A Marshall Islands-flagged cargo vessel with an American crew was intercepted today by Iranian warships in the Straits of Hormuz. The warships surrounded the vessel, fired warning shots, and then escorted it into an Iranian port. U.S. officials said they are monitoring the situation.
In other news, after a night of violence and mayhem, the city of Baltimore was relatively calm today, although a state of emergency and a 10pm curfew remain in place.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Auchan to Lay Off 1,500 Italy Staff
Unions call May 9 strike
(ANSA) — Palermo, April 27 — French retail multinational Auchan on Monday said it was laying off 1,500 of the over 11,000 workers it has in its 51 Italian hypermarkets. Trade unions called a nationwide strike May 9 and said there may be other protests before that.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
A Mathematics and History Lesson for Conservative Candidates for President
Over the last 50 years Americans have suffered the effects of massive wasteful and disgraceful spending of borrowed money for social welfare giveaways, military misadventures, the opening of the floodgates for massive and unneeded legal and illegal immigration, and ill advised wars. The same federal government has also wasted unfathomable billions of borrowed money for creation of bloated, unnecessary cabinet departments and agencies, such as the Depts. of Education, Energy, Environmental Protection, Housing and Urban Development, and Homeland Security, among others. These depts. are all either duplication of services other depts, could perform, or are superfluous agencies whose chief role is expanding federal intrusion into state and local concerns.
Another math and history lesson for politicians, office holders, and American citizens: adjusted for “inflation” our national debt per person is about seven times larger than 50 years ago. “Irresponsible” does not begin to describe what we Americans have allowed our elected political leaders to do to us financially through our national debt,since 1965. The open and unanswered question herein, is “where were the actuaries and accountants”? Why was our nation’s budget not kept under continual scrutiny and revenue adjusted to expenditures to balance our budget? Why was no attempt ever made, to generate surpluses and thus pay off our national debt?
[Comment: Debauching the US currency is a planned operation. It is not an accident. A strong Constitutional Republic would be a bulwark against the New Socialist World Order. This is the reason US is being taken down economically.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Israel Campus Groups Lobbying for Hamas
A recent commotion at University of California, Davis, led to a walk-out by pro-Israel students with other students shouting “Allahu Akbar” as they left. The event occurred during a meeting of the Student Government Council who was voting on a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) resolution.
BDS is a world-wide, pro-Palestinian (thus: anti-Israel) movement seeking to damage the Israeli economy. It has chapters on campuses to pressure the university trust funds to boycott Israeli businesses and investments.
After the walkout, the Student Council voted 8 to 2 in favor of the resolution to boycott and divest, much to the satisfaction of the pro-Hamas group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) who had championed the vote. Jewish leaders and their friends on campus knew the situation was serious when a couple of swastikas were painted on a Jewish frat house a few days later.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Are the Baltimore Riots Being Manipulated?
Is it possible that there are people out there that are attempting to inflame the Baltimore riots for their own twisted purposes? I don’t know if you have noticed, but there has seemed to be lots of unprotected police vehicles parked very close to where all of the protests have been happening. The police had to know that those vehicles would be prime targets if violence erupted. So where were the police while those vehicles were being smashed and set on fire? And why did the mayor of Baltimore say that authorities purposely “gave those who wished to destroy space to do that”? Yes, Freddie Gray really died. And yes, the police really did brutalize him resulting in his death, and the outpouring of anger that we are witnessing regarding this episode of police brutality is very real. But as Rahm Emanuel used to say, “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste”. In recent days we have seen a whole host of politicians, “civil rights leaders”, and opportunists flock to Baltimore like bears to a honeypot. We have also seen events unfold in a way that seems almost perfectly staged for television. Yes, the anger of the rioters in Baltimore is very real, but is that anger being manipulated and used for other purposes?
Early on Monday, there was a very highly organized Internet campaign calling for a “purge” in Baltimore that would begin at precisely 3 PM eastern time…
On Monday, police said an online call was issued for a “purge” at 3 p.m. ET, starting at Mondawmin Mall and ending in the downtown area. The type of threat threat is based on a movie called “The Purge,” whose plot involves rampant lawlessness. It would be extremely interesting to find out precisely where this call for a “purge” originated from. And if you have seen “The Purge”, then you know exactly what was being called for. It was a clear message that violence was going to happen. Authorities knew about this well in advance, but the Mondawmin Mall area was not locked down in advance.
Very suspicious.
And the authorities also knew in advance that law enforcement officers were going to be specifically targeted on Monday…
Would you like to know who brought those gangs together?
According to Fox News, it was the Nation of Islam…
[Comment: Yes. Designed to elicit public calls for forefully taking back the streets — aka martial law. With the NoI operating as useful idiots. Blacks are being played and manipulated. Textbook communist subversion — use the blacks to foment unrest.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore Protests Turn Violent; Police Officers Injured
(CNN) Chaos and violence erupted on the streets of Baltimore late Monday as protesters clashed with police, several of whom were injured.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard.
“This afternoon, a group of outrageous criminals attacked our officers. Right now, we have seven officers that have serious injuries, including broken bones, and one officer who is unconscious,” Capt. Eric Kowalczyk told reporters.
He vowed to find the attackers and put them in jail.
Video showed police in riot gear taking cover behind an armored vehicle, as protesters pelted them with rocks.
At one point, it looked like officers used tear gas. The Baltimore Police Department said it had heard reports of protesters setting small items on fire, and footage showed a cruiser in flames.
Video also showed people looting local stores, and an area CVS Pharmacy was set on fire after it was ransacked. Thick dark smoke filled the streets.
[…]
“The Baltimore Police Department/Criminal Intelligence Unit has received credible information that members of various gangs including the Black Guerilla Family, Bloods, and Crips have entered into a partnership to ‘take out’ law enforcement officers,” police said. “This is a credible threat.”
Maryland State Police have ordered an additional 40 troopers to Baltimore to join the 42 troopers already sent there Monday afternoon to assist city police. Since last Thursday, more than 280 state troopers have provided assistance in Baltimore.
[…]
Because of the violence, the Baltimore Orioles have postponed their home game against the Chicago White Sox on Monday, the team announced via Twitter. At first, the team planned to go ahead with the game, but delayed it after further talks with the Police Department. A new date for the game will be announced later.
[Hello 1965. The proper tool for this job is the AC-130 gunship. Worked well enough at Qala-i-Jangi fortress in 2001. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore Riots: A Few People Tried to Stop the Unrest
(CNN) Please, not even a demonstration. Freddie Gray’s family had asked for quiet on Baltimore’s streets the day they laid him to rest. And above all, no violence.
Many people turned a deaf ear to that Monday, but a handful of people embraced the family’s message. They tried to stop young people from flinging rocks at police, breaking windows, looting and setting fires.
The peacemakers — clergy, Gray’s family and brave residents — placed themselves in the rioters’ way.
“I want them all to go back home,” said the Rev. Jamal Bryant.
“It’s disrespect to the family. The family was very clear — we’ve been saying it all along — today there was absolutely no protest, no demonstration,” he said.
The would-be peacemakers, though, were outnumbered by rowdy groups that burned and looted. The rioters overshadowed the message of peaceful protesters on prior days: They had called for justice for Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man who died from spinal injuries after police arrested him this month.
[…]
Even Baltimore members of the Crips and Bloods, two street gangs renowned for drug dealing and extensive violent crime — and for killing each other — came together with others who condemned the rage that swept through their neighborhoods.
“The guys who pulled me aside are self-identifying as Crips and say they don’t approve of whats happening. ‘This is our community,’ “ Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton wrote on his confirmed Twitter account.
[If the Crips and Bloods are really against rioting, it’s because crack sales are going to suffer when the community is swarming with cops and National Guardsmen. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore Riots: Stunning Comments by Orioles Owner’s Son
The day after violent protests left Baltimore burning in the wake of a funeral held for Freddie Gray who died after sustaining a spinal injury while being taken into policy custody, Americans are struggling to explain how the events that transpired on Monday evening are possible in modern day America.
While most are united in their condemnation of indiscriminant violence, many still feel a palpable sense of injustice after witnessing multiple instances of alleged police misconduct over the past year.
In this context we present the following culled from Twitter messages posted by Orioles Executive Vice President John Angelos, son of majority owner Peter Angelos:
“Brett, speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela, and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical that in any democracy investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.
“That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore Today, America Tomorrow: Why “Utter Chaos” Will Soon Erupt Across More U.S. Cities
But the real story here is that this riot is not merely a Baltimore problem. It’s a nationwide problem. It just so happens that the black people of Baltimore are sick and tired of a militarized police force — an apparent goon squad of chemically-altered ‘roid heads — beating the life out of their young adults (and severing their spines and killing them in police custody).
Can you blame them for the outrage? No matter what your race, it’s now obvious that police brutality is an endemic problem in America. This is not just another “isolated event.” It’s clearly a reflection of a culture of police brutality that for some reason seems to be disproportionately focused on young African-American males.
As the following image depicts, police in America have gone from being polite public servants to rogue villains donning black masks and military gear swiped from the era of Nazi storm troopers:…
What almost nobody seems to understand is the power of role playing when wearing all this militarized gear. As numerous psychological experiments have shown over the years — most notably the Stanford Prison Experiment — people automatically and unconsciously take on the roles they have been handed; and such roles are reinforced by the gear and clothing they are asked to wear.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore Burns While Obama Plots
Baltimore is burning because community organizers and various thugs are tearing the city apart in the aftermath of the strange death of a young black man who was in the custody of police — and President Obama is trying to make things worse.
In an incredible non-coincidence the rioting follows a weekend rally by the Occupy Wall Street-like Baltimore Peoples Assembly. There also was a first wave of rioting over the weekend. Outside activists have been flooding into Baltimore, according to reports. Police and civilians have been injured. A CVS store was looted and set on fire. Rioters chopped up fire hoses to prevent firefighters from doing their job. Criminal gangs have declared open season on cops. Rioters have been throwing cinder blocks, bricks, and other objects at police. And there aren’t enough cops to go around. Baltimore police are begging police officers in other states to come to Baltimore to help out. Schools are closed Tuesday.
Baltimore is now a war zone. Understandably, the Baltimore Orioles announced on Twitter at 6:20 last night that the game with the Chicago White Sox scheduled for 7:05 had been postponed. After Democrats dawdled, Maryland’s new Republican Gov. Larry Hogan acted last night, activating the Maryland National Guard in an attempt to restore order. Sensing things were getting out of hand fast, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D), said Monday that as of Tuesday evening she will impose a one-week curfew lasting from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. It’s not clear why the curfew wasn’t to take effect last night while parts of the city were burning.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Recently, Jeb’s Florida friend Sen. Marco Rubio has entered the Republican race which will split the Hispanic vote with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. This is like Teddy Roosevelt split the vote with William Howard Taft allowing Woodrow Wilson to be elected president in 1912, and Ross Perot took enough votes away from George H.W. Bush in 1992 so Bill Clinton was elected president. Additionally in the 2016 race, Rand Paul will siphon off the libertarian Republican voters, all of which will allow Jeb Bush to win some early primaries with only a plurality (nowhere near a majority) of votes. Jeb’s team will also see to it that conservative Republicans’ love for Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin will be dampened by showing his lack of knowledge of foreign affairs and asking such questions as “If Scott Walker is really a conservative, why does he say he admires/respects Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeline Albright?”
Another example of how the global power elite runs things is the fact that President Obama is lining up with Congressional Republicans and against his own Party regarding authorization for the currently discussed Pacific trade deal. When it comes to the global economy, presidents whether Democratic or Republican are told what to do by the global power elite.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Drudge on Baltimore Riots: ‘America Could Fall’
Chaos continues as authorities accused of failing to deal with unrest.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Freddie Gray Protest: Riots Erupt in Baltimore Following Funeral, In Pictures
Thousands of police and National Guard troopers were ordered to back up beleaguered officers in Baltimore after riots triggered by anger over the death of a black man in police custody. After an evening of violence, officials said calm appeared to be returning to the city. At least 27 people were arrested and 15 police injured as stone and brick-throwing mobs, many of them high school students, clashed with law enforcement and attacked local businesses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The fundamental problem Hillary faces, which may well prove insurmountable, is one of credibility. Most voters do not trust her. Her public service baggage has become too weighty to ignore. In addition, she is viewed as inflexible, boring, and temperamental. Most Americans admire a leader who is cool under pressure, affable, witty, and inspiring. She does not fit the leader profile. Above all else, to gain the confidence of the American people, a candidate for president must inspire trust. It is that trust factor that eludes Hillary, in part because she has such a poor track record but also because she cannot roll with the punches and respond with ease and grace to complex issues. She is mechanical and awkward when she needs to be fluid and graceful.
Peter Schweizer’s new book, Clinton Cash, is due out May 5. In it, that former Hoover Institute fellow known for his books exposing government corruption, establishes temporal links between receipt of funds from foreign entities by the Clinton Foundation and access to and actions by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He apparently lacks the penultimate proof of a quid pro quo but the coincidence in timing of receipt of funds and interaction with foreign representatives raises that question and begs for a full investigation.
Even if the Clinton Foundation’s receipt of funds from foreign entities cannot be proven to be part of a criminal quid pro quo, there is a more fundamental problem facing Hillary. The appearance of impropriety reduces public trust in her even further. It extends the credibility gap, making it even more difficult for Hillary to convince voters that she is trustworthy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hogan Rips Baltimore Mayor: Glad ‘She Finally Did’ Call for State of Emergency
During his press conference Monday night, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan implied that Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake waited too long to declare a state of emergency in the city as riots continue on.
Hogan told a reporter that he was “glad that she finally did” request a state of emergency for the city, adding that he executed her request in 30 seconds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Indigenous Groups in the U.S. Struggle to Retain, And Relearn, Dying Languages
By Soni Sangha
Growing up in Oaxaca, a city located about 300 miles south of Mexico City, Arcenio and Noe Lopez’s parents tried to steer them away from using the indigenous Mixtec language. They wanted to spare them the sense of inferiority that traditionally came with being a Oaxacan.
But it wasn’t until the family moved to the U.S. that the brothers experienced outright discrimination from fellow Mexicans, which eventually motivated them to explore their roots.
“I was called Oaxacito,” Arcenio said, recalling a term that means “little Oaxacan,” a reference to the smaller stature and darker complexion of the indigenous population, which along with other overtures inspired him to research his heritage. “Eventually I came to [realize] my language gives me my unique identity as an indigenous person,” he told Fox News Latino.
Now living in California and Texas, the Lopezes devote their time and energy to reversing a course of action played out for generations that has pushed languages like theirs close to extinction.
Noe and Arcenio represent a growing number of Latinos in the U.S. who are trying to retain their indigenous language even though it has forced them, they say, to endure discrimination.
[It can be done — look what the Jews accomplished with Hebrew in Israel. And the Irish are striving mightily to revive Gaelic. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Live Jade Helm Coverage in Texas
Infowars reporter Joe Biggs is in Bastrop, Texas, where Americans are flooding the Commissioners Courtroom at 804 Pecan St. in opposition to Operation Jade Helm.
“Jade Helm is a challenging eight-week joint military and Interagency (IA) Unconventional Warfare (UW) exercise conducted throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado,” according to an unclassified military document announcing the training drill, which runs from July 15 through September 15.
The exercise, in which troops will be “wearing civilian clothes and driving civilian vehicles” to blend in with “civilian populations,” lists Texas and Utah as “hostile” territory.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Montana Nullifies Federalization of State Law Enforcement
Prevents law enforcement from being bribed by the offer of military grade weapons from the federal government, as well.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Motel 6 Sending Guests’ Personal Info to Police Every Night
A Motel 6 in Rhode Island is quietly sending its daily guest list to police, completely unbeknownst to its customers, a report detailed earlier this month.
According to Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, local police secured the deal with several of the motel chain’s corporate managers after the company complained about a rash of criminal activity.
Avedisian confirmed the agreement to the Providence Journal after a closed-door meeting with motel executives, Warwick’s police chief and a town administrator.
“We know everyone who is staying in the hotel tonight,” Avedisian remarked.
Upon receiving the list, police will examine the backgrounds of each motel guest in order to check for outstanding warrants, a policy Avedisian deems necessary due to suspected human trafficking in the area.
Multiple motel guests have already been arrested Avedisian said, although details on the alleged crimes have been minimal.
Despite the policy making local headlines, Motel 6 confirmed that guests will not be informed of the new measure.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Congressmen Want to Block ‘Islamophobic’ Dutch Lawmaker Geert Wilders From Entering US
By Chuck Ross
The two Muslim members of Congress have called on two U.S. Cabinet members to block Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders from entering the U.S. because they believe he is “Islamophobic.”
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison and Indiana Democratic Rep. Andre Carson penned a joint letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson last Thursday. Foreign Policy reported it on Tuesday.
“We write to raise our deep concern regarding the visit of Mr. Geert Wilders, a Dutch lawmaker known for perpetuating Islamophobia,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote, citing a 1998 law, the International Religious Freedom Act. The law allows the State Department to deny foreign leaders guilty of “severe violations of religious freedom” from entering the U.S.
The law has only been enforced once before, in 2005, to ban Narendra Modi, India’s current prime minister. He was accused of failing to protect Muslims during riots in 2002 in which more than 1,000 people died.
[…]
On Sunday, Wilders travels to Garland, Tex. where he will give a speech at the American Freedom Defense Initiative, an event hosted by Pamela Geller. That group will hold its inaugural “Muhammad Art Exhibit” and will award a $10,000 prize for the best cartoon depiction of Muhammad. The contest was created in response to the Islamist massacre at the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo earlier this year.
[Security had better be tight at the latter event, as it is obviously on the enemy’s radar. And let no one doubt that those two goons are indeed the enemy. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
NSA’s Stellar Wind Program Was Almost Completely Useless, Hidden From Fisa Court by NSA and FBI
A huge report (747 pages) on the NSA’s Stellar Wind program has been turned over to Charlie Savage of the New York Times after a successful FOIA lawsuit. Stellar Wind has its basis in an order issued by George W. Bush shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Not an executive order, per se, but Bush basically telling the NSA that it was OK to start collecting email and phone metadata, as well as warrantlessly tap international calls into and out of the United States.
The extensive detailing of the program’s history contains some rather surprising elements. While much of it remains redacted, there’s still enough exposed that indicates the program was like many others the NSA has pursued: expansive, intrusive, done without oversight… and ultimately mostly useless.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Urges Country to Do ‘Soul Searching’ In Wake of Baltimore Riots
By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin
President Obama made an impassioned call Tuesday for Americans to do “some soul searching” in the wake of this week’s rioting in Baltimore, arguing the U.S. has faced “a slow-rolling crisis” over race and economic opportunity in urban areas.
Speaking during a Rose Garden press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the president gave a seven-point answer in response to a question of what he and his government should do to response to ongoing tensions between police officers and communities of color.
Obama sharply condemned the rioters for damaging private property and taking items from local stores: “They’re not protesting. They’re not making a statement. They’re stealing.”
But he also directed his criticism toward Americans — including the news media and some politicians — for failing to address the chronic problems of men, women and children who live in poverty and find their opportunities limited because of poor schools or long stints in prison.
“This has been a slow-rolling crisis,” he said. “This is not new… We, as a country, have to do some soul searching.”
Obama emphasized he was under no illusions that the policy measures he hoped would make a difference in these people’s lives — including expanded early-childhood education and criminal justice reform — would make it into law easily. He noted that he favors those kinds of social justice measures, “But that kind of political mobilization, I don’t think we’ve seen for some time.”
[The last time we saw it was during LBJ’s administration. It was called “The Great Society.” Those with long memories will recall how well it worked in 1965, 1967, and 1968. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Riots Erupt Across West Baltimore, Downtown
By Scott Dance
Violence and looting overtook much of West Baltimore on Monday, seriously injuring several police officers and leaving a store and several vehicles in flames.
As night fell, looters took to Mondawmin Mall and a Save-A-Lot and Rite Aid in Bolton Hill, loading up cars with stolen goods.
At least seven police officers were injured in a clash that began around 3 p.m. near Mondawmin Mall before spreading toward downtown. One officer was unresponsive and others suffered broken bones, police spokesman Capt. Eric Kowalczyk said.
Smoke filled the air as police responded with shields and a tactical vehicle. Demonstrators pelted officers with rocks, bricks and bottles and assaulted a photojournalist, and officers fired back with tear gas and pepper balls.
Demonstrators set a police vehicle ablaze at North and Pennsylvania avenues. Nearby, they looted a CVS drug store, which store officials said had already closed, before it caught fire. Rioters cut the fire hose as firefighters battled the blaze.
Looting spread along Howard and Centre streets as afternoon turned to evening. Another group of people was destroying property around North and Fulton avenues, police said, and a car was set on fire at North Avenue and Pulaski Street.
[…]
The incident stemmed from a flier that circulated widely among city school students via social media about a “purge” to take place at 3 p.m., starting at Mondawmin Mall and ending downtown. Such memes have been known to circulate regularly among city school students, based on the film “The Purge,” about what would happen if all laws were suspended.
[Just a lil’ community organizin’, yo. Coming soon to your city, courtesy of Barry Hussein and his “hodgepodge of folks.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
School Curriculum for Young Students Shamelessly Promotes GMOs, Vaccines
(NaturalNews) The biotechnology agenda has now infiltrated public school curricula for sixth graders, with a captured screenshot of a student’s homework essentially answering “yes” to the loaded question, “Are genetically modified foods safe to eat?”
As you’ll see in the shocking (below), young students are now being indoctrinated into the religion of GMOs and vaccines with blatant propaganda suggesting that “scientists,” rather than nature, are responsible for providing humanity with nutritious foods and medicine in the form of patented, privately owned lifeforms.
“Do you hate going to the doctor for your shots?” asks the assignment. “What if you could eat a banana instead? Through a process called genetic modification, scientists are creating foods that contain human vaccines as well as extra vitamins and minerals.”
The worksheet goes on to suggest that GMOs help scientists “increase positive traits and decrease negative ones,” again implying that nature got everything wrong and that humans have to step in and fix everything by mixing and matching genes from unrelated species.
This is the type of garbage that today’s public school students are now being taught as “facts.” It appears as though Monsanto has somehow slithered its slimy tentacles into formative school curricula in order to brainwash the next generation into accepting pirated biology…
As you’ll notice in the assignment, there’s no mention of how Roundup, the chemical herbicide applied liberally to GM crops like soybeans and corn, is causing an epidemic of pesticide-tolerant “superweeds.” There’s also no mention of how the World Health Organization (WHO) recently conceded that Roundup is a “probable carcinogen,” meaning it causes cancer.
What about the fact that more than 75% of air and rain samples collected across the U.S. are now turning up contaminated with Roundup? Nope, no mention of this either, which is highly alarming, as Roundup exposure, even in small amounts, is linked to causing a host of human health problems.
Rather than provide students with the full story on GMOs, pro-biotech propaganda like the aforementioned worksheet is flagrantly propagating an agenda of lies. And that agenda, which is based on illusion rather than science, is what students are now being tricked into believing is undeniable truth.
Just take a look at the copious science covered in the Earth Open Source GMOs Myths and Truths report and see for yourself how biotechnology is neither safe nor beneficial: EarthOpenSource.org.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“It can be set up in a way which is friendly to terrorists and helps them… and creates challenges for law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Six PEN Members Decline Gala After Award for Charlie Hebdo
By Jennifer Schuessler
The decision by PEN American Center to give its annual Freedom of Expression Courage award to the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has prompted six writers to withdraw as literary hosts at the group’s annual gala on May 5, adding a new twist to the continuing debate over the publication’s status as a martyr for free speech.
The novelists Peter Carey, Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner and Taiye Selasi have withdrawn from the gala, at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Gerard Biard, Charlie Hebdo’s editor in chief, and Jean-Baptiste Thoret, a Charlie Hebdo staff member who arrived late for work on Jan. 7 and missed the attack by Islamic extremists that killed 12 people, are scheduled to accept the award.
In an email to PEN’s leadership on Friday, Ms. Kushner said she was withdrawing out of discomfort with what she called the magazine’s “cultural intolerance” and promotion of “a kind of forced secular view,” opinions echoed by other writers who pulled out.
[Cultural intolerance — of an intolerant culture. More casting of Muslim bullies as poor little victims by the morally corrupt and intellectually bankrupt transnational left. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Smart Meters: A Surveillance and Control Con Job Revealed
It is rather ironic that the stated intentions of smart meters are: A) “to give customers tools to save energy and/or reduce bills”; B) “to increase grid resiliency”; and C) “to save the environment”.
In reality:
A) Where smart meters have been installed, there are no energy savings — but bills go up. B) Individual homes and the entire power grid become much more vulnerable to hacking. C) Radiation from smart meters has now been demonstrated to negatively impact all plants, insects, animals and all biological life — including humans…
Whenever a smart meter is installed, the bill usually goes up. Your bill will increase in three ways: 1) upon installation, 2) with planned usage rate increases — happening everywhere, and 3) later, with “time-of-use” billing.
Bills immediately increase due to systemic accuracy issues with most types of digital smart meters — which have been demonstrated in the UK to show electricity usage even when power to the home is shut off.
[…]
Smart meters are designed to collect and report data of in-home activities, with corporations set to capitalize on your private data. The value of this data is considered to be likely worth more than the entire electric utility industry.
According to my research over the past 3 years, the plan involves achieving a greater and greater level of granularity and extraction of in-home data over time. Unless stopped by the people, a centralized smart grid will mean total eradication of privacy — even within your own home.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Social Media Analysis Suggests Links Between Baltimore and Ferguson Violence
By Catherine Herridge
An analysis of social media traffic in downtown Baltimore Monday has unearthed striking connections to the protests in Ferguson, Mo., according to a leading data mining firm that shared its findings exclusively with Fox News.
The firm, which asked to remain anonymous because of its government work, found between 20 and 50 social media accounts in Baltimore that were also tied to the peak period of violence in Ferguson. While further analysis is being conducted on the data, it suggests the presence of “professional protestors” or anarchists taking advantage of Freddie Gray’s death to incite more violence.
Gray, 25, died April 18, a week after being injured while in police custody. A wave of violence erupted in Baltimore following his funeral Monday.
One account, which also tracked the recent union protests in New York City as well as other disturbances, tweeted photos of Gray’s funeral and used language that seemed to anticipate violence in Baltimore.
The discovery that some social media accounts were tied to cities 825 miles apart was described to Fox News as “surprising.” While it is possible to spoof accounts and make it appear as if someone is in one location when they are really in another, the data mining firm told Fox News that it can’t fully explain the numbers.
The use of social media to fuel violence in Baltimore has already been highlighted by law enforcement. On Monday, police said an online call was issued for a “purge” at 3 p.m. ET, starting at Mondawmin Mall and ending in the downtown area. The type of threat is based on a movie called “The Purge,” whose plot involves rampant lawlessness.
The Washington Times also reported Monday that law enforcement intelligence officials issued a warning after someone sent a text urging people to “kill all white police officers” in reaction to Gray’s death. The text has fueled fears that the violence in Baltimore could spread nationally, according to safety memos obtained by The Washington Times.
[So how is it that a private firm uncovers this, instead of the all-seeing eyes of our federal protectors? Oh, yeah — they’re all focused on the looming menace of the “right-wing sovereign citizens” movement. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Soros Group Advocates Violence Against Cops in Baltimore
The issue of police brutality, as in anywhere else in America or the world for that matter, is a problem in Baltimore. The city has paid out close to $5.7 million since 2011 to victims of police violence.
But the only logical response to riots, looting and destruction of private property is a more heavy-handed police crackdown, manifested in Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s recent decision to deploy the National Guard.
The Soros group knows this, and its social media sendouts illustrate how the foundation deliberately pours gas on the flames of civil unrest in order to “advance systemic change,” hoping to bring about their version of order out of chaos.
The Open Society Foundations, chaired and founded by Soros, was found to have contributed at least $33 million towards emboldening activists in Ferguson, Missouri, helping make the flawed “Hands up, don’t shoot” mantra ubiquitous.
Soros himself also admitted on CNN last year that a non-governmental organization he set up in Ukraine prior to its conflict with Russia “played an important part” in fomenting the events that destabilized the region.
While police violence on citizens of Baltimore is in no way justifiable, violent protests and attacks on police will merely serve to increase police forces and justify a militarized response.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Texas Gov. To Send State Guard to Monitor Jade Helm Exercise
Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted that he will be sending the Texas State Guard to monitor Jade Helm 15 operations in Texas “to safeguard Texans’ constitutional rights, private property & civil liberties.”
Is this statement meant to have citizens let their guard down, or is Gov. Abbott truly concerned about the Army’s mission?
[Comment: Probably a diffusing tactic: “Move along people of America, nothing to see here”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Establishment-controlled media losing popularity in U.S.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Trailer of “Call of Duty : Black Ops III” Portrays a Heavily Transhumanist Future (Video)
The trailer of the video game Call of Duty : Black Ops III depicts a future where the merging of humans and robots profoundly alters social order as well as the worlds of sports, medicine and warfare. Is this another case of predictive programming?
Call of Duty is an insanely popular video game franchise that sold well over 100 millions copies in the past ten years. The promotional material surrounding the latest installment of the series, entitled Black Ops III, places the game in a futuristic context where transhumanism is widespread and somewhat out of control. Here’s the trailer.
As you can see, this trailer is less about Call of Duty than it is about the future of transhumanism. It is about the creation of a “hybrid” breed of humans, their integration in various fields of human activity, the change of legislation to protect their rights, the creation of a new luxury market selling transhumanist enhancements to the rich and, of course, the creation of weaponized robot-humans to be used by the military…
This is where the gamer comes in. The millions of Call of Duty fans, from the kid who got the game as gift from his nana to the 34 year-old engineer looking to relax, will be playing the role of a weaponized human modified by transhumanism. These enhancements will inevitably been deemed as “cool” and “awesome” as they will be necessary to “pwn” other players.
So, despite the fact that the trailer of Black Ops III describes transhumanism as a controversial issue with many pitfalls, it is nevertheless depicted as an inevitability. This is exactly the goal of predictive programming.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Journalists in Baltimore, Maryland got a taste of war reporting Monday night as they covered the race riots that broke out in the city in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death.
In the violence that broke out in clashes between police and rogue protesters, at least five reporters and cameramen were injured, according to journalism organization Poynter.
All of the journalists targeted on Monday say they were attacked by the rioters — and not police.
[And guess what color they were. Just guess! — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
The bizarre world of militarization and propaganda just got a little bit more crazy — and spooky.
A new AARP commercial seems to offer a public service announcement, but if you play close attention to the commercial you’ll hear something very odd playing in the background. As the woman in the video watches the news she is called over to another room by her daughter. In the background (you may have to turn your audio up a little bit) you can clearly hear a news report about “riots nationwide” and a declaration of martial law by government emergency services.
Riots nationwide have prompted local governments to declare martial law.
The President is asking that citizens find safety and remain calm.
Authorities are working to contain the outbreak.
Here’s a video with commentary from Infowars:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Thugs’ Ransack Baltimore on Heels of Peaceful Protests for Gray
A state of emergency is in place in Baltimore after unrest erupted to coincide with the funeral of Freddie Gray. Local officials have attributed the violence to opportunistic “thugs.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tonight Show Drummer: Calling Rioters ‘Thugs’ Is Code for ‘N***ers’
When asked what word should be used, Questlove offered nothing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Forest Service Ignores Nestlé’s Illegal Take Over of Water Supply
That’s right, the US Forest Service has been turning their heads while a multinational corporation, whose former CEO thinks water is not a human right, and should be privatized, has been stealing our water.
Talk about being asleep at the wheel.
Nestlé is the largest bottled water producer in the world — the corp has been known for extracting pristine ground water from towns everywhere, and then selling it back to them at inflated costs. But illegally extracting water from one of the most drought-stricken places on the planet while the U.S. Forest service simply allows it? That sounds almost premeditated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Foreign Funds Promoting ‘Extreme Islamic Jihadist’ Views in Canada, National Security Advisor Says
By Stewart Bell
Money is coming into Canada to promote extremist ideology and much of it is going to religious institutions, the prime minister’s national security adviser testified at a hearing Monday on the government’s counter-terrorism bill.
Asked by Senate national security committee chairman Daniel Lang about millions of dollars allegedly coming from Gulf states “in respect to the extreme Islamic jihadist interpretation of the Qur’an,” Richard Fadden said it was a problem.
“I think it’s fair to say, without commenting on the particular country of origin, there are monies coming into this country which are advocating this kind of approach to life,” responded Fadden, who works in the Privy Council Office.
“A lot of these funds, I think, are directed to religious institutions or quasi-religious institutions. It’s very difficult in this country to start poking about, if you’ll forgive my English, religious institutions because of the respect that we have for freedom of religion.”
[The Muslim world is constantly admonishing the West that freedom of expression is “not absolute,” that it “carries responsibilities,” and so on. Not a peep about freedom of religion, which, it seems, is absolute — especially if it’s theirs. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Non-GMO Corn Offers Far More Nutrition Without the Poison, Study Shows
(NaturalNews) An eye-opening investigation conducted by Canada’s only supplier of non-GMO corn seed has revealed that genetically modified “Frankencorn” is severely lacking in a number of vital nutrients. Compared to non-GMO corn varieties, Monsanto’s Roundup Ready corn contains only a small fraction of the amount of calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese and carbon normally found in natural corn.
Shattering the myth that there’s no substantial difference between GMO and non-GMO crops, the report by De Dell Seed Company of London, Ontario, shows that GMO corn is nutritionally deficient and wholly unfit for human consumption. In nearly every vitamin and mineral category tested, GMO corn was found to contain only trace amounts of many key nutrients necessary for life.
[…]
In each of the following categories, non-GMO corn was found to have significantly higher nutrient levels:
Phosphate: more than 14 times higher in non-GMO corn
Potassium: more than 16 times higher
Calcium: more than 437 times higher
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Pizza Boxes Can Cause Miscarriage: Study
Chemicals in everyday products like food packaging and rain jackets can increase a woman’s risk of miscarriage by up to 16 times, a new Danish study warns.
New research from the University of Southern Denmark and the children’s health project Odense Child Cohort has shown that everyday chemicals can significantly increase the risk of spontaneous miscarriage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Secretly Records What You Type Even When You Decide Not to Post it
(NaturalNews) If you’re one of the more than 1.3 billion people who use Facebook on a regular basis, you’ve probably experienced occasions when you decided against posting something before you hit “Enter” and assumed that whatever it was that you had typed would be permanently deleted.
This is not actually the case, according to Ireland-based tech consultant Priomh O hUiginn, who says that despite Facebook’s claims to the contrary, every comment or status update an individual types is sent to their servers whether one deletes it before posting or not.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Crowd Throws Eggs, Tomatoes: Bottles at Salvini
Northern League leader responds unfazed by insults
(ANSA) — Ancona, April 27 — Anticapitalist youth club activists on Monday targeted rightwing populist Northern League party leader Matteo Salvini by throwing eggs, tomatoes, and bottles at him during a public appearance he made on Monday in one of Ancona’s main squares, Piazza Roma. Salvini, wearing a blue-and-yellow sweater with the name of the region, “Marche”, printed on it, made a 15-minute appearance in the square, stopping at a Northern League table where workers were collecting signatures for party candidates for the upcoming regional elections to be held May 31.
Although the area where Salvini appeared was cordoned off for security, that didn’t stop the ‘social center’ activists from hurling insults at the party leader, including screams of “go away, shame on you, fascists”.
The demonstration didn’t seem to faze Salvini, however, who responded to the uproar by making a statement referring to last weekend’s April 25 Liberation Day, which marked the 70th anniversary of Italy’s liberation from occupation forces during World War II.
“Just think, maybe these people here were the same ones who on April 25 were talking about liberty and democracy,” Salvini said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Handwritten ISIS Notes ‘In Front of Rome, Milan Monuments’
‘We are on your streets’ read messages on social media
(ANSA) — Rome, April 27 — ISIS supporters are tweeting photos of handwritten pieces of paper signed by ISIS being held in front of well-known locations and monuments in Rome and Milan, intelligence and counter-terrorism expert Rita Katz said on the website of her organisation SITE. “We are on your streets, we are locating targets,” the signs reportedly say.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Olive tree growers in Italy, where a bulk of the world’s olive oil is produced, are protesting a government plan to chop down thousands of olive trees in an attempt to stop the spread of xylella fastidiosa. The bacterium, which causes olive trees to shrivel and stop bearing fruit, threatens to substantially reduce olive oil production in the Puglia region, which currently generates some 11 million tons of olives per year.
Olives grown in the Puglia region, which are used to make some of the country’s highest quality olive oils, represent about one third of the national crop, hence the aggressive action to contain the bacterium and salvage as many olive orchards as possible. According to the Daily Mail Online, the first phase of chop-downs will occur in a 20,000-acre area between Lecce and Brindisi, which contains some 11 million trees.
Seven trees have already been cut down and are now set to be burned, despite protests by some growers who contend the actions will not prevent the spread of xylella fastidiosa. The disease has already led to a 35 percent reduction in olive oil production throughout Puglia, which is located in the “heel” portion of Italy’s boot-shaped region.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Feyenoord Faces Fine of €50,000 for ‘Racist Banana’ Incident
Football club Feyenoord faces a fine of €50,000 playing its next European match without supporters because what it said was a ‘racist incident’ during this year’s Europa League tie between the Rotterdammers and AS Roma. During the game, a huge blow-up banana was thrown on the pitch, landing next to Roma player Gervinho, who comes from Ivory Coast. The match was also disrupted several times because of crowd trouble.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Last spring, designer Adam Harvey hosted a session on hair and makeup techniques for attendees of the 2015 FutureEverything Festival in Manchester, England. Rather than sharing innovative ways to bring out the audience’s eyes, Harvey’s CV Dazzle Anon introduced a series of styling methods designed with almost the exact opposite aim of traditional beauty tricks: to turn your face into an anti-face—one that cameras, particularly those of the surveillance variety, will not only fail to love, but fail to recognize.
Harvey is one of a growing number of privacy-focused designers and developers “exploring new opportunities that are the result of [heightened] surveillance,” and working to establish lines of defense against it. He’s spent the past several years experimenting with strategies for putting control over people’s privacy back in their own hands, in their pockets and on their faces.
Harvey’s goal of “creating a style that [is] functional and aesthetic” has driven several projects and collaborations, including a method for “spoofing” DNA, and via the Privacy Gift Shop, his drone-thwarting Stealth Wear line (clothing he claims “shields against thermal imaging… [which is] used widely by military drones to target people,” seen below) and the OFF Pocket phone sleeve, able to keep out unwanted wireless signals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Slow Death of Free Speech in Britain (America, You’re Next!)
Freedom of speech no longer exists in Britain. The land that gave the world the Magna Carta, the Levellers, and John Stuart Mill—three of the key foundation stones of the modern conception of liberty—is now arresting and even jailing people simply for speaking their minds.
To see how bad things have got, consider three cases from the past week alone:
Twitter Crime
A man has been investigated by the police for a hashtag he used on Twitter. Seriously. Never mind speechcrime, or even tweetcrime—now we have hashtagcrime, the criminalisation even of those snarky, ironic asides people pepper the internet with. The man in question, Stephen Dodds, committed the sin of taking a photograph of two Muslims praying at Anfield, the home ground of Liverpool Football Club, and posting it on Twitter alongside the tweet: “Muslims praying at half-time at the match yesterday. #DISGRACE.” That hashtag saw him become the victim of a furious Twitterstorm, the modern version of a tomato-wielding mob, and he was eventually reported to the cops. They investigated the matter for two weeks—two weeks!—before finally instructing Liverpool FC to take appropriate action against the evil hashtagger. Liverpool this week said it is deciding how to punish this man who dared to type the word “DISGRACE” on the internet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Group of 10-Year-Olds Abandon Game of Cricket to Help Foil Armed Robbery on Jewellers
A group of 10-year-olds surrounded the jewellers in Oldham after hearing a commotion inside. When startled robbers fled, the youths gave chase and brought down one suspect with the help of two men.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London Cab Driver Accused of Helping Make Bomb That Killed US Sergeant in Iraq
Minicab driver Anis Abid Sardar, pictured, from Wembley in London has denied murdering US soldier Randy Johnson, pictured, with an improvised explosive device in Baghdad, Iraq in 2007.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Pushes West, Eyeing a New Caliphate in Tunisia
There are increased signs that the self-proclaimed Islamic State has sets its sights on expanding its caliphate to Tunisia next.
ISIS also announced that it is creating the Islamic State of Afrikah, an antiquated name for the region that is now Tunisia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Pledges €1 Mln for East Jerusalem Hospitals
Deputy minister Pistelli announces on visit to Palestine
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM — Italy will donate a million euros to six hospitals in East Jerusalem to help resolve financial issues they are experiencing. The announcement was made on Monday by deputy foreign minister Lapo Pistelli at a conference in the afternoon with representatives from the six healthcare facilities. On a visit to Palestinian Territories and Israel, Pistelli said that “Italy has a lengthy history of cooperation with the Palestinian population in the healthcare sector, and the country was for many years the top donor for healthcare in Palestine.” “We are strongly committed,” he stressed at the Augusta Vittoria hospital in East Jerusalem, “to supporting the Palestinian healthcare sector.” The contribution, he said, will be through PEGASE, a funding system launched in 2008 by the EU to support the Palestinian Authority. The hospitals to benefit will be Makassed Hospital, St. Joseph Hospital, Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), St. John Eye Hospital, Augusta Victoria Hospital, Jerusalem Princess Basma Center for Disabled Children. EU representative John Gatt-Rutter EU Representative said that he “would like to thank Italy for its generous contribution through the EU’s PEGASE mechanism. This demonstrates once again the fruitful cooperation between the EU and its Member States in supporting the Palestinian people.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
By Fareed Zakaria
(CNN It’s easy to be anxious about the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. After all, this is a brutal organization that not only kills but seems to revel in doing so in ways designed to shock the world — from the beheadings of journalists to burning a Jordanian pilot alive. Such moves are part of this murky group’s propaganda and its deliberate efforts to manipulate information.
So what can and should we make of the organization?
I explore the issue in depth in a special airing Monday night. And although it’s important to start with the caveat that ISIS is indeed trying to scare and confuse us, I took away some tentative lessons from speaking with the people who have traveled inside the minds of ISIS.
First, ISIS is clearly about religion — its version of radical Islam — but it is also about power.
There is increasing evidence that the military backbone of ISIS is made up not by a group of Islamic zealots, but rather high-ranking officers from Saddam Hussein’s army — Baathists who were at least ostensibly secular. An internal ISIS report detailing its organizational structure was reported on last week in the German weekly Der Spiegel.
That report describes a group that uses its religious ideology as a recruiting and governing philosophy, much like communism. But underneath it, much like communism, is simply a drive for control, a lust for power.
[…]
The leaders of ISIS have recognized that above all, they are a messaging machine, which in turn becomes a recruitment machine.
This means that the key is not what happens on the ground, but on the airwaves and in the bits and bytes of the Internet. And ISIS does this better than anyone before them because while their gruesome videos would seem a repulsive turn-off — and are to most — they still work on the web. The shock and awe they produce makes them go viral, and thus are seen by tens of millions. That ensures that these videos attract those utterly alienated young men — a few thousand among the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims — who seek revenge, glory and gore.
[“A few thousand,” eh? Early this month the UN reported that ISIS had recruited some 25,000 foreigners. That’s just those who have taken the very considerable trouble to get to the territory it has occupied. The active recruiters, sympathizers, etc. must number many more — to say nothing of those who just admire it from afar. As to ISIS being “simply a drive for control, a lust for power,” that’s what Islam is — and has been ever since Muhammad’s cult began committing armed robbery against merchant caravans in Arabia. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Iran ‘Fires Shots’ as it Intercepts U.S. Cargo Vessel
Iranian Navy escorts ship, 34-man crew to Bandar Abbas port
(ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — An Iranian Navy ship has fired shots at a United States cargo vessel it intercepted along with its 34-member crew, Saudi TV news channel Al Arabiya reported Tuesday. All the crew members are American, Al Arabiya said.
Military vessels are escorting the US ship to Bandar Abbas port because it allegedly violated Iranian territorial waters, FARS Iranian news agency reported. There is no official confirmation yet from Iran or the US, the BBC reported.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Seize Cargo Ship in Gul
Iranian patrol boats intercepted a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday and forced it into Iranian territorial waters by firing shots across its bow, prompting the U.S. Navy to send a destroyer and reconnaissance plane to monitor the situation.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats confronted the MV Maersk Tigris, a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, as it was traversing one of the world’s most important oil shipping channels and forced it to divert toward Larak Island near Bandar Abbas, where it was boarded by Iranian forces, U.S. officials said.
The Iranian action occurred amid heightened tensions over the conflict in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition supported by Washington has been bombing Iranian backed Houthi rebels, who have seized much of the country and sidelined the U.S.-backed president.
Saudi jets bombed the airport in Yemen’s capital on Tuesday to prevent Iranian planes from landing. The ship seizure also came at a sensitive time as Tehran is inching toward a final deal with major powers on its nuclear programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Leader Baghdadi is Reportedly ‘Unable to Move’ After a Spinal Injury
By Pamela Engel
The head of the Islamic State is reportedly injured so badly he can barely move, Kareem Shaheen at The Guardian reports.
“Sources tell us Baghdadi is still alive, but still unable to move due to spinal injury sustained in the March air strike,” Shaheen tweeted.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who last year declared himself caliph of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh), was reportedly wounded in a US-led airstrike in March.
Martin Chulov at The Guardian, who last week broke the news of the airstrike, also says his sources tell him Baghdadi is still alive and being treated by doctors from Mosul.
Information on Baghdadi’s reported injury and the airstrike that apparently caused it is still vague.
[…]
Baghdadi is reportedly recovering slowly but has not resumed day-to-day control of ISIS. A former physics teacher from Mosul, Abu Alaa Afri, was installed as ISIS’ temporary leader while Baghdadi recovers, an Iraqi government adviser told Newsweek last week.
Newsweek describes Afri as a “rising star” within ISIS, and the Iraqi government adviser, Hisham al Hashimi, said Afri had become even more important than Baghdadi.
Afri will assume full leadership of ISIS if Baghdadi dies, Hashimi said.
Having a caliph with a background of religious education is important to ISIS, which has shaped its self-proclaimed caliphate around a strict interpretation of sharia law. The group recruits people to live in its territory by marketing it as an Islamic utopia.
Der Spiegel reported recently that early leaders of ISIS, many of whom are former Iraqi intelligence officers from the regime of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, decided to make Baghdadi caliph because he, as an “educated cleric,” would “give the group a religious face.”
[No shortage of “educated clerics” over there, which means this one is easily replaceable. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
In September 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly warning “don’t be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm offensive. It’s designed for one purpose and for one purpose only. To lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran’s path to the bomb.”
“Once Iran produces atomic bombs, all the charm and all the smiles will suddenly disappear. They’ll just vanish. It’s then that the ayatollahs will show their true face and unleash their aggressive fanaticism on the entire world.” He offered a comparable message to a joint meeting of Congress in March of this year.
Is anyone listening? Not President Obama. On April 25, writing in The Wall Street Journal, Mortimer Zuckerman, the chairman and editor in chief of the U.S. News and World Report, said “President Obama has been chasing a rainbow in his negotiations with Iran. He has forsaken decades of pledges to the civilized world from presidents of both parties. He has misled the American people in repeatedly affirming that the U.S. would never allow revolutionary Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Arrests Man Over Suspected ISIS Killing of Police
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry says the police have arrested a suspected ISIS operative wanted for the killing of two policemen in the capital, Riyadh, earlier this month.
Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki says Nawaf al-Enezi, a 29-year old Saudi citizen, was taken into custody early Tuesday morning after callers had tipped the police off. Al-Enezi was found in a hideout about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Riyadh and was wounded by police gunfire during the arrest.
The Interior Ministry last week announced a $267,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
He is one of two Saudi men police say operated under orders from members of ISIS in Syria in the shooting of the policemen. The other suspect is already under arrest.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Authorities Arrest 93 in Suspected ISIS Cell
Allege jihadists planning suicide bombing against U.S. embassy
(ANSA) — Beirut, April 28 — Authorities in Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said Tuesday that they have arrested 93 people on suspicion of belonging to a cell of Islamic State (ISIS) militants. The authorities said that ISIS had planned a suicide car bombing against the United States embassy in Riyadh, but were foiled in March, according to local media. Among the 93 people who have been arrested since December were two Syrians said to have been involved in planning the suicide attack.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Self-Censorship a New Way to Stifle Turkish Media, CPJ Says
In its annual assessment of the media freedom worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has argued that Turkish authorities now consider declaring critical journalists as “unwanted” is a more efficient, cunning method of stifling the free press, rather than jailing them for their reporting, as daily Today’s Zaman reports. “Erdogan seems to have realized that he no longer needs to resort to jailing journalists,” the report entitled “Attacks on the Press” said, referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the CPJ’s latest report, there are seven journalists remain behind the bars. The Turkey section of the CPJ report, said the Turkish media has fallen into “full compliance with the structures of power,” most notably those of Erdogan in the past five years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S.-Flagged Ship Intercepted by Iranian Patrol
Washington (CNN) A U.S.-flagged ship was recently intercepted by an Iran Revolutionary Guard naval patrol, the U.S. Navy revealed to CNN Tuesday.
The incident occurred on Friday when four Iranian naval vessels surrounded the U.S.-flagged Maersk Kensington in the Strait of Hormuz.
The episode came ahead of an encounter Tuesday in which Iran Revolutionary Guard patrol boats fired shots at a commercial cargo ship and then intercepted the vessel, the Marshall Islands-flagged M/V Maersk Tigris, which was also crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
A senior U.S. military official told CNN that “the Iranians encircled the Kensington and followed the ship on its course for a period of time before withdrawing and breaking away.” After that, the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet issued a notice to mariners about the incident.
Referring to Tuesday’s incident, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said it was “inappropriate” for the Iranians to fire the warning shots.
The U.S. Navy has dispatched one maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft to observe and monitor the situation, Warren told reporters.
Despite reports in some media, there are no Americans on board, according to a U.S. official.
At this point, no U.S. military action is expected on the ship that was seized Tuesday aside from monitoring the situation. The U.S. believes that Iranians will “send the ship on its way,” the senior official said.
[The return of the Barbary pirates — Muslim corsairs of centuries past. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Forest Fires Heading for Chernobyl Nuclear Plant — Ukraine Interior Ministry
The Ukrainian National Guard has been put on high alert due to worsening forest fires around the crippled Chernobyl nuclear power plant, according to Ukraine Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
“The forest fire situation around the Chernobyl power plant has worsened,” a statement on Avakov’s Facebook page says.
“The forest fire is heading in the direction of Chernobyl’s installations. Treetop flames and strong gusts of wind have created a real danger of the fire spreading to an area within 20 kilometers of the power plant. There are about 400 hectares [988 acres] of forests in the endangered area.”
“Some of the materials that were contaminating that area would ahve been incorporated into the woods. In other words, they land on the ground in 1986 and they get absorbed into the trees and all the biosphere. And when it burns, they just become re-suspended. It’s like Chernobyl all over again. All of that material that fell on the ground will now be burned up into the air and will become available for people to breathe.” Christopher Busby is the scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risks.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal Government Declares Three Days of Mourning After Deadly Quake
As the search for survivors continues, Nepal’s government has declared three days of mourning. More than 4,000 people died in the massive earthquake at the weekend, with eight million affected across the region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
World Bank Funds Tied to Pollution in India
A World Bank-funded power plant in India destroyed the lands and livelihoods of hundreds of farmers and fishermen and endangered their families’ health, residents claim in Federal Court.
Lead plaintiff Budha Ismail Jam and three other affected residents sued the International Finance Corp. on behalf of the “impoverished fishing communities and local farmers who have had their way of life fundamentally threatened or destroyed by the Tata Mundra Plant,” in Kutch District, Gujarat, India.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
South Korea: Sewol Ferry Captain Sentenced to Life for Murder
In South Korea, an appeals court has found the captain of the Sewol ferry that sank a year ago guilty of murder. The ferry disaster claimed the lives of 304 people on board, most of whom were teenagers.
On Monday, the Gwangju High Court found Lee Joon-seok guilty of murder, overruling a lower court decision, which had acquitted him of homicide charges, and convicted him instead of gross negligence, sentencing him to 36 years in prison.
The captain of the ferry, which sank in April 2014, had been found guilty of negligence and abandoning his passengers at a November hearing.
However, the court stopped short of handing down the death sentence, ruling that, based on the evidence, the 69-year-old could not have known that his actions would cause such a high number of deaths.
The court ruling on Monday convicted him of homicide charges and was thus able to increase his jail time.
According to a court spokesperson, fourteen other crew members received between 18 months and 12 years imprisonment.
The sinking of the Sewol, one of the worst disasters in South Korea’s history, sparked a public debate over safety standards.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Bigger Threat to World Order Than Cold War Communism: Julie Bishop
Australian Foreign Minister says IS “most significant threat to the global, rules-based order to emerge in the past 70 years.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The badly decomposed bodies of hundreds of men, women and children have been discovered in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Damasak, in a massacre government officials suspect was carried out by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
The gruesome discovery comes weeks after military forces from Nigeria and Chad launched a successful operation to free the town from the clutches of extremist militants on 9 March. Troops found the bodies of least 70 at an apparent execution site under a bridge leading out of the town shortly after.
Babagana Mustapha, a local government spokesman for Damasak, told CNN a provincial government committee was visiting the area to assess the damage caused by Boko Haram’s insurgency when the bodies were discovered. The group overran the town in November.
“We found hundreds of dead bodies in shallow graves and on the streets of Damasak during our visit,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigerian Troops Rescue 200 Girls, 93 Women, Says Military
(CNN) Nigerian troops rescued 200 girls and 93 women Tuesday in the Sambisa Forest, the Nigerian Armed Forces announced on its official Twitter account.
The armed forces could not immediately confirm if any of the rescued girls were among the 200 schoolgirls the militant group Boko Haram kidnapped in April 2014 from the northeastern Nigerian village of Chibok. That abduction led to a social media movement, #BringBackOurGirls, to rescue them.
Nigerian troops also captured and destroyed three terrorist camps, the armed forces said.
Boko Haram is a militant Islamist group. The name translates to “Western education is sin” in the local Hausa language.
***Unclosed Item!***{One hopes that they got a good education at the hands of the Nigerian military. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Disowned by African Half Brother
Alex Jones talks with documentary filmmaker Joel Gilbert about his latest discovery, Obama’s half brother wants a DNA test and doesn’t believe they are really related.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Bizarre’ Jurassic Dinosaur Discovered in Remarkable New Find
Fossil hunters in Chile have unearthed the remains of a bizarre Jurassic dinosaur that combined a curious mixture of features from different prehistoric animals.
The evolutionary muddle of a beast grew to the size of a small horse and was the most abundant animal to be found 145 million years ago, in what is now the Aysén region of Patagonia.
The discovery ranks as one of the most remarkable dinosaur finds of the past 20 years, and promises to cause plenty of headaches for paleontologists hoping to place the animal in the dinosaur family tree.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
36,000 Foreign ‘Birth Tourists’ Here to Make Babies
Most foreign visitors come to America to ride the elevator to the top of the Empire State Building, tour Washington’s Lincoln Memorial or feast on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.
But there are possibly 36,000 pregnant women who arrived in 2012 to give birth to a little American citizen, according to a new report.
It’s called “birth tourism” and is used by foreigners to receive U.S. citizenship for their offspring under U.S. law.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ban Says Destroying Boats Not Solution on Migrants
(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 28 — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Tuesday that he did not think destroying boats could be part of the solution to the Mediterranean migrant crisis. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini was given a brief to look into possible operations to target human traffickers boats before they embark at last week’s European summit on the crisis after Italy proposed this course of action. “Destroying the boats isn’t the right road,” Ban told a news conference in the Vatican, having had talks with Pope Francis earlier in the day.
“We have to stop the people traffickers”.
Ban added that destroying boats could hit the already-strained economies of North Africa, with many communities reliant on fishing.
Several experts have suggested that a UN mandate would be needed for a mission targeting traffickers boats.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Navy Corvette in Brindisi to Join EU Triton Mission
Capacity for 100 rescued people
(ANSA) — Rome, April 27 — A French Navy corvette has reached Italy’s Brindisi port and will join the EU’s Triton patrol and rescue mission as of Tuesday, sources said Monday.
The vessel is taking a medical team and a Finance Guard officer on board prior to joining the EU mission, whose stated intent is to rescue migrants in distress as they make the dangerous crossing from Libya on unseaworthy boats.
The 80-meter corvette has capacity for up to 100 people, the sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Shutdown Now: Gridlocked Traffic
In my city of Denver, Colorado, the gridlock traffic begins at 7:00 a.m. and continues until 8:00 p.m. six days a week. We suffer 20 to 30 crashes daily because of gridlocked traffic, stop and go, road rage and people texting as well as drinking.
“A society sufficiently sophisticated to produce the internal combustion engine has not had the sophistication to develop cheap and efficient public transport. There are hardly any buses, the trains are hopelessly underfunded and hence, the entire population is stuck in traffic.” Ben Elton, Gridlock
Again, as the title of this series commands your attention, remember that our U.S. Congress continues adding 1.2 million legal immigrants annually which equates to 100,000 every 30 days. The U.S. Census Bureau projects a total of 100,000,000 (million) added legal immigrants, their offspring and chain-migrated relatives within the next 35 years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Immigration Policy: What We Have Wrought is Unsustainable
By Jay Partin
There is little doubt that immigration will be a major campaign issue in the 2016 presidential election. Sadly, opinions on immigration are too often based on very limited knowledge and understanding of the effects immigration has on our country.
Ted Kennedy was mistaken when he spoke in defense of the game-changing Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. “The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants,” he said. “It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs.” Jeff Sessions was more correct when he said, “What we need now is immigration moderation: slowing the pace of new arrivals so that wages can rise, welfare rolls can shrink and the forces of assimilation can knit us all more closely together.” Admittedly, Sessions has the benefit of 50 years of additional experience regarding the effect of cumulative amendments to immigration policy that Kennedy did not, which is exactly the point. There are a multitude of unknown or unintended consequences of any immigration policy that make it impossible to predict that policy’s results.
However, based on our experience thus far, here are some of the lessons, observations, and conclusions that can be made about the effects of immigration on demographics.
[…]
Rather than accepting Obama’s view that immigration and diversity can cure many of our ills, a smarter choice would be to slow down, learn from past experience, and concentrate on developing an assimilation process that minimizes structural and motivational barriers to realizing the American dream. Allowing too many people to enter a system that cannot cope with the volume is grossly irresponsible. It only shows that policy-makers misunderstand our history and ignorantly repeat failed past policies that steal the birthrights of future generations of Americans. Such an immigration policy cannot be sustained.
[But, of course, stealing the birthrights of future generations of Americans is exactly the objective of Barry Hussein and his mob: to overwhelm them demographically and electorally with what Dear Leader calls a “hodgepodge of folks.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Censorship by Design: Criminalization of Child Evangelism
In the words of secularist Katherine Stewart, “By turning our public schools into religious battlefields, [Good News] Clubs have been detrimental to public education as a whole.” A tool of the Religious Right, these Clubs purportedly employ “evil-genius tactics” to target very young children. While slighting the “Golden Rule” (or “Royal Law,” loving one’s neighbor as self), leaders advance an ostensibly objectionable, five-year curriculum, employing heavy-handed, “draconian tactics” that emphasize sin, punishment, hell, and blind obedience.
• CEF Hostility Toward (and Damage of) Public Education—NOT!
Stewart’s book, The Good News Clubs: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children exposes this alleged, fundamentalist-Christian plot to infiltrate and then seriously damage public schools. While purportedly “in-your-face” on school grounds, child evangelists likewise are accused of leveling a “stealth” assault. That the Good News Clubs damage public education does not comport with testimonies to the contrary of principals, staff, teachers, parents, and children who know firsthand the work of Child Evangelism Fellowship.
Bible-believing Christians, Stewart insists, disdain even the concept of public education. In her thinking, their subconscious goal, driven by the Religious Right, is to “get rid of the schools altogether,” reasoning “If you can’t own it, break it. …Take the money with you and go.” Again, this does not add up. What Stewart castigates as an evil “system of religious education funded by the state” precisely mirrors historical roots and development of higher education in America.
Of the first 108 colleges in our country, 106 were firmly founded on the Christian faith. By the close of 1860, the lion’s share of 246 colleges in America avowed religious purpose. Even the nation’s Ivy League schools—including Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Brown—all took form under Christian inspiration and through Christian effort. Up until 1784, Columbia was called “King’s College.” Noah Webster was a devout Christian, but in no way hostile to public education; he’s credited with being its father.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Businessman Apologizes for Co-Hosting Event for Ted Cruz
Hotelier wrote on Facebook that he made “a terrible mistake” by agreeing to host Cruz.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Global Warming to Replace Gospel at Church
The New Green Religion of Global Warming/Climate Change is coming out of the closet to begin preaching from the pulpit.
In the lib-left world timing is everything. Now that Christianity is being persecuted worldwide with the many slings and arrows sent its way flashing out in neon, it’s time for ‘sustainability’ to squeeze out Salvation at Sunday church services.
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is spending $84,000 to study how churches can be used to combat climate change. (Washington Free Beacon, April 27, 2015)
[Comment: Sounds like the “church” in Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GoFundMe Shuts Down Campaign for Bakery Targeted by Gay Marriage Fascists
Apparently it’s not enough for the Gay Borg to force people to bake cakes for their weddings, and it’s not enough for gay couples feigning mental distress to get massive cash awards for bureaucrats for their troubles. Now they need to make it impossible for the Christian bakers to pay them the money you’d think they’d want to receive, by pressuring GoFundMe to shut down campaign pages on behalf of said bakers.
Because the point is not to help the gays and lesbians. It’s to put the Christians out of business. And per the Daily Signal, GoFundMe is proving as easily pressured as those Indiana Chamber of Commerce types who just don’t want any trouble. So the campaign on behalf of Grisham, Oregon-based Melissa’s Sweet Cakes has been shut down. And GoFundMe’s reasoning is . . . interesting, to say the least:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Bible says “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). While my siblings and I had our individual periods of rebellion, like the prodigal son, we defaulted back to our home training; our parent’s principles and values.
Today, the Left is aggressively usurping authority over your kids, ripping parenting out of your hands.
Decades of allowing liberal indoctrination to go unchallenged has produced a generation of youths who believe in the name of “fairness” that no one should have more than anyone else (income inequality). Needs and desires are now declared to be rights (government entitlements). In our quest to prove our tolerance as conservatives, we allowed the Left to steal our kid’s minds.
Youths are idealistic. Once liberalized guilt-ridden youths are led down the road of trying to make life fair, the consequences are far reaching. For example: Pressure from students is forcing colleges to make all campus restrooms “all gender.” An Oregon High School created gender-neutral restrooms for transgender students.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cloward-Piven Collapse is Coming
Rioting a precursor to the globalist takeover.
“This new and complete revolution we contemplate can be defined in a very few words. It is … outright world-socialism, scientifically planned and directed,” H.G. Wells wrote in The New World Order.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Did Inbreeding and Poor Health Kill the Mighty Mammoth?
Two mammoths, living 40,000 years apart, could hold the secret genetic history of these mighty creatures.
Scientists have recovered and sequenced the first complete woolly mammoth genomes, revealing two bottlenecks where their populations plummeted. First, around 250,000 years ago and later around 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age.
They discovered that after this most recent population crash, the surviving mammoths were part of an ever-shrinking gene pool, as their population went into decline.
In an international study by researchers from Sweden, USA, Canada, and Russia, the remains of a 45,000 year old mammoth from Siberia were sampled. This was a time when woolly mammoths lived throughout Europe and Asia.
The scientists also sampled ten mammoths from Wrangel Island, an island off the coast of north eastern Siberia, and found a single tooth with enough mammoth DNA to retrieve a complete genome sequence. The tooth’s owner was alive as recently as 4300 years ago.
“As far as we know this is the first complete genome of the extinct Ice Age megafauna, the large mammals that disappeared by the end of the last Ice Age,” says Love Dalén from the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, who co-authored the new study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tiny Robot Pulls 2,000 Times Its Own Weight
“This is the equivalent of a human adult dragging a blue whale around on land.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |