RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/elizabeth-warren-economic-plans-lessons-from-europe/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=top-stories&utm_term=fourth

It’s no model for what leftist schemes would create here.

A nationwide series of protests, some of them violent, is convulsing France. The proximate cause is pension reform, and the French are having a splendid time: In news photos, the protesters are positively beaming, and a recent BBC report described the mood, amid the arson and destruction of property, as “festive.”

I suspect that the American version of that will be less festive, when the time comes.

Paul Krugman of the New York Times, who as a columnist always has had a particularly unkeen sense of timing, in November attacked the “Europhobia” of centrist Democrats. “Going on about how terrible things are in France is a sure sign that you have no idea what you’re talking about,” he wrote. I do not think France is a particularly badly governed country, but the French are mad as hell about it, and surely their opinion must count for something.

If you are wondering where Professor Krugman is seeing all those centrist Democrats who were terrified of France in early autumn, it is helpful to know that the column is one long stage whisper at Steven Rattner, the Obama-administration Treasury official who wrote in the New York Times that Warren is the candidate for those who “want to live in France (economically).” Warren’s policies, Rattner wrote, would impose dirigiste European practices on U.S. firms. Rattner, who is after all an Obama guy, is generally supportive of New Deal–style welfare statism but fears Warren’s

intention to impose vast new regulatory burdens and to revamp the way business functions, which could have an even more negative effect on our economy. Many of America’s global champions, like banks and tech giants, would be dismembered. Private equity, which plays a useful role in driving business efficiency, would be effectively eliminated. Shale fracking would be banned, which would send oil and natural gas prices soaring and cost millions of Americans their jobs. And on and on.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/12/the-secret-labour-files-of-shame.php

The “Secret Labour Files of Shame”

That’s what the London Times calls the explosive Labour Party files on anti-Semitism that, having been leaked, have now been reviewed by the newspaper. The rank instances of anti-Semitism exhibited by Labour members of Parliament, and the party’s weak response thereto, are shocking:

The secret files, seen by this paper, reveal the party is still overwhelmed with complaints about anti-Jewish racism that have been left unresolved for months or years. Most have resulted in lenient punishments or no sanctions, according to the documents, despite Jeremy Corbyn’s election campaign claims of zero tolerance.
***

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/boris-johnson-for-prime-minister/90930/

Boris Johnson for Prime Minister

When Britons go to the polls on Thursday to choose the 58th Parliament, The New York Sun will be rooting for Boris Johnson. It might seem preposterous for an American publication to make an endorsement in a British election. Then again, too, one wag noted, if the Sun hadn’t, at the last minute, emerged as the only national paper to endorse Donald Trump, Secretary of State Clinton might be president.

More seriously, it’s hard to think of many political causes in which we’ve been more invested over the years than that of an independent Britain. We formed our view, in the 1980s, by covering the European Union for a great newspaper (in our case, the Wall Street Journal). It’s the same method through which Mr. Johnson reached his conclusions about the EU, by covering it for a great newspaper (in his case the Daily Telegraph).

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3041104/heads-influential-am

Tara Joseph, president of the American Chamber of Commerce, and group’s chairman Robert Grieves held at border for two hours, on their way to an annual ball
Refusal comes after chamber’s opposition to doomed extradition bill, and tension over US legislation on Hong Kong affairs

The heads of an influential American business group in Hong Kong were denied entry to Macau and detained for several hours on Saturday, before being sent back with no reason given.

According to a statement issued on Saturday night by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (AmCham), its chairman Robert Grieves and president Tara Joseph were separately prevented from entering the former Portuguese colony as they travelled to the annual AmCham Macau Ball.

“Both Robert and Tara were given no reason for why they were delayed,” the statement read. “After several hours, and after having to sign a statement that they voluntarily agreed not to pursue entry into Macau, they both returned to Hong Kong without any difficulty.

“We are puzzled as to why this happened, given this was simply a social occasion to celebrate AmCham Macau’s annual gathering.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15047/fate-of-christians

• Why should it be anti-Muslim or “Islamophobic” to write about the effects of jihad or the conservative Muslim treatment of unbelievers? The facts are well established within international bodies, NGOs, national commissions, and verifiable journalistic reports. Reformist Muslims themselves are highly critical of the discriminatory laws and behaviours in countries from which they or their forebearers originated.
• Indeed, it is precisely Muslims of a reformist and liberal bent who are most vocal about radical restrictions on the values that other Muslims claim are universal.
• Let us be clear. No doubt, there will probably always be people, call them the real “Islamophobes”, who will use problems within Muslim states or communities to try to tar Islam or Muslims as a whole. But these and other issues still need to be faced as authentic human rights concerns.
• A particularly widespread problem for Christians in Muslim countries is the ban on Christian proselytization…. While Christian and secular countries rightly permit Muslims to preach, convert, and instruct non-Muslims, 25 Muslim states forbid proselytization and have laws saying that Muslims who convert to another faith may be put to death as apostates.
• Liberalized versions of Islam have in the past few decades been suppressed by fundamentalist takeovers of entire societies. It is therefore hard to believe that countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Turkey will return quickly to the moderation they had developed in the previous century. If there is hope for good relations between non-Muslims and Muslims, it must rest, as has already begun, with the Muslims in liberal democracies…. The British organization Muslims Against Antisemitism, is a shining example; in America, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy is another. They should be treasured and helped.
A recognition of the religious freedoms offered by secular non-coercive states should be of particular importance to Muslims worldwide. It is a serious criticism of Islamic practice both historically and in the modern era that many Muslim countries seem to remain deeply intolerant towards the followers of other religions or the followers of differing branches of their own religion; toward people they regard as having left Islam, or even whom they perceive as having “offended” its followers, whether inadvertently or not. Persecution of religious minorities, and other Muslims seems common in many Muslim countries — from the highly restrictive Saudi Arabia to the more liberal Indonesia, and especially in countries where the religion is closely allied to the state.