President Trump struck a deal with Congress to end the government shutdown. Both houses passed a bill that will fund government operations temporarily, for thirty days. It contains no provision for funds for a wall on the southern border.
In other news, a migrant-smuggling ship was intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard in the Atlantic thirty miles off the coast of Florida.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, Dora, Insubria, JD, MB, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Bernie Sanders ‘To Run Again for President in 2020’ To Challenge Trump for White House
SENATOR Bernie Sanders is gearing up to announce his second Presidential campaign to take on Donald Trump in 2020, according to reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Chicago Aldermen Dismayed Not by Corruption, But by One of Their Own Cooperating With the Feds
Members of Chicago’s City Council are absolutely aghast to discover a snitch among their own—an alderman who was secretly wearing a wire to help the feds investigate corruption. And they appear to be angrier about the recordings than the actual corruption.
Earlier in the month, Chicago Alderman Ed Burke was charged with trying to extort legal work and campaign donations from a Burger King franchise operator. Yesterday, the Chicago Sun Times broke the news that another alderman, Danny Solis, had been secretly recording his conversations with Burke in order to assist federal law enforcement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Flashback: When Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) Asked Judge for Compassion for ISIS Recruits
Recently, newly elected Congressional Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was featured in a Lid Report about the Antisemitism that has taken over the Democratic Party. What we now learn is that along with her support of the terrorists who want Israel destroyed, she seems to have an affinity for terrorists who want America, and the entire Western way of life destroyed.
In November 2016, Ms. Omar, then a state legislator, wrote one of thirteen letters to Judge Michael Davis, seeking “compassion” and a “restorative approach to justice” in the case of nine Minnesota men charged with planning to join the terrorist group ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Get Ready: California-Style Elections Are Coming to Your State
If you thought the 2018 elections in California were a mess, you were right. Dangerous new election laws and lax practices contributed to that mess, and now they want the rest of the nation to suffer the way Californians do.
First, the mess. Election Integrity Project, California (EIPCa), a group of concerned citizens in California, has been documenting problems in the state’s election system for years. We have done the hard, messy work on the ground to catalog the problems.
California election officials and legislators have turned our elections into a free-for-all, with few safeguards, all in the name of “voter access.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
God and Guns: Virginia Senate Passes Bill to Allow Firearms in Churches
A bill that would allow Virginians to go to church armed with more than just the Word of God passed in the Virginia State Senate Friday, in a 21 to 19 vote. Every Republican senator voted to repeal a Virginia law that makes carrying a weapon into a “place of worship” a misdemeanor.
[…]according to a statement from Gov. Ralph Northam’s spokesperson, the governor opposes the legislation. In recent weeks, Northam has proposed a slew of gun control proposals, from an “assault weapon” ban to extreme risk protection orders to banning firearms that hold magazines that can hold ten or more rounds.
Despite Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam pushing a gun control agenda, Virginia Republicans in the Senate and the House of Delegates have held their ground, not allowing Democratic gun control bills to pass.
[NOTE: The guv will probably veto this]
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Journos Meltdown After Being Told ‘Learn to Code’ In Wake of Mass Layoffs at HuffPo, BuzzFeed
After news came out about mass layoffs at HuffPost, Buzzfeed and Gannett — in the midst of the media’s relentless smear-job against the Covington Catholic students — right-wing Twitter had a field day.
Tons of leftist journalists announced they were laid off on Twitter and the top meme was telling them to “learn to code” — which is the same advice the media gave middle Americans whose jobs are being taken in traditional industries.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Minimum Wage Hikes in New York City Cause Restaurants to Eliminate Jobs, Cut Hours, Raise Prices
New York is known for its incredible food scene, but legislators in the Big Apple may have bitten off more than they can chew with the newest minimum wage hike.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New York Law is an Open Invitation to Home Invaders
by Sean Strockyj
There is a reason homeowners can rarely afford to dispense mercy on an overnight invader: Criminal intruders tend to be the dangerous type. What homeowners don’t expect are law enforcers and prosecutors going after them for defending themselves and their loved ones.
Queens resident Joel Christopher Paul faced a home-intruder threat in the early hours of July 30, 2017. The 27-year-old was home in Springfield Gardens with his mother, brother and sister when someone attempted to break in. The intruder was Shamel Shauvo, 26, who had traveled north from Maryland after being named a suspect in a shooting there 10 days earlier.
Expecting a pizza delivery, Paul’s brother, Michael, 16, went to the door and discovered Shauvo trying to break in. Michael forced Shauvo to the surrounding area, and his mother called for help. Joel, adrenaline likely surging through his veins, answered the call — and brought a bat and knife to the confrontation.
By the time it was all over, Shauvo received the ultimate lesson in picking the wrong house. He died at Jamaica Hospital after being clubbed and stabbed. The confrontation had all the indications of a break-in gone wrong for the wanted man, and as one high-ranking police source told The Post, the response was justifiable.
Both brothers avoided arrest and remained home after the incident. But months later, Queens DA Richard Brown submitted the case to a grand jury, bringing ruin upon Joel, who has been charged with manslaughter.
A ham sandwich, as the saying goes, can be indicted in grand-jury proceedings completely overseen by prosecutors. But prosecutors shouldn’t have targeted Joel. The stress, expense and uncertainty of facing a first-degree manslaughter charge are devastating and can lead to an unjustified plea that could result in Joel going to prison.
Part of the trouble lies with New York’s “retreat doctrine.” A theory fit for law school classrooms, the doctrine holds Joel had a duty to run and hide if it was safe to do so. It’s an obligation Joel, like the vast majority of New Yorkers, had probably never heard of.
Yet it’s likely that the Queens DA will pursue precisely this avenue at trial, since the indictment states that Joel, “with intent to cause serious physical injury to Shamel Shavuo,” caused his death.
While most jurisdictions would have left Joel alone, the Queens DA seems to want to resurrect the city’s bad old days, when prosecutors developed a reputation of interpreting laws in ways that protected criminals more than they protected victims.
There is also an abuse of prosecutorial discretion here. The DA should have recognized that Joel was forced to make split-second decisions involving defending his vulnerable family members. Even if Shauvo was initially repelled, Joel had no time for a thoughtful inquiry into what Shauvo would do next unless he saw Shavuo’s backside running down the block.
[…]
For a lesson in the threat posed by home invaders, the Queens DA might also recall the notorious 2007 Cheshire, Conn., home-invasion that ended with the murder and sexual assaults of a mother and her two daughters, one of them just 11 years old…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Nicholas Sandmann’s Family Hires ‘Attorney for the Damned’ Specializing in Libel, Slander
The family of 16-year-old Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann, having already contracted Kentucky’s largest public relations firm to help repair his image after a viral incident outside the Lincoln Memorial, on Thursday hired a Georgia attorney known for aggressive libel and slander suits against media organizations.
L. Lin Wood, nicknamed “attorney for the damned” by former CBS anchor Dan Rather, visited the Sandmann family earlier in the day, according to a news release from Sandmann family attorney Todd McMurtry.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Privacy at Risk: Security Expert Warns “Smart Device” Users to Beware
Smart Homes — with features powered by Internet-connected devices — are all the rage in some circles and the trend is growing. But is the convenience of being able to control everything from lights to sprinklers, from thermostats to door locks, from refrigerators to security cameras worth the accompanying risks? Warnings from an expert at IBM Security indicate that the answer is “No.”
That expert, Charles Henderson, was quoted in two articles for the New York Times earlier this week. Henderson is the global head of X-Force Red, a professional hacking team at IBM Security. He told the Times that convenience is the major selling point of turning a home into a Smart Home powered by Internet of Things (IoT) devices. “Consumers don’t just want this convenience, they expect it — they demand it.” The result is that too often, common sense and security — especially where privacy is concerned — take a back seat to that convenience. Many people seem never to consider the risks involved.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Roger Stone Slams Mueller Indictment, Says He’s Prepared for the Fight of His Life
Former Trump adviser Roger Stone said in a Fox News interview Friday that the indictment brought against him as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is “thin” and is really “about silencing” him. But, Stone said, he was prepared for the fight of his life.
“There’s a war on alternative media,” he said. “There’s a war where they’re trying to criminalize political expression. There’s a war where they’re trying to criminalize free speech.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Snopes, Fact-Checker for Facebook and Google, Botches Nathan Phillips Fact Check
Snopes, a left-leaning fact-checking website given preferential treatment by both Facebook and Google, flubbed its fact-check of American Indian activist Nathan Phillips’ false claim of being a Vietnam veteran.
Phillips shot to national attention after a viral confrontation between him and a group of high school boys from Covington Catholic high school. Phillips, with the help of credulous national media outlets, said the boys mobbed and racially harassed him as he tried to leave the Indigenous People’s March. Video evidence debunked Phillips’s account.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Trump, Democrats Reach Temporary Deal to End Shutdown
Both chambers of Congress passed the short-term spending bill to re-open the government, temporarily ending the 35-day partial government shutdown on Friday, sending the measure to President Trump’s desk for him to sign into law.
Trump and congressional Democrats arrived at an agreement Friday to support a short-term spending bill to re-open the government, temporarily ending the partial government shutdown that has dragged on for 35 days, in a move to separate the controversial issue of border security from funding of the government.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Calais Chief: Northern France ‘Ready’ For ‘No Deal’ Brexit
The head of France’s most strategic port for UK shipping has said that his region is ready for a WTO Brexit.
President of the Calais region Xavier Bertrand told Sky News on Friday, “Calais, Boulogne, Dunkirk, will be ready at the end of March. And you? Are you ready?”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Doomsday Hysteria in Davos — UN Chief Says ‘We Are Losing the Race’ On Climate Change
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that the world is “losing the race” on climate change as he demanded that governments make bolder commitments beyond the Paris accord.
“Climate change is the defining issue of our time”, he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
England Murder Rate Jumps 14 Percent as Violent Crime Continues Rapid Rise
Official crime figures have revealed a 14 percent jump in the number of homicides recorded in England and Wales, with knife offences hitting the highest level in eight years.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) crime data published Thursday recorded 739 murders over the past year, marking a rise of 90 killings from the 649 which took place in the previous 12 months.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU Civil War: Brussels Takes Legal Action Against Austria After Cutting Foreigner Benefits
AUSTRIA is the latest member state to face EU punishment after Brussels launched a legal procedure over the country’s new policy cutting child benefits for foreign workers.
The rule changes, introduced by Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz on January 1, link benefits for children who live elsewhere in the bloc to the cost of living in those countries. It means those who have children living in poorer member states will receive lower child benefits. Speaking last year as he floated the idea Mr Kurz said the new system would prevent abuse of its welfare system. He added: “It is an unfairness built into the system that, for two children who do not even live in Austria but in Romania, roughly €300 a month are transferred to Romania and that is almost the average income there.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France and Germany: “We Are Committed to the Emergence of a European Army”
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have signed a new Franco-German friendship treaty aimed at reinvigorating the European Union, which has been buffeted by the European debt crisis, mass migration and Brexit — as well as innumerable conflicting interests and priorities among its 28 member states.
France and Germany, the self-appointed guardians of European integration, have said that the new treaty is a response to the growing influence of populists in Austria, Britain, France, Italy, Hungary, Poland and other European countries who are seeking to slow, and even reverse, European integration by recouping national sovereignty from the European Union and transferring those powers back to national capitals.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French Confidence in Mainstream Media at Lowest Ever Recorded
The French people have the least confidence in the mainstream media than they had since 1987, when polling on the subject began.
The poll of 1,000 people, which was conducted by the Kantar Sofres Institute, shows that while 67 percent of French follow the news, up from 62 percent last year, fewer trust the mainstream outlets, broadcaster BFMTV reports.
Print media saw the highest level of confidence with 44 percent of the respondents having a positive view of it, down eight points from the previous year.
Television, which as listed as the most preferred source of news by the respondents, saw only 38 percent say they had confidence in the reporting of television news broadcasters compared to 48 percent in 2018. …
The downward spiral of confidence in the mainstream media follows the same trend for French President Emmanuel Macron who has seen his popularity plummet to only 23 percent in December.
By contrast, support for the Yellow Vests has gained in recent weeks with a poll revealing that 67 percent of French support the anti-Macron movement, up seven percent from previous polling.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian Government Will Boycot EP’s Debate on Hungary
Hungarian government will not participate in next week’s European Parliamantary debate concerning observance of the rule of law in Hungary.
“There is no basis for discussion”, said Gergely Gulyas, Head of Viktor Orbans Office.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: We Will Last 5 Years: We Respond to People — Conte
EU project called into question says Italy PM at Davos
(ANSA) — Rome, January 23 — Premier Giuseppe Conte on Wednesday voiced confidence the government will last the full five years.
Speaking to Bloomberg TV in Davos, he said “we are a strong coalition and the 5-Star Movement and the League have a great sense of responsibility.
“We are working strenuously, there is a united spirit and I am very confident we can last five years”.
Conte also ruled out any change to the make-up of the government.
Addressing the World Economic Forum later, Conte said “there is a key word around which we have built our political vision and (government) activity, and that word is ‘THE PEOPLE’.
He recited in Italian the part of the Constitution that says sovereignty belongs to the people.
“We must give a response to all this”, he said.
Conte said that “we need a new humanism”, a “radically new” vision of politics which “focuses on human beings, families, and communities.
“This is the Europe we are dreaming of. A Europe of the people, made by the people and for the people”.
Conte told the WEF that “European public opinion has for years considered the ‘European project’ as the instrument to tackle these challenges and protect from their negative impact” but today “it is calling into question its validity and credibility”.
The reality of the euro created growing public debt, and budget frugality slowed GDP growth, Conte said.
Italians have been “patient” with the EU for many years, trusting to European political and technical institutions, Conte said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Matteo Salvini Says Leftist Vandals Are ‘Red Nazis’
Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini took to the offensive Friday after a group of 15 anarchists attacked a booth of the Lega party in Trento, calling the thugs “Red Nazis” and promising to continue undeterred.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Queen Calls for ‘Common Ground’ in Apparent Reference to Brexit
Queen Elizabeth II has urged “coming together to seek out the common ground,” in comment believed to be in reference to the Parliamentary deadlock over Brexit.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Rees-Mogg: PM Must Call on Queen to Suspend Parliament to Stop Anti-Brexit MPs
Leading Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has backed calls for the Queen to prorogue (suspend) the parliamentary session if MPs loyal to the EU can orchestrate votes blocking a clean Brexit.
The Sovereign’s power to outright dissolve Parliament — in practice wielded by the Government, as the monarch acts “on the advice of her ministers” in the modern era — was removed by the Fixed Term Parliament Act in 2011, but she retains the right to prorogue, i.e. temporarily suspend, a parliamentary session.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Named in Council of Europe Sharia Warning
The body that oversees the European Convention on Human Rights has named the UK — along with Albania, Azerbaijan and Turkey — in a hard-hitting resolution highlighting conflicts between sharia law and universal human rights. A measure adopted last night by the 47-nation Council of Europe raises concerns about the role of sharia councils in family, inheritence and commercial law.
Rulings of sharia councils ‘clearly discriminate against women in divorce and inheritance cases’, the resolution states. It calls on the UK to make it a legal requirement for Muslim couples to register their marriages civilly before or at the same time as their religious ceremony.
The resolution was passed at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which meets four times a year to set the agenda of the Council of Europe. It notes with ‘great concern’ that three member states, Albania, Azerbaijan and Turkey, have endorsed explicitly or implicitly, the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam.
| — Hat tip: MB | [Return to headlines] |
An Australian woman who was lured to Pakistan by the false promise of a lavish life with the man of her dreams was instead locked up, beaten and used as a sex slave for months.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Cardinal Zen Says China’s Catholics Are Witnessing ‘The Sellout of Our Church’
Cardinal Joseph Zen told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that Catholics in China are suffering “huge confusion” because of the recent deal between the Vatican and the Communist Party of China (CPC), but it is not too late to rectify the situation.
“The provisional agreement between the Holy See and the Chinese government is a secret deal,” the cardinal told Breitbart News on Thursday, “and no one knows exactly what it specified.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff also called them ‘a*******s’ and ‘trash’ on local radio after the family were accused of fleeing cafes without paying, trashing a beach and threatening to run over a witness.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Dennis Huts, who is associated with right-wing nationalist group United Patriots Fronts, caused outrage at Perth Stadium during a Big Bash cricket game.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Democratic Republic of Congo: Updated Ebola Numbers Show 721 Cases, 446 Fatalities
The Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo has now claimed 446 lives, with the number of cases reported Friday by the country’s Ministry of Health rising to 721.
The new total includes 672 confirmed cases and 49 probable. Another 204 suspected cases are under investigation in what is now the second-largest Ebola outbreak in global history, after the 2014 West African outbreak.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Guaidò Thanks Salvini for Support
Will of Venezuelan people will be expressed
(ANSA) — Rome, January 25 — Venezuela parliament president and self-proclaimed president of the South American country Juan Guaidò on Friday thanked Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini for his support against President Nicolas Maduro.
“We appreciate the recognition of the will of all the Venezuelan people, which will continue to peacefully speak in the streets,” said Guaidò.
Salvini came out Thursday against the Maduro regime.
Opposition leader Guaidò has indicated he would grant amnesty to embattled President Maduro if he cedes power.
Guaido, who has declared himself interim president of the South American country amid mass demonstrations against Maduro, said “all those who are willing to side with the constitution” could be offered reprieves.
Speaking from an undisclosed location, the 35-year-old National Assembly leader told the American Spanish-language TV channel Univison that an amnesty could also be offered to the president and his closest allies.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
CBSA Charges Woman With Taking Money to Help Refugees Into Canada
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has laid charges against Olayinka Celestina Opaleye for allegedly organizing illegal entry into Canada for refugee protection claimants in exchange for compensation.
The charges come under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Court Clears Way to Prosecute Salvini Over Migrant Ship Case
An Italian court has cleared the way for potential prosecution of populist Interior Minister Matteo Salvini over allegations including kidnapping related to a migrant vessel incident in August.
Initially, the potential charges against Salvini were dropped following a statement by the prosecutor of Catania but now a group of other magistrates from Catania have reopened the possibility of Salvini seeing a day in court, Il Giornale reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Elderly Swede on Trial for Calling Somali Migrants ‘Lazy’ Online
A Swedish man in his 70s faced a court in the town of Uddevalla this week after social justice activists reported him to the police for labelling Somali migrants “lazy” on social media.
The court appearance took place after the man was reported to police by the left-wing activist group Näthatsgranskaren, Swedish for “Network Examiner,” for posting on Facebook that he believed Somali migrants to be “lazy people,” Nyheter Idag reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Flesh-Eating Bacteria Found Among Latest Group of Migrants to Turn Selves in to Border Patrol
A flesh-eating bacteria was found on one of more than 300 migrants taken into custody Thursday near Antelope Wells, New Mexico.
A man detained with a group of immigrants Thursday notified an agent while being processed at the Border Patrol’s Lordsburg Station that he had a growing rash on his leg and needed medical attention, officials said.
The man was taken to a hospital for treatment.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Asylum-Seeker Charged With Multiple Child Rapes and Murder of 14-Year-Old Girl in Germany
A rejected Iraqi asylum-seeker has been charged with child rape and murder over attacks on two schoolgirls aged 11 and 14 in western Germany.
Ali Bashar fled Germany after beating, raping and and strangling Susanna Maria Feldman, 14, in a wooded area near his refugee shelter in the city of Wiesbaden last May, prosecutors say.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Smuggling Vessel Intercepted Off Florida, Coast Guard Says
MIAMI — The U.S. Coast Guard says its crews intercepted a boat in the Atlantic Ocean with six people trying to enter Florida illegally by sea.
The 20-foot (6-meter) boat was stopped Saturday afternoon about 30 miles (45 kilometers) east of Sunny Isles Beach. In a statement Tuesday, the Coast Guard said two Jamaican men, a Dominican man and a Bahamian man were aboard the vessel, along with two U.S. citizens.
The statement says one migrant had previous drug convictions, and another had previous convictions for drug trafficking, kidnapping and aggravated assault.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: Calais Builds Wall Around Petrol Station to Protect UK-Bound Lorries
FRENCH authorities are building a three-metre (10 ft) high wall around a petrol station in the northern port town of Calais in a bid to prevent migrants from climbing aboard lorries bound for the UK.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Salvini Says He’s Told Dutch to Deal With Sea-Watch
Interior minister says Rome wrote letter to Netherlands govt
(ANSA) — Rome, January 25 — Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Friday that Rome has sent a letter to the government of the Netherlands telling it to take charge of the case of a ship run by the Sea-Watch NGO with 47 rescued asylum seekers aboard.
The vessel has been allowed to enter Italian territorial waters due to bad weather, Italian coast guard sources said Friday.
“Fifteen minutes ago I sent a letter to the Dutch government in which the it is officially and formally tasked with dealing with this vessel, which flies the Dutch flag, and of the passengers on board,” Salvini said. Earlier on Friday fellow Deputy Premier and Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio said that he thinks the Dutch ambassador to Italy should be summoned over the ship.
The city of Naples has said it is willing to allow the Sea-Watch ship to dock there.
But League party leader Salvini ruled this out, saying his policy of refusing access to Italy’s ports to NGO-run migrant-rescue ships is not changing. I can’t wait to have them arrive, safe and sound, in another European country,” Salvini said. “There’s no space (for them) in Italy”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Texas Secretary of State: As Many as 58,000 Non-Citizens Voted in Elections
The Texas Secretary of State sent an advisory to the state’s registrars today which announced that his office had identified evidence of thousands of non-citizens voting in the state between 1996 and 2018.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Returns Migrants to France After Signing New £6m Deal to Stop Channel Crossings
THE UK has returned migrants back to France after they illegally crossed the English Channel sparking a “major incident” to be declared.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Kentucky Bishop Blasts School Boys Who Wore MAGA Hats to Pro-Life March
The Catholic bishop of Lexington, KY, has written a scathing essay denouncing the Covington Catholic students for wearing MAGA hats to this month’s March for Life in Washington, D.C.
In his overtly partisan essay titled “Pro-Lifers Should Not Sport Slogans of President Who Denigrates and Endangers Immigrants,” Bishop John Stowe, a Franciscan and pro-LGBT activist, said he was “ashamed that the actions of Kentucky Catholic high school students have become a contradiction of the very reverence for human life that the march is supposed to manifest.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Scottish Primary Schools to Teach Young Children About Sexual Consent
Scottish primary school pupils will learn about sexual consent, after a government study stressed the issue should be taught “from early learning through all stages of school education”.
Personal and Social Education (PSE) teachers will be provided with training and resources focused on topics such as sexual harassment and ‘gender-based violence’ following a Scottish National Party (SNP) review.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Delingpole: Thank You, NewsGuard, For Celebrating My Wisdom on Climate Change
Thank you, thank you, thank you, NewsGuard, for treating all your new subscribers — both of them! — to one of the cleverest, truest things I ever wrote about climate change.
NewsGuard quotes me as saying (in the course of its danger warning to readers thinking of flirting with Breitbart News):
“When amateurs on a blog know more about science than the guys on multi-million dollar grants at U.S. academic institutions informing global energy and environment policy, you know that the time has come to drain the swamp,” Delingpole wrote.
And it presents it as though this were a bad thing to have written.
But I stand by every word. It’s the kind of thing that makes me go: “God, I wish I’d written that — No, wait. I did!” …
No, much simpler than that, it appealed to my most basic journalistic instincts: here was a story which most of the mainstream media was covering extremely, embarrassingly badly; where the facts were almost diametrically opposite to the breast-beating, hysterical, junk science narrative presented at outlets like the BBC, CNN, and the New York Times; where there was so much low-hanging fruit, so many examples every day of greed, corruption, stupidity, mendacity, and incompetence on the most epic scale — all of it costing us taxpayers a fortune, making the world a more miserable place to live in and — the biggest joke of all — actually harming the planet in the process.
How could any journalist resist an opportunity like that? …
Rather churlishly, they don’t include a link — so here it is.
It’s one of many stories I’ve written in a similar vein, largely because it’s just about the biggest ongoing scandal of all in the climate change industry: the way that tax-payer funded institutions like NASA and NOAA are cooking the books — adjusting the raw temperature data in both the past and present in order to suit their alarmist agenda.
That isn’t science — that’s politics. And it gives the lie to the notion endlessly promulgated by alarmists that the science is settled. If the science really were settled — so true, so observably the case beyond all reasonable doubt — then there would be no need to exaggerate the evidence, would there?
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Those Catholic bishops hate their own and love America’s enemies. This is clear, now.
The pope too
“UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that the world is “losing the race” on climate change as he demanded that governments make bolder commitments beyond the Paris accord.
“Climate change is the defining issue of our time”, he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.”
More alarmist stuff from the High Priests of the new religion of Climate Change.
But facts on the ground, and a little bit of historical analysis from before the 20th century clearly show climate, has always changed, in cycles that span millennium. Instead we have a climate change industry that focuses on a period of 20-40 years of recent history, a mere blink of the eye in Earths history.
Recently I read about Greenland and the Norse settlers who settled the land about the 11th century. When they first went there it was “green” and shifting their agricultural system of grassland farming with cattle was possible. But over the next 400 years the climate got colder, the ice advance and stayed longer and blocked the sea access for longer. Farming became harder and the last Norse settlers evacuated Greenland in the 15th century. But had they adapted to copy the Inuit way of life they might still be there.
The point is Earth’s climate has never been static, and frequently has changed. Life on Earth has always continued with some adjustments needed to meet the new circumstances. I’d like to see some brave news organizations detailing potential advantages, opportunities and gains that Climate Change may bring. How about it New York Times?
Recent studies of the Kiribati Islands in the Pacific Ocean, have shown from satellite photos over the last 30-40 years that there has been no increase in sea level, contrary to the usual rumour mongering that the Islands are about to disappear beneath the waves.
“Auckland Mayor Phil Goff also called them ‘a*******s’ and ‘trash’ on local radio after the family were accused of fleeing cafes without paying, trashing a beach and threatening to run over a witness.”
This has been both a shocking and fascinating study of today’s British culture. A society governed at a local level by Left wing Socialist councils who pander to a type of parasite that thrives by constantly playing the victim card and sometimes the racist card. The obnoxious behaviour of the family of tourists didn’t surprise anyone in Britain (judging by the comments on Daily Mail). They they’d seen this type before. What did surprise them was a local government and population saying “we’re not accepting that” in our country.
Bothered more by a few white idiots than by thousands of African criminals.
Real brave leaders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pgawaB1bKQ
They write that this is London. Putin’s oligarchs and officials robbed my country and emptied my pockets to settle here. A worthless investment.
The chronic blot on GoV who calls himself “Delingpole” tries yet again–through his usual crude use of unsupported conclusions, wild exaggerations, faulty reasoning, and blatant hypocrisy–to cover himself with glory and vainglory, but the hat-tip goes to “AF,” Barron?
The hat tip is for the person who sent in the tip and the excerpt. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the custom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y70XVj17TsA
semi-literate British – the last hope of this country.
Excellent article from The American Thinker- “In defense of Western Civilization”. Well worth the short read.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/in_defense_of_western_civilization.html