RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/03/can_prettyboy_justin_trudeau_survive.html

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is on the ropes. He has two thorns in his side that could either force his resignation or at least significantly dim his chances for reelection in October.

The first problem is that Trudeau’s former justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, testified under oath before a parliamentary committee that Trudeau and his top aides tried to pressure her to drop the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, a large engineering company headquartered in Montreal.

The company is accused of paying the late Libyan strongman Muammar Khadafy’s family nearly $50 million in bribes between 2001 and 2011 to secure contracts. This is illegal according to Canadian law. SNC admitted to wrongdoing and was angling for an agreement to pay a fine rather than to be criminally prosecuted. But Wilson-Raybould and her office stood firm and said no. In doing so, she testified: “I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-china-close-in-on-trade-deal-11551641540

China and the U.S. are in the final stage of completing a trade deal, with Beijing offering to lower tariffs and other restrictions on American farm, chemical, auto and other products and Washington considering removing most, if not all, sanctions levied against Chinese products since last year.

The agreement is taking shape following February’s talks in Washington, people briefed on the matter on both sides said. They cautioned that hurdles remain, and each side faces possible resistance at home that the terms are too favorable to the other side.

Despite the remaining hurdles, the talks have progressed to the extent that a formal agreement could be reached at a summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, probably around March 27, after Mr. Xi finishes a trip to Italy and France, individuals with knowledge of the plans said.

As part of a deal, China is pledging to help level the playing field, including speeding up the timetable for removing foreign-ownership limitations on car ventures and reducing tariffs on imported vehicles to below the current auto tariff of 15%.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13813/christians-persecuted-killed

One of the most noteworthy trends concerns the “shocking reality of persecution against women…. In many places, they experience a ‘double persecution’ — one for being a Christian and one for being a woman.”

Another trend that should send an alarm is that, “For the first time since the start of the World Watch List, India has entered the top 10” — meaning Christians there are now experiencing “extreme persecution.”

Last year, Christians were persecuted more than ever before in the modern era — and this year is expected to be worse: “4,136 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons,” according to Open Doors USA in its recently published World Watch List 2019 (WWL) of the top 50 nations where Christians are persecuted. “On average, that’s 11 Christians killed every day for their faith.” Additionally, “2,625 Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and imprisoned” in 2018, and “1,266 churches or Christian buildings were attacked.”

Whereas 215 million Christians faced persecution in 2018, 245 million will suffer in 2019, according to Open Doors — a 14% increase, that represents 30 million more people abused for their faith. This means that “1 in 9 Christians experience high levels of persecution worldwide” (note: all quotations in this article are from the WWL 2019).

One of the most noteworthy trends concerns the “shocking reality of persecution against women.”

https://edwardcline.blogspot.com/2019/03/codifying-islamophobia.html

A law code or legal code, is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the code was enacted, by a process of codification. Though the process and motivations for codification are similar in different common law and civil law systems, their usage is different.
In a civil law country, a code of law typically exhaustively covers the complete system of law, such as civil law or criminal law.

Britain is fatally infected by Islam. Bill Warner, founder of the Center for the Study of Political Islam, tells how.

The subject is the 72-page All-Party Parliamentary Group’s Islamophobia Defined.; Warner stresses that in it Islamophobia is not defined. The legal beagles of Britain in every district have been ordered to weigh in on the meaning and ramifications of “Islamophobia” with the aim of not only banning it at the behest of resident Muslims, but recommending punishments for its expression . Warner also stresses that no definition of Islamophobia has been settled or what the term means by definition, nor what Islam is.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/03/02/are_we_seeing_the_start_of_a_global_centrist_revolution_139630.html

By Neal Simon

In the past week, we have witnessed the creation of new centrist coalitions in the United Kingdom and Israel — and here in the U.S. in the state of Alaska. In each case, members of the legislative bodies left their current parties to form a new power bloc in the middle of the political spectrum.

In Alaska, one moderate legislator (pictured), by refusing to caucus with his own party, was able to lead the formation of a bipartisan, centrist coalition that will likely put the interests of Alaskans ahead of the interests of either party. In the U.K., 11 members of Parliament from the Conservative and Labour parties left those parties in protest of their leaders to begin a new, independent, centrist coalition. In Israel, the top two centrist candidates for prime minister just joined forces, creating a new party to challenge the increasingly conservative Bibi Netanyahu, who will seek a fourth term when Israeli elections are held in April.

In the U.S., frustration with our government is at an all-time high. A Gallup poll released Feb. 18 revealed that a record number of Americans believe that poor government leadership is the largest problem in the country today. This dim view of our politics is shared about equally by Republicans and Democrats.

http://thefederalist.com/2019/03/01/canadian-court-rules-parents-cant-stop-14-year-old-taking-trans-hormones/

The Supreme Court of British Columbia thinks it’s okay for doctors to override a parent’s wishes and administer trans hormones to his child.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada ordered that a 14-year-old girl receive testosterone injections without parental consent. The court also declared that if either of her parents referred to her using female pronouns or addressed her by her birth name, they would be considered guilty of family violence.

As previously reported, Maxine* was encouraged by her school counselor in BC’s Delta School District to identify as a boy while in seventh grade. When Maxine was 13 years old, Dr. Brenden Hursh and his colleagues at BC Children’s Hospital decided that Maxine should begin taking testosterone injections in order to develop a more masculine appearance.

Although Maxine’s mother was ultimately willing to support hormone injections, her father Clark* was concerned about the permanent ramifications of cross-sex hormones. Suspecting that his daughter’s mental health issues might be more the cause than the effect of her gender dysphoria, he ultimately decided that it would be better for her to wait until she was older before she embarked on any irreversible course of treatment.

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine

THINK of North Korea as a liberation movement with unfinished business—the reunification of Korea—and you have the surest guide to explain its past actions and likely future behaviour. It is vital to keep this in mind, as President Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in claim success in reducing the threat from North Korea.

Summits between enemies like Trump and Kim Jong-un, and Kim and Moon, may grab attention as firsts and breakthroughs. But they do not signal a shift in the North’s ambitions. Rather, they fit into patterns of tactical manoeuvring that Pyongyang has engaged in for decades to meet short-term goals. This is especially necessary for a regime like North Korea which sees itself as an insurgency pitted against a superior occupying force like the US.

North Korea is one of the few successful Stalinist dictatorships. In a small, compact country with a manageable population, the founder, Kim Il-sung, was able to wipe out all his opponents and opposing factions in the first ten years of his rule. His successors, chosen for their ruthlessness, have been able to ensure the loyalty and obedience of the North’s Stalinist party organisation, the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), both to them personally and to their vision of a unified state. The North’s state apparatus, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a shadow, even less well-formed than other Leninist countries. It has no independent existence. The premier and cabinet ministers are all senior members of the ruling KWP. They carry out administrative functions decided and overseen by the party.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nigerias-democracy-survives-11551400619

The question never asked: Are African nations that were British colonies better off since decolonization? How many years of tribal wars, corruption and chaos did it take for Nigeria to achieve this fragile state?…..rsk

There’s enough going wrong in Africa that it’s easy to miss the positive developments. Nigeria’s presidential election on Saturday is one of them, even if it was imperfect.

Voters decisively re-elected President Muhammadu Buhari with 56% of the vote, according to the country’s electoral commission. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar took home 41%. Mr. Abubakar, perhaps taking advantage of pre-election confusion, says he doesn’t accept the result. But this doesn’t square with the reality on the ground.

In 2015 Mr. Buhari became the first democratically elected Nigerian leader to take office in a peaceful transfer of power. But the former military dictator—he briefly ruled the country in the 1980s—seemed to be returning to his old ways. He suspended the Nigerian supreme court’s chief justice in January, and for years critics have complained that his anticorruption drive focuses on political opponents. After the election was delayed a week, it seemed Mr. Buhari might be seriously backsliding on Nigeria’s democratic progress.

Independent observers reported some irregularities and violence around the election, but both sides earned criticism. Critically, the shenanigans weren’t widespread enough to tip the result. The country has a long way to go from being a perfect democracy, but it still held an election in which the majority’s candidate won.

Success in Nigeria matters beyond its borders. With some 200 million people, it is easily Africa’s biggest democracy. Dashed hopes for democratic progress in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo were disappointing but all too typical. Serious regression in Nigeria would have been a disaster for democrats across the continent.

Neither choice in Saturday’s contest was inspiring, and Mr. Buhari’s statist economic policies hold back the oil-rich nation. The country could have benefited from the more market-oriented approach offered by Mr. Abubakar, who promised to privatize the state oil company, despite his baggage after decades in politics. But the Nigerian people made their decision, and it’s welcome news that they could control their own political destiny.

Participating in Nigeria’s democracy isn’t always easy. Voters often travel great distances and wait patiently in the sun for a chance to pull the lever. Even with turnout down, millions of Nigerians deserve credit for not losing faith in the process. Now the burden is on Mr. Buhari to live up to their expectations.