Donald Trump says that his pledge to the Republican Party not to run as anything but a Republican is now null and void, given the RNC’s packing of debate audiences with Republican donors and other party favorites. This announcement appears to clear the way for Mr. Trump to run as an independent.
In other news, a man has been arrested in Scotland for posting insulting messages on Facebook about Syrian refugees being resettled on the Scottish island of Bute.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, 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.
Core Inflation Spikes Most in 15 Months, Food Costs Surge
Producer Prices (ex food and energy) jumped 0.4% MoM — the biggest rise since Oct 2014 (and dramatically hotter than the 0.1% rise expected). Rubbing salt into Fed mandate wounds still further is last month’s print was also revised higher and YoY (+0.6%) is the highest since Sep 2015. Across the range of PPI data, all items came hotter than expected in January (despite a 5% drop in Energy) with Food rising most in 20 months.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Net NPLs ‘Only’ 88.9 Bn Says ABI
Gross figure of 200.9 bn ‘misleading’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 16 — The amount of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in the Italian banking sector is a net 88.9 billion euros, the Italian Banking Association (ABI) said, pointing out that this was much lower than gross figures. It said the media were giving a “misleading” impression of bad loan woes by continually citing a gross Bank of Italy figure of 200.9 billion euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Manufacturing Collapse Out-of-Control
There is no way that the plummeting index numbers from various, U.S. manufacturing indices could be described as a mere slump. What we are seeing is one TERRIBLE number after another, with all of these negative readings being cumulative. And (as usual) the Corporate media totally perverts its reporting of these numbers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Message to Our Customers
The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.
This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.
The Need for Encryption
Smartphones, led by iPhone, have become an essential part of our lives. People use them to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going.
All that information needs to be protected from hackers and criminals who want to access it, steal it, and use it without our knowledge or permission. Customers expect Apple and other technology companies to do everything in our power to protect their personal information, and at Apple we are deeply committed to safeguarding their data.
Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why encryption has become so important to all of us.
For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.
The San Bernardino Case
We were shocked and outraged by the deadly act of terrorism in San Bernardino last December. We mourn the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected. The FBI asked us for help in the days following the attack, and we have worked hard to support the government’s efforts to solve this horrible crime. We have no sympathy for terrorists.
When the FBI has requested data that’s in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we’ve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal.
We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.
Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.
The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.
The Threat to Data Security
Some would argue that building a backdoor for just one iPhone is a simple, clean-cut solution. But it ignores both the basics of digital security and the significance of what the government is demanding in this case.
In today’s digital world, the “key” to an encrypted system is a piece of information that unlocks the data, and it is only as secure as the protections around it. Once the information is known, or a way to bypass the code is revealed, the encryption can be defeated by anyone with that knowledge.
The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.
The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.
We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data. Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.
A Dangerous Precedent
Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.
The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.
The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.
Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.
We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications.
While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.
Tim Cook
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Blacks Attack Whites for Living in Their NY Suburb
Blacks have started physically attacking whites for moving into their New York neighborhood, with two such incidents having taking place over the last week alone.
The overtly racist black on white attacks have taken place in the neighborhood of Flatbush, Brooklyn — but have been completely ignored by the national media in the US, in contrast to the mass coverage that would be given to such incidents had the races been reversed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CNN Poll: Donald Trump Up 16 in South Carolina, Tight Race Between Bush, Rubio
A new CNN poll of South Carolina shows Donald Trump with a broad lead over the rest of the Republican field in the third stage of the GOP’s 2016 race.
Trump, with 38 percent support, is 16 points clear of the runner-up, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has 22 percent support, according to the poll.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are locked in a tight battle for third. Rubio currently has 14 percent support, closely followed by Bush with 10 percent support, according to the poll. The margin of error in the CNN poll is 5 percent, though, so the race between Rubio and Bush is essentially tied.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Did Justice Scalia Already Give US the Solution to the Problem of Filling His Seat?
The death of the intrepid Justice Antonin Scalia has shaken the political world. If his successor’s appointment cannot be delayed until the next presidency, it’s assured that an unassailable hard-left majority will control the Supreme Court. This will mean, conservatives warn, the end of significant Second Amendment rights, curtailment of many religious freedoms and a consistent rubber-stamp for the “rogressive” agenda.
Unfortunately, the likelihood of replacing Scalia-the court’s pre-eminent legal mind-with even a pale imitation is slim. For it to happen the Senate will have to exhibit fortitude and delay the confirmation of a successor. a Republican will have to win the presidency.
the GOP will have to retain the Senate in Nov., and 24 GOP seats but only 10 Democrat ones are up for grabs. the Republican president in office will have to nominate someone not a wolf in constitutionalist’s clothing; the chances of this alone happening are likely less than 50 percent.
The probability of all four of the above coming to pass isn’t great. And, regardless, while we will fill the great Scalia’s position, we’ll never fill his shoes. Yet perhaps the real solution to this problem lies with something Scalia himself said-just last year.
The real issue here is not whether Scalia’s successor will abide by the Constitution.
It’s whether we will.
Consider: in a representative republic of 320 million people, we’re all now talking about how one appointment of one unelected lawyer can radically change the face of American law, rights and freedoms. Anything wrong with this picture?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump: Since RNC ‘In Default, ‘ Pledge Now Voided, I ‘Can Do What’ I ‘Have to Do’ To Win
Donald J. Trump tells reporters here that his pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee is now void because the Republican National Committee, along with local and state GOP factions, is stacking debate audiences with donor class officials.
“The RNC is in default,” Trump said at the press conference. “Just so you understand, the RNC is in default. When somebody is in default, that means the other side can do what they have to do. The RNC is in default.”
Trump’s point is that the RNC has defaulted—through its actions against his candidacy—on the pledge he signed earlier in the cycle, and his point is that because they have defaulted he can do whatever he wants. Trump is signaling he may not support the eventual GOP nominee in 2016 if that nominee is not him.
The significance of this development can’t be understated. The entire GOP presidential primary election has focused on this question, which was launched to the center of discussion by the first question at the first GOP debate in Cleveland, Ohio, back in August 2015. That question, by Fox News’ Bret Baier, asked all the candidates to raise their hands if they would on stage support the eventual GOP nominee. Trump was the only who didn’t raise his hand. That, and several other unseemly questions from Fox’s Megyn Kelly about Trump and women, catapulted into public view a then-private war between Trump and Fox that has lasted publicly to this day.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
EFF to Support Apple in Encryption Battle
We learned on Tuesday evening that a U.S. federal magistrate judge ordered Apple to backdoor an iPhone that was used by one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino shootings in December. Apple is fighting the order which would compromise the security of all its users around the world.
We are supporting Apple here because the government is doing more than simply asking for Apple’s assistance. For the first time, the government is requesting Apple write brand new code that eliminates key features of iPhone security — security features that protect us all. Essentially, the government is asking Apple to create a master key so that it can open a single phone. And once that master key is created, we’re certain that our government will ask for it again and again, for other phones, and turn this power against any software or device that has the audacity to offer strong security.
The U.S. government wants us to trust that it won’t misuse this power. But we can all imagine the myriad ways this new authority could be abused. Even if you trust the U.S. government, once this master key is created, governments around the world will surely demand that Apple undermine the security of their citizens as well.
EFF applauds Apple for standing up for real security and the rights of its customers. We have been fighting to protect encryption, and stop backdoors, for over 20 years. That’s why EFF plans to file an amicus brief in support of Apple’s position.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Twitter Shadowbanning ‘Real and Happening Every Day’ Says Inside Source
Rumours that Twitter has begun ‘shadowbanning’ politically inconvenient users have been confirmed by a source inside the company, who spoke exclusively to Breitbart Tech. His claim was corroborated by a senior editor at a major publisher.
According to the source, Twitter maintains a ‘whitelist’ of favoured Twitter accounts and a ‘blacklist’ of unfavoured accounts. Accounts on the whitelist are prioritised in search results, even if they’re not the most popular among users. Meanwhile, accounts on the blacklist have their posts hidden from both search results and other users’ timelines.
Our source was backed up by a senior editor at a major digital publisher, who told Breitbart that Twitter told him it deliberately whitelists and blacklists users. He added that he was afraid of the site’s power, noting that his tweets could disappear from users’ timelines if he got on the wrong side of the company.
Shadowbanning, sometimes known as “Stealth Banning” or “Hell Banning,” is commonly used by online community managers to block content posted by spammers. Instead of banning a user directly (which would alert the spammer to their status, prompting them to create a new account), their content is merely hidden from public view.
For site owners, the ideal shadowban is when a user never realizes he’s been shadowbanned.
However, Twitter isn’t merely targeting spammers. For weeks, users have been reporting that tweets from populist conservatives, members of the alternative right, cultural libertarians, and other anti-PC dissidents have disappeared from their timelines.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Former Intel Officer Suspects Foul Play in Death of Antonin Scalia
“Who dies with a pillow over their head?”
A former U.S. Army intelligence officer who had a top secret clearance suspects foul play in the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
“The circumstances surrounding Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia’s death are growing more suspicious by the minute,” writes Ray Starmann, who worked in Army intelligence for eight years before becoming a journalist.
Starmann points to the fact that the story appears to keep changing, with initial reports that Scalia had died of a heart attack later denied. He also questions why no autopsy was performed and why Scalia’s body was quickly embalmed, “erasing any chances for the coroner to conduct efficient toxicology tests.”
“The same people who want you to believe Scalia died of a heart attack or natural causes are the same people who want you to believe that Hillary won the Iowa Caucuses with six coin tosses and the same people who want you to believe after fifty years that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin of President Kennedy,” he writes, adding, “Of course the MSM has reported on none of this. Even Fox News refuses to cover the strange occurrences in Texas.”
Starmann even suspects that reports of Scalia having a pillow over his head when he was found dead could represent a message being sent in the style of The Godfather.
“Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes. The pillow over Scalia’s head wasn’t put there by a Hispanic maid. The pillow over the head is a warning,” he writes.
Now that Scalia is gone and likely to be replaced by a leftist activist judge, Starmann fears that the constitution is about to be eviscerated.
“Scalia was the tie breaking judge, the man who could push back any liberal policies being shoved through the court. With Scalia’s death, the Obama Administration or a future Hillary Clinton Administration has a green door to confiscate guns, flood the country with illegals and wreck the Constitution,” he writes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Huge Story About Coral Reef Destruction by ‘Environmentalist’ Totally Censored by Mainstream Media
As noted by Breitbart News and virtually no one else in the mainstream media, the billionaire owner of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team and the Portland Trailblazers NBA team just recently destroyed thousands of square feet of precious coral reef with his mega-yacht, but you’ve probably not heard about it because, again, he’s a Democrat, supposed “environmentalist” and is simpatico with the Old Media’s Marxist agenda.
The yacht, owned by Paul Allen, chewed up some 14,000 square feet of Cayman Islands reef when its anchor chain dragged across the Cayman’s West Bay replenishment zone.
As noted by the Cayman News Service, local Department of Environment officials confirmed the damage, noting that some 80 percent of the zone had been destroyed. CNS further reported:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Latest Release Brings Total of Classified E-Mails on Hillary’s Server to 1,666
I wonder if this is one of those stories where everyone has long since become numb to further evidence that Hillary is a liar. So now we’re up to how many examples? One thousand what? What difference, at this point, does it make?
But even if you don’t think we need any more evidence of Hillary’s dishonesty or recklessness with national security, there is still a lot of value to stories like this one:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Nominee Will Unleash Supreme Court Assault on Freedom: “Gun Rights Would Not Survive”
By now, you have no doubt heard that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away on Saturday.
His pro-gun leadership on the Court will be sorely missed.
But we are now in the fight for our lives, as President Obama will try to nominate a replacement to change the balance of the Court.
When ABC’s George Stephanopoulos quizzed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over Scalia’s replacement, the Senator suggested that our Second Amendment rights are “hanging in the balance.”
Cruz is right.
No one should fail to understand what is at stake in Barack Obama’s scramble to appoint the “swing vote” on the Supreme Court.
If Obama appoints a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, the reconstituted court will declare the Second Amendment dead.
Period.
Those of us who are constitutionalists know that Obama and the Court can’t really obliterate the 2nd Amendment. The Constitution trumps any unlawful action to the contrary.
But a change in the Court — with the anti-gun decisions that follow — will give the “green light” for all kinds of gun registration and gun bans, resulting in a chilling effect on the exercise of our gun rights.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Rejects GOP Calls to Let Next President Choose Scalia’s Successor
President Obama on Tuesday vowed to nominate an “indisputably qualified” candidate to the Supreme Court, forcefully rejecting Republican calls that he cede the pick to his successor because the Court vacancy comes late in his presidency and in the middle of an election year.
[Comment: Translation: an indisputably communist candidate.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pat Caddell: ‘The Fuse Has Been Lit’ For a Political Transformation
Asked if Republican Presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Donald Trump should be considered “transactional,” or “transformational” candidates today on Breitbart News Daily on Sirius XM, veteran pollster Pat Caddell told host Stephen K. Bannon: “Cruz’s or Trump’s election would be a shock to the system.”
Noting Trump is still “way up” in polls, added Caddell, “As I’ve said, we are in a revolutionary period here. … I think that the evidence is clear now that the public has been, in fact, … the match has been lit. The public has moved. They are in motion. I don’t know where they’re going to go.”
Asked what he meant by “The fuse has been lit,” Caddell elaborated:
We are seeing the transformation of the paradigm of politics. All the old rules are failing. All the old assumptions don’t work. And we have a new set of assumptions evolving. And we have a public that no longer seems to want to eat the dog food that the establishment has dished out and are, in fact, going for choices that are outside the boxes of our ordinary politics.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Rancher Cliven Bundy to Stay Behind Bars
A federal judge says Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy should stay behind bars because he’s a danger to the community and a risk for failing to show up for future court dates.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The sudden death of justice Antonin Scalia is sending shock waves through the political system.
It is unclear how long the process to appoint a replacement would take, but Obama’s first two choices make clear how dangerous his presidency is to the laws of this nation.
Radical misinterpretations of the law will upend the rights of the people, and introduce leftist indoctrination and twisted policies into the institutions across this country. Landmark decisions on any and all of these matters will weigh heavily with changes to accommodate these ideas.
In the short term, it will mean the likelihood of frequent 4-4 tie votes — in the longer run, it means that another Obama appointment will tip the court towards a decidedly left leaning Supreme Court that frequently takes up controversial social issues that divide Americans and devour rights.
The conservative leaning of Scalia was an icon, with 30 years in the Supreme Court.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trashing the 12th Amendment With the National Popular Vote
The result of State Legislatures choosing the U.S. Senators and controlling the election of the President [via the selection of Electors], was that the States would be able to control the federal government.
The 17th Amendment
But we threw away one of these safeguards when we foolishly ratified the 17th Amendment with the popular election of U.S. Senators. This is how The States — The Members of the Federation — lost their representation in Congress and their control of the Senate.
Art. II, §1, cl. 2 and the 12th Amendment
We abandoned the other safeguard when we foolishly ignored the procedures in the 12th Amendment where small bodies of specially chosen wise and prudent men (Electors) made the selections of President and Vice President for their State. We allowed Electors to become rubber stamps for the popular vote in their State.
Our Framers didn’t want popular election of the President because they recognized that People are easily manipulated by those who take advantage of their “hopes and fears”, to steer them towards candidates favored by powerful groups (Federalist No. 64 (3rd & 4th paras; Federalist No. 68, etc.)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
You can’t plan something like this:
At a Trump campaign rally in North Augusta, South Carolina on Tuesday, Donald Trump was interrupted by a protester who was screaming profanities and raising his middle finger to the crowd.
Two Trump supporters “took action” against the radical obscene protester — and Mr. Trump called them up to the stage to share a few words.
The crowd ERUPTED after one of the men told the audience he was an Iraq War veteran.
Both men thanked Donald Trump.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two Super PACs — One Unauthorized and One Out to Destroy Trump
I would hope all of you read Jim Kouri’s recent article, Super PAC Against Trump: “If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It.” If you missed it, it’s very short, succinct and to the point. Basically a well-funded super PAC has been set up to run negative ads against the GOP frontrunner, Donald Trump. The “Our Principle Super PAC” is run by Katie Packer, Mitt Romney’s deputy campaign manager. She is supported by a number of GOP leftists, including Willard Romney and John McCain. A Republican run Super PAC just for the sole purpose of taking down another Republican.
Yes, the establishment GOP would rather hand the country over to the corruption of Hillary Clinton or the communism of Bernie Sanders, than win an election with an outsider. One need only watch the numerous GOP debates to see the establishment bias against Trump, if not by the questions and moderators, by stacking the audience with lobbyists for the establishment candidates. My God America! Wake up! This is why we need Mr. Trump as President of the United States!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has just added three new vaccines to the Childhood Immunization Schedule, bringing the total to an almost unbelievable 74 vaccine doses recommended before the age of 17.
The agency also lowered the age of HPV (a sexually-transmitted virus) vaccination to include nine-year-olds.
Since 1950, the number of required vaccine doses has risen from 3 to 74 — an increase of more than 24 times.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why We Lose: Stacked Audience Turns GOP Debate Into National Clown Show
Self-sabotage seems to be in the Republican Establishment’s DNA. Even though the Republican Party has lost the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 presidential elections, nothing seems to wake these fools up. Access to the DC Trough is obviously much more important than the future of their own Party or country. They refuse to change. Refuse to adapt. Refuse to see the train bearing down on them. How else to explain the appalling behavior of the Establishment at Saturday night’s presidential debate?
We already know that the debate audience was stacked with donors and the like, people literally invested in anyone other than Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 97% winning the Republican nomination. Regardless, at the very least, no matter how moneyed and bubbled, you would expect this group to put the health of the Party above all else. Instead, the behavior of this gilded crowd of entitled crybabies was the single most self-destructive act committed yet in this election cycle.
This group is so selfish and small and corrupted, so disinterested in beating Hillary Clinton, that on Saturday night they chose to make a clown show of a high-profile Party event — no less than a presidential debate.
Ann Coulter Takes on Justice Scalia’s Shocking Death, Hillary’s Lies, Sanders’ Wackos on Breitbart News Sunday
Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter appeared on Brietbart News Sunday with host Alex Marlow this weekend regaling the audience with her take on the shocking death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the Constitution and our democracy, Donald Trump, Hillary’s Clinton’s decades of scandals, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 16%’ wacko supporters.
Marlow, the editor-in-chief of Breitbart News, began his February 14 segment on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125 with the best-selling author, by asking what exactly the nation lost with the sudden and unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice and conservative giant Antonin Scalia.
Coulter pointed out that Scalia is one of the few recent Justices who it can be said had a “coherent judicial philosophy.” But she added that one of the reasons he was so influential was because he was a brilliant, interesting and funny writer.
“We as lawyers,” Coulter said, “would print out copies of them and… we’d… be reading aloud from Scalia dissents because they were so hilariously funny. And that has a lot to do with his influence. As I’ve always said, you’re not going to influence anyone if they’re not reading what you wrote.”
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
In Obama-Run Canada, You Are Not Who You Are, But Only Who the Government Says You Are
In high-handed imperious words backed by legal counsel, this is what the President Barack Obama-influenced Canadian government is now telling all members of the Citizen Journalism world: Bloggers and online journalists caught attending our well-rehearsed “press briefings” will be tossed out on their ears.
In a blacked-out lib-left government world, you are not who you are — but only who the government says you are.
Alberta’s “for the working stiff” New Democrat Party (NDP) has brazenly and undemocratically banned Ezra Levant’s Conservative internet news outlet, The Rebel from all press briefings.
The press conference from which The Rebel’s Alberta bureau chief, Sheila Gunn Reid was unceremoniously security agent-escorted out of the legislature was addressed by both Alberta Premier Rachel Notely and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In Canada, a country recognized by the rest of the world for its politesse, the same election team that got Barack Obama elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, propelled Obama protege Justin Trudeau -son of the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau- to the Canadian Prime Minister’s Office with only a scanty 39% of the popular vote back in October.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ontario Government Research Shows ORPP Will Lead to Job Losses and Pay Cuts
TORONTO, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has obtained documents through the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act that reveal the government?Ts own research about the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) shows the plan will kill jobs.
Two reports by Ekos Polling for the Ontario government summarize the results from focus groups across Ontario on perceptions of the ORPP. Ekos discovered that 59% of Ontario businesses expect to cut/freeze wages in response to the ORPP.
“It’s remarkable the Ontario government didn’t walk away from the ORPP when they saw this research,” said CTF Ontario director, Christine Van Geyn. “The ORPP is being sold as a benefit to Ontario employees, when in reality it will mean many of them will end up worse off.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgarian PM to Meet Afrikaner Farmers
The Prime Minister of Bulgaria will meet a delegation from one of South Africa’s largest commercial farming unions in June this year with the aim of exploring opportunities for Afrikaner farmers in that country.
This dramatic news was announced this week in a press release issued by Bennie van Zyl, manager of the TAU-SA…
That TAU-SA fact-finding mission will consist of meeting with local authorities in Hungary who have already expressed their desire to have Afrikaner farmers occupy vacant and available farms.
The Hungary fact-finding mission originated with Project Nova Europa and was completely funded by supporters from around the globe. The two day appeal was so successful that it allowed the TAU-SA mission to be expanded from just one delegate to two.
However, as the appeal went out, Project Nova Europa was contacted by numerous white South Africans who were not farmers, who also sought to leave that country.
In response to those requests, it was announced on the website that the Project Nova Europa team is looking into channels whereby non-EU nationals who are not farmers might be able to move to Eastern Europe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CIA Knew of Impending ISIS Attack Days Before Paris
‘System was blinking red’ shortly before terrorists slaughtered 130 people in French capital
The CIA knew ISIS was planning an imminent attack just days before the barbaric terror group slaughtered 130 people in Paris.
CIA Director John Brennan told 60 Minutes that the ‘system was blinking red’ shortly before ISIS launched its horrific gun and bomb attack in the French capital.
Brennan said the intelligence agency was aware of an impending atrocity but was unable to intercept encrypted messages the terrorists were using in the build-up to the massacre
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan Son Investigated in Italy Money-Laundering Probe
Follows petition from Erdogan political opposer
(ANSA) — Bologna, February 16 — Prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Bologna are investigating the son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of a money laundering probe, ANSA sources close to the matter said Tuesday.
The inclusion of Erdogan’s son Bilal in the list of people under investigation follows a petition to authorities from Turkish businessman Murat Hakan Uzan, a political opponent of Erdogan who is wanted by Turkish authorities and is in exile. The petition asks Italian police to investigate potential sums of money brought to Italy by Bilal, who has been studying at John Hopkins University in Bologna since last autumn.
Bilal, 35, officially came to Italy to resume PhD studies he began in 2007. However, Turkish anti-government sources say he flew to Italy in the fall with a “large sum of money” as part of a “getaway operation”, according to Uzan’s petition.
The petition also states that Bilal arrived in Bologna with a team of armed body guards who were not granted access to Italy until they were conferred Turkish diplomatic passports.
Uzan says he and his family are victims of a political and judicial campaign launched by Erdogan.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Chief Tusk Says ‘Real’ Risk of EU Breakup
Only days ahead of a crucial summit that opens Thursday, Tusk is crisscrossing his bloc of half a billion people and 28 nations — literally from Paris to Bucharest, on to Athens and Prague to finish in Berlin in little more than 24 hours — in yet another desperate quest to somehow reap unity where division has been sown.
“This is a critical moment,” Tusk said in Bucharest as he sought to find a willingness to compromise to make sure that Britain would want to remain in the EU. “The risk of break-up is real,” he said Monday, now publicly saying what had been on his mind for weeks.
British Prime Minister David Cameron wants to walk away from the two-day summit in Brussels with the blueprint for a reformed EU that he can sell to his historically halfhearted nation to make sure he can win a British referendum on EU membership that could come as early as June.
The stakes are immense, Tusk acknowledges, fearful that if Britain goes it will start an unraveling that no one knows when and where it might end. A so-called Brexit might turn into a full-blown EUxit.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
I’m a Great Fan of Grillo Says Farage
Might be too late for radical EU change
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 16 — UKIP leader Nigel Farage said Tuesday he was a great fan of Beppe Grillo, whose anti-euro 5-Star Movement is an ally of Farage’s Euroskeptic party in the European Parliament.
“Everything is OK with (Beppe Grillo), I’m a great fan of his,” Farage said.
“We are Euroskeptic and they are euro-critical, we would like to see radical changes in Europe but I fear it’s too late,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Soros Fund Buys 0.45% of Ferrari
News helps share price rise
(ANSA) — Turin, February 17 — George Soros’s investment fund has bought 850,000 shares in Ferrari, 0.45% of the iconic luxury Italian carmaker’s stock. The news helped Ferrari’s share price climb 5.48% to 32.92 euros on Wednesday. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recently spun off Ferrari although the Agnelli family holding company, Exor SpA, and Piero Ferrari, son of the founder Enzo, continue to have control of it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Leaked Gov’t Docs Show What’s Really Behind Global Warming Agenda; “Profound Lifestyle Changes’
“The potential scale of such a deep transformation will require a wide societal debate in Europe.”
It’s not exactly clear what sorts of “profound lifestyle changes” the EU wants its population to make, but the U.N. has put forward suggestions in several reports on how they want people to lower their environmental footprint.
One major activity the U.N. is targeting is what people eat. The U.N. basically wants people to eat less red meat and even supplement their diets with insects.
[Comment: Intent is to make population physically weak, unable to form a rebellion against banksters and their lackey’s.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The posts, which must be ‘grossly offensive’ and ‘menacing’ to break the law, were targeted at Syrians living in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute.
Yesterday Police Scotland confirmed a 40-year-old man, believed to be from the Inverclyde area, had been arrested under the Communications Act.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sicily Governor Crocetta Probed Over Neglected Castle
State of Augusta’s Castello Svevo down to ‘lasting inertia’
(ANSA) — Siracusa, February 16 — Sicilian Governor Rosario Crocetta is under investigation over the poor state of a Medieval fortress, Augusta’s Castello Svevo, ANSA sources said Tuesday. The site was recently confiscated by the Carabinieri and prosecutors believe the condition is a result of “lasting inertia” on the part of the Sicilian authorities. Regional managers Gaetano Pennino, Rino Gigliola, Sergio Gelardi and Gesualdo Campo are also under investigation, as is former governor Raffaele Lombardo, the sources said. The probe was triggered by a complaint filed by the Italia Nostra heritage-environmental association highlighting structural damage which, according to the prosecution, is “exclusively due to the lack of maintenance and abandonment of the monument by the Sicilian Regional Government”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Illegal’ Schools Which Haven’t Been Registered Are Being Investigated for Radicalisation
Education chiefs are said to be probing a host of ‘illegal’ schools across Britain, some of which are allegedly teaching hate-filled, misogynistic, homophobic and anti-Semitic material.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Why Did Police Turn a Blind Eye to Gang of Rapists Who Preyed on Young Girls Like Wolves?
There is an unpalatable truth which the Thought Police do their damnedest to hide but which emerges blinking into the light at all too regular intervals: in some of the poorest parts of this country there are gangs of Pakistani Muslims who prey on young white girls like a wolf pack devouring newborn lambs.
They hook them on drugs, tear them away from their families then pass them round as sex slaves. Notice that I said “Pakistani” and not “Asian”, the euphemism beloved of those in the race industry and the broadcast media who believe that facts can somehow be racist and therefore must be suppressed. To label them Asian insults Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Singaporeans, indeed all citizens east of Istanbul.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Former CIA and NSA Director Gen. Hayden Trashes Israel in Zero Days Cyber Security Documentary
Monday, February 15th, a new and controversial documentary, Zero Days, about the US-Israeli cooperative development of the Stuxnet malworm that successfully attacked Iran’s centrifuge enrichment network premiered at the Berlin International Film festival. One of those featured in the documentary, ex-CIA and NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden, accused Israel of blowing the joint project by infecting a global network, effectively letting the malworm go rogue.
The Jerusalem Post author of the exclusive report, Yossi Melman, picked up on Hayden’s accusation with this headline, “Israel’s rash behavior blew operation to sabotage Iran’s computers, US officials say”:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Respects Hungary’s Views on Middle East Settlement — Putin
Russia understands Hungary’s position on a number of aspects related to the political settlement in the Middle East, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
NOVO-OGARYOVO (Moscow Region), (Sputnik) — Speaking about the migrant crisis in Europe, the Russian leader said he also respected Hungary’s position on “defending the identity,” but underscored that Russia is not interfering in this “EU’s inner issue.”
Earlier in the day, Putin held a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“As for many other aspects of the political settlement in the Middle East, related to the combat operations and so on, Prime Minister [Orban] adheres to the opposition, which is generally formulated by the European Union, and we treat it with understanding,” Putin said following the meeting.
Putin added that the two countries’ opinions about the causes of this Middle East crisis are “largely the same.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Police Trained to Find Witches
Saudi Arabia’s influential religious police have started training its new members on how to fight magic and arrest those involved in black art in the Gulf Kingdom, according to the Emirates 24/7 news service. Thirty members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have completed a five-day course on combating…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey-ISIS Link Admitted as Supply Route Cut
A major Washington DC think tank has become the first establishment institution to publicly admit that Turkey is the main source of supplies to the ISIS stronghold of Aleppo in Syria.
In a paper produced by the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, the think tank says that the Syrian army has now “severed the main insurgent supply line from Turkey to long-contested Aleppo, Syria’s second city.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Smoking Kills More People Than Obama’ Poster to be Removed in Moscow
A poster illegally placed at a bus stop in the Russian capital depicts US President Barack Obama smoking a cigarette.
The poster was apparently supposed to be a joke and had an inscription comparing the bad habit with the policies of US President Barack Obama.
The inscription on the poster reads: “Smoking kills more people than Obama, although he really kills a lot of people. Don’t smoke. Don’t be like Obama.”
It still remains unknown who put up the poster. The perpetrators are said to have opened the glass at the bus stop, removed the original ad and replaced it with the controversial ad.
A spokesman for the Moscow department of media and advertising Konstantin Gorokhov stated that the poster will be removed shortly from the Moscow bus stop.
The Russian companies, Gallery Service and Mosgortrans, which operate public transportation stops in the city are reportedly planning to demand an investigation and file a lawsuit on charges of hooliganism.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Outbreeding Whites in Sydney
Legal immigration is allowing nonwhite Muslims from the Middle East to rapidly outbreed whites in the Australian city of Sydney, the state capital of New South Wales, a new fertility map survey of the most populous city in Australia has confirmed. Muslims demonstrate in down town Sydney. The “fertility map,” drawn up by social research company McCrindle, showed that many…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
100,000 Invaders in Just 40 Days
The mass nonwhite invasion of Europe has increased in tempo, with around 100,000 invaders entering Germany in the first forty days of 2016 alone, according to figures released by the Bavarian federal government. Making the announcement during a European Union (EU) security conference in Munich this past weekend, Bavaria’s social minister Emilia Mueller said that…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Faymann: Germany Will Follow Vienna’s Example
Austrian Chancellor, ‘They took steps that Germany will follow’
(ANSA) — BERLIN — Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann is convinced that Berlin will follow the example of Vienna, introducing more restrictive measures in refugee policies.
“Governments must make their decisions looking at the reality — he told the Kurier -. We did it, and I think we have taken steps that Germany will follow. I am personally convinced that we will soon act in unison again”. Initially, the Austrian government had an open attitude towards the crisis, in line with Merkel’s policy. Vienna recently announced, however, much more restrictive measures, by putting a cap on the reception of asylum seekers, strengthening controls and expulsions along the country’s southern borders.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Invaders Held for Weapons at Greek Border
Three nonwhite invaders — including two who hold British passports — have been arrested in Greece while trying to smuggle firearms and more than 200,000 rounds of ammunition into Europe via the “refugee Balkans route,” local media have reported. Although the controlled media has claimed that the arrestees are “Britons,” they are in fact all Iraqis, who earlier swindled…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Islamic Rape of Europe’: Polish Magazine Splashes ‘White Europa’ Girl Groped by Migrant Hands
One of Poland’s most popular weekly magazines has splashed a graphic depiction of the rape of Europe’s women by migrants on its front cover. The image may be one of the most politically incorrect illustrations of the migrant crisis to date.
While Poland is generally much more relaxed about expressing itself than the self censoring tendencies of western and northern Europe, the cover of the latest wSieci (The Network) conservative magazine has already prompted reaction just 24 hours after release, being beamed around the continent by social media.
Featuring a personification of Europa being pawed at by dark hands — what the German media would perhaps euphemistically term “southern” or “Mediterranean” — the headline decries the “Islamic Rape of Europe”.
Making perfectly clear the intention of the edition, the edition features articles titled ‘Does Europe Want to Commit Suicide?’ and ‘The Hell of Europe’. The news-stand blurb declares: “In the new issue of the weekly Network, a report about what the media and Brussels elite are hiding from the citizens of the European Union”.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police “Puzzled” By African Behavior
Italian police in Naples have said that they are “puzzled” why an African invader from Ghana started attacking and beating passers-by at random, local media have reported. At least three people were beaten in Piazza Colombo in Licola over the weekend by 21-year-old Dawda Dibba, a native of Ghana. When police from the Giugliano police station…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Dublin Regulation Inapplicable Says Gentiloni
Country of first arrival can’t solve migrant flows
(ANSA) — Rome, February 17 — The Dublin Regulation saying countries where migrants arrive must process their asylum claims is “inapplicable”, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Wednesday. “The European rules on migrant reception are neither applied nor applicable,” he said. “There is nothing that harms Europe more than pretending to apply inapplicable rules”. he said “we will work to modify superseded rules, because the country of first arrival is not able to resolve on its own (migrant flows)”. Gentiloni was speaking at the conference The Challenge of Migrations at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Rejects East Europe Plan to Shut Balkans Refugee Route
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday criticised an eastern European proposal to close the Balkans refugee route and vowed to push for a plan with Turkey to reduce the influx at an EU summit.
Merkel, under heavy pressure at home to reduce arrivals, supports a plan under which transit country Turkey would seal its borders and then fly refugees to Europe where they would be settled under an EU quota system.
However, most countries in the European Union have shown little enthusiasm for the idea, and the so-called Visegrad Four — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary — have openly defied Merkel…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tony Blair Insists Migration of Two Million EU Workers to Britain Has Been Good for UK
Mr Blair’s remarks come as David Cameron battles to finish his renegotiation ahead of a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU — which Mr Blair said he was against.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jobless Somali Refugee Family Rehoused From £2m Mansion to £1.3m Semi
Saeed Khaliif, his wife Sayida and their brood have been moved from a six-bedroom property in West Hampstead, north London into a £1.3million semi in nearby Cricklewood
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: UK Open Borders Activists Block Journalists Filming in Calais Migrant Camp
‘This Is A Journalist Free Space’ … ‘Like North Korea?’
The Dutch journalists who were attacked by Calais migrants in January have released a shocking new video displaying the censorious nature of the open borders campaigners who “help” migrants in the camps in Northern France.
Teun Voeten, who was attacked and thrown into a tent while three men pinned him down in the Calais Jungle Camp, has revealed how ‘No Borders Solidarity Network’ campaigners attempt to stop journalists interviewing them, and migrants, and getting a full look into the camps in France.
The network — which includes Calais Migrant Solidarity, the advocacy group ‘Anti-Raids’, as well as organisations like ‘Stop G4S’ — work closely with government funded organisations like the Refugee Council, and are also closely linked to the hard-left, foreign-funded activist networks which masquerade as think tanks and charities. Examples include Asylum Aid, Hope Not Hate, and Southall Black Sisters.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Interviewed by the Polish television TV Republika, Mgr Rabban Al Qas, chaldean bishop of Zakho and Amadiya, Iraq, warned the Europeans :
“The problem is not that they are refugees from Africa or Syria. The problem is that the majority of them are very observant and fanatical muslims. They dream of getting into Europe. Most will not thank the United States, France, and the other host countries. They bring in Europe their ideology, and many of them, maybe even 50%, have worked for Daesh. Europe must be very careful and should not allow them to bring in this ideology.
http://www.ndf.fr/nos-breves/16-02-2016/79372
Like telling a blind drunk drunk that alcohol is bad for him. Smart countries and people don’t want what Western Europe has right now. ‘Muslim Jehadis Welcome Here’ . Are you crazy? Muslims talk about the Crusades and revenge like it was yesterday afternoon.
Wait a damn minute, just a darn minute! Alcohol is bad for you? Now is a fine time to find this out…
The Muslim sense of history as a recent occurrence and their finely-tuned sense of grievance about it is a huge advantage they have over us Occidentals because they use it to feed their motivation and willpower.
Re: Trump
Thanks again for keeping me informed. Presently, I’m trying to stay alive and don’t have time to fish through the sea of political babble for important stuff.
It would be interesting to know what those “hateful comments” from the Scottish island really were. Has anyone seen the actual documentation?
I too was curious about this, I came up with nothing.
Somebody on another community I frequent suggested it may have been “It would have been nice if we had been consulted” = ).
It certainly draws the question, as I looked also and found nothing.
If it was really truly bad, then I feel that it would have been used as a classic example of islamphobia, and how it should not be tolerated.
And of course a way to truly vilify and shame the guy as a racist etc. Though I do wonder if the authorities are stalemated as the SDL seem very strong in their Defensive posture.
So like Sardo it was probably more of a reasonable point of consultation, maybe about health, education where the school may need special foot washing facilities adjacent to a special prayer room, or infrastructure, such as an islamic area for the cemetery, or will the church be used as a mosque and the cross has to be hidden, and only winter holidays to be celebrated.
Perhaps a concern for children, girls, and will the police do their job? other than cover up.
Perhaps the guy feels that his family security and way of life is threatened, as news of what happened in Cologne and Europe. Because if anything happens, then it is too late, as the effect on the victim is very serious.
Perhaps authorities do not like to be told that their may be further ramifications to any misdeeds.
‘Roamin’ in the glomin’
Irish Rovers! My Mom loves them! Or was that Kenneth McKeller?
“‘No Borders Solidarity Network’ campaigners attempt to stop journalists interviewing them, and migrants, and getting a full look into the camps in France.”
No Borders setting up borders? And expecting them to be ‘respected’? How cool is that?
Heh, sort of like Julian Assange claiming there should be no secrets while doing his best to protect his own secrets.
How is Assange trying to ‘protect his own secrets’? He has always agreed to be interviewed by the police in the Eucadorian embassy.
Trump: If I can’t have it, I’ll make sure you can’t either.
RNC: Ditto.