A large section of a street in South Los Angeles blew up today, sending pieces of pavement into the air and damaging cars. Miraculously, no one was hurt. The blast was said to have occurred in an electrical vault under the street, but the exact cause is as yet unknown. The incident was similar to one in London, where a “power network” explosion caused panic among shoppers and motorists on Oxford Street.
In other news, Spain’s constitutional court has blocked next month’s independence referendum in Catalonia. The Catalonia government says it will proceed with the referendum anyway.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Charles Low, Dean, DV, Insubria, JD, LP, Reader from Chicago, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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Is This the Global Elites’ Secret Plan for Cryptocurrencies?
Interest in Bitcoin is red hot at the moment. It’s impossible to open a website, listen to a podcast, or watch a video in the financial space without hearing about the meteoric rise in the price of Bitcoin.
Maybe you know a “Bitcoin millionaire” who bought five hundred Bitcoins a few years back for $50,000 and is now sitting on a Bitcoin fortune worth over $2,000,000. It’s true, those people actually do exist.
Yet the crypto-hysteria is distracting you from a scary truth no one is talking about.
There is every indication that governments, regulators, tax authorities, and the global elite are moving in for the crypto-kill.
The future of Bitcoin may be a dystopia in which Big Brother controls what’s called “the blockchain” and decides when and how you can buy or sell anything and everything.
Furthermore, cryptocurrency technology could be the very mechanism used by global elites to replace the dollar based financial system.
In 1958, Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party of China and China’s dictatorial leader was confronted with demoralized intellectuals and artists who were alienated by Communist rule. As a policy response, he declared a new policy of intellectual freedom.
Mao declared, “The policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science.”
This declaration is referred to as the “Hundred Flowers Campaign” (often misquoted as the “thousand flowers campaign”). The response to Mao’s invitation was an enthusiastic outpouring of creative thought and artistic expression.
What came next was no surprise to those familiar with the operation of state power. Once the intellectuals and artists emerged, it was easy for Mao’s secret police to round them up, kill and torture some, and send others to “reeducation camps” where they learned ideological conformity.
The Hundred Flowers Movement was a trap for those who placed their trust in the state.
[Comment: Highly recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CAIR Forms an Outpost at Georgetown U
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) “will always hold a very, very special place in my heart until the day I die,” declared Arsalan Iftikhar on April 1 at CAIR-Oklahoma’s annual awards banquet in Oklahoma City. The commentator’s affection for the Hamas-derived, Islamist CAIR has now landed him a position at Georgetown University’s fount of Islamist propaganda, the anti-”Islamophobia” Bridge Initiative.
Iftikhar will fit right in at Bridge, a “multi-year research project” of Georgetown’s Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU). Bridge’s claim “to fulfill Thomas Jefferson’s dream of a ‘well-informed citizenry’“ is laughable to anyone familiar with ACMCU’s Potemkin village of academic integrity. Past ACMCU speakers have included 9/11 Truthers, while the center disinvited an Egyptian neo-Nazi only after public outcry.
With Iftikhar’s hire, Bridge/ACMCU becomes effectively a branch of CAIR, as this self-proclaimed “Muslim Guy” worked with CAIR beginning in 2000 while in law school and then served as CAIR’s national legal director until 2007. At CAIR he formed relationships with other organizational leaders, including his fellow banquet speaker and “dear brother” Hassan Shibly, a radical Israel-hater and Hamas— and Hezb’allah-supporter. Such are the less than pacific associations of Iftikhar, a “proud American Muslim pacifist.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Communists Funding the Resistance: The Alliance for Global Justice
During the salad days of the Cold War, communists developed a clever tactic for infiltrating the mainstream of American society. Whenever they founded an organization, they almost never used the term “Communist” in the name. Rather, communists would give the organization a professional-sounding title.
Groups like American Youth for Democracy, League of American Writers, and National Lawyers Guild were either fronts for the Soviet Union or established by American-born communists. By using an innocuous title, these groups were able to make themselves appealing to mainstream America. Avoiding the term Communist, they were able to hide their true aim, the spread of an ideology that destroyed liberty and caused the deaths of tens of millions of persons.
After the Cold War, communists replaced the veneer of professionalism in their titles with a hefty dollop of sanctimony. Otherwise, the tactic is the same: employ a name that, on its face, few will find objectionable and that hides the group’s true goals.
One of the better known such groups is International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER). This group came to prominence during the Iraq War of the last decade. ANSWER is an umbrella group that organizes anti-war protests. About the only objection one could have was to point out how sanctimonious its name was.
But the group’s seemingly innocent title concealed a sinister reality. ANSWER was established by the International Action Center, a front group for the Workers World Party. The Workers World Party wears its communism on it sleeve, openly embracing the totalitarian nightmare that is North Korea.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Explosion Injures 1 at Indiana Post Office; FBI Investigates
East Chicago, Ind. — The FBI is leading an investigation Thursday into an explosion at a post office in northwestern Indiana that injured a postal worker.
The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports that FBI Special Agent Bob Ramsey said the woman was taken to a hospital after the explosion about 6 p.m. on Wednesday in East Chicago. Details of her injuries weren’t released, but Fire Chief Anthony Serna said they weren’t life-threatening.
An FBI statement to the Chicago Sun-Times said it’s “yet to be determined if this is an act of domestic or international terrorism, but at this time there is no ongoing public safety concern.” The statement said the investigation was in its early stages.
The Associated Press left a message with the FBI Thursday seeking new information.
In addition to federal agents and local fire officials, local law enforcement also assisted in the investigation. The Porter County’s bomb squad responded with a bomb disposal robot. K-9 units from the Lake County Sheriff’s Department were at the scene.
A roadway near the post office was blocked off as authorities investigated.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Hiding in Plain Sight: New Hampshire Mosque Preaches Terrorism
A concerned New Englander recently arranged for the assessment of the Islamic Society of New Hampshire’s (ISoNH) mosque in Manchester in that state. He had noticed a disproportionate number of military-age males visiting the mosque and heard from many local women who said they were frightened by the attitudes some of these men expressed toward them. The results of the man’s research were more frightening.
P. David Gaubatz, co-author of Muslim Mafia, was hired to assess this mosque. He is a former Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) federal agent who specialized in Islamic counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism. According to his book, he worked and lived in the Middle East for decades and was the first civilian federal agent in Iraq at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom (March 2003). That year he led a 15-man team to extract family members of the Iraqi lawyer who helped save Army Private First Class Jessica Lynch. He has investigated over 280 mosques in the U.S. alone and uses a rating system developed by a former Islamist, Tafik Hamid.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Shot by Police at Miami International Airport, Reports Say
A man was shot by Miami-Dade County police at Miami International Airport late Thursday, CBS4 reported.
Airport officials said at least one shot was fired in Terminal J but that the “situation is under control.” It is unclear why the person was shot…
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Natural Gas Leaking in South L.A. Neighborhood After Underground Vault Explosion
Natural gas is leaking in a South Los Angeles neighborhood on Thursday after an underground vault exploded, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Gas levels are above normal along Brynhurst Avenue between 64th Street and Hyde Park Boulevard and residents are being advised to temporarily stay inside their homes, the Department said.
A vault in the 6200 block of South Brynhurst Avenue in the Hyde Park neighborhood exploded on Wednesday afternoon leaving a large hole in the middle of the street. At least two man-hole covers appeared to have been blown off.
No injuries were reported but the explosion did damage one SUV in the area. One resident told KTLA the explosion felt like a “mini earthquake.”
Authorities with the Fire Department initially believed the explosion was the result of an electrical malfunction, but representatives with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power found no evidence of an electrical event or disruption to electrical service.
LADWP crews are continuing to inspect the circuits and LAFD and SoCal Gas officials are investigating the cause of the explosion, authorities added.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
NYC Mayor Goes Full Commie, Calls for End of Private Property
Bill De Blasio channels Karl Marx in a recent interview
In an interview with New York Magazine, NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio revealed his distaste for one of America’s oldest institutions of freedom… private property.
When Chris Smith asked De Blasio about reducing income inequality in New York City, he said this:
What’s been hardest is the way our legal system is structured to favor private property. I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be. I think there’s a socialistic impulse, which I hear every day, in every kind of community, that they would like things to be planned in accordance to their needs. And I would, too. Unfortunately, what stands in the way of that is hundreds of years of history that have elevated property rights and wealth to the point that that’s the reality that calls the tune on a lot of development.
The comments clearly advocate a Communist-style, government-controlled private property system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The news from the ex-Sun community jungle drums is that the January rumours were true and Oracle laid off the core talent of the Solaris and SPARC teams on Friday. That surely has to mean a maintenance-only future for the product range, especially with Solaris 12 cancelled. A classic Oracle “silent EOL”, no matter what they claim.
With the hardware deprecated, my guess is that’s the last of the Sun assets Oracle acquired written off. Just how good were Oracle’s decisions on buying Sun?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oracle Just Killed Solaris/Sparc/Zfs Teams
Oracle’s silence on the matter is true to form, as the company seldom discusses layoffs. This round was communicated to workers on the Friday before a long weekend and on the first day of the month. That timing means that immediate media scrutiny was less likely and that regulatory filings under US States’ Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) regulations will remain out of sight for extra days in jurisdictions that report them weekly, or extra weeks in States that publish monthly.
[Comment: Discussion thread is interesting reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Public Schools Throughout the Nation Mandate Islamic Indoctrination
By NWV Senior Political News Writer, Jim Kouri
In April, NewsWithViews.com published a news story about Islamic indoctrination in the San Diego, California, schools. Now we have discovered the indoctrination is spreading to school districts such as Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Parents throughout the U.S. have been objecting to a school program called “Access Islam.” The federally-funded program is directed at grade-school children is also featured on various websites. States such as Maryland and Massachusetts are now joined by New Jersey, where Morris County’s Chatham Township has jumped into the legal fray.
The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a non-profit, public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced that it is representing two Chatham Township (Morris County), New Jersey mothers who are being lambasted by members of their own community.
“Their crime: appearing on Fox TV’s Tucker Carlson Show to voice concerns about the Islamic indoctrination of Chatham Middle School seventh graders,” according to a TMLC press statement…
In one homework assignment obtained by a news outlet, the question was asked: “How did Muslim conquerors treat those they conquered?” The correct answer was, “With tolerance, kindness and respect.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher: Russian Collusion Lie “One of the Great Political Crimes” In History
Media’s narrative begins to collapse
California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher says the Trump-Russia collusion “con job” is one of the biggest political crimes inflicted on the American people in history.
Rohrabacher blamed the politicization of the intelligence agencies for the witch hunt that has dogged President Trump since he won the election.
“Once we know the Russians weren’t involved, then we have to understand that this massive propaganda campaign, this historic con-job that happened after the election to prevent our president from exercising the powers granted to him by the voters, this is one of the great political crimes committed against the American people in our history,” Rohrabacher told Hannity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Schlichter: ‘Woke’ Conservatives Threaten RINO Status Quo
#NeverTrump GOP politicians to face consequences in 2018
So what does the GOP establishment do in 2018 when it comes before us dirty, nasty normals and tries to make the case that its members deserve being reelected to Congress instead of being tarred and feathered?
After seven years of solemn assurances, it couldn’t even get its act together and keep its promise to put a stake through the heart of the abomination that is Obamacare. But hey — when Donald Trump kept his promise to undo DACA, that sure spurred the True Conservatives to action.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two Nuclear Power Plants in Florida Are Directly in the Path of Hurricane Irma
They have not even started the process of shutting down…
Hurricane Irma is more powerful than all of the other major Atlantic storms this year combined, and it has an eye as large as the entire Detroit metro area. It is being reported that “upwards of 90%” of Barbuda has already been destroyed by the storm, and it is being projected that some areas of Puerto Rico could be without power “for between four and six months”. You may want to view these photos and these videos to get a better idea of the immense destructiveness of this very powerful storm. The latest forecasts have Hurricane Irma making landfall in Florida, but so far the two nuclear power plants in Florida that would be directly in the path of the storm have not even started the process of shutting down…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Underground Explosion Obliterates South LA Street
SOUTH LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The LADWP is still trying to figure out the cause of an underground explosion Wednesday on a busy street in South L.A.
Several streets remained blocked off through Wednesday night at Brynhurst Avenue and 63rd street in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
The blast happened around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, sending asphalt and two 250-pound manhole covers flying.
Brian Jefferson and his brother Adrian live right next to where it happened.
“I just heard a real loud sound, kind of like a boom, like there was truck accident,” Brian Jefferson said.
Incredibly, no one was hurt in the blast, but several parked cars were damaged and windshields were shattered…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Little Return on Billions Poured Into Ontario Education
Ontario has increased spending on the public education system by a whopping $7 billion over the last decade, even though student enrolment dropped more than 5% in that time, according to a new study.
The Fraser Institute study — Education Spending and Public Student Enrolment in Canada — also found teacher and staff salaries, benefits and pensions ate up more than 80% of that massive cash injection.
“Contrary to what we often hear, more and more money is being spent on fewer and fewer students in Ontario’s public education system,” said study co-author Angela MacLeod, of the Fraser Institute’s Barbara Mitchell Centre for Improvement in Education.
[Comment: Don’t forget all the money has been spent by Ontario Liberals on pushing the pedophile created “education” program to sexualize children.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Could Still Reverse Brexit, Former Minister Heseltine Says
“There is now a possibility that Brexit will not happen…”
Brexit could be reversed if economic pain prompts a change in public opinion that brings a new generation of political leaders to power in Britain, former Conservative minister Michael Heseltine said.
Heseltine, who helped topple Margaret Thatcher in 1990 but ultimately failed to win the top job, said that Britain could face another election in just two years and that Prime Minister Theresa May would not lead the party into that election.
A supporter of EU membership, Heseltine said he saw a scenario in which Britain would not leave the European Union as scheduled in late March 2019.
“There is now a possibility that Brexit will not happen, but it will need a change in public opinion,” Heseltine, 84, told Reuters in an interview.
[Comment: Globalists keep pushing and pushing until they get the answer they want…typical globalist bullying tactics.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
European Union Calls for Internet Censorship
A leaked document from the European Union reveals that the EU presidency is calling for massive internet censorship and filtering.
European Digital Rights (EDRi) reported on Wednesday that a Council of the European Union document leaked by Statewatch on August 30 reveals that Estonia, which is currently seated as the EU Presidency, has been pushing other member states to adopt all manner of internet surveillance.
The proposals, if adopted, call for European countries to follow in China’s footsteps regarding online censorship
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris ‘Bomb Factory’ Suspects Believed to Have Links to Syria
French authorities investigating a suspected bomb factory near Paris believe three suspects were preparing attacks and had made calls to Syria, a minister said Thursday.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the suspects were possibly planning to attack a bank and had made phone calls to unidentified contacts in Syria.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Macron Urges Sweeping Reforms or Risk Disintegration of European Union
Standing at a Greek site where democracy was conceived, French President Emmanuel Macron called on members of the European Union to reboot the 60-year-old bloc with sweeping political reforms or risk a “slow disintegration.”
Macron, on a visit Thursday to Athens, urged EU nations to carry out six-month national reviews on EU reforms before imposing them, signalling his distance with the German-backed approach based on fiscal discipline within the euro zone.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Le Pen, FN Aims for ‘Deep Relaunch’
French populist leader Marine Le Pen made her first public appearance in several weeks Thursday as she tries to relaunch the National Front party.
Le Pen and the National Front decided is was time to rebrand the party after she suffered a crushing defeat against Emmanuel Macron in May’s presidential election. The party was handed another major blow in June when it failed to reach its aim of winning 15 seats in parliament.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Merkel Rival Schulz Pledges Free Vote on Cannabis, Angering Conservatives
Social Democrat (SPD) leader Martin Schulz announced on Tuesday that he would allow a free vote on cannabis consumption. Now the goevrnment’s drug commissar ahs reacted angrily.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rossini Opera Festival Chief Quits
After Audit Court concern over pay
(ANSA) — Pesaro, September 7 — The superintendent of the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF), Gianfranco Mariotti, said Thursday he had decided to step down.
Mariotti said the decision was taken in “the full serenity of spirit” after Italy’s Audit Court recently voiced concerns over his pay from the ROF.
Calling on Mariotti to reconsider, Pesaro Mayor Matteo Ricci said he was an “extraordinary figure” and a “patrimony of the city”.
The ROF, founded in 1980, is an international music festival held in August of each year in Pesaro, the birthplace of the opera composer Gioachino Rossini. Its aim, in addition to studying the musical heritage of the composer, is to revive and perform his works in a unique setting that allows collaboration of scholars, artists, and audience. It is often simply referred to as the Pesaro Festival.
Performances are given in the 850-seat theatre built in 1818, the Teatro Rossini and, since 1988, the modified “Palasport” sports arena which holds 1,500. photo: Mariotti between singers Jessica Pratt (L) and Lena Belkina
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catalonia: Court Blocks Independence Referendum
Spain’s constitutional court has suspended a referendum law passed by the Catalan parliament to hold a vote on independence next month.
The court says it will consider whether the law breaches Spain’s constitution.
Despite the decision, Catalan leaders say the vote will be held as planned on 1 October.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Ranked Worst Place to Make Friends… Again
For the umpteenth time in a row, exparts have ranked Sweden as one of the worst countires in the world to make friends in. But is it really that bad? We let our readers have their say.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Three Injured in Reykjavik Explosion
A garage blew up in Skipholt, a street near central Reykjavik this morning.
One man has been taken to hospital. According to the Reykjavik Fire Department, who have put out the fire, an explosion had occurred inside the garage causing the garage door to blow off the building.
The garage had seemingly been furnished as an apartment.
Police are at the site to investigate what caused the explosion.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Oxford Street Explosion: People Filmed Running in Terror
Video posted to Twitter appears to show smoke in the distance as people have reported scenes of panic.
One witness said her friend had heard people screaming and crying as an explosion erupted.
“What’s going on on Oxford Street..? Smoke and running,” another asked.
A third added: “Meters away from an explosion on Oxford Street.”
“That moment when you see crowds of people running past your restaurant’s window in horror looking back,” one onlooker wrote.
Pictures circulating on Twitter shows dozens of police at the scene.
The popular tourist hotspot is closed off between Oxford Circus and John Lewis with buses on diversion.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Police have evacuated part of Oxford Street after a “power network” explosion in the street which left shoppers running in terror.
One man was injured and many ran into shops to hide after the incident which happened at 7pm on Thursday night.
Several paving slabs were dislodged by the blast and black charred material was scattered across the path.
Adam Jogee tweeted: “Terrifying few moments in John Lewis on Oxford Street. Explosion and lots of screaming, crying and shouting. All told to hide or get out.”
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Young Muslims in the UK are less likely to succeed in the workplace due to Islamophobia, a new report suggests.
The report found that among 16 to 74-year-olds, only one in five (19.8%) of the Muslim population is in full-time employment, compared to more than one in three (34.9%) of the overall population in England and Wales.
Research by the Social Mobility Commission found young Muslims feel they are being hampered in getting jobs because applicants with ethnic-sounding names are less likely to get interviews.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: That Stinks: Car Explodes When Cigarette Ignites Air Freshener Leaking From Can
A woman escaped death in a DIY store car park when she lit a cigarette inside her car and an air freshener caused an explosion.
Sharon Victoria Druitt , 51, went into her car after shopping at B&Q in Essex, UK, where she bought the industrial air freshener.
Gases leaking from the air freshener was ignited by the ignited cigarette, said Essex Fire and Rescue Service.
The doors, roof and windscreen were completely blown out of the Ford Focus in a “very loud bang”.
Sharon managed to scramble out of the car after the windscreen hurled 30 feet into the air and all four doors blew off. She is being treated for burns to her arm in Southend Hospital.
Speaking after the explosion, Sharon said “I put the air freshener in the backseat, lit a cigarette, turned the engine on then bang.”
She added: “I was on morphine from the moment I left the car park so I had no idea of the damage. The officer said to me “do you know what you got out of?” and showed me the images of the car after the explosion.”
A man who saw the roof of the car blazing after the explosion said: “I have never heard anything like it. At first we thought it was a terrorist attack because of the world we live in.
“Then I just heard screams and ran to the car and all the windows were smashed and the doors were buckled. The whole car park is covered in bits of car.”
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Swede’s Fluent Arabic Earns Him Global Internet Fame
Carl ‘Kalle’ Alm has become an internet hit sensation after the blond Swedish security guard was filmed while chatting away with an Iraqi man — in fluent Arabic.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Hurricane Irma Wipes a Caribbean Island Off the Map
The intensity of Hurricane Irma is already making a huge impact on those in the path of this storm’s fury. The hurricane has even wiped an entire island off the map, destroying almost every building on it and flooding it to the point that it’s now underwater.
The tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda is “uninhabitable” and “literally underwater” after it was steamrolled by Hurricane Irma. Officials in the Caribbean said as the superstorm’s confirmed death toll climbed to eight and it could still go higher. Barbuda could take years to make habitable again.
“As it stands, Barbuda is practically uninhabitable,” Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne told Antigua/Barbuda Broadcasting Services. He added that the destruction on the island, which is home to about 1,800 people was “heart-wrenching” and most of it is now completely underwater.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sonic Attacks in Havana: An Act of War?
These are the established facts: since late 2016 and continuing into 2017 some 19 U.S. embassy personnel while in the U.S. embassy in Havana (the capital of Cuba) have reported serious medical injuries due to (sonic or electromagnetic?) attacks. These injuries range from some permanent loss of hearing to brain trauma rising to the level of concussion. These attacks have also caused similar injuries to Canadian embassy employees (it is unreported as to both when these attacks occurred and whether the Canadians were in the U.S. Embassy when they were subject to these attacks).
These attacks have occurred since President Obama’s decision to both lift sanctions against and normalize relations with Communist Cuba. This decision is opening the way for renewed mass tourism and the investment of billions, perhaps tens of billions, of dollars in modern hotels and resorts to service those legions of tourists waiting to come to Communist Cuba (along with a host of pedophiles and other sex tourists). Those readers with a sense of history will find it highly ironic that the end of U.S. sanctions and the return of international tourism to Cuba in the 21st century will likely return Cuba to a similar economic situation that its people found themselves in prior to the Communist Revolution that brought Castro to power in the mid-1950s — that of a nation engaged primarily in sugar production and tourism.
The Cuban government has repeatedly denied any responsibility for any such attacks (so, no de jure Act of War). The host nation (Cuba, in this case) does have a responsibility to provide both outer security for all foreign embassies and to make a thorough investigation of any attacks, which will hopefully result in the prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible for attacks launched from its territory into any foreign embassy, which is considered to be sovereign territory of that other nation.
Given that the attacks have been occurring for nearly a year’s time, it seems very suspect (something does not ring true) that the Cuban authorities, which are not hindered by both the rule of law and civic rights for its subjects (not citizens) have neither been able to stop them, nor make any arrests.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Irma Destroys International Airport
Terminal severely damaged by 185 mph winds
Hurricane Irma has destroyed the Princess Juliana International Airport as it barreled through St. Martin.
Photos of the airport, which is well-known for its low-flying aircraft skimming over Maho Beach, show its terminal severely damaged and at least one of its boarding bridges torn apart.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria’s Freedom Party Criticizes Ecj Ruling on Migrant Quotas
VIENNA (Reuters) — The leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) on Thursday criticized the European Union’s top court for upholding Brussels’ right to force member states to take in asylum-Seekers, calling the quota system an “immigration program”.
Heinz-Christian Strache, whose anti-immigrant party could become kingmaker in next month’s parliamentary election, took sides with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French Monastery Turned Into Asylum Centre
A former Roman Catholic monastery in the town of Troisvaux in Nothern France has been transformed into an asylum centre as the number of migrants in Calais starts to rise once again.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Foreign Ministry: International Community Pushing ‘Global Compact’ For Regular Migration
Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acknowledged publicly that the international community “is at work to develop a Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration,” confirming the fears of those who believed such a plan was in motion.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Will Not Bend to EU Pressure Over Migrants: FM
Poland will not bend to pressure from the European Union to take in migrants under a mandatory quota programme, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Welcomes Failed Asylum Seekers From Finland
Around 50 failed asylum seekers crossed the border from Finland into Sweden at the border crossing in Torneå, in full view of authorities, hoping to claim asylum.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Conservatives Propose Stricter Rules for Citizenship
Sweden’s main opposition party, the Moderates, want to tighten the rules for people seeking Swedish citizenship, suggesting a string of new measures they say will encourage integration and better correspond to the rules of other Nordic countries and Germany.
(Comment: Sweden will survive and be a great place when citizens are willing to integrate into Swedish culture. The areas which cause a lot of trouble to the Swedish police.).
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism, Migrants, Extremism at Top of Germans’ Fears Ahead of Election
Terrorism, political extremism, and social tensions due to mass migration are Germans’ greatest concerns ahead of the federal election, according to a survey.
The annual survey by R & V insurance published Thursday reveals that at the top of Germans’ concerns was terrorism, with 71 per cent of respondents saying they were fearful of potential terror attacks, reports Die Welt.
[Comment: Yet they are going to re-elect Merkel.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Top EU Court Denies Eastern States Refusal to Host Migrants
EU threatening countries that don’t comply with mass migration program
BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The EU’s top court is expected on Wednesday to dismiss a challenge by eastern European countries against taking in refugees coming from Africa and the Middle East, a dispute that has divided the bloc.
The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ) is to rule around 0730 GMT (3.30 a.m ET) on a challenge to EU immigration policy launched by Slovakia and Hungary, and backed by Poland.
EU diplomats expect a resounding defeat of the challenge and that such a ruling could lead to resuming EU talks over an emergency mechanism for exceptionally high arrivals of refugees and migrants.
[Comment: More proof the ‘courts” are just “legalize” the globalsit agend aof population replacement. Another example of soft tyranny.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Top EU Court Threatens Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic With Fines if They Refuse Refugees
Concluding a months-long saga in which central and eastern European nations revolted against Brussels’refugee policies, on Wednesday the European Union’s highest court ruled that EU states must take in a share of refugees who reach Europe, dismissing complaints by Slovakia and Hungary and reigniting an angry row between east and west. The Court upheld the EU’s right to order national governments to take in their “fair share” of asylum seekers, arguing that “the mechanism actually contributes to enabling Greece and Italy to deal with the impact of the 2015 migration crisis and is proportionate.”
#ECJ dismisses Slovakia’s and Hungary’s challenge to Council’s migrant relocation decision
— EU Court of Justice (@EUCourtPress) September 6, 2017
The ECJ ruling is a victory for western European states like Germany, France and Italy, who have pushed for EU “solidarity” over the migration issue. Italy, now the main destination for migrants risking the Mediterranean crossing, is prominent among wealthier, Western states in threatening their eastern neighbors with cutting their EU subsidies if they do show solidarity by taking people in. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he would still not take a quota but was ready to help in other ways.
The affirmative ruling means that Hungary and Slovakia will face fines if they refuse to abide by the quota system. Europe’s mandatory refugee quota system was approved in September 2015 by a majority of EU member states, but was rejected by Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary. Poland supported the plan, but later strongly opposed it when the right-wing PiS government came to power. As a result, the legal challenge was also backed by Poland, which alongside Hungary has not taken in any asylum seekers. Slovakia and the Czech Republic have only taken in a handful.
All four countries also say migrants will disrupt their societies and the EU’s focus should be on protecting its external borders.
To enforce the decision, the EU executive also said on Wednesday it was ready to institute court proceedings within weeks that could lead to fines for Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic if they refuse to take in refugees…
But in a demonstration of just how powerless Europe is to enforce judicial rulings across the union, Slovakia said that it accepted the top court decision but it was still against the refugee scheme.
“Our position on quotas does not change,” Prime Minister Robert Fico said. “We will continue to work on having solidarity expressed in different ways other than forcing (on us) migrants from other countries that don’t want to be here anyway.”
In Budapest, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called the court’s decision “outrageous and irresponsible.”
“This decision jeopardises the security and future of all of Europe,” he told a press conference, adding that the decion was political. “Politics has raped European law and values,” he said.
Poland similarly warned it will continue to refuse to accept migrants Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said on Wednesday: “I was convinced that such a decision would be made (by the court), but this absolutely does not change the stance of the Polish government with respect to migration policy,” Szydlo told reporters on the sidelines of a business conference.
[Comment: this is what politicans are supposed to do — to look after their country and fellow citizens…not sell them down to river for the globalist agenda of balkanization and the creation of a tyrannical NWO.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Liberal Camille Paglia: Transgender Surgery ‘Can’t Change Anyone’s Sex’ — DNA is Set
“I think that the transgender propagandists make wildly inflated claims about the multiplicity of gender.”
Liberal Camille Paglia, an academic, best selling author, and public intellectual, said there are “a lot of lies being propagated” about the transgender issue, with “wildly inflated claims” about gender and the false idea that sex-reassignment surgery can change someone’s sex. It cannot, said Paglia, who added that people who encourage transgenderism in children are committing “child abuse.”…
“In sex-reassignment surgery, even today, with all of its advances, cannot, in fact, change anyone’s sex,” she said. “You can define yourself as a trans man or a trans woman or one of these new gradations along the scale, but ultimately every single cell in the human body, the DNA in that cell remains coded for your biological birth.”
“So there are a lot of lies being propagated at the present moment,” she said, “which I think is not in anyone’s best interests.”
[Comment: She is 100% correct on this issue.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Dubia Surrounding Pope Francis’ Election
The Political Pope: How Pope Francis is Delighting the Liberal Left and Abandoning Conservatives
With all the controversy that surrounded the election of Pope Francis upon the resignation of Pope Benedict in 2013, it seems that Catholics may have lost sight of a very key element of this episode, namely, that Benedict XVI never resigned his papal office, but only the active exercise thereof.
On the eve of his resignation, he said: “Anyone who accepts the Petrine ministry no longer has any privacy. He belongs always and completely to everyone, to the whole Church… “The ‘always’ is also a “forever”-there can no longer be a return to the private sphere. My decision to resign the active exercise of the ministry does not revoke this.” (General Audience, February 27, 2013)
According to these words, Benedict XVI remains pope, with no revocation of his office having occurred. According to Church law, a pope must give up “his office” for his resignation to be valid. (Canon 332) Pope Benedict clearly chose to retain his office “forever,” which means he is still pope, which means that Francis cannot be pope, since there cannot be two popes. The late Fatima expert Fr. Nicholas Gruner points this out in a rare video on Benedict XVI’s resignation. If Francis is the pope, then Benedict’s office is revoked, but Benedict insists it was not revoked.
To explain away the papal chimera that was born of the historic 2013 conclave, Archbishop Georg Gänswein who serves as prefect of the Pontifical Household told the press that Benedict XVI’s resignation announcement on February 11, 2013, marked the introduction of a new institution into the Catholic Church: “a de facto enlarged ministry, with both an active and a contemplative member.” He said the Petrine office is now a “common papacy” comprising more than one member, i.e. Benedict and Francis.
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a “shared papacy,” and Gänswein no doubt must realize that this is an argument used by heretics to undermine the Primacy of Peter, but his explanation to the press apparently was the best he could do to cover for a very embarrassing situation that caused the man he honored to be dethroned.
What it boils down to is that Benedict XVI was forced into abdicating, i.e. to give up the “active ministry,” but this was done under the guise of a resignation so as to not split the Barque asunder with controversy. Credible reports from 2015 indicate that Benedict XVI was coerced into stepping down, which was providentially foreshadowed in Pope Benedict’s inaugural speech of April 24, 2005, when he said: “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”
We know from Cardinal Danneels of Brussels that he was part of a radical “mafia” reformist group opposed to Benedict XVI. Danneels, known for his support of abortion, LGBTQ rights, and gay-marriage, said in a taped interview in September 2015 that he and several cardinals were part of this “mafia” club that was calling for drastic changes in the Church, to make it “much more modern,” and that the plan was to have Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio head it. This infamous clique-which is documented in Austen Ivereigh’s book the Great Reformer-comprised key members of the Vatican “gay lobby” that had clamored for Pope Benedict’s resignation, the same members who stirred up so much chaos at the October 2014-15 Synods on the Family.
[Comment: Read it all to understand how it is that this communist (aka liberation theologist) pope got the job.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Infectious Mosquitoes Are Popping Up in New Regions
A website which tracks all mosquito species known to transmit human diseases says that it’s got a mounting number of citations. This means that some deadly mosquitoes may be moving into new ecological niches with greater frequency and bringing their diseases with them to new regions.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
The Sun Just Erupted: Blackouts Reported After Huge Solar Flare.
The sun just released a massive solar flare. In fact, this is the largest solar flare emitted in the past decade, and the earth has already been affected by the blackouts.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
FRANCIS, THE ANTI-POPE: Could it be that on that day St. Faustina was atoning for the many priests, bishops, and cardinals of the future that would be misled by Francis? But too, could it be that her mysterious torment that day signaled the arrival of a future anti-pope?
Both the Catholic and Protestant Churches have failed us completely. After Vatican II (partly the fault of Ratzinger, whose chickens have come home to roost) the Catholic Church sought accommodation with the ‘modern world’. But what is the ‘modern worLd’ if not the heir to Marx, Darwin and Nietzsche, and now, it’s the creation of sociology departments, Deconstructionists and PC elites happy to sacrifice human dignity on the altar of Power?
At no time in human history has the world been in greater need for the Judeo-Christian God and not his caricature promoted by the heretical churches.
Amen.
Well said.
Completely agree!
Poland will not bend to pressure from the European Union to take in migrants under a mandatory quota programme, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said on Thursday.
All across Europe now the cracks are beginning to widen, as the elites continue to welcome into their heartland (by imperial edict) ISIS fighters, Africans and every population they can find to take down the West. The cracks will soon become chasms, and civil violence will increase. I guess there will be a military campaign against the Visegrad 4 after they have been savaged by economic warfare.
Perhaps this push-back from Eastern Europe and from the few remaining normal people of Western Europe is what the EU elites are banking on, so they can crack down and turn Europe into a continental Police State, thus fulfilling their Hitlerian-Marxist Dream.
Already the streets are bristling with soldiers to ‘protect’ the population from the terror which the elites put in place.
Trump should promptly enter into free trade treaties with Poland, Hungary and Britain to keep Western civilization, itself, alive…although barely.
The future of Bitcoin may be a dystopia in which Big Brother controls what’s called “the blockchain” and decides when and how you can buy or sell anything and everything.
This ‘over the top’ regulation of the entire global economy will spawn a flourishing black market.
Back to barter economies at an expanding local level and to hell with the banksters. Tear the whole existing rotten construct down, hang as many plutocrats and kleptocrats as is necessary and start again with draconian penalties for those who (and they will) attempt to subvert the system yet again.
Let’s hear it for the DWP (Dumb Whatever Priorities). These are the same folks who refuse to perform the needed maintenance and retrofits that any business owner would perform on an infrastructure whose components have limited, and known, service lives.
The incident with the dueling sink holes on Van Nuys Boulevard (a firetruck dives into a sink hole while on its way to address another sink hole about two miles north) could have qualified as a cartoon comedy were it not for the seriousness of the situation and the injuries to the firefighters.
This incident is much worse. You do not run underground electrical service near pipelines carrying natural gas. Last time I checked a 100 foot separation between services was mandatory. The Crenshaw District of SoLA (South Los Angeles) is a 1940s-1950s neighborhood of small houses on small lots that was developed to make money for both the developers and DWP.
This should serve as the proverbial two-minute warning to DWP that they should implement infrastructure repairs and upgrades before the whole neighborhood goes up as it did in Berkeley 2-3 years ago.
S O LA SOLA, it’s a place in the south where the streets go for miles, there are lots of people but not many smiles, it’s a SOLA, S O LA, Laaaaaa (no apologies to the Kinks)
What’s the difference between SoLA and many cities in Africa? Clearly, not much. No maintenance and proliferating potholes.
The problem in both places is that no funds were set aside for maintenance or a portion of the taxes and utility fees set aside for maintenance or capital improvement in safe and interest bearing accounts as per the Hoskold Premise, (save your money for that rainy day when your roof will need repair).
To make matters worse, the shareholders in the utility companies are bondholders in perpetuity who receive their annual or quarterly dividends no matter what. Thus, if any capital improvements or maintenance projects are to take place, the ratepayers must be assessed for those improvements and projects. We are having a fight with our water company over an aging infrastructure and their refusal, or inability to update it. I whispered “sinkhole” in the ears of a couple of city officials. The response was rather immediate, especially in view of what happened to the firetruck in Van Nuys.
What makes this doubly sad is that us po’ folk will pay the price as the folks in Houston are paying now for a storm drain and sewer system that should have been overhauled 40 years ago and never was. Now just who do you think will pay for the rebuilding of the homes, streets, storm water drainage and sewer systems? The $64Billion question is, “Will any of us be able to afford it?”
What happened to Trump’s touted infrastructure project?
The difference between here and Africa is that they don’t even know the meaning of the word ‘maintenance.’