The “Yellow Vest” demonstrations in France continued this weekend as thousands of rioters clashed with police. Flaming barricades were set up to block thoroughfares, including in downtown Paris.
In other news, Friedrich Merz, who hopes to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel as the leader of the CDU, has questioned whether Germany can afford to continue with Mrs. Merkel’s asylum policies.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Insubria, JD, MB, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Italy: Budget Clash With EU Will Keep Spread High — Moody’s
Growing tension will spur a rise in risks to economy
(ANSA) — Milan, November 23 — A budget clash with the European European will keep the Italian-German bond spread high, Moody’s Investors Services said Friday.
“The growing tensions with the European Union will keep the costs of financing (the public debt) high” and “will increase the risks for the economy,” said Kathrin Muehlbronner, Senior Vice President of the US ratings agency.
The spread, a gauge of investor confidence in Italy servicing its debt, has risen above 300 points since the EC rejected Italy’s 2019 budget.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Alleged GOP Losers Just Walk Away, As Usual
Well, what can one say about the mid-term elections other than it doesn’t make sense. Not to someone like me who has been on the vote fraud issue since 1993.
Yes, 40 GOP incumbents did not run for reelection. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. Allegedly the Democratic Communist Party USA trounced the Republicans to take control of the House. When pig’s fly. In order for us to believe that we have to believe tens of millions of voters voted for this:
Dementia addled Nancy Pelosi wants to raise taxes. Allegedly Democrat voters agree with being raped in more taxes.
That coo-coo-clock queen wants to get rid of the tax cuts that have put more money into the paychecks of Americans — including Democrats. That must be just fine with the tens of millions of Democrat voters who have benefited from those temporary tax cuts (they expire in 2025) as they allegedly voted against incumbent GOP House members who voted to give them more money in their paychecks or against a GOP challenger who supports those tax cuts.
The Democratic Communist Party USA supports criminal illegal aliens murdering Americans every day as well as drunk Mexicans on the road wiping out whole families or a dad or mother with children in the vehicle. That apparently was just fine with Democrat voters last week.
The Democratic Communist Party USA and its minions in office whether Congress, mayors or governors support so-called sanctuary cities that harbor and aid illegals, terrorists and drug dealers who are here illegally. Some of their mouth pieces want to abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) so those criminal illegals can continue to flood across the border or stay in YOUR community to rape, rob and steal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Are Smartphones Destroying a Generation?
Story At A Glance:
Kids spend an inordinate amount of time on their smartphones, communicating with friends (and possibly strangers) via text, Twitter and Facebook, and work to keep up their Snapstreaks on Snapchat.
Abrupt changes in teen behavior and psychological health emerged around 2012. Post-millennials spend more time alone, engaged in online socialization rather than face-to-face; they drive less, date less, have less sex and have poorer social and work skills than previous generations.
Rates of teen depression and suicide have dramatically risen since 2011, and data suggest spending three hours or more each day on electronic devices raises a teen’s suicide risk by 35 percent.
Between 2007 and 2015, the suicide rate for 12— to 14-year-old girls rose threefold; the suicide rate among boys doubled in that same time frame.
Data reveal the more time teens spend online, the unhappier they are. Those who spend more time than average on activities that do not involve their smartphone are far more likely to report being “happy”…
It should come as no surprise that companies that make money when more people spend more time and money on the internet are consciously trying to manipulate your behavior. Former Google product manager Tristan Harris revealed how digital giants are engineering smartphone apps and social media feedback to get you checking and double-checking online.12
However, while internet use is more socially acceptable, digital companies aren’t the only businesses using neurological and psychological strategies to increase their profit margins.13 Behavior patterns are often etched into neural pathways,14 and when those behaviors are also linked to hormone secretion and physiological responses, they become even more powerful.
In fact, Harris describes the reward process of using a smartphone as “playing the slot machine.”15 And, Google has discovered a way to embed that reward system as you use the apps on your phone. This process is so important to digital corporations that Apple turned down a new smartphone app for their store that would help people to reduce their use of the internet and their smartphones.
In the video above, Harris describes a process known in programing circles as “brain hacking,” as they incorporate knowledge of neuropsychology into the development of digital interfaces that boost interaction. For instance, getting likes on Facebook and Instagram, the “streaks” on Snapchat or cute emojis on texts are all designed to increase your engagement and desire to return.
Harris describes it as a race to the bottom of the brainstem where fear and anxiety live, two of the most powerful motivators known to advertisers. Both advertisers and computer software developers are using these techniques to write code that will engage your attention.16
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black Panthers’ “Constitution” — Brace Yourselves
This columnist believes that the ‘race wars,’ did not naturally happen. The black race was agitated, probably by George Soros, who was reaching for any method that would weaken The United States of America. This manufactured dissension caused more and more demands by blacks to white citizens. It has reached the point that the big question now is: Will anything satisfy the black race?
This will help answer that question:
But first, pour a cup of your favorite coffee, sit in your favorite chair, and…watch your language while reading.
****
What the New Black Panthers Want—(check their website.) Here’s what the New Black Panthers DEMAND:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
California Firefighter Rescues a Cat in Paradise — and Now She Won’t Leave His Side
A California firefighter has found a life-long friend in a cat he rescued while battling the Paradise wildfire.
After saving the cat, Ryan Coleman, Engine Captain at Fairview Valley Fire Department, shared a video to Facebook in which the besotted cat clings to Coleman’s face.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
I Bought Used Voting Machines on eBay for $100 Apiece. What I Found Was Alarming
This year, I bought two more machines to see if security had improved. To my dismay, I discovered that the newer model machines—those that were used in the 2016 election—are running Windows CE and have USB ports, along with other components, that make them even easier to exploit than the older ones. Our voting machines, billed as “next generation,” and still in use today, are worse than they were before—dispersed, disorganized, and susceptible to manipulation.
To be fair, there has been some progress since the last Presidential election, including the development of internal policies for inspecting the machines for evidence of tampering. But while state and local election systems have been conducting risk assessments, we’ve also seen an 11-year-old successfully hacking a simulated voting website at DefCon, for fun.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Servando Gonzalez
Let’s suppose, just for the sake of argument, what would happen if it is discovered that Donald Trump’s real name is Barry Soetoro, that he was born in Kenya, that the birth certificate he produced was an inept CIA falsification, that the Kapiolani Hospital in Hawaii, where he was allegedly born, took that name several years after he was born?
What do you think would happen if Trump’s Social Security card had been issued by a state where he never resided? What if nobody can remember him at the schools he allegedly attended? What if his university records were frozen and closed to the public?
What if it is discovered that Trump’s alleged mother lived in Indonesia at the time it was teeming with CIA operatives who were frantically trying to overthrow the democratically —elected leader of that country and substitute him with a corrupt tyrant they could control?
Let’s suppose that President Trump would have told about his Muslim faith and given $100 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to re-build foreign mosques. That he had bowed in submission before the Saudi King. That he had attended for 20 years a Liberation Theology Church that condemns Christianity and professes Marxism. That he purposefully omitted “endowed by our Creator “ from his recitation of The Declaration of Independence.
Let’s suppose that it was Trump who said that NASA’s “foremost mission” was to outreach to Muslim communities. That Trump was the first President not to give a Christmas Greeting from the White House, and who hanged photos of Chairman Mao on the White House tree. That he funneled $900 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars to Hamas. That he ordered the United States Postal Service to honor a Muslim holiday with a new commemorative stamp. That he said that America was not a Christian nation.
What if it is discovered that Trump’s secret goal is to destroy U.S sovereignty, open the borders to an invasion of illegal aliens, export American jobs abroad and fuse the country into a global government he euphemistically called the “New World Order.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Killed in Alabama Mall Shooting Was ‘Likely’ Not Gunman, Police Say
A man killed by a police officer after a Thanksgiving night shooting at an Alabama mall, was “likely” not the gunman who shot a teenager earlier that evening, police clarified Friday.
The incident unfolded at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama, about 10 miles from Birmingham. As shoppers flocked to the mall to shop for Black Friday deals, an 18-year-old male was shot twice and a 12-year-old female bystander was shot in the back.
An officer responding to the scene then shot and killed 21-year-old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. of Hueytown, who police said was fleeing the scene and brandishing a weapon. Police initially said they thought Bradford had shot the teen after a physical altercation but retracted that statement Friday night.
“Over the past 20 hours, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office investigators and crime scene technicians have interviewed numerous individuals and examined several critical evidentiary items,’’ Hoover Police Captain Gregg Rector said in a statement. “New evidence now suggests that while Mr. Bradford may have been involved in some aspect of the altercation, he likely did not fire the rounds that injured the 18-year-old victim.”
Police said they “regret that our initial media release was not totally accurate.”
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
New NAFTA: Text of U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Revealed
The proposed USMCA has been widely portrayed as a replacement for NAFTA, which supposedly will no longer exist. Yet an honest look at the new agreement shows that what will no longer exist is the highly unpopular NAFTA name. In fact, not only does the USMCA retain sovereignty-diminishing provisions found in NAFTA, but it actually strengthens and expands them.
The USMCA has a total of 34 chapters, 12 more than the original 1994 NAFTA, which only had 22 chapters. Unlike the 1994 NAFTA, the USMCA includes chapters on labor, the environment, anticorruption, regulatory policy, competitiveness, and Mexico’s exclusive ownership of its gasoline and natural gas resources, among others.
The following is a list of the USMCA’s 34 chapters, along with their annexes:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Open Letter to President Donald J. Trump, Part 1
by J.W. Bryan
Dear Mr. President:
It appears to many of us that you don’t really know what some of the people in your administration are up to. I believe you are being ill-advised by those in your administration who have a totally different agenda. The first lady mentioned in her interview from Africa that she did not trust everyone in the West Wing. You said the same thing on Fox and Friends only a couple days later.
You have kept so many of your promises, and for that we’re very thankful. However, it seems as though you aren’t going to keep your promises concerning NAFTA, especially since you lost your rejection of Chapter 19. That portion of the revised NAFTA allows Canada, Mexico and the United States to challenge one another’s anti-dumping and countervailing duties in front of a panel of representatives from each country. Over the years, Canada has successfully used Chapter 19 to challenge the United States on its softwood lumber restrictions.
NAFTA v USMCA
Mr. President, you have told us for some time that you were going to renegotiate NAFTA to our benefit or you would pull out of it completely. Now that it has been renegotiated, it certainly is not to our benefit. In fact, the new version is even worse than the original.
The New American Magazine posted an article by Christian Gomez, entitled, “NEW NAFTA: Text of U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Sir, I am humbly asking you to read this very important article. It outlines the problems with the new agreement to replace NAFTA and Mr. Gomez definitely believes they are worse. In fact, what I have read thus far leaves no doubt in my mind that he is right.
[Comment: HIGHLY recomened reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Socialists Are Stealing Elections and Destroying the Republic
It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes. —Communist leader Joseph Stalin
Just as feudalism was an advance over slavery, and capitalism was the next step after feudalism, socialism is the next step after capitalism. Socialism in America will come through the ballot box. —American Communist Gus Hall
The Christians are always singing about the blood. Let us give them enough of it. Let us cut their throats and drag them over the altar! And let them drown in their own blood! I dream of the day when the last priest is strangled on the guts of the last preacher. —American Communist Gus Hall
Communist Control Our Department of Justice (DOJ) is thoroughly corrupt. There is no justice for the lawbreakers but plenty of injustice for the innocent. One need only look at the cast of characters in both politics and the DOJ who should have long ago been indicted, tried and convicted, all of whom are Democrats, with a sprinkling of Trotskyite Republicans.
We call Democrats liberals (bleeding hearts is a total fallacy, they bleed for no one), and progressives…another euphemistic term as though they are moving toward progress. Progress into what… an oligarchy or totalitarianism with complete subservience to the state? They used these ambiguous terms and many others in order to appeal to the ignorant. Back when this started had they called themselves Marxists, which is what they truly are, it may have gotten them shot or hung.
Marxist doesn’t fully define them today. I would call them Leninists or Stalinists because the violence and oppression they are pushing for is right along the lines of Stalin’s purges and Lenin’s “Red Terror.”…
In the 1940s and early 1950s, the Communists really did a number on Senator Joe McCarthy and destroyed his reputation, but the truth is out there. Sen. McCarthy was absolutely right that communists had infiltrated our State Department and Hollywood.
Former State Department employee Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury in January 1950 for testimony dealing with accusations that he spied for the Soviet Union during the 1930s. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department official and as a UN official…
No one wants to call today’s Democrats what they really are…full-fledged hardcore Communists, the same ones Joe McCarthy warned us about. Just take a gander at the 10 planks of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx in 1848.
Read again the quotes by Gus Hall, former leader of the Communist Party USA, and four-time Presidential candidate, and note that John Brennan, the former CIA Director under President Obama, actually voted for Gus Hall in 1976. In 1980 he was hired by the CIA. In 2013, Obama hired John Brennan as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in the corrupt justice department. He held that position until January of 2017, and thankfully, President Trump finally pulled Brennan’s security clearance. Is he a Communist? Well, he certainly isn’t a patriot.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Study: Over 20 Years, Silicon Valley Workers’ Median Wage Has Fallen by 14%
Over the last two decades, 90 percent of workers in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties—the heart of Silicon Valley—have seen their real wages go down, according to a new study by the University of California, Santa Cruz and the think tank Working Partnership USA.
“The median wage for workers in the Silicon Valley region declined by 14 percent,” the research showed.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook’s Primary Business Is Collecting and Selling Your Personal Data
Facebook has repeatedly been caught mishandling users’ data and/or lying about its collection practices. The fact is, its entire profit model is based on the selling of personal information that facilitates everything from targeted advertising to targeted fraud.
Like Google, Facebook records,7 tracks and stores every single thing you do on Facebook: every post, comment, “like,” private message and file ever sent and received, contacts, friends lists, login locations, stickers and more. Even the recurrent use of certain words is noted and can become valuable currency for advertisers.
For individuals who start using Facebook at a young age, the lifetime data harvest could be inconceivably large, giving those who buy or otherwise access that information a very comprehensive picture of the individual in question.
Facebook also has the ability to access your computer or smartphone’s microphone without your knowledge. If you suddenly find yourself on the receiving end of ads for products or services you just spoke about out loud, chances are one or more apps are linked into your microphone and are eavesdropping.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I’ve been fighting with voting machine vendors since Bush v Gore, when companies like Diebold brazenly sought to subvert the Supreme Court’s order to standardize a secure design for US voting machines, going so far as to send out thousands of fraudulent copyright notices in a failed attempt to silence whistleblowers who’d reported defects in their systems.
It’s been more than a decade and voting machines are worse than ever, cybersecurity dumpster-fires that are poorly defended by incompetent local officials and corrupt corporate vendors.
On the eve of the most significant midterm election in living memory, mere months after a series of hack attempts committed by foreign actors against US voting machines, the Senate Intelligence Committee has recommended that, at the very least, voting machines and tallying systems have their internet networking capabilities removed. That way, people who want to hack voting machines will have to physically visit polling places and attack the machines or waylay the people who are shuttling the voting records to centralized tallying points.
But the officials who run the voting machines and the vendors who sell them are refusing. The officials don’t want to take heat from impatient voters who demand instantaneous tallies as soon as the polling closes, and the vendors, well, who knows why they think this is a good idea, but it fits in with their culture of recklessness and arrogant incompetence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Will This Man Bring Down Our Domestic Enemies?
When serial adulterer and cocaine sniffer (like Obama), Billy Clinton became president with the blessing of the Bilderberg group, millions of us with eyes wide open knew it was just the beginning. Like the criminal impostor ‘president’, Barry Soetoro aka Barack Obama, Clinton was never fully vetted and exposed for the slimy POS he is and remains to this day. It wasn’t in the playbook for what I have termed for decades: The Unseen Hand.
The cabal that controls the shadow government and its players. Today the term is ‘deep state’. The goal for more than 100 years has been to force us into a one world government. Thanks to individuals who’ve written outstanding, highly researched books about this diabolical plan, newsletters and then the Internet, countless Americans — at least those who still cherish freedom and liberty — have slowly awakened over the past twenty years.
The rot and corruption we’ve seen from local fiefdoms to the highest office, president, has been staggering. Suffering through years of racism and crapping on the U.S. Constitution by vermin like Eric Holder. Watching Hillary Strongman Clinton try to grab the White House was a sickening spectacle and the old witch is still traveling around making speeches that foul the air.
We have fought a war against all the evil in the form of elected and unelected officials, biased judges and against the tens and tens of millions of people in this country who have NO clue or understanding of what’s really been going on and the ultimate goal. Sadly, I believe most of them could care less.
The dirty in-it-for-themselves and all the power behind their office both in Congress and state capitols have continued to ‘GIVE them bread and you own them forever’ breeding generation after generation of individuals who only care about how much they can suck from the government’s teat. The day of reckoning and that debt bomb is coming…
Why have the Democrats and their prostitute media gone into overdrive to keep Whitaker from doing his job? The same reason they are playing their usual wounded party role regarding contested senate seats. FEAR.
Acting AG Whitaker: ‘Special Counsel is Required’ To Investigate Clinton Foundation, November 13, 2018
“Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general of the United States and a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, said in a 2016 interview that there is enough evidence “in the public domain” to warrant the appointment of a “special prosecutor” to investigate the Clinton Foundation. He added that the Foundation was “clearly a pay-to-play situation” where if you gave money to the Foundation, you got “preferential treatment” at the State Department, which was headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from 2009 to 2013.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Conquest Continuing in Canada
Islam now is the second largest religion in Canada with a total Muslim population of around 1.5 million. The number is increasing geometrically and according to statistics, the size of Muslim population in Canada may cross 15 percent of the total population by 2030.
In my opinion, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees freedom of religious expression is working as a shield to Muslims in growing the size of the Muslim population at the same time getting involved in radical Islamic activities, conversion of non-Muslims into Islam and even taking part into radical Islamic terrorism.
Is Canada heading towards total Islamization?
My reply unfortunately is affirmative. While radical Islam is growing and expanding like bonfire under huge patronization of the Muslims, including the Muslim philanthropists, there really is no such effective measure taken by the non-Muslims in empowering the anti-Islam establishments.
| — Hat tip: MB | [Return to headlines] |
Different From M5S in Saying Yes — Salvini
But proud to run this country with them
(ANSA) — Cagliari, November 23 — Deputy Premier, Interior Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini said Friday that “the subject of infrastructure differentiates us from our allies in the (5-Star Movement) M5S with whom I am in any case proud to have administrated this country for five months”.
He said on a visit to Sardinia that “Italy and Sardinia need Yeses and to go forward and not to go backwards”.
The League disagrees with the M5S on major infrastructure like the high-speed rail (TAV) line between Lyon and Turin, which the government has frozen pending a cost/benefit analysis.
Previously the M5S was against both the TransAdriatic Pipeline and the clean-up and continuation of the polluting ILVA steel plant, both in Puglia, but had to allow them to go ahead, with the League insisting they must go on.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bologna Judge Orders Seizure of Goering Paintings
Art works taken by Nazis are in Belgrade
(ANSA) — Bologna, November 23 — A Bologna preliminary hearings judge on Friday ordered the seizure of eight paintings including Titian and Tintoretto taken by the Nazis at the end of World War Two on Hermann Goering’s orders and given to Yugoslavia.
The Bologna probe aims to get the paintings back.
It could be tough, however, given that Belgrade authorities have already rejected Italian prosecutors’ requests to carry out judicial action in Serbia.
Belgrade is unlikely to agree to the seizure order, judicial sources said.
Therefore, diplomacy would have to come into the picture, they said.
The judge acquitted three Italian art experts accused of using goods of illicit provenance because they included the Goering pictures in a 2004 Bologna show entitled From carpaccio to Canaletto, Treasures of Italian Art from the National Museum of Belgrade.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Macron Must Resign’: Furious Protests at Rising Fuel Prices Across France
Police in Paris have used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters who are furious over rising fuel costs.
Demonstrations and road blockades have been planned nationwide as the “yellow vest” protests enter a second weekend. They have been named after the fluorescent jackets worn by protesters, which motorists must keep in their cars by law.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel, Macron, Trudeau and May Versus Trump
Since Merkel allowed mass immigration into Germany in 2015, and essentially, the entire European Union—every country in Europe boils like a cultural cauldron awash in linguistic chaos, violent Muslim religious confrontations and terror events, no go zones too dangerous for Europeans to enter and a growing “civilizational despair” at losing their countries to third world barbarians.
In the land of free speech, Norway locks up anyone who speaks out against Middle Eastern and African immigrants. No matter how many rapes of Norwegian women by immigrants, no Norwegian dares speak up against the power elite. If anyone does speak up, they can be charged with a hate crime. No matter how many torched cars, vandalism of stores and homes, completely trashed schools and educational systems—immigrants cannot be blamed or corrected or deported.
In Sweden, once the most peaceful country in Europe, it absorbed so many Middle Eastern and African immigrants, that its citizens face becoming minority status within three decades. Additionally, rapes, robberies, torching of cars and shoplifting dominate the evening news. One prominent imam stated, “Sweden will become Europe’s first Islamic caliphate.”
In France, tourists must guard their purses from immigrants prowling the streets for ‘marks’. European women cannot safely walk the streets of any city dominated by immigrants. France features parallel societies that speak, practice and fulfill Islam’s prime directive: “Convert or kill all non-believers.” France suffers from 90 ‘no go’ zones where French citizens dare not tread. Sharia Law, alien and diametrically opposed to democracy, operates in all Moslem dominated cities. Under that law, no French woman possesses any rights whatsoever. While Macron welcomes hundreds of thousands of illiterate Africans and Middle Easterners, his countrymen prepare for civil war. Yet, Macron chastises and condemns Trump for his loyalty to America.
In Germany, Merkel faces expulsion for her acceptance of 2,000,000 (million) Islamic immigrants. In a country about the size of Oregon, with 68,000,000 (million) people and too crowded to spit without hitting someone—she overloaded every city, town and village with people who cannot and do not enjoy any commonality with the German people. But the damage cannot be reversed. Nationalism grows by the day throughout Germany and much of Europe as citizens prepare to defend their homelands against an invasion of barbarians.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-May MP Knighted, Brexiteers Suggest ‘Utter Cock Rampant and Big Chicken’ For Heraldic Crest
Theresa May’s decision to award long-time eurosceptic John Hayes MP a surprise knighthood after he defended her leadership has gone down poorly with Brexiteers.
Knighthoods are normally awarded in the regular Honours Lists for New Year and the Queen’s birthday, but Sir John insists the out-of-the-blue gong has nothing to do with with the fact he has allegedly been lobbying fellow Tories not to write letters calling for a vote of no confidence in her leadership behind the scenes, and has not committed to voting against her Brexit deal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Personal robbery is now so common in Sweden that the police urge Swedes to DNA mark their belongings. Especially in winter, the robbery of expensive jackets increases, according to the police.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron engaged in a public diplomatic clash just days before Trump visited France this month. The spat began when, in a radio interview, Macron suggested that Europe needed an army to protect itself from the US. “We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” said Macron
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Boris Tells DUP: May’s EU Deal Would be ‘Historic Mistake’
Boris Johnson has today addressed the Democratic Unionist Party’s Conference in Belfast, thanking them for their “courageous and principled stance” on Brexit whilst supporting the Conservatives, and warning against Theresa May’s deal.
Receiving a very warm reception, Boris told the DUP: “We are on the verge of making a historic mistake.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
US Asks Italy to Boycott Huawei
All allies warned of cybersecurity risks — WSJ
(ANSA) — Rome, November 23 — The United States has asked its allies including Italy not to use Huawei’s products because of cybersecurity risks, the Wall Street Journal said Friday.
Huawei said it was “surprised” at the US action.
A spokesman said “if the conduct of a government extends beyond its jurisdiction, such activity should not be encouraged”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vote or Get This: Trump Appears on French Election Posters
US President Donald Trump has popped up in the French city of Strasbourg, on posters reminding voters of what is at stake in elections for the European Parliament next year.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Finland, Denmark and Germany Stop Arm Sales to Saudi Arabia After Khashoggi’s Death
WASHINGTON — Three countries have halted arms sales to Saudi Arabia while the U.S. has stuck by the kingdom after the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Finland and Denmark joined Germany this week in halting all future arms sales and sending of military equipment to the Saudi government. Germany and Denmark cited the killing of Khashoggi while Finland said in a statement much of its decision was related to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Sanctions ‘An Anomaly’ — Lavrov in Rome
‘Several countries including Italy recognise this’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 23 — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a Rome press conference with Italian counterpart Enzo Moavero Milanesi Friday that “there are several countries including Italy consider the sanctions (on Moscow) an anomalous act and we are grateful for that”.
He went on: “But it is not up to us to take the first step.
We must build our economy in this context of scant reliability on the part of our economic partners”.
He said “we with several countries, not only with Italy, have chosen the form of projects even with sanctions”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
China Consulate Attack: Why Pakistan’s Baloch Separatists Are Against Beijing
The attack on a Chinese consulate in Karachi has raised concerns about the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan. Experts say it also highlights the opposition to China’s economic projects in Baluchistan province.
Friday’s militant attack on a Chinese consulate in Pakistan’s southern Karachi city was claimed by separatists who seek Baluchistan’s “independence” from Islamabad. They also vehemently oppose Chinese projects in the western province that borders Iran and Afghanistan.
The attack raises security concerns for Chinese officials and workers in Pakistan.
According to police, three armed gunmen, including suicide bombers, stormed the Chinese consulate building in a posh Karachi area on Friday, but the security forces foiled the attack before they could enter the compound. At least seven people, including the attackers, two police officials, and two civilians were killed in the assault.
…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Police Arrest Cleric Behind Asia Bibi Protests
Pakistani police have arrested the leader of a hard-line Islamist party who staged nationwide rallies against the acquittal of Christian woman Asia Bibi. The cleric’s protests brought major cities to a standstill.
Prominent cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi has been arrested at his residence in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, his Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) party said in a statement.
A further 700 TLP leaders were arrested in simultaneous raids in multiple cities on Friday evening, Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told DW.
“There is no time frame for how many days Mr. Rizvi could be detained, and law and order is under control,” Chaudhry said.
…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Offers $86,000 Reward for Snitching on Porn
Incentivizing neighbors to snitch on neighbors, co-workers to snitch on co-workers and family members to snitch on family members has been a hallmark of Communist Rule since the rise of Stalin. Now, the Chinese Communist Party is using these age-old techniques to root out a popular, if illegal, blemish on Chinese society: Pornography.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
China is Launching a Dystopian Program to Monitor Citizens in Beijing
China is taking a big step toward expanding a controversial program that judges and punishes individuals based on their social behavior.
The government describes (in Chinese) the program, which has been piloted in Hangzhou, a 9.5 million-person city in eastern China, as a “personal integrity” project. Authorities said it will be rolled out next in Beijing, allowing the Chinese Communist Party to more closely monitor the 22 million citizens in the capital based on their actions and reputations, according to Bloomberg.
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Dolce and Gabbana Apologise to China
Designers say sorry via Instagram after ad blasted as racist
(ANSA) — Milan, November 23 — Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana apologised to China on Friday after their fashion house was hit by a row over an allegedly racist and sexist advert.
“Over the last few days we have thought a lot and with great sorrow about what happened,” Dolce said in a video entitled Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana apologize. Dolce & Gabbana on Wednesday called off a Shanghai show amid a row over its social-media campaign showing a model attempting to use chopsticks to eat pizza. The fashion house has also been hit by reports of allegedly derogatory comments about China by Stefano Gabbana. Gabbana was quoted as describing China as a “foul-smelling, dirty and ignorant mafia” in comments he said were posted by someone who hacked his Instagram account. Dolce & Gabbana’s products disappeared from Chinese e-commerce platforms late on Wednesday amid calls for a boycott of the brand.
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In China, The Communist Party’s Latest, Unlikely Target: Young Marxists
When he started at Beijing’s Renmin University, one of China’s best schools, a freshman scanned a list of student clubs and landed on the one that made him the most excited: Young Marxists.
“I’m from a working-class family in the countryside,” he says. “Very few students with my background could have made it to my school. I liked that this group pays attention to the issues of workers and farmers, so I joined.”
He was also interested in studying the works of 19th-century philosopher and economist Karl Marx; works that inspired the founders of China’s Communist Party. Young Marxists aim to put the thinker’s ideas into practice on Renmin University’s campus.
The student, now in his senior year, is not being named to protect his identity from authorities. Young people who belong to Marxist groups have recently become the unlikely targets of a state crackdown due to their zeal to help educate and mobilize China’s working class to fight for their rights.
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North and South Korea Get U.N.’s Go-Ahead to Study Joint Rail Project
SEOUL, South Korea — The United Nations Security Council has approved a plan by North and South Korea to conduct a joint field study on connecting their railways, exempting the project from the extensive sanctions it has imposed on the North over its nuclear weapons program, officials said on Saturday.
During his three summit meetings this year with the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea has offered to help renovate North Korea’s decrepit railway system and link it with the South’s, dangling the project as one of the biggest economic benefits the North could expect should it denuclearize.
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The Labor Party has been decisively returned to government in Victoria after defeating the Liberal-Nationals in what one MP has described as a ‘bloodbath’.
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South Africa’s Credit Rating Unchanged in ‘Junk’
Ratings firm S&P Global has left South Africa’s sovereign rating unchanged in junk status.
The group announced on Friday that it was holding SA’s long-term foreign-currency rating at ‘BB’, while the long-term local-currency rating stayed at ‘BB+’.
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Brazil’s President-Elect to Undergo Medical Procedure After Inauguration
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right president-elect, said on Saturday he tentatively plans to undergo a medical procedure to remove a colostomy bag on Jan. 20, nearly three weeks after he takes office.
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Candidate to Succeed Merkel Calls German Basic Asylum Law Into Question
Friedrich Merz, a candidate to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel as leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has questioned whether Germany can continue with its asylum policy.
Mr Merz, a long-time critic of current Chancellor Merkel, spoke of Germany’s asylum laws on Wednesday at a regional conference of the CDU that took place in Seebach in the region of Thuringia, Kronen Zeitung reports.
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Hungary PM: Migration Crisis “Pushed Down Our Throats, Will Lead to a Broken Europe”
Blames George Soros for exiled Macedonian case
Referring to bank cards and visa for migrants, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a public radio interview on Friday that pro-migration forces consider European institutions as a “transport agency,” because they believe migration is in Europe’s interest.
Orban said this was to Hungary’s detriment. Only after the European parliamentary election will the situation change, he added. He said that whereas the European Union justified repressive measures against European citizens by citing the fight against money laundering, the European Commission “is giving anonymous bank cards to people we don’t know … and many of them become terrorists and criminals.” “The rightful question is, why is this happening and where does the money come from,” he said. Fidesz MEPs, he added are investigating the matter, he added.
Referring to the “migrant visa”, Orban said: “This is the kind of slippery slope which could again lead to a broken Europe.” He said the EP had already voted the measure down, but it is now on the agenda again and “they want to push it down our throats.” The prime minister said European politicians who are about to lose their mandates are “panicking” about the issues close to their hearts and they are rushing to conclude the migration issue.
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Hungary Attacks UN Migration Compact for Attempting to ‘Legalise Illegal Immigration’
Hungary’s foreign minister Péter Szijjartó has condemned the UN Migration Pact for attempting to “legalise illegal immigration,” announcing his country will vote ‘no’ on the agreement in Marrakesh in December.
Mr Szijjartó told media on Thursday that “The goal of the UN Global Compact for Migration is to legalise illegal immigration, which is totally unacceptable and violates the sovereignty of member states, including that of Hungary.”
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Migrant Men From Repressive Societies Can’t Deal With ‘Free Western Women’ And Despise Them
A video compilation from mostly national broadcasters shows how migrant men from repressive societies look at western women.
“The women are despised because they are moving around freely outside. Or because they want to exercise sexual self-determination”, an expert tells German broadcaster WDR.
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North African Migrants in Germany Are ‘Extremely Criminal’ As More Than 50% Are Suspected of Crimes
According to a video report of news outlet Epoch Times, Libyans and Tunisians are ‘extremely criminal’ in the German state of Saxony.
Both migrant groups have a very high number of criminal suspects among them. Of the 2,000 Libyans in Saxony, 1,100 are listed as suspects in police crime statistics.
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The UN Pact Encourages Islamic Migration and Will Lead to Annihilation of Western Culture — Experts
This UN Migration Compact is an attempt to make hijra (Islamic migration) a human right, while at the same time undermining a nation’s sovereignty.
All Western nations should withdraw unless their goal is to establish Sharia.
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A migrant, claiming to be a 15-year-old pupil at Stoke High School in Ipswich, admits to another student he is 25-years-old, married with children.
When the ‘boy’ was introduced to the school, he was presented as a teenager, born in Iran, with an amazing life story.
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Wow, U.S. Reaches Deal With Mexico to Have Asylum Applicants Wait Across the Border
I’m shocked, and for once it’s the good kind of shocked. Read yesterday’s post for background if you haven’t already. How on earth did the White House convince Mexico’s new populist left-wing president to go for this?
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Children to Become “Critical Agents of Change” With Agenda 2030
James Warburg, testifying at a hearing on revisions of the United Nations Charter, stated that we would have world government whether we liked it or not. He also stated that the only question was whether it would be by consent or by conquest and Goal 4, of Agenda 2030 demands the indoctrination of all children worldwide, with kids described in the agreement as “critical agents of change” who will rely on the Sustainable Development goals to “channel their infinite capacities for activism into the creation of a better world.” And in the 1980 EARTHKEEPING book, the author urges Christians to support Bread for the World and New Agers are to request their people to become “agents of change” and to become “active agents in changing local, national, educational and ecclesiastical structures.”
Do these statements make you feel all warm and fuzzy after we saw young women (snowflakes) weeping when their heroine, New World Order Hillary Clinton with alleged Parkinson’s disease got beat for President? Rush Limbaugh just reported that Supreme Court Justice Ruth “Buzzi” Ginsburg had fallen and cracked some ribs and young folks under 30 are offering their own ribs on social media and whatever organs she might need. And Oregon elected transgender Democrat Kate Brown as governor again who made sure she gave her victory speech in front of a dozen or so clapping young children which she commented being the future leaders.
Yes, indeed, children worldwide must be so thoroughly indoctrinated that they will not just submit to the UN ideology known as “sustainable development,” but actually go out and “promote” it. “By 2030, there will be the assurance that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles.” Goal 4: adding that children must also be indoctrinated into “global citizenship” and the UN’s perverse view of “human rights” that is totally at odds with the God-given rights recognized by America’s Founders. In the book AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE, the UNESCO Association Schools project was “dedicated to preparing children and young people to live in a global society and to develop their attitudes of “Earth Patriotism” that are vital in an increasingly interdependent world…
An article I wrote on Nov. 7, 2004 the day of that election illustrates nothing much had changed from today. [Link]. However, we elected Donald Trump in 2016 and thus far, he has been driving a wedge through the Deep State/United Nations plans which tells voters they had better stay involved in their party and not only vote, but become precinct committee people unless they want their children to become little “communist change agents.” It’s already happening in our schools but it’s not too late.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
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If I Can Demoralize You, I Can Control You! Pornography: The Break Down of America’s Virtue
“While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their Virtue they will be ready to surrender their Liberties to the first external or internal invader…” —Samuel Adams
Today, Americans are being told that they must embrace diversity, to accept that which God forbids, in order to bring about unity among the nations. We also are being told that we must think of the whole world’s good rather than just the United States and our sovereignty (Revelations 17:17). Of course, that comes by taking on their world agenda and then we are led to believe that somehow it will unify us, the opposite is true.
One of the major propaganda pushes being used by the masters and players is to push immorality through advocating sexual promiscuity and pornography.
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Modern liberalism is diseased. It is wrought by mental maladies exacerbated by postmodernism’s delusional insistence that empirical facts are figments of white male rule. This warped view subverts reality if it doesn’t conform to their revisionist left-wing propaganda. Eight years ago, Michael Savage made this call in his book, Liberalism is a Mental Disorder. The mass malady also foments mental discontinuity and cognitive dissonance, ensnaring misguided college students in particular.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when an individual’s thoughts or beliefs are rooted in inconsistency, which is precisely what modern liberalism wallows in. Under the auspices of effete liberal intellectuals, postmodernism is prevalent in academia where it enfeebles budding liberals’ thoughts with nihilistic notions that ravage objective truths. The resultant relativism engenders delusions and waywardness amongst malleable students — particularly in the soft social sciences that the would-be social activists pursue. Is it any wonder, when combined with their addiction to social media, that depression is the most common health problem afflicting college students?
Whereas classical liberalism underpins much of America’s greatness, modern liberalism dallies with madness that develops in the contrived curricula that pervades the humanities, sociology, and women’s studies. Research in these fields is tainted by biased academicians who manipulate their methodologies to predispose positive results that favor social activism. Often motivated by the “publish or perish” syndrome, null results are given short shrift, skewing social science literature towards leftist tautologies. And skewering the impressionable minds of their dutiful minions-cum-social warriors who are all too willing to intimidate non-believers and desecrate the public square.
Stifled by an overwhelmingly liberal orthodoxy on campus, even instructors risk professional peril should they dare jump off the bandwagon bias. What chance do the gullible students stand other than to embrace the pathos of resentment and bitterness toward Western Civilization, and America itself? The susceptible students are even conditioned to question whether America is the land of opportunity. They are told that America was never really that great, even as many of the world’s wretched masses have been entranced by our brilliant beacon of freedom throughout our magnificent history.
These perverted teachings reverberating around campus do not nurture happy, well-adjusted people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Macy’s Lesbian Kiss Inflames Viewers
DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING: Macy’s Department Stores are now a showcase for perversion and disease. They sickly promoted homosexual acts as seen in the Thanksgiving Parade yesterday. It spotlighted an interracial lesbian couple’s deep throat kiss seen around the world. Remember, this parade is supposed to attract children and their families.
This was well planned since the TV cameras spent time showing that scene even though there was a full cast of the Broadway show, “The Prom,” that filled the street in front of the flagship store in New York City. So this camera shot was PLANNED well in advance to exhibit the ‘joys’ of lesbianism.
Yes, that TV camera had been scripted to feature the Lesbian couple. And why not? California schools, have now formed LGBTQ classes to teach about alternative sex, and part of the curriculum requires the viewing of homosexual porn films…yes in the classroom…as part of the Communist inspired government plans for the future of America. This is the Deep State we are hearing about.
So how do these tactics help the Communist Cause? The Reds know that perversion and pornography works to WEAKEN the nations where it exists.
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Not a Parody: Animal Rights Group Wants UK Village to Change Name From ‘Wool’ To ‘Vegan Wool’
Animal rights activists have decided that the name of an English village called ‘Wool’ would better suit their purposes if they renamed themselves ‘Vegan Wool’.
No, this is not a parody. They have said the name ‘wool’ endorses animal cruelty. Again, not a parody.
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Last time I looked no Black people were forced into the military, that it is all volunteer. I guess those who wrote those demands weren’t very bright.
Police shoot a protester in Paris on the Champs-Elysées
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m9vu1P4Vlo