RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14026/iran-floods-mullahs

The natural disaster has also revealed some of the fundamental weaknesses of a dysfunctional system that, having devoted its principal resources and much of its energies to promoting a weird ideology, seems to be incapable of coping with basic tasks of a normal nation-state.

President Hassan Rouhani, spending a week-long holiday in the island resort of Qishm, appeared beyond reach. “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei, too busy with a poetry gathering, was unavailable for days and found it unnecessary even to comment.

Iranians watched in amazement as special units of the regular army moved to save lives, prevent floods from spreading further, reopen roads and even start repairing some of the damage. Buoyed by the presence of regular army units, thousands of volunteers also poured in to help deal with the disaster. Contacts across Iran describe the solidarity shown by average citizens as “exemplary”, implying that Iran deserves a better government.

It may take weeks if not months before the full facts of the current nationwide floods in Iran are established. But we already know that the floods represent one of the biggest natural disasters Iran has suffered in half a century.

According to provisional data from the Islamic Red Crescent, the floods struck in over 300 towns and cities in 22 of Iran’s 31 provinces, affecting 18.5 million people, almost a quarter of the nation’s total population. Some 1.2 million people have been made homeless, at least temporarily.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/brexit-debate-british-independence/

Charles Moore today ends his weekly Telegraph column, which has become required reading for both supporters and opponents of Brexit, with a gloomy forecast that the only way of saving Brexit from its betrayal by a Tory prime minister and government is her replacement by a new leader who then reforms the Tory party along lines that would allow local Tory associations to deselect Remain MPs and replace them with Leavers. His final paragraph reads:

It does not sound very likely, does it? The only reason to think that it might happen is the prospect of the alternative, which is annihilation.

Does “annihilation” sound a trifle over-dramatic? Well, I suspect Moore intends that it should have a shock effect on his readers — a metaphorical shaking of the shoulders to make them realize what’s at stake. What is at stake is not the physical annihilation of the Brits but the absorption of their self-governing democracy into an undemocratic European empire called the European Union. And that prospect justifies the gloomiest of forecasts.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/06/malawi-albinos-kidnapped-sacrificed-witchdoctor-gangs-hunt-election/

“Crude superstitious beliefs, even if only upheld by a minority, are widespread in Africa, with albino attacks reported in 28 countries across the continent.”

It was a real-life Sophie’s choice: With the albino-hunting gang advancing through her house, Misa Maulidi had seconds to decide which of her children to save and which to abandon to the men who wanted to sacrifice them both.

She had always feared this would happen, particularly with Malawi’s general election looming and politicians reportedly in the market for albino body parts to use in the witchcraft rituals meant to help them win their seats.

It was why she and her extended family had chosen to live in a remote homestead deep in the tobacco plantations of central Malawi, miles from Dedza, the nearest town.

Here, secluded from the outside world but with security in numbers, she hoped she could safely raise Goodson, her 14-year-old son, and his three-year-old sister Faith, both born with albinism, a genetic condition that bleaches the skin, hair and eyes white.

But then, a little before midnight on Feb 12, five machete-wielding men smashed down the door of her hut. Mrs Maulidi, who is black, realised immediately what they wanted, but knew she couldn’t save both her children.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hijacked-in-hong-kong-11554506196

A sad fact is that bad behavior that would be condemned in any other part of the world is ignored in China because the large Chinese market makes people think twice before speaking the obvious. So kudos to the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and their business allies for speaking up against a proposal to let the territory start extraditing people China wants to put on trial.

Last month AmCham noted the proposal threatens Hong Kong’s reputation as a “secure haven for international business.” No extradition arrangement exists because no one in his right mind trusts the Chinese justice system, and with good reason. In 2015 five Hong Kong men associated with a local shop that carried books critical of high-ranking Communist leaders went missing, only to resurface in China—where they then appeared on state TV making “confessions.” At least one, Gui Minhai, remains under detention in China.

The extradition demand clearly violates China’s promise of autonomy for Hong Kong for 50 years through 2047. Though the Hong Kong government has slightly modified its proposals by narrowing the crimes for which someone could be extradited, it is still bending to the mainland. AmCham says it still has “serious concerns,” and so do many others. Despite the many expressions of concern, the government introduced the bill Wednesday

This past weekend thousands of Hong Kong people turned out for a march against the extradition proposal. They know that next on Beijing’s list is a national security law on treason, sedition, secession and subversion that would likely gut speech rights in Hong Kong.

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/the-hungarian-resistance/

Most people want to survive. What could be more natural than that? Most peoples want to survive, too. That’s no less natural.

For a thousand years, the lands inhabited by the Hungarian people have been invaded, their settlements sacked, men, women and children enslaved and slaughtered. Mongols, Ottomans, Nazis and Soviets were among those who conquered and ruled the Hungarians. Somehow, they’ve survived.

Hungarians today, a clear majority, believe their national existence – their unique identity, language, culture and traditions – is threatened again. This time, however, it is not by nomads on horseback or soldiers in tanks. It is by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Union.

In 2015, Merkel decided, on her own initiative, to establish an open-door policy for “migrants” from the broader Middle East and Africa. Since then, she and other EU leaders have been pressuring Hungary to accept its “fair share.”

All members of the EU have a “duty to make legal migration possible to help countries that are in trouble,” she has insisted. Hungary should demonstrate “solidarity” by agreeing to participate in a “fair system of distribution” of those who have arrived – more than a million in 2015, several hundred thousand since – as well as those who will arrive over the years ahead.

Here in Budapest just over a week ago, a conference was convened by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Hungary’s largest multidisciplinary college. Its title: “Migration: The Biggest Challenge of Our Time?”

https://amgreatness.com/2019/04/05/the-spurious-case-of-jeremy-corbyn/

Call me crazy, but I am beginning to suspect that thrusting a diehard Remainer into the job of pulling Great Britain out of the European Union was, on second thought, a bad move.

Excuse me for being glacially slow to arrive at this moment of clarity.

The revolution, though each pathetic flutter has been painfully televised, is indeed over. This week, Theresa May appears to have given up on her deal to leave the EU. And she is now siding with probably the most intellectually impoverished pseudo-sentient being to besmirch parliament in at least three centuries.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, sexagenarian Holden Caulfield sans the wit, humor, or intellectual incision, is now entrusted with the most consequential decision to befall our country since World War II.

What Corbyn thinks about Brexit is largely unknown. If he thinks at all it is unverified. His ex-wife claimed that in their four years together, “Jeremy” didn’t read one book. And he detested “bourgeoise” holiday spots. In the middle flushes of his youth, he vacationed in Communist East Germany. So, as you may deduce, he is a barrel of laughs. A box of frogs.

But May, still our prime minister, reported this week she held “constructive” talks with Corbyn with the hope of solving the Brexit impasse. She can’t do much else. Lawmakers killed her withdrawal agreement three times. Other lawmakers threatened to take control, and then voted several times against taking any semblance of control.

A lawmaker friend of mine, one of the original and thoroughly fruity Brexiteers, is so desperate to leave he has voted for May’s deal three times.

“Nobody here,” he said, interrogatively, “seems to know what they are doing.” Which is alright, I suppose, if one is standing in a Subway queue and the meat of discussion centers upon pointlessly large sandwiches. The most consequential of endeavors in such instances concerns ranch dressing. But he was not in a sandwich shop. This was the House of Commons.

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2019-4-4-the-arguments-in-favor-of-brexit-are-more-persuasive-than-ever

Back at the time of the UK’s referendum on “Brexit” in June 2016, I wrote two posts on the subject: one on the June 23 date of the vote, and the other four days later. The first advocated in favor of the “leave” position, and the second gave some reasons to believe that the just-endorsed departure would be a good thing.

One of the things I predicted was that the actual departure would not happen quickly or easily. The reason was that the forces of “stay” controlled high positions in the government and other leading institutions, had much to lose personally, and would not give up easily:

[D]o not expect the totalitarians and vested interests to give up easily. I anticipate a protracted campaign of obstruction and delay, as the grafters desperately fight and claw to hang onto every last grant and perk.

Boy was I right about that one! Here we are, going on three years later, and the Brexit has still not occurred.

Meanwhile the Brexit “process” has turned into a Perils of Pauline soap opera, barely escaping one supposed disaster after another seemingly every few days.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14004/turkey-municipal-elections-results

The election results in Istanbul, now disputed by the AKP, put the opposition candidate into the lead by a margin of 23,000 votes in a city with 10.5 million voters.

“Though Turkey’s government and many commentators are blaming the Trump administration and foreign speculators for the country’s economic downturn, the reality is that it was already ‘baked into the cake’ many years ago due to the credit bubble that formed.” — Jesse Colombo, Forbes.

Simple religious Islamist conservative and ultra-nationalist populism are still keeping Erdoğan in power, but there are signs that, if the economy keeps getting worse, those forces may not be able to save him. There are signs that this is taking place.

On March 31, the Turks went to the ballot box to elect mayors for their cities. Ostensibly the election results marked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 15th consecutive election victory since his (Islamist) Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002. The AKP won the biggest number of votes (44%) nationwide. Its ultra-nationalist ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) won 7% of the vote. That was good news for Erdoğan. In reality, it was good but incomplete news for Turkey’s Islamist strongman.

“Who loses Istanbul [in elections] loses Turkey,” Erdoğan roared in a 2018 speech, underlying the importance of big Turkish cities in municipal elections.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/land-of-the-rising-unease-11554333457

Japan is joining much of the world in facing weaker economic growth, but in one respect it’s unique. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems determined to make it worse by imposing a tax increase later this year.

This week’s survey of business confidence from the Bank of Japan makes for bracing reading. Confidence among large manufacturers fell to 12 from 19 in December, the steepest decline since 2013. Smaller manufacturers shared the gloom. This follows anemic retail sales and weak growth in industrial production in February after several months of contraction. The economy eked out GDP growth of 0.8% in 2018 and may struggle to match that this year.

Foreign pressures aren’t helping Japan, including President Trump’s trade war with China, which has Asian economies caught in the crossfire. Japan’s export-dependent economy remains vulnerable to slower growth in Europe and China.

Yet domestic problems are also in play. Mr. Abe’s economic revival program, Abenomics, still hasn’t fully launched as it enters its eighth year. He delivered more government spending and an unprecedented monetary blowout, but the policy reforms intended as the “third arrow” of the plan never took flight. This is weighing on investment and productivity growth.