Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/22/2015

A Secret Service agent who parked his car near his agency’s headquarters in Washington D.C. had his badge, gun, radio, handcuffs, and flash drive stolen from the back seat. The theft occurred in broad daylight, and the robber reportedly gained access to the car through the back window.

In other news, having failed to convict the Front National leader Marine Le Pen on “hate speech” charges, French tax authorities are now investigating her family for under-reporting their income.

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

Thanks to Andy Bostom, Dean, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, JD, JLH, MC, RL, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» Central Banks Have Pushed the Middle Class Down Into Neofeudal Serfdom
» Do We Need the Fed?
» LOL: Ontario Government Urges Taxpayers to Help Pay Off $300 Billion Debt
» Something Crazy is Going on in Swedish Money Markets
 
USA
» Bergdahl Makes Court Appearance, Defers Plea
» Cassini Completes Final Close Flyby of Saturn’s Moon Enceladus
» Cassini Completes Final Close Enceladus Flyby
» Clinton Wants Manhattan Project Effort to Violate Your Privacy
» Could ISIS Inspire a “Stabbing Intifada” In America?
» Donald Trump Mocks ‘Disgusting’ Clinton Toilet Break
» First Hyperloop Tests Herald Air-Powered Future of Transport
» Justice Delayed: 9/11 Trials Dragging on 14 Years Later
» Lowdown on Ceres: Images From Dawn’s Closest Orbit
» No Water Required: Mars Gullies Caused by ‘Dry Ice’?
» Op-Ed: Nazis Were German and Islamic-Extremists Are Muslim
» Police “Uncomfortable” About Revealing Motive of Las Vegas Strip Killer
» Rand Paul Introduces Bill to Kill Obama Gun Control
» Republicans Blast Kerry for Suggesting Iran Could Skirt New Visa Rules
» Rush Limbaugh’s Christmas Message on Islam, “[A] Conquest Ideology. Not Even a Religion”
» Secret Service Agent’s Gun, Badge Stolen From Car Near White House
» The Islam Terror Truthers
» Top 10 Ways the Obama Regime Resembles the Evil Empire From Star Wars
 
Europe and the EU
» Marine Le Pen Could Face Political Ban Over Financial Declaration
» Orleans: ‘Terror Attack’ Foiled in French Region
» Pope Goes Full Doomsday: “For Those Who Celebrate Christmas… It May be Their Last”
» Source: Hundreds of ISIS Jihadists Already in Europe Preparing Paris-Style Attacks
» UK: Criminal Who Left Victim Facing Possible Criminal Charges After He Was Stabbed During Burglary is Jailed
» UK: Mother Who Wanted Family to Join ISIS Wins Custody Battle
» UK: Shocking Moment London Rickshaw Driver Attempts to Bill Two Passengers £20 a Minute
 
Middle East
» San Bernardino Attackers ‘Met Online’ And in Person at Hajj
» The Great Human Rights Tragedy of Our Time
» U.S. Counterterror Officers Help 149 Iraqi Christians Escape ISIS
 
South Asia
» Taliban Attack Underscores Worsening Afghanistan Security Amid Drawdown
 
Far East
» ISIS Unveil the Philippines as Their New Breeding Ground for Jihadis With Their Latest Propaganda Video Featuring a Secret Filipino Jungle Training Camp
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Letter From Africa: What Can Ghana Learn From Norway?
 
Latin America
» Shark Kills Man During Rescue Attempt by Coastguard in Caribbean
 
Immigration
» Germany: Refugee Nation
» Mass Migration Drives Down the Wages of British Workers, Bank of England Reveals
» Sales of Guns, Pepper Spray Surge Across Germany as Migrant Crime/Rape Wave Explodes
» What if There Were No Muslims in America?
 
Culture Wars
» Is This Ad for Diverse Swedish Mall Too White?
 

Central Banks Have Pushed the Middle Class Down Into Neofeudal Serfdom

In traditional feudal systems, serfs were the landless peasantry who worked the land of their feudal lords in exchange for protection. In our present-day neofeudal system, serfdom has a different definition: present-day serfs own little or no productive capital and have few opportunities to ever acquire any.

The Marxist term wage-slaves describes those who, lacking capital, have only their labor to sell. This describes the vast majority of people in both capitalist and socialist systems, but what makes the present system neofeudal is the central banks: by extending essentially unlimited credit at near-zero interest rates to financiers and corporations, the central banks have given the top .01% the ability to outbid mere savers for income-producing assets (i.e. productive assets).

Just as the feudal-era serf had no choice but to enslave himself and his family to the manor-house lord, the modern-day serf must indenture himself to banks to “own” a car or home or “buy” a college education.

As I outlined in The Flaws in Basic Income for Everyone, all the guaranteed basic income schemes being proposed as solutions to automation are merely institutionalized serfdom as they sentence the unemployed to the marginalized political status (equivalent to powerless serfs) of state dependents while stripping them of purposeful work and the opportunity to acquire the means of production and productive capital.

Guaranteed basic income is thus the perfection of neofeudal serfdom.

The central banks are the critical enforcers of this neofeudal system. Without access to unlimited credit at near-zero rates, financiers and corporations would not be able to outbid savers for productive assets.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Do We Need the Fed?

When the Fed floods the market with artificially created money, it lowers the interest rates, which are the price of money. As the price of money, interest rates send signals to businesses and investors regarding the wisdom of making certain types of investments. When the rates are artificially lowered by the Fed instead of naturally lowered by the market, businesses and investors receive distorted signals. The result is over-investment in certain sectors of the economy, such as housing.

This creates the temporary illusion of prosperity. However, since the boom is rooted in the Fed’s manipulation of the interest rates, eventually the bubble will burst and the economy will slide into recession. While the Federal Reserve may tighten the money supply before an economic downturn, the tightening is simply a futile attempt to control the inflation resulting from the Fed’s earlier increases in the money supply.

After the bubble inevitably bursts, the Federal Reserve will inevitability try to revive the economy via new money creation, which starts the whole boom-bust cycle all over again. The only way to avoid future crashes is for the Fed to stop creating inflation and bubbles.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

LOL: Ontario Government Urges Taxpayers to Help Pay Off $300 Billion Debt

Well, you can add one more entity to the list of those seeking assistance from the general public: the Government of Ontario.

That’s right! The Ontario government is putting its hands out, pleading with Ontarians to donate their tax returns that would be put towards the debt accumulated by Queen’s Park.

Just how much is the debt? Just under $300 billion. A government that is under a few active criminal investigations, a government that has wasted tens of billions of dollars over the past decade for political decisions and returning favors, a government that is alleged to have tampered with a by-election is asking you to help bail it out.

[Comment: Ontario Liberal government, headed by lesbian leader (same government that had a pedophile help develop public school’s child sex education program), has given Ontario a greater debt than California — with less than half the population.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Something Crazy is Going on in Swedish Money Markets

It appears Swedish banks are falling over themselves to get rid of excess cash. We noted Swedish banks refusing to open bank accounts in September, and warned in October of a “giant wave of money” heading into Sweden thanks to the Riksbank-ECB policy divergence, and now, Swedish banks are paying each other to take cash off their balance sheets into year-end, as 1-week STIBOR crashes to -1.792%.

In other words, “reverse window-dressing” as no one wants to show a negative carry asset on their balance sheet.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bergdahl Makes Court Appearance, Defers Plea

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who disappeared in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held by the Taliban for five years, made his initial court appearance Tuesday at Fort Bragg — where he opted for a mix of civilian and military defense lawyers.

Bergdahl, who appeared before a military judge in North Carolina on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, chose to defer his plea. While deciding on a mix of lawyers for his defense, he also deferred a decision on whether he will be tried by a military judge or a mixed court composed of officers.

The next hearing is set to be held Jan. 12, 2016.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cassini Completes Final Close Flyby of Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has begun transmitting data and images from the mission’s final close flyby of Saturn’s active moon Enceladus. Cassini passed Enceladus at a distance of 3,106 miles (4,999 kilometres) on Saturday, 19 December at 5:49pm GMT (12:49pm EST).

“This final Enceladus flyby elicits feelings of both sadness and triumph,” said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL. “While we’re sad to have the close flybys behind us, we’ve placed the capstone on an incredible decade of investigating one of the most intriguing bodies in the solar system.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cassini Completes Final Close Enceladus Flyby

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has begun transmitting data and images from the mission’s final close flyby of Saturn’s active moon Enceladus. Cassini passed Enceladus at a distance of 3,106 miles (4,999 kilometers) on Saturday, Dec. 19, at 9:49 a.m. PST (12:49 p.m. EST).

“This final Enceladus flyby elicits feelings of both sadness and triumph,” said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL. “While we’re sad to have the close flybys behind us, we’ve placed the capstone on an incredible decade of investigating one of the most intriguing bodies in the solar system.”

Cassini will continue to monitor activity on Enceladus from a distance, through the end of its mission in Sept. 2017. Future encounters will be much farther away — at closest, more than four times farther than this latest encounter.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Clinton Wants Manhattan Project Effort to Violate Your Privacy

Government determined to whittle away 4th Amendment

During the Democrat debate on Saturday Hillary Clinton suggested a concerted government effort to defeat private electronic communications.

“I would hope that, given the extraordinary capacities that the tech community has and the legitimate needs and questions from law enforcement, that there could be a Manhattan-like project, something that would bring the government and the tech communities together to see they’re not adversaries, they’ve got to be partners,” Clinton said. “It doesn’t do anybody any good if terrorists can move toward encrypted communication that no law enforcement agency can break into before or after. There must be some way. I don’t know enough about the technology, Martha, to be able to say what it is, but I have a lot of confidence in our tech experts.”

Clinton does not only not know about technology, she also does not know the tech community is opposed to sharing encryption keys with the government or designing a backdoor allowing access to private communication by law enforcement.

“On your smartphone today, on your iPhone, there’s likely health information, there’s financial information,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told Charlie Rose. “There are intimate conversations with your family, or your co-workers. There’s probably business secrets and you should have the ability to protect it. And the only way we know how to do that, is to encrypt it. Why is that? It’s because if there’s a way to get in, then somebody will find the way in. There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door’s for everybody, for good guys and bad guys.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Could ISIS Inspire a “Stabbing Intifada” In America?

What is ISIS’s strategy for America?

I’ve addressed that question often since the March 2015 release of my book, “ISIS Exposed.” The short answer: envision deadly jihadi terror attacks like we saw in San Bernardino and Paris recently unfolding in American cities on a regular basis, creating a guerilla war-like atmosphere in the United States.

This would likely require ISIS employing a number of well-trained, disciplined jihadists on American soil that have had battlefield experience in the Middle East, similar to what we witnessed with the ISIS terror team that struck in Paris. To that end, according to a recent report by the House Homeland Security Committee, out of the roughly 250 U.S. citizens who have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS, dozens have already returned home. Where they are and what they do next is anybody’s guess: including, apparently, Obama administration officials.

Yet, as we saw in San Bernardino and have seen in smaller scale attacks by homegrown ISIS sympathizers over the past year-plus (see: Chattanooga, TN, Moore, Oklahoma, New York City and Merced County, California), prior battlefield experience is not necessary for jihadists to create havoc on American soil.

Indeed, there is another strategy that ISIS can employ here in the short term that is far less complicated than putting a highly-trained team of operatives into place undetected. For a glimpse at that strategy, look no further than the Palestinian “lone wolf” terror wave that is plaguing Israel right now—because it’s frighteningly similar to what ISIS would love to see unfold in the West…

           — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck [Return to headlines]
 

Donald Trump Mocks ‘Disgusting’ Clinton Toilet Break

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has mocked Hillary Clinton for apparently taking a toilet break during a televised Democratic debate.

“I know where she went. It’s disgusting,” he said to supporters at a rally in Michigan.

The former secretary of state returned to the stage late after an advert break during Saturday’s debate with her party rivals for the presidential nomination.

Mr Trump also said Mrs Clinton had been “schlonged” by Barack Obama in 2008.

Using a vulgar Yiddish term that means a man’s penis, he was referring to Mrs Clinton’s defeat to the then senator in the primary contests that year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

First Hyperloop Tests Herald Air-Powered Future of Transport

Buckle up. Elon Musk has already sculpted out visions for the future of online payments, solar power, electric cars and space launches with his companies PayPal, SolarCity, Tesla and SpaceX. Next year, he will attempt to make his mark on public transport, testing prototypes of a system called the Hyperloop.

Musk first mentioned the idea in public in 2012. It features passenger pods that whiz through a series of low-pressure tubes at about 1100 kilometres an hour, riding on a cushion of air rather than wheels and bearings. The 28-person pods are accelerated up to their maximum speed using a series of magnets.

Around June next year, on a 2-kilometre test track next to its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, Musk’s SpaceX plans to run a competition to test out different pod designs from students and independent engineers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Justice Delayed: 9/11 Trials Dragging on 14 Years Later

The wait for justice in the 9/11 court case has gone on for so long that the mothers and fathers who lost children in the terror attacks are dying without ever seeing a trial, according to family members contacted by Fox News.

The relatives also questioned when they might ever see resolution, with the proceedings dragging on 14 years after the attacks amid predictions a trial may not start until 2020. There have been 14 rounds of pre-trial hearings, and a military judge has scheduled six more for 2016.

“I am 66 years old. I don’t want to die and then my children not see any resolution either,” said Lorraine Arias- Beliveau, whose brother Adam Arias died in the attacks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Lowdown on Ceres: Images From Dawn’s Closest Orbit

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, cruising in its lowest and final orbit at dwarf planet Ceres, has delivered the first images from its best-ever viewpoint. The new images showcase details of the cratered and fractured surface. 3-D versions of two of these views are also available.

Dawn took these images of the southern hemisphere of Ceres on Dec. 10, at an approximate altitude of 240 miles (385 kilometers), which is its lowest-ever orbital altitude. Dawn will remain at this altitude for the rest of its mission, and indefinitely afterward. The resolution of the new images is about 120 feet (35 meters) per pixel.

Among the striking views is a chain of craters called Gerber Catena, located just west of the large crater Urvara.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

No Water Required: Mars Gullies Caused by ‘Dry Ice’?

More than a decade ago, NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor returned stunning images of gullies shaped like water-carved streams on Earth, raising the prospect that Mars may be a friendly haven for life.

But appearances can be deceiving. New research shows that the Martian gullies were much more likely to be sculpted by seasonal outbursts of dry ice — frozen carbon dioxide — than water.

“When dealing with other worlds, we must take care to remember that unfamiliar processes are possible and even likely in alien environments,” planetary scientist Colin Dundas with the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz., wrote in a commentary in this week’s Nature Geoscience.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Op-Ed: Nazis Were German and Islamic-Extremists Are Muslim

By Mark Langfan

If in the 30s, if one said “Nazis are German,” no one meant “All Germans are Nazis.” However, if you spoke about Nazis in the 30’s and 40’s, as Obama speaks about Islamist-extremists today, and said something like “Nazis are not Germans,” you would have been forcibly admitted into an insane asylum. Or worse, in the 30’s, let alone the 40’s, imagine the President of the United States being so delusional that he refused to say “Nazis were Germans” because “We don’t want to insult all Germans” and because “We’re not at war with all of Germany.”

The “Nazis are not German” President would have been impeached and arrested as a traitor. Nowadays, Islamic-Extremist-terrorists are to Islam[…]

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]
 

Police “Uncomfortable” About Revealing Motive of Las Vegas Strip Killer

Police are refusing to reveal the motive behind yesterday’s shocking attack when a woman deliberately ploughed her car into dozens of people in Las Vegas.

The culprit responsible for the horrifying incident, which killed one person and injured another 35, has been named as Lakeisha N. Holloway.

Immediately following her rampage, Holloway drove to a nearby hotel and told a valet to call 911, explaining why she had carried out the attack, although her motive remains a mystery because police are “uncomfortable” about disclosing it, according to Fox News’ Will Carr.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Rand Paul Introduces Bill to Kill Obama Gun Control

Would render executive action “advisory only”

GOP presidential hopeful Rand Paul has introduced legislation intended to block any effort by the incumbent president to enforce gun control by executive action.

Paul’s legislation, named the Separation of Powers Restoration and Second Amendment Protection Act, would render any action on gun legislation by the president which circumvents Congress as “advisory only” in nature.

Paul’s bill would apply to “any execution action on gun control that either infringes upon congressional authority or potentially violates the Second Amendment.”

The bill then mandates that once an executive action has been classified as “advisory only,” it would require Congress to pass it in order for it to take effect.

The bill also outlines that it is within their power for a “state official, member of Congress or person affected by an executive action on gun control to launch a civil lawsuit.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Republicans Blast Kerry for Suggesting Iran Could Skirt New Visa Rules

Republicans on Monday blasted Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting in a letter to his Iranian counterpart that the administration could help the country get around new visa restrictions passed by Congress.

“Instead of bending over backwards to try to placate the Iranian regime, the White House needs to be holding it accountable for its recent missile tests, its continued support for terrorism, and its wrongful imprisonment of Americans,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Rush Limbaugh’s Christmas Message on Islam, “[A] Conquest Ideology. Not Even a Religion”

Tuesday, December 22, talk show host Rush Limbaugh dispensed with the usual craven, cultural relativist obfuscations employed across the political spectrum which insist upon qualifiers such as “radical Islam,” or “Islamism.” Just before parting for the holidays, with bold Christmas clarity, Mr. Limbaugh proffered the following gimlet-eyed assessment of Islam, and its quintessence, jihad:

Islam is a conquest ideology. Not even a religion. And this is one of these things, if people aren’t even willing to admit what we’re up against, there’s no way we’re ever going to come to a fabled consensus in dealing with it [Islam]. And then, furthermore, if we’re gonna protect it [Islam] by enshrouding it [Islam] with political correctness, then we are only dooming ourselves. And there are many of us who recognize all of this and remain dumbfounded that so many others fail to see it. And their failure to see it is putting us all at risk. It really isn’t any more complicated than that… it’s conquest, folks. It isn’t revenge. It’s not trying to get even with people for what they’ve done in the past. It’s trying to eliminate what and who are considered to be nonbelievers.

Limbaugh elucidated the crux of the specific institutionalized religio-political ideology, i.e., jihad, which makes Islamdom’s borders (and the further reaches of today’s jihadists) bloody, to paraphrase the late Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington, across the globe. To validate his contention that, “Wherever one looks along the perimeter of Islam, Muslims have problems living peaceably with their neighbors,” Huntington adduced these hard data, circa 1996:…

           — Hat tip: Andy Bostom [Return to headlines]
 

Secret Service Agent’s Gun, Badge Stolen From Car Near White House

A Secret Service agent’s gun, badge, radio, handcuffs and flash drive were stolen from his personal car parked near the agency’s headquarters in Washington, CNN reported.

The agent’s belongings were taken out of his car, which was parked on G Place in downtown Washington around 4 p.m.

When the agent returned to his car, he noticed the rear window of his car had been “unzipped,” CNN reported, citing a report filed with the Metropolitan Police Department.

According to the report, the agent said he noticed “a bag with the listed property was taken out of the vehicle.”

The stolen items listed in the report are a black Sig Sauer handgun, an APX6000 radio, handcuffs, a USB flash drive, a black Patagonia bag and a Secret Service badge, No. 1266, according to CNN.

The agent is not named in the report, but sources told CNN he works in the Presidential Protective Division…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

The Islam Terror Truthers

Islamic terrorism isn’t caused by a thousand different problems, conditions, conspiracies and excuses. It’s caused by Islam. Every attempt to distract from that is Denialism and Trutherism.

Each and every act of Muslim terrorism is followed by a wave of denial. The politicians who have done the most to cause the latest disaster are the eagerest to blame it on something, anything else.

The San Bernardino Muslim massacre was blamed on postpartum depression at CNN. Bill Nye blamed the latest Paris attacks on Global Warming. According to Hillary Clinton, Benghazi was a movie review with artillery. Islamic terrorism was blamed by the State Department on a lack of jobs, but Syed Farook had a good government job and his wife was the daughter of a wealthy family.

After rummaging through their big brass chest of excuses, Obama and his media allies have settled on gun control as their latest weapon of mass distraction.

California has the toughest gun laws in the nation. Unlike Ted Kennedy, the terrorists weren’t on the no-fly list that has become the latest desperate meme of mass distraction. And, despite Obama’s claim in Paris that mass shootings don’t happen in other countries because of gun control magic, they most certainly do. European gun control didn’t stop a Muslim mass shooting in Paris that killed 130 people.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Top 10 Ways the Obama Regime Resembles the Evil Empire From Star Wars

(NaturalNews) With the release of the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens film, many are analyzing the plight of the rebel cause and the Evil Empire portrayed in the film — the latter of which closely resembles the kind of world President Obama and his Marxist allies would like to see.

With that in mind, then, here are the 10 ways in which the Obama administration resembles the “fictional” Star Wars Empire:

1. Obama as Lord of the universe. Mr. “I’ve Got A Pen And A Phone” has often made it clear quite that if he had his way, he would rule completely — without Congress or the federal courts stopping him. After Republicans won the largest legislative majority since the Civil War, Obama, on a tantrum, dismissed them as a petulant tyrant would, and vowed defiance, saying, “We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward …”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Marine Le Pen Could Face Political Ban Over Financial Declaration

As populist politicians who defend the “real people of France” against a hypocritical élite, the Le Pens have always been reluctant to discuss their wealth. But the father and daughter now face a formal investigation for allegedly underestimating their personal fortunes by 60 per cent in an official declaration last year.

If the claim is found to be true, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National, could be banned from politics for a decade — transforming the French political landscape and changing calculations about the next presidential election in 2017. She could even, in theory, be sent to jail.

Neither outcome is likely. All the same, the complaint, made by the “high authority for openness in public life”, is potentially embarrassing for Jean-Marie and Marine Le Pen. Both have denied the allegations.

This isn’t the last France has seen of Marine Le Pen

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

Orleans: ‘Terror Attack’ Foiled in French Region

French police have foiled a terror attack on police and army personnel in the region of Orleans, the interior minister has said.

Bernard Cazeneuve said on Tuesday that two men, aged 20 and 24, were arrested on 19 December and were being held for questioning.

Both are thought to have had contact with a Frenchman who is believed to be in Syria.

France saw its worst attacks in decades last month, with 130 killed in Paris.

Speaking in the southern city of Toulouse, Mr Cazeneuve said 10 attacks had been foiled in France so far this year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Goes Full Doomsday: “For Those Who Celebrate Christmas… It May be Their Last”

Whatever your thoughts on prophecy or prediction, Pope Francis holds incredible influence over the some one billion Catholics worldwide. He is after all, the successor to Peter, the first Pope and direct disciple of Jesus Christ. So when the Pope speaks his words have serious ramifications for the Church. Within the last couple years he has already caused controversy both within the Church and the broader Christian public surrounding his thoughts on climate change, gay rights, and wealth distribution, with many saying that his changes to long-held doctrine could lead to the end of the Catholic Church as we know it today.

But his latest warnings could spell the literal End of Days

In a solemn sermon at the Vatican, Pope Francis has announced that Christmas this year will be a “charade” due to the fact that the globe is currently engaging in World War 3…

“It’s all a charade. The world has not understood the way of peace. The whole world is at war,” he said grimly.

During Mass at Casa Santa Maria the Pope then made a frightening prediction and one that would fulfill prophecy by suggesting that this year’s Christmas celebrations may be our last:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Source: Hundreds of ISIS Jihadists Already in Europe Preparing Paris-Style Attacks

Terrorists have been instructed to “lay low”

Hundreds of ISIS jihadists have already slipped into Europe and are preparing Paris-style attacks, with hundreds more on the way, according to a source that spoke to Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.

“The first wave is said to already have travelled to Europe. The second wave is still with the terror group in Syria — after having received training in a militant camp between Sinjar and Mosul in Iraq. The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) confirms to Dagbladet that they are familiar with the information,” reports Dagbladet, Norway’s second largest newspaper.

The source, whose information has previously been proven accurate, told the newspaper that 300 jihadists were trained to carry out massacres in Europe. 28 lost their lives in Syria but 272 made it into Europe and have been “instructed to lay low.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Criminal Who Left Victim Facing Possible Criminal Charges After He Was Stabbed During Burglary is Jailed

A career criminal, who has 135 previous convictions, was jailed for more than three years after trying to steal a family car. Craig Norman, of Salford, was also stabbed by the car’s owner during the crime.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Mother Who Wanted Family to Join ISIS Wins Custody Battle

The High Court in Liverpool ruled a mother’s actions in trying to take her four children to Turkey to allegedly join Islamic State were not enough to justify taking them into care.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Shocking Moment London Rickshaw Driver Attempts to Bill Two Passengers £20 a Minute

This is the moment a London rickshaw driver attempts to charge a tourist £600 for a 30-minute journey after he claims they had ‘done a deal.’

The shocking incident was recorded by a passer-by outside Selfridges in Oxford Street on Friday.

After being told it was £10 for one minute for one person by the bearded driver, the Dutchman says: ‘How do you charge £600 for half an hour,’ in obvious shock.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

San Bernardino Attackers ‘Met Online’ And in Person at Hajj

The San Bernardino attackers began their relationship online and then met at the 2013 Hajj pilgrimage, according to a visa application.

According to Syed Farook’s fiancée visa application, he and Tashfeen Malik made contact on a website, emailed and then decided to meet.

The pair’s parents met in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during the annual pilgrimage.

They got engaged the day their parents met and planned to marry within a month of Malik arriving in the US.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Great Human Rights Tragedy of Our Time

Any day now, The State Department is expected to designate the atrocities taking place in Syria and Iraq against the Yazidi as genocide. Rightly so.They are being systematically wiped off the face of the earth by brutal persecutors who consider them to be “devil-worshipers”. However, it has been widely reported that Christians in the Middle East region have not sufficiently proven to The State Department that they too are facing extinction because of their faith. It can be said that they suffer from “crimes against humanity” but they just don’t seem to fit the criteria to be designated as victims of genocide.

The definition of Genocide can be found in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on December 9, 1948: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

“…At several steps on their path to death by beheading and crucifixion last month, 11 indigenous Christian workers near Aleppo, Syria had the option to leave the area and live. The 12-year-old son of a ministry team leader also could have spared his life by denying Christ.

[…]

The Hudson Institute reports there are up to 4,000 enslaved Yazidis and Christians. In October, Islamic State published pricing guidelines for slaves based on age, starting with “200,000 dinars for a Yazidi/Christian woman aged 1-9” and ending with “75,000 dinars for a Yazidi/Christian woman aged 30-40.” ISIS guidelines price Christian and Yazidi nine-year-olds at $172…

Again, let me reiterate the perverted crimes committed against people of all faith, as compiled by The American Thinker:

  • ISIS has been enforcing its “convert or die” policy against Christians.
  • Thousands have been kidnapped and murdered by ISIS.
  • Some executions are videotaped and used as threats against those held captive.
  • Those who refuse to renounce their faith have been raped, beheaded, or crucified.
  • Women and girls have been enslaved and sexually abused.
  • Christians have been systematically stripped of all their wealth.
  • Christian homes are marked with the red letter N for “Nazarene.”
  • Members of the clergy have been assassinated.
  • Churches and ancient monasteries have been demolished or desecrated.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Counterterror Officers Help 149 Iraqi Christians Escape ISIS

Nearly 150 Iraqi Christian refugees, including 62 children, are no longer facing devastating persecution in their homeland at the hands of the murderous Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), thanks to an American husband and wife who helped them flee to Europe, ABC News reports.

“Joseph and Michele Assad, former U.S. counter-terrorism officers, helped arrange for 25 families, 149 refugees in all including 62 children, to board a privately-chartered plane in the Kurdistan region of Iraq on Dec. 10, and land in Kosice, Slovakia, where they will be granted asylum within a month,” reveals ABC News.

“We are so proud of Slovakia,” Michele Assad told ABC News’s 20/20. “They were very courageous to make this decision and it wasn’t an easy one to make, yet they did€¦ We hope other countries will have similar courage.”

The Assad couple was contracted by the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom.

Mercury One’s Nazarene Fund raised more than $12 million to make the evacuation and resettlement of the 149 refugees a reality…

           — Hat tip: JLH [Return to headlines]
 

Taliban Attack Underscores Worsening Afghanistan Security Amid Drawdown

The deadly attack on American NATO forces in Afghanistan on Monday was a grim reminder of the deteriorating security situation in the warzone at a time when the administration is trying to draw down the troop presence by thousands more before President Obama leaves office.

Obama this past fall was compelled to slow the pace of that withdrawal amid security concerns, and now plans to leave at least 5,500 troops on the ground at the close of his presidency.

But grim warnings have come at a steady clip since.

A Pentagon report last week suggested there will be no winter-time lull in fighting.

“Complex and high-profile attacks will likely continue through the winter and into the next fighting season,” the report said.

The same report warned the Islamic State offshoot in Afghanistan is fighting the Taliban for territory, which could lead to more violence next year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Unveil the Philippines as Their New Breeding Ground for Jihadis With Their Latest Propaganda Video Featuring a Secret Filipino Jungle Training Camp

The Philippines has become the latest ISIS target for expansion after the jihadi group released its first propaganda video of a terror training camp in the Filipino jungle.

Several jihadi commanders are shown urging Filipinos to travel to Syria to join ISIS before revealing the group have already started their own terror camp in the Philippines.

The footage shows the ‘soldiers of the Caliphate in the Philippines’ working on their fitness and agility by completing a series of assault course drills.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Letter From Africa: What Can Ghana Learn From Norway?

In our series of letters from African journalists, Ghanaian writer Elizabeth Ohene considers what her country can learn from Norway.

My visit to the Norwegian city of Lillehammer a few weeks ago reaffirmed my conviction that the Scandinavians really are a class act.

Those who follow these things would remember that Lillehammer was the host city for the 1994 Winter Olympics.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Shark Kills Man During Rescue Attempt by Coastguard in Caribbean

One of seven Venezuelans whose boat capsized near Aruba has died after attack moments before he was to be pulled to safety

A Venezuelan man whose boat capsized off Aruba in the Caribbean has died after a shark attacked him in the middle of a rescue attempt by coastguards.

The Dutch Caribbean coastguard said the man, who was one of seven Venezuelan men thrown into the sea after their boat sank, was moments from safety when the attack took place.

In an extraordinary tale of terrible luck, spokesman Roderick Gouverneur said that the man was clinging to a rescue buoy when he was spotted by the coastguard helicopter, which lowered a rescuer to winch him to safety.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Refugee Nation

There’s a new can-do nation. It’s called Germany. The United States, fear-ridden, has passed the torch.

Throughout the extraordinary process that has seen roughly one million refugees arrive in Germany this year, Chancellor Angela Merkel has had a consistent refrain: “Wir schaffen das” — “We can do this.” The gesture in question is the most extraordinary redemptive act by any European nation in many years.

Germans on the whole have understood. They have understood that to flee Syria through Islamic State checkpoints, place your family in flimsy boats on stormy waters and trudge across Europe in search of a home is not a desperate decision. It is a reasonable decision if the alternative is to see your children blown up by a barrel bomb or your daughter raped by a jihadist. Postwar Germans are reasonable people.

The United States would have had to admit about 4 million refugees this year to take in a similar proportion of its population. It has fallen more than 3.9 million short of that mark.

Most of the refugees in Germany are from Syria. The United States has admitted about 1,900 refugees from Syria over the past four years. Yes, you read that right. President Obama has now pledged to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees — a decision that had met defiance from more than two dozen Republican governors eager to conflate the words “Muslim” or “Middle Eastern” with terrorist.

Whatever happened to “the home of the brave”?…

           — Hat tip: RL [Return to headlines]
 

Mass Migration Drives Down the Wages of British Workers, Bank of England Reveals

The influx from Eastern Europe and elsewhere into catering, hotels and social care jobs has led to an average two per cent pay cut for many low-skilled staff, Bank of England research shows.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sales of Guns, Pepper Spray Surge Across Germany as Migrant Crime/Rape Wave Explodes

Germans, facing an influx of more than one million asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, are rushing to arm themselves.

The scramble to acquire weapons comes amid an indisputable nationwide spike in migrant-driven crime, including rapes of German women and girls on a shocking scale, as well as physical assaults, stabbings, home invasions, robberies and burglaries — in cities and towns throughout the country.

German authorities, however, are going to great lengths to argue that the German citizenry’s sudden interest in self-defense has nothing whatsoever to do with mass migration into the country, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

The spike in violent crimes committed by migrants has been corroborated by a leaked confidential police report, which reveals that a record-breaking 38,000 asylum seekers were accused of committing crimes in the country in 2014. Analysts believe this figure — which works out to more than 100 crimes a day — is only a fragment: many crimes are not reported.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What if There Were No Muslims in America?

Today, in the United States of America, as well as Canada, Europe and Australia—Muslim immigrants disrupt communities across the globe. They force defacto Sharia Law wherever their numbers grow. They force our schools to change as to foods served, prayer rooms, footbaths in public restrooms and they demonstrate to stop free speech and censor our treasured holidays like Christmas and Halloween. Everything about America’s way of life “offends” Muslims.

Wherever Muslims immigrate, they create havoc in their host countries: women’s rights become non-existent in Muslim enclaves. Mosques become bases for Islamic terror attacks such as the mosque in Boston where the two brothers with their friends plotted to bomb the world famous marathon race. Honor killings begin as their numbers grow. Violence against gays escalates. Muslims continue their rituals such as the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation and forcing the use of the “burka” to turn their women into non-beings draped in a black bag.

“More than a half million women and girls in the U.S. are estimated to be affected by FGM,” according to the Population Reference Bureau. “Various organizations say the main reasons include millions of families immigrating to America, bringing their traditions with them.”

Muslims continue living in the 6th century with one of the most powerful statements of their warlord leader the prophet Mohammed: “Convert or kill all non-believers.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Is This Ad for Diverse Swedish Mall Too White?

A shopping centre in one of Sweden’s most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods has come under fire after it published a Christmas advert featuring almost exclusively blonde, blue-eyed Swedes.

Kista is the area of Stockholm with the highest ethnic minority population: 80 percent of people who live there are foreign born or have two foreign-born parents.

“It’s just not realistic. The absolute majority of people living in Kista are non-white,” local resident Araia Ghirmai Sebhatu told The Local.

“They’re whitewashing Kista Gallerian,” he said.

Ghirmai Sebhatu was one of many users to react when the mall, owned by property company Citycon, posted the film on Facebook.

“The big question is about ownership: who owns the mall? Who lives around it,” he said.

Following the outcry the mall took down the ad, although it could still be found on YouTube after being copied and reposted by users.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/22/2015

  1. “… e Front National leader Marine Le Pen on “hate speech” charges, French tax authorities are now investigating … ”

    Freedom fighter, dissenters of the world in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, would come to France and the west supposedly for freedom.

    Where are to go those oppressed in the west ? Any decent place where there is some respect for real human rights and the law?

    The existing human rights are only designed for invaders.

    • It does seem that the full weight of the state swings into action when it feels under threat from right wing or right of centre influences. There are constant biased efforts to traduce the reputations of Le Pen, Farage, Wilders and others but little self examination of their own methods and morals by the ruling establishments themselves. However I do sense that there is change in the air and this tactic is not going to work in 2016, and that the press in general will have to present a more balanced and truthful view to the public in future.

    • “Human rights”
      Cairo declaration 1990
      Blueprint of Universal Human Rights, but based on sharia!
      Actually, Sharia rights!

  2. Germany: Refugee Nation.

    Roger Cohen of the NYT should concern himself less with posturing about what European nations and the U.S. should do about “refugees” — among whom is no small number of killers, draft dodgers, criminals, ISIS operatives, economic opportunists, and would-be parasites — and more with inquiring why his government is (1) supporting ISIS, Al Qaida, abu-Erdogun & Ali Baba, LLC, and (2) doing its best otherwise to wage unconstitutional war on the sovereign nation of Syria, both of which official U.S. actions are the sole cause of what refugee problem can in fact be identified in the current maelstrom of lies and betrayal.

    There is a host of measures available to deal with misery in this world. However, the only one known to progressives is to destroy the nations of the West by importing millions upon millions of primitives or people who despise the West. (Venn diagram follows.) When they speak of “redemptive acts” perhaps progressives could attempt to redeem themselves for their hatred of their fellow citizens.

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