Whipped up by Santa Ana winds, some of the largest and most destructive wildfires ever seen are ravaging the Los Angeles area. A number of large mandatory evacuation zones have been declared, and mansions of the rich in the hills near Los Angeles have burned to the ground.
In other news, students at a high school in Arizona New Mexico hid under desks and locked themselves in closets as an active shooter, one of their fellow students, walked around shooting people. Three people were killed, including the gunboy. It’s not clear if he committed suicide, or was shot by police.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Charles Low, Dean, Dora, JD, Reader from Chicago, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.
“It Should Have Horns”: Internet’s Hilarious Response to Hillary Christmas Tree ‘Angel’
When a company announced that they are marketing a Hillary Clinton ‘Christmas Tree Angel’, the internet responded in typically hilarious fashion.
A British company is selling the 3D printed Clinton tree topper for a whopping £80, around $140, marketing it as “a Woman To Look Up To.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
An Angry Senator Grassley Lashes Out at FBI, DOJ in Fiery Senate Floor Speech
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) blasted the FBI and Senate Democrats on Wednesday for their unwillingness to fairly investigate Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration, stating that the Democrats on the committee he oversees “only want to talk about [President] Trump.”
In a fiery speech to the Senate, Grassley lambasted Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other Democrats for “a double standard here in the way that they desperately want to go after the president but ignore all other potential wrongdoing in the previous administration.”
He then tore into the credibility of the Justice Department and the FBI, pointing out that the veteran FBI agent placed in charge of both the Clinton investigation and the Trump-Russia, Peter Strzok, is wildly anti-Trump. Grassley insisted that both the Trump-Russia investigation and the Clinton email investigation are intricately connected to the firing of the former FBI Director James Comey, so they must be investigated together. From his speech:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Another Democrat in the Senate Could Set the Stage for Nuclear Tragedies for Millions
When considering whom to support in the coming special election for the United States Senate, we must consider that a vote to empower the Democratic party on a federal and Congressional level (as opposed to local Democrats on a state legislature or a city council) is a vote in support of policies such as the Obama Iran deal now in effect, that circumvented the treaty requirements of the consent of 2/3 of the Senators present. The obviously unconstitutional Obama Iran deal propped up — and continues to prop up — a regime that is developing nuclear weapons with the continuing promise of “Death to America,” and “Death to Israel.” This is also the regime that is the world’s most significant state sponsor of terrorism throughout the rest of the world as well, with the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated and deadly conventional weapons.
The notorious Obama Iran deal of a couple of years ago — with its side agreements — by its own language excludes from coverage all of Iran’s “military” installations (as defined by Iran) and all of Iran’s nuclear installations not specified in the agreement as well as those not built as of the time of the agreement, and requires the United States to protect Iranian nuclear installations from attack, even though the most likely attacker would be Israel defensively or preemptively in the face of a nuclear attack from Iran, so Obama and his henchmen obligated the United States to attack Israeli warplanes even if launched in self-defense, leaving Israel relatively defenseless in such a plausible scenario.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bankrupt Toys “R” US Wins OK to Pay $16 Million in Executive Bonuses
Toys “R” Us has won approval to pay $16 million in bonuses to 17 top executives if the company hits financial targets during the holiday shopping season.
The bankruptcy court trustee Judy Robbins, a Justice department attorney who represents the interest of creditors, had argued that the proposed bonuses were excessive and were little more than retention bonuses meant to keep the executives from jumping ship due to uncertainty about the company’s future.
While companies in bankruptcy are allowed to issue incentive bonuses, retention bonuses are not permitted.
“It defies logic and wisdom, not to mention the Bankruptcy Code, that a bankrupt company would now propose further multi-million dollar bonuses for the senior leadership of a company that began the year with employee layoffs and concludes it in the midst of the holiday season in bankruptcy,” she argued in her filing. “Apparently, this Christmas, Toys “R” Us intends to deliver not only ‘children their biggest smiles of the year’ but the insiders, too.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Barack Obama Goes There… Compares President Trump to Hitler in Front of Chicago Audience
The legacy-less former community organizer, Barack Hussein Obama, who just returned from a trip to China where he criticized President Trump for not adhering to the global climate change agenda set forth by globalists, spoke in front of a large crowd in Chicago, the same city where Barack sat, for 20 years, in the pews of a “church” and listened to his preacher and his self-described “mentor” spew hate for Americans and Whites. In his speech, the man who set racial relations back 40 years, and divided our nation in ways that we haven’t seen since the Civil War, stood in front of a crowd of Americans and suggested that President Trump is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler. Obama also took credit for single-handedly wiping out Ebola and expressed his biggest regret of not being able to enact gun-control.
Miss him yet?
[Comment: More proof Obama is a globalist puppet.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Putting yourself on a registry of people who engage in activities, or own goods, that are even mildly controversial makes you vulnerable to abusive officials.
If we needed yet another demonstration that getting yourself on the government’s radar is just a bad idea, Hawaii handed it to us in spades last week. That’s when we learned that the Honolulu Police Department was putting the screws to people so honest — and trusting — as to comply with state laws requiring registration of certain goods and activities. They shouldn’t have been so honest and trusting.
Like too many jurisdictions, Hawaii requires gun owners to register their firearms. Also like an excess of other control-freaky places, the state requires medical marijuana users to register themselves with the state Department of Health. As it turns out, those who dutifully abide by both requirements find themselves in trouble. Hawaii may allow the use of marijuana for medicinal uses, and even require registration of its users, but the state continues to regard the practice as a violation of federal law. As a result, Honolulu residents who legally complied with requirements that they enter themselves in both registries have received threatening letters signed by officials including Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard. These letters read, in part:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lindsey Vonn Representing ‘People of the United States, Not the President’ At Winter Olympics
Olympian Lindsey Vonn says she plans on representing her country and not the president at the 2018 winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“Well, I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president,” Vonn told CNN.
The alpine skier, who long dominated her sport outside of the marquee quadrennial event, boasts just two Olympic medals, winning a gold in the downhill and a bronze in the Super-G at the 2010 Vancouver games. The 33-year-old seeks to overcome age, injuries, bad luck at the Olympics, and recent poor performances to reclaim the top spot on the podium in South Korea.
“I want to represent our country well,” Vonn explained. “I don’t think that there are a lot of people currently in our government that do that.”
The games, which take place from February 9th through the 25th, represent perhaps her last chance to “represent [her] country well.”
Though Vonn traveled to the White House several times during Barack Obama’s presidency, including a visit accompanying then-boyfriend Tiger Woods to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2014, do not expect her to accept Donald Trump’s congratulations in-person after the 2018 games. When asked whether she would accept an invitation to the White House should she win in Pyeongchang, Vonn offered a blunt “Absolutely not.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Not a Drill’: Students Hid in Classrooms as Shooter Kills 2
AZTEC, N.M. Students hid in their classrooms, some behind locked doors or in closets, as a gunman opened fire Thursday inside a New Mexico high school, killing two classmates before he ended up dead.
Authorities and other officials in the small town of Aztec near the Colorado border have released few details other than to say the shooter and two victims attended Aztec High School.
No other injuries were reported, and it was not clear if the shooter died by suicide or was killed by police.
Bryn Divine, a senior, said she was sitting at her desk in her history class when she heard gunshots erupt down the hall. At first, it sounded as if someone was swinging a metal baseball bat against the lockers.
Then she heard an announcer over the school intercom tell students: “This is not a drill.”
“I stayed in my desk, and I just prayed, ‘Please just let this be over as soon as possible.’ That was my first reaction,” she said.
Sophomore Garrett Parker told Albuquerque television station KOAT that he also heard what he thought was banging on the lockers. Then it got louder and closer.
“Thankfully our teacher always locks the door no matter what. So he kept that locked,” Parker said. “When they called over the intercom that it was not a drill, we went to the corner of the room out of sight from the door and just started hiding.”
Gov. Susana Martinez called the shooting a heinous and horrific act and told reporters that teachers, school staff and law enforcement jumped in quickly to prevent more deaths. She didn’t provide more details…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
NSA’s McMaster “Authorized Surveillance of Bannon and Trump Family.” Intel Sent to George Soros
The Gateway Pundit reports that a former CIA paramilitary officer and member of the Trump transition team, John R. Maguire, reportedly revealed during a fund raising meeting for an intelligence gathering operation in Afghanistan, that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster “authorized surveillance of Steven Bannon and Trump family members, including Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.”
The Intercept reports…
“[Maguire] said there were people inside the CIA who joined in the previous eight years [under Obama] and inside the government and they were failing to give the president the intelligence he needed,” said a person who was pitched by Maguire and other Amyntor personnel. To support his claim, Maguire told at least two people that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, in coordination with a top official at the National Security Agency, authorized surveillance of Steven Bannon and Trump family members, including Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Adding to these unsubstantiated claims, Maguire told the potential donors he also had evidence H.R. McMaster used a burner phone to send information gathered through the surveillance to a facility in Cyprus owned by George Soros.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Muslim Brotherhood Declares U.S. ‘An Enemy of the Arab World’… Buh, Bye CAIR!
The so-called ‘Moderate’ Muslim Brotherhood just declared the U.S. ‘An Enemy of the Arab World’ after the Trump Embassy Announcement…Does this mean that we can now designate the organization connected to them as a terrorist organization? CAIR has been actively involved in pushing the not-so-moderate Muslim Brotherhood’s agenda. Remember that Obama hosted the group at the White House even though the pressure was on to designate them as a terrorist organization… The Muslim Brotherhood has declared war on the United States after President Trump announced earlier today the official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his intent to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In the published statement on the Ikhwanonline.info website, the group rabidly defended by the CIA and State Department as moderates, declares, “Jerusalem is Islamic and Arab; for it we’ll shed our blood and wage war. This is the way of our Jihad.”
Here’s a translation of the Muslim Brotherhood’s statement:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Six Pedestrians Injured in Chain-Reaction Crash Near City Hall
Six pedestrians were hurt by a speeding livery cab driver who hurtled through an intersection near City Hall in Lower Manhattan Thursday.
The Lincoln Town Car livery cab was headed east on Liberty St. when it swerved sharply at Broadway to get around a Ford Explorer but collided with the SUV instead about 1:20 p.m., cops said.
The Explorer hit a cyclist, crushing the bike under one of the SUV’s wheels, while the livery driver kept going.
“There was a lady that dove out of the way in front of me,” said witness Hector Freytes, 40, of Astoria. “She has the reflexes of a cat. I hope she’s all right.”
Freytes said the Town Car wasn’t swerving or braking.
“It was a straight bee line,” he said. “It wasn’t stopping or slowing down at all. I thanked my lucky stars. I’m a little shaken up … People were scattered all around. I called it in for an ambulance.”
The Town Car hit a woman heading uptown in the crosswalk and slammed into a Mercedes, hurting the driver. It then jumped a curb and hit a parked car before coming to rest…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
The Firestorm This Time: Why Los Angeles is Burning
THE THOMAS FIRE spread through the hills above Ventura, in the northern greater Los Angeles megalopolis, with the speed of a hurricane. Driven by 50 mph Santa Ana winds—bone-dry katabatic air moving at freeway speeds out of the Mojave desert—the fire transformed overnight from a 5,000-acre burn in a charming chaparral-lined canyon to an inferno the size of Orlando, Florida, that only stopped spreading because it reached the Pacific. Tens of thousands of people evacuated their homes in Ventura; 150 buildings burned and thousands more along the hillside and into downtown are threatened.
That isn’t the only part of Southern California on fire. The hills above Valencia, where Interstate 5 drops down out of the hills into the city, are burning. Same for a hillside of the San Gabriel Mountains, overlooking the San Fernando Valley. And the same, too, near the Mount Wilson Observatory, and on a hillside overlooking Interstate 405—the flames in view of the Getty Center and destroying homes in the rich-people neighborhoods of Bel-Air and Holmby Hills.
And it’s all horribly normal.
Southern California’s transverse ranges—the mostly east-west mountains that slice up and define the greater Los Angeles region—were fire-prone long before there was a Los Angeles. They’re a broken fragment of tectonic plate, squeezed up out of the ground by the Pacific Plate on one side and the North American on the other, shaped into the San Gabriels, the Santa Monica Mountains, the San Bernardino Mountains. Even the Channel Islands off Ventura’s coast are the tippy-tops of a transverse range.
[…]
With the growth and spread of Los Angeles, fire became even more part of Southern California life. “It’s almost textbook. It’s the end of the summer drought, there has not been a lot of rain this year, and we’ve got Santa Ana winds blowing,” says Alexandra Syphard, an ecologist at the Conservation Biology Institute. “Every single year, we have ideal conditions for the types of wildfires we’re experiencing. What we don’t have every single year is an ignition during a wind event. And we’ve had several.”
Read the rest…
[…]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
While the NFL sinks further, the powers-that-be are moving forward like everything’s just fine. Attendance at games is at an all-time low but it’s being reported that team owners are going to approve this monster payout to Goodell:
[Comment: He is doing the bidding of his gloablist masters — destroying the all-American football culture. This is why he is getting financially rewarded.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
An elderly black man was interviewed by the very popular “People of East Texas” Facebook page. The interviewer admits that he (or she) never asked the elderly man about “Black Lives Matter” or about race. They simply asked him, “If you could give a group of 10,000 people a piece of advice, what would you tell them?” He responded with, “Stop fighting”. And when the interviewer asked the elderly East Texas man to elaborate, here’s what he had to say:
“I don’t get all this ‘Black Lives Matter’ — ‘Blue Lives Matter’ divide. I been around here since ‘57 and I never been to jail. All I see now are these young-in’s running around getting shot because they think they can do whatever they want. That’s not how it works, but you can’t tell them that. I know what real racism looks like and I haven’t seen the likes of that ugly face in years. What needs to happen is unity. Respect your fellow man and 99% of the time, they’ll respect you back no matter what you look like. I’m living proof of that.”
(Tyler, Texas)
Here is the first response to his statement from a white, male, East Texas resident:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Taxpayers Federation Calls on Ontario Government to Take Action Based on Auditor General’s Report
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on the government to take immediate action based on the findings of the 2017 Annual Report by the Auditor General of Ontario.
The report revealed that Ontario electricity ratepayers paid $260 million for power generators’ ineligible expenses, for things like scuba gear, staff car washes, landscaping and racoon traps. The Auditor General also found that the Independent Electricity System Operator hasn’t implemented repeated recommendations from the Ontario Energy Board, which could save ratepayers $30 million a year.
“The Auditor General has found obvious and egregious waste in the electricity sector in Ontario, and it’s time for the government to act on it. If it’s possible to save ratepayers money today, it’s shameful that the government hasn’t done anything about it yet,” said Christine Van Geyn, Ontario Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “What we need from the government is real cost savings on electricity, not election gimmicks that kick the debt can down the road.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Amsterdam: Man With Palestinian Flag Destroys Jewish Restaurant [Video]
A Jewish restaurant in the Netherlands was attacked this morning by a man carrying a Palestinian flag. The man smashed five windows and entered the Amsterdam restaurant before the police arrested him.
According to Dutch media the man shouted “Allah Akbar!” and “Palestine!” during the assault. Daniel Baron, one of the owners of the Jewish restaurant says that “this is very shocking, it hurts”. Baron adds that the smashing of the windows and the man entering his restaurant is a form of “fear mongering”.
The Dutch Center of Israeli Information and Documentation (CIDI) calls the incident “shocking and scandalous”. Dutch VVD politician Marianne Poot said she will ask questions about the incident in the city council. She calls the incident “very disturbing” and wants to know from the mayor what is known about the perpetrator and if other Jewish buildings in Amsterdam have been alerted.
[Comment: Surely the chap meant “Philistine” ?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Suspected of Plotting Christmas Market Attack in Austria’s Graz
VIENNA (Reuters) — A 25-year-old Bosnian man has been arrested in the Austrian city of Graz on suspicion of planning an attack on its Christmas market, police said on Thursday.
The Muslim man was detained on Dec. 1 at an emergency shelter where others saw him watching videos about last year’s attacks in Nice and Berlin on a computer, a force spokesman said.
Witnesses heard him talking about Berlin and death, the spokesman added.
He had visited mosques, but it was not yet clear whether he had been radicalized or had any accomplices, police said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Brit Sniper With Links to Manchester Bomber Found Guilty of Belonging to ISIS
A British jihadi with links to the Manchester Arena bomber has been found guilty of being a member of Islamic State , after his application form was produced as evidence.
Mohammed Abdallah, 26, faces years in jail when he is sentenced tomorrow.
He went to Syria with help of his wheelchair-bound brother Abdalraouf, 24, who set up a “hub” of communication from his home for would-be fighters.
Abdallah was outed when his registration form for the terror group, calling him a “specialist sniper”, was leaked.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
CNN Pushes Hard Left, Soros-Funded ‘Hope Not Hate’ Alarmism After Trump UK Tweet
The hard-left group Hope Not Hate (HNH) was invited to speak on CNN, and on the BBC four times in just one day, where their activist sensationally claimed President Donald J. Trump’s retweets could cause social unrest in the UK.
The U.S. president shared footage purporting to show Islamic extremist attacks to warn of the danger of radical Islam, but due to the highly controversial source of the tweets, they have been used by the left wing media to claim “far right” extremism is the real danger.
On Thursday, CNN presenter Christiane Amanpour suggested to HNH researcher Joe Mulhall on air that the president’s retweets could “rip the fabric of British society… dangerously apart.”…
HNH describe themselves as an “anti-racist” group, but grew out of the Communist-linked Searchlight magazine, and have used considerable resources to attack mainstream right-wing parties like UKIP over several years.
The organisation was described as “Orwellian bigots” by leading Muslim reformer Dr. Zuhdi Jasser after they labelled liberal Muslims “Islamophobic”, exposing them to jihadist reprisal. They were also revealed by the Economist as having grossly exaggerated statistics in a report to further their agenda.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Czech Trump’ Named Prime Minister
Populist billionaire Andrej Babis was appointed prime minister of the Czech Republic Wednesday, and he immediately took aim at the European Union and illegal immigration.
Babis and his ANO movement won the Czech general election in October by a wide margin. ANO fell short of an absolute majority, and Babis has struggled to find support to reach a majority in parliament. He is also facing charges of defrauding the EU in 2007, and police have asked the parliament to lift his immunity.
Babis is the country’s second wealthiest person, with a net worth of more than $4 billion. He is often compared to U.S. President Donald Trump for his outspoken style and background as a businessman. During his first address as prime minister, Babis vowed to fight human traffickers who bring migrants to Europe illegally.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU Steps Up Pressure on Hungary Over Soros University, NGO Laws, Migration
BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The European Union’s executive on Thursday stepped up its pressure on the nationalist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary over its treatment of immigrants, non-governmental groups and a prominent university.
Orban has been locked in a series of running battles with the EU, where Western states and the Brussels-based executive Commission decry what they see as his authoritarian leanings, the squeezing of the opposition and the free media.
In a series of legal announcements, the European Commission said it was taking Budapest to the bloc’s top court, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, over its NGO laws as well as a higher education law that targets a university founded by U.S. financier George Soros, a public enemy of Orban.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
European Union — EU to Take Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic to ECJ Over Migrant Quotas
BRUSSELS today risked further opening up the huge rift at the heart of the EU as eurocrats confirmed they are set to take three Eastern European states to court for refusing to accept migrant quotas.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Two Romanian brothers who were sentenced to 12 years in prison for the brutal rape of a London woman had been released from a French prison in 2016 after serving a sentence for rape.
Ovidiu Mamaliga, 30, and Andrei Mamaliga (pictured), 28, were both found guilty of rape, sexual assault, attempted rape, actual bodily harm, and theft.
The court had heard that the two brothers started a conversation with the victim, a woman in her forties, and one of the brothers followed her into her home asking to use to the toilet.
When the victim told him to leave, the brothers attacked her, tying her up with shoelaces, and undressed and raped her. They then stole her cash, jewellery, and mobile phones.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: ‘Arabs’ Torture and Rob Couple at Their Home, Man Dies
Six masked men violently robbed a couple at their home in the town of Gonterskirchen, Germany.
Near 9:30pm Tuesday evening, the men forced themselves into the house and demanded money and valuables. According to German media the couple were tied up and tortured during the robbery.
When leaving ‘around’ 1:20 am the robbers set the house on fire. Luckily for the 59yr old woman, neighbours heard her screams and helped save her by pulling her of the window. For her man help came too late. His ‘disfigured’ corpse was found tied up on the bed.
What happened exactly during the four hours in the house is still unclear. The perpetrators are said to be six persons dressed in dark clothes and were masked. They spoke in Arabic and French according to the police.
The men fled in two cars. A silver Audi Avant with a Polish registration, which belongs to the victim and another car which was found later.
[Comment: Where’s that traitor Merkel? Why is she not standing in front of this house proudly chanting “We can do it” ? Horrible woman.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Inbreeding in Scandinavian Wolves is Worse Than We Thought
Everyone knew that the tiny population of wolves in Norway and Sweden was inbred. Using precise genetic techniques, researchers can now describe the severity of the problem.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
The Hungarian government has vowed it will never accept radical Islamic terrorism as “something we have to live with”, as the EU subjects it to a “witch-hunt” for its strong stance against open borders and mass migration.
Péter Szijjártó, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s minister for foreign affairs, said it was anti-democratic and unacceptable to brand Hungary un-European because it insists on discussing the “historic challenges” the continent faces, according to The Hungary Journal.
The minister said that encouraging large-scale immigration to Europe has led to a situation where radical Islamic terrorism is now an “everyday phenomenon” — but insisted that “Hungary refuses to accept it as something we have to live with.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Once Great Britain Under Occupation
The Roman Republic was born when a Roman woman, Lucretia, was raped by the Etruscan king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. Humiliated, Lucretia killed herself. The outraged noble families of the city avenged their ravaged daughter and drove out their foreign overlords, establishing a new state that would endured for centuries and built an empire that would define Western Civilization.
The reverse is occurring in the United Kingdom. Once the seat of an empire on which the sun never set, the United Kingdom hosts an insular, hostile, foreign population that is colonizing the home islands. The “grooming,” assault, and rape of English girls in Rotherham and elsewhere, explicitly motivated by racial contempt, occurred for over a decade. More than one victim committed suicide. Yet the aristocrats of once-Great Britain, those with titles and those who simply enjoy wealth and power, did not rise in anger and revulsion to avenge their daughters. The public officials who looked the other way were not even punished.
What did rouse the guardians of British virtue to fury was President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed. President Trump, as he often does, retweeted some videos he found interesting. They had been posted by Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of a small British political group called Britain First.
The result was outrage from the entire British political class.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
An incredible collection of postcards depicting rural scenes from 100 years ago has been unearthed to reveal a fascinating snapshot of a more innocent time.
The postcards show the quiet life in villages in south-west England in the early 20th century.
At a time when the automobile was in still in its infancy, it is no surprise to see many of the streets virtually empty in many of the pictures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Wake Up EU!” Huge Demonstration Sweeps Brussels as Thousands Protest Against Bloc
THOUSANDS of Catalans took to the streets of Brussels in a huge demonstration at the heart of the European Union over the bloc’s refusal to get involved in the independence referendum and to demand the release of the political prisoners held in Spain.
Belgium police estimated about 45,000 people marched through the heart of Brussels earlier today with many questioning the refusal by the leaders of the EU to get involved with the issue of Catalan independence, as well as showing their support for the ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Backgrounder: The Jerusalem Embassy Controversy
The 1947 UN partition resolution designated Jerusalem as an international city, a status that satisfied neither Jews nor Arabs. In the fighting that erupted following the invasion of Arab armies the next year, newly independent Israel occupied the western half of the city and established its capital there, while Jordan’s Arab Legion took ownership of the eastern half, including the Old City and Temple Mount.
Israeli forces captured and annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War. U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks over the last 29 years have focused on the fate of East Jerusalem and other territories captured in that war. Current and past proposals to move the embassy have all involved relocation to West Jerusalem — territory to which Palestinian negotiators have not laid claim.
Thus, the intense anger expressed by Palestinian and Arab leaders toward the proposed relocation isn’t rooted in concerns that Palestinian claims to disputed territory will be compromised. Indeed, it doesn’t appear to be rooted in any concerns of ordinary Palestinians. According to a recent poll, just 12% of Palestinians in the West Bank and 25% in Gaza consider the location of the U.S. embassy a “very important” issue.
As Marshall J. Breger, a professor of law at the Catholic University of America, explained in a 1994 Middle East Quarterly article, Muslim religious and cultural attachments to Jerusalem are not very deep. Contrary to mainstream media depictions of the city as the “third holiest” in Islam, Jerusalem is not mentioned by name in the Qur’an, was never visited by the Prophet Muhammad, and was never the capital of any Arab-Islamic polity.
Delving further in a seminal 2001 Middle East Quarterly article, Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes finds vast ebbs and flows in expressed Muslim views of Jerusalem’s sacredness over the centuries, peaking when the city is occupied or threatened by non-Muslims. While there were few hadiths (accounts of the Prophet Muhammad’s words and action) referencing Jerusalem prior to the Crusades, a rich flurry of them appeared when Muslim rulers needed a means of inspiring their subjects to wage jihad against the “Franks.”
Once safely in Muslim hands, however, interest in Jerusalem dissipated so rapidly that Saladdin’s grandson traded the city back to Europeans just 40 years later in exchange for military aid against a rival. Interest rose again until Jerusalem was regained in the thirteenth century, then declined for six-and-a-half centuries. It rose again during the British mandate period, when Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the infamous grand mufti of Jerusalem, needed a mechanism for inciting his followers to violence. Interest then declined (Al-Aqsa Mosque fell into disrepair, no Arab leader even bothered to visit East Jerusalem for nearly two decades) when the Jordanians ruled the Old City. Its falling into Israeli hands set in motion a new wave of Jerusalem-mania cultivated and instrumentalized by rejectionist Palestinian leaders and others (notably Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as MEF writing fellow Burak Bekdil has discussed here and here). “The Muslim interest lies not so much in controlling Jerusalem as it does in denying control over the city to anyone else,” Pipes concludes.
“Islam carries the expectation that a land once under Muslim control (Dar al-Islam) is an endowment (waqf) that must inevitably revert to Muslim rule,” Pipes writes in a more recent treatment. In this respect, the distinction between western and eastern Jerusalem — and, more generally, between territories held by Israel in 1949 and new ones captured in 1967 — is immaterial.
[…]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Will Not Move Its Embassy to Jerusalem, Says Chrystia Freeland
Ottawa has no intention of following Washington’s example in officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the Canadian embassy there from Tel Aviv, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark’s Embassy to Stay in Tel Aviv: Foreign Minister
The Danish embassy in Israel will not be moved to Jerusalem, says foreign minister Anders Samuelsen.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
State Department Memo Asks Israel to Restrain Response to Trump’s Jerusalem Decision
A State Department document obtained by the news agency instructs US diplomatic staff in Israel on the message that is to be delivered to Israeli leadership. “While I recognize that you will publicly welcome this news, I ask that you restrain your official response,” a talking point in the document says.
“We expect there to be resistance to this news in the Middle East and around the world. We are still judging the impact this decision will have on US facilities and personnel overseas.” The document also carries talking points for diplomats in Europe, who are encouraged to convey to EU governments that Trump’s statement did not in any way predetermine Jerusalem’s final status, a matter will still need to be determined in negotiations.
[Comment: State Dept is wholly controlled by globalists and their puppets.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Extremists Urge Lone Wolves in Europe, Australia and the U.S. To ‘Burn Children With Oil’
Calls by an Islamic State-linked group for so-called lone wolves to murder Western children are going viral in Islamic fundamentalist chat rooms.
The violent message was uncovered by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist activity on the internet.
“I wish that I could travel to Europe or America or Australia and, by Allah, burn their children with oil in place of their men and women,” read the message, which was disseminated widely online.
“I would not choose a market, club, shopping centre, or park… no… no… no… I would choose a kindergarten and a maternity hospital to slaughter them.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Impossibility of a Lasting Arab-Israeli Peace
by Srdja Trifkovic
President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the Holy City has been criticized on many grounds, most of them ostensibly sensible, in America and abroad. In the Western media, over the past two days, we have encountered six chief objections:
| 1. | The United States will cement its image, well justified over the past half-century, as anything but an impartial fair broker capable of negotiating a fair settlement of the Arab-Israeli dispute. | |
| 2. | The Israeli government will be emboldened to renege on its already de facto defunct Oslo Accords promise of negotiating the future of Jerusalem as part of an eventual peace settlement. | |
| 3. | Trump has made an upfront gift to the government of Israel, which should have been kept in reserve as a reward for its willingness to make concessions in some future negotiations. | |
| 4. | At home, Trump is courting his constituency of pro-Israeli evangelicals—which he does not need to do, because they will not desert him anyway—while the Jewish-American vote he cannot hope to placate come what may. | |
| 5. | Trump’s decision violates the international law—no recognition of any annexation resulting from war—and the letter (not to mention the spirit) of a host of UN resolutions on the issue. | |
| 6. | Trump’s decision will inflame the Islamic world, alienate the moderates, harden the radicals, and likely aggravate the security of the United States and its foreign outposts and interests. |
So far, so conventional. The Muslim reaction has been predictable. As for the moderates, Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi has warned his U.S. counterpart Rex Tillerson of “dangerous consequences”: “Such a decision would trigger anger across Arab, Muslim worlds, fuel tension and jeopardize peace efforts.” On December 5 Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry spoke to his French colleague Jean-Yves Le Drian, who agreed that the US administration should “reconsider its plan before making a final decision, due to its potentially dangerous impact on the region and the peace negotiations,” President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke with Trump to affirm the Egyptian position “on preserving the legal status of Jerusalem within the framework of international references and relevant UN resolutions.” Morocco’s King Mohammed VI expressed his “deep concern and strong condemnation of the US decision.” The United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry also warned of “grave consequences.” The government of Iraq announced that it regarded the U.S. move with “utmost worry” and warned of “this decision’s ramifications on the stability of the region and the world.”
On the more radical side, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that this could go as far as cutting Turkey’s diplomatic relations with Israel. “You cannot take such a step,” he said, which he described as a “red line” for Muslims everywhere. While welcoming King Abdullah of Jordan in Ankara on December 6, Erdogan called on “the entire world to say Jerusalem is protected by UN resolutions” and that any move that would challenge its status should be resisted. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei declared that the enemies are attacking “the Islamic Ummah and the path of the Prophet of Islam.” Iranian president Hassan Rouhani called on Muslims everywhere to start “a major uprising against the U.S. intrigue.” Even this is eminently mild rhetoric compared to the reaction of Islamist Internet sites all over the world.
For a foreign policy realist, however, Trump’s decision makes perfect sense. It clears the fog of Oslo, a “process” which has not progressed since Bill Clinton’s desperate push at Camp David in the final days of his presidency. It accepts the reality that Jerusalem—however delineated—is the capital of the Jewish state. On this issue, at least, there exists an overwhelming consensus within Israel, regardless of the principals’ party-political, “left” vs. “right,” pro- or anti-Netanyahu inclinations. It does not necessarily imply the recognition of East Jerusalem as an integral part of Israel, or deny a priori the possibility of its future status as the capital of the putative Palestinian state. The symbolic and political significance of Trump’s decision may be, paradoxically perhaps, to exact from the Likud government more in the way of concessions now that the favor has been proffered, than would have been the case had the carrot been withheld for future use as a reward for good behavior.
The structural problem in the Arab-Israeli conflict which remains overlooked by the media—the mother of all problems—is not Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. It is whether the Palestinian Arabs can ever recognize Israel as a legitimate entity…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
India Needs to ‘Cherish and Nurture’ Its Muslims: Barack Obama
India needs to “cherish and nurture” its Muslim population, which is integrated and considers itself Indian, former US president Barack Obama has said. It is an idea that needs to be reinforced, he emphasised at an event of a media organisation in New Delhi on Friday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Honduras Presidential Election: Curfew Lifted in Some Areas After OAS Call
Honduras has suspended an overnight curfew in eight departments after the areas were no longer considered a security risk following last month’s disputed presidential election.
The lifting of the curfew was one of the demands made by the Organisation of American States.
The OAS said it may call for new elections if any “irregularities” undermined the credibility of results.
Some parts of the country remain under curfew.
It was imposed last weekend after outbreaks of violence followed the 26 November poll.
Honduras has 18 departments, but the curfew had already been lifted in one island department and two cities.
In a statement on Wednesday, the OAS calls for constitutional rights to be “immediately restored”.
President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is seeking re-election, won the poll by a narrow margin.
But the main opposition contender, Salvador Nasralla, demands a full recount.
He accused the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of interfering in the tallying system to favour the incumbent.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Evidence: American Diplomats in Cuba Attack Show ‘Inexplicable’ Changes in Their Brains
Doctors say the victims of the attacks on U.S. diplomatic personnel in Cuba are showing unprecedented physical changes to their brains, the AP reported early Wednesday. The new findings cast further doubt on theories that whatever was used to harm the Americans was a sonic device.
Medical tests reportedly indicate the Americans specifically had changes to the white-matter tracts that enable parts of the brain to communicate; acoustic waves have never before been shown to alter a brain’s white-matter tracts, said Columbia University biomedical engineer Elisa Konofagou, who is not involved in the investigation. The AP said doctors are treating the cases as never-before-seen abnormalities.
The patients developed hearing, vision, balance, and memory damage while on assignment in Havana, after reporting hearing strange high-pitch sounds for months. It is still unclear how the white matter changes relate to the other neurological symptoms experienced by the diplomats. The Cuban government has denied any involvement in the attack.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bavaria Defends Classifying Asylum Homes as ‘Dangerous’
The Bavarian government has defended classifying asylum homes in the region as “dangerous places” and allowing police to enter or raid them without a warrant after an outcry by pro-migrant groups.
Left-wing pro-migrant groups have accused the Bavarian government of infringing on the human rights of asylum seekers by allowing police warrantless access to asylum homes at any time. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann has defended the classification and increased the number of police present at asylum homes after several recent violent incidents, Die Welt reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Croatian Migrant Felt Unsafe in Sweden and Left to Go to ‘Amazing’ Poland — Interview
Well… it’s obvious for most people I think. Sweden has been in decay for quite some time now. The schools are terrible, simple medical help takes a long time, the violence is increasing on every level and I simply don’t recognise the country I grew up in anymore.
One other reason was that I felt utterly alone in speaking up about what’s going on in Sweden. On a party almost everyone thinks the same but officially you’re pretty much alone. People are afraid to speak up because those that do are branded racists or populists, It’s very disturbing.
Swedes KNOW that something is terribly wrong but no one speaks openly about it. The media seems to be on the side of the politicians all the time. The people know that migration has led to more crimes, more rapes, more violence, more gangs but the government and media just wants people to focus on the good things about migration. They told the Swedes that migration would save their elderly and would generate billions for the country… and now it seems it’s the opposite that has happened.
But still… the migration must go on. It’s pure madness. Like today — they have “sold” the idea that Sweden has a normal migration rate but no. It’s still very high and society can’t keep up with housing, schools and jobs. Sweden is — and I think most outside Sweden knows this — REALLY BAD at integration.
[Comment: Highly recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Reading Out News About Migrants is Now Seen as a Crime by the Left
AfD politician, Rainer Rahn, of the Frankfurt city council, was sued for racial incitement by the left-wing faction leader of “Die Linke” Martin Kliehm. Why? He had the audacity to read 30 newspaper headlines out loud.
In an interview with Frankfurt broadcasting, Martin Kliehm said the AfD member was trying to incite the people against refugees, Muslims and migrants. Hence, he sued him.
The reason for Rahn’s action was his criticism of SPD party migration officer Aydan Özoguz. Mr. Özoguz said that there is no German culture because it has always been influenced by outside influences and migration.
Mr. Rahn proceeded to say that you can see the daily results of Migration on the street. He then read 30 newspaper headlines from different papers, on proven or suspected crimes by foreigners, Muslims and migrants.
Many councilmen left the room because of it. Mayor Uwe Becker even went so far as to call him an embarrassment, followed by applause.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What Will a Few More Years of Muslim Immigration Do to Europe?
The key terms, migrants, asylum-seekers, and refugees, are often used interchangeably, but regular migrants are those who legally move to Europe for economic, educational, or family reasons. Asylum-seekers are migrants who apply for refugee status on entry into Europe.
The Pew study largely concentrates on changes in Europe between 2010 and 2016. The crucial fact is that the number of refugees has escalated since 2014. The record number of 1.3 million migrants applying for asylum in the 28 states of the E.U. is nearly double the number in 1992 who applied after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Of the migrants in those years to Europe, both refugees and regular migrants, about 3.7 million were Muslims, and 3.3 million were non-Muslims. Of the 3.7 million Muslims, about 2.5 million were legal migrants as workers and students and 1.3 million who want refugee status; most of them were from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The significance of this is that while the Muslim population grew from net migration, the non-Muslim population declined between 2010 and 2016 by about 1.7 million.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
YouTube Censors Polish Government’s Video Exposing Catastrophic Migrant Invasion
Google flags content as inappropriate, offensive to audiences
The Polish government has fallen victim to YouTube’s selective censorship crackdown after the information giant banished a video exposing Europe’s manufactured migrant crisis to ‘limited state’ limbo.
The video is titled, “Europe opens its eyes and admits us right,” and was posted by Poland’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration.
Its description reads —…
[Comment from Russ Littler sums it up: “ Google, Facebook, and Youtube , are all actively suppressing all voices that speak out against globalism and enforced mass immigration. Pretty soon, only the liberal, left-wing, narrative will be allowed. Welcome to democracy USSR style.”]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Apology Over Prayers for Prince George to be ‘Gay’
A senior Anglican minister has apologised after saying Christians should pray for Prince George to be gay in order to support same-sex marriage.
The Very Rev Kevin Holdsworth, senior Scottish Episcopal church minister, said Christians should hope “the Lord blesses George with the love of a fine young gentleman” to aid the progression of LGBT rights in the church.
He wrote: “If people don’t want to engage in campaigning in this way, they do in England have another unique option, which is to pray in the privacy of their hearts (or in public if they dare) for the Lord to bless Prince George with a love, when he grows up, of a fine young gentleman.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Human Rights’ Tribunal Grills Dead Authors
As you read this, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in the case of “Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. V. Colorado Human Rights Commission,” about a Christian baker who refused, on religious and artistic grounds, to create a custom wedding cake for a pair of homosexuals. This is the court’s Hell-sent opportunity to wipe out religious freedom for Christians in America once and for all.
They’re also about to erase artistic freedom, by giving “gays” the power to dictate the content of a work of art. A one-of-a-kind custom wedding cake is a work of art.
As a novelist, this alarms me. Either I plug “gay” characters into my stories, or not be allowed to write any more stories: that’s what I’m afraid of.
But the Colorado Human Rights Commission is already several steps ahead of me. They have hired a medium to interrogate the spirits of dead authors so that their books can be rewritten to conform to the demands of modern pressure groups.
Their first target was the late F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose novel, “The Great Gatsby,” has been called into question by a transgender plaintiff. Here follows part of the transcript of that séance…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trudeau Liberals’ ‘Homosexual Propaganda’ Campaign Will Cost Taxpayers $16 Million
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government will spend at least $15 million to “memorialize” the Canadian government’s “historic discrimination” of LGBTQ2 persons.
That includes building a national monument in Ottawa and funding “travelling and core exhibits” by the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.
And the Liberals have earmarked a further $1 million-plus to celebrate the coming 50th anniversary of the legalization of homosexualiy, and further initiatives to “promote diversity and inclusion.”
Gwen Landolt, a lawyer and vice president of REAL Women, slammed these efforts as “homosexual propaganda paid for by Canadian taxpayers without their permission” and which “elevate homosexuality as normal, moral, risk-free, and acceptable, which it is not.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More winning:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-08/obama-appointed-judge-mysteriously-recuses-himself-michael-flynn-case
Don’t care if it’s Trump and Co. playing 4D chess or simple boomeranging, it feels good man!
The high school shooting was in Aztec, New Mexico not Arizona
My mistake — thanks for the correction. I’ve fixed it.
“I would not choose a market, club, shopping centre, or park… no… no… no… I would choose a kindergarten and a maternity hospital to slaughter them.”
See the cowards? Where are the days of Achilles and Hector? When great warriors fought other great warriors openly, because they had honor before the gods?
Nonetheless, killing children is a quick way to escalate big bloody conflict. The plagues of Egypt begun by killing children, and the birth of Christ was preceded by a similar massacre.
Another win on this holiday season Friday afternoon:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-08/deep-state-drained-top-doj-official-demoted-after-working-fusion-gps-push-trump-disi
Yet another win!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-08/collusion-conspiracy-continues-collapse-rep-nunes-cleared-russian-leak-probe