According to the migrant-helping organization Doctors Without Borders, more than a hundred immigrants picked up in the Mediterranean were “forcibly returned” to Libya. A spokesman for the Libyan coast guard disagreed, saying that the migrants were simply rescued.
In other news, the embattled Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro has closed his country’s border with Brazil.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Dora, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Blain: European Banks Are the Most Successful Ponzi Scheme of All Time
Blain’s Morning Porridge, submitted by Bill Blain
“Lenin was right. There is subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency.”
I must post this line from one of my favourite Financial sector commentaries — Duncan Farr of Jeffries who covers banks: “Here we are 5 weeks ahead of Brexit, and the top 2 performing banks in Europe are Lloyds followed by RBoS.” If you ever wanted a clearer hint the supposed Brexit crisis and imminent collapse of UK plc might just be a fictitious political construct, then there you are. Its fascinating just how sanguine the markets have become about the divorce. Sterling is up and who cares?
I have often been told I worry about all the wrong things. According to BAML, (reported on BBerg), the biggest fear of European investors currently is a Worldwide Economic Slump, with 30% of respondents citing it as their primary worry. Yep. I can see why that would be an issue. Only 2% of European investors surveyed by BAML rank Brexit as their primary fear. It’s not even in the top 5! (For the record, my primary fear is a Global Liquidity Storm — the sudden and catastrophic drying up of liquidity following a shock.)
Politics and markets are intertwined, but… maybe no longer in the case of Brexit? It’s just become background noise — meaning it; doesn’t matter, or we’re overly complacent. UK politics has never looked so dire. Markets appear increasingly disinterested. A new UK political party, and unstated threats a whole slew of ministers are set to resign if we get/don’t get a Brexit deal. Rumours are a deal is already inked with Brussels. Rumours are the Tory Brexiteers will reject it — whatever it says. It Theresa May is capable of getting together a deal in parliament — then this would probably be a good time.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
For nearly two years, Americans have watched — some with anger, some with glee — as POTUS Donald Trump and his administration were hampered and harassed by a special counsel investigation.
For nearly two years, Robert Mueller and his team of Democrat-donor prosecutors have destroyed fortunes and ruined the lives of several honorable men whose only ‘crime’ was working with and for a president who met with the approval of voters but not with the approval of the Washington Deep State.
We were repeatedly told by fabricators and clowns in the fake news establishment media that Team Trump and the president himself worked with Mother Russia to “steal the election” from Hillary Clinton. The evidence, they said, was provided by then-GOP nominee Trump himself, when he “urged a U.S. adversary” to find Clinton’s “missing emails” — which was clearly a joke and not an “appeal.”
Now, nearly two years later, the Senate Intelligence Committee finally admitted what most rational people have known all along, based on various open-source reporting: That there is no evidence of collusion because there never was any collusion.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A former U.S. Air Force intelligence specialist accused of espionage for Iran, Monica Witt, was allegedly radicalized in part during a stint at a Washington university that has taken $100 million from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries.
Certain American universities have received funding from the U.S. government with a partial goal of training students to be diplomats and intelligence specialists for the U.S., while simultaneously accepting financial donations from Middle East countries. In some cases, the programs have been staffed by academics who are critical of U.S. policy and who publicly espouse fringe positions.
Witt was charged Feb. 13 by the Department of Justice with sharing government secrets with Iranian officials. She was allegedly helping create a cyber-hacking operation on fellow former agents. She is at large and believed to be in Iran.
[…]
Muslim-majority nations — plus a handful of private groups associated with them — have given $100 million to George Washington University in the form of gifts and contracts since 2011, according to Department of Education disclosures. That includes $80 million from Saudi Arabia, $14 million from Kuwait, $4.5 million from the United Arab Emirates, and $730,000 from Turkey. Most of those countries gave as recently as June 2018.
The Middle East centers of Washington-area universities provide a direct line to shaping U.S. policy. In 2011, for example, GWU’s now-director of the Middle East studies program Nathan Brown testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence: “We have no policy toward the [Muslim] Brotherhood. And let me stake out what might seem to be an odd position here: I do not think we need a policy.”
[…]
Even as GWU receives financing from Middle East interests, the Department of Education has used taxpayer money to amplify its ability to shape the way Americans think about the region. For 2019-2021, it received a quarter million dollars for “Foreign Language and Area Studies” of the Middle East from a U.S. taxpayer-funded program known as Title VI.
Title VI grantees often have a trickle-down influence that shapes how not only college students, but young schoolchildren understand the Middle East. The Education Department says that “In addition to supporting foreign language and area studies instruction and research, Title VI” recipients will “conduct outreach and develop programs that expand global opportunities for K-16 educators.”[…]
[Note: The incursion of Islamic money into U.S. education isn’t news to long-time Gates of Vienna readers]
— Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Chicago Police Officers Upset at “Coddling” of Jessie Smollett
Rank and file irate that actor is being treated with kid gloves
According to Ngo’s police sources, such kind treatment wouldn’t normally be reserved for someone who before his arrest this morning was wanted for a felony offense.
Others suggest that Smollett will only receive a “slap on the wrist” after he was charged with disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.
Anger is building at Smollett potentially avoiding jail time for the crime given that his alleged actions could have kicked off racial violence across America. A slap on the wrist would also embolden other leftists to risk staging their own hate crimes, knowing that the punishment if caught would be minimal.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Covington Catholic High Student’s Lawyer Says Lawsuit is ‘Message’ For ‘Weaponized’ Washington Post
An attorney representing a Covington Catholic High School student suing The Washington Post for $250 million told Fox News on Wednesday that the pricey lawsuit “isn’t about the money, it’s about the message.”
Todd McMurtry, the lawyer representing student Nicholas Sandmann, spoke to Todd Starnes about a lawsuit filed Tuesday that “seeks significant damages” from The Post for allegedly targeting his client “just so the media could make the point it wanted to make.”
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Official Admits to Infiltrating Trump Campaign — Just Don’t Call it Spying
A top FBI official admitted to Congressional investigators last year that the agency had contacts within the Trump campaign as part of operation “Crossfire Hurricane,” which sounds a lot like FBI “informant” Stefan Halper — a former Oxford University professor who was paid over $1 million by the Obama Department of Defense between 2012 and 2018, with nearly half of it surrounding the 2016 US election.
According to portions of transcripts published on Tuesday by the Epoch Times of a Aug. 31, 2018 deposition by Trisha Anderson, the FBI relied on sources who “already had campaign contacts” in order to surveil the Trump team.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The FBI’s top lawyer, General Counsel James Baker, initially thought that Hillary Clinton should face criminal charges for transmitting classified information over her insecure, private email server, according to transcripts from a 2018 closed-door Congressional testimony reviewed by The Hill‘s John Solomon.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Google’s Nest Hack Allows Anyone Into Your Home
Infowars warned of spy technology in household objects years ago
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and one of many anti-American Silicon Valley cohorts subverting our Republic, recently deceived the country regarding censored search engines during a hearing on Capitol Hill.
An independent study by search engine DuckDuckGo revealed that Google has the wherewithal to socially engineer political bias bubbles via its search engine.
As Business Insider reported, “The study, among other things, found that participants saw vast differences in search results when searching for the same keywords (like “gun control” or “immigration”) from different locations across the country.”
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Americans fall for bad Democratic ideas because they are purposely misinformed about them
They say her plan will move the entire country completely away from fossil fuel-driven energy sources within a decade and replace them with “green energy” renewables like wind and solar energy. That’s not possible.
A summary of the plan, which has since been removed from the Internet, claimed that we can decommission all nuclear power plants (which are 100 percent emissions-free, by the way) in 10 years. That’s fantasy as well.
The plan also calls for the elimination of all air travel, to be replaced with “high-speed rail.” Good luck with that.
Why do so many people fall for this nonsense? One, Democrats aren’t honest. And two, the establishment media, which is full of Democratic propagandists posing as journalists, lies for them as well or, at a minimum, shields Democrats from being seriously challenged.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Justin Fairfax’s Accuser Speaks Out as Virginia Democrats End Calls for His Impeachment
Virginia House Democrats have backed off on their calls for Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax to be impeached and now one of his accusers is speaking up to express what she thinks of that decision.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Major Companies Pull YouTube Ads Following Report of ‘A Soft-Core Pedophile Ring’
Several major companies have reportedly pulled advertisements on YouTube following a report that the comment sections on the site have been used to facilitate “a soft-core pedophile ring.”
Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that Walt Disney Co. has joined Nestle and video game maker Epic Games in pulling advertising from YouTube, days after a YouTube user named Matt Watson uploaded a video explaining how YouTube comment sections are used to identify and share exploitative videos of young girls.
Watson said in his video that YouTube’s algorithm has helped facilitate the ability of pedophiles to trade social media contacts, provide links to “actual child porn” and trade “unlisted videos in secret.”
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
McConnell Fast-Tracks Vote on Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal”
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could toss a major stinkbomb into the 2020 Democratic Primary as soon as next week.
According to the Hill, the Republican leader is planning to call a vote on the “Green New Deal” resolution championed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
New Species of Tiny Tyrannosaur Foreshadows Rise of T. Rex
A newly discovered, diminutive — by T. rex standards — relative of the tyrant king of dinosaurs reveals crucial new information about when and how T. rex came to rule the North American roost.
Meet Moros intrepidus, a small tyrannosaur who lived about 96 million years ago in the lush, deltaic environment of what is now Utah during the Cretaceous period. The tyrannosaur, whose name means “harbinger of doom,” is the oldest Cretaceous tyrannosaur species yet discovered in North America, narrowing a 70-million-year gap in the fossil record of tyrant dinosaurs on the continent.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sharia Law or American Law? Which Did Somali Muslims in Ilhan Omar’s District Choose? [Video]
Documentary filmmaker, Ami Horowitz hits the streets of Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Somali immigrant and Democrat U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s district of Minneapolis Minnesota. Horowitz points out that Omar’s district is known for the export of terrorists who go overseas to fight for terror organizations ISIS and Al-Shabatt. It’s been reported that dozens of young Muslims have been recruited and gone to fight with terror groups from this community.
Horowitz engages a number of Somali Muslims in conversation, as he tries to discover how interested these Somali Muslims are in assimilating with American culture and American law. He asks them how easy it is to be a Muslim in American. The Muslims who are being interviewed cite rights like free speech as reasons they like living in the United States.
Every Muslim immigrant Horowitz speaks with says being a Muslim in American is easy. Things get interesting when Horowitz asks the Muslims he speaks with if they prefer Sharia law or American law. Across the board, they all prefer Sharia law over American law.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Smollett Bail Set at $100,000; Empire Star Ordered to Surrender Passport
Update6: Smollett’s bail has been set at $100,000 — or his salary for roughly 1.5 episodes of Empire. He has also been ordered to surrender his passport.
Update5: As noted in the Chicago PD presser, Smollett paid the two brothers, Ola and Abel Osundario, with a personal check for $3,500.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Stone Gagged Again as Judge Threatens Jail During ‘Death Threat’ Court Hearing
Former Trump adviser Roger Stone was given an epic slap on the wrist by a D.C. judge on Thursday after Judge Amy Berman Jackson slapped him with another gag order following an Instagram ‘death threat’ levied at the Judge.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The Democratic Party Needs to be Destroyed Before it Destroys the Country
There are no areas in which liberals, progressives, leftists, socialists, or whatever they want to call themselves this week, are working for the betterment of American citizens or to advance the cause of individual liberty. Their entire existence appears to be just the opposite. That’s why they must be destroyed.
Rush Limbaugh, if I remember correctly, used to talk about wanting to keep a few liberals around so future generations could see that they were once real. That was in the 90s, when they still had a grasp on reality. Seems quaint now.
Now it’s as if those liberals never existed. Nancy Pelosi’s city is overrun with feces and used hypodermic needles as illegal aliens flood her state. She doesn’t see disaster, or even a problem, she sees what she’d like to bring everywhere.
To that end, Democrats are moving to destroy the ideas that make up America; everything that makes the United States worth defending.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yellowstone Supervolcano Eruption Fears Spike as Geysers Become More Active
Some of Yellowstone’s geysers have been more active lately reigniting fears that the massive supervolcano will erupt. The sudden bursts of steaming hot water highlight the dramatic nature of Yellowstone while reminding us we are all at the caldera’s mercy.
While average people seemed concerned, geologists seemed excited and thrilled when Yellowstone’s steamboat geyser began erupting again in 2018. It has been erupting as often as once a week since last March, according to National Geographic, and scientists continue to say the volatile activity is not a sign of an imminent eruption. The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory reported that Steamboat has now set a record by erupting a whopping 32 times in 2018, a personal best for the geyser for a single calendar year. It’s the world’s tallest active geyser, and at the best of times, it can shoot hot water 300 feet into the air. However, it isn’t just the Steamboat Geyser that has been concerning people.
Ear Spring Geyser, for example, has been almost since 1957, but it erupted spectacularly a few months back and sprayed human garbage from the 1930s all over the national park. But scientists insist this doesn’t mean an eruption is pending.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chase Bank De-Platforms Conservative Performance Artist Martina Markota
Two weeks after Chase Bank announced that it would no longer do business with Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio, Conservative performance artist and Rebel Media personality Martina Markota has become the latest conservative media figure to be targeted by the bank which has made no secret of its support for liberal causes (see its decision to cut ties with the gun industry).
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Corruption Scandal Could Cost Trudeau His Job, Polls Show
Since it was exposed by a report in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper earlier this month, the scandal that’s become known as the SNC-Lavalin affair has already led to the firing of one of Trudeau’s closest advisors and raised serious questions about whether the prime minister was complicit in pressuring the attorney general to offer a deferred prosecution agreement with a large, Quebec-based engineering firm.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Three Rebel Reporters Assaulted in Three Weeks: Help us Fight Back
This week, our reporter Keean Bexte was assaulted by a leftist activist while he was covering the United We Roll pro-pipeline convoy in Ottawa.
Keean had done great work covering the convoy all across Canada. They were now at their final destination — Parliament Hill, at a rally that featured many Members of Parliament. Keean covered the official speeches, but we also like to cover what protesters and counter-demonstrators say — often just because they are so amazingly inarticulate.
So Keean was amongst the Antifa types asking them for their views.When he was talking to one guy, another leftist thug sneaked up and hit him.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
EU Boss Juncker ‘Not Very Optimistic’ About Avoiding No-Deal Brexit
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker complained of “Brexit fatigue” Thursday, as he said he was no longer optimistic about avoiding a so-called no-deal Brexit, remarks which will cheer many Brexiteers who see a full no-deal Brexit as the only way to truly leave the European Union.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Five German Cities See Stabbing Attacks on Same Day
Earlier this week five German cities saw stabbing attacks on the same day with several hospitalised and at least two migrants declared suspects in connection with the attacks.
The attacks have generated considerable media attention in once-peaceful Germany, where this level of violence is unusual.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Marseille Knife Attack: Karim L. ‘Chose Victims Based on Nationality’
The assailant who stabbed several people in a frenzied knife attack in central Marseille this week chose his victims on the basis of their nationality, according to reports.
Three men and one women were injured in Tuesday’s attack, which saw convicted killer Karim L. shot dead by police this week after he went on a stabbing spree at just before 5 pm on the Canebière, Marseille’s famous historic high street.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
German Police Detain 2 in Alleged Islamic Extremist Plot
The couple, both 26 and German-Moroccan dual nationals, tried to travel with their two young children to Syria in 2016 to join the Islamic State extremist group, but were captured in Turkey and deported back to Germany, Niesen said.
— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
German Police Discover 17 Hand Grenades Near Train Station
German Federal police have uncovered a total of seventeen hand grenades in a vehicle in the vicinity of a main train station after a routine stop of two Bosnian nationals.
Officers stopped the two Bosnian men on Monday evening after the officers believed the vehicle to be acting suspiciously. The two men were initially arrested following the discovery of the grenades in the trunk of the SUV near Dresden Station and remain in provisional custody Die Welt reports.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian Govt: ISIS Jihadists Returning to EU ‘By the Hundreds’, ‘This Must be Stopped’
Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjartó has warned that the European Union is pushing for more immigration at a time when radical Islamic extremists are returning from the ruins of the Islamic State caliphate “by the hundreds”, and this “must be stopped”.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Jeremy Corbyn Backs UK Return of Islamic State Bride Shamima Begum
Islamic State bride Shamima Begum should be allowed back into Britain and given all the “support that she needs,” UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said Thursday.
The teenager, who gave birth to a baby boy in a Syria refugee camp on Sunday, had “a right to return” after fleeing the country to support Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, Mr. Corbyn said.
“She was born in Britain, she has that right to remain in Britain and obviously a lot of questions she has to answer but also some support that she needs,” he told ITV. He said any move to strip her of citizenship is a “very extreme manoeuvre”:
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Says Those Who Accuse the Church Are Friends of the Devil
Those who spend their time accusing the Church show themselves to be friends and family of the devil, Pope Francis said Wednesday.
The “fashion” today is to destroy the Church with words, the pope said on the eve of the Vatican summit on clerical sex abuse, but this does not come from God but from the devil.
[Comment: Accusing the other of that which he does, consort with globalists who carry water for the devil.]
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Decries ‘Scourge of Sexual Abuse Perpetrated by Ecclesiastics’
Pope Francis opened the landmark Vatican summit on clerical sex abuse Thursday morning by urging his fellow bishops to “hear the cry of the little ones who plead for justice.”
The pope told the 190 heads of bishops’ conferences and religious superiors that he had called them to the Vatican in light of “the scourge of sexual abuse perpetrated by ecclesiastics to the great harm of minors.”
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Huge Cost of Monitoring Returned Jihadists Means Majority Roam Free in Britain
British government security orders that can be placed on known extremists are so expensive to enforce they are hardly ever used, leaving the majority of returning jihadists to “roam free”.
The arrangements made for Islamist extremists living in the United Kingdom has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of the rediscovery of a former London schoolgirl who defected to the Islamic State in 2015, who now wants to come to Britain to raise an ISIS fighter’s son.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Pensioner Fined for Stating That Somalis Are Lazy
A 70-year-old man who recently was prosecuted for writing that Somalis are lazy and don’t work, has now been convicted of the crime in Sweden.
It is “derogatory to the group of Somalis’ reputation” according to the District Court.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Burqa Ban Campaigner Wants to Ban Public Muslim Prayers as Well
A man who led a successful campaign to ban burqas in a region of Switzerland is now calling on authorities to outlaw Muslims from praying in public.
Giorgio Ghiringhelli, a right-wing activist who calls himself “il Guastafeste”, which roughly translates as “the killjoy” or “the spoilsport”, has said a ban is necessary to prevent “a Muslim ghetto like you see in Belgium.”
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: More Pro-EU Tory MPs Could Self-Purge if Govt Pursues Full Brexit
More europhile MPs could self-purge themselves from the Tory Party if the Government pursues a clean Brexit from the European Union — strengthening the case for No Deal for many Brexiteers.
Polls suggested over 70 percent of the Tory party’s ordinary members were either definitely for Leave or leaning to Leave ahead of the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Viktor Orban’s Anti-EU Campaign Mocked by Brussels Chief — ‘It’s Almost Monty Python Like’
In a scathing attack, European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said Hungary’s claims that the bloc is plotting to make immigration easier were “almost Monty Python-like, if it were not so serious”. The Commission had this week previously branded the Facebook campaign “fake news” based on a “ludicrous conspiracy theory”. Viktor Orban’s anti-immigration government this week accused Commission boss Jean-Claude Juncker of threatening Hungary’s security with the EU’s plans for migration.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Who’s Spreading the Fake News: Hungary or the European Commissian?
The European Commission rebuked a media campaign by the Hungarian government aimed at European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and U.S. businessman George Soros, accusing Brussels of pushing migration plans threatening Hungary, Reuters reports.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Political Bombshell Puts Netanyahu Re-Election in Doubt
Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu’s reelection bid has just hit its most formidable roadblock, making his political future look increasingly bleak. Two key centrist opponents of the Israeli PM have announced an unprecedented alliance in a bid to defeat him in the upcoming April 9 elections.
The groundbreaking move marks the first major threat to Netanyahu’s rule in a decade, and comes further at a sensitive moment in which he’s facing possible indictment and multiple corruption allegations. Retired military chief Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, now plan to run on a combined ticket in a highly unusual agreement for the pair to rotate as Prime Minister. The plan would see Gantz serve for two-and-a-half years, and Lapid for the same time period following.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Shamima Begum’s Baby is British — And Could be Jihadi Bride’s Ticket Back to UK
SIS bride Shamima Begum’s could be handed a backdoor route to return to the UK as her baby is British.
The 19-year-old gave birth to son Jerah in a Syrian refugee camp over the weekend, days before her citizenship was revoked by the Home Office.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Facing ISIS Bride Influx as More Than a Dozen Show Up at Syrian Camps
UK authorities are facing the “headache” of an influx of returning ISIS fighters’ wives and children after the fall of the terror group’s caliphate in Syria, according to reports.
In the past week alone at least 12 women with UK citizenship have shown up at refugee camps in northern Syria as operations to drive ISIS out of its last pocket of territory in the Middle Eastern nation draw to a close.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
India to Cut Water to Pakistan as Kashmir Conflict Escalates
The move has come amid rising tensions in Kashmir after an attack on an Indian military post. Pakistan’s PM Khan separately authorized his military to “respond decisively” to any “aggression” by India.
— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
China Introduces Disturbingly Real Female AI News Anchor
Three months after China unveiled its first disturbingly realistic AI male anchor, state-run news agency, Xinhua, unveiled “the world’s first female AI news anchor” to compliment her male predecessor, according to The National. No word if she’ll shoot him knowing glares as he flirts with the weather girl.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Is China’s Social Credit System a Preview of the Coming “Beast System”?
Virtually everything that you do online and offline is being monitored, tracked or recorded by someone. Could you imagine what life would be like if the government compiled all of that information into a giant database and used it to punish those that had engaged in politically-incorrect behavior? Here in the United States, Internet censorship has escalated dramatically, but over in China the government is cracking down on a much wider array of online and offline activities. If you fail to make a credit card payment, get into an argument in public or say the wrong thing on social media, you could suddenly find yourself restricted from conducting a whole host of normal economic activities. The primary marketing slogan for this social credit system is “once discredited, everywhere restricted”…
China’s social credit system rates citizens based on their daily behaviour, and this could range from their bank credit to their social media activities.
With a tagline of ‘once discredited, everywhere restricted’, it vows to punish ‘untrustworthy’ citizens in as many ways as possible.
This system sounds like something right out of a George Orwell novel, and even entire businesses can be penalized. In fact, it is being reported that 3.59 million Chinese businesses were added to “the official creditworthiness blacklist” last year.
[Comment: Yes.]
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Facing a Brick Wall of Blackouts
The Chairman of the Saltbush Club, Mr Jerry Ellis, today warned that Australia needs more reliable baseload power.
“With the population and the economy growing, but with electricity availability and reliability in decline, we are racing headlong into a brick wall of blackouts.
“Recession and disruption will probably follow, bringing to mind those memorable 1990 words of Paul Keating: ‘This is the recession we had to have’. Except in this case the recession will be self-inflicted.
“Much of my working life was in the steel industry in the 1970s and 1980s. It operated 24×7, with large numbers of electric motors requiring a continuous supply of low-cost electrical power. Un-planned interruptions were rare, but when they occurred they were very costly.
“Now we face the prospect of planned and unplanned loss of power due to the rundown of base-load power capacity. It must be a nightmare for today’s steelmakers and aluminium refineries facing this growing crisis.
“It is essential that Australia rebalances economic imperatives against populist ideas regarding the release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The houses, all located in Melbourne’s affluent inner-city suburb of Kew, were snapped up by buyers due to slumping house prices and the current exchange rate between the Aussie Dollar and Chinese Yuan.
— Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Julian Assange Granted New Passport by Australia Amid Ongoing International Impasse: Report
Julian Assange has been issued a new passport by his native Australia, regional media reported Thursday, clearing one of several hurdles keeping the wanted WikiLeaks publisher from exiting the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and returning home.
Andrew Todd, an assistant secretary for the Consular and Crisis Management Division of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, confirmed that the government approved a passport application filed by Mr. Assange in 2018, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sea Level Data Altered by Scientists to Create False Impression of Rising Oceans
A scientific paper published by a team of Australian researchers has revealed a startling find: Scientists at the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) have been “adjusting” historical data regarding tide levels in the Indian Ocean. Their “highly questionable” activities have depicted rapidly rising seas — but the truth is that there is no reason to be alarmed at all. Scientists have found that sea levels are stable — and have been for the entirety of the 20th century.
To put it simply, these PSMSL “scientists” have been arbitrarily changing their data in order to create the illusion of a problem that doesn’t actually exist.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
LF Economics founder Lindsay David predicts Sydney and Melbourne median house prices will plummet by 15 to 20 per cent in 2019 alone in his new report, Let The Bloodbath Begin.
— Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela to Close Border With Brazil Amid Maduro’s Refusal of Humanitarian Aid
Venezuela’s controversial President Nicolas Maduro announced on Thursday that he plans to close the country’s border with Brazil “totally and completely” until further notice.
The shocking announcement comes days before shipments of foreign humanitarian aid are set to be delivered to Venezuela, where the situation grows more dire by the day. Maduro maintained at a meeting in Caracas that aid from foreign countries is unnecessary, and an attempt by the United States to undermine his government’s power.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
DC Mayor Gives Open Borders Group $100,000 to Help Immigrants Become Citizens
Months after spending $900,000 to supply immigrants and their families with “targeted services and resources,” the mayor of Washington DC is giving an open borders group $100,000 to provide English classes, legal consultants and workshops to help them become American citizens. The mayor, Muriel Bowser, proudly announced this month that the taxpayer allocation “represents the largest such government fund in the nation.” The money will help pay for projects that collaborate with employers to assist immigrant workers with the citizenship process by also hosting seminars, and individual legal consults. “Together, we’re giving more immigrants in our community a fair shot at citizenship,” Mayor Bowser said, bragging about similar programs funded with DC taxpayer dollars.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Border Agency Confirms Salvini’s Populist Migrant Policies Working
The European Union (EU) border agency Frontex has released new statistical data showing that the tough migrant policies of Italian populist Interior Minister Matteo Salvini have drastically reduced illegal migration.
The EU agency revealed that the Mediterranean migrant route numbers had dropped from 118,962 in 2017 to 23,276 in 2018, a decline of around 80 percent following the formation of the populist coalition government of Salvini’s Lega and the Five Star Movement Il Giornale reports.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
PayPal Bans Big League Reporter After He Exposed Them Funding Illegal Immigration
PayPal banned Big League Politics reporter Luke Rohlfing from its platform mere months after he exposed the online payment processor’s funding of an illegal immigration group that has provided services to those that encourage illegal immigration.
Rohlfing says he did not use his PayPal account to receive donations, receive payments, or otherwise conduct business as a reporter, but simply used it to expedite payments and increase security on various websites. Still, PayPal said in its email to Rohlfing notifying him of his account’s termination that the decision was based on his “activities” and relating to his “usage of PayPal services.”
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Unprecedented Political Rise in Nationalism is Taking Place Due to Immigration
While hundreds of immigrants arrive every single day to Spain, the polls reflect nationalism everyday is taking a greater relevance in its politics.
Only in the first half of January more than 2900 immigrants arrived to the Spanish coasts and more than 65.000 did it the last year, this number is even greater than the sum of immigrants arrived to Spain in the three previous years and a 289 per cent more than in the year 2016.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Horse Set on Fire, Migrant Gang Douses Woman in Lighter Fluid
A horse was set on fire and an elderly woman was doused in lighter fluid near a flaming grill by an “immigrant gang” in separate incidents in Sweden, according to local media.
In Örebro, a horse was treated for burns after one or more perpetrators allegedly broke into stables overnight at a women’s college and set fire to a quilt laid across the animal’s back, Expressen reports.
“Someone or some people entered the stable,” said a police spokesman. “There are clearly visible injuries after the fire on the horse.”
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ten-Year Moratorium on All Immigration and Repatriation
Why exactly do we need to import 1.0 to 1.2 million legal immigrants annually onto our shores? Why does our U.S. Congress allow 500,000 illegals to jump our borders, annually? Why do we endure 22 to 25 million illegal alien migrants within our borders? (Source: Yale Illegal Immigration Study, October 2018.)
Why do we need another 140 million more people added to the United States by 2050? Do you possess a reasonable answer to that question? Will 140 million people improve anything in our country? Can you name one single benefit?
If you wander across Social Media these days, you find a lot of angry, thoughtful and reasonable people speaking their minds.
One of my friends, Gary Gobel said, “I support a moratorium on all immigration until we get the current situation sorted out. Today, we have some 22 millions of foreign nationals in our country, exact number is disputed and a poorly managed and thus broken visa program.
“Until we get our enforcement back up and running, deportations made and a competent visa program, all based on current legislated law—stop all immigration. This is a nation and not a charity; we owe no one immigration. Just like you no longer drink your mother’s breast milk, the days of a young growing infant nation are behind us. We have 330 million citizens and plenty of talent in this nation and the days of needing immigration to develop instead of border control are gone.
“We are a mature nation of expensive social programs, supported by our tax paying, law abiding citizens. Get control of the situation and then maybe we can talk very limited legal immigration again based on merit and full assimilation and no……that’s no, ethnic quotas.”
Does that make more sense than anything you hear on FOX or CNN or 60 Minutes or NPR or PBS? Does it make more sense than ‘open borders” people who lack any understanding of what another 140 million people will do to America?
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Latest: Over 100 Migrants Rescued at Sea, Sent to Libya
THESSALONIKI, Greece — The Latest on migrants and asylum-seekers in Europe (all times local):
5:10 p.m.
Doctors Without Borders says 116 migrants have been “forcibly returned” to Libya after a day and a half at sea.
The group, known by its French acronym MSF, says in a Tweet that the people, including 21 women and children, disembarked in the western coastal city of Khoms early Thursday. MSF provided water, food, blankets and hygiene kits to the group, which also included a pregnant woman and 6-month-old baby.
Libyan Coast Guard Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ayoub Gassim confirmed a boat carrying mainly Africans was rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, but rejected the term “forcibly returned,” saying the Libyans “rescued them from the sea … for their safety.”
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Catholic League: It is ‘Not Helpful’ To Ignore Homosexual Roots of Abuse Crisis
The Catholic League has criticized attempts by the New York Times and others to downplay or even deny the homosexual roots of the Church’s clerical sex abuse crisis.
As the Vatican begins a three-day summit on dealing with clergy sex abuse, Catholic League president Bill Donohue said that “it is not helpful to the cause of eradicating the problem of sexual abuse in the priesthood to dismiss a conversation about the obvious.”
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Mediocre Schools Breed Mediocre Workers
According to the CDC, American suicide is up 25% since 1999. Instead of asking why more meds are given to depressed people—often causing more depression, the root causes are ignored.
Depression has multiple causes. Some are:
- an individual forced into a controlled environment
- not being able to express themselves as individuals
- anti-depressants
- ignoring natural psychological and physical needs
- not belonging
- loneliness (devices replacing friends)
- lack of responsibility
- lack of morality
- life without meaning or purpose
- lack of common sense
- inability to logically draw conclusions in problem solving
- inability to reason (thus drawing wrong solutions)
- frustration having no future or destiny.
All of these are key triggers often leading to anxiety and depression.
Depression can lead to violence and or suicide. Sadly all of these key needs have been eliminated from schools. Today schools train our children what to think, not how to think.
Common Core forces a child to think in a box with little hope for a future not in line with the predetermined government goal. Common Core is based on the premise that people are stupid and the “smart academics know best”. To rise against a desired response often causes a child to be bullied or act out just to make their ideas known. This is turned into a feeling of hopelessness. Drugs, massive piercing, drinking, murder, terrorism, suicide are often the result of feeling hopeless. Common Core manipulates emotion and eliminates individualism, forcing a child into groupthink, not innovation and creation. Emotion become dominant with no logic reason balance. A person can only think of one thought at a time. By forcing overuse of right brain function (emotion) the left brain (logic and reason) become dormant from lack of use. Today, aside from being functionally illiterate, too many people are motivated by a trigger word that unleashes unbridled emotion too often resulting in violence or suicide.
Continuing to do the same thing over and over, expecting different results, is insane, as we have heard over and over. Common Core, Whole Word Reading, Eureka Math, Evolution, Secular humanism, all assist in diminishing the capacity of America’s future. Yet we ignore the facts and continue to push these horrid programs filled with errors, omissions and bias. Have we learned nothing from years of failing grades?
Why are we forcing America’s children to follow a failed program? Education based on collectivism not individualism, training not education and values not facts, according to the brilliant educator Shirley McCune, is to change and alter the society. This is not education. It is indoctrination. She promotes outcome based education. Our children’s destiny will now be chosen by a computer. How many more generations of Americans will we lose to this indoctrination called education?
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Feminists Demand Govt Action Against Sex Robots
Several prominent Swedish feminist groups have railed against the use of so-called “sex robots” and “sex dolls” and advocate tougher legislation against them, saying the objects normalise violent attitudes toward women.
The demand for action against sex bots came in the form of an opinion article in Swedish newspaper Expressen signed by several feminists representing the national organization for women’s shelters and girls’ homes in Sweden (Roks), the Swedish Women’s Lobby and the anti-female violence group Unizon.
— Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
University of Florida Official: ‘We All’ Contribute to ‘Rape Culture’
An official at the University of Florida argued this week that all Americans contribute to “rape culture.”
According to a report from Campus Reform, an official at the University of Florida is making bizarre claims about the root causes of “rape culture.”
On Valentine’s Day, the University of Florida hosted an event entitled “Cupid’s Consent Fair 2019.” The event, which was organized by the university’s Sexual Trauma Interpersonal Violence Education (STRIVE) program, was held to educate students about consent.
— Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I thought this was funny:
“Papua New Guinea hunting for 275 luxury cars missing after international summit. The impoverished Pacific nation bought the cars to ferry around VIPs attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November. About 275 cars are still unaccounted for.”
https://www.independent.ie/world-news/papua-new-guinea-hunting-for-275-luxury-cars-missing-after-international-summit-37815696.html
“Swedish Pensioner Fined for Stating That Somalis Are Lazy
A 70-year-old man who recently was prosecuted for writing that Somalis are lazy and don’t work, has now been convicted of the crime in Sweden.
It is “derogatory to the group of Somalis’ reputation” according to the District Court.”
Meanwhile statistics show less than 18% of migrants in Sweden work.
To quote a popular meme: where is the lie?
When I read your news, you usually have either transsexuals or Muslim zoophiles. Much less of such news comes from Russia, but if it comes …
Transgender zoophile from the Muslim region of Russia – Dagestan!
===========================
In Moscow, a Dagestan transgender on call tried to rape the dog of his client
https://www.samara.kp.ru/daily/26946.7/3997234/
… To relax, the men decided to drink first, after the libations began intimate conversations. The trance and the client liked each other, after which Nicholas retired to a shower. For 15 minutes, a terrible thing happened – a transsexual man liked the master dog, he attacked a poor dog and tried to rape him. On the squeal of a suffering animal, the owner ran out. Nikolai protected him from the forbidden passion and beat a trance.
When the police moved away from the shock, they opened two criminal cases. On Nikolay – under the article “beatings”, and on Rustam for cruel treatment of animals.