RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19535/turkey-farewell-erdogan

Polls suggest that although the presidential race will be tight, the gap against Erdoğan is widening…. [T]he CHP-led opposition bloc, with the participation of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, would win a combined 55.4% of the nationwide vote.

Reuters reported that new polls show the opposition’s presidential candidate, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leading against Erdoğan by more than 10 percentage points ahead of elections seen by many as the most consequential in Turkey’s history.

Polling in Turkey can be a murky business. But with or without polls, realities spell existential danger for one of the world’s most anti-Semitic and disruptive leaders.

Nearly a month and a half before the most critical presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey’s modern history, it is still too early to make a guess as to who will win: all indicators show that May 14 will be an extremely tight race. The results may even be inconclusive: there may be chaos, vote rigging, allegations and objections from both sides, the electoral board having to struggle with which side it should politically favor, potential re-runs in disputed districts, further disputes and even potential street violence.

An overall re-vote is also one of the possibilities. Another is that the country’s Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, battling for his survival after 21 corrupt and autocratic years in power, wins the presidential race but that his party loses its parliamentary majority. This result will mean governmental and administrative chaos.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19493/turkey-missing-children

The newspaper Cumhuriyet reported on February 23 that a doctor from Ankara, who has been volunteering to help find missing children since the first day of the earthquake, claimed that the number of missing children was approaching 1,000.

The fatwa stated that it is not right to treat adopted children like one’s own children and that “accordingly, the relationship between the adopter and the adopted child does not create a barrier to marriage.”

“[I]t is reported that unaccompanied children are not handed over to authorized state institutions, but to people who say that the children are relatives, tariqats [radical Islamist groups] or organ mafia.” — Association of Children and Women First, once.org.tr, February 17, 2023.

“The Ministry of Family and Social Policies must first determine the identity of the children…. It is unacceptable to deliver these children to third parties, individuals, institutions, or associations other than the Ministry. Adoption and foster family institutions should also be done lawfully in line with the Ministry’s rigorous and meticulous investigations.” — Association of Children and Women First, once.org.tr, February 17, 2023.

“The basic rule in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is ‘follow the best interests of the child.'” — Hediye Gökçe Baykal, attorney at the Association of Children and Women First, to Gatestone, March 9, 2023.

When multiple earthquakes first struck Turkey on February 6, the death toll, according to the Turkish government after a month, reached 48,448. Unofficial sources estimate that the real number is much higher. Around 200,000 people were still waiting to be rescued from under buildings that had collapsed, according to a prediction from early February by geophysical engineer Professor Ovgun Ahmet Ercan.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/xi-and-vlad-a-wake-up-call-for-america-and-the-west/

The recent visit of the Communist Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Moscow for meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin was partly intended to be a big poke in the eye to America, and a message to the West in general that China is on the move and fully intends to replace the United States as the world’s only superpower. A quote that is often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte might seem appropriate at this point in time, “Let China Sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.” China is definitely awake.

The Moscow meetings were full of pomp and ceremony, but truthfully, Russian President Vladimir Putin is really just along for the ride, a junior partner and temporary ally of China during this period of transition as a result of China asserting itself internationally. China really doesn’t need Russia, but Russia and Vladimir Putin definitely needs China.

Vladimir Putin’s ill-conceived invasion of Ukraine, with the Ukrainians proving to be a tenacious enemy exacting huge costs in Russian lives and materiel, has made Putin’s grip on power in Russia somewhat tenuous. Xi Jinping knows this. Putin needs China’s support to keep him from possibly having an unanticipated ‘accident’ or ‘health emergency,’ as has sometimes been the case when a Russian leader falls out of favor with the ruling elite in the Kremlin.

Xi Jinping has provided that support, for the moment. But Xi Jinping has no intention of allowing Putin to drag China down with Russia should the Ukrainian invasion continue to go badly for Putin. China will cut Putin loose in a heartbeat if this new relationship threatens China’s long term goals in any way. China has embarked on what can only be described as something akin to a ‘marriage of convenience’ with Russia, and will only maintain that relationship as long as it benefits China’s agenda.

The diplomatic full court press that China’s been pursuing in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and in our own hemisphere is a direct result of the weakness of the Biden Administration. Joe Biden simply isn’t physically or mentally capable of meeting the rigors of the job as president. He can barely make it to Delaware every weekend to rest and recover from his demanding 20-hour work week.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19534/china-latin-america-security-threat

The Biden administration seems adept at launching grand schemes that make it look as if it is doing something about countering China in Latin America, but American leadership seems to be entirely absent.

This absence of US leadership in Latin America has become seriously critical: senior military commanders in the US warn that China’s actions in Latin America pose increasing risks to US national security.

“What concerns me as a Combatant Commander is the myriad of ways in which the PRC is spreading its malign influence, wielding its economic might, and conducting gray zone activities to expand its military and political access and influence…” — General Laura Jane Richardson, Commander, US Southern Command, to the House Armed Services Committee, March 8, 2023.

“The PRC is investing in critical infrastructure, including deep-water ports, cyber, and space facilities which can have a potential dual use for malign commercial and military activities. In any potential global conflict, the PRC could leverage strategic regional ports to restrict U.S. naval and commercial ship access. This is a strategic risk that we can’t accept or ignore.” — General Laura Jane Richardson, March 8, 2023.

Unfortunately, ignoring those risks seems to be exactly what the Biden administration is doing.

What is the point of such [US] programs, however, if they are unable to stop Latin American countries from being forced to turn to China for leadership, or at least having the US try to counter yet another future Chinese takeover in Latin America?

Honduras recently cut ties with Taiwan and established diplomatic ties with China.

http://www.settimananews.it/news/soft-war-for-chaos/

As Russian failures on the Ukrainian battleground emerge more starkly by the day, so former successes of Russian propaganda in the West become more naked and are being exposed daily. China’s TikTok, whose CEO was recently grilled at a U.S. Congressional hearing, apparently is not faring much better. Still, perhaps we must step back to gain some perspective on this.

According to some Cold War stories, perhaps America’s significant blow to the renewed ambitions of Soviet politics, galvanized by the students’ protests in America and Europe after the 1960s, was favoring a strategy of chaos. It moved the rebellious proto-revolutionaries in the West to compete and rebel against each other.

Another element then was undermining the leftist high discourse. The systematic penetration of derision, levity, astrologers, beauty counselors, fashion shows, and makeup artists was a mine under the feet of leftist ideology’s high and noble discourse.

Putin’s systemic weakness

In the last ten years in the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin has possibly used American lessons against America. He supported the left as pro-communist and backed the right as a champion of the defenders of betrayed traditional values. He turned everything against everyone through the easy and cheap new tool of the internet.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19527/china-arming-russia

Just as Iran has used Ukraine’s brutal war to test the effectiveness of its drone and missile technology, so China’s emerging industrial-military complex is reportedly looking for opportunities to conduct a rigorous evaluation of its new weapons systems; Chinese arms manufacturers are reportedly keen to test the effectiveness of their new weapons systems in Ukraine.

Chinese drones, which reports say are due to be delivered to the Russian Defence Ministry next month, would enable the Russians to deliver warheads weighing between 35 and 50 kilograms.

China’s People’s Liberation Army is in the midst of a massive military build-up, outspokenly aimed at making China the world’s dominant military power by the middle of the century. Global defence spending fell by 1.7 percent in 2021, and the US defence budget for 2024, with a supposed increase of 3.2 percent, after factoring in an inflation of 6 percent, is actually a net cut. Meanwhile, Chinese defence spending grew by 5.1 percent to $293 billion.

As part of its military build-up, which began in 2013, Beijing is aiming to integrate artificial intelligence in its command and control structures by 2035. In addition it is investing heavily in new fleets of warships and warplanes.

The Chinese military is said to be actively preparing to launch a military offensive to capture Taiwan, most likely before or during the US presidential election in November 2024, while the US is still under the administration of President Joe Biden, regarded worldwide as stunningly weak, and while the country is likely to be distracted.

Biden’s repeated statements that he seeks “competition not conflict” with China, and that “We don’t want a conflict” with Russia, can only be viewed as pleas not to escalate, rather than as a thundering deterrence.

“[T]he entire military must… concentrate all energy on fighting a war, direct all work toward warfare and speed up to build the ability to win.” — Chinese President Xi Jinping, to China’s armed forces’ operational command center, Fox News, February 15, 2023.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/in-a-dutch-election-globalists-lose-big/

During the year or so between my first visit to the Netherlands, in August 1997, and my move to Amsterdam from New York, I not only put myself through a one-man crash course in Dutch; I also read every book I could find about Dutch history, society, art and culture, customs and character. But one key fact that I somehow missed entirely, and that only recently found its way onto my radar, is that the Netherlands is, after the U.S., the world’s largest exporter of agricultural products.

At first blush it seems impossible. Yes, the U.S. being #1 is a no-brainer: nobody has anywhere near as much first-class farmland. But the Netherlands, which is 1/231 the size of the U.S.? Really? To travel across the Randstad, the crescent-shaped urban conglomeration that contains most of the major cities, is to imagine that this little land must be a significant agriculture importer. How, then, can it possibly beat out giants like Russia, Canada, Brazil, Indonesia, and Australia? Well, as it happens, most of those giants are near the top of the export list: Brazil for coffee; Indonesia, palm oil; China, rice; Canada, oats. But if they’re not at the very top of the list, it’s because Russia and Canada are largely tundra, Brazil and Indonesia mostly jungle, and Australia almost entirely desert.

But the Netherlands? What’s the secret? One word: innovation. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Much of its current farmland wouldn’t exist if not for the reclamation of land from the sea – a practice that is now some seven hundred years old and that, thanks to extraordinary technological innovations during the previous century, has more than doubled the country’s area.

Last year, in an article for Dutch Review, Jesse Rintoul summed up some of the more impressive recent examples of innovations in Dutch farming. The University of Wageningen, thanks to “an alternative soil composite made of coco peat and rock wool,” managed to grow bananas in the Netherlands’ not-exactly-banana-republic climate. A company called Nijsen/Granico produces “about 90,000 tons of animal feed a year entirely from human food waste.” And in Rotterdam, there’s a “floating farm” that feeds cows “with leftovers from local restaurants.” The Dutch, notes Rintoul, have sought to “produce twice as much food using half as many resources.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19512/world-economic-forum-crap

[E]conomic writer Charles Hugh Smith has repeatedly warned [about] the “crapification” of the U.S. economy…. customers with scant other buying options are forced to accept that few purchases will last.

Politicians seem to be heading in a similar direction…. Western governments are filled to the brim with people entirely lacking in real-world experience or specialized knowledge.

In recent decades, a noticeable trend in the West has been to elevate politicians, as young and inexperienced as possible, into offices as high as possible…. Such a system — in which those who have proven themselves the least are given responsibilities that would test even those who have proven themselves time and again — hardly looks ideal.

If Western politicians seem just as second-rate these days as what customers all too often find in stores, there may be a simple reason why: International financial titans make, sell, and own both… and may be planning to own you, too.

If you are a consumer today, inflation is only one of the problems harming you. As prices go up, quality continues to go down. What most stores have to offer you might crassly be called “cheap crap.” In fact, economic writer Charles Hugh Smith has repeatedly warned that the “crapification” of the U.S. economy is the natural result of a “neoliberal-hyper-financialization-hyper-globalization model,” in which quasi-monopolist manufacturers mass-produce goods with the cheapest possible components, while customers with scant other buying options are forced to accept that few purchases will last.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19492/biden-pushing-arabs-towards-iran

Today, China is victorious by sponsoring the historic agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, while the US has a new president who comes to destroy agreements reached by his predecessor, and even brags about it during his election campaign and his presidency.” — Saeed Al-Mryti, Saudi political activist, Twitter, March 14, 2023.

“[N]o matter how hard analysts try to beautify the situation for US policy, what Saudi Arabia has done today is a direct and successful blow to the Biden administration and its policy in the Middle East.” — Jubran Al-Khoury, Lebanese political analyst, annahar.com, March 12, 2023.

It is thus no surprise that Iran and its terror proxies – Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah – are expressing profound satisfaction over the Saudi-Iranian agreement. In their eyes, the agreement is an indication of the growing weakness of the US and the failed policy of the Biden administration in the Middle East. Thanks to the US administration’s fragility, the Iranian-led axis of evil has been significantly emboldened as America’s erstwhile Arab allies are rushing towards the open arms of the mullahs in Tehran.

Many Arabs and Muslims are celebrating the Saudi-Iranian agreement to restore diplomatic relations as a devastating blow to the Biden Administration, a victory for Iran and China, and a sign of Washington’s failed policies in the Middle East.

According to these Arabs and Muslims, the Saudi-Iranian pact is the direct result of the Biden Administration’s antagonism towards America’s traditional Arab allies, especially Saudi Arabia, and the American policy of appeasement towards the mullahs in Iran.

Lebanese-born American scholar Walid Phares wrote that in the past two years he has been issuing warnings that the Biden administration’s dealings with the Arab allies “were neither at the required level nor with the necessary depth.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19474/threat-to-democracy

[T]hose who took to the streets and protested the regime were all too aware that the most inhuman punishments and executions awaited them as retaliation for their struggle for freedom. Such courage and sacrifice for democracy and human rights must not be swept aside — these heroic people need and deserve immediate support.

More than 19,600 Iranians have been arrested during the protests; several have been executed. The information, coming from human rights organizations, about how Iran treats political prisoners is terrifying.

In addition, more than 1,000 schoolgirls have been poisoned as “retaliation” and to shut down schools in a move to stop education for girls. As the Wall Street Journal remarked, compared to Iran, Saudi Arabia is Switzerland.

Several members of parliament in Europe and North America have become political sponsors of political prisoners in Iran. The purpose of the political sponsorship is for parliamentarians to use their status and put pressure on the regime in Iran to release the political prisoners and draw attention to their cases. It is also a way to show the regime in Iran that the world sees and condemns them and cares — with action — about those Iranians who are fighting every day for the same freedom that we take so for granted.

This author has chosen to become a political sponsor for Soheila Hejab, who is now in prison after being accused of “propaganda against the state”, “gathering and collusion”, and “disrupting public order to create chaos”. Like many other prisoners in Iran, Hejab has not received medical care; her health is rapidly deteriorating.

This article is a plea for more parliamentarians in democratic countries sponsor political prisoners in Iran — to show that their protests are not in vain and that the world has heard their cries for freedom, democracy and human rights.

If the brave individuals who stood up to the mullahs are now ignored simply because the regime in Iran has a security apparatus that has temporarily succeeded in silencing them, fewer will feel compelled in the future to stand up to oppressors — in Iran or other dictatorships — thus empowering the normalization of dictatorships. When fewer people stand up to oppressors, dictatorships and oppression become “normal”: that is the biggest threat to democracy.

The best way, therefore, to work for democracy and human rights is to support those who today risk their lives to overthrow dictatorships such as the one in Iran. If these brave people are prepared to risk their lives and the lives of their families for democracy, the least we can do is to give them totally committed support from the West.

We need to label the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a Foreign Terrorist Organization and expel Iranian supporters of the regime from Western and European countries. In addition to that, individual parliamentarians can stand behind and “adopt” a political prisoner to draw attention to their cases, legitimize the democratic revolution and above all, delegitimize the savage, expansionist regime of Iran.

The protests in Iran against the regime’s Islamist dictatorship have largely been quelled for the time being, but the conflict remains. It is between a regime that implements medieval and barbaric laws and a young generation that wants to live in a modern and civilized society; and between a regime that rejects the notion of, and constantly defies, an international community, and the Iranian people, who are increasingly longing for Iran to become part of the international community.