Oh No, Don’t Let the Rain Come Down!

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My phone and internet went out Tuesday evening without any warning. I was in the middle of watching a cultural enrichment video from the Netherlands (one that involved migrant gangs battling it out in the streets), when suddenly the video stopped, and the little wheel started turning around and around in the center of the picture. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that the connection had gone out.

A gentle rain was falling outside, and had been for most of the day. It wasn’t a hurricane. There was no wind. No thunder or lightning. Just gentle rain, falling steadily. Nothing significant, but that was apparently too much for the phone company’s equipment. There was no voice, no internet, and nothing to do but wait. I made supper and started binge-watching old Justified videos, which I hadn’t looked at in five or six years.

When I woke up yesterday morning the internet was still out. So I went grocery shopping — took my time, drank some coffee. When I came home, there was still no internet. There was only so much binge-watching I could do, so I caught up on about six months’ worth of accounting, and then listened to music until bedtime.

When I got up this morning there was still no phone or internet. I ate a leisurely breakfast, and right after I finished washing the dishes, the phone and internet came back on, coincidentally just as the sun broke through the clouds for the first time in two days. The demons that had been holding back the electrons in the wires must have had an aversion to the light.

When the signal returned, I was just getting ready to drive down the road to use someone’s phone to call in a trouble ticket with the phone company. I’m relieved I didn’t have to do that, because it would have meant an interminable time on hold listing to horrible music, then a series of robot menus, and finally a lengthy conversation with Jamshid in Dhaka, who is always terribly difficult to understand.

I’ve got a lot to catch up on. A huge backlog of email awaits me. There will be a news feed tonight.

Unless, of course, the internet goes out again.

Paging Hassan Nasrallah

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Update: Vlad sends this:

Earlier today (in the middle of the afternoon, Beirut time) more than a thousand pagers exploded simultaneously on or near the persons of members of the Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah. At least nine people were killed, and more than two thousand wounded. Interestingly enough, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon was among the wounded, but Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah escaped unscathed. Most of the explosions occurred in Lebanon, but there are reports that several went off in Syria.

Hezbollah operatives had recently abandoned their cell phones because they had been penetrated by Israeli intelligence. They reverted to using the relatively antique technology of pagers instead, but now any pagers that didn’t explode have been discarded, leaving the Hezbollah networks more or less incommunicado.

It’s astonishing that Israel was able to hack all those devices and cause them to explode simultaneously. I have no idea how a pager can be induced to explode remotely.

I say “Israel”, but I don’t really know that the Jewish State was responsible. No one does, because there has been no official comment by the Israeli government. But who else has the capability to pull off a caper like this one?

To keep up with the latest updates on the aftermath of the incident, see this live blog from The Times of Israel. There’s also an article in The Jerusalem Post.

Below are two videos with some interesting information on the day’s events.

From The Sun:

From WION:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/16/2024

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The FBI said that the alleged would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh had been on its radar since 2019. Meanwhile, a former FBI assistant director told the Daily Mail that Donald Trump’s alleged would-be assassin may have been tipped off about when the former president would be playing golf in West Palm Beach.

In other news, the group “Queers for Palestine” was offered $1 million to host a gay pride parade in Gaza or the West Bank.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Dean, DV, JW, LP, McN, Reader from Chicago, Roger, 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. I 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.

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The Calm Before the Storm

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As I mentioned on Saturday evening, I spent most of that day helping out at a Sons of Confederate Veterans booth at the Heart of Virginia Festival in Farmville.

After several hours of watching all the passersby (and talking to some of them), I suddenly realized that I was older than anyone else I saw. Yes, there were a few people in my age group, and a very few who were even older, but for all practical purposes, I was watching a parade of people who were younger than I.

I could look at all the men and boys and think, “I remember when I was that age.” Some of them, especially the ones with green hair and piercings and multiple tattoos, were hard to identify with. But with many of them, it was possible to put myself in their shoes, and imagine doing what they were doing. Especially if they were middle-aged or older.

As for the females — well, the ones who were young and comely would have been objects of my libidinous attentions fifty years ago. But now, from the vantage point of an old man who was married for forty years and then widowed for five, they’re just eye candy — lovely to look upon, but no longer provoking desperate, overwhelming lust. It’s like looking at a garden of beautiful, carefully-tended flowers. Poignant, because the blossoms must soon fade and succumb to the inevitable frost.

And, truth be told, only a small portion of those young females would actually fall into the “gorgeous flower” category. A depressingly large percentage of them were quite obese, with parti-colored chopped-off hair and tattoos all over. I’m too old to find that sort of thing attractive, no matter how hard I try. Besides, too many of them were paired up with each other and engaged in extravagant public displays of affection. So to heck with ’em.

When I was a kid, the only people who sported tattoos were men who had been in prison or the military. Outside of the circus, a tattooed woman was all but unheard of. When the first tattoos began to appear on women 35 or 40 years ago, the wearers of them were generally lower-class, or from a bohemian subculture. Over the next two decades the fad gradually moved up the class hierarchy, and they are now commonplace. For the last quarter-century I’ve tried to get used to them, but I just can’t manage to do it. Every time I see a tattooed woman I experience an involuntary jolt of distaste. I’m just too old — there’s nothing I can do about it.

However, although they were a minority, a surprisingly large number of those lovely young ladies in Farmville were without visible tattoos, which I found encouraging. Their sartorial tastes weren’t always the most refined, but some of them were dressed quite appropriately, with no bra straps exposed or butt cheeks showing, and no navel jewelry. So, from the point of view of a hidebound traditionalist such as myself, all is not lost.

And then there were the smart phones, which were all but ubiquitous, among both women and men. When it comes to phones, I’m an outsider looking in. I have a basic understanding of how they work, and have seen them often enough, but I don’t understand the deep immersion in them that so many people seem to have. On Saturday I saw lot of people walking down the street between the rows of booths, looking neither left nor right, just staring into their phones. There must me something really important and/or compelling on those little screens to keep them focused so tightly on them.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/15/2024

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A hypersonic missile fired by the Houthis in Yemen evaded Israeli air defenses and reached central Israel today. No injuries were reported.

In other news, Vice President Kamala Harris said that she was relieved to know that former President Trump is safe after the latest attempt on his life.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Conservative Tree House, Daniel Greenfield, Dean, JW, LP, MM, Reader from Chicago, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I 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.

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What the Heck?

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As you all know by now, there was another assassination attempt on Donald Trump this afternoon at the former president’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, the alleged would-be assassin, is allegedly shown in the photo above. What I want to know is: what the heck are those button-like things on either side of his chest? Readers are invited to share any (reasonable, not too wacky) theories in the comments.

I’ll assume you’re familiar with the general outlines of what happened, so I’ll just paste a few odds and ends that Vlad and I found in various places on the Interwebs.

The quotes below are from various media sources. I didn’t hang on to the URLs, but if you check the news feed later tonight, you’ll find a lot of material there.

Voter records indicate that he was an unaffiliated voter but did vote in the Democratic primary in Guilford County.

Social media posts allegedly belonging to Routh indicate he was a believer in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and he had posted that he had voted for Trump in 2016 but was disappointed with him after the fact, expressing support for Tulsi Gabbard in various posts.

The North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections has records for Routh going back to 2002. That year, he barricaded himself inside a business with a gun in Greensboro, per the News & Record.

He’s starting to look like a composite character.

CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller reported Sunday afternoon that Routh’s social media accounts have focused on his “self-proclaimed involvement” in the war in Ukraine, including his supposed effort to recruit soldiers to fight in the conflict. Routh also claimed to have fought in Ukraine as it continues to hold off Russia’s invasion.

Routh appears to have previously spoken with The New York Times about his effort to recruit Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine. At the time of the report, which was published on March 25, 2023, Routh told the Times that he had spent several months in Ukraine in 2022.

A Semafor report published on March 10, 2023, cited Routh as the head of the International Volunteer Center (IVC) in Ukraine, a private organization that works to “empower volunteers” and other non-profit groups that work to “enhance the distribution of humanitarian aid throughout Ukraine,” according to the IVC’s website.

In a June 2022 interview with Newsweek Romania, Routh spoke about his efforts to recruit volunteers for the International Legion Defense of Ukraine, a unit of Ukraine’s Ground Forces.

The guy’s really got form:

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Wringing the Chicken’s Neck for Allah

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The recently released Bangladeshi Islamic radical Jashimuddin Rahmani has called on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to “declare Bengal’s independence from Modi’s rule” in a viral video. Rahmani, the leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a designated terrorist organization, also threatened to “break up” India and “hoist Islamist flags in Delhi”.

Note: The Siliguri Corridor, also known as “the Chicken’s Neck”, is a stretch of land around the city of Siliguri in West Bengal, India. 20-22 kilometres at the narrowest section, this corridor connects the seven states (“Seven Sisters”) of northeastern India to the rest of the India.

Many thanks to Ashok for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:

For a detailed report on Jashimuddin Rahmani’s provocations, see The Struggle for Hindu Existence.

Video transcript:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/14/2024

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Seven members of a grooming gang have been jailed for a collective 106 years in prison for the systematic sexual abuse of two underage girls in the northern English town of Rotherham. The case has a Mohammed Coefficient of 43%.

In other news, a new video has emerged that shows African migrants grilling what appear to be cats in Dayton, Ohio, just half an hour’s drive from Springfield.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Dean, DV, JW, MM, Reader from Chicago, SB, 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. I 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.

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Chillin’ With Johnny Reb

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I was away most of the day today, so posting will be light this evening.

I’ve got a good excuse, though: I was one of the Rebels manning a booth for the Sons of Confederate Veterans at the Heart of Virginia Festival in Farmville. All in all it was a successful day, with pleasant weather, good conversations with the attendees at the festival, and plenty of politically incorrect Confederate merchandise sold.

The SCV had reserved two spaces for the occasion, one for the booth, and one next door for a “living history” tableau featuring uniformed Confederates, muskets, a sword, and other odds and ends of Civil War paraphernalia.

Unlike the last time I did the Heart of Virginia gig, none of the visitors wanted to argue with me about the Confederates being “traitors”. The people who stopped to talk were uniformly pleasant and friendly. Most of them were Confederate sympathizers, of course, but some were just interested in history. A few passersby glared at us, but those were all white women. Interestingly enough, black people didn’t seem to have any issue with our being there. Some stopped to talk to us, and even bought some of the merch. So you never can tell.

The Confederate sympathizers among the visitors were generally well aware of the significance of the Confederate Battle Flag in today’s larger culture war: it stands for resistance to tyranny. They know the current tyranny emanates from Washington D.C., just as it did in 1861. And the Stars and Bars still represent the collective defiance expressed by the Sovereign Commonwealth of Virginia in the face of that tyranny.

Deo Vindice!

Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/13/2024

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Interest payments on the US national debt have now surpassed $1 trillion a year for the first time ever. This represents a 30% increase from the same period a year ago.

In other news, an 18-wheeler carrying a tank was struck by a train Thursday afternoon at a railroad crossing in Goose Creek, South Carolina.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Daniel Greenfield, Dean, LP, Reader from Chicago, Roger, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, 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. I 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.

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The Canarians Are Suffering an Invasion

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In the following video, Antonio Fúster, the national spokesman for the Spanish anti-immigration party Vox, talks to the press during his visit to Tenerife.

The Canary Islands are in the midst of a massive migration crisis, with culture-enrichers swarming and overwhelming the asylum reception facilities. African “refugees” see the Canaries as their gateway to the European Union, where everyone knows they can get money for nothing and the chicks are free.

Many thanks to Juan Cabron for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:

For more information, see the report at RAIR Foundation.

Video transcript:

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Papers, Please: “You No Longer Have the Right to Say No”

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The long-awaited European Vaccination Card (EVC) is finally here — the pilot project is about to be rolled out in five countries. What was considered a “conspiracy theory” a few years ago is now a publicly acknowledged fact.

The following video from The Netherlands discusses the implementation of the new digital vaccination card, more commonly known as a “vax passport”. As expected, it is being marketed for its “convenience”. Some of its notable features are:

  • It can’t be falsified. Unlike the “yellow booklet”, it can’t be faked. Or, more accurately, it will be much harder to fake — you’ll have to pay a lot of money to a technically savvy accomplice (or a skilled hacker) to spoof a digital vaccine passport for you.
  • It will be mandatory. It will no longer be optional; you will have to have an EVC if you want to travel. Yes, that violates the European Charter on the Fundamental Rights of the EU, but we don’t need no stinkin’ fundamental rights, do we?
  • Vaccination records are just the beginning. The new passport will be expanded to include all health data, and will presumably eventually be merged with the Universal Digital ID.
  • Centralized control is being removed from Brussels and transferred to the WHO. Like it or not, the UN is now in charge of the health of European citizens.

An American version will probably take a little longer to implement, but I’m certain the Powers That Be are working on it. It may take another “pandemic” to get the ball rolling. Or maybe a little bit of nuclear war, just to make sure.

Many thanks to Henk for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/12/2024

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said that if the West lets Ukraine use long-range precision weapons to strike targets deep inside Russian territory, it means NATO is entering the war. Meanwhile, three staff members for the International Red Cross were killed during a Russian missile attack on Ukraine.

In other news, a convicted rapist from Guadeloupe was given a 20-year prison sentence for the attempted rape of a 102-year-old resident of a nursing home in the French city of Rouen.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Daniel Greenfield, Dean, DV, JW, LP, Reader from Chicago, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, 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. I 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.

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Pale Rain-Flawed Phantom of the Place

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When I came across the above photo in my search for images to use for a header to Fjordman’s recent post, it made me think of the following poem by Wilfred Owen.

The poem was written during the Great War, and depicts a scene in Edinburgh, where Owen was hospitalized. It evokes a melancholy but nostalgic atmosphere, seemingly hearkening back to idyllic Edwardian days, now lost forever.

The sinking of the Titanic, which occurred just a few years before the writing of the poem, was part of those days, and might have been the “news of all the nations” peddled by the pale rain-flawed news boy in Princes Street:

Six O’Clock in Princes Street

by Wilfred Owen

In twos and threes, they have not far to roam,
Crowds that thread eastward, gay of eyes;
Those seek no further than their quiet home,
Wives, walking westward, slow and wise.

Neither should I go fooling over clouds,
Following gleams unsafe, untrue,
And tiring after beauty through star-crowds,
Dared I go side by side with you;

Or be you in the gutter where you stand,
Pale rain-flawed phantom of the place,
With news of all the nations in your hand,
And all their sorrows in your face.