RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/03/a_bone_chilling_warning_from_recent_totalitarian_history.html

“When two powerful totalitarian nations make common cause, it’s time to start worrying.”

This week, with almost no fanfare in the American media, Communist China and Russia announced that, in July, they will re-up their 2001 pact entitled “The Russian-Chinese Treaty of Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation.” To those with an eye to history (so forget millennials and Gen X) this came with a strong chill down the spine.

In August 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a somewhat similar treaty, known to history as the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact or the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Within a month those two enlightened states celebrated the treaty by viciously attacking and dismembering Poland. Hitler was then somewhat flummoxed when the British and French decided that enough was enough and declared war on Germany. And the rest as they say was history. Over 70 million died in the next 6 years.

That 1939 non-aggression treaty gave Hitler the free hand he needed to wage war on the West. Although it later proved to be a contract between a viper and a scorpion (for Hitler reneged on the pact, leading to the deaths of more than 20 million Russians), it nonetheless was the final piece that had to fall into place to bring about world war.

While the Russians and Chinese are merely re-signing their existing pact, it follows immediately on the heels Now we are seeing a similar pact following a “softening up” of the West by a pandemic that has gutted economies and helped to force from office Trump, China’s only real political opponent on the world stage. He has been replaced by a president of faltering moral, physical and mental abilities, and one, moreover, whose own family likely has compromising arrangements with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijings-global-cancel-culture-11616711966?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Xi Jinping has become something of a master at flexing China’s commercial muscle in political disputes with foreign critics. The Chinese President’s latest targets are Swedish t-shirts and American sports shoes, among others—and by extension Chinese consumers.

Fast-fashion retailer H&M and Nike came in for a Chinese social-media bruising this week. H&M saw its products removed from several major e-commerce retailers and a celebrity endorser abandoned the brand, while other celebrities cut ties with Nike as netizens rained scorn on the brands on sites such as Weibo. This followed angry social-media posts from the Communist Youth League aimed at the companies.

The companies’ offense is to have issued statements last year decrying forced labor in the concentration camps Beijing operates to imprison Uighurs in Xinjiang. That western Chinese region produces a lot of cotton, and fashion companies have been under pressure from their Western consumers to weed forced-labor fabrics from their supply chains.

Those statements are becoming grist for the Communist Party’s outrage mill now because the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom and European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on several Chinese officials in response to Mr. Xi’s Uighur imprisonment. Beijing has imposed sanctions on several European officials in response. Mobilizing an electronic mob against big Western brands is another show of force.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17162/arabs-warning-biden-iran

President Biden’s decision to pursue the sanctions against Iran, however, has failed to reduce the fears of many Arabs. They say they remain skeptical about Washington’s policy toward the threats posed by the mullahs in Tehran.

“He [Biden] should not make any concessions [to Iran] that do not serve stability in the region. Iran will continue with its tricks and deception to avoid sanctions and attempts to stop it from possessing a nuclear bomb that would pose a danger to countries in the region.” — Khaled bin Hamad al-Malek, Saudi newspaper editor and writer, Al Jazirah, March 5, 2021.

“Iran is an evil, terrorist, and rogue state, and it does not abide by what is agreed upon with it.” — Khaled bin Hamad al-Malek, Al Jazirah, March 5, 2021.

“The current Iranian ploy aims to delude the American side into believing that Tehran wants to return to the agreement, but it cannot make concessions due to street pressure, so it needs Washington to drop the sanctions before starting any negotiations…. With regards to Iran, it wants to pursue its goal of achieving nuclear weapons that threaten the region and the world.” — Dr. Salem Hameed, Emirati political analyst and academic, Al-Ittihad, March 6, 2021.

“Iran’s mullahs are like dangerous poisonous snakes. The mullahs cannot be tamed unless their fangs are completely pulled out. President Biden does not seem to be aware of how dangerous they are.” — Mohamed al-Sheikh, prominent Saudi writer, Al Jazirah, March 5, 2021.

The Biden administration, “especially the left-wing of the Democratic Party, still hope to win the mullahs into their camp and pull them out of the Chinese-Russian camp,” he remarked.

“The mullahs of Iran are still dreaming of establishing the Great Persian Empire, and for the sake of this goal they are not averse to harnessing all efforts and funds to reach this goal, even if they are forced to be patient.” — Mohamed al-Sheikh, Al Jazirah, March 5, 2021.

Former Egyptian diplomat Amr Helmy lashed out at the Biden administration for “dropping” most of the 12 conditions… set for returning to the nuclear agreement with Iran. The conditions … require Iran… to stop enrichment and never pursue plutonium reprocessing, provide the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with unqualified access to all its sites, end its proliferation of ballistic missiles, halt support to Middle East terrorist groups and end its threatening behavior against its neighbors.

“US begging for negotiations [with Iran] will lead to more Iranian intransigence and promote its extremism,” [Egyptian political analyst Dr. Tarek] Fahmi said. He warned that the US would be the “biggest loser” if Iran is allowed to continue with its maneuvers and threats against the security of the region. — Al-Ain, March 4, 2021.

Significantly, such voices seem to be shared by a large number of Arabs in different Arab countries – not only the Gulf states.

The Biden administration has decided to extend for another year the “national emergency” (Executive Order 12957), issued in 1995 in response to the threat Iran posed to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the US.

The Executive Order imposed a series of sanctions against Iran in response to its support for international terrorism, its efforts to undermine the Middle East peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, and its acquisition of nuclear weapons.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/03/bidens_iran_policies_should_reflect_the_rising_cost_of_living_there.html

2020 has been an economically disastrous year for the Iranian people, perhaps the worst since the Mullahs took over in 1979. Even before 2020, Iran ranked as one of the most miserable countries in the world. An International Monetary Fund report said Iran’s 2019 economic growth was negative 9.5 and the final numbers for 2020 are expected to be even worse. If he were smart, Biden would capitalize on this, benefitting both America and the Iranian people.

By August 2020, Iranians were plagued by anger, anxiety, helplessness, depression, insecurity both for themselves and their children. Unsurprisingly Suicide steadily increases in Iran, at a rate of more than 5% annually. In the first eight months of 2020 alone, suicides increased by more than 4% over the same period the previous year. At least 15 Iranians take their lives daily.

People’s economic circumstances are grim. The Labor Council has set the 2021 Iranian minimum wage at 2.65 million tomans (almost $132). That’s inconsequential when one considers that Hamidreza Imam Gholi Tabar, the inspector of Supreme Assembly of Workers, said:

The poverty line of a family of four has reached 10 million tomans [almost $500] and more than half of the Iranians are living in absolute poverty. Workers are not even able to buy mobile phones in installments for the continuation of their children’s education.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/03/support_taiwan_to_deter_china.html

How is it the U.S. does not claim Taiwan as a strategic ally nor consider Taiwan an adversary?  Taiwan is what we want in a trustworthy ally: a rule-based, thriving democracy that upholds human rights.  Unfortunately, we do not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation though it has its own government and its own defense and monetary systems.  In fact, Taiwan, the keystone island strategically positioned between U.S. allies Japan and the Philippines, has the world’s 20th largest economy, is America’s 10th largest trade partner and produces 60% of the world’s semiconductor chips.

If defending Taiwan is one of our most vital strategic interests, the U.S. should immediately stop worrying about offending the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), act as the global leader that we are, shed the outdated strategic ambiguity on Taiwan, and acknowledge the reality that Taiwan is a nation.    

History shows strategic ambiguity has led to conflicts 

Strategic ambiguity, peppered with opaqueness in the mistaken and forlorn hope that it can deter adversaries, has invited miscalculations and unintended armed conflicts. In 1950, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s speech to the National Press Club on January 12, 1950  made no mention of the Korean peninsula being part of the U.S. defensive perimeter.  Six months later North Korea, encouraged by China, invaded South Korea.  The resultant Korean War yielded three million deaths, including 35,000 U.S. servicemen

On July 25, 1990, U.S. ambassador April Glaspie told Iraq’s Saddam Hussein that “we (the U.S.) have no opinion on… Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait,”  A week later Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait drew the U.S. into a conflict that heads into its third decade and at a cost of thousands of U.S. lives and untold billions of dollars.     

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17203/alexei-navalny

“I think that the ban of Donald Trump on Twitter is an unacceptable act of censorship… Don’t tell me he was banned for violating Twitter rules. I get death threats here every day for many years, and Twitter doesn’t ban anyone ….” — Alexei Navalny, Twitter, November 9, 2020.

Among the people who have Twitter accounts are cold-blooded murderers (Putin or Maduro) and liars and thieves (Medvedev)… Of course, Twitter is a private company, but we have seen many examples in Russian and China of such private companies becoming the state’s best friends and the enablers when it comes to censorship. — Alexei Navalny, Twitter, November 9, 2020.

“If you replace ‘Trump’ with ‘Navalny’ in today’s discussion, you will get an 80% accurate Kremlin’s answer as to why my name can’t be mentioned on Russian TV and I shouldn’t be allowed to participate in any elections.” — Alexei Navalny, Twitter, November 9, 2020.

“This precedent will be exploited by the enemies of freedom of speech around the world. In Russia as well. Every time when they need to silence someone, they will say: ‘this is just common practice, even Trump got blocked on Twitter’.” — Alexei Navalny, Twitter, November 9, 2020.

“The election is a straightforward and competitive process. You can participate in it, you can appeal against the results, they’re being monitored by millions of people. The ban on Twitter is a decision of people we don’t know in accordance with a procedure we don’t know…” . — Alexei Navalny, Twitter, November 9, 2020.

“This [imprisonment] is happening to intimidate large numbers of people. They’re imprisoning one person to frighten millions. This isn’t a demonstration of strength — it’s a show of weakness.” — Alexei Navalny, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, February 3, 2021.

The near-murder of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny by the nerve-agent novichok last August, his return to Moscow in January, and the resultant protests attended by tens of thousands of citizens in more than a hundred Russian cities, raise the question of how long the Russian people will continue to tolerate President Vladimir Putin’s repressive acts against political enemies and rivals.

The crowds were rallying in support of Navalny after his return to Moscow on January17, 2021 from medical treatment in Germany, some in temperatures of -60 degrees Fahrenheit. The police, attacking the protestors with batons, arrested more than 3,300 people.

While recuperating in Germany, Navalny, aided by an investigative organization, filmed himself calling Konstantin Kudryatsev, a toxins expert in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Using a disguised telephone number, Navalny posed as an aide to the chairman of Russia’s Security Council. He asked Kudryatsev for the details of his poisoning. In the 49-minute conversation that followed, Kudryatsev divulged full details of the poisoning, including how the novichok poison had been placed in Navalny’s underpants in a hotel in Tomsk.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kidnapping-schoolchildren-in-nigeria-becomes-big-business-11616511947?mod=hp_lead_pos5

KADUNA, Nigeria—The kidnap for ransom business is booming across northern Nigeria, and schoolchildren are its hottest commodity.

Just before midnight on March 11 gunmen barged into a school around 300 yards from a military training college in Kaduna state and seized dozens of students from their dormitories. It took less than 12 hours for the captors to issue a now familiar demand, through a grainy video posted on Facebook.

“They want 500 million Naira,” said one of the terrified hostages from the Federal College of Forestry, sitting shirtless in a forest clearing, a sum equal to around $1 million. Masked men wielding Kalashnikovs paced among the 39 students—mostly young women—then began to hit them with bullwhips.

“Our life is in danger,” a woman screamed. “Just give them what they want.”

On March 13, the Nigerian army foiled an attempt to kidnap 300 more students at a boarding school less than 50 miles away. The following day, children were among a group of 11 people abducted from the town of Suleja, in Nigeria’s Niger state.

This was just one weekend in what has become a routine and brutal business in Africa’s most populous country. Since December, heavily armed criminal gangs have abducted and ransomed more than 800 schoolchildren, rocking Nigeria and drawing calls for urgent action from the U.S. government, the European Union and Pope Francis. Hundreds of school campuses have been closed across four states for fear of more attacks, leaving close to 15 million Nigerian children out of school—more than any other country in the world.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17197/denmark-parallel-societies

“As a society, for too many years we have not made the necessary demands of newcomers. We have had far too low expectations for the refugees and immigrants who came to Denmark. We have not made sufficiently tangible demands on jobs and self-sufficiency. Therefore, too many immigrants have ended up in prolonged inactivity.” — Danish government report, “Showdown with Parallel Societies.”

The number of residential areas on the government’s most recent “ghetto list,” published in December 2020, has declined by half in three years, from 29 in 2018 to 15 in 2020. The number of “hardened ghettos” has declined from 15 in 2018 to 13 in 2020. Interior and Housing Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek attributed the decline mainly to more people finding employment or pursuing an education.

“As a society, we must step more into character and stick to our Danish values. We must not accept that democracy is replaced with hatred in parallel societies. Radicalization must not be protected. It must be revealed.” — Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

The Danish government has announced a package of new proposals aimed at fighting “religious and cultural parallel societies” in Denmark. A cornerstone of the plan includes capping the percentage of “non-Western” immigrants and their descendants dwelling in any given residential neighborhood. The aim is to preserve social cohesion in the country by encouraging integration and discouraging ethnic and social self-segregation.

The announcement comes just days after Denmark approved a new law banning the foreign funding of mosques in the country. The government has also recently declared its intention significantly to limit the number of people seeking asylum in Denmark.

Denmark, which already has some of the most restrictive immigration policies in Europe, is now at the vanguard of European efforts to preserve local traditions and values in the face of mass migration, runaway multiculturalism and the encroachment of political Islam.

The new proposals, announced by Interior and Housing Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek on March 17, are contained in a 15-page report, “Mixed Residential Areas: The Next Step in the Fight Against Parallel Societies.”

A main element of the plan calls for relocating residents of non-Western origin to ensure that, within the next ten years, they do not comprise more than 30% of the total population of any neighborhood or housing area in Denmark.

The plan also calls for phasing out the term “ghetto areas,” which has been criticized as being derogatory, and replacing it with the more politically correct “prevention areas” (forebyggelsesområder) and “transformation areas” (omdannelsesområder).

The term “ghetto,” which refers to areas with high concentrations of immigrants, unemployment and crime, first came into official use in Denmark in 2010 with the release of a government report, “Reinserting Ghettos into Society: A Showdown with Parallel Societies in Denmark.”