Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/23/2017

The United Nations has voted to give Saudi Arabia a place on the Commission on the Status of Women, despite its positions on women’s rights. The vote took place behind closed doors, so exactly which countries voted for the Saudis is not clear.

In other news, the Islamic State threatened to behead a hacker who took over hundreds of their Twitter accounts and filled them with gay pride messages and pornography.

Commission on the Status of Women

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

Thanks to AF, DV, JD, KS, Reader from Chicago, RR, SS, 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.

USA
» 107 Cancer Papers Retracted Due to Peer Review Fraud
» CIA’s Brennan Conspired With Foreign Spies
» Craziest Activist Photos From the #marchforscience #sciencemarchdc
» How to Talk Like a Social Justice Campus Crybully
» In Secret Court Hearing, Lawyer Objected to FBI Sifting Through NSA Data Like it Was Google
» ISIS Threaten to Behead Hacker After He Took Over 250 Jihad Twitter Accounts and Filled Them With Porn and Gay Pride Messages
» Watch: Bill Nye Blows Gasket When a Real Scientist Schools Him on Facts About ‘Climate Change’
» Wheaton College Student Dies in Track Meet Accident
» WikiLeaks Releases Top-Secret CIA Documents
 
Europe and the EU
» France: Far-Left Presidential Candidate Blames ‘Discrimination’ And ‘State’ For Islamist Paris Attack
» Macron Against Arresting and Deporting Radical Islamists
» Macron Faces Le Pen for French for French Presidency
» Scotland’s Papers: Tory ‘Shock’ Poll and Lockerbie Appeal
» UK: Listen to Interpreter Translate Mohammed Aslam’s Pitch for Mayor of Greater Manchester — Seriously.
 
Middle East
» Did Russia Shoot Down US Missiles in Syria?
» Divided Turkey: Erdogan Leads His Country Into the Abyss
» ‘Majority Muslim’ Versus Islamic Nations, Part 1: Borderline Cases
» ‘Muslim Majority’ Versus Islamic Nations, Part 2: Sharia Law and Islam as the State Religion
» United Nations Elects Saudi Arabia to Women’s Rights Commission
 
Australia — Pacific
» Gay Sex, Female Pop Stars and When Women Outnumber Men: What a Hardline Islamist Preacher Predicts for the End of the World in Bizarre Sermon
» ‘Loud Mouth Bludgerigar’: Firebrand MP Bob Katter Remains Unapologetic After He Says He’s ‘Nice to White Blokes’ And ‘Doesn’t Want Any Muslims Coming to Australia’
 
Immigration
» Italy Migrant Crisis: Charities ‘Colluding’ With Smugglers
» Saudi Woman Seeking Asylum ‘Forcibly’ Returned Home
» Visualizing the Collapse of the Middle Class in 20 Major U.S. Cities
 

107 Cancer Papers Retracted Due to Peer Review Fraud

The journal Tumor Biology is retracting 107 research papers after discovering that the authors faked the peer review process. This isn’t the journal’s first rodeo. Late last year, 58 papers were retracted from seven different journals— 25 came from Tumor Biology for the same reason.

It’s possible to fake peer review because authors are often asked to suggest potential reviewers for their own papers. This is done because research subjects are often blindingly niche; a researcher working in a sub-sub-field may be more aware than the journal editor of who is best-placed to assess the work.

But some journals go further and request, or allow, authors to submit the contact details of these potential reviewers. If the editor isn’t aware of the potential for a scam, they then merrily send the requests for review out to fake e-mail addresses, often using the names of actual researchers. And at the other end of the fake e-mail address is someone who’s in on the game and happy to send in a friendly review.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

CIA’s Brennan Conspired With Foreign Spies

[…]

When Brennan took over the CIA, he brought along fellow-travelers.

He dragged along “a raft of subversives and gave them plum positions from which to gather and leak political espionage on Trump,” Neumayr writes. He also “bastardized standards so that these left-wing activists could burrow in and take career positions. Under the patina of that phony professionalism, they could then present their politicized judgments as ‘non-partisan.’“

An official in the intelligence community told Neumayr that “Brennan’s retinue of political radicals didn’t even bother to hide their activism, decorating offices with ‘Hillary for president cups’ and other campaign paraphernalia.”

Neumayr cuts through the obsequious flattery the Guardian article bestows on its intelligence community sources, writing that things were so bad that Brennan’s CIA “operated like a branch office of the Hillary campaign, leaking out mentions of this bogus investigation to the press in the hopes of inflicting maximum political damage on Trump.” …

Throughout his service in the Obama administration, Brennan regurgitated the regime’s dangerously idiotic talking points about Islam. It’s not like he needed convincing.

Brennan has spoken of “the goodness and beauty of Islam,” which he calls “a faith of peace and tolerance.” “The tremendous warmth of Islamic cultures and societies,” he said, typically makes visitors from non-Muslim lands feel very “welcomed.”

Brennan was the CIA’s station chief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “I saw how our Saudi partners fulfilled their duty as custodians of the two holy mosques of Mecca and Medina,” he said. “I marveled at the majesty of the Hajj and the devotion of those who fulfilled their duty as Muslims by making that privilege — that pilgrimage.”

Former Marine John Guandolo, who worked in the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, identified Brennan as an enemy operative who converted to Islam.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Craziest Activist Photos From the #marchforscience #sciencemarchdc

Their true colors shine brightly: …

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

How to Talk Like a Social Justice Campus Crybully

We spent the second half of the last century in a long war with a bunch of leftists who wore funny clothes and shouted a jargon of incomprehensible slogans.

These days you can only find them in North Korea and on your local college campus.

As free speech disappears from campuses faster than beer during Hell Week, here’s your guide to understanding what the people taking away your free speech are saying while they pepper spray you. …

As the co-founder of the ACLU once put it, “I champion civil liberty as the best of the non-violent means of building the power on which worker’s rule must be based… When that power of the working class is once achieved, as it has been only in the Soviet Union, I am for maintaining it by any means whatever.”

If you stop by Berkeley or North Korea, you can see what “any means whatever” really entails.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

In Secret Court Hearing, Lawyer Objected to FBI Sifting Through NSA Data Like it Was Google

In her first appearance representing the American public before the top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2015, Amy Jeffress argued that the FBI is violating the Fourth Amendment by giving agents “virtually unrestricted” access to data from one of the NSA’s largest surveillance programs, which includes an untold amount of communications involving innocent Americans.

The NSA harvests data from major Internet companies like Facebook, Google and Apple without a warrant, because it is ostensibly “targeting” only foreigners. But the surveillance program sweeps up a large number of Americans’ communications as well. Then vast amounts of data from the program, including the Americans’ communications, are entered into a master database that a Justice Department lawyer at the 2015 hearing described as the “FBI’s ‘Google’ of its lawfully acquired information.”

The FBI routinely searches this database during ordinary criminal investigations — which gives them access to Americans’ communications without a warrant.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Threaten to Behead Hacker After He Took Over 250 Jihad Twitter Accounts and Filled Them With Porn and Gay Pride Messages

A HACKER who has planted porn and gay images on more than 250 ISIS Twitter accounts has been threatened with beheading.

The online warrior — known only as ‘WauchulaGhost’ — began targeting jihadist accounts 18 months ago because he believed somebody had to ‘stand up’ to those spreading the hate.

[Comment: The CIA should be doing stuff like this, instead of spying on Americans.]

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: Bill Nye Blows Gasket When a Real Scientist Schools Him on Facts About ‘Climate Change’

Bill Nye, known for his 1990’s science kid’s show who has since become an outspoken advocate on “climate change,” accused CNN of doing a “disservice” to its audience on Saturday by having a real scientist on their network to discuss climate change.

The CNN “New Day Saturday” panel, which included Nye and William Happer, a physicist at Princeton University,” became heated after Happer said the climate change that Nye talks about is a “myth.”

“There’s this myth that’s developed around carbon dioxide that it’s a pollutant, but you and I both exhale carbon dioxide with every breath. Each of us emits about two pounds of carbon dioxide a day, so are we polluting the planet?” Happer, who has advised President Donald Trump on climate issues, said.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Wheaton College Student Dies in Track Meet Accident

A Wheaton College student was killed Saturday after being accidentally hit by a hammer during a hammer throw event at a track and field competition.

Ethan Roser, 19, a freshman from Cincinnati, was volunteering at the Wheaton College track and field competition when he was struck at about 4:15 p.m. He had just transferred to the school in January.

Wheaton College Public Safety and paramedics were on the scene and Roser was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, where he was pronounced dead.

“We are deeply grieved, but, because of our faith in Christ, not without hope,” said Wheaton College President Philip Ryken in a statement. “We ask people to pray for Ethan’s family, his friends, and our campus community.”…

           — Hat tip: DV [Return to headlines]
 

WikiLeaks Releases Top-Secret CIA Documents

WikiLeaks has leaked what it calls a 31-page user manual for a device allegedly used by the CIA to spy on people from their televisions and smartphones.

The device, code named “Weeping Angel”, hit the headlines last month when WikiLeaks claimed the CIA had built the software to exploit vulnerabilities in Samsung products which would allow them to turn any phone or smart TV into a listening device. The group described the software as something out of George Orwell’s 1984.

The newly released CIA documents appear to corroborate the earlier claims about the capabilities of the system.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

France: Far-Left Presidential Candidate Blames ‘Discrimination’ And ‘State’ For Islamist Paris Attack

PARIS (AP) — Far-left presidential candidate Philippe Poutou is blaming French politics for the deadly attack on Paris’ Champs-Elysees, in which a police officer and the attacker were killed.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Macron Against Arresting and Deporting Radical Islamists

En Marche presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron slammed Marine Le Pen’s proposal to arrest radical Islamists saying it would be counter-productive to intelligence efforts.

Mr Macron took direct exception to Le Pen’s comments Friday morning when the Front National presidential candidate called for the arrest of all known radical Islamists and the deportation of Islamists without French citizenship Le Figaro reports. Le Pen made the comments after reports that the shooter of three police in Paris Thursday night had been known to police as an Islamic extremist.

“The goal is an intelligence goal,” Macron said. “ If you put them all in jail, first of all, it is not in accordance with the law,” he added, “The goal is to follow them. The police must be able to work in the best possible way.”…

Overall Macron’s reaction to the terror attack Thursday has been what he’s called a “spirit of responsibility in this extreme period” and described terrorism as, “part of our daily lives for the years to come.”

[Comment: Traitor and Globalist stooge.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Macron Faces Le Pen for French for French Presidency

Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron will face anti-EU, anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen in the French presidential run-off duel on May 7, according to initial estimates after Sunday’s hotly contested first round.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Scotland’s Papers: Tory ‘Shock’ Poll and Lockerbie Appeal

The Conservatives in Scotland are poised for a “remarkable” general election breakthrough which could derail the SNP’s independence campaign, according to a Sunday Times poll.

[Comment: The article is a rundown of newspaper headlines.]

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Listen to Interpreter Translate Mohammed Aslam’s Pitch for Mayor of Greater Manchester — Seriously.

This man is running for Mayor of Greater Manchester. Listen to the BBC’s interpreter translate his mayoral pitch into English. Seriously.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Did Russia Shoot Down US Missiles in Syria?

In an exclusive video interview with RiskHedge, a long-time geopolitical expert says there is an alternate story making the rounds about the United States’ April 7 missile strike on Syria’s Shayrat Airbase in response to the Syrian regime’s alleged use of sarin gas on its own people.

“Not all missiles made their target,” says Dr. Theodore Karasik, a senior advisor to Gulf State Analytics. “There were supposed to be 60. One malfunctioned on one of the ships. 36 made target, the remainder did not. And, there’s a question of where did they go?”

Dr. Karasik, a former senior political scientist in the International Policy and Security Group at RAND Corporation, spent the last decade in the Middle East and retains an extensive network in the region.

“The missing [missiles] were either brought down by S-300 battery or were taken over by Russian electronic jamming and were plunged into the sea,” explains Dr. Karasik. “Now, this alternative theory means that the US and Russia have already clashed if you will — technically — with the use of the TLAMs (Tomahawk missiles) and then being intercepted or taken over by Russian control.”

If true, this means the US and Russia have had a direct military confrontation for the first time in decades.

“This is very important,” says Dr. Karasik, “because it illustrates that we’ve had our first encounter with the Russians, and that sets the stage for potentially future encounters between Washington and Russia on the Syrian battlefield.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Divided Turkey: Erdogan Leads His Country Into the Abyss

Tayyip Erdogan emerged victorious from last Sunday’s referendum, but his slim margin of victory may actually have weakened his rule. Opposition to the Turkish president’s power grab is forming and the EU can do little other than stand aside and watch.

Nothing can hold them back. Not the rain, not the wind and not the well-armed anti-terrorism police. On Tuesday evening, several thousand demonstrators marched through Istanbul, a diverse group including students, pensioners, women in headscarves and punks, and many of them held up signs as they walked: “No to the presidency!” They also chanted: “Thief! Murderer! Erdogan!” And: “This is just the beginning. Our fight goes on!”

The protests began on Sunday, just a few hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed victory in the referendum that grants him significantly expanded powers and the demonstrations have become larger on each successive day since then, spreading to more than three dozen cities. People in Ankara and Izmir, in Adana and Mersin, in Edirne and Canakkale have taken to the streets in opposition to Erdogan, accusing him of having manipulated the vote on the constitutional referendum.

According to media reports, the country’s electoral commission accepted up to 2.5 million ballots despite their not having been stamped in accordance with the rules. Election observers from the OSCE found significant shortcomings with the vote, outlined in a 14-page preliminary report that also noted the unfairness of the campaign leading up to the referendum. The vote itself, the organization found, also violated some aspects of Turkish law. The opposition has refused to recognize the results.

“Erdogan robbed us of victory,” says Istanbul-based businessman Koray Türkay, who is one of the organizers of the protests in Istanbul.

For the time being, only a small portion of the Turkish population is rising up against the government, with a total of 20,000 people thought to have participated in the nationwide protests. Türkay, though, is nevertheless drawing parallels to the Gezi Park protests in summer 2013, which were ultimately crushed by the police…

           — Hat tip: KS [Return to headlines]
 

‘Majority Muslim’ Versus Islamic Nations, Part 1: Borderline Cases

Three of the toughest borderline cases are Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey.

Indonesia: Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. Indonesia has about 207 million Muslim inhabitants, with a total population of 250 million, making it over 80 percent Muslim. …

And yet, the UK Daily Mail reported on Indonesia’s “masked sharia law enforcers” on Monday, including photographs of a man and woman receiving 25 lashes in public for violating Islamic law by “spending time with somebody who is not their husband or wife.” A woman took 100 lashes with a cane recently for sex outside of marriage, according to the report.

Gambling, drinking alcohol, women failing to wear headscarves, and homosexuality are also punished with beatings in Aceh province, which the Daily Mail explains is “the only province in the country which implements sharia law in full,” following a 2001 grant of autonomy from the central government in Jakarta

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

‘Muslim Majority’ Versus Islamic Nations, Part 2: Sharia Law and Islam as the State Religion

In Part 1 of this look at the Islamic world, we examined three nations with Muslim majority populations where the future of religious freedom is in question.

Next, we will run through the Muslim-majority countries where Islam is the state religion. …

Bangladesh made international headlines over the past two years for the murders of atheist and gay-rights bloggers by Islamist vigilantes. “As the world progresses under the banner of freedom of expression, we seem to be hurtling backwards,” one blogger told CNN in 2016. Religious freedom activists criticized the Bangladeshi government for spending more time denouncing the victims and imprisoning bloggers than hunting for the killers.

ISIS and al-Qaeda are both active in Bangladesh, claiming responsibility for much of its religious violence. …

The Tunisian government is fighting a political and physical struggle with the radical Islamist party Hizb al-Tahrir. Ominously, there have been polls that show a growing majority of Tunisian citizens reject the principle of religious freedom and oppose marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims.

In Part 3, we’ll complete our examination by looking at Muslim majority countries where Islam is not the official state religion.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

United Nations Elects Saudi Arabia to Women’s Rights Commission

The United Nations Economic and Social Council voted late last week to place Saudi Arabia on the Commission on the Status of Women for a four-year term beginning in 2018, despite that country’s appalling record on the treatment of women.

Hillel Neuer, director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, expressed his outrage in a statement Friday:

“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “It’s absurd.”

“Every Saudi woman,” said Neuer, “must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death. Saudi Arabia also bans women from driving cars.”

According to UN Watch, the United States forced a formal vote, against China’s wishes, instead of allowing the normal practice of allowing regional groupings to select the nations on the commission by themselves, in secret.

However, the vote was still held behind closed doors, meaning it is not yet clear precisely which countries voted to honor one of the world’s foremost abusers of women’s rights. Neuer calculates, based on the voting math, that at least five European Union member states would have had to vote for Saudi Arabia for it to win a seat on the commission.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Gay Sex, Female Pop Stars and When Women Outnumber Men: What a Hardline Islamist Preacher Predicts for the End of the World in Bizarre Sermon

A fundamentalist Muslim preacher in Sydney Omar Najjarine has declared the world is coming to an end when men look like women, there’s gay sex and female pop stars.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘Loud Mouth Bludgerigar’: Firebrand MP Bob Katter Remains Unapologetic After He Says He’s ‘Nice to White Blokes’ And ‘Doesn’t Want Any Muslims Coming to Australia’

Firebrand Queensland MP Bob Katter (pictured) has responded to the comments made on camera confessing he does not want any Muslims in Australia at a NSW pub.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Migrant Crisis: Charities ‘Colluding’ With Smugglers

An Italian prosecutor says he has evidence some of the charities saving migrants in the Mediterranean Sea are colluding with people-smugglers.

Carmelo Zuccaro told La Stampa (in Italian) phone calls were being made from Libya to rescue vessels.

Organisations involved in rescue operations have rejected accusations of collusion, saying their only concern is to save lives.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Woman Seeking Asylum ‘Forcibly’ Returned Home

A Saudi woman has reportedly been repatriated to the kingdom after trying to seek asylum

Social media users are rallying behind a Saudi woman who claims she was forcibly returned to the kingdom by her family as she tried to seek asylum in Australia.

Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, was reportedly en route from Kuwait to Australia via the Philippines, but was taken back home from Manila airport by her family.

She used a Canadian tourist’s phone to send a message, a video of which was posted to Twitter, saying her family would kill her.

She is said to have arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday night and her fate remains unknown. There is an online appeal with the hashtag #SaveDinaAli aiming to help her.

However, some people have cast doubt on the story, and the Philippines Bureau of Immigration denied ever detaining ever.

The Saudi embassy in the Philippines confirmed that the citizen had returned to Saudi, adding that what happened was a “family affair”.

           — Hat tip: RR [Return to headlines]
 

Visualizing the Collapse of the Middle Class in 20 Major U.S. Cities

When future historians look back at the beginning of the 21st century, they’ll note that we grappled with many big issues. They’ll write about the battle between nationalism and globalism, soaring global debt, a dysfunctional healthcare system, societal concerns around automation and AI, and pushback on immigration. They will also note the growing number of populist leaders in Western democracies, ranging from Marine Le Pen to Donald Trump.

However, as Visual Cpitalist’s Jeff Desjardins notes, these historians will not view these ideas and events in isolation. Instead, they will link them all, at least partially, to an overarching trend that is intimately connected to today’s biggest problems: the “hollowing out” of the middle class.

The fact is many people have less money in their pockets — and understandably, this has motivated people to take action against the status quo.

And while the collapse of the middle class and income inequality are issues that receive a fair share of discussion, we thought that this particular animation from Metrocosm helped to put things in perspective.

The following animation shows the change in income distribution in 20 major U.S. cities between 1970 and 2015:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

8 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/23/2017

  1. “The United Nations has voted to give Saudi Arabia a place on the Commission on the Status of Women…”

    What does the UN have against humor? Like all leftist communist organizations, it co-opts any possible satire by acting as an extreme parody of its own stereotype.

    But, on the flip side, there will be much humor in watching the Saudis soft-shoe their obvious military alliance with Israel as they try to maintain their appearance as the defenders of Muslim orthodoxy, which includes the claim that the entire state of Israel is Muslim.

    • Next on the list: Reynard the Fox’s election to the Commission for the Protection of Hen Houses.

    • The feminization of the West is the reason it is dying. Where are the men?

      Islam has real men, admittedly half crazed, but they will fight to the death for their beliefs. Westerns have no beliefs to defend. There’s no reason to fight for …nothing, is there?

  2. I sincerely wish that the United States of America introduces the firing squad for proven traitors such as John O. Brennan and Barack Hussein Obama – after a fair trial of course.

  3. On Bob Katter and his ‘Loud Mouth Bludgerigar’ utterance that seems to have been treated by the DM as a mispronunciation, not that many of the staff at the DM are that worldly wise and who, unlike Katter, are not that astute when assessing when someone is taking the ‘mickey’ out of someone else, in other words, when someone like that young man was trying to make a fool of Katter when in fact, Katter ain’t nobody’s fool.

    Katter has merged the name of a native bird, the ‘Budgerigar’ that is noted for its colorful plumage and squawking ability and the term ‘Bludger’, which is an Australian colloquialism in reference to a very lazy and indolent person into the term ‘Bludgerigar’ to describe his would be ‘Mickey taker’ or detractor.

    So who was really being taken to the cleaners in this little expose?

  4. More proof the UN is a joke and OIC-front that should be defunded and ejected from US soil immediately.

  5. Macron’s comments regarding deportations and his comments mirroring the mayor of London that terrorism is “part of big city life” confirm him as a dhimmified Saudi pet, if not a secret convert.

    No surprise on the medical paper fraud…the low-hanging fruit is all gone, and the pressure to justify your grant money is immense. On top of that, you have the human predilection for twisting the numbers to fit a predetermined conclusion. Same as every other field of endeavor these days.

    • Frankly you have to be very suspicious of anyone, as a teenager, declaring his intention to marry his teacher who is old enough
      To be his MOTHER!

      Mind you, should he be elected, the French equivalent of Age
      Concern can look forward to an increase in funding!

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