Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/28/2019

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has proposed that Turkish troops be sent to Libya to prop up the rule of the recognized government in Tripoli. The law ordering the troop deployment is expected to be passed by the Turkish parliament early next month.

In other news, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that the migration policy of the European Union is a grave mistake.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. 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.

USA
» Another Deadly Week Brings 2019 Homicide Total to 342, Tied for Second-Most in Baltimore’s History
» Federal Judge Denies Effort to Restore 98,000 Purged Georgia Voters
» Feds Finally Start Investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s Gal Pal Ghislaine Maxwell
» Feds: Chemical Engineer at Center of Industrial Espionage
» IG Report: McCain Funneled New Steele Docs to Comey After FBI Cut Ties
» Michael Avenatti Was $15m in Debt When He Sought $25m From Nike in Extortion Plot: Prosecutors
» Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Says Impeachment Will Only ‘Embolden’ Trump, Increasing His Reelection Chances
» Report Hyped by Climate Alarmists Warned of Million of Deaths, Nuclear War, Sunken Major Cities by 2020
» U. of Northern Iowa Student: ‘Peanut Day’ Is Discriminatory
» Valpolicella Wines Aim for Heart of US
 
Europe and the EU
» France: Scuffles Break Out in Paris as Pensions Protesters, ‘Yellow Vests’ March
» Germany: A “Latent Sense of Insecurity”
» Information Has Been Teleported Simultaneously Between Two Chips for the First Time Which Could Help ‘Protect the World’s Data’ On Superfast Quantum Computers
» Italian Leftist Government Faces Challenges, Could Collapse in January
» Pope Satan 2019 Christmas Address: ‘Christendom No Longer Exists’
» Senior Judge Claims UK Supreme Court Colleagues Are Not Political Activists
» UK: John Bercow Snubbed: Ex-Speaker Becomes First in 230 Years Not to Get a Seat in Lords
» UK: Police Arrest Three of Abu Hamza’s Sons in London After They ‘Carried Out £1million in Fraud With Help From a Corrupt Banking Insider’
» UK: Thousands Demand Anti-Brexit Lawyer Prosecuted for ‘Unnecessary and Cruel Bludgeoning of Trapped and Scared Fox’
 
North Africa
» A New Proxy War? Turkey Plans to Deploy Troops to Libya
 
Middle East
» WikiLeaks: Chemical Weapons Watchdog Ordered Deletion of ‘All Traces’ Of Findings That Syrian ‘Chemical Attack’ May Have Been Staged
 
Russia
» New Russian Weapon Can Travel 27 Times the Speed of Sound
 
South Asia
» Aung San Suu Kyi Denies Myanmar’s Alleged Rohingya Genocide
» Holding on to Tradition: Christmas in Pakistan
 
Far East
» Duterte Bans US Senators From Philippines, Threatens New Visa Rules for Americans
» Hong Kong Protesters Pepper Sprayed by Cops in Shopping Mall
 
Australia — Pacific
» Beloved Grandfather, 50, Left Brain-Dead With Just Hours to Live After Being ‘Stomped on and Beaten With Baseball Bats’ By Gang Outside His Home on Christmas Day
» Chinese Company is Given the Green Light to Run a Water Mining Operation in Drought-Ravaged Queensland — While Desperate Residents in Nearby Towns Are Forced to Take 90-Second Showers
» Extreme Heatwave Sweeping Across Australia is Set to Combine With Dry Winds on New Year’s Eve — Creating Nightmarish Bushfire Conditions
» Sydney’s Population is Set to Soar Past Seven Million People in the Next Two Decades — as Water Supplies Fall to Record Lows and High-Rise Apartment Blocks Are Built to Meet Demand
 
Immigration
» Hungary’s Orban Labels EU’s Mass Migration Policy ‘Grave Mistake’
 
Culture Wars
» Christian Post: Pete Buttigieg’s Bible ‘Missing a Lot of Pages’
» UK: Transgender Man Gives Birth to Non-Binary Partner’s Baby With Female Sperm Donor
 
General
» Betelgeuse Looks Fainter Than Usual. Could it Mean it’s About to Go Supernova?
» UN Moves Towards Handing Dictatorships Power to Control the Internet
 

Another Deadly Week Brings 2019 Homicide Total to 342, Tied for Second-Most in Baltimore’s History

This holiday week brought no peace to Baltimore.

A working mother gunned down in front of her children at an East Side deli. A man who succumbed to the gunshot wounds he suffered two weeks ago. A baby believed to be shaken to death. A man shot to death inside a car.

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

Federal Judge Denies Effort to Restore 98,000 Purged Georgia Voters

A federal judge ruled on Friday that the state of Georgia acted within the law by purging 98,000 voters from registration rolls who hadn’t voted in 8 years or responded to a mailed notification letter.

All told, Georgia purged nearly 300,000 people who were either inactive or did not respond to the mailer. Liberal groups fought the purge claiming it was unconstitutional.

But the judge didn’t see it that way.

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

Feds Finally Start Investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s Gal Pal Ghislaine Maxwell

Ghislaine Maxwell — the British socialite who’s long been accused of serving as Jeffrey Epstein’s madam— is under investigation by the FBI, sources confirmed to The Post on Friday.

Maxwell, who has largely kept out of the public eye since 2016, allegedly procured young women and groomed them to have sex with Epstein and his wealthy pals.

Several other “people who facilitated” the dead pedophile’s alleged sexual abuse are also being probed but Maxwell is the main focus, two sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters.

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

Feds: Chemical Engineer at Center of Industrial Espionage

MORRISTOWN, Tenn. (AP) — A high-performing, Chinese-born chemical engineer began work at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport in September 2017 as the alleged linchpin in a broader industrial-espionage scheme devised to steal tens of millions of dollars worth of trade secrets, proprietary information she planned to use to jump-start a competing business in China, according to federal court documents.

Xiorang “Shannon” You, a naturalized U.S. citizen, allegedly conspired with a Chinese engineer to hijack $119.6 million worth of trade-secret information, according to an indictment drafted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy C. Harker and Matthew W. Walczewski, a prosecutor with the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C.

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

IG Report: McCain Funneled New Steele Docs to Comey After FBI Cut Ties

Deep State coup plot continues to be exposed.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Michael Avenatti Was $15m in Debt When He Sought $25m From Nike in Extortion Plot: Prosecutors

California attorney Michael Avenatti was deeply in debt, owing money to former clients, former law partners and two ex-wives — for alimony and child support — when he tried to extort $25 million from sports apparel giant Nike, federal prosecutors claim.

The lawyer who became a national figure when he represented porn actress and stripper Stormy Daniels in her case against President Trump was in arrears to the tune of “conservatively, in excess of $15 million,” the authorities assert in court papers filed late Christmas Eve in New York City.

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

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Says Impeachment Will Only ‘Embolden’ Trump, Increasing His Reelection Chances

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard spoke candidly on Saturday about her controversial decision to vote “present” during last week’s formal impeachment vote, adding she feared the impeachment of President Donald Trump would only “embolden” him and increase his chance for reelection.

“I think impeachment, unfortunately, will only further embolden Donald Trump, increase his support and the likelihood that he’ll have a better shot at getting elected while also seeing the likelihood that the House will lose a lot of seats to Republicans,” Gabbard said, in a one-on-one interview with ABC News in Hudson, New Hampshire.

Gabbard — a 2020 president candidate — noted that the prospect of a second term for Trump and a Republican-controlled House is a “serious concern” of hers, adding that she’s worried about the potential ramifications that will be left if Trump is acquitted.

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

Report Hyped by Climate Alarmists Warned of Million of Deaths, Nuclear War, Sunken Major Cities by 2020

Oops.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

U. of Northern Iowa Student: ‘Peanut Day’ Is Discriminatory

A student at the University of Northern Iowa filed a “bias incident” report complaint in response to “peanut day,” an event put on by the university’s dining hall to promote the nutrients in peanuts. According to the report, peanut day is discriminatory against students with peanut allergies.

According to a report by The College Fix, a student at the University of Northern Iowa filed a “bias incident” report against a campus dining hall over their decision to promote the health benefits in eating peanuts. The student, who was not allergic to peanuts, claimed that “peanut day” discriminates against students with a peanut allergy.

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

Valpolicella Wines Aim for Heart of US

Bussinello says plan is to expand into emerging states

(ANSA) — Rome, December 27 — Valpolicella wines are heading into the states of Washington, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, and Texas, after having toured the big cities of the East Coast with the Valpolicella Consortium.

The expansion strategy is based on GDP numbers in many states that indicate growth opportunities in the market for Valpolicella.

Americans already enjoy Valpolicella, as shown by the value of exports of Valpolicella Doc, which have risen by 17%; 15% for Amarone and 5% for Ripasso.

“The coasts are strategic and historic for our wines,” Consortium Director Olga Bussinello told ANSA.

“But, we want to look ahead and expand into ‘emerging’ states from an economic point of view, those that are characterised by a strong growth in GDP. These are markets where our wines could easily fit in,” she said.

Regarding the various distribution channels in the US, Businello said each has its own peculiarities and importance, targeting a specific consumer base.

Large-scale retail distribution, for example, occupies 50% of the market, while Horeca (food service industry) is at 20% and in continual growth, above all in recent years, with more than 550,000 restaurants, wine bars, and clubs that have a license to sell wine.

“The ability of our winemakers is that of knowing how to take advantage of all the possibilities offered by these channels,” Bussinello said.

She said e-commerce makes up 4% of the market, but according to the Global Ecommerce 2019 Strategic Study by International Wine & Spirits Research (IWSR), it will see exponential growth in the next five years.

In 2024, the United States is expected to become the second-largest country for online wine sales, following China.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

France: Scuffles Break Out in Paris as Pensions Protesters, ‘Yellow Vests’ March

PARIS (Reuters) — Protesters marching against the French government’s planned pension reform clashed with the police in Paris on Saturday as police fired tear gas to disperse some groups of demonstrators.

French trade unions have spearheaded nationwide strikes since early December in an outcry over President Emmanuel Macron’s pensions overhaul, disrupting schools, railways and roads, while lending support to regular protests.

On Saturday “yellow vests” — an anti-government movement that sprung up a year ago as a backlash against the high cost of living — joined a rally of several thousand people against the pensions shake-up.

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

Germany: A “Latent Sense of Insecurity”

“At least since the events at the Cologne cathedral square on New Year’s Eve in 2015 people apparently feel more and more unsafe,” said Oliver Malchow, the chairman of one of Germany’s two largest police unions. He was referring to the mass sexual assaults committed mainly by Arab and North African men at the Cologne cathedral square on New Year’s Eve more than four years ago. Malchow was also referring to new statistics, which show that approximately 640,000 Germans now have licenses for gas pistols — a large increase since 2014, when around 260,000 people had such a license. A gas pistol fires loud blanks or tear gas cartridges and is only potentially lethal at extremely close range.

The new statistics, according to Malchow, showed a “latent sense of insecurity” in the population. The number of real firearms owned privately also reportedly increased in 2018 — by 27,000 over the previous year. In Germany now, 5.4 million firearms are privately owned, most of them rifles.

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

Information Has Been Teleported Simultaneously Between Two Chips for the First Time Which Could Help ‘Protect the World’s Data’ On Superfast Quantum Computers

Information has been ‘teleported’ between two computer chips for the first time, a move that could lead to a more secure ‘quantum internet’, researchers claim.

Experts from the University of Bristol and the Technical University of Denmark were able to ‘instantly send the data’ using a process called ‘quantum entanglement’.

The information was exchanged without electrical or physical contact as the process allows these particles to instantly communicate over large distances.

This is useful in quantum computing and networks as changing one particle will automatically change the other, say researchers from Bristol.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Leftist Government Faces Challenges, Could Collapse in January

The Italian leftist coalition of the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD) faces several high-profile events in January that could lead to the collapse of the coalition, which is not even a year old.

The government faces a number of challenges in January that have the potential to collapse the already tenuous relationship between the two parties, with the first being the surprise resignation of Five Star Movement Minister of Education Lorenzo Fioramonti this week over the government’s budget, Il Giornale reports.

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

Pope Satan 2019 Christmas Address: ‘Christendom No Longer Exists’

Pope Francis shocked many when he delivered his 2019 Christmas address to the cardinals, bishops and other high ranking officials of the Catholic Church, by explicitly rejecting tradition, Western culture and even comparing Jesus in Bethlehem to a refugee:

“Christendom no longer exists!” Francis declared in his speech. “Today we are no longer the only ones who create culture, nor are we in the forefront of those most listened to.”

Pope Francis specified that the culture he was rejecting was European.

“We are no longer living in a Christian world, because faith — especially in Europe, but also in a large part of the West — is no longer an evident presupposition of social life; indeed, faith is often rejected, derided, marginalized and ridiculed.”

This anti-West approach should be expected as Pope Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Senior Judge Claims UK Supreme Court Colleagues Are Not Political Activists

Retiring president of the Supreme Court Brenda Hale has claimed that she and her colleagues — who overturned Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament — are not “activists” and are “not politically motivated”.

The UK’s Supreme Court has come under the spotlight in recent months after in September it ruled in favour of anti-Brexit activists Gina Miller and Joanna Cherry MP by ruling Prime Minister Johnson’s prorogation (suspension) of parliament was “unlawful”.

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

UK: John Bercow Snubbed: Ex-Speaker Becomes First in 230 Years Not to Get a Seat in Lords

JOHN BERCOW has become the first Speaker of the House of Commons in 230 years not to get a peerage upon retirement.

The New Year’s Honours List 2020, published today, recognises the outstanding achievements of people across the UK. More than 1,000 people have been awarded, including high-profile politicians such as the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith. One person, though, appears to have been left in the lurch.

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

UK: Police Arrest Three of Abu Hamza’s Sons in London After They ‘Carried Out £1million in Fraud With Help From a Corrupt Banking Insider’

“Three of radical preacher Abu Hamza’s sons have been arrested and released on bail for allegedly carrying out a £1million fraud with the help of a corrupt banking insider.

The trio were arrested for ‘fraud and money laundering offences’ and are said to have used stolen details to get loans, cars and access dormant funds.

One son, Yasser, 29, was arrested at his mother’s West London home, while another son Uthman Mustafa Kamel, 31, was arrested nearby

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Thousands Demand Anti-Brexit Lawyer Prosecuted for ‘Unnecessary and Cruel Bludgeoning of Trapped and Scared Fox’

Thousands of people have signed a petition calling on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to pursue anti-Brexit barrister Jolyon Maugham for his allegedly “unnecessary and cruel bludgeoning of a trapped and scared fox” in Central London on Boxing Day.

Maugham, the son of David Benedictus, an Old Etonian former tutor to the Rothschilds, is a barrister with “a particular specialism in litigating tax avoidance transactions”, according to his Accountancy Daily profile, and first gained public notoriety when was denounced for having “represented celebrity tax dodge film schemes” by the right-leaning press after the Labour Party took him on as an adviser in 2015.

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

A New Proxy War? Turkey Plans to Deploy Troops to Libya

by Thomas O. Falk

President Erdogan seeks to provide military support to Libya’s recognized government in his latest attempt for increased geopolitical relevance. In order to facilitate the deployment of Turkish troops, Erdogan will request the Turkish parliament to vote on the plan. The corresponding law will likely be submitted by the beginning of January, Erdogan confirmed in a speech to representatives of his party AKP.

Verbatim, Erdogan stated that “based on the security and military cooperation memorandum, once Parliament opens it, the first thing we will do is to submit a resolution on the deployment of soldiers.” The law is expected to be passed on January 8 or 9.

Moving forward, Turkey would go to places where it was invited but never appear anywhere where it was not wanted, Erdogan continued. The latter is his ratio for his Lybia plans, as it had invited Ankara. An invitation, Erdogan, is more than willing to accept. In fact, Turkey will provide the Tripoli government with “any kind of support against a coup-planning general backed by several European and Arab countries,” Erdogan said. “We stand alongside Libya’s legitimate government.” The legitimization of the current government, however, remains a conundrum amongst the international community…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

WikiLeaks: Chemical Weapons Watchdog Ordered Deletion of ‘All Traces’ Of Findings That Syrian ‘Chemical Attack’ May Have Been Staged

Wikileaks has published shocking leaked documents from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in which they covered up a dissenting report that concluded chemical weapons were not used in the Syrian city of Duoma last year.

In one of the leaked e-mail exchanges, from February 27-28, between members of the fact finding mission (FFM) deployed to Douma and senior officials of the OPCW, the watchdog’s Chief of Cabinet Sebastien Braha ordered the removal of “all traces” of a report by Ian Henderson.

“Please get this document out of DRA [Documents Registry Archive]… And please remove all traces, if any, of its delivery/storage/whatever in DRA,” the email reads.

Henderson had inspected the sites in Douma and two cylinders that were found on the site of the alleged attack. In his report, he had concluded that the cylinders were more likely placed there — not dropped. His findings heavily indicated that the “attack” was staged.

US media and politicians uncritically claimed that the cylinders were dropped from the air by the Syrian government, killing civilians.

Since the cylinders appeared to be placed by hand, and the area was under the control of anti-government forces, Henderson’s findings lend credence to theories that the attack was staged to set up the Syrian president and prompt the US to attack.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New Russian Weapon Can Travel 27 Times the Speed of Sound

Moscow’s deployment of ‘Avangard’ hypersonic warheads means the US missile defense installations in Europe are now obsolete — and that Washington would have to spend a lot of money it doesn’t have in order to catch up.

Video released by the Russian defense ministry on Friday shows the hypersonic glider warheads being loaded onto silo-based missiles. For now, the Avangards will be mounted on the UR-100N (or SS-19 Stiletto, as NATO calls them) ballistic missiles, until the RS-28 Sarmat is ready to enter service.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Aung San Suu Kyi Denies Myanmar’s Alleged Rohingya Genocide

by Alasdair Lane

Her face once inspired hope in the downtrodden around the world but as Aung San Suu Kyi’s drawn features appeared on screen, the refugee camp erupted in fury. “Liar! Liar! Shame!” rose up the cries from the squalid, makeshift Bangladeshi settlement. Half a world away, the protesters’ compatriots—assembled outside the UN’s highest court in the Hague—echoed the message with vigor.

Suu Kyi: What Genocide?

Myanmar’s leader won’t have heard them, nor the hundreds of her supporters also on the street. With laser-like focus, the one-time champion of democracy systematically denied charges of genocide against the Rohingya people being brought against her nation in the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ). The nation’s bloody suppression of its Muslim minority was an internal security matter, she maintained—but few, it seems, are convinced…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Holding on to Tradition: Christmas in Pakistan

by by Mutaher Khan

With Christmas holidays in full swing and everyone enjoying feasts with families, I am reminded of my childhood and what December 25th used to be like for me, sharing joy with the millions of fellow Christians in Pakistan.

My Childhood In Karachi

When I moved to a new house in one of Karachi’s middle class localities as a four-year-old, both my next-door neighbors were Christians, each with a pet dog—something the majority of Muslims don’t do. Soon after, another family moved in next door with a son my age. He eventually became the best bowler of any of us and the glue of our neighborhood’s cricket team…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Duterte Bans US Senators From Philippines, Threatens New Visa Rules for Americans

The Philippines announced Friday that it has banned two U.S. senators from traveling to the country while threatening to impose stricter visa requirements for all Americans in response to new sanctions.

Reuters reports that the move comes after Congress approved a 2020 budget that contains a provision introduced by Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., that would bar entry into the U.S. to any official involved in the incarceration of Philippine Senator Leila de Lima.

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

Hong Kong Protesters Pepper Sprayed by Cops in Shopping Mall

Hundreds of pro-democracy protesters swarmed a Hong Kong shopping mall near the border of mainland China Saturday, and were met by pepper spray-wielding police, who arrested about a dozen people in the latest flare-up.

The Sheung Shui mall, which is just over the border from the Chinese city of Shenzhen, is popular with so-called parallel traders who buy large volumes of duty-free goods in Hong Kong and then sell them on the mainland. Hong Kong residents blame them for overcrowding and pushing up prices and rents.

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

Beloved Grandfather, 50, Left Brain-Dead With Just Hours to Live After Being ‘Stomped on and Beaten With Baseball Bats’ By Gang Outside His Home on Christmas Day

Anthony Clark, 50, was allegedly ‘thrown around like a rag doll’, stomped on and hit with baseball bats in the street outside his Melbourne home before 11pm.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Company is Given the Green Light to Run a Water Mining Operation in Drought-Ravaged Queensland — While Desperate Residents in Nearby Towns Are Forced to Take 90-Second Showers

The decision comes despite those living in Queensland’s Southern Downs being under critical water restrictions — with the town of Stanthorpe just weeks away from running out of drinking water.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Extreme Heatwave Sweeping Across Australia is Set to Combine With Dry Winds on New Year’s Eve — Creating Nightmarish Bushfire Conditions

Australian firefighters are bracing for conditions to worsen as they continue to battle large blazes that will be fanned by dry winds and soaring temperatures this week.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Sydney’s Population is Set to Soar Past Seven Million People in the Next Two Decades — as Water Supplies Fall to Record Lows and High-Rise Apartment Blocks Are Built to Meet Demand

The NSW Government is to fast-track housing developments for a Sydney population increase of nearly two million people despite a lack of new water sources.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary’s Orban Labels EU’s Mass Migration Policy ‘Grave Mistake’

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has labelled the European Union’s mass migration-friendly policies as being one of the two gravest mistakes made by the political bloc going into 2020.

The Hungarian leader made his comments earlier this week, stating that both mass migration and the current state of the eurozone economy would be major issues that the European Union member-states would have to deal with in the coming year, Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet reports.

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

Christian Post: Pete Buttigieg’s Bible ‘Missing a Lot of Pages’

A searing essay in the Christian Post Friday examines Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s misapplication of the Bible to justify “far-left positions” on everything from economic policy to same-sex marriage.

Writing for the Christian Post, guest columnist John Stonestreet observes that a growing biblical illiteracy in America allows public figures like Buttigieg to make ridiculous claims in the name of sacred Scripture with almost no pushback from the public.

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

UK: Transgender Man Gives Birth to Non-Binary Partner’s Baby With Female Sperm Donor

EXCLUSIVE: Proud dad Reuben Sharpe has revealed how he gave birth to miracle baby Jamie with partner Jay in Britain’s most modern family — and even the couple’s doctor was transgender.

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

Betelgeuse Looks Fainter Than Usual. Could it Mean it’s About to Go Supernova?

Have you noticed that Orion the Hunter — one of the most iconic and familiar of the wintertime constellations — is looking a little… different as of late? The culprit is its upper shoulder star Alpha Orionis, aka Betelgeuse, which is looking markedly faint, the faintest it has been for the 21st century.

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

UN Moves Towards Handing Dictatorships Power to Control the Internet

The United Nations wants to hand power to dictatorial regimes like China to control the Internet, prompting fears of a massive new free speech purge.

The General Assembly has approved a resolution sponsored by China and Russia to set up a committee of “international experts” whose role would be to stop “the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes.”

However, many caution that the move is merely a back door for authoritarian regimes to further censor dissent.

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

14 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/28/2019

  1. The article under North Africa claims that Turkish troops are to be sent to Libya.

    Wrong. This is misleading by the writer Thomas Falk, writing for the conservative liberal Italian source Il Giornale, as one assumes ethnic Turks are meant to be the troops.

    I suspect this wording is designed to distract attention from who were the so called Syrian rebels of 2011. Many came from Libya.

    The new troops are Islamist Syrian Arabs and Turkmens aimed at fighting the Libyan government, which is anti Muslim Brotherhood,

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52769.htm.

  2. Just wondering if you are aware that the EU Times article above contains the following anti-semitic statements:

    Pope Satan 2019 Christmas Address: ‘Christendom No Longer Exists’

    Today, Jews have become the dominant culture creators because we have turned our backs on God, and handed the reins over to those whose agenda it is to destroy our God and our race.

    And this crypto-Pope has taken a leading role in attempting to hand over the keys of Christendom to our sworn spiritual enemies, the Jews. How do we know this? Simply put: his liberal agenda includes literally every progressive jewish talking point, including the normalization of sodomy.

    • I followed your link, and while it doesn’t give the full text of the Pope’s address, the allegation about the Jews appears to be editorialising on the part of EU Times.

      They, like you, should be aware that our sworn spiritual enemies are first, Islam, and second, militant atheists (I speak as a non-believer, albeit one who believes worship should be excluded from the public space, eg schools).

  3. Durbin and Leahy opposed to drug control in the Philippines. No surprise there.

  4. It appears that the once peaceful suburbs of New York City are now experiencing the kind of Jew hatred that we see in the UK and many other European countries. No word yet whether the perpetrator had any particular animus against Jews or Christians for that matter. No reports of a random “Alahu Akbar” shouted or anything else that was said during this horrific encounter.

    One thing for sure- it has become extremely dangerous to be Jewish in today’s world, regardless of where you live. By way of some NY background: The town of Monsey where this actual hate crime occurred is not far from the bucolic province where I live.

    Rockland County, which is where Monsey is located, has some very well established Hassidic/ Jewish communities, and in some areas, they have gained control (through the ballot box) of townships and school boards, which has caused a political backlash among those that were displaced.

    I am not trying to imply that this bloodbath had much if anything to do with politics, except to say that a climate of resentment has been created by certain community agitators, in which retaliation against the Jews for imaginary grievances is becoming more acceptable.

    This has been going on in NY for many years and one of the early ringleaders is someone whose name is probably familiar to most readers, that of the Rev. Al Sharpton- advised to Oprah, US Presidents and assorted other thought leaders.

    If you go back and read about Sharpton’s disgraceful history of race baiting in NY, you can see that the situation we have today was bound to happen. It is shocking to me as a native New Yorker that this blatant and horrific anti-Semitism has been allowed to flourish to the point where Jews are now being slaughtered in their homes.

    May G-d have mercy on us all.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7833919/Multiple-stab-victims-reported-synagogue-upstate-New-York.html

    • Jewish people have truly been a part of Britain and Ireland for a long time now. Especially England. To hear recent import political representatives with strong very foreign to these Isles accents reassuring our Jewish brethren about any ongoing pogroms – is worth a good vomit. Read the Koran. The Muslim has become the untouchable. As
      one contributor writes, “Islam is our number one spiritual enemy”.

  5. Re: USA: Federal judge denies…

    In the UK, people on the electoral register receive periodic reminders to confirm their residency; if we do not respond, we are removed. This seems a sensible precaution against fraud.

    • But did you know that at the EU Elections they have made it so easy long time ago that a fraud by letter votinng is very easy?

      And that if you had 2 Passports you can vote in 2 countries and nobody can check it?Its forbidden but Millions can do it…

      Once a high educated journalist sayed it in TV that he voted 2 times.He sayed he didnt knew it and the investigation was stopped if i remember right.

      • Are you refering to Giovanni di Lorenzo, editor in chief of Die Zeit? He did so.
        BTW wrong use of past participles like two other commenters here. Strange coincidence, isn’t it?

  6. Flew back from Vienna yesterday, I must say that last city was depressing. Felt more like Istanbul in some places than Austria

  7. Stick around because it will be glorious when the Clown Kracken is released on a failed world.
    The inbred “elites” think that they will be immune from the chaos caused by them but the genie will get out of the bottle never to return.
    It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of sadistic control freaks but sadly humanity will be caught in the middle.

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