A man stabbed two people in front of a hookah bar in Queens, and then got in his car and drove it at high speed down the sidewalk, running people down. One person was killed, and seven others wounded, including the people stabbed. Police say the incident occurred because of a quarrel over a parking space. The driver is now in custody.
In other news, an Australian MP is proposing that migrants be given special courses after they arrive in Australia to teach them that stealing and other antisocial actions are criminal.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, Charles Low, Dean, Dora, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JLH, Reader from Chicago, SS, TB, 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.
“I Am Not American, “ Said the Islamist; “I Am Muslim”
[…]
This view brings with it a wish for waging jihad (war in the cause of Islam) against one’s birth country. It creates the priority — if the country attacking it is ruled by shari’ah — of joining the enemy to fight against one’s birth country.
“The honor of martyrdom is achieved only when one is fighting in the cause of God, and if one is killed for any other purpose, this honor will not be attained.”
Western governments need seriously to address these prevailing extreme Islamist beliefs, which have significant social, political, and security implications in their countries. These beliefs are the foundations of disrupting the social order, peace, freedom, democracy, human rights, and security. If allowed to continue, these beliefs will become more rampant, and the consequences more severe.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Earlier this month, the Daily Caller discovered that “a number of news articles published by CNN cited groups accused of ties to terror groups, even promoting donations to one group on two occasions.” Linking this piece (written by “The CNN Impact Team”) and this one, the Daily Caller showed CNN’s active advancement — including an explanation, with links, of how to donate — of Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA).
Islamist Watch has written frequently about IRUSA, which has a long history of promoting extremist ideology across North America, and using taxpayer funding to do it.
Founded in 1984 in the U.K., the Islamic Relief (IR) franchise has spent many years expertly duping an unsuspecting public as to the true nature of the organization’s activities. Though, as the CNN case shows, IR branches are frequently lauded as admirable human rights groups, the truth is more complicated — and more sinister.
IR’s founder is an Islamist activist named Hany El Banna, an admirer of Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna, the chief ideologues of the Muslim Brotherhood. Both Qutb and al-Banna advocated violent jihad and the establishment of an Islamic caliphate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Evergreen State’s Student Newspaper Includes No-Whites-Allowed Opinion Section
The student newspaper at Evergreen State College has a section in its opinion pages described as “for people of color by people of color.”
“This should be a place where we can be us without it being overshadowed by the dark cloud that is living under white supremacy and having to see things from a white perspective. This is why when we do cover these issues it will be in the context and from the perspective of POC and POC only,” according to the section’s editors as they reintroduced it to readers in September.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump’s retweeting of anti-Muslim propaganda videos is the most un-American thing he has done as president. I could just as well end this article here, as the truth of this statement should be self-evident. But let me explain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Huckabee: Mueller Probe ‘Stinks Worse Than Cabbage Cooking in an Unventilated Kitchen’
Mike Huckabee reacted to the removal of FBI counterintelligence division agent Peter Strzok from Robert Mueller’s special investigation into President Trump and possible Russian collusion.
Strzok was removed from the probe after it was revealed he had disseminated several anti-Trump messages.
Huckabee said the allegations “fit” because “Bob Mueller is a close pal of [James] Comey.”
He said there are a “whole bunch of investigators who are Hillary Clinton donors and supporters.”
“This whole investigation stinks worse than cabbage cooking in a small, unventilated kitchen — with sardines on the side,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
If Mere ‘Contact’ With Foreigners is a Crime, Obama Should’ve Been Locked Up in 2008
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pled guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about two meetings with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak last December in the weeks leading up to President Trump’s inauguration.
For months, special counsel Robert Mueller has been probing Trump, administration officials, former campaign staff, and anyone associated with them to determine whether the president colluded with Russian officials to steal the election away from Hillary Clinton. Flynn’s admission to lying to the FBI about conversations with Kislyak and reported acceptance of a plea deal from Mueller’s office is the biggest development to date in the ongoing investigation.
As The New York Times reported, there is no evidence thus far that proves Trump colluded with Russian officials to sway the outcome of the election. Trump and his associates did contact foreign dignitaries before he took office. If that is a crime, Barack Obama is also guilty.
On July 24, 2008, then-senator Obama delivered a speech in Berlin, Germany four months before winning the presidential election, and six months before he was sworn into office. At the start of his remarks, Obama thanked Chancellor Angela Merkel and then-Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for personally welcoming him earlier in the day. Presumably during that welcome, Obama and the aforementioned leaders of Germany exchanged pleasantries, and they might have even had a conversation…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
New Documents Reveal FBI’s Clinton Cover-Up
In Washington, the ostensible story is rarely the real story. We know, for example, that former President Clinton engineered a meeting with President Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch, on the tarmac of the Phoenix Airport on June 27, 2016.
That’s the official story, replete with the charming and intentionally disarming detail that all they talked about was their grandchildren. It was just coincidental, don’t you know, that at the time the FBI was looking into Hillary Clinton’s use of a “personal” email server to send, receive and store classified information.
And it was also simply coincidental that just a few days later, the director of the FBI — who served under Attorney General Lynch — announced that he wouldn’t recommend a prosecution of Hillary Clinton.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One Dead After Hit-and-Run Driver Strikes Six People in Queens
An irate hit-and-run driver mowed down six people, killing one, after a knife fight outside a Queens hookah bar Sunday morning, according to police and a witness.
Cops found at least one person dead after the violent fracas outside XS NYC at 129th St. and Liberty Ave. just before 5 a.m. in South Ozone Park.
Police believe two stabbing victims who showed up at a hospital after the fight were hurt in the melee.
A passing motorist spotted a woman trying to hold back a member of the brawling bunch while driving by. He pulled over to get a closer look moments before the motorist gunned it for the mass of people.
“He was going after someone. That’s why the girl was holding him back,” said witness Ozzie Rogers, adding that the man ultimately broke free.
“The girl is yelling ‘Stop, stop. No, no,’ when this car just comes from nowhere and hits the whole group,” Rogers said.
“The bodies went flying. The car was going really fast, at least 50 mph on the sidewalk.”
Another witness saw the driver slam into a parked car before careening toward the victims.
“You could hear the car hitting the bodies,” the second witness said.
Two additional crash victims were rushed to Jamaica Hospital in critical condition, cops said. The extent of the injuries for the stabbed duo was not known.
Police, who are trying to determine how the stabbings are related to the plowed car, have taken one person into custody, but have not yet made an arrest. This person is not the driver of the car, who remains on the loose, police said.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Opossum Breaks Into Liquor Store, Gets Drunk on Bourbon
Turns out she wasn’t playing possum, she was only drunk.
A Florida bar owner opening up shop following the Thanksgiving holiday was met by a drunken opossum polishing off a bottle of bourbon. The sneaky critter made its way into Cash’s Liquor Store and had a festive celebration all her own, the Northwest Florida Daily News reported.
Cash Moore, who also owns AJ’s on the Bayou bar and restaurant, said as far as he knows, the opossum is of legal drinking age.
“A worker there found the opossum up on the shelf next to a cracked open bottle of liquor with nothing in it. Assuming the opossum drank it all, he brought her to us, and we looked her over,” Michelle Pettis, a wildlife technician in the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge.
She said the female opossum was salivating and appeared to be pale and disoriented when she was dropped off at the refuge.
“We loaded her up with fluids to help flush out any alcohol toxins,” Pettis told the newspaper. “She was good a couple of days later and released Thursday night.”
The boozed-up marsupial also managed to avoid a hangover, Pettis added.
Moore suspects the opossum came through the rafters and knocked the bottle of liquor off one of the shelves.
“When she got down to the floor she drank the whole damn bottle!” he said. “But it just goes to show that even animals are impressed with Cash’s.”
| — Hat tip: JLH | [Return to headlines] |
Police: Parking Dispute Led to Stabbing, Deadly Hit-and-Run in Richmond Hill, Queens
RICHMOND HILL, Queens (WABC) — Police say a man angry over a parking dispute stabbed two people and then struck a group of others with his car in Queens early Sunday.
According to the NYPD, the dispute involving two vehicles began at about 4:30 a.m. in front of a hookah bar on Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill.
The driver of a white Hyundai sedan exited the vehicle and stabbed two men inside a BMW in the torso.
After a crowd of people argued with the driver of the white car, he drove up the sidewalk where they had begun walking away and struck six of them.
Ricardo Chatergoon, 23, from Far Rockaway was killed, and five others were injured…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Russia-Trump: President Hits Out at FBI Over Russia Inquiry
Donald Trump lashed out at the FBI on Sunday, issuing a fresh denial that he asked former director James Comey to drop an investigation into the conduct of one of his top aides, Michael Flynn.
In a Twitter tirade, Mr Trump said the FBI’s reputation was “in tatters”.
His attack came amid a flurry of developments in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into alleged Russian interference in the US election.
Mr Trump denies that his team colluded with Russia to get him elected.
Reports emerged over the weekend that Mr Mueller, a former FBI director, had dismissed an FBI officer from the investigation during the summer after he was discovered to have made anti-Trump remarks in text messages.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Texas Student Newspaper Blasted Over Anti-White ‘Your DNA is an Abomination’ Column
A Texas college’s student newspaper is apologizing after coming under fire for running an opinion column called “Your DNA is an abomination” that accuses white people of being oppressors who “shouldn’t exist.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Urges Investors Who Lost Money After ‘False’ ABC, Brian Ross Report to Sue Network
President Trump argued Sunday that a recent story by ABC News reporter Brian Ross was so “false and dishonest” that it caused the stock market to drop 350 points and that investors who lost money as a result should sue the network for damages.
“People who lost money when the Stock Market went down 350 points based on the False and Dishonest reporting of Brian Ross of @ABC News (he has been suspended), should consider hiring a lawyer and suing ABC for the damages this bad reporting has caused — many millions of dollars!” Trump tweeted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Reloads on FBI’s Clinton Email Probe, After Reports of ‘Tainted’ Anti-Trump Agent
President Trump suggested Sunday that news reports about an FBI agent on the agency’s Hillary Clinton email investigation who also opposed Trump explains why the Clinton case was closed without criminal charges.
“Report: ‘ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENT LED CLINTON EMAIL PROBE’ Now it all starts to make sense!” Trump said in one of three tweets Sunday on the issue.
The office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller confirmed with Fox News on Saturday that agent Peter Strzok had been removed from Mueller’s investigation into Russia collusion after the Justice Department’s inspector general started examining Strzok’s electronic messages with a colleague, which reportedly included ones that were anti-Trump and pro-Hillary Clinton.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
University Event Highlights 14 Ways ‘Whiteness’ Oppresses Society
A “Whiteness Forum” at Cal State San Marcos on Tuesday prominently displayed 14 poster boards detailing different ways in which students say whiteness in America oppresses people of color and society.
For 15 years and “going strong,” this annual forum has taken place as a part of Professor Dreama Moon’s “Communication of Whiteness” course, the scholar said as she kicked off the two-hour event inside a large multipurpose room.
A banner hung at the front of the room indicated the “Whiteness Forum” is about “reflecting on white privilege and racism.”
As part of the class, the students teamed up to create 14 different poster boards that aimed to illustrate different ways whiteness is allegedly oppressive.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What the Media Isn’t Telling You About the Indictment of Mike Flynn
Russia-gate enthusiasts are thrilled over the guilty plea of President Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI about pre-inauguration conversations with the Russian ambassador, but the case should alarm true civil libertarians.
What is arguably most disturbing about this case is that then-National Security Adviser Flynn was pushed into a perjury trap by Obama administration holdovers at the Justice Department who concocted an unorthodox legal rationale for subjecting Flynn to an FBI interrogation four days after he took office, testing Flynn’s recollection of the conversations while the FBI agents had transcripts of the calls intercepted by the National Security Agency.
In other words, the Justice Department wasn’t seeking information about what Flynn said to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak — the intelligence agencies already had that information. Instead, Flynn was being quizzed on his precise recollection of the conversations and nailed for lying when his recollections deviated from the transcripts.
For Americans who worry about how the pervasive surveillance powers of the U.S. government could be put to use criminalizing otherwise constitutionally protected speech and political associations, Flynn’s prosecution represents a troubling precedent.
Though Flynn clearly can be faulted for his judgment, he was, in a sense, a marked man the moment he accepted the job of national security adviser. In summer 2016, Democrats seethed over Flynn’s participation in chants at the Republican National Convention to “lock her [Hillary Clinton] up!”
Then, just four days into the Trump presidency, an Obama holdover, then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates, primed the Flynn perjury trap by coming up with a novel legal theory that Flynn — although the national security adviser-designate at the time of his late December phone calls with Kislyak — was violating the 1799 Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from interfering with U.S. foreign policy.
But that law — passed during President John Adams’s administration in the era of the Alien and Sedition Acts — was never intended to apply to incoming officials in the transition period between elected presidential administrations and — in the past 218 years — the law has resulted in no successful prosecution at all and thus its dubious constitutionality has never been adjudicated…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Before Remembrance Day, I reported on a decision by the Trudeau government to slash the pay of injured Canadian special ops forces: According to the report, “The new rules mean that personnel with the Canadian Special Operations Forces — many of whom work on top-secret missions across the globe — will lose the special compensation if illness or injury restricts their duties for more than 180 days.” Additionally, “Paratroopers, submarine crews, pilots and air crews, rescue technicians and ships’ crews are also among the affected.” Some injured special ops forces members could lose up to $23,000 over a six month time period.
Those disgraceful cuts are sickening enough on their own. But in the context of the Trudeau government offering taxpayer funded “rehabilitation services” to returning ISIS fighters instead of eliminating them, or jailing/deporting them, it’s even more disgusting. This means that at the very same time as injured Canadian Forces members in special ops units lose money, our taxpayer dollars could be spent on people who were just overseas trying to kill those same special ops forces and attack our allies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wanted: Margaret Wente’s Wimpy White-Bread Canada of the Past
by Tim Murray
In a column about Jagmeet Singh, the recently elected leader of the federal NDP, Margaret Wente of the Globe and Mail remarked that “…it’s clear that he (Singh) is as much a son of Canada as anyone in the room — not the wimpy, white-bread Canada of our past, but the dashing, muscular Canada we long to be.”
“White-bread” is an ethnic slur directed at the one group in our society who are considered fair game to mock, ridicule and denigrate. That it can be uttered casually on the CBC or in Canada’s leading newspaper is indicative of the many double-standards that apply to racial categories. While no one would dare declare that a given neighbourhood or city was “too Brown,” “too White” or “too white-bread” is now a common place virtue-signal. It is a statement of support for the Diversity-is-our-Strength mantra.
White-bread communities are depicted as bland, boring, monocultures crying out for enrichment, populated by bland, boring, culturally naïve people with a cookie-cutter mindset. In other words, ordinary men and women with traditional ties to family, church and country, the reviled majority who formed the backbone of the most inventive and productive civilization in the world, the West. Their sin is their white-ness, and for that, they cannot be forgiven…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Britain: Books Saying it’s OK to Beat Wife Found in Islamic Schools
Library books claiming hell is mostly full of women because they are ‘ungrateful to their husbands’ have been found in Islamic schools, it has emerged.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Carles Puigdemont Will Remain in Belgium Till Catalan Elections Over
MADRID (AFP) — Catalonia’s deposed leader Carles Puigdemont will remain in Belgium until after the Dec 21 elections in his native province, as he is fighting extradition to Spain, his lawyer said on Saturday (Dec 2).
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Rapes Increased 232 Percent Since Liberals Took Power
Safety of women has declined under Liberal rule in Denmark.
Since the Liberals took power in the Summer of 2015, the number of reported rapes has increased by 232 percent, according to fresh data from the Danish state bureau of statistics, Danmarks Statistik.
An increase in reported rapes also means an increase in unreported rapes. A state reportconcludes “many rapes are not reported.”
Since the Liberals took power, tens of thousands of migrants and refugees from Islamic countries have been allowed into the country. Many more are now following, due to family reunifications.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Extortion, Not Terrorism Behind Potsdam Explosive Package
A suspicious package with wires and nails that was delivered to an address near a Christmas market in the German city of Potsdam on Friday was “an act of extortion“ rather than “terrorism,” according to Reuters, citing local authorities. The package had been used as an attempt to extort money from the DHL company, which delivered it, the interior minister of the state of Brandenburg, Karl-Heinz Schroeter, told a news conference Sunday. A barcode inside the package contained the extortion letter, Brandenburg police chief Hans-Juergen Moerke said, with the senders having threatened to dispatch more dangerous packages if DHL refused to pay them. Police are now searching for those who sent it, adding that it was highly likely that the package could have exploded. The logistics company has warned its clients not to open packages originating from unknown or suspicious addresses.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Five Charged in France for Attacking Jewish Family
Four men and one woman were on Friday charged in France over a brutal attack on a Jewish family in a Paris suburb, judicial sources said.
One man of 50, reportedly already known to police, three younger men and a 19-year-old woman allegedly took part in the September 8 assault at Livry-Gargan, northeast of Paris.
The group are accused of armed robbery and extortion and religiously-motivated assault.
After breaking into the home of 78-year-old Roger Pinto, the group confined Pinto, the chairman of a local Jewish association, and his wife and son. They were beaten and then threatened with death.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Christmas Market Cancelled as Organisers Couldn’t Afford €20,000 Anti-Terror Barrier Bill
The Christmas market on la Croix-Rousse hill in Lyon, France, has been cancelled because organisers cannot afford the €20,000 security budget.
The annual Christmas market, with its stalls, marquee, and farm animals, has been cancelled because the cost of securing the site day and night was prohibitively expensive, whilst towns and cities across Europe are fortifying their Christmas markets with anti-terror barriers, reports Le Progre’s.
“For the past year, requests to secure our events have increased,” explained Maïlys, the project manager for the southern French city’s merchants’ association.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Government Wants ‘Backdoor’ Access to Every Digital Device: Report
Germany’s Interior Minister wants to force tech and car companies to provide the German security services with hidden digital access to cars, computers, phones and more, according to a media report from Friday.
The RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) reported that Thomas de Maizière had written up a draft proposal for the interior minister conference, taking place next week in Leipzig, which he has called “the legal duty for third parties to allow for secret surveillance.”
According to the RND, the proposal would “dramatically extend” the state’s powers to spy on its citizens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Potsdam Bomb ‘Was Attempt to Extort’ From DHL Shipping Company
Police investigating a bomb found at a Christmas market in Germany on Friday say it was not terrorism but an attempt to blackmail the shipping company, DHL.
The nail bomb was sent in a parcel to a pharmacy near a market in Potsdam.
Police performed a controlled explosion on the device, which was full of explosives but had no detonator.
After scanning a QR code on the package, police found that those involved demanded millions of euros to not set the bomb off.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: AfD Elects Leader Duo Amid Pro-Refugee Protests
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) elected a new leadership duo from its nationalist wing on Saturday after the party’s triumphant turnout in September’s general election, as thousands staged street protests against the anti immigrant, anti-Islam political force.
The AfD captured nearly 13 percent of the vote and almost 100 seats in parliament — a watershed moment in German post-war politics that left Chancellor Angela Merkel the winner but required her to seek out a still-elusive coalition. However a row between radical nationalists and more moderate forces has festered in the AfD’s top ranks, with co-leader Frauke Petry abruptly quitting just days after the election to form her own breakaway party.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Warns of ‘Highly Radicalized’ ISIS Wives, Children
The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency warned Sunday of the risk wives and children of Islamic State fighters pose upon their return to Europe.
About one-third of the close to 1,000 Germans who travelled to fight for ISIS have returned to the country. Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), warned that many women and children “had become so radicalized and identify so deeply with IS-ideology that, by all accounts, they must also be identified as jihadis.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland Hopeful of ‘Momentum’ On Key Brexit Border Issue
Ireland’s foreign minister says he’s hopeful that Britain’s proposals for managing Ireland’s border after the U.K. leaves the European Union will generate the momentum to push stalled Brexit negotiations to the next phase involving trade.
Simon Coveney told Ireland’s RTE radio on Sunday that he hopes a crucial U.K.-EU meeting yields enough progress to “allow this Brexit negotiation process to open up to phase two of discussions.”
The EU has given Britain a Monday deadline to produce concrete proposals on the key issues in their divorce talks, including maintaining an open border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is due to meet European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to lay out proposals that will be considered by EU leaders before a Dec. 14-15 summit in Brussels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: IOR Says Deputy Head Removal ‘Normal’
Press details incorrect
(ANSA) — Rome, December 1 — Vatican Bank IOR said Friday the removal of former deputy director-general Giulio Mattietti was part of “normal physiological management affairs,” saying “many of the details published by the press are not correct”. Mattietti was removed and escorted out of the Vatican on Monday, reportedly to preserve the integrity of documents and computer files he may have wanted to take with him. The IOR said “the measures emphasized by the media in these days are fully legitimate” and said a failure to divulge them was only aimed at “safeguarding those concerned”. It said it distanced itself from many details of recent media reports.
On Thursday well-informed sources told ANSA the Vatican bank had opened an internal probe into the activities of former deputy director general Mattietti.
The sudden and drastic way he was removed was linked to the need to make sure he would not remove documents, they said.
The probe will focus on those documents and on his computer files, the sources said.
Mattietti’s office at IOR has been closed, although it has not been sealed off, the sources said.
IOR said Wednesday it had sacked Mattietti for so-far unknown reasons.
The deputy head of the Vatican Press Office, Paloma Garca Ovejero, told ANSA that Mattietti “ceased his service on Monday November 27”.
Mattietti was appointed in November 2015 along with Director-General Gian Franco Mammi’.
Another IOR staffer was also sacked recently, sources said.
IOR, Istituto per le Opere Religiose (Institute for Religious Works), has been through a process of reform recently.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Macron v EU: France Refuses to Move Bloc’s Parliament From Strasbourg to Brussels
FRANCE will block attempts to move the official base of the European Union’s parliament from Strasbourg to Brussels, the country’s European affairs minister warned today as Emmanuel Macron gears up for a showdown with the bloc.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Preparing for Terrorist Attacks in Greece
by Maria Polizoidou
At a recent conference in Rome, held by the think tank European Ideas Network (EIN), former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, a member of the Hellenic Parliament, declared:
“European democracies in the Mediterranean are in danger of being swept away by a tsunami of uncontrolled immigration. We cannot allow this. Our societies cannot stand it. The European Union itself cannot stand it… [More than] one million ‘foreigners’ passed then [2015] through Greece and ended up in various countries of the European Union, mainly in Northern and Central Europe. Some of them were real refugees, from Syria and Iraq. But most of them were illegal immigrants from other countries of the world. Today it is estimated that the true refugees that are still coming are 20% of the total or fewer. The rest are illegal immigrants.”
These illegal immigrants, he said, “come to Europe looking for ‘opportunities,’ but do not accept any of the responsibilities of an open democracy.”
“They usually engage in all kinds of smuggling: Drugs, trafficking, and even ‘jihad.’ We cannot allow that. Freedom and the openness of our societies also entail responsibilities. And full respect to our laws, of course. ‘Moochers’ of our democratic system can destroy it.” …
Toskas, like fellow members of the political echelon and intelligentsia in Greece, are making the same mistake as their European counterparts in relation to Islamic imperialism. As terrorist attacks across Western Europe have illustrated, appeasing radical Muslims through open-border policies — and by surrendering national identity to multiculturalism — has the opposite of the intended effect. Allowing unfettered entry, rather than causing the immigrants to integrate and liberalize, and leading to friendly ties with Muslim-majority countries, has instead led to their further radicalization.
Professor Manos Karagiannis of King’s College London and the University of Macedonia said in a recent interview that Greece should stop being under the illusion that its good relations with the Arab world will shield it from jihadist attacks. “We shouldn’t be complacent,” he said. “The Islamic State no longer chooses its goals based on each country’s foreign policy.”
“Jihadists are ideologues,” explained François Heisbourg, IISS Council Chair at the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies. “They see the world as a battle between believers and unbelievers,” and therefore no one is “immune” to their agenda.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
A FORMER Lord Mayor of Bradford is standing trial at Leeds Crown Court, charged with misconduct in public office.
Naveeda Ikram, 44, pleads not guilty to the single charge — alleged to have taken place between November 1, 2014, and August 31, 2015.
Ikram, of Rooley Crescent, Odsal, Bradford, became the UK’s first female Muslim Lord Mayor in 2011.
She is accused of seeking contracts for Nexus Assist and failing to declare an interest in that company while an elected member of Bradford Council.
She denies any wrongdoing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘We Cannot Tolerate a Merkel Government’ Fury as Germany Without Leader for Seven Weeeks
GERMANY ‘cannot tolerate’ another government led by Angela Merkel, according to right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) which recently saw election success for the first time in decades.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Targets Syrian Military Base — Syrian State TV
Israel launched surface-to-surface missiles at a military installation outside the Syrian capital Damascus overnight, Syrian state TV reports.
Israel has hit weapons sites before, in a bid to prevent arms being transferred to Syria’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Great Palestinian Shakedown: Have the Arabs Had Enough?
[…]
Most Arabs, in fact, do not seem to care about the Palestinian “cause” any more, as pointed out in a previous article, which showed how the Arab League ministers were focusing on Iran and Hezbollah while ignoring the Palestinians.
Many people in the West are not aware that the Palestinians are trying to torpedo any peace initiative in order to blame others.
The Palestinians are crying Wolf, Wolf! — but only a few in the Arab world are listening to them. This, in a way, is encouraging and offers hope for them finally to be released from decades of repressive and corrupt governance.
These are just some of the challenges Saudi Crown Prince is facing. It is important to support him in the face of attacks by some Palestinians and other spoilers.
The question now is whether the Saudis and the rest of the Arabs have had enough of the great Palestinian shakedown.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Conflict: Saudi-Led Coalition Welcomes Saleh Talks Offer
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has welcomed an offer of talks by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh whose forces have been fighting against it.
A coalition statement said the decision to “take the lead and to side with their people will free Yemen of… militias loyal to Iran”.
Mr Saleh said he would be ready to “turn the page” if the coalition lifted a blockade and halted its attacks.
But Houthi rebels, his allies until this week, accused him of “treason”.
More than 8,670 people have been killed and 49,960 injured since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemen conflict, according to the UN.
The conflict and a blockade by the coalition has also left more than 20 million people in need of humanitarian aid, creating the world’s largest food security emergency. It has led to a cholera outbreak that is thought to have killed 2,211 people since April.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan is Making Concessions to Religious Extremists. What’s the Cost?
In the past 10 days, two dramatic events — the government’s capitulation to a violent protest by radical Muslims and the release from house arrest of an anti-India militia leader — have crystallized the sway that hard-line Muslim groups increasingly hold in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state whose military leaders claim to be fighting extremist violence.
The freeing of Hafiz Saeed, an Islamist cleric accused of masterminding a deadly rampage in Mumbai nine years ago, came as no surprise. Although denounced as a terrorist by the United Nations and the United States, Saeed enjoys a large following in Pakistan as a fiery champion of Muslim rights in Kashmir, the disputed border region with India. He has been repeatedly detained and released by the courts, a sign of Pakistan’s often-contradictory efforts to secure both domestic Muslim loyalty and international support.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Universities Scramble to Open Centers to Study President Xi Jinping Thought
A day after thousands of Communist Party delegates voted to have President Xi Jinping’s thought included in the official party dogma, one of the country’s elite universities immediately opened a research center dedicated to his ideology.
It’s the latest example of the narrowing space for independent thought in modern China, and the ever tighter ideological controls being imposed under Xi’s rule, foreign and domestic experts said. It is also at odds with China’s ambitions to be a global power in academia, and undermines the chances of constructive debate over government policy.
“This strikes me as a Great Leap Backwards for Chinese academia,” said Edward Vickers, an expert in Chinese education at Japan’s Kyushu University.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea: Trump is ‘Begging for Nuclear War’
US President Donald Trump and his administration are “begging for nuclear war,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
Trump is “staging an extremely dangerous nuclear gamble on the Korean peninsula,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a written statement that also calls Trump a “nuclear demon” and a “disruptor of global peace.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea: US in Race to Address Threat, Says HR McMaster
White House national security adviser HR McMaster says the US is “in a race” to address the threat from North Korea.
The potential for war is increasing every day but armed conflict is not the only solution, he told a defence forum.
His comments came three days after North Korea carried out its first ballistic missile test in two months, in defiance of UN resolutions.
The latest missile flew higher than any others previously tested, before falling into Japanese waters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Says US-South Korea Military Drills Drive Them to ‘Brink of a Nuclear War’
North Korea lambasted the U.S. and South Korea on Sunday for bringing the countries to the “brink of a nuclear war” a day before the allies begin a joint military drill in a defiant show of force against Kim Jong Un less than a week after the regime launched an intercontinental ballistic missile.
North Korea’s state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, wrote in a commentary Sunday the upcoming military drill is an “all out provocation against” the rogue nation that “may lead to a nuclear war at any moment.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malcolm Turnbull has enjoyed a poll boost as it’s revealed Labor leader Bill Shorten visited the home of a Chinese tycoon Huang Xiangmo (pictured) despite warnings from ASIO.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
The lavish life of Milo Yiannopoulos (pictured) means he wears labels like Versace and Gucci, has houses around the world, stays in fancy hotels and only drinks expensive champagne.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Foreign donations to Australian political parties will be banned in the wake of Sam Dastyari’s alleged leak to Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo, who has Communist Party links.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
A Muslim child bride who fled to Australia from her home country of Iran has told how she was beaten and abused by her husband, claiming her religion caused her ‘nothing but pain’
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Sydney man Kemal Yalim, 24, put on a dress, cardigan and scarf that covered his face and booked a taxi under the name Fatima.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Mohamed Ghanem, 34, was sentenced to 40 years jail for his part is a series of horrific gang rapes but was released after serving only 14, and has just been arrested in Sydney for ‘selling meth’.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
The Left Sets Honduras on Fire
Hillary Clinton’s favorite Central American was back in the news this week, as Honduras painstakingly counted ballots in front of international observers and tried to discern, with utmost transparency, the winner of the Nov. 26 presidential election.
Amid the tension, left-wing candidate Salvador Nasralla cried fraud and called for an uprising. Soon, like a bad centavo, pro-Chávez Honduran former President Manuel Zelaya turned up in the midst of one angry mob.
Recall that in 2009 Mr. Zelaya was kicked out of the country, with the support of his own party, for violating the constitution. Mrs. Clinton, who was then secretary of state, tried and failed to force Honduras to take Mr. Zelaya back. Last week he was seen again, wearing his signature cowboy hat and leading a bunch of hooligans trying to break into the warehouse where the electoral authorities had stored ballots and tally sheets from around the country for counting. The raid did not succeed, but the incident captured the spirit of Zelaya-Nasralla politics…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Ann Coulter: Europe’s Migration Policy is “Suicidal Madness” — Interview
What’s your opinion on Europe’s migration policy?
A: Suicidal madness imposed on the good people of Europe by their idiot leaders. It’s not really “migration” at all, which is something that happens naturally. What you’re experiencing is a specific, evil government policy to destroy your countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Government on Escalating Malicious Migrant Crime: “Worst Situation Since 2nd World War”
In the latest development of what has been characterized as “massive low-tech jihad”, gangs of migrants and refugees of Arab or North African descent are now shooting innocent people at random in the capitol city of Copenhagen, placing in danger the lives of both locals and visitors to this popular tourist city.
Three people already have been shot in what appears to be a savage form of target practice. Since all of the injured were young men — in an attempt to minimize the number of future victims — the Danish police now warns all men between 17 and 25 years of age to avoid public spaces in Copenhagen.
Preben Bang Henriksen, spokesman for Denmark’s majority government party, the Liberal Venstre, is horrified by such a rapid decline in the safety of public spaces for the previously safe and calm kingdom:
“We have not had such warnings from the police since the 2nd World War. It is totally unacceptable,” said Preben Bang Henriksen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Migrant Crisis: Millions Still to Come
by Soeren Kern
[…]
The former head of the British embassy in Benghazi, Joe Walker-Cousins, warned that as many as a million migrants from countries across Africa are already on the way to Libya and Europe. The EU’s efforts to train a Libyan coast guard was “too little and too late,” he said. “My informants in the area tell me there are potentially one million migrants, if not more, already coming up through the pipeline from central Africa and the Horn of Africa.”
The President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said that Europe is “underestimating” the scale and severity of the migration crisis and that “millions of Africans” will flood the continent in the next few years unless urgent action is taken.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: I Have Come to Stay Forever — Not to Work
An asylum seeker from Somalia, says in an interview with Lithuanian journalists that he has come to Germany to live well on taxpayer-funded grants for the rest of his life, without having to work. As soon as he has received a German citizenship he also plans to bring his whole “little family” of ten people, he says.
Journalists from Lithuania’s largest news portal Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuanian Morning) visited an asylum center in Munich. The 1,200 asylum seekers were from Libya, Somalia and Sudan.
The Lithuanian journalists were astonished when they realized that some of the Somalis they interviewed were quite open about their desire to avoid having to work. “A Somali told me that he had decided to stay in Munich because of the generous contributions and good public services.”
-— I can learn German. It is necessary to do first, Abdullah admitted in the interview with Lietuvos Rytas.
Then he was asked what he would like to work with.
-— No, no … I like to walk, but not to work — No, I want to live when I’m in Germany.
He has been in Germany for 10 days and declares openly that he is there to live on welfare for life, and he plans to bring his family for the same generous hospitality as soon as legally possible.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Offers Money for Migrants Who Go Back Home
Germany wants to support rejected asylum-seekers who voluntarily move back to their home countries with a one-time payment of 3,000 euros ($3,570).
But the Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported Sunday that 8,639 migrants participated in the returnee program between February and October, even though there are about 115,000 rejected asylum-seekers in Germany —many of whom can’t be deported for humanitarian reasons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Offers Migrants $3,500 to Leave Voluntarily
Germany is offering rejected asylum seekers money to voluntarily return home as the government gets ready to deport Syrian migrants next summer.
The country’s interior ministry announced a scheme Saturday to give families up to 3,000 euros ($3,560) if they agree to leave. The program — titled “Your Country, Your Future, Now!” — will run through the end of February.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Immigrant Charged in DUI Crash That Killed Teenage Girl
An illegal immigrant is accused of drunken driving in the Thanksgiving car crash that killed a teenage girl in Texas.
Jose Victor Chaparro-Saenz, who is accused of running a red light and ramming another vehicle in the deadly Nov. 23 incident, was arrested and charged with manslaughter, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest, FOX4 Dallas reported.
Chaparro-Saenz was placed on an immigration detainer on Friday after he was arrested, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement to Fox News on Tuesday. Chaparro-Saenz was previously caught illegally entering the U.S. in 1998 from Mexico and returned voluntarily the same day.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
In One German Region, Unemployment of Migrant Crisis Arrivals is 96 Per Cent
Migrant unemployment continues to be a major problem with the district of Salzlandkreis seeing only 56 out of 1,530 migrants registered at the jobcentre able to find full-time work.
While the number is up from last year, when 24 migrants were in full-time positions, the total percentage of the total migrant workforce on work is only 3.6 per cent, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese PM Tells the United Nations to Shove it, Will Not Take in Any Muslim ‘Refugees’
Japan’s prime minister said Tuesday that his nation needs to attend to its own demographic challenges posed by falling birth rates and an aging population before opening its doors to refugees.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced at the U.N. General Assembly that Japan is ramping up assistance in response to the exodus of refugees to Europe from the Middle East and Africa.
He said Japan will provide $1.5 billion in emergency aid for refugees and for stabilization of communities facing upheaval. But speaking to reporters later Tuesday he poured cold water on the idea of Japan opening its doors to those fleeing.
“I would say that before accepting immigrants or refugees we need to have more activities by women, by elderly people and we must raise (the) birth rate.
There are many things that we should do before accepting immigrants”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Skyrocketing terror and crime following increased numbers of migrants and refugees from Islamic countries has seriously depleted police resources. Yet another EU country will see a decrease in its ability to fulfill international military obligations as a result of domestic instability.
Rule of law in Denmark is imploding as the police run out of resources. An incident back in 2016 underscores this: A mother in downtown Copenhagen had to witness her son being beating to a pulp by masked Arab migrants. During this attack, the devastated mother called law enforcement, but due to a lack of resources, police could not respond in a timely manner. Her son was attacked because rumour had it that he was from the USA.
Already in 2013 “36 percent percent of Danes do not trust the police to come when needed.”
The incidence of Arab gang shootings in downtown Copenhagen is out of control, putting in danger everybody who visits this popular tourist city. In what has been described as a “massive low-tech jihad”, thousands of incidents involving loosened wheel bolts, large rocks thrown from highway bridges, rapes, and now also shootings of random innocents on the streets, has dealt a massive blow to the general feeling of security among citizens and tourists alike.
In almost all cases, the perpetrators have been from MENAP countries (Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan).
Danger, unreasonable amounts of overtime, and stress, is causing 60 percent of the Danish police officers to consider quitting. One third of those within the ranks of law enforcement already have applied for jobs outside of the police department, magnifying this crisis.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Woman Severely Beaten by Migrant
It has happened again. Once more one of my about 500 Facebook friends has been attacked and beaten up. The last time it happened, a Swedish friend was attacked and robbed by Muslim migrants, and this time it was even worse, in the sense that the victim was a woman.
It was on Friday night that Tine was at a private party in Bergen, Norway, where also a Syrian Muslim migrant had been invited. Suddenly she saw that he took a mobile phone from a girl, put it in his own pocket and refused to give it back. When Tine told him to give it back and pointed at the pocket to indicate that she saw what he did, he hit her several times in the face with a fist.
Tine, who has a basic course in Krav Maga, was first unable to react to the sudden and unexpected attack, but when someone pulled him away, only for him to break loose to attack her again, she was ready. She hit him in the face holding a key chain, but this did not stop him, however, and she received more punches and kicks, until he was restrained.
The beating was so severe, with about 12 punches to the face, that Tine had to be taken to hospital, while the police came and arrested the perpetrator.
According to Tine, the man is a Syrian migrant who has been in the country for about a year, but when the local newspaper BA, reported about the matter, as usual this was not even mentioned.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Only Four Out of 2429 Refugees in Dutch City of Rotterdam Have Full-Time Jobs. 95% is on Welfare
On 24 November, Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD) published an article on the influx of asylum-seekers into the city of Rotterdam. In the past two years, the city has housed 2.429 asylum-seekers, 80 more than it was obligated to do by law. Next year, it will be allowed to house 80 people less. Of those 2.429, 95% lives on social benefits, representing almost 5% of the total amount of people on benefits in Rotterdam.
The numbers are from a study by the municipality, into the migrant population that has been allowed to live in Rotterdam over last two years: the so-called Monitor Rotterdamse Aanpak Statushouders 2016-2020. It is the first time that a study of how a city is coping with the influx of migrants that, in the words of AD, surprised Europe in 2015, is conducted.
The political party Leefbaar Rotterdam, known for its criticism on the housing of migrants, sees the 95% on social benefits as a confirmation of its concerns.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The RCMP stopped using the questionnaire after the Star brought it to the attention of the force’s national headquarters last month.
The RCMP announced Monday it will expunge any data on religious and cultural practices collected from Muslim refugee claimants who had crossed the U.S. border at a popular informal crossing in Quebec. The move follows a Star story last month that highlighted the federal police force’s line of questioning.
[Comment: Note how The People’s Star seem very proud of themselves for stopping this.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Federal MP has claimed immigrants should have lessons on Australian law to stop them from turning to crime following a parliamentary committee into migrant settlement outcomes.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s Islamic Rape Epidemic: Almost Half of Victims Are Children
Rapes in Sweden has been soaring since the country started to take in large numbers of Muslim migrants and refugees. According to statistics, 92 percent of all severe rapes (violent rapes) are committed by migrants and refugees. 100 percent of all attack rapes (where victim and attacker had no previous contact) are committed by that same group.
The top-10 list of rapists’ national background shows only one non-Islamic country (Chile). Most rapists have Iraqi background, followed by refugees and migrants from Afghanistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Gambia, Iran, Palestine, Chile and Kosovo. Migrants and refugees from Afghanistan are 79 times more likely to commit rape than Swedes.
The same pattern is seen all over Western Europe, and in many places, it has an impact on demographics in public spaces. Just like in Islamic countries, many countries with a high number of Muslim migrants have fewer women than men on the streets.
A Swedish survey shows that over the past year 34 percent of Swedish women, out of fear of abuse, have chosen to take an alternative route or chose another means of transportation. 12 percent say they have stayed home from something they otherwise planned because they were afraid. And 23 percent find that their quality of life is affected by increased insecurity, up from 13 percent the year before.
48 percent of German women say that they are afraid of walking in certain areas in their own neighborhood. 44 percent of them believe that their personal security is threatened by immigration from “Islamic countries”.
Borwin Bandelow, Professor of Psychiatry at Göttingen University, claims that the women’s fears are “well-founded”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Migrants Superglued Into Back of Lorry Freed by Firefighters
FIREFIGHTERS cut free 11 migrants who were superglued into the back of a lorry.
The ten Iraqis, including two children and a baby, and one Afghan national were discovered when the lorry pulled into a lay-by and people in a nearby cafe heard “shouting” and “banging coming from the back”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
We Can Thank a Flawed Jury System for the Steinle Verdict
When choosing jurors, pains are taken to dismiss people with preconceived notions about the case. But consider: If in question is a high-profile matter such as the O.J. Simpson or Steinle case, what kind of person would know nothing about it and/or have formed no opinions? Does this reflect impartiality or just indifference?
Assuming such a person makes the ideal juror is like supposing that someone still undecided the day before a high-profile election is surely a better voter than someone who reads the news and formed an opinion early on. An undecided individual may be a better voter in the particular (relative to a given wrongly decided voter), but in principle this supposition simply is untrue. G.K. Chesterton explained the matter brilliantly in the aforementioned essay, writing:
“What people call impartiality may simply mean indifference, and what people call partiality may simply mean mental activity. It is sometimes made an objection, for instance, to a juror that he has formed some prim-facie opinion upon a case: if he can be forced under sharp questioning to admit that he has formed such an opinion, he is regarded as manifestly unfit to conduct the inquiry. Surely this is unsound. If his bias is one of interest, of class, or creed, or notorious propaganda, then that fact certainly proves that he is not an impartial arbiter. But the mere fact that he did form some temporary impression from the first facts as far as he knew them — this does not prove that he is not an impartial arbiter — it only proves that he is not a cold-blooded fool.
“If we walk down the street, taking all the jurymen who have not formed opinions and leaving all the jurymen who have formed opinions, it seems highly probable that we shall only succeed in taking all the stupid jurymen and leaving all the thoughtful ones. Provided that the opinion formed is really of this airy and abstract kind, provided that it has no suggestion of settled motive or prejudice, we might well regard it not merely as a promise of capacity, but literally as a promise of justice. The man who took the trouble to deduce from the police reports would probably be the man who would take the trouble to deduce further and different things from the evidence. The man who had the sense to form an opinion would be the man who would have the sense to alter it.”
Chesterton also noted that the logical outcome of our “impartiality” standard is that a “case ought to be tried by Esquimaux, or Hottentots, or savages from the Cannibal Islands — by some class of people who could have no conceivable interest in the parties, and moreover, no conceivable interest in the case. The pure and starry perfection of impartiality would be reached by people who not only had no opinion before they had heard the case, but who also had no opinion after they had heard it.”
The essay is pure gold, and I strongly recommend you read the whole thing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doug Casey on Why Millennials Favor Communism
When the average 18-year-old goes to college, he knows very little about how the world works in general. He’s got vague ideas he picked up mostly from TV, movies, and people who got a job teaching high school. They know roughly nothing about economics, government, or history. Worse, what they think they know is mostly wrong.
That makes them easy prey for professors with totally bent views to indoctrinate them.
It’s not so much that they’re taught inaccurate facts. There are plenty of “factoids” (artificial facts), of course — like the War Between the States (which shouldn’t be called the Civil War) was mainly fought to free the slaves. Or that Keynesian economics is correct. And many, many more. But that’s just part of the problem.
It’s not the factoids they’re taught. It’s the way the schools interpret actual facts. The meaning they infuse into events. The way they twist the “why?” of events, and pervert concepts of good and evil.
The real problem, however, is that, contrary to what you suggested a moment ago, they’re not taught critical thinking. Rather just the opposite — they’re taught blind acceptance of what’s currently considered politically correct.
Instead of questioning authority in a polite and rational manner — which is what Socrates did — the current idea is to prevent any divergent views from even being discussed. The profs are basically all socialists, and the kids tend to believe what they’re taught. Those views are buttressed by the other sources of information available to them — Hollywood, mass media, and government.
These bad ideas usually start with “intellectuals.” Intellectuals typically despise business and production, even though they envy the money the capitalists have. Intellectuals feel they’re not only smarter, but much more moral. That gives them the right, in their own eyes, to dictate to everyone else. That’s one reason why they’re usually socialists, and approve of a “cadre,” like themselves, ordering everyone else. Intellectuals naturally gravitate to the university system, where they’re paid to hang out with each other, be lionized by kids, hatch goofy ideas.
This has always been the case. But it’s becoming a much bigger problem than in the past.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Judges Set a Dangerous Precedent by Blocking Trump’s Military Orders
[A] federal judge ordered the Trump administration to accept transgender people for military service starting January 1 as court cases about this Obama-era policy move forward. Last week, another federal judge in Maryland blocked President Trump’s reversal of a late Obama administration policy on transgender service members.
Regardless of the merits of the policy itself, the judges’ actions set a terrible precedent. The judiciary has, for good reason, historically refrained from interfering with the military’s internal policies. Judges—who typically lack military service and work in courtrooms far removed from its realities—are ill-positioned and ill-qualified to evaluate judgment calls by military leaders.
The Supreme Court has reaffirmed this principle repeatedly. In Goldman v. Weinberger, the court stated that “great deference” should be given “to the professional judgment of military authorities concerning the relative importance of a particular military interest.”
In Chappell v. Wallace, the court cautioned that “[c]ivilian courts must, at the very least, hesitate long before entertaining a suit which asks the court to tamper with…the necessarily unique structure of the military establishment.” The court has moderated these statements by reminding lower courts that service members do not lose all constitutional rights when they sign up, but those rights are—necessarily, and for obvious reasons—limited in the military context.
We Don’t Need No Stinking Precedent
Unfortunately, district court judges in both Maryland and the District of Columbia have chosen to ignore not only the Supreme Court’s guidance but also the facts and history behind the Trump policy. Up until 15 months ago, no commander in chief had ever allowed transgender persons to serve in the military. For the first six-and-half years of President Obama’s administration, the constitutionality of that policy prohibiting transgender soldiers was never in doubt.
With 18 months left in his administration, President Obama threw out the previous policy and allowed transgender persons to serve openly. Last July, Trump reversed course, hewing to the same policy every other commander in chief enforced before Obama (and even by Obama himself for the first six-plus years of his administration).
Last week, however, Judge Marvin Garbis of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland wrote that Trump’s “arbitrary and capricious” decision “does not trump the methodological and systematic review by military stakeholders qualified to understand the ramifications of policy changes.” Actually, yes it does.
For better or for worse, Trump is the commander-in-chief. There is no “qualified military stakeholders exception” to that reality. Garbis’s decision is a naked power play, throwing the weight of the court behind the previous administration’s transgender policy—and asserting that Obama administration officials who changed that policy were better qualified than President Trump to set military policy.
This isn’t the first time federal judges have seemed to suggest, although in other contexts, that Trump’s presidency is fundamentally different from those of his predecessors and therefore requires a more active judiciary. The two federal court decisions on the transgender policy, however, are the first time that the Trump asterisk (a new judicial philosophy?) has been applied to military matters—and these cases set an incredibly dangerous precedent.
Forget This Commander in Chief Business
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against the Trump administration on the grounds that its new transgender policy would harm morale and military readiness instead of improving them. The judge’s order gave extraordinary weight to the statements of four Obama-era political appointees, who argued for allowing transgender persons in the military.
Some of those Obama political appointees had advocated for transgender service long before Obama even appointed them—their statements were politically motivated, not even-handed, dispassionate analysis. In essence, the district court made a policy decision about military readiness. It gave greater weight to the policy opinions of the previous administration than it did to the policy judgments of the current president.
Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, subjected the Trump administration’s policy to “intermediate scrutiny,” a level of judicial review that requires the government to show an “exceedingly persuasive justification” for its actions. So much for “great deference.” Kollar-Kotelly then determined that “[t]here is absolutely no support for the claim that the ongoing service of transgender people would have any negative effect on the military at all. In fact, there is evidence that it is the discharge and banning of such individuals that would have such effects” (emphasis added).
Kollar-Kotelly pointedly ignored that the generals in charge of the Army and Air Force asked Defense Secretary Mattis last June to delay the Obama-era transgender policy for two years, and that Mattis granted the generals a six-month delay in transgender enlistments so the services could evaluate the policy’s impact on “readiness and lethality.” The generals’ actions, in and of themselves, demonstrate concern over the possible negative impact of the policy. No matter. The judge prioritized her own assessment over the determinations of current military leaders and our commander-in-chief.
[…]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Nurseries are encouraging children to question their gender by reading them stories that challenge male and female stereotypes.
Books including characters who believe the are the wrong gender will be read to children as young as three after LGBT inclusion group Educate and Celebrate put them on nursery and primary school reading lists.
One features a teddy bear named Thomas, who says ‘in my heart, I’ve always known that I am a girl teddy’, according to The Sunday Times.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Robots Are Coming for Jobs of as Many as 800 Million Worldwide
As many as 800 million workers worldwide may lose their jobs to robots and automation by 2030, equivalent to more than a fifth of today’s global labor force.
That’s according to a new report covering 46 nations and more than 800 occupations by the research arm of McKinsey & Co.
The consulting company said Wednesday that both developed and emerging countries will be impacted. Machine operators, fast-food workers and back-office employees are among those who will be most affected if automation spreads quickly through the workplace.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Instead of teaching them not to steal, every country should implement a simple law: one misstep against the law and you’re out, without the chance to come back. And it shouldn’t matter if that crime was stealing bread or murdering someone – in fact, laws against street prayer and the domestic culture should be implemented everywhere, our street would stay clean that way.
“The majestic egalitarianism of the law, which forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread”.
-Anatole France
I hope you’re never that desperate, AK-47.
About one-third of the close to 1,000 Germans who travelled to fight for ISIS have returned to the country…
…and the one Czech who tried to join ISIS got 6 years in prison for joining the enemy force. One has to wonder when are we going to build iron curtain II?
People here still tried to pull the “he didn’t understand what he was doing” or “but he didn’t join because he didn’t get there” bs, good thing the court made a good decision at least this once though.
I’d have hoped he’d have been hanged for treason.
A petition to stop infiltration of the police in Germany:
https://www.civilpetition.de/kampagne/unterwanderung-der-polizei-stoppen/startseite/
Some highlights:
The police academy in Berlin has been busy educating ethnic policemen. The leak: half the recruits are Arabs or Turks who have no respect for their German instructors, or female colleagues.
The power of Arab criminal gangs constantly grows. They came to Germany as asylum seekers in the eighties and nineties.
The new ethnic police are no colleagues; they are the enemy within. Two class of police is emerging, one of them prone to corruption. Some collusion between Arab clans and police had already been found.
Political correctness and anti-discrimination initiative of the leftist supports this trend.
Jordan Peterson’s account of how the German police were sent to Poland as “keepers of the peace”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idB1b3bz378
As he says, the walk to the dark side is one step at a time. Thus those ethnic German police (i.e, real German men) must be psychologically in deep doo-doo by now.
The only thing I’d add about the article on college graduates/millenials being commuists and tranzis is that a lot of them do know how things work, or at least used to work, in the ‘real’ world; but they don’t work that way anymore. There are no jobs, hard work doesn’t matter, and they’re mad as hell about it. see also, fredoneverything’s essay on 1785 Paris.
Trump Withdraws U.S. From UN Migrant And Refugee Compact:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-withdraws-u-un-migrant-140952551.html
The president of the U.N. General Assembly expressed disappointment and regret at Trump’s decision, saying in a statement that no single country can “manage international migration on its own.”
Yes, they can. It is the country that created these migrants that alone can deal with it by encouraging sound family planning, and economic policies. The lack of which lies at the root of the problem, including resulting conflicts.
Only the UN officials with their impartial wisdom can manage international migration.
“The United Nations should not miss this opportunity to improve the lives of millions of people throughout the world,” Lajčák added.
And wreck the lives of millions of others, but that does not bother the UN.
“In other news, an Australian MP is proposing that migrants be given special courses after they arrive in Australia to teach them that stealing and other antisocial actions are criminal.”
I have this dim recollection of Islamic countries mandating amputation as the punishment for theft. Why should there be any further need to enforce this notion in other places? As to “antisocial actions”, as contributors here already have suggested, instant and permanent expulsion.