More “refugees” entered Europe during the month of October than arrived in all of last year. 307,000 migrants have entered Croatia since Hungary closed its border. The Greek coast guard rescued more than 1,400 more migrants in the Aegean over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Lesvos says there is no more room on the island to bury the dead migrants who continue to wash up on the shore after their vessels founder.
In other news, a Russian airline official said that an “external impact” brought down the passenger jet that crashed in the Sinai last weekend.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Nick, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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How to Hide a Hyperinflation, Part II
To start with, the U.S. government, like all Western governments, grossly falsifies its inflation statistic.
Food prices spiral higher at the fastest rate in our lifetime. Western real estate markets have been deliberately pumped-up to unprecedented/catastrophic bubble levels. In the case of the U.S. market, this deliberate bubble-blowing was interrupted by a five-year crash, before it too began to be re-inflated.
While this has been occurring, the shameless liars in government and media have been pretending that inflation is at near-zero levels. Indeed, these charlatans have the audacity to proclaim that inflation (i.e. price inflation) is “too low” — an economic impossibility.
Price-inflation represents the destruction in purchasing power of our currencies. It is a form of economic cancer, yet the charlatans insist that we don’t have enough of this cancer. Since delaying hyperinflation is a con/confidence issue, lying about inflation is an important tactic.
But what happens, in a legitimate economy, when food and housing costs start spiraling higher, due to monetary inflation and the destruction in purchasing power of that currency? The workers in that economy demand higher wages to compensate them for that monetary crime, and return them to the same financial condition in which they existed before this banker-made inflation effectively confiscated some of their wages…
Sadly, we have neither a gold standard, nor legitimate economies. Without a gold standard, there is no way for workers to prevent the erosion of their wages (in real dollars) through this theft-via-inflation. Yet U.S. and Western wages are flat — in nominal terms. Workers are not being compensated for the systemic theft of their wages, except for the tiny percentage of Fat Cats, at the top.
How is this possible? Through the crime of globalization, our pretend “free trade”. Real free trade can only exist on a level playing field, where all trading partners have equalized wages, working conditions, and tax structures. This is an elementary principle of economics.
What we have instead is globalization, a permanent race-to-the-bottom, pure, economic fascism. With borders erased (for purposes of trade) multinational oligopolies play “musical chairs” with global, industrial production, continually shifting that production to the lowest-wage jurisdictions. To refer to this as “free trade” reflects either fundamental ignorance, or a cynical attempt to deceive.
The consequence of this economic betrayal, orchestrated by Western puppet governments, at the request of the Oligarchs, is massive, systemic unemployment. “Structural unemployment” across the Western world, meaning permanent unemployment, totals somewhere in excess of 100 million people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Aloha to the US: Is Hawai’i an Occupied Nation?
An upcoming election has highlighted the deep disagreement between native Hawaiians over what the future should look like. For some, it’s formal recognition of their community and a changed relationship within the US. Others want to leave the US entirely — or more accurately, want the US to leave Hawai’i.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Another Day, Another Cop-Hating Fast Food Worker
Ever since Obama and other race baiters began fueling hate against America’s men and women in blue, there have been several incidents involving employees of fast food restaurants disrespecting police officers who went to their establishments as customers.
What happened Friday in Millbury, Ohio was different. It was perhaps the most egregious example of these minimum wage employees sending the message they hate cops and that police officers are not welcome in their restaurants.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Benghazi Staffer Not Protected by Federal Whistleblower Law
The Benghazi Committee staffer who says he was fired for resisting participation in what he called a politically motivated probe of Hillary Clinton is not protected under federal whistleblower laws — an exemption that some labor lawyers call “inexcusable.”
Advocates say the lack of protection for Congressional staffers effectively silences any House or Senate worker who could otherwise reveal potential corruption in Congress.
“Congress’ failure to provide legal protection for its own employees is inexcusable,” said Debra Katz, a D.C. attorney who specializes in federal whistleblower cases. “And that won’t change until Congress gets embarrassed as the public becomes aware.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Carson Called ‘Safe Negro’ By Democrat Strategist
MSNBC talking heads spent television time mulling Ben Carson’ s poll support for president — and this is what one Democratic Party strategist came up with: It’ s because he’s a “ safe negro” who can attack President Obama.
On MSNBC’ s “ Up,” Democratic strategist L. Joy Williams, one of the panelists on the show to discuss Carson’ s rising appeal among Republican voters, said: Carson’ s a “ safe negro” for those who want to criticize Obama but can’ t “ because of the race factor,” Breitbart reported.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rhodes scholar David Coleman’s intent is to align his College Board SATs to CC (see THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 5, 2014).
In Coleman’s English portion of the SAT, challenging words like “depreciatory” have been removed to align with the lower standards of CC. So if CC is not about higher standards, what purpose does Coleman serve? In the past, parents have been able to opt out of faddish education reform movements (e.g., Outcome-Based Education), but with Coleman aligning the SATs with CC, even private, religious, or home-schooling parents will have to align their assessments with CC if they want their children to score well on the SATs and get into a good college.
But CC isn’t just about English, math, history, etc. It is also about changing values. For example, the mother of an 8-year-old girl in Louisiana said her daughter had been assigned homework about adultery, and the teacher said she got the assignment from CC materials for third graders (Scripps Media, October 20, 2013). CC is also about data collection. In “Push Against CC Gains Momentum” (EDUCATION REPORTER, May 2013), one reads: “CC gives unprecedented access to students’ personal information to schools and third parties…The Obama administration made changes to the Family Rights and Privacy Act, broadening the collection of students’ information and sharing it with other agencies. This information will not only be available to schools, but also to researchers and private companies…’Turning massive amounts of personal data about public school students (over) to a private corporation without any public input is profoundly disturbing and irresponsible,” the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union told the DAILY NEWS. The Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington is suing the U.S. Department of Education in an effort to stop the illegal collection, storage, and sharing of student data (3-13-13).”
Some states have had second thoughts about CC and have developed their own standards and assessments. Unfortunately, they often still align them CC so their high school students can score well on the SAT which is align with CC.
At this point, you may be wondering what is so bad about the CC assessments. Sandra Stotsky and James Milgram were members of a national validation committee asked to sign off on CC in 2010, but they did not, with Stotsky criticizing the English/language arts standards and Milgram characterizing the methods for solving math problems as convoluted. As an example of CC’s convoluted math, the simple addition of 29 plus 17 to equal 46 becomes the following: 29 is changed to 20 plus 9, and 17 is changed to 10 plus 7. The 20 and 10 are added to make 30, and the 9 and 7 are added to make 16. The 16 becomes 10 plus 6, and the 10 is added to the 30 to make 40, which is added to the 6 to make 46.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dispute Over Internet Data Collection Splits High Court
WASHINGTON (AP) — No one at the Supreme Court on Monday disputed the fact that an online profile of Thomas Robins was riddled with false and misleading information.
The profile of the Virginia resident compiled by Internet search site Spokeo.com said Robins had a graduate degree, a good job and was married with children. In fact, Robins had no advanced degree and was unemployed, with no wife or children.
But the justices appeared sharply divided along ideological lines over whether Robins can sue the company for a technical violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, even if the mistakes didn’t cause him any specific harm such as a lost job opportunity or denial of credit.
The case pits business groups concerned about exposure to costly litigation against consumer protection advocates who say such lawsuits are the only way to hold companies accountable for mistakes.
Robins is pursuing a class action case against Spokeo on behalf of thousands of plaintiffs, which could lead to damages in the billions of dollars.
Liberal justices seemed to side with Robins’ view that being falsely portrayed is enough to show harm. But conservatives insisted the law required Robins to show how he was injured.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Enceladus Flyby: See Cassini’s Close-Up Photos of Icy Saturn Moon
After a death-defying dive toward the surface of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, the Cassini spacecraft has sent back images from its close encounter.
Cassini came to within just 30 miles (50 kilometers) of the moon’s surface on Wednesday (Oct. 28), and passed through a plume of material that erupts from the icy crust.
Scientists believe the plumes on Enceladus are spitting up material from a liquid water ocean that lies deep under the icy surface. Cassini will now be able to provide some information about the composition of the sprays, and potentially shed light on whether the underground environment is fit to host life.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Pro Wrestler Snuka Pleads Not Guilty to Murdering Girlfriend in 1983
HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) — Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, a professional wrestling star in the 1980s, pleaded not guilty on Monday to third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the 1983 death of his girlfriend.
The 72-year-old Snuka appeared before Judge Kelly Banach in Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas in Allentown, Pennsylvania, according to a spokeswoman for District Attorney James Martin.
A native of Fiji who now lives in Camden County, New Jersey, Snuka was charged in September with killing his girlfriend Nancy Argentino, 23, of New York.
She was found dying of head injuries in a motel room they shared in Allentown in 1983 following a local appearance by the wrestler.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
For First Time Ever: Majority of Democrats Now View Socialism Favorably
What once was taboo is now embraced by Democrats.
For the first time ever, a majority of Democrat voters view Socialism favorably.
Doug Ross reported:
Over at Rasmussen, the pollsters have discovered that — for the first time in history — self-identified members of the Democrat Party now view socialism favorably.
The man currently running a distant second for the Democratic presidential nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, is a self-declared socialist, and most of his party’s voters now have a positive view of socialism. They are almost evenly divided as to whether they like capitalism or socialism more.
Socialism, Communism, Maoism, and National Socialism (e.g., the Nazi Party) are all offshoots of Marxism. They are all branches of the same defective tree.
Marxism has failed in literally every venue it has been tried, despite progressives’ laughable efforts to claim certain countries have implemented it successfully.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary: Let’s Make it Easier for Minority Suspects to Sue the Police
It makes perfect sense to me that a candidate for president who has a long history of breaking the law — including her blatant disregard for national security in the way she handled sensitive information via a non-secured homebrew e-mail server, not to mention lying to the American public about a terrorist attack that killed four people — would be interested in ways to make life more difficult for law enforcement. Who hates the police more than dishonest people who consider themselves above the law and constantly rely on legal maneuvers to get away with living that belief?
Also, when your entire public life consists of spouting meaningless bromides based neither on sincere principle nor any real knowledge, you end up proposing things like banning racial profiling by police, which makes you sound pretty stupid because laws are already in place that do this. So how do you recover from that? No problem. Send your campaign staff out to explain that you want to go even further and expose every police department in America to frivolous lawsuits:
She proposed a legal ban on racial profiling by police. Clinton hasn’t detailed how her idea would go beyond existing law, but her campaign cited previous congressional proposals that would make it easier for alleged profiling victims to recover damages from government agencies in civil court.
It’s not hard to see where this takes us. Every minority in America who has an encounter with police that doesn’t result in the person being charged will now be able to run to race-mongering Al Sharpton types and get access to lawyers who will file suit — probably for a fee of one-third of their clients’ award and/or settlement — against the police merely for questioning their clients.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senator Nancy Schaefer: Did Her Fight Against CPS Child Kidnapping Cause Her Murder?
Georgia Senator Nancy Schaefer may have known more about State-sponsored kidnappings than any other politician in the United States before she was murdered in March of 2010. Her published report, The Corrupt Business of Child Protective Services, is reproduced below. It was the basis for many lectures and interviews she gave on the topic. She claims the report caused her to lose her Senate seat in the Georgia State Senate, but she stated:
However, there are causes worth losing over.
This cause was so big however, that there are some who believe she lost more than just her job. They believe she lost her very life.
On March 26, 2010, police from Habersham County Georgia reported that they found Nancy Schaefer and her husband Bruce Schaefer dead in their home. The official report was that it was a murder suicide, and that Bruce Schaefer had killed his wife and then turned his .38-caliber handgun on himself. Their daughter reportedly found them in their bedroom, and investigators say they discovered a suicide note, as well as notes to each of the couple’s five children.
However, many have questioned the “official” police report. Mark Davis of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article on April 4, 2010 titled:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ted Cruz Breaks With Koch Brothers on Crime Bill
Before Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) electrified conservatives with his denunciation of liberal media bias at the GOP presidential debate last week, he took a little-noticed position on a major crime bill before the Senate that set him apart from the politically powerful Koch brothers. Taking the side of law-and-order conservatives on an issue that could emerge as a major focus of the 2016 presidential campaign, Cruz came out against the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S. 2123) on the grounds that the legislation, which will retroactively reduce the sentences of thousands of federal prison inmates, could lead to the release of violent criminals, some convicted of using weapons while engaged in other crimes. He said the Senate bill would release “illegal aliens with criminal convictions” when a “major crime wave” is already sweeping the nation.
In an extraordinary development, the Koch brothers decided to publicly go after Cruz…
Blogger Tina Trent, who writes and lectures about criminal justice issues, hailed Cruz’s decision to come out against the Koch-backed bill, saying the legislation was “a 100 percent giveaway to some of the most radical anti-incarceration activist groups funded by George Soros,” the billionaire hedge fund operator and backer of the Democratic Party. She said, “I’m happy to see Cruz refuse to obey the Kochs on this one vote, but the fact that they came out and chastised him publicly when he did cross them even slightly points to bigger questions—and bigger problems. Will Cruz go further and completely sever ties with the Kochs?”
[Comment: Increasing the criminal element is society is a tactic of communist subversion — a tool used to aid in destabilization of society — before the glorious new communist order can be created.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Media Challenged Not to Name Perpetrators of Mass Violence
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) — Media outlets covering mass shootings should refrain from identifying the attackers in order to prevent similar future attacks, a law-enforcement training and academic group in Texas that focuses on mass killings said on Monday.
The request from the group, the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center, or ALERRT, came at the start of its annual conference on mass shootings, and follows the recent decision of Oregon officials not to publicly name a man who had killed nine people at a community college in October.
The center at Texas State University in San Marcos near the capital Austin, which trains U.S. law enforcement officers in strategies to prevent and deal with mass shootings, wants to deny attackers the fame they crave from media coverage.
“When we name the active shooters and we have profiles on them, we create a situation where we actually encourage more of those shootings to happen,” center Executive Director J. Pete Blair told Reuters.
“One of the things that motivates at least a big chunk of them is the search for notoriety and fame,” Blair said.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium to Revoke Alleged Jihadist Passports for Minimum 3 Months
Belgian authorities, beginning January 2016, will revoke travel passports of citizens suspected of intending to go to Syria to join militant groups, media reported Monday.
BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — According to the RTL television channel, a temporary seizure of travel documents could be subject to a three-month extension if necessary.
Belgian authorities consider the measure a way to prevent potential fighters from leaving Belgium to Syria.
According to VRT channel, the Islamic State militant group pays up to 9,000 euros ($9,915) for one fighter recruited in Belgium. Medical staff and IT-specialists are top priorities in ISIL recruitment.
ISIL is a violent extremist group in control of large areas of Syria and Iraq. The group is notorious for its brutality and many human rights atrocities. ISIL is known to use online social networks to recruit young people from around the world.
According to various sources, up to 440 Belgian citizens have joined extremist groups to fight the government in Syria.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: WWII Bomb Destroyed at Duesseldorf Airport, Some Disruption
BERLIN (AP) — A World War II bomb unearthed at Duesseldorf airport has been destroyed in a controlled explosion, forcing the airport to suspend flights for about an hour.
The roughly 125-kilogram (275-pound) bomb was unearthed overnight and authorities decided to dispose of it at the site, located away from the airport’s runways.
The airport said on its Facebook page that experts destroyed the bomb at 8.43 a.m. (0743 GMT) Monday. Flights had been suspended about an hour earlier and resumed shortly afterward.
Seventy years after the end of the war, unexploded bombs are still regularly discovered during construction work in German cities.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Aged 55-64 Most Pessimistic in Europe on Retirement
According to Barometro Edenred-Ipsos survey
(ANSA) — Rome, November 2 — Italians aged 55 to 64 on the verge of retirement are the most pessimistic in Europe about their future and among the most dissatisfied with their quality of working life, a Barometro Edenred-Ipsos survey shows.
A survey of 14 countries disclosed that as many as 52% of Italians in that age group considered themselves the most disadvanataged in Europe and among the least motivated together with their neighbours in France (52%).
Only 20% of them had planned their retirement and considered it “close enough,” below the european average of 35%.
Only 37% of Italians of that age group said they were happy at work, making them among the unhappiest in Europe after Poland and the Czech Republic.
Only 25% of Italians aged 55 to 64 said they were happy with the quality of their working life, making them the most disgruntled except for the Spanish.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Bigamist Keeps Second Family in Garage
An Egyptian man with two wives in Monza, northern Italy, was keeping his second wife and three children in a garage under the home of his first wife, who had no idea her husband was a bigamist.
Italian police made the incredible discovery on Saturday afternoon when they found a 33-year-old Egyptian woman and her three children, aged three, seven and nine, living in a cluttered fifteen square metre garage beneath a block of council houses in Monza.
The discovery was made after his other wife — a 47-year-old Egyptian with whom he had another three children, aged between three and ten, called the police, but for an entirely different matter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Marino’s Rome Executive Folds After 26 Councillors Quit
‘No plot’ says Renzi
(ANSA) — Rome, October 30 — Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino’s two and a half year term at the helm of the Italian capital ended prematurely Friday when 26 councillors quit, bringing his executive crashing down as he vainly tried to hang on after a U-turn on resigning over an expenses scandal.
The councillors comprised all 19 from his own Democratic Party (PD), whose leader, Premier Matteo Renzi, has long distanced himself from the controversial mayor.
They were assisted in pulling the plug by two other coalition members and by five opposition councillors who were also keen to end Marino’s tenure and did not mind collaborating with the enemy to send him packing.
Rome Prefect Franco Gabrielli will now have to name a commissioner to take over the running of the city, which is bracing for a massive influx of pilgrims for the Roman Catholic Church’s Holy Year Jubilee of Mercy, from December 8 to November 20 next year.
Elections to name Marino’s successor — in which he might conceivably stand himself — are expected in the spring, but may come later next year.
Marino criticised the manner in which he had been unseated, and slammed Renzi, at a press conference following his ouster.
“I was stabbed by 26 names and surnames but by one only who sent them”, he said.
“I don’t like to see, as a Democrat, that the PD went to a notary with people who militated in Berlusconi’s party”.
The 26 councillors “submitted (to party bosses) and resigned to avoid a public debate.
“I was denied a debate in the assembly and I still demand to know why.
“They should have come (to a council debate),” he said, calling the manoeuvre “the mark of a politics that decides outside the democratic seats, reducing the elected to people who ratify decisions taken elsewhere: that denies democracy”.
Marino said “I did not at all have a stormy relationship with Renzi, in the last year I had no relationship (with him) at all.” He said the PD “has disappointed me in the conduct of its leaders because it has given up on democracy, betraying what it has in its DNA”.
But he added: “You can kill a team but you can’t stop ideas.
“I hope there is no turning back, it’s not the future of Ignazio Marino that’s at stake but Rome’s future”.
Renzi replied by saying Marino was “not the victim of a place coup but a mayor who lost contact with his city, with his people”. He said the PD “is concerned about Rome, not the ambitions of an individual, even if he is mayor.
“The PD is interested in Rome. “And that’s why we’ll do our all to make the Jubilee with Rome what the Expo has been for Milan. This page is closed, enough polemics, everyone to work”. The last day of Marino’s up-and-down ride was also marked by the confirmation that he is under criminal investigation over the expenses case.
But the now former first citizen insisted that it was “just a formality”.
“Notification of a probe is a formal act needed to conduct investigations,” Marino said when asked about reports he was being probed over his expenses. “I’m convinced that I have explained my side of the story well and have been transparent”. On Thursday Marino withdrew the resignation he tendered earlier in the month over the expenses scandal linked to alleged use of his council credit card for personal dinners.
The U-turn set the mayor, a surgeon by profession, on a collision course with the PD, which pulled its support for Marino’s executive on the grounds that the expenses row was just the last in a long series of furores that mean the mayor could not regain the trust of the Roman public.
Corriere della Sera also reported Friday that Marino is being probed for aggravated fraud against the State in an investigation related to Image Onlus, a not-for-profit he founded in 2005 to provide health care in Honduras and Congo.
Rome’s former executive transport councillor Stefano Esposito called Marino a “liar” on Friday.
“After reading this article, I must acknowledge that I put my trust in a liar,” Esposito said via Twitter. “Shame”. Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano said the on-off resignation saga had “taken on the guise of a farce”.
It said “beyond all judgement there remains the damage, also of image, wreaked on a city accustomed in its history to see all manner of things, but rarely exposed to similar affairs”.
Despite losing the support of Renzi and the PD, Marino had vowed “not to disappoint” supporters, quoting Che Guevara’s saying “We are realists, we want the impossible” and also likening himself to Chilean leftist leader Salvador Allende.
The PD pulled the plug after months of sometimes grudging support through woes including the ‘Capital Mafia’ case, an illegally parked car, the glitzy funeral of a mafia boss and Pope Francis’s public disowning of Marino after he claimed to have been invited to an event in Philadelphia.
The city of Rome is standing as civil plaintiff in the Capital Mafia trial, starting November 5, involving allegations that an organised crime group muscled in on council contracts worth millions including work with migrants and Roma.
Most of the Capital Mafia cases began under Marino’s rightwing predecessor Gianni Alemanno.
Marino has claimed credit for unearthing much of the graft.
But aside from the rows that have undermined his position, Marino’s record on trying to solve Rome’s many woes, from potholes to trash, traffic, public transport, graffiti and general urban neglect that has won international attention, has been spotty at best — and he has had an unhappy knack of being on holiday or otherwise absent while some of the controversies were peaking.
However, his supporters saw him as a clean politician who has tried to tackle problems linked to powerful vested interests, and even his opponents have recognised the basic honesty of the former liver transplant surgeon.
His nickname, the Martian, was testament to a lack of worldliness admired by fans who saw him as a fresh-faced and welcome outsider and slammed by critics who said he lacked the down-to-earth nous to grapple with the sometimes greasy deal-making mechanics of running the problematic metropolis. The end of Marino’s bid to stay afloat was overshadowed by comments from Italian anti-corruption czar Raffaele Cantone, who said Milan was again Italy’s capital of morality and that Rome, by contrast, does not have graft antibodies.
Marino countered by saying “Rome has antibodies and they are working”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Seize 15 Mn of Assets in Banca Marche Probe
Assets belonged to former director general and two businessmen
(ANSA) — Ancona, November 2 — Police investigating the alleged bilking of millions of euros from the Banca Marche by its former director general, Massimo Bianconi and two businessmen, Monday seized bank accounts, shares and houses in Bologna, Parma and Rome’s smart via Archimede as well as a company in the name of his relatives, police said.
In all assets worth 15 million euros were seized in the Marche, Puglia and Lombardy by finance police from Ancona. Some of them were considered loot from the fraud and others were seized protectively.
The confiscations also concern businessman Vittori Casale, who is face corruption charges as well as another Puglian businessman who was not immediately identified, the sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Audit Court Points to Problems in Religion Tax Payment
Auditor complains of lack of oversight, possible discrimination
(ANSA) — Rome, November 2 — Italy’s Audit Court on Monday pointed to problems in the 8×1,000 contribution system, which enables taxpayers to divert a slice of their taxes to the religion of their preference. The State auditor said that was a risk of discrimination between the parties involved and complained that there was little monitoring of how these funds are used. The Catholic Church is chosen by around 80% of Italian taxpayers to get 0.8% (‘eight per thousand’) from their annual income and it will receive around one billion euros as a result this year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mesolithic Dwelling Unearthed Near Stonehenge
Last week, David Jacques of the University of Buckingham discovered a Stone Age dwelling near the constant-temperature spring at Blick Mead, about a mile away from Stonehenge. The house was constructed from a large tree that had fallen. The pit left by the tree’s roots was lined with stones, and the tree itself was used to make a flint-lined wall. A roof was fashioned from animal skins, and nearby, a stone hearth has also been uncovered. Large stones placed near the wall may have been heated in a fire and used for overnight warmth. “This is a key site for where Britain began. It is the only continuously occupied Mesolithic site in Western Europe and we believe the ‘eco’ home is the sort of place the first Brits lived in,” Jacques said in a press release.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Monsignor Among Two Arrested by Vatican Over Leaks
Pope approves, Holy See considering criminal proceedings
(ANSA) — Vatican City, November 2 — A high-ranking Spanish clergyman, Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, was arrested in the Vatican at the weekend over the alleged leaking of confidential Holy See documents, the Vatican said on Monday. Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, who like Balda was a former member of the COSEA commission on the Holy See’s economic-administrative structure, was also arrested. Chaouqui is cooperating with investigators and was released after questioning, the statement said. Vallejo Balda remains under detention inside the Vatican.
Pope Francis has been informed of the arrests conducted by the Vatican authorities over alleged leaks and he approves, ANSA sources said.
The Vatican authorities may take legal action against books that are about to be published containing leaked confidential documents, the Holy See statement said.
The statement said the books were “fruit of a serious betrayal of the trust give by the pope and, as regards the authors, of an operation to gain advantage from the gravely illegal act of obtaining confidential documentation”.
It added that the Vatican authorities were considering criminal proceedings in relation to this and, if necessary, the possible involvement of “international cooperation”. The books in question are by Italian writers Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi. “Publication like this do not contribute in any way to establishing clarity and truth but, on the other hand, generate confusion and partial, biased interpretations,” the statement said. “It is absolutely necessary to avoid the mistake of thinking that this is a way to help the pope’s mission”.
The papacy of Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, was hit by the so-called VatiLeaks scandal over the leaking of embarrassing confidential Church papers.
Benedict’s butler was convicted over the leaks but was subsequently released from a Vatican cell thanks to a papal pardon.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Study Reveals Swedish Jihadists
A new study shows how members of extremist groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda are using social media to recruit people.
“Social media is used as a platform to spread official propaganda from IS and al-Qaeda associated groups, such as videos, graphics, official speeches and so on. But it is also used as a platform for spreading unofficial stories, such as narratives from IS controlled territories,” says Linus Gustafsson, an analyst at the Swedish Defence University, Försvarshögskolan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Stockholm Worst Nordic Capital for Gun Crime
189 people have been injured in shootings in the Swedish capital over the past five years, double the number in Copenhagen, Oslo and Helsinki put together. Rising gang-related crime has been blamed for the violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fury as Islamic Group Orders Muslims in Rotherham to Boycott Police Over Child Sex Scandal
AN Islamic group in Rotherham which has vowed to boycott the police over the devastating child sex abuse scandal have been blasted for thinking they are “above the law”.
The British Muslim Youth (BMY) is protesting the perceived persecution of Muslims in the aftermath of the town’s shameful scandal.
In a message posted online the group ordered fellow Muslims to immediately cut all ties with law enforcement or face being made pariahs in their own neighbourhoods.
British Muslim Youth (BMY) warned its members would not be “held responsible for acts of personal self-defence” and said it could no longer trust South Yorkshire Police because of the ongoing “marginalisation and dehumanisation” of Muslims.
Last August a devastating independent report was published revealing how at least 1,400 girls as young as 11 were groomed and sexually exploited over a 14-year period by gangs of predominantly Pakistani men.
South Yorkshire Police and the local council were both savaged for failing to avert the scandal, with officers later claiming they failed to intervene for fear of being branded racist.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Leo Winkley, headmaster of St Peter’s School in York has argued that the celebrations only encourage religious intolerance, according to the Daily Telegraph.
He described Guy Fawkes as ‘a global brand’ and that the annual celebrations of his death reinforces attitudes of intolerance and backwardness.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Halloween Nightmare: Couple Tied up at Mansion and Threatened by Masked Eastern Europeans
A COUPLE were left shaken after a gang of eastern Europeans stormed their £3million mansion in balaclavas and threatened to pummel them with crowbars.
The vicious ordeal took place on Friday evening, as the Halloween weekend kicked off with children starting trick-or-treating early.
However, one terrified couple lived through a real nightmare after a gang broke into their £3m luxury Lake District mansion brandishing crowbars.
The three men, at least one with an eastern European accent, ransacked the gated property after tying up the man and woman.
The masked men got in through an insecure door between 6.30pm and 7pm on Friday in Storrs, near Bowness-on-Windermere.
Local police have described the raid a “terrifying ordeal”.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Over Two Thirds of Conservatives Support Leaving the EU
Over two thirds of Conservative party members are likely vote for Britain to leave the EU, a new Conservative Home poll has found.
The poll has revealed 71 percent of members would vote for Brexit, whilst just 24 percent say they would prefer to remain in the Europe Union.
It comes as David Cameron insists the pace of Britain’s renegotiation in Europe will “quicken” this month, as he faces pressure to make his demands for reform public.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Are Muslim Terror Gangs Allowed to Run Sharia Extortion Rackets in UK Jails?
NON-Muslim inmates in several of the UK’s toughest prisons are being bullied into paying a protection “tax” to radical Muslim prisoners who are running the prisons “according to their own rules and sharia”.
The inmates inside the category A prisons are having to pay the “tax” — known as “jizya” — because they fear being attacked by the extremists.
Jizya was found to be enforced by some Islamist extremist prisoners inside four of Britain’s largest prisons.
The terrifying findings were revealed by a team of Government investigators, appointed by justice secretary Michael Gove to establish the threat Islamist extremists pose in Britain’s prisons.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Evidence Reveals Bomb Took Down Russian Flight Over Sinai
Aviation experts now believe the Russia Airbus that crashed over the weekend was taken down by a bomb or a “force acting outwards from within.”
The Director General of the Royal United Services Institute, Michael Clarke, said it was more likely the aircraft was taken down by a bomb than mechanical failure, according to the BBC.
“Early reports said that the aircraft split into two and that suggests a catastrophic failure, not a mechanical failure, but that suggests perhaps an explosion on board,” Clarke said.
“So I’d be much more inclined to think if we have to guess at this stage, it’s much more likely to have been a bomb on board rather than a missile fired from the ground.”
According to the Russian aviation agency and Egyptian officials, the Airbus A321 disintegrated at a high altitude and the flight crew did not send a distress call.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Denies Its Navy Ships Entered Libyan Waters
Claim made by Tobruk ‘false’ says Pinotti
(ANSA) — Rome, November 2 — The Italian government on Monday reiterated its denial of claims by officials in Tobruk that three Italian Navy vessels entered Libyan waters on Sunday.
“The news given by Tobruk is false,” Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti told State broadcaster RAI. “Our ships, which are patrolling the Mediterranean, were in international waters, well away from Libyan territorial waters”. Ibrahim Dabbashi, the representative to the United Nations of the Libyan government in Tobruk, distanced himself from the allegations. “Before making the accusation that three Italian warships entered Libyan waters, you needed evidence to confirm it,” Dabbashi told ANSA Monday. “Up to now, there is none. “If it were true, it would be very serious. I don’t think the naval units were Italian”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Italy-Egypt-Algeria Talks Open in Algiers
Yesterday the Italian cemetery in Tripoli was desecrated
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 2 — Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni Monday is in Algiers to attend trilateral talks with Egypt and Algeria on the crisis in Libya. On the same day, Tobruk’s parliament is starting debate on a UN peace plan that should lead to a national unity government.
In the Algerian capital, Gentiloni is meeting his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry and Algerian Minister for Maghrebi Affairs Abdelkader Messahel. It is the third trilateral meeting on Libya held by Italy, Egypt and Algeria after a meeting in Cairo on June 7 and another in Rome on April 8.
The talks take place a day after Tobruk accused Italy of deploying ships in Libyan waters, a claim denied by Italy, and the desecration of the Italian cemetery in Tripoli (
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/libya/2015/11/02/libya-italy-egypt-algeria-talks-open-in-algiers_c49a1020-4320-425e-85d2-44576b612dc3.html
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Airline Says ‘External Impact’ Brought Down Plane in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula
A Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt’s volatile Sinai Peninsula shortly after takeoff over the weekend could only have been brought down by an “external impact,” a top official at the airline said Monday, drawing criticism from Russian officials who described his comments as premature.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Warning: British Tourists Travelling to Egypt ‘At Risk’ From ISIS Missile Strike
BRITISH tourists flying into and out of the popular Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh have been warned that Western jets could feasibly be targeted by surface-to-air missiles operated by Islamic State (ISIS).
The chilling revelation comes from a top security expert, who spoke to Express.co.uk about the volatile situation in Sinai province following the downing of a Russian passenger plane with 224 people on board.
Islamist militia groups operating in the region have access to surface-to-air missiles, which are capable to hitting targets up to 10,000ft high.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Leader Calls for Unity Against Russia in New Recording
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called on Islamic militants to band together to combat the West and Russia on battlegrounds in Syria and Iraq, in a new recording released Sunday.
It appears to be his latest attempt to avoid being sidelined by ISIS, a US intelligence official tells Fox News.
The new recording stands out because it makes current references to Russian intervention in Syria. Previous tapes from Zawahiri were recorded months in advance before being released.
Fox News is told Zawahiri is seeking to capitalize off Russia’s intervention, given Al Qaeda’s historical roots fighting the Soviets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eight Dead in Lebanon Nightclub Shootout: Army
Eight Lebanese including two soldiers were killed Monday in a dawn shootout between security forces and two fugitives outside a nightclub north of Beirut, the army said.
Mehdi Hussein Zeaiter and Ahmad Ali Ammar fired on an army patrol pursuing them outside a nightclub in the Maameltein area near the coastal city of Jounieh, “which led to the deaths of two soldiers,” an army statement said.
“The patrolling officers returned fire and clashes broke out, resulting in the deaths of Zeaiter and Ahmad Ali Ammar, and four civilians who were also with them,” the army said.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said two young women were among the dead, and that the military police would investigate the incident…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan’s AKP Rake in German-Turkish Votes
Almost 60 percent of Turks living in Germany voted for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP in the Turkish parliamentary elections held at the weekend.
Around 1.5 million Turkish citizens live in Germany, making it one of the most important sources of votes in the Turkish diaspora.
The pro-Kurdish HDP party received the second highest number of votes in Germany, coming in with 16 percent of the total.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Here Are 16 Times Obama Promised No “Boots on the Ground” In Syria
One thing you might have noticed if you watched White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest trying to explain to reporters why embedding US spec ops with the YPG in Syria doesn’t amount to putting US boots on the ground, is that despite the fact that there are any number of more important questions the media should be asking about the new “plan” (see our full account here), Americans are far more concerned about the apparent contradiction between Obama’s “new” strategy and statements he’s made with regard to US forces in Syria in the past.
Indeed, nearly every question Earnest fielded revolved around whether The White House is set to recant on the administration’s pledge not to put American “combat” forces in Syria.
Make no mistake, these questions probably seem absurd to anyone in US intelligence and/or military circles. Obviously, there have been boots on the ground in Syria and Iraq for years and indeed, the public seems to have forgotten that just five months ago, US commandos executed a raid in Syria that purportedly killed Islamic State’s “gas minister” (and yes, that’s just as absurd as it sounds).
Additionally, Washington has made no secret of the now defunct “train and equip” program for Syrian rebels — clearly, the American public hadn’t thought very hard about who was doing the on-the-ground “training.”
Finally, there’s no telling how many CIA operatives and black ops have been running around in Syria assissisting Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s proxy armies from the very beginning.
Still, the Obama administration has gone out of its way in the past to dismiss the idea of American boots on the ground in Syria and because we’re happy to see that the mainstream media has at least partially woken up to this ridiculous charade, we present 16 instances of Obama swearing there will be no boots on the ground, courtesy of USA Today:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
If you frequent these pages, you’re well aware of why the US decided to release helmet cam footage of a raid on an ISIS prison in the northern Iraqi town of Huwija.
Put simply, Baghdad has had just about enough of Washington’s “strategy” for fighting terror in the country and when PM Haider al-Abadi said he would welcome Russian airstrikes, the US panicked. Rather than try to recount the story by paraphrasing ourselves, we’ll simply include our most succinct summary of what exactly is going on in Iraq, originally published here:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘IS’ Claims Activists Murder in Turkey
Responsibility for the murders of two Syrian media activists inside Turkey has been claimed by the “Islamic State” group in a video. The activists had documented the jihadists’ brutal rule inside Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Warplanes ‘Bomb IS Positions in Palmyra’
Russia says its warplanes have bombed Islamic State (IS) positions around the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra.
A fortification, an underground bunker and anti-aircraft guns were destroyed in strikes by Su-25 jets, according to a defence ministry statement.
Activists said the air strikes targeted the area around a reconstructed 13th Century castle perched on a hilltop to the west of Palmyra’s Roman-era ruins.
The activists added it was difficult to assess the extent of the damage.
IS militants have destroyed two 2,000-year-old temples, an arch and funerary towers since driving Syrian government troops out of Palmyra in May.
The jihadist group believes that such structures are idolatrous.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Election: OSCE Says ‘Serious Concerns’ Over Vote
European observers have said violence marred the run-up to polls in Turkey in which the Justice and Development Party (AKP) regained its majority.
The OSCE said that an increase in violence, particularly in the south-east, “restricted some contestants’ ability to campaign freely”.
It also criticised curbs on media freedom.
Earlier Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the world to respect the result of Sunday’s election.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) went further and denounced the entire process as “unfair”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Zawahri: Islamic Coalition Against Russia and West
Audio message of al Qaida leader opening to ISIS
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 2 — The leader of al Qaida Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on all “mujaheddin brothers” to join the fight against Russia and the West in Syria and Iraq, apparently opening to an alliance with ISIS, Reuters reports on its website. The news agency cited an audio message of the Egyptian terrorists posted to the internet on Sunday.
“The Americans, Russians, Iranians, Alawites, and Hezbollah are coordinating their war against us — are we not capable of stopping the fighting amongst ourselves so we can direct all our efforts against them?”, he said in the audio recording, according to Reuters. He reportedly added, “it’s up to us to stand together as one from East Turkestan to Morocco”.
It is still unclear when the message was recorded but the reference to Russia leads to think it was done after the start of Russian airstrikes in Syria on September 30.
The message also appears an opening to ISIS, which Zawahiri last month slammed as “illegitimate” while recognizing the opportunity of a cooperation in Syria and Iraq.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Jails Man for 17 Years for Fighting With IS
A Russian military court on Monday jailed a man for 17 years for allegedly fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria.
Gadzhi Magomedov was sentenced to 17 years in a strict-regime prison camp by the North Caucasus military court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
The court ruling said that Magomedov illegally went to Syria and “after undergoing training decided to join in fighting against government troops on the side of armed groups and Islamic State”.
The court was told he travelled to Egypt ostensibly to study Islam and then crossed into Syria from Turkey, spending at least two months defending IS positions before returning to Egypt, the Kommersant daily reported…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Fuel Station Cost $43m, US Military Report Says
The US Department of Defense has spent $43m (£28m) on a vehicle fuelling station in Afghanistan, according to a recently published oversight report.
The project was intended to show how Afghanistan’s natural gas reserves could be used as an alternative to expensive petroleum imports.
However, it cost more than 140 times that of a similar project in neighbouring Pakistan.
The report called the spending “gratuitous and extreme”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Persecution Spikes in Pakistan, Prompting Calls for US to Exert Pressure
Violence against Christians is on the rise in Pakistan, where a disturbing trend of attacks by Islamist fanatics has made life inside the U.S. ally hell for religious minorities.
The 97-percent Muslim nation that straddles the Middle East and Asia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for Christians, according to an annual report published last month by the State Department following calls by the U.S. Center for International Religious Freedom to include the country in its list of “Countries of Particular Concern.”
“Pakistan is on record as having one of the world’s worst and most widely abused blasphemy laws, which has resulted in abuse of the law through false accusations that prosper under a system of impunity,” Tiffany Barrans, international legal director for the American Center for Law & Justice, told FoxNews.com. “Blasphemy accusations have resulted not only in the destruction of the lives of the accused but have often been at the root of the destruction of entire Christian communities.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dysfunction Junction: Railway Puts India on Slow Train to Future
Dysfunction in Indian Railways is not a surprise.
The 162-year-old system is Asia’s oldest. It is the nation’s economic artery, employer of more than 1.3 million people, and the government’s most intractable problem. Unclogging its 65,000 kilometers of track is vital to any effort to develop the economy.
Most nations have an annual budget for government spending. India has two. One for Indian Railways, and one for everything else.
“If India is to grow at an 8 to 10 percent, or even a slower 6 to 8 percent growth path, railways will need to carry a lot more freight,” said Partha Mukhopadhyay, an economist who recently examined Indian Railways as part of a government-appointed panel. “And right now it doesn’t. It’s almost bursting at the seams.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Violence in Bangladesh: An Editor Killed, Another Wounded and Two Bloggers Attacked
Faisal Arefin Dipan was 45 years old and was the editor of Jagriti Prokashani. He was stabbed in his office. The three other intellectuals were attacked by a group of thugs. A publisher threatened with the message “Prepare to die!” Because he published books by writers “atheists”. Activists on strike against government.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — A publisher of progressive ideas assassinated, another wounded and two bloggers attacked with hatchets by unidentified criminals in the neighborhoods of Shabagh and Lalmatia, the capital of Bangladesh.
This is the toll of the latest round of attacks on intellectuals in the country, targeted by Islamic radicals who justify their murder because the victims are “atheists”.
Catholic Dilip Vincent Gomes, president of the Bangladesh Christian Writer’s Forum, harshly condemned the new episode of violence through AsiaNews: “Radical Islamists are murdering and persecuting writers, bloggers and their publishers. The culprits are not punished. Free thinkers write about social change and the fundamentalists kill them mercilessly. The Islamic radicals do not want to promote and support a peaceful society, they are the enemies of this country”.
Faisal Arefin Dipan (see photo), 45, editor of Jagriti Prokashani, was stabbed Saturday, October 31 at around two in the afternoon (local time) while he was in his office near the ‘Aziz Cooperative Market Shabagh, Dhaka . His murder was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS).
Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, editor of Shuddha Swar Prokashani, and bloggers Sudeep Kumar Roy Barman — who writes under the pseudonym Ranadipam Basu — and Tareq Rahim were attacked on the same day in the office of Tutul in Lalmatia.
Some eyewitnesses saw a group of five or six thugs raid the offices of the newspaper and attack the three men with guns and rudimentary knives. After inflicting the injuries, they also blocked them in the building.
Ranadipam Basu published a comment on Facebook immediately after the attack. An anonymous Catholic blogger commented: “The government is doing nothing to stop or condemn the perpetrators of this wave of violence. The Islamic radicals are gaining new momentum in the killing of thinkers democratic and secular “.
The situation is becoming riskier for those who do not share the ideology of Islam. For some time, Muslim extremists have been targeting free thinkers and democracy activists, justifying their killing by calling their victims “atheists”.
Ahmed Rajib Haider was the first blogger to be killed for his “anti-Islam” ideas in 2013. So far this year, four other bloggers have lost their lives. In February Avijt Roy was murdered near the University Dhaka; in late March, also in the capital, Muslim fundamentalists hacked to death Oyasiqur Rahman; two months later, it was the turn of Ananta Bijoy Das, who was murdered in Sylhet; and finally, Niloy Chakrabarti was killed, execution style, in August in broad daylight, under the eyes of his mother and sister.
In such an atmosphere of fear, 12 bloggers have been pushed to leave the country, concerned about further attacks after the publication of a series of threatening letters sent to the press, in which they are named as the next targets.
Serajul Islam Chaudhury, professor emeritus and renowned Muslim author, says: “People who commit these killings are wrong, these acts are not allowed by any religion, particularly Islam as a peaceful religion. These episodes occur because the other murders have not been resolved. “
The day before the murder of Dipan, another publisher received a message on his mobile phone threatening him with death for publishing atheistic writings. The text reads: “You have published many books written by atheists, you have committed many sins. Prepare to die!”.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police has announced that the group Ansarullah Bangla Team, already known for having wished the “dead right” to a list of secular intellectuals might be behind the murder of the publisher and the threats to other writers.
Tomorrow the Ganajagaran Mancha (National reawakening), an activist group which included the wounded writers and some of the murdered bloggers, will carry out a national strike to protest the government inaction, and ask the authorities to Dhaka give definite answers and ensure justice.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Why Pakistan Allows Jihadists to Work in Quake-Hit Areas
Islamism expert Arif Jamal tells DW why jihadist organizations are given a free hand by Pakistani authorities to work in areas hit by the recent earthquake, and why it poses a serious security threat to the region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Unveils Jetliner in Bid to Compete With Boeing, Airbus
A state-owned manufacturer on Monday unveiled the first plane produced by a Chinese initiative to compete in the market for large passenger jetliners.
China is one of the biggest aviation markets but relies on Boeing and Airbus aircraft. The multibillion-dollar effort to create the homegrown C919 jetliner is aimed at clawing back some of the commercial benefits that flow to foreign suppliers.
The Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China showed off the first of the twin-engine planes in a ceremony attended by some 4,000 government officials and other guests at a hangar near Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport.
“It’s a major push for the country, as they want to be known as a major player” in airplane manufacturing, said Mavis Toh, Asia air transport editor for Flightglobal magazine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dark Lives of China’s ‘Black Children’
She was born in Beijing and has lived there all her life. But like millions of others conceived in violation of China’s one-child policy, as far as the state is concerned Li Xue does not exist.
She has no right to schooling, health care or a formal job. Without a birth certificate or identity papers, she is a “black child”, an alien in her own country — unable to join a public library, get legally married or even take a train.
“I was born here, but I don?t have any of the rights of a Chinese person,” she said. “Whatever I do, I?m blocked and have difficulties. There is nothing in China that proves whether I even exist or not.”
Last week Chinese authorities announced the end of the hugely controversial policy, which restricted most couples to a single offspring. Instead all families will be allowed two children…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Rice Was Domesticated Three Times Across Asia, Not Once in China
So good, they tamed it thrice? New evidence suggests that sticky rice hails from southern China, but that other modern types like basmati can trace their history back to two other domestication events, one in the shadow of the Himalayas and the other in the Indian subcontinent.
The claim challenges the favoured theory of Asian rice’s origins — that it was domesticated in China’s Yangtze Valley. It was thought that this gave rise to all the modern varieties of Oryza sativa we eat today.
Now Peter Civán of the University of Manchester, UK, and his team are challenging this theory. By comparing DNA from 1083 varieties of modern rice with 446 samples of wild rice taken from all over southern Asia, they have traced the plant’s history back to three distinct types of rice.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Africa’s Long-Awaited Intervention Force Finally Stutters to Life
As the sun rose over South Africa’s dry and sparsely populated Karoo west of Johannesburg, more than 5,000 multinational troops launched a mock attack heralding a long-awaited African Union strike force for the troubled continent.
Men in fatigues peered through binoculars and crouched over maps, coordinating the movements of soldiers from more than a dozen African countries taking part this week in the first field exercise of the African Standby Force (ASF).
The script called for rapid deployment in response to reports of genocide in a fake country called Carana — a war game with a bitter touch of reality on a continent that has suffered the bloodshed of Rwanda and Darfur.
First proposed in 1997, the ASF aims to have forces from one of the continent’s five regional economic blocs on standby at any time, ready to respond swiftly to crises across Africa, with an overall force size of 25,000…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Official: Islamic Extremists in Southern Somalia Ambush, Kill 15 Government Soldiers
A Somali military official says at least 15 soldiers have been killed in an ambush by fighters from the Islamic extremist rebel group al-Shabab.
The attack comes a day after extremists attacked a hotel in Mogadishu, killing at least 12 people and injuring many others before they were killed by security forces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One of the Most Dangerous Volcanoes in North America is Roaring to Life
More than 25 million people live in the vicinity of North America’s 2nd-highest volcano, and in recent weeks this volcano has been steadily rumbling and has been spewing out massive amounts of black smoke and ash.
I have previously written about “the most dangerous mountain in the United States” (Mt. Rainier), but if the volcano that I am talking about today experiences a full-blown explosive eruption it could potentially be a cataclysmic event beyond what most of us would dare to imagine. Popocatepetl is an Aztec word that means “smoking mountain”, and it is also the name of a giant volcano that sits approximately 50 miles away from Mexico City’s 18 million residents. “Popo”, as it is called by locals, was dormant for much of the 20th century, but it came back to life in 1994. And now all of this unusual activity in recent weeks has many wondering if a major eruption may be imminent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
307,000 Enter Croatia Since Hungary Shuts Border
Oct.17 Hungary closed its border with Croatia
(ANSA-AP) — LESBOS, Greece — The latest as hundreds of thousands of people seeking safety flood into Europe in search of a new life. All times local. 2:35 p.m. Police say a total of 307,000 refugees and other migrants have passed through Croatia since the surge of people spilled over from neighboring Balkan states. Police spokesman Domagoj Dzigumovic said Monday that 8,400 entered on Sunday alone, which made it one of the busiest days since Sept. 16 when Hungary sealed its border with Serbia and the migrant route was diverted to Croatia. Police in Slovenia said a total of 8,500 people arrived there by trains on Sunday and early Monday. This brings the total number of arrivals in the small Alpine country to over 126,000 since Oct.
17 when Hungary also closed its border with Croatia and migrants started crossing into Slovenia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Voter ID laws have been challenged because liberal Democrats deem them racist. I guess that’s because they see blacks as being incapable of acquiring some kind of government-issued identification. Interesting enough is the fact that I’ve never heard of a challenge to other ID requirements as racist, such as those: to board a plane, open a charge account, have lab work done or cash a welfare check. Since liberal Democrats only challenge legal procedures to promote ballot-box integrity, the conclusion one reaches is that they are for vote fraud prevalent in many Democrat-controlled cities.
There is another area where the attack on ballot-box integrity goes completely unappreciated. We can examine this attack by looking at the laws governing census taking. As required by law, the U.S. Census Bureau is supposed to count all persons in the U.S. Those to be countedinclude citizens, legal immigrants and non-citizen long-term visitors. The law also requires that illegal immigrants be a part of the decennial census. The estimated number of illegal immigrants ranges widely from 12 million to 30 million. Official estimates put the actual number closer to 12 million.
Both citizens and non-citizens are included in the census and thus affect apportionment counts. Counting illegals in the census undermines one of the fundamental principles of representative democracy — namely, that every citizen-voter has an equal voice. Through the decennial census-based process of apportionment, states with large numbers of illegal immigrants, such as California and Texas, unconstitutionally gain additional members in the U.S. House of Representatives thereby robbing the citizen-voters in other states of their rightful representation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook, Sky News Pay Jizya to Migrants for Every ‘Hate’ Post
There is a new initiative in Germany that donates one euro for every “racist” (Islam is not a race) anti-migrant comment on the Internet.
The “Hate Helps” propaganda campaign is organized by an NGO called Demokratische Kultur (ZDK), otherwise known as the Orwellian “Center for Democratic Action” in Germany. And it’s being funded by Facebook and Sky Germany. They will pay 1€ (euro) for each negative post about immigrants.
Sky Germany is not the same entity as Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News, although Rupert’s son, James Murdoch, is chairman of its supervisory board. Sky Germany mainly broadcasts soccer games and other sports — but even it is jumping into the political realm and bowing down to the new propaganda initiative.
This is essentially a payment of the jizya, the tribute money that subservient and subjugated non-Muslims must pay to their Muslim overlords under Islamic law. In this case, the money goes to various refugee help programs and — get this — an organization that helps people get out of the “nazi scene” (an opt-out scheme).
Meanwhile, the German yellow press newspaper Bild is publishing the names of offenders in the media. Perhaps the thousands of Muslim migrants who have gone AWOL from the refugee camps can hunt them down.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Flow of Migrants to Europe Via Mediterranean in October Exceeds 2014 Full-Year Tally
More than 218,000 refugees and other migrants crossed the Mediterranean in October — a record monthly tally this year and more than in the whole of last year, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday.
The October figure was “beyond anything that could have been expected even a few months ago,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Schools Abolish Christian Festival to Avoid Offending Muslim Migrants
Primary schools and kindergartens in Germany are abolishing a Christian celebration and changing it into a generic “festival of lights” so as not to offend the hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants pouring into the country.
According to a translated report out of the Epoch Times, schools are re-naming the Christian-themed St. Martin’s Day, an annual celebration that takes place in numerous European countries on November 11.
Several daycare centers in Düsseldorf have abolished the festival altogether out of “consideration for the refugees,” a decision that has prompted fierce criticism from head teachers at other schools in the region.
Others have re-named the event the “Festival of Lights” in order to “facilitate the integration” of the Muslim migrants, said Nanette Weidelt, head of the Düsseldorf Don Bosco-Montessori School.
Leftist politicians have been attempting to amend the celebration for a number of years, with Rüdiger Sagel insisting the change was a necessary response to the “high proportion of Muslim children in the day care centers.”
“You should not impose the Christian tradition,” Sagel asserted.
However, some see the change as yet another example of how Germans are being forced to integrate with Muslim culture and not the other way around as it should be.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Refugee Talks Stall With Deep Divisions Unsolved
Two rounds of negotiations between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of her two coalition partners ended on Sunday without a breakthrough as deep divisions still remain.
Merkel called the emergency talks after her Bavarian ally, Horst Seehofer of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party, threatened her with unspecified consequences if she did not take action to limit the number of newcomers arriving into Germany by Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Government to Build 60 New Houses for Migrants While Poor Germans Are Evicted
Local authorities in the German town of Bergheim are set to build 60 brand new houses at a cost of around €12 million euros to house incoming migrants even as Germans themselves are being evicted from their gomes to make way for asylum seekers.
The town, which has a population of 59,000, is situated about 20 km west of Cologne.
A report citing the German broadcaster Radio Erft reveals that the houses will be large enough to accommodate a total of 600 asylum seekers and that land in the urban areas of Kenten, Oberaußem-Fortuna and Quad-Ichendor has already been set aside for the project.
The project is necessary because the country is running out of suitable facilities to house the migrants, with available gymnasiums, temporary camps and disused office facilities now at a premium. 10,000 migrants cross the Austrian border into Germany every single day.
Back in July, Bergheim already took in around 150 refugees who were housed in a large gymnasium.
The choice of Bergheim as a location for the migrants also presents a clear security risk given that extremist Salafist preachers who already live in the town have openly declared their intention to recruit new jihadists from the ranks of arriving “refugees”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Rescues 1,400 From Sea Over the Weekend
Greece’s coast guard says it has rescued more than 1,400 people in 39 separate search-and-rescue operations in the eastern Aegean over the weekend.
The wave of people fleeing conflict and poverty to come to Europe is continuing unabated despite worsening weather conditions. High winds churned the Aegean over the weekend.
The coast guard said it had picked up 1,431 people near the islands of Lesvos, Samos, Farmakonissi, Kalymnos, Kalolymnos, Symi and Rhodes between Friday morning and Monday morning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: No Place Left on Lesvos to Bury Dead Refugees
The mayor of the Greek island of Lesvos says theres no more room to bury the increasing number of asylum-seekers killed in shipwrecks of smuggling boats coming in from nearby Turkey.
Mayor Spyros Galinos told Greece’s Vima FM radio Monday there were more than 50 bodies in the morgue on his eastern Aegean island that he was still trying to find a burial location for.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Lesvos Ambulance Workers Protest Lack of Help
Ambulance workers are protesting on the Greek island of Lesvos, where state budget cuts have left only three vehicles in operation despite a massive daily influx of refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hispanic Caucus Urges NBC to Dump Donald Trump From ‘Saturday Night Live’
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is calling on NBC to disinvite Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from hosting “Saturday Night Live” this weekend over his “inflammatory remarks” about Mexican immigrants.
“Mr. Trump’s racist remarks and his continued rhetoric demonizing Latinos and immigrants has created fear within these communities around the country, many of which are represented in Congress by Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus,” read the statement adopted by the caucus Monday, Roll Call reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrants in Denmark to be Taught About Sex
Hoping to combat the disproportionate number of rapes committed by immigrants and their descendants, a number of political parties are pushing for sexual education to be included in the Danish language courses provided to foreigners, Metroxpress reported.
Between 2013 and 2014, 34.5 percent of all individuals convicted of rape were immigrants or their descendants despite those groups only accounting for roughly 12 percent of Denmark’s total population.
See also: Denmark to get tough on rapists and abusers
The parties supporting the proposal point to the success of a similar programme in Norway, where asylum centre residents are given a voluntary five-hour course aimed at preventing sexual assaults. The class teaches asylum seekers and refugees that when women go out drinking alcohol or dress in revealing clothing, it is not an invitation to sex.
Linda Hagen, who runs 34 asylum centres for the Norwegian refugee business Hero Norge, told The Local that the programme had been introduced after a string of sexual offences committed by refugees near one of its centres.
“We had some problems in Stavanger because some of the refugees had sexually violent episodes with Norwegian girls in the centre of the town,” she said. “So the police, the immigration department and Hero Norge launched a project to teach refugees about Norwegian behaviour.”
Hagen explained that men from sexually conservative countries often struggled to understand how to interpret the behaviour of young Scandinavian women.
“It’s difficult if you come from a country where women never go out,” she said. “When you see a girl with a short skirt dancing at a party late in the evening, what kind of message will it give you?”
“It’s important to tell them that this kind of behaviour or clothing doesn’t mean that it’s allowed for you to go the whole way. If a girl says ‘no’, it’s a ‘no’.”
Danish People’s Party (DF) spokesman Peter Skaarup said the same concept should be brought to Denmark.
“If they’ve done something in Norway that works, we should just copy it,” he told Metroxpress.
Along with DF, the Social Democrats, Social Liberals (Radikale) and the Conservatives support introducing sex education to Danish language courses.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis ‘May Derail’ EU Budgets: Dijsselbloem
Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Monday the fallout from the refugee crisis should be considered when assessing some members’ budgets, adding it had already had a major impact on debt-ridden Greece.
“In some countries there’s a risk of derailing the budget, getting off track, and those individual cases the EC should… take into consideration,” Dijsselbloem said, referring to the European Commission.
More than 218,000 migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in October alone, a record number and more than in the whole of 2014, the United Nations said on Monday. All but 8,000 of them landed in Greece…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Record Numbers of Migrants Arrive in Europe Last Month: U.N.
Despite deteriorating weather conditions across the continent, over 200,000 migrants and refugees reached Europe by sea in October, the U.N. says, including one day during which more than 10,000 arrived to Greece alone.
The monthly figure of 218,394 is almost as many as the total number of arrivals to Europe in 2014. The vast majority of refugees— 210,265—arrived in Greece, a spokesman for U.N. refugee agency UNHCR announced on Monday, while 8,129 arrived in Italy. More than 744,000 have now made the journey since the beginning of the year, compared with 219,000 during the whole of 2014.
On October 20, just over 10,000 people arrived to Greece—more than on any other day so far this year, with an average of 8,700 for each day that week.
Despite the worsening weather conditions as winter sets in, many migrants and asylum seekers have decided to make the perilous journey partly over fears that Europe’s nations are increasingly choosing to close their borders to the new arrivals.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Record 218,000 Migrants Crossed Mediterranean in October, Says UN
More than 218,000 migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in October -a monthly record and nearly the same number of crossings for all of 2014, the United Nations said Monday.
“Last month was a record month for arrivals,” UN refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards told AFP, pointing out that “arrivals in October parallelled the entire 2014.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Same Number of Refugees Arrived in October Alone as in 2014 Altogether
As winter approaches and conditions at sea become more hazardous, the number of people desperate to reach the EU is increasing despite predictions the numbers would drop.
October has reached a record high with 218,394 refugees crossing into Europe, the same amount for the whole of 2014, according to the UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
“It [218,394] shows the just astonishing amount of arrivals in just a few days during the course of the month. The month peaked at 10,006 (arrivals in Greece alone) on a single day on October 20,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said.
The majority of refugees and migrants are now traveling to Europe via Turkey to Greece, rather than setting sail from Libya to Italy. According to the Greek coastguard, another boat has sunk, with four refugees drowning, while another six are still missing off the Greek island of Farmakonisi.
These deaths come just a day after five adults and six children drowned when their boat capsized off the island of Samos.
But despite the drownings in Greece, the focus remains centered on northern Europe where thousands of refugees are crossing into Austria from Slovenia. Here, refugees are being treated like “sheep in pens”.
A volunteer in Austria, while watching the police herd people onto a bus heading for Germany, told The Independent newspaper:
“It’s horrible. I can’t believe what I’m seeing here and no locals are helping them. To think that the Austrians have talked about building a fence? It’s not human. We are treating them like sheep in pens.”
An anti-refugee protest was recently staged on the Austrian border of Spielfied. Thousands of demonstrators holding banners reading “No Way” or “You will not make Europe your home” marched towards a refugee camp on the country’s border with Slovenia.
Austria had threatened to build a ‘wall’ along its border to keep people out. However, recent reports suggest that following a telephone conversation between European Union leader, Jean-Claude Juncker and Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, the country decided not to go ahead with building a fence.
Instead, the army has been drafted in to help process the increasing number of refugees. The Independent reports that more than 150 police officers and 400 soldiers are “shepherding” around 4,000 refugees a day onto buses.
The UN’s refugee agency had predicted up to 700,000 people would arrive in Europe this year — but 744,000 have arrived already — with 3,440 dying in the process.
While the bodies of refugees keep washing up on Greek shores, the countries Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said:
“The waves of the Aegean do not just wash up dead children; they also wash up European culture on our shores.”
Greece has agreed to house up to 50,000 refugees this year. A group of 30 asylum seekers will be resettled from Greece to Luxembourg on November 4.
But while Greece hopes the move will encourage more member states to do the same, tensions continue to rise in Europe’s ‘no man’s land’. Anti-refugee sentiment spreads through Austria, Germany, and other EU states like the plague, as record numbers of refugees continue to arrive.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Risks Breaching Budget Ceiling to Pay for Refugees
Sweden’s generous refugee policy is proving costly.
Magdalena Andersson risks becoming Sweden’s first finance minister to breach the budget ceiling since the current fiscal policy framework was put in place in 1997.
Her finances are buckling under a wave of refugees that could reach more than 350,000 people this year and next, equal to almost 4 percent of the population. The migration agency sees refugee costs reaching 60 billion kronor ($7.1 billion) next year, double its earlier forecast.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Canton to Use Ikea Kit Homes for Refugees
Switzerland’s Aargau canton is planning to purchase 200 Ikea-designed flat-pack homes to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers in the region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The NER November edition interview with US Iraqi Christian leader Joseph T. Kassab, “Iraqi Christians Face Extinction” is illustrated by the experience of Syrian Christians Nina Shea of the Center for Religious Freedom writes about them in a National Review on-line article published, today, “The State Department Turns Its Back on Syrian Christians and Other Non-Muslim Refugees.” Shea’s bottom line tells why so few imperiled Iraqi and Syrian Christians and other non- Muslim minorities have been admitted by our State Department for asylum as humanitarian refugees. They are largely ‘urban refugees’ as Kassab pointed out in our Iraqi Christian interview. They don’t qualify under UN rules that our State Department slavishly adheres to. One of our first NER articles in January 2008 drew attention to that problem, “Why Is the UN Determining Who Becomes Humanitarian Refugees in the US?”
Note this exchange with Kassab in our interview about the quandary facing Iraqi Christian ‘urban refugees’ in the Kurdish Regional Government:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Drunken Migrant Who Was Jailed for Urinating on Cenotaph Could Now be Deported
A DRUNKEN Latvian who “defiled the sacred memory” of fallen soldiers by urinating on the Cenotaph was jailed for four months and told he faces possible deportation.
Mareks Fisers, 24, was spotted by shocked onlookers undoing his jeans as he carried three wreaths towards the war memorial in Whitehall on August 29.
Fisers then threw one of the wreaths down and began urinating at the foot of the grade I listed memorial.
Fireman Mark Maloney took the other wreaths from the inebriated immigrant and said ‘do you know how disrespectful that is?’ as the Latvian lurched at him and claimed to be a Viking.
He was arrested while Mr Maloney tried to rearrange the wreaths around the memorial, which was originally unveiled by King George V on 11 November 1920.
During a rambling police interview Fisers claimed he urinated on the Cenotaph because cancer had left him with a weak bladder.
Asked if he knew what the memorial represented, he replied: “Yes, people who died, dead British warriors.”
Fisers, who in his three months in the UK had already wracked up two convictions for theft, was charged with outraging public decency and released on bail.
He was arrested again on August 31 for being drunk and disorderly on Park Lane in Mayfair.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
White House Calls Ryan’s Immigration Remarks ‘Preposterous’
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House accused new House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday of “pandering to the extreme right wing” of his party on immigration.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Ryan’s recent comments on immigration reform are “preposterous” and disappointing.
The Wisconsin Republican said Sunday that he’s ruled out passing comprehensive immigration legislation while President Barack Obama is in office. He said Obama cannot be trusted on the issue because he went around Congress to take executive actions shielding from deportation millions of people living in the country illegally.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Sex Change for Children
by Ingrid Carlqvist
Young Swedes are not allowed to vote until they are 18, and they cannot buy alcohol until they are 20, but plans are now being made to allow children as young as 12 years old to apply to have their legal gender changed.
Yes, the report actually says, “No one should have to go through any kind of medical or psychological treatment…” Nowhere in the report was there any mention of the suicide risk or any other negative aspects of mutilating healthy adolescents. The purpose of the investigation seems to be to pave the way for new legislation, not on the best interests of the children.
Activists are allowed to use the classrooms to propagandize against so-called heteronormativity and to promote all kinds of sexual expressions — except heterosexuality. One cannot but wonder if this school campaign has led to a record number of kids seeking treatment for gender dysphoria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
15 Years Later, Space Station Commander Recalls 1st Expedition
A week into taking up residency on board the International Space Station, Bill Shepherd closed out the first entry in his new (space) ship’s log with a note to those supporting him and his crewmates on the ground.
“We have all written some space history,” the Expedition 1 commander wrote.
Now, 15 years later, Shepherd’s focus is on the future and how what he helped start might influence what happens next.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
International Space Station Celebrates 15th Birthday
The International Space Station has plenty to celebrate.
Not only did astronaut Scott Kelly set the American record for continuous days in space last week but the space station where he resides turned 15 on Monday. The first station crew docked Nov. 2, 2000 and Commander William Shepherd and Flight Engineers Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko spent 141 days in space.
Since Expedition 1, there has been a continuous human presence aboard the space station for 5,478 days and counting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The UN Plans to Implement Universal Biometric Identification for All of Humanity by 2030
Did you know that the United Nations intends to have biometric identification cards in the hands of every single man, woman and child on the entire planet by the year 2030?
And did you know that a central database in Geneva, Switzerland will be collecting data from many of these cards? Previously, I have written about the 17 new “Global Goals” that the UN launched at the end of September. Even after writing several articles about these new Global Goals, I still don’t think that most of my readers really grasp how insidious they actually are. This new agenda truly is a template for a “New World Order”, and if you dig into the sub-points for these new Global Goals you find some very alarming things.
For example, Goal 16.9 sets the following target…
“By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration”
The United Nations is already working hard toward the implementation of this goal — particularly among refugee populations. The UN has partnered with Accenture to implement a biometric identification system that reports information “back to a central database in Geneva”. The following is an excerpt from an article that was posted on findbiometrics.com…
What the elite want to do is to make sure that everyone is “in the system”. And it is a system that they control and that they manipulate for their own purposes. That is one of the reasons why they are slowly but surely discouraging the use of cash all over the world.
In Sweden, this movement has already become so advanced that they are now pulling ATMs out of even the most rural locations…
The Swedish government abetted by its fractional-reserve banking system is moving relentlessly toward a completely cashless economy. Swedish banks have begun removing ATMs even in remote rural areas, and according to Credit Suisse the rule of thumb in Scandinavia is “If you have to pay in cash, something is wrong.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I believe the external impact statement came from the Irish company who owns the formerly damaged and repaired airplane. LAWSUIT fears abound.
My sense of things at the moment I read the news on Saturday was ISIS’ affiliates in the Sinai whom Egypt can’t root out and we won’t were the responsible parties. The whole episode seemed to me to be a rather logical response on the part of ISIS to the recent Russian aggression against it.
The only question I have for the world is, “When will we wake up and realize that war has been declared against us by those who hate us?” What makes this ‘war’ a matter of concern is that the challenges to the Rule of Law under God have gone form nationalism to economic system to religion. Religion doesn’t wear a uniform and this particular religion countenances prevarication as a religious duty.
Battle Strategies anybody?
Islam must be denounced as a ‘religion’ because a religion as we Westerners understand religion to be it ain’t!
Once that can be understood, then Islam’s favored status will fall into nothingness throughout the West.
As much as Nazism is not regarded as a religion.
Re: “For first time ever..”- JD, equating socialism with the other “isms” you quote ignores that socialists (despite some indications to the contrary) believe in democracy; the others don’t.
Mark, the very nature of ‘socialism’ is to place everyone and everything into a kind of collective where equality rules – human life is immune to that kind of managing and that it is why we now have over one hundred years of socialist failings around the globe, and regardless of the ‘breed’ of your socialist ideals, in the end you will end up in the same place. Socialism, and regardless of it starting out embracing ‘democracy’ simply does not work, but you keep working at it won’t you!
This disconnect between real participatory democracy and socialism is hard to grasp. Norway claims to be a democracy because everyone votes. In fact it is socialist soviet. Ask the men who have fled from the clutches of their homeland.
I believe that disconnected mindset is a mindset that just cannot accept how life really is.
I should have pointed out that democracy doesn’t work wherever socialism raises its head. America was a Republic, not a democracy. Now we’re run by banana-“republic” kleptocrats. Not that de Tocqueville didn’t warn us; he could see the seeds of destruction in universal suffrage.