RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/11_days_of_mourning_for_kim_jongil_with_no_laughing_allowed.html

December 17 of this year marked the ten-year anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-il, father and predecessor of North Korea’s current leader, Kim Jong-un.  To honor the erstwhile psychopathic leader, the nation will observe eleven days of mourning, during which citizens will not be allowed to engage in leisure activities, drink alcohol, or even laugh, a resident from the border city of Sinuiju told Radio Free Asia.  Citizens of the Hermit Kingdom were not even allowed to go grocery shopping on December 17, not that there is much produce to purchase.  Nor will they be able to conduct funeral services or celebrate their own birthdays during the 11-day official mourning period.

According to Fox News, the unnamed citizen also noted what happens to those who fail to comply with the orders: “In the past many people who were caught drinking or being intoxicated during the mourning period were arrested and treated as ideological criminals.  They were taken away and never seen again.”

The New York Post reported that North Koreans fell silent and bowed in respect for Kim Jong-il as a midday siren blared for three minutes.  Cars, trains, and ships blew their horns as the nation’s flags were lowered to half-staff.

That North Koreans would appear to mourn a sadistic despot like Kim Jong-il, or worship his equally vicious son, the current Dear Leader, Kim Jong-un, tells us that either they are terrified of revealing their true feelings toward these monsters or they have been effectively brainwashed by their government-media-academia complex.

As a PJ Media post noted, “[t]he Kim Dynasty, like totalitarians the world over, has discovered that people can get used to anything.  So while the ban on laughing might be extreme to us, it’s perfectly normal to North Koreans.  If your newspaper, your TV stations, your radio, and your internet broadcast similar messages 24 hours a day, seven days a week, wouldn’t your reality be so skewed that you’d see Kim the same way?”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18037/china-failed-wto

Twenty years later we can only begin to describe how wrong the assessments were about China and how damaging this single decision has been to the global economic order.

[China] was using predatory practices to drive out European competitors to Huawei so that the CCP would soon dominate this key market. Rather than following the rules, China abused its new access to go into more countries an engage in market manipulation, predatory pricing and lending, and surreptitiously to seed its national security apparatus abroad.

Most American companies have not had the backbone to defend themselves against China’s unfair policies and to stand up for their workers in the U.S. and human rights and freedom in China. More often than not, the only consideration these companies have is the bottom line.

It is time to reevaluate and confront China for the policies of the last 20 years…. Twenty years is enough of sacrificing American jobs, technology, and national security on the altar of full access to the Chinese market that the U.S. and the West will never get.

In all honesty, what is really dangerous is ignoring the long list of abuses and evil behavior by China and the Chinese Communist Party for another 20 years. Now is the time for the West finally to wake up before it is too late.

In 2000 the U.S. Congress passed legislation establishing Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China. The foundation for this successful China vote was established in 1998 when Congress adjusted terminology to rebrand “most favored nation” as “normal trade relations.” These and other shenanigans by Congress enabled China ultimately to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001. This fundamentally changed the economic role that China plays globally, propelling it to the second-largest economy in the world today.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18034/lithuania-china

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda says that his country will not capitulate to bullying from China and that he is committed to defending the principles and values of democracy from attack.

“China is trying to make an example out of us — a negative example — so that other countries do not follow our path. Therefore, it is a matter of principle how the Western community, the United States, and European Union react.” — Arnoldas Pranckevičius, Lithuania’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“The tiny nation of Lithuania is punching way above its weight and has set a benchmark that the rest of the European Union must support and follow. Such leadership, particularly when stronger countries like Germany and France are buckling under the pressure and onslaught of this rising rogue nation, needs to be supported by countries across the world.” — Gautam Chikermane, Vice President, Observer Research Foundation.

“It is time for the EU to end its extramarital affairs with authoritarianism…. That China is a threat to democracies, in general, and the EU, in particular, is visible to all but the EU. Other than geography, the essence of the EU is values. And one event after another, one country at a time, the EU is giving them up.” — Gautam Chikermane.

“China as a communist superpower is so scared of 3-million Lithuania on the other side of the globe. Lithuania is the bravest country in Europe. We should all stand up with Lithuania.” — Jakub Janda, Director, European Values Center for Security Policy.

“We support democracy, as we will never forget the cruel lesson of living under occupation by a Communist regime for 50 years.” — Lithuanian Member of Parliament Dovilė Šakalienė.

“We would like to have relations with China based on the principle of mutual respect. Otherwise, the dialogue turns into unilateral ultimatums, requirements which are not acceptable in international relations.” — Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, in an interview with the Financial Times.

China has blocked all imports from Lithuania and has ordered multinational companies to sever ties with the Baltic country or face being shut out of the Chinese market.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/danish-heroine-goes-prison-bruce-bawer/

One of the many appalling challenges that have confronted Western European authorities since mass Muslim immigration began several decades ago is the arrival of adult – often elderly – men with underaged girls whom they identify as their wives.

Such marriages, of course, are not just permitted but encouraged under Islam. Muslims are taught to look in all things, big and small, to the example of their prophet, and they all know that one of the treasures of Muhammed’s harem – often described as his most beloved wife – was Aisha, whom he wed when she was six and deflowered when she was nine.

Needless to say, the pedofile alliances that are ubiquitous in the Islamic world – and legally sanctioned (or tacitly accepted) in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and elsewhere – are invariably arranged and forced on girls by their parents. They’re also usually cousin marriages. The BBC’s website provides a helpful whitewash – I mean, justification – of such unions: “Arranged marriages ensure that Muslim marriages are based on compatibility rather than lustful feelings.” Yes, because there’s nothing more compatible than a 70-year-old husband and an eight-year-old wife. At least you can be pretty sure that the little girl isn’t feeling a hell of a lot of lust.

Anyway, as you may recall, the year 2015 brought a flood of purported refugees to Western Europe, and in January 2016 the Danish media reported that a number of newly arrived March-December “couples,” mostly from Syria, were living together in Danish asylum centers. To her credit, Inger Støjberg – a Liberal Party member of Parliament who was then serving as Minister of Immigration, Integration, and Housing in Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s center-right government – snapped into action.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18008/turkey-poverty-economy

Erdoğan’s biggest political rival ahead of the 2023 presidential elections seems to be — poverty.

The first decade of Erdoğan’s rule actually brought relative prosperity to Turks. Per capita GDP rose sharply from $3,688 in 2002 to $11,796 in 2012… Since 2013, however, reckless nepotism, increasing authoritarianism, corruption and economic mismanagement have boosted interest-rates, inflation and unemployment, bringing per capita GDP down to an estimated $7,500.

Nearly half of Turkish workers are minimum wage earners, meaning that millions of families must survive on $233 a month

Unfortunately, since early 2018, the lira has been on a downward slide due to constant geopolitical tensions with the West, widening current account deficits, shrinking foreign currency reserves and mounting public debt.

As the lira crashes to insane historic lows, local salaries are also severely devalued.

Erdoğan is heading fast to becoming the victim of his own miscalculations: a dramatically mismanaged economy and geostrategic challenges that went beyond Turkey’s political and military might.

Perhaps these missteps will be the beginning of the end of Erdoğan’s ugly populism — his neo-Ottoman ambitions that have caused major damage to Turkey’s economy as well as the country’s international isolation.

A punishing economic crisis in 2000-2001, the worst ever in modern Turkish history, pushed millions of Turks below the poverty line. In 2002, Turks went to the ballot box to punish a ruling coalition of mainstream parties and elected as prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. By a simple twist of fate, nearly two decades later, Erdoğan’s biggest political rival ahead of the 2023 presidential elections seems to be — poverty.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/12/denmark-minister-sentenced-prison-trying-protect-daniel-greenfield/

As messed up as the United States may be these days, the Europeans periodically remind us that it gets worse. Much worse.

It’s hard to think of a more backward and warped phenomenon than the trial of former immigration minister Inger Støjberg, who tried to stop child marriage and the traffic of underage girls into the country during the Muslim migrant crisis. Or the resulting guilty verdict.

Inger Støjberg, a former Danish immigration minister and high-profile government figure during Europe’s 2015 migration crisis, was sentenced to 60 days in jail on Monday after an order she issued in 2016 was ruled illegal. 

Støjberg had said that if a member of a married couple seeking asylum in Denmark was found to be under 18 years old — the legal age for marriage in Denmark — then the couple should be separated and housed in separate asylum centers. 

Støjberg said at the time she was trying to protect “child brides” who may have been forced into marriage against their will before coming to Denmark. 

This is political payback for her attempt to stop the invasion. And it’s meant to send a message to any other political leader with the courage to put their finger in the dike. 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/meet-new-iranian-president-norwegian-parliament-bruce-bawer/

In Norway, the king is head of state, and the prime minister is head of government. But there’s a third individual who, under law, is ranked in the official hierarchy ahead of any political figure and just after the sovereign himself. That person is the president of Stortinget, Norway’s Parliament.

As a result of the national elections on September 13, the so-called conservative coalition under Erna Solberg that had governed since 2013 was replaced by a center-left coalition under the new prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre. Eva Kristin Hansen, a Labor Party Member of Parliament from the northern county of Sør-Trøndelag, was named president of Parliament.

Barely weeks after her installation, Hansen was at the center of a minor controversy. The Christian People’s Party – which is the traditional home of Norway’s religious right and which, dwindling steadily in size over the last generation, clung on to power by its fingernails after the September elections, winning 3.8% of the vote and only three out of 169 seats – demanded that nursing Members of Parliament be allowed to breast-feed in the parliamentary chamber. Hansen responded by saying that nobody had ever told them they couldn’t, and that she’d take action to ensure that this was understood by all.

Well, that one was resolved easily enough. But a bigger scandal was waiting in the wings. In November, it was revealed that Hansen, who represents the city of Trondheim, 250 miles north of Oslo, the capital, has actually lived since 2014 in Ski, a town just outside of Oslo. To maintain her official residency in Trondheim, she’d listed a room in the home of Trond Giske, a Labor politician who resigned from Parliament in 2018 after a sexual-harassment scandal, as her official residence.

But that wasn’t all. Until 2017, Hansen had also occupied, at the taxpayers’ expense, a furnished government-supplied apartment in Oslo –  a clear violation of rules requiring that Members of Parliament live at least 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Oslo to qualify for one of these freebies. She was, it turned out, one of several MPs who’d cheated the public in this fashion. While keeping her seat in Parliament, Hansen stepped down as president of Parliament.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18026/arab-apartheid

“Not all of the professions will be opened to Palestinians under the new decree….” — L’Orient Today, December 8, 2021.

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon “are socially marginalized, have very limited civil, social, political and economic rights, including restricted access to the Government of Lebanon’s public health, educational and social services and face significant restrictions on their right to work and right to own property.” — UNRWA, September 2020.

There are several reasons why the Lebanese do not want the Palestinians. One reason is that since the 1970s, the Palestinians have brought war and destruction to Lebanon and turned refugee camps into bases for terror groups.

“It is time to end this history of discrimination and systematic segregation… Qualified Palestinians should be allowed to practice their professions, especially in fields where they are most needed…. Very few Lebanese would share my view.” — Sawssan Abou-Zahr, senior Lebanese journalist, Reliefweb, August 1, 2021.

What is clear…is that the international community has long been ignoring the abuses and human rights violations by an Arab country against the Palestinians.

The demonization of Israel by so many journalists, officials and so-called human-rights groups leaves little time to ask why a Palestinian in Lebanon is not permitted to practice medicine while a significant portion of the medical staff at Israeli hospitals consists of Arab doctors and nurses.

The issue of Arab apartheid and discrimination recently resurfaced after a Lebanese minister announced that his country decided to allow Palestinians to work in several sectors that were until now reserved just for Lebanese nationals.