Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/21/2020

The officially acknowledged number of cases of the Wuhan Coronavirus in China now exceeds 76,000, with more than 2,300 deaths. Meanwhile, the officially acknowledged number of cases in Iran now stands at eighteen, with four more deaths reported. Also, Northern Italy has experienced a surge of coronavirus infections, with sixteen new cases reported in one day.

In other news, the state senate of Utah unanimously voted to decriminalize polygamy.

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

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Fjordman, JD, MC, Reader from Chicago, 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
» Bernie Sanders Briefed by US Officials That Russia is Attempting to Help His Campaign
» Biden Promises Far Reaching Gun Ban
» Bill Would Hold “Gun Free Zones” Liable for Losses Suffered by Gun Owners
» Breaking: Donald Trump Jr. Slams Twitter for Censoring “Blue Collar Room” Video
» Communist Andrew Yang Joins CNN (Communist News Network)
» Couple Arrested After Driving Kids With Trump Flags on Their Bicycles Off the Road Shouting ‘Y’All Scared, Just Like Your President’
» D.C. Issues Record $1 Billion in Traffic and Parking Tickets, Aaa Calls it ‘Predatory’
» FBI Arrests Hacker Linked to Former Rep. Katie Hill’s Campaign
» Florida Man Friday: Park Closed for Snake Orgy
» PewDiePie Returns to YouTube After a 37 Day Break
» Trump: Democrats, ‘Dirty Cops’ And ‘Dishonest Scum’ Have ‘Poisoned Democracy’
» Trump Slams Oscars for Giving Best Picture Award to a Foreign Movie
» Tucker Carlson: Roger Stone a Victim of Corrupt Jury, Prosecutors and Judge … (Amy Berman Jackson)
» Twitter is Suspending 70 Pro-Bloomberg Accounts, Citing ‘Platform Manipulation’
» Utah’s State Senate Votes Unanimously to Decriminalize Polygamy
 
Canada
» Breaking: Trudeau Calls for End of Blockades
» Foul Play Suspected as Third Train Derails in a Month After Far-Left Call for Sabotage
» Ontario is Now Officially Coronavirus-Free
 
Europe and the EU
» A Test of ‘Solidarity’: EU Deadlocked Over Attempts to Stuff Brexit-Sized Budget Hole
» After Failing With Worm Burgers, Norwegian Grocery Chain to Launch Cricket Burgers
» Apple’s Attempt to Suppress App Store Confidential Book Made it an Amazon Bestseller
» CNN Asks Why Testosterone & Sperm Counts Are Plummeting in Europe and North America
» Coronavirus Outbreak Grows in Northern Italy, 16 Cases Reported in One Day
» France: Macron Vows Crackdown on Political Islam
» Germany Mass Shooter Revealed as Conspiracy Theorist Far-Right Extremist
» Grinning Werewolf: Thoughts on the Massacre in Germany
» More ‘Asian’ Grooming Gang Members Sentenced for Raping Children in Huddersfield, England
» Paranoia, Racism: German Killer Drew on Conspiracy Tropes
» Pictured for the First Time in 2,600 Years: Rome Unveils 6th Century ‘Tomb of Wolf-Suckled King Romulus’ Who Founded an Empire
» Record Low Birth Rates in Norway, Finland and Iceland
» Sweden: Imam Slammed for Comparing Female Genital Mutilation to Gender Transition Surgery
» Twitter Users Suspended After the Guardian Suggests They’re Bots Spreading Climate Misinformation
» UK: ‘We’re Not Back Here to Apologise’: Extinction Rebellion Returns to Trinity College Lawn to Distribute Wildflower Seeds
» UK: Blair Suggests Labour Needs ‘Progressive Coalition’ With Anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats to Win Power
» UK: Disgraced Trinity Hall Academic Wrote Erotic Fiction About Students
» UK: Former Tory MP: TV Tax Won’t Survive, BBC Like ‘Polar Bear on a Receding Piece of ICE’
» UK: Female Islamic State Supporter Pleads Guilty to St. Paul’s Cathedral Bomb Plot
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» CBS News: ‘How Jewish American Pedophiles Hide From Justice in Israel’
 
Middle East
» Caroline Glick: The Massive — But Reversible — Defeats of Iran and Turkey
» Iran Reports 2 More Deaths, 13 New Cases of New Coronavirus
 
Russia
» Russia Raises Eyebrows With Blanket Ban on Chinese Visitors
 
South Asia
» Newly Discovered Species of Snail Named After Teen Climate Change Activist Greta Thunberg
 
Far East
» 18 American Diamond Princess Evacuees Have Tested Positive for Coronavirus
» China Recruits Over 1,600 Censors to Tackle Coronavirus “Misinformation”
» Coronavirus Live Updates: China Reports 109 More Deaths as Total Cases Cross 76,000
» Global Centralization is the Cause of Crisis — Not the Cure
» Pandemic in the Making: Japan is “On the Cusp” of a Coronavirus Outbreak
» U.S. Prepares for Coronavirus Pandemic, School and Business Closures: Health Officials
» Wuhan Woman With No Symptoms Infects Five Relatives With Coronavirus: Study
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Plague of Locusts Threatens East African Economies as UN Sounds Alarm
 
Immigration
» 73% of Population Growth in 2019 Driven by Migrants, Swedes Continue to Leave Country
» Belgium: 73-Year-Old Pensioner Dies After Being Beaten Into a Coma by Military-Aged Afghan Migrant
» Boom: ICE Throws Down the Gauntlet, Arresting Two Illegal Aliens in a California Courthouse
» Denmark: Well Over Half of Young Somali, Lebanese, Moroccan, And Kuwaiti Men Have Criminal Histories
» Ex-Police Officer: Swedes Will Form Vigilante Groups to Defend Themselves Against Racist Migrant Robbers
» Los Angeles Democrat Mayor Teaches Illegal Aliens How to Avoid ICE Officers
» Migration Accounted for 73 Percent of Sweden’s 2019 Population Growth
» Watch: ‘Abolish ICE’ Protesters Bully DHS Out of Career Fair
 
Culture Wars
» BBC Warns it Has ‘Reported’ People Critical of Poem About ‘Non-Binary’ Haircut Struggles
» Dwyane Wade Says Son Knew He Was Transgender at the Age of 3-Years-Old
» New ‘Purity Test’ Tool to Scan Hollywood Scripts for ‘Diversity Bias’
» Pope Francis ‘Angry’ Over Manipulation of Meeting With LGBT Jesuit James Martin
» Rapper Denied Entry to Planet Fitness for Questioning Transgender Children
» Transgender Kids? Father Shows Son Identifying as an “Egg Omelette”
» WSJ: Mainstream Christian Churches Languish, But Evangelicals Thrive
» YouTube Bans Christian Broadcaster Trunews for ‘Hate Speech’
 

Bernie Sanders Briefed by US Officials That Russia is Attempting to Help His Campaign

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials have reportedly told Sen. Bernie Sanders that Russia is attempting to help his presidential campaign, a revelation that follows U.S. intelligence officials briefing Capitol Hill that the Kremlin may also be attempting to help President Donald Trump in 2020 as they did in 2016.

Sanders in a statement disavowed any alleged assistance from Russia President Vladimir Putin.

“I don’t care, frankly, who Putin wants to be president. My message to Putin is clear: stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do.”

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

Biden Promises Far Reaching Gun Ban

Sleepy’ Joe wants to outlaw “clips that have multiple bullets in them.”

Democratic candidate ‘Sleepy’ Joe Biden raised eyebrows Thursday evening when he told a gathering at a CNN sponsored town hall that if elected he would seek to implement a ban on all semi-automatic firearms, as well as “clips that have multiple bullets in them.”

That description encompasses most guns in America.

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

Bill Would Hold “Gun Free Zones” Liable for Losses Suffered by Gun Owners

‘If you’re going to make people give up their right to self defense, then you must defend them,’ says Minn. House rep.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Breaking: Donald Trump Jr. Slams Twitter for Censoring “Blue Collar Room” Video

Twitter has censored an official video released by RNC Research, which is managed by the Republican Party in the United States. In the video, manufacturing workers in the “blue collar room” praise President Donald Trump for his work on strengthening the US economy.

Subtitled “I’ve seen it getting better and better,” the RNC Research video was flagged by Twitter as a piece of media containing “potentially sensitive content.” Precisely what is “sensitive” about the President’s accomplishments is something only Twitter’s moderation team—and no one else—knows.

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

Communist Andrew Yang Joins CNN (Communist News Network)

The champion of communist policies, Andrew Yang, has joined CNN as a Communist political commentator. Freedom is no longer “cool,” as now we are expected to be content with our enslavement and the ruling classes’ rules forever.

“I’m excited to join @CNN to help shed light on the election and the candidates’ experiences,” Yang wrote in a tweet following the announcement. “Learned a lot these past months and am glad to contribute to the public discussion.” There isn’t much light to be shed other than the ruling class elitists and the establishment politicians that make it up are the entire problem.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Couple Arrested After Driving Kids With Trump Flags on Their Bicycles Off the Road Shouting ‘Y’All Scared, Just Like Your President’

An Indiana couple has been arrested for driving two teenage boys on bikes off the road while shouting threats at them in July.

Kyren Gregory Perry-Jones, 23, and Cailyn Marie Smith, 18, were arrested after evidence of the attack on the boys, who are twins, was posted to Snapchat.

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

D.C. Issues Record $1 Billion in Traffic and Parking Tickets, Aaa Calls it ‘Predatory’

D.C. has long been considered one of the most onerous places in the country for traffic fines, seeing a steady climb year to year in tickets issued and revenue generated. But recently the District broke into stunning new territory, issuing more than $1 billion in tickets in just three years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

FBI Arrests Hacker Linked to Former Rep. Katie Hill’s Campaign

FEDERAL AGENTS HAVE arrested Arthur Dam in connection with a hacking spree that disrupted the 2018 Democratic California primary that ultimately nominated Katie Hill, according to a new criminal complaint.

Dam, in the criminal complaint, is linked directly to the Hill campaign. Hill won the general election in California’s 25th District and then later resigned from Congress amid controversy.

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

Florida Man Friday: Park Closed for Snake Orgy

Is this the biggest week ever for FMF?

It just might be.

In addition to the snake orgy in the headline, we have a bra full of marijuana (should “braful” be one word?), jars full (jarsful?) of human tongues, a pantless ribeye thief, and so much more.

And there’s something in the water in New Hampshire this week, too.

So welcome, one and all, to another exciting…

Florida Man Friday!

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

PewDiePie Returns to YouTube After a 37 Day Break

YouTube’s biggest solo creator PewDiePie has returned after 37 days away from the platform.

The YouTuber announced his return in a video titled, “I went on a break for 30 days & THIS HAPPENED” where he said it was good to be back.

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

Trump: Democrats, ‘Dirty Cops’ And ‘Dishonest Scum’ Have ‘Poisoned Democracy’

“The ones at the top, they were absolute scum”

Wowing a crowd of thousands in Phoenix Wednesday night, President Trump tore into his Democratic opponents, declaring that it doesn’t matter who he goes up against because “We’re going to win”.

The President referred to Elizabeth Warren as “phony,” called Bernie Sanders “crazy,” and used his favourite nickname for Bloomberg, “Mini Mike.”

Trump accused the Democrats of attempting to “poison” democracy, noting that he has been subjected to “very unfair witch hunts and partisan … crusades” against his Presidency.

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

Trump Slams Oscars for Giving Best Picture Award to a Foreign Movie

President Trump went off last night on the Oscars for giving its top prize to a foreign movie.

During a speech to a crowd in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Trump asked why an American film wasn’t given the award.

“By the way, how bad were the Academy Awards this year — did you see?” he asked. “‘And the winner is a movie from South Korea’ — what the hell was that all about? We got enough problems with South Korea with trade. On top of it, they give them the best movie of the year? Was it good? I don’t know.”

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

Tucker Carlson: Roger Stone a Victim of Corrupt Jury, Prosecutors and Judge … (Amy Berman Jackson)

Today corrupt Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Roger Stone to moe than 3 years in prison for lying to Congress. We agree with Tucker, the one person in Washington D.C. who should be impeached, is corrupt Judge Jackson.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Twitter is Suspending 70 Pro-Bloomberg Accounts, Citing ‘Platform Manipulation’

Michael R. Bloomberg’s presidential campaign has been experimenting with novel tactics to cultivate an online following, or at least the appearance of one.

But one of these strategies — deploying a large number of Twitter accounts to push out identical messages — has backfired. On Friday, Twitter began suspending 70 accounts posting pro-Bloomberg content in a pattern that violates company rules.

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

Utah’s State Senate Votes Unanimously to Decriminalize Polygamy

Utah’s state Senate voted unanimously to decriminalize polygamy, hoping to make it an infraction on par with a parking ticket.

The bill swiftly cleared the Republican-controlled Senate in the predominantly Mormon state with a vote of 29-0 with little discussion on Tuesday. It now moves to the Utah House of Representatives, where it is likely to face greater resistance.

Polygamy is currently classified as a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. If the Senate bill becomes law, punishments would be limited to fines of up to $750 and community service.

However, fraudulent bigamy — in which an individual obtains licenses to marry more than one spouse without their knowledge, or seeks to wed someone underage without her consent — would remain a felony.

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

Breaking: Trudeau Calls for End of Blockades

Justin Trudeau addressed media Friday afternoon regarding the ongoing rail blockades which have brought Canada to a grinding halt.

Trudeau officially called for the blockades to come down. “All Canadians are paying the price … Essential goods cannot get to where they need to go. The situation where it currently stands is unacceptable and untenable,” said Trudeau.

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

Foul Play Suspected as Third Train Derails in a Month After Far-Left Call for Sabotage

Foul play is being considered following the third train derailment in Canada this month, after left-wing extremists called on supporters to sabotage the country’s rail system.

The incident occurred in Sainte-Marie-Salomé in Canada’s French-speaking province of Quebec earlier this week and saw two train cars derailed, with an unnamed source claiming that something had purposely been put on the tracks to derail the train, CTV reports.

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

Ontario is Now Officially Coronavirus-Free

The three cases of coronavirus in Ontario have been cleared.

Health officials say the last of the three patients to have contracted the virus have now had two negative tests, 24 hours apart from each other—a telltale sign that a virus has cleared the system.

The three confirmed cases came from a married couple from Toronto, along with a student in London, Ontario. All three had recently travelled to China amidst the initial breakout.

Canada currently has nine confirmed cases of the coronavirus, while official Chinese numbers have nearly 80,000 confirmed cases with nearly 2,500 dead.

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

A Test of ‘Solidarity’: EU Deadlocked Over Attempts to Stuff Brexit-Sized Budget Hole

A second day of negotiating over the post-Brexit EU budget is looking to end again in deadlock with member-states split between the “Frugals”, who want less spending; the poorer, mostly former Soviet satellite states who want more money; and the European Parliament which wants the budget period increased to a massive €1.32 trillion to help turn the EU carbon neutral.

Negotiations were set to be tense with reports that diplomats were “fighting like ferrets in a sack” over how to make up the €75 billion shortfall in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) left by Brexit, with the UK formerly being the bloc’s third-largest contributor.

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

After Failing With Worm Burgers, Norwegian Grocery Chain to Launch Cricket Burgers

After failing to convince consumers to buy worm burgers, a Norwegian grocery chain is trying to market burgers made from ground up crickets.

[Comment: Surely this time they will be sucessful…]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Apple’s Attempt to Suppress App Store Confidential Book Made it an Amazon Bestseller

It turns out that Apple trying to suppress the book App Store Confidential was the best possible marketing the book could have received.

What would have likely been an obscure book with a small audience has now shot up to become a bestseller on Amazon’s bestseller list in Germany.

But Apple considers the existence of the book as a threat. According to them, it reveals important company secrets.

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

CNN Asks Why Testosterone & Sperm Counts Are Plummeting in Europe and North America

CNN has published an article asking why testosterone and sperm counts are plummeting across Europe and North America, saying that if sperm was an animal it might be “heading toward extinction in western nations.”

The article highlights how “Total sperm count in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand dropped by up to 60% in the 38 years between 1973 and 2011” and that more recent research shows the trend is continuing.

The article links the fall to diets made up of fatty and processed foods, but admits “no one knows for sure” the reason and that it could also be connected with “radiation, air pollution and chemicals in our food, clothes and water.”

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

Coronavirus Outbreak Grows in Northern Italy, 16 Cases Reported in One Day

An outbreak of coronavirus in northern Italy worsened on Friday, with officials announcing 14 confirmed cases in Lombardy, while two cases were reported in the adjacent region of Veneto.

Just hours after revealing that six people had come down with the virus in the first known cases of local transmission in Italy, officials said a further eight had tested positive for the disease, including five health workers.

ANSA news agency said two people had been diagnosed as suffering from the highly contagious illness in Veneto, although it was not immediately clear if the cases were connected.

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

France: Macron Vows Crackdown on Political Islam

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced new measures aimed at countering political Islam in France. The changes would limit the role that foreign governments have in France in training imams, financing mosques and educating children.

Macron also vowed to fight what he called “Islamist separatism” and to lead what he described as a “Republican reconquest” aimed at reasserting state control over Muslim ghettoes — so-called no-go zones (zones urbaines sensibles, sensitive urban zones) — in France.

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

Germany Mass Shooter Revealed as Conspiracy Theorist Far-Right Extremist

Tobias Rathjen, who killed ten people during a mass shooting in the city of Hanau before killing himself, has been revealed as a right-wing extremist who spread conspiracy theories online.

Rathje, who was found dead in his apartment shortly after the mass shooting took place at around 11 pm outside of a Shisha bar on Wednesday, left a 24-page manifesto and recorded several video messages described as containing a “deeply racist outlook”, by Federal Attorney-General Peter Frank.

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

Grinning Werewolf: Thoughts on the Massacre in Germany

by Alexander Maistrovoy

A century ago, in 1918-20, Europe sunk into the “red terror”. Inspired by the Russian revolution, people with red armbands, red flags and red stars were determined to celebrate the “new bright future”. At factories, the power was transferred to factory committees, banks were nationalized, churches were turned into food and military warehouses, monuments were demolished, people were forcibly mobilized into the Red Army.

Extraordinary commissions murdered the “enemies of the people” and their families and deprived them of land and property. The Bavarian Soviet Republic, Hungarian Soviet Republic, Slovak Soviet Republic, Alsace-Lorraine Soviet Republic, Bremen Soviet Republic, Red Finland — the creators of the great Utopia destroyed everything that was associated with traditional values, ideals and virtues.

Nowadays no one seems to remember it. The Left will not benefit from those memories; the Right dreads accusations of whitewashing Nazism.

The outcome was dramatic. The consequences of the attempted social experiment on a living body of society were brutal — at first spontaneous, then organized: Furious nationalism, revived racial phobias and unrestrained thirst for revenge. Even enlightened intellectuals such as Thomas Mann were caught up in the wave of hatred. Utopia choked on blood in Russia.

In Europe, the nationalists won: Moderate and prudent, like Mannerheim; cruel but predictable, like Admiral Horthy; and monstrous like Hitler.

A lot has changed in the last hundred years. The Soviet empire collapsed, Eastern Europe resurrected and gained solid immunity from “universalistic theories”; the “World Revolution” of the Third World failed, a good many Jews directed their unrestrained temperament to create their own state.

Only one thing has remained unchanged: the passionate faith of the Western elite in perverted Utopian In the 21st century, once again the world has entered a vicious cycle of revolution and reaction. The reaction has already begun. Terror of loners, attacks on mosques and synagogues, atrocities in Utøya, Christchurch, Galle and now Hanau are its first signs.

Only one thing has remained unchanged: the passionate faith of the Western elite in perverted Utopian theories of all sorts and kinds. As result, in the 21st century, once again the world has entered a vicious cycle of revolution and reaction.

The reaction has already begun. Terror of loners, attacks on mosques and synagogues, atrocities in Utøya, Christchurch, Galle and now Hanau are its first signs.

It was predictable, explainable and logical. The globalist quasi-Marxist ideology has turned the inhabitants of the Third World and, especially, Muslims into “people of the highest sort”. They became the ‘proletariat’ of modern times and in sharp contrast, ‘white straight males’ became the symbol of repression, racism and violence, ‘the new world enemy’.

But the people refuse to agree with the destruction of the thousand-year-old foundations, family, faith and traditions. They refuse to be marginal in their own countries. Forcefully implanted alien culture is rejected by the society and in such an atmosphere psychopaths take up arms and kill those they think are the operatives of a new pseudo-religious sect and their allies.

You can turn a blind eye to it, ignore the causal relationships, yell about the racism of the white society, but it does not change the essence.

This is a reaction to violent fanatical implantation of Utopia, regardless of how it’s labeled: Marxism, Globalism, Progressivism, Multiculturalism, Political Correctness, Intersectionality, Political Identity, Cultural Diversity or Tikkun Olam. They are all the same. It is reaction to Antifa, BLM, Islamic terror, Muslim culture of raping and bullying.

Loner psychosis is a precursor of mass psychosis. “Red Plague” generates a “Brown Plague.”[…]

[please read the whole article — the Russian author goes places where others fear to tread!]

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]
 

More ‘Asian’ Grooming Gang Members Sentenced for Raping Children in Huddersfield, England

More “Asian” grooming gang members have been sentenced for raping girls aged 13 and 14 in Huddersfield, England.

Only four of the seven convicted men were named in a West Yorkshire Police statement on the sentencing, with another remaining anonymous for undisclosed reasons — possibly because they are involved in further cases which are subject to reporting restrictions.

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

Paranoia, Racism: German Killer Drew on Conspiracy Tropes

BERLIN (AP) — He mixed extreme paranoia about secret state surveillance with far-right conspiracy tropes, misogyny and racist vitriol.

The gunman who killed nine people in the Frankfurt suburb of Hanau left behind a 24-page rambling screed calling for the “complete extermination” of races he considered inferior; a video blending far-right diatribes, delusional musings and an infamous quote by Adolf Hitler; and an English-language video statement that echoes themes of child sacrifices and disdain for mainstream media found in the QAnon conspiracy theory.

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

Pictured for the First Time in 2,600 Years: Rome Unveils 6th Century ‘Tomb of Wolf-Suckled King Romulus’ Who Founded an Empire

Archaeologists uncovered an area with a rock sarcophagus devoted to Romulus dating to 6th century BC

An ancient tomb believed to be the final resting place of the legendary ‘wolf-suckled’ King Romulus — the founder of Rome — has been unveiled to the public for the first time in a series of new images. The tomb uncovered in the Roman Forum during recent excavations add credence to a long standing theory that the first King of Rome was buried at the site — as originally told in Roman folklore.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Record Low Birth Rates in Norway, Finland and Iceland

Never before have so few children been born in these three Nordic countries.

“We’re heading towards a situation like in China — even without a one-child policy,” says Anna Karlsdóttir in a press release. She is a researcher for NordRegio, the Nordic Council of Ministers’ research centre for regional development and planning.

Birth rates have gone down in almost the entire Nordic region. Only the Faroe Islands still have more births than deaths.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Imam Slammed for Comparing Female Genital Mutilation to Gender Transition Surgery

An imam in Gothenburg’s largest mosque has been criticised after comparing female genital mutilation (FGM) practices to those who undergo gender reassignment surgeries.

The imam’s comments were set out as part of an email that was framed about being against FGM practices but claimed that gender reassignment surgeries were the first world equivalent of FGM.

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

Twitter Users Suspended After the Guardian Suggests They’re Bots Spreading Climate Misinformation

Twitter has suspended two accounts with over 60,000 collective followers after a reporter for The Guardian suggested that they were bots that spread climate misinformation, despite analysis of the accounts showing evidence to the contrary.

Oliver Milman, an environment reporter for The Guardian, mentioned the accounts in an article where he claimed that a quarter of all tweets about the climate crisis were produced by bots.

The source data for this claim is a draft study that has not been published or peer-reviewed and which used a tool called Botometer to estimate whether a Twitter account is a bot.

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

UK: ‘We’re Not Back Here to Apologise’: Extinction Rebellion Returns to Trinity College Lawn to Distribute Wildflower Seeds

Extinction Rebellion (XR) returned to the front lawn of Trinity College this afternoon, handing out assorted wildflower seeds in order to “re-wild the planet and grow something new”.

This follows a controversial protest carried out by XR earlier this week. On Monday, activists dug up the lawn around Trinity College’s Newton’s apple tree, making local and national headlines. The move resulted in arrests on account of criminal damage.

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

UK: Blair Suggests Labour Needs ‘Progressive Coalition’ With Anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats to Win Power

Tony Blair has said that the Labour Party needs to move away from its far-leftist stance and suggested a “progression coalition” with the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats.

Where a decade of globalist-progressive politics of the Blair era resulted in a reactionary far-left move of Labour under socialist Jeremy Corbyn, the former prime minister thinks that the only way the party could hope to win another election would be to return… to the era of his globalist-progressive politics.

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

UK: Disgraced Trinity Hall Academic Wrote Erotic Fiction About Students

CN: This article contains mention of sexual harassment

A Cambridge academic wrote and published erotic fiction about students, it has emerged today.

The book, written under the pseudonym “Barry Able”, was titled First Time: Ooh-la-la!, and is set at the University of Cambridge. The lecturer, Dr Peter Hutchinson, was a fellow at Trinity Hall. He resigned from his teaching post in November 2015 following an internal investigation into nearly a dozen sexual harassment claims.

The book is available on Amazon, but currently has no reviews. At the time of writing, it is ranked 6,656,517 in Amazon’s book sales rankings. The book was found during an investigation by Tortoise Media, published this morning.

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

UK: Former Tory MP: TV Tax Won’t Survive, BBC Like ‘Polar Bear on a Receding Piece of ICE’

Former Conservative MP Michael Portillo has said that the BBC will not survive in its current TV tax-funded model, comparing it to a “polar bear on a receding piece of ice”.

Mr Portillo, who makes frequent media appearances including on the BBC, bluntly told the audience of Question Time on Thursday night: “I do not believe that the licence fee can survive.”

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

UK: Female Islamic State Supporter Pleads Guilty to St. Paul’s Cathedral Bomb Plot

LONDON (AP) — A British woman who supported the Islamic State group pleaded guilty Friday to plotting to bomb St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Safiyya Amira Shaikh, 36, from Middlesex in southeast England, admitted to the preparation of terrorist acts and dissemination of terrorist publications. She spoke at a hearing at Central London Criminal Court.

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

CBS News: ‘How Jewish American Pedophiles Hide From Justice in Israel’

Jewish American pedophiles are escaping justice by fleeing to Israel and automatically attaining Israeli citizenship under their right of return laws, CBS News reports.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: The Massive — But Reversible — Defeats of Iran and Turkey

With our attention focused on other things — Israel’s elections, the legal fraternity’s aggressive lawfare against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump’s peace plan, to name just a few — profound strategic shifts have upended the strategic balance in the Middle East.

Israel’s two most formidable adversaries — Iran and Turkey — both came up short in their quests for regional domination, and Israel is reaping the rewards of their losses.

Two weeks ago, Netanyahu held a previously unannounced meeting in Uganda with Sudanese President Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan. Instant commentaries presented the meeting as a salutary side product of the Trump plan. But the truth is much more significant. The sight of the two leaders sitting next to one another smiling made heads explode from Tehran to Ramallah. The Netanyahu-Burhan meeting was no mere byproduct of a peace plan. It was a long planned and hoped for result of a set of policies, that aided by good fortune felled a cataclysmic blow against Iran and its terrorist proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Until last April, Sudan was ruled for thirty years by Omar al-Bashir. Bashir, an Islamist, was a major sponsor of global terrorism. From 1991-1995, Al Qaeda was headquartered in Khartoum.

Al-Bashir was also a close ally of Iran. He permitted the Iranian regime to use Sudanese ports to move weapons to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to the Assad regime in Syria. Al-Bashir also allowed the Iranians to use Sudanese territory to surround Saudi Arabia, to transfer weapons to the Houthis in Yemen and to threaten the Saudi port in Jeddah, outside of Mecca, and to threaten Saudi oil platforms at Yanbu.

In December 2018, disgusted by rampant corruption and human rights abuses, the Sudanese people rose up against their leaders. For five months, massive anti-government protests were held throughout the country. Responding to public pressure, last April the Sudanese military overthrew al-Bashir.

The units that overthrew al-Bashir were supported by the Gulf states, Egypt, the U.S. and according to some reports, Israel. The new regime, which is pledged to transition to some form of democracy within two years, is supported by these governments.

Al-Bashir for his part was supported by Iran, Qatar and Turkey. His removal, then was a huge blow to all three. For the Iranian regime, his removal from power by forces allied with Iran’s bitter enemies was arguably a greater loss that the loss of terror master Qassem Soleimani and his lieutenants last month at the hands of a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. The loss of Sudan calls into question Iran’s continued ability to maintain its regional campaigns…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

Iran Reports 2 More Deaths, 13 New Cases of New Coronavirus

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian health authorities on Friday reported two more deaths from the new virus that emerged in China and said the fatalities were from among 13 new confirmed cases of the virus in Iran.

The report by the semiofficial Mehr news agency came as Iranians voted in nationwide parliamentary elections. After authorities reported two earlier deaths this week, the death toll from COVID-19, the illness caused by virus, stands at four in Iran.

So far, 18 cases have been confirmed in Iran, including the four who died.

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

Russia Raises Eyebrows With Blanket Ban on Chinese Visitors

Moscow (AFP) — Moscow is to impose a blanket ban on Chinese visitors over coronavirus fears in a move that will hit its tourism industry as experts question the need for such “draconian” measures.

Moscow will ban all Chinese citizens from entering its territory from Thursday. It has already halted visa-free tourism for Chinese nationals and stopped issuing them with work visas and suspended rail links and restricted air travel.

The country is a top destination for Chinese tourists and the range of restrictions is expected to hit the domestic tourism industry hard.

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

Newly Discovered Species of Snail Named After Teen Climate Change Activist Greta Thunberg

A newly discovered species of snail has been named after teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg, scientists announced in a new study published Thursday.

The critter, which was discovered in Brunei on the island of Borneo, now has the scientific name Craspedotropis gretathunbergae.

“The newly described snail belongs to the so-called caenogastropods, a group of land snails known to be sensitive to drought, temperature extremes and forest degradation,” snail expert and study lead author Menno Schilthuizen said in a statement.

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

18 American Diamond Princess Evacuees Have Tested Positive for Coronavirus

Eighteen Americans that had previously been on board Princess Cruises’ Diamond Princess are infected with coronavirus.

Eleven of them are hospitalized in Nebraska. Five are under quarantine in Texas, as are another two in California, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at a Friday press briefing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The 11 hospitalized in Nebraska were part a group of 13 Diamond Princess cruise ship evacuees taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center Monday after passengers arrived in the U.S. have tested positive for coronavirus, the medical facility confirmed Thursday night.

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

China Recruits Over 1,600 Censors to Tackle Coronavirus “Misinformation”

China is a nation of nearly 1.5 billion people — so putting 1,600 folks to any one task at a time might seem like a fairly insignificant number.

But the Epoch Times gives a sense of scale here by claiming that just one of China’s provinces, Hubei — whose capital happens to be Wuhan, regarded as ground zero for the current coronavirus epidemic — engaged over 1,600 online censors to make sure the message getting out about the crisis and is aligned with Beijing’s official version of events.

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

Coronavirus Live Updates: China Reports 109 More Deaths as Total Cases Cross 76,000

China’s National Health Commission said 2,345 people have died in the country from the new coronavirus, which has infected 76,288 people.

South Korea reported that two people have died as the country’s total cases rose to 346.

Organizers for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics have postponed volunteer training that was scheduled to begin Saturday, citing efforts to limit the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19.

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

Global Centralization is the Cause of Crisis — Not the Cure

Globalism has led to interdependent economies and nation-states that no longer have redundancies in production. We have been forced to rely on production centers on the other side of the world for the vast majority of our goods.

When China shuts down, the US economy loses almost 20% of its supply chain. When Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam shut down from the virus, you can add another 10% to 15% on top of that. Retailers in the US represent around 70% of GDP. Cut off the supply chain in Asia and retailers lose a vast array of goods to sell. The US economy eventually shuts down also, even if the virus never spreads here.

Some people will argue that we don’t need all the “cheap plastic crap” from Asia anyway, and this situation is a “good thing”. Sorry to break it to you, but America’s economy is built on the selling of cheap plastic crap (along with the selling of the fiat dollar as the world reserve currency). Walmart (Chinamart if you discount agricultural products) is the largest employer in the US and the world, after all. Right or wrong, our economic system is so globalized that the fall of the Chinese dominoes will eventually knock down our own dominoes.

But when this disaster occurs and numerous national economies suffer from enforced globalist integration, guess what will happen next? The globalists will ride to our “rescue” with even greater centralization. This was their agenda all along.

Many people in the liberty movement are now aware of the Event 201 simulation, a war game run by globalists in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum on a “theoretical” coronavirus pandemic that kills 65 million people. This simulation took place only a couple of months before the real thing exploded in China in December. But hey, maybe that’s all just amazing coincidence. What concerns me, even more, is the solution that was presented at the end of Event 201 — the creation of a centralized global financial body that would manage the international response to the outbreak.

Isn’t it amazing how every major catastrophe caused by globalism seems to lead to more globalism? One might start to wonder if some of these events were triggered by incompetence, or if they were deliberately engineered.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pandemic in the Making: Japan is “On the Cusp” of a Coronavirus Outbreak

While the coronavirus has so far mostly impacted China, other countries are on the verge of outbreaks now too. As on health official says that Japan is “on the cusp” of their own outbreak, France warned that this virus is going to become a pandemic.

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the public should start focusing on COVID-19 (the official name of the coronavirus) cases outside of China when considering the global risk. He said Japan appears to be “on the cusp of an outbreak” with 59 confirmed cases and one death so far. Gottlieb made these comments on CNBC’S Squawk Box. “If you start to see this become an epidemic in other nations … that’s going to be extremely worrisome that we’re not going to control this globally,” Gottlieb said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Prepares for Coronavirus Pandemic, School and Business Closures: Health Officials

(Reuters) — U.S. health officials on Friday said they are preparing for the possibility of the spread of the new coronavirus through U.S. communities that would force closures of schools and businesses.

The United States has yet to see community spread of the virus that emerged in central China in late December. But health authorities are preparing medical personnel for the risk, Nancy Messonnier, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told reporters on a conference call.

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

Wuhan Woman With No Symptoms Infects Five Relatives With Coronavirus: Study

(Reuters) — A 20-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, traveled 400 miles(675 km) north to Anyang where she infected five relatives, without ever showing signs of infection, Chinese scientists reported on Friday, offering new evidence that the virus can be spread asymptomatically.

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

Plague of Locusts Threatens East African Economies as UN Sounds Alarm

The worst desert locust infestation in 70 years is ravaging East Africa, potentially endangering economies in a region heavily dependent on agriculture for food security.

In recent days, locust swarms have begun to impact South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania, having already decimated crops throughout Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations earlier this week called the situation “extremely alarming.”

The UN warned of an unprecedented threat to food security in a part of the world where millions face hunger, and the FAO estimated that 70,000 hectares of crops in Kenya and around 30,000 hectares in Ethiopia had been infested. It added that locusts had attacked coffee and tea crops that account for approximately 30% of Ethiopia’s exports.

[Comment: Watch for globalist “solution” to allow more mass migration from those countries.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

73% of Population Growth in 2019 Driven by Migrants, Swedes Continue to Leave Country

Official figures from the Swedish government have revealed that of the nearly 100,000 people who were added to the country’s population in 2019, migrants accounted for 73 percent of that growth.

According to figures compiled by Statistics Sweden — a government agency responsible for producing official statistics regarding Sweden — the Swedish population has grown considerably in the past ten years, reaching 10,327,589, marking an increase of about a million since 2009, Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports.

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

Belgium: 73-Year-Old Pensioner Dies After Being Beaten Into a Coma by Military-Aged Afghan Migrant

A Belgian pensioner died on Thursday after being beaten into a coma by an Afghan asylum seeker three weeks ago.

Jos Haex, aged 73, died in a hospital bed after family members gave the order for the physicians to take him off of life-support after he was declared brain dead. The 73-year-old pensioner had spent three weeks in a coma before the decision was made to end his life, SCEPTR reports.

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

Boom: ICE Throws Down the Gauntlet, Arresting Two Illegal Aliens in a California Courthouse

ICE agents arrested two illegal aliens in a courthouse in Northern California, defying a state law that says they needed a warrant from a judge to do so.

ICE flouted a new state law that requires the warrant before arresting an illegal on courthouse grounds. After the predictable outcry from courthouse officials and others, ICE calmly gave their rationale.

Los Angeles Times:

ICE said in a statement that California’s law doesn’t supersede federal law and “will not govern the conduct of federal officers acting pursuant to duly enacted laws passed by Congress that provide the authority to make administrative arrests of removable aliens inside the United States.”

“Our officers will not have their hands tied by sanctuary rules when enforcing immigration laws to remove criminal aliens from our communities,” David Jennings, ICE’s field office director in San Francisco, said in the statement.

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

Denmark: Well Over Half of Young Somali, Lebanese, Moroccan, And Kuwaiti Men Have Criminal Histories

Immigrant-related crime and violence are hotly debated topics in Denmark, just as they are in Sweden and many other western countries.

Now the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten has published statistics having to do with crime among certain immigrant groups in Denmark, and the numbers are quite telling.

In its recent study, the thinktank Unitos examined young men born in 1985, 1986, and 1987 who’ve lived in Denmark since they were 14-years-old. The figures unearthed in the study revealed that over half of men with Somali, Lebanese, Kuwaiti, and Moroccan backgrounds had been convicted of a crime on one or more occasions before they reached 30-years-old, Danish online newspaper Den Korte Avis reports.

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

Ex-Police Officer: Swedes Will Form Vigilante Groups to Defend Themselves Against Racist Migrant Robbers

Robberies and acts of domination and humiliation against children by migrant men have been discussed extensively in the Swedish parliament and on Swedish media the last week.

In the last four years, robberies of underaged people have doubled. In one of the most recent cases to garner national media attention, two African migrants were arrested and are in court for having urinated on a boy after robbing him, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.

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

Los Angeles Democrat Mayor Teaches Illegal Aliens How to Avoid ICE Officers

Los Angeles Democrat Mayor Eric Garcetti posted a disturbing anti-American video in which he instructed undocumented aliens on how to evade law enforcement and ICE.

Mayor Garcetti, along with Los Angeles police chief Michel Moore, claimed that immigration was a federal matter and is not related to public safety.

The mayor’s office also released a printable pdf for undocumented aliens that contains written instructions on how to evade ICE agents.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Migration Accounted for 73 Percent of Sweden’s 2019 Population Growth

Foreign nationals from Middle East, Africa pouring into Sweden legally.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: ‘Abolish ICE’ Protesters Bully DHS Out of Career Fair

The Department of Homeland security was forced out of a job fair at Kent State University in Ohio this week when students upset about its presence bombarded their booth.

Video published by student newspaper Kentwired shows students blocking the DHS job fair booth and holding up flyers that read “ABOLISH ICE,” and “NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL.”

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

BBC Warns it Has ‘Reported’ People Critical of Poem About ‘Non-Binary’ Haircut Struggles

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has doubled down on its publication of a poem describing the “struggles of getting a haircut as a non-binary person”, warning that critics have been “reported”.

BBC The Social, an off-shoot of BBC Scotland which claims it “brings you fresh up and coming talent from Scotland straight to your social media feeds”, featured a person who claims to be neither male nor female in the video, which sees them describe how awful it is to have to choose between “the salon” or “the barber’s”, given their gender identity.

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

Dwyane Wade Says Son Knew He Was Transgender at the Age of 3-Years-Old

The mind boggles.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New ‘Purity Test’ Tool to Scan Hollywood Scripts for ‘Diversity Bias’

Major Hollywood studios are set to use a new tool that scans movie & TV scripts and flags up any examples where “diversity” is not portrayed positively in a chilling new development that has echoes of Soviet realism.

[Comment: Great, more “woke” trash in movies and TV. The same thing is also happening in the publishing industry. Many novels now have a “woke” mentality.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Francis ‘Angry’ Over Manipulation of Meeting With LGBT Jesuit James Martin

ROME — Pope Francis expressed his anger over the way a 2019 meeting with LGBT promoter Father James Martin was manipulated to convey apparent papal approval for his work, according to U.S. bishops who met with the pope earlier this month.

Father Martin met with Pope Francis for a 30-minute private audience last September 30, which the Jesuit-run America magazine called “a highly significant public statement of support and encouragement.”

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

Rapper Denied Entry to Planet Fitness for Questioning Transgender Children

Rapper Boosie Badazz says he was kicked out of Planet Fitness for questioning why former NBA star Dwyane Wade was celebrated by the media for announcing his 12-year-old son was transgender.

In an Instagram post, Boosie remarked, “Do not go to Planet Fitness, they racist, they haters. They just put me out Planet Fitness for what I said about Dwyane Wade son.”

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

Transgender Kids? Father Shows Son Identifying as an “Egg Omelette”

Following ex-NBA star Dwyane Wade’s claim that his son identified as transgender aged just 3, a father posted a video of his son of the same age identifying as an egg omelette.

Earlier this week, Wade told Good Morning America his son made the gender determination as a toddler.

In response to the claim, a father posted a clip where he read out a series of gender identities to gage his 3-year-old son’s response.

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

WSJ: Mainstream Christian Churches Languish, But Evangelicals Thrive

Fears of Americans losing religion may be “overwrought,” declares an article in the Wall Street Journal Thursday, because evangelical churches are actually growing.

“A religious renewal could be on the horizon,” writes Ericka Andersen, even as many mainstream Christian churches are forced to downsize.

Ms. Andersen cites “underreported data” showing that as even as Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, and Catholic churches in the United States have been losing members over time, nondenominational evangelical churches have experienced significant growth of more than 55 percent, up from 54,000 in 1998 to 84,000 in 2012.

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

YouTube Bans Christian Broadcaster Trunews for ‘Hate Speech’

“It was only a matter of time, YouTube finally canceled our channel.”

YouTube appears to be following a policy paper I covered from “researchers” led by professor Neil Johnson of George Washington University released in August which called for a slow but steady stream of mass bannings of right-wing dissidents on social media to avoid “inflaming the entire hive” by generating too much pushback.

The paper recommended tech giants ban “small clusters” of dissidents “at random” to “weaken the cluster over time without inflaming the entire hive.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/21/2020

  1. “New ‘Purity Test’ Tool to Scan Hollywood Scripts for ‘Diversity Bias’”

    Yes well as a Star Trek fan I can spread the good news that the Star Trek Picard show is very good indeed: The federation is ruled by obnoxious women who shout down on Admiral Picard as if he was a little boy… When Admiral Picard needs a space ship he has to go to a crack smoking homeless woman of color who also shouts down at him as if he was a little boy. Admiral Picard also has a servant Romulan woman, who also shouts down at him as if he was a little boy… Commander Data has two superpowered daughters of color…

    Where Star Trek used to be a vision of future to strive for, the newest shows are just distopian gore.

  2. Usually, candles and flowers and toys are brought to the place of the attack, if the children died.
    I wonder: Did the sympathizers in Hanau carry smoking blends and kebabs to the hookah bars?

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