Chicago police now reportedly believe that the “hate crime” attacks against Jussie Smollett were actually staged by the gay African American actor himself. Mr. Smollett alleged that he was attacked and abused by MAGA-hat wearing Trump supporters who threw some kind of chemical liquid over him and hung a noose around his neck. If his story turns out to be false, can we say it was #FakeNoose?
In other news (not noose), Congress passed a spending bill that will prevent another shutdown, but falls short on funding the border wall. President Trump reportedly will sign the bill, and then declare a state of emergency so that the wall can be build using military funds.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dora, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, Red Mike, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Germany Barely Avoids Recession With Zero Growth
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany recorded zero growth in the fourth quarter, only narrowly avoiding a recession and adding to downbeat signs piling up about the 19-country eurozone economy.
The lackluster figure released Thursday was lower than the 0.1 percent expected by market analysts and followed a 0.2 percent fall in output during the preceding third quarter.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Washington Examiner’s Naomi Lim reports that yesterday the House passed an amendment to a resolution with a message to Ilhan Omar: “In rare vote, House sends a message on anti-Semitism to Ilhan Omar.” We have Rep. David Kustoff (R., Tenn.) to thank for this:
The House on Wednesday unanimously passed a broad condemnation of anti-Semitism days after Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., received widespread criticism over her comments on Israel.
The language, which does not mention Omar by name, was approved 424-0 using a legislature procedure that lets the minority party make a last-minute motion to change legislation just before it’s passed. The procedure almost never works for the minority party, in part because the minority usually tries to make radical changes to the bill that the majority quickly rejects.
On Wednesday, however, Republicans used the so-called “motion to recommit” vote to call for the addition of language to a resolution that states it is in the “national interests of the United States to combat anti-Semitism at home and abroad.”
“With an unfortunate rise in anti-Semitism and attempts to delegitimize Israel, the United States House of Representatives must emphasize the importance of combating anti-Semitism and reject all movements that deny Israel’s right to exist,” the amendment states.
The sponsor of the language, Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., indicated the language was aimed at Omar, who has been criticized by both parties for comments they say amount to anti-Semitism.
“This horrific anti-Semitic tone being taken by some Members of Congress must come to an end,” Kustoff said. “The language I offered affirms the United States’ interest in combating anti-Semitism at home and abroad, something my colleagues on both sides of the aisle should and must support. I am proud to stand today in solidarity with my Jewish community as this hate has no place in our country.”
The House easily approved the proposal, marking the first time in several years that the motion to recommit worked.
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Barack Obama, Hatred of America Originator, Hangs on to Maintain it
The corrosive hatred of America now being seen on daily display did not come hurtling from out of nowhere overnight.
It has been cultivated and nurtured from the get-go by a president both in and out of office.
Hatred of America had been out there festering on the sidelines for decades until Senator Barack Hussein Obama came along to exploit it to the nth degree. .
Hatred of America grew to fever pitch with the election of Obama, who incredibly boasted five days before 2008’s election that his mission in public office would be to ‘fundamentally transform America”— and got elected anyway.
Obama first spread hatred of America among his surrogates, the mainstream and social media, the Entertainment Industry and the Democrat Party. Soon after his arrival at the Oval Office, he began Cleopatra-like visits to foreign countries, where he flagrantly dissed America’s so-called shortcomings, blaming the country who paid his salary and which was later to enrich him, for everything going wrong in the world.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CA Gov Shoots Bullet Train in Head & McConnell Will Have Dems Vote on Record
Liberal politician keeping taxpayer money meant to fund high-speed train.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
California Nightmare: Over Half of the People Living in the State Wish They Could Leave
This just shows what can happen when you let crazy people run a state for several decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, the possibility of moving to the west coast was “the California dream” for millions of young Americans, but now “the California dream” has turned into “the California nightmare”. According to a brand new survey, 53 percent of those living in California are considering leaving the state, and there are certainly lots of reasons to hit the road and never look back. The cities are massively overcrowded, California has the worst traffic in the western world, drug use and illegal immigration both fuel an astounding amount of crime, tax rates are horrendous and many of the state politicians appear to literally be insane. And on top of all that, let us not forget the earthquakes, wildfires and landslides that are constantly making headlines all over the world. Last year was the worst year for wildfires in California history, and these days it seems like the state is hit by some new crisis every few weeks.
But none of those factors are the primary reason why so many people are eager to leave.
According to a brand new survey by Edelman Intelligence, the main reason why so many are considering leaving the state is the high cost of living…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Censorship Now Extends to Criticizing Other Governments
The internet is being destroyed by anti-First Amendment leftists.
YouTube has announced that it will no longer recommend videos that “come close to” violating its community guidelines, such as conspiracy or medically inaccurate videos.
The issue is the establishment “fact checkers” in control of deciding what’s a conspiracy or what’s inaccurate are completely biased in favor of radical leftist ideology.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doctor: Children “Particularly Vulnerable” To Dangers of 5G
Calls 5G a giant uncontrolled experiment on our children
The enthusiasm with which the public has embraced each new mobile and wireless technology-most of which have never undergone any appropriate safety testing or standards development-suggests that consumers rarely stop to consider the health implications of the infrastructure shoring up their ability to browse, stream and download anytime and “on the go.”
Consumers are not entirely to blame for their lack of awareness-it is not easy to disentangle the technologies’ health risks in the face of the telecommunications industry’s steady and calculated disinformation efforts and a captured Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that “follows the script of fabulously wealthy, bullying, billion-dollar beneficiaries of wireless.”
Now, however, a global 5G “frenzy” is upon us and is coming into full force.
The rollout of “blazing fast” 5G technology will “dramatically increase the number of transmitters sending signals to cellphones and a host of new Internet-enabled devices.” The time is ripe for greater grassroots awareness of the undisclosed tradeoffs between convenience and 5G’s potentially catastrophic health effects.
Far from a simple “next-gen” upgrade, powerful 5G (fifth-generation) networks and technology are about to subject everyone, on a continuous basis, to unprecedented forms and amounts of what retired U.S. government physicist Dr. Ronald Powell calls “mandatory irradiation”-without “prior study of the potential health impact” or any assurance of safety.
Considering that young people (with their smaller body mass and developing brains) are particularly vulnerable to radiation, the Environmental Health Trust has termed 5G “the next great unknown experiment on our children”-and the entire human population…
One of the novel dangers introduced by 5G technology is its reliance on high-frequency millimeter waves (MMWs), a bountiful and not previously commercialized portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. While 5G’s enthusiasts are quick to promise support for literally billions of devices, there is one catch-the shorter millimeter wavelengths cannot travel as far as the lower frequencies used for earlier generations of mobile technology. Thus, while there were about 300,000 wireless antennas on U.S. cell towers and buildings as of 2016 (a doubling since 2002), 5G will require “exponentially more”-millions of small cell towers every 500 feet “on every street corner.”
Organizations concerned about the health hazards of wireless radiation note that “Right now, you don’t have to live next to a cell tower….but once they have these [5G] cell antennas everywhere, you won’t be able to [move away].” Unfortunately, the “nowhere to hide” aspects of 5G are even more serious, because ground-based 5G systems will be supplemented by satellite-based systems. In March, 2018, the FCC approved the initial launch of over 4,400 low-Earth-orbit 5G communication satellites, to be followed by thousands more over the next two years-with the eventual result being 11 times more satellites orbiting the Earth than currently. The satellites will send “tightly focused beams of intense microwave radiation at each specific 5G device that is on the Earth,” while each device then sends “a beam of radiation back to the satellite.”
In practical terms, this means that in crowded locations such as airports, individuals’ bodies “will be penetrated by numerous beams of radiation as they walk or as other people walk around them with their 5G smartphones.” But even in the home environment, “5G technology [will] blast through walls and cribs,” making a mockery of “the notion that ‘your home is your castle’ in which you are supposed to be safe.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Fox News inquiry about an alleged quid pro quo involving a senior State Department official and Hillary Clinton’s classified emails apparently was so sensitive that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was called on to give his approval, according to newly released emails disclosed as a result of a federal lawsuit.
The 10 pages of email traffic from mid-October 2016, just weeks before the presidential election, were obtained by Judicial Watch as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit and were revealed Monday. They showed that the FBI’s top brass quickly circulated Fox News’ questions about an alleged offer from the State Department’s then-Under Secretary of State for Management, Patrick Kennedy, to give the FBI additional personnel slots in Iraq in exchange for the FBI reducing the classification of a Clinton email.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Free Seal Chief Eddie Gallagher… and Others
According to Chief Eddie Gallagher’s many friends and family he is the victim of a couple of vindictive FNGs (…’Fresh’ New Guys) who didn’t approve of Gallagher’s leadership style and set out to sabotage him with trumped up charges. So far, they have been successful. .
The charges against Gallagher are lame, to put it mildly. Some would call them laughable. […]
In a nutshell, at the risk of being too succinct, here is what happened that put Chief Gallagher in prison: During an intense firefight against ISIS in Iraq a severely wounded ISIS fighter was brought into an area controlled by Gallagher and his fellow SEALs. Wishing to keep the ISIS fighter alive so that he could be questioned, Gallagher (who was a trained corpsman) and another medic performed an emergency tracheotomy on the ISIS fighter trying to save his life. Their efforts failed and the fighter died, end of story.
Except it wasn’t the end of the story. During that same firefight Chief Gallaher had a run-in with a couple of new SEALs who questioned his leadership. Gallagher essentially gave the new guys a verbal slap on the wrist and told them to straighten up. So far so good, until everyone got back to the states, and the FNGs came up with a tale about Chief Gallagher killing some poor innocent ISIS fighter by stabbing him in the neck.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Alien Arrested in Death of Woman Found Stuffed in Suitcase
This crime was 100% preventable. It calls attention to the need for reform on enforcement of visa overstays in the U.S.
The man who committed this heinous crime should have been out of the U.S. but overstayed his visa.
Greenwich, Connecticut police have arrested an illegal alien in the death of a woman found stuffed in a suitcase on the side of the road.
Fox News reports: Javier da Silva of Flushing, N.Y. was arrested for the murder of Reyes who had a previous relationship with da Silva.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
An independent investigation published February 11 found that Covington Catholic High School students were not the disruptors the media wished them to be.
Greater Cincinnati Investigation (GCI) was retained by the law firm representing the Covington diocese and Covington Catholic High School.
GCI devoted 4 licensed investigators who spent 240 hours pouring over social media posts, local media reports, statements, and interviewing everyone they were able to contact.
Cincinatti.com summarized the findings of the report thusly (detailed findings in the full report at bottom of post):
Here’s what the investigation found:
- No evidence was found that students performed a “Build the Wall” chant or made racist remarks to the Black Hebrew Israelites or Phillips
- Most of the students felt like (Phillips) was coming into their group to join in with the students’ cheers, investigators said.
- None of the students said they felt threatened by Phillips and many stated they were “confused.”
- Video shows that some students performed a “tomahawk chop” to the beat of Phillips’ drumming and some joined in with his chant.
- Nine chaperones reported being present at the Lincoln Memorial when the main interactions took place.
- Investigators said video confirms at least five chaperones were present.
- Chaperones said they didn’t feel that students were in danger or threatened.
- In regards to the “It’s not rape if you enjoy it” video, investigators said the man in the video was not a Covington Catholic student.
- In regards to the 7-second video of two students making comments to two women, investigators said they could not determine if the students were from Covington Catholic.
Phillips, who milked the confrontation for every possible ounce of media exposure was unreachable.
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Is it Time to Forget Facebook?
Your hobbies, habits and preferences are meticulously tracked by the site,5 and your personal data is then sold to whomever wants access to it — ostensibly for targeted marketing purposes, but there are no real safeguards in place to prevent scammers and even political agents from using the data, as detailed in Frontline’s “The Facebook Dilemma,” featured above.
In it, Frontline PBS correspondent James Jacoby investigates Facebook’s influence over the democracy of nations, and the lax privacy parameters that allowed for tens of millions of users’ data to be siphoned off and used in an effort to influence the U.S. elections.
The problem is, Facebook has repeatedly been caught mishandling users’ data and/or lying about its collection practices, and it seems precious little is being done to really correct these shortcomings.
Its entire profit model is based on the selling of personal information that facilitates everything from targeted advertising to targeted fraud. For individuals who start using Facebook at a young age, the lifetime data harvest is likely to be inconceivably large, giving those who buy or otherwise access that information an extraordinarily comprehensive picture of the individual in question.
Facebook even has the ability to access your computer or smartphone’s microphone without your knowledge.6 If you suddenly find yourself on the receiving end of ads for products or services you just spoke about out loud, chances are one or more apps are linked into your microphone and are eavesdropping…
While Zuckerberg insists that Facebook was created “to make the world more open and connected,” and “give people the power to build community,”7 his early foray into social media could hardly be called altruistic.
A front-runner to Facebook was a “hot or not” site called FaceMash,8 where people voted on the attractiveness of Harvard students’ photos — photos which, according to Tech Crunch, were obtained and used without permission.9 As noted in Tech Crunch:10
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Just How Crazy is Ocasio Cortez’s Green New Deal?
This menu of lunacy appeared on Feb. 7, and by the end of the night, it had been taken down. Looks like they didn’t want you to see it; but by then millions of people had already seen it—and reacted with shock and incredulity.
Bear in mind that as of last week, “the Green New Deal”—as a resolution of Congress, not a bill—already had 70 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, a few in the Senate, and had been endorsed by every single 2020 Democrat presidential candidate.
Here are some of its wilder provisions: all of them, admitted the sponsors, requiring “massive government intervention.” That’s a euphemism for destroying the economy and wiping out just about every vestige of freedom we can think of. Let’s just list them.
Tear down and rebuild every building in America, or at least upgrade it.
Phase out air travel and replace it with high-speed rail (to Europe?).
Government-guaranteed jobs for all. (We were not told whether you would be allowed to choose your job or the government would choose it for you.)
Universal basic income, even for persons “unwilling to work.”
Medicare for all.
All jobs to be unionized, whether you like it or not.
Ban nuclear energy, and “end all traditional forms of energy in the next ten years.”
And some of the Democrats are also toying with the idea of banning all private ownership of cars.
No wonder they didn’t want you to see it, after all.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Learn How Google is Using Modern Slave System to Program Its AI
Callers challenge Rob Dew about how Google is exploiting slave systems to set up the AI that could become the new nanny state.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
McCabe Revelation Confirms the Deep State Yet Again
On Thursday, CBS News anchor Scott Pelley said former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told him that Department of Justice (DOJ) officials met to discuss whether or not to remove President Donald Trump from office in the wake of the president’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. This news confirmed conservatives’ worst fears about a Deep State working against the duly elected president.
Democrats have often dismissed notions of a Deep State, suggesting that criticisms of the DOJ and FBI, in particular, are an attack on American institutions. Multiple scandals have sparked serious concerns about an anti-Trump bias among the public servants in the DOJ, however.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Money in Politics? Ilhan Omar Will Fly to La for Fundraiser for Terror-Tied CAIR
Newly elected Rep. Ilhan Omar will jet off to Los Angeles next month to keynote a fundraiser for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a terror-tied organization that was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist financing case in U.S. history.
On March 23, Omar will speak at CAIR-Los Angeles’ 4th Annual Valley Banquet, where tables will cost $500.
“CAIR-LA is honored to have Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as the featured speaker for the 4th Annual Valley Banquet,” reads a press release from the Los Angeles chapter of the group that was formed as a Hamas support network in the United States.
She will deliver her address alongside CAIR-Florida director Hassan Shibly, according to a CAIR flier promoting the event. Shibly is a dedicated Islamist and bigoted gay basher. A fan of radical clerics, he has routinely refused to categorize U.S.-designated terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, according to the Clarion Project. Moreover, Shibly regularly takes to social media to demonize the U.S. military as equivalent to the jihadi terrorists that they are fighting.
The director of CAIR-Los Angeles is Hussam Ayloush, who, like many CAIR executives, has disturbing Islamist views. Following the tragic San Bernardino terrorist attacks, Ayloush suggested that the United States was “partly responsible” for the ISIS-led attack on innocents in California. “Let’s not forget that some of our own foreign policy, as Americans, as the West, have fueled that extremism,” he added. Ayloush has in the past described U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a campaign to instill “fear of the Muslims.”
The news comes on the heels of Rep. Omar’s controversial comments — that many on the Left and Right almost unanimously condemned as anti-Semitic tropes — about money in politics, in which she claimed that Jewish groups like AIPAC buy off politicians. Though AIPAC does not contribute to political campaigns, CAIR certainly does. Omar has received tens of thousands of dollars from CAIR and other political action committees. Additionally, CAIR held several fundraising events solely for the benefit of Omar’s congressional campaign.
CAIR’s fundraiser is just one of the controversial events lined up for Omar’s schedule. On February 23, she will speak at a fundraiser for Islamic Relief USA, the American branch of the terror-tied group Islamic Relief Worldwide. The Middle East Forum has discovered that she will be accompanied by a senior charity official who has often “expressed violently anti-Semitic ideas on his social-media accounts,” sometimes specifically calling for the murder of Jews. Islamic Relief has been banned by Israel and the UAE for allegedly funneling money to terrorist organizations. HSBC bank has also severed ties with the organization, cautioning that funds delivered to the group could end up in the war chests of terrorist organizations.
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
New Mexico Sheriffs Refuse to Enforce New ‘Unconstitutional’ Gun Control Bills
New Mexico has a new governor, and she really doesn’t like guns.
Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, was sworn into office on January 1, replacing pro-gun Republican Susana Martinez…
Perhaps the most disturbing of the six bills is House Bill 83.
Have you heard of “red flag” gun confiscation laws?
Officially called Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO), “red flag” laws permit police, healthcare providers, or family members to petition a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who may present a danger to others or themselves. To date, fourteen states and the District of Columbia have red flag laws.
Here’s a chilling explanation of what House Bill 83 would allow.
Under section 5, any law enforcement personnel can ask a court to issue an order stripping any New Mexican of his Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. It wouldn’t even take an “ex parte” secret court proceeding; the request could be made by E-MAIL. Under section 6, an angry ex-girlfriend can convene a “secret court” (ex parte proceeding) to strip a gun owner of his Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights — without giving the gun owner the opportunity to tell his side of the story to the “secret court.” (source)
[…]
Thankfully, most of New Mexico’s sheriffs are opposed to these gun control bills. Of the 33 sheriffs in the state, 29 have voiced disapproval of the package of anti-gun legislation by issuing a declaration through the state sheriffs’ association, stating that the “rush to react to the violence by proposing controls on guns is ill-conceived and is truly a distraction to the real problems proliferating violence in our counties and our state.”
CBS 7 spoke with Lea County Sheriff Corey Helton, who explained why he objects to the proposed legislation.
“You’re just taking guns out of law-abiding citizen’s hands. This is not going to affect the criminals out there. They’re going to be able to get guns and they do not follow the law.” Helton added that there are enough effective laws on the books and these new measures are either redundant or unconstitutional.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Illegal Confesses to Murdering Woman, Dumping Body Alongside Road in Suitcase
Victim’s body found in suitcase along stretch of Connecticut highway last month.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Confirms Bill Barr as Attorney General
The Senate voted Thursday to confirm William Barr as attorney general.
Barr, who previously served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, was confirmed 51—45 largely along party lines, with Republicans backing the president’s nominee and Democrats opposing.
Democratic senators Doug Jones of Alabama, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona defected, backing Barr’s nomination, while Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was the lone Republican who voted against him.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
CHICAGO — Chicago police confirmed Thursday that detectives are talking to two persons of interest in connection with the alleged attack on “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.
Multiple sources have told ABC7 Eyewitness News that police are investigating whether Smollett and the two men staged the attack allegedly because Smollett was being written off of “Empire.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
South Carolina Man Gets 30 Years for Setting Jihad Bombs
A South Carolina man was sentenced to 30 years in prison after placing weapons of mass destruction in Anderson County.
Wesley Dallas Ayers, 27, pleaded guilty to the charges against him. He pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in letters and warned of a jihad, according to an investigator’s testimony in federal court.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Tech Elites, Donor Class Unite With GOP/Dems to Outsource White-Collar American Jobs
The elimination of the country caps would fast-track the outsourcing of high-paying American jobs that would otherwise go to U.S. graduates
Silicon Valley’s business elites and donor-class billionaires are uniting with elected Republicans and Democrats to ensure that white-collar, middle-class American jobs are swiftly outsourced to mostly Indian and Chinese nationals.
A plan known as the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, introduced in the Senate by Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), as well as Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Ken Buck (R-CO), would eliminate the U.S. country caps in the legal immigration system and would fast-track outsourcing of white-collar American jobs to mostly Indian and Chinese nationals imported to the country by businesses, outsourcing firms, and multinational corporations.
The country caps were originally implemented to prevent any one country from monopolizing the legal immigration system. Eliminating the country caps would immediately fast-track up to 300,000 green cards, and eventually American citizenship, to primarily Indian nationals in the U.S. on the H-1B visa, so long as they agree to take high-paying, white-collar jobs from Americans.
In the process, not only would other foreign workers be crowded out from receiving employment-based green cards, but the elimination of the country caps would fast-track the outsourcing of high-paying American jobs that would otherwise go to U.S. graduates.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Apparently, the inmates have taken over the asylum, led by the former barmaid Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, now a member of Congress. The Green New Deal is a bizarre plan to create a cultural revolution in the United States. The role of Mao’s little red book is replaced by the musings of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). After the green revolution, happiness will reign throughout the land.
Ms. Ocasio can’t even make a credible threat to our economic well-being. According to the Green New Deal, if we don’t prevent global warming, we will lose $500 billion of annual economic output by 2100. The current GDP of the U.S. is $20 trillion. Assuming modest real growth of one percent per year, GDP will be $44 trillion (in current dollars) by 2100. Losing $500 billion or 1.1 percent of 2100 economic output is clearly minor and would be made up by 2101. The Green New Deal advocates instantly destroy their own argument with their own numbers.
We are told that the United States must adopt a leading role in reducing CO2 emissions because we are responsible for 20% of cumulative emissions. Referring to cumulative rather than current emissions is sleight of hand. The U.S. is responsible for about 14% of CO2 emissions and these have been declining due to increased use of carbon-light natural gas. The rest of the world is responsible for 86% of the emissions and the rest of the world is not adopting a Green New Deal. The words “China” or “Asia” don’t appear in the text of the Green New Deal. If we are to be serious about reducing CO2 emissions, isn’t it necessary to discuss the source of the vast majority of those emissions?
The reports of the IPCC and of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) are political documents masquerading as scientific studies. These organizations produce fantasy reports that illustrate the computer rule of garbage in, garbage out…
The Green New Deal mostly has nothing to do with climate change. The program has a strong resemblance to the Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizens found in the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union (the “Stalin” constitution).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Real Reason Conservatives Should Fear the Green New Deal
Infowars’ Jake Lloyd breaks down the Green New Deal proposed by young Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The proposal is not an original creation from Ocasio-Cortez as the language is straight out of the UN’s Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030.
The deal transcends simple environmentalism and actually promotes radical Communist policies such as restricting travel and stopping ranchers from raising cows.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Jr. Urges Youth to Reject “Loser Teachers” Pushing Socialism
President’s son delivers electrifying speech in El Paso
“I love seeing some young conservatives because I know it’s not easy,” Trump said. “Keep up that fight — bring it to your schools. You don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth.”
“You don’t have to do it because you can think for yourselves. They can’t.”
Trump, who is father to five young children, has been outspoken in his support for adolescent patriots, recently penning a fiery op-ed in defense of the Covington Catholic boys in which he urged others to stand up to leftist bullying.
“Every time I’m in Washington, I’m struck by the number of school kids from middle America wearing MAGA hats as they visit their capital city. It makes me beam with pride, but the Covington affair shows just how deeply the same sight upsets the left and their allies in the media,” Trump wrote.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
As we told you earlier, reporters were noticing that the office of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was being quiet in the wake of Amazon’s announcement that they were nixing plans to build a new company headquarters in the state that would have brought with it thousands of jobs. A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez said to watch her Twitter for any thoughts on Amazon’s decision, and eventually AOC offered up this take:
Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium Has Closed Its Airspace for 24 Hours During a Nationwide Strike.
The industrial action, which continues to Wednesday night, is also affecting police, hospitals, buses and trains.
All flights in and out of Belgium have been canceled until Wednesday night as public transport workers went on a 24-hour strike. All sectors, from public transport to rubbish collection, postal services, hospitals and commercial centers have been affected.
The strike in the country that hosts many EU institutions and NATO was called by unions seeking higher wages. The strike comes in response to a collapse in wage negotiations. The trade unions rejected a proposed increase of 0.8 per cent for 2019-2020, arguing that it was too low.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium Report: 76% of Victims of Clergy Sex Abuse Were Males
A new report on clerical sex abuse in Belgium has revealed that 76 percent of priests’ victims were males, echoing patterns of chiefly homosexual abuse in other countries.
Brussels Cardinal Jozef de Kesel presented the 400-page report on clergy sexual abuse Tuesday, which documents accusations of abuse from 1,054 alleged victims since 2010, three quarters of whom were male and 73 percent between the ages of 10 and 18 years.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Brexit Attack Swedish Minister Claims Democracy ‘In Decline’ Due to Rise of Populism
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström has claimed democracy across the globe is “in decline” and has said the Swedish government will push for an “offensive for democracy” in Europe.
Wallström said the Swedish government would be developing a new programme to hold populist member states to account over what she believes to be a decline in democracy and European values, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Conte Hits Back After Being Called Puppet in European Parliament
Unable to build ‘people’ yet says Italy PM, Dublin reform No
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, February 12 — The European Parliament gave a ‘fail’ mark to Premier Giuseppe Conte’s maiden speech to the Strasbourg assembly on Tuesday with one caucus leader calling him a “puppet” of his deputy premiers, Luigi Di Maio and Matteo salvini.
“I wonder how much longer you will be the puppet moved by Salvini and Di Maio,” Liberals leader Guy Verhofstadt asked Conte in the EP plenary assembly.
Verhofstadt also said Di Maio had “abused” his office by meeting with French Yellow Vests protesters last week.
Verhofstadt told Conte: “I’ll speak in Italian, I’m in love with Italy, for me it is a country, it is an entire civilisation, Italy is where our European civilisation was born…
“That is why it hurts me to see Italy’s political degeneration, which did not start yesterday, or a year ago, but 20 years ago. “This beautiful country has become, from a convinced defender of Europe, a laggard in the Union”.
European Socialists and Democrats caucus leader Udo Bullmann said “I am very saddened by the senseless escalation between Italy and France. In contexts like this no one comes out a winner, it is a classic lose-lose situation” after France recalled its ambassador due to “unprecedented” attacks and DI Maio’s meeting with the Yellow Vests.
Bullmann said on his recent visit to Catania on the Sea Watch migrant standoff, and on Conte’s speech to the EP, that “this is not the Italy that we know, the Italy we know is that of (European founding father Altiero) Spinelli”.
He said “your government must stop showing us this inhuman face (on migrants)”.
European People’s Party (EPP) leader Manfred Weber commented on Conte’s speech by saying “on Venezuela Guaidò has asked Italy to recognise him, I think you should answer Guaidò if you think there should be a common European approach”.
The barbs brought a sharp response from League leader Salvini.
“That some European bureaucrats, accomplices to the disaster of these years, dare to insult the Italian premier, government and people is really disgraceful”, he said.
“The European elites (are) against the choices of citizens.
Get your boxes ready, on May 26 (in the European elections) the citizens will finally send these people home”.
Premier Conte told the parliament that Europe had not yet been able to build a European people and that European politics lost touch with people after the economic crisis of 2007-8.
He added that the Dublin migrant rule reform was unsustainable and that a single EU seat at the United Nations Security Council was needed.
Conte told the Strasbourg parliament that the construction of a ‘European people’ has seen “significant moments of advancement” but “we still haven’t succeeded in really becoming a ‘people’, we haven’t had the courage to build an inclusive model that, realistically, beyond all rhetoric, could favour the creation of a European demos.” “European politics, faced with an unprecedented economic crisis, withdrew in fear inside the cold grammar of procedures, ending up by progressively losing contact with its people and making ever more unbridgeable the distance, which is not only geographical, between Brussels and the continent’s many peripheries,” the Italian premier said. “Politics gave up its legitimating and representative function, appearing — in the eyes of citizens — distant and ‘oligarchic’.” Conte added that “no European Member State can play a significant role on its own. “Hence the hope that a united European voice may find space also at the UN Security Council.
“It is a battle, this one, on which the European Union must move in a coordinated way, it must speak with a single voice. “The European Union must be able to speak to the world. A strong, ambitious and coherent Europe is above all necessary to improve its capacity of talking to the United States”.
Conte said that “faced with the massacre of human lives we must all together wage a fight on traffickers without quarter. let us stop remaining divided, giving in to nationalist or regionalist logic, and let us try to put into practice an authentic solidarity. “The proposal to reform the Dublin Regulation, approved in November 2017, is not sustainable in the present EU. There prevails, unfortunately, the unwillingness of the majority of States to participate in compulsory (quotas).” Conte added that “the inadequate and insufficient solidarity inside the EU also explains why Europe is struggling and is late on being fairer and more social. “The new European legislature must pursue with greater decision and as an urgent priority the fight against unemployment and support for growth…The EU’s economic governance must take account of the need to balance growth and stability”. European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen reacted to Conte’s speech by saying “Europe proceeds and gives its best when Italy and the Italian people are at the centre, this must represent a guide for us. “In order to build a future of European success we need a strong Italy at its centre, we must build together our future in unity and solidarity working always with each other and not against each other, speaking together”. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani responded to Conte’s saying the Dublin Regulation reform is unsustainable by saying “we ask you for a further commitment in the next meetings of the Council so that the proposals of the EU parliament are accepted, perhaps by finding some compromise on the Dublin reform.” He stressed the importance of involving member States “in the choices in favour of strengthening the Parliament’s powers”. In his reply, on migrants, Conte said “Italy has decided to apply a line of greater rigour, we say so with our heads held high and we affirm it with force, because we have concluded that we must not banalise and this is the only effective road to combat human trafficking”.
Conte said that “a safe port means only that the disembarkation is in Italy, this is not OK. All must take part in this mechanism of solidarity. Even countries that say they are willing to take part (in this mechanism) are only doing so with those who are entitled to humanitarian protection. Economic migrants remain where they disembark”.
Cone also said Italy is not isolated on Venezuela.
Italy, he said, “is not isolated, it contributed to the communique of the High Commissioner and the entire EU on January 26 and it was recognised that my intervention was decisive”.
He said “many people want to anticipate history (but) prudence would be necessary. We don’t know what the evolution of the crisis will be, Italy has clear ideas and is not alone”.
Conte said Rome had not recognised last year’s presidential elections and had called for new elections.
“Having said that we do not think we can crown anyone who does not pass through free elections”.
Conte said earlier Tuesday his meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker “went very well and President Juncker will come to Rome on April 1”.
The meeting lasted about half an hour.
“We did not talk about France, but we spoke about various issues,” said Conte.
Asked why a fresh meeting was needed in Rome, Conte replied: “He loves Italy”.
European Commission Spokesperson Margaritis Schinas told journalists the talks had been “constructive” and “wide-ranging”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Moves Forward With Agreement to Fundamentally Change the Internet From Open to Closed
Despite the fact that even the staunchest supporters of Article 13 were asking for it to be dropped from the final version of the EU Copyright Directive, that didn’t happen. In the final trilogue negotiations between the EU Council, the EU Commission and the EU Parliament, it appears that the agreed upon “compromise” is basically as bad as we feared. It will fundamentally change the entire nature of the internet. And not in a good way. As we recently discussed, the only way this makes sense is if the goal is to have the law be so bad that big internet companies feel forced to pay their way out of it.
And it appears that’s what we’ve got. MEP Julia Reda’s summary of the final deal highlights many of the problems with both Articles 11 and 13. Here’s the mess with Article 13:
Commercial sites and apps where users can post material must make “best efforts” to preemptively buy licences for anything that users may possibly upload — that is: all copyrighted content in the world. An impossible feat. In addition, all but very few sites (those both tiny and very new) will need to do everything in their power to prevent anything from ever going online that may be an unauthorised copy of a work that a rightsholder has pointed out to the platform. They will have no choice but to deploy upload filters, which are by their nature both expensive and error-prone. Should a court ever find their licensing or filtering efforts not fierce enough, sites are directly liable for infringements as if they had committed them themselves. This massive threat will lead platforms to over-comply with these rules to stay on the safe side, further worsening the impact on our freedom of speech.
And with Article 11:
The final version of this extra copyright for news sites closely resembles the version that already failed in Germany — only this time not limited to search engines and news aggregators, meaning it will do damage to a lot more websites.
Reproducing more than “single words or very short extracts” of news stories will require a licence. That will likely cover many of the snippets commonly shown alongside links today in order to give you an idea of what they lead to. We will have to wait and see how courts interpret what “very short” means in practice — until then, hyperlinking (with snippets) will be mired in legal uncertainty. No exceptions are made even for services run by individuals, small companies or non-profits, which probably includes any monetised blogs or websites.
If this becomes law, I’m not sure Techdirt can continue publishing in the EU. At the very least, it will require us to spend a large sum of money on lawyers to determine what our liability risk is — to the point that it might just not be worth it at all. Article 13 makes a commenting system untenable, as we simply cannot setup a filter that will block people from uploading copyright-covered content. Article 11 potentially makes our posts untenable, since we frequently quote other news sites in order to comment on them (as we do above).
This is, of course, the desire of those supporting both bills. It is not just to close the (made up, mythical) “value gap.” It is to fundamentally change the internet away from an open system of communications — one that anyone can use to bypass traditional gatekeepers, to a closed “broadcast” system, in which key legacy gatekeepers control access to the public, via a complicated set of licenses that strip all of the benefits and profits from the system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Support for Gilets Jaunes Dips Below 50% — Survey
Meanwhile, boxer who assaulted two police officers during protest has been sentenced
More than half of French people now want the gilets jaunes protests to end, according to a survey.
A total 56% of those polled said they believed the protests had run their course and must stop, while 64% said that they no longer believed their opinions were represented by the gilets jaunes movement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Anti-Semitic Incidents Up 73 Percent in 2018
France saw a 73 percent rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2018, according to figures released by the Interior Ministry, with some blaming social media for the increase.
The figures revealed there had been 541 incidents across the country last year, euronews reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
French State Has Arrested, Convicted 1,800 Yellow Vest Members So Far
French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe has revealed that there have been nearly 1,800 court convictions of activists who have taken part in the weekly Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) protests.
The French prime minister revealed the extent of the convictions during a speech in front of the National Assembly, updating a previous figure released last month that confirmed just under 1,000 convictions of members of the movement, Le Figaro reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Salini Impregilo Presents Offer for Astaldi
Cash capital increase of 225 mn euros for 65% stake
(ANSA) — Rome, February 14 — Infrastructure giant Salini Impregilo said Thursday that it has made an offer to take a controlling stake in troubled construction group Astaldi. The proposal is for a cash capital increase of 225 million euros for 65% of Astaldi (after the capital increase), which would become an “essentially debt-free company”.
“The transaction represents an opportunity to create one of the leading global EPC operators with a combined EPC order book of around €33 billion and more than 45,000 employees,” Salini Impregilo said. The statement said the proposal would see Astaldi selling off its concessions arm, including the third Bosphorus bridge project and the Gebze-Orhangazi-Izmi highway in Turkey, to pay unsecured creditors.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy PM Sends European Elections Warning to EU Critics — ‘They Won’t be Re-Elected!
ITALIAN Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has hit back at criticism from the EU after europhiles rounded on him in a European Parliament speech, saying many who attacked him will be out of a job after May’s elections.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
May’s Dutch ‘Ally’: ‘Weak’ UK ‘Too Small’ To be World Player After Brexit
The Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said that the UK is “too small” to be a world player after Brexit.
Prime Minister Rutte, often sold as Prime Minister Theresa May’s ‘closest ally’ out of all European leaders, made the comments in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais on Wednesday and claimed the UK was on a “precipice” of a “devastating” no-deal Brexit.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
On Valentine’s Day, Christians Remember Patron Saint of Romance
February 14 marks the yearly reminder of sweethearts and romance but many forget that the feast originated with a Christian saint from Rome named Valentine.
Many countries, such as Italy and France, still call this Saint Valentine’s Day, a rarity now in the English-speaking world.
The details surrounding St. Valentine — or Valentinus, as he was called then — are contested, but the real Valentinus seems to have been a third-century Roman priest known for ministering to persecuted Christians, whose lives were always in danger of martyrdom under the Roman Emperor Claudius II.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
One Click and You’re Out: UK Makes it an Offence to View Terrorist Propaganda Even Once
Oh snap. UK netizens better hope they don’t have twitchy mouse-click finger
It will be an offence to view terrorist material online just once — and could incur a prison sentence of up to 15 years — under new UK laws.
The Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill was granted Royal Assent yesterday, updating a previous Act and bringing new powers to law enforcement to tackle terrorism.
But a controversial inclusion was to update the offence of obtaining information “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” so that it now covers viewing or streaming content online…
It said that the existing laws didn’t capture the “nuance” in “changing methods” for distribution and consumption of terrorist content — and so added a new clause into the 2019 Act (PDF), making it an offence to “view (or otherwise access) any terrorist material online”.
This means that, technically, anyone who clicked on a link to such material could be caught by the law — and rights groups are concerned about the potential for abuse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Our Country is France, Not the EU!’: EU Flag Compulsory in All Classrooms
French MPs have voted to make displaying the Tricolore and European Union flag compulsory in schools.
The National Assembly backed the amendment from establishment right-wing Republicans MP Éric Ciotti on Monday, according to euronews.
The two flags must be displayed in all lower and high schools, regardless of whether they are private or state-run, and it will be obligatory for all children to learn France’s national anthem, “La Marseillaise.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Names American Farrell New Camerlengo
71-year-old replaces the late Jean-Louis Tauran
(ANSA) — Vatican City, February 14 — The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis has appointed American Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell as the new Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church.
Farrell, the 71-year-old prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, replaces Frenchman Jean-Louis Tauran, who died in July.
The Camerlengo has the job of presiding over the ‘sede vacante’ period that follows the death of a pope, managing the Church’s affairs until a new pontiff is elected. As well, the Camerlengo verifies the pontiff’s death and then destroys his ring.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s Minister Compared Hungary’s New Family Assistance Measures to Nazism
Sweden’s minister for social affairs compared Hungary’s new family assistance measures to Nazism. Foreign Minister Szijjarto hit back by criticising the Scandinavian country’s migration policy.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Actor — “Sweden is Starting to Resemble Africa”
Having just returned from a trip to Africa, the outspoken actor Stefan Sauk says that he is starting to see some similarities between his homeland and the large southern continent.
In a video clip on his Facebook page, he explains that Sweden, several months after the election, finally has got a “new” government.
One thing he reflects upon is that after elections in African countries there is often a fuss about who has won and whether the election was rigged or not.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Geneva to Ban Religious Symbols on Public Employees
Geneva residents voted for a controversial new “secularism law”, which will among other things ban elected officials and public employees from wearing visible religious symbols.
More than 55 percent of voters in the Swiss canton backed the law, final results showed, despite warnings that it could lead to discrimination, particularly against Muslim women.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Strange Death of Europe: Self-Abnegation of Your Country
Part 5: What happens when you disrespect your country and/or arrived from so far away that you don’t possess any connection to your new country? How do you disengage your own culture driven into your DNA to adapt to a new culture that remains strange to you? Answer: you reject your new country.
In his book, The Strange Death of Europe, Douglas Murray said “I keep a small notepad of extremely stupid things that politicians say. “We feel that multiculturalism and diversity make our country more dynamic.” And I thought that was one of the best. And I sort of couldn’t, not use that. Because if somebody says something so stupid, you have to remind the general public of it. And we have to linger over a comment like that because it is preposterous. And it is also symptomatic. It is symptomatic of a type of person — not just a type of politician, but a type of person — who positively venerates everything other than the place from which they’ve come. We’ll troll the world looking for things to praise so long as there’s nothing at home to praise. And this is a culture of masochism, a culture of extraordinary self-abnegation and masochism. And I think that that quote from your former prime minister could not be improved upon as an example of that genre.”
In the middle of America’s race riots in the 60’s, 70’s and into the 80’s, one of America’s vice-presidents, Dan Quail, said, “Diversity is our strength; it makes us stronger.” Of course, he never lived in the Chicago or Detroit ghettoes where European-Americans discovered racial violence up close and ugly. In Detroit, race relations caused a 78 percent dropout-flunkout rate for African-Americans. White kids fled their schools because of extortions, violence, drugs and fear for their lives. Businesses shut down from so much shoplifting and theft. Grocery stores bankrupted. Graffiti, burned out cars and trash dominated the streets.
If diversity provided so much good, why did 1.2 million Detroit residents flee that city within 20 years? If Chicago remains the paragon of racial integration, how did it become the murder capital of America?
Why is it in southern California that African-Americans face incredible violence from Mexicans who hate blacks? And why, pray tell, has Detroit today, become an Islamic caliphate or parallel society within our own country?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Ambassador Woos UK With Free Trade Agreement Valentine
The U.S’s ambassador to the UK Woody Johnson has shared a Valentine’s Day poem to woo the country into agreeing a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) after Brexit.
Appointed by President Donald J. Trump in 2017, Ambassador Johnson tweeted on Thursday: “Roses are Red/ But they soon fade away/ For romance that lasts/ Sign a new FTA!”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamic ‘Sunday School’ Told Girls to Have Children Instead of Careers
A school in Slough will no longer rent space to a madrassa after it was revealed it taught Muslim girls they should have children instead of careers and hosted speakers at events who had described non-Muslims as “pigs.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Theresa May suffered another Brexit humiliation tonight as she was brutally savaged by Tory MPs from both wings of her party.
The PM had tabled an apparently bland motion that was designed to give her a mandate to push on with her plan to return to the EU and get more concessions on the Irish border backstop.
But it was interpreted in wildly different ways by the warring factions in Parliament, and Mrs May crashed to defeat by a huge margin of 303 to 258.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mainstream Media Journo Urges Bosses to Sack Brexit-Voting Workers First
Mainstream media favourite Terry Christian has taken some backlash after claiming he knows employers planning to sack Brexit-voting employees, and urging other bosses to do the same.
“Brexiters were conned — maybe it won’t hit home until they get that P45,” Christian asserted on social media, referring to the form a typical British worker would receive after being laid off.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Has One of World’s Biggest Gay Communities — New Book
Double life erected into system says Frederic Martel in Sodom
(ANSA) — Vatican City, February 14 — A new bombshell book on homosexuality in the Catholic Church claims that the Vatican has one of the world’s biggest gay communities.
Sodom, by French writer and researcher Frederic Martel, says on page 10 of its 560 pages: “The Vatican has one of the biggest gay communities in the world and I doubt that even in Castro, San Francisco’s noted gay district, there are as many!” Martel claims there is a “majority of gays on the other side of the Tiber” and says that their double life “has been erected into a system”.
Sodom comes out in eight languages and 20 countries on February 21.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Why Female Genital Mutilation Cases Continue to Rise in the UK
Last week the UK saw its first ever conviction for FGM (female genital mutilation), despite it being outlawed decades ago.
According to City University, around 137,000 women in the UK have had FGM, with another 144,000 at risk.
Despite mandatory reporting by health and social care professionals and teachers, and despite a fivefold increase over three years, there have been just 36 referrals from the CPS.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Worldwide Effort to Restrict Everyone’s Right to Travel is Close to a Reality
According to a recently published white paper there is a worldwide effort to restrict the right to travel of everyone. And you will not believe how the U.N. is involved.
A recent article in Papers Please.org warns that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) wants to check every airline passenger’s background and send airlines an “Authority to Carry” before a passenger is allowed to board a plane.”An iAPI system allows for a two-way communication in near real-time. The airlines transmit the API message on a per-person basis to the requesting authorities at the time of check-in, while law enforcement agencies have the opportunity to decide whether a certain person is allowed or not to board a plane by issuing a board/no-board message.”
Think about what this means, the self-proclaimed “largest regional security organization in the world” the OSCE, wants to conduct background checks of every airline passenger in the world.
“The work of the OSCE spans the globe, encompassing three continents — North America, Europe and Asia — and more than a billion people.”
Giving a private organization the ability to control the right to travel of nearly 8 billion people is horrifying.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British Teen Doesn’t Regret Becoming ISIS Bride But Wants to Come Home to Have Baby
One of the three schoolgirls who flew from London in 2015 to join the Islamic State in Syria and become a so-called jihadi bride has re-emerged in a refugee camp, and wants to return to the United Kingdom to give birth.
Shamima Begum, now 19 years old and nine months pregnant with her third child by her Dutch jihadist husband who is now being held by Syrian Free Democratic Forces, was found and interviewed by Britain’s The Times newspaper just two weeks after she left the final territory ISIS holds due to the fighting there.
Despite the fact her two other children had already died in the Islamic State, the teenage extremist said “no I don’t regret” joining the Caliphate, and even appeared to express her regret the Islamic State was collapsing.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Jihadist Literature Gets a Pass
The Turkish journalist Hasan Cemal recently bemoaned that a publishing house rejected his latest book, Sorrow, on the grounds that it would lead to the imprisonment of both the author and the publisher for expressing liberal views antithetical to the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to Cemal, the works of other well-known writers in Turkey — such as Oya Baydar, Nedim Gürsel, Asli Erdogan, Baskin Oran and Nurcan Baysal — have met a similar fate, for the same reason.
Not all authors and publishers in Turkey, however, live in such fear. For instance, the Turkish translation of the book Al-Wala’ Wal-Bara (“Loving and Hating for the Sake of Allah Alone”), written by al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, are freely published by Beyaz Minare and distributed by Benli.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Two New Species of Strobilanthes Discovered in the Western Ghats
Every 12 years, the landscape of the Nilgiri Hills is covered with a blanket of purplish blue hues, thanks to the flowers of Strobilanthes kunthianus or Neelakurinji. In a recent study, researchers from the Carmel College Mala, Kerala, St. Thomas College Palai, Kerala, St. Joseph’s College, Tamil Nadu, and WWI Innovative Solutions, Kerala have discovered two new plant species belonging to the genus Strobilanthes, and have named them S. mullayanagiriensis and S. bislei.
Strobilanthes is a genus of flowering plants with around 350 species that are native to tropical Asia and Madagascar. The characteristic two-lipped, hooded flowers grow in the wild and transform the landscape with their shades of white, purple, pink and blue. The current study that was published in the journal Plant Science Today, adds two more species to this genus discovered in the Western Ghats of Karnataka.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Researchers Discover New Species of Softshell Turtle
A team of scientists from Hungary, Germany and Vietnam has discovered a new, critically endangered species of softshell turtle in north-central Vietnam and Hainan Island, China.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
A jury has found a Queensland woman guilty of taking her two daughters to Somalia to undergo female genital mutilation procedures.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
The gang raided the home in Maribyrnong, Melbourne at around 4am on Thursday. A man in his 50s was bashed in front of his terrified wife who was left unharmed.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
More Than Half of Year One Students Fail Literacy Test and Many Cannot Even Read a Single Word
More than half of Year One students tested across South Australia have flunked a basic reading test — with hundreds unable to understand even a single word.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Why is There a Chinese Military Space Station Hiding in Argentina?
Senior Pentagon officials are becoming increasingly concerned that the Chinese military can monitor and target US satellites from a secret deep-space tracking facility in Las Lajas, Argentina.
In testimony before the US Congress on Feburary 07, Admiral Craig Faller, the new commander of US Southern Command, warned about China’s rapid expansion into South America.
Fallar told lawmakers that China actively supports autocratic governments in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and employs predatory lending practices across the continent. He said Beijing has been instrumental in developing infrastructure such as a secret antenna located in the deserts of Patagonia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A California School Teacher Speaks Out: “Americans, We Need to Wake Up”
The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids (More of our tax dollars at work!)
I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department, or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything.
My budget was already substantial, but I ended up buying new computers for the Computer Learning Center, half of which, one month later, were carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in America. (More and more of our tax dollars at work!)
I have had to intervene several times for young substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less than 3 months, who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them putas (whores) and throwing things, that the teachers were in tears.
Free medical care, free education, free food, free day care, etc., etc., etc. Is it any wonder they feel entitled not only to be in this country, but also to demand rights, privileges and entitlements?
To those who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants contribute to our society, because they happen to like their gardener and/or housekeeper, and they like to pay less for tomatoes, I say:
Spend some time in the real world of illegal immigration and see the true costs. Higher insurance, medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, overcrowding, new diseases, etc., etc., etc. For me, I’ll pay more for tomatoes.
Americans, we need to wake up. The guest worker program will be a disaster because we won’t have the guts to enforce it. Does anyone in their right mind really think they will voluntarily leave and return?
It does, however, have everything to do with culture: A third-world culture that does not value education, that accepts children getting pregnant and dropping out of school by age 15, and that refuses to assimilate, plus an American culture that has become so weak and worried about “political correctness”, that we don’t have the will to do what is needed.
If this makes your blood boil, as it did mine, forward this to everyone you know including your Congressman and Senators.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Elderly German Couple Forced From Home to Accommodate Migrants
A German couple has been been notified they must vacate their apartment to make room for refugees who will soon be placed there, according to local media.
Klaus Roth, 74, who has lived in his apartment in the town of Neckartailfingen for 24 years, is stunned by the decision, which was reached by the municipal council and mayor, Nürtinger Zeitung reports.
“I put a lot of money and work into the apartment,” said Roth, who raised his three children in the home. “I completely renovated it on my own.”
“You do not transplant an old tree.”
Roth and his partner have been offered a replacement dwelling half the size of their current abode — for the same cost.
Roth has an extensive record of activism and service in the community, including volunteering to aid and welcome ‘refugees,’ approximately 40 of whom have already been resettled in town.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Finnish Vigilante Group Targeting Foreign “Sex Tourists”
Group allegedly creating fake social media accounts to lure pedophiles, rapists
The vigilantes’ recent video, in which they claimed Finland to be overrun by “sex tourists” has arrived amidst a grooming gang scandal which has implicated immigrants and asylum-seekers from the Middle East.
The Finnish police and the National Prosecutor General’s Office are investigating whether the new Soldiers of Odin video, in which they declare a hunt for rapists and pedophiles, constitutes hate speech and instigation to violence, the Finnish daily newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet reported.
In the video, which is provided with English and Arabic subtitles, the group claims that it has made false profiles in social media, posing as young girls. With the help of the profiles, the group seeks to reveal men in search of sexual contact with young girls on the web.
The video, which has since been deleted from both Facebook and Vimeo, shows a group of masked men armed with bats and chains march onwards to the camera amid winter darkness, accompanied by heavy metal music.
The speaker of the group then claims Finland has been invaded by “sex tourists”. As the authorities “do nothing”, he claims, the people themselves have to protect their children. The Soldiers of Odin also claimed that half of the sexual propositions to underage girls came from Arabs. However, the group stressed that the hunt is open for “domestic pedophiles and rapists of all colors.”
“We guarantee you that a date with us will be memorable. And hey, don’t worry, we won’t call the police”, the masked man said in the video, which at the time of writing is still available on Soldiers of Odin founder Mika Ranta’s page on the Russian social network Vkontakte.
According to criminal commissioner Pekka Hätönen, the new video by the Soldiers of Odin can be classified as an instigation to hatred toward ethnic groups. However, for further action, he must first contact the National Prosecutor’s Office, which is responsible for targeting hate speech on the internet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Cops Spray Migrants on Border Train
Passengers breathe it in too on Ventimiglia-Nice train
(ANSA) — Ventimiglia, February 14 — French police used pepper spray to get migrants out of a toilet on a train travelling from Italy to France near the border on Thursday, local sources said.
The toxic spray spread down the carriage causing burning sensations, coughs and also moments of panic and confusion, the sources said.
The incident happened on a Ventimiglia-Nice train near the station of Menton Garavan, sources said.
French police have been pushing back migrants at the Italian border, spurring criticism from Italian officials.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Migrants From ‘Hijacked’ Ship Take Salvini to European Human Rights Court
Two migrants who were aboard a ship that saw rescued migrants threaten crew members have opened a case against Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini over tweets they claim could jeopardise their right to a fair trial.
The migrant pair, a Sudanese and a Ghanian, are currently under investigation for threats, violence, and resistance toward a public official and are awaiting their prosecution and trial over their role in the alleged hijacking, Il Giornale reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Only One in Four Asylum Requests Are Being Accepted in Spain
Germany received nearly three times as many applications last year and granted protection to 50% of them, according to the Spanish Refugee Support Commission
Spain received a record-breaking 54,000 requests for asylum in 2018, making it one of the five countries in Europe with the highest number of applications. But it accepted a far lower rate of requests than other European countries facing the same demands. In 2018, just 12,000 requests were resolved in Spain, and just one in four asylum seekers was granted protection.
The acceptance rate has fallen from 35% to 24% — the lowest rate of the seven European countries that have the highest number of requests for asylum (Germany, Greece, Sweden, Italy, France and Spain), according to the Spanish Refugee Support Commission (CEAR). Germany tops the list, granting protection to 50% of 185,853 applications last year. “These numbers give us a negative image of our willingness to accept refugees,” said CEAR managing director, Estrella Galán…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Will Sign Border Security Bill, Declare National Emergency, White House Says
The Senate on Thursday afternoon approved a border security package to avert another government shutdown, as the White House said President Trump is preparing to take the extraordinary step of declaring a national emergency to obtain additional funding for his long-proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The bill passed 83-16. The border security compromise now heads to the House for a vote.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Why Sweden is Deporting High-Skilled Labor Migrants
“I thought Sweden was my home, and I got deported from there twice, even though I started a business, paid millions in taxes and even hired people in Sweden myself. I contributed as much as I could during my time there, but two deportations left a really bad taste in my mouth, in terms of how far away they are from humanity.”
| — Hat tip: Red Mike | [Return to headlines] |
Book Alleges 80% of Vatican Priests Are ‘Gay’
Eighty per cent of Vatican priests are gay and living in the closet, according to an explosive new book to be published next week.
The 570-page expose, titled In the Closet of the Vatican, claims that four in five clerics in the Roman Catholic Church are homosexuals — but aren’t necessarily sexually active.
French sociologist and journalist Frederic Martel, who spent four years conducting 1,500 interviews for the book, found that some priests maintained discreet long term relationships, while others lived double lives having casual sex with gay partners and using male prostitutes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: ‘Mother’ And ‘Father’ To Vanish From School Forms
MPs adopt amendment to education reform bill to use ‘Parent 1’ and ‘Parent 2’
School enrolment forms in France will soon no longer include ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ fields, after MPs adopted an amendment to replace them with ‘Parent 1’ and Parent 2’.
The amendment was made on Tuesday to the new draft education bill, despite opposition from Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer and the rapporteur Anne-Christine Lang.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis Decries ‘Convulsive Consumerism’ Destroying the Planet
Pope Francis delivered a powerful environmental message Thursday, decrying the selfishness that is ruining the earth and destroying biodiversity.
In three brief addresses to groups affiliated with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), an agency of the United Nations in Rome, the pope spoke about the need to react to environmental degradation with a change in lifestyles.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Homosexual Mafia Strikes Again
New York City Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. is in major trouble. In fact, he may be expelled from the NYC Council.
What exactly did Councilman Diaz do? Did he assault someone, commit larceny or voter fraud?
Not exactly. He said the following, which is in a sense being treated worse than the above crimes:
“The City Council is controlled by the homosexual community.”
Diaz also stated that openly-gay council speaker Corey Johnson is married to a man.
In response, Johnson demanded that Diaz apologize for his “homophobic” remarks, which “have no place in New York City.”…
Speaker Johnson’s hysteria is misplaced. Rather than be upset at Diaz for a comment, maybe he should take a look at himself and the truth of Diaz’ words. To be precise:
The New York City Council has a “Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Caucus”, in which Mr. Johnson’s name prominently appears. Two of the last three New York City Council speakers were openly homosexual. The Council, through its powerful LGBT Caucus, has thus far passed almost 20 pro-homosexual measures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Roots of the Red-Green Axis Anti-Semitism
Former British prime minister Tony Blair recently issued a stinging public criticism of Jeremy Corbyn, his successor as Labour Party leader, for tolerating anti-Semitism. The truth is that Corbyn has been an overt anti-Semite for decades.
What’s new, though, is that in the UK’s present political environment, Corbyn can not just get away with such behavior, but can prosper by doing so. Ironically, that’s the case at least in part because, when in office, Mr. Blair deliberately transformed the British electorate by allowing in millions of South Asians and others, many of whom embrace inherently anti-Semitic Sharia-supremacism.
Unfortunately, similar forces are now at work in the United States, as well. The anti-Semitism of the “Red-Green axis” personified by the newly elected Somali Rep. Ilhan Omar is an ominous warning of what similar demographic changes portend for our country’s values and
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
The Roth story about the man which have an extensive record of activism and service in the community, including volunteering to aid and welcome refugees, approximately 40 of whom have already been resettled in town. – is hearth warming.
He worked hard to welcome rapefuges and by doing so spending other peoples tax-money to make his town and community more unsafe. He should be happy now and not surprised to pay a little himself for welcoming the invaders. Really a good-feel story.
Here are a google translated website which list crimes by foreigners from Mr Roth’s city Neckartailfingen. Rampant with immigration crimes: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fcrimekalender.wordpress.com%2Fcategory%2Ftaeterbeschreibung%2Fauslaendische-herkunft%2F
As a pro migrant he should have been given the wonderful opportunity of sharing his public housing with migrants
It has come to this now? Germans being kicked out of their homes to make way for the precious migrants?
re: Klaus Roth kicked out of home
Such a kindly, generous old white man.
In the eyes of the immigrants who will now use his beautiful home to keep their goats, he will always be Santa Klaus.
I sincerely hope not.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5186715/isis-image-beheading-santa-claus-christmas-attacks/
JD, your “Is it Time to Forget Facebook?” URL points into what I consider a medical-spam website.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/facebook-dilemma/
The Finns trying to target pedos probably should investigate the guy who is outspoken against them