Security forces in Western Europe are ramping up their counterterrorist efforts ahead of the coming holidays by increasing surveillance and detaining suspected terrorists. Intelligence officials believe that attempted terrorist attacks are likely during the Christmas season.
In other news, the young Muslim woman who reported that she was harassed and called a “terrorist” by white Donald Trump supporters on the NYC subway has admitted to police that she made the story up.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, LP, Reader from Chicago, 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.
Business Loans Up, Bad Loans Down, Bank of Italy Says
In October 0.5% increase first since May
(ANSA) — Rome, December 13 — The Bank of Italy on Tuesday said bank loans to businesses grew 0.5% in October, the first increase since May.
Household loans grew 1.6% and private sector loans grew 1.0% on an annual basis in October, after accounting for securitizations and other bad debt cancelled from bank balance sheets.
Non-performing loans continued to decrease in October, dropping to 198 billion euros gross from 198.9 billion in September and 200.1 billion in August.
The 12-month growth rate, accounting for statistical discontinuity but without correcting for securitizations and other bad debt, was -1.0%.
When corrected for securitizations and other bad debt, the growth rate was 11.7%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece’s European Creditors Suspend Debt Relief Measures
ATHENS — European creditors on Wednesday pulled a recently announced debt relief package for Greece in protest against subsequent spending measures announced by Athens.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Another Chicago Alderman Indicted
After serving 26 years on the Chicago Police Department, Willie Cochran (shown) retired as a sergeant in 2003. He ran for alderman in 2007 at the same time that his predecessor, Arenda Troutman, was under indictment for bribery. She lost the election to Cochran, and spent four years in jail following her conviction.
Now, a 15-count federal indictment handed down on Wednesday charged Chicago Alderman Willie Cochran with wire fraud, federal program bribery, and extortion. If convicted on all counts, he faces 280 years in jail.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Gates Joins $170bn Climate Change Investment Club
Bill Gates is leading a $1bn climate-change venture with a roll-call of tech’s biggest names.
Microsoft’s co-founder has joined Breakthrough Energy, described as investing in “reliable, affordable, zero-carbon energy, food and products for the world.”
The first investment is reported to be in clean tech.
[Comment: Clean tech like Solyndra? Billy wants his piece of the global warming / carbon credit scam.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Billionaire Engineer Ray Dolby, 80, Dies at Home in San Francisco
Ray Dolby, the engineer who for most of the last half century has improved our ability to record and play high-fidelity sound and who founded Dolby Labs, has passed away at his home in San Francisco after being diagnosed with acute leukemia earlier in the year.
“Today we lost a friend, mentor and true visionary,” said Kevin Yeaman, president of Dolby Laboratories. “Ray Dolby founded the company based on a commitment to creating value through innovation and an impassioned belief that if you invested in people and gave them the tools for success they would create great things. Ray’s ideals will continue to be a source of inspiration and motivation for us all.”
Dolby was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1933, then raised in San Francisco, and became obsessed with sound at an early age. By the time he was 16, Dolby was working for Ampex building the first video recorder, then headed to Stanford University to get a degree in electrical engineering. He got his PhD from Cambridge University with the aid of a Marshal Scholarship, and stayed in the UK to found the company that bears his name in 1965.
The breakthrough Dolby pioneered was a form of audio compression and expansion that dramatically reduced the hiss that is generated by particles of magnetic tape rubbing over the transducers used to read them. Dolby figured out that by using a limiter circuit that allowed low signals through but blocked louder ones.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chief Justice Moore Files With Selected Panel of Alabama Supreme Court
The brief dismantles the trumped up charges against Chief Justice Roy Moore
MONTGOMERY, AL — Liberty Counsel filed a 95-page brief on behalf of Chief Justice Roy Moore with the specially selected panel of judges at the Alabama Supreme Court. The brief contains an array of legal arguments against the charges brought against him by the Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) and the ruling by the Court of the Judiciary (COJ).
The brief argues that the JIC does not have jurisdictional authority to review administrative orders of the Alabama Chief Justice. Review of such administrative orders are sole prerogative of the Alabama Supreme Court. In this case, the Alabama Supreme Court did not take any action to modify, set aside, and overrule the Administrative Order of January 6, 2016, which is the sole basis of the JIC charges.
The COJ violated Rule 16 which requires a unanimous 9-0 vote to remove a judge from office. The 27-month suspension is a de facto removal and the COJ admitted it did not have the required nine votes to remove Chief Justice Moore. This action clearly violates Rule 16, and for this reason alone the decision by the COJ should be dismissed. The penalty of the permanent suspension from the bench is the most severe in the history of Alabama. The longest any judge has been suspended since Rule 16 was adopted in 2001 was six months.
Charge 6 must be dismissed because there was never a verified complaint for this charge, never a vote by the JIC to charge, never a Letter of Investigation, and not one six-week continuing Letter of Investigation. This charge alleges that Chief Justice Moore ordered the probate judges to disobey a lower federal court order.
[Comment: The entire thing was a stitch up of Chief Justice Moore. Each person involved in these trumped up charges should be doing jail time.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Claim: Carnival Forces U.S. Workers to Train Foreign Replacements Before Christmas
Americans working at Carnival Corporation say the company’s Christmas gift to hundreds of its college-graduate employees was the news that they are being fired and must train their low-wage foreign replacements.
“I am still processing my emotions and my disbelief,” said Matthew Culver, a senior Miami-based IT worker with Carnival.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Corrupt CIA Feeds Crooked Media
It may turn out to be the case that the real government meddling in our elections has been from the Obama administration and its CIA
Common sense tells you that Moscow was perfectly content to let Hillary win, and probably thought she would win. After all, Hillary sold out America to Moscow’s interests with a Russian reset that failed and opened the door to more Russian aggression. Her State Department also sold American uranium assets to Moscow. She was the perfect Russian dupe.
This whole discussion in the media about the Russians backing Trump is fake news.
The obvious conclusion is that Brennan is on a mission to overturn the election through propaganda and disinformation. This is not only the last gasp of sore losers but represents corruption of the intelligence process.
If the purpose of the Russian hacking was to undermine confidence in the American democratic process, as some “experts” originally thought, Brennan’s CIA is doing a good job of that.
It now seems clear that the CIA is going far beyond what the evidence in its possession actually shows.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Curiosity Finds Mars May be Covered in Organic Materials
New analysis from NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover shows that the red planet is likely flush with organics.
“I am convinced that organics are all over Mars,” said Jennifer Eigenbrode, a biogeochemist and geologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“They’re all over the surface and they’re probably through the rock record. What that means is something we’ll have to talk about,” Eigenbrode said last week during a National Academy of Sciences workshop about the search for life beyond Earth.
Scientists on Tuesday will present additional findings from Curiosity, which four years ago landed on Mars, the planet most like Earth in the solar system, to explore a mountain of sediments rising from the center of a 96-mile wide impact crater.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Feds: Cars Must be Able to Talk to Each Other
U.S. auto-safety regulators on Tuesday proposed new rules requiring automakers to adopt crash-avoidance technology that allows all new vehicles to communicate with each other, a move that could help accelerate the development of self-driving cars.
[Comment: Future: Only party members in good standing will be allowed to really drive. For the proles, any comrade re-classified as a dissident will find themselves auto-driven to “New Lubyanka” for re-education.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Left Dive-Bombing Into Donald Trump’s Election Success Pretending That They Were Always There
It was only a matter of time before it was going to happen: The left dive-bombing into Donald Trump’s historic election success-and pretending to have been there all along.
According to Mark Thompson, President and CEO of the Save-Our-Rear-in-Tatters New York Times, “one of our most devoted readers, a New Yorker born and bred, has just been elected President of the United States”.
They may be reeling in shock that their heroine Hillary has been left loudly whining on the sidelines.; they may be shrinking in stature and dreaming in technicolor that social media will come along and bail them out, but the one thing this ink-splashed New Yawker’s got plenty of is chutzpah.
Ladies, Gentlemen and LGBTQ of America: Donald J. Trump’s not the underdog who fought off 95 percent of a slanted mainstream media to capture the 2016 presidency-but the NYT “devoted reader” dispatched to the presidency by the NYT!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lessig: 20 Trump Electors Could Flip
Lessig’s anti-Trump group, “Electors Trust,” has been offering pro bono legal counsel to Republican presidential electors
Larry Lessig, a Harvard University constitutional law professor who made a brief run for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, claimed Tuesday that 20 Republican members of the Electoral College are considering voting against Donald Trump, a figure that would put anti-Trump activists more than halfway toward stalling Trump’s election.
Lessig’s anti-Trump group, “Electors Trust,” has been offering pro bono legal counsel to Republican presidential electors considering ditching Trump and has been acting as a clearinghouse for electors to privately communicate their intentions…
Lessig’s claims contradict the assertions of Republican National Committee sources who report that a GOP whip operation intended to ensure Republican electors remain loyal to Trump found only one elector — Chris Suprun of Texas — – would defy Trump.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Study Casts Doubt on a Key Metric for Global Warming
New research suggests scientists may be wrong about a key measurement for projecting man-made global warming.
Meteorologist Anthony Watts and amateur scientist Willis Eschenbach released new research suggesting “global climate sensitivity to increased carbon dioxide, and the potential feedback mechanism of increased water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere, is actually far less than postulated by the IPCC.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
NYC Offers Post-Election Therapy to Workers Stressed Out Over Trump
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is creating a city-wide safe space for municipal employees, offering them therapy sessions to deal with election-related stress.
“Many New Yorkers may be feeling distressed or vulnerable following the election results. … We have seen the concerns expressed on social media and we are monitoring them closely,” the liberal mayor wrote in a recent email to city workers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NYC: Muslima Who Claimed She Was Harassed by Trump Supporters Arrested for Filing False Report
A New York college student who said she was harassed on a subway train earlier this month has been arrested, law enforcement sources told NBC 4 New York.
Yasmin Seweid, 18, was charged with filing a false report after she told authorities three men called her a terrorist and chanted “Donald Trump” at her aboard the 23rd Street 4/5/6 subway station on Dec. 1.
The Baruch College student allegedly told police that she was approached by the trio and told to “get out of this country,” was called a terrorist aboard the train and told to “get the f****** hijab off your head!” She also alleged that one of the men grabbed her bag and broke the strap.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NYT Mocks Pizzagate as Impossible, But Its CEO Covered Up Jimmy Savile Scandal
The claims made by PizzaGate are serious and deserve close scrutiny. But is the New York Times really the correct outlet for an impartial investigation into an elite pedo ring?
While the Times has reached out to those implicated in the theory for their comments and retorts — standard operating procedure for any competent journalist — it’s important to remember that the CEO of the fabled newspaper is none other than Mark Thompson, the former BBC director who “lied” during the Jimmy Savile investigation, and is at least partly to blame for allowing a monster like Savile to operate within the BBC for so long “undetected”.
15 years ago, anyone who alleged that the BBC was covering up widespread child abuse would have been called a nutter.
Not so nutty today, is it? Let’s just come out and say it: If Mark Thompson was willing to help cover up disgusting crimes that were committed within his own organization, why would we think twice about trusting the NYT when it comes to something like PizzaGate?
And we love how the word “conspiracy” is used as a derogatory term to describe the theory. Sort of like the conspiracy to cover up Savile’s unspeakable crimes, a conspiracy in which Mark was a leading participant?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘One Billion’ Affected by Yahoo Hack
Yahoo has said more than one billion user accounts may have been affected in a hacking attack dating back to 2013.
The internet giant said it appears separate from a breach disclosed in September, when Yahoo revealed some 500 million accounts were accessed in 2014.
Yahoo said names, phone numbers, passwords and email addresses were stolen, but not bank and payment data.
The company, which is being taken over by Verizon, said it is working closely with the police and authorities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Progressive McCarthyites’ Red Scare
Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s efforts to uncover communist sympathizers during the 1950s is well known and I will not explore its pros and cons here. Suffice it to say that, rightly or wrongly, the term “McCarthyism” has become synonymous with a political witch hunt-especially one where Russia is placed in the role of “bad guy.”
Democrats have for some time been accusing President-Elect Trump of being a Russian sympathizer, and Russia of putting its thumb on the scale of America’s presidential election-the broad-brush elements of McCarthyism are there. The left-wing has long treated McCarthyism as a despicable and outrageous example of right-wing overreach, so the glaring irony of the left-wing using McCarthy tactics is too hypocritical to miss-unless you are one of the many liberals with a broken irony-detector.
All this anti-Russian saber rattling is an all too obvious ploy by what “Breitbart’s” Virgil calls the “Deep State.”
The term “Deep State” refers to the complex of bureaucrats, technocrats, and plutocrats that likes things just the way they are and wants to keep them like that-elections be damned.
The Deep State is populated by those who have learned how to game the system-professional parasites who live the good life funded, one way or another, by American taxpayers. They are vehemently opposed to Trump becoming POTUS and “draining the swamp.” It is their swamp dammit, and they do not want it drained.
The whole anti-Trump “Red Scare” gambit would be pretty funny if denizens of the swamp were not so deadly serious about opposing President-Elect Trump. Former British ambassador Craig Murray points out the absurdity of things succinctly:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Bill to Halt U.S. Arms Supplies to Syrian Allies
Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii introduced the “Stop Arming Terrorists Act” this week. She talks to NPR’s Scott Simon about the bill and how it relates to US involvement in Syria.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Researcher Found a Bug That Let Anyone Read Anyone’s Yahoo! Mail
Jouko Pynnönen says he reported the vulnerability in Yahoo! Mail via bug-bounty organizers HackerOne. “The impact of the bug is similar to the one I reported last year, which also brought a $10k bounty,” Pynnönen told El Reg. “It allowed an attacker to, for example, read a victim’s email.”
The flaw — fixed in production late last month — could be exploited simply by tricking your target into opening a booby-trapped mail. The same vulnerability could also be abuse to spread malware, as a blog post by Pynnönen explains:
The flaw allowed an attacker to read a victim’s email or create a virus infecting Yahoo Mail accounts, among other things. The attack required the victim to view an email sent by the attacker. No further interaction (such as clicking on a link or opening an attachment) was required.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Send Environmental Hypocrites Back to the Stone Age
To millions of Americans, the environmental movement has become a cult-like obsession that has consumed the collective mindset with emotional hogwash, propaganda, outright lies and irrational guilt. Some have labeled this cult, “The Green Plague.” (The “Plague”)
The “Plague” is based on the false premise that humans are a virus infection on Mother Earth and every aspect of human life most be regulated to the “nth” degree to protect the “Mother”. In reality, humans are but a part of the evolutionary and natural processes of Earth and those processes, not environmentalists or governments, will determine the final outcome.
The method to environmentally indoctrinate the human is to make him or her feel guilty for all of his or her environmental sins and that guilt will then manifest itself in the correct “green” behavior, as prescribed by the carriers of the “Plague”. As long as the mind is infected with the “Plague”, we will continue to get such things as economy-destroying, expensive, man-caused global warming legislation, as well as endangered species acts and environmental protection laws that virtually eliminate constitutionally protected property rights. Victims of the “Plague” will end up totally brainwashed, obsessed and scared, while those same carriers of the “Plague” continue their onslaught on the human mind and the control of all human activity. The “Plague” is the antithesis of freedom, liberty and constitutional property rights and is just another tool to merge America into global government. (See: “Environmentalism — Building Blocks for Global Government”)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
As I write, the left-wingers at MoveOn are plotting a coup against the people of the United States.
The George Soros-funded group is polling members to ask if MoveOn should “call on the Electoral College to reject Donald Trump as president of the United States?”
The poll is contained within the group’s latest lie-filled mass email to members:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The United Church of Christ: Knowingly Silent on Terrorism
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a shrinking Christian denomination mainly active in the United States, and “perhaps the most liberal of the Mainline Protestant American denominations.” With just under a million members and 5,000 churches (down from two million members and 7,000 churches in 1957, when it was founded), it still has prominent congregations in the heartland of the American Congregationalist movements, in states such as Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Throwing the Baby Out With the Bongwater
The New York Times posted a glowing article about a group home in New Hampshire, Hope on Haven Hill, founded with the express mission of keeping babies united with mothers who:
“… had used opioids, mostly heroin and fentanyl. Many had been incarcerated. Few had families they could turn to for help, and the fathers of their babies were out of the picture.”
Why would anyone do this? And why is the U.S. government giving these lunatics a half-million dollar grant to help them do it?…
Emma Lee was born addicted to heroin.
“‘Her withdrawals were pretty severe,’ said Amanda, who did not want her last name used, as she cradled Emma Lee in their sunny bedroom at Hope on Haven Hill. While in the hospital, the baby had difficulty eating. Her hands and legs shook with tremors.”
Could any of the compassion being lavished on drug addicts be extended to their helpless children?
No. Poor little Emma Lee must stay with Amanda, so that we can really drive home the point that unmarried women CANNOT be held responsible for getting pregnant and drug addicts CANNOT be held responsible for their addictions. Innocent children are pawns in America’s endless project of promoting women’s self-esteem.
The politician’s constant refrain is that drug addiction “is not a moral failing, this is a disease” — as Gov. Chris Christie puts it. Let’s say it is.
First of all, I would argue that it was at least partially Amanda’s fault, and not the disease’s fault, that she decided to take heroin in the first place. Unless she’s Cary Grant in “North by Northwest,” and the drugs were forcibly rammed down her throat, she chose to gamble with heroin.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US-Cert’s Top Tip: Hack Your Crap Netgear Router Before Miscreants Arrive
Command-injection hole can only be closed by killing web server — or the whole thing
Owners of three models of Netgear routers are being advised to exploit a security hole in their broadband boxes to, er, temporarily close said hole. The alternative is to switch off the boxes until a firmware update lands.
Netgear says that the R6400, R7000, and R8000 series routers are all vulnerable to CVE-2016-582384, a command-injection bug that is trivial to exploit: you simply have to trick someone on the router’s local network into opening a booby-trapped webpage. We’re told R7500, R7800, R8500 and R9000 models are also at-risk.
An attacker could direct a victim to a malicious website that abuses the design flaw, or malware on the network could connect to the vulnerable box and exploit the vulnerability directly. The end result is countless routers potentially being silently meddled with or infected and hijacked…
While Netgear says it is still working on a firmware fix for the flaw, US-CERT says the hole can be closed by disabling the router’s web server feature with the following URL:
http://
That request, which exploits the vulnerability itself, disables the builtin HTTP server that is used to administer the device. In other words, customers are being urged to lightly hack their own boxes before an attacker can exploit it for nefarious ends.
US-CERT notes that after executing the command, users will be unable to manage or control the router via the HTTP server until the box is rebooted or power cycled. A software fix is needed from Netgear to permanently squash the bug.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White House Claims Trump Aides Bankrolled by Kremlin
White House spokesman Josh Earnest accused Donald Trump and his top aides of enjoying lucrative connections with Russia, effectively implying a conflict of interests.
The White House appears to be dedicated to its stalwart campaign to ferret out any traces of Donald Trump and his team secretly conspiring with Russia, no matter how imaginary they are.
[Comment: Public knows there is something fishy to these leftist claims and the “evidence”. Yet leftists still keep trying to ride a dead horse.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why is Maoist Agitator Van Jones on CNN?
An America-hating communist spews class hatred on cable TV
Conservative author and “Glazov Gang” host Jamie Glazov wants to know.
Why exactly does Van Jones, a self-described “communist” and “rowdy black nationalist” who idolizes mass murderer Mao Zedong get to be a star on a major cable news network?
Short answer: life is unfair.
Longer answer: because the Left dominates the media and these people don’t think Jones is terribly radical.
In fact they think he’s an inspiration.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
WikiLeaks Bombshell: Assange Ally Says Clinton Election Hack Was ‘Inside Job’ Not Russia
AN ally of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said the hack of the Democratic Party in the run up to the US elections was not Russia but instead an ‘inside job’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Woman Made Up Tale of Anti-Muslim Attack by Men Shouting ‘Trump’: Sources
MANHATTAN — An 18-year-old Muslim college student who claimed three men screaming “Donald Trump!” attacked her on a Manhattan subway platform is being charged with filing a false report after admitting she made up the incident, sources told DNAinfo New York.
Yasmin Seweid, a Baruch College student, told police that she boarded a uptown No. 6 train at East 23rd St. on Dec. 1 and was called a “terrorist” by three drunken young white men.
She also claimed that when she moved to the other end of the train, one of the men followed her and tried to pull off her hajib before she fled.
But investigators who spent significant NYPD resources trying to verify her story were unable to find any witnesses to the incident or video that could corroborate her story, sources said.
Seweid finally recanted Tuesday, saying she misguidedly made up the tale to get attention because she was having issues with her family at home.
She was expected to be charged with filing a false report — which could range from a misdemeanor to a felony charges — late Wednesday afternoon, sources said…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Yahoo Confirms More Than One Billion Accounts Compromised in Massive Data Breach
Yahoo announced Wednesday that hackers stole data from more than one billion customer accounts.
In a statement, Yahoo’s Chief Information Security Officer Bob Lord said that “an unauthorized third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts.”
Lord explained that the breach was found by analyzing data files provided by law enforcement that an unnamed third party claimed was Yahoo user data. “We analyzed this data with the assistance of outside forensic experts and found that it appears to be Yahoo user data,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trudeau’s Trumped on Carbon Pricing
With each new cabinet selection, President-elect Donald Trump makes it clear he’s not interested in imposing a national carbon price on the United States.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau take note.
Because if he doesn’t, it will cost Canadians billions of dollars, while making our industries less competitive with those of our largest trading partner.
Why would Trudeau do that?
[Comment: Because he is a communist. Recall his adulation of Castro when Castro died.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Astronomer and Alchemist Tycho Brahe Died Full of Gold
The shiny element was important to Renaissance scientists. Very important
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Five Star Member Calls for Euro Referendum
A leading member of the Italian populist Five Star Movement (M5S) has demanded a referendum Italy’s membership of the euro, suggesting it could become a key issue in the next general election.
Alessandro Di Battista, 38, told Germany’s Die Welt that he did not want Italy to leave the EU but he did back a referendum on the euro.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France Votes to Extend State of Emergency Until Summer
France’s parliament voted early Wednesday to extend a national state of emergency until July 15th, after next year’s elections.
The security measures, in force since attacks in Paris that killed 130 people in November 2015, are now expected to be approved by the Senate on Thursday. It is the fifth extension of the state of emergency, which gives police extended powers of search and arrest.
The overnight vote in the National Assembly passed by 288 to 32, with only Left Front lawmakers, protesting ecologists and a handful of centre-right Republicans voting against.
The extension, which will give the country its longest uninterrupted state of emergency since the Algerian War in the 1960s, will span the two-round presidential election in April-May and June parliamentary polls.
The government has cited a heightened risk of jihadist attacks coinciding with the polls.
Ahead of the vote new Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux stressed that France faced “an extremely high” risk of a terrorist attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France to Deploy Extra Police, Troops for Festive Events
France will put more police and soldiers on the streets to deter would-be militant attackers from striking during Christmas and New Year festivities, Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders: Why Voters Are Flocking to the Dutch Trump
Minister Hank-Jan Prosman’s Church in the village of Nieuwkoop sits on a tiny spit of land surrounded by water. Its tiled roof rises above the surrounding flat, canal-riven fields.
There has been a church here for close to 500 years. For the last five years, it’s been Prosman’s home.
On an average Sunday, he says, about a third of the 800 villagers will come to attend his service.
He has got to know many of them well over the past few years and in that time has witnessed the growing popularity of Holland’s Donald Trump: the peroxide-blonde populist Geert Wilders.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Italy, Not Saudi’: Catholic Priest Slammed for Scrapping Nativity Scene to Avoid Offending Muslims
A Catholic priest in Italy came under fire after he canceled an annual Nativity scene, saying it could offend Muslims. The move triggered a wave of criticism, his predecessor calling him to remember that he lives in Italy and “not in Saudi Arabia.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Investors ‘Celebrate’ Unicredit Plan as Shares Soar +15.9%
CEO unveils 14,000 job cuts, 13bn capital increase
(supersedes previous)(ANSA) — Milan, December 13 — Investors on the Milan stock market “celebrated” UniCredit bank’s 2016-2019 strategic plan as its shares soared 15.92% to close at 2.42 euros a share on Tuesday.
Shares in the bank traded hands on volume of 326 million shares, equal to over 5% of capital stock. UniCredit subsidiary Fineco also posted gains (+7.69% to 5.07 euros a share) after UniCredit CEO Jean Pierre Mustier said his company intended to retain control.
UniCredit earlier announced plans to raise 13 billion, cut 14,000 jobs and achieve net income of 4.7 billion euros by 2019. The 13-billion-euro rights issue is “fully underwritten by volume by a consortium of leading international banks”, UniCredit said. UniCredit reportedly plans to shut down 800 branches and reduce its Italian workforce by 21%, equal to one-fifth of its overall employees. Trading in UniCredit shares on the Milan bourse was initially suspended Tuesday after they fell 5.12%. The stock returned to trading shortly after with a 3% increase to reach 2.49 euros per share. “We have developed a pragmatic plan based on conservative assumptions with tangible and achievable targets,” said Mustier.
Management is “taking decisive action to deal with our (non-performing loan) legacy” in a bid “to become one of Europe’s most attractive banks”, the CEO said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ENI, Sonatrach Seal Gas Supply Deal
Covers almost 20% of Italy gas imports
(ANSA) — Rome, December 13 — Italian oil and gas giant ENI and Algeria’s Sonatrach have reached a deal covering almost 20% of Italy’s gas imports in the 2016-207 thermal year, the Italian company said in a statement Tuesday.
Thermal years run from October 1 to September 30.
The deal was struck based on “commercial terms in line with relevant market conditions” and within a Framework Agreement signed by both parties on November 25, the ENI statement said. ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi pronounced himself “satisfied” about the deal and about the “strategic collaboration with Sonatrach, which also covers prospecting and production and a recent accord on renewables”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 20,000 Under Surveillance in France
In its first ever report published Tuesday, the commission charged with overseeing the use of surveillance equipment (CNTR) found that French security services followed the activities of 20,282 people in year October 2015 to October 2016.
According to a report in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro, 47 percent of the people under surveillance during the period were, or are, in the files kept by security agencies on terrorists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Neanderthals Returned to Cave for More Than 100,000 Years
UPI reports that archaeologist Andy Shaw of the University of Southampton led a team that reexamined artifacts and mammoth bones unearthed in La Cotte de St Brelade, a cave on the largest of the Channel Islands off the coast of France. The team also investigated the landscape surrounding the cave.
The study suggests Neanderthals returned to the high ground for many generations between 180,000 and 40,000 years ago, before Jersey was surrounded by water. But the researchers are not sure why the Neanderthals kept returning to the cave, despite changes in the climate and the landscape. It may have been a highly visible marker with a known shelter, and may be one of the last known places where Neanderthals lived.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Newly Sworn-in Italian Minister Comes Under Fire for Allegedly Lying About Her Degree
davide lessi (translation by merope ippiotis) Paolo Gentiloni’s new gorvernment, formed in light of Matteo Renzi’s resignation and the latter’s defeat in the constitutional referendum, has come under fire after one of its ministers apparently lied about her academic qualifications. 67-year-old Valeria Fedeli, a former trade unionist who was only this week appointed Minister of Education, states on her webpage that she holds a “diploma di laurea” (the equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree) from a School of social work in Milan. Fedeli enrolled on this course after finishing high school and completed it in 1971, when there were no three-year degree programmes in Italy, nor did degree courses in social sciences exist.
Minister Fedeli ended up in the crosshairs of her accusers as early as Tuesday. By today, the reference to a “degree” on her webpage had vanished. But that is not all. The link to her CV in pdf format — which says she “holds a Degree in Social Services (now Social Sciences) — is no longer accessible. But there is a way to get hold of the html version on Google at this link. There are also a number of screenshots of her CV doing the rounds on the web…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Court System Politicized, Independence Vote to be Held Anyway
Spain’s judicial system is being more and more politicized in an attempt to suppress Catalonia’s aspirations to hold an independence vote in 2017, Catalan Foreign Minister Raul Romeva said on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A twisted trio of women picked up a stranger in a pub before plying him with vodka and filming a bizarre sex attack.
The women from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, targeted the amateur footballer and took him back to their home where they assaulted him using vegetables and scissors.
A judge plans to view the ‘deeply offensive conduct’ before sentencing Brogan Gillard, 26, Paige Cunningham, 22, and Shannon Jones, 20, after they admitted the assault.
All the women pleaded guilty to the sexual assault on November 29, 2015. They denied causing him actual bodily harm and sexual assault by penetration. The pleas were accepted by the prosecution.
Prosecutor Francis McEntee said: ‘There was not a sexual motive, it was to demean and humiliate the victim.’ He said the attack ‘descended into sexual behaviour’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Girl, 7, With Down’s Syndrome Chucked Into Oncoming Traffic by Stranger
Skye Preston was walking home from a hospital appointment in Sunderland with her step father Alan Dale, when she was pushed from behind and knocked to the ground.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Western Europe Cracks Down Amid Fears of Holiday Attacks
Security forces across Western Europe have been rounding up terror suspects during the month of December as concerns grow over the possibility of a holiday-timed attack after intel suggested that there may be plans for attacks in a number of countries.
Dozens of suspects have been arrested in recent weeks in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other countries. It’s seen as a pre-emptive strike by law-enforcement officials hoping to avoid the worst-case scenario.
“It’s like the broken windows approach that we have seen here in the U.S.,” Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical analysis for global intelligence firm Stratfor, told FoxNews.com. “It’s common after attacks like we saw in Nice and Brussels to see them round up the usual suspects.”
Since the beginning of December, nearly 30 people have been arrested for alleged involvement in terrorist activities. On Monday, 11 people were arrested in France in connection with the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice. In an unrelated incident, authorities in the UK arrested six people on suspicion of preparing to launch a terrorist attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Armed Muslim Mob Destroys Christian Village Over Church Building
A MUSLIM mob armed with rifles, clubs and machetes burnt down shops and destroyed Christian homes in an attack just days before ISIS killed 25 people in the Cairo cathedral bombing.
Tensions between Muslims and the Coptic Christian community have escalated in recent days following the deadly attack on a chapel at St Mark’s Orthodox Cathedral.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Minister Sparks Outrage After Refusing to Wear Hijab During Saudi Arabia Visit
Ursula von der Leyen and her entourage did not wear the hijab head coverings or the full length Abaya garment during her visit, despite adamantly claiming that she “respected” the country’s customs and traditions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS is Manufacturing Arms on Industrial Scale, Report Finds
The Islamic State terror group was manufacturing weapons in and around Mosul on an industrial scale with products largely bought in bulk from Turkey, according to a report published by an arms research group Wednesday.
The findings showed that ISIS maintained a “robust and reliable” supply chain between Turkey and Iraq that allowed the fighters to produce tens of thousands of weapons, the London-based Conflict Armament Research said. The group’s researchers studied ISIS weapons found at manufacturing facilities and on the battlefield during the Iraqi operation to retake Mosul that is underway.
As Iraqi forces advance, the extremists are losing the physical capacity to manufacture weapons on an industrial scale, but the research group’s executive director James Bevan warned that highly trained fighters will take their expertise with them as they retreat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Rebel’ Saudi Arabia Woman Who Posted Photo Without Head Scarf is Arrested
Malak al-Shehri’s tweet defying Saudi dress code caused backlash, with many people calling for her to be executed, but supporters comparing her to Rosa Parks
Saudi police have arrested a young woman who tweeted a picture of herself outdoors without the body-length robes and head scarf that women in the kingdom are required to wear.
A woman identified as Malak al-Shehri posted a picture of herself on Twitter in a jacket and multi-colored dress last month after announcing that she would leave her house without her abaya, a long loose-fitting robe, and headscarf.
The tweet caused a backlash with many calling for Shehri — whose first name means angel, which was also her moniker online — to be executed with the hashtag “We demand the arrest of the rebel Angel Shehri.”
The picture posted on the downtown Riyadh street of al-Tahliya, led to someone filing a complaint with the religious police, and eventually to the woman’s arrest, according to the local Arabic-language Al-Sharq newspaper.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former British Ambassador Says Russia Election Hack Conspiracy Theory is Kafkaesque
Craig Murray, Britain’s former ambassador to Uzbekistan, on Monday dispelled the myth in a post on his blog.
“A little simple logic demolishes the CIA’s claims,” he writes. “The CIA claim they ‘know the individuals’ involved. Yet under Obama the USA has been absolutely ruthless in its persecution of whistleblowers, and its pursuit of foreign hackers through extradition. We are supposed to believe that in the most vital instance imaginable, an attempt by a foreign power to destabilize a US election, even though the CIA knows who the individuals are, nobody is going to be arrested or extradited, or (if in Russia) made subject to yet more banking and other restrictions against Russian individuals? Plainly it stinks. The anonymous source claims of ‘We know who it was, it was the Russians’ are beneath contempt.”
“I know who leaked them,” Murray told The Guardian. “I’ve met the person who leaked them, and they are certainly not Russian and it’s an insider. It’s a leak, not a hack; the two are different things.”
Murray writes that the fantasy embraced by Democrats and passed off as truth by the establishment media is Kafkaesque.
“The worst thing about all this is that it is aimed at promoting further conflict with Russia. This puts everyone in danger for the sake of more profits for the arms and security industries-including of course bigger budgets for the CIA.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China to Spend a Fortune on Tourism
China’s state planner has announced the country will invest hundreds of billions of dollars in tourism and infrastructure facilitating holiday-makers. The sector already accounts for a tenth of annual growth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese Brewer Asahi to Buy East Europe Brands for 7.3 Bn
Were owned by SABMiller before it was acquired by AB InBev
(ANSA-AP) — TOKYO — Japanese brewer the Asahi Group says it plans to buy five beer brands in Eastern Europe for 7.3 billion euros ($7.8 billion).
Asahi said Tuesday that the beer brands in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Hungary and Romania were owned by SABMiller before it was acquired by Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev, maker of Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois.
Japanese companies have been aggressively expanding overseas as their home market shrinks.
In October, Asahi announced it was buying SABMiller beer assets in Western Europe such as Peroni and Grolsch. It said the latest deal helps to fill out its reach across the region, noting that Pilsner Urquell, the original Pilsner beer, has a top market share in the Czech Republic, which is the top beer drinking country per capita.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
South China Sea: Satellite Photos ‘Show Weapons’ Built on Islands
New photographic evidence has emerged of “significant” Chinese military defences on artificial islands in the South China Sea, a think tank reports.
China had previously committed to not militarising its controversial developments in the region.
But satellite images published by a US group appear to show anti-aircraft guns and missile defence systems on the seven islands.
Several countries claim territorial rights in the South China Sea.
During his state visit to the US in September 2015, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said China did not intend to pursue militarisation of the Spratly islands.
However, it claims the region is China’s sovereign territory, and therefore requires necessary defence measures.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea, including reefs and islands also claimed by other nations, and has caused dismay in the region by building artificial islands and restricting access.
But Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims.
In July, an international tribunal ruled against Chinese claims to rights in the South China Sea, backing a case brought by the Philippines.
China, however, called the ruling “ill-founded” and says it will not be bound by it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump’s One China Comments ‘Risk Taiwan Peace’
Beijing has warned the incoming US administration that any attempt to challenge the “One China” policy could affect peace in the Taiwan Strait.
Interference may also damage developing US-China relations, a spokesman said.
Under the “One China” policy, the US has formal ties with China rather than the island of Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province.
However, US President-elect Donald Trump has expressed doubts about continuing to abide by the policy.
Mr Trump had already angered China by taking a phone call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, and then tweeting about it.
On Monday, China said it was “seriously concerned” by Mr Trump’s comments, and urged sensitivity around the issue.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Government Wants $7/Month Levy on Broadband to Fund Loss-Making Services in the Bush
Australia’s government has floated the idea that operators of broadband networks should pay a monthly levy to fund the National Broadband Network’s loss-making wireless and satellite operations in remote areas.
Dubbed the “Regional Broadband Scheme” (RBS), the plan would see carriers that offer broadband services capable at 25Mbps or more slugged with a monthly fee of $7.09.
nbnӢ, the entity building and operating the National Broadband Network (NBN), would not be exempt from the charge. But it would also fall on rival broadband operators, such as those who feel they can beat NBN with fibre-to-the-basement services in blocks of flats.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela Closes Border With Colombia as Cash Crisis Rolls on
Move comes as president introduces higher denomination bills to combat spiraling inflation
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A teenaged Afghan refugee accused of raping and murdering a young medical student in Germany had tried to kill once before, it emerged today.
Stern magazine reported that Hussein Khavari, 17, had thrown a 20-year-old student off a cliff on Corfu, Greece, in May 2013.
The woman was severely injured but ‘miraculously’ survived and was able to identify her attacker.
Khavari, who sits in detention in Germany after his DNA linked him to the October sex killing of Maria Ladenburger, 19, in Freiburg, was given a 10 year jail term by a Greek court.
Khavari told his lawyer that he ‘regretted’ what had happened. The magazine added: ‘Why the Greek justice system early on let him out of jail, if he pushed her off, is thus far unclear.’
Bild newspaper in Germany showed a picture of Khavari that he took of himself days before the attack on Maria to Maria-Eleni Nikolopoulou, his Greek lawyer in the trial in 2014.
Her reaction: ‘This is the same person, definitely. I’m speechless.’
The Greek victim plunged 25 feet down the cliff face. Authorities said she only survived because, as a keen amateur mountain climber, she knew how to protect her head during the plunge.
The attack came after Khavari had been drinking in a bar. The Greek history student told said she had been walking home when ‘he was suddenly in front of me. I gave him my purse. But when the headlights of a car him he pushed me backwards.’
In a further interview with the Greek TV channel Alfa in 2014 she went on; ‘Then he grabbed me at the hips and legs, lifted me up and threw me down the cliff.’
In February 2014 he was sentenced to 10 years in jail. But he was placed in youth detention and it remains unclear why he was freed so soon into his term…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Swimming Pool Rapist Sentenced to Seven Years
An Iraqi refugee has received a higher prison sentence of seven years for raping a boy at a swimming pool in Vienna — after an earlier sentence was overturned when his appeal team won the right to a retrial.
Amir A., who had worked in Iraq as a taxi driver, was still clothed in swimwear when handcuffed. He confessed to the rape, saying he knew it was wrong but did it anyway because it was a “sexual emergency” as he had not had sex for four months.
He was found guilty of serious sexual assault and rape of a minor. The boy, Goran, was awarded €5,000 for his pain and suffering.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brisk Business for Smugglers in Greece
After a period of quiet following the closure of the Balkan route, people smugglers have returned to northern Greece and profits continue to roll in. Pavlos Zafiropoulos reports from Thessaloniki.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chechens Waiting at Europe’s Door
Many Chechens are attempting to reach the border between Belarus and Poland in order to apply for asylum, but Polish border guards turn most of them away. Is Poland violating international asylum regulations?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe: Illegal to Criticize Islam
Several European governments have made it clear to their citizens that criticizing European migrant policies or migrants is criminally off-limits and may lead to arrest, prosecution and even convictions. Although these practices constitute police state behavior, European governments do not stop there. They go still farther, by ensuring that Islam in general is not criticized either.
Finland is the European country most recently to adopt the way that European authorities sanction those who criticize Islam. According to the Finnish news outlet YLE, the Pirkanmaa District Court found the Finns Party politician, Terhi Kiemunki, guilty of “slandering and insulting adherents of the Islamic faith” in a blog post of Uusi Suomi. In it, she claimed that all the terrorists in Europe are Muslims. The Court found that when Kiemunki wrote of a “repressive, intolerant and violent religion and culture,” she meant the Islamic faith.
During the trial, Kiemunki was asked why she did not make a distinction between Islam and radical Islam. She replied that she meant to refer to the spread of Islamic culture and religion, and that she “probably should have” spoken of radicalized elements of the religion instead of the faith as a whole. Kiemunki was fined 450 euros. Her lawyer has appealed the verdict.
Kiemunki issued a press release after the verdict, in which she said:
“I am still of the view that declaring statistical facts or even sharing an opinion is not a crime if someone doesn’t like it… I wrote that I don’t want our country to be overtaken by a culture and law based on a violent, intolerant and oppressive religion.”
According to YLE, she added that her essay did not generalize about Muslims, but pointed out that not all Muslims are terrorists. “In these times, specifically in the recent past and today, all of the perpetrators of terrorist acts have turned out to be Muslim,” she said.
In Finland, Terhi Kiemunki, a Finns Party politician, was found guilty by a court of “slandering and insulting adherents of the Islamic faith.” (Image source: YouTube video screenshot)
So in Finland, since the court’s decision, citizens are now required to make a distinction, entirely fictitious, between “Islam” and “radical Islam,” or else they may find themselves prosecuted and fined for “slandering and insulting adherents of the Islamic faith.” As Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.” There are extremist Muslims and non-extremist Muslims, but there is only one Islam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
European Union Finally to Tackle Migrant Benefits
THE European Union have finally drawn up long-awaited plans to crack down on the millions of migrants claiming benefits across the continent.
Brussels bureaucrats are set to approve proposals which will restrict access to out of work handouts for EU asylum seekers in a major U-turn.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Youngest Victim Just 14 in Two Separate Migrant Rape Attacks
Two young women, one just 14 years old, were brutally raped in separate attacks in Germany on Sunday, and suspects in both cases are believed to be migrants.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Victim Just 14 in Two Separate Migrant Rape Attacks
Two young women, one just 14 years old, were brutally raped in separate attacks in Germany on Sunday, and suspects in both cases are believed to be migrants.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
An Iraqi asylum seeker who brutally raped a 10-year-old schoolboy, claiming he was suffering a ‘sexual emergency’, will spend longer behind bars after his six year sentence was increased.
The 20-year-old rapist — named only as Amir A. in court — attacked the child at a swimming pool in Vienna, Austria.
His victim was left with horrendous injuries and is still suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Deportation of Rejected Afghan Asylum Seekers From Germany Imminent: Report
A German news website says a flight returning failed Afghan asylum applicants to Afghanistan is due to take place soon. A refugee advocacy group has called on Green party members to try and stop the measure.
[Comment: The numbers to be deported doesn’t seem massive to me.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
People Smugglers Use Facebook to Lure Migrant to Europe
United Nations refugee agency UNHCR claims they have discovered people smugglers using Facebook to entice migrants to make the trip to Europe.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rome on Verge of War Between Migrants and Poor Italians, Vatican City Mayor Warns
ROME is on the verge of war as friction grows between poor Italians and and an increasing number of migrants, the Vatican City’s mayor has warned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Church Officials Launch Petition for Asylum Seekers
The Christian Council of Sweden has launched a petition calling on the government to ease up the reception of asylum seekers.
Church leaders from the Christian Council are putting three demands to the government: to give children and young people the right to safety and faith in the future, to give all refugees in Sweden the right to spend time with their family, and to remove all practical obstacles for family reunification.
Archbishop Antje Jackelén of the Church of Sweden said they wanted to go back to the way things were before the temporary Swedish asylum law came into place. But the biggest problem, she said, was the limited asylum reception in the rest of Europe.
“There need to be better opportunities to apply pressure in Europe,” Jackelén told Swedish Radio.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Ker ‘Punched, Kicked, Choked’ In Migrant No-Go Zone
A Jewish American documentary maker has been punched, kicked, and choked by five migrants after entering a “no-go” zone in Stockholm, Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Parliament Reaches Agreement on EU Immigration
After nearly three years, the Swiss parliament has finally decided how to deal with the February 2014 ‘against mass immigration’ referendum, even if its solution bears little resemblance to the text of the initiative voted for by the public back then.
Following years of speculation and uncertainty, and several weeks of intense debate, on Monday parliament hammered out the detail of its ‘light’ solution, agreeing rules that will see unemployed domestic workers given preference over EU nationals for jobs in Switzerland.
The agreement is still subject to a final vote on Friday, however that is simply a formality, reported news agencies.
Back in February 2014 the Swiss people narrowly voted in favour of bringing in some form of limits on immigration from EU countries, a move that would have countered the EU’s free movement principle and jeopardised Switzerland’s many other bilaterals with the bloc.
The new rules agreed on Monday diverge hugely from the constitutionally-binding referendum, after the Swiss parliament decided — to outcry from some — that it was not willing to sacrifice its relationship with the EU.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video of Fight in Finnish Town of Jakobstad Allegedly Involving Migrants
FOOTAGE of a fight, reportedly involving several migrants, has surfaced out of Finland.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pastor Robert Jeffres, Elena Kagan and Gay Marriage
I wrote in a past article…
The stage has been set, and just in time. Before the elections, Obama came out in support of homosexual marriage. Of course, he first had to repeal DADT and place 225 homosexuals in key positions…such as the Supreme Court… before he made his announcement.
Such a one is Elena Kagan.
Elena Kagan is the former dean of students at Harvard. Contrary to Harvard’s founding mottos, “For Christ and the Church” and “For the glory of Christ,” Kagan is known for “Queerifying Harvard.” During her tenure, she did the following:
Kagan hired former ACLU lawyer William Rubenstein to teach “queer” legal theory, in which he taught courses on taking up new identities such as bisexuality, transgender f**k, involving polygamy, sadomasochism, and the sexuality of minors.
Kagan also hired other radicals (a lesbian and a transsexual) to teach transgender law courses, as well as Cass Sunstein who has written in support of polygamy and free-for-all marriage relationships.
Kagan viciously attacked our military in opposition to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” even banning military recruiters from coming on campus. Kagan’s attempt to ban the recruiters was unsuccessful, and even after losing her legal campaign, she encouraged students to continue protesting them.
Kagan’s radical activism on campus was so toxic that there was even a campaign to make the entire university trans-inclusive, using Harvard’s “gender identity” non-discrimination policy to spew gender confusion among students on campus.
Elena Kagan has never judged a case a day in her life, yet Obama, unqualified for office himself, has seen fit to “qualify” her on the Supreme Court bench…just in time for the Court to review homosexual marriage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Safety Pin Box Aims to Get White People to Step Out of Theirs
Safety Pin Box, a new monthly subscription service, has a lofty goal — to help white people learn how to root out racism while simultaneously paying black activists for their time.
While on vacation in Jamaica together just after the US election day, activists Leslie Mac and Marissa Jenae Johnson and a group of friends got to talking about safety pins.
Specifically, the safety pin phenomena gaining momentum among upset liberal voters in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory.
The idea was that white people who wanted to signify solidarity with people of colour could show it by wearing a safety pin on their shirts. The concept was originally created by a woman in the UK after an increase in incidents of racially motivated hate crimes and attacks after the Brexit vote. The safety pin would identify the wearer as a “safe” person to go to during a racially motivated or homophobic attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
School Officials Fail by Muzzling Pro-Life Club’s Free Speech
School administrators at Carmel High School censored and removed a previously approved adoption poster display, created by a pro-life student club, on the basis of another student’s complaint that it was “offensive.” Student members of Carmel Teens for Life, represented by Liberty Counsel, spent over 25 hours painting a poster display which included 300 individual tiny hearts, each representing 10 lives, to symbolize the written statement “3,000 Lives Are Ended Each Day.”
Rather than the administration calling the pro-life club’s leadership to retrieve the now-allegedly “unapproved” multi-piece poster, the poster was thrown away. School officials later claimed the multi-part poster impermissibly expressed an “ideology” and was “not approved for display.” The poster was, in fact, approved for display, as evidenced by approval stamps on each of its component pages, and it complied with club signage guidelines. The principal and assistant principal said that club signs are not permitted to “interfere with what folks are thinking or feeling comfortable with.” However, signs from other organizations promoting ideologies such as pro-LGBT and pro-Young Democrats are allowed.
School administrators also demanded the Carmel Teens for Life student members sign an agreement which prohibits club members from using the word “abortion” in any official club communications, verbal or written, including Facebook, school posters and other official correspondence. The agreement also stated they could not contact outside legal assistance. The students were not allowed to take the agreement home or to discuss it with their parents. The club members were threatened that if they did not sign the agreement immediately the club sponsors would be forced to resign, effectively disbanding the club and excluding it from official recognition.
“By allowing other student clubs to post their viewpoints throughout the school while banning a poster from Carmel Teens for Life, the school has engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “Schools also may not censor pro-life viewpoints. The actions of the school officials are outrageous. Not only did they censor protected speech, they threatened students with retaliation if they sought legal counsel. We will hold this school and these officials accountable,” said Staver.
[Comment: The entire education establishment is riddled with radical leftist communists that are teaching the same ideology to your children.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ancient Mars Could Have Harbored Life for a Long, Long Time
New data suggest Mars was habitable for perhaps hundreds of millions of years
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
House Passes Bill to “Microchip Citizens With Mental Disabilities”… and Then Those Who Speak Out
This article was written by Whitney Webb and originally published at True Activist.com.
Editor’s Comment: Mark of the Beast… we’ve all been warned that it is coming. What is disturbing is that while technology surrounds us and *some* have concerns about privacy, most shrug at the massive amounts of data they are collecting about our lives, and the incredible level of control the system now has over each individual. This bill passed, clinging to the broadest base of “good intentions” that it could muster, i.e. caring for those with disabilities and decline with age.
But in reality, it is a nose under the tent for a system that needs the ability to microchip dissenters, and to force cooperation on the part of the general population. In effect, everyone is now under their thumb with this, because anyone could doesn’t go along with the mass conditioning will be labeled ‘mentally — -’ and branded with a track-and-control chip. Game over.
At the first sign of suspicious behavior, or troubling social media profile, or a misunderstanding during an encounter, police and medical personnel — among others — will have the authority to declare someone ‘mentally disabled’ (or incapacitated, or temporarily insane, or unsound of mind, or whatever label is handy) just because they express discontent, anger or outage at the state of the world and political affairs. “Fake news” journalists can be shut down, and “conspiracy minded” individuals controlled… and of course, it will be abused. The tactics used against parents by CPS will be forged together with the creepy total surveillance of the fusion centers, etc. Potentially a very nasty police state.
This power will expand, and try again if it is slowed down or rejected. Whether it takes the form of an implanted chip, or a tracking number that is tied to each person, they will stop at nothing short of mark in everyone with identity tied to bank accounts, etc. They will insist you be on the grid in every way… and with this bill, they just got one step closer to controlling the future. All this has been foretold, and yet it is beyond anything anyone could have imagined.
THIS REALLY JUST HAPPENED: House Passed Bill Allowing Government to Microchip Citizens with ‘Mental Disabilities’
by Whitney Webb
Though the bill only targets those with conditions such as Alzheimers and autism, critics say the bill’s passage will open a “pandora’s box” of invasive government surveillance.
Six years ago, NBC Nightly News boldly predicted that all Americans would be fitted with RFID microchips by the year 2017. Though at the time, NBC’s prediction seemed far-fetched, the House recently passed a bill that would bring a micro-chipped populace closer to reality before year’s end. Last Thursday, the House passed HR 4919, also known as Kevin and Avonte’s Law, which would allow the US attorney general to award grants to law enforcement for the creation and operation of “locative tracking technology programs.”
Though the program’s mission is to find “individuals with forms of dementia or children with developmental disabilities who have wandered from safe environments,” it provides no restriction on the tracking programs inclusion of other individuals. The bill would also require the attorney general to work with the secretary of health and human services and unnamed health organizations to establish the “best practices” for the use of tracking devices…
Giving local police the authority to decide who is micro-chipped and who is not based on their mental soundness is a recipe for disaster. Though the bill specifically mentions those with Alzheimer and autism, how long before these tracking programs are extended to those with ADHD and Bipolar disorder among other officially recognized disorders. Even the dislike of authority is considered a mental disorder known as “Oppositional Defiant Disorder,” which could also warrant micro-chipping in the future.
[Comment: Soviet era communists used psychiatry as a tool to imprison and torture dissidents. Read “Gulag Archipelago” to get an idea of what is coming. The stage is being set. Patriots, “constitution lovers”, “bitter gun clingers”, “bible thumpers”, “Ron Paul bumper sticker owners”, and others will be classified as having the fabricated disorder known as “Oppositional Defiant Disorder”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shadows of Two Failed Searches Loom Over Physics
There were no detections of dark matter particles this year and no signs of supersymmetry
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Plenty of places to link this:
What’s brown, and rings?
I don’t understand who would target Christmas celebrations? After all, all those right wing white supremacist terrorists are celebrating at the same time…
I believe the Muslims. They really are out to harm non Muslims. How can Muslims be even tolerated in non Muslim societies? The “devout” Muslims with the Nazi symbols growing out of their visages or choking off oxygen to what’s left of their drained brains from the neck up. Still, it took Germany to invade Poland before the news broke. Plus ca change.
For a long time attacks on Christmas were ‘car accidents’, even when the terrorists cried «allah hu ackbar» and confessed.
Now that people are aware of crimes by ‘refugees’, they are paying attention to facts.
Baron: The You Tuber Black Pigeon Speaks is out with an excellent tube this AM entitled “Cult of White Privilege is EthnoMasochism.” Think that you and all the regular viewers to your excellent web site here would be interested in investing 16+ minutes of their time to digest what he’s got there. Actually, Chancellor Merkel (and her comrades) should view it and then provide their thoughts about it. Ho, ho, ho!
Probably OT, but I can’t think of where else to write this.
GoV has previously discussed, without any hard statistics, the probable consanguinity coefficient/prevalence of repeated first-cousin marriages in traditional Muslim societies.
Today, in the mail, DH and I received the 9 December 2016 issue of Science, published weekly by the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science. The cover article (on p. 1217) is entitled, “When DNA and Culture Clash”; subheaded “Saudi Arabia is making a big push into human genomics, hoping to prevent inherited diseases.” Author is Jocelyn Kaiser, based in Riyadh (brave woman!).
Let me quote directly from the article–which covers 5 full pages–to show the abysmal ignorance of even decently educated Saudis about genetic reality:
“In a hospital conference room…a lieutenant colonel in the Saudi army…stoically tells a story of genetic casualties. His and his wife’s first child, born in 2004, seemed healthy at first, but at 6 months old the baby girl could not yet sit up and barely cried….
“Although their next baby, a boy, was healthy, a second girl born 5 years later had similar development delays. Meanwhile, the officer’s sister had given birth to six children, two healthy but four with similar medical problems….
“Both the lieutenant colonel…and his sister had married first cousins, who were also related. Suspicions that this close kinship played some [!] role in their kids’ problems led the two families to this clinic at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre…. All four parents carried one copy of the exact same disease mutation….”
Well, yeah, guys.
A signal accomplishment of this article is the color-coded map of the world. Although sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia are coded “Unknown,” the rest of the world is broken down into 10% groups, representing 0.1-10, 10.1-20, 20.1-30, 30.1-40, and >40% consanguineous marriages, shaded from lightest blue to solid black for those >40%.
Will anyone at GoV be surprised to learn that, alone in the world, Muslim-dominated countries are shown with the highest % of consanguineous marriages in the world? The *lightest* colored Muslim countries that I can find have from 20.1 to 30% consanguineous marriages, whereas the Americas, Europe, Russia, China, northern India, Australia, etc. are coded between 0.1 and 10%, the lowest category (except for “Unknown,” which is a medium gray).
And, of course, the map doesn’t distinguish between *current* consanguineous marriages and *repeated* ones, as exemplified in the Saudi family featured in the research article.
The highest reported % is in Pakistan, with 61.2%, followed by Sudan, with 50.0%; Saudi has “only” 38.9%, while Shia Iran has 39.5% consanguineous marriages. The caption on the map states: “Thanks to a culture that encourages marriages between first cousins, Saudi Arabia has one of the higher rates of consanguinity in the world, which has elevated its incidence of many inherited genetic diseases.”
The journal is available at http://www.sciencemag.org.
Ooooh, hot rats! 🙂 The *article* is available on a non-log-in basis (DH has a password, but I didn’t use it) at http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/12/saudi-gene-hunters-comb-countrys-dna-prevent-rare-diseases AND the map is shown.
God only knows how many severely disabled children are being born (killed?) in these countries, but the health burden of both women and children is immense.
There is no known cure for stupid. So perhaps if the muslims keep it up, they will solve the problem themselves. No I have nothing against muslims, as long as they don’t become violent. Fortunately, there is little to attract them to my part of the world, although they do have a “community” in Garden City, KS.