According to sources who were at the scene, guards hired by a subcontractor for the State Department turned on U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and participated in the jihad attack that killed him. The latest evidence shows that guards employed by a company known as Blue Mountain Group were associated with Al Qaeda and other “extremist” groups that attacked the American consulate in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.
In other news, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said that the handing out of Korans by Salafist groups should be banned in Austria.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Nick, Reader from Chicago, RR, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. 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.
Deutsche Bank: Trump Could Push the U.S. Economy and Stock Markets to New Records
It’s looking more likely that President-elect Donald Trump will preside over a continuing U.S. expansion that could take its place as the longest among American business cycles, according to Deutsche Bank AG. And Chief U.S. Equity Strategist David Bianco predicts that by the time the real estate mogul takes office in January, the S&P 500 Index will eclipse 2,250.
Investors are under-appreciating the “much higher chance now of a long lasting economic expansion that rivals the 10 year U.S. record,” the strategist writes “We’re more confident now that the S&P will reach 2,500 in 2018 before suffering its next bear market.”
The longest U.S. expansion on record stretched from 1991 until 2001, a span of 120 months. That streak will be broken if the American economy makes it until 2019 without a recession.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Sugar Crisis to Ease as End of Duty Sees Companies Step Up
Egypt’s sugar shortage is seen easing within weeks as companies resume imports after the government scrapped customs duties on the commodity.
The nation imports almost a third of the 3 million tons of sugar it needs annually, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. This month Egypt floated its currency, allowing a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund needed to aid the economy. Consumers have also been hit with rising inflation. Egypt has enough sugar to last until February, the Cabinet said Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Reimbursements Hit 15 Mn for Failed Bank Bondholders
Interbank Fund says more than 6,200 applications being processed
(ANSA) — Rome, November 21 — More than 15 million euros have been reimbursed to bondholders of failed Italian banks for around 80% of their holdings, Interbank Fund (FITD) deputy director general Salvatore Paterna told ANSA on Monday.
He said 6,200 cases were currently being processed with about 1,000 more awaiting processing.
“Up to now, 96.9% of the reimbursements are for balances of less than 50,000 euros each, with 85% of those under 20,000 euros,” he said, adding that 63.3% of reimbursements have been for balances of less than 10,000 euros.
Paterna said that the initial estimate of 6,500 reimbursement claims has been revised upwards to “more than double, perhaps about 12,000”, if all of the investors entitled make a claim.
He said the reimbursements, which began in September, have been proceeding at a weekly pace, but could now become bi-weekly or even more frequent, in order to satisfy the 60-day reimbursement deadline on a large wave of claims submitted at the end of September.
The overall total of reimbursements is expected to significantly surpass 20 million euros within the next seven days, he said.
For investors with larger balances whose reimbursement deadline is January 3, the fund is awaiting the result of an arbitration which may not arrive within that deadline.
“If the (arbitration results) should be delayed and the deadline for the 80% reimbursement remains January 3, I can imagine that in the final days of December those (investors) will spill over into the lump sum proceedings,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico’s Economy Braces for the Chill Winds of a Trump Administration
Donald Trump’s election win has left Mexico reeling: the stock exchange has hit a record low, as has the peso, prompting the Bank of Mexico to raise interest rates for the third time this year in a bid to shore up the national currency. The threat of Latin America’s second-largest economy entering recession is very real if Trump keeps his campaign promises, says a report by BBVA-Bancomer, Mexico’s largest bank.
Trump has threatened not only to deport millions of undocumented Mexicans and build a wall along the border, but also to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and slap a 35% tax on US companies that outsource to Mexico.
Mexico has reason to be fearful: some 80% of its exports go to the United States, giving it a $100 billion trade surplus with its northern neighbor. With a per capita GDP five times smaller than the United States, exports are the country’s lifeline.
But while cutting trade ties would be devastating for Mexico, it would also hit the United States: Mexico is its second-largest trading partner. Since NAFTA was signed in 1993, the two countries’ economies have become increasingly enmeshed: the difficulties in untangling them has prompted BBVA-Bancomer to say that Trump will find it harder to carry out his threats than his electioneering rhetoric suggests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bias Alert: NYT Accused by Its Public Editor of Bias in Trump, Clinton Coverage
The public editor for The New York Times said Sunday that the number of complaints the newspaper received over its coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign spiked to five times its normal level.
Complaints to the paper included claims that its coverage was biased against Trump during the general election as well as accusations from readers that it favored candidate Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries.
“My colleague Thomas Feyer, who oversees the letters to the editor, says the influx from readers is one of the largest since Sept. 11,” public editor Liz Spayd wrote.
Spayd says others are calling into customer care at multiple times the usual rate and had “a variety of concerns, including the election coverage.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
[…] “The losses at the state level are devastating because that’s where you develop candidates for Congress,” he added.
Caddell concluded, “What’s missing is a positive vision of restoring my party to what it once was, truly the party of the common man, as opposed to a party of … bi-coastal elites” that relies on “divisive identity politics to win.”
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat Narrative: Votes, Power, And Violence
Raw hatred. Primitive, primal hatred. Mob violence. That is what the Democrat Party represents.
Pawns. The sheeple who have fallen for the Democrat Party’s rhetoric don’t seem to understand that they are merely tools. The Democrats know that when you buy votes with unconstitutional federal benefits you can treat the sheep any way you like and the voters will still do your bidding because of their dependency upon gifts from the treasury. The Democrat voters believe the distractions, the rhetoric, and the propaganda because the liars of the Democrat Party leadership, media, entertainment industry, and educators said so.
To distract Americans from the issues, the Hillary Clinton campaign embarked on a campaign of mud slinging, trying to convince you that Donald Trump, and his Republican supporters, are white supremacists, racists, bigots, sexists, and xenophobic haters of all things not white, straight and Christian. Trump was paraded around by the Democrats as some kind of authoritarian as if he is somehow someone who is in a political style similar to Hitler. There were even some conservatives who fell for the deluge of false accusations — and they unfortunately joined the ridiculous, leftism orchestrated, Never Trump camp, and still continue to this moment in history after the election to try and convince Americans that Trump is somehow worse than Hillary Clinton, and he is going to renege on every one of his conservative-sounding promises. The truth doesn’t matter to these people. We are expected to be led around by the nose by the seriousness of the allegations. We are expected to believe the lies, without evidence, and without reason.
Now, as the protesters continue to swarm the streets of major cities with their snowflake temper tantrum, the anti-Trump crowd is unable to realize they are reacting exactly as they have been trained to do. They are, after all, nothing more than votes and agitators to the Democrat leadership. If the Democrats really cared about these people, after fifty years of Democrat control in the cities, life would be better, and the cities wouldn’t still be a rotten place to live.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US President-elect Donald Trump is set to slash Nasa’s budget for monitoring climate change and instead set a goal of sending humans to the edge of the solar system by the end of the century, and possibly back to the moon.
Mr Trump, who has called climate change a “Chinese hoax”, is believed to want to focus the agency on far-reaching, big banner goals in deep space rather than “Earth-centric climate change spending”.
According to Bob Walker, who has advised Mr Trump on space policy, Nasa has been reduced to “a logistics agency concentrating on space station resupply and politically correct environmental monitoring”.
[Comment: Don’t forget about Obama’s order to NASA to help muslims feel good about their contribution to science.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Sutherland Tells Today Show: ‘I am Ashamed of Being a White Male…’
White Guilt Overload
‘Helen Mirren came up to me on the set and…she said, ‘You are the most privileged person on Earth’…I said, ‘How can you say that?’ And she said, ‘You are a white male.’“ Co-host Tamron Hall wondered: “And your reply to that was?” Sutherland proclaimed: “There’s no reply. I was ashamed. I was stunned. And I have gotten more ashamed. It’s interesting to realize that you are seen as an integral part of a group that many of whom are mendacious, misogynist, of bigots, racists, and it’s appalling.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI: New York Man Arrested After Trying to Plan Nice-Style Attack on Times Square
A New York man was arrested Monday for attempting to join the Islamic State and planning a Nice-style terrorist attack on Times Square, according to the FBI.
Mohammed Rafik Naji, 37, traveled to Turkey and Yemen in an effort to join the terrorist group before returning to his home in Brooklyn, N.Y., in September 2015, Reuters reported, citing court documents. He was charged with attempting to provide support to ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Seek Help Spying on ‘News Articles, Blog Posts’
Release of new software intended to ‘spur’ more monitoring
The U.S. government has released newly developed software to researchers to enable them to spy on “news articles, blog posts” and the like, according to a new report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The announcement appeared on the website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The posting said that the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency, inside the ODNI, is releasing to researchers the Accurate Events from Natural Text technology.
The software, called ACCENT, was distributed “to spur increased activity in the research community.”
“ACCENT is a state-of-the-art automated event coder capable of identifying nearly 300 types of socio-political events in text (news articles, blog posts, etc.). ACCENT was developed by Raytheon BBN under multiple government contracts,” the announcement said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Free Speech Social Network Gab Growing as Twitter, Facebook Censor Users
In just two weeks since its beta launch, free speech Twitter alternative Gab has already accumulated a waiting list of over thirty-thousand people looking to get onto the platform.
The platform, which is currently accepting users in waves, has also received over 1,300,000 views, while over 120,000 posts have been made on the social network within the past two weeks.
“The response to Gab from around the world has been nothing short of incredible,” Gab CEO Andrew Torba told Breitbart Tech.
“This is a movement, and something that the community is driving forward,” he explained. “Folks are deleting their Twitter and Facebook accounts, or pledging to do so right after the election. They are waking up to the lies and censorship of Big Social. We will continue to build a product built by the people, for the people. We will continue to put people first and promote free speech for all.”
Numerous media professionals and public figures have joined Gab since its conception two weeks ago, and the social network currently boasts such users as InfoWars’ Paul Joseph Watson and Joe Biggs, Rebel Media’s Lauren Southern, Dave Rubin, Old Holborn, YouTube star CopperCab, and a magnitude of Breitbart Tech contributors.
“If I had to pick a single event that pushed me over the edge to take action, I would have to say it was the suppression of conservative sources and stories by the incredibly biased Facebook Trending Topics team,” said Gab CEO Andrew Torba in an interview with Breitbart Tech last week.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gen. Flynn Accepts NSA, Sessions for AG, Pompeo for CIA, Gen. Mattis for Sec. Of Defense
Am I pleased with our President-elect’s choices so far? Yes, I am. Like Trump, none of them are perfect, but they will do a wonderful job for our new President. Even if there are areas in these men’s political lives that are not perfect, we now have a president who will listen to the American people. He has heard us in the past.
We told Mr. Trump that common core was rotting the minds of the students and destroying the teaching profession, and the government schools have eliminated academic teaching. Trump knows, and common core is on the way out. More than that needs to go as well.
Long ago, Trump was pro-choice, thought it was a woman’s right, but then he watched a video of an abortion, and that was the catalyst that brought him to the saving knowledge that it is an evil that needs to be eliminated. The gestating baby is a human being that is separate from the mother, and as such should have the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
When Mr. Trump was first questioned about the land in the Western states being held by the Feds, he thought it was okay. Then he got some flak from the American citizens who know what is going on. He sent his son to investigate, and then Trump wrote an article about it in the Reno Gazette Journal, Trump: Nevada, US Needs a President Who Obeys the Law. Listen to this three-minute video on same.
I do not know of any politician, much less a president of the United States who has listened to the people like Donald J. Trump. This is why I have hope.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
George Soros Declares War on ‘Trump World Order’
New World Order elitist George Soros has announced plans to obliterate Donald Trump and his “Trump World Order”.
According to leaked documents obtained by journalist Kenneth P. Vogel from Politico, billionaire Soros and other Washington D.C. donors met for a three-day conference recently to devise a strategy to “defeat Trump” and “put things right”…
Commenting on the issue in his article for New Eastern Outlook Martin Berger, an independent journalist and geopolitical analyst, sees these developments as signaling a “veritable war against Trump.”
Berger pointed out that it is no secret that George Soros has had a hand in anti-Trump demonstrations which had erupted following Trump’s victory.
For instance, one of the groups behind the protest movement, MoveOn.org, could have been funded by Soros, as one of the Podesta files released by Wikileaks indicates.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic a strikingly similar situation is unfolding.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Here’s How Extraterrestrial Farming Will Work on Mars
Landing humans on Mars would be a momentous event in human history. To live beyond Earth’s biosphere is a dream to many, but establishing a sustainable presence on the Red Planet will require mastering its environment. We would need to devise ways of producing food where none exists, because depending on supplies from Earth would neither be sustainable or practical.
In the 2015 blockbuster movie “The Martian,” Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is famously depicted planting potatoes in a makeshift greenhouse after getting stranded on Mars during an epic storm that forced the rest of his crew to abandon their mission. Using vacuum-packed potatoes from the mission’s base, Watney planted them using the planet’s “soil,” produced water from chemical reactions and fertilized his burgeoning potato crop with the crew’s freeze-dried poop.
It seems like a pretty straightforward method of cultivating plants on Mars — but deceptively so.
“It’s nowhere near that easy,” Ralph Fritsche, senior project manager for food production at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, told Seeker.
NASA plans to send astronauts to Mars by the 2030s, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has proposed an aggressive Mars colonization effort based on the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). But while SpaceX may have the expertise to transport people to Mars, there is no consideration as to how they might stay there and “live off the land” to produce food.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘It’s a Hell of a Lot of Fun to Shoot Some People’: Meet Donald Trump’s Likely Defence Secretary
national-geographic-new-europeans’You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them’ — “James Mad Dog Mattis”
The Independent says that like it’s a bad thing…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Julian Assange Overtakes Donald Trump in Time Person of the Year Reader’s Poll
Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange has overtaken President-elect Donald Trump for the lead in the online poll of who readers think should be TIME’s Person of the Year in 2016, as of 1:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Major Media Crash: They Need a Scapegoat
They kept telling the American people Hillary Clinton was going to win the election; and in every way they could think of, they told the American people this was a good idea.
Then, on election night, they, the media, crashed.
The results came in.
The media went into deep shock.
As protests and riots then spread across America, the media neglected to mention a) they’d been bashing Trump because he said he might not accept the outcome of the vote, and b) here were large numbers of people on the Democrat side who weren’t accepting the outcome of the vote.
A new campaign had to be launched.
Suddenly, on cue, it was: Hillary Clinton lost because “fake news” about her had been spread around during the campaign.
Fake news sites. That was the reason.
These “fake sites” had to be punished. Somehow. They had to be defamed. Blocked. Censored.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Ceres Views as Dawn Moves Higher
The brightest area on Ceres stands out amid shadowy, cratered terrain in a dramatic new view from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, taken as it looked off to the side of the dwarf planet. Dawn snapped this image on Oct. 16, from its fifth science orbit, in which the angle of the sun was different from that in previous orbits. Dawn was about 920 miles (1,480 kilometers) above Ceres when this image was taken — an altitude the spacecraft had reached in early October.
Occator Crater, with its central bright region and secondary, less-reflective areas, appears quite prominent near the limb, or edge, of Ceres. At 57 miles (92 kilometers) wide and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep, Occator displays evidence of recent geologic activity. The latest research suggests that the bright material in this crater is comprised of salts left behind after a briny liquid emerged from below, froze and then sublimated, meaning it turned from ice into vapor.
The impact that formed the crater millions of years ago unearthed material that blanketed the area outside the crater, and may have triggered the upwelling of salty liquid.
“This image captures the wonder of soaring above this fascinating, unique world that Dawn is the first to explore,” said Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer and mission director, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ron Paul’s Hit List of ‘Fake News’ Journalists
(INFOWARS) — Former congressman Ron Paul revealed a list of “fake news” journalists he claims are responsible for “bogus wars” and lies about Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the election. Journalists from CNN, the New York Times, and the Guardian are included.
“This list contains the culprits who told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and lied us into multiple bogus wars,”according to a report on his website, Ron Paul Liberty Report. Paul claims the list is sourced and “holds a lot more water”than a list previously released by Melissa Zimdars, who is described on Paul’s website as “a leftist feminist professor.”
“These are the news sources that told us ‘if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,’“ he said. “They told us that Hillary Clinton had a 98% of winning the election. They tell us in a never-ending loop that ‘The economy is in great shape!’“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Soros-Funded Group Pushing ‘Sanctuary Campus’ Anti-Trump Protests
An organization that has received funding from liberal billionaire George Soros is pushing anti-Donald Trump student protests that call for sanctuary campuses to protect undocumented students.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The High-Water Mark of Progressivism
President Obama seems to think he can jawbone his “legacy” into permanency, despite the recent election. He says the Iran nuclear deal will endure. The Paris agreement will last. Regulations cannot and will not be rolled back. ObamaCare will retain its chief provisions.
But the political earthquake resulting in the election of Donald Trump is but an indicator of the tsunami of change that is about to happen. The truth of the matter is that the Obama administration saw the high-water mark of progressivism. Its overwhelming power has been broken.
Attempts to persuade the renegade American public and its new leaders back into the progressive fold will not cease, but they will be largely futile because Americans have made it clear they do not want progressivism to dictate domestic and foreign policy.
Why was there a revolution at the voting booth?
The revolution happened because Americans have seen the wrecking ball that is progressivism in action for the last eight years (and counting). The pendulum swung because citizens have watched as the leadership of the Democratic Party was gradually taken over by a bunch of fanatical extremists whose agenda was both morally and pragmatically repellent — completely divorced from the realities of human existence.
[comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Mainstream Media Has Only Itself to Blame for the “Fake News” Epidemic
The mainstream media continues to freak out over the spread of “fake news” on Facebook and other social media platforms such as Twitter and reddit. Hillary Clinton’s late campaign thinks this is a problem.
The Democrat party seems to think people with Facebook accounts are to blame for Hillary’s decision to ignore crucial swing states in the final weeks of the campaign, that likely cost her the election.
But the media hasn’t bothered to ask why such sites gained traction. Our media has cultivated false news for years. Understandably, people stopped caring about the “journalistic ethics” the media claim to possess.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter’s Alt-Right Purge Could Backfire
Twitter’s move to ban alt-right accounts on the heels of a bitterly divisive election has drawn the company into a heated debate over who gets to speak freely on its platform.
Critics warn the mass ban could backfire. Rather than silencing the alt right, Twitter risks amplifying the message from white nationalists and other fringe groups.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Beppe Grillo: “the Amateurs Are Conquering the World Because the ‘Experts’ Destroyed it”
euronews: “Do you think appealing to people’s emotions is enough to get elected? Is that a political project?”
Beppe Grillo: “This information never ceases to make the rounds: you don’t have a political project, you’re not capable, you’re imbeciles, amateurs… And yet, the amateurs are the ones conquering the world and I’m rejoicing in it because the professionals are the ones who have reduced the world to this state. Hillary Clinton, Obama and all the rest have destroyed democracy and their international policies. If that’s the case, it signifies that the experts, economists and intellectuals have completely misunderstood everything, especially if the situation is the way it is. If the EU is what we have today, it means the European dream has evaporated. Brexit and Trump are signs of a huge change. If we manage to understand that, we’ll also get to face it.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus Leaders Aim for Map Agreement
Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci hope to reach an agreement on Monday on criteria to draw the map for a federal reunited island, in order to clear the way for a peace settlement later this year. They started a two-day round of UN-backed talks in Switzerland on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Driver Drags Woman by Neck in German Town of Hamelin
A woman has suffered serious injuries after being dragged through the streets of a German town by a cord tied around her neck and attached to a car.
Police in Hamelin, in Lower Saxony, say the woman’s ex-partner later handed himself in to authorities.
The 28-year-old woman, who has not been identified, was found lying on a pavement late on Sunday with serious injuries.
Both the victim and the suspect are German citizens of Kurdish origin, a police spokesman said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Union: YouGov Poll Shows Rise of Populist Parties Across the EU After Brexit
Shock figures reveal how European voters are increasingly turning against the pampered liberal elite in favour of strong politicians who they believe will better serve their interests.
Of 12 EU countries ranked by the level of support for populist politicians, who are predominantly eurosceptic, authoritarian leaders scored more than 40 per cent of the vote in all but four.
And in a particularly worrying sign for the Brussels establishment Britain — which has already voted to leave — is far from top of the list when it comes to disdain for the out of touch elite.
Experts today said the “potentially enormous” results should act as a wake-up call to politicians and that they could have “serious implications for Europe as a whole”.
The survey will sound yet more alarm bells for a hitherto complacent euro elite, coming on the back of shock victories for Brexit in the UK and Donald Trump in the US.
And they provide hugely worrying portents for eurocrats in three key member states set to undergo crunch elections next year which are likely to be dominated by Europe’s failings…
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Trembles: Brussels in Crisis as Le Pen Storms Into Shock Poll Lead Over Rivals
A series of bombshell surveys suggested that the Front National chief will wallop all of the conservative candidates in the first round of the race to become the next leader of France.
Eurosceptic Ms Le Pen, who has vowed to lead the country out of the EU, scored between four and nine per cent higher than either of the two centre-right politicians she is expected to battle for the keys to the Elysee Palace.
However, she still faces an uphill task to clinch the top job because of the nature of France’s voting system, which requires candidates to win more than 50 per cent of the electorate over a two-round process.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera speaks with Marine Le Pen, president of France’s National Front Party, about Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. election and her own chances in next year’s French elections.
“I am very happy about the election of Donald Trump,” she said, through a translation. “The choice of the American people was courageous and advantageous.”
“I think that the United States will regain its image which had become very damaged, especially by the administration for which Hillary Clinton worked. The United States cannot have the image of warmongers, with all the potential consequences it could have for our respective countries,” Le Pen continued.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Anarchists Claim Attack on Far-Right MP
Greek anarchists on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on a member of parliament from the far-right Golden Dawn party, Kathimerini reported.
Giorgos Germenis was hospitalized following the attack by about 30 people in a cafe in Maroussi, north of Athens, on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary’s Orban Relays the ‘Fun’ He Had at Trump Victory
NIS, Serbia — Hungary’s right-wing prime minister says watching Donald Trump win the U.S. presidential election was the “most fun” he had had in a long time.
Viktor Orban spoke Monday of the “high hopes” he had at the upcoming changes in the U.S.” Trump’s election, he says, could mark an “important crossroads.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: New Terror Plot Foiled in France
A suspected Isis terror plot has been foiled in France with the arrest of seven suspected jihadis in Strasbourg and Marseille, authorities have said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Terrorists Not Poor and Illiterate, But Rich and Educated
by Giulio Meotti
“The better young people are integrated, the greater the chance is that they radicalize. This hypothesis is supported by a lot of evidence”. — From a report by researchers at Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
“The proportions of [Islamic State] administrators but also of suicide fighters increase with education,” according to a World Bank report. “Moreover, those offering to become suicide bombers ranked on average in the more educated group.”
Britain’s MI5 revealed that “two-thirds of the British suspects have a middle-class profile and those who want to become suicide bombers are often the most educated”.
Researchers have discovered that “the richer the countries are the more likely will provide foreign recruits to the terrorist group [ISIS].”
The West seems to have trouble accepting that terrorists are not driven by inequality, but by hatred for Western civilization and the Judeo-Christian values of the West.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kurz Calls for Austria to Ban Koran Distribution
Austria’s foreign minister Sebastian Kurz has called for an immediate ban on Islamic fundamentalists who distribute copies of the Koran, saying that the law needs to be changed to crack down on “Salafist campaigns — an expression of political Islam which we can no longer tolerate”.
Earlier this week the German authorities launched massive coordinated raids by anti-terror cops on over 200 apartments belonging to members of a German Salafist group calling itself ‘The True Religion’.
After years trying to find a solution to disband the project amidst legal and practical difficulties, the German government finally announced that the group was banned for good.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Three-Party Government in Denmark
Denmark’s liberal prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen announced over the weekend that he would expand his government with two smaller parties, the Liberal Alliance and the Conservatives, to strengthen support for the government. Talks between party leaders about policies and portfolios will start on Monday. The government still needs the backing of the migration-hostile, EU sceptical Danish People’s Party, which remains outside government.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Pedophile Scandal: Politicians, Police Reportedly Among 20 Arrested Suspects
At least 20 people have been arrested in Norway on pedophile charges, officials say, adding that the suspects include lawyers, economists and even a primary schoolteacher. Reports claim the case also involves politicians and a police officer.
Thirty-one people are also currently under investigation, Deputy Police Chief Gunnar Fløystad said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Police Arrest Moroccan ISIS ‘Recruiters’
Spanish police arrested two Moroccans suspected of forming part of the Islamic State (ISIS) group’s propaganda and recruitment network.
The two were detained in Madrid and Roda de Ter in the northeastern region of Catalonia, and the interior ministry said they had joined the group voluntarily “and acted as individual terrorist cells, decentralised and pre-activated for the commission of terrorist acts in Spain.”
According to the ministry, 163 alleged jihadists have been detained since 2015, when Spain increased its terror alert to four out of five.
But unlike France or Belgium, the country is less exposed to the return of nationals who went to fight abroad and plan to commit extremist acts on home soil.
Only around 200 Spaniards are estimated to have gone abroad to fight, compared to thousands from nearby France and Belgium.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Handball Federation Published Arabic Rule Book
The Swedish Handball Federation is releasing a new pamphlet teaching Arabic migrants how to play the game in order to attract more of them into a sport dominated by native Swedes.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Plot is Foiled in France as Police Arrest Seven Amid Fears of an Attack on Christmas Market
A terror plot has been foiled in France after police made a series of arrests amid fears of an attack on a Christmas market.
Officers detained seven people of French, Moroccan and Afghan origin in Marseille and in the eastern city of Strasbourg overnight on Saturday to Sunday.
The arrests were made days before the start of one of the world’s oldest and largest Christmas markets.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Kids’ Hour of Code Turns Into a Giant Corporate Infomercial for Kids
“Drain the swamp,” urges education tsar
A leading education advisor to Ministers has criticised the aggressive proliferation of software in schools as a “gimmick”, and called for Ministers to “drain the swamp”.
Schoolchildren will play Minecraft for an hour as Microsoft’s contribution to the global “Hour of Code”, a stunt intended to inculcate algorithmic thinking into the young (Reg passim).
That’s too bad if, like many parents, you want to ration your children’s time spent playing video games. But it’s great value for Microsoft. Microsoft already produces what it calls an “Education edition” of Minecraft, but will introduce a special online “Hour of Code” edition for the stunt, also targeting children…
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Tom Bennett said, “I am not a fan of Minecraft in lessons. This smacks to me of another gimmick which will get in the way of children actually learning. Removing these gimmicky aspects of education is one of the biggest tasks facing us as teachers. We need to drain the swamp of gimmicks.”
Google is also taking advantage of the happy-talk about kids coding to peddle its wares. Under the ruse of giving teacher’s five hours “digital training”, Google will be dishing out its VR headsets, and getting the schools hooked on Google Office. Google has come under heavy criticism in the USA for data-mining pupil data. “Did you know that schools may be “paying” for these services with your kid’s privacy?” warned author and pundit Sue Scheff.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Addressing the Confederation of British Industry, the PM said bad behaviour by a ‘limited few’ had besmirched the reputation of the whole business community and pledged reforms.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tony Blair: Theresa May is a ‘Lightweight’
As he tries to return to politics, former UK prime minister also criticized Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair is looking to find his way back into politics to help negotiate a better deal for Britain’s exit from the European Union, according to a report in the Sunday Times citing unnamed sources.
Blair is reportedly trying to “suck information out of Whitehall” and is meeting with senior officials and ministers to see how he can get involved in complex negotiations on Britain’s divorce from the EU.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Wolfgang Schäuble Resorts to Threats and Extortion Over Brexit
German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble warns the UK faces stiff rules on tax breaks and prolonged EU payments.
Such threats are nothing more than an extortion attempt by the EU on the UK.
Schäuble’s threats are laughable because they are unenforceable, yet extremely serious because of likely end results…
Schäuble acts like a spoiled brat who thinks he has all the marbles, when there is a far bigger pile elsewhere.
The UK does not need 27 nations to agree the UK can leave. Moreover, it is increasingly obvious to anyone watching that the EU is totally dysfunctional and will never agree on much of anything.
The UK can kiss off the EU anytime it wants. I suggest prime minister Theresa May fire off a warning salvo immediately, renouncing Group of 20 Agreements.
EU buffoonery is completely out of hand.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yanis Varoufakis Tears Into ‘Inept’ European Union
THE FORMER Greek finance minister has ripped into the European Union, branding the bloc “inept” and “authoritarian”.
Economist Yanis Varoufakis also said Greece “should never have joined” the EU when questioned about his country taking back control “rather than relying on the hard line from the European Central Bank”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Journalist Who Criticised Burka Flees Country After Rape and Death Threats
Lejla Colak, a reporter in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was criticised after she mocked those who wore the burka and niqab.
The journalist spoke about how a Bosnian soldier offered a bounty on his social media account for anyone who would sexually assault her.
She said: “He publicly called for my rape offering money to anyone who is willing to rape me.”
A Ministry of Defence investigation has stalled despite nearly two months of investigating the incident.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Benghazi Guards Turned on US Diplomats in 2012 Attack, Sources Say
An obscure private firm hired by the State Department over internal objections to protect U.S. diplomats in Benghazi just months before the American ambassador and three others were killed was staffed with hastily recruited locals with terror ties who helped carry out the attack, multiple sources told Fox News.
The explosive charge against Wales-based Blue Mountain Group comes from several sources, including an independent security specialist who has implemented training programs at U.S. Consulates around the world, including in Benghazi, where he trained a local militia that preceded Blue Mountain. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Blue Mountain used local newspaper ads to assemble a team of 20 guards, many of whom had terror ties, after securing a $9.2 million annual contract.
“The guards who were hired were locals who were part of the Ansar al-Sharia and Al Qaeda groups operating in Benghazi,” said the source, whose assignment in Benghazi had ended in November 2011. “Whoever approved contracts at the State Department hired Blue Mountain Group and then allowed Blue Mountain Group to hire local Libyans who were not vetted.”…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Monkey Attack on Girl Sparks Deadly Ethnic Clashes in Libya
Ethnic fighting has left at least 20 people dead in the south Libyan town of Sabha after an incident with a monkey, medical sources say.
The pet monkey assaulted a schoolgirl, leading her family to seek revenge. Three young men were killed along with the animal in initial fighting.
Days of fighting followed between the Awlad Suleiman and Guedadfa groups.
Casualties may be greater as the death toll is reportedly for the Awlad Suleiman group only.
Reports suggest tanks, rockets, mortars and other heavy weapons were used in the fighting, in which at least 50 people were also wounded.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New discoveries are overturning long-held assumptions and revealing previously ignored complexities at the desert castle of Khirbet al-Mafjar
In 1935, Dmitri Baramki, a young archaeologist working for the British administration in his native Palestine, began excavating three dirt mounds outside the ancient city of Jericho 25 miles east of Jerusalem. Baramki was concerned that important evidence of a Byzantine church or monastery inside the mounds was being destroyed by the locals’ habit of pilfering and reusing the ancient stones for building material. However, he soon realized that what he had found was not a Christian religious building at all, but instead, the remains of an eighth-century Islamic palace.
The palace’s interior walls and ceilings are covered in extravagantly carved stucco in whimsical patterns, along with human and animal figures. Much of the imagery is derived from both the Greek and pre-Islamic Persian Sasanian Empires. Brick vaulting echoes building techniques from ancient Iraq. The floor plan of the palace, consisting of rooms arranged around a central courtyard, is reminiscent of those of the Romans. “There is no doubt there is something about this architecture that is an inheritance from pre-Islamic tradition,” says Katia Cytryn-Silverman, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem expert in Islamic archaeology.
Work at Khirbet al-Mafjar also has much to say about the impression that customs and mores change immediately upon the introduction of a new culture through conquest. The wine press challenges that idea. Jennings calls the press the most elaborate and well-constructed example in the entire region. It had a brick roof, white mosaic floor, and crushing machinery, and was housed in a building made from the same local ashlar sandstone masonry as the palace and bathhouse. He acknowledges that the site, with its wine press and nude statuary, doesn’t always square with ideas people have about the history of Islam. Instead, scholars have demonstrated that Islam’s ban on alcohol and human imagery only gained traction later and has varied in its stringency by place and time.
“It just shows that cultural change doesn’t happen the same moment political change does,” Hawari says. “Wine was part and parcel of Umayyad culture and we even see this reflected in their poetry and songs. People don’t switch their habits overnight.” Hamdan Taha, a former director of the Palestinian Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage, concurs, explaining that the wine press, along with the art from the site, is further evidence of how the Umayyads, even while introducing a new religion into the region, still clung to existing cultural practices. “The material at Khirbet al-Mafjar shows that the Umayyads didn’t see any contradiction between their art and their religion,” Taha says, “and understood how they could coexist.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Break the Cross!’ Muhammad Commands it
Meanwhile, far from calling Islam out, Western liberal Christians continue calling for more Muslim refugees and carrying signs proclaiming, “I’m Christian and I love the Qur’an”
What more evidence is needed to prove that Islam is at war with Christianity than its well documented hatred for the quintessential symbol of Christianity: the Cross?
This recently occurred to me as I was surfing Arabic language videos and websites discussing Christianity—only to encounter one hostile video, fatwa, or sermon after another against the cross.
Only one seemingly spoke well of the cross—though for a reason that again demonstrated Islam’s hostility for Christians. According to Al Azhar professor Dr. Salim Abdul Galil, Muslims can be tolerant of the cross—they can even wear and pray to it—but only when in need of deceiving Christians, whom the learned professor portrayed as the natural enemies of Muslims.
The most telling video featured Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Tarifi, a Saudi expert on Islamic law. Asked about Islam’s ruling on whether any person—meaning a Christian—is permitted to wear or pray to the cross, the learned cleric explained: “Under no circumstances is a human permitted to wear the cross” nor “is anyone permitted to pray to the cross.” The reason? “Because the prophet—peace and blessings on him—commanded the breaking of it [the cross].”
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait: Illegals’ Deportation Best Solution for Demographic Imbalance: Governor
Farwaniya Governor Sheikh Faisal Al-Humoud Al-Malik Al-Sabah joined voices calling for immediate deportation of illegal expatriates, saying that this would be the best solution to address the country’s severe demographic imbalance and to alleviate pressure on public services.
“All concerned state departments must coordinate to fight the problem of marginal labor forces and adjust the demographic structure,” Sheikh Faisal told Al-Rai daily, referring to unproductive illegal manpower. “There are three Arab and Asian communities that lead the way in terms of their numbers and the problems they commit, in addition to the fact that a large number of workers in each of these communities are in violation of residency laws, therefore deportation is the fastest and best solutions in my opinion.”
“Farwaniya suffers more than any other governorate from those marginal workers, who are mostly bachelors,” he added. “A quick tour around Hasawi, Jeleeb Al-Shuyiukh, and Khaitan will show you how much the law is being broken, with environmental, security and social violations that they commit, despite the fact that the state spends millions of dinars on services presented to them.”
The governor further called for building more labor cities as soon as possible in order to ‘isolate’ bachelor works from areas where families live. He said that all labor cities should be provided with full services ‘to guarantee human rights,’ suggesting that this could be another solution taken simultaneously with deportation “especially that Kuwait plans mega projects that require skilled and law-abiding manpower.” He added at the same time that workers’ criminal records should be examined before recruitment. Nearly 70 percent of Kuwait’s population of over 4.3 million are expatriates, according to official records that do not take into account illegal residents whose numbers are estimated between 100,000 and 120,000. — Al-Rai
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
Real Fake News List: Full Details
The controlled media hysteria over “fake news” has highlighted the fact that they themselves are the greatest distributor of fake news.
Here follows a detailed, referenced list of some of the mass media “journalists” who actively colluded with the Clinton campaign to generate fake news.
Real Fake News List: Full Details November 21, 2016 by TNO Staff- in Culture • 1 Comment
The controlled media hysteria over “fake news” has highlighted the fact that they themselves are the greatest distributor of fake news.
Here follows a detailed, referenced list of some of the mass media “journalists” who actively colluded with the Clinton campaign to generate fake news.
These are also the same sort of people who generated the fake news reports that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction,” that the “Syrian rebels are moderates,” that “Russia is evil,” that “multiculturalism brings strength,” and who promote “Black Lives Matter” anti-white racism, cover up nonwhite crime, and routinely make up all manner of anti-white hate stories.
The full details are outlined below, with references to “HRC” meaning “Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Women Searching for Change, From Clothes to Society
In recent years, cultural mixing, social media and globalisation are changing many societies in the world, even that of Saudi Arabia. Changing clothing style, the ability to work, and time abroad have raised awareness among women.
Riyadh (AsiaNews) — Even in the capital of Saudi Arabia, known for its cultural conservatism, globalisation and media-mediated models are leading to western-styled openness. One of the first timid signs of the changing society is clothing.
Increasingly, people no longer consider mandatory the niqab, which covers the face, except the eyes. This is especially true for women who don’t feel obliged to walking the streets covering their faces, opting instead for the hijab, the Islamic veil that covers the hair, sometimes even with strands of their hair showing, combined with colourful abayas or cloaks instead of the traditional black colour.
“I know families [in Riyadh], the eldest sibling could not wear hijab alone — she had to wear niqab, but the youngest sister can now walk even without a scarf on her hair in some places,” said Rawan Al-Wabel, a mother of three and a health care worker.
“I have been living in Riyadh since last four years, but I am the daughter of Dammam,” she noted. “In Dammam, it was much easier to be a hijabi,” attributing her home city’s much liberal climate due to its “diversity” where “people come from different areas.” Dammam is in eastern Saudi Arabia.
Asked if women in Riyadh are becoming bolder in their dressing like their eastern and western counterparts in the kingdom, Najla Al-Sulaiman, 30, said, “Of course.”
Sulaiman, who did a Master in the United States from 2011 till 2015, said “the difference through the three years was extremely striking” when she returned to Riyadh. “You see more colourful abayas, more women who are not covering their faces.”
Sulaiman, who does not wear the hijab when travelling outside Saudi Arabia like many other compatriot women from her country, said: “While the overwhelming majority are still covering the hair, I have seen girls without head scarfs.”
Nouf Al-Wabel, 33, who works in the human resources sector in Riyadh, said the “change itself is in wearing more colours and not just black.”
“We see it in hospitals, medical centres, and banks,” she added. “The change is happening in media, and media is changing many people.”
Different cultures coming together, social media, globalisation or women going to work and earning their own income, are all factors these women consider behind the change.
A law passed by the Saudi government in April has also helped by restricting the Committee of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, also known as the “religious police” or “hai’a”.
In late September, about 15,000 women signed a petition, which they sent to the government, calling for an end to male guardianship.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: More Post-Coup Purges: 103 Academics Arrested, Two Mayors Expelled
The Istanbul judiciary has issued an arrest warrant for a hundred teachers from the Technical University of Yildiz. They are accused of sympathizing with the Islamic preacher Gülen. In Mardin, in the southeast of the country, two mayors removed on charges of corruption. One of them is an Aramean Christian woman. Both have been replaced by an official close to Ankara.
Istanbul (AsiaNews) — This morning the Turkish judiciary issued an arrest warrant against 103 university professors from a university in Istanbul. The measure is part of the context of the investigation launched by the authorities against (alleged) members and sympathizers of the movement headed by the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.
According to the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the government he is the mastermind of the coup which killed 270 people, with thousands injured.
According to reports from the television channel NTV, the ongoing inquiry concerns the Technical University of Yildiz.
A report published in Hurriyet newspaper says at least 70 teachers have already been arrested. The operation involves several teams of police and security agents, located in different points of the metropolis. More arrests are expected later in the day.
In the aftermath of the failed coup d’État in Turkey last July, President Erdogan and the Turkish government have launched a campaign of repression against its alleged perpetrators. These include supporters of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, believed to have masterminded the coup that left 270 people dead, and thousands wounded.
Thus far, Turkish authorities have arrested tens of thousands of people, including teachers, soldiers, intellectuals, opposition politicians, businessmen, journalists, activists and ordinary citizens.
Government repression has been particularly ferocious against the most important pro-Kurdish opposition party, the People’ Democratic Party (HDP), whose leaders were recently arrested.
Yesterday, on the orders of the Turkish Ministry for the Interior, police deposed and removed Ahmet Turk and Februniye Akyol, the two co-mayors of Mardin, a city in the southeast of the country in an area inhabited by Turks, Arabs and Kurds.
Local sources said that police notified them of the termination of their mandate, forcibly removing them from their office. The city has been entrusted pro tempore to the governor of Mardin, Mustafa Yaman.
Februniye Akyol is of Aramean origin and was the first female Christian Aramean in Turkish history to be elected and hold a high administrative office, in spite of her religion and ethnicity. Today she was set to attend a public meeting in Italy, to speak about the condition of Aramaic communities, women and Christians in the Middle East in the context of the review “Many faiths under the same sky.”
According to the indictment — although there is no evidence — the two senior municipal officials are under investigation for corruption and embezzlement. Local sources said that the charges are just an excuse to remove them and replace them with an official welcome to the central government.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
New Three-Party Centre-Left Government in Estonia
Estonia’s Centre Party and two other centre-left parties, the social democrats and the conservative IRL, have agreed to form a three-party coalition after the previous government collapsed over the Baltic country’s economy policies. Centre Party leader Juri Ratas is expected to become new prime minister. He was formerly the mayor of the capital Tallinn, and his party is strongly supported by Estonia’s ethnic Russians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Confirms Trump is Willing to Normalize Russian-American Relations
The shadow cold war between the US and Russia may finally be over.
One week ago, Vladimir Putin explicitly called Donald Trump — something he hasn’t done to a standing US president in years — in which the Russian leader congratulated the president-elect on his victory in the presidential election, wished him “success in the implementation of the pre-election program, and noted his willingness to build a partnership dialogue with the new administration on the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of each other.”
During the conversation, Putin and Trump “not only agreed to assess the current unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations, but also spoke in favor of active joint work to normalize relations and aim for constructive cooperation on a wide range of issues. The call emphasized in particular the importance of creating a solid foundation of bilateral ties through the development of trade and economic relations.
Well, as of today, the world appears to be back on the way to re-normalcy.
According to Reuters, the Russian President said on Sunday, shortly after his last ever handshake with Obama in his capacity as president, that Donald Trump confirmed to him he was willing to mend ties, though he also said he would welcome President Barack Obama in Russia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Victory Paves Way for Russia-US Coalition in Syria — Top Russian Senator
The head of the Upper House committee for international relations has said that Russia and the US could form a single anti-terrorist coalition in Syria once US leadership reconsiders its priorities and stops meddling in the internal affairs of foreign nations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Plot Against Christian Jakarta Leader ‘For Insulting the Koran’
Tito Karnavian said the Islamic activists are furious with the governor of Jakarta for mocking the Muslim holy book.
His warning comes after police were forced to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse more than 100,000 protesters demanding that governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama resigns.
Mr Purnama has denied he committed blasphemy, after talking about people who cited verse from the holy script, but apologised for any offence he caused the Muslim population of 200 million people…
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Why Billionaire “Philanthropist” Bill Gates Loves India’s Demonetization Program
For the last 12 days, India has been turned into the world’s biggest open-air laboratory for extreme financial experimentation, after the Modi government decided, at the drop of a hat and apparently without warning even the banks, that the two biggest denomination notes were all of a sudden worthless, to be replaced by new notes.
Before Modi’s fateful decision, on Nov. 9, the 1,000 rupee ($14.67) and 500 rupee ($7.33) notes accounted for 86% of India’s cash economy, which itself represented well over 90% of the country’s retail transactions. The result has been widespread financial and economic chaos. Consumption in the cities dropped considerably. In the countryside, where bank branches are few and understaffed, the economy has ground to a shuddering halt. As the WSJ reports, for many the last remaining lifeline has been the barter economy:
Rice, abundant after the autumn harvest, has become a common medium of exchange. Rice for lentils, rice for potatoes, rice for cooking oil, rice for salt.
As is now abundantly clear, the government did not do all its homework before unleashing this demonetization drive. It completely overestimated the country’s readiness for such a radical move. The newly designed cash bills don’t even fit in the ATMs. “You needed to have almost a military-style remonetization effort” to get the new bank notes out, says Partha Mukhopadhyay, an economist at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. “That hasn’t happened.”
Even Kenneth Rogoff, the Pinceton economist who advocates the abolition of physical currency in advanced economies, has expressed reservations about the government’s methods, arguing that a more gradual phase out of the large denomination bills would have had a much less disruptive impact on an economy in which well over half of the population is unbanked.
[Comment: Globalist elites have decided that India will be the test bed for their vision of a cashless new world order.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BBC Denies Its World Service Expansion is Propaganda
BBC heads have dismissed claims that a £289 million ($361 million) expansion of the broadcaster’s World Service into eleven new languages, including a content intended for North Korean, is propaganda.
Fran Unsworth, BBC World Service director, admitted that the expansion — the biggest since the 1940s — is an expression of British soft power, while emphasizing the broadcaster’s independence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
For China, Trump is Better Than Clinton, Says Retired Chinese General
Jin Yinan, a retired major general, believes that Clinton would have tried to isolate China economically, politically and militarily. With Trump, there will be more economic pressures, but also new ways of collaboration; for example, in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Donald Trump’s election might cause some short-term uncertainty in US-Sino relations, but the Republican will put the bilateral relationship on a better track than rival Hillary Clinton would have, this according to Retired Major General Jin Yinan, a former director of the strategic research institute at the People’s Liberation Army’s National Defence University.
“The policy initiatives of Clinton are obvious — that she would continue with pivoting to Asia and the TPP, encircling China politically and militarily, and isolating China economically,” a candid Jin said yesterday in Hong Kong.
By contrast, “There may be uncertainties facing relations between China and the US in the short run, but from a medium- and long-term perspective, Sino-US ties will be better under Trump than [they would have been under] Clinton.”
The retired general’s remarks run counter to apprehensions that emerged during the US election campaign in which Donald Trump often accused China of currency manipulation and threatened to impose 45 per cent duties on Chinese imports.
At the same time, Trump said that he wanted to get rid of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which does not include China, and curb US defence commitments to its Asian allies, leaving more room for Chinese hegemony in the South China Sea and vis-Ã -vis South Korea and Japan.
Jin said he expects the US to exert more economic pressure on China but that new avenues for cooperation will be found as Trump focuses on economic development to unite American society.
As an example, he cites the position of an advisor to the newly elected president who said that it would be in the US interest to join the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a super bank that offers credit to developing countries.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Inside China’s ‘Richest Village’ Huaxi: The Socialist Town Where Every Resident Has ‘£100k’
But the catch is, once you leave, you lose all your belongings.
Huaxi, in east China, has a 72-storey skyscraper, helicopter taxis and rows upon rows of lavish villas. Its hotel contains a £11K-per-night presidential suite and an ox statue made of one tonne of pure gold.
A 72-storey skyscraper, helicopter taxis, a theme park and rows upon rows of luxurious villas, this is as extravagant as a village could be.
Welcome to Huaxi, a place situated in east China’s Jiangsu Province and dubbed ‘the richest village’ of the country.
Every one of its 2,000 residents is said to have more than one million yuan ( £116,000/$143,000) in the bank; and each family is given a car and a villa by the authority once they move in.
But the catch is, once you leave, you lose all your belongings.
Huaxi, which claims to run under a strict Socialist system, celebrated its 55th anniversary last month.
The village is administrated by Jiangyin city in Jiangsu Province, a coastal region traditionally known for its abundant agricultural resources and beautiful landscapes.
It is a two-hour drive from China’s economic powerhouse Shanghai.
For years, Huaxi has been used by the Chinese authority as a showcase of success to prove how the Communist regime has turned a poor village into a super wealthy region in half a century…
Apparently, the residents of Huaxi, most of whom work for companies owned by the village, are only able to cash 30 per cent of their wages — the rest of their assets are managed by the village’s companies as floating capital.
Besides, the residents’ annual bonuses, usually three times their wages, can not be drawn. Instead, they are given in the form of company stock.
In short, the village’s assets are managed and controlled by its leaders, and they can not be taken away by the residents if they decide to move.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why China’s Terracotta Warriors Are Stirring Controversy
Archaeological discoveries in China rarely get noticed. Recently, though, mitochondrial DNA tests conducted on human remains from Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province, got the attention of international media. The results suggested the presence of “Westerners” in China as early as the third century B.C., during the lifetime of Qin Shui Hang (259-210 B.C.), the first emperor of China.
It happened just as new and startling claims were being made about Emperor Qin’s own tomb in Shaanxi Province — the tomb most famous for its buried ranks of some 8,000 life-size terracotta warrior sculptures.
In a BBC article, archaeologist Li Xiuzhen said that the many sculptures found in and around the tomb — including the Terracotta Army, but also sculptures of musicians, dancers and acrobats — were “inspired by ancient Greek sculptures and art.”
The alleged “Greekness” of the Terracotta Army went viral, but archaeologists in China (and around the world) were skeptical and dismissive. Two weeks after the story broke, Zhang Weixing, head of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum Site Museum, told the AFP that there is “no substantial evidence at all” for contact between ancient Greeks and those responsible for the Qin tombs.
Li Xiuzhen even backtracked, protesting to Xinhua News Agency, China’s largest official state press agency, that her words had been taken out of context. “The terracotta warriors,” she clarified, “may be inspired by Western culture, but were uniquely made by the Chinese.” She also told Xinhua that her ideas had been misrepresented after being placed alongside those of art historian Luckas Nickel, who had speculated that “a Greek sculptor may have been at the site to train the locals.”
Why were Xiuzhen’s comments so controversial?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Odyssey of Paying in Cash in Venezuela
New measure limits amount of money citizens may withdraw from the bank, as inflation rate soars
In many neighborhoods of Caracas, the streets are filled with people waiting their turn to buy food at exorbitant prices. They are not the only ones standing in lines throughout the Latin American country. On Tuesday of last week, groups of pensioners milled outside banks to collect their retirement checks with a view to Christmas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
AfD MEP Calls for Merkel to be Investigates Over Migrant Deaths
Alternative for Germany (AfD) MEP Beatrix von Storch has called for a “Merkel Investigation Committee” to be set up to probe the links between Angela Merkel’s open door immigration policy and the thousands of migrants lost at sea in the Mediterranean this year alone.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
It is time to start locking up local officials like Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel for interfering with the enforcement of federal immigration law.
Those who, like Emanuel, enable lawless so-called sanctuary cities deserve to be behind bars.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germans in Shock Over Imported Brutality
Police do not yet know the motive for the man’s bestial act. But there is information about how the horrific crime occurred.
Early Sunday evening, the man tied a rope around the neck of his ex-girlfriend and Islamic spouse. Then he tied the rope to the trailer hitch of his car. He then got into the car and drove off through the city, with the woman scraping along the asphalt behind the car.
He drove about 250 meters with the increasingly bloody woman. Residents in the area have told that along the way he increased the car’s speed considerably.
The woman had certainly suffered a horrible death if it was not for the rope at one point breaking free from the car. It is not known if the rope broke or whether the knot that tied it to the trailer hitch loosened.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Migrants Burn Down Hall: “There’s Not Enough Nutella and Gummibears!”
Migrants burned a conference hall down, injuring 26 people and causing €10 million in damage, during Ramadan because they thought there wasn’t enough chocolate and candy.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Haitian migrants have been released from crowded jails in Arizona and California as officials struggle to keep up with the number of those trying to enter the US illegally from Mexico.
They have been released on the condition that they agree to return to immigration court on a decided date and are allowed to live in society monitored by ankle tags until then.
An unnamed official said the immigrants are vetted before release to check for dangerous criminal backgrounds or other threats.
It comes after a surge in the number of Haitians attempting to enter the US this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds Join Protest in Bulgaria Demanding Closure of Local Refugee Camp
On Sunday angry residents in Harmanli, a town in the south-east of the country, were joined by far-right groups in the anti-migrant march, as they chanted slogans like “newcomers out!” and “Bulgaria above all, refugees out!”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Migrant Crisis in Milan: 150 Soldiers Ordered Into Chaos-Hit City After Horror Knife Fight
Interior minister, Angelino Alfano, added he would double the number of officers in the army to handle the chaos.
Mr Alfano said: “We will send 150 more soldiers to Milan to support the police, who are already operating at the highest level.
“When I became minister there were 400 military officers. The goal is to double that number.”
The minister was speaking at a security summit in Milan where the city’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said he begged the government to intervene after the city became overrun with migrants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Brawl Between Migrant Teenagers in German Town Centre Leaves Two Seriously Injured
Police in Munich launched a large scale operation on Sunday evening following reports of a huge fight between waring youngsters.
Around 20 to 30 people reportedly gathered in the city centre after a brawl broke out between groups of foreigners.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Moroccan Study Doubles Official Number of ISIS Recruits From Spain
The average recruit is a young married man with two children and either high school or university studies, said Carola García-Calvo, a researcher for Elcano Institute’s Global Terrorism Program. “Around 16% of the total are women; we began noticing this trend starting in 2012.”
García-Calvo said that “second-generation immigrants” are the most vulnerable to recruiters’ message.
She also noted that poor social integration into their host countries can no longer fully explain this radicalization, because many of these recruits have similar social and labor situations as the average citizen.
“They are businessmen, students, self-employed workers, service providers,” she said.
In Spain, recruitment is mostly carried out online.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Orban Says Won’t Accept Brussels ‘Diktat’ On Migrant Policy
Says can’t allow migrant influx to change face of Hungary
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 21 — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said his country doesn’t agree with EU migrant policy and won’t accept the ‘diktat’ of Brussels on migrants, during a joint press conference on Monday with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.
Orban said he can’t let the influx of migrants and refugees change the life and face of a country.
He was in Nis, in southern Serbia, for an intergovernmental summit between the two countries.
Orban said Hungary is open to all Serbian citizens who “come to work, invest, and visit the country”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sanctuary Cities and the Patco Strike Analogy
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the mayors of several other cities across the United States are the first to challenge President-Elect Donald Trump on his willingness to uphold the rule of law. On November 14, Emanuel threw down the gauntlet, declaring defiantly that “Chicago will always be a sanctuary city.” On Friday, January 20, 2017, after President-elect Trump is sworn into office, his first move should be to demand compliance with federal law and warn that any state or local official who stands in the way of federal law enforcement will be arrested and prosecuted. The example he should follow is that of President Ronald Reagan who on August 3, 1981, put a rapid end to the PATCO strike.
Confronted with a comparable flagrant violation of federal law, President Ronald Reagan told the striking members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), the now defunct union decertified as a result of its violation of 5 USC Section 118p (since recodified at 5 USC Section 7311), that they would be fired if they did not return to work. Indeed, Reagan defended the rule of law against PATCO despite the fact that PATCO was the only union that formally endorsed his candidacy for the presidency. Each federal employee, including each PATCO member, swore then and swears today an oath not to go on strike. PATCO members went on strike August 3, 1981 at 7AM. By 10:55AM that same day, Reagan appeared before reporters stating that all PATCO members who did not return to work within 48 hours would be fired. On August 5, 11,345 PATCO members did not return to work. Reagan fired them all, and he banned them from employment in the federal government for the remainder of their lives.
The showdown Rahm Emanuel and other like-minded mayors seek from Donald Trump should come in a rapid and immediate fashion without fanfare in the pattern of Ronald Reagan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Entire Third World Cannot Move to Norway
NORWAY — Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug, says she will tighten the Norwegian immigration laws a few more notches.
– The entire third world cannot move to Norway, she says.
“The solution to the world’s poverty is not that people in the developing world are moving to Norway,” says Listhaug in a longer interview with the newspaper Nettavisen, where she states that she wants further tightening of the Norwegian immigration policies.
– We have to keep a strict policy. Right now even Sweden has stricter regulations than Norway, thanks to the Labour Party and the Centre Party who voted against our proposals, says Listhaug.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Trump’s Chief of Staff: He’ll ‘Suspend’ Immigration From Some Muslim Countries
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said Sunday that as president, Trump will “suspend” immigration from countries in which “systematic terrorism is taking place.”…Priebus said that Trump’s policy will be that “where systematic terrorism is taking place, where countries… are harboring and training terrorists, we’re going to temporarily suspend immigration from that country or region until a better vetting system is put in place.”
Unlike Canada where PM Useful Idiot actively seeks such diversity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Abortion Extremist May Run for Top Democratic Post
With radical Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) already in the running for chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), another extremist is considering entering the race. Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, made a name for herself at the Democratic National Convention with a speech proclaiming that she had an abortion because a baby would interfere with her career plans.
“I wanted a family, but it was the wrong time,” Hogue said in her speech justifying her abortion.
A veteran of the “progressive” movement, she worked for David Brock’s Media Matters, a George Soros-funded group that works to push the media even further to the left by eliminating conservative news and viewers. She also worked for MoveOn.org, another Soros-funded group that got its name from a desire to “move on” from Bill Clinton’s disgraceful sexual affair with a White House intern, and stop the Republican Congress from impeaching the former president. Clinton was impeached by the House but not convicted in the Senate.
Hogue’s speech was described as the first time that a woman boasted about having an abortion at a national political party convention. Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood, which performs abortions, said she was “so proud” to watch it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“Blair is reportedly trying to “suck information out of Whitehall” and is meeting with senior officials and ministers to see how he can get involved in complex negotiations on Britain’s divorce from the EU.”
If Tony Blair wishes to involve himself in Brexit negotiations, he should first of all get elected, if he can find anyone stupid enough to vote for the man who made cultural marxism mainstream in the UK.
” Blue Mountain used local newspaper ads to assemble a team of 20 guards, many of whom had terror ties, after securing a $9.2 million annual contract.”
So in the classified ads section of the “Benghazi Times” we might find this advertisement;
“HIRING SECURITY GUARDS NOW!”
Blue Mountain Group requires the services of fit young men to be security guards at a United States consulate in Benghazi. Duties include guarding the entrances and grounds and US diplomatic staff. Those with previous military experience are preferred. Members of terrorist groups need not apply.”
They had a shortage of applicants and took whatever showed up?
This is why privatizing Embassy security to save a buck is a horrific idea.
Embassy security should be Marines + American subcontractors top to bottom.
As much as it wishes it could, the USG has very limited ability to vet anyone native to these countries. This is because recordkeeping is so poor for official records. On top of that, you have no idea who these people socialize with, and who those people are socializing with.
The photos of those guys handing out qurans wearing shirts that say “Lies!” on the front is hilarious.
Yea I know it’s supposed to be “read” in German but it seems to make more sense when read as English!
I read other politicals refer to him as being too contaminated to vote for. Way too kind.
The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn:
“Are Muslim Immigrants Different in Terms of Cultural Integration?”
http://ftp.iza.org/dp3006.pdf
Their conclusion that, “segregated neighborhoods do not breed intense religious and cultural identities,” is utter crap.
Dontcha believe the BS regarding terraforming Mars. These sci fi scenarios were always used to pacify the rubes, so that they forget about how Terra is being devastated.
Yes, for cohesive communities! Yes, for nation states! Yes, for our planet! Yes, for resources used for us who live here and now, not some stupid future space utopias of another set of clueless elites!
Mars is a pipe dream.
The supply chain required to establish and sustain a Martian colony is utterly insane.
If Donald Sutherland is ashamed of being a white male perhaps he can self-identify as Helen Mirren, who apparently suffers from no such shame as a privileged white woman.
How fitting that an abortion maven would lead the atheistic Democratic Party Machine.
I am a 26 year old woman. I have 3 sisters between 21 and 35 . What we are so desperate to know is why our father is the last man left on this planet. All the males our age (I would never call them men) are flip flop wearing ,leg shaving pancies. All of them. My best friend is from Jordan. When her muslim family arranged a marriage to her first cousin, she fled to our home and asked our father for sanctuary. When 6 of her deranged, lunatic relatives showed up at our house to get her ,we watched my father beat the holy crap out of all 6, three of which were hospitalized. Why does our father have to stand alone. He himself says he knows of no men left to stand up to evil. You should all be so ashamed of yourselves.
You are living in an urban/suburban hellhole. The men who choose to stay in or move to rural areas are of a different sort.
When our son graduated from college he moved up to the mountains hoping to finish grad school there. That didn’t work out, but he found a small town not far from the university which is even more rural than here (where he grew up).
To show how parents don’t necessarily know their children, I was sure he’d move to a big city, or at least a large town very much on the beaten path. But he fell in love with the Appalachians and there he remains, quite happy to have found what he considers ‘paradise’. The pool of women of marriageable age who aren’t crazy and who want to have children is vanishingly small.
There are many real men who comment on or write for Gates of Vienna. Thus, there is no one here you can shame or paint with your tar brush. They are far more likely to shrug off your feminine rage and move on to the next comment.
Your father may be a real man, but he raised at least one daughter who appears to think it is acceptable to have female tantrums in public. Our son abandoned Facebook because it was peopled with women (and men) like you- i.e., adults who think there is no need to civility or courtesy if they’re online.
I almost deleted your comment because it fails in several ways to maintain the decorum necessary to be allowed to comment here.
I know lots of men your age who despair of finding a suitable woman. With your over-the-top rant about *ALL* men, you’re in the group they won’t consider getting to know.
If your father’s group of friends or acquaintances don’t include any men who can take care of themselves…well, y’all might consider moving to a place where there are real men. Sounds like you live in a blue environ, one that is chock full of cultural enrichers. In our state (our commonwealth, rather) there are only three blue blobs on the map: Blacksburg to the south; the Republic of Charlottesville, due north; and the wretched hive of scum and villainy outside the District of Columbia: Northern Virginia. This last area has been swallowed whole by our ever-expanding federal government. Charlottesville is where many of those federal folk choose to retire.
In future, please refrain from making unwarranted and unsubstantiated claims about ALL men while commenting on our website. There are plenty of places where you can do that, but this isn’t one of them.
Are you [ad-hominem redacted]? I am 65 years old and would have willingly assisted your father if I had been there and so would have my two sons, ages 33 and 25, who are both married and most definitely not the pansies you describe!
Without being feminised first nowhere could be Islamised. Let’s hope another feminist revolution gets started by the males sooner rather than later.
Alert!!! Alert!!!
Sweden is finally tackling its most pressing problem of the century: mansplaining.
http://www.hrreview.co.uk/carousel/swedish-women-workers-launch-mansplaining-hotline/102588
I got this link from the facebook posting of a feminist friend of a relative. I commented that I’m going to share the good news on some of the websites I frequent.
We’ll see whether it’s taken in good humor.