey’s biggest city (home to nearly 15% of Turkey’s 57 million voters and accounting for 31% of its GDP).

The headline on the Istanbul election, on May 27, was “Erdoğan’s Istanbul Nightmare.”

“…[S]ince his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, [Erdoğan] has not lost a single election. Everything was coming up roses all the time. Not anymore,” he [Erdoğan] has not lost a single election. Everything was coming up roses all the time. Not anymore,” wrote this author.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-setback-for-erdogan-opposition-candidate-wins-istanbul-mayor-seat-11561309654?cx_testId=30&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s

ISTANBUL—An opposition candidate has won a repeat ballot for Istanbul mayor Sunday, ending President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s quarter-century grip on the megalopolis and exposing troubles at his long-dominant ruling party.

The opposition party’s candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, beat a rival from Mr. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, 54% to 45%, according to a tally of 99% of votes cast released by Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

“It’s a new beginning,” Mr. Imamoglu said in a victory speech.

The AKP candidate, Binali Yildirim, conceded defeat. “I congratulate him and wish him success,” he said in a brief televised address.

Mr. Imamoglu had defeated the AKP candidate in the initial March municipal ballot, but electoral authorities had voided the results after Mr. Erdogan complained of fraud and called for a do-over.

Sunday’s defeat, adding to the loss of the capital, Ankara, in the March elections, is a stinging setback for Mr. Erdogan, who led numerous rallies in support of his AKP protégé ahead of the repeat election. It comes at a delicate time for the president, who is straining to repair a recession-hit Turkish economy and is scheduled to meet President Trump at the end of the week in a bid to defuse a diplomatic standoff with the U.S. CONTINUE AT SITE