Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/9/2020

Just after Iran launched its missile attacks on American bases in Iraq, a Ukrainian airliner crashed in Tehran, killing all 176 people on board. Analysts believe Iran’s automated missile defense system shot down the plane by mistake, but Iranian authorities refuse to hand over the black box that would confirm the hypothesis.

In other news, Pope Francis praised young people who are climate change activists.

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

Thanks to 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
» Stocks Soar to Record Close as Investor Focus Shifts Back to Trade
» Trump’s Booming Economy Spurs Taco Bell’s $100K Manager Search
 
USA
» 5G is Already Here; 6G Will Arrive Soon
» City Orders Woman to Stop Flying “Trump 2020” Flag
» Democrats Admit to National Gun Confiscation Plan
» Ghislaine Maxwell Not Hiding in Safe House, Says Family Friend
» Glacier Park in Montana Set to Remove ‘Glaciers Will All be Gone by 2020’ Signs
» Hanukkah Stabbing Suspect Indicted on Hate Crimes by Federal Grand Jury
» House Passes Democrats’ Virtue-Signaling War Powers Resolution Against Trump
» It’s Official: Colorado’s “Red Flag” Gun Confiscations Begin
» Mom Beats Pedophile With Pipe for Making Out With 9yo Girl, Then Cops Arrest Her
» Omar Calls Trump ‘Occupant of White House,’ Giggles When U.S. Casualties in Iraq Mentioned
» Rasmussen Poll: Just 21% of Americans Think Jeffrey Epstein Killed Himself
» The Medications That Change Who We Are
» The Real Reason the UN Wants Control Over the Internet
» Virginia Democrats Introduce New Gun & Ammo Bans to Kick Off New Year
» Virginia Beach Passes Resolution to Make Itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary for Gun Owners
 
Canada
» Canadian Police Order Reporter Not to Call Soleimani a ‘Terrorist’
» Gasoline Traps and ‘Fuel-Soaked Rags’ Indicate Possible Criminal Attack Against Gaslink Pipeline
» O’Toole Condemns Iran for Killing 63 Canadians, Conservatives React
» Poll: Most Canadians Would Support Prince Harry as the Next Governor General
 
Europe and the EU
» British Man Lights His Head on Fire in Attempt to Burn Down Synagogue
» EU Negotiator: EU Must Control UK State Aid Policy After Brexit or No Deal
» EU President to Brit Students: ‘Choose Collaboration’ With EU Over ‘Isolation’
» Historic Moment as Brexit Bill is Finally Set to be Signed Off by MPs — With Only the Lords Stages to Go Before the UK Leaves the EU on January 31
» Italy: Government Says Giving ASPI Big Fine Instead of Stripping Concessions ‘Not an Option’
» Pope Francis Praises Young Climate Change Activists
» UK Lawmakers Finally Approve Brexit Deal
» UK: Battle Lines Are Set: Farage Tells Boris to Get Tough on EU
» UK: Corbyn Refused Four Times to Call Soleimani a Terrorist
» UK: Farage Says Prince Harry Has ‘Let the Side Down’, Compares Meghan to Wallis Simpson
» UK: Piers Morgan: Meghan and Harry Should be Stripped of Their Titles
 
Middle East
» Breaking: Trudeau Confirms Plane Shot Down by Iran
» CNN Gives Platform to Iranian Who Once Said She’d Shoot U.S. Hostages in the Head
» Everybody in America Should Stand Up and Applaud President Trump, Because He Just Changed the Course of History
» Hungary’s Orban Wants EU to Adopt Israeli-U.S. Stance on Iran
» Iranians Want Regime Change
» Iraqi PM Claims Trump Threatened False Flag Attacks on Protesters if He Didn’t Accept Oil Deal
» ‘These Things Happen’: Ex-Diplomat Says Iran Shouldn’t Face Repercussions Over Downed Plane
» Time Magazine Offers Guide on How Parents Can Brainwash Their Kids on Iran
» Ukrainian Airplane Shot Down by Mistake by Iranian Anti-Aircraft Missile, Pentagon Officials Believe
» Watch: Trudeau Doesn’t Rule Out Blaming U.S. For Plane Shot Down by Iran
 
South Asia
» Scientists Describe Trove of New Bird Species on Indonesian Islands
 
Far East
» China: Beijing’s Arctic Power Grab
 
Australia — Pacific
» 2019 Was the Hottest and Driest Year in Australia’s History — Amid Warnings Horrific Bushfires, Drought and Heatwaves Are the New Normal
» An Island on Fire: Frightening Satellite Image Reveals the True Scale of Devastating Infernos on Australia’s Kangaroo Island — as the Bushfire Crisis Rolls on
» Greens Leader Richard Di Natale is Praised for Donating Ten Bales of His Own Hay to Fire-Affected Farmers
» How a Billionaire’s Elaborate Plan to Protect His Equestrian Centre Helped Save Hundreds of Homes, Animals and Lives From an Out-of-Control Blaze
» Mining Billionaire Andrew Forrest Claims Bushfire Crisis is Caused by Arsonists — and Climate Change is Just a ‘Small Part’ Of it That Will Not be Tackled by His $70 Million Donation
» Pictured: Promising Soccer Player, 21, Whose Body Was Found Being Devoured by Sharks During Search for Surfer Eaten by a Great White — as His Tragic Last Instagram Post is Revealed
 
Latin America
» Over 1000 Earthquakes Have Hit Puerto Rico, And Authorities Say it is Being “Squeezed” Between Two Tectonic Plates
 
Immigration
» 18 Republican Governors Ask for More Refugees in Their States, While “Charities” Are Cashing in and Grifting Off of American Taxpayers
» Belgium Moving Hundreds of Migrants to Air Force Base
» Belgium Arrests Syrian Migrant on Terrorism Charges
» Germany: Somali Migrant Attacker Calls Police After His Victim Defends Himself Too Violently
» Norway to Take 600 Migrants Moved From Libya Camps to Rwanda
» Private Texas Company’s Planned Border Wall Along Rio Grande Can Proceed, Judge Rules
» Sweden Granted 1.2m New Migrant Permits Last Decade, One-Fifth of Residents Are Foreign Born
» The One Who Got Away… And the One Who Didn’t: Hungary’s Barbed-Wire Fence Still Proves No Barrier for Desperate Migrants — But Police Launch Crackdown to Stem Unrelenting Flow Across Its Border
 
Culture Wars
» Boy George Comes Out Swinging Against Wokeness
» Chick-fil-A CEO Regrets ‘Inadvertently’ Discrediting ‘Outstanding’ Groups Like the Salvation Army
» Hungary Takes on the Feminist Goliath— And Wins
» Now They Want to Abolish Police
 

Stocks Soar to Record Close as Investor Focus Shifts Back to Trade

U.S. stocks swept to record highs once again Thursday as investors focused on progress on the trade pact with China due to be signed next week and amid an easing of concerns about war in the Middle East.

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

Trump’s Booming Economy Spurs Taco Bell’s $100K Manager Search

While some fast-food chains bemoan labour inflation in America’s hot economy, Yum! Brands Inc.—owner of Taco Bell restaurants—is taking a different approach.

Instead of belt-tightening, Taco Bell is offering $100,000-a-year salaries for managers at select Midwest and New England, U.S. locations.

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

5G is Already Here; 6G Will Arrive Soon

If you have attended any tech conference over the past three years, you couldn’ have missed talk of 5G, the new wireless communications system that is going to revolutionize connectivity, enable billions of IoT devices and allow things such as autonomous cars to become a reality.

A multi-university research effort is already turning its attention to the next generation of wireless. While 5G is still aiming at connecting high-speed devices such as computers, smartphones and connected cars, 6G will be mostly an IoT network.

The Center for Converged TeraHertz Communications and Sensing (ComSenTe) is already working on the initial 6G specifications. They expect that the next generation of wireless connectivity will provide speeds of 1 to 100 Gbps to the end user and MU-MIMO capability of 100 to 1,000 simultaneous independently modulated beams effectively providing speeds in the tens of terabytes per second. Apart from providing precision localization to a fraction of an inch, supplementing GPS, 6G imaging techniques will identify any person or moving object. This intelligent, immersive infrastructure will support low-latency virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and seamless telepresence.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

City Orders Woman to Stop Flying “Trump 2020” Flag

Prescott Valley, Arizona, tries to control resident’s political speech

An Arizona woman is proud Donald Trump is her president, but the city she lives in is triggered over a flag she’s flying to show her support.

Tawney Baccelia says the city of Prescott Valley sent her a notice last month informing her the “Trump 2020” flag she has flying at her home, beneath a Blue Lives Matter flag, was against city code.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Democrats Admit to National Gun Confiscation Plan

Leftists plan to make law-abiding Americans victims

In their own words, leftists vow to make you a disarmed slave.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ghislaine Maxwell Not Hiding in Safe House, Says Family Friend

Recent reports speculating about the whereabouts of former Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell appear to have been grossly exaggerated.

Sources with firsthand knowledge tell Fox News that most of the recent reports, including that Maxwell was in a safe house in the Midwest being guarded by Special Forces operatives, are bogus.

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

Glacier Park in Montana Set to Remove ‘Glaciers Will All be Gone by 2020’ Signs

Montana’s Glacier National Park is being forced to remove all signs that read “glaciers will all be gone by 2020,” after the doomsday scenario didn’t happen.

Some of the signs were already removed last year as it became clear the prediction wasn’t going to unfold.

Now the rest of the signs will have to be taken down too.

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

Hanukkah Stabbing Suspect Indicted on Hate Crimes by Federal Grand Jury

The Hanukkah stabbing suspect, Grafton Thomas, was indicted on hate crime charges by a federal grand jury in New York on Thursday, for his alleged involvement in a machete attack at a rabbi’s home back in December.

Thomas was indicted on five counts of willfully causing bodily injury to the five victims because of their religion and five counts of obstructing the free exercise of religion in an attempt to kill, according to the Department of Justice.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman claimed Thomas came to Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg’s home in Monsey armed with an 18-inch machete and intent on killing everyone who had gathered for the holiday celebration.

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

House Passes Democrats’ Virtue-Signaling War Powers Resolution Against Trump

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a War Powers Resolution supposedly directing President Donald Trump to stop any hostilities against Iran. This resolution — which Republicans have rightly condemned as “toothless” — does not have any binding authority and merely tells Trump the House disapproves of his strike to kill Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani.

The House approved the resolution, 224-194, with almost no Republican support, the Associated Press reported.

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

It’s Official: Colorado’s “Red Flag” Gun Confiscations Begin

Virginia and Colorado lead anti-Second Amendment crusade

Police in Colorado used the state’s new “Red Flag” gun law for the first time this week, one day after the law went into effect on January 1.

Denver police petitioned the court to temporarily confiscate a citizen’s firearms after he allegedly beat his wife and made suicidal threats to investigators.

In this case, the police actually confiscated the man’s firearms first and asked the court for permission to keep the guns after the fact, a violation of his 5th Amendment right to due process.

Now, this article is not meant to defend an alleged wife-beater, but the keyword here is “alleged.”

Under this new “Red Flag” confiscation law, anyone could make an unsubstantiated claim that results in a law-abiding citizen’s firearms from being seized.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mom Beats Pedophile With Pipe for Making Out With 9yo Girl, Then Cops Arrest Her

Pennsylvania mother Shantika Briley was arrested Wednesday for allegedly beating a man with a pipe after she caught him sexually assaulting her 9-year-old daughter.

The 35-year-old mom from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania said she caught the 39-year-old man “licking her daughter’s lips and trying to kiss her.” Briley allegedly responded by grabbing a pipe, beating the man until he ran out the front door with Briley hot in pursuit.

NYPost report: Police said Briley went ballistic and attacked the man with a metal pipe, hitting him in his face and head. Briley disputed that account, however, claiming she only used her fists to assault the man, the newspaper reported.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Omar Calls Trump ‘Occupant of White House,’ Giggles When U.S. Casualties in Iraq Mentioned

Radical ‘Squad’ member unable to hide anti-American sentiment.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Rasmussen Poll: Just 21% of Americans Think Jeffrey Epstein Killed Himself

A new Rasmussen poll shows that just 21 per cent of Americans believe Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while 52 per cent believe he was murdered.

With the clear majority of Americans not believing the official story about the billionaire sex trafficker, the national telephone and online survey also shows that 27 per cent of American adults remain undecided.

The numbers are up on August, just after Epstein died, when 42 per cent of Americans believed he was murdered.

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

The Medications That Change Who We Are

They’ve been linked to road rage, pathological gambling, and complicated acts of fraud. Some make us less neurotic, and others may even shape our social relationships. It turns out many ordinary medications don’t just affect our bodies — they affect our brains. Why? And should there be warnings on packets?

“Patient Five” was in his late 50s when a trip to the doctors changed his life.

He had diabetes, and he had signed up for a study to see if taking a “statin” — a kind of cholesterol-lowering drug — might help. So far, so normal.

But soon after he began the treatment, his wife began to notice a sinister transformation. A previously reasonable man, he became explosively angry and — out of nowhere — developed a tendency for road rage. During one memorable episode, he warned his family to keep away, lest he put them in hospital.

Out of fear of what might happen, Patient Five stopped driving. Even as a passenger, his outbursts often forced his wife to abandon their journeys and turn back. Afterwards, she’d leave him alone to watch TV and calm down. She became increasingly fearful for her own safety.

Then one day, Patient Five had an epiphany. “He was like, ‘Wow, it really seems that these problems started when I enrolled in this study’,” says Beatrice Golomb, who leads a research group at the University of California, San Diego.

Alarmed, the couple turned to the study’s organisers. “They were very hostile. They said that the two couldn’t possibly be related, that he needed to keep taking the medication, and that he should stay in the study,” says Golomb.

Ironically, by this point the patient was so cantankerous that he flatly ignored the doctors’ advice. “He swore roundly, stormed out of the office and stopped taking the drug immediately,” she says. Two weeks later, he had his personality back.

Others have not been so lucky. Over the years, Golomb has collected reports from patients across the United States — tales of broken marriages, destroyed careers, and a surprising number of men who have come unnervingly close to murdering their wives. In almost every case, the symptoms began when they started taking statins, then promptly returned to normal when they stopped; one man repeated this cycle five times before he realised what was going on.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Real Reason the UN Wants Control Over the Internet

Obama allowed the US contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to expire in 2016. ICANN assigns IP addresses and maintains the stability and security of the internet. As planned, the UN picked up that contract and now has the power to throttle the Internet. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the big prize that will fund total control over human activity and is expected to generate $3-trillion in revenue by 2025 — and continue to grow by 30% per year. If the UN taxes the Internet of Things, as it plans to do, it finally will be self funded without relying on member states. ICANN has the ability to assign a unique and directly addressable number to every electronic device on Earth, including air conditioners, computers, automobiles, cameras, phones, refrigerators, articles of clothing, and much more…

The reason that ICANN formerly served the interests of the United States was simply that it answered to our government’s judicial, legislative and executive branches. In other words, the U.S. held the umbrella over ICANN and that was enough to keep it working for our national interests and not for someone else’s interests.

Obama changed that when he cut ICANN loose on September 30, 2016 by letting the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) contract expire without being renewed. After expiration, we forever lost the right to renew the contract again.

So, ICANN is now a “free-agent” looking for shelter in the same way that a boll weevil looks for a cotton plant: it needs a host organization in order to practice its craft, and, I dare say, it doesn’t care one whit who that host is.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Virginia Democrats Introduce New Gun & Ammo Bans to Kick Off New Year

Firearms defined as ‘assault weapons’ subject to registration, magazines over 10 rounds forbidden

Virginia Democrats led by Gov. Ralph Northam have introduced strict new gun control measures requiring gun owners to register their firearms with the state, and also banning the possession of magazines that hold over ten rounds.

The bill, known as H.B. 961, also enacts a ban on suppressors and “trigger activators.”

The legislative summary of the bill is as follows:…

As the bill states, every ammunition magazine in Virginia that can accept over ten rounds would have to be destroyed, surrendered to the state, or permanently modified to only hold ten rounds. Suppressors would also have to be turned in or destroyed.

No compensation will be offered by the state.

The bill’s language broadly defining an “assault weapon” is also “designed to encompass 80% lowers and other gun parts, meaning even if you register your firearm… you may not be able to repair it if need be,” reports Bearing Arms.

It also requires every gun owner to register their firearms to the state, using language similar to New York’s highly unpopular SAFE Act from 2014, which virtually no citizen obeyed.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Virginia Beach Passes Resolution to Make Itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary for Gun Owners

Virginia Beach — Virginia Beach plans to make the city a sanctuary for gun owners, in anticipation of gun control legislation it expects to see passed into state law, since the legislature is now controlled by Democrats, and the sitting governor, Ralph Northam, is also a Democrat.

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

Canadian Police Order Reporter Not to Call Soleimani a ‘Terrorist’

A Canadian journalist was threatened with arrest by Toronto police for calling slain Iranian general Qasem Soleimani a “terrorist.”

Rebel Media’s David Menzies was reporting on a candlelight vigil held for Soleimani by Muslims in Toronto when he was approached by officers demanding he stop using the word “terrorism” in reference to Soleimani, who was officially designated as a terrorist by the U.S. government in 2007.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gasoline Traps and ‘Fuel-Soaked Rags’ Indicate Possible Criminal Attack Against Gaslink Pipeline

The RCMP has launched a criminal investigation after finding “bags full of fuel-soaked rags” along with jugs of gasoline, diesel, oil and kindling on a service road near a Coastal GasLink pipeline workcamp.

Coastal GasLink is a proposed natural gas pipeline set to be built in British Columbia. Recently, GasLink has been blockaded by the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs despite the approval of 20 local elected First Nations councils.

At the time of this writing, it is unknown if the alleged criminals were aware of the irony of using fuel to sabotage a pipeline.

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

O’Toole Condemns Iran for Killing 63 Canadians, Conservatives React

Several Conservative Party figures have reacted online to the news that Canadian Flight 752 was downed by an Iranian missile.

Conservative MP, Canadian Armed Forces veteran, and potential party leadership hopeful Erin O’Toole commented on the situation on Twitter.

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

Poll: Most Canadians Would Support Prince Harry as the Next Governor General

Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have made their departure from the royal family, a poll found that a majority of Canadians say they would support having Prince Harry as Canada’s next governor general. The current governor general is Julie Payette.

Dart and Maru/Blue conducted the poll and found that 60 percent of Canadians involved said they would back The Duke of Sussex taking the position.

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

British Man Lights His Head on Fire in Attempt to Burn Down Synagogue

There have been a highly disturbing increase in anti-Semitic attacks around the world.

Not surprisingly, those carrying out such attacks tend to be disturbing or extremist elements.

Tristan Morgan fits that profile and showed that his overwhelming hate is combined with an underwhelming intellect. Morgan succeeded in lighting his own head on fire in trying to burn down a synagogue and then walked away laughing in front of witnesses.

A CCTV video shows Morgan, 52, casually walking to the back of the synagogue and breaking a window with an axe. He then returns with a gas can and pours gas into opening. He then lit the gas which blew back on him and left him putting out his own flaming head:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

EU Negotiator: EU Must Control UK State Aid Policy After Brexit or No Deal

European Union lead negotiator Michel Barnier has warned that the bloc is still preparing for a No Deal Brexit, particularly if Britain will not let the EU dictate how it administers state aid.

“If the UK wants an open link with us for the products — zero tariffs, zero quotas — we need to be careful about zero dumping at the same time,” the Frenchman said in Stockholm, Sweden.

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

EU President to Brit Students: ‘Choose Collaboration’ With EU Over ‘Isolation’

The new President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has urged British students to “choose collaboration” with the European Union over “isolation” in a speech to the London School of Economics (LSE).

The new eurocrat-in-chief spent a year at the LSE herself, but bragged that she “spent more time in Soho bars and Camden record stores than I did reading books” during her time there, and “got to know a warm, vibrant, colourful, multicultural society — the likes of which I had not really experienced before”.

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

Historic Moment as Brexit Bill is Finally Set to be Signed Off by MPs — With Only the Lords Stages to Go Before the UK Leaves the EU on January 31

Brexit will come a step closer today as legislation enshrining Boris Johnson’s divorce deal is finally approved by MPs.

After more than three years of bitter wrangling, the historic EU Withdrawal Bill is set to get its third reading this afternoon.

The vote will be a crucial moment in the long-running process, with just the House of Lords left to navigate before the UK leaves the EU on January 31.

Unlike previous knife-edge Commons votes on Brexit, the result is not in doubt following the Tories’ crushing election victory before Christmas.

The action will shift to the Upper chamber next week, where Remainer peers are expected to table a wave of amendments.

However, ministers are confident that the Lords will bow to the will of the elected House by around January 22.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Government Says Giving ASPI Big Fine Instead of Stripping Concessions ‘Not an Option’

Atlantia unit risks losing concessions after Morandi disaster

(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — 5-Star Movement (M5S) sources on Thursday ruled out reports that the government could impose a huge fine on Atlantia subsidiary Autostrade per l’Italia (ASPI) instead of stripping it of its highway concessions. The M5S, the biggest party supporting Premier Giuseppe Conte’s government, has been pressing hard for ASPI’s concessions to be withdrawn after the 2018 collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa, alleging that the company failed to take the necessary action to prevent a disaster that claimed 43 lives.

The are also allegations that managers soft-pedalled reports on bridge and viaduct safety.

The pressure on ASPI and Atlantia increased recently with the partial collapse of the ceiling of the Berte’ tunnel on the A26 highway in Liguria, between Genoa and Savona.

“A big fine? Let’s not make jokes,” the M5S source said.

“The State does not accept charity, only justice for the victims.

“There will be no breaks for those who caused the Morandi bridge to collapse.

“The families of the 43 victims are still awaiting justice.

“The stripping of Autostrade’s concession also goes in the direction of a subsequent reduction in the tolls.

“It is necessary to change the assignment system”.

Transport and Industry Minister Paola De Micheli also dismissed the media reports.

“We have never considered the hypothesis of a huge fine, neither publicly nor privately,” De Micheli, a member of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), told RAI television. “In the next few days the government will take the consequent action in full collegiality”. Genoa Mayor Marco Bucci, however, said that “I have been told unofficially to talk to ASPI” when asked about who will manage the viaduct that is being built to replace the Morandi bridge.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis Praises Young Climate Change Activists

ROME — Pope Francis praised the actions of young climate change activists like Greta Thunberg Thursday, saying they remind people of the urgent need for “ecological conversion.”

Young people “have much to offer, thanks to their enthusiasm and commitment, to say nothing of their thirst for truth, the pontiff told diplomats gathered in the Vatican for his annual speech to the corps.

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

UK Lawmakers Finally Approve Brexit Deal

It’s been over three years since the 2016 referendum and Parliament has now voted to deliver the Brexit bill for the UK to exit the European Union. Brexiteers were happy to finally see Boris Johnson’s bill coming to fruition.

The Withdrawal Agreement Bill was voted on by MPs who voted 330 to 231 in favour of proceeding with Brexit. Jan. 31, 2020 is the current date in which the UK is set to leave the EU.

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

UK: Battle Lines Are Set: Farage Tells Boris to Get Tough on EU

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has told Prime Minister Boris Johnson to get tough in trade deal negotiations with Brussels.

Mr Farage gave the advice on after President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen told the UK that it will need to make compromises to agree a new deal with the EU and said that Mr Johnson will have to extend the transition period to do so — a move which the Tory Brexiteer has rejected.

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

UK: Corbyn Refused Four Times to Call Soleimani a Terrorist

Socialist leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn was given four opportunities to call Iranian General Qasem Soleimani a terrorist but failed to every time.

The refusal to address whether he accepted that Soleimani was a terrorist came during an interview with Sky News on Tuesday, where the socialist deflected the questions by pushing the angle that President Donald Trump’s move was “an illegal act”.

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

UK: Farage Says Prince Harry Has ‘Let the Side Down’, Compares Meghan to Wallis Simpson

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage believes Prince Harry has “let the side down”, and compared his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, to Wallis Simpson, another American divorcee whose relationship with the Royal Family brought down a king.

The Brexit campaigner was speaking on his LBC radio show after the royal couple announced, reportedly without informing Queen Elizabeth II, that they would be shirking their duties as “senior royals” to pursue private business ventures — but not, apparently, giving up their titles or their home renovated at public expense.

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

UK: Piers Morgan: Meghan and Harry Should be Stripped of Their Titles

Why the Queen must FIRE Their Royal Hustlers: Deluded Meghan and Harry should be stripped of their titles before this pair of grasping, selfish, scheming Kardashian-wannabes bring down the Monarchy, says PIERS MORGAN

Who the f**k do they think they are?

Seriously?

I’ve seen some disgraceful royal antics in my time, but for pure arrogance, entitlement, greed, and wilful disrespect, nothing has ever quite matched the behaviour of the ‘Duke and Duchess of Sussex.’

I put inverted commas around those titles because I sincerely hope they won’t exist much longer.

Indeed, if I were Her Majesty the Queen, I would unceremoniously strip Harry and Meghan of all their titles with immediate effect and despatch them back into civilian life.

These two deluded clowns announced yesterday they were quitting life as senior royals.

In a series of staggeringly pompous statements on their gleaming new Hollywood-style website, they laid down the law to the Queen and to the rest of us about exactly how things are supposedly going to work from this moment on.

To summarise, they want to stop being ‘senior royals’ with all the tedious duty that entails.

And instead, they now want to be a ‘progressive’ force within ‘the institution’.

In other words, they want to be super-woke celebrities (with all the outrageous ‘Do as we say not as we do’ hectoring hypocrisy they’ve already brought to that status) who get to keep all the trappings of royal life without any of the hard, boring bits and the right to cash in on their status however they choose.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Breaking: Trudeau Confirms Plane Shot Down by Iran

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed media in Ottawa today, following the announcement by US intelligence and the Pentagon that the Ukrainian flight which saw 63 Canadians dead among 176 total was shot down by a Russian-made Iranian anti-aircraft missile.

Trudeau, who made his second public appearance of the year, sincerely addressed media, extending his “most sincere condolences to the families and loved ones, who are grieving.”

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

CNN Gives Platform to Iranian Who Once Said She’d Shoot U.S. Hostages in the Head

Masoumeh Ebtekar, the current Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs, was formerly the spokesperson for the extremist students who stormed and occupied the U.S. Embassy during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

She was also once asked if the she would shoot U.S. hostages in the head and responded by remarking, “Yes. When I’ve seen an American gun being lifted up and killing my brothers and sisters in the streets, of course.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Everybody in America Should Stand Up and Applaud President Trump, Because He Just Changed the Course of History

If someone else had been in the White House, this crisis could have easily turned out much differently. Sadly, most Americans have no idea that we were literally on the brink of the beginning of World War 3 this week. In fact, our population is so clueless about the rest of the world that 75 percent of all registered voters can’t even find Iran “on an unlabeled map of the globe”. We literally live in an “idiocracy” where a third of the country can’t even name a single branch of government. For most Americans, the alarming headlines about Iran will soon fade from memory, and they will just go on with their lives as if nothing really happened. But the truth is that we were right on the precipice of a cataclysmic war that could have resulted in millions upon millions of deaths. And a major war in the Middle East could still start at literally any time, but President Trump’s brave decision has at least delayed it for now.

When Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq, it would have been so easy for President Trump to order an immediate military response.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he waited for an accurate damage assessment to be completed, and it turned out that no Americans had been killed or injured.

The Iranians possess very accurate weapons, and so at first a lot of people were quite puzzled by this. But then later on it started to become obvious that the Iranians “may have intentionally missed” their targets. In other words, this attack was essentially the equivalent of “a warning shot”…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary’s Orban Wants EU to Adopt Israeli-U.S. Stance on Iran

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that the European Union should adopt an Israeli-U.S. stance on Iran.

“I would like for the European stance, which is not clear on this Iranian issue, to be oriented toward the Israeli-United States stance,” the conservative Hungarian leader told a news conference in Budapest on Thursday in comments reported by Reuters.

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

Iranians Want Regime Change

Four decades ago, former President Jimmy Carter interfered in Iran’s affairs by sending a message to Iran’s generals via his ambassador, William Sullivan and General Huyser to make sure that Iran’s military remained neutral during the revolution. Sullivan oversaw secret talks with opposition leaders even as he pressed the Shah to restrain his security forces. He was in favor of the Shah’s departure from Iran and Khomeini’s return from exile.

That decision from the US administration and the Shah’s terminal illness accelerated the mullahs’ determination of ending the rule of monarchy in Iran.

Meanwhile, new documents about General Huyser’s secret mission to Iran reveal US plans after the Shah’s departure. I left Iran in 1978, at the beginning of the Islamic invasion. But I witnessed with my own eyes what was happening. Iran was falling into the hands of Islamic thugs with full blessing of Jimmy Carter. The question that still rings in many Iranians’ ears is why?…

It is worth mentioning that the leftist media in the west falsely accused the Shah of human rights abuses while they never mentioned Khomeini’s mass killings in the name of Islam. Jimmy Carter’s allegation against the Shah for holding many political prisoners was a false allegation. At the minimum, there were not more than a few hundred political prisoners who were a threat to Iran.

“The problem was not only the realization that Pahlavi state might have been telling the truth but the fact the Islamic Republic had justified many of its excesses on the popular sacrifices made,” observed historian Ali Ansari.

During Khomeini’s decade in power, from 1979 to 1989, an estimated 12,000 monarchists, liberals, leftists, homosexuals, and women were executed and thousands more tortured. The Khomeini 1988 fatwa killed up to 30,000 in Iran.

The Islamic revolution happened because the Shah trusted his immediate cabinet members and generals to tell him the truth. But they did not. They left him in the dark about the situation inside Iran.

U.S. ambassador Sullivan compared Khomeini to Gandhi, the pacifist leader of India knowing full well Khomeini was no Gandhi. Only a democrat can be that foolish.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Iraqi PM Claims Trump Threatened False Flag Attacks on Protesters if He Didn’t Accept Oil Deal

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi claims that in the build up to Qasem Soleimani’s assassination, President Trump threatened to carry out false flag murders of Iraqi protesters that would then be blamed on Abdul-Mahdi unless he agreed to hand over 50% of the country’s oil revenue.

According to the Strategic Culture Foundation’s Federico Pieraccini, Abdul-Mahdi was angry about how the U.S. had failed to complete the rebuilding of Iraq’s infrastructure and electricity grid projects, “unless they were promised 50% of oil revenues, which Abdul-Mahdi refused.”

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

‘These Things Happen’: Ex-Diplomat Says Iran Shouldn’t Face Repercussions Over Downed Plane

A former ambassador, who received diplomatic accreditation under the Trudeau government, has stated that if Iran did indeed shoot down a Ukrainian flight, killing 63 Canadians in the process, they should not face any repercussions because “these things happens”.

During an interview on Power and Politics, the former ambassador, Dennis Horak, stated that “If it is shown that it was brought down by an anti-aircraft missile, for example, it would’ve been an accident. There’s no way the Iranians would’ve targeted this intentionally … there were Iranian citizens on it, and I see no reason why they would do this.”

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

Time Magazine Offers Guide on How Parents Can Brainwash Their Kids on Iran

Time Magazine offered a handy guide on how parents can brainwash their kids on Iran by disputing the fact that Qasem Soleimani was a terrorist.

The guide, entitled ‘How to Talk to Your Kids About the Situation With Iran’, promises to “arm you with the information you need if you choose to bring up the topic or if kids ask questions about it.”

That “information” consists of watering down the fact that Soleimani had overseen atrocities that led to the deaths of thousands of Iraqi and Syrian citizens as well as the slaughter of over 600 U.S. troops.

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

Ukrainian Airplane Shot Down by Mistake by Iranian Anti-Aircraft Missile, Pentagon Officials Believe

The Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran’s international airport Wednesday was shot down by mistake by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile, Pentagon officials told Fox News.

Officials said U.S. intelligence increasingly points at the airliner being accidentally struck by a Russian-made missile, killing all 176 people on board the flight, just hours after Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles targeting two military bases housing American and coalition troops.

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

Watch: Trudeau Doesn’t Rule Out Blaming U.S. For Plane Shot Down by Iran

Prime Minister Trudeau did not rule out assigning blame to the Trump administration for the Flight 752 tragedy that killed 176 people, including 63 Canadians.

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

Scientists Describe Trove of New Bird Species on Indonesian Islands

Scientists encountered five previously undescribed bird species during a six-week trip to three Indonesian islands, according to a new study.

People like birds for more than just their appearances: Birds are a diverse group of relatively easy-to-study animals, with a dedicated group of citizen scientists providing data on them that can inform biologists’ understanding of biodiversity more generally. But researchers have long thought that they’d catalogued most of the bird species, and there have been just a trickle of new species descriptions annually. A find such as this one demonstrates that much of the world’s biodiversity is likely still hidden from biologists, even as humanity destroys the habitats that these hidden species rely on.

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

China: Beijing’s Arctic Power Grab

One important element of the $738 billion National Defense Authorization Act for the Fiscal Year 2020, which US President Donald Trump signed into law in mid-December, is the directive to examine and monitor “Chinese military activities in the Arctic, as well as Chinese foreign direct investment in the Arctic.”

The administration in Washington is right to be concerned about China’s increasing interest in the northern polar region. Two years ago, Beijing published a White Paper outlining its Arctic policy, which includes creating a “Polar Silk Road.” If fully implemented, this policy will challenge the United States and Russia for primacy in the region, where beneath the glaciers lie vast quantities of coal and natural gas.

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

2019 Was the Hottest and Driest Year in Australia’s History — Amid Warnings Horrific Bushfires, Drought and Heatwaves Are the New Normal

Increasingly ferocious bushfire seasons that raze homes, claim lives and scratch wildlife from the Australian landscape are becoming the new normal.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

An Island on Fire: Frightening Satellite Image Reveals the True Scale of Devastating Infernos on Australia’s Kangaroo Island — as the Bushfire Crisis Rolls on

The space agency released two satellite images of the South Australian island highlighting the horrific damage the bushfires have caused to the environment.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Greens Leader Richard Di Natale is Praised for Donating Ten Bales of His Own Hay to Fire-Affected Farmers

Richard Di Natale posted a picture of himself and his dog Reggie loading a hay bale onto a truck bound for fire affected farmers in Victoria’s East Gippsland on Thursday.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

How a Billionaire’s Elaborate Plan to Protect His Equestrian Centre Helped Save Hundreds of Homes, Animals and Lives From an Out-of-Control Blaze

Canberra-born billionaire Terry Snow, 77, said he had spent years preparing his Bawley Point, NSW property for a disastrous bushfire event. His emergency plan proved successful last month.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Mining Billionaire Andrew Forrest Claims Bushfire Crisis is Caused by Arsonists — and Climate Change is Just a ‘Small Part’ Of it That Will Not be Tackled by His $70 Million Donation

Andrew Forrest will put aside $50 million of his pledge to help fight and prevent future bushfires around Australia, but made clear climate change was too ‘political’ and wouldn’t be part of it.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Pictured: Promising Soccer Player, 21, Whose Body Was Found Being Devoured by Sharks During Search for Surfer Eaten by a Great White — as His Tragic Last Instagram Post is Revealed

Eric Birighitti’s body was found at Twilight Beach, near Esperence on Western Australia’s southern coast, on Tuesday afternoon.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Over 1000 Earthquakes Have Hit Puerto Rico, And Authorities Say it is Being “Squeezed” Between Two Tectonic Plates

The nightmarish earthquake swarm that has been rattling Puerto Rico since last month continues to make headlines all over the world. Homes, businesses, schools, hospitals and historic structures all over the main island of Puerto Rico have crumbled, and many residents are deeply afraid of using many of the buildings that remain standing because they are afraid that they could literally collapse at any moment. We haven’t seen this sort of shaking in the region in more than a century, and as you will see below, experts are telling us that more quakes are coming.

Traditionally, Puerto Rico has not been known for heavy seismic activity. But now that could be changing. According to CNN, there have been more than 500 quakes “of magnitude 2 or greater” since December 28th…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

18 Republican Governors Ask for More Refugees in Their States, While “Charities” Are Cashing in and Grifting Off of American Taxpayers

Trump signed an executive order allowing cities and states to ‘opt out’ of resettling refugees in their communities. A total of 18 Republican governors, out of 27, have betrayed citizns by placing the interests of non-citizens above them by requesting more refugee resettlement. The immoral governors include: Doug Ducey, Arizona, Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas, Brad Little, Idaho, Eric Holcomb, Indiana, Kim Reynolds, Iowa, Larry Hogan, Maryland, Charlie Baker, Massachusetts, Mike Parsons, Missouri, Pete Ricketts, Nebraska, Chris Sununu, New Hampshire, Doug Burgum, North Dakota, Mike DeWine, Ohio, Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma, Kristi Noem, South Dakota, Bill Lee, Tennessee, Gary Herbert, Utah, Phil Scott, Vermont, and Jim Justice, West Virginia.

Ned Ryun reported that the US State Department is paying refugee contractors over $2100 per refugee, of which they get to keep 45% of the money, which has nothing to do with charity or religious values. These organizations include: Church World Service (CWS), Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), International Rescue Committee (IRC), U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and World Relief Corporation (WR).

“This is how red states become blue and how America ceases to be America.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Belgium Moving Hundreds of Migrants to Air Force Base

Asylum facilities overwhelmed across Belgium.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Belgium Arrests Syrian Migrant on Terrorism Charges

Belgian authorities have confirmed the arrest of a Syrian national last month in the French-speaking city of Verviers, stating that the migrant is suspected of terrorist offences.

Eric Van Duyse, the spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, told reporters on Monday that several bladed weapons, including a machete, were found in the possession of the Syrian along with a gas cartridge pistol and other replica weapons, broadcaster RTL reports.

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

Germany: Somali Migrant Attacker Calls Police After His Victim Defends Himself Too Violently

According to investigators, the victim not only defended himself but viciously fought back against the Somali man.

A Somali migrant in Germany called the police after he attacked a man on New Year’s Eve and his victim defended himself with unexpected enthusiasm.

The initial aggression took place at the Geradstetten railway station in the municipality of Remshalden, 11 miles outside of Stuttgart, and saw the 25-year-old Somali randomly attack another man at around 2 pm in the afternoon, newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten reports.

According to investigators, the victim not only defended himself but viciously fought back against the Somali man, possibly using a glass bottle, which led to the migrant receiving several lacerations to the face, one tooth knocked out, and injuries to his tongue.

Following the altercation, the migrant called the police and was taken to a local hospital to treat his injuries. While police say they have opened a case against the Somali for the initial attack, they also claimed to have started investigations into the victim for his actions, as well, to determine if the man overstepped acceptable self-defence laws.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Norway to Take 600 Migrants Moved From Libya Camps to Rwanda

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (AP) — Norway says it will take 600 asylum seekers recently evacuated to Rwanda from Libyan detention centers as the Scandinavian country wants to stop the sometimes deadly smuggling of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.

“For me it is important to send a signal that we will not back smuggling routes and cynical backers, but instead bring in people with protection needs in organized form,” Justice and Immigration Minister Joaran Kallmyr said in a statement emailed Thursday to The Associated Press.

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

Private Texas Company’s Planned Border Wall Along Rio Grande Can Proceed, Judge Rules

A federal judge lifted a temporary restraining order against a project to build a privately funded border wall next to the Rio Grande.

KTSM-9 TV reported that U.S. District Judge Randy Crane in McAllen, a southern Texas city, ruled that the federal government failed to show that building the 18-foot-tall bollard fence made of galvanized steel so close to the river would shift the course of the river and disregard a 1970 international water treaty with Mexico.

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

Sweden Granted 1.2m New Migrant Permits Last Decade, One-Fifth of Residents Are Foreign Born

Sweden, a country with a population of just over ten million people, granted a total of 1.2 million residency permits in the last decade according to figures from the Swedish migration board.

In 2010, Sweden boasted a population of 9.4 million people and in the last decade, that number has grown by nearly a million people to 10.3 million by the end of 2019 according to data from Statistics Sweden.

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

The One Who Got Away… And the One Who Didn’t: Hungary’s Barbed-Wire Fence Still Proves No Barrier for Desperate Migrants — But Police Launch Crackdown to Stem Unrelenting Flow Across Its Border

Hundreds of migrants continued to pour through Hungary’s barbed-wire fence today — but their fate once inside the country has become much more of a lottery after police launched a new crackdown at the border.

While many were still able to disappear into the Hungarian corn fields in their quest to reach other European countries, others have increasingly found themselves being rounded up and carted off to detention centres.

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

Boy George Comes Out Swinging Against Wokeness

80s icon Boy George has joined the ranks of Morrissey and Kanye West by rejecting woke ideology and advocating for common sense. As a result, he has come under fire for speaking truth to trans. He expressed himself over a few days, saying that regardless of his own inclinations to costume, radical trans ideology is basically a crazy trend.

He got heaps of hate for saying “leave your pronouns at the door.”

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

Chick-fil-A CEO Regrets ‘Inadvertently’ Discrediting ‘Outstanding’ Groups Like the Salvation Army

Late last year, Chick-fil-A announced it would change its charitable giving strategy, investing larger amounts in a few select charities as opposed to funding a wide array of organizations. This decision came after years of pressure on the fast-food chain from LGBT bullies who condemned groups like the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as “anti-gay” because of their orthodox Christian stances on sexuality.

In a letter sent last month but widely publicized on Wednesday, CEO Dan Cathy said he regretted “inadvertently” discrediting the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes by seeming to cave to LGBT activists when the company’s intention was merely to restructure its charitable giving.

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

Hungary Takes on the Feminist Goliath— And Wins

Feminism is a social and political movement. It is not an academic discipline on par with, say, mathematics, economics, business administration, engineering or physics. Gender studies, feminism’s academic wing, does not constitute an appropriate subject for an academic degree. At best it is a subset of a complex of ideas, issues, and events properly canvassed by the History Department, along with a myriad other themes and developments in the study of Western civilization.

Moreover, such programs have no business infesting legitimate areas of study to the extent that an astronomer must sign an affidavit attesting to his involvement in social justice projects or an engineer proclaim his fealty to the feminist manifesto if he is to be considered for promotion. The same proviso applies to any applicant for a university position. It should be obvious that gender programs and initiatives have nothing to do with mapping the universe, finding a cure for cancer, investigating quantum entanglement or stochastic electrodynamics, studying the economic effects of the Protestant Reformation, assessing the impact of political theories from Plato and Aristotle to the present, resolving truss and anchorage problems in suspension bridge engineering, tracing the history of epic poetry from Homer to Michael Lind’s The Alamo, or any canonical field of authentic endeavor. The fact that a bogus discipline, which has no reason for existing sui generis, can spread outward to influence and dilute genuine subjects is beyond comprehension.

Enter Hungary. In an effort to restore curricular and administrative sanity to university education, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Fidesz Party have passed legislation to abolish Gender Studies as an area of official study.

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

Now They Want to Abolish Police

According to some numbskull on the Bolshevik magazine, The Nation, everything will come up roses if we simply replace our police forces with “full social, economic, and political equality.” Damn, why didn’t I think of that! Once everybody in the world is fully “equal” to everybody else, no one will commit any crimes and there’ll be no more need for the policeman.

Do libs really, truly believe the ridiculous things they say, or do they only say them because they think that you’ll believe them? Are they genuine idiots, or just incredibly hypocritical, cynical, manipulators of what they think must be fabulously credulous persons?

With any bad luck at all, your city, state, or country could actually elect some of these fools and invest them with decision-making power. (Hint: they’re all Democrats.) Think about that, the next time there’s an election.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

7 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/9/2020

  1. “6G imaging techniques will identify any person or moving object. This intelligent, immersive infrastructure will support low-latency virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and seamless telepresence.” Sounds a lot like those sci-fi stories where an AI destroys humanity…

  2. We have conformation of this analysis, right after the shootdown.

    I aver the Iranians shot down an Ukrainian 737-800, because of the debris field, the withholding of the black box, and the flight profile. All these are consistent with a SAM. Which was most probably a mistake. It’s a big organization, and someone did not get the right word. The plane was built in 2016, had recent good maintenance in the Ukraine, with one of their best crews aboard.

    • Well, Pope Pius XII was in bed with Hitler s nazi party. And there are photos of him and priests and cardinal saluting Hitler.

  3. Will this be picked up in the news in New Zealand about the armed police raid, searching for guns in New Zealand?

    ….. Half a dozen armed police officers swarmed in the front door (holstered sidearms only) as several more ran around the sides of the house.
    They later called for more backup as the house was larger ……

    …. The warrant claimed they had reason to believe I was in possession of a prohibited magazine fitted to a “.22RL lever action rifle. Blued metal, brown wooden stock.”
    The officer told me I had posted about it online, which I had—in my public written submission [to a government committee] against the Firearms Amendment Act passed last year.
    That submission was shared on several blogs and social media.
    I had used the firearm as an example to prove the legislation was not targeting “military style assault weapons” as the media, prime minister, and her cabinet repeated ad nauseum.
    The vast majority of firearms affected by the legislation were just like mine.

    I thought nothing more of my little example to the select committee. It was no longer in my possession when the police raided my house.
    They departed empty-handed after turning the place inside out for ninety minutes, and left me with my firearms and a visibly shaken wife who broke down in tears. …..

    ….. I’ve been vocal about the amnesty being a disaster, and the police were rather open about the failure of the whole process. Maybe if they stopped raiding innocent people’s houses there might have been some more good will? They implied that they’d keep having to raid the houses of people I knew until the firearm turned up. ….
    ….. This is for a lever-action .22LR that’s designed to hit paper or be used to hunt bunnies. …..
    https://www.rightminds.nz/articles/my-house-was-raided-over-22lr-lever-action-rifle

    Just trying to shut down discussion, debate, on issues.
    If any fault then can loose fire arms licence, removal of guns, costly court case, heavy fines, and/or jail.

    Yet the gangs in New Zealand all had nice meetings about guns.

    Illegal guns are remaining in the hands of organised crime as gang leaders refuse to give up their weapons.

    Police have met with more than 50 gang leaders in an effort to get them to comply with firearm law changes before an amnesty ends.

    But it’s proving to be fruitless, as the patched members remain “very reluctant”, Police Commissioner Mike Bush told the Justice Select Committee on Thursday.

    “We have identified over 100 influential gang leaders and spoken to about half of them about how they are managing this and what their approach and attitude toward that [amnesty] is.”

    After the committee meeting, Bush said communication lines with senior patched gang members had revealed they had a different approach to law abiding members of the public, in relation to the return of guns.
    “They were very reluctant to be part of this.”

    Police already had a strategy for dealing with gangs and that is what police were using to get to the unlawful firearms, he said.

    “They are in the hands of people involved in organised crime.”

    During organised crime interventions, police located a lot of unlawful firearms, he said.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/117242736/police-meet-with-gang-leaders-to-try-and-convince-them-to-surrender-guns-during-amnesty

    So who has the guns but no fire arms licence.
    When caught with a gun in the commission of a crime, again no fire arms licence.
    Any sentence that involves a gun seems to be invariable a concurrent sentence so that in a sense it is a discount, even if one has or uses a gun in commission of that crime.

    However any one with a licence and there is considered to be any infringement then the full force of the law comes down hard, and the judiciary is relentless to make a costly example, with jail and/or heavy fines.
    Of course never again to legally allowed a gun again.

    • Came up a day later as the first item on Radio New Zealand [State owned radio aka, Red Radio] mid day news.
      First the reporter defined him as a “far right activist”.
      They used his full name and said the area where he lived.
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/407097/far-right-activist-s-house-raided-over-suspected-illegal-firearm

      Yet he was just a suspect, and nothing was found.
      Ok, his name is on his website, but to give the area in vast Auckland, seems to be a sort of ‘doxxing’.

      New Zealand social justice warriors, academia. judiciary, journalists, media, politicians are on the game, seeking to expose “white supremacy” with articles in papers from distinguished professors, etc..

      That is why Brenton Tarrant’s (Christchurch shooter at mosques) manifesto is under full censorship with jail penalties and major fines, so the ordinary person needs to only take in the experts understanding. 🙁

      That is why Lauren Southern, Stefan Molyneux, were de-platformed, as have been others, and even a past leader of the opposition. Or people have to run a gauntlet of protesters on other speakers.

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