RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/5/sanctions-can-ruin-the-economy-but-wont-free-iran-

To the surprise of no sentient person, North Korea is dissembling instead of disassembling its nuclear weapons. It is making no move toward denuclearization and instead is finishing the expansion of a key missile manufacturing facility. President Trump’s summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un served only to demonstrate Mr. Kim’s intractability.

Mr. Trump is having much more success with Iran, North Korea’s partner in developing nuclear weapons and missiles. After the president exited the 2015 Obama-Iran deal in May he has taken a hard line by re-imposing economic sanctions on Tehran which are proving effective in weakening Iran’s economy and the ayatollahs’ regime.

Most importantly, for the first time since 2009, large violent protests against the regime are occurring in many of Iran’s big cities, including Tehran.

Unemployment is up, inflation is soaring and the Iranian currency has lost half its value this year. In 2017, the Iranian rial traded at about 43,000:1 against the dollar. It began to weaken leading up to Mr. Trump’s action in May and the rial is now trading at about 75,000:1 against the dollar.

The currency crash is clearly driven by Iranian panic buying of dollars in response to Mr. Trump’s actions. Unlike North Korea, Iran doesn’t have China acting as a sugar daddy to prop up its economy and its regime. The Obama-Iran agreement served to do that by undoing the economic sanctions against Iran and freeing Iran to sell its oil.

Because Iran’s economy is supported primarily by oil sales to South Korea, India, China, Japan and Turkey, the president wants to cut those sales. He plans to slap sanctions on any nation that doesn’t cut off Iranian oil imports by Nov. 4. Mr. Trump reportedly wants to give buyers of Iranian crude time to reduce their imports (which accounts for the delay until November) and may grant temporary waivers of sanctions to nations that make a significant effort to reduce them by that date.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/07/canadian_libel_case_hinges_on_how_many_jews_muslim_cleric_wants_eradicated.html

On June 27, 2018, the Facebook page of New Democrats for BDS, Stephen Ellis, a Toronto-based barrister and solicitor, posted “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,” a legal notice saying: “So-called ‘Hate Preacher’ Serves Libel Notices on MP, right-wing media.”

Sheikh Shafiq Hudda accuses several organizations and individuals of defaming him because they misquoted him as wishing for the “eradication” of all 8.2 million Israelis. In fact, he claims, he was praying for the “eradication” of only 6 million Israeli Zionists.

Sheikh Shafiq Hudda’s lawyer’s statement reads:

Over the past week, Sheikh Shafiq Hudda and the Islamic Humanitarian Service (which Hudda directs) both of Kitchener, Ontario, have served Libel Notices on several organizations and individuals, including, but not limited to, the following: B’nai Brith Canada, The Toronto Sun, The Center for Jewish and Israeli Affairs (CIJA) and Peter Kent (MP-Thornhill), Waterloo Region Record.

The serving of a Libel Notice is a requirement under Canada’s Libel and Slander Act to sue for defamation.

“My clients intend to sue for the wildly defamatory comments made by each of these organizations and individuals following the Al-Quds rally of June 9, 2018,” said lawyer Stephen Ellis. “My clients have been accused of preaching hate and calling for genocide when a clear and honest look at the words spoken show a call for an end to unjust empires the world over.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12608/hezbollah-syria

Sirwan Kajjo is a Syrian-Kurdish Washington-based journalist and author.

After more than seven years of fighting alongside the Assad regime in Syria, the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah is highly unlikely to make an easy exit from the war-torn territory, no matter what supposed agreements are reached or promises made.

Hezbollah fighters are now in control of much of Syria’s border with Lebanon. In fact, the Shi’ite terrorist group is in charge of controlling the Lebanese side of the border, despite the presence of the Lebanese military, which is weak.

With no end in sight to Syria’s seven-year war, Hezbollah will undoubtedly continue its military expansion, causing more instability in an already volatile region.

After weeks of shuttle diplomacy allegedly carried out by Russia and Israel, Iranian forces and allied militias — including the so-called “military wing” of the Lebanon-based organization Hezbollah, all of which has been designated as a terrorist group by the US — reportedly began to withdraw from parts of southern Syria, near Israel’s border. According to other reports, however, many Hezbollah fighters, disguised as members of the Syrian army, have simply remained on their bases to escape being targeted by the Israel Air Force. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel’s air force has carried out sporadic strikes against Iranian and Hezbollah bases and convoys across its neighbor on the north. After more than seven years of fighting alongside the Assad regime in Syria, the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah is highly unlikely to make an easy exit from the war-torn territory, no matter what supposed agreements are reached or promises made.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12618/germany-press-freedom

If it was indeed the authorities’ plan to censor the news and keep the information of the beheading under wraps, then it backfired. Due to the reports about the raid, thousands of people have seen the video, and hundreds of thousands have heard about the botched censorship attempt.

Hamburg’s government is still trying to conceal the beheading. Among other things, they [the AfD party] wanted to know whether the child had been beheaded. The administration — in breach of its constitutional duty — refused to answer. It also censored the questions by blacking out whole sentences.

Why the beheading should be kept a secret is anyone’s guess. What has become clear is how easily authorities in Germany can censor the news and punish bloggers who spread undesired information. They have a vast toolbox of laws at their disposal. It does not seem to bother them that the law invoked in this case stipulates explicitly that it shall not be applied to the “reporting of contemporary events.”

In an apparent attempt to sweep under the rug a recent double homicide in Hamburg, Germany, authorities there censored the story. They also raided the apartments of a witness who filmed a video describing the murder, and a blogger who posted the video on YouTube.

The murder, which made headlines worldwide, occurred on the morning of April 12. The assailant, Mourtala Madou, a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from Niger, stabbed his German ex-girlfriend, identified as Sandra P., and their one-year-old daughter, Miriam, at a Hamburg subway station. The child died at the scene; her mother died later, at the hospital. The woman’s three-year-old son witnessed the murders.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12604/renaud-camus-interview

“Europe persists in expiating, or believing they are expiating, the horrors inflicted on Jews during the last war by importing onto its territory millions of people who, as soon as they are here, have nothing more urgent than to inflict horrors on Jews. Racism turned Europe into a field of ruins; anti-racism is making it a hate-filled slum. In both instances, the first victims are the Jews.” — Renaud Camus.

“Europe is a sort of a great Israel, threatened from all sides. Its peoples, alas, are far from showing the same attachment to their land, the same fidelity to their membership, the same spirit of resistance, as the Israelis…. The Israelis have great lessons to give us, as do the Hungarians, the Poles, the Czechs, and now the Austrians.” — Renaud Camus.

Jean Renaud Gabriel Camus, co-founder and President of the National Council of European Resistance, is a French writer known for having coined the phrase “Great replacement” — referring to the reported colonization of Western Europe by immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East.

Grégoire Canlorbe: “Replacement” is, you say, the ideology of the world superclass.[1] Do you see in Emmanuel Macron an agent of the “world superclass”?

Renaud Camus: Ah yes: the best. This is the man from Davos. Indeed, he sets in with great strides what I call the “Direct Davocracy,” the direct management of the human park by the banks, the stateless financiers, and the multinationals.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/reform-the-nhs-before-it-kills-again-1530723064

National Health Service jingoism is an abiding feature of British politics. “This is the model of health care that reflects our values as a people,” Prime Minister Theresa May declared last month. It is so precious, Mrs. May said, that it should remain in public hands—not for the next 70 years, but forever. Mrs. May proceeded to promise a budget-busting increase in NHS spending of nearly 20% over the next five years. “Taxpayers will have to contribute a bit more in a fair and balanced way,” she said, sugar-coating the pill of large tax increases in the autumn budget.

Two days after this speech, an independent report revealed a different way in which the NHS is world-class. NHS managers covered up the unlawful killing of up to 650 patients at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital on the English south coast.

The NHS is not a stranger to mass medical malpractice. Three years ago, a report revealed the deaths of 19 mothers and infants at Morecambe Bay Hospital due to clinical incompetence. In 2015 the Francis Report into Mid-Staffs Hospital found “appalling and unnecessary suffering of hundreds of people” and warned of “highly concerning” reports of similar experiences elsewhere.

Last week’s report lifts the lid on the most horrifying NHS scandal. On Aug. 17, 1998, 91-year-old Gladys Richards was readmitted to Gosport for rehabilitation after surgery and treatment for hip dislocation at another nearby hospital. Although Richards didn’t mention any pain, Jane Barton wrote a prescription for high-dosage opioids and gave Richards a subcutaneous infusion. Dr. Barton explained that using a syringe driver was the kindest treatment available, and she continued, “the next thing will be a chest infection.”

http://jamieglazov.com/2018/07/03/glazov-gang-tommy-robinson-i-despise-racism-i-judge-bad-ideas/

This new edition of The Glazov Gang features Tommy Robinson, the prominent anti-Sharia activist in the UK who is the author of his memoir, Enemy of the State.

Tommy says “I Despise Racism….I Judge Bad Ideas,” sharing his love of people — but opposition to a totalitarian ideology.

[As we all know, Tommy has been thrown into a UK prison in a horrifyingly totalitarian manner. Help him by visiting his website, tommyrobinson.online, and by also going to Rebel Media, which has nobly taken up his cause.]

Don’t miss this new Glazov Gang edition:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/07/a_uniquely_british_sense_of_justice.html

On May 25, human rights activist and journalist Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) was arrested while live-streaming at a trial of accused sex-traffickers. He was literally grabbed off the street by seven police officers; thrown in a van; and carted off to a waiting courtroom and judge, where he was sentenced to 13 months – a dangerous sentence, considering the prison population and his forthright stand against abuse of young girls by predominantly Muslim rape gangs.

The whole process took approximately four hours and went forward without Robinson having his own counsel present. He has since been transferred to different prisons and has remained in solitary confinement as the only means to prevent an attempt on his life in these prisons.

In mid-June, his family, with help from friends, hired attorneys to act for him – who filed an appeal, asking for bail to be set and a re-hearing.

Today we learn that this long awaited appeal hearing has been canceled. No, Robinson isn’t the holdup. After all, he’s been ready to have his side heard since May 25.

Nope. The Crown counsel is not “ready.” The counsel needs “more time to prepare.” This is remarkable.

It took these people a mere four hours to whisk the man off the public sidewalk in front of the Leeds public courthouse and throw him unceremoniously into one of Her Majesty’s prisons. Maybe they should have allowed time for him to “prepare” – meaning at least get his own lawyer into the courtroom. But sentencing a man to 13 months in a dangerous prison seems a minor thing.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12643/germany-migration-deal

“No country in the world can take in refugees indefinitely. Successful integration can only succeed with a limitation of immigration. This is the core message of the coalition agreement….” — Introduction to Interior Minister Horst Seehofer’s 63-point “Migration Masterplan,” leaked to the public on July 2, 2018.

“There is a pattern to European Union summits about subjects on which governments cannot agree. First, leaders stay up all night to signal their commitment. Second, they issue a statement sufficiently vague and contradictory to allow everyone to declare victory. Third, officials charged with implementing the agreement argue endlessly over how to interpret it….” — The Economist.

“The summit communique may say that the issue is one for Europe ‘as a whole,’ but the practical reality is that differences were papered over, not resolved.” — The Guardian.

In an extraordinary last-minute reversal, Chancellor Angela Merkel, facing the imminent collapse of her coalition government, agreed late on July 2 to reinstate border controls with Austria.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had threatened to resign from Merkel’s cabinet unless she agreed to a plan by July 3 to reduce so-called irregular secondary movements. The plan to which Merkel agreed entails holding refugees at detention camps to be established along Germany’s southern border, the main gateway for refugees to the country, and turning back those who have already claimed asylum in other EU countries.

Seehofer’s resignation would have called into question the continued viability of a 70-year-alliance between Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and his Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble warned that the two parties were “standing at the edge of the abyss.”

A CDU/CSU divorce would have deprived Merkel of her majority in parliament and possibly triggered new elections in which the anti-immigration party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), would have been the biggest winner, according to recent polls.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/irans-persistent-protests-1530658241

Iranians are protesting in the streets again, only a few months after the regime crushed nationwide demonstrations over the country’s sagging economy and widespread corruption. The periodic eruptions are a sign of discontent that may spread as the pressure from renewed U.S. sanctions increases.

The latest upheavals centered in the southwestern city of Khorramshahr over the weekend, after brown fluid started running out of taps. Hundreds of residents gathered in a public space reserved for Friday prayers and blamed local officials for the lack of potable water, chanting such anti-government slogans as “in the name of religion, they plundered us.” Protests also broke out in nearby Abadan.

The weekend demonstrations are part of a larger pattern of discontent with the ruling theocracy in Tehran. In December and January, demonstrations erupted in more than 100 cities and towns over inflation, joblessness and graft. Women staged hijab protests, ripping off their veils. In March farmers from Isfahan province in central Iran protested long droughts. In May truckers went on a nationwide strike to protest stagnant wages and rising costs.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani promised that the 2015 nuclear deal, which funneled tens of billions in hard currency to Iran, would usher in better economic times. Instead, the regime used the money to finance its Quds Force operations and Shiite militias in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.