RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18812/biden-iran-rushdie

“Whenever they (Islamists) disagree with a woman, they accuse her of treason, threaten her with rape and torture, and bully her family.” — Ghada Oueiss, Lebanese journalist, to Lebanese television presenter Dima Sadek’s 1.1 million followers on Twitter, after she received death threats for criticizing the stabbing of author Salman Rushdie; Twitter, August 14, 2022.

“Get out of the Middle Ages and learn how to live with other people’s opinions.” — Antoine Haddad, Lebanese academic, to people threatening Sadek, Twitter, August 14, 2022.

Sadek has good reason to be worried for her life. Most of the threats she received came from supporters of Hezbollah, the terrorist group that effectively controls Lebanon and reports directly to the mullahs in Iran.

On the same day that Sadek was receiving threats of murder and rape, Taliban militiamen in Kabul beat women protesters and fired into the air. The women [were] chanting “Bread, work and freedom….”

It is the mullahs of Iran, whose media has welcomed and praised the stabbing attack on Rushdie, that are inspiring, funding and arming Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis (in Yemen) and other Islamist terrorist groups around the world.

In July, Iran executed at least 71 prisoners, including four women, according to the Iran Human Rights Monitor. Most of the women executed in Iran are themselves victims of domestic violence and commit murder in self-defense, the group noted.

Without the Biden administration’s support for the mullahs, these groups would not be threatening to rape and kill women. Without the Biden Administration’s support for of the mullahs, these groups would not be launching drone and missile attacks on America’s allies.

These are the same mullahs who are now hoping that the Biden administration will reward them with hundreds of billions of dollars as part of a new nuclear deal between Iran and the Western powers.

The mullahs will undoubtedly use the money to continue their campaign of murder and intimidation. They will also use the money to consolidate their occupation of four Arab countries – Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen – and continue their savage persecution not only of their own people, but also of women and journalists such as Dima Sadek and Hasan Shaaban.

Iran’s proxies and loyalists are threatening to murder renowned Lebanese media personality Dima Sadek because she dared to criticize the stabbing of Indian-born British-American novelist Salman Rushdie in Chautauqua, New York last week.

Since the stabbing attack, Sadek has been subjected to a campaign of incitement and threats of murder and rape through social media posts and text messages sent to her personal phone number.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18811/war-against-terrorism

Many of us have never been fans of the term “War on Terrorism” — it is difficult to articulate a war against a tactic.

The successful surgical strike that killed Zawahiri, the successor to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden… and the drone strike and military operation that took out two ISIS leaders, demonstrated the resolve of the Biden Administration to keep a focus on terrorist groups…. These actions send a strong message to terrorist organizations, their supporters and our allies that the U.S. still considers fighting this threat a significant priority.

On the flip side of this record is the growing apprehension that the U.S. withdrawal once again has made Afghanistan a safe haven for radical terrorist groups to plan and train for attacks against the U.S. and the West.

Another major concern as we evaluate the war on terrorism is the porous southern border of the United States…. We are gambling with American lives by allowing millions of poorly- or unvetted aliens to come into the country: the open border crisis is a preventable national security threat.

The open border has been bonanza for the cartels who control human trafficking, often increasing America’s unacknowledged slave trade, as well as importing lethal drugs that, in 2021 alone, killed more than 100,000 people. Reports estimate that the cartels take in between $5 billion and $19 billion a year.

Lastly, distraction has become a major problem in the fight against overseas terrorist threats. Rather than prioritize the jihadist groups abroad who want to kill us, the Biden-led U.S. government has made the threat from supposed “domestic terrorists” a priority.

Federal law enforcement personnel have been pressured to regard “right wing” groups and hate crimes as priorities. In June 2021, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the first “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.” This document was developed through the coordination of multiple departments, including Defense, Homeland Security and State. To many, the document signaled the redirection of limited resources to an ill-defined threat that smacked more of politics than as a true threat assessment.

[D]evelopments in Afghanistan, along the southern border, and the redirection and prioritization for law enforcement towards alleged domestic threats should be cause for major concern…. [A] major attack against the homeland is the aspirational goal of transnational terrorist groups. I still believe this is the real goal for those who hate America…. [W]e may be entering a phase of vulnerability not seen since 9/11/2001. This, as we near the 21st anniversary of that tragic day, should alarm everyone.

As we approach 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, one year since Joe Biden’s disastrous and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, and following shortly after a drone strike that killed al-Qaeda terrorist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, it makes sense to ask: What is the status of the global war on terror that started in the immediate aftermath of 9/11? Is this so-called war over, and is the United States safe?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18792/china-economic-race

The [Harvard Belfer Center] report, “The Great Economic Rivalry: China Vs. the US,” predicts that at the current rate China will overtake the US economically within a decade.

When it comes to trade, China has now displaced the US. “When this century began, China was knocking on the door of the WTO and the U.S. was the leading trading partner of most major economies. Today, China has overtaken the U.S. to become the largest trading partner for nearly every major nation… by 2018, 130 countries traded more with China than they did with the U.S…..” — The Belfer Report.

China’s trade policies are not a matter of simply creating more wealth for China, but as with most things that China does, a way to increase China’s power and other countries’ dependency on it.

Today, the U.S. is the world’s largest debtor; China is the largest creditor.

When it comes to manufacturing, China already displaced the US a decade ago.

“China is now the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of scores of essential goods, including 90% of refined rare earth minerals, 80% of solar panels, 50% of computers, and 45% of electric vehicles.” — The Belfer Report.

Crucially, China is severely challenging the US when it comes to innovation…. In 2013, the US was the number one top innovating country, according to the Bloomberg Innovation Index, but by 2020, it was not even in the top 10, having fallen to number 11…. China’s laser-like focus on frontier technologies has positioned it to dominate races like 5G and AI in the future.

China is determined to see this development to its goal of becoming the dominant power in the world by 2049.

What this new world economic order means for the future is probably difficult to imagine for the many who have grown up with the US as the leading world power and the accompanying celebrated values of freedom, democracy, and capitalism, taken for granted by so many.

China’s economic rise and the US response — or lack of such — will determine the predominant values of the 21st century — will it be China’s authoritarianism and disregard for freedom, democracy, and human rights or those of the US and the West?

China has closed the gap with the U.S. “in most economic races, even overtaking it in some,” according to a recent report from Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. The report, “The Great Economic Rivalry: China Vs. the US,” predicts that at the current rate, China will overtake the US economically within a decade.

Measured by purchasing power parity (PPP) — which compares national economies in terms of how much each nation can buy with its own currency at the prices items sell for in its market — China has already surpassed the US to become the world’s largest economy

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/uk-cops-accuse-wrong-guys-wrong-think-bruce-bawer/

You’ve probably heard the old joke. In Heaven the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the bankers are Swiss, the lovers are Italian, and the police are English. In Hell, by contrast, the cooks are English, the mechanics are French, the bankers are Italian, the lovers are Swiss, and the police are German. Once upon a time, the joke didn’t have to be explained – at least not the part about English police. Even people who’d never been to England had seen enough old movies to get it. English cops didn’t carry guns. They were decent, civilized professionals, trained to be public servants in accordance with the high principles of policing set down in the 1820s by Sir Robert Peel, in honor of whom they were known as “Bobbies.”

In recent years, alas, the rosy image of English cops has been severely tarnished. It’s now known that for decades, constabularies in many English cities were so scared of being called racists that they ignored the systematic rape of thousands of children by Muslim “grooming gangs.” They’ve also harassed Tommy Robinson, who’s done more than anyone to expose those gangs. And they’ve arrested thousands of ordinary people for expressing politically incorrect opinions online. No fewer than 150,000 law-abiding British citizens now have rap sheets because of their involvement in “non-crime hate incidents.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18799/iran-mullahs-going-nuclear

When the regime’s television host asked him about the video showing concrete being poured into the Arak reactor’s pipes to block them, Ali Akbar Salehi, former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran responded: “[N]ot the pipes you see here. We had purchased similar pipes, but I couldn’t announce it at that time…. We needed to be smart.” — Iran Focus, August 2, 2022.

In addition, during the deal, several reports, later proven to be accurate, warned that Iran was conducting secret nuclear activities.

Now, thanks to the Biden administration’s focus on reviving the nuclear deal… the Iranian regime bought time by dragging out the negotiations long enough to reach the nuclear threshold.

Regrettably, it looks as though the Biden administration and Europe — through their endless concessions and a staggering lack of deterrence — are still trying to force-feed the world a hostile Iran, armed with nuclear weapons.

One can only assume that the Biden administration is hoping to bribe the mullahs with up to a trillion dollars just not to bomb Israel while he is still president. Meaning that afterwards would be splendid?

Not only are deals such as the Biden or Obama nuclear deal failing to halt the predatory regime of Iran from advancing its nuclear program and possessing nuclear weapons, it actually facilitates Iran’s going nuclear by legitimizing its weapons.

The Biden administration has spent all its political capital to resurrect the nuclear deal — presumably to perpetuate the idea that a nuclear agreement with the Iranian regime will stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, believing that the ruling mullahs of Iran will halt their nuclear advancement with a deal is laughable.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/justin-trudeaus-woke-trail-through-canada-thom-nickels/

If you want to understand the appeal and success of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, you first have to get through the “sexy” part.

From Glamour magazine, Vogue, Teen Vogue to Time magazine, for years the headlines have dripped with embarassing sexual dew.

These Photos of Young Justin Trudeau are Breaking Hearts All Over the Internet, Time magazine declared in 2017. Glamour Magazine followed suit with: “Young Justin Trudeau was a Regulation Hottie.” Given this sort of press, it’s no wonder that Trudeau won Vogue Canada’s 2015 “Sexiest Man Alive” contest with his “sleek suits and swagger.”

Even more embarrassing are the innumerable blogs featuring the PM as a teen in an open shirt and what looks like the very beginnings of a umbilical hernia on his torso.

The comments section on these blogs is equally off the charts, starting with Justin’s “spellbinding eyes,” “delicious locks,” and ending with the acte commentaire ultime, “it’s pretty much impossible not to drool over this thirst trap.”

The comments come mostly from young women but many appear to be considerably older, recalling the dicey, pay-for-play provocations in the 1967 film, The Graduate.

Everyone, it seems, wants “a piece” of Canada’s PM despite some pushback on the PM’s latest haircut in which those “delicious locks” gave way to comparisons of actor Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber.

The PM’s new haircut is definitely a sheltered workshop look or what you get after electroshock therapy. 

It’s a hardcore butch look for the PM who was often bullied as a boy, according to his mother, Margaret, the fascinating diva of 1970’s New York City night life, aka Studio 54, who relished being photographed dancing with busboys and a young Mick Jagger.