RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/09/opinions/systemic-corruption-and-security-nikki-haley/index.html

On December 17, 2010, one young man took a stand against corruption, and changed the course of history. Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 year-old fruit vendor in Tunisia, set himself on fire to protest the harassment he faced from government officials, who confiscated his products and kept him from making a living.
Bouazizi’s tragic act of desperation touched a deep chord. People were fed up living under a dictator who treated his country’s treasury like his own personal bank account. A month later, Tunisia had risen up, and the reign of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was over. Shortly thereafter, protests broke out across the Middle East, and the Arab Spring had begun.

All too often, we think of corruption as a low-level problem — like the cop that demands a bribe to let someone off, or the bureaucrat who demands an extra “tip” before granting a permit.
But corruption goes far beyond a few individual bad actors. In too many places, the state exists mostly to enrich the ruler and a tiny circle of cronies at the top. When that happens, just like Tunisia in 2010, the effects can be dramatic.
Regimes that appeared stable can suddenly crumble when corruption fuels popular uprisings. That was true for Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine, who stole billions of dollars before the people declared enough was enough. The same sentiment toppled regimes in Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen.
In all of these cases, protests took the world by sur

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12982/death-punishment-disbelief

“I was beaten and taken to a bathroom. I asked what was my mistake, and they [the police] replied that I was his cousin…. Later they asked me to pull his pants down and sodomize him. I refused.” — Christian man, Pakistan.

“One of the Boko Haram said, ‘You’re not ready to convert to Islam, so I’m going to teach you a lesson.'” He then proceeded to drown her 3-year-old son Jonathan in a nearby river. — Nigeria.

“The equality that is named as a law in the Constitution of Egypt disappears before Article 2 of the Constitution, which stipulates that Islamic law is the main source of legislation.” — Fadi, a Coptic lawyer, Egypt.

The jihadi assault on, and massacre of, Christians continued unabated throughout the Muslim word. According to one report titled, “Armed gangs WIPE OUT 15 villages in mass Christian slaughter in Nigeria,” several Islamic terrorists “stormed through 15 villages to massacre Christians and destroy their churches in a violent crackdown against the religion…. Dozens of people have been killed after the gangs ransacked towns and villages to clear them of all aspects of the Christian faith. Houses belonging to believers have also been razed with authorities doing little to help…” According to a human rights activist, “One attack took place in broad daylight, as people were about to go to church. The assailants chased and killed the villagers and burned down nine churches and many more houses.”

An open letter to Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari lamented that since he came to power, the plight of Christians has gone from bad to worse: 16,000 Christians have been killed—many in the name of jihad—since June 2015, when Buhari became president. The letter states:

“… the estimated 30 million Christians in Northern Nigeria who form the largest minority in a predominantly Muslim environment, have for decades, suffered marginalization and discrimination as well as targeted violence especially in the hands of organized mob violence and violent groups such as Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen.

“Hundreds of churches in Northern Nigeria particularly Northeast and North-central Nigeria as well as Southern part of Kaduna State which is predominant Christian population have also been burnt or destroyed with estimated 16,000 defenseless citizens composed of mostly Christian population killed across the country since June 2015 when Mr. President became Nigeria’s sixth civilian President. The estimated 16, 000 defenseless civilian deaths outside the law include 5,800 mostly Christians killed by terror Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram since June 2015.”

A Christian woman, Rebecca Bitrus, shared her experiences as a former captive of the jihadi group Boko Haram. After she and her two young children were abducted during a raid on a Christian village, they were taken to a forest where the terrorists attempted to force her to convert to Islam, but she refused.

https://amgreatness.com/2018/09/09/immigration-

Angela Merkel’s dastardly decision to throw open Germany’s borders to more than 1 million mainly Syrian migrants in 2015 didn’t quite go as planned.

The German Chancellor’s grandiloquent gesture meant to exorcise German history once and for all instead cleaved through the middle of a once-reliably measured and “open” nation.

Even in Germany, where most people one meets will insist with conviction that any stance outside of the squishy center is “extreme,” the migration question has exposed the chasm between rulers and the ruled.

Last week saw violent protests engulf the eastern city of Chemnitz, where a 35-year-old carpenter was stabbed to death. Two suspects are in custody. One suspect is Syrian, and the other Iraqi.

Famed German tolerance, the kind Merkel drew upon when declaring, “Wir schaffen das”—We can do this—has boiled dry, in Chemnitz at least.

As always, social media disfigured the protests, echo-chambering and manicuring events to suit both extremes. As always, the simplistic tapestry of black and white is more a shade of gray. What started as a demonstration of grief, was soon hijacked by the mirroring of extreme Left and Right.

Ghastly images of troglodytic Nazi bootboys joined in violent communion with, of course, their black-clad Antifa cousins, peppered paper and pixel. Both groups are execrable to anyone with an IQ above that of processed cheese.

Surely this is the most comprehensive list of the ongoing destruction of Western civilization throughout Europe that has ever been assembled. It is impossible to read all of this – but even a fast-paced scroll gives you all of the information you need…..C.Baker

UNITED KINGDOM

NHS staff crisis as 25% of student nurses drop out; With the National Health Service (NHS) struggling to cope with a huge shortfall of nurses – estimated at 40,000 in England alone – the issue is more pressing than ever.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1012134/NHS-staff-crisis-25-percent-student-nurses-drop-out

Scotland’s nurses at ‘breaking point’ as vacancies rise to record levels; more than one in 20 nursing and midwifery posts in NHS Scotland are vacant – the highest ever level.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/04/scotlands-nurses-breaking-point-vacancies-rise-record-levels/

Number of doctors opting for early retirement doubles, amid pension clampdown; Medics blamed stress, and said they were increasingly overloaded

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/04/number-doctors-opting-early-retirement-doubles-amid-pension/

FEARS are mounting over a new “Manchester-style attack” – after the defence secretary warned about links between UK terror cells and Islamic State fighters regrouping in Afghanistan; government acknowledged threats posed by links between the emerging threat in that country and terror cells in the UK.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1012327/UK-terror-warning-Islamic-State-Manchester-attack-terrorist-attack

FINALLY! British jihadists who fight with ISIS in warzones to face 10 years in jail; A total of 360 jihadists were allowed to go free, after officials deemed there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them; Javid has called for an amendment to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill, calling for measures to imprison any Briton travelling to terror-ridden countries without reasonable grounds.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/06/returning-british-jihadists-could-face-ten-years-prison/

Two men accused of jointly plotting a terror attack were attempting to manufacture an explosive device involving a DRIVERLESS CAR to spare their own lives; the pair were supporters of terrorist organisation Islamic State; three air rifles, two Samurai swords, a wine bottle full of sulphuric acid, homemade fireworks, gunpowder, and “a variety of improvised homemade fuses” were discovered at their properties

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/terrorism-plot-driverless-car-explosive-device-bomb-chesterfield-sheffield-a8523101.html

Paramedics furious as ‘senseless’ thugs pelt ambulance with eggs and flour while on call in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1012831/Peterborough-news-Ambulance-pelted-with-eggs-and-flour-while-on-call-out

SCARRED FOR LIFE: Acid attacks in the UK – where have they been carried out and is London the worst affected city?

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4016850/acid-attacks-uk-london-statistics-westbourne-grove/

Seventeen men and a woman have appeared in court charged with offences linked to child sexual exploitation in West Yorkshire; The Muslim group are among 31 people accused of offences including the rape and trafficking of five girls, aged 12 to 18, in the Huddersfield area between 2005 and 2012.

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/debt-colonialism

China has just offered Africa another $60 billion for emerging economic developments, but is this a slight of hand aimed at funnelling out the continent’s resources, or is it a sincere gesture of assistance?

South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has vehemently denied accusations insinuating Chinese neo-colonialism taking root in Africa. Even Chinese President, Xi Jinping, rebuked the notion of ulterior motives, telling African leaders his country’s investments in the continent have “no political strings attached”.
China in South Africa

This may be so – but the question needs to be asked, what does China hope to gain from these costly investments in Africa?

In August, China pledged R196 billion to South Africa, during the 10th annual BRICS summit which was held in Johannesburg. A portion of these funds is set to assist embattled state-owned enterprises, Eskom and Transnet.

While foreign investment in South Africa is surely appreciated, especially considering Ramaphosa’s target of $100 billion, questions regarding the payback have not gone unnoticed.

Leader of the Democratic Alliance, Mmusi Maimane, has requested the president to disclose conditions on the loan agreement before parliament, saying:

“If the President is confident that the agreement is in the best interest of the South African people, he will surely accede to our request.

It is difficult to imagine that the Chinese Development Bank approved a R33 billion loan to Eskom with no strings attached. Eskom is in dire financial straits and made a R2.3 billion loss in the last financial year.”

Is China practising debt-colonialism?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/gun-battles-rapids-man-eating-crocodiles-team-british-explorers/

In 1966 Captain John Blashford-Snell was leading an expedition of British Army cadets in Ethiopia when he received a summons from emperor Haile Selassie. As he entered the throne room, he was instructed to bow three times, and keep an eye out for the pet lions. After exchanging greetings, Selassie fixed him with his piercing gaze: ‘I should like you to explore my Great Abbai’.

The infamous river, otherwise known as the Blue Nile, cuts a 5,000ft gorge through the highlands of Ethiopia, running from its source near Lake Tana for some 500 miles towards Sudan. Blashford-Snell had previously seen the river but knew it had never been fully explored and was filled with crocodile, hippo, horrendous rapids and murderous tribesman; no European explorer had ever succeeded navigating its full length, and some had lost their lives trying.

The colonel, now 81, recalls his immediate response to the emperor’s request: “It was rather like asking an average hill walker to climb Everest.”

Despite his reservations, when he returned to Britain and reported the conversation, the idea was quickly seized upon as just the thing for Army morale in an era of waning British global influence. A committee was established and Blashford-Snell ordered to amass a 70-strong team of soldiers and scientists. On 2 August, 1968, they embarked on what would become one of the greatest expeditions of the 20th century.

Colonel Blashford-Snell is one of the most prolific explorers this country has ever produced. He has crossed the Darién Gap in Central America, navigated the Congo River and transported a grand piano to a chief in the Amazon jungle on a mahogany sledge. But the Blue Nile expedition fired the public imagination like no other.

Prior to departure his team’s specially adapted Avon Redshank inflatable boats were inspected by the Queen and Prince Philip at the Royal School of Military Engineering. While the Duke of Edinburgh advised upgrades, the Queen cautioned Blashford-Snell: ‘you will have to be very careful’.

The Daily Telegraph was among the chief sponsors. The newspaper dispatched the then 34-year-old climber and budding photojournalist Chris Bonington as our man in Africa (now a knight of the realm). He was tasked with sending news reports every three days via morse code, as well as writing a series for the Telegraph Magazine, in which he described the Blue Nile as “the last unconquered hell on earth”.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12973/germany-anti-immigration-party

The AfD’s opponents, who often brand the party as “far right” or “extremist,” claim that the party’s alleged ties to neo-Nazi groups pose an existential threat to Germany’s constitutional order. The AfD’s supporters counter that Germany’s politically correct establishment, afraid of losing its power and influence, is attempting to outlaw a legitimate party that has pledged to put the interests of German citizens first.

“Migration is the mother of all problems.” — German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer.

“Extremism cannot be combated with exclusion, but with looking at the facts. Those who want to reach concerned citizens must themselves get out of the ideological trenches.” — Oswald Metzger in Tichys Einblick, a prominent German blog.

The murder of a German citizen by two failed asylum seekers in Chemnitz, and the attempted cover-up by German police, has contributed to a surge in support for the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which, according to a new poll, has overtaken the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to become the second-strongest political force in Germany.

Support for the AfD has increased to 17%, while backing for the SPD has fallen to 16%. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) alliance is at 28.5%, according to an Insa Institute poll published by the newspaper Bild on September 3.

The rise of the AfD — which has been fueled by widespread anger over Merkel’s decision to allow into the country more than a million mostly Muslim migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and the subsequent increase in violent crime — reflects an ongoing realignment in German politics, in which voters increasingly are rejecting the multicultural orthodoxy of the mainstream parties.

When federal elections were held on September 24, 2017, the CDU/CSU won 32.9% of the vote, its worst electoral result in nearly 70 years. The SPD won 20.5%, its worst-ever showing. The AfD won 12.6%, to become the country’s third-largest party in the German parliament.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/09/sundays_vote_could_snap_swedes_out_of_their_stockholm_syndrome.html

Swedes are set to vote Sunday, and soon the world may view another example of citizens frustrated by arrogant politicians and bureaucrats upending the status quo and changing the landscape of a rich country whose leaders manifestly have failed the working class. For in truth, Sweden is burning, physically and figuratively. This reality is known better outside that country, because pro-globalist elites in Sweden work so hard to obscure brutal crimes and dislocations that occur as too many unvetted immigrants sweep into their generous nation.

But it is not simply burning cars, and savage assaults that capture the concern of Swedish citizens and international observers. An expensive, thirty year experiment in Sweden promoting global governance and attacking world problems has certainly helped Swedish elites, but many voters see more financial harm than benefit for themselves.

So, in mere days, the Swedish electorate will speak, and rumblings emanating various ways suggest that parties and politicians long in control of the government will suffer erosion in their influence. How much power will a right-leaning party – Sweden Democrats – win at the ballot box, and what roles might candidates in this party play either supporting or obstructing the coalition government destined to emerge after September 9, 2018?

How closely will voters examine the qualifications and backgrounds of candidates for office, including their criminal records, if any, and the stated goals of their political parties concerning Sweden and regarding the wider world?

These major questions and looming answers must be seen in context.

Sparks Igniting Political Changes

In February 2017, when newly inaugurated President Trump drew attention to Tucker Carlson’s Fox News special on Sweden’s mounting problems with immigration policies, most critics around the world scoffed.

So, who was correct?