An Amtrak passenger train derailed today while crossing a bridge over Interstate 5 near Tacoma, Washington. Several train cars fell onto the highway, landing on top of passing vehicles, and others were left dangling from the bridge. At least three people were killed in the accident and more than a hundred injured.
Some reports say the train was traveling more than 80mph (130kmh) when it derailed, which was well over the recommended speed at that location, but other articles say the train is believed to have hit an object on the tracks. Previous internet postings by anarchist groups that bragged about sabotaging train tracks in Washington State may or may not be related. At least one such post was hastily removed from the web today after the Amtrak accident.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Charles Low, Dora, JD, LP, Reader from Chicago, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.
Stocks Reach Record Highs as U.S. Tax Vote Looms
Stocks kicked off the penultimate week of the year on a positive note after Republicans reached an agreement on the shape of U.S. tax cuts. The dollar dropped and Treasuries headed lower.
The S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite Index hit new highs Monday as investors focused on the progress of the proposed tax legislation. Midweek votes in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are planned on a measure that will reduce corporate and individual tax rates. Lawmakers are aiming for the bill to land on President Donald Trump’s desk for a signature before Christmas.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
During a stunning TV appearance Thursday, former FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom publicly called for disgraced FBI agent and Clinton operative Peter Strzok to be put in prison for a variety of crimes, including using the power of his position to help his preferred political candidate.
Appearing on the Fox Business Network, the former Marine and Vietnam veteran Kallstrom told host Liz MacDonald that Strzok had carried out a course of action which specifically followed the steps an FBI agent would have to take in order to stop someone from becoming president.
“ I think he can do what (Strzok) tried to do,” before adding that “ He can fabricate things, he can make stuff up, he can lie, he can be a total moron.”
“ You know, he belongs in Leavenworth this guy, in my personal view.”
As Zerohedge noted, “Kallstrom’s comments come after two weeks of stunning revelations about the FBI’s top brass actively engaging in an effort to help then-candidate Hillary Clinton by “decriminalizing” her actions in the email case, while pursuing a case against then-candidate Donald Trump — using a discredited 34-page ‘Trump-Russia’ dossier to launch an investigation, according to several GOP members of Congress.”
After the release of some of the 10,000 text messages sent between Strzok and his FBI-attorney mistress Lisa Page, it was revealed that the pair had literally spoke about an “insurance policy” in the event that Donald Trump was actually elected President.
As I reported for The Daily Sheeple, “The bizarre exchange between the two has many believing that they were either speaking about starting the sham Russian investigation or, even more sinister, discussing a deep state plan to assassinate Donald Trump.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Amtrak Washington Derailment: Train Derails Above I-5, Lanes Closed
Train dangles over I-5 after derailing south of Tacoma
DUPONT, Wash. — At least three people were killed Monday morning and dozens more were injured when an Amtrak train derailed south of Tacoma, leaving rail cars dangling from an overpass above Interstate 5.
Roughly 100 people were transported to local hospitals, the Washington State Patrol said, though there was no word on all of their conditions. More than a dozen had critical or serious injuries. Earlier in the day, the Associated Press reported six people were dead, but WSP trooper Brooke Bova said the agency had only confirmed three deaths as of 4 p.m.
The train derailed about 40 miles south of Seattle at 7:34 a.m. Monday, above a busy stretch of I-5 between Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Olympia.
All but one of the 14 rail cars came off the tracks, according to Washington State Patrol Trooper Brooke Bova. The train fell from the overpass onto five cars and two semi trucks below on I-5. Nobody in those vehicles died…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Anarchists Bragged in April About Sabotaging Railroad Tracks to Block Fracking
ISIS shouldn’t be the only terrorist group under suspicion for the Amtrak derailment in Washington this morning.
The anarchist group “It’s Going Down” last April bragged online about sabotaging railroad tracks in the Pacific Northwest to block fracking equipment from getting to its destination. The group has since deleted the post, possibly in reaction to today’s Amtrak disaster.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Boston U Professor: ‘Jingle Bells’ is Racist
“Its performance history enables reflection on its problematic role in the construction of blackness and whiteness in the United States.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BuzzFeed Editor: ‘All I Want for Christmas is Full Communism Now’
Communist governments responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths in 20th century.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former Metro Police Officer Convicted on Charges of Attempting to Support ISIS
A former Metro Transit Police officer was convicted Monday on charges of obstructing justice and trying to support ISIS, according to federal prosecutors.
A jury convicted Nicholas Young, of Fairfax, Virginia, of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and obstruction of justice. He was arrested Aug. 3 at Metro headquarters, NBC News reported.
Young, 37, believed a friend of his, who was actually an FBI informant, joined ISIS in 2014. When the FBI told Young they were investigating his friend’s attempt to join ISIS, Young tried to deceive them on behalf of his friend, prosecutors said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hook-handed hate preacher Abu Hamza has had enough of the US ‘Supermax’ prison where he spends 23 hours a day in his cell and would go back to a British one ‘in a second’.
The former imam of north London’s Finsbury Park mosque has registered an appeal against his incarceration at the high security Colorado prison ADX Florence.
The convicted hate preacher, 59, claims his conditions at the prison are a breach of his human rights under Article 3 of the European Convention, which protects people from ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’.
Since he was convicted of 11 charges in October 2015 he has been kept in solitary confinement, only being allowed out of his cell for an hour a day, the Sunday Times reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Refugee Who Wanted to Bomb Texas Malls for ISIS is Sentenced
An Iraqi refugee who investigators say wanted to set off bombs at two Houston malls was sentenced Monday to 16 years in prison for trying to help the Islamic State terror network.
Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan was sentenced in Houston federal court. He pleaded guilty in October 2016 to attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
At the time of his plea, Al Hardan admitted to providing material support, specifically himself, to ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Is the Coming DHS Biowarfare Test on U.S. Citizens a False-Flag Warning?
The town of Newkirk, Oklahoma is about to receive a series of “gifts” from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)…in the form of exposing the town to chemical agents. The purpose is to see how much protection is offered by houses and apartments against a bioweapon. It is also to see how first responders will be able to evacuate people and treat those in affected areas.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Jerome Corsi: Why Soros Wants Net Neutrality & Censorship
Cleverly marketed to millennials as “Net Neutrality”, Jerome Corsi explains the approach to regulating the internet through FCC as a public utility is a slick strategy designed to control & censor while benefiting crony corporations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Another day, another piece of news pointing to the now strikingly obvious fact that the hard-left is attempting to further divide the country along racial lines while painting anyone that disagrees with their liberal views as racist.
Appearing on the Sirius XM Progress Channel’s Make It Plain, three organizers of the anti-Trump “Women’s March” spoke about the need to confront white womanhood itself while attacking any white person who didn’t vote for anti-gun Democrat Doug Jones in the recent Alabama Senate election.
“More white women voted percentage wise for Roy Moore than did for Donald Trump,” the panel’s host breathlessly claims. “So this is why this is such an urgent conversation, such an urgent panel to have quite frankly.”
As Infowars.com noted, “The panel largely centered around making white women feel guilty for their alleged complicity in upholding white supremacy.”…
Ellman-Golan made it clear that the left now believes that if a white women votes for a Republican then she is straight up racist and if a white women “conforms” to the liberal orthodoxy she is only “inherently racist” but at least trying to fight it.
“We designed this obviously to work directly with, specifically with white women, but I think also in this particular setting it’s really valuable to have multiple voices talking about both because it’s obviously for white women to confront our own complicity in upholding white supremacy, but it’s not like white women’s voices are, or should be the only voices talking about the ways that white women cause harm and violence,” Ellman-Golan said during the discussion.
That’s right, in the new America, white people are not even allowed to vote for their favored candidate without the fear of being labeled a racist.
Shockingly, this is the third time in the last week that the left has specifically attacked Americans based on their skin color in what is sadly becoming a routine, mainstream media supported, theme.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NFL Posts Highest Unfavorable Rating of Any Sport for 3rd Straight Month
NFL may be unable to reverse damage caused by National Anthem protests.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Object on Tracks May be Cause of Deadly Amtrak Derailment
Monday’s deadly Amtrak train derailment may have been caused by the train striking something on the railway, according to an unconfirmed Associated Press report.
A preliminary investigation suggests maintenance problems are unlikely to blame because the incident took place on brand-new tracks, a government official told the AP on condition of anonymity.
At least three people were killed and the death toll is expected to rise, the Associated Press reported.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Dumbing Down of America: ‘The Numbers Speak Volumes’
Almost everyone can see that the dumbing down of America is in full effect. A video breakdown of a Psychology Today piece from 2014 which details the anti-intellectualism most of us have already experienced in some way.
According to Signs of the Times, there has been a long tradition of anti-intellectualism in America, unlike most other Western countries. Richard Hofstadter, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his book, Anti-Intellectualism In American Life, describes how the vast underlying foundations of anti-elite, anti-reason, and anti-science have been infused into America’s political and social fabric. Mark Bauerlein, in his book, The Dumbest Generation, reveals how a whole generation of youth is being dumbed down by their aversion to reading anything of substance and their addiction to digital “crap” that is composed on social media.
Joe Joseph from The Daily Sheeple breaks it down in his new video. “You have plenty of these experts that are basically sounding the alarm,” he says. “Let’s keep it simple,” he continues. “I ask everybody a very simple question. If you think about what you learned from grade K to grade 12, give yourself a percentage of how much of that you actually use in your everyday life. Out of all of that information…now think about how much of your life experience weighs in.”…
We’re creating a world of dummies. Angry dummies who feel they have the right, the authority and the need not only to comment on everything, but to make sure their voice is heard above the rest, and to drag down any opposing views through personal attacks, loud repetition and confrontation. — Signs of the Times
[Comment: This was and is the true goal of the Department of Education — this ensures the proles are too stupid to revolt against the elite.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Offers a Daring Program to Restore US Dominance
US President proposes a muscular kind of global activism, fostering new alliances while reinforcing America’s existing commitments; plus a layered missile defence shield
By David P. Goldman
In a speech later today, US President Donald Trump will propose a shift in US national security strategy more profound than any proposed by his predecessors since Ronald Reagan. According to a preliminary copy of the president’s 2017 National Security Strategy obtained by the Asia Times, Trump envisions a radical upgrade in the US industrial base, large-scale support for scientific and technical education, and rebuilding of infrastructure, in response to China’s economic and strategic challenge.
In so many words, Trump’s 67-page summary of national security policy declares that America is a frog that will not be boiled. No doubt the report will be portrayed as war-like, although that is not its intention. “Competition does not always mean hostility, nor does it inevitably lead to conflict — although none should doubt our commitment to defend our interests. An America that successfully competes is the best way to prevent conflict. Just as American weakness invites challenge, American strength and confidence deters war and promotes peace,” the document states…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. 9th Circuit Judge Resigns After Sexual Misconduct Allegations
A prominent conservative federal judge will resign Monday from his seat on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after facing allegations of sexual harassment.
Judge Alex Kozinski, appointed in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan, said he regretted pain he caused employees.
“I’ve always had a broad sense of humor and a candid way of speaking to both male and female law clerks alike,” the judge wrote, according to CNN. “In doing so, I may not have been mindful enough of the special challenges and pressures that women face in the workplace. It grieves me to learn that I caused any of my clerks to feel uncomfortable; this was never my intent.”
Several of Judge Kozinski’s law clerks said he made inappropriate sexual remarks to them, and one said he had showed her porn several times while in his chambers. Another judge last week ruled there were grounds to investigate the allegations…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Washington Bureaucrats Are Chipping Away at Trump’s Agenda
Across the government, career staffers are quietly finding ways to continue old policies, sometimes just by renaming a project.
By Christopher Flavelle and Benjamin Bain
That’s surprising because Trump has called global warming a hoax. His political appointees at the Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA, have complained to its staff, but stopped short of demanding changes or altering the findings. So the reports, blog posts and public updates kept flowing. The bureaucrats won.
“Everything coming out of NOAA does not reflect this administration,” said David Schnare, a retired lawyer for an industry-backed think tank who served on Trump’s transition team and is skeptical about climate change. “It reflects the last one.”
That’s true across the government as some of the roughly two million career staff have found ways to obstruct, slow down or simply ignore their new leader, the president.
Staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, issued a report contradicting the White House’s position about the negative effects of banking regulations. The State Department’s embassy staff preserved Obama-era programs to boost the economies of developing countries — at odds with Trump’s “America First” campaign pledges — not by changing the substance of the programs but merely by relabeling them as a way to create markets for U.S. exports.
Perhaps no policy area better illustrates the dynamic than climate change. A report commissioned by the energy secretary to explore the dangers of wind and solar energy to the power grid initially found just the opposite. Pentagon staffers effectively stalled a Trump reversal of an Obama policy on climate change and national security by initiating a review that’s apparently still underway nine months later…
[see pie graph at URL regarding pace of appointments]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Austria is Populism’s Latest Success, Says Expert
THE unveiling of Austria’s new ruling coalition has provided more evidence of the populist forces currently shaping Europe, a leading political analyst has said.
Matthew Goodwin made his remarks in the wake of new Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s inauguration following a deal with the country’s right wing Freedom Party (FPO), led by Heinze-Christian Strache — and took the opportunity to point out that it was a situation which was being replicated over much of the continent.
He said: “This is not the first time that the Freedom Party has joined government. Seventeen years ago, and amid some of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, the party stunned the world by joining a similar coalition with the centre-Right.
“Outraged, the EU slapped diplomatic sanctions on the small Alpine country and demanded an inquiry to ensure that human rights were being protected.
“But today we will see no such reaction, largely because the EU is in a much weaker position.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Muslim Women Cause Havoc in Swimming Pool, Threaten Employees
Staff at a swimming pool in Hanover, Germany, have faced threats after telling Muslim women not to wear jeans or street clothes in the pool, dye their hair, or leave large amounts of rubbish in the pool during Friday “women’s days”.
The staff claim to have received threats from the male relatives of the Muslim women according to leaked confidential documents from a city committee meeting. The city spokesman Ulrike Serbent confirmed the women who were causing the problems were Muslims, Die Welt reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian Citizenship Plan Reaches 1 Million Mark in Boost to Orban
Hungary’s program to extend citizenship to ethnic kin who are nationals of other countries reached the 1 million mark, boosting Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s already strong chances for re-election next year.
The millionth citizenship under the program, one of the first laws approved by parliament after Orban returned to power in 2010, was awarded to a 36-year-old ethnic Hungarian farmer in Serbia, President Janos Ader said at a ceremony in Budapest over the weekend that Orban also attended.
Ethnic Hungarians living abroad, most of them in areas of neighboring countries that were cut off from Hungary after World War I, overwhelmingly backed Orban in the 2014 parliamentary elections, when more than 95 percent of almost 130,000 of those votes were for the premier’s Fidesz party.
[Comment: CrossWare might be interested in this article.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Arrests Military Intelligence Chiefs for Ties to Russian Spies
Authorities in Poland have charged three high-level military intelligence officials with acting in the interests of Russia. The three include two former directors of Polish military intelligence and are facing sentences of up to 10 years in prison. The news broke on December 6, when Polish authorities announced the arrest of Piotr Pytel, who was director of Poland’s Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW) from 2014 to 2015. It soon emerged that two more arrests had taken place, that of Pytel’s predecessor, Janusz Nosek, and Krzysztof Dusza, Pytel’s chief of staff during his tenure as SKW director…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Sharing ‘Fake News’ In Ireland Could Soon be Illegal, With $10k Fine Attached
Globalists utilize manufactured hysteria to implement censorship
Irish politicians attempt to put a stop to ‘bots’ that could influence political debate in Ireland.
An Irish politician has brought forward a new bill to the Dáil (Irish parliament) which will attempt to legislate to prevent the spread of fake news stories and articles in Ireland.
The ground-breaking proposals were brought forward by opposition party Fianna Fáil in the wake of the influence of bots and fake new articles in politics overseas, especially in the 2016 US Presidential election and the Brexit referendum in the UK.
[Comment: Any news that contradicts the propaganda of globalist elite is, in their minds, “fake news”. “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Braces for Catalonia Elections
Just off Barcelona’s famous Rambla is the world-famous La Boqueria food market. On a recent winter morning, chefs rubbed shoulders with local residents buying their daily provisions, all watched over and photographed by hundreds of tourists attracted by the colors and smells, and the chance to taste some of Catalonia’s revered cuisine.
But the richness of this cathedral to Catalan gastronomy hides a growing disquiet among many of the market sellers.
Poultry vendor Maria José Artiaga says the scenes of protest and political chaos following Catalonia’s disputed referendum on independence are putting off visitors.
“Sales have fallen between 30% and 40%, and for me the political situation is very worrying, In the end all we are interested in is working, paying our workers and reaching the end of the month.”
Artiaga is a well-known figure in the market community. She is also an activist for the Socialist Party, which is campaigning against Catalan independence. Not all the vendors share her politics.
“Before the referendum, other vendors made a circle around me and shouted, “We will vote!” They insulted me, called me a fascist. This hurt because in my family all our lives we have been leftists and republicans, and my grandfather was shot dead because he was a republican. For me these words were like a dagger in my back,” she told VOA.
Residents of Catalonia will vote in regional elections Thursday, two months after separatist campaigners tried to declare independence from Madrid, following the disputed referendum. Many of the leaders of the secessionist movement have been arrested.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Shots Fired by US Personnel at RAF Mildenhall as ‘Car Tries to Ram Gates’
A US Air Force base in the UK was placed on lockdown on Monday afternoon when a car tried to ram the entry gates. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed an incident at “the entry point of RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk.”
British police say shots were fired by American personnel at the Royal Air Force (RAF) base, which is primarily used by the US Air Force. No other people were injured.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ten Men on Tria for Historic Sex Offences
A GANG of ten men accused of operating a ‘cynical and predatory’ child sex ring on a ‘massive’ scale across Oxford are currently on trial, it can be revealed.
The major trial into alleged child sexual exploitation, which began at Oxford Crown Court on October 9, is expected to last until January but for legal reasons can only now be reported.
The men all deny a number of sex offences including conspiracy, rape, supplying drugs and indecent assault on young girls between 1998 and 2005.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Nuclear Deal: Still Alive
In his latest interview with the Iranian English-language Press TV network, Srdja Trifkovic discusses the latest developments in connection with President Donald Trump’s stated intention to scrap the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA).
Video (Trifkovic segment starts at 52 seconds)
ST: Before the election in November of last year, reneging on the [Iran nuclear] deal was one of Trump’s campaign promises—because it was supposedly bad for U.S. interests. If you look at his statements at the time of decertification two months ago, however, he did not explicitly accuse Iran of violating the agreement’s actual terms, but reasserted that it was disproportionate—in other words, that the U.S. was granting Iran [with sanctions relief] more than it was getting in return.
It is significant that—last Tuesday—the Congress failed to act, after the expiry of the sixty-day deadline that President Trump gave it with his decertification in October. It is also significant that the Europeans had lobbied very hard—particularly the French and the Germans, as well as the Brussels apparat—with certain key members of both houses not to act upon decertification. Now that this deadline has passed, it is well-nigh impossible for the legislature, for U.S. Congress, to renege on the deal. This is because it would require cooperation of the Democrats, which is not forthcoming…
The next date to watch is mid-January, when the State Department will decide whether it will remain in compliance with the deal, and also when we’ll know if President Trump will throw the ball back to Congress for another two months. On balance, there is no political consensus in Washington right now to accept decertification and remove the United States from the deal. The arguments of the Europeans—that doing so would undermine U.S. credibility, that it would make it impossible to negotiate with Iran on other regional issues, and that it would definitely remove any possibility of nuclear negotiations with North Korea—apparently convinced the U.S. lawmakers, and the establishment inside the Beltway, that they should not cross the Rubicon…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Part I: A Global Threat Emerges
How Hezbollah turned to trafficking cocaine and laundering money through used cars to finance its expansion.
In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.
The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.
Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah’s illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.
They followed cocaine shipments, some from Latin America to West Africa and on to Europe and the Middle East, and others through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered by, among other tactics, buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the conspiracy, they believed, to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Hacker Claims He Was Hired by Kremlin to Target US Democratic Party
A member of a prolific Russian hacker group reportedly stated in court that he was hired by the Russian government to break into the computer systems of the Democratic Party in the United States. The hacker, Konstantin Kozlovsky, operated online as a member of Lurk, a notorious hacker group whose members are believed to have stolen in excess of $45 million from hundreds of companies since 2011. Most of the group’s members were apprehended in a wave of 50 arrests that took place throughout Russia in the summer of 2016. The group’s nine most senior members, Kozlovsky being one of them, were put on trial earlier this year…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Population Registration Program in China Will Collect the DNA of Every Adult in Xinjiang Province
Xinjiang province is the site of intense surveillance and oppression, even by Chinese standards; it’s home to the largely Muslim Uyghur minority, and a combination of racism and Islamaphobia drive a uniquely intrusive grade of policing and surveillance.
The Chinese government is undertaking a “Population Registration Program” that involves gathering “DNA samples, fingerprints, iris scans, and blood types of all residents in the region between the age of 12 and 65.” Nominally, it’s part of a fitness program to screen for diseases, target health care, and create electronic health records.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Initially, both countries were almost at par in terms of economic growth and poverty levels even until the 70s and 80s. In fact, it was India that had a head start until the early 1990s with a higher GDP per capita, while China had a rapidly growing rural income. Initiating anti-poverty reforms in the ‘90’s just one decade later than China, India failed to meet the same benchmarks, while in China’s case, results started showing about 25 years ago.
China’s success in poverty alleviation began in 1978 when it introduced market reforms in tandem with government projects. The methodology proved effective and since then it has never looked back…
The three main factors responsible for China’s growth were manufacturing, a high rate of investment and an infrastructure revolution.
Meanwhile, India worked on government projects and reforms with a focus on agriculture and industry. But the main handicap remained both corruption and government mismanagement as well as a lack of continuity and commitment due to frequent changes of government.
To make matters worse, the economic situation in India is on a downwards slope now with rising unemployment, wealth inequality and extreme poverty…[…]
[…]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
A 36-year-old man who mutilated his wife in front of his children by cutting out her eye, before dumping her body in a Melbourne suburb, could face life behind bars.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Disturbing footage has emerged of a man hurling racist abuse at a group of African teenagers after their friend died at a popular Adelaide beach during birthday celebrations.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Commission: EU Too White, Mass Third World Migration Must be ‘New Norm’
Brussels has said that Europeans must accept mass migration from the third world as the “new norm”, warning that neither walls nor policies will allow any part of the EU to remain “homogenous and migration-free”.
“It’s time to face the truth. We cannot and will never be able to stop migration,” writes EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos, in a piece for POLITICO, published Monday entitled, “Europe’s Migrants Are Here to Stay”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French Cities Overwhelmed by Refugee Flow, Govt Must Step in Urgently — Mayors
The mayors of seven major French cities say they have been “backed up against a wall” by an unending influx of refugees. Paris must address the strain on the areas, which are struggling to accommodate new arrivals, they wrote.
The mayors of Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Rennes, Toulouse and Nantes have called out the government for inaction, asking it to do more to tackle the refugee crisis. The resources at the mayors’ disposal are far from adequate to cover the needs of asylum seekers who want to stay at already-overcrowded shelters, the mayors wrote in an article to Le Monde on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders Urges EU to ‘Build a Wall’ to Stop ‘Mass Migration’
Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen were among the politicians to attend a controversial summit in the Czech Republic, which was met by protestors outside.
The meeting took place at a hotel in Prague, which was heavily guarded with specialist security forces during over the weekend.
Mr Wilders, leader of the anti-EU, anti-migrant Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, said a “wall” needed to be built to stop “mass migration”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Man Sentenced to 1489 Years Smuggling Iraqi and Syrian Migrants
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — A court in northern Greece has sentenced 23 people to prison terms ranging from eight to 1,489 years for smuggling Iraqi and Syrian refugees into the country from the Turkish border in 2015 and 2016.
The Thessaloniki court imposed the longest sentence on a 54-year-old Greek man convicted of running a smuggling ring that arranged the transport of more than 500 refugees in 43 separate cases. Under Greek law, the maximum prison term that can be served is 25 years, regardless of the length of the sentence.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Migrants Out in Open Along Serbia’s EU Borders
SID, Serbia (AP) — Several hundred migrants were camping along Serbia’s borders on Monday, sleeping rough in make-shift shelters from the cold as they look for a chance to cross into neighboring European Union countries.
Amid biting wind and freezing temperatures, the migrants huddled around small fires in an abandoned factory near Croatia’s border, as aid groups distributed food and warm drinks.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Newly-arrived migrants will have to wait longer before receiving a range of welfare payments under a hardline new approach announced by Treasurer Scott Morrison (pictured).
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
YouTube Temporarily Bans Europeans From Viewing Cernovich Documentary on Migrant Rape Crisis
YouTube banned Mike Cernovich’s documentary on Sweden’s refugee crisis from being viewed in European countries, then restored the video but placed it in “YouTube Jail,” disabling comments and sharing, while adding a warning message to viewers.
Cernovich shared the email from YouTube that informed him his documentary, Invasion! How Sweden Became the Rape Capital of the West, which was published in March, would be censored in Europe on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
10 Things Every Intersectional Feminist Should Ask on a First Date
by Lara Witt
As a queer femme of color, I keep close relationships with people who go beyond allyship; they’re true accomplices in the fight against white supremacy, queerphobia, and misogyny. If you’re not going to support marginalized folks, then we can’t be friends, let alone date. The personal is political.
Beyond the lovely cushioning, happiness and support that we receive from our platonic relationships (which are, in all honesty, soul-feeding and essential), feminists also date! But there are questions we have to ask before we get close to someone.
The following list of questions is applicable to all relationships — certainly not just cisgender, heterosexual ones:
1. Do you believe that Black Lives Matter?
Yes? Wonderful. Let’s start here. There are three categories that are non-negotiables for me: an understanding of race, class, and gender…[…]
[…]
2. What are your thoughts on gender and sexual orientation?
The gender binary is a tiny box and I wish it didn’t exist, but it does.[…]
[…]
READ ON AT THE URL FOR ALL TEN.
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
CBC’s Decision Against Airing Transgender Kids Doc Should Leave Everyone Unsettled
Ideology is now taking precedence over science
Last week, CBC was scheduled to air the controversial BBC documentary Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best? but scrapped the plan the day of, citing audience feedback and its own “further review of the doc.” Activists had argued that the film was “harmful” and poised to “feed transphobia.”
In actuality, the documentary offers a rare and factual perspective on the politicization of gender therapy by featuring interviews with Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a psychologist and international research expert on gender dysphoria in children. (Zucker also happens to be a former colleague of mine.)
Although his research and approach to therapy are scientifically sound, they counter transgender orthodoxy in ways on which I will elaborate below.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter’s Hate Speech Rules Are Expanding
Twitter has widened what constitutes hateful and harmful behaviour on its platform, and says it will begin enforcing stricter rules concerning it.
Information contained in a person’s profile, regardless of what they actually tweet, will now be considered.
Those who express an affiliation with groups that use or celebrate violence to achieve their aims will be permanently suspended, Twitter said.
Hateful imagery — such as the Nazi swastika — will now be hidden.
A “sensitive media” prompt will be shown to users before they can opt to view it.
But such content will no longer be allowed on a person’s profile page, and users will be asked to remove it. Repeat violators will be banned.
The company said the move would “reduce the amount of abusive behaviour and hateful conduct” on the network. A spokeswoman confirmed profiles would be removed, but would not give an example of an account in violation of the rules.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Politico hesbollah story…yuge.
Link to story:
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/
More proof Comrade Zero is pure evil.
That story has several parts…it was in our newsfeed. Well worth reading.
“It’s time to face the truth. We cannot and will never be able to stop migration,” writes EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos
Well, thank God, for if they force immigrant quotas on our little Czech Republic, Czech Out will be next. We certainly did not join the EU to get thousands of African migrants. And thousands of Syrian engineers were already studying engineering in Prague, so we don’t really need more of those neither. Not if it’s forced upon us.
Funny though how Ukrainians and Vietnamese seem to integrate just fine.
I guess the problems isn’t the Czechs, then…
Ah, one Saboor Abdul and his mates. Qué sorpresa! What a surprise!
Raheem Ahmed, 40, of Starwort Path, Oxford, denies two counts of indecent assault, one of false imprisonment, one of rape and another of conspiracy to commit indecent assault.
Haji Khan, 37, of Littlegreen Lane, Birmingham, denies one count of indecent assault and one of conspiracy to rape.
Moinul Islam, 41, of Wykeham Crescent, Oxford, denies two counts of indecent assault, one count of rape, one count of false imprisonment and another of supplying a drug of Class B to another.
Kamran Khan, of Northfield Road, Bolton, denies one count of indecent assault, one count of rape and another of false imprisonment.
Kameer Iqbal, 38, of Dashwood Road, Oxford, denies three counts of rape.
Khalid Hussain, 37, of Ashhurst Way, Oxford, denies one count of indecent assault and two counts of rape.
An unnamed 47-year old denies one count of indecent assault.
An unnamed 36-year old denies three counts of indecent assault, two counts of rape and two counts of conspiracy to rape.
An unnamed 37-year old denies one count of indecent assault, one count of kidnapping and another of false imprisonment.
Trump accuser appears to be a former supporter paid off by the libs:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-19/trump-accuser-who-took-mortgage-payoff-tried-get-job-trumps-makeup-artist
Still not tired of winning!
The German pool incident shows how wimpy the typical German has become.
As for the Melbourne jihadi murderer, all I can say is millstone, neck, sea.
Seattle train may have been done by Antifa crud:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-19/anarchist-group-deletes-article-bragging-about-april-train-track-sabotage-near-monda
Turns out the train was doing 80 mph in a zone where it should have been doing 30 – so it was 50 miles an hour over the speed limit. Criminal malfeasance resulted.
The Antifas were home dressing up in their black costumes this time.
so why ride if you can’t trust the crew? Trust is what this country was built upon. If you can’t trust, what do you do? Walk?
The entire modern Western world (and parts of Asia) only functions as it does because there is a fairly high level of trust. Remove that and it’s all over.
Just noticed this train story here. HOW can a train be traveling so much faster than the speed limit?! Are trains not tracked? Are there no safeguards?