Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/29/2020

Police in Herefordshire, Cardiff, Jamaica, British Columbia, and Newark (NJ) took action to crack down on illegal gatherings that violate lockdown rules. Meanwhile, the Spanish government is reportedly compiling a database of citizens who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

In other news, the Black Lives Matter organization is pressuring hotels in Washington D.C. to close on January 6 in an attempt to deny supporters of Donald Trump a place to stay while they attend the pro-Trump rally.

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

Thanks to JD, MC, 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
» McConnell Stops Vote on Increasing Aid Checks to $2,000, Says Senate Will Focus on Aid, 2 Other Trump Priorities Later This Week
» Mnuchin: COVID Relief Checks in the Mail Tomorrow, Direct Deposits Start Tonight
 
USA
» “You Have a Rendezvous With Destiny, Mr. Vice President”
» 2020: The Year We Lost Our Common Sense, Courage and Civil Liberties
» Abraham Lincoln Statue Defaced at San Francisco City Hall
» Activists Threaten Lawsuit if University Does Not Hire Slave Descendant as Next President
» AG Morrisey Fights Effort to Dissolve Gun Rights Group
» Antifa Launches Soccer League in Portland
» Antifa Activists Take Over Hotel Near Seattle as Owners Begs Authorities for Help
» Bill Gates’ Savior Complex Spirals Out of Control, Funds Sun-Dimming Plan to Save the Human Race
» Black Lives Matter Activists Pressure Hotels to Close as Trump Supporters Flock to DC Rally
» Cheerleader’s First Amendment Snapchat Post Case Heads to the Supreme Court
» College Refuses to Say if Professor Who Used the Term “Chinese Virus” Will be Back to Teach
» Courageous Patriots Challenge the Invisible Government
» COVID-19 Bill Started a 180-Day Countdown for UFO Disclosures
» Detroit Man Charged in Shooting After Getting Released From Jail Due to COVID
» Did Fauci Just Admit He Lied to Trick Americans Into Taking the Vaccine?
» Environmentalist Groups Sue Energy Department Over Federal Law Allowing for Faster Dishwashers
» Great Reset: Tiny Houses Pushed as Solution to Climate Change
» Judge Dismisses Defamation Suit Between Hunter Laptop Source and Twitter on Technicality
» Louie Gohmert Sues VP Pence, Claims Electoral Counting Act is Unconstitutional
» Melinda Gates Says “More Could be Done” To Suppress “Disinformation” On Social Media
» Nashville Bomber Anthony Warner Hunted Aliens, Believed in ‘Lizard People’: Report
» New Plant Found in Hawaii Believed to be the Only One of Its Kind in the World
» New York City Suffers Bloodiest Year in a Decade After Slashing Police Budget
» Newark Police Bust Second Illegal ‘Bar’ In 2 Days: Authorities
» Nurse Warns Americans About the COVID Vaccine (Video)
» Nurse Tiffany Dover Pontes is Dead, Confirmed, Check for Yourself on Ancestry
» NYC Restaurant Owners Say Indoor Dining Saves Lives in New Lawsuit
» Obama-Appointed Judge Who is Sister of Stacey Abrams Blocks Purge of 4,000 Voters in Georgia Before Senate Runoff Election
» Pennsylvania Certified Results for President Are Found in Error — the Error is Twice the Size of the Difference Between Candidates
» ‘Police Reform’ Efforts Behind Atlanta Crime Wave, Leaders Say
» Poll: Trump Ends Obama’s 12-Year Run as America’s Most Admired Man
» Raphael Warnock Preached That Brexit Was ‘Ethnocentrism and Hate’
» Rasmussen Survey Shows Majority of GOP Supporters Want Legislators to “Be More Like President Trump”
» Report: Nestle, Kellogg’s Linked to Child Labor in Palm Oil Industry
» Rubio: Elites ‘Tricking’ Americans Into Taking Vaccine
» SCOTUS 9-0 Decision: Federal Elections Undecided by Midnight Are Void
» Texas Ho! Charles Schwab Saddles-Up for January Stampede Into New Headquarters
» Thousands of California Sex Offenders Eligible for Early Parole According to State Supreme Court
» Twitter Suspends Pro-Hydroxychloroquine Doctor Zev Zelenko
» Watch: CVS Flooded by Anti-Mask Flashmob Shouting ‘Freedom’ and Denouncing ‘Communist China’
» Why Facebook is Crashing and Burning
» Wish.com Removes Confederate Products After Being Contacted by Media
» Wonder Woman 1984: ‘I Didn’t Pick Up on the Blatant Islamophobia During My Initial Viewing’
 
Canada
» British Columbia Anti-Lockdown Protestor Give $2,300 Fine
 
Europe and the EU
» 44 Percent of Poles Don’t Want COVID-19 Vaccine, Many Believe Vaccine Created Too Quickly
» Britain Facing ‘Tier 5’ National Lockdown as Govt Scientists Push for More Restrictions
» Defense is a Key Element of Visegrad Four Cooperation, Says Polish Defense Minister Blaszczak
» Germany: Arab Clan Shooting Leaves Four Injured in Berlin on Day After Christmas
» ‘Health Dictatorship’ — France Scraps Plan to Make COVID-19 Vaccinations Compulsory Following Intense Backlash
» Ireland: Group Who ‘Destroyed’ Laois House During Illegal Rave Plan Dublin New Year’s Eve Event
» Nearly 400,000 Italian Businesses Face Closure Due to Coronavirus
» Spain Will Reportedly Make List of Residents Who Refuse COVID-19 Vaccine
» Sweden Prepares Legislation to Enact Coronavirus Lockdown, Closing Businesses and Public Transport in 2021
» Two Iraqis Indicted in Poland on Charges of Financially Supporting ISIS
» UK: ‘Even Worse Than I Had Feared’: Farage on Scrutiny of Boris’s Brexit Fishing Deal
» UK: Former Sage Advisor Admits He Thought “We Couldn’t Get Away With” Chinese-Style Lockdown in Europe
» UK: Free Fall: Christmas Takings in Pubs, Bars, And Restaurants Plunge 80 Per Cent
» UK: Police Break Up Illegal Rave and Fine Organiser £10,000
» UK: Reports: Emergency Hospitals Dismantled Despite Claim Hospitalisations Worse Than ‘First Wave’
» Wales: Police Seize Music Equipment After Shutting Down Illegal Rave Near Cardiff
 
Balkans
» Earthquake in Croatia Kills 6, Hospitalizes 20
 
Russia
» New Death Toll Data From Russian State Agency Triples Country’s Previous Official Coronavirus Fatality Number
 
Far East
» Hong Kong 12 ‘Pleaded Guilty’ To Illegal Border Crossing Charges: Reports
 
Australia — Pacific
» Five Sydneysiders Dragged From Queensland Holiday Accommodation, Fined $20,000 and Dumped in Quarantine After ‘Lying Their Way Across the Border’
» Has COVID-19 Exposed Australia’s Lazy Public Servants? Government Workers’ Sick Days Fall by a Staggering 20 Per Cent During the Pandemic — as Senator Questions How They Got Healthier During Record Year for Illness
» How Fears of a Super-Spreader Event Have Shut Down New Year’s Eve With Kissing Banned and Sydney and Melbourne’s Fireworks Off Limits — Here Are the Rules in Your State
» ‘We Will Deport Them’: Hundreds of Backpackers Could be Stripped of Their Visas and Thrown Out of Australia for Reckless Super-Spreader Party on a Sydney Beach
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Jihadists Snatch Dozens of Loggers in Nigeria, Kill Three
 
Latin America
» Jamaica: Lime and Maiden Cays Ordered Closed Following Illegal Yacht Parties
» Nicaraguan Man Says He Was Beaten by Police After Posting Critical TikTok Videos
 
Immigration
» 100 Migrants Arrive on Italian Island Lampedusa After Christmas
» Angel Families React to Virginia Law Giving Illegals Driving Privileges
» France: Muslim Migrant With ‘Visible Psychiatric Disorders’ Gets Six Months for Sexual Assault of 15-Year-Old Girl
» Greece: Construction of Evros Border Fence to be Completed Within Months
» ICE Says Illegal Immigrants it Arrested in FY2020 Had Average of Four Criminal Convictions, Charges Each
» UK: Home Office Legal Blunder Allows Albanian Killer to Avoid Deportation
 
Culture Wars
» COVID Conflicts: Asymptomatic Testing, Lack of Danger to Kids
» Princeton Professor Faces Calls to be Fired After Posting Pronouns Poll on Twitter
» WHO Changes the Definition of Herd Immunity
» WHO: Bigger Pandemic Than COVID is Coming
 

McConnell Stops Vote on Increasing Aid Checks to $2,000, Says Senate Will Focus on Aid, 2 Other Trump Priorities Later This Week

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday stopped the Senate from holding a vote on the matter of increasing COVID-19 aid checks from $600 to $2,000.

Under Senate rules, any individual senator can stop a vote on any issue from taking place. McConnell did not say specifically why he blocked the vote, but he did say, on another occasion, that the Senate will begin to work on a vote on increased aid this week, along with two other high priorities for President Trump.

The two other topics are Section 230, which in part provides broad liability protections for online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and investigations of the 2020 election.

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

Mnuchin: COVID Relief Checks in the Mail Tomorrow, Direct Deposits Start Tonight

Update (1840ET): In a series of tweets tonight, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin confirmed that the US Treasury has delivered a payments file to The Fed for “Americans’ Economic Impact Payments.”

These payments may begin to arrive in some accounts by direct deposit as early as tonight and will continue into next week.

Paper checks will begin to be mailed tomorrow.

Eligible individuals will receive an Economic Impact Payment of up to $600 for individuals or $1200 for married couples and up to $600 for each qualifying child.

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

“You Have a Rendezvous With Destiny, Mr. Vice President”

On January 6th Vice President Pence Will Choose the Direction of the World for Years to Come — Like Thomas Jefferson Did Centuries Ago

Vice President Pence can place himself in the history books along side Thomas Jefferson by selecting electoral college votes from states with two sets of votes, by selecting votes that are beneficial to President Trump.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

2020: The Year We Lost Our Common Sense, Courage and Civil Liberties

Once it became clear to the Western elite that their subjects would readily accept draconian anti-Covid measures, it encouraged them to usher in a code-red lifestyle where there will be no ‘return to normal’ in the foreseeable future and, possibly, never.

If nothing else, nobody can say we were not warned about the madness that would descend upon leap year 2020, making it one of the worst 366 days ever recorded on the Gregorian calendar.

On October 18, 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, together with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted the incredibly visionary Event 201, an exercise that simulated the outbreak of a pandemic “transmitted from bats to people that eventually becomes…transmissible from person to person.”

The simulation proved to be so uncannily similar to the real thing that started just three months later — from imagining a dramatic drop in air travel and business, to breaks in the global supply chain — that Johns Hopkins eventually felt compelled to release a statement saying their exercise was not intended to be a prophecy of future events.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Abraham Lincoln Statue Defaced at San Francisco City Hall

A statue of Abraham Lincoln was defaced over the weekend at San Francisco’s City Hall, the latest assault on the 16th president, who is also known as the Great Emancipator for his role in leading the Civil War and ultimately abolishing slavery.

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

Activists Threaten Lawsuit if University Does Not Hire Slave Descendant as Next President

Activists at a public university in Rhode Island are threatening a lawsuit against their school if it does not hire a slave descendant as its next president.

“Some Black, White and Latino students shall join in another class action lawsuit if the next URI President is not an African-American with an ancestry to slavery,” read the list of demands put out by the Diversity Think Tank at the University of Rhode Island.

The complete list of demands spans 46 different points of contention over nearly 15,000 words.

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

AG Morrisey Fights Effort to Dissolve Gun Rights Group

CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey recently joined a 16-state coalition supporting the National Rifle Association’s lawsuit against New York’s attorney general.

The coalition argues that New York’s attorney general unjustly seeks to dissolve the NRA, which is the country’s oldest civil rights organization and leading Second Amendment advocacy organization.

“New York’s lawsuit seeks to destroy the Second Amendment,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “West Virginia remains in fervent support of the Second Amendment. Our office will vigorously oppose any effort to roll back gun rights and attack those who cherish the freedom to bear arms.

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

Antifa Launches Soccer League in Portland

Antifa is taking a break from its usual goal of combating fascism on the long-suffering streets of Portland — to instead tackle each other in its very own soccer league.

The newly formed Antifa FC, or football club, recently posted fliers to get at least four teams of seven “comrades” to confront each other for an inaugural match night in the troubled Oregon city at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The league’s logo is a soccer player performing an athletic overhead bicycle kick superimposed over Antifa’s trademark “Iron Front” symbol of three arrows pointing down to the left.

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

Antifa Activists Take Over Hotel Near Seattle as Owners Begs Authorities for Help

Homeless Antifa activists took over sixteen motel rooms near Tacoma, Washington on Christmas Eve and are refusing to pay for the lodging, demanding that local government pick up the tab and turn the motel into a shelter.

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

Bill Gates’ Savior Complex Spirals Out of Control, Funds Sun-Dimming Plan to Save the Human Race

Bill Gates is now best known as a philanthropist, not the guy who started Microsoft or was the avatar for everyone’s annoyance with Windows 95.

He’s also known for wanting to save us from ourselves.

Now, apparently, he wants to save us from the sun.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Black Lives Matter Activists Pressure Hotels to Close as Trump Supporters Flock to DC Rally

A Black Lives Matter group in Washington, DC has been pressuring hotels to close their doors to visitors to prevent rally-goers in support of President Donald Trump from having a place to stay in the city, ABC7 reports.

The pressure comes after Hotel Harrington, a hotel in Washington, DC, announced that they would be closed Jan. 4-6 “for the safety of visitors and employees.” They offered refunds to those who have had their bookings cancelled as a result.

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

Cheerleader’s First Amendment Snapchat Post Case Heads to the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is being urged to hear a case involving a Pennsylvania student whose school suspended her from cheerleading for a year after she posted “Fck school, fck softball, f*ck cheer, everything” to Snapchat with a photo of herself giving the middle finger.

The student (who is identified as B.L. in court documents) posted the message and photo to Snapchat in the spring of 2017 after learning that she had failed to make the varsity cheerleading squad. Her legal team described the snap as “a momentary expression of frustration, voiced by a disappointed student.”

But after another student took a screenshot of B.L.’s snap and showed it to one of the cheerleading coaches, B.L. was suspended from cheerleading for an entire year with several coaches deciding that the snap had violated team and school rules.

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

College Refuses to Say if Professor Who Used the Term “Chinese Virus” Will be Back to Teach

An engineering professor from the University of Cincinnati, John Ucker, was placed on leave by the university after he called COVID-19 a Chinese virus in an email he sent to a student. The incident took place back in September and, even after months have passed since the incident, the university is still not clarifying if the professor will be allowed to return to teaching in the upcoming semester.

Based on what a Cincinnati paper, The Enquirer says, as reported in November, the professor was likely to remain on leave for the entirety of the current semester. That being said, there has not been any public announcement on whether the professor will be teaching in the upcoming semester. Ucker’s name, as of now, isn’t displayed on the course catalogue for the upcoming semester.

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

Courageous Patriots Challenge the Invisible Government

The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation… The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both parties, … and control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country. They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government. It operates under cover of a self-created screen [and] seizes our executive officers, legislative bodies, schools, courts, newspapers and every agency created for the public protection. — New York City Mayor John F. Hylan, New York Times, March 26, 1922

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. —George Orwell

These are dark times, in which the propaganda of deceit touches all our lives. The information age is a media age. We have politics by media; censorship by media; war by media; retribution by media; diversion by media — a surreal assembly line of cliche’s and false assumptions. Every time we turn on a computer or pick up a digital device, we are subjected to control: to surveillance of our habits and routines, and to lies and manipulation…propaganda and brainwashing, pushed and promoted by those who wish to “fundamentally change America.”

Edward Bernays, who invented the term, “public relations” as a euphemism for “propaganda,” predicted this more than 80 years ago. He called it, “the invisible government.” He wrote, “Those who manipulate this unseen element constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of …”

The aim of this invisible government is the conquest of us: of our political consciousness, our sense of the world, our ability to think independently, to separate truth from lies. And these big lies are delivered with the regularity of a metronome.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

COVID-19 Bill Started a 180-Day Countdown for UFO Disclosures

President Trump’s signature Sunday on the $2.3 trillion COVID-19 relief and government funding billstarted a 180 day countdown for the Pentagon and spy agencies to say what they know about UFOs.

The provision received very little attention in part because it wasn’t included in the text of the 5,593 page legislation, but as a “committee comment” attached to the annual intelligence authorization act, which was rolled into the massive bill.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), said in the comment it “directs the [director of national intelligence], in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the heads of such other agencies… to submit a report within 180 days of the date of enactment of the Act, to the congressional intelligence and armed services committees on unidentified aerial phenomena.”

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

Detroit Man Charged in Shooting After Getting Released From Jail Due to COVID

A man recently released from prison due to concerns over his high-risk status for contracting the novel coronavirus was involved in a shooting on Detroit’s West Side.

Ronald Segars, 49 years of age, was released into the general public on June because of his high blood pressure and a recent stroke.

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

Did Fauci Just Admit He Lied to Trick Americans Into Taking the Vaccine?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been vacillating on the number of people needed to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity against the virus. Lately, he’s moved the bar higher and higher a rung at a time, and is now saying 90% of people will need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

Earlier in the pandemic, he’d indicated that the herd immunity number was as low as 60%. So, which is it? Amazingly, in an interview with The New York Times, he admitted that he was raising the bar incrementally based on polls reporting what percentage of Americans are willing to take the vaccine.

Specifically, he said: “When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent” … adding “Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”

And then the kicker: He also admitted that he doesn’t even know what the real number is; he’s just throwing out numbers by gauging what he thinks would be a number that won’t discourage Americans.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Environmentalist Groups Sue Energy Department Over Federal Law Allowing for Faster Dishwashers

In an effort to block a new federal rule allowing faster dishwashers, a coalition of environmentalist groups has sued the Energy Department on the grounds that faster dishwashers could lead to “higher household utility bills and more pollution.”

The Energy Department finalized the rule in October, meaning a product class of dishwashers “with a cycle time for the normal cycle of one hour or less from washing through drying” can be created.

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

Great Reset: Tiny Houses Pushed as Solution to Climate Change

Social engineers are pushing tiny 200-sq-ft Ikea houses as the solution to climate change in another example of how our living standards are set to be lowered.

In an article entitled ‘Ikea tiny homes can help fight climate change by giving small footprints a big toehold’, Carl Pope, former head of the Sierra Club, gushes over the micro-homes (basically trailers) that sell for $47,550.

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

Judge Dismisses Defamation Suit Between Hunter Laptop Source and Twitter on Technicality

Update (1440ET): A Florida judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit against Twitter brought by the former owner of a now-defunct computer repair business who turned over Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop to the FBI and Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello.

The suit was dismissed on a technicality over jurisdiction on Monday, the same day it was filed, after plaintiff John Paul Mac Isaac’s legal team failed to successfully argue “complete diversity” — which requires all plaintiffs and defendants must be from different states. Because Twitter was incorporated in Delaware and Isaac is a Delaware resident, the complete diversity requirement is not met, according to Judge Beth Bloom.

“According to the Complaint, Defendant made false statements that Plaintiff is a ‘hacker’ in reference to materials obtained by the New York Post and shared on Twitter in an exposé concerning the contents of Hunter Biden’s computer hard drive. For the reasons set forth below, the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction,” Bloom wrote, adding “For a court to have diversity jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a), ‘all plaintiffs must be diverse from all defendants.’“

The case was dismissed without prejudice, so Isaac can re-file on the same grounds in the proper jurisdiction.

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

Louie Gohmert Sues VP Pence, Claims Electoral Counting Act is Unconstitutional

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) is suing Vice President Mike Pence as a last-ditch effort to change the official result of the 2020 presidential election.

Since Pence is the president of the Senate, he will announce the results after the electoral votes are counted at a joint session of Congress. Gohmert and the Arizona slate of Republican electors say that the 12th Amendment gives Pence the right to choose which slate of electors to count from the states that had two sets of electors submit votes.

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

Melinda Gates Says “More Could be Done” To Suppress “Disinformation” On Social Media

Melinda Gates, the wife of billionaire and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has once again returned to the topic of social media regulation, of which she is also a big proponent.

Gates spoke in the context of the foundation named after her husband and her being resolute in “fighting” the coronavirus pandemic even in the face of social media misinformation, reported Yahoo Finance, for whom she spoke in an interview.

The website considers her nothing less than “one of the most influential names in tech and health care” and reveals that Melinda Gates believes in traditional, corporate broadcast networks and movie industry that are tightly regulated and controlled.

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

Nashville Bomber Anthony Warner Hunted Aliens, Believed in ‘Lizard People’: Report

Authorities are looking into evidence that Nashville RV bomber Anthony Quinn Warner spent time hunting for aliens and was interested in “lizard people,” ABC News reported.

Law enforcement sources told the outlet that investigators found some of Warner’s writings containing ramblings about various conspiracy theories.

Some of the notes were reportedly about the lizard or reptilian conspiracy — the idea that shape-shifting lizard creatures take on human form in an attempt at world domination.

Authorities believe the 63-year-old loner also spent time hunting for alien life forms in a nearby state park, the outlet reported.

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

New Plant Found in Hawaii Believed to be the Only One of Its Kind in the World

Expert botanists are stunned, with one declaring “the age of discovery is not over,” after a new flowering plant has been found in Hawaii that appears to be the only one in existence.

Botanist Hank Oppenheimer and his colleague Jennifer Higashino discovered a large, isolated plant in an “ohia forest” along the slopes of Helu. The site is above the city of Lahaina. Upon investigation, they were unable to classify the flowering plant amongst any other known in that region or beyond.

“Only one individual of the new species, named Cyanea heluensis, is currently known from a remote location in West Maui,” read a Christmas Eve press release from Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources.

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

New York City Suffers Bloodiest Year in a Decade After Slashing Police Budget

New York City was considered to be the safest big city in America ten years ago, but this year it is mired in what authorities are calling pandemic-fueled violence.

This year, murders are up 41 percent, and at their highest since 2011. The number of total victims of gun violence is even more alarming as it has increased by more than 100 percent.

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

Newark Police Bust Second Illegal ‘Bar’ In 2 Days: Authorities

NEWARK, NJ — Another pair of Newark residents have been accused of illegally selling alcohol at a large party amid the coronavirus pandemic, authorities say.

Detectives with the Newark Police Department’s vice crimes task force received reports about a large gathering taking place in the basement of a home on Taylor Street on Monday, according to the Newark Department of Public Safety.

Arriving on the scene around 12:20 a.m., police heard loud music coming from the residence and once inside, saw about 50 people drinking at tables, authorities said.

Police said that two people running a “bar” at the party — Argeni Castro-Taveras, 36, and Jesus Vilanueva, 28 — didn’t have any paperwork proving they held a license to sell alcohol.

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

Nurse Warns Americans About the COVID Vaccine (Video)

Regisistered nurse warns Americans about the covid vaccine.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Nurse Tiffany Dover Pontes is Dead, Confirmed, Check for Yourself on Ancestry

May her death not be in vain, but to warn others of the danger of the vaccine. For a virus which has cures and even without cures has over a 99% survival rate for most people. Healthy young people are more likely to die of a lightening strike.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NYC Restaurant Owners Say Indoor Dining Saves Lives in New Lawsuit

Indoor dining actually saves lives, a coalition of restaurant and bar owners charge in a new, federal class-action lawsuit against Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“We ask for indoor dining to resume to save lives — not to risk them,” the Greater New York Merchants Alliance argues in a Manhattan federal court case filed on Christmas.

The suit highlights that only 1.4 percent of coronavirus transmissions were found to have stemmed from indoor restaurant eating while 74 percent originated with household gatherings.

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

Obama-Appointed Judge Who is Sister of Stacey Abrams Blocks Purge of 4,000 Voters in Georgia Before Senate Runoff Election

Federal judge Leslie Abrams Gardner just blocked 4,000 votes from being purged from voter rolls in Georgia ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff elections that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. On Monday, the Obama-appointed judge who also happens to be the sister of Stacey Abrams, ordered two counties to reverse a decision to remove more than 4,000 voters from voter rolls.

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

Pennsylvania Certified Results for President Are Found in Error — the Error is Twice the Size of the Difference Between Candidates

After nearly two months, the state of Pennsylvania is found to have certified votes that are in error.

The Pennsylvania House has just uncovered that the certified results in Pennsylvania for President are in error by more than 200,000 votes. This is more than twice the difference between President Trump and Joe Biden.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Police Reform’ Efforts Behind Atlanta Crime Wave, Leaders Say

Atlanta, Georgia’s, community leaders are lashing out at that city’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, over what they say are disastrous “police reform” efforts that have left residents feeling unsafe — and may have resulted in a child’s death.

Atlanta, like many major cities, is in the midst of a violent crime wave that began in July, following massive, national anti-racism protests that demanded law enforcement agencies be defunded and in some cases, disbanded.

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

Poll: Trump Ends Obama’s 12-Year Run as America’s Most Admired Man

President Trump has booted former President Barack Obama from his 12-year stint as Americans’ most admired man, Gallup poll results show.

Trump garnered 18% of the votes, compared to Obama’s 15% and former Vice President Joe Biden’s 6%. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, received 3% of the votes and Pope Francis received 2%.

Elon Musk, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Bill Gates, LeBron James and the Dalai Lama each received 1%.

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

Raphael Warnock Preached That Brexit Was ‘Ethnocentrism and Hate’

Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock denounced the UK’s vote to leave the European Union as “ethnocentrism and hate” in a newly resurfaced 2018 sermon.

“Hate has gone viral,” the pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church said of the 2016 vote to leave the political and trade bloc.

“Nativism and ethnocentrism and bigotry [are] in high places on both sides of the Atlantic. Before there was Trumpism over here, there was Brexit over there,” Warnock said.

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

Rasmussen Survey Shows Majority of GOP Supporters Want Legislators to “Be More Like President Trump”

A recent Rasmussen survey revealed that three out of four GOP supporters want legislators to “be more like President Trump” in 2021.

The poll, taken December 21-22, asked 1,000 likely voters, “As the Republican Party reorganizes itself next year, should it be more like President Trump or more like the average GOP member of Congress?”

Seventy-two percent of Republicans picked the “more like President Trump” while conservatives split 67% to 28%. However, the overall poll gave “average member of Congress” 45%, which was above the percentage for “like Trump.” Fourteen percent were “unsure.”

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

Report: Nestle, Kellogg’s Linked to Child Labor in Palm Oil Industry

U.S. Customs records and published data from producers, traders, and buyers lik American corporations with child labor in the palm oil industry, according to an investigation by the Associated Press.

The AP traced product from palm oil processing plants that use child labor to cereals, candies, and ice creams sold by Nestle, Unilever, Kellogg’s, PepsiCo, and Ferrero, one of two makers of Girl Scout cookies.

Tens of thousands of children, earning little to no pay, work alongside their parents in Indonesia and Malaysia, which supply 85% of the world’s palm oil. Along with being exposed to toxic chemicals and other dangerous conditions, some of these children never go to school, while others are smuggled across borders and left vulnerable to trafficking or sexual abuse.

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

Rubio: Elites ‘Tricking’ Americans Into Taking Vaccine

Senator Marco Rubio slammed US health officials Sunday for assuming that the majority of Americans “don’t know what’s good for them”, and ‘tricking’ people into doing what ‘elites’ want them to do when it comes to COVID.

Rubio singled out Dr Anthony Fauci, noting that the epidemiologist has consistently misled the public.

“Dr. Fauci lied about masks in March. Dr. Fauci has been distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity,” Rubio tweeted.

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

SCOTUS 9-0 Decision: Federal Elections Undecided by Midnight Are Void

We are approaching the 11th hour and still not a single U.S. Senator or Senator-elect is willing to stand Jan. 6th to stop the stealing of this presidential race. Perhaps one might find the courage do what should be a given considering there’s an ocean of hard evidence of this concerted effort to put Harris/Biden in the WH.

Shame on you, Rand Paul, Tommy Tuberville, Ted Cruz and Loeffler. One would think all of you would be the first to stand for truth, the Constitution and Donald Trump.

Below is a letter I faxed to 11 reps and senators in the six contested states. It took quite a bit of time Christmas morning to find fax numbers. They guard them like they’re the family jewels. I also faxed to the attorney who represented Trump in Nevada during that disgraceful court hearing (he’s actually based in VA), the attorney who represents Lin Wood in GA and the attorney representing Rep. Mike Kelley, et al in a case out in PA.

SCOTUS in a unanimous 9-0 decision in the case cited in my letter: Federal elections end on election day. Not counting votes at 5:00 am or 3 days later. The elections in the six contested states are VOID.

I ask you copy and past the letter, print it and fax to the individuals I did yesterday. It fits on one page. The list is below my letter. Call them and you get a recording. Email and you get a canned response. A fax is a piece of paper they can’t ignore. Just use the one letter, add the rep or senator’s name, fax and keep doing so until you’ve gone through the list.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Texas Ho! Charles Schwab Saddles-Up for January Stampede Into New Headquarters

Charles Schwab is finally joining the likes of Tesla, Oracle, HP and Palantir — all of which have left heavily-taxed California for Texas, where the personal income tax rate is zero, and employees can afford to spend the rest of their COVID-19 lockdown without hearing their neighbors argue on the other side of a shared wall.

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

Thousands of California Sex Offenders Eligible for Early Parole According to State Supreme Court

The California State Supreme Court on Monday ruled that thousands of prisoners convicted of non-violent sex crimes may be eligible for early release under a ballot measure approved by voters four years ago.

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote in the unanimous decision, “The initiative’s language provides no indication that the voters intended to allow the (Corrections) Department to create a wholesale exclusion from parole consideration based on an inmate’s sex offense convictions when the inmate was convicted of a nonviolent felony.”

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

Twitter Suspends Pro-Hydroxychloroquine Doctor Zev Zelenko

Twitter on Sunday permanently suspended the account of Dr. Zev Zelenko, the creator of the Zelenko HCQ protocol, saying that the decision came as the account was disseminating medical misinformation.

But in announcing the ban, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin called the move “outrageous” while describing Dr. Zelenko’s protocol as having saved thousands of lives.

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

Watch: CVS Flooded by Anti-Mask Flashmob Shouting ‘Freedom’ and Denouncing ‘Communist China’

In a video posted to social media on Monday, a group of anti-mask protestors can be seen shopping in a CVS drugstore as they shout “freedom.”

Touted as “freedom loving immigrants” by the Twitter user who posted the video, the unmasked shoppers ask a group of masked shoppers if they know where the coffee is.

The activist behind the camera says “CVS is working with communist China. Do not ever touch us. What you do is illegal under the US Constitution.”

At one point, the camera woman says “We are here, we are mask-free shopping, and CVS customer service attacked me.”

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

Why Facebook is Crashing and Burning

A bipartisan coalition of 46 states and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) separately filed antitrust suits against Facebook alleging the company’s anticompetitive tactics and acquisitions of rival companies intrude on your privacy.1 At the same time, Facebook is attacking Apple for limiting the information Facebook can gather from Apple devices.

The fight is all about your information — where you shop, your interests, friends, thoughts, politics, health and more. The antitrust laws were originally developed to limit the economic power of companies and ensure adequate competition in the market to protect consumer rights.3 Specifically, three federal statutes in the Antitrust Law define and prohibit various aspects of anticompetitive conduct.

The two new lawsuits, both filed in the District of Columbia federal district court, will help to define how the Antitrust Law, developed in an era before social media, addresses the anticompetitive actions of Facebook. Wired defines antitrust simply as, “a complicated field built on a simple premise: When a company doesn’t face real competition, it will be free to do bad things.”

In this case, “bad things” are a breach of consumer welfare standards that have hinged on demonstrating financial harm since the 1970s. In 2019, legal scholar Dina Srinivasan wrote a paper in which she essentially argued that when Facebook took over the market, they forced consumers to accept inferior privacy protection to support the growth of the social media giant. She wrote:

“Facebook’s pattern of false statements and misleading conduct induced consumers to trust and choose Facebook, to the detriment of market competitors and consumers’ own welfare.”

The change in focus from financial harm to privacy damage was a conceptual breakthrough that the FTC and state coalition believe meets the intention of the Antitrust Law. This comes at a time when Facebook is gaining financial traction using your private data to increase the company’s advertising revenue and change your opinions to match their rhetoric.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Wish.com Removes Confederate Products After Being Contacted by Media

E-commerce platform Wish has removed items that feature the symbols of the Confederacy, after a website took it upon itself to police the platform’s contents and report its findings.

Although the legal status of the Confederate flag is not settled in the US through any federal law, Business Insider says that the flag and associated paraphernalia are “officially prohibited for promoting hate.”

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

Wonder Woman 1984: ‘I Didn’t Pick Up on the Blatant Islamophobia During My Initial Viewing’

Maybe Farid-ul-Haq initially missed the “Islamophobia” in “Wonder Woman 1984” because one has to strain so hard to see it at all. What exactly constitutes “Islamophobia” is never defined in this article; it is taken for granted that everyone knows what it is, and it appears that Farid-ul-Haq thinks of it as an irrational prejudice against Muslims. He bases his case that “Wonder Woman 1984” (which I haven’t seen and have no intention of seeing) is “Islamophobic” on its “featuring a Muslim character as one of the bad guys” while not having “a single Muslim character playing the role of a good guy.”

Farid-ul-Haq thus takes for granted that Hollywood must never portray Muslims as “bad guys,” despite the existence of Islamic jihad terrorists all over the world, or at least must not do so without a balancing Muslim “good guy.” Why must Hollywood act as a PR service for Islam?

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

British Columbia Anti-Lockdown Protestor Give $2,300 Fine

An anti-lockdown protestor in Nanaimo, British Columbia received a large fine from local RCMP for attending a roadside rally on Sunday.

The Nanaimo News Bulletin reported that the freedom rally attracted around 30 people, and took place at the intersection of Aulds Road and the Old Island Highway from 12 pm. to 2 pm.

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

44 Percent of Poles Don’t Want COVID-19 Vaccine, Many Believe Vaccine Created Too Quickly

The majority of vaccine skeptics in Poland are of the opinion that the COVID-19 vaccine was created too quickly and has not been tested enough, reports an Institute for Social Research and Market (IBRiS) survey.

The newest survey conducted by IBRiS for Rzeczpospolita shows that there are almost as many supporters of a coronavirus vaccination in Poland as there are opponents. Forty-seven percent of Poles positively answered the question of whether they would vaccinate themselves whereas 44 percent responded that they would not. Another nine percent did not have an opinion.

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

Britain Facing ‘Tier 5’ National Lockdown as Govt Scientists Push for More Restrictions

Britain is facing a ‘Tier 5’ national lockdown as government scientists have told Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the current restrictions are not harsh enough to slow the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has reportedly told the Prime Minister that a national lockdown will be necessary, claiming that the new coronavirus variant is spreading so fast that the R-rate will climb above 1 in January, meaning that the pandemic is considered to be growing.

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

Defense is a Key Element of Visegrad Four Cooperation, Says Polish Defense Minister Blaszczak

The COVID-19 pandemic and the conflicts around Europe have highlighted the needs to defend the continent’s borders, Polish defense minister Mariusz Blaszczak told Hungarian daily Magyar Hirlap in an interview.

The interview was conducted halfway through the Polish presidency of the Visegrad Four (V4) group consisting of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

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

Germany: Arab Clan Shooting Leaves Four Injured in Berlin on Day After Christmas

A clan shooting broke out in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood on Saturday, resulting in at least four people injured with gun shot wounds on Boxing Day, according to Berlin authorities.

When investigators arrived on scene, several seriously injured people were lying on the ground and a man had jumped into the nearby Landwehr Canal with a bullet in his leg. Police dragged him from the canal, and along with the other victims, was transported to the hospital. Authorities say they and the other two aged 39 and 42.

According to the Bild newspaper, the shooting took place at around 4:00 a.m. not far from the Social Democrats (SPD) headquarters near the Möckernbrücke metro station, which is located directly on the Landwehr Canal. The police searched the bushes on the bank of the canal with flashlights and blocked the surrounding areas. Heavily armed police officers appeared to be looking for other people involved in the shooting as a police helicopter scanned the area overhead.

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

‘Health Dictatorship’ — France Scraps Plan to Make COVID-19 Vaccinations Compulsory Following Intense Backlash

Faced with the prospect of massive protests triggered by a bill tabled on Monday which, if passed, would effectively give the state the power to impose a compulsory COVID-19 vaccinations on the population, Minister of Health Olivier Véran has temporarily sidelined the project.

The bill, which was presented by French Prime Minister Jean Castex in front of the Council of Ministers on Dec. 25, proposed that citizens be mandated to either provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test or present an up to date vaccination certificate in order to use the country’s extensive public transport network, Le Figaro reports.

According to Gabriel Attal, a spokesman for the government, the proposed legislation was meant to “prepare for the end of the health emergency on April 1, 2021” and to “establish a sustainable legal framework to deal with the health crisis”.

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

Ireland: Group Who ‘Destroyed’ Laois House During Illegal Rave Plan Dublin New Year’s Eve Event

A group of people who held an illegal rave that caused extensive damage to a rented Co Laois house are planning another event in Dublin for New Year’s Eve.

Videos from the rave, seen by The Irish Times, showed more than 80 people dancing without facemasks and with no social distancing.

The owner of the home was unaware of the rave, which took place on December 12th, and said extensive damage was caused to the property.

They had rented the property via Airbnb to an individual claiming he wished to rent the house for a weekend hiking trip with work colleagues.

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

Nearly 400,000 Italian Businesses Face Closure Due to Coronavirus

An Italian business group had predicted that nearly 400,000 businesses could close due to the economic impact of the Chinese coronavirus and lockdown restrictions.

The General Confederation of Enterprises, Professional Activities, and Self-Employment (Confcommercio) has predicted that over 390,000 businesses are at risk of closure, a figure that represents around 7.2 per cent of the total number of companies in the country.

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

Spain Will Reportedly Make List of Residents Who Refuse COVID-19 Vaccine

Spain is setting up a registry of people who refuse to have a COVID-19 vaccine — and will share it with its European neighbors.

Health Minister Salvador Illa made the announcement Monday even as he insisted vaccination — which was rolled out there over the weekend — is not mandatory, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

“What will be done is a registry, which will be shared with our European partners… of those people who have been offered it and have simply rejected it,” Illa told La Sexta television, according to the agency.

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

Sweden Prepares Legislation to Enact Coronavirus Lockdown, Closing Businesses and Public Transport in 2021

The Swedish government has proposed a new bill that would allow the state to forcibly close businesses and shopping centres to stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.

The new legislation would be temporary and would go into force on January 10th and last until September of next year. It would grant the Swedish Social Democrat-led government the power to close various businesses, shopping centres, public transport and more under the Pandemic Act under serious situations.

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

Two Iraqis Indicted in Poland on Charges of Financially Supporting ISIS

An Iraqi father and son face two to 12 years of imprisonment for financing ISIS terrorists between February 2015 and April 2016 from Poland, according to Polish authorities.

The spokesman of the minister-special services coordinator, Stanislaw Zaryn, stated that the investigation into the two Iraqi men was conducted by officers of the Wroclaw unit of the Internal Security Agency (ABW).

The investigation was concluded with an indictment against the Iraqis who had been detained by the ABW in June 2020. The indictment was directed to court by the State Prosecutor’s Office.

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

UK: ‘Even Worse Than I Had Feared’: Farage on Scrutiny of Boris’s Brexit Fishing Deal

Boris Johnson has “betrayed” Britain’s fishermen in the Brexit deal being voted on by Parliament on Wednesday, but nevertheless is deserving of some praise for underlining the Brexit process, veteran freedom campaigner Nigel Farage has said.

Writing on Tuesday, just a day before the deal agreed between the UK and the EU’s negotiators on Christmas Eve is due to be voted on in Parliament — with every indication it will pass — the Brexit leader said that while it would have been better to leave properly on a clean-break basis, Boris Johnson’s deal at least draws a line under the matter.

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

UK: Former Sage Advisor Admits He Thought “We Couldn’t Get Away With” Chinese-Style Lockdown in Europe

Former UK government COVID-19 advisor Neil Ferguson admits that he thought “we couldn’t get away with” imposing Communist Chinese-style lockdowns in Europe because they were too draconian.

Ferguson, an Imperial College professor whose highly disputed model convinced Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose the first UK lockdown, made the comments during an interview with the London Times.

“It’s a communist one party state, we said. We couldn’t get away with it in Europe, we thought,” said Ferguson.

“And then Italy did it. And we realised we could,” he added.

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

UK: Free Fall: Christmas Takings in Pubs, Bars, And Restaurants Plunge 80 Per Cent

Christmas taking in bars, pubs, and restaurants have plunged by roughly 80 per cent during what would normally be a profitable time of year for the beleaguered hospitality sector.

The coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdown regulations have dealt a hammer blow to the industry, which has been subject to many more restrictions on contact and other behaviours than, for example, shops and hairdressers, or indeed schools.

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

UK: Police Break Up Illegal Rave and Fine Organiser £10,000

THE organiser of an illegal rave on the Herefordshire border has been fined £10,000, West Mercia Police said.

Officers received reports of up to 50 people at the mass gathering in the West Of England Quarry car park on the Malvern Hills, which is against the law during the coronavirus pandemic.

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

UK: Reports: Emergency Hospitals Dismantled Despite Claim Hospitalisations Worse Than ‘First Wave’

A report has confirmed that emergency hospitals in the UK are being dismantled and removed, despite government claims that hospitalisations from coronavirus have hit a level HIGHER than they were during the first wave of the pandemic back in March and April.

The reports in the Daily Mail and the London Telegraph note that the facilities, known as ‘Nightingale hospitals’, set up at huge conference centres and other warehouse spaces are “being quietly taken apart” because there are not enough staff to run them.

Despite the seven facilities throughout the UK costing as much as £220million to set up and equip, the hospitals have been almost completely empty for the duration of the health crisis.

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

Wales: Police Seize Music Equipment After Shutting Down Illegal Rave Near Cardiff

Officers from South Wales and Gwent police forces seized music equipment after shutting down an illegal rave.

A number of revellers were at the unlicensed event in Pontprennau, near Cardiff, on Sunday evening.

Police were alerted to the rave at around 10:45pm, with the group dispersing when forces arrived.

South Wales Police said that officers took details of those who remained and conducted a number vehicle stops in the region before finding others who had fled the scene to the nearby woods.

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

Earthquake in Croatia Kills 6, Hospitalizes 20

An earthquake in Croatia has killed at least six peopleand hospitalized another 20, as well as devastated the city at its epicenter.

The earthquake, which measured at 6.3 and rattled Europeans as far away as Rome and Vienna, was larger than the 5.2 quake on Monday and a 5.3 tremor that caused $6 billion in damage to the capital of Zagreb earlier this year.

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

New Death Toll Data From Russian State Agency Triples Country’s Previous Official Coronavirus Fatality Number

Data released Monday by Russia’s government statistical agency seems to put the nation’s total number of COVID-19 deaths at triple the number previously provided by the government.

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

Hong Kong 12 ‘Pleaded Guilty’ To Illegal Border Crossing Charges: Reports

The families of 12 Hong Kong protesters detained by the China Coast Guard on Aug. 23 as they tried to flee to the democratic island of Taiwan by speedboat say the court that tried the detainees on Monday has told them sentencing will take place on Wednesday.

A concern group representing the families said they had been informed by lawyers that the Yantian District People’s Court in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen would announce its sentencing decisions at 10.30 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

But the Save 12 Hong Kong Youths concern group said it had been unable to verify this information with the court itself.

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

Five Sydneysiders Dragged From Queensland Holiday Accommodation, Fined $20,000 and Dumped in Quarantine After ‘Lying Their Way Across the Border’

The group were fined a total of more than $20,000 and ordered into mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense after police investigated their movements.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Has COVID-19 Exposed Australia’s Lazy Public Servants? Government Workers’ Sick Days Fall by a Staggering 20 Per Cent During the Pandemic — as Senator Questions How They Got Healthier During Record Year for Illness

The sharp decline has prompted questions as to how Australian public servants managed to dodge illness and achieve higher health outcomes than in previous years during a global pandemic.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

How Fears of a Super-Spreader Event Have Shut Down New Year’s Eve With Kissing Banned and Sydney and Melbourne’s Fireworks Off Limits — Here Are the Rules in Your State

Sydneysiders have been banned from watching the famous New Year’s Eve fireworks from the harbour while the Northern Beaches will kick off 2021 at home in lockdown.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘We Will Deport Them’: Hundreds of Backpackers Could be Stripped of Their Visas and Thrown Out of Australia for Reckless Super-Spreader Party on a Sydney Beach

Some 300 suspected backpackers who flouted Covid-19 restrictions to have a Christmas beach party have been warned they could be deported.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Jihadists Snatch Dozens of Loggers in Nigeria, Kill Three

Boko Haram jihadists have seized around 40 loggers and killed three others in northeast Nigeria near the border with Cameroon, militia sources and residents told AFP on Saturday.

The hostages were rounded up by the insurgents on Thursday in Wulgo forest near the town of Gamboru where they went to collect firewood, the sources said.

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

Jamaica: Lime and Maiden Cays Ordered Closed Following Illegal Yacht Parties

The Lime and Maiden cays off the coast of Kingston have been ordered closed with immediate effect by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODEPM), following what has been described as repeated breaches of COVID-19 protocols as outlined in the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA).

In a statement Monday, ODPEM said the closure will remain in effect until January 15, 2021.

ODPEM said it consulted with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of National Security, and the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation before issuing the closure notice.

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

Nicaraguan Man Says He Was Beaten by Police After Posting Critical TikTok Videos

A Nicaraguan dissident claims that the National Police head beat him when he was in police custody for sharing videos critical of the authoritarian communist regime on TikTok. Nicaragua remains in a state of political and economic tension following the mass demos that broke out in 2018.

Kevin Adrian Monzón Mora was arrested on December 16, for the second time this year. His arrest came shortly after he uploaded a video critical of the government. In a December 27 tweet, Monzón claimed that the head of the national police, Jaime Vanegas was one of the people who beat him when he was in police custody.

“This is the Sandinista police chief who beat me and told me I would never see my mother again. This man proceeded to tell me they had found marijuana in my bag and would open a further investigation against me. A criminal in uniform,” he wrote in a tweet featuring a photo of the head of police.

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

100 Migrants Arrive on Italian Island Lampedusa After Christmas

A hundred migrants arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Saturday after being picked up by the Italian Coast Guard from a boat that sank off the coast due to stormy weather. As the APA agency noted, all migrants who were rescued were transported to a migrant center on the island where they went through mandatory COVID-19 testing.

This year, more than 34,000 migrants have arrived in Italy via the Mediterranean. This is three times as many as in the previous year when the authorities recorded just over 11,000 migrants, according to Czech news portal Novinky.

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

Angel Families React to Virginia Law Giving Illegals Driving Privileges

Virginia’s move to allow immigrants who entered the United States illegally to obtain permission to drive in the state is “dangerous” and “utter nonsense,” according to a pair of Angel parents who lost their adult sons to drivers who had entered the country without permission.

“An illegal driver presents many dangers in our country whether they have a driver’s license or not,” said Mary Ann Mendoza, whose son, Mesa Police Sgt. Brandon Mendoza, was killed in 2014 after an immigrant living in the country without permission, who was driving drunk on the wrong side of the road, struck him head-on.

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

France: Muslim Migrant With ‘Visible Psychiatric Disorders’ Gets Six Months for Sexual Assault of 15-Year-Old Girl

Here is a variant on the frequently recurring phenomenon of the global outbreak of mental illness. Instead of covering for a jihad attack, here “psychiatric disorders” cover for a sexual assault. Would this fellow have been dismissed as having “a moderate impairment of discernment,” and would he have gotten only six months, if he had not been a Muslim migrant? What do you think?

“Saint-Nazaire: he attacks a schoolgirl in the street and licks her face,” translated from “Saint-Nazaire : il agresse une collégienne dans la rue et lui lèche le visage,” by Julien Bouliou, L’Écho, December 22, 2020 (thanks to Mason).

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

Greece: Construction of Evros Border Fence to be Completed Within Months

Greece’s Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis visited the Greek-Turkish border region of Evros on Tuesday.

There he met with police and army officers at the border stations of Kastanies and Feres and examined the construction of the fence.

Referring to the situation that started in March, Chrysochoidis thanked the officers for their service and told them he was proud to be where the “battle without bullets” took place.

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

ICE Says Illegal Immigrants it Arrested in FY2020 Had Average of Four Criminal Convictions, Charges Each

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced in its end-of-year report that the illegal immigrants it arrested in Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 had an average of four criminal convictions or pending criminal charges each — highlighting the work the agency does in cracking down on criminal illegal immigrants.

According to ICE’s figures, it conducted 103,603 administrative arrests in FY 2020, 90% of which had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges when they were arrested.

In total, those immigrants had more than 374,000 convictions and charges combined — an average of four per person.

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

UK: Home Office Legal Blunder Allows Albanian Killer to Avoid Deportation

A convicted Albanian killer has escaped deportation because of a legal failure on the part of the British government.

Alfred Mahmutaj, 42, a convicted killer, was arrested alongside 68 other Albanian migrants off the coast of East Anglia on November 17 after the National Crime Agency (NCA) agents and Border Force officers intercepted a 101-foot migrant boat from Belgium.

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

COVID Conflicts: Asymptomatic Testing, Lack of Danger to Kids

Story at-a-glance:

  • Ivor Cummins interviews Dr. Reid Sheftall about the many inconsistencies surrounding SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and related mitigation measures
  • Sars-CoV-2 has an infection mortality rate that is equal to or less than the flu, making school closures unnecessary because they’re not closed down for flu, which is a much deadlier disease than COVID-19 in that age group
  • Asymptomatic people are being tested for COVID-19 at unprecedented rates, a waste of resources that goes against good medical practice
  • Sheftall studied mask usage extensively and found mask mandates did not noticeably change the number of cases or deaths the way they should if they actually reduce transmissibility
  • Countries that used minimal masks and did not have mandated lockdowns were not worse off than neighboring countries with mask mandates and mandatory lockdowns
  • “There’s clearly, in plain sight, huge worldwide organizations who need this crisis and who are fermenting panic for eight months now,” Cummins said. “Why they’re doing it you can argue but the fact that they’re doing it is plain and obvious”

[…]

Sheftall suggested that selection bias was being used in the counting of cases, and organizations such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were drastically undercounting the number of people who were infected, which inflated the mortality rate.

Sheftall looked for data in which every case had been counted, ending up with a cruise ship, in which every person had been tested, and a small town in Germany that had also tested all residents. “When I crunched the numbers, the infection fatality rate came out to 0.14%, so I knew … there were some gross errors going on.”

[…]

When the science flies in the face of the restrictions being imposed, it becomes clear that there’s a sinister hidden agenda. Many of the global elite need this crisis and have been “fermenting panic for the past eight months. Why they’re doing it you can argue but the fact that they’re doing it is plain and obvious,” Cummins said, adding:

“The WHO drove the masks when it was utterly antiscientific. They’re not stupid, so why did they do that? The WHO equally knows the science on lockdowns and the analyses but they remorselessly recently pushed lockdowns again … they’re imploring governments to lock down hard, and they have to know that that’s the wrong thing to do.

So you can go to the World Economic Forum (WEF). They’ve made it clear that this is an enormous opportunity to bring in the Great Reset and to retool the world.”

Ultimately, Cummins believes there’s not one “single evil genius stroking a cat” that orchestrated a conspiracy, but rather COVID-19 presented an opportunity that multiple entities have used to further their own agendas. What you can do now is keep your eyes open and your ears tuned to the science, so you don’t fall victim to the unnecessary panic and fear they are seeking to cause:

“China certainly exploited a new nasty virus and saw it as an opportunity to send the fat, lazy, soft Westerners into a tailspin. Why not? And the WEF has been very clear on its goals, and it’s remorseless in driving them.

The WHO, the U.N., the European vaccine alliances, you know, have plans for vaccine passports by 2021, and they were published a year or two ago. I mean imagine you wanted vaccine and health passports by 2021 and then corona came along.

Can you imagine how you’d feel? You would salivate, you would see an enormous opportunity to move forward long plans and get them done in six months. There’s no conspiracy theory. It’s just unfortunate that a vast array of very powerful bodies all pretty much see enormous opportunity in Sars-CoV-2, and then they all probably, to greater or lesser extents, they talk to each other and communicate.

So, it’s like everyone’s got the big payday now and I think what we see is the result of … this huge remorseless general push toward hysteria because it will enable everyone’s goals and the whole of the pharmaceutical industry is salivating. It’s just one of those phenomena that unfortunately has been exploited beyond belief.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]
 

Princeton Professor Faces Calls to be Fired After Posting Pronouns Poll on Twitter

A Twitter poll by a Princeton University professor, Robert George, was at the seat of controversy, as many students felt that the poll was “transpohobic” and “invalidating of nonbinary and gender-nonconforming experiences.”

The professor ran a Twitter poll that asked users of the social media platform if they were going with “preferred pronouns” due to their “sex,” “gender,” or “ideology.” Here’s what the professor precisely wrote on Twitter: “By listing or stating their ‘preferred pronouns’ people are making sure that others know their:” and provided the aforementioned three options.

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

WHO Changes the Definition of Herd Immunity

In June the World Health Organization posted an informational page on COVID-19 and included a definition of herd immunity that has been the standard for infectious diseases for decades, being an “indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection.”

Many high-profile medical organizations also say that herd immunity can be achieved through natural infection. As of December 15, 2020, the Mayo Clinic, for example, says: “Herd immunity can also be reached when a sufficient number of people in the population have recovered from a disease and have developed antibodies against future infection.”

But in October, in an Orwellian move that totally disregards natural infection, the WHO quietly changed its definition of herd immunity to: “a concept used for vaccination, in which a population can be protected from a certain virus if a threshold of vaccination is reached.”

And just in case somebody misunderstands what they mean, they added: “Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it.”

[Comment: in order to foist unnecessary bi-annual “vaccines” on the public.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

WHO: Bigger Pandemic Than COVID is Coming

The World Health Organisation has warned that a worse pandemic than COVID could be around the corner and that what we’ve seen so far in 2020 is “not necessarily the big one”.

With global lockdowns, international stripping of freedoms, and the decimation of small businesses and the economy on the whole, it is difficult to imagine how it could get any worse.

Yet the WHO is predicting that could very well be the case.

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

2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/29/2020

  1. WHO could be right as the CCP has a coronavirus factory containing 1000’s of deadly viruses they have collected around the world including from Victoria. This enough to last Millenia or even outlast humanity releasing just one per year. I want to be further away from China and Chinese as they bring it with them. They all have family and assets in China and go back and forth all the time. No country can stop that.

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