RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/assads-disarmament-chair-1527633758

Anyone who still thinks that world peace and order can be enforced from something called the United Nations might want to consider that Syria this week assumed the rotating presidency of the U.N.-backed Conference on Disarmament. That’s Syria as in Bashar Assad, as in sarin gas, as in barrel bombs dropped on innocent civilians.

The Conference is a multinational body based in Geneva that was established in 1979 to promote reductions in armaments, especially weapons of mass destruction. Though independent from the U.N., it reports annually to Turtle Bay, and the director-general of the U.N. office in Geneva is secretary-general of the Conference. Syria is now leading the group because it follows Switzerland in the alphabetical list of member nations.
Photo: istock/getty images

The appointment is best understood in light of the Conference’s proudest achievement: The 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. Apparently no one at the Conference sees any contradiction with having at its helm a regime that has used such weapons on its own people.

In 2012 Barack Obama declared the use of chemical weapons by Syria a “red line” that would trigger U.S. intervention. Assad used sarin gas anyway. In 2017 Syria used gas again, and President Trump responded with a missile strike on a Syrian airbase. Assad used chemical bombs again in April, which provoked another U.S. strike on Syria joined by Britain and France. On Friday U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Assad has used chemical weapons at least 50 times.

http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/05/war-tommy-robinson/

Explain why white men accused of pedophilia are allowed to be photographed and questioned by reporters on court steps, while Pakistani Muslims are not. Explain why a police force that took three decades to start dealing with Muslim rape gangs was able to arrest and incarcerate a journalist within a few scant hours. Explain why a man can be arrested for breaching the peace when no violence has taken place. To the British government: explain your actions, or open Tommy Robinson’s cell and let him walk free.

The rule of law is fragile, and relies on the self-restraint of the majority. In a just society, the majority obey the law because they believe it represents universal values – moral absolutes. They obey the law not for fear of punishment, but for fear of the self-contempt that comes from doing wrong.

As children, we are told that the law is objective, fair and moral. As we grow up, though, it becomes increasingly impossible to avoid the feeling that the actual law has little to do with the Platonic stories we were told as children. We begin to suspect that the law may in fact – or at least at times – be a coercive mechanism designed to protect the powerful, appease the aggressive, and bully the vulnerable.

The arrest of Tommy Robinson is a hammer-blow to the fragile base of people’s respect for British law. The reality that he could be grabbed off the street and thrown into a dangerous jail – in a matter of hours – is deeply shocking.

Tommy was under a suspended sentence for filming on courthouse property in the past. On May 25, 2018, while live-streaming his thoughts about the sentencing of alleged Muslim child rapists, Tommy very consciously stayed away from the court steps, constantly used the word “alleged,” and checked with the police to ensure that he was not breaking the law.

Tommy yelled questions at the alleged criminals on their way into court – so what? How many times have you watched reporters shouting questions at people going in and out of courtrooms? You can find pictures of reporters pointing cameras and microphones at Rolf Harris and Gary Glitter, who were accused of similar crimes against children.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12399/italy-president-eu

The political situation reflects the stranglehold on power wielded by the pro-EU establishment, which is evidently determined to preserve economic austerity at the expense of democracy.

“We need to prepare a plan B to get out of the euro if necessary… the other alternative is to end up like Greece.” — Paolo Savona, a former industry minister who has called Italy’s entry into the euro a “historic mistake.”

“In Italy, there is a problem of democracy. In this country, you can be a convicted criminal, convicted for tax fraud, under investigation for corruption and be a minister… but if you criticize Europe, you cannot be the Minister of the Economy in Italy.” — M5S leader Luigi Di Maio.

Italy’s new populist government-in-waiting resigned on May 28 after its choice of a eurosceptic finance minister was rejected by the country’s pro-EU president — who instead asked an unelected technocrat to form a pro-EU government.

The political wrangling ends a bid by Italy’s two anti-establishment parties — the left-leaning Five Star Movement (M5S) and the center-right League (Lega) — to form a populist coalition government, which would have been the first of its kind in Europe.

The political situation reflects the stranglehold on power wielded by the pro-EU establishment, which is evidently determined to preserve economic austerity at the expense of democracy.

Italian president Sergio Mattarella refused to accept the nomination for finance minister of Paolo Savona, an 81-year-old former industry minister who has called Italy’s entry into the euro a “historic mistake.”

In his latest book, “Like a Nightmare and a Dream” (Come un incubo e come un sogno), Savona called the euro a “German cage” and warned that “we need to prepare a plan B to get out of the euro if necessary… the other alternative is to end up like Greece.”

Mattarella, who was installed by a previous pro-EU government, said that the “uncertainty over our position in the euro has alarmed Italian and foreign investors who purchased our government bonds and invested in our companies.” He added that “membership of the euro is a fundamental choice for the future of our country and our young people.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270269/threat-erdogan-joseph-puder

Turkey’s Dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, assembled with great urgency Sunni-Muslim leaders from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, as well as Iran’s Shiite President Hassan Rouhani. The assembled representatives of the 57 member-states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held this “emergency meeting” in Istanbul, Turkey, by virtue of Turkey’s holding the presidency of the OIC. The ostensible reason for the meeting was the Gaza “March of the Return,” and the U.S. embassy relocation to Jerusalem.

According to Al-Jazeera, the Qatari based network also funded by the Qatari regime, Erdogan called on Muslim leaders to “unite and confront Israel.” He mentioned “70 years of Israeli occupation,” wrongly charging that Israel, before 1967, “occupied” Palestinian lands. Apparently, in the dictator’s mind, the UN never voted for partition of Palestine in 1947. Erdogan, obfuscating the fact that the Arab community in Palestine rejected the UN partition plan, while the Jewish community in Palestine accepted it, fulminated against the Jewish state, distortimg history in his blind hatred. He conveniently disregarded the fact that the Arab armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and contingents from the Islamic world along with the Arabs of Palestine attacked and sought to annihilate the newborn Jewish state. Actually it was the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan that occupied the lands allotted to the Arab-Palestinians by the UN, which they (the Palestinians) rejected in November, 1947.

Erdogan shamelessly compared Israeli treatment of Palestinians to the Nazi treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. He spouted that, “The children of those who were subjected to all sorts of torture in concentration camps during WWII are now attacking Palestinians with methods that put the Nazis to shame.” Once again Erdogan twisted reality that could only make neo-Nazis in Germany feel redeemed. Jews in concentration camps could only wish to have had the opportunity to change places with the Palestinians. Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Arab-Muslim community in Palestine, was in fact Hitler’s ally and urged the Nazis to expedite the murder of the Jews.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270292/video-geert-wilders-stands-solidarity-tommy-frontpagemagcom

In the video below, Geert Wilders makes a statement in solidarity with Tommy Robinson in front of British Embassy in The Hague. Don’t miss it.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/05/britain_moves_from_orwell_to_kafka_imprisoning_tommy_robinson_and_gagging_media_reports.html

Is Britain lost to the ranks of free nations? The land that bequeathed the world the Magna Carta and the “mother of parliaments” is indulging in totalitarianism with its handling of Tommy Robinson, a famous political activist agitating about the threat of radical Islam and attempting to report on the trial of a Muslim “grooming gang” that allegedly preyed on young English girls, forcing them into prostitution. I wrote about the fragmentary reports of his arrest in Leeds two days ago for the alleged crimes of “breach of the peace and incitement.”

British writer George Orwell warned of the dangers of totalitarian thought control via the corruption of language and pervasive electronic spying in his novel 1984. Calling the act of reporting on a trial “breach of the peace and incitement” is as Orwellian as “War Is Peace,” “Freedom Is Slavery,” and “Ignorance Is Strength,” Orwell’s most famous examples of totalitarian brainwashing.

The British authorities (I’m looking at you, P.M. Theresa May) have now managed to import a policy from Czech writer Franz Kafka, famous for exposing the corruption totalitarians impose on those under their thumbs. In his book The Trial, the defendant is not allowed to know the charges against him. The Brits now have imposed a gag order on any reporting of the fate of Robinson, including his trial and prison sentence. Bruce Bawer of the Gatestone Institute captures the essence of Kafka-logic implicit in the gag order in his title, “UK: You’re Not Allowed to Talk about It. About What? Don’t Ask.” I recommend that you read his entire post to understand the fear of offending Muslims that has the government of the U.K. descending into a nightmare of totalitarianism, but here is a sample.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/moon-over-singapore-1527539937

The Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un summit appears to be back on, and that’s due in large part to the persistence of South Korean President Moon Jae-in. After President Trump called off the meeting last Thursday, Mr. Moon rushed to meet Kim at the demilitarized zone and secure what he said was another commitment from Kim to “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” Preparations for the June 12 summit have resumed, and now Seoul says the South Korean leader might join the meeting in Singapore.

Yet Mr. Moon gave the same assurances about the North’s denuclearization promises a couple of months ago only to have the North tell a different story as the summit approached. The North didn’t answer U.S. phone calls and its emissaries didn’t even show up for a pre-summit meeting in Singapore. Is Mr. Moon selling the same bill of goods now?

A telling moment came Sunday when reporters asked the South Korean leader whether Kim would agree to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization, which are Mr. Trump’s oft-stated terms. According to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, Mr. Moon dodged the question, saying that the success of the summit would depend on the negotiating details.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-eus-gift-to-cybercriminals-1527517362

The torrent of news stories about cyberattacks and data breaches never seems to slow, but law-enforcement agencies have tallied some significant victories against online criminals. Websites spewing Islamic State propaganda have been sidelined, thanks to joint efforts by American and European authorities. So have sites on the “dark web” selling illegal drugs, hacking for hire, and other unsavory items and services.

Unfortunately, this good work will now be significantly hindered as the European Union begins to enforce its General Data Protection Regulation. As written, the GDPR will restrict the types of data that companies can share—even, perhaps inadvertently, with law enforcement.

The GDPR is intended to safeguard EU residents’ privacy online. To that end, it effectively puts a wide range of “personal data” under cryptographic lock and key. The fundamental problem is that the regulation explicitly covers the kinds of information critical to law enforcement, such as data that could help investigators track down hackers and the devices they use to cause mayhem online.

Take something as basic as the name, physical address and other contact information of the owner for a given website or domain name. Right now those details generally are publicly available in what is called the Whois database, which is maintained by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann. Police rely on these kinds of innocuous facts as they work to shut down dangerous websites and find people who host or launch malware.