RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-crisis-of-democracy-is-overhyped-1535412315

As Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashes out against the “interest-rate lobby” for his country’s economic crisis, as Nicaragua’s dictatorship mobilizes against its own people, and as Venezuela’s socialist utopia sinks deeper into chaos, it’s remarkable how often we hear that a “crisis of democracy” is the defining political story of our times. And as Vladimir Putin’s persistent economic failures force him toward deeply unpopular pension reforms, it is even more remarkable how many people attribute this ostensible crisis to Russian cunning and might.

Admittedly, there are signs that consent-based political systems aren’t operating as smoothly as they should, including the rise of extremism and anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party, the collapse of the political center in scandal-plagued Brazil, Viktor Orbán’s determination to build “illiberal democracy” in Hungary, and the disruptive and polarizing Trump administration in the U.S. More generally, according to Freedom House, civil liberties and political rights have declined in 113 countries and improved in only 62 since 2006.

But the failures of authoritarian states are often far graver than the problems that preoccupy the professional hand-wringers of the liberal West. There are no crises in the democratic world that match the economic meltdown in Iran, the hellish conditions in Syria, or the turmoil in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where efforts to eliminate an Ebola epidemic are hampered by armed militias.

http://www.aish.com/jw/s/Sir-Isaac-Newton-and-Judaism.html
The scientist’s recently disclosed private papers reveal his deep reverence for ancient Jewish wisdom.

Sir Isaac Newton was one of the greatest scientists of all time. Some of his most outstanding discoveries include the laws of optics or the physics of light, the three laws of motion, the laws of gravity, and calculus. He is also famous for his Principia Mathematica, the most widely read scientific work of all time, in which he explains the motions of the planets in a single mathematical system. Born in an age that embraced rationalism and shunned religious authority, Newton was also hailed as a hero of his era. Yet, recent divulgement of Newton’s personal writings challenges all common assumptions about his true identity.
Newton’s Private Beliefs

Newton’s private beliefs have been under the radar for hundreds of years, perhaps because of their unfavorable reception. Bernard Cohen’s book Franklin and Newton discusses the first time scientists discovered Newton’s personal manuscripts: He quotes John Maynard Keynes, the British great economist: “‘Upon his death in 1727, a very big box of unusual papers was discovered in his room. Bishop Samuel Horsley, who was also a scientist, was asked to inspect the box with view to publication. He saw the contents with horror and slammed the lid…’ shut.” The recent disclosure of Newton’s private manuscripts revealed that Newton was far from the archetype rationalist he was originally assumed to be.Isaac Newton’s writing featuring, the prayer, in Hebrew,
‘Blessed is His name for eternity.’

After being tucked away for 200 years, Newton’s manuscripts were finally auctioned off in 1936. Keynes, The Babson family in America, and Israeli Professor Avraham Shalom Yahuda bought the majority of them and donated them to university libraries around the world. These manuscripts have been made available in the past 25 years.
Newton’s “strange” interests

It’s no wonder that both Christian and secular-minded scientists who had originally revered Newton had little incentive to publicize their findings. Newton’s manuscripts revealed that he took a keen interest in “archaic” Jewish wisdom. Newton’s knowledge of Jewish thought was not superficial; he referred to rabbinic works such as the Aramaic Version of Esther, Vayikra Rabba, the commentaries of Sa’adia HaGaon, Ibn Ezra, Rashi, Sifra, R. Aharon ibn Hayyim; Seder Ma’amadot (about the daily sacrifices) the Bartinurah and Talmudic passages from the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud in Latin. One of Newton’s manuscripts was entitled “On Maimonides,” where he quoted the Latin translation of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. 1

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271141/under-fire-faith-nigeria-jack-kerwick

Recently, via social media, I’ve become friends with a Catholic priest in Nigeria. Because of the brutal persecution to which Christians in his country are routinely subjected by Muslims, I will not disclose his name. Just a couple of days ago, he posted on his Facebook page a link to a story regarding a fellow Nigerian priest, a man of God who was doing some shopping at the local market for the poor when Muslim gunmen shot him dead.

Knowing that I’ve made it a mission of sorts to draw what attention I can to the plight of persecuted Christians throughout the world, particularly throughout the Middle East and Africa, my new friend private messaged me, thanking me for my “love.” He also underscored the unadulterated evil of Islamic-on-Christian oppression in his country, adding: “The Muslims want our lives!”

On August 18, Father Michael Akawu, “the first indigenous priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, was gunned down in cold blood while shopping at a “supermarket” in Gwagwalada, a suburb of Akawu.

Father Michael was ordained as recently as February of last year.

https://wp.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/
EX-CHIEF RABBI WARNS: “CORBYN HAS LEGITIMIZED THE PUBLIC EXPRESSION OF HATE, AND WHERE HE LEADS, OTHERS WILL FOLLOW”

[Note by Tom Gross]

For the past three years, since he became leader of the British Labour party and a favorite to become prime minister, I have noted that the New York Times (unlike other papers) has failed properly to cover Jeremy Corbyn and left-wing anti-Semitism in Britain, while writing about Corbyn.

Yesterday the New York Times opinion pages finally ran a piece clearly explaining the situation, by a Labour-voting journalist, the New York correspondent for the Sunday Times of London. The piece is below.

Also, yesterday evening, the widely respected former British Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks lashed out at Corbyn calling him an “anti-Semite” who “defiles our politics”.

The Labour leader, Sacks said, uses “the language of classic prewar European anti-Semitism… He has legitimized the public expression of hate, and where he leads, others will follow.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Venezuela_bridge

The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has led to one of the largest mass migrations in Latin America’s history.

President Nicolás Maduro blames “imperialists” – the likes of the US and Europe – for waging “economic war” against Venezuela and imposing sanctions on many members of his government.

But his critics say it is economic mismanagement – first by predecessor Hugo Chávez and now President Maduro himself – that has brought Venezuela to its knees.

The country has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It was once so rich that Concorde used to fly from Caracas to Paris. Now, its economy is in tatters.

Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year.

Venezuelans are trying to get out. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country – 7% of the population. More than a million have arrived in Colombia in the past 18 months.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12917/qatar-turkey-toxic-allies

“Iran’s continued support of the Hezbollah terrorist organization with both financial and political assistance, as well as weapons and tactical training, deserves close examination. Western diplomats and Lebanese analysts estimate that Iranian financial support for Hezbollah averages around $100 million each year, sometimes reaching amounts closer to a quarter of a billion dollars…. All of these activities pose a direct threat to U.S. security interests, contribute to the prolonging of conflicts across the Middle East, and pose threats to our key allies in the region.” — US Representative Ted Budd, member of the Financial Services Committee and its Terrorism and Illicit Finance Subcommittee.

Why not consider expanding the US deployment at Al-Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates as a replacement for the airbases used by the US in Qatar and Turkey, if the UAE accept the idea?

If one nation is able to defy or undermine U.S. policy while still pocketing the benefits of America’s friendship, many others may follow Qatar’s example. Why should other Arab nations endure domestic criticism, for supporting America’s war on terror if they can subvert America but still enjoy America’s military protection and their access to the world’s largest market?

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/271164/pro-syria-muslim-murders-2-syrian-women-uk-daniel-greenfield

This isn’t a terrorism story. Just one of those things that British taxpayers are on the hook for.

POLICE have raided a home in the hunt for a shopkeeper who is on the run after allegedly stabbing his ex-lover and her mum to death in Solihull.

Raneem Oudeh, 22 and Khaola Saleem, 49, “screamed like animals” after being stabbed yards from their home in the early hours of this morning.

Police are hunting shop worker Janbaz Tarin 21, on suspicion of murdering the women, who are originally from Damascus, Syria, and believed to have moved to the UK around 14 years ago.

Their bloodied bodies were found on a grass verge on the quiet affluent housing estate by West Midlands Police at around 12.30am on Monday.

Wanted Tarin claims on his Facebook page to be a cashier and has posted several pictures of himself working behind the counter at a convenience store.

He has also posted messages of support his homeland including “Save Syria” and signed petitions in support of Palestine.

Save Syria indeed.

Tonight cops raided an address where Tarin’s family are believed to live around five miles away in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham.

I had just written about Sparkhill so it doesn’t surprise me in the least.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271152/child-sex-abuse-crisis-leftists-dont-want-you-know-danusha-v-goska

Karl Marx is the superstar lead in the blockbuster movie of anti-Western productions. Marxists focus their critique on economics. They insist that capitalism is both cruel and doomed by ineluctable historical forces. Marx has many supporting players, many totally unaware that they are extras in the anti-Western project. Many of these supporting players wear gauzy fabrics in pastel hues, shop at stores lulled by piped-in windchime music, and smell like patchouli. They believe themselves to be apolitical, peace-and-love flower children. They insist that their ideology, unlike that of the big, bad West, has never hurt anyone. In fact political convictions as impervious to fact, as destructive and as rigidly intolerant as that of any extremist undergird their flowing tie-dye.

One of the most powerful anti-Western myths runs like this. Rape, war, and environmental degradation are Western, Judeo-Christian monopolies. Before the Jews, those reliable villains of so many lurid and hate-fueled fabrications, humanity worshipped a nurturing mother goddess. Men and women were equal. It was the Jews and their disastrously influential offspring, the Christians, who introduced inequality, domestic violence, and competition. Western man, steeped in the Bible, was single-handedly responsible for the rape of the planet. Go to any New Age bookstore, read any Facebook post by someone who identifies as “spiritual-but-not-religious,” chat with anyone wearing an ankh, greeting you with “Namaste,” or self-identifying as a Wiccan, and you will encounter some version of this ideology.

Prior to World War I alliances across Europe created an environment in which one event, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, could set in motion mobilization of forces that led inexorably to conflict. It was as if this was a natural and inevitable slide into the abyss. https://londoncenter.org/

Recently Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the establishment of U.S. bases east of the Euphrates River was a provocative act that “could lead to World War III” Erdogan noted that this deployment is an attempt to offset Russian and Iranian influence but, in his judgment, does nothing to stabilize the region.

At the same time, the Turkish dictator – often accused of bluster – brought his country one step closer to war with Greece over disputed islands in the Aegean Sea which were once part of the Ottoman Empire.

Prime Minister Francois Holland of France condemned Russian and Turkish meddling in the Syrian conflict. For Holland, the issue in Syria is not the survival of Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad, but “world order” disrupted by Russia’s growing influence in the Levant. Now the issue is “how to respond to Vladimir Putin, not how much to respond to… Assad. The West must realize that is the true scope of the danger.” Moreover, Holland also harshly criticized Erdogan for attacking allies of France in Afrin, the Kurdish enclave in northwest Syria, suggesting that Turkey has betrayed its role as a NATO member.

Then there is Saudi Arabia’s leader, Mohammed bin Salman who warned against the “triangle of evil” in Syria. (Turkey, Iran and extremist organizations). He also noted the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in countries like Turkey with the ultimate goal of a new Caliphate. The Turkish invasion in Afrin named “Operation Olive Branch” – a clear Orwellian inversion – has led to 300,000 citizens deprived of water and other basic needs. Big battles in Afrin are still to come and are likely to be as destructive as anything seen in Raqqa or Aleppo.