RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/peter-smith/2019/04/brexit-crashing-out-is-the-only-exit/

Is Brexit a mystery to you? Let me say that it is complete mystery to my relatives and a couple of friends that I have in Liverpool here in the UK, where I have been for the past week or so. For my part, I have immersed myself in quality newspapers in order to see more light. Also, I approached two middle-aged chaps in the pub where I am staying. Unlike others I have spoken to, they were up with events and I could hardly stop them talking. They were both Leavers and now of conservative mindsets, though one said he used to be a Labour man.

As knowledgeable as they were, they both explained that the deal Mrs May has come up with is unclear to them; as, it became evident, is the so-called “Backstop.” I mention that because of a view among many in the Labour Party, and some in the Conservative Party, that a new referendum is the way to go. The options I have heard about would be three. Remain, leave with no deal, or leave with Mrs May’s deal.

I am not sure what would happen if the vote were to be split without any proposal getting 50 percent. Like so much of what I have heard it is nonsense. People in the cities, towns and countryside are simply not equipped to make finely-tuned decisions on complex deals struck in backrooms in Whitehall and Brussels.

The referendum’s options was clear: Leave or Remain. Leave won and the three-quarters of the British parliamentarians who wanted Remain to get up have worked assiduously to subvert the process of leaving. Blame is directed to Mrs May for coming up with her “bad deal,” but the two chaps I spoke to were inclined to blame the BBC, which one called the ABBC (the Anti-British Broadcasting Corporation), and which he said had run an unremitting campaign to undermine the result of the referendum. Half a world away from the ABC, it made me feel at home.

As I write, Mrs May has just returned from Brussels with an extension of time. Six months has been graciously given by Macron, Merkel and company. She wanted a shorter period (to 1 June). They wanted until the end of the year. The compromise pleases no-one, least of all Brexiteers who fear delay much beyond the upcoming May 23 European elections is code for Remain.

Mrs May is holding talks with Jeremy Corbyn, much to the chagrin of Tory Brexiteers.

Imam Mohamad Tawhidi (@Imamofpeace)
4/9/19, 6:29 PM
Conference on Women Empowerment in Pakistan, but the women have to stay at home. pic.twitter.com/16XHQDr6e0

https://quillette.com/2019/04/10/europes-new-beggars/

Recently my wife and I walked along the fashionable shopping street Avenue Montaigne, situated between Place de l’Alma and Champs Elysées in one of the most affluent Parisian districts. Passing the elegant window fronts of Chanel, Givenchy, Jimmy Choo, Luis Vuitton, Prada, Valentino, and YSL, we noticed a woman and child half-lying on the pavement in tattered clothes, appealing to passersby for money. While it was a particularly appalling sight in this prosperous setting, it was not an anomaly in the urban fabric of Paris. Such expressions of extreme poverty and deprivation have, in fact, become sadly familiar features of most Western European cities of late.

Indeed, as a result of the European Union’s eastward expansion during the previous decade, and the principle of free movement of persons within the E.U., thousands of rough sleepers, mostly ethnic Roma from the ex-socialist countries Bulgaria and Romania, have arrived in the streets, parks, and playgrounds of the E.U.-15 countries.

Contrary to the purpose of free movement, most have not come to work or study, but to beg in the most abject manners. France is perhaps the most notorious country for child begging in Western Europe, but even in more child-friendly societies in Scandinavia, we see children of 13 and younger being used for begging by adult family members. Other beggars display, or, more often, simulate, physical disabilities to evoke compassion. For instance, a beggar encountered in Hamburg by the German Der Spiegel magazine “learned how to be a good beggar on his first day in Germany. […] At the beginning of his lesson, he was told to put on two old sweaters and was given a blue crutch so that he could practice walking with it. He would throw his left leg further forward than his right, causing his hips to buckle as he stumbled across the grass.” Depressingly, the same feigned convulsing can be observed in Barcelona, Rome, and almost any other Western European city.

https://www.steynonline.com/9295/the-craven-pile-on-of-hollow-conservatives

The real problem, in America, Britain, Canada, Oz, NZ, is not the left, who know what they want and are serious about getting it, but the pansy right. It’s easy to mock AOC and Justin and Jacinta Ardern, but all they’re doing is sailing full steam ahead for their desired utopia. The right, who profess to disdain the final destination, nevertheless follow along, albeit at a more desultory rate of knots.

We see this routinely in their urge to “distance” themselves: In Washington, as I mentioned the other day, House Republicans ostentatiously distanced themselves from their colleague Steve King, because in an ill-advised interview with The New York Times he appeared to endorse “white supremacist” concepts such as “western civilization”. For some of us, it’s hard to see the point of a conservatism that distances itself from western civilization.

The same fate has now befallen the most thoughtful and serious of living conservative philosophers, Roger Scruton. I have a modest acquaintance with Sir Roger, both personal (he’s married to a friend of a friend) and professional: We once appeared in a debate moderated by none other than Margaret Thatcher. Mrs T obviously adored Roger and reckoned I was there just for the cheap laughs.

But that was then, and this is Theresa May’s Tory Party. So Roger Scruton gave an interview to The New Statesman, which is left-wing but once employed him as its wine critic. But that was then, etc. At the new New Statesman he fell into the hands of one of those lefties whose goal in the interview is to talk to you for two hours and then pluck three partial quotes uttered twenty-five minutes apart that destroy your career and get you banished from public life. In this case, it was various Scrutonisms on China, Islam, Hungary and homosexuality, all of which are worth thinking about seriously.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/273452/100-anti-semitic-incidents-muslims-germany-2017-daniel-greenfield

These numbers don’t sound all that high, but there aren’t that many Jews in Germany. For obvious reasons. Much of Germany’s Jewish population consists of Russian immigrants, many of them non-Jewish, but who found it convenient to move to a wealthier country. The actual number of Jews, measured by community affiliation, is much smaller than the 100,000 statistic that has often been quoted. It’s some tens of thousands. The Muslim population is far larger and proving to be more aggressive.

In a major break with the past, the German agency for domestic security — Bundesamt fuer Verfassungsschutz — has published a 40-page report whose title translates as “Antisemitism in Islamism.” The report defines Islamism as a form of political extremism among Muslims that wants to eliminate democracy, and where antisemitism is an essential ideological element…

The study concludes that the more than 100 antisemitic incidents officially caused by Muslims in 2017 are most likely only the tip of the iceberg. Due to the importance of the government agency that has published this report, Muslim antisemitism in Germany has now finally been officially detailed to the public. This has been lacking for far too long.

No doubt they are.

But the numbers are still quite high considering that the number of Jews is small, and while there is a large Muslim population, it’s still a fraction of the overall German population.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/julian-assange-arrest-quick-thoughts/

Here are a few things we know, and a few to think about, with respect to the arrest of Julian Assange by British police in London.

Assange wore out his welcome with Ecuador, which hosted him for seven years.

The Brits have a comparatively minor charge against him: essentially bail jumping in 2012, when he failed to appear as directed to a court in Westminster. That was during the time when he was trying to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges. Those charges have been dropped, although Swedish authorities could revive them. The fact that the underlying charges are no longer in effect is not a defense to jumping bail. Still, it makes the offense appear more minor.

Consequently, the driving force of today’s arrest seems to be an American effort to have Assange extradited. The Washington Post is now reporting that, in 2017, the Justice Department charged Assange in a sealed indictment with conspiring to publish classified U.S. documents — specifically, conspiring in 2010 with then-Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, among others.

The Metropolitan police in London have acknowledged that Assange’s arrest is based, in part, on U.S. extradition request. Even our British ally will not extradite people to the United States unless charges have been filed.

Last year, in a court in the U.S. district court in Alexandria, the Justice Department accidentally filed an application to seal a criminal complaint. It was not Assange’s case, but the prosecutor obviously cut and pasted from a similar motion that had been filed in a case involving Assange, and had failed to take out Assange’s name.

It is customary to file an arrest complaint under seal if the person charged is not in custody. An arrest warrant is issued, and the complaint is unsealed when the person is arrested and is presented in court. The sealing, obviously, is done to discourage flight and the destruction of evidence — though it would not have much effect in the case of Assange, who was already in flight and well aware that the U.S. Justice Department was trying to make a case on him.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8839586/julian-assange-wink-thumbs-up-arrest-embassy/
“NARCISSIST” Julian Assange faces a year in British jail after his dramatic arrest at the Ecuadorian Embassy ended seven years in hiding today.

The bearded WikiLeaks founder has spent 2,487 days holed up in the embassy to avoid Swedish sex claims and US authorities, who want him over an alleged conspiracy with whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

Julian Assange winked and gave a thumbs up from the police van as he arrived at court following the dramatic arrest this morning.

The 47-year-old was blasted a “narcissist who can’t get beyond his own self interest” as he was found guilty this afternoon of skipping bail in 2012 – relating to his time at the embassy.He now faces a battle against extradition to America where he was today charged in his absence with “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the US”.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14053/iran-winning-yemen

“The Yemeni revolution will not be confined to Yemen alone. It will extend, following its success, into Saudi territories.” — Iranian Lawmaker Ali Reza Zakani, trusted adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“If the Shia rebels gain control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Iran can attain a foothold in this sensitive region giving access to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, a cause of concern not only for its sworn rivals Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf states, but also for Israel and European countries along the Mediterranean.” — IDF Lt.-Col. (Ret.) Michael Segall.

“Hard-line elements [in Iran] appear to see the continuation of the conflict [in Yemen] as a relatively low-cost and low-risk means of sustaining political, economic, and military pressure on the Saudis. Saudi Arabia’s intervention has reportedly cost between $5 billion and $6 billion a month, while Iran’s expenditures in Yemen probably total only millions a year.” — Gerald M. Feierstein, Middle East Institute.

“The Houthis’ intransigence confirms their loyalty to Iran’s negotiating tactics. These usually begin with implicit approval of negotiating solutions, followed by complete retraction in order to force the international community to make more concessions and impose a fait accompli on the Yemeni government….” — Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yemany.

A ceasefire deal aimed at ending Yemen’s civil war is collapsing amid disputes between the warring parties over how to implement the agreement. A resumption of hostilities would, according to aid groups, accelerate Yemen’s descent into famine and threaten as many as 15 million people — more than half the population — with starvation.

Yemen’s four-year conflict is generally viewed as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia, which backs the internationally-recognized Yemeni government, and Iran, which backs tribal-based Shiite rebels, known as Houthis.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14050/china-caribbean-sea

About 55 miles east of Palm Beach, Florida on Grand Bahama Island, a Hong Kong-based business is spending about $3 billion on a deep-water container facility, the Freeport Container Port.

The concern is that the port will become another debt-trap, like the port of Hambantota in Sri Lanka. There are concerns that Hambantota will eventually become a Chinese naval base. Will the Pentagon have to contend with Chinese warships at Freeport?

The Chinese military is already in the Caribbean, in Cuba, apparently to collect signals intelligence from the U.S. Washington splashes plenty of cash around the Middle East, for instance, but American policymakers need also to be concerned, urgently, about critical needy locations closer to home.

There’s a “Red Storm Rising” just miles from America’s shores. “In point of fact, the entire hemisphere is on fire,” said Lou Dobbs on his widely watched Fox Business Network show on April 4. “China and Russia are engaging us in almost every quarter in this hemisphere. Russia and China in Venezuela, but China throughout the hemisphere and throughout the Caribbean.”

Throughout the Caribbean, China’s influence is growing fast. Trade and investment have made Beijing a power. Chinese motives are not solely commercial, however, and do not appear benign.