The two largest school districts in the USA, one in Los Angeles and one in New York City, received bomb threats today. NYC authorities did not consider the threat credible, and schools remained open. Los Angeles, however, decided to close all 900+ schools in the LAUSD. The threat was later determined to be a hoax.
In other news, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Front National in France, was acquitted on a charge of inciting hatred by saying that Muslims praying in the streets reminded her of Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama said that the only way to achieve peace is to establish a dialogue with the Islamic State.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, LP, MC, MD, Nick, 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.
Australia Budget Deficit Blows Out on Commodity Price Hit
Slumping commodity prices and lower tax receipts will see Australia’s budget deficit balloon to Aus$37.4 billion (US$27.2 billion) this year, Treasurer Scott Morrison said Tuesday as he downgraded economic growth forecasts.
Australia’s resources-driven economy has enjoyed more than 20 years of growth but it is now transitioning out of an unprecedented mining investment boom, and the going has been bumpy with revenues under pressure.
The conservative government’s mid-year economic update showed the deficit this financial year will blow out from the Aus$35.1 billion forecast in the May budget, when Joe Hockey was treasurer…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Draghi Praises Insolvency Reform in Italy
ECB prsident said move should be ‘evaluated positively’
(ANSA) — Rome, December 14 — European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Monday praised Italy’s overhaul of its insolvency regulations. “The recent reform of the the law that disciplines the state of insolvency should be evaluated positively,” Draghi said. The comments come amid a furore over four small troubled Italian banks that have been saved courtesy of a government decree, although bondholders in the lenders, including many small investors, have lost their money.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Back in September Zero Hedge reported that something snapped in the COMEX market and all indicators suggest there was a relentless outflow in registered gold. At that time there were about 202,054 ounces of gold available for delivery. To put that into perspective, Craig Hemke of TF Metals Report points out that just earlier this year there were nearly one million registered ounces available.
What this likely means is that someone, somewhere is requesting that their paper holdings be converted into deliverable physical gold. All the while many a mainstream pundit has declared that gold is nothing but a relic of times past. Yet, despite its purported unpopularity, since the last time the COMEX snapped in September even more registered gold has disappeared.
[Comment: Musical chairs: 325 people dancing around one chair. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: No State Cash for Stricken Investors — EU
‘Not humanitarian crisis’
(ANSA) — Brussels, December 11 — Any easement for bereft investors in four rescued banks cannot be made directly by the State, EU sources said Friday as the government was set to frame a budget measure to help shareholders and bondholders in Banca Marche, Banca Etruria, CariFe and CariChieti. The failure of a bank and the ensuing loss, for example of an apartment by stricken investors cannot be considered a humanitarian crisis such as those caused by floods or other natural disasters, the sources said on the government’s mooted humanitarian package for investors.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Self-Employed Professionals’ Income Falls 18.35% Since 2007
Women earn on average half as much as men
(ANSA) — Rome, December 15 — The average income of self-employed professionals fell by 18.35% between 2007 and 2014, the private welfare funds association Adepp said Tuesday. The income gap between male and female professionals continued to widen in 2014, with women earning on average 50% less than their male colleagues, Adepp said. In the regions of Campania, Lazio and Liguria women professionals earned between 51.6% and 55% of the income declared by men. Adepp said the fact that the maximum income declared by women was 70% of that of men was “alarming”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Poll Finds U.S. Millennials Are Just Like You: Broke
Whenever we read or write about millennials, the conclusion usually is that they are a completely different breed from preceding generations. This may be true in some areas, but when it comes to money they’re just like you.
What does this mean exactly? Well, millennials are broke and can’t save money, much like most Americans.
According to a recent survey from HowMuch.net, a personal finance website, more than half (52 percent) of millennials have less than $1,000 in savings. But this is less than the 62 percent of Americans overall who have less than $1,000 in savings.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia: Governor: Recovery, But Not Yet Sustainable Growth
Anyway, the situation has improved
(ANSA) — LJUBLJANA, DEC. 14 — According to Slovenia’s central bank governor Bostjan Jazbec, the country’s economic outlook has improved, but the material conditions for sustainable growth are not yet complete. One of the main reasons for this situation are bad loans, which Slovenian banks have not yet sold out, despite the 3 billion injection that the state provided to the banking system two years ago.
“Bad loans are the main cause of the persistent credit crunch and of the impossibility of a full recovery of Slovenia’s economy”, Jazbec underlined. According to Slovenia’s central bank governor, “the expansionary monetary policy based on quantitative easing, which has been put in place by the ECB, is not a magic wand and can’t solve all the problems of our country”; instead, we should “find a systemic solution based on structural reforms of the tax system and an improvement in banks’ balance sheets”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afraid of China: Pentagon Looks to Improve Naval Anti-Ship Missiles
America has long seen itself as having the most competent naval force in the world. But China’s growing clout is forcing strategists in Washington to rethink their dominance, and the US Navy is about to spend millions on anti-ship missiles — the first such purchase in decades.
The last time that a US naval vessel sank another ship was 27 years ago, when the USS Simpson attacked an Iranian gunboat in retaliation for an Iranian mine which had struck an American ship four days earlier. Ever since that event, Washington has assumed it maintains uncontested reign over the world’s oceans.
But the rapid rise of China on the global stage may be threatening that dominance, and the Pentagon is scrambling to adjust.
For one, the US Navy has relied on the same model of anti-ship missile since 1977: the Harpoon. But American military officials are concerned that the Chinese navy is capable of destroying or outmaneuvering those missiles.
To address those concerns, the US Navy is looking into a variety of options for revamping its offensive weapons.
One option is to retrofit the tried-and-true Tomahawk. While reliable, that missile was designed for striking stationary targets on land. The Pentagon began running tests on converted Tomahawks last January, and officials believe that successful sea variety could be deployed as in the next few years.
The Navy is also looking into creating its own version of the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, originally designed to be launched via aircraft.
These upgrades will force America’s enemies to “wake up and instead of just worrying about aircraft carriers or torpedoes from subs, they now have to worry about all surface ships and their ability to attack them,” Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, the Navy’s Surface Force Commander, told Aviation Week.
The US is also considering the possibility of spreading its Pacific air squadrons across a wider array of airfields from Palau to the Philippines. In this way, it could lessen the impact of an offensive missile attack against any one air base.
“It’s not that any of these places are out of range in an attack,” said David Ochmanek, a former senior Pentagon official, according to Foreign Policy. “But if you put small numbers of aircraft in many places and you disperse the aircraft on the base itself, you limit your liability and raise the cost of suppression attack.”
US military officials are also worried about the navy’s broader strategy. With over 300 naval ships in its fleet, Beijing is rapidly gaining on the United States, which could threaten Washington’s access to the Pacific. The Pentagon is also worried about the infamous Dongfeng DF-21D “carrier killer” ballistic missile.
This could present problems in areas like the South China Sea, where the US and China are currently engaged in a tense standoff. Expressing opposition to Beijing’s construction of artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago, Washington has sent naval patrols through the 12-mile territorial limit of those islands.
China, for its part, has maintained that it has every right to build within its own territory, and insists that the installations will be used primarily for humanitarian purposes.
If a conflict were to emerge out of those tensions, the Pentagon could not count on easy victory.
“You’re going to lose ships and jets and people,” Ochmanek said. “Our military establishment came to this realization reluctantly. The challenge is as much conceptual as it is hardware related.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
American Muslims Are Not the Enemy, But Sharia Law is a Clear and Present Danger to America
First, too many Americans have not taken the time to learn about Sharia law, and distinguish the political ideology of Sharia law from a personal belief in God. This is surprising, considering we have been at war with those seeking to further Sharia law for decades. We’ve had plenty of time to learn in the decade and a half since the 9/11 attacks. Unfortunately, Americans have listened to both Muslim apologists and many American political leaders claiming that Sharia law is no different than U.S. law. The refusal to understand the distinction between a competing political ideology and religion has become dangerous. For those who can handle the truth: Sharia law is a political threat which could spell the doom of our constitutional republic and the end of Western civilization.
Islamic Sharia law includes a clear legal double standard for non-Muslims, violating our notions of equal protection and due process. Under Sharia, Muslims cannot change their religion. Other religions cannot proselytize Muslims. From the respected Hadiths, or sayings of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, he told his followers (Bukhari): “If a Muslim changes religion, kill him.” This is backed up by similar mandates in the Qur’an.
Therefore, in most Islamic countries it is illegal (up to the death penalty in nations like Saudi Arabia, Iran and others) for a Muslim to change religion or to proselytize.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Armed and Safe: Confirming the 2nd Amendment
Preserve our right to keep and bear arms so that we may continue to be a republic Blessed with Liberty, or we can allow the government to disarm us so that we may lose our liberty, lose our republic.
A few years ago, during a Murrieta City Council Meeting, a woman, while testifying against the city’s desire to change its ordinance with the intent of attracting an indoor gun range, said, “We don’t want a shooting range in our city. It will attract people who own guns, and we don’t want that kind of criminal element in our city.”
Her opinion was based on the belief that all gun owners are dangerous, and capable of acting criminally. She might have even thought that was the reason for being a gun owner in the first place, that deep down all gun owners bought their guns with the intent of eventually using that firearm for nefarious means. In her mind, guns equal danger, and guns equal crime, and therefore to eliminate the danger of gun violence, and gun crime, one must eliminate the guns…
Japan, during World War II, never considered invading mainland America with ground troops. No enemy since the British in 1812 have ever orchestrated an invasion of the United States. It would be suicide. There is a gun behind every blade of grass.
History, and the statistics, reveal all of what you have read here to be true. In Britain and Australia, after banning guns, the incidents of gun crime, home invasions, and violent crime all went up. The Obama administration, I believe, knows this. They know that more guns in the hands of private citizens can both reduce the number of mass shootings, and protect the United States against jihad. That was the whole point of the 2nd Amendment. . . to protect us from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Therefore, if Barack Obama, and his familiars (familiars are humans that faithfully have devoted themselves to the blood suckers in the comic and movie “Blade”), know that strict gun control laws will actually increase the likelihood of mass shootings, and will embolden the rise of violent jihad in the United States, it is entirely possible that the Obama administration not only knows mass shootings and jihad will be the consequences of their actions, they are counting on it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Being President is Bad for Your Health, Study Suggests
Donald Trump should enjoy his health and vitality while he has it, a new study suggests.
The Republican presidential hopeful — whose physical condition was described by his doctor on Monday as “astonishingly excellent” — could apparently lose years of his life to high office.
The study, published by the British Medical Journal, found that world leaders live an average of 2.7 fewer years than runners up.
Mr Trump may be — again, in the words of his own doctor — “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”, but the presidency could put paid to that.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Clueless Press Being Played to Suggest Encryption Played a Role in San Bernardino Attacks
As law enforcement and their friendly politicians have used the attacks in San Bernardino to renew a call to undermine and break encryption, the mainstream press has been an easy target for politicians looking to get out whatever message they want. Take, for example, the following set of stories that popped up for me in a simple Google News search:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Court to Review Judge’s Order Forcing Woman to Learn Islam
BOSTON (AP) — After a landlord was convicted of pushing her Muslim tenant down a flight of stairs, a judge ordered her to respect the rights of all Muslims and to take an introductory course on Islam. Now the highest court in Massachusetts is being asked to decide whether the judge violated the landlord’s constitutional rights.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EPA Committed ‘Covert Propaganda’ Social Media Campaign on American Public, Auditors Find
Congressional auditors say The Environmental Protection Agency engaged in “covert propaganda,” a violation of federal law, when it launched a massive social media campaign urging Americans to support the Waters of the United States rule.
Also known as the Clean Water Rule and backed by President Obama, the law was intended to protect streams and surface waters. Clean water is a good thing. Animals, plants, and people getting sick or dying because water is polluted is a bad thing. Seems simple.
Many Republicans and their elected representatives hated the law, and considered it governmental overreach. The GAO’s finding that EPA breached our laws against the use of propaganda on Americans are a victory for them.
This story is a great example of how a well-intended campaign for public good can go terribly, horribly wrong when people do stupid things with social media. Social media rule number one: Be transparent, forthright, and honest…
The EPA’s campaign on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and elsewhere concealed the fact that the social messages were coming from a government agency. The EPA “essentially became lobbyists for its cause by including links that directed people to advocacy organizations,” which is propaganda: covert activity intended to influence the American public. And that’s against the law.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Surveillance State, Controlling the Data is Key
POWER CIRCULATES DIFFERENTLY in the digital age. It’s all about controlling the digital traces — collecting, mining, sharing, exposing, delaying, or erasing the data. Inevitably, some handling will occur in ordinary politics. But when the data are manipulated in order to obstruct criminal justice or steal an election, then it’s no longer ordinary politics; it becomes a cover-up.
With each new day, there is growing evidence of a cover-up in Chicago.
First, late on Friday night, December 4, 2015, Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, released hundreds of pages of police reports from the October 2014 Laquan McDonald murder — including false statements by police officers who were at the scene of the crime. The data dump came at such a late hour that the Chicago Tribune was not able to report on the massive discrepancies between those statements and the dashcam video of McDonald’s death until an article posted early Saturday morning, at 1:25 a.m., while most of the city was asleep.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
LA Schools Threat ‘Came From Foreign Country’
NY authorities say threat ‘not credible’
(see related)(ANSA) — New York, December 15 — An email threatening Los Angeles schools arrived from a foreign country, investigative sources told ABC News on Tuesday. LA School Superintended Ramon Cortines said the threat was explicitly aimed at “students at school”.
Meanwhile in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Chief William Bratton said officials there received the same threatening email and assessed it as “not credible”.
School districts throughout the country were targeted by the threatening email, De Blasio and Bratton said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Los Angeles Schools Closed Indefinitely Over Bomb Scare
640,000 students told to “stay away from campuses”
(ANSA) — New York, December 15 — All schools in Los Angeles were closed and lessons suspended until further notice on Tuesday following an alleged bomb scare, the Los Angeles Times reports. Local authorities told all 640,000 state school pupils and students to “stay away from campuses” and school buses were called back to base before they began their daily rounds. The alarm allegedly concerned “not one, two or three schools, but many institutes that have not yet been identified”, according to school district president Steve Zimmer.
All schools will be inspected, he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Expand Modern-Day Slave Trade With TPP
Not long after the White House invited Thailand to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the AP reported the country was relying on slave labor to ship shrimp to the U.S.
And it’s unlikely Thailand’s billion-dollar slave industry would prevent it from joining the TPP considering that Obama previously removed an anti-slavery provision from the TPP and also allowed Vietnam to join the partnership despite its flourishing slave trade.
“For… 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the factory that owned them with their aching hands in ice water,” the APrevealed. “They ripped the guts, heads, tails and shells off shrimp bound for overseas markets, including grocery stores and all-you-can-eat buffets across the United States.”
“After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, they were at the mercy of their Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese migrants.”
It was only in Oct. that the Obama administration invited Thaliand to join the TPP “with open arms.”
“The United States ‘would welcome with open arms’ Thailand’s ruling junta wanting the country to participate in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact without waiting for the return of a full democratic government to the country, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Thailand said,” the Bangkok Post reported.
Thailand has been under a military dictatorship with severe restrictions on free speech since 2014, and if that won’t stop the White House from inviting the country to join the TPP, the slavery in Thailand won’t either.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Plane Landing in Nashville Rolls Off Runway, Injuring 8
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Officials say a plane has rolled off a runway at Nashville International Airport, injuring eight people.
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Emily Samuels said in an email Tuesday night that Flight 31 from Houston Hobby Airport to Nashville went off the taxiway around 5:20 p.m. as it approached the arrival gate.
She said the 133 passengers and five crew members evacuated the plane safely and were bused to the airport, where employees were helping them.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the Boeing 737 rolled into grass and got stuck while taxiing to the gate. She said the FAA is investigating.
News media outlets quote fire department spokesman Brian Haas as saying eight people were transported to a hospital, most with minor injuries and one with chest pain.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Plumber Sues Ford Dealer After Truck With Company Logo Was Used by Extremists in Syria
Obama’s “moderate” rebels attach anti-aircraft gun to truck with “Mark-1 Plumbing” written on side.
“How it ended up in Syria, I’ll never know,” Oberholtzer told the Galveston County Daily News at the time. “I just want it to go away, to tell you the truth.”
Plumber gets threats after old truck, complete with logo, shows up with Syria jihadists
Now Oberholtzer has filed a lawsuit against AutoNation Ford Gulf Freeway, the Houston dealership where he traded in the truck. According to the complaint filed last week, AutoNation misrepresented its intentions to remove the decal, causing Oberholtzer, his business and his family “severe harm.”
Mark-1 Plumbing received more than 1,000 phone calls from across the country just two days after the tweet was posted, Oberholtzer’s suit alleges. His family members feared for their lives, and his secretary was too scared to return to the office.
The complaint claims that AutoNation is guilty of, among other things, gross negligence, common-law fraud, negligent misrepresentation and invasion of privacy by appropriation of name.
The most curious part of the story is perhaps how the truck reached extremists in the first place.
An AutoNation spokesman told the Huffington Post that after Oberholtzer’s trade-in in October 2013, the vehicle was immediately sent to an auction house, which then sold it to a local used-car dealer. According to the lawsuit, a vehicle history report says the truck was imported at Mersin, Turkey, on Dec. 18, 2013.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Republicans Are in on it: Introduced Bill Banning Gun Purchases by People on Watchlists
We are currently being “funneled” into a trap that is created day-by-day with glacial slowness with the intention of nullifying the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the right to keep and bear arms. The “Overton Window” is a concept of pushing forth concepts that are believed to be acceptable by the public. The media has been relentless in its aid to the administration by demonizing any and all who practice their God-given, Constitution affirmed rights to possess firearms. The final enabling of this, however, is being carried about by the U.S. Congress and by President Obama with Executive Actions.
HR 1076, “The Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act,” was introduced in the House of Representatives in February of 2015 by Peter King (R, NY). Here is the summary:…
Gun-control measures are crucial to the Administration and the Congress according to this “terror watch list,” because it is a list that is subject to the Attorney General (the President’s Attorney General), and can be kept out of the public eye with the subjectively-interpreted claim of being “in the interests of national security.”
Now the Administration is augmenting these efforts with an attempt to do it with aid and complicity of State governors, supported by Executive Orders. All throughout this process we see Republicans caving in and proving that there really are only interests of parties, and not true political parties. We are seeing the complete dissolution of checks and balances. We are witnessing the erosion of the Constitution incrementally.
Soon Obama will take even further steps, justifying his actions by “Executive Orders” penned illegally, as they are onerous to the Constitution (in accordance with Marbury vs. Madison). Obama is creating illegal laws under the color of law, and tying all of this in with the treaties his agent, Kerry has signed toward eventual gun confiscation with UN approval. Day by day, step by step, and inch by inch the agenda is being pushed. The question is if we the people are ever going to push in the opposite direction, and if so, when?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Threat That Closed LA Schools Appears to Have Been a Hoax, House Intel Lawmaker Says
The bomb threat that led officials in Los Angeles to close all public schools Tuesday likely was “a hoax or something designed to disrupt school districts in large cities,” the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee said.
California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff stressed the investigation was ongoing.
The threat, which school officials had initially called “credible,” was emailed to members of the school board, LA Police Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference. He added that the “very specific” message mentioned explosive devices and an attack with assault rifles. New York City officials said they received a similar threat from somebody who claimed to be a bullied student, but concluded it was not credible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Hits Record Poll High as Americans Back Billionaire After Muslim Ban Proposal
Donald Trump has surged to a new commanding lead in a national poll — with 41 per cent now backing him.
The billionaire businessman who is aiming to become the next President of the United Statesbroke the 40 per cent mark — and rocketed to a record level of support among would-be voters.
The Monmouth University poll is the first insight into how Americans across the country view the controversial Republican candidate after his proposal to ban all Muslims from coming into the country.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Two Missions Face Off to Seek Life in Icy Seas of Enceladus
What lives in the seas of Enceladus? Despite 10 years orbiting Saturn’s icy moon and sampling the material gushing from its plumes, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is far from having an answer. Now two proposed missions hope to change that by searching for life more directly.
Cassini has made a series of fly-bys through water-rich plumes erupting from deep inside the icy moon out of cracks in the surface. These have yielded tantalising clues that the ingredients for life might be buried there.
The subsurface ocean is probably an alkaline solution with a pH of 11 or 12, which could have been produced by water reacting with certain iron-rich types of rock — a process called serpentinisation. This creates hydrogen, a source of energy that is favourable for life and probably powered ancient life on Earth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What is a Conservative? What Defines the GOP?
by Diana West
Over on what we think of as the right side of the political spectrum, critiques of Donald Trump often include laments and/or teeth-gnashings over his “splitting the Republican Party,” and/or his “not being a conservative.”
Free Beacon editor Matthew Continetti approaches this same and, to him, alarming territory with an eye on whether Trump’s candidacy portends a historic shift in the GOP as we have known it in recent decades.
He writes:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
World Leftist Elites Go After Trump With a Vengeance
Proving once again that Donald Trump is viewed as an extreme danger to the growing one-world government “establishment,” more and more leaders of increasingly repressive governments are demeaning his candidacy for the president of the United States…and him personally. The latest bout of “beat up Trump” comes from European countries and even a member of the Saudi governing principality.
After just being hit twice by Islamist Muslims, Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France said “Mr. Trump, like others, fuels hatred,” and “Our only enemy is radical Islamism.” Well, duh! Of course it is. If one is a Muslim, by definition, one is a radical. Has Valls read the Qura’n lately? Not to be outdone, PM David Cameron of Britain—while Britain is trying to keep up with the identification of Muslim “no-go zones” in his own country—said of Mr. Trump [he’s] “divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong.” Even the Chairman of Kingdom Holding Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia wrote of Mr. Trump in a tweet, “You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but to all America.” By the way, he wrote that tweet after launching a project—originally proposed in 2006—to build a 1,000km wall to keep Syrian and Iraqi refugees OUT of Saudi Arabia and to defend himself from ISIS! Another “Do as I say…not as I do” moment.
Insanity, it appears, is not relegated solely to the US’ District of Columbia. The problem, of course, is that those elusive “moderate” Muslims are not only difficult to find (they don’t actually exist in time and space…they dwell only in the minds of the far Left) but, the ‘radicals’ disguise themselves in order to enter the US and other countries.
Speaking of which, why are the European countries that have been invaded by these “moderate Muslim refugees” now working to stop it?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Suicide Rate Soars in Wake of Canada’s Oil Crisis
40,000 Alberta oil jobs lost since the price of petroleum plummeted late last year. According to Petroleum Labour Market Information, 185,000 will have been lost by spring, as a result of the market crash.
Only Saskatchewan, another energy-dependent region, has a higher rate, and it’s seen 19% more suicides this year
But just two years ago, life in Canada’s energy hub was different: Alberta accounted for an incredible 87% of the country’s new net jobs, according to Statistics Canada, and more and more people were moving west for work. Today, unemployment is creeping to 2008 levels, employment insurance beneficiaries have doubled, and the once economic powerhouse is in the throes of a potential mental health crisis.
Between January and June, suicides spiked 30% compared to 2014. At this rate, 654 Albertans will have killed themselves this year, an unprecedented number for a region that already had the second highest suicide rates amongst the 10 provinces. Only Saskatchewan, another energy-dependent region, has a higher rate, and it’s seen 19% more suicides this year.
In a widely circulated story this week, the CBC correlated Alberta’s suicides with economic recession. Numerous media have followed, including one conservative publication that’s gone as far as to blame the environmental plans of the province’s new leftist government, but there’s no evidence to support this, says Mara Grunau of Canada’s Centre for Suicide Prevention director.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Toronto Police ID Suspect in Unprovoked Path Stabbing
Rohinie Bisesar, 40, is wanted for attempted murder after an unprovoked stabbing in a PATH Shoppers Drug Mart Friday.
Toronto police have identified a suspect in the unprovoked PATH stabbing Friday afternoon that left the victim with life-threatening injuries.
Police were called to the Shoppers Drug Mart at 66 Wellington St. W. at 2:55 p.m. Friday after reports of a stabbing. According to police, a female suspect armed with a knife approached a victim inside the store, then stabbed the victim without provocation.
The victim and suspect did not know each other, police said, and the stabbing appears to be a “completely random act of violence.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British Terror Suspect Convicted in Remembrance Day ISIS-Style Plot
A British man has been found guilty of plotting an Islamic State-inspired knife attack on the streets of London.
Nadir Ali Sayed, 22, from Hounslow, west London, denied planning acts of terrorism to coincide with Remembrance Sunday but was convicted at a trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
He was said to have been planning an attack similar to the one which left Fusilier Lee Rigby dead in 2013.
A six-week trial heard how Syed was “unnaturally interested in murders and beheadings” and tried to flee to Syria in January last year but was stopped at the airport.
The attack was said to have been planned to take place on or around November 8 2014.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Company Selling ‘Fake Hymens’ To Muslim Women in Germany
Which burst with fake blood to trick husbands into thinking they are virgins — sees sales surge as migrant influx spikes
Business is booming for a German company marketing ‘virginity’ to Muslim women eager for their husbands-to-be to believe they have been chaste until their wedding day.
The massive influx of refugees from mainly-Muslim countries into Germany has helped to boost sales.
The concept of hymen that can be purchased online originated a short while ago in China targeting the Middle Eastern market. But many people were worried about the quality of the product.
Now the Made in Germany marque is cashing in on what it claims is a desperate need among many Muslim women to pretend they are virgins before marriage.
Because it is a fraction of the average £1,750 it costs for a surgical procedure to replace the female hymen its products are being purchased swiftly and anonymously by people whose very lives could depend upon it.
Virginia Care sells a package containing two ultra-thin membranes that a woman can insert herself to make it appear that her hymen is unbroken.
It is being sold through the company website with the boast: ‘Quality from Germany.’
Each membrane consists of two cellulose skins between which a sterile, freeze-dried blood powder has been injected.
The membrane is designed so that it fixes itself in place from the warmth and moisture inside the woman’s body, and then when it is pierced during sex the blood mixture provides ‘proof’ that she is indeed a virgin.
The company has testimonials from Muslim customers saying that the product saved their lives. One wrote: ‘If your product did not exist, I would not now exist either.’
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Defeating French National Front ‘Only Agenda’ of Socialists, Republicans
Defeating the rising popularity of France’s right-wing National Front (FN) party’s anti-migration stance has become the main goal of the Socialist and the Republicans parties, Marie-Christine Arnautu, the FN vice president for social affairs, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov — On Sunday, French media reported that former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Republican party had won the elections in seven out of the country’s 13 regions. The ruling Socialist party of President Francois Holland secured the majority of votes in the five remaining region, while the FN failed to win any of the regions, despite finishing in first-place in six regions in the first round of the regional elections.
“The parties in power for over thirty years, the Socialist Party and Republican Party, regardless of name changes, accuse the National Front of using fear to win votes. In reality, they are the ones that have the fear and hatred against the National Front and its voters. Today, their only agenda is to beat the National Front,” Arnautu, who is also a member of the European Parliament, said.
Arnautu added that there were two camps in France, a patriotic one that supports the FN’s anti-migration stance to defend their country and their culture and supporters of global cosmopolitanism embodied in France by the left and the main leaders of the Republicans.
The popularity of the party known for its strict anti-immigration stance has been steadily growing. Following the terrorist acts on November 13, when several extremists attacked public places across Paris, killing some 130 people and injuring over 350, FN leader Marine Le Pen called for the country to immediately stop taking in migrants.
On Sunday, the FN lost the second round of the regional elections in all 13 mainland regions, despite topping the polls in six regions in the first round.
“The French have realized [that this is a] destructive immigration policy, as the National Front, despite an intense propaganda campaign between the two rounds of regional elections, has seen massive progress in a week, from 6 to 6.8 million votes! This is more than during the presidential election of 2012,” Arnautu said.
The FN vice president added that the party would continue to convince the French public that only the National Front would not betray them and implement “its program of public salvation” from the massive influx of refugees in France.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Doc ‘Je Suis Charlie’ Pays Tribute to Freedom of Expression
Nearly a year ago, key contributors of the French satire magazine “Charlie Hebdo” were killed by terrorists. Now a documentary explores the strong reactions that followed while celebrating those journalists’ vision.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EC Proposes Changes to Schengen Code
And new border agency with more powers
(supersedes previous)(ANSA) — Brussels, December 15 — The European Commission on Tuesday proposed changing the Schengen Borders Code in order to make it mandatory to systematically check citizens entering and exiting the external borders of the Schengen Area.
A recent council of interior ministers requested the changes to fight Islamist fundamentalist terrorism and catch returning foreign fighters.
As well, it proposed setting up a European border agency with powers to intervene to protect the Union’s outer borders against the will of single countries, if it deems the situation to pose a threat to the Schengen Area as a whole.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Front National Secures Record 6.6 Million Votes
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 14 — With over 6.6 million votes, the Front National surpassed the record of preferences it established during the 2012 French presidential vote.
Marine Le Pen’s party did not conquer any regions in yesterday’s run-off but it smashed all previous results in terms of preferences.
In percentage terms, she secured over 28% of the vote, improving on last Sunday’s performance, when she obtained 27.73% and she also gained in absolute terms winning over 6.6 million votes. It was also an improvement on her father’s performance at the 2002 presidential elections, when Jean-Marie Le Pen, reached the second-turn with 6,421,426 votes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
French Far-Right Leader Le Pen Acquitted of Inciting Hatred
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front (FN), was acquitted Tuesday of charges of inciting hatred after likening Muslim street prayers to the Nazi occupation.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
French Far-Right Leader Marine Le Pen Acquitted of Inciting Hatred
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front (FN) party, was acquitted Tuesday on charges of inciting hatred over comments she made likening Muslim street prayers to Nazi occupation.
Le Pen, 47, stood accused of “inciting discrimination, violence or hatred toward a group of people based on their religious beliefs” for the comments, which she made at a campaign event in the southeastern city of Lyon in 2010.
But a Lyon court dismissed the charges on Tuesday, after the local prosecutor requested they be dropped on the basis that her comments “did not target all of the Muslim community”.
The presiding judge said that while Le Pen’s comments were “shocking”, they were protected “as a part of freedom of expression”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Arrests Prominent Islamic Extremist on Terror Charge
Authorities in Germany have arrested one of the country’s most prominent Islamic extremists on suspicion of supporting a foreign terror group, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Sven Lau was arrested Tuesday in the western city of Moenchengladbach, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Lau is suspected of four counts of supporting the group Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, or JAMWA, which was designated a terrorist organization by the United States last year. Prosecutors alleged that the 35-year-old was the go-to contact for extremists wanting to fight for JAMWA in Syria and provided financial and material support to the group under the cover of humanitarian aid shipments…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Says Internet Giants to Crack Down on Hate Speech
Germany announced a deal Tuesday with social network giants Facebook, Twitter and Google to clamp down on hate speech, with the Internet companies pledging to remove offending posts within 24 hours.
Pressure has grown on the US companies in Germany to take action after the number of xenophobic and racist comments online exploded, with the far-right taking aim at the record number of asylum seekers arriving in Germany this year.
Alarmed by a spike in posts inciting racial hatred and violence, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas had warned that social networks must not “become a funfair for the far right”.
On Tuesday, Facebook, Twitter and Google committed to removing “illegal content promptly, that is, within 24 hours”, said Maas…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Police Grab Infamous Salafist Muslim Convert
Police in Mönchengladbach have arrested infamous Salafist Sven Lau on suspicion of supporting a terrorist group.
A spokeswoman for Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office confirmed to The Local that they had ordered Lau’s arrest on Tuesday morning, as reported by Spiegel Online.
In a statement, the prosecutors said that Lau, 35, had been arrested on suspicion of acting on behalf of “Jaish al-mujahirin wa-l-ansar” (army of emigrants and helpers, or Jamwa).
That could make him culpable of supporting a foreign terrorist organization, a serious crime that carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in jail.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Internet Giants Pledge to Battle Online Hate Speech
Germany announced a deal Tuesday with social network giants Facebook, Twitter and Google to clamp down on hate speech, with the Internet companies pledging to remove offending posts within 24 hours.
Pressure has grown on the US companies in Germany to take action after the number of xenophobic and racist comments online exploded, with the far-right taking aim at the record number of asylum seekers arriving in Germany this year.
Alarmed by a spike in posts inciting racial hatred and violence, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas had warned that social networks must not “become a funfair for the far right”.
On Tuesday, Facebook, Twitter and Google committed to removing “illegal content promptly, that is, within 24 hours”, said Maas.
“Complaints will be examined by specialist teams. And the benchmark to be applied will be German law and no longer just the terms of use of each network,” he added.
The three US companies also pledged to make it easier for users to report offending posts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Biancifiori Arrested in TV Contracts Corruption Probe
Finance cop, close aide also arrested
(ANSA) — Rome, December 14 — Finance police on Monday arrested three people including businessman David Biancifiori in relation to a probe into television contracts in Rome. A close aide and a member of the finance police corps were also arrested.
The suspects face charges of criminal association for a range of tax crimes including false invoicing, fraudulent declarations and corruption. In total over 40 people are implicated in the probe including executives and managers at state broadcaster RAI, companies belonging to the rival Mediaset group, Italy’s seventh national channel La7 and international sports marketing company Infront. Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset group said in June it has suspended employees named in the corruption probe into alleged bribes for contracts to stage TV events in Italy.
The investigation into audio-visual events companies led by Biancifiori, nicknamed Scarface, concerns allegations labour and service contracts were granted in exchange for money or jobs.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Parties on Right Mull French Election Results
Le Pen ‘did not lose’ says Salvini
(ANSA) — Rome, December 14 — France’s extreme right Front National “did not lose” in the second round of voting in regional elections on Sunday despite failing to take any regions, anti-immigrant and anti-Europe Northern League chief Matteo Salvini said Monday.
“It is still the biggest party in France, it has 40% of the vote,” Salvini said. Other parties on the right gave a different interpretation of the results. “Some of the issues that fuelled consensus for the Front National are inevitably part of the agenda of all leading political forces in Europe,” Senator Maurizio Gasparri of the center-right Forza Italia (FI) said.
“While the issues Le Pen tackled cannot be ignored, the solutions need to be presented with greater balance and maturity,” he said.
“This is why the centre-right and not just the right is necessary”.
His comments came on the heels of a call from FI leader and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi for “unity” on the right in view of local elections next year. “We’re certain that Silvio Berlusconi will soon increase the consensus for the coalition to over 40%, shifting the axis of this alliance towards moderate positions,” said FI House whip Renato Brunetta.
Center-left Premier Matteo Renzi’s Italicum electoral bill sets a 40% threshold for winning the majority premium in the Lower House in the first round of voting. However, it currently applies to a single party list, not to a coalition.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PD Stands by Boschi as Opposition Clamors for No-Confidence
Boschi’s dad was exec at govt-rescued Banca Etruria
(ANSA) — Bologna, December 14 — Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) stood by its Reform Minister Maria Elena Boschi on Monday, as the opposition clamored for a no-confidence motion against her.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia (FI), and the rightwing anti-immigrant Northern League argue Boschi has a conflict of interest because her father was vice president of Banca Etruria, one of four failed banks recently rescued by the government.
Pier Luigi Boschi was an executive at Banca Etruria for eight months, reportedly stepping down when the Bank of Italy placed the lender under receivership in February this year. “Not only is there no embarrassment, but there is full support from me and what I represent within the PD,” said the Filippo Taddei, who is in charge of economy.
“Given the timing of Minister Boschi’s father role at Bank Etruria and that of the government’s decision (to bail it out) it would be very difficult to argue — whether reasonably or politically — that the intervention was dictated by a conflict of interests”. Pensioner Luigi D’Angelo, 68, hanged himself last week after losing his life savings in now worthless Banca Etruria bonds.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Homeless Arabs Attack Soldiers at Rome Cathedral
Shouting ‘Allah is great’
(ANSA) — Rome, December 15 — A Palestinian and a Tunisian national were arrested after they tried to disarm soldiers stationed outside Santa Maria Maggiore cathedral while yelling “Allah (God) is great”, Rome police said Tuesday.
When police intervened, the two men aged 40 and 30 called other foreigners in the area to their aid, and assaulted and threatened the arresting officers. After they were taken to the police station, they continued to speak out against law enforcement and Europe in both Arabic and Italian. They were charged with resisting and threatening an officer and instigation to commit a crime with intent to commit terrorist acts, slapped with an expulsion order, and taken to a migrant reception center in the southern city of Bari prior to repatriation.
A background check revealed they had several expulsion orders pending, police said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Light ‘Echoes’ Solve Mystery of Famous Supernova
The mystery of what kind of star self-destructed to create the supernova observed by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1572 has been solved at last. A stellar ember called a white dwarf exploded after gorging on material stolen from its neighbour.
Previous observations had hinted at such a scenario, called a type Ia supernova. But the evidence was not strong enough to rule out other possible causes of death, such as the gravitational collapse of a massive star’s core.
Now, a team led by Oliver Krause at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, has spotted telltale signs of a type Ia supernova using the powerful 8.2-metre Subaru telescope in Hawaii.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Centrist Party Set to Shake up Spanish Elections
A symbol of Spain’s rampant urbanisation and corruption, the region of Murcia is the ideal ground for the new centrist party Ciudadanos, which could hold the balance of power after Sunday’s general elections.
“Here we are the champions of corruption,” said Miguel Garaulet, the chief candidate of Ciudadanos (“Citizens”) for this Mediterranean region of 1.4 million people in southeastern Spain, as he headed for a campaign meeting in the capital, also called Murcia.
Founder of a telecommunications company, Garaulet, 47, said he “jumped in to end everything that’s wrong with the region.
“I’ve created wealth and jobs, now I want to do the same thing with the state institutions.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
New Lithuania-Poland-Sweden Electricity Connections
Andriukaitis, it’s an important milestone for Baltic States
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS, 14 DEC — Two new electricity interconnections linking Lithuania to Poland and Sweden are officially inaugurated in Vilnius. The LitPol Link connects Alytus in Lithuania with Elk in Poland and the Nordbalt links up Nybro in Sweden and Klaipeda in Lithuania bringing together, for the first time, the electricity networks of the Baltic States with those of Sweden and Poland. “In the Energy Union there is no room for energy islands.
Electricity has to be able to flow freely across borders” the EU Commissioner for Energy, Miguel Arias Canete, said. “These two new electricity links mark an important milestone in integrating the Baltic States and Poland with the rest of the European electricity market” the EU Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis added. The new interconnections will increase the interconnection level of Poland and of the three Baltics Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Prior to LitPol and Nordbalt, both Poland and the Baltic countries did not meet the minimum EU 10% interconnection target. LitPol is a ‘Project of EU Common Interest’ which received over 27 million euros of EU support for works in Lithuania. LitPol also benefitted from the EU’s structural funds for construction works carried out in Poland, a loan from the European Investment Bank of 55 million euros and a Nordic Investment Bank loan of 50 million euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Demands Apology as Schulz Evokes ‘Coup’
European Parliament chief Martin Schulz on Monday compared the political situation in Poland to a “coup”, drawing the anger of the Polish government which is locked in a battle against the country’s top court.
“What is happening in Poland has the characteristics of a coup and is dramatic. I am going on the principle that we are going to discuss this in detail this week at the European parliament, or at the latest, during the session in January,” he told Deutschlandfunk radio.
Schulz’s comments sparked an angry response from Warsaw, with Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo demanding an apology.
“This type of comments — and this is not the first time that president Schulz uses such a tone — concerning Poland and Polish affairs, are unacceptable to me,” Szydlo said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Scientist Who Discovered GMOs Cause Tumors in Rats Wins Landmark Defamation Lawsuit in Paris
Was French Prof. Gilles-Eric Séralini correct when he discovered that scientific feeding experiments past 90 days with GMO food and rats can cause serious health problems including tumors?
The answer to that question has been debated ever since the initial publication of his study, culminating in a republication of the study in another peer-reviewed journal that wasn’t nearly as well covered as the initial retraction was by the mainstream media.
Now, Prof. Séralini is in the news again — this time for winning a major court victory in a libel trial that represents the second court victory for Séralini and his team in less than a month.
On November 25, the High Court in Paris indicted Marc Fallous, the former chairman of France’s Biomolecular Engineering Commission, for “forgery” and the “use of forgery.” The details of the case have not been officially released.
But according to this article from the Séralini website, Fallous used or copied the signature of a scientist whose name was used, without his agreement, to argue that Séralini and his co-workers were wrong in their studies on Monsanto products, including GM corn.
A sentencing for Fallous is expected in June 2016.
This was the second such court victory for the professor’s team, following a November 6 victory in a defamation lawsuit over an article in the French Marianne magazine which categorized the Séralini team research as “scientific fraud (you can read more about the case here).”
What few people realize about the original Séralini study on GMOs is that it was only retracted after a serious PR offensive from Monsanto and the Biotech industry, one that included the creation of a whole new position on the original Food and Toxicology journal: Associate Editor for Biotechnology.
The new position was actually filled by a former Monsanto employee who helped convince the journal’s author to retract the study.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Security Fears Blight Paris Tourism a Month After Attacks
France’s worst-ever terrorist attacks have cast a pall over the capital city’s crucial tourism industry and dampened the Christmas cheer.
The build-up to the Christmas holiday is normally the busiest time of the year for Paris transport hubs, hotels and luxury boutiques.
But a month after terrorists killed 130 people in coordinated attacks on the city’s night spots, the dearth of visitors is a sign that the French capital is still a long way from returning to normality.
The full impact of the Nov. 13 attacks will become clearer with fourth-quarter results, but there is already evidence of a significant hit to the tourism industry.
Hotel revenues in Paris are down 30-40 percent from last year’s levels, restaurant revenues have fallen by a similar margin while new flight bookings to Paris fell by 27 percent in the week following the attacks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sports Direct Warehouse Won’t Give Britons Jobs, MP Claims as He Brands Boss ‘Monster’
An MP has claimed native English speakers can’t get jobs at Sports Direct and its owner is a ‘monster’.
John Mann, the MP for Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire, has called for an investigation into Sports Direct warehouses.
He has claimed British workers are snubbed for jobs at the Derbyshire warehouse.
The MP said: “Everyone in our area knows you can’t get a job in the warehouse at Sports Direct if you are an English native speaker despite 3,000 people working there.”
The politician highlighted the tough working conditions at Sports Direct, which has seen 80 ambulance call outs in two years and a mother giving birth in the toilets after being discouraged from going home sick.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Police Are Letting ISIS Fanatics Leave Britain as They Lose Grip on Jihadis
Terror police are secretly ushering homegrown Islamic State (ISIS) fanatics out of the country deciding it is safer to get them out of Britain than keep tabs on them.
Security services are so scared of radicalised jihadis carrying out atrocities on Britain’s streets they are rushing them out where they can go unnoticed, in the latest sign spies are becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the threat and scale of Islamist extremism.
Once the Islamists have left British shores, they could be able to get closer to other jihadis and it is easier for them to go under the radar.
Security experts are also reportedly at loggerheads with Theresa May over how best to deal homegrown radicalism, with officers seemingly reluctant to carry out her orders to seize the passports of known radicalised plotters.
Whilst the Home Secretary wants to prevent extremist young Britons from fleeing abroad — where they can then plot terror attacks against the UK — MI5 operatives believe that simply increase the chance of them carrying out atrocities here instead.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Tim Peake Blasts Off to be First British ISS Astronaut
Timothy Peake, the first Briton to represent the European Space Agency aboard the ISS, has blasted off from Kazakhstan with Tim Kopra from the USA and Russian Yuri Malenchenko. He hopes to watch “Star Wars” in space.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism Major Employer of Women in EU, Especially in Latvia
In Bulgaria, Greece and Italy high share of temporary workers
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS, DEC 14 — Tourism is a major employer of women in the EU, especially in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
While in the 28 Member States women represented in 2014 just over a third (36%) of persons employed in the non-financial business economy, core tourism activities employed predominantly female workers (58%), almost 6 out of ten persons.
Women accounted for at least two-thirds of employment in tourism in Latvia (72%, compared with 42% in the non-financial business economy), Lithuania (68% vs.43%), Poland (67% vs. 36%), Slovakia (67% vs.36%) and Estonia (66% vs. 40%).
In the EU, the proportion of temporary jobs is significantly higher in core tourism activities (21%) than in the non-financial business economy (14%) and this situation is found in every EU Member State for which data are available.
In Bulgaria (21% vs. 5%), Greece (40% vs. 12%), Italy (38% vs. 14%), Cyprus (44% vs. 11%) and Austria (22% against 8%), the share of temporary workers is even around three to four times higher in core tourism activities.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK Labour Party Rocked by ‘Judas’ Letter to Lawmakers Over Corbyn Support
Lawmakers in the UK Labour Party were in uproar Tuesday after several received a letter from a union branch denouncing their “Judas congratulations” to Jeremy Corbyn for winning the Labour leadership in September.
Corbyn was a late-runner in the race for the Labour leadership. It was widely expected that one of three party moderates would win the Labour leadership: former health secretary Andy Burnham, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, another shadow minister.
All three of his opponents were considered mainstream Labour and enjoyed varying levels of popularity.
Corbyn was nominated as a left-wing candidate and was not expected to win, but owing to a huge surge in party membership and a strong campaign, he won the leadership against all the odds.
He does not enjoy the support of most of his lawmakers in parliament, yet says he has a mandate from the wider party membership, including many unions.
Now, however, a letter from a branch of the union Unison, written by Mike Le Cornu, chairman of the retired members’ association in Colchester, warned Labour lawmakers that candidates were chosen on “strict loyal support for party policy as determined democratically by the majority of the membership.”
The letter suggested that those who were not Corbyn supporters and who remained disloyal to his leadership could be deselected at the next election.
“We have to say that we find it distasteful that some of you indulged in, what can only be described as a ‘Judas’ congratulations to Jeremy when his overwhelming victory was announced. With the rampant behavior of some of you, we can be forgiven for concluding that maybe it’s not Isis [Daesh] or Assad that you are interested to remove but Jeremy Corbyn whose success, you feel, is a threat to your careers as politicians and to the privileges you enjoy as members of the ‘parliamentary club.’
“While we are not in favor of ‘bullying’, it should not surprise anyone that those of you in the forefront of disruptive behavior should be the recipients of severe and emotional criticism,” the letter stated.
‘Threats and Intimidation’
The party was plunged into crisis ahead of a parliamentary vote on military action in Syria against Daesh, also known as ISIL. Corbyn is anti-war and wanted his party to back him against intervention in Syria, but failed to carry many of his lawmakers with him and was forced to offer them a free vote, rather than attempt to impose a three-line whip, which would have led to shadow cabinet resignations.
In the run-up to the vote on December 2, there were allegations of intimidation and bullying by pro-Corbyn anti-war campaigners. Former Labour Party cabinet minister Caroline Flint said: “The threats and intimidation that people have received through social media and emails to their offices and letters to their offices has no place in political debates.
“I have never received this sort of personal abuse and intolerance to any other point of view to the one that I have been expressing, and it’s unprecedented. There’s been more campaigning against Labour MPs and that will only serve division and disunity,” she said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK Shifts Its Space-Science Strategy
Research surrounding human spaceflight is booming.
When Tim Peake enters the airlock of the International Space Station (ISS) in December, the former helicopter pilot will become the first astronaut to fly backed by the UK government. When, or if, other Britons will follow is unclear, but the milestone represents a wider change to the focus of UK space science.
“It does feel like an awful long time that the UK has been closed to human spaceflight,” said former astronaut Helen Sharman at the UK Space Conference 2015 in Liverpool on 13—15 July. “Now the lid has well and truly been lifted, and it’s clear how much interest has been just bubbling under the surface.” Sharman became the first Briton in space when she flew to the Mir space station in 1991 as part of a Russian space mission with sponsorship from private companies.
Britain has long contributed to European Space Agency (ESA) programmes involving robotic probes and space telescopes, which tend to focus on astronomy and planetary science. But it is the only country of the G8 industrialized nations not to have put an astronaut on the ISS.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Evangelical Pastor on Trial for Branding Islam ‘Satanic’
Government prosecutors claim message ‘grossly offensive’
A pastor is facing a court trial this week on a government charge that his message, delivered through a public electronic communications because it was online, was grossly offensive to the point of being criminal.
The decision that results from the case, which is based on the pastor’s description of Islam as a “doctrine spawned in hell,” could determine whether Christian pastors will be allowed to preach biblical doctrine in the United Kingdom going forward.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Were These Remote, Wild Islands the Centre of Everything?
Orkney’s number of Stone Age sites implies that the remote Scottish islands once may have been at the centre of it all. But why? An exciting new discovery could hold the clues.
When the owners of Brodgar Farm ploughed up a large notched stone in their field in 2003, they knew it was no normal rock. Someone had altered it. And given the farm’s location, it wouldn’t have been surprising if that someone had lived a very, very long time ago.
Even so, no one had any idea of the discovery that lay ahead.
“I don’t think anyone could have predicted what we found,” said head archaeologist Nick Card. “It’s rewriting aspects of prehistory.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Alarm in Libya: ‘ISIS Advancing Towards Oil Wells’
Tomorrow signature government national unity in Morocco
CAIRO — ISIS is now advancing “towards Libyan oil wells”. The alarm, after the horrid crimes, executions, crucifixions and the threatening propaganda by Caliphate-linked jihadists, comes from French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. On the eve of the long-awaited signature in Skhirat, Morocco, for the new national unity government, by the two rival governments of Tobruk — whose parliament is internationally recognized — and Tripoli, dominated by the Islamists, the French defence minister has warned against the danger represented by ISIS militants in Libya who “are in Sirte, stretch their territory along 250 kilometres of coast, but start penetrating inside and aim to try to access oil wells and reserves”.
Over the past few months, multiple sources, not only from the West, have warned that Islamic State militants are planning to take oil reserves to fund their terror operations. Last Saturday, Cairo’s ‘Dar el Iftaa’, the centre where religious edicts (fatwas) are issued, warned against the expansion of the terror organization, which from Sirte is eyeing the oil wells in Ajdabiya in the east, between Sirte and Benghazi. Such a threat should not be underestimated and can be stemmed only after Libya succeeds in reorganizing its state institutions, unified under one national unity government that should be approved tomorrow.
The deal reached in Rome has given impetus to this perspective, an agreement reached at the end of the conference on Libya held at the foreign ministry in the Italian capital with the participation of 17 countries, plus the UN, EU, Arab League and African Union. The agreement provides for a new national unity government to take office within the next 40 days in Tripoli, an appeal for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors. The international community will moreover guarantee the security of the new executive in the capital and Italy will play a “fundamental role” within the UN framework in the road towards stabilization.
Yesterday, the premier proposed for a possible cabinet, Fayez Sarraj, launched a new appeal to the Libyans to close ranks and end the conflict. Also yesterday, new public executions carried out by ISIS were reported in Sirte. According to witnesses quoted by the Lana news agency, “a Moroccan woman was beheaded after she was accused of sorcery by an Islamic court, while a Palestinian was shot dead on espionage charges”. A third man, “a Libyan, was instead punished with one of his fingers cut for theft”.
And while the Islamic State is feared to make an appearance in Sabratha, threatening archaeological ruins, a UNESCO world heritage site, at least nine people, including leaders of a group in power in the capital, were reported dead in Benghazi in clashes between Islamic extremists and Far Libya militias.
Meanwhile a Lebanese judge has issued an arrest warrant for Hannibal Gaddafi, son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, on charges of hiding information on the case of Shiite imam Mussa Sadr, who disappeared in Libya in 1978.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Op-Ed: BDS Lies When it Calls Our Brave IDF Soldiers “War Criminals.”
By Barry Shaw
To emphasize the point, the report states, “The IDF not only met its obligations under the Law of Armed Conflict, but often exceeded these on the battlefield at significant tactical costs, as well as in the humanitarian relief efforts that accompanied its operation.”
Additionally highlighting the conduct of the IDF and the Israeli soldier the report recorded that, “Where the high standards of conduct the IDF sets for its personnel have not been met incidents are investigated, including criminal investigations, through an independent mechanism under the oversight of the democratic institutions of the State of Israel. This mechanism clearly meets the requirements of legal recourse, judicial independence and democratic oversight that our own nations set for ourselves.”
The team of overseas military experts reported on Hamas thus:
“Hamas not only flagrantly disregarded the Law of Armed Conflict as a matter of course as part of its terrorist-army hybrid strategic concept, but rather it abused the very protections afforded by the law for military advantage. It embedded its entire military machinery in civilian locations and sensitive sites, including those of the United Nations.
Hamas indiscriminately targeted Israeli civilians throughout the conflict with extensive rocket fire and willfully sought to draw the IDF into battle in a prepared urban stronghold amid the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, for which it located its operational headquarters in Gaza’s main hospital.”
All these are war crimes…
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
UN Decries Palestinian Attacks, ‘Excessive’ Israeli Response
The UN voiced deep concern Tuesday over an “unacceptable” wave of Palestinians attacking Israelis, but also slammed Israeli authorities’ reported “excessive use of force” in response to the attacks.
“We continue to be gravely concerned at the unrelenting violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in Israel,” Cecile Pouilly, spokeswoman for the UN human rights office, told reporters.
“We call on both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to act decisively to de-escalate the situation,” she added.
Since October 1, almost daily attacks by Palestinians and clashes with Israeli soldiers have killed 117 on the Palestinian side, 21 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, and thousands more have been injured, she pointed out…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
For Father Youssef, Staying in Syria Under the Bombs Was a “Test of Faith”
The monk belongs to the community of Deir Mar Musa, founded by Fr Dall’Oglio. He experienced directly the Syrian civil war and “what it means to really have faith or not,” noting that monks and nuns “discussed every day whether to stay” in Syria or not. “We stayed out of solidarity for our Christian and Muslim friends in al-Nabek,” not to become martyrs. The religious hosted 50 Muslim refugee families, and helped repair 63 Christian homes damaged by the siege of al-Nabek.
Rome (AsiaNews) — Remaining in Syria despite the war and the bombing “was for me the test of faith. I knew what it meant in theory, but I had never personally experienced it. Now I really know what it means to have faith or not, believe or not. Faced with the suffering of people, of friends, before the destruction of the city, doubts develop,” said Fr Youssef Jihad, a monk from the community of Deir Mar Musa at a meeting organised in Rome by the Friends of Deir Mar Musa, in collaboration with the Astalli Centre and the Magis Foundation.
Father Youssef belongs to a community founded in 1991 by Fr Paolo Dall’Oglio, which now includes four monasteries. The first monastery is that of Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi*, which is located some 80 kilometres from Damascus, in the desert. Fr Jihad lived there until September. The monastery is home to three monks and four nuns, whose vocation is prayer, manual work, hospitality and Muslim-Christian harmony.
The Syrian Catholic monk remembers the most tragic phases of the Syrian conflict, which closely affected him. “In 2013 al-Nabek was besieged. It is the nearest town to Deir Mar Musa monastery, at about 17 kilometres. Our friends in the city and ourselves spent 25 days that felt more like 25 years locked up in the basement. Our cities are not built to withstand war. We do not have real air-raid shelters. Providence left us a functioning phone in the monastery, so that we could occasionally hear our friends in al-Nabek.”
“When the battle was over, we went into the city and saw the destruction, especially the Christian Quarter (which is on higher ground). We thought that if we did not repair the houses of our parishioners, they would go away. Thank God, with the help of three European Catholic organisations, we came up with a plan, and immediately got a positive response. Within four-five months, we repaired 63 homes in the Christian Quarter and also some buildings in the Muslim Quarter.”
Father Youssef said that it was not easy to remain in Syria after seeing so much destruction. “At that time, monks and nuns discussed every day whether to stay in Mar Musa, what we were doing there; whether they were going to come and kill us, rob us . . . We remained. We chose to stay for a simple reason: we made our daily discernment, and I can’t say that God told us to stay, but at least he did not tell us to go. We stayed out of solidarity for our Christian and Muslim friends in al-Nabek. We could see in their eyes that our presence was welcomed as a sign of hope, and a true message of peace and brotherhood, which we have preached for 20 years.”
The test of faith “was the most difficult challenge we faced in the community, more than the bombs. Because all our faith in a God who helps his people had ended up in nothing. It seemed that God was not listening; we could not understand his will. In my mind, I had an imaginary interlocutor who said to me: Behold! You Christians are good for nothing; you can’t take a real stand that gets immediate results. You seek refuge in a God that you invented, Ã la Feuerbach.”
“Yet, each day we chose to believe, to confirm the promises of our baptism. We said, ‘Lord, we believe, strengthen our faith.’ The concrete sign of God’s presence in our lives was a common feeling: that we were not alone. Our prayers and those of friends who came, both Christians and Muslims.”
For Fr Youssef, “At times of distress, I can understand the feelings of those who abandon everything to go away, to the sea, to face almost certain death. We are always saying that Christians must remain in the Middle East, cling to their roots. That’s right, but in such situations, I realise that fear drives to the point of pulling up one’s roots.”
“Those who remain in Syria must have a mission and understand it,” the monk explained. “They must stay out of their free will, not forced. So many are forced to remain because they are either too poor or do not want to risk death at sea. Those who remain must have a mission because the baptised is a mission.”
The mission of the community of Deir Mar Musa has always been dialogue and friendship with Muslims. “We want to be a presence for the Islamic world,” Fr Jihad said. “We do not want to stand aside Muslims or head of them. We want to be for Muslims, love them, be curious about them, understand what they believe and do. ‘Go among the Saracens,” as Saint Francis said, identifying yourself as Christian, without proselytising but waiting for the Holy Spirit to speak out and prepare the ground.”
In recent years, the monks of Deir Mar Musa worked with the Jesuit Refugee Centre (JRC) and Caritas, helping “everyone, Christians and Muslims, in the region around the Mar Elian monastery, where Fr Jacques Mourad was the only monk”.
“We took in for three months some 50 Muslim families with women, children and seniors, because they had nothing. When they arrived, they had lost many loved ones and had only the clothes they were wearing. They were welcomed in the monastery where children used to play and go to school.”
“Although this is not enough, this work is essential and has borne fruit because Christians and Muslims in the city talk about ‘our monks, our monastery’ when they speak of our monastery and community.”
* Dayr mÄr MÅ”sá al-ḤabashÄ”, literally the Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Seizes Thousands of Cars for Women’s Veil Offences
Iran has impounded tens of thousands of cars since March because women inside the vehicles had not properly covered their hair with a headscarf, Tehran’s traffic police said Tuesday.
“Over the past eight months, more than 40,000 cases of bad hijab (headscarf) have been dealt with,” said Brigadier General Teymour Hosseini, quoted by ISNA news agency.
“In most cases, the cars were impounded and cases were referred to the judiciary,” he said, while some of the women stopped could face cash fines or warnings…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Islamic Coalition Against Terrorism’: Saudi Arabia Presents 34-State Military Block
A Riyadh-based “Islamic military alliance” has been formed with a mission to fight terrorism, Saudi Arabian state TV has announced. The coalition consists of 34 countries, including the Gulf States, a number of African countries, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia and Pakistan.
Countries involved in the coalition aside from Saudi Arabia, include Jordan, the UAE, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Turkey, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Djibouti, Senegal, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Gabon, Guinea, the partially-recognized state of Palestine, the Islamic Federal Republic of the Comoros, Qatar, Cote d’Ivoire, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mali, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Yemen.
“The countries here mentioned have decided on the formation of a military alliance led by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, with a joint operations centre based in Riyadh to coordinate and support military operations,” state news agency SPA quoted an official statement as saying.
[Comment: What is common amongst these countries? Is this the beginning of a formation of a Caliphate?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon Charges Kadhafi Son in Decades-Old Kidnap Case
Lebanese authorities on Monday charged Hannibal Kadhafi, the high-living son of the late Libyan dictator, with withholding information about a missing Lebanese Shiite cleric, judicial sources told AFP.
Kadhafi was kidnapped on Friday by an unknown armed group in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley, but was freed by police several hours later and taken in for questioning, security sources said.
ADVERTISINGOn Monday he was interrogated for more than three hours by judicial investigators, who charged him with “withholding information on the disappearance of Shiite imam Mussa Sadr”.
Sadr went missing in 1978 during an official visit to Libya, along with an aide and a journalist…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
McCain: Saudi Anti-Terror Coalition Shows Lack of US Leadership in M East
McCain claims that the establishment of a 34-nation anti-terror coalition by Saudi Arabia demonstrates the failure of US leadership in the Middle East.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — The establishment of a 34-nation anti-terror coalition by Saudi Arabia demonstrates the failure of US leadership in the Middle East, US Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain told Sputnik.
“It is the most graphic example of the lack of American leadership that has motivated Saudis and others to basically embark on their own strategies in order to combat both ISIS [Daesh] and the Iranian threat,” McCain stated on Tuesday.
“They are as committed to the overthrow, or the removal of Bashar Assad, as they are of ISIS [Daesh],” McCain said on Tuesday, noting that Assad is “a greater threat to them in many ways than ISIS is.”
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced the creation of an anti-terrorism coalition, largely made up of Sunni Arab countries. The joint operation command center will be based in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Seeking to Show Germany is ‘Not Washington’s Puppet’
Angela Merkel recently refused to expand the German military contingent in the coalition against Daesh led by the US. The corresponding request was sent to Germany by US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.
According to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Berlin is taking all necessary steps in the fight against Daesh terrorists. The German Bundestag recently approved the deployment of Bundeswehr forces in Syria as a part of international counterrorism efforts.
Russian expert Alexander Galkin, however, views Merkel’s decision to oppose the US proposal as an attempt to strengthen its own image in Germany. According to Galkin, Merkel is rapidly losing political clout in her own country, and therefore decided to demonstrate her independence from Washington.
“Merkel […] is trying to distance herself from negative perceptions of her in Germany, to demonstrate that she is not a puppet in the hands of the United States,” Galkin said in an exclusive interview with Radio Sputnik.
“The fact is that her political career has entered a phase of decline. If she had resigned a year ago, she would have remained in German history not only as the first female chancellor, but as an outstanding Chancellor, whom one, to some extent, could compare to Bismarck. Now she is losing this image,” the expert stated.
According to Galkin, Merkel is unlikely to resign in the near future. But there are doubts about her future political run. As earlier reported by US think tank Stratfor, the myth of Angela Merkel as an “infallible leader” has already been destroyed. The German population has started to doubt Merkel’s power and sensed that the Chancellor had begun losing control over the political situation.
Galkin argues that Merkel would be able to prove her independence from the US if she wanted to do so. The US would be displeased with this, but wouldn’t be able to exert pressure on the Chancellor.
“Of course, Merkel would not seriously break up with the United States, while undertaking this PR campaign,” the expert said. “I think that the United States will have to swallow this pill, but at the same time will remember it well,” he added.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
More Christians Die, More Western Leaders Lie
Throughout September, as more Christians were slaughtered and persecuted for their religion—not just by the Islamic State but by “every day” Muslims from all around the world—increasing numbers of people and organizations called for action, while those best placed to respond—chief among them U.S. President Obama and Pope Francis—did nothing.
“Why, we ask the western world, why not raise one’s voice over so much ferocity and injustice?” asked Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference.
Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III also said: “I do not understand why the world does not raise its voice against such acts of brutality.”
As one report put it: “Human rights activists see it. Foreign leaders see it. And more than 80 members of the U.S. Congress see it. Together, they are pressuring the leader of the free world [U.S. President Obama] to declare there is a Christian genocide going on in the Middle East.”
[Comment: Western leaders are following the Foreign Office playbook from TV show “Yes, Priminister” Episode “A Victory for Democracy”. You can watch it on Youtube. (A great TV show along with the earlier series “Yes, Minister”) Here is the relevant thinking process:
“If they appeal to us, we shall give them every support short of help. If the Prime Minister insists that we help, then we follow the traditional four-stage strategy, the standard Foreign Office response to any crisis: Stage One We say that nothing is going to happen. Stage Two We say that something may be going to happen, but we should do nothing about it. Stage Three We say that maybe we should do something about it, but theres nothing we can do. Stage Four We say that maybe there was something we could have done but its too late now.”
Basically, stall, stall, then stall some more. Now it’s too late — there are no Christians left in the Middle East. It’s almost as if the elimination of Chrisitans in th emiddle east is the intended goal of Western leaders. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Newborn ‘Burden on the State’: Daesh Fatwa Orders Murder of Disabled Babies
Daesh, also known as Islamic State, has reportedly issued a disturbing fatwa, ordering disabled children to be killed.
The report which is yet to be verified, suggests Daesh militants have murdered at least 38 babies with Down’s syndrome and other disabilities.
A spokesperson for Iraqi activist group, Mosul Eye, says a Sharia law judge issued an “oral fatwa” (the Islamic terrorist’ term for a religious decree), authorizing its militant members to “kill new-born babies with Down’s syndrome and congenital deformities and disabled children.”
The oral fatwa is believed to have come from an Islamic State Saudi Sharia judge called Abu Said Aljazrawi.
Mosul Eye said it monitored the deaths of babies with Down’s syndrome and found they were children of foreign fighters. The children were aged between one week and three months, and were killed by lethal injection or suffocated.
The deaths are believed to have taken place in Syria and the Iraqi city of Mosul.
“As if it is not enough for ISIL [Daesh] to kill men, women and the elderly, and now, they kill children,” said a spokesperson for Mosul Eye.
If the reports are true, Deash has copied a Nazi ruling to murder disabled children it believed to be a “burden on the state”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nusra Front Wins ‘Hearts and Minds’ as CIA-Trained Syrian Rebels Suffer
A lynchpin in America’s Syrian strategy, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is reportedly in tatters, threatening Western efforts to combat Daesh, also known as ISIL or Islamic State.
After civil war broke out in Syria, one of the Pentagon’s early strategic efforts was to train so-called “moderate” rebel groups. After spending some $384 million, the program ended in failure this year after the CIA was unable to identify worthy candidates.
“It is simply difficult to acquire the number of Syrian rebels willing to participate in the training under current parameters,” Jennifer Cafarella, with the Institute for the Study of War, told Fox News in June.
But it now looks like another key part of Washington’s fight against Daesh may be in danger of failure. Receiving Western backing, the Free Syrian Army, the region’s largest opposition group, is suffering from low morale.
“After five years of this war the people are just tired…and so are our fighters,” said Jaseen Salabeh, an FSA volunteer, according to Stars and Stripes News.
Part of the problem lies in what FSA members describe as corrupt leadership.
“They regularly steal our salaries,” Salabeh added. “We’re supposed to get $400 a month, but we only actually receive $100.”
He also identified the lack of proper treatment for those wounded in battle.
“If somebody is wounded, they just dump him in Jordan and abandon him,” Salabeh said. “Widows of martyred fighters also receive nothing after deaths.”
These conditions have created a cycle of failure. Due to low morale, the FSA has few military wins, consequently causing the US to pull back on the funding which could improve conditions and morale.
“The lack of battlefield success has mitigated against them,” Ed Blanche, a member of London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Stars and Stripes, adding that, “they haven’t been getting significant (outside) support because they haven’t been showing results.”
According to Elias Hanna, a former Lebanese general and professor of geopolitics at the American University of Beirut, people are frustrated with the Free Syrian Army’s lack of progress and are instead turning to the Nusra Front, a regional al-Qaeda affiliate.
“In contrast, Nusra is winning the hearts and minds of the people, and positioning themselves as moderates despite their al-Qaeda links,” Hanna told Stars and Stripes.
News of Washington’s failure to adequately support the FSA comes amid increasing cooperation between the Syrian opposition group and the Russian government. On Monday, Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov confirmed that Moscow has launched a number of airstrikes to support FSA troops in fighting Daesh.
“The number of such FSA units is on the rise. The Russian aviation carries out 30-40 airstrikes daily to support them,” Gerasimov said during a meeting with military diplomatic corps representatives, according to RIA Novosti.
“We also supply them with weapons, ammunition and materials.”
In turn, the Free Syrian Army has offered to share “precise intelligence” with Russia to coordinate attacks.
“We have precise intelligence, documents, maps, and we can share them with the Russians so that their strikes on Daesh are more effective,” General Hossam Awak, head of FSA intelligence, told Sputnik.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Warns ISIS Offshoot Growing in Afghanistan, ‘Operationally Active’
The Pentagon delivered a warning Tuesday about the growth of the Islamic State offshoot in Afghanistan, saying the branch has become “more operationally active” there by carving out territory and openly fighting the Taliban.
The Defense Department report also said violence in Afghanistan overall is on the rise and the security situation has worsened since June, with more effective attacks by insurgents and increased casualties among Afghan security forces. The DOD said advances by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) — Khorasan Province (IS-KP) in particular could stoke “increased violence” with other extremist groups in 2016.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Digging in for Long Haul in Syria
MOSCOW — Russia is digging in for the long haul in Syria. Whereas two months ago Russian officials insisted the Kremlin’s military adventure in the shattered Arab republic would last no longer than a few months, the Defense Ministry is gradually surging its force strength in the country.
Analysts told Defense News that the gradual expansion of Russia’s air contingent reflects that Russia’s ultimate goal in Syria — to forestall the demise of President Bashar Assad, or at least his Alawite government — is proving harder to reach than initially anticipated.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Women Unite to Save Christian Towns From Daesh
Members of the battalion called the ‘Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers’ come from different backgrounds, united by the drive to protect the future of their country and families.
An all-female militia group in Syria is graduating from its training camp in the northeastern town of Al-Qahtaniyeh. The determined women mostly come from Christian backgrounds and are taking up arms to challenge the traditional ideas of Syrian women being just housekeepers.
Under the control of Daesh, Syrian women would have a totally domestic role, encouraged to lead a life inside their houses as wives and mothers.
The rise of the female battalion is a complete negation to Daesh’s stone-age notions. The female fighters seek to oppose such ideas, and to fight the possibility of being forced to lead such a life.
Thousands of Syrians have fled their homes after the jihadists seized their towns. Syrians belonging to a different religion were forced to convert or face death.
“I’m not afraid of the Daesh, and we will be present in the coming battles against the terrorists,” female fighter, Thabirtha Samir, 24, told AFP.
Another recruiter, Babylonia, 36, is a former hairdresser who was encouraged by her husband to take up arms to challenge the traditional ideas of Syrian women being just housekeepers.
She told AFP that she misses her two children, but is “fighting to protect their future”.
The formation of the ‘Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers’ group follows in the footsteps of the country’s other main female fighting force, the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), a faction of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The YPJ group recently recaptured the town of Hol, a strategic location for Daesh on a key route between Syria and Iraq.
One of their commanders said: “They believe if someone from Daesh (ISIL) is killed by a girl, a Kurdish girl, they won’t go to heaven,” AFP reported.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Why ISIS Exists: The Double Game
by Joe Giambrone
Unlike an underground reservoir, which is impossible to eradicate, the money and weapons transfers to fundamentalist militants can be stopped. The problem is that western so-called “leaders” have done absolutely nothing to stop them. In fact they rarely mention these sources of terrorist arms, training and funding at all, in public anyway. When acknowledged these become theater, hand wringing, vague excuses rather than concrete action. At other times intelligence services themselves willingly hand over sophisticated weapons to terrorists, such as TOW anti-tank missiles and surface to air “MANPADS” capable of bringing down commercial airliners. The nations most responsible for creating the extremist armies on the ground—Turkey and the Persian Gulf tyrannies—are close allies and even “friends” to US and European political masters.
| — Hat tip: MD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Forced to Tolerate Anti-Russian Sanctions Because of Merkel
There is no unity among European countries with regard to the extension of economic sanctions against Russia. However, EU member states prefer to stay in the shade and follow the policy of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who favors the extension of the sanctions in accordance with the policy of the United States, DWN wrote.
The resistance against anti-Russian sanctions in Europe is growing as they have negatively affected businesses in a number of European countries and led to an increase in unemployment and economic recession, the newspaper wrote.
Not all European countries are ready to further tolerate the economic restrictions in relations with Russia. For instance, Italy recently demanded that EU nations debate their extension rather than automatically prolong them for another six months.
According to DWN, Russia is an important partner for European countries in many respects. For instance, France is supporting Russia’s military operation in Syria which became a matter of high priority for the French government after the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. Greece was initially opposing the introduction of restrictive measures against Russia, while Luxembourg (as Italy) has opposed their automatic extension.
Moreover, German entrepreneurs have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with the situation and asked Angela Merkel to abolish the restrictions.
In fact, every European country could veto the sanctions, DWN wrote. However, such a scenario is unlikely, either because weaker recipient countries face economic pressure from the German government, or because their governments are not strong enough to make such decisions.
According to the newspaper, many states prefer to stay in the shade and not to be on the “firing line” of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who favors the extension of the sanctions following the desire of the United States.
Thus, the EU is not acting in the interests of its member states, but is rather meeting the requirements made by the US. That is why the sanctions are likely to be extended without much fuss, the newspaper concluded.
The economic restrictions against Russia were imposed by the EU on August 1, 2014 due to Russia’s alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, which Moscow constantly denied. By late December, the EU is expected to decide on the issue of their further extension.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mars Moisture-Farming Mission Gets Approval for 2018 Launch
Drink up. The first moisture farm on Mars will be part of a mission blasting off in 2018.
Earlier this year, Javier Martin-Torres of Luleå University of Technology in Kiruna, Sweden, and his colleagues reported results from NASA’s Curiosity rover suggesting that liquid water pools just beneath the surface of Mars at night before evaporating during the day.
The team has designed an instrument called HABIT to measure and test this process, and ESA has now approved its use on ExoMars, the joint mission between ESA and Russia to send a rover and lander to Mars in 2018.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As Garbage Mountains Rise, Indonesian Capital Faces Waste Crisis (1)
Sifting through a mountain of garbage with her bare hands, a thick cloth wrapped around her face to keep out the stench, Patimah recalled her early days scavenging at a dump on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital the size of 120 football fields.
“I vomited back then,” she told AFP while wading through knee-deep waste, swatting away flies as she hunted for plastic bottles amid food scraps and soiled clothing.
But now Patimah, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said the smell no longer bothers her: “I am used to it.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
As Garbage Mountains Rise, Indonesian Capital Faces Waste Crisis (2)
Virtually all rubbish from the Indonesian capital Jakarta is dumped an hour’s drive away at Bantar Gebang where towering mountains of trash have risen skyward.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dalai Lama: “We Must Dialogue With ISIS”
Here in the Indian capital of global call centers, the Dalai Lama was the feature guest at the Arab-Asian Chamber of Commerce’ Peace for Economy conference. In an interview with La Stampa on the sidelines of the conference, the highest authority of Tibetan Buddhism extended an olive branch to the West’s current Enemy No. 1: ISIS, the Islamic State terror network. Beyond the immediate priority of ending violence, the Dalai Lama said economic development that respects people and the environment is a powerful antidote to religious fundamentalism.
LA STAMPA: Your Holiness, you have said that your enemy is defeated when he becomes your friend.
DALAI LAMA: True! So true!
Can you explain how to become friends with ISIS?
Through dialogue. We have to listen, understand and have respect for others. There is no other way…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Seeking to Link Iran to Its New Silk Road
Iran is arguably one of China’s closest partners in the Middle East. And with economic sanctions on Tehran set to be eased, DW examines China’s latest proposal to integrate Iran into its New Silk Road Initiative.
Seeking to capitalize on the easing of international sanctions on Iran, China’s railway authority has proposed a high-speed rail line for both passengers and cargo connecting the country’s northwest region to West Asia via Central Asia, according to state-run newspaper China Daily.
The proposed 3,200-kilometer long (2,000 miles) rail link, put forward last month by state-owned China Railway Corporation (CRC), would begin in Urumqi, the capital of China’s restive western Xinjiang Province, and end in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Along the way it would make stops in Kazakhstan (Almaty), Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek), Uzbekistan (Tashkent and Samarkand) and Turkmenistan (Ashgabat), said the paper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Pollution Returns as Smog Envelopes Shanghai — And it’s Headed to Taiwan
Shanghai and parts of the Yangtze River Delta are were blanketed by heavy smog on Tuesday, with officials saying cold air from northern China was carrying pollutants that were expected to reach Taiwan later in the day.
The poor air quality air in the region comes after an “airpocalypse” struck Beijing and Hebei province earlier in the month.
Factories in Shanghai were told to reduce production today, construction work ordered to halt and schools across the city advised to avoid letting pupils remain outside for extended periods.
The municipal government issued a yellow air pollution alert this morning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Buy Up Bottles of Fresh Air From Canada
A Canadian start-up company bottling fresh air from the Rocky Mountains has seen sales to China soar because of rising pollution levels.
Vitality Air was founded last year in the western Canadian city of Edmonton but began selling in China less than two months ago.
“Our first shipment of 500 bottles of fresh air were sold in four days,” co-founder Moses Lam says in a telephone interview with the Telegraph.
A crate containing 4,000 more bottles is making its way to China, but he says most of that shipment has been bought.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Flying Close to Beijing’s New South China Sea Islands
Last year the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes travelled across the South China Sea in a fishing boat and became the first journalist to observe close-up how China is constructing new islands on coral reefs. A few days ago he returned to the area in a small aircraft — provoking a furious and threatening response from the Chinese Navy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Zealand Flag Referendum Sparks Debate, But Little Passion
New Zealand has announced results of a referendum that will determine which design will compete against the national flag. According to some observers, the debate over a new flag doesn’t carry much urgency.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Protests Nigeria Army Crackdown on Shiites
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has telephoned his Nigerian counterpart to protest the army’s deadly crackdown on pro-Iranian Shiites in the north of the African country, media reported Tuesday.
Rouhani called President Muhammadu Buhari to say that “minor disputes must not be allowed to turn into deep differences” among Muslims, the reports said.
He also requested information on the fate of the leader of Nigeria’s “Shia Muslims”, a commission of inquiry into the weekend crackdown and action by Nigeria to “appease the victims and restore calm”.
Nigeria’s charge d’affaires was told by the foreign ministry in Tehran late Monday that Iran “demands the Nigerian government immediately shed light on the incidents, treat the injured and compensate for damages”, IRNA said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa’s Ruling ANC Welcomes Gordhan’s Return to Finance Ministry
South Africa’s ruling ANC party on Monday welcomed President Jacob Zuma’s reappointment of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister, in a dramatic U-turn that gave Africa’s most advanced economy its third finance chief in a week.
The ANC said the decision was an “explicit demonstration of a responsive and accountable government”.
The shock announcement restoring Gordhan to the post sent the rand surging nearly 5 percent on Sunday evening, an upward trend that continued well into Monday morning as the battered South African currency strengthened more than 4.5 percent in early trade. Yet the overall market rebound failed to quell a tide of criticism of the president.
“This is reckless by President Zuma, he is playing Russian roulette with the South African economy,” opposition Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Sudan Marks Two Years of Civil War
Four years after gaining independence, South Sudan should be a country of hope but its people are on the edge of starvation. Analysts blame warring parties for the lack of political will to end a two-year civil war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil President’s Nemesis Wounded But Dangerous
The key figure in the impeachment process launched against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday is in trouble of his own — facing allegations of corruption and lying to Congress.
Most politicians in Eduardo Cunha’s predicament might already have fallen, but the master tactician has always had a trump card — his power, as speaker of the lower house, to stop or greenlight impeachment petitions.
Now, by accepting a petition accusing Rousseff of fiddling government accounts, Cunha has put himself at the center of a bitter political crisis shaking Latin America’s biggest country.
Despite being accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes during a massive embezzlement scandal at state oil company Petrobras, as well as hiding money in Swiss accounts, Cunha has kept everyone on their toes for weeks…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Honduras Ex-President to Stand Trial Over FIFA Corruption Charges in US
Former Honduras President Rafael Callejas decided to come to the United States to appear before the court as part of FIFA corruption probe.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) — Former Honduras President Rafael Callejas decided to come to the United States to appear before the court as part of FIFA corruption probe, Honduran Foreign Minister Arturo Coralles said Monday.
On December 3, Callejas, who used to be former Honduran soccer federation president, alongside with 15 other former and incumbent FIFA officials was indicted on corruption charges in FIFA probe by the US Justice Department.
“He is flying [to the United States] unaccompanied by either Honduran nor by the US authorities, as a free person,” Coralles said, as quoted by the Honduran El Heraldo newspaper, after the plane with Callejas took of to the US city of Miami.
The list of defendants included representatives from a number of South American countries, who allegedly participated in the corruption schemes within FIFA for some 25 years.
In May, the US Justice Department also charged nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives for allegedly receiving some $150 billion in bribes.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Alfano Says Italy ‘Intransigent’ On ID’ing Migrants
EU, Merkel press Italy to set up more hotspots
(ANSA) — Rome, December 14 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Monday defended Italy’s migrant and refugee facilities amid calls from Brussels for Italy to “do more” to identify the newcomers.
The European Commission said last Thursday that it has opened an infringement procedure against Italy for failing to respect the rules on the collection of the fingerprints of asylum seekers upon entry into Europe.
Greece and Croatia have also been hit with the procedure.
The move regards the alleged failure to correctly implement the Eurodac Regulation, which demands the fingerprinting of asylum seekers and transmission of data to the Eurodac central system within 72 hours.
“We are intransigent on the photographing and fingerprinting of migrants,” Alfano said.
“We are close to 100%”.
His comments came ahead of a meeting in Milan with EU Immigration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos over the infringement procedures.
“Europe open a procedure of thanks instead, because had we not saved thousands of lives Europe would now be covered in…shame,” Alfano added. On Tuesday Brussels is expected to publish a report on the steps taken by Italy and Greece to set up so-called ‘hotspots’ for identifying and sorting migrants and refugees. Of the six hotspots planned for Italy only one has been created so far, sources in Brussels said. Meanwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday she “expected Italy and Greece to create the hotspots and to do so in such a way that migrants are not only registered, but also redistributed or sent home”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Muslim Refugee Sentiment Laid in US Before Paris Terror Attacks — NGO
Advocacy group The Council on American-Islamic Relations Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper claims that the distaste of Muslim immigrants was already present in the United States before Islamic terrorists killed 130 individuals in Paris on November 13.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The distaste of Muslim immigrants was already present in the United States before Islamic terrorists killed 130 individuals in Paris on November 13, advocacy group The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper told Sputnik on Tuesday.
“All it took was a trigger like the Paris terrorist attacks that set off violent reactions that targeted American Muslims because the ground had been laid for months and years prior to the trigger,” Hooper said.
Hooper’s comments come after Islamist militants killed 130 people and injured more than 360 in coordinated attacks in seven venues in Paris. The Islamic State, also known as Daesh, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Hooper argued that anti-Muslim rhetoric in the United States over recent months and years has led to mainstreaming of islamophobia.
“It’s been moving toward the mainstream since September 11, 2001, but it’s accelerated in recent months with the presidential campaign getting into high gear,” he added.
Hooper criticized Republican presidential candidates such as Donald Trump, who recently called for a complete ban on Muslim immigrants to the United States.
“They’re pandering to the lowest common denominator within their party, and doing so on the back of the American Muslim community,” he pointed out.
Trump has made controversial statements about Muslim as well as Mexican immigrants. In November, Trump claimed that Muslims celebrated when the terrorist attacks on the United States took place on September 11, 2001.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Asylum-Seekers Weigh Options in Athens
As Merkel looks to reduce refugee arrivals, asylum-seekers from “non-conflict areas” remain stuck in Greece. They have 30 days to choose between asylum, repatriation or the black market. Diego Cupolo reports from Athens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin Jews Fear Refugees Could Put Them ‘In Jeopardy’
Jews in Germany are concerned that the country’s open-door refugee policy could lead to a rise in anti-Semitism and cost the country its hard-earned position as a safe haven.
Last month the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, called for a limit on the number arriving in the country. In an interview with Germany’s Die Welt newspaper he said intolerance of Jews and Israel is innate in parts of the Middle East, warning a rise in anti-Semitism is a likely by-product of Germany’s refugee policy. It is a fear that has struck a chord with many Jews in Berlin.
Though anti-Semitism of any kind is comparatively rare here, one needs only go to a synagogue in Berlin to see that the fear of attack is ever present. Most have armed guards standing outside, though few are as secure as the synagogue on Münstersche Strasse, home to Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, an American Jew.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Don’t Worry be Happy, Justin’s Jihadis Could be Here
A New Orleans resident whose husband was allegedly ordered by police to delete photos he had taken of Syrian “refugees”, sent out an email yesterday,asking: “Is anyone in Canada experiencing the same thing?”
The answer is “No, not in Canada”, where mostly politicians and government employees showed up to welcome the first planeload of refugee arrivals last Friday—and they already grabbed the picture they wanted the world to see.
Aside from the politicians and their employees, only a handful of average Canadians gathered at the international gate at Pearson, bearing signs and gifts.
Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) photos, sent round by the Internet, depicted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory, as holier-than-thou Liberals and Canada’s top three ‘Patron Saints of Migrants’.
The message their pals in the media got across on their behalf was as plain as day:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens of UK Councils to Welcome Syrian Refugees by Christmas
Dozens of councils across Britain will be welcoming Syrian refugees into the country just in time for Christmas, it has emerged.
Home Office and Communities minister Richard Harrington said he is certain the “warm welcome” from all parts of the UK will continue, amid fears of Islamophobia.
Around 50 local authorities will take on migrants as part of the Government’s commitment to welcome 20,000 from camps on the borders of Syria by 2020.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said Britain will have 1,000 arrivals from the war-ravaged country by Christmas.
Mr Harrington, who is responsible for coordinating the resettlement work across Government, told the Commons: “The number of local authorities that have resettled Syrian refugees changes frequently as more Syrians arrive for resettlement in the UK.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Introduce New Border Force Under Controversial Plan
The European Union will nearly treble its spending on frontier defence provided by a new European Border and Coast Guard under proposals unveiled on Tuesday to tackle a migration crisis that threatens Europe’s security and passport-free travel area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Wants Centralized Policing Powers for Its Borders
The EU’s external borders have more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. That is why the European Commission now wants its own border police. Not all member states like the idea. Bernd Riegert reports from Brussels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In case you had any doubt in your mind that a politically correct war on terror is no war on terror at all, behold:
Fearing a civil liberties backlash and “bad public relations” for the Obama administration, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson refused in early 2014 to end a secret U.S. policy that prohibited immigration officials from reviewing the social media messages of all foreign citizens applying for U.S. visas, a former senior department official said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Multiculturalism is a Sham, Says Angela Merkel
By Rick Noack December 14 at 2:29 PM German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy has attracted praise from all over the world. Time magazine and the Financial Times newspaper recently named her Person of the Year, and delegates applauded her for so long at her party’s convention on Monday that she had to stop them.
The speech that followed, however, may have surprised supporters of her policies: Multiculturalism remains a sham , she said, before adding that Germany may be reaching its limits in terms of accepting more refugees. “The challenge is immense,” she said. “We want and we will reduce the number of refugees noticeably.”
Although those remarks may seem uncharacteristic of Merkel, she probably would insist that she was not contradicting herself. In fact, she was only repeating a sentiment she first voiced several years ago when she said multiculturalism in Germany had “utterly failed.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Orders Border Patrol to Let Illegal Immigrants Drive Drunk
The chaos, fear, and hopelessness at the US-Mexico border is a socialist’s game plan unfolding. The federal government is trying to cause as much chaos at the border as possible. The Obama Administration refuses to execute and manage a lawful immigration system. It’s blatant now. It’s obvious that there is a plan is to create chaos. Now here’s a new bombshell:
According to Judicial Watch, Border Patrol agents are now being instructed to let illegal immigrants off the hook if they are caught drinking and driving. The Obama Administration has ordered all Border Patrol agents in Arizona to let illegal immigrants free even if they are caught driving under the influence of alcohol.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[Video transcript, scroll down for video]
Now Europe has been going demographically bankrupt for awhile now because of its falling birth rates, so the socialists who run it have come up with an absolutely amazing plan, which socialist plans can’t possibly fail. They’re going to solve this demographic bankruptcy and this resulting economic bankruptcy when there’s nobody to do the work or pay the bills or even write the welfare checks by bringing in millions and millions of Muslims to fill in the gap. So you’re going to have people from high birth rate countries come in, and they’re going to be at the very bottom of the pyramid.
They’re going to do the work, so Hans and Fritz will retire. They can retire at 55 or whatever. He’ll get his pension, and that’ll be fine, and Mohammed will come in, and he’ll work hard, and he will have a lot of kids, and the whole socialist system will keep working great. There’s just one, tiny, little, minor problem with it, and I’m not talking about the terrorism, the Sharia, the no-go zones, the attacks on Jews, or all the other fun stuff. There’s just one other minor problem, which is that the people coming in don’t actually work. Muslim unemployment rates, yeah. I mean you can count on socialists to bring in more people who don’t work to a country where the problem is that too many people already aren’t working.
But Muslim unemployment rates in Europe, it’s not unusual to see unemployment rates in the 20 and 30 percentile range. Among youth, you see unemployment rates in the 50 and 60 percent range, and that’s not because, as the excuses go, they’re disaffected. They’re not given work. They’re not given opportunities. They don’t want to work, and why should they want to work? Because there’s a basic cultural difference between Europe, between the West, and Islam, the Muslim world. Europe, the West, we’re a work ethic culture. We believe in working. We believe in coming home and saying okay, honey, what did you do? I worked 8 hours a day. That’s great. The Muslim world, it does not work like that because the Muslim world is a slave culture. We’re in the south now. We’re in Charleston. We’re supposed to feel very bad about slavery, which is a 19th century thing in America. In the Muslim world, it’s a 20th century thing.
Saudi Arabia abolished slavery, I believe, in 1962. 1962. The JFK administration came to the Saudis, and they said maybe you should give human rights to women, and let people vote and get rid of the slaves. Back then we had a little more leverage with the Saudis than we do now, so the Saudis grumbled and said all right. All right. Fine. We’ll get rid of the slaves. That was 1962. That was a great moment in Muslim human rights. The Muslim world has never really abolished slavery especially in the Middle East except because of European pressure. The English forced the Egyptians, for example, to get rid of slavery. The Saudis still have slavery, by the way. They just made it an even worse form of slavery. The original form of slavery, the slave owners would at least take care of the kids. They would take care of the old people. It was still evil, but it was slightly less evil. The Saudis and the Kuwaitis and the Qataris moved on to this kind of concentration camp slavery where you take workers at the peak of their lives. You take young workers. You burn everything out of them. In some cases, you downright kill them. Then you dump them back to the country where they come from with some pocket change. This is concentration camp slavery.
It’s what the Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, that’s what they’re built on. They have huge work forces. All these nice skyscrapers, you see all these paradises for the rich, they are built by slave labor. They are built by thousands of people just dying in the heat building this thing. They are built by this, and it’s like Sparta except we supply the military, and we supply the wealth, and they just sit around on their asses all day and own the slaves. That’s the Saudi—that’s all these societies. These are societies where the idea at the top is not to work. You do not work. You see all these leaders who are fat, who are ridiculously fat. They look like they have trouble walking across the room. The Saudi royals, Qatar, that’s because they don’t walk across the room. They sit on their asses all day, and they have these servants from Africa usually fanning them with palm leaves or whatever, and they’re not going to fan themselves with palm leaves because that’s what slaves are for. That’s how a slave culture works. Even the people who aren’t at the top believe that work is something you’re punished with. It’s not something you want to do, and socialists, by the way, believe the same thing. Work isn’t a good thing. It’s something you have to be forced to do.
This is a slave culture, and in the slave culture when people come into a country where it has generous socialism, that has generous welfare policies, they’re coming there not to work. In fact, you have the whole idea that these people are refugees. They are not refugees. They are not coming across the border from Syria, making it across the border into Germany, and saying, “Thank God, we’re in Germany now. We can be safe from the civil war.” That’s not how it is. They’re crossing into Jordan. They’re crossing into Turkey. In Turkey, there’s no war. There’s no war in Jordan. They stop being refugees the moment they leave Jordan or Turkey, and when they head to Europe, they’re no longer refugees. They are economic migrants. It is very important to remember that. There is no war in Turkey. There is no war in Jordan. They are not refugees once they leave Jordan or Turkey.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN: EU Launch Scheme to House 20,000 Asylum Seekers in Greece
The European Union and the UN refugee agency on Monday launched a joint programme in Athens to create 20,000 places for asylum seekers eligible for relocation in the bloc and in Greece.
Cash-strapped Greece has so far spent nearly 2.0 billion euros ($1.5 billion) on managing the migration wave in 2015, and expects to receive 450 million euros from the EU in coming months.
“Today we stand in solidarity with Greece and with children, women and men seeking refuge in Europe. The scheme we are launching offers EU budgetary support for families, notably providing them with adequate shelter,” said EU’s vice-president for budget and human resources Kristalina Georgieva.
The EU will provide 80 million euros for the programme, which involves housing the asylum seekers in homes through rent subsidy and host family schemes…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Convicts 6 Students of ‘Homosexuality’ In Kairouan
Reignites debate on Article 230 of penal code
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, DECEMBER 14 — Six university students between the ages of 18 and 19 were sentenced on December 10 in Kairouan, 60 km east of the seaside resorts Sousse and Monastir, to three years in prison for “homosexual acts”. One of them received an extra six months for possession of a homosexual video on his computer, reported the Shams association, which works for LGBT rights in Tunisia and the depenalization of homosexuality in the country. Shams reported that the Kairouan court added an extra 5-year ban from the city. An appeals trial is expected to start around December 20. The sentencing of the five youths has reignited debate as to whether Article 230 of the criminal code should be abolished, which sets a three-year maximum sentence for both “the male homosexual act (liwat) and the female one (mousahaqa)”, since it is said to go against the principles of the 2014 Tunisian constitution.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obesity Can be Passed on Through the Father’s Sperm
Overweight men may pass obesity on to the children via their sperm, according to new research.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Greek people WILL NOT allow 20,000 islamics to stay in Greece. All he-l is going to break loose VERY soon.
The fact that all Hell has not broken loose yet has got to be the oddest thing ever. Millions of these Muslim thugs cruising around their territory and certainly in the case of Greece with back up standing by from Turkey.
Alarmed by a spike in posts inciting racial hatred and violence, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas had warned that social networks must not “become a funfair for the far right”.
OK, first, what is Hate speech? Second, who gets to say what constitutes hate speech? Third, Why?
Also, am I to assume from the quotation above that all pro leftist and pro islamist utterances will be deemed to be OK, regardless of content?
The answer to your second question lies at the crux of the problem: “Who gets to say what constitutes hate speech?”
If I were to attend a City Council meeting in my small town, as I have done in the past, to speak for or against a specific proposal, without characterizing it in any way, the Council would let me speak for 2 or 3 minutes–whichever time period they had announced in advance for that evening.
If I were to attend that same meeting and characterize a proposed ordinance as having a negative effect on “certain demographic sectors” of our town, no doubt the Council would *assume* I meant persons of lower socio-economic achievement/status and perhaps *also* black/Latino/Asian people.
However, if I were asked directly which “certain demographic sectors” I believed would be negatively affected by a proposed ordinance *and* I specified that those demographic sectors included Christian believers, white residents, or [straight] men, I have very little faith that I would be allowed my full 2- or 3-minute “free speech” slot.
“Hate speech” is what the parties in charge–school boards, city councils, and everyone on up–decides that it is. Right now, “hate speech” is being defined by uneducated, or not-yet-educated freshman, sophomore, etc. college students on their campuses.
Adult administrators have buckled in response to these student-defined “hate speech” descriptions, and a few admins have even resigned in the face of student hate. Thus the entire blowback about “safe zones,” “micro-triggers,” and all those other allegedly offensive vocabulary items that we can no longer use to speak clearly. I even read one list of allegedly forbidden terms that included “male” and “female” as OPPRESSIVE.
What on earth are these poor, coddled, sensitive college weaklings going to do when they graduate (IF they graduate) from their safe zones? They’re not protected from overhearing something on public transit or on the sidewalk.
But maybe they’ll just run for City Council….
Have you guys picked up on this story?
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/626885/Islamic-State-ISIS-letters-Sweden-convert-Islam-decapitated-murder-jihadi-Syria
CRAZED Islamic State (ISIS) jihadis have sent letters to European civilians ordering them to convert to Islam within three days or face being DECAPITATED in their own homes.
Bloodthirsty Daesh Islamists posted notes through the doors of dozens of random neighbours in several cities across Sweden, including the capital Stockholm, threatening to murder “non-believers” in a terrifying campaign of violence.
Sweden is now on lockdown after the chilling letters pledged to behead innocent civilians and then “bomb your rotten corpses afterwards”.
Personally, I think that’s probably scare-mongering by somebody or other, though Lord knows who and why. Mind you, you can’t be sure nowadays.
Interestingly I saw the same article on Breitbart . I think as more than one news website is carrying it that it is definitely genuine.
I hope the Swedes find it a short sharp lesson on the perils of their child-like trust in the essential goodness of every human being regardless of the crimes they have committed before reaching Sweden.
The Swedes need to wake -up and smell the coffee.
So do the Germans
So do the Canadians. They are insisting on bringing in thousands for Syrian refugees — even as there is no place to house them, and a straining resources to fund them. The goal ( I think) is to convince themselves they are a kinder, gentler people than the Americans. They are also more foolsh.
But what’s new s out that? It’s right there in the Koran. Jesus weeps.
“Overweight men may pass obesity on to the children via their sperm, according to new research.”
Really? How come than that as a kid in the 50s, I hardly remember any FAT people – never mind obese people?
It’s just another attempt by the adiposally superior to excuse and justify their, umh, gravitas. Ignore.
I would very strongly recommend to anyone to refrain from comparing ANYTHING to Nazi Germany, unless you are absolutely, positively SURE the shoe fits 100%. Otherwise, the knee-jerk reaction you get from the dominant PC culture is just too strong at this point and completely obliterates whatever point you may have had. I would also recommend M. Le Pen leave the talking to her niece, who seems to be much better at it.
China may regret that direct train link with Iran., much like everyone else is regretting any links at all with the Middle East/Africa.
How do those fat sperm have the energy to swim?
The item by Diana West (“What is a Conservative? What defines the GOP?”) requires a User ID to log in and read it.
Maybe I have an incorrect understanding about linked news items, so please clarify for me: GoV states, “The link to the original is included with each item’s title.” When I clicked on the link in the item headline, I landed on the User ID sign-in page.
???
thx
Yes, I’m seeing the same problem with her site. It wasn’t happening last night. I’ll let her know. Thank you.
“Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama said that the only way to achieve peace is to establish a dialogue with the Islamic State.”
Did he establish a dialogue with the Chinese government? How did that work out for him?
The DL has his limits. He thinks Sri Lanka should be 100% Buddhist and that the 17%(each) of Christians and Muslims should be sent somewhere else. I can no longer find the link to that quote. I suspect it’s been scrubbed. I happened across it when I was doing some research on Sri Lanka when that Muslim teenage girl in Ohio ran away from home and landed in Florida. Phyllis Chesler and I worked on a letter she could send to the FL judge who was sending her back to Ohio – to foster care until the case could be decided. We both thought that since she (Chesler) was certified as Muslim family abuse expert by the courts her letter would have gravitas and could/would have enough standing to become a permanent part of the legal record. I think it succeeded in its effect.