Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/13/2018

In strong terms, Pope Francis condemned Tuesday’s terrorist attack in Strasbourg. Meanwhile, His Holiness also called for urgent action to stop climate change.

In other news, homicides in London have risen to their highest level in ten years during the period since Sadiq Khan became mayor.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to AF, Dean, Dora, Frontinus, Insubria, MB, Reader from Chicago, Red Mike, 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.

USA
» Anti-Trump Dossier Author Hired to Help Hillary Challenge 2016 Election Results
» Boy Scouts on Verge of Bankruptcy
» ‘Fake News’: Former CIA Analyst Slams WaPo Story Alleging Intel Community Concerns About Trump
» Let’s Prosecute Google for Illegal Campaign Contributions
» Local Police Warn Churches of Possible ‘Lone Wolf ISIS Attacks’ Based on FBI Intelligence
» On Point: SecDef Mattis and India’s Sitharaman Conduct Meaningful Public Diplomacy
» Russian Woman Admits to Being Secret Agent
» ‘Something Bad is Going to Happen on Friday’: Weekly Standard Staffers Brace for End
 
Canada
» Ontario Government Offers Buyouts to Thousands of Non-Union Public Service Staff to Cut Costs
» Suspect Charged After Man Spotted Swinging Axe at Toronto Subway
 
Europe and the EU
» “Nations Experiencing Terrorism Inevitably Turn to the Political Right” — Expert
» A Report From Hell: Seine Saint-Denis (Part Five)
» Adult Afghan Sexually Assaults Young Girl in Belgium ‘Because of Ramadan’
» Brexit: Now What?
» Cherif Chekatt, France Gunman Who Opened Fire at Christmas Market, Is Dead, Reports Say
» EU: ‘None of Our Member-States is Big Enough to Pursue Their Own National Interests’
» Exclusive: Populist German MP Says EU Acting Like ‘Warsaw Pact’ Over Brexit
» Finnish MP Compares the European Union to Fascist Germany in the 40s
» France: Marine Le Pen Has Massive Lead Over Failing Macron in European Elections — Poll
» France: Strasbourg Christmas Market Attacker Chekatt Shot Dead
» German Fans Clash With Police Before Lazio-Eintracht
» How Poland Resists “Islamification” And Defends Christian Identity
» Hungary: Anti-Govt Protesters Confront Police at Parliament
» Italy: Somali Terrorism Suspect Detained in Bari
» Macron Out? French Government Faces No Confidence Vote as the Country is in Crisis
» May’s Humiliation Tour: EU Leaders Grant PM ‘Ten Minutes’ For Brexit Talks
» Polish MEP Trolls Macron, Calls for EU Debate on ‘French Democratic Crisis’
» Pope Francis Condemns Strasbourg Terror Attack
» Strasbourg Attack Fits Previous Model of Criminal-Terror Nexus in Europe
» Terror Motive Considered in Finland ‘Foreign Men’ Bus Attacks
» U.S. Ambassador: President Trump Eager to Make ‘Strong FTA’ With UK
» UK: Homicides in Sadiq Khan’s London Hit Ten-Year High
» UK: May Staying is the Ultimate Betrayal of the Referendum Result
» UKIP London Assembly Split up to Create Brexit Alliance Group
» Vatican Calls for ‘Urgent Action and Urgent Decisions’ To Stop Climate Change
» What is Populism?
 
North Africa
» Egypt’s Silent Epidemic of Kidnapped Christian Girls
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Killing and Dying for the ‘Houris’: Islam’s Heavenly Whores
 
Middle East
» Surprise Collapse
 
Far East
» African Swine Fever Spreads Westward in China
» Grassley: Russia ‘Hysteria’ Overshadows China Threat
 
Australia — Pacific
» Baby-Faced Teenage Girls Are Charged With Stabbing a Man, 38, And Leaving Him at a Train Station Covered in His Own Blood
» Diminutive Fortnite Nerd, 26, Leaves His Eight Hour-a-Day Gaming Dungeon to Front Court Charged With ‘Bashing His Pregnant Girlfriend During a Session’
» Pictured: Indian Courier and Married Father-of-One, 44, Accused of Walking Into a Sydney Home After Making a Delivery and Sexually Assaulting a 13-Year-Old Girl
» ‘Where Can I Go to Get Arrested?’ Photograph of Three Young Female Police Officers on Patrol Captures the Attention of Thousands of Cheeky Fans Online
 
Latin America
» Julian Assange Undergoes Medical Tests at Ecuador’s Request as Part of New Rules to Stay at London Embassy
 
Immigration
» A Canadian Immigration Judge Lets in a “Gangster Refugee” Because He Was “Honest” — Then This Happened
» Belgium: Brussels Protesters Ignore Ban and Will Have Anti-UN Migration Pact March
» Egyptian President Blasts Migrants Not Assimilating in Europe
» French Generals Accuse Macron of “Treason” Over UN Migration Pact
» Germany: One in Three Prison Inmates Born Abroad
» Migrant Caravan: Let us in or Give Each of US $50,000 to Turn Around and Go Home
» Moral Responsibility to Receive Migrants — Pope Francis
» New Brazil Government to Pull Out of UN Migration Pact as “It Doesn’t Serve National Interests”
» Report: Migrant Caravan Leader is a Wanted Terrorist
» Suspected Terrorist Leading Migrant Group Demanding Entry Into US
» Sweden is Generous to Migrants, While Its Pensioners Turn to Soup Kitchens
» While 81% Don’t Want More Migration, European Leaders Shamefully Ignored the Will of the People by Signing the UN Pact
 
Culture Wars
» 9th Circuit: Judges, or Robed Activists?
» Everyday Feminism Seminar Offers to Heal ‘Internalized Whiteness’
» Far-Left Extremists Are Raising Money on Patreon to “Inspire Insurrection”
» The New Censorship
» Twitter Dings 285,000 Different Accounts for ‘Hateful Conduct’ In Six Months
» YouTube Deleted Nearly 8 Million Videos From July to September
 
General
» Five New Species of Sea Slugs Found in the Ocean Depths
 

Anti-Trump Dossier Author Hired to Help Hillary Challenge 2016 Election Results

British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who wrote the Democrat-financed anti-Trump dossier, said in a court case that he was hired by a Democratic law firm in preparation for Hillary Clinton challenging the results of the 2016 presidential election.

He said the law firm Perkins Coie wanted to be in a position to contest the results based on evidence he unearthed on the Trump campaign conspiring with Moscow on election interference.

His scenario is contained in a sealed Aug. 2 declaration in a defamation law suit brought by three Russian bankers in London. The trio’s American attorneys filed his answers Tuesday in a libel lawsuit in Washington against the investigative firm Fusion GPS, which handled the former British intelligence officer.[…]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Boy Scouts on Verge of Bankruptcy

The Boy Scouts of America is considering declaring bankruptcy, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The Wednesday report comes in the wake of sinking membership and multiple controversies surrounding the 108-year-old organization, including sex abuse allegations and its controversial decision to change its program name from Boy Scouts to Scouts BSA and allow girls into that program.

Chicago law firm Sidley Austin has reportedly been hired to assist in what would be a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Fake News’: Former CIA Analyst Slams WaPo Story Alleging Intel Community Concerns About Trump

The anti-Trump media is pushing a Washington Post story published yesterday that claims President Trump has a tenuous relationship with the U.S. intelligence community — but one former member of the intelligence community is calling it “fake news.”

The article claims that the president “continues to reject the judgments of U.S. spy agencies on major foreign policy fronts” and that this has become “a source of mounting concern to senior U.S. intelligence officials.”

“This story should scare everyone,” wrote NBC’s “Fusion Ken” Dilanian on Twitter. “This is an important story … on the widening gap between Trump and the U.S. intelligence community,” wrote Bill Rucker, the White House bureau chief for the Washington Post. Slate’s Will Saletan said it was an “excellent” report that “exposes a growing menace.”

“I’ll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a toddler,” wrote Daniel Drezner, a professor at the Fletcher School at Tuft University.

Drezner’s comment was based on the claims of an anonymous “U.S. official” who suggested that the intel community had to dumb down the presidential daily briefing for Trump:

From the start of Trump’s presidency, the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence began streamlining the PDB, reducing it to a collection of bullet points and images or graphics. U.S. officials have made additional adaptations over the past two years. They generally refrain from sending analysts who are deep experts on a specific subject, instead dispatching generalists for meetings with a president whose attention tends to wander.

“Either it doesn’t resonate or there is a lack of comprehension,” the U.S. official said. “You feel frustration and helplessness in a way. What else can you do?”

Fred Fleitz, a former chief of staff for the Trump White House National Security Council, gave the Washington Post’s Greg Miller an on-the-record interview for the article. Fleitz decried on Twitter what he called a “very misleading fake news piece” and “bad journalism.”

“He ignored most of what I told him in an on-the-record interview and misrepresented the few quotes from me that he used,” Fleitz, a former CIA analyst, wrote.

Fleitz told PJ Media the presidential daily briefing has always used images and graphics. “I was a PDB recipient,” he said, adding that it was no different from when he worked for the intelligence community and wrote PDB items. “The only difference now is many PDB recipients get the PDB on iPads,” he said.

Fleitz said on Twitter that it was clear at the start of his telephone conversation with Miller “that the outcome of this piece was a foregone conclusion.” He added that Miller wasn’t interested in his assessment based on his work in the NSC, or that President Trump’s relationship with the United States intelligence community “is going well and has greatly improved.” Fleitz blamed former CIA director John Brennan for the political damage done to the intelligence community. […]

[Hmm… is this the same John Brennan often rumored to have converted to Islam? “former FBI agent John Guandolo revealed that Brennan had, indeed, converted to Wahhabist Islam while he was CIA station chief in Riyadh. Guandalo quoted Brennan as having said that he “marveled at the majesty of the Hajj,”…plenty of sources — search on the phrases.]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Let’s Prosecute Google for Illegal Campaign Contributions

If we are going to start prosecuting illegal campaign contributions—sadly, too late to go after Barack Obama’s two scofflaw campaigns—maybe we should begin by charging Google and its executives with federal crimes. Earlier today, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, testified before the House Judiciary Committee on, among other things, Google’s apparent attempt to help Hillary Clinton win the 2016 presidential election. Tyler O’Neil at PJ Media reports:

On Tuesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai struggled to respond to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)’s persistent questions about an email from Google’s former head of multicultural marketing, Eliana Murillo, reporting that the company attempted to push out the Latino vote “in key states” during the 2016 election. Murillo’s email, reported by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, essentially admitted that Google had given Hillary Clinton an in-kind donation during that key election.

That is a considerably more serious crime than President Trump’s perfectly legal pay to Stormy Daniels, which I don’t think violated campaign finance laws at all.

The congressman went on to quote the email further. “She said this, ‘We pushed to get out the Latino vote with our features.’ A few lines down in her email she qualified that sentence, and she said: ‘We pushed to get out the Latino vote with our features in key states.’ And she specifically cites the states Florida and Nevada.”

“Near the end of her email, in a similar sentence, she says ‘we supported partners like Voto Latino to pay for rides to the polls in key states.’“ Jordan quoted. Then he turned to the CEO, “Is it fair to say the ‘we’ in both sentences, Mr. Pichai, refers to Google?”

The CEO dodged the question. “Congressman, we are very concerned over allegations like that. Our team looked into it…”

Heh. CEOs who testify before Congressional committees are routinely blasted for this sort of transparent evasion.

“So I’ve got really just one question for you. Why? Why did Google configure its features and pay for rides to the polls to get out the Latino vote only in key states?” the congressman asked.[…]

[More at link]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Local Police Warn Churches of Possible ‘Lone Wolf ISIS Attacks’ Based on FBI Intelligence

WINNSBORO — A local police department is warning churches of possible terrorists attacks.

According to the Winnsboro Police Department, officials have just received “broad-based” intelligence information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation indicating there may be attacks on Texas churches from “lone wolf” ISIS members.

According to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, the threat was posted to social media by a pro-ISIS Twitter user on Friday, December 7. The twitter user, identified by username @dawlawiforever, posted an ISIS media graphic urging lone wolf attacks against churches in the United States, specifically naming Texas, and indicating attacks would occur very soon.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

On Point: SecDef Mattis and India’s Sitharaman Conduct Meaningful Public Diplomacy

by Austin Bay

The SecDef’s crafted statement was simultaneously a nuanced appeal to an ally and a harsh siren warning to China’s ruling Communist dictators.

The siren warned aimed at Beijing — the emerging India and the U.S. alliance — has long-term implications for Asia’s threatened peace.

For a century, India and the U.S. have spilled blood in common causes against authoritarian regimes. India, as a member of the British Commonwealth, was a very active ally in WWI and WWII.

India’s contribution to WWII was enormous. Indian Army units fought and helped defeat Germany’s Afrika Korps. They bled their way up the Italian peninsula. The Indian Army also beat the Japanese in the critical (but unknown to most mainstream media talking heads) Battle of Kohima and Imphal. In that horror fought in eastern India, Indian and British units destroyed the best military forces Japan deployed in Burma. Some Japanese historians regard “The Battle of Imphal” as the greatest defeat Japan suffered — ever.

Sitharaman’s U.S. trip went west and culminated in Hawaii. The Hawaiian finale made tourist sense (she’s heading home) but also sent global diplomatic signals. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s (USINDOPACOM) headquarters is located in Hawaii. The recent addition of “Indo” to what was U.S. Pacific Command is savvy American narrative warfare directed at Beijing — and deservedly so.

If your media sources missed Mattis’ nuanced statement — did the rascals miss the high-level U.S.-India defense meeting entirely? — I recommend you switch to more astute sources.

That noted, I guarantee the Communist dictatorship ruling China didn’t miss Mattis’ statement, the meeting and their implications for China’s expansionist territorial ambitions.[…]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Woman Admits to Being Secret Agent

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Russian woman accused of being a secret agent admitted today she conspired to infiltrate the American gun-rights movement to gather intelligence on conservative political groups as Donald Trump rose to power.

Maria Butina, 30, agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a deal with federal prosecutors.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Something Bad is Going to Happen on Friday’: Weekly Standard Staffers Brace for End

Staffers at the Weekly Standard have been told to gather for an all-hands meeting Friday — and they’re bracing for bad news about the conservative magazine’s future, according to four people familiar with the plans.

The Weekly Standard’s publisher, MediaDC, has not sent out an official memo announcing the gathering, nor has editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes. But word has circulated among the staff, including from some managers, that they should be prepared to convene, the people familiar with the meeting said.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Ontario Government Offers Buyouts to Thousands of Non-Union Public Service Staff to Cut Costs

TORONTO — A memo sent to Ontario public service employees says the government is offering buyout packages to thousands of workers in an effort to cut costs without resorting to layoffs.

The memo, obtained by The Canadian Press and other media outlets, says the offer is part of the Progressive Conservative government’s plan to address its fiscal challenges.

[Comment: While most western governments are seeking to expand the size of their governments regardless of the cost, Doug Ford, the ‘Northern Trump’ wants to reduce the tax burden on citizens by reducing the size of the over-bloated provincial governement.]

           — Hat tip: MB [Return to headlines]
 

Suspect Charged After Man Spotted Swinging Axe at Toronto Subway

Dean Watson, 33, was arrested Wednesday, according to Toronto Police.

A man accused of carrying three axes onto a Toronto subway and allegedly swinging one in a threatening manner has been charged.

Dean Watson, 33, was arrested Wednesday after morning commuters spotted a man with three axes walk onto an eastbound train at Ossington station before 8 a.m.

Police said the man appeared to be acting in a strange manner. He eventually got off the train at Spadina station and headed to the streetcar platform, where he allegedly began swinging the largest of the three axes in a “threatening manner,” police said.

A group of nearby people then scattered. Police say the man then fled into the streetcar tunnel.

He was later taken into custody.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

“Nations Experiencing Terrorism Inevitably Turn to the Political Right” — Expert

According to Dr. Turley, an expert on populism, studies on terrorism show that it pushes societies to the political right.

Turley says the terror attack of the Moroccan Islamist in France is “pouring salt in the wounds of Macron”. He cites studies that show that even left-wing communities shift to the right after a terror attack.

Steve Turley (PhD, Durham University) is an internationally recognised scholar, speaker and the author of over 20 books.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

A Report From Hell: Seine Saint-Denis (Part Five)

[…]

In this now-deleted Report From Hell, realism briefly broke through, and left Andrew Malone, a veteran journalist, thoroughly alarmed about what he experienced in Saint-Denis and what he fears is still to come. What’s to come is even more, and even bigger, Muslim ghettos in France, though these “ghettos” are not forced on Muslims, but rather created by them, as their violent behavior drives out Christians and Jews from whatever area Muslims settle in, in numbers sufficient to make that area their own. It is in those areas that they create an economy based on government benefits and crime, including the drug trade, and — carried out in “French” areas of Paris — street robberies and house burglaries. And it is in Seine-Saint-Denis that jihadis have planned attacks, and after carrying them out, hidden from the police, as did those who were responsible for the mass murders at the Bataclan nightclub.

This report from Saint-Denis is a cautionary tale. The French need to make up for their own earlier optimistic misunderstandings of Islam, that some still cling to, with their dreams of “national reconciliation,” and to understand that a silent invasion has taken place in their country, as in much of the rest of Europe. There is still time, using laws now on the books and laws not yet on the books, to reduce the threat in France to manageable proportions. But first you have to recognize, rather than deny, that threat.

Andrew Malone’s forthright observations on the Muslim “ghetto” of Seine Saint-Denis are a good place to start. But it is not at all a good sign that the Daily Mail deleted his report under pressure, with promises to restore it that never came to fruition. That incident in itself is an indication that the crisis in France, as well as in Britain and Europe as a whole, may be too far advanced now to address adequately.

[See also: https://www.jihadwatch.org/author/laszlo ]

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Adult Afghan Sexually Assaults Young Girl in Belgium ‘Because of Ramadan’

A 25-year-old Afghan has been found guilty by the court of Mechelen for sexually assaulting a minor in Lier, Belgium.

At the station in Lier, the adult man saw the young girl and sexually assaulted her. He pinched the little girl’s buttocks, licked and kissed her and grabbed her between her legs.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Brexit: Now What?

Theresa May has survived a no confidence vote in her Conservative Party. She says she now has a renewed mission; “delivering the Brexit people voted for, bringing the country back together and building a country that works for everyone”.

Whether she has any troops willing to follow her charge is unclear.

Just 200 Conservative MPs voted for her to stay on as leader of the party; 117 voted against. Many of those who voted for her said they will vote down her Brexit deal nonetheless.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Cherif Chekatt, France Gunman Who Opened Fire at Christmas Market, Is Dead, Reports Say

Cherif Chekatt, the gunman who killed multiple people Tuesday at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, is dead, local reports said Thursday.

A wide-scale manhunt for the suspect had been ongoing since the shooting earlier this week. Three people were killed in the attack and several others injured, police said.

The National Police of the North, in a translated tweet, thanked the public for their reports which helped “find the wanted individual.”

It was posted along with an earlier tweet from law enforcement that included a photo of Chekatt.

The suspect was killed in a shootout with law enforcement in Strasbourg after he opened fire on police, a top French official told The Associated Press. The suspect was armed with a pistol and a knife, a local police official told the outlet.

Before opening fire on the Christmas market in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Chekatt, 29, yelled “Allahu Akbar,” Paris’ public prosecutor said, in the first official statement that pegged the shooting as an Islamic terror attack. Chekatt escaped the scene in a taxi.

Police detained at least five people with alleged ties to Chekatt during raids Tuesday morning, but Chekatt, wanted on an attempted murder charge in relation to a botched robbery, wasn’t home, senior Interior Ministry official Laurent Nunez told France-Inter radio…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

EU: ‘None of Our Member-States is Big Enough to Pursue Their Own National Interests’

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, has declared that no EU member-state is big enough to “pursue their own national interests” — a pointed warning the United Kingdom and any country thinking of following them out of the bloc.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive: Populist German MP Says EU Acting Like ‘Warsaw Pact’ Over Brexit

Populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Petr Bystron has slammed the European Union’s current attitude towards Brexit, saying the union has acted like the failed Warsaw Pact once led by the former Soviet Union (USSR).

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Finnish MP Compares the European Union to Fascist Germany in the 40s

During a parliamentary debate, Finnish MP Ville Tavio of the nationalist Finns party, has asserted as reported by Finnish national broadcaster Yle: “Federalists are threatening the people of Europe and the nation state. They create a new kind of Soviet Union, they create a new Nazi Germany”.

He’s received criticism from fellow politicians, as well as from the Prime Minister Juha Sipilä. The Finns, Ville’s party, are not disavowing the statement about the “fascist” likeness of European globalism, calling it a “new form of fascism”.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

France: Marine Le Pen Has Massive Lead Over Failing Macron in European Elections — Poll

According to a recent Ifop poll, Marine Le Pen holds a large lead over Emmanuel Macron.

Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), receives 23.5 per cent of support, while beleaguered Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique en Marche (LREM) has only 15 per cent of support.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

France: Strasbourg Christmas Market Attacker Chekatt Shot Dead

French police have shot dead the man who attacked Strasbourg’s Christmas market on Tuesday, the interior minister has said.

A police unit came across Cherif Chekatt in a Strasbourg street and shot him after he opened fire.

Three people have died following the shooting at the market and several more were seriously injured.

Chekatt, 29, had a string of criminal convictions in France and Germany and had become a radical Islamist in jail.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

German Fans Clash With Police Before Lazio-Eintracht

Several supporters detained

(ANSA) — Rome, December 13 — Several Eintracht fans were detained in Rome on Thursday during clashes with police ahead of the German side’s Europa League match against Lazio, sources said.

The police intervened to stop some German supporters reaching an area outside Rome’s Stadio Olimpico set aside for Lazio fans to access the ground, the sources said. There was also tension in more central areas, where big groups of Eintracht fans gathered, letting off flares and leaving beer bottles on the ground.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

How Poland Resists “Islamification” And Defends Christian Identity

On last night’s episode of The Ezra Levant Show, The Rebel’s Sheila Gunn Reid joined me from Poland, where she’s currently reporting on the UN Climate Change Conference, to discuss Poland’s history of domination by foreign powers and how it shapes the country’s politics today.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary: Anti-Govt Protesters Confront Police at Parliament

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A few thousand anti-government protesters confronted police Thursday night outside Hungary’s Parliament, temporarily retreating when officers used pepper spray and tear gas to drive them back.

After marching through parts of downtown Budapest, some of the protesters returned to Kossuth Square and despite calls for the rally to remain peaceful, threw bottles and smoke bombs at officers in riot gear guarding the neo-Gothic national legislature. Police said two officers were injured.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Somali Terrorism Suspect Detained in Bari

Authorities moved in to stop alleged extremist taking flight

(ANSA) — Bari, December 13 — Bari police on Thursday detained a Somali national who is under investigation for alleged criminal association for terrorism and instigation to commit acts of terrorism, sources said. Prosecutors issued a warrant to hold the suspect because of the “imminent danger” of him taking flight.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Macron Out? French Government Faces No Confidence Vote as the Country is in Crisis

Macron’s Government is set for a no confidence vote as French lawmakers have put together a joint statement filing a motion of no confidence against Macron’s government, AFP reports.

Leaders André Chassaigne, of the French Communist Party; Olivier Faure, from the Socialist Party; and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, founder of France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) movement joined 59 members of the National Assembly said in a statement that the placative measures announced on Monday by Macron, including a minimum wage increase, tax-free overtime pay and end of the year bonuses, were “neither fair nor responsible” and “are not likely to respond to the anger and demands of the French”.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

May’s Humiliation Tour: EU Leaders Grant PM ‘Ten Minutes’ For Brexit Talks

Theresa May’s position in Europe does not appear to have been strengthened after she survived a vote of no confidence in her leadership by Tory MPs, with European Union leaders granting her just ten minutes of their time to discuss changes to the “worst deal in history” which she has negotiated with the bloc.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Polish MEP Trolls Macron, Calls for EU Debate on ‘French Democratic Crisis’

A Polish MEP belonging to the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party requested a debate in the European Parliament on what he labelled a “crisis” of democracy in France following the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) protests.

MEP Ryszard Czarnecki submitted the proposal this week saying that there was a “crisis of democracy in France” and that the subject was important to discuss in the parliament as France is one of the European Union’s largest member states, Polish broadcaster TVP Info reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Condemns Strasbourg Terror Attack

Pope Francis has written a telegram denouncing Tuesday’s terror attack at the Strasbourg Christmas Market in which two people were killed and 13 injured.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Strasbourg Attack Fits Previous Model of Criminal-Terror Nexus in Europe

On Tuesday night a man shot at a crowd in central Strasboug. Three were killed and 12 injured in the attack that took place next to a Christmas market. By Wednesday morning security forces were still hunting the suspect, who is known to counter-terrorism services. He initially fled in a taxi from the city of 270,000 which is located near the German border.

According to reports the perpetrator appears to have acted alone. This conjures up memories of the murder of 12 people in the 2016 Christmas market attack in Berlin. The perpetrator in the Germany attack, who was born in Tunisia in 1992 had been in prison in Italy where he was allegedly “radicalized.” German security services had warned of his terrorist connections in the spring of 2016 and he was supposed to be deported.

According to France 24 the suspect in the Strasbourg shooting was also known to police. He is 29 years old and was born in Strasbourg. He was confronted by soldiers who have been deployed in French cities as part of Operation Sentinelle. These soldiers were deployed after the November 2015 attacks in Paris that killed 130. The Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has said the suspect “sowed terror” at three places in the city. The reference to “three places” leaves more questions about what happened. It appears that the reference is to the suspect coming into contact twice with security forces and exchanging fire with them.

As with many attacks in Europe over the last several years the suspect was already known to security and police. He had served a sentence and been convicted of unspecified crimes in both France and Germany, according to reports. In 2016 he was “flagged by anti-terrorist services,” France 24 reported. “He had been reported by the General Directorate for Internal Security.” The intelligence agency had even visited him in prison and taken account of his “religious proselytism.” Yet, even with this long rap sheet and being monitored by security forces, he carried out an armed robbery on Tuesday before the attack. During a search of his apartment grenades were found which leads to questions about how a man who was well known for violent proclivities and apparently religious extremism was able to acquire his arsenal.

The attack took place within one kilometer of the European Parliament, which has taken the attack in stride. Antonio Tajani, the president of the parliament, tweeted the parliament would not be intimidated. “Let us move on,” he wrote. But residents and others may want more answers. One man told the BBC that he had attempted to aid a victim of the attack, waiting for 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. “A doctor told us on the phone that it was senseless,” to continue to aid the dead victim. This leads to questions about why medical services took so long to reach the scene.[…]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Terror Motive Considered in Finland ‘Foreign Men’ Bus Attacks

Police in Finland say they are not ruling out a potential terrorist motivation after two “foreign” men attacked bus drivers while on the road, in one case nearly causing a head-on collision.

The two incidents, on a bus from Helsinki to the city of Oulu and another on a bus from Loimaa to Turku, occurred last week and saw passengers described as being “foreign” get up from their seats and attack the drivers, Yle reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Ambassador: President Trump Eager to Make ‘Strong FTA’ With UK

The United States ambassador in London Robert “Woody” Johnson has said President Donald Trump and the American people are eager to make a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom.

“I cannot overemphasize the willingness of President Trump and the American people to make a strong free trade agreement between our two countries,” Mr Johnson said Thursday.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Homicides in Sadiq Khan’s London Hit Ten-Year High

Homicides in London have reached their highest point in a decade under the mayoralty of Labour’s Sadiq Khan, despite huge strides in trauma care and lifesaving infrastructure.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: May Staying is the Ultimate Betrayal of the Referendum Result

If the VOTERS had weighed in on the No Confidence challenge of Theresa May’s premiership, would she have REMAINED leader of the party?

For two-and-half years LEAVE voters have watched as Mrs. May has promised time after time that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ only to break those promises. Now, to see the horrific real life ‘Deal or No Deal’ being played out with the end game seeming to be to lock Britain into the worst version of EU membership that has ever been, is bone chilling.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UKIP London Assembly Split up to Create Brexit Alliance Group

UKIP London Assembly member David Kurten tweeted:

“The UKIP group on the London Assembly has been disbanded. I remain as a UKIP London Assembly Member and have formed a new group with Independent Peter Whittle, which will be called the Brexit Alliance.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Calls for ‘Urgent Action and Urgent Decisions’ To Stop Climate Change

The Vatican delegation to the U.N. Climate summit in Katowice, Poland, has issued an “urgent call for ambition, action, and true solidarity” in battling climate change.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Monsignor Bruno-Marie Duffé, coordinator of the Holy See delegation, said that the climate crisis has economic, social, and financial aspects, while insisting on the call of Pope Francis to listen attentively to the cries of the earth, which is “groaning out in travail.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

What is Populism?

Le monde, the French newspaper of record, admitted last summer that readers had been complaining about the indiscriminate way its journalists flung around the word “populist.” It seemed to describe dozens of European and American political actors with nothing in common except the contempt in which Le Monde held them. The meaning of “populist” was nonetheless easy to decode. A dispatch in that same edition of Le Monde, about a new political alliance between populist governments in Italy, Austria, and Hungary, was titled: “Europe’s hard right lays down the law against migrants.” To call someone a populist is to insinuate that he is a fascist, but tentatively enough to spare the accuser the responsibility of supplying proof. If one sees things as Le Monde does, this is a good thing: populism is an extremism-in-embryo that needs to be named in order that it might better be fought. Others, though, will see populism as an invention of the very establishmentarians who claim to be fighting it, an empty word that allows them to shut down with taboos any political idea that they cannot defeat with arguments. In Europe, populism is becoming the great which-side-are-you-on question of our time.

This summer in the German city of Chemnitz, a young carpenter named Daniel Hillig was stabbed to death, and two of his companions were wounded, by two recent Kurdish immigrants, one from Syria and the other from Iraq. The word “populist” was used to describe nearly everything that followed. Day after day, crowds of hundreds, even thousands, massed around the giant statuary head of Karl Marx in the center of Chemnitz. They chanted denunciations of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who in September 2015 had opened Germany’s borders to refugees from war-torn Syria. Merkel’s invitation brought to Europe almost 2 million migrants from across the Muslim world. Not all were refugees, and most of them were military-age men. Six thousand have settled in Chemnitz. Public opinion is divided on whether Merkel’s invitation was typical German hospitality or typical German megalomania.[…]

Whatever populism is, it is prospering across Europe. By late September, in the wake of Chemnitz, support for the AfD had risen to 18% nationwide, placing the party level with the once-colossal Social Democrats as the country’s second largest, behind Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz Party has held roughly two thirds of the seats in the country’s national assembly since regaining control in 2010. Italy’s two populist parties—the Five Star Movement and the League—were mocked when they came together to form a coalition last May. After four months of pursuing a hard line on migration, their government has become one of the most popular in Italy since the Second World War. Between the two of them, the parties had the support of 64% of the public by early October.

Populist movements, however, even when strong, can be checked by social convention and threats of ostracism. Few call themselves populist. In Sweden, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats took 18% of the vote at elections in September but at their own demonstrations their supporters are sometimes outnumbered, and always outshouted, by activists massing in the name of anti-racism or anti-fascism. That populists have a hard time seizing and holding public platforms is a problem for the movement. It may mean, though, that sympathy for populism runs deeper than it appears to. The decision of Britain’s voters to withdraw from the European Union in a 2016 referendum won only narrowly, with a 52-48 margin in favor of the Leave option. But when London’s Independent asked Britons days before the vote how the results would make them feel, 44% said they would be “delighted” with a Leave vote, while only 28% said that about Remain. There seems to be more support for populism in citizens’ inmost hearts than on the Letters to the Editor page.[…]

Europe has entered a period of demographic, institutional, and ideological convulsion. Mass migration is the focus of populist concern. After World War II, Europe’s countries, while not ethnically homogeneous, all had stable populations of European descent. The need to rebuild spurred many countries in wrecked northern Europe to import workers—primarily from southern Italy, Portugal, and what was then Yugoslavia. A boom ensued that intensified the short-term need for labor, and brought new workers from further afield. Turks and Moroccans came. Decolonization and war untethered vast populations from their Pakistani, Algerian, and Indonesian homelands. Soon storefronts were being converted into mosques. Europeans learned words like “couscous,” “Ramadan,” and “jihad.”

Europeans assumed migration would end when their own need for migrant labor did. That was naïve. […]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt’s Silent Epidemic of Kidnapped Christian Girls

Christian women in Egypt face an epidemic of kidnapping, rape, beatings and torture.

Egypt’s Christian community faces dangers that most other Egyptians needn’t fear. Threats of violence during church services, attacks on buses filled with innocent pilgrims and their children, and assaults on successful Christian businesses happen all too frequently.

But only occasionally do they appear in the Western media…

           — Hat tip: Red Mike [Return to headlines]
 

Killing and Dying for the ‘Houris’: Islam’s Heavenly Whores

Palestinian Media Watch reports:

Following a recent terror attack in which the terrorist stabbed and wounded 4 Israeli policemen, a host on official PA TV read a poem in the terrorist’s honor. The poem glorifies Martyrdom-death in battle and states that the 72 ‘Dark-Eyed’ Virgins in Paradise who the Martyr marries according to Islamic tradition, are ‘yearning’ for the Palestinian Martyr.

Who are these “dark-eyed virgins in paradise” who are “yearning” for martyrs? The proper Arabic term for these entities is al-hour al-’ayn, commonly known by the English transliteration as houris. They are supernatural, celestial women — “wide-eyed” and “big-bosomed,” says the Koran (56:22, 78:33) — created by Allah for the express purpose of sexually gratifying his favorites in perpetuity. (While some have suggested that the English word “whore” is based on the Arabic houri — they both sure seem to serve the same function — there apparently is no etymological connection.)

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Surprise Collapse

One of the biggest mysteries in history is the late Bronze Age Collapse. There’s no good explanation for why an early globalized civilization should suddenly disappear at around 1177 BC. “Within a period of forty to fifty years at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the twelfth century almost every significant city in the eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed, many of them never to be occupied again.”

Modern archaeologists have advanced a number of theories to explain this catastrophe, several of which will sound familiar to modern ears. Climate change — not the anthropogenic kind, since “fossil fuels” had not yet been developed — might have caused drought and starvation. A technological revolution caused by the replacement of bronze with iron could have destabilized the international system. Perhaps the most modern-sounding of all explanations is “complexity.” The interdependence fostered by trade left the linked empires open to a general systems collapse as the failure in one place unleashed a cascade of effects in others:

“The growing complexity and specialization of the Late Bronze Age political, economic, and social organization in Carol Thomas and Craig Conant’s phrase together made the organization of civilization too intricate to reestablish piecewise when disrupted. That could explain why the collapse was so widespread and able to render the Bronze Age civilizations incapable of recovery.”

The critical flaws of the Late Bronze Age are its centralization, specialization, complexity, and top-heavy political structure. These flaws then were exposed by sociopolitical events (revolt of peasantry and defection of mercenaries), fragility of all kingdoms (Mycenaean, Hittite, Ugaritic, and Egyptian), demographic crises (overpopulation), and wars between states. Other factors that could have placed increasing pressure on the fragile kingdoms include piracy by the Sea Peoples interrupting maritime trade, as well as drought, crop failure, famine, or the Dorian migration or invasion.[…]

[Read it all. Belmont essays are superb]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

African Swine Fever Spreads Westward in China

The latest case of African Swine Fever in China was reported in the province of Qinghai, which is far west from where the first cases were reported.

On August 3, 2018, the first case of African Swine Fever was reported in Shenyang, Liaoning. Since then, there have been more than 80 cases of the virus reported across China. While the government has made efforts to limit the spread, the epidemic is still raging everywhere.

According to a report from Reuters, the latest outbreaks were recorded in Sichuan and Qinghai provinces on December 12. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said 19 pigs were put down at a farm in Bazhong city in Sichuan.

In Qinghai, 14 pigs were also culled in the city of Xining.

The ministry added that a response team was sent to the outbreak areas and has followed protocol in resolving the situation, such as setting up quarantine zones and disinfecting the areas, CNA reported.

In addition, the ministry banned pig farming in boar-active areas on December 10 in order to halt the spread of the epidemic. It was also noted that the virus strain found in boars varied from the ones found in domestic pigs.

So far, 17 provinces in China have been hit by African Swine Fever.

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Grassley: Russia ‘Hysteria’ Overshadows China Threat

Russia’s election interference and social media propaganda campaigns have overshadowed a “greater, more existential threat” from China, said Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley.

At a Judiciary hearing today on Chinese espionage activities, Grassley (R-Iowa) said the media hysteria over Russia neglects “China’s efforts to overtake the United States as the world’s preeminent superpower in all phases of society.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Baby-Faced Teenage Girls Are Charged With Stabbing a Man, 38, And Leaving Him at a Train Station Covered in His Own Blood

The 38-year-old man was found drenched in blood by Protective Services Officers at Sunshine train station in Melbourne, Victoria about 9.45pm on Saturday night.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Diminutive Fortnite Nerd, 26, Leaves His Eight Hour-a-Day Gaming Dungeon to Front Court Charged With ‘Bashing His Pregnant Girlfriend During a Session’

Luke Munday appeared at Camden Local Court in Sydney on Thursday morning, four days after video showing him playing Fortnite before allegedly bashing his partner was beamed around the globe.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Pictured: Indian Courier and Married Father-of-One, 44, Accused of Walking Into a Sydney Home After Making a Delivery and Sexually Assaulting a 13-Year-Old Girl

Dinakar Tayi, 44, was arrested at a warehouse in Sydney’s west on Wednesday after a 13-year-old girl was allegedly indecently assaulted by a man not known to her.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘Where Can I Go to Get Arrested?’ Photograph of Three Young Female Police Officers on Patrol Captures the Attention of Thousands of Cheeky Fans Online

Three young Queensland police officers on patrol are getting a lot of attention on social media — not for their heroic deeds but how attractive they are.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Julian Assange Undergoes Medical Tests at Ecuador’s Request as Part of New Rules to Stay at London Embassy

Julian Assange has undergone a series of medical exams as part of a new set of rules he has to follow to claim asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

The WikiLeaks founder was put through tests by doctors he ‘trusted’ out of respect for his privacy, the country’s top attorney said.

Assange has been in London’s Ecuador embassy since 2012, fearing extradition to the United States if he leaves.

But his relationship with the country has grown increasingly tense in recent weeks, with President Lenin Moreno saying he does not like his presence in the embassy.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

A Canadian Immigration Judge Lets in a “Gangster Refugee” Because He Was “Honest” — Then This Happened

I can’t believe this story. And I also can’t believe it actually appeared on Trudeau’s CBC state broadcaster:

“Botched handling of gangster refugee claimant exposes Canada’s screening weaknesses”

“Abdullahi Hashi Farah’s candid confession about his gangster past clearly impressed the Immigration and Refugee Board officer who presided over his first detention hearing on Nov. 1, 2017.”…

“In my estimation, you are probably one of the most honest detainees that I have ever come across,” he said, noting Farah had acted “contrary” to his own interests by offering up his criminal history and gang ties.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Belgium: Brussels Protesters Ignore Ban and Will Have Anti-UN Migration Pact March

As we’ve reported yesterday, a march of several patriotic organisations and Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang, was banned by the authorities in Brussels.

While the organisers of the march thought the measure was about their safety, after the terror attack in France, reality is different.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Egyptian President Blasts Migrants Not Assimilating in Europe

Egypt’s president slammed migrants not fighting for their own countries in a heated pro-nationalist speech.

Migrants should not expect western countries to “open their doors” to people who refuse to assimilate, said President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a newly surfaced speech from November’s World Youth Forum.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

French Generals Accuse Macron of “Treason” Over UN Migration Pact

A group of French military generals have written an open letter to Emmanuel Macron accusing the French President of committing “treason” by signing the UN migration pact.

The pact, which was signed by 164 nations on Monday, including France, is not legally binding but greases the skids for unlimited migration to be treated as a human right and criticism of mass migration to be treated as hate speech.

A letter written by General Antoine Martinez and signed by ten other generals, an admiral and a colonel, as well as former French Minister of Defense Charles Millon, warns Macron that the move strips France of more sovereignty and provides an additional reason for “an already battered people” to “revolt”.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: One in Three Prison Inmates Born Abroad

The proportion of prison inmates housed in German jails who were born abroad has risen to 32 per cent this year, according to the latest government figures.

Federal Statistics Office data revealed that 16,267 offenders from overseas were inmates in the country’s jails as of March 31 this year — a number which has risen by almost five per cent from 2017, Die Welt reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Caravan: Let us in or Give Each of US $50,000 to Turn Around and Go Home

Central American asylum seekers in Mexican border town Tijuana reportedly marched to the U.S. Consulate on Tuesday to present the Trump administration with an ultimatum: Let us into the country or give us $50,000 each to turn back home.

           — Hat tip: MB [Return to headlines]
 

Moral Responsibility to Receive Migrants — Pope Francis

Francis greets 10 new ambassadors to Holy See

(ANSA) — Vatican City, December 13 — Pope Francis said Thursday that the international community has a “moral responsibility” to receive migrants. “In this year the international community has celebrated the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the pope said as he received 10 new ambassadors to the Holy See. “This foundational document continues to guide the efforts of global diplomacy to secure peace in our world and to promote the integral development of each individual and all peoples. The two goals are in fact inseparable. “In its very first words, the Declaration states that, ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family, is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’.

“In these times of sweeping social and political change, there can be no lessening of the commitment to this principle on the part of governments and peoples. “It is essential that respect for human dignity and human rights inspire and direct every effort to address the grave situations of war and armed conflict, crushing poverty, discrimination and inequality that afflict our world, and in recent years have issued in the present crisis of mass migration. “No effective humanitarian solution to that pressing global issue (of mass migration) can ignore our moral responsibility, with due regard for the common good, to welcome, protect, promote and integrate those who knock at our doors in search of a secure future for themselves and their children,”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

New Brazil Government to Pull Out of UN Migration Pact as “It Doesn’t Serve National Interests”

President-elect Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil announced Monday that when his right-wing administration comes to power in January they will withdraw from the U.N. Migration pact.

“Immigration is welcome, but it should not be indiscriminate,” Ernesto Araujo, who will be the new foreign minister, tweeted, adding: “It must serve the national interests and cohesion of each society.” The UN pact is an “inappropriate instrument” for the “problem” of migration.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Migrant Caravan Leader is a Wanted Terrorist

A group among the Central American migrant caravan is demanding the U.S. (that would be, me and you) pay them $50,000 a person so they can return home.

Hey — I think that’s a great idea; I’m traveling at the moment, and I’m basically from the center of America. So I’d like $50,000 to get home, too. That’d pay for my plane ticket, and then something really useful, like a serpent-headed, diamond encrusted cane. Any of you in?

Well, the genius leading that campaign — Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa — is actually a Latin American terrorism suspect.

This, according to the San Diego Tribune-Union:

Ulloa claims he was falsely accused of attacking a Chinese restaurant in Honduras in 1987. He has been living outside Honduras for 30 years, according to an online petition he wrote asking the U.S. government to exonerate him.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Suspected Terrorist Leading Migrant Group Demanding Entry Into US

A suspect in a 1987 bombing that wounded six American soldiers in Honduras is leading a group of migrants demanding entry into the United States.

Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa organized a march of approximately 100 migrants to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico, on Tuesday, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Ulloa delivered a letter to the consulate on behalf of the migrants, asking for either entry into the U.S. or a payment of $50,000 per person.

[…]

Ulloa has lived in Mexico since 1987 after fleeing Honduras in the wake of a bombing that wounded six soldiers. Ulloa was suspected of planting a bomb in a Chinese restaurant, but received asylum from Mexico, whose government described the suspected terrorist as a “freedom fighter.” […]

[NOTE: Ulloa meets the definition/description of chutzpah]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden is Generous to Migrants, While Its Pensioners Turn to Soup Kitchens

While migrants get a lot of things for free, more and more Swedish pensioners testify that they struggle to make ends meet. Many of them are therefore visiting soup kitchens.

In newspaper articles and social media, pensioners tell of difficult circumstances.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

While 81% Don’t Want More Migration, European Leaders Shamefully Ignored the Will of the People by Signing the UN Pact

New research indicates people want less migration, not more — 81% want the opposite of the UN Pact signed Monday

At about the same time that Merkel and other globalist leaders were celebrating the controversial UN Migration Compact in Marrakesh, Morocco, on Monday, Pew Research Center published its new findings on how citizens feel about the impact of immigration in 27 different countries around the world.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

9th Circuit: Judges, or Robed Activists?

Mark Pulliam notes that the famously left-wing 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is sponsoring a “Mid-Winter Workshop.” Mark comments:

Chief Justice Roberts recently chastised President Trump for criticizing federal judges as partisan. Roberts insisted that “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best….”

The Ninth Circuit makes that Pollyannish assessment difficult to take seriously. The agenda of its Mid-Winter Workshop reads like the program for an activist group—which is exactly what it is.

If the general public had any idea how ideological judges are in even their internal meetings, they would find the Chief Justice’s defense of the judiciary to be fatuous.

I am afraid that assessment is correct. Here is the agenda for the Mid-Winter Workshop. After which, some comments:

The agenda is a left-wing laundry list, but I have a few favorites. Like the keynote speech at lunch, by Jeffery Robinson, ACLU Deputy Legal Director and Director of the Trone Center for Justice and Equality: “Controversies Regarding Confederate Monuments.”

“Monuments and symbols are important in every culture. Do the Confederate flag and monuments to Confederate heroes reflect our culture and pride or something much uglier? Are the current day explanations of the meaning of the flag and the monuments the same explanations used at the time the flag and the monuments were created? This presentation will look at the historical context of the creation of the Confederate flag and monuments, including information that is not generally taught in American schools.”

“Information that is not generally taught in American schools?”—in context, that is chilling.

Then there is “The Care of Gender Non-Conforming and Transgender Individuals.”

“This workshop will cover the basics of the gender lexicon, medical and surgical interventions, and a brief review of the research regarding such interventions. The overarching theme of this workshop is to help participants gain understanding of what it means to be navigating a world that creates significant mental, medical, educational, legal and employment disparities for transgender individuals.”

What would the Left do without disparities?

The most sinister workshop, I think, is “Free Speech Values: Campuses, New Technologies and Polarization.”[…]

[RTWT. It gets worse]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Everyday Feminism Seminar Offers to Heal ‘Internalized Whiteness’

If you have about 500 bucks, a few days off this spring, and live in Washington DC, New York City, or Oakland, then you can participate in Everyday Feminism’s training, titled, “Healing from Internalized Whiteness.” According to its website, this training will help you, “stop arguing with white people about racism and discover how to invite them into racial justice work for their own healing and liberation.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Far-Left Extremists Are Raising Money on Patreon to “Inspire Insurrection”

Patreon is back in the news following another round of what appears to be an ideological purge from their platform. In the last few days the accounts for Milo Yiannopoulos, Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad), and James Allsup were all terminated. These individuals all have different belief systems and principals and have been vocal critics of each other but their common denominator is a very vocal and effective critique of the far-left and their creeping authoritarianism.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The New Censorship

by Phyllis Chesler

In 1984, George Orwell wrote: “The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought. When people ‘disappear’ no one is allowed to mention it, no one is mourned, no one person is important, only the Party and Big Brother are important.”

Today, Orwell’s Thought Police are, rather ominously, everywhere. There is a definite intellectual chill in the air. Reason and civility are all but gone in the public square. In its place, we have insults, shaming, censorship and self-censorship that is meant to “pass” for thought. Hotly internalized propaganda rules the day online. We have met Big Brother, and he is us.

In my view, people seem to develop some kind of psychoanalytic transference to their Listserv groups. In a way, the connection is an umbilical one. The darker side of this connection isn’t hard to find. Internet Listserv groups bully and purge dissident members, …. Sometimes, a small group of people (teenage “mean girls” and their mothers, academics, journalists,) attack the same person over and over again, day after day, for months, even for years. Meanwhile, hundreds of onlookers remain silent. No one stops the attacks or calls for a more civilized fight.

Unlike in-person mobs, attackers on social media attack and instantly disappear. Often, people attack one by one, one after the other, in sequence, even when there are hundreds of them. As a result, individuals in cyberspace may continue to see themselves as individuals rather than as members of a lynch mob or as contributing to an atmosphere in which people are systematically demoralized or silenced.

           — Hat tip: Frontinus [Return to headlines]
 

Twitter Dings 285,000 Different Accounts for ‘Hateful Conduct’ In Six Months

Twitter took action against more than 285,000 different accounts for “hateful conduct” in the first six months of 2018, according to data the company released Wednesday night.

Twitter dinged more accounts for “hateful conduct” — 285,393 to be exact — than for any other violation of Twitter rules during that time. That amounts to roughly 1,900 accounts per day that Twitter found in violation of its “hateful conduct” rules.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

YouTube Deleted Nearly 8 Million Videos From July to September

YouTube clamped down on content from July through September by deleting 7.8 million videos the company says violated its terms of service.

The announcement came Thursday and was part of a broader effort by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, to inform the public on how its community guidelines are enforced.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Five New Species of Sea Slugs Found in the Ocean Depths

When you think of sea slugs, you might envision dark, slimy relatives of the slugs you see in your garden. But one group of sea slugs, the nudibranchs (pronounced “nood-i-branks”), are gaudy, fascinating creatures. They come in a wide array of bright colors and psychedelic patterns. Many have gills that stick up from their backs like clumps of water balloons, shag carpets, or Mohawk hair-dos.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

8 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/13/2018

  1. re: Boy Scouts may declare bankruptsy

    A real shame.

    My son was a scout 5 years ago and they provided one of the last places on earth that a boy could be a boy.

    They were allowed to run free in the woods yelling, throwing sticks and acting like true boys.

    He slept in a large cardboard box in the woods during a -20 C winter’s night and loved it. He learned how to survive.

    Unfortunately there were as many adult leaders as scouts so the writing was on the wall.

  2. re: Man with axes in subway

    I’m sure he is mentally ill.

    The Ontario government closed down some of the mental institutions and sent the people onto the streets to become a danger to the public. These folk are often too ill to know they are ill and don’t take their medications. The police are now the new mental health workers as they have to contend with the troubles. Only if a person is showing a danger to themselves or to others can the police act and put them in the hospital for 72 hrs. Then they are back on the streets.

    I once had to take a man to the hospital as he wanted to be admitted to the psych ward for a rest from the stress of his hallucinations. He stated he wanted to kill someone, anyone but the hospital staff deemed him ‘safe’ to go back home.

    “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” as Pink Floyd sang…..

  3. The Pope believes in a one world religion. Jesus said its a narrow road and few there be who find it. Pope thinks its a broad road and that all religions lead to god. The Pope believes Jesus was a sinner and that he failed on the cross. He continues the sacrifice of the mass in perpetuity forever, even though Jesus said on the cross ,IT IS FINISHED. One sacrifice for all. There is no atonement for sin without a blood sacrifice, the mass is a bloodless sacrifice.

    • Some popes believe that the term ‘Catholic’, which means ‘Universal’ is just that : universal as in ‘every road leads to heaven’.

      Old folk I have known, esp. Europeans who considered themselves committed Catholics yet rarely set foot in a church and often did not own a bible somehow knew with no doubts whatsoever that islam will not lead you to God or heaven.
      Children in Sunday School often have a deeper understanding of salvation.

      The great pope is sometimes put to shame by the mouths of babes.

    • “Healing from Internalized Whiteness…..will help you, “stop arguing with white people about racism…..”

      So, this will shut the big mouths of those like Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi and Linda Sarsour?

      I’m taking 2 more jobs to help fund their training.

  4. I am curious how many feral, low IQ, sub-saharan criminal muslims the Pope has allowed to colonize the Vatican City?

    It is always easier to virtue signal with other people’s money, with other people’s countries, and with other people’s safety.

    • That’s true. Vatican City is its own state and he can let in as many migrants as he chooses.

  5. “Meanwhile, His Holiness also called for urgent action to stop climate change.”

    Since the discussions on climate change, I’ve been looking at YouTube videos on the subject. One of the best is a nobel laureate in physics discussing the pseudoscience of the climate change tsunami.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXxHfb66ZgM

    Briefly, Professor Giaever discusses the fact that the trends in climate are not out of step with the history of climate changes, as revealed by fossil and geological records. Als0, he discusses the counter productivity of the proposed alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar.

    Bottom line: climate on Earth is always changing, bolstered by the sun cycles and the cycles of the atmosphere and the oceans. At worst, peoples will have to adapt to whatever changes occur, as they have in the past.

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