ommunities, social classes or demographics that are already disenfranchised in Britain. And for those who do speak out, it feels like you are screaming at a brick wall that would rather label you as the problem than take you seriously.
"The shame isn't ours to feel. It's theirs." – Gisèle Pelicot.
operated, similar patterns emerged: victims were ignored, law enforcement complicit and political officials more concerned about reputational damage than lives affected. Local authorities can hold their own inquiries, of course. But given the scale of these crimes, the fact they took place over decades, in many towns, suggests a level of institutional complicity requiring the attention of central government.
Labour’s stance is made harder by its previous support for such inquiries. The party has launched a review every two-and-a-half days it has been in office. If the two-child benefit cap gets a task force, then surely child abuse warrants an inquiry? In its election manifesto, the party pledged to stand for open government.
‘Too many victims of historical injustices have had insult added to injury by years of legal delays’, it said, promising to right the historic wrongs of Hillsborough and the Battle of Orgreave. Phillips herself previously claimed that Tory ministers ‘literally don’t give a toss’ about ‘violence against women and girls.’ Critics will ask if that stance stacks up with her decision on Oldham.
If any recent scandal is just crying out for a government inquiry, it's surely this. Overlooked, ignored – too embarrassed – the whole business is a national scandal dwarfing, say, the recent Post Office affair. Central to the whole business is the fact that this rape on a massive scale was carried out by men of Pakistani heritage on vulnerable young white girls. This has always been a factor – probably the major factor – in why there's been a reluctance by the authorities to carry out any more investigation, and really it's not at all clear that anything's about to change.
sible police corruption in the case are almost beyond belief. https://t.co/0SVoxuqw6K
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 2, 2025
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The Rochdale grooming gang ringleader, (50 men who sexually abused or raped 74 underage girls) still hasn’t been deported 9 years after receiving his deportation order.
Qari Abdul Rauf was released in 2014, just 2.5 years into a 6 year sentence.
He still lives near his victims pic.twitter.com/Zv5JFDZczD
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 2, 2025
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The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal.
Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots.
2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice.
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) January 2, 2025
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In contrast to yesterday's gloomier prognosis from Joshua Muravckik, here's a touch of optimism for New Year's Day from Seth Frantzman at the JC:
Iran has seen its proxies weakened and it knows it wasted huge resources on Hezbollah, Assad, the Houthis and Iraq. It hollowed out Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria and bankrupted them. Then Iranian-backed militias fed off these countries until there was nothing left.
Lebanon is a disaster because of Hezbollah. Yemen is a disaster because of the Houthis. The only truly successful part of Iraq is the Kurdistan region where Iran’s militias are not present. Iran is a predatory regime that has destroyed the Middle East – and many countries now understand this. They see the ruin in Gaza and in Syria and understand Iran’s hands are behind this.
Could this ruin lead to a new birth of hope in the region? The Arab Spring was supposed to be that hope but it ended in civil wars and bloodshed. Today, things have changed. People have learned the lessons from al-Qaeda and Islamic State. Perhaps they have learned the lessons from what Hamas has brought on Gaza. If they have, they should begin to speak up. They should throw off the shackles of Iran’s policies. People should wake up in Gaza and realise that “resistance” has brought them ruin. Iran wants to use others as tools and proxies. It mobilises people and denies them a university education, handing them an AK-47 rather than a diploma. Iran sends legions of people to fight in worthless wars so that Tehran’s regime can relax while others perish.
Israel has borne the brunt of this tragedy with the October 7 attack. Syria has also suffered, as have the Lebanese and Iraqis, as well as people in Yemen. There may be hope that the tide is turning….
Young leaders are emerging. Ahmed Shara’a, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led his group to victory over Assad.
He has made statements that speak of a new inclusive Syria, free from Iran. He has spoken about incorporating Kurds and Druze and other groups into the new Syria.
It’s true his background is that of an extremist. But extremists can change. He may be seeking to change. We should trust, but verify, as the proverb says.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is another young leader in the region. Together, these younger leaders might point the way to a new Middle East unshackled from past decades. Israel has a role to play here as a pioneering state with hi-tech industry. Other countries such as the UAE and the Gulf states have much to offer. There will be countries that want to spoil this optimism. However, it is worth pausing and having hope for the future.
Columbia professor Joseph Massad, speaking to Ejaz Haider of Lahore University. From MEMRI TV:
Columbia University Professor of History Joseph Massad stated that "the idea that European Jews are somehow direct descendants of the Ancient Hebrews is, of course, a bogus claim." He added that while some Jews may have had a religious or spiritual connection to the Ancient Hebrews, European Christians began suggesting in the 17th and 18th centuries that Jews originated from Asia in order to "estrange them from Europe."
He further claimed that "it is almost like a Hitlerian project to speak about Jews genetically" and that talk of a genetic connection between Jews and the Ancient Hebrews or Ancient Israel "became fashionable" only in the 19th century with the rise of biological sciences. He also stated that "Israeli propaganda" claims Palestinians are descendants of Arab colonizers, but asserted this cannot be true, as the Arab-Islamic conquest of the Levant and North Africa was not a settler colonialist project. Massad dismissed archaeological records as a "colonial venture." He added that Palestinians are the only group in the region not allowed to claim the Ancient Hebrews as their ancestors because "some strange European group" is claiming them for themselves.
Massad has a course this year at Columbia on Zionism – “The History of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala) in 19th century Europe and the development of Zionism through the current peace process between the state of Israel and the Arab states and the Palestinian national movement.” According to the course description it's intended to provide an overview of the “Zionist-Palestinian” conflict.
He described the October 7th terrorist attacks by Hamas as “awesome".
multiple staff members at WCCW, alleging a violation of his human rights.
In his complaint, he maintains that every allegation made against him was falsified, and that he is the victim of a widespread conspiracy aimed at painting him in a bad light in order to force him back into a men’s facility.
You'll no doubt be wondering if the ACLU is involved. Well…
Lotusflower is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for “cruel and unusual punishment,” and has invoked the assistance of the ACLU. While it is unclear if the organization has formally taken on this particular iteration of case yet, the ACLU has assisted Lotusflower in the past with other suits.
It's a strange fate for the once prestigious ACLU: focusing on the defence of violent and unhinged men as they (cynically) claim to be trans, thereby enabling them to attack and sexually assault women with impunity. But that's what happens when the gender cult takes over.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Lotusflower is currently serving a 10-year sentence for the brutal murder of 17-year-old Jessica Franklin.
The violent criminal targeted Franklin just hours after being released from prison for another conviction in 2007, strangling her to death. Her body was found beneath an underpass in Bellingham, Washington, and a forensic examination revealed signs she had been sexually assaulted. Lotusflower was convicted on second-degree manslaughter charges….
Speaking to a source within WCCW in 2023, Reduxx learned that Lotusflower had apparently been gifted a costly Victoria’s Secret bra by the Washington Department of Corrections after undergoing his taxpayer-funded breast implant surgery.
How sweet.
Joshua Muravchik has a long piece at Quillette on Syria and the new evolving calculus in the region. Iran and Russai are the big losers, of course. The winners? Well, Israel…and Turkey. An extract:
Small and outnumbered as Israel is, the aura of its power is what saves it from relentless attack. With a few farsighted exceptions, the Arab and Muslim worlds still do not accept Israel as a neighbour. Yet, most of that world has made explicit or tacit peace with the Jewish state simply because they know that making war on it is self-defeating. Survival depends on deterrence for all states in theory, but for Israel this is more concretely so.
The current war with the axis of resistance is still not over. Israel is determined to finish off Hamas, and there is yet a reckoning coming with the Houthis and Iran itself. In the end, if things play out in Israel’s favour, this war may be followed by a peace agreement, not only with Saudi Arabia, but also with a bevy of other Arab states. When the Ayatollahs are overthrown, Israel will have peace with Iran, too. In that dream scenario, Israel would enjoy a more secure existence than it has ever known.
One cloud over this idyllic image is the other big winner of the Syrian revolt—Turkey, the main patron of HTS. Its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is an Islamist of the Muslim Brotherhood strain. In an article for MEMRI, of which he is vice president, Alberto Fernandez, who has served as a US official dealing with the Middle East, suggests that with Erdoğan’s help and guidance (and Qatar’s money), HTS might erect an Islamist state in Syria. It would shun the extremism of ISIS and instead reflect the relative moderation of the Muslim Brotherhood. This could energise emulators across the Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan, and North Africa, where Islamist movements already boast substantial support but have been held in check by their respective governments.
Such Sunni Islamist states might mostly avoid direct confrontation but would be unfriendly to the West, to Israel, and to the liberties of their citizens—women and minorities especially. Those targets of its enmity would face the disappointment of seeing the challenge of Shi’ite Islamism replaced by Sunni Islamism. For Israel, that might mean a cold peace in the short run but not acceptance, and the prospect of new conflict eventually. For the US, it would mean a region devoid of the close ties it currently enjoys with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and others. This would be a boon to those bent on cutting America down to size.
But worth reading in full.
le South Korea has become an economic and cultural powerhouse – despite the recent "martial law" blip. The only conceivable reunification would see the North subsumed into the South. Clearly that is something the Kim dynasty cannot allow. So…the “Hostile Two-State Theory”.
