Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/18/2019

Canadian Prime Minister Justin “Baby Doc” Trudeau has found himself in the midst of a new scandal after a photo of him wearing brownface surfaced. The picture was from a 2001 yearbook at a school where he was teaching, and was part of an “Arabian Nights” event. Mr. Trudeau says he regrets the incident, and now believes it was racist.

In other news, a man crashed his vehicle into the lobby of Trump Plaza in New Rochelle, New York, injuring several people.

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

Thanks to Dean, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I 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
» $53.2 Billion in QE Lite: Fed Concludes First Repo in a Decade Amid Liquidity Panic
» Fed Cuts Rates Again, Telegraphs Possibility of One More
» Major Red Flag: The Fed Shocks Everyone With an Emergency Intervention in the Repo Market for the First Time Since 2008
 
USA
» Alabama Man Arrested in ISIS Probe
» American Airlines Mechanic Has Possible ISIS Ties, Prosecutors Say
» Anne Arundel County Police Investigating Deadly Pasadena Shooting
» Attention Liberals: Greta Thunberg is Not Jesus
» Beto’s Gun Grab and Constitution Day
» Beto: Gun Grab ‘Constitutionally Sound’
» Breaking: Several Injured After Driver Plows Through Lobby of Trump Plaza in New York — Driver Takes a Seat on Sofa, Says Nothing
» Charges Dropped Against Man Who Fled Antifa Attack in Truck
» Democrats’ Red Flag Laws Meant to Take Weapons From Rural Gun Owners — But Not Gang Members Who Commit 80% of Gun Homicides (Video)
» Former Congressman Insinuates Kevin Spacey is Responsible for His Accuser’s Death
» Gov. Newsom Commutes Sentences of 21 Violent Criminals Incarcerated in CA Prisons — Including 4 Murderers With Life Sentences
» Houses Are So Unaffordable, Young People Are Now Living in Sewer Pipes
» Joy Reid Suggests ‘Wealthy White Christian’ Men Will Enact Apartheid to ‘Maintain Power’
» Just 38% of Americans Believe in Man Made Climate Change
» Kevin Spacey Accuser Dies in Midst of Sexual Assault Lawsuit
» Smart TVs Caught Sending Sensitive User Data to Facebook and Netflix
» Swedish Teen Activist Being Exploited by Left Lectures Congress on Climate Change, ‘You’re Not Trying Hard Enough’ (Video)
» The Navy Says Those UFO Videos Are Real
» Twitter Suspends Second Amendment Foundation Account on Eve of Gun Rights Policy Conference
» Under Obama, The Russians Breached FBI Communications
» Update: Top Democrat Donor Ed Buck Charged With Maintaining Drug House — Police Find Hundreds of Photos of Men in Compromising Positions in His Home
 
Canada
» Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Admits Wearing Brownface in 2001 School Photo, Apologizes
 
Europe and the EU
» AfD’s Alice Weidel Slams Globalist Politicians for Destroying Germany in Moving Speech
» Facebook Ordered to Pay Damages to Italian Firm
» Farage: EU Planned to Keep UK ‘Trapped Inside’ Customs Union, Time to Deliver ‘Clean Break Brexit’
» France: About Ten People Injured by Gunshots and Knives This Weekend in Marseille
» Health Fears Prompt Swiss 5G Revolt
» Italy: Climate Decree to Boost Unpackaged Food and Soaps
» Spain Sets New Elections for November as Attempts to Form a Government Collapse
» UK: Chief Rules Out Tasers for All Police Despite Thousands of Attacks on Officers
» UK: Corbyn Would Hold Second Referendum on Soft Brexit Deal vs Remain as PM
» UK: Tommy Robinson Calls for Julian Assange to be Freed After ‘Talking to WikiLeaks Founder in Belmarsh Prison’
 
Middle East
» “Jack… is a Really Kind, Funny Kid… Totally Non-Violent.”
» Archaeology Confirms Book of Genesis on Israel’s Arch-Nemesis, The Edomites
 
Far East
» China Forces Churches to Replace Ten Commandments With Xi Jinping Quotes
 
Australia — Pacific
» Frustrated Shoppers Lash Out at Vegan Protesters Who Stormed a Supermarket and Stopped People From Buying Meat
 
Latin America
» Major Data Breach Puts All Ecuadorans — Including Julian Assange — at Risk of Identity Theft, Security Firm Warns
 
Immigration
» Hungarian Foreign Minister Labels EU Border Agency a ‘Travel Agency’ For Migrants
» Italy: Salvini Calls for “Immigration Referendum to Stop Open Borders”
» Italy: ‘Allahu Akbar’ Migrant Who Stabbed Police Officer Had ‘Islamist Sympathies’
» Migrants Attempt to Enter Hungary in Rubber Dinghy
» Study: Nearly Half of Migrants Claiming to be Underage in Germany Are Adults
» Texas Teacher Fired for Asking President Trump to Deport Illegal Aliens
» The Latest: North Macedonia Police Detain 81 Migrants
» Tom Fitton Calls on DOJ to Criminally Prosecute Public Officials Who ‘Aid and Abet Illegal Alien Criminals’ (Video)
 
Culture Wars
» CA Senate Passes Resolution ACR-99 Telling Pastors to Embrace LGBTQ Beliefs
» ‘Climate Change’: A Leftist Excuse to Redistribute Wealth and Destroy the West
» Does LGBTQ Cultural Supremacy Enable High-Risk Behavior?
» How Feminist Social Justice Warriors Are Killing Men
» New Montreal City Pool to Have Just One “Gender Neutral” Changing Room
» Sweden to Combat Gang Violence by Challenging ‘Male Gender Roles’
» Union Theological Seminary Holds ‘Confession to Plants’ In Chapel Ceremony
 
General
» 90 Per Cent of Plastic Waste Polluting Earth’s Oceans Comes From Asia and Africa
» Governments Not Prepared for Pandemic That Could Kill 80 Million People, Warns Report
 

$53.2 Billion in QE Lite: Fed Concludes First Repo in a Decade Amid Liquidity Panic

Update 4: It’s over: after a torrid 30 minutes in which the NY Fed first announced a repo operation, then announced the repo was canceled due to technical difficulties, then mysterious the difficulties went away just minutes later, at precisely 10:10am, the Fed concluded its first repo operation in a decade, which while not topping out at the $75 billion max, was nonetheless a significant $53.15 billion, split as follows:

$40.85BN with TSYs as collateral at a 2.1% stop out rate $0.6BN with Agencies as collateral at a 3.0% stop out rate $11.7BN with Mortgage-backed securities as collateral at a 2.1% stop out rate.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fed Cuts Rates Again, Telegraphs Possibility of One More

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut interest rates again by 25 basis points to a new target range of 1.75% to 2%, and telegraphed a strong likelihood of one more rate cut by the end of the year.

Continuing to cite global concerns, the Fed said business investment “weakened” since the Fed’s last policy setting meeting in July, when it cut rates for the first time since 2008. The Fed also added new language in its statement noting that U.S. exports have also weakened, underscoring the impact of the trade war on the central bank’s reading of the U.S. economy.

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

Major Red Flag: The Fed Shocks Everyone With an Emergency Intervention in the Repo Market for the First Time Since 2008

For the very first time since the last financial crisis, the Federal Reserve has been forced to conduct an emergency intervention in the repo market. I know that a lot of people out there don’t know what the repo market is or how it works, and so let me start out with a very basic analogy that may help people understand what we are facing. It doesn’t really matter how shiny your toilet is — if the pipes underneath don’t work, you are in a whole lot of trouble. The repo market plays a critical role in our financial system, because it allows our banks to rapidly borrow money, and that money is often used to purchase financial instruments such as Treasury bonds. But this week interest rates in the repo market started to shoot up to frightening levels, and the Federal Reserve was forced to intervene for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008. The following comes from Yahoo News…

This is essentially a form of “quantitative easing”, and many are concerned that this temporary intervention will not fix the larger problems that have resulted in this crisis…

And guess what?

The Fed has already announced that they are going to do it again on Wednesday, and this time the goal will be to inject approximately 75 billion dollars into the system.

If that sounds absurd to you, that is because it is absurd.

Sadly, the truth is that our financial system is starting to show signs of serious distress for the first time in more than a decade, and nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next.

But everyone agrees that the Fed being forced to intervene in the marketplace is not a good sign. In fact, one industry veteran said that it “is without a doubt one of the worst things that can happen”…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Alabama Man Arrested in ISIS Probe

An Alabama man was arrested in connection to a terrorism probe in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation says he told agents he would execute a U.S. soldier if ordered to do so by ISIS, The Associated Press reportedWednesday.

Nayef Qashou was taken into custody by the FBI on Monday. He is reportedly charged with lying to the FBI and destroying records.

In an affidavit obtained by AP, the FBI says Qashou arrived in the U.S. in 2015, planning to study nursing at an Opelika, Ala., community college.

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

American Airlines Mechanic Has Possible ISIS Ties, Prosecutors Say

Topline: An American Airlines mechanic was denied bail by a federal judge Wednesday for potential ties to ISIS, after he was arrested for allegedly sabotaging a plane at Miami International Airport.

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

Anne Arundel County Police Investigating Deadly Pasadena Shooting

PASADENA, Md. — Anne Arundel County police were responding to a reported threat when they discovered that a man had been shot and killed at a home in Pasadena Wednesday morning.

According to police, the homeowner said a neighbor had been threatening him, and he was on his way to the house in the 1400 block of Orr Court.

The caller indicated that the man coming to his home had threatened him before, and that he was riding a scooter.

When police arrived, the homeowner said he needed their help because he’d shot the man on the scooter.

Police found the victim in the front yard and tried to administer help, but he died…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Attention Liberals: Greta Thunberg is Not Jesus

Young environmentalist being pushed as next savior by leftist establishment

The UN’s climate change representative Greta Thunberg has been hailed by comedian Sarah Silverman as the second coming.

Thunberg has also made her rounds on the left’s propaganda circuit.

All of this after Thunberg sailed from England to New York representing the UN’s tyrannical sustainability goals on her “zero-emissions” voyage.

But the “zero-emissions” trip was a total scam, as four sailors had to fly to New York and relieve the crew to take the ship back.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Beto’s Gun Grab and Constitution Day

When the Founders wrote the Second Amendment, it was because the British were coming, not because it was the start of deer season.

September 17 is Constitution Day and Peter Francis O’Rourke plans on celebrating it by gutting the document’s Second Amendment, infringing on the right to bear arms that the Constitution says shall not be infringed. Of course, O’Rourke also shares the Democrat belief that the Constitution’s “penumbras and emanations” confers a right to privacy allowing unborn children to be aborted until the moment of birth.

There he was on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” his dental work complete and ear hair properly trimmed, to claim his plan to confiscate from law-abiding citizens by force and under penalty of law their AR-15s was in fact constitutional under the Constitution’s Commerce clause. As the Washington Free Beacon reported:

“This is something that we’re able to do through the Commerce Clause, and this is something that is not prevented from, wouldn’t prevent the United States from doing by the Second Amendment,” O’Rourke told host Chuck Todd. “So this is constitutionally sound.”

No it is not. It is not even common-sense sound. The writers of the Constitution, fresh from a war using guns to overthrow British tyranny and oppressive government, put the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights to protect the other nine. There is no asterisk after the words “shall not be infringed.” The power to regulate interstate commerce, of which guns may be a part, is not the power to neuter the right to keep and bear arms.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Beto: Gun Grab ‘Constitutionally Sound’

O’Rourke has maintained he believes gun owners would follow the law and turn in the banned weapons because he said gun owners have come up to him on the campaign trail to say they would. He has also defended the proposal as constitutional.

“This is something that we’re able to do through the Commerce Clause and this is something that is not prevented from — wouldn’t prevent the United States from doing by the Second Amendment. So this is constitutionally sound,” O’ Rourke told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.

[Comment: So, make a “pretend law” that violates the Constitution and expect Americans to obey?]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Breaking: Several Injured After Driver Plows Through Lobby of Trump Plaza in New York — Driver Takes a Seat on Sofa, Says Nothing

A male driver crashed into the lobby of Trump Plaza in New Rochelle, New York on Tuesday night.

The driver reportedly got out of the car after he crashed into the lobby and sat on a sofa without saying a word.

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

Charges Dropped Against Man Who Fled Antifa Attack in Truck

District Attorneys in Clark County, Washington, have finally dropped charges against Billy Wilson, the man who was attacked not once, but twice by masked antifa terrorists while he attempted to attend a patriotic event in Vancouver, WA, over two years ago.

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

Democrats’ Red Flag Laws Meant to Take Weapons From Rural Gun Owners — But Not Gang Members Who Commit 80% of Gun Homicides (Video)

Democrats want to pass Red Flag gun laws in order to take guns from American gun owners.

On Tuesday Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) joined Tucker Carlson to discuss the Democrats’red flag gun laws.

Rep. Buck said Democrats want to use the laws to take guns from rural Americans but that Democrats voted down his amendment to include gang members in the legislation.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee rejected an amendment that would have red-flagged anyone who law enforcement lists as a gang member. According to JPFO.org 80% of gun homicides are committed by gang members.

But the Red Flag Laws by Democrats are not meant to stop crime. They are only meant to take guns from legal gun owners.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Former Congressman Insinuates Kevin Spacey is Responsible for His Accuser’s Death

Former Republican Congressman Trey Radel reacted to the news that one of Kevin Spacey’s accusers had died by insinuating that the actor may have been responsible.

The accuser, whose identity was kept secret from Spacey, claimed that the House of Cards star made him touch Spacey’s genitals while performing a massage.

Earlier today it was revealed that the accuser had died after Spacey’s lawyers filed a “notice of statement noting plaintiff’s death.”

This prompted Radel, who was in Congress for a year between January 2013 and January 2014, to suggest that Spacey may have been involved.

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

Gov. Newsom Commutes Sentences of 21 Violent Criminals Incarcerated in CA Prisons — Including 4 Murderers With Life Sentences

Far-left California Governor Gavin Newsom commuted sentences of 21 violent criminals including 4 murderers with life sentences without possibility of parole.

One of the murderers was arrested in 1993 for fatally shooting a man during a carjacking and another was incarcerated in 1991 for killing an armed guard during a robbery.

A man who served 31 years of 2 life sentences for a double murder in 1988 was also given clemency by Newsom.

SacBee reported:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Houses Are So Unaffordable, Young People Are Now Living in Sewer Pipes

Houses are becoming so unaffordable for debt-stricken millennials, young people are now literally living in decorated sewer pipes.

Yes, really.

They’re called OPod Tube Houses and literally consist of reclaimed bits of industrial piping renovated inside with other left over pieces from building sites to make them into micro apartments.

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

Joy Reid Suggests ‘Wealthy White Christian’ Men Will Enact Apartheid to ‘Maintain Power’

MSNBC host Joy Reid has suggested that wealthy, white Republicans are willing to enact a South Africa-style apartheid system in the United States in order to maintain a hold on power.

“No country is an eternal democracy,” Reid said in a video that was widely-shared Tuesday. “And when you have a very determined minority, in this case wealthy white men and wealthy white Christian men and Christian Americans who are of the fundamental[ist] variety, who are very clear that no matter what happens if they have to pull the South Africa model to maintain power forever they will do it, and they’re not afraid of it and they’re increasingly open about it and Donald Trump is merely the avatar for this.”

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

Just 38% of Americans Believe in Man Made Climate Change

Despite relentless propagandizing about a global “consensus” on climate change, a new poll has found that just 38% of Americans believe in man-made global warming.

Asked by YouGov if they agreed that “humans are mainly responsible for climate change,” the majority of people in France, Germany and only a slight minority in the UK disagreed.

A minority of Americans, 38%, believe that human activity is driving climate change, which is even less than in China, where the figure is 45%.

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

Kevin Spacey Accuser Dies in Midst of Sexual Assault Lawsuit

An anonymous massage therapist who claims to have been sexually assaulted by Kevin Spacey has died, according to a notice filed in court by the actor’s attorneys.

The individual, suing as a “John Doe,” filed claims in September 2018 with the allegation of being forced to grab the actor’s genitals twice during a massage two years earlier at a private residence in Malibu. In May, a federal judge in California allowed the case to move forward despite Spacey’s objection that the plaintiff’s identity was being shielded.

Now, just a month after the parties came to a plan for proceeding in the suit that detailed prospective discovery and envisioned a seven— to 11-day trial, the plaintiff’s attorney has informed Spacey that the client “recently passed.”

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

Smart TVs Caught Sending Sensitive User Data to Facebook and Netflix

A study by researchers from Northeastern University and Imperial College London found that many popular smart TV models, including models by Samsung and LG, as well as streaming dongles Roku and Amazon FireTV, are leaking sensitive user data to advertisers.

The models listed above would share data like location and IP address with Netflix, Facebook and third-party advertisers, according to the FT.

Just when social media companies were starting to modify their data collection practices to better respect user privacy, the next threat is coming from the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart TVs are becoming increasingly popular in the US.

In some cases, users’ data were being sent to Netflix even though they didn’t have an account. And it’s not just smart TVs: other smart devices from speakers to cameras have also been caught sending user data to third parties like Spotify.

Nearly 70% of Americans have a smart TV or a Roku or Apple TV. Nearly all of these devices have recognition technology that tracks what you watch, and sells data approximating your interests to advertisers.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Teen Activist Being Exploited by Left Lectures Congress on Climate Change, ‘You’re Not Trying Hard Enough’ (Video)

When the left isn’t killing unborn babies, they’re exploiting children.

First they trotted out David Hogg to lecture us on the 2nd Amendment, now a 16-year-old from Sweden is lecturing us on non-existent global warming.

16-year-old Swedish ‘Climate Change’ activist Greta Thunberg appeared before US lawmakers on Wednesday to lecture the US on the climate hoax.

Meanwhile China and India continue to be the world’s biggest polluters because Climate Change legislation isn’t about the environment, it’s about a global scheme to redistribute wealth.

Thunberg has a myriad of mental health issues. She is autistic, has obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suffers from Asperger syndrome and the left is pushing her out onto the world stage and exploiting her.

“Please save your praise. We don’t want it,” Thunberg said. “Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it because it doesn’t lead to anything.”

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

The Navy Says Those UFO Videos Are Real

The U.S. Navy has confirmed that three online videos purportedly showing UFOs are genuine. The service says the videos, taken by Navy pilots, show “unexplained aerial phenomena,” but also states that the clips should have never been released to the public in the first place.

The three videos in question are titled “FLIR1,” “Gimbal,” and “GoFast.” They show two separate encounters between Navy aircraft and UFOs.

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

Twitter Suspends Second Amendment Foundation Account on Eve of Gun Rights Policy Conference

The Second Amendment Foundation along with the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms are holding their annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in Phoenix this weekend (TTAG will be there). So…just in time for the gun rights orgs’ biggest event of the year, the pasty-faced geeks at Twitter have seen fit to suspend SAF’s social media account.

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

Under Obama, The Russians Breached FBI Communications

So, at the time we had Comey, Mueller, Brennan, Clapper, Holder, Lynch, Rice, Power, Monaco, Donilon, McDonough, Rhodes and more.

Does anyone remember when there was a pile of Russian spies that Obama expelled and traded? Remember at the very end of the Obama presidency when he expelled another pile of Russians from three locations and closed Russian dachas?

A big question remains that has yet to be answered and that is why did the Obama administration wait so long to impose a consequence?

Okay, well sit back — this is a long read but it for sure explains the way too casual approach by Obama to Russia.

Simply put, the entire Obama administration and those Democrats in Congress had to be really embarrassed. With all the later Russian collusion stuff, that operation had to be a huge head-fake cover-up thing.

Whew… what a mess. The Russians punked the FBI and that hurt America’s national security and policy badly… so we dispatched Hillary to do that Russian reset with that pesky red button.

Okay, here we go…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Update: Top Democrat Donor Ed Buck Charged With Maintaining Drug House — Police Find Hundreds of Photos of Men in Compromising Positions in His Home

Top Democrat donor and Hillary friend Ed Buck was finally arrested Tuesday night after a third man overdosed in his apartment.

The man who overdosed in Ed Buck’s Los Angeles apartment last week survived, however the other two victims previously died.

Ed Buck will be in court Wednesday.

Ed Buck loves to inject young black gay escorts with methamphetamine — the mother of one of Ed Buck’s victims described it as a fetish.

He was finally arrested after two black gay escorts died in his apartment from overdoses.

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

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Admits Wearing Brownface in 2001 School Photo, Apologizes

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized Wednesday night soon after a 2001 photo emerged in a Time magazine report showing him wearing brownface makeup to an “Arabian Nights” party at the private school where he was teaching.

“I should have known better,” Trudeau told reporters.

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

AfD’s Alice Weidel Slams Globalist Politicians for Destroying Germany in Moving Speech

During a scathing speech recently delivered on the floor of the Bundestag, Alternative for Germany’s co-leader Alice Weidel slammed globalist lawmakers for destroying the country through catastrophic migration policies and ‘disastrous and anti-business policies’.

Angela Merkel, radical leftists, other globalist politicians looked on as the nationalist-populist politician criticized the government for enabling the migration crisis by aiding NGOs who transport migrants into Europe.

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

Facebook Ordered to Pay Damages to Italian Firm

‘Parasitic appropriation’ of app by social media giant

(ANSA) — Milan, September 17 — A Milan court specialized in business disputes on Tuesday ruled that Facebook must pay an Italian software firm, Business Competence, 350,000 euros in damages for having copying one of its apps. The case regards Faround, an app the Italian company launched in October 2012 to help users find bars and restaurants that could be of interest to them in their areas.

In December that year, Facebook invited its users to download a similar app, Nearby Places.

Indeed, the court upheld the Italian firm’s assertion that the Nearby Places was identical in “concept and format” to Faround.

It said Facebook was guilty of “parasitic appropriation of investments by others” to create a product with a “significant economic value”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Farage: EU Planned to Keep UK ‘Trapped Inside’ Customs Union, Time to Deliver ‘Clean Break Brexit’

Nigel Farage has warned that the humiliation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson by the “pip-squeak prime minister of Luxembourg” during Brexit talks was a sign of the bad faith the EU plans to have with the UK if the country accepts the withdrawal treaty, saying now is the time for a “clean break Brexit”.

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

France: About Ten People Injured by Gunshots and Knives This Weekend in Marseille

Over the weekend, close to ten people suffered gunshot wounds in two of Marseille’s migrant rich northern districts.

On Saturday night, two men aged 19 and 21 were wounded in the city of La Bricarde, in the 15th arrondissement, close to a known drug trafficking point. The two were allegedly shot in the legs by two motorcycle shooters, reports Le Parisien.

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

Health Fears Prompt Swiss 5G Revolt

Switzerland was among the first countries to begin deploying 5G, but health fears over radiation from the antennas that carry the next-generation mobile technology have sparked a nationwide revolt.

Demonstrators against the technology are due to fill the streets of Bern later this month, but already a number of cantons have been pressured to put planned constructions of 5G-compatible antennae on ice.

The technology has been swept up in the deepening trade war between China and the United States, which has tried to rein in Chinese giant Huawei — the world’s leader in superfast 5G equipment — over fears it will allow Beijing to spy on communications from countries that use its products and services.

But far from the clash of the titans, a growing number of Swiss are voicing alarm at possible health effects from exposure to the electromagnetic rays radiating from the new antennae, and are threatening to put the issue to a referendum in the country famous for its direct democratic system…

But while no new antennae are being built in parts of the country, the operators are still converting existing 4G antennae for 5G use — something they can do without authorisation.

National carrier Swisscom thus says it expects 90 percent of the population to have 5G access by the end of the year.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Climate Decree to Boost Unpackaged Food and Soaps

Package features 2,000-euro tax bonus to scrap polluting cars

(ANSA) — Rome, September 18 — The government has prepared a decree featuring a range measures aimed at “combatting climate change and promoting the green economy”. According to a draft of the decree, which ANSA has seen, an incentive would reduce the price of food items and soaps sold ‘loose’ without packaging, or shampoos, drinks and other liquids sold on tap with reusable containers, by 20% in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The package would also see current subsidies and tax breaks on activities that are harmful to the environment gradually phased out by 2040.

The money raised from higher tax revenues would go into a special fund to finance innovation, technology and sustainable forms of production and consumption.

Another measure in the draft is a 2,000-euro tax credit bonus for residents in cities with high pollution levels that scrap cars with emissions standards of Euro 4 or lower.

It would be possible to use the tax credit over the following five years for public-transport season tickets and electric or zero-emission shared-mobility services.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spain Sets New Elections for November as Attempts to Form a Government Collapse

Spain’s caretaker prime minister says fresh elections will take place in November as no leader can win enough parliamentary support to be able to form a government.

Pedro Sanchez made the announcement Tuesday after King Felipe VI announced that he had failed to find a party candidate capable of securing the support of a majority in parliament following elections April 29.

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

UK: Chief Rules Out Tasers for All Police Despite Thousands of Attacks on Officers

Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick has ruled out issuing tasers to all London Metropolitan officers despite calls for better police protection after a series of violent attacks on officers.

In 2017/18, there were over 26,000 assaults on police officers in England and Wales, of which London’s Metropolitan Police Service suffered the highest number of assaults at 3,975. Last month, three police officers across England were violently attacked in the line of duty in the space of one week, including one fatally, leading to calls for Britain’s traditionally unarmed officers to be given tasers.

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

UK: Corbyn Would Hold Second Referendum on Soft Brexit Deal vs Remain as PM

Jeremy Corbyn has said that if Labour wins the next election, he would renegotiate a Brexit deal even softer than Theresa May’s withdrawal treaty and would “give the people a final say” in a second referendum where the options would be the soft Brexit deal versus remaining in the EU.

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

UK: Tommy Robinson Calls for Julian Assange to be Freed After ‘Talking to WikiLeaks Founder in Belmarsh Prison’

TOMMY Robinson has called for Julian Assange to be freed after claiming he spoke to the WikiLeaks founder while at Belmarsh Prison.

The English Defence League founder emerged from the Category A prison Belmarsh in South East London with a copper beard on Friday.

The 36-year-old was jailed for nine weeks after being found guilty of contempt for live-streaming a video outside a child grooming trial.

In a message to followers on the encrypted Telegram app, Robinson wrote: “As I lay in bed early on this Sunday night all I can think is FREE JULIAN ASSANGE.”

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

“Jack… is a Really Kind, Funny Kid… Totally Non-Violent.”

Jack Letts, dubbed “Jihadi Jack”, the British convert to Islam who travelled to Syria in 2014 to join ISIS, has been stripped of his British citizenship. The former dual-national, whose British mother and Canadian father stand by their son, exchanged his picturesque hometown of Oxford for Raqqa, to join the ranks of ISIS. He is currently awaiting his fate in the custody of Kurdish forces.

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

Archaeology Confirms Book of Genesis on Israel’s Arch-Nemesis, The Edomites

This unexpected conclusion was reached by studying that precious source of evidence in modern archaeology: ancient garbage.

Specifically, a team of researchers analyzed slag, the waste left over from metal smelting, at ancient copper production sites in the Aravah Valley, a region that spans the southern deserts of Israel and Jordan and was once the heartland of the Edomite nation.

The team of American, Israeli and Jordanian archaeologists found that people at different sites in the Aravah were producing metal using the same standardized techniques, which improved and advanced in parallel, more than 3,000 years ago. This, the archaeologists say, is a sign that there was a strong, centralized entity that coordinated copper production over vast distances: in other words, a state.

And this in turn would mean that the Edomite kingdom was already formed by the mid-11th century B.C.E., some 300 years earlier than previously thought, the archaeologists conclude in a paper published Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS One.

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

China Forces Churches to Replace Ten Commandments With Xi Jinping Quotes

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has forced Christian churches across Henan province to replace the Ten Commandments with quotes from President Xi Jinping in its latest effort to “sinicize” religious practice in the officially atheist country.

One pastor from a state-run Protestant church said that the CCP’s latest move is part of a systematic plan to erode Christian doctrine in the country, adding that the ultimate goal of the party is to “become God.”

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

Frustrated Shoppers Lash Out at Vegan Protesters Who Stormed a Supermarket and Stopped People From Buying Meat

A Countdown supermarket in Auckland, New Zealand , was bombarded by vegan activists on Sunday.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Major Data Breach Puts All Ecuadorans — Including Julian Assange — at Risk of Identity Theft, Security Firm Warns

The entire population of Ecuador — including Julian Assange, who spent years living at the country’s embassy in London — might now be at risk of identity theft after a trove of personal data was found on an unsecured server, a cybersecurity firm is warning.

The server in Miami owned by Ecuadorian company Novaestrat contained national identity card numbers, tax identification numbers, birth dates and other information on more than 20 million people, most of whom live in Ecuador, vpnMentor says.

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

Hungarian Foreign Minister Labels EU Border Agency a ‘Travel Agency’ For Migrants

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjartó has labelled the European Union’s border agency Frontex a “travel agency”, stating that Member States should protect the external borders.

The Hungarian minister called the European Union (EU) “aimless” on the topic of migration stating in comments reported by Die Welt: “Frontex is a travel agency. Rather, those countries that have an external EU border should also protect them.”

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

Italy: Salvini Calls for “Immigration Referendum to Stop Open Borders”

Over the weekend, while addressing a crowd of 80,000 of his loyal supporters, Matteo Salvini promised to initiate a referendum that would block the new leftist coalition from keeping Italy’s ports open to migrant ferries shuttling in thousands of third world migrants.

Salvini’s plan was revealed to a massive crowd of around 80,000 people in Pontida on Sunday, while the former interior minister accused his former coalition partners the Five Star Movement (M5S) of committing treason, RTS reports.

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

Italy: ‘Allahu Akbar’ Migrant Who Stabbed Police Officer Had ‘Islamist Sympathies’

A carabinieri officer was stabbed in the throat by a migrant in Milan’s central railway station as he yelled “Allah hu Akbar!”.

The incident took place in front of the main railway station in the Piazzale Duca D’Aosta, which is in an area with a high population of illegal immigrants, and saw the Yemeni migrant attacker use a pair of scissors to stab the officer in the throat, Il Giornale reports.

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

Migrants Attempt to Enter Hungary in Rubber Dinghy

Hungarian border authorities apprehended a group of migrants attempting to enter Hungary by sailing up the River Tisza in an inflatable dinghy early on Wednesday, a spokeswoman of the Csongrad County police department said.

The seven migrants, all of whom claimed to be Iraqi citizens, were caught near the border town of Röszke, in southern Hungary, shortly after midnight, Szilvia Szabó told MTI.

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

Study: Nearly Half of Migrants Claiming to be Underage in Germany Are Adults

A study carried out by the Institute of Legal Medicine in Münster has revealed that nearly half of the migrants who claim to be under the age of eighteen are adults.

On behalf of courts and youth welfare offices, legal physicians from Münster investigated the age of close to 600 so-called ‘unaccompanied minor refugees’ whose age had been in doubt.

What the researchers found was shocking.

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

Texas Teacher Fired for Asking President Trump to Deport Illegal Aliens

A teacher at Carter-Riverside High School in Fort Worth, Texas, has been fired after tweeting about enforcing United States immigration laws by deporting illegal aliens.

The Fort Worth ISD board fired high school teacher Georgia Clark on Tuesday after unanimously voting 8-0 at a specially called meeting, according to a report by FOX 4 News.

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

The Latest: North Macedonia Police Detain 81 Migrants

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The Latest on migration into Europe (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

Police in North Macedonia say they have detained 81 migrants found in a truck near the border with Serbia, after the driver ignored a police warning to stop for a check and later abandoned the vehicle.

Police said the migrants found late Monday were from Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They are believed to have entered North Macedonia illegally from Greece and were expected to be deported back.

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

Tom Fitton Calls on DOJ to Criminally Prosecute Public Officials Who ‘Aid and Abet Illegal Alien Criminals’ (Video)

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton attended a rally in Montgomery County, Maryland and addressed criminal sanctuary city policies and illegal immigration.

Fitton called on the DOJ to criminally prosecute politicians who give sanctuary to criminal aliens.

‘Sanctuary policies make every town a border town,’ tom Fitton said.

“I call on the Justice Department to initiate criminal prosecutions of those public officials who aid and abet illegal alien criminals!” Fitton said.

WATCH:

Illegal aliens are currently on a rape spree in Montgomery County, Maryland thanks to dangerous Democrat policies.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

CA Senate Passes Resolution ACR-99 Telling Pastors to Embrace LGBTQ Beliefs

California Senate passed a resolution telling Christian clergy to accept and support LGBTQ ideology, even if doing so violates their Christian beliefs.

Assembly Concurrent Resolution 99 (ACR-99) was introduced by Democratic state Assemblyman Evan Low of San Jose on June 4 as a way to gather support for LGBTQ identity and behaviors.

CBN News previously reported that more than two dozen doctors, counselors, former homosexuals, and other Christian leaders signed a letter condemning the resolution, which they said violates religious freedom.

The resolution also condemns counseling for unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion, known as conversion therapy.

The bill says “California law recognizes that performing conversion therapy on young persons is ineffective, unethical, and harmful. Conversion therapy has been rejected as ineffective, unethical, and harmful by leading medical, mental health, and child welfare organizations in the United States.”

Several Christian leaders are speaking out against the resolution saying it infringes upon their free exercise of religion.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Climate Change’: A Leftist Excuse to Redistribute Wealth and Destroy the West

The “Church of Climate Change” demands that Western nations impose restrictions on industrial CO2 emissions, encouraging them to squander billions on unreliable “green” technologies and renewable sources of energy. They continue to ignore the one policy that has significantly increased atmospheric CO2 levels in the last few decades, generating hundreds of millions of metric tons of the stuff annually: mass third-world immigration (see Kolankiewicz and Camarota, 2008).

If the IPCC were objective, it would demand an end to mass immigration instead of more carbon taxes and emissions trading. Such indifference in the face of the evidence shows that they care more about racially dispossessing whites than they do about “saving the planet.”

So what is the ulterior motive? To further understand what this may be, we must examine the career of Canadian businessman Maurice Strong (1929—2015). Thanks to his tireless “lobbying behind the scenes,” the U.N. has played a key role in forging a “consensus” on man-made global warming. In a sense, he was the right man at the right time. Besides his ability to manipulate others, Strong was aided by other factors, such as the collapse of Soviet communism in the early 1990s. This helped pave the way for the emergence of a new leftist orthodoxy: environmentalism.

[Comment: Recommended reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Does LGBTQ Cultural Supremacy Enable High-Risk Behavior?

On 9/12/19, the Drudge Report offered its readers a link entitled “Trans Deaths Take Toll in USA.” The link is to an article by Martha Waggoner about the robbery and murder on 6/5/19 of a 23-year-old man named Avery Scurlock during a late-night hookup with a stranger. Though Mr. Scurlock is now being claimed as a “trans” martyr, the article contents suggest that it is by no means certain that the young man suffered such a simplistic and radical dislocation of sex identity as transgenderism or, more correctly, transsexualism.

Avery did not identify as female to his family or friends and had told his mother he was “gay.” There is a photograph of him online apparently wearing masculine clothing and light makeup. He employed a dramatis persona he named Chanel when wearing opposite-sex embellishments in public. The article assigns Avery the postmortem identity of a “trans woman,” and because scientific inquiry into the complex states of sex identity and sexual orientation is prohibited, this politically useful label of “trans woman” cannot be challenged.

Ms. Waggoner’s article illustrates two tenets of LGBTQ cultural supremacy. One tenet is that tragedy befalling LGBTQ people and their families is more important and pitiable than tragedy befalling non-LGBTQ people and families. The ascendancy of this tenet has drained away compassion from the American character, especially compassion for children. The other tenet promotes moral exceptionalism, in effect a distinctly lower moral standard for sexuality minorities than for the majority. It says that aberrant behavior such as public cross-dressing, exaggerated public expression of sexuality, glamorizing LGBTQ lifestylism to children, and even transgenerational sexual abuse are affirmative freedoms for LGBTQ people but offensive or even criminal in non-LGBTQ people. This tenet, on full display in Ms. Waggoner’s article, did not create the evil that took Avery’s life. But it may have enabled him to go to places where such evil was bound to engulf him.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How Feminist Social Justice Warriors Are Killing Men

I have said time and time again, that feminism is akin to cancer on the world. Some will undoubtedly question my views on feminism; I agree that first wave, and even to a point second wave feminism did good things for woman and equality. The right to vote, wear clothes we feel comfortable in, and the ability to work outside the home to name a few.

As third wave feminism desperately needs to embrace a cause in order to stay both relevant and valid in the eyes of society, femimists have doubled down on men in general. They denounce “the patriarchy,” the imaginary world that has men running everything and secretly holding women back from certain careers and advancement in the workplace. They even claim an imaginary wage gap is a problem. However, none of this exists in reality.

Women and men think differently. I know this may be a shock to some, but our brains do in fact work differently. Women are less likely to be attracted to careers that men are typically drawn to. Engineering, math, science and work in the trades are not something many women seek out to find careers in. Just as men are typically not administrative office support, human resources specialists and even teachers very often. This being said, nobody is holding women back from certain careers; they are choosing not to pursue those careers upon entering college and then the workforce.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New Montreal City Pool to Have Just One “Gender Neutral” Changing Room

What could possibly go wrong?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden to Combat Gang Violence by Challenging ‘Male Gender Roles’

The city of Stockholm has developed a new programme to combat the rise of gang violence by challenging “male gender roles” among young offenders.

The programme, which was developed by Liberal party politician Jan Jönsson, is modelled on a similar programme in the notorious no-go suburb of Rinkeby and will see increased cooperation between social services and police, Mitt i reports.

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

Union Theological Seminary Holds ‘Confession to Plants’ In Chapel Ceremony

New York’s non-denominational Union Theological Seminary (UTS) held a ceremony Tuesday where members of the community placed plants in the center of the chapel and confessed their sins to them.

“Today in chapel, we confessed to plants,” UTS tweeted, together with a picture of the ritual. “Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor.”

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

90 Per Cent of Plastic Waste Polluting Earth’s Oceans Comes From Asia and Africa

Despite westerners being lectured by climate activists like Greta Thunberg, a study has found that around 90 per cent of plastic waste polluting earth’s oceans comes from Asia and Africa.

During her U.S. tour, Thunberg cited “horrifying pictures of plastic in the oceans,” as one of the primary reasons why Americans should listen to her.

However, researchers at Germany’s Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research discovered that a small number of rivers account for the vast majority of plastic pollution and none of them are located in western countries.

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

Governments Not Prepared for Pandemic That Could Kill 80 Million People, Warns Report

Governments are not prepared for a devastating pandemic that could kill up to 80 million people, a new report warns.

The report was published by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, a joint entity formed by the World Bank and the World Health Organization.

“There is a very real threat of a rapidly moving, highly lethal pandemic of a respiratory pathogen killing 50 to 80 million people and wiping out nearly 5% of the world’s economy,” warns the paper, adding that “the world is not prepared” for this.

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

3 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/18/2019

  1. “Mr. Trudeau says he regrets the incident, and now believes it was racist”.

    Can’t get any juicier … fancy boy caught in his own trap.

    (Yup – he was just having fun back then. But afterwards his inane policies, all the “diversities”, racism found everywhere brought him to this Day of Reckoning. What goes around comes around, Justin).

    Btw – really a handsome fella. His father was too when the Revolucion on that isla started …

  2. Re: …Justin Trudeau admits wearing brownface…

    I’m confused. We’ve got used to black actors and singers playing white characters, which looks a bit odd, but I’m not bothered if they’re good; they’d hardly be convincing in “whiteface” anyway (though it might be argued that’s there’s a double standard; imagine the accusations of “cultural appropriation” if white singers appeared in “Porgy and Bess”).

    What’s the current PC position on white actors “blacking up” to play Shakespeare’s “Othello”, I wonder? Surely it looks more convincing than if they don’t? I believe Paul Robeson appeared in the role, but he was black, yet Othello was a “Moor”, so presumably “brown” (but how dark?); around the same time, Olivier filmed the part, but appeared (and acted) more “black” than “brown”.

    Then there’s Verdi’s opera on the same subject, “Otello”. I believe white tenors still sing the role, but imagine if a black soprano (or actress in the play) appeared as his wife Desdemona; she’s definitely white, it’s an important factor in the plot

    As I said, I’m confused.

  3. I don’t care if Trudeau wears black-face, or any other ‘ethnic’ identity at parties. I don’t mind if anyone does. I do care that he is the sort of PC dictator that would shame others for doing so, or even get them sacked. I’m only surprised he did not put the cocoa on when going around India. The man is a clown, an exhibitionist, who will say anything, do anything to win popularity.

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