Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/12/2019

Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage officially launched his Brexit Party today. Mr. Farage said that the new party would be just like UKIP, except without the far right.

In other news, President Donald Trump proposed to transfer illegal aliens from the southern border to “sanctuary cities”.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Dora, JD, Reader from Chicago, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.

Financial Crisis
» A Tragedy Unfolding: This is All Going to End Badly, Central Banks Are Trapped
» Globalists Are Bringing Their One World Currency Plans Out Into the Open
» Most Powerful Person on Banking Committee Demands Answers From Bank CEOs on Student Loans… Doesn’t Know Government Took Over Student Loans in 2010 [Video]
» The Fed’s 5G Blockchain Enslavement Plan
 
USA
» “He Was Just Gushing Blood”: Man in MAGA Hat Retaliates Against Hat Flipper — Using a Samurai Sword
» 30 Inches of Snow! Another Bomb Cyclone “Detonates” Over the Midwest, And the NOAA is Warning Flooding Could Extend Into July
» A Roberts-Kavanaugh Bromance?
» Castro: ‘I Support Things Like Gun Buybacks’ — They’re ‘Good Policy, ‘ ‘In Some Circumstances’
» Confidence in Higher Education Plummets: Gallup
» Controversial Speaker Milo Yiannopoulos Possibly to Speak at TCC, Officials Say
» Crenshaw Calls Out Omar for Describing 9/11 Attacks as ‘Some People Did Something’
» Electoral College Protects All Americans Against the “Tyranny of the Majority”
» Georgetown University Undergraduate Students Vote to Pay $27 Per-Semester Fee for Slavery Reparations to Benefit Descendants of Slaves Sold by the School in the 1800s
» Gmail Making Email More Secure With MTA-STS Standard
» Health Freedom is Being Destroyed All Over the Western World
» High School Suspends 2 Students for Posting Gun Range Photos on Snapchat, ACLU Files Suit
» Hillary Clinton Laughs & Jokes at Arrest of Julian Assange
» Joe Biden is Not Moderate. He’s Far, Far Left.
» Marcus: Democrats Can’t Win Based on Their Ideas, So They Want to Change the Rules of the Game
» Microsoft Yanks Code After Some PCs Are Rendered Super Secure (And Unbootable) Following Update
» NYC Pricks: Even Cuomo Pushes Back on DeBlasio
» Oregon Man Fidel Lopez Sentenced to 60 Days in Jail After Raping Small Dog
» Oregon’s SB-978 Gun Control Bill is So Hysterically Restrictive That Pepper Spray is a Felony
» Peak TDS? The Secret Service Stopped a Man in an Electric Wheelchair From Setting Himself on Fire Outside the White House
» Seattle is Dying (Video Documentary)
» So You’ve ‘Seen’ the Black Hole. Now for the Interesting Bit — How All That Raw Data Was Stored
» SPLC, ADL, And the ‘White Nationalism’ Panic
» There is No Going Back if You Step Over the Windows 10 20H1 Threshold
» Top NFL Draft Pick Deletes Pro-Trump, Conservative Social Media Posts to Avoid Being Penalized in Upcoming Draft
 
Europe and the EU
» Climate Strange: Owing to “Flight Shame,” Some Swedes Feel Too Guilty to Fly
» Coffee Not Essential for Life, Swiss Government Says
» Cox: Govt Will ‘Listen’ To Second Referendum Demands, EU Leaders Hope Long Delay Will Lead to Vote
» EU Calls Project Gutenberg Archive, 15 Million Ebooks, Grateful Dead Recordings and Prelinger Archive “Terrorism, “ Demands Removal From Internet Archive
» Fake Newstatesman: Scruton Fires Back After Leftist Hit Job, Tory Back-Stab
» Farage’s Secret Weapon: Annunziata Rees-Mogg Defects From Tories to Join New Brexit Party
» Farage Launches Brexit Party to ‘Begin Political Revolution in UK’
» Hungary Will Not Soften Laws to Allow Soros College to Stay in the Country
» ‘It’s a Massacre’: Rising Number of Suicides Among French Police Condemned by Union
» L’affaire Assange
» London’s Uber, Cab Drivers Catch Yellow Vests’ Bug, Rail Against Fossil Fuel Taxes
» Norwegian Newspaper Bets on Arabic to Attract Readership, Locals Sceptical
» Swedes Accused of Nearly Starving Daughter to Death on Vegan Diet
» The Brexit Party: UKIP But Without the Far-Right, Claims Nigel Farage
» Tory Govt Winds Down ‘No Deal’ Brexit Planning With ‘Immediate Effect’
» UK: Farage Says New Brexit Party Will Spark “A Political Revolution” And Terrify the Tories
» UK: Half of Londoners Find City Life ‘Too Stressful’, One Third Complain of Cost of Living
» Watch Assange’s Bitcoin Holdings Grow in Real Time After His Arrest
» WikiLeaks: Document Dumps That Shook the World
 
North Africa
» Algeria Protests: Police Arrest 108 in Friday Clashes
 
Russia
» 2 ISIS Terrorists Killed in Firefight With Russian Police
 
South Asia
» India Asks if US Military Was Present at Pakistan Bases Before Dogfight — Report
» India: Tens of Millions Vote on First Day of World’s Largest Democratic Elections
» New Branches of the Denisovan Family Tree Discovered in Indonesia
» New Species of Bird Discovered by LSU Researchers
 
Far East
» Apple Music Censors Songs About Tiananmen Square Massacre for Chinese Government
 
Australia — Pacific
» Far-Right Activist Neil Erikson is Detained by Police for Interrupting Muslim Prayers in Melbourne’s Federation Square
» Labor Candidate Quits After Claiming Israeli Officials in Gaza Made a Pregnant Palestinian Woman Drink Bleach — Outraging the Jewish Community
» Manhunt for Afghani Suspect in Sexual Attack of 10-Year-Old Girl
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Rwanda’s First Lady Takes Evasive Action as Bumbling Jean-Claude Juncker Almost Sets Fire to Her Face During Flame-Lighting Ceremony to Commemorate Genocide
 
Latin America
» Brazil: The Deadliest Place on Earth: Snake Island — 60 Minutes Australia
 
Immigration
» 18 States Offer in-State Tuition for Illegals… And Legal Residents Are Not Happy About That
» 2020: Julian Castro: We Need Migrants ‘More Than Ever Before’
» ACLU Warns Immigrants and People of Color Against Traveling to Florida
» Austria Warns EU of “New Massive Migration Movement”
» Chalkboard Lesson: Chicago Marxists Are Pulling the Strings on the Attack on Our Border
» Fired German Intelligence Boss Slams Merkel Migrant Policy on Hungarian Television
» Migrant Crisis: France Agrees to Take 20 People Off Ship Barred From Malta
» Stranded Migrant Ship Appeals to Europe for Port After Eight Days at Sea
» Swedish Migration Employee Allegedly Gave 121 False Visas to Migrants
» Think Tank: UK Govt Massively Undercounting Migration Impact on Future Population Growth
» Trump Threatens to Dump Migrants in Sanctuary Cities
 
Culture Wars
» Crazed Leftists Have Hysterical Temper Tantrum Over “Men Are Not Women” Speech
» Is Transexualism a Disassociative Personality Disorder?
» Lesbians Demanding Wedding Cake ‘Trespassing, ‘ Lawyers Say
» Mike Pence: Pete Buttigieg ‘Knows Better’ Than to Criticize My Christian Faith
» Milo Yiannopoulos Launches New Book ‘How to be Poor’
» Ohio Democrat Pushes for Black Children to be Aborted
» Pro-Life Leaders Applaud Senate Committee Hearing on Tech Censorship
» Survey Finds That Half of America’s Pastors Are Afraid to Speak Out About Controversial Topics
» Swedish Leftist MP Says “We Assume That All Men Are Rapists”
» The Architects of Western Decline — A Study on the Frankfurt School and Cultural Marxism (Video)
» The U.S.’s Problem With PC-Culture: Lack of Free Speech Will be the Country’s Downfall
 
General
» Genetic Engineering: Homo Sapiens 2.0 is Coming Thanks to the Power of Gene Modification
 

A Tragedy Unfolding: This is All Going to End Badly, Central Banks Are Trapped

According to Sven Henrich, the founder and the lead market strategist for NorthmanTrader.com, this regulation of the economy by the central banks is all going to end badly. The fact of the matter is simple: central banks are hopelessly trapped.

Henrich says that it’s only a matter of time before investors learn the hard way that this sudden capitulation by central bankers is not a positive sign, but rather a sign of desperation. In a recent article he wrote for his website Northmantrader.com, Henrich says this economic manipulation by the central banks is all going to end badly.

“Even some ardent bulls will freely admit this, the question is the how, when and the where. Frankly, it’s a tragedy that’s unfolding and discerning eyes can see it. Since the December lows markets have taken the scripted route higher salivating at the prospect of dovish central bankers once again levitating asset prices higher,” Henrich wrote.

He also tweeted that this is all “a shell game” in which central banks are trapped.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Globalists Are Bringing Their One World Currency Plans Out Into the Open

People often ask me when they should begin to worry about the agenda for the “global economic reset” and the controlled demolition of the economy? If economic collapse is a process rather than an event, at what point in the process will we start to feel direct consequences? While crash conditions in economic fundamentals have indeed already started in the final quarter of 2018, culminating in faltering housing and retail numbers as well as an inverted yield curve, the average person is only affected so far in a minor way. It’s true — even during the greatest of financial depressions, only a part of the population suffers while the rest live somewhat normally.

This “relativity” in crisis changes, though, when we start talking about a currency collapse. In the event that the primary mechanism for exchange becomes unstable, as in Weimar Germany in the 1920’s or in Argentina in the early 2000’s, the damage to the public is almost universal except for the elitist class. In the midst of stagflationary headwinds, many people could still live a comfortable life given they are willing to make some sacrifices. But, in the midst of a currency implosion, anyone who is ill prepared will have to face the pain.

As far as timing is concerned, we can make educated guesses according to the evidence, but there is no exact science to predicting when the globalists will pull the plug completely on economic life support. They will trigger a disaster when the timing most suits them. However, I do believe there are signals to watch for.

In the past I have said that when globalist criminals stop trying to hide their criminality — when they start to become brazen in their rhetoric and agenda, that is when it is time for people to worry. Why? Because when criminals act more confident it is usually because they think they have already gotten away with it. Their plans are almost complete.

Over the past year, the globalists have become absolutely brazen in flaunting their endgame for a single global currency system. Yes, it is time to be concerned. But there are people out there who will tell you that the notion is “far fetched”. They will tell you that it is “doom porn”, and they will tell you it is “conspiracy theory”.

The evidence says otherwise. The evidence says it is conspiracy FACT…

But before global governance can be instilled as a necessity in the public psyche and the banking elites established as the benevolent rulers of the planet, several things must be accomplished. One of the first steps to global government would be global economic management and a single world currency. After this is achieved, global government would become much easier to sell to the public.

Beyond this, the idea that the globalists have “total control already” is nonsense. The big secret the establishment does not want you to know about is that elitist power hangs by a thin thread, and that thread is public inaction and distraction. The establishment spends trillions of dollars and thousands of man-hours developing propaganda and launching wars in order to keep the populace preoccupied exactly because their control is an illusion. All it would take is for a marginal percentage of people to wake up one day and suddenly decide to grab their torches and pitchforks (or maybe sniper rifles in a modern hypothetical scenario) and start snuffing out the tiny faction of elites in highest positions.

Their control would vanish, and they would be hiding in the deepest holes they could find. Sure, others could take their place, but why would they want to when making the attempt would be a potential death sentence?

[Comment: Recommended reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Most Powerful Person on Banking Committee Demands Answers From Bank CEOs on Student Loans… Doesn’t Know Government Took Over Student Loans in 2010 [Video]

Elections have consequences so it’s been open season for Maxine to publicly try to grill the “evil” CEOs of banks.

She just had a panel of bank CEOs in front of her and tried her tactic of grilling them but it didn’t turn out as she’d planned. In fact, it turned out to be a very, very embarrassing moment for the career politician.

Watch Maxine question each banker and then get the wake-up call from J.P. Morgan’s CEO that she’s clueless:

Maxine Waters had no idea that banks stopped student loans in 2010! In fact, she voted for HR 4872 in 2010! Learn more about RevenueStripe…

The government took over those loans and loaning so is she saying that the government needs to fix a problem they took over in 2010?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Fed’s 5G Blockchain Enslavement Plan

Last September I wrote an article pondering the possibility that cryptocurrencies and blockchain may serve as a red herring gateway to a global 5G-driven electronic implantable currency controlled by the same Rothschild-led central bankers who control all other global monetary assets.

A quick look at the website of a company called Digital Currency Group (DCG) may convince you that it’s true. It appears they own the entire blockchain and cryptocurrency space.

DCG is, according to its own website, “The epicenter of the bitcoin and blockchain industry”. Former Treasury Secretary and New York Fed insider Larry Summers is an advisor to the DCG board, whose members include Lawrence Lenihan, Glenn Hutchins, and Barry Silbert.

Lenihan is a former IBM insider, who co-developed the company’s first transactional interactive multimedia software kiosk products. He once served as chairman of the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering Devil Venture Fund. He is also on the boards of Body Labs and TraceLink.

Body Labs is a software provider of human-aware artificial intelligence that understands the 3D body shape and motion of people from RGB photos or videos. Lenihan provided start-up capital for Body Labs from his FirstMark Capital fund, which he started after his stint at IBM. Their focus is Big Data and AI. Body Labs was purchased by Amazon in 2017 and will play a key role in the development of 5G smart surveillance cameras.

TraceLink calls itself a “life sciences cloud” that specializes in, “global track & trace”, “global compliance”, and “digital supply chain”. They work closely with Big Pharma and the hospital chains. TraceLink has the technology which could be used to “track & trace” human microchip recipients.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

“He Was Just Gushing Blood”: Man in MAGA Hat Retaliates Against Hat Flipper — Using a Samurai Sword

Following a spate of violence and harassment directed towards Trump supporters wearing MAGA hats, one man retaliated with a samurai sword.

30-year-old Leor Bergland of San Francisco was arrested last Wednesday in connection with a March 29 incident in which an assailant who knocked his “Make America Great Again” hat off was slashed with a sword at around 10 p.m. according to NBC News.

Bergland has a criminal record and lives in a San Francisco supportive housing complex for formerly homeless people.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

30 Inches of Snow! Another Bomb Cyclone “Detonates” Over the Midwest, And the NOAA is Warning Flooding Could Extend Into July

We aren’t supposed to have a major blizzard in April. Less than a month after a “bomb cyclone” caused apocalyptic flooding in the central part of the country, another “bomb cyclone” is hitting the exact same area. One meteorologist has called it “a life-threatening storm”, and at this moment over four million people are under blizzard warnings. South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas are going to get absolutely hammered before the storm finally moves east on Friday. The authorities are warning that this new “bomb cyclone” will cause additional flooding in the region, but at this point we do not know how bad that flooding will be. The good news is that the ground has been softened up by warmer weather since the last “bomb cyclone”, and that should mean that more of the moisture is absorbed before it flows into the major rivers.

But the bad news is that we are being told that this storm “could break records”. The following comes from the Daily Mail…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A Roberts-Kavanaugh Bromance?

“Conservatives’ takeover of Supreme Court stalled by John Roberts-Brett Kavanaugh bromance.” That’s the headline of a story in USA Today. The author explains:

“Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s newest member, Brett Kavanaugh, have voted in tandem on nearly every case that’s come before them since Kavanaugh joined the court in October. They’ve been more likely to side with the court’s liberal justices than its other conservatives.

The two justices, both alumni of the same District of Columbia-based federal appeals court, have split publicly only once in 25 official decisions. Their partnership has extended, though less reliably, to orders the court has issued on abortion funding, immigration and the death penalty in the six months since Kavanaugh’s bitter Senate confirmation battle ended in a 50-48 vote.”

I discussed the Roberts-Kavanaugh alliance in connection with the Court’s unwillingness to hear cases regarding Planned Parenthood and, at least so far, to hear key cases regarding the rights of gays and transgender individuals. The three solidly conservative Justices — Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch — all have voted to hear these cases, but it takes the vote of a fourth Justice to make this happen.

Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh have held out.

What is Kavanaugh’s up to? USA Today says that, having been accused of a 1980s sexual assault during his confirmation process, he “may just be laying low.” […]

[NOTE: Another disappointing outcome for social conservatives.]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Castro: ‘I Support Things Like Gun Buybacks’ — They’re ‘Good Policy, ‘ ‘In Some Circumstances’

During a town hall on CNN on Thursday, 2020 presidential candidate, former HUD Secretary, and former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro (D) expressed support for universal background checks, banning people who have committed domestic violence from getting guns, and magazine capacity limits, and said that gun buybacks are sound policy in certain circumstances.

Castro said, “[W]e need to make background checks universal. There’s no reason that somebody who has committed domestic violence should ever get their hands on a gun, right? We also need to limit the capacity of magazines, and we need to make sure that we do everything that we can so that people who get their hands on guns do so in a safe way. So, you know, I support making sure that we make those background checks universal. I support things like gun buybacks. I know that they have had mixed success, but I believe that, in some circumstances, that’s a good policy, and that we can recover some weapons that shouldn’t be out there on the street.”

Castro continued that suicides committed with firearms need to be part of the conversation, and we need better investments in mental health.

[Comment: “Castro”, an appropriate name.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Confidence in Higher Education Plummets: Gallup

Confidence in higher education in the United States has dropped significantly since 2015, according to polling company Gallup, which notes that it’s the worst-performing institution they measure.

The crisis in confidence coincides with a similar decline in the public’s view that higher education is affordable and available to those who need it, according to the report — suggesting that affordability and access are linked to the faith people have in the institution of higher learning.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Controversial Speaker Milo Yiannopoulos Possibly to Speak at TCC, Officials Say

TULSA — Tulsa Community College officials said they’ve received a facilities rental request for an event that possibly would feature controversial commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Crenshaw Calls Out Omar for Describing 9/11 Attacks as ‘Some People Did Something’

Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar is facing backlash after her speech at a Muslim rights group’s event in which she described the September 11, 2001 terror attacks as “some people did something.”

Omar spoke at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fundraiser last month, where she called upon other Muslim Americans to “make people uncomfortable” with their activism and presence in the society and criticized the Jewish state.

But another part of the speech surfaced on social media earlier this week, in which Omar described the terror attacks perpetrated by al Qaeda.

“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” Omar said at the event.

The comments from the Minnesota freshman Democrat, still reeling from a number of anti-Semitic controversies, prompted Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw to slam Omar for her description of the terror attacks.

“First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as ‘some people who did something,’“ Crenshaw wrote in a tweet. “Unbelievable.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Electoral College Protects All Americans Against the “Tyranny of the Majority”

According to the National Conference of State Legislators, 13 states plus the District of Columbia—all of which currently are blue—with a total of 184 electoral votes, have passed NPVC legislation

The Electoral College is one of the most critical institutions created by the Framers of the Constitution to ensure a stable representative government, yet it’s under attack.

Eliminating or effectively neutering the Electoral College—the two options being proposed by many Democrats—would fundamentally alter the country, which, of course, is exactly what progressives are hoping to do. This would be grievously wrong!

Let’s start with the basics of our American system, which is, by design, unlike any other.

States, not individuals, are the original source of power. The states—13 of them, anyway—created the federal government.

Less-populated states were understandably concerned they would be overshadowed by the larger ones, so they demanded protections within the Constitution. Giving every state, regardless of size, two senators was one of those protections. The Electoral College was another.

Both concessions were intended to protect the minority against what is sometimes referred to as the “tyranny of the majority,” the concern that in a pure democracy the majority can do whatever it wants, regardless of how badly it might harm the minority.

The Framers did their best to create a representative political system that minimized the potential for a tyranny of the majority. They largely achieved their goal, though progressives have been successfully chipping away at those protections for decades.

[Comment: NPVC should be illegal. It is an end run around the electoral college system. ]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Georgetown University Undergraduate Students Vote to Pay $27 Per-Semester Fee for Slavery Reparations to Benefit Descendants of Slaves Sold by the School in the 1800s

Georgetown University students have voted in favor of a referendum seeking the establishment of a fund that benefits the descendants of enslaved people who were sold by the school in the 1800s to pay off its debts.

The $27.20-per-semester fee would create one of the first reparations funds at a major U.S. institution.

More than 2,500 undergraduate students at the Washington D.C. campus voted in favor on Thursday for the ‘Reconciliation Contribution’ fee.

The Georgetown University Student Association Elections Commission said those in favor (2,541) represented 66 per cent of votes.

The fee was opposed by 1,304 students and voting turnout was 57.9 percent.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gmail Making Email More Secure With MTA-STS Standard

We’re excited to announce that Gmail will become the first major email provider to follow the new SMTP MTA Strict Transport Security (MTA-STS) RFC 8461 and SMTP TLS Reporting RFC 8460 internet standards. Those new email security standards are the result of three years of collaboration within IETF, with contributions from Google and other large email providers.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Health Freedom is Being Destroyed All Over the Western World

They tell us that we are “free”, but it is just a lie. In every country in the western world, there is layer after layer of rules and regulations that strictly govern just about every area of our lives. But until just recently, there were certain lines that still had not been crossed. One of those lines has to do with bodily integrity. We have a fundamental right to say what goes into our bodies and what doesn’t go into our bodies. When any government violates that fundamental right, no matter how good the intentions are, they have entered the realm of tyranny.

And let there be no doubt — what is taking place in New York City right now is tyranny. On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio used the pretense of “a public health emergency” to order mandatory vaccinations for all of the Orthodox Jews living in Williamsburg…

Those who have not received the vaccine or do not have evidence of immunity may be given a violation and could be fined $1,000.

Is this still America?

I am having a hard time believing that this is actually happening. There is no way that people would have ever put up with such nonsense 40 or 50 years ago.

Even New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, is admitting that this effort to force mandatory vaccinations on city residents may be unconstitutional…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

High School Suspends 2 Students for Posting Gun Range Photos on Snapchat, ACLU Files Suit

Two male students at Lacey Township High School in New Jersey posted photos of guns on Snapchat. One of the boys captioned his photo with “hot stuff” and “if there’s ever a zombie apocalypse, you know where to go.”

The photos were not taken at school. They were not taken during school hours. They did not reference a school. They auto-deleted after 24 hours, which was well before the school became aware of them. And yet, administrators at Lacey Township High School suspended the boys for three days, and also gave them weekend detention.

This was a clear violation of the students’ First Amendment rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union has now filed suit.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hillary Clinton Laughs & Jokes at Arrest of Julian Assange

Hillary Clinton responded to the arrest of Julian Assange by laughing and joking about it.

Clinton claimed that Assange’s arrest had nothing to do with journalism and that the Wikileaks founder “has to answer for what he has done, at least as it’s been charged.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Joe Biden is Not Moderate. He’s Far, Far Left.

Laughably, Biden is talked about as the “moderate” Democrat candidate for president. To be sure, Biden has a far better persona than any of the other candidates. Biden is the far-left extremist you can take home to meet your tradition-minded grandparents. Biden will charm your neighborhood backyard party while flipping steaks on the grill. Biden is the national Democrat you would most like to have a few beers and pizza with, regardless of political beliefs.

In other words, Biden is the best fake. Biden is a liberal from a time when anti-American, at-war-with-reality, and even communist revolutionaries learned to hide who they really are. The only thing that has changed is that Democrats have decided that it is better now to be open and honest about their radical beliefs and agendas. Most Democrats have stopped pretending. Biden is still pretending.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Marcus: Democrats Can’t Win Based on Their Ideas, So They Want to Change the Rules of the Game

One of the biggest criticisms of President Trump is that he violates so-called “democratic norms.” Leading Democrats, think tank officials, and newspaper columnists have continuously wrung their hands over how everything from Trump’s tweets to his legitimate criticisms of the mainstream media somehow threatens American governing institutions. “Trump has assailed essential institutions and traditions…” claims a left-wing outfit in a report issued this year.

Yet these same groups are conspicuously silent on Democrats’ blatant and unapologetic attempts to subvert U.S. founding institutions in their lust for power that they cannot achieve through the existing governing framework. In recent weeks, Democrats have called for abolishing the country’s constitutional voting system, allowing children to vote, and packing the Supreme Court.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Microsoft Yanks Code After Some PCs Are Rendered Super Secure (And Unbootable) Following Update

Sophos, Avast users left wailing as update borks older OSes

A bunch of PCs running the wares of Sophos or Avast have been freezing or failing to start following the installation of patches emitted by Microsoft on 9 April.

The afflicted are those running Windows 8.1, 7, Server 2008 R2 and Server 2012. Avast for Business and Cloudcare have been hit by the problem, as have PCs running Endpoint Protection managed by Sophos Central or Sophos Enterprise Console (SEC).

Microsoft said this morning that it had “temporarily blocked devices from receiving this update if the Sophos Endpoint is installed”, a move which, sadly, had come a bit late for those afflicted.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NYC Pricks: Even Cuomo Pushes Back on DeBlasio

After a judge overthrew a NY County’s quarantine on people who aren’t sick but simply haven’t had a vaccine, now NYC Mayor DeBlasio attacks a religious community in NY with threats of $1,000 fines. Even Gov Cuomo has had enough.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Oregon Man Fidel Lopez Sentenced to 60 Days in Jail After Raping Small Dog

An Oregon man named Fidel Lopez was handed the maximum sentence for raping a dog that later had to be euthanized, a report says.

The 52-year-old suspect was arrested after his girlfriend became worried that he had attacked her small Lhasa apso after the dog began whimpering and hiding underneath a couch, the Oregonian reported.

A police report says that when the dog was inspected, it was found injured and bloody. The woman asked the police to perform a rape kit on the animal and said that her boyfriend had talked of his interest in bestiality.

According to officials, the suspect’s DNA was found among the dog’s wounds. The animal was so injured that it was eventually euthanized.

Lopez was arrested and later handed a 60-day jail sentence for raping the dog. The sentence is the maximum allowable by state law.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Oregon’s SB-978 Gun Control Bill is So Hysterically Restrictive That Pepper Spray is a Felony

A new gun control bill introduced in the Oregon State Legislature added 45 pages of draconian amendments the night before the vote. SB978 passed the Judiciary Committee yesterday and now heads to the Oregon Senate.

It’s a good thing that some parts of this state have vowed to be 2A sanctuaries because Oregonians are going to need them. If the gun owners — and even pepper spray owners — in other parts of the state hope to defend themselves, they could be facing a vast new array of felony charges.

The battle for the right to bear arms is rapidly spreading across the country. In February,the House of Representatives passed two sweeping national bills. New Mexico has passed 6 outrageous new laws that sheriffs are refusing to enforce, and sheriffs in Washington state are also rebelling. On the other stand, two states have introduced invasive laws requiring would-be gun owners to hand over access to years of personal social media.

What’s in the unconstitutional bill, you ask?

Well, let’s get started.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Peak TDS? The Secret Service Stopped a Man in an Electric Wheelchair From Setting Himself on Fire Outside the White House

Uniformed officers of the Secret Service stopped a man in an electric wheelchair from setting himself on fire outside of the White House Friday afternoon.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Seattle is Dying (Video Documentary)

KOMO’s Eric Johnson explores the impact the drug and homelessness problem is having on our city and possible solutions in “Seattle is Dying.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

So You’ve ‘Seen’ the Black Hole. Now for the Interesting Bit — How All That Raw Data Was Stored

The black hole image released yesterday needed over a thousand helium-filled disk drives to record it.

Regular drives were tried and tested but failed due to air pressure at the high altitudes of the radio telescope sites.

Eight radio telescopes at six locations formed the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) array, which contributed the data used to calculate the image of the black hole in the Messier 87 galaxy:

Hawaii: James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and Submillimeter Array at an altitude of 4,092m Mexico: Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano (4,600m) Arizona: Submillimeter Telescope (3,185m) Spain: IRAM NOEMA observatory, Sierra Nevada (2,850m) Chile: APEX (5,100m) and ALMA (5,000m) telescopes, Atacama Desert Antarctica: South Pole Telescope (2,800m)

EHT_telescope_sites

In effect, they simulated a single radio telescope the size of planet Earth.

The telescopes take images as Earth rotates to build a picture of the target area taken from different locations on the surface of the planet. The technique used to combine the signals is called very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI), at a wavelength of 1.3mm, which uses hydrogen maser atomic clocks to precisely time stamp the raw image data. A specially developed algorithm combined and correlated the raw data to build the single overall image.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

SPLC, ADL, And the ‘White Nationalism’ Panic

Alarmist organizations encourage social media censors to claim that there is a surge in “hate” across the West

A cluster of events this past week marked a steepening in the upwards trend toward online censorship.

In a New York Times/Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) collaborative report about online extremism, authors claimed the social media sphere enabled a “global network of white extremists” to develop and that this has led to a “surge of white supremacist and xenophobic terrorism in the West.” Although grasping in its conclusions and broadly flawed, the report was no doubt a clear enough justification for many to continue the culling of speech freedoms online. In a near-identical report of its own, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) described certain social media platforms having apparently become “round-the-clock digital white supremacist rallies.” They too conclude more policing from both industry and government had to be done.

Both reports coincided with social media executives themselves being called to a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee where it was demanded that they do more to “stem white nationalist propaganda and hate speech online.”…

The report seems to have uncovered not so much a ‘surge in social media-enabled violence’ but the pervasiveness of social media in people’s everyday lives and the ease with which one’s online reading and communication habits (and criminal motives) can be ascertained.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

There is No Going Back if You Step Over the Windows 10 20H1 Threshold

Fast Ringers keen to extricate themselves from the Windows Insider programme have missed their chance for a quieter life as Microsoft booted them into the 2020s with build 18875.

Before today, Microsoft’s platoon of unpaid Fast Ring testers could have switched away without needing a reinstall, but no more. Like the vampire of yore, if the 20H1 build is allowed over the threshold, there will be no going back without a stake to the heart of your PC.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Top NFL Draft Pick Deletes Pro-Trump, Conservative Social Media Posts to Avoid Being Penalized in Upcoming Draft

Yesterday, the New York Post hailed Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa as the “best player in the [NFL] draft,” saying that it would be “remarkable” if Bosa “fell to the Jets” in the NFL draft. The NFL draft will take place in Nashville on April 25th.

One hour later, they published an article about how Bosa removed all of his social media posts that reflected his conservative views. Bosa claims he removed them over his concern about affecting his chances with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL draft.

New York Post reports — Nick Bosa has wiped some of his Twitter slate clean. The Ohio State defensive end, who is projected to be one of the top picks in this month’s NFL draft, told ESPN he deleted certain posts, including a 2016 tweet in which he called former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick a “clown,” due to his potential landing spot.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Climate Strange: Owing to “Flight Shame,” Some Swedes Feel Too Guilty to Fly

What a civilization feels guilty about speaks volumes. In Sweden, it’s not stealing children and putting them in abusive foster care, proposing a special tax on just one sex, trying to compel boys to tinkle sitting down, or silencing dissent with hate-speech laws. But pangs of conscience over flying on airplanes and increasing your Carbon Footprint(tm) are a different story. In fact, Swedes even have a name for such shame: Flygskam (pronounced “fleeg—skaam”).

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Coffee Not Essential for Life, Swiss Government Says

The Swiss government wants to put an end to its emergency stockpile of coffee after declaring that it is “not essential” for human survival.

Switzerland began storing emergency reserves of coffee between World War One and World War Two in preparation for potential shortages.

It continued in subsequent decades to combat shortages sparked by war, natural disasters or epidemics.

It now hopes to end the practice by late 2022. But opposition is mounting.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Cox: Govt Will ‘Listen’ To Second Referendum Demands, EU Leaders Hope Long Delay Will Lead to Vote

Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox has said there are “no preconditions” on a potential Brexit deal with Labour, and that the Tories will “of course” discuss the possibility of a second referendum.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

EU Calls Project Gutenberg Archive, 15 Million Ebooks, Grateful Dead Recordings and Prelinger Archive “Terrorism, “ Demands Removal From Internet Archive

In the past week, Europol and the French government’s L’Office Central de Lutte contre la Criminalité liée aux Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (OCLCTIC) have sent 500 “terrorism” takedown demands to the Internet Archive demanding the removal of tens of millions of works: the entire archive of Project Gutenberg; an archive of 15 million texts, the entire Grateful Dead archive, the Prelinger Archive of public domain industrial films (much beloved by the MTV generation as they were the source of the channels classic interstitial animations), and the Archive’s collection of recordings from CSPAN.

The takedowns come in just as the EU is getting ready to vote on a proposal that will force platforms to remove “terrorist” content within one hour or face censorship through national firewalls, fines, and criminal sanctions.

Even if it was possible for the Internet Archive to sift through tens of millions of documents in a collection targeted by one of these takedowns in one hour to figure out if the takedown notice is valid, the timezone problem means that they would have to be ready to do this in the middle of the night in San Francisco, when the EU agencies most typically send their demands.

Even without this absurd law, the situation is dire. The French authorities gave the Internet Archive 24 hours to comply with its demand or face a nationwide block.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fake Newstatesman: Scruton Fires Back After Leftist Hit Job, Tory Back-Stab

Sir Roger Scruton, the United Kingdom’s pre-eminent conservative philosopher, has held firm after the left-wing New Statesman published an interview parsed to make him look like a bigot, resulting in the Tory government sacking him from his role on the Building Better, Building Beautiful architectural commission.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Farage’s Secret Weapon: Annunziata Rees-Mogg Defects From Tories to Join New Brexit Party

Annunziata Rees-Mogg joined Nigel Farage on stage on Friday to confirm she would be standing as Brexit Party candidate in the European Parliament elections to help “rescue our democracy” and return the power of Government to the people.

Ms Rees-Mogg, a journalist and former Tory Party candidate, told the audience in Coventry that she had left the Conservative Party in response to Prime Minister Theresa May ignoring not just her party membership but the 17.4 million people who voted to leave the EU by continuing to delay Brexit to avoid a no deal.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Farage Launches Brexit Party to ‘Begin Political Revolution in UK’

Nigel Farage launched his Brexit Party on Friday to campaign Britons to support a clean break from the EU and “to begin a political revolution in the UK. “

Mr Farage wrote in The Telegraph ahead of today’s launch of what was nothing short of a “national humiliation” suffered by the UK at the European Summit, where Prime Minister Theresa May secured yet another delay to Brexit to October 31st, 2019, and lamented of the ineffectual lawmakers in the House of Commons.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary Will Not Soften Laws to Allow Soros College to Stay in the Country

Hungary will not relax rules for international universities despite pressure from the EU and offers from Germany to mediate in a row over a college founded by US billionaire George Soros, a government spokesman said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a nationalist who has often clashed with the European Union, has been accused of restricting academic freedom with his new higher education rules, which the Central European University said forced it out of the country.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘It’s a Massacre’: Rising Number of Suicides Among French Police Condemned by Union

Police unions in France have reacted with “great anger” to the news of two more suspected service suicides over the weekend in the country.

“It’s a massacre,” the UNSA-Police union’s Thomas Toussaint told French media. He noted that it took until August last year for the number of suspected or proved officer suicides, currently 25, to reach 2019’s level.

A female officer who worked for a suburban Paris station was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Le Parisien. Local media in the town of Ales also reported the discovery of the body of a male officer who had disappeared one week previously.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

L’affaire Assange

by Srdja Trifkovic

Julian Assange’s arrest inside the embassy of Ecuador in London would not have been possible had that country’s government not authorized the British police to enter its theoretically sovereign territory. The lesson is clear: if you plan to seek asylum in a foreign embassy, you should be careful to choose the diplomatic premises of a country (a) not likely to be pressurized into betraying you; and (b) comfortable enough to make a long sojourn tolerable.

The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations reaffirmed the long-established principle of inviolability of diplomatic premises. The host-country’s police and security forces are not allowed access without a specific authorization of the chief of mission, which was granted in this case. Assange had spent almost seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy, after being welcomed there by the country’s former president Rafael Correa. The hosts’ political calculus has changed to his detriment over the past two years, however.

The British police arrested Assange supposedly for skipping UK bail seven years ago, but also—and far more importantly—under a previously secret U.S. indictment. The exact charge is for conspiracy, with Chelsea Manning, to hack into a “classified U.S. government computer.” Assange lawyer Barry Pollock said the allegations “boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source.” Assange had predicted that this would happen years ago, and stated it as his reason for seeking asylum in the first place.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D, W.V.) gloated “He is our property!” when told of Assange’s arrest, and he accurately reflected the sentiment shared by the entire Beltway swamp, Democrats in particular:…

           — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic [Return to headlines]
 

London’s Uber, Cab Drivers Catch Yellow Vests’ Bug, Rail Against Fossil Fuel Taxes

Authored by Chloe Anagnos via The American Institute for Economic Research

Also known as the yellow-vests movement, the gilets jaunes movement in France gets a lot of hate from the left-leaning media. To critics, climate change requires government action, and if that means the working class will have to endure more poverty and misery, that’s just how it is.

But as the gilets jaunes’ message spreads far and wide, the sentiment against fossil fuel taxes is becoming the strongest in neighboring England. And as a new environmental policy goes into effect this month, cab and Uber drivers protest, claiming that charges associated with the new rules will cut their earnings in a meaningful way.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Norwegian Newspaper Bets on Arabic to Attract Readership, Locals Sceptical

With its novel new offer, Vesterålen Online hopes to entice more readers, as the region has many immigrant speakers of Arabic, according to its editor Geir Bjørn Nilsen. Russian, the region’s second most popular language, is also being considered.

In a bid to broaden its readership, Vesterålen Online has extended its news coverage by adding a page in Arabic. After only a week, the newspaper reports a lot of traffic on these articles.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Swedes Accused of Nearly Starving Daughter to Death on Vegan Diet

A Swedish couple are facing prosecution after nearly starving their two-year-old daughter to death on a strict vegan diet which resulted in her being hospitalised.

The young girl was taken to Queen Silvia’s children’s hospital in Gothenburg in mid-February severely malnourished to the point where she came close to death according to medical professionals, SVT reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The Brexit Party: UKIP But Without the Far-Right, Claims Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage, the leader of the new Brexit Party, says his anti-EU group will mirror UKIP on policies, but when it comes to personnel there will be a “vast difference,” with no far-right faction, RT.com reports.

The former UKIP leader launches his new party in Coventry on Friday in preparation for fighting European elections that the UK may be forced to participate in on May 23, if a Brexit deal cannot be passed by British lawmakers.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Tory Govt Winds Down ‘No Deal’ Brexit Planning With ‘Immediate Effect’

The Conservative government has stopped its planning for a no-deal, full and clean exit from the EU with “immediate effect,” following Prime Minister Theresa May forcing the country into another Brexit delay up to until Halloween.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Farage Says New Brexit Party Will Spark “A Political Revolution” And Terrify the Tories

Farage, who said that he’s already received just under 1,000 requests from people seeking to be candidates, also revealed that he sat down with President Trump last month. He told his audience that the White House has been shocked by the utter disaster of the Tory-led Brexit process, and that it’s a shame lawmakers inside ‘the Westminster Bubble’ have failed to understand the will of the voters, Farage said.

“There are several people in the American administration American administration who are looking on with incredulity that what they thought was a great country suddenly is being humbled by foreign bureaucrats.”

But some of Farage’s most scathing criticism was reserved for Prime Minister Theresa May, whom he declared ‘the worst prime minister in my lifetime,’ as well as the most ‘duplicitous’.

“I can’t believe she has ever been involved in any negotiation of any kind at any point in her life. She is without doubt the worst Prime Minister in my lifetime and the most duplicitous — she says one thing and does the other again and again and again.”

The British people, particularly those who voted for Brexit, are being treated ‘with disdain’, Farage said. And the feeling that the Kingdom’s politics has broken down has become pervasive.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Half of Londoners Find City Life ‘Too Stressful’, One Third Complain of Cost of Living

A poll has found that a quarter of Londoners feel they have “no choice” but to move out, with some citing the high cost of living, stress, and low quality of life in the city.

A survey of 1,000 Londoners conducted by OnePoll found that 51 per cent find living in London “too stressful” with almost half saying they believe their quality of life would improve if they moved out of the city, reports The Mirror.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Watch Assange’s Bitcoin Holdings Grow in Real Time After His Arrest

In keeping with the transparent nature of Bitcoin, you can watch a Wikileaks support fund grow in realtime as donations flood in for Julian Assange after his arrest at the Ecuadorian embassy in London yesterday. All you need is the Bitcoin Wallet Address that has been set up by Wikileaks to see how much the fund has raised. And while it is indeed growing rapidly, as of around 10AM EST on 4/12/2019, the wallet only had about 6.3 BTC in it (about $31,000 USD); that may afford the Wikileaks founder about a week of representation by a good law firm.

Donations began pouring in during the 24 hours following Assange’s arrest. It represents a demonstration of financial support from the libertarian Bitcoin community, which has had a strong link with Assange and Wikileaks for nearly a decade. Wikileaks was one of the first organizations to start accepting Bitcoin, which it did in 2010, after traditional pay services like PayPal and Visa withdrew support.

The Wikileaks Defence Fund accepts donations in a number of non-traditional currencies, including Bitcoin and Zcash. Those wishing to support can also donate by sending money via bank transfer, MasterCard, Visa, Amex and Discover.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

WikiLeaks: Document Dumps That Shook the World

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on Thursday at Ecuador’s London embassy, where he had been granted asylum since 2012.

The United States alleges that he conspired with Chelsea Manning to access classified information on Department of Defense computers. He could be jailed for up to five years.

Since it launched in 2006, Wikileaks has become renowned for publishing thousands of classified documents covering everything from the film industry to national security and wars.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Algeria Protests: Police Arrest 108 in Friday Clashes

Police and protesters have clashed in Algeria as marches against the ruling elite show no sign of ending.

Police used water cannon and tear gas in the capital Algiers as demonstrators called for the removal of new interim President Abdelkader Bensalah.

Largely peaceful protests have been held every Friday in cities across Algeria for the past two months.

Police arrested 108 “infiltrators” towards end of the march after 27 officers were injured, officials say.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

2 ISIS Terrorists Killed in Firefight With Russian Police

Two men suspected of being members of an ISIS-affiliated terrorist cell have been killed following a counter-terrorism operation in the Siberian city of Tyumen, the administrative center of “West Siberian petroleum basin,” RT reports.

The FSB and Russian military said they had learned that an ISIS cell had been planning an attack in a crowded area of the Siberian city, so they preemptively stormed a home in the city where the cell was believed to be hiding.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

India Asks if US Military Was Present at Pakistan Bases Before Dogfight — Report

On Tuesday, Pakistan Army spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor stated that India failed to provide any evidence that a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet was shot down during the 27 February dogfight over Kashmir.

India has asked Washington to clarify whether US military personnel were present at bases from where Pakistan Air Force (PAF) F-16 fighter jets were deployed to the 27 February air battle between the two countries’ warplanes, the Economic Times reports.

The Indian newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying that the Pakistani military had allegedly asked all American personnel to leave the Pakistani bases as they were preparing for forward deployment. US officials are yet to comment on the issue.

While Pakistan claims that it downed two IAF MiG-21 planes during the dogfight, India insists that the IAF only lost one plane and that its forces managed to down a PAF F-16 — an aircraft that was provided to Islamabad by the US.

The American jets were supposed to be used in the fight against terrorism which is why Delhi urges Washington, which still maintains a wait-and-see attitude, to respond to the “wrong” use of the combat aircraft, the Indian government said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

India: Tens of Millions Vote on First Day of World’s Largest Democratic Elections

Tens of millions in India cast their ballots on Thursday, the beginning of the first phase of the colossal general elections in the country, home to the world’s most populous democracy where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is already considered the front-runner.

BBC reports:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New Branches of the Denisovan Family Tree Discovered in Indonesia

April 11 (UPI) — The Denisovan family tree was more diverse than previously realized. Through the analysis of ancient and modern DNA, scientists discovered a previously unidentified Denisovan lineage.

“We compared the genomes of modern — living — people in Indonesia and New Guinea and found pieces that match the Denisovan genome,” Murray Cox, professor of computational biology at Massey University in New Zealand, told UPI. “However, they didn’t match perfectly, which is what we would expect if the Denisovans from the cave and the Denisovans that mixed into Papuans came from the same group.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

New Species of Bird Discovered by LSU Researchers

The red-vented bulbul is a common brown bird that can be found in many middle eastern, African, and Asian countries.

They are known for their red eyes that can be seen from a distance, but deep in the forest of Borneo lives bulbuls with cream colored eyes—a slight genetic difference that had been seen by many before, but not discovered as a new species until LSU Researcher and fifth year PhD candidate, Subir Shakya noticed this difference to be more than just a genetic variation.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Apple Music Censors Songs About Tiananmen Square Massacre for Chinese Government

Watchdogs groups have accused Apple of censoring music that mentions the Tiananmen Square Massacre and democracy in China.

According to a report from the Hong Kong Free Press, Apple is censoring certain songs in China that mention the Tiananmen Square Massacre and democracy. In 1989, the Communist-led Chinese government killed and injured thousands of protesters that had occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing for the purpose of bringing attention to basic human and press rights that were being violated in the country.

This week, Apple removed a song by Hong Kong artist Jacky Cheung that directly mentions that massacre. “The youth are angry, heaven and earth are weeping… How did our land become a sea of blood? How did the path home become a path of no return?” the lyrics to the song read. Other songs by Cheung are still available to stream in China.

The song is inaccessible on both Apple Music and QQ Music, a popular music streaming service in China that is owned by multinational Chinese conglomerate Tencent.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Far-Right Activist Neil Erikson is Detained by Police for Interrupting Muslim Prayers in Melbourne’s Federation Square

Far-right activist Neil Erikson has been detained by police for interrupting Muslim Friday prayers in Melbourne’s Federation Square.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Labor Candidate Quits After Claiming Israeli Officials in Gaza Made a Pregnant Palestinian Woman Drink Bleach — Outraging the Jewish Community

Star Labor candidate for Curtin Melissa Parke stepped down on Friday after details emerged of a controversial speech to pro-Palestinian activists which outraged the Jewish community.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Manhunt for Afghani Suspect in Sexual Attack of 10-Year-Old Girl

Suspect reportedly assaulted child in public bathroom

Australian police are searching for an Afghani man suspected of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in a public bathroom while his own young daughters may have also been nearby.

The victim’s mother says her daughter’s “mouth and eyes were covered with tape and her hands were tied behind her head” during the attack, which took place in broad daylight at Blair Athol Sport Community Club during a sports match, the Daily Mail reports.

The girl says she told her assailant that her mother was outside, but he responded that he “didn’t care.” She says she was eventually able to escape and flee on her bicycle.

“She’s very scared, she said a man took her in the toilet,” the mother says. “I’m very stressed, very scared and I am very sad. I want him found.”

A police report describes the suspect, “as an Afghan male, approximately 30 to 50-years-old, with dark hair with a fringe that partially covered his forehead. He was believed to be wearing a grey top, peach shorts and in company with two girls aged between 3 and 5.”

[Comment: Desert Eagle point five o is the proper response.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Rwanda’s First Lady Takes Evasive Action as Bumbling Jean-Claude Juncker Almost Sets Fire to Her Face During Flame-Lighting Ceremony to Commemorate Genocide

The 64-year-old European Commission President was at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center when he turned while holding a lit torch and nearly burned Jeannette Kagame, 56, who quickly stepped back.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Brazil: The Deadliest Place on Earth: Snake Island — 60 Minutes Australia

Ilha de Queimada Grande, better known as ‘Snake Island,’ is a tiny pocket of land off the coast of Brazil. Home to 4000 Golden Lancehead Vipers, one of the deadliest snakes in the world, the island is considered the most dangerous acreage on the planet. Humans are banned from visiting unless given special clearance. But on 60 Minutes, reporter Tara Brown journeys to the island with Australian molecular biologist and self-confessed snake geek, Bryan Fry as part of a research project studying the potential medical benefits of the snakes’ venom.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

18 States Offer in-State Tuition for Illegals… And Legal Residents Are Not Happy About That

Not all the states are blue! See if your state is on the list

The Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that colleges in Georgia are not required to admit illegal immigrant students.

The decision further sparked a national conversation about the rights of Dreamers, as well as the legality of offering them in-state tuition benefits, which usually allow students attending college in their home states to pay far less than their peers from different states.

Citing US Code 1623, which states that anyone who is not legally a citizen cannot be entitled to any benefit that is denied to a citizen of the United States, some have questioned whether those here illegally should be offered in-state tuition rates that aren’t available to other students who are citizens. Currently, 18 states, offer some form of a pathway for in-state tuition to those living here illegally.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 18 states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington — offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students. Two more states — Oklahoma and Rhode Island — offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students, pending approval from the Board of Regents.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

2020: Julian Castro: We Need Migrants ‘More Than Ever Before’

Presidential candidate Julian Castro on Wednesday evening said the United States needs migrants today “more than ever before” and will be “begging” for more migrants in the future if the country does not allow more to stay.

The former San Antonio mayor held a counter-rally in San Antonio after President Donald Trump held a fundraiser there, and Castro called for even more migrants to compete for jobs across America.

Castro, who introduced an immigration plan that would decriminalize illegal immigration, made his remarks at a time when even establishment media outlets have had to concede that there is a “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border.

[Comment: His mother was a founder of La Razza.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

ACLU Warns Immigrants and People of Color Against Traveling to Florida

The travel advisory was issued in response to the passage of Florida Senate Bill 168 and House Bill 527, according to an ACLU press release. Moreover, the group criticized the bills for allegedly exposing illegal immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and preventing sanctuary city policies.

“These bills prohibit all localities in the state from adopting policies or procedures that limit entanglement with federal immigration enforcement,” said the group.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Austria Warns EU of “New Massive Migration Movement”

A new migration wave is on the verge of flooding Europe, Austria’s interior minister has warned.

In a letter to Brussels obtained by Kronen Zeitung, Interior Minister Herbert Kickl cites Europol statistics indicating that thousands of migrants are already on Europe’s southeastern doorstep, and many more can be expected.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Chalkboard Lesson: Chicago Marxists Are Pulling the Strings on the Attack on Our Border

Glenn uses the chalkboard to show exactly who is funding and organizing the migrant caravans.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fired German Intelligence Boss Slams Merkel Migrant Policy on Hungarian Television

Former German intelligence chief Hans-George Maassen told Hungarian media this week that the door of immigration was “still open” and slammed the asylum policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Speaking to broadcaster M1, the former president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said that despite there being fewer asylum seekers than 2015,” the lock is still open,” Die Welt reports.

During the 25-minute interview, Mr Maassen also touched upon the problems with integrating a large number of asylum seekers saying, “Integration is possible if you create the legal framework and also get people to integrate or be integrated. Integration can not only be ordered, but integration must also be demanded.”

“My concern is that there is integration, but not integration into German society, but into Arab society, the Salafist society or the Turkish society in Germany, so that we have parallel societies. And from my point of view, that has to be prevented with all our might,” he added.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Crisis: France Agrees to Take 20 People Off Ship Barred From Malta

FRANCE is ready to take in 20 of migrants on a NGO rescue ship of the coast of Malta which has already spent nine days at sea after being refused permission to dock.

In a tweet posted today, interior minister Christophe Castaner said France, together with Germany and other European partners, has agreed to welcome migrants out of “solidarity,” to allow them to disembark the Alan Kurdi — named after a toddler who tragically died crossing the Mediterranean from Syria — in the nearest port, Valletta in Malta. Mr Castaner’s intervention is likely to be an attempt to break the deadlock with Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who said earlier his country was refusing to allow port access to the ship, saying that the NGO should have headed to Tunisia, the nearest safe port to the rescue spot. Italy has also refused entry. Mr Muscat added: “We cannot send a signal to other countries that they can do what they want and dump the problem on Malta.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Stranded Migrant Ship Appeals to Europe for Port After Eight Days at Sea

A charity ship with scores of African migrants on board appealed to European states for a safe port after being stranded for eight days between Malta and Italy, saying the health of the rescued people was worsening.

Rome and Valletta denied the Alan Kurdi ship entry into their waters after the vessel, managed by German humanitarian organisation Sea-Eye, rescued 64 migrants off the Libyan coast on April 3.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Migration Employee Allegedly Gave 121 False Visas to Migrants

An employee of the Swedish Migration board is facing scrutiny and charges after being accused of handing out false visas to 121 Afghan migrants.

The employee, who has not been identified, is said to have started working for the agency in the mid-2000s but prosecutors say that he likely carried out his crimes while working temporarily at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Aftonbladet reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Think Tank: UK Govt Massively Undercounting Migration Impact on Future Population Growth

The British government is significantly underestimating the likely impact of mass immigration on future population growth, according to an expert think tank.

Lord Andrew Green of Deddington, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, has questioned why the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is basing its new “principal population projection” on international net migration to England of 152,000 per year.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Trump Threatens to Dump Migrants in Sanctuary Cities

The White House is considering transferring immigrants detained at the southern border to Democrat-controlled “sanctuary cities.”

After reports surfaced that the idea was brought up twice and shot down by attorneys from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), President Trump tweeted on Friday that his administration is “indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only,” adding “The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy — so this should make them very happy!”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Crazed Leftists Have Hysterical Temper Tantrum Over “Men Are Not Women” Speech

Unhinged leftists interrupted a speech by columnist Michael Knowles entitled “men are not women,” with the resulting fracas leading to one protester being tased and arrested after a noxious substance was thrown at Knowles.

The event took place last night at the University of Missouri and was hosted by Young Americans For Freedom.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Is Transexualism a Disassociative Personality Disorder?

When transsexualism became transgenderism, scientific inquiry regarding the condition was banned as political heresy. The advancement of knowledge regarding etiology, onset, degrees or types of transsexuality was halted. It now costs the career of a social scientist who dares question a monolithic view of transgenderism. LGBTQ dogma authorizes only the narrative of the courageous, marginalized transgender whose only cure is “gender transition.” But there are so few transsexuals, to get any political traction from this nanominority, homosexual crusaders had to up trans numbers. They did this first by inflicting mass confusion through “non-binary gender theory,” and then by placing a glamorous, vestal victim transgender upon a shiny new cultural pedestal. The shift from transsexualism to transgenderism constituted a terrible moral degeneracy regarding personal responsibility. Transgenderism means Mike’s disordered thinking that he is a woman is not Mike’s problem, it is your problem. Big, burly Mike takes some pills, slather’s a ton of make-up on his stubbly face, and if you don’t honor his womanhood, if you dare to call him sir even by accident, you are a phobic bigot. Mike has a right to teach you a lesson you won’t forget, to sue you, to slander you, even to destroy you, all for the LGBTQ cause. Oh, yes and Mike has the right to beat the tar out of your daughter at sports, if you are foolish enough to let her compete against a boy.

Let’s say the world hadn’t gone mad, people didn’t require a parade down main street for committing sodomy, and there were no cultural overlords called LGBT needing to weaponize a rare mental disorder. In that world, it might be seen that the loss of natural, true sex identification fits rather well into the category of dissociative mental disorders.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Lesbians Demanding Wedding Cake ‘Trespassing, ‘ Lawyers Say

Christian bakery artist Cathy Miller fires back in court

Lawyers representing a Christian cake artist in California contend in response to a lawsuit by the state that a same-sex couple demanding that she prepare a cake for their wedding against her will were trespassing.

The state now has sued Cathy Miller twice over the claim. A judge ruled in the first case that Miller’s refusal to make the cake was protected by the First Amendment.

The brief by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund makes the same argument but also asserts the same-sex couple “fraudulently” presented themselves as customers to provoke a lawsuit and, therefore, were “unlawful trespassers.”

Miller’s lawyers contend the couple, Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-Del Rios, “conspired with one another and/or aided and abetted one another in bringing what they know is a fraudulent and meritless complaint to … collect a money judgment.”

They participated in a “blatant abuse of process” in bringing the complaint, with the goal of cashing in financially as well as harming Miller and her Tastries Bakery.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mike Pence: Pete Buttigieg ‘Knows Better’ Than to Criticize My Christian Faith

Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday broke his silence on repeated attacks from Democrat 2020 presidential contender Pete Buttigieg, telling CNBC’s Squawk Box that the South Bend Mayor “knows better” than to attack his Christian faith.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Milo Yiannopoulos Launches New Book ‘How to be Poor’

Milo Yiannopoulos has launched a new book, How To be Poor.

The firebrand public figure announced the book was for sale on Amazon to his Facebook fans on April 11th.

The book is much shorter than his previous outing, Dangerous, clocking in at 54 pages. And the book already appears to be an instant success as it is already a #1 Best Seller in 90-Minute Self-Help Short Reads according to Amazon. In fact, it’s #1 in Philosophy Aestetics as well as #1 in Aesthetics in the Kindle Store.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Ohio Democrat Pushes for Black Children to be Aborted

Rep. Janine Boyd wants to remove protections for black babies in proposed heartbeat bill

Ohio Rep. Janine Boyd (D-Cleveland Heights) filed an amendment Tuesday aiming to remove protections for African American babies in the “heartbeat bill” the Ohio House is expected to pass Wednesday.

The “heartbeat bill” would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected and allow the state to prosecute doctors who perform abortions after a heartbeat is found.

During her testimony, Boyd argued black women should be allowed to abort their children to counter slavery-era atrocities.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pro-Life Leaders Applaud Senate Committee Hearing on Tech Censorship

National pro-life leaders celebrated a Senate hearing Wednesday on censorship by tech giants of pro-life voices and films.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) hosted the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled, “Stifling Free Speech: Technology Censorship and the Public Discourse.” The senator proposed Silicon Valley’s censorship practices be dealt with through regulation, antitrust policies, and policing of fraudulent activities.

Regarding Twitter, Lila Rose, president of Live Action, said in a statement that the social media platform is “misleading the public and their shareholders by claiming to be a free marketplace of ideas.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Survey Finds That Half of America’s Pastors Are Afraid to Speak Out About Controversial Topics

Have you ever wondered why most church services in America seem to be filled with lots of fluff and very little substance? As America’s moral foundations literally collapse right in front of our eyes, a large percentage of our pastors are afraid to speak out about controversial topics because they might offend someone. And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why they are so afraid. Most U.S. churches are shrinking, and more than 100 die every week. In a day and age where pastors are judged by attendance numbers and budget levels, scaring people away is bad for business. With all that in mind, the results from a recent Barna survey shouldn’t be surprising at all…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Leftist MP Says “We Assume That All Men Are Rapists”

Swedish Left Party MP Linda Snecker asserted that women “assume all men are rapists” and demanded that all men take collective responsibility during a parliamentary debate.

Snecker said that “men’s violence against women governs the entire world structure” and that “the struggle of feminism” was to put a stop to “the violence of men.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The Architects of Western Decline — A Study on the Frankfurt School and Cultural Marxism (Video)

This is the long overdue study of the Frankfurt School and Cultural Marxist philosophy which now controls Western intellectualism, politics, and culture. It was by design; it was created by an internationalist intelligentsia to eradicate Western values, social systems, and European racial groups in a pre-emptive attempt to spark global, communist (think liberal) revolution. Andrew Breitbart’s historical notes are taken into the narrative.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The U.S.’s Problem With PC-Culture: Lack of Free Speech Will be the Country’s Downfall

Without free speech returning in full force to college campuses across the United States, the country will see itself perish of politically correct induced culture. One American journalist says that the PC culture will be the entire country’s downfall.

Nothing less than the U.S.’s survival is at stake, according to American journalist and author Robert Bridge. In 2013, Bridge’s book, Midnight in the American Empire: How Corporations and Their Political Servants Are Destroying the American Dream, was released. The book details how corporations work with the government to kill the American Dream. Now he’s saying that the suppression of free speech on college campuses has gone way too far, and unless people are allowed to think and say things freely once again without repercussions, the entire country will perish.

As Bridge wrote in an article for RT, “America seems to have reached the point in its ‘progressive’ development where those who seem to have literally lost their minds — much like the authority figures in Ken Kesey’s masterful 1962 novel, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ — wish to institutionalize the remainder of the sane population.” And Bridge is not far from that truth.

Every day we are bombarded by the PC crowd telling us just what we can say and how we are allowed to say it. It is actually pretty difficult to say anything anymore without someone dictating the manner in which it can be said. And it all stems from America’s most insane of all asylums, college campuses.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Genetic Engineering: Homo Sapiens 2.0 is Coming Thanks to the Power of Gene Modification

HUMANS are rapidly catching up with the natural process of evolution through the incredible powers of genetic engineering, according to a renowned futurist and author who thinks Homo Sapiens 2.0 is coming.

The global rise of genetic engineering is unavoidable and people need to look ahead to the future and be aware of the consequences that come with the technology. Equal parts terrifying and awe-inspiring, gene-editing has the potential power to eradicate hereditary diseases, prolong life and create a better and more efficient human species. But genetic tampering also the has the potential to create a significant divide between the rich and the poor, to decide which parts of our human physiology are desirable or beautiful and to ultimately question what it really means to be human. Jamie Metzl, an advisor to the World Health Organization on human genome editing, explores these issues and more in his upcoming book Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

23 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/12/2019

  1. What is Farage DOO-ing? Even the French are making more sense than he. Far right, puh-leaze.

    • Stupid comment to make on Farage’s part. He’s regarded as far right by globalists. All nationalism is regarded as far right and Brexit is based on nationalism whether he wants to admit it or not.

  2. Barron, it’s truly a shame that because you can’t or won’t jettison the ridiculously inept egotist James Delingpole, I must drop my reading of GoV.

    • I don’t “jettison” Delingpole or anyone else because this is the NEWS FEED. Tipsters may send in whatever stories they like, within broad limits.

      I’m sorry to see you go. I shall greatly miss you.

      • Can somebody translate what are you talking about ?
        jettison ?
        tipsters send stories ?
        I must drop my readings of GoV ?
        I really can’t understand…
        I read GoV for over 13 years… And I think some of the info I read here is pretty accurate.

        • “jettison” means discard, throw out, abandon. Joel Newtson does not like the writings of James Delingpole, and expects the Baron to reject them, to “jettison” them.

          A tipster is one who supplies a “tip-off”, an item of news. The newsfeed at GoV is not the Baron’s exhaustive reading of world news, but is supplied by readers: they are the “tipsters”.

          “I must drop my readings” means “I must cease reading….”. The verb “drop” is here used in the sense “discontinue”.

      • I think it is very helpful that you are tolerant of most submissions. I am not sure what Newton’s problem is with Delingpole, but if he dislikes him, surely he can opt not to read those links.

      • Oh yes, this is a blog administration issue. Subscribers all the time making any claims. As if the administrator has nothing more to do than to seat everyone in different corners of a children’s playground.

        • In England, we refer to Stefan’s outburst as “throwing your toys out of the pram”!

    • Yes, sad.

      I had a disagreement with a pastor recently when I suggested that he, as an Anglican minister, ought to spend more time teaching young people what they need to survive against the pressures of drug use, sex and violence in their lives. I suggested that his constant sermons on Anglican traditions such as the importance of the colour of the altar cloth, were of lesser importance to the imperative of reaching people with Christ in an evil world. He gave me a blank stare.

      He has a nice new garage to house his new Harley Davidson. Paid for in part with the meagre income of his small struggling Church. Such are the hard hearts of man. As Christ said of his followers: “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

  3. So, how does Farage expect to win by splitting the pro-Brexit vote? He is an upper class circus barker who obviously disdains working class Britain, which suffers most from creeping Shariah and Muslim rape gangs. He has helped smother, persecute, and un-person Tommy Robinson. And what vision does he offer to post-Brexit Britain? Gerard Batten exemplifies a doughty Englishness in building UKIP and bravery in standing up for Robinson. And Anne Marie Waters has given serious thought to a broad range of issues facing Britain.

    • Nigel Farage is hardly upper class. You can tell by his vowels. He doesn’t have a working-class accent, but rather one of someone “in trade”, as it used to be described back in those long-gone Victorian and Edwardian days.

      • That’s why Mother liked you. You weren’t in trade. Artistes were a special group so it was okay that you were poor.

        The urban Irish were even worse snobs than their betters, the English.

        • Dymphna,
          Speaking of the Irish, have you ever read Thomas Cahill’s “How the Irish Saved Civilization”?

          • Yes, indeed. It is part of his “Hinges of History” series.
            How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe

            https://amzn.to/2D9RN6M

            There are also several (maybe six or seven) other books in that series, including this one, quite apropos for Passover/Easter:

            The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels

            https://amzn.to/2IhQAi0

            Of course, I gave them away to other people. I have a habit of doing that with books…

          • I’m reading it now. I think it’s one of the best history books I ever read, but even more, it recounts the strangest sociological phenomenon: the Irish went from being crude illiterates to voracious readers of Greek and Latin texts in A COUPLE OF GENERATIONS! Incredible!!

          • Saw the Book of Kells in an exhibition at the British Museum a couple of months ago. There are some wonderful bonuses to living in (what is still) a great city!

  4. Yes its stupid that Faraga split the Vote and called UKIP Deomstrators full tattoed baldheads and Hooligans-the true was:normal people came.

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