The pension fund for Massachusetts government employees has dropped to such a low level that the legislature is proposing higher taxes for the state’s citizens. Government pensions may be as high as $350,000 per year, and the system is risking insolvency.
In other news, the BP energy company just discovered more than a billion barrels in oil reserves under the Gulf of Mexico.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, KS, MB, Reader from Chicago, 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.
Breaking: Deep State Panics Over NY Times Confirming Active FBI Coup Against Trump
Documents confirm McCabe, Rosenstein, others lied to president and Congress about their secret operations
Alex Jones breaks down how the New York Times confirmed that the Deep State-led FBI launched an additional “investigation” i.e. coup against President Trump after he fired embattled former FBI Director James Comey, despite the fact there is still no evidence the president had connections with Russian officials.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
California’s Gavin Newsom Proposes Tax on Drinking Water in First Budget
California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed his first budget for the state on Friday, and it includes a tax on drinking water.
The budget, titled “California for All,” declares drinking water a “fundamental right,” and adds: “The Budget includes short-term measures to bring immediate relief to communities without safe drinking water and also proposes an ongoing sustainable funding source to address this problem into the future.”
That source is a new fund, the “Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund”:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Defiance: Boulder’s Gun Nannies Told ‘We Will Not Comply’
A potentially significant Second Amendment battle is forming in Boulder, Colorado, where officials recently adopted a ban on a number of ordinary weapons.
The ban effectively has made Jon Caldara, the president of the Denver-based, free-market think tank Independence Institute, a criminal, and he has declared he won’t comply.
Meanwhile, the Mountain States Legal Foundation is suing the city for the ordinance, which requires owners to “certify” their “assault weapons,” as defined by the city. Otherwise, the weapons must be removed from the city or be destroyed.
Violators face fines, confiscation and jail time.
The foundation contends in a court brief that the city cannot “undermine the exercise of fundamental and unalienable rights and ignore the U.S. Constitution and controlling Supreme Court precedent.”
Can the city, it asks, “ignore its state constitution and state law by infringing upon and criminalizing an individual’s unalienable and natural right to self-defense, and the right to keep and bear arms?”
The Supreme Court has dismissed ordinances in Washington, D.C., and Chicago similar to Boulder’s, recognizing an individual right to bear arms.
Boulder’s ordinance 8245 “banned the sale and possession of guns in the city defined as assault weapons in addition to bump stock devices and large magazines, and banned the sale and possession of weapons to anyone under age 21.”
City officials, such as councilman Aaron Brockett, have bluntly stated their aim: “My hope is that we will see more bans … so these weapons will no longer be available.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat Announces Plan to Shut Down Terrorism Committee, Create Panel to Investigate Trump
Left cares more about taking down president than keeping nation safe from terrorism
Conservatives often joke about “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” the almost miraculous ability for the president to make leftists become so obsessed with him that they trip over themselves in the process. But sometimes, that phenomenon is no laughing matter.
It looks like the liberal mania with making everything into an anti-Trump crusade has reached a new level of ridiculousness. This week, a Democratic congressman confirmed his plan to shut down an important anti-terrorism subcommittee, and instead focus those resources on undermining the president.
“House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel is planning to dissolve the panel’s terrorism subcommittee and instead create a panel to focus on investigating matters related to President Trump,” Fox News reported.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doctor Drops Bombshell About 5G Technology Dangers at Congressional Hearing
‘Wireless radiation has biological effects. Period,’ she says
Internal medicine physician & professor Dr. Sharon Goldberg delivered testimony before Congress about 5G technology and the inherent dangers surrounding it, specifically the biological effects of the electromagnetic radiation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hypocrisy Without Bounds: US Army Major Slams the Tragedy of “Liberal” Foreign Policy
The president says he will bring the troops home from Syria and Afghanistan. Now, because of their pathological hatred of Trump, mainstream Democrats are hysterical in their opposition.
If anyone else were president, the “liberals” would be celebrating. After all, pulling American soldiers out of a couple of failing, endless wars seems like a “win” for progressives. Heck, if Obama did it there might be a ticker-tape parade down Broadway. And there should be. The intervention in Syria is increasingly aimless, dangerous and lacks an end state. Afghanistan is an unwinnable war — America’s longest — and about to end in outright militarydefeat. Getting out now and salvaging so much national blood and treasure ought to be a progressive dream. There’s only one problem: Donald Trump. Specifically, that it was Trump who gave the order to begin the troop withdrawals.
Lost in the haze of their pathological hatred of President Trump, the majority of mainstream liberal pundits and politicians can’t, for the life of them, see the good sense in extracting the troops from a couple Mideast quagmires. That or they can see the positives, but, in their obsessive compulsion to smear the president, choose politics over country. It’s probably a bit of both. That’s how tribally partisan American political discourse has become.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Joe Biden Expected to Announce 2020 Presidential Run
Joe Biden has told some top Democrats that he’s running for president, Axios reported Saturday.
The former vice president even set Tuesday as a likely announcement date, the paper said.
Even Biden’s youngest brother, Frank, told the Palm Beach Post that he expects a run.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Massachusetts Pension Tension: Some Payouts Hit $350,000
Tens of thousands of state pensions of up to $350,000 a year are straining the retirement system, forcing the Legislature to ask taxpayers for more cash to keep the system afloat.
A staggering 1,000-plus retirees earned $100,000 or more in pension pay last year — with former troopers, judges, provosts and school superintendents leading the way — with the total pension-fund liability at a budget-busting $5.21 billion.
It’s a trend one watchdog said is heading into the danger zone.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
President Trump Has Totally Exposed Democrats as the Frauds They Are
Dems downplayed Obama shutdown as ‘fun-employment’
Owen Shroyer is at the Riverside bridge in Austin, Texas, to raise awareness and demonstrate with fellow patriots against Democrat hypocrisy over the partial government shutdown.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump: “I Haven’t Left the White House Since the Shutdown Began”
Instead of departing for Mar-a-Lago for the holidays, Trump opted to spend the last weeks of December in the White House waiting for Democrats to come to the table and cut a table (a period that was distinguished by a stream of furious presidential tweets). During his interview with Pirro, Trump affirmed what anybody who has been paying attention to his twitter feed likely suspected: He has not left the White House since the shutdown began.
“I’ve been here virtually every night,” Trump said.
He then insisted that he has “the absolute right” to call a national emergency if the Democrats don’t “return from their vacation and act” (a reference to a trip to Puerto Rico taken by 30 Democrats where they’re meeting with lobbyists and seeing an exclusive production of “Hamilton”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Has the Democrats Cornered
No sooner had the Democrats taken back the majority in the House of Representatives than they proved their harshest critics correct — the party no longer concerns itself with the interests of the American people. And by refusing to provide a dime for a physical barrier on our border, they did it in the starkest terms possible.
Led by far-left Nancy Pelosi, who held off a challenge to her leadership from the even farther left, the House Democrats promptly put themselves in the position of being seen taking the side of foreigners entering the country illegally over the security and economic prosperity of American citizens. They reduced themselves to the absurd position that “walls don’t work.”
I’m not one who necessarily believes that President Trump is a master negotiator or is playing 3D chess. But whether by design or because of pressure from his restive base, he now has the winning hand to build his wall and go on to re-election in 2020.
What’s important now is that Trump plays his winning hand and resists the growing calls from the opposition media and cheap-labor Republicans to compromise with Nancy and Chuck. Doing so would just throw them a lifeline. Instead, Trump should use the power granted presidents by Congress, declare a national emergency, and begin construction of the wall.
Sure, the Democrats and open-border zealots will run to the thoroughly discredited 9th Circuit and get an activist Obama judge to stand the law on its head and issue a bogus restraining order. But the president will be on solid legal footing, and that ruling will be overturned by the Supreme Court on the expedited basis that an emergency declaration demands.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why 2020 Will Fracture the Democratic Party
Far-left movement stoked by Dems coming for their power
With all the competing factions within, the splintering of the Democratic party is an inevitability. It won’t happen immediately, but the next presidential election all but guarantees a radical change in the way our 2 party system functions.
[Comment: OAC has the eyes of a rabid communit zealot.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Imam Could Run for Federal Liberals in Montreal Byelection
A Quebec imam who touched hearts across the country and around the world with his homily on the 2017 massacre in a Quebec City mosque is considering running in an upcoming byelection for the Liberal Party of Canada.
| — Hat tip: MB | [Return to headlines] |
Ancient Humans Had Sex With More Than Just Neanderthals, Scientists Find
We rarely portray Neanderthals, our close relatives, as telegenic. Museum exhibits give them wild tangles of hair, and Hollywood reduces them to grunting unsophisticates. Their skulls suggest broad faces, tiny chins and jutting brows.
But to mock Neanderthals is to mock ourselves: Homo sapiens had lots of sex with Homo neanderthalensis.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Brexit MPs Plot Coup to Stop UK Making Clean Break From EU
Remain-supporting backbench MPs are conspiring to upend Parliamentary protocol and seize control of Brexit from the Government in attempts to stop a WTO exit or even to prevent the UK from leaving the EU altogether, according to The Sunday Times.
A group of cross-party backbench, or non-Governmental, MPs are said to be tabling an amendment to change House of Commons rules so that backbenchers’ motions could precedence over Government business, according to sources speaking to the newspaper of record.
Downing Street is said to be concerned that that could result in laws being passed to stop the UK leaving the EU without a deal, a suspension of Article 50 (the process for leaving the EU), or even stop Brexit entirely.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doctors Fight to Save Polish Mayor Stabbed in Heart on Stage
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A convicted criminal with a knife rushed on to the stage during the finale of a charity event Sunday night and stabbed a Polish mayor in the heart and abdomen before shouting that he did it for political revenge, in an attack that left doctors fighting to save the politician’s life.
Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz grabbed his belly and collapsed in front of the audience at the “Lights to Heaven” fundraiser organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, the country’s most important charity.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Doubts Raised About Brain Stimulation to Reduce Food Cravings
In the never-ending search for ways to help people eat healthy, scientists have been looking into brain stimulation, specifically, sending a weak electrical current to the brain through two scalp electrodes—a technique called transcranial direct current stimulation. It has previously shown promise in limiting both food cravings and consumption in people, but in a study published yesterday (January 9) in Royal Society Open Science, researchers didn’t find any effects of tDCS on food-related behavior, indicating that the technique’s use needs another look.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Kept Tribute for Killed Rapper — Look What Happens…
Moroccan/Dutch rapper Feis was killed in a shooting in Rotterdam New Year’s Eve. It happened presumably when he was trying to help other people that were in a fight.
After his dead there was a tribute where people left flowers near a tree, as is common use in the Netherlands.
You won’t believe what happened then…
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Experts Appointed to the High-Level Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation
Following an open selection process, the Commission has appointed 39 experts to a new High Level Group (HLEG) on fake news and online disinformation. It comprises representatives of the civil society, social media platforms, news media organisations, journalists and academia. Professor dr. Madeleine de Cock Buning is nominated to chair the Group.
[Here you find a list of the persons that the European Union finds suitable to protect us against fake news. Some are high level fake news peddlers themselves.]
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
France: Macron on the Brink: EU Elections a ‘Referendum’ on ‘Incompetent’ Macron, Says Le Pen
Ms Le Pen — defeated by Mr Macron in last year’s Presidential election — urged the tens of thousands of protesters who have staged weekly protests against him since November to punish Mr Macron in the Spring. Le Pen told an election rally for her National Rally (“Rassemblement National”) party, which was previously known as the National Front: “In the context of the healthy popular revolt of the yellow vests, this election offers a chance to end this crisis born of the intransigence and contempt of an incompetent president whose behaviour is disturbing.” Born from a grassroots protest against high fuel prices, the yellow vests have become a broad and sometimes violent movement demanding more social justice for low-skilled workers left behind by globalisation, deregulation and EU integration.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Macron Party Demands Yellow Vest Facebook Page be Shut Down Over ‘Hate’ Messages
A local branch of French President Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche! (LREM) has demanded that a Facebook page belonging to the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) be removed due to “hate messages.”
The LREM branch in the department of Sarthe, the 72nd department in France, has demanded that Facebook remove the group “Colère 72” (Anger 72) over “hateful” messages directed toward LREM MP Marlène Schiappa, France Bleu reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Schools Close in Many Areas Due to Extreme Cold, Snow
State highway affected by landslide in Calabria
(ANSA) — Rome, January 11 — Snow and icy temperatures have led to school closings in many parts of Italy and some road accidents. Schools in about 15 towns in the Molise region have been ordered closed and temperatures below -2 have led to icy road conditions in Campobasso. Several schools also remain shut in northern Puglia, in the Foggia area. A landslide in Calabria led to the closing of the state highway 107 “Silana Crotonese” between Paola and San Sili on Thursday evening.
Inspections were underway to see whether it could be reopened on Friday morning. In Sardinia, temperatures have dropped as low as -10 degrees Celsius.
Schools will reopen Saturday as the cold snap eases. Temperatures will rise in Abruzzo, Molise, Puglia, Calabria and Sicily, forecasters said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 4 Convicted of Robbing People in Florence
3 Algerians, 1 Moroccan get 5-7 1/2 yrs
(ANSA) — Florence, January 11 — Four men were found guilty Friday of attacking and robbing passerby at night in Florence early last year.
The three Algerians and a Moroccan got jail terms ranging from five years to seven and a half years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Macron’s Policy Absurdities ‘Fund’ Yellow Vests — Di Maio
Deputy premier hits back at suggestions of Italian involvement
(ANSA) — Rome, January 11 — Deputy Premier and Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio on Friday hit back at a suggestion by a French official that Italy could be financing the Yellow Vest protest movement. The French Minister of State for Gender Equality Marlène Schiappa on Thursday said that she intends to look into whether “foreign powers” are involved in online fundraising to help violent protestors within the yellow vest movement, Italy first and foremost Di Maio, who has said his 5-Star Movement (M5S) was ready to support the Yellow Vests and wanted to meet representatives, said French President Emmanuel Macron was fuelling the protests with his policies. “The appointment in the coming days with some of the Yellow Vests to find out their intentions at the European level remains,” Di Maio said after one of the protestors said he no longer wanted to meet the M5S chief.
“I understand what one of the figures did yesterday because if a minister from Macron’s government starts talking about plots, saying other nations are financing the Yellow Vests, it is necessary for the movement to move away.
“I’d like to explain to that minister that the Macron government is financing the Yellow Vests politically with the absurdities that it is doing”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Police Investigating Anti-Semitic Flyers
Slamming Israel and soccer clubs Lazio, Napoli
(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — Police in Rome are investigating anti-Semitic pamphlets distributed in the northern part of the capital.
“Lazio Napoli Israel, same colors, same flags”, reads the flyer, referring to the two A league soccer clubs.
One year ago, a sticker with Anna Frank wearing the jersey of Serie A club AS Roma was found in the capital.
Investigators believe the anti-Semitic leaflets could be in “response” to the stickers.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan Diocese Sets Up Politics Course
To show citizens how to spot fake news
(ANSA) — Milan, Janaury 11 — The diocese of Milan has set up a course in politics.
“Our aim is to fight fake news, to train aware citizens,” organiser said.
The seven-day course will involve 50 university students and young professionals.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Cannabis Bill ‘Will Never Pass’ — Salvini
Not in govt contract
(ANSA) — Milan, January 11 — A bill approving the recreational use of cannabis filed by government partner the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) “will never pass”, the head of the other partner, the anti-migrant Euroskeptic League, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, said Friday.
“It will never pass and it’s not in the government contract,” said Salvini.
Two M5S Senators, Matteo Mantero e Lello Ciampolillo, filed private member’s bills on the recreational use of the drug on Wednesday.
The proposal has raised a hail of protest from the League and the centre-right opposition.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘I Will Kill You and Eat Your Corpses’: Deported Radical Imam Told Prison Guards
Tunisian radical imam Mahmoud Jebali, who is set for deportation after coming to Italy as an illegal immigrant, threatened to kill prison officers.
The 31-year-old imam came to Italy illegally through the port in Lampedusa and was well-known to police having committed several violent crimes in the past. Italian authorities initially jailed him on a conviction for robbery but were finally able to expel him to Tunisia this week, Il Giornale reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nigel Farage: 500 MPs Agreed — We Must Leave the EU on March 29th
Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage has hit back at MPs who are attempting to stop the UK leaving the EU on March 29th without a deal, saying that nearly 500 MPs had already agreed to do just that in event of a no-deal.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Political Nightmares Multiply for Europe Ahead of Davos
Europe’s dreams of integration are slipping away as the people wake up from the nightmare erected for them…
As we approach Act IX of the Yellow Vest protests in France and the threats of creating bank runs we get the news that both Presidents Trump and Macron will not be attending the convocation of globalists known as the World Economic Forum at Davos.
Trump’s not attending because it’s clear he’s no longer a member of The Davos Crowd and Macron isn’t because any public appearance by him will double the number of people donning high visibility safety gear and taking to the streets.
It almost feels like we’ve reached Peak Davos, with these announcements. But, clearly neither of these men are invited because in the minds of The Davos Crowd they no longer figure in their long-term plans.
Macron not attending is also a sign his government will be sacrificed on the altar of the Yellow Vests in the near future.
The Yellow Vest protests will have to be dealt with in a substantive manner that goes far beyond a few temporary injunctions against higher taxes. They are now vandalizing another symbol of middle class oppression in France, speed cameras.
All of the governments of Europe are broke. And the speed camera is simply another in a long line of instances of them trying to squeeze blood from the now impoverished and shrinking middle class.
The symbology of them smashing speed cameras and demanding their money from the banks cannot be clearer. When you take everything from someone, when he has nothing left to lose, he becomes free.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Protesters Attempted to Storm City Hall as Yellow Vest Protests Entered 9th Week in France
More than 84,000 people took part in the protests in Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon, Strasbourg, and other French cities on Saturday.
Clashes eventually erupted at the iconic Champs Ulysses and Arc de Triomphe, with police using tear gas and water cannons to calm the angry crowds, RT reports. In Paris alone, 156 people were arrested during the standoff, with most of them put in custody, the law enforcers said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Record Numbers of Tourists Are Arriving in Italy, Study Shows
Tourism in Italy is booming, as the latest figures show another record year for the country with more than 420 million visitors in 2017.
The 4.4 percent increase in tourist numbers since the last record was set in 2016 is well above the European average, according to new figures from Istat.
Most of Italy’s tourists (14.1 percent) come from Germany, the figures show, followed by France, the UK and US, which had about three percent each.
[Comment: Article dated Nov 28, 2018.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism in France: Good News for the North, But Bad for the South
A new report about tourism in France reveals that it’s been a good year for the north but a bad one for the south.
The INSEE report on French tourism released this week looks at the number of overnight stays in hotels and other tourist accommodation over the summer in France.
Throughout the country overall, numbers have risen by 1.3 percent from 2017 to total 311 million overnight stays.
They had risen sharply the year before, but this was due to a ‘catching-up’ phase after tourists turned away from France en masse after the 2015 terrorist attacks.
[Comment: Article dated Nov 29, 2018.]
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Brexit Boom: Wages Up, Skilled Jobs Expanding, Says Top Recruiter
Post-referendum Britain is a land of opportunity, according to James Reed, one the country’s top business recruiters.
The entrepreneur acts as Chairman and Chief Executive of the REED Group of companies, including Reed Specialist Recruitment, Reed in Partnership, which operates a number of welfare-to-work programmes, and Reed Online, which operates the country’s biggest employment agency website.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Khan’s London: Police Seek Two Men After Sexual Assault on Man in 20s
Police in Sadiq Khan’s London are seeking two males after a young man was sexually assaulted in a public street.
The Metropolitan Police has released CCTV images of two men they would “like to speak to as part of an investigation into a sexual assault” on Flitcroft Street in Camden, central London, and are appealing for witnesses to help identify them, according to an official statement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt University Expels Female Student for Hugging Male Friend
Egypt’s Al-Azhar university on Sunday said it had expelled a female student after she appeared in a video hugging a male colleague, accusing her of undermining the school’s reputation.
The video, which went viral earlier this month, showed a young man carrying a bouquet of flowers kneeling before a young woman and then hugging her in what appeared to be a marriage proposal.
…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Americans OK With Leaving Syria and Afghanistan
The long life of the Afghan war makes it hard to remember how popular it was when it began. As the fighting began, 80 percent of America supported it. Nobody in Congress except Rep. Barbara Lee (D—Calif.) was prescient enough to vote against the Authorization for Use of Military Force and its open-ended-enough-to-attack-a-dozen-more-countries wording. Not until 2014 did a majority of Americans begin to regret that the war ever started.
Now some polls suggest it’s nearly as unpopular as the wildly unpopular ill-fated war in Iraq.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
India to Outpace US as World’s 2nd Most Powerful Economy — Report
By 2030, seven of the world’s top 10 economies will be current emerging markets, according to the latest report by London-based multinational banking and financial service company Standard Chartered.
The long-term projection shows that India is likely to become larger than the US, while neighboring China will reportedly steal the crown of world’s most powerful economy (currently held by the US) as soon as 2020. At the same time, Indonesia may break into the top five economies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Species of Cricket Frog Discovered by Pune-Based Zoologists
A team of zoologists from the Department of Zoology, Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has discovered a new species of cricket frog from the northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra.
This discovery was acknowledged and published on Friday in the international journal ‘Zootaxa’, a peer-reviewed scientific mega journal for animal taxonomists published in Auckland.
The new species has been named “Fejervarya marathi”, which is derived from the indigenous language. The species has been found to be endemic in its distribution in Maharashtra.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
BP Just Discovered a Billion Barrels of Oil in the Gulf of Mexico
BP’s investment in next-generation technology just paid off to the tune of a billion barrels of oil.
The British energy company has discovered 1 billion barrels of crude at an existing oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico. BP also announced two new offshore oil discoveries and a major new investment in a nearby field.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pompeo Says Venezuela’s Maduro Government is ‘Illegitimate’
ABU DHABI (Reuters) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described Venezuela’s government under President Nicolas Maduro as illegitimate on Saturday and said the United States would work with like-minded countries in Latin America to restore democracy there.
“The Maduro regime is illegitimate and the United States will work diligently to restore a real democracy to that country,” Pompeo told reporters in Abu Dhabi, where he is on a tour of Middle East countries.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Sends Representative to Attend ‘Illegitimate’ Maduro Inauguration
Pope Francis sent a Vatican representative to attend the inauguration ceremony of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro this week, just one day after the nation’s bishops declared the presidency “illegitimate.”
While many countries — including the U.S. and most nations from Latin America and Europe — boycotted the inauguration of the Venezuelan dictator, the Vatican sent Polish Monsignor George Koovakod to attend the event. The act did not escape Maduro’s attention, and he thanked the prelate for his “courageous” presence at the event.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
5 Insanely Wasteful Taxpayer-Funded Projects Democrats Could Slash to Fund Border Wall
President Trump is asking for $5.7 billion to fund the construction of our border wall. In 2018, the feds spent a stunning $4.173 trillion. The border wall would amount to just 1/10th of 1 percent of current annual federal spending. The Democrat Party is scared to death that if Trump is able to fulfill his promise and build the wall, there is no way they’ll be able to beat him in 2020. There’s no chance the free-spending Democrats, who typically can’t spend our money fast enough, are suddenly concerned about fiscal responsibility.
The 2018 Prime Cuts report, by the watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste, reveals some areas where taxpayer dollars are being wasted, that could instead, be used for the construction of a wall on our southern border. According to the watchdog group, the Prime Cuts 2018 version contains 636 recommendations that would save taxpayers $429.8 billion in the first year and $3.1 trillion over five years.
Grabien News compiled a list of a number of individual programs the watchdog group recommends cutting, that in and of themselves, exceed the $5.7 billion President Trump is asking the Democrat Party to give him to build the wall on our southern border.
Here are the top five programs that could each pay for the construction of the wall if they were defunded by our government: The United Nations. As the United Nation’s largest contributor, the U.S. in 2016 donated $10 billion to the U.N. As CAGW notes, reducing these contributions just 25 percent would create a savings of $12.5 billion over 10 years. Of the money Congress appropriates for the United Nations, $5 million taxpayer dollars are itemized for abortions in foreign countries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Barcelona Mayor Calls EU Migrant Policy ‘Suicide’
Colau says weakens EU. On Catalonia, cites ‘right to decide’
(ANSAmed) — BARCELONA, JANUARY 11 — Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, speaking from city hall, told a group of foreign journalists that the current EU migratory policy is “suicide”, and called the migrant crisis “a political crisis of the EU and of democracy”.
Colau, who has been mayor in Barcelona since 2015, said the situation “is weakening Europe”.
“Perhaps we should remember that the EU was founded after the Second World War, to not repeat the mistakes and horrors of that war, with fundamental respect for human rights,” she said.
“But now, the management of migrants is contradicting that.
What’s more, Europe is the one that receives fewer migrants in the world compared to other continents like Asia, and this isn’t said enough. Just as it is necessary to debunk the common view that considers migrants our competitors. In reality, they are an added value, and Riace is an example for all. What was done in that Calabrian town is a success story, and that’s exactly why your minister Salvini doesn’t like it,” she said.
Colau said resources must be invested to better manage migrant flows.
“It’s good to get it in your head that migrant flows won’t stop. When a woman with a baby decides to risk her life at sea, getting on a boat without any guarantee of arriving alive, it’s because she has no alternatives. They’ve accused us of being do-gooders because we’re in favor of reception, [Barcelona was the one to resolve the stall over the Open Arms last year, welcoming 60 migrants after Italy and Malta refused — Ed.] but we’re just pragmatic. If the EU wants to survive to the future, it has to establish responsibilities,” she said.
On the question of Catalonia, Colau said she’s not in favor of independence, but said the region “has the right to decide in a democratic manner, and it is legitimate to proceed with the choice of the referendum”.
“There needs to be a political solution, not through the courts. I’m convinced the right way to resolve the crisis is another referendum, because, let’s remember, the previous one wasn’t binding and the result cannot be considered democratic.
There needs to be a new consultation in which the two parties, Madrid and Barcelona, find an agreement,” she said.
She said one solution could be a confederation of states.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Brigitte Gabriel: Mr. President, You Don’t Need Congress to Build the Wall
If our present situation on the southern border isn’t a national emergency, nothing is.
Here are some cold hard facts that demand the wall be built by any means necessary, and no, the President does not need Congressional approval to do so.
Every year, more than 500,000 people are apprehended trying to cross into our nation illegally, and that’s just the half a million who are actually caught without a proper wall!
Contrary to what you may have heard from the lame-stream media, not all of those apprehended have been innocent women and children. Thousands of violent criminals with rap sheets ranging from murder to kidnapping to rape to drug trafficking are caught sneaking into our nation every year
Would you put a lock on your door if you knew an MS-13 gang member wanted to stay in your house? That’s why building a wall is only the bare minimum we should be doing to protect this nation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dem Rep. Claims Trump’s Goal is to Make America ‘Pure’ — Eliminate ‘Folks of Color Here’
It’s all part of Trump’s master plan
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal thinks President Trump is a raging egomaniacal racist hell bent of purging everyone who’s not white from the United States.
The India-born immigration activist from Washington appeared on MSNBC Thursday to offer her take on the government shutdown and immigration crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, and it’s clear she’s not optimistic the situation will improve any time soon.
That’s because it’s all part of Trump’s master plan, she said.
[Comment: she sounds like a rabid communist.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Five Lessons the U.S. Can Learn From Europe About Stopping Child Marriages
While the issue of child marriages has come to prominence in Europe since the 2015 migrant crisis, it has recently made headlines in the U.S. after the Associated Press uncovered more than 8,000 cases of the American immigration system being used to attempt to facilitate marriages between adults and children.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Asylum Seeker Attacks Pregnant Woman — Unborn Baby Dies
A 25-year old asylum seeker from Afghanistan stabbed a pregnant woman in the German city Bad Kreuznach so badly, her unborn baby died.
The incident took place in a hospital in Bad Kreuznach Friday night. The man and the woman, a 25-year old Polish, had a dispute. He stabbed her several times with a knife. The victim was life-threateningly injured, but could be saved during operation. Her unborn child didn’t survive.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
How the Democrats Lost Their Way on Immigration
In the past decade, liberals have avoided inconvenient truths about the issue.
| — Hat tip: KS | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: League Would Have Done Zero on Migrants Without Me — Toninelli
‘90% drop in migrant landings in 7 months’
(ANSA) — Rome, January 11 — Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli on Friday claimed credit for helping drive down migrant arrivals in Italy saying the anti-migrant League would have done “nothing” without his help.
He stressed that government choices had sharply reduced the entrance of migrants in Italy and that he had been fundamental in this.
“If I had not been there,” he said. “The League could not have done anything if I and (League leader, deputy prime minister and interior minister Matteo) Salvini had not worked together. I am in charge of the security of sailing from the time the vessels weigh anchor until they dock in the port and he is in charge after that, for the disembarking and public order.” Toninelli added that in 2018, “thanks to only 7 months of the ‘government of change’, there has been a 90% drop in migrant landings in Italy. What does this mean? How many fewer deaths?”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Regime’s Border Chief Slams Dem Refusal to “Do it All” Including the Wall #BuildTheWall
Obama administration border patrol leader Mark Morgan just said something that the Democrats certainly won’t like.
Morgan went against the Democrat Party’s effort to stop the construction of a wall at our border with Mexico.
He said he agrees with President Trump on building the wall and on doing everything we can to secure the border.
Morgan went as far as to say the southern border is a “national security and humanitarian crisis.”
He called the arguments being made against the border wall absurd. He said the language about border security from Trump was the exact same language used years before by Democrats.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pelosi Refuses to Meet With Families of Victims Killed by Illegal Aliens
Speaker of the House won’t acknowledge suffering caused by illegal immigration.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Psycho-Social’ Investigation Needed on Muslims in West
A Muslim in a Muslim-majority country is calling for a “psycho-social investigation” to find out why so many members of his faith want to live in the West, reports Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh, writing for the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, criticized Arab and African Muslim immigrants who choose to live in the West yet express hatred and contempt towards the West and regard it as infidel.
“These conflicting sentiments — of hatred (for the West), but (a desire) to risk one’s most precious possession, one’s life, in order to live among these hated societies and enjoy the comfort, security, stability and prosperity (they offer) — require a psycho-social investigation,” he wrote.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“AI will increasingly replace repetitive jobs, not just for blue-collar work but a lot of the white-collar work. A lot of things will become automated. We’ll have automated stores, automated restaurants and, altogether, in 15 years, that’s going to displace about 40 percent of jobs in the world.”
Forty percent of the world’s jobs, approaching half. As Lee warns in this segment, all jobs are at risk, high-end, attorneys, for example. But it’s the remaining low-skilled jobs that are most likely to disappear, professional driving, for example, taxis, trucks, delivery vehicles. 5 million Americans now do that for a living, and support their families on those wages. Self-driving cars could put them all out of work very soon. And not just them, store clerks, waiters, cooks, they’re in imminent danger too. Just about any repetitive job is at risk of going away.
Automation is accelerating. This is real. It’s going to have a nearly unimaginable effect on what Americans do for a living, and on American society itself.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Proof There’s a Massive Crisis on the Border & Why Trump Must Act
Spread this link to show liberals what’s really going on at the southern border
Following Jim Acosta’s viral video showing how safe the wall is in McAllen Texas, Infowars produced this video showing what is really going on at the border.
The truth always wins.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
#Awakening2019: Is Donald Trump Saving Western Culture?
My prediction for 2019.
This is the year of the #Awakening. A redo of 1968, only now we are calling for care of our own citizens first. A re-balancing of Rabbi Hillel. “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?” Globalism is failing. The EU is failing. The UN is failing. The Paris Accords are falling apart and the latest UN pronouncement on immigration, Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, is under attack.
| — Hat tip: MB | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Tells Moms to ‘Go Ahead and Breastfeed Your Kids’ In Church
Pope Francis told young mothers gathered Sunday for the baptism of their infants not to be afraid to breastfeed their children during the ceremony because “the Lord wants it.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Rise of Financial Blacklisting
That dystopian future, though, may be much closer than you think. I only properly appreciated this recently when the podcast I’ve been doing for the last few years was mysteriously dropped by my regular employer, forcing me to seek funding sources from elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: MB | [Return to headlines] |
“The pension fund for Massachusetts government employees has dropped to such a low level that the legislature is proposing higher taxes for the state’s citizens.”
Yes, because cutting the ridiculously high pensions is not a solution to these lousy politicians.
The obvious solution is never an option with these dimwits.
Friend and close Tusk associate .Mayor of Gdansk was knife down yesterday…
I just received info that most likely hi is dead..
Adamowicz ,Tusk were involved in “Amber Gold” scheme…and other criminal activates ..
They both belong to so call “Gdansk Mafia”..
There is state investigation regarding “Amber Gold”..Tusk was call 3 time by Prosecutor from Bruxell to give testimony..
Adamowicz was seen by Tusk as a “week link” and afraid that hi may testified against him and disclose Tusk personal involvement… According to “vox populi” in Poland Tusk order killer to silence the guy…
I’m writing this to give you account what type of people run EU…
Tusk is German ..His father was in Wehrmacht..and was killing Poles..
Tusk in Poland is consider to by German agent known as “Oscar” according to Stasi documents..Hi was hired and pay by them..
some links :https://wpolityce.pl/
ps.Hi died …https://wpolityce.pl/polityka/429375-pawel-adamowicz-nie-zyje-lekarze-nie-zdolali-go-uratowac
ps.
The terrible racist ladies of Australia are worse than the Tasmanian devils!
But Muslims feel uncomfortable.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/shocking-video-emerges-after-two-women-and-child-racially-abused-on-melbourne-train-20190113-p50r56.html
Re: “Pope tells Moms to go ahead and breastfeed your Kids in Church”.
How is this even news? Are we sniggering teenage boys excited by the sight of a boobie? Jesus! (sorry).
The MSM wants the pope to look good and keep up his leftist image. Leftist women like stories like this. Anything to take the public attention from the diddling in the church.