RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/eric-zemmour-french-jewish-trump

by MITCHELL ABIDOR AND MIGUEL LAGO

With his ability to control his own narrative, the one-man show is a symptom of the Americanization of French politics

In the space of only a few weeks, the bestselling, right-wing Jewish author Eric Zemmour has doubled his polling numbers for next year’s presidential elections in France, reaching an astonishing 17%. He is ahead of all other right-wing candidates, including Marine Le Pen, longtime standard bearer of the right, who has lost half of her support to Zemmour—himself now running second only to incumbent Emmanuel Macron. All this despite the fact that Zemmour does not lead or belong to a political party and has not even officially announced his candidacy. And yet the only topic of public debate six months before the election seems to be: Will he run? France’s right-wing and far-right parties are all looking over their shoulders, and even Macron is demonstrating concern, attacking Zemmour in public forums.

Zemmour is in some ways France’s Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro, an outsider who claims to say what everyone else merely thinks. He wants to ban all immigration; he claims Muslims have “colonized” entire swaths of French cities; he considers France to be in a state of civil war with its Muslim population. Islam, for Zemmour, is by its nature a religion of terror.

But in saying these things out loud, Zemmour maintains important differences from the Le Pen dynasty: He has long positioned himself as the thinker of the right, producing bestsellers that delve into French history with a classically far-right slant, presenting a France facing decline, degeneration, and even national suicide by way of leftist ideology and the presence of large immigrant communities. He is a firm believer in “The Great Replacement,” which sees les Français de France supplanted by a new, Muslim French population, following an Islam that he believes is incompatible with “French values.” French universalism for Zemmour is an outgrowth of Christian universalism; and it is Catholicism that is the founding doctrine of the French nation. Despite this focus on Christianity, Zemmour is himself a Jew of Algerian Berber ancestry, the son of observant Jews who fled Algeria in 1958 during that country’s war of independence.

How is it that Zemmour’s improbable rise has already come to seem inevitable? The explanation can be found in the role of French media in the country’s political life, in Zemmour’s own ideas, and in the interaction of all this with his personal history.

Eric Zemmour’s Jewishness is a weapon he uses in disconcerting ways. Though he doesn’t hide his ancestry, it is not something that he foregrounds. He has defined his vision of Jewishness as that expressed in 1789 in the Comte de Clermont-Tonerre’s speech on religious minorities (“Nothing for the Jews as a nation, everything for the Jews as individuals”) and by Napoleon: “Henceforth you should consider Paris to be your Jerusalem.” And yet Zemmour’s Jewishness is always at his disposal, granting him license to make statements it would not be possible for a non-Jew to make.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17862/huawei-long-game

“It’s simply not reasonable to expect that Huawei would refuse a direction from the Chinese Communist Party.” — Simeon Gilding, former head of the Australian Signals Directorate’s signals intelligence and offensive cyber missions.

It is essential for business leaders to understand this: there is no such thing as a private company in China…. all Chinese companies and individuals must assist with intelligence efforts if asked.

Huawei is hardly slowing down. Despite still being under telecom restrictions…. Huawei was granted hundreds of applications to purchase chips for its automotive supply business by the Biden administration. The company, according to a spokesman, aims to be a component provider for “intelligent connected vehicles.”

In July, Democratic super-lobbyist Tony Podesta signed up as a “consultant” for Huawei. A Huawei company message board posting noted that the hiring was part of an “expanded U.S. influence operation.”

Huawei also employs a white shoe Washington law firm, Sidley Austin, to handle its interests in the capital. This firm was also representing Meng Wanzhou in her successful battle to avoid extradition to the US. Christopher Fonzone, a partner in that law firm, was recently confirmed over Republican objections as the Biden administration’s choice to be the top lawyer for the office of the Director of National Intelligence. An Obama administration veteran…. his LinkedIn profile… goes on to note, “He also has particular experience assisting clients in the management of crisis situations.”

In late September, Meng Wanzhou stepped off the Air China plane in Shenzhen to a hero’s welcome. It was the triumphant return of an innocent Chinese tech executive from wrongful imprisonment by the West. The truth is far different.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/10/uk-celebrates-diversity-somali-muslim-stabs-mp-robert-spencer/

A little after noon on Friday, Sir David Amess, a 69-year-old British MP, entered Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex for a meeting with constituents, which he held regularly. Shortly after Amess walked into the church, a Muslim whom AFP described as “a British national with Somali heritage” approached the MP. According to a local councillor, John Lamb, “there were people waiting to see him, and one of them literally got a knife out and just began stabbing him.” Amess died of his wounds a few hours later. The Metropolitan Police announced Saturday “the early investigation has revealed a potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism.” So Britain once again has a manifestation of the glories of multiculturalism and mass Muslim migration – not that any of the obvious lessons will be drawn.

According to the BBC, “Whitehall officials say the suspect was not on their database of ‘subjects of interest,’” which is simply an indication of the fact that there are so many jihadis in Britain, authorities are finding it impossible to keep track of them all. This is the result of Britain’s longstanding immigration policies, as well as an absolute unwillingness on the part of British officials to confront jihad recruitment and activity head-on, for fear of appearing “Islamophobic.”

Even after the murder of Amess, there is no indication of any change at the top in Britain. Instead, the usual platitudes were issued, and the usual promises made. Britain’s hopeless Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and Marxist-in-waiting, Keir Starmer, visited the site of Amess’ murder to leave flowers. Former Prime Minister Theresa May, who is responsible for so much of the chaos of modern Britain, said it was “a tragic day for our democracy” and called Amess “a decent man and respected parliamentarian, killed in his own community while carrying out his public duties.” She did not, of course, say anything about the person who killed him, or his motives.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the killing was “absolutely wrong and we cannot let that get in the way of our functioning democracy.”

https://asiatimes.com/2021/10/china-must-lead-the-new-industrial-revolution/

The second great transformation of China’s economy is underway, and it won’t happen without some pain.

China’s meager GDP growth of 4.9% in the third quarter is both worse and better than it looks. Net of exports, GDP growth would have fallen to around 1%, mainly due to the air pocket in the property sector that comprises a quarter of GDP.

The good news is that China’s industrial supply chains rose to the occasion and compensated for disrupted manufacturing output elsewhere in the world. September exports rose 28% year-on-year.

China wants to shift investment toward high productivity outlets in manufacturing and services, away from construction. Its strategy depends on harnessing the new technologies of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, which offer a high growth path for a country with a stagnating labor force.

That’s the omelet that China’s leadership has promised; what we have for the time being are some broken eggs.

Chinese monetary officials, I reported September 24, want to reduce home prices as a matter of social policy, and they used the Evergrande crisis as a blunt instrument to do so. Once the government signaled lower home prices, current sales collapsed. The top 100 developers reported that September sales fell 37% compared with the same month in 2020. Anecdotal reports have asking prices for new homes down by 30% to 40% in some third- and fourth-tier cities.

Homes in top-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen now sell for about 50 times the average Chinese income. That number is exaggerated because employees in top-tier cities typically earn a multiple of the average income, but it still puts homes out of reach of a very large number of Chinese.

In second-tier modern cities like Chengdu or Wuhan, the ratio of home price to average income is 20:1, about the same as in Singapore. To put this in perspective, Taipei homes sell for 34 times the average income.

https://dianebederman.com/medical-care-in-the-21st-century-first-do-no-harm/

How can we condone health care that includes the unceremonious removal of a patient, especially a senior citizen, from their primary health care provider? It seems we do in Ontario. I wonder if this is all made possible by socialized medicine and  the new rules that our doctors are told to follow. Whatever happened to First Do No Harm?

I am sharing my story about “health care ” during Covid.

We talk a great deal about death with dignity. But rarely do we talk about life with dignity. We all witnessed the lack of care and compassion for our most vulnerable during Covid: seniors left alone in their beds and then denied the love of family as they died alone in hospital.

I am a senior citizen.   I was unceremoniously dumped from my health clinic; East Wellington Family Health Team in Erin, Ontario after reporting  what I consider to be below standard care from my primary physician. You know, the one that co-ordinates your health care.

I will not bore you with the details regarding the poor care given to me by my primary physician as this is not about him. I did report him to The College of Physicians and Surgeons. I should have accused him of dereliction of duty. I did my due diligence. First I reported my doctor to the lead physician, Dr. Khan, for his lack of care. No, this story is about the clinic.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17864/defend-taiwan-nuclear-bomb

U.S. President Joe Biden can reestablish deterrence by offering Taiwan a mutual defense treaty. If he does not want to do that, he should either base American nuclear weapons in Taiwan or transfer such weapons to the island so it can defend itself. In the 1980s, the U.S. beefed up deterrence of the Soviet Union by basing nuclear-tipped Pershing missiles in Europe.

China, in short, apparently believes it can run over America to make Taiwan its 34th province. To disabuse Chinese aggressors at this late date, the U.S. should ditch the decades-old “strategic ambiguity,” the policy of not telling either Beijing or Taipei what it would do when conflict was imminent, and publicly offer Taipei a mutual defense treaty.

Taiwan has always been critically important to America. The island makes advanced chips for U.S. products, anchors America’s western defense perimeter, and is a beacon of democracy. After the fall of Kabul, Taiwan is seen as the test of U.S. resolve. The U.S. should, therefore, be willing to go to extraordinary lengths to protect the island.

[T]here are no un-dangerous options for Washington.

Sha Zukang, the former Chinese ambassador for disarmament to the U.N. in Geneva, last month suggested that China create large exceptions to its announced no-first-use policy, the promise not to be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict.

“The island’s society must be warned that they better not believe the ‘rock solid’ promise of the U.S. because Washington will never fight to the death with the Chinese mainland for the island’s secession,” the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times proclaimed on October 14, referring to Taiwan.

The words, contained in an editorial, reflects the Party’s propaganda line, and that line almost certainly reflects the thinking of Chinese leaders.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/10/17/haiti-gang-kidnaps-17-american-missionaries-including-children-n1524532

A grim report out of Haiti, where 17 U.S. missionaries returning home after building an orphanage were kidnapped, according to a voice message sent to various religious missions by “an organization with direct knowledge of the incident,” per Fox News.

According to a message from Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, the missionaries were on their way home after building an orphanage in Port-au-Prince and were taken, along with several of their children.

Haiti has been plagued by periods of lawlessness its entire history, but the combination of the murder of President Jovenel Moïse and a devastating earthquake that killed more than 2,000 Haitians has thrown the country into more chaos than usual.

At least 328 kidnapping victims were reported to Haiti’s National Police in the first eight months of 2021, compared with a total of 234 for all of 2020, according to a report issued last month by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti known as BINUH.

Gangs have been accused of kidnapping schoolchildren, doctors, police officers, busloads of passengers and others as they grow more powerful. In April, one gang kidnapped five priests and two nuns, a move that prompted a protest similar to the one organized for this Monday to decry the lack of security in the impoverished country.

The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, known as BINUH, Issued a report recently. “Political turmoil, the surge in gang violence, deteriorating socioeconomic conditions – including food insecurity and malnutrition – all contribute to the worsening of the humanitarian situation,” BINUH said in its report. “An overstretched and under-resourced police force alone cannot address the security ills of Haiti.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17843/france-election-immigration

“It is like humidity in a house. Initially the threat is invisible….” — Boualem Sansal, Algerian novelist, L’Express.

Bfmtv interviewed Fewzi Benhabib, a resident of Saint-Denis. Since his arrival from Algeria 25 years ago, he found in France the ideology from which he was fleeing in his former country “For the Islamists, it is a question of Islamizing modernity, not modernizing Islam.”

Next year, France will decide to try to save itself or continue to sink. Either way, it will unleash a tsunami that will not stop at its borders and instead flood all of Western Europe.

“Where Islam takes hold, it is forever. Islamism is based on Islam, which no one has the right to criticize. But in your countries it also plays a role in democracy and in the rule of law. Islamism exploits these values. Since democracy recognizes all opinions, from the far right to the far left, it is obliged to recognize Islam as well. All those who do not commit attacks or violent acts are, in principle, protected in a state of law. Islamism thus immediately finds itself in a conquered terrain. It is necessary to fight Islamism from the beginning. Because it is like humidity in a house. Initially the threat is invisible, it penetrates the walls which, little by little, crumble. When you realize it is too late, you have to destroy everything to clean up. It becomes a mission impossible. France is at the stage where it has just discovered that Islam is eroding her home”.

This is how Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, in L’Express, recently described the level of Islamization in France.