A man driving an SUV ran his vehicle into a group of pedestrians in Liverpool. One of the victims suffered grave trauma from being dragged along under the SUV. Police do not know the motive for the act, but have not ruled out terrorism.
In other news, an American citizen of Libyan origin was arrested in Italy because of the botched circumcision of a two year-old-boy, who died after the operation.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Dora, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, Vlad Tepes, 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.
London 0.52% down, Paris 1.45% down, Madrid 0.89%
(ANSA) — Milan, December 24 — The few stock exchanges open on Christmas Eve all dipped on Monday.
London closed 0.52% down, Paris 1.45% down and Madrid 0.89% down.
Milan, Frankfurt and Zurich were closed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Stock Market Just Booked Its Ugliest Christmas Eve Plunge — Ever
Never mind finding coal in your stocking for the holidays. Wall Street investors scored a rare — and unwanted — gift this year.
The S&P 500 index fell by 2.7% Monday, marking the first session before Christmas that the broad-market benchmark has booked a loss of 1% or greater — ever.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
“Endless War Has Been Normalized and Everyone is Crazy…”
Endless war and military expansionism has become so normalized in establishment thought that even a slight scale-down is treated as something abnormal and shocking
Since I last wrote about the bipartisan shrieking, hysterical reaction to Trump’s planned military withdrawal from Syria the other day, it hasn’t gotten better, it’s gotten worse.
I’m having a hard time even picking out individual bits of the collective freakout from the political/media class to point at, because doing so would diminish the frenetic white noise of the paranoid, conspiratorial, fearmongering establishment reaction to the possibility of a few thousands troops being pulled back from a territory they were illegally occupying.
The talking heads of the corporate state media had been almost entirely ignoring the buildup of US troops in Syria and the operations they’ve been carrying out there, but as soon as the possibility of those troops leaving emerged, all the alarm bells started ringing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fergus Falls in Minnesota is one of the places Claas Relotius spread untruths about. A visit to a small town where the only thing left for a DER SPIEGEL reporter to do is apologize.
By Christoph Scheuermann in Fergus Falls, Minnesota
In these days before Christmas, it’s very cold and windy in Fergus Falls, a town of around 14,000 inhabitants in the state of Minnesota. There’s also a bit of snow on the ground. Claas Relotius published a very long feature article about the small town and its inhabitants in DER SPIEGEL in March 2017. When I read it at the time, I thought to myself: It seems really, really long.
The story carried the headline, “In a Small Town,” and was intended as an attempt to describe and better grasp Trump voters. As we now know, the writer largely invented the events and characters portrayed in the story — just as he did those in almost all his articles.
I arrived in Fergus Falls on Thursday, the day after DER SPIEGEL went public with internal revelations about Relotius’ journalistic fraud. I’m here to describe the city as it really is, to process what has happened, but also to better understand what Relotius did during the time he spent here.
The fairy tale begins right at the beginning when the author writes that the bus to Fergus Falls rolls toward a dark forest that looks like “dragons could be living in it.” I looked for that forest. It doesn’t exist, even though there are trees in and around Fergus Falls and small forests here and there.
You get overcome by strange feelings when you travel to hunt down the fabrications of an ex-colleague, but it’s even weirder when you try to compare reality with the fake images that his story ingrained in your head. You meet people who resemble Relotius’ figures, but the longer you talk to them, the greater the distance grows between those depictions and the reality…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
James Comey: ‘There’s No Deep State’
Comey launched into mini-speech about the resilience of America, while insisting there is no “deep state” and urging people to speak out
n testimony, former FBI Director James Comey exclaimed “there’s no deep state” before going on to suggest that workers risk their jobs by “speaking out” —purportedly against President Donald Trump.
During testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees last week, Comey was asked by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) for suggestions on how the nation should get back “on track” after the “storm” it is currently weathering — a clear reference to Trump’s presidency.
Comey responded by launching into mini-speech about the resilience of America, while insisting there is no “deep state” and urging people to speak out:
[Comment: So now the deep state is trying to get the public to “rally” around and support the deep state. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kevin Spacey: Actor Charged With Sexual Assault in Massachusetts
US actor Kevin Spacey has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenager at a bar in Massachusetts.
He will appear in court on 7 January over the incident, which allegedly occurred in Nantucket in July 2016.
On Monday, Mr Spacey posted a video in which he appears to deny any wrongdoing while in character as Frank Underwood from House of Cards.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Trump Set to Decapitate Deep State With Firing of Federal Reserve Head
President Trump is reportedly poised to fire Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell following a bruising couple of months in the stock market over the Fed’s rate hike policies. The move is thought to precede the eventual audit of the Fed in an effort to free the nation from financial bondage by halting the banking cartel’s money manipulation powers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Exodus of New York City’s Endangered Middle Class
New York City’s shrinking middle class is now in full retreat, as masses of our most endangered population depart the city in numbers not seen since the Depression, according to analysts.
After decades of sharp income erosion in the face of relentless taxes, escalating living costs and wage reductions through technological changes, the full extent of this shocking exodus is laid bare in the latest US Census data.
That shows the city is losing 100 residents each day — with departures exceeding new arrivals.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A VAXXED video that has been banned almost everywhere is going viral on Brighteon.com, the Youtube alternative video community for free speech on vaccines, GMOs, natural medicine and more.
As the video shows below, healthy triplets all became autistic within hours of vaccination, once again demonstrating that vaccines cause autism. The parents, the McDowell family in Detroit, Michigan, have spoken out publicly against the horrific medical violence being committed against children every day across America through toxic vaccines. (See AutismTruthNews.com for more reporting on vaccines and autism.)
The names of their three children, pictured above, are Richie, Robbie and Claire. All three children were vaccinated on the same day, and within hours, they all become severely autistic.
In their own words:
On June 25th, 2007, we brought them in for the [vaccine] shot… we went in at 10 am. All three. My daughter still has the mark on her leg from the shot… we did the boys as well. By noon, Claire shut completely off. It was as if she was blind, and deaf, and complete failure to thrive, from super super happy, smiley girl to… she had full blown eye contact, and she shut right down. All she did was stare at the ceiling.
At 2:00 we watched Richie shut off. All his mama, dadda, and the furniture walking and everything just shut of. All the giggles, all the smiles, again failure to thrive. They lost all their reflexes… they stopped blinking, yawning, coughing, sneezing, they lost their startle reflex… that was 2:00.
The worst was when we saw the final one shut down. We lost Robbie, he looked like he was hit by a bus. He had a stunned look on his face… he acted deaf, he lost his happiness. They were no longer engaged in anything or anyone. They lost their smiles. They never held hands again, never looked at each other again. (Crying)
Vaccine injury is real. We were told is was genetic, then we were told there was no way three children were shut off on the same day… it was statistically impossible. We were told we could not sue anyone. No vaccine manufacturers could be sued. We found out [later] there was a vaccine injury court. They then told us we were too late, [we] only had three years to apply.
See the full video on the only video community site that dares to publish vaccine truth videos without censorship, Brighteon.com:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Man at Billings Bridge Mall Arrested by Police
Ottawa police say officers armed with rifles tackled and arrested an armed man who was accosting people at a local mall Sunday, during the peak of pre-Christmas shopping.
Police safely arrested and disarmed the man, who has not been identified, at Billings Bridge Shopping Centre after the incident at the mall and nearby McDonald’s restaurant around 5 p.m. A firearm was recovered.
No shots were fired and no one was hurt, said police, who reported they issued an alert about the arrest “to allay any public concern.”
The incident began with a dispute between two people near the mall, then the suspect made his way to the shopping centre, police said.
There he’s alleged to have told a number of people he had a firearm on him and showed it to a number of people while threatening them.
A store employee called 911 to say he saw a firearm on the person, sparking the police response.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Call for Macron to Step Down to Restore Peace and End the Chaos in France
Pictures and videos are surfacing across social media of French police levelling firearms at Yellow Vest demonstrators protesting the failed President Emmanuel Macron’s government austerity plans.
The sixth week of protests, despite being the Saturday before Christmas, still had a fair turnout, though less than previous weeks.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Charlie Hebdo Journalist: ‘Islam Must Submit to Criticism’
Charlie Hebdo journalist Zineb El Rhazoui has received rape and death threats for saying “Islam must submit to criticism”.
The journalist, who has lived under police protection since a number of her colleagues at the satirical magazine were murdered by radical Islamic terrorist for satirising the Prophet Mohammed, said she has received “Insults, racist insults, [and] threats of death or rape” since she insisted: “Islam must submit to criticism, submit to humor, submit to the laws of the Republic, submit to French law.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Will be Stable and Successful Only if it Remains European — Hungarian PM
Europe will be stable and successful only if it remains European, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview with Austrian news portal oe24.at published on Sunday.
Commenting on next year’s European Parliamentary elections, he said this will be the first time that the nations of Europe vote on a common issue.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French Town Opens Probe After Yellow Vests Behead Macron Effigy & Put ‘Head’ On Stake (Photos)
Authorities in a south-western French town are furious after Yellow Vest protesters beheaded an effigy of Emmanuel Macron with an ax, put its “head” on a stake and danced. Now the mock executioners face a very real criminal case.
Around 90 protesters dressed in yellow vests — the symbol of the recent wave of anti-government protests in France — gathered in a park in the town of Angouleme to stage the mock beheading on Friday evening. It’s not clear if the day was chosen deliberately, but on December 21 French President Macron celebrated his 41st birthday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Gunman Opens Fire on Restaurant With ‘Kalashnikov’ In Brussels
Belgian police are on the hunt for a gunman who shot at a restaurant in an upmarket part of Brussels on Christmas Eve with what a witness said was a “Kalashnikov-style” weapon.
The incident took place Monday morning at around 9:50 on Avenue Louise, according to Le Soir.
The Brussels public prosecutor office said that based on preliminary information, the suspect fired his weapon at a restaurant identified by a Soir journalist as La Parisienne, which was closed as the time. There were no injuries…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary: Support for Viktor Orban’s Fidesz Up, Opposition Down Since the Elections — Poll
The ruling Fidesz-led alliance’s base has strengthened while support for the opposition has waned since the spring general election, according to the latest poll released by the Nezopont Institute on Saturday.
Fully 54 percent of decided voters expressed their support for Fidesz, according to the poll completed between November 26 and December 15 with anti-government protests already under way, Nezopont said. This is up 7 percent since the general election held in April, Nezopont said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Indian Woman Calls Cops to Get Out of Arranged Marriage
Taken to safe house
(ANSA) — Parma, December 24 — An 18-year-old Indian woman has been removed from her parents and placed in a safe house after telling police they were going to force her into an arranged marriage.
The parents, who live near Parma, have been cautioned and told not to go near their daughter.
The woman told police she had also had to suffer years of mistreatment.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Man Arrested Over Deadly Circumcision of Two-Year-Old
66-year-old American suspected of causing child’s death
(ANSA) — Rome, December 24 — A 66-year-old American citizen of Libyan origin has been arrested over a circumcision that caused the death of a two-year-old Nigerian boy in the Monterotondo, in the province of Roma, at the weekend. The dead boy’s twin brother is seriously ill after undergoing a circumcision too, although his condition was said to be improving on Monday. It is estimated that around 5,000 circumcisions are performed in Italy each year and around 35% are done illegally. The boy’s mother is being closely watched in a Roman hospital amid fears she may self-harm or worse due to shock at her loss.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 2-Year-Old Child Dies After Circumcision — Libyan National Arrested
A 66-year-old American citizen was arrested on the weekend in Monterotondo, Roma over the death of a two-year-old.
The small child was undergoing a circumcision and the man of Libyan origin is suspected of causing the Nigerian child’s death.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Salvini Wishes for Christmas That the EU Will Change After Next Year’s Elections
Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini sent Christmas wishes on Monday. The Interior Minister wishes that the European Union will change after the May European elections.
“I wish that the EU will change in May, that Italians will finally change,” Salvini said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Man Thrown Out of Manchester Arena for Wearing UK Flag Waistcoat
A man was thrown out of Manchester Arena last night after having his Union Flag waistcoat confiscated.
The man, James Baxter, 39, from Nottinghamshire travelled to Manchester for the Yorkshireman Josh Warrington fighting Belfast’s Carl Frampton. James was kicked out before the main event began.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Poll: One in Four German Adults Do Not Celebrate Christmas
Seventeen million Germans, or nearly one in four, over the age of 18 do not celebrate Christmas and the majority of those are young males.
YouGov Germany made the estimate based on representative data, with around 20 per cent of those who do not celebrate Christmas coming from a “migration background.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Queen Elizabeth II Will Urge Common Decency, Respecting Differences in Run-Up to Brexit
A traditional seasonal message from British and Commonwealth monarch Queen Elizabeth II will be broadcast worldwide on Christmas day, with the content of the 2018 address widely interpreted in UK media as being an appeal to civility in the run-up to the official Brexit date in March 2019.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Two Freedom Fighters Meet: Tommy Robinson Visits Geert Wilders — Video
UK patriot Tommy Robinson visited Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Footage of the visit, that took place last week, surfaced a few days ago on YouTube.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Ambassador Accuses Fake News Scandal German Magazine of ‘Anti-American’ Bias
Germany’s leading news magazine, which was forced to apologise to readers on Wednesday after revelations of “invented stories”, has been accused of having a major anti-American bias by President Trump’s Ambassador to the United States Richard Grenell.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Andrea Leadsom is Nearly Right on How to Save Brexit
Andrea Leadsom is the Leader of the House of Commons, that is, she is responsible for arranging government business. She has also proposed a solution to the problem of the “backstop” which is based on the same principle as our own earlier suggestion, namely, to limit the application of the “backstop” to one year renewable by mutual consent.
[Comment: I think that the Gatestone writer is being “too clever by half” as the Brits say. Vote down May’s deal. A No-Deal Brexit will be fine.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Children as Young as 4 Vulnerable to Exploitation by ‘County Lines’ Gangs
Around 120 vulnerable children are being monitored by police and social services in Swindon for fear they could get pulled into drug dealing, the youngest just four years old.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Driver Runs Down Pedestrians in Liverpool, Inflcits ‘Major Trauma’
A driver accelerated into a group of pedestrians in Liverpool in the early hours of Christmas Eve, inflicting “major trauma” on one.
Partial footage published by the Liverpool Echo appears to show a large SUV creep up to a junction and come to a full halt, before suddenly accelerating at top speed into a group of four young males as they cross the road.
The local newspaper describes two being struck, with one being knocked off his feet and spun off to the side of the car’s path, while his other, less fortunate companion was thrown in front of the vehicle and dragged some for some distance under its wheels as it accelerated over him.
The victim is said to have suffered “major trauma” but was conscious and breathing when attended by paramedics, with his current condition described as “serious but stable”.
“We are appealing for witnesses following a road traffic collision in Slater Street, Liverpool, in the early hours of this morning, Monday, 24 December,” said Merseyside police in an official statement.
[…]
“We can confirm a 19-year-old man from Stoneycroft has been arrested on Aigburth Road this morning on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.”
The authorities have not released the suspect’s name or any description of his appearance at this time, nor given any indication whether they believe the crime could have been terror-related.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London’s Khan Demands Gang Database Overhauled as 4 in 5 Named Are Black
Labour’s London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for the Metropolitan Police’s gangs matrix to be overhauled because the vast majority named are young, black men.
A review for the London mayor found that three-quarters were under the age of 25 and 80 per cent were black, with the authors saying that it was a higher proportion than were likely to be perpetrators or victims of gang violence, reports The Guardian.
Alleging potential racial discrimination, the review, published Friday, said, “We must acknowledge the possibility of conscious or unconscious bias against young black males in London — whether the term ‘gang’ is now heavily racially loaded and that this perception that a gang is often comprised of young black males, and ergo that young black males are often in a gang, either directly or unconsciously influences the enforcement focus of the police and subsequent actions of the justice service.”
[Comment: “overhauled” … i.e. “hide the truth”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
13 Suspected ISIS Terrorists Arrested Over European Tourist Beheadings in Morocco
Shocking video of attack went viral on social media, but MSM continues to downplay dangers of radical Islam
Moroccan authorities have arrested a total of 13 men in connection with the beheadings of two Scandinavian hikers that occurred earlier this week, according to local media.
Gruesome video of the attack shocked the world, and has been widely circulated social media, with men in the video calling the attack “revenge” for fellow jihadists in Syria.
From the Daily Mail:
In the clip, a man can be heard saying ‘These are your heads, enemies of god’ while there are claims the phrase ‘this is for Syria’ was used, in an apparent reference to Western bombing missions in the war-torn country.
Ms Ueland and Ms Vesterager Jespersen, who were studying to be outdoor guides at a Norwegian university, were spotted with three men in Marrakesh before heading to the Atlas mountains to hike.
A Moroccan police source said today that three fugitive suspects had been arrested in Marrakesh after an intensive manhunt — a day after another man was held, suspected of belonging to an Islamic extremist group.
An additional nine men were arrested days later in several Moroccan cities, including Marrakesh and Essaouira, reported state-run media 2M.
The terrorist attack comes just months after an American couple was brutally murdered by Islamic terrorists in Tajikistan while cycling the countryside in an ironic bid to prove that evil didn’t exist.
These attacks highlight an apparent trend of Western naiveté regarding radical Islam, propelled largely by leftist mainstream media that constantly downplays or ignores its dangers.
[Comment: Western faketream media is essentially telling the pigeons, “close your eyes, there are no cats.”]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Murdered Scandinavian Women ‘Victims of the Left’s Fantasy World’ — Expert on Islam
In a recent article, writer and Islam critic Robert Spencer claims that they were not just victims of the Islamic State, but also of the Left’s fantasy world.
Louisa, 24, from Denmark, and Maren, 28, from Norway were beheaded by Islamic jihadists while camping in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Threats Against Greece
Turkey’s “persistent policy of violating international law and breaching international rules and regulations” was called out in a November 14 letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres by Polly Ioannou, the deputy permanent representative of Cyprus to the UN.
Reproving Ankara for its repeated violations of Cypriot airspace and territorial waters, Ioannou wrote of Turkey’s policy:
“[it] is a constant threat to international peace and security, has a negative impact on regional stability, jeopardises the safety of international civil aviation, creates difficulties for air traffic over Cyprus and prevents the creation of an enabling environment in which to conduct the Cyprus peace process.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Exonerated But Not Free: Asia Bibi to Spend Christmas in Custody
Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi will celebrate Christmas under guard, despite being cleared of the blasphemy charges that kept her in jail since 2010.
Bibi — a former labourer who was on death row for eight years — remains a prime target in conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan, with extremists calling for her blood and the government refusing to reveal her location out of fear for her safety.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
India: Interpol, FBI, And Canada Police Busted 25 ‘Fake Call Centres’ In Noida, 300 Cyber Thugs Held
Noida, December 23: A group of officials from FBI of the US and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police flew down to India in July and called on the chief of the police in Noida, adjoining the national capital, in a meeting coordinated by the Interpol.
The details of the closed-door meeting held at the police headquarters in Gautam Buddh Nagar never emerged in public domain until a spate of raids were reported in the months that followed, as a massive crackdown began on fake call centres, duping foreigners. Haryana: Police Cracks Fake Call Centre Racket In Gurugram’s Udyog Vihar; Six Accused Sent To Judicial Custody.
On December 21, the police arrested 126 people in its biggest action so far against a fake call centre operating from a quaint office in the city’s Sector 63, a commercial hub, which has also seen similar illegal, fake call centres thriving.
The call centre solicited money up to USD 3,500 from US citizens by intimidating them with arrest by the FBI over “stolen” social security numbers, a unique nine-digit pin number given to American residents, the officials said.
Over a dozen actions were witnessed in October and November too, when fake call centres targeting foreigners, mostly American and Canadian citizens, solicited money to fix computers attacked by virus sent by them or by offering “tax benefits”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Communists Crack Down on ‘Foreign’ Christmas Holiday
Chinese officials have been curtailing public manifestations of Christmas this year as part of President Xi Jinping’s efforts to eliminate vestiges of foreign religions and festivities.
Authorities visited a shopping and office complex in Nanyang on December 16 to order the removal of all Christmas decorations, and within 24 hours all the Christmas trees, lights, and bells had reportedly disappeared from the 27-story shopping structure.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Tries to Curb Its Plummeting Population
The acceleration of Japan’s population collapse is so rapid that the country’s birthrate has dropped to a historic level, the lowest since data gathering began in 1899, according to reports.
The Japan Times reported that its government believes that 921,000 babies will be born by the end of 2018 — 25,000 fewer than in the previous year.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Orders North Korea Pay $500 Million to Otto Warmbier’s Family in Wrongful Death Lawsuit
CINCINNATI — A U.S. judge said North Korea must pay the family of Otto Warmbier about $500 million for the 22-year-old’s death.
Warmbier died days after being flown back to Cincinnati from North Korea, where he had been imprisoned for 17 months.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Risky Reliance: The US’s Dependence on China for Rare Earth Minerals
A Chinese warship’s aggression against a U.S. Navy vessel last month makes questionable the wisdom of American dependency on China for 71% of America’s rare earth minerals (REM). According to a recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) summary report, the U.S. produces only 24% of the REMs needed to produce many American manufacturing necessities. Rare earth minerals are necessary for agriculture fertilizers, high-tech and green energy products, oil-refining processes, and military equipment.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Desperate Women Fleeing Venezuela Sell Hair, Breast Milk, Sex to Get By
CUCUTA, Colombia — Although the sun has barely risen, this border city with Venezuela is already bursting with chaos.
Thousands upon thousands of Venezuelans pour into Colombia over the crowd cross-country bridge, their faces gaunt, carrying little more than a backpack. Rail-thin women cradle their tiny babies, and beg along the trash-strewn gutters. Teens hawk everything from cigarettes to sweets and water for small change.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
California: Illegal Alien Who Killed American Shielded From Deportation
A previously deported illegal alien accused of killing a 51-year-old American could have been turned over to federal immigration officials and deported, again, if not for California’s sanctuary state law.
Gustavo Garcia, a 36-year-old illegal alien, shot and killed 51-year-old Rocky Paul Jones of Visalia, California, on December 17 at a gas station, Breitbart News reported. Police said surveillance footage revealed Garcia and Jones spoke briefly before the killing, but the two did not know one another.
Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said the illegal alien went on a 24-hour “reign of terror” and “had no regard for human life” before dying in a car accident in the midst of a police chase. That day of “terror” included Garcia allegedly shooting a farm worker, shooting a woman in a parking lot, stealing a vehicle, robbing a gas station, and driving a car down a California highway in the wrong direction.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Action Group Arrives in Greece to Pick Up Refugees and Bring Them to the Netherlands
A Netherlands based action group called “We Gaan Ze Halen” (We are going to get them), wants to transport refugees from Greek camps to the Netherlands.
The group says the conditions in Greek refugee camps is “a humanitarian disaster”, especially for children who are at risk for physical and sexual violence.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Women to the EU: “Kick Our Men Out and Send Them Home — We Need Them Here”
The war in Syria has led to a shortage of men in the country. Now the Syrian women want their men back, and ask the EU to “kick them out” so that they return and help rebuild the country.
The conflict in Syria is coming to an end. Donald Trump has stated that IS is defeated and promised to withdraw all US troops from the area.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
GoFundMe Wall Campaign Hits $16 Million in 6 Days
by Rick Moran
A GoFundMe campaign to raise money to build a wall along the southern border has raised $15 million in the last six days. “We the People Will Fund the Wall” is the brainchild of Brian Kolfage, a triple-amputee veteran and conservative activist. The goal of the campaign is to raise $1 billion toward construction.
Meanwhile, a counter-campaign to raise money to buy ladders to go over the wall was started on Wednesday by a transgender liberal columnist. Army veteran Charlotte Clymer’s effort has raised $137,000 of a $100 million goal.[…]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Richard Dawkins: ‘Happy Holidays’ Is Not Atheist War on Christmas
Professional atheist Richard Dawkins said that insistence on the language of “Happy Holidays” is not a war on Christmas by unbelievers, but a “pandering” to rival faiths that compete with Christianity.
“All that ‘Happy Holidays’ stuff (Holiday Parties, Holiday Presents etc) was never an atheist ‘War on Christmas’ but was simply pandering to equally foolish rival faiths,” Dawkins tweeted Monday in reaction to an article in the Independent.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s Largest TV Broadcaster Invites Veiled Woman for Celebrating Christmas
Sweden’s TV4 Nyhetsmorgon, the country’s largest broadcaster, exhibits “multiculturalism” on Christmas, not Jesus.
Inviting Camilla Hamid to bake “Christmas Classics” gives pause for thought as the Muslim, veil-wearing, cook admits to not personally recognising the Christian holiday.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish TV Show Celebrates Christmas by Featuring Muslim Woman Who Doesn’t Celebrate Christmas
Largest broadcaster recognizes “multiculturalism” instead of Jesus
Sweden’s largest television station celebrated Christmas by featuring a Muslim woman wearing a hijab who does not celebrate Christmas.
TV4 Nyhetsmorgon showcased the cooking talents of veil-covered Camilla Hamid, who was invited to bake “Christmas classics” despite not personally recognizing the Christian festival.
“Of course you do not celebrate Christmas, because you are a Muslim,” said program owner Anders Pihlblad during the segment.
Hamid replied that she didn’t celebrate Christmas but she did like cooking, prompting Pihlblad to celebrate multiculturalism and the fact that different cultures “borrow” from each other.
When the host asked Hamid if she incorporated any elements of Christmas into her life, she responded that “snacks” and “lighting” were “cozy” at this time of year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish TV Airs Christianity Ridiculing Parody Filled With Profanities and Sex Jokes
After a short introduction, in which the TV4 host announced that “we should remember why we celebrate Christmas”, the spectacle began.
Joseph assumed that Mary had been with someone else, but she denied it. He claimed that “someone else had played dick-daddy and emptied the sack”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Christmas From All Over the World: Followers Sent us Their Pictures
Our great followers from all over the world shared their Christmas experiences with us on Twitter, here they are. Scroll down from our main tweet to see the beautiful replies!
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Evidence’ Supports Story of Wise Men Who Visited Baby Jesus, Scholar Says
Much archaeological, textual, linguistic, and scientific evidence backs up the historical existence of the “Wise Men” described in Saint Matthew’s gospel, a scholar asserts.
Dwight Longenecker, a researcher, author, and Catholic priest, told Breitbart News in an interview Monday that “all the pieces fit neatly to give a plausible explanation of real characters who had a strong motivation to go on a journey to find a newborn King of the Jews.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The exodus of New York City’s endangered middle class
I remembered your American movie Cosmopolis. I don’t remember the exact phrase, but it said that everything will start “when limousines disappear in Manhattan”
The limousines aren’t part of the middle class. They belong to the upper classes (those limousine liberals). and are served (maintained and driven) by the lower classes.
The middle class is leaving our urban areas because they have become too expensive to inhabit. Many of their jobs will remain so they’ll have long commutes to work. The firemen, police, teachers, nurses, etc.
Think of it this way: as if the army lost its whole class of seasoned, upper echelon non-commissioned enlisted men, the bridge between the officer class and the lower level enlisted men.
Many parallels with Rome and its tenant classes.
Robots will replace the serfs just in time. I foresee a time when it will be a mark of wealth and status to have real human servants.
If the robot servants will be anything like Woody Allen in ‘Sleeper’ I’ll take one.
Good point. And expect a master human techie-servant to run/repair/modulate the robots.
“The Peripheral” William Ford Gibson wrote about it
re: Christmas in China
I don’t think the communist gov’t has much to worry about.
Christmas is now so commercialised that it can only be of great economic benefit to China. I wouldn’t be surprised if the gov’t eventually compromises to create a festive shopping holiday called “The Great Leap Forward Peoples’ Winter Festival”.
“As the video shows below, healthy triplets all became autistic within hours of vaccination, once again demonstrating that vaccines cause autism.” Nonsense! I have a relative that works with autistic and otherwise disabled children and while some of them developed a more severe form of autism after being vaccinated, it wasn’t the vaccine that caused it, the child was already set on that path and all the vaccine did was speed up the process or make the state more severe. It’s a genetic thing and that all triplets have it only prooves that – if it was the vaccine the chances of all three children developing autism is unlikely. And by all means that doesn’t mean that isn’t a horrible thing for the parents, but compared to how many lives vaccines save, it’s a droplet in the sea. Compare data of cases of tuberculosis or various “child” infections throughout Europe when everyone was vaccinated and now, when many children aren’t vaccinated at all and many people from countries where vaccination isn’t performed flood in. And feel free to compare data on autism and vaccination. There is no rise in autism through most of vaccination’s history. But do you know when various kinds of “modern” diseases became more and more common? In the 70’s, when chemical conservatives, additives, and other substances began to be added to all kinds of foods. Sugar as well.
I’m honestly surprised to see such unscientific information to be spread here (not the video itself, the cause of autism).
Thanks for your note of sanity, AK-47. My partner, who nearly died of measles as a child, is so worried because her daughter won’t have her 2 1/2 year old daughter given the MMR vaccine, because of the kind of misinformation in that blog. Meanwhile in Britain and Europe, measles (and resultant deaths) increases every year.
Mark, many parents have the same concerns as that mother. I don’t know what I would do today, with the on-going degradation of vaccines with aluminum as the preservative, and the pile-on of new vaccines. BTW, vaccine manufacturing is a lucrative business.
Here’s the CDC schedule. It’s not your parents’ version of immunizations:
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/child-adolescent.html#f7
Be sure to count them all, including the not-very-effective “flu vaccine” they want kids to have annually. Do the kids get a free de-tox for the accumulation of aluminum during their childhood?
That seems too many. I wasn’t aware of the aluminium; we all ingest some through eating plants, but too much can’t be good.
I found a comparative schedule:
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/cdc-adds-3-more-vax-to-childhood-immunization-schedule/
Note that in 1986 vaccine manufacturers and doctors were protected from any and all liability for vaccines. It’s no wonder many parents are concerned. First, they build a bullet-proof wall against liability and then they begin the big push for ever-increasing immunizations.
Replying to Dymphna; where should one draw the line? Smallpox was eradicated by inoculation; polio almost was until imams in Pakistan and Nigeria preached that it was a western conspiracy to sterilise muslims.
There’s the additional complication that some on the political Right see everything governments do as a conspiracy, as if there were no people working in public health who actually have the best interests of the public in mind.
“The boy’s mother is being closely watched in a Roman hospital amid fears she may self-harm or worse due to shock at her loss.” oh what a shock to witness the consequences of mutilating your own flesh and blood!